The world’s second-biggest continent saw a 100% increase in purchases of Russian goods

The African continent has significantly boosted imports from Russia, outperforming Moscow’s trading partners from North and South America, according to local macroeconomic data cited by Russian business daily RBK.

In 2023, the share of African imports in Russia’s overall export volumes saw a 100% year-on-year increase from 2.5% to nearly 5%, the media outlet reported, citing the Federal Customs Service (FCS).

Meanwhile, the portion for the ‘America’ macroregion, which includes the Caribbean, Central America, South America and North America, reportedly dropped to 2.9% in 2022 compared to 3.5% recorded in the previous year. In monetary terms, Russian exports to African nations increased by 43% to $21.2 billion, while sales to the countries of North and South America declined by 40% to $12.2 billion.

In comparison to the “pre-sanctions” year of 2021, Africa’s share in Russian exports increased from 3% to 5%, while America’s portion decreased from 6% to 3%, according to the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-Term Forecasting (CAMAC), as cited by RBK.

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In 2023, exports of Russian petroleum products to Africa almost doubled, with wheat exports also growing significantly, the outlet said.

African countries’ share in Russian trade turnover (4.2%) are in line with the continent’s contribution to the world economy and global trade, which is hovering around 3%, according to Alexander Firanchuk, a senior research associate at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).

Russian exports to the US specifically have seen a nearly six-fold decline since spring 2022, when the first sanctions related to the Ukraine conflict were imposed, Firanchuk said, adding that the major drop in trade relations has led to reduced importance for the whole region. Some 70% of the exports to the US for 2024 so far have come from fertilizers and nuclear fuel – some of the only Russian exports to the US not impacted by sanctions or tariffs.

READ MORE: Russia and African nation strengthen security partnership

According to Firanchuk, prior to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US accounted for nearly half of Russian exports to North and South America.

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Those who have already killed would make more effective soldiers than those who haven’t, Denis Malyuska argues

Ukrainian convicts serving sentences for murder should be conscripted and sent to the front line to fight the Russian forces, the country’s Justice Minister Denis Malyuska has suggested.

Such a move would boost the ranks of the Ukrainian military amid its personnel shortages, and would also help reduce pressure on the country’s prison system, Malyuska said, in an interview with broadcaster Rada on Thursday.

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian parliament approved – on its first reading – a bill allowing for the incorporation of inmates into the country’s armed forces, except for convicts who have committed crimes against national security or who have murdered two or more people, as well as rapists, pedophiles, and those responsible for fatal driving accidents under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

However, the minister suggested that those who committed homicide should not be banned from service. “Perhaps those who know how to kill would be more effective as soldiers than those who have not killed yet, and less dangerous than those who were robbing for decades and [were] then given a machine gun,” he said, as cited by Ukrainian media.

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The Justice Ministry expects that some 10,000 inmates could become soldiers as a result of a mobilization in Ukraine’s penitentiary system, Malyuska said.

”The convicts are going to serve in separate units… those formations are definitely going to be deployed on the front line or near it,” he said. None of the criminals will serve in the rear, the minister assured his interviewer.

Malyuska didn’t mention whether drafted inmates would be provided with some sort of military training before being sent into battle.

He acknowledged that the mobilization would also reduce pressure on Ukrainian prisons, explaining that “the number of those who end up in our institutions is growing significantly; at some stage we may burst.”

Informed sources cited by Bloomberg on Thursday said that the US and the EU are concerned that Russian forces may punch through Ukrainian defensive lines in the coming weeks. Kiev’s troops are struggling because of delays in Western military aid and personnel shortages, the agency said.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky signed a new mobilization law, which states that draftees are to remain in the military indefinitely, and also introduced harsher penalties for dodgers and a simplified process of handing out summonses.

READ MORE: West fears Ukrainian front line could collapse soon – Bloomberg

In February, Zelensky claimed that only 32,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the conflict since February 2022. The Russian Defense Ministry estimates Kiev’s losses at over 444,000.

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A major offensive would have “terrible consequences,” the US Secretary of State has said

The US believes that Israel could achieve its military objectives in Gaza without an invasion of the city of Rafah, which Washington will not support, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said. The statement was made on Friday at a news conference following a summit of G7 foreign ministers on the Italian island of Capri.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted his country will conduct a military operation in Rafah, despite concerns over the potential civilian death toll. Members of the Israeli government, including Netanyahu, have maintained that the Jewish state cannot achieve its primary stated goal of defeating the Palestinian militant group Hamas without entering Rafah.

“We believe that a major military operation with a large presence of civilian population would have terrible consequences for that population,” Blinken told journalists. “We have been very clear about this …We cannot support a major military operation in Rafah,” he said.

The US, a key supplier of military aid to Israel, has been expressing concerns that an operation in Rafah would cause significant civilian casualties. Blinken pointed out there are currently around 1.4 million people in the city, which is located next to the Egyptian border, many of whom have been displaced from other parts of Gaza.

“We are committed, as Israel is, to ensuring that Gaza cannot be controlled by Hamas … Making sure that Hamas cannot repeat the events of October 7 … But in terms of major military operations in Rafah, it’s something that we don’t support and we believe that the objective can be achieved by other means,” Blinked stated.

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The diplomat insisted that the US had engaged in discussions about Rafah with senior Israeli officials as recently as this week and that such discussions would continue.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said recently that a date had already been set for an operation in Rafah, but declined to reveal exactly when. On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that two additional brigades will be mobilized for operations in Gaza. The announcement came a week after the Jewish state pulled most of its ground forces out of the Palestinian enclave, in what the military leadership described as preparation for a mission in the city of Rafah.

The ongoing hostilities in Gaza were triggered by a Hamas incursion into southern Israel in October, in which some 1,200 people were killed and hundreds taken hostage. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed amid the Israeli retaliation, most of them women and children, according to local health authorities.

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US tax dollars were used to help West Jerusalem target Tehran’s American-made F-14 fighter jets, the SpaceX CEO says

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took aim at Israel’s strikes on an Iranian airbase, suggesting that West Jerusalem used US money to attack American-made jets, which had been sold to the Shah during the Cold War era.

On Friday, several media outlets reported that Israel had struck targets across Iran. The airstrike came nearly a week after Iran launched a series of its own attacks on Israel using hundreds of drones and missiles in response to what Tehran says was a deadly Israeli raid on its consulate in Damascus, Syria.

According to Iranian authorities, one of Israel’s strikes on Friday targeted Isfahan airbase, home to an Iranian fleet of US-made F-14 Tomcats. The fighter jets, which were discontinued in the US in 2006, had been purchased by Iran’s Western-leaning government before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The exact scale of the damage to the airbase is unclear, with Iranian media claiming that several Israeli drones had been destroyed during the attack on the installation.

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Tehran lost several F-14s during the grueling 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq war but the rest reportedly survived, although the 1970s-era warplanes have faced maintenance difficulties due to a lack of spare parts.

Commenting on the strike on Friday, Musk pointed to the irony of the situation, writing “our tax dollars somehow also blowing up our tax dollars.” In a separate post on X (formerly Twitter), he seemed to express his dismay about the current standoff in the Middle East, saying “we should send rockets not at each other, but rather to the stars.”

Israel, a key American ally in the Middle East, has been one of the leading recipients of military aid from Washington. In 2016, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the US, under which West Jerusalem would receive $38 billion in assistance over the following 10 years. The US also helped the Jewish state develop its famed Iron Dome air defense system, and the country is a member of the F-35 fighter program.

The US Congress has been deliberating over a foreign aid package bill which would provide aid to Israel for months. While the bulk of it ($61 billion) is earmarked for Ukraine, it also includes $26 billion in support for Israel and the provision of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which has suffered unprecedented devastation during West Jerusalem’s conflict with HAMAS.

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Employees in banking and finance are particularly concerned about being replaced by innovative technology

The majority of Russians believe the world will be dependent on artificial intelligence (AI) in the near future, while 39% fear their jobs could be replaced by the technology, a survey by VTB bank has found.

According to the poll results published on Thursday, 55% of Russians working in banking and finance believe AI could jeopardize their jobs. Their concerns are shared by 45% of IT specialists and 44% of those employed in trade and catering. Workers in transportation (39%), healthcare (38%), manufacturing (37%), education (34%,) and construction (31%) also fear they could be displaced by automation, the study by the Russian bank showed.

More than half of those polled (58%) are concerned about AI potentially getting out of control, although 67% of respondents believe industries cannot develop without innovative technology.

Of those surveyed, 10% said they would hand over management of their personal finances to AI. Only 8% would be willing to entrust their lives and health to a machine, data showed.

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“Sooner or later, machine-learning technologies will dominate most of the services around us. But such technologies can never replace human intelligence,” said Maksim Konovalikin, head of the data analysis department at VTB, as cited by a press release.

Last year, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that the AI “revolution” could jeopardize 27% of jobs within the 38-member bloc. Even though there are currently few signs that AI could cause significant disruption to the labor market, numerous jobs are already at risk, the Paris-based organization said in its 2023 Employment Outlook.

Goldman Sachs also predicted last year that generative AI such as ChatGPT could replace up to 300 million full-time jobs worldwide. According to the investment bank’s estimates, roughly two-thirds of jobs in the US and Europe are exposed to “some degree of AI automation,” while generative AI could be used as a substitute for a quarter of current jobs.

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The country’s confrontation with Iran has raised geopolitical risks, S&P has said

International ratings agency S&P Global downgraded Israel’s long-term credit rating on Thursday, citing the risk of a military escalation with Iran.

S&P has become the second major US credit ratings agency to do so after Moody’s lowered Israel’s credit score in February due to the “ongoing military conflict with Hamas” in the country’s first-ever sovereign downgrade.

The agency cut Israel’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’ and the short-term ratings to ‘A-1’ from ‘A-1+’.

S&P explained that the negative outlook reflected the “risk that the Israel-Hamas war and the confrontation with Hezbollah could escalate or affect Israel’s economic, fiscal, and balance-of-payments parameters more significantly than we currently expect.”

The decision came hours before Israel carried out a series of strikes on Iran in the early hours of Friday. It came less than a week after Tehran fired a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel in response to a suspected Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria.

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“The recent increase in confrontation with Iran heightens already elevated geopolitical risks for Israel,” S&P said. A wider regional conflict will likely be avoided, but the Israel-Hamas war appears set to continue throughout 2024, whereas it was previously assumed that the military activity wouldn’t last more than six months, the agency said.

The ongoing war is weighing on Israel’s budget, economists have warned. The hostilities have prompted all three US credit ratings agencies – Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch – to place the country on negative ratings watch since Israel declared war on Hamas in response to a surprise attack by the militant group in October, which killed around 1,200 Israelis.

“Now that geopolitical relations have broadened and worsened, and the war budget likely to be in place for an extended period of time, the one-notch downgrade and retaining the negative outlook is more than justified,” Brendan McKenna, an economist at Wells Fargo & Co, told Bloomberg.

S&P has forecast that Israel’s general deficit will widen to 8% of gross domestic product this year, higher than the government’s estimate of 6.6% – mostly due to higher defense spending. Larger shortfalls are expected to persist over the medium term and net general government debt is set to peak at 66% of GDP in 2026, the ratings agency said.

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Both Tehran and West Jerusalem have downplayed the event

Explosions near the Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday morning were Israeli strikes on a military airfield, the New York Times claimed on Friday, citing anonymous sources. Neither Israel nor Iran has officially commented on the incident.

Israel vowed to “respond” to last Saturday’s drone and missile strike by Iran, itself reprisal for the April 1 bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria that killed several senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

Residents of the Iranian cities of Isfahan and Tabriz reported a series of blasts early on Friday. According to the NYT, three Iranian officials said the military airbase near Isfahan was hit. The Fars News agency reported that the explosions were heard near the city’s civilian airport.

“The sound was related to Isfahan’s air defense systems firing at suspicious objects,” Brigadier Siavash Mihandoust, senior army commander in Isfahan province, said on Friday. “We have not had any damage,” he added.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gave a speech later in the day praising last Saturday’s strike on Israel but did not mention the explosions in Isfahan or Tabriz.

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According to Bloomberg, Israel had warned the US in advance that it would strike Iran in the next 24-48 hours. This was a change from the April 1 attack on Syria, when the White House was informed after the airstrike was already underway, the NYT reported.

Iran vowed to punish Israel but waited 12 days to do so, while warning the US to stay out of it. Tehran also publicly accused the UN of not doing its job to mete out justice, claiming Iran had been left with no choice but to strike back.

Unnamed Israeli officials told British-based media that West Jerusalem would strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities in case of an attack, but that now appears to have been a psychological operation intended to deter Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday that there had been “no damage” to nuclear sites in Iran. The agency head, Rafael Grossi, called for “extreme restraint from everybody.”

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Papua New Guinean tribes are unlikely to have eaten the US president’s uncle, an academic has told The Guardian

Academics from Papua New Guinea have criticized US President Joe Biden for suggesting that their countrymen ate his uncle after a wartime plane crash. Local tribes “wouldn’t just eat any white men that fell from the sky,” one lecturer told The Guardian.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Biden recounted the alleged fate of 2nd Lieutenant Ambrose J Finnegan Jr., whose reconnaissance plane was “shot down in New Guinea” in 1944. “They never found his body,” Biden said, “because there used to be, there were a lot of cannibals − for real − in that part of New Guinea.”

Michael Kabuni, a political science lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea, told The Guardian that while cannibalism was historically practiced by some tribes who inhabited the country, “they wouldn’t just eat any white men that fell from the sky.”

READ MORE: Biden claims ‘cannibals’ ate his uncle

“The Melanesian group of people… are a very proud people,” Kabuni said. “And they would find this kind of categorisation very offensive. Not because someone says ‘oh there used to be cannibalism in PNG’ – yes, we know that, that’s a fact. But taking it out of context, and implying that your [uncle] jumps out of the plane and somehow we think it’s a good meal is unacceptable.”

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Human flesh was not a staple in the Melanesian diet, Kabuni explained. Instead, some tribes would eat their deceased relatives as a funerary custom, he told the British newspaper. According to the University of Western Australia, the practice triggered an outbreak of a fatal disease known as ‘Kuru’ and died out in the early 1960s.

“I am lost for words actually,” Papua New Guinean opposition leader Allan Bird told The Guardian. “I don’t feel offended. It’s hilarious really. I am sure when Biden was a child, those are the things he heard his parents say. And it probably stuck with him all his life.”

Economics professor Maholopa Laveil argued that Biden should have chosen his words better, considering the US signed a security pact with Papua New Guinea last year. With the agreement struck, Washington is currently attempting to pressure the country out of a separate pact with China.

“For a US president to say that – particularly after a lot of deals have been struck with PNG and the work they’ve been doing in the Pacific – even off the cuff, I don’t think that should have been said at all,” Laveil said.

READ MORE: State of emergency declared amid deadly Papua New Guinea riots

According to official military records, Finnegan was killed when his plane crashed “for unknown reasons” off the north coast of the island. “One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge,” the Pentagon’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency states, adding that “an aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members.”

Biden has a long record of exaggerating his own involvement in historic events. The 81-year-old has falsely claimed that he visited Ground Zero in New York the day after the September 11 terrorist attacks, that he was arrested while attempting to visit Nelson Mandela in a South African jail, and that he marched with civil rights protesters in the 1960s.

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Around 970 million people, more than 10% of the world’s population, are casting votes

The first phase of India’s 18th general election was held across 21 states and union territories on Friday. Over 166 million voters are estimated to have cast their votes at 200,000 polling stations on Friday in a bid to elect members to 102 (out of 543) constituencies of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament said.

Nearly 60% voter turnout was recorded by 5 p.m. in the afternoon on the first day of polling. The elections in the nation of 1.4 billion are being held in seven phases and will conclude by June 1; results will be announced on June 4. The party or coalition which secures a majority of seats in the Lower House of Parliament will form the next government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which secured 303 seats during the last election in 2019, hopes to get at least 370 seats this time. Its key rival is the Indian National Congress party, which could only secure 52 seats in 2019. Congress leads the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) – an opposition bloc formed by two dozen parties from across the country.

“This is the greatest festival of democracy on Earth”, Veena Sikri, a former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, said in the interview with RT in New Delhi as polling got underway. “There is not a single place in the world where close to a billion people are going to vote for their government, and they view it with pride. It doesn’t matter which part of India you are from, which community, which religion, you value this vote.”

‘Greatest Festival Of Democracy On Earth’ - Veena Sikri, Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh Tells RT’s @Runjhunsharmas About India’s Election Pride

The “wonderful occasion” is “viewed with pride” across the country - regardless of region, community, religion or wealth,… pic.twitter.com/dcNjhKpXjm

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 19, 2024

Nearly 970 million people – more than 10% of the world’s population – will be casting their votes in the ongoing elections, with 18.2 million Indians voting for the first time.

“The first election in India was in 1950, and India was one of the first countries in the world, [long] before America, to give adult franchise to everyone,” Rajiv Dogra, a former Indian Ambassador to Romania, noted in the interview with RT. “There is an atmosphere of festival, there is an atmosphere of participation in it.”

While experts pointed out that issues such as economic growth, quality of life and employment opportunities are expectedly influencing the voters’ decisions, foreign policy and the country’s growing position on the global stage are increasingly resonating with ordinary citizens.

'India Has An Informed Electorate' - Dispelling Western Myths About Rural Indians

Former Indian Ambassador to Romania Rajiv Dogra tells RT's @Runjhunsharmas just how media penetration across the country has given citizens a greater awareness of what they are voting for.… pic.twitter.com/Rq38D9hJyk

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) April 19, 2024

Meanwhile, sporadic incidents of violence were reported in West Bengal state in eastern India as BJP supporters clashed with those of the regional powerhouse, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, in three constituencies. Irregularities have also been reported in strife-torn Manipur state, with reports of voting machines being destroyed surfacing in at least two locations, according to The Indian Express. Tensions are running high in the northeastern state against the backdrop of ethnic violence that has killed around 200 people and displaced thousands since May last year.

On Friday, Google also dipped its toes into the election festivities, with Friday’s ‘doodle’ depicting a hand with its index finger marked with ink.

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The tech giant claims it was ordered by Beijing to pull WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram, and Signal from the local AppStore

Apple has pulled several popular messaging apps from its storefront in China at the request of the government in Beijing over alleged national security concerns, the US-tech giant announced on Friday.

Meta’s WhatsApp and Threads apps, as well as messaging services Telegram and Signal, are no longer available for download on the AppStore in China, Bloomberg reported. The Wall Street Journal has claimed that Korean Line has also been made inaccessible to Chinese users.

Before their removal, none of the apps were widely used in China, where Tencent’s WeChat is the overwhelmingly dominant service.

In a statement to Reuters on Friday, Apple said China’s Cyberspace Administration had requested the removal of instant messengers from the App Store for reasons of national security, but stressed that the apps remain available on all other storefronts. The US-based tech giant noted that it is obliged to comply with the laws of the countries in which it operates, even if it does not agree with them.

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At the same time, other Meta apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger are still available for download on the Chinese AppStore. However, as was the case with the removed messaging apps, it is still difficult to access these platforms without special proxy tools such as a virtual private network (VPN) to circumvent Beijing’s Great Firewall.

The four removed apps remain available in China’s two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, Reuters noted.

While the specific reasons for the request to remove the apps remain unknown, the step may be tied to a law passed in China last year which requires all apps operating in the country to register with the local regulatory body.

In August, Chinese authorities called on foreign developers to adhere to this rule by the end of March 2024 or be forced to remove their apps from the marketplace.

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Burkina Faso’s charges against the officials are unfounded, the French Foreign Ministry says

France has criticized Burkina Faso’s military government for expelling three French diplomats from the West African nation after alleging that they had engaged in “subversive” activities.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the French Foreign Ministry said the accusations were “baseless” and that the Burkinabe authorities had made the decision on no “legitimate” grounds.

“France regrets Burkina Faso’s decision to move ahead with the expulsion of French diplomats and staffers, some of whom were serving at the Embassy of France in Burkina Faso,” the ministry stated.

On Tuesday, authorities in the Sahel nation declared as personae non gratae two political advisers – Guillaume Reisacher and Herve Fournier, as well as another employee at the French embassy in Ouagadougou, Gwenaielle Habouzit.

READ MORE: France is out, who is in? African countries are building a new security order

The three staff members had 48 hours to leave the country, a deadline that expired on Thursday.

The incident is the latest in a number of major diplomatic setbacks that Paris has suffered in its former colony in recent years, including the expulsion of the French ambassador.

Paris and Ouagadougou have been at odds since Burkina Faso’s military took power in a coup in 2022. Early last year, the interim government canceled a military assistance agreement with France that had been in place since the country gained independence in 1960.

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French troops stationed there to fight jihadist insurgents as part of a Sahel security mission have since been kicked out. Several French news agencies, including broadcasts by television channel France 24 and Burkina-Radio France International, have been suspended in Burkina Faso, with the military leaders accusing the networks of spreading disinformation and serving as a platform for militant groups.

In September, French defense attache Emmanuel Pasquier and his team were forced to leave Burkina Faso on similar charges of “subversive activities.” An anonymous French Foreign Ministry spokesperson reportedly dismissed the accusations as “fanciful.”

On Thursday, the ministry commended “the commitment and consummate professionalism of the diplomats and staffers” at the embassy in Ouagadougou, stating that their work conforms with international law.

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A total of 34 such operations were conducted over the past week, the military has said

Russian forces have delivered 34 long-range strikes on Ukrainian targets since last Saturday, the Defense Ministry reported on Friday, during a weekly summary of its activities.

The attacks had been carried out “in response to attempts by the Kiev regime to cause damage to Russian energy and industrial sites,” the statement said. Russian missiles were launched from ground, aerial and seaborne platforms, as well as from drones.

The ministry said it has targeted “objects of energy industry, military industrial facilities, railway infrastructure, air defense systems, weapons depots and fuel storage facilities” used by the Ukrainian military.

”Damage was also inflicted on centers training drone operators and sites where Ukrainian troops, nationalist formations and foreign mercenaries were stationed,” the press release added.

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In January, Ukraine started regularly launching long-range kamikaze drones at oil refineries and other key energy sites deep inside Russia. The change of tactic reportedly caused tensions between Kiev and its key donor, the US.

According to Western media, the administration of President Joe Biden is concerned that a serious decrease in Russian fuel manufacturing would cause a ripple effect on the global oil market and cause a surge of gas prices in the US, potentially undermining his chances for reelection in November.

This month, Russia started attacking Ukrainian electricity-generating facilities, a category of target that it had previously spared, when it disrupted the country’s power supply. DTEK, the private company that owns most of the thermal plants in Ukraine, said some 80% of its capacity had been disabled. Moscow also hit some Ukrainian hydroelectric power plants, damaging the equipment necessary for their operation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that his government had refrained from such attacks during wintertime due to humanitarian considerations, but otherwise the retaliation was inevitable due to Kiev’s actions.

Ukrainian officials have been urging Western arms donors to provide additional air defense systems in response to the escalation.

READ MORE: Zelensky blames EU for Russian advance

Kiev’s troops are currently being pushed back all along the frontline. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Wednesday blamed insufficient aid by Western countries for the military setbacks.

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Kiev urgently needs a new US aid package or it will likely break under Russian pressure, William Burns says

Ukrainian defenses could completely collapse under a Russian onslaught as early as this year unless the US approves a new aid package for Kiev, CIA Director William Burns has said. His comments come after US House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that the chamber would vote on the long-delayed measure later this week.

Speaking at the Bush Center’s 2024 Forum on Leadership on Thursday, Burns stressed the urgency of the US approving a $61 billion security aid package for Ukraine. The bill has been held up for months in Congress due to Republican opposition demanding more efforts to enhance security on the Mexican border.

Burns urged lawmakers to break the gridlock on aid as soon as possible. “With the boost that would come from military assistance both practically and psychologically, the Ukrainians are entirely capable of holding their own through 2024 and puncturing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s arrogant view that time is on his side,” he claimed.

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However, Ukraine will face extreme difficulty if it is left out in the cold by the West, the CIA chief insisted. In his view, “there is a very real risk that the Ukrainians could lose on the battlefield by the end of 2024” or at least put Moscow in a position where it could “dictate the terms of a political settlement.”

The CIA director also argued that failure to support Kiev would have ramifications that would echo well beyond Europe. Burns believes that a powerful Western campaign to aid Ukraine has convinced China to tread lightly when it comes to its regional ambitions. “The surest way to undo that impact is for us to be seen to be walking away from the Ukrainians right now,” he added.

Ukrainian officials have for months complained about acute ammunition shortages, while their US counterparts estimated earlier in April that Kiev was being “outshot” by Russia by a ratio of five to one. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has also warned that Kiev would “lose the war” unless US aid comes through.

US House Speaker Johnson released a $95 billion foreign aid package earlier this week, $61 billion of which is earmarked for Ukraine despite flak from some of his fellow Republicans. It did not take US President Joe Biden long to emphatically endorse the bill.

Russia has consistently denounced Western arms shipments to Ukraine, warning they are only prolonging the conflict. It has also argued that the deliveries make the West a direct participant in the hostilities.

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An escalation in the Middle East would send energy prices skyrocketing, analysts have warned

Global prices for crude oil jumped by as much as 3.5% shortly after Israel carried out a series of strikes on Iran in the early hours of Friday.

Both oil benchmarks soared over $3 a barrel in early trading before retreating. By 12:00 GMT, Brent crude oil futures for June delivery were down $0.50 at $86.63 per barrel. The May contract for US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped $0.43, or 0.52%, to $82.30 per barrel.

Israel launched an attack on Iranian territory in the early morning hours, a senior US official confirmed in an interview with ABC News. Al Jazeera reported that Iranian state television had also confirmed the strikes, and that air defenses had been activated. Flights across several areas, including Tehran and Isfahan, were suspended.

The attack, the latest tit-for-tit exchange between the two nations, came nearly a week after Iran unleashed a barrage of 300 aerial drones and missiles on Israel. The shelling was conducted in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including three senior Iranian military officers. Tehran believes Israel was behind the bombing, although West Jerusalem has neither claimed nor denied responsibility.

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Iran is the world’s seventh largest oil producer, according to the US Energy Information Administration, and the third-largest OPEC member. It produces around 3.2 million barrels of crude per day, and last year ranked as the world’s second largest source of oil supply growth after the US.

The spike in oil prices is seen by analysts as a self-evident market reaction to mounting concerns about a renewed escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran.

“Rising geopolitical risk premiums translate to a risk-off environment at this juncture with a heightened risk of oil supply disruption at least in the short-term,” Kelvin Wong, an analyst at OANDA in Singapore, told Reuters.

Earlier this week, energy experts at Bank of America warned that an all-out war between Israel and Iran, which will inevitably impact energy infrastructure and disrupt Iranian crude supplies, is expected to drive oil prices up by $30-$40 per barrel.

Increased tensions in the region could also jeopardize shipping through the Strait of Hormuz between Oman and Iran. About a fifth of the world’s total oil supply passes through the crucial shipping route.

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The contract for supersonic missiles co-developed with Russia was signed by the two Asian nations in 2022

India delivered the first batch of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines on Friday, the ANI news agency has reported. A $375 million deal to supply the systems co-developed by New Delhi and Moscow was signed in 2022, as India looks to become an exporter of defense technology.

The Indian Air Force used C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft to deliver the BrahMos missiles to the Philippines, the report noted, citing defense sources.

BrahMos signed a $375 million deal with the Philippines to deliver the high-capability missiles in 2022. Samir Kamat, chief of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), told ANI last week that the missiles are “getting a lot of interest” from potential buyers. Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia are reportedly among those to be keen on acquiring the missiles.

Speaking at the World Defense Show in Saudi Arabia in February, BrahMos director of exports Praveen Pathak said the Indian-Russian joint venture is also in talks with Saudi Arabia, while its order portfolio has already reached $7 billion, encompassing domestic and international deals.

#WATCH | BrahMos supersonic cruise Missiles delivered to the Philippines by India today. The two countries had signed a deal worth USD 375 million in 2022. https://t.co/8dOvYugj0w pic.twitter.com/C1wWACHDAA

— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2024

The Indian government has increased its annual target for defense and aerospace production to $36 billion, while raising the export target to $6 billion. Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh stated earlier this year that the country aims to increase its production of jet engines and gas turbines to reach the new goal. “Earlier, India was known to be an arms importer. But today, under the leadership of the prime minister, we have come out of our comfort zone and found a place in the list of top 25 arms-exporting nations,” Singh asserted.

India’s defense exports last financial year crossed $2.6 billion – a 30-fold rise compared to 2013-14 fiscal.

Named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, the BrahMos missile is the result of collaboration between DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya. Widely deployed by the Indian military, the versatile missile system can engage sea-based and surface targets across air, sea, and sub-sea platforms. The powerful long-range supersonic cruise missile system can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or from land. The missiles originally had a range of 290km (180 miles), but have been extended to between 450 and 500km through upgrades.

Earlier this month, the Indian Army test-fired a long-range BrahMos cruise missile. The “calculated strike” hit its mark with precision, the army added, describing the test as “a poignant reminder of India’s steadfast dedication to defending its sovereignty and fostering regional stability.”

