One of Germany’s biggest and most iconic car manufacturers, Volkswagen (VW) and one of Israel’s most well-known arms manufacturers, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, part of the global Rafael Group, are planning to collaborate. If the project is realized, VW will convert one of its German factories in the historic city of Osnabrueck from making automobiles to producing components of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

There are good reasons why this has raised eyebrows. For one thing, it reflects not only VW’s growing problems, but those of Germany’s vital automobile sector and the German economy as a whole. As the Financial Times has noted, the VW-Rafael project would mark “the highest-profile example yet of the German car industry, where profits have plunged,” trying to save itself by entering the “booming defense sector.”

These plunging profits are due to many factors: Chinese competition; Germany’s failure to keep up with cutting-edge technology, communication infrastructure, and business practices; American sabotage by tariff warfare and filching German companies via subsidies; and last but not least, the horrendous energy costs that the entire EU has inflicted on itself by going to war – by Ukrainian proxy and sanctions – against Russia.

The shift to making things for the military, meanwhile, is just a small part of Germany’s breathtakingly misguided response: Namely, a policy of going into massive public debt – under a so-called conservative – to finance a bizarre form of military Keynesianism that is based on illusions (no, Russia is not about to attack), produces self-reinforcing Russophobia (which makes a return to normality even harder), and won’t work as an economic boost, as even the usually government-aligned Spiegel has admitted.

In short, like a prism, the Osnabrueck plan bundles together many of Germany’s worst – and self-inflicted – problems, and the single silliest idea of how to tackle them.

Yet, there is obviously a whole other dimension to the VW-Rafael project that is even worse: The plan also encapsulates Germany’s complicity with Israel’s crimes, an obstinate policy that is deeply immoral, has twisted Germany’s domestic politics and discourse toward cynical racism, censorship, and authoritarian restrictions on free speech (as a UN report has confirmed), and, moreover, is stupidly shortsighted as well, since it alienates most of the world, and in particular, its rising part in the Global South.

And yet there it is, so massive that its outlines will have to be sketched in just a few highlights.

Computers, clouds, and AI? IBM, Hewlett Packard, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft – to name only a few – are deeply and profitably involved not merely in doing business with Israel but with the specific business of population control, surveillance, and incarceration. That is, to be precise, the very sharp end of Israel’s apartheid regime imposed on the Palestinians. Apartheid is, of course, a UN-recognized atrocity crime (not just a specific, criminal stage in South Africa’s history). And not only the infernal Palantir but Microsoft as well – with its Azure and Nimbus systems – has directly helped the Israeli military while it carries out genocide.

Demolishing Palestinian homes, roads, wells, public buildings, and all vital infrastructure, in short, the material basis of life? Caterpillar, Hyundai as well as Doosan, and Volvo have all been at Israel’s service, including in the massive, systematic devastation of Gaza that has been part of Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing campaign.

But then, Zionism doesn’t only destroy and displace. To be fair, it also builds – namely, illegal settlements on territories that are officially called ‘occupied’ but have in reality been de facto annexed by Israel in its ceaseless, aggressive drive for even more ‘Lebensraum’ in a ‘Greater Israel’ that has never even defined its borders.

And don’t let the Israeli Hasbara propaganda fool you: There is no room for debate here. In 2024, the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the UN, unambiguously confirmed that the Israeli post-1967 occupations, including that of East Jerusalem as well as the exploitation of these territories’ resources, and all settlements – really colonies – there are illegal because of “Israel’s violations, through its policies and practices, of the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.” Israel must not only leave, as the court also made explicit, but provide “full reparations” to the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, making Israel obey the law – or basic moral precepts everyone else recognizes as binding intuitively (Don’t target children with snipers, for instance, or Don’t torture toddlers) – has always been a challenge, not least because of Washington’s criminal support for Israel’s criminal regime. None of this means the law does not apply.

But those companies helping Israel build its settlements and exploit the illegally held territories – such as the German Heidelberg Materials AG with its subsidiary Hanson Israel, Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles from Spain, real estate international Keller Williams RealtyLLC, and again, Caterpillar, Hyundai, and Volvo, are all also involved in a very serious crime.

But then again, maybe there’s less need to worry, as it turns out that Israeli technology – including that produced by Rafael – is not all it is cracked up to be. Consider merely that, as even the Zionist-aligned New York Times has to admit, Israeli missile defenses have not been doing well since Iran has been striking back in earnest against Israeli and American aggression. It is hard to assess the full damage in Israel because its regime practices a censorship blackout, but we know it has been taking bad hits. And then there are those famous Merkava tanks good at smashing through Gaza’s civilians but now being decimated in their invasion of Lebanon, by brave and clearly well-trained but much less well-armed Hezbollah fighters. Guess what company makes the Merkava’s anti-missile defense system? Yes, that would be Rafael. It seems Volkswagen and its Berlin backers have lost not only whatever sense of ethics they have ever had but also quality.

There is something special about the VW-Rafael deal-in-the-making. Obviously, there is the ugly irony of one of Nazi Germany’s main arms makers shifting back to its old business model. Then, while many companies and countries cultivate ties with the genocidal apartheid state of Israel and neglect their legal obligations to stop its crimes, Germany adds the very peculiar hypocrisy of shielding its intense complicity with Israel by abusing the memory of Germany’s own genocide of Europe’s Jews, the Holocaust. It is hard to imagine a greater moral and intellectual perversion.

If Germany had to learn one lesson from its genocides – the Holocaust and that of the Herero and Nama as well – then it was: This crime must never be committed. By no one. Not by Nazis, not by Zionists, either. And it cannot be done to anyone, not to Jews, not to Palestinians – even by Jews. Finally, no one must ever side with the perpetrators. No perpetrators, including Jewish ones.

Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the US-Israeli war against Iran and the wider regional escalation, marked by ongoing missile and drone exchanges.

US officials have confirmed that a search and rescue operation is underway in Iran for the crew of a downed F-15E fighter jet, according to Reuters and CBS News. Iran claims it shot down another latest generation F-35.

Iranian strikes also hit Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery and caused fires in several operational units, the country’s state news agency has reported.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to step up strikes on Iran, saying Iranian power plants could be targeted next. The announcement came just hours after US forces hit the country’s tallest highway bridge linking Tehran and Karaj, rendering it inoperable.

“Our Military… hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants! New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done fast!”

USAF HC-130J and HH-60G Pave Hawks on a deep combat search and rescue for the downed F-15 Strike Eagle crew in Iran. pic.twitter.com/vhCqUupLuz

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 3, 2026

Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari responded, warning of immediate retaliation if Washington follows through.

“If the US proceeds with its threats regarding Iran’s power plants, immediate retaliatory actions will be taken,” he said in a video address, adding that Israeli energy and IT infrastructure – as well as regional companies with American shareholders – would face ”complete and utter annihilation.”

The video featured footage of the Stargate UAE project, a major AI infrastructure hub under construction in Abu Dhabi, part of a US-backed initiative led by OpenAI. Zolfaghari said Iran would ”do whatever it takes” to defend its interests, suggesting these projects could become targets.

Earlier, Iran said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed ”in the long term” to US and Israeli ships. Trump urged Tehran to ”make a deal before it is too late.” Iranian officials have denied they are seeking a ceasefire or engaging in talks.

Latest developments:

• Search ongoing for the crew of a US fighter jet shot down over Iran

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said strikes on civilian infrastructure, including bridges, would not force Iran to surrender, calling them a sign of “defeat and moral collapse.”

• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned US-Israeli strikes on Iranian health facilities, citing over 20 verified attacks since March 1 and at least nine deaths.

• US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George.

• The UN Security Council is set to vote on Saturday on a proposal authorizing “all necessary means” to secure transit through the Strait of Hormuz, effectively allowing the use of force against perceived threats to shipping.

Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.

More than 100 US-based international law experts have warned that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes, citing violations of the UN Charter, attacks on civilian infrastructure, and alarming rhetoric from senior officials.

In an open letter published on Thursday by the Just Security policy journal, scholars from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and other institutions stated that the unprovoked US-Israeli campaign against Iran which began in late February is “a clear violation of the United Nations Charter.”

They also stated that the conduct of US forces and statements by officials “raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes.”

The experts specifically highlighted President Donald Trump’s remarks last month that the US may conduct strikes on Iran “just for fun.” They also cited War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s March 2 statement that the US does not fight with “stupid rules of engagement,” and his declaration of “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies” – a phrase that, under international law, can constitute a war crime.

The letter expressed particular concern over the February 28 strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, which killed at least 175 people, mostly children. The Pentagon has reportedly determined that US forces carried out the strike based on outdated intelligence but has yet to apologize.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said over 600 schools and educational facilities have been targeted, calling the Minab massacre part of “a systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare.” Iran has accused the US and Israel of committing genocide.

Separately, John Mecklin, editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the Doomsday Clock, described the war as “absolutely idiotic,” warning that “accidents, miscalculations, crazy stuff” happen in wars and a nuclear accident “can’t be ruled out” until the fighting stops.

Both the legal experts and Mecklin called for a return to diplomacy while noting that Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal has made a negotiated settlement extremely difficult.

Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has torn into his own party for embracing race and gender activism over “middle class values.” Can the Democrats row back the worst excesses of the woke era? And could Emanuel lead the party in 2028?

”We lost the plot,” Emanuel said on ‘The Fifth Column’ podcast this week. “We as Democrats nationally, from ‘Latinx,’ to defunding the police, to ‘police organizations are all racist,’ to bringing a set of cultural wars to our schools. We are on the losing side of those cultural wars. Full stop.”

“Nobody seems to be calling the whistle on this,” he continued. “You are worried about bathroom access and locker room access, why don’t you focus on classroom excellence?”

“We went from acceptance to advocacy. I remember fighting for Title IX,” he said, referring to the anti-discrimination law that mandated equal athletic opportunities in schools and colleges for women. “Why would you undercut the premise of Title IX with the ability of trans men [to play] in women’s sports?”

Rahm Emanuel on how and why the Democrats have "lost the plot."

Our members-only episode with Rahm Emanuel is available now on Substack. pic.twitter.com/5HALlSCBEj

— The Fifth Column 🖐 (@wethefifth) March 31, 2026

Emanuel is – or was – regarded as a standard-bearer within the Democratic Party. After three terms representing Illinois in the US Congress, he served as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff from 2009 to 2019, mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019, and US ambassador to Japan from 2022 to 2025.

He is the latest in a series of powerful Democratic figures to distance themselves from the worst excesses of the ‘woke’ era. Former Clinton strategist James Carville has called on fellow Democrats to abandon “performative woke politics” and embrace a “platform of pure economic rage.” Senator John Fetterman has declared that he is “not woke” and urged his party to toughen up on crime; liberal think tanks have pleaded with Democrats to stop using words that put “a wall between us and everyday people” – including ‘heteronormative’, ‘microaggression’, and ‘LGBTQIA+’.

Peak woke

The Democratic Party’s woke turn reached its apex in 2024. That year, President Joe Biden proclaimed Easter Sunday ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’, Planned Parenthood offered free abortions and vasectomies from a van parked outside the the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and Kamala Harris defended her record of promising taxpayer-funded sex changes to prisoners and illegal immigrants.

🚨NEW AD ALERT🚨

Crazy liberal Kamala Harris is for They/Them not for YOU pic.twitter.com/vYN5mi1R1g

— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) October 5, 2024

Current President and then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign capitalized on this, running ads featuring Harris advocating for late-term abortion and transgender athletes in women’s sports. In one TV spot, images of cross-dressing White House officials Richard ‘Rachel’ Levine and Sam Britton flashed across the screen, as a voiceover told voters: “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

Voters agreed, handing Trump all seven swing states and the first popular vote victory for a Republican candidate since 2004. Crucial to this victory were the votes of young white males, a demographic ignored and condescended to by Harris’ party.

Will the Democrats return to the center?

Emanuel believes that in order to win again, Democrats have to return to the cultural center. “Every one of our most successful electoral presidents anchored themselves in what I call ‘middle class values,’” he told ‘The Fifth Column’. “Values that are universally, at least in this country, ascribed to.”

Chief among these competitors is California Governor Gavin Newsom. While Newsom has repudiated some of the party’s woke dogmas – referring to the victory of a transgender triple-jumper in a high school championship last year as “deeply unfair” – he has also defended his decision to offer ‘sanctuary’ to illegal immigrants in California, created a government department to explore paying reparations to descendants of slavery, and permitted children to travel to California to receive sex change operations that would be illegal in their home states.

Newsom has not announced his candidacy yet, but is currently the second-favorite to take the nomination, behind Harris. Should Emanuel enter the race, however, it is unclear whether the Democratic base actually wants a more centrist candidate.

Emanuel has been described as a “vocal Zionist,” at a time when Democrats in the US sympathize with the Palestinians over the Israelis by a 65% to 17% margin. He is also an economic liberal, at a time when self-professed ‘democratic socialist’ Zohran Mamdani handily defeated centrist Andrew Cuomo in last year’s New York mayoral election. Emanuel cut funding to Chicago schools to build a new police academy, while Mamdani accused the NYPD of racism and proposed defunding the department.

To close this gap, the party will have to tackle the legacy of an ideology it embraced and operationalized, through which it scapegoated and canceled skeptics, ruined careers and lives, and distracted Americans from an enormous decline in their material and existential circumstances. Emmanuel’s confession that they “lost the plot,” while reeking of political opportunism, may have highlighted an issue that could split his party’s base into cliques and clans, as the ideology he and his peers in the White House espoused did to a generation.

Iran has confirmed that South African vessels will be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, as Pretoria scrambles to shield its energy security from the fallout of escalating tensions in the Gulf.

That was the message from the Iranian Embassy in South Africa as tensions in the Middle East continue to grip one of the world’s most critical oil chokepoints. The narrow waterway, where a significant share of global oil supply passes, has become a major point in the escalating standoff involving Iran, the United States and Israel.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said it is closely monitoring the situation, with Minister Ronald Lamola emphasising the country’s diplomatic efforts.

”Following extensive consultations with several of my counterparts in Gulf nations currently impacted by the prevailing instability in the Middle East, I held a substantive discussion with the Iranian Foreign Minister, His Excellency Abbas Araghchi,” Lamola said.

He added: “I expressed our profound concern regarding the escalating loss of civilian life and the worsening humanitarian situation in the region.”

”South Africa remains steadfast in its position that the only viable path forward is through diplomatic engagement and a commitment to a peaceful, just, and lasting resolution to the conflict, in accordance with international law.”

The Strait of Hormuz lies within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman.
South African vessels can pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

— Iran Embassy SA (@IraninSA) April 2, 2026

On the opening of the waterway for the country, political analyst Siya Ntombela said he does not anticipate backlash. He told IOL that South Africa’s ties with Iran have strategic benefits.

”We took Israel to the International Court of Justice alleging it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. This claim resonates with Iran thus we are given a free pass,” he said.

However, another political analyst, Andre Duvenhage said that he does not believe that South Africa has a lot of big ships or tankers.

”This is an indication of the very strong alignment between South African and Iran and a point of conflict with both the United States of America and Israel.

”This is making South Africa an economic and political target. The reality is that we don’t get the majority of our oil from the Middle East but from places like Angola and Nigeria.”

First published by IOL

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty reaffirmed the strategic partnership between the countries during a meeting in Moscow on Friday. 

The meeting followed talks held a day earlier between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Abdelatty, during which the Russian leader invited Egypt to take part in the third Russia–Africa Summit scheduled for this autumn.  

Abdelatty confirmed Lavrov’s words about the “strategic nature of bilateral relations, …including economic relations, relations in the sphere of security, military, political, energy and others.” 

The sides discussed trade and economic cooperation, including plans to establish a logistics hub in Egypt for Russian petroleum products and grain, which is expected to support the needs of Arab states and the African continent.

Lavrov also noted the increase in trade turnover between the countries, stating that by the end of last year, “bilateral trade exceeded $10 billion, which is an increase of nearly 12%.” 

Addressing ongoing regional crises, the parties signaled that their positions largely coincide, particularly on the situation in the Middle East, where both sides advocate de-escalation and political solutions. 

“Russia and Egypt have aligned strategic approaches to the crisis in the Middle East,” Lavrov said. 

The ministers addressed other conflicts, noting that fighting in Sudan has been ongoing for three years, while Libya has faced prolonged instability since 2011, and stressing the need for coordinated international efforts and political settlements. 

The liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) shortages that India faces as a result of the Middle East conflict have highlighted the need to strengthen the resilience of the nation’s most politically sensitive fuel.

Data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) shows that LPG consumption reached 31.32 million tonnes in 2024-25, while domestic production was 12.79 million tonnes. This means that close to 60% of demand was met by imports, most of which transit through the conflict‑hit Strait of Hormuz.

When flows through this corridor were disrupted, India’s LPG supply chain came under immediate strain. Arrivals fell sharply, March imports dropped to 1.19 million tonnes, a 46% decline, triggering spillovers into the domestic economy.

The government moved swiftly to prioritize household consumption while tightening supplies to industry, even as limited storage, barely 2-3 weeks of demand, narrowed the response window. New Delhi simultaneously invoked emergency measures to maximize refinery LPG output, with domestic production rising by roughly 40% in early March and scrambled for cargoes from alternative suppliers such as the US and Norway.

In this reshuffle, Russia, already India’s largest crude supplier, has emerged as a marginal LPG source. The key constraints, however, are limited volumes and complex logistics.

India’s structural LPG dependence

India’s LPG imports have risen steadily, from 14.81 million tonnes in 2019-20 to 20.67 million tonnes in 2024-25 following the expansion of clean‑cooking access and rising consumption. Over the same period, domestic production has remained broadly flat at around 12-13 million tonnes, even as consumption increased from 26.33 million tonnes to 31.32 million tonnes. As a result, imports have absorbed most of the incremental demand, pushing their share to around two‑thirds of total consumption.

The crisis has also exposed a weaker link in India’s LPG chain of limited storage capacity. PPAC’s latest LPG Profile Report puts total LPG tankage at about 1.2 million tonnes, equivalent to roughly 15 days of national demand. Bottling plants on average hold only around six days of stock, so even short‑lived disruptions leave policymakers with little room for maneuver and quickly amplify external shocks.

Russian routes: Ust‑Luga, Vladivostok, and the NSR

Reports suggest that India increasingly secures LPG cargoes from Russia and Japan as well as the US. Given that India consumes 2.6 million tonnes of LPG a month, around 80,000-90,000 tonnes a day, even several alternative cargoes, typically 40,000-60,000 tonnes each, cover only a few days of national demand. Initial Russian and Japanese supplies are therefore strategic hedges, not game‑changers.

But diversifying suppliers is not the same as diversifying routes. That is why Russia and longer‑range corridors such as the Northern Sea Route and the proposed Chennai-Vladivostok maritime corridor have entered the policy debate as they offer route diversity when the Middle East is on fire.

Indian strategists see two broad corridors for these volumes. A western route runs from the Baltic or Black Sea through the Mediterranean, Suez Canal and Red Sea into the Arabian Sea, bypassing Hormuz but adding exposure at Suez and Bab el‑Mandeb; deliveries to Kochi, Mangaluru, or Jamnagar would take around 40 days or more.

An eastern route departs from Russia’s Far East around Vladivostok, passes through the Sea of Japan, the East and South China seas, and the Strait of Malacca, and then across the Bay of Bengal to India’s east coast, reaching Haldia, Paradip, or Ennore in 12-24 days. This corridor concentrates risk in Malacca, crowded with container traffic and lying under Chinese naval shadow, but it fits India’s broader Indo‑Pacific calculus if eventually anchored in a formal Chennai-Vladivostok link.

For now, talk of the Northern Sea Route as an energy lifeline is more ambitious than a near‑term solution. Harsh ice conditions, the small fleet of ice‑class tankers and LNG carriers certified for Arctic operations, high insurance premiums, and sanctions on key Russian Arctic oil and gas projects limit the commercial viability of NSR‑based LPG trades in the near term.

Even with record traffic of about 38 million tonnes in 2024, total NSR cargo is still a fraction of the hundreds of millions of tonnes moving through the Suez Canal each year, which is why most analysts see it as a niche supplement rather than a realistic replacement for existing routes.

Yet both capitals are clearly intent on keeping the Vladivostok-Chennai Eastern Maritime Corridor on the table as an option, with Indian ministers describing it as operational and highlighting its early role in carrying crude and other bulk cargoes between Russia’s Far East and India’s east coast.

Security premium, signaling and political calculus

Russia’s role as a swing supplier is about redrawing risk, not replacing the Gulf. India imported around 20.67 million tonnes of LPG in 2024-25, implying an import requirement of 1.7-1.9 million tonnes per month and leaving overseas supplies to meet the bulk of domestic demand. Even under optimistic assumptions, Russia’s incremental export capacity can cover only a small share of this requirement, broadly comparable to the eventual scale of India’s long‑term LPG arrangement with the United States, so alternative suppliers can buffer shocks but not substitute the Gulf.

There is also a domestic political dimension. LPG is the flagship symbol of the government’s clean‑cooking drive, and a prolonged shortage would be far more electorally damaging than a technical disruption in refinery crude runs. This is why official communications during the crisis have stressed refinery output ramp‑ups and diversified sourcing, amplified by images of VLGCs discharging LPG at Indian ports, alongside repeated assurances that people’s fuel needs will be met.

For policymakers, the strategic choice is how much to invest in tanks at home versus miles at sea, whether to expand LPG storage or pay a premium for Russian and other non‑Hormuz cargoes, since Russia cannot replace the Gulf but, via routes from Ust‑Luga through Suez and from Vladivostok through Malacca, does give New Delhi a way to recast supply risk beyond West Asia.

For Moscow, stepping in as a dependable swing supplier, even at modest volumes, cements its image in India as a long‑term energy partner rather than a crisis‑time outlier.

Over half of US federal judges (60%) are using at least one AI tool in their judicial work, a recent Northwestern University study suggests. The research is based on responses from 112 federal judges, drawn from a random sample of 502 federal bankruptcy, magistrate, district court, and appellate court officials.

The use of AI in courtrooms has recently drawn attention for fabricated citations and other errors that have undermined confidence in some filings. The survey published earlier this week shows that these tools are now being adopted not just by lawyers, but also by federal judges.

The survey found that 60% of judges use AI at least occasionally for tasks such as reviewing documents, conducting legal research, and drafting or editing documents. Around 22% use it daily or weekly. Legal research was the most common (30%), followed by reviewing documents (16%).

Around one in three judges said they permit or encourage AI in their chambers, while 20% formally prohibit it. More than 45% reported that they have not received AI training from the court administration.

While judges acknowledge the risks of AI, experts warn that its unreliability could undermine judicial authority.

“Judges make decisions that are very important to people and resolve significant disputes,” Eric Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said. “They cannot gamble with a technology that is not fully understood and is known to hallucinate.”

US courts have recently warned and sanctioned attorneys over AI-generated content. In March, New York judges urged verification of AI citations after several briefs included fabricated cases. Bloomberg reported in December that AI-hallucinated citations are a growing problem, and the previous month, several lawyers were fined for filings containing hundreds of false AI-generated citations.

Concerns are rising worldwide over the impact of AI on work, the labor market, and people’s mental and physical health. AI often produces false or misleading information, and experts warn that relying on it for life-and-death decisions is especially dangerous, raising questions about safety, accountability, and societal effects.

Iran is a victim of illegal aggression by the US and Israel, prominent American economist Jeffrey Sachs has told RT’s Sanchez Effect, rejecting Washington’s claims that Tehran was seeking a nuclear weapon.

Speaking with host Rick Sanchez on Thursday, Sachs lambasted US President Donald Trump’s speech the day before, in which the American leader justified Operation Epic Fury as a necessary response to Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions.

”Iran is not a guilty party in this, it’s the victim of aggression,” Sachs said, calling the operation devastating, illegal, and ineffective.

He pointed to repeated statements by Iran’s religious leadership opposing nuclear weapons.

”The supreme leader famously, unless someone is living in a cave for the past 20 years, said ‘No’ to the weapons,” he said, referring to a religious ruling from the early 2000s.

However, in 2018, during his first term, Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA. Washington and Tehran restarted negotiations last year, although Trump later claimed Tehran had “rejected every opportunity” to reach a deal.

According to Sachs, the US president “has ripped up the agreement which absolutely prevented Iran from having a nuclear weapon that they didn’t even want.”

Watch the full video below:

The Iran war has ushered in the “end of American Empire”, conservative host Tucker Carlson has argued, suggesting that US President Donald Trump’s call for allies to secure the Strait of Hormuz proved that Washington could no longer function as the world’s policeman.

Speaking on his podcast on Thursday, Carlson commented on Trump’s remarks in which the president threatened to bomb Iran into the “stone age” without providing an exact timeline for a ceasefire while urging other countries to “take the lead” in unblocking the Strait of Hormuz – a strategic chokepoint which accounts for around 20% of global oil trade.

Washington’s NATO allies, however, have been reluctant to step in following US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Carlson argued that “the nation that forces the peace is the nation in charge,” adding that “the country that forces order on the Persian Gulf, that opens the Strait of Hormuz, is the nation that runs the world by definition.”

He argued that even if the US were to completely destroy Iran as a cohesive nation, the remaining warlords would have no difficulties in disrupting the maritime route by laying mines, using cheap drones, or even just by threatening to do so, meaning that the hostilities would have to end in a diplomatic settlement with Tehran sooner or later.

”What’s happening in Iran is the end of American empire as we understand it. And that’s sad. Empire’s dying. But it’s not the end of the United States,” he added.

Carlson acknowledged that the transition would bring “a lot of suffering and sadness,” but noted that it also carried the promise of a US that could turn its attention to the Western hemisphere, also rich in resources and vital for America’s stability, without the need to occupy “countries you’ve never been to.”

Carlson, generally supportive of Trump, has been a vocal critic of US-Israeli strikes on Iran, prompting the US president to claim that the journalist “has lost his way” and is not really part of the MAGA movement.

A group of 12 people deported from the US under a controversial third-country arrangement has arrived in Uganda, an association of lawyers in the East African nation has said, denouncing the transfer as unlawful and dehumanizing.

The Uganda Law Society said the deportees were flown in on a private charter aircraft, scheduled to land at Entebbe International Airport, about 40 km southwest of Kampala, on Thursday.

The lawyers described the move as “an advanced plot to forcibly remove... and effectively dump” migrants in Uganda “through an undignified, harrowing and dehumanizing process that has reduced them into little more than chattel.”

The transfer is the first under an agreement Kampala signed with Washington last August to accept some third-country nationals deported from the US. The government said it would not take people with criminal records or unaccompanied minors and would give preference to people of African origin.

“We do not, however, discuss the details of our private diplomatic communications and for privacy reasons, we cannot discuss the particulars to their cases,” Hibrawi stated.

However, the Uganda Law Society claims that “none of the mandated institutions,” including the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control, parliament, and the Foreign Ministry, has been involved in the transfer.

Other African countries that have accepted or agreed to host deportees include Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and South Sudan. Eswatini has confirmed receiving $5.1 million from Washington under the deal and has taken in at least 19 people since last July.

It remains unclear whether Uganda is being paid to accept deportees.

The policy has drawn widespread criticism, including from the African Union’s human rights body, over its secrecy and the treatment of those transferred. The Uganda Law Society said it has approached courts, seeking orders to halt what it called a “patent international illegality.”

The EU will not reverse its ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, even as Brussels prepares for a “long-lasting” energy shock that could force member states to ration fuel, Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has said. 

In an interview with the Financial Times, Jorgensen warned that “this will be a long crisis” and “energy prices will be higher for a very long time” due to the supply disruptions caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran and the near‑total closure of the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on Gulf energy infrastructure. 

Jorgensen acknowledged the situation is now more serious than at the start of the crisis, and while the EU is “not yet in a supply security crisis,” Brussels is “preparing for the worst‑case scenarios,” including rationing of critical products such as jet fuel and diesel, and could release more oil from strategic reserves “if the situation becomes more critical.”  

However, no matter how bad things get, Jorgensen insisted there would be no change to EU legislation aimed at ending Russian LNG by the end of 2026, instead preferring the much more expensive alternatives from the US “and other partners.” The EU has also ruled to outlaw Russian pipeline gas imports by Autumn 2027. 

Moscow has echoed that message. Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev predicted that “Europe and Britain will beg for Russian energy” as the crisis deepens, warning that oil could spike to $150‑200 a barrel.  

The conflict has disrupted global supply chains and thrown energy markets into turmoil. As of Thursday, the price of crude has risen to around $111 per barrel, while the price of gas in the EU has spiked to around €50 ($58) per MWh, a 56% increase from February.

The EU’s planned military buildup while division is rocking NATO could make it a more serious threat to Russia than the US-led bloc, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, has warned.

Divisions within NATO are evident, Medvedev said in a social media post on Friday, even if US President Donald Trump’s threats to withdraw from the bloc over a lack of European support for his war on Iran are unlikely to materialize. The row, he claimed, gives impetus to EU leaders to move faster toward establishing an independent “fully-fledged military component,” signaling a major shift in the balance of power.

“The EU is no longer just an economic union. It can transform, and rather quickly, into a full-blown military alliance, one overtly hostile to Russia, and in some ways worse than NATO,” Medvedev warned. He argued that Moscow should actively oppose EU expansion rather than remain passive.

Russia remains ‘calm’ about EU

For years, Moscow largely viewed the EU as an economic project with limited military relevance and as a rival to its Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – unlike NATO, whose expansion was seen as a direct threat.

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the same position regarding Armenia during talks with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He said Moscow is “absolutely calm” about the Caucasian nation’s cooperation with the EU, but warned that Yerevan would ultimately need to choose between integration with the bloc and participation in the EAEU.

Ukraine and Moldova have framed their EU aspirations as a civilizational choice made in opposition to Russia. Moscow argues that the post-Soviet nations are harming their peoples’ interests and accuses Brussels of forcing countries into a binary alignment.

EU stepping up military preparations

Last year, the EU announced plans to allocate some €800 billion ($923 billion) by 2030 for weapons and security capabilities, claiming the spending is necessary to prepare for a possible war with Russia. The initiative is facing challenges due to economic pressures and internal disagreements over the distribution of defense contracts among member states.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any intention to attack NATO or EU countries, arguing that such claims are used to justify massive investments in arms amid staggering economic growth. The shift in EU policy has reinforced views within Russia that it should be regarded as a strategic threat, particularly given strong anti-Russian sentiment among EU institutions and several member governments.

An alleged corruption scheme involving the embezzlement of $17.7 million worth of grain has been uncovered in Ukraine, implicating senior officials of a state grain corporation and an unnamed foreign company.

The US-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), leading the probe, said on Thursday that the scheme dates back to 2021, when the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGCU) signed four contracts to supply corn to a foreign buyer.

The contracts required full prepayment. Instead, officials and the company allegedly colluded to hand over control of shipments without payment, investigators said.

NABU said no payment was made. Despite this, the corporation allegedly transferred key shipping documents to the buyer, giving it control over the cargo.

To cover up the loss, officials kept internal copies of the documents with forged signatures and seals, creating the appearance that the shipments remained under state control, investigators said.

In total, around 106,000 tons of grain were allegedly taken, causing losses estimated at 776 million hryvnia ($17.7 million).

Proceeds from the sale of the grain were allegedly laundered through bank transfers to blend them with legitimate funds, and by buying raw materials and assets for affiliated companies, investigators said.

Kiev has been hit by a series of corruption scandals over the past year. In November, the anti-corruption agencies uncovered a $100 million kickback scheme involving state nuclear operator Energoatom, implicating a close associate of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Timur Mindich, who fled the country.

The fallout included the resignation of Energy Minister German Galushchenko, who was later arrested while attempting to flee to Poland, and Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.

NABU has also exposed an alleged vote-rigging scheme involving more than 40 sitting MPs who were reportedly bribed in exchange for votes.

India has inducted a warship capable of carrying BrahMos supersonic missiles into its naval fleet.

The advanced stealth frigate, INS Taragiri, was commissioned at Visakhapatnam, the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command, by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.

“This commissioning highlights the strategic and maritime importance of India’s eastern seaboard as well as the Indian Navy’s sustained focus on strengthening its combat readiness and operational might while strongly reinforcing the objectives of Aatmanirbhar Bharat [Self-reliant India],” Singh said in a post on X.

⚓️ Legacy Reborn. Power Redefined.

Presenting the story of INS Taragiri - a journey of strength, stealth and indigenous excellence, reflecting India’s rise as a formidable maritime power.

From legacy to the future fleet, Taragiri stands ready to safeguard the seas.… pic.twitter.com/T8bigXfQkD

— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) April 3, 2026

INS Taragiri was designed by the Warship Design Bureau and built by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Singh said.

The 6,670-tonne warship, built with over 75% indigenous content, signifies a major advancement in naval engineering and the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Taragiri boasts of a powerful weapon suite and advanced systems for versatile maritime operations.

It is designed for high-speed, high-endurance operations and is driven by a Combined Diesel or Gas propulsion plant.

Apart from BrahMos, the ship is also equipped with medium-range surface-to-air missiles and an anti-submarine warfare suite, according to reports.

BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles are jointly developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya rocket design bureau, which produces Oniks missiles.

INS Taragiri is also envisaged to play a key role in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, apart from its combat potential.

A passenger train traveling from Moscow to the city of Chelyabinsk derailed in Russia’s Ulyanovsk Region on Friday morning with several hundred people on board, leaving over a dozen people injured.

According to Russia’s railway service, there were a total of 415 passengers traveling on the №302 train when seven out of its 15 passenger cars went off the tracks near the Bryandino station in Ulyanovsk Region, about 700km east of Moscow. Some 65 children were among the passengers. 

No one was killed in the incident, but around 35 people received various injuries, including fractures and bruises, with 18 requiring hospitalization, according to Ulyanovsk Governor Alexey Russkikh. The other passengers have been evacuated and are receiving assistance.

Russia’s Central Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over the incident, stating that the derailing appears to have happened due to the poor technical condition of the railway track. Ulyanovsk’s Transport Prosecutor’s Office has also launched an investigation.

According to an RT source, a broken rail may have been the cause of the incident. 

Experts are now said to be examining whether the tracks were properly maintained.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche has dismissed reports that President Donald Trump fired former AG Pam Bondi over her botched handling of the Epstein files.

Blanche made the remarks on Fox News on Thursday, hours after Trump announced that Bondi, who had served since early 2025, was out. The president called her a “Great American Patriot” but offered no explanation for the dismissal.

“I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was – that anything that happened to her – had anything to do with the Epstein files,” he said, referring to the controversy surrounding the late sex offender’s ties to powerful figures.

Blanche also rejected reports that Trump believed Bondi had tipped off Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell about an FBI plan to release files on an alleged Chinese spy with whom the lawmaker had ties a decade earlier. Swalwell has also denied the allegation.

The Epstein saga became the hallmark of Bondi’s tenure, with the former AG tasked with delivering on Trump’s campaign promise to release the potentially explosive files. In February 2025, she publicly claimed that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”

However, a DOJ memo released in July concluded that investigators had found “no incriminating ‘client list,’” causing major public backlash, which was only exacerbated by Trump’s own attempts to downplay the scandal.

While the DOJ released several large batches of Epstein-related documents, they were heavily redacted and yielded little new information. The department also faced criticism over reports that some victims’ identities were exposed while alleged perpetrators remained shielded.

In February, as Bondi was grilled in Congress by lawmakers from both parties, she delivered what were widely seen as sketchy and dodgy responses – at one point deflecting a question on Epstein by declaring that “the Dow is over 50,000 right now.”

Even some Trump allies blasted Bondi over the Epstein files. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said she “completely whiffed” on the matter and that there is no use in pretending otherwise.

At least 43 people have been killed in an attack by Islamic State-linked fighters in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), the army said on Thursday.

The Congolese armed forces attributed the attack to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), originally a Ugandan Islamist group. It has waged a violent insurgency in eastern Congo for decades and pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in 2019. The group’s fighters have been blamed for massacres, kidnappings, and bombings.

“The toll is 43 compatriots killed, 44 houses burned, and a dump truck and five motorcycles damaged in the locality of Bafwakowa, Bandaka chiefdom,” the authorities said.

Officials told Reuters that the assault occurred at around 7 PM local time in the village in Mambasa territory, Ituri province, near the town of Niania.

The DR Congo continues to grapple with instability as the M23 rebel group maintains control over parts of the country, fueling ongoing clashes and humanitarian crises.

The latest violence follows a string of similar incidents. In January, the same armed group tied to Islamic State killed at least 25 civilians in Ituri province. The Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH) said fighters from the ADF raided the village of Apakulu, burning a house with 15 men trapped inside, executing seven others along a road, and killing three more people in nearby communities. 

India and China have held talks aimed at expanding bilateral trade, on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization’s ministerial conference, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

The talks between Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Wentao, come amid a thaw in trade tensions

“Met Mr. Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce of China, on the sidelines of the #WTOMC14. Exchanged views on the MC-14 agenda and discussed bilateral trade matters,” Goyal said in a post on X on Thursday.

This is the first time since New Delhi backed out of the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations in 2019 that the trade ministers of both sides held discussions.

Met Mr. Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce of China, on the sidelines of the #WTOMC14.

Exchanged views on the MC-14 agenda and discussed bilateral trade matters. pic.twitter.com/Rw613FCzfn

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) March 27, 2026

Goyal said he discussed ways to expand trade and generate trust to facilitate bilateral trade with his Chinese counterpart.

The talks were aimed at providing greater opportunity for India’s pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, fish, and farm product exporters, he added.

Wang welcomed India’s active participation in initiatives such as the ‘Big Market for All: Export to China’, and encouraged New Delhi to make use of platforms, including the China International Import Expo and the China-South Asia Expo to expand exports.

India’s trade deficit with China surpassed $100 billion for the first time during the period of April-February.

The country’s exports to China increased nearly 38% to $17.5 billion, but imports also rose 15% to reach $119.55 billion.

A man armed with a knife killed four children in an attack on a kindergarten in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, on Thursday, police said, in a rare assault on schoolchildren in the East African country.

According to the Daily Monitor local newspaper, the suspect gained access to the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school in Makindye Division by posing as a parent. He first entered the school offices and briefly spoke to the administrator in charge, then went back outside, locked the gate and attacked the children, the outlet reported.

“We confirm a tragic incident at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school in Makindye Division, Kampala City, where a male suspect brutally stabbed and killed four juveniles,” Kampala police spokesperson Rachael Kawala said.

In a separate statement, the Ugandan Police Force identified the suspect as 39-year-old Okello Christopher Onyum and said investigations were ongoing to determine the motive behind the fatal assault on his victims, who were aged between two and three.

Whatever is happening to the world, God knows

The man you see on cuffs, entered Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program school in Makindye Division Kampala City and stabbed four juveniles

Police managed to arrest him, but residents wanted to lynch him.Sad for such souls🥲 pic.twitter.com/OhWnEzH1T8

— Rurekyera Geofrey (@RurekyeraG) April 2, 2026

Mob justice against suspects is not uncommon in Uganda, and the authorities have repeatedly warned against extrajudicial retaliation. Earlier on Thursday, police said 950 murders by mob action were recorded in 2025, down from 1,016 the previous year.

The last widely cited comparable incident was the 1998 Kichwamba Technical College massacre, in which 80 students were reportedly killed and more than 100 others abducted.

Around half of Iran’s missile launchers and kamikaze drones remain intact despite a month of US-Israeli strikes, CNN reports, citing a military intelligence assessment.

The report, published on Friday, says Iran still possesses a considerable stockpile of missiles, citing three sources familiar with classified findings. Earlier reporting by Reuters also indicated that Tehran’s capabilities may be less degraded than publicly stated by US officials.

CNN claimed that some Iranian weapons could currently be inaccessible, as US and Israeli strikes have targeted the entrances of a tunnel network used to conceal them, which Tehran had built in preparation for bombings.

In addition, Iran is believed to retain much of its short-range cruise missile arsenal positioned along the coastline. It also claims to have “hundreds, if not thousands” of small vessels and surface drones, which could be deployed against shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively restricted passage for unauthorized vessels through the chokepoint as part of a broader strategy to increase economic pressure on US allies and global markets.

A Reuters report last week cited US intelligence as saying only around one-third of Iran’s long-range missiles and drones had been verifiably destroyed. Israeli military officials, however, estimated that 70% of Iran’s launch capacity had been “neutralized.”

US President Donald Trump and senior Pentagon officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, continue to claim that Operation Epic Fury is achieving significant success, with long-range launches reportedly reduced by 90% since the operation began in late February.

Responding to questions about the intelligence assessments, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told CNN that “anonymous sources desperately want to attack President Trump” and question the operation’s achievements.

The head coach of Russia’s national rhythmic gymnastics team has denied that young gymnast Sofia Ilteryakova disrespected Ukraine during an award ceremony.

The incident occurred on Monday at the 2026 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria. Ilteryakova, competing as a neutral athlete, finished second in the hoop event. Ukraine’s Taisiya Onofriychuk took first place and Italy’s Sofia Raffaeli placed third.

As the Ukrainian anthem played, Onofriychuk and Raffaeli turned to face their national flags, while Ilteryakova remained standing still, facing the opposite direction.

Російська гімнастка відвернулася під час виконання гімну України після перемоги Таїсії Онофрійчук. Україна вимагає позбавити її «нейтрального» статусу.

В Українській федерації гімнастики заявили, що росіянка Ільтерякова порушила етичні норми та принципи Fair Play.

1\3 pic.twitter.com/sH2Gd7aINK

— ҐРУНТ (@grntmedia) March 31, 2026

World Gymnastics, the global governing body, opened an investigation into the matter, while the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation said Ilteryakova was “openly demonstrating disrespect” toward Ukraine’s national symbols and had committed “a form of passive aggression against Ukrainian athletes.”

Tatyana Sergayeva, the head coach of the Russian team, defended the 15-year-old gymnast.

“Sofia Ilteryakova participated in the World Cup for the first time, making her debut at such a high-level competition,” Sergayeva said on Wednesday in a statement on the website of the Russian Gymnastics Federation. “She may have been a little confused during the award ceremony, which is entirely natural for an athlete competing at this level for the first time,” she added.

There has been tension between Russian and Ukrainian athletes due to the ongoing armed conflict between the two countries. In 2025, Onofriychuk refused to pose for a photo during two award ceremonies with Moscow-born Vera Tugolukova, who represents Cyprus.

Зірка української гімнастики, 16-річна Таїсія Онофрійчук відмовилася від спільного фото з "нейтральними" росіянкою та білорускою.

Це сталося під час церемонії нагородження Кубка світу з художньої гімнастики.

На етапі в Баку Онофрійчук здобула золото у вправах з обручем. pic.twitter.com/OzYmrwNPpe

— Олег Володарський (@volodarskijo) April 20, 2025

The same year in Egypt, Ukrainian synchronized swimmers Darya Moshinskaya and Anastasia Shmonina similarly declined to shake hands or pose for photos with their Russian competitors, Maya Doroshko and Tatyana Gayday.

⚡️Украинские пловчихи-синхронистки проиграли русским спортсменкам и отказались с ними фотографироваться и пожимать руки

В пятницу россиянки Майя Дорошко и Татьяна Гайдай выиграли техническую программу дуэтов. Украинки Дарья Мошинская и Анастасия Шмонина стали вторыми pic.twitter.com/7EzeteE8K1

— Третий Ученик Штирлица (@TStirlica89368) April 13, 2025

Last month, Ukrainian wrestler Artur Kostyuk stepped down from the podium in Serbia when the Russian anthem began playing and turned his back on the national flags.

🇷🇺🇮🇹🇺🇦🥇Украинский борец Артур Костюк спустился с пьедестала и повернулся спиной к флагу РФ во время награждения россиянина на чемпионате Европы U23.

Костюк завоевал бронзу, а россиянин - золото.

Рагули они таки рагули. 😁🤦 pic.twitter.com/xsJvhr0z53

— ★𝒌𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖗𝖚𝒔★ (@krotrus) March 13, 2026

Russia has condemned these incidents as violations of fair play and unsportsmanlike behavior.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, the service’s top uniformed officer, in a lingering row over promotion linked to race and gender, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Hegseth also reportedly dismissed two other generals in a purge which is feared to be undermining the US war on Iran.

Sources familiar with the matter told the paper that Hegseth ordered George, a 61-year-old veteran who served both in Iraq and Afghanistan, to retire immediately, describing the move as rooted not in policy disagreements but in the secretary’s “long-running grievance with the army and its leadership” and a troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll.

Hegseth did not give the reason for the dismissal, but previously vowed to cleanse the department of “woke” culture and fight the practice of promotions based on race and gender quotas.

According to the NYT, George and Driscoll pushed back, citