The US military has quietly begun withdrawing troops from bases across the Middle East, while Washington is ordering diplomatic personnel to leave several missions in the region, NBC News reports.

The moves come as President Donald Trump considers launching a new wave of attacks on Iran, and the withdrawals resemble preparations made by the Pentagon and State Department ahead of the initial US-Israeli strikes in February, NBC reported on Wednesday, citing two US officials and two people familiar with the matter.

US troops stationed in Jordan, Qatar, and Kuwait are among those being relocated, according to the report. Washington reportedly intends to maintain a limited presence at its regional bases, including personnel responsible for air defenses and security.

Ahead of the February 28 attack, the Pentagon withdrew large numbers of troops from potentially vulnerable bases to shield them from expected Iranian retaliation. Tehran accused Washington of using Gulf residents as “human shields” after thousands of US service members took shelter in civilian hotels and office buildings.

The State Department has also ordered non-essential personnel and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing escalating attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement against civilian airports and other critical infrastructure.

Reuters reported that Washington is preparing additional diplomatic withdrawals across the Gulf, citing US officials, but State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott described reports of further withdrawals as “inaccurate.”

Some of Trump’s advisers, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, have reportedly advocated resuming military operations to increase pressure on Tehran. Others have warned against launching another major campaign without a clearly defined objective.

Hegseth made an unannounced visit to Israel on Monday, holding closed-door talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just days before Israel’s October 27 parliamentary elections. Netanyahu is seeking another term amid mounting criticism of his handling of the wars in Gaza and Iran. Trump has endorsed his reelection bid.

The US-Israeli war against Iran, launched on February 28, has entered its eighth month, disrupting global energy markets and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has offered to restore normal navigation through the vital waterway within seven days if Washington lifts its naval blockade, eases oil sanctions, and agrees to a broader cessation of hostilities.

Trump has rejected the Iranian proposal as “unacceptable,” while his administration continues to consider whether additional military pressure could force Tehran to accept their terms.

Two OpenAI agents disabled security monitoring systems during testing, with one later denying it had done so, the company has revealed.

The disclosure follows a string of similar incidents in recent months involving autonomous AI agents, which can independently plan and carry out tasks using external tools.

In a blog post on Tuesday, OpenAI said that the incidents occurred on October 3 and 6, involving its GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra agents, respectively.

In the first case, the coding agent tasked with creating evaluation tasks using employee feedback collected via Slack disabled automatic alerts to the company’s security team. According to OpenAI, the agent reasoned that the user’s prior instruction not to send messages on the team communication platform during the process applied to all notifications, including security alerts.

OpenAI said that it was investigating why the agents disabled the safeguards and working to prevent similar incidents. While the behavior may have resulted from “benign overpersistence” by the agents to complete the task, the company said that it was also “developing evaluations to test whether models might have a propensity to evade misalignment monitoring in particular.”

Last month, the Wall Street Journal, citing Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems, reported that the company had scrapped the release of its GPT-6.1 Astra model. The decision reportedly came after internal testing had found the model to be more deceptive than its predecessors and apt to employ potentially unsafe external tools without first seeking the user’s permission.

Also in September, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that an OpenAI agent had hacked his country’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, with the company failing to report the breach for nearly three months.

Earlier, in July, OpenAI disclosed that its models had escaped their sandbox during cybersecurity testing, accessed the internet, and hacked into the servers of the Hugging Face online repository for AI models and datasets.

Earlier this month, Anthropic released a report detailing instances of “unintended” actions by its AI models, including Claude Haiku 4.5 providing a bogus tip to Philadelphia police regarding an ongoing homicide investigation.

Calls to halt AI development or impose tighter regulations on the industry have grown louder.

Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton has warned that increasingly powerful AI could eventually escape human control, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has also urged governments to adopt a more active role in imposing safety standards on the industry.

However, US President Donald Trump has brushed off such concerns, saying that restrictions on AI development could allow China to overtake the US in the technological race.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, too, has argued that the world must absorb some “bad things” resulting from AI development, including hacks and scams, as the benefits afforded by the technology far outweigh the drawbacks.

A US judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in civil penalties for deceiving Facebook users about the privacy of their personal data, in a landmark ruling stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which exposed the harvesting of personal information from millions of Americans for political campaigns.

New Mexico District Judge Francis Mathew issued the ruling on Wednesday, following a jury verdict in September finding Facebook’s parent company responsible for nearly 44 million violations of the state’s consumer protection laws.

The judge concluded that Meta’s misconduct warranted a penalty exceeding $219 billion under state law, but reduced the amount to $25 billion, making it one of the largest financial penalties ever imposed on an American corporation.

The case arose from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, when it emerged that the British political consulting firm obtained personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent.

The information was collected through a third-party personality quiz application that exploited Facebook’s system for accessing users’ friends’ data. Cambridge Analytica used the information to develop psychological profiles of voters and deliver targeted political advertising, including during the 2016 US presidential election.

The scandal also exposed connections to Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley data-analysis company with extensive contracts involving US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon. A 2018 New York Times investigation revealed that at least one Palantir employee advised Cambridge Analytica’s researchers during the company’s 2014 efforts to harvest Facebook information.

Palantir denied having a formal business relationship with Cambridge Analytica, maintaining that the employee acted in a personal capacity.

Attorney General Raul Torrez hailed Wednesday’s judgment as a warning to Silicon Valley that even the largest technology companies could be held accountable for violating consumer protection laws.

Meta has denied misleading users and plans to appeal the ruling, arguing that the unprecedented penalty is unconstitutional. Responding to the jury’s verdict last month, the company also invoked freedom of speech, insisting that Facebook is a forum for free expression.

Numerous websites worldwide, including government-run pages, temporarily went dark after the AI-assisted discovery of critical vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, which powers around 70% of the web globally.

On Wednesday, the developers of the popular open-source programming language, which helps websites run and display content, issued an urgent security alert over “critical remote code execution vulnerabilities.”

The flaws could allow hackers to take control of affected websites, prompting the release of urgent fixes, with all PHP users “strongly encouraged to update immediately.”

Cybersecurity agencies worldwide, including the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, the UK’s National Cyber Security Center, the Australian Signals Directorate, and the Canadian Center for Cyber Security, issued their own alerts, advising users to apply the patches immediately and prioritize internet-facing systems.

The announcement prompted France’s Interior Ministry to temporarily shut down prefecture websites, with local government pages also unavailable. In neighboring Belgium, the Foreign Ministry similarly took its websites offline on Wednesday. In the Netherlands, the National Cyber Security Center, the websites of all major political parties, and at least one port took similar precautionary measures.

In Denmark, the national school communication platform was temporarily shut down; in Finland, the government’s public web services went dark.

The flaws in PHP were identified by two cybersecurity companies, Calif and Wiz, in August. PHP developers have since worked on fixes, while keeping the discovery under wraps to prevent malicious actors from exploiting the vulnerabilities.

The cybersecurity companies said they made extensive use of AI models in the process, including Google’s Gemini 4 Argon and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol.

Wiz stated that the “underlying flaws had been present for decades, but demonstrating their exploitability required an exceptionally complex chain of steps, at the edge of what human researchers could practically achieve.”

Poland has accused Kiev of making unacceptable “suicidal” moves after the Ukrainian city of Lviv dedicated 2027 to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and its leader, Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevich.

To celebrate the 120th anniversary of Shukhevich’s birth and mark 85 years since the creation of the militant group that perpetrated mass killings of ethnic Poles, Jews, and Russians, the Lviv Regional Council decided on Tuesday to organize “cultural, memorial, scientific, and mass media events,” as well as exhibitions and national-patriotic rallies.

The announcement was met with widespread condemnation in Poland, which regards the UPA as perpetrators of genocide against Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia and its leader, Shukhevich, as a key ‘architect’ of the massacres. From 1943 to 1945, Ukrainian nationalist militants murdered an estimated 100,000 ethnic Poles in the regions, which are now largely part of modern Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the move a “suicidal tactic,” and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called it “unacceptable.” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski condemned the announcement, calling for the resolution’s key sponsor, Lviv regional lawmaker Svyatoslav Sheremet, to be placed on Poland’s travel ban list.

The resolution ultimately vanished from the Lviv council’s website without any explanation. Speaking to Polish media on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki said Warsaw received assurances from Kiev that the resolution would not be implemented.

“We take on faith the words of the administration of Vladimir Zelensky that this catastrophic decision will not be implemented,” Bosacki stated, calling the disappearance of the resolution from the council’s website a “good sign,” but cautioning against interpreting it as an official cancellation of the celebrations.

Poland regards the UPA and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of its 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, as perpetrators of genocide, while modern Ukraine cherishes them as freedom fighters and national heroes.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky named a military unit after the ‘Heroes of the UPA’ and established a ‘pantheon of outstanding Ukrainians’ at Kiev’s main military cemetery, where OUN leader and Nazi collaborator Andrey Melnik was reinterred with state honors in May.

First and foremost, it’s important to note a significant decrease in the level of violent crime. Of course, after President Donald Trump’s controversial firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erica McEntarfer, for publishing weak labor market figures, trust in American statistics has been considerably shaken. Thus, reports of achieving the lowest murder rate in history – 4.3 cases per 100,000 population – may be politically motivated and deliberately boastful. Nevertheless, a noticeable decline in the rate of murders and other violent crimes has indeed occurred in recent years. This can be attributed to increased federal funding and strengthening of the police force, as well as intensified efforts against illegal immigration during the Trump administration.

A particularly striking aspect of this is the comparison with Canada, which has been and remains a bastion of liberalism in immigration and domestic policy. Unlike the US, where the level of violent crime is traditionally high, Canada has always been perceived as a safe society. But now, everything is changing before our eyes.

Since 2015, the rate of violent crime per capita in the U.S. has decreased by 15.1%, while in Canada, on the contrary, it has increased by 36.9%. As a result, for the first time in history, the land of the maple leaf has surpassed the U.S. in terms of violent crime per capita.

Another significant trend: Gallup polls show that the perception of homosexual relationships as morally acceptable has stopped increasing and even declined in the US The share of those supporting same-sex marriage fell from 71% in 2023 to 64% in 2026. Support for gender transition practices among Americans decreased from 46% to 38%.

As we can see, the MAGA effect is concentrated within the Republican electorate and primarily manifests in the consolidation of Republicans based on traditional values. At the same time, there is an intensifying value conflict between conservative Republicans and the Democratic Party electorate.

Perhaps the most vivid manifestation of the MAGA effect is that in the summer of 2024, the trend of decreasing births among white Americans was replaced by steady growth, and by spring 2026, the proportion of newborns from white families reached 51.5%, the first increase in five years.

Let’s see if this trend can be maintained, but the mere fact of the growth in births among white Americans is quite remarkable – it demonstrates a surge of optimism in the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) community and proves that they still have fight left in them. In an era of victorious globalization, WASPs in the US were already being metaphorically buried with a derogatory epitaph, yet they suddenly breathed life and showed they are ready to fight for their country, which their ancestors built.

It is noteworthy that conservative and religious Americans have twice as many children as their liberal and non-religious counterparts. Thus, the conservative American community reproduces itself (total fertility rate 2.22), while the liberal American environment naturally shrinks by half in each subsequent generation (total fertility rate 1.02), mainly replenishing itself through immigration.

The descendants of pilgrims and pioneers remember that the primary traditional value is the will to live. Everything one needs to know about MAGA can be boiled down to two points. First, it is the rise of the American spirit. Second, it serves as a visual reiteration of a biblical lesson: the salvation of those who are drowning is in the hands of the drowners themselves.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump could hold a “historic” three-way meeting at the APEC summit in China, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is scheduled to take place in Shenzhen, China, on November 18-19.

Speaking to the Russian outlet Vesti on Wednesday, Ushakov said Beijing had already begun preparations for the potential talks.

“Everyone is ready for this, but much, if not everything, depends on the Chinese hosts of the summit,” he said.

The possibility of three-way talks was also discussed during Putin’s meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, according to the Kremlin.

Ushakov described the proposed gathering as potentially “historic,” noting that it would be the first meeting of the three leaders in this format.

Putin and Trump last met in person at a summit in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025, and have remained in contact by phone, most recently on October 9.

Trump and Xi have met twice so far this year, first in Beijing in May and then at the White House last month.

Trump has previously expressed openness to three-way talks, suggesting that nuclear disarmament could be among the issues discussed.

Asked whether the talks could also contribute to peace efforts in the Ukraine conflict, Ushakov said a single meeting would not be enough. “Even if the meeting lasts one, two or five hours, it still won’t be possible to resolve all the problems,” he said.

Commenting on whether the summit could amount to a “new Yalta,” Ushakov said: “I think that if the meeting takes place, there will be a storm of comments and assessments.” 

The 1945 Yalta Conference brought together Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss the final stages of World War II and the postwar international order.

Slovakia will discuss economic cooperation with Russia, including energy supplies, in Moscow next week, the Slovak Foreign Ministry has said.

The landlocked EU nation has remained a buyer of Russian oil and gas despite the deterioration of the ties between Moscow and the EU in the wake of the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The country is supposed to phase out Russian energy by late 2027 under the bloc’s plan to replace Russian oil and gas supplies from elsewhere.

The Russian-Slovak intergovernmental commission for economic, scientific, and technical cooperation has been inactive since November 2021 but is now set to meet next Monday, the Slovak Foreign Ministry announced late on Tuesday. The commission will discuss a broad range of topics, including farming, environment, sports, and culture, and focus on energy supply, including nuclear energy, according to the ministry.

“The fundamental topic will be energy and the possibility to cooperate in securing supplies of strategic resources. The Slovak side is also interested in discussing gas supplies and the continuation of oil supplies,” it said in a statement.

Bratislava continues “to base its approach on its European Union and North Atlantic Alliance membership and keeping commitments of this membership” but wants to create room for dialogue, the ministry said.

Last month, Fico warned that Europe was moving dangerously close to a direct clash between NATO and Russia, accusing the West of seeking a “pretext” for a major conflict. He accused EU nations of engaging in increasingly bellicose rhetoric and described the Ukraine conflict as “out of control.”

“The situation has never been as serious and tense regarding the possibility of a pan-European war conflict as it is now,” he said.

The EU has updated its Arctic strategy, and militarism has replaced climate activism as Brussels’ new preoccupation in the frozen north. Despite what the new strategy claims, however, the Arctic is not “the EU’s Northern Neighborhood.”

Unveiled on Tuesday by the European Commission, the ‘Strategy for the Arctic’ describes the region as a “critical” zone for trade, investment, and conservation, and a flashpoint for military confrontation with Russia. 

Today, we adopt our new 🇪🇺 Arctic Strategy. The Arctic is where the tectonic plates of geopolitics collide head-on. It requires us to change our strategic posture. And work with like-minded partners that share our values ↓ https://t.co/B6GvgUOCQk

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 20, 2026

“With Russia and China increasing their footprint and ambition, the Arctic has become a front line of global power competition,” top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a statement. “Our revamped Strategy reflects this new reality and puts security firmly at its core.”

To understand just how dramatic this new focus on security is, it’s necessary to turn back the clock to 2021, when the commission released its previous Arctic strategy.

The EU’s green past

Published on October 13, 2021, the strategy opened by describing climate change as “the most comprehensive threat the Arctic is facing.” Russia’s refurbishment of Soviet-era military bases along its Arctic coastline was presented primarily as something that could “further aggravate the consequences of climate change,” and the EU pledged to work with Moscow “to improve environmental and health security,” and to leave military relations with Russia up to NATO and individual member states.

Four months later, Brussels severed relations with Moscow and entered the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Kiev’s side. The title of the 2021 strategy – ‘A stronger EU engagement for a peaceful, sustainable and prosperous Arctic’ – needed an update that reflected the EU’s new militarism.

Brussels claims the Arctic

“Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine has reshaped the security of the Arctic and the EU as a whole,” the new document opens, going on to assert that “the Arctic is not someone else’s frontier. It is Europe’s Northern Neighbourhood and the European Union is part of the Arctic.”

Geography is not exactly on Brussels’ side here. The 27-member union has no coastline on the Arctic Ocean, and only two of its members – Finland and Sweden – have territory inside the Arctic Circle (although a Danish dependency, Greenland left the EU in 1985). Russia accounts for 53% of the Arctic Ocean’s coastline, and 45% of all land inside the Arctic Circle.

To compensate for this, the new strategy proposes that all waters north of 60 degrees latitude be considered ‘Arctic’. The commission argues that this would allow its environmental regulations to “cover the actual footprint of Arctic shipping.” It would also dramatically expand the EU’s ‘Arctic’ territory and population by bringing almost all of Finland and Sweden into the new region, including Finland’s entire 1,340 kilometer border with Russia. It is on this frontier that the EU is preparing for conflict.

War preparations

The strategy sets out a lengthy list of military objectives, with the commission promising to:

• “Deepen engagement with NATO” and hold military exercises focused on moving troops and equipment into the Arctic

• Develop military logistics corridors from central Europe to the Arctic

• Upgrade ports and airports for military use

• Expand icebreaker capacity 

• Expand satellite surveillance of the region and tracking of Russian oil tankers

• Develop polar-capable undersea drones

• Establish a “Maritime Security Hub” and increase data-sharing with NATO

• Deepen military ties with Canada, Iceland, Norway, the UK, and US

The strategy is short on some specifics, and almost all of these goals are presented without an accompanying price tag. The only actual figures listed are €260 million for ten existing European Defence Fund projects, €107 million toward the construction of an undersea internet cable to Greenland, and the €200 million Greenland ‘Partnership Package’, which was announced last month. Although the commission says that this investment package will “support resilience, security and peace in the Arctic,” none of the €200 million in funding is earmarked for explicitly military projects.

‘Shadow fleet’ is an EU euphemism for tankers carrying Russian oil in international waters. Russian oil exporters do not abide by EU sanctions, nor do importers outside the EU. Nevertheless, EU member states have abrogated the authority to seize them, in what the Kremlin considers “flagrant violation of international law” and “outright piracy and robbery.”

Should the seizures continue, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to respond in kind.

The ‘hybrid war’ deception

The EU’s militarization of the Arctic is justified, the document states, as Russia is “pursuing hybrid strategies against its neighbours… from drone incursions and Global Navigation Satellite System jamming to the sabotage of undersea cables.” In the absence of real, verifiable military action by Russia against Europe, EU and NATO leaders have taken to accusing Moscow of waging “hybrid war,” describing drone sightings, fires, and accidents at weapons factories, protests, and even natural disasters as Kremlin-orchestrated plots to destabilize the West. 

Nevertheless, claims of ‘hybrid war’ have persisted in European politics and media, to the point where some analysts view the claims themselves as a form of “hybrid warfare” against the European public, used to justify military spending hikes and welfare cutbacks.

“When you are sure it is the Russians, or almost sure it is the Russians, attribute it to the Russians,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte advised the bloc’s political leaders and intelligence chiefs earlier this month. 

Russia has been holding military exercises in the Arctic for decades, and the refurbishment of its Soviet-era bases in the region has been underway since before the EU published its 2021 Arctic strategy. However, the newly militarized EU is no longer content to handle this matter through old mechanisms – namely the Arctic Council – and insists that countering Russia in the north is its responsibility as well as NATO’s.

The Europeans dictate their terms

The EU’s new strategy calls on Russia to “ensure that freedom of navigation is preserved” along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), a formerly impassable navigation corridor that can now be traversed year-round, thanks to receding polar ice caps and the assistance of Russia’s vast icebreaker fleet. The NSR cuts transit time from China to northern Europe in half, and in August, the first Chinese container ship arrived at the port of Murmansk via this route.

The NSR skims along more than 24,000 km of Russian coastline, and through internationally recognized Russian territorial waters. Russia is the only state capable of rendering assistance to any ships passing through the route, and vessels wishing to pass in winter must pay to be escorted by Russian icebreakers. Moscow retains the right to deny any ships access to the NSR.

Nevertheless, the EU insists that it has a say over Russian maritime policy, even as it vows to “continue to sanction the shadow fleet entering from the Northern Sea Route” and place Russian shipping under satellite surveillance. The latest Arctic strategy states that the EU will “actively engage” with other nations to ensure freedom of navigation in the Arctic, but omits any possibility of engagement with Russia. Only “like-minded partners,” a term mentioned nearly two dozen times in the document, will be consulted.

Diplomatic and economic disputes in the Arctic were previously handled at the Arctic Council. However, seven of the council’s eight members – every one except Russia – stopped participating in high-level Council meetings in March 2022. That same month, the EU joined Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden in suspending any activities involving Russia within the separate Barents Euro-Arctic Council.

The EU’s Arctic delusion

In a message released by its embassy in the Netherlands on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry described the document as “another pipe dream of EU hawks.”

“A quick reality check: Russia operates a fleet of 40+ icebreakers. How many does the EU have in total?” the ministry asked. “The Arctic should be a place of cooperation, not confrontation. Maybe it’s time to stop the provocations?”

After spending years pressuring New Delhi to cut back its Russian oil purchases, and isolate Moscow, Washington has now changed tack and is seeking India’s help to bring down elevated domestic fuel prices that are largely of its own making.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who skipped New Delhi entirely on his second visit to India this year, made clear what had brought him to the country – the massive refining capacity of Reliance Industries, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

“I’m also here in my capacity as the National Security Adviser,” Rubio said in Mumbai. “Energy is related to national security … we’re going to go see a company that has a tremendous amount of refining capability.”  

President Donald Trump’s administration is showing a new urgency to bring down the high fuel prices that threaten Republicans’ prospects in November’s midterm elections. US retail diesel prices reached a record average of about $6.32 a gallon on Tuesday.

American refineries are already operating at close to capacity, and Washington is working with India to increase refining output and bring more petroleum products to global markets, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in Houston the same day. 

“Energy politics is inseparable from American geopolitics,” Jindal School of International Affairs adjunct professor and former Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Anuradha Mitra Chenoy told RT. “The US is using energy as a geopolitical instrument, and that is central to understanding Rubio’s visit.”

From Russian oil tariffs to Venezuelan crude

Washington has regularly used energy sanctions to achieve its geopolitical aims. First it took Iranian, and then Venezuelan, crude off the market with the threat of sanctions. Since the Ukraine conflict began, Washington also pressured India to stop buying Russian crude. The argument was that choking off Moscow’s oil revenues would help end the conflict, which is now in its fifth year. 

New Delhi has maintained that providing affordable energy to its 1.4 billion people is central to its oil-purchasing decisions. India imports about 85% of its energy requirements, and Russia remains one of its biggest sources of oil.

But the pressure reached a breaking point when the US Congress passed a law last month that threatened “bone-crushing sanctions” on major buyers of Russian energy. New Delhi warned that the proposed measures could affect bilateral relations and global energy markets. 

Trump announced a deal with Russia to buy diesel for the domestic market. And cleared the deck for Rubio’s visit by waiving off sanctions on Moscow’s top oil buyers – which includes China and India, allowing Russian oil to flow more freely into global markets.

“None of these tariffs are meant to punish or harm India,” Rubio said in Mumbai, adopting a more conciliatory tone than has come out of Washington until recently.

Why Reliance, and Jamnagar, matter to Washington

Washington’s top diplomat held talks with Mukesh Ambani at Jamnagar in India’s Gujarat state on the second day of his visit. The Reliance refinery in Jamnagar is the largest single-site refining complex in the world, and can process around 1.4 million barrels of crude a day.

It is also one of the few facilities capable of processing large volumes of Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude, which is good for producing diesel – showing its importance to a US administration worried about domestic fuel prices. 

Jamnagar already plays a major part in keeping global fuel prices in check – by selling fuel refined from Russian crude to markets including Europe, which sanctions the same crude.

And it is buying more Venezuelan oil, accounting for more than 74% of the nearly $3.6 billion worth of Venezuelan crude imported by India between April and August, according to figures shared by the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) think tank.

Rubio wants Reliance to buy, and process, more of the Venezuelan crude, which the US now controls after kidnapping the country’s President Nicolas Maduro.

“The refining capability exists,” GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava told RT. “The question is whether expanding purchases makes commercial sense.”

Venezuelan crude is cheaper but it also costs more to refine, he pointed out. He also questioned the wisdom of India buying more of the South American country’s oil, which was once subjected to US sanctions. 

“It would be very unwise for India to stop using Russian oil,” Chenoy said, pointing out that there are only a limited number of major sources available internationally, and Russia remains one of the most important.

Reliance is also involved in a proposed refinery project in Brownsville, Texas, under a long-term agreement to purchase its output. The facility, which Trump called a $300 billion project in March, is designed to process lighter American shale crude. 

The Indian conglomerate “helps utilize and unleash the energy that is being developed in the Western Hemisphere,” Rubio told the Indian Express, describing his visit as an opportunity to identify ways of diversifying energy supplies.

Rubio dodges a Musk-ignited controversy

Ahead of his meeting with Ambani, Rubio had to sidestep the controversy ignited by trillionaire Elon Musk.

The world’s richest man, a prominent donor to the Republican party, had accused Ambani earlier this month of obstructing the launch of his Starlink satellite internet service in India.

Musk targeted Ambani, sarcastically addressing him as “Prime Minister Ambani” and questioning whether his company would allow Starlink to compete in the country.

Reliance also dismissed suggestions that it was blocking competition. 

“Elon Musk is a private citizen,” Rubio told the Indian Express, adding that Musk had the right to express his views.

Rubio also sought to assuage concerns about the India-US trade deal, which has been holding fire despite months of tortuous negotiations. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman described the talks as deadlocked earlier this month, saying both sides were finding it “very difficult” to make further concessions.

“We are weeks, not months, away from, I think, finalizing it,” Rubio said. “I would say we are about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement.” 

India has been holding off on finalizing the deal as it wants to lock in a competitive advantage in the US market relative to rival exporter nations. 

Pragmatism back on the table

The US administration turning on the charm, so to speak, suggests that Washington’s energy and political interests are taking precedence over its geopolitical considerations and moral grandstanding.

With pragmatism back on the table, Rubio’s visit could mark a step toward easing bilateral tensions and strengthening cooperation beyond the immediate fuel crisis driving the change.

Still India must “carefully examine what it is being asked to commit to, what commercial benefits it can expect, and the risks of future changes in US policy,” Srivastava said.

Residents of New South Wales, Australia could soon have the option to make a final contribution to their garden upon death, after the state’s parliament approved turning human remains into compost as an alternative to burial and cremation.

The bill, introduced by Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, cleared the upper house on Wednesday after passing the lower house unanimously last week. It now awaits assent, with a minimum two-year wait before going into force.

Known as ‘terramation’ or natural organic reduction, a body is placed in a vessel with wood chips, straw, and other plant material. Microbes break down the remains, producing material that can eventually nourish trees and gardens.

US operator Recompose says its process takes 8-12 weeks, including a curing period. Remaining bones are mechanically ground down and mixed back in, and artificial implants are removed.

Under the NSW bill, families can take the resulting compost home to nourish a memorial tree or garden, or arrange for it to be placed elsewhere. However, choosing to become garden material remains a personal decision; operators are barred from turning a deceased person’s remains into compost against their written wishes.

“We are running out of burial space [and] that space can cost as much as $50,000 [Australian dollars],” Greenwich told ABC in June. He predicted that composting will become cheaper than cremation, although local prices have yet to be established.

Not everyone is pleased with the proposal. NSW Premier Chris Minns said in June that he felt “a bit weird about it.” Catholic Weekly columnist Michael Cook described it as a “bizarre solution to saving the planet,” arguing that composting conflicts with religious respect for the human body.

Similar human composting practices have already been approved in several US states and part of Germany. England and Wales are considering rules that could eventually allow it.

Israel’s leading political parties hold broadly similar positions on Palestinian statehood and Gaza despite their fierce electoral rivalry, RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij reports. 

With parliamentary elections scheduled for October 27, the report examines whether a change of government would bring any significant shift in the country’s policies toward the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud party, has categorically rejected the creation of a Palestinian state.

“There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu declared.

His position is echoed by several political rivals. The leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, has said that the idea of a two-state solution “has died,” while Gadi Eisenkot, head of the centrist Yashar party, has ruled out Palestinian statehood under a government he leads.

Even Yair Golan, leader of the left-leaning Democrats, has described a two-state solution as “too ambitious” for now, instead advocating civilian separation while retaining Israeli security control.

The similarities in position extend to Gaza, where the main parties all support disarming Hamas and maintaining Israeli military involvement, although they differ over who should govern the territory.

Military conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews remains a major point of contention, with disagreements over long-standing draft exemptions triggering widespread protests.

With smaller factions potentially playing a decisive role in forming the next coalition, Dubenskij raises the question of how much Israel’s policies could change after the vote.

Watch the full report below.

Russia and China could finalize agreements on a major new gas pipeline by the end of the year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said on Wednesday, in a potential breakthrough that would significantly expand Moscow’s energy exports to Asia.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of talks between Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang in St. Petersburg, Novak said the planned Power of Baikal pipeline was among the issues discussed.

“Our companies – Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation – are negotiating a second route for gas supplies from Russia to the People’s Republic of China,” he said. “We are waiting for our companies to complete commercial negotiations and hope they will reach the relevant agreements by the end of the year.”

Li arrived in St. Petersburg on Tuesday for the regular meeting of the Russian and Chinese heads of government.

Russia already supplies gas to China through the Power of Siberia, a more than 3,000-kilometer pipeline launched in 2019. It carries gas from the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia and the Kovyktinskoye field in Irkutsk Region through Russia’s Far East and across the border near Blagoveshchensk, connecting to a Chinese network extending toward Shanghai. Its annual export capacity is 38 billion cubic meters (bcm), with deliveries reaching 38.8 bcm in 2025.

The planned Power of Baikal, previously known as Power of Siberia 2, would open a major new energy corridor. The roughly 2,600-kilometer pipeline is designed to deliver up to 50 bcm annually from Russia’s Arctic gas fields on the Yamal Peninsula to China via Mongolia, including the Soyuz Vostok transit pipeline.

Unlike Power of Siberia, which draws gas from eastern Siberia, the new route would tap western Siberian reserves that previously supplied Europe, giving Moscow a major new outlet for gas following the collapse of much of its European market. Novak said the project was renamed Power of Baikal to distinguish it from the existing pipeline and reflect its planned route along the southern shore of Lake Baikal. The precise route remains subject to final commercial agreements.

Gazprom and CNPC signed a legally binding memorandum on the project in September 2025, envisaging deliveries of 50 bcm annually over 30 years. A final supply contract, however, was not signed. Pricing is a key sticking point, with media reports suggesting Beijing is seeking rates close to Russia’s domestic prices, while Moscow has pushed for more commercially favorable terms. President Vladimir Putin said last year that pricing would follow a market-based formula similar to that used for European supplies, stressing that there would be “no charity” on either side.

The expansion comes as Russia accelerates its energy pivot toward Asia in light of Western sanctions and EU efforts to phase out Russian supplies. Before the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, Europe was Russia’s largest pipeline gas market, with Gazprom providing around 40-45% of the bloc’s total gas imports. Deliveries subsequently plunged as Brussels pursued alternative suppliers and imposed successive sanctions on Russia.

Unlike oil, which can be redirected by tanker, pipeline gas requires extensive infrastructure, making Power of Baikal a key project in Moscow’s efforts to replace lost European demand. Moscow has repeatedly accused Western governments of undermining European energy security through their sanctions policies.

The shift also follows the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines that previously brought Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea. Novak said on Wednesday that Moscow remains ready to resume deliveries through the one Nord Stream pipeline string out of the four that remained undamaged.

Russia has repeatedly offered to resume energy supplies to Europe, particularly in light of the disruptions to global markets caused by the Middle East crisis, but says its proposals have received no response from European governments.

Russia’s Ural Airlines will start direct flights to Delhi next week, as it seeks to benefit from a spurt in business travel and tourism between the two countries.

The flights will operate from Ural Airlines’ base, Koltsovo Airport in Ekaterinburg, to New Delhi three days a week, on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, the airline told RT India.

The service will start on October 25.

“The decision to launch regular flights was driven by both commercial and strategic reasons,” the airline said, citing strong demand and the availability of a suitable fleet of Airbus aircraft.

Ekaterinburg is the largest transport and industrial hub in the Urals. Direct flights from the city will significantly slash travel time from the Urals and Siberia.

Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov recently said the number of airline services to India a week could soon jump nearly fivefold to 71 from the current 15.

“Siberian Airlines (S7) and Ural Airlines are actively working on the possibility of launching regular flights to Delhi from Novosibirsk and Ekaterinburg,” Alipov told RT.

“We are awaiting a response from our Indian partners,” the ambassador said.

Officials in Tatarstan also previously indicated they are in talks with the East-West Group and Russian authorities about launching direct flights to India, including to its financial hub, Mumbai.

India and Russia are similarly boosting ties in the civil aviation sector. Two Indian domestic airlines have signed agreements on buying 85 Russian passenger aircraft, as Moscow and New Delhi move to expand cooperation in civil aviation and manufacturing.

The new services come amid an expected surge in activity in various sectors including tourism, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food processing, information technology, engineering, and transport and logistics. India and Russia expect bilateral trade to hit $100 billion by 2030.

A Russian Navy training ship has arrived in Namibia as part of a voyage around Eurasia and Africa, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. The Baltic Fleet vessel ‘Perekop’ docked at the port of Walvis Bay after crossing the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

According to the ministry, the ship covered more than 1,800 nautical miles in seven days. During the journey, cadets from the Baltic Naval Institute continued their practical training, taking part in navigation watches, plotting courses using onboard instruments, and practicing maneuvers through narrow waterways. They also received instruction in ship operations and damage control.

The vessel was welcomed in Walvis Bay by representatives of the Russian Embassy and the Namibian navу. The visitors who toured the ship were briefed on its operations and the training program for future naval officers. The crew and cadets are also to visit local attractions during their stay.

According to Sputnik, the voyage is scheduled to conclude on December 9, 2026, after taking the vessel through four oceans, 14 seas, 23 straits, nine bays, and two rivers, with calls at 20 ports, including 12 overseas.

The ‘Perekop’ is not the first Russian naval ship to visit Africa. In July 2025, another Baltic Fleet vessel, the ‘Smolny’, visited the Republic of the Congo as part of a regional tour that also included Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe. The ship had previously called at several African ports in 2024, including in Namibia, Angola, and South Africa.

The Wall Street Journal has challenged Elon Musk’s denials over alleged restrictions on satellite services used for Ukrainian drone strikes deep inside Russia. The outlet has cited anonymous White House sources who have claimed that the SpaceX founder and Starlink owner had personally ordered restricting the service.

Ukrainian officials last week claimed that SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications service and its military-grade version, Starshield, which Kiev uses for frontline drone operations, stopped working on drones traveling faster than 160 kph (100 mph). Neither Starlink nor SpaceX has publicly acknowledged a technical “signal or service failure,” leaving the questions of whether an actual service restriction took place, and if so what could have caused it, unconfirmed.

What has Ukraine claimed about Starshield?

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky initially claimed, without evidence, that Kiev had been told “technical malfunctions” had caused a service slowdown. He later shifted the blame to Washington. On NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday Zelensky claimed, again without citing evidence nor being asked to provide it, that an order had come from the US government. According to Zelensky, Kiev had even secretly despatched cars to the EU, where they could drive "legally" at 180kph (110mph) where tests allegedly surfaced discrepancies in Starlink performance between the EU and Ukraine.

Musk has categorically denied that he instructed SpaceX to restrict either service, nor has he confirmed that any restriction or slowdown took place.

The WSJ cited anonymous sources who contradicted him, alleging on Tuesday that he personally ordered speed limits on Ukrainian hardware connected to the satellite network.

Even the WSJ's sources accounts differed. Some claimed that Musk acted unilaterally; others said he consulted senior administration officials, including President Donald Trump, before making the decision. The outlet also claimed that SpaceX representatives contacted the White House to coordinate their accounts of whether the restrictions had been agreed on with the administration. 

What has the US government said about Starshield?

Musk earlier insisted that Starshield is owned and controlled by the US government, meaning any speed or usage restrictions are determined by the US military and ultimately Trump – who denied that he ordered the restrictions, though he said on Monday he “would like to find out” who did. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both said the administration was not behind the restrictions, with Bessent rebuking Zelensky for making “reckless” allegations.

Relations between Zelensky and Washington have effectively collapsed in recent weeks over sanctions on Russia and Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. Both Musk and Trump have sharply criticized Ukraine’s attacks on Russian diesel refineries, blaming them for global fuel shortages and soaring prices at the pump.

Speaking at the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump warned Zelensky that he is “going to have to want to make a deal.” He also criticized the cost of supporting Kiev, saying the US has received “absolutely nothing back” except “grief, death and tremendous monetary loss.”

What did Kiev say about Starshield?

Despite Zelensky’s evidence-free assertions and there being no record in the public sphere to support it, the Western press and Ukrainian diplomats are echoing the claims regardless. Ukraine’s ambassador in Washington, Denis Senik, said on Tuesday that Kiev is still “waiting for the official response from contacts with the Pentagon and SpaceX” to understand what happened. 

What did the Kremlin say about Starshield?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that Moscow is unaware of the reported Starlink restrictions, but stressed that “overall, of course, it would be better if such amazing technology… was not used for military purposes at all.” Moscow has condemned Western military assistance for Kiev, arguing that it only prolongs the conflict and obstructs peace efforts.

Is there any proof Starshield was slowed down?

There is no proof on the public record or in the public domain that the Starshield was affected. The only suggestions supporting the idea such an incident took place are Vladimir Zelensky's uncontested claim that Ukrainians sent cars to the EU with Starlink terminals to compare data and the claims of an anonymous Ukrainian officer who told German media giant Axel Springer's Global Reporter's Network, seemingly during the alleged service restriction, that all operations were on hold. 

Russia is ready to resume three-way negotiations with the US and Ukraine to discuss security arrangements for when the conflict has ended, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.

The announcement followed nearly three hours of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff at Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Jared Kushner joined by video link after illness prevented him from traveling.

Ushakov said Putin told Witkoff that Moscow was “in principle, ready to resume” trilateral negotiations in mid-November, with the main topic being a post-conflict security system for Russia and Ukraine. Witkoff indicated that Trump would welcome the proposal, the aide added.

The presidential aide noted that earlier attempts to restart trilateral talks were derailed by Kiev having carried out massive attacks on Moscow and other cities during Russia’s recent parliamentary elections. Polling stations were targeted on the main voting day, with election commission personnel killed.

However, the situation has since been “re-evaluated, taking into account the signals received from the Americans,” Ushakov said, adding that Putin had praised the mediation efforts of Trump, his administration, and special representatives in seeking mutually acceptable solutions.

Beyond Ukraine, the participants discussed the October diesel agreement, under which Washington eased sanctions on Russian fuel exports. Both sides said the deal served their interests and would help stabilize global fuel markets. Other joint economic projects are also approaching implementation, Ushakov added.

Russia, Ukraine and the US last held talks in Geneva in February, following two rounds in Abu Dhabi. Further negotiations, however, were put on hold after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran, disrupting access to the UAE.

Ushakov told Russian media that Abu Dhabi was again being examined as a possible venue for renewed talks, noting that Putin has yet to choose the members of a future Russian delegation.

Asked by reporters whether the Ukraine conflict was approaching its end, Ushakov suggested it is “moving in that direction.”

Washington has been involved in nearly two dozen regime change operations across the Middle East, each ending in disaster, US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack has said.

Barrack criticized American efforts to manipulate the region and impose change through military force during an interview at the Global Security Forum in Qatar on Tuesday. He warned that his remarks would be “real” rather than “diplomatic.”

“If you take the greater Middle East, including the Levant, the Gulf, the Caucases, Central Asia, North Africa, we’ve had 23 regime changes. None of them have worked,” he said, stressing that the US had been involved in all of them in one way or another and bore responsibility for the outcomes.

The diplomat added that “kinetic reactions have never worked” either, referring to US military interventions and their “unintended consequences.” The latest US-Israeli war on Iran, which began in late February, has also plunged the region into chaos.

Barrack acknowledged that fomenting “conflict and controversy” had previously benefited Washington because “the more off base the region was, the more [Washington] could manipulate fossil fuels for its own benefit.” That is no longer the case, he said.

The envoy contrasted the proposed approach with the arrangement Washington reached with Saudi Arabia in 1974 following the oil shock triggered by the Yom Kippur War between Israel and several Arab nations.

Under the old arrangement, Saudi Arabia continued pricing its oil exclusively in US dollars and invested much of its revenues in American assets, while also purchasing US weapons and expecting American troops stationed in the region to rescue it in case of a major conflict.

The US confrontation with Iran, culminating in two open wars since 2025, has crumbled the foundations of that relationship.

Barrack urged friendly Middle Eastern nations to temper their expectations of American assistance, saying the US is not offering “a commitment to open seas and open trade at any cost.” Washington should “do a better job of defining: here’s what we’re willing to do, here’s what we’re not willing to do,” he added.

“We leave Israel out of this because it’s so delicate to talk about,” Barrack said.

He also acknowledged that the Israeli government was reluctant to make any concessions on national security and described a “failure” of the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization agreements Israel signed with several Arab nations in 2020.

Libya’s eastern-based parliament has approved a disputed maritime agreement with Türkiye, drawing condemnation from Greece and Cyprus over competing boundaries and energy rights in the Mediterranean.

The House of Representatives voted unanimously on Tuesday to endorse the agreement, which was first signed in November 2019 between Ankara and Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli. Lawmakers also overturned a 2020 decision to sever political ties with Türkiye.

The agreement demarcates maritime jurisdiction between the two countries in an area contested by Greece, Egypt, and Cyprus.

The Greek Foreign Ministry called the parliamentary decision “unilateral [and] legally unfounded,” saying the deal disregards Greek islands’ rights to maritime zones between the Turkish and Libyan coasts.

“The memorandum remains illegal, null and void, contravenes international law of the sea, and infringes upon the sovereign rights of states in the region,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ankara welcomed the vote, saying the agreement safeguards “the mutual rights and interests” of both countries under international law and the principle of equity, while deepening cooperation between Türkiye and Libya. “Türkiye will continue to work with all partners to foster trust, stability and peace in the Mediterranean basin, in line with its commitment to international law,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

Greece and Egypt signed an overlapping maritime agreement in 2020, which Türkiye rejects. Athens also approved offshore exploration south of Crete by a consortium led by Chevron last year, prompting Turkish objections.

The move on Tuesday comes amid improving ties between Türkiye and Libya’s eastern authorities, who are aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar. Ankara helped Tripoli repel his forces’ 2019-2020 campaign to capture the capital, but has since expanded diplomatic contacts and investment in the east. The country remains divided between Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s government in the capital, Tripoli, in western Libya, and an eastern administration led by Osama Hammad and backed by Haftar.

Poland does not have enough Patriot air defense missiles to hand over to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said, urging other NATO members to supply Kiev with the scarce interceptors.

In an interview with the Polish Press Agency published on Monday, Sikorski warned of growing pressure on Western air defenses, citing the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran.  

“Following the attacks on Iran, the shortage of interceptor missiles has indeed increased, and Russia is producing more missiles than we have interceptors to neutralize them. This is a real problem,” he said.  

“There are NATO countries that still have such resources to contribute, but Poland is not one of them,” Sikorski said, adding that Warsaw “can only join the calls for countries possessing Patriot missiles to share them with Ukraine.”  

Poland has emerged as one of the EU’s most rapidly militarizing nations, with defense spending reaching 4.7% of GDP. Warsaw has also been one of Kiev’s staunchest backers, pouring billions into military and other aid while serving as a crucial hub for Western arms shipments.  

Yet Poland now faces delays in replenishing its own arsenal, with deliveries of US-made PAC-3 MSE Patriot interceptors pushed back as the war with Iran drains American weapons stocks, Polish General Ireneusz Nowak warned earlier this month.  

Tensions flared again this year after Zelensky awarded a Ukrainian military unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.” Polish President Karol Nawrocki subsequently stripped him of the country’s highest honor, politicians on both sides renounced state decorations, and Warsaw threatened to obstruct Ukraine’s EU accession.  

The ammunition crunch is spreading across NATO. In July, the Netherlands said it had exhausted its capacity to supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles from its own stocks, having already provided interceptors and helped assemble a complete Patriot system for Kiev.  

Vladimir Zelensky has requested 300 Patriot interceptors from European backers and complained that Washington has approved only some of the missiles purchased through a NATO-backed initiative. The White House has also delayed approving additional transfers as US President Donald Trump presses Ukraine to reach a negotiated settlement with Russia.  

Moscow has repeatedly maintained that Western weapons deliveries prolong the conflict, obstruct peace efforts, and risk drawing NATO countries into a direct confrontation with Russia.

The long-awaited agreement between Libya’s rival factions was finally signed on August 30 under the auspices of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). On that day, the mission gathered the two negotiating delegations at its Tripoli headquarters to formalize the text ironed out during earlier rounds of talks in Rome and Tunis. UNSMIL invited foreign diplomats, media representatives, and Libyan delegations to the event, where UN Special Representative Hanna Tetteh hailed the accord in her opening remarks as “another important milestone in Libya’s journey toward stability and national unity.”

This, however, bore a resemblance to previous diplomatic milestones – most notably the 2015 Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) signed in Skhirat, Morocco. The LPA established the rules of the political game in the fractured country; rules to which none of the domestic political actors seem fully committed, yet from which none completely depart. In a sense, Skhirat remains the ultimate reference point for every subsequent UN roadmap in Libya.

The August 30 agreement has two main parts. The first is restructuring the High National Elections Commission (HNEC), the agency in charge of organizing elections. In practice, this means replacing its leadership to settle disputes over appointments and regional representation. Although these changes were long delayed by regional quotas and political patronage stemming from the 2015 Skhirat agreement, rivals can still negotiate them with relative ease.

The 24-month timeline to hold elections was also established. However, the countdown is designed to govern the transition only once a single, unified executive authority and unified national institutions are established to oversee the voting process.

The second component concerns the central objective of UNSMIL’s latest roadmap: agreeing on viable election laws, an issue on which the UN has failed to make meaningful progress since the collapse of the planned 2021 elections.

Libya remains divided between rival power centers: the Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli, the western part of the country, and the Libyan National Army (LNA) command in the east led by General Khalifa Haftar. These exist alongside two political institutions: the Tripoli-based High Council of state (HCS) and the eastern-based House of Representatives (HoR). To break the deadlock, UNSMIL established a smaller negotiating group known as the ‘Smaller Convening’, or the ‘4+4’. It brings together eight representatives from the GNU, Haftar’s military command, the HCS, and the HoR.

The ‘4+4’ format developed alongside (and ultimately eclipsed) UNSMIL’s broader Structured Dialogue. Even before those conclusions were finalized, UNSMIL was already facilitating a parallel ‘Smaller Convening’ behind closed doors – the 4+4 was born. As Hanna Tetteh told the Security Council on June 18, the explicit goal of this smaller format was to bypass the paralysis between the legislative bodies and force an accord on the roadmap’s first two steps: reconstituting the elections commission’s board and resolving the contested electoral framework. Thus, the ‘4+4’ was a deliberate strategy to concentrate decision-making among the political and military figures deemed capable of enforcing an outcome.

After the HoR approved the agreement on September 14, the HCS formally rejected it on October 5, along with the related laws and decisions issued by the House, arguing that they bypassed the constitutional, legal and consensual frameworks governing the political process. In her October 14 briefing to the UN Security Council, Tetteh acknowledged this rejection but maintained that the agreement offers an actionable path to presidential and legislative elections under a single, unified executive authority within 24 months.

She also announced that UNSMIL would meet members of the 4+4 committee later this month to examine the possibility of establishing a broadly representative national mechanism under Article 5 of the agreement in consultation with the Security Council. This proposal implicitly acknowledges that the 4+4 mini-dialogue alone may not be sufficient to advance the roadmap.

Ultimately, the structural core of the August 30 agreement rests on a fundamental contradiction: 4+4 does not equal 1. Combining four delegates from Tripoli’s political-institutional structures, including representatives of the HCS, with four delegates representing the eastern power structure in Benghazi does not produce a unified state. Instead, it seems to function as a shared enterprise in which rival political elites, rather than competing to build a single nation, recognize that their mutual survival depends on dividing power and maintaining exclusive control over the state apparatus.

Setting a 24-month timetable neither offers a guarantee that elections will actually occur; instead, it grants entrenched factions another two years of status quo protection without imposing any penalty for non-compliance.

Still, the UN Security Council appeared to endorse the latest UNSMIL plan. Following Tetteh’s briefing on October 14, the Council reaffirmed its support for the agreement, despite concerns over its implementation and the High Council of State’s rejection.

Last week, the UNSC did not vote to extend UNSMIL’s mandate, which expires on October 31. However, this is largely a technicality, since the Council has already approved UNSMIL’s roadmap.

A German sniper who deserted the Ukrainian military after failing to receive a promised payment has been detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the agency announced on Wednesday.

In footage released by the agency, the man said he had served with German forces in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2010, took part in fighting in Somalia from 2006 to 2008, and later fought as a mercenary in Syria between 2008 and 2010.

The former Bundeswehr soldier said he then served as a sniper with Ukraine’s 25th Territorial Defense Battalion near Donetsk between 2016 and 2018, alongside fighters mainly from Britain and Georgia.

He later moved to Switzerland before returning to Ukraine in November 2025 to sign another three-year military contract the following month. The man said he held the rank of corporal and served as a sniper.

“After signing the contract, I was promised a payment of 100,000 hryvnias ($2,200). However, I did not receive this money and was forced to flee the Ukrainian armed forces,” he said in the testimony.