Where India Meets Russia – We are now on WhatsApp! ‎Follow and share RT India in English and in Hindi

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Moscow has reported making new gains in Donbass, while continuing its campaign against critical Ukrainian facilities

The past week in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has seen continued active combat at multiple locations along the front line, with the most intense hostilities in Donbass, where Moscow continues its effort to push westwards.
Russia also launched large-scale, long-range strikes on critical Ukrainian infrastructure, including multiple thermal power plants, completely obliterating the largest facility in Kiev Region.

New gains in Donbass

On Saturday, the Russian Defence Ministry announced the liberation of Pervomayskoye, a village located some 20 km to the west of the Russian city of Donetsk. The village has been an important foothold for Ukrainian troops, as it stretches along an elaborate system of canals, ponds and dams.

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Pervomayskoye has provided cover for the southern flank of Ukrainian forces which had been attempting to entrench at the Orlovka-Tonenkoye-Berdychi line after the liberation of the strategic town of Avdeevka mid-february.

While the Russian westward push in the area has seemingly slowed, the military reported minor gains to the west of the now-breached defensive line.

Among the three settlements stretching along a canal system, only the village of Berdychi remains under partial Ukrainian control, with the situation expected to worsen for Kiev following a successful advance by Russian troops to the north of the village, reported on Wednesday

Critical infrastructure strikes

Russia has continued with its renewed campaign against Ukraine’s critical facilities, prompted by Kiev’s growing efforts to attack the country’s oil refineries and other energy facilities. Last Thursday, the Russian military hit multiple energy plants across Ukraine, including the Tripolskaya Thermal Power Plant, the largest in Kiev Region. This is the first time the facility has been targeted.

The plant was hit by multiple projectiles, including new, lighter, Russian Kh-69 cruise missiles, which sparked a major fire that completely destroyed the generator hall. The Kh-69s are significantly smaller than other cruise missiles in Moscow’s inventory and can therefore be launched by fighter jets and frontline bombers, rather than by strategic aircraft, allowing for a more agile use.

The Dobrotvorskaya Thermal Power Plant in the west of Ukraine was also targeted for the first time since the beginning of hostilities. The plant was simultaneously hit by two missiles, footage circulating online suggests.

Anti-drone tactics

Kamikaze FPV drones have become a growing problem for both sides over the course of the conflict, prompting servicemen to come up with additional means to protect their armored and soft vehicles, particularly from strikes from above and the rear. Crude anti-drone grilles and nettings, as well as factory-made armor, colloquially known as “grills,” have become a common sight.

The protective contraptions have become increasingly unsightly and sizeable. To this end the Russian military apparently fielded materiel featuring ultimate anti-drone protection: the “Tsar grill.” A T-72 tank, boasting an anti-drone shell fully covering the vehicle, debuted last week near the town of Krasnogorovka, to the west of Donetsk, which has seen intense combat over the past few weeks.

The tank, footage of which promptly went viral, actually fared well in combat. The vehicle, which apparently acted as a heavy APC, spearheaded a successful attack on Krasnogorovka, allowing Russian forces to reach residential areas on its southeastern outskirts.

The tank survived the attack and has since starred in a new video that emerged this week. The vehicle has apparently received new modifications, becoming even more ungainly, and now features a tower of drone jammers on the roof of the ‘grill.’ The tank has been seen rolling through central Krasnogorovka, as well as successfully leaving the settlement, despite several close explosions.

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The low birth rate is endangering the country’s economic development, experts have warned

A record-low birth rate has become the most significant constraint on Russia’s long-term development, national daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on Friday, citing a new study.

Last year, the rate was at its lowest level since the start of the century, official statistics showed. According to research conducted by macroeconomic analysis center CMASF, both the shrinking population and rising pressure on increasingly scarce workers now pose a serious challenge for Russia’s economy.

In 2023, just over 1.2 million babies were born in Russia, the lowest figure since 1999. The researchers said the decline was “inevitable” as large numbers of men are fighting in the Ukraine conflict, or have left Russia. Birth rates have been steadily declining since a peak in 2014, the researchers noted. The national statistics bureau, Rosstat, previously predicted a continued decline in the birth rate through 2027.

READ MORE: Demographics is Russia’s ‘Achilles heel’ – Kremlin

If the trend continues, by 2035 Russia’s population of 146 million will shrink by 4%, and by 2050 – by 6%, the new report says. A decline in the population leads to various problems for the economy as a whole, as well as for certain sectors, it adds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has designated 2024 the ‘Year of the Family’ in Russia and, according to the Kremlin, the issue is of critical importance for the nation.

In his address to the Federal Assembly in February, President Putin admitted that Russia, like many other countries, is faced with a declining birth rate. He suggested that all levels of government, civil society, and religions should work together to make large families the social norm, a cornerstone of social life, and a state strategy guideline.

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The bloc’s regulator has urged caution in the reduction of liquified natural gas imports from Russia as the transit deal with Ukraine nears expiration

The EU’s energy regulator has warned against drastic reductions of imports of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Russia, despite the bloc’s ambition to completely end its reliance on fossil fuels from the country over the Ukraine conflict.

In the 2024 Market Monitoring Report released on Friday, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) said that “reductions in Russian LNG imports should be approached with caution,” particularly given the impending end of the supply of pipeline gas from the country later this year.

The report was referring to the expiration of the five-year transit contract for gas pipeline supply from Russia to Europe via Ukraine in December. Ukraine said last month that it had no plans to prolong the deal. If the flow stops, the EU could potentially lose 13.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, or about 4% of last year’s total consumption.

The other remaining pipeline route from Russia to Europe goes under the Black Sea to Turkey and Bulgaria.

The EU is aiming to completely end its reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027. To that effect, the reduction of the LNG imports from the country “should be considered in gradual steps starting with spot imports,” reads the report. “Substantial volumes” were contracted under long-term agreements before the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and ensuing Western sanctions, the document adds.

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ACER expressed concern over the new powers granted by the EU Parliament to individual countries earlier this month. EU countries now have the legal option to restrict the flow of Russian LNG at the national level. If taken, such moves could break the long-term supply contracts and result in hefty penalties for European companies.

Russia is the second-largest producer of LNG in the Atlantic basin after the US, ACER notes. The sanctioned country was also the bloc’s second-biggest LNG supplier after the US in 2023. According to the data provider Kpler, Russia accounted for 16% of total EU imports last year.

Several countries including Sweden, Finland and the Baltic states are pushing for the EU to impose an immediate total ban on Russian LNG. According to the Financial Times’ sources, officials are set to lobby the European Commission over the plan next week.

Some EU members still rely heavily on Russian LNG, which continues to flow into the continent, mostly through ports in Spain, Belgium and France. A complete ban on the resource would require unanimity among the member states.

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The computer-generated ladies will put their looks, technical skill and social media clout to the test

The creators behind AI-generated influencers are set to compete for a cash prize in the world’s first online beauty pageant exclusively for digitally produced ladies.

The event, called ‘Miss AI’, is being organized by the World AI Creator Awards (WAICA) in collaboration with Fanvue – an OnlyFans-like subscription-based platform that already hosts a number of virtual models, including those who offer adult content.

The digital contestants hoping to secure the Miss AI crown will be judged on their beauty, underlying tech, as well as their social media pull, according to WAICA’s official website. The AI creator’s “social media clout” will also be assessed based on their engagement numbers with fans, rate of audience growth, and ability to utilize social media platforms such as Instagram.

“We share the vision for the WAICAs to become the Oscars of the AI creator economy,” Fanvue co-founder Will Monanage said.

In order to participate, competitors are required to submit a 100% AI-generated image of a woman and answer a series of questions about how and why the model was created, how many followers it has, how its content is monetized, how much revenue it receives, and even the stereotypical beauty pageant question about the model’s “one dream to make the world a better place.”

It’s noted that creators are allowed to make unlimited submissions to the contest, so long that each one is a different AI-generated model.

Aside from the crown, the creators behind top three winning Miss AI contestants will be awarded prizes totaling over $20,000, with the winner also getting $5,000 in cash. The finalists will also be able to earn AI mentorship programmеs, PR services and more.

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Ironically, the AI contestants will be judged by fellow AI-generated influencers, namely Aitana Lopez and Emily Pellegrini, who have both already amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and have been raking in thousands of dollars posing for top clothing brands like Victoria’s Secret and Guess and drawing the attention footballers and billionaires. The AI judges will also be joined by their flesh-and-blood counterparts – entrepreneur and PR adviser Andrew Bloch and beauty pageant historian Sally-Ann Fawcett.

The first AI influencers have already entered the pageant after submissions opened on Sunday, including one named Alba Renai, who recently announced to her 11,000 Instagram fans that she had been hired as the first non-human host on a weekly special segment of ‘Survivor’ in Spain.

The exact date on which the award ceremony will be held is still unknown, but the terms and conditions of the contest state that all prizes will be awarded and paid out in full by August 1, 2024.

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A Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic aircraft came down in Stavropol Region after a combat mission, the ministry said on Friday

A suspected technical failure has resulted in the crash of a Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range bomber in Russia, the Defense Ministry reported on Friday.

The incident in the southern Stavropol Region occurred as the aircraft was returning to its home base after a combat mission, the statement added. It was not carrying munitions at the time of the crash.

The crew of the Tu-22 ejected. Two of them were rescued and their lives are not in danger, Governor Vladimir Vladimirov reported. A third member was killed in the incident, while a fourth remains unaccounted for.

The bomber fell in a field, according to images of the crash site shared by the governor. He said there were no casualties or damage on the ground.

Several videos are circulating online that purport to show the moment of the crash. A Tu-22 can be seen in them spiraling in the air and falling down, with fire erupting from its tail section.

The Ukrainian military has claimed the lost Russian aircraft as one of the military assets destroyed by its air defenses. Its military intelligence said that the Tu-22 was engaged when it was flying 300 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

The area of the incident is in the northwestern part of Stavropol Region, which borders two other parts of Russia, Rostov Region and the Republic of Kalmykia.

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Mikhail Podoliak argues that the West should be emboldened to send more arms to Ukraine after it thwarted Iran’s attack on Israel

Kiev expects a surge in supply of Western arms in the coming weeks, after an Iranian attack on Israel supposedly demonstrated overwhelming technological superiority of the US and its allies, President Vladimir Zelensky’s most senior adviser has said.

Tehran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel last weekend in what it said was retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month. According to Israel, the barrage caused only minor damage, as the US and other Western countries helped it intercept most of the Iranian weapons.

Prior to the strike, Western media said Iran was carefully calibrating its operation so that it could save face and not cause further escalation and possible war with the US.

In an interview on Thursday, Podoliak said the developments revealed Iran as a “worthless bubble of brags in the Middle East, just like Russia is.”

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He added that he is hopeful that Western nations will now be bolder about arming Kiev.

”I believe that in the next several weeks Ukraine will be receiving significantly more arms, and that will affect the frontline,” he told Channel 24.

Ukrainian troops have done a “fantastic job” learning how to fight Western-style rather than Soviet-style, so now it is up to the West to give them the tools they need to achieve a common goal of “nullifying Russia” as it is, the Ukrainian official added.

He suggested that access to more Western military capabilities will allow Kiev to compensate for the lack of manpower. Ukraine wants to be a party that “fights with technology against a backward power that fights with men,” Podoliak said.

This month, Zelensky signed a mobilization law, intended to boost conscription by threatening harsh punishments to citizens avoiding the draft. In February, the president previously claimed that only 32,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the conflict so far. Russia estimates Ukrainian military casualties at over 444,000.

READ MORE: Kiev’s morale problems could lead to defeat this year – Politico

The Ukrainian military is suffering from poor morale amid shortages of weapons and personnel, with some senior officers expecting a collapse on the frontline this summer, unless Western donors significantly increase their assistance, Politico reported this week.

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Polish claims of a thwarted “Russian plot” against the Ukrainian president are a warning sign, the senior official believes

Allegations that a Polish man was plotting with Moscow to assassinate Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky are a sign that Kiev’s Western backers want to “liquidate” the Ukrainian leader, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has claimed.
On Thursday, Polish officials reported the arrest of a man who is accused of trying to provide sensitive information to the Russian intelligence services. The information could have been used in an attempt to kill Zelensky, Warsaw and Kiev have claimed.

“An attempt on the life of the chief Banderite [Zelensky] in Poland? That is truly serious,” Medvedev, who serves as deputy head of the Russian Security Council, wrote on social media on Friday in response to the claims.

“It may be the first piece of evidence that people in the West have made a decision to liquidate him. Be afraid, clown!”

The term ‘Banderite’ refers to the Ukrainian nationalist movement of Stepan Bandera, which was responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Poles during World War II. The Nazi collaborator is considered a national hero in modern Ukraine.

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The Polish citizen, identified as Pawel K. by the National Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, faces up to eight years in jail if convicted on charges of attempting to work with a foreign power against national interests.

Specifically, Pawel K. is accused of trying to share information with Moscow about Rzeszow–Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland. The facility is used to ship weapons and munitions that NATO members donate to Ukraine to fight Russia.

Polish officials, however, have claimed that his tips could “among other things” have helped Moscow plan a hit on Zelensky during a visit to Poland. Kiev’s successor to the KGB, the SBU, repeated the allegations in a statement of its own.

Warsaw has claimed Pawel K. was in contact with Russian nationals who are “directly involved” in the Ukraine conflict. Polish authorities were tipped off about the alleged threat by Ukrainian security services.

Zelensky has told Western media that Russia has been trying to kill him for years, with multiple attempts prevented by his security detail.

READ MORE: Ukraine claims it foiled Russian plot to kill Zelensky

However, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally assured him in March 2022 that Moscow would not kill Zelensky.

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Share of EU single currency dipped below 22% in March, data shows

The share of the euro currency in global cross-border settlements via the SWIFT messaging system last month declined to an all-time low, transaction data compiled by the global financial service showed on Thursday.

The portion of transactions involving the European single currency amounted to 21.93% in March, marking a month-over-month decline by 1.32 percentage points and dropping well below the 24.4% level logged when SWIFT introduced the new scale.

The data has been collected since 2010, but since July the figures reflect a technical adjustment by SWIFT to trade-reporting standards.

Over the past year, the euro’s share in international payments has nearly halved. In January 2023, settlements with the currency stood at 37.88%, while figures for December 2023 registers a drop to 22.41%.

The US dollar ranked first, gaining 0.81 percentage points from February to reach 47.37% and marking the highest level since December 2023. It was followed by the euro, pound and yuan currencies.

The share of the UK national currency in transactions conducted by SWIFT amounted to 6.57%, while the portion of settlements with Chinese yuan saw another increase, reaching 4.69%.

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The dominance of the euro, a distant second after the US dollar, as a global currency, has been shaken by the rise of China, as well as by the deterioration of ties with Russia and the notable efforts to attain financial independence pursued by emerging economies from India to Brazil.

In Russia, major banks controlling over 80% of country’s banking assets were cut off from SWIFT as part of Ukraine-related sanctions. This, according to financial experts, has propelled the increase of China’s national currency in global trade and finance, as Beijing hasn’t joined the sanctions, opting to strengthen trading ties with Russia.

The use of yuan has been enlarged after China developed its own international-payments network CIPS, separate from SWIFT. CIPS has been welcomed not only by banks in sanctions-hit Russia, but also by financial institutions operating across emerging economies. The move has boosted the rise of the yuan as one of the world’s most used currencies.

SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, provides financial transaction and payment services for more than 11,000 global financial organizations. The tracked data doesn’t blanket the entirety of the $7.5 trillion-per-day foreign-exchange market, but the reports commonly span the vast pools of currency flows that drive global trade over time.

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An engineer claims he has been targeted by the company for raising concerns about “no safety culture”

Hundreds of people could die unless American aerospace giant Boeing addresses critical safety issues, a whistleblower has told the US Senate, also claiming that he was threatened with “physical violence” for going public, CNN has reported.

Sam Salehpour, an engineer at Boeing, told two Senate committee hearings on Wednesday that he has been voicing safety concerns for several years but has been “ignored” and told “not to create delays.”

“The safety problems I have observed at Boeing, if not addressed, could result in a catastrophic failure of a commercial airplane that would lead to the loss of hundreds of lives,” he said.

His testimony comes as Boeing grapples with the fallout from a major safety crisis. Fears were raised after an incident on a 737 MAX in January, when an Alaska Airlines flight bound for California from Portland, Oregon, had to turn back after a door panel blew off at 16,000 feet (4,900 meters), injuring several of the 171 passengers aboard and sucking clothing and cell phones out of the aircraft.

After raising concerns, Salehpour said “I was told not to create delays. I was told, frankly, to shut up.” There is “no safety culture” at Boeing, he claimed, alleging that employees who raise the alarm are “ignored, marginalized, threatened, sidelined and worse.”

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The engineer insisted he was testifying due to his confidence that Boeing was “putting out defective airplanes.” He cited alleged practices by the planemaker, including people jumping on pieces of the airplane to correct misalignment between sections of jets.

Salehpour has reportedly urged Boeing to ground all 787 jets for inspection. The US Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating the allegations that Boeing took shortcuts to reduce production bottlenecks while making the 787. Salehpour also raised issues about the production of the 777, another wide-body jet.

Boeing did not have any witnesses at either hearing, according to CNN, but at a briefing earlier this week the company defended its production standards. The manufacturer said that in 13 years of service, the 787 fleet has safely transported over 850 million passengers on more than 4.2 million flights, while the 777 fleet has safely flown more than 3.9 billion passengers around the world.

Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun announced in March that he will step down by the end of the current year, in a move seen as major management shakeup.

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Moscow has no reason to believe Ukraine will keep its promises, the Russian foreign minister has said

Russia has no intention of ceasing hostilities with Ukraine even if the two countries engage in peace talks, as Kiev has proven itself to be an unreliable actor, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

In an interview with Russian media on Friday, the diplomat stressed that Moscow does not trust the leadership in Kiev.

“We have said that we are ready for the negotiations, but – unlike the Istanbul story – we will not make any pauses in the fighting during the negotiations. The process must go on,” he said.

The two sides have not directly talked to each other since their sit-down in Istanbul in late March 2022. Russia, which initially expressed satisfaction with results of the meeting and withdrew its forces from the outskirts of Kiev as a goodwill gesture, later accused Ukraine of backtracking on all progress achieved in Türkiye, saying it had lost trust in Kiev’s negotiators.

The foreign minister noted that a major obstacle to any peace process that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky “forbid himself from negotiating” with the current authorities in Moscow. He was referring to a decree that Zelensky signed in the fall of 2022, which banned his government from any talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

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The realities on the ground have changed “significantly” since the time when the Istanbul negotiations took place, and “those realities must be taken into account,” Lavrov stressed.

He clarified that he was talking not only about the situation on the frontline, where Russian forces have recently been making gains, but also the fact that the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which joined Russia as a result of referendums in the fall 2022, are now parts of the country in line with the Constitution. “Everybody should understand this very well,” the diplomat stressed.

Lavrov said it is “absolutely clear” to Moscow that Kiev and its Western backers “do not understand this and... are not even ready to look for any hypothetical compromises.”

Since late 2022, Zelensky has been promoting his so-called ‘peace formula,’ which calls for Russia to withdraw from all territories claimed by Kiev and pay reparations, and for the formation of a war crimes tribunal.

READ MORE: No point in Russia signing peace deal with Zelensky – Lukashenko

The Russian foreign minister again outright rejected the plan, calling it an “ultimatum” that provided for no alternative solutions.

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The British foreign secretary made the claims while commenting on ethnic clashes in Manipur

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said his country should continue to press the issue of “religious freedom” in India as he weighed on the ethnic conflict in Manipur. He also commented on poverty in India, days ahead of parliamentary elections in the world’s largest democracy.

Answering a question in the UK Parliament on Thursday raised by Indarjit Singh of the House of Lords, Cameron stated there is a “clear religious part” to the ethnic clashes in Manipur in northeast India.

The former prime minister cited a report on Manipur produced last year by ex-BBC journalist David Campanale, which highlighted “a clear religious dimension” to the violence. Cameron stated that the UK had raised the issue of “religious tolerance” with the Indian government in the past, adding “that should continue to be the case.”

Manipur has been stricken by ethnic violence since May 2023. The dispute stems from animosity between the region’s valley-based Hindu Meitei majority, and the Christian Kuki tribes dwelling in the surrounding hills. More than 200 people have been killed in the hostilities, while tens of thousands more have been displaced.

VIDEO | Here’s what UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, David Cameron ( @David_Cameron), said while replying to a query in the House of Lords on BBC restructuring its India operations and UK-India trade deal.

“The Indian Democracy is… pic.twitter.com/MmJoq7tBbM

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 18, 2024

The Narendra Modi-led Indian government, which was initially criticized by opposition parties and human rights organizations for not addressing the violence, has made it clear it considers the issue to be an “internal affair” for the country.

Last year, New Delhi rejected a UN report on Manipur, in which the Indian government was accused of an “inadequate humanitarian response” to the “grave” situation in the region. It also blasted the Strasbourg-based European Parliament after it adopted a resolution on Manipur.

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“Such interference in India’s internal affairs is unacceptable, and reflects a colonial mindset,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at the time, adding that “Indian authorities at all levels, including the judiciary, are seized of the situation in Manipur and are taking steps to maintain peace and harmony and law and order.”

During a recent visit to Manipur’s capital Imphal, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said the central government’s priority is to establish peace, despite attempts that had been made to “break” it.

Last year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called on the Biden administration to designate India as a “country of particular concern” over “increased transnational targeting of religious minorities and those advocating on their behalf.” New Delhi has repeatedly denied these allegations.

Speaking in Parliament, Cameron also touched upon India’s “need” to deal with poverty. He suggested that to meet the UN’s sustainable development goals, “the most important thing India can do is to continue to grow and lift people out of poverty.” Without citing specific data, he further stated that there are “more people in India are below the poverty line than there are in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

READ MORE: UN lauds India for lifting 415 million citizens out of poverty in 15 years

According to the latest reports, around 420 million people were estimated to be living in absolute poverty in 2022 in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has a population of 1.2 billion people. That figure marked an increase from the one registered before the Covid-19 pandemic. In India, which has a population of 1.4 billion, government think tank NITI Aayog has reported a significant decline of nearly 18% in multidimensional poverty in the past decade – from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in the 2022-23 financial year.

Where India Meets Russia – We are now on WhatsApp! ‎Follow and share RT India in English and in Hindi

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The foreign minister has held a press conference with three domestic radio stations on the most pressing international issues

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has given a wide-ranging interview to radio stations from Sputnik, Moscow Speaks, and Komsomolskaya Pravda. The conversation addressed the Ukraine conflict and other foreign policy issues on Moscow’s agenda.

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Ten officers died in the accident, leaving only two survivors

Kenyan defense chief General Francis Ogolla and nine other military officers were killed on Thursday when their helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff from the village of Chesegon, the East African nation’s president, William Ruto, has announced.

He told reporters in the capital, Nairobi, that the military chief and his team had been visiting troops stationed in northwest Kenya, where they are combating armed banditry and rampant cattle rustling.

However, their aircraft went down just minutes after departing Cheptulel Boys Secondary School in West Pokot County, leaving only two survivors who are currently receiving medical attention, he said.

“Our motherland has lost one of her most valiant generals. The demise of General Ogolla is a painful loss to me... A distinguished four-star general has fallen in the course of duty, and service to [his] country,” the president said.

Ogolla, 61, had been in the position for one year. He led the Kenyan Air Force before becoming the deputy military chief, and was promoted to head of the military by Ruto in April of last year.

According to the Kenyan Defense Ministry, he entered the defense forces in 1984 and trained as a fighter pilot with the United States Air Force before becoming an instructor pilot with the Kenya Air Force (KAF).

Remains of the victims of the KDF chopper crash arrive in Nairobi. https://t.co/0FzXAF5QxN

— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) April 18, 2024

Thursday’s incident, as local media inform, was the fifth military helicopter crash in the past 12 months, which have allegedly been linked to poor maintenance.

At least ten soldiers were killed in June 2021 when their helicopter crashed during a training exercise south of Nairobi.

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On Thursday, the country’s leader said an air investigation team had been dispatched to establish the cause of the accident, which happened in Elgeyo Marakwet County, around 400km (250 miles) northwest of Nairobi.

Footage shared by the president on X (formerly Twitter) shows the victims’ bodies being returned to the capital covered in Kenyan flags on an air force plane late on Thursday.

Three days of mourning have been declared by the country’s authorities starting on Friday, with official flags set to fly at half-mast.

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Raiffeisen says it expects to be asked by the EU Central Bank to further reduce operations in the sanctioned country

Raiffeisen, the largest foreign-owned bank in Russia, said on Thursday it is being pressured by the EU regulator to more rapidly reduce its presence in the country. Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said it is expecting to receive a request from the European Central Bank (ECB) to that effect “in the near term.”

RBI is one of the few foreign banks to have stayed in Russia despite sanctions imposed on Moscow by the EU, the US and their allies since the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The Austria-based lender plays a crucial role in the Russian economy, enabling euro and dollar payments to and from the country.

RBI has been gradually reducing its operations in Russia over the past two years, it said in the statement. According to the Financial Times, the lender has reduced its corporate loan book in the country by 56% over the past two years.

The ECB’s new draft of the requirements demands that RBI decrease loans to customers by a further 65% by 2026, compared to the third quarter of 2023, and “significantly” decrease international payments originating from Russia, the statement says.

RBI has described the new proposals as going “far beyond RBI’s own plans” and added that they may “adversely impact” the lender’s attempts to sell its Russian division.

In March 2023, the Austrian lender revealed it was in talks with two potential customers for the sale of its Russian banking arm. According to the Financial Times, there has been little sign of progress on either side so far.

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In December, the banking group announced that it had agreed to buy a stake in construction company Strabag SE from the sanctioned Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska. The transaction was aimed at lowering the two Austrian firms’ exposure to the Russian market, according to Bloomberg.

The Financial Times reported last month that the ECB had urged lenders to speed up their withdrawal from Russia due to increased risks of doing business in the sanctioned country. The outlet cited top banking supervisor Claudia Buch as saying her team was continuing to put pressure on European banks with operations in Russia to downsize and exit the country.

In March, Washington warned Austria’s banking giant that it risks “being cut off from the US financial system” if it is found to have helped fund Russia’s military, Reuters quoted the US Treasury Department as saying.

A number of other EU banks, namely Italy’s UniCredit, Dutch lender ING, Germany’s Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, Hungary’s OTP Bank, Italy’s Intesa SanPaolo, and Sweden’s SEB maintain a presence on the Russian market.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section

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The suspect allegedly intended to provide intelligence to Russia that could have led to the killing of the Ukrainian leader

A Polish man has been arrested for allegedly trying to help Russia assassinate Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Warsaw and Kiev have said.

The suspect, who was identified as Pawel K. in a statement released on Thursday by the National Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, has been charged with expressing willingness to work with a foreign power against national interests. The alleged crime carries a potential prison sentence of up to eight years.

Polish officials claimed the suspect was planning to provide intelligence that would “among other things, help Russian special services plan a possible attempt on the life of the head of a foreign state – Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.”

Specifically, Pawel K. is accused of trying to share information about Rzeszow–Jasionka Airport in southeastern Poland. The facility serves as a major logistics hub for weapons and munitions provided by NATO members to Ukraine.

The SBU, Kiev’s successor to the KGB, repeated the allegations in a statement of its own, including claims that Zelensky could be targeted, while hailing the arrest as a major success for both nations.

READ MORE: Second suspect detained over attempt to assassinate Ukrainian defector – FSB

The Ukrainian leader has claimed that Russia has been trying to kill him for years, and that multiple plots have been prevented by his security detail.

However, Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli prime minister, has told journalists that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally assured him in March 2022 that Moscow would not kill Zelensky.

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It took West Jerusalem decades to deploy a comprehensive system to protect its skies from all kinds of threats, the French president has said

It is impossible for the West to provide Ukraine with a version of Israel’s famed Iron Dome air defense system, because it has neither the time nor the resources to accomplish such a feat, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Speaking at a press conference after a European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Macron stressed the urgency of Western countries providing Ukraine with various types of air defense systems.

When asked about the possibility of creating an Israeli-style air defense system for Ukraine, however, the French leader signaled that this was not in the offing. “Israel has been building and financing [its system] for a long time, for decades. It’s impossible to build the same system that would fully meet Ukraine’s needs.”

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Another issue, he continued, is the ability to produce the weapons required for Kiev. He explained that the West prefers to assist Ukraine as part of a joint coalition effort in which countries share responsibilities and complement each other.

Israel has for many years heavily relied on its comprehensive Iron Dome air defense system, which is designed to shoot down artillery shells and short-range missiles. The system, first deployed in 2011 and developed with US funding, has been touted as one of the most effective weapons Israel has at its disposal.

Over the weekend, Iran launched its promised retaliation for the Israeli strike on its consulate in Damascus, Syria, using hundreds of drones and long-range missiles, with West Jerusalem claiming that it managed to shoot down 99% of incoming targets, with help from the US, UK and France. The barrage caught the eye of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who suggested that Western countries could offer the same kind of protection to Kiev, which is reeling under recurring Russian strikes.

The possibility, however, was rejected by EU top diplomat Josep Borrell, who claimed that the situations in Israel and Ukraine were not comparable.

“Iran’s attacks flew over air bases of the armies of France, the US, the UK and Jordan. They have gone over their bases, which then acted in self-defense,” Borrell explained. “There are no air bases of the UK, or the US, much less Jordan of course, on Ukrainian territory… Therefore, the same answer cannot be given because the circumstances are not the same.”

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said this was the message he relayed to American counterpart Antony Blinken

Ukraine does not have a ‘Plan B’ for the conflict with Russia if the US Congress refuses to approve more military aid for Kiev, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said.

The diplomat told Ukraine’s Rada broadcaster on Thursday that this was the message he had impressed on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier the same day, when the pair met on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers’ summit on the Italian island of Capri.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has been unable to push another $60 billion in assistance for Kiev through Congress since the autumn, amid a bitter standoff between Democrats and Republicans over immigration and border security.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced earlier this week that he will put a standalone Ukraine aid bill to a vote on Saturday, while Biden has promised to sign the legislation if it passes.

Kuleba declined to speculate about the outcome of the vote, saying that “so many battles have been fought around this bill – and will continue to be fought – let’s just wait for the result.”

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He reiterated, however, that for Ukraine there is no alternative to US military support, which has already amounted to over $111 billion since the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022.

“I have always said that we do not need a Plan B because our Plan A is making the strongest possible decisions for Ukraine, not half-decisions. And today I reminded the secretary of state about this: ‘Look, I don’t have any Plan B, Plan A must work – passing a strong bill,” the foreign minister said.

Kuleba claimed that Blinken “supported me and said that we should be focused exclusively on strong decisions for Ukraine, that is, on Plan A.”

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky blamed the decline in Western military aid for Russian military advances, admitting that Moscow’s forces are “putting pressure on us at the front and are gradually moving.”

READ MORE: Zelensky blames EU for Russian advance

Russia has repeatedly warned that foreign weapons deliveries to Kiev will not prevent Moscow from achieving its military goals, but will merely prolong the fighting and could increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. According to Russian officials, the provision of arms, intelligence-sharing, and training of Ukrainian troops means that Western nations have already become de facto parties to the conflict.

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The interception of a night-time barrage in Belgorod Region was filmed by local residents

The moment when Russian air defenses engaged incoming Ukrainian rockets in Belgorod Region overnight has been caught on camera.

The barrage included at least 25 projectiles, which were successfully intercepted before they could reach the region’s main city, Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media on Friday morning.

There was minor damage in the city, with windows broken in three homes and four warehouses, the official added. A fire broke out in a non-residential building, but was quickly extinguished by firefighters. Some cars were also hit by fragments.

RIA Novosti news agency has released footage purportedly showing Ukrainian projectiles being intercepted by Russian forces during the night. Apparently filmed by civilians living nearby, the video showed what appeared to be rockets, judging by their engine exhaust, flying towards the city – before being destroyed in powerful mid-air explosions. An air siren can be heard blaring.

Belgorod Region comes under frequent artillery, rocket and drone attacks as do other parts of Russia bordering Ukraine. Last month, Kiev-backed militia groups that purport to be Russian anti-government forces staged a series of attempted ground incursions, which were all thwarted by Russian security forces.

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The largest democracy starts weeks-long process to elect 543 members to its lower house of parliament and to determine the new PM

On Friday, India heads to the polling stations for the first of seven phases of its 18th Parliamentary elections, a process that will stretch until June 4. Around 968 million people –more than the population of the EU, US and Russia combined– are entitled to cast ballots to determine who gets to sit in India’s lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, and who will become India’s next prime minister.

The Lok Sabha, with 543 seats, is the more powerful lower house of Parliament. It passes laws, holds the government accountable by introducing and passing motions of no-confidence, holds the reins of financial control (having sole authority over taxation, borrowing, and spending), and wields more influence in legislative affairs.

Whichever party or coalition clinches a majority in the lower house gets to appoint the prime minister. As in the cases of former prime ministers Manmohan Singh or HD Deve Gowda, that appointee can also be a member of the Upper House, the Rajya Sabha. The prime minister then selects cabinet ministers.

The term of service in the Lok Sabha is five years, unless mid-term elections are called. To rule, a party or a coalition needs to secure at least 272 seats, though former PM PV Narasimha Rao ruled with a minority government, having won a vote of confidence in Parliament.

Who is contesting?

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is competing against a coalition of more than a dozen opposition parties, including the Indian National Congress, commonly referred-to just as Congress, which once ruled over the nation for more than 50 years.

BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came to power in 2014, winning 282 seats (along with its allies in the form of the National Democratic Alliance, a total of 336 seats were secured). In 2019, BJP won 303 and the NDA took a total of 352 seats.

Modi, who first rose to power in 2014 on the promise of economic reform and a Hindu nationalist mandate, is at the center of this years’ contest. If he wins again, Modi will match the record of India’s first prime minister, the Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru, by staying in office for three consecutive terms.

The BJP stated aim is to win 370 seats for itself – this number was the same as the Constitutional article governing Jammu and Kashmir that was struck down on August 5, 2019. Also, 364 seats in the Lok Sabha are required for major/structural Constitutional changes. The BJP has stated that it expects the NDA to win 400 seats. The Opposition predicts less than half of that for the ruling party.

Congress, the oldest party in the country, will contest the 2024 elections from the position of having the lowest number of seats in its electoral history. Congress has so far announced its candidates for only 266 seats, but is expected to field candidates in 330 to 340 constituencies. In 2019, Congress won just 52 seats – it didn’t allow it to qualify for ‘Leader of Opposition,’ for which a party needs to win 10%, or 55 seats.

Modi’s fiercest opponent and Congress’s key campaigner is Rahul Gandhi, the 52-year-old scion of India’s oldest political dynasty; his great-grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandmother Indira Gandhi, and his father Rajiv Gandhi, were all prime ministers of India. Gandhi himself, however, has never been a minister in a federal or state government. He quit as party chief after the 2019 election failure.

In 2023, 26 opposition parties joined Congress to form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). Some of the bloc’s other prominent parties include the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which currently rules in the Delhi region and the state of Punjab (its leader Arvind Kejriwal was remanded in judicial custody weeks ahead of polls, on corruption charges).

The left-wing Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M), which leads the ruling Left Democratic Front in the southern Indian state of Kerala; The Trinamool Congress (TMC) which is primarily active in the state of West Bengal; The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and particularly influential in that southern state.

Election schedule

The election is in sevenphases, the first phase starting on April 19. Polling in it will cover 102 constituencies spread across 21 states and Union Territories (UTs).

These are: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. Out of these, ten states and union territories will be fully polled during the first phase, with 11 of them partially covered.

Notably, Assembly Elections in the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will also be held along with the first phase of Lok Sabha polls on April 19. The second phase of polling will be held on April 26, covering 89 parliamentary constituencies across 13 states.

Technology

India has used electronic voting machines (EVMs) extensively since the early 2000s. It introduced the technology during a by-election in 1982, when the machines were deployed in the Parur Assembly Constituency in Kerala.

The Election Commission developed the country’s indigenous EVMs in alliance with two state-owned entities operating under the Ministry of Defence – the Electronics Corporation of India and Bharat Electronics Limited. The EVMs are produced without any technical collaboration with a “foreign establishment” and the devices are “completely non-tamperable,” according to the government.

India will use about 5.5 million EVMs in this election, according to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

An EVM consists of a control unit and a balloting unit connected by cable. The control unit belongs to a polling officer while the balloting unit is kept in a compartment to cast votes. EVMs can be used in areas with no electricity, as they can be operated on alkaline batteries. Each system boasts a maximum voting capacity of 2,000 votes.

Through an EVM, a voter can cast their vote for the candidate of their choice or for the None of the Above (NOTA) option. The voting data recorded in EVMs can be retained for years and extracted if necessary.

Logistics

According to electoral regulations, there must be a polling station within a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) radius of every settlement. This requirement necessitates extensive journeys for many of the nation’s 11 million election workers, who traverse glaciers, deserts, jungles, carrying EVMs on horse and elephant back to ensure that all eligible citizens can cast their votes.

Since 2007, even the lone resident of the remote Gir National Park in Gujarat, where the last free-roaming Asiatic lions reside, has his own dedicated polling station equipped with an electronic voting machine. The resident is Mahant Haridasji Udasin, a priest at a Shiva temple located in the area. While there is no political campaigning there due to fear of wild animals, in 2019 a polling team of ten persons traveled over 15 miles (25 km) to set up a booth for a single voter, a PTI report notes.

Another team of polling officers in 2019 trekked more than 300 miles (482 km) of winding mountain roads and river valleys to reach another lone voter in Malogam, a remote hamlet in Arunachal Pradesh, close to the border with China.

According to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, the polling parties carry EVMs over the farthest and toughest terrain, crossing makeshift bridges to ensure “No voter is left behind.”

Funding and expenses

One of Election Commission’s key responsibilities is monitoring poll expenditure, both by parties and individual candidates. While there is no cap on how much parties can spend, candidates are limited to 9.5 million rupees ($114,000) per constituency. Generally, each party looks for candidates that can spend their own money.

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Some of the big spenders, it’s speculated, may spend a half billion rupees ($6 million) or more on each constituency.

In the 2019 election, the authorities seized 33.77 billion rupees ($405 million) around the country that was earmarked for unauthorized spending in elections.

Political funding has become a hot topic ahead of the elections, particularly after February, when the Supreme Court scrapped the scheme for funding political parties – designed using electoral bonds purchased from the government-owned bank, State Bank of India. The scheme was introduced by the BJP government in 2018 to tackle corruption in Indian politics and make it more transparent. However, the country’s top court deemed it unconstitutional and ordered the Election Commission to make public all data provided by the bank.

The data revealed private donors provided about 120 billion rupees ($1.44 billion) to parties through the bond scheme. Half of that, 60 billion rupees ($719 million), went to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress party, as well as the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) party, which is influential in the state of West Bengal, were among the next-biggest recipients. They raked in 14 billion rupees ($167 million) and 16 billion rupees ($191 million) in donations, respectively.

Why should the world care?

Foreign policy might have temporarily taken a back seat in India’s politics in the run up to the election, as former diplomat and RT contributor M K Bhadrakumar has pointed out, but New Delhi’s increasing weight on the global stage is a fact, making for even greater attention to the 2024 polls.

Earlier this week, Iran requested that India maintain an “active role” in efforts to halt the war in Gaza, through international bodies like the United Nations Security Council. The foreign minister of India was one of the first top diplomats to dial Tehran after its retaliatory attack on Israel. To be sure, New Delhi discussed the matter with both countries as it continues to maintain a delicate balance between Israel and Palestine – the same approach it applies to its engagement with Russia and the West, rapid economic growth and standing up for China, both at the border and more broadly – in its extended neighborhood.

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India’s voice has become stronger not only when it comments on conflicts that have become a concern for humanity. New Delhi monitors, notes and responds to nearly every verbal attack, direct or veiled, made by its partners and adversaries. Its recent reaction to the US and Germany’s comments on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister and opposition figure Arvind Kejriwal, its diplomatic spat with Toronto and Washington over Sikh activists in these countries – which India considers a big security threat – and for a reason, and its unprecedented move to increase its presence in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, to respond to Houthi attacks and increased Somalian piracy, are some examples.

India last year conducted a mammoth geopolitical exercise of hosting the leaders of the G20 group of nations in New Delhi. Not only it impress world leaders with neat streets, top-level logistics and vegetarian food, it was instrumental in making the 55-state African Union a permanent G20 member, comprising the world’s richest and most powerful countries. It also forced the world’s top economic and political powers to reach a consensus on G20’s final communique, the Delhi Declaration, which, unlike its predecessor, the 2022 Bali Declaration, not only stops short of condemning Moscow for Ukraine crises, but doesn’t mention Russia at all in relation to the ongoing conflict.

New Delhi’s balancing act is not a new creation but a tradition, or a proven –though often flexible– tool that evolved after the Cold War from non-alignment into strategic autonomy, highlighting national interests as the top priority, as the country navigates the turbulent currents of geopolitics.

However, it is under the current leadership of India that the country’s foreign policy has become more muscular and more assertive. No doubt, India’s economic rise is one of the reasons – the country has become too big to ignore. It is the world’s most populous nation, having taken the crown from China last year, it is the world’s third largest importer of oil (and second biggest in Asia, after China), and is the largest arms importer.

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At the same time, India is the world’s largest rice exporter, accounting for nearly 40% of total rice exports, the second largest exporter of beef (after Brazil), and the world’s fourth largest exporter of digitally delivered services (After the US, the UK, and Ireland). It is also the “pharmacy of the world” and the global center of diamond cutting and polishing.

Last year, Modi paid a first state visit to the US – the country he’d once been denied an entry visa for. President Biden and the First Lady hosted him at a historic state dinner in the White House. Modi addressed members of the US Congress, interacted with some of Silicon Valley’s top CEOs, including tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is expected to visit India this month to discuss starting the manufacture of Tesla cars in India.

Modi was Guest of Honour at France’s Bastille Day parade and repaid Emmanuel Macron by hosting him in India for its January 26 Independence Day parade (after Biden quietly declined the invitation).

Modi and his government policies have been praised by Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader last year noted that India is pursuing “an independent foreign policy, which is not easy in the modern world.” He added that “India has the right to do so,” and, under the leadership of Modi, it has effectively “exercised” this right. According to the Russian president, this has helped New Delhi’s partners build relationships that are predictable in both the short and long term.”There is tough, nationally-oriented leadership in the country,” Putin said.

READ MORE: A strong India challenges ‘supremacy of the West’ – lawmaker

New Delhi continues to maintain robust trade and diplomatic ties with Moscow despite criticism from the West. Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who is being continuously pressed by international media, commenters and politicians on India’s relationship with Russia, has argued that Moscow has never hurt New Delhi’s interests and that both nations took “extra care” of the ties. Jaishankar defended India’s foreign-policy choices as based on his “nation’s best interests.”

In his opening remarks at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi earlier this year, the country’s senior diplomat noted that India has transformed the annual event “from a regional to a global public square for dialogue and exchange of ideas – highlighting the new role New Delhi is playing now on the global stage.

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Air defenses have reportedly been activated in several provinces of the Islamic Republic

Israel carried out a series of strikes on Iran in the early hours of Friday, multiple news outlets have reported. The news comes less than a week after the Islamic Republic fired a barrage of drones and missiles at Israel.

Iranian news agency Mehr reported that several explosions were heard around 4 am local time in the skies over the central city of Isfahan.

IRNA news agency said that air defenses have been activated in several parts of Iran, and that Israel also struck military airfields and a radar site in Syria and Iraq.

Hossein Dalirian, spokesman for Iran’s civilian space program, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that several drones had been shot down over the city of Isfahan. Iranian TV later said that three drones had been destroyed over the city.

According to Al Jazeera, Iran has suspended flights at several airports, including Tehran and Isfahan.

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CNN cited an unnamed US official as saying that nuclear sites were not targeted.

The Israeli army told AFP: “we don’t have a comment at this time” when asked about reports of strikes in Iran and Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office refused to confirm to the Times of Israel that Israel was responsible for the explosions heard in Isfahan.

The Syrian Defense Ministry has confirmed the Israeli strike, saying that it occurred at around 3am local time and targeted air defense installations in the south of the country. The attack resulted in “material damage,” the ministry said, without providing further details.

On April 1, Israel struck the Iranian consulate building in Damascus, Syria, killing seven senior officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. Iran responded by launching kamikaze drones and missiles at Israel on April 13. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the vast majority of the projectiles was successfully intercepted, and reported only minor damage on the ground.

Reports of the explosions came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister Houssein Amir-Abdollahian told CNN that Iran's response would be “immediate and at a maximum level,” if Israel takes any further military action against his country.

“If the Israeli regime commits the grave error once again our response will be decisive, definitive and regretful for them,” he stated, explaining that warning was sent to the White House via the Swiss Embassy in Tehran.

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The employees were dismissed after staging sit-ins at the company’s offices

Google has fired 28 workers who protested against the company’s ties with the Israeli government amid the war in Gaza. The US tech giant claimed that defiant employees were disrupting the normal work process.

“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to the media on Wednesday. “After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety.”

According to tech publication the Verge, a group of employees occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale, California on Tuesday, while another group staged a sit-in for eight hours in the company’s office in New York. Disgruntled workers also demonstrated outside several Google campuses.

The activist group behind the demonstrations – No Tech for Apartheid – described the firings as illegal and “retaliatory.” They claimed that the sit-ins “did not damage property or threaten other workers,” and had “received an overwhelmingly positive response and shows of support” from colleagues.

@GOOGLE WORKER COAST TO COAST SIT IN UPDATE HOUR 3— Workers remain steadfast in their commitment to remain inside @googlecloud CEO thomas kurian’s office and google HQ NYC until they drop Project Nimbus or are arrested

SUPPORT WORKERS: https://t.co/7pKYAvy6Rm pic.twitter.com/7rb1kgi0hk

— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 16, 2024

Some employees have been publicly speaking out since 2021 against Project Nimbus, a large cloud computing contract Google and Amazon signed with the Israeli government. Time magazine reported this month that Israel’s Defense Ministry has a security entry point to Google Cloud and its AI services.

BREAKING— @google also orders for arrest of of its own workers in SUNNYVALE who sat in for 10 hours at @googlecloud CEO @thomasortk’s personal office, demanding google cut Project Nimbus, the company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel.

arrests were caught on our livestream pic.twitter.com/pgLe4gkybY

— No Tech For Apartheid (@NoTechApartheid) April 17, 2024

The Israeli military’s ties with big tech have faced additional scrutiny after +972 Magazine and news website Local Call cited intelligence sources in early April as saying that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is using a secret AI program called Lavender to identify human targets during the war with Hamas in Gaza. Although the IDF stated that such programs are “merely tools for analysis” and that it does not rely on AI to pick targets for strikes, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the report.

READ MORE: Israel using AI to pick targets in Gaza – report

Multiple human rights groups have accused the IDF of indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza, where nearly 34,000 Palestinians have died since October 7, according to local authorities. The Israeli army admitted to accidentally killing seven foreign humanitarian workers during April 1 drone strikes on an aid convoy. The IDF cited misidentification and other errors as causes of the tragedy, and said that it had dismissed two senior officers involved in the strikes.

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The new restrictions target Tehran’s drone-building industry

London and Washington have blacklisted several Iranian military officials and companies in the steel, automotive and drone industries in response to the “destabilizing” strike on Israel last Saturday.

Iran targeted Israel with a barrage of drones and missiles, in what Tehran called lawful retaliation for the April 1 bombing of its consulate in Damascus, Syria, which killed seven high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron announced the sanctions at a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Capri, Italy. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also issued a statement.

“The sanctions announced today alongside the US demonstrate our unequivocal condemnation of Iran’s attack on a sovereign state,” Cameron said.

“We’re using the Treasury’s economic tools to degrade and disrupt key aspects of Iran’s malign activity, including its UAV program and the revenue the regime generates to support its terrorism,” said Yellen. “Our actions make it harder and costlier at every turn for Iran to continue its destabilizing behavior.”

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UK sanctions involve seven individuals and six entities accused of enabling Iran to conduct “destabilizing regional activity, including its direct attack on Israel.” London has already imposed over 400 sanctions on Tehran, which include the IRGC in its entirety.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) went after 16 individuals and two entities, including the company that makes engines for the Shahed drones that were used in Saturday’s strike.

UK sanctions involve the freezing of any assets the designated individuals or entities may have under British jurisdiction, as well as a ban on traveling to the country.

American sanctions likewise involve the blocking of property, as well as a ban on any US citizens, permanent residents, and even persons passing through the country from doing any business with the sanctioned individuals or entities. The sanctions regime allows Washington to target financial institutions and banks that “engage in certain transactions or activities” with the sanctioned entities and individuals.

While Israel never officially took responsibility for the strike on the consulate building, Israeli officials told the New York Times that it had been in the works for months and deliberately targeted an IRGC general. The Jewish State has accused Iran of supporting Hamas and other militant groups that carry out attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.

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Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on other NATO members to contribute air defenses to Kiev

NATO members must provide Ukraine with more US-made Patriot air defense systems, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday in Brussels. Berlin has promised to deliver one Patriot system in the near future, in addition to the two it has already sent to Kiev.

Scholz said he was aiming to promote the idea during “many discussions” at the EU summit held on Wednesday and Thursday.

“We heard that there should now be seven more, one of them is ours and then we hope that six more will be found” by other NATO members, the German chancellor stated.

Berlin has so far made the “greatest contribution” when it comes to providing Ukraine with Patriot systems, Scholz claimed. He called on others to “make the same decisions.” The US, Germany, and the Netherlands have sent several Patriot launchers to support Ukraine in the conflict with Russia.

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The exact number of Patriots in Ukraine’s possession remains unclear. According to Business Insider, Kiev could have between three and five of the systems. The Russian Defense Ministry has provided evidence that several of the launchers and radars have already been destroyed.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte took on a harsher tone toward nations reluctant to scour their stockpiles for missiles to give Kiev.

“We know that many countries are sitting on large piles of Patriot systems, maybe not wanting to deliver it directly,” he said on Thursday, without naming any names. He offered to buy the systems from any third country and send them to Ukraine.

“We have the money available. It’s crucial,” Rutte added.

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Germany, the Netherlands and Spain are among the few European NATO members that still have Patriot systems in their arsenals, according to Der Spiegel. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has admitted that Berlin’s stockpiles are “pretty much exhausted” when it comes to the US-made air defense system, adding that the West would have to scour the world if it wanted to obtain more of them for Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that the US-led bloc was working on sending more air defense systems to Kiev, including Patriots.

“We have compiled data about the different air defense systems we have in NATO, focused on the Patriot systems. And we are working with allies to ensure that they redeploy some of their systems to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said during a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Italy.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said he needed 25 Patriot systems, with between six and eight batteries each, to ensure adequate air defense on a nationwide scale.

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Washington was the only Security Council member to vote against the resolution

The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have paved the way for Palestine to become a member of the world body.

Palestine is currently a “permanent observer state” at the UN that participates in meetings but does not have voting rights.

The draft resolution debated on Thursday contained a recommendation to the UN General Assembly to hold a vote on updating Palestine’s status within the organization. The document was rejected with 12 votes in favor, one against, and two abstentions.

US Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs Robert Wood said that “there are unresolved questions as to whether [Palestine] meets the criteria to be considered a state.” He argued that Palestine cannot be admitted to the UN as long as the militant group Hamas controls Gaza.

Washington continues to support for the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, Wood stressed.

“This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties,” he said in a statement.

The draft was heavily criticized by Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who argued that the resolution was “disconnected [from] the reality on the ground” and would have had “zero positive effect for any party.” He slammed the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs the West Bank but not Gaza, as “a terror-supporting entity that does not deserve any status in the UN.”

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Speaking at the Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that the vote had shown that “for Washington, [the Palestinians] do not deserve to have their own state.”

“Today’s use of the veto by the US delegation is a hopeless attempt to stop the inevitable course of history. The results of the vote, where Washington was practically in complete isolation, speak for themselves,” Nebenzia said.

Palestinian Ambassador Majed Bamya insisted that the PA was “not deterred in our pursuit for Palestinian freedom and independence.”

The Security Council session took place as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza entered its seventh month. Local authorities have reported that nearly 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7. The fighting broke out after a surprise raid by Hamas into Israeli territory, which left some 1,100 people dead and led to the capture of over 200 hostages.

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At least two MiG-29 jets and a S-300 air defense battery were destroyed

Drone footage has emerged of multiple Russian missiles striking Aviatorskoe, a Ukrainian armed forces airbase in Dnepropetrovsk Region.

The footage shows several MiG-29 fighters and transport aircraft at the airfield being caught in blasts from what appear to be cluster munitions, delivered by an Iskander-M missile. Nearby hangars and munitions depots were also struck.

Another video shows a direct hit on the S-300 air defense system deployed near the base, which did not engage the incoming missiles. The footage was captured by observation drones.

Aviatorskoe is located just south of the city of Dnepr, over 100 kilometers from the frontline.

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The US has reportedly advised Netanyahu not to attack Iran

The US has denied giving Israel the green light to move against the Gaza city of Rafah instead of attacking Iran, as a Qatari outlet reported Thursday citing an anonymous Egyptian official.

Israel has said it would respond to Saturday’s missile and drone attack by Iran, itself a reprisal for the deadly Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Syria. The war cabinet in West Jerusalem is reportedly trying to formulate a plan of action acceptable to Washington.

Egypt is preparing for a possible Israeli ground attack on Rafah, an unnamed official told the UK-based, Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, adding that the operation was accepted “in exchange for not carrying out a large-scale attack against Iran.”

A spokesperson for the US National Security Council, however, told reporters that the story was not true and that such a plan has never been discussed.

The Israeli public broadcaster Kan said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the planned response after a call from US President Joe Biden.

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Iran had targeted Israel with drones and missiles, in what Tehran called lawful retaliation for the Damascus consulate bombing, which killed seven high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

According to a New York Times account published on Wednesday, the US was “caught off guard” by the Damascus strike, as West Jerusalem informed Washington only “moments” before it happened.

While Israel never officially claimed responsibility for the strike that killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, anonymous Israeli officials who spoke to the Times confirmed he was indeed the target and that the attack was planned two months in advance.

Internal Israeli documents viewed by the US outlet noted the range of expected Iranian responses to the strike, but failed to predict the “ferocity” of what actually happened twelve days later. West Jerusalem had “badly misjudged” the consequences of the consulate attack, US and Israeli officials were quoted as saying.

After the missile and drone barrage, Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador to an IRGC base and asked her to convey a message to the US that it “should stay out of the fight, and that if Israel retaliated, Iran would strike again, harder and without warning,” the Times reported.

US officials have reportedly told West Jerusalem to declare victory and forego a reply. However, several members of the war cabinet believe that this would allow Iran to believe it had changed the rules of the conflict, which would be unacceptable to Israel. Among them are Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot – former military commanders and opposition to Netanyahu – according to three Israeli officials.

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The Russian Embassy has dismissed the case as a “blatant provocation”

Two men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning to sabotage local military infrastructure, including US bases, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Thursday. Authorities claim to have linked at least one of the suspects to Russia’s security services.

Warrants for the men, identified only as Dieter S. and Alexander J. – both referred to as German-Russian dual nationals – were issued by the German Federal Court of Justice, the nation’s highest court of criminal jurisdiction, earlier in April.

Investigators said Dieter S. was “strongly suspected” of working for a Russian “intelligence service.” He is alleged to have discussed possible sabotage operations in Germany with a contact within the service since at least October 2023. The plans were aimed at “undermining military support provided by Germany to Ukraine,” the statement said.

During the conversations, Dieter S. allegedly expressed that he was ready to carry out “explosive and arson attacks” against “military and industrial sites,” including US bases on German soil.

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Dieter S. allegedly took photos and videos of such sites, as well as of military transport convoys, which he then sent to his intelligence contact, the statement said.

Very few details were made public about the role of the second suspect, with law enforcement officials saying only that Alexander J. had been “helping” the main suspect since at least March 2024.

Dieter S. stands accused of “preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state,” as well as of working for a foreign intelligence agency and acting as a sabotage agent.

The Federal Court of Justice issued a separate arrest warrant against him, saying there was “strong suspicion” that he had fought for the Donetsk People's Republic between 2014 and 2016, when the two Donbass republics declared their independence from Kiev in the wake of the Maidan coup. He is therefore also accused of “membership in a foreign terrorist organization,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said, referring to the DPR.

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Berlin reacted to the developments by reaffirming its commitment to helping arm Kiev.

“We will continue to provide massive support to Ukraine and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has ordered her ministry to summon Russian Ambassador Sergey Nechaev to Berlin over the incident, German media reported. Moscow’s diplomatic mission confirmed the summons but denounced it as a “blatant provocation aimed at stirring up spy hysteria, which is already running high in Germany.”

The German side had provided “no evidence” suggesting the suspects with “alleged Russian citizenship” had any such plans or were in any way connected to Moscow’s security services, the embassy said.

The Russian diplomats dismissed claims about Russia’s involvement in such plots as “absurd and ridiculous.” If the arrested men do have Russian citizenship, the German Foreign Ministry must “immediately provide consular access” to them, it added.

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A six-month reprieve has been ended due to concerns surrounding upcoming presidential elections in the South American country

The US has reinstated sanctions on Venezuela’s crucial energy industry, over what Washington describes as Caracas’ failure to adhere to democratic principles. The move comes as the nation prepares for presidential elections.

President Joe Biden’s administration said on Wednesday it would not renew a license agreed in Barbados in October in which Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and the country’s opposition agreed to hold free and fair elections, monitored by international observers. In exchange for the election commitment the US temporarily lifted some of its sanctions on Venezuelan oil, gas, gold, and sovereign debt. The deal expired early on Thursday.

“Nicolas Maduro and his representatives have not fully met the commitments made under the electoral roadmap agreement,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller stated.

“Therefore, General License 44 – which authorized transactions related to the oil and gas sector with Venezuela – will expire after midnight and not be renewed,” he added.

The US Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that it had issued a replacement license giving companies 45 days to “wind down” their business and transactions in the OPEC member-state’s oil and gas sector.

Washington has repeatedly threatened in recent months to reinstate energy sanctions unless Maduro made good on his promises.

Senior US officials reportedly said that Maduro has honored some commitments under last year’s deal, but has failed to meet others, including allowing the opposition to run the candidate of its choice against him in the July 28 election.

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Venezuelan officials have insisted they are ready for any scenario and can weather renewed sanctions.

“We are open [for business], willing to keep progressing along with all foreign companies that want to come,” Oil Minister Pedro Tellechea was cited as telling reporters after the US announcement. “Venezuela is ready to secure the stability of global oil markets that we need so much,” the minister stressed.

According to a recent Reuters report, Venezuela’s oil exports in March soared to their highest level since early 2020 as customers rushed to complete purchases ahead of the predicted expiration of the license.

Caracas has been under US sanctions for over 15 years. The latest round of restrictions was imposed after Washington refused to recognize Nicolas Maduro as the country’s president following the 2018 election, and instead declared the head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido, to be the ‘interim leader’ of the country. In 2019, Guaido called for a popular uprising against Maduro, which ultimately failed. He then moved to live in Miami under US protection.

Meanwhile, all Venezuelan government assets were frozen in the US and any dealings with US citizens and companies were barred.

Maduro had previously called for a “new era” of US-Venezuela relations “based on respect and collaboration.” Venezuela demands the permanent lifting of all US sanctions against the country, according to the president, who says Caracas has abided by the deal signed in Barbados.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene has tried to attach conditions for American aid to Kiev

Any member of the US House of Representatives who votes for sending $60 billion in aid to Kiev should be required to enlist in the Ukrainian military, according to an amendment proposed by a prominent Republican lawmaker.

Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has submitted half a dozen amendments to the Ukraine “security supplemental appropriations” bill, part of a $95 billion foreign aid package pending before the lower chamber of Congress.

“If you want to fund the endless foreign wars, you should have to go fight them,” she said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday. “That’s why I’m introducing an amendment that would require any Member of Congress who votes for the multibillion $ Ukraine supplemental to enlist in Ukraine’s military.”

Taylor Greene has also proposed to block all funds until Ukraine “closes all bio-laboratories and provides all data on such research to the United States Government,” or until the US Department of State certifies that “Christian churches in Ukraine are able to operate free of government interference.”

The US has admitted funding biological research laboratories in Ukraine but has insisted on their peaceful and legitimate purpose, even though much of the money has come via the Pentagon. Kiev has also persecuted the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, seizing its properties and turning them over to the government-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

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Two other amendments by Taylor Greene would redirect all the funding from the Ukraine bill to the disaster-stricken communities of Lahaina, Hawaii and East Palestine, Ohio. Another would reassign all the money to the Department of Justice, so it could begin deporting all immigrants who are in the US illegally.

She also took aim at the $14 billion aid package intended for Israel, proposing that “such sums as necessary shall be used for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border” of the US.

“Israel has some of the best unmanned defense systems in the world,” she said on X. “I’ve previously voted to fund space lasers for Israel’s defense. America needs to take our national security seriously and deserves the same type of defense for our border that Israel has and proudly uses.”

None of the proposals have much of a chance of getting adopted. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has come out in support of Ukraine funding requested by the White House and announced that the vote on it would come as soon as Saturday evening.

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Talk about victory for Kiev has disappeared as Washington becomes a ‘back seat driver’

The Istanbul agreements – a tentative peace plan agreed between Russia and Ukraine in the spring of 2022 are being discussed again. However, as they were written, at the time, they are no longer relevant and are unlikely to be of any use in the future. The realities on the ground, in the hearts and minds of many key people, have changed completely.

Nevertheless, it’s no coincidence that talk of negotiations began in Switzerland just as it became clear, to Westerners, that the Ukrainians are unable to make any progress. I am not talking about victory, but about any meaningful success on the battlefield. And thus it has become necessary to somehow limit Russia’s potential for success, to prevent it from winning.

This is not coming from Ukraine itself, but rather the enemy with whom we are now really at war. The desire to prevent a Russian victory is behind all these diplomatic machinations.

What we are really talking about now is a propaganda campaign. Of course nobody in the West is in a mood for serious negotiations right now.

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Let me explain what it means. From our point of view, genuine talks are ones that would solve the problem that led to the military operation. If we do not solve it, we will all face a new war in the future, and perhaps a more terrible one, with more serious consequences. Thus, as they say, if you take up arms, you must go to the end, to achieve a solution to the problem that made you take take such a measure in the first place.

The West, and they say this quite openly, is trying to prevent a victory for Moscow. And they are trying to do this in two ways. One is by pumping arms and money into Ukraine. And the other is diplomatic, by creating the appearance of some kind of negotiations.

This is diplomatic propaganda. The idea is to get dozens upon dozens of countries together, to take a group photo, and put psychological pressure on the Russian leadership. But I am convinced that they are all well aware unless Moscow achieves the stated goals of the current military operation, everything is largely irrelevant.

Otherwise, the sacrifices that Russia has made, ranging from battlefield casualties to numerous other constraints, will be in vain.

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At the same time, the Americans are crawling away from the front line. They are still in charge but, as Obama used to say, they are now a “backseat driver”. Basically, they are doing everything they can to ensure that they do not suffer in the event of a collision. They want the people in the front of the vehicle to suffer. And, of course, the Americans are not so much tired of Kiev as they are tired of having to spread their resources, which are not unlimited, in different directions.

Yes, they are huge, but, I repeat, they are no longer unlimited. Today, the Middle East is strategically much more important than Ukraine.

You may notice that I am not even talking about the issue of China, which the Americans see as existential in terms of their role in world affairs. Will they continue to be number one or will they become number two and so on? For many there, such as scenario is a death knell.

Now we have the opportunity to play the long game, to calmly observe and properly assess the ongoing machinations in the West. That is why it is interesting to see what is being said today about the negotiations and how they are being conducted, rather than the obligatory blather about Russia’s defeat on the battlefield. This kind of talk in itself is a plus for us.

We know that they also understand that they cannot defeat us and are trying to move to the next point of retreat. However the rhetoric is still about the impossibility of allowing our victory. But for us, partial victory will be equivalent to defeat. The West will be able to influence the situation in our country in every possible way if we fail to achieve the stated goals of military operation.

I think time is working in our favour. Let’s see what happens in the United States before the election, what happens during it, what happens afterwards. But at the same time, while our enemy is preoccupied with its internal problems, while its strategic vision for the Middle East, East Asia and Ukraine is in turmoil, we ourselves must make progress.

Real, serious successes on the battlefield, which I understand the Russian army is now carrying out.

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The US is reportedly lobbying the UN to reject the regional authority’s membership bid, which would amount to its recognition

The US government has been lobbying the UN Security Council nations to reject the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) application for full membership, according to The Intercept, citing leaked diplomatic cables.

The outlet reported on Wednesday it had obtained copies of unclassified US State Department cables which contradict the Biden administration’s pledge to fully support a two-state solution.

The 15-member Security Council is reportedly scheduled to vote on Friday on a draft resolution that recommends to the 193-member UN General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations,” which would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood, which Israel opposes.

The US has been insisting that establishing an independent Palestinian state should happen through direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine, and not at the United Nations. President Joe Biden has previously categorically said that Washington supports a two-state solution and is working to get that in place as soon as possible.

The cables reportedly detail pressure being applied to members of the Security Council. Ecuador in particular is being asked to lobby Malta, the rotating president of the council this month, and other nations, including France, to oppose UN recognition for the PA, according to the report. The State Department has reportedly pointed out that normalizing relations between Israel and Arab states is the fastest and most effective way to achieve an enduring and productive statehood.

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One diplomatic cable, dated April 12, explained US opposition to the vote, citing the risk of inflaming tensions, political backlash, and a potential cut in UN funding by the US Congress.

“We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of ‘Palestine’ as a UN member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks,” the leaked cable reads.

The PA applied for membership in 2011, but the application was never put to the Security Council. At the time, the US – as one of the council’s five permanent members – said it would exercise its veto power in the event of a successful vote.

The following year, the UN upgraded the State of Palestine’s status from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state,” a status held only by it and Vatican City.

The lobbying efforts by the US indicate that the White House is hoping to avoid an overt “veto” on the Palestinian membership request, The Intercept suggested.

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Argentina has submitted a formal request to the US-led military bloc for ‘global partner’ status, Defense Minister Luis Petri says

Argentina has officially asked NATO to accept it as a new “global partner,” the country’s Defense Minister Luis Petri announced on Thursday following a meeting with the US-led military bloc’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana.

In a post on X, Petri shared pictures from his meeting with Geoana in Buenos Aires, and said that he “presented the letter of intent that expresses Argentina’s request to become a global partner” of NATO. He vowed to “continue working to recover links that allow us to modernize and train our forces to NATO standards.”

The US has already designated Argentina as a Major non-NATO Ally (MNNA); Washington uses this term to classify countries that have strategic relationships with the US Armed Forces but do not formally belong to the NATO bloc.

The Global Partner, or ‘Partners Across the Globe’, designation signifies even deeper ties with the US-led group, such as sharing intelligence and participating in joint military operations, and is currently held by countries such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Colombia, Iraq, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan.

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Petri’s statement comes as Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who was elected last December, has launched a wave of radical reforms aimed at stabilizing the country’s ailing economy and has sought to establish closer ties with the US and other Western countries, even looking to peg its national currency to the dollar.

After securing the presidency, Milei, a self-described ‘anarcho-capitalist’, also formally rejected an invitation to become a member of the BRICS group of nations, led by Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, claiming that he would not “align with the communists.”

Instead, the Argentinian president has insisted that the best way to protect his country’s sovereignty is to strengthen its “strategic alliance” with Washington and other countries that “embrace the causes of freedom.”

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Berlin’s “provocative attack” is an attempt to distort the history of World War II, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said

Russia’s diplomatic mission in Berlin has received a notice that the presence of Russian officials at events in Germany marking the liberation of Nazi concentration camps is “undesirable,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

The letter was sent earlier this month by the administrations of several memorial complexes at the sites of former death camps, Zakharova explained. It came ahead of International Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps Day, observed annually on April 11 to commemorate the freeing of prisoners from Buchenwald – one of the largest Nazi death camps of World War II.

“Our embassy in Berlin received a notice that it is undesirable for Russian officials to participate in commemorative events marking the 79th anniversary of the liberation of death camp prisoners,” Zakharova said during a briefing. She noted that the letter targeted people who have dedicated their lives to preserving the memory of World War II.

Zakharova stressed that Moscow regards the move as a “provocative attack” and yet another attempt to portray the war in a politicized “anti-Russian vein.”

“We believe that this is the destruction of historical memory and the truth about the Second World War by Berlin,” the spokeswoman said

Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union is estimated to have caused the deaths of over 26 million people, including some 13.6 million civilians. Despite the catastrophic losses, the Red Army played a pivotal role in defeating Nazi Germany and pushed its forces out of Eastern Europe, liberating many concentration camps, including the infamous Auschwitz.

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Zakharova also criticized Germany for continuing to ignore Russia’s demands to recognize Nazi crimes against the USSR as genocide, stressing that Berlin “will not be able to remain silent and avoid answering.”

In January, on the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad during World War II, Berlin said it was “committed to ensuring that the memory of the atrocities of German War crimes in the Second World War” and acknowledged “its historical responsibility for the crimes committed in Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht.”

Russian diplomats, however, have argued that Berlin’s statements do not go far enough, and expressed dismay that Germany is seemingly hesitant to recognize the Leningrad blockade and other Nazi crimes against the people of the USSR as acts of genocide.

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The Turkish leader reportedly said the Jewish state has killed 14,000 children in Gaza

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Israel of outdoing Adolf Hitler by killing 14,000 children in Gaza, Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday.

Speaking to a meeting of his Justice and Development (AK) Party legislators in the Turkish parliament, Erdogan said that the Palestinian cause has given his life meaning, according to the news agency.

“As long as God grants me life, I will continue to defend the struggle of Palestine, and will be the voice of the oppressed Palestinian people,” the Turkish leader said.

He also compared the struggle of Hamas to the Turkish war of independence (1919-1922) and reminded the MPs that he had stood up for the Palestinian militant group at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“When no one else would speak, we stood up and said: ‘Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a resistance group.’ We presented maps at the UN showing how Israel has gradually occupied the lands of Palestine over the past 70 years,” he said.

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Erdogan accused Israel of committing massacres in both Gaza and the West Bank that are “marks of shame in human history,” with “unconditional support” from the West.

Almost 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave over the past six months, according to the local health authorities, while another 77,000 have been injured. The Hamas-run Gaza government says most of the casualties have been civilians, though it is unclear where Erdogan got the number of dead children. Statistically, nearly half of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, according to numerous reports.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the Gaza-based group raided nearby Israeli villages and military bases on October 7 last year. West Jerusalem has said over 1,100 Israelis were killed and over 200 taken hostage in the attack, which has been described as one of the worst in the Jewish state’s history.

The UN has estimated that 85% of the Palestinian enclave’s residents have been internally displaced and face acute shortages of food, water and medication, while more than half of Gaza’s infrastructure has been damaged or outright destroyed. A recent report by UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese has accused Israel of intending to commit genocide in the enclave.

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A large-scale conflict is in nobody’s interests, but an Israeli retaliation to Iran is bound to happen. The question is, what will it be?

From the night of Saturday, April 13, Iran directly attacked Israel from its territory for the first time using drones and missiles. In many Israeli cities, air-raid sirens sounded, and explosions were heard in Jerusalem.

CNN described it as the most powerful single drone attack in history. The strike was a response to an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, which killed several Iranian officers, including a high-ranking general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This exchange pushed the Middle East closer to a full-scale regional war.

According to the Israeli army, the nighttime attack from Iranian territory consisted of more than 300 launches: Israel was targeted by 170 drones, over 120 ballistic missiles, and more than 30 cruise missiles. In addition to drones, Iran reportedly launched 150 cruise missiles, 110 land-to-land ballistic missiles (Shahab-3, Sajil-2, and Kheibar), and seven Fattah-2 hypersonic cruise missiles.

In addition to Iran, attacks on Israel were also carried out by Yemeni Houthis and pro-Iranian groups from Iraq. It is also reported that the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah participated in the attacks on Israel, launching missile strikes on the Golan Heights.

The attacks caused widespread panic in Israel when air-raid sirens went off at 2am, forcing citizens to seek shelter amid explosions in key locations, including Jerusalem, Haifa, and several military bases. The intensity of the attack overwhelmed Israel’s Iron Dome defense system, prompting retaliatory military actions by allied countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Jordan. As a countermeasure, Israel disabled the guidance systems of Iranian missiles and drones by blocking GPS signals.

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This information is corroborated by reports from American and British media, which stated that drones launched from these territories were destroyed by the air forces of the US, the UK, and Jordan before they could reach Israeli territory. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed the participation of British fighters in repelling the attacks. Additionally, Israel expressed gratitude to France for assistance in monitoring airspace, which facilitated effective protection against the attacks. According to CNN, the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, as well as the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 missile defense systems were involved in repelling the attacks.

According to IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari, Israel and its allies managed to intercept 99% of Iran’s munitions, with the overwhelming majority shot down outside the country. Only a few ballistic missiles reached Israeli territory, hitting an airbase in the south, where “minor damage” was inflicted on the infrastructure, the IDF stated. Iran claimed that its targets were exclusively military and governmental structures, highlighting the serious nature of the conflict and the complexities associated with regional geopolitical tensions.

Have Iran and Israel always been enemies?

Before the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran and Israel maintained relatively friendly and cooperative relations, characterized by strategic collaboration in various areas. Despite geographical and cultural differences, both countries found common ground in their shared geopolitical interests and the recognition of threats from neighboring Arab states.

Diplomatic relations between Iran and Israel were established in the early years after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. Iran, under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, viewed Israel as a potential ally in the region. Both countries shared concerns about the expansionist ambitions of Arab nationalist movements and the strengthening of Soviet influence in the Middle East during the Cold War.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Iran and Israel discreetly cooperated in various areas, including intelligence sharing, military training, and economic partnership. This collaboration was dictated by mutual interests in countering common enemies, such as Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism, led by figures like Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

One notable example of their cooperation was the joint Israeli-Iranian efforts to support Kurdish rebels in Iraq during the 1960s, aimed at destabilizing the Iraqi government, which was viewed as a threat by both Tehran and Tel Aviv.

Additionally, Iran and Israel maintained strong economic ties, with Israel providing Iran with advanced agricultural technologies and expertise, while Iran supplied Israel with oil, especially during times of regional instability, such as the Arab oil embargo of 1973.

Overall, the period before 1979 witnessed a pragmatic alignment of interests between Iran and Israel, driven by their shared concerns and pursuit of mutual benefits. However, these relationships changed dramatically after the Iranian Revolution, which ended the Shah’s regime and ushered in an era of hostility between the two countries.

The roots of Iran-Israel animosity

The rivalry between Iran and Israel is deeply rooted in political, religious, and strategic conflicts that have developed over several decades. This longstanding enmity has multiple aspects, each contributing to the tensions that shape their current relations.

Iran and Israel embody fundamentally opposing political and religious ideologies. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran established an Islamic Republic based on Shiite principles, which opposed what it perceived as Western imperialism and influence, including that of Israel and the US. Israel, on the other hand, was founded as a Jewish state in 1948 and is viewed by Iran as a Western outpost in the Middle East. Iran’s support for Palestinian groups and its calls for the elimination of the Zionist state have further fueled this ideological conflict.

Both countries strive to expand their influence in the Middle East, often at the expense of the other. Israel sees Iran as its greatest threat, particularly due to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its support for anti-Israel groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Conversely, Iran views Israel’s military superiority and its close ties with the US as a serious threat to its own security and regional ambitions.

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Iran’s nuclear program is the subject of intense scrutiny and concern for Israel. Israel fears that Iran’s potential to develop nuclear weapons poses a direct existential threat. As a result, Israel actively advocates for stringent international sanctions against Iran and does not rule out military action to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear capability. Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but its opacity and resistance to international inspections have heightened suspicions and tension.

Iran and Israel have conducted a shadow war across the region, supporting opposing sides in various conflicts. Iran backs groups like Hezbollah and the Syrian government, aiming to establish a “Shiite crescent” from Iran through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. Israel frequently conducts military strikes to disrupt these efforts and to weaken the military capabilities of these groups, particularly to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah and other Iran-allied groups.

The international alliances of each country also contribute to their rivalry. Israel’s strong ties with the US, its peace treaties with certain Arab nations, and its growing relations with other countries concerned about Iran’s policies, such as Saudi Arabia, are perceived by Iran as strategic encirclement. Meanwhile, Iran’s support from Russia and China in the face of Western sanctions showcases the global dimension of this rivalry.

Iran’s ideological commitment to exporting its revolutionary principles and opposing Western influence directly clashes with Israel’s security interests and its alignment with Western values. This ideological export is manifested through Iran’s support for militias and political movements that actively oppose the existence of Israel.

Understanding the complex and multifaceted nature of the Iran-Israel rivalry requires considering these historical, ideological, strategic, and international factors. This rivalry not only affects the security dynamics of the Middle East but also has significant implications for global geopolitics.

What was the reaction to the Iranian attacks on Israel?

Following the Iranian attack, high-ranking officials from various countries heightened tensions. The chief of the Israeli General Staff immediately declared that a response would be forthcoming, without specifying its form or timing. At the same time, the rhetoric from world leaders emphasized the need to contain the conflict and prevent a large-scale war.

At a UN Security Council meeting, the Iranian representative asserted that Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel were conducted in self-defense and were necessary, proportionate, and targeted only at military sites. According to Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, Iran informed the US administration that the attack on Israel was limited. Iran also threatened strikes on American bases in the region if the US continued to support Israel and oppose Iran during the attack. The minister noted that Iran had targeted an Israeli airbase from which F-35 planes had launched strikes on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1.

Immediately after the strikes by the Iranian Armed Forces and the IRGC on Israel, the US adopted a cautious approach. An official spokesperson for the US administration expressed concern about possible rash actions by Israel in response to aggression from Iran. He believed that Israel’s strategic decisions were not always optimal. According to CNN, during his first phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Joe Biden stated that his country would not participate in possible IDF offensive operations against Iran.

Moreover, Joe Biden suggested to the Israeli authorities that they should consider the repulsion of the Iranian strike a victory and end the escalation of actions on that note. Additionally, he did not openly comment on the Iranian attack in his address to the nation. Politico linked this to a desire not to provoke further escalation of tensions in the Middle East.

However, Joe Biden immediately reached out to the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, urging him to urgently coordinate a new aid package for Israel.

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At the same time, the readiness of the US to defend Israel was declared by the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin. In conversation with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, he promised to do everything necessary to protect the country from “Iranian aggression.”

“Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to wait for a phone call from President Joe Biden. There were several options for retaliation, but the call stopped him. That train has left the station, and now we can take a breath and think again,” one Israeli official told journalists on condition of anonymity.

The Russian side also maintained a restrained stance, expressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “We call on all involved parties to exercise restraint. We hope that regional states will resolve their issues through political-diplomatic means.”

Although the West believes that a large-scale conflict is in Russia’s interests, they overlook several reasons why Moscow would not want such escalation in the region. Firstly, many countries in the region are now priority trade and economic partners for Russia, and a conflict would severely impact the Russian economy. Secondly, a conflict in the Middle East could provoke prolonged instability near Russian borders and lead to undesirable destructive consequences within Russia itself, such as an increase in the terrorist threat.

All this shows that global players like Russia and the US, as well as regional players, including the Arab monarchies of the Gulf, are not interested in a large-scale war. Iran’s actions themselves indicate that it does not want to engage in a direct war with Israel, as the restrained and symbolic nature of the attacks confirms.

Will Israel respond and will there be a regional war?

The question remains open regarding the intentions of the Israeli authorities. In response to Washington’s reaction, Netanyahu stated, “We will make our own decisions. The State of Israel will do everything necessary to protect itself.” The Chief of the Israeli General Staff made an official statement, saying there would be a response, although the format and timing were not specified. Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Iran’s actions a declaration of war.

From the onset of escalating tensions in the Middle East following attacks by Palestinian militant groups on Israel on October 7, it was clear that the Israeli authorities would respond forcefully. Netanyahu wants to strengthen his position domestically to dispel dissatisfaction with his cabinet and stay in power. Regardless, for the citizens of Israel, security is of foremost importance. Netanyahu wants to prove to the electorate that he is the one who can provide this security by crushing all of Israel’s enemies.

Therefore, Israel will definitely respond, there is no doubt about that. The only question is how it will be done. The most logical scenario seems to be initiating an intervention in southern Lebanon to combat Hezbollah, an ally of Iran. This has been discussed for a long time in Israeli power circles, and Arab countries’ intelligence services have conveyed information about the high likelihood of an Israeli invasion to Lebanese authorities. Moreover, such a step is unlikely to lead to a regional war. It is also possible that Israel might respond by attacking pro-Iranian forces’ positions in Syria.

However, a direct attack on Iran could become a point of no return and lead to a major war. Washington understands this and is therefore pressing Netanyahu hard, as the outcomes of such a large-scale conflict are very uncertain, and it is far from clear that the US and Israel would emerge as victors. Anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments are extremely strong among the general population in the region. The reaction of the Middle Eastern public in Turkish and Arab segments of social media showed that sympathies were with Iran during the attacks on Israel.

In conclusion, the start of a full-scale war still seems unlikely. Tehran is not interested in such a conflict, nor are Israel’s allies, namely the US and the EU. But this does not mean that the danger has passed. The possibility of a full-scale war always remains, and it is difficult to predict exactly which strike and which side might provoke it. What is clear is that the issues in the Middle East need to be addressed immediately and fundamentally.

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Kiev’s forces are struggling to hold back the Russians due to delays in foreign aid and personnel shortages, the news outlet said

The US and the EU are concerned that Russian forces may punch through Ukrainian defensive lines in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg.

Russian troops are continuing to advance thanks to an advantage in ammunition, the agency acknowledged in an article on Thursday.

At the same time, Ukrainian forces “struggle because of delays in US and European military aid and personnel shortages,” it added.

Ukraine also faces daily Russian missile, drone and bomb attacks that are knocking out key energy infrastructure and striking military positions, due to its lack of air defenses, according to Bloomberg.

Because of this, “concerns are mounting that Russia may make major gains in the coming weeks by punching through overstretched Ukrainian lines,” sources in the US and Europe told the agency.

Russian forces have now reached the outskirts of Chasov Yar in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a crucial town for Ukraine’s defenses in the area due to its elevated position, the article continued.

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In a video address to EU leaders on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky warned his foreign backers that “the Russian army feels its strength in almost everything related to the armed component. And it is precisely because of this strength – in artillery, in equipment, in the ability to operate in the sky – that they are putting pressure on us at the front and are gradually moving.”

Zelensky said that his country needs more Western aid, urging the EU to finally fulfill its promise to supply Ukraine with a million artillery shells.

The attempts by the administration of US President Joe Biden to push through another $60 billion in assistance for Kiev have been fruitless since the fall amid the standoff between Democratic and Republican lawmakers over immigration and border security. US House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that he will put a standalone Ukraine aid bill to a vote on Saturday.

READ MORE: Russia charges four Ukrainian colonels with mass murder

In early April, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that the country’s forces have captured another 403 square kilometers of land from Ukraine since the start of the year. The Ukrainian army has been losing around 800 personnel and some 120 units of equipment on a daily basis during the period, he said.

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The Ramadan ceasefire in Gaza was not implemented, Moscow’s envoy to the UN has said

Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzia has called on the United Nations to consider imposing sanctions on Israel over its non-compliance with obligatory resolutions passed by the Security Council.

He noted that UNSC Resolution 2728 demanded a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan, and this had not been implemented by Israel.

“We remind you once again that non-compliance with mandatory Security Council resolutions must lead to sanctions against violators. We believe that the Council should consider this issue without delay,” Nebenzia said on Thursday during a UN Security Council meeting.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne also called for sanctions on Israel earlier this month. In February, Paris sanctioned 28 Israeli nationals, though the French government has not published their names.

The Hamas ceasefire resolution was adopted by the Security Council on March 25 in a vote of 14 in favor to none against, with the US abstaining. The document demanded a ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and for humanitarian access to Gaza to be ensured.

The delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza is nearly impossible at the moment, Nebenzia said, pointing to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which demonstrates that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are currently blocking half of the humanitarian convoys heading to the region.

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Earlier this month, Israel admitted that the IDF had mistakenly conducted a strike that the World Central Kitchen group said killed seven of the organization’s personnel – three British nationals, an Australian, a Palestinian, a Pole, and a US-Canadian.

Shortly after the US abstained on the UN Gaza ceasefire resolution, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned visit to Washington by a high-level delegation in protest over the move. He accused the White House of “retreating” from what he said had been a “principled position” by allowing the vote to pass without attaching conditions providing for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Hamas raided nearby Israeli military bases and villages on October 7, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and taking over 200 hostage. Israel responded by declaring war on the group and invading Gaza. The military operation has reduced much of the enclave to rubble, claiming the lives of more than 33,000 Palestinians over the past six months, according to local authorities.

A weeklong truce deal reached in late November saw 105 hostages freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

On Wednesday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said negotiations stalled between Israel and Hamas to secure a truce in Gaza and a release of more hostages.

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As much as 7% of federal spending could be fraud, according to a new report

The US government could be losing between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud each year, according to a report on a recent five-year period by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Issued this week, the study – the first of its kind – looked into the federal budget between fiscal years 2018 and 2022, spanning parts of the Trump and Biden administrations, and the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw scammers target historic aid handouts.

The GAO estimated that fraud may have reached as high as 7% of federal spending, with the Washington Post noting that the highest spikes were “likely coinciding with the past abuse of coronavirus relief funds.”

The report called the US’ fiscal health “unsustainable” and called for major reforms to “reduce the loss of federal dollars and help improve the federal government’s fiscal outlook.”

“All federal programs and operations are at risk of fraud. Therefore, agencies need robust processes in place to prevent, detect, and respond to fraud,” the GAO said, noting that its analysis could not be used to predict future losses.

Last week, the White House and Senate Democrats unveiled new legislation aimed at cracking down on fraud in federal programs. Under the proposed legislation, about $675 million would reportedly be devoted toward fighting identity theft, targeting criminals who use information stolen from Americans to collect government aid.

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Lawmakers would also allocate more than half a billion dollars to help the Justice Department ramp up oversight of federal spending.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has taken issue with the GAO report and its methodology, with Jason Miller, deputy director for management at OMB, pointing out that the figures were devised from a “simulation model” and “not based on analysis of estimated losses by individual federal programs.”

The GAO said it had assessed different methods to estimate fraud and ultimately used a “well-established probabilistic method for estimating a range of outcomes under different assumptions and scenarios where there is uncertainty.”

It added that it collected data from multiple sources, including from cases sent for prosecution, information from the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) semiannual report, as well as confirmed fraud data reports made to the OMB.

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An attack on Tehran’s facilities will trigger tit-for-tat retaliation, the IRGC officer in charge of their safety has said

A senior officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned that Tehran is capable of striking Israeli nuclear facilities if its own are hit, according to local media.

Tensions have escalated in the Middle East this month following an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, in which seven IRGC officers were killed. Tehran retaliated last weekend with a massive barrage of drones and missiles, most of which were reportedly downed by the Jewish state and its Western backers.

The Israeli nuclear compounds “are identified, and the necessary information about all the targets is at our disposal to respond,” IRGC Brigadier General Ahmad Haghtalab, claimed, as quoted by Tasnim, a semi-official news agency associated with the regiment. “We have a hand on the trigger to launch powerful missiles and destroy those targets.”

Tehran has said it considers the incident resolved, but Israel has vowed to strike back without revealing how and when. Reportedly, West Jerusalem is considering further military action, possibly targeting the Iranian nuclear industry. IRGC Brigadier General Ahmad Haghtalab, the officer responsible for safeguarding the Iranian sites, said the Israeli nuclear industry could be hit in retaliation.

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The Israeli nuclear industry has a public civilian component as well as a purported military component, the existence of which it neither confirms nor denies. West Jerusalem has an estimated 80 nuclear weapons at its disposal, including 30 gravity bombs and 50 warheads for medium-range ballistic missiles, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading international security watchdog. Haghtalab didn’t specify which sites Iran had considered for its hypothetical operation.

Israel has been accusing Iran of secretly developing nuclear capabilities of its own for decades. Gilad Erdan, its representative at the UN, claimed last Sunday that Tehran was mere weeks away from building a nuclear weapon, as he urged members of the UN Security Council to consider what would have happened if Iran “could have launched a nuclear bomb” when it attacked his country. These claims were later dismissed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Iranian leadership has stated that it considers all weapons of mass destruction incompatible with Islam. Haghtalab, however, assessed that it would be “conceivable” for Tehran to reconsider its “nuclear doctrine and politics,” if Israel keeps threatening its nuclear facilities.

READ MORE: Biden warns Israel against attacking Israel

Nuclear sites are normally considered off limits for military action, the general said, but Israel’s attack on the consulate, an internationally-protected diplomatic mission, was proof that it does not care about playing by the rules.

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Sweden has lowered the age permitting citizens to identify as a different sex to 16

Sweden’s parliament on Wednesday passed a law lowering the minimum age to legally change gender from 18 to 16, as well as making the process easier. The step has been approved despite criticism from within the government coalition.

The legislation on self-identification was passed by a vote of 234 to 94 in Sweden’s 349-seat parliament.

Sweden was the first country to make gender transition legal in 1972. However, a person currently requires a doctor’s diagnosis of gender dysphoria to be allowed to change their legally recognized gender.

Under the new law, which will come into force next year, a shorter consultation with a doctor or a psychologist will suffice. It will also eliminate the need to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, where a person may experience distress as a result of a mismatch between their biological sex and the gender they identify as.

Swedish citizens will be able to change their sex at 16, although those under 18 will need the approval of their parents, a doctor, and the National Board of Health and Welfare. The new law will also separate the process of changing legal gender from sex-change surgery, which will still only be allowed from the age of 18.

The legislation has sparked intense debate, and the ruling center-right coalition has been split on the issue. Moderates and the Liberals largely supporting the law, while the smaller Christian Democrats opposed it.

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“This is not a revolution we are doing today, it is a reform,” Johan Hultberg of the Moderates said during a parliamentary debate. “It is not reasonable that there should be the same requirements for changing legal gender as for making an irreversible gender confirming surgery.”

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has defended the proposal as “balanced and responsible.” Meanwhile, many MPs have urged more research into gender dysphoria first.

The leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Akesson, said it was “deplorable that a proposal that obviously lacks support among the population is so casually voted through.”

Carita Boulwen of the Sweden Democrats called it a “reprehensible” proposal, which risks having “unforeseen and serious consequences” for society.

The bill is also unpopular among the public. According to a recent poll conducted by Swedish television network TV4, 59% of Swedes said it is a bad or very bad proposal, while 22% thought it was a positive move, Reuters reported.

A number of EU countries, including Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, and Spain, already have similar laws.

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Kyrgyzstan has reportedly blocked access to the app due to concerns over its impact on children

Kyrgyzstan has blocked the video-sharing platform TikTok over lax content regulations and concerns that the app may be detrimental to children’s mental health, local media reported on Wednesday.

Bishkek’s Ministry of Digital Development requested that telecom operators restrict access to the popular service as of Thursday, news outlets reported, citing a statement from the ministry. The decision was reportedly based on recommendations issued by the State Committee for National Security.

According to officials, the Kyrgyz branch of TikTok “lacks a systematic and principled approach to content censorship,” particularly in “the children’s information space.” The Chinese-owned social media platform also failed to adhere to a law on information “deemed detrimental to children’s health and development,” the statement added.

Many users have reported being unable to access TikTok service as of Thursday morning, according to news outlet vesti.kg.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international NGO defending the right to freedom of information, criticized “the arbitrary blocking” of the popular social media platform by the Kyrgyz authorities. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), RSF claimed that the authorities restricted the right to information online “under the pretext of protecting minors.”

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It is not the first attempt to bloc TikTok in Kyrgyzstan. In August last year, the Ministry of Culture announced its intention to ban the platform because it allegedly drives young people “to replicate certain actions depicted in these clips, some of which endanger their lives.” No ban, however, was implemented at the time.

Critics argue the restrictions will harm small and medium-sized businesses that promote their services and goods through TikTok. They also claim that targeting the app will not solve any negative impact of the internet on children.

TikTok did not immediately respond to the ban, but has previously insisted it has safeguards to moderate content and protect minors.

The Chinese-owned social media platform is also facing a possible ban in the US. The House of Representatives passed legislation in March that described TikTok as a “national security threat” over concerns that the Chinese government could force the platform’s owner, ByteDance, to hand over the data of US app users.

If enacted by the Senate and President Joe Biden, the bill would force ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or face a nationwide ban. Biden has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. China’s Foreign Ministry has slammed the vote as an “act of bullying.”

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Burkina Faso has accused the officials of carrying out subversive activities

Burkina Faso’s military government has declared three French diplomats persona non grata, giving them 48 hours to leave the West African nation. The incident adds to major diplomatic setbacks Paris has suffered in the country in recent years.

In a letter dated Tuesday and addressed to the French Embassy in Ouagadougou, the Burkinabe Foreign Ministry accused the officials of committing “subversive” acts, without providing any details.

The ministry named Gwenaielle Habouzit and two political advisers, Guillaume Reisacher and Herve Fournier, as the officials who must depart the country by Thursday.

Relations between Paris and Ouagadougou have deteriorated markedly since Burkina Faso’s military took power in a coup in 2022. In March of last year, the government terminated a 1961 military assistance agreement with France that had been in place since Paris granted the Sahel country independence.

It has since ordered the withdrawal of the French ambassador and troops, as well as the suspension of several French news agencies, including broadcasts by television channel France 24 and Burkina-Radio France International. The military authorities accused the networks of false reporting and providing a platform for jihadist groups.

Last September, French defense attache Emmanuel Pasquier and his team were also expelled from Burkina Faso for “subversive activities.” An unnamed spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry at the time dismissed the allegation as “fanciful,” according to AFP.

Burkina Faso joined Mali in strengthening ties with Russia after both countries kicked out French forces, accusing the former colonial power of meddling and failing to quell extremist violence during its decade-long military mission.

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Despite Western governments’ concerns about Russia’s alleged growing influence in the Sahel region, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, all under military rule, recently formed an alliance and agreed to intensify cooperation with Moscow in the fight against terrorism.

The leaders of the three former French colonies have repeatedly hailed Russia as a “strategic” partner and pledged to strengthen their already “excellent” relations.

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A video of a Jewish woman arguing with Indians over anti-Israeli ‘propaganda’ has gone viral

A Jewish woman from Australia was taken into police custody in the state of Kerala in southern India for tearing down posters supporting Palestine, Indian media have reported.

A video of a heated exchange between a woman and the locals, who questioned her move, has gone viral on social media. In the footage, the woman can be heard claiming that the posters promoted “racism and propaganda.” The scene took place in the city of Kochi, known, among other things, as home to the oldest group of Jews in India, although just a handful of them remain.

After a brief investigation, the woman was tried in court in the Thoppumpady ward of Kochi, according to the New Indian Express. Her friend was not arrested, as her involvement could not be established. Meanwhile, two officials from the Australian embassy have reached out to help with the legal procedures, according to Indian media outlets.

The tourist has been charged under section 153 (provoking riots) of the Indian Panel Code (IPC), which is a bailable offence, at the Fort Kochi Police Station.

An Austrian Jewish tourist was summoned by Kerala Police after a video of her tearing down a pro-Palestinian mural in Fort Kochi in Ernakulam district went viral on social media.

Watch: pic.twitter.com/uoUMUulaAv

— Maktoob (@MaktoobMedia) April 16, 2024

According to reports, the posters were installed by the Students’ Islamic Organization of India (SIO), the student wing of the socio-religious group Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. The students who put up the posters argued that they were “not promoting any enmity between religions or sects” and only sought to draw attention to the ongoing suffering of Palestinians.

A police complaint filed by the SIO notes that the banners showed pictures of a child standing in front of a battle tank along with a description reading “silence is violence, stand up for humanity.” After West Jerusalem launched its offensive in Gaza in retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, the organization’s president Syed Sadatullah Husani claimed that Palestine is the “most oppressed country in the world” and argued that support for Palestine is in India’s “best interests.”

I originally shared this picture from my trip to Kochi back in December. According to media reports, it was torn down today by a European tourist. What a horrible thing to do! Silencing is violence. https://t.co/oE0GcijEzb https://t.co/VNphUqXoDn

— Ned Bertz (@NedBertz) April 17, 2024

New Delhi has on many occasions called for a diplomatic resolution of the decades-old conflict, which would entail a two-state approach, and has expressed concerns over the loss of civilian lives in Gaza. New Delhi has also cautioned against a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Israel's response to October 7 attack by Hamas, the Gaza-based militant Palestinian group, killing over 1,100 Israelis and taking over 200 hostage, has turned much of the enclave into rubble and claimed the lives of over 33,000 Palestinians over the past six months, according to local authorities.

READ MORE: India ‘deeply shocked’ over deaths in northern Gaza

Most recently, after Iran launched a strike against Israel last week in retaliation for the attack on its embassy in Damascus, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar called on his counterparts in both West Jerusalem and Tehran, asking them to “work towards a peaceful resolution.”

Where India Meets Russia – We are now on WhatsApp! ‎Follow and share RT India in English and in Hindi

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The revelation debunks Kiev’s “myths,” a Russian official accused of mass abductions has said

Over 160 Ukrainian children allegedly “kidnapped by Russia” have been discovered living in Germany, the country's Federal Criminal Police (BKA) has confirmed.

The head of Ukrainian national police, Ivan Vygovsky, on Wednesday hailed the discovery, telling national media that he had discussed the issue with Holger Munch, president of the BKA, during a meeting earlier in this week.

Allegations by Kiev that Moscow kidnapped Ukrainian children en masse have been exposed as a lie after some of the purported victims have been found in the EU, according to Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. She is among the officials to have been accused of abducting youngsters from Ukraine amid the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

When asked for clarification by RT Deutsch, the BKA said its officers had identified the children after they were flagged as “kidnapping” victims by Kiev. Their personal details were checked against German records.

The majority of the youngsters had entered Germany as refugees accompanied by their parents or legal guardians, the police said. In a handful of cases, suspicion of “unlawful transfer” remained, the statement added, without offering further details.

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Responding to the revelations, Lvova-Belova said Moscow has “long been drawing the attention of the international community to the fact that Ukraine has created a systemic myth regarding the children, who it claims had been ‘deported’ to Russia.”

Last year, Lvova-Belova was named alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the key suspects in its investigation into the alleged unlawful deportation and transfer of minors during the Ukraine conflict. Moscow dismissed the claim as politically motivated, arguing that Kiev had lied to the court about what in reality was an evacuation of civilians from areas affected by the hostilities.

In her remarks about the German discoveries, Lvova-Belova said her office had identified multiple cases in which children described by Kiev as abductees were actually residing with their parents at home or in other nations, “never having been separated from their families.”

She expressed hope that the Ukrainian “global disinformation campaign” would eventually stop and that the truth would prevail.

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Digital banking will create sovereignty, VTB chief Andrey Kostin says

A move away from conducting financial transactions through Western payment systems, including SWIFT, is vital for Russia and its trading partners, the head of the country’s second-largest lender has said.

Speaking on Thursday at the Data Fusion 2024 conference, VTB CEO Andrey Kostin called for the promotion of digital financial settlements in Russia and allied nations. Such a step would end the dominance of the dollar and gain full sovereignty in the financial sector, he claimed.

“SWIFT has announced plans to carry out digital payments soon, but we need to kill SWIFT in our settlements, we need to completely get away from it and involve our partners in this as well,” the banking executive insisted, highlighting major work that is being done by the Bank of Russia to achieve the goal.

According to Kostin, VTB is currently working on a pilot project to bring the digital ruble into general use, including in cross-border payments.

The senior executive said he appreciated efforts by the Central Bank of Russia over the past decade to create an effective system of import phase-out in the financial sector.

READ MORE: Two more Russian allies stop accepting payment card

“At a time when many of our colleagues in the manufacturing sector were happy to use French engines in domestic aircraft or German gearboxes in cars, the Bank of Russia firmly took the line of creating an independent system,” he said, pointing to the Mir card, the Faster Payments System (SBP) and the country's stock exchange infrastructure.

Earlier this month, Kostin admitted that the latest US sanctions had forced banks in several ‘friendly’ countries – Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan – to halt transactions with Russia and stop accepting Russia’s Mir payment cards. In February, the US Treasury updated its backlist of Russian individuals and entities, adding the operator of Russia’s Mir payment card system to it.

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Kiev’s forces “deliberately” targeted a blood donation center in the town of Gorlovka, regional head Denis Pushilin has said

Ukrainian forces have struck a hospital and blood donation center in the Donbass town of Gorlovka, the head of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, has said. Eight civilians including a child were injured in the attack.

The victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the strike, Pushilin wrote on Telegram on Thursday. The the town center where healthcare facilities are located was “deliberately” targeted, he claimed. Both the hospital and the donation center were damaged in the strike.

Gorlovka Mayor Ivan Prikhodko published photos and videos from the scene showing damaged buildings, smashed windows and debris. One clip also showed destroyed furniture in a room at the healthcare facility.

Kiev’s troops used the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) in the attack, according to preliminary data gathered by the Russian authorities.

Washington has sent dozens of the multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine since mid-2022. The systems provided to Kiev have a range of up to 160km (100 miles) when equipped with longer-range ATACMS missiles. Other projectiles launched by HIMARS and available to the Ukrainian military have a range of around 70km.

According to Pushilin, Kiev’s forces carried out a total of 12 attacks on Thursday – both missile and drone strikes – targeting Gorlovka as well as Donetsk and other Donbass settlements. Cluster munitions were used in some of these attacks, the official said.

READ MORE: Ukraine strikes machinery plant in Donbass – authorities

Last week, Ukrainian forces conducted a missile strike targeting a machinery plant in the city of Lugansk. Nine people were injured, including seven workers and two local residents, local leader Leonid Pasechnik said at that time. UK-supplied long-range Storm Shadow missiles were used in that assault, according to Russian law enforcement.

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In his latest gaffe, the US leader described how he told the Jewish state not to attack the city of Haifa

US President Joe Biden told an interviewer that he’d warned the Israeli government against attacking itself, in what appears to be the aging leader’s latest gaffe, and one that has again raised concerns over his mental state.

Speaking with Nexstar Media’s Reshad Hudson in an interview published on Wednesday, the 81-year-old president detailed his plans to win back pro-Palestinian voters, despite his ongoing support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas.

Biden claimed that, aside from meeting with pro-Palestinian activists, he had also “made it clear to the Israelis: don’t move on Haifa,” a renowned port city in northern Israel.

The president then appeared to lose his train of thought, before going on to speak about the weekend’s Iranian attack.

Rather than warning Israel against attacking its own city, the US President apparently meant to refer to Rafah, a Palestinian city in Southern Gaza, which has become the last refuge for displaced civilians in the besieged enclave.

BIDEN: "I made it clear to the Israelis — don't move on Haifa!"

Haifa is a major city *IN* Israel. pic.twitter.com/BdNgoDlGkM

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 18, 2024

In recent weeks, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has reportedly deployed extra artillery and armored vehicles near the Gazan city, in preparation for a large-scale ground offensive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also vowed that “no force in the world” would be able to prevent the IDF from advancing into Rafah, which accommodates over a million Palestinians and which West Jerusalem says is an operating base for Hamas militants.

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Biden’s latest gaffe has been met with widespread mockery online, with many calling it “seriously embarrassing.” Former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman jokingly suggested that “Israel should accommodate Biden’s demand not to attack Haifa,” while former New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind claimed that “there’s a strong likelihood Israel refrains from hitting Haifa.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram that the US president should also forbid himself from participating in the 2024 elections.

“It would be funny, if this man was not directing billions of dollars and colossal amounts of weapons to wars around the world,” Zakharova wrote.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in February revealed that as many as 86% of American voters believe Biden to be too old to serve as the country’s president, and have expressed concerns over his cognitive state. Just over 60% of voters also shared similar concerns over Biden’s main rival, former president Donald Trump. The two are set to face off in the presidential election on November 5.

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Ukrainian authorities have accused a major online casino co-owned by entrepreneur Arnulf Damerau of tax evasion

One of the largest private Western investors in Ukraine has told the Financial Times that senior Kiev officials, including some from President Vladimir Zelensky's office, are trying to extort money from him.

Anglo-German businessman Arnulf Damerau co-owns Cosmolot, one of the largest online casino operators in Ukraine, which is being investigated by the country’s Economic Security Bureau (ESBU). In an interview with the British paper on Thursday, he alleged that senior Ukrainian officials some months ago had made to him what amounted to a criminal proposal.

Cosmolot was founded in 2021 by entrepreneur Sergey Potapov, after the government of President Vladimir Zelensky legalized gambling, ending a ban that had lasted for over a decade. Damerau invested an undisclosed sum in the business last year, becoming one of the primary beneficiaries.

The Ukrainian authorities suspect Cosmolot of tax evasion. Last October, the ESBU raided the firm’s headquarters and in February it froze over $17 million in the company’s accounts, claiming it owed the government $30 million in back taxes. It alleged that copycat websites that share design and infrastructure with the online casino serve some of its clients, but do not report the proceeds that they generate.

Read more

Damerau, who denies the allegations of tax evasion, claimed to the FT that in December a Ukrainian individual met him in Vienna and said that Cosmolot’s legal woes would disappear if half of the company’s shares were transferred to an offshore trust. The businessman said he informed law enforcement in the EU and the US about the situation.

The corruption, Damerau told the British newspaper, comes from a “minority” at the top level of the Ukrainian government, including in Zelensky’s office. Some reports in Western media have claimed that the president does not tolerate graft in his inner circle.

Critics of the Ukrainian leader point out that senior officials tend to get away with major corruption scandals in their departments, as was the case with former defense minister Aleksey Reznikov. He was removed from office last September, months after his ministry was accused of procuring military supplies at grossly inflated prices.

Zelensky’s office has championed the decriminalization of gambling, touting its benefits for the state budget. Cosmolot is the tenth largest taxpayer in the country, according to Damerau.

READ MORE: Ukrainian army gripped by gambling addiction – MP

However, according to Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksey Goncharenko, the industry has become a national security threat. He claimed last month that some 90% of frontline troops suffer from a gambling addiction. Soldiers are paid relatively high salaries and do not have many ways to spend their money, so many of them reportedly turn to online slot machines to cope with the constant stress they face on the battlefield.

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Nigeria plans to increase output to 2 million barrels per day, the country’s finance minister has said

Nigeria is aiming to increase revenues by 60% this year to help keep debt at sustainable levels and alleviate widespread economic hardship in the country, Finance Minister Wale Edun said on Wednesday, according to the Semafor Africa news outlet.

While the target is ambitious, it is necessary for the West African country to reduce its fiscal deficit from 6.1% of GDP to 3.8%, Edun said in a speech at Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington.

According to the Nigerian Debt Management Office, Abuja’s public debt reached $108.2 billion at the end of 2023, representing an increase of 123% since 2012, roughly six times the country’s GDP growth rate. Last year, debt financing took up more than 90% of the government’s budget.

Finance Minister Edun has said debt will remain a source of development financing for the Nigerian government, but it can be addressed through revenue.

“Look at the US’s debt figures but the difference is that they have the revenue – taxes and other government income – to service it,” he said, adding that “that’s what lenders want.”

The official stated that as part of revenue-generating measures, Abuja is working to increase oil production to at least 2 million barrels per day (bpd).

Last year, Africa’s top oil producer failed to meet its 2023 target of 1.69 million bpd, producing only 1.47 million, according to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

Edun said the government has made some progress in addressing the long-standing issues of theft and pipeline sabotage, which have hindered the country’s efforts to generate foreign exchange from recent increases in oil prices.

Additionally, he stated that Africa’s most populous country plans to shore up earnings through “greater efficiency in collecting taxes and other fees and charges that the government has a right to impose” using digital technology.

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Protests have erupted in Nigeria in recent months over the country’s escalating economic crisis. Labor unions have demanded that authorities stop borrowing from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, claiming that such loans are exacerbating the situation.

The country has been grappling with an economic downturn since President Bola Tinubu, who took office on May 29, ended a fuel subsidy as part of a budget deficit-cutting reform package. The depreciation of the local currency, the naira, has raised the price of goods.

Tinubu has recently implemented a number of cost-cutting reforms, including a temporary ban on publicly funded international travel for government officials. Local media reported earlier this month that Abuja intends to sell three jets from its Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) due to budget concerns.

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Brazil will promote its neighbor’s candidacy, according to a joint statement

Colombia is seeking to become a full-fledged member of the BRICS group as soon as possible, and Brazil will promote its candidacy, according to a joint statement from the leaders of Brazil and Colombia, published after their meeting in Bogota on Tuesday.

BRICS – which previously comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – has seen a major wave of expansion. Four more countries – Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates – joined the group at the start of this year, and further additions are expected in the future.

“President [Petro expressed Colombia’s interest in joining BRICS as a full member as soon as possible, and President Lula welcomed this initiative and promised to promote Colombia’s candidacy,” the statement from Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro reads.

Several other nations have expressed an interest in joining the group of non-Western economies, and some have already formally submitted applications, including Venezuela, Thailand, Senegal, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Bahrain, and Pakistan.

In February, Venezuela announced it is hoping to secure BRICS membership at the group’s next summit in Russia in October. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has stated that the emergence of a new multipolar world is “irreversible,” describing the group as the “future of humanity.”

Nigeria in March announced its plans to join BRICS within the next two years, viewing membership as a way to make its voice heard on the global stage.

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Some 25 countries are expecting to apply for membership during the group’s summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October, the South African ambassador to Russia, Mzuvukile Jeff Maqetuka, told TASS news agency in February.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), BRICS currently accounts for as much as 36% of global GDP in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), compared to just over 30% for the G7 group.

The head of the New Development Bank (NDB), Dilma Rousseff, said in February that the BRICS member states will overtake the G7 in their share of nominal global GDP within the next four years. According to her, the group’s share of global economic output will rise to 40% by 2028, while that of the G7 group of developed nations will decline to 27.8%.

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A direct war between Israel and Iran could “substantially” drive prices up, the bank has said in a note cited by CNBC

An all-out war between Israel and Iran could drive oil prices up by $30-$40 per barrel, Bank of America experts have told clients in a research note seen by CNBC.

Tehran and West Jerusalem have traded threats since Iran conducted its first direct military attack on the Jewish state last weekend, in retaliation for a suspected Israeli airstrike on the Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria earlier this month.

If hostilities escalate into a protracted conflict that impacts energy infrastructure and disrupts Iranian crude supplies, the price of global benchmark Brent could rise “substantially” to $130 in the second quarter of this year, a Bank of America research note stated on Tuesday, according to CNBC. It added that US crude oil could soar to $123.

The scenario reportedly assumes that Iranian oil production falls by up to 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd). According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Iran, a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), produces about 3.2m barrels of oil a day. Last year it ranked as the world’s second largest source of supply growth after the US.

If a conflict led to disruptions outside Iran, such as the market losing 2 million bpd or more, prices could spike by $50 a barrel, according to the note. Brent would eventually settle around $100 in 2025, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) would come down to $93, it predicted.

The price of Brent crude spiked to over $91 per barrel earlier this month after Tehran threatened retaliation against Israel. However, as the bank’s global economics team has pointed out, in the days following the retaliatory strike crude oil prices fell due to “[the] limited casualties and damage” it caused.

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Analysts have warned that the market reaction “may not reflect the medium-term economic and geopolitical implications” of Iran’s first-ever direct military attack on Israel.

If a war is limited to the two nations, Bank of America sees little impact on US economic growth and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. A general regional war, however, could have a substantial impact on the US, according to the institution.

Brent futures were trading at $86.6 per barrel at 11:29 GMT on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). WTI futures were trading at $82 per barrel in New York.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section

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Lawyer and politician Mahesh Jethmalani has suggested some world powers fear his country’s emergence as a major rival

A “growing and strong India” is a challenge to the supremacy of the West, the renowned criminal lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani, who is also a member of parliament for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has told RT.

“The sitting most powerful nations fear a rising, emerging power that is going to overthrow them and become more powerful than them,” Jethmalani said, commenting on the Western media’s often unflattering coverage of India, in an interview on the latest episode of RT’s ‘Let’s Talk Bharat’ show.

Discussing his country’s transformation in recent years, Jethmalani highlighted the Modi government’s welfare schemes, successful missions to the Moon and the Sun last year, and India’s “very limited, very reasonable” unemployment and inflation. There is “something for everybody,” irrespective of social standing, he claimed.

Jethmalani – known for defending top politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi (who was then chief minister of Gujarat), industrialists and Bollywood celebrities – further noted that India is gradually moving away from its colonial past, not only in terms of growth and development.

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Last year, India struck down three British-era criminal laws – the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872, enacted by the colonial rulers. They were replaced with a new set of laws drafted by the Modi government.

The older bills, including one on sedition, were based on Victorian principles, Jethmalani noted, adding that women were given a “subordinate place” in the legal system devised by the British. Jethmalani also described India’s new law – reserving 33% of seats for women in politics – as a notable achievement for the government.

The lawmaker also weighed on India’s changing role as a global power. New Delhi’s policy is to be “friends with everyone,” including its China – despite an existing border dispute that, unless resolved, is bound to “flare up.” Jethmalani argued that India has never been an aggressor towards anybody, calling it a point of pride for the country. “We want to live in peace and our boundaries to be secure,” he stressed.

READ MORE: Asian Development Bank raises Indian growth projection

The politician’s comments came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for the urgent resolution of border disputes and the “abnormality” in ties with Beijing.

Jethmalani also cited India’s potential role as a mediator in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, stressing that New Delhi has avoided taking sides, taking a “balanced” view, despite being friends with Russia since “time immemorial.”

“Prime Minister Modi has made it very clear – this is not an era of war, we would like peace,” he said. “But then, they have to sit down across a table and find out what is the adversarial position between the two protagonists. We have offered to mediate as well.”

Recently, Ukraine asked India to participate in an upcoming peace conference in Switzerland that is likely to promote Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’, which demands that Moscow withdraw from all territories that Kiev claims as its own. New Delhi has yet to confirm whether it will attend.

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Kiev’s commanding officers have been indicted in absentia by a Moscow court

Russia’s Investigative Committee has brought charges in absentia against four Colonels of the Ukrainian military, Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow has told TASS. The commanders of Kiev’s units are being accused of mass murder, it added.

Khamovnichesky Court has received petitions for the arrest in absentia of Colonels Pavel Fedosenko, Fedor Yaroshevich and Andrey Matviishin, the court’s representative told the agency on Thursday. Another Ukrainian colonel, Dmitry Khrapach, had earlier been indicted in absentia, according to the representative.

The accused have been charged in accordance with Part 2 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code, the murder of two or more persons, and, if convicted, could face a penalty of up to life imprisonment, the court said.

However, the essence of the accusations against the four Ukrainian officers has not been disclosed, TASS stressed.

Kommersant newspaper reported that the colonels are also accused of using prohibited means and methods of war. The investigators believe that the commanders acted as organizers of the alleged crimes, which were then carried out by their subordinates, the paper said.

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According to TASS, Khrapach is the commander of the 27th Rocket Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Last August, he was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a court in Russia’s People’s Republic of Donetsk over the shelling of the region’s capital from multiple rocket launch systems.

Yaroshevich headed the Ukrainian military’s 19th Missile Brigade until 2023. According to Kommersant, the Colonel had previously been indicted in absentia by Basmanny Court in Moscow, for the use of prohibited means of warfare, including a strike on a train station in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Kramatorsk in the People’s Republic of Donetsk last April.

Authorities in Kiev, which blamed the Kramatorsk attack on Russia, said that it had left 63 people dead and 150 wounded. Moscow insists, however, that it was a “barbaric act” by Ukraine, stressing that the Soviet-made Tochka-U ballistic missile, which had been used in the deadly attack, is only operated by Kiev’s forces and not by the Russian military.

READ MORE: Ukraine issues arrest warrant for Orthodox Christian leader

Fedosenko currently commands the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while Matviishin heads the 8th Separate Special Forces Regiment, according to TASS.

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A proposed housing levy has reopened a conflict between the government and judiciary that could lead to a breakdown of order in Kenya

A confrontation has been unfolding in Kenya between the president and judiciary since last November, impacting significantly on the governance of the East African country.

After 1963, when Kenya gained its independence from Britain, the judiciary was perceived as an extension of the old government, and was perceived to protect colonial interests in its decisions.

It was therefore necessary to indigenize the institution by increasing the proportion of Kenyan nationals in key judicial positions. This process was slow and gradual, but it eventually resulted in a judiciary that reflected the true composition of the nation.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the government initiated a comprehensive strategy known as the Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector (GJLOS) Reform Program. This recognized the importance of reforms in these areas for economic recovery. The enactment of a new constitution in 2010 positioned Kenya’s judiciary as an independent and effective guardian of the rule of law.

The constitution significantly restructured the judiciary, introducing measures to enhance its independence, accountability, and transparency. It also established the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) as an independent body responsible for promoting and facilitating the accountability and independence of the judiciary.

Elections results nullified

On September 1, 2017, Kenya’s Supreme Court made a historic ruling by nullifying the re-election of then-President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, who is now the nation’s fifth head of state. In its ruling, the court said the country’s electoral commission had failed, neglected or refused to conduct the elections in accordance with the law, and the judges found that irregularities had compromised the integrity of the presidential poll.

It declared the election results invalid, null and void after finding that the elections had not been conducted in accordance with the requirements of the constitution, and ordered that a new poll be conducted in 60 days.

Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who was the main petitioner in the case, refused to take part in the election re-run, demanding the reconstitution of the electoral body. Mr Kenyatta contested the re-run and won 98% of the vote.

This nullification of the presidential election results actually set a foundation for the beginning of a sour relationship between the government and the judiciary.

After their initial re-election for a second term was nullified, former president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto described the Supreme Court judges as “conmen," and promised to deal with them.

In June 2021, Kenyatta declined to approve the appointment of six judges who had been nominated to serve in the Court of Appeal, and the Environment and Lands Court for “failing to meet the required threshold.”

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The Kenyan constitution requires the president to approve the appointment of new judges after their nomination by the Judicial Service Commission. During his last term as president, Kenyatta and his government gained a reputation for disobeying and disregarding court orders, something President Ruto promised to rectify when he took office.

New president’s promises

When he took over in 2022, president Ruto announced that his first duty would be appointing the judges who had been rejected by his predecessor. During his campaign, Ruto has promised to appoint the judges and provide more funds to the judiciary. It had been expected by many that Ruto, who had fallen out with President Kenyatta, would reverse most of the decisions made by the previous administration, in which he had served as deputy president.

“My administration will respect judicial decisions while we cement the place of Kenya as a country anchored on democracy and the rule of law,” Ruto said during his swearing-in ceremony in the capital, Nairobi.

At the time, Ruto lauded the country’s Supreme Court for upholding his election, which had been challenged by the opposition, saying “the seven judges of the apex court demonstrated unmatched independence."

In the days that followed, President Ruto was frequently seen at events hosted by the judiciary.

Ruto fulfilled his promise and officially approved and swore in the judges who had been rejected by his predecessor. He also saw the operationalization of the Judiciary Fund to aid the planning and timely execution of judiciary operations and projects, and further eliminate previous challenges to delayed disbursements or budget cuts.

After slightly more than a year in office, however, Kenya’s head of state and the judiciary seem to be pulling in opposing directions after several courts delivered rulings that were not favorable to the government. When he took over, Ruto initiated massive reforms and projects that he counted on to fulfil his promise of providing jobs to millions of young people in Kenya.

Among the projects were an ambitious housing project that sought to construct affordable houses for millions of Kenyans. The majority of his flagship projects were halted by the courts after citizens filed petitions.

Confrontation begins

The confrontation between Ruto’s government and the judiciary started last November, when the High Court issued orders stopping the government from implementing a new housing levy to fund its affordable social housing scheme.

Judges stated the new tax lacked a comprehensive legal framework and was in violation of Articles 10, 201, 206 and 210 of Kenya’s constitution. The government then moved to the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision by the High Court but, on January 26, the appellate court upheld the decision, a move that did not go down well with the administration.

Following the ruling, President Ruto said his government would not tolerate what he described as “judicial impunity by corrupt judicial officers," accusing them of “deliberately trying to stall key government projects.”

“The impunity of bribing judges so as not to derail, delay, or sabotage Kenya’s imminent transformation will never happen under my watch. Not a single cent will be used to bribe anybody,” Ruto wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

He also accused unnamed judicial officials and people he described as beneficiaries of graft of teaming up to challenge his initiatives.

“A few people have gone to court and bribed the court to stop projects such as roads, universal health coverage and housing. We will not allow judicial tyranny and judicial impunity,” he said.

Mission to Haiti rejected

On January 23, 2024, another court declared the government’s plan to deploy police to Haiti as unconstitutional. President Ruto had committed to deploying 1,000 Kenyan police officers to lead a UN-backed multinational mission aimed at restoring peace and security in the troubled Caribbean nation.

In its ruling, the court said “any decision by any state organ or state officer to deploy police officers to Haiti contravenes the constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid.”

At some point, Ruto threatened to disobey court orders that restricted his key policies, and insisted that the plan to deploy police officers to Haiti remained on course.

“It is not possible that we respect the judiciary while a few individuals who are beneficiaries of corruption are using corrupt judicial officials to block our development projects,” he said.

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The court also put a halt to the planned privatization of state agencies by Ruto’s government. In a national address in December, the president accused the judiciary of making decisions against state policies at the expense of the public interest.

However, Ruto did not publicly present any evidence of corruption nor did he name any individual judge when he accused them of illegal practices.

In January, during a church service, Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua announced that he would present a petition for the removal from office of Justice Esther Maina, a judge of the High Court, for alleged misconduct and corruption.

Gachagua claimed that Justice Maina had declared his wealth to be proceeds of crime without giving him a chance to defend himself. The deputy president would later back down after a meeting was called between the president and the chief justice.

Reuben Koborek, an MP for the ruling United Democratic Movement party, warned that parliament would be forced to slash the judiciary’s budget if the courts continued to issue unfavorable judgements against the government.

“Nobody including the president should use his position to sway judgements in their favor"

Ruto’s public attacks on the judiciary attracted condemnation, with Kenya’s Chief Justice Martha Koome calling on all judges and other judicial officers not to give into what she described as intimidation.

Koome told a press conference in Nairobi that the president’s attack on the judiciary had been a “recurring trend of discussing in public matters that are in courts,” something she said was intended to “intimidate judges to rule in a certain way.”

“It is regrettable that the leadership of the executive and legislature in their recent public declarations have threatened not to obey court orders,“ she said.

“These threats and declarations are extremely serious and a monumental assault on the constitution, the rule of law and the very stability of the nation, and can lead to chaos and anarchy in our motherland.”

The chief justice warned that disregard for court orders by the government would plunge the country into a constitutional crisis.

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) also lashed out at Ruto, accusing him of intimidating the judiciary. Speaking to RT, outgoing LSK President Eric Theuri claimed that attacks by the executive on the judiciary were aimed at intimidating judges into giving rulings favorable to the government of the day.

“The intention is clear: to push judges into issuing rulings that the executive wants and this amounts to pure intimidation," Theuri told RT.

Brian Okoko, an advocate based in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa, warned that the intimidation of the judiciary could be “a recipe for the disregard of the rule of law.”

“We have a constitution that governs us and both the executive and the judiciary are bound by this constitution. Nobody including the president should use his position to sway judgements in their favor," Okoko told RT.

Lawyers protest

On January 12, lawyers held peaceful nationwide protests against the attacks on the judiciary, calling on the president to channel any complaints against judicial officers to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for investigations. The JSC is the body mandated to investigate and deal with cases of misconduct among judges.

Speaking to RT in Nairobi, Okiya Omtatah, a constitutional rights activist and senator warned that the attacks on the judiciary led by the president would likely erode public confidence in the most critical institution in any country.

“The judiciary exists to safeguard constitutional rights and the interests of everybody and to guarantee justice through civilized ways of conflict resolution but when a senior leader in the rank of a president attacks this institution, then the judiciary risks losing public trust," Omtataha told RT.

“The judiciary cannot be branded as bad and corrupt when it rules against our wishes."

Ruto’s meeting with the chief justice

After weeks of sustained attacks on the judiciary, on January 22, Ruto met the chief justice at State House in Nairobi, after which they both said in separate statements that “they were committed to upholding the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.”

Opposition leader Raila Odinga described the meeting between the chief justice and the president as “an irresponsible move.” Odinga accused the executive of “trying to hold the judiciary hostage.”

International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) Kenya Chapter Chairperson Protas Saende told RT that the judiciary must maintain its independence, especially in the dispensation of justice and defending the rule of law.

“Any discussions that might seek to compromise the independence of the judiciary in administering justice and take over the disciplinary powers from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) must be rejected in totality,” Sande said.

Days after the meeting between President Ruto and the chief justice, the Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association (KMJA) said it had “noted with deep concern the continued atavistic attacks against the judiciary, individual judges and magistrates by the political class even after the tripartite meeting.”

The KMJA warned that the courts would consider taking legal action against individuals attacking the judiciary and judicial officials.

What it means

The ICJ Kenya chapter warned that continued attacks on the judiciary would likely undermine the constitutional principles governing the separation of powers, and threatened Kenya’s rule of law and judicial independence.

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Political analyst Bina Maseno observed that a war and falling out with the judiciary might greatly hamper Ruto's battle against graft, a key promise he made during his presidential campaigns.

“The judiciary is a critical component in the fight against graft because this is where those accused of graft should be charged. If the attacks on judges persist, then no judicial officer will be willing to preside over any graft case presented by the government, which will be a big blow to the president,” he told RT.

Maseno added that “any disregard of judicial decisions will likely affect Ruto’s international standing and there are development partners who will pull out in a situation where the government disregards judicial decisions.”

Lawyer Benard Ngetich warned that, if the government begins disobeying court orders and rulings, then the common man will have every excuse to act in the same manner.

“The rule of law states that if anyone including the government is dissatisfied by a court ruling, then they can proceed to a higher court for review and when the Supreme Court, which is the last resort, issues a verdict, then we all have to abide by it even if it may sound unpopular," Ngetich told RT.

He claimed that, if this trend is allowed to continue and the government gets away with it, then it may send a wrong signal to other African nations that a president or government can disregard court decisions.

“African democracies are fragile and if we cannot respect judicial institutions which are supposed to safeguard our democracy through the rule of law then we are on the path of destruction," he said.

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Lloyd’s of London and Arch Insurance have reportedly refused to pay compensation following the destruction of the gas pipelines

Insurance policies for the Nord Stream gas pipelines sabotaged in 2022 do not cover destruction or damage caused during military hostilities, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Thursday, citing a claim filed at the High Court in London by two major Western companies.

The reported claim by Lloyd’s of London and Arch Insurance comes in response to a court filing in March by Nord Stream AG, the pipeline’s operator.

The enterprise, which is 51% owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, alleged at the time that insurers had failed to pay about €400 million ($438 million) for damage caused by the explosions at the pipelines, according to the Financial Times. Nord Stream AG reportedly estimates it would cost over €1.2 billion to fully repair the infrastructure and replace the lost gas inventory.

In response, the two insurers are said to have claimed that “loss or damage directly or indirectly occasioned by, happening through, or in consequence of war” cannot be covered by the policies. They added that Russia-Ukraine conflict, which began in February 2022, “satisfies the terms war, invasion hostilities or military power.” The insurers also argue the damage could have been caused “by or under the order of any government,” according to Kommersant.

Commenting on the report, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said major concerns have been raised over the credibility of Western insurance giants. Any refusal to pay liabilities adds to a series of hostile acts towards Russia, according to Zakharova, including the seizure of state assets and private property, as well as alleged threats to damage civilian infrastructure.

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Built to deliver Russian natural gas directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea, the Nord Stream pipelines were damaged by unknown perpetrators in a series of explosions in September 2022. The blasts left three out of four pipelines inoperable, causing what is believed to be the largest single methane leak ever.

Shortly after the sabotage, Germany, Denmark and Sweden – in whose economic zones the attack took place – launched separate investigations, although no results have been published. Earlier this year, Denmark and Sweden said they had closed their probes.

The Russian authorities have claimed the US had the most to gain from the sabotage, pointing to the opposition to the pipelines repeatedly voiced by the White House. Moscow has also accused the West of stonewalling the investigation.

Last year, award-winning US journalist Seymour Hersh accused Washington of being behind the bombing, although the White House dismissed the allegations. Several Western media outlets later reported that Ukrainian citizens had been involved in the sabotage. Kiev has denied any connection to the attack.

As a result of the sabotage, gas supplies from Russia to Germany via Nord Stream 1 were halted. Nord Stream 2 had never been put into operation due to EU bureaucratic setbacks.

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The confiscation of Moscow’s frozen funds could undermine international order, the head of the European Central Bank warns

US-backed proposals to seize frozen Russian assets could undermine the international order, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has cautioned. Her comments came during a meeting in Washington on Wednesday, where the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors were discussing the issue of using the immobilized assets of the Russian central bank to support Ukraine.

In a joint statement, the finance ministers and regulators said they would continue working on “all possible avenues” to make use of Russian sovereign assets, according to Reuters. The push to seize Moscow’s money has been led by the US and has caused a rift among the G7 and the EU political elite.

Washington and its allies have blocked some $300 billion of Russian central bank assets due to sanctions adopted in response to the launch of Moscow’s special military operation against Kiev in February 2022. Around $200 billion of that money is held in the EU. The US has been insisting for months that international law allows for the confiscation of the funds, but Germany and France have expressed concerns that such a move could set a dangerous precedent.

”I have seen four different schemes or proposals to circumvent what many other jurists or lawyers… regard as a very serious legal obstacle that can be construed as a violation of the legal international order,” Lagarde, a former lawyer, said, as quoted by the Financial Times.

Moving from freezing the assets to confiscating them could entail “breaking the international order that you want to protect; that you would want Russia to respect,” she added.

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During the meeting in Washington, a senior US Treasury official outlined the options the finance ministers were “doing technical work” on.

”One of them is seizure, but another is collateralizing, or even using the windfall profits or the interest from these assets to fund a loan,” Deputy US Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said, as quoted by Reuters. The outlet reported earlier that the US and its allies were considering using the interest due on the frozen Russian assets as collateral for loans or bonds issued to help Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly said that the seizure of its funds would amount to theft and would further undermine global trust in the Western financial system. Russia has also warned that if necessary, it might respond in kind to such a move by the US and its allies.

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Charities claim authorities are clearing out homeless people ahead of the Games this summer

French police have carried out a large-scale eviction at the country’s biggest squat in Paris, just 100 days before the Olympic Games are due to start in the city, local media have reported.

The squat, in an abandoned bus company headquarters in Vitry-sur-Seine, had been home to up to 450 people, including 20 children and 50 women, according to aid workers. At least ten children reportedly attended local schools.

Images of the eviction on Wednesday rapidly spread across social media.

Footage showed officers forcing their way into the camp and examining locked rooms as they oversaw the removal of residents. Makeshift beds and furniture were seen on the floors and in the hallways of the building, along with abandoned personal belongings. Evicted migrants gathered outside with packed suitcases, while others were seen boarding buses.

Activists have linked the move to the broader effort by Paris authorities to clear out migrants and others sleeping rough in the city before the summer Olympics. They claim the government has launched the campaign to make the French capital “more presentable.”

“The squat was the biggest in France. It doubled in size in one year because of the Olympics. Last year, authorities cleared out migrants from nearby the Olympic Village, and many displaced people came here,” Paul Alauzy of the NGO Medecins du Monde told the AP.

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Alauzy, who is also a spokesperson for Revers de la Medaille (The Medal’s Other Side), a collective of charities and aid workers, said homeless people and squats have been steadily cleared out for the past year.

Aid workers have warned that the Olympics are affecting the most vulnerable homeless people in the Paris area as those evicted are not provided with longer-term housing assistance.

When asked about Wednesday’s evacuation, French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said “it has nothing to do with the Olympics,” according to the AP.

Earlier, French authorities claimed that the recent relocations were the result of emergency accommodation centers reaching saturation, claiming that the measure is unrelated to the Games.

France received 167,000 asylum requests in 2023, the second-highest number in the EU. Migrants were mostly from Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East.

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The jobs market in the nation of 1.4 billion people is being transformed thanks to surging economic growth, the ORF think tank says

India’s unemployment rate is expected to fall from 4.47% to 3.68% by 2028, a report by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think tank has projected. The service sector will lead the way in terms of job creation as the country’s GDP moves towards the $5 trillion mark by 2027.

As India approaches its goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy, employment could rise by 22%, the ORF report predicts. To reach its target, the economy needs to maintain its current growth rate. India recorded GDP growth 8.4% in the third quarter of the 2023-24 financial year, up from growth of 7.6% from June to September. Meanwhile, New Delhi has raised its GDP growth forecast for the 2023-24 fiscal year from 7.3% to 7.6%.

“India’s job market is experiencing a transformation as the country has become the world’s fastest-growing large economy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the India Employment Outlook 2030 report noted.

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It highlighted opportunities in the service sector – from digital to financial, health and hospitality services, followed by consumer retail, renewable energy and e-commerce – having the potential to create more than 100 million new jobs by 2030.

The country’s young population is believed to be key for greater economic expansion. According to the ORF, sectors identified as “aspirational” by the 600 million people aged between 18 and 35 could act as “engines of growth” in the coming years.

“Policymakers and public sector schemes could partner more closely with other stakeholders to identify employability and skill gaps,” said Nilanjan Ghosh, a director at ORF and one of the authors of the report.

He said the next step towards improving employability would be to update education programs, making India’s talent pool more “industry-ready.”

One of the priorities, ORF noted, should be upskilling, financial inclusion and entrepreneurship among women. Last year, a report by Barclays titled ‘India’s breakout moment’ also suggested that the country could maintain GDP growth of 8% by ensuring that women account for more than half of the new workforce by 2030. At present, India’s female labor force participation rate stands at 37%, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.

READ MORE: Modi vows ‘strict action’ against corruption ahead of polls

The report comes amid heated discussion about India’s struggle to increase employment rates. According to the government data, the unemployment rate dropped to 6.6% in the first half of the 2023-24 financial year from 7% in the second half of the previous year.

Data from the independent Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) think thank put the unemployment rate at 8% in February – a sharp increase from 6.8% in January 2024. Experts have argued that, while the growing economy is creating employment, most of the jobs are for unskilled and semi-skilled workers, while those with higher qualifications are struggling to find jobs.

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Moscow is said to have “captured” a significant market share in Algeria, one of the bloc’s top three supply destinations

European Union wheat exports to North Africa fell by 25% in the first seven months of the 2023-2024 growing season, with Russian supplies dominating the region’s market, according to a report released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The report was compiled using supply-and-demand estimates for April from the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) on wheat, rice, coarse grains, oilseeds, cotton, sugar, meat, poultry eggs, and milk.

According to the data, EU exports are expected to fall by 2 million tons to 34.5 million tons in April as the bloc loses market share to Russia in Africa and the Middle East.

“Russia’s record wheat supplies continue to make its exports more competitive than the EU, with unabated shipments raising the Russia export forecast 1.0 million tons this month to a record 52.0 million tons,” it stated.

Algeria, one of the EU’s top three export destinations that has historically relied on EU wheat, has been “captured” by Russia after the North African nation’s government sought to diversify bread wheat suppliers, according to the USDA. Over the past five years, the EU has held an 85% market share in Algiers, it added.

“Russia wheat exports to Algeria have since expanded significantly. With Algerian millers indicating satisfaction with Russian supplies, Russia and the European Union have battled for majority market share so far this year,” the report said.

In February, the Rusagrotrans analytical center ranked Algeria fifth among the top Russian wheat importers. Moscow exported 1.6 million tons of wheat to Algeria during the 2023-24 crop year – a 20% increase over the previous season, according to the institution.

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Earlier this month, Eduard Zernin, the head of the Russian Union of Grain Exporters, told pole.rf magazine that Russia’s share of the global grain market would exceed 25%. The country’s reliance on its three largest importers – Türkiye, Egypt, and Iran – will decrease as supplies to new markets grow, he said.

Egypt, one of the world’s leading wheat importers and Russia’s largest grain buyer, has proposed hosting an international logistics hub for grain in the Suez Canal zone. The North African country and Moscow are in talks about building the facility, which would connect to one of the world’s busiest waterways and be used to store Russian wheat and distribute it to neighboring nations.

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Ukraine’s goal of eradicating bilingual media content has almost been achieved, the government has claimed

Ukraine’s ban on using the Russian language in the media will take full effect three months from now, Kiev’s state language protection commissioner, Taras Kremin, has said.

Since gaining independence, Ukraine has been a bilingual nation, with most citizens able to speak or understand both Russian and Ukrainian. After the US-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, the new nationalist authorities adopted policies aimed at suppressing the Russian language, on the grounds of national unity and security.

The restrictions include a requirement for national media to predominantly use Ukrainian in broadcasts. The permitted share of content in Russian has declined from 40% in 2016 to an almost complete ban, which will come into force in July – the deadline that Kremin referred to in his statement on Wednesday.

“Today national television channels practice bilingual Ukrainian-Russian programming, in which participants use the Russian language without a translation or subtitles,” he said. “Starting on July 17, this practice will end. There will be more Ukrainian language!”

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The push by Ukrainian nationalist leaders to impose the state language on Russian-speakers living in the east of the country was a major reason for locals’ rejection of the post-coup authorities. One of the first acts of those who seized power in Kiev was to abolish a law adopted in 2012, which gave the Russian language official regional status.

The new authorities have been adopting laws to eradicate Russian from all spheres of public life, including education, entertainment, and even services provided by private businesses.

In an interview last year, Kremin denied that some Ukrainian citizens could be called Russian-speaking, describing the term was “a marker introduced by Russian ideology,” and declared that “everyone in the country must have a command of the Ukrainian language.”

In contrast, this week the leader of another post-Soviet nation, Kazakhstan, rejected the notion that one language spoken by his people should be favored over others.

READ MORE: Zelensky’s comedy partner slams campaign against Russian language

“Young people now are fluent in the state [Kazakh] language, in Russian language, in English and other languages, and that is good,” President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Tuesday. “It’s ridiculous to ramp up hysterics over a language, let alone fight against one, as they did in some other states. We all see what they have now as a result.”

The Kazakh leader did not specify which other nations he was referring to.

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The West’s failure to provide enough arms and money is the only reason Ukraine is suffering setbacks, the president has claimed

A shortage of Western arms supplies and unkept promises by EU members have allowed Russia to advance on the battlefield, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told senior European officials on Wednesday.

Zelensky made the claims during a video conference address to national leaders and senior members of the EU bureaucracy, who have convened for a two-day summit in Brussels.

The Ukrainian leader reiterated that his country needs more Western material and financial assistance to continue its armed conflict with Russia.

“Now the Russian army feels its strength in almost everything related to the armed component. And it is precisely because of this strength – in artillery, in equipment, in the ability to operate in the sky – that they are putting pressure on us at the front and are gradually moving,” he said.

Although he thanked Kiev’s donors for their aid, Zelensky also complained of unfulfilled promises.

“Unfortunately, we have not yet seen a million artillery shells from the European Union that were discussed so much. Also, some other initiatives have not yet been fully implemented, and this is primarily reflected in what our soldiers can use at the front,” he stated.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin believes “he will succeed in his counteroffensive,” Zelensky claimed, adding that “the only root of this hope is the shortage of weapons among our soldiers.”

In addition to offensive systems, Kiev wants more Western air defenses to protect its industrial base, as well as investment and technology to launch domestic arms production. It also requires electricity to compensate for the destruction of power facilities destroyed by Russian precision strikes, and according to Zelensky needs “energy of spirit” in the form of accelerated accession to the EU.

“We need the European Union to deliver what it had promised, and our people need to see Ukraine moving closer to full membership,” Zelensky insisted, urging Brussels to progress to the next phase of talks in June.

Analysis published by Politico on Wednesday cited the refusal of Ukrainians to enroll into the military as a major problem for Kiev. EU statistics body Eurostat estimates the number of fighting age Ukrainian men living in member states at some 650,000. Most of them arranged to be smuggled across the border, the outlet said.

READ MORE: Kiev’s morale problems could lead to defeat this year – Politico

This week, Zelensky signed into law a bill that makes it easier for conscription officials to issue summonses and imposes harsh punishments for avoiding the draft.

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The deployment of American intermediate-range missiles in the Philippines is another blow to global stability, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said

US deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Philippines is another step by Washington towards escalating military confrontation in the Asia-Pacific, Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said.

Last week, in what the US Army Pacific said was a “landmark” deployment that showcased “the extensive reach and logistical precision” of the American military, a Typhoon Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system was flown to the island of Luzon in the Philippines, 250 km from Taiwan. Typhoon systems, which were first introduced in 2023, can fire both the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and Tomahawk missiles, with the latter having a range of up to 2,500km.

“The Pentagon’s public demonstration of its capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region for the rapid deployment of missile weapons previously banned under the INF (Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces) Treaty raises deep concern,” Antonov wrote in a post on Telegram.

By delivering a Typhoon system to the Philippines, “the US side is bringing an entire class of destabilizing weapons out of the shadows to ensure its military superiority over opponents,” he stressed.

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Such actions by the US signify “another powerful blow to strategic stability,” the ambassador said, adding that “Asia has already accumulated a lot of ‘hot’ material, and the region is rapidly militarizing.”

The US is “purposefully escalating the level of military confrontation and fueling hotbeds of tension” in the Asia-Pacific in an attempt to “return the world to the darkest times of the Cold War and balancing on the brink of a nuclear conflict,” he said.

”We urge the US not to open Pandora’s Box and follow our country’s example by taking all necessary steps to ensure global stability and predictability,” Antonov stated.

The 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) banned Russia and the US from fielding ground-based missiles with a range of between 500km (310 miles) and 5,500km (3,418 miles) in Europe. The US unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2019. This left Russia no choice but to cease its participation in the INF as well.
However, Moscow introduced a moratorium on fielding weapons that used to be covered by the treaty.

READ MORE: ‘Stop lying,’ Russia tells US

Antonov reminded that this moratorium “has clear conditions: we will not deploy such systems until similar US-made systems appear in any region of the world.” But if it happens, “all responsibility for a new surge of tension in the world will fall on Washington,” he stressed.

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A Beijing-funded shipping canal will reduce regional reliance on Vietnam, a fellow communist state and traditional rival

China and Vietnam, two Communist neighbors with a shared revolutionary heritage, exist in a state of strategic unease. They are not enemies, and have significant trade connections, but neither are they friends.

This is because Vietnamese nationalism views Beijing with a suspicion that is historically rooted, with a legacy of seeking to sustain its independence against the Chinese dynasties of old. As China has risen again, this sentiment in Hanoi has increased, especially with the Sino-Vietnamese war of 1978 and overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea, known to Vietnamese as the East Sea.

Similarly, China is wary of the idea of Vietnam potentially aligning with a foreign power as part of a containment coalition against it, itself an instigator of conflict. Although the two countries are not currently in a state of hostility and have worked to improve bilateral relations amid these strong points of contention, this mutual suspicion persists, which leads to them continuing to hedge against one another subtly, even as they co-operate on some projects, in an unspoken competition. For example, one may note Vietnam recently forming parallel strategic partnerships with the US, Australia, and Japan, moves which were unthinkable decades ago.

As Vietnam hedges its bets, China is also broadening its strategic options. Beyond the South China Sea/East Sea controversy, Beijing is making efforts to woo two Southeast Asian countries which traditionally have been reliant on and influenced by Vietnam: Laos and Cambodia. Owing to the reality of geography, Vietnam has had the upper hand against these countries, as it effectively “wraps itself” around the east coastline of Southeast Asia. This renders Laos landlocked, while Cambodia has only a small portion of coastline. This means that, for most intents and purposes, Vietnam has been the two countries’ primary route of supply and access point to the sea.

Both have resented being dominated by Vietnam and, as a result, there has been a decades-long struggle for influence between Beijing and Hanoi over them, including Beijing’s support in the 1970s for the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. However, as China has ascended, the balance of power soon turned in its own favor, as it has unlocked game-changing resources and projects that are now rewriting the geographical limitations of this region via the Belt and Road initiative (BRI). As part of the BRI, China first gave landlocked Laos a new lifeline by building the China-Laos Railway.

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Opened in 2021, this high-speed and commercial freight route, and accompanying expressway, connects the Laotian capital Vientiane with China, meaning the country no longer must rely on Vietnam to access ports. This has allowed Laos to not only export goods to China but also to become an intermediary between China and Thailand, with more railways to form a complete route between Beijing and Bangkok underway. The China-Laos railway is a strategic gamechanger, but more important than that is the new Techo Funan Canal in Cambodia.

This canal is a China-funded and contracted mega waterway that will span over 110 miles (180 km) from the Mekong River at Phnom Penh to the sea, with construction set to start this year. By building this canal, Cambodia now gets to bypass the Mekong Delta, which is in Vietnamese territory and subsequently transforms its capital city into a direct port. This canal strengthens China-backed Cambodia and deals a strategic blow to Vietnam, weakening its hold over its neighbor. Cambodia is thus transformed, from a historical subordinate to Hanoi into a commercial competitor. It is no surprise that the Techo Funan Canal has attracted Vietnamese fears and opposition.

When all of this is viewed together, China is effectively strengthening Laos and Cambodia at the expense of Vietnam. This is also part of Beijing’s strategy of using the BRI to integrate the interior of the continent and establish trade routes which bypass the contested waters of the South China Sea, which the US and its allies are militarizing. So, how is Hanoi reacting to these developments? The answer is, bizarrely enough, by integrating itself with China further in order to further compete with trade from China. As the saying goes, ”if you can’t beat them, join them!” On April 11, Vietnam announced it would be starting work on two high-speed railway links which would connect its northern cities with Yunnan and Guanxi provinces in China. Why? So that Vietnam can continue to promote itself as the nearest and primary overseas destination for Chinese companies, suppliers, and goods, so that it itself can be the next industrial powerhouse. Thus, to continue to hold an advantage and ensure China’s reliance on Vietnam, latch onto China’s success and therefore ensure that outbound Chinese commerce into Southeast Asian ports isn’t going to be siphoned away by what’s emerging in Cambodia.

Either way, what this shows is that the competition between Beijing and Hanoi is a complex and intermingled one, but far from hostile. The two nations have differing and conflicting objectives, but also many complimentary ones, for which it benefits them both to maintain a cordial status quo. Hanoi fears China’s presence emerging all around it, including peeling away its neighbors, which leads it to turn back to the ”Old Enemy” the US, though at the same time it is forced to admit Beijing can’t be ignored and that it continues to derive benefits by being in China’s game. Vietnam has to dine at the table while ensuring it is not the menu.

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Western states need to send more air defense systems to Kiev, the head of the bloc says

NATO members should prioritize arming Ukraine over bolstering their own defense capabilities, the secretary general of the US-led military bloc said on Wednesday.

“A part of the important effort we are now making across the NATO alliance to step up our delivery of air defense systems to Ukraine,” Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.

“But Ukraine needs even more. That is why if allies face a choice between meeting NATO capability targets and providing more aid to Ukraine, my message is clear: send more to Ukraine.”

Stoltenberg pointed to Denmark as “a strong example” as it pledged in February to donate all of its artillery to Kiev. He praised both Denmark and the Netherlands for their plans to provide F-16 fighter jets, adding that he was “encouraged” by the news that the US Congress is expected soon to vote for additional aid to Ukraine, after months of delay.

The NATO chief’s appeal comes at a time when member states are struggling to deliver sufficient amounts of weapons to Ukraine without depleting their own stocks and compromising security. Officials in Kiev have blamed ammunition shortages for last year’s failed counteroffensive, as well as recent battlefield losses.

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Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has sharply criticized Germany for refusing to donate its Taurus air-launched cruise missiles and US Republicans for stalling the $61 billion military aid bill sought by President Joe Biden.

“If Congress doesn’t help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war,” Zelensky warned earlier this month.

Berlin recently agreed to supply another US-made Patriot air defense system to Kiev. However it has refused to reverse its decision on Taurus missiles, arguing that sending them would require German personnel on the ground in Ukraine.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson has announced that he will put the Ukraine aid bill to a vote on Saturday. The legislation was previously stalled due to the bitter quarrels between Democrats and Republicans over immigration and border security.

Russia continues to insist that deliveries of foreign weapons will lead to more escalation, but will not change the course of the conflict. “The West continues to pump the Zelensky regime with weapons and is becoming an accomplice to its horrific crimes,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in January.

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“Diplomatic sensitivities” prevailed over the original plan, a government source has said

Israel planned to retaliate against Iran immediately after Tehran’s drone and missile attack on Saturday, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to hold off after speaking with US President Joe Biden, Israeli media have reported.

According to the public broadcaster Kan, Netanyahu's war cabinet had already approved a range of responses – depending on the scope of the Iranian attack – that would have taken place as early as Sunday.

“The response won’t be what was planned any longer, diplomatic sensitivities won out,” a senior source within the government told the outlet. “There will be a response, but it seems it will be different from what was planned.”

There is still an understanding that Israel will respond, Kan quoted an unnamed Western diplomat as saying, but the delay suggests that it will be weaker than originally envisioned.

Iran launched a barrage of drones, along with ballistic and cruise missiles against Israel on Saturday. According to Tehran, the bombardment was lawful retaliation for the Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria earlier this month, which killed seven high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

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Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi has said Tehran’s actions “will be met with a response.” However, the Israeli outlet Mako reported on Monday evening that the government was still working on a plan that would be acceptable to the US, “comply” with the rules set by Washington, and calibrated in such a way as to “not degenerate the region into a war.”

Most of the Israeli leadership supports an attack on Iran, according to the news website Ynet, but some notable politicians – such as Shas party leader Aryeh Deri – have spoken out against an escalation.

Iran has been preparing for a possible Israeli attack, most likely against Tehran-linked assets in Syria, while warning against such a course of action.

“The smallest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response against all its perpetrators,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said.

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US military records tell a different story of the WWII incident

US President Joe Biden has claimed that an uncle of his who went missing in the Pacific during the Second World War was eaten by cannibals.

Second Lieutenant Ambrose Finnegan of the US Army Air Forces was declared missing in May 1944, after his light bomber crashed in the sea.

“He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals at the time,” Biden told reporters on the campaign trail outside Air Force One in Scranton, Pennsylvania. “They never recovered his body, but the government went back when I went down there and they checked and found some parts of the plane.”

Several hours later, at a meeting with United Steelworkers union members in Pittsburgh, Biden told the same story.

“He got shot down in New Guinea and they never found the body because there used to be – there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea,” the 81-year-old Democrat said.

According to the Pentagon’s agency for prisoners of war and missing in action (POW-MIA), Finnegan was never shot down, however. Nor was it on a reconnaissance mission, as Biden claimed.

The A-20 Havoc light bomber was on a “courier run” from the Los Negros Island when its engines failed at low altitude, per the official account of the incident. The plane dropped into the sea off the north coast of New Guinea and two out of three crew members never made it out of the sinking wreck, which was never found. The one man who survived was rescued by a passing boat.

Biden has told many fictitious tales about his life over a 50-year career in politics, most famously about getting arrested while trying to visit Nelson Mandela in a South African prison. He has repeated one debunked story about an Amtrak conductor more than a dozen times.

The cannibal claim about Uncle Ambrose, however, served as a springboard for attacking his predecessor – and presumptive challenger – Donald Trump. In the campaign speech in Pittsburgh, Biden told a story about how Trump allegedly refused to honor fallen US soldiers buried in France, calling them “suckers” and “losers.”

The story first appeared in The Atlantic magazine in September 2020, referring to events in November 2018, at the centenary of the WWI armistice. Trump denied the accusation, calling it “more made up fake news given by disgusting and jealous failures in a disgraceful attempt to influence the 2020 election!”

Documents debunking the Atlantic’s claim surfaced within days, but that has not stopped Democrats from repeatedly bringing it up as if true.

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Washington has reportedly signed assurances that the death penalty will not be sought for or imposed on the WikiLeaks founder

Washington has allegedly agreed to a set of conditions regarding the potential trial of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange if he is extradited to the US to face espionage charges, several media outlets reported on Tuesday.

The signed guarantees, which have been shared on X by New York Times correspondent Megan Specia, apparently assure that the 52-year-old Australian national would be able to rely on the US Constitution’s first amendment, which protects free speech, would not be prejudiced at trial because of his nationality, and would not face the death penalty if convicted.

It’s noted, however, that while these assurances are “binding,” the decision on the “applicability of the First Amendment” would be “exclusively within the purview of the US courts.”

Washington’s promises come after the British High Court in London ruled last month that if the US failed to provide these guarantees, then Assange would be able to appeal against his extradition to the US to stand trial for publishing classified military documents.

US has filed assurances in Assange extradition case, which were requested by a British court before it makes a final decision on his ability to appeal. Next step is a hearing on May 20. More on what those assurances are all about in our earlier story here: https://t.co/8ehvD0iHus pic.twitter.com/420CMZP0Wp

— Megan Specia (@meganspecia) April 16, 2024

Assange has been held in London’s top-security Belmarsh Prison for the past five years. He was initially arrested by British police in 2010 for sexual-offense allegations that he denied. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and was granted asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He was arrested again in 2019 when Ecuador revoked his asylum, and has remained in Belmarsh ever since.

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The US, meanwhile, continues to demand that he be extradited to American soil to stand trial on 17 counts of espionage, over the publication of classified Pentagon military documents in 2010 that detailed alleged US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited and convicted.

His legal team as well as his supporters have claimed that the case against him is political in nature and is being waged by the West as revenge for exposing its alleged war crimes.

His attorneys have also been insistent against the sought extradition of Assange to the US, arguing that it would put his life and well-being at risk, and have previously dismissed any assurances given by Washington as meaningless, claiming it would be impossible to rely on them if their client is actually extradited.

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Soviet-designed T-72s were intended to replace Kiev’s battlefield losses

It is unclear how many tanks of the Soviet T-72 design the Polish military currently operates, because the public doesn’t know how many Warsaw has donated to Kiev, military analyst Damian Ratka has said.

Ratka’s comments came during an 80-minute video event about the future of Polish armor, hosted by the news portal Defence24.

“We don’t really know how many T-72 tanks we have, because we don’t know exactly how many of them were transferred to Ukraine,” Ratka said. Kiev probably received at least 30 to 60 vehicles, but the actual numbers are not publicly available, he added.

Ratka’s estimates match what then-PM Mateusz Morawiecki promised to send Ukraine in January 2023: 60 tanks in total, half of them T-72M1 and the other half PT-91 Twardy, the Polish upgrade of the Soviet-era MBT. However, at the time Morawiecki also said that Poland had supplied “about 250” T-72s to Ukraine.

Warsaw first announced it had donated some of its T-72s in April 2022, but would not give any numbers. Prior to that, the Czech Republic and Slovakia had already supplied Kiev with Soviet-era armor, intended to replace the vehicles lost in the battles with the Russian military.

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Morawiecki also pledged to send 14 of the German-made Leopard 2 vehicles to Kiev, later clarifying that the promise was intended to pressure Berlin into doing the same. It was unclear whether any Polish Leopards were actually sent to Ukraine.

Hyped by the Western and Ukrainian press as wonder-weapons that would win the war, the Leopards ended up getting destroyed in large numbers during the Zaporozhye offensive last summer.

Speaking about the future of Polish armored forces, Ratka noted that Warsaw is operating some T-72s and PT-91s still, as well as three versions of the Leopard 2 and an unspecified number of the US-made Abrams and South Korean K2 ‘Black Panther’ MBTs.

Poland has made plans to buy more than 350 Abrams tanks, including 250 of the newer M1A2 model, Ratka said, as well as 180 or so K2s. Credit problems have troubled the planned purchase from Seoul, however.

Ratka added that Poland was planning to shut down the facilities producing spare parts for the Soviet legacy systems, as it could not manufacture some of the key components, such as turrets and engines. The fate of the remaining T-72s and PT-91s was uncertain, he noted, suggesting that they might end up being sent to Ukraine as well.

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Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes was arrested in Brazil after reportedly trying to use dead relative to borrow $3,000

A woman in Brazil has been taken into custody after she wheeled the corpse of an elderly man into a bank, claiming he was her uncle and that he would co-sign a loan, according to media reports, citing local police.

Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes, who claimed to be the niece and caregiver of 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga, wheeled the cadaver into the bank in a Rio suburb on Tuesday and told the teller the man wanted a loan for 17,000 reais ($3,250).

She held a pen and moved his hand forward to no response, footage from the bank’s security camera shows.

“Uncle, are you listening? You need to sign,” she reportedly said, suggesting she sign for him. “Sign, so you don’t give me any more headaches, I can’t take it anymore,” the woman added, grabbing hold of the man’s neck with her hand from behind.

“I don’t think he’s well. He doesn’t look well at all,” remarked one distrustful employee, with Nunes replying “He doesn’t say anything, that’s just how he is.”

She then addressed the deceased man: “If you’re not okay, I’m going to take you to the hospital.”

Shocking new footage shows woman wheeling corpse all over a Brazilian mall before pushing him into a bank where she tried to withdraw money from an account https://t.co/LWO7gTeA1e pic.twitter.com/7MMg2VG8xP

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) April 17, 2024

Bank staff became suspicious as the man’s head kept falling back and they called the police. who arrested the woman on the spot. Nunes has been charged with fraud. The corpse was taken to the morgue.

“She knew he was dead … he had been dead for at least two hours,” the investigating officer, Fabio Luiz Souza, told news program Bom Dia Rio on Wednesday.

“I have never come across a story like this in 22 years [as a cop],” added Souza, who said visible signs of livor mortis left no doubt as to Braga’s state.

It was later determined that Braga had been dead for several hours prior to his trip to the bank. Police said they will look into the circumstances of the man’s death and will try to determine whether Nunes is actually his niece, and whether other people were involved in the alleged attempt to commit bank fraud.

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Tehran is reportedly readying its air force and evacuating personnel from IRGC sites in Syria, according to the outlet

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is allegedly recalling its top military advisers from sites in Syria, as Tehran braces for an Israeli retaliatory attack, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing Syrian and Iranian officials.

The news comes after Iran launched what is estimated to have been several hundred missiles and explosive drones on targets in Israel on Saturday. Tehran framed the attack as retribution for the deaths of seven IRGC officers who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1.

The Jewish state has claimed to have shot down nearly all of the munitions fired at it over the weekend, while Tehran has reported successfully striking several Israeli military installations.

Now, according to the Journal, Iran is preparing for an Israeli attack and is reportedly readying its air force to intercept the strikes while its navy is setting out to protect commercial Iranian ships in the Red Sea.

At the same time, the outlet claims that the IRGC, as well as the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group, are reducing the presence of their senior officers in Syria, while mid-ranking military personnel are “shifting from their original locations in the country.”

The outlet has explained, citing military experts, that Iran-linked facilities in Syria are the most likely targets of Israeli airstrikes, as they allow the Jewish state to respond while avoiding a direct tit-for-tat exchange with Iran.

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Although the US and other European nations have urged the Jewish State not to retaliate and instead be satisfied that it managed to repel the Iranian assault, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will make its “own decisions” and “do everything necessary to defend itself.”

So far, Israeli officials have not yet commented on the nature of the potential retaliation but have reportedly reassured their American and European partners that the response would not endanger their security and would likely be limited in scope.

Tehran, on the other hand, has warned Israel against carrying out any retaliatory strikes. “The smallest action against Iran’s interests will definitely be met with a severe, extensive and painful response against all its perpetrators,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said.

The United Nations, meanwhile, has expressed concern over the rhetoric in the Middle East amid the latest escalation, and has called on all sides to show “maximum restraint.”

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The West can’t shoot down Russian missiles, the EU’s top diplomat has said

Kiev should not request the same kind of support that the West provided to West Jerusalem during the Iranian attack because the two situations cannot be compared, EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell has said.

The US, UK and France said they collaborated with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday to shoot down some of the incoming Iranian missiles and drones. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has since called on Washington and its allies to do the same for Kiev.

Answering a reporter’s question after Tuesday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers, Borrell said the two situations were “different things that cannot be compared.”

“Iran’s attacks flew over air bases of the armies of France, the US, the UK and Jordan. They have gone over their bases, which then acted in self-defense,” Borrell noted. “There are no air bases of the UK, or the US, much less Jordan of course, on Ukrainian territory or in the territory Russian missiles fly over. Therefore, the same answer cannot be given because the circumstances are not the same.”

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Israel has also spent a lot of time and money to build the Iron Dome air defense system, which the EU couldn’t build overnight in Ukraine “even if we had money in the box,” the Spanish diplomat said. The bloc is nevertheless trying to provide Kiev with additional air defense capabilities, he added.

When asked if the EU was involved in defending Israel, Borrell said that the bloc was not directly involved, because it is not a state and does not have an army, but some of its members are.

“From that point of view I can say that the Union, or the member states of the Union that have the capabilities to do it, have done it,” he said. “We have participated, of course, in [passing along] the information that the intelligence services had about how imminent the attack was. We were warned, like so many others.”

This has made it possible to mobilize military capabilities – I insist, not of the Union, but of some of the member states that were available in the area and that have actively participated in eliminating what this attack represented for Israel.

Iran launched scores of drones, ballistic and cruise missiles against Israel on Saturday. According to Tehran, the strike was lawful retaliation for the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria earlier this month that killed seven high-ranking officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

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Lithuania suspended regular imports from the country in May 2023

Lithuania has resumed purchasing grain from Russia after a lengthy hiatus, importing more than 12,000 metric tons in February, worth around $2 million, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, citing statistical data.

The former Soviet nation, one of Russia’s most vocal critics, had stopped regular grain imports from its neighbor in May 2023, receiving its last delivery in July.

Nevertheless, in March 2024, Lithuania, along with Latvia, Estonia, Poland and the Czech Republic, urged the European Commission to impose a full ban on grain imports from Russia and Belarus due to the Ukraine conflict.

Statistics show that Latvia has also increased imports of Russian grain, purchasing 58,800 tons in February compared to 52,600 tons the previous month.

Riga has been one of the most outspoken advocates of imposing EU-wide sanctions on Russian grain. This, however, has not stopped Latvia from increasing its agricultural imports from Russia by almost 40% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024.

In February, Latvia imposed a unilateral ban on food imports from Russia and Belarus, becoming the first EU state to introduce such an embargo, while Lithuania announced that it would subject cargo to strict inspection.

Despite this, the EU countries in February collectively purchased 92,600 tons of Russian grain, worth almost €17 million.

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Media outlets reported last month that the European Union was preparing to impose tariffs of up to 50% on grain imports from Russia and Belarus, under pressure from protesting farmers and several member states.

Brussels has long resisted pressure from Poland and the Baltic states to restrict agricultural imports from Russia and Belarus, arguing that such a move could disrupt global food markets and hurt developing nations.

Russia is one of the world’s largest exporters of grain, feed and fertilizer. While these commodities have not been outright sanctioned by the US and its allies on account of the Ukraine conflict, their transport by sea has been made more difficult by sanctions on commercial shipping.

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A contractor working for the Defense Department in Iraq faces civil actions from three former prisoners alleging depraved abuse

An employee of CACI International Inc, a contractor with strong links to the Pentagon, pushed soldiers serving in Iraq to rough-up detainees at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, retired US Army General Antonio Taguba has testified, at a trial in which the company denies being involved in torture.

The Virginia-based consultancy is being sued by three former detainees of the infamous prison, near Baghdad, who allege they were tortured 20 years ago. The hearing began on Monday, after almost 16 years of procedural delays.

Taguba, who retired in 2007 after 35 years’ service, identified Steven Stefanowicz, aka ‘Big Steve,’ as the CACI employee who had instructed Army guards to “soften up” the inmates – and had even attempted to intimidate the general himself at one point.

“He would lean on the table staring me down. He did not answer questions directly,” Taguba told the court. “He was trying to intimidate me.”

Asked if he was in fact intimidated, the retired general responded, “Not on your life.”

A report by Taguba in 2004 said that Stefanowicz “clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse” and recommended he be fired, reprimanded and lose his security clearance. According to Associated Press, his testimony on Tuesday was the strongest evidence of CACI contractors playing a role in the Abu Ghraib abuses.

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The retired general testified that his investigation focused on the military police (MP). Many MPs told investigators that they had not received clear instructions from the military, so Stefanowicz and other CACI contractors stepped into the vacuum. The court also heard that investigators were initially confused, because they thought the troops were saying “khaki” instead of the company’s name.

One of the three plaintiffs also testified on Tuesday. Speaking from Iraq and through an interpreter, Asaad Hamza Zubae said he had been kept naked, threatened with dogs, and forced to masturbate in front of prison guards.

Lawyers for CACI challenged that testimony, pointing to government reports showing that dogs had not yet been sent to Iraq at the time.

The contractor has filed over 20 motions to dismiss the case over the past 16 years. Its lawyers have argued that, as a contractor to the Department of Defense, CACI should be protected by the same sovereign immunity as the US government.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the plaintiffs, has described the trial as “the first lawsuit where victims of US post-9/11 torture will get their day in court.”

The Abu Ghraib scandal first came to public attention in April 2004, when photos of abused prisoners and their smiling US guards were published. The abuses included stacking nude prisoners in pyramids or dragging them by leashes around their necks. Others were threatened by dogs or were hooded and attached to electrical wires.

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The Lebanese militant group claims it hit a military air surveillance unit

Hezbollah militants have shelled Israeli territory from Lebanon, injuring 18 people, local media reported on Wednesday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the attack, saying that it had retaliated, striking targets in the neighboring country.

The Shiite armed group has repeatedly bombarded its southern neighbor since the military conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out last October. Hezbollah launched a volley of missiles at Israel late on Saturday while Iran was conducting its massive aerial attack on the country.

Agence France-Presse estimates that at least 363 people in Lebanon have been killed as a result of the hostilities in recent months, including at least 70 civilians.

On Wednesday, The Times of Israel quoted a statement from the Galilee Medical Center that it had admitted 18 people following a drone strike on Arab al-Aramshe, a predominantly Bedouin village. One of the victims is said to have been in critical condition, while another two were seriously wounded.

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Local broadcaster KAN claimed that the Lebanese militants had fired missiles, and not used UAVs. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, the IDF confirmed that a “number of launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into northern Israel.”

According to the statement, the Israeli military responded by striking the “sources of the fire and a Hezbollah military compound in southern Lebanon where terrorists were operating.”

Hezbollah, for its part, said that it had targeted an Israeli military air surveillance unit and a gathering of Israeli soldiers as well as a command headquarters. On top of that, the Shiite militant group claims to have damaged an Israeli military vehicle, presumably injuring some of the people inside.

On Sunday, the IDF reported conducting airstrikes on multiple allegedly Hezbollah-related targets in Lebanon. According to a post on its Telegram channel, Israeli warplanes hit a number of other military installations in the south of the country, as well as a “significant” Hezbollah weapons manufacturing site close to the Syrian border.

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James Hetfield’s new ace of spades tribute was drawn with ink mixed with the remains of Lemmy Kilmister

Metallica co-founder and frontman James Hetfield has shown off a new tattoo dedicated to fellow metal icon Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead. The ink used in the design, according to Hetfield, features the actual remains of the late rockstar.

In an Instagram post on Metallica’s official account on Wednesday, the band’s vocalist and rhythm guitarist shared a picture of his new ace-of-spades tattoo etched on his middle finger, with the caption: “A salute to my friend and inspiration Mr. Lemmy Kilmister. Without him, there would be NO Metallica.”

The design, drawn by tattoo artist Corey Miller, was made using black ink mixed with “a pinch of [Kilmister’s] cremation ashes,” that Hetfield said were “graciously given” to him after the Motorhead founder passed away from cancer in 2015 at the age of 70.

“So now, he is still able to fly the bird at the world,” the post concluded.

Kilmister, often simply referred to as Lemmy, founded Motorhead in 1975 and became a household name in the rock world, widely regarded as one of the pioneers of British heavy metal.

With Motorhead, Lemmy released a total of 22 albums, which featured some of the most iconic metal hits of the era, including the songs Overkill and Bomber (1979), Ace of Spades (1980) and Killed by Death (1984).

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Motorhead has widely been cited as the inspiration for many other successful metal bands, including Metallica, whose members have often spoken about the influence of Motorhead on their own sound and style of playing.

Following Kilmister’s sudden death, just two days after being diagnosed with cancer, many musicians paid tribute to the rock icon, including Hetfield, who described him as “a godfather” of heavy metal.

In 2016, Lemmy’s fans launched a petition to name a newly discovered heavy metal element in the periodic table in honor of the musician, dubbing it ‘Lemmium.’ The petition gained over 156,000 signatures, but scientists ultimately rejected the appeal, explaining that chemical elements could be named only after a “mythological concept, a mineral, a place or country, a property or a scientist.”

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In its bid to dodge the American economic bullet, Uganda is seeking new strategic and trade partnerships beyond Beijing. In India, it may see one such opportunity

Last week, senior Indian diplomat Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs, paid a visit to Uganda as part of his three-nation African tour. Ravi addressed the Uganda-India Business Conclave, which saw a 35-member multi-sectoral business delegation from India travel to the African country in an effort to expand ties in areas from manufacturing and agriculture to renewable energy, healthcare, and tourism. Developing relations with Uganda is part of India’s broader strategy in Africa – and it comes at a critical time.

In January, Uganda hosted the 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, followed by the third South Summit and the G77+China summit.

This is indeed an important milestone for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, both diplomatically and politically. The landlocked East African country was recently suspended from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) by the United States due to multiple accusations related to human rights violations. This was followed by the freezing of new lending to Uganda by the World Bank.

Given the above, Museveni ensured his guests were impressed during the summit. In his speech, he pledged to realign the country’s foreign policy to emphasize greater cooperation among the Global South. In its bid to dodge the American economic bullet, Uganda is seeking new partnerships beyond China. In India, Museveni may see one such opportunity.

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India may find Uganda to be a credible partner in East Africa. Undoubtedly, the endorsement for Uganda’s 2024–2027 presidency of the NAM grouping is a testament to the country’s leadership and multilateral engagements. However, New Delhi is likely to tread carefully in furthering its relations with Kampala given its strong ties with China and recent altercation with the US.

Complicated history

The relationship between India and Uganda dates back to when Indian sailors traded goods in dhows across the Indian Ocean, long before the Christian era, when European sailors traveled around the world.

As a matter of fact, the word “dhow” in Swahili refers to any pre-European ship found in the Indian Ocean, especially those that originate in India. After the abolition of slavery in 1834, the British brought with them more than 30,000 Indian ‘coolies’, a racist term for indentured laborers, for the construction of the Uganda Railway. Eventually, a large number of them settled in East Africa and made Uganda their home.

India’s freedom struggle inspired the early Ugandan activists to fight colonization. Known as the Year of Africa, 1960 marked a turning point for African independence with 17 new countries created, and another 18 in the following year. On 14 December, 1960, a “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples” was a dopted by the United Nations General Assembly, which proclaimed the necessity to “steadfastly bringing to a speedy and unconditional end the provisions of the Charter and the present colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.” The matter was initially proposed for inclusion in the agenda of the Assembly’s 15th session by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, during his address to the General Assembly on September 23, 1960. Uganda became independent on October 9, 1962.

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However, in August 1972, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin ordered the country’s entire South Asian population to be expelled, accusing them of sabotaging the economy. Around 50,000 Indians and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) along with other Asians had to leave.

Five decades later, in January of this year, President Museveni called that move a “mistake” and expressed gratitude to the Indian community for the service that they have rendered the country over the decades. Indeed, anti-Indian policies were promptly reversed once Museveni assumed office in 1986. Several actions have been taken to guarantee the reinstatement of bilateral relations, including the return of belongings that had been confiscated from Indians and PIOs.

New Delhi and Kampala have significantly deepened trade ties over the past two and a half decades. Since 1995, when the constitution established Uganda as a republic, India’s trade with the African nation has witnessed a sharp rise of almost 9% annually, and today it stands at nearly $1.3 billion. Indian exports to Uganda stand at $695 million, rising from just $57.4 million in 1995.

Since 2008, Uganda has been part of India’s Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme that New Delhi offers to almost 35 least developed countries. Based on the scheme, 98% of India’s total tariff lines are duty free. Uganda’s exports to India consisted mainly of coffee, cocoa beans, and dried legumes, while it primarily imports pharmaceutical products, vehicles, plastic, paper and paperboard, and organic chemicals.

Betting on strong diaspora

Narendra Modi made history in 2018 when he became the first Indian prime minister to address the Ugandan parliament. During the PM’s visit, several agreements were signed, including one that waived the requirement for a visa for official and diplomatic passport holders, established a regional material laboratory in Uganda, and agreed to bilateral defense cooperation. Modi also announced two lines of credit totaling $64 million for the production of dairy and agricultural products, as well as $141 million for the construction of electrical lines and substations. Additionally, it was announced that numerous Indian Army training centers would provide additional training to the Uganda People’s Defense Force.

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India’s first overseas educational campus was established in Uganda when, in April 2023, the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) of India inaugurated its campus in Jinja.

Notably, this town on the shores of Lake Victoria in Southern Uganda is also the center of the country’s Indian community. In 1997, then-Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral unveiled a bust of Mahatma Gandhi there. Few know that in 1948, a portion of Gandhi’s ashes were immersed in the Nile near Jinja.

Today, the Indian diaspora residing in Uganda exhibits the most robust and long-lasting cultural and economic ties towards the country. There may only be 20,000 Indians in Uganda, making up less than 1% of its overall population, but they provide about 65% of all national taxes.

Indeed, Indians living in Uganda play a significant role in the economy, especially in sectors like manufacturing, trade, agro-processing, banking, sugar, real estate, hotels, tourism, and information technology. They are not only some of the biggest taxpayers, but also provide jobs to thousands of Ugandans. Over the last two decades, these PIOs and NRIs have invested more than $1 billion in Uganda.

To further India’s connectivity with the East African country, Uganda Airlines last year launched direct flights between Kampala and Mumbai. The service, initially revealed in 2021, is only the second Uganda Airlines’ destination outside of Africa. As a result, the company joined Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia as the fifth flag carrier to connect their national capitals with India. The airline now operates from Mumbai thrice a week and aspires to expand to include new and important destinations in Delhi and Chennai.

Diplomatic rapprochement

Uganda has vacillated between steady economic growth and authoritarian leadership. President Museveni, who has been ruling the country for 35 years, won another term in 2021 and is set to lead for another five years.

While the country has managed to rebound from the pandemic and marked a 5.3% growth in the 2023 financial year ($114 billion at the end of 2023 in PPP term), the state of its economy looks dire amid mounting debt from China, the World Bank and the IMF, including a $1 billion Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for past-pandemic recovery from the IMF.

Since Uganda’s severe anti-LGBTQ legislation, its relations with the US have plummeted. To recall, in May 2023, Uganda enacted its contentious Anti-Homosexuality Act, which carries a life sentence or potentially the death penalty for homosexuality.

Since January, the US has barred Uganda from benefitting from AGOA as a measure of punishment. AGOA is a preferential trade arrangement which allows member countries duty-free access to the US market for around 6,000 products.

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Clearly, the US decision has created ripple effects for Uganda’s economy, deterring World Bank loans and many Western foreign direct investments. As this economic pushback may potentially increase the inequality in the already volatile nation, Uganda may eventually lean on economic support from China. In the words of President Museveni, “In case Uganda has no other choice than borrowing, there exists plenty of non-Bretton Woods sources who are eager to lend.”

With huge opportunities available in the Indian market, Uganda can make better use of India’s duty-free tariff scheme, and recover its losses from missing out on AGOA. Stronger India-Uganda relations, including bilateral trade and increased investments from India, could deter the country from turning entirely towards China.

Currently, India and Uganda are two of the closest allies. As Uganda retains the presidency of NAM for the next three years, India can make use of its historic and present relations with Uganda and together, may effectively assume the leadership of the Global South under the banner of NAM. Indeed, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s second visit to Uganda in as many years is a powerful sign of growing bonhomie between the two countries and the relevance of one to the other.

However, India’s role as a champion and future leader of the Global South will be determined by how well it manages its multi-alignment. After successfully hosting the G20, India must contribute to Uganda’s NAM presidency, keeping the right balance with the West, particularly when the Ugandan economy is still crippled by Western sanctions.

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Legislators will vote on the aid bill this Saturday, according to Mike Johnson

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Mike Johnson announced on Wednesday that he is sticking with his plan to send a series of foreign aid bills to the floor, including those for funding for Ukraine and Israel. Johnson said in a note to legislators that they'll vote on these on Saturday evening.

Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, has faced mounting pressure to act on President Joe Biden’s long-delayed request for billions of dollars in security assistance. It’s been more than two months since the Senate passed a $95-billion aid package, which includes $14 billion for Israel and $60 billion for Ukraine.

Despite opposition from conservatives over aiding Ukraine, Johnson said earlier this week that he would push to get the package to the House floor under a single debate rule, then hold separate votes on proposed aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as several foreign-policy proposals, according to Republican lawmakers.

“After significant Member feedback and discussion, the House Rules Committee will be posting soon today the text of three bills that will fund America’s national security interests and allies in Israel, the Indo-Pacific, and Ukraine, including a loan structure for aid, and enhanced strategy and accountability,” Johnson wrote on Wednesday.

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He added that these will be brought to the floor, alongside a fourth bill that includes the REPO Act, TikTok bill, sanctions and other measures “to confront Russia, China, and Iran.”

“By posting text of these bills as soon as they are completed, we will ensure time for a robust amendment process. We expect the vote on final passage on these bills to be on Saturday evening,” Johnson wrote.

He had recently indicated that he'd support sending more money to Kiev if it were a loan rather than a grant. This week, additional pressure was put on him after Iran’s retaliatory strike on Israel, which West Jerusalem claims to have stopped with help from the US.

Meanwhile, moderate New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis urged on Wednesday that the Speaker “go back to Biden & [NY Senator Chuck] Schumer and tell them he needs a border security measure to pass foreign aid.” Johnson said in the letter to his fellow members of Congress that he will bring forward an immigration bill that looks like the House’s HR 2.

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During the GOP meeting this week, the speaker reportedly warned hardcore opponents of Ukraine aid that an alternative to his plan would be for Democrats to force a vote on the Senate bill through procedural maneuvers. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky reportedly urged Johnson to resign.

The previous House speaker, California’s Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from the position by his fellow Republicans for alleged backroom dealing with Democrats on Ukraine.

Proponents of funneling more money to Kiev have been touting the aid to increasingly skeptical American voters, stating that most of the funds would be spent at home to bolster defense manufacturing.

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A fresh attempt to pass the legislation triggered mass protests and drew criticism from the West

The Georgian parliament adopted a controversial ‘foreign agents’ bill in its first reading on Wednesday, despite opposition protests and warnings from the EU that the legislation could jeopardize the country’s ambitions to join the bloc.

The legislation, officially known as the bill ‘On the Transparency of Foreign Influence’, was backed by 83 members of the 150-member chamber. The opposition boycotted the vote. Several dissenting MPs were expelled from the chamber after becoming unruly during the hearing.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, is adamant that the ruling party will not cave in to foreign and domestic pressure. Speaking on Wednesday, Kobakhidze rejected criticism of the bill, arguing it would actually bring Georgia closer to the EU by making the country more transparent.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, however, has condemned the outcome of the vote, vowing to veto the legislation altogether, should it pass the second and third readings. The president claims the bill jeopardizes Georgia’s EU aspirations and imposes “obstacles” to fair elections in the country.

“I’m going to veto this law, as I’m vetoing all the other laws… that go against the recommendations of the European Union,” Zourabichvili told the BBC. She admitted that her veto would likely be overridden by the parliament, but insisted that the step was necessary to express the “voice of people.”

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The Georgian parliament first attempted to pass the ‘foreign agents’ legislation last year. The original bill would have required organizations and individuals with more than 20% foreign funding to register as “agents of foreign influence” while disclosing their donors. It faced strong criticism from the Georgian political opposition, which branded it a “Russian law” and accused the ruling party of modeling it on legislation introduced in Russia in 2012.

The ruling party, however, has insisted the law drew inspiration from the US Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, arguing that the Georgian version was significantly more lenient than the original American one. The initial bill nonetheless sparked rioting in the capital, Tbilisi, as well as a storm of criticism from the West, and ultimately ended up being shelved after passing the first reading.

The new version of the legislation bears only cosmetic changes, including the designation of “agents of foreign influence” being replaced with “an organization facilitating the interests of a foreign power.” The new attempt to pass it has already faced similar trouble, including street protests, a mass brawl on the parliament floor, and mounting criticism from the West. The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has warned that the adoption of the bill could “compromise Georgia’s EU path.”

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“Georgia: the ‘transparency of foreign influence’ law is not in line with EU norms and values. If adopted, it would limit CSO and media work and freedom of expression,” Borrell wrote on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the bill was passed in the first reading.

US and European politicians who have criticized the legislation have not provided any actual arguments against it, he claimed. “In such circumstances, [these] statements will not become a reason to review our decision,” Kobakhidze stated.

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The resolution against “from the river to the sea” had bipartisan support

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to condemn the chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as hate speech.

The slogan, which dates to the 1960s, calls for a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has argued that this implicitly denies its right to exist in the same territory.

“Our resolution makes it clear that the slogan ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is antisemitic and calls for the total eradication of the Jewish, democratic state of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people,” said one of its sponsors, Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

Congress has the responsibility to “condemn disgusting, divisive, and dehumanizing chants” and fight against “prejudice and hate,” added Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat. The other two sponsors were New York Republican Anthony D’Esposito and Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz.

The resolution was adopted by 377 votes in favor to 44 opposed. Only one Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted against it citing constitutional grounds. The other 43 nays were from the “progressive” faction of the Democrats.

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The first amendment of the US Constitution prohibits Congress from making any laws limiting the freedom of speech, press or assembly. The US therefore has no “hate speech” laws or legal grounds for government censorship.

The recent escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has presented a domestic political challenge for the ruling Democrats, as they count on votes from both liberal Jews and Muslim immigrants.

Gottheimer noted that prominent Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Jewish Committee have condemned the chant as anti-Semitic. His statement also mentioned that the ADL has recorded “nearly 9,000 antisemitic incidents” in the US in 2023 – mostly after October 7 – and the highest number since 1979, when such record-keeping began. According to the ADL, chants and slogans count as “incidents.”

October 7 was when Hamas, the Gaza-based militant Palestinian group, raided nearby Israeli military bases and villages, killing over 1,100 Israelis and taking over 200 hostage. West Jerusalem responded by declaring war on the group and invading Gaza. The military operation has turned much of the enclave into rubble and claimed the lives of over 33,000 Palestinians over the past six months, according to local authorities.

Israel’s ruling Likud party has its own version of the slogan in its platform, declaring that “between the Sea and the Jordan, there will only be Israeli sovereignty,” which explicitly rejects any Palestinian statehood in the West Bank.

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Becoming a full member will not guarantee statehood, according to Washington’s envoy

A resolution recommending that the Palestinian Authority (PA) become a full member of the UN would not result in a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield has said.

She made the comments at a news conference in Seoul on Wednesday, after being asked whether the US was open to recognizing the PA’s request.

Earlier this month, the regional authority asked to be admitted as a full-fledged member of the UN. The State of Palestine has held observer status since 2012, but full membership would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood, which Israel opposes.

“We do not see that doing a resolution in the Security Council will necessarily get us to a place where we can find... a two-state solution moving forward,” Thomas-Greenfield said, as quoted by Reuters.

The UN Security Council committee reportedly stated this week that it “was unable to make a unanimous recommendation” on whether the PA’s application for full membership met the criteria.

Applications for UN membership must be approved by the secretary-general before being presented to the 15-member UN Security Council for a vote. The PA applied for membership in 2011, but the application was never put to the Security Council. At the time, the US – as one of the council’s five permanent members – said it would exercise its veto power in the event of a vote.

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The following year, the UN upgraded the State of Palestine’s status from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state” – a status held only by the world body itself and Vatican City.

According to Thomas-Greenfield, US President Joe Biden has categorically said Washington supports a two-state solution and Washington is working to get that in place as soon as possible.

The PA is expected to push the Security Council to vote on a draft resolution as early as Thursday, diplomats told Reuters. Security Council member Algeria reportedly circulated a draft text late on Tuesday.

According to the Palestinian side, 137 of the 193 UN member states already recognize a Palestinian state.

Under the governance of the PA, the State of Palestine claims sovereignty over territory considered Palestinian before the outbreak of the 1967 Six-Day War. This includes Gaza, the entire West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

READ MORE: Interpol approves Palestinian membership despite Israeli objections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected the idea of Palestinian statehood, and vowed to impose “full Israeli security control over the entire area west of Jordan,” which includes all of these regions.

Parts of the West Bank are already under full Israeli military and civilian control, while Gaza is governed by Hamas, which views the PA as illegitimate for recognizing and negotiating with Israel.

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The current bosses in Brussels have failed in all of their major projects, Hungary’s Viktor Orban has said

The EU needs new leadership as the bloc’s current top officials have proven entirely unsuccessful, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed.

Orban made the comments at the European Parliament on Tuesday as part of a public discussion with Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the leader of the French National Rally party, Fabrice Leggeri.

“Now we have a leadership in the EU with some major projects selected by themselves like green transition, RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) policy, migration, war [in Ukraine] and sanctions policy, and they all failed,” Orban said.

“The present leadership of the European Union must go away. And we need new leaders,” the Hungarian prime minister insisted.

Orban said he intends “to come and take over Brussels,” reiterating his earlier warning to “occupy” the EU’s key institutions with his allies in order to bring change to the bloc.

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According to the Hungarian leader, the rule of law and conditionality system created by the current EU leadership has “proved to be… an instrument of political blackmailing. If you do not behave as we expect, you do not get the money.”

Hungary has not received “a single penny” from the RRF because European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has openly voiced dissatisfaction with Budapest’s reluctance to accept migrants and its opposition to the bloc’s gender policies, he said.

The EU’s green transition “has failed because it has gone against [the] economic and industrial” interests of the bloc, Orban added. A switch towards climate neutrality should not be “politically motivated,” otherwise “it would destroy the competitiveness of the European economy. That is where we stand today,” he explained.

In contrast to many other EU members, the Hungarian leader has refused to provide arms to Ukraine and has consistently criticized the bloc’s sanctions against Russia over the conflict. According to Orban, the time has come for Brussels to define “what it should do with the issue of the war” in order to find a solution to the crisis and prevent similar ones in the future.

READ MORE: We need a ceasefire in Ukraine – Orban

Even goodwill gestures may “cause difficulties for the European economy,” such as the recent protests by farmers in Poland, France, Germany, and other nations partly caused by the preferences given by the EU to Ukrainian food suppliers, he explained.

Orban also insisted that the issue of aid to Kiev should be “separated as much as possible from the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the EU,” formal negotiations for which were approved last year.

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The new owners of the popular coffee chain in the country have rebranded the local franchise

The owners of the remains of the Starbucks chain in Russia have asked a court to terminate legal protection of the American company’s trademarks, a court document has revealed.

Entrepreneur Anton Pinsky, who purchased the US chain's Russian assets in partnership with rapper and businessman Timati (Timur Yunusov), filed a claim with the country's intellectual property rights court on April 12, according to a post on the information portal Digital Justice this week.

Starbucks, which had operated in Russia since 2007, pulled out of the country in 2022 due to Western sanctions linked to the Ukraine conflict.

Pinsky and Yunusov acquired the rental agreements for all 130 Starbucks coffee shops in Russia, as well as the employment contracts of its 2,000 workers. They successfully rebranded the Seattle-based company’s coffee shops in Russia as Stars Coffee.

The new owners also replaced the well-known mermaid logo with an image of a girl in a traditional Russian ‘kokoshnik’ headdress.

The current claim relates to seven trademarks, which include images and text elements registered at various times between 2003 and 2014. However, the expiry periods of exclusive rights to trademarks were extended and are valid, depending on the mark, up until 2033, the court filing said.

READ MORE: Russian ‘Starbucks’ gets new name and logo

According to the court document, the plaintiff has asked the court to terminate the protection of trademarks relating to two classes of services including restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, snack bars, and coffee shops due to their non-use.

In 2022 and 2023, Pinsky applied to register new brand names – Stars Pinskiy Coffee and Stars Kanokov Coffee. Currently, the declared designation of both trademarks is being examined, according to official documents.

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Was Tehran’s ‘symbolic’ attack on the Jewish state a victory or a defeat for the future?

The night of April 13-14 was another round of ‘shock therapy’ for the world as Iran launched a direct attack on Israeli territory. This followed an unjustified strike by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which resulted in the deaths of 11 diplomats and two high-ranking generals of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Initially, Israel denied responsibility, but later indirectly admitted to targeting the building under the belief that it served as a military base coordinating Hamas operations. This act clearly violated the Vienna Conventions of 1961 and 1963, which protect diplomatic missions. Typically, such an infringement would lead to the severance of diplomatic ties, but since Iran and Israel have had no such relations and have been on the brink of conflict for decades, Israel’s abrupt move can be interpreted as a declaration of war. Faced with this provocation, Iran was put in a very tight spot and felt compelled to act.

Almost two weeks of suspense followed as the world waited for Iran’s response, which seemed logically inevitable. Pundits and analysts mostly considered two obvious options that Iran could use: either give a mirror response and hit Israeli territory or one of its diplomatic offices in the region, or use its proxy forces, which are as much of a problem for Israel as Iran itself. But Tehran decided to take a third course, both launching a direct attack and using its allies in the region. This attack made history as it was Iran’s first direct assault on Israel. Among other things, it was the most massive drone attack on record, estimated to have involved more than 200 UAVs, as well as 150 cruise missiles, 110 Shahab-3, Sajil-2 and Kheibar surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, and seven Fattah-2 hypersonic cruise missiles. The strikes were launched from multiple locations including Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and the part of Yemen controlled by the Ansar Allah Houthi group.

At 2 a.m., air raid sirens echoed throughout Israel. Panicked citizens flooded the streets, rushing to find shelter as explosions rocked Jerusalem, the port of Haifa, a military base in the Negev desert, and an air force base near Be’er Sheva. The IDF urged residents of Dimona, near a nuclear facility, to remain close to bomb shelters, and news feeds were filled with increasingly alarming messages. The barrage overwhelmed Israel’s renowned Iron Dome defense system, with the sheer volume of incoming drones and missiles proving too much to handle. In response, the air forces of the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel, and Jordan scrambled to intercept the projectiles. In a desperate countermeasure, Israel jammed all GPS signals to disrupt the guidance systems of the Iranian missiles and drones. Tehran promptly declared that its targets were strictly military bases, airfields, and government installations.

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One step from all-out war?

As the attack unfolded, US President Joe Biden publicly stated that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to reaffirm America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.” All European capitals echoed the sentiment. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, while confirming his president’s resolve to support the Jewish state, added that Washington is not seeking conflict with Tehran. These words are unlikely to be welcomed in West Jerusalem. Netanyahu made several statements in light of Iran’s counterattack, first noting that everything was intercepted and blocked, referring to the success of the missile defense system. He then vowed that Iran will be held accountable for its actions. Israeli military reports claimed that almost 99% of the missiles and UAVs launched by Iran were shot down, but many military experts both in the West and in the Global South doubted this statement, relying on footage published in the media.

At the same time, sources of several influential American publications report that Washington is making every effort to dissuade Israel from directly striking Iran in order to “end this cycle of escalation.” Remarkably, but two days after the incident, Netanyahu made less belligerent statements, noting that the Jewish state would respond to Iran’s attack “wisely and without emotions.” Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Israel will retaliate directly asymmetrically, but rhetoric in this matter is also important, and it is possible that Netanyahu will try not to drag the entire region, and subsequently the world, into the abyss of catastrophe. Especially considering that Israel is not an American puppet, and therefore Washington cannot guarantee that Netanyahu will sit idly by. Hence, the independent actions of the Israeli prime minister will carry significant weight.

Against this backdrop, the opinion of the former Israeli defense and foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, now an opposition figure, appears quite notable. Lieberman stated that Israel was only able to repel the Iranian attack thanks to US assistance, specifically through the capabilities of American intelligence and early interception. Based on this, Lieberman believes that Israel should seek maximum coordination with Washington regarding a retaliatory strike against Iran. According to him, by doing so, the US “will acknowledge that Israel has no alternative but to retaliate against Iran for its attack.” CNN’s sources report that Israel has even decided to postpone the operation in Rafah in Gaza, which it had been planning for several months, due to the situation with Iran. Now, Israeli authorities are focused on responding to the attack, resulting in the active phase of the operation being postponed for at least several days. In simpler terms, Israel is now in the position that Iran had been in all those days since the strike on the consulate in Damascus until the events of the night of April 14.

In turn, Iran’s IRGC issued a statement just minutes after the operation ended, noting that it was practically a ‘final warning,’ and in the event of a reverse reaction from Israel, Tehran would respond with more powerful actions. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated that the Islamic Republic does not desire an escalation of tension in the Middle East but acts in defense of its national security and interests. Additionally, according to the Iranian foreign minister, Tehran took into account the inaction of the UN Security Council regarding Israel’s use of force against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, as well as the irresponsible behavior of the US, Britain, and France.

A new place for a new Iran

Iran’s counterattack posed a challenge not only to Israel but to the entire West. Tehran acted on the premise that it wouldn’t allow itself to be slighted. It needed to ‘save face,’ not disappoint its allies and sympathizers, and prove to the entire region that it rightfully belongs among the region’s leaders. Moreover, the events can be seen as a change in Tehran’s tactics. Whereas previously Iranians built their ‘relations’ with Israel on the basis of ‘strategic patience,’ trying to avoid direct conflict with the Jewish state by all means, the situation has now undergone a radical change.

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The hardliners from among the clerics surrounding Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who advocate a tougher position on Israel and the West, have described the tactic of ‘strategic patience’ as a sign of weakness and called for more decisive action. Senior IRGC commanders, on the other hand, took a more pragmatic approach, arguing that Iran was not yet ready to make drastic moves. In the end, instead of emotion and hot-headedness, it was pragmatism that prevailed, combined with an understanding of a new reality – something that the West may not have planned for, at all.

Hence, one might ask: Could all of this have been an attempt to demonstrate to Israel and to the entire collective West that the balance of power in the Middle East has shifted? After all, the name given by Iran to its operation was ‘True Promise’ (or ‘Honest Promise’). Every word and phrase spoken by the Iranians should be examined quite meticulously, through a philosophical lens. In fact, everything seems to indicate that Tehran is now moving from rhetoric to action; if, previously, Iran was called a ‘paper tiger’ by the global community, now the attitude towards it has somewhat changed. Tehran can now boast to the rest of the region about its commitment, saying that “unlike you, we walked the talk.”

There are players in the Middle East who might not be happy with such behavior, especially those that have chosen to remain neutral or to wait out the crisis. We are talking, primarily, about Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. In a polite but somewhat abstract statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) called for restraint to prevent any further escalation that “threatens the stability of the region and the safety of its population,” which, in effect, signals that the countries of the union (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia) are unwilling to make a clear choice and possibly still hope for normalization of relations with Israel once the conflict in the Gaza is resolved. Türkiye holds a similar stance, although it should be noted that Ankara condemned Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate, warned that it would close its airspace to military aircraft in case of a US attack on Iran (in that, Türkiye was immediately joined by Kuwait and Qatar), and attempted to take on the role of peacemaker. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a series of harsh comments about Israel, thus killing any prospect of becoming a mediator and bringing the opposing sides to the negotiating table.

That said, neither Israel nor Iran is interested in such a scenario. Tehran has chosen a tough but consistent line of policy towards Israel: no deals with the Jewish state until Palestine is free and until Jerusalem is divided into two parts. There is nothing new about Tehran’s position, though – it is all stated clearly in the UN resolution from 1947. Ironically, when voting at the UN in 1947, Iran, ruled at the time by the ‘pro-Western’ Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, voted against this type of solution, arguing that over the long term it would lead to mass deportation of Palestinians from their very own lands, preventing them from visiting their holy sites. In fact, Tehran believed that the newly-founded state of Israel would not stop there and would continue to expand at the expense of its neighboring states. Simply put, Tehran never did betray the core of its own position on the issue; although, seeing the inaction of the Arab states, Pahlavi Iran was gradually building relations with Tel Aviv – without ignoring the problem of Palestine.

Given all this context, the most intriguing question now is how the countries of the region, namely the Arab world, will react to Iran’s actions – after all, the attitude towards modern Tehran is quite mixed. Iran has been able to bolster its hand by using proxy organizations, which are now moving against Israel to defend the interests of Palestine. Judging by their neutral reactions – and quite unsurprisingly, in fact – none of the Arab leaders is interested in a strong Iran. They are interested in Iran existing as a moderate state allied with the West, with which they themselves cooperate. However, if Iran joins Russia and China and, as part of this troika, becomes an actor in the great world politics, the Middle East will face some big changes.

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Does Israel have the answer?

Despite the IRGC’s counterattacks, Iran continues to maintain its position that nobody needs a war, and it’s not interested in one by any means. As for its strikes so far, Iran considers them quite successful; they succeeded in making a point and delivering ‘a clear message’ to the entire West that Tehran is no longer confining itself to verbal statements and that, in general, things are going to get very real. Furthermore, any potential response from Israel will now justify similar operations by Iran, which may become harsher and harsher every time. Besides, the moral victory also belongs to Iran. Tehran had held the situation in suspense all along, and the world witnessed strikes on military bases in the north of Israel and saw them take damage. Iran’s strike, albeit a token one, has happened. The Islamic Republic is beginning to act like the flagship power in the region.

In this case, Israel hardly needs a direct war with the Islamic Republic, especially with the Hamas issue not settled yet, Gaza still not demilitarized, hostages yet to be rescued, and Western allies offering nothing in terms of support but nice statements and condemnations. In the meanwhile, there are rather serious reasons to believe that Israel may not be able to keep its temper and strike, just for self-consolation. Expecting a response strike from Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, several days prior to the counterattack, that if Iran strikes from its territory, then Israel will attack in response. That means the Israelis could go further and continue their attacks. Yes, Netanyahu has changed his tone somewhat and tries to show now that he doesn’t want a big war. He, however, may be under pressure from the security wing, members of which yearn for revenge and want to blow off steam on Iran, which they think created the situation Israel has been in since October 7, 2023. If Israel does strike back, attacking Iranian territories and killing people, the situation will spin out of control and there will be no stopping the Iranians.

The goal of Iran’s counterattack against Israel was not to unleash a big war. This action can be seen differently: as a PR effort, a propaganda schtick, or muscle-flexing. Some may say that Iran failed to retaliate fully, as its attack didn’t achieve anything equal to the two generals and 11 diplomats that Israel’s strike had killed. The message of the counterstrike, however, was not only to take revenge for Iran’s dead. Tehran deliberately didn’t strike targets in major Israeli cities. Its strikes on Israel were limited, mostly targeting the occupied Golani Heights, which legally belong to Syria, and military installations in Negev desert, in order to avoid escalation and prevent further provocations on Israel’s part. Besides, Iran has proved that it can penetrate Israel’s air defenses and that Israel is not that well protected.

Therefore, Iran’s goal was to change the rules of the game in the region and, by and large, it succeeded. Tehran’s counterattack put paid to any talk of Iran not putting its money where its mouth is and brought the conflict between the two countries to a whole new level. This half-measure cannot be seen as a defeat, but it’s not exactly a victory either. Besides, Israel is not going to sit idle. The Jewish state will start reviewing its actions and correcting mistakes; after all, matters of its own security are the utmost priority for Israel.

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A survey conducted by the Hebrew University asked respondents whether they advocate military action that could alienate allies

Most Israelis oppose a retaliatory strike on Iran that could alienate their country’s allies, a recent poll has found. Several media outlets have reported in recent days that US President Joe Biden advised the Netanyahu government against taking military action against Tehran in response to the latter’s massive aerial bombardment over the weekend.

According to Israel, Iran targeted it with several hundred missiles and explosive-laden drones late on Saturday. The Israeli military claims to have shot down almost all of them. Iran, in turn, has announced that it managed to strike several military installations.

Tehran has framed the attack as retribution for the death of seven high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers, who lost their lives when an alleged Israeli airstrike hit Iran’s consulate in Damascus on April 1.

On Tuesday, Hebrew University published the findings of its survey, which it had conducted over the previous two days online and by phone among 1,466 Israelis.

Most of the respondents (74%) spoke out against any military response to Iran’s recent bombardment “if it undermines Israel’s security alliance with its allies.”

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More than half of the people polled also said that Israel “should respond positively to political and military demands from its allies” in order to “ensure a sustainable defense system over time.”

Speaking to reporters during his official visit to Israel on Wednesday, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said “it’s clear the Israelis are making a decision to act.”

He expressed hope that Israel’s response would be executed in a “way that does as little to escalate this as possible.”

Earlier this week, ABC News, citing anonymous Biden administration officials, claimed that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had spoken by phone with his Israeli colleague, Yoav Gallant, telling the latter that Washington would not help its ally in any offensive military operation against Tehran.

The Israeli outlet Mako reported on Monday evening that Israel’s retaliation would need to receive the green light from the US and be in line with rules set by Washington, so as not to “degenerate the region into a war.”

Around the same time, the New York Times alleged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called off immediate retaliatory strikes after speaking with US President Joe Biden by phone on Saturday night.

On Sunday, Iran’s chief of staff of the armed forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri warned that the Islamic Republic would unleash a “much more extensive” attack on Israel, should the latter conduct military strikes on Iran.

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House speaker Mike Johnson is working on a complex plan to tie Republican policies to Democrat-favored requests, the news agency said

The chances that the US House would vote this week on a Ukraine aid package are becoming slimmer, as Speaker Mike Johnson faces internal Republican party pressure over his legislative plans, the Associated Press has reported.

The congressional leader spent hours on Capitol Hill on Tuesday with fellow representatives, discussing strategies on how to ensure that policies that his party considers a priority get through the chamber alongside the Democrat-requested funding, AP said. With no draft document produced, “passage of any aid this week [is] in serious doubt.”

The White House has been urging Johnson for weeks to put to a vote a $93-billion bill passed by the Senate in late February. The proposal provides for security assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Johnson has recently indicated that he would support sending more money to Kiev, if it were a loan rather than a grant. This week additional pressure was put on him, after an Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel, which the Jewish state stopped with help from the US.

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According to AP’s report, the speaker is considering a complicated approach, which would break the Senate bill down into separate votes. The Senate would then have to vote on whatever legislative product comes from the House.

The Republican party wants the security of the US southern border to be tied to the spending proposal. Johnson may also push for confiscation of Russian assets in US jurisdictions and for sanctions against Iran, AP added.

During the Republican meeting, the speaker reportedly warned hardcore opponents of Ukraine aid, that an alternative to his plan would be for Democrats to force a vote on the Senate bill through procedural maneuvers. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky reportedly urged Johnson to resign. The previous House speaker, California’s Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from the position by his own party for alleged backroom dealing with Democrats on Ukraine.

READ MORE: US House speaker to put Ukraine aid bill to a vote – media

Proponents of funnelling more money into Kiev have been touting it to increasingly skeptical American voters, stating that most of the funds would be spent at home to bolster defense manufacturing.

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