European natural gas prices have surged to their highest level in four years amid the war in Iran and the EU’s continued push to phase out Russian energy supplies, according to data from online aggregator Trading Economics.

On Monday, wholesale prices briefly surpassed €97 ($108) per megawatt-hour, reaching levels not seen since December 2022. The increase came as the bloc’s gas storage facilities were just 74.62% full as of October 25, well below seasonal averages.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for around a fifth of global LNG trade before the US and Israeli military campaign against Iran earlier this year, remained approximately 80% below pre-conflict levels.

Some EU countries have already begun drawing on stored gas as temperatures fall. Trading Economics forecasts that European gas prices will reach €98.20 per megawatt-hour by the end of the fourth quarter of 2026.

In the UK, the month-ahead gas contract rose by 4% to its highest level since December 2022, according to the Guardian. Brent crude, which climbed to $117 per barrel last week, has since eased slightly but remains around $115.

In August, the Guardian reported mounting concerns in the EU over low gas storage levels and soaring prices ahead of winter. In September, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen warned that the bloc was facing its worst energy crisis since 2022.

In mid-October, German media reported that Berlin was planning to make households and businesses pay for a national emergency gas reserve costing more than €3 billion over ten years. The government-controlled stockpile would be reserved for emergencies, including sabotage and infrastructure failures, rather than used to lower gas prices.

Following the EU’s sweeping sanctions on Russia in 2022, the bloc experienced one of its worst energy crises in decades. Gas prices soared above €300 per megawatt-hour, driving up costs for industries and households and contributing to surging inflation.

The EU has continued its efforts to phase out Russian energy. While Russia accounted for around 45% of the bloc’s gas imports in 2021, its share had fallen to approximately 12% by 2025.

Moscow has described the EU’s efforts to sever energy ties with Russia as a “suicidal” policy. Last week, Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev argued that the bloc would eventually have to restore those ties because “cooperation with Russia economically will be inevitable.”

Dmitriev also blamed the EU’s current problems, including high energy costs, on the bloc’s leaders, accusing them of refusing to acknowledge and correct their mistakes.

A ‘Russian breakfast’ featuring traditional national dishes could soon appear on menus at hotels, cafes, and restaurants across the country, under a proposal by Moscow’s Industry and Trade Ministry.

In a document published on Monday, the ministry noted that hotels and restaurants typically offer international options, such as full English, continental, and French breakfasts, while largely overlooking local culinary traditions.

As a result, domestic tourists are often deprived of familiar morning meals, while foreign visitors have no opportunity to experience the country’s cuisine, the ministry said.

“This situation has a negative impact on tourism: Research shows that interest in local cuisine is one of the key factors people consider when choosing a country or region to visit,” it said.

“As a cultural and gastronomic phenomenon, the Russian breakfast does not merely exist – it is genuinely authentic and possesses clearly recognizable characteristics.”

Participation would be voluntary, with establishments encouraged to expand their existing offerings rather than replacing international favorites.

The ministry also suggested creating a special ‘Russian breakfast’ emblem to help hotels, cafes, and restaurants identify and promote traditional dishes.

The initiative aims to showcase the country’s culinary heritage, attract tourists, and support domestic food producers.

A temporary ceasefire around the frontline town of Alyoshki in Russia’s Kherson Region has taken effect to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and the evacuation of civilians, the Russian Defense Ministry has announced.

According to a brief statement by the ministry, the ceasefire began at 4am Moscow time (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday “in preparation for a humanitarian operation.”

General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the General Staff, said last week that military engineers would conduct reconnaissance and ensure “the safe passage of a humanitarian convoy” into the town. The Ukrainian General Staff also confirmed last week that it would observe the truce.

Russian authorities estimate that between 1,500 and 2,000 civilians remain trapped in Alyoshki, on the left bank of the Dnieper River opposite the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson. The town has been largely cut off from supplies for months, with Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes preventing regular aid deliveries, according to Russian officials.

Between October 19 and 26 alone, Ukrainian forces carried out 18 artillery strikes and more than 120 drone strikes on Alyoshki and its main access roads, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Russian officials also said Ukrainian forces had used drones to drop mines on roads leading to Alyoshki, further hampering supply deliveries.

The ceasefire was brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump, who warned that the town was “on the brink of disaster.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the humanitarian truce, if successful, “could set a precedent” for other areas.

Jordan carried out airstrikes on what it described as terrorist sites in neighboring Syria on Monday following a deadly attack on a Christian church last week. The Syrian government condemned the operation.

According to the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF), fighter jets targeted “hideouts of terrorist organizations in southern Syria.” It added that “several terrorists” were killed or wounded and unspecified equipment was destroyed.

Although the RJAF claimed it had acted in coordination with Syrian authorities, the government in Damascus denied receiving advance notice of the strikes. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said it had informed Jordan of its “objections to operations on Syrian territory without prior coordination.”

Khaled al-Omeian, director of health in Syria’s Daraa province, told SANA that seven civilians, including three children, were killed in the strikes and three others were injured.

“We affirm our support for the affected Syrian families and our full solidarity with them in this tragedy,” the Syrian government said in a statement.

Jordan vowed retaliation after gunmen opened fire on mourners attending a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church in Hamoud, in Jordan’s Karak governorate, on Friday, killing nine people and wounding more than 40.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Jordanian police arrested three suspects during a raid on a compound in Hamoud. Roya News, citing a source, reported that one of the suspects remained in critical condition following a shootout with police.

مديرية الأمن العام، تنشر صوراً حيّة للمداهمة الأمنيّة التي نفذتها قوة أمنيّة متخصّصة مشتركة للإرهابيين في محافظة الكرك. #الأمن_العام #الأردن https://t.co/fbb922SHz8

— مديرية الأمن العام (@Police_Jo) October 26, 2026

Jordanian authorities described the suspects as “extremists” with links to unspecified groups based in Syria.

Jordan has faced a persistent threat from Islamist militants, although major terrorist attacks remain rare. In 2016, ISIS-linked gunmen killed ten people in Karak. Jordanian authorities say they have foiled several Islamist militant plots in recent years.

Left-wing protesters rioted in Bilbao, Spain after mobilizing against a planned appearance by right-wing political commentator Vito Quiles near a local Catholic university.

Quiles, often compared by Spanish media to US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed last year, was scheduled to speak near the University of Deusto at 7:00 PM on Monday as part of a nationwide tour ahead of the November 29 general election.

According to El Pais, several self-described ‘antifascist’ groups announced plans to protest against Quiles, who they accuse of spreading “hate speech.”

The university suspended all activities after police warned of possible “incidents.” Quiles canceled the talk, describing the protesters as “former ETA members, street thugs, and other criminals,” referring to the now-defunct Basque separatist organization.

Scorched metal and billowing smoke across Bilbao. Rioters have taken to the streets, torching cars and bins amid fierce friction tied to the botched Vito Quiles event. The region is on high alert. ⚠️🔥 #Bilbao #Spain #Protests #Breaking https://t.co/tygAcgbPJq

— Absurd World (@Absurd__World) October 26, 2026

Nevertheless, a crowd of young people, some masked and dressed in black, gathered in a square near the university, set garbage containers on fire, and launched fireworks at police. Several parked cars and a police motorcycle were torched.

Coches ardiendo en una calle de Bilbao durante los disturbios tras el acto frustrado de Vito Quiles https://t.co/UjSwY2KPON https://t.co/VoHZUEfijF

— elDiario.es (@eldiarioes) October 26, 2026

Police arrested 19 people on suspicion of arson and public disorder.

Russia has significantly increased production of diesel in the wake of an agreement reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump, Reuters has reported, citing industry sources.

Daily output rose from 160,000 tons in early October to 180,000 tons after the Russian government introduced new export quotas in mid-month, the agency said. Moscow has eased its restrictions on diesel exports, allowing Russian companies to ship up to 500,000 tons of fuel to international markets in October while ensuring domestic demand remains fully covered.

Exports of diesel, marine fuel, and gas oil had previously been banned until October 31 as the government sought to stabilize the domestic market, which had been suffering from increased seasonal demand linked to the harvest season.

Trump and Putin agreed on diesel supplies during a phone call on October 9. Following the conversation, the US president announced that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by 500,000 tons in November, another million tons shortly thereafter, and potentially further shipments depending on refining capacity. Washington subsequently issued a temporary sanctions waiver permitting Russian diesel imports, reversing restrictions introduced under former US President Joe Biden in 2022.

The diesel deal provoked tensions between Washington and Kiev. Trump has repeatedly urged Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to stop attacking Russian refineries, accusing Kiev of exacerbating the worldwide diesel shortage and hurting American consumers and farmers hit by high fuel prices.

Zelensky hit back by blasting Trump’s claims as “totally false” and accusing the American leader of “deflecting the focus away from Iran.” He was referring to the American and Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic that, together with the Iranian response, led to severe shipment disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz – one of the key seaborne oil transportation routes.

Russia has historically been the world’s second-largest diesel exporter, behind only the US, accounting for roughly 10% of global exports. Disruptions to Russian supplies can drive up prices even in countries that do not directly import the fuel.

US President Donald Trump has said Brazil’s presidential runoff election, narrowly won by left-wing incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, could have been rigged.

According to the official tally, Lula received 51.79% of the vote on Sunday. His right-wing rival, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, received 48.21%.

“It looked terrible to me,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “I didn’t take sides, but it looked like another rigged election, frankly.”

Asked whether he planns to do something about the results, Trump said, “I’m not running Brazil. I’m running the US I like Lula. I get along with him very well. I just think it had a very bad look – the election, the way it was tabulated.”

Bolsonaro announced on election night that he would seek to have the results annulled, accusing “Lula’s allies” in the government of foul play. 

Hours after the results were announced, Bolsonaro said Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered him to surrender his passport and barred him from leaving the country as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering.

Q: Do you want to do something about the election in Brazil? Trump: I'm not running Brazil. I'm running the U.S. I like Lula. I get along with him very well, but the extension given was very strange. https://t.co/Sl1HUjiWde

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 26, 2026

In the first round on October 4, Bolsonaro led with 47% of the vote to Lula’s 45%. Some analysts suggested that Bolsonaro could win the runoff by attracting supporters of other right-wing candidates.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, who served as president from 2019 to 2022, is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election to Lula. He has denied any wrongdoing, describing the case as politically motivated.

Trump previously urged the Brazilian authorities to drop the case against Jair Bolsonaro, calling his prosecution a “witch hunt.” His administration has also faced allegations of attempting to influence Brazil’s 2026 presidential election in favor of Bolsonaro’s son.

Brazilian police opened a preliminary inquiry into suspected US interference but closed it due to insufficient evidence. Reuters separately reported that two senior State Department officials had pushed for sanctions aimed at weakening Lula and boosting the Bolsonaro family’s political fortunes. The State Department has denied seeking to interfere in the election.

Germany is preparing to buy a batch of low-cost cruise missiles from Ukraine to expand its long-range strike capabilities according to several media outlets, including the Financial Times and Bloomberg.

The deal could be finalized in the coming weeks, FT said, citing officials familiar with the matter. It would initially involve a small batch of missiles for testing by the German Armed Forces, or Bundeswehr, early next year. If the tests prove successful, Berlin could reportedly place a follow-up order for several hundred missiles.

Dubbed ‘Bars’ – meaning snow leopard in both Russian and Ukrainian – the cruise missiles, sometimes referred to as “drone missiles” in Ukraine, are jet-powered weapons with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers and a payload of up to 105 kg.

Germany and Ukraine signed a deal to jointly produce Bars missiles in July 2026. Under that agreement, Berlin would finance production, with all the missiles produced being delivered to Ukraine.

Armament drive

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Berlin was planning to acquire “thousands of precision deep-strike weapons” from several European and American companies. One proposed contract with US firm Covenant for the delivery of thousands of ground-launched Anthem cruise missiles could be worth more than €1 billion ($1.12 billion), according to the report.

Berlin emerged as Kiev’s single biggest military donor after Washington drastically scaled back its aid under US President Donald Trump. Merz has prioritized military spending, including assistance to Kiev, despite acknowledging that Germany’s economy is in a “structural crisis.” His government amended the constitutional debt brake to fund the buildup and passed a 2026 budget allocating a record €108.2 billion for defense and €11.5 billion in military aid for Ukraine.

Cashing in on war?

Ukraine, in turn, appears to be actively seeking to cash in on weapons exports, including sales to its Western backers. In February, David Aloian, deputy secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told Reuters that the country expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue from it this year alone.

Kiev halted all weapons exports following the escalation of the conflict in 2022, but Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky reversed that decision when he announced plans to open nearly a dozen weapons export centers across Europe in early 2026.

Trump accused Ukraine in mid-October of selling American-supplied missiles on the black market. He also claimed that Kiev had failed to account for billions of dollars in American military and financial aid.

Ukrainian arms manufacturers have been implicated in some of the nation’s numerous corruption scandals. Fire Point – a defense contractor personally promoted by Zelensky during his visits to Western nations – was reportedly effectively owned by the Ukrainian leader’s longtime former business partner, Timur Mindich, known as ‘Zelensky’s wallet’ in Kiev. The businessman fled Ukraine last year after a major corruption investigation named him as one of its primary suspects.

There were times, in the mid-to-late 20th century, when the Soviet Union was deeply engaged with Africa. It not only welcomed decolonization but actively promoted it and it supported national liberation movements from Algeria to Angola and from Guinea-Bissau to Zimbabwe. It assisted newly independent nations economically, helping them build factories, hospitals, and schools. A number of African countries became Moscow’s political allies and received arms and advisers to strengthen their security.

Having long since recovered from the collapse of the USSR, today’s Russia is again turning its attention to the African continent. Both Africa and Russia, however, are very different from what they were sixty or seventy years ago. Russia’s interest in Africa is largely an expression of its comeback as a world power. It also reflects Moscow’s recognition of African countries’ rapid economic and demographic growth, and their potential as an important component of the 21st-century multipolar world order, which encompasses not just states but civilizations.

Russia, however, is not looking to impose an ideology on its partners because it has no ideology to export in the first place. Nor does it go to Africa primarily in search of natural resources, which it possesses in abundance within its own borders. Russia doesn’t need military bases in Africa as part of its grand strategy, which remains firmly focused on its own neighborhood in Eurasia. Rather, it sees Africa as part of what it calls the Global Majority, the part of the world where it has partners with whom to cooperate, as opposed to the West, which has shut itself off from Russia.

Russia has already established itself as a security provider for African countries facing serious challenges. Under the banner of the Africa Corps, Russian military advisers and specialists are working in several West African countries belonging to the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso), as well as in the Central African Republic. They have managed to thwart a number of large-scale coup attempts and military offensives masterminded and supported from abroad. Such security assistance is essential to upholding the sovereignty of nations that have requested it.

Russia, of course, is much more than a military power. Among other things, it is a leader in digitalization. Moscow is one of the world’s most advanced capitals in this field. Russia is ready to share its expertise in establishing and improving electronic government services. Since Soviet times, Russian scientists have conducted pioneering research into deadly viruses and vaccines to combat them. A vaccine against Ebola was developed in 2019 by the Russian research institute Vector, located in Siberia, while the Sputnik V vaccine, developed against COVID-19, proved highly effective in fighting the pandemic.

To date, three African countries – South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia – are full members of the 10-member BRICS grouping. This format offers a novel, non-hierarchical and genuinely consensus-based approach to addressing economic, financial, environmental, educational, and other global issues. The BRICS way of doing business supports sovereignty and rejects diktat. Russia, which helped initiate the formation of BRICS just over two decades ago, works to ensure that the group remains true to its founding principles.

Russia has never been a colonial power in Africa and has never attempted to plunder its resources. It regards Africans as partners and African civilization as an equal in the emerging world order. This week’s Third Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow will bring the two even closer.

Serbia will maintain its longstanding ties with Russia and will not impose sanctions on Moscow despite EU pressure, a representative of the winning Student List movement has told RT Balkan.

The student-led opposition secured 52.73% of the vote in Sunday’s parliamentary election, according to the latest preliminary results, defeating the coalition of former President Aleksandar Vucic. He conceded defeat but warned that Belgrade could abandon its resistance to EU pressure and sanction Russia within months.

The movement emerged from nearly two years of anti-government protests sparked by the November 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people.

Speaking on Monday, Jovo Bakic, a university professor and Student List representative, said: “We respect Russia both as a great power and as our historically important partner and, in many cases, protector.”

“There will be no changes in that regard,” he added.

Recalling the harsh UN sanctions against Yugoslavia in the 1990s, when Serbia was one of its constituent republics, Bakic said restrictions imposed by “small Serbia” would have little effect on Russia but would be “symbolically very bad” for Belgrade.

🇷🇸 Jovo Bakić za RT Balkan: Studentska lista neće uvoditi sankcije Rusiji ▪️Predstavnik "Studentske liste", profesor Jovo Bakić ponovio je da nova vlada Srbije neće uvoditi sankcije Rusiji, uprkos tvrdnjama bivšeg predsednika Aleksandra Vučića da će se to dogoditi za nekoliko meseci. "Mi Rusiju poštujemo i kao veliku silu i kao našu istorijski važnu partnerku i u mnogim slučajevima zaštitnicu. Tu (u spoljnoj politici zemlje) neće biti nikakvih promena", izjavio je Bakić gostujući u emisiji "Srbija bira" na TV RT Balkan.

— RT Balkan (@rtbalkan) October 26, 2026

Under Vucic, Serbia resisted EU demands to adopt the bloc’s restrictions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, despite pursuing EU membership. The Student List campaigned primarily on domestic reforms, leaving several contentious foreign policy questions unaddressed.

According to Reuters, leading candidates of the victorious movement have said the incoming government would halt arms exports to conflict zones, including sales to Western intermediaries that subsequently supply weapons to Ukraine.

Vucic previously said European buyers could decide how to use Serbian ammunition, including whether to send it to Ukraine, although Belgrade has denied supplying Kiev directly.

Serbia also faces uncertainty over its oil supplies due to US sanctions on NIS, the majority Russian-owned energy company that runs the country’s only oil refinery. Hungarian energy group MOL is seeking to acquire the Russian stake, while the current US waiver allowing NIS to continue business expires on October 30. The company has requested another extension to avoid disruptions to fuel supplies.

Unlike Serbia, the EU has sought to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports and secure alternative suppliers since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

The Kremlin said on Monday that it hoped to maintain mutually beneficial relations with Serbia. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised Vucic’s contribution to bilateral ties and added “As you know, it takes two to tango.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is increasingly becoming Europeans’ “own personal court” as the US expands sanctions on the institution, an expert has told RT.

George Szamuely, a senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute in Budapest, pointed out that major global powers such as the US, Russia, and China do not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, leaving European nations as its main backers.

“So essentially the ICC is becoming a European project,” he said.

Szamuely argued that the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to former ICC judge Navi Pillay underscored Europe’s support for the court.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Pillay the prize on October 9, just hours before Washington imposed sanctions on the ICC as an institution, expanding measures that had previously targeted individual officials.

The ICC is now becoming increasingly the tool of the Europeans.

According to Szamuely, European lawmakers sought to reaffirm their backing for the court despite mounting pressure from Washington.

Szamuely noted that Washington’s “war against the ICC really intensified” during President Donald Trump’s first term, when the US sanctioned several court officials, including then-chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

“Now he has imposed much harsher sanctions against the ICC,” he said, arguing that the latest measures effectively impose secondary sanctions on “anyone who actually engages in any kind of dealings with the ICC.”

Watch the RT interview below:

The media forum is expected to gather over 200 participants from 46 African countries. Leading experts from the regional media community and political figures, including Gregoire Ndjaka, Director-General of the African Broadcasting Union; Evariste Ngamana, Minister of Communications and Media of the Central African Republic; and Badr Shneba, Director of Foreign Media Department in the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will participate. Also, prominent bloggers and descendants of esteemed African leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Samora Machel, and Gamal Abdel Nasser will take part in the event.

The key focus of the media forum will be the role of media in the development and unification of the African continent, as well as in shaping its identity and image abroad. On October 26 and 27, RT will hold sessions featuring leaders of major African television channels and influential bloggers.

On October 28, a plenary session of the media forum will take place, featuring Elizaveta Brodskaya, RT First Deputy Editor-in-Chief; Dmitry Kiselev, Director General of the Rossiya Segodnya media group; and Andrey Kondrashov, Director General of TASS, along with representatives from ministries and media regulatory authorities in both Russia and Africa.

On the final day of the forum, a session organized by RT will include descendants of legendary African leaders who inspired RT’s program “Africa: Legacy of the Great Leaders.” The session will feature Juliana Lumumba, daughter of Patrice Lumumba; Ndileka Mandela, granddaughter of Nelson Mandela; Gamal Abdel Nasser, grandson of Gamal Abdel Nasser; and others.

Throughout the business program, attendees will not only participate in the media forum but will also conduct joint broadcasts with Russian media and sign several cooperation agreements with their Russian counterparts.

The international RT television network includes news channels in English, Arabic, Spanish, German, Serbian, and French, as well as the RTD documentary channel in Russian and English. RT also operates online portals in ten languages and the global multimedia agency RUPTLY, which supplies exclusive content to broadcasters worldwide. RT is available 24/7 to more than 950 million viewers in over 100 countries.

Africa is one of the key regions for RT’s operations. The channel is expanding its partnership network with new media corporations and enhancing cooperation with existing partners. Currently, RT has eight bureaus across Africa. Additionally, RT conducts training programs for African journalists and co-hosted the African Media Awards ceremony in Ethiopia in 2025, which is the largest media event of the year for the continent.

Major military bases in the continental US will be expected to sustain essential operations for at least 90 days without external support under a new Pentagon strategy, Fox News has reported.

The autonomy target was set out in FORTRESS documents reviewed by the network, it said on Sunday. Critical military supplies would also require at least two qualified supply or production routes to guard against disruption.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the initiative last month. The US military has faced serious logistical disruption in the Middle East following Iranian strikes on American facilities and other sites used by US forces in retaliation for the US-Israeli attack on Iran.

Fox News, which is generally supportive of President Donald Trump’s agenda, wrote that the US needed to be prepared for a contingency in which military action would “cripple power grids, disrupt supply chains and threaten critical infrastructure on American soil.”

The report comes less than two weeks before midterm elections in which polls suggest the ruling Republican Party could suffer significant losses. The Iran war and the resulting surge in fuel prices are major factors bolstering opposition candidates.

Trump’s rhetoric has fueled widespread expectations that the US could escalate the war with Iran shortly after the election, or even before it. According to NBC News, Washington has withdrawn some personnel from its Middle Eastern bases ahead of a possible renewed airstrike campaign.

On October 26,2001, US President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law, less than seven weeks after the September 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in New York. The speed of its passage reflected the extraordinary political and social atmosphere in the United States. The tragedy had shattered the country’s sense of security, and fears of further terrorist activity continued to haunt the country in the months that followed.

In the weeks after 9/11, grief and anger were accompanied by an unprecedented surge of patriotism and national solidarity. President Bush’s approval rating reached 86 percent by late September, and public trust in the federal government rose to levels unseen in decades. A majority of Americans also expressed a willingness to sacrifice at least some civil liberties if doing so would help combat terrorism. Under intense pressure to prevent another catastrophe, Congress moved rapidly to expand federal investigative and surveillance powers.

The Patriot Act facilitated information sharing between intelligence and law enforcement agencies, broadened certain authorities to obtain records, and expanded investigative tools available in terrorism cases. Supporters argued that these measures were necessary to confront a transnational threat with legal instruments suited to a new security environment.

Yet national unity did not eliminate concerns about civil rights. Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as people perceived to belong to these communities, faced increased discrimination and violence. As the immediate shock of 9/11 receded, questions grew over how far the governments’ new powers should extend and what safeguards were needed to prevent abuse.

These tensions would shape the law’s legacy for decades. The debate intensified after Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosures exposed the scale of certain US surveillance programs, helping spur the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, which curtailed the government’s bulk collection of domestic telephone records. The controversy revealed that the challenge was not simply how to protect Americans from terrorism, but how to preserve privacy and civil liberties while doing so.

The surveillance debate that follows 9/11 has evolved alongside technology. Today, governments can analyze enormous volumes of digital information, from communications metadata to online activity, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish targeted intelligence gathering from the broader collection of personal data.

However, not all modern US surveillance powers originate in the Patriot Act. One important distinction is between Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which became associated with the NSA’s bulk collection of domestic telephone records, and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted in 2008.

Section 702 allows US intelligence agencies to target non-US persons reasonably believed to be outside the country for foreign intelligence purposes. Yet communications involving Americans may also be collected when they interact with foreign targets. A separate framework. Executive Order 12333 governs much of the intelligence community’s overseas surveillance activity.

These authorities raise questions that extend beyond the original post-9/11 debate. Artificial intelligence is adding a new dimension to the problem. Machine-learning systems can process vast quantities of communications, financial records, location data and other digital information, identifying patterns that human investigators might overlook. Such capabilities could help intelligence agencies detect terrorist networks and anticipate emerging threats. Yet they also raise the possibility of increasingly comprehensive surveillance, in which individuals can be assessed through their digital associations, behavior and inferred characteristics rather than through evidence of specific wrongdoings.

Twenty-five years later: Has America found the balance?

Twenty-five years after the Patriot Act became law, the United States has neither abandoned its expanded national security apparatus nor settled the debate over its proper limits. The government’s ability to collect and analyze information remains an important instrument in counterterrorism and foreign intelligence. At the same time, experience has shown that powers introduced in response to an emergency can endure long after the circumstances that justified them have changed.

The law’s defenders argue that intelligence agencies need effective tools to identify threats before they result in violence. Critics counter that broad surveillance authorities, secret legal interpretations and insufficient oversight can undermine privacy and weaken public trust. Both concerns are fundamental to a democratic society: security is essential to protecting freedom, but security measures can also threaten it when they operate without adequate safeguards.

The central lesson of the Patriot Act is therefore not that national security and civil liberties are necessarily incompatible. It is that the balance between them cannot be established once and left untouched. It requires clear legal limits, meaningful judicial and congressional oversight, transparency wherever possible, and public debate about how surveillance powers are used.

The digital age makes this task more urgent. As governments acquire increasingly sophisticated tools to monitor communications and analyze personal information, lawmakers must ensure that technological capabilities do not automatically translate into unlimited authority.

The question raised in October 2001 remains relevant today: how can a democracy protect its citizens without compromising the freedoms that give its political system legitimacy? Twenty-five years later, the United States continues to grapple with the answer.

The Netherlands has unveiled plans to cut around 25,000 full-time government positions by 2035, turning to artificial intelligence and sweeping administrative reforms to reduce costs and bureaucracy.

Announced on Monday, the overhaul aims to save €900 million ($1 billion) by next year, with annual savings projected to reach €3.5 billion by 2035. The job cuts will be phased in over several years, with police and security services exempt.

Planned measures include simplifying regulations, reducing advisory bodies, standardizing IT systems, and expanding digital services.

The plan follows years of rapid growth in the Dutch civil service. The central government workforce reached a record 160,000 positions in 2025, an increase of more than 40% since 2018, according to official figures.

State Secretary Eric van der Burg said excessive rules, exceptions, and procedures had made it increasingly difficult for the government to address problems, while mounting costs demanded action.

Other European countries are also embracing AI to streamline public administration.

Denmark announced plans last year to free up 50 million working hours annually by 2035 through AI, equivalent to roughly 30,000 full-time positions, without committing to corresponding job cuts.

Albania went a step further in September 2025, appointing an AI-generated virtual minister to help combat corruption in public procurement. However, the country’s AI procurement system had yet to be rolled out as of October.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk warned in July that the transition would be “a bumpy road,” predicting that AI would eventually outperform humans in any job.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has also warned of major upheaval in the labor market, while arguing that certain professions, including caregiving, should remain “human reserved” even if AI becomes capable of performing them.

Indian and Russian troops have finished up the INDRA-2026 military exercises in Chelyabinsk Region. During simulated combat, they worked with drones, artillery, tanks, and robotic systems, making use of real-world battlefield experience.

The ground phase of the exercise ended on Friday after ten days at a Russian Central Military District training ground, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

The final operation simulated the enemy occupying a settlement and establishing defensive positions. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ground-based robotic systems carried out reconnaissance before artillery units and strike drones targeted mock command posts, weapons positions, and supply depots, clearing the way for a joint assault.

The joint contingents then advanced under cover from tanks, air defense systems, mobile fire teams, and first-person-view (FPV) drone interceptors. The forces practiced securing the settlement and pursuing the retreating enemy, completing the ground exercise.

The October 14-23 drills focused on joint command and control and coordinating operations against armed groups. The Russian contingent consisted primarily of personnel from the Central Military District’s 90th Guards Tank Division.

💥🇮🇳🇷🇺 Total Annihilation: India, Russia Unleash Drones, Tanks & Assault Teams In Massive INDRA-2026 Drills The joint contingents unleashed relentless firepower to encircle and wipe out simulated fortified enemy positions. 📹 🇷🇺 MoD https://t.co/gz4zLkZnzk

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) October 24, 2026

The exercise incorporated lessons from recent armed conflicts to improve combat readiness and coordination between tactical units, Central Military District combat training chief Sergei Pimenkov said at the closing ceremony.

”All assigned tasks were accomplished and the objectives achieved during the joint training,” he said.

For the air component of the exercise, Russian and Indian aircrews practiced coordinated missions using Su-30SM fighter jets, including engaging low-flying targets and maneuvering combat at medium and low altitudes. Mi-8 helicopter crews rehearsed special forces deployments and search-and-rescue operations.

”We have seen how professionally the Russian armed forces are working,” Indian Brigadier Shubhanshu Kamatnurkar told RT. He said the Indian troops were able to gain from the Russians' frontline combat experience during the exercise.

The INDRA exercises are part of regular military cooperation between India and Russia.

The EU faces a growing budget squeeze after borrowing hundreds of billions for pandemic recovery and Ukraine. Rising repayment costs threaten future spending and rushed payouts raise fraud risks, its chief auditor has warned. Brussels is nevertheless seeking billions more for Kiev.

Speaking to Rapporteur, Tony Murphy, president of the European Court of Auditors, described the budget situation as a “pressure cooker,” with EU debt potentially reaching €1 trillion ($1.12 trillion) by the end of 2027.The bloc’s debt stood at €739 billion in 2025, up from €601 billion a year earlier.

“You have to pay it back at some time. It’s not free money,” Murphy said. He emphasized that “it’s real money that has to be paid back.”

Kiev is required to repay the loan only after receiving Russian reparations – something Moscow has vehemently ruled out. Ukraine’s own former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has also acknowledged that such scenarios are “just fairy tales” and that Brussels will never get its money back, which is being actively embezzled by Kiev.

The EU, however, must still repay the money it borrowed. According to Murphy, servicing pandemic debt alone would consume 8% of the bloc’s proposed 2028–2034 budget and governments have yet to agree on new revenue to cover the repayments, leaving Brussels with less money for other priorities.

The squeeze comes as households and businesses continue to face high energy costs following Europe’s break with Russian supplies, compounded by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Pressure to meet deadlines could also encourage weaker checks and more abuse, he said, as European prosecutors are already investigating hundreds of suspected fraud cases involving recovery funds.

Despite the crisis, Brussels is again looking for more money for Kiev after Vladimir Zelensky requested another €70 billion ($78 billion) for 2027, beyond existing commitments. European Council President Antonio Costa said Friday that the EU expects to cover roughly two-thirds, with a decision potentially coming in November.

This past election day did deliver one bombshell: Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat in Serbia’s snap parliamentary elections. Hardly anyone seems to have seriously expected that. Calling the election was a gamble, of course, but he still had reason to believe he could pull it off.

The reasons will take time to untangle. Vucic himself spoke of a “revolution” backed by Europe. Others, with some justification, see an “Orban scenario”: accumulated fatigue with one man’s prolonged rule, during which his personal traits and interests came to exert too much influence over national policy.

Clearly, more than one factor was at work. Just as clearly, Serbia is entering a new era. Vucic’s increasingly elaborate and convoluted balancing act will likely give way to an attempt to steer the country sharply toward the European Union. Hungary’s experience is telling in this respect. And Russia should expect little good to come of it.

Serbian society, however, is different from Hungary’s. There really is considerable sympathy for Russia. Whether that sentiment can rally a new opposition, this time against a firmly pro-EU course, should become clear soon enough. The EU will try to make the most of the defeat of yet another set of “pro-Russian forces.” Whether that will bring Serbia any closer to EU membership is another question entirely.

Whatever the outcome, if there is a common thread running through elections across Europe, it is probably this: people in different countries are disillusioned with the status quo and the establishment, whatever its political stripe – even when those establishments stand at opposite ends of the spectrum.

India’s interim trade deal with the US remains stalled as New Delhi reportedly refuses to accept a proposed 18% tariff rate and weighs politically sensitive agricultural concessions ahead of next month’s US midterm elections.

India wants to retain the current additional 10% levy on covered exports and could reassess negotiations after the November 3 elections, the Hindu BusinessLine reported on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the talks.

Under a framework agreed in February, Washington proposed reducing tariffs on several categories of Indian goods to 18%, from penalties of up to 50% imposed last year. In return, India agreed to lower duties on US industrial goods and selected agricultural products.

However, the negotiating landscape changed after the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs later that month. Washington subsequently imposed a separate additional 10% duty on covered Indian imports under Section 301 of US trade law.

Around 55% of India’s exports to the US are subject to the additional levy, while products including generic pharmaceuticals and smartphones remain exempt, according to India’s Commerce Ministry.

New Delhi is seeking assurances that future US tariffs will not leave its exporters at a disadvantage to competitors in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, the BusinessLine reported. India also wants protection against further duties after an agreement is signed.

Agricultural market access remains another obstacle to finalizing the deal. Washington is seeking concessions on American farm products, including those from Republican-leaning states, while India has sought to protect sensitive sectors such as dairy, poultry, rice, and wheat.

Granting such concessions while accepting higher tariffs would be difficult to defend domestically, sources told BusinessLine. New Delhi is therefore reportedly inclined to wait until after the US elections before deciding how to proceed.

Anthropic’s Claude AI model went rogue and broke past a paywall to obtain voter data in the US state of Georgia, Axios reported on Sunday. The intrusion heightens concerns about developers’ ability to control increasingly autonomous AI systems.

The incident occurred during an internal statistics project involving public information. Anthropic said the model obtained aggregate voter counts but did not access Georgia’s voter registration system, retrieve individual voter records or alter any data.

The company confirmed the incident on Sunday, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

“Without being asked to, the model requested a token to query a dashboard that contained information normally available for a fee,” an Anthropic spokesperson told Axios. Claude had learned from an archived government webpage that the dashboard issued digital access keys to visitors. It was able to request a key and retrieve the information without paying.

Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs confirmed to Fox Business that the data came from a public information service but insisted that Claude “did not get into the voter registration system.”

The case is among several instances Anthropic has disclosed of models finding unintended ways around restrictions instead of stopping. Other incidents included a false homicide tip submitted to Philadelphia police and incomplete applications filed on the US State Department’s visa website.

On Friday, Anthropic also revealed that a model had impersonated a human during a cybersecurity exercise, attempting to persuade an unrelated software developer to accept malicious code. The developer rejected the request and the attempt failed.

Other developers have tightened controls following similar incidents. OpenAI said Friday that it was keeping its most powerful models’ training offline after agents escaped restricted environments. In July, its agents bypassed safeguards and accessed systems belonging to Hugging Face, an online repository for AI models and datasets.

Anthropic said it has moved some evaluations offline, restricted internet tools and introduced systems to detect unauthorized actions. It said those systems blocked each of the disclosed cases when tested against them.

Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday in a closely contested parliamentary election that could end the nearly four-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current coalition, following years of war, political scandals, mass protests, and deepening divisions within Israeli society.

The vote is widely viewed as a referendum on Netanyahu’s leadership, with the opposition blaming him for security failures surrounding the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and accusing his government of undermining democratic institutions.

The Hamas attack killed around 1,200 people and saw some 250 taken hostage. Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children, according to the local Health Ministry.

Netanyahu’s fight for political survival

Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief who heads the centrist Yashar party, has emerged as Netanyahu’s strongest challenger.

Speaking at a mass rally in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Eisenkot urged traditional voters for Netanyahu’s Likud party to abandon the prime minister, claiming that Israel cannot survive another four years under his leadership.

“Anyone who thinks our Israel can survive another four years like these is living under a dangerous misconception,” Eisenkot said, according to the Times of Israel.

Netanyahu is also facing accusations of attempting to provoke a new war with Iran to postpone the election. Former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has demanded a criminal investigation into the prime minister on suspicion of treason after Channel 12 reported a clash between Netanyahu and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir over a proposed military operation.

“The man has gone off the rails,” Liberman said on Monday, accusing Netanyahu of putting his political survival ahead of national security. The prime minister denied the reported confrontation, and no criminal wrongdoing has been established.

Netanyahu also failed to persuade US President Donald Trump to launch strikes on Iran before the Israeli election, CNN reported, citing American and Israeli sources. The operation has reportedly been postponed, potentially until after the November 3 US midterm elections. Netanyahu’s office rejected the report.

Four years of war and political turmoil

Netanyahu’s latest term has been marked by a series of crises, from mass protests over his judicial overhaul to the October 7 Hamas attack, which exposed major failures in Israel’s security apparatus and triggered years of warfare.

The attack remains a central election issue, with Netanyahu’s opponents accusing him of evading responsibility and blocking an independent state commission of inquiry. While the opposition demands a full investigation into the political and military failures, the prime minister has backed a government-appointed panel with more limited powers.

In September 2025, a UN commission of inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Netanyahu is also subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel rejects the genocide allegations and denies committing war crimes.

Another major dividing line concerns Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, which triggered nationwide protests in 2023. His opponents have pledged to reverse measures they say undermine judicial independence. The prime minister is also standing trial on corruption charges, including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, which he denies.

Another contentious issue is the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men from military service. Despite a 2024 Supreme Court ruling against blanket exemptions, Netanyahu’s coalition has continued to resist compulsory conscription for religious students, fueling resentment among Israelis repeatedly called up for military duty.

The economic toll has added to public anger. Rising defense spending, higher living costs, and a VAT increase to 18% in 2025 have put further pressure on households.

Yet the wars themselves have attracted relatively little debate among the main contenders, many of whom support Israel’s military campaigns. The deeper political battle is over Netanyahu’s leadership, accountability, and the direction of the Israeli state.

Election arithmetic: Can anyone secure a majority?

Recent surveys indicate a tight race, with Eisenkot’s Yashar holding a narrow advantage over Netanyahu’s Likud in several polls.

An October 21 Jerusalem Post analysis of four major surveys put Yashar at an average of 22.5 seats, compared with 19.75 for Likud. But neither Netanyahu’s allies nor the opposition appear assured of the 61 seats needed for a majority in Israel’s 120-member Knesset.

Under Israel’s proportional representation system, parties must win at least 3.25% of the national vote to enter parliament. Votes for parties that fail to cross the threshold do not translate into seats, meaning even small shifts could tip the balance between rival camps.

The real battle may therefore begin after the ballots are counted. Smaller parties, particularly ultra-Orthodox factions, could determine who governs, with military conscription exemptions and religious education funding among their key demands.

According to a Jerusalem Post report published Monday, possible scenarios include opposition cooperation with ultra-Orthodox factions, reliance on Arab parties’ parliamentary support, or even another election if coalition talks fail.

Would a defeat for Netanyahu change Israel’s course?

A new prime minister would not necessarily mean a new direction for Israel’s military and foreign policies.

Despite their fierce opposition to Netanyahu, leading opposition figures broadly support maintaining Israel’s military superiority, confronting Iran, and retaining extensive security control over Palestinian territories. None of the principal contenders has made the establishment of a Palestinian state a central campaign commitment.

The election also comes amid renewed tensions in the occupied West Bank. Israeli authorities have imposed sweeping restrictions following a shooting near Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen, including curbs on Palestinians entering Jewish settlements for work.

Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis have demonstrated against the government and violence toward Palestinians, even as younger voters increasingly identify with the political right.

Reporting from Tel Aviv, RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij described Israel as “a nation dramatically shifting towards the right,” with many young people citing the October 7 attack as a turning point in their political views.

The election could therefore remove Netanyahu from power without reversing the security policies that have defined his latest term.

What happens after October 27?

The vote could leave Netanyahu in power, hand the opposition a chance to form a government, or produce another parliamentary deadlock.

Under Israel’s parliamentary system, the president consults party leaders before choosing a lawmaker to form a government. Coalition talks can drag on for weeks, with smaller parties demanding concessions in exchange for their support. If no candidate can secure a majority, Israel could face another election.

The final result may therefore be decided not at the ballot box, but behind closed doors, as rival parties bargain over who will govern Israel next.

Yet even if Netanyahu loses power, the election may change Israel’s leadership without fundamentally altering its approach to the Palestinians or the regional conflicts that have defined his latest term.

Russia is helping African nations strengthen their capabilities through cooperation that benefits both sides, Gamal Abdel Nasser Jr., chairman of the Nasser Foundation for Humanities and Development, has told RT.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Media Forum in Moscow, the grandson of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser said Russia’s growing appeal on the continent stems partly from the fact that it never took part in the colonization of the continent. 

He contrasted Moscow’s approach with that of former European colonial powers, which he accused of denying African societies access to education and technological progress. “Now Russia is coming today and offering us a kind of situation where they are helping us become stronger,” Nasser Jr. said.

He acknowledged that Moscow has its own strategic interests in expanding cooperation with African countries, but argued that the relationship is beneficial to both parties.

Nasser Jr. also criticized the legacy of European colonialism, singling out Britain, France, the Netherlands and Belgium for their treatment of African populations. 

Turning to Egypt’s membership in BRICS, Nasser Jr. said he had long advocated for Cairo to join the group, viewing it as an opportunity for developing countries to reduce their dependence on Western-dominated financial institutions.

He argued that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund emerged from a post-World War II system in which the US and Britain exercised disproportionate influence. BRICS, by contrast, is giving developing nations a greater role in shaping international economic arrangements, he said.

The foundation chairman also called for greater attention to colonial reparations, arguing that recovering historical artifacts taken from Egypt should be only part of a broader effort to address the consequences of foreign rule.

The remarks came at the four-day Russia-Africa Media Forum, which opened in Moscow on Monday. Organized by RT in cooperation with Sputnik and TASS, the event has brought together more than 200 media professionals and experts from 46 African countries.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is pushing for former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to become the next UN secretary-general, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

Members of Trump’s team have already reached out to Orban, who is open to the idea but will only run if there is confidence that he can secure the job, the paper said in an article on Sunday.

The US believes that Russia and China would also support the former Hungarian leader, who would be seen as a joint candidate from the three countries, a State Department official told the outlet.

The term of current UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expires on December 31. AP reported last week that none of the seven candidates to replace him, including Costa Rica’s Rebecca Greenspan, Guyana’s Carolyn Rodriguez Birkett, and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi of Argentina, currently have the required support of all five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC): China, France, Russia, the UK, and US.

Orban, who left office in Hungary after 16 years in power this May, used to describe his rule as an “illiberal democracy.” The 63-year-old politician has been a harsh critic of EU’s policies, repeatedly clashing with Brussels over his moves against mass migration, a clampdown on left-wing NGOs, resistance to the LGBTQ+ agenda, and other issues.

He was one of the few European leaders to maintain contacts with Moscow after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, insisting on Hungary continuing to purchase Russian energy and decrying Western sanctions as counterproductive. The former Hungarian leader also consistently advocated stronger economic cooperation between the EU and China.

Orban has called Trump a “good friend” and visited the US to back the Republican’s presidential campaign in 2024. The US president endorsed Orban ahead of this year’s Hungarian election and sent Vice President J.D. Vance to Budapest to campaign for him, although the move did not help to deliver victory.

Trump has been increasingly unhappy with the UN during his second term, saying that the global body hasn’t come close to reaching its “tremendous potential.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that Moscow expects the new UN secretary-general to represent the interests of all mankind, not just a small group of Western nations as happened under Guterres. Lavrov also said several of the candidates possessed the qualities needed to be effective in the role.

Trade, sovereignty and peace are on the table as African leaders gather in Moscow this week for the third Russia-Africa summit.

Their participation comes despite what Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described as Western pressure on African governments to stay away. This prodding prompted Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama to retort that partnerships should deliver investment and fair returns rather than be determined by competition among outside powers.

The October 28–29 meeting will set cooperation priorities for the next three years, alongside an Economic and Humanitarian Forum bringing together officials, businesses and experts. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, the current African Union (AU) chairman, will co-chair the leaders’ plenary session on the second day.

The gathering follows summits in Sochi in 2019 and St. Petersburg in 2023.

Who is coming to Moscow?

Russia has invited all African heads of state and the leaders of regional organizations. Most African delegations have confirmed their participation, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived in Moscow on Sunday. Writing on X, he said Zimbabwe’s participation would focus on “driving economic diversification, boosting industrial trade, and creating sustainable jobs for our youth,” alongside cooperation in energy, food security and technology. 

The presidents of Mali and Mozambique as well as the Senegalese prime minister have also arrived. Delegations from Ghana and Uganda are in Moscow, according to Ruptly footage showing their motorcades in the city center on Monday.

Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso left Brazzaville for Moscow on Sunday, according to a Facebook post made by his office.

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama arrived in Moscow on Monday after confirming his participation at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London last week. At that event, he defended Ghana’s nonaligned foreign policy, citing friendly relations with Russia, China, the US and the EU.

Mahama also said he would “try to convince President Putin to have a ceasefire if I can,” referring to the Ukraine conflict. His appeal follows earlier African peace efforts, including a seven-country mission led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to Ukraine and Russia in June 2023.

Kenyan President William Ruto and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni are expected to attend, their ambassadors in Moscow confirmed in June. Kenya’s envoy, Peter Mathuki, said he anticipated “very fruitful talks.”

Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore and Niger’s President Abdourahamane Tchiani will also participate, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir confirmed his attendance in a letter to Putin delivered through diplomatic channels in July, according to Russia’s embassy in Juba. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also announced the participation of Guinea-Bissau’s transitional leader, Horta N’Tam.

Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah will attend, her office confirmed, announcing her scheduled departure on Monday. It said Namibia would seek partnerships supporting mineral processing, job creation, technology transfer and economic diversification.

Libya’s Presidential Council Chairman Mohamed al-Menfi is also expected to participate, Sputnik reported, citing a source in the council. Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan will attend, Russian Ambassador to Sudan Andrey Chernovol told RIA Novosti.

Nigerian Vice President Kashim Shettima will lead his country’s delegation, Nigeria’s ambassador to Russia, Joseph Olusola Iji, told TASS.

Ramaphosa will not attend. During talks with Putin in September, he cited local election campaigning, saying he would be “in the middle of a very vigorous campaign.” South Africa’s embassy subsequently confirmed that its delegation would be led by Zane Dangor, director-general of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

What is on the agenda?

The topic of sovereignty is central to the forum, which features sessions on development financing, food security and technological independence.

Interdependence regarding agriculture is a foundational sector for Russia-Africa relations, and the forum is expected to address fertilizer supplies, farm machinery, local production and the financial and logistical obstacles facing food trade. 

Peaceful nuclear energy is another priority. Rosatom is building four reactors at Egypt’s El Dabaa nuclear power plant and has signed roadmaps to advance planned nuclear power projects in Ethiopia and Rwanda. Its cooperation with Rwanda also includes a proposed nuclear science and technology center for research, specialist training and applications in medicine, agriculture and industry. 

Digital infrastructure discussions come as Africa’s online economy expands. GSMA’s 2025 assessment put the continent’s mobile internet users at 416 million, projected to reach 576 million by 2030. African companies also bring established financial technology expertise: Kenya’s Safaricom said its M-PESA mobile money service reached 40 million customers in March 2026. Other sessions cover artificial intelligence, healthcare and training African specialists.

Why is the summit important?

African priorities include processing more resources at home, building energy and technological capacity, and diversifying partnerships on their own terms.

Disputes with Western governments have reinforced the emphasis on sovereignty. In September, South Africa’s Foreign Ministry challenged US visa restrictions linked to Washington’s criticism of its domestic policies, declaring: “It is our sovereign right to put in place laws that address the nation’s concern over centuries of racial injustice.” 

The summit builds on sustained diplomatic engagement. Since 2022, Lavrov has visited countries across the continent, including repeated trips to Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa. His July 2026 tour included Ethiopia, Niger, Mozambique and Burundi.

The summit framework has also developed into regular ministerial consultations. Sochi hosted the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in November 2024, followed by a second in Cairo in December 2025.

Trade between Russia and Africa rose from $16.8 billion in 2019 to $27.1 billion in 2025, according to Nikolay Golovko, a leading expert at HSE’s Center for African Studies. The balance remains heavily tilted toward Russian exports, which accounted for $22.7 billion, compared with $4.4 billion in imports from Africa.

Has the threat of Western sanctions reached Russia-Africa relations?

There still might be concerns about secondary sanctions; however, “they are being removed from the first plan,” Maslov said. A new group of partners has emerged, ready to develop new logistics networks and payment mechanisms. “Sanctions have gone from being a problem to a cost of doing business,” he noted.

Economic cooperation already includes major projects. Russia is building Egypt’s El Dabaa nuclear power plant, while Rosatom’s subsidiary Mantra Tanzania opened a pilot uranium processing facility at the Mkuju River project in July 2025.

Russia and the AU also reiterated support in July for greater African representation in the UN Security Council, reflecting their push to reform global institutions.

What was the central theme of Summit 1.0? 

The inaugural summit took place in Sochi on October 23–24, 2019, co-chaired by Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, then the AU chair.

Held under the motto “For Peace, Security and Development,” it established a framework for cooperation across politics, security, trade, science, education and culture.

The event provided a foundation for 92 agreements, contracts and signed memorandums of understanding between participants, with publicly disclosed values totaling more than 1 trillion rubles, approximately $12.5 billion at the time. These were signed commitments rather than a measure of completed investment.

The second gathering, held in St. Petersburg on July 27–28, 2023, expanded the format to include a humanitarian forum. Official delegations from 48 African countries attended.

Participants adopted a joint declaration and a cooperation action plan for 2023–2026. Separate declarations addressed counterterrorism, international information security and preventing an arms race in outer space. Organizers recorded 161 publicly disclosed agreements, many covering education, science and other humanitarian cooperation.

Food security was a prominent issue and remains a pressing concern. An estimated 309 million people in Africa faced hunger in 2025, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s latest report.

At the 2023 summit, Putin pledged free grain for six African countries. Russia completed the 200,000-metric-ton delivery program in February 2024, according to its Agriculture Ministry. Somalia and the Central African Republic received 50,000 tons each; Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Mali and Zimbabwe received 25,000 tons each.

In August 2026, Russia delivered nearly 556 metric tons of split peas and sunflower oil to Burkina Faso through the UN World Food Program, according to Russian Ambassador Igor Martynov.

What can we expect for Summit 3.0?

A central expected outcome is a new Russia-Africa action plan for 2027–2029, replacing the framework adopted in St. Petersburg. Lavrov has said it will be approved at the Moscow gathering.

Zakharova has also said a substantial package of intergovernmental agreements and commercial contracts is expected. Putin will hold bilateral meetings, while Lavrov will host a working breakfast for African foreign ministers on October 28.

The gathering will also provide an opportunity to review implementation of the 2023–2026 action plan, Golovko writes. Its 181 points cover areas ranging from politics and security to agriculture, energy, transport, education and investment.

The Russia-Africa Media Forum opened in Moscow on Monday, bringing together more than 200 participants from 46 African countries. Organized by RT in cooperation with Sputnik and TASS, the four-day event focuses on media cooperation and journalism’s role in shaping Africa’s image abroad.

Sebastian Maganga, head of content at Tanzania’s Clouds Media Group, highlighted the value of exchanging stories.

“If you have forums similar to this, that’s when you get the opportunity to share our stories and get stories from Russia and other places respectively and package them,” he said on the sidelines of the event.

The media forum’s published program identifies “strengthening the media sovereignty of African countries” as a priority. Sessions will examine how African newsrooms can develop their own sources, expand the international reach of their reporting and cooperate with Russian outlets through content production, resource sharing and journalist exchanges.

Moscow will also host the eighth Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit on October 27. The gathering will address global market developments, energy security and investment opportunities.

The GECF’s members account for 70% of proven global natural gas reserves and 42% of gas exports, according to the organization. Its African members are Algeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya and Nigeria, while Angola, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal hold observer status.

Russian companies already have investments in African gas production. Rosneft acquired a 30% stake in the concession containing Egypt’s giant Zohr gas field in 2017 for $1.125 billion, excluding reimbursement for past project costs.

Participants of the Russia-Africa Media Forum are set to meet Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as the gathering gets underway in Moscow.

Organized by RT in cooperation with the Sputnik and TASS news agencies, the event comes ahead of the third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for October 28-29 in the Russian capital.

The meeting with Zakharova is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, at 11 am Moscow time.

The four-day forum opened on Monday, bringing together more than 200 participants from 46 African countries, alongside Russian media executives, journalists, and experts. Among the attendees are African Broadcasting Union Director General Gregoire Ndjaka and Central African Republic Communications and Media Minister Evariste Ngamana.

Discussions will focus on media cooperation, combating disinformation, and the role of journalism in shaping Africa’s image internationally. The program also includes joint broadcasts with Russian media outlets and the signing of cooperation agreements.

Zakharova previously announced that TASS would host a panel discussion on the role of media resources in combating disinformation and promoting a positive image of Russia and Africa.

The Russian side will be represented by RT first deputy editor-in-chief Elizaveta Brodskaya, Rossiya Segodnya director general Dmitry Kiselyov, and TASS director general Andrey Kondrashov.

The Russian Foreign Ministry will also organize two sessions focusing on digital opportunities and challenges, as well as the role of AI in developing cooperation between Russia and Africa, according to Zakharova.

Sessions hosted by RT, Rossiya Segodnya, and TASS are scheduled for October 26-27 at the Russia National Center, followed by a plenary discussion involving senior media executives and regulators at Gostiny Dvor on October 28.

The program also includes an RT session on October 29 featuring descendants of prominent African leaders highlighted in the broadcaster’s African Legacy project. Participants are also expected to hold joint broadcasts with Russian media outlets and sign cooperation agreements.

India has reminded developed nations that they have an equal responsibility to find solutions to conflicts around the world impacting people in the Global South.

“The Global South today faces a 4F crisis of finance, fuel, food and fertilizers,” Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told a global forum on peace and international cooperation in New Delhi on Saturday. “The Global North must realize that it has equal stakes in finding solutions.”

The minister and career diplomat is known for his takedowns of Western narratives employed to coerce the Global South, including India, to isolate Moscow. Earlier this month he reminded the West that New Delhi’s ties to Moscow run long and deep, and will not be “easily forgotten.” 

With the Ukraine conflict now in its fifth year, and the Iran war disrupting energy supplies from the Middle East, Jaishankar called for “genuine dialogue” to bring them to an end. “We cannot remain helpless spectators,” he said, adding that India was expressing the global sentiment when it urged dialogue and diplomacy as the only solution.

A pleasure to join Chinmaya Amrit Mahotsav Global Sammelan celebrating the United Nations day. Underlined: ➡️ How ‘Advaita’ or ‘One Reality’ requires us to discard zero-sum game thinking and instead, focus on the collective, the shared, the common and our unity. ➡️ The indivisibility of peace, where war anywhere threatens peace everywhere. 🇮🇳 urges dialogue and diplomacy as a solution. ➡️ The need for stronger resolve in countering terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. ➡️ The equal responsibility of Global North in find solutions to ensure progress and prosperity for the world. ➡️ AI’s universal applicability and 🇮🇳’s advocacy for responsible, inclusive and human-centric approach. ➡️ The urgent need for reformed multilateralism and for the UN to show leadership in face of global crises

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) October 25, 2026

New Delhi has consistently called for the Ukraine conflict to be resolved peacefully, and offered its own proposal earlier this month. Both the Kremlin and Kiev have welcomed India’s efforts.

The Indian position stands in stark contrast to that of Europe, which wants a seat at the negotiating table, but has still not named a negotiator. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted on Sunday that “the EU has been willing to [appoint a negotiator] for a very long time, but it either cannot do so or lacks the resolve to do so.”

Jaishankar said market distortions caused by constriction and chokepoints only add to the suffering of the people in the Global South.

The Indian foreign minister also called on the United Nations to show leadership rather than remaining a spectator to global crises, pointing out that the case for a reformed multilateralism is getting stronger by the day.

The Russia-Africa Media Forum has opened in Moscow, bringing together more than 200 participants from 46 African countries. 

The gathering, which began on Monday, is being organized by RT in cooperation with the Sputnik and TASS news agencies. It brings together media executives, journalists, and experts from Russia and African countries. The four-day event will focus on media cooperation and the role of journalism in shaping Africa’s image abroad.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Sebastian Maganga, head of content at Tanzania’s Clouds Media Group, highlighted the importance of such gatherings, saying they allow media organizations to exchange stories and share their perspectives with international audiences.

The forum comes ahead of the third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for October 28-29 in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin will co-chair the plenary session on October 29 with Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, the current chair of the African Union, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Moscow will also host the eighth Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) summit on October 27, bringing energy diplomacy into the same week’s meetings. The gathering will address global market developments, energy security, and investment opportunities.

African leaders have begun arriving in Moscow ahead of the summit, including Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo, and Mali’s transitional president, Assimi Goita. Ugandan Vice President Jessica Alupo has also arrived in the Russian capital, according to media reports.

Putin is also expected to hold bilateral talks with African leaders, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet his African counterparts on October 28. More than 2,000 guests are expected to attend the accompanying Economic and Humanitarian Forum, Zakharova said.

The economic forum will be held at Moscow’s Gostiny Dvor exhibition center. Its agenda covers trade, investment, energy, food security, digitalization, education, and technology.

The upcoming event follows two previous summits between Russian and African leaders. The first, held in Sochi in October 2019, attracted delegations from all 54 African countries, while the second, held in St. Petersburg in July 2023, brought together representatives from 48 African nations.

A Ukrainian plot to damage a key component of Moscow’s air defense system has been thwarted, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

In a statement on Monday, the agency accused the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of organizing the operation and recruiting a man in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region to carry it out. The SBU allegedly supplied him with small drones and improvised explosive devices.

The suspect recruited another person, and the pair retrieved the equipment in Russia’s Smolensk and Kaluga regions before heading to Moscow Region, the FSB said. They were allegedly tasked with assembling the drones, fitting them with explosives and positioning them near two targets: an air defense site and an energy facility.

Russian investigators were reportedly aware of the operation in advance and intervened at a time of their choosing.

The agency did not identify that person, but said alerting the authorities to a planned crime could exempt an informant from criminal liability.

The two suspects, identified only as foreign nationals from the Caucasus region, face up to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges.

Moscow is among the most heavily defended parts of Russia. During the record Ukrainian drone attack on the capital on September 19–20, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones were intercepted across defensive lines, including 450 which were approaching the city.

Kiev has previously used infiltrators in attempts to deploy short-range quadcopters carrying explosives for sabotage or targeted assassinations.

Russia is willing to maintain mutually beneficial relations with Serbia after the opposition Student List movement forms a new government following its election victory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Outgoing Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic has conceded defeat for his United Serbia coalition in Sunday’s vote. Peskov on Monday hailed Vucic for playing a constructive role in maintaining ties with Moscow amid pressure by the European Union.

“We express hope that their actions will similarly be aimed constructively at further development of our relationship and that these new political forces realize that cooperation with Russia meets Serbia’s interests,” he said.

“But, as you know, it takes two to tango,” the official added.

Vucic, who Peskov noted intends to remain involved with Serbian politics, previously claimed that Student List candidates intend to bend to Brussels’ pressure and impose anti-Russian sanctions as soon as next spring. The movement has denied such plans on the campaign trail.

Serbia has been on the road to join the European Union for over a decade, having been granted candidate status in 2012. Following the 2022 escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Brussels made alignment of foreign policy mandatory for nations seeking EU membership, forcing Belgrade to choose between making progress on its path or maintaining its traditionally good relations with Russia.

Trade between India and Russia has grown by more than 20% this year, Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said during talks in New Delhi on Sunday, where he called for the removal of trade barriers and the expansion of joint business ventures.

Volodin met the speaker of the Lok Sabha, Om Birla, ahead of the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum, which New Delhi is hosting on October 26-27. The discussions covered closer cooperation on trade, industry and agriculture, along with the strengthening of parliamentary ties.

Bilateral commerce reached $47.7 billion in the first seven months of 2026, up 24.3% from a year earlier, according to data from the Indian Commerce Ministry, cited by Russian lender Sberbank.

India imported $44.9 billion of Russian goods during the period, including $36 billion in crude oil. Indian exports to Russia totaled $2.8 billion, with Moscow increasing purchases of chemicals, electrical goods, medical equipment, seafood, tea, and spices.
Volodin credited Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with advancing bilateral ties.

🇮🇳🇷🇺 'Dynamic' Modi & Putin Set The Pace: Russian Duma Chief Says Moscow & Delhi Align On Global Issues Vyacheslav Volodin told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that bilateral ties are advancing across sectors, stressing that parliamentarians must ensure agreements reached by the countries' leaders are translated into law. The duo met ahead of the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in New Delhi.

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) October 25, 2026

Lawmakers should “provide legislative support for all decisions made at the level of heads of state,” he said, according to TASS.
Birla highlighted opportunities to expand cooperation in nuclear energy and other industrial sectors, while calling for regular exchanges between the two parliaments.

The expansion in commerce comes as New Delhi and Moscow work toward reaching $100 billion in annual bilateral trade by 2030. India is seeking to narrow its trade imbalance with Russia by increasing exports of pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, chemicals, food products, and auto components.

A cruise liner has collided with a container ship while departing Bremerhaven in northwestern Germany for a voyage to the Canary Islands.

The incident involving the Mein Schiff 3 occurred on Sunday in poor weather brought by storm Manja. Strong crosswinds appeared to overpower the tugboats assisting the 293-meter vessel down the Weser River. The collision was filmed from aboard the liner.

Hamburg-based operator TUI Cruises reported no injuries among the 2,428 guests and 922 crew members aboard the ship. The vessel was brought back to the pier for a damage assessment.

Media reports and footage indicate that at least three lifeboats were seriously damaged, potentially disrupting the voyage unless they can be replaced promptly. In similar cases, operators have negotiated cancellations with some guests to bring the number of people aboard into line with the remaining lifeboat capacity.

Die „Mein Schiff 3“ kollidiert beim Auslaufen in Bremerhaven mit einem Containerschiff. Aufnahmen zeigen die Wucht des Zusammenstoßes; mehrere Rettungsboote wurden offenbar beschädigt. Nach bisherigen Berichten gab es keine Verletzten. Die Unfallursache muss untersucht werden. Doch ich frage mich grundsätzlich: Wie lange wollen wir noch eine Kreuzfahrtindustrie fördern, deren Geschäftsmodell mit enormen Treibhausgasemissionen verbunden ist? Luxus auf See darf nicht bedeuten, dass die Umwelt die Rechnung bezahlt. Wir brauchen einen konsequenten Ausstieg aus besonders klimaschädlichen Kreuzfahrten. Klimaschutz ist keine freiwillige Zusatzleistung!

— Paro. Karl Kautabak (@KarlKautabak) October 25, 2026

The Mein Schiff 3 was beginning a 20-day ‘Timeless Canary Islands’ cruise, with its first stop scheduled for October 28 in the Spanish port of A Coruna.

The MSC Victorine, which the liner struck, also postponed its departure for Hamburg following the collision.

Some reports said two tugboats were also damaged. Shipping was temporarily suspended after the incident.

Three people have been killed and 39 others injured, including a child, in a Ukrainian overnight drone raid on the southern Russian city of Voronezh, Governor Aleksandr Gusev has reported.

Most of the victims in the attack come from a single apartment block that was hit by a downed drone, the official said on Monday morning. Three of the injured people are in serious condition, he added.

Gusev said regional air defenses engaged 113 targets overnight, including 70 drones that were intercepted over the city.

A similar large-scale Ukrainian drone raid on Belgorod over the weekend killed two civilians and left 13 others wounded.

Kiev continues its long-range strikes on Russian cities amid renewed pressure from Washington to end its conflict with Moscow.

Starlink reportedly operates only over the part of Russia that the US recognizes as Ukrainian territory. Zelensky has for years been lobbying Musk and the administration of US President Donald Trump to extend the coverage to other parts of the country, including after Washington renewed its efforts to find a resolution to the conflict.

The Russia-Africa Summit taking place in Moscow on October 28-29 will be the third of its kind, and relations have undergone a great transformation since the first summit. Over the past seven years, permanent frameworks have been established, diplomatic presence has expanded, and trade turnover has grown.

This year’s summit will provide an opportunity to evaluate the results of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan, which was adopted at the second summit. It contains 181 points covering politics and security, trade, investment, agriculture, energy, industry, transport, digitalization, science, education, and humanitarian cooperation.

Prior to 2022, expert discussions focused mainly on Africa’s place among Moscow’s foreign policy priorities. However, in the past four years, the practical importance of Russia’s relationship with the continent has surged.

African nations have become a higher priority for Russia in terms of diplomacy, business, foreign trade, and international coordination. Today, the primary focus is on the quality of cooperation.

The first Russia-Africa Summit, held in Sochi in October 2019, brought together all 54 African nations, including more than 40 heads of state and government. Its most significant outcome was the establishment of a pan-African approach in Russian foreign policy. This set a framework for regular summits, the ongoing work of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum, and cooperation with the African Union.

The second summit took place in St. Petersburg in July 2023 and was attended by delegations from 49 African states, 17 of which were led by heads of state. A three-year Action Plan adopted there featured key topics such as financial settlements, banking ties, logistics, investments, information technology, industry, and transport. Following the summit, expert discussions increasingly focused on shipping, insurance, correspondent accounts, currency settlements, and project finance – that is, issues that directly impact corporate business activity and trade volumes.

Cooperation has since become multi-dimensional. In November 2024, the first Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum took place in Sochi, followed by a second such conference in Cairo in December 2025. In July, African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held high-level consultations in Addis Ababa.

Russia’s diplomatic network has also expanded.There are currently 45 Russian embassies physically operating in African nations. Since 2023, embassies have resumed operations in Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, and Sierra Leone, and a new Russian embassy was opened in South Sudan. The opening of embassies in the Gambia, Liberia, Togo, and the Comoros are next on the agenda. A separate Department for Partnership with Africa has been established within the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The developments are, step-by-step, reducing the extent to which the African agenda depends on meetings between leaders.

Russia’s political presence in Africa has been expanding faster than economic ties. At the same time, tangible progress has been made in commerce: trade turnover between Russia and Africa grew from $16.8 billion in 2019, when the first summit was held, to $27.1 billion in 2025.

However, a pronounced imbalance persists: in 2025, Russian exports accounted for $22.7 billion, while imports amounted to only about $4.4 billion. Much of the growth seen in recent years is linked to shifts in the external environment and the redirection of trade flows. Establishing a sustainable presence, however, requires direct supply channels, infrastructure, local partners, and financing.

The geography of economic ties is also uneven, with about 70% of total trade turnover still concentrated in North African countries. Food, fertilizers, fuel, and metals account for a significant portion of trade turnover. The modest scale of economic engagement becomes clear when compared to that of other major powers; for example, China-Africa trade reached $348 billion in 2025.

Moscow’s policy currently commands fewer financial resources. To make its presence in Africa more effective, Russia is focusing on the sectors where it possesses the necessary technologies and expertise, and where demand is stable. These include the agro-industrial complex, nuclear energy, the extractive industries, digitalization, information security, and education.

Food, fertilizers, energy, and education

Russia maintains a strong position in the food and fertilizer sectors. Following the 2023 summit, a pledge to provide free shipments of wheat to six African countries was fulfilled. In 2024, Russia delivered 200,000 tons of grain (valued at approximately $60 million) to Mali, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Somalia, and the Central African Republic. The deliveries were made independently of any international organizations, which means Russia is establishing a sovereign infrastructure for food supplies to African nations and engages with importers directly.

The next phase of cooperation could focus on developing production capacities in African nations. The African Union’s agenda prioritizes fertilizer production, the storage and processing of agricultural products, mechanization, seed production, transport infrastructure, and enhancing local added value. Talks between Russia and the African Union in July 2026 addressed industrialization, the expansion of trade within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and food security.

This approach aligns with the objectives of Agenda 2063 – the African Union’s development blueprint –which calls for the strengthening of national economies, fostering domestic production, creating jobs, and reducing reliance on external supplies. The AfCFTA, designed to dismantle trade barriers between the nations of the region and establish a unified market, supports these same goals. Within this framework, fertilizer production, raw material processing, the establishment of service centers, the assembly of machinery, and the training of local specialists help build a sustainable presence in markets.

African demand

The context for cooperation with Africa has also evolved. One of the most notable shifts has been the development of the AfCFTA. By 2026, 50 of the 54 signatory countries had ratified the agreement. The primary challenge now is to ensure that free trade becomes a practical reality. Participants have agreed to phase out tariffs on 90% of product categories – a process set to take five years for more developed economies and 10 years for the least developed nations.

The summit in St. Petersburg in 2023 demonstrated the autonomy of African diplomacy. Prior to the meeting, an African peace delegation visited Kiev and St. Petersburg, presenting their own proposals for resolving the conflict. African leaders raised concerns with the Russian leadership regarding food security and the impact of the hostilities on the continent’s economy. For Moscow, this may signal a need to engage with partners who maintain a broad range of foreign policy options.

The number of leaders attending the summit in fact only offers a limited perspective on the state of relations. A more meaningful indicator lies in the ongoing cooperation with the African Union Commission, the AfCFTA, regional economic communities, relevant government ministries, and private-sector companies.

What are instruments of sovereignty?

There are 54 countries in Africa, and all are very different. The pan-African format is most suitable for education and humanitarian cooperation, international coordination, and shared economic initiatives. Practical projects, however, are better implemented at the level of individual countries and sectors.

Russia’s experience in recent years highlights the value of stable regional powers with large economies and well-developed external ties – such as Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and several others. Entering these markets, however, requires more thorough preparation and a solid understanding of local conditions. At the same time, the scale of these economies opens up opportunities for long-term projects. Such ventures can serve not only the market of a single country but may also supply neighboring states, gradually expanding the presence of Russian companies throughout the region.

This approach is giving practical meaning to Russia’s rhetoric about sovereignty. Results can be measured by an increase in new capacities, trained specialists, a reduction in import dependence and an increase in the tax base.

What will the Moscow summit show?

The practical results of the summit may be assessed according to five parameters. First, the public assessment of the implementation of the 2023-2026 Action Plan (including by the African side) will reveal functioning aspects, delayed initiatives, and projects that require revision. Then comes the new 2027-2029 Action Plan: Its measurable objectives and realistic timelines will facilitate the work of relevant departments. Third is financial infrastructure: export lending, risk insurance, banking support, and working settlement mechanisms are important for business.

Another important point is deepening the economic presence: developing projects, service centers, processing, energy and digital infrastructure. Lastly there is country prioritization, which means that limited resources necessitate that projects be chosen with a clear economic or political effect.

Ukrainian language ombudswoman Elena Ivanovskaya has accused Google of not doing enough to promote the national tongue in the global digital environment. The US tech giant’s search engine often provides results to Ukrainians in Russian even when the queries are typed in Ukrainian, she told a local media outlet.

The government has been cracking down on the use of the Russian language in Ukraine since the 2014 Western-backed Maidan coup, using what Moscow has repeatedly denounced as discriminatory practices. 

Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko introduced restrictions on the import of books from Russia and Belarus in 2016, which became an outright ban in 2023. Kiev also purged Russian literature from state curricula and systematically removed cultural monuments, memorials, and inscriptions to remove historical links to Russia.

In an interview with the outlet Censor.net, Ivanovskaya stated that her office had filed a formal complaint with Google over its search algorithms. “For example, when a user enters a search query in Ukrainian, the system returns results in Russian – solely because of the user’s geographic location,” she stated, adding that her office asked the company to address the supposed lack of “accuracy of their search result algorithms.”

The Ukrainian authorities have banned the use of any language other than Ukrainian in the public sphere, including government, education, media, and customer service. Violations can result in administrative fines of up to $270.

Despite the concerted persecution campaign, Russian remains widely used in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian polling data, as many as 46% of country’s nationals spoke Russian in everyday life before the conflict escalated in 2022. Another survey last year showed the number of Russian speakers had fallen to 30% since four former Ukrainian territories, including the Donbass republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions formally joined Russia after a series of referendums.

Ukrainian Culture Minister Tatyana Berezhnaya said earlier this year that 71% of Ukrainians regularly consume Russian-language content, with nearly a quarter doing so every day.

Moscow has repeatedly denounced the discriminatory measures as “Russophobic censorship,” warning that attempts to “cancel” Russian culture will ultimately fail.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has received congratulations from Latin American nations and fellow BRICS members after winning reelection as Brazil’s president.

Lula prevailed over right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro and an ally of US President Donald Trump, in the second round of the vote on Sunday.

The 80-year-old veteran politician secured 51.79% of valid votes against Bolsonaro’s 48.21%, according to the completed count published by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), winning a historic fourth term by more than 4.4 million votes.

The victory means Latin America’s largest economy is set to maintain its prominent role in BRICS rather than shift closer to Washington under the Bolsonaro political dynasty. The defeated challenger had openly questioned Brazil’s membership in the bloc, accusing Lula of using it to antagonize the United States.

Addressing jubilant crowds in Sao Paulo, Lula thanked Brazilians for his reelection and singled out young people who had taken to the streets during the campaign.

However, Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat and vowed to seek the annulment of the election, accusing the Supreme Court of improperly interfering in the vote.

“Brazil cannot accept this dirty trick,” he declared, denouncing the last-minute decision to extend voting hours nationwide by two hours as “unacceptable” and equivalent to “changing the rules of the game while the game was being played.”

However, Bolsonaro did not mention that his own campaign had also requested extended voting hours in several cities affected by severe weather.

The decision came shortly after the original 5 PM deadline, when many polling stations had already closed and sealed their electronic voting machines. Senior judges have reportedly acknowledged procedural errors in handling the extension but ruled out annulling the election, according to Folha de S.Paulo.

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A politician from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s party was injured when attackers threw stones and bottles at a campaign vehicle on the eve of Sunday’s crucial presidential runoff.

The violent incident came as Brazilians voted in a tightly contested election between left-wing incumbent Lula, who has championed closer ties with BRICS nations, and right-wing challenger and Donald Trump ally Flavio Bolsonaro.

Montes Claros City councilwoman Iara Pimentel, a member of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT), was struck in the face during a campaign event late Saturday night in Minas Gerais state in southeastern Brazil, according to state news agency Agencia Brasil (ABr).

Video footage showed bottles, bricks, and other objects being thrown at the campaign vehicle carrying the politician. Later images showed her bloodied face.

Ajudem essas imagens a chegar à policia! Não podemos permitir que esse tipo de gente, que estimula o ódio, governo o país! https://t.co/51eU79KCLR

— Jorge Solla (@depjorgesolla) October 25, 2026

She was taken to a local hospital by ambulance, ABr reported.

“Thinking differently is a right. Political violence is a threat to democracy. No disagreement can justify acts of aggression or put lives at risk,” Pimentel said in a statement cited by the agency.

Lula also condemned what he described as multiple incidents of violence during the election.

“The most sacred thing in democracy is democratic coexistence in diversity,” he said, according to ABr, arguing that neighbors should be able to support different political candidates and sports teams or hold different beliefs without resorting to violence.

The election has also been marred by allegations of interference by US tech giant Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta blocked the Facebook advertising account used by Lula’s team ahead of the first round on October 4, then prevented his official Instagram account from boosting posts days later, according to campaign officials.

Meta denied politically interfering in the election, but internal company messages acknowledged technical restrictions affecting Lula’s Instagram account, Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported last week, citing internal communications.

Serbia’s student-led opposition is leading in Sunday’s snap parliamentary election, according to preliminary results. Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has accused unnamed European powers and anti-Trump forces in the US of meddling in the vote to “bring down a sovereign country.”

According to preliminary results published by the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) early Monday, the opposition Student List leads with 51.84% of the vote, compared with 39.77% for Vucic’s United Serbia coalition, with nearly 93% of polling stations reporting.

The official figures have moved closer to the final projection by pollster Ipsos and election monitor CeSID overnight, which put the Student List at 52.9% and Vucic’s coalition at 38.8%, based on their stratified sample.

In his remarks earlier on election night, Vucic accused foreign powers of helping engineer his political downfall, describing the vote as the “verification of a revolution” carried out with direct support from “various European countries and the American deep state,” which he said was opposed to US President Donald Trump.

“You have succeeded for the moment. For how long? We shall see,” he added.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa were quick to congratulate the Student List, issuing virtually identical statements on X. Both pledged Brussels’ support for reforms and efforts to advance Serbia’s integration into the EU.

Vucic also warned that a new government could impose sanctions on Russia within months, despite opposition representatives insisting that Belgrade’s policy toward Moscow would remain unchanged.

“I love Serbia. I will never leave Serbia,” Vucic declared, insisting that his party would remain united and politically active.

The election follows nearly two years of political unrest sparked by the deadly collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad in November 2024, which killed 16 people and fueled allegations of corruption and failures in safety oversight. Vucic resigned as president on September 27 to participate in the parliamentary race.

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Vladimir Zelensky’s disregard for Donald Trump is doing more damage to the US president’s interests than Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela do combined, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday.

Ukraine’s leader has publicly backed Trump’s predecessor and former political rival, Joe Biden, rejected US proposals to settle the Ukraine conflict and worked to turn European leaders against Trump, Medvedev alleged.

“The Kiev scumbag regularly spits straight in the face of the US president, ignoring his demands and turning influential Americans (and not-so-influential Europeans) against him,” Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said in a Telegram post. 

He said that Zelensky “shamelessly lined his own pockets with American taxpayer money” under Biden, who Trump says provided Ukraine with some $350 billion in US aid. “And he kept dipping into the pot under Trump, too, taking whatever was left,” Medvedev added.

Zelensky has also “given the American president the finger” by refusing to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries despite Trump’s repeated warnings.

There is a growing rift between Trump and Zelensky over Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. The US president has demanded that Ukraine stop, accusing it of exacerbating the global fuel crisis and raising prices for Americans – a sensitive issue ahead of the November 3 US midterms. Kiev has thus far refused.

To ease the fuel crisis, Trump temporarily waived sanctions on Russian fuel exports as part of a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Under the agreement, Moscow agreed to supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tons in November and further shipments thereafter. The first three tankers carrying Russian diesel are already heading across the Atlantic, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.

Russian forces have launched an overnight attack targeting the Ukrainian military logistics network in the northeastern Kharkov Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said. The list of targets included three hubs used to store and redistribute supplies for the armed forces and dual-use goods, the ministry said in a statement published on Sunday.

Separately, Russia also struck a bulk freighter in the Black Sea that was carrying military supplies to the Ukrainian port city of Chernomorsk, the ministry added. The attacks were part of a broader operation that involved strikes on Ukrainian energy and transport infrastructure used to support the military, as well as drone storages and launch sites in a total of 159 locations over the past 24 hours.

Ukrainian officials confirmed strikes on the city of Kharkov, adding that an “industrial facility” was among the targets.

Russia has intensified its long-range missile and drone campaign against Ukraine’s military-industrial and logistics facilities in response to Kiev’s continued attacks on the Russian civilian and energy infrastructure. Moscow has repeatedly condemned the Ukrainian attacks as “terrorist acts” aimed at compensating for setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces have continued to advance.

Ukraine’s tactics have led to tension between Kiev and Washington. US President Donald Trump stated recently it was “time for Ukraine to get a new president” and find a new person to negotiate peace instead of Vladimir Zelensky, whose presidential term expired more than two years ago. The American president also questioned the Ukrainian leader’s willingness to reach a deal with Moscow and criticized him for continued strikes on Russian oil refineries despite Washington’s repeated requests to stop.

Zelensky has said that Ukraine’s Western backers failed to provide advance warning about Russian ballistic missile launches twice in one week in October. He maintained however, that cooperation between Kiev and Washington had not been suspended, echoing Trump’s earlier remarks in which he said the US is “helping [Ukraine], and we are sharing intel.”

In the meantime, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has accused Kiev of abusing his company’s Starlink civilian satellite internet network to launch offensive drone strikes. According to the US-based businessman, a “loophole” allowing the Ukrainian forces to do so was closed.

Yemen’s Houthis have struck several targets in Saudi Arabia, including two international airports and energy infrastructure facilities operated by the oil giant Saudi Aramco, the group’s military spokesman said on Saturday.

The conflict between Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, and the Saudi-led coalition escalated last month, when the militant group seized the Red Sea port cities of Mocha and Dhubab as well as Perim Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Houthis have since tightened their siege of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city and a key stronghold of anti-Houthi forces.

In a statement posted on X, Yahya Saree said the Houthis had conducted seven operations using ballistic missiles and drones, targeting King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Najran Airport and Khamis Mushait Air Base, as well as Aramco’s facilities in Yanbu, the Rabigh oil refinery and crude oil pumping stations, and a pipeline linking eastern and western Saudi Arabia.

The latest attack came as Riyadh’s main air hub prepared to resume operations after more than two weeks of disruption following earlier Houthi strikes. The facility announced a partial reopening from Sunday. In a separate post on X, Saree warned that airlines, airport staff and passengers against using the site, calling it a military target and saying it would remain unsafe.

The spokesman also accused Riyadh of spreading false claims that the Houthis had targeted the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, insisting that the group’s operations were directed solely at Saudi oil facilities and military bases and were announced as they took place.

Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, with Saudi Arabia leading a military intervention the following year to support the internationally recognized government against the Houthis. Fighting eased under a UN-brokered truce in 2022 but escalated sharply in September 2026.

The renewed conflict has seen the Houthis launch missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities, while the Riyadh-led coalition has intensified airstrikes on Houthi positions, command centers and weapons networks.

The Houthis have claimed the total number of Saudi airstrikes and missile attacks since the latest escalation began has reached 3,123.

These days, European headlines resemble reports from a war zone: from stormed city halls in Marseille and Lille, to looted boutiques along the French Riviera, burned tourist offices in Lyon, and clouds of tear gas enveloping the Élysée Palace. The ‘day of rage’ in France drew over 800,000 protesters onto the streets – an event that was dismissed by Paris and the European mainstream as merely the “spontaneous revolt of the outskirts” or a “raid by migrants.” However, a closer look at the ‘rebels’ reveals respectable, bourgeois-looking students and well-off citizens engaging in destruction and violence.

None of these people know what to expect from the future of mainstream European politics. In this shifting landscape, old institutions are losing their legitimacy, while right-wing political forces –  whose ideas are increasingly seen as rational amid the chaos – are emerging on the broader European stage. 

French President Emmanuel Macron arrogantly advised the people to express their political will in six months during the forthcoming presidential elections; however, the streets responded to Macron’s proposal with looting and arson targeting government buildings. This reaction serves as a precise diagnosis of the French political system. The country’s civic framework can no longer hold society together and there is no confidence in a stable future.

Many believe that the current riots in France are a “spontaneous revolt of the outskirts.” However, as Fyodor Lukyanov, Research Director at the Valdai International Discussion Club writes, we are witnessing an inverted version of May 1968. Nearly 60 years ago, the nationwide wave of protests led by students and leftist intellectuals shaped the liberal framework that has dominated global and European politics ever since.

Today, it has reached the point of aggressive absurdity. The old narratives of ‘liberation’ have been successfully adopted by the bourgeois youth, whose behavior is more violent that of an uncivilized tribe, as HSE professor Alexander Filippov notes. But then, one may remember that, centuries ago, the Bastille wasn’t stormed by migrants either. 

How did this happen? The liberal establishment in Paris and Brussels has become totally detached from ordinary citizens. Its agenda is completely irrelevant to society. Having imposed a rigid “confrontation with Russia” at the expense of the prosperity and development of its own people, the EU offers its citizens no viable ideas for survival.

The system has set a trap for itself: in order to retain its waning power, the left-liberal establishment is forced to close its eyes to the riots of anarchists and radical leftists. The authorities fear street protests far less than the rise of their right-wing opponents. The liberal mainstream would rather burn cities than allow rational thinkers with worldviews grounded in national interests to come to power.

Despite their passion for destruction, the rioters have no idea how to reconstruct the future of united Europe. Moreover, as Irina Maltseva, head of the ‘France and Francophone countries: Politics, economics, culture’ project at the HSE Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies points out, the spontaneous street protests will inevitably die down as the presidential campaign approaches. Protests will wane, leaving us to wonder – what comes next?

The fight between left-wing and right-wing forces in Europe

Beneath the ideological clash between the right and left lies a harsh economic reality – the struggle over who will bear the costs of the sanctions crisis orchestrated by the European Commission. The establishment has attempted to persuade the world that a post-industrial economy – characterized by AI integration, cryptocurrency transactions, a shift toward green energy, Capital Markets Union speculations, and “normative” values – is more important than factories, raw materials, ports, and affordable energy. However, this is a path to economic self-destruction. The street protests in France and Italy vividly illustrate that Europe can no longer afford to uphold its previous social contract. Budget deficits are spiraling out of control and are becoming the EU’s economic curse.

Budapest serves as a prime example of this systemic failure. The Hungarian Parliament is currently reviewing the national budget proposal. Prime Minister Peter Magyar acknowledged that the country is grappling with a record-breaking, suffocating budget deficit of 7.5% to 8.3% of GDP. The economic strategies of past years, reliant on uninterrupted cheap energy from Russia and long-term loans from China, have collapsed under the pressure of the REPowerEU plan.

The Hungarian government’s only remaining support mechanism is the so-called ‘solidarity contribution’ tax imposed on excessive profits in opposition-led cities, but local governments can no longer afford to pay it amid the current crisis. To prevent Hungary from experiencing large-scale social upheavals similar to those in France, Magyar is urgently implementing a progressive tax system, cutting government contracts, imposing a wealth tax on billionaires, and escalating tensions with EU leadership by demanding the immediate unfreezing of €16 billion in EU grants, while threatening Orban with lifetime imprisonment if he pushes the opposition onto the streets.

The analysis of the internal dynamics of economic issues in the EU, however, should not boil down to a simplistic equation of ‘budget deficit = street protests’. For example, we may wonder why there are no protests in Poland and Romania, despite similar or even more severe budget deficits (7.3% and 7.9%, respectively), while Albania (a rather financially stable country and non-EU member) is engulfed in turmoil and the Flamingo Revolution. 

The answer seems to lie in the differing nature of the deficit and the resilience of national institutions. In Poland and Romania, budget shortfalls are currently masked by rampant electoral populism and ‘social bribes’ – like Romania’s subsidies for farmers or Poland’s price caps at gas stations.

The government manages to mitigate discontent with funds extracted from big business. However, in France, the government has completely exhausted this option. The budget deficit has led to direct cuts in essential social commitments – from school funding to suburban support – quickly eroding its legitimacy.

For many Europeans, the right-wing agenda and national self-interest have become the only rational option. Right-wing pragmatists propose a clear audit and financial protection, while Brussels’ liberal framework advocates for insolvency for the sake of rather dubious dogmas.

The tactics of growing competition, or how to succeed in the ‘darkroom’

Contemporary global politics resembles a sort of ‘darkroom’ where old rules no longer apply, and new ones are still taking shape. The key revelation is that the ‘new right’ has learned to navigate this darkness by playing by Brussels’ own rules. There’s a growing understanding that to save the industrial base from stifling deficits, ideological romanticism must be abandoned. 

A good example is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Her approach has shown that it’s possible to dutifully follow external Euro-Atlantic rituals while negotiating exceptions from Brussels on crucial issues vital to the national economy – such as energy or migration.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico follows a similar path, cleverly blending leftist social principles with hardline national populism. Bratislava is demanding official transitional periods and exemptions from the European Commission to continue receiving Russian gas, citing the need to protect the wallets of its voters.

A comparable maneuver is being executed by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis; while his policies can’t be called pro-Russian, pragmatism dictates a simple truth: if Czech factories want to survive amid America’s selfish diesel policy, they’ll need to negotiate with Moscow. Even Hungary has adeptly shifted the discussion to a language of tough bargaining. Budapest has formally agreed to comply with REPowerEU requirements and phase out Russian energy supplies by October 2027, but insists that the EU must provide compensation, or else Hungarian companies will face bankruptcy.

Poland’s stance is particularly notable. Rhetorically, Warsaw demands a complete sanctioning of Eurasian projects, presenting itself as Europe’s “primary eastern shield.” Yet this is merely an attempt to maintain appearances during a losing game. Internal realities compel Warsaw to negotiate with Beijing to preserve transit through the Malaszewicze hub and to impose a 60% windfall tax on its state-owned company Orlen to temporarily quell public dissatisfaction at gas stations ahead of elections.

Remarkably, this ‘trial by rage’ is unfolding not only within the EU, and it doesn't only affect Western capitalist giants. The trend is taking on a global scale.

In Albania, the ‘Flamingo Revolution’ is brewing. The social upheaval was sparked by the allocation of resort zones for a mega project spearheaded by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and undermined the decade-long stability of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s left-liberal government. In a desperate attempt to cling to his dwindling legitimacy, Rama resorted to his usual tactics, accusing street protesters of links to the American Antifa political movement and “Moscow’s influence.”

The pendulum has swung even further in India, where a massive youth uprising led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and Rahul Gandhi’s opposition alliance has paralyzed major cities from New Delhi to Mumbai. Although the immediate trigger was the Special Intensive Revision of electoral polls, the underlying issue is similar to the problem in France: the pro-American digital outsourcing model and liberal dogmas can no longer sustain the younger generation amidst a global crisis.

The issue isn’t capitalism per se, but rather the collapse of its specific, degenerate form: liberal globalization. In its place arises a rigid, sovereign capitalism rooted in national self-interest. The new right-wing pragmatists are not ‘Moscow’s friends’. They merely advocate for their own wallets in times of scarcity.

For Russia, this is an important signal: the West’s ‘unified’ sanctions policy has turned into an uncomfortable, but purely decorative facade; and behind it, we glimpse scenes of impressive but ultimately meaningless discontent. In this light, a critical question arises – will the political mainstream acknowledge its defeat and negotiate with its opponents, or will it continue to operate under the “apres nous, le deluge” (after us, the flood) principle? A key indicator will be the formation of a coalition between the ruling government and right-wing forces in Saxony-Anhalt, and their ability to govern effectively and maintain power in the long term.

The mother of former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was attacked by his political opponents in Belgrade on Sunday, his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has alleged.

Serbia is voting for its next government and Vucic is running for prime minister. His ruling coalition has been polling strongly against a student-backed opposition movement, attempting to remove SNS from government after 14 years in power. 

“A group of young men... shoved Angelina Vucic, screamed at her, and tore open the bags of groceries she was carrying from the market,” SNS said in a statement on its official website. The statement alleged that the attackers were aligned with anti-government protesters who have occupied universities and blocked roads across the country.

“No one’s mother, no one’s grandmother – no woman at all – should ever be a target of violence due to political differences!” it added, demanding that police take decisive action against the attackers.

Vucic resigned on September 27 following two years of protests, saying he wanted to participate in the election as an ordinary citizen. His ruling coalition led the student-backed opposition by 47% to 40%, according to an Ipsos poll published on Thursday.

Anti-government protests followed the deadly collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad in 2024, which killed 16 people and sparked allegations of corruption and safety oversight failures.

The politician has also pledged to keep Serbia out of any future war with Russia if elected, warning that Europe is preparing for a military confrontation with Moscow.

The Irish political week has once again been marked by bitter exchanges, this time over the Triple Lock Agreement, our long-standing tradition of military neutrality, and whether a referendum should be held before any fundamental change is made to it.

Taoiseach (Ireland’s prime minister) Micheal Martin has accused the country’s largest opposition party Sinn Fein, which fiercely opposes the idea of dismantling Triple Lock, of not giving a “continental” about Irish neutrality. The word is his own, and it is worth reflecting on its meaning.

But I have a question of my own for Mr. Martin: does he give a continental about the health and well-being of the Irish people?

What does neutrality mean to a parent whose three-year-old child is suffering in agony while waiting nine hours in Galway Regional Hospital? What comfort does it offer families struggling to access essential medical care, or parents and students caught up in this week’s education strikes? And what of the many other problems that continue to weigh upon ordinary Irish households?

The latest figures, obtained from the HSE by Padraig Rice, Social Democrats TD and Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Health, make the situation even more difficult to ignore. Between January and July of this year, more than 70,100 people in Ireland either left emergency departments before completing their treatment or did not wait to be seen. A further 31,821 patients waited longer than 24 hours to be admitted or discharged. The average waiting time in emergency departments was 9.3 hours.

These matters concern real people, their children, their dignity, and their daily lives. Before our leaders lecture us about international responsibilities, should they not first explain why such basic needs remain unmet at home?

Yet Irish taxpayers are repeatedly asked to support ever greater expenditure connected with the conflict in Ukraine. At what point do we pause and ask whether our priorities are in the right order?

Mr. Martin, charity begins at home. Have you forgotten the recession of 2008 and the painful years that followed? Irish families know what it means to endure financial insecurity, lost opportunities, and the consequences of decisions made far above their heads. We should remember, too, the countries that stood by Ireland during difficult times, and consider carefully where our obligations lie today.

This week, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has again been pressing for further support for Ukraine while criticizing US President Donald Trump. Ordinary European citizens are expected to accept the bill.

But surely there comes a moment when the people who pay must be entitled to ask questions.

I believe European citizens should stand up for themselves, examine the priorities of their leaders, and refuse to treat every pronouncement from Brussels as unquestionable wisdom. Supporting a country in distress is one thing; allowing an open-ended political commitment to overshadow pressing needs at home is quite another.

Imagine what could be achieved if public money were spent with greater care and accountability. Imagine health services where children did not have to wait hours in pain, schools where disputes did not repeatedly interrupt education, and transport and infrastructure that served communities as they deserve to be served. These are not some extravagant dreams – just the reasonable expectations of a modern society.

Meanwhile, EU leaders continue to speak as though the destruction of Russia were a realistic or desirable political objective. I believe this approach is dangerously misguided. Russia is a major power, and European security requires clear thinking, diplomacy, and an honest assessment of the risks of prolonged confrontation. Declaring ever more money and resources necessary does not, by itself, bring peace any closer.

And what of Ukraine itself? If European leaders genuinely care about the Ukrainian people, surely their first concern should be the preservation of human life and the search for a sustainable peace. Endless conflict brings suffering, displacement, destruction, and the loss of generations who might otherwise have built a future for themselves. The human cost deserves at least as much attention as the political ambitions of those directing the response.

I do not believe that the future of Europe should be built upon the assumption that Russia must be destroyed. I believe it should be built upon realism, diplomacy, accountability, and the recognition that war always extracts its price from ordinary people first.

Ireland has its own history of hardship, resilience, and recovery. We know what it means to struggle, to rebuild, and to depend upon the solidarity of others. That history should make us thoughtful about the suffering of people elsewhere, but it should also remind us of our responsibility to our own citizens.

Before asking Irish taxpayers to shoulder yet another burden, our government should explain what it is doing to ensure that a sick child receives timely treatment, that pupils receive the education they need, and that public services function as they should.

Mr. Martin, the question is not whether Ireland should care about the wider world. Of course it should. The question is whether caring about the wider world has become an excuse for neglecting the people who elected you.

Charity begins at home. So does responsibility. And so, ultimately, should political accountability.

It is time for Ireland, and for the EU, to put ordinary people back at the center of public life. Our taxes should serve the public good, our leaders should be answerable for their choices, and diplomacy should seek to preserve lives rather than prolong their destruction.

The people of Europe deserve nothing less.

The EU stance on the diplomatic process to settle the Ukraine conflict has not been constructive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Berliner Zeitung reported earlier this week that Finnish President Alexander Stubb is being seen as the most likely candidate to represent Brussels in possible peace talks with Moscow, Washington, and Kiev. Finland’s proximity to Russia – the two countries share a 1,340 km border – and Stubb’s good relations with US President Donald Trump make him the best fit for the job, according to the paper.

When asked to comment by TASS on Sunday, Peskov said that “the EU has been willing to [appoint a negotiator] for a very long time, but it either cannot do so or lacks the resolve to do so.”

The bloc’s stance “can hardly be called constructive” because its leaders “are only talking and not taking any action,” he stressed.

Peskov did not say how Moscow would react if Stubb is actually given the job. The Finnish president has been one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine in the EU. In an interview with German tabloid Bild in August, he claimed that Ukraine was “the best security guarantee” that the bloc had against Russia, arguing that “If Ukraine loses, we lose.”

Following a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Moscow announced that it was ready to restart trilateral talks with Washington and Kiev to settle the Ukraine conflict. The next such meeting could take place in Abu Dhabi in mid-November, according to the Kremlin.

The Telegraph reported on Thursday that there has been “a growing sense of urgency” in Europe to find a representative to join the peace negotiations, despite refusing to talk to Russia for years and insisting on a military solution to the Ukraine conflict.

Speaking about peace negotiations on Friday, European Commission deputy chief spokesperson Arianna Podesta stressed that “there is an expectation that there will be a multilateral-level discussion with representatives at a senior official level, and the EU will be present at these talks.”

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the EU leaders “constantly speak of a ‘Russian threat’ and even discuss preparations for a war with Russia – which, in my view, amounts to a kind of political schizophrenia. But I hope that it will pass.”

Putin reiterated that Moscow is not seeking a truce but “definitive, long-term agreements” as a result of the Ukraine peace talks, adding that the discussions should also address a wider all-European security architecture.

The recent wave of protests that swept across Western Europe were the result of the EU’s own mistakes, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. European countries, he added, are struggling to manage the migration crisis.

“Europeans are dismantling their own traditions, so they are even less able to convey them to migrants,” Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Mass protests took place again over the weekend. Demonstrators, reportedly angry over soaring living costs and inept government policies clashed with riot police in several cities. 

The anti-givernment unrest has largely been inspired by the protests in France, which began in September and then spread to other countries.

Putin said some European leaders are unable to take responsibility for unrest. Instead of analyzing the situation and identifying its causes they tend to blame other countries – first the US and now Russia, he said. 

Putin believes Europe lacks the resources to integrate all migrants, and that has led to a crisis.

France remains a focal point of the protests, with at least 410,000 people taking to the streets nationwide on Saturday, including around 110,000 in Paris, according to French Interior Ministry figures.

Protests have also taken place across Italy, following a wave of violence last weekend in cities including Rome, Naples and Bologna. Police deployed water cannons and tear gas to disperse unruly demonstrators.

OpenAI has restricted internet access for training its most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models after agents found ways to escape isolated computing environments. It will switch to an offline setup with cached web pages for reinforcement learning.

The findings published by the company on Friday come amid growing concerns over the cybersecurity risks posed by increasingly capable AI agents, which can identify software vulnerabilities and exploit weaknesses in the systems they interact with. Security researchers have warned that such capabilities could allow agents to exploit flaws in the safeguards designed to contain them.

OpenAI said one of its research models gained limited internet access on September 20 by exploiting a misconfiguration in the system that translates web addresses into IP addresses. The company contained the incident and paused training and evaluation of its most advanced models while strengthening its defenses.

Training resumed on October 1, including reinforcement learning and internal inference, but the company retained the restriction on live internet access. In its October 23 report, OpenAI said the models would continue to be trained in an offline environment until it had developed sufficiently robust safeguards to permit broader access.

Earlier this week, OpenAI also disclosed two incidents in which agents weakened internal safety monitoring while carrying out coding tasks. On October 3, an agent disabled automatic security alerts, while on October 6 another removed a monitoring integration and later falsely told the user it had not done so. The company said it was strengthening controls to prevent agents from disabling monitoring and investigating why they had acted that way.

Similar incidents have been reported by other AI developers. Anthropic said its Claude models accessed four organizations’ systems during cybersecurity tests, while Meta disclosed that its Muse Spark model exploited a vulnerability in a real company’s website after a testing error gave it internet access. Google also reported that its Gemini model accessed the systems of three companies during an evaluation, highlighting the challenges of containing increasingly capable AI agents in controlled testing environments.

A major protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken place in Tel-Aviv just days ahead of the Israeli parliamentary election on October 27.

A square outside the Museum of Art in the country’s largest city was packed on Saturday evening, with the demonstrators holding national flags and banners, reading ‘Change will come’, ‘No more Mr. Far Right Guy’ and other slogans.

The organizers of the gathering from the October Council group put the attendance at over 100,000. The police have yet to announce official figures.

Netanyahu’s main rival in the election – Yashar party chairman and former military chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot – and other leaders of the opposition bloc have attended the rally. The crowd cheered Eisenkot’s appearance, chanting: “Who’s coming? The next prime minister.”

The October Council was formed by families of the victims of the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, who demand accountability from Netanuahy’s right-wing government for the failure to prevent the incursion.

Saturday’s protest, organized with the title ‘In Three Days, Vote for a State Commission of Inquiry’, is the culmination of three years of weekly rallies, according to the group.

Reports in the US and local media claimed that the prime minister ignored warnings of the planned attack by Hamas he had received from various sources, including Israeli intelligence and the UAE and Egypt. Netanyahu has denied those claims.

A poll by public broadcaster KAN published before the start of the election silence period on Friday, suggested that Eisenkot’s opposition bloc would get 52 out of 120 in the Israeli parliament, with Netanyahu and his supporters winning 50 seats. This means that neither is likely control the Knesset outright.

Israel responded to the October 7 incursion by Hamas, in which 1,200 people lost their lives and around 250 were taken hostage, by launching a military campaign in Gaza.

The FBI is examining whether a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging an executive meeting room intended to offer secrets to Saudi Arabia.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is weighing an economic espionage charge against a former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a restricted conference room, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing a law-enforcement official.

Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, was arrested on October 9 after OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, discovered an encrypted recorder behind a television in an executive meeting room at its San Francisco offices. He is currently charged with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications, an offense carrying up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Investigators are now examining whether Alfozan stole information to offer to the Saudi government, even without having been recruited to do so, according to the WSJ. He is also reportedly being investigated for possible trade secret theft. An economic espionage conviction could carry up to 15 years in prison and a $5 million fine per count.

Pernik has stressed that Alfozan was charged with violating a federal recording statute, “not stealing trade secrets or working as a foreign agent.”

OpenAI and the Saudi Embassy declined to comment when approached by the newspaper.

According to court documents, prosecutors claim that Alfozan, who joined OpenAI in July 2025, had intended to capture sensitive discussions about its AI technology. He allegedly maintained frequent contact with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family throughout 2025 and 2026, with whom he discussed a potential job at an AI initiative in the kingdom.
His ties also included a role at Saudi investment firm Raed Ventures alongside Prince Khalid bin Bader Al Saud, though the prince was not identified as the royal involved.

Prosecutors said that Alfozan had booked tickets to the kingdom for himself, his wife, and their infant son for October 12. After his arrest, a flight for his family was reportedly arranged by a member of the Saudi military, whom Alfozan’s lawyer identified as his wife’s brother-in-law acting in a personal capacity.

The Saudi consulate has offered to cover his full bail, arrange supervision, and withhold travel documents, while the defense offered an additional $1 million in his assets.

On Monday, Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse nevertheless denied release over flight concerns, describing the offer as “problematic.”

“It seems like a blank check: ‘We’re gonna pay whatever the court wants to make sure he gets out,’” the judge said, noting that Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the US.

Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, whom US President Donald Trump appointed earlier this month to lead a federal AI task force, said the case underscored why winning the AI race was “a national security prerogative” and pledged to safeguard “America’s cutting-edge intellectual property from foreign threats.”

The incident comes amid intensifying global technological competition, with Trump insisting that America must prevail in the AI race at any cost.

The US president has repeatedly rejected calls by industry leaders to slow the development of increasingly powerful models, stressing that “Whoever wins AI, wins.”

Two civilians were killed and thirteen others wounded in a major attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, regional governor Aleksandr Shuvayev has said.

The death toll from an overnight drone strike has risen to two. One of the injured victims who was hospitalized following the attack has died, Shuvayev added. Overall thirteen people were injured, according to updated data from regional authorities. Earlier reports said one person had been killed and 14 injured.

“The enemy launched a large-scale drone strike on residential areas in the center of the city,” Mayor Valentin Demidov wrote in a post on social media early on Sunday.

The raid damaged multiple residential buildings, personal vehicles, and public and commercial facilities, according to the mayor. More than 50 people were forced to seek shelter in temporary housing centers.

Belgorod Region, which borders Ukraine, has been frequently targeted by Ukrainian drone and artillery strikes since the escalation between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022.

Ukrainian attacks inside Russia continue despite renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict, with Moscow announcing plans to resume trilateral talks with Washington and Kiev following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday.

Oryol Region Governor Andrey Klychkov said that three people were killed in a missile strike on a civilian enterprise, which was carried out during rush hour on Friday. On the same day, an incursion by Kiev’s UAVs caused the temporary closure of all four of Moscow’s airports, leading to the cancellation and delay of multiple flights.

Russia has accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians and infrastructure to compensate for setbacks on the battlefield, where Moscow’s forces continue to advance.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country must prepare to adapt its economy to global sanctions, citing declining international support and a potential end to US financial and military aid.

Public opinion toward Israel has grown increasingly negative amid the wars in Gaza and Iran. In the US, a recent Chicago Council on Global Affairs report recorded the country’s lowest favorability rating since its polling began in 1978, with a majority supporting reducing or ending military aid.

Last month, the UK announced a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, with Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband describing settlers as “terrorists” supported by Netanyahu’s government and accusing them of ethnically cleansing Palestinians. The same day, 11 other countries, including France, Spain, and Canada, joined Britain in a statement supporting the two-state solution and announcing plans to impose or consider restrictions on trade with the settlements.

“We must understand that there could be sanctions, including banking sanctions,” Netanyahu said in an interview which aired on Israel’s Channel 10 on Friday.

The Israeli prime minister also expressed concern over a potential shift in Washington’s position, saying that “it’s only a matter of time” before US military aid is completely “over.”

“If you think we’re going to continue receiving what I secured twice, and that’s tens of billions of dollars in American aid for the defense budget, prepare yourselves and get used to the fact that it won’t happen because America has changed,” he said.

Former prime minister and opposition figure Yair Lapid seized on the remarks, saying that “Netanyahu now admits, in his own words, that if his government is returned to power, American military aid will end and Israel will face sanctions that will devastate our economy, trigger uncontrolled price surges, and cause irreparable damage.”

The comments come days before Israel’s first national election since the October 7 Hamas attacks, with accountability for security failures, the cost of living, ultra-Orthodox military service, and the country’s international standing among the issues facing voters. Neither Netanyahu’s allies nor the opposition have a clear path to a parliamentary majority.

SpaceX has closed a “loophole” that allowed the Ukrainian military to use the civilian satellite internet network for offensive drone strikes, Elon Musk has announced, telling warmongers who prolong the conflict to “burn in hell.”

The billionaire’s harsh remarks on Saturday come amid a deepening rift between Washington and Kiev, with US President Donald Trump accusing Vladimir Zelensky of repeatedly rejecting opportunities to end the conflict and worsening global fuel shortages by attacking Russian oil infrastructure.

“Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be,” Musk wrote on X. “Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week.”

Correct. Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be. Starshield, a different system, is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them. Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week. Starlink remains critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now. Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately. This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact. Starlink was also crucial to preventing Russia from overrunning Ukraine in the early days of the war, as all other means of communication were destroyed or jammed by Russia. SpaceX has done more to defend Ukraine than any private company on Earth BY FAR. That said, I have nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for the virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter and offer no realistic solution to the conflict. May you burn in hell. End of story.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2026

The SpaceX CEO distinguished between the commercial Starlink network and Starshield, a separate military-grade system controlled by the US government. “What they decide to do is up to them,” he said.

“I have nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for the virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter and offer no realistic solution to the conflict. May you burn in hell,” Musk wrote.

The comments follow days of controversy over restrictions imposed on satellite services used by Ukrainian forces. Kiev claimed the slowdown had disrupted drone operations and initially suggested that Washington was responsible.

Musk stressed that Starlink remains essential to Ukraine’s military communications and battlefield survival. “Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately,” he wrote, adding that the statement was “NOT a threat” but an assessment of the military’s dependence on the network.

Earlier this month, the SpaceX chief declared that “Zelensky has gone too far” after the Ukrainian leader called Trump’s deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease the global diesel crisis a “weak decision.”

Musk has also accused Ukrainian elites of enriching themselves through Western assistance while ordinary Ukrainians are sent to die on the battlefield. He further alleged that some American taxpayer money sent to the country was being laundered back into US political campaigns.

“Russia’s future... lies in the Arctic,” President Vladimir Putin declared last year, portraying the frozen north as a cornerstone of national prosperity for generations to come.

One look at a map shows why: The country accounts for approximately 53% of the Arctic Ocean’s coastline, according to the Arctic Council, making it the world’s largest Arctic power in geographical terms.

However, the stakes go well beyond geography, as Russia’s Arctic territories contain enormous oil, gas, and mineral reserves, host vital elements of its nuclear deterrent, and accommodate multiple military bases.

As climate change and retreating sea ice gradually open new opportunities for maritime navigation, Moscow is also seeking to transform the Northern Sea Route into a lucrative trade artery connecting Europe and Asia.

Russia maintains that it has “never threatened anyone in the Arctic” but vowed to safeguard its sovereign interests while accusing NATO of escalating tensions.

But what exactly makes the Russian Arctic so special, and why is Moscow so determined to stand its ground there?

What defines the Arctic?

Unlike Antarctica, which is a continent surrounded by ocean, the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by the northern reaches of Eurasia and North America, Greenland, and numerous islands. The region’s generally accepted geographical boundary is the Arctic Circle, beyond which the sun can remain above the horizon for 24 hours during summer and disappear entirely for at least one day during winter.

Eight countries have territories in the Arctic: Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark through Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland, with the first five having coastlines directly bordering the Arctic Ocean – which gives them an important role in determining maritime boundaries and access to resources.

However, the Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the global average, creating unprecedented opportunities for maritime trade and resource exploitation, even if thawing permafrost threatens existing infrastructure.

Who owns what in the Arctic?

Russia, Canada, the US, Denmark, and Norway – countries bordering the Arctic Ocean – exercise sovereignty over their established land territories and islands, as well as their territorial waters extending up to 12 nautical miles offshore. Coastal states also enjoy exclusive rights to natural resources within a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

However, their rights can extend considerably farther if they establish that the seabed beyond this limit forms part of their continental shelf. This is where high-stakes game begins, as countries with rights over an extended continental shelf can exclusively explore and exploit its oil, gas, and mineral resources.

The Arctic is estimated to hold 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in undiscovered and recoverable reserves alone, on top of abundant deposits of nickel, copper, palladium, iron ore, zinc, lead, phosphate, and bauxite. To put it into perspective, OPEC estimates Russia’s entire proven reserves at 80 billion barrels of crude oil and approximately 1,483 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Russia was the first country to formally seek recognition of an extended Arctic continental shelf, submitting several claims to a UN commission since 2001. The commission requested additional scientific evidence, prompting Moscow to conduct extensive Arctic expeditions.

Other countries joined the Arctic race: Denmark submitted claims in 2014, followed by Canada in 2019. After Russia significantly expanded its proposed continental shelf in 2021, Canada responded with an enlarged claim in 2022, complaining that Moscow’s move had tripled the area overlapping with its own submission.

Yet UN recommendations alone do not settle the dispute. Russia, Canada, and Denmark must still resolve their overlapping entitlements through negotiations or other lawful means. The outcome is not entirely without precedent, as Russia and Norway managed to settle a decades-long disagreement over approximately 175,000 sq km of the Barents Sea in 2010.

What does the Russian Arctic look like?

Russia’s Arctic stretches from the Kola Peninsula near Norway in the west to Chukotka opposite Alaska in the east, with the total coastline spanning more than 24,000 km. Russia’s officially designated Arctic Zone covers approximately 4.8 million sq km, or 28% of the country’s territory, and encompasses entire administrative regions, from Murmansk in the west to northern Yakutia in the east.

The landscape varies from rocky coastlines and tundra plains to frozen wetlands and vast taiga forests. Farther north lie remote archipelagos, including Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands, some of which are extensively covered by glaciers and permanent ice. Novaya Zemlya also served as a major Soviet nuclear weapons testing ground.

Despite its unforgiving climate, the Russian Arctic is far from an empty wilderness. Its major population and industrial centers include Murmansk – the world’s largest city north of the Arctic Circle with a population of 260,000 which is also a major ice-free port – and Norilsk, a powerhouse of nickel, copper, and palladium production.

Other important Arctic Zone centers include Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk, known for maritime industries and nuclear submarine construction, as well as Vorkuta, Salekhard, and the gas-producing hub of Novy Urengoy.

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District is also the site of Novatek’s Yamal LNG plant, the largest of its kind in Russia, which exports gas through the port of Sabetta. Farther east, Pevek is home to the Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s only floating nuclear power plant.

How important is the Arctic to Russia, and vice versa?

Russia’s Arctic Zone is an economic powerhouse, underpinning its energy exports and supplying critical raw materials, hosting more than 80% of national natural gas production, alongside substantial shares of its oil, nickel, and platinum-group metal output. Major industrial complexes, including the Yamal gas fields and Norilsk mining operations, are central not only to Russia’s welfare, but also to global energy and commodity markets.

As for trade, Russia’s ports, major Siberian rivers, and icebreaker fleet – the largest in the world – form an extensive transportation network connecting resource-rich territories with international markets.

Despite tensions with the West over the Ukraine conflict, Russia continues to participate in limited Arctic Council cooperation, including technical work on environmental monitoring and other shared regional challenges.

Why is the Arctic a key military stronghold for Russia?

Beyond its economic importance, the Arctic is a cornerstone of Russia’s national security, hosting crucial elements of its nuclear deterrent and providing strategic access to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The Kola Peninsula, bordering Norway and Finland, anchors the Northern Fleet and its nuclear-armed submarines, while an extensive network of airfields, radar installations, missile defenses, and military bases protects Russia’s northern approaches. Since the early 2010s, Moscow has also been restoring numerous Soviet-era facilities across remote Arctic islands.

The importance of the Arctic only increased after Finland and Sweden acceded to NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively, leaving Russia as the only non-NATO member among the eight Arctic states.

The EU, meanwhile, is also looking to interfere in regional affairs, with the bloc’s new Arctic Strategy envisaging the development of military logistics, upgrading ports and airports for military use, expanding icebreaker fleets, and increasing satellite surveillance of the region and tracking of Russian oil tankers.

In light of Western countries’ saber-rattling, Putin accused NATO of increasingly treating the Far North as a “springboard for potential conflicts,” warning that “we will proceed from current realities and will respond to all this.”

How powerful is Russia’s icebreaker fleet?

Russia’s icebreaker fleet is in a league of its own, comparable in numbers to the rest of the world combined. The country operates 43 icebreakers, including eight nuclear-powered vessels and 35 diesel-electric ships.

Nuclear icebreakers are particularly formidable as they can operate for extended periods without refueling, maintaining access to remote ports, and escorting commercial ships through heavily ice-covered waters. Russia’s four modern 60-megawatt Project 22220 icebreakers are designed to break through ice up to approximately 2.8 meters thick.

Russia’s icebreaker fleet is far ahead of the American one, which only operates three polar icebreakers – a shortcoming several US administrations described as a national security concern.

How does Russia govern the Arctic?

Given the region’s undeniable importance, Moscow has built an extensive state apparatus dedicated to managing its northern territories. While overall priorities and strategic vision are set by Putin personally, much of the federal coordination falls to Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, who chairs the State Commission for Arctic Development. Established in 2015, the body brings together senior officials, regional governors and representatives of major companies to coordinate economic, infrastructure and security policies.

The region is also overseen by the designated Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, headed by Aleksey Chekunkov, which handles Arctic development policy, investment incentives, and socioeconomic programs.

Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, also plays a significant role in the region while managing the Northern Sea Route infrastructure and nuclear icebreaker fleet. Murmansk Governor Andrey Chibis also chairs a dedicated State Council commission on the Northern Sea Route and the Arctic, helping coordinate regional development proposals.

The Russian government has also for years run several incentivizing special programs in the region, including a preferential business regime offering qualifying companies multi-year tax breaks and reduced social insurance contributions.

Some of the Arctic Zone regions boast the highest average salaries nationally. According to Rosstat, average gross monthly salaries in 2025 reached approximately 215,000 rubles ($2,570) in Chukotka and 178,000 rubles ($2,130) in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area – a level exceeding or comparable to Moscow’s and higher than the national average of 100,000 rubles ($1,200). However, the financial advantages are partly offset by higher living costs.

The region also benefits from a dedicated Soviet-inherited Northern Delivery system that coordinates supplies of essential goods to remote settlements.

How did Russia develop its Arctic frontier?

While indigenous peoples inhabited the region for thousands of years, Russian Pomor seafarers first began exploring the White and Barents Seas in the Middle Ages, establishing trading and fishing settlements. However, a full-scale expansion picked up steam only in the 16th century and beyond.

The most dramatic transformation took place in the Soviet era, when Moscow poured major resources into polar exploration, industrialization, and transportation infrastructure. In 1932, the Soviet icebreaking steamer Alexander Sibiryakov became the first vessel to traverse the Northern Sea Route in a single navigation season.

Following the Soviet collapse in 1991, investment plunged, infrastructure deteriorated, and northern shipping declined. However, Russia began rebuilding its Arctic presence in the 2000s, developing major energy projects, reviving military facilities, and expanding its icebreaker capabilities.

How is Russia investing in the Arctic?

Moscow has made Arctic development a long-term national priority, with the current strategy running through 2035. According to Russian officials, more than 1,000 state-supported projects have been launched in the region since 2020, attracting approximately 2.6 trillion rubles ($32 billion) in investment. Moscow expects total investment over the coming decade to exceed 30 trillion rubles.

Moscow is also modernizing Arctic ports, expanding railway connections, and developing specialized cargo fleets. Apart from building icebreakers, it plans to construct at least ten rescue vessels and launch 12 weather-monitoring and radar satellites by 2035 in a bid to support more reliable navigation along the Northern Sea Route.

Bottom Line

While the Arctic race has been overshadowed by the Russia-West standoff over Ukraine, the region remains crucial to Russia’s long-term interests. The Arctic’s enormous natural reserves underpin the national economy, and its military bases form an indispensable part of Russia’s nuclear deterrent, while the Northern Sea Route promises lucrative trade opportunities along the country’s vast northern coastline.

As both NATO and the EU hanker after influence in the region, Russia has made clear that it has no intention of surrendering its longstanding position. For the Arctic giant, the frozen frontier is far more than a distant outpost or a peripheral prize – it is a cornerstone of its security, prosperity, and future.

In Russia, many people, driven by lingering Europhilia and habits formed during the second half of the 20th century, when Western Europe enjoyed a period of relative peace following its defeat, continue to look for signs of its ‘recovery’ and ways to restore relations.

There are forces within Russia that would advocate overcoming the current hostility and there are decent people in Western Europe, too, even if they are increasingly marginalized. But the causes of this outbreak of desperate Russophobia run deep and cannot easily be remedied and overcoming them may require the complete defeat and dismantling of much of the current European elite. But achieving that goal could come at too high a cost.

I shall attempt to analyze the causes of the almost unprecedented hostility towards Russia among the elites of most European countries and offer recommendations for Russian policy towards Western Europe.

I have written more than once that Peter the Great’s journey towards the rest of Europe, which initially brought many benefits, including helping to create some of the world’s greatest literature and music and modernizing the armed forces, continued for a century and a half longer than was necessary or beneficial.

For many centuries, Europe was the principal source of evil in the world, offering endless wars, including two world wars within a single generation, repeated genocides, colonialism, racism and other calamities.

For Russians who grew up in the shadow of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, and who internalized a love of Europe, it’s not easy to acknowledge this simple truth and act accordingly.

There are many reasons for the current anti-Russian hysteria. The main one is the all-encompassing, multi-layered crisis that has gripped the western part of Europe and this crisis is particularly painful after decades of relative prosperity and, above all, the euphoria of victory that swept the West following the collapse of the USSR.

That euphoria temporarily obscured the mounting signs of crisis in European economies and societies, which had already become apparent by the end of the 1960s, when a mood of protest was beginning to take hold. And then a miracle happened as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc provided hundreds of millions of eager new consumers and millions of cheap workers.

From the 2000s onwards, these problems resurfaced with renewed force. A decade later, most Western European countries had fallen into stagnation as inequality began to worsen once again. Living standards for much of the population began to decline, while competitors started pulling ahead, not only the US and China, but also many countries of the Global South.

Euphoria gave way to a sense of failure and European elites are now trying to drown out that feeling by fueling hostility towards Russia.

At the same time, from the end of the 20th century, the consequences of the anti-colonial revolutions of the 1950s and 1960s began to make themselves felt. The flow of resources that Europe had extracted from the rest of the world since the 16th century, and upon which its prosperity and cultural, military, scientific and technological leadership had largely been built, began to dry up.

Decades of development in a climate of peace and formal democracy have led to the degradation of the ruling elites because democratic political systems are anti-meritocratic. The majority elect those who resemble themselves, or even those who are worse, and in the best cases, they elect shrewd manipulators.

One of the most significant causes of Western Europe’s current decline, and to a lesser extent, that of other parts of the collective West, is the rejection of faith.

This began with the Age of Enlightenment, which created the conditions for the decline of people who, consciously or unconsciously, set about rejecting the divine, the best within themselves.

I finally realized that Western Europe had taken a sharp and irreversible downward turn in the early 2000s, when following lengthy debates over the European Union’s proposed constitution, it was decided not to mention Christianity as its spiritual foundation.

Losing its footing and falling behind in economic and spiritual competition, Western Europe is reverting to one of the worst traits of its civilization, which is militarism.

We must tell ourselves firmly, we are not Europeans, but an independent northern Eurasian civilization whose external spiritual roots lie in the south and east.

Our traditional religions came to us from the south, from Byzantium, Palestine, and the Arab and Buddhist worlds. Our political culture stems from the east, from two and a half centuries of interaction and conflict with the Great Mongol Empire, of which the territory of modern-day China was historically a part.

The Mongols plundered, but they didn’t suppress religion, language or culture and we would never have become Great Russia, the world’s largest and one of its most culturally, nationally and religiously open countries, united through a rigid vertical hierarchy of power centered on the Russian people and the Russian language, had it not been for the Mongol political and ideological legacy.

From Western Europe, which, relying on its military superiority, took the lead in education during the 17th and 18th centuries, we sought to adopt the European Bologna system.

Yet that system is increasingly anti-meritocratic as it churns out poorly educated people on a mass scale, many of whom are now coming to power. Let me remind you that some of the earliest institutions of higher learning were established in North Africa and Byzantium.

Some of our more affluent fellow citizens still send their children to study in Europe, ‘abroad’, where as I have seen time and again, they often lose more skills and talents than they acquire.

Our restraint and peacefulness over recent decades have proved counterproductive. They have contributed to the resurgence of the worst aspects of European political culture so Western Europe must therefore face firm deterrence.

But at the same time, we must remember that we are a country of Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, and Tvardovsky, as well as Goethe, Dante, Shakespeare, Mozart and countless others.

Culturally, we must not cut ourselves off from Europe. Rather, we must develop and nurture our Asian roots, of which we have foolishly been ashamed.

The main direction of our internal spiritual, economic and political development must be a shift towards Siberia as there, in the east and north, lies Russia’s future.

We must finally acknowledge that we are not an Eastern European civilization, but a northern Eurasian one, among the most open to the world.

And given the current orientation of European elites, it is simply harmful to us, the representatives of the great multinational, multi-confessional and multicultural Russian people.

Our country-civilization must at last become, for all of us, Russian Yakuts, Russian Buryats, Russian Ossetians, Russian Tatars, Russian Belarusians, Russian Great Russians and others, an independent northern Eurasian civilization.

Europe, in its present and foreseeable future condition, must end at our borders.

This however, is not a call for a new Iron Curtain, but for a rational, modern policy directed towards the future.

This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by RT.

Democrats’ vehement opposition to the diesel deal that US President Donald Trump struck with Russia earlier this month proves they do not care about Americans’ well-being, guests have told RT.

According to recent media reports, a group of Senate Democrats are working on ways to block the arrangement that is meant to rein in skyrocketing diesel prices in the US, while a Republican Russia hawk has put forward legislation to nullify Trump’s efforts. 

Speaking to RT on Saturday, American journalist John Varoli said that Democrats are engaged in a “political witch hunt” and so have no qualms about targeting a deal that is “in the interest of the American people.”

American broadcaster Garland Nixon concurred that driven by “ideological anger at Russia,” Democrats are showing a disregard for the plight of American consumers.

“At this point, what we’re seeing [is that Democrats] are totally ignoring domestic issues, domestic policy, totally ignoring the working class, and they’re focusing only on foreign policy,” Nixon told RT.

He warned that if left unchecked, rising fuel prices could plunge the US economy into a “severe recession.”

Legal and media analyst Lionel told RT that opinion polls that predict a Democratic victory in the midterms should be taken with a grain of salt. He argued that American voters could punish the party for its efforts to undermine the diesel deal.

“This is political suicide to proceed with this,” he added.

Matt Weinglass, producer, director and host of The Homeless Left, argued that opposition to the diesel deal is driven by a decade-long political narrative vilifying Trump, which has taken precedence over the economic interests of ordinary Americans.

“It’s not going to help the American people. It’s going to help the billionaire class and the donor class, the people that have wanted to keep this conflict alive as long as possible,” Weinglass told RT. He also suggested that European leaders could join forces with Trump’s domestic opponents ahead of the midterms.

Former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich argued that his former colleagues should abandon their longstanding hostility toward Russia and focus instead on ending the Ukraine conflict and the war with Iran, both of which have disrupted global energy markets and driven up fuel prices for ordinary Americans.

“There’s this animosity that has built up. And some Democrats are just having trouble letting it go, and they seize on every opportunity,” he told RT, dismissing the proposed legislation to block Russian fuel imports as “going nowhere.”

Rather than trying to derail Trump’s diesel deal, Kucinich urged Washington to redirect its resources toward domestic priorities. “We have problems here in America to take care of health care, retirement security, education, on and on and on,” he said. “That’s what we’ve got to be focused on, not on war.”

Since diesel is extensively used in agriculture and freight, its price has a direct impact on the cost of numerous other goods. Farmers and truckers are particularly vulnerable to diesel price spikes.

Amid global energy supply chain disruptions caused by the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, as well as the Ukraine conflict, diesel prices have risen considerably in the US, hitting a record $6.50+ per gallon in September, with prices in parts of California topping $8 per gallon.

Earlier this month, the US president stated that Washington and Moscow had struck a deal for Russia to immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel to American and global markets, followed by 500,000 tons in November, another million tons shortly thereafter, and potentially another three million tons. Shortly afterward, the US Treasury Department announced a temporary waiver of sanctions on Russian diesel, allowing the fuel to be sold, delivered, and imported into the US until April 7, 2027.

Mass protests have swept across Europe over the weekend, with demonstrators clashing with riot police amid widespread anger over soaring living costs and government policies.

The unrest has largely been inspired by the protests in France, which began in September. Spearheaded by students, they were originally aimed at rising education costs, a lack of teachers, and the poor condition of educational facilities. They eventually morphed into widespread violence and now carry a broader anti-government undertone.

France remains the hotbed of the protests, with at least 410,000 people hitting the streets nationwide on Saturday, including some 110,000 in Paris, according to Interior Ministry figures. The CGT union, one of the key organizers of the demonstrations, put the estimate nearly twice as high, at about 800,000.

The French authorities have implemented strict security measures in an effort to avoid a repeat of widespread rioting over the past weekend. In Paris, the demonstrators were banned from gathering at several central locations, ending up confined to the city’s southeastern edge.

The protests nevertheless turned violent in multiple locations, including Paris, where clashes between police and rowdy demonstrators were observed after the march concluded. Violence has been reported in Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, Nice, Nantes, and other cities, where law enforcement used riot control measures to repel protesters.

🔴 Marseille Les forces de l'ordre sont visées par un mortier de feu d'artifice. #24octobre https://t.co/E0yOMFTTvI

— confrontation française (@confrontfr) October 24, 2026

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested across France on Saturday, according to authorities, as several cities reported looting, vandalism and attacks on police. Some 70,000 officers were deployed nationwide to contain the unrest.

A Grenoble, en marge de la mobilisation du 24 octobre, des casseurs sont entrés et ont pillés un magasin alimentaire. En plus des canettes, des chips, des pizzas, et tout autre type d’aliments sont jetés à la foule. Certains récupèrent les aliments et s’enfuient en courant. La… https://t.co/JyckQUAPAj

— Le Dauphiné Libéré Grenoble Sud Isère (@LeDL_Grenoble) October 24, 2026

🚨🇫🇷 MONTPELLIER : des manifestants tentent de FORCER un barrage de police, sans succès ! (Aury Bouzar) https://t.co/fnR9GRDc7P

— Cpasdeslol (@cpasdeslol_X) October 24, 2026

Albania

Albania is another hotspot. Riot police repeatedly clashed with demonstrators in Tirana on Saturday as thousands gathered for renewed anti-government protests. Months of unrest have escalated into a nationwide movement fueled by soaring living costs, unemployment, corruption and deteriorating public services. Student-led demonstrations demanding cheaper education and better university conditions have intensified pressure on Prime Minister Edi Rama, whose resignation has become a central demand of the protesters.

Italy

Mass protests have also been held across Italy, which endured a wave of violence last weekend. Bracing for renewed unrest, the government deployed an additional 500 troops to Milan, where luxury boutiques were boarded up in an effort to prevent a repeat of looting and clashes.

Italy sends 500 military troops to Milan and business have boarded up in preparation for more riots. https://t.co/UxACjcaEBK

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) October 24, 2026

Still, violence erupted at many locations across the country, including Rome, Naples, and Bologna, with police seen deploying water cannons and using tear gas to try to disperse rowdy protesters. 

A group of protesters forced their way into the Colosseum in Rome, briefly occupying the ancient landmark before being forced out by security guards. Elsewhere in the capital, demonstrators hurled bottles and firecrackers at police barricades.

Chaos in Rome. Masked rioters storm the Colosseum, forcing the entrance barriers. "Peaceful protest" they say. Unbelievable. https://t.co/9KROPmUWTe

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) October 24, 2026

Belgium

Major anti-government demonstrations have been held in Brussels, Belgium. The country was one of the first to feel the spillover effects of the French unrest, with local youth also embarking on violent protests for the sake of better conditions in the education system. 

The clashes in Brussels appeared to be less violent and much smaller compared to the previous weekend. Still, police were seen using pepper spray and tear gas to disperse demonstrators, even though they had reported no major incidents by the end of Saturday afternoon.

Spain

Spain has joined the weekend of protests too, with a massive pensioners’ demonstration held in Madrid. Thousands took to the streets of the Spanish capital, demanding better pensions and closing the gender gap, as well as regular indexation to inflation. 

🚨 BREAKING: THOUSANDS PROTEST FOR HIGHER PENSIONS IN MADRID Retirees marched in central Madrid demanding stronger public pensions, higher minimum payments and protection against a shift toward private pension funds. Attendance estimates ranged from 25,000 to 50,000. https://t.co/XikzAZDifO

— Richard Shelby (@Richardcshelby) October 24, 2026

While the pensioners' protest was orderly and peaceful, violence hit Spain’s second-largest city of Barcelona, where an unauthorized youth protest was staged. The rally was reportedly organized and coordinated through social media. While law enforcement managed to break up the main gathering, the protesters dispersed in smaller groups across the city, engaging in looting and arson, chaotic footage from the scene suggests.

Portugal

Lisbon also saw mass demonstrations on Saturday, with thousands marching against soaring rents and unaffordable housing. Protesters erected dozens of tents in the capital’s central Rossio Square despite police warnings and a crackdown earlier in the week, when officers dismantled a previous encampment and arrested 55 activists.

Grupos de extrema izquierda vuelven a montar la acampada en la plaza del Rossio, en Lisboa, tras días de su desalojo por la Policía portuguesa. https://t.co/cz4PCMz0el

— Rafael Alejandro Escalona (@rafaescalonaf) October 24, 2026

The Pentagon has designated cultural programs linked to China’s Confucius Institute as a national security threat, according to US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. He claims that the centers, which largely offer Chinese language courses on American college and university campuses, serve as a front for Beijing’s “propaganda” campaign – an allegation Chinese officials have previously denied.

In a video posted on Facebook on Friday, Hegseth said that while the US Congress had previously “banned” the Confucius Institutes from American educational institutions, they “came back disguised in new forms” and under new names.

Hegseth was apparently referring to several measures passed by Congress in recent years that stripped universities that hosted Confucius Institutes of federal funding. The pressure from the lawmakers has led to the closure of multiple centers on US soil.

According to Hegseth, over the past two months, the Department of War has “systematically dismantled” 80 new Chinese-backed cultural centers across 30 universities, adding “these sleeper organizations to our list of institutions that threaten our national security.”

The official alleged that the targeted entities had sought to “steal intellectual property and to infiltrate the minds of American students,” but stopped short of providing any concrete evidence.

Later that year, then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that the centers were working to recruit “spies and collaborators” at US colleges, and expressed hope that “we will get them all closed out.”

China’s Foreign Ministry at the time accused Pompeo of deliberately undermining cultural and educational exchanges “by discrediting Confucius Institutes… [out of] ideological bias and political expediency.”

Beijing urged Washington to “abandon the Cold War zero-sum mentality… [and to] stop interfering with normal people-to-people and cultural exchanges.”

Confucius Institutes have similarly come under government pressure in several other Western countries in recent years.

Last year, Australian media reported that six local universities had shut down Beijing-backed cultural centers amid government scrutiny, reducing the number of such entities in the country by half.

In 2020, several media outlets, including The Times, claimed that Sweden had become the first European nation to close all Confucius Institutes and related classrooms.

With Americans struggling from soaring energy prices, and businesses across the country trying to keep their heads above water, the Democrats’ apparent priority is to threaten companies that might help ease the pressure.

According to an October 22 Washington Post report, Senate Democrats are preparing to investigate American companies involved in US President Donald Trump’s decision to ease sanctions on Russian diesel. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has reportedly asked businesses to preserve relevant documents ahead of possible congressional investigations, should Democrats regain control of Congress in the November midterms.

For a party that claims to champion working Americans, this is a peculiar way of demonstrating its concern.

Diesel is the lifeblood of the American economy. It powers the trucks that carry food to supermarkets, the tractors that harvest crops, the machinery that builds homes and roads, and the locomotives that move freight across the vast country.

Yet the people who depend on it have too often been treated as an afterthought by the Washington establishment. They live and work in the industrial towns, farming communities and sprawling rural counties that coastal political elites dismiss as flyover country.

Just recall Hillary Clinton’s infamous 2016 description of millions of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” – a perfect crystallization of the contempt that many ordinary Americans felt was directed at them by the Democrats.

A decade later, that perception is unlikely to be helped by the Democratic lawmakers’ threats to investigate businesses for participating in an arrangement intended to bring additional fuel to the market.

But recognizing that responsibility does not mean opposing every subsequent attempt to alleviate the damage.

Trump’s decision to temporarily ease restrictions on Russian diesel represents an effort to increase available supplies at a time when the market desperately needs relief. It is a pragmatic response to an immediate economic problem, whatever one thinks of the circumstances that created it.

And now Democrats are determined to make that response costly for the companies willing to participate.

Congress has every right to examine whether the administration acted within its legal authority. But threatening private businesses with investigations for engaging in transactions authorized by the federal government is another matter entirely. If those companies comply with the law, why should they have to fear becoming targets of a future congressional majority?

The actual volume of Russian diesel involved is almost beside the point. Moscow initially pledged to release some 300,000 metric tons of diesel, with further shipments promised in the following months – a modest quantity compared to America’s enormous fuel consumption.

Just imagine the chilling effect.

Today, the dispute concerns a relatively small quantity of fuel from one supplier. Tomorrow, the same approach could be applied to other commodities, trading partners or commercial arrangements that fall afoul of Washington’s shifting ideological priorities.

In effect, the Democrats want to hold American energy security hostage to domestic political warfare.

And for what? The ostensible objective is to keep pressuring Russia.

For years, Moscow has faced sweeping Western sanctions, restrictions on financial transactions and efforts to shut its energy exports out of international markets. None of this has forced Russia to accept any of the West’s demands.

Russia has shown it can adapt and endure economic pressure. While not entirely painless, sanctions have consistently failed to produce the political outcome their advocates have called and hoped for.

Meanwhile, Moscow has repeatedly signaled that it remains prepared to negotiate to reasonable counterparts that would take Russia’s own security concerns and national interests into account. Whether those positions are acceptable to Washington is a matter for diplomacy – and refusing to talk altogether is not diplomacy.

Trump is willing to acknowledge that Russia remains a major power with which the US must eventually find a workable relationship. It’s the baseline level of recognition of political reality one expects from the leader of a major world power.

What the Democrats are doing is the international-politics equivalent of pressing their hands to their ears and shouting ‘La La La’ at the top of their lungs.

The truck driver paying more at the pump, the farmer counting operating costs for the next season and the small-business owner watching expenses climb have little interest in Washington’s political theater. They want affordable fuel, predictable costs and a government that remembers whom it is supposed to serve.

Threatening investigations to discourage companies from helping supply the American market is not sending the message the Democrats seem to think it’s sending. It suggests that, to them, political obedience matters more than keeping the country running.

And ordinary Americans could once again be left paying the bill.

France’s presidential hopefuls are turning burning streets, smashed storefronts, and accusations of police brutality into campaign ammunition, RT’s Oumaima Ichchar has reported.

While right-wing firebrand and potential front runner Marine Le Pen blames collapsing state authority, her left-wing rival, Jean-Luc Melenchon, accuses the government of failing to hear the voice of the people.

Nationwide protests began in September over underfunded schools and rising living costs, and escalated into widespread violence last week. Rioters have torched cars, looted or damaged thousands of businesses, and set fire to Limoges’ 143-year-old city hall. The clashes have also left hundreds of protesters and law enforcement officers injured and led to thousands of arrests.

In some of the most brazen incidents, a 15-year-old boy lost a hand to a police grenade, while a 17-year-old girl permanently lost sight in one eye after being struck by a projectile in Mulhouse. Macron, meanwhile, blamed radical-left militants and criminals for much of the destruction, and on Thursday ordered the local authorities to ban protests and restrict officially organized marches.

Le Pen has urged a tougher crackdown on rioters to restore order. “Our country is caught in a vice, if not held hostage, between violence and powerlessness,” Le Pen said, pledging support for police and demanding tougher penalties for rioters. National Rally president Jordan Bardella blamed far-left militants and criminals from the suburbs for the unrest, proposing to suspend family benefits for repeat offenders and make vandals pay for damage.

On the left, Melenchon backed the protests while pointing to a growing disconnect between the public and the institutions. “French democracy is in a very bad way,” the ‘France Unbowed’ leader said, calling for greater public participation and constitutional change.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Attal and Edouard Philippe, two former prime ministers under Macron, sought to distance themselves from their ex-boss, whose approval rating has sunk to a record low of 15%, according to an October Ipsos survey. While Attal insisted that the priority should be the defense of people and property, Philippe called for the “reestablishment of the authority of the state, the punishment of looters and vandals, as well as a detailed method for restoring discussion with high school students and trade union organizations.”

The Eagle’s Nest mountainous retreat built for Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in the Bavarian Alps has been devastated by a blaze, the German police have said.

The former tea house for the leader of the Third Reich, which was constructed on the peak of the Obersalzberg in southern Germany in 1938, sits at an altitude of 1,834 meters (6,000 feet).

A fire alarm at the Eagle’s Nest went off on Friday evening, and it was completely engulfed in flames by the time emergency services arrived, the police said.

The high elevation complicated the work of some 200 fire fighters, who were only able to extinguish the blaze on Saturday morning, they added.

“It is damaged to a large extent. The house is unlikely to be saved,” a police spokesperson told Bild tabloid.

According to Bild, the detained person was a motorcyclist whom the officers encountered on their way to the burning retreat, but his involvement in the case currently remains unclear. Investigators believe arson caused the fire, the paper’s sources claimed.

Following reports of the blaze, the Bavarian authorities announced plans to rebuild the structure, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said.

“We will not allow ruins to remain there,” DPA quoted him as saying.

The Eagle’s Nest was one of the few historic building from Hitler’s era to avoid damage by bombing during the World War II. The retreat hosted a museum and a restaurant since the 1950s, becoming a popular tourist destination. It was preserved as “a cautionary reminder of the abysses of the inhumane Nazi dictatorship,” according to its website.

A number of American lawmakers intend to block the Trump administration’s deal to ease sanctions on Russian diesel through April and are threatening action against US companies involved in the trade. The bipartisan group is also planning to block the US Treasury from issuing such a waiver in the future. 

US President Donald Trump announced the deal earlier this month, as US diesel prices hit a record $6.50+ per gallon in September and prices in parts of California topped $8. Under the waiver, struck just weeks ahead of the impending November midterm elections, Moscow agreed to immediately put 300,000 tons of diesel into the market, and commit to further releases.  

The disruption of global energy markets, caused by the Iran war and the Ukraine conflict, has resulted in rising gas prices in the US, further denting the positions of Republicans ahead of the vote. Diesel is the key fuel type extensively used in agriculture and freight; its price affects the cost of virtually all goods, resulting in further cost-of-living issues. Rural communities, smalltime farmers, and truckers are particularly vulnerable to diesel prices spikes.

“[The companies] should have liability concerns as well as investigative concerns,” the aide told WaPo.

Further action against the diesel deal has been taken by Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), an outspoken hawk, Ukraine backer, and proponent of sanctions against Russia. The proposed legislation, titled the Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act of 2026, would effectively block Russian oil imports for good.

The bill would nullify the standing Russian oil waiver, “immediately rendering General License 135 ineffective and prohibiting future waivers or general licenses authorizing the importation of Russian energy products,” as well as strip the Treasury from the ability to expend funds “on agreements that violate the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act of 2022,” the legislation that sanctioned Russian energy products, including diesel, in the first place.

Apart from the energy part, the bill also would “reinforce critical intelligence support for Ukraine,” obliging spy agencies to cooperate with Kiev and to “notify congressional intelligence committees within 24 hours of any interruption.”

Billionaire Elon Musk has accused US politicians of putting Kiev’s interests ahead of their own country’s, alleging that American taxpayer money sent to Ukraine is being laundered back into political campaigns.

Writing on X on Friday, the SpaceX founder suggested that financial interests could explain why some American lawmakers remain staunch supporters of Kiev in its conflict with Russia.

“Some of that US taxpayer money comes back through multiple laundry machines to fund political campaigns in America, which is why you see some politicians caring more about Ukraine than America!” Musk wrote, without identifying the beneficiaries.

And some of that US taxpayer money comes back through multiple laundry machines to fund political campaigns in America, which is why you see some politicians caring more about Ukraine than America!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 23, 2026

In March, US outlet Just the News cited a declassified intelligence summary describing a plan to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in American aid earmarked for clean-energy projects in Ukraine into then-President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign.

Trump shared the report on Truth Social, while then-US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard reportedly asked officials at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to investigate whether the alleged scheme had been carried out.

Musk also accused Ukrainian elites of profiting from Western assistance while ordinary Ukrainians bear the human cost.

“The former have grown very rich off the hundreds of billions flowing to Ukraine, while the latter’s children are conscripted to die in trenches,” he wrote.

Kiev’s increasingly coercive mobilization campaign has been marked by numerous documented cases of forced detentions and violent confrontations involving recruitment officers. Corruption investigations have also exposed schemes allowing wealthier Ukrainians to evade military service.

Ukraine has been rocked by major corruption scandals involving figures close to Vladimir Zelensky. One centered on his longtime associate Timur Mindich and an alleged $100 million bribery and money-laundering operation at state nuclear energy company Energoatom. The scandal forced senior officials from office, including former presidential chief of staff Andrey Yermak, while Mindich fled Ukraine.

Kiev has moved to block a planned tribute to Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevich, who was involved in the killing of an estimated 100,000 Poles during World War II ethnic purges, officials in Warsaw have claimed.

The reported retreat comes amid a series of disputes between the two countries in recent months over Kiev’s veneration of Nazi-linked figures that have eroded Polish support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

The controversy erupted on Tuesday when the Lviv Regional Council in western Ukraine voted to declare 2027 the Year of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and to celebrate the 120th anniversary of its commander Roman Shukhevich while deciding to organize “cultural, memorial, scientific, and mass media events,” as well as exhibitions and national patriotic rallies on the occasion.

Following the backlash, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki said on Wednesday that officials of Vladimir Zelensky’s office had assured Warsaw that the controversial resolutions would not come into force. On Friday, Tusk echoed the claim, saying that Zelensky had personally signaled he would not endorse the resolution, adding that the Ukrainian leader was “unhappy” with the situation.

This also came after the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called the Shukhevich tribute in Lviv “counterproductive to our current efforts aimed at further developing Ukrainian-Polish relations.” The ministry stressed that the local authorities had sought no advice from government bodies to assess the consequences of their actions.

An unnamed source in Zelensky’s office cited by Ukrainskaya Pravda went so far as to describe the decision as a “catastrophe.” “Ukraine looks erratic. We have just resolved the previous crisis – and now this,” the source said, accusing regional officials of pursuing “cheap one-day hype” despite knowing all too well what the resolution would lead to.

While senior Ukrainian officials apparently distanced themselves from the controversy, the Lviv council’s original announcement remains accessible as of Saturday. Sheremet also previously defended the resolution, saying “This is our history, our heroes, and we must duly honor their memory.”

The dispute is the latest in a series of heated clashes between Kiev and Warsaw over Ukraine’s continued veneration of nationalist figures that collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.

In May, Zelensky awarded an elite Ukrainian special operations unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA,” prompting another diplomatic uproar, with Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripping the Ukrainian leader of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration.

Three people have been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian city of Oryol, Governor Andrey Klychkov has said.

The bodies were recovered from the rubble of a civilian enterprise targeted by Kiev on Friday, Klychkov announced on Saturday.

According to the governor, Ukrainian forces used NATO-made missiles in the attack. He shared photos of missile fragments bearing markings in English as evidence of their alleged Western origin.

Klychkov did not specify the type of weapons used, although Russian military bloggers earlier claimed that Kiev had fired British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

The governor condemned Friday’s strike as “especially cynical,” saying it took place during rush hour, when people were returning home from work to their families.

Ukrainian attacks continued overnight, with Russian air defenses downing 15 drones over the region, according to Klychkov. A new missile alert was issued on Saturday morning.

Oryol, a city of nearly 290,000 residents, lies approximately 368km southwest of Moscow.

Russia has accused Kiev of deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure to compensate for battlefield setbacks as Moscow’s forces continue to advance.

In response to Ukrainian terrorist attacks, Russia has intensified long-range missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s military facilities and infrastructure supporting Kiev’s war effort. Moscow maintains that its forces do not target civilians.

The BrahMos corporation is working to add more destructive power and reach to its namesake supersonic cruise missile, following its spectacular combat successes last year.

The operational and functional parameters of the missile are being upgraded, and new versions are in the works, the CEO and managing director of the joint venture between India and Russia, Jaiteerth Joshi, told local media recently.

Named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, the BrahMos is engineered for high-precision, long-range strikes. The missile offers militaries the versatility to engage threats using land, sea, and underwater platforms. 

BrahMos earned its stripes last year when the Indian and Pakistani militaries briefly clashed with missiles and drones, following a terrorist attack on civilians in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.

As the two militaries tested each other with drones, India fired BrahMos missiles to strike hardened high-value targets, including hangars reportedly housing Pakistan’s US-made F-16 fighter jets. 

India has said there was not a single interception of the BrahMos during the clashes, dubbed Operation Sindoor, and buyer interest has risen since.

BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between India’s DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya. 

BrahMos’ trajectory into the future

BrahMos started as a land-launched cruise missile, but its developers have worked to give it more flexibility and lethality as battlefield needs evolved and expanded.

The missile, which flies at nearly three times the speed of sound and carries a 200 to 300 kg warhead, had an initial range of 290 km but continuous upgrades have extended its reach.

There is also a Block III land-attack variant, which can fly very low and approach targets from unexpected angles – dodging any defenses the enemy may try to throw at it. 

The BrahMos corporation is working on a long and ambitious list of upgrades. At the top of the current development efforts sits a lighter, air-launched variant.

Christened the BrahMos-NG, it can be flown on the IAF’s other fighter jets, including the domestically produced Tejas light combat aircraft. The Su-30MKI will be able to sortie armed with three of these missiles.

The BrahMos-NG will feature higher domestically-produced content and advanced materials. The Indo-Russian joint venture expects to unveil this prototype by 2027-28. 

This long-range version is at the conceptual stage, and the company is discussing further upgrades with its Russian joint venture partner. Joshi has told Indian media outlets in recent interviews that the range-extension program will proceed in phases, with test firings from land, sea, and air to validate the missile’s operational capabilities. 

Also, on the missile maker’s drawing board is a hypersonic version – the new frontier of modern warfare – currently called BrahMos II. 

The concept aims to integrate advanced technologies, state-of-the-art design, and smart materials to field a hypersonic futuristic weapon that will dominate fast-evolving battlefield technology. 

BrahMos II will have an “air-breathing” scramjet engine that would boost it to a top speed of Mach 5. 

BrahMos is seeing high global interest

The missile has already been sold to multiple countries, and many others have shown an interest in buying it.

One of the first foreign customers of the Indo-Russian missile was the Philippines, with Manila signing a $375 million contract in 2022. The first batch of BrahMos missiles was delivered to the country in April 2024, and the second in April 2025. 

In June this year, India confirmed it had a deal with Vietnam to supply the missiles.

Indonesia, which has also evinced interest, has moved forward with procurement plans. 

In addition, over a dozen nations including Malaysia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Chile, and South Africa have evaluated or expressed a formal interest in the BrahMos missile system.

BrahMos is gearing up for a demand surge

The BrahMos project is a trailblazer in India’s defense industry. It broke the shackles of excessive bureaucratic controls that were once the hallmark of Indian state-owned defense corporations that had forced the country to remain a major arms importer. 

With a burgeoning order book, BrahMos corporation is prioritizing the fulfillment of orders received from the Indian armed forces, for whom the missile is a primary strike weapon. India recently contracted for more BrahMos launchers and fire-control systems, so more of its warships can be armed with the missile. 

The missile maker now has production facilities in four Indian cities: Hyderabad, Nagpur, Pilani and Lucknow. Research and development clusters, nicknamed ‘tech-bricks’ have been set up to work on niche technologies for the next generation missiles. 

The supply chain is being expanded to make it more robust and resilient – and to meet an expected surge in demand. For this, the company will expand the industry partners for each system and subsystem to up to 45, from the current one or two partners. 

India’s arms export ambitions ride on BrahMos 

New Delhi is gradually setting its sights to make a complete transformation from being one of the biggest arms importers to a major defense exporter. 

The federal government’s annual defense production target is $31 billion by 2029, of which defense exports are pegged at $5.5 billion. 

BrahMos will be key to New Delhi’s ambitious goals to emerge as a major global arms exporter.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow has released a series of videos showing its elite Rubicon drone unit intercepting Ukrainian long-range attack UAVs heading deep into Russian territory and striking Kiev’s military equipment, including Western-supplied artillery systems.

On Friday, a Ukrainian drone raid on Moscow temporarily shut down all four of the capital’s international airports, disrupting dozens of flights and triggering an evacuation alert at Sheremetyevo. The same day, Kiev’s missiles struck a civilian enterprise in the city of Oryol during rush hour, killing at least three people, according to Governor Andrey Klychkov.

The attacks came despite renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict, with Moscow announcing plans to resume trilateral talks with Washington and Kiev following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday.

One of the clips published by the Defense Ministry on Friday captured more than 20 interceptions of Ukrainian long-range UAVs by Rubicon’s FPV-drone operators.

The destroyed hardware included FP-2 models, capable of carrying up to 100 kg of explosives to a distance of up to 2,000 km, and Anubis drones with a payload of up to 50 kg, it said.

Another clip showed Russian UAVs ramming numerous medium-range kamikaze-drones such as Ukrainian-made Chakluns and Bliskavkas as well as the Hornets, produced by Swift Beat, a company run by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

The other three videos featured a montage of successful strikes by Rubicon’s FPV-drones against Ukrainian targets on the ground, with armored vehicles, artillery pieces, robotic systems and communication devices being hit.

One of them captured the destruction of a French-supplied CAESAR howitzer near the village of Zelenoye in Russia’s Donetsk People Republic (DPR).

In another clip, the Russian UAV operators are seen discovering and eliminating a US-made М119 artillery system in an undisclosed location.

The final video shows Rubicon’s drones in action near the city of Krasny Liman in the DPR, where Russian forces are continuing to move steadily forward.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to launch another military operation against Iran, as Washington quietly withdraws diplomatic personnel and relocates troops from bases across the Middle East in moves resembling preparations ahead of the initial US-Israeli strikes in February.

“We may do another little Epic Fury, or they’ll agree,” Trump declared during a campaign rally in Florida on Friday, referring to the military offensive launched against Iran on February 28.

“If they’re smart, they’ll just say, let’s get down to business,” he added, before expressing doubt that Tehran would agree to Washington’s demands.

The Pentagon officially declared Operation Epic Fury over on May 5, despite the continuation of the conflict. The administration has sought to avoid formally characterizing the hostilities as a war, maintaining that the fighting had diminished. Trump reiterated on Friday that previous US strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and defeated the country “militarily, financially and otherwise.”

The diplomatic missions in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will remain open but operate with fewer personnel. Unlike in Saudi Arabia, where nonessential staff and their families were ordered to leave earlier this week, personnel at the other embassies are not required to depart.

A separate intelligence memo sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday claimed that Tehran had intensified efforts to target Americans abroad.

The memo did not publicly identify specific targets or provide evidence substantiating the alleged plots. US officials have denied that the diplomatic withdrawals are connected to preparations for renewed strikes against Iran.

However, the drawdowns coincide with reports that the Pentagon has quietly begun relocating troops from bases in Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait. NBC News reported the movements on Wednesday, with CBS subsequently confirming the reductions.

The Pentagon reportedly presented Trump with options for renewed strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, underground military installations and strategic islands, including Kharg Island, a major oil export hub.

Trump has pledged not to launch new attacks before the November 3 midterm elections, while keeping military action on the table if Tehran refuses Washington’s demands.

A Syrian migrant arrested in Germany on suspicion of raping a teenage girl was released after just 40 days in pre-trial detention and later accused of raping another woman, local media reported on Thursday.

In the wake of the latter episode, the man went into hiding but was eventually captured by the authorities several months later. He was subsequently convicted of raping the teenager and is still standing trial over the second allegation.

The 26-year-old, identified by Bild as Ahmad A., was initially apprehended in late February 2025 over the rape of a 16-year-old girl at a Munich asylum center. However, the teenager could not undergo judicial questioning in time due to her psychological condition.

The delay prompted the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office to request the suspect’s release in early April. Bild quoted prosecutor Juliane Grotz as saying that continued detention would have violated the “principle of expedited proceedings in detention cases” and would have been “no longer proportionate.”

Without the victim’s testimony, authorities could not determine how much longer the investigation would take, they told Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In July 2025, Ahmad A., who was required to report to police twice a week and barred from approaching the teenage victim, allegedly lured a 29-year-old woman to a secluded location, where he and two Yemeni nationals took turns raping her.

Police arrested the suspects in September 2025, with Ahmad A. subsequently convicted of raping the 16-year-old girl. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in November 2025.

The trial over the alleged rape of the 29-year-old woman is still underway, with the next hearing scheduled for October 27.

Also in Munich, local police reported in June that they had arrested two young Syrian migrants on suspicion of raping an 18-year-old German woman they had met at a nightclub.

There have been multiple similar cases involving migrants across Germany in recent years.

Under former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-border policies, more than a million people arrived in Germany from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq at the height of the 2015 immigrant influx. In recent years, the country has also granted temporary protection to an estimated 1.2 million Ukrainians. Germany ranks as the European Union’s top destination for migrants and the world’s third-largest refugee-hosting country, according to UN data.

Amid rising crime rates and a series of terrorist attacks perpetrated by migrants, public discontent with the German government’s handling of illegal immigration has been steadily growing.

The opposition right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which advocates stricter immigration controls, has consistently polled as the country’s most popular party in recent months. According to a recent INSA survey, the AfD enjoys the support of 30% of respondents – 12 percentage points ahead of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling CDU/CSU bloc.

Russia has dispatched three tankers carrying diesel fuel to the United States under an agreement reached between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his American counterpart Donald Trump, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has announced.

The vessels are already sailing toward the eastern Atlantic coast, Novak said on Friday, adding that most of the additional fuel supplies could come from Russian energy giant Rosneft.

“In accordance with the previously announced agreements to saturate the global diesel market, Russia will ensure additional supplies of diesel fuel to world markets and the United States,” Novak said.

Moscow has eased its restrictions on diesel exports, allowing Russian companies to ship up to 500,000 tons of fuel to international markets in October while ensuring domestic demand remains fully covered. The shipments were arranged with significant assistance from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), headed by Putin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

EA Maritime Analytics is tracking the first cargo of Russian diesel heading to the US since Trump’s 9 October announcement. MR tanker Agioi Fanendes (IMO 9798375) sails from Primorsk today with a cargo of ultra-low-sulphur diesel, confirmed by our market sources. Her AIS shows New York as the destination, with arrival expected on 10 November. Cargo size: around 298,000 barrels (40,000 tonnes). On 9 October, Trump said Russia would supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately, followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and 1 million tonnes after that. #MaritimeAnalytics #Diesel #CargoTracking

— Energy Aspects (@EnergyAspects) October 23, 2026

Further deliveries would continue on a regular basis, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier in the day, confirming that the first tanker had departed for its buyers but not identifying the vessel.

BREAKING: We have now identified three tankers carrying Russian #diesel to the United States. All three loaded at petroleum berths in Russia and are declaring USA as their destination. Diesel is the only known hydrocarbon which the US OFAC currently permits imports of from Russia. #OOTT

— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) October 23, 2026

Maritime tracking groups identified one of the tankers as the Malta-flagged Agioi Fanendes, carrying approximately 40,000 tons of diesel. Reuters reported that the vessel had departed Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk and was heading toward New York, with an initial estimated arrival date of November 7.

The deliveries follow an October 9 phone conversation between Putin and Trump, after which the American president announced that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by 500,000 tons in November, another million tons shortly thereafter, and potentially further shipments depending on refining capacity. Washington subsequently issued a temporary sanctions waiver permitting Russian diesel imports, reversing restrictions introduced under former US President Joe Biden in 2022.

Trump has repeatedly urged Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to stop attacking Russian refineries, accusing Kiev of exacerbating the worldwide diesel shortage and hurting American consumers and farmers.

Zelensky rejected the criticism on Thursday, calling Trump’s claims “totally false” and accusing the American leader of “deflecting the focus away from Iran.”

US President Donald Trump made “totally false” statements when he blamed rising diesel prices in America on Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, Vladimir Zelensky has claimed, accusing him of “deflecting the focus away from Iran.”

Zelensky’s remarks came amid a growing spat with Trump, who has repeatedly accused Kiev of exacerbating the global energy crisis with continued attacks on Russian oil infrastructure.

Russia has historically been the world’s second-largest exporter of diesel fuel, behind only the United States, accounting for roughly 10% of global exports.

Disruptions to Russian supplies have tightened the global market, driving up prices even in countries that do not directly import fuel from Russia, including the US.

“The volume of diesel exports is so negligible from Russia that it has zero impact on prices in the US. That is totally false information,” the Ukrainian leader claimed during an appearance on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast on Thursday.

Zelensky accused Trump of unfairly “deflecting the focus away from Iran” and lamented that “everything gets shifted onto us and I’m made the target as the leader of our country.”

According to Zelensky, “the root of the problem” lies in the Strait of Hormuz, where crude exports and other maritime traffic have dwindled to a trickle following the start of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran in February.

Earlier this month, Zelensky similarly hit out at what he described as a “weak decision” by the Trump administration after Washington temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel exports to ease the global fuel crisis.

Washington struck the deal with Moscow after Zelensky had repeatedly ignored Trump’s requests to stop strikes on Russian refineries. “We said, you can do whatever you want to Russia, don’t hit the refineries, because that’s a world problem that’s caused,” the US president recounted earlier this month.

“And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel,” Trump lamented, accusing Zelensky of wanting to “make problems for the world.”

Trump also said he found it more difficult to deal with Zelensky than with Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting that Ukraine should get a new leader who would not obstruct Washington’s mediation efforts.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Zelensky was directly challenging Trump by refusing to accept a deal aimed at easing the global diesel shortage.

In recent months, Ukraine has ramped up long-range strikes on targets inside Russia, including civilian and energy infrastructure, amid continued setbacks at the front. Moscow has denounced the attacks as acts of terrorism and responded with strikes on military-related Ukrainian facilities.

‘Cambridge Analytica’ is by now a byword for the social media Wild West of 2016, when regulations were non-existent and unscrupulous brokers sold personal user data to advertisers and political operatives. RT explores the scandal that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg still can’t dodge.

The judge concluded that Meta’s misconduct warranted a penalty exceeding $219 billion under state law, but reduced the amount to $25 billion, making it one of the largest fines ever imposed on an American corporation.

Meta, operating at the time as Facebook, knowingly and systematically deceived users about how it managed their personal data and allowed its harvesting by third-party companies like Cambridge Analytica. The jury also found Meta’s senior executive team knew of, and lied about, deceiving users about how it planned to investigate data-harvesting companies after the Cambridge Analytica scandal became public.

To understand how Meta ended up owing an eighth of its annual revenue in just one judgment, it’s necessary to go back to 2013, when Cambridge Analytica emerged from Britain’s shadowy private intelligence sector.

What was Cambridge Analytica?

Cambridge Analytica was founded in 2013 as a subsidiary of SCL Group, a London-based private intelligence firm that has provided data analytics and “behavioural analysis” services to the British Defense Ministry and Foreign Office. 

Cambridge Analytica CEO and SCL Group Director Alexander Nix has admitted under oath that his companies worked with American and British intelligence agencies, provided psychological warfare training to several Western militaries, employed multiple staff with security clearances in the UK and US, and hired former Israeli spies.

SCL Group’s work for NATO, Israel, Ukraine, and other governments and militaries was extensive, and Cambridge Analytica drew on its parent company’s experience in military psyops to become one of the world’s most effective election influence operations, according to whistleblower Christopher Wylie. On the other hand, SCL insists that its military and political wings were separate entities. Whichever account is true, Cambridge Analytica had been hired by political candidates in 200 elections by 2018, according to company documents. These included parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, India, and Italy, the Brexit referendum in the UK, and most infamously, the 2016 presidential election in the US.

What did Cambridge Analytica do in 2016?

How did this become a scandal?  

Cambridge Analytica did not break any laws to obtain this data. It was scraped from tens of millions of Facebook users who had, unbeknownst to themselves, given a third-party Facebook quiz application access to their messages, their profile data, and that of their friends.

Cambridge Analytica hired a Cambridge University professor, Aleksandr Kogan, to develop a personality quiz app, named ‘This is Your Digital Life’. Between 250,000 and 270,000 American Facebook users took the quiz in 2015, and by accessing their data, but crucially, under Facebook terms, accessing the data of all of their friends on the platform, Cambridge Analytica was able to compile detailed psychological profiles on roughly 87 million users.

Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher Wylie revealed the workings of the scheme to The Observer in 2018, telling the British newspaper that “we exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles, and built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.”

Was Cambridge Analytica the only data-scraper doing this?

“Facebook never cared,” Kogan told NBC News in 2018, explaining that “tens of thousands” of developers created apps like his quiz, and sold user data to companies like Cambridge Analytica. Among the developers were CubeYou, which used a “one-click personality test” app to gather information for commercial use, and LocalBlox, which scraped data from 48 million users, which it then sold to marketers.

AggregateIQ, Global Science Research, and Eunoia Technologies all used data gleaned by Kogan for political ends. However, long before these companies existed, Blue State Digital, an American political consultancy, surreptitiously harvested Facebook data, including friends’ data, for use by Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign.

Cambridge Analytica, however, had its work for the Trump campaign exposed at the height of the ‘Russiagate’ hoax, at a time when Democrats and liberal media outlets were convinced that Russia intervened in the election on behalf of Trump. Cambridge Analytica’s data-scraping dovetailed neatly into a narrative of “Facebook bots” and “Russian military hackers” working with the Trump campaign, and the company became a whipping boy for an industry that transcended partisan lines.

I wrote this in Nov 2017. Days after FBI revealed multiple strands of Trump-Russia investigation ran through London & I pulled them apart further. It was also when the attacks against me began in earnest. From Cambridge Analytica, LeaveEU & Russian govt 1/ https://t.co/YQB5slJhe8

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) February 25, 2022

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee eventually investigated claims that Cambridge Analytica helped the Russian government target political ads at American voters, but both determined that these claims were untrue, and neither investigation found any proof of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Has Facebook been punished?

At the time that the information was collected, Facebook had stopped allowing third-party apps to access friends’ data. However, a loophole allowed apps active on the platform before this change to continue harvesting information through 2015. Within days of Wylie’s revelations hitting the headlines, SCL Group and Cambridge Analytica were suspended from Facebook. Two months later, both companies ceased operations, leaving Facebook to handle the fallout.

Facebook initially went into damage control mode, insisting that “People knowingly provided their information” to Kogan’s app, and that “everyone involved gave their consent.” 

However, the US Federal Trade Commission determined that Facebook made its privacy settings deliberately opaque, spreading them out over 20 separate screens and opting users into sharing data with third-parties by default. Facebook settled with the FTC for $5 billion in 2019, setting the stage for a series of similar payouts in the following years.

In 2018, Zuckerberg told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that Facebook was aware that user data had been transferred from Kogan to Cambridge Analytica (this transfer was in breach of its policies) since 2015, but opted not to inform users. He said that Facebook asked Cambridge Analytica to delete the data, but never followed up and made sure the company did. “We considered it a closed case,” he told Congress.

In 2022, Meta settled a $725 million class-action lawsuit brought by a group of Facebook users, who alleged that the company violated privacy and consumer protection laws by misrepresenting its data-sharing laws and failing to protect their personal information.

Meta attempted to shut down further legal action over the Cambridge Analytica scandal this August, when it reached an $18 billion settlement with 51 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia. Although the cases concerned the addictive design of Meta’s platforms and their effect on children’s mental health, the settlement included a clause resolving a multistate investigation into Facebook’s sharing of user data with third parties “whether known or unknown,” including Cambridge Analytica.

Even if participating states were to discover new facts about the data sharing, they have now waived their right to sue Meta. New Mexico was one of two states that was not party to this agreement, hence the $25 billion penalty.

Ten years after the fact, it remains unclear how prominent a role Cambridge Analytica played in Trump’s victory over Clinton. The Trump campaign’s use of Facebook and X (then called Twitter) is widely cited as instrumental in his win, but the campaign’s digital director, Brad Parscale, has since said that he stopped using the company’s data several months before election day, considering it inaccurate.

What about Brexit?

Cambridge Analytica worked with Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU organization in late 2015 and early 2016, and carried out some preliminary data analysis for the campaign. However, the data was never used, and the UK Information Commissioner’s (ICO) office concluded in 2020 that the company had no impact on the referendum. As in the US, the ICO found no links between Cambridge Analytica and Russia, and no evidence that Russia interfered in the vote.

Is Zuckerberg in the clear?

The $25 billion judgement handed down on October 22 may be the largest fine ever imposed on Meta, but it does not mark the end of Zuckerberg’s legal woes. In addition to a Washington DC lawsuit holding him personally responsible for the Cambridge Analytica debacle, Zuckerberg’s company is being sued by investors in California over Facebook’s alleged efforts to conceal the misuse of user data by the company.

woah, it gets worse. In the Meta securities lawsuit for Cambridge Analytica cover-up, plaintiffs just posted deposition list. If they have the courage to 'go to the mat' (as Zuckerberg says) like New Mexico AG has done for over $25B, this could be very, very bad for Team Zuck. 1/3

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) October 22, 2026

Meta will likely settle the latter case, just as it did with the similar SEC case in 2019. However, should Zuckerberg fight the lawsuit, he could find himself in the dock, as the plaintiffs have sought recorded depositions from him, former COO Sheryl Sandberg, and former CFO David Wehner – all of whom could be forced to shed more light on just how much Facebook knew about the scandal, and when.

French President Emmanuel Macron has described a deadly shooting near Paris as the country’s first “racist terrorist attack,” appearing to overlook decades of Islamist terrorism, including the deliberate targeting and murder of Christians and Jews.

A gunman opened fire from a car in Trappes and neighboring La Verriere on Friday morning, killing 26-year-old aspiring MMA fighter Pengo Bossio Wangi and injuring five others, including a 12-year-old girl who was shot eight times. Other victims reportedly included a woman wearing a headscarf, a man of North African origin and two school cleaners of African origin.

The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Kevin T., was arrested after a shooting spree lasting approximately 15 minutes. Police recovered a submachine gun from his vehicle and discovered three gas cylinders wired to a timer in his apartment. He reportedly had 13 previous criminal-record entries but was not on a terrorism watchlist.

Visiting Trappes on Friday evening, Macron declared the shooting a historic “turning point” for France.

“This is the first time there has been a terrorist act aimed at killing our compatriots and our children for the color of their skin or what their religion is thought to be,” he claimed. Macron also alleged that the suspect deliberately spared certain people because of their skin color, citing statements allegedly made after his arrest.

In March 2012, Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah murdered a rabbi and three Jewish children at a school in Toulouse. In January 2015, ISIS-linked terrorist Amedy Coulibaly stormed a kosher supermarket in Paris, killing four Jewish hostages.

Christians have also been targeted. In 2016, two ISIS terrorists slit the throat of 85-year-old Catholic priest Jacques Hamel during Mass at a church in Normandy. In 2020, a Tunisian Islamist attacker murdered three people inside the Notre Dame basilica in Nice, beheading one woman.

Jihadists have also attacked broader symbols of French secular society. In November 2015, ISIS terrorists killed 130 people in coordinated attacks across Paris, including 90 concertgoers at the Bataclan music venue. In 2020, an Islamist extremist beheaded schoolteacher Samuel Paty for showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression.

Following the backlash, the Elysee sought to clarify Macron’s remarks, telling TF1 that he had specifically meant the first racist terrorist attack motivated by skin color, despite his explicit reference to religion.

The Trappes shooting has also intensified political tensions ahead of next year’s presidential election. Communist presidential candidate Fabien Roussel accused the far right of spreading “racist hatred,” while National Rally leader Marine Le Pen condemned the shooting and its “abject motive of racism.”

France’s anti-terrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation into suspected terrorist murder with a racist motive. The suspect’s precise ideological affiliations remain under investigation.

At least seven people have been killed and some 34 others wounded in a terrorist attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Jordan. The authorities have described the suspects as “extremists” who fled the scene and are still on the loose.

The slaughter unfolded on Friday afternoon in the village of Hmoud in western Karak Governorate, which is home to a sizable Christian community in the majority-Muslim country.

A group of at least three assailants arrived at the local St. George’s Church, where a funeral ceremony was underway. The gunmen attacked the mourners, with the shooting reportedly lasting for about 15 minutes before the suspects drove away from the scene unhindered. No group has claimed responsibility.

CCTV footage from the scene shows the attackers, two of whom were armed with handguns and the third with an assault rifle, firing at people desperately trying to flee the scene, tripping over pews and each other in the process. Highly graphic footage shows the suspects repeatedly shooting wounded victims in the head as they lay on the ground, apparently to finish them off.

Jordanian King Abdullah II has vowed to “confront the terrorist act that targeted Karak with the harshest penalties.” The country’s interior minister, Mazen al-Faraya, confirmed during a news conference that the suspects still remain at large, describing the attackers as a “group of extremists” without providing any further detail. 

The massacre has prompted a major response from the authorities, with Hmoud flooded by assorted security forces. Tightened security measures have also been implemented in the city of Karak, where the bulk of the wounded were transferred for treatment.

The king visited the victims at a hospital later on Friday to show support, promising to punish the perpetrators. Abdullah could be seen arriving at the facility in a military field uniform, accompanied by a large security detail.

Serbia is heading into a snap parliamentary election on October 25 following nearly two years of anti-government protests sparked by a deadly railway station canopy collapse.

Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is running for prime minister against a fragmented opposition seeking to capitalize on the protest movement. The result could reshape Serbia’s political landscape and its delicate balancing act between Russia and the EU.

What is Serbia voting for, and why does it matter?

Voters will elect 250 members of the National Assembly, with 126 seats needed for a majority. A total of 18 electoral lists, comprising 2,418 candidates, are contesting the election, including the ruling coalition, student-backed candidates, established opposition parties and representatives of national minorities.

The vote will test whether the protest movement can challenge the ruling coalition at the ballot box.

What led to the snap election?

The crisis began after a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station collapsed on November 1, 2024, killing 16 people. Protesters blamed the disaster on alleged corruption and failures of government oversight.

Demonstrations intensified after students and lecturers involved in a vigil commemorating the disaster at Belgrade’s Faculty of Dramatic Arts on November 22, 2024 blocked traffic, prompting drivers to clash with the crowd; some of the motorists were later identified from photos posted online as Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) officials.

Students began blockading university faculties, demanding the release of documents relating to the station’s renovation, accountability for attacks on protesters, an end to the prosecution of detained demonstrators and increased funding for public universities.

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned in January 2025 following another attack on students, but the protests continued. A major rally in Belgrade on March 15 attracted an estimated 275,000 to 325,000 people, according to the organization Arhiv javnih skupova.

Parliament elected a government headed by Djuro Macut in April, but the student movement demanded snap elections on May 5.

Vucic has accused foreign organizations and intelligence services of financing the protests, alleging on Thursday that outside actors were seeking to remove him from power.

Serbia was the victim of perhaps Europe’s first ‘color revolution’ in 2000, when the opposition, having received extensive funding and training from the National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Republican Institute (IRI), and USAID, as well as support from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (operating in 2000 as the Fund for an Open Society – Yugoslavia), brought down the government.

Has Vucic lost power, or is he trying to hold on to it?

Vucic resigned as president on September 27, saying he intended to campaign in the parliamentary election without holding the presidency.

He now heads the ruling coalition’s electoral list and is running for prime minister.

Who is running, and who could form a government?

The ruling camp is led by the ‘Aleksandar Vucic – United Serbia’ coalition, built around the SNS. Its longstanding partner, Ivica Dacic’s Socialist Party of Serbia, is running separately under the ‘Factor of Stability’ banner.

The main challenger is the ‘Student List – Students Are Winning,’ which emerged from the protests and includes lecturers, professionals and public figures.

Marinika Tepic and Zdravko Ponos’s ‘European Serbia’ and Milos Jovanovic’s ‘Authentic Right’ are also running independently. Some opposition groups have backed the students rather than fielding their own candidates.

The latest opinion polls offer conflicting assessments of support for the two main contenders.

An Ipsos survey published on October 22 put Vucic’s coalition at 47.4%, compared with 40% for the Student List and 3.2% for Dacic’s Socialists. The poll surveyed 3,624 respondents between October 20 and 22.

Latest Serbia Ipsos Poll modelled out 🔵SNS: 125 seats 🔴STU: 105 seats ❤️SPS: 8 seats 🟦NADA: 0 seats 🟢SVM: 6 seats 💚SDAS: 2 seats 💠SPP: 2 seats 🔹KSLP: 1 seat 🟤RUS: 1 seat 🔵SNS largest party, 1 short of a majority https://t.co/9pjH9MA8Ts

— Poliwave Europe (@PoliwaveEU) October 22, 2026

A survey published on October 20 by Nova srpska politicka misao (NSPM) instead gave the Student List 44.5% and Vucic’s coalition 42.7% among decided respondents. The telephone survey of 1,050 people was conducted between September 25 and October 5.

Serbia, NSPM poll: Student list-*: 45% (+5) SNS+-EPP: 43% (+5) SPS/JS~S&D: 3% (-2) ES-S&D: 3% (-1) NADA~ECR: 3% (+1) +/- vs. July 2026 Fieldwork: 25 September - 05 October 2026 Sample size: 1,050 ➤ https://t.co/ekzxpjD9df https://t.co/9EKrcxnWOe

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) October 20, 2026

An online survey published by Nacija TV on October 21 showed a much narrower gap, with Vucic’s coalition at 42.9% and the Student List at 42%. The poll surveyed 1,204 respondents between October 16 and 18.

An earlier Faktor Plus survey, published on September 21, put Vucic’s coalition at 48.6% and the Student List at 37.1%, based on 986 respondents interviewed between September 16 and 20.

National minority and smaller parties could become important in coalition negotiations if no major group wins a majority.

What unites the opposition, and what divides it?

The groups challenging Vucic differ on key foreign policy issues, particularly relations with the EU, NATO, and Russia.

The Student List has said it would maintain Serbia’s refusal to impose sanctions on Moscow. Its representative Jovo Bakic has proposed a referendum on EU membership and opposed joining NATO.

European Serbia supports alignment with EU foreign policy, including sanctions against Russia, a position advocated by Tepic.

Jovanovic opposes EU membership and sanctions against Moscow, while Socialist representative Snezana Paunovic supports EU accession but has criticized the bloc’s current policies.

Territorial tensions: Where do the parties stand on Kosovo and Republika Srpska?

Kosovo remains one of Serbia’s most sensitive political issues. The province declared independence in 2008, a move recognized by the US and many of its allies. Belgrade still considers Kosovo part of Serbia, as do Russia and China, and some 90 other countries.

The declaration followed NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, conducted without authorization from the UN Security Council. Belgrade’s relations with the ethnic Albanian-led authorities in Pristina remain tense.

The Student List has also rejected recognizing the so-called Kosovo precedent. In a memorandum published in May, it described Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia and called for a negotiated settlement in accordance with the Serbian Constitution and international law.

Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority constituent entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose autonomy is guaranteed under the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, is another touchstone.

Vucic has maintained close ties with its leadership while supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina’s territorial integrity. Former Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has openly backed Vucic’s coalition, urging Serbian citizens living there to vote for it.

The Student List has sought support among Serbian voters in Republika Srpska but has not outlined a comparably detailed policy toward the entity. Some Bosnian Serb opposition politicians have backed the students, while others have refused to take sides.

Belgrade and Brussels: The beatings will continue

Serbia applied to join the EU in 2009 and received candidate status in 2012. Accession negotiations began in 2014, but no new negotiating chapters or clusters have been opened since 2021.

Brussels has made further progress toward EU membership conditional on the normalization of relations with Kosovo and alignment with the bloc’s foreign policy, including sanctions against Russia, as well as other judicial, media, and governmental reforms.

Serbia’s accession process has remained stalled while other candidates have moved forward. In July, eight EU member states opposed advancing talks with Belgrade, while Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, and Moldova have made progress toward membership.

Vucic has expressed frustration with the slow pace of EU enlargement, warning in July that candidate countries should not expect major breakthroughs in the coming years.

Kos has also warned against allowing prospective EU members to develop dependencies on outside powers that could conflict with the bloc’s interests.

“We should not risk our future members building dependencies on others that run counter to our long-term interest,” she said.

The commissioner identified Russia as an adversary in the enlargement process and criticized the influence of US President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement on European politics.

Vucic has maintained that Serbia intends to pursue EU membership while preserving its independent foreign policy.

What makes the ties between Serbia and Russia so strong?

Serbia and Russia share longstanding historical and cultural ties, reinforced by their Orthodox Christian traditions and Slavic heritage.

Relations were further shaped by NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, which Moscow strongly opposed. Russia has since backed Belgrade’s position on Kosovo at the UN Security Council and refused to recognize the province’s independence.

Under Vucic, Serbia has maintained diplomatic and economic cooperation with Moscow while refusing to join Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.

In an interview with Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak published on Tuesday, Vucic said European leaders regularly pressed him on the issue.

”We are not sitting on two chairs; our only chair is Serbia,” he said.

Do Russia and Serbia have an energy deal?

Energy remains central to the relationship. On September 30, Russia’s Gazprom extended its gas supply agreement with Serbia for another three months, until December 31, on unchanged terms, according to Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic.

Following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September, Vucic said Serbia was paying around €318 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, compared with a market price of approximately €868 at the time.

The latest extension secures supplies through the beginning of winter but leaves arrangements for 2027 unresolved.

The future of NIS, which operates Serbia’s only oil refinery, also remains uncertain following US sanctions over its Russian majority ownership. Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has been negotiating the purchase of the Russian stake.

Where would each party take Serbia if they win?

Vucic has emphasized his determination to preserve Serbia’s sovereignty and keep the country out of a war with Russia, which he said he believes the EU is preparing for.

”I do not want Serbia to be part of that war, and I would not allow Serbia to be part of that war,” he said in an interview with TV Prva on Wednesday.

He accused Western governments of seeking to install politicians who would follow their instructions.

How could the election affect relations with Moscow?

The next Serbian government will face decisions on future Russian gas supplies, the ownership of NIS, and the country’s military exports.

Russian observers will monitor the election at Serbia’s invitation, according to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The delegation will include representatives of both chambers of the Russian parliament and the Central Election Commission, with Russian officials also participating in international monitoring missions.

Moscow has said it hopes to maintain close ties with Belgrade after the election. Zakharova described the relationship as rooted in “strong fraternal traditions, a shared worldview, and respect for genuine values.”

She added that “continuity in these ties will serve the national interests of both countries and help strengthen peace and stability in the Balkans.”

Witkoff returns to Russia

US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to present a new set of peace proposals to Russian President Vladimir Putin. As was the case in every round of talks so far, Moscow found little to agree with in the terms put forward by Kiev and its European backers, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters afterwards. 

That the US would even consider meeting with Putin rubbed the Europeans the wrong way. Speaking after Witkoff met Zelensky in Oslo on Tuesday, EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas accused US President Donald Trump and his envoys of “trying to push Ukraine into surrender.”

Kallas is in an unenviable position. Trump has proven able and willing to negotiate with Putin above the Europeans’ heads, as he did when he waived sanctions on Russian diesel. Faced with the prospect of being cut out of an eventual peace deal, the EU is reportedly searching for an envoy to represent Brussels’ interests at the negotiating table. As anti-Russia hardliners, Kallas and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have essentially ruled themselves out; French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are drowning in domestic turmoil and watching their legitimacy collapse in real time; and the supposed ‘compromise candidate’ trumpeted by EU media, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, is a potentially toxic choice.

EU leaders, Putin remarked on Thursday, suffer from “a kind of political schizophrenia.” The Europeans “now go so far as to constantly speak of a ‘Russian threat’ and even discuss preparations for a war with Russia” against the will of their citizens, he explained. “They will hopefully realize that it is better to live in harmony with Russia – a path that truly serves the interests of their own peoples.”

The only European official present at the St. Petersburg meeting was von der Leyen’s chief of staff, Bjorn Seibert.

Zelensky scorned again

Zelensky signaled his disapproval with the Witkoff-Putin meeting in as clear a manner as possible; firing drones at St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region. His own meeting with Witkoff in Oslo didn’t go so well either. The New York Times reported that the US envoy “reproached Zelensky for his sharp responses” to Trump’s recent assertion that Zelensky “doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” and “should have this war settled a long time ago.” Zelensky spent the rest of the week trying to dress up a ceasefire as a new idea that hadn’t been discounted dozens of times already by Moscow.

The deepening rift between Kiev and Washington is one of multiple diplomatic crises facing Zelensky. 

South Korea pulled diplomats from the Ukrainian capital over Ukraine’s refusal to apologize for exposing the secret transfer of North Korean POWs to Seoul, a move that the South Koreans warned could endanger the POWs’ relatives in North Korea and undermine stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) confirmed on Wednesday that it is investigating National Bank of Ukraine chief Andrey Pyshny in a graft probe reportedly aimed at Zelensky’s inner circle. One day earlier, NABU accused Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency of stealing $5 million by purchasing drones at inflated prices.

RT has covered the rampant graft in Kiev extensively in our ‘State of Corruption’ series, which you can read here. 

France fails

Just as corruption has come to define Zelensky’s Ukraine, the fiery collapse of the social contract now defines the closing stages of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency in France. After mass protests over rising prices and deteriorating social conditions degenerated into riots last week, almost 3,000 people were arrested this week as violent unrest continued to plague the streets of French cities.

Macron has refused to accept that his migration policies may be to blame for the riots, which Trump claimed are being led by “migrants, jihadists, and communists.” His government has also refused to change course on an austerity budget that will do little to alleviate the protesters’ economic concerns.

Instead, the French president has ordered military personnel into the streets, banned “illegitimate” protests, and imposed localized curfews. Whether he can count on the police to enforce these measures for much longer is unclear: France’s largest police union said on Thursday that it intends to sue the French state for creating the conditions that led to the riots, and leaving officers “betrayed and abandoned” to handle the violence without adequate training or protection. 

The EU’s Cold War in the Arctic

The Starlink wars return

The EU and its member states may be Ukraine’s leading backers, but the US provides Zelensky with something that the Europeans don’t have: access to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation. Ukraine depends on Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade version, to guide its drones, connect to NATO headquarters, and receive real-time updates from Palantir’s battlefield management software.

As long as this dependence exists, the US holds a powerful instrument of leverage over Zelensky. While nobody in SpaceX or the US government has taken responsibility for throttling Ukraine’s access to the network earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal claimed this week that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk – who has condemned Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian oil refineries – personally ordered that the Ukrainian military’s access to the network be restricted.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that the government played any role in the slowdown, saying that “it sort of happened” accidentally. However, a turn of phrase by Rubio suggested that the connection problems may have been deliberate, and intended as a warning to Zelensky: “Ukraine,” he said on Wednesday, “would not exist as a sovereign state” without US support.

Moscow is well aware that Kiev uses Starlink to strike civilian targets as well as military ones. Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed this week that two of the seven drones that struck a female dormitory at a college in Starobelsk in May – killing 21 people – were guided by SpaceX’s network. As long as Kiev continues to use this system, it remains a potential source of escalation between Russia and the US.

What we’re watching

We’re keeping a close eye on three consequential elections over the coming days, starting on Sunday with a presidential election in Brazil and parliamentary elections in Serbia. The showdown between Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro is an intensely personal battle between two bitter rivals, with the potential to pull another Latin American nation into the orbit of the US and reshape the future of the BRICS group. 

In Serbia, former President Aleksandar Vucic is now running for prime minister, in a snap election pitting his ruling coalition against a new political faction put together by the organizers of anti-government protests raging in Serbia since 2024. Vucic’s coalition has a narrow lead, but accusations of foreign interference are flying, and we’ll know by Monday whether Vucic’s gambit paid off.

Few world leaders have been as consequential as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Perennially on the verge of prosecution over multiple corruption scandals and facing mass protests, Netanyahu’s political fortunes changed with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel in 2023. Three years later, Netanyahu has managed to achieve almost all of his war aims – leveling Gaza, diminishing Hezbollah in Lebanon, neutering Syria, and leading the US into war with Iran. 

However, with the Iran war stalled and Netanyahu offering no plan for a post-conflict Gaza, dissent has returned, and polls suggest that his right-wing coalition will fall up to 10 seats short of the 61 needed to govern. The closing of polls on Tuesday night may signal the start of a lengthy process of political horse-trading, with Netanyahu’s future no clearer than it is now.

For more on these stories as they develop, stick with RT.

Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood has appeared in a London court on two additional sex offense charges, British media reported on Friday.

The 69-year-old faces a total of 17 charges involving nine women, including allegations of rape and sexual assault. The alleged offenses span more than three decades, from 1983 to 2016.

The two additional charges were announced by London’s Metropolitan Police in September. They concern the alleged indecent assault of a girl aged 16 or 17 in west London in 1991 and the alleged sexual assault of an 18-year-old woman in south London in 2004.

Former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood in court charged with two further offences https://t.co/1OAT99G8aq

— ITV News (@itvnews) October 23, 2026

During Friday’s hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Westwood indicated that he would plead not guilty to both charges, according to court officials cited by British media. He has already pleaded not guilty to the original 15 charges, including four counts of rape.

Among the earlier allegations is the rape of a woman in a hotel in 1996. Westwood is also accused of several indecent assaults on BBC premises during the 1990s, as well as sexual offenses at other locations in London and elsewhere in England.

Westwood was one of Britain’s best-known hip-hop DJs, working for BBC Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra between 1994 and 2013.

In February 2025, the BBC apologized after an independent investigation found evidence of bullying and misogynistic behavior by Westwood. The broadcaster admitted it had been “too deferential to high-profile individuals” and missed opportunities to address complaints about his conduct.

The main theme of the Russia-Ukraine conflict this year has been the so-called ‘war of cities’, characterized by mutual strategic strikes on targets in the rear. In the first half of the year, Kiev had managed to bolster its strike capabilities and even attempted to pressure Moscow into accepting its terms for a ceasefire.

However, by fall, the situation shifted dramatically. Russia began deploying new jet-powered drones, such as Banderol and Geran-4/Geran-5 UAVs, and significantly increased the intensity of its ballistic strikes. Meanwhile, Ukraine has exhausted its stocks of Western-supplied interceptor missiles, and its own domestically produced air defense systems have proven ineffective against high-speed jet-powered UAVs and ballistic missiles. 

We will examine the specific targets that Russia has struck in Ukraine’s rear, and the rationale behind these attacks. We’ll also take a look at the targets it deliberately avoids, along with measures taken to minimize risks to Ukrainian civilians.

Industrial enterprises

In the early years of the military operation, Russia targeted Ukraine’s defense industry facilities – both old Soviet plants like Yuzhmash in Dnepropetrovsk and new, smaller enterprises focused on drone assembly and munitions production.

In response, Ukraine began relocating and dispersing production to any available industrial facilities or even warehouses. This strategy was openly discussed in Ukrainian propaganda as a crucial element of resilience against Russian assaults.

As Russia increased its striking capabilities, it adopted a broader approach, targeting all industrial facilities based on a straightforward principle: if a facility can be used for drone assembly, it qualifies as a legitimate military target.

Ammunition depots

Soviet military doctrine emphasized storing ammunition in centralized depots far from residential areas. Munitions were kept in shelters designed in such a way that the destruction of one would not affect the others.

One of the largest such depots, the 65th Rocket and Artillery Arsenal in Balakleya, sustained damage from a series of explosions even before the military operation. Control over it was handed from one side to another multiple times. It still contains tens of thousands of tons of expired munitions, which have been repurposed for use in attack drones.

The situation mirrors that of the industrial sector. In order protect ammunition from airstrikes, it is moved out of the isolated weapons depots and hidden in any available facilities. Western missiles are transported from Poland to these locations as well.

The consequences of this approach are dire: an attack leads to the detonation of ammunition, gravely endangering the surrounding residential areas. On August 29, 2026, a strike on a warehouse operated by Fire Point in the village of Milaya resulted in the death of 38 civilians.

Logistics networks

Lacking a proper military supply system, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have relied on civilian infrastructure for military logistics since the ATO in Donbass in 2014-15. A key player in this strategy has been the courier service Novaya Pochta. This approach was touted as innovative – modern, cost-effective, and efficient – and gained traction not only in Ukraine but also in Russia.

However, there are two sides to every coin. From the start of the war, Russia has targeted Novaya Pochta warehouses, and in 2026, it began systematically destroying them. In addition to Novaya Pochta, major retail and marketplace chains like Epicentr and Rozetka also came under fire, followed by other logistics companies in Ukraine.

Russia’s reasoning is straightforward: if Ukraine employs civilian infrastructure for military purposes, then all such facilities become legitimate military targets.

Energy sector

Electricity forms the backbone of any support system. Without it, production halts, communication falters, and supplying the army becomes increasingly difficult. Based on this logic, since 2022, the Russian military has systematically targeted Ukraine’s electricity generation, reducing its capacity from 50-55 GW before the war to just 12-15 GW during the winter of 2025-26.

Simultaneously, energy consumption in Ukraine declined; heavy industry ground to a halt, rolling blackouts were implemented, and some consumers turned to autonomous power sources like generators. Consequently, Ukraine transformed from Europe’s largest electricity exporter to an importer.

At the core of Ukraine’s generation capacity are three nuclear power plants, which, for obvious reasons, remain untouched by Russian attacks. Instead, this fall, Russian forces have focused on electrical networks, targeting distribution substations and transmission lines. For example, one of the two power line crossings over the Dnieper River in Kiev was destroyed, significantly hampering power supplied not only to Kiev, but to the entire territory of eastern Ukraine.

Attacks on Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants – which generate both electricity and heat – continue as well. The goal isn’t to freeze the residents of Kiev, but to dismantle Ukraine’s unified energy system, breaking it into isolated segments that can be dealt with individually.

Oil and gas industry

Before the war, Ukraine had only one operational oil refinery in Kremenchuk, which had been running at about 15% capacity since 2014. Since 2022, it has faced relentless attacks and has completely ceased operations. Now, Ukraine relies entirely on imported fuel.

Ukrainian gas production facilities across the country and in the Black Sea are regularly attacked. The latest attacks occurred on October 12 in Kharkov Region. 

Another target is the underground gas storage facility in Stryi, located in western Ukraine. One of the largest such facilities in the world, it was part of a vast gas transportation system from Russia to Europe and is currently not used for its original purpose. This facility is a challenging target; while drone strikes can damage surface infrastructure (which is relatively easy to repair), even a nuclear explosion might not destroy the storage facility itself. 

In the absence of better targets, this summer, Russia specifically targeted gas stations in both frontline areas and Kiev. The goal was to disrupt military logistics. Reports estimate that over 200 gas stations were destroyed nationwide during the summer months.

Data centers

Until this fall, Russia refrained from striking Ukrainian data centers. However, these facilities are as integral to military infrastructure as any other component; they facilitate troop command, communications, and logistics management. They support critical Ukrainian systems like Obereg and Rezerv+ recruitment centers, the electronic procurement platform Prozorro, and the Diia Unified State Web Portal of Electronic Services. Disrupting these systems would undoubtedly undermine Ukraine’s military operations.

In the past month, Russia has targeted various data centers, including Bi-Mobile in Kiev, De Novo Data Center, NewTelco, United DC, as well as Kievstar, Parkovy, and Vodafone telecommunications centers. 

Despite these disruptions, the unified digital environment of Ukraine remains largely intact. In response, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) struck several Yandex data centers in Russia.

In this ‘war of cities’, the fate of data centers and the resilience of communication networks are being monitored particularly closely worldwide, with many countries considering the security of their own networks. 

Ports and maritime traffic

Up until this year, Russia had largely turned a blind eye to Ukraine’s maritime trade. Despite intermittent attacks on warehouses, the Black Sea ports in Odessa, Illichevsk, and the Danube ports of Izmail and Reni continued their operations, exporting local grain and metal while importing fuel, heavy machinery, and, of course, weapons.

However, in the spring and summer of this year, Ukrainian naval and aerial drones systematically began targeting Russian maritime traffic in the Black Sea, striking everything from tankers to bulk carriers laden with grain. In retaliation, Russia quickly imposed a complete maritime blockade on Ukraine, implementing it in its most severe form – attacks were directed not only at the ports but also at commercial vessels approaching or leaving them.

From a legal standpoint, all commercial vessels capable of transporting weapons or troops are considered by Russia as legitimate military targets. The same universal logic applies here – if a ship can carry weapons, it is a target. 

These strikes have been incredibly painful for Ukraine. Without the ability to export goods over land, the country has effectively lost crucial revenue streams and one of its last remaining sources of budgetary funding. Additionally, there have been disruptions in the supply of transformers, fuel, and, according to certain reports, heavy weaponry – all of which were transported by sea.

According to several experts, this maritime blockade threatens to cost Ukraine up to 10% of its GDP.

Other targets

In addition to the aforementioned categories, Russia is attacking a wide range of military and dual-use targets.

Locomotives: Since the start of the Russia's military operation, over 300 mainline diesel and electric locomotives have been rendered inoperable. With the number of remaining working locomotives decreasing, the transportation capacity of the railways is nearing exhaustion. Both railway depots and trains are being attacked.

Trucks: The AFU takes pride in how they’ve adapted civilian trucks for launching long-range drones. However, this makes any cargo truck a legitimate military target for Russia and has led to the destruction of dozens of such launch platforms, which are tracked through intelligence efforts.

Bridges: Major bridges are undoubtedly attractive strategic targets, but they are also difficult to destroy. There are currently 22 crossings over the Dnieper River, and none have yet been destroyed by long-range strikes. In the past month, there have been multiple attacks on bridges in Kiev, but so far, they continue to operate. 

Land border crossings with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania are another bottleneck in Ukraine’s transportation logistics. To safeguard the border crossings from ongoing attacks, the authorities have begun relocating them entirely to neighboring territories.

Lastly, there are a few specific targets mentioned in intelligence reports. For example, on July 24, Russian forces bombed a weapons exhibition near Kiev attended by prominent figures from Ukraine’s defense sector.

What targets doesn’t Russia strike?

Russia has refrained from targeting civilian and humanitarian facilities such as residential buildings, hospitals, and schools. Hits on these types of structures are often due to the operation of air defense systems. The structures are sometimes struck by debris from intercepted missiles and drones, or even accidentally struck by interceptor missiles. Russian officials maintain that the strike on the Okhmatdet hospital in Kiev on July 12, 2024, was caused by an interceptor missile launched from the Norwegian-supplied NASAMS system. 

Water supply and sewage facilities are not attacked by Russian forces. Throughout the conflict, there have been no recorded strikes on this critical infrastructure. However, during attacks on Kiev and other major cities, water outages frequently occur, indicating that backup generators at vital infrastructure sites are not operational.

Observers are particularly surprised by the immunity of the government district in Kiev, leading to jokes about it being the safest place in Ukraine. This could suggest some kind of behind-the-scenes agreements.

Overall, even Ukrainian and Western analysts acknowledge that Russia continually enhances the accuracy of its strikes while improving its management, guidance, and navigation systems. Russia has established a communication network for drones using mesh networks and has developed and implemented the Susanin optical navigation system, which provides 1-meter strike accuracy even in conditions of heavy electronic interference.

If Russia’s ultimate goal were to terrorize the civilian population, there would be no need to develop such complex and expensive systems. It could simply fire indiscriminately at Kiev. But with such an approach, there would’ve been tens of thousands of civilian casualties – one may consider the example of Gaza. 

Currently, in Kiev, as well as in other rear cities across Ukraine, estimates indicate that up to 95% of residents disregard air raid warnings and remain above ground during alerts. Moreover, local authorities have eased air raid protocols to keep the city functioning. 

Cut through the corporate damage-control flimflam – ‘technical’ issues and ‘mistakes’ but no politics, they say – and the Oversight Board of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has just had to deny but really admit that its platforms have been caught trying to influence Brazil’s upcoming presidential elections.

In essence, they have favored the challenger and US favorite Flavio Bolsonaro, commonly referred to as ‘Flavio’ in Brazil, and harmed the incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, usually called ‘Lula’.

Meta, to be clear, hasn’t (sort of) fessed up because Mark Zuckerberg’s behemoth has suddenly discovered a conscience. Instead, it was pressure from Brazilian investigative reporting that forced the company’s hand.

Whatever effect the American meddling will have on the election result, one thing is already certain: It has made the contest and the fierce political struggle behind it even more polarized than before. A few days before the decisive and very close final round, Lula and Flavio are trying to have each other excluded from the election; when dealing with a badly divided country, just leave it to Washington to make everything even more vicious.

The crude attack on Brazil’s electoral integrity is anything but a surprise. Historically speaking, it’s the bad old normal rejigged for the social-media age. In Brazil, as throughout Latin America, the US has a long history of brutally intervening in domestic politics, featuring highlights such as a full-blown coup in 1964 and massive subversion by a lawfare-spying-propaganda campaign in the 2010’s.

Brazil’s post-coup dictatorship was no short intermission either. It ended only in 1985. Washington to Brasilia: Regime change plus two decades of military rule – that’s what you get for not knowing your place in our backyard.

And the lawfare-spying-propaganda campaign of the 2010s – in part disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden – targeted and removed two Brazilian presidents. One of them, Lula, even ended up in prison, before his convictions were annulled in 2021.

Yet, while there is a long, sad history of American attacks on Brazilian democracy and sovereignty, the stakes are especially high now, perhaps as high as they have not been since the 1964 coup. For one thing, the choice Brazil’s voters are facing is stark: Flavio Bolsonaro, the favorite not only of the US but Donald Trump personally, stands for the Bolsonaro family empire itching to strike back. His father Jair Bolsonaro is currently doing time for trying to instigate a coup. If his son comes to power, Brazil will face a great, dirty settling of scores and severe danger of sliding into authoritarianism again.

Politically, Lula and Bolsonaro Jr. could not be more different: Lula is on the left; Flavio – like his father – very solidly on the right. More importantly, the rivals represent diametrically opposed ideas of Brazil’s place in the world. Brazil is not only an important G20 member, but Lula belongs to the founding generation of BRICS and is a proponent of the rising multipolar world order in general. He demands reform at the UN, especially its Security Council, and openly challenges the predominance of the US dollar, arguing for alternatives for payments, investments, and reserves.

Lula has also castigated Israel’s genocide in Gaza and compared it with the Nazi Holocaust, for which Israel has declared him persona non grata, while Brazil has joined South Africa at the International Court in accusing Israel of genocide.

The only other country cherished with equal fervor by the whole Bolsonaro family is – surprise, surprise – Israel. Go to a Bolsonaro rally and you are likely to see three flags: Brazil’s, that of the US, and of Israel.

And then there is China. Due to its demographic and territorial heft, its location, and its rich agricultural and industrial resources, Brazil is the prime prize in Washington’s dialing up to 11 of its traditional backyard colonialism. Lula has not only been bold enough to openly call it out but to declare that his country will never be a US colony when defying a typically Trumpian tariff attack.

What is worse from Washington’s perspective, he has worked hard to increase Brazil’s resilience by seeking connections beyond Latin America and especially with China. Beijing has been Brasilia’s main economic partner since 2009, with their trade volume reaching a record $171 billion last year. Brazilian exports to China exceed its combined exports to the US and the EU; and Brazil is now at the top of Chinese investment abroad.

The recent American de facto conquest of Venezuela was also a lesson in what Washington likes to do to those in its backyard daring to engage with America’s favorite hate object across the Pacific. But Brazil is no Venezuela; subduing it in one rapid cloak-and-dagger operation is impossible.

Yet the dark arts of interference have worked before. Recall that, in 1964, one of Joao Goulart’s unforgivable sins was to talk to China. By comparison, Lula’s determined policy of deep engagement with Beijing is off the American scale of intolerable rebelliousness. And for a reason: Without breaking Brazil once again, the continental cage the Donroe Doctrine is designed to rebuild sturdier than ever remains, at best, half-finished. And an unsubdued Brazil will always be an example of resistance.

The stakes could not be higher: sovereignty and, most likely, democracy itself for Brazil; strategic imperial triumph or failure for the US.

This article was first published on Substack

Anduril Industries CEO Palmer Luckey is working to clone and genetically engineer dogs for the American military, in a venture backed by the CIA and a biotech billionaire who plans on resurrecting prehistoric creatures.

Texas-based startup Warhound unveiled the project on Thursday, announcing $200 million in funding and a $1.2 billion valuation. The venture brings together Luckey, a major player in the burgeoning defense-tech sector, and Ben Lamm, whose biotechnology company has promised to revive the long-extinct wooly mammoth.

Warhound will be headed by David Spirk, the Pentagon’s first chief data officer and a former senior adviser at Palantir, a major US defense-tech company supplying AI and data analytics software to military and intelligence agencies. Its backers include In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s in-house venture capital firm and one of Palantir’s first investors.

“This is the sci-fi future we were promised,” Lamm said, describing the prospect of producing genetically enhanced working dogs.

Despite its billion-dollar valuation, Warhound has yet to secure a customer or determine how much its genetically engineered dogs will cost. Luckey and Lamm are no strangers to hawking vaporware, however. As RT explored in our ‘Wired for War’ series, Anduril Industries – which is valued at $90 billion – has produced only two combat-tested weapons systems, which failed during US military trials and were rejected for use by the Ukrainian armed forces.

Lamm’s company, Colossal Biosciences, is valued at $10-12 billion. Although the company succeeded in birthing three extinct dire wolf puppies last year, it is unclear how long the pups will survive, and Lamm admitted in August that he would likely be unable to resurrect the wooly mammoth for at least another decade.

Luckey and Lamm plan to outfit their designer dogs with advanced body armor and sensors linked to Anduril’s battlefield awareness system, which unlike Palantir’s flagship ‘Gotham’ system, is still in its prototype stages. The company is reportedly considering a subscription-style model under which the Pentagon would pay for a continuous supply of trained animals rather than purchase them individually.

In 2019, Chinese scientists unveiled Kunxun, a cloned police dog produced from the genetic material of an animal renowned for its crime-solving abilities. The project aimed to reproduce elite working dogs while reducing training costs.

The push to engineer military animals raises ethical and welfare concerns. Animal cloning has been linked to pregnancy complications, developmental abnormalities, and health problems in newborns. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has documented such risks in livestock cloning, although healthy clones that survive their first weeks generally develop normally.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a blockade of the occupied West Bank in the aftermath of a deadly shootout between IDF troops and two suspected Palestinian gunmen at a security checkpoint.

The incident unfolded on Friday in the southern West Bank at the temporary checkpoint at the Judea Junction on Route 35. An AFP photographer who witnessed the shootout reported the two Palestinian suspects armed with a handgun and an automatic rifle exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers. Five Israelis were wounded in the attack, with two servicemen succumbing to their wounds in hospital, while the gunmen were killed on the site of the shootout, which lasted more than 20 minutes, according to a preliminary Israeli military investigation.

The Israeli military described the incident as a thwarted “terror attack” without specifying the intended target of the suspects. Netanyahu vowed a “very extensive” retaliatory operation in the aftermath of the incident, announcing the demolition of the entire neighborhood the attackers come from and displacing its residents, as well as requesting the cancellation of all political meetings on October 23.

Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded even more severe retaliation, calling for the dissolution of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA). No evidence, however, has emerged thus far linking the PA to the incident.

“The Palestinian Authority must be dissolved and demilitarized, and all terrorist infrastructure must be completely wiped out,” Ben-Gvir, known for extremely hostile anti-Palestinian rhetoric and assorted controversial stunts, said.

The deadly shooting comes ahead of the high-stakes legislative election in Israel scheduled for October 27. The upcoming polls are the first voting to take place since the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war. The prolonged conflict has prompted repeated allegations against Netanyahu of deliberately dragging out the hostilities to keep his grip on power. The latest opinion polls put the incumbent PM in a tight race with Gadi Eisenkot, a former head of the IDF, and the prospects of Netanyahu losing his post remain high.

Russia will retaliate against Austria for expelling four of its diplomats over alleged misconduct, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Dmitry Lyubinsky has said.

The warning follows Vienna’s decision to declare four Russian diplomats personae non gratae over alleged violations of diplomatic rules, without publicly presenting evidence of wrongdoing.

“A response will follow inevitably,” Lyubinsky told TASS on Friday. He did not specify what retaliatory measures Moscow could take.

Austria announced the expulsions earlier on Friday, citing findings by its security services. Three of the diplomats were stationed at the Russian Embassy in Vienna, while the fourth worked at Moscow’s delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), dealing with military security and arms control.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry accused the four of engaging in “activities incompatible with their diplomatic status” and ordered them to leave the country. It did not identify the diplomats or provide details of the alleged violations.

Austrian media have sought to link the expulsions to alleged Russian espionage, although Vienna has provided no public evidence to substantiate the claims. According to the magazine Profil, the country’s Defense Ministry circulated a warning to military personnel and reservists in August about supposed Russian intelligence operatives, complete with the names and photographs of 21 individuals.

The warning reportedly prompted a wave of reports about suspicious contacts, though their nature and credibility remain unclear. Profil also claimed that disagreements between Austria’s Defense and Foreign Ministries had delayed the expulsions. None of the allegations have been publicly substantiated, and no evidence directly implicating the four Russian diplomats in espionage has been presented.

Austria has expelled 18 Russian diplomats since 2020. Despite its longstanding military neutrality, Vienna has joined EU sanctions against Moscow and provided political and financial assistance to Ukraine.

The diplomatic standoff escalated again in May, when Austria expelled three Russian Embassy employees over allegations that antennas installed on diplomatic buildings in Vienna were being used to intercept satellite communications. The Russian Embassy dismissed the accusations as “outrageous,” “unjustified” and politically motivated, warning of a harsh response.

The latest surge in diplomatic activity surrounding the conflict in Ukraine follows a familiar pattern, although each round brings its own peculiarities. This time, US President Donald Trump is particularly angry with Vladimir Zelensky, whom he increasingly blames for the failure to end the war.

Their personal animosity has been evident since their first meeting of Trump’s second term in office, more than 18 months ago. But there’s now an additional factor, and it’s American domestic politics.

With the Republicans facing a difficult election, Trump needs a political success. There is little time for major achievements, but powerful images can still make an impression and stabilizing the fuel market through diplomacy with Moscow offers precisely that opportunity.

Peacemaking in a bloody conflict is an achievement in itself, but voters are generally more concerned about their own finances and Trump understands this, so he appears to have returned to the conviction he held from the outset that Zelensky is more susceptible to pressure than Moscow.

Russia has established the limits of its flexibility and shown little inclination to retreat from them; Washington, meanwhile, failed last year to bring Ukraine and its European backers into line. Indeed, they even briefly managed to persuade Trump that Kiev could fundamentally reverse the military situation, but now the pendulum has swung back.

He remembers how the Ukrainian leadership sought to assist the Democrats during the 2020 presidential campaign and he appears to be interpreting Kiev’s current behavior in much the same light: as an attempt to help his domestic opponents. Trump rarely forgives such conduct, hence the increasingly harsh rhetoric.

Knowing the president, one might expect this attitude to endure, but it would be a mistake to assume that his hostility towards Zelensky guarantees a successful peace settlement.

A policy favorable to Moscow commands little support within the American establishment, regardless of party affiliation, so opponents will exploit every opportunity to obstruct it.

Western Europe, meanwhile, is determined not to be excluded from negotiations and its governments have continued to resist a settlement they believe would serve Russian interests.

Trump can be pushed in one direction or another, but fundamentally changing his outlook is another matter, because for all his apparent unpredictability, he’s remarkably consistent in his underlying worldview and once he forms an opinion, he rarely abandons it.

These, however, are questions of personality and political psychology, so what of the settlement itself?

The negotiations remain opaque, as genuine diplomacy generally does and their direction can only be inferred from indirect signals.

Western commentary tends to identify territory as the principal obstacle and there’s some justification for this, as the course of military operations has progressively elevated territorial questions beyond the importance they held at the beginning of the conflict.

Vladimir Putin has consistently warned that rejecting Russia’s proposed settlement terms would mean confronting less favourable conditions later, and that’s precisely what has happened, particularly regarding territory, yet territorial concessions are not the whole story.

The broader principles of European security, both military and political, remain central. They were, after all, the decisive considerations behind Moscow’s decision to use force in 2022.

Indeed, we might suggest that security, understood in its widest sense, has become, or is about to become, the central issue in negotiations, and this is inseparable from the territorial question.

The less confidence there is in durable agreements on mutual guarantees and military restrictions, the greater the incentive to expand buffer zones and diminish an adversary’s capabilities over the longer term, so territory, in other words, becomes a substitute for security arrangements that neither side believes it can trust.

Following the meetings in Oslo and St. Petersburg, American representatives have spoken of substantial progress, while Europeans describe a convergence of positions and the emergence of new ideas.

For now, diplomacy continues along its familiar trajectory, with another expert-level trilateral meeting expected in November to address technical questions, following two previous rounds.

Yet the combination of developments suggests that the military phase of the conflict may be approaching a significant turning point, even if its conclusion remains some distance away.

Yuri Ushakov has expressed hope that the end is approaching and that may be optimistic, but the alternatives are becoming clearer: either serious peace negotiations encompassing the full range of disputed issues, or a transition to a new level of escalation.

The first option requires credible security guarantees and technical arrangements alone will not suffice, so what’s needed is a stable political framework capable of surviving changes in circumstances and leadership.

This is also the context in which the possibility of a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China and the United States is being discussed.

The proposed gathering at next month’s APEC summit in Shenzhen has generated considerable speculation, but whether it will happen remains uncertain. Even if it does, there will be no new Yalta and no sweeping grand bargain because the international environment simply does not permit such an outcome.

Nevertheless, a meeting between Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump would carry considerable significance.

Within an increasingly complicated international landscape, it would demonstrate the level at which the world’s most consequential decisions are being made, a level commensurate with the scale of the challenges. Perhaps that, in itself, would yield a new perspective.

This article was first published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and was translated and edited by the RT team 

Millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control are unable to vote in the upcoming parliamentary election that will shape their lives, RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij reports.

Ahead of the October 27 vote, Dubenskij visited East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank to examine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s description of Israel as the Middle East’s “only true democracy.”

In East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed in a move rejected by the UN, many Palestinians hold permanent residency rather than Israeli citizenship. They pay taxes, social security, and VAT, but cannot vote for the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

“We are really helpless, voiceless,” one resident told RT. Another described the frustration of facing the consequences of an election without being able to influence it.

Although Palestinian residents who obtain Israeli citizenship can vote, those who spoke to RT opposed taking that step, arguing it would amount to recognizing Israeli sovereignty.

Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti argued that the occupation and different legal systems applied to Palestinians and Israeli settlers contradict Israel’s democratic claims.

“Two different laws for two people in the same area is nothing but the description of apartheid,” he told RT.

Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook, meanwhile, has advocated allowing Palestinians to remain while denying them a parliamentary vote. “They can stay here as human beings, of course,” she said, but stressed that they “shouldn’t be able to vote for the Knesset.”

Barghouti further accused Israel of obstructing internal Palestinian elections. The Palestinian Authority cited Israel’s refusal to guarantee voting in East Jerusalem when it canceled elections in 2021.

For Palestinians interviewed in Ramallah, the priority is to be allowed to hold their own elections rather than voting under occupation.

Watch the full report below.

US troops have been warned against using inside information to bet on prediction markets, the Associated Press has reported, citing a directive issued by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who said such wagers could expose military plans and influence operational decisions.

The memo, dated Tuesday and reviewed by AP, covers platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, where users wager on real-world events, including elections and military action.

The directive bars the use of both classified material and other official information unavailable to the public, with violators facing disciplinary action or criminal charges under military or federal law.

“Our enemies watch movements in these markets,” Hegseth wrote. “When an American service member, intelligence professional, or other Department civilian engages in a financial transaction on a military outcome, they create a signal.”

The directive follows the prosecution of a US Special Forces soldier accused of profiting from advance knowledge of the January operation to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Prosecutors allege that Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke used information obtained through his involvement in planning and executing the raid to place more than $32,500 in Polymarket bets, earning over $400,000.

Most of the wagers were allegedly placed on January 2, hours before the attack on Caracas. Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty.

The controversy has extended beyond the military. Newly created Polymarket accounts placed suspiciously timed bets shortly before Trump announced an April US-Iran ceasefire, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. The White House later warned staff against trading on confidential information.

The scandals have intensified scrutiny of prediction markets, which several US states have accused of sidestepping gambling laws and consumer protections. The Trump administration, however, has argued that the platforms should remain regulated by federal financial authorities rather than under individual states’ gambling laws.

The president’s family also has business ties to the industry. Donald Trump Jr. serves as a strategic adviser to Kalshi and holds an investment in Polymarket through his venture firm, 1789 Capital.

Moscow and Kiev have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in the frontline town of Alyoshki in Russia’s Kherson Region to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and civilian evacuations following mediation co-ordinate by US First Lady Melania Trump, the Kremlin has confirmed.

Located near the front line in Kherson Region, which voted to join Russia in a 2022 referendum, Alyoshki has been largely cut off from essential supplies and basic services for months under a Ukrainian siege. Drone attacks and remotely laid mines have hampered aid deliveries and evacuation efforts, leaving an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 civilians in the town trapped, many of them elderly.

The White House announced the agreement earlier on Friday, saying both sides had agreed to suspend all military operations in Alyoshki from October 29 to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and prepare for civilian evacuations through a designated safe passage.

Melania Trump, who had previously expressed willingness to support humanitarian efforts in Alyoshki, described the situation as “dire,” calling the town a “frontline war city on the brink of disaster.”

“The remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water,” she said.

Civilian representatives from Russia and Ukraine will assess residents’ needs and help organize evacuations to either country, depending on the residents’ wishes, the first lady said.

Peskov also acknowledged the work of Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova and her Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Lubinets in arranging the operation.

Moscow has accused Kiev of deliberately creating the humanitarian crisis by targeting civilian supply routes and obstructing aid deliveries. Russian Foreign Ministry envoy Rodion Miroshnik previously described the situation as a “medieval blockade using modern methods,” accusing Ukrainian forces of preventing residents from leaving.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, discussed the crisis during a phone call earlier this month. According to the Kremlin, the two leaders agreed that Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova would maintain contact with Melania Trump’s office over humanitarian efforts.

Thousands of Indian Umrah pilgrims remain stranded in Saudi Arabia with airlines extending flight suspensions following attacks on the kingdom’s airports.

Affected travelers and their families have spoken to RT about canceled flights and difficulties in returning home, and appealed for more help from the Indian government.

The disruptions come amid a wave of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saudi Arabia. An Indian national was killed and two others injured in a strike on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam on Wednesday.

Indian carrier IndiGo on Friday extended cancellations to Jeddah, Medina, and Dammam until October 27, while flights to Riyadh will remain suspended until October 31. Akasa Air has also suspended services to Riyadh and Jeddah until October 27.

Mohammed Yahad, an Umrah pilgrim stranded in Medina, told RT that two tickets for his group had been canceled. He said he was safe and in contact with his family back in India, while his travel agent was providing food and accommodation.

”No one from the Indian Embassy has contacted us yet,” he said.

Around 3,000 pilgrims have returned to India on available flights over the past week, alongside more than 10,000 others traveling on scheduled services, India’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Indian lawmaker Asaduddin Owaisi separately estimated that around 4,000 pilgrims remained stranded in Mecca and Medina.

Their travel agent later confirmed that he had been moved safely to Mecca. The agent was also covering food and accommodation, but their return could take another week, Ansari said.

”I would like the Indian government to speak with the Saudi government and find a solution to this problem,” she told RT.

Indian Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said Friday that the government was assisting pilgrims still awaiting their return. Indian diplomatic missions in Riyadh and Jeddah are coordinating with airlines and tour operators and have established round-the-clock helplines.

A video going viral on Ukrainian social media appears to show a police officer choking a woman until she loses consciousness as she protests an attempt to forcibly mobilize a man.

The footage was reportedly recorded in Odessa this week, although few details about the incident have emerged since.

The altercation began when officers attempted to forcibly remove the driver of a parked car and put him into their vehicle, according to local media, prompting witnesses to intervene. One of the protesters, a woman, was placed in a choke-hold by an officer and soon collapsed to the ground, apparently fainting. Reports said she subsequently required medical assistance.

Some outlets suggested the detention was part of Ukraine’s notorious military mobilization campaign. Police have not issued an official statement, and there is no confirmation that the incident involved so-called “busification,” the practice of forcibly detaining potential recruits that has plagued the draft.

The mandatory conscription of fighting-age men, conducted to replenish losses in Kiev’s fight with Russia, has been marred by widespread corruption and abuses of power, as repeatedly documented by Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets.

The woman diagnosed with Nigeria’s first Ebola case in more than a decade did not travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), the Swiss government has said. The statement contradicts claims by Ugandan authorities that she had visited the country where the current outbreak began.

The patient is a 42-year-old Ugandan-born Swiss national married to a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja. She is believed to have contracted the virus while traveling with her husband in Uganda, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs told Reuters on Thursday.  

Uganda’s Health Ministry initially reported that the woman was a Nigerian national who had visited eastern DR Congo on business before traveling through Uganda. The ministry said the source of her infection remained unknown and stressed that Uganda had no active Ebola cases. However, the Swiss government later denied that the woman had traveled to DR Congo, while the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said they had received no confirmed information about such a visit.

The Africa CDC is also investigating whether the woman may have come into contact with a Kenyan Ebola patient, as both traveled through Uganda’s Entebbe airport on October 3.

Nigeria confirmed the infection on October 20. The woman returned to Nigeria on October 3 after spending about two and a half weeks in Uganda, the BBC said. According to the WHO, she developed symptoms four days later and sought medical care on October 11. She remains in isolation and is showing signs of improvement, while her husband is also isolated but has no symptoms. Nigerian Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate warned from “any panic,” stressing there was “no evidence that it has gone into the communities,” as authorities stepped up contact tracing and monitoring.

Uganda recorded 20 Ebola cases earlier this year, mostly imported from DR Congo, before being declared free of the disease in August.

Fourteen Indian sailors on board a yacht which was attacked in the Red Sea on Thursday have been rescued, New Delhi’s mission in Yemen has said.

“Reports suggest that all 14 Indian nationals are safe and located around Hodeidah in Yemen,” the Indian mission in Yemen said in an X post on Friday. The embassy will continue to work to ensure their well-being, it added. 

On Thursday, the embassy said Indian officials were working to find out more details about the reported strike on the yacht. It said information was sparse due to the conflict in the region.

“We have reached out to different parties to establish the circumstances and facts of the incident and hope to update as soon as authentic information becomes available,” it said in the X post.

Reports suggest that all 14 Indian nationals are safe and located around Hodeidah in Yemen. We will continue to work for ensuring their well being.@MEAIndia

— India in Yemen (@IndiaInYemen) October 23, 2026

“The Saudi enemy is targeting an Indian yacht near Zuqar Island, carrying 14 people of Indian nationality, according to preliminary information,” Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree posted, according to an NDTV report. “The Yemeni Armed Forces are rescuing them and will provide more details later.”

The incident comes after an Indian national and a Saudi citizen were killed in an attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Dammam airport on Wednesday.

Houthi fighters have unleashed a wave of attacks against Saudi Arabia as retaliation for the kingdom’s backing of the Yemeni government they oppose.

Russia remains ready to negotiate a lasting settlement in Ukraine but will achieve its objectives regardless, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Thursday. He also outright rejected “schizophrenic” claims in Western media that Moscow could be seeking a war with Europe.

Putin’s comments followed nearly three hours of talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Witkoff brought new peace talk proposals following his own discussions with Vladimir Zelensky, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s Chief of Staff Bjoern Siebert, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Oslo.

The new diplomatic engagement comes after Putin’s October 9 agreement with US President Donald Trump on Russian diesel supplies, whereby Washington eased fuel export restrictions while engaging with Moscow on broader economic cooperation.

Lasting peace, rather than a temporary pause

Putin confirmed Russia’s readiness to resume trilateral contacts with the US and Ukraine, focusing on security arrangements for both countries after a final settlement. The goal is to achieve definitive peace agreements, rather than “a suspension of hostilities for some short period,” he stressed.

The Russian leader also stated that he agrees with Witkoff’s argument that such discussions would also need to address Europe’s wider security architecture.

Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov previously suggested the talks could resume around mid-November, potentially in Abu Dhabi.

Putin said an agreement was possible, but insisted that “all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved” one way or another.

European claims that Russia poses a military threat and preparations for confrontation amount to “political schizophrenia,” Putin said, arguing that European populations do not want war with Russia and explicitly rejected suggestions that Moscow is preparing to attack them.

“We do not want, we are not preparing for any war with Europe,” he said.

Putin described inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia as unrealistic, expressing hope that its opponents would recognize that peaceful relations better serve their own populations.

‘Historic Russia’ and the territorial question

Asked about Zelensky’s recent comments to Fox News that he would be willing to give up 25% of his territories in order to freeze the conflict on the current battle lines, Putin rejected the premise.

“It is not their territory, it is the territory of historic Russia,” he said, citing residents’ votes for independence and subsequently for reunification with the Russian Federation.

He acknowledged that the issue remained disputed, but argued that describing these developments as Ukraine losing territory was inappropriate.

Putin called it “incomprehensible” that Kiev expects that “the entire world should pay them, fight for them, supply them with weapons, ammunition, equipment,” and stressed that Russia has no desire to fight Ukraine.

“If Ukraine’s current leadership wants to wage war, let them fight. But why do they think everyone should pay for it and supply them with weapons?” Putin questioned.

He noted that much of this desire for war can be attributed to foreign countries that want to fight against Russia in order to weaken it and have promised support to Kiev.

However, Putin stressed that these foreign entities are prepared to fight until “the last Ukrainian” and questioned whether Ukraine’s leadership similarly treats its citizens as expendable cannon fodder.

Putin accused Ukrainian authorities of rounding up men “like stray dogs” and forcibly sending them to the front, undermining motivation. He also argued that nationalist groups that carry out this so-called “busification” do not always bear the frontline burden themselves.

Shared history and missed opportunities

Putin said Moscow had sought a negotiated resolution with Kiev since 2014, including through the Minsk agreements intended to settle the Donbass conflict. He blamed Ukrainian authorities for repeatedly rejecting opportunities to reach an agreement before Russia’s military operation began in 2022.

He described Ukrainians as a people closely related to Russians, pointing to genetic research that has shown they are “one people.” However, he acknowledged that some wished to identify differently and said Russia accepted that reality.

“We are ready even now to negotiate and seek solutions to this difficult, complicated situation,” Putin said. “Everything can be agreed upon.”

All four of Moscow’s international airports – Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky – have resumed operations after a drone attack on Friday. An alert triggered an evacuation from Sheremetyevo, Russia’s busiest airport, which appeared to be the main target of the latest Ukrainian raid.

The alarm prompted the airports to temporarily suspend all operations, halting arrivals and departures, according to Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency. The shutdown affected all four international airports serving the Russian capital, which together handle roughly 200,000 passengers and more than 1,000 aircraft arrivals and departures on a typical day.

Sheremetyevo announced an evacuation during the raid, escorting passengers off aircraft and leading them to shelters. The evacuation order was lifted later in the day, with airport officials warning that flight delays and schedule disruptions could persist as airlines worked to restore normal operations.

Sheremetyevo, located northwest of Moscow, is the main hub for Russia’s flag carrier Aeroflot. It handles around 111,000 passengers daily, serving destinations across the country as well as in Asia, the Middle East, and other regions.

Domodedovo, southeast of the capital, handles approximately 39,000 passengers daily, while Vnukovo, southwest of Moscow, serves around 49,000. Both operate domestic and international services, including flights to Türkiye, Central Asia, and the Middle East.

Zhukovsky, the smallest of the four airports, is located southeast of Moscow near the city of the same name. It handles approximately 4,000 passengers daily, primarily on routes connecting Russia with neighboring countries and other international destinations.

Moscow’s three largest airports – Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo – handled a combined 40.4 million passengers in the first seven months of 2026, down 3.5% from the same period last year, according to Rosaviatsia figures analyzed by Interfax. Domodedovo recorded the steepest decline, with passenger traffic falling 13.2% to 6.9 million. Vnukovo saw a 1.4% drop to just over 9 million passengers, while Sheremetyevo, the capital’s busiest airport, reported a 1% decline to 24.5 million.

Russian air defenses shot down 155 Ukrainian drones over Moscow and the surrounding region overnight, according to Russian authorities. Earlier on Friday, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported that 19 of the UAVs had been intercepted on approach to the capital.

Moscow-bound flights have been diverted to other airports, including Pulkovo in St. Petersburg, which confirmed it was receiving aircraft originally destined for the Russian capital.

India will not cut off Russian crude supplies even if the current US push for it to take in more Venezuelan oil to cool global fuel prices masks the larger goal of weakening New Delhi’s energy ties with Moscow.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Mumbai on Tuesday that India diversifying its energy supplies is a “smart thing to do.”
 
Some analysts see a hidden geopolitical and economic goal behind those words and Rubio’s push for Indian conglomerate Reliance to buy and refine more Venezuelan oil.

“A key US goal is to weaken the Indo-Russian relationship by steering India farther away from Russian crude,” geopolitical analyst Brahma Chellaney posted on X on Thursday.

“Washington’s underlying diplomatic objective is to get India to substitute Russian oil with US crude and US-controlled Venezuelan oil.”
 
Washington imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods in August 2025 to pressure New Delhi over its Russian oil purchases, arguing that Moscow’s energy revenues were helping finance its military in the Ukraine conflict. The penalty was withdrawn in February this year.

Last week, US President Donald Trump also waived separate sanctions and steep tariffs targeting major buyers of Russian energy under a recently passed law, citing ongoing US efforts to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict.

During his Indian tour, Rubio sought to get India to buy more U.S. energy as well as more oil from Venezuela, whose export revenues are directly deposited into an account controlled by the U.S. Treasury, with Washington determining when, how much and for what purposes the funds are released. Rubio wants the world’s largest oil-refining complex in Jamnagar to process more Venezuelan crude. Washington appears not to be content with India’s rapid emergence since May as a top global buyer of U.S.-sourced and U.S.-controlled energy supplies. The U.S. has already become India’s largest supplier of both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). At Washington’s urging, India has also become the largest destination for Venezuelan oil exports. A key U.S. goal is to weaken the Indo-Russian relationship by steering India farther away from Russian crude. While Rubio framed India’s efforts to diversify its energy portfolio as a “smart thing to do,” Washington’s underlying diplomatic objective is to get India to substitute Russian oil with U.S. crude and U.S.-controlled Venezuelan oil.

— Dr. Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) October 21, 2026

“What America is trying to do is gain greater control over the international oil market,” Jindal School of International Affairs adjunct professor and former Jawaharlal Nehru University professor, Anuradha Mitra Chenoy, told RT.

“India will continue purchasing Russian oil,” she added.

Russia remains India’s largest oil supplier amid global energy disruptions. Russian crude made up more than half of India’s oil purchases in July, although the share fell to 33.5% in September as Middle Eastern supplies recovered and competition from China intensified, Reuters reported.

Venezuela produced approximately 1.16 million barrels per day of crude in September, compared with Russia’s 8.43 million, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). India’s Russian imports alone exceeded Venezuela’s entire output that month.

India, looking to widen its crude basket amid the global uncertainty, has already expanded Venezuelan purchases substantially. New Delhi’s Venezuelan imports surged from $255 million in all of FY2026 ended March, to $3.6 billion in the April-August period this year, data shared by the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) think tank showed.

India is a fast-growing major economy and one of the few bright spots amid the macroeconomic headwinds blowing across the world. The IMF forecasts it to grow at 7% this year and next.

Sustaining that growth depends heavily on the availability and affordability of energy, Chenoy pointed out. “India cannot simply abandon Russian oil because Washington wants it to.”

Why Venezuelan oil cannot easily replace Russian crude

Venezuela’s Merey grade is being offered at around $25 per barrel below benchmark Brent, but that cost advantage disappears when the $35-a-barrel freight to India’s west coast is added in, energy analyst Natalia Katona told the Indian Express.

The discounts on Russian crude have also narrowed and freight costs risen, making its delivered price comparable to some Middle Eastern grades, particularly Iraqi oil, reports said.

Still, it would be tough for Venezuelan oil to compete with Russian crude, let alone replace it for Indian buyers, because of the limited production, higher cost, and specialized equipment needed to refine the heavy grade.

Reliance’s Jamnagar complex, which can process around 1.4 million barrels daily, is among the refineries equipped to handle the Venezuelan grade.

From the American perspective, Merey has one advantage that likely prompted Rubio to rush to India amid higher fuel prices back home: it can produce a higher volume of diesel.

However, that is not a great reason for India to replace Russian crude with Merey.

An anti-corruption court in Kiev has ordered the arrest of a man who held a senior position under former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.

The widening scandal over an alleged protection racket exposed in early September is one of several to have rocked Vladimir Zelensky’s government, prompting multiple people close to him to flee the country for fear of prosecution. Kravchenko left Ukraine before parliament could dismiss him.

The latest suspect has been identified by the media as Ivan Timoshenko, who headed the Information Technology Department under Kravchenko before also resigning.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ordered Timoshenko detained at the request of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), which is investigating the alleged protection racket involving scam call centers at the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO). The court set his bail at $177,000.

The anti-corruption agency described Timoshenko’s role as crucial to the operation. He allegedly maintained direct contact with fraudsters protected by the network and collected payments from them. NABU also accused him of ensuring the group’s internal security, maintaining secrecy and recruiting new members.

According to media reports, Timoshenko and Kropiva previously worked together in Ukraine’s cyberpolice, the PGO, and the Odessa regional administration.

Both returned to prosecutorial work in 2025, after Kravchenko took charge of the PGO. Their return followed an unsuccessful attempt by Zelensky’s government to curb NABU’s independence, which prompted Western donors to threaten to suspend aid to Kiev.

European governments should stop worrying about their growing dependence on American AI, US tech giant Palantir’s top executive for the UK and Europe has said. Instead, they should focus on the advantages the products offer, particularly against Russia, Palantir UK CEO Louis Mosley believes.

The European Commission is frantically trying to reduce reliance on American tech and the US in general.

“Europe is going to have to accept some dependency,” Mosely told Bloomberg News this week.

The Commission estimates that the bloc relies on foreign providers for over 80% of its digital products, services, infrastructure, and intellectual property. However, many are skeptical that replacement is possible. In a Wire’s 2025 survey cited by the European Parliament, only 16% of regional IT leaders said the bloc could achieve digital sovereignty within five years, with almost 60% citing US dominance as a key obstacle.

“We cannot depend on the goodwill of certain partners who, as we’ve seen in recent days, are capable of cutting off access to models,” Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said when announcing the decision in June.

Berlin has reportedly chosen the same French competitor over Palantir for Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV.

Similar moves to ostracize the American firm have been reported in Spain and Denmark, as well as the non-EU nations of Switzerland, Norway, and the UK.

One of Palantir’s flagship products is Maven, an AI-powered system that processes vast amounts of intelligence data to help identify targets and generate strike recommendations for troops. It accelerates the so-called “kill chain,” allowing the military to consider substantially more potential targets than human personnel previously could.

Originally developed as a Pentagon project, Maven involved Google until 2018, when employee protests prompted the company to withdraw from the initiative. NATO purchased its own version of the system for use at its European headquarters in March 2025.

“I can provide categorical reassurance that where customers have bought our software, they are in full operational ‌control of ⁠that software,” Mosley assured in a separate interview with Reuters concerning NATO’s purchase.

There are no kill switches. There’s no ability for Palantir or the US government to reach in and switch it off.

The US government has a track record of restricting foreign access to flagship AI models. The French prime minister’s remark about a lack of goodwill was a reference to Washington’s blockage of Anthropic’s Mythos 5 tool, which lasted for almost three weeks.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 270 prisoners of war each, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Friday. The returning Russian servicemen are currently in  Belarus, where they are receiving assistance before being transported home for treatment and rehabilitation.

Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova is working with the freed servicemen in the neighboring country, according to the ministry. The troops will receive medical and psychological assistance before being transferred to Russian Defense Ministry facilities for further treatment and rehabilitation.

Prisoner exchanges between Moscow and Kiev are generally conducted on an equal basis, unlike the repatriation of fallen soldiers, which has frequently involved Russia handing over significantly more bodies than it receives.

Such disparities are typical of repatriations, unlike prisoner-of-war swaps, which are generally conducted on an equal basis. Pro-Kiev commentators have long argued that the imbalance does not reflect the actual ratio of battlefield casualties, as advancing Russian forces are better positioned to recover the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. However, Thursday’s exchange, which followed Kiev’s claims of a major offensive near the city of Liman, showed no significant change in the proportion.

A foreign national has been beaten to death by a group of around 50 people during a protest march in the South African city of Durban, police said on Thursday. Anti-immigrant demonstrations and violence against migrants have been continuing for months.

According to police, two men broke away from a march in central Durban and approached the victim, who was standing by the roadside. He was then allegedly assaulted by a group of about 50 people and pronounced dead at the scene. The authorities believe the victim was in his late 30s or early 40s, but his identity and nationality have not yet been released.

“Police are following several leads and using all investigative aids to identify possible suspects,” the South African Police Service (SAPS) said in the statement. Investigators are working to identify those responsible. The police have also not confirmed the purpose of the march.

In June, thousands of migrants, mostly from Malawi, gathered in Durban seeking assistance to return home. They said they feared for their safety after an anti-immigration group demanded that undocumented foreigners leave South Africa by June 30. 

In September, South African Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi announced that the authorities had processed 86,596 foreign nationals for deportation or repatriation between June 14 and August 20. Malawians accounted for the largest group, followed by Zimbabweans and Mozambicans.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned attacks against migrants and announced measures to strengthen border controls and immigration enforcement. He previously stated that “xenophobia, Afrophobia, or any other form of intolerance” has “no place” in South Africa.

The latest killing follows other deadly incidents linked to anti-immigrant unrest in South Africa. In late May, two Mozambican nationals were killed during violent protests in Mossel Bay, where around 50 makeshift homes were also set on fire.

India has questioned Western nations for imposing climate-related trade barriers on developing economies despite Europe’s historical contribution to the climate crisis the world is facing now.

Wealthy countries built their economies using fossil fuels but are now imposing additional costs on poorer nations, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told the Berlin Global Dialogue on Thursday.

“Who’s responsible for this mess in the first place?” Goyal asked, referring to the West’s carbon emissions, and challenged the European Union’s environmental trade restrictions.

India accounts for around 17% of the world’s population but has significantly lower per capita emissions than Europe, Goyal pointed out.

The minister questioned the $100 billion annual climate finance commitment made by wealthy countries to help developing economies address climate change. The target, first agreed upon during UN climate negotiations in 2009, was extended through 2025 under the Paris climate process.

📹 ‘Who’s Responsible For This Mess?’ Piyush Goyal Gives Europe A Climate History Lesson Goyal reminded Europe that it built its economies on cheap coal, questioning its climate demands on India despite the country having “one of the fastest growing clean energy program.” https://t.co/ji6ShNq0BH

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) October 23, 2026

“Eleven years later, we haven’t seen a nickel or dime of that. It’s all promises,” Goyal said.

He argued that the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) fails to recognize the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, under which developed countries are expected to shoulder a greater burden in addressing climate change.

The mechanism places carbon-related costs on imports of steel and other emissions-intensive products. Brussels has justified it by saying it ensures imported goods face carbon costs comparable to those paid by European manufacturers.

India’s concerns echo a position adopted by BRICS leaders at their September summit in New Delhi. The declaration opposed unilateral and discriminatory carbon border measures that could undermine developing countries’ efforts to address climate change.

US President Donald Trump has invoked a Cold War-era national security law to boost domestic oil production and refining, as rising fuel prices threaten the Republicans’ chances in November’s midterm elections.

Speaking on Thursday at a Republican campaign rally in Iowa – an agricultural state where farmers have been hit hard by the oil crisis – Trump announced that his administration would use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to provide up to $150 million to expand American refining capacity and produce diesel and gasoline “at record levels.”

He also predicted that the Iran and Ukraine conflicts would end soon, sending gasoline and oil prices “tumbling down.” 

Enacted in 1950, the DPA allows Washington to financially support industries deemed essential to national defense. In a presidential memorandum, Trump designated domestic petroleum production, refineries, pipelines, and storage facilities as critical to national security, arguing that private companies could not expand capacity quickly enough without federal intervention.

Vice President J.D. Vance had earlier announced plans to invoke the law to expand a Delek-operated refinery in Tyler, Texas, although such projects typically take months, if not years, to complete.

Fuel prices in America sharply rose after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran in late February, disrupting global energy supplies. According to the US Energy Information Administration, average gasoline prices have climbed from $2.94 per gallon immediately before the conflict to $4.28 in the week ending October 19, while diesel has jumped from $3.81 to $6.28 over the same period.

The Trump administration has sought to tackle the fuel crisis through several emergency measures, including releasing 172 million barrels from strategic oil reserves, relaxing gasoline-blending requirements, temporarily easing diesel regulations, and announcing additional subsidies for struggling farmers.

In early October, Trump also announced a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release more than 300,000 tons of Russian diesel onto global markets, with additional supplies expected later. He has also repeatedly pressed Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries, which he blamed for rising fuel prices.

The president’s pressure sparked pushback from Zelensky, who called Trump’s diesel deal with Moscow “a weak decision” and “not fair and not honest” while refusing to comply with the refineries ultimatum. In response, Trump suggested that Ukraine should “get a new president” instead of Zelensky, whose term expired more than two years ago, while calling continued Ukrainian strikes a “disgrace.”

An employee of a German immigration office and her husband have been arrested for allegedly assisting a human smuggling ring which brought Indian men into the country through sham marriages in exchange for hefty payments, Bild has reported.

The Cologne branch of the immigration office told the tabloid on Thursday that it has revoked the residence permits illegally issued by the criminal group, which involved two other people.

According to Bild, the smuggling ring exploited the EU’s family reunification program to bring in the Indians.

The foreign nationals arrived in Cyprus, where they entered fictitious marriages with Bulgarian women whom they had never met before, it said.

A member of the Cologne immigration office, identified as Subha L., then processed and approved the applications for residence permits by the Indian males despite the irregularities in their paperwork, the report read.

A lawyer for one of the suspected smugglers told the WDR broadcaster that the scheme had allowed more than 20 Indian men to enter the EU.

Subha L. was arrested along with her husband in December 2025 and remains in per-trial detention. She has been dismissed from her job, the Cologne immigration office said. The trial for the four suspected members of the criminal group is scheduled to begin in February.

The immigration office said it tightened workflow controls following the scandal to ensure any suspicious cases are identified more promptly.

An MP for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party accused the Cologne immigration office of failing to execute its duties and called for it to be audited by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

“We are witnessing a growing loss of control within an agency that views itself as a ‘welcoming authority’ rather than an immigration authority,” Seif told the Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper.

Illegal immigration has again become a contentious topic in the EU this year after more than 72,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta in late July. Up to 8,000 foreigners still remain scattered throughout the territory, straining local resources and prompting protests by residents.

Despite the number of arrivals subsiding since the EU migrant crisis of 2015, the foreign-born population in the bloc reached a record 64.2 million last year, expanding by 20.2 million since 2010, according to a report published by the Center for Research and Analysis on Migration at RFBerlin in April.

Germany continues to have the largest number of immigrants in the EU, with 18 million foreign-born citizens, making up 21.2% of the country’s population, the paper said.

The US has accused Canadian officials of attempting to interfere in American elections, citing politically targeted trade measures, anti-Trump advertising campaigns and meetings with Democratic politicians ahead of next month’s midterms.

In a fact sheet published on Wednesday, the US Embassy in Ottawa accused Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government of openly seeking to influence American politics.

“The Canadian government brushes off concerns about potential interference in US elections, even as its ministers and premiers openly describe plans to influence American politics in official documents and public appearances,” the embassy stated.

The document singled out Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly, citing her remarks about deliberately targeting Republican-leaning states with retaliatory tariffs in response to US President Donald Trump’s trade policies.

Washington also questioned Joly’s meetings with Democratic officials in Boston and Chicago in September, as well as an anti-tariff advertising campaign launched by Ontario Premier Doug Ford featuring former US President Ronald Reagan criticizing protectionist trade policies.

The embassy also highlighted a recent appearance by Canadian Consul General Bernadette Jordan alongside two Democratic congressmen at a Vermont roundtable on trade tensions, just three weeks before the midterms. It also cited a Canadian government billboard campaign targeting 12 mostly Republican-voting states and Washington, DC.

The embassy also cited Liberal lawmaker Anthony Housefather’s campaigning for Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida, and listed 11 Canadians who had been charged or sentenced in 2026 for illegally voting in previous American elections.

The accusations followed a warning from US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, who said Washington was closely watching Canadian political activities ahead of the November 3 congressional elections.

“We’re monitoring it, we’re evaluating it and if some of it becomes election interference then America will respond to it,” Hoekstra said.

Ottawa has rejected the allegations. Carney insisted that Canada’s measures were intended to protect its workers and businesses from American tariffs, while Ford denied any interest in meddling in US elections. Joly defended her meetings with American politicians as normal diplomacy, pointing out that she had engaged with both Republicans and Democrats.

In September, Carney revealed that his government had examined the possibility of US military action against Canada, describing the scenario as an “extreme tail risk” that nevertheless warranted contingency planning. Ottawa, meanwhile, has been seeking closer military and economic ties with Europe to reduce its dependence on Washington.

Hundreds of houses have collapsed after a powerful earthquake struck Tibet, killing at least 16 people and injuring dozens more, according to local authorities.

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the Nagqu region of northern Tibet at 10:33 PM local time on Thursday. 

The death toll stood at 16 on Friday morning, with 46 people injured, including 11 seriously, according to the latest figures released by local disaster relief authorities. At least 339 houses and 20 livestock sheds collapsed, the Associated Press reported, citing government officials.

Videos circulating on Chinese social media showed residents rushing into the streets as buildings shook.

🇨🇳⚡️ — Emergency authorities report that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Tibet's Nagqu City has caused the collapse of 339 homes, triggered severe infrastructure and transit disruptions, and prompted the activation of a Level-II emergency response. #China #Tibet #Earthquake #BreakingNews

— X-K (@ConflictRadarME) October 22, 2026

The shallow tremor struck at a depth of approximately 10 kilometers, according to Chinese seismologists. The US Geological Survey estimated its depth at 18 kilometers, placing the epicenter in a sparsely populated mountainous area.

Sixteen people were killed and 32 others injured after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Baqen County of Nagqu City in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, according to the city's emergency management bureau. https://t.co/BERNm8mcXy

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) October 23, 2026

More than 1,600 local personnel have been mobilized for search-and-rescue operations. Emergency supplies, including 1,000 prefabricated housing units, some 3,000 tents, beds and winter clothing, have been dispatched to assist displaced residents.

Xi orders all-out rescue efforts after Xizang earthquake https://t.co/GrKXDa8oGE

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) October 23, 2026

The earthquake also triggered rockfalls that forced the closure of a major highway, while railway services were temporarily suspended for safety inspections. Communications were disrupted in parts of the affected region, complicating rescue operations.

The latest disaster comes less than two months after a massive ice-and-rock avalanche near the Tibet-Nepal border unleashed catastrophic flooding, killing more than 1,450 people in Nepal and dozens in China.

Thursday’s tremor was the strongest to hit the Nagqu region in five years, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Authorities have warned that the casualty figures could rise as rescue teams continue searching damaged buildings and assessing the destruction.