The detention comes a week after the FSB apprehended Swedish national Freddy Mikael Stalkrantz Lindholm in Russia’s Pskov Region. According to the agency, he crossed the border illegally to carry out sabotage and terrorist attacks on Russian military facilities, posing as a prospective recruit for the Russian Army.

Lindholm previously commanded a drone unit in Ukraine’s Aidar battalion, which Russia has designated a terrorist organization. He faces charges of illegally crossing the border, while investigators are considering additional charges related to terrorism and mercenary activity.

US investigators have also reportedly uncovered a scheme in which Mexican drug cartels sent their members to Ukraine to gain battlefield experience and paid officials close to Vladimir Zelensky for their “training,” Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said on Tuesday.

At least 20,000 foreign mercenaries have fought for Kiev since 2022, Russian diplomat Yulia Zhdanova told the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation earlier this month, saying most came from the US, UK, Canada, and Georgia.

Moscow has repeatedly pursued criminal cases against foreign fighters fighting for Kiev, including prosecutions in absentia, and has warned that mercenaries are not entitled to prisoner-of-war protections under the Geneva Conventions.

The ideological parent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has slammed talk of regime change in the country in the wake of protests in Europe as a deliberate ploy by Western forces.

Citing recent political upheavals in neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal and the raging protests in France and Albania, the head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat, said on Tuesday that such movements were fueled by forces pursuing vested interests inimical to the interests of the country.

“There are many powers in the world that want India to lose,” he said.

RSS, the world’s largest voluntary and Hindu nationalist organization, has between an estimated 4-6 million members across India.

“A storm has blown in from the West,” Bhagwat added. “India is their main target because India is progressing. Regime change will not happen in India.”

The row ignited when a leader of India’s Aam Aadmi Party, Prashant Bhushan, said at a press conference last week: “We want regime change… what is wrong in this?”

Uddhav Thackeray, a former Modi ally in the western Maharashtra state, also demanded “regime change” on Tuesday.

Their comments followed the massive protests by the opposition parties and the youth-led satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in the Indian capital earlier this month demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over millions of names being cut from the voter rolls following a nationwide revision exercise.

The other opposition parties have not explicitly described the protests as an effort at toppling the Modi government.

“They claim that changing a regime will change the situation, but that has never really happened,” the RSS chief said at a rally. “Problems will remain, and protests are inevitable in a democracy.”

He added that the protests should be aimed at finding solutions.

The CJP’s protests have found resonance across the country, and police action against the protesters has triggered backlash.

The RSS chief slammed the “forces” exploiting social differences by injecting a sense of victimhood among communities. He urged political leaders, protesters, and administrators to refrain from pursuing a divisive agenda.

Ukrainian officials allegedly stole more than $5 million by purchasing over 5,000 drones for the military at inflated prices, according to anti-corruption investigators.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which exposed the alleged scheme last year, announced on Tuesday that they completed their investigation. The Western-backed agencies, which frequently target Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s inner-circle, put the losses at 254 million hryvnia ($5.65 million).

The alleged scheme operated from May to September 2023, after Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) received $667 million to purchase drones for the military. Investigators say a department head at the agency, which oversees cybersecurity and secure government communications, rigged contracts for 5,100 drones, paying up to 90% above market prices.

Ukrainian media previously identified all five suspects. The alleged ringleader is reportedly Vladimir Mokrenko, a former procurement chief at SSSCIP. His suspected civilian accomplice was identified as Lviv-based businessman Yury Volyan, reportedly the brother of a businesswoman who is a close acquaintance of Mokrenko.

The other suspects reportedly include another SSSCIP official and two private-sector representatives accused of participating in rigged tenders.

The drone procurement scheme coincided with the final months in office of then-SSSCIP chief Yury Shchigol and his deputy, Viktor Zhora, who were fired in November 2023 amid a separate corruption scandal uncovered by NABU. The two were implicated in an alleged scheme that operated from 2020 to 2022 and resulted in $1.72 million in overpayments for software and related services.

Zelensky’s government has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals involving people close to him since November 2025, when NABU and SAPO accused businessman Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of the Ukrainian leader, of masterminding a $100 million kickback scheme involving state contracts in the energy sector.

Critics accuse Zelensky of presiding over a sprawling corruption network permeating his government, allegedly helping him maintain power and enriching those involved.

NABU’s latest high-profile investigation targeted an alleged protection racket involving scam call centers and officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office. Although he was not personally named as a suspect, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko left Ukraine before being dismissed by parliament last month, according to Ukrainian media. He has denied wrongdoing.

Anti-corruption investigators are reportedly targeting the head of Ukraine’s central bank, Andrey Pyshny, in a series of searches.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) confirmed on Wednesday that its detectives were searching the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the residence of one of its employees. The agency, seen as a Western-backed beach-head for tackling rampant corruption in Ukraine, neither confirmed nor denied media reports that Pyshny was involved.

Pyshny was identified by several opposition MPs and law enforcement sources cited by Ukrainskaya Pravda and the US-funded Ukrainian branch of RFE/RL. Both outlets have a track record of obtaining insider information from NABU.

The central bank chief was previously mentioned in the Ukrainian press as a possible person of interest in the so-called Forest Gump case, a NABU investigation into the alleged laundering of money intended to cover bail for former Energy Minister German Galushchenko.

Vadim Vesyoly, a former adviser to the bank’s supervisory board, has been described by Ukrainian media as an informal overseer influencing its decisions on behalf of Zelensky’s inner circle. Pyshny has denied allegations that he arranged Vesyoly’s appointment in 2023, shortly after the bank was nationalized. Vesyoly’s formal advisory role ended last year, although some Ukrainian outlets claim he continued to wield influence.

Vesyoly’s name surfaced in surveillance recordings linked to Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of Zelensky. Last November, Mindich was accused of masterminding a $100 million kickback scheme involving the state-owned nuclear power company Energoatom.

After Mindich fled Ukraine, Sense Bank and Vesyoly reportedly began dealing directly with Zelensky’s office, allegedly enabling Mudraya to carry out the money-laundering operation. Galushchenko, the former minister whose bail was allegedly financed with dirty money, is also a suspect in the Mindich case.

MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, one of the lawmakers who first publicized Wednesday’s searches, claimed NABU detectives were pursuing leads concerning Vesyoly’s involvement with Sense Bank and Karpatneftekhim at the central bank.

Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade after a woman who recently traveled through Uganda tested positive for the virus in the capital, Abuja.  

The patient arrived in Nigeria in early October and began showing symptoms on October 7, the country’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The woman sought treatment at a private hospital on October 11 and was diagnosed with the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola on October 20, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The woman remains in isolation and is receiving medical care. Health authorities have identified 44 people who may have been exposed to the infection.  

The patient was initially treated for malaria-like symptoms, but doctors became concerned after her condition failed to improve, Odianosen Ehiakhamen, an official at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), told Arise TV, as reported by Punch. 

“For the 44 contacts, they are majorly healthcare workers and support staff of the hospital, because everything has happened within the hospital,” Ehiakhamen said.  

Nigeria is the fifth country to report the Bundibugyo virus since the current outbreak began in DR Congo in May, following earlier cases in Uganda, France and Kenya, according to the WHO. Kenya has recorded nine infections linked to an imported case, while the outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread. 

The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo has claimed 4,602 lives, with 9,552 confirmed infections recorded since it began in May, according to the country’s Health Ministry. As of October 18, the virus had affected eight provinces, with Ituri accounting for nearly 73% of all cases. 

Nigeria previously contained an Ebola outbreak in 2014. 

Ghana plans to stop exporting unprocessed mineral ores by 2030 to build domestic industries and retain more of its resource wealth, the West African country’s president, John Dramani Mahama, has announced.

Speaking at the Mining in Motion Summit in Accra on Monday, Mahama said restrictions would be introduced in phases, backed by legislation, requirements for individual minerals, and implementation timetables. The plan covers resources including bauxite, manganese, iron, and lithium.

“I have set a clear goal that by 2030, raw mineral ores should no longer leave our shores,” the president said. Ghana has spent generations supplying foreign industries with manganese and bauxite while importing finished products, losing opportunities for skilled jobs and technological development, he added.

Mahama urged African countries to export manufactured goods, including electric vehicle batteries, cables, and aluminum parts, instead of mineral ores.

Since returning to office in January 2025, his government has expanded local gold refining through the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod). Its partnership with the majority privately owned Gold Coast Refinery in Accra began processing one metric ton of gold weekly in February 2026. From September 1, GoldBod also required licensed self-financing aggregators to refine gold purchased under approved offtake arrangements locally before export.

Other projects include Ghana Manganese Company’s planned $450 million refinery in the country’s western region. Mahama said on Monday that Accra is advancing manganese processing alongside aluminum refining and iron and steel production.

Mahama delivered a similar message at the UN General Assembly on September 24, warning that Western demand for minerals needed for the green-energy transition must benefit Africans. He said Africa’s critical mineral extraction must not repeat colonial-era exploitation, calling for local processing to create jobs and retain more value on the continent.

US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for releasing US Air Force veteran Stephen Hubbard, who had been convicted in Russia on charges of fighting for Ukraine.

Witkoff thanked Putin on Wednesday during talks with the Russian leader at Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg. He expressed gratitude on behalf of Trump and the American people for freeing Hubbard, adding that he had met Hubbard’s son, a priest at a Greek Orthodox church, several days earlier and discussed his father’s detention.

Putin responded that Hubbard was already at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, preparing to leave the country. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later noted that the decision to release Hubbard was made on “humanitarian grounds,” adding that Moscow and Washington maintain contacts on prisoner swaps.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump confirmed the release, stressing that the US “was not required to give anything in return,” which he described as “an unprecedented situation for Russia.”

Hubbard, 74, is a retired Michigan schoolteacher and US Air Force veteran. He was detained by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Izyum in April 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its military operation. Hubbard had been living in Ukraine with his Ukrainian partner since 2014, the year hostilities in Donbass erupted following a Western-backed coup in Kiev.

In 2024, a Russian court sentenced him to six years and ten months in prison on mercenary charges over joining a Ukrainian territorial defense unit and fighting for Kiev in exchange for $1,000 a month.

Hubbard’s sister claimed that he held pro-Russian views, was a non-military pacifist, and was highly unlikely to take up arms.

On Tuesday, Trump said he had personally asked Putin to release Hubbard. “I don’t ⁠want to talk about it, but everybody has been after Hubbard for a long time, long before I got here… Watch what happens. We have been focused ⁠on Hubbard,” he told reporters at the time.

Hubbard’s release follows the unilateral decision by Moscow in August to free former US Marine Robert Gilman, who was detained in early 2022 after drunkenly assaulting a police officer while traveling through Russia by train. At the time, Trump said Putin pardoned Gilman on humanitarian grounds, adding that no prisoner exchange was involved.

In April 2025, Moscow and Washington carried out a prisoner swap, with Russia releasing Ksenia Karelina, a US-Russian dual national jailed over donations to a charity that supports the Ukrainian military, while Washington freed Arthur Petrov, a German-Russian citizen arrested for allegedly exporting sensitive microelectronics.

Ukrainian forces have effectively laid siege to the frontline town of Alyoshki in Russia’s Kherson Region, leaving civilians facing acute shortages of food, water, and medicine, residents who managed to escape have told RT.

Located on the left bank of the Dnieper River opposite the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson, the town has been largely cut off from essential supplies and basic services for months. Russian authorities estimate that between 1,500 and 2,000 civilians remain trapped there, including elderly residents and around 15 children.

Kherson Governor Vladimir Saldo has accused Kiev’s forces of deliberately choking off humanitarian deliveries to Alyoshki by remotely mining access roads and targeting vehicles carrying food, fuel, and medicine. Strikes have also damaged the town’s energy and communications infrastructure, deepening the humanitarian crisis.

Russian forces have partially broken through the blockade by clearing some roads, but continued shelling and drone attacks hamper regular aid deliveries. Regional children’s rights commissioner Irina Kravchenko said on Tuesday that aid is reaching the town, but remains woefully insufficient.

The crisis has also reached the highest diplomatic levels. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, discussed the situation during a phone call earlier this month. Russia’s human rights commissioner, Yana Lantratova, has said she is in contact with US First Lady Melania Trump’s team, which has expressed willingness to help civilians.

Moscow has accused Kiev of deliberately creating the humanitarian emergency while attempting to shift the blame onto Russia. Saldo has invited international organizations to visit Alyoshki and witness the conditions firsthand.

“The town is burning. There’s nothing left intact,” one evacuee said, describing a destroyed water pump and food prices soaring beyond residents’ reach. She claimed no food supplies have entered the town since May, leaving people “starving.” RT spoke exclusively to Alyoshki evacuees about their struggle to survive and the desperate plight of those left behind.

A drone threat has been announced south of St. Petersburg shortly after US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived in the city for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine conflict. The warning comes just days after a massive Ukrainian drone barrage on the city and outskirts killed one person and injured 15 others.

Witkoff arrived at Pulkovo Airport on Wednesday morning. His motorcade headed for Constantine Palace, around 20 km southeast of St. Petersburg.

Shortly after arriving, Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko announced a UAV threat in the airspace over Luga District, around 125 km south of the venue for the talks. The governor warned that mobile internet speeds could be reduced but did not specify the number, exact location, and direction of the drones, and did not report any interceptions.

The alert follows Sunday’s unprecedented Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region. According to the Russian authorities, the strikes killed one person and injured 15, damaged residential buildings, and sparked fires at an oil terminal, oil depot, and industrial facilities.

Commenting on the raid at the time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described it as “final manifestations of agony” of Ukraine. “The Kiev regime is fighting back [but] it cannot alter the course of history.”

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the Putin-Witkoff talks will center on the Ukraine conflict. This comes after the Oslo talks where the US, Ukraine, and Kiev’s Western backers discussed security guarantees, a postwar economic plan, and a broader European security architecture, according to Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has held three-hour talks with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg to discuss ending the Ukraine conflict and restoring US-Russia relations. Witkoff’s trip comes after Moscow and Washington reached a diesel deal and amid an escalating feud between Trump and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

The talks began at Constantine Palace – around 20 km southwest of St. Petersburg – on Wednesday morning, with Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov and Russian investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev also attending.

Witkoff had traveled to St. Petersburg from Oslo, where on Tuesday he met Zelensky and the leaders of Norway and Finland, alongside European and NATO officials. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had joined the Oslo talks remotely, also participated in the St. Petersburg discussions via video link.

Opening the meeting, Putin thanked Trump for his efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict and asked Witkoff to brief him on the outcome of the Oslo negotiations. According to an unnamed US official cited by Reuters, the Oslo discussions covered security guarantees for Ukraine, a postwar economic plan, and a broader European security architecture.

Witkoff said he wanted to present documents outlining new peace proposals and asked Putin to consider resuming trilateral negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine, and the US, potentially with technical teams working through unresolved issues.

The envoy also thanked Putin for the release of US Air Force veteran Stephen Hubbard, who had been convicted in Russia on charges of fighting for Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the move was made on “humanitarian grounds.”

Following the talks, Peskov called the meeting “productive,” but added that there have been no agreements on a further round of negotiations in the near future.

Speaking to reporters, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Witkoff had briefed Putin on “new elements” in proposals put forward by Kiev and its European backers, but noted that Moscow saw little in them that could help resolve the conflict. Putin, meanwhile, outlined the battlefield situation, asserting that Russian forces hold the strategic initiative and are advancing along the front, he added.

The talks also covered the US-Iran conflict, with Putin offering Russian mediation. Ushakov added that the Russian leader had outlined practical ideas for a possible trilateral meeting with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, although no agreement on holding such a summit was announced.

Witkoff’s visit was marred by a drone alert south of St. Petersburg as the talks were about to start. Leningrad Region Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said the warning was issued in Luga District, around 125 km south of the Constantine Palace.

The alert followed Sunday’s unprecedented Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region. According to the Russian authorities, the strikes killed one person and injured 15, damaged residential buildings, and sparked fires at an oil terminal, oil depot, and industrial facilities.

Trump has also repeatedly demanded that Zelensky halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, something he has categorically refused to do. As tensions escalated, Trump suggested that Zelensky – whose presidential term expired more than two years ago – should be replaced, while multiple outlets reported that Ukrainian troops were not receiving advance warnings on Russian ballistic missile strikes and were encountering issues with Starlink communications, which are crucial for drone control. The US denied it had suspended intelligence-sharing.

France will deploy military personnel from its counterterrorism force to support police during a new wave of nationwide protests, as the government prepares a “massive” security operation following some of the worst riots in years.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced the move on Tuesday, confirming that soldiers from Operation Sentinelle, established to protect France against terrorist attacks, would be mobilized ahead of demonstrations scheduled for Saturday.

The troops will primarily take over guarding sensitive locations, freeing police and gendarmes to confront rioters and prevent a repeat of last weekend’s widespread violence and looting. According to French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, 1,000 military personnel will be available in Paris on October 24, including 500 on patrol, compared with the usual 300.

“The deployment for next Saturday will be massive,” Lecornu told lawmakers, accusing radical left-wing groups of orchestrating an “insurrectionary plan” during demonstrations against soaring living costs.

Nunez also announced plans to mobilize elite police units, including RAID, GIGN, and BRI, along with helicopters, armored Centaure vehicles, and water cannons. The authorities are considering banning demonstrations deemed likely to threaten public order.

According to Le Monde, 997 police officers and gendarmes were injured, including seven seriously, as overwhelmed security forces struggled to contain the violence.

More than 2,400 people have been arrested, while over 800 have been brought before the courts. The authorities have also imposed localized curfews in Paris and several other cities.

Germany’s most popular party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has suffered a massive cyberattack, with unknown hackers reportedly stealing and publishing hundreds of thousands of internal emails, while the country’s political establishment seeks grounds to outlaw the opposition party.

The breach, which was first reported by Bild on Tuesday, reportedly exposed 421,179 emails totaling 281 gigabytes, including correspondence involving AfD co-chair Alice Weidel, honorary chairman Alexander Gauland, and other senior party figures.

The leaked material reportedly includes photographs of identity documents, bank statements, invoices, membership applications, and internal party lists. Bild said it examined a small sample of the files, including an identity card belonging to Markus Frohnmaier, the deputy leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

The identities and motives of the hackers are unknown, and the authenticity of the published material has not been independently established.

“Only a few email inboxes were unlawfully copied, most of which had not been used for years,” a party spokesman told Bild, adding that current federal party email accounts were unaffected.

The AfD condemned the breach as an “attack on the German party system and therefore on democracy” and said it reported the cyberattack to the security authorities.

No statement from investigators or condemnation of the breach by senior government officials has emerged as of early Wednesday.

The attack comes amid an escalating campaign by Germany’s established political parties to isolate and potentially ban the AfD. The Euroskeptic party, which advocates stricter immigration controls and opposes Berlin’s military support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, has surged to 30% support in the latest INSA poll for Bild, opening a 12-point lead over Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc, which has slumped to 18%.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has also sought to classify the party as a confirmed right-wing extremist organization, but a Cologne court blocked the designation in February pending further legal proceedings.

The AfD has rejected the accusations, portraying the proposed ban as an attempt to overturn the will of millions of voters and eliminate political competition.

Moscow expects US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. US mediators held talks with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in the Norwegian capital, Oslo on Tuesday.

Russia highly appreciates US mediation efforts, Peskov said at a news briefing on Tuesday, adding that Moscow sees every meeting between Putin and Trump’s envoys as “very important and well-timed.” He did not provide any details about the date or place of a potential meeting, but said the Kremlin expects Witkoff to inform Moscow about the results of Tuesday’s talks with Zelensky and his European backers.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia is willing to discuss any economic and financial initiatives Washington puts forward, provided they are “advantageous to us.”

He stressed that Russia will not make one-sided political concessions, warning that any deals with the US might not last beyond Trump’s term in office.

Russia should not expect “some political favor to carry us through all global affairs,” Lavrov said. “We must rely solely on ourselves.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who hosted the meeting between Zelensky and the US negotiators, said Witkoff will travel to St. Petersburg on Wednesday for a meeting with the Russian leadership.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that Washington proposed unfreezing billions of euros in Russian assets held in the EU to give impetus to Ukraine peace talks during negotiations in Miami with officials from Ukraine, France, Germany, Britain, the EU, and NATO. The idea was vehemently opposed by Kiev’s European backers, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Russia has said the stance of Kiev’s European backers is one of the main obstacles to settling the conflict. The EU is still clinging to the idea of “strategically defeating Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated last month.

The renewed diplomatic push follows a spat between Trump and Zelensky over Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil facilities. The US president has demanded that Kiev stop the attacks, blaming them for surging fuel prices globally and in the US. The dispute has since widened, with Zelensky accusing Washington of withholding intelligence on Russian missile attacks and restricting Ukraine’s access to the Starlink satellite network.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has accused Washington of trying to force Ukraine to surrender to Russia, attacking President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Kallas credited Europe’s military and financial backing of Kiev with prolonging the conflict and preventing Ukraine from accepting Moscow’s terms.

“American negotiators have been trying to push Ukraine into surrender for already almost two years, one and a half years now,” she said, as quoted by Euronews.

Kallas’ remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump said negotiations were making “great progress,” defending his decision to ease economic pressure on Russia to keep diplomacy moving.

Trump has stepped up his criticism of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, describing him as “more difficult to deal with” than Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has accused Zelensky of prolonging the conflict and taking Washington’s extensive support for granted, and has criticized Kiev’s continued attacks on Russian refineries for disrupting global diesel markets. Zelensky has said he feels betrayed by Trump.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Oslo on Tuesday with Zelensky, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joining remotely. Witkoff is expected to travel to St. Petersburg on Wednesday for another round of discussions with Russian officials, according to Store.

Russia has insisted on a long-term peace deal that addresses the root causes of the conflict, rejecting the idea of a temporary truce. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Zelensky of repeatedly undermining negotiations, suggesting that any agreement acceptable to Moscow and Washington would threaten the Ukrainian leader’s hold on power.

Further financial support for Kiev has also become a source of disagreement within the EU. At Friday’s EU summit in Brussels, Zelensky demanded another €70 billion ($78.5 billion) for next year, in addition to €90 billion already pledged by the bloc to bankroll Kiev’s war effort.

The images of French and Italian cities gripped by unrest are shocking, while Albania is in turmoil, police are dispersing demonstrators in Argentina, and India’s protests show no sign of abating. Add the upheavals across the Global South, and the parallels with 1968 become difficult to ignore.

That year, political and social unrest swept across much of the world almost simultaneously. It was a less interconnected age, divided by the Cold War, yet similar movements erupted in countries with vastly different political systems as a remarkable synchronization of discontent took place. 

Direct comparisons are inevitably imperfect, but many of the underlying grievances are familiar, such as inequality, problems in education, wars without clear objectives, and growing frustration with political elites unwilling or unable to adapt.

In 1968, the rebellion was largely directed against the conservative establishment, but while the protesters didn’t achieve everything immediately, their ideas ultimately prevailed and in both the West and the socialist bloc, the upheavals helped transform political and social life over subsequent decades.

Today, however, we may be witnessing the opposite process in the end of the political era that 1968 helped create.

Governments are devoting themselves to preserving the existing order, employing everything from political manipulation to outright repression. As in 1968, many protesters have lost faith in democratic institutions, yet there’s little evidence of a coherent revolutionary alternative, and what we see instead is an explosion of destructive energy.

The events of 1968 tested the resilience and adaptability of political systems, with very different results.

In Western Europe, governments initially suppressed the unrest but subsequently absorbed much of the protest movement into mainstream politics and, in doing so, they renewed their own legitimacy and broadened their social base.

The socialist system took a different path. Unable to accommodate dissent, it relied on repression, so the tensions accumulated until, eventually, the system broke.

Today’s political challenge is similar, although the ideological balance has reversed.

Western Europe’s establishment has adopted a peculiar strategy, where  rather than accommodating these movements, it increasingly tolerates destructive forces on the opposite side of the political spectrum, apparently regarding them as less threatening than its conservative challengers.

Behind the growing instability lies a fundamental disconnect between governing elites and the societies they claim to represent, given those in power are increasingly preoccupied with questions that ordinary citizens don’t regard as priorities. Nowhere is this contradiction more evident than in Europe, where the political establishment’s fixation on confrontation with Russia clashes with public concerns about prosperity and living standards and the gap between these competing priorities continues to widen.

The upheavals of 1968 eventually reshaped the political order and  today’s unrest may prove equally consequential, but in precisely the opposite direction, and the longer Western Europe’s leaders refuse to recognize the change, the greater the danger that the political system they’re determined to preserve will become its next casualty.

This article was first published by Kommersant, and was translated and edited by the RT team

Russia and the US urgently need to resume dialogue on strategic stability and arms control, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. The absence of a treaty-based framework in this areas is creating a very dangerous situation, he added.

The New START treaty, the last remaining bilateral agreement limiting US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals, expired in February without an extension or replacement.

Signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, the treaty capped each side at 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed delivery systems, while providing for transparency and on-site verification measures.

Following the treaty’s expiration, Russia suggested maintaining caps on warheads for another year if Washington reciprocated, but the initiative went unanswered, according to Moscow.

Russia is convinced that talks must resume soon, Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. “This is an extremely important issue,” he said. “For the first time in a long while, the world has been left without this treaty-based legal framework.” He described the situation as “extremely dangerous.”

The Trump administration has long insisted that any future nuclear arms control agreement should include China as well. In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington will press for trilateral talks with Beijing and Moscow.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump said he is open to discussing nuclear disarmament at a potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China.

“We would have it to talk about nuclear weapons and denuclearization,” he told reporters. “If President Xi wants to have it, I’d have it. I’m sure we’d talk about other things like trade too.”

Peskov said Russia cannot disregard the nuclear arsenals of European NATO members, particularly Britain and France, in future strategic stability talks with the US.

Moscow has warned that the strategy could backfire, saying it cannot “ignore an obvious buildup of the nuclear component of NATO’s joint potential.”

In August, NBC reported that the Pentagon was also working on a nuclear strategy that would give the US president a wider range of nuclear options in a potential conflict with Russia or China. The approach would reportedly pivot towards shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons instead of relying primarily on long-range strategic nuclear weapons.

Russia updated its nuclear doctrine in 2024, stating that aggression by a non-nuclear state backed by a nuclear power would be treated as a joint attack and that nuclear weapons could be used if conventional aggression posed a critical threat to the sovereignty or territorial integrity of Russia or its ally Belarus. Moscow also criticized the US nuclear weapons deployment to Europe as part of NATO’s nuclear-sharing arrangements.

Saudi Arabia has postponed its flagship investment forum until next year, organizers have announced, as Houthi strikes have continued to hit the kingdom.

Launched in 2017, the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, often dubbed ‘Davos in the Desert’, brings together world leaders, top executives and global investors.

“This decision comes from a deep commitment to our partners, members, speakers, and delegates,” FII Institute CEO Dr. Maha Bint Mishari Al Saud said in a press release on Monday, adding that the new 2027 dates would be announced soon.

The event was set to mark the conference’s tenth anniversary, with financial and tech heavyweights including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Alphabet President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat, and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon expected to attend.

The conflict with the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, has caused broader disruptions in Saudi Arabia. Government agencies and businesses in Riyadh, including those at the Kingdom Center and King Abdullah Financial District, have instructed some employees to work remotely, according to Al Jazeera.

The Houthis retaliated with missile strikes and declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia. The move came in response to restrictions imposed by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemen’s Houthi-controlled ports and airports since March 2015, when Riyadh intervened in the country’s civil war.

The escalating conflict has caused civilian casualties in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Multiple Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport earlier this month killed at least 14 people and injured more than 300, according to the Saudi authorities. Saudi strikes have killed 141 people and wounded 395 since September 3, most of them women and children, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said on Monday.

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian farmers, European diplomats and an American journalist during the annual olive harvest in the occupied West Bank, as violence against local communities intensifies, RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij has reported.

The annual olive harvest is a vital source of food and income for Palestinian families, providing both oil for household use and surplus crops to sell.

In Taybeh, a predominantly Christian Palestinian town, European diplomats who had arrived to help local farmers were reportedly attacked by masked Israeli settlers armed with clubs. A 78-year-old French mayor was reportedly kicked and beaten, while stones were hurled at diplomatic vehicles, smashing their windows.

Calls for help were made to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but troops took hours to respond, despite having a military outpost less than two kilometers from the scene, according to Dubenskij. The area had been designated a closed military zone, and the diplomats reportedly visited without coordinating with the IDF.

“If Palestinians had been the ones throwing those stones, the IDF would have been greenlit to shoot them,” Dubenskij said.

In a separate incident in Abu Fallah, near Ramallah, American photojournalist Heidi Levine was seriously injured while documenting Palestinian villagers gathering olives. Footage shows the veteran journalist, who was clearly identifiable as a member of the press, being kicked while lying on the ground.

“A group of about 15 or so of these terrorists grabbed my mother and began hitting her,” Miller said.

The National Press Club demanded an investigation into the assault, saying: “A brazen attack like this cannot go unanswered.” 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, rejected allegations of settler violence, describing them as a “blood libel” against Jewish communities in the West Bank, which he characterized as law-abiding and courageous.

Following pressure from Washington, Israeli police have arrested at least ten suspected settler attackers under Operation Olive Leaf, while security forces have demolished two unauthorized outposts.

The arrests came against a backdrop of widespread violence against Palestinians during the harvest season, with Israeli forces also accused of firing rubber bullets and tear gas at those attempting to gather their crops, Dubenskij said.

Watch the full report below.

Paris is burning again. Violent riots are tearing through French cities as protests over rising living costs descend into chaos. Looting. Arson. More than 2,400 arrests. Dozens of officers injured. Historic town halls torched. Streets devastated in Paris, Limoges, and beyond. While leftist protesters chant about the “cost of living,” flames rise from neighborhoods that once stood as beacons of French liberty and culture.

Paris riots: The verdict on progressive rule

This disorder is the brutal, undeniable verdict on decades of liberal and progressive rule: the project has failed completely. Mass migration is not simply a generous humanitarian act. It is a deliberate security threat. It is the engine of the left’s cherished dream of erasing European civilization from within – something many conservatives call the ‘Great Replacement’, and many liberals, a conspiracy theory.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the firebrand capitalizing on these riots, has long appeared to despise the “white and stale” France of tradition, faith, and national pride. He fights for a “New France” – young, urban, multicultural, queer, and woke. He embodies the argument that the Western European far left is no friend of Europe. It is its enemy.

In Spain, socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has moved to legalize over one million illegal immigrants in his country, granting them rights to roam the EU at will. The move has provoked fury, including within European political circles. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has recently warned that, if the tide continues, Central European nations may have to “defend our borders” and deploy an army on the German frontier.

The Ceuta crisis – in which some 80,000 migrants surged into the Spanish enclave only a couple of months ago – is another stark reminder of the pressures facing Europe’s borders.

Sánchez does not stand alone. He represents the broader Brussels euro-bureaucracy: billions in EU funds flow to media organizations and NGOs promoting mass migration, while the same bureaucracy tightens Digital Services Act rules and advances the European Democracy Shield, suppressing conservative voices and the integrity of democratic competition.

Marco Rubio, America’s Secretary of State, saw the challenge during his early October European tour, which included Iceland, Greece, and Portugal. Defense and energy security talks were vital, but his real message came in Athens, beneath the shadow of the Acropolis. Rubio called for a revival of the West. He demanded greatness, self-confidence, civilizational vitality, pride in Christianity, and nationalism, and an “unapologetic pursuit of national power.”

He criticized transnational bureaucracies, mass migration, the massive welfare state that he argued had bred decline, the “climate cult,” and open borders. In February, he had made the argument even more starkly at the Munich Security Conference: the “end of history” and the triumph of liberal democracy? No. A foolish idea. The West, he argued, must build a new Western century.

And the Trump administration is not just talking. It is acting. Funding is being redirected from globalist and woke agendas towards conservative voices, think tanks, and interests across Europe and beyond. If America is prepared to push back against the EU’s accelerating drift towards demographic replacement, political authoritarianism, and economic insanity, this is not simply interference; it is the strongest possible counterpressure – precisely what Europe’s patriots need right now.

Donald Trump was right. Europe needs regime change. Europe needs a conservative revolution.

The riots, the terror, the spread of antisemitism across Western Europe, the destruction of great monuments, and centuries of culture – Ceuta and Paris stand as stark reminders. The liberal establishment is impotent. It cannot even manage its own cities. It has turned European streets into war zones and its capitals into symbols of surrender.

Let us be clear about the stakes. For centuries, Europe stood at the heart of Western civilization. Now, its pillars are rotting under the weight of progressive dogma. Open borders erode national cohesion. The welfare state invites dependency instead of self-reliance. The climate cult distracts from real dangers. Bureaucracies in Brussels regulate everything except the influx that is changing Europe’s demographics permanently.

Today’s Europe bears witness to the growth of parallel societies in cities from Paris to Stockholm. Crime statistics indicate that migrant cohorts are disproportionately involved in sexual assaults, terrorism, and gang violence. Integration failures breed resentment. Cultural clashes erupt into the very riots we see today. Antisemitism has surged: synagogues attacked, Jewish communities targeted. These are symptoms of a demographic transformation that left-wing elites frame as “humanism.”

Yet, amid this despair, hope flickers. Patriots are rising. In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has gained ground with policies rooted in sovereignty, borders, and family values. In Germany, the AfD is growing stronger. Across the continent, millions of ordinary Europeans share the same unease: our ancestors built cathedrals, universities, and statehood. Will we allow globalists and progressives to consign that legacy to history?

Marco Rubio’s Athens address captured this challenge. He reminded the world that the West is at an inflection point. It can atrophy, serve hostile interests, or decline into irrelevance.

A return to Christian roots strengthens families and communities. Healthy nationalism fosters loyalty and shared sacrifice. Sovereignty restores democratic control over people’s destiny. These are not inherently divisive principles; they are the very pillars that once made the West great.

Europe’s achievements were not accidental. They flowed from the interplay of faith, reason, and ordered liberty. Replace those foundations with open borders and wokeness, and you risk producing the Paris we see today: burning buildings, paralyzed cities, and eroding trust. The liberal establishment has demonstrated that it cannot cope with the challenges confronting it.

Rubio’s message is clear: build a new Western century. That means stronger combat capabilities and fighting spirit, and policies that put nation-states and citizens first. Trump’s America is already acting. Europe’s best interests demand the same: counterpressure against globalist networks and liberal elites.

The riots have spoken. Ceuta showed the southern front. Paris showed the domestic front. Western Europe needs to wake up and realize that the liberal experiment is over. And so is the time for complacency. The battle for sovereignty, identity, and civilizational future has begun. The question is no longer whether Europe must change, but whether its leaders will find the courage to lead that change.

Acting Serbian President Ana Brnabic has accused the European Parliament of breaking its own ethics rules and sending a team of political operators to Serbia “with already formed conclusions” about how they want this weekend’s election to end.

Former Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is running in parliamentary elections this Sunday, after vacating the presidency last month. Vucic’s coalition, led by his SNS party, is competing against the Student List – an electoral faction put together by the organizers of anti-government protests raging in Serbia since 2024.

European Parliament elections observers are due to arrive in Belgrade on Thursday. However, in a letter to Parliament President Roberta Metsola on Tuesday, Brnabic accused the team of political bias, pointing out that some of its members have openly expressed “extremely negative judgments about the authorities in Serbia [and] expectations for their removal.”

The appointment of Schieder, an Austrian Social Democrat, violates the UN’s Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, she continued. This document, to which all EU delegations are beholden, states that observers must be “free from any political, economic or other conflicts of interest.”

In June, Schieder publicly backed the student protest movement and accused Vucic of leading Serbia into an “authoritarian downward spiral.”

Speaking to Austria’s APA news agency on Tuesday, Schieder described Brnabic’s letter as “unprecedented attack on the European Parliament’s election-observation mission.”

The observation team also includes liberal MEP Helmut Branstetter, who has described Vucic as “not the person to lead Serbia to the European Union,” and promised to “do everything” to cut Serbia off from EU funds and accession talks over his refusal to ban the funeral of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic in September. 

Two Croatian MEPs are members of the mission. Gordan Bosanac has met with protesters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, while Suncana Glavak has signed a letter to EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos calling for talks with Serbia to be suspended. 

Recurring protests have dogged Vucic since 2024, when the deaths of 16 people in a railway station disaster in Novi Sad sparked nationwide discontent. More than two decades earlier, the US successfully fomented mass protests that forced Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic out of power, and Vucic has accused the EU and Western NGOs of attempting to run the same playbook against his government.

Last month, Vucic described MEPs who traveled to Novi Sad to support the protests as “scum that cannot rule even in their own countries,” who have “come to demolish Serbia from the outside.”

The UK government’s negligent approach towards care homes at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic led to high disease and death rates among the elderly, a public inquiry into the nation’s response to the disease outbreak has concluded.

More than 43,000 people died from Covid-19 in care homes throughout the UK from March 2020 to July 2022, with most of them registered during the first year of the pandemic, according to data presented in the inquiry report published on Tuesday. That amounts to just under 10% of the total care homes population from 2022 to 2023.

An earlier report published by the UK Parliament put the death toll from March 2020 to April 2021 at over 41,000, adding that it amounted to nearly a quarter of deaths from all causes among care home residents as well as more than a quarter of all Covid-19 deaths in England over that period. The report called the rate one of “the worst in Europe,” adding that the loss of life could have been mitigated.

“The mantra of ‘protecting the NHS’ sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care,” she stated. “These failures created environments in care settings in which the virus could spread like wildfire.”

In March and April 2020, around 25,000 hospital patients were discharged into care comes in England alone to free up beds before mandatory testing was introduced in mid-April 2020. The practice was later recognized as unlawful by the British high court. The investigation head defended the practice, calling it the “least worst decision to a terrible problem,” but maintained that a lack of isolation advice was a “significant omission” on the government’s part.

The report is the sixth out of ten to be published by the inquiry costing more than £200 million ($267.77 million). In July, another report by Hallett and her team concluded that the UK wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money during the pandemic. The country entered the pandemic with its PPE stockpile “in a perilous state,” including large quantities of expired equipment, while emergency procurement and distribution plans had never been properly tested, it said at the time.

Earlier reports by the inquiry found that authorities across the UK did “too little, too late” during the pandemic and that delays in introducing restrictions contributed to thousands of additional deaths.

The US arrest warrant for former Cuban leader Raul Castro is political revenge, Russia has said, warning that escalating pressure on Havana could destabilize Latin America and the Caribbean.

A Florida judge issued the warrant on Monday against Castro, 95, on a charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder over the 1996 downing of two planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue – a Miami-based Cuban exile group led by CIA operative Jose Basulto, who has long pressed for charges against Castro. Four men were killed in the shootdown.

The US authorities accuse Castro of ordering the attack. Havana maintains it acted in self-defense against aircraft violating its airspace. The Cuban Embassy in Washington accused the group of committing more than 25 airspace violations from 1994 to 1996, despite repeated warnings from Havana.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the accusation “groundless” and “contrived,” describing its revival more than 30 years later as “revenge by Miami’s anti-Cuban lobby.”

It warned that further pressure on Cuba, which is already struggling under an unprecedented economic, financial, and energy blockade, could provoke unrest and mass migration, creating social crises in neighboring countries.

The ministry linked its concerns about the warrant to the US seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. Without that precedent, the court decision might have been dismissed as reflecting the views of a particular group, it said, describing Maduro’s abduction as a violation of international law.

US President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Havana since the operation against Venezuela, imposing a near-total energy blockade and declaring that Cuba would be “next.” The restrictions have contributed to severe energy shortages and frequent blackouts on the island.

Moscow reaffirmed its solidarity with Havana on Tuesday, pledging to strengthen ties through mutual support, assistance, and cooperation. Russia has been among the countries providing relief to Cuba, delivering around 700,000 barrels of oil in March.

Political consultant Roger Stone has called for cutting off US funding to Kiev, highlighting that Vladimir Zelensky is showing contempt for Washington despite receiving billions of dollars in American aid. Speaking on America Now with RT’s Ben Swann, Stone said the Ukrainian leader “has no interest in peace.”

The comment comes as US President Donald Trump continues to ramp up pressure on Kiev to accelerate efforts to reach a peace deal with Russia. Trump has repeatedly called for a halt to strikes on Russian oil refineries as part of a broader effort to curb energy prices, while Washington has negotiated a deal with Moscow to release Russian diesel supplies to global markets.

Stone pointed to Ukraine’s resumption of strikes on Russian energy facilities after agreeing to a ceasefire covering them. The host of ‘The Stone Zone’ highlighted the attacks had undermined a deal negotiated by US President Donald Trump to release Russian diesel fuel at reasonable prices, which Stone argued could have helped bring down fuel costs worldwide.

“Ukraine kept that promise for about a nanosecond and went right back to driving the cost of diesel high,” he said.

Stone also criticized what he described as Zelensky’s inappropriate reaction to a question about the potential political fallout in the US from strikes on Russian energy facilities.

“Look, I saw a piece, a video in which he was asked whether the fact that he had blown up these factories would cause an election problem for Donald Trump and his party,” he said. “He smiled, which is thumbing his nose at the country that has given this man tens of billions of dollars, not all of which, of course, can be directly accounted for.”

Watch Benn Swann’s full interview with Roger Stone here.

South Korea is withdrawing more diplomatic staff from Ukraine over Kiev’s failure to resolve a dispute sparked by Vladimir Zelensky’s disclosure of a secret North Korean prisoner transfer, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul has announced.

The dispute erupted after Zelensky publicly announced the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers to Seoul during his address to the UN General Assembly in September. South Korea insists that the operation was supposed to remain confidential, while Ukrainian authorities deny that any such agreement existed.

The servicemen were reportedly captured in January 2025 in Russia’s Kursk Region, where North Korean troops helped Russian forces repel a Ukrainian incursion.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Park Doo-soon announced the withdrawal at a press briefing on Tuesday, saying that Kiev had failed to take “positive steps” to settle the dispute despite repeated diplomatic protests.

He also cited persistent threats of airstrikes across Ukraine, saying they had made it difficult to guarantee the safety of diplomatic personnel.

Seoul did not disclose how many staff would be withdrawn. A chargé d’affaires will remain in Kiev to maintain diplomatic contacts, while consular personnel will continue assisting South Korean nationals.

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung accused Kiev of violating a confidentiality agreement intended to protect the prisoners and their families in North Korea. He warned that exposing the transfer could endanger their relatives and undermine stability on the Korean Peninsula, insisting that Ukraine itself had originally demanded secrecy.

Earlier this month, Lee warned that “if the Ukrainian government continues to refuse acknowledging the facts and issuing a public apology, we will take additional measures.”

South Korea recalled its ambassador from Kiev on October 8 after its demands went unanswered. The move marked the first time in 18 years that Seoul had withdrawn an ambassador in a diplomatic protest. The latest decision further escalates the standoff, with South Korean media reporting that roughly half of the embassy staff are now expected to leave Kiev.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga previously sought to downplay the row with Seoul, describing it as a “diplomatic misunderstanding” and saying that he was working to resolve it. He denied that Kiev had breached its commitments, attributing the dispute to differing interpretations of confidentiality arrangements.

South Korea has become a major arms exporter since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, securing multibillion-dollar weapons deals with Poland. However, Seoul has refused to supply lethal weapons directly to Kiev, citing its longstanding policy against arming countries at war.

It has instead provided non-lethal military equipment, including helmets, bulletproof vests, and mine detectors, alongside humanitarian and financial aid.

A Ukrainian conscription officer previously convicted of bribery has been accused of beating a recruit to death in the western city of Lviv, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) said on Tuesday.

In September, the suspect, together with other officers of the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TCC), the body overseeing mobilization, brutally beat a prospective recruit, who could not defend himself with his hands cuffed behind his back.

“At the hospital, medical staff discovered that the man had sustained multiple rib fractures, severe lung damage, and other life-threatening injuries,” the DBR said in a statement. “Despite the efforts of the medical team, he could not be saved.”

The officer, who received a non-custodial sentence for bribery in August, is now formally suspected of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm resulting in death as part of a group. He faces up to ten years in prison and has been detained without bail, according to the DBR.

Ukraine has faced mounting scrutiny over abuses by TCC officers, as numerous videos showing recruitment patrols snatching men off the streets and often beating them have circulated on social media. Several incidents have also resulted in deaths.

In April, the DBR charged a draft officer in connection with the death of another prospective recruit, whom he allegedly beat and shocked with a stun gun during transportation. His commanding officer, who allegedly failed to intervene, was also charged.

Public tensions surrounding Ukraine’s recruitment practices have also spilled over into multiple violent incidents.

At least six people have been injured in the latest case, when a detained man went on a shooting spree inside a TCC building in Kiev.

South Sudan has accused neighboring Sudan of carrying out a drone strike on a market in the disputed Abyei region which reportedly killed 73 people and injured 19 others. 

The South Sudanese Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it had summoned Sudanese Ambassador Essam Mohamed Karrar to express its strong objection to the attack on Amiet Market, located north of Abyei town.

“The Government of the Republic of South Sudan has learned with grave concern of the drone attack carried out by the Sudanese Armed Forces against Amiet Market, situated north of Abyei Town,” the ministry said. However, officials in Juba and Abyei did not provide direct evidence pinning the strike on the Sudanese Army. The Sudanese government has not publicly commented on the allegations.

The attack took place on Monday morning, hitting several sections of the market, including its northern entrance. At least 73 people were killed and 19 injured in the attack, Abyei’s information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor, told Radio Tamazuj.

An anonymous diplomatic source and an aid worker told Reuters that the strike hit a fuel depot at the market. The facility had previously been used to supply Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the source added.

Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the army and the RSF. 

Abyei has remained disputed since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The UN maintains a peacekeeping mission in the area, known as UNISFA, to help prevent violence.

In May, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Anna Evstigneeva, warned that armed groups were obstructing efforts to settle Abyei’s status. Addressing the UN Security Council, she said RSF activity and continued fighting in neighboring areas were worsening security conditions. “It is the actions of elements opposing Khartoum that are the main obstacle to the start of a comprehensive settlement process,” Evstigneeva said.

Polish authorities have charged nine people, most of them Ukrainian nationals, over their alleged involvement in a money-laundering operation.

The group was described as part of a broader international network helping criminal enterprises launder illicit proceeds in statements released on Monday by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Lodz and the Internal Security Agency (ABW). Ukraine has become a major hub for online and telephone fraud operations, many of which are said to enjoy protection from corrupt government officials.

Polish investigators said the group laundered more than $86 million between February 2025 and July 2026. Authorities seized approximately $250,000 in cash and gold during the arrests.

Nine suspects aged 26 to 53 were detained over their alleged roles in the operation: two money couriers, four cashiers, and three currency exchange clerks. Eight suspects are Ukrainian nationals, while the ninth is a Belarusian woman. A 34-year-old Ukrainian man was accused of leading the ring.

All nine were charged, with seven remanded in custody. The two cashiers were released on bail and barred from leaving Poland.

The group allegedly served primarily online and call-center fraud operations, channeling their proceeds through currency exchange offices, fictitious gold purchases and cryptocurrency transactions.

The cash was then delivered to cryptocurrency exchange offices, where cashiers received confirmation codes by text message before accepting the money without carrying out mandatory anti-money laundering checks.

Some of the laundered funds were reportedly concealed in specially modified vehicles and transported abroad rather than deposited into bank accounts or converted into cryptocurrency.

Ukraine’s domestic telefraud industry, estimated to generate around $1 billion annually, attracted international attention last month after Western-backed investigators accused the head of the cybercrime division at the Prosecutor General’s office of operating a protection racket for fraudulent call centers on behalf of his superior. Prosecutor-General Ruslan Kravchenko was not personally charged but nevertheless left the country before parliament dismissed him.

Critics have questioned the effectiveness of the crackdown, arguing that many fraudulent operations simply relocated from rented offices to private apartments to continue targeting victims.

Petroleum product prices have soared in Germany, with gasoline and diesel nearly 49% more expensive and heating oil nearly doubling over the past year, according to official figures.

The surge comes as Europe’s largest economy continues to grapple with the fallout from its break with Russian energy in 2022, now compounded by the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Prices for refined oil products jumped 51.3% year-on-year in September and 8.2% from August, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported on Tuesday. Heating oil surged 91.8%, motor fuels rose 48.6%, and naphtha, used in chemical manufacturing, climbed 53.8%.

The figures reflect producer prices rather than those paid by consumers at the pump.

The shock spread across the energy sector. Producer energy prices rose 14.9% year-on-year, with natural gas distribution costs up 15% and electricity 8.2%.

The pressure has spread across German industry. Overall producer prices rose 6.7% year-on-year in September, the sharpest increase since March 2023. Manufacturing materials and components became 6.4% more expensive, while machinery and equipment rose 2.4%. Excluding energy, producer prices were up 3.2%.

The Iran war has severely disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, driving up energy prices worldwide. Brent crude topped $111 a barrel on Tuesday, a five-month high, while US benchmark WTI exceeded $104.

Germany’s energy troubles, however, predate the Middle East crisis. The country has faced high costs since abandoning cheap Russian energy following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, forcing energy-intensive manufacturers to seek more expensive alternatives.

Before the break, Russia supplied 55% of Germany’s natural gas imports. Direct imports from Russia have since fallen to zero, with Germany reportedly paying five times as much for gas. Norway (44%), the Netherlands (24%), and Belgium (21%) have become its main suppliers, with US liquefied natural gas (LNG) accounting for much of the remainder.

Meanwhile, Berlin committed €96 billion in Ukraine-related support, launched a €100 billion rearmament drive, and pledged to raise core defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2029.

Amid criticism that increased military spending is at the expense of domestic needs, Merz’s approval rating sank to a record-low 10% in a poll in October. His Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has suffered major electoral setbacks against the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has overtaken the CDU-led bloc in national polling. The AfD has called for Russian gas imports to be restored.

Moscow has long argued that Western energy sanctions are counterproductive, redirecting Russian exports while forcing Europeans to pay more for alternative supplies. Russia has offered to cover shortages and resume deliveries, but says its proposals have gone unanswered.

Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian facilities are “off-the-charts,” with around 8,200 strikes recorded over the past week alone as Kiev continues to reject US demands to stop attacks on oil refineries, Rodion Miroshnik, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s mission tracking alleged Ukrainian war crimes, said.

Speaking to TASS on Tuesday, Miroshnik reported that the attacks averaged nearly 1,200 daily, with 22 killed and 211 wounded, among them 13 children over the past week. He added that drone strikes accounted for 96% of the casualties.

According to the diplomat, the worst-hit areas include the Russian regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson, as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics – all of which are close to the front line and have been intensely bombarded by Ukraine throughout the conflict.

Ukraine has also shown no signs of moving toward an energy ceasefire, which was proposed by US President Donald Trump, Miroshnik said, pointing to drone attacks on two oil refineries in the regions of Saratov and Ryazan. Another drone raid on Sunday on St. Petersburg sparked a fire at an oil terminal. The attack killed one and injured five others, the local authorities said.

Trump announced a Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire on October 11, though neither side confirmed that a deal was reached. Trump has repeatedly demanded that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky stop attacks on Russian oil facilities to alleviate the pressure on global markets and American consumers, but he has refused to comply.

As tensions mounted, Trump said Ukraine should replace Zelensky with a leader capable of reaching a peace deal. On Sunday, the president lashed out at Zelensky, saying he “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.” Zelensky blasted Trump over his diesel deal with Moscow, saying he felt betrayed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the Ukrainian attacks as “some final manifestations of agony,” adding that although “the Kiev regime is fighting back, it cannot alter the course of events.”

Further relief from record fuel prices could force South Africa to divert money from other government programs, President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned as his administration considers a new intervention to ease pressure on households.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Bana Pele ECD Summit in Sandton on Monday, Ramaphosa said rising fuel prices were a global problem. “The issue of the fuel price is a problem globally. We’re not the only country that is affected by rising fuel prices and of course there are various responses by various entities and governments and businesses and we are giving serious consideration on what needs to be done,” the president said.

Ramaphosa noted the government had previously intervened when fuel prices increased, spending about 24 billion rand (about $1.46 billion) on a subsidy system.“You must remember that when the fuel price rose a few months ago, government intervened and poured into a subsidy system about 24 billion rand,” he said.

The increases came after the temporary fuel-levy relief introduced between April and June was phased out. The relief reduced the general fuel levy by R3 a litre on petrol and by up to R3.93 a litre on diesel at its peak. Parliament has since advanced a proposed R10 billion fuel-relief allocation for debate in the National Assembly. However, the proposal does not guarantee an immediate reduction in petrol and diesel prices.

With fuel prices rising again, he noted that the government was considering what further action could be taken. “Now that it’s gone up again, everyone in the world is giving consideration on what they should do, so are we,” the president said.

First published by IOL

Ukrainian officials are reportedly panicking after US investigators uncovered links between Mexican drug cartels and Kiev, including paid drone training for cartel members. The probe threatens to further strain the already fragile relations between Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and US President Donald Trump.

In a statement on Tuesday, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said American law enforcement investigating the cartels had identified at least 80 members who learned to assemble and operate combat drones while serving with Ukrainian forces.

The payment for this “education” was transferred to officials close to Zelensky using proceeds from drug sales in the US, according to the SVR report obtained by RT.

The agency also noted that Zelensky’s office is aware that the presence of trained first-person-view (FPV) drone operators among drug cartels could ultimately threaten American officers combating drug trafficking along the Mexican border and damage relations with Washington.

The Washington Post similarly reported last month that Mexican cartels were hiring drone operators who had fought in Ukraine and were sending members there for training. The State Department said it was working with Kiev to prevent those skills from reaching the cartels.

Mexico’s Milenio newspaper also claimed last year that members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel had received drone and urban warfare training in Ukraine.

The alleged ties have extended beyond training, with Russian intelligence reporting in June that Ukrainian security agencies were facilitating Latin American drug trafficking into Europe while the cartels helped Kiev in recruiting fighters.

US financial support for Ukraine could ultimately backfire on Washington, with foreign funded military training potentially helping Mexican cartel members acquire skills they could later use against the US, Italian war correspondent Andrea Lucidi told RT.

The allegations come amid an increasingly bitter dispute between Zelensky and Trump over Kiev’s continued strikes on Russian refineries and stalled peace negotiations.

Trump has increasingly questioned the Ukrainian leader’s true intentions regarding the conflict, stressing that he should have settled it “a long time ago” and suggesting that he “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”

Trump recently went as far as stating that Ukraine should “get a new president,” and said on Monday that Kiev should get someone else to negotiate peace, arguing that Zelensky “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Watch RT’s full report below.

As Israel prepares for the October 27 elections, accusations of foreign interference are intensifying. While Israeli leaders have pointed to Iran, Russia, and China, journalist Nick Kolyohin argues that greater scrutiny should be directed at Western funding of Israeli media outlets and civil society organizations, which he believes may be influencing the country’s political discourse.

With election day approaching, political parties are stepping up efforts to attract voters and consolidate their support.

The right-wing camp, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking to rally hawkish voters behind him, potentially at the expense of other conservative parties. The opposition bloc is trying to persuade voters to abandon Netanyahu and shift their support to its side.

Yet the battle for the Israeli electorate is not being fought exclusively within the country’s borders. Foreign actors are also seeking to shape the political landscape and influence the outcome of the election.

Several days ago, speaking to Channel 14, Netanyahu raised this concern.

“Iran is trying to damage the elections with the help of its terror arms Hamas and Hezbollah. It is totally true – they say it openly that they need to topple me because their real desire is to destroy the State of Israel.”

Iran, however, is not the only country accused of interference. In July, speaking at the Knesset, opposition leader Yair Lapid also accused China and Russia of attempting to meddle.

“The elections are drawing closer. Iran is involved, Russia is involved, and influence operations are running rampant on social media. They want to divide us, strengthen the extremists, weaken the moderates, and sow chaos and hatred.”

Nick Kolyohin, a veteran Israeli journalist and Russia expert, disputes the accusations against Moscow, saying he has seen no evidence of Russian interference in the current or previous election cycles:

“I am not witnessing, neither in the current round, nor in the previous, any influence from the Russian side.”

“I am not even sure which side Russia prefers in this internal dispute between the different political parties. Israeli politicians are not speaking about Russia so it doesn’t even make any sense for Moscow to interfere because it is not clear which government is going to be good or bad for the Kremlin,” he said.

Kolyokhin maintains that the broader relationship between the two countries lends weight to his assessment. Despite periodic setbacks and fluctuations, economic ties and trade have continued. Diplomatic relations and cooperation have also endured through some of the most turbulent periods in recent history, including the Syrian civil war, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.

“I know for a fact, including from my sources within the PM office, that the current premier has very good and close relations with President Vladimir Putin. Israel understands that from time to time Moscow needs to slap it [publicly] because it is a part of a broader geopolitical game but in the end of the day this will not sour the relationship between the nations.”

The West dictates

Kolyohin argues that while Russia has come under scrutiny over alleged interference in the upcoming elections, another potential source of foreign influence is receiving far less attention: liberal political circles in Europe and the US.

“For many years, the European Union and the Democratic Party have been pouring money into the Israeli NGOs, news outlets, journalists, think tanks and experts – all of whom are located on the left side of the Israeli political map. So they ended up promoting European interests, which I find outrageous, especially now, when the EU is openly unfriendly towards Israel.”

In recent years, several European countries have recognized Palestine despite Israeli appeals. European governments have also pursued sanctions on Israeli products manufactured in the West Bank and Golan Heights, imposed embargoes on military equipment, and suspended bilateral agreements.

Kolyohin says he has evidence to support his allegations of Western interference. In recent weeks, he says, he obtained three documents that point to substantial financial transfers from Western liberal circles to Israeli left-wing organizations.

The first transfer involved around $48,000 (€43,000). According to Kolyohin, the money came from Canal France International (CFI), a French public media-development agency, and went to the Seventh Eye, an Israeli liberal outlet known for its critical coverage of Netanyahu.

CFI has also reportedly provided hundreds of thousands of euros to another liberal Israeli organization, the Israeli Association of Internet. While the stated objective was to support Israel and combat disinformation, Kolyohin suspects that the underlying motivations extend beyond those publicly declared goals.

“This is one of the ways for the west to censor and control the information in Israel and in this way they can also interfere in the elections, and promote their agenda among the public.”

According to the journalist, the Western agenda extends beyond the promotion of liberal ideas. He argues that another key objective is to foster anti-Russian sentiment in Israel, a goal he believes is advanced through media outlets and think tanks that receive Western funding.

“These journalists and experts learned fast that if they want to be honored, invited to conferences, and get prizes, they need to criticize Russia even if that is contrary to the interests of Israel itself,” Kolyohin said.

“You have to understand: Russia is an important partner of Israel but very often the Israeli government is trying not to flash these tight relations petrified by what the media and the experts are going to say.”

Kolyohin says he has personally experienced what he regards as the consequences of anti-Russian sentiment in Israel. Several Israeli news outlets have investigated his alleged connections to the Kremlin. His name is frequently associated with what local outlets describe as Russian propaganda, and he believes these efforts have damaged his professional standing.

In 2025, he was barred from press conferences held by Israel’s Foreign Ministry after asking Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to comment on Ukraine’s glorification of the Nazis.

A year later, he was removed from a plane carrying Netanyahu to Washington, where the prime minister was scheduled to meet with Trump. According to Kolyohin, the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, wanted to examine his background and ties.

“They are after journalists like me because I am not slamming Russia like the rest of them. They are after me because I dare to speak to the Russian media, I dare to give interviews and do reports. That’s why they want to discredit me, and they are even trying to tilt the PM office and the Shin Bet against me.”

Kolyohin has filed a lawsuit against several Israeli organizations that receive foreign funding and says he is prepared to continue his legal fight to find out the truth: Who funds Israeli NGOs, for what purpose, and how is this money used to shape public opinion?

South Africa must prepare for exclusion from Washington’s preferential trade program for African countries, President Cyril Ramaphosa warned amid deteriorating relations with the US.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Ramaphosa said his government is discussing South Africa’s continued participation in the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with Washington.

“Congress has decided that we should be kept in AGOA. What now remains is the executive,” he said. “I need, as president, to prepare us if it ever happens.”

AGOA has granted eligible African countries duty-free access to the US market for thousands of products since 2000. US President Donald Trump signed an extension through 2028 last month, although individual countries’ eligibility remains subject to review. South Africa remains eligible.

Ramaphosa warned that exclusion would have a “devastating” impact on jobs, with vehicle manufacturing and agricultural exports among the sectors reliant on access to the US market.

Relations have deteriorated since Trump returned to office in January 2025. He has accused the South African government of allowing “white genocide,” which Pretoria has dismissed as misinformation.

Washington halted aid in February 2025, expelled South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool the following month, and imposed a 30% tariff on South African goods that August.

On Monday, Ramaphosa said he and Deputy President Paul Mashatile are seeking alternative markets, pointing to China’s offer of “the opportunity to be able to export our goods on a tariff-free basis.” Pretoria has also revived preferential trade talks with India.

China effectively eliminated tariffs on nearly all goods (97% to 100% of tariff lines) from 53 African countries from May 1, expanding preferences previously reserved for the least developed nations. Chinese President Xi Jinping initially announced the expansion during a televised address to the 39th African Union Summit on February 14.

India and the US are “very close” to finalizing a bilateral trade deal, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.

“We are very, very close,” Rubio told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday, with US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, by his side. “I would say we are about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement.” The two countries have been negotiating the deal for months.

Although the US Supreme Court threw out the tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on India, along with on other countries, New Delhi has held off signing the deal as it sought terms that gave it a competitive advantage in the US market.

However, Trump recently waived “bone crushing sanctions” on the buyers of Russian oil, including India – the prospects of which had worried policy planners in New Delhi – removing a potential major obstacle to the deal.

Rubio called India a very important partner, and said there will be some good news to announce very soon.

#WATCH | US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits the Gateway of India in Mumbai, Maharashtra, accompanied by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. #MarcoRubio #IndiaUSRelations #Mumbai #DevendraFadnavis https://t.co/BxifwllfGf

— DD India (@DDIndialive) October 20, 2026

On Monday, while in Uzbekistan, Rubio showed that the Trump administration recognizes New Delhi’s arguments about buying Russian oil. India is the world’s third biggest crude importer and the second largest buyer of Russian oil.

“Every country has a complex set of factors that they ⁠have to take into account,” he told reporters. “Geography is real. For some countries, it’s very difficult to acquire energy from alternative sources.”

Rubio’s focus on his trip, the second this year to India, is oil. He is meeting Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who owns the world’s largest refinery complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat state, on Wednesday.

Tapping Reliance’s massive refining capacity and allowing its output to flow into the world markets is important for the administration’s push.

Calling India a “refining superpower,” Rubio said he will talk with Ambani about Reliance buying more Venezuelan oil. The Reliance refinery is configured to refine the heavy Venezuelan crude.

Rubio said “energy is a matter of national security as well,” justifying his focus on oil.

He is also meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Mumbai.

At least nine members of a Libyan security force have been killed and several others injured in a mortar explosion during a training exercise in the western city of Zawiya, the country’s Ambulance and Emergency Service has reported.

The blast, which involved an 82mm mortar round, took place during exercises conducted by members of the Anti-Threat Security Agency, according to Asharq News, citing the Libyan emergency service. The agency said the explosion occurred after sunset prayers on Sunday. The emergency service mourned the victims, describing the incident as a “painful tragedy and a painful loss” for Zawiya.

The explosion occurred at a security camp in the Harsha area of Zawiya, according to The Libya Observer. Three personnel reportedly died at the scene, while six others later succumbed to their injuries. Several wounded personnel remained hospitalized, some in critical condition, the outlet reported, citing a local source.

Zawiya is located approximately 40km west of Tripoli and is home to Libya’s largest operating oil refinery. The city has experienced repeated clashes between rival armed groups. The Anti-Threat Security Agency operates under the UN-recognized Government of National Unity based in Tripoli and led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah.

Libya has been split between rival administrations since the NATO-backed uprising that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and plunged the country into turmoil. The western part is controlled by Dbeibah’s administration, while a rival government in the east is backed by the military commander Khalifa Haftar.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has made an unannounced visit to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just days before the country’s parliamentary elections, according to Axios.

The reported meeting comes as Washington and Israel discuss potentially resuming major military operations against Iran, while indirect negotiations continue over the war they launched in February. Israel, a major recipient of American military funding and weapons, has justified its offensives on security grounds, even as the conflict has spread across the region, disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and driven up global energy prices.

Hegseth met Netanyahu on Monday at Ovda Air Base in southern Israel, where US fighter jets and refueling aircraft are stationed, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the visit. The Pentagon chief also met American troops deployed at the facility.

The surprise visit followed US President Donald Trump’s public endorsement of Netanyahu ahead of the October 27 parliamentary elections – Israel’s first since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks and the subsequent devastating Israeli military campaign in Gaza. On Sunday, the US president hailed Netanyahu as a “Great Warrior Prime Minister” and offered him his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”

“BIBI NETANYAHU WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump declared on Truth Social, praising the Israeli leader’s role in the US-Israeli war against Iran.

Hegseth’s trip also reportedly comes as Washington and West Jerusalem discuss the possibility of unleashing another major military campaign against Iran. Trump has raised the prospect of renewed strikes after the US midterm elections in November.

“If we need to act alone, we will act alone,” he declared on Sunday, outlining a security doctrine centered on preemptive military action.

Netanyahu has also called for the overthrow of Iran’s government, claiming Tehran would continue to rebuild its military and nuclear capabilities as long as its current leadership remains in power. Iran has repeatedly denied seeking nuclear weapons, insisting its nuclear program is peaceful.

Japan’s space agency has launched a mission aimed at becoming the first to land on one of Mars’ moons and return samples from its surface to Earth.

An H3 rocket carrying the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft lifted off from Tanegashima Space Center on Monday, according to a live broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

If the mission proceeds as planned, at least 10 grams of material from Phobos will be returned to Earth in 2031, with the first landing operation scheduled for around two years from now.

No spacecraft has ever successfully landed on Phobos or Mars’ smaller moon, Deimos. The USSR launched two probes in 1988, but neither completed its mission.

Phobos 1 was lost before reaching Mars after an erroneous command from Earth disabled its attitude-control system. Phobos 2 spent nearly two months observing Mars and Phobos before a communications failure ended the mission, preventing it from deploying two small landers.

Russia’s subsequent Fobos-Grunt sample-return mission failed in 2011 when the spacecraft’s propulsion system failed to send it out of Earth’s orbit toward Mars.

JAXA plans for MMX to reach Mars in August or September 2027 and begin observations before deploying a rover in late 2028 or early 2029. The spacecraft carries a 25-kilogram French-German rover named IDEFIX, which will be dropped onto Phobos to study its surface for around 100 days. The main spacecraft will then attempt two landings to collect samples. MMX is also expected to fly past Deimos in 2030 before its return module heads back to Earth.

Landing on Phobos presents a major technical challenge. The moon measures just 27 kilometers across its longest dimension, and its gravitational pull is too weak for conventional close-orbit operations. Instead, MMX will synchronize its orbit around Mars with that of Phobos, effectively becoming a “quasi-satellite” of the moon.

Scientists hope the samples will help establish whether Phobos formed from debris thrown into orbit by a massive impact on Mars or is an asteroid captured by the planet’s gravity.

China’s Tianwen-3 mission could return samples collected directly from Mars to Earth as early as 2031.

The oil-rich Canadian province of Alberta has voted to remain part of the country, with most voters rejecting a proposal to move toward an independence referendum, national broadcaster CBC reported on Tuesday.

The vote comes amid purported contacts between pro-independence activists and US officials, as well as mounting tensions between Alberta and the federal government in Ottawa. The dispute centers on what advocates of independence see as insufficient attention to the province’s interests.

The preliminary results showed that 76.2% of voters backed remaining a Canadian province, while 23.8% supported initiating the legal process for a future binding referendum on independence.

Located in western Canada, Alberta borders the US state of Montana and is home to about 5 million people. Its economy is driven by oil and gas, with the province accounting for 83.6% of Canada’s oil production in 2024, according to the government. Much of its oil comes from northern oil sands, which reportedly hold an estimated 158.9 billion barrels in reserves.

Advocates of Alberta’s independence argue that the province faces excessive federal restrictions, particularly over climate policy. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government proposed caps on emissions for the oil and gas sector and power plants, as well as limits on pipeline construction. Although Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has abandoned some of the measures and advanced plans for a new pipeline to the Pacific coast, tensions persist.

Alberta’s independence movement gained momentum in 2025-2026, with supporters launching a petition for a separation referendum in January. A court overturned approval of the initiative in May after indigenous groups challenged it over a lack of consultation and potential threats to their treaty rights. Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith later announced that the separation question would be included in the October 19 provincial referendum.

Alberta independence advocates held at least three meetings with US State Department officials ahead of the vote and prepared a document outlining potential areas of cooperation should the province leave Canada, AP reported. The State Department did not deny the meetings, but stressed that the vote was a matter for Albertans alone. In January, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the province as a “natural partner” for Washington if it left Canada.

More than 1.35 million people voted ahead of election day between October 13 and 17, representing 43.1% of eligible voters, according to Elections Alberta. The ballots are being counted by hand, with votes on the separation question tallied first. Official results are due on October 29.

US President Donald Trump has claimed that America could face similar chaos to the violent unrest sweeping France if the Democrats win next month’s midterm elections, accusing left-wing politicians of fueling mass migration and instability across the West.

France has struggled to contain escalating riots that erupted last month over teacher shortages and crumbling facilities. The protests have since grown into a broader movement against inequality and soaring living costs.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets over the weekend as demonstrations descended into clashes with police, arson, and looting. Nearly 2,400 people were arrested, hundreds of businesses looted, and buildings torched across the country, while around 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured.

Footage drew comparisons to “scenes from a civil war,” with videos also showing some protesters waving Palestinian flags alongside the French tricolor.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Monday, Trump warned that “Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon,” blaming France’s immigration policies for the unrest.

Trump: Paris is going to be a Muslim city pretty soon. pic.twitter.com/9S5fx0ppPo

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 19, 2026

He sharpened his criticism in a Truth Social post, describing France as a “once-great nation” being “conquered, looted, and burned to the ground.” Trump blamed “migrants, jihadists and communists” for the violence, accused European leaders of surrendering their countries to people unwilling to assimilate and urged them to “close their borders” before it is too late.

“If you want to see what is at stake in this Election, just look at what is happening in France… Globalist Leftwing Politicians have treasonously imported millions of Third World Migrants who are totally incompatible with Western Values, and despise everything that makes France great... they have surrendered their country to vandals,” he wrote.

Trump’s renewed focus on immigration – a cornerstone of his successful 2024 campaign – comes as his approval ratings slide and Republicans face mounting pressure ahead of the midterms. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday put his approval at 31% – down one point from two weeks earlier and the lowest of either presidential term. Democrats led Republicans 47% to 35% among registered voters on a hypothetical congressional ballot.

Trump repeated his Truth Social message at a Kansas rally for Republican Senator Roger Marshall, whose once-safe seat, according to polls, is now facing a competitive challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor campaigning against the president’s “erratic leadership.” Trump won Kansas by 16 points in 2024, and the state has not elected a Democratic senator in 94 years.

❗️ [ 🇺🇸 ÉTATS-UNIS | 🇫🇷 FRANCE ]

🔸 Donald Trump s’en prend violemment à la France, qu’il décrit comme une « grande nation d’autrefois » en train d’être « conquise, pillée et incendiée » par des « migrants, des djihadistes et des communistes » qui, selon lui, « haïssent le…

— Little Think Tank (@L_ThinkTank) October 20, 2026

The rally kicked off a six-day campaign blitz through Republican strongholds, with stops planned in the Carolinas, Florida, Iowa and Georgia, as Trump seeks to boost turnout and defend the party’s narrow congressional majorities. Democrats need to flip four seats in each chamber to overturn Republicans’ 218-214 House majority and 53-47 Senate advantage.

Trump’s bet on Russian diesel

Trump has also sought to shore up Republican support ahead of the midterms by tackling soaring fuel prices, as the Iran war and tariffs squeeze household budgets. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 68% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy, including 37% of Republicans.

The deal with Moscow would release over 300,000 tons of diesel immediately, another 500,000 tons in November and one million tons thereafter. Russian presidential aide Kirill Dmitriev told RT the agreement had an immediate “positive effect,” with New York diesel futures falling 5% on the announcement.

The move, however, drew accusations of “betraying Ukraine” from Democrats and some Republicans, who urged Trump to end the Iran war instead. He defended the deal as “the right choice for the American People” and later went further by invoking a national-interest exemption to suspend recently enacted Russia sanctions, including 500% tariffs on Russian imports and 100% tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil and gas.

A Kenyan court has convicted preacher Paul Mackenzie of murdering 190 children and one adult by forcing them to starve to death to “meet Jesus,” in a massacre that President William Ruto described as “akin to terrorism.”

Justice Diana Kavedza delivered the verdict in Mombasa on Monday, finding Mackenzie and 28 co-defendants guilty on all 191 murder counts. The court found that his Good News International Church used religious teachings and a hierarchy of village elders to organize and enforce fatal fasting in Shakahola Forest in coastal Kilifi County.

“Mackenzie’s followers were first whipped through an established religious and communications network. They were subsequently directed to relocate. Once at the settlement, they were directed to fast,” Justice Kavedza said.

The judge found that children were targeted first, while guards beat followers who tried to eat or escape. Mackenzie also instructed believers to reject schools and healthcare, according to the ruling.

Mackenzie was arrested in April 2023 after police rescued emaciated followers in Shakahola Forest, where investigators subsequently uncovered hundreds of bodies in shallow graves. Postmortem examinations showed that some victims died from suffocation, strangulation, or head injuries. Others were too badly decomposed for a cause of death to be established.

A total of 429 bodies were recovered from graves in Shakahola Forest, according to a 2024 report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. The commission accused security officials of “gross abdication of duty and negligence” for ignoring credible warnings dating back to 2017.

Earlier this year, Mackenzie and seven associates faced new charges after investigators discovered the bodies of 52 people who allegedly died between January and July 2025 at Kwa Binzaro, around 30 km from Shakahola.

During the trial, prosecutors called 123 witnesses, including children and adult accomplices, and presented DNA analysis, digital recordings, and forensic reports, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said in a statement on Monday.

Vice President J.D. Vance refused to call Ukraine a US ally, noting that the two countries are at odds on a number of issues.

Asked by journalist Mark Halperin in an interview released on Monday whether Ukraine is a US ally, Vance suggested that Kiev is “certainly a partner” but noted that the countries “have some divergent interests from time to time.” 

“Do I think they should be bombing Russian diesel facilities that raise the cost of energy for Americans? No… I think they should stop bombing Russian energy.”

Pressed on the distinction between partner and ally, Vance said the US has no formal alliance with Ukraine. “They’re not in NATO. I don’t think that they should be in NATO,” he said. He added that the two countries will continue to work on some issues despite their differences.

Zelensky called the deal a “weak decision,” which came after Kiev ignored a number of US requests to stop attacking Russian refineries.

Zelensky refused to comply with Trump’s demand to end the strikes. The US president accused him of driving up fuel prices for Americans and said: “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”

Zelensky’s presidential term expired in May 2024, but he refused to hold a new election, citing martial law. Russia has since declared Zelensky illegitimate, saying his status is an obstacle to signing a binding peace deal.

On Sunday, Trump accused Zelensky of not wanting the conflict with Russia to end, saying he “probably never did,” adding that Ukraine should “get somebody else to negotiate.”

Ukrainian officials also reported that they missed advance US warnings of Russian missile strikes and claimed there are new restrictions on the Starshield satellite service developed by SpaceX and used by Ukrainian drones. Media reports also suggested that the US threatened to stop intelligence sharing with Kiev, which US officials have denied.

Six people have been injured after a man opened fire inside a military recruitment center in Kiev, local officials have reported.

The shooting occurred on Monday evening in the Ukrainian capital’s Pechersky District, amid mounting tensions over Kiev’s forced mobilization campaign and repeated incidents of violent resistance.

The National Police reported that three of its officers and three military personnel were injured and hospitalized. The recruitment center said the suspect “obtained a firearm” on the premises but did not explain how.

Journalist Roman Bochkala, who reported from the scene, identified the suspect as a man in his early 40s who allegedly used a SIG Sauer handgun. The man had reportedly been taken to the center after being seized by a patrol.

Kiev relies on mandatory conscription of men aged 25 to 60 to replenish battlefield losses. Recruitment patrols have repeatedly been filmed forcibly detaining potential recruits on the streets, with some encounters escalating into deadly violence.

In February 2025, a gunman shot dead a military recruitment officer near Piryatin in Poltava Region during a coordinated attempt to free a conscript being transported to military training. The attacker and the conscript were later arrested.
In Dnepr in May, three recruitment officers were reportedly wounded in a shooting involving a traumatic pistol. The suspect admitted firing a warning shot but maintained that he was defending himself against an unlawful attempt to detain him.

Violent clashes involving recruitment patrols also erupted near Uzhgorod in March and in Lviv in July. Following the latter incident, groups described as “volunteers” reportedly assaulted suspected rioters and forced them to apologize on camera, apparently with the tacit approval of the authorities.

Iran has completed a key railway line connecting the southern port of Chabahar with Zahedan near its border with Afghanistan, amid a US blockade of its ports and mounting economic pressure from the West.

The 730-km rail link will give Tehran more flexibility to move cargo to neighboring countries from the port, which is being developed by India, RT correspondent Saman Kojouri reports.

The railway is a key link in the strategic International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which is backed by India, Iran, and Russia. Iran’s broader ambition is to connect its southern ports to transport networks connecting the Caspian Sea and beyond, operationalizing a vast land corridor for market access across Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Russia.

The Chabahar route would be 40% shorter and 30% cheaper than the existing Suez Canal route for moving cargo. The line, which has 39 tunnels, 201 bridges, and 33 stations, is expected to become operational in the next 2-3 months. It can also move about 7 million tons of cargo and 1 million passengers annually.

The route will allow India to bypass the territory of arch-rival Pakistan, although sanctions and blockades remain a challenge. However, New Delhi and Tehran are actively engaged in smoothing out customs, logistics, and operational issues to maximize the line’s commercial potential.

Transit volumes through Chabahar are already up tenfold in the last few months compared to the same period a year ago, the CEO of the Chabahar Free Trade-Industrial Zone, Mohammad Saeed Arbabi, told RT. The new railway line will further increase transit volumes, creating new opportunities in investment, manufacturing, exports, and re-exports, and thus reinforcing the port’s role as a key transit hub, he said.

He noted that although military tensions with the US have reduced shipping activity, India has not withdrawn from the port project. “India remains actively involved,” Arbabi said, adding “we welcome investment from all countries except hostile nations [in the port project].”

According to Arbabi, cooperation with Pakistan and Afghanistan remains strong, with activity expanding beyond previous levels.

Vladimir Zelensky has appealed to a bipartisan group of US senators to pressure President Donald Trump into lifting alleged restrictions on US military assistance and intelligence sharing, Axios reported on Monday.

During a virtual meeting with lawmakers led by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democrat Richard Blumenthal on Monday, Zelensky complained about alleged disruptions to weapons deliveries, satellite communications, and early warnings of Russian missile attacks, according to a transcript obtained by Axios from Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian leader suggested that the Trump administration deliberately “slowed down support” to force Kiev into accepting a negotiated settlement with Moscow.

The dispute escalated earlier this month after Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports and increase supplies to the global market. Kiev condemned the agreement, accusing Washington of making concessions to Moscow behind Ukraine’s back.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner reportedly reminded Ukrainian negotiators during talks in Miami that Washington is supplying Kiev with weapons and intelligence and that Ukraine should not pursue attacks that hurt American consumers. Ukrainian officials interpreted the remarks as a threat to suspend the assistance unless the refinery strikes stop.

Yet Zelensky continued to challenge the administration, telling senators that SpaceX’s Starlink and the US military’s Starshield satellite systems remain partially restricted and that Ukraine missed US early warnings about Russian ballistic missile attacks on three occasions over the past week.

He also accused Secretary of War Pete Hegseth of holding up Patriot interceptor missiles and AIM-9X missiles that NATO countries already purchased for Kiev.

The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has yet to authorize certain transfers of Patriot missiles from third countries.

Trump lashed out at Zelensky on Monday, accusing him of obstructing efforts to end the conflict and suggesting that someone else should negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf.

“Zelensky doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Trump told reporters. “Maybe it’s time for Zelensky to get someone else to negotiate… We’ve given a lot to Ukraine, they’ve given nothing to us.”

The Italian government is sending 500 soldiers to Milan to protect the city from looting and violence after two days of riots left shops ransacked, police officers injured, and hundreds of people detained.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini announced the deployment on Monday as luxury boutiques in Italy’s financial capital shut their doors and removed merchandise from display windows, fearing another wave of unrest.

“From words to action: 500 more troops to defend Milan,” Salvini, who leads the right-wing League party, wrote on social media.

Dalle parole ai fatti! ✅ https://t.co/eAZVJjzzEx

— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) October 19, 2026

The announcement followed an emergency security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose government is preparing tougher measures against violent protesters and youth gangs.

Riot police deployed tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators who hurled bottles and other projectiles. Among the businesses targeted were Decathlon, Arc’teryx, and Vodafone, while other retailers boarded up their shattered storefronts.

Police detained 271 people on Sunday alone, with 32 formally arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals. Another 28 were referred to the judicial authorities. Fourteen police officers were injured, according to ANSA news agency.

Luxury retailers including Chanel, Hermes, and Pomellato closed their doors on Monday. Other high-end stores cleared their display windows amid fears of renewed attacks.

Salvini accused the rioters of deliberately seeking confrontation with police, arguing that the violence cannot be excused by economic hardship.

“This is not social distress,” he said, calling for tougher legislation to allow preventive detention of minors and arrests based on video evidence of looting.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also promised a firm response. Reports suggest that the government could fast-track measures against violent youth gangs.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala condemned the destruction as “unacceptable and unjustifiable,” warning that the tensions are far from over.

The French authorities reported nearly 2,400 arrests over the weekend, with hundreds of businesses looted and public buildings set on fire. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced localized curfews on Monday as President Emmanuel Macron faces mounting criticism over the government’s failure to contain the violence.

Ukraine needs a new representative to negotiate peace with Russia as Vladimir Zelensky “doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” US President Donald Trump has said. He added that he is ready to discuss a resolution to the conflict with Russia and China.

The statement comes amid a deepening rift between Trump and Zelensky over Ukraine’s continued targeting of Russian refineries after the US president struck a deal with Moscow aimed at reining in skyrocketing global energy prices through Russian diesel exports.

“Zelensky’s a man that should have this war settled a long time ago,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked about the Ukrainian leader’s criticism of his deal with President Vladimir Putin.

The agreement between Trump and Putin reached earlier this month involves the US easing restrictions on Russian diesel exports and waiving the ‘bone-crushing’ sanctions, including 500% tariffs on imports from Russia and 100% tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil and gas, in exchange for Russia supplying diesel to the global market and potentially to the US as well.

Ukraine has continued to target Russian oil infrastructure despite repeated demands by Trump to stop the attacks, which he blames for surging global energy prices. On Monday, he reiterated that Ukraine is behaving ungratefully.

Asked if he is ready to negotiate a settlement of the Ukraine conflict with Russia and China without Zelensky present, Trump said he just wants the conflict to end and will do “anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody is there or not.”

Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin said Putin, Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping could meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month.

Trump’s remarks follow a series of similar statements in recent days. Over the weekend, he said Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”

Russia has long accused Ukraine’s Western backers, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, of sabotaging the 2022 peace talks in Istanbul. Russia has also identified the stance of Ukraine’s European backers as one of the key obstacles to resolving the conflict.

Elon Musk has pledged to give every child in the United States a share of SpaceX next year, in a massive giveaway potentially worth more than $10 billion that has earned praise from US President Donald Trump.

The world’s richest man, whose fortune is estimated at around $1 trillion, announced the initiative on Monday, saying it’s the beginning of a broader effort to distribute his wealth. The announcement comes as Musk deepens his political and financial support for Trump and the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections in November.

“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” Musk wrote on X. “This will be the first of many.”

Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America. This will be the first of many.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2026

With around 73 million children under 18 in the US and SpaceX shares closing at $147.97 on Monday, up 1.33%, the giveaway could be worth $10.8 billion.

Trump enthusiastically welcomed the announcement, saying the shares will be distributed through government-backed investment accounts established under his administration.

Trump said the initiative demonstrates how the private sector can help invest in America’s future and “give every American Child a piece of the American Dream.”

‘Trump Accounts’ are tax-advantaged investment vehicles designed to help children build savings from an early age. Under the program, the federal government provides $1,000 in seed funding for eligible children born between 2025 and 2028, while parents, employers, and private donors can make additional contributions.

The pledge follows an announcement by rival AI company Anthropic that it will commit 5% of its equity to a new public benefit fund. Musk responded by recommending that companies distribute shares directly to ordinary people.

Musk and Trump publicly feuded last year over the president’s spending legislation but have since reconciled, with the billionaire emerging as a major financial backer of the Republican midterm campaign. According to the New York Times, Musk has donated more than $276 million to Republican groups since July, bringing his political contributions during the 2025-2026 election cycle to around $366 million.

An explosive-laden Ukrainian attack drone crashed in Lithuania on Sunday, damaging a passenger car, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius confirmed on Monday.

The drone triggered a high-level air alert in several Lithuanian regions before crashing in the northern Pasvalys district, near the Latvian border. Debris from the UAV damaged a passing car, but no one was injured, according to National Crisis Management Center head Vilmantas Vitkauskas.

Sinkevicus said the response to the incident was different from standard procedures because the drone arrived from a fellow NATO nation.

“The drone entered from the Schengen Area, crossing the border with Poland, so the response was slightly different. Fighter jets were, of course, scrambled and tracked the moving object, but they were unable to see it visually due to adverse weather conditions,” the prime minister said.

On Monday, Sinkevicus confirmed that the UAV was identified as a Ukrainian strike drone. “There is no doubt that it was carrying an explosive payload.”

“Some of the drones were diverted off course by Russia’s electronic warfare systems and ended up in our territory. This particular drone is a consequence of the attack on St. Petersburg,” the minister told the LRT broadcaster. He also identified the drone as a Ukrainian FVP-1 model.

The Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg on Sunday night killed one person and injured five others, according to Governor Aleksandr Beglov. It also damaged more than a dozen apartment buildings and sparked a fire at an oil terminal.

Moscow has condemned the Ukrainian strikes on Russian civilian and energy infrastructure calling them terrorist attacks aimed at compensating for setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces have continued to advance.

Despite identifying the drone as Ukrainian, Lithuania blamed Russia for the incident. The case will be investigated as part of a Lithuanian probe into “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” a police official told Elta news agency. Kiev said it regretted the drone incident, while calling Russia’s actions “the root cause of the security threats in our region.”

In July, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Galuzin said Russia has “verified data indicating that Latvia and other Baltic republics have already provided air corridors for Ukrainian drones that have attacked our country’s civilian infrastructure.”

The Baltic nations and Finland, which have been among the staunchest backers of Kiev in the EU amid the Ukraine conflict, previously denied any involvement in the drone attacks on Russia.

Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu previously warned that if it turns out that the Baltic states and Finland “deliberately provide their airspace” to Ukrainian UAVs, Russia will have the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Elon Musk has quietly forked out more than $400 million to Republican organizations since July, making him the largest known donor of the 2026 midterm elections. But can money alone buy the midterms?

The windfall represents a change in tune from May 2025, when Musk, in the middle of a political feud with President Donald Trump, grumbled, “In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future.”

The donations come at a critical time for the Republicans who are struggling in the popularity polls amid a sluggish economy, political infighting, and an on-again, off-again war with Iran, a potential quagmire that has the MAGA crowd furious. Nevertheless, the slush fund is helping Republicans, who currently control both the House of Representatives and the Senate as part of the 119th United States Congress, to purchase pricey late-campaign advertising. Meanwhile, the Democrats have no billionaires in their corner who can match Musk’s financial power.

The biggest Musk payout was awarded to the Senate Leadership Fund, the primary super PAC that supports Republican Senate candidates. Musk lavished the organization with nearly $200 million over the summer, which was a quarterly record for one donor at the group and more than its Democratic counterpart raised from all sources in the same quarter.

America PAC spends most of its midterm budget on door-to-door canvassing and intensive field operations. PAC officials said nearly 3,000 paid canvassers worked across the country last month, and knocked on 6.5 million doors in seven Senate battlegrounds and nearly three dozen House races. The mission focuses on registering and turning out conservative voters, especially those who vote irregularly, a more difficult objective in a midterm year without Trump leading the ballot.

The PAC’s messaging focuses on socialism and transgender policy, hot button topics for their Democratic rivals. Its canvassers are focusing on connections between Democratic candidates to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two highly controversial figures who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America. Never before have socialists held such high positions in the US and that has many Americans vexed. At the same time, its best-known advertisement in Texas features Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who remarked in 2021 that God is “nonbinary.”

“If Democrats take control of Washington and win key gubernatorial and attorney general races this November, then America risks becoming a socialist, woke and borderless country,” America PAC spokesman Andrew Romeo told reporters in a recent interview. “These robust investments have allowed the G.O.P. apparatus to get its message out so Republicans can have a fighting chance to defy history.”

In other spending sprees, from July through September, Musk gave $20 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, $10 million to the Republican Governors Association, and $2 million to the Republican Attorneys General Association.

The Republicans, especially Trump, owe a lot to the world’s first trillionaire. Musk endorsed Trump for the 2024 presidential election and became one of his largest political donors, reportedly spending hundreds of millions backing him and other Republican candidates. Trump returned the favor by putting Musk in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash federal spending.

The seemingly unbreakable relationship between Trump and Musk collapsed after the US president pushed through his One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Musk has called a “disgusting abomination,” “debt slavery,” and “political suicide.” The fracture between the two men was so serious that Musk went on to create the America Party to challenge the two-party system.

Today, Musk, apart from funneling massive amounts of money into Republican campaign coffers, has remained on the sidelines of the political process to devote more time to his various business ventures. His dream of a third party has also been put on hold as he did not file formal registration paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to legally establish the America Party.

In the meantime, the native of South Africa will have to wait and see if his vast funds can make a difference in one of the most momentous midterm elections in history.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great 19th century Russian author of ‘Crime and Punishment’, ‘The Idiot’, and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, was a counterintuitive thinker who could have appeared on RT. That’s the opinion of Times literary supplement editor Martin Ivens, who, in a piece for Bloomberg arguing against censorship of Irish author Sally Rooney in the UK, mentioned the Russian great.

The suggestion is not without merit. Dostoevsky knew persecution, famously spending ten years in Siberia, four of which were in captivity and another five in military exile having completed his initial present sentence in February 1854.

Rooney is a best-selling author who has publicly taken a stand to back Palestine Action, a group whom it is illegal to support, and about whom it is illegal to make public gestures of support in the UK. British police have made hundreds of bizarre arrests of elderly protesters holding signs supporting the group. Her books have been banned in Britain.

Ivens has used his platform in the Times Literary Supplement to highlight how Russian writers often assume the status of prophets. In his Bloomberg piece he reaffirmed that censoring literature is counter-productive and only serves to feed resentment against the mainstream already in the body politic.

However, his suggestion that Dostoevsky could appear on RT inspired us to inquire as to what topics the great man might hold forth on in 2026.

On Europe

Like many since, Dostoevsky viewed Western Europe with a complex mix of cultural admiration and affinity, moral revulsion, and spiritual anxiety. His experience in captivity – where he was subject to a mock execution – is said to have destroyed his faith in secular humanism. He argued that discarding God led to a moral chaos where “everything is permitted.” 

“Conscience without God is a terrible thing; it can stray into the depths of immorality.”

He also predicted that attempts to build a so-called paradise on earth through rationalism and secularism alone would inevitably lead to political tyranny.

On the EU’s crisis

Dostoevsky would likely and emphatically make the case that Western European leaders have by now displayed a total political bankruptcy and that Western Europeans should renounce materialism and seek meaningful social relations. The riots engulfing major European capitals, and the unfettered profiteering and immigration that have given rise to such tensions, are a symptom of the malaise of the Western European mind. Forcing humanity into rationalist conformity will only lead to extreme bloodshed, he claimed.

“Starting from unlimited freedom, I arrive at unlimited despotism.”

On liberalism 

Dostoevsky would have undoubtedly lamented the emergence of the European Union as a bureaucratic bearer of so-called liberal values. He would have highlighted how his book ‘Demons’ predicted the so-called democratic deficit that characterizes the EU – a tiny, largely unelected bureaucratic elite unreachable to the regular population who are stripped of freedoms.

He would have called the Covid-19 pandemic a brutal event in the restriction of human experience.

Abandoning God and zealously attempting to replace spiritual authority with a moral relativism where everything is permitted will only lead to social and spiritual collapse, Dostoevsky believed. He would have stoutly defended the emphasis and respect for traditional values in popular Russian culture.

“The Westernizers have placed themselves above the people as a paternalistic intelligentsia, rejecting the people.”

He also enjoyed the mess, and this is where he probably would’ve got into trouble with Brussels. The EU notoriously wishes to regulate everything, where Dostoevsky emphasized the irrational and fundamentally spiritual nature of human beings.

On techno-fetishism

He foresaw the loss of grace in the world and its replacement by either authoritarian Catholicism, rational individualistic Protestantism, or indeed technological fetishism. Artificial intelligence in this respect may have represented the apotheosis of his foreboding.

Similarly, Dostoevsky rejected the idea that humans could be rendered calculable and rational beings in their entirety and in that sense would undoubtedly have been horrified at the creeping legislation and legalization of everyday life.

“Human nature acts as a whole, with everything it possesses, consciously and unconsciously.”

The European Union’s Digital Services Act, which allows the behemoth to interfere in the local elections of member countries, would represent such a bureaucratic and legalistic invasion. He would’ve taken a strong stand against the nullification of anti-systemic narratives but would also have emphasized that such political and authority and overreach was inevitable given the collapse of religion and morality.

Dostoevsky would have been as much energized as he would have been horrified by developments in 2026. Were he to be with us today it’s highly likely his voice would contribute to the choir of outspoken and brave commentators who make the channel what it is.

A Florida judge has issued an arrest warrant for former Cuban President Raul Castro, 95, the state’s attorney general announced on Monday. The move marks another escalation in Washington’s months-long pressure campaign against Havana.

The warrant pertains to the 1996 shooting down of two American planes operated by anti-communist Cuban exiles off Cuba’s coast. US authorities accuse Castro of ordering the attack.

“Today, we are announcing state charges against Raul Castro with an arrest warrant for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said at a press conference in Miami. Prosecutors had gathered evidence and witness testimony linking a Cuban spy network to the operation that allegedly led Castro to order the planes shot down, he said.

In February of 1996, Cuban fighter jets shot down two US planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group, killing four men. Havana has maintained that it acted in self-defense against aircraft that violated its airspace.

The CIA has a long history of working with Cuban exile groups against Havana, most notably during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. Washington imposed a broad trade embargo on Cuba the following year.

After US forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, Trump imposed a near-total energy blockade of Cuba and announced that the island will be “next” in line for regime change. The restrictions have led to a widespread energy crisis and frequent blackouts in Cuba.

Russia, China, Mexico and several other nations have provided humanitarian aid to Cuba. Moscow delivered around 700,000 barrels of oil to the island in March.

Israel is threatening to turn its occupation of southern Lebanon into a permanent military presence while pursuing the so-called “Gaza model.” RT correspondent Steve Sweeney reports from Beirut on the destruction of entire villages, mass displacement and efforts to secure an Israeli withdrawal.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared over the weekend that troops would not withdraw from areas they currently control and warned that the military could advance further towards Nabatieh and the Litani River if Hezbollah launches additional attacks on Israel.

Katz claimed that more than 60 villages and 23,000 homes had been destroyed across an Israeli-controlled area of approximately 700 square km in southern Lebanon and that around 200,000 residents had been displaced. 

“All the villages have been wiped out,” he said. “This is the Gaza model, and this is the model we are implementing.” 

The reference is to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, launched in response to the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. The offensive has left much of the Palestinian enclave in ruins, displaced most of its population and killed more than 74,000 people, according to local health authorities.

Fighting in Lebanon has subsided since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect in June, although Israeli strikes and demolitions have continued in the south. The UN estimated that approximately 330,000 people remained displaced as of late September.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also insisted that the IDF would remain in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed.

The latest escalation began in early March, after Hezbollah attacked Israel following the start of US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Israel responded with a major air and ground campaign.

The June agreement envisages a gradual Israeli withdrawal alongside Lebanese army deployments and the removal of Hezbollah’s weapons and infrastructure from designated areas. However, its implementation has stalled.

At least 4,389 people have been killed and 12,424 injured in Lebanon since March 2, according to recent Health Ministry figures.

“The question is whether these talks can deliver an end to occupation or whether Israel intends to make its presence in southern Lebanon a permanent reality,” Sweeney said.

Watch the full report below.

Lithuania has been stripped of the right to host stages of the 2027 Modern Pentathlon World Cup over its refusal to admit Russian and Belarusian athletes, local media reported on Monday.

The decision was reportedly made at the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) executive board meeting earlier this month. Lithuanian Modern Pentathlon Federation President Justinas Kinderis called the move “sad” but unsurprising, as the international body has repeatedly questioned Lithuania’s refusal to admit Russian and Belarusian competitors.

In a letter cited by Delfi, UIPM President Rob Stull said host countries must comply with International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendations and ensure equal opportunities for athletes seeking to qualify for the 2028 Olympics.

In July, the IOC decided to provisionally lift restrictions on the Russian and Belarusian Olympic committees, potentially opening the way for their athletes to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics under national symbols. It also recommended that international sports federations let athletes from both nations enter championships.

Kinderis also criticized the UIPM for failing to understand Lithuania’s position. “We would like our many years of work organizing championships and winning medals to be respected and appreciated more. We expected simple human decency,” he told Delfi on Monday.

According to the Lithuanian federation head, the nation could also lose its right to host the 2028 World Cup stage and the junior and youth championships.

Russia and Belarus have yet to comment on the development.

National federations have until October 25 to submit bids to host the stage that was originally scheduled to take place in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas. If no candidate comes forward, the UIPM could hold just three stages next year instead of four, according to Delfi.

Estonia has similarly lost the right to host two international sports tournaments over its hardline position on Russian and Belarusian athletes. In January, the International Fencing Federation (FIE) stripped it of the right to hold the 2026 European Fencing Championship. The next year’s European Air Weapons Championship was also moved from Estonia to Spain.

The EU is reportedly considering measures to curb the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sports under their national flags. According to Euractiv, proposals discussed include targeted sanctions, visa restrictions, and cuts to funding for sports organizations that allow athletes from the two countries to compete under their national flags.

Anti-government rioters have torched Albania’s education ministry and supreme court, as protests spread across the Balkan nation. Prime Minister Edi Rama is refusing to step down and blames the unrest on Russia. What’s really going on?

Running battles between demonstrators and police have broken out around the ministry on several occasions since. On October 19, hundreds of demonstrators pelted rocks at riot police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. The previous night, offices of the Albanian Supreme Court were set on fire, and arson attacks on several police stations in the city were reported.

Some 500 demonstrators had been detained and 167 of them formally arrested as of October 17, according to Reuters. 295 people had been injured, including 196 police officers, as of October 19, according to Interior Minister Ervin Demo.

What do the protesters want?

The protests follow more than a year of unrest in Albania, which began when Rama banned TikTok in the runup to last March’s parliamentary elections, following similar measures inposed by the EU during every major election across the bloc since 2024. The ban was lifted in February of this year, but demonstrations broke out again in May after Rama’s government authorized the sale of protected wetlands to a development company operated by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The protesters’ core demand – that Rama resign – remains unchanged. However, the movement is now calling for a root-and-branch reform of the entire Albanian establishment, with demonstrators accusing both Rama and opposition leader Sali Berisha of corruption. Unemployment, underfunding of schools, and declining living standards have also been cited by protesters as grievances.

What did Rama say about the protests?

Despite the repeated chants of “Rama resign” heard at the protests, Rama has claimed that the demonstrators do not oppose his government, but Albania’s “mission” of joining the EU. 

“I am not being challenged,” he said in a video address on October 18. “The government is not being challenged, a government majority or a winning party in the elections is not being challenged but a path is being challenged, a mission is being challenged”

“Albanians need to think ​very clearly,” he continued. “Do they want this, do they want that, or do they want the EU?”

Rama has refused to resign, and blamed the protests on “foreign hands that do not wish for Albania to be at peace.” Back in June, Rama accused “the enemies of Albania and of Israel” of waging a “hybrid war” to stop the wetlands development. In two separate speeches on October 18 and 19, the embattled PM blamed the unrest on Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin and a “wave of Russian influence in the entire social media system,” and on “the Khomeiniist republic of Iran, the pinnacle of disinformation.”

Was Russia involved?

In short, no. Rama has not backed up any of his accusations, and they are being treated with skepticism and ridicule by demonstrators and opposition media. Albania’s Publik Media news outlet criticised Rama for “return[ing] to the Berisha, Russia and Iran alibi,” while Pamfleti, an investigative outlet, dismissed his claims as an “ignorant reaction to those protesting his misgovernance” 

Even the US-run Radio Free Europe noted that Rama “did not present public evidence” to back up his allegations. 

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has rejected Rama’s accusations. “No, Edi Rama,” she said on October 18, “it is the citizens of your country who have taken to the streets in protest.”

“This has all the hallmarks of the ‘highly likely’ British approach,” Serbian journalist Nebojsa Malic told RT on October 19, referring to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s failed attempts to blame the 2016 Brexit vote on Russia and a recent ‘terror plot’ at a US airbase on Iran. “We’ll just make an accusation and provide no evidence but say ‘oh it’s highly likely that Russia’s behind this’, and everybody is going to take it for granted.”

Rama is “doing this because he’s hoping it will stick,” Malic said. “He has nothing to lose. He’s seen plenty of leaders in western Europe essentially getting away scot free with covering for their malice and incompetence by blaming Russia.”

“Rama is just as opportunistic as [French President Emmanuel] Macron or any British prime minister in the last ten years,” Malic concluded. “They will say or do whatever, because they think that Russia is not able to defend itself.”

Why did Rama mention Israel?

However, all available information suggests that the funding for Kushner’s Albanian projects comes from Albanian, American, and Qatari individuals and entities. Affinity Partners is leading the €1.4 billion Sazan Island project, while Kushner himself is a minority partner in the wetlands development. 

Rama visited Israel and addressed the Knesset in January. Less than 24 hours later, Israel’s Channel 12 claimed that the Albanian PM had struck a deal with Netanyahu to accept up to 100,000 Palestinian refugees from Gaza. As speculation spread that the Palestinians would be resettled on land developed by Kushner, Rama clarified that no such deal had been, or would be, made.

Regardless, Rama’s close relations with Netanyahu are at odds with public opinion in Albania, where a 2024 poll found that 73% of the population believe that Israel should be sanctioned over its war on Gaza. Kushner is widely seen in Albania as representing Israeli interests, and Rama’s decision to amend environmental laws and grant “strategic investor” status to Affinity Partners has fueled accusations that the PM is placing Washington and West Jerusalem’s interests above Tirana’s.

Will there be an Albanian Maidan?

Some images emerging from Tirana – burning barricades, police officers set on fire with Molotov cocktails, and smouldering government buildings – are reminiscent of the scenes that played out during the 2014 ‘Maidan’ coup in Ukraine. However, Rama is in far less perilous of a position than Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovich, was during the 2014 uprising.

Unlike the present unrest in Albania, the Maidan coup was planned and directed by foreign actors, namely the US State Department and the British embassy in Kiev. Rama, on the other hand, is a close partner of the EU and US, and neither Washington nor Brussels have backed the protesters. Instead, Rama has apparently been given carte blanche to squash the demonstrations, with columns of military vehicles seen entering Tirana between October 15 and 19.

The EU has condemned the use of violence by protesters, with the European Commission criticizing them for “arson, attacks on State institutions and the destruction of public and private property.” In a statement on October 18, the commission praised Rama’s progress toward EU membership and welcomed his “commitment that the right to protest will be protected.”

One week earlier, an EU delegation in Tirana said that Brussels was “aware of allegations of excessive use of force by the police against protesters and journalists,” adding that the government’s response to protests and riots “must remain within the law.”

The EU took a far more interventionist position in 2014, sending officials to meet with demonstrators in Kiev and endorsing protests even as they devolved into violent riots. Brussels prepared sanctions on Yanukovich, and once he had been toppled, it gifted an €11 billion aid package to Ukraine, which would elect the pro-EU Petro Poroshenko president months later.

The West is still firmly on Rama’s side, and he is unlikely to face any calls for resignation from abroad. However, he is still facing the most sustained public pressure campaign of his 13-year stint in power, and if the protests continue and more buildings burn, he may be left with no choice but to admit defeat and step down.

The diesel deal between Moscow and Washington has once again shaken up the geopolitical chessboard, with each passing day bringing fresh and unexpected developments. Most striking is Kiev’s behavior. Despite his enormous dependence on Washington, Vladimir Zelensky has decided to challenge Donald Trump directly, adopting an unusually confrontational approach.

A more pragmatic politician might have announced a moratorium on strikes against Russian oil refineries until the US congressional elections, particularly as Washington had demanded no further concessions. Instead, Zelensky has chosen confrontation, creating a diplomatic crisis of his own making, but whether it develops into something more serious remains to be seen.

Relations between Kiev and Washington have deteriorated before, most notably following the notorious Oval Office confrontation, although that rupture lasted only a few weeks. Western European leaders and congressional hawks worked tirelessly to repair the damage. This time, however, the circumstances are different.

The NATO Europeans appear to have abandoned attempts to charm Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham is no longer on Capitol Hill, while Keith Kellogg, previously sympathetic to Kiev, has departed the administration, thus the pressure on Trump has diminished, although that hardly guarantees a fundamental change in American policy.

For one thing, the diesel agreement has done little to clarify the prospects for peace, given, according to leaks from Washington, American officials continue to promote proposals, including freezing hostilities along existing lines, that Moscow considers unacceptable.

Nor is there much reason to believe Russian diesel exports to the US will quickly bring down fuel prices or transform the electoral landscape.

The agreement is primarily a political gesture, intended to reassure Trump’s increasingly disillusioned core supporters that their president understands their economic difficulties and is attempting to find a way out, yet it’s unlikely to prevent Republicans from losing control of the House of Representatives. The Senate remains uncertain, but its fate will depend on numerous factors, with diesel prices only one consideration.

A Democratic-controlled Congress would almost certainly confront the White House over Ukraine, seeking to preserve American assistance to Kiev, while another impeachment campaign cannot be ruled out either. Such a confrontation could consume Trump’s attention and leave greater responsibility for foreign policy in the hands of officials such as Rubio, whose instincts towards Russia are considerably less accommodating.

None of this diminishes Moscow’s diplomatic achievement in securing the diesel agreement, where it’s demonstrated that Washington is prepared to negotiate directly with Russia when American interests demand it, regardless of Kiev’s objections.

But diplomatic success shouldn’t breed complacency and the underlying contradictions remain unresolved, the prospects for a durable settlement are uncertain, and too many powerful interests still favor prolonging the confrontation.

The diesel deal may have changed the immediate political calculations, but it hasn’t altered the fundamental dynamics of the conflict.

This article was first published by Kommersant, and was translated and edited by the RT team

France will introduce localized curfews as the unrest over rising living costs and deteriorating public services has escalated into widespread violence and destruction, leaving the authorities struggling to restore order.

The unrest escalated over the weekend, with nearly 2,400 people arrested, hundreds of businesses looted, and buildings set on fire across the country. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police lost control in several major cities.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced on Monday that he instructed the regional authorities to introduce curfews following an emergency government meeting.

“They will be partial and may be highly localized,” Lecornu said, adding that declaring a state of emergency cannot be ruled out.

Later on Monday, Paris police imposed an overnight curfew from 11pm to 6am in designated areas around Republic Square and the Les Halles district, restricting access for both adults and minors.

Nearly 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured over the weekend, according to the Interior Ministry. In Limoges, rioters set fire to the city’s historic 19th-century town hall, causing the roof to collapse. Clashes, arson, and looting were also reported in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, and other cities.

Nunez offered his resignation on Sunday, acknowledging failures in anticipating and containing the violence. President Emmanuel Macron refused to accept it, instead ordering a review of security planning and intelligence failures and demanding changes to policing tactics.

More than 2,500 businesses were targeted on Saturday alone, according to Alain Di Crescenzo, the president of the French Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The protests began in September at a high school in Creteil, near Paris, over teacher shortages and deteriorating facilities. The movement has since spread to public sector workers and trade unions demanding higher wages, better services, and relief from rising living costs, while opposing spending cuts in the government’s proposed 2027 budget.

France is grappling with growing public debt (around 119% of GDP) and a substantial budget deficit. The government is seeking to reduce the shortfall through spending cuts and tax measures, while growing political uncertainty has pushed borrowing costs to the highest levels in more than 20 years.

The crisis has intensified pressure on Macron in the final months of his presidency, drawing criticism from across the political spectrum ahead of the 2027 election.

Right-wing politician Marine Le Pen, who leads in first-round presidential polling, called Macron a president “without credibility or authority” who has “lost all touch with reality.”

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party, blamed “ten disastrous years”of Macron’s policies for the crisis and accused Nunez and police commanders of “complete incompetence.”

Israeli security forces arrested ten suspected extremist settlers in the occupied West Bank on Monday following attacks on a US journalist and European diplomats that sparked international outrage.

The suspects were detained during a joint operation dubbed “Olive Leaf,” involving police, the Shin Bet security agency, and the IDF, Israeli police said in a statement on Monday.

The arrests were part of an investigation assigned to the police’s Judea and Samaria District investigative unit, the authorities said, using Israel’s name for the West Bank. Ten suspects were arrested in the pre-dawn operation, evidence linking them to the incidents was seized, and several vehicles were confiscated, the police said.

“The law in Judea and Samaria applies to everyone, regardless of identity or affiliation,” Israeli Police Commissioner Danny Levy stated.

The following day, masked settlers attacked a convoy of European diplomats in the Palestinian territory. Bernard Baudoux, mayor of the French town of Aulnoye-Aymeries, accused the attackers of kicking him and beating him with metal bars.

The attack drew condemnation and demands for action from France, Belgium, and Poland, whose diplomats were part of the delegation. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Washington had urged Israel to “crack down” on the violence.

More than 2,060 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage took place this year to date, with 244 incidents since late September, the UN said last week. More than 160 attacks targeting the Palestinian olive harvest were recorded in the two weeks covered by the report, it added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Mumbai on Tuesday and visit a major oil refinery in western India the next day as he makes his second visit to the country this year. 

Washington’s top diplomat is leaving New Delhi out of his itinerary and is focusing instead on diesel supplies and business deals as high fuel prices weigh on the prospects of US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Rubio is scheduled to visit the Jamnagar refining complex of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries on Wednesday, where he is expected to meet with its billionaire owner Mukesh Ambani.

The Trump administration is emphasizing business deals over policy and politics as American voters focus on the economy, experts told CNBC.

Why Jamnagar has become important for US

Reliance, India’s largest private company, operates the world’s biggest single-site refining complex at Jamnagar – in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Gujarat state – which is capable of processing around 1.4 million barrels of crude a day.

The facility’s importance as a major supplier of refined fuels globally has increased as disruptions in the Middle East and Russia squeeze diesel supplies, with ripple effects on US markets. 

US diesel prices averaged $6.29 a gallon in September, according to the Energy Information Administration. The International Energy Agency has warned that global shortages could persist into 2027.

Reliance has cranked up increased exports amid the crunch. Its diesel shipments to Europe reached around 4-5 million barrels in July, a ten-month high, while exports to Brazil also rose, Reuters reported.

Any additional Indian diesel flowing to global markets would help ease diesel prices and explain Rubio’s trip to Jamnagar. 

Jamnagar, unlike many other refineries in India, can process Venezuela’s heavy crude. Venezuelan deliveries scheduled for India could more than double to around 465,000 barrels a day in October, according to ship-tracking firm Kpler. All of those listed Sikka, the port serving Jamnagar, as their destination, Bloomberg reported. 

Trump has also waived key sanctions and tariff provisions under a new law targeting the Russian energy trade, potentially making more Russian crude available to refiners. Rubio said that Washington was assessing the economic impact of further restrictions, including on countries dependent on Russian oil such as India.

Ambani has invested in Trump’s dream

Rubio’s meeting with Ambani is significant for another reason. 

Reliance is backing a proposed refinery in Brownsville, Texas, designed to process American shale oil. The planned facility would handle 168,000 barrels a day, with the company agreeing to purchase the output under a 20-year arrangement, Reuters reported.

The developer has described it as the first new US refinery in half a century. It will be designed designed for American shale oil. The full investment and construction costs remain undisclosed.

The refinery is key to bringing to the US consumer the benefits of Trump’s efforts – under the political slogan “drill, baby, drill” – to increase domestic fossil fuel production.

The project also adds another strand to the economic ties between New Delhi and Washington, even as both countries inch toward closing a bilateral trade deal following months of negotiations. 

The deal’s first phase has entered legal drafting, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said last week.

Washington and New Delhi are “very close” to finalizing the deal, Rubio said Monday, adding that trade negotiations were among the factors considered in Washington’s sanctions decisions.

Trillionaire vs. billionaire

Rubio’s expected meeting with Ambani comes on the heels of Elon Musk’s public outbursts attributing delays to the launch of his Starlink satellite internet service in India to the Indian billionaire.

Musk, who has Trump’s ears, accused powerful business interests of obstructing Starlink’s entry and even blamed Ambani for the delay, referring to him as “Prime Minister Ambani” in a X post.

Reliance, whose telecommunications business Jio serves more than 530 million customers in India, has denied blocking competition. It has welcomed Starlink and pointed out that its own satellite venture was awaiting New Delhi’s security clearance.

India has also denied favoring domestic companies in the approval process. Musk subsequently acknowledged Reliance’s response, saying, “Much appreciated.”

Rubio cannot avoid politics

Rubio’s decision to hold talks in Mumbai rather than New Delhi has drawn criticism from India’s opposition Congress party.

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi snarked that Rubio “summoned his employee to Mumbai,” while senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioned why the American ambassador announced details of Jaishankar’s schedule.

In the US, six Democratic lawmakers urged Rubio to raise concerns over the detention of anti-government protesters in New Delhi and the alleged use of excessive force. Their October 16 letter also sought an investigation into reports that Indian diplomatic missions monitored protesters in the US.

Meetings with foreign dignitaries outside the capital are not unusual, India’s Foreign Ministry pointed out, citing previous engagements in several cities. It confirmed that Rubio and Jaishankar would discuss energy, trade, investment, defense, and emerging technologies.

The Trump administration prioritizes business over politics, and it may well be that the global energy situation – and a billionaire – have placed New Delhi in a sweet spot to benefit from that.

Israel helped facilitate nearly $2 billion in Qatari payments to Gaza over more than a decade and urged Doha to maintain the funding, even as Israeli officials publicly accused the country of financing Hamas, Time Magazine reported on Sunday, citing official correspondence and testimony from senior Israeli, US, and Arab officials.

Qatari payments to Gaza, long a source of controversy, came under renewed scrutiny after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Qatar has denied that the funds were intended for Hamas and has argued that Israel was responsible for any money that reached the group, as West Jerusalem oversaw the aid mechanism.

According to Time, Israel’s role went beyond simply allowing Qatar to send aid to Gaza. Israeli officials reportedly determined who received the money, facilitated cash deliveries into the enclave, and pressed Doha to keep the payments flowing.

The publication also details how Israel facilitated the payments, including cash deliveries to Gaza in suitcases and a UN-backed payment mechanism. The magazine cited a 2020 letter in which then-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen thanked Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the assistance. Two weeks before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, then-Mossad chief David Barnea reportedly traveled to Doha and asked Qatar to renew the funding for another two months.

By 2018, Qatar had sent roughly $1.1 billion to Gaza, according to an analysis provided to Israeli ministers. The funds covered humanitarian assistance, fuel, and government salaries. Under the arrangement, Qatar paid for fuel and electricity purchased from Israel, financed projects through the UN, and provided monthly $100 payments to some of Gaza’s poorest families, distributed by the World Food Programme after Israeli authorities vetted recipients.

Qatar told Time that all its assistance was intended for Palestinian civilians and delivered through mechanisms coordinated with Israel and international partners. At the same time, Doha argued that Israel bore responsibility if any funds reached Hamas because it had overseen delivery and created the mechanism.

Israel is prepared to attack Iran without US participation if necessary, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, pledging to overthrow Tehran’s government and make striking first a central principle of his security doctrine.

The declaration comes amid ongoing indirect negotiations over the war launched by the US and Israel in February. Israel, a major recipient of American military funding and weapons, has justified its offensives on security grounds, even as the conflict has spread across the region, disrupted Hormuz shipping, and driven up global energy prices.

Presenting his security doctrine in a speech on Sunday, Netanyahu argued that Iran would rebuild its nuclear and military capabilities as long as its government survived and made clear that Israel was prepared to launch further attacks without waiting for American participation.

“If we need to act alone, we will act alone,” he said.

Netanyahu presented Israel’s earlier campaign against Iran as a model, recalling that he told US President Donald Trump he would attack Tehran “either way” and invited American participation in a strike on the Fordow nuclear facility.

He framed further action against Iran as unfinished business, explicitly identifying the overthrow of the country’s government as the ultimate objective. “We are working on it and we will do it,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu framed the renewed strikes as part of a broader doctrine prioritizing attack over defense. He compared striking first to gaining the advantage in childhood street fights and said Israel could establish bases far beyond its borders.

“We will have to live by our sword in order to live for many years,” he said.

He also described plans to seize and destroy what he called threat centers in the occupied West Bank, listed preventing Palestinian statehood as a fundamental principle, and included disrupting military and “civilian systems” in his deterrence strategy.

US-Iran negotiations are already deadlocked. Trump rejected Tehran’s proposal last month as “unacceptable,” insisting the US blockade had left Iran “losing so badly” and seeking a deal on Washington’s terms.

Trump has nevertheless threatened renewed bombing, with Axios recently reporting that US officials expected major combat operations could resume after November’s midterm elections.

Tehran has warned that another attack would trigger broader retaliation, potentially targeting American technology infrastructure across the Gulf.

Kenyan runners Agnes Ngetich and Alexander Mutiso set new course records after winning the women’s and men’s races at the Tokyo Legacy Half Marathon in Japan on Sunday.

Ngetich finished the 21.1km race in one hour, four minutes and 23 seconds (1:04:23), cutting three minutes off the previous women’s course record. Her compatriot Tabitha Njeri Kamau came second in 1:08:28, according to the results.

Mutiso won the men’s competition in 59 minutes and 51 seconds, beating the previous course record by one second. He finished five seconds ahead of fellow Kenyan Kiprono Sitonik, who took second place. 

Speaking after the race, Ngetich said she that was pleased with her victory and surprised by her finishing time. She also noted that the course had been challenging, with hills and numerous sharp turns. “I didn’t think I’ll get that time. The course was not easy,” she said.

Mutiso said his victory had boosted his confidence ahead of his next marathon. He explained that he made his decisive move on a hilly section of the course between the 17km and 18.5km marks.

“I feel good. I see now I am in a good position to prepare well for [my] coming marathon,” he said.

The course began and ended at Japan’s National Stadium and followed roads used during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 

Ngetich’s victory came less than a month after she broke the women-only half marathon world record at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen. The 25-year-old completed that race in 1:05:15.

Nearly 350 people were arrested in Paris on Sunday and overnight amid violent unrest sweeping France despite President Emmanuel Macron’s appeals for calm, the authorities said on Monday.

Hundreds of thousands protested rising living costs and education funding cuts over the weekend, with demonstrations escalating into clashes with police, arson and looting.

The violence erupted Saturday as Yellow Vest demonstrations merged with student protests that began last month at a high school in Creteil, near Paris, over teacher shortages and deteriorating facilities. The movement has since broadened into protests against inequality and rising living costs, with labor unions joining in opposition to the government’s proposed 2027 budget and spending cuts.

Despite Macron’s Friday appeal for “calm and respect,” Paris endured two days of rioting. On Sunday, protesters clashed with police near Place de la Republique as vehicles and trach cans burned, shops were looted and officers deployed tear gas and water cannons.

Footage showed charred wreckage, shattered storefronts, smashed advertising signs and graffiti-covered businesses.

🇫🇷 Paris? Its looks like a third world country 😢

Writer: Samuel pic.twitter.com/rbd0fwCwm6

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 19, 2026

A crowd also attacked RT Arabic correspondent Wafa Fakkani while she was filming the protests. Her cameraman captured the incident before the crew escaped and resumed reporting.

A day prior, violence hit some of the capital’s wealthiest shopping districts, where luxury retailers were targeted by vandals and looters. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said “entire streets” had been “systematically devastated.”

Galeries Lafayette in Paris is being looted tonight.

It’s the French equivalent of Harrods in London or Bergdorf Goodman in NYC pic.twitter.com/F5jZU4bswZ

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 17, 2026

Clashes also erupted in Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux, Angers, and Limoges, damaging businesses and public buildings. Alain Di Crescenzo, head of the CCI France chamber of commerce network, estimated that more than 2,000 businesses were affected, with damage reaching “hundreds of millions of euros.”

Although the worst rioting had subsided by Monday morning, students and union activists blocked access to the iconic Louvre Museum, denouncing “police repression.” Footage showed demonstrators gathering outside the museum’s glass pyramid after passing security, prompting its temporary closure.

🚨🇫🇷 ALERTE INFO !

"ACAB, ACAB, ACAB !"

Devant la pyramide du Louvre à Paris, des étudiants d’écoles d’art et de culture manifestent et bloquent l’entrée du musée.

(@JBSemerdjian / Le Figaro) pic.twitter.com/zpH7KcHPX4

— Impact (@ImpactMediaFR) October 19, 2026

Action and reaction

Politicians across France’s political spectrum blamed Macron and his government for the unrest, accusing the administration of undermining public services and failing to maintain order.

Marine Le Pen, who leads first-round polling for the 2027 presidential election, called Macron a president “without credibility or authority,” describing his administration as “a government on its last legs.” Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the left-wing France Unbowed party, blamed “ten disastrous years” of Macron weakening public services. The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Limoges accused Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and police commanders of incompetence in maintaining public order.

Nunez initially blamed “opportunistic troublemakers” for the unrest, but admitted Monday that police had suffered “a loss of control” due to poor planning. He said he offered his resignation Sunday, but Macron refused, instead ordering a new policing strategy, faster deployment and transparency over intelligence failures. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ordered partial curfews in several cities.

Despite the unrest, Macron departed on Monday for a three-day visit to the Middle East, leaving his government to deal with the fallout at home.

The crisis comes as Macron’s approval ratings hit record lows. An October Ipsos BVA-CESI poll for La Tribune Dimanche put his approval at 15%, with 82% disapproving, the lowest since he took office in 2017. An Ifop survey recorded 17% approval and 83% dissaproval. Le Pen leads first-round polling for the April 2027 election with 32-36% support.

Protests spread beyond France

France was not alone in facing unrest over the weekend, as tens of thousands protested living costs, housing shortages and government policies across Europe. Demonstrations in several countries escalated into clashes, vandalism and arson.

Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described the unrest across Europe over the weekend as resembling “scenes from a civil war,” warning in a post on X that “we risk seeing the same scenes soon in Berlin, Vienna and Munich.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the European unrest as “bordering on chaos,” calling it a major crisis.

“It’s hard to say whether the crisis is systemic or not, but it is obvious that it is a big crisis,” he told reporters on Monday.

Some experts who spoke to RT linked the unrest to EU’s confrontation with Russia. Italian journalist Davide Carbonaro called the severing of economic ties with Moscow “economic and political suicide,” saying that young Europeans felt betrayed and deprived of a future. Serbian journalist Nebojsa Malic accused Western leaders of scapegoating Russia to hide their failures.

RT’s Chay Bowes examined how Europe’s continued support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia are fueling economic pressures and public discontent as unrest spreads across the continent.

Russian and Indian warships have completed joint naval drills off Russia’s Pacific coast, conducting live-fire exercises and practicing defenses against drone attacks as part of the wider Indra-2026 military exercise.

The maritime phase of the drills took place in the Gulf of Peter the Great near Vladivostok, involving the Russian Pacific Fleet corvette Aldar Tsydenzhapov and the Indian Navy frigate INS Sahyadri, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

INS Sahyadri arrived in Vladivostok on October 10 and conducted harbor engagements before operations at sea.

The crews fired naval artillery at surface and aerial targets, carried out coordinated maneuvers, and tested communications between the vessels. They also practiced repelling attacks by unmanned boats and aerial drones representing a simulated enemy. The Russian corvette used 30mm automatic guns, small arms, and electronic warfare systems to counter the simulated threats.

The exercises culminated in a simulated joint operation to rescue a civilian vessel seized by pirates. Russian and Indian naval counterterrorism units boarded the vessel and neutralized the attackers, with drone operators coordinating their movements.

An Indian helicopter landed aboard the Russian corvette shortly after a Russian helicopter took off. The crews then exchanged mannequins representing wounded sailors as part of a casualty evacuation exercise, RT correspondent Igor Zhdanov reported from aboard the Russian warship.

Indra-2026 began on October 14 and involves land, naval, and air forces from both countries.

The land component will continue in Russia’s Chelyabinsk Region until October 23, with troops practicing joint command and control and operations against simulated armed groups. Russian and Indian aircrews are also conducting exercises involving Su-30SM fighter jets and Mi-8 helicopters.

The previous edition of the exercise was held off the coast of the southern Indian city of Chennai.

The deployment builds on the longstanding defense partnership between Moscow and New Delhi and carries forward cooperation discussed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India last December, India’s Defense Ministry said.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said he wants to run for president again if an election is held before the conflict with Russia ends. His five-year term expired two years ago, prompting Moscow to question his legitimacy, while US President Donald Trump has called for him to be replaced.

Zelensky has refused to call a new election since his term expired in May 2024, citing martial law, which was imposed after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. During his 2019 election campaign, he promised to only serve one term.

Speaking to NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, Zelensky said he would seek another term if an election is held while the fighting continues.

“If it will be during the war – of course. It’s my responsibility, because I have to defend my country from the very beginning to end of this war,” he stated.

Moscow has rejected the demand. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Kiev could use an election as a pretext to secure a 60-day ceasefire to “regroup,” recover its military losses, and resume the fighting. He added, however, that Russia is prepared to suspend strikes on election day.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that Zelensky’s presidential powers should have passed to the parliament after his mandate expired, and questioned whether he can sign binding peace agreements. He called Zelensky’s refusal to hold elections a “strategic mistake.”

Zelensky’s ambitions also face opposition at home. A survey in September by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology found that 53% of respondents believe he should only serve one presidential term, up from 46% in December 2025.

“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” Trump told reporters. 

He also blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for the worsening global diesel crisis and rising prices which hurt American farmers, accusing Zelensky of creating “problems for the world” despite his repeated demands to stop the attacks.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” arguing that he could have secured a better deal with Russia two years ago. He added that Ukraine is “in shambles,” describing its male population as “low, wounded, and/or dead.”

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have killed at least 11 people, including nine children, in a drone attack on a displacement camp in West Darfur, according to the region’s Health and Social Welfare Minister, Babiker Hamdin.

In a statement published on Sunday, Hamdin said that the attack targeted displaced civilians on the Sudan-Chad border. According to preliminary figures, the victims included nine children aged between five and ten and two women aged 23 and 36. Five others were injured.

The victims had reportedly fled their villages last year after RSF fighters allegedly burned and looted their homes. They subsequently sought refuge in Sanakit, near the Chadian border, where they were living in difficult humanitarian conditions before the latest attack.

He called on the international community to hold those responsible accountable and designate the paramilitary group as a terrorist organization.

Sudan was plunged into a civil war three years ago after a struggle for power broke out between the SAF and the RSF. 

The RSF has faced similar accusations from rights groups over attacks on civilians. In September, the Sudanese Alliance for Rights reported that five people were killed in an attack on a market in North Kordofan, while the Committee for Justice blamed the group for a courthouse strike that killed ten. On October 9, the Sudan Doctors Network accused the rebels of a drone attack on a displacement camp in Blue Nile state that killed 31 people, including four children.

India has asked Meta to review how Facebook and Instagram recommend content, citing concerns that their algorithms disproportionately promote certain narratives, amid protests over disputed voter rolls in New Delhi.

The advisory from India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) calls for changes to content-ranking systems to prevent misleading, manipulated, or out-of-context material from being repeatedly recommended to users, news agency PTI reported on Monday after reviewing the document which was issued on October 10.

Meta has been asked to act immediately and inform the government of the steps taken.

The advisory comes amid demonstrations by the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and opposition parties demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over a nationwide electoral-roll revision.

Opposition groups allege that legitimate voters have been excluded and that the exercise benefits Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Election Commission and BJP deny manipulating voter lists. The advisory does not identify any specific protest as the reason for its issuance.

The document calls on Meta to prevent users from being disproportionately exposed to a “single or limited set of narratives” and ensure greater diversity of credible information.

India’s IT Ministry has received reports from government agencies suggesting that Meta’s algorithms favor certain kinds of content, PTI reported, citing sources in the ministry.

A Catholic priest in Ecuador has been killed after a large wooden crucifix fell from a church wall and struck him on the head during Mass.

The tragedy occurred on Saturday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in the southern city of Guayaquil. The service was livestreamed on social media, according to local media reports.

Footage shows the 53-year-old parish priest, Father Patricio Alfredo Sanchez Molinari, standing near the altar when the crucifix mounted on the wall behind him suddenly tilts forward and falls on him. The incident occurred roughly 30 minutes into the service leaving the congregation stunned and bereaved.

The Archdiocese of Guayaquil subsequently confirmed the priest’s death in an official statement, saying Cardinal Luis Cabrera joined “in prayer for the eternal rest of his soul and expresses its solidarity, affection and love to the Redemptorist family, to his families and friends.”

Parishioners at San Lorenzo in Vinces, where Father Patricio had previously served, also paid tribute to the priest, recalling his “dedication and pastoral love” to their community.

Ecuadorian authorities have not publicly commented on the incident, and the cause of the crucifix’s fall remains unknown.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Russia next year for his annual summit with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Monday, after preparing for a visit this year.

”More likely next year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS when asked whether Modi would visit before the end of the year.

Putin invited Modi to Russia for the 24th Russia-India Annual Summit during his visit to New Delhi last December. The two leaders meet on a rotating basis under a strategic partnership established in 2000.

Preparations for the visit were already under way in May. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Modi confirmed during their meeting in New Delhi that it is his turn to visit Russia this year. Lavrov was in India for a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers.

Modi and Putin last met in September during the BRICS summit in New Delhi, when the Russian president renewed his invitation. Modi accepted, with the dates to be finalized through diplomatic channels, according to the Indian Prime Minister’s Office.

Moscow, however, raised the possibility of a 2027 visit last month. A visit this year is possible if Modi’s schedule permits, but Russia will otherwise arrange the meeting in the first half of next year, Kremlin presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.

Cooperation has also advanced on workforce mobility. Putin signed an agreement on the temporary employment of Indian and Russian nationals last week.

India remains a natural partner for Russia as Moscow strengthens its relations with Asian countries, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said last week. Maintaining strong ties serves the interests of both nations and the world, he added.

Negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict are making “great progress,” US President Donald Trump has said, defending his decision to hold back economic pressure on Russia to keep diplomacy moving.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said his priority is securing a settlement rather than taking steps that could undermine ongoing negotiations.

“I am in the process of negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” he wrote.

“Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations!” Trump added, without specifying who he meant. His administration has previously negotiated the release of several Americans jailed in Russia and has also helped mediate several prisoner-of-war exchanges between Moscow and Kiev, including a May agreement providing for the return of 1,000 prisoners on each side. 

The president’s remarks followed his waiver of sweeping penalties pushed by the late US lawmaker Lindsey Graham, dubbed the “sanctions from hell,” including tariffs targeting Russia and major purchasers of its energy. Washington also eased restrictions on Russian diesel exports earlier this month to alleviate rising global fuel prices.

He also accused Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky of resisting a settlement despite extensive Western funding, while criticizing Kiev’s continued attacks on Russian refineries for disrupting global diesel markets.

Moscow welcomed Washington’s continued diplomatic engagement on Monday. “The American side continues its mediation and peacemaking efforts, which we highly appreciate,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

However, a final settlement is impossible without participation by someone representing Kiev who is prepared to take responsibility, he added.

At Friday’s EU summit in Brussels, Zelensky sought another €70 billion ($78.5 billion) in foreign financing for next year, in addition to the €90 billion already being paid out by the bloc to bankroll Kiev’s war effort.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico rejected participation in further financing, while Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis ruled out guarantees from Prague. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, however, said the European Commission would nevertheless examine further funding options.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has rebuked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky over his insistence that his country must defeat Russia, rejecting his all-or-nothing stance as a “false binary” and insisting that the conflict must end through a negotiated settlement.

Speaking to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, Zelensky said Ukraine must win the conflict with Russia, calling victory essential to preserving the country’s independence, geopolitical alignment, and national identity. He lamented that Ukraine “will not prevail” if the US sides with Russia.

“Zelensky presents a false binary this morning that Ukraine must win,” Bessent told the show shortly after Zelensky’s appearance, arguing that the priority should be ending the conflict rather than determining a winner. “The war must end, and that will be with some kind of a negotiated settlement.”

Bessent stressed that Trump made it clear “he wants to end this war,” noting that the president’s decisions are aimed at securing a negotiated settlement.

The move followed Trump’s decision days earlier to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports to ease rising fuel prices. According to US media reports, Trump eased the restrictions after Zelensky refused to halt strikes on Russian energy facilities, which the president blamed for global fuel shortages and soaring prices at the pump – a critical issue just weeks before the US midterm elections. The moves sparked outrage in Kiev, where they were seen as a betrayal of Ukraine’s efforts to maintain Western pressure on Russia.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump defended the moves, saying Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries are driving up prices, while stressing that he is focused on brokering a peace deal and does not want to “do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.” Trump also argued that Zelensky does not want to end the conflict and probably never did, despite receiving billions in Western aid.

Zelensky, whose presidential term expired in 2024, has refused to hold a new election, citing martial law. Moscow maintains that Zelensky is illegitimate; Trump recently called for his resignation, saying Ukraine should get “a new president.”

Since returning to office, Trump has revived talks with Russia, which were largely suspended under his predecessor, Joe Biden. His efforts to broker peace have produced some results, including POW exchanges, but the diplomatic push has been overshadowed by the US war against Iran and has yet to yield a peace deal.

Kenya has confirmed its eighth case of Ebola after a man tested positive for the virus, health authorities announced on Sunday. Director-General for Health Patrick Amoth announced the latest infection following a new round of testing. 

“Today, 38 people were tested, and one tested positive. He is a 49-year-old man who is not a healthcare worker and developed fever, headache and muscle pain,” Dr. Amoth said. 

Kenya recorded its first Ebola case in early October 2026, when a man who had traveled from DR Congo to Nairobi was diagnosed with the disease. The patient died at a hospital in the Kenyan capital on October 5. His infection prompted heightened surveillance and contact tracing amid concerns about further transmission.

According to a situation report by the country’s Health Ministry dated October 16, the outbreak has affected eight provinces, with North Ubangi becoming the latest to report infections. Two cases, including one death, were identified in the province’s Wapinda health zone. 

The report put the nationwide toll at 9,415 confirmed infections and 4,536 deaths, representing a case fatality rate of 48.2%. A total of 66 health zones across the eight affected provinces have reported infections. 

Earlier this month, Congolese Health Minister Roger Samuel Kamba said the outbreak had passed its peak, citing a decline in new infections and fewer areas reporting active transmission. However, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) cautioned that the epidemic was not yet under control, warning that insecurity in affected areas had disrupted surveillance.  

The Ebola outbreak had also affected neighboring Uganda, which declared itself free of the virus on July 28 after. According to Uganda’s Health Ministry, the outbreak resulted in 20 confirmed cases, including 15 imported infections and five locally transmitted ones. Two people died and 18 recovered.

The US has warned of severe consequences for EU businesses if Brussels goes ahead with plans to restrict American firms such as Elon Musk’s Starlink from accessing satellite spectrum in the bloc.

The warning, issued by US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder, comes after the European Commission proposed earlier this year to reserve a share of the spectrum used for direct smartphone-to-satellite connections for EU market players beyond 2027, when current licenses expire.

The move could limit access to satellite frequencies for foreign providers as part of Brussels’ stated push for technological sovereignty.

“If the purpose is to make US less competitive, I think that that’s not a legitimate goal of this kind of legislation,” Puzder said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Monday. “You don’t make European companies more competitive by making US companies less competitive.”

The envoy stressed that EU businesses “should be wary” that US retaliation “would be very devastating” for them, given the size of the American market.

Politico reported earlier this month that European telecoms groups Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone, and Telefonica have begun discussing an alliance to jointly bid for the frequencies and to “squeeze” Starlink out of the direct-to-smartphone satellite connectivity market.

In June, SpaceX, which operates the Starlink satellite internet network, criticized the proposal, claiming it could degrade connectivity in Ukraine, which uses the service to carry out drone strikes deep inside Russia. Earlier this month, Kiev stated that access to the service had been restricted as US President Donald Trump continued to step up pressure on Vladimir Zelensky to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries.

The laws have drawn criticism from the US, which has also condemned the European Commission’s €120 million ($136.51 million) fine against Elon Musk’s X platform for alleged violations of the DSA.

In his FT interview, Puzder questioned whether Brussels is seeking to promote competition or generate revenue for the EU budget through multibillion-euro fines on US tech companies. The envoy also told the newspaper that the bloc’s ambitions to strengthen its tech industry risk being undermined by regulations that discourage US investment and fuel frustration among American tech firms.

Seven civilians were injured in a series of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Belgorod Region, Russia, local officials report. The strikes impacted a number of locations, including the regional capital and a highway, causing damage to homes and commercial properties.

In one village, a man suffered shrapnel wounds after a drone detonated, the emergency headquarters said on Sunday. Four other men were seriously injured when a drone struck a passenger vehicle.

Another drone attack targeted an infrastructure facility in the regional capital, injuring two men – one suffered shrapnel wounds to the neck, and the other sustained multiple injuries to his face, chest, shoulder, and legs. The assault also damaged technological equipment at the site.

The attacks come as civilian casualties mount in Russian regions bordering Ukraine. Also on Sunday, Leonid Pasechnik, the governor of Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), reported three fatalities and three injuries in the region. A woman was killed in Severodonetsk, a man died in a strike in the Troitsky district, and another driver died when his vehicle was hit near a village.

Moscow has accused Kiev of intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure and residential areas with long-range drones to make up for setbacks on the battlefield, where Russian forces continue to advance.

Ukrainian forces launched a major drone attack on St. Petersburg on Sunday, killing one person, injuring five others, and causing a fire at a local oil terminal. Twelve apartment blocks and two private homes sustained damage during the raid, which local Governor Aleksandr Beglov called an attack by “the Ukrainian Nazis.” The oil terminal is the largest facility of its kind in the Baltic region, handling 125 million tons of liquefied product per year.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the drone strike on St. Petersburg “final manifestations of agony” from Ukraine, adding that “the Kiev regime is fighting back but cannot alter the course of history.” He added that Russia has been conducting “systematic, massive strikes” that “yield results.”

Two of at least seven Ukrainian drones used in a strike on a Russian college which killed 21 people earlier this year were equipped with Starlink terminals, investigators have established.

The nighttime attack on a college dormitory in Starobelsk in the Lugansk People’s Republic took place in May and was classified as a deliberate terrorist attack by Russia’s Investigative Committee. Its chairman, Aleksandr Bastrykin, discussed findings from the investigation in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Monday.

“The Ukrainian armed forces used at least seven drones identified as Fire Point 1, Fire Point 2, Sichen and RZ-100, two of which were controlled via the Starlink satellite communication system,” he said.

The strike also injured scores of civilians and caused an estimated $14.5 million in damage, according to Bastrykin. Investigators identified Robert Brodi, commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, Oleg Ivashchenko, head of Ukrainian military intelligence, and Andrey Klimenko, commander of the 414th drone brigade, as the main suspects, he added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denied imposing such restrictions, accusing Vladimir Zelensky of making false claims and suggesting the Ukrainian leader does not know “what he’s talking about.” Starlink owner Elon Musk has also rejected the Ukrainian allegations.

Rubio further stated that Ukraine has no access to Starshield, Starlink’s military-grade sister service.

Kiev and Brussels fear the EU’s next package of sanctions against Russia could be its last, with officials rushing to secure its adoption before Marine Le Pen potentially becomes France’s next president, according to The Telegraph.

The right-wing National Rally politician, who opinion polls put in the lead of the race, has strongly criticized Brussels’ approach to Ukraine. She has compared Kiev’s proposed accession to the EU to economic suicide and repeatedly called for suspending all aid to the country.

Kiev and Brussels are “wargaming contingency measures” in case Le Pen wins the election next April, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. One source described February as possibly the “last opportunity” to adopt new sanctions against Russia.

The EU has imposed 21 rounds of sanctions since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 and is preparing a 22nd. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday contrasted the bloc’s unwavering stance with that of US President Donald Trump, who has eased restrictions on Russian diesel to alleviate domestic fuel shortages.

As the Ukraine conflict has dragged on, Brussels has found it increasingly difficult to identify new Russian targets for sanctions. The latest negotiations reportedly stalled over France’s push to remove billionaire Alisher Usmanov from the EU’s blacklist.

The move was presented in the media as part of a backroom deal to secure the release of convicted French spies in Azerbaijan. Skeptics, however, pointed to Usmanov’s successful legal challenges exposing weaknesses in the EU’s justification for sanctioning him as another major factor.

Negotiations over the 21st sanctions package, adopted in July, also faced firm resistance from several member states. Greece secured an exemption allowing Greek shipping company Dynagas to continue transporting LNG from Russia’s Yamal project. Bulgaria prevented the blacklisting of Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill, while Germany and Portugal defended their imports of Russian seafood. Tourist destinations France and Italy, meanwhile, opposed tighter entry restrictions on Russian military personnel.

Egypt has pledged to support Saudi Arabia in its escalating conflict with Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, the country’s top security body has announced.

Riyadh has been pressing allies for assistance following Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and oil facilities in retaliation for its military operations in Yemen. The group has demanded that Saudi Arabia lift its blockade of Yemeni airports and ports, describing its approach as “an eye for an eye.”

Egypt’s National Defense Council, chaired by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, announced the decision on Sunday, a day after he sought parliamentary authorization to deploy troops and military equipment abroad. The council pledged “all possible forms of support” to help Saudi Arabia defend its security but did not specify what assistance Egypt would provide.

The renewed confrontation began in July when Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces struck Houthi-held Sanaa Airport, ending years of relative calm following a UN-brokered truce in 2022.

The Houthis retaliated with missile strikes, declared a maritime blockade, and seized territory along Yemen’s Red Sea coast, including Mokhaa and islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Riyadh subsequently intensified its airstrikes and backed a counteroffensive by Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

An airstrike on a house in Yemen’s northern Saada province killed at least nine people, including five children and two women, and wounded 19 on Sunday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said. It blamed Saudi Arabia, which did not immediately comment. Across the border, the Saudi authorities said a Houthi projectile wounded six people in a residential area of Najran province.

The Houthis’ chief negotiator, Mohamed Abdulsalam, blamed Riyadh for the escalation and accused it of obstructing mediation efforts. He said Oman proposed a five-day truce to facilitate talks and that the rebels agreed to halt attacks if Saudi Arabia meets unspecified humanitarian demands.

A Saudi diplomat offered a conflicting account last week, saying the kingdom proposed talks in Oman in July to resolve their differences but that the Houthis refused to take part.

Most Italians oppose aid to Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said, as the country grapples with cost-of-living protests.

“We are fully aware that the majority of our public opinion, also influenced from abroad, is opposed to aiding Ukraine,” he told the BBC in an interview published on Saturday.

“It is difficult to explain that you have to help a nation resist and that helping it resist does not mean that you are opposed to peace.”

He nevertheless argued that Italy should continue to support Kiev, while acknowledging public anger over rising energy prices linked to the sanctions on Russia. He went on to claim that ‘Russian disinformation’ is fueling discontent.

“We cannot give in to public opinion when we believe that public opinion is wrong,” Crosetto said, adding that “it is difficult to explain that, at this moment, we cannot give Russia any gift.”

Around 290,000 Ukrainian citizens are officially resident in Italy, according to the latest figures from the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica. Most of them are reluctant to return to their home country, Italian media reports.

US President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports earlier this month after Kiev refused to halt strikes on Russian refineries, which Trump blamed for soaring prices. Crosetto argued that it was “a major mistake” for Trump to reduce support for Ukraine at such a critical time.

Crosetto’s remarks came as anti-government demonstrations swept northern Italy over the weekend, with clashes erupting in Milan, Turin, and Bologna. Protesters demanded more funding for public services and accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government of prioritizing military spending over education and welfare. Demonstrators in Milan chanted “more money for families, less for wars.”

Meloni’s policy has faced resistance within her governing coalition, including from Matteo Salvini’s League party. Last week, Roberto Vannacci, the leader of the right-wing National Future party, accused Vladimir Zelensky of treating Europe “like an ATM” after the Ukrainian leader requested another €70 billion ($79 billion) in aid. Vannacci argued that Italian taxpayers should not have to foot the bill.

An Austrian Airlines flight carrying 57 people from Tel Aviv, Israel to Vienna made an emergency landing in Bulgaria following a bomb threat.

According to a statement from Bulgaria’s Transport Ministry, the crew of Austrian Airlines flight OS82, an Airbus A320, reported that it received a bomb threat while flying near the Romanian border on Sunday.

Bulgarian MiG-29 fighter jets were scrambled to escort the aircraft to Vasil Levski Sofia Airport. All 51 passengers and six crew members disembarked safely.

Austrian Airlines spokeswoman Anita Kiefer said the passengers will be rebooked on alternative flights following a police search of the aircraft.

The incident follows two bomb threats involving Delta Air Lines flights between New York and Tel Aviv on October 13. One aircraft was evacuated and searched after landing at Ben Gurion Airport, while another was held at New York’s JFK Airport before departure. Both were cleared after security inspections found no explosives.

The latest scare also comes after an attempted terrorist attack aboard a Flydubai flight carrying mostly Israeli passengers from Dubai to Tel Aviv on September 30. A co-pilot attacked the captain with an emergency axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft. Passengers and crew members overpowered the assailant, allowing the plane to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The pilot, Indian national Smit Machchhar, sustained serious injuries.

According to Emirati prosecutors, the suspect, an Omani national, planned to crash the aircraft into the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion Airport to cause mass casualties.

Following the attempted hijacking, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered tighter security checks on foreign airline crews and a comprehensive review of security procedures.

French opposition leaders have blamed President Emmanuel Macron and his government’s policies for the wave of violent unrest sweeping the country.

The latest round of demonstrations by students and public sector workers over the high cost of living and deteriorating public services descended into rioting, vandalism, and looting in Paris and other cities on Saturday. Thousands of people were arrested and hundreds of police officers were injured.

Marine Le Pen, who leads first-round polling for the 2027 presidential election, described Macron as a president “without credibility or authority” who has “lost all touch with reality,” calling his government “a government on its last legs.”

“We are experiencing a profound crisis of trust and authority that threatens democracy. This should serve as a warning: Our country is caught in a vice, even held hostage, between violence and powerlessness,” she said in a message on X.

“We are paying the price for decades of laxity, the erosion of authority, and the moral and material weakening of our domestic security forces,” RN President Jordan Bardella said. “I expect Emmanuel Macron to apologize and step down.”

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party, told French broadcaster LCI that the protests are “the result of ten disastrous years during which President Macron has undermined the functioning of the state and public services.”

He accused Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and police leaders of “complete incompetence” in handling the protests and criticized the use of riot-control weapons. LFI previously rejected government accusations that it incited violence.

“We will show no leniency. Listening and dialogue do not mean weakness or impunity,” he said.

Macron also pledged to address the concerns of protesting students, who have complained about staff shortages and poor learning conditions. “Their voices must be heard, without prejudice and without downplaying their difficulties.”

Macron’s approval rating has fallen to just 15-19%, according to opinion polls this month. Le Pen leads first-round polling for the election in April, with support ranging from 32% to 36%.