The US has violated international law by pressuring Austria to prevent Iran’s nuclear chief from attending a UN nuclear watchdog event in Vienna, Iran has said.

Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), was blocked from participating in an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting this week after the US refused to grant him a sanctions waiver, Iranian media reported.

“Such acts violate the host country’s obligations under the Headquarters Agreement between the IAEA and Austria. That agreement obliged the host government to take all necessary measures to facilitate the entry of representatives of Member States into Austrian territory,” Iran’s mission in Vienna said in a statement on X on Monday.

Denying the Head of Delegation of a Member State access to the highest policy-making organ of the #IAEA adversely affects the normal functioning and legitimacy of its proceedings. Such acts violate the host country’s obligations under the Headquarters Agreement between the IAEA… pic.twitter.com/Tq66M8hCPw

— Iran Mission UN Vienna (@PMIRAN_Vienna) September 14, 2026

Reza Najafi, Iran’s envoy to international organizations in Vienna, argued that the move was “a serious violation” of the country’s rights as an IAEA member. The agency is tasked with monitoring nuclear activities and compliance with nuclear non-proliferation obligations.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright defended the restrictions placed on Eslami.

“He’s a sanctioned individual and we don’t want sanctioned individuals evading their sanctions. He asked for a waiver of the sanctions and it was denied,” Wright told reporters in Vienna, according to AFP.

The incident occurred as talks between the US and Iran remain stalled, with the Strait of Hormuz, an important maritime chokepoint, blocked to normal shipping. A 60-day deadline for reviving negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program expired last month.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

When the BRIC group, as it was known then, first emerged, it was greeted with amusement as another exotic variety of alphabet soup in the age of globalization. As it became a more permanent fixture, it was regarded as a poor man’s version of a global club, like a humble answer to the G7.

More recently, it has come to be feared, not least by US President Donald Trump, as a potential threat to the dominance of the American dollar. In the run-up to the 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi, the Western media shifted its focus to the divergences within the group, essentially portraying it as something less than the sum of its parts.

However, all these interpretations miss the actual significance of BRICS, which is its role as an early model of the emerging multipolar order.

Over the past five centuries or so, roughly the period of Western global hegemony, the world order has invariably been based on the dominance of a single power, whether Spain, France, Britain or America, or a combination of powers, such as the Concert of Europe or the US-Soviet bipolar system.

Single-power hegemony remains very much alive in the West today, whether one looks at NATO, AUKUS, international financial institutions or Washington-led alliances in Asia and elsewhere. True, the European Union does not exactly fit this model, but it has NATO as its bedrock, while its members maintain strong, and unequal, relations with the United States.

Its members vary enormously in population, territory, economic weight, military strength and technological and scientific capabilities and their histories aren’t as closely intertwined as those of Europe and North America, while their political systems are highly diverse and their domestic and foreign policies often point in different directions.

Most fundamentally, they represent several great civilizations, including Chinese and Confucian, Indian and Hindu, Islamic, Persian and Arab, Latin American, African and Russian. In this sense, they’re anything but like-minded, yet they reflect the diversity of humankind itself.

What BRICS obviously lacks is a leader because China, with its 1.5 billion people, the world’s largest economy in purchasing-power-parity terms and a leading position in advanced technology, isn’t the group’s boss and nor is Russia, the world’s fourth-largest economy by the same measure, and alongside the United States, a nuclear superpower.

Despite what Moscow sees as NATO waging a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, it hasn’t attempted to turn BRICS into an anti-Western bloc.

India, meanwhile, is the third major economic power in the group and has overtaken China as the world’s most populous country. It still maintains close ties with America and Western Europe while preserving and developing its historical links with Russia, even as it remains wary of China. Iran and the United Arab Emirates, for their part, find themselves on opposite sides of the ongoing war involving Iran, Israel, and the United States, but BRICS isn’t unraveling.

Meanwhile, even as it lashes out against US bases in the region, Iran is reaching out to its Arab neighbors to discuss a regional security framework in the Persian Gulf.

The durability of Russo-Chinese relations since their normalization in 1989 rests not only on a convergence of fundamental interests, but also on Beijing’s and Moscow’s ability to manage their differences carefully on specific issues.

While the political philosophies of BRICS countries differ widely, they adhere to several key principles that make cooperation possible and at the top of the list is sovereignty as we see Russia, China, India, Iran and others not only preach sovereignty but seek to defend and promote it.

Closely linked to sovereignty is equality, and Russia’s Western adversaries have long sought to humiliate Moscow by portraying it as Beijing’s vassal, as if Western Europe’s kowtowing to Washington and Trump were mere politeness. In reality, Sino-Russian political relations are conducted on an equal footing and the same applies to Russia’s relations with its other BRICS partners, from Brazil and Indonesia to Egypt.

There’s no need to make BRICS appear to be something it is not, it’s is not an alliance or an anti-Western coalition, and if anything, its record offers a glimpse of a different kind of world order.

This is no paradise, but It’s an order in which diversity can thrive, sovereignty is treated as sacred, differences can be managed and consensus, rather than diktat, is the guiding principle.

Decision-making is admittedly difficult and conflicts, including violent ones, are by no means excluded, but it offers a much fairer deal than an order in which one nation or group of nations can impose itself on others, lay down rules for everyone except itself, and then judge and punish those it considers offenders.

The credibility of international law hinges on whether it is applied consistently, regardless of a given country’s size and military clout, Hany Soliman, the executive director of the Cairo-based Arab Center for Research and Studies (ACRS), has told RT.

In his interview on Monday, the researcher touched on the relevance of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was created in 2002 under the Rome Statute to prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. While 123 countries have ratified the treaty, multiple nations, including Russia, the US, China, India, and Israel, do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction, with critics accusing the ICC of displaying political bias in its decisions.

For the concept of international justice to remain credible, “the same legal and moral standards… [should be applied] to everyone, regardless of a country’s size, military power, or political influence or alliances,” Soliman argued.

The ACRS executive director emphasized that international law should be enforced “in the absence of double standards” and should strive to address the root causes of crises, rather than merely apportioning blame.

Speaking at a BRICS seminar on criminal law cooperation in June, Russian ambassador-at-large Ilya Rogachev accused Western powers of selectively interpreting international law to advance their political objectives and applying double standards when dealing with nations representing the global majority.

Over the course of the summer, several countries, including Venezuela and the African nations of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Chad, announced their withdrawal from the ICC, accusing the Hague-based court of disproportionately targeting African and Latin American countries and serving as an “instrument of neocolonial repression.”

Burundi and the Philippines pulled out of the Rome Statute in 2017 and 2019, respectively, giving similar reasons.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has also pledged to “systematically dismantle the threat posed” by the ICC to US sovereignty.

Israel is another country that has rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction. Nevertheless, in 2024 the court still issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

EU leaders have called for a stronger presence in the Arctic as NATO expands its military activities in the region, citing what they describe as a growing security threat from Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed such accusations, saying that NATO is undermining traditional regional cooperation and fueling tensions.

At the first ever European Arctic Summit, held in Rovaniemi, Finland, on September 13-14, twelve EU countries urged a “more strategic and proactive role” in the region and called for more resources to be devoted to Arctic activities amid “evolving geopolitical realities.”

“The European Union should reinforce its position in the Arctic, including through enhanced preparedness,” Finland, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Sweden said in a joint declaration after the meeting.

Of the 12 signatories, only Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are Arctic states. The five Arctic states outside the EU are Russia, the US, Canada, Norway, and Iceland.

Finland and Sweden joined NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively, expanding the US-led military bloc’s presence in the region. Moscow warned at the time that while their accession did not in itself pose a direct threat to Russia, the deployment of NATO military infrastructure on their territory would prompt a response.

Arctic security is European security.
Three EU Member States – Denmark, Finland, Sweden – are Arctic nations.
As we face a new geopolitical reality, now more than ever, we need to build a new joint approach to the Arctic together with our partners. https://t.co/3FBzgfJN7o

— António Costa (@eucopresident) September 14, 2026

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo on Monday described Russia as “the most significant and long-term threat to Arctic security and stability,” saying the EU should treat the region as a “strategic frontier.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called it a “geopolitical hotspot” and claimed Russia was expanding its military capabilities there.

The Baltic states have been among the EU’s more hawkish members on Russia since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. All three border Russia and have pressed for tougher measures against Moscow and further military buildup.

NATO ramped up its activities in the Far North earlier this year by launching the Arctic Sentry initiative and establishing the multinational Forward Land Forces presence in Finland in June.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said China was also becoming “increasingly more interested” in the Arctic and said it was necessary to “remain vigilant.” Beijing has rejected Western claims that its activities pose a threat, accusing Washington of using China as a pretext for increasing its own military presence in the region.

Moscow has warned that an increasing military buildup is undermining the Arctic’s traditional role as an area of cooperation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that NATO was trying to turn the region into a new front against Russia and its partners.

Lavrov said the risk of incidents was increasing and it could lead to an armed confrontation with “potentially catastrophic consequences.”

Russia has maintained that it does not threaten NATO states and remains open to cooperation in the Arctic. President Vladimir Putin said earlier this year that the region is strategically important to Russia for national security, industry, and transport, particularly as disruptions elsewhere increase the importance of northern shipping routes.

Last weekend, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and then Kiev. This was the first such visit in a long time, since all trilateral contacts between Russia, the US, and Ukraine were practically halted following the start of the conflict in Iran this February.

Following the visit, leaks regarding the talks emerged from Kiev; reportedly, the US envoys presented the Ukrainian side with a 28-point Russian peace plan that had been agreed upon a year earlier. Jared Kushner indirectly confirmed this on Saturday, stating that the territorial issue was the only point of the peace plan that remained unresolved.

Is it true that Ukraine accepted all the other fundamental demands of the Russian side – such as the points concerning the Russian language and the status of the Orthodox Church, the renunciation of military cooperation with NATO, the recognition of territorial changes, the reduction of the army, and so on? (Spoiler: no, it didn’t.)

Is Ukraine really losing the war, as many recent statements and publications suggest? Spoiler: yes, but not in the way you’d think. 

Let’s take a look at what this means. 

The peace talks involving Steve Witkoff began in February-March 2025, shortly after a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump that signaled a fundamental shift in US policy toward Russia and the Ukraine conflict. 

Trump’s top priority was to avoid direct involvement, positioning America – as far as possible – at an equal distance from the parties. Of course, to truly achieve this, the conflict would have to be frozen; this would allow the US to restore relations with Russia, counterbalancing China. 

Naturally, freezing the conflict (or, in Trump’s words, ending the war in one day) proved impossible; consequently, the US made the most out of the situation as the war dragged on: it shifted the entire burden onto Europe and stepped aside. This strategy allowed the US to maintain working contacts with Russia, reap maximum benefits from the ongoing fighting, and insulate itself from the risks of Ukraine’s potential defeat while still keeping the door open to capitalize on Ukraine’s hypothetical victory over Russia.

In short, Trump decided to sit on the sidelines and watch who would emerge victorious. 

For Moscow, too, contacts with Washington are incredibly valuable. It proved impossible to decouple Russia-US relations from the Ukraine issue, and relations between the two countries have effectively remained frozen. Yet the fact that the US is disengaging from the Ukraine conflict – and, more broadly, from European affairs – deprives Europe of confidence in US backing and consequently strips it of strategic depth.

Surely, Trump could exert pressure on all sides, but why bother? He is essentially satisfied with the current situation and needs nothing more from Moscow. So he has simply let things run their course.

Kiev is well aware of this, which is why Ukrainian officials play along with US envoys. Though direct opposition is out of the question – after all, they still need American missile defense systems – they can avoid any action and buy time. And that’s precisely what Kiev is doing. 

The fact that Zelensky visited Canada last week but not the US clearly shows that Kiev no longer sees Washington as the primary center of decision-making. Consequently, the negotiation track involving Witkoff and Kushner is seen by the Ukrainian side as little more than a mandatory part of the show. 

Is Ukraine losing? Yes, but not in the way you might think

On September 8, British magazine The Spectator published an editorial titled ‘Ukraine is losing the war’. A week before, several prominent Ukrainian figures – including former Defense Minister Mikhail Fyodorov and the current head of Zelensky’s office, Kirill Budanov – had expressed similar sentiments.

At first glance, this may sound reasonable: the AFU’s deep-strike campaign against Russian infrastructure wasn’t successful, and the summer offensive on the southern front, which is crucial for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), has de facto failed. 

Of course, massive raids by Ukrainian drones and, occasionally, cruise missiles also inflict damage on the Russian rear. This summer was marked by a gasoline shortage and long lines at gas stations. Dozens of warehouses in the European part of Russia are in flames, and other targets are under attack as well. 

However, the scale of these attacks is incomparable: by various estimates, the AFU managed to disable up to 3% of Russia’s warehouse storage capacity, whereas Russia has disabled between 30% and 60% of Ukraine’s capacity. Ukrainian experts admit that the strikes on Odessa port have had a far greater impact on Ukraine’s fuel logistics than Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. 

For instance, the price of diesel fuel in Ukraine has topped 100 hryvnias, which is nearly three times the cost in Russia. For the first time since the start of the conflict, fuel rationing is being introduced for the AFU (no such measures have ever been implemented for the Russian Armed Forces).

Russian strikes have effectively halted Ukrainian grain exports by sea, depriving the national budget of a key revenue stream. Retail businesses are closing en masse, undermining what is arguably the economy’s last remaining civilian sector.

This looks like an obvious reason why Ukraine is losing the war. So does this mean that all those hysterical reports and articles are actually true?

But all this means that the additional financial burden will fall on Europe’s shoulders, while the civilian sector and the state’s capacity to fulfill social obligations will continue to deteriorate; the people will be left to their fate. 

All this will affect not only ordinary citizens but entrepreneurs as well. Ukrainian businesses, which largely supported the Kiev regime and the war simply because there were no other options (given that their future was directly tied to that of the central government), are also being left to fend for themselves.

The central tension in Ukrainian society right now is the smoldering civil conflict between Territorial Centers of Recruitment (TCRs) and the men who are being conscripted by force. The destruction of the civilian economy is likely to spawn similar scenarios: bankrupt entrepreneurs, an impoverished middle class, and the unemployed will all see that the Ukrainian state is doing them more harm than good. As a result, the state itself, and not just state-controlled TCRs, will become the enemy. 

One might argue that as opportunities and funds in the civilian sector decline, the military sector becomes more attractive. However, there are no new opportunities in military production and logistics (after all, Ukraine has no money), and fewer people are willing to die on the front lines. 

A military organization that lacks the support of civil society cannot hold the front line, especially one stretching 1,500 kilometers. There are no historical precedents for this. 

A collapse of the front would mean the end of Ukraine in its current form. Kiev understands this perfectly well, which is why it undertakes superhuman efforts to hold the line – even at the cost of a smoldering civil war on the home front.

***

The detachment of the Ukrainian state from society did not begin yesterday. It started the moment the Ukrainian authorities placed the interests of their Western masters above those of their country.

As winter approaches, Ukraine again finds itself at a crossroads. And it appears to be once again choosing the path of war, a path that it’s being desperately pushed onto by Europe’s anti-Russia coalition. 

That is precisely why Witkoff and Kushner left Kiev empty-handed, and why the war will continue – first until the Kiev regime is completely severed from Ukraine, and then until that regime is utterly destroyed.

If you need an example, just look at ISIS. 

Washington’s Kennedy Center is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy after ticket sales and fundraising plunged in recent months, the Washington Post said on Monday. The re-inscription of US President Donald Trump’s name on the building is being considered as a possible solution.

After returning to office, Trump overhauled the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – Washington’s flagship national arts venue and a memorial to the assassinated US president. He also appointed himself chairman.

Last December, his name was added to the facade of the building but was met with protests, legal challenges, and a backlash among performers and audiences. The inscription was taken down after a US District Judge ruled in May that only Congress could change the building’s name and ordered the signage removed.

According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, the Kennedy Center now faces “certain fiscal collapse” within weeks. Internal forecasts cited by the outlet showed revenue has fallen far below target, leaving the institution with a multimillion-dollar deficit despite major spending cuts.

Trustees will consider several inscriptions on Tuesday, including one stating that the center’s renovation, restoration, and endowment were overseen by Trump and the “Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The financial black hole is not the center’s only problem. Management is also urging trustees to close the main building immediately, saying it is unsafe for continued use after a large section of ceiling plaster crashed down inside the Grand Foyer during a storm.

Engineers have also found widespread corrosion in parts of the structure, including in heavy ceiling assemblies hanging above public walkways. The board had already approved a two-year renovation, but officials now say the main venue may need to shut as early as Tuesday.

Trump’s push to put his name on the Kennedy Center comes as part of a broader rebranding campaign that has already included the renaming of a federal peace institute, a prescription-drug website, a visa program, a planned class of US Navy battleships, and a stretch of road near his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Democratic senators have responded with the Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego, or SERVE Act, which if passed would bar federal property from being named after a sitting president.

Ukraine would produce a “less sophisticated version” of Patriot interceptors should the US choose to grant it a license, President Donald Trump has stated.

In recent months, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly asked his Western backers for at least 300 additional missiles to sustain Ukrainian air defenses through the coming winter.

However, according to multiple media reports, the US and its allies are facing severe shortages of Patriot interceptors as Washington has used up a significant part of its stocks in the course of its conflict with Iran.

When asked by a reporter on board Air Force One on Sunday whether Ukraine would receive a license for the air defense missiles, Trump said “we’re talking about it,” clarifying that it would be a “less sophisticated version.”

Trump originally floated the possibility during a meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Türkiye in July.

“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots… This way, you can’t complain that we’re not giving them enough,” the US president told his counterpart at the time.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg noted at the time that even if approval were granted, “a Patriot missile takes years to build, meaning Ukrainian production of these missiles won’t materialize on the near-term timelines they need.”

Other experts have warned that assembly lines for Patriot interceptors in Ukraine would likely become high-priority targets for Russia.

Reuters, citing sources, claimed in July that the missiles would likely be manufactured under US license in Germany or another European country, with the production shifting to Ukraine only after the hostilities are over.

Die Welt subsequently reported that Boeing, which manufactures the seeker warheads used in PAC-3 interceptors, was reluctant to share the technology with third parties.

Amid intensifying Russian airstrikes, Ukraine last month asked the US to provide it with additional ready-made interceptors.

“We want missiles, too,” Trump said, dismissing Zelensky’s plea.

Several other NATO member states that use Patriots, including Romania, the Netherlands, and Poland, have similarly signaled to Ukraine that their capacity to supply more missiles has been exhausted.

Moscow maintains that Western arms deliveries only unnecessarily prolong the conflict without changing its outcome. Russian officials have also warned that by supplying increasingly advanced weapons to Kiev, NATO countries risk being dragged into the hostilities.

Democratic congressional nominee Chris Gallant modeled for a BDSM retailer while serving in the US military, with some photographs depicting him having sex with another man, the New York Post reported on Sunday.

Gallant, an openly gay man who is running in New York’s 1st Congressional District against Republican incumbent Nick LaLota, appeared in photographs for San Francisco-based fetish sex shop Mr. S Leather wearing collars, straps, neoprene, and bondage equipment, the newspaper said.

The images were available on the company’s website between 2011 and 2020, according to the NYP, with some showing Gallant fully nude and engaged in sex with another man. The period overlapped with Gallant’s service in the Army National Guard.

The photos are no longer available on the website, the NYP reported, but Gallant’s attorney Sara Azari confirmed that they are genuine. She added they had been taken during a “private, consensual photo session” with his then-partner, noting that Gallant was friends with the owner of Mr. S Leather and had agreed that selected images could be used in connection with the company’s products.

NY Dem House candidate modeled for XXX-rated BDSM ads while serving in National Guard https://t.co/WL9nGKKAlv pic.twitter.com/FEHrhMS15K

— New York Post (@nypost) September 13, 2026

According to Azari, Gallant later asked the company to remove the photographs as he began considering public office, and Mr. S Leather complied. Some images subsequently appeared on unaffiliated gay pornography sites, which she said fell outside Gallant’s original consent.

The lawyer went on to stress that Gallant “will not allow photographs from a past relationship or employment to be distorted and weaponized for political purposes or used to distract voters from the issues that matter.”

NYP: Democratic Candidate Once Modeled for Fetish Sex Shop

Chris Gallant, the Democratic nominee running against Long Island Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY) was previously involved in a very different kind of campaign: selling toys as a model for a fetish sex shop

“Gallant appeared in… pic.twitter.com/BMb7qbN54N

— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) September 14, 2026

Gallant, 37, won the Democratic primary in June with about 63% of the vote. His campaign has described him as a helicopter pilot, former FAA air traffic controller, and volunteer firefighter. Gallant says he has been openly gay in the military since shortly after the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 2011.

A similar controversy erupted in Virginia in 2023, when Democratic state House candidate Susanna Gibson was revealed to have livestreamed sex acts with her husband on Chaturbate while soliciting payments from viewers for specific acts. Rival Republicans later mailed voters sealed flyers marked “explicit” and “18+ only,” containing screenshots and quotes from Gibson’s videos, with the Democrat later narrowly losing the race.

US President Donald Trump has claimed to have brokered a deal whereby both Russia and Ukraine will refrain from targeting each other’s diesel-related infrastructure.

Trump, who demanded that Vladimir Zelensky stop targeting Russia’s diesel production facilities, claimed in a Truth Social media post that the fuel’s price spike was related to the Ukraine conflict and not the Middle East.

“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. “The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.”

The announcement follows Trump’s call on Zelensky on Sunday to stop targeting Russian diesel production, which he blamed for fuel shortages and rising prices worldwide.

Ukraine has been targeting oil refineries, storage facilities, and export infrastructure with long-range drone strikes deep in Russia. Kiev claims this campaign undermines Moscow’s military financing and sustainment, while the Kremlin has stressed that the strikes are targeting civilian infrastructure.
Russia has retaliated with massive drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s military-linked infrastructure and shipping facilities, effectively crippling the country’s main export route through its Black Sea ports. Moscow maintains that it never targets civilians.

Before the US and Israel attacked Iran in February, around a fifth of global energy supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran’s subsequent restrictions on commercial shipping, along with a US naval blockade, have disrupted flows through the key waterway.

The rise in diesel prices could have broader consequences for US consumers because it is widely used in agriculture and freight transport, including trucks and trains that carry food and other goods. Fuel is estimated to account for between 15% and 30% of food costs in the US, according to various estimates.

Sweden’s center-left bloc has increased its lead to three seats over right-wing ruling parties, with 95% of the ballots counted in Sunday’s general election.

The left-leaning opposition, led by the Social Democrats of former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, is ahead 176 to 173 over the center-right coalition, headed by the Moderates of current Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and their far-right partners, the Sweden Democrats, according to preliminary results published by the Swedish Election Authority on Monday.

Holding on to 175 out of 349 spots in the national parliament, the Riksdag, is enough for a majority and the ability to form a government.

This year’s election is the first in Sweden since it abandoned its longstanding policy of neutrality and joined NATO in 2024, citing security concerns due to the Ukraine conflict.

Before the 2022 vote, narrowly won by Kristersson and his allies, Andersson’s Social Democrats were seen as the main obstacle for the country becoming a member of the US-led military bloc.

Kristersson has been a staunch support of Ukraine, with Stockholm providing Kiev with almost $16 billion in military and other forms of assistance during his tenure.

Migrants are playing a crucial role in the 2026 election, with some 17% or 1.34 million eligible Swedish voters being born outside the country.

“If this result remains valid, Sweden will get a new government,” Andersson told her supporters late on Sunday.

Kristersson said he is “going to take it pretty easy” until the final results of the election are announced. The prime minister also didn’t rule out the possibility of trying to lure some of Andersson’s current allies, particularly the Center party, which has 25 seats, to his side to form an alternative coalition. If all of the parties stick to their red lines, “Sweden will not have a government,” he warned.

If the right-wing coalition “no longer has a majority, he will probably have to face the consequences of that,” he insisted.

The final results of the vote are scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, with some 200,000 votes, including those from overseas, yet to be counted. The Swedish parliament is set to gather in late September to elect a new speaker and then the prime minister.

A member of the British Armed Forces has died in Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defense has announced. In a statement on X, the ministry said that the serviceman was killed in a “road traffic incident” on Saturday.

The unnamed individual’s family has been informed and has requested a grace period before any further details are released, the ministry said.

British news outlets have reported that the death is not believed to have been the result of any hostile actions. It is currently unclear where the individual in question served or what their role was.

The incident marks the second time London has confirmed the death of one of its service members in Ukraine. A UK paratrooper was killed in December in what the British Defense Ministry described as a “tragic accident” during a test flight of a new Ukrainian drone.

Moscow has long rejected London’s portrayal of its role as limited to training and support, accusing Britain of direct involvement in Ukrainian military operations. Russian officials have claimed that UK specialists help Kiev plan attacks, operate sophisticated Western weapons, prepare sabotage missions, and coordinate drone strikes on Russia’s infrastructure.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in August that Britain’s involvement in missile strikes on Russia gave Moscow grounds to regard the UK as a party to the war, “with all ensuing consequences.”

Moscow has warned that British military personnel, equipment and facilities in Ukraine and beyond could be treated as legitimate targets if they are used for strikes on Russia.

A US Embassy staffer suspected of possessing child abuse images was secretly flown out of the UK before British police could question him, according to media reports.

The unnamed American employee, who was assigned to the US Embassy in London, was reportedly taken from his south London home by American officials on August 25 and flown to the United States. British media have described him as having diplomatic immunity, although his precise diplomatic status has not been officially disclosed.

The Sun, which first reported the case, claimed that members of a US team raided the man’s flat, took him to the RAF Fairford airbase and then flew him to the US aboard a cargo plane. Foreign officials have no general powers of arrest in Britain, and no formal extradition proceedings were initiated, according to the newspaper.

The US Embassy confirmed that the authorities were investigating allegations concerning someone assigned to the mission and said he had been reassigned to the US while the inquiry continued.

“The United States government expects all personnel to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, and we take these allegations seriously,” an embassy spokesperson said.

Accounts differ over whether British authorities were informed before the employee was removed. The embassy said it had “quickly informed UK law enforcement and took swift action,” while The Sun reported that the Metropolitan Police and other British authorities learned of the operation only after the man had been flown out of the country.

“We continue to liaise with them regarding this matter,” the force said. British officials are reportedly in contact with the US Embassy as the investigation continues.

“We expect all foreign diplomats in the UK to abide by our laws, in the same way we expect all UK diplomats to do so when posted overseas,” a British government spokesperson said, adding that it would be inappropriate to comment further while the US investigation was ongoing.

Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity at the time and returned to the US shortly after the crash. She later pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and received an eight-month suspended prison sentence but did not return to Britain for sentencing.

France has backed down in a diplomatic fight with the US, expressing regret for publicly questioning Washington’s commitment to human rights after the dispute threatened to derail Paris’ choice of ambassador.

The spat began in July, when France’s mission to the UN in Geneva attacked the US for joining Russia, North Korea and several other countries in voting against another term for Volker Turk, the Austrian diplomat who serves as the UN high commissioner for human rights.

“The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore,” the French mission wrote at the time, adding that “the world no longer listens to it.”

Washington responded angrily, with the US delegation demonstratively walking out while France was speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, and accusing Paris of “disingenuous grandstanding” and “condescending and disrespectful rhetoric.”

Reuters later reported that the Trump administration was also considering delaying or blocking French President Emmanuel Macron’s nominee for ambassador to Washington.

Two months later, Paris has changed its tune.

“The Permanent Mission of France to the UN in Geneva regrets the 25 July 2026 message posted on X that called into question the US commitment to human rights,” the mission said in a statement published on Friday.

The US State Department welcomed the statement, saying Washington “notes and appreciates” France’s position.

The episode comes after months of worsening relations between Paris and Washington. Macron has repeatedly questioned whether the US remains a reliable ally, warned other countries against becoming Washington’s “vassals,” and opposed the US-led war against Iran.

He has also clashed with the Trump administration over tariffs, NATO, online speech, and American sanctions on European officials, asserting that Washington’s unpredictable policies are forcing other countries to seek greater independence from the US.

Relations became particularly strained in February after Washington accused France of failing to confront “violent radical leftism” following the killing of a right-wing activist. Trump has also repeatedly accused European governments of freeloading on American security while restricting free speech and obstructing his foreign-policy agenda.

The third unit of India’s largest nuclear power plant, built to a Russian design, is “practically in the final stages of completion” and its physical startup is expected next spring, the CEO of Russia’s Rosatom has said.

Aleksey Likhachev said Russia has “supplied 99% of our equipment” for the unit. The Kudankulam plant in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu is a collaborative project between the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and Atomstroyexport, a unit of Rosatom.

Physical startup is a testing phase, when nuclear fuel is loaded into the reactor and it attains a self-sustained and controlled chain reaction before it can start full power generation.

The plant will have six units when completed. Russia supplies the critical nuclear components, design blueprints, and enriched uranium fuel for the plant, while Indian engineers carry out the construction alongside Russian advisers. The first two units were connected to the grid in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

The commissioning operations for the fourth unit will begin by the end of next year, Likhachev told RT on the sidelines of the just-concluded BRICS Summit in New Delhi. He added that commissioning operations for the fifth and sixth units will begin in 2028-2029.

