Paraguay’s former President Santiago Pena, a close ally of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been impeached and placed under house arrest over a massive banking scandal that has put nearly three million people’s savings in jeopardy.

The country’s Senate voted on Friday to remove Pena from office over alleged misconduct linked to the collapse of Ueno Bank, a rapidly expanding digital lender with close ties to his administration. Prosecutors subsequently placed the former president under house arrest on suspicion of breach of trust and other offenses, according to AP.

The arrest order also targets former Central Bank chief Carlos Carvallo, who previously served as a senior executive at Ueno. The authorities have accused Pena of using his political influence to channel hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds into the lender while turning a blind eye to serious financial irregularities.

Detención en directo del expresidente de Paraguay Santiago Peña, socio de Abascal, Milei, Kast, Keiko, Trump, Netanyau, Noboa y Abelardo de la Espriella mientras suena el himno de Paraguay por el nombramiento como nuevo presidente de Alliana. https://t.co/FHwxP4VC77

— Julián Macías Tovar (@JulianMaciasT) November 6, 2026

Pena, who has denied wrongdoing, announced his resignation on Thursday amid mounting public outrage and mass protests in the capital, Asuncion.

However, lawmakers refused to accept his departure and pressed ahead with impeachment proceedings, seeking to strip him of the legal immunity ordinarily granted to former presidents.

The embattled leader failed to appear at Friday’s Senate hearing after lawmakers rejected his request for an additional 72 hours to prepare his defense. His lawyers argued that he had been denied due process and threatened to challenge the proceedings in court.

Vice President Pedro Alliana has since been sworn in as Paraguay’s new leader and is expected to serve out the presidential term until August 2028.

Senator Esperanza Martínez previously told RT that Pena and his associates had orchestrated a massive financial fraud involving a network of more than 50 shell companies.

“It was a colossal fraud project, involving the president of the republic and his economic circle,” she alleged, describing the operation as a Ponzi scheme that artificially inflated the bank’s financial standing.

Pena was also an outspoken supporter of Netanyahu, personally inaugurating Paraguay’s embassy in Jerusalem in December 2024 – joining the US, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and Papua New Guinea – and pledging to stand with Israel “no matter what.” He also vocally supported the US-Israeli war against Iran, explicitly endorsing the joint military offensive launched in February. Paraguay designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations, a move welcomed by Netanyahu, who personally thanked Pena for his “unconditional support” for Israel.

The banking collapse has sparked widespread demonstrations, clashes with police and demands for accountability from thousands of Paraguayans whose savings remain inaccessible. Prosecutors have also pursued numerous bank executives as the investigation into the financial disaster widens.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was greeted by an unusual spectacle in Poland’s parliament on Friday, as opposition lawmakers unfurled a massive ‘TUSK=DICTATOR’ banner and accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk of orchestrating a coup against the country’s judiciary.

The protest erupted shortly after Metsola began addressing the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, during an official visit to Warsaw. MPs from the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party displayed photographs of riot police outside the Constitutional Tribunal and held up yellow placards warning in English that a “coup d’état” was underway in Poland, allegedly instigated by Tusk.

The stunt was intended to draw international attention to a bitter constitutional crisis that has pitted Tusk’s pro-EU ruling coalition against Euroskeptic President Karol Nawrocki and his conservative allies.

🔥 Metsola przemawia, PiS wymachuje „Tusk = dyktator”. Obsesja zamiast argumentów. Hucpa zamiast przyzwoitości. 🇵🇱 Patriotyzm na ustach, kompromitacja na sali. Sejm to nie terapia waszej frustracji po utracie władzy. Wstyd na całą Europę! https://t.co/r3iHCBUdSB

— Nicole Kluczyńska (@n_kluczynska) November 6, 2026

Metsola, who praised Poland’s importance to the EU and declared that a threat to Polish security was a threat to Europe as a whole, largely avoided engaging with the demonstrators. Asked about the protest, she described it as an expression of democracy.

Bruksela widzi przestępstwa tam, gdzie ich nie ma, a jest ślepa na łamanie prawa, które jest oczywiste. Dla Brukseli ważne jest bowiem nie prawo, tylko polityczny interes i utrzymanie władzy nad Europą. Dlatego prawicowe rządy są prześladowane, bo bronią interesu zwykłych obywateli, a rządy dyktatorów jak Tusk są wychwalane mimo deptania praw człowieka. Dlatego von der Leyen poklepuje Tuska i ucieka przed prezydentem Nawrockim, a przewodnicząca Parlamentu Europejskiego Roberta Metsola udaje w polskim Sejmie ślepą i głuchą, i ani słowem nie komentuje zamachu na Trybunał Konstytucyjny. Unia Europejskiej Obłudy.

— Marcin Warchoł (@marcinwarchol) November 6, 2026

“Brussels sees crimes where there are none, and is blind to obvious violations of the law,” PiS lawmaker Marcin Warchoł wrote on social media, accusing EU officials of prioritizing political interests over the rule of law.

He claimed that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was embracing Tusk while Metsola was pretending to be “blind and deaf” to the alleged takeover of the Constitutional Tribunal.

Tusk = dyktator! https://t.co/vX3Fs1LdUN

— Marek Wesoły (@MarekWesoly) November 6, 2026

Fellow PiS MP Marek Wesoły accused Metsola of ignoring the crisis altogether. “We reminded her who Donald Tusk is!” he wrote.

Tusk, meanwhile, appeared amused by the spectacle, posting a photograph of himself with the opposition banner in the background.

Za chwilę zaczną śpiewać i sprzedawać zegarki. https://t.co/EDb0vSdmpn

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) November 6, 2026

“They’ll start singing and selling watches in a moment,” he joked, apparently referring to previous protests outside the Constitutional Tribunal, where PiS lawmaker Michał Wójcik sang a popular Polish song and a conservative television outlet promoted commemorative watches.

Nawrocki, who had been visiting Africa, cut short his trip and returned to Warsaw, accusing Tusk’s government of forcibly seizing a constitutional institution and violating the country’s constitutional order.

The confrontation has deepened Poland’s longstanding institutional deadlock. Tusk’s governing coalition maintains that it is restoring judicial independence after years of alleged political interference under PiS, while the opposition accuses him of dismantling constitutional safeguards to consolidate power.

Several hundred demonstrators protesting the construction of a Microsoft data center in Amsterdam have breached the construction site and clashed with Dutch police, with multiple arrests reported. The rally came as part of a broader campaign against energy-guzzling and water-intensive Big Tech infrastructure spanning multiple European countries.

On Friday, members of the Geef Tegengas group, along with pro-Palestinian demonstrators, used angle grinders to cut through the fencing surrounding the site in the Sloterdijk district, while others simply scaled it, as reported by Dutch media.

As many as 500 activists entered the restricted area at around noon, according to the organizers, where they set off flares, sprayed graffiti on surfaces, and climbed cranes and scaffolding to unfurl banners.

The activists are demanding a halt to the construction of the 78-megawatt complex, which includes three data center towers and is being developed by Pure Data Centres for Microsoft. Geef Tegengas cites concerns over the facility’s heavy electricity and water consumption and the negative consequences it would likely have for local residents.

Demonstranten hangen over de hekken terwijl er toespraken worden gehouden. Dat is de situatie op dit moment https://t.co/lUT4TlUwwr

— AT5 (@AT5) November 6, 2026

Several hundred more people gathered outside the construction site as part of a separate demonstration organized by the Fossielvrij Nederland climate group.

Palestinian flags were flown during the protest, with “Microsoft powers genocide” and “Free Palestine, F**k Microsoft” among the slogans. One of the activists told the AT5 broadcaster that “energy-guzzling data centers are used for mass surveillance and violence. For instance, Microsoft hosts data from ICE and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], among others.”

Microsoft said that while it understands the contentious nature of the project and respects people’s right to protest, “we do not condone actions that violate the law or endanger people’s safety.”

The demonstration in the Dutch capital came as part of a pan-European protest campaign under the motto “Stop Dirty Data Centres.” It unites more than 100 “civil society organizations and collectives deeply concerned about Europe’s technology trajectories and its plans to fast-track data centres,” with protests planned for November 6-7 in 16 countries, including the UK, Spain, Ireland, Poland, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, and France.

The Big Tech push to create more capacity for the booming AI industry in recent years has met with growing suspicion and backlash globally.

Last month, hundreds of people protested outside a large-scale data center complex on the Indonesian island of Batam, accusing it of depriving them of drinking water, which the facility uses for its cooling system.

In September, civil rights groups in South Africa likewise demanded a moratorium on the construction of data centers in the country.

The midterm wipeout

Trump paid a heavy price for giving Netanyahu the war he wanted, but it’s not just us making that case. In his own post-mortem, US Vice President J.D. Vance admitted that Republicans failed to give voters what they wanted: “1) End the war; 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation; 3) Put America First; 4) Change our relationship to Israel.”

The dust is still settling in Washington, and on Wall Street, where technology stocks have plummeted in anticipation of heavy-handed AI regulation from the incoming Democrats. What is clear, as former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos told RT’s Rick Sanchez, is that foreign adventurism is now a guaranteed loser for both parties, and both Democrats and Republicans will have to run on a Trumpian “America First” platform to win from now on.

Peace on the horizon?

Two days after the elections, Trump told reporters that he had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, and was on the cusp of “a big agreement.” This agreement, Trump said, is “going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe.” 

The announcement came immediately after First Lady Melania Trump hosted Dmitriev, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova, and her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Lubinets, at the White House to discuss the recent humanitarian ceasefire in Alyoshki. Although the truce has since expired, the first lady has held it up as a precedent for advancing peace in the region.

A gift for Melania Trump from 11-year-old Lydia, who was evacuated from Oleshky to Tuapse. https://t.co/VXpsZAe19h

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) November 5, 2026

Trump is no stranger to jumping the gun on these kinds of announcements, and he has done so throughout the war on Iran. However, after meeting with EU, NATO, and Ukrainian officials on Thursday, Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator, Jared Kushner, revealed that the US is working on a broad security arrangement for Europe, which would “address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.”

Russia has not received any details of this agreement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, adding that the Europeans have not submitted any proposals of their own, or even decided who should speak to Moscow on their behalf. Speaking to Euronews, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski warned his allies in Washington and Brussels not to negotiate any deal with Russia “over the heads of the east Europeans.”

Poland’s constitutional crisis

The problem for Tusk is that although his liberal Civic Platform controls parliament, his right-wing predecessors, PiS, control the presidency. The raid – described by the court’s conservatives as a judicial “coup d’etat” – is the culmination of a decade-long power struggle between Poland’s pro-EU and nationalist factions, which RT explored in detail this week. 

Tusk maintains that the raid was necessary after years of “years of PiS-led lawlessness,” and that those who disagree have been influenced by “Russian bots.” The prime minister has also launched a high-risk counter-terror operation on the border of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. However, the operation is widely viewed in Poland as an attempt to draw attention away from the court showdown, and President Karol Nawrocki has demanded Tusk’s resignation by next Wednesday.

Torture and horror in Ukraine

Few images illustrate the depravity of wartime Ukraine more than the videos of beaten and emaciated men being led out of a secret prison in Kiev on Monday night. After videos of the captives circulated on social media, protesters attempted to force their way into a building in the suburb of Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka. Police eventually freed dozens of men, including a 14-year-old who had allegedly been dragged into the building amid the protest and beaten. Zelensky’s former secret police chief, Kirill Budanov, arrived on the scene to assure locals – in perfect Russian – that he would “find out what the f*** is going on.”

Azov has operated a network of secret prisons and torture chambers across Ukraine for more than a decade, and the unit’s commander, Denis Prokopenko, argued afterwards that the protesters were to blame for tarnishing its image by exposing the Kiev dungeon. This quickly became the official line of the Ukrainian government, with national police and secret services issuing arrest warrants for around 130 demonstrators and charging the medic who arrived on the scene to evacuate the injured with obstructing military activities, disclosing military locations and organizing mass unrest. 

Speaking outside the prison on Monday, Budanov admitted that “there are many such facilities” across Ukraine. The circumstances that led to this one being exposed remain unclear, but the fact that masked thugs – and not police – showed up to disperse the crowds afterwards suggests that Azov is allowed to operate its own ‘Gulag Archipelago’ under the nose of Budanov, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Some Ukrainians are more equal than others 

This week, NABU and SAPO also concluded their ‘Operation Midas’ investigation into embezzlement within Ukraine’s energy sector, determining that a “high-level criminal organization” managed to build a “large-scale corruption scheme” and embezzle more than $111 million from 2020-25. 

Despite the seriousness of the case – alleged ringleader Timur Mindich fled to Israel to avoid prosecution around this time last year – suspect Igor Mironyuk was released from pretrial detention on Thursday. Mironyuk walked free despite allegedly helping Mindich steal more than $100 million. That same day, Zelensky’s prosecutors charged Yulia Mendel, his former press secretary, with treason for “information and subversive activities against Ukraine.” Mendel’s crime? Accusing Zelensky and his inner circle of corruption, and daring to speak out in the West.

Anarchy in Paris

RT correspondent Yasin Eken was on the streets of Paris on Thursday, as more than 350,000 people held anti-government protests. The demonstrations soon devolved into running battles between rioters and police, as similar scenes played out in Lyon, Lille, and Marseille. The French government put Thursday’s turnout at 600,000 nationwide, while France’s trade unions claimed nearly 1.6 million took part. Either way, the demonstrations were the largest since student protests began in mid-September.

The protests took place one day after France’s National Assembly rejected a deeply unpopular austerity budget, dealing another blow to President Emmanuel Macron’s embattled and widely hated government.

The unrest in Europe is not just confined to France. With German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s popularity hovering just above 10%, cost-of-living protests spiraled into a wave of rioting and looting in Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and Hamburg. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt blamed the unrest on “leftist groups inclined to violence and troublemakers from migrant communities,” while left-wing politician Ines Schwerdtner has warned that the protesters’ demands will not go away just because “small angry groups followed up with acts of vandalism.”

What we’re watching

We’ll then turn to Poland, as Nawrocki’s deadline for Tusk’s resignation expires on Wednesday. Tusk has shown no intention of stepping down, and we’ll be monitoring the situation on the Kaliningrad border, should the liberal prime minister make a last-ditch play against Russia for legitimacy.

For more on these stories, and on the continuing fallout of the US midterms, stick with RT.

A new round of trilateral negotiations aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict is expected to take place in the United Arab Emirates next week, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

Putin made the remarks during a meeting with members of Russia’s Security Council on Friday. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had announced earlier this week that Russian, American, and Ukrainian delegations would meet in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.

“On Tuesday, trilateral talks on Ukraine are due to begin in the United Arab Emirates,” Putin said, adding that he had invited officials expected to participate in the negotiations to discuss preparations.

Among those present at Friday’s meeting were presidential aides Vladimir Medinsky and Yury Ushakov, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Deputy Foreign Ministers Mikhail Galuzin and Sergey Ryabkov, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov, and Deputy Chief of the General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate Yury Zhigarlovsky, according to the Kremlin website.

The Kremlin has yet to announce the full composition of the Russian delegation for the talks.

Witkoff said the working-level talks would focus on “post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace.” 

Following the meetings, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said Washington would continue consultations with Ukraine and its European partners and “also engage Russia as part of the peace negotiations.” 

Kiev’s European backers have been increasingly demanding a place at the negotiating table over the past months. Moscow has ruled out their direct participation in the upcoming trilateral talks, arguing that they had squandered their credibility as mediators through their failure to uphold previous peace agreements, including the Minsk accords.

Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of US-mediated talks in the UAE and Switzerland earlier this year, before the process was disrupted by the US-Israeli attack on Iran in late February. Washington revived its diplomatic efforts in September, initially through separate meetings with Moscow and Kiev.

Putin has repeatedly stressed that Russia remains open to negotiations but will not accept a temporary ceasefire that merely allows Kiev to regroup and rearm. The Kremlin insists that any lasting settlement must address the underlying causes of the conflict, including Moscow’s security concerns.

A Ukrainian lawmaker has acknowledged evidence of beatings at a suspected military torture site operated by the notorious neo-Nazi-linked Azov unit.

Allegations of abuse at the facility prompted relatives and activists to gather outside the building on Monday. Police cracked down on the protesters, while four injured servicemen were taken to a hospital.

MP Anna Skorokhod, who inspected the building during the protests, later interviewed the four hospitalized servicemen. She said all four had reported being beaten and that she had personally observed bruises and hematomas on their bodies.

Another serviceman told the MP that two members of the military unit demanded money from him. Skorokhod also questioned why he had been held at the facility for over a month.

“I have no answer as to what he was doing there for 37 days or why he was being held there at all,” she said.

Ukrainian investigators have opened a probe into possible abuse of authority by military personnel at the site. No charges against those accused of beating the servicemen have been publicly announced.

Legal action has also been taken against the protesters. A court ordered the detention of medic Valentina Molodaya, who took part in the intervention, and other participants, while police identified around 130 people suspected of involvement in the unrest.

Ukrainian media have reported allegations that military commanders operate unofficial detention sites, known in military slang as “pits,” to punish servicemen outside the legal system. Critics accuse those running the facilities of beatings, extortion and profiteering. Ukraine’s recruitment system has also faced allegations of violent forced mobilization, known as “busification.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk cannot distance himself from his role in the Ukraine conflict after his Starlink satellite network was used by Kiev to strike civilian targets, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said. 

Starlink has become a cornerstone of Ukraine’s military communications since the conflict escalated in 2022, playing a key role in frontline drone operations. Last month, Kiev reported restrictions affecting the satellite service and its military-grade counterpart, Starshield, which Ukrainian officials said disrupted drone operations. 

Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram on Friday that Musk had “finally seen the light,” but too late. He accused the billionaire of having known since the beginning of the conflict how the Ukrainian military was using his satellite network. 

“Playing the ‘Starshield is not the same as Starlink’ card won’t get him off the hook, either,” Medvedev wrote. “The blood spilled on account of either is the same deep red. Elon knew exactly what he was doing.” 

“Now, all of a sudden, he finds the war distasteful and denounces it, but he’s become a participant,” Medvedev wrote. 

The remarks followed Musk’s repost of a message by the X account Whole Mars Catalog, which described SpaceX’s decision to send Ukraine thousands of free Starlink terminals and provide satellite service costing “millions of dollars a month” at the start of the conflict as a “mistake.” Musk added no comment of his own. 

Musk previously said that Starshield was controlled by the US government, with decisions on its use resting with the American military and, ultimately, with President Donald Trump, who denied ordering the restrictions. The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed officials who claimed Musk had personally imposed them. 

Musk has insisted that commercial Starlink should be used only for civilian and defensive purposes, accusing Ukrainian forces of violating its terms by conducting offensive drone strikes. He said last month that SpaceX had closed a loophole that allowed such use. 

In hindsight, it was a mistake for SpaceX to send them thousands of free Starlink dishes and millions of dollars a month in free service at the beginning of the war. What started as internet access for civilians became the backbone for autonomous killing drones. And now if they don’t support military use, they get skewered for it in the press.

— Whole Mars Catalog (@wholemars) November 5, 2026

Bloomberg reported in December 2024 that SpaceX had secured a Pentagon contract four months earlier to expand Ukraine’s access to Starshield through 2,500 existing Starlink terminals. Reuters later reported that the service remained operational despite restrictions affecting Ukrainian drone operations.  

A Russian Investigative Committee inquiry found that Starlink technology had been used in a Ukrainian drone strike on a college and student dormitory in Starobelsk, in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic, earlier this year. The attack killed 21 people and injured dozens more. 

The satellite dispute has coincided with growing tensions between Washington and Kiev over sanctions on Russia and Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. Trump has urged

Vladimir Zelensky to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, blaming them for worsening global fuel shortages and rising prices. Musk also criticized Zelensky last month after the Ukrainian leader described Trump’s agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease the diesel crisis as a “weak decision.” 

In an interview with German broadcaster ZDF this week, Zelensky thanked SpaceX for providing satellite communications, particularly at the beginning of the conflict.

The massive selloff on Wall Street following the Republicans’ defeat in the US midterm elections has dealt a new blow to major hedge funds, the Wall Street Journal reports. Hedge funds have reportedly been slashing staff and dumping assets after suffering heavy losses in recent months.

Funds specializing in technology, media, and telecommunications stocks lost more than 4% on Thursday alone, according to Goldman Sachs data, cited by WSJ. The crash virtually erased their annual gains, which reached as much as 24% in June. Funds investing across multiple asset classes lost 1.4%.

The latest losses followed a disastrous October, when hedge funds that bet on individual stocks rushed to sell investments and close positions at the fastest pace in more than a decade, according to Morgan Stanley. The funds have reduced their market exposure by roughly 9% since June, while more than 40% were breaking even or losing money for the year through October.

The October selloff followed earnings reports from major US technology companies that revealed soaring AI spending, with some firms burning through cash to finance new data centers and computing infrastructure. Investors questioned whether these investments would generate sufficient returns and began dumping technology stocks. The decline hit hedge funds that had invested heavily in the sector, often using borrowed money.

The selling has spread beyond technology stocks. Arini Capital Management has slashed its corporate debt holdings partly because banks demanded additional collateral to cover its trading positions, according to the WSJ.

The International Monetary Fund warned in October that hedge funds could deepen market crashes by dumping the same investments simultaneously, driving prices lower, and potentially spreading losses to major banks.

Tech stocks were rallying somewhat on in early trading on Friday.

Never hesitate to state the obvious: Everyone with eyes to see is recognizing that the US midterm elections have been sensational. The Democrats have achieved a stupendous – “historic” according to the Financial Times – triumph; the Republicans have suffered a crushing, Stalingrad-scale rout.

Let’s focus on the rout: This is the moment when, on the same day, a New York Times front page main headline promises to explain the GOP’s “historic collapse” while Tucker Carlson starts his show with a wry “well, that was a disaster” (adding that he really means “disaster,” as in the sinking of the Lusitania, not rain at a wedding party).

You may suspect both America’s paper of liberal Centrism and the former Fox host turned MAGA dissident of bias or, at least, Schadenfreude. Yet bias is simply irrelevant in this case, where, for once, the facts really do speak for themselves: The great, enormous, humungous GOP midterm catastrophe is quantifiably worse than the 2006 drubbing the party received for George W. Bush’s Iraq War insanity or the “shellacking” – in his own words – voters administered to Barack Obama and his Democrats in 2010. As the staid Economist has summed up the Republican fiasco, this is “not a normal midterm swing against a sitting president, but the biggest wave-election since the aftermath of Watergate more than 50 years ago.”

What is even clearer than that the Republicans have been devastated is that one man in particular has taken a stunning hit: US President Donald Trump. He may insist that he was not on the ballot as much as he likes. No one is fooled. Of course, he was, if not officially – as no president ever is during midterms – then all the more in reality. This was, the Wall Street Journal has noted correctly, “one of the most decisive repudiations of a president in modern history.”

But also recall that US voters, as we know from polls, are angry as well about such things as the tariff wars that made their lives more expensive even before the Iran War, the blatant rapacity of the Trump clan and their cronies, and the shooting of US citizens in brutal ICE crackdowns.

Not to speak of bulldozing part of the White House in a quixotic quest for the biggest, blingest ballroom of them all. Most of all, perhaps, there is a deep background noise of resentment at a president who seems to make a point out of displaying how little he cares. About his countrymen and about his own promises of no more wars and putting America first, and not Israel.

And now? That is, of course, the most important and most urgent question of this moment. Rumors are swirling: The (political) heads of Secretary of War (On Behalf of Israel) Pete Hegseth and Trump’s chief of staff and single most important adviser Susie Wiles are said to be on the chopping block, for instance.

In a long post, Vance has outlined his theory of why the GOP was crushed. Unusually rich in detail about polling, turnout, and voter movements from one camp (the GOP) into the other (the Democrats), the gist of the post is one clear if implicit message: It’s Trump who is to blame.

Because that’s what you are saying when you say, as Vance does, that the key issue that lost the election was the war against Iran. If you add, as Vance also does, that voters wanted not only an end to that war but also a “focus on cost of living/inflation,” putting America truly first, and a “change of our relationship to Israel,” the point gets only clearer. The Wall Street Journal is right: This was a “stunning repudiation” of Trump.

For while Trump is by no means the only one to blame for the perverse American dependency on and support of a hyper-aggressive and genocidal midget state (that would be virtually the whole US establishment), he has made himself the single most prominent epitome of this national syndrome. And that makes him the single most convenient fall guy, too.

There’s no reason to pity Trump for being stabbed in the back by his very own Brutus. It was always clear that Vance is, to put it mildly, highly flexible in his positions and values as well as unscrupulous. His burning ambition is, if anything, even more obvious: Hire a Vance, don’t complain when he’ll kick and stab you when you’re down.

Tehran has every reason to be harsh as well as skeptical. But for the rest of us, it makes sense not to dismiss Vance’s sally so quickly. His motives are certain to be selfish. The fact that he was launched by one of America’s most devious and power-hungry oligarchs, Antichrist-obsessive Peter Thiel, makes his CV even less appealing. But we still have to ask what he may have in mind with his “break” with Trump.

Clearly, Vance is positioning himself for a potential run for the presidency. But what would be his agenda if he ran and won? Skeptics see a massive psyop: Vance will only pretend to offer MAGA cleansed of Trumpian contaminations, in other words, to really put America and Americans first, and cut Israel loose. In reality, they predict, his aim is to betray his potential voters no less than Trump has. Trust neither Vance nor his friend and MAGA rebel Tucker Carlson, the skeptics warn, because they will, in the end, sell out to Zionism and give you the same old, same old again.

There is no compelling reason to rule out such a scenario. Yet there is no reason to find it inevitable either. It is equally possible that Vance – out of opportunism, not because of the conscience he does not have – could really stand for a great right-wing turn away from Israel. Not because Israel is genocidal and all-purpose criminal, but because being tied to it is becoming far too politically costly.

US politics is exceptionally dark and often outright evil. But the geopolitics and the domestic calculus of the long decades of America’s “Israel First” obsession could shift even in that world of darkness. For Israel’s victims, the Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, Yemenis, Iranians, and many others, it won’t matter why exactly the US will finally stop propping up their tormenters. A realistic commitment to their liberation must focus first of all on getting the US out of the Middle East. Under what regime at home it will make that retreat may matter. Or not.

Trade bodies representing Bangladesh and Russia have signed a pact aimed at removing barriers to boost investment and cooperation between the two countries.

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Russia-Bangladesh Business Council signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday as the two nations seek to boost bilateral trade, currently pegged at nearly $2 billion.

“By combining our respective strengths, resources, and expertise, we can unlock significant new opportunities for mutual benefit,” Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Alexander Khozin said.

He added that, to achieve this, the two countries need to remove existing barriers in regulation and logistics. 

The pact was inked on the sidelines of a meeting of the meeting of the Bangladesh-Russia Intergovernmental Commission, a government to government mechanism that the countries have established to facilitate trade and investments. 

📹 Russia And Bangladesh Move To Expand Business Ties With New Deal In Dhaka The two countries signed an agreement following high-level business talks, with trade, banking, energy and technology among the key areas discussed. The deal was signed by Bangladesh's Fazlul Hoque and Russian-Bangladesh Business Council Chairperson Mia Sattar, in the presence of Russian fisheries chief Ilya Shestakov.

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) November 6, 2026

Ilya Shestakov, head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries, who led the Russian delegation to Dhaka, pointed out the need to roll out a payment infrastructure to tap the trade potential, especially given that Moscow has been cut off from the global financial system by Western sanctions.

FBCCI Administrator Fazlul Hoque cited significant opportunities to expand trade and investment, but said, “existing barriers needed to be identified and addressed jointly.”

Bangladesh’s exports to Russia include ready-made garments, alongside jute, leather products, pharmaceuticals, headgear, furniture and food products. Russia supplies wheat, fertilizers, agricultural products, industrial equipment and nuclear machinery. 

The Rooppur plant, the South Asian nation’s first nuclear power faclity, was built at a cost of $12.65 billion, with Russian financial and technical support. It is expected to help meet Bangladesh’s surging power demands. The first unit of the plant is expected to be connected to the national grid later this month.

Paraguayan President Santiago Pena and his associates were behind a massive Ponzi scheme that led to the collapse of one of the country’s largest banks, leaving nearly 3 million customers without access to their savings, Senator Esperanza Martinez has claimed to RT.

The scandal erupted earlier this week after the authorities intervened and ordered the dissolution of Ueno Bank, a rapidly expanding digital lender. Pena offered his resignation on Thursday, but lawmakers pressed ahead with impeachment proceedings to prevent him from gaining immunity from prosecution.

”It was a colossal fraud project, involving the president of the republic and his economic circle,” Martinez told RT on Thursday, accusing Pena’s associates of creating a network of more than 50 shell companies.

According to the senator, Ueno was virtually unknown in 2023 but expanded rapidly after Pena took office, allegedly benefiting from preferential treatment that helped it become one of Paraguay’s dominant lenders within three years.

The senator also outlined measures to compensate affected customers through a deposit guarantee fund established following the country’s banking crisis in the 1990s.

Under existing rules, eligible depositors can recover up to 75 monthly minimum wages, approximately $37,000, with payments normally beginning 15 days after the bank resolution process starts.

Emergency legislation has since been enacted to accelerate compensation, allowing customers to receive up to 40 minimum wages ($20,000) within 24 hours, with further payments covering the remaining guaranteed amount.

”We protected people so that they can have liquidity quickly, within no more than 24 or 48 hours,” Martinez said.

Pena, a former IMF economist, held shares in a company linked to Ueno until March 2025. His appointed central bank chief previously worked for the lender.

Watch RT’s full interview below:

Serbia’s student-led opposition has secured an outright parliamentary majority, defeating former President Aleksandar Vucic’s coalition, according to the final results of the October 25 snap elections announced on Thursday.

The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) confirmed that the Student List won 140 seats in the 250-member National Assembly, well above the 126 needed to govern alone. Vucic’s United Serbia secured 103 seats, with the remaining seven going to parties representing ethnic Hungarians, Albanians, and Muslim Slavs. Turnout was nearly 69%.

The new parliament must convene within 30 days, after which lawmakers have 90 days to form a government.

The Student List emerged from nearly two years of anti-government protests sparked by the November 2024 collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad that killed 16 people. The movement campaigned on fighting corruption and reforming state institutions.

Serbia has sought EU membership since 2012, but Brussels has increasingly demanded foreign policy alignment, including sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict. Under Vucic, Belgrade resisted the demands while preserving close economic and energy ties with Russia.

As the Student List has won a majority but has not yet formed a government, its position on sanctions remains uncertain. However, leading Student List candidates have pledged to maintain Serbia’s ties with Russia.

Nevertheless, the new government will face pressure over Serbia’s energy ties with Russia. The EU has sought to phase out Russian fossil fuels since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, and Serbia relies on Russia for around three-quarters of its gas under a deal recently extended through December. US sanctions on majority Russian-owned NIS, which operates Serbia’s only oil refinery, have also raised concerns over energy. A US waiver allowing NIS to operate expires on December 11.

Student List candidate Radomir Saicic said last week that the movement plans to send a delegation to Moscow once a government is formed to negotiate a long-term gas deal and discuss the NIS sanctions.

”We wish the brotherly Serbian people success in navigating this complex post-election transition period,” she said. “Non-governmental channels of communication have never been interrupted, and we remain ready to maintain them in a spirit of mutual respect.”

Construction has begun on the first Russian Orthodox church in Madagascar, alongside housing for a women’s monastic community and children in its care, a priest overseeing the project has said.

The complex is being developed in the capital, Antananarivo, Archpriest Dimitry Matienko, rector of the Transfiguration Church in Port Louis, Mauritius, told RIA Novosti on Friday. Matienko has also been appointed rector of the newly established Russian Orthodox parish in Madagascar.

The project has received the blessing of Metropolitan Konstantin, the Patriarchal Exarch of Africa, who oversees the Russian Orthodox Church’s activities on the continent. Foundation work is currently underway, and construction materials are being purchased, the priest said.

The project comes as the Russian Orthodox Church expands its presence across Africa through its Patriarchal Exarchate, established by the Church’s Holy Synod in December 2021. As of 2026, it operates in 36 African countries, with around 370 communities and parishes served by over 270 clergy, according to RIA Novosti.

The church has launched construction projects and opened new places of worship in several African countries. In January 2026, it consecrated its first church in Mauritius, followed by its first temple in Tanzania in July, according to the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa.

John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV, a former US senator and descendant of one of America’s wealthiest and most influential families, has died at the age of 89.

Rockefeller died on Friday at his home in Washington, DC, the Washington Post reported. His family did not disclose the cause of death, according to the newspaper.

A Democrat, Rockefeller represented West Virginia in the US Senate for three decades, from 1985 to 2015, after serving two terms as governor. 

He was the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and one of America’s richest industrialists. The family also produced several prominent figures, including his uncle Nelson Rockefeller, who served as US vice president and governor of New York, and another uncle, David Rockefeller, who headed Chase Manhattan Bank.

Despite his privileged background, Rockefeller began his political career in the impoverished coal-mining state of West Virginia, where he moved in 1964 to work as a volunteer in an anti-poverty program. He later entered state politics, eventually becoming governor in 1977.

Rockefeller also faced criticism from West Virginia’s coal industry. In 2012, he voted against an attempt to block federal restrictions on emissions from coal-fired power plants, prompting the state’s coal association to accuse him of supporting policies that threatened jobs and the industry’s future.

Rockefeller voted in 2002 to authorize the US-led invasion of Iraq, a decision he described nearly a decade later as “one of the worst votes in my life.”

He also helped advance a controversial 2008 surveillance law that protected telecommunications companies from lawsuits over their involvement in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Civil liberties groups criticized the measure, arguing that it shielded the companies from accountability.

He retired in 2015, ending three decades in the Senate and marking the end of the Rockefeller family’s presence in elected office at the time.

He is survived by his wife, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, their four children, and nine grandchildren.

US voters have given Democrats control of the Senate and Congress in a rebuke to the administration of President Donald Trump. The outcome portends policy uncertainty and deadlock in Washington for the remaining half of Trump’s term. 

For India, what comes next is a mixed bag, at best. The Trump administration’s outlook on many issues can be expected to remain unchanged, but some future legislation may be more accommodating of India’s interests, especially those related to immigration.

Uncertainty will continue to cloud matters related to trade and tariffs, given Trump’s penchant to be aggressive when on rough political terrain. Here’s a look at some of the key issues in India-US relations and how the outcome of the midterms could impact them.

Implications for the India-US trade deal

The US president can strike trade deals and offer some commitments to trading partners. Trump can be expected to take the executive order route for this.

However, powers to regulate as well as impose tariffs rest with Congress. If a trade deal with India that the two countries have been negotiating for months involves changes to US statutes, Congress will come into play.

The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) was the traditional route for securing speedy congressional approval of trade pacts. The authorization of the TPA, which allowed Congress to frame negotiating objectives and expedite legislation, expired in 2021. The administration now lacks access to that fast-track process.

If the India-US trade pact were to move beyond tariff adjustments to commitments beyond what the administration can make, Congress will have to be brought on board. Depending on the fine print of a deal, that process could be time-consuming.

Trump could still use Russia sanctions law’s  powers

The Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act gives the president sweeping powers to slap tariffs of up to 100% on countries that continue purchasing Russian crude oil or natural gas. That includes India, though Trump invoked the national interest to waive off the penalties for now.

He could still use the law as a bargaining tool to extract trade concessions from New Delhi, which continues to be one of the top buyers of Russian oil. 

📹 Could India's Russian Oil Purchases Face More US Pressure Under Democrats Than Trump? Former Indian Envoy @ambmanjeevpuri tells RT India that Trump “was easier” on Russian oil imports, while Democrats “will try and put pressure” on countries doing business with Moscow. https://t.co/gnmkEBr2iI

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) November 5, 2026

If the 100% tariffs are deployed, it would be a major blow to India’s exports.

The Democrats are broadly against a tariff regime. However, a Democratic-controlled Congress would also be inclined to push for more action against Russia as the Ukraine conflict drags on.

The Trump administration needs India’s refining capacity to reduce fuel prices, which was clearly stated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently. It simultaneously wants India to buy more Venezuelan oil, which the US now controls. The administration’s aim is to wean India away from Russian oil, a policy that resonates with the Democrats.

“It is imperative that the legislative and executive branches work together to create tools to exact a heavy price on those who buy Russian oil and natural gas,” Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Richard Blumenthal said in a bipartisan statement.

That would be bad news for New Delhi.

However, Indian conglomerate Reliance is making investments in a $300 billion greenfield refinery in Texas, which would be the first American refinery in 30 years. Any accommodation on Russian oil purchases could hinge on this factor ultimately more than the politics.

How India would face up to Trump’s pressure

A politically weakened Trump is could resort to bullying tactics to get his way. This means he may ramp up pressure on India to reach a trade deal without offering too many concessions. India, however, is not likely to budge.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that India privately conveyed to the US that it would be willing to wait out Trump’s term rather than sign a trade deal not to its liking.

The expectation that other nations will also not give in to Trump’s pressure may be part of New Delhi’s calculus.

However, the pressure to keep Trump happy is growing less by the day for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. India has embarked on a drive to dilute its dependence on the US market by striking trade pacts with the EU, the UK, and New Zealand. It is also in talks with as many as three dozen countries to forge trade deals.

Background friction will continue on the diplomatic front

A Democratic-controlled Congress is seen as offering more clarity on the direction of US foreign policy vis-à-vis India, and acting as a countervailing influence to the unpredictability of the administration. Democrats also see India as a counterweight to China, and believe that New Delhi can play a larger role in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Trump administration, in contrast, does not consider India an indispensable pillar in the president’s core Indo-Pacific vision. It has apprehensions on China, but considers the country a systemic rival that cannot be ignored.
US policymakers are also wary of letting another country in Asia emerge as a potential challenger to Washington’s military and technological prowess – mainly due to China’s achievements on these counts. “India should understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes that we made with China 20 years ago,’” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in March.

Since deal-making is a vital cog in Trump’s political philosophy, the US will continue to mount pressure on India to accede to its demands.

No immediate breather on immigration and visas

The midterm election results could have a significant bearing on US immigration policies. It would certainly impact future legislation tied to the H-1B visa program, though immediate changes to visa rules are unlikely.

Democrats back expanding employment- and family-based immigration but are also not in favor of the outsourcing practices of US businesses.

Congressional scrutiny of tough immigration rules championed by Trump would increase, but a reversal of the presidential proclamations that impact India, including the $100,000 fee for new H-1B visa applications, is unlikely.

The fee has been struck down by the lower courts, but the administration is most likely to drag it to the Supreme Court.

Defense ties will remain unaffected

Indo-US defense ties are not likely to be significantly impacted by the changing power equations in Washington. New Delhi and Washington signed a 10-year defense pact last year, and that is set to stay the course.

India and the US have shared concerns about China. “There is bipartisan agreement that a strong defense partnership with India is vital for its Indo-Pacific strategy and containing China,” Manjari Chatterjee Miller, a senior fellow at the US-based Council on Foreign Relations, wrote last year.

Washington also wants India as a QUAD partner. So strategic convergence, critical technologies, information sharing, and joint production of military hardware will continue to advance between the two nations.

Quick end to Middle East conflict would benefit India

Uncertainty looms over the Trump administration’s plans for the Middle East. A Democratic-controlled Congress may not necessarily be a bulwark against Trump’s Middle East policies, which have resulted in a spike in oil prices.

Still, the administration’s move to cut $4 billion in annual aid to Israel – announced on election day – may help control the latter’s penchant to draw the US into conflicts in the region. 

Trump, term-limited and having lost Congress, has little need to please US voters. And he still wields vast presidential powers. How these powers are put to use can impact vast swathes of the globe diplomatically, economically, and militarily.

A presidential veto, which Trump has indicated he will resort to frequently, can be overridden only if two-thirds of members in both chambers vote against it. That is a tough ask given the deep support Trump commands among the remaining Republican lawmakers.

At this stage, India appears likely to stick to a longer-term approach.

European nations are criticizing US President Donald Trump over his surprise diesel deal with Russia even as they pay Moscow billions for continued energy supplies, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said.

Speaking on Dutch TV program Pauw & De Wit on Thursday, Rutte acknowledged that some European countries “panicked” over the Russia-US agreement last month, admitting that he himself “raised an eyebrow for a while.”

However, he pointed out that Europe continues its own energy trade with Russia despite sweeping economic sanctions and pledges to reduce dependency on Moscow.

“Meanwhile, in the first half of this year, Europe purchased €6 billion in LNG from Russia. That’s much more than that diesel deal will ever yield. So, Europe is not holy either,” Rutte said.

Rutte nevertheless said he understood Vladimir Zelensky’s concerns about the deal, but argued that only Washington can currently provide some of the crucial military support Ukraine needs, including US-made Patriot interceptors.

Rutte also defended the importance of maintaining direct ties between Washington and Moscow, pointing to their vast nuclear arsenals. “We experienced the Cuban crisis in the 1960s when that hotline did not yet exist, and we reached the brink of a nuclear Armageddon as a world,” Rutte said. “It’s important that those two have a good relationship.”

The diesel deal drew fierce criticism from Zelensky, who called it a “weak decision,” while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the agreement would provide Moscow with “more revenues to wage war.” Trump later responded by suggesting that Ukraine should have a new leader willing to sign peace with Moscow while pressing Zelensky to stop attacks on Russian refineries.

Despite vowing to fully wean itself off Russian energy by 2027, EU states bought an estimated €5.96 billion worth of LNG from Russia’s Yamal project in the first six months of 2026, rising to €7.88 billion by the end of September.

Last month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak estimated that the bloc had spent more than $320 billion on Russian energy since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, despite claiming to have sharply reduced its imports.

Rutte has also faced ridicule over what was widely seen as attempts to flatter Trump, particularly after joking at the 2025 NATO summit that “daddy has to sometimes use strong language” after Trump compared Israel and Iran to fighting children. Pressed during the interview on the widely mocked phrase, Rutte admitted that “daddy was an incredible mistake. I have to own it for the rest of my life.”

Kenyan cult preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for murdering 190 children and one adult under a deadly fasting regime that promised followers they would “meet Jesus.”

Justice Diana Kavedza handed down the sentence at the Mombasa High Court on Friday, weeks after convicting Mackenzie and 28 co-accused on 191 murder counts. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, citing the scale and brutality of the crimes. Fifteen co-convicts, including Mackenzie’s assistant pastor Smart Mwakalama, received 160-year prison terms, ten were sentenced to 140 years, one received 100 years, while two were jailed for ten years each.

“The sentence of this court must match the darkness of their deeds,” Kavedza said, rejecting pleas for leniency.

Mackenzie received 100 years for 183 murders by starvation and another 100 years for eight child murders by direct homicide, with the terms to run consecutively.

Kavedza said the cult’s teachings had “displaced the parental instincts,” with parents withholding food and water from their own children and punishing those who tried to eat or escape. “The parent who should have provided safety punished escape,” she said.

During sentencing, Kavedza described the death of a 12-day-old infant and 161 children under ten. She also referred to a mother who lost seven children. Francis Wanje, another relative, lost eight family members, including two grandchildren.

Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 after police rescued emaciated followers from the forest. Investigators later uncovered hundreds of bodies in shallow graves. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights put the death toll at 429. The commission accused security officials of ignoring warnings about Mackenzie dating back to 2017.

Postmortem examinations found that many victims starved, while others died from suffocation, strangulation, or head injuries.

The judge also ordered continued state support for surviving victims, including psychosocial care, education, vocational training, documentation, and help with reintegration. She directed authorities to continue identifying remains and tracing missing victims. Eligible co-convicts, excluding Mackenzie, may also undergo voluntary deradicalization and rehabilitation programs, though participation will not automatically reduce their sentences or secure early release.

Mackenzie has denied forcing followers to fast. His lawyer, Lawrence Obonyo, said after last month’s conviction that the defense intended to appeal.

Pastor Paul Mackenzie and 28 co-accused arrive at the Mombasa High Court for sentencing after the DPP successfully proved 191 counts of murder against all 29 accused persons. https://t.co/zABe6ynEdD

— Office of The Director Of Public Prosecutions (@ODPP_KE) November 6, 2026

An elderly man on crutches was harassed by Ukrainian military recruiters after he filmed them forcibly detaining another person, according to videos circulating online.

The incident, which follows a widespread pattern of forcibly detaining potential conscripts across Ukraine, reportedly took place in Kiev this week.

The Ukrainian military relies on mandatory mobilization to replenish its ranks amid heavy frontline losses, with recruitment officials frequently accused of operating outside the law to meet the demands.

Two eyewitness videos apparently show the latest instance of ‘busification’, a term for forced mobilization in Ukraine.

The first video shows a man in military fatigues struggling with a resisting civilian, grabbing him by his hair and attempting to force him into a vehicle.

Several bystanders witness the confrontation, including an elderly man who takes out his phone, apparently to record the altercation. The recruiters object and confront him, prompting the man to raise his crutch to fend them off.

The second video shows the elderly man lying on the ground, still attempting to defend himself against the recruiters. One of the officials stomps on an object on the ground, apparently attempting to destroy the man’s mobile phone.

The incident was filmed days after a major scandal drew attention to a suspected network of secret military detention facilities across Ukraine, where unruly conscripts are reportedly subjected to extrajudicial punishment.

The Ukrainian authorities are now investigating more than 100 participants in the protest on suspicion of interfering with the operation of a military facility. Some have been arrested.

No arrests have been reported in connection with the alleged abuses at the black site.

India’s Adani Ports has agreed to acquire Dutch liquid-storage operator Evos in a $2.9 billion deal that would give it eight terminals across five European countries, the company said on Thursday.

The acquisition will expand Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone’s (APSEZ) liquid-storage operations and establish a presence in European energy logistics, managing director Karan Adani said. India’s largest private port operator, which is controlled by billionaire Gautam Adani, already operates port assets in Israel, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Tanzania.

Under the deal, APSEZ will acquire all of the Netherlands-headquartered Evos from infrastructure investment manager Igneo Infrastructure Partners. Excluding debt, the deal is valued at around $1.33 billion.

Evos is Europe’s second-largest independent liquid-storage operator, with 6.3 million cubic meters of storage capacity across facilities in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Malta. Its terminals are located in major European energy and industrial hubs, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg. They store and handle conventional fuels such as gasoline, diesel, marine and aviation fuels, along with biofuels, methanol, and sustainable aviation fuel.

November 3, 2026 was the best of times and the worst of times. A decisive blue wave swept across the US. Democrats seized control of both the House and the Senate, flipping Republican strongholds and delivering a cold shower for President Donald Trump’s second term. Americans took their frustrations with the inflation, gas prices, and the war with Iran to the ballot box, leaving Republicans feeling the blues even in traditionally deep-red states like Texas, Kansas, South Carolina, and Iowa.

Yet, for all the special effects of the blue tsunami, Washington has seen this movie before. It is hardly the first time a sitting president has been forced to govern alongside a hostile Congress. Midterms frequently serve as a brutal referendum on the executive branch, routinely stripping the ruling party of its legislative dominance. Ronald Reagan faced this exact scenario after the 1986 midterms; George W. Bush absorbed a “thumpin’” in 2006; and Barack Obama weathered a crushing shellacking that left him facing a fully entrenched opposition by 2015.

No news here.

What makes 2026 fascinating, though, is not so much the results, but the vigor with which both parties used the midterms to advance their position on the road leading to the ultimate prize: the White House in 2028.

Trump is surprisingly calm

Consider for a second Donald Trump’s muted reaction, which surprised many of his own supporters, who expected him to at least claim the elections were rigged.

Instead? Nothing. No denial. No anger. Maybe a little bit of bargaining and depression.

But when asked whether he would accept the results, he answered almost casually: “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” He went even further, offering Democrats a rare public compliment – they “did a good job,” they “fought hard” signaling he would probably get along with the Democrats “unless they want to be destructive.” Suspecting they probably will be, Trump decided that it was high time to flash his red Uno skip card with “tremendous powers” saying:

“They’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them.”

This uncharacteristic restraint suggests that the administration saw it coming and actively prepared for it.

For the White House, a divided Washington may paradoxically prove more advantageous than retaining total congressional control. By handing legislative oversight to the Democrats, the administration clears the path to govern through executive fiat bypassing Capitol Hill entirely on trade, border security, and deregulation. And for the aggrieved MAGA Republicans, playing the party of executive resistance against a hostile Congress could actually be a great way to bank political capital ahead of 2028. Because, guess what? They are now standing strong in Ronald Reagan’s shoes, facing the exact same anti-congressional battle he waged.

As the midterm losses serve as a natural trampoline for the presidential race, ambitious Republicans are wasting no time using the defeat to reinvent themselves. And here we are, witnessing the magic rebirth of a ‘reformed’ and ‘re-enlightened’ Republicanism, where prominent figures are suddenly distancing themselves from the administration to publicly repent for party sins.

Vice President J. D. Vance pointed squarely to the war with Iran as the primary driver of the party’s downfall, urging a pivot away from foreign entanglements toward the focus on the economy and changing the US relationship with Israel.

Vance’s bold criticism leaves little doubt that he is positioning himself for a 2028 presidential run. With this strategic break from the party’s recent failures he frames himself as ‘the common sense guy’, the same image that fueled Trump’s 2024 victory.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another possible presidential contender, described the midterms as an “extinction-level event” for the GOP in many states. He slammed congressional Republicans who voted against releasing Epstein-related files – despite their loud campaign rhetoric favoring transparency – and called out party members for inside trading.

DeSantis also expressed his outrage with the party’s campaign priorities, noting that he knew the GOP was in serious trouble when he read overviews of national ad spending. “They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars across the country on transgender ads,” he pointed out.

Citing his own high-profile 2022 battle with Disney, DeSantis didn’t pass up the opportunity to present himself as an experienced Republican veteran who truly knows what people want, saying: “Look, I fought Disney on gender ideology… But that was not the issue motivating voters.”

He even went as far as to describe this continuous obsession with culture wars as a tactic “to just scare Republicans to vote,” noting that the party leadership was fundamentally “fighting yesterday’s battle.”

For potential 2028 candidate like Vance and DeSantis, the balancing act is perilous given the fact that Trump is notorious for being, let’s just say, highly sensitive to feedback.

But this feedback is also key. To the White House. Some Republican and independent voters are dying to see a candidate who can call a spade a spade.

So, to ensure maximum support they must satisfy Republican-leaning voters’ demand for “common sense” without alienating the fiercely loyal MAGA base. It is a tightrope walk over an active volcano, which kind of explains why some other potential contenders, like Marco Rubio, have sensibly chosen to keep their heads down and avoid the crossfire entirely.

On the other side of the aisle, the victory offers Democrats a desperately needed lifeline, dragging the party out of the structural crisis it has inhabited since the late Obama years. Yet, they face their own precarious balancing act trying to straddle the line between progressives and moderates.

To heal this fracture, the party is gravitating toward candidates with complex, cross-cutting profiles designed to bridge seemingly irreconcilable worlds.

This imperative is turbocharged by a profound demographic shift that helped them flip some Republican states.

Democrats, intentionally or by accident, leveraged domestic migration to win in places like Texas, where a Democrat captured a Senate seat for the first time in decades. That would not have been even remotely fathomable if not for the tens of thousands of Gen Z Californians who, burdened by high taxation and cost-of-living pressures, have relocated to the Lone Star State in recent years, quietly altering its political DNA.

To hold these newfound territories, Democrats cannot rely on their usual progressive playbook. They need political unicorns – candidates like James Talarico, the newly minted senator from Texas. A progressive Christian, Presbyterian seminarian, and former teacher, Talarico falls outside of the secular democratic mold reclaiming Christian moral language from the conservative right. He campaigns on faith-infused politics, blending “love thy neighbor” economic populism with support for gay marriage and abortion rights, merging cultural and political elements that just a few years ago were treated as oil and water.

The Democratic Party currently faces no shortage of viable contenders weighing a 2028 presidential run, including prominent figures like Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. However, it lacks a single, clear standout capable of immediately capturing the collective imagination and reinvigorating the party.

In other words, the Democrats lack a Trump.

But the night is still young, and we might still see the rise of a disruptive, non-traditional populist outsider who shatters conventional Democratic paradigms – just as Trump did to the Republican Party a decade ago.

If the war in Iran drags on, Trump’s Democratic doppelganger may eventually face off against a ‘common-sense’ Republican anti-Trump in 2028. Now that would be a battle to watch.

And while presidential hopefuls from both parties are trying to walk a thin line between partisan ideology and moderatism, promising a long-awaited departure from the status quo, it is still far too early to tell if they are marching toward genuine systemic renewal or simply leading Americans down a yellow brick road toward another grand illusion.

Washington is exploring a broader European security framework intended to address all sides’ concerns and support a lasting Ukraine settlement, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and negotiator Jared Kushner has said, pledging to engage Russia through peace talks.

Writing on X on Thursday after talks with Ukraine, NATO and European partners in Brussels, Kushner said Europe and Russia had struggled “for more than 30 years” to establish a sustainable security framework.

“Decades of mistrust, competing security concerns, and the devastating consequences of this war make this an extraordinarily difficult challenge, but one that is essential to lasting peace,” Kushner wrote.

He stated that Washington’s objective is to develop “practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict, and create a more stable and predictable security environment.”

The US will continue consultations with Ukraine, NATO, the EU, and European leaders and will “also engage Russia as part of the peace negotiations,” he added.

Trilateral US-Russia-Ukraine talks are scheduled for November 10–11 in Abu Dhabi. Kushner said European partners would be consulted on the sidelines and could join a broader format if progress is made.

His comments followed Trump’s meeting with Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House on Thursday. Trump subsequently teased a potential agreement extending beyond Ukraine that “might involve all of Europe.”

Moscow, however, has not received any details of the agreement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

Moscow has excluded European governments from next week’s Abu Dhabi talks, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressing that their “track record” of undermining peace agreements “cannot be ignored.”

Russia has long demanded guarantees against NATO expansion and military deployments near its borders, insisting that one country’s security cannot come at another’s expense. Lavrov called on Tuesday for a “genuinely fair system of mutual security guarantees.”

Mars may still have volcanic activity beneath its surface despite the absence of observed eruptions, a new Russian-led study suggests. Areas where volcanic gases continue to seep from underground could be promising locations to search for signs of life.

The Red Planet bears extensive evidence of ancient volcanism dating back more than 3 billion years, when Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the solar system, began forming. Seismometers have also detected slight tremors known as ‘marsquakes’, but sulfur dioxide, a telltale sign of volcanic activity, has never been detected in the Martian atmosphere.

An international team of researchers has linked unusual concentrations of another common volcanic gas, hydrogen chloride (HCl), detected by a Mars orbiter, to possible magmatic activity deep beneath the surface. HCl can indicate the presence of active magma chambers, although it can also be produced by chemical reactions in the atmosphere.

The gas was detected by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), a spacecraft developed jointly by the European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos.

The research team, co-led by Aleksandr Trokhimovsky of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Daniel Mege of the Polish Academy of Sciences, also identified apparently recent, narrow fractures in the area, some less than a meter wide. The scientists believe these fissures could provide pathways for volcanic gases to escape into the atmosphere.

The researchers suggest that the volcanic activity was likely more pronounced in the past. Greater underground heat, combined with a denser atmosphere and potentially more abundant liquid water, could have created more favorable conditions for microbial life on Mars.

Russia and Iran have signed agreements that will allow engineering surveys for a planned railway link on the key trade corridor connecting Russia and India to go ahead, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Nikitin said on Thursday.

The Russian company Caspian Services and Iran’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company (CDTIC) signed a land-access protocol in Tehran, along with a supplementary agreement to an existing contract, TASS reported. The documents allow engineering surveys to continue along the full Rasht-Astara route.

The Rasht-Astara railway is a missing link in the western branch of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a freight network connecting India, Iran, Russia, and other countries through rail, road and maritime routes.

The railway will connect Iran’s existing rail network with Azerbaijan and onward to Russia, providing a more continuous freight route between the Persian Gulf and northern Europe.

Iran handed over the remaining 37 km of the planned 162-km railway on Wednesday, after transferring the first 125 km in February, Iranian Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Houshang Bazvand, said.

Russian specialists have completed aerial surveys and further engineering studies are underway, Nikitin said. Ten teams are also conducting geotechnical drilling along the route, according to Caspian Services executive director, Yuri Kuzmin.

Russia and Iran signed an agreement to develop the railway in May 2023, but a final commercial construction contract remains pending. An Iranian delegation is expected to visit Moscow to finalize the agreement, Kuzmin said.

Protests involving hundreds of thousands of demonstrators spiraled into violence across France on Thursday, amid growing anger at President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies.

What started as student protests over education and deteriorating living conditions has since escalated into a nationwide revolt against soaring living costs and austerity measures, drawing in trade unions, pensioners, and Yellow Vest activists.

The Interior Ministry put Thursday’s turnout at around 600,000 – the largest since the unrest began in September – while the unions claimed nearly 1.6 million took part. Workers and students staged strikes across the country, demanding higher wages and pensions, better working conditions, increased funding for public services, and the scrapping of the government’s proposed 2027 austerity budget.

The unrest came just a day after France’s National Assembly unanimously rejected the deeply unpopular 2027 budget bill, which proposed sweeping spending cuts, dealing another blow to Macron’s embattled government. Protesters vowed to return to the streets this weekend. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu will meet with union leaders on Monday amid the deepening crisis.

RT’s Yasin Eken reports from Paris on France’s mounting economic troubles, growing demands for reform, and the backlash against Macron’s policies.

Somalia’s Supreme Court has ruled that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s one-year term extension is unlawful, deepening a dispute over the country’s leadership. 

The court ruled on Thursday that constitutional amendments approved in March could not be applied to the president’s current term, which expired in May. The five-judge panel also found that parliament’s mandate had ended in April, according to Somalia Today. The judges gave political leaders 30 days to agree on an electoral framework and ordered elections within 90 days. 

The ruling followed a legal challenge filed by former President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in October against the constitutional changes and their application to current officials. He also rejected the new election timetable, warning that it could lead to “parallel elections, political divisions, internal conflict, and a threat to Somalia’s statehood.”

The dispute follows an October announcement by Somalia’s electoral commission that parliamentary elections would be held on April 15, 2027, followed by a presidential vote on May 15. 

The March constitutional amendments increased presidential and parliamentary terms from four to five years. Mohamud’s government argued that the changes allowed an additional year to prepare for nationwide elections, replacing the indirect system in which lawmakers elect the president. Under the previous system, clan delegates selected members of parliament, who then voted to elect the head of state.

Kajal Kumari, a 15-year-old in a government school in Patna, the capital of the northern Indian state of Bihar, can now do something unheard of for a government school student. She can open an app on her mobile phone and get connected with a live tutor within a minute.

Kajal comes from a small family where every penny counts, and excelling academically often means paying for private tuition. This is not rare in India, where education is generally not free. But in Bihar in particular, education expenses are often beyond what families can afford. The state is one of the poorest in the country, with a per capita income of around $384 – just 31.7% of the national average.

Kajal told RT that she was struggling to prepare for entrance exams without receiving private coaching, when a state-sponsored AI-enabled learning program came up. 

“In our families, daily house expenses are difficult, and affording private tuition is out of the question),” Kajal told RT India.

She added that for students like her, getting a tutor online means getting help without the need to travel to bigger cities. “It is not possible for all of us to migrate for getting education.”

Driving the change

Bihar is leading this shift with the recently launched Vidya Saathi platform, which has already connected more than 300,000 secondary students to round-the-clock, AI-driven learning tools. It is a state-backed digital initiative managed by the Bihar School Examination Board in partnership with the Filo AI platform.

Speaking at a high-level departmental review meeting at the Bihar School Examination Board auditorium in Patna, Bihar’s education minister, Mithilesh Tiwari, said 73% of the students registered on the platform are from rural areas. He added that the government wants to make the education system in the state more technology-based, transparent, and secure.

The program is a great way to help students in public schools, a state education official who asked to remain anonymous said. 

“We are talking about kids in classes 9 to 12 who can now get help anytime they need it. The program uses AI to make studying easier and also gives them access to live tutors. This means they can... prepare for big exams like the Joint Entrance Examination and National Eligibility Entrance Test right away,” the official explained. “The best part is that it’s all free and connected to school computer labs, so a kid from a small village can get the same kind of coaching that only kids in cities used to get.”

Currently rolled out across 700 model secondary schools in all 38 districts of the state, the program provides free one-on-one live tutoring for classes 9 and 10, as well as senior secondary science streams (classes 11 and 12). Through Filo’s AI-driven matching engine, a student can upload a textbook question and get connected via video to a live tutor in under 60 seconds.

“Getting help when you need it is the challenge of using AI in education,” Filo co-founder Rohit Kumar said. “We are using AI to link students with real teachers who can provide one-on-one help in just 60 seconds, anytime of the day or night. This way, a teacher can work through a problem with a student, figure out where they’re getting stuck, and explain it in a way that makes sense to them.”

Modi’s big bet on AI

AI adoption in Indian education is being driven from the highest levels. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national initiative on August 15 to make competitive exam preparation free.

“Coaching classes burden the poor and middle class,” Modi said, pledging to deploy India’s digital public infrastructure to offer free online coaching and train 10 million young people in AI skills over the next year. The aim is to link teachers directly with students, removing the cost and distance barriers of private tuition.

The nationwide protests highlighted the frustration of the public about the failure of systematic examinations and the expenses related to private competitive exam training.

India has one of the biggest and most complex education systems in the world, with 247 million students from 1.47 million schools. However, behind these figures lies a truly complex situation.

Although the secondary dropout rate on a national level is 12%, economically disadvantaged regions such as Bihar suffer from a dropout rate of up to 40% among students in grades 8 to 10 due to poverty, poor infrastructural conditions, low levels of literacy, and especially female illiteracy in rural areas.

“This fragile dynamic has become even more unstable due to problems with public trust in national exams. The massive student demonstrations that resulted from leaks of exam papers, corruption in the hiring process, and the resignation of the Union Education Minister revealed vulnerabilities in the exam system,” Charu Sri, a high school teacher in Bihar, said. He added that the issue of extortionate prices for private coaching classes makes many people wonder if this unfair system can still offer equal opportunities to all.

Across India’s most populous and economically strained heartlands, thousands of students in public schools always imagined private tutoring as a distant reality. AI is starting to shatter those barriers.

Modi reiterated the country’s focus to build AI momentum earlier this year when India hosted the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, which brought together over 20 heads of state and top technology executives like Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman.

Opening the summit under the vision of ‘Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya’ (welfare for all, happiness for all), Modi outlined the MANAV framework (moral, accountable, national sovereignty, accessible, and valid), advocating that AI should serve as an inclusive global public good rather than a tool for commercial exploitation.

Supported by the $1.1 billion IndiaAI Mission and an active user base of 740 million people with smartphones, India is deploying AI to solve core public delivery challenges. In education, the impact is now felt at the grassroots level.

Getting AI when it matters 

India currently has around 1.09 billion internet users and a connectivity network that has reached around 90% tele-density. This ensures that initiatives like the one in Bihar deliver. 

Jiya Kumari, who is in class 11 at the Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Shastri Nagar, calls the instant tutor a huge deal for students like her. “This will democratize education. We can also dream big and pass competitive exams.” 

In Bihar’s neighboring state of Jharkhand, which shared similar issues of education hurdles among the people, the government introduced a digital initiative in 2023 called Sampurna Shiksha Kavach (SSK) in collaboration with Filo in many districts to equip students in remote districts like Dumka, Latehar, Gumla, Khunti, and West Singhbhum, with 24/7 online tutoring.

Instant tutoring has also seen results in the remote areas of Jharkhand; in West Singhbhum, SSK-supported schools saw pass rates of 87.9% compared to 73% in non-program schools. Gumla jumped to rank 1 statewide in the 2026 state board exams with a 99.32% pass rate. Through additional free competitive coaching, over 100 rural students passed the national entrance exams.

Hailing from Dumka district in Jharkhand, Silky Kumar, 16, is from the OBC (a government classification for socially and educationally backward communities), but her dream of continuing her education has been possible due to instant access to tutors online.

Rahul Rana, a class 12 student also from Koderma district, said that being a painter’s son, private entrance coaching was completely out of reach financially.

“I was successful in cracking Joint Entrance Examination Mains, because it helped me to overcome the hurdles in mathematics,” he said. The JEE is India’s highly competitive national entrance exam for top engineering colleges.

Whether ambitious experiment in states like Bihar and Jharkand succeeds in the long run depends on factors far beyond the software, like sustained funding, physical infrastructure, and enduring political will. 

But for students, the litmus test is far simpler: When a question arises at midnight, does a teacher actually show up on the screen?

“Right now is when we really need a teacher, and we have it; it is a blessing,” Kajal said. Her words highlight the importance of having educators available when it matters most. 

Asian stock markets plunged on Friday, extending a massive technology-led selloff on Wall Street that sent major indexes tumbling and forced a temporary trading halt in South Korea.

The turmoil began on Wall Street on Thursday, when a massive selloff was triggered by fears that the Democrats’ midterm election victories could derail US President Donald Trump’s ambitious AI investment drive.

The Democratic Party secured majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in Tuesday’s elections, wresting control of Congress from the Republicans. Candidates campaigning against new data center development also won gubernatorial races in Texas and Georgia, two states that have long offered tax incentives to attract technology investment.

Newly elected governors in states accounting for roughly 40% of planned US data center capacity promised to halt or pause construction, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

The rout hit some of Asia’s biggest technology companies, particularly chipmakers that have benefited from the artificial intelligence boom. South Korean giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix suffered heavy losses, while shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) also fell sharply.

“It is time for correction, but we feel that there may be some overreaction to the outcome of the midterm election,” Jun Kwang-woo, chairman of the Seoul-based Institute for Global Economics, told Reuters.

The crash also wiped more than $18 billion off the combined fortunes of 22 of Asia’s richest tech tycoons, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son suffered the biggest loss at $3.9 billion, while Samsung’s controlling family saw its wealth shrink by around $2.5 billion.

Semiconductor giants were among the hardest hit. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and memory chipmaker Micron plunged more than 17%, while Nvidia shed 9.3% and Broadcom lost over 10%.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks major US-listed chipmakers, tumbled more than 12%. The rout also swept through major technology companies including Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Meta.

The AI sector had already come under pressure in October, when an estimated $2 trillion was erased from the Nasdaq-100. Investors have grown increasingly skeptical that massive spending on AI infrastructure will generate sufficient returns.

The Trump administration has touted more than $3 trillion in technology and AI investment commitments since January 2025, although much of the pledged funding has yet to be spent.

Asian markets recovered some of their early losses on Friday but still closed sharply lower. South Korea’s Kospi finished down 6.02%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 5.96%, while Taiwan’s Taiex shed 4.51%.

Nigeria’s military has ruled out any ceasefire with Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), vowing to maintain pressure on jihadists groups across Africa’s most populous country.

The statement follows reports that the government had reached a temporary truce with a Boko Haram faction led by Ibrahim Bakura Doro as part of efforts to secure the release of hundreds of civilians abducted in northeastern Borno State.

“I want to make it clear that there is nothing like a ceasefire. Considering the successes recorded across our operations, it is clear that we are not relenting,” Nigerian military spokesperson Major General Samaila Uba told reporters at a security briefing in Abuja on Thursday.

The New Humanitarian reported in September that the alleged arrangement had been in place since June after negotiations secured the release of 360 civilians abducted from Ngoshe in Borno State. Abuja denied claims that it paid 5 billion naira ($3.7 million) as part of the deal.

Late last month, troops backed by air support repelled attacks on military positions in Borno and neighboring Yobe State, killing 48 Islamist fighters, according to the military. One soldier was killed and two were wounded.

According to the military, Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters have been pushed from traditional strongholds, with troops tracking their movements to prevent them from establishing new bases.

On Thursday, Uba said Nigeria is holding talks with neighboring Sahel states on security and diplomatic cooperation.

The Republicans have suffered a crushing defeat in the US midterm elections, and the Democrats have every reason to celebrate, but the real significance of the result lies less in the number of seats changing hands than in what it reveals about the direction of American politics.

The warning signs were there long before polling day, given almost two years after Donald Trump’s return to the White House many Americans have seen little improvement in their daily lives. Trade wars have unsettled the economy, while the adventure in Iran has reinforced the feeling that Washington is leading the country towards another costly and unnecessary confrontation. Democrats exploited these anxieties effectively, while Trump’s coalition appeared increasingly divided and considerably less eager to defend its president than it was in 2024.

The uncertainty before the vote concerned the scale of the Republican defeat. Would the party lose the House of Representatives but cling on to the Senate, and could it preserve its advantage among state governors? In the event, the worst outcome materialized as Democrats won both chambers of Congress and, for the first time since 2010, emerged with more governorships than their rivals.

It would be easy to overstate the immediate consequences because American politics has always been capable of dramatic reversals. Even Texas, long considered a Republican fortress, has been experiencing demographic and political changes for years and nor will a Democratic Congress necessarily transform the way Trump governs. He relied heavily on executive orders when Republicans controlled Capitol Hill and is unlikely to abandon that habit now.

First, Trump is entering the final two years of his presidency in a position weaker than that of an ordinary lame duck as he risks becoming a liability to the very Republicans who once regarded his endorsement as the surest route to office.

After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump retained his influence through the image of a man persecuted by the ‘deep state’. Younger conservatives competed for his favor, while former critics, including figures such as Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, made their peace with him. The rewards were obvious because to secure Trump’s backing was often to secure a political future.

Now that calculation looks rather different, given several candidates associated with him have been defeated, and ambitious Republicans must consider how to build careers in a post-Trump party while Trump himself remains at its center, so the contest for 2028 has acquired a complication for which there is no easy solution.

Second, the Democrats have rediscovered a political resource they badly lacked in 2024, with credible new faces. Two years ago, their inability to offer voters a more compelling alternative than Kamala Harris exposed the exhaustion of the party’s leadership, but today they can point to a younger generation of politicians, many still under 50, with the ambition and energy to compete nationally.

More revealing is how these rising Democrats speak. Some have begun borrowing themes once associated almost exclusively with the right, about protecting American livelihoods, looking after problems at home rather than crusading abroad, and restoring the country’s sense of national purpose. The vocabulary has changed because the electorate has changed. Americans don’t support politicians solely for their programs, rather they also respond to the emotions those politicians awaken.

For the moment, Democrats have proved better at capturing the public mood, but whether they can translate that mood into a coherent program is quite another question.

Third, anyone expecting a simple return to pre-Trump America is likely to be disappointed. Trump’s opponents at home and abroad may interpret the Republican collapse as proof that MAGA has been defeated and the old political order can be restored, but that’s wishful thinking.

Only two years ago, conservatives greeted Trump’s victory over Harris as the final repudiation of American liberalism. Liberals are now tempted to make the same mistake in reverse, but the most reliable law of American politics is that no victory is permanent and no defeat final.

More importantly, Trump has spent a decade reshaping the country’s political arguments, so even politicians who reject him must respond to the questions he forced onto the agenda. While some of his legacy will be discarded, other parts will survive because they address genuine national concerns, whatever one thinks of the man himself. 

For Russia, however, there’s little cause for celebration. The Democrats’ growing enthusiasm for restraint abroad doesn’t necessarily extend to Moscow and indeed, many regard confrontation with Russia as one of the few foreign policy commitments on which they should remain uncompromising.

The psychological advantage has shifted towards the forces in Washington and Europe that favor a harder line against Moscow, so they will now treat Trump’s defeat as an opportunity to restore pressure and revive alliances strained by his presidency.

The Republicans have taken a beating, but that doesn’t mean America is becoming more predictable, or that Russia’s dealings with it are about to become easier. It may mean precisely the opposite.

This article was first published by the Profile magazine and was translated and edited by the RT team.

A Luxembourg court has overturned the government’s refusal to release frozen Russian securities, marking a potentially significant legal victory for investors whose assets have been trapped in the EU since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

In a ruling last week, the country’s Administrative Court found that the Finance Ministry had wrongly denied a Russian company’s request to recover its securities and those of its clients held through Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD). The EU sanctioned the NSD in June 2022 as part of unprecedented restrictions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. The move left securities held through the institution frozen at European depositories.

The dispute centered on an exemption allowing payments under contracts signed before sanctions took effect. The Luxembourg authorities argued that it covered money transfers but not securities. The court disagreed, ruling that the term ‘payment’ is not limited to cash and can also cover the return of securities to their owners.

The decision could help other Russian investors recover their frozen assets by challenging the way EU sanctions have been interpreted. However, the ruling does not automatically unfreeze the assets. Any transfers must still comply with the broader EU sanctions, including a requirement that fees paid to the NSD remain frozen.

The judgment does not identify the Russian company or its clients. It concerns private investments, not Russia’s frozen sovereign reserves, and does not overturn the broader EU sanctions regime.

Finland has seized more than €40 million worth of Russian property since 2024 at the request of Ukraine’s state-owned energy company Naftogaz, which is seeking to enforce a multibillion-dollar compensation award against Moscow. The dispute concerns the assets nationalized by the Crimean authorities after the peninsula voted to join Russia in a 2014 referendum. The suspension follows a September decision by a court in The Hague that found the original arbitration tribunal lacked jurisdiction over some of the assets covered by the compensation claim.

Approximately €210 billion ($236 billion) in Russian central bank assets has been frozen in the EU since 2022, most of it held at Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear. The bloc has been using profits generated by the funds to support Ukraine through a so-called ‘windfall tax’. However, despite repeated calls from Kiev and its backers, it has so far stopped short of outright confiscation amid concerns over the legal consequences.

Moscow has condemned both the use of profits from its frozen assets and proposals to confiscate the funds. In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said trust in Western nations had been “completely lost,” accusing them of “outright robbery” over their handling of Russian assets.

International terrorist organizations are seeking to benefit from Ukraine’s efforts to share its drone warfare expertise with militant groups abroad, according to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

SVR Deputy Director Mikhail Maksimovich highlighted the threat on Friday at an international security conference in Uzbekistan.

“According to SVR information, representatives of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry are organizing training courses for drone pilots, including kamikaze drones, in African territory, specifically in Mali,” he told his counterparts in Samarkand.

He added that “international terrorist organizations show high interest in cooperating with the Kiev regime to obtain technology for deployment of UAVs.”

Maksimovich made the remarks at a two-day security conference in Samarkand attended by officials from member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

One reported recipient was Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Syrian successor to the local branch of Al-Qaeda, which spearheaded the offensive that toppled former President Bashar Assad’s government in late 2024. The group’s former leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, now heads the country.

HTS was designated as a terrorist organization by the US and UN at the time of the reported Ukrainian assistance, although the designations have since been lifted.

The HUR has also reportedly supported the Tuareg-led Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), a separatist militant coalition in Mali. While the group itself is not internationally designated as a terrorist organization, it has worked militarily with Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Iran’s top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, at the Kremlin. The discussions focused on regional security and economic cooperation, according to Tehran.

The Kremlin announced the meeting on Thursday without disclosing what was discussed, and posted photos showing the talks were attended by Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov and military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov. The Iranian side was also represented by Ali Bagheri Kani, the deputy secretary for the Supreme National Security Council, and Kazem Jalali, the ambassador to Russia.

According to Iranian media, Rezaei delivered Putin a personal message from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. The contents are not known.

Following the meeting, Rezaei said the meeting should have taken place a month ago, but was delayed due to “special circumstances as discussions regarding the military situation in the region were being raised every day.”

Rezaei said the discussions included a proposed Russia-Iran gas pipeline intended to address Iran’s domestic gas shortages and allow Moscow to sell gas to neighboring countries.

Qatar has been mediating between Washington and Tehran, recently hosting several rounds of talks, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing sources. The newspaper said Iran is reviewing proposals concerning its nuclear program, adding that US Vice President J.D. Vance also sent Rezaei a letter last month proposing direct peace talks which would include nuclear issues.

Rezaei said on Thursday that Tehran presented Washington with seven conditions, stressing that unless the US complies, Iran “will neither open the Strait of Hormuz nor have negotiations.” 

The conditions include a complete halt to the hostilities, including in Lebanon, ending the naval blockade of Iranian ports, lifting sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian assets, and paying war reparations.

Russia – which signed a 20-year comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with Iran last year – has called for a diplomatic settlement to the conflict and offered help in resolving the crisis. According to Ushakov, during talks with US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg last month, Putin said diplomatic options are “far from exhausted.”

The Philippines wants to buy additional units of the BrahMos missile from India, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian archipelago became the first foreign buyer of the Russian-Indian supersonic cruise missile in 2022, signing a $375 million contract for three shore-based anti-ship missile batteries. India began deliveries in April 2024 and is nearing completion of the original agreement.

“We hope to increase the number of BrahMos units we have,” Teodoro told the Delhi Defense Dialogue. He added that Manila had submitted a wish list to New Delhi to customize the missile system to its operational requirements.

Teodoro explained the customizations were needed because the limited road and bridge infrastructure and lack of an active rail network pose challenges in transporting heavy military equipment.

Philippines Defense Ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong separately confirmed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to acquire more BrahMos missiles. Marcos expressed interest in buying more BrahMos missiles during his visit to India in August last year.

The country, a major non-NATO ally of the US, has been modernizing its armed forces and strengthening coastal defenses amid territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.

Manila is nearing a deal to buy about five missile systems and nearly 60 missiles for up to $800 million to strengthen its coastal defenses, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources. The negotiations are reported to be in their final stages.

Teodoro said Manila has also identified India as a “very important potential partner” for its military’s satellite program and air defense systems, and offered its territory to India to test satellite technologies.

The two countries also elevated their relations to a strategic partnership during the visit, agreeing to expand defense and maritime security cooperation.

India has expanded BrahMos sales to other Southeast Asian countries, with an agreement to supply the missiles to Indonesia announced in July. Indian Defense Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh confirmed in May that a deal with Vietnam had been signed.

The release of Hungary’s communist-era secret police records has triggered political accusations, public denials, and fears of a witch hunt, as prominent figures scramble to defend their reputations against allegations of collaboration.

The records contain the names of an estimated 50,000-60,000 people, raising concerns about public shaming, reputational damage, and painful family revelations. Critics warn that many files are incomplete or unreliable, and historians stress that appearing in the registers does not necessarily mean collaboration with the secret police.

Former Prime Minister Viktor Orban is also embroiled in the controversy. Earlier this week, Hungary’s last communist-era premier, Miklos Nemeth, accused him of informing on fellow soldiers during compulsory military service in the early 1980s.

Orban and his Fidesz party dismissed the allegation. The former prime minister said he refused an attempt to recruit him and was subsequently placed under surveillance. He published declassified Interior Ministry documents that he said support his account.

Retired Catholic Bishop Miklos Beer similarly rejected allegations of collaboration after appearing under the code name ‘Dunai Gabor’, insisting that he never informed on anyone.

The controversy has already exposed errors in the records. Former Fidesz lawmaker Sandor Lezsak denied being an informer, prompting Hungary’s Historical Archives of the State Security Services to acknowledge that he was mistakenly listed. The institution apologized, confirming that Lezsak was monitored rather than recruited.

Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who pledged to open the archives, has urged the public to approach the revelations with restraint, warning that families could face painful discoveries about deceased relatives.

The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has also warned against rushing to judgment, noting that some people collaborated willingly, while others were coerced, blackmailed, or tortured.

The archives, which were made publicly searchable on Wednesday, cover surviving state security records from 1957 to 1962. Historians caution that the documents are incomplete and that many of those named were targets of surveillance or refused recruitment attempts rather than being informers.

British comedian and actor Russell Brand faces a lengthy prison sentence after a London jury convicted him of rape and three sexual assaults over offenses dating back more than two decades.

The 51-year-old was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday of raping a woman at his London home in 2009 and sexually assaulting three others between 2004 and 2009. The jury acquitted him of two additional rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Brand, who denied all seven charges, was remanded in custody, and will be sentenced on Monday. Rape carries four to 19 years in prison, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Sexual assault carries a maximum sentence of ten years.

Brand maintained that the encounters were consensual, admitting he had used his fame selfishly to pursue women.

The Metropolitan Police said the age of the allegations presented significant challenges, as no CCTV or forensic evidence was available. Instead, “detectives worked to piece together the circumstances surrounding each allegation,” the force said in a statement on Thursday.

Police launched hundreds of lines of inquiry to reconstruct events, traced more than 100 witnesses, collected over 400 statements and examined more than 1,400 documents. They also obtained historical photographs and floor plans of locations linked to the allegations.

The investigation went further, with detectives reviewing hundreds of hours of Brand’s stand-up performances, television appearances, interviews and podcasts, as well as every book he had published.

Brand was swept into the wider #MeToo controversy in September 2023, when several women publicly accused him of sexual misconduct. The allegations triggered a backlash before any criminal charges were filed, with YouTube demonetizing his channel and the BBC and Channel 4 removing some of his content.

The extensive investigation into Brand contrasts with documented failures to pursue other sexual abuse cases in Britain. A June 2025 audit led by Baroness Louise Casey exposed longstanding failures by police and other agencies to protect victims and investigate child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs. More than 800 previously closed cases were subsequently identified for review.

US President Donald Trump has hinted at a potential sweeping agreement with Russia that could extend far beyond settling the Ukraine conflict, following an unscheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, at the White House.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump revealed that he met privately with Dmitriev, who was in Washington for talks hosted by First Lady Melania Trump involving representatives from both Moscow and Kiev.

“I can’t tell you what I discussed. But I’m just telling you, it’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement,” Trump said.

“It’s going to be very big. It’s going to involve more than Ukraine, and I could even say it might involve all of Europe,” he added, promising a “big, beautiful agreement” that will leave everyone “thrilled.”

The meeting followed a six-day humanitarian ceasefire in the frontline town of Alyoshki in Kherson Region, Russia, brokered with Melania Trump’s involvement. The temporary truce allowed Russian and Ukrainian humanitarian teams to deliver essential supplies and evacuate nearly 800 civilians.

The first lady hosted Russian Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova, her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Lubinets, and other officials on Thursday, urging both sides to build on the humanitarian breakthrough and pursue a more lasting peace.

The developments come ahead of another round of US-mediated trilateral negotiations scheduled for November 10-11 in Abu Dhabi. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are expected to lead the American delegation, while presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky will head the Russian team.

Kushner said on Thursday that American, European, NATO, and Ukrainian representatives held “productive” discussions on a “broader European security architecture.”

Trump’s renewed diplomatic push comes just days after Republicans suffered major defeats in the US midterm elections, losing control of both chambers of Congress. Russian analysts have warned that the Democratic victory could complicate Washington’s efforts to negotiate with Moscow, although Trump retains considerable authority over foreign policy, meaning it may be too early for Kiev to celebrate and demand more US taxpayer money.

Lieutenant General Christian Freuding has been appointed as Germany’s highest military commander, the Defense Ministry said. Having previously led Germany’s Land Forces, Freuding is known for his ardent support for Ukraine and his hardline stance on Russia.

Freuding will take over as inspector general of the armed forces – the highest post a German career officer can occupy – in February 2027, replacing another prominent Russia hawk, General Karsten Breuer, who is moving to head the NATO Military Committee, a senior advisory body that guides the bloc’s leadership on matters of military strategy.

The lieutenant general “possesses all the necessary qualifications to be a role model for our soldiers” and lead them into a “new era,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement on Thursday, announcing the appointment. He praised the general, saying he “keeps a cool head, makes the right decisions quickly, and puts them into action.”

Rise to prominence

Freuding has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks in recent years as Germany embarked on a massive military buildup justified by the supposed ‘Russian threat’. The lieutenant general, who served as an aide to then-German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen from 2017-19 and was still commanding an armored brigade in early 2022, was entrusted with forming and leading a secretive special unit responsible for processing arms procurement contracts for Kiev following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

A year later, he took charge of the newly established Planning and Command Staff within the Defense Ministry as the German military entered what then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz called a turning point – a massive €100 billion ($122 billion) rearmament and restructuring program aimed at preparing the armed forces for a large-scale conventional conflict.

In 2025, Pistorius appointed him to lead the nation’s Land Forces under Scholz’s successor, Friedrich Merz, who vowed to turn the German military into the strongest conventional force in Europe while taking an increasingly hawkish stance on Russia.

Perfect fit?

Freuding has long been vocal about his views on German support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.

Faced with a lack of volunteers for a brigade deployed to Lithuania, Freuding said he is willing to order soldiers to serve near the Russian border if need be.

“The Army’s top priority is to achieve full operational readiness for the Lithuania Brigade next year,” he said in June, adding that voluntary service could be supplemented with “mandatory measures where necessary.”

In addition to its own massive military buildup, Germany emerged as Kiev’s single biggest military donor after Washington drastically scaled back its aid under US President Donald Trump. Berlin amended its 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, despite warnings from the German central bank about a looming record deficit.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned that Germany and the rest of the EU under their current leaders are “transforming into a Fourth Reich” and seek to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky says the US failed to deliver $16 billion in previously promised assistance to Kiev, insisting that Ukraine “must fight” to secure the money despite the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid already provided by the US.

Speaking to Ukrainian journalists on Thursday, Zelensky was asked whether Kiev expects another major American aid package following the Democrats’ victory in the midterm elections. The last package was approved under former President Joe Biden in 2024, while President Donald Trump has sought to offload the burden of bankrolling Kiev onto European NATO members.

“We must work on this. We must certainly raise the issue that, under previous agreements and decisions, $16 billion was frozen and $16 billion was not provided,” Zelensky claimed.

“We are grateful for everything that was given, but Ukraine must fight for at least this money. Let no one in the United States take offense,” he added.

In a separate interview with German broadcaster ZDF, Zelensky welcomed the Democrats’ election gains, expressing hope that the party’s control of both chambers of Congress from January will translate into renewed financial and military assistance.

“I am also grateful to the Republicans, but the Democrats speak very clearly about supporting Ukraine and providing assistance to Ukraine,” he said.

Trump accused his predecessor of giving Kiev hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons for free and pushed plans to seek reimbursement from European allies. He has also likened the Ukrainian leader to notorious 19th-century hoaxer P.T. Barnum, and complained that enormous sums of money were being “pissed away” while “ungrateful” Zelensky took the money for granted.

Last month, Trump went further, questioning the whereabouts of American weapons and money supplied to Kiev.

The sprawling Operation Midas investigation exposed an alleged $125 million kickback and money-laundering scheme implicating Zelensky’s longtime business associate, Timur Mindich, who fled the country to Israel. The scandal ultimately led to the departure of several senior officials, including Zelensky’s powerful former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.

Billionaire Elon Musk recently accused American politicians of prioritizing Kiev over US interests, alleging that some taxpayer money sent to Ukraine was being laundered back into American political campaigns.

This year, the EU approved a €90 billion ($101 billion) loan to cover Ukraine’s budgetary and military needs for 2026 and 2027. By August, however, Zelensky was already warning of a €27 billion funding shortfall for 2026 and pressing Brussels to accelerate payments originally intended for later. Zelensky has since demanded at least another €70 billion for 2027 alone, estimating Ukraine’s total conflict-related spending needs next year at a staggering €155 billion.

Wall Street suffered a massive selloff on Thursday, led by technology stocks, as the Democrats’ midterm victories fueled fears over the future of President Donald Trump’s ambitious AI investment drive.

The Democratic Party secured majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in Tuesday’s elections, wresting control of Congress from Republicans. Candidates campaigning against new data center development also won gubernatorial races in Texas and Georgia, two states that have long offered tax incentives to attract technology investment.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunged more than 5.5% during Thursday’s trading, erasing more than $2 trillion in estimated market value. The S&P 500 sank over 4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less exposure to technology stocks, dropped more than 3%.

Semiconductor giants Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Micron and Broadcom were among the hardest hit as investors dumped shares in companies at the heart of the AI boom.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks major US-listed chipmakers, tumbled more than 12% – its steepest intraday decline since March 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The rout also swept through America’s biggest technology companies, with Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Meta posting losses of between 2% and 4%.

The election results have added a new layer of uncertainty, raising concerns that a Democrat-controlled Congress could challenge the administration’s support for rapid AI expansion, including incentives for energy-intensive data centers.

The Trump administration has touted more than $3 trillion in technology and AI investment commitments since January 2025, although much of the pledged funding has yet to be spent.

American voters brought Donald Trump to power, handing him the opportunity to radically transform the political landscape of America, building upon overwhelming discontent about the political status quo that had metastasized over the course of successive presidential administrations, both Republican and Democratic.

And on November 3 American voters, in a fit of buyer’s remorse, voted for the very party they had rejected two years prior.

In 2024, Donald Trump was elected to a second term as president after running on a platform centered on the concept of “Making America Great Again,” or MAGA.

Riding on Trump’s MAGA coattails, Republicans were able to win control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, providing him with the opportunity to enact the kind of transformative changes in American politics his supporters were expecting – indeed, demanding. Two years later, the MAGA political machine lies in ruins.

Democrats, building on a wave of discontent and disappointment among an American electorate over the two-year track record of non-performance by Trump and his Congressional Republicans, have won decisive majorities in both houses of Congress, and are positioned to challenge Trump’s agenda for the remaining two years of his term.

Or more. Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat and the presumptive chairman of the House Oversight Committee once the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, issued a two-word warning to Republicans once the scope and scale of the Democratic victory became clear: “Lawyer up.”

In this regard, Garcia will seek to interview Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner along with other Trump family members about their alleged business dealings and any connection with the official duties of the president.

“Our second investigation is focused on DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) and the abuses of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” Garcia declared. “When people are being kidnapped and detained, thrown to the ground, arms broken, people snatched up on their way to immigration appointments that we the government gave them – that’s inhumane, it’s wrong, and I think the American public – regardless of party – are sick of it.”

Garcia also plans to investigate corporate donors to the White House ballroom, no-bid contracts like the Reflecting Pool contractor and companies he has said are “ripping off” the American public. “While you’re struggling, CEOs and companies across this country are making record profits,” he said. “They’re putting in systems of surveillance pricing, so that when you go to the supermarket, you might be paying a different price than your neighbor.”

Garcia also intends to probe further into the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, saying he wants to hold public hearings, which would replace the interviews that occurred behind closed doors when Republicans were in control of Congress.

Other Democrats have indicated that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will come under investigation for potential war crimes and other impeachable offenses.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is likewise expected to be put under the oversight microscope.

A third impeachment of President Trump is very much on the table as well.

There can be no doubt that many Democratic voters, perhaps a very large majority, will support Garcia’s vindictive agenda.

The buyer’s remorse of 2024 helped fuel the buyer’s remorse of the present times, and if left unchanged, the political cycle will continue to produce outcomes driven on similar remorse going forward.

Vice President J. D. Vance, obviously concerned about what the midterm results portend for his possible 2028 run for the presidency, has come out with his own post-game assessment as to why the Republicans under Donald Trump fared so poorly. In a social media post on X, Vance highlighted four actions that Republicans could have taken to mitigate their losses – ending the Iran war, focusing on the cost of living and inflation, putting America first and changing the US relationship with Israel.

None of these coincide with the agenda laid out by Representative Garcia.

This is a critical distinction.

Garcia, Jeffries and Schumer appear to believe that the midterm election results are a vote of confidence for a traditional Democratic platform.

Vance believes the midterm results reflect the disappointment among voters who had resoundingly rejected the Democratic platform in 2024. The voters, Vance believes, were punishing Trump and the Republicans, not endorsing the Democrats.

Senator Thom Tillis, a retiring North Carolina Republican, called Vance’s explanation oversimplified. “That is one of several factors,” Tillis said. “Do you honestly believe, for example, respectfully, Mr. Vice President, that we saw the departure of Hispanics over the war? Give me a break. It’s more complicated than that, and we owe a thoughtful analysis so that we get it right.”

Tillis was alluding to the fact that Vance had completely ignored the role the unconstitutional actions of ICE played in shaping the mindset of much of the electoral mindset, especially those among the MAGA base who held constitutional rights as being sacrosanct.

Garcia has made the DHS/ICE abuses a centerpiece of his agenda. But he is perhaps forgetting that under both Obama and Biden the Democrats deported more illegal aliens than Donald Trump. No one has clean hands when it comes to the issue of illegal immigration.

The same can be said about Israel and the ongoing genocide being perpetrated on the Palestinian population of Gaza. The current phase of the genocide started under Joe Biden. Trump simply continued the support.

Israel is one area where the American voter may get a choice – Vance wants to review America’s blind commitment to Israel and focus on putting America first.

But there is no unity among the MAGA crowd about Israel. Many support politicians like Ted Cruz, who claims to have become a senator to serve the cause of Israel, and Tom Cotton, who openly advocates in favor of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

But it is the issue of war and peace where the fickle nature of the American voter and the feckless behavior of American politicians truly comes into play.

Vance states that the Iran war was a major factor in influencing the American voter. But not because we carried out an illegal war of aggression facilitated by an act of perfidy that resulted in the murder of 170 Iranian school kids.

No, the issue was gas prices. President Trump promised an end to the endless wars in the Middle East. He lied, getting America embroiled in a failed war of choice.

But he could have gotten away with the lie if he had ‘won’, with victory measured by the price Americans pay at the pump for gas and diesel. We lost not because we did the wrong thing, because we violated international law, because we committed war crimes. We lost because the price of gas became uncomfortable for the American voter.

Simply put, the American voter has no moral compass. Just a bank account. If it goes up, all is good. If it goes down, there will be hell to pay.

This bodes poorly for the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Trump has made ending this war a priority, but the fact is he has failed to take advantage of opportunities, such as Russian President Putin’s offer of a compromise made in August 2025 in Alaska.

Instead, Trump continues to fund the Ukrainian war machine and provide political cover for European financial and material commitments to Ukraine. Trump continues to authorize the CIA to carry out operations against Russia designed to trigger conditions conducive to the collapse of the Russian government.

Any hope that Trump might navigate toward a path of conflict termination has been dashed by the election outcome – Congressional democrats, empowered by their electoral victory, will continue to advocate for supporting Ukraine’s war of attrition against Russia.

Trump will not be able to move forward toward ending the Russian-Ukraine conflict through negotiations – the Democrats in Congress will not permit this. Trump will be compelled to support Ukraine, which makes US policy objectives inherently predictable.

It is time for Russia to recognize the reality that Ukraine is a cancer on its aspirations for regional security. Excise this cancer. Ukraine is a rabid dog. Shoot the dog.

The extinction of Ukraine is the most predictable outcome that emerges from the US midterm election.

Faced with the fact that the US will not only fail to reign in the Ukrainian nationalists who have seized the helm of power in Kiev, or moderate the Russophobic aspirations of Europe, Russia will have no choice but to finish the job of bringing peace to Ukraine by itself.

And because this conflict does not impact the price of gas in the US, the American voter will remain oblivious to the human tragedy that will result.

Buyer’s remorse only extends to that which the buyer has attached value to. And for America, Ukraine holds no value.

A string of bomb threats has affected dozens of passenger flights across Europe this week, prompting diversions, emergency landings and security checks, as well as military escorts in some cases.

At least 27 incidents were reported on Thursday alone, bringing the total number of affected flights this week to at least 35. No explosive devices, hazardous substances or suspicious materials have been found onboard any of the aircraft.

What flights were targeted on Thursday?

An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to the Evreux military base in northern France following a bomb threat on Thursday, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s office said. The base was put on high alert, with the French authorities ordering its military to intercept the aircraft because its pilot “didn’t cooperate as expected with the authorities,” the statement said.

Finnair said that two of its flights, en route from Helsinki to Vienna and Rome, respectively, faced bomb threats. Both landed safely at their destinations, although the one flying to Rome received a fighter jet escort following the alert.

Three Ryanair flights, all bound for the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, received threats as well. Two of them – one from Copenhagen and the other from Madrid – landed at their destination, while the third one from London was diverted to Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city. All three received escorts from the Bulgarian Air Force, according to the nation’s military.

A Ryanair flight from Porto was also checked by the police after landing at its destination in Milan following another threat.

Spanish authorities reported receiving three bomb threats in under 20 minutes targeting two Air Europa departures from Madrid to Paris and four inbound Iberia flights from Rome and Milan. The flights that were due to depart from the Spanish capital were halted for an inspection.

In Poland, a LOT flight from Warsaw to Paris was stopped as it was about to take off because of a threat and the passengers were transferred to another aircraft. Another LOT flight from Warsaw landed safely in Brussels following a bomb alert.

Wizz Air confirmed that a flight from Milan to Bucharest received a bomb threat but landed safely without diverting.

An Air Serbia flight from Belgrade to Bucharest also received a bomb threat, but landed safely in the Romanian capital and resumed operations after security checks found nothing suspicious.

Czech police also reported inspecting a total of four aircraft arriving in Prague, while Heathrow and Birmingham airports in the UK received threats that authorities deemed not credible.

An Aegean Airlines flight from the Greek city of Thessaloniki received a bomb threat after it had already landed at its destination in Milan, the company’s spokesperson said, adding that nothing suspicious was found during the check.

A second Aegean flight, traveling from Athens to Vienna, was targeted, while a Wizz Air flight from Milan to Warsaw was diverted to Vienna following another alert. Both threats proved false.

What incidents were reported earlier?

An Austrian Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Vienna was diverted to Sofia on October 18 following a bomb threat in one of the earliest incidents mentioned in connection to the latest bomb scare wave.

A LOT flight from London to Warsaw was diverted to a different airport near the Polish capital after a bomb threat on November 3. The Warsaw-Modlin Airport where it landed was also temporarily shut down on Tuesday morning as the aircraft was inspected.

Four Ryanair flights were affected by bomb threats on the same day, prompting searches in Italy, Spain and Bulgaria.

A bomb threat was also reported on a SAS flight from Copenhagen to Warsaw on November 3. The aircraft landed safely at its destination.

Two Wizz Air flights received bomb threats on Monday and Tuesday. The one from Milan to Sofia landed safely at its destination on Tuesday, with another one from London to Sofia diverted to Budapest and escorted by a Hungarian fighter jet the day earlier.

Several airport officials told the media over the past days that they had received anonymous emails with the warnings. The Czech police confirmed to Reuters that such messages were sent to various European airports. A Prague airport representative told CNN that the airport had received one such email.

AP also reported that it was able to review a copy of an email containing threats to Rome-bound planes provided by an airport official. A representative of another European airport also confirmed receiving one to the news agency.

Who could be behind it?

Neither the authorities, nor the airlines made any official statements regarding who could be behind the threats. No groups have publicly claimed responsibility for the disruptions.

“National investigations remain ongoing,” European Union Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas told journalists on Thursday, adding that it was “too early to draw conclusions on whether the reported incidents are linked.”

According to AP, an email it was able to review was sent on behalf of a self-described “anti-feminist” group. A European airport official told the news agency about another email coming from a group calling itself anti-feminist and using similar language.

Some media outlets sought to add a political dimension to the story by claiming that Russia could be responsible for the “hoaxes.” Daily Mail ran a story on Wednesday citing a host of “experts” arguing that Moscow could be behind the scare.

Reuters also mentioned in its report on the issue that “most of the countries affected supported Ukraine.”

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed speculations that Russia could attack any NATO or EU nations as “nonsense” and “political schizophrenia.”

Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has resigned after the collapse of a major lender propped up by Pena and his government triggered mass protests. 

Pena announced his resignation in a video address on Thursday, stating that he was stepping down “with the stability of our country, social peace, and the need to ‌preserve our democratic institutions in ‌mind.”  Earlier on Thursday, Pena lost the backing of his right-wing Colorado party and was threatened with impeachment by the opposition.

Protests escalated into clashes on the streets of Asuncion on Wednesday, after the Paraguayan central bank placed Ueno Bank under administration, leaving its 3 million customers unable to access their accounts. A relatively new fintech company, Ueno Bank has only been operating since 2023, but serves two out of three adults in Paraguay, according to its website.  

The central bank announced that Ueno Bank had less than half of the legally required capital necessary to protect depositors and preserve financial stability. This forced Pena to advance legislation to return depositors’ money, which he said would cover 98% of affected customers.

Protesters and opposition lawmakers have accused Pena of conflicts of interest, misuse of public funds, and covering up warnings about Ueno Bank’s finances.

Pena’s Colorado party has been the dominant faction in Paraguayan politics since the late 1940s. It ruled Paraguay as a one-party state from 1947 until 1962, and backed Alfredo Stroessner’s US-supported dictatorship from 1954 until his overthrow in 1989. Pena has pursued close ties with US President Donald Trump, joining Trump’s military operation against Caribbean drug cartels and signing an agreement last year to accept migrants rejected by the US.

Pena is also an enthusiastic supporter of Israel. He moved Paraguay’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2024, and vowed to back Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the international stage “no matter what.” Under Pena, Paraguay has voted against three UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza since 2023. Opposition lawmakers have accused Pena’s political patron, former President Horacio Cartes, of purchasing ‘Pegasus’ spyware from Israel.

Colorado remains in power after Pena’s resignation, with Vice President Pedro Alliana set to assume his office. Eight senior Ueno executives have been detained and more than two dozen bank officials and associates charged in connection with the scandal.

Two astronauts have ventured outside the International Space Station (ISS) to complete a major solar power upgrade, with NASA broadcasting live footage of the operation.

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk began their spacewalk at 13:36 GMT on Thursday to install the station’s eighth and final roll-out solar array. The mission lasted 6 hours and 59 minutes and was successfully concluded at 20:35 GMT.

The operation involved transporting a tightly packed solar panel across the station’s exterior, around 420 km above Earth. Menon rode the station’s robotic arm while carrying the equipment before joining Kutryk to secure it in place.

Once the astronauts release the bolts holding the panel in its rolled-up position, it can unfurl on its own in around ten minutes.

During the mission, the astronauts had also to contend with the station’s rapid transitions between daylight and darkness, which occur roughly every 45 minutes. Some electrical connections were completed during orbital night, when the existing arrays are not generating power.

Last week’s spacewalk to install the station’s seventh solar array lasted 7 hours and 11 minutes.

According to NASA, the upgrade will increase the ISS’ available electrical power by around 30%, from 160 to 215 kilowatts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed the local assets of Japanese tobacco giant Japan Tobacco International (JTI) under temporary management, according to a decree published on the official legal information portal on Thursday. 

The decree transfers management of four JTI businesses – Petro, Donskoy Tabak, JTI Yelets, and Kres Neva – to Russian company Promyshlennye Aktivy (Industrial Assets).

The Petro factory in St. Petersburg and Donskoy Tabak in Rostov-on-Don produce cigarettes, while JTI Yelets in Lipetsk Region and Kres Neva in Leningrad Region process tobacco. The measure covers 100% of the ownership interests in each of the four businesses, held by the group’s foreign and Russian subsidiaries.

JTI is the international arm of Japan Tobacco, one of the world’s largest cigarette manufacturers. The company has operated in Russia since 1999 and strengthened its position in 2018 by acquiring Donskoy Tabak for approximately $1.6 billion. Its brands include Winston, Camel, Sobranie, Mevius, and LD, along with Russian labels such as Petr I and Russky Stil.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, JTI suspended new investments and marketing activities in Russia and considered selling its local business. However, the company decided to stay, citing its commitment to consumers. In 2024, Japan Tobacco CEO Masamichi Terabatake told the Financial Times that Russia had accounted for around 20% of the group’s profits and that leaving the profitable market could expose shareholders to losses.

The move comes against a backdrop of tensions involving Japanese companies and the Ukraine conflict. In October, the Russian Defense Ministry reported a strike on the JTI Ukraine tobacco factory in Kremenchug, saying that the facility had been used to produce small-arms ammunition for Ukrainian forces.

Later that month, Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned of a strong response after Japanese drone maker Terra Drone supplied interceptor drones to Ukraine. Moscow described the deliveries as a hostile act, accusing Tokyo of encouraging military cooperation between Japanese companies and Kiev.

The decision follows similar measures involving the Russian operations of several major foreign companies, including Swiss food giant Nestle, French retailers Auchan and Leroy Merlin, German wholesaler Metro, and French flooring manufacturer Tarkett.

Under the arrangement, foreign owners lose control over the management of their businesses but do not automatically forfeit ownership. Russian authorities can appoint domestic companies or state bodies to operate the affected enterprises. 

In March 2025, Italian appliance maker Ariston regained control of its Russian subsidiary after announcing plans to resume operations in the country. The business had been placed under the management of Gazprom Household Systems the previous year.

At the Valdai Discussion Club in October, Putin said Russia was not seizing, stealing, or nationalizing foreign assets, calling claims to the contrary “lies and provocations.” He said that temporary management was intended to allow Moscow to respond in kind to the seizure of Russian property abroad. Asked whether foreign companies would regain control of their businesses under favorable circumstances, he replied: “Yes, they will.”

Clashes outside a secret prison in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, a suburb of Kiev, revealed the dark side of modern Ukraine: its well-established system of abduction, torture, and human trafficking.

This system is beyond the control of the Kiev authorities and of law enforcement; it has become a self-sustaining sector of the economy. While everyone is aware of its existence, many choose to remain silent, fearing they might become its next victims.

What happened?

Let’s briefly recap the events. On the evening of November 1, reports appeared on social media that people were being illegally held in the basement of a private house in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, near Kiev. Apparently, a few local youths managed to climb over the fence and deliver a phone into the basement, allowing the captives to record a message.

The message revealed that there were dozens of people in the basement (various reports mentioned from 17 to 40 people) with four in critical condition, and one with a broken spine.

The following day, November 2, a crowd of relatives and concerned citizens gathered outside the house. An ambulance arrived, and the nurse demanded to be allowed inside. Meanwhile, the police present at the site did nothing. This detail is crucial, so keep it in mind.

Budanov entered the house with one of the protesters and emerged with a beaten 14-year-old boy, one of the captives. How the boy ended up inside remains unclear.

Then, four severely wounded men were brought out of the basement, followed by the remaining captives. These were told to get into a bus, and were about to be transported to an unknown location. However, the crowd intervened, and the people got out of the bus and dispersed.

Later that night, after Budanov had left, so-called ‘titushky’ (masked thugs) arrived on the scene. They wielded clubs, fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd, and resorted to violence. A reporter from the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (UNIAN) sustained abdominal injuries during the clashes. 

The dragon bares its teeth

While addressing the crowd (in Russian, by the way), Budanov made several statements, which can be summarized as follows: we know there are many basements like this across the country; we’re going to address the problem; today we did a lot, we saved lives; thank you all.

Let’s pause for a moment – these are the official remarks from one of the highest-ranking officials in Ukraine, an influential security forces figure and former head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate.

Whom did he save the people from? Who are these enemies that are torturing people while both the police and the government are powerless to intervene?

To understand the situation, we need to go back two years. By 2024, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) were facing serious challenges in recruitment: even with increased pay rates, there was a shortage of personnel. The old Soviet-era draft system wasn’t able to recruit the necessary number of people. 

Starting on October 1, 2024, at the initiative of the General Staff of the AFU, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers allowed commanders to enlist volunteers directly into military units without going through Territorial Centers of Recruitment. On November 25, then-Commander-in-Chief of the AFU Aleksandr Syrsky signed a directive mandating that each brigade establish its own recruitment unit.

Reality painted a different picture, however. In effect, the state handed over the power of coercive mobilization to private entities. Some commanders adapted quickly and began collaborating with local authorities.

The situation was profitable for both sides: city officials met their recruitment quotas, while “recruiters” in unmarked buses snatched people off the streets, gaining unlimited control over human resources without any oversight.

Human trafficking

Have you ever wondered what happens to the Ukrainian men who are grabbed off the streets and ‘busified’, i.e. forcefully conscripted?

One might think they’re taken to a government facility, registered, perhaps handed an official summons, and then sent to a centralized training camp where they receive basic combat training and a military specialty.

In reality, private ‘busification’ units have no real ties to the state and operate without any government oversight.

The unfortunate people caught on the streets end up in basements like the one stormed on Tuesday. There, they fall completely under the control of ‘recruiters’: they can be dispatched to the front, sold to a similar neighboring ‘unit’ (a market estimated to involve tens of thousands of people annually), or held captive for ransom. The latter practice is alarmingly common, with ransoms typically ranging from $5,000 to $20,000.

All of this occurs with the state’s approval, as the aforementioned directive from Syrsky allows direct recruitment into brigades. This is happening in the rear, and civilian police have no authority over military operations. This explains the inaction of law enforcement during the incident in Borshchagovka.

Another problem is deserters. Typically, local police don’t pursue deserters; if someone runs away from the front and manages to get home, local police generally don’t bother to catch him. 

However, they could turn such a person over to local brigade recruiters, who would track him down, imprison him in a basement, and subject him to punishment as a warning to others. Many of those held captive in the Borshchagovka basement were captured deserters.

Backbone of the economy

This system involves massive amounts of money. Every recruit is entitled to government payments: up to 300,000 hryvnias as a one-time payment and up to 100,000 hryvnias per month while on the front. 

The personnel lists are poorly monitored; mobilized individuals have their bank cards confiscated, and their access to bank accounts is restricted, so the people caught on the streets never see the money.

This creates a shadow fund in each brigade, which is then used to buy people on the slave market – sourced from the basements of neighboring brigades.

An additional intimidation tactic involves family members. When a man ends up as a captive, he is told that his family will have big problems if he speaks out. The forcibly mobilized men are officially regarded as second-class citizens; the term ‘ukhilyanty’ (Ukrainian slang for draft dodgers) is a product of official Kiev propaganda. As a result, it is the obligation of the ‘real defenders of the homeland’ to apply all the abovementioned brutal measures against these individuals.

Not all brigades and their ‘recruitment units’ are equally ‘effective’. The largest such conglomerate is Azov, which has been formally split into the 1st and 3rd Corps of the National Guard.

Affiliation with the National Guard shouldn’t fool anyone: since 2015, Azov has remained loosely controlled by the state, and the system of “direct recruitment” in the 1st and 3rd Brigades predates the directive from Syrsky. 

Today, Azov operates as a vertically integrated holding company, with war on the front merely a side endeavor. Its main activities include human trafficking, business extortion, and private security services.

Essentially, Azov functions as a state within a state, partaking in a fully-fledged sector of the economy involving hundreds of thousands of people. It wields a legal right to violence, and is beyond the control of both its direct authorities and the Kiev government.

The house in Borshchagovka belonged to Azov, which is why the police did nothing; it’s also why they barred the head of the National Guard (Azov’s formal boss) from entering.

Azov fighters, momentarily distracted from their street hunts and racketeering, showed up that evening in masks to assault the crowd.

That’s exactly why Budanov said that the authorities know about many such basements and (read between the lines) can’t do anything about them. The only thing he could do was to leverage his personal influence to gain access to a particular basement.  

Budanov’s authority didn’t last long, however. Later that evening, on November 2, Denis Prokopenko (known as ‘Redis’), commander of the 1st Corps of the National Guard and one of Azov’s leaders, released a statement accusing the protesters of sabotage and tarnishing the military’s image. Of course, there was no mention of torture.

The next day, this became the official position of the Kiev authorities: Budanov announced that a female medic had been detained (the ambulance nurse), and 100 other people were under suspicion.

Shortly after, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) opened three criminal investigations. Charges include hindering the operations of the AFU, spreading information regarding the location of the defense forces, and inciting public disorder. An internal review of the 1st Corps of the National Guard found no violations. 

And that is no longer surprising. The ‘recruiters’ – not just from Azov but from all 150 brigades of the AFU – have become the real power in Ukraine’s rear. Neither the police, nor the territorial defense units, nor the formal authorities can stand against them. Together with the whole country, they find themselves hostages to this unchecked force. Like Budanov, they can only resort to pleading and negotiating – only to comply with whatever demands are set forth the next day.

A small incident in an obscure suburb of Kiev has revealed the extent of decay within the modern Ukrainian state. It has shown who truly holds power in the country – power beyond the control of the police, Budanov, or even Zelensky.

The events in Borshchagovka have illustrated the tsunami of anarchy that will engulf Ukraine once this force devours the remaining vestiges of the state.

French police have used batons and tear gas against demonstrators in Lyon as violent clashes erupted during nationwide strikes on Thursday. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the French city, according to organizers.

The clashes came as weeks of nationwide protests and unrest over living costs, education and government spending escalated into hundreds of protest actions across the country.

Workers, students and pensioners joined Thursday’s nationwide strikes organized by a coalition of major French trade unions, which had called for the protests in early October. Demonstrators demanded higher wages and pensions, better-funded public services and changes to the government’s proposed 2027 austerity budget.

Videos circulating on social media appear to show tear gas grenades exploding among demonstrators on a Lyon street.

Other footage appears to show protesters throwing stones at riot police, while separate clips show officers charging at demonstrators and striking them with batons at Place Jean-Mace in the south of the city.

The police also deployed a water cannon against protesters on Gallieni Bridge in central Lyon, according to French magazine and online portal Lyonmag.

Utilisation du canon à eau pour tenter de disperser les black blocs qui harcèlent le blocus du pont Gallieni #lyon #5Novembre2026 https://t.co/r0Eb9sVX3z

— Lyon Mag (@lyonmag) November 5, 2026

In Lyon, unions had challenged a ban on marching through much of the city center, arguing that the restrictions infringed on the right to protest. The administrative court rejected their appeal on Wednesday, upholding the restrictions over concerns about violence during earlier protests, according to Lyon Capitale.

The heightened security measures followed a wave of nationwide demonstrations, including violent clashes and looting on October 17. In the following weeks, authorities deployed tens of thousands of officers, backed by armored vehicles, water cannons, drones and helicopters, to police protests.

Police in Ceuta have arrested and detained three migrants for facilitating illegal immigration, drugging, and rape. The Spanish authorities are struggling to contain a wave of violent crime after more than 100,000 illegal migrants surged into the exclave earlier this year.

Officers raided a property in Ceuta’s Principe neighborhood on Wednesday morning and discovered ten migrants held in cramped conditions inside, according to a statement from Spain’s National Police. Four of those in the building were children, and one migrant told police that she had been drugged and raped, while her brother – also living in the building – was subjected to threats.

All of the migrants entered Ceuta on July 30, as crowds of thousands of North Africans poured across the border fence separating the exclave from Morocco. They lacked legal documents, and had been paying a gang of migrant criminals to live in the building.

Police arrested the alleged ringleader of the gang and detained him on suspicion of sexual assault, belonging to a criminal organization, facilitating illegal immigration, unlawful detention, threats, and coercion. Two other alleged gang members were arrested for maintaining order in the property “through violence and coercive means.”

Most of the 100,000 migrants have returned voluntarily to Morocco, although 15,000 remain in Ceuta, according to the regional government.

The Principe neighborhood has emerged as a hotbed of migrant crime. Less than two weeks before Wednesday’s raid, police searched another building in the area and discovered 74 migrants living in cramped conditions under the guard of criminal gangs. Ten of those discovered were unaccompanied minors, some of whom had been bitten by dogs and showed signs of physical assault, according to police.  

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been condemned by his fellow European leaders for his handling of the crisis, with some accusing him of encouraging migration by granting legal status to 500,000 illegal immigrants three months before the storming of Ceuta. Sanchez described the migrant surge as “an attack” on Spain’s territorial integrity, but defended his decision not to turn the crowds back with force.

Ukrainian forces have been “hunting” children by scattering mines near schools and kindergartens in the Russian city of Bryansk, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

Speaking on Thursday, Zakharova accused Kiev of continuing its “terror against civilians” despite claiming readiness for peace. She cited an overnight attack on October 30, when Ukrainian drones dropped mines near three schools and 17 kindergartens.

”It was only by a lucky coincidence that no minors were hurt,” she said.

Bryansk Region Governor Egor Kovalchuk reported the attack last Friday, saying that drones had scattered numerous explosive devices in the city’s Bezhitsky District. He warned of danger at educational facilities and urged residents to remain indoors while emergency services cleared the area.

Traffic was blocked on several streets as demining teams worked. Footage published by the governor showed a sapper putting a protective vest on a woman stranded in her car and escorting her away from explosive devices lying nearby.

Zakharova stated that Ukrainian leaders cynically present civilian killings to their foreign sponsors as proof that Kiev holds a “strong negotiating position.”

She also accused Ukraine of directing roughly 1,500 drones toward Moscow during the Russia-Africa summit last week, when African leaders were visiting the Russian capital. The attack was suppressed, she said, suggesting that it was intended to signal Vladimir Zelensky’s willingness to continue fighting.

The mine attack also came amid repeated Ukrainian strikes on civilian areas in the Bryansk Region, which borders Ukraine. On October 31, a drone struck a private home in the settlement of Klimovo, killing a 30-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man, according to local authorities. Five other civilians were wounded in drone attacks elsewhere in the region.

Russian Foreign Ministry ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik said last month that Ukrainian attacks had killed 22 people and wounded 211, including 13 children, in a single week. Drone strikes accounted for 96% of the casualties, he added.

Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev of deliberately targeting civilians and residential areas to compensate for setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces continue to advance.

In response to the 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.

Representatives of Russia and Ukraine are meeting at the White House in Washington, DC for talks hosted by First Lady Melania Trump.

The meeting follows a temporary humanitarian ceasefire in Alyoshki, a city in the Russian region of Kherson, coordinated with the first lady’s involvement. 

The White House announced the gathering on November 3, describing it as an “extraordinary moment in American history.”

Russia is represented by Human Rights Commissioner Yana Lantratova and Special Presidential Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. 

Ukraine has sent Human Rights Commissioner Dmitry Lubinets and David Arakhamia, the head of the ruling Servant of the People parliamentary faction, according to Ukrainian media reports.

Melania Trump called for cooperation between Moscow and Kiev to extend beyond the temporary ceasefire in Alyoshki, describing the humanitarian arrangement as a precedent for advancing peace in the region.

A gift for Melania Trump from 11-year-old Lydia, who was evacuated from Oleshky to Tuapse. https://t.co/VXpsZAe19h

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) November 5, 2026

Dmitriev thanked Melania Trump “on behalf of President Putin” for her involvement in the humanitarian operation, describing her role as crucial. He also presented the First Lady with a painting by an 11-year-old girl from Alyoshki who had relocated with her family to the Russian city of Tuapse. The drawing bore the words “I love Melania.”

The presidential envoy also said that humanitarian efforts had helped reunite 34 children with their families in Russia and Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported initiatives proposed by US President Donald Trump, including prisoner exchanges, the release of American detainees, and other humanitarian measures, Dmitriev said.

The White House said Melania Trump independently initiated contact between the two countries and helped secure the temporary ceasefire in Alyoshki and the surrounding area. 

Officials from both sides oversaw the evacuations, with civilians offered the choice of relocating to another city in Russia or traveling to Ukraine via Russia and Belarus. Evacuees and Russian officials interviewed by RT described months of hardships of living under shelling, which they attributed to Ukrainian forces.

Lantratova said on November 2 that discussions were underway on organizing regular humanitarian missions to Alyoshki with the first lady’s mediation, potentially allowing aid deliveries every month.

The meeting comes ahead of another round of US-mediated negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, scheduled for November 10-11 in Abu Dhabi.

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev has accused the Financial Times of spreading “fake news,” after the newspaper claimed that a diesel fuel deal between Moscow and Washington was “unravelling.”

Less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump’s Republican Party lost control of Congress in the US’ midterm elections, two tankers carrying Russian diesel to the east coast of the US switched course, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. One tanker swung east from the Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean Sea, and another switched its destination to Brazil, the paper reported, citing publicly available tracking data.

A third tanker continued toward the US, but signaled that its cargo was awaiting a buyer, while a fourth was still en route to Massachusetts with no change to its route or plan.

These diversions, the newspaper claimed, signaled hesitancy by American buyers, and suggested that “Donald Trump’s controversial gambit to import Russian diesel to the US ahead of the midterm elections appears to be unravelling.”

Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund who helped broker the deal, described the report as “fake.” 

Fake. Tankers destined for the US continue on course. Why so much fake news from the @FT? https://t.co/bHwTrlqSrt

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) November 5, 2026

“Tankers destined for the US continue on course,” he wrote on X on Thursday. “Why so much fake news from the FT?”

In a deal struck with Trump last month, Russia agreed to release more than 300,000 metric tons of diesel to US and global markets, followed by another 500,000 tons in November and additional supplies thereafter. With American gasoline and diesel prices at record highs as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran and Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries, the deal was widely seen as a last-ditch effort by Trump to lower costs in the runup to the midterms. 

“The purchase of Russian diesel fuel by the United States and the routes of tankers transporting it have absolutely nothing to do with the electoral processes in the United States,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. All of the shipped diesel will “definitely find its buyer,” Peskov added.

Trump described the diesel deal as “the right choice for the American People.” However, although the deal triggered a 4.6% drop in wholesale diesel prices after it was announced, widespread anger over the cost of living and the war on Iran still cost the Republican Party in the elections.

Democratic control of Congress could complicate efforts to negotiate a settlement in Ukraine and create new obstacles to dialogue with Moscow, Russian experts have warned following the Republicans’ crushing defeat in the US midterm elections.

The Republicans lost control of both chambers on Tuesday, with the new Congress set to take office on January 3. Until then, President Donald Trump has nearly two months to pursue diplomatic agreements before facing a legislature expected to challenge his policies and investigate his administration.

Losing Congress, however, does not strip Trump of his foreign-policy powers, and some experts believe domestic gridlock could prompt him to become more active abroad.

Ukraine as a bargaining chip

Ukraine aid and relations with Moscow could become bargaining chips in battles over Trump’s domestic priorities, according to Victoria Zhuravleva, deputy director of the Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations and head of its North American studies center.

US affairs analyst Malek Dudakov similarly warned that negotiations with Russia would become harder because Trump would approach them “in a very weakened position.”

The new Congress could also seek to influence the terms of a settlement, Dmitry Novikov, an associate professor at the Higher School of Economics, told Vedomosti. Democrats could try to write additional military and economic commitments to Kiev into legislation on US security guarantees for Ukraine, he explained.

Celebrations in Kiev may be premature

Russian experts, however, cautioned against assuming that Democratic control of Congress would automatically reverse Washington’s course toward Moscow.

Trump would retain his veto power, even if Democrats push for tougher sanctions on Moscow and more military aid to Kiev, Ivan Pyatibratov, a political analyst and associate professor at the Financial University, said. Dialogue with Moscow could become more difficult, he argued, but would not necessarily be abandoned.

Kiev, which had backed Democrats in the election, may also be celebrating too soon, political analyst Vladimir Kornilov noted. He stressed that Kiev shouldn’t expect a friendly Congress to immediately sideline Trump and abruptly change Washington’s position toward Ukraine and Russia.

“Trump remains president for another two years,” he told the Vzglyad news outlet, noting that foreign policy is the president’s prerogative and that he will not forget the contribution Vladimir Zelensky made to the Republicans’ midterm defeat.

Dudakov also pointed out that even if Democrats were to pass a bill on additional military support to Kiev, it would not necessarily translate into large weapons deliveries to Ukraine given that US stockpiles are depleted, particularly of Patriot interceptor missiles, with available supplies likely to be prioritized for protecting American bases against Iran.

Valdai Discussion Club expert Andrey Kortunov, meanwhile, identified a “window of opportunity” before the new Congress convenes in January, pointing out that Russia, Ukraine and the US are still scheduled to resume trilateral negotiations. The next round is expected to take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11.

A lame duck—or a more dangerous president?

The Republican party’s crushing defeat has effectively marked “the end of Trump’s presidency” and his attempts at implementing his domestic policy, Zhuravleva surmised.

She predicted that Democrats would block his legislative agenda while he vetoed theirs, producing two years of paralysis, bitter budget disputes and investigations potentially leading to another impeachment attempt.

US affairs analyst Gevorg Mirzayan, on the other hand, disagreed that Trump would become a ceremonial figure, arguing that his substantial foreign-policy powers and “fighting character” would keep him battling Congress rather than compromising. He could also try to end the Iran war by force, Mirzayan told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

“The paradox is that, having lost control over domestic policy, Donald Trump may become more active – and more aggressive – in foreign policy,” Higher School of Economics expert Georgy Asatryan told the newspaper Kommersant.

Andrey Manoylo, a political science professor at Moscow State University also suggested that Trump could attempt to overshadow his electoral defeat with a military adventure, with Cuba being one possible target.

A referendum Trump lost

The analysts broadly attributed the Republican collapse to disappointment with Trump, rather than renewed enthusiasm for Democrats.

Pyatibratov argued that Trump had effectively undermined the campaigns of Republican candidates by turning the elections into a referendum on himself despite polling showing he was deeply unpopular.

Asatryan identified the economy as the main reason for the defeat, blaming damage inflicted by Trump’s unpopular policies, including tariffs and the Iran war. He pointed out that the president had returned to office promising cheaper living and fewer foreign entanglements, but, instead, his actions led to consequences that ended up undermining the Republican campaign.

“American social media users are even joking that Iran carried out regime change in America,” he told Kommersant.

Zhuravleva offered a similar assessment, stressing that “you cannot wage trade wars against the whole world and a real war in a region crucial to energy logistics and expect it to have no effect on your citizens’ welfare.”

At the same time, Pyatibratov cautioned against writing Trump off. “Yes, his ratings are low. But half of Europe’s leaders have similar ratings, and that doesn’t stop them from governing,” he told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Ukraine’s failure to tackle rampant corruption has left its bid to join the EU lagging behind other countries, the European Commission has declared.

In its annual enlargement package published on Wednesday, Brussels demanded that that Kiev “demonstrates significant progress in tackling and preventing corruption” and that the country is lagging behind Montenegro and Moldova in terms of meeting membership criteria.

The Commission assessed Ukraine’s preparedness in the judiciary, the fight against corruption, and the protection of fundamental rights as falling between some and moderate. It recorded only limited progress on judicial reforms, while noting that “the slowing down of legislative decision-making” in the Ukrainian parliament – where Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is struggling to whip up a reliable voting majority – is “a point of concern.”

The Commission’s newly published accession roadmap also offers little certainty for Kiev, with the document envisaging Ukraine provisionally closing just seven of the 33 main negotiating chapters in 2027, none of which have to do directly with corruption that has plagued the ex-Soviet nation for decades.

At the same time, Kos heaped praise on Moldova, calling it the “best performer in my class,” referring to the EU’s assessment that the country could provisionally close as many as 25 of the 33 main negotiating chapters in 2027. At the same time, she acknowledged that Chisinau still faces substantial challenges, particularly in establishing a solid record of investigations, prosecutions, and final court rulings in corruption cases.

Corruption has long been Ukraine’s bane, which has only gained steam after the escalation of conflict with Russia in 2022. A study by CASE Ukraine estimated that undeclared wages and informal employment deprived the state of more than $5 billion in tax revenue in 2025. Smuggling, grey imports, and customs violations cost the state another $2.4 billion.

The country has also been rocked by a slew of high-profile graft scandals, including an alleged kickback scheme involving the state nuclear energy company Energoatom and Timur Mindich, Zelensky’s former close associate. Ukrainian investigators announced on Wednesday that they had completed a probe into the alleged network, which they said had funneled more than $111 million and €12 million in illicit funds through its money-laundering operation.

Stalled anti-corruption reforms also carry grave financial consequences for cash-strapped Kiev, as the EU has tied the release of billions in budget support to progress on reforms, including the rule of law and corruption prevention.

The European archery governing body, World Archery Europe (WAE), has lifted restrictions on Russian athletes, teams and officials, allowing them to take part in its tournaments under their national flag and anthem.

In a statement published on its official website Wednesday, the federation announced that its Executive Board had voted to lift all restrictions on Russian participation at WAE-managed events from January 1, 2027.

WAE reaffirmed its commitment to “supporting all athletes and maintaining unity, fairness, and integrity across the European archery community,” saying its decision was made “in the best interest of the athletes.” The federation noted, however, that participation remains subject to host-country laws, visa restrictions, national authorities’ instructions, and standard eligibility and anti-doping rules.

Russian Archery Federation President Zorigto Mankhanov welcomed the move but warned that visa restrictions could still shut Russian competitors out of European events.

Russian athletes return despite Western resistance

World Archery Europe joined numerous international federations in banning Russian and Belarusian athletes, teams and officials following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict and an International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendation in 2022.

Earlier this year, however, the IOC provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, paving the way for a broader return to international sport. Restrictions have since been eased in rhythmic gymnastics, boxing, artistic swimming, wrestling, table tennis, fencing, and other disciplines. World Archery, the global governing body, followed suit in August, restoring Russian participation under national symbols at the Archery World Cup, World Championships, and other events.

Last month, the Netherlands denied entry to three leading Russian gymnasts for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, and this week, several European nations said they would refuse to face Russia at the upcoming world hockey championship despite a court ruling clearing its participation.

Moscow condemns sporting bans

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the bans as politically motivated and “cowardly,” accusing Western governments of weaponizing sport. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month that some countries were trying to influence competition results by excluding top competitors.

“It would be better to wait for a fundamental change in the situation, when our enemies will humbly beg for Russia’s return to professional sport,” he wrote on social media. “I am sure that time will come soon, because Russia is a major sporting power, and international sports federations and organizers of major competitions sometimes find themselves short of money.”

Medvedev was referring to potential multibillion-dollar penalties international sporting federations could face if they defy rulings by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), where Russia can challenge bans on its athletes.

A British healthcare worker who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) is being evacuated to the UK for specialist treatment, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing an official document. The patient is in stable condition, according to the report.

The worker was expected to arrive in Britain on Wednesday or Thursday before being transported by a specialist ambulance to a high-security infectious disease unit, the document showed. He had been deployed to DR Congo by a humanitarian organization to help fight the ongoing outbreak.

“A British citizen currently in the DRC has tested positive for Ebola,” a UK government spokesperson told Reuters, adding that established procedures had been activated. “The risk to the UK public from Ebola remains low.” 

The case is the first involving a British national during the current outbreak, which began in DR Congo in May and is caused by the Bundibugyo virus. It has become the country’s largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak, with 10,668 confirmed cases and 5,198 deaths recorded as of November 3, according to the country’s Health Ministry. The outbreak has affected 67 health zones across eight provinces, with Ituri accounting for more than 70% of all infections.

Kenyan authorities also released 46 people from quarantine after they completed monitoring without developing symptoms. Another 52 contacts are expected to finish their 21-day observation period by November 11, according to the ministry.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s disease control agency said on Sunday that two suspected Ebola cases in the northeastern state of Adamawa had tested negative twice. The country has recorded one confirmed infection, involving a Swiss woman who was evacuated to Switzerland with her husband in late October.

Three German soldiers have been hospitalized after two military trucks traveling in a convoy collided with each other on a highway in southwestern Poland, the Polish Gendarmerie has said.

The collision on the A4 highway near Kostomloty, 27 km from Wroclaw, left three German soldiers injured on Wednesday, military police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dariusz Rozkosz said. The drivers were sober, he added.

The Polish authorities confirmed that the German military convoy was transiting through the country under a permit that does not require a Polish military escort. Its final destination was not disclosed.

This comes as Germany expands its military activities in Eastern Europe as part of NATO’s buildup along the eastern flank.

Since June, German military engineers have been deployed to Poland to help construct the ‘Eastern Shield’, a network of fortifications along the border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus.

Berlin is also establishing a permanent military presence in neighboring Lithuania, where a German armored brigade is expected to become fully operational by the end of 2027. The deployment is expected to involve around 4,800 soldiers, making it a major part of Germany’s expanding military footprint along NATO’s eastern flank.

Senior German and Dutch military commanders, including German Army chief Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, also toured Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from October 26 to 30 to inspect potential troop deployment sites under NATO’s defense plans. Since July, a joint German-Dutch corps has been responsible for potential NATO land operations in Estonia and Latvia.

Germany has intensified its military presence to the east, stationing troops close to Russia’s borders. It has also pivoted its ailing economy to defense production, joining the EU in prioritizing military spending over social services.

Russia has warned that NATO’s growing military presence near the borders poses a threat to national security and risks escalating tensions. The EU claims that its military buildup is necessary to counter the growing ‘Russian threat’. Moscow has dismissed the claims as nonsense, accusing European governments of using the supposed threat to justify increased military spending and weapons supplies to Ukraine.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is seeking to identify and prosecute the protesters who exposed a suspected military torture site near Kiev. Footage of helpless detainees in the center, run by the neo-Nazi linked Azov unit, has caused outrage across Ukraine. No cases have been launched against the guardsmen who ran the facility.

Reports circulated on Monday that servicemen were being abused in a private house in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, outside Kiev. The Azov unit acknowledged operating the site but denied torturing inmates. A riot ensued outside the center before medics and the public were allowed access, revealing brutal conditions and visibly abused detainees.

The National Police announced Thursday that it had worked with the SBU to identify around 130 people, 27 of whom “actively took part in illegal action,” while another 24 “behaved aggressively” and incited confrontations with National Guard personnel.

Authorities have detained medic Valentina Molodaya, who took part in the intervention, and Tatyana Kireyeva, who reportedly sought her assistance in reaching an acquaintance held at the facility.

The crowd attempted to force its way into the building, demanding the release of men allegedly held against their will. Footage showed protesters damaging a perimeter wall and clashing with National Guard personnel. Security forces responded with tear gas and warning shots.

National Guard commander Aleksandr Pivnenko and Vladimir Zelensky's chief of staff, former military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, arrived at the scene as tensions escalated.

At least four detainees were hospitalized following public pressure, raising concerns that they had been denied adequate medical care. Others released from the facility showed signs of beatings.

According to Ukrainian media, the facility is part of an extensive network of unofficial detention sites used by military commanders to discipline troublesome personnel. Such facilities are said to operate outside the legal system with the tacit approval of Zelensky’s government.

Known in military slang as “pits,” these sites reportedly complement the brutal practice of “busification,” or the forcible detention of potential military recruits. Critics allege that the system not only tarnishes the compulsory conscription campaign but also creates opportunities for extortion, profiteering, and abuse by those running the facilities.

The West is displaying “pure hypocrisy” by criticizing Indian democracy while overlooking the restrictions imposed on protesters in Europe, former Indian high commissioner to the UK, Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, has told RT.

He made the remarks when asked about opposition protests in India over the controversial revision of electoral rolls. New Delhi last month rejected concerns raised by the United Nations Human Rights Office over reports of mass detentions of demonstrators and journalists in the Indian capital.

“There is a certain narrative which certain sections of opinion makers in the West… in certain countries, try and weave about India,” Sinha told RT India’s head of news, Runjhun Sharma, on the India, Russia and the World podcast.

He pointed to the absurdity of European governments, which tackled protests with a heavy hand and imposed fines on the protesters, criticizing India’s democratic record. “When they hector us, when they lecture us, it is pure hypocrisy,” Sinha said.

In contrast, he argued that the protests in Delhi were proof that India offered space to its citizens to express dissent – an essential feature of democracy. While calling India “far from perfect,” he pointed to the challenges in maintaining democratic institutions in a country of 1.4 billion people.

Sinha, who also served as India’s ambassador to Venezuela and chief information commissioner, rejected the characterization of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s style as “macho politics.”

“I would qualify him as a people’s leader,” Sinha said, noting Modi had steered India through major challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic headwinds caused by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The former diplomat also compared India to a “large oasis of stability in a turbulent world.” However, he added that hostile forces wanted to disrupt that stability and growth. “I think we need to be mindful of that because we can’t remain immune to what’s happening around us.”

Sinha also said he had “no doubt” about the involvement of a “foreign hand” in Bangladesh’s student protests that toppled the government of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.

“It was very brazen” and planned, he said, adding the caretaker leader, Muhammad Yunus, had paraded a student leader as the person who’s “responsible in Washington.”

Sinha praised Russia as a strong partner because “Russia, and before that the Soviet Union, has always stood by India.”

“And Indians don’t forget that. We are very grateful for what Russia has done for us.”

Mass demonstrations over wages, rising living costs, and government spending cuts have swept France, with crowds facing off with police during a nationwide strike on Thursday. The CGT union estimated that nearly 1.6 million people took part in the latest wave of unrest.

Initially sparked by student anger over education costs and school conditions, the protests have grown into a broader revolt against inequality and cuts to public services. The violence peaked on October 17, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Paris, with widespread looting, arson and clashes with riot police. Demonstrations continued over the following two weekends.

The French Interior Ministry, however, put Thursday’s turnout at more than 600,000 – still the highest official figure since the first major demonstrations in September. The CGT reported marches in 207 cities, including 350,000 participants in Paris. The strike also disrupted schools and some transport services, while the Eiffel Tower closed for the day.

The Paris Police Prefecture had banned a planned march through the city center toward the National Assembly, citing fears of renewed violence. Organizers had sought to lead demonstrators from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Concorde, directly across the Seine from the parliament building, saying they wanted to “head towards the centers of political power.”

On Wednesday, police prefect Patrice Faure prohibited the proposed route, authorizing an alternative march from Place de la Republique to Place de la Nation along Boulevard Voltaire, bypassing the political center. He cited the disorder of October 17 and a “national and international context of very high threat.”

Union leaders denounced the restrictions as a “disgrace” and challenged them in court. However, a Paris administrative tribunal upheld the alternative route late Wednesday, ruling that it was “neither inappropriate nor disproportionate” and did not unlawfully infringe fundamental freedoms.

À Paris, un char à l'effigie de plusieurs personnalités politiques a été incendié en fin de cortège https://t.co/5XJ68nlMEP

— BFM (@BFMTV) November 5, 2026

Thursday’s demonstration proceeded along the approved route but was repeatedly disrupted by interventions from security forces. The Paris Police Prefecture said officers temporarily halted the procession after masked individuals damaged property on Boulevard Voltaire. Journalists from Le Monde reported police charges near the Charonne metro station, where a black bloc had formed, leaving sections of the march unable to advance.

Several demonstrators reportedly suffered injuries, with at least three young people receiving treatment for head wounds. At least 448 people were arrested nationwide, according to AP.

Reporting from Paris on Thursday evening, RT correspondent Yasin Eken described officers deploying acoustic devices and tear gas while pushing demonstrators across a square.

“Police intervention is underway,” Eken said, adding that officers were “targeting protesters across the square.” He noted that the use of tear gas had been more limited than during previous demonstrations.

Videos from the French capital show protesters clashing with police.

At the end of the Paris march, demonstrators set fire to a float bearing cardboard effigies of political figures, including President Emmanuel Macron, at Place de la Nation, according to BFMTV.

Violence was also reported in Rennes, where the authorities said masked individuals vandalized a hotel, erected barricades, set trash cans on fire and hurled heavy metal balls at officers. Several dozen suspects were detained, while union demonstrators were also attacked, according to the local prefecture. Riot police charged groups of protesters and used tear gas.

Quelques tensions sont constatées en tête de cortège à Paris. Des policiers tentent de disperser quelques éléments violents. Pendant ce temps, la majorité des manifestants se trouve toujours place de la République dans le calme. #franceinfo https://t.co/ZgdYwKiXt8

— franceinfo (@franceinfo) November 5, 2026

In Lille, a trash-can fire during a student mobilization spread to a gas supply line outside the Cesar-Baggio high school, triggering a major leak and prompting the authorities to establish a 200-meter security perimeter. Six students were evacuated, and more than 200 customers remained without gas after the supply was shut off, according to Franceinfo.

In Lyon, demonstrators threw projectiles and set wooden pallets alight during confrontations with security forces, according to media reports. Officers responded with tear gas, and several arrests were reported.

Clashes also broke out in Marseille, where groups set rubbish bins on fire and fired pyrotechnics at officers. Police deployed tear gas near Place Jean Jaures, forcing demonstrators away from the area.

La brutalité de l'intervention se poursuit alors que le cortège était calme https://t.co/4svCXkQ99X

— AB7 Média (@Ab7Media) November 5, 2026

In Toulouse, security forces used tear gas and water cannons after blocking marchers from crossing the Pont des Catalans bridge. The CGT accused officers of injuring several union activists during charges, while a local representative said more than a dozen demonstrators had been hospitalized. The prefecture separately reported 18 injured officers, 30 arrests and one protester treated by firefighters for a jaw injury.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray also condemned what he described as a deliberate arson attack on a school near Toulouse, according to CNN.

Charge brutale de Compagnies d'intervention dans le cortège parisien https://t.co/q7eECRd78B

— AB7 Média (@Ab7Media) November 5, 2026

The tactics used against demonstrators have also come under scrutiny over serious injuries sustained during the weeks of unrest. An investigation published by Le Monde on Thursday documented dozens of cases involving protesters and bystanders, including amputations, severe eye injuries and fractures, many linked to police weapons. The Interior Ministry said 83 investigations into possible misconduct by officers were underway.

The authorities had classified Thursday’s mobilization as high-risk following intelligence warnings of a possible escalation in violence, particularly in city centers.

Speaking late Wednesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced the deployment of 70,000 police officers and gendarmes nationwide, alongside 110 mobile units and specialized intervention teams. The operation also involved drones, helicopters, canine and mounted units, 26 Centaure armored vehicles and approximately 15 water cannons, according to the ministry.

Security forces conducted checks along major roads, railway routes and at stations, while restrictions were imposed on carrying weapons, protective equipment and pyrotechnics.

The measures extended the crackdown launched after the October 17 unrest, with tens of thousands of personnel deployed over subsequent weekends. Marseille, Lyon and other cities also banned specific rallies or restricted protest routes.

The Senate late last month approved the controversial ‘Rioters Pay’ bill, proposing fines of up to €10,000 ($11,000) for anyone knowingly participating in a gathering that turns violent, even if they did not personally cause damage. The legislation has since moved to the National Assembly for consideration. 

Has the government addressed protesters’ demands?

The French authorities have announced several concessions in response to the unrest, particularly those concerning education. In late October, ministers unveiled a multibillion-euro education package pledging to replace the controversial Parcoursup admissions platform, invest $5.5 billion in aging schools, cap classes at 28 students, create new teaching posts, and scrap planned cuts.

The government, however, has refused to meet the unions’ financial demands, insisting it must first pass the austerity budget aimed at trimming spending to address mounting public debt ahead of April’s presidential election. In response, unions across the political spectrum have united in calls for rolling strikes, bringing together air traffic controllers, dockworkers, healthcare personnel, and teachers demanding pay rises in line with inflation.

Why is unrest spreading across Europe?

France is far from alone in facing mass unrest, with strikes, protests, and riots sweeping more than a dozen European countries and further nationwide walkouts planned.

In Germany, industrial action led by IG Metall has hit manufacturing hubs, with the union demanding a 5% pay rise after rejecting an employer offer of just 1.3%, delayed until 2028. The warning strikes follow cost-of-living rallies in Berlin and 30 other cities. In Italy, protests over education funding, housing, and rising military spending have rocked more than 40 cities.

Spain faces a nationwide general strike on November 11 following weeks of protests over soaring rents and evictions. Demonstrators have dismissed government rent caps and temporary eviction protections as inadequate. In Ireland, more than 300,000 public-sector workers, including teachers, nurses, and doctors, are set to strike on November 12 after pay talks collapsed. The walkout coincides with a major European summit in Dublin attended by more than 50 government leaders.

Elsewhere, land-use protests in Albania have escalated into violent clashes demanding the prime minister’s resignation. Brussels and Liege have seen student protests and clashes over education cuts, while Zurich and Basel have witnessed nighttime riots, burning barricades, and property damage.

Although politicians have largely blamed localized issues such as immigration or political factions, analysts point to shared grievances across Europe, including soaring living costs, stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, and deteriorating public services.

The third Russia-Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum, which concluded in Moscow on October 29, was a significant milestone and an opportunity to evaluate Russia’s relationship with Africa seven years after the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit held in Sochi.

First of all, the summit was an important diplomatic achievement. The scale of the event was unprecedented, featuring delegations from 48 African nations, including 20 presidents, seven prime ministers, and three vice presidents. In total, 166 documents were signed during the summit and its accompanying events, comprising 104 agreements and 62 memoranda. The parties also adopted a new declaration and an Action Plan for 2027-2029.

In this context, the increase in representation this year compared to 2023 may be seen as a positive trend. Although initially there were plans for an African country to host the third summit, eventually the organizers decided in favor of Russia. The idea of hosting an upcoming summit in Africa remains relevant, particularly for strengthening the equality of partnership.

UN Security Council reform, counter-sanctions measures, reparations, and finance 

Politically speaking, the Moscow summit reaffirmed the continuity of agreements made in previous years. The final declaration maintained key points about reforming the UN Security Council, countering unilateral sanctions, upholding state sovereignty, and addressing the legacy of colonialism.

These developments highlight the growing influence of African states in debates surrounding the reform of international institutions. Expanding Africa’s representation in the UN Security Council, revising approaches to international lending, and enhancing the capacity of developing countries to influence global economic policy have long been priorities for the African Union.

In Moscow, Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Mahamoud Ali Youssouf emphasized the need to reform the international financial architecture and improve Africa’s access to capital markets. He also welcomed the establishment of an African credit rating agency aimed at reducing the continent’s dependence on existing international credit assessment mechanisms.

Beyond bilateral engagement, Russia has continued to strengthen ties with regional and continental organizations in Africa. Memorandums of understanding were signed with the East African Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Action plans were also established with the African Union Commission, the Southern African Development Community, and other entities.

The AU Commission-Russian Federation Action Plan 2027-2029 encompasses 19 areas, including trade, energy, transportation, agriculture, digital technologies, and security. Notably, the document outlines joint research initiatives for the use of AI for early warning systems related to conflicts, epidemics, and natural disasters.

This form of cooperation is particularly relevant considering the gradual development of pan-African markets and the AU’s goal to coordinate external economic relations at the continental level.

The main focus of the summit was on bilateral negotiations and agreements. Agreements were signed regarding inter-agency collaboration, as well as educational and scientific collaboration and other partnerships; this includes actionable strategies for further development. While these agreements certainly reflect growing contacts between government bodies, universities, and businesses, they do not yet provide clarity on the scale of future investments or the guaranteed implementation of specific projects.

Among the most tangible economic developments is RUSAL’s agreement with Ghana’s state-owned corporation GIADEC. This deal involves the exploration of the Nyinahin bauxite deposit, with a planned extraction of up to 5 million tons of raw material annually, followed by the construction of an alumina refinery with a capacity of 1.2 million tons.

To bring this project to fruition, two joint ventures will be established, with the Russian company holding a controlling stake. The interests of both parties are rooted in clear economic objectives: Ghana aims to strengthen its aluminum industry and increase the processing of locally sourced bauxite, while RUSAL seeks greater access to raw materials and production capabilities. If successful, this project could serve as a model for industrial cooperation that respects the priorities of both sides.

In South Sudan, Zarubezhneft has negotiated potential involvement in oil extraction consortia, while VEB.RF signed a memorandum with the Confederation Bank for Investment and Development of the Sahel States. It aims to explore and develop financing mechanisms for projects in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The future success of these initiatives will largely depend on favorable financing conditions and the ability of the parties to implement long-term projects.

The technological agenda of the Moscow summit deserves particular attention. Alongside a unified Action Plan, the parties adopted a separate declaration focused on the civil application of AI. The new three-year plan includes collaborative AI model development, sharing expertise in computational infrastructure, and enhancing digital government systems.

Interest in these areas is not coincidental: over the past decade, almost every African country has developed its own strategy for digital transformation in the fields of economy and governance. However, practical collaboration will demand significant resources, including computing power, skilled professionals, and improved energy infrastructure. Outcomes will hinge on the establishment of concrete joint programs and projects.

The technological agenda extended beyond AI. Roscosmos signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tanzania, and Russian companies signed agreements regarding the utilization of unmanned aerial systems in geological exploration. General Director of Roscosmos Dmitry Bakanov announced plans to assist Tanzania in establishing a national space agency and highlighted potential cooperation in satellite technologies and Earth observation.

Education, media, healthcare

Collaboration in the field of education is also developing. As Russian President Vladimir Putin noted, nearly 40,000 students from African countries are currently enrolled in Russian higher education institutions. Given the prospects for expanding industrial and technological partnerships, the training of specialists will play a critical role in executing joint projects.

During the summit and its related events, 29 agreements were signed concerning information cooperation. Notably, RT established partnerships with 12 African organizations and agencies, including Nigeria’s TVC News, the public broadcasting companies of Ghana, Tanzania, and Namibia, as well as Ethiopia’s FANA Media Corporation. These agreements focus on sharing information, jointly covering events, and fostering professional collaboration.

The expansion of these contacts highlights the growing significance of information cooperation in Russia’s Africa policy. This is particularly important since in Africa, local media face competition from Western outlets.

Russia-Africa collaboration in the field of healthcare has already produced measurable results. At the summit, it was announced that Rospotrebnadzor’s program aimed at assisting African nations in combating infectious diseases would be extended through 2029. Since its inception, this initiative has provided eight countries with 15 mobile epidemiological laboratories and trained around 450 local specialists.

In September 2026, the Russian government allocated separate funding for the continuation of this program over the next three years. Unlike many emerging sector initiatives, this program already benefits from a skilled workforce and effective cooperation mechanisms between relevant agencies.

Diverse requests from African nations

Many African participants arrived in Moscow with their own distinct priorities, ranging from security and regional stability to industrial cooperation and financing infrastructure projects.

These examples underscore the diverse interests of African countries. The scale of the Russia-Africa cooperation format necessitates balancing the pan-African agenda with country-specific solutions.

Significant limitations persist in Russia’s economic dealings with African nations. In 2025, trade between Russia and Africa reached $27.1 billion, with approximately 39% of that figure attributed to Egypt. Despite advancements in political relationships and ongoing projects, trade remains concentrated in specific regions and product categories. 

Challenges related to international payments, logistics, insurance, and financing continue to hinder Russian companies from entering new markets. The Action Plan for 2027-2029 includes strategies for developing essential mechanisms, such as aligning Russian payment systems with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).

The evolution of African economies

African economies are also evolving. Urbanization, rising domestic consumption, the growth of local manufacturing, and the strengthening of major national companies are intensifying competition across the continent. African nations are increasingly advocating for the localization of production, raw material processing, and technology transfer from foreign partners.

Youssouf highlighted that African states are not only interested in importing agricultural products; they also want to develop their own production capabilities, including through the adoption of Russian technologies and expertise. These trends have significant implications for Russian businesses, which will increasingly engage with local producers, industrial associations, and investors.

In many ways, the meeting in Moscow allowed both sides to reaffirm their mutual interest in continuing cooperation and political dialogue; it also helped identify key priorities and outline future collaboration. However, the long-term impact of the summit will depend on the practical implementation of the agreements. Key areas will include the development of banking and transport links, the execution of announced industrial projects, and the increased involvement of Russian companies in the economies of African nations.

Sudan and Ethiopia have closed each other’s consulates and expelled diplomatic staff amid accusations that the neighboring countries are supporting armed groups fighting their respective governments.

Ethiopia ordered the closure of Sudan’s consulate in the western border city of Assosa and gave six diplomats 48 hours to leave, according to media reports on Wednesday. Sudan responded by closing Ethiopia’s consulate in its eastern city of Gedaref and ordering its staff out. Neither foreign ministry publicly explained the decisions.

Sudanese presidential adviser Amjad Farid said his government remained committed to defending its territory, Reuters reported. “Nevertheless, it is making every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia,” he said.

On Sunday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry said it had lodged complaints with the UN Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, accusing Ethiopia of allowing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to launch drone attacks from its territory.

“The use of Ethiopian territory by the terrorist militia (RSF) to target Sudanese territory is considered a hostile act,” Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Addis Ababa has denied supporting the RSF or allowing drone attacks from its territory. In a May 5 statement, its Foreign Ministry dismissed Sudanese accusations as “baseless” and called for an immediate humanitarian truce, a sustained ceasefire and civilian-led dialogue to restore civilian rule in Sudan.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown said on Tuesday that intensifying drone attacks in Sudan were disrupting electricity, water and fuel supplies. She said a power outage had halted dialysis for 25 patients at a hospital outside Khartoum, while fuel shortages had stranded hundreds of aid trucks.

A general in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has been accused of protecting violent career criminals in exchange for a share of the proceeds from their numerous illicit enterprises.

The latest corruption scandal in Kiev erupted after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) announced on Wednesday that it had uncovered an extensive network linking senior law enforcement officials in Vladimir Zelensky’s government to organized crime.

An hour-long video released by the agency to detail its findings includes graphic footage of a man being assaulted in the street and another victim, bound and gagged, being brutally beaten with fists and a hammer.

Those and other violent crimes were allegedly facilitated by an SBU general identified by Ukrainian media as Sergey Duka. According to NABU, the suspect summoned SBU commandos when anti-corruption investigators arrived at his residence with a search warrant on Wednesday morning. He threatened to open fire on detectives, the agency said.

The alleged crime bosses enjoyed such extensive protection that they openly discussed establishing contacts with two serving government ministers who they considered bribing. They also reportedly contemplated carrying out a disfiguring acid attack against a prominent investigative journalist.

According to NABU, the bribe money came from a wide range of criminal enterprises, including Ukraine’s notorious fraudulent call centers, illegal drug trafficking, counterfeiting of euro banknotes, and kidnappings for ransom.

Investigators alleged that corrupt law enforcement officers directly facilitated the abductions by giving criminals real-time access to government surveillance systems and databases, allowing them to identify, locate, and kidnap their targets, safe from interruptions by police.

Watch RT’s report to learn more.

The US has sanctioned an Indian couple and nine entities linked to them for allegedly providing fraudulent registrations to ships carrying Iranian oil, helping them evade sanctions imposed by Washington, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

The sanctions target Chandigarh-based businessman Suniel Kumar Sharma and his wife, Jaspreet Preeti Shahid, who allegedly operated a network supplying false flags and maritime certificates to sanctioned vessels, including those linked to Iran’s military and affiliated groups. Their two Indian associates were also designated.

Eight of the nine designated entities are based in India, and one is registered in Singapore.

The action is part of Operation Economic Outcast, launched in August to restrict Iran’s oil revenues and target networks allegedly helping Tehran evade US sanctions.

The couple allegedly established websites claiming to represent the maritime authorities in countries including Guyana, Aruba, and Nicaragua, and offered ship registration, seafarer certification, and other services without authorization from the governments concerned, the Treasury said.

The registrations allegedly allowed the vessels to operate under the flags of countries that had not authorized them, and bypass maritime restrictions.

Sharma’s Indian-based Oceaniek Technologies allegedly provided false flags to sanctioned tankers including Lattafa and Vera. The company he established in Singapore reportedly supplied registration services to Ping Shun, a vessel that transported Iranian oil.

Indian nationals Ashwani Kumar Dhiman and Ishwinder Singh, who served as directors of businesses linked to the couple, were also sanctioned.

The measures block assets belonging to the designated individuals and companies within US jurisdiction and generally prohibit American businesses from dealing with them.

Washington also warned shipping companies and insurers about the risks of fraudulent vessel registrations, including possible sanctions violations and invalid insurance coverage.

The Armenian authorities have arrested Russian-Armenian billionaire and opposition leader Samvel Karapetyan for a second time, citing a litany of alleged financial crimes linked to his electricity distribution business. This comes as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has enjoyed strong EU backing, has floated applying for membership in the bloc next year, while facing fierce resistance over a controversial constitutional overhaul.

On Wednesday, Armenia’s Investigative Committee announced criminal proceedings against Karapetyan and 35 others on allegations of embezzlement, abuse of authority, and money laundering. Law enforcement officers searched 65 properties. Prosecutors alleged that the businessman oversaw a scheme that caused around $180 million in losses to Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA), the country’s main electricity distributor.

On Thursday, a court ordered Karapetyan to be held in custody for one month. His nephew, Narek Karapetyan, who heads Strong Armenia – the largest opposition parliamentary faction, which calls for closer ties with Russia – accused Pashinyan of seeking to intimidate his political rivals into supporting constitutional changes.

Pashinyan has rejected claims that Azerbaijan is dictating the overhaul, although Baku has made it a condition for signing a long-awaited peace treaty. Pashinyan’s ruling party needs at least six opposition votes to reach the two-thirds majority required to call a referendum.

At the time, the prime minister demanded Karekin II’s removal, while Karapetyan warned that he could intervene in “our own way” if politicians fail to protect the church. The authorities interpreted the remarks as a public call to seize power. Karapetyan denies any wrongdoing, and the original case is ongoing.

Moscow has denounced the takeover. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said it looked “more like politically motivated retaliation” against a domestic political rival.

Days before the election, Pashinyan received support from the EU, when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an assistance package for Armenia of more than €50 million to counter Russian trade restrictions. In 2024, Brussels also committed €270 million under a four-year plan to support Armenia’s economic development, institutional reforms, and the ex-Soviet country’s European integration.

While the EU supported Pashinyan, it refused to condemn the crackdown on Karapetyan, calling it a domestic matter. EU officials did not respond to a letter by Karapetyan’s lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, which accused Brussels of enabling political repression and embracing “double standards” on democracy.

On Tuesday, Pashinyan suggested that Armenia could apply for EU membership in 2027 or 2028, while acknowledging that Armenia will eventually have to choose between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union, where Russia plays a key role.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the two blocs are incompatible and that joining the EU could disrupt Armenia’s established trade links with Russia, which remains its largest trading partner and supplies it with natural gas at discount prices. In September, Putin urged Yerevan to clarify its intentions, stressing that Armenia has the sovereign right to determine its own future.

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has launched a $2.5 billion fuel storage and pipeline project in Namibia aimed at supplying petroleum products across Southern Africa. 

Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah officially unveiled the project on Wednesday at Farm 58 in Walvis Bay. The proposed investment includes a petroleum storage facility with a capacity of 600 million liters and a pipeline network spanning approximately 1,700 km, according to a statement published by the Namibian presidency on Facebook.

The infrastructure is intended to improve fuel distribution and serve landlocked markets in the region, including Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, with a possible extension to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said discussions about the investment began during her first meeting with Dangote in June 2025. The leader called for local businesses to participate in the development, emphasizing job creation, skills training, and opportunities for young Namibians. “As Africans, we are beginning to believe in ourselves,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.

Dangote, chairman and chief executive of Dangote Group, pledged to deliver the project and expressed interest in expanding his company’s investments into other sectors of Namibia’s economy.

“Africa must industrialize Africa,” he stressed.

Dangote said the project would be completed within 18 to 20 months, with eight times the capacity of Namibia’s existing 75-million-liter Namcor facility, according to Reuters.

The project forms part of Dangote’s broader expansion across the continent. His company operates Africa’s largest oil refinery near Lagos, Nigeria, which began commercial operations in 2024 and has a capacity of 700,000 barrels per day.

In September, Dangote launched a $1.6 billion public share offering to support plans to double the refinery’s capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2030. The expansion is part of a $14.3 billion investment program.

The businessman has also expanded into East Africa. In October, he acquired approximately 25% of Kenya Pipeline Company for $335 million and announced plans to invest another $1.5 billion in its network.

Mass rallies over the collapse of major lender Ueno Bank escalated into clashes on Wednesday in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion, after depositors and other demonstrators took to the streets demanding the return of their frozen savings and the impeachment of the country’s president, Santiago Pena.

Paraguay’s central bank placed Ueno Bank under external administration earlier this week after its capital ratio dropped below half of the legally required minimum. The regulator said the move was intended to protect depositors and preserve financial stability.   

The bank has nearly 3 million customers in a country with a population of around 7 million, leaving a significant share of the population unable to access their accounts. According to the Associated Press, Ueno holds an estimated $800-850 million in public funds, including roughly $380 million linked to Paraguay’s state pension and health fund, adding to the political stakes of the crisis.

Videos circulating on social media show hundreds of people taking to the streets, demanding transparency over the management of funds and questioning the actions of the financial authorities. Local media reported that police used rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas, and water cannons to disperse demonstrators central Asuncion, as protesters demanded the return of their savings and accountability for the banking crisis.

On Wednesday, President Pena sought to reassure the public, insisting that Paraguay’s financial system remained strong and calling for calm amid the uncertainty. He said he had met with the presidents of both chambers of Congress to advance legislation aimed at returning depositors’ money as quickly as possible. The measure will provide coverage for 98% of the affected bank’s depositors, according to the head of state, who described it as a concrete step toward ensuring that savers recover their funds.

The banking crisis has, however, opened a new political front for the government, with Pena facing scrutiny over his former business ties to Grupo Vazquez, the holding company that controls Ueno Bank. The president held shares in the group until March 2025.

Opposition lawmakers have accused Pena of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds, and institutional cover-ups related to the bank’s operations and the handling of public money.

On Wednesday, thirty-five lawmakers submitted impeachment articles against the president in the 80-seat lower house and asked congressional leaders to convene an extraordinary session to debate his future. The opposition is seeking to advance the removal proceedings, although it lacks the two-thirds majority required for the motion to pass the lower house. Pena has not publicly addressed the impeachment push.

Hackers have stolen around €100 million from French banking group Credit Mutuel Arkea in a sophisticated cyberattack, the lender has confirmed. The attackers exploited a third-party service provider to siphon money into other bank accounts, with some of the funds potentially converted into cryptocurrency.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT initially estimated the theft at more than $106 million before identifying another $27 million in suspicious withdrawals, bringing the total to over $133 million. In a statement on Wednesday, Crddit Mutuel Arkea acknowledged the scale of the attack but declined to confirm the exact amount stolen.

The hackers reportedly gained access through a compromised external service provider and used the bank’s own account to carry out fraudulent transfers to other financial institutions. The money was then moved through multiple accounts, with investigators examining possible conversions into cryptocurrency.

French prosecutors have launched an investigation into what they described as an “attack on an automated data processing system by an organized group.” No suspects have been publicly identified, and the authorities have not established who was behind the operation.

Credit Mutuel Arkea said it had blocked some of the stolen funds and was working with other financial institutions to recover the money. The lender maintained that customer accounts had not been affected.

The massive bank heist comes just days after hackers targeted refrigeration systems at three regional blood banks in France, part of a wider wave of cyberattacks that has hit hundreds of supermarkets across Europe.

The wave of attacks began in France in October, when hackers tampered with refrigeration systems at around 700 supermarkets, according to French Finance Minister Roland Lescure. A new wave struck on Monday, hitting retailers in at least nine countries: Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Sweden.

Hackers reportedly forced refrigeration units into defrost mode, sending temperatures soaring to as high as 50C (122F) and leaving stores with large quantities of spoiled food. In Belgium alone, around 75 supermarkets were affected.

No link between the bank theft and the refrigeration attacks has been established.

Many Americans who voted Republican in the 2024 presidential election switched to the Democrats in the midterms over the war on Iran and related grievances, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said.

Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, with Democrats winning House and Senate races even in traditional GOP strongholds such as Texas. In a post on X, Vance warned that some would attempt to “gaslight” the public about the outcome, even though “the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.”

The vice president pointed to a survey of voters who had backed Donald Trump and himself in 2024 but supported Democrats in the midterms. Asked what Republicans could do to regain their support, respondents gave four main answers: end the war with Iran, address the cost of living, put America first and “change our relationship with Israel.”

The US and Israel jointly attacked Iran in late February, claiming Tehran was weeks away from acquiring nuclear weapons. The decision contradicted Trump’s campaign promise not to start new wars and was widely criticized as prioritizing Israeli interests over American ones. The unresolved conflict has cost Washington tens of billions of dollars in direct military spending and disrupted global energy markets, driving up prices in the US.

Vance also praised Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, endorsing her advice to end the war with Iran and defending her against critics who had accused her of anti-Semitism.

@JDVance @ImdaVinman Thanks for acknowledging these things. Better late than never. I’ll send you the hat. https://t.co/BhTENTdK57

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) November 4, 2026

Pro-Israeli politicians and advocacy groups have wielded substantial influence over US politics for decades. American campaign finance rules allow virtually unlimited spending by certain political organizations, enabling groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to promote policies favorable to Israel while operating as domestic political organizations rather than registered foreign lobbying entities.

Neither Democratic nor Republican leaders have been willing to embrace the growing public opposition to Israel’s policies, particularly since West Jerusalem launched its devastating military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led incursion in October 2023.

Kamala Harris’ defeat by Trump in 2024 was partly attributed to her unwillingness to distance herself from Biden’s support for Israel’s military campaign, which many Democratic voters regarded as an ongoing genocide. Trump, meanwhile, mobilized supporters with pledges to prioritize American interests.

Although Trump has acknowledged that the war with Iran was a major factor in the Republican electoral defeat, he has shown no intention of abandoning the conflict and remains open to escalating it.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) has taken a narrow lead in early municipal election results, with counting still underway in a test for the party that has dominated the country’s politics since the end of apartheid in 1994.

With around 12% of votes counted early Thursday, the ANC had about 32%, ahead of the Democratic Alliance (DA), which had 31%, according to preliminary results published by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Only a small proportion of voting districts in the populous provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have reported results so far.

The ANC took roughly 46% in the previous municipal elections in 2021. Pre-election research by Ipsos pointed to further losses while suggesting it would remain the largest party, amid anger over crime, corruption, and failing basic services.

Ramaphosa dismissed predictions of further ANC decline at the party’s closing campaign rally on Sunday. “What I am seeing here is that the ANC is going higher and higher,” he told supporters.

A projection released by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research early Thursday put the ANC’s final share of the proportional representation vote at 31.69% and the DA’s at 25.73%.

The ANC lost its parliamentary majority in 2024 for the first time in the three decades since the end of white minority rule. It now leads a ten-party Government of National Unity, including the DA, South Africa’s second-largest party, alongside the Inkatha Freedom Party, Patriotic Alliance, and six smaller groups.

Speaking on voting day, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula said national officials would direct coalition talks. DA Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille said her party sought an outright majority but would assess coalition options if necessary.

The municipal vote comes ahead of the ANC’s 2027 leadership contest, when Ramaphosa’s term as party leader ends, and South Africa’s next national election in 2029.

Iran has exempted Indian ships from the restrictions it imposed on passage through the Strait of Hormuz, along with vessels from China, Iraq, and Qatar, a senior Iranian lawmaker says.

The exemptions are intended to serve Iran’s interests, and in India’s case, to facilitate imports of medicines, the deputy chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Amir Hayat-Moghaddam, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency on Tuesday. Chinese ships have been exempted to secure Beijing’s political support.

India has been supplying and facilitating the transport of medicines and medical aid to Iran, which is under sanctions from the US and Europe, as a humanitarian gesture.

Iran restricted maritime traffic through the strategic waterway following the US-Israeli attack on February 28, and Washington subsequently retaliated with a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, handled around a fifth of global oil and gas before the conflict.

India imports nearly 90% of its crude oil requirements, with around 30% currently passing through the strait. The route also handles most of the country’s liquefied petroleum gas imports, making it crucial for India’s energy supplies.

Iran collects transit fees from Indian and Chinese vessels but allows Qatari ships to pass free, Hayat-Moghaddam said. However, the Indian government has not paid any fees for ships whose passage it negotiated through diplomatic channels, the Economic Times reported. India previously secured passage for several energy shipments.

A gunman has rammed his car through a security fence at a Citibank corporate campus in Florida and fatally shot a female employee before being gunned down by an armed security guard. The attack left four others injured and triggered a police response involving hundreds of officers.

The attack unfolded around noon on Wednesday at the Citibank Center in Brandon, near Tampa, where more than 3,200 people were working at the time, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

The suspect drove a sedan over several road medians and grassy areas before smashing through a secured fence and crashing into an outdoor dining area where employees were having lunch, according to videos from the scene.

He then emerged from the wrecked vehicle carrying an AR-15-style rifle, approached a woman sitting outside and shot her dead, the authorities said.

#BREAKING UPDATE - Suspect killed by armed security guard at CitiBank in Tampa, Florida. One female victim killed in the attack. Authorities believe this was targeted. https://t.co/lgKMNRTYuk

— Fast News Network (@fastnewsnet) November 4, 2026

The attacker subsequently entered the building’s cafeteria, where an armed Citibank security guard confronted him. The two exchanged gunfire and the guard shot the suspect, who was rushed to Tampa General Hospital and pronounced dead at 1:12 PM.

🚨Tampa, Florida active shooter at a citibank.🚨 The shooter apparently drove their car through an outdoor area, exited his car, and killed a woman. He then began approaching a cafeteria, where he was killed by an armed security guard. He also seems to have a prosthetic leg. ●ABC news article A woman was shot and killed at a business complex in Florida on Wednesday, authorities said. The suspect was fatally shot by a security guard during an exchange of gunfire inside a cafeteria in the Tampa-area Citibank office complex, according to authorities. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said it responded to an "active threat" at the Citibank complex. Authorities received multiple 911 calls reporting a shooting around 12:11 p.m., according to Hillsborough County Chief Deputy Frank Losat. The suspect initially drove his four-door sedan through a fenced area and crashed into an outdoor seating area where multiple people were having lunch, according to Losat. "Upon the car coming to rest, the suspect exits the vehicle with a rifle, approaches the female, and she is shot," Losat said during a press briefing on Wednesday. The victim's name is not being released at this time and is pending full identification and next-of-kin notification, he said. The Citibank security guard engaged the suspect in the building's cafeteria, where the two exchanged gunfire, according to Losat. The suspect was shot by the security guard and taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead, he said. Authorities have a pending identification of the suspect and are not releasing it at this time, Losat said. Earlier Wednesday, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said on social media that, based on preliminary information, "we believe this is a targeted incident." Though during Wednesday's presser, Losat said investigators have to "work through details" and that information is subject to change. Investigators are "still working" to determine if the suspect and shooting victim knew each other, and are also conducting interviews with Citibank employees, Losat said. There were some 3,200 Citibank employees on the property at the time, he said. "With that many witnesses, up to 3,200 witnesses, we will be doing interviews well into the night," Losat said. Four people sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the incident, Losat said. It is unclear at this time if they were struck by the vehicle, he said. Losat commended the security guard who "stopped the threat," saying there was "potential" for further violence. The incident prompted a massive law enforcement response, including heavily armed deputies and armored vehicles. A law enforcement source told ABC News that agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be responding to the scene. Authorities have cleared all the buildings in the complex, according to Losat. The crime scene is "very large" and will be processed possibly into Thursday, he said. "We are very fluid at this stage of the investigation," Losat said. "This is a sad day for everybody involved, the Tampa Bay area and surrounding communities and the law enforcement partners."

— MarsWolf (@MarsWolf76) November 5, 2026

Four other people were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, although officials have not clarified whether they were struck by gunfire or injured when the vehicle crashed into the dining area.

A very rapid response by Your Sheriff’s Office, with more than 365 deputies responding to the Citibank Center. https://t.co/cS5G6HDURE

— Chad Chronister (@ChadChronister) November 4, 2026

The shooting triggered a massive law enforcement operation, with 367 sheriff’s deputies, SWAT teams, helicopters, drones, and K-9 units descending on the sprawling complex. Officers evacuated workers and searched the buildings room by room, finding some employees hiding in locked offices and closets.

Newly released bodycam video from the Tampa Citibank shooting.. 2 deceased, 4 injured. https://t.co/k4NYlsrrYM

— MarsWolf (@MarsWolf76) November 5, 2026

Dramatic bodycam footage released by the sheriff’s office shows deputies rushing into the building and moving through its corridors during the response. Separate footage circulating online captured the gunman emerging from his wrecked car moments before the shooting.

BREAKING UPDATE: 2 DEAD IN TAMPA CITIBANK SHOOTING Authorities say the incident at the Citibank office complex outside Tampa, Florida, was a targeted attack. 🔴 One victim and the suspected shooter are dead, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff. #Florida #ActiveShooter #Tempa

— Indian Observer (@ag_Journalist) November 4, 2026

Sheriff Chad Chronister described the shooting as a “targeted incident” and said the attacker had apparently intended to inflict far greater casualties.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser confirmed that the woman killed was a colleague and credited the security guards with preventing an even greater tragedy.

“I am devastated to share that one of our colleagues has lost their life,” she wrote in a message to employees. “I am grateful to the brave actions of our security team who prevented this awful day from being even worse.”

The identities of the suspect and victim have not been released. Investigators have yet to establish a motive or determine whether the two knew each other.

Hackers targeted refrigeration systems at three French blood banks, attempting to raise storage temperatures to extreme levels and destroy vital blood products, the country’s national blood service said on Wednesday. The attack follows a wave of similar incidents at supermarkets across Europe that caused millions of euros in damage.

The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said the cyberattack compromised monitoring and control systems operated by an external refrigeration supplier, allowing attackers to remotely manipulate temperature and defrosting settings at three plasma storage facilities.

The hackers reportedly attempted to raise the temperature from the normal -30C (-22F) to as high as 110C (230F), well above the boiling point, according to French investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine, which first reported the incident.

“No health consequences have been identified and no blood products were lost,” the EFS said, adding that blood collection and distribution services continued uninterrupted.

The affected equipment contained bags of plasma intended for transfusions and pharmaceutical production. Some units were shut down as a precaution, and their contents were transferred to other facilities.

Refrigeration equipment supplier Coolworld confirmed that the attack affected its systems, blaming a vulnerability in a component supplied by another company. Only a limited number of its units were compromised, the company said.

The French Health Ministry and national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, are investigating the incident. The EFS has also strengthened temperature monitoring across its refrigeration facilities.

A new wave of suspected cyberattacks on Monday affected dozens of supermarkets in Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Estonia. Hackers reportedly activated defrosting mechanisms remotely, with temperature settings at some Swedish stores raised to 50C.

Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize said on Wednesday that the earlier disruptions could reduce its fourth-quarter sales by as much as €250 million ($281 million) and operating income by up to €100 million.

The authorities have not established whether the incidents are linked, and no group has publicly claimed responsibility.

Despite the lack of evidence, Western outlets including Politico and the BBC have rushed to point the finger at Moscow over the refrigeration attacks. However, no officials or industry experts have supported the claims.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegations as “absolutely absurd,” accusing European countries of increasingly resorting to baseless accusations and developing a habit of blaming Russia for everything.

The pre-trial investigation into a major embezzlement scheme in Ukraine’s energy sector has been completed, the nation’s Western-backed anti-corruption agencies announced. Known as ‘Operation Midas’, the probe lasted for two years. It triggered one of the biggest corruption scandals involving Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s inner circle and cost several top officials their positions.

In a statement published on Wednesday, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said a “high-level criminal organization” managed to build a “large-scale corruption scheme” and embezzle $111 million and €12 million from 2020-25.

The two agencies also said they “took measures to seize the assets of a criminal organization both in Ukraine and abroad,” adding that efforts to identify and seize the illegal assets are continuing.

How did it all begin?

Mindich fled the country shortly before the raid, along with another suspected mastermind behind the scheme, financier Aleksandr Zuckerman. Both men have been residing in Israel ever since. Ukrainian media reported in May 2026 that Mindich may have been tipped off about the probe by the former deputy head of SAPO, Andrey Sinyuk, who resigned shortly after formal charges were filed against the businessman and his associates.

How did the scheme work?

The scheme centered on Ukraine’s state nuclear energy monopoly, Energoatom, with officials demanding kickbacks of up to 15% from private contractors, according to Wednesday’s statement. Those who refused allegedly faced exclusion from lucrative government tenders – including the construction of protective infrastructure for power facilities amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The money was then laundered through a specially established office in Kiev and a network of shell companies abroad and offshore accounts. According to the NABU and SAPO statement, “various financial instruments, including cryptocurrency, securities and a foreign investment fund were used to launder funds.”

Was anyone arrested?

Around a dozen people have been named as the primary suspects in the case, according to Ukrainian media. Apart from Mindich (codenamed ‘Karlson’), Zuckerman (‘Sugarman’) and Galushchenko (‘Professor’ or ‘Sigismund’), the list also includes former Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Chernyshov (‘Che Guevara’), former aide to the energy minister Igor Mironyuk (‘Rocket’), Energoatom’s former security chief Dmitry Basov (‘Tenor’), and people who ran the Kiev office used to launder the money.

NABU also confirmed that a “former deputy prime minister” and a “former minister of energy” were on the suspect list, without identifying them by name.

Five suspects were detained when the scandal first erupted in November 2025, with several subsequently released on bail. Chernyshov was also placed in pre-trial detention with a bail option, and Galushchenko was arrested in February 2026 while attempting to flee Ukraine. Mindich and Zuckerman remain on the run.

The fallout

Two weeks after the scandal erupted, NABU and SAPO raided the apartment of Zelensky’s then-chief of staff and close associate, Andrey Yermak.

The Ukrainian leader’s ‘wallet’ was also later revealed to be linked to a number of other schemes. Mindich had been secretly running Fire Point – a Ukrainian defense contractor personally touted by Zelensky abroad as a manufacturer of state-of-the-art weaponry. A permanent advisory board urged the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to cut all ties with the company, which it still has not officially done as of November 2026.

Did Zelensky attempt to derail the probe?

In July 2025, when Operation Midas was already in full swing but not yet public, Zelensky sought to curb the independence of NABU and SAPO through legislation that would place both agencies under the authority of a prosecutor general who the Ukrainian leader could directly appoint.

In November 2025, Yermak allegedly ordered prosecutors to prepare charges against SAPO head Aleksandr Klimenko, before the Energygate scandal cost him his job. According to Ukrainskaya Pravda, Zelensky also personally summoned the heads of NABU and SAPO in the wake of the scandal, but “the conversation didn’t go anywhere.”

What did Zelensky say?

Zelensky tried to downplay the matter, saying Ukraine is no more corrupt than any other European nation and calling suggestions to the contrary “lies.”

“The fact that we are fighting it, I believe we are doing a great job,” he told the BBC in February 2026.

How did Ukraine’s backers react?

Kiev’s major Western backers have largely downplayed the issue, even trying to portray the corruption scandal as a positive development. European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier said the kickback scheme proves that Kiev is on the right path, and that the anti-corruption bodies “are in place and functioning.”

“Is it our role to give lessons to Ukraine, which has a scandal of this scale? I think that if everything is taking place within the framework of justice and the special procedures, then everything is fine,” he stated. The president also accused Russia of being a “real dictatorship” precisely because it lacks similar corruption scandals.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called Zelensky to express his “expectation that Ukraine press ahead energetically with fighting corruption and further reforms.”

The embezzlement revelations hardly affected EU support for Kiev, as just a month after Energygate erupted, the bloc greenlit a €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan to cover Kiev’s budget for 2026-27. The scheme, financed through joint EU borrowing, would cost European taxpayers €3 billion annually.

What did Russia say?

“In this particular case, the eyes of the West are wide shut, as the saying goes,” Lavrov told TASS.

Lavrov also suggested that some EU officials could be directly benefiting from Ukraine’s corruption. “Maybe, there are some beneficiaries as well. I rule out nothing.”

The aftermath

Ukraine has been reeling from recurring corruption scandals ever since Energygate, with the nation’s anti-corruption authorities reporting major cases almost every month.

In July, senior Ukrainian diplomats were accused of siphoning off at least $1.28 million in Western aid.

In September, NABU reported that it uncovered an embezzlement scheme involving 60 Soviet-era Russian-made metro cars donated to Ukraine by Poland. The New York Times reported that month that Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste, and mismanagement in military procurement in 2024 alone.

In October, a former head of a state-owned Ukrainian defense company was accused by NABU and SAPO of embezzling around $43 million through fake mediation deals linked to the export and import of military hardware.

When Brussels refused to speed up payments to cover the deficit last month, Zelensky immediately lashed out at his Western backers, claiming they were not doing enough to assist Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.

Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Hubert Aiwanger has been found dead in a Berlin hotel at the age of 55, German media reports, citing police and government sources.

The conservative politician, who also chaired the Free Voters party, was discovered lifeless in his room at the Neuer Fritz hotel in central Berlin on Wednesday, according to Bild. His death was subsequently confirmed by dpa and other German news outlets.

Aiwanger had been scheduled to deliver a speech at the opening of his party’s new Berlin office earlier that day but reportedly canceled his appearance after feeling unwell. He remained at the hotel and was later found dead after becoming unreachable.

The cause of his death has yet to be established, but police have found no indication of foul play, according to Tagesspiegel.

Aiwanger had served as Bavaria’s economy minister and deputy prime minister since 2018, when his Free Voters formed a governing coalition with the Christian Social Union (CSU) under Markus Soeder. He had led the party’s Bavarian branch since 2006 and its national organization since 2010. Aiwanger is survived by his longtime partner, politician Tanja Schweiger, and their two sons.

He was also a vocal opponent of uncontrolled immigration, demanding stricter border controls and tougher deportation policies. In his final days, he blamed the unrest sweeping Western Europe partly on poorly integrated migrant communities and left-wing extremists, accusing politicians of turning a blind eye to attacks on police. On October 31, he condemned the situation in Berlin, where shopkeepers boarded up their windows amid fears of rioting and looting, calling for tougher punishment of offenders.

Aiwanger also attracted fierce criticism during the Covid-19 pandemic for refusing vaccination and insisting that it should remain a personal choice.

Despite remaining Bavaria’s second-largest political force, the Free Voters failed to enter the Bundestag in the 2025 federal elections, winning just 1.5% nationally.

A Ukrainian court has ordered pretrial arrest without bail for the woman who raised allegations of torture at a facility in Kiev operated by the notorious neo-Nazi-linked Azov unit.

The scandal erupted on Monday after allegations emerged that dozens of men were being beaten and held for ransom at a private house outside Kiev. Furious relatives and local residents gathered outside the property, leading to clashes with the authorities.

Valentina Molodaya arrived at the house in an ambulance and livestreamed herself pleading to be allowed inside to examine men she claimed were being held there in appalling conditions.

At a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, Kiev’s Solomiansky District Court ordered Molodaya held for 60 days without bail. She is suspected of obstructing military activities, disclosing military locations and organizing mass unrest.

Molodaya denied accusations of organizing unrest and claimed that she is a medic who came to the house after being tipped off about a man who had allegedly been taken from hospital after surgery and beaten while held at the property.

Despite early claims by Ukrainian officials that only two men were being held inside the building, an Azov representative has since acknowledged that at least 26 “mobilized men” were staying there.

The building is a “temporary deployment site” for Azov’s 1st Corps, which admitted that at least four of the men held inside were injured. All four were “detained for going AWOL,” it claimed.

Azov, which was formally incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard in November 2014, has previously faced allegations of operating torture sites in Mariupol and elsewhere in Donbass. Between 2014 and 2021, Ukrainian forces arbitrarily detained an estimated 2,300 people and subjected around 1,500 detainees to torture or ill-treatment, the UN human rights office reported in 2021. Ukraine's SBU and nationalist “volunteer battalions” were among the most prevalent perpetrators, it said. 

The view from Washington is clear: President Donald Trump’s decision to wage war on Iran cost the Republican Party the midterm elections. RT looks at how Benjamin Netanyahu’s war became Trump’s problem and whether Israel will bear any costs.

The Republican Party suffered an unequivocal wipeout in Tuesday’s midterm elections, handing Democrats their largest House majority since Bill Clinton entered the White House in 1993, along with a majority of at least ten seats in the Senate. Democrats flipped Senate seats in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, and Maine, while Trump-backed gubernatorial candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Greg Abbott lost in Ohio and Texas respectively – states Trump won comfortably in 2024.

All of this is a dramatic about-turn from 2024, when Trump and the GOP won a decisive mandate after promising to lower costs and keep the US out of foreign wars.

Did Israel cost Trump the elections?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House five times between Trump’s inauguration and the start of ‘Operation Epic Fury’ this February. The Israeli leader consulted Trump’s closest neoconservative allies, among them the late Senator Lindsey Graham, for advice on how to persuade Trump into war with Iran, and when the war began, an army of pro-Israel podcasters and influencers reassured Trump’s base that it would be easily won and would have no impact on the midterms.

Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro agree that Americans don't care about the Iran War and it won't have any effect on the midterms. 🤡 https://t.co/jLuSWxaxLJ

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) September 27, 2026

“I think in the midterms this will be kind of a mild footnote,” conservative journalist Will Chamberlain predicted in April, two months into the war. “Whatever happens in the midterms, it doesn’t appear that Iran’s going to drive anything one way or another,” pro-Israel radio host Mark Levin told podcast host Ben Shapiro in September.

Shapiro, who like Levin has spent years lobbying for war with Iran, claimed that Trump’s unpopularity in the runup to the elections was “not because of this stuff.”

Trump entered the war with no clear victory conditions or exit plan and, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at the direct behest of Israel. Although the war is the least popular American military adventure since Vietnam, Pew Research ranked foreign policy the sixth-most important issue among midterm voters, with the economy in first place. Trump and the GOP could likely have survived an unpopular war had the closure of the Strait of Hormuz not driven gasoline prices to record highs, undermining his campaign trail promises to reverse the sky-high costs of the Biden years. 

What’s the view on the right?

To many in Trump’s original MAGA base, the war was a catastrophic unforced error that directly cost the Republicans the elections. “Trump launched an unpopular and pointless war. Gas prices are too high. People can’t afford groceries. Trump abandoned the American First message. This is why Republicans are getting crushed. It’s very simple,” podcast host Matt Walsh wrote on X.

“Tonight is a massacre because of Iran,” right-wing influencer Scott Greer posted, adding that “denying that is pure cope.”

“President Trump, and it’s hard to even understand why, continues to do whatever Netanyahu tells him to do,” former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told RT. “We will continue to see this war go on.”

The pro-Israel right has shirked responsibility for the loss. “The vast majority of us are utterly unaffected by that war,” Levin said on election night. “If we lose…it’s not because of the Iran war.” Neoconservative influencer Joel Berry blamed the loss not on Trump’s war or high gas prices, but on “a sophisticated foreign demoralization campaign” that drew attention to these issues, and on Republicans going “socialist on economics and soft on abortion.”

My prediction is that neocons will blame the paleocons and the paleocons will blame the neocons. But the real story is that a sophisticated foreign demoralization campaign led by the likes of Jack Poso, Bannon, Dugin, Candace, and Tucker viciously cracked up the only coalition that has been preventing total electoral collapse for decades: conservative Evangelicals.

— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) November 4, 2026

In Tehran, the prognosis is similar. “I think the war of aggression against Iran played the key role in Trump’s defeat,” University of Tehran professor Mohammad Marandi told RT. “The Iranian resistance and resilience and steadfastness against Trump and Netanyahu and the Zionist lobby…it has turned the tide against Trump.”

“While there is a uniparty of sorts [in Washington],” Marandi continued, “ordinary people felt that this is the only way that they could make their views known. It was a bad defeat for Trump and for Zionism.”

Did Israel lose its bet?

In pressuring Trump into attacking Iran, Netanyahu succeeded where he had failed with George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. Trump, the Israeli prime minister remarked last year, “is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House. No American president has ever done more for Israel. And it’s not even close.” 

Since then, Trump has purged anti-Israel voices – including Greene, Rep. Thomas Massie, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, and a host of formerly loyal media allies including Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones – from his MAGA movement, and given Netanyahu the war he wanted for decades, but at a cost to West Jerusalem.

American sympathy for Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians is at an all-time low, more than half of all Americans want military aid to Israel cut off or decreased, and 71% of Americans told Ipsos in April that they want nothing to do with Israel’s various Middle Eastern conflicts. Tens of millions of dollars in donations from the US’ powerful Israel lobby failed to prevent candidates such as Senators-elect Abdul el-Sayed in Michigan and Representatives-elect Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York, Adam Hamawy in New Jersey, and Donavan McKinney in Michigan from winning on an explicitly anti-Israel message.

A Democrat-dominated Congress may be slightly less compliant to Netanyahu’s demands, but regardless of whether the GOP won or lost on Tuesday, the Israeli leader is currently fighting to form a coalition after losing his majority in last week’s parliamentary elections, and may not be in power in January.

Moreover, the Israel lobby remains a potent force in American politics, and its influence transcends party lines. Hakeem Jeffries, who will assume speakership in January, is among the 354 of 433 sitting members of the House who have received funding from AIPAC, while el-Sayed will be the only Senator not to have taken money from AIPAC or another pro-Israel group such as J Street or the Republican Jewish Coalition. 

AIPAC spent $120 million on this year’s midterms, and 245 of 267 candidates – 92% – backed by the group won their races on Tuesday, according to data from ‘Who Funds my Rep?’

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Democratic Party or the Republican Party,” Marandi told RT. “Both parties are utterly corrupt and bound to the ‘Epstein Class’, as I would call it. The issue isn’t so much who replaces whom, but that the mood among ordinary Americans has shifted. If the elites don’t take this into account, they will get into trouble.”

Did Iran win the elections? 

Whether or not Iran benefits from the Republican loss depends largely on what Trump does next. The midterms may have rendered Trump a lame duck and dealt the GOP a generational defeat, but the president still retains the power to wage war, and that’s exactly what some of his most vocal ‘Israel-first’ allies want him to do. 

There is “nothing to lose now,” pro-Israel influencer Laura Loomer wrote on X. “Time for President Trump to deal with Iran once and for all. Just do it.”

Time for President Trump to deal with Iran once and for all. Just do it. Nothing to lose now. Finish the job. @POTUS

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 4, 2026

“Trump still has time to topple the [Iranian] regime and be remembered as one of the greatest US presidents,” Israeli analyst Dr. Eli David posted.

Trump has strongly suggested that he could restart the war after the midterms, telling supporters at a rally last week that “you’ll see Iran in a couple of weeks.” Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, the president said that “in a short period of time, we have to do something large” against Iran, and that this would likely involve a “heavy hit.”

“If Trump chooses to attack Iran now,” Marandi told RT, “Democrats and some Republicans will be under some pressure to stand up to Trump, whether their funders like it or not.”

Tehran is not holding out hope for a course correction in Washington, but Tuesday’s election taught both parties a lesson that will reverberate for years to come: picking a fight with Iran is economically unviable, domestically unpopular, and political suicide for whoever is in the White House. 

The bottom line

Trump and the GOP paid the ultimate price for agreeing to fight Benjamin Netanyahu’s war, with only the most die-hard Israel-firsters in the Republican camp suggesting that anything else was to blame for the shellacking the party received on Tuesday.

For Israel, the results are less clear. Netanyahu, or whoever succeeds him, may never get another American president as amenable as Trump. However, the Israelis still have a powerful lobby in Washington that will get to work on the new Congress, just as it has done for decades, to make extricating the US from the Iran war as difficult as possible.

A young roe deer has ‘miraculously’ survived a harrowing ordeal after becoming trapped in ice on the Amur River in Russia’s Far East, where an Emergency Ministry rescuer risked his life to pull it to safety.

The animal was spotted stranded about five meters from the shore of the Amur River in Khabarovsk Region on Wednesday. Locals alerted emergency services, who promptly dispatched a rescue team, the Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) said in a statement.

Footage of the rescue shows the animal trapped in an opening in the ice, apparently unable to free itself.

“Miraculously, the deer managed to keep itself from slipping beneath the ice,” the EMERCOM said.

A rescuer, wearing a waterproof suit and secured with a safety rope, crawled across the thin ice to reach the deer and pull it to shore.

The exhausted animal was then taken to a local zoo, where staff provided a warm place for it to recover.

Japan should reconsider its decades-old non-nuclear policy, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has said, citing what he described as growing threats from Russia and China.

Speaking at a symposium in Tokyo on Tuesday, Koizumi said a debate on the matter is needed as Japan prepares to update its three key national security documents by the end of the year. “We must create an environment in which we can engage in frank and open-minded discussions about the security policies that are necessary.”

Japan’s Three Non-Nuclear Principles were first outlined by the cabinet of Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1967 and formally endorsed in a 1971 parliamentary resolution. The policy commits Japan to neither possessing nor producing nuclear weapons, nor allowing them to be deployed in the country in line with its peace constitution.

Koizumi also vowed to “share awareness of the nuclear threat with society as a whole” and ensure the “best possible” updates to the national security documents “despite the various constraints we face.” He did not mention any specific changes to Japan’s stance on nuclear weapons but made an argument in favor of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.

“Making such remarks at a time when international norms governing nuclear weapons are eroding reveals his shallow understanding of the issue,” Masao Tomonaga, the leader of the Nagasaki Hibakusha Notebook Friendship Association, said in August.

The minister doubled down on the issue last month after a meeting with his Finnish counterpart, Antti Hakkanen. Finland has recently lifted its own longstanding ban on nuclear weapons and is now allowing them to be imported, manufactured, stored, and deployed on its territory.

Koizumi hailed the decision and urged Tokyo to consider a similar move. “One phrase he repeated several times that left a strong impression on me was, ‘We must not be naïve. We must advance our policies based on realism.’ This applies precisely to Japan as well,” he told journalists after the meeting.

Moscow has denied having any aggressive plans against NATO while expressing concerns over the bloc’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric and military buildup on Russia’s doorstep. It has also warned that a policy based on confrontation is doomed to fail.

“Problems should be resolved through dialogue, not demonstrative missile launches,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month, adding that building a security identity based on confrontation with Russia is a “dead end” for European nations.

Beijing has also warned Tokyo against pursuing nuclear weapons. Russia and China “firmly oppose Japan’s accelerated remilitarization and its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui wrote in a guest piece for TASS in August. “If Japan’s right-wing forces continue to play with fire on nuclear policy, the Japanese will ultimately once again find themselves in the dock of history.” 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the “unconquerable spirit of unity” of Russia’s peoples as the country marks National Unity Day.

“Harmony and mutual respect among the peoples of Russia – their unity – form the very foundation upon which our country’s sovereignty and independence rest,” Putin said at the “Peoples of Russia” event on Wednesday in Moscow. “The powerful, unconquerable spirit of unity among the peoples of Russia is passed down from generation to generation.”

National Unity Day, celebrated on November 4, commemorates the liberation of Moscow from Polish-Lithuanian forces in 1612 by a volunteer army led by merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. The victory helped end the Time of Troubles and paved the way for the restoration of Russian statehood and the establishment of the Romanov dynasty in 1613.

Putin also described the Russian language and the Russian people as “the foundational pillars of Russian statehood,” which serve as a unifying force for its many ethnic groups.

He shook hands with members of youth movements and civic organizations, military veterans, and representatives of Russia’s religious communities, including Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist leaders.

Russia comprises a wealth of ethnically and religiously diverse communities spread across its 89 federal subjects. It is home to around 190 ethnic groups, including Tatars, Chechens, Bashkirs, and Ukrainians. Many inhabit national republics and autonomous regions such as Tatarstan, Chechnya, Dagestan, and Bashkortostan.

Moscow hopes US President Donald Trump will press ahead with efforts to end the Ukraine conflict despite the Republicans’ defeat in the midterm elections, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Peskov was asked whether the Democrats’ takeover of both chambers of Congress could derail dialogue between Moscow and Washington.

“President Trump remains in office, and we sincerely hope that he will continue his peace-making efforts,” Peskov said. “There has been progress, and another round of trilateral talks is coming very soon.” 

Asked whether the new Congress could obstruct Trump’s diplomatic initiatives, Peskov declined to speculate, describing the matter as “America’s internal affair.” 

Russia, Ukraine, and the US are scheduled to resume trilateral peace negotiations in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11. Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky will lead Moscow’s delegation. Peskov said the talks would address mutual security guarantees, with details to be discussed behind closed doors.

In a separate interview on Tuesday, Peskov stressed that security guarantees could only be mutual and reiterated Moscow’s position that one country’s security must not come at another’s expense.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said earlier the talks would focus on de-escalation and humanitarian measures.

Peskov has also praised US First Lady Melania Trump’s humanitarian initiatives. She recently helped broker a six-day humanitarian ceasefire in the frontline town of Alyoshki in Russia’s Kherson Region. Humanitarian teams from both Russia and Ukraine used the pause in fighting to deliver essential supplies and evacuate nearly 800 civilians.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow’s position on Ukraine and its broader foreign policy would remain unchanged regardless of political developments in the US. He also described the Democratic Party leadership’s approach toward Russia as “strongly negative.”

When will the world end? Well, the Mayan calendar supposedly had it down for December 21, 2012 and more recently, a South African preacher picked October 13, 2026. Now, if one believes the more excitable voices in Europe, civilization as we know it faces another appointment with destiny, on November 18 or 19.

Those are the dates of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, where Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Xi Jinping could meet together. Nothing has been formally agreed, yet the possibility alone has revived a familiar nightmare for Europe’s small and middle powers – that three great powers will sit down, divide the world between themselves and leave everyone else to discover which sphere of influence they inhabit.

The comparison already being made is with Yalta in 1945 and in this telling, Putin gets Ukraine, Xi gets Taiwan, and Trump gets whatever he wants in return, meanwhile Western Europe is expected to accept the outcome without having been invited into the room.

It’s a dramatic scenario, but it’s also a considerable leap from the available facts. 

We know that the three leaders may be in Shenzhen and that Moscow has discussed the possibility of a joint meeting and Trump has expressed an openness to the idea, but we don’t know whether the encounter will take place, much less what its agenda would be. To predict a wholesale redistribution of the international order at this stage requires more imagination than intelligence.

For Trump, the obvious starting point is nuclear arms control because Washington has long resented an arrangement in which American and Russian arsenals were subject to bilateral limits while China remained outside the negotiating framework. The issue arose during Trump’s first term and American officials have repeatedly tried to draw Beijing into the discussion since. 

China has resisted and its argument is simple, that the US and Russia still possess vastly larger nuclear stockpiles, therefore Beijing sees little reason to accept equivalent restraints while the disparity remains so great. Whether Trump can persuade Xi otherwise is an open question, but it’s a more plausible subject for negotiations than a secret map showing who gets which country.

Trade would be another, given Washington and Beijing have little appetite for another damaging tariff confrontation. However, the threat of further American sanctions connected to Russia, particularly measures affecting countries that trade with Moscow, complicates their relationship and Russia would have an obvious interest in how that dispute is handled.

Ukraine might also arise, as it would be strange if Putin and Trump met without discussing the conflict, and China has its own diplomatic and economic interests in its outcome. But discussing Ukraine isn’t the same as deciding its future and still less signing away the interests of every other country at the table.

The original Yalta conference, whatever one thinks of its consequences, took place in very different circumstances as the Second World War was nearing its end and the Allied leaders had a common enemy, armies occupying vast territories, and at least some notion of the postwar arrangements they sought.

Nothing comparable exists today. Moscow speaks of multipolarity, a world in which American primacy gives way to several centers of power, while Beijing uses similar language but has profited enormously from the existing economic system.

China may wish to revise the rules, but it has little reason to overturn the table on which so much of its prosperity rests. Washington is more difficult to read. Does Trump want to preserve American leadership, exercise it more ruthlessly, or retreat from commitments that previous administrations considered indispensable? Often, his administration appears attracted to all three ideas at once.

That’s hardly the foundation for a new Yalta, so why, then, so much anxiety in Western Europe?

Yet in the discussion of a possible meeting among Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, that seat is nowhere to be seen. Russia, which the EU has spent years trying to isolate, may find itself in the room, while Brussels, which has so faithfully aligned itself with Washington, may not.

There’s an irony here that Western European leaders seem reluctant to acknowledge, having sacrificed a good deal of independent foreign policy in the name of Atlantic solidarity, they're now shocked to discover that American priorities don’t always coincide with their own.

Of course, an APEC summit isn’t a European summit, and its guest list tells us little by itself, but the political symbolism of a Putin–Trump–Xi meeting, if it happens, would be unmistakable. It would demonstrate that major powers can discuss major questions without asking Brussels to chair the proceedings.

Eurocrats call this betrayal, but I would call it a reminder that influence cannot be secured through declarations of importance alone.

There’s a Russian saying, that nobody gets a seat at the table just for feeling left out. Perhaps Western European leaders would feel less anxious about Shenzhen if they spent less time mourning the world they thought they governed, and more time asking why nobody thinks to invite them when its future is discussed.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team

India has set an ambitious $31 billion defense production target to be reached by 2029 as the South Asian nation embarks on a military modernization drive by leveraging its growing manufacturing power.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh also set a $5 billion export goal for the country’s arms industry, up about 30% from the financial year ended March. 

The domestic defense production push is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make-in-India policy. India’s defense production increased from $4.9 billion in the 2015-15 financial year, when Modi first came to power, to $18.8 billion in the financial year ended March. The new goal requires a 65% growth from the current numbers.

India, which accounts for an 8.2% share of total global defense imports, is the world’s second-largest arms importer after Ukraine.

New Delhi’s military modernization drive coincides with a new defense pact between archrival Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, and Indonesia. Experts have said that the Badr pact is likely to pull together the military funding and technological prowess of its signatories, though it is not exactly a NATO-style military alliance.

The meeting also stressed the need to tap artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, unmanned platforms, cyber, space, electronic warfare, and advanced communications to come out on top in future conflicts.

Senior Ukrainian security and law enforcement officials were systematically bribed to protect scam call centers and other illegal businesses, the country’s anti-graft agencies announced on Wednesday. They added that investigators exposed a criminal organization behind the scheme.

The statement by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) comes amid a widening corruption scandal over an alleged protection racket exposed in early September. The case is among several scandals to have rocked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s government, prompting several people close to him to flee the country amid fears of prosecution.

According to investigators, the alleged criminal scheme involved serving senior officials from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), National Police, and Prosecutor General’s Office. Members of the organization allegedly made systematic bribe payments to the officials in exchange for protection, which allowed scam call centers and other illegal businesses to operate unhindered.

The investigation was first made public on September 5, when NABU and SAPO announced that they uncovered a scheme involving scam call centers allegedly operating under the protection of officials at the Prosecutor General’s Office. Searches were conducted in offices used by then-Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. Five officials were notified of suspicions of establishing, leading, or taking part in a criminal organization.

Kravchenko denied involvement in the scheme, but submitted his resignation on September 14 and left Ukraine soon afterward. Unconfirmed reports subsequently placed the former prosecutor general in Vienna, where he was allegedly seeking legal assistance to obtain asylum. He has not been charged in the case.

Separately, the anti-graft agencies said on Wednesday that they completed an investigation into a money-laundering case in Ukraine’s energy sector, which implicated former Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who was forced to resign as justice minister amid the scandal, and led to the departure of Zelensky’s former chief of staff, Andrey Yermak. Both have denied wrongdoing.

Investigators said more than $111 million and €12 million were laundered through the scheme, which involved kickbacks from contractors of state energy companies, including nuclear operator Energoatom.

The Republican defeat in the US midterms could pave the way for a “third force” challenging America’s two-party establishment, University of Tehran professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi has told RT.

Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, with exit polls reported by Reuters and CBS News showing widespread frustration over rising living costs and opposition to the US war with Iran.

“This [Republicans’ defeat] is good news for Iran in a sense that it shows that people don’t want war,” Marandi told RT on Wednesday. Americans were “sick and tired” of Washington’s policies as their economic fortunes continued to decline, he added.

Watch the full interview with Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi below:

Greenland’s parliament ratified on Tuesday a security agreement reached earlier this year with US President Donald Trump, Reuters has reported. The deal, which is backed by Denmark, provides for an expansion of the US military presence on the Arctic island.

Trump started threatening to annex Greenland last year, claiming that the US needs it “for the purpose of national security” and for its rare-earth minerals.

The rhetoric sparked outrage in Copenhagen and prompted European NATO members to rally behind Denmark. The dispute eventually led to an agreement announced by the US, Denmark, and Greenland in September. Trump said at the time that it would give Washington “permanent control” over the Arctic territory’s security.

Backed by a majority of lawmakers in Greenland, the deal stipulates broadening the US military’s role on the island, paving the way for two new military bases, as well as Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system, while reaffirming Danish sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination.

Greenlandic Foreign Minister Mute Egede described the ratification as an important step for the island. However, Pele Broberg, head of the opposition Naleraq party claimed that Greenland gained no economic benefits from the deal, as cited by Reuters.

The executive agreement is expected to receive its first reading in the Danish parliament next week, followed by a second reading and a final vote on November 19. The deal will enter into force once Denmark and Greenland have ratified it, and does not require approval from the US Senate.

Indian police have filed a case against a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court for sharing a deepfake AI video purportedly showing Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticizing New Delhi’s position on global issues.

Prasanth Bhushan, a founder of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party who was later expelled from it, allegedly shared the video on social media, with the comment, “a tight slap by the Russian foreign minister on India.” The post was later deleted.

Deepfake content generated by AI is being increasingly used in politics worldwide to sow confusion and incite violence.

“A purported doctored video of the Russian Foreign Minister was shared from Advocate Prashant Bhushan’s social media handle,” the Delhi police told RT India. It said a case has been registered under various sections of Indian criminal law and Information Technology Act by the Special Cell.

The Special Cell, an elite investigation unit, earlier said the video tried to disseminate “misleading, defamatory, and inflammatory content to incite public disturbance and spread rumors.”

The Indian Foreign Ministry fact-checked the video on Monday and determined it to be fake, after the Russian Embassy in Delhi reportedly denied its authenticity.

Fake Alert!!! 🚨🚨🚨 The video of the Russian Foreign Minister being used in this post is fake! https://t.co/jpEX6qu19p

— MEA FactCheck (@MEAFactCheck) November 3, 2026

“Fake Alert!!! The video of the Russian Foreign Minister being used in this post is fake!” the MEA posted on X.

Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met with Lavrov at the G20 summit in Atlanta on October 31. Another doctored video supposedly showing Jaishankar expressing displeasure over Lavrov’s remarks in the deepfake has also been shared on social media.

Nepal is seeking more than $2 billion in loans and grants from India to rebuild flood-damaged infrastructure, and finance energy and transportation projects, the Kathmandu Post reported on Wednesday.

The devastating Bhotekoshi-Trishuli floods that struck the Himalayan country in August swept away settlements, and damaged roads, bridges, and hydropower facilities. Recovery and reconstruction costs are estimated at $4.74 billion.

The proposed package includes more than $1 billion in concessional loans for electricity transmission lines and other infrastructure projects, $500 million for flood reconstruction, and a $500 million grant to upgrade the Siddhartha Highway connecting the Indian border with the city of Pokhara.

New Delhi provided emergency relief supplies and technical support to Nepal following the disaster, in which around 1,500 people are confirmed dead and nearly 6,000 remain missing.

The funding request comes as Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is in Kathmandu on a two-day visit, ahead of an expected visit by Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah to New Delhi later this month.

Shah’s visit, his first bilateral trip to India since taking office, is also expected to feature Indian-backed infrastructure projects, including the Lower Arun hydropower development and a petroleum pipeline linking India’s Siliguri with Nepal’s Jhapa. Neither government has formally announced the dates of the visit.

India’s ethanol-blending rate for gasoline could fall to as low as 15%, from its 20% target, as the country’s weakest monsoon in over a decade hits crops used to produce the biofuel, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The ambitious blending program helped the country reduce some of its dependence on fuel imports, saving around $21.1 billion in oil-import costs since 2014, according to government figures. The program achieved its 20% target five years ahead of schedule thanks to a sustained government-led push, which also helped farmers benefit from the savings.

However, concerns about food security in the world’s most populous nation, following a 13% rainfall deficit linked to the El Niño weather pattern, is threatening to unravel those gains.

Sugar and maize prices in India have surged around 40% from June, while rice prices have risen 20%. Retail food inflation accelerated to 7.74% in September, from 5.97% in August, Reuters reported. The price surge and supply worries have forced New Delhi to restrict ethanol production from sugar and rice stocks to blend with gasoline.

The US midterm elections have attracted worldwide attention, and understandably so, because although America’s influence on international affairs is declining, it remains considerable, and decisions made by American voters affect people far beyond the US.

Yet the most significant developments are taking place within America itself, as its fierce political struggles reflect profound social and political changes. Immigration, trade, and the stability of the international system all play a part, but the underlying causes are overwhelmingly domestic.

This illustrates one of the paradoxes of our interconnected world as the distinction between domestic and foreign affairs is becoming increasingly blurred.

The two were never entirely separated, but nevertheless, sovereign states, particularly large countries, once enjoyed a degree of insulation from external pressures. Today, maintaining that separation is almost impossible, and the rest of the world obviously can no longer insulate itself from political developments within major powers.

This is one of the enduring legacies of liberal globalization, which dominated the period from the 1980s to the 2010s.

From this emerged the assumption that the world would inevitably converge around common principles and values, and a broadly Western liberal model would become universal, but that expectation is now being overturned.

Domestic political developments, especially in countries that once claimed the authority to establish universal standards, are producing greater diversity rather than convergence. The relationship between the US and Western Europe offers a particularly revealing example.

The Old and New Worlds have always differed considerably in their political traditions and cultural outlooks, yet their common struggle against communism, followed by their shared victory in the Cold War, created an unusually cohesive political partnership.

That unity is now weakening and indeed, relations between America and Western Europe have themselves become a source of political division on both sides of the Atlantic.

What was once presented as an unshakable partnership based on shared values is increasingly shaped by competing domestic political agendas. An even more revealing development is the renewed Western debate about civilization itself, encouraged by representatives of the Trump administration.

For decades, the concept of Western civilization, with its roots in classical antiquity, was increasingly displaced by the language of universal human values, with civilizational distinctions treated as outdated or even politically unacceptable.

These supposedly universal values provided the ideological foundation for the West’s geopolitical and cultural expansion, but the pursuit of global dominance came at a price, with the gradual abandonment of the West’s own historical and cultural foundations.

Now that this period of expansion is ending, the question of identity has returned and societies are once again asking what distinguishes them, what traditions they want to preserve, and where their political and cultural roots lie. This debate is particularly intense in the West, but it is by no means confined to it.

The intensity of political competition and the willingness of rival camps to employ almost any means to secure victory are all symptoms of a wider transformation, and at its heart lies a fundamental question: How can societies maintain stability and effective government amid turbulent global change?

The answer depends less on abstract universal formulas than on each country’s cultural traditions, historical experience, and distinctive identity. Ultimately, these internal transformations may have a greater impact on the emerging world order than shifts in military power or geopolitical ambition.

We are entering an era in which countries remain deeply interconnected while becoming increasingly determined to defend their own interests and identities, and that’s the central contradiction of the new international system. No country can escape the consequences of political developments elsewhere, yet each is rediscovering the importance of its own particular character.

In this world, every major election becomes an international event, and whether we like it or not, we’re all watching, and the spectacle is at the very least fascinating.

The US presidency has shrunk the G20 agenda, which had been broadened under the earlier four presidencies of Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa, to reflect the priorities not only of the G7 but also the developing world.

If the G7 nations had felt that they could on their own handle the global fall-out of the 2008 financial crisis they would have not felt the need to elevate the G20, which includes key emerging economies, from a routine meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors to a summit of heads of states and governments. From that perspective, these powers were compelled to include the interests and priorities of those emerging economies in the G20 agenda.

The G20 concept is thus rooted in a more cooperative multilateral approach to address multiple global challenges. The G20 agenda cannot be aligned with US priorities alone.

The US State Department had announced beforehand its intention to assert its priorities – limiting regulatory barriers to investment and encouraging transparent governance to foster global competitiveness, focusing on energy independence, reliable energy access, resilient supply chains, and safe navigation through critical international waterways (such as the Straits of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab), accelerating digital advancement and artificial intelligence (AI) policies while protecting security, privacy, and intellectual property, refocusing the G20 on its core economic mandate, addressing global supply chain resilience, trade consensus, critical minerals, and geopolitical disruptions affecting markets.

The contrast between the Chair’s statement on the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting issued by India in 2023 and the Chair’s statement issued under the US presidency is illuminating.

In 2023, the issues covered were insufficient progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, economic slowdown, debt distress, uneven pandemic recovery, growing poverty and inequality, food and energy insecurity, and global supply chain disruptions aggravated by geopolitical tensions and conflicts.

Strengthening multilateralism, making global governance more representative, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, global health, global skill mapping, as well as gender equality and women’s empowerment were among the other issues covered.

Importantly, there was an affirmation that the rules-based, non-discriminatory, multilateral trading system, with the WTO at its core, was indispensable to advancing shared objectives.

The steadfast commitments of the G20 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to tackle climate change though the full and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and its temperature goal, reflecting equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities was affirmed too. So was strengthening key aspects of global health architecture, with the leading and coordination role of the WHO. The Multilateral Development Banks were asked to mobilize and provide additional financing within their mandates to support the achievement of the SDGs.

The paragraph in the US statement referring to rising energy costs glosses over Washington’s own role in driving them higher. By sanctioning Russian oil and gas, and then worsening the situation through its attack on Iran, the US has contributed directly to disruptions in the flow of oil and LNG through the Strait of Hormuz. The threat to energy transit through the Bab al-Mandab is also a consequence of the instability created in West Asia.

The statement implicitly reflects Donald Trump’s “Drill baby drill” slogan, catering to the interests of the US oil lobby, his repudiation of climate change concerns and his scoffing at renewables. The phrase “far too often governments have placed barriers to energy production and punished their own people with higher costs” seems to be an indictment of the policies of some European countries such as Germany and the UK but does not apply to developing countries who have become hostage to Washington’s own policies of sanctions to exclude the flow of Russian and Iranian oil into the global market. If the US consumer is paying higher prices for gasoline and diesel, whose fault is it?

When the statement says that “it is also vital that countries build the infrastructure to develop and deploy the energy systems of the future,” the reference is to small modular reactors and micro reactors. This is a developing technology which does not address the current disruptions in the oil and gas market. The statement recognizes that, for some, nuclear energy may not be a desired option for their energy mix, no doubt referencing Germany’s position. With the worldwide move towards renewables and the US bent on increasing reliance on fossil fuels, by saying that every country is on its own energy path, the statement recognizes a lack of consensus on the issue.

The focus on supply chain resilience in the Chair’s statement no doubt reflects widespread concerns amongst G20 countries.

The reference to “weaponization of normal food supply chains” by a government taking “targeted actions to slow, stop, or block the trade of food in order to exert coercive pressure over another sovereign country on an unrelated geopolitical issue” is directed at Russia. To say that “it is important the global community agree that trade in food and agricultural products should not be used as a tool for economic or political coercion” ignores that the fact that oil and financial sanctions as well as slapping tariffs at will has been part of US economic and political coercion.

Regarding health, only the fight against Ebola figures in the Chair’s statement.

The US has walked out of the WHO, the Paris Climate Change Agreement and has effectively gutted the WTO by imposing tariffs on countries arbitrarily. Its dismissive attitude towards the UN and ignoring its development agenda explains the absence of any reference to UN reforms, the raising of additional resources by MDBs, debt issues, SDGs, climate change issues, etc.

The refusal of some European foreign ministers to be photographed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the traditional group photograph was not adult diplomacy. The European ministers had, however, no objection to being photographed in working sessions with Lavrov and even address him directly and aggressively. Some have questioned the propriety of inviting Russia at all to the G20 meeting. This kind of conduct casts doubt on whether a negotiated solution to the Ukraine conflict can be seriously explored unless fissures in the EU or the collapse of the Zelensky regime change the situation.

The UK will take over the presidency of the G20 in 2027. Unless something dramatic happens on the Ukraine front, Britain’s enmity towards Russia will become a huge problem for the consensual functioning of the group.

Disney is preparing to slash thousands of jobs and cut costs by as much as 20% in parts of its business, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, as the entertainment giant struggles with box-office disappointments and mounting criticism of its “woke” agenda.

The cuts come amid a growing backlash against Disney’s Marvel franchise, with conservative audiences accusing the studio of prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) messaging over storytelling after years of blockbuster success.

The layoffs could affect the company’s theme parks, television networks, and film studios, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. CEO Josh D’Amaro reportedly plans to reinvest part of the savings into programming, technology, theme parks, and cruise ships.

Disney has faced mounting pressure over costly disappointments across its Marvel and Star Wars franchises, which it acquired in 2009 and 2012, respectively.

Following the success of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019), Marvel has struggled to replicate the commercial appeal of its original superhero lineup. Some critics have dubbed the franchise the ‘M-She-U’, accusing Disney of pushing a ‘woke’ agenda through its increasingly female-prominent productions.

Lucasfilm has faced similar difficulties. Its Star Wars series ‘The Acolyte’ (2024), which reportedly cost around $230 million to produce, was canceled after a single season. The franchise’s return to cinemas with ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ (2026) also fell short of box-office expectations, according to D’Amaro.

Former Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged the company’s creative and commercial challenges in 2024, pledging to prioritize quality over quantity after years of aggressive expansion into streaming and franchise spin-offs.

A deadly private jet crash in Florida has sparked a row over diversity hiring policies after social media users alleged that a 20-year-old female copilot was hired because of her gender rather than her qualifications.

All nine people aboard the Learjet 60 were killed when it plummeted onto a road in a residential neighborhood on Sunday, just miles from US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Footage of the crash and recordings of the crew’s final radio communications were shared widely across social media.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has rejected the unsubstantiated claims and defended the copilot, Nathalia Filgueiras.

“I feel compelled to post after seeing commentary about the Lear 60 crash, from missile strikes to DEI to critiquing this poor woman’s final radio calls,” Isaacman, who has logged more than 8,000 flight hours, wrote on X on Monday.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies seek to expand opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women, who remain a small minority in US aviation. According to official figures for 2025, women accounted for just 5.7% of Airline Transport Pilot certificate holders and 10.9% of commercial pilot certificate holders.

“I understand the public interest given the footage and audio,” Isaacman added, but stressed that the cause of the crash remained unknown. He cited several possible factors, including maintenance problems, structural failure, weather conditions, and the crew’s actions.

Isaacman also defended the charter industry’s practice of hiring young commercial pilots to gain experience alongside veteran captains. He said Filgueiras would have undergone the required training and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification checks.

FAA records showed that Filgueiras held commercial pilot credentials and a Learjet 60 type rating, while her family said she had logged more than 1,300 flight hours. US regulations allow private charter copilots to fly with a commercial pilot certificate and the required ratings. Unlike scheduled-airline copilots, they do not generally need 1,500 flight hours.

The broader practice of pairing relatively inexperienced copilots with veteran captains has previously drawn criticism from aviator Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who famously landed a disabled passenger jet on New York’s Hudson River in 2009. Following the 2019 Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash that killed 157 people, he warned against the risks of insufficient cockpit experience.

The Ethiopian copilot was initially reported to have just 200 flight hours, although the airline later clarified that he had 350. The disaster was primarily linked to flaws in Boeing’s automated flight-control system, rather than the copilot’s limited experience.

Four Nordic nations, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, have announced their refusal to play against Russia at the upcoming world hockey championship, despite a court ruling clearing Russia’s return to international sports.

The boycott campaign follows a ruling last week by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which overturned the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) decision to suspend Russia, restoring its national team’s right to compete in international tournaments. The decision covers five championships in 2027, including the World Junior Championship in Canada and the men’s World Championship in Germany. The IIHF expressed “disappointment” but pledged to comply, although Russia’s return has complicated preparations for tournaments with schedules already in place.

Finland’s Ice Hockey Federation announced on Monday that it will refuse to face Russia at the 2027 World Championship in Germany, scheduled for May 13-30. Denmark, Norway and Sweden followed suit on Tuesday, pledging to boycott matches against Russia while playing their remaining fixtures.

Meanwhile, Germany is weighing whether to host the championship at all. Following the CAS ruling, German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) chairman Frank Lutz said talks were underway with the government over the political, economic, and security implications of Russia’s return, as it “fundamentally changes the situation.”

Separately, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be allowed to represent their countries at the World Junior Championship scheduled to begin on December 26 in Alberta.

“If you’re asking specifically about the world juniors, the Russians will not be there,” Carney told reporters on Tuesday.

‘Infantile’ boycotts

Moscow has accused the boycotters of putting politics above sport. Russian Sports Minister and Olympic Committee chief Mikhail Degtyarev branded the campaign “infantile” and said threats from Nordic and other countries will be referred to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

He warned that countries attempting to pressure the IIHF, including prospective tournament hosts, could face legal action and lose hosting rights.

“These boycotts are directed against international sport,” Degtyarev said, arguing that they deprive national teams of competition and fans of the spectacle. “People are already fed up with the discrimination against Russia and Belarus on the basis of nationality.”

The Kremlin was similarly unimpressed with Germany’s hosting dilemma. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested the championship could simply be moved elsewhere if Berlin pulled out.

“There are plenty of countries,” he said. “If the federation wants to, it can hold it in another country.”

The politics of exclusion

Russian and Belarusian athletes were barred from numerous international competitions following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Earlier this year, however, the IOC provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, paving the way for a broader return as several sports federations eased restrictions.

The shift has met resistance from Kiev’s Western backers. Earlier this month, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Brussels was considering new restrictions, promising proposals to “sustain Russia’s isolation in global sports.”

Moscow has long accused Western governments of pressuring international federations to exclude Russian athletes as part of a broader campaign to isolate the country. Russian officials have condemned what they call the “politicization” of sport and pointed to what they see as double standards in the treatment of countries involved in military conflicts.

Presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky will head the Russian team at the upcoming trilateral talks on the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The next round of negotiations between Russian, American and Ukrainian delegations is scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.

Medinsky remains “the chief negotiator in this process on the Russian side,” Peskov told journalists on Tuesday. According to the Kremlin spokesman, the delegation would also include “representatives of various departments, including the Foreign Ministry.” The exact composition of the team has yet to be determined by Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added.

Medinsky is a veteran negotiator, who had led the Russian delegations in numerous rounds of talks, both during the initial 2022 negotiations in Türkiye and during the many stages of the American-mediated peace process which US President Donald Trump launched after returning to the White House in early 2025.

Moscow’s teams had also previously included Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin and the head of Russia’s military intelligence, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, as well as Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Peskov added. Kostyukov also led the group at two rounds of US-mediated negotiations in Abu Dhabi in early 2026 when the talks were focused on military logistics and prisoner exchanges.

Moscow’s announcement came as US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff described the specifics of the new round of peace negotiations. The working-level meeting would focus on “post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace,” he wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will join Witkoff in leading the American delegation, Axios reported, citing US officials.

Witkoff also said American negotiators would meet officials from France, Germany, the UK, the EU, and NATO in Brussels this week to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, Europe’s post-war security architecture, and economic opportunities for reconstruction.

Kiev’s European backers have been increasingly demanding a place at the negotiating table over the past months. Moscow has ruled out their direct participation in the upcoming trilateral talks, arguing that they had squandered their credibility as mediators through their failure to uphold previous peace agreements, including the Minsk accords.

A private house outside Kiev has become the center of a scandal over an alleged torture chamber run by a unit of Ukraine’s notorious neo-Nazi-linked Azov formation. Accusations that men were being beaten and held for money brought furious relatives to its gates while senior officials scrambled to respond.

The confrontation has exposed a darker side to Kiev’s military recruitment system, already notorious for men being dragged off the streets. It has also revived questions about secret detention and torture facilities documented in Ukraine long before the latest scandal.

Who was being held, how did they get there, and what have their military superiors admitted? Here is what we know.

What happened outside Kiev?

The scandal erupted on Monday in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital, after ambulance personnel reported being denied access to someone needing medical assistance.

Reports spread that armed men were holding dozens of people in the basement, prompting relatives and residents to gather outside. Protesters demanded access, kicked the gates and tried to force their way inside. People in the compound reportedly sprayed gas toward the crowd.

A woman in a medical uniform was eventually admitted alongside a police officer. Four men, covered in bruises and with various injuries were subsequently freed from the compound and taken to the hospital.

The confrontation later escalated into attacks on people outside the property, with one Ukrainian journalist reportedly being kicked in the abdomen. Crowds also blocked a bus intended to transport men from the building. Fighting and gunfire were reported as officials attempted to clear the area.

Who was being held – and why?

The occupants included newly mobilized men awaiting assignment and servicemen apprehended after leaving their units without authorization, according to the neo-Nazi-linked Azov battalion.

Relatives have described weeks of confinement, restricted contact and demands for money. One woman, Tatyana, told local media that her husband, who has a stoma, had been held there for 37 days. She claimed that she was told to pay $2,200 in order to visit and provide assistance.

Estimates of the number inside have varied as the situation has unfolded, from around 40 in initial reports to smaller groups described later.

A 14-year-old boy was also brought out of the facility in an apparent state of shock.  

He shared his version of events in a TikTok video from the Kiev Regional Hospital, where he said he is being treated for injuries sustained from the beating. His fingers are cut, his rib hurts, and he finds it difficult to walk. 

“I came to the protest on my own. I was simply knocked off the fence with a shovel and they started beating me,” he said. 

The teenager explained that he went to the building because he lives nearby, and his friends had informed him about the protest. 

“I see guys climbing trees and the fence. They were being sprayed with a fire extinguisher and having stones thrown at them. I climbed up too, and some old man sprayed me with a fire extinguisher,” the boy said. 

 Next, according to him, several people with shovels came out of the building and started throwing bricks at him. After that, he fell from the fence onto the property, after which people dressed in black clothes and balaclavas dragged him inside the building and began beating him. 

“The further they carry me inside, the more people start hitting me. Like, ten people, all in black uniforms, in balaclavas, in some kind of military uniform. Completely unclear who they were, with no identifying insignia. They grabbed me by the hair. Just beating me, I don’t know, everyone was hitting me. With shovels, feet, and fists.” 

The teenager was then taken to the second floor, where the beating continued and they began interrogating him. After that, the people in black uniforms began cutting his clothes with knives and filming what was happening. Then, as the teenager claims, a sudden commotion began in the building. They started cleaning him up and wiping away the blood. 

 “A woman comes in. She calmed me down very well. She said everything was fine and that nothing else would happen to me,” he said. 

 According to the teenager, the woman also shielded him with her body and did not allow the beating to continue. 

Shortly after that, according to him, Vladimir Zelensky’s chief-of-staff, Kirill Budanov entered the building. The teenager says that due to the blows he received, he did not even realize who was in front of him at first. 

 After the conversation with Budanov, the boy was led out of the building and handed over to medical personnel.

How did a ‘torture chamber’ spring up in Kiev’s suburbs?

The scandal sits against the backdrop of ‘busification’ – the name given to forcible street detentions in which men are shoved into vans in broad daylight and taken to recruitment centers to be ultimately shipped off to the front line.

Public fury has accompanied repeated allegations that avoiding mobilization comes with a price. Ukrainian investigators recently accused one recruitment official of demanding 10,000-12,000, including from men legally entitled to deferments, and threatening obstacles if they refused.

Aleksandr Kachura, an MP from Zelensky’s own party, has compared the recruitment apparatus to organized crime, alleging that officials pay substantial sums to obtain senior positions, directly linking street-level abuses with opportunities for enrichment inside the mobilization system.

Who runs it, and who showed up to disperse the crowd?

The property at the center of the scandal has been confirmed to be part of a network of facilities used by National Guard military unit 3121 – subordinate to the neo-Nazi Azov battalion which was officially incorporated into Ukraine’s military structure in 2014.

Soon after, Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff and former director of the country’s military intelligence service, Kirill Budanov, also showed up to “find out what the f*** is going on.” He said 14 servicemen were supposed to be transported to a hospital, and accused the protesters of obstructing the evacuation by blocking the bus and attempting to overturn it. He repeatedly urged them to disperse, to no avail. 

Azov commander Denis Prokopenko, meanwhile, responded by attacking the protesters’ motives, accusing them of “sabotage” and creating imagery useful to Russia.

What are the critics within Ukraine saying?

Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko described the house as a “press-khata” – a place where detainees are subjected to coercion – and alleged that beatings and other physical punishments were routine in the military and not confined to just one formation.

Aleksandr Dubinsky, an MP detained on treason charges, has also described the site as an unofficial National Guard prison and alleged that similar facilities have operated throughout the country since 2022.

Ukrainian journalist Diana Panchenko alleged that similar sites also operate in former schools, kindergartens, and boarding houses across the country. 

What have officials admitted?

Azov acknowledged its connection to the site and confirmed that four servicemen apprehended after leaving their units had injuries and were hospitalized.

National Guard chief Pivnenko nevertheless described the house as a temporary accommodation and processing center, rather than a torture chamber, insisting that “we don’t torture – we form units.”

Ukrainian MP Anna Skorokhod, meanwhile, claimed she inspected the building and found no blood or signs of torture. She also denied that the teenager had been beaten inside. Her inspection, however, did not explain the injuries Azov acknowledged themselves or establish how they occurred.

Who is being blamed?

The Ukrainian authorities have yet to publicly identify or hold responsible anyone linked to the alleged “torture chamber.” Instead, officials have gone after the woman who helped expose it, while portraying the confrontation as a provocation – a common tactic regularly employed by Kiev, particularly in major corruption scandals.

Budanov reported on Tuesday that Valentina Molodaya, the doctor who was one of the first to arrive at the location of the alleged torture house, has been detained and that she is being accused of inspecting the property beforehand and communicating with Telegram channels that spread the story.

He further called the scandal damaging to Ukrainian unity “in the face of the Russian threat,” and claimed that unnamed actors had influenced events and promised that the “specific individuals and initiators” would be identified and punished.

Ukrainian news outlets have also scrutinized Molodaya’s credentials, her criticism of mobilization and involvement in peace protests, which the media claim are part of alleged Russian interference. 

Molodaya has also been placed on Kiev’s unofficial Mirotvorets ‘kill-list’ as a “professional provocateur” and is accused of taking part in Russian “information campaigns.”

A dark history of secret neo-Nazi prisons

Allegations of torture involving Azov and Ukrainian security services (SBU) stretch all the way back to the conflict in Donbass that broke out after the Western-backed 2014 Maidan coup. 

Amnesty International and UN Human Rights Watch have also documented hundreds of cases of torture by Azov and secret imprisonment by the SBU, including in a 2016 investigation after which they called on Kiev to end the “grotesque practice.”

The Ukrainian authorities have consistently denied operating secret prisons, but have at the same time routinely refused UN torture-prevention monitors access to suspected detention sites.

Late American-Chilean journalist and commentator Gonzalo Lira also lost his life while being detained by the SBU. Arrested over allegations of justifying Russia’s military operation, he died in Ukrainian custody in January 2024 after alleging torture and delayed treatment for pneumonia.

What is Moscow saying?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that while the scandal has gained worldwide attention, Western human rights bodies have failed to respond. Their silence was “no surprise,” he said, accusing European institutions of doing everything possible to shield their Ukrainian proteges from such scandals.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also stated that numerous similar torture facilities operate across Ukraine and underpin Zelensky’s rule.

Ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik argued that the rapid arrival of senior officials indicated Kiev’s awareness of a wider detention system. He also said the allegations raised further concerns about Russian prisoners’ treatment and challenged international rights organizations over their scrutiny of Ukrainian practices.

A limited Western reaction

Western coverage has been limited, with Germany’s DW among the few mainstream outlets to report the scandal, with most of the reporting originating from Ukrainian and Russian media. 

Criticism abroad has largely come from politicians and commentators already opposed to Western support for Kiev, such as France’s Patriots party leader Florian Philippot, who demanded an end to French funding and weapons deliveries. 

Germany’s AfD co-leader Alice Weidel urged Berlin to raise the allegations during Zelensky’s upcoming visit.

Major international rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, had issued no public response by the time of writing.

The US will stop providing $4 billion in annual military assistance to Israel starting next year, President Donald Trump has said. The country does not need the money and the issue is exploited by the left to generate bad publicity for the US government at home, he told Fox & Friends on Tuesday as Americans headed to the polls for the midterm elections.

Trump said he reached an agreement on the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the president, the prime minister raised the issue himself.

“We give them more than anybody else, and they no longer need it. We’ve been doing it for years. I’ve been doing it, but Israel is a very thriving country. They don’t need it,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox. “We made a deal months ago that we’re stopping,” he said, adding that Washington would “keep it going” if West Jerusalem still needed assistance.

‘Bad talking point’

Trump was referring to the sum provided by the US as part of the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding reached between Israel and the administration of then-President Barack Obama. The White House called the deal for Washington to pay a total of $38 billion to the Israeli military over 10 years “the largest single pledge of military assistance in US history.” The agreement was due to expire in 2028. By the time Trump announced the end of the scheme, the annual tranches were to be spent entirely on US-made weapons.

The president was referring to Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has fiercely criticized US military aid to Israel during his campaign.

Support for Israel in decline

Various opinion polls published this year also suggested that US public support for Washington’s aid to Israel was declining. According to a survey published by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs last month, 56% of Americans said that military assistance to Israel should be either decreased or stopped altogether, up from 38% in 2012. The same number of respondents also stated that Washington should not take a stance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

RT host Rick Sanchez, speaking on air on Monday ahead of the midterms, argued that Americans are increasingly questioning the influence of the pro-Israel lobby and the billions of dollars Washington spends abroad while domestic problems remain unresolved.

US military aid to Israel is not limited to the Obama-era deal. A 2025 study by William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington-based think tank, stated that the administrations of presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump additionally spent a total of $21.7 billion on military assistance to West Jerusalem in the two years after the October 2023 Hamas attack.

The attack claimed the lives of 1,200 Israelis, with around 250 being taken hostage. It also prompted Israel’s military operation in Gaza, including airstrikes and a ground offensive that killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, leading to accusations of genocide against Israel.

With a constitutional crisis tearing the Polish government apart, an anti-Russia “special operation” was just what Prime Minister Donald Tusk needed to reassert his power – but his gamble could spiral out of control with horrific consequences.

Poland has sent extra police and counter-terror units to its border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Tusk announced on Tuesday, claiming that Warsaw had received reports that “acts of diversion or more serious provocations on the border with Russia, or even sabotage acts orchestrated by hostile services, could occur.”

“Having received more precise information that incidents could occur in the first half of November – including an incursion into Polish territory by armed individuals – we decided to deploy substantial police and counter-terrorism forces to the border and to strengthen the border guard,” he said, claiming that Polish services had been tipped off by NATO, and by Ukrainian and American intelligence agencies, including the CIA.

Tusk said Polish border guards spotted “people with torches” on the Russian side of the border on Monday night, but offered no further evidence of a pending ‘incursion’.

What about that timing?

Russia has repeatedly described these claims as self-serving, with President Vladimir Putin noting last month that European leaders “desperately need to divert public attention away from domestic problems and towards external issues.” 

As if to prove Putin’s point, when nationalist protesters descended upon Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal building after it was raided by police on Friday, Tusk was ready and waiting to pin the unrest on Moscow. The demonstrators were backed by “pro-Russian forces worldwide,” he said in a televised address on Saturday, adding that “an army of Russian bots online” were cheering them on. 

In reality, Poland has been locked into an intra-elite power struggle for more than a decade, with the country’s top court a key flashpoint. Tusk’s liberal Civic Coalition controls Poland’s parliament, while Nawrocki, a member of the right-wing PiS party, holds the presidency, and the Constitutional Tribunal is dominated by judges appointed by PiS before Tusk took power in 2023. During PiS’ eight years in power, the EU repeatedly accused the party of manipulating the court, after it ruled in favor of Polish law over EU law on multiple occasions.

With Nawrocki en-route to Senegal on a state visit on Friday, a faction of judges loyal to Tusk announced the suspension of the court’s PiS-appointed president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and the appointment of a Tusk loyalist. Nawrocki cut his trip short and returned to the court, where he declared that “the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland was violated and a constitutional body of state was forcibly seized.” 

Tusk maintains that he took “decisive action” after “years of PiS-led lawlessness.” The court’s PiS-appointed justices accuse the PM of waging a judicial “coup d’etat.” Negotiations between Tusk and Nawrocki have not yet managed to defuse the crisis.

Nobody’s buying it

Tusk’s attempt to blame the unrest outside the court on Russia fell flat. Thousands of protesters returned to the court on Tuesday as Tusk’s appointee chaired an assembly without any PiS-loyal judges in attendance. Police surrounded the court building, with clubs, shields, and – according to Poland’s Onet news site – ‘pain thrower’ acoustic weapons ready to deploy should a riot break out.

During a National Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Nawrocki declared that “full responsibility for every police officer in the Constitutional Tribunal, the suspension of judges, illegal orders, and the entry into the Tribunal rests with one man, present in this room… Prime Minister Donald Tusk.” 

The Kaliningrad gambit

In Poland, Tusk’s announcement of the Kaliningrad operation has been widely derided on social media as an attempt to draw public attention away from the court showdown. However, whether this was his intention or not, Tusk’s government has already been explicit that it intends to escalate tension with Russia along the 210 km Poland-Kaliningrad frontier.

Polish troops have taken part in two separate rounds of NATO military exercises near the Kaliningrad border so far this year. In September, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski suggested that NATO “exercise so aggressively” on the borders of the exclave, that Moscow would be left “uncertain of what we will do.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later explained that this warning was worded in a manner that would “remind those hotheads in Europe” of Russia’s long-established conditions for the use of nuclear weapons.

Whether for domestic reasons, or because Tusk genuinely perceives a threat from Kaliningrad, these words have fallen on deaf ears in Poland. 

“In general, the Poles are prone to provoking situations, escalating tensions,” Peskov remarked in August. Less than a month later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned in stark terms where escalation could lead. “If the West attacks us, we will respond and it would be a completely different war and a very short one,” he said.

The Kremlin has said it has no information on who will represent Russia at a White House meeting with Ukrainian officials hosted by US First Lady Melania Trump on Thursday.

The White House announced on Tuesday that Melania Trump would personally bring representatives of Moscow and Kiev together, without identifying the participants or providing details of the meeting’s agenda.

“First Lady Melania Trump will personally bring representatives of Russia and Ukraine, two nations actively at war, together at the White House,” the statement said.

“I have no information about it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about the announcement.

The US first lady is also expected to deliver remarks on Thursday about a temporary humanitarian ceasefire in the frontline town of Alyoshki, which she helped broker.

Located in Russia’s Kherson Region along the Dnieper River, Alyoshki has suffered severe shortages after months of supply disruptions caused by Ukrainian drone attacks and mines, according to Russian officials.

Russian and Ukrainian humanitarian teams used the pause in fighting to deliver essential supplies and evacuate civilians. Nearly 800 people were brought out of the town, Melania Trump said on Monday. Moscow and Kiev agreed not to disclose where the evacuees were taken.

Residents who spoke to RT described Ukrainian bombardments that destroyed homes and accused Kiev of treating them as “scum” and “traitors.”

A small village outside Kiev, home to a few thousand people. An ordinary-looking house behind solid gates flanked by brick pillars. But no one could call what went on inside that house ordinary.

A woman in a red medical jacket kneels in the street. A police officer in a bulletproof vest stands before her. Her outstretched hand trembles as she holds up a phone, its screen facing him. A video sent to her from the basement of the house is playing. A man’s face fills the screen: bruises under both eyes, his forehead stained yellow and green, like tea spilled across an old photograph. Filming himself, he speaks Russian in a low, steady voice that seems drained of any hope of rescue: “My stomach hurts really badly. I have chills.”

Officials insisted there was no one behind the gates. Well, almost no one – just one soldier who had gone AWOL. No need for a hospital; they could take care of him themselves. Police swore there were no hostages and no victims.

Eventually, the woman in medical clothing was allowed inside. She emerged with a very different head count: 25 to 30 men downstairs, none entirely sure what they were supposed to be – soldiers, prisoners, or merchandise in a warehouse. She described a broken spine and blood on mattresses. Four men were taken to the hospital.

The authorities’ numbers swung like a hypertensive patient’s blood pressure: police started with one; Kirill Budanov, head of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s office, counted “no more than 14”; the woman reported 25 to 30. Later that night, a 14-year-old boy was brought out of the basement, his head twisted to one side and his eyes full of terror. He was shaking, whether from the cold or from what he had endured. Someone handed him a phone to speak to his sister. He asked the adults around him: “What should I say?”

What happened?

These were some of the scenes that unfolded on the night of November 2 in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, outside Kiev. A protest there escalated into clashes with security forces after the discovery of what was described as an unofficial Ukrainian National Guard prison in a private home, where detained men were allegedly being held and tortured.

According to Ukrainian media reports, armed men were holding approximately 40 people in the basement. Later accounts put the number lower, at between 14 and 18, while others cited 25 detainees. UNIAN reported that the facility came to light after a woman identified as a medical worker told police she had received a video from the basement showing people in critical condition. Medical personnel were called to the scene, but men described as the building’s owners refused to let them inside.

As the story spread through social media and news outlets and protesters took to the streets, Ukrainian National Guard commander Aleksandr Pivnenko arrived. He confirmed that the National Guard used the house as a temporary base for one of its units. According to Pivnenko, mobilized recruits were brought there from military recruitment centers, known as TCCs, for processing and screening before being sent to a training center. He said four servicemen at the house had been detained for going AWOL.

Late that evening, Budanov arrived in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka to look into the situation. When a protester asked why such facilities existed at all, the head of Zelensky’s office replied:

“Because there are a lot of buildings like this.”

The protest flared up again during Budanov’s visit. Gas was used against the demonstrators, and shots rang out. Budanov himself was hit with pepper spray and took shelter in a bus.

Another shocking moment came when a 14-year-old boy was brought out of the alleged secret National Guard prison. According to Espresso.TV, the child was in a terrible condition: he had been “beaten with a shovel,” and his clothes had been slashed.

“The Kiev regime has completely lost its mind. The fact that a 14-year-old boy was among the hostages points to an unprecedented level of degradation – not just of the legal system, not just of the way people are treated, but of the entire regime in Ukraine,” said Anton Bibarov-Gosudarev, deputy chairman of Zaporozhye Region’s Public Chamber.

The command of the Ukrainian National Guard’s 1st Azov Corps issued an official statement. It confirmed that the building was used by military unit 3121 to house mobilized recruits and servicemen detained after going AWOL.

Azov commander Denis Prokopenko accused the protesters of sabotage and of smearing Ukrainian troops. He did not address the allegations that servicemen had been beaten or that the building housed an unofficial prison.

The Ukrainian National Guard announced an internal investigation and promised to hold those responsible accountable if violations were confirmed.

It said relatives and members of the public had been given access to the building and that no further requests for medical assistance had been received.

Ukraine’s military ombudsman’s office also joined the inquiry. Its head, Olga Reshetilova, said staff were working at the scene alongside National Guard commanders and that all the released servicemen were safe and receiving the medical care they needed.

A system that reaches across the country

Azov’s involvement in the scandal is particularly notable. Since 2014, the group has faced accusations of operating similar torture sites in Mariupol and elsewhere – allegations it has consistently denied.

Journalist and blogger Anatoly Shary alleged that a man had been killed at the site in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka. Ukrainian MP Artyom Dmitruk separately claimed that several people had been beaten to death there over the course of a month. Neither claim has been independently verified.

“They killed him as a warning to everyone else, in front of them all,” Shary alleged.

“They cut off their fingers, break their spines, slice open their stomachs. They can do whatever they want to them. These mentally sick bastards think they’re the Gestapo.”

Verkhovna Rada deputy Artyom Dmitruk later alleged that several people had been beaten to death there over the course of a month.

“The same thing happens at hundreds of other places. People are abducted and tortured. Some are sold to military units; others are sold back to their relatives.”

“The weaker ones simply die from torture,” he said. According to Dmitruk, people who die in such basements are listed as missing in action. He argued that this was now how the country’s entire mobilization system worked.\

Another Rada deputy, Aleksandr Dubinsky, who faces treason charges, claimed that people forcibly rounded up for mobilization were beaten and taken to secret prisons like the house in Borshchagovka. He said such camps have been operating in Ukraine since 2022.

Spiridon Kilinkarov, a former Ukrainian MP and first secretary of the Lugansk regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, also alleged that many such torture prisons existed across the country.

“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these torture sites across Ukraine. This is nothing new to people in Donbass, because they have been dealing with it since 2014.

“Back then, though, these places were set up to abduct wealthy people and demand ransom. Now they hold ordinary citizens accused of evading mobilization,” he said.

“The same thing happened in Hitler’s Germany. The same thing happened under Pinochet. The same thing is happening in Ukraine. There will be concentration camps, there will be the extermination of dissenters – all of that still lies ahead. We in Russia have been talking about this for a long time. Now people in Ukraine are saying it openly, too,” Russian Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov said.

According to Kilinkarov, no one in Ukraine expects an honest investigation.

“The investigation hasn’t focused on what actually happened there. Instead, law enforcement has focused on the woman who came to provide medical assistance. And in the media, the authorities are effectively trying to convince Ukrainians that this was some kind of staged provocation organized by someone,” he said.

Ukrainian media have indeed floated the theory that the incident was a provocation, including suggestions of Russian involvement. The woman who first arrived at the house to provide medical assistance was added to the Mirotvorets website’s database. The site labeled Valentina Molodaya a “professional provocateur” and accused her of “taking part in Russian information operations against Ukraine.” Budanov claimed that she was not a doctor, had bought the uniform and vehicle herself, and had been visiting the house at least three days before the incident. On social media, Molodaya criticizes military recruitment centers and the Ukrainian authorities and has called for an end to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

What happens next?

Former Ukrainian MP Vladimir Oleinik suggested that the clashes between residents and the National Guard in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka could spread into protests across Ukraine.

“It’s all still ahead. People will take to the streets, blood will be spilled – that’s inevitable... Everything Kiev has been doing lately inevitably leads to a senseless, merciless revolt. The air is already thick with gasoline fumes. All it takes is a spark,” he said.

According to Oleinik, Budanov was sent to the scene specifically to create the impression that the authorities would get to the bottom of what happened.

“Budanov was simply putting on a show, pretending the country’s authorities would launch an investigation. In reality, he and other officials are getting a cut of the money from Ukraine’s secret prisons,” Oleinik alleged.

“Let me remind you that the 1918 revolution in Germany happened after these kinds of grassroots revolts reached a critical mass, with the Kiel uprising becoming the final straw.

“Will the same thing happen in Ukraine? I have no idea. Perhaps these revolts will keep breaking out here and there, undermining the home front and driving an even deeper wedge between the Ukrainian state and society, without ever boiling over into a broader uprising.”

At least one person was killed and three injured when two helicopters collided when attempting to land at Pheriche, below Mount Everest’s base camp in Nepal on Tuesday.

The incident took place shortly after 8 AM local time. One helicopter operated by Air Dynasty was flying from Lukla Airport to Pheriche, while the other, operated by Fishtail Air, was arriving from Gorakshep with two foreign passengers, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).

Video of the incident circulating on social media shows the two helicopters approaching the landing area from different directions. As the Air Dynasty aircraft tilts backward, apparently attempting to slow down, its spinning rotor blades appear to strike the midsection of the Fishtail Air helicopter and sever its tail, after which both crash.

A 47-year-old Indian national aboard the Fishtail Air helicopter was killed, while its pilot and a New Zealand passenger were injured, CAAN said.

The Air Dynasty pilot was also injured and received treatment at a hospital in Lukla, OnlineKhabar later reported, citing Nepal Police.

“Preliminary reports suggest miscommunication between the pilots, as the area is outside the coverage of Lukla Airport’s air traffic control tower and pilots have to communicate with each other,” CAAN Director General Mukesh Dangol told the Kathmandu Post.

“We are recording the statement of the injured pilot,” Dangol added.

The village of Pheriche lies more than 4,200 meters (13,800 feet) above sea level and is a popular stop for trekkers and climbers heading to Everest Base Camp.

Nepal’s challenging mountainous terrain and unpredictable weather can make helicopter flights hazardous. The aircraft are not permitted to land at Everest Base Camp but often transport trekkers returning from the Everest region, including those suffering from altitude sickness or exhaustion.

In Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, a new scandal has erupted. And while the Zelensky regime has a long and imposing record of spectacular misdeeds, this one has a quality all of its own.

For what has happened in the town of Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, effectively a suburb of the capital, brings together several of the most cruel, venal, and unscrupulous practices of EU-NATO Europe’s favorite gangster regime: mass kidnapping its subjects as military slaves for a Western proxy war against Russia, turning the same operation into a vicious extortion scheme, and using brutal violence – including torture and murder – to make it all go round.

In essence, local people rebelled against all of the above by laying siege to a below-the-radar holding pen for men caught in ‘busification’ raids and those trying to escape the meat grinder war by going AWOL.

‘Busification’ is of course the well-known practice of the Ukrainian establishment and its goon forces of dragging men – often with extreme violence – off the streets and public transport, from work and weddings, out of shops and their homes, really from any place you can imagine – to forcibly induct them into the Ukrainian military.

The preferred vehicles for these literal manhunts are vans capacious enough to hold a team of live-body snatchers and its subdued victim. Hence, busification – a word every Ukrainian knows and almost every Ukrainian dreads. ‘Almost’ because busification is not only brutal and may well end in severe injury and death – not at the hands of Russian forces but Ukraine’s very own enforcers – but also highly unfair: If you are a scion of the Zelensky regime’s ultra-corrupt establishment, fear not; you won’t be touched. All others and especially the poor and rural live in a national free-fire zone for military slave hunters.

None of this is news, all of this has long been known to anyone willing to listen to actual ordinary Ukrainians, the ones sacrificed en masse to an insane Western attempt to take down Russia via Ukraine. But then, neither Western mainstream public intellectuals nor media are interested in what these real Ukrainians suffer.

The last element of the busification horror is also no surprise: The victims freed from the war-slavery holding pen in a Kiev suburb were massively abused, some brutally tortured. In this case, their tormenters came from the neo-Nazi Azov unit which has colonized Ukraine’s National Guard. But make no mistake: Torture as well is much more common in Ukraine, under and before Zelensky, than Western mainstream media would let their captive audiences know. There have been credible reports of torture inflicted by Ukrainian authorities, including but not restricted to explicitly far-right and neo-Nazi units, for, at least, over a decade.

As with the many outrageous crimes committed by brazen Ukrainian terror commandos abroad, from the Nord Stream attacks to assassinations, the mainstream West has stubbornly turned two blind eyes. Indeed, instead of punishing the Ukrainian criminals and protecting even its own citizens and infrastructure, it has emboldened the Zelensky regime by ceaseless, astronomical infusions of money into its corrupt metabolism.

That complicity was on display as if under a magnifying glass, when a US citizen, the critical blogger and journalist Gonzalo Lira was tortured to death – in classical Zelensky-regime fashion – to both make an example and fleece him. The case was buried. Indeed, Lira could have been saved easily, if the US authorities who knew of his fate had intervened.

The Zelensky regime’s impunity is stunning. Not quite yet Israel-level but getting there. And as with Israel, the reason for this abysmal situation is a toxic mix of – very bad – geopolitics and moral and intellectual perversion. For years, Western establishments, from public war propagandists such as Timothy Snyder who has even helped collect money for an Azov unit, to politicians have obfuscated the truth about the West’s favorite client regime, its violence at home and its best friends on the Nazi-level far right.

Western publics have been brainwashed not only with Russophobia but with a systematic campaign of lies and omissions to embellish Zelensky and his vicious regime. That is why what has just come to light, again, in a Kiev suburb, is not only about Ukraine but about the West, especially NATO-EU Europe: They claim that Zelensky’s Ukraine is a frontier where their ‘values’ are being defended and practiced. I, for one, have come to believe them.

And the values in question are those of thieves, torturers, and murderers who betray their own people to enrich and empower themselves. Like Gaza, where the same ‘exemplary’ Europeans are complicit in an Israeli genocide, Zelensky’s Ukraine reveals the truth about this version of ‘Europe’.