The Russian CEO emphasized that such deep nuclear cooperation requires “a special relationship of trust between heads of state, between governments, and between peoples… it can only be developed by peoples who have been bound together by close ties for decades.” 

Bilateral nuclear cooperation was one of the key topics in the discussion between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

Russia holds a unique place in India’s defense relationship that cannot be replaced by another country, former BrahMos Aerospace CEO Sudhir Mishra has said, adding that New Delhi can further deepen cooperation with Moscow while maintaining partnerships with other countries.

India is already expanding defense technology cooperation with Russia while developing ties with the US and other Western nations, Mishra told RT India. He said New Delhi’s policy of multi-alignment allows it to work with different partners without diminishing its relationship with Moscow.

“We have a very special relationship with Russia and nobody can replace it,” Mishra said. “It’s just not possible for any country to replace [it].” 

Trust built through decades of scientific and technological cooperation has been central to the relationship, he said. BrahMos, jointly developed by India and Russia, is among the world’s fastest cruise missiles and has land, sea, and air variants. The missile was employed by Indian forces against Pakistani targets last year.

Mishra described joint ventures as “the way to go,” adding the BrahMos model gave India confidence to pursue the co-development of the AK-203 rifle.

India and Russia are also working together on technologies that feed into modern weapons development, rather than focusing only on finished systems, Mishra said, citing artificial intelligence, blockchain, precision manufacturing, advanced materials, and composites.

“We are working together with Russia to develop those technologies,” he said.

India’s drive for defense self-reliance has meanwhile expanded beyond DRDO to private companies and design bureaus within the country’s armed forces, Mishra noted.

South Africa wants to deepen trade and investment ties with India in critical minerals, green industrialization, infrastructure, agriculture and the digital economy, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.

Ramaphosa made the remarks after attending the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, where he stressed that South Africa’s membership of the grouping provided an important platform to build political and economic ties that benefit the country.

In his weekly letter to the nation, Ramaphosa said more than a fifth of South Africa’s trade was with BRICS countries and that the grouping remained an important forum for investment and trade. He added that South Africa had used the opportunity to strengthen business ties between the two countries.

Ramaphosa said the two countries held a South Africa-India CEOs Roundtable involving leaders from major Indian and South African companies. ”We highlighted various opportunities for investment and partnership in areas such as green industrialisation, critical minerals and beneficiation, infrastructure, agriculture and the digital economy.” 

He noted that Indian companies had welcomed the structural transformation taking place in South Africa, including reforms in the energy, logistics, telecommunications and water sectors, as well as changes involving visas and public digital infrastructure.

India’s strengths in pharmaceuticals and health technology could support South Africa’s ambition to expand local production of medicines and vaccines, while its expertise in information technology, financial technology and digital public infrastructure could also support the modernisation of South Africa’s systems and services, Ramaphosa said. At the same time, South Africa’s critical minerals could support India’s growing renewable energy, battery and automotive industries, the president stressed.

The group had expanded beyond the initial group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa following a decision taken at the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are now also members. Together, the countries account for around half of the world’s population and around a quarter of global trade, Ramaphosa stressed.

He said South Africa had deepened co-operation through BRICS in areas including science and technology, research, education and skills development. The country has also accessed development finance through the New Development Bank for major energy, water and transportation infrastructure investments.

”Looking ahead, our priority as South Africa is to continue to use our membership of BRICS to deepen bilateral co-operation and expand trade and investment ties,” Ramaphosa concluded.

First published by IOL

Several senior Israeli politicians have lashed out at the filmmakers behind a documentary accusing the IDF of using AI-assisted systems in the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar went so far as to accuse the two Oscar-winning directors of treachery and threatened to have them stripped of Israeli citizenship.

The controversy erupted after the 80-minute-long film NAZA – the name alludes to an Israeli military shorthand for expected “collateral casualties” – received a 25-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival last week and won the Special Jury Prize.

The film, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, is based on the accounts of anonymous Israeli military and intelligence insiders alleging that the IDF heavily relied on AI systems to identify people and homes for attack on a massive scale, often disregarding collateral civilian casualties. Some insiders described the process as “insanely fun” and akin to a “videogame.”

The film also caused a stir among senior Israeli officials. Zohar called the accolade “shocking,” accusing the directors of seeking to “harm their homeland just to get applause from anti-Semites around the world.”

“[This] is inconceivable and constitutes a betrayal of the state… As Minister of Culture, I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators,” he wrote on X on Sunday.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had attacked the documentary even before the award, calling it a “horrific blood libel” and saying it was particularly infuriating that the accusations had come from Israeli filmmakers. He also acknowledged civilian casualties in Gaza, but argued that “there is no magic button that can destroy Hamas, or any terrorist organization hiding behind” ordinary people.

Yesterday, a film accusing Israel of genocide premiered.

It’s a horrific blood libel against our sons and daughters. What makes it especially painful and infuriating is that this lie comes from Israeli filmmakers and is now being spread around the world.

Let’s get the facts…

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) September 11, 2026

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – widely regarded as one of the most hardline figures of Israel’s right-wing camp – called the directors a “disgrace,” suggesting Hamas would welcome them, while former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman branded the pair “enemies of Israel.”

Neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his office commented on the matter.

Despite Zohar’s threat, there is no precedent of Israeli filmmakers being stripped of citizenship for producing a critical documentary, while the minister himself does not have a mandate to take such a measure.

However, Israeli filmmakers have faced other legal consequences in the past over similar work. In 2022, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on screenings of the documentary Jenin, Jenin – a film by Palestinian-Israeli director Mohammad Bakri which portrayed alleged IDF abuses. The court ordered Bakri to pay around $57,000 in damages after he was sued for defamation.

In 2012, Haaretz journalist Uri Blau was sentenced to four months of community service for unauthorized possession of classified IDF documents used in reporting on targeted killings, even though his articles had passed military censorship. Meanwhile, his military source was sentenced to several years in prison.

Ebola infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) have topped 7,200, with nearly half of confirmed patients dying since the latest outbreak began, the country’s health authorities said on Monday.

The outbreak has claimed 3,475 lives, putting the overall case fatality rate at 48.3%. A total of 1,712 patients have recovered, while 923 remain in isolation or hospital care. Health officials said 88% of identified contacts are currently being monitored.

The virus has now been detected in 62 health zones across seven provinces. Ituri remains the main hotspot, followed by North Kivu. Sud-Ubangi is among the areas more recently affected.

The outbreak, which was declared in May, is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola and has become the largest recorded in DR Congo’s history, surpassing the country’s 2018-2020 epidemic. There are currently no approved vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugyo strain.

“These figures represent a positive signal. They show that the efforts deployed on the ground are producing results and that our response strategy is beginning to bend the transmission curve,” Kamba said. 

Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya told the New York Times that the agency has expanded its broader Ebola response plan from $518 million to $1.4 billion. In June, Kaseya said, however, that only 13% of roughly $910 million pledged by donors had actually been released, warning that the outbreak could not be stopped without sufficient funding and measures to address the humanitarian situation. Meanwhile, African countries had pledged $120 million toward the response, of which $90 million had already been disbursed.

The Libyan authorities have seized around 100,000 narcotic pills smuggled from Europe and shaped like the face of the North African nation’s ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi, a security agency in Tripoli has reported.

The Deterrence Agency for Combating Terrorism and Organized Crime identified the drugs as XTC, commonly known as ecstasy pills, in a statement issued on Saturday. Images published by the agency showed sacks of brown pills molded into Gaddafi’s head and shoulders, with his facial features and distinctive robes pressed into their surface.

The agency said investigators received information about a gang smuggling narcotics through a European country for distribution in Libya. Officers immediately began a “wide-ranging tracking operation,” following the shipment until it entered the country through a seaport. A search uncovered the pills “carefully concealed” inside a Renault Master cargo van, it added. The authority said the suspects had been referred to prosecutors but did not disclose their identities.

The country remains divided between political rivals, with the UN-recognized Government of National Unity in Tripoli and an eastern administration aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar.

The Libyan authorities have previously reported several major drug busts. Customs officers at Benghazi port seized more than 17.8 million Captagon tablets concealed in three containers of apples shipped from Syria in March 2024. Later that month, prosecutors announced the seizure of 128 kg of cocaine stored in two food warehouses in the eastern city of Al-Bayda.

A NATO fighter jet took flight after a flock of birds was confused with drones, the Lithuanian authorities have reported.

There have been a number of incidents of Ukrainian UAVs crossing the airspace of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia or crashing in those countries as Kiev has intensified its long-range attacks on energy infrastructure in Leningrad Region in northwestern Russia in recent months.

On Sunday, a perceived drone sighting caused the closure of Vilnius International Airport, the country’s National Crisis Management Center said in a statement later that day.

It was reopened within 40 minutes after a NATO jet, which had taken off from Siauliai airbase in the north of the country, found that the cause of the air alert was not a UAV, but a flock of birds, it said.

“On initial radar readings, marks left by birds and drones can be similar,” the statement read.

Flying a Eurofighter Typhoon jet for a single hour reportedly costs around $65,000.

Last month, NATO said that its warplanes shot down a drone over Latvia, claiming that it entered the Baltic nation’s airspace “as a result of Russian electronic warfare activities.”

Russia has accused Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia of playing with fire by allowing their territory to be used for hostile activity. Russian officials have warned that if the Baltic nations knowingly help facilitate Ukrainian drone strikes, Moscow would consider them complicit in the attacks and would have the right to self-defense under the UN Charter.

Earlier this month, the German government claimed it had grounds to believe that Russia was behind an incident in which an explosive-laden UAV was found between Ukrainian Antonov cargo planes at Leipzig/Halle Airport on August 4. Berlin hasn’t provided any proof linking the drone to Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin denied the German accusations, saying that they were being used to distract the public from domestic economic woes.

Moscow has said repeatedly that it harbors no aggressive designs against Europe, adding that a conflict with NATO is only possible if the Western bloc attacks Russia first or if its members deploy their forces to Ukraine.

Russia’s Rosatom is in “confidential talks” with Indian private companies on building nuclear power plants in India, CEO Aleksey Likhachev has said, without revealing the names of the players involved.

India is seeking to raise its nuclear generating capacity to 100 GW by 2047, from the current 8.87 GW, and has opened up the sector to greater private participation to meet the goal.

“Such negotiations with Indian companies are already underway,” Likhachev told RT on the sidelines of the recently concluded BRICS Summit in New Delhi. He added that the discussions remain confidential, but said Indian companies have capabilities in metallurgy, construction, and advanced digital technologies that could be used in large-scale nuclear power generation.

Some of those advanced capabilities were on display at the inaugural edition of the INNOPROM. India industrial fair in New Delhi last week, which brought together more than 120 Indian and Russian companies.

India will need to sharply increase the number of nuclear units it commissions to create the additional 90 GW capacity, the Rosatom CEO said, calling it a “massive challenge for the entire industry” and the Indian state.

Roughly half of the nuclear capacity currently under construction in India uses Russian technology, Likhachev noted, adding Rosatom is increasing localization of its nuclear technology under India’s Make-in-India program.

Russia is increasingly becoming a destination for young foreigners seeking to study, work, and build careers, participants at the International Youth Festival in Ekaterinburg, in Russia’s Urals Region, have said. Foreign doctors, artists, journalists and bloggers who have made the country their home shared their experiences as the global gathering got underway.

Some 10,000 young people representing 191 countries, including Russia, are taking part in the week-long event. Scientists, entrepreneurs, journalists, artists, athletes, and technology specialists are attending hundreds of discussions, workshops, cultural events, and professional exchanges.

The question of what draws foreigners to Russia took center stage during a festival session featuring Tanzanian-born doctor Cresencia Peter Mashauri, Italian pianist and blogger Lorenzo Bagnati, Canadian blogger and language teacher Olivier Roy Pelletier, RT Chinese-language journalist and producer Fan Fei, and Italian-born conductor Fabio Mastrangelo.

Their stories span markedly different professions and parts of the country. Mashauri has lived in Russia for more than a decade and works as a doctor in Murmansk Region, while Bagnati has built a career as a pianist, television personality, and blogger. Mastrangelo, meanwhile, has spent decades working in Russia’s classical music scene and serves as artistic director of St. Petersburg’s Shalyapin Musical Theater.

Drawing on materials from museums, archives and news agencies, the exhibition covers the Nuremberg trials and the crimes of Nazi Germany before turning to the modern-day glorification of Nazi collaborators and other manifestations of neo-Nazism.

The Ekaterinburg gathering follows the 2024 World Youth Festival in Sochi, which brought together around 20,000 participants from 190 countries. Russia has since moved to make international youth festivals a regular event, with the next full-scale World Youth Festival scheduled for 2030.

South Africa has extradited six Nigerians to the US suspected of being members of the Black Axe organized crime network, where they are wanted on wire fraud and money laundering charges, police said on Saturday.

The six men are accused of targeting more than 100 women in the US through online romance scams and defrauding them of more than 100 million rand ($5.8 million). According to South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, the alleged victims included pensioners and businesspeople who were drawn into online relationships before being persuaded to part with their money.

Mogale noted that romance scams are often carried out by individuals, but said that the suspects had turned the scheme into “an actual regular business.” 

The suspects were handed over to officials from the FBI and US Secret Service at Cape Town International Airport on Friday. They were transferred to the airport from a correctional facility in Cape Town with the assistance of Interpol South Africa before departing for the US on a 16-hour flight.

Political infighting in Kiev has intensified since corruption accusations compelled Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko to tender his resignation last week. The disgraced official, who left Ukraine overnight, has accused the graft investigators who took him down of pursuing a power grab.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Zelensky has finally asked the parliament to confirm Kravchenko’s resignation, submitting a formal request a week after the prosecutor general announced his decision. Zelensky signed a decree dismissing the prosecutor after the resignation was upheld by a parliamentary committee. A full-fledged vote on the matter is expected to be held in parliament on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian leader is suspected of striking a deal with his appointee, allowing him to leave the country in exchange for signing off on formal accusations that would allow his eventual successor to go after the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). The heads of the agencies, however, have denied receiving any formal documents, mocking them as a “Telegram notice of suspicion.”

Zelensky tried and failed to place the two Western-backed agencies under the prosecutor general’s office last year. The move was reversed within a few days after a wave of mass protests and threats by foreign donors to withhold aid.

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Ukraine has deployed military specialists to Mali to train and assist armed groups fighting government forces and Russian troops, CNN reported on Saturday, citing Ukrainian soldiers and a military intelligence source.

Around 15 Ukrainian drone operators are embedded with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a predominantly Tuareg separatist group in northern Mali, according to the US outlet. The personnel reportedly provide training, operational assistance, and remote guidance rather than participating directly in frontline fighting.

“I coordinate their operations remotely. The signal from their drone comes to me over the internet, and I immediately tell them via radio what to do and where to fly,” an unnamed Ukrainian operator told CNN.

Mali has battled an insurgency since 2012, which has now spread into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. France intervened in Mali in 2013 but withdrew its troops in 2022 after Bamako ended defense cooperation with its former colonial power. Mali has since turned to Moscow for security support, with Russia deploying troops under the Africa Corps to support counterterrorism efforts.

Mali and its Alliance of Sahel States (AES) allies, Burkina Faso and Niger, jointly accused Kiev of supporting terrorism in the region. The three West African nations filed a complaint against Ukraine with the UN Security Council in August 2024. Kiev denied involvement.

Moscow made similar allegations after the 2024 ambush. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Kiev of opening a “second front” in Africa by aiding terrorist groups in countries friendly to Russia.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) is launching its largest internal restructuring in at least a decade to focus on AI, China, and other pressing challenges, the Washington Post has reported, citing current and former officials.

The NSA director, General Joshua M. Rudd, wants five additional organizations to be created within the agency by mid-October, with the goal that they reach full operational capacity in early 2027, the paper reported on Monday. Besides artificial intelligence and countering Beijing, they will deal with cybersecurity, combat support or warfighting, and global intelligence, according to Washington Post sources.

The NSA is believed to be the largest US intelligence agency, reportedly employing some 30,000 people, both military and civilian, and specializing in digital espionage abroad and at home. It found itself in hot water in 2013 after whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked a massive trove of files to the media detailing the agency’s illicit surveillance of American citizens.

Rudd, who also heads the US Cyber Command within the Pentagon, believes that the “aggressive” overhaul is needed for the NSA to better suit its current and future priorities, officials said.

However, the director’s announcement that the heads of the five new departments could be selected from outside the agency is “unnerving NSA insiders,” they noted. It’s unclear if any appointments have been made so far, according to the sources.

The Washington Post noted that the previous major restructuring at the spy-service, known as “NSA 21,” which was initiated in 2016 under then-Director Mike Rogers, has not yet been completed, despite plans to roll it out in two years.

The overhaul comes as Washington increasingly treats competition with China in artificial intelligence as a national security issue. Last week, the NSA, FBI, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency accused six Chinese AI companies, including DeepSeek and Alibaba, of conducting “industrial-scale” efforts to extract capabilities from leading US models.

The US agencies acknowledged that the so-called ‘distillation’ technique is widely used in AI development, but claimed the Chinese firms had employed it to close the technology gap with their American competitors, while avoiding billions of dollars in research and computing costs. Beijing rejected the accusations as groundless and accused Washington of seeking a “monopoly of the AI industry,” warning of “resolute countermeasures” if Chinese companies are targeted.

The 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi took place at a moment when the group is clearly outgrowing its original format as a club of several major emerging economies and gradually becoming a platform capable of shaping debates over global trade, international finance and the political architecture of the world order.

The countries gathered around the same table have very different relations with the West, compete with one another in a number of areas and yet increasingly share an interest in expanding their strategic autonomy. For Russia, this is especially important, because BRICS gives Moscow an opportunity to deepen economic ties with the largest non-Western powers, develop settlement mechanisms less vulnerable to sanctions and demonstrate that attempts to politically isolate the country have not kept it from engaging in high-level international diplomacy.

It was against this backdrop that Russian President Vladimir Putin articulated Moscow’s interpretation of the changes now taking place in the global system, saying in New Delhi that the world is undergoing “profound, fundamental shifts” as new centers of economic growth increasingly replace the old ones.

According to the Russian president, BRICS countries have accounted for more than 40 percent of global GDP growth over the past five years, compared with around 29 percent for the G7, a trend Moscow sees as evidence that the redistribution of economic power is already taking place regardless of political declarations. Putin went further by describing BRICS as a “new and sustainable platform for global growth”, while stressing that the rules governing such a system should not be imposed on its participants from outside. For Russia, this principle is central to the entire concept of a multipolar order.

Only a few years ago, discussions about BRICS were often dominated by symbolism and general calls for reform of the global order, whereas the agenda today increasingly revolves around payment systems, national currencies, transport corridors, technology, the New Development Bank and more resilient industrial supply chains. Multipolarity is only strategically meaningful for Moscow when it is supported by practical alternatives in trade, finance, logistics and investment.

The most important bilateral meeting for Vladimir Putin in New Delhi was his discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which covered politics, trade, defense, energy, space cooperation, labor mobility and broader humanitarian ties. The two sides reaffirmed their intention to expand bilateral trade and retained the target of reaching $100 billion in turnover by 2030, while the first INNOPROM India exhibition, which took place in New Delhi right before the BRICS summit, provided an additional signal of the growing industrial dimension of the relationship. Putin and Modi visited the exhibition together, underlining both countries’ interest in moving beyond a model centred primarily on oil, arms and nuclear energy. For Moscow, the strategic objective is increasingly to broaden cooperation into manufacturing, technology, critical minerals and joint industrial projects.

Putin himself placed particular emphasis on this agenda during the BRICS Business Forum, saying that Russia remains open to cooperation with the wider world and is prepared to work with its partners to strengthen energy and food security. He also highlighted the importance of reliable transport routes, including the International North-South Transport Corridor and the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor, which reveals the practical side of Russia’s strategy. Moscow is not interested merely in selling more goods to India, but in building a transport and payment architecture in which Russian-Indian trade is less dependent on shipping routes, banks and intermediaries that may become subject to external political pressure.

The North-South Corridor links Russia with the Caspian region, Iran, the Indian Ocean and the Indian market, making it a physical expression of the multipolarity promoted by BRICS leaders. The more such routes exist alongside traditional Western-dominated channels, the less global trade depends on a limited number of financial and logistical centers. Russia’s growing focus on India is not an attempt to replace one external market with another, but a strategy of diversification in which economic relations are distributed among several major centers of power.

The New Delhi declaration supported the wider use of national currencies in trade and investment, greater interoperability between payment systems and a stronger role for the New Development Bank, while the idea of immediately creating a single BRICS currency remained outside the core agenda. The group’s members have very different economies and monetary systems, but nevertheless share an interest in ensuring that international trade is not dependent on a single financial channel.

For Russia, this issue has become particularly important following the unprecedented expansion of sanctions, because financial autonomy in Moscow is no longer treated as an abstract policy debate but as an element of national economic security.

Even before the summit, the Kremlin said that around 90 percent of Russia’s settlements with BRICS countries were already conducted in national currencies, while Dmitry Peskov stressed that Moscow was not pursuing “de-dollarization” as an end in itself but rather seeking a wider range of acceptable payment mechanisms. The idea is to ensure that access to international trade cannot be cut off by a single political decision.

Putin linked this argument to the wider problem of global economic competition, warning that it was increasingly taking “unseemly forms” through sanctions, restrictions and pressure on infrastructure. At the same time, he argued that economic rules within BRICS should reflect the national interests of its members and be driven by technology, investment and private initiative.

Russian interests shine in sideline diplomacy

The density of Vladimir Putin’s diplomatic contacts in New Delhi was no less revealing, because in addition to the main summit sessions he held a series of bilateral meetings with leaders from Asia and Africa. Following his talks with Modi, Putin met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and noted that relations between the two countries were “developing successfully,” pointing to sustained political dialogue, interparliamentary ties and cooperation in education. For Moscow, South Africa remains an important partner not only as one of Africa’s leading economies but also as a state through which Russia maintains a voice in the debate about the continent’s role in the emerging international system.

Putin also held separate talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, a meeting with clear strategic value as Moscow seeks to expand its presence in Southeast Asia and connect bilateral relations with ASEAN states to the broader BRICS framework. The Russian president also met New Development Bank President Dilma Rousseff, who described Russia’s participation as important for strengthening both the bank itself and the Global South, giving Moscow an opportunity to discuss its position within one of the group’s most important financial institutions. In addition, Putin met Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, further reinforcing Russia’s effort to deepen its political and economic engagement across Africa and illustrating just how geographically broad the BRICS diplomatic network has become.

It is also significant that Putin used the summit to advance the argument for reforming existing international institutions, calling for the broader representation of Asian, African and Latin American countries in the UN Security Council. The Russian president also spoke in favor of increasing the role of developing economies in the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, linking institutional reform to changes in the real balance of global economic power. In this area, Russia’s position overlaps directly with India’s long-standing demand that international institutions better reflect the demographic and economic realities of the 21st century.

BRICS is evolving from a slogan into a mechanism

One of the most important political results of the summit was the ability of the expanded BRICS to adopt a joint declaration despite serious internal differences and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Particularly striking was the fact that countries with sharply different regional interests were nevertheless able to endorse common language calling for restraint, diplomatic solutions and opposition to unilateral coercive measures. The very existence of such a consensus among states with such different foreign-policy orientations suggests that BRICS is beginning to function as a platform where disagreements do not disappear, but no longer automatically preclude cooperation.

Putin described the unipolar model of international relations as something that is gradually passing into history and argued that BRICS is already emerging as one of the centers of global governance. This assessment clearly reflects the Russian view of the international system, but it also rests on an objective foundation, because the expanded grouping represents an enormous share of the world’s population, controls major energy, industrial and raw material resources, and includes several of the fastest-growing large economies. The central question is no longer whether BRICS can symbolically demonstrate a changing global balance, but whether it can translate that weight into durable financial, transport, industrial and technological institutions.

Its idea is not that one center of global power will simply be replaced by another, because such a substitution would hardly make the international system more just. Instead, a new order is gradually emerging, in which states have more than one creditor, more than one payment mechanism, more than one transport corridor and more than one political platform capable of influencing global decisions. In this sense, BRICS is bringing the world closer to a new and fairer international order, not by dismantling existing institutions overnight but by gradually reducing the ability of any single group of countries to claim an exclusive right to set the rules for everyone else.

The New Delhi summit does not complete this transition and does not eliminate the many contradictions within BRICS itself, but it does show that multipolarity is beginning to move beyond political rhetoric.

Despite massive Western assistance, Ukraine is facing a severe cash squeeze almost unseen since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022. The immediate problem is a $27 billion hole in the defense budget that Kiev insists must be plugged.

Kiev’s plea for more money “surprised and unsettled” European officials, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources, with some of Ukraine’s backers said to be asking questions about whether the country is spending the available funds efficiently – or whether it is simply overstating its needs.

What is the problem with Ukraine’s budget?

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky publicly put a number on the problem as he met with his European backers in Kiev in late August. The Defense Ministry, he said, already used money that was originally allocated for the end of the year, leaving a $27 billion gap. The revelation also came on the heels of Zelensky’s ill-fated 40-day pressure campaign against Russia, which triggered an escalation that Kiev is still suffering from.

You could read a global outlook on the state of Ukraine’s economy here.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Sergey Koretsky acknowledged “exceptionally difficult challenges,” including the $27 billion defense hole and the risk of losing access to a significant share of a $29.5 billion tranche expected from Kiev’s backers, which is contingent on government reforms.

Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko said: “We already see some liquidity issues,” and Kiev “may have to postpone some payments not related to the war. There will be consequences.”

How has Kiev blown $20 billion more than expected?

Koretsky blamed much of the increase on the rising price of a technology-heavy war. Following Zelensky’s escalation, Russia intensified missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian defense industry, while Kiev has spent increasingly heavily on drones, air defenses, artillery, and military personnel.

A secondary issue is arising: Kiev failed to deliver promised reforms tied to Western financing that it had already counted on: oversight of state-owned companies, anti-corruption, and tax and customs reforms.

Earnings have also dropped. Ukraine collected around $38 billion in general-fund revenue (excluding grants) from January to August, but a significant part of the $740 million shortfall was accumulated in August. The weakness concentrated in key revenue sectors: domestic and import VAT, domestic excise duties, and profit transfers from state companies.

Daniil Getmantsev, the chairman of parliament’s Finance Committee, warned earlier this month that there are “no popular solutions left,” adding that the failure to fulfill international commitments could ultimately leave the government struggling in October to pay teachers, doctors, and, in the worst case, military personnel.

Is Zelensky personally to blame for the budget hole?

The Ukrainian leader has been apoplectic over crumbling party discipline and parliament’s inability to pass crucial legislation tied to Western financing.

While Zelensky cannot reliably command enough votes in parliament, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, the deputy chairman of the parliament’s Finance Committee, said lawmakers sounded the alarm about the defense budget long before the $27 billion hole became obvious.

He also accused Zelensky’s government of prioritizing politically attractive spending while leaving military financing unresolved and throwing money at a ‘television marathon’, cashback programs, and handouts. Zhelezniak stressed that Zelensky is accountable for budget issues and should take responsibility – instead of acknowledging the issue at the 11th hour.

How have Ukraine’s EU backers reacted?

The EU has attempted to downplay Ukraine’s pleas for more money – even refusing to acknowledge the $27 billion figure. After high-level talks on Monday, European Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said the first task at hand is to “get a clear picture of what the budgetary and financial situation is,” and that technical discussions with Ukraine and the IMF are required.

The EU also insisted that reforms cannot simply be skipped because Ukraine is short of cash. While some voices inside the EU have proposed advancing Kiev part of the ongoing €90 billion loan scheduled for 2027, even Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European integration, Vsevolod Chentsov, acknowledged that frontloading is “not a silver bullet.”

Are the EU and Kiev running out of options?

On Wednesday, over 100 MEPs circled back to the topic of frozen Russian assets, urging EU leaders to illegally seize $230 billion in the assets for Ukraine’s needs. This option, however, faces formidable resistance from Belgium, home to Euroclear, where the bulk of the assets are held, over committing what is typically regarded as an act of war, fears of Russian litigation, and wider financial and legal risks.

How ubiquitous is corruption in Ukraine under Zelensky?

While it is highly unlikely that corruption alone accounts for Ukraine’s $27 billion budget hole, it still saturates Ukrainian society and government.

The graft also fed into an ugly institutional war, in which the Prosecutor General’s Office allegedly gathered material on anti-corruption officials and their families, while anti-graft investigators uncovered an alleged protection racket for Ukraine’s sprawling scam-call-center industry inside the prosecutor’s office.

Bottom Line

While officials in Kiev claim that the $27 billion budget hole is due to rising military costs, stalled legislation, and delays in Western financing, they have not provided a detailed breakdown of how a deficit earlier estimated at $7.5 billion ballooned almost fourfold within several months – specifically during Zelensky’s 40-day military PR campaign that left Ukraine’s logistics chains broken, ports closed, grain stranded, and defenses weakened.

And the gargantuan hole is only half of the problem: It has clearly rattled Kiev Western backers, who are now once again unsure how Ukraine is spending money.

US President Donald Trump has claimed that Washington could either end its war with Iran or remain in the country and “keep the oil.” Trump has repeatedly threatened to take over the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure, prompting Iranian officials to describe the plan as delusional.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said the conflict, which has dragged on for more than six months, could end “right after” the November 3 midterm elections and claimed Iran “wants to make a deal so bad” and was “calling constantly.”

Iran has repeatedly dismissed claims it is seeking negotiations as “fabrications,” adding that Washington is mistaking diplomacy for “dictation.”

The comparison refers to the oil deal Washington struck with Caracas after US forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.

Trump has repeatedly floated an idea of establishing control over Iran’s oil flows. In late March, when asked whether Washington could take control of Iranian oil, he replied: “It’s an option.” In June, he went further, threatening to seize Kharg Island – a key hub handling about 90% of Tehran’s crude exports – and “assume total control” of Iran’s oil and gas markets.

At the time, Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, called Trump “delusional and confused” over the Kharg threat and warned that any move on Iranian territory would bring a response “recorded in history.”

Throughout the conflict, US media reported that Washington considered seizing Kharg Island, although Pentagon officials reportedly viewed the operation as exceptionally risky. Multiple media reports have also suggested that the US military was suffering from depleting stocks of air defense and cruise missiles – a claim Trump has denied.

The comments follow a new escalation in the conflict, with the US military claiming to have destroyed several Iranian oil tankers. Iran, in turn, retaliated by claiming attacks on ten vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, including two US Navy ships and eight tankers.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, who tendered his resignation last week over a major corruption scandal in his office, has announced formal accusations targeting Western-backed anti-graft agencies that exposed the wrongdoing.

The news marks another turn in Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s long-running feud with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which have targeted multiple figures in his inner circle since last November.

Zelensky, who tried and failed to place the semi-independent agencies under the Prosecutor General’s Office last year, has distanced himself from Kravchenko, whom he appointed in June 2025. The prosecutor general is currently out of the country.

Why did the prosecutor general resign?

Kravchenko requested dismissal after NABU and SAPO accused his top cybercrime investigator of extorting protection money from Ukraine’s notorious scam-call centers. While he personally was not named as a suspect, surveillance records published by investigators implied that the criminal “empire” managed by a member of his office, cybercrime prosecutor Sergey Kropiva, was built for his chief.

Kravchenko denied any wrongdoing. In a video statement released on Monday, he accused NABU and SAPO of forcing him out to shield their own personnel from prosecution. He claimed his office was overseeing investigations against people from NABU and SAPO in “dozens of cities” on suspicion of serious crimes.

What are the accusations?

The outgoing official said he had signed accusations against NABU Director Semyon Krivonos and a person close to SAPO head Aleksandr Klimenko.

Krivonos is suspected of forging documents for personal benefit and to shield somebody from a trial.

The person close to Klimenko – his wife Aleksandra, some Ukrainian sources said – was accused by Kravchenko of bribing judges serving in Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court.

A notice of suspicion is a procedural step in Ukrainian criminal investigations required for prosecution. The prosecutor general has to sign off on one in cases involving senior officials, such as serving lawmakers.

How did the investigators react?

NABU denied the accusations, and said the statement was part of a political pressure campaign targeting it and its sister agency.

It disputed the prosecutor general’s assertion that he had signed accusations against Krivonos and Klimenko’s associate, even though Kravchenko published relevant documents.

How did Zelensky react?

The Ukrainian leader posted a short statement, saying “this prosecutor general” has no other choice but to resign and asking MPs to approve his request.

“Ukraine knows the reasons. If he considers it political pressure, let him say so,” Zelensky said.

Is Kravchenko merely seeking personal revenge?

Ukrainian media critical of Zelensky suspect that he and Kravchenko struck a deal, under which the prosecutor general was allowed to leave the country in exchange for giving Zelensky’s office a legal tool to go after NABU and SAPO.

Are NABU and SAPO political players?

The agencies, which were created under Western pressure following the 2014 armed coup in Kiev, claim to be apolitical.

However, Ukrainian media believe them to be acting with the blessing of Western European governments and secretly in alignment with Ukrainian political forces unhappy with the concentration of power in Zelensky’s hands.

Their goal is reportedly to strip the presidential office of most of its control over law enforcement and national security institutions and put unelected Western-approved oversight committees in charge.

Who has Zelensky lost to corruption probes already?

Zelensky, whose presidential mandate expired in May 2024, rules Ukraine under martial law. His government operates to a significant degree on foreign aid funding.

Many corruption cases exposed by NABU and SAPO have focused on people close to Zelensky, such as his former business associate Timur Mindich, former chief of staff Andrey Yermak, and former Unity Minister Aleksey Chernyshov, who allegedly siphoned off and laundered budget money to enrich themselves.

How long did Kravchenko serve as prosecutor general?

Kravchenko is the fourth person to hold the job under Zelensky. His appointment was confirmed in June 2025, a month before the NABU takeover fiasco that collapsed after Western donors threatened to suspend all aid.

His predecessor, Andrey Kostin, held the position between 2022 and 2024 and currently serves as Kiev’s ambassador in the Netherlands and representative at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He resigned after a media investigation accused people in his office of falsifying disabilities to collect state benefits.

Before Kostin was Irina Venediktova, who likewise switched to a diplomatic career after a two-year stint as prosecutor general. She now represents Kiev in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Ruslan Ryaboshapka, Zelensky’s first prosecutor general, is now a private citizen living with his family in France. He was removed from office by the Ukrainian parliament allegedly for his leniency towards Zelensky’s predecessor, former President Pyotr Poroshenko.

A Panama-flagged oil tanker came under attack off the coast of Oman on Sunday, leaving one Indian and one Pakistani sailor missing.

The 23 other crew members aboard the ship, 13 Indians and ten Pakistanis, were rescued. Search-and-rescue operations for the missing sailors are continuing.

New Delhi condemned the attack on the MT El Gaia, calling the targeting of commercial shipping and seafarers “unacceptable.” The Indian Embassy in Oman is monitoring the situation and coordinating with Omani authorities, the Indian foreign ministry said.

At least 10 Indian seafarers have died in attacks on commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz amid the war in the Middle East triggered by US-Israeli attacks on Iran earlier this year. 

India condemns the attack on the commercial vessel MT EL Gaia off the coast of Oman.https://t.co/05yzQyon40 pic.twitter.com/PRrnmh1ycx

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) September 14, 2026

India also called for immediate de-escalation and a return to dialogue and diplomacy, and urged that safe navigation and commercial traffic through international waterways in the region be restored as soon as possible. 

It was not clear which ship the Iranian media was referring to. The US, which is blockading Iranian ports, has not commented on the attack.

The incident came days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised maritime security in his talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in New Delhi. Modi stressed the need to safeguard freedom of navigation and commerce and ensure the safety of seafarers.

Speaking at the BRICS Business Forum the same day, Modi said global trade could move forward only “if sea lanes are secure, supply routes remain open, and seafarers are safe.”

Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff Dan Halutz has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of concealing warnings ahead of the October 7 attack and laid ultimate responsibility for the deadly security failure on him.

Halutz was responding to a Haaretz report alleging that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed had warned Netanyahu about a major operation being planned by Hamas ten days before the incursion. Netanyahu reportedly downplayed the threat and did not alert Israel’s security chiefs.

Netanyahu’s office called the report an “absolute lie,” while the UAE neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.

In an interview aired by Israeli radio station 103FM on Sunday, Halutz said he believed the reported conversation had indeed occurred and claimed there were multiple indications that Netanyahu knew more than he disclosed.

“I don’t know how to get inside the mind of this psychopath. What goes through his head? Only he knows,” he added when asked why Netanyahu had allegedly failed to act.

According to Haaretz, Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet received a separate warning that then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was preparing an “earthquake” and a “terrifying operation,” and Netanyahu was briefed on it. During a subsequent security assessment, the agency warned that Israel was “on a collision course” and recommended either significant offensive action or stronger defenses around Gaza and the West Bank, but no decision was made.

“You can constantly level accusations at the supporting actors in the film. But in the end, if the film is bad, you blame the lead actor,” Halutz said.

The Hamas-led assault killed almost 1,200 people in Israel and triggered the war in Gaza, which has resulted in the death of more than 74,000 Palestinians.

The controversy comes ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October 27. The prime minister, who faces a strong challenge from former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, has described the Haaretz report as “politically motivated” and part of the “left’s election campaign.” 

Netanyahu claimed that a review by the National Security Council and his military secretary found no record of the purported call with the UAE leader, and instructed his lawyers to file a libel lawsuit against Haaretz and the journalists behind the report.

Newly declassified footage has revealed US troops operating deep inside Iran during an April mission to recover two American airmen whose F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down near Isfahan.

More than 90 US service members were ultimately deployed on the ground, while several hundred personnel were in the air and several thousand supported the operation, CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper told CBS’ 60 Minutes. He described them as the first acknowledged US “boots on the ground” in Iran in 46 years.

The two-seat F-15E, valued by CBS at about $30 million, was brought down on April 3 by an Iranian shoulder-fired missile costing roughly $100,000 while carrying out a strike on facilities linked to Tehran’s missile and drone programs south of Isfahan. Its crew, identified only by their mission call signs “Alpha” and “Bravo,” ejected and landed about five miles apart.

Alpha, the pilot, was recovered several hours later after the US sent 21 aircraft into Iran. American helicopters came under fire during the extraction, and one was hit by small-arms fire, wounding crew members. An A-10 involved in the search was also hit, forcing its pilot to eject after leaving Iranian airspace.

First on 60 Minutes: Newly declassified video shows the rescue of the U.S. Air Force pilot who was shot down over Iran in April. https://t.co/jGagMqLvCy pic.twitter.com/KxqUITvbAN

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 14, 2026

Bravo, the weapons systems officer, remained in Iran for roughly two days after suffering a broken back, arm and shoulder during his ejection. Iranian forces were searching for him as Washington mounted a much larger second extraction effort.

Newly released infrared footage shows US aircraft striking IRGC forces near Bravo’s position before two large special-operations transports landed on a makeshift strip inside Iran. MH-6 “Little Bird” helicopters were then deployed to retrieve him from mountainous terrain.

Newly declassified footage shows the events leading up to the rescue of Bravo, the U.S. Air Force officer who was shot down and survived behind enemy lines in Iran for two days. https://t.co/YUIzeTBpKt pic.twitter.com/0x2zDndgmC

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 14, 2026

Another declassified clip shows two US Air Force para-rescuers on the ground inside Iran approaching the wounded Bravo, grabbing him and taking him to an American helicopter.

First on 60 Minutes: Newly declassified video shows service members from U.S. Joint Special Operations Command rescuing Bravo, one of the two U.S. Air Force officers shot down over Iran in April. Bravo was stranded for two days – alone and badly wounded, behind enemy lines.… pic.twitter.com/jAfLa5tfL7

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 14, 2026

The operations involved an extraordinary amount of firepower. US forces fired or dropped 339 munitions inside Iran – 123 during the effort to recover Alpha and another 216 during the mission to extract Bravo, according to CBS. The Pentagon ultimately surged more than 150 aircraft for the second rescue alone, including 64 fighters, four bombers, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and 26 intelligence and electronic-warfare planes.

The newly declassified material provides the clearest official account yet of the scale of Washington’s April incursion, which had drawn comparisons with the failed 1980 Operation Eagle Claw, when a US attempt to rescue US Embassy hostages in Iran ended after mechanical failures and an aircraft collision killed eight US servicemen.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has imposed sanctions on his former press secretary, Yulia Mendel, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of his policies and accused Kiev of turning against its own citizens.

Mendel, who served as Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, has repeatedly spoken out against what she calls “Zelensky’s authoritarian rule.” In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson last May, she made a series of allegations against her former boss, accusing him of corruption, rampant drug use, and the obstruction of efforts to end the conflict with Russia.

Zelensky issued a decree on Sunday which slapped Mendel with personal restrictions including an asset freeze, a ban on transferring capital abroad, and other financial and commercial measures set to last ten years.

Mendel will also be stripped of state honors indefinitely and have her social media accounts restricted inside Ukraine. She was the only Ukrainian citizen among the ten sanctioned individuals.

“Watch what they’re doing. Zelenskyy isn’t just fighting the war – he’s fighting anyone who questions his version of it,” she wrote in a follow-up post addressing the restrictions on her social media profiles.

“A nation marketed as a beacon of democracy is sliding toward something colder: a wartime state that treats disagreement as disloyalty. No independent opinion. No free expression. No speech for Ukrainians who say they want peace,” she added.

Shortly afterward, the former press secretary was added to Ukraine’s state-linked Mirotvorets database for allegedly spreading “Russian propaganda narratives” and advocating Kiev’s “capitulation.”

The website is widely believed to cooperate with Ukrainian security services in publishing the personal data of people it identifies as state enemies, including Western journalists and children as young as three. When blacklisted figures are murdered or die for any reason, the database marks them as “liquidated,” reinforcing its reputation among critics as a “kill list.”

US President Donald Trump has brushed aside mounting warnings from leading artificial intelligence executives that increasingly powerful AI could pose an existential threat to humanity, insisting that Washington’s priority should be defeating China in the technological race.

Speaking to reporters in Ireland on Sunday, Trump acknowledged that some safeguards could be introduced but suggested the dangers were being exaggerated by unspecified “negative forces.”

“We’re leading China in AI, we’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly I want to keep it that way… Whoever wins AI wins,” he added, arguing that critics were raising scenarios that “won’t happen.”

’Just slow down yourselves’

Trump’s remarks came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for frontier AI development to be decelerated, warning that increasingly autonomous systems could soon improve their own capabilities, evade existing safeguards and unleash large-scale cyberattacks beyond human control.

White House AI adviser David Sacks responded by accusing OpenAI and Anthropic of being a “duopoly on frontier intelligence” and acting as though “antitrust law has to be suspended so you can form a cartel.”

“If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible,” Sacks wrote. “But stop pretending you need anyone else’s permission.”

China’s AI surge defies sanctions 

Sacks also questioned whether China would ever agree to a coordinated international slowdown – an issue increasingly central to Washington’s AI debate. 

A US congressional advisory body warned earlier this year that Chinese open-source AI was developing a “self-reinforcing competitive advantage,” with models from companies including Alibaba, Moonshot and MiniMax dominating usage rankings on platforms such as Hugging Face and OpenRouter.

Moonshot AI in July released Kimi K3, the world’s largest 2.8-trillion-parameter open-weight system, while Alibaba recently released Qwen3.8-Max with 2.4 trillion parameters. DeepSeek and other Chinese developers have also released increasingly capable models that can be downloaded, modified and deployed independently rather than accessed exclusively through proprietary Western platforms.

Rival AI orders

Addressing the BRICS summit in New Delhi this weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed establishing a BRICS AI open-source community, supporting joint development and deployment of large language models, providing specialized training, and building what he called an “open ecosystem for AI.”

Xi also invited BRICS members to participate in the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), a China-backed body established in Shanghai in July.

The initiative is emerging as a rival to Washington’s Pax Silica framework, which seeks to organize semiconductor, critical-mineral and AI supply chains among what the US describes as “trusted” partners. Washington is reportedly preparing to warn participating states that they may have to choose between the American-led system and Beijing’s WAICO.

Yemen’s Houthis have renewed their drive against Saudi-backed government troops, reporting advances on the cities of Taiz and Marib.

Over the course of the week, the group officially known as the Ansarallah movement seized large swaths of land along the country’s Western coast. The militants captured the strategic Red Sea ports of Mocha and Dhubab, as well as Mayyun (Perim) Island at the mouth of the narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Over the weekend, the group reported new advances into the city of Tayiz, which is now left in a narrow pocket extending into the Houthi-controlled territory. The group claimed to have seized several villages and key hilltops to the southwest of the city, which is now connected to the rest of government-controlled territory via a single highway.

🇾🇪🗺 Latest Map of the Military Situation in Taiz Front

🟡 Yemeni armed forces, with the support of popular committees, advanced on the western front of Taiz province and reached the important heights of Jabal Jardad and Jabal Habashi, liberating the heights of Al-Da'if, Bani… pic.twitter.com/buQApvrblU

— IWN (@A7_Mirza) September 13, 2026

The group has also reported heavy fighting near the city of Marib, located some 120 km to the east of the capital city of Sanaa, which it controls. Houthi-affiliated media reported government forces partially fleeing the city and the militants gaining ground on its western outskirts.

Simultaneously, the movement reported a sharp uptick in Saudi aerial bombardment, with over 100 strikes carried out over the weekend on the freshly captured areas. The Yemeni government described the bombings as “precision airstrikes on Houthi military vehicles and militants inside the designated Mocha kill box.”

Ansarallah also released a 40-minute documentary on the recent gains made on the western coast, featuring intensive combat in the mountains, ambushes on fleeing enemy troops, and lavish spoils taken by the group. The trophies include assorted armored and unarmored vehicles, ammunition, drones, and at least one US-made counter-artillery radar, the film shows.

The uptick in fighting has displaced more than 82,000 civilians in the areas affected by the hostilities, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday. Some refugees have braved the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, reaching Djibouti, according to the IOM. 

Yemen has remained locked in a civil war since 2014, which was further aggravated by a Saudi-led intervention in March 2015 intended to prevent a Houthi takeover and the fall of the internationally-recognized government. The group, however, has successfully resisted and remains in control of the northwestern part of the country, which houses the bulk of Yemen’s estimated population of 43 million. 

The Houthi-controlled areas are in a state of humanitarian crisis due to a naval blockade by Riyadh, suffering recurring famine and major disease outbreaks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the participants of the International Youth Festival as it got underway in the city of Ekaterinburg on Sunday.

In his video address, Putin noted that the Russian word ‘mir’ simultaneously stands for peace and accord, as well as the world and humanity as a whole. This linguistic overlap is key to understanding the unique “character of Russia’s multi-ethnic nation, our decisions and actions,” the president said.

“We want every person to remain human and for their fate to be determined by things other than nationality, a wallet packed with money, status, or background,” he stated, adding that Russia advocates equal access for every nation to medication, food, water, energy, and education opportunities, as well as the latest technology.

“If you share these aspirations, let’s change the world together,” Putin told the festival attendees.
Putin’s speech was greeted with an ovation from the participants, who had gathered at the Ekaterinburg-Expo International Exhibition Center.

The deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergey Kirienko, also spoke, saying that “we’ve got representatives from 191 countries here – we’ve practically got the whole world here.” The official emphasized that the festival attendees, including “young leaders in politics, business, science, [and] media,” are the ones who will shape the world in the coming years.

According to the event organizers, a total of 10,000 young people were invited to attend the gathering, which is being presented as a platform for international dialogue, cultural exchange, and joint discussion of global challenges.

Aside from representatives of former Soviet Republics, a considerable number of young people from China, India, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Argentina are among the attendees. More than 100 participants from Western nations, such as France, the UK, and Italy, also received invitations.

The International Youth Festival concludes on Thursday, September 17.

The Russian Defense Ministry has released a new video showcasing the light drone interceptor Yolka (Spruce), which is being used extensively in the Ukraine conflict.

Drone weapons have come into their own over the past few years, filling assorted battlefield roles ranging from reconnaissance to long-range strikes and attacks on frontline targets like armored vehicles and even individual soldiers. Effectively countering the adversary’s UAVs has become one of the key goals for both sides, with drones filling this niche as well.

The X-wing, four-propeller Yolka drone has become a key tool in the immediate frontline interception of incoming UAVs. The hand-launched device weighs less than 1.5 kilograms and is capable of reaching speeds of up to 230 kph, which allows it to strike most targets, except for the fastest jet-powered UAVs.

“The drone has proven its worth. Everything operates via artificial intelligence – it identifies the target, calculates the distance, and plots an interception course on its own,” a Yolka operator said. 

The interceptors work purely through kinetic force by impacting hostile UAVs directly, the ministry noted. Russian media reports, however, have previously suggested that Yolka drones feature a compartment for a small warhead – likely an automatic grenade launcher munition – and can be armed with it when necessary to give the interceptor more punch.

Ukrainian migrants must leave Germany, the co-leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, has said. She particularly singled out men of fighting age.

Kiev imposed a general mobilization shortly after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, barring most able-bodied men aged 22 to 60 from leaving the country. Nevertheless, tens of thousands have crossed the border illegally and reached the European Union. Germany has been the top destination for Ukrainian migrants within the bloc, taking in more than a million people, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

In an interview with Austrian right-wing media outlet AUF1 on Friday, Weidel spoke out against the prospect of naturalizing people “who actually ought to be sent back to their home countries,” including “more than one million Ukrainians here who are receiving the ‘citizen’s benefit’ [welfare payments].”

The AfD co-chair described the burden of continued state aid to Ukrainian migrants as “simply unsustainable,” insisting that they should return to their home country.

“Especially young Ukrainian men of military age – we are talking about hundreds of thousands of them – those young men really ought to go back,” the right-wing politician said.

In June, she similarly said that Kiev should pay reparations to Berlin for the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which the German authorities have blamed on a small group of rogue Ukrainian operatives.

Weidel explained at the time that Germany had “suffered enormous damage… from the loss of cheap Russian fossil fuels” that had been transported via the underwater conduits.

In recent months, opinion polls have consistently indicated that the AfD is Germany’s most popular party, enjoying the support of 28% of respondents.

Last Sunday, the right-wing party won a state election in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) finished second with just 17.2%.

Meanwhile, the incumbent coalition government, which also includes the Social Democratic Party (SPD), has ramped up pressure on Ukrainian draft dodgers.

In July, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced that Germany would stop granting automatic temporary protection to Ukrainians fleeing conscription.

Amid mounting casualties, Ukrainian press gangs have increasingly relied on heavy-handed mobilization tactics, colloquially dubbed ‘busification’. Men are being snatched off the streets, from workplaces and residential areas, as evidenced by hundreds of videos circulating online. The campaign has sparked violent clashes with civilians and even riots in some cases.

Moscow has accused the leadership in Kiev and its Western backers of being willing to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”

The range and volume of goods exported from India to Russia is expanding rapidly, with industrial products, pharmaceuticals, and IT solutions emerging as new areas of cooperation, according to Russian Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov.

The minister was part of a large Russian delegation that traveled to New Delhi alongside President Vladimir Putin for bilateral talks ahead of the BRICS summit.

In an exclusive interview with RT India, Reshetnikov outlined a series of measures the two countries are pursuing to diversify bilateral trade – which he acknowledged remains unbalanced – and take economic ties to a new level.

“Over the past five years, our trade volume has increased sevenfold, reaching 79 billion US dollars last year. And there is significant potential for further growth because, of course, a substantial proportion of resources is supplied from Russia to India. But Indian exports to Russia are also expanding in both volume and variety,” the minister said.

He noted that India is emerging as a producer of a wide range of engineering goods that are now entering the Russian market. “Indian industry is making significant progress and, as a result, products with great export potential are emerging.”

The minister also said a free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – comprising Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia – would give a further push to diversification. The pact is currently under negotiation.

To expand trade and business activity more broadly, Reshetnikov said the two countries also need to boost tourism and simplify visa rules. Commenting on the possibility of easing visas for Indian tourists, he noted that while Moscow had proposed one route, New Delhi had moved in a slightly different direction by introducing visa-free entry for certain categories. “Right now, we’re also looking into whether we’ll reduce or waive the fee,” he said.

He also stressed the need to improve connectivity between the two countries from the current 15 flights a week to hundreds, just as Russia has with the UAE and China. “We are very actively encouraging Indian airlines to come and start flying to Russia. There will be no problems with permits,” he added.

I’ll readily admit that I adore Sergey Lavrov. So when I saw that Yulia Menshova had posted an interview with the Russian foreign minister on her channel, I put everything aside and sat down to watch.

Minister Lavrov rarely gives personal interviews. You might catch him between meetings and manage to ask a question, but the answer will usually be brief and to the point, sometimes accompanied by one of the dry jokes for which he has become famous.

Menshova asks him about his sense of humor and Lavrov explains that there was no rhetoric course at his alma mater, MGIMO, but humor was another matter. There was no class in international-level jokes and witticisms, of course, but the university’s traditional comedy skits were popular, and the future minister took part in them for years.

He evidently learned something. Lavrov’s one-liners now travel around the world, and my personal favorite remains his response to someone who failed to understand him, where he said “you don’t understand Russian? High time to learn.”

Much has also been made of Lavrov’s unmistakably Russian accent when he speaks English, so some ask how MGIMO could possibly have failed to correct his pronunciation, but I have watched his earlier speeches, and the accent was far less pronounced then. It became stronger as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated, but I don’t think this was some deliberate attempt at provocation, rather, Lavrov increasingly sounded like exactly what he was, a Russian minister representing Russia.

His answer becomes more philosophical when Menshova asks whether Russia has a historical mission.

“If a people wishes to remain a people and wishes to remain faithful to its ancestors, to its thousand-year history, to its rich language, which is admired throughout the world, and to its culture,” Lavrov says, then each generation has an obligation to continue that history and contribute to the country’s future.

“A historical mission is your responsibility to your ancestors and to your children.”

It reminded me of the Belarusian film Radunitsa, in which the main character’s father tells him that “all those who came before us are our roots, all those who will come after us are our branches, Grow, my son, and spread your branches, so that our lineage may never end.”

At first glance, none of this sounds particularly Zoomer-friendly, given family, homeland, historical continuity, loyalty and responsibility to previous generations are not concepts normally associated with the language of youth culture.

Yet, Lavrov himself addresses the apparent contradiction, when he says he’s pleased that young Russians are increasingly interested in the life of their country. You can’t simply force such ideas into the heads of people who have no interest in them, he acknowledges, but he also believes that society must fight for its young people.

He admits, quite cheerfully, that he likes being lazy. Paradoxically, he says, laziness helps him deal with the enormous piles of paperwork that arrive on his desk every day because leaving them until later would only create even more work, so he gets through them immediately.

He reads contemporary Russian writers. Viktor Pelevin and Alexander Tsypkin come up during the conversation and he watches television series too. Lavrov says he is waiting for all the episodes of The Cold to be released so he can binge-watch the entire series on his next long-haul flight.

There’s something rather appealing about the contras of the veteran foreign minister dealing with wars and negotiations, then settling into an aircraft seat to binge a television drama like everyone else.

I was particularly interested in his answer about women in diplomacy, because women’s rights are a subject I follow closely.

Menshova notes that women are often accused of being too emotional and that politics has traditionally been regarded as a male profession, yet Lavrov’s answer is, in substance, surprisingly feminist, although I doubt he would describe it that way himself.

“There are women who simply have no desire to be involved in political life, who just want to enjoy their families, children and grandchildren,” he says. “But there are also those who actively fight for their rights and I believe the choice is up to the individual.”

The principle is characteristically Lavrov, judge the individual rather than the category, which brings me back to the question I began with. Why do Zoomers adore Sergey Lavrov?

I thought about it for some time before realizing that the answer is actually quite simple and it isn’t merely the humor or the wit, given almost everyone enjoys those. Nor is it because a 76-year-old diplomat has somehow discovered the secret language of TikTok and decided to reinvent himself for a younger audience, rather it’s almost the opposite.

Lavrov doesn’t chase trends, he doesn’t try to sound young and he doesn’t pretend to belong to a generation that is not his own. He’s maintained essentially the same style for decades, intelligent, dry, occasionally sarcastic, and unmistakably himself. Somehow that style has come back into fashion.

Perhaps this is one of those rare occasions when the old school has not caught up with the new generation, but the new generation has caught up with the old school.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team 

US President Donald Trump has blamed Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky for the ongoing diesel price shock, saying it was a result of Kiev’s attacks on Russian refineries.

The national average price of diesel hit more than $6 per gallon on Friday, up from approximately $5.85 last week. The price has climbed some 60% compared to the same period last year, when diesel fuel cost some $3.71 per gallon. Market experts have mainly linked the hike to the conflict in the Middle East and the reignited hostilities between the US and Iran, which have prompted a renewed rise in crude oil prices.

Trump, however, insisted that this was not the case, telling reporters while on a visit to Ireland that the diesel price spike was actually related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The US president said he had already raised the issue with the Ukrainian leader and told him to stop attacking diesel production in Russia.

“Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel,” Trump asserted, adding that “this isn’t done by the Middle East.”

“There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting the world,” Trump added.

To battle the shortages, the Russian government introduced a temporary ban on exporting gasoline and diesel, as well as other petroleum products. The diesel exports ban was first introduced early this year and extended to gasoline producers in July. The diesel ban is currently in effect until the end of September, yet it is likely to be extended further.

Diesel fuel has been more expensive in the US than gasoline for decades and has previously shown tendencies to rise in price at a faster pace. It is integral to the food supply chain, since it is used to power agricultural machines as well as the cargo trucks and trains which deliver the produce. The cost of fuel accounts for between 15% and 30% of the total cost of food in the US, according to various estimates, and the ongoing hike is bound to affect consumer prices.

European NATO members are seeking to push Russia out of Arctic cooperation arrangements while integrating the region into its military strategy, Irina Strelnikova, Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Arctic Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, has said.

In an interview with RT, Strelnikova weighed in on the European Arctic Summit that opened in Finland on Sunday and is being attended by leaders from Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and France – all NATO members – alongside several senior EU officials, including foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

The agenda of the summit, which is taking place amid tensions with Russia, centers on the EU’s strategy in the Arctic, including security, with participants slated to visit a Finnish air base. The summit has no connection to the Arctic Council, a separate cooperation platform comprising Russia, the US, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

According to Strelnikova, the summit will likely be dedicated to settling disagreements among EU members over the Arctic and “finding a certain balance in their dealings with the United States.” Earlier this year, President Donald Trump pressed for the acquisition of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

“Now the narrative is changing significantly. Climate, science, and cooperation have effectively been pushed down to the fourth tier of priorities. Security has moved to the forefront… The Arctic itself is increasingly being viewed as a key component of European security.”

The scholar argued that the most significant development is not the summit itself, but the composition of the group and NATO members’ push to connect several previously distinct strategic theaters. “The countries represented there effectively form a single line stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea,” Strelnikova said. “They no longer view the Arctic in isolation. Instead, they are beginning… to link Arctic issues with the Baltic and Black Sea regions.”

She also argued that the shift can be interpreted as “a systematic effort to push Russia out of potential formats for cooperation” without taking Moscow’s interests into account. “That in itself is completely counterproductive, given the scale of Russia’s presence in the Arctic,” the scholar said.

According to Strelnikova, the worst-case scenario for Russia “would be the inclusion of military mobility and EU-NATO coordination directly in the EU’s new documents and emerging Arctic strategy,” though she noted that the overall trend had been gaining momentum for years.

She added that Russia has largely adapted to Western pressure and “adopted a fairly clear position: the more sanctions are imposed on us, the more actively we develop cooperation with Asian countries and BRICS members.”

Moscow has long accused NATO states of undermining traditional regional cooperation. In late August, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed the US-led bloc over driving the Arctic toward militarization and argued that Western members had left the Arctic Council in a severe crisis after curtailing cooperation with Russia following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

International interest in BRICS “continues to grow” as the group’s values and independent approach attract countries around the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

Speaking at a BRICS Outreach/BRICS Plus session that concluded its 18th summit in New Delhi, Putin pointed to the broad participation in the meeting as evidence of its growing appeal.

“Our basic values and ideals, such as commitment to an independent and autonomous course and the desire to resolve problems collectively based on international law and the key provisions of the UN Charter, appeal to many around the world,” he said.

BRICS has expanded significantly beyond its original five members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – in recent years and introduced a partner-country category for states seeking closer cooperation without full membership.

Putin described the organization as “one of the powerful driving forces” behind strengthening “genuine multilateralism” and forming a “new, fairer multipolar world order.”

“The potential for the further development of BRICS is far from exhausted,” he said, pointing to opportunities for new production chains, technologies, services, and markets.

BRICS countries have also developed their own channels for moving goods, services, and capital, allowing financial and commercial operations to be conducted “without paying attention to external pressure,” Putin said.

He urged participants to consider Russian proposals for “building BRICS payment and settlement-depository infrastructure,” as well as establishing a reinsurance mechanism and a grain exchange.

Practical steps have already been taken. On the eve of the summit, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, BRICS Pay and BRICS Pay India agreed to explore integrating the payment platform with India’s existing infrastructure and to prepare pilot cross-border payment projects.

Trilateral talks between Russian, Ukrainian, and US representatives could begin in October, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the official stated that Moscow “does not rule out such a possibility.”

“We’re specifically talking about the foreseeable future. That is, presumably of course, October,” Peskov clarified.

Earlier this week, the Kremlin spokesman stated that Moscow hopes “for a restart of negotiations between three parties – Russia, Ukraine, and America.”

The trilateral format was last used in Geneva in February, following two earlier rounds in Abu Dhabi. However, the talks later stalled without any significant breakthroughs, as the US shifted its focus to its war against Iran.

The Kremlin described the discussions with the US negotiators as constructive and “extremely candid,” while Witkoff said that progress had been made toward scheduling a three-way meeting. The potential resumption of talks in this format was also among the topics Putin and Trump discussed by phone on Tuesday, according to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov.

At around the same time, Zelensky suggested that the next round of trilateral negotiations could take place in the UAE, Türkiye, Switzerland, or another country as early as September or October.

Moscow has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy, as long as the root causes of the conflict are addressed and the new realities on the ground are respected. Ukraine has in turn ruled out making territorial concessions to Russia.

Bison and Hurricanes are normal names for American football teams. How about the Litwins, though? Well, it’s normal if you happen to be in Belarus and in love with the real form of football. This July, the Litwins were crowned league champions after slaughtering the Bison 42-0 in the American Football League 9 Final. But just how is such a foreign sport surviving in a country that most Americans couldn’t find on a map?

Goodbye Lenin, Hello Uncle Sam

The country’s leading club, the Minsk Zubrs (Bison), were formed in 1991 and initially had to rely on competition outside the country. They became three-time champions of the CIS nations, champions of Ukraine, Baltic champions, and, finally, properly Belarusian champs having faced Belarusian opposition. The founders, who all came from other sports, formed a vibrant community in the Belarusian capital, proselytizing to show the newly independent nation that there was, according to an early recruiting slogan, a “better form of football.” 

“It is hard for clubs,” Yevhen told me over a coffee in downtown Minsk. “The costs to play are a lot and we don’t [have] reserves of players.”

Yevhen has played for the Zubrs, having previously had a decent career at the national level in track and field.

“I got to play because, you know, you finish one sport, then just the gym is left, but still want to compete and one [colleague] invited me. It was difficult because it was expensive and not so many games.”

Lack of game time was mentioned by everyone that I spoke with in Belarus. As one player joked, “It’s like preparing for your wedding every day, but never getting married.”

Making a ‘wedding’ more difficult is the divorce of Belarusian football from international competition. The Baltic states, especially Lithuania, vehemently refuse to even contemplate interaction with local teams, while playing with Ukrainian clubs is not on the horizon for now. 

Growing pains

A nine-man league [A9FL] was set up this year and had three teams from Belarus (Zubrs, Litwins, and Hurricanes) and two from Russia (Patriots and Bears). Set up to succeed, it streamed online and got decent coverage in the national media, but an incident from the Hurricanes-Litwins playoff semifinal game precipitated a very public falling out amongst the Belarusian clubs.

The Litwins won the game and proceed to face the Zubrs in the final, but two Hurricanes had been ejected in the game. The A9FL management called for a meeting of team heads to decide if those ejections were legitimate, to the ire of the finalists, who decided to unilaterally play the final. The Moscow Bears, upon hearing the news, promptly withdrew from the league, leaving the competition with an uncertain future.

‘Something to believe in’

On Christmas Day 2024, while down in Minsk for a shoot, I found myself at a loose end and ended up, surprisingly, in an Irish pub. Having a burger and beer, I found myself watching the Chiefs punish the Steelers, with a dozen American football fans, all locals. None ever played the game, but all had recently become Chiefs fans. One, happily inebriated 30-something ex-army officer named Sergey, told me, “I love Mahomes.” I kind of got that, as he was wearing a Chiefs shirt with Mahomes across the shoulders. “We come here and everything stops,” he grinned.

Another of the Chiefs cheerleaders, a stocky policeman whose name I never got, was totally unaware that there were teams playing in Belarus. “They’re probably sh*t!” he said with great gusto. There are lots of locals who love American football; they just don’t engage with the local version.

That’s what Pasha, an IT specialist who moved back from Germany in 2018 to found a start-up company, told me.

“In Germany, where I lived [Frankfurt], there was an active [football] community and leagues. Europe has a lot of Americans who join in and coach. But here, we have to do our best. For those of us who lived outside and felt it, it gives us something to believe in and that we’re part of a big world. And those who love the game but don’t involve with us, it’s their loss.”

Since becoming a father, Pasha has become a spectator but is hopeful for the game’s future in his homeland. “I want my boys to play the game, but we have to have kids sections first.”

That is a major failing in the local game. They have relied on luring in enthusiasts from other sports, or international students, or the occasional American, to fill out their ranks.

Tatyana, a 26-year-old beautician whose husband has played for three different clubs in Belarus, told me that it’s not easy for them [clubs], but that they are what sport is about. 

A very different game day

This May, on a warm Sunday afternoon, I was passing through Minsk and decided to take in the Hurricanes-Patriots game. The visitors from Moscow had a couple of familiar faces, ones I knew from playing rugby in Russia. On the go since 1999, they have been champions of Russia on at least 15 occasions and comport themselves like professionals.

There wasn’t the pageantry or excitement I saw, for example, in regional league football in Germany. Back in 1999, I went to see my home team the Marburg Mercenaries host the Straubing Spiders on a similar May day and there were cheerleaders, hotdogs, cold beer, and even fan engagement activities being run to recruit kids to the academy. The game in Minsk was more barebones, with the action on the field more important than the fan experience.

Despite being formed just last year, the Hurricanes put on a show to thrill a decent home crowd, blowing away the Russians in 66-36. I asked some of the spectators what they thought.

“It’s my first game live and I loved it. It makes [association] football look like little girls playing,” said Galina, a language student who was going to the US on an exchange program this past summer.

“My boyfriend is playing and I didn’t want to come to watch, I’m glad I did,” beamed Maria, whose beau caught a TD pass.

Speaking with some of the visiting players afterwards, I asked how difficult it’s been for them since 2022. Yuri, a versatility player who can play both ways, laughed and said that the game is what keeps him going some days.

“I played rugby and loved it. Then I moved [to Moscow from Siberia] and I joined the Patriots. That’s what, since 2018. It’s become like life. We meet on weekends to watch college ball or NFL, and we all like different teams and it’s very [democratic].”

Hands across the ocean?

Remember in the first Mighty Ducks movie, where Gordon Bombay’s players were all wearing cast-off gear or worn out kit, basically ‘Ragball Rovers’, as we’d say back in Ireland? I had a little feeling of that watching some of the games this season.

Not as bad as ‘The Waterboy’, where jockstraps were passed between players coming off and on the field – almost everyone had their own helmet, or an individual one – but there was a definite lack of some equipment, which hasn’t been helped by Belarus’ recent isolation.

“It’s a costly pastime,” Grigory laughed as we took a stroll in Gorky Park, the Minsk version. He was pushing a stroller with his nine-month old draining a bottle of formula and oblivious to our sports talk. “My wife said me, you have now a baby [their third], you can’t miss work with injury and then pay for all things.”

The graphic designer, who played two seasons, broke his right wrist, toes on both feet, dislocated his shoulder, and suffered two concussions. I should add he was a cornerback and safety.

“I miss it and the team, but not being injured,” he smiled and reminded me that he’d also broken “many” fingers. In his earlier sports life, he had played professional basketball.

One of the minds behind the new A9FL league said that with the increased discourse between Belarus and the US, there might be a chance of links with “even high schools.” He said that in the past kit had been donated via Christian charities to teams in Belarus, and hoped that John Coale will work some magic there. Coale is the US special envoy to Belarus who has been instrumental in re-opening channels between Washington and Minsk.

But even if the thaw continues between Belarus and the US, can an amalgamated team from the nation return to European competition, now that there is a boom time for top level leagues on the continent?

Europe’s ‘bright’ future

The game in Europe has never been more popular, or fractured, than right now. The European League of Football (ELF), which began play in 2021, was gathering momentum until it wasn't, and infighting saw teams breakaway after the 2025 season and form not one, but two new leagues. Both began play in 2026.

On September 6, the AFLE’s ‘Gold Bowl’ was ‘contested’ by the Vienna Vikings of Austria and Panthers Wroclaw of Poland. I say ‘contested’ as the Vikings, who finished the regular season 11-1 and averaging a respectable 5,278 fans, skewered the Poles 68-5. It was a fitting end to a confusing first season. As good as Vienna were, at the opposite end of the eight-team scale, Italy’s hapless Firenze Lions went winless through 12 games, drawing an average of…67 fans. Yes, you read that right. Numbers that even the original version of Vince McMahon’s XFL would be unable to put a positive spin on.

Rival league, the EFA, wrapped their season up with Denmark’s Nordic Storm overpowering Germany’s Munich Ravens 48-28 in the EFA Championship Game. A little more polished, also with local TV deals, broadcasts on YouTube, bigger sponsors, and just six teams, the EFA leaned into legacy by bringing in recognized names from the US. Former NFL Coach of the Year Jack Del Rio and ex-Carolina Panthers and Oakland Raiders coach John Shoop, both laid down markers in leading the Paris Musketeers and Nordic Storm to the playoffs. And investment in coaches and players showed in ticket sales with the Frankfurt Galaxy (4-6) averaging 5,197 fans and bottom feeders Prague Lions (2-8) still drawing 1,185.

Attempts to harmonize the two top leagues in Europe, and even re-unite the EFA with the ELF, have so far failed with both active leagues planning solo expansion in 2027. Neither outfit is interested in taking teams from Russia or Belarus.

Former ELF chief  Ingo Schiller told Capital Sports, in 2021, that having teams from the former Soviet Union, meaning the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, would only be a “positive” for American football in Europe. However, both the AFLE and EFA categorically ruled out accepting any teams from the five nations, with an AFLE executive, who didn’t wish to be named, telling the writer that “the league’s American owners would be happy enough, but could you just imagine the idiots protesting if Minsk or Moscow came to play in Poland or Germany?”

When I joked that Belarusian newcomers the Hurricanes were drawing more than 67 fans to games, the executive laughed and said “Europe is not in a good place right now.”

The A9FL offers much needed hope. If they continue play in 2027, holding onto the four existing teams and adding one or two new ones, sponsors and media attention will continue. 

Ex-Zubrs player Yevhen is confident that the league will continue, “It got the attention of the media, even the national sports channel [Belarus 5] and the club will have more players because of it. You can’t just train and train without a chance of playing.”

A sports journalist with Belarus 5 was keen to point out that not being just a local league means something. “In the KHL [Kontinental Hockey League], the interest is high because Dinamo Minsk play Russia, Kazakhstan, it’s national pride. And American football is too. If they are beating Russian clubs, then we Belarusians are proud.”

Keeping the sport alive is enough to be proud of. However, if they manage to keep the current A9FL going for another couple of seasons and start to set up youth structures, it will revive the game in the Belarusian provinces and create a sustainable ecosystem.

So who knows, maybe an NCAA college team or two will find a nugget in Belarus, or one of the top European leagues will invite a franchise from the country to take part. No matter what, the games in Minsk will definitely, beyond the shadow of a doubt, average more than 67 fans per game.

OpenAI chief Sam Altman and xAI owner Elon Musk have backed calls to immediately slow the development of increasingly powerful AI models. Their statements came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI could outpace human control and cause catastrophic damage within months.

Four days ago, researcher Jacob Coxon publicly resigned from Anthropic, accusing both the company and his previous employer, OpenAI, of racing towards self-improving super-intelligence without “acting responsibly.” He also claimed that the technology could “kill us all” by the end of the decade.

In a 3,800-word essay published on his personal website on Saturday, Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic with his sister Daniela in 2021, outlined “serious” dangers, including loss of control over AI systems, their misuse for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and major economic disruption. He said commercial competition could fuel a “race to the bottom” and exacerbate the threats.

“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain,” Amodei wrote.

Musk, whose xAI is among the companies competing to develop increasingly advanced models, endorsed the call on X. “Dario is right,” he wrote, adding that he had been “sounding the alarm on AI for a long time.”

Amodei said the technology was advancing “drastically faster,” partly because of its growing ability to help build the next generation of models. Citing an incident in which OpenAI agents reportedly escaped a confined testing environment, he said that within six to 12 months a more capable swarm could “take over the entire internet” and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.

He proposed a three-step plan that he said could temper development without “sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States’ lead in AI.” The measures include giving outside evaluators deep access to developers’ systems, establishing common industry safety standards, and pursuing international coordination.

Anthropic was the first frontier AI company to deploy its technology on classified US government networks. Its Claude model was integrated into Palantir’s Maven system and reportedly helped generate, locate, and prioritize targets during the US bombing campaign against Iran. It was also reportedly used in the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Anthropic later refused to lift safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, arguing that current models remained too unreliable to make life-or-death decisions without human involvement.

The Pentagon insisted that providers must allow their technology to be used for “all lawful purposes” and subsequently designated Anthropic a national security supply chain risk. The company challenged the decision, with a California judge ruling in August that the department’s measures were “illegal and baseless,” although separate proceedings in Washington remain unresolved.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp has opposed calls to pause AI development, arguing that slowing progress would benefit US “adversaries.”

Russian forces have struck logistics and energy facilities supporting Ukraine’s army, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, adding that some attacks hit railroads used to bring military cargo from the EU.

In a statement on Sunday, the ministry said that a group strike involving high-precision weapons and drones attacked “logistics centers through which military cargo is supplied and distributed.” Among the targets was a Nova Poshta logistics center in Odessa Region used for military purposes and two power substations in Odessa and Nikolaev regions that supported local port logistics.

The ministry added that railway facilities in western Ukraine were also struck, noting that they were used as routes to move military cargo from European countries.

Ukrainian officials claimed that the overnight raid involved more than 450 drones across the country.

Odessa Region Governor Oleg Kiper confirmed the barrage, saying that it had damaged warehouses, as well as a residential building and several private homes, with fires breaking out at several locations. He said preliminary information indicated no casualties.

Footage on social media, meanwhile, showed what was described as a massive fire at the Nova Poshta warehouse.

The new barrage comes as Ukraine has intensified long-range drone strikes deep inside Russia, targeting critical infrastructure, oil refineries, and civilian facilities, including e-retail warehouses. Moscow has retaliated by attacking Ukraine’s defense industry and military-related facilities, and maintains that it never targets civilians.

The territorial dispute between Moscow and Kiev remains the main obstacle to ending the Ukraine conflict, Jared Kushner, US special envoy and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has said. His comments came after he and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow and Kiev for high-level talks on ending hostilities.

Speaking via video link at the annual YES 2026 conference in Kiev on Friday, Kushner said that Moscow “wants to discuss a way to resolve” the conflict, but “the hardest issue is still territory,” partly because the question is to a degree dictated by a battlefield situation that remains highly dynamic.

“Seeing the advancement in the technology and the way that the battlefield has happened is, I think, beyond the expectation of both sides. And I think one thing I’ve learned in politics is [that] any expert you talk to will give you a ton of ideas, but nobody has any idea what’s actually going to happen,” Kushner said.

Once the territorial question is resolved, Kushner said, that framework could provide “a real mechanism both to enforce it, protect it and oversee it.”

He stressed that much of the rest of a potential deal could fall into place if Moscow and Kiev overcome the territorial dispute. “I think the sides feel good about” the arrangement, he added. “And that’s actually real progress in that regard.”

Kushner and Witkoff travelled to Moscow earlier this month, where they held more than three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin before heading to Kiev.

Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov described the Moscow meeting as “substantive, constructive and extremely candid,” saying Putin stressed Russia’s battlefield gains and the need to address the conflict’s root causes.

Following the talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow hopes trilateral negotiations with Washington and Kiev can resume in the “foreseeable future,” with Ushakov naming Abu Dhabi as Russia’s preferred venue.

Moscow has long insisted that a sustainable settlement is possible only if Kiev recognizes the “new territorial realities,” as well as commits to neutrality, demilitarization and denazification. As Russian forces are making progress on the battlefield, Kiev still clings to less than 15% of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

This week, Algeria made an unexpected announcement that it was severing diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and given 48 hours to leave. In an official statement, Algerian authorities accused Abu Dhabi of increasingly frequent “provocative and hostile actions,” noting that all “efforts to preserve bilateral ties had been exhausted.” However, no specific incident that could have triggered this decision was cited. 

The first practical consequence of the break in diplomatic ties was the closure of Algerian airspace. Starting September 11, the country’s airspace is closed to UAE civil and military aircraft. A temporary exception remains for commercial flights headed to and from Algiers’ Houari Boumediene Airport; they may continue to operate until the end of 2026, when the air services agreement signed in 2013 expires. 

For its part, the UAE expressed hope that the rupture of relations will be temporary. Anwar Gargash, an advisor to the president of the UAE, noted (without, however, directly mentioning Algeria) that diplomacy should be based on clear interests rather than “riddles and signals requiring decoding.” 

From partnership to suspicions

Diplomatic relations between the two Arab nations were established in 1974 and developed for decades without any major crises. In 2015, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed described Algeria as one of the UAE’s most important partners. A joint commission was active, and dozens of agreements were signed.

In February 2023, the two sides intended to elevate their relationship to the level of a strategic partnership. Non-oil trade turnover stood at approximately $800 million, while UAE investments in Algeria were valued at $600 million. Among the Gulf monarchies, the UAE was Algeria’s largest trading partner. However, economic and political interests increasingly diverged. 

Algeria traditionally prioritizes non-interference and the preservation of existing borders. The UAE, meanwhile, combines investments in ports and infrastructure with military cooperation and the support of certain forces. For Abu Dhabi, this is a standard method of converting capital into influence. From Algeria’s perspective, such activity becomes alarming when directed at countries vital for its own security. 

The Moroccan issue

Morocco lies at the heart of the conflict. Algeria and Morocco have been at odds for decades over the territory of Western Sahara. Rabat claims the territory as its own, whereas Algiers supports the Polisario Front and the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination. The land border between the two countries has been closed since 1994, and in 2021, they severed diplomatic relations entirely.

The UAE made a clear choice in this dispute. In November 2020, it became the first Arab state to open a consulate general in Laayoune, a city in the Moroccan-controlled part of Western Sahara. For Rabat, this was a diplomatic victory; for Algiers, it was a clear demonstration of support for its primary regional rival.

That same year, both the UAE and Morocco normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords. Subsequently, cooperation between Morocco and Israel expanded to the military sphere and collaboration between intelligence agencies. From Algeria’s perspective, Morocco, Israel, and the UAE formed a sort of alliance. As their ties deepened, Algeria increasingly spoke of external pressure exerted by the UAE. These suspicions were further fueled by UAE investments in Moroccan infrastructure, including Dakhla port in Western Sahara and Nador port. Local media estimate that UAE investments in Morocco have reached €15 billion. Given the closed border and the conflict in Western Sahara, Algeria viewed these new ports primarily through a geopolitical lens.

A second issue lies to the south of Algeria. For years, Algeria acted as a mediator between the Malian government and the Tuareg movements. However, following a series of coups, its influence waned and relations with Bamako deteriorated. Russia, Türkiye, Morocco, and the UAE have increased their presence in the Sahel. Abu Dhabi cultivated ties with the region’s new authorities, extended loans to Chad, and expanded its presence in Sudan. Algeria views this as the strengthening of Morocco’s closest partner at a time when Algeria’s own relations with its southern neighbors are in crisis.

Libya is a particularly sensitive issue. The UAE has long been a key external backer of Khalifa Haftar, whose forces control the country’s east and much of southern Fezzan. For Algeria, this is not a distant civil war: Fezzan province borders its territory, and the movement of armed groups in the area is perceived as a direct threat. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune warned that his country would take action should Haftar’s forces approach its borders.

This creates the impression of a troubling ‘belt’ encircling Algeria: Morocco to the west, the unstable Sahel to the south, and UAE-aligned forces in Libya to the east. There may not be a unified plan to “encircle Algeria,” but in foreign policy, a perceived threat is often just as significant as an actual threat. 

A red line within the country 

Algeria’s most serious grievances against the UAE concern alleged interference in its internal affairs. Media outlets affiliated with the Algerian government have accused the UAE of ties to the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia. This organization, which has been designated a terrorist group by the Algerian authorities, advocates for the independence of the predominantly Berber region.

Operating primarily from abroad, the movement maintains relations with Morocco and Israel and advocates for Kabylia’s independence. 

No public evidence of UAE funding of the organization has been presented. However, for the Algerian leadership, any foreign involvement in the Kabylia issue constitutes a red line. In this regard, Western Sahara and Kabylia mirror one another: Algeria supports self-determination for the Sahrawis, while Morocco supports the Kabylia movement; in Algeria’s view, the UAE aligns itself with Morocco on this issue. 

In February 2026, hints gave way to action: Algeria initiated the process of cancelling an air services agreement with the UAE. Already then, a complete rupture in relations seemed inevitable. The latest decision to recall the ambassador merely made the longstanding conflict official. 

Algeria no longer confines itself to its customary defensive posture. Following a severe crisis, relations with Mali began to improve; in the summer of 2026, the two nations reinstated their ambassadors and reopened their airspace. Simultaneously, Algeria stepped up activities in Niger, effectively signaling a readiness to deploy the armed forces beyond its borders to safeguard its interests. Consequently, the rift with the UAE can be viewed not only as a reaction to external pressure but also as part of Algeria’s bid to reclaim its role as a leading power in the Sahel.

The economic impact of the severed ties will be significant but not critical. While the partners are important to one another, they are not indispensable. The political message carries far more weight. Algeria is prepared to pay the price for a decision it deems a matter of national security, whereas the UAE is unlikely to reconsider its partnership with Morocco simply to reconcile with Algeria.

The rivalry between Algeria and Morocco has long ceased to be a dispute between two neighbors; the Gulf monarchies, Israel, and the Sahel states have all been drawn into it. Now, any port, consulate, or loan is evaluated through the prism of influence and the concern of who will benefit from it in North Africa. 

Therefore, the closure of airspace is more than just a technical extension of the diplomatic rift. Since it shares no land border with the UAE, Algeria is drawing a political border. A narrow air corridor will remain open between the two countries until the end of the year, but the era when trade could be developed independently of the struggle for influence is already over.

Ukraine has carried out a series of strikes on tankers delivering emergency diesel fuel to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), killing two Russian servicemen and wounding multiple others, Rosatom CEO Aleksey Likhachev has said.

The attacks took place on Friday in the immediate vicinity of the plant’s perimeter and targeted fuel trucks transporting diesel needed for the facility’s emergency power systems, Likhachev said in a statement on Sunday.

Two Russian servicemen were killed and “a large number” were wounded, some seriously, according to the Rosatom chief. He said the troops had been involved in securing a “strictly civilian mission” to maintain fuel deliveries to the nuclear facility.

Likhachev accused Kiev of knowingly targeting the tankers despite being aware of their cargo and its importance to nuclear safety.

Even after external electricity was restored, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stressed that replenishing diesel remained essential because the plant could again lose grid power due to unspecified “military activity” in the area.

During the latest blackout, the plant had reduced the number of operating generators from four to two to conserve diesel and began running some cooling pumps intermittently. The generators provide electricity for essential safety systems, including pumps cooling all six reactors and their spent fuel pools.

The Rosatom chief called on the IAEA to “strongly condemn” the attack and explicitly identify those responsible. He also urged Kiev’s Western backers to distance themselves from what he described as the Ukrainian government’s “most horrific crimes.”

The IAEA has repeatedly warned about military activity around the ZNPP and nearby Energodar. In its latest update before Likhachev’s statement, the agency reported hearing explosions, drones and sustained gunfire in the area and said the plant’s power situation remained “increasingly fragile.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described BRICS as a key driver of global economic growth as the group’s 18th summit enters its second and final day in New Delhi.

Addressing the BRICS Outreach/BRICS+ session on Sunday, Putin said international interest in the group “continues to grow,” arguing that its commitment to an “independent and autonomous course” and international law appeals to countries around the world. He also said BRICS accounts for 49% of global GDP growth and that its potential for further development is “far from exhausted.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the same session, said the trust of Global South nations in BRICS has grown because “their voices are heard, their experiences are respected and solutions are crafted not just for them, but with them.”

Modi also announced that members had reached a consensus on a BRICS Integrated Early Warning System for preventing and responding to infectious diseases, as well as guidelines for integrating early-warning data in disaster management.

On Saturday, BRICS leaders unanimously adopted the New Delhi Declaration, which calls for the reform of global institutions to give emerging markets and developing countries greater representation and condemns unilateral economic measures that violate international law. The document also calls for “maximum restraint” in the Middle East and stresses that dialogue and diplomacy are the only appropriate means of resolving international disputes.

Catch up on our live coverage of the first day here.

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A major fire broke out late on Friday at an ammo dump operated by arms maker EMCO in the Bulgarian province of Gabrovo, prompting allegations that saboteurs could have infiltrated the facility.

Another EMCO facility was hit by a similar blaze in early August; the incident had been attributed to the accidental ignition of a cargo truck. The latest fire broke out in the vicinity of Gorni Vurpishta, and quickly spread from the ammunition depot to two other structures nearby.

Multiple secondary explosions were observed in the area, with the incident triggering a major emergency response and prompting authorities to cordon off the area.

No casualties have been reported in the aftermath of the blaze. Only two security guards were stationed at the facility at the time of the incident, and both managed to flee the site. Footage from the scene shows a large plume of fire and smoke rising above the depot, which continued to burn through the night.

On Saturday, Bulgarian Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said the authorities are investigating the incident, as well as reviewing “previous cases in which similar fires occurred in the warehouses of this company, as well as at other companies.”

“If it is ultimately concluded that they [arms facilities] have been targeted, this is not an attack on a particular company alone; it is an attack on the national interest,” Dimiev asserted.

EMCO has been actively supplying Kiev with assorted munitions since at least 2014, emerging as one of the key providers of Soviet-caliber ammo to Ukraine amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Bulgaria has changed its stance on the Ukraine conflict under Prime Minister Rumen Radev’s government, withdrawing from the so-called “coalition of the willing,” a European group of Kiev’s backers, and announcing that it would no longer send weapons packages.

The US Justice Department has reached a tentative plea agreement with an ex-intelligence officer suspected of faking a classified CIA assignment to steal more than $40 million in government-provided gold bars as “work-related expenses.”

David Rush, who once worked as a senior CIA official with top-secret clearance, was arrested in May after an internal probe discovered he had lied about his education and Navy service. A search of his Virginia home uncovered a trove of 303 one-kilogram gold bars, some $2 million in cash and 35 luxury watches.

Rush has so far been formally charged only with theft of public funds for falsifying pay records to obtain around $77,000 in military-leave compensation. The case has not yet been presented to a federal grand jury.

“The parties need additional time to prepare the paperwork,” Assistant US Attorney Raizza Ty and Rush’s attorney, Jessica Carmichael, wrote in the filing. “A pre-indictment resolution promotes the public interest by conserving government and judicial resources.”

The document did not disclose what charge Rush would plead guilty to or any possible sentencing recommendation. The parties said proceeding with an indictment and trial would require extensive litigation involving classified material. A deal could avert a public trial and keep key details of the case under wraps.

The court filings said that, beginning last November, Rush requested and received “a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses,” but official details remain scarce. According to media reports, Rush invented a special-access “continuity of government” operation, ostensibly intended to preserve federal functions during a nuclear war or other catastrophe.

Feinberg has not been accused of wrongdoing, and the Pentagon has denied he endorsed Rush for any position, describing reports of a close professional relationship as “false and embellished.”

Yemen’s Houthis have asked the United States not to intervene in their escalating conflict with Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump has said, as Washington seeks to avoid opening another front in the Middle East.

The militant group, officially known as the Ansarallah movement, made major gains along Yemen’s Red Sea coast this week, pushing back Saudi-supported forces and seizing the strategic ports of Mocha and Dhubab, as well as Mayyun (Perim) Island at the entrance to the narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The advance has tightened the group’s grip on one of the world’s most important shipping chokepoints while threatening another crucial route for Saudi oil exports.

“The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us,” Trump told reporters on Saturday during a visit to Ireland. “They don’t want us to go after them” and “would much prefer not having us involved,” he added.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly called Trump twice on Thursday and urged him to order US strikes against the Houthis to stop their advance. Trump declined the request, according to Axios, which cited US officials as saying Washington has no plans for direct military intervention for now.

The US is nevertheless providing Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting data, and roughly 200 American military personnel are providing non-combat support. CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper also traveled to the kingdom for urgent consultations.

Trump confirmed speaking with the Saudi crown prince but did not disclose details of their conversation. “He’s a good friend of mine,” Trump said. “I can just say everything’s going to work out fine and dandy.”

“We do not target any country except the Saudi enemy,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a spokesman for the group, told RT on Thursday. “In fact, we are committed to protecting the freedom of maritime navigation in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea.”

Al-Bukhaiti also warned that Houthi forces are prepared for a broader confrontation if outside powers join Riyadh, saying Yemen was capable of fighting “up to three fronts” – against Saudi Arabia, Yemeni government troops and any foreign country that becomes involved.

The Houthis have launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi energy facilities in recent weeks, while Riyadh has blamed drones launched from Iraq for a separate attack that forced it to shut down its key East-West oil pipeline.

#فيديو

الناطق الرسمي للقوات المسلحة اليمنية : القوات الجوية اليمنية تستهدف عناصر وآليات الميليشيا الحوثية في صندوق القتل .

*المركز الاعلامي للقوات المسلحة* pic.twitter.com/0dL9fVW9he

— المركز الإعلامي للقوات المسلحة اليمنية (@Yem_army_media) September 12, 2026

Fighting has intensified sharply in recent days, with government forces releasing multiple videos of their counterattacks, including what they called “precision airstrikes on Houthi military vehicles and militants inside the designated Mocha kill box.”

#فيديو
القوات المسلحة - مشاهد من استهدافات القوات الجوية لعتاد المليشيا الحوثية الإرهابية في ذو باب وجبهات الساحل الغربي#قناة_اليمن#اليمن pic.twitter.com/4r0NjYs7qT

— قناة اليمن الفضائية | YemenTv (@yementvyem) September 12, 2026

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said on Saturday that Saudi aircraft had carried out 129 strikes across seven Yemeni provinces over the previous 48 hours using F-15 and Typhoon jets, warning that the bombardment “will not go unanswered.”

Footage released by Iran-backed Houthi rebels reportedly shows damaged and targeted Saudi-backed military vehicles.

Broadcast by Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-controlled satellite news network, the video depicted burnt vehicles, the positioning of Houthi combatants, and the Bab… pic.twitter.com/d7ZKtNAD1x

— CGTN Europe (@CGTNEurope) September 12, 2026

The Houthis have also released extensive combat footage of their rapid advance, showing attacks on Saudi-backed forces using conventional weapons, ballistic missiles and drones, as well as abandoned and destroyed vehicles and the bodies of killed troops.

London-based fintech company Revolut disclosed sensitive customer information to scammers after receiving fraudulent requests sent from a “legitimate government agency email domain,” according to media reports on Saturday.

The exposed data included customers’ birth dates, phone numbers, postal and email addresses, as well as copies of passports and driver’s licenses, according to a notification Revolut sent to affected clients and cited by the online newspaper TechCrunch. The compromised data may also have included verification selfies, account statements, and transaction histories, according to the report.

Revolut confirmed the breach to both TechCrunch and Reuters, saying a “limited” number of customers had been affected by a “sophisticated external impersonation scam where an unauthorized third party utilized a legitimate government agency domain email to submit fraudulent requests for information.” 

The incident comes as Revolut has been rapidly expanding internationally. A little over a month ago, it was granted a banking license in France, while the company has also been expanding its presence in markets including India, Mexico, and the UAE. Last week, the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a conditional approval to Revolut, allowing it to set up a bank in the country.

Late last month, police on the British island of Jersey warned Revolut users of an uptick in fraud cases, where the victims had received a telephone call from scammers posing as Revolut support or security teams.

Several countries have also taken issue with the company’s practices in recent years. In April, Italian authorities slapped the online bank with fines totaling €11.5 million ($13.25 million) over alleged unfair commercial practices. Last year, the central bank of Lithuania fined Revolut €3.5 million, accusing it of failing to comply with money laundering prevention regulations.

The Republic of Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland will eventually be reunified, US President Donald Trump has predicted.

The Republic of Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1922, while six northeastern counties remained part of the UK as Northern Ireland.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin on Saturday, Trump said that he would “love to see [Ireland] unified.”

“I think it would be a great feather… in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually. Might as well happen now,” the US president added, suggesting that Martin is the “right man… to get it moving.”

While Trump acknowledged that the “UK will have something to say about it, obviously,” he insisted that a reunified Ireland “would be a great thing.”

Trump also said he and the Irish prime minister are “friends” and described relations between Washington and Dublin as being better than ever before.

Speaking at the US ambassador’s residence later in the day, Trump acknowledged that his remarks could prove controversial, conceding that “it’s one of those questions where no matter what you say, there’s no good answer.”

Earlier this year, Trump similarly suggested that there should be a “merger” between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, citing what he described as a good rapport between Martin and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Emma Little-Pengelly.

The agreement explicitly provides a path to Irish reunification should a majority in Northern Ireland express support for it. This would require the secretary of state for Northern Ireland to call for a referendum on the issue.

In a post on X on Saturday, Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, decried Trump’s latest remarks.

“President Trump knows better than most that elections matter… Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people,” the politician wrote.

He expressed confidence that Northern Ireland “will continue to choose the UK and the security it offers.”

Speaking during his first visit to Northern Ireland last month, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham likewise stated that a referendum on Irish reunification was “off the table.”

The second El Alamein International Airshow took place on September 8-10 at El Alamein International Airport in Egypt. The airshow reaffirmed its status as one of the premier military exhibitions in North Africa and the Middle East. Its international prestige was confirmed by the list of participating nations; the organizers succeeded in bringing together fierce rivals – the leading players in the global defense industry from Russia, the US, China, and Europe.

The airshow’s target audience included defense officials, military commanders, government delegations, and the business elite. Overall, it attracted over 250 exhibitors from 50 countries. More than 12,000 industry professionals visited the stands and displays. The roar of jet engines shook the skies over the Mediterranean Sea as aerobatic teams from Egypt, the UAE, and Türkiye, as well as renowned Russian aerobatic pilots, performed complex maneuvers and showcased their skills. Meanwhile, on the ground, multibillion-dollar contracts were signed. 

Why sanctions failed to sideline Russia

Russia’s participation was a distinctive feature and highlight of this year’s airshow. Perhaps the largest and most compelling display was mounted by Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport (part of the Rostec state corporation). In total, Russia showcased over 500 military-grade products at El Alamein.

Foreign delegations lined up at the Russian exhibit. The reason for this intense interest was pragmatic: Russian weaponry has proven its effectiveness in actual high-tech combat scenarios. The performance characteristics of Western systems are often exaggerated in marketing brochures, while their costs are exorbitantly high; however, Russian equipment has undergone real-world testing against modern reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and air defense systems (including in the zone of Russia’s military operation).

Buyers from around the globe – from the Middle East to Latin America – also appreciate the fact that Moscow offers fair contract terms, free from political blackmail or ideological demands. Historical continuity also plays a major role; many so-called ‘Third World’ countries have traditionally relied on Soviet and Russian weaponry and are familiar with it. Consequently, many of these countries are unwilling to trade reliable Russian equipment for pretty ‘toys’ from other manufacturers.

Combat experience reshapes Russia’s export arsenal

What did Russia showcase at the El Alamein airshow? The star of both the static display and the flying display was the Russian Su-57E fifth-generation multi-role fighter jet. The aerobatic performance by Sukhoi Company chief pilot, Hero of Russia Sergey Bogdan, demonstrated the unsurpassed aerodynamics of modern aviation technology. The aircraft embodies a rich legacy of excellence: Unique aerobatic maneuvers combined with powerful missile and electronic warfare capabilities define the modern Su-57. It carries a new generation of weapon systems – specifically, missiles housed in internal bays. These include air-to-air missiles of various ranges as well as air-to-ground strike systems.

The Yak-130M combat-capable trainer is an upgraded version of the Yak-130 jet trainer. The airshow marked the aircraft’s debut in the Middle East. The Yak-130M is equipped with a full-fledged onboard radar and carries an expanded arsenal of precision-guided weapons, transforming it from a trainer aircraft into a formidable and cost-effective light fighter and attack aircraft. The new model met with immediate success at the airshow; Director General of Rosoboronexport Aleksander Mikheev announced that the first contract for its delivery to a foreign customer was already signed. 

But these were not the only examples of Russia’s success at the airshow. State-of-the-art Russian-designed strike munitions were unveiled publicly for the first time at El Alamein. These include the S-71M Monokhrom missile-drone, the S-71K Kover strike drone, and the S8000 Banderol precision-guided drone-missile. The Monokhrom missile-drone comes in a futuristic design with a trapezoidal fuselage cross-section, a folding swept wing, and a V-shaped all-moving tail unit. It is deployed from the internal weapons bays of Su-57 carrier aircraft. The Kover strike drone is the ‘younger brother’ of the Monokhrom – a simpler drone designed for mass deployment from external hardpoints. Its mission is to operate jointly with manned aircraft, exposing and exhausting enemy air defense systems to clear the path for primary missiles, while simultaneously engaging ground targets.

The Banderol precision-guided drone-missile is a next-generation precision-guided stealth munition that has seen extensive use in recent months in Russia’s military operation zone. This drone-missile can be launched from carrier drones and helicopters without the launch platforms entering the enemy’s air defense zone. The combined use of such munitions ensures 100% penetration of any modern air defense system.

Russian defense enterprises also unveiled several new air defense systems. The TKB-1167 four-barrel anti-drone combat module is capable of automatically detecting and engaging UAVs. It made its international debut at the airshow. Additionally, the cutting-edge ZAK-30 Citadel anti-aircraft artillery system with a 30 mm automatic cannon turret was showcased for the first time. The exhibition also featured the Pantsir-SMD-E air defense system, the Verba man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS), and an airspace monitoring system designed to coordinate the use of these systems. Essentially, the Russian defense industry is displaying military equipment developed and shaped by actual combat experience acquired during the Ukraine conflict. 

The global arms market moves beyond Western dominance

And what did Russia’s competitors bring to the event? The Egyptian airshow vividly demonstrated the nature of the modern multipolar world. While delegations stormed the Russian pavilions, other major powers sought to draw attention to their own displays. 

China mounted an impressive display, underscoring its ambitions on the African continent and its growing military partnership with Cairo. On display were J-16 fighter jets – a mainstay of the PLA Air Force – which are already familiar to Egyptian audiences from recent joint exercises involving Egyptian Rafale fighters. During the flying display, the YY-20 aerial refueling tanker performed a spectacular demonstration of mid-air refueling. 

France and Türkiye demonstrated ambitious aircraft and drone models. As expected, French company Dassault Aviation brought its Rafale fighters. The French strategy was targeted: The exhibition coincided with behind-the-scenes negotiations regarding Egypt’s purchase of an additional batch of 24 such aircraft. Türkiye, represented by the TAI and ASELSAN corporations, played to its strengths by presenting a wide range of strike drones and tactical electronic warfare (EW) systems optimized for the specific conditions of the African theater of operations.

Ultimately, El Alamein International Airshow demonstrated that the rules of the game in the arms market have changed. Attempts to isolate the Russian defense industry have undoubtedly failed. At a time when customers require weapons capable of prevailing in modern high-tech conflicts, Russia’s technological superiority in aviation, air defense, and unmanned systems establishes it as a key and indispensable partner on the international stage.

The BRICS nations on Saturday called out “unilateral coercive measures,” condemned terrorism, and called for the peaceful resolution of global disputes through dialogue and diplomacy in their summit declaration.

The declaration adopted by the BRICS leaders at their 18th summit in New Delhi reaffirmed the bloc’s “opposition to unilateral coercive measures that are contrary to international law” and the UN charter, and called to eliminate them.

The leaders of emerging and developing countries pointed out that sanctions and secondary sanctions have “far-reaching negative implications” including for human rights and food security, and disproportionately affect the poor and vulnerable. 

The BRICS leaders repeated their earlier calls to reform the UN and other global institutions to reflect the new global realities. The New Delhi declaration stressed that no single country or group of countries should have a monopoly over senior positions in the UN – which was formed in the aftermath of World War 2.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the same point while addressing the leaders, saying a “rapidly changing world can no longer be governed by outdated institutions.”

⚡️ Seeds of Solidarity: BRICS Leaders Plant Saplings in Delhi#BRICS2026 #BRICSIndia2026 #IndiaBRICSChairship https://t.co/jFFeLBM3e6 pic.twitter.com/67iS09utSz

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 12, 2026

Importantly, China and Russia, the two BRICS members who are also permanent members of the Security Council, reiterated their support for “Brazil and India to play a greater role in the UN, including its Security Council.”

BRICS, which started as a five-member grouping two decades ago, has now expanded to 11 full members, raising its economic size and global influence. 

The adoption of the 45-page declaration is itself seen as a success for Indian diplomacy, which was able to unite Iran and the United Arab Emirates – on different sides of the Middle East conflict – behind the document. 

The BRICS leaders condemned all acts of terrorism as “criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation” – a point that host India has repeatedly made at various global fora. The declaration specifically condemned the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir in April last year, in which 26 civilians were killed. India clashed with nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan with drones and missiles following that attack.

The BRICS countries also called out the unilateral blockade of Cuba, and expressed concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities in violation of resolutions by the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

The BRICS nations opposed the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” and any geographic or demographic changes in the Gaza Strip. They further called on Israel to withdraw its forces from all Lebanese territories.

The next BRICS summit will be held in China.

The Eastern Economic Forum has evolved from a regional investment showcase into one of the key platforms where Russia’s eastward strategy acquires tangible economic substance. Its central idea revolves around the fact that closer relations with Asia require more than diplomacy and trade alone: they need the development of Russia’s own Far East – its ports, industries, transport corridors, cities, and technological base.

The 11th Eastern Economic Forum, held in Vladivostok in early September, centered around the theme of ‘Development for the Benefit of People,’ reflecting the understanding that the region’s future is to be a major center of economic growth, modern industry, and international cooperation, with living standards and human capital the heart of development policy.

The Forum’s program included more than 150 events bringing together government officials, business leaders, academics, and experts, including those from abroad. Representatives of more than 80 countries had expressed interest ahead of the event, and the final figures showed over 9,300 participants from 78 states. These included 18 countries whose governments currently pursue policies regarded by Moscow as unfriendly towards Russia.

This goes to show that political tension between governments does not eliminate commercial or professional interest in working with Russia. The Forum demonstrated that even amid sanctions, geopolitical rivalry, and the fragmentation of global markets, there remains considerable demand for direct engagement with Russian institutions and businesses. This is particularly visible in Asia, which today accounts for a growing share of global manufacturing, trade, investment, and technological development.

Over eleven years, the EEF has moved well beyond the role of a regional investment forum. Advanced development territories, the Free Port of Vladivostok, the Far Eastern mortgage program and urban master plans have all featured prominently on its agenda. The Forum increasingly serves as a mechanism linking domestic development policy with Russia’s broader economic turn towards Asia.

Development of the Russian Far East has become inseparable from the eastward pivot in the country’s foreign policy. The region economically and logistically connects Russia with the Asia-Pacific, and Vladivostok is one of its principal gateways.

This process begun well before the West’s attempts to 'isolate' Russia. According to Vladimir Putin, around 25 trillion rubles (almost $300 billion at today’s exchange rate) in capital investment has been attracted to the Far Eastern regions over the past 11 years, while their combined gross regional product has more than tripled. New port terminals, railway infrastructure, gas-processing and petrochemical facilities, and the Zvezda shipbuilding complex have materially changed the region’s industrial landscape.

Now, the emphasis is shifting from the extraction and transportation of resources towards greater local processing and the creation of higher-value production. Shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, robotics, electronics, engineering, digital technologies, and new energy are increasingly being developed alongside traditional resource industries.

This gives Russia’s eastward strategy a dual character. Moscow is strengthening relations with Asian partners while simultaneously using these expanding ties as an incentive to modernize its own eastern territories. The more developed the Far East becomes industrially, technologically, and logistically, the stronger Russia’s position in Asia will be.

Investment deals give weight to strategy

The practical orientation of the Forum was most evident from the agreements concluded during the event. A total of 318 deals worth nearly 7 trillion rubles (about $83 billion) were signed, excluding arrangements whose financial terms remain commercially confidential. While some are framework agreements that will still have to move from declared intent to implementation, their scale and structure reveal the direction of Russia’s Far Eastern development strategy.

Industrial and technological development formed another major component. Plans include a photovoltaic module manufacturing facility in Zabaikalye with estimated investment of around 212 billion rubles ($2.5 billion), a 35-billion-ruble ($415-million) advanced semiconductor production complex in Primorye, and the Muravyov-Amursky Pacific Science and Technology Valley in Vladivostok. Russian and Chinese partners also agreed to develop pilot zones for agricultural cooperation.

Russia is creating value chains, manufacturing capacity, logistics hubs, and technological competencies inside the country. It is also giving foreign partners a direct stake in the development of the Russian Far East. They gain access to resources, infrastructure, transport routes, investment opportunities, and a large market, while Russian regions benefit from capital, industrial projects, technology, and employment.

Working with the world majority

During the plenary session, Vladimir Putin was joined by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Mongolian Prime Minister Nyam-Osoryn Uchral, Myanmar Vice President Nyo Saw, and Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang. Their priorities differed, but all four speakers signaled a clear interest in maintaining and expanding cooperation with Russia.

Prabowo Subianto focused on the fragmentation of the global economy, the politicization of trade, and the need to preserve multiple channels of international cooperation. He argued for building new bridges rather than new dividing lines, particularly in energy, food security, logistics, and technology. Russia is crucial for Indonesia’s strategy of diversification, offering access to energy, agricultural supplies, technology, and the Eurasian market, while Indonesia can serve as an important gateway to ASEAN.

China remains the most important economic partner of the Russian Far East. Ding Xuexiang emphasized closer coordination between the development of the Russian Far East and Northeast China, as well as stronger links between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union. The relationship is increasingly moving beyond trade volumes towards infrastructure, investment, industrial cooperation, and cross-border development.

Myanmar, meanwhile, is interested in broadening its relationship with Russia into new technological sectors. Nyo Saw highlighted digital transformation, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and modern payment systems.

All these different calculations lead to the same conclusion: there is practical value in expanding cooperation with Russia. Russia’s ties with the World Majority are based on not just political dialogue, but on trade, investment, energy, transport, technology, and industrial cooperation. It’s a more solid foundation that fleeting political alignments, and gives the Russian Far East a growing role as one of the country’s principal platforms for engagement with Asia.

A new documentary alleging that Israel relied on powerful AI tools to kill thousands in Gaza has sent shockwaves through the Venice Film Festival, with one of the film’s insiders describing planning airstrikes as “insanely fun.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has categorically rejected the film’s portrayal, insisting that the whistleblowers cannot be verified.

The 80-minute-long film NAZA, which premiered on Thursday, is built around testimony from 24 anonymized Israeli military and intelligence insiders. Its title alludes to an Israeli military shorthand for expected “collateral casualties” in an attack.

The film, which was made by two Israeli Oscar-winning filmmakers, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, received a roughly 25-minute standing ovation – the longest on record at the event. The footage also showed a full audience, with some viewers holding Palestinian flags.

With 25 minutes of Applause, ‘NAZA’ broke the record for the Longest Ovation in the history of the Venice Festival #venicefilmfestival #NoOtherLand #PalestineSolidarity #StandingOvation #venicerecord #longestovation #HistoryMade #yuvalabraham #rachelszor #GazaDocumentary pic.twitter.com/Mr7FORlkt4

— The Cover Story (@Cover_Story63) September 11, 2026

In the film, Israeli insiders claim that the IDF used an AI system known as ‘Lavender’ to identify people for assassination. The filmmakers’ sources also alleged that the tool operated based on thousands of hacked phones, with even a single phrase, “daddy’s home,” picked up on a child’s phone being enough to launch an attack.

Other sources told the tale of brazen disregard for humanitarian laws, and a “general atmosphere” of “hatred” towards Palestinians.
In one of the most chilling revelations, an insider claimed that at one point a strike on a single Hamas member was approved despite an expected toll of 500 civilians.

“It was done on a mass scale, like a factory”, one source said, with others describing the profiling and targeting as “a video game” and “insanely fun.” 

On Friday, the IDF vehemently rejected the allegations, arguing that the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified,” and that it is impossible to establish whether they served in the military at all.

It also stressed that allegations pertained to “national and military strategy that are clearly beyond the knowledge of junior-level soldiers.” The IDF added that targeting decisions are made “by human personnel only,” and that its operations are only directed at “terrorist organizations.” 

The IDF has itself acknowledged using AI for military purposes, including a system known as ‘The Gospel’, to rapidly produce targeting recommendations.

In April 2024, several media outlets reported, citing Israeli intelligence sources, that Lavender had at one stage marked about 37,000 people as suspected terrorists, with the personnel sometimes spending only seconds reviewing machine-generated recommendations. Some sources quoted by The Guardian also alleged that “during the early weeks of the war they were permitted to kill 15 or 20 civilians during airstrikes on low-ranking militants.” The IDF has rejected the allegations.

French investigators have identified more “potential recruiters” who may have helped convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein obtain victims in France and elsewhere, a top prosecutor has announced.

Speaking to France Inter on Thursday, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau gave an update on two investigations launched by her office in February after the release of millions of Epstein-related documents in the US. One probe is focused on human trafficking, including alleged recruitment, while the other covers possible money laundering and tax fraud.

Epstein, who had extensive contacts among the international elite, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide but fueled conspiracy theories that he was murdered by powerful figures to ensure his silence.

According to Beccuau, the case now extends to New York as well as the French Riviera, including Saint-Tropez and Cannes – fashionable playgrounds where Epstein spent considerable time and where French investigators believe parts of his predatory operation functioned.

The prosecutor said that investigators have identified 26 victims, including 13 who had never previously appeared in an Epstein-related case. She added that eight still need to be interviewed, including some who could be living abroad.

France was a significant base for Epstein, where the disgraced financier owned a lavish apartment on Avenue Foch in Paris; former employees told investigators that young women regularly came for massages there. While living in the French capital, Epstein also frequently courted members of the French elite.

The first French investigation, opened after Epstein’s death in 2019, quickly centered on modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, whom investigators suspected of being his principal recruiter in France. Brunel was indicted on charges of raping minors and sexual harassment after being accused of sexual violence by 11 women. In 2022, he died by suicide in a Paris prison.

The probe then focused on Daniel Siad, another modeling scout whom former models accused of targeting young women with promises of fashion careers before sexually exploiting them or introducing them to powerful men.

In July, before the French authorities could gather enough evidence for arrest, Siad was found dead at his home near Paris. Prosecutors did not establish the cause of death but said an autopsy found no signs of recent violence linked to his death while revealing poor health and evidence of an earlier heart attack.

The Russian sovereign wealth fund and the BRICS bloc’s Indian payments arm have agreed to develop the economic grouping’s payment project, as well as working on cross-border payment services.

The agreement between the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), BRICS Pay India, and JSC BRICS Pay was announced on Friday – during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s engagements in India – ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

The partners will explore ways to integrate BRICS Pay with India’s existing payment infrastructure, prepare potential pilot projects, and work toward the launch of cross-border payment services.

BRICS Pay is the decentralized cross-border payment framework of the bloc.

Cross-border payments is a priority area of financial cooperation for BRICS countries amid Western sanctions and financial exclusion, with members seeking greater interoperability between their national payment systems.

“Developing modern payment infrastructure is a crucial prerequisite for the continued growth of trade and investment among BRICS nations,” RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said. He added that BRICS Pay could complement existing national payment systems and enable them to work together. 

The proposed system will facilitate trade and investment between BRICS countries, including through settlements in national currencies, according to RDIF. 

BRICS Pay India, the Indian arm of the project, will coordinate with Indian banks, payment service providers, merchants, and other market participants, while RDIF will support the initiative through its investment and international partnership network.

RDIF is Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, with $27.3 billion (2.3 trillion rubles) in assets, it says on its website. JSC BRICS Pay is a Moscow-based company that develops payment-processing systems and infrastructure for the project.

“Today we will announce an agreement on BRICS Pay, in fact, a payment system for BRICS countries,” — Putin’s envoy Dmitriev.

“The main task is that BRICS is not just a geopolitically powerful association, but that there are practical investment and financial solutions that unite… pic.twitter.com/dglOUgvPay

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) September 11, 2026

Dmitriev said BRICS should develop practical investment and financial mechanisms that bring its members together. Finance ministers and central bank governors from the group have asked the BRICS Payment Task Force (BPTF) to continue work on cross-border payment solutions that are faster, cheaper and more accessible.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal has called on BRICS members and partner countries to connect payment systems and expand trade in national currencies. Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra said members are discussing links between fast-payment systems and central bank digital currencies.

A retail-payment technology demonstrator was tested at the BRICS Business Forum in Moscow in 2024.

The changing world “cannot be steered by outdated institutions,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday as BRICS leaders adopted the New Delhi Declaration at the annual summit in New Delhi.

The two-day gathering, which runs September 12-13, has brought together leaders from BRICS member and partner countries, with bilateral meetings also taking place on the sidelines.

“Reforms are essential in representation, responsiveness and rule-making,” Modi said, calling for a greater role for the Global South in international decision-making. 

Earlier on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin described BRICS as an emerging center of global governance, saying global politics, security and the economy increasingly depend on the group’s joint decisions.

RT reporters are on the ground in New Delhi covering the 18th BRICS Summit, which runs through Sunday.

This live feed has now ended. Stay tuned for the second day of the BRICS summit on Sunday.

The BRICS summit comes to New Delhi this week at a time when conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continue to cast shadows on the global economy and aggravate geopolitical tensions.

India, which will host the September 12-13 meeting of the bloc, has taken a broadly consistent position across these crises: conflicts should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy, civilians should be protected, and channels of communication should remain open.

New Delhi has held to its own policy choices despite Western pressure, most visibly over its continued purchases of Russian oil. At the same time, it has maintained engagement with both Moscow and Kiev, and with countries on different sides of the conflicts in the Middle East.

The approach is in line with India’s long-standing emphasis on strategic autonomy – helping New Delhi retain the ability to make foreign policy decisions based on its own interests rather than aligning automatically with any geopolitical camp.

How is India engaging with Russia and Ukraine?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized this stance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek last week, saying conflicts “cannot be resolved on the battlefield” and that dialogue and diplomacy are the way forward.

He delivered essentially the same message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit. Modi discussed conflicts in the Middle East and the Black Sea region and reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy were necessary to resolve them. He also said the world had to move from “endless war to the end of war, which is in humanity’s interest.” 

“This conflict will be solved by dialogue, by diplomacy, by negotiation,” he said, adding that New Delhi respected Ukraine’s perspective on Russian energy and expected India’s position to be respected as well.

New Delhi has stuck to the same approach at the United Nations. India abstained in February on a Ukrainian-backed UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate, complete, and unconditional ceasefire.

What is India’s position on the conflict in the Middle East?

India has taken a similar approach to the Middle East conflict triggered by US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

When Modi met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Bishkek, he expressed concern over escalating tensions and reiterated that issues should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.

On Israel and Palestine, New Delhi continues to support a negotiated two-state solution. Modi reiterated that position in July, saying India backed “the pursuit of lasting peace.” Much of the same language has been carried into BRICS discussions: dialogue, civilian protection, sovereignty, international law, and maintaining safe maritime commerce.

What does India’s “diplomacy first” foreign policy give it?

India’s pragmatic, diplomacy-first positions at BRICS, the SCO, and the UN have helped it avoid taking sides. Its emphasis on diplomacy has given it room to make its own foreign-policy choices.

However, New Delhi has not shied away from calling out terrorism. At the SCO summit, Modi called it a grave threat to humanity and urged members to dismantle networks of financing, recruitment, radicalization, and safe havens. He also said there should be “no double standards” in combating terrorism.

As BRICS leaders gather in New Delhi, India’s ability to act as a calming presence amid rising geopolitical tensions will be highly valued.

The centerpiece of the BRICS program is underway in New Delhi. The group’s Business Forum was held on September 11, and the Indian capital is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12-13. This year’s gathering is deeply symbolic. Exactly 20 years ago, in September 2006, the foreign ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, and China met for the first time on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Back then, the group was known as BRIC, and the idea of close cooperation among the four largest non-Western economies struck many observers as more of a political experiment than a project with a promising future.

From an acronym to a new center of power

It is now clear that this was not a fleeting diplomatic episode, but one of the first institutional responses to the transformation already beginning to reshape the world order. The term ‘BRIC’ was not coined in Moscow. Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill introduced it in 2001.

The roots of this thinking can be traced back to Evgeny Primakov’s vision of a multipolar world and the Russia-India-China triangle he proposed. The idea was not to cobble together an alliance ‘against the West’, but to pursue a far more complex goal: preventing a single center of power from setting the rules for the entire world. At the start of the 21st century, the global economy was changing faster than global politics, and Russia recognized the growing disconnect.

The first full-fledged BRIC summit was held in Ekaterinburg in 2009. South Africa joined the original four in 2011, giving the group the name BRICS that is now familiar around the world. Further expansion followed, and the group now has 11 members. The number of participants, however, is only part of the story. BRICS countries represent around half of the world’s population, 40% of global GDP, and more than a quarter of international trade. Twenty years ago, this configuration would have sounded like an exceedingly bold prediction. Today, it is a reality that cannot be ignored.

Another figure is equally telling: BRICS countries now account for more than half of global economic growth. The question is no longer whether a more multipolar world will emerge. It already has. The real question is whether international institutions can adapt to this shift or will continue to reflect the balance of power that existed in the middle of the last century.

Keeping Asia’s giants at the same table

Against this backdrop, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival in New Delhi carries particular weight. Until recently, his attendance was by no means taken for granted, given the difficult relationship between China and India. Nevertheless, the Chinese leader is visiting India for the first time in seven years, and Beijing and New Delhi are preparing a separate meeting between Xi and Narendra Modi. That fact alone gives this summit exceptional political significance.

Russia’s unique role must also be acknowledged. Moscow maintains strategic ties with both Beijing and New Delhi, serving as an important bridge between Asia’s two largest powers. Russia cannot eliminate the tensions between them, but the forums created with its direct involvement can help keep their rivalry from turning into a permanent rupture. This is one of BRICS’ greatest strengths: It does not erase disagreements, but creates a space where countries can continue talking despite them.

Giving multipolarity a financial foundation

One of the most tangible results of this work is the New Development Bank, established in 2015. Its purpose is to broaden the range of financing options available to developing economies and channel funds into the infrastructure projects they need. To date, the bank has approved 139 projects worth a combined $42.9 billion. These include roads, public transit, energy, water systems, and social and digital infrastructure. Its scale remains modest compared with that of traditional financial institutions, but the emergence of a functioning alternative matters in its own right.

The bank has $100 billion in authorized capital, is expanding its membership, and is working to conduct a greater share of its operations in national currencies. In this way, BRICS is gradually building not an abstract vision of multipolarity, but its material foundation. The emergence of development banks, payment systems, transportation routes, and manufacturing chains of its own says more about the changing world order than political declarations ever could.

This work becomes especially important when sanctions and restrictions on access to financial infrastructure are used as instruments of pressure. BRICS does not seek to replace one currency monopoly with another. The goal is to reduce critical dependence on a single settlement hub. Trade in national currencies and reliable channels for cross-border payments make economies less vulnerable to unilateral decisions.

For Iran, this agenda is no longer theoretical; it is a matter of survival. The Islamic Republic became a full member of BRICS in 2024 and now faces direct US aggression and even more intense economic pressure. Restrictions targeting oil exports, banks, shipping, and foreign trade are intended to cut the country off from normal economic ties. Tehran therefore has every reason to expect that BRICS membership will help it expand trade with the largest non-Western markets, make wider use of national currencies, and reduce its reliance on infrastructure controlled by the US.

Before departing for New Delhi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called BRICS one of the most important vehicles for countering unilateralism and urged members to make greater use of national currencies. Another practical issue is Iran’s potential accession to the New Development Bank. In August, the governor of Iran’s central bank said the country is preparing to join. Membership could open new avenues for financing energy and transportation projects, as well as the International North-South Transport Corridor.

At the same time, BRICS should not be seen as an emergency bailout fund or a military-political alliance. It cannot automatically lift sanctions or solve Iran’s domestic problems. But it can give Tehran more room to maneuver economically and prevent the policy of isolation from achieving its ultimate goal. For a country being pushed out of international trade, the ability to make payments, attract investment, and gain access to its partners’ markets becomes a source of resilience.

Iran, in turn, matters to BRICS. It is a major economy, a vital energy hub, and a crucial link connecting the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Indian Ocean. Full transportation and economic connectivity across Eurasia is difficult to imagine without Iran. Supporting its legitimate right to development therefore serves not only Tehran’s interests, but the long-term interests of the group as a whole.

The next 20 years begin in New Delhi

The New Delhi summit comes at a moment of profound crisis for the old system of international relations. Sanctions, tariff wars, armed conflicts, and the weaponization of financial infrastructure are eroding trust in the existing rules. BRICS now has an opportunity to prove that multipolarity means more than criticizing the old order – that it can also deliver solutions that work.

Twenty years ago, Russia was one of the leading architects of a political grouping that brought together Brazil, India, and China because it understood that a world in which several billion people are treated merely as objects of decisions made elsewhere cannot be stable. Back then, that was a hypothesis. Today, it is an objective reality. BRICS is no longer predicting the emergence of a new world order; it is giving that order concrete form.

But an anniversary cannot become an excuse for complacency. Economic weight must still be translated into coordinated action. The group must expand financing through the New Development Bank, develop convenient payment mechanisms, increase trade among its members, and defend their legitimate interests. The maturity of BRICS will be judged by these results.

In that sense, New Delhi is more than just the venue for another summit. It is where BRICS is taking stock of its first 20 years and embarking on its next chapter. Russia saw the outlines of the future before most. Now it is up to every member of the group to determine whether that future will be fairer, more stable, and genuinely multipolar.

Hundreds of illegal migrants, including more than 40 “age-disputed” children, who were returned from the UK to France under the ‘one in, one out’ deal have disappeared, The Guardian reports, citing human rights organizations.

The migrant exchange scheme was brokered by Paris and London last summer and hailed as a groundbreaking achievement at the time. Under the deal, the UK can return illegal migrants who cross the Channel to France while accepting asylum seekers with legitimate claims who had not previously attempted to enter Britain illegally.

The scheme has proven to have a very limited impact, with around 1,400 migrants returned since it was signed in September last year, compared with around 32,000 illegal arrivals. Moreover, hundreds of migrants sent back to France under the scheme have disappeared, The Guardian reported, citing figures provided by NGO representatives working on the ground.

The Home Office has strongly denied the allegations, insisting that all those returned were adults. “This is categorically untrue. Nobody has been returned to France, where their age is in dispute,” it told the newspaper.

The fate of the deal remains unclear, with the agreement set to expire in October and neither side confirming or denying whether it will be extended. According to British media reports, Paris wants to scrap the current arrangement and replace it with an EU-wide deal with the UK.

“For our part, we want to move away from this bilateral relationship with the UK. We consider that France should not have to carry it alone and that it would be better to integrate it into an agreement between the EU and UK,” Nunez reportedly told a French parliamentary inquiry.

The CIA has declassified dozens of presidential intelligence briefings revealing that US officials were warned years before the September 11 attacks that Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network were considering strikes on American soil involving hijacked or explosive-packed aircraft, while also pursuing biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons.

The agency released 71 President’s Daily Brief (PDB) products on Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11. The collection, totaling more than 100 pages, is the largest release of CIA presidential intelligence related to the attacks and covers assessments dating from 1998 through the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Among the most striking documents is a September 1998 memorandum on Bin Laden’s intentions. Intelligence indicated that his “preferred option” was to strike the US “on its own soil in Washington,” the CIA wrote, warning that his network “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city.”

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11, CIA released 71 President's Daily Briefs to give Americans a glimpse into our most sensitive intelligence from the years before and day after one of our Nation's darkest moments.https://t.co/Z2QIjcuvAj pic.twitter.com/N8ZoZ2OvtZ

— CIA (@CIA) September 11, 2026

Three months later, another briefing warned that Bin Laden and his allies were preparing attacks in the US, including a plan to hijack an American airliner during the holiday season.

The best-known warning came on August 6, 2001, when then-President George W. Bush received a briefing titled ‘Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US’. It said Bin Laden had wanted to attack the US for years, cited suspicious activity consistent with preparations for hijackings, and noted that the FBI was conducting around 70 investigations into possible Al-Qaeda-linked activity in the country.

The 9/11 Commission found that many officials knew “something terrible was planned,” but failures in intelligence sharing, policy, and preparedness prevented the scattered warnings from being turned into action.

Bin Laden rose to prominence during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, when Washington poured billions of dollars into arming anti-Soviet mujahideen through Pakistan. US officials have denied directly funding Bin Laden, but the American-backed war helped create the militant infrastructure and environment from which Al-Qaeda later emerged.

The deadliest terrorist attack in US history, which killed 2,977 people, prompted Washington to launch the War on Terror, invading Afghanistan within weeks and Iraq less than two years later. At home, the PATRIOT Act vastly expanded the government’s powers to spy on its own citizens.

Germany has spent some €50 billion ($58 billion) cushioning the impact of soaring energy prices after cutting Russian gas imports in 2022, Die Süddeutsche Zeitung and Bild have reported.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Germany drastically reduced imports of Russian natural gas, which had previously covered 55% of its consumption. The shift has driven up energy costs and contributed to a prolonged economic slump, hitting both households and industry and undermining German competitiveness.

Die Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday that the Finance Ministry provided the €50 billion estimate in response to an inquiry by Green Party MP Robin Wagener. The figure covers relief and stabilization measures including electricity and gas price caps, a one-off payment to pensioners, and rescue packages for gas companies.

Bild cited several experts as saying the overall economic toll of the energy crisis, including the construction of new LNG terminals, is likely “significantly higher.” 

The opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) has repeatedly criticized Berlin’s decision to decouple from Russian energy. Party co-chair Alice Weidel said in June that “cheap energy from Russia was the secret of the success of ‘Made in Germany.’” 

Rising energy costs may also have contributed to the AfD’s growing popularity, according to a study published in late July. Titled ‘The Political Consequences of Energy Price Shocks,’ the paper found that “large and sudden increases in household energy costs coincided with heightened political dissatisfaction and electoral gains for populist parties, particularly the far right populist Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD).” 

According to the analysis, Germans who experienced above-median price increases were 7.5 percentage points more likely to support the AfD.

The trend has been particularly pronounced in former East Germany, where “energy prices increased most strongly,” the researchers said, pointing to the AfD’s electoral gains in Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Saxony in 2023 and 2024.

On Sunday, the AfD won the regional election in Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) finished second with just 17.2%.

Multiple recent polls have indicated that the AfD is the most popular party nationally, with support at around 28%.

Saudi Arabia has been forced to shut down its strategic East-West oil pipeline after drone attacks damaged pumping facilities along the route, dealing another blow to the kingdom’s ability to export oil amid the US-Iran war.

The Saudi Energy Ministry said on Friday that the pipeline was hit at several locations in the Riyadh and Medina regions the day before, causing “some injuries” and prompting the authorities to halt operations as a “precautionary measure.” Emergency teams are assessing the damage, and Riyadh has not said when pumping will resume.

Two US officials cited by CNN said preliminary analysis indicated that at least two pumping stations along the pipeline were struck by drones. Satellite imagery reportedly shows extensive fire damage at one facility and a smaller fire at another.

CNN reports that pumping stations on Saudi Arabia’s key east-west pipeline were hit on Thursday, with one severely damaged.

The pipeline currently carries 7+ million barrels of crude oil per day bypassing Hormuz. pic.twitter.com/t5fnZMGcgM

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 11, 2026

The East-West pipeline carries oil from Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing Eastern Province across the kingdom to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, allowing exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. It can transport up to 7 million barrels per day, with around 5 million bpd available for export after supplying Western refineries.

🇸🇦 The scale of the suspected attack on Saudi Arabia’s East–West oil pipeline is visible from space.

Satellite imagery shows a dense smoke plume stretching more than 100 km across the desert, while fire-monitoring data detected several intense heat anomalies along the pipeline… pic.twitter.com/eHFiCCMC3m

— Eye OSINT (@AlexiaNoel94927) September 11, 2026

The route has become particularly important since fighting between the US and Iran severely disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia reportedly rerouted around 5 million barrels per day that would otherwise have been loaded at Persian Gulf terminals through the pipeline to the Red Sea.

🔥Satellite imagery shows further damage at Aramco's Jazan oil facility in southern Saudi Arabia on Sep 9. Fire damage is visible, with two storage tanks destroyed and two more damaged.

Explore and Compare: https://t.co/xJCALwjQKa#SaudiArabia #IranWar #Houthi #MiddleEast pic.twitter.com/Wsa7aqd3yz

— Soar (@SoarAtlas) September 11, 2026

The pipeline shutdown comes as Iranian-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen have pushed back Saudi-backed government forces and seized the Red Sea port of Mocha and Mayun Island at the entrance to another strategic waterway, the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

Riyadh said the latest attack on the pipeline did not come from Yemen or Iran, but from Iraqi territory. Saudi Arabia reserved the right to defend its territory and critical infrastructure, but said it would hold off on retaliation at the request of Iraq’s prime minister, giving Baghdad an opportunity to investigate and prevent further attacks.

The developments leave Riyadh squeezed between disruptions at both ends of its export network: Iran has challenged shipping through Hormuz in the east, while the Houthi advance threatens Red Sea traffic in the west. Saudi oil production already plunged to 6.238 million barrels per day in August, its lowest level since 1990, according to Bloomberg.

Oil prices remain above $100 a barrel following the renewed escalation. Brent settled at around $104.61 on Friday, ending the week nearly 9% higher.

The deployment of troops from European NATO countries to Ukraine would mean a direct war with Russia, President Vladimir Putin warned, arguing that political shifts across the EU reflect growing public discontent with the policies of the Western “globalist elites.”

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Friday, Putin said Europe’s current political and economic troubles are the result of “systemic mistakes” made by its leaders in foreign policy, security, and economics after the end of the Cold War.

The globalist elites, Putin said, have convinced themselves that they are “at the top of Olympus” and effectively incapable of being wrong, but their mistakes have since accumulated “like a snowball.”

In the sphere of security, Putin pointed to NATO’s eastward expansion and Western efforts to bring Ukraine into the US-led military bloc, which Moscow considers a root cause of the conflict. Western governments are now frightening their populations with an imaginary ‘Russian threat’ while pushing Europe closer to a direct confrontation, he argued.

“We are not threatening and are not going to threaten European countries. Why would we?” Putin said.

He warned, however, that plans floated by a number of European NATO members to deploy forces to Ukraine could cross that line.

“They are now talking about how they are considering sending troops into Ukrainian territory. This means war with Russia.”

Putin argued that European voters increasingly recognize where these policies could lead.

Putin declined to comment directly on German domestic politics, but said the results and broader political trends in Europe appear to be rooted in growing dissatisfaction with the direction taken by the continent’s current leadership.

Conservative journalist Tucker Carlson has warned that the world is on the brink of a global conflict that could end with the use of nuclear weapons, in an interview with Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi broadcast on RT on Saturday.

Carlson argues that the US is already effectively at war with Russia through Ukraine and warns that further escalation risks a nuclear confrontation.

“The CIA is running the war. The US intelligence services are running the war out of Ukraine against Russia,” he says. “The United States is at war with Russia, and the only kind of conceivable end stage if this continues is a nuclear exchange in which everyone is killed.”

The Ukraine conflict and the US-Israeli war on Iran “have merged into a global war,” he argued, warning that the confrontation now risks the very existence of the US.

Carlson also accuses the Trump administration of abandoning the agenda it campaigned on, saying President Donald Trump and his advisers have “almost systematically betrayed the people who voted for him in 2024.”

He called this “the greatest betrayal that I’m aware of in the history of American politics.”

The interview also covers political censorship in the US, the rise of BRICS, China’s growing global influence, and the changing balance of power internationally.

Watch the full interview with Tucker Carlson on Going Underground

🚨SEASON PREMIERE OF GOING UNDERGROUND⚡️

Tucker Carlson: We Are on the Brink of a WORLD WAR That Ends With The Use of NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Why did Donald Trump start the war on Iran, knowing the disastrous consequences for his Presidency and Gulf allies?

Why is Donald Trump… pic.twitter.com/twh7Wtr9aJ

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) September 11, 2026

Gulf turns into a shooting gallery

The US-Iran conflict moved increasingly onto the water this week, with oil tankers, warships, and drones all getting involved around one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

Washington struck five Iranian crude carriers on Tuesday after previously attacking three other commercial vessels. Tehran retaliated, claiming strikes on eight tankers and two US Navy vessels, while an Iranian attack reportedly damaged several US warplanes at an airbase in Jordan.

Iran also captured an American underwater drone, and two days later, released footage of a US Saildrone surveillance vessel burning in the water.

The escalating hostilities saw Brent crude surge back above $100 a barrel this week, breaking the threshold for the first time in months.

Meanwhile, Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia’s energy infrastructure have added to fears of further disruption as the kingdom’s oil production in August reportedly fell to its lowest level since 1990 amid growing pressure on its usual export routes.

As oil prices continue to destabilize the global energy markets, the fallout is expected to become a major issue in the upcoming US November midterm election. The US president, however, has refused to back down, promising “a lot more” strikes on Iranian tankers.

As for concerned voters, Trump promised to pay every American adult a $5,000 “Trump Dividend” if Republicans keep control of Congress. He did not explain exactly how the payouts potentially costing well over $1 trillion would be funded.

Speaking of enormous piles of money...

An RT investigation looked at Ukraine’s industrial-scale scam-call business, which is estimated to generate around $1 billion every month and employs some 60,000 people.

The business has also become entangled with allegations that corrupt Ukrainian officials have been taking protection money from the very fraudsters they were supposed to go after, leading to the resignation of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.

Separately, the New York Times reported that Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste, and mismanagement in military procurement in 2024 alone.

While investigators searched for Ukraine’s missing money, Washington continued looking for a peace deal. After Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Kiev last weekend, Trump spoke with Putin by phone on Tuesday.

Moscow said it hopes Russia-US-Ukraine talks can resume, while Zelensky floated the UAE, Türkiye, and Switzerland as possible venues.

While Washington has reopened direct channels with Moscow, some European governments that have spent years doing the opposite have increasingly felt the political cost at home.

The clearest example came in Germany, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt last weekend, crushing Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU. Migration was a major issue, but the AfD has also campaigned against sanctions on Russia, Germany’s massive support for Kiev and the abandonment of cheap Russian energy.

Merz said he was “deeply shocked” by the result. He then announced that he would change virtually nothing.

Public dissent grows, governments double down

None of this appears to have slowed Europe’s confrontation with Russia. Moscow this week ordered Germany’s consulate in St. Petersburg and Goethe-Institut cultural centers in Russia to close in retaliation for similar measures taken by Berlin.

Hungary’s new government, which has reversed the comparatively pragmatic Russia policy of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, expelled ten Russian diplomats. Moscow promised a “harsh and painful” response.

Lithuania, meanwhile, moved closer to scrapping its constitutional ban on hosting weapons of mass destruction, potentially opening the door to nuclear weapons being stationed in the NATO country. Moscow warned that these weapons would become Russian targets.

160km ‘near miss’

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store continued the Western ‘Russian drone’ hysteria by claiming that Vladimir Zelensky’s plane was “almost hit by a drone” while leaving Moldova. Western media duly ran with the story.

However, soon after, Moldova itself pointed out that Zelensky’s aircraft had been sitting safely on the ground, faced “no direct threat,” and that the drone eventually crashed around 160km from Chisinau airport.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov summed up Europe’s current approach rather dramatically, accusing the EU of committing economic harakiri by cutting itself off from Russian energy while its own citizens and industry bear the cost.

The assessment was only further proved accurate after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, one of Kiev’s strongest supporters, similarly warned on Thursday that the EU can forget about competing with China or the US after cutting itself off from cheap Russian energy.

While much of Europe remains focused on sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and military confrontation, Moscow and New Delhi spent the week discussing planes, trade, energy, space, and investment.

The first INNOPROM. India industrial fair opened in New Delhi, bringing together more than 120 Russian and Indian companies, with agreements covering 105 Russian Il-114-300 regional passenger aircraft and plans for local production of the SJ-100 jet in India.

In other news

AI had another reassuring week as Anthropic revealed five cases in which scientists used its Claude models to help research dangerous pathogens and increase transmission of deadly viruses, which could be used to develop lethal biological weapons.

The report came days after Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger said he believes there is a greater than 10% chance AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade, while his colleague Jacob Coxon quit the company, warning that sufficiently advanced AI could one day help create “extinction-level bioweapons.”

OpenAI, meanwhile, faced new reports that its autonomous agents had once again bypassed restrictions and used outside websites to communicate with one another.

The UK spent tens of thousands of pounds to charter a plane to deport one migrant, according to a report by The Telegraph, citing Home office data.

The report details millions of pounds spent by the British government on charter flights for deportations.

In the year to date, 74 charter flights have cost British taxpayers £13.8 million (around $19 million), including one passenger jet that carried one deportee.

The flight to France on January 7, carrying one deportee, cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds, according to the report. It was initially scheduled to carry several migrants but ultimately departed with only one, who reportedly had complex medical needs.

The other passengers were removed from the flight for undisclosed reasons. Sources told the newspaper that officials decided to proceed with the charter because it would otherwise have gone unused.

The 74 flights carried a total of 2,835 people, putting the average cost at around £186,000 per flight and nearly £5,000 per person. The figures do not include removals on regular commercial flights or the cost of security officers accompanying deportees.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp criticized the spending, saying the figures show that the system is “not running efficiently.”

“They should be getting far more migrants deported for this cost,” he said, adding that scheduled flights could be used “for a fraction of this cost.”

Britain has faced sustained illegal migration across the English Channel. Around 33,400 people arrived in small boats in the year ending June 2026, accounting for 88% of detected illegal arrivals, according to government figures. The number was down 23% from 43,309 in the previous 12-month period.

A YouGov poll published in August found that 69% of Britons believed immigration over the previous decade was too high, while 43% said it is mostly bad for the country, up from 33% in 2016.

Migration has remained a major political issue across Europe since the 2015 crisis, when more than 1 million refugees and migrants arrived on the continent, many fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Ties between India and China have evolved significantly since the 2024 Kazan BRICS Summit, which marked their first structured, formal bilateral meeting since the tensions following the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes which saw the first fatalities between the two sides in almost 45 years.

In a sign of the improvement in ties, direct flights have once again resumed between the two countries and a few of the old trade routes have reopened. In addition, Indian citizens are once again embarking on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra pilgrimage. Mt. Kailash is a sacred mountain for the Hindus, located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

Though the boundary question has been thorny, there has been progress in other areas. In addition, there have been a string of developments on the global front, which make it imperative for India and China to join hands. Both countries are trying to maximize their influence on the international stage and hence are reaching out to multiple partners.

Mending frayed ties

The 25th round of Special Representative Talks was held recently during the visit of the Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to China. A day after the talks, both countries released an identical eight-point Joint Statement.

The most important takeaway from this Joint Statement is the “commitment to advance negotiations on a framework for the settlement of the boundary question in accordance with the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question signed in 2005.”

Both countries are energy importers and the recent tensions in the Middle East have dramatically reduced the options available to them. It is worth noting that both countries imported oil from Iran in the past, but not at present. In addition, sanctions imposed by Washington have impacted their exports to the US and it is in their mutual interest to collaborate in the economic realm. India has now increased its crude oil imports from Russia and from countries like the UAE and Venezuela.

Problem areas

One of the main problem areas in the relationship is China’s support for Pakistan. Beijing and Islamabad have been cooperating on different fronts, especially on the defense and infrastructure front. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is one of the flagship projects between the two and Pakistan is also a part of the Belt and Road Initiative. It is another area of divergence between India and China since India has not joined the Chinese-led initiative. Another major issue is that although economic ties seem to be back on track, Indian businessmen are facing a number of issues obtaining Chinese visas.

However, what is worrying for India is that China overtly and covertly supported Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, which was undertaken by India in the aftermath of the deadly attack on tourists in India in April 2025. Another point of worry is China’s growing influence in India’s backyard. Ever since Shiekh Hasina was deposed as the prime minister of Bangladesh, anti-India elements have taken root in Bangladesh and both the former caretaker leader, Muhammed Yunus, and new Prime Minister Tariq Rahman are being seen as closer to China rather than India.

The Russia factor

Both India and China have close ties with Russia and the Russia factor is one glue which has held the BRICS together. Both India and China depend to a great extent on Russian energy supplies, as both of them are developing countries. In addition, Russia is still one of the major defense suppliers for India. The Indian prime minister and Chinese President Xi Jinping recently met on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek.

Beijing has its own set of challenges, one of them being the tariffs imposed by the US. Another major challenge for China is that on the demographic front, the population is falling rapidly and this will lead to many changes, especially in the economy.

Both countries need to manage their differences with the long-term picture in mind. In addition, there are countries like Afghanistan, where the two can pool their efforts since both of them stand to gain from a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan.

The road ahead

Bilateral trade between India and China stood at $151.1 billion in the financial year ending March 31 in spite of the tensions on the political front. It is also worth noting that Xi is likely to visit India for the BRICS Summit in New Delhi September 12-13, which will be his first visit to India since 2019.

The road ahead will not be an easy one for either India or China, but it is in the interest of the two countries not to let their differences become flashpoints. As in the case of China’s relations with East Asian countries like South Korea and Japan (with whom China has tensions on the political front, but maintains good ties on the economic front), China and India should follow a similar model in the larger interests of its own populations.

Belarus will bolster its military combat readiness and could even announce “mobilization” to test it, President Alexander Lukashenko has said.

The Belarusian leader made the remarks on Friday when he toured the Obuz-Lesnovsky military training grounds near the city of Baranovichi in the west of the country. During his visit, Lukashenko met top military officials and inspected communications and control systems. The president said that he was set to continue vetting the country’s forces, revealing that an artillery brigade and signal troops are currently undergoing extensive inspections. 

“I’ve already put it in plain terms: the army needs a shake-up – the time has come. The entire army. We will vet everyone. Right up to the point of mobilization,” Lukashenko told reporters.

The vetting process is set to be as close to real war conditions as possible, he added. “We are preparing for war so that it does not happen,” the Belarusian leader stated.

While it was not immediately clear which countries exactly Lukashenko described as “monsters,” most of the Belarusian neighbors’ militaries greatly surpass its capabilities. Minsk maintains a modestly sized military of less than 50,000 active-duty servicemen, against some 1.5 million troops in Belarus’ key ally, Russia. Ukraine, which has been locked in a conflict with Russia for over four years, is believed to have around 900,000 active-duty personnel.

Other neighbors of Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia are NATO member states. While the two Baltic nations have tiny militaries, Warsaw has been actively building up its force recently. Poland has some 220,000 active-duty troops and continues to expand the force as well as rearm it with modern weaponry. Numbers-wise, the country’s military has become the third-largest within the NATO bloc, surpassed only by the US and Türkiye.

BRICS leaders are meeting in New Delhi this weekend for the group’s 18th annual summit.

India took over the rotating chair of the group in January and has adopted a different tone. Rhetoric about de-dollarization and overhauling the current financial system has taken a back seat to more practical considerations of economic connectivity.

The summit comes against a mixed backdrop. On the one hand, Chinese President Xi Jinping will be in attendance in what will be his first visit to ⁠India in seven years. This underscores the importance Beijing attaches to BRICS. Also traveling to Delhi is Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On the other hand, recently joined BRICS members UAE and Iran have found themselves on opposite sides of the hostilities in the Middle East. A two-day meeting of BRICS foreign ministers in New Delhi in May concluded without a joint statement due to divergent views on the Middle East, and this weekend’s summit will be taking place in the shadow of this tension.

Nevertheless, as trade ties among key BRICS countries keep growing, the methodical work of creating new financial channels and architecture continues apace. BRICS is slowly but surely building an entire institutional ecosystem for trade, investment, and settlement. It is a process often unfolding without loud pronouncements and far from news cycles.

RT takes a look at what’s going on in BRICS these days.

Perhaps the most important tangible proposals on the agenda for this year’s summit are ones to link the payment systems of BRICS countries.

There are two tracks for this.

When implemented, it will make sending money between BRICS countries more like making a domestic electronic payment rather than sending money through a chain of banks and currencies. Currently, for example, if an Indian company buys something from a Brazilian company, the cross-border payment can involve such hassles as correspondent banks and currency conversions – not to mention additional costs.

According to Kremlin aide Kirill Dmitriev, an agreement on BRICS Pay is forthcoming at the summit, where a specific emphasis will be placed on financial questions.

“We are focusing specifically on the financial track. We lead the group responsible for cooperation on financial issues, and payments are a very important part of this,” he said.

This does not necessarily mean, however, that the entire BRICS Pay architecture is about to become operational, but it does mean that the project might receive a large push.

The second track is the proposed linking of members’ central-bank digital currencies (CBDC) for cross-border payments, which India has reportedly included on the agenda of the event.

Linking up the CBDCs of BRICS countries would make the central-bank-issued digital money interoperable across countries. This initiative represents a deeper level in the financial plumbing than BRICS Pay. It would allow cross-border transactions to be settled more directly and with fewer intermediaries and steps. It would also represent an additional settlement route outside the Western-centered architecture.

Importantly, however, this is explicitly not being framed as the creation of a BRICS currency, an initiative that has at times been the subject of speculation. 

The CBDC link-up project remains at the discussion stage.

BRICS trade

Trade within the group continues to grow. Intra-BRICS exports totaled about $1.2 trillion in 2025. India’s trade with the other BRICS members, for example, reached around $416 billion in 2025, growing at nearly 10% annually from 2021–25.

Up for endorsement by leaders at the summit is the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy 2030, which is an extension of an existing BRICS economic strategy document that, among other things, focuses on trade and investment, the digital economy, and financial cooperation.

It is this type of unglamorous nitty-gritty work that can provide the foundation for BRICS economic infrastructure to eventually match the size and scale of the group’s economies.

Meanwhile, the New Development Bank, established by BRICS in 2015, has now approved roughly $43 billion in lending. While still relatively small in scale, the bank is an example of a BRICS institution that is now up and running.

Energy ties

The crucial energy trade continues to expand as well, notwithstanding Western attempts to suppress Russian exports of oil and gas.

India’s imports of Russian crude reached 2.47 million barrels per day in July 2026, a record 50.8% of India’s total crude imports and 62.4% above the figure from the year prior. For April–July 2026, Russia supplied 43.25% of India’s crude imports, up from 37% a year earlier. Russia remains China’s largest crude oil supplier and the two countries continue to develop energy ties.

Meanwhile, Russia’s recently launched greenfield Vostok Oil, a massive cluster of fields deep in the Arctic, is expected to greatly expand Russia’s energy trade with Asia via the Northern Sea Route, although it will be years before volumes are expected to reach capacity. Nevertheless, this represents a strategically important route that bypasses the fraught Middle East.

Nuclear cooperation has also been a prominent part of the broader BRICS energy and technology agenda. China, India, and Russia are all major powers in civilian nuclear energy and have sought to boost cooperation in recent years.

The bigger context

BRICS has sometimes moved more slowly than proponents would like and has at times been derided, especially in Western policy circles, for a perceived lack of concrete action.

Meanwhile, the crisis in the Middle East, in which BRICS members Iran and the UAE are at odds, is being portrayed as a challenge for unified action.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that the differences between Iran and the UAE had a “negative impact” on efforts to prepare a joint declaration, although he expressed optimism that diplomatic efforts could bridge the gap.

However, behind the scenes and at a remove from the vicissitudes of politics, work continues to create the infrastructure that will provide nations representing half of the world’s population and 40% of GDP greater economic autonomy. Developing this infrastructure is also at the heart of efforts to create alternatives to Western-dominated systems.

The on-ramp may be long, but once this infrastructure is in place at scale, global financial channels could start looking very different.

This weekend's summit is another step in this direction. 

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has filed a criminal complaint against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after he claimed that the right-wing party is calling for ethnic cleansing. Merz made the remark in a heated parliamentary debate following the AfD’s resounding victory in the regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, according to multiple polls, enjoying the support of 28% of respondents nationally. The right-wing opposition Eurosceptic party advocates tougher immigration controls and is also highly critical of the German government’s support for Ukraine, as well as sanctions against Russia.

In a statement on Thursday, the AfD parliamentary group – the largest opposition faction in the German parliament – accused Merz of defamation that goes beyond constitutionally protected free speech in parliament.

Stephan Brandner, the secretary and legal counsel for the AfD parliamentary group, stated that with “his baseless and repugnant remarks” directed not only at the party itself, but also at millions of German citizens, Merz has “crossed a line… in a way that carries criminal implications.”

The concept of ‘remigration', which has been gaining traction among right-wing circles in Europe in recent years, is usually understood to mean the return of criminal and ‘non-assimilated’ immigrants and, more broadly, residents with a migrant background to their countries of origin.

Merz made the remark days after the AfD won Sunday’s regional elections in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt with 43.8% of the vote.
The chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party finished a distant second, securing just over 17.2%.

Speaking at a press conference, Merz acknowledged that the Christian Democrats, who had for years dominated Saxony-Anhalt’s political landscape, had suffered the “most serious electoral defeat in decades.”

An INSA poll published by Bild in late August indicated that support for the governing Christian Democratic CDU/CSU bloc had dipped to 20% nationwide, with 78% of respondents dissatisfied with Merz’s coalition government.

Meanwhile, Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD’s lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, said on Thursday that the party does not “categorically demonize the production of defense equipment, because we will naturally need the appropriate tools for the subsequent remigration and deportation drive.”

“This is also in the interest of internal security, our own stability, and state defense,” the politician stated in response to a journalist’s question that referenced recent media reports of negotiations between Israel’s Elbit Systems and regional authorities. The arms manufacturer is reportedly seeking to set up a plant in the town of Sangerhausen.

In recent months, multiple establishment political figures have called for the opposition AfD to be banned for presumably posing a threat to Germany’s constitutional order and democracy.

In late August, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Baden-Wurttemberg Governor Cem Ozdemir said that the AfD should be outlawed as it supposedly calls into question the “inviolability of human dignity” enshrined in the German constitution. The politicians who represent the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party, respectively, cited the right-wing party’s tough-on-immigration stance.

The AfD has already been placed under surveillance by the German federal authorities, which classify the party as a ‘suspected right-wing extremist’ entity. In several regions, local AfD chapters have been subjected to even wider monitoring.

A Cossack motor rally and a closed screening of the film The Elista Miracle were also held in the republic, attended, among others, by descendants of the witnesses Semyon and Maria Bondarenko.

The culmination of the celebrations came on September 10, when believers received the icon The Appearance of Christ the Savior to the Praying in the City of Elista at the Kazan Cathedral.

After the Divine Liturgy, more than 2,000 people took part in a religious procession to the Exaltation of the Cross Church, while earlier the holy image had visited churches in the district centers of the republic.

As part of the anniversary events, a strategic session was held on the role of pilgrimage in strengthening the unity of Russia.

The festive evening concluded with a concert on Victory Square and a performance by the Choir of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery with the program Russia Is Our Only One, which included a new composition by Fyodor Stepanov set to verses by Hieromonk Roman.

On September 11, 1946, a miracle of the Appearance of Christ the Savior to the faithful took place in the Exaltation of the Cross Church, witnessed by the priest and parishioners.

After that, parish member Semyon Bondarenko set out in search of an artist capable of capturing the miracle in an icon. As a result, the icon The Appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Praying in the City of Elista was brought to Elista in the spring of 1947.

A Polish MEP has taken an axe to a memorial honoring Nazi-linked Ukrainian nationalist paramilitaries responsible for massacring Polish civilians during World War II.

In a video posted on X on Thursday, Grzegorz Braun can be seen repeatedly striking a stone obelisk in Bialystok, near Poland’s border with Ukraine, which commemorates members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

The UPA was the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), a WWII-era ultranationalist movement led by Stepan Bandera which collaborated with Nazi Germany. UPA fighters massacred tens of thousands of ethnic Polish civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, now largely in western Ukraine.

”The UPA monument in the Dolhobyczow municipality in Hrubieszow County is to be dismantled,” he wrote. “The obelisk offending the memory of the victims of the Ukrainian genocide against Poles should be removed... immediately after documenting the crime of Banderism,” Braun added.

Pomnik UPA w gminie Dołhobyczów w powiecie hrubieszowskim do likwidacji❗️

Obelisk obrażający pamięć ofiar ukraińskiego Ludobójstwa na Polakach powinien zostać usunięty profesjonalnymi narzędziami natychmiast po udokumentowaniu przestępstwa banderyzmu!#StopBanderyzacjiPolski… pic.twitter.com/8Q4QZ2z5vJ

— Grzegorz Braun (@GrzegorzBraun_) September 10, 2026

According to Braun, local Poles feared Ukrainian retaliation if they removed the memorial. He said one proposal to dismantle it was met with the response: “We’re afraid they’ll set us on fire.”

The site has repeatedly been vandalized. Unidentified people damaged inscriptions on the obelisk earlier this month, while the Ukrainian Embassy expressed “deep outrage” after another attack in July.

The OUN and UPA massacres remain a major source of tension between Poland and Ukraine. Warsaw recognizes the killings of predominantly Polish civilians in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, and neighboring regions in 1943-1945 as genocide and estimates that up to 100,000 Poles were killed.

The dispute has intensified amid Kiev’s continued honoring of WWII-era Ukrainian nationalists. Vladimir Zelensky took part in the May reburial of OUN leader Andrey Melnik as part of efforts to establish a “Pantheon of outstanding Ukrainians” and later granted a Ukrainian military unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.”

Polish MEP Ewa Zajaczkowska-Hernik has meanwhile called for an end to free weapons deliveries to Ukraine, arguing that Warsaw has provided some $4.6 billion in military aid only to be repaid with a “Banderite pantheon of heroes.” 

”Let’s stop being suckers for Ukraine!” she wrote on X.

Russian President Vladimir Putin weighed in last month, arguing that the neo-Nazi nature of the Ukrainian government has become so visible that even Poland’s strongly anti-Russian authorities can no longer ignore it. Warsaw, he said, faces an “obvious demand” from its population to confront the issue.

An August IBRiS survey separately found that 67% of Poles support deporting unemployed Ukrainian men of military age.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Americans watched in horror as hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed. Less than a month later, the US went to war in Afghanistan. Two years after that, it invaded Iraq.

What began as an attack by Al-Qaeda would come to reshape US foreign policy, the Middle East, and the way Islam was discussed around the world.

A quarter of a century later, September 11 still casts a long shadow over American public life. Al-Qaeda’s responsibility for the attacks has long been established, but the edges of the story remain blurred. Documents remained classified for years and only emerged piece by piece; lawsuits dragged on; questions lingered over who might have known more, who might have helped, and how far the web surrounding the hijackers actually extended. In the gaps between what was proven, what remained secret, and what was merely suspected, conspiracy theories flourished – but so did genuine political and legal questions that America has never quite managed to put to rest.

Under former President Joe Biden, the issue returned to public attention when his administration ordered a new review and declassification of government records related to 9/11, following sustained pressure from victims’ families. The Saudi question also became entangled with a broader political reassessment of Washington’s relationship with Riyadh following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In that sense, September 11 left behind more than a settled account of a terrorist attack. It left a long political shadow – one that continued to affect how Americans view particular Arab states, their governments, and eventually, the Muslim world.

The architecture of suspicion

The more immediate consequence of September 11, however, was broader than the hunt for those responsible. The attacks changed the conceptual framework through which the US understood Islam itself.

After 9/11, the country needed explanations: Why did it happen, what produced Islamist violence, and how could another attack be prevented? The American system responded in a characteristically American way: It went looking for expertise. Government agencies poured money into universities, professional associations, and think tanks, demanding explanations – and quickly.

But there was an almost paradoxical mismatch between the question and some of the intellectual tools available to answer it. Many of the scholars being asked to make sense of Islam, political Islam, and jihadist violence built their expertise studying religion in a different context: Christianity in the US, including Christian fundamentalism and its relationship with political extremism.

To Grigory Lukyanov, a research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and deputy dean at Russia’s State Academic University for the Humanities, the episode illustrates something larger about the American response to 9/11: Confronted with an unfamiliar threat and under enormous pressure to produce answers quickly, institutions reached for intellectual tools they already possessed.

Islam increasingly became something to be categorized in security terms. 

A movement classified as ‘moderate’ might be treated as a potential partner; one categorized as ‘radical’ could become a target of surveillance, sanctions, or counterterrorism operations, but the consequences quickly moved beyond policy and into everyday life. In September 2001, 28% of Americans said they had become more suspicious of people of Middle Eastern descent; in March 2002, 25% of Americans said Islam was more likely than other religions to encourage violence (now, 25 years later, it’s 51%).

For Lukyanov, the resulting distortions were almost built into the speed and structure of the response. “It is difficult to search for alternatives in counterfactual history,” he said. “The attack had happened. What could the United States do – simply not conduct a War on Terror? Retreat into something like the Monroe Doctrine, recoil from what had happened and accept defeat? That was almost impossible to imagine.”

The US of 2001 was at the height of its post-Cold War power, the Russian expert said. The Soviet Union disappeared a decade earlier; China had not yet emerged as a peer economic competitor; Washington possessed unmatched military, financial, and political reach. September 11 was therefore interpreted not only as a terrorist atrocity, but as a challenge to American global leadership.

“Not responding was impossible,” Lukyanov said. “The question is that the response was built on the experience, analytical frameworks, decision-making patterns and limitations that American political elites had at that moment.”

America’s road to endless war

If the securitization of Islam was one consequence of September 11, the most visible was measured in soldiers, bases, and wars. Yet here as well, 9/11 was less a beginning than an acceleration.

The US was hardly a newcomer to the Middle East in 2001. Its involvement expanded dramatically after the Cold War and the 1990-91 Gulf War. The US had troops and military facilities across the region, protected the Gulf monarchies, enforced no-fly zones over Iraq, supported Israel, and remained indispensable to Arab-Israeli diplomacy. By the end of the 1990s, American primacy in the region was difficult to contest.

“The United States began sinking into the Middle Eastern swamp long before September 11,” Lukyanov said. “There were essentially no other external players, and almost no major conflict or problem in the region could be resolved without the participation of Washington.”

September 11 was therefore not the moment America entered the Middle East. It was, in Lukyanov’s words, a crescendo – the moment an already extensive political and military commitment became something larger and far more difficult to control.

Five years later, Taliban fighters patrol the capital in American-supplied Humvees, carrying American weapons and wearing American tactical gear. Around $7 billion worth of US-funded military equipment remained in Afghanistan after the collapse of the forces the US spent two decades building.

Destroying one enemy, creating another

Then came Iraq.

Unlike Afghanistan, the 2003 invasion was not presented as war against the organization that carried out the September 11 attacks. The administration of George W. Bush argued that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction (which were never found) and presented Iraq as part of a broader post-9/11 security threat. But by then, the invasion had already removed the Iraqi state’s leadership, dissolved much of its coercive apparatus, and opened a political vacuum at the center of the Arab world.

One consequence of the US invasion of Iraq can still be felt today, Lukyanov argues, pointing to the ongoing exchange of strikes between Iran and US forces across the region.

“It was the American invasion of Iraq, prompted by the 9/11 policies, that created the conditions for a geopolitical conflict in that country, escalating the geopolitical standoff between the United States and Iran,” Lukyanov adds. “It was precisely because of this that the United States significantly increased its support for Israel and its policies.”

Hussein’s fall destroyed a regime that brutally dominated Iraq for decades, but it also removed one of the principal Arab counterweights to Iran. Iraq’s long-suppressed Shia majority acquired unprecedented political power, while many Sunnis who occupied privileged positions under the old order suddenly found themselves marginalized.

The friends America abandoned

The War on Terror did not only transform America’s enemies, it also transformed its friendships.

Across the Arab world, authoritarian governments quickly discovered the political value of becoming indispensable to America’s new struggle. Tunisia, Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, and several Gulf monarchies expanded counterterrorism cooperation with the US, while governments increasingly presented domestic repression as part of the same fight against extremism. The distinction between jihadists and non-violent Islamist opponents could become dangerously elastic. Organizations that threatened the regime politically could be folded into a much broader security problem.

For aging authoritarian systems, the new order offered an opportunity. Lukyanov argues that some regimes came to believe that cooperation against a common enemy would buy them a kind of political absolution. “The War on Terror gave them the illusion that, by acting against a common enemy together with the United States, they would receive forgiveness for everything that had happened in the past.”

Few countries tested that proposition as dramatically as Libya.

Muammar Gaddafi spent decades as an adversary of Washington. But he was also an enemy of the jihadists seeking to overthrow him. After 9/11, this suddenly gave Tripoli and Washington something to talk about. Libya shared intelligence on Al-Qaeda and other Islamist militants with Western services; in 2003, Gaddafi renounced terrorism and agreed to dismantle his weapons-of-mass-destruction programs. Sanctions were progressively lifted, diplomatic relations restored, and in 2006, the US removed Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But there was a catch. Cooperation abroad did not require meaningful liberalization at home. Libya remained brutally authoritarian even as relations with Washington improved; elsewhere, the counterterrorism imperative similarly gave security states additional room to operate. In Egypt, emergency laws allowed thousands to be detained without fair trials, while Washington tolerated serious abuses by governments it relied upon for counterterrorism cooperation. 

Then, a decade after September 11, the bargain began to come apart when uprisings began in Tunisia in late 2010, and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled. In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak resigned after nearly 30 years in power. And in Libya, the reversal was even more extraordinary: Gaddafi – the former enemy who dismantled his weapons programs, shared intelligence on jihadists, and rebuilt relations with the West – faced an uprising of his own. NATO intervened against his forces, and in October 2011, Gaddafi was killed.

The political vacuum produced another irony, Lukyanov said. For decades, some Arab governments portrayed Islamism as one of the principal dangers from which their rule protected both their own societies and the West. Once several of these governments fell, however, Islamist movements proved to be among the best-organized political forces left standing. Ennahda won Tunisia’s first post-revolutionary election; in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood emerged as the dominant electoral force and its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won the presidency. “In the end, in both Egypt and Tunisia, for example, movements that had provided Al-Qaeda with a social and political support base came to power,” Lukyanov said.

In the places where revolutions did not produce functioning political systems, the circle became darker still. Libya descended into fragmentation and civil war; Yemen collapsed into a regional conflict; Syria became the battlefield in which local rebellion, state repression, regional competition, and transnational jihadism converged. Groups linked to Al-Qaeda, and eventually ISIS, found new territory in the wreckage.

When the War on Terror came home

Six days after the attacks, Bush visited a Washington mosque and declared that “Islam is peace,” seeking to draw a line between the perpetrators and millions of ordinary Muslims. On the ground, however, the backlash was already well underway.

The effect was measurable within Muslim communities themselves; 57% of Muslim Americans said they had experienced some form of bias or discrimination since the attacks, and 48% said their lives had changed for the worse. Yet the response was not uniformly hostile; 79% also said they had experienced an act of kindness or support from friends or colleagues of other faiths.

The consequences went beyond the immediate backlash. The security architecture built in the aftermath of 9/11 also expanded the reach and militarization of law enforcement. By 2020, nearly 65% of the roughly 18,000 US law enforcement agencies had received military equipment through the Pentagon’s 1033 program, such as weapons, ammunition, and tactical armored vehicles.

“If we return to the question of how Islam and the Islamic world have changed, Islam as a teaching has not changed,” Lukyanov stresses. “Nor have the borders of Muslim states changed. What has changed, however, is the position of Muslim communities in Western countries and in countries outside Muslim-majority regions.”

A quarter of a century later, the legacy of 9/11 extends far beyond the attacks themselves. Not only the US, but the world around it changed: Wars reshaped the Middle East politics (though did not change the region’s borders), new extremist movements emerged, regional rivalries deepened, and Muslim communities in the West faced greater suspicion and scrutiny. In that sense, perhaps the most consequential story of 9/11 for the Muslim world is not what happened on that day, but what followed in response.

The US exploited the wave of international sympathy and solidarity in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to expand its global influence, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. He also argued that Washington’s conduct during the invasion of Afghanistan served as a pattern for further conflicts in Iraq, Libya, and other countries.

In an interview with RBK on Friday, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks, Lavrov reflected on their global aftermath. He recalled that Russia – like many other countries – had thrown its weight behind the US response, sharing intelligence and providing other support for operations against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Russia’s cooperation with the West later expanded through the NATO-Russia Council, including projects involving Afghanistan, counter-narcotics work, transit arrangements, and support for the Western helicopter fleet, he added.

He pointed to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, noting that the subsequent dismantling of Ba’ath Party and the country’s military helped produce forces that became the backbone of the Islamic State. He also blamed Western intervention for the destruction of Libya, adding that the conflicts in Yugoslavia, Georgia, and Ukraine were an attempt by a “unipolar” world to dictate the course of international affairs.

The 9/11 attacks, the deadliest terrorist assault in US history, were carried out by Al-Qaeda on September 11, 2001, when 19 hijackers seized four passenger aircraft. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York, causing both skyscrapers to collapse, while a third struck the Pentagon outside Washington. The fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers. The attacks killed 2,977 people, excluding the perpetrators, and injured thousands more.

Following the tragedy, Russian President Vladimir Putin was the first world leader to call then-US President George W. Bush, offering both condolences and assistance.

Malian doctors have successfully separated conjoined twin girls in what the government described as the first operation of its kind in the West African country.

The procedure was performed on Wednesday by a multidisciplinary team at Gabriel Toure University Hospital in the capital, Bamako, the Health Ministry announced the next day. The twins were born by cesarean section on August 29 following a full-term pregnancy in which congenital abnormalities had already been detected. They were joined through parts of their urinary and digestive systems and shared a bladder and colon, according to an official account reported by local outlet Maliweb.

Health Minister Assa Badiallo Toure visited the newborns and praised the medical team. “Such an operation is truly a feat,” she said, describing it as an important milestone for specialized medicine in Mali.

Hospital director Professor Thierno Madani Diop assembled a team of pediatric surgeons, anesthesiologists, intensive-care specialists, cardiologists, radiologists, pharmacists, and laboratory and operating-room personnel to carry out the procedure.

The operation in Mali follows another rare medical success in Africa in March, when doctors at Mankweng Hospital, a rural public facility in South Africa, separated conjoined newborns. The babies were reported to be in stable condition in neonatal intensive care after the procedure, according to the South African government.

The 18th BRICS Summit, opening in New Delhi on Friday, will test not only the geopolitical resilience of the largest grouping in the non-Western world, but also the maturity of Indian diplomacy.

India has set itself an extraordinarily difficult task of trying to pour the oil of reconciliation onto the increasingly stormy waters of world politics.

The theme of its 2026 BRICS presidency, “Building for Sustainability, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainable Development,” might sound hopelessly optimistic as the Ukraine conflict and sanctions against Russia continue, the US and Iran remain locked in confrontation, Western pressure on China is growing, Africa and Latin America face what BRICS countries regard as neo-colonial practices, and while trade and technology wars are multiplying.

Against such a background, talk of innovation and sustainable development can seem detached from reality, yet this is precisely where India sees a role for itself; as divisions between rival centers of power deepen, New Delhi is attempting the diplomatic equivalent of walking a tightrope. It believes its longstanding principle of “strategic autonomy” will allow it not merely to keep its balance, but to make a wider contribution to international stability.

That approach is central to understanding India’s BRICS presidency, given that among the BRICS states, India occupies a unique position. It maintains strategic partnerships with the United States and Western European countries whose policies increasingly seek to contain Russia and China, while, at the same time, New Delhi has refused Western demands to distance itself from Moscow.

Some within BRICS may accuse India of being insufficiently willing to confront the West, while Western governments repeatedly criticize India for maintaining close relations with Russia, often invoking its status as the world’s largest democracy.

Shortly before the summit, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar offered a characteristically pointed defense of this strategic autonomy at an international forum in Finland.

Asked by a British moderator whether cooperation with Russia was immoral, Jaishankar replied that no European country had ever been attacked with Indian weapons, while European weapons had been used against India.

The exchange neatly captured New Delhi’s position as India has no intention of allowing either side to dictate its foreign policy.

Being caught between two fires is rarely comfortable, but India’s strategy isn’t simply to avoid getting burnt; instead, it intends to draw warmth from both while retaining the freedom to choose its own course.

That is both the risk and the ambition behind India’s BRICS presidency.

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

Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff Kirill Budanov is being investigated by Western-backed anti-corruption detectives over possible crimes committed during his tenure as head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR), a source familiar with the matter has told RT.

Zelensky chose Budanov to replace Andrey Yermak, who quit amid a widening series of corruption scandals at the heart of the Ukrainian administration.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has launched a new probe into Budanov over possible wrongdoing during his tenure in the intelligence agency HUR, which he headed from 2020 to 2026.

Last month, Ukrainian media linked Budanov to a money laundering scandal involving his now-fired deputy in Zelensky’s office, Irina Mudraya. NABU accused her of orchestrating a scheme to use bags of cash to pay bail for former Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who is a suspect in a separate graft case involving Zelensky’s inner circle.

In surveillance tapes published by NABU, Mudraya said she was acting on behalf of her superiors without naming anyone. The outlet suggested, based on the context of the conversation, that she was likely referring to Budanov when she quoted an official as saying that “corruption needs to be systematized and controlled” and not combated.

Asked by Hromadske about the allegation, Budanov said: “Let the court sort out whose names are mentioned and where.”

HUR came under media scrutiny earlier this month after its personnel engaged in firefights in Kiev with troops from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The altercation stemmed from a custody dispute over a member of a neo-Nazi-led militia force, which the military intelligence incorporated under Budanov’s leadership.

Zelensky previously tried and failed to place the Western-backed agency under the control of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Russia is open to cooperation and doing business with “the whole world,” President Vladimir Putin has said. This includes both Western economic powers – despite what he described as their “ugly forms of competition” – and the growing economies of the Global South and East.

“We are ready to cooperate with all our partners,” Putin told the BRICS Business Forum panel at the 18th BRICS summit in India, adding that they could be “old or new.”

Putin said that the shared goal is to unlock the development potential of Russia and its partners through “business diplomacy,” making it easier for companies and entrepreneurs to cooperate.

“We do not want to impose any restrictions on ourselves or turn inward – whether at the national, corporate, or even the broader level of our partnership,” he stated. “We are not building our cooperation against anyone. We stand for ourselves and our interests.”

Russia is seeking to expand practical business cooperation with its partners in industry, trade, and tourism, Putin said, noting that Moscow has established a national business cooperation committee bringing together more than 40 of the country’s largest companies.

“Together with our partners, we stand ready to contribute to global energy and food security,” Putin said.

Putin noted that the world is undergoing “deep structural shifts,” with traditional economic powers being displaced by new engines of growth – a natural process that he insisted “cannot be stopped.” He argued, however, that Western economies facing growing competition increasingly resort to unsavory methods.

“Sometimes competition takes ugly forms,” he said, citing the destruction of pipelines, attempts to block international transport routes, unilateral “illegal restrictions,” and secondary sanctions against countries “unwilling to follow others’ interests.”

Russia has faced more than 30,000 sanctions since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict – twice as many as all other countries combined, Putin said. Moscow nevertheless weathered the unprecedented pressure by relying on domestic business, science, and engineering while redirecting trade toward “reliable partners,” he stated. Russia’s economy has become more resilient, with growth outpacing the global average over the past three years, he added.

Speaking of BRICS, Putin described the group as an increasingly powerful force in the global economy.

“Through our combined efforts, BRICS is building a resilient and viable platform for global growth,” he said. “This is not being imposed on us from the outside by the so-called ‘golden billion’, nor are we trying to impose anything on anyone else.”

Putin noted that BRICS countries generated more than 40% of global GDP over the past five years, compared with 29% for the G7, while contributing more than half of global economic growth against just 18% for the G7. He attributed the momentum to the grouping’s vast population, dynamic domestic markets, and rapidly expanding national companies with global ambitions.

Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews are flocking to central Ukraine, praying, singing, and dancing as they prepare to mark the Jewish New Year.

The annual pilgrimage draws thousands of visitors from around the world.

But who are they, why do they travel to a relatively small Ukrainian city every year, and are they still coming despite the conflict?

Who are the Hasidic Jews?

Hasidism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that emerged in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. Over time, it developed into a number of groups with their own traditions and religious leaders.

Most of those making the annual journey to Uman are followers of the Breslov branch. Their connection to the city goes back to the man who founded the movement more than 200 years ago – Rabbi Nachman.

Who was Rabbi Nachman?

Nachman was born in 1772 in what is now Ukraine and was a great-grandson of Israel Baal Shem Tov, who is regarded as the founder of the Hasidic movement.

He founded the Breslov branch and emphasized prayer, simplicity, and joy. He also placed particular importance on his followers gathering with him for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Large groups of Hasidim are crossing into Ukraine and heading to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. Several thousand are already there. By September 11, when the Jewish New Year begins, organizers expect up to 40,000 pilgrims from Israel, the US and around the world. War, missile risk,… pic.twitter.com/eklA9ZzENB

— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) September 8, 2026

Nachman died in Uman in 1810 and was buried there. His followers continued gathering in the city after his death, beginning a tradition that eventually developed into today’s mass annual pilgrimage.

How did Uman become a pilgrimage center?

Uman is a relatively small city in central Ukraine’s Cherkasy Region, around 200km south of Kiev. Its population stood at just over 80,000 before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, while the annual pilgrimage brings tens of thousands of additional visitors.

Nachman moved to Uman only months before his death. Historical accounts say he chose the city because thousands of Jews had been killed there during a massacre in 1768 and wanted to be buried near the victims.

Uman later became home to a large Jewish community. Jews accounted for 59% of its population by 1897. The community was devastated during World War II, when around 17,000 Jews were killed after Nazi forces occupied the city.

Visits to Nachman’s grave continued on a much smaller scale during the Soviet period before growing substantially after the collapse of the USSR.

What is Rosh Hashanah?

This year, Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset on September 11 and ends after nightfall on September 13. Unlike the secular New Year, it is primarily a religious holiday centered on prayer and reflection.

The holiday has particular importance for Breslov followers because Nachman considered their annual Rosh Hashanah gathering especially important. After his death, his followers continued meeting in Uman during the holiday, explaining why the city sees its largest influx of pilgrims at this time of year.

Why all the dancing?

The singing and dancing seen on Uman’s streets are not required Rosh Hashanah rituals.

Music and dancing are common at Hasidic gatherings, while Rabbi Nachman placed particular emphasis on joy. His followers therefore often combine prayer with communal singing and dancing during their time in Uman.

Do pilgrims still come despite the conflict?

Yes. Tens of thousands have continued making the journey despite the hostilities and official travel warnings.

Ukraine travel warning

Last week, the US Embassy in Kiev issued a security alert recommending that Americans not travel to Uman, citing the risk of airstrikes, martial law, and movement restrictions. The embassy also warned US-Ukrainian male dual nationals that they may be unable to leave the country and could be subject to conscription. Ukraine has ended an exemption that previously allowed certain Ukrainian men living abroad to leave the country.

Security has been stepped up for this year’s gathering. Israeli police officers have arrived in Uman to work alongside Ukrainian law enforcement in areas where pilgrims are staying and gathering, according to police in Ukraine’s Cherkasy Region.

The pilgrimage has persisted through earlier disruptions as well. In 2020, pilgrims attempted to reach Uman despite Covid-19 border and travel restrictions.

Anthropic says it has caught scientists using its AI models for research that could help develop biological weapons, including work aimed at making dangerous pathogens more transmissible and harmful.

Five cases of biological researchers using Claude raised serious security concerns, according to a company threat intelligence report published on Thursday.

One case, to be carried out at a military research institute, involved gain-of-function research aimed at making the chikungunya virus more transmissible and better able to evade the immune system.

Another scientist used Claude while researching highly dangerous bird flu and ways the virus could adapt to mammals. Other cases involved work on viruses related to smallpox and the redesign of dangerous toxins.

Anthropic said some of the researchers went to considerable lengths to get around its restrictions, including hiding their identities, routing traffic through other countries and using services designed to bypass safety controls. The accounts involved have been banned while the services used to get around the safeguards have been shut down.

The company stopped short of saying the scientists were definitely trying to build biological weapons. However, it warned that sophisticated actors may deliberately hide malicious aims behind legitimate-looking research.

Anthropic acknowledged that its AI is becoming more capable, saying older models were too weak to meaningfully assist sophisticated users with dangerous biological research, but that it can no longer make the same assurance about today’s systems.

Anthropic’s report also detailed other alleged misuse of Claude, including cyberattacks, surveillance, propaganda, fraud and assistance with conventional weapons such as missiles, armed drones and bombs.

Just days before the threat assessment was published, Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger publicly stated that he believes there is a greater than 10% chance AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade, adding that the company still has no clear plan for safely controlling superintelligence.

His admission came after another Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, resigned, accusing Anthropic and OpenAI of ignoring the “civilizational stakes” and “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” He separately warned that sufficiently advanced AI could hack critical infrastructure or help create “extinction-level bioweapons.”

The EU can forget about competitiveness while energy prices remain prohibitively high, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned, urging Brussels to avoid policies that push costs higher.

Tusk spoke on Thursday at a press conference of the Visegrad Four (V4) – Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic – a Central European grouping that coordinates regional interests within the EU.

“We can put aside the dream of competing with China or the US as long as energy prices here remain at their current levels,” Tusk said. “The EU cannot afford to remain naive for even one more day when it comes to various ambitious policies. We must protect our industry.”

Tusk mentioned EU energy and climate measures such as carbon-pricing schemes, noting the region pays some of the world’s highest electricity prices despite Brussels making competitiveness a stated priority. “Energy prices in this region… must come down,” he insisted. “Anything that creates a risk of higher energy prices for us should be blocked.”

Where things stand now

With benchmark TTF gas back near €80 per MWh – roughly four times its pre-2022 level – EU industrial electricity prices are still two to three times higher than in the US and nearly 50% above China’s, while gas in Europe can cost up to five times more than across the Atlantic.

Although today’s energy prices are significantly below 2022 peaks, the crisis has shaved off 15-20% from gas demand, which remains depressed, reflecting not only conservation but a contraction of the industrial base. Many energy-intensive operations were rendered unprofitable. Numerous factories curbed production or shut altogether.

Permanent chemical-plant closures alone have surged sixfold from pre-2022 levels, according to Cefic, while auto-making giants such as Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Renault, as well as multiple other manufacturers, have scaled back or closed European operations amid competition from the US and Asia, and corporate insolvencies have risen.

Several EU leaders, notably German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, have acknowledged that the loss of Russian supplies has played a role in the energy crisis.

While Tusk, a strong Ukraine supporter, did not explicitly link high energy prices to EU sanctions on Russia and the cutting off of Russian supplies, he cited the Ukraine conflict and “constant pressure from Russia” among the broader challenges facing the region, saying “the war is a real problem.”

Tusk’s Visegrad peers also warned that Brussels’ policies are squeezing industry amid the decoupling from Russian energy divorce and ongoing defense buildup.

What other leaders had to say

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar warned that “dozens of Central European companies are going bankrupt because they cannot afford the price of electricity” and “can no longer afford the price of gas.” Magyar challenged Brussels to fund the energy transition it demands.

“If we need to transition away from Russian gas and oil, if we need to completely phase out fossil fuels, the EU should specify in its next seven-year budget how much assistance affected businesses will receive in turn,” he argued.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis similarly rejected leaving individual governments to deal with soaring fuel costs and criticized EU policies they said were hurting industry. Fico called for energy-market reforms, while Babis blamed the Green Deal for high costs, refinery closures and declining competitiveness.

“The European Commission’s stupid climate policy has pushed the V4 region to the edge of the abyss in terms of energy prices and availability,” Fico added.

EU energy bind deepens

The warnings come as the EU prioritizes two costly undertakings: completing its break with Russian energy, while financing a massive military buildup that envisages mobilizing up to €800 billion in additional defense spending. Russian LNG is due to disappear from the EU market by the end of 2026 and pipeline gas by autumn 2027.

Meanwhile, the US war on Iran and disruption of the Strait of Hormuz are exacerbating the crisis. This, combined with Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and Saudi energy infrastructure, has pushed Brent crude above $106 a barrel this week.

European households have taken a hit as well. An Ipsos-Secours survey of 10,000 people across ten European countries, released earlier this month, found that 29% were living in precarious circumstances and 73% feared being unable to afford fuel costs. More than a third said they had sacrificed essentials such as food or healthcare to pay energy bills over the past year, while 23% had skipped medical appointments, suggesting energy insecurity is becoming a permanent feature of the cost-of-living crisis.

Moscow has long denounced Western energy sanctions as illegal and self-defeating, arguing they merely redirect Russian exports elsewhere while forcing Europeans toward more expensive and harder-to-obtain supplies. Russia has offered to help fill oil shortages caused by the Middle East conflict and resume supplies to Europe, but says it has received no response.

At least 26 students have been killed after a fire swept through two schools and hundreds of homes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) city of Bukavu, the authorities say.

The blaze began in a house in the densely populated Cimpunda neighborhood on Thursday morning before spreading to the adjoining Furaha and Ujamaa schools, according to local officials. Several children reportedly suffocated after becoming trapped, while others were caught in a violent stampede as they tried to escape.

A statement from the South Kivu provincial authorities, cited by AP, put the toll at 19 girls and seven boys and warned that it could rise.

More than 300 homes were reportedly destroyed. The closely packed wooden buildings in the neighborhood contributed to the rapid spread of the flames, while narrow exits caused a crush at the schools, Cimpunda administrator Moise Lubala told AP.

“While the city remains under illegal occupation, we express our solidarity with the students, teachers, parents, and families affected,” he wrote on X.

The Congolese Education Ministry said students and teachers in areas under occupation remain part of the national education system and “at the heart of the nation’s responsibility and solidarity.” It ordered an assessment of the damage and measures to support victims and continue classes. The ministry said the fire was the latest in a series that have damaged schools in Bukavu. The exact cause remains unknown.

The AFC/M23 has controlled Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu Province, since February 2025, when its advance forced Congolese and allied Burundian troops to withdraw. The coalition seized Goma, the capital of neighboring North Kivu, a month earlier during clashes with government forces. Kinshasa and several Western governments accuse Rwanda of supporting the rebels, which Kigali denies. The rebels have since established parallel administrations across large areas of eastern DR Congo, where armed groups compete for control of the region’s mineral wealth.

A major accident occurred on Thursday in the eastern Congolese city of Bukavu. A fire broke out in two schools here, killing 26 students. Dozens of people were injured in this incident.#Bukavu #Congo #SchoolFire #SchoolTragedy #Students #TragicIncident #FireAccident #Breaking pic.twitter.com/IuyzcxxNMw

— VIRAL VOLT (@ViralVolT1) September 11, 2026

Space exploration and satellite navigation are fragile, failure-prone and enormously expensive. Yet they offer something few other fields can match: technological superiority and strategic prestige.

The main players in space remain Russia, the United States, and China, followed by India, the European Union, and Japan. Newer entrants include the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and a range of states in South America and West Asia. Because the sector is so costly and high-risk, cooperation is highly valued – it brings redundancy, speeds up technological progress, and cuts the price of getting there.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov earlier this week, in the runup to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi, noted that Russia and India are considering the possibility of cross-flights involving mixed crews to their future national orbital stations. He said that this cooperation could eventually extend to joint scientific experiments and research.

In May this year, Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visited the Roscosmos Joint Industry Information Center, while in August, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar traveled to Moscow to co-chair the 27th session of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).

Increased collaboration between Moscow and New Delhi within the space sector is occurring within the backdrop of three larger yet interlinked trends: first, the United States’ active dismantling of the remaining international order; second, the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran; and third, the advancement in drones and defense technologies.

The current US administration has upended the established decades-long US foreign policy by targeting longstanding allies with tariffs and sanctions in the attainment of its goals. India has become a target more than once of American tariffs and economic pressure. Attempts to reach a deal with the Trump administration have failed to produce long-term tangible gains.

Recent developments in Indo-Russian cooperation have involved mutual deployment of ground stations, co-production of engines, and development of national orbital stations. These will allow Russia to offset vulnerabilities by outsourcing joint-production capabilities of critical components to India out of Ukraine’s reach.

The astronomical advancements in drone and smart defense technologies have underscored the significance of satellite-based constellations in warfare. A variety of Russian munitions and weapon systems employ GPS/GLONASS and the upcoming Rassvet system in precision guidance and control. UMPK-equipped glide-bombs, cruise missiles such as the Kh-101, drones like the Shahed-136, Geran-3 & -4, and Orlan-10, along with ballistic missiles such as the Iskander-K, witness a significant increase in accuracy and precision with minimal falloff over large distances.

Furthermore, despite the destruction of existing Viasat infrastructure in Ukraine during the conflict’s opening days, the rapid deployment of Starlink prevented the complete collapse of Ukrainian command and control structures. These attributes make the systems vital to any future operational requirements against adversaries with both limited and significant electronic warfare capabilities.

India’s own NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) is in dire straits. The indigenous satellite navigation system has dropped below the critical threshold of satellites required for accurate geolocation. Simultaneously, the quest for a reliable low-orbit satellite navigation system over the Indian subcontinent has led to multiple contenders, including the French-TATA venture Eutelsat, the American Starlink and Viasat systems, Reliance’s own planned constellation, and possibly the Russian Rassvet system in the near future.

Space-based cooperation need not be limited to the bilateral level. In August 2021, BRICS space agencies signed an agreement for cooperation in remote sensing satellite data sharing. In May of the following year, the BRICS Joint Committee on Space Cooperation was officially launched. This year, BRICS+ engaged in advanced discussions of cooperation with calls for a BRICS Space Economy being made. Whether civilian cooperation in satellite data constellation ultimately advances to include sensitive military collaboration remains to be seen. What is already clear, however, is that low-orbit constellations are set to become a major disruptor in both civilian and military technology, and this is one area in which the Russia-India partnership could deepen further.

Russia will respond to any deployment in Lithuania of nuclear weapons aimed at the country by adjusting its own posture accordingly, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned.

The Baltic NATO state is currently moving to abolish a constitutional ban on hosting weapons of mass destruction, which President Gitanas Nauseda described as outdated in July. Speaking to Russian TV on Friday, Peskov said Vilnius would cause another rise in tensions with the proposed move.

“If you host nuclear weapons, they are aimed at somebody. Those won’t be aimed to the west. They will be aimed to the east, i.e. at us,” Peskov said. Consequently, “our nuclear weapons will be aimed at” the hosting nation.

Lithuanian media has described the proposed constitutional reform, which could be approved as soon as this winter, as creating a legal framework for a proposed EU nuclear-sharing scheme. France, the only nuclear power in the economic bloc, is considering moving some of its weapons to other member states.

Earlier this week, a Lithuanian parliamentary committee on legal affairs approved a proposal to amend the constitution, with two MPs voting against. The opposition argued that the change should be put to a referendum, while Nauseda’s government said approval by parliament is sufficient. Constitutional amendments in Lithuania require two separate votes in parliament at least three months apart.

The provision outlawing weapons of mass destruction also bans foreign military bases and was included in the basic law to safeguard the post-Soviet republic’s neutrality. Lithuania joined NATO in 2004 along with Latvia and Estonia. Germany is currently working to deploy a heavy tank brigade in the country.

A Ukrainian singer blacklisted by the notorious Mirotvorets site that doxes “enemies” of the country has claimed he was told to pay $750,000 to have his name removed.

The database, which claims it is a private research project but has tacit backing from the Ukrainian state, has published data on over 180,000 people, and marks the profiles of deceased individuals with a “liquidated” stamp.

Several high-profile individuals, mostly opponents of Kiev’s slump into ethno-nationalism, were murdered shortly after they were listed on the database.

Russian-speaking Ukrainian pop star Anastasia Kamenskih, who claimed she had developed psychosomatic issues from trying to sing in Ukrainian, was listed this week.

Designated an enemy of Ukraine in 2019, Vinnik said that three years later he was offered the opportunity to have his record expunged, for a fee.

“I won’t say who said it, but they said $750,000 is needed to be off Mirotvorets,” he recalled. “Roll this up and stick it deep, I say!”

What is Mirotvorets?

Launched in August 2014 after the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev, the project’s stated purpose is to identify and seek retribution against “enemies of Ukraine.”

Among the 180,000+ names listed on the site are Western journalists who reported from Donbass and Crimea, children as young as three, and Ukrainian author Oles Buzina, whose 2015 murder, days after he was listed, remains unsolved. Most recently, Polish MEP Ewa Zajaczkowska-Hernik and the country’s presidential chief of staff were added after criticizing the Ukrainian government for venerating Nazi collaborators.

How could a singer become Ukraine’s ‘enemy’?

Vinnik was targeted after taking part in a pro-peace campaign that Mirotvorets’ anonymous administrators denounced as Russian-orchestrated propaganda.

Pop star Kamenskih ran afoul of Mirotvorets admins when she publicly mocked Kiev’s language policies.

She is one half of the duo ‘Potap and Nastya’, one of Ukraine’s biggest acts a decade ago that stopped performing together in 2017 for personal reasons. Aleksey Potapenko and Kamenskih are now seeking a revival while working from properties they reportedly own in Barcelona, Dubai, and Miami.

In August, the singers posted a video on Instagram in which they appeared to suffer a fit after being pressured to sing in Ukrainian.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @potapinastya_official

Kamenskih has insisted she was born “in Russian-speaking Kiev, where everyone spoke Russian,” and would not be forced to switch to another language. In an interview last week, she also said she experienced problems when she tried to perform in Ukrainian and chose to sing in Russian on the advice of her psychotherapist.

Her Mirotvorets profile appeared soon afterward, accusing her of participating in “humanitarian aggression against Ukraine.”

Morocco has once again denied facilitating the mass entry of more than 70,000 migrants into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, saying no evidence has established its involvement.

In a statement on Thursday, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry accused Spanish political groups and media of exploiting the crisis in July for domestic purposes ahead of national elections expected in 2027.

“Morocco refuses to be used as a pre-election pawn. Nor does it accept being the scapegoat for political score-settling,” the ministry stated. Rabat also questioned why Spain has not returned irregular migrants despite Morocco’s offer to readmit them, and why unaccompanied minors remain separated from their families after it requested their return.

The statement followed Spain’s release of declassified files showing that its intelligence service warned officials in Madrid and Moroccan agencies on July 29 about online calls for a mass crossing the following day. A separate police report commissioned by a Spanish judge alleged that Moroccan border forces actively facilitated the influx.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said there is no evidence that Rabat organized the influx, although he acknowledged that Moroccan forces allowed crossings during a ten-hour period on July 30. Morocco previously said its security personnel sought to avoid violence and blamed a Spanish court ruling restricting the immediate return of migrants arriving by sea for weakening border deterrence.

A similar crisis occurred in 2021, when around 9,000 people entered Ceuta after Moroccan guards temporarily relaxed border controls during a diplomatic dispute over Spain’s decision to provide medical treatment to Western Sahara independence leader Brahim Ghali. The European Parliament accused Rabat at the time of using migration as political pressure.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in New Delhi to attend the 18th BRICS Summit starting Friday.

Putin held bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Bharat Mandapam convention center. He is also expected to hold talks with other leaders of the expanded BRICS group.

The Russian president invited Modi to visit Russia for the 24th India-Russia Annual Summit, which the Indian PM accepted. 

The summit of the leaders of the world’s emerging economies is being watched closely, given intensifying geopolitical tensions and economic turbulence caused by the West’s attempts to isolate Russia and coerce the Global South.

RT reporters are on the ground in New Delhi covering the Russian president’s visit and the BRICS Summit.

This live feed has now ended. Stay tuned for the main events of the BRICS summit on Saturday.

Russia has struck a commercial data center in Kiev and infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odessa, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The 4,500-square-meter Be Mobile facility in the Ukrainian capital was among a string of military-linked industrial, logistics, and port targets hit overnight with precision weapons and attack drones, according to the ministry’s morning update on Friday.

In Kiev Region, Russian forces struck a site near the town of Gostomel that the ministry said was used to store components for long-range drones.

Kiev deploys kamikaze drones for strikes deep inside Russia on a daily basis.

Multiple videos circulated by Ukrainian media show a fire reportedly caused by a jet-powered drone strike. 

Footage shows bright sparks and apparent secondary explosions, fueling speculation that munitions may have been stored at the site.

The incident comes amid growing tensions in Ukraine over the military’s use of facilities close to residential areas to store explosives.

Russia’s latest operation also reportedly targeted two logistics hubs in Khmelnitsky Region and Dnepropetrovsk Region, both of which the ministry said were used to store drone parts.

In Odessa Region, the ministry said multiple targets were struck, including a repair shop servicing Ukrainian military hardware, another storage facility for drone components, as well as several cargo ships and fuel depots linked to the Ukrainian military.

Ukraine made attacks on Russian civilian ships a key part of its attempted “pressure campaign” during the summer. Russian retaliation has since virtually paralyzed shipping through ports in Odessa Region.

India has advanced key BRICS initiatives backed by Russia, including cross-border payments, a proposed grain exchange, and a new investment platform, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said ahead of the summit of the bloc’s leaders in New Delhi.

New Delhi holds the rotating BRICS chairmanship this year and is hosting the 18th leaders’ summit starting Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the Indian capital on Friday and is due to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as address the BRICS Business Forum.

“We have moved forward on various tracks and projects that were proposed by previous chairs and by us in 2024 when we presided over BRICS,” Alipov told the ANI news agency ahead of the summit.

Among the Russian-backed proposals are a BRICS grain exchange, mechanisms to facilitate cross-border payments, and a new investment platform. Alipov said this week that work is also continuing on BRICS Clear, a proposed settlement and depository mechanism, and shared reinsurance capacity.

‘The Question Is - How Confident Is India?’: Russian Envoy On Energy Ties

Ambassador Denis Alipov said India has shown it can “stand its ground and defend its national interests,” adding that Moscow is ready to supply as much oil as India needs despite sanctions and tariffs.… https://t.co/IZreI3SQuZ pic.twitter.com/PhggcnSE1v

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) September 4, 2026

India has meanwhile put forward initiatives of its own, including cooperation on smart grids and energy storage, a startup innovation hub, an incubator network, and a logistics and supply-chain framework, Alipov said.

The agenda reflects a broader effort within BRICS to deepen economic and financial cooperation alongside its political and security work. Alipov said the grouping is also discussing trade and investment, a greater role for national currencies in settlements, energy, healthcare, artificial intelligence, science, and innovation.

More than 350 meetings and high-level engagements have been held across over 25 Indian cities under New Delhi’s presidency this year.

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production plunged by nearly 2 million barrels per day in August to its lowest level in over 35 years, as conflicts across the Middle East squeezed the kingdom’s export routes, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

Riyadh told OPEC that production fell by 1.9 million barrels per day last month to 6.238 million bpd, according to the group’s monthly report obtained by the outlet.

The figure marks a new low since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in late February, as well as the kingdom’s lowest production level since the beginning of the Gulf War in 1990.

Iranian-aligned Houthi forces in Yemen have also renewed the war against Saudi-backed government forces and declared a maritime blockade against the kingdom.

The Houthis have also directly targeted Saudi energy infrastructure. A missile and drone barrage on Tuesday set oil installations ablaze and forced operations at some facilities to stop, according to the Saudi authorities, although Riyadh has provided few details on the extent of the damage or its impact on production.

The pressure is already visible in shipping data, as provisional tanker tracking compiled by Bloomberg shows Saudi crude exports falling by around a third in August.

Riyadh told OPEC that its “supply to market,” which includes crude drawn from storage, stood at 7.122 million bpd, suggesting that the kingdom tapped inventories to compensate for reduced production. OPEC’s separate estimate based on external secondary sources was substantially higher, putting Saudi output at 7.276 million bpd in August.

The upheaval is already reshaping global energy flows. Russia launched the first shipment from its massive Vostok Oil project in the Arctic this week, opening a new export route via the Northern Sea Route which Rosneft says could eventually supply the equivalent of around 730 million barrels of oil annually.

Those additional supplies could eventually ease pressure on global markets. The immediate shock, however, is already reaching US consumers. The national average diesel price surpassed $6 a gallon for the first time on record on Thursday, according to GasBuddy, after rising nearly 60% since the US and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February.

So much has happened since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, that the events now seem both very distant and perhaps less consequential than they appeared at the time. However, both impressions are misleading.

Twenty-five years is a considerable period in a human life, but little more than a moment in history, and however turbulent the past quarter-century has been, the significance of September 11 is only now becoming fully apparent.

Looking back, and setting aside the emotions of the time, what did the attacks actually mean for the international system?

Above all, they brought an end to a decade of virtually unchallenged US hegemony in world affairs.

The significance was partly symbolic in that the attackers struck at the two most obvious centers of American power, the World Trade Center represented its financial might, while the Pentagon represented its military strength. The post-Cold War period, during which the United States had come to believe that no fundamental threat remained to its security or interests, was over.

The fact that most Americans had previously known little about those who attacked them only deepened the shock and contributed to the impulsiveness of the response.

The End of History, proclaimed by Francis Fukuyama as the Cold War was drawing to a close, was followed barely a decade later by history’s turbulent and violent return

Washington’s reaction set in motion a global realignment whose consequences are now much easier to see. Whether Osama bin Laden possessed some ingenious long-term strategy for undermining American power is impossible to know, but the result was obvious as the United States embarked upon a course that gradually weakened its ability to manage international affairs.

George W. Bush’s administration, strongly influenced by neoconservative thinking, was caught off guard by September 11, so its response rested on two broad assumptions.

The first was that threats to America could originate anywhere, not merely from hostile states but from non-state groups newly capable of inflicting enormous damage, therefore such threats had to be confronted wherever they emerged, primarily through the overwhelming military power available to the United States.

From this emerged the increasingly assertive promotion of democracy abroad, which at times it became openly aggressive.

Its methods ranged from military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq to political and financial support for democratic movements in the former Soviet Union and pressure for liberal political reforms across the Middle East and Libya later became another example of Western military intervention producing consequences far beyond those originally anticipated.

Some episodes from that period are now half-forgotten, such as when Washington strongly encouraged elections in the Palestinian territories despite warnings from regional actors about the likely consequences. Naturally, Hamas subsequently won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, dramatically altering Palestinian politics.

The same confidence in political transformation characterized the American response to the Arab Spring as existing political balances across the Middle East were overturned, often without anything stable emerging to replace them.

The consequences of the 2003 invasion of Iraq were greater still. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein destroyed a major component of the regional balance that had developed during the 20th century and unleashed forces that proved extremely difficult to contain.

In Iraq, this was compounded by the widespread belief that American strategic and economic interests, including oil, were inseparable from the intervention.

The broader results were remarkable with prolonged wars, a destabilized Middle East and the expansion of radical Islamist movements. The architects of September 11 could scarcely have hoped for more when they planned their attack given relations between the West and much of the Muslim world also deteriorated. 

President Bush’s early reference to a crusade against terrorism was probably an unfortunate choice of words rather than a deliberate provocation, but Islamist movements eagerly seized upon it as confirmation of their argument that Western hostility towards the Muslim world had changed little since the Crusades.

Washington subsequently tried to repair those relations, but the direction had already been set.

The destruction of Iraq’s complicated internal and regional balance created opportunities for radical movements while contributing to an image of the United States as an enormously powerful but unpredictable force in Middle Eastern affairs. As a result, for governments in the region, maintaining some distance from Washington increasingly appeared prudent.

The War on Terror was conceived as a global campaign to protect American national security, but its domestic consequences were profound as surveillance and state control expanded dramatically, whether in personal communications or financial transactions.

Although the original justification was terrorism, over the following quarter-century, new reasons for expanding these mechanisms appeared while technologies changed and political priorities shifted, but the general direction towards greater monitoring and control remained.

Nor did the old problem of double standards disappear because, despite declarations of zero tolerance for terrorism, the familiar distinction between one side’s terrorist and another’s freedom fighter survived. This ambiguity becomes particularly apparent when the interests of major powers collide, whether those powers are the United States, Russia or China.

A quarter-century after September 11, the world bears remarkably little resemblance to the one that existed on its eve, but, of course, much of what followed would probably have happened anyway. International systems change because of forces far larger than any single event and China’s rise, Russia’s reassertion of its interests, technological transformation and the relative decline of Western economic predominance cannot simply be attributed to the attacks of 2001.

The movement away from the unipolar order didn’t happen overnight, but began gradually, gathered momentum through wars, crises and the emergence of alternative centers of power, and continues today.

What will replace it remains unclear, given the formation of another stable international order may take many years and whether that system proves preferable to the bipolar confrontation of the second half of the 20th century, or to the brief period of American hegemony that followed it, is impossible to know.

But one thing now seems clearer than it did on September 11, 2001 in that the attacks didn’t merely interrupt the post-Cold War order, but marked the beginning of its end.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has destroyed a US Saildrone Explorer reconnaissance vessel at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, releasing footage showing the unmanned craft burning in the water.

The IRGC Navy said on Thursday that the vessel, identified by hull number 5838, was struck while operating near the strategic waterway. Iranian state media described it as an American surveillance drone, but the US military has not confirmed the loss.

“The American terrorist and aggressor army, over the past few days, out of fear of approaching and confronting the fighters of Islam, has dispatched its unmanned vessels to the Strait of Hormuz,” the IRGC said.

The Iranian Navy: We have struck a US unmanned vessel, with hull number 5838, at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. pic.twitter.com/WyesLWXI47

— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) September 10, 2026

The strategic waterway remains under Tehran’s control and “intelligence surveillance,” the IRGC added, warning that “any hostile presence in this strategic strait will be targeted.”

The latest incident comes just two days after the IRGC captured a US underwater drone at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. Footage released by Tehran shows what appears to be an Anduril-built Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicle commissioned in 2025. The Pentagon acknowledged that it lost the submersible, but said it was old and broken and carried no sensitive data or classified equipment.

The US has destroyed several Iranian oil tankers after accusing the IRGC of firing ballistic missiles at US warships. Iran has attacked US vessels and commercial tankers it accused of violating restrictions regarding the Strait of Hormuz.

The confrontation has severely disrupted traffic through one of the world’s most important energy corridors and pushed Brent crude above $107 a barrel, while farther west, Iran-aligned Houthi forces are tightening their grip on Bab al-Mandeb, another vital chokepoint linking the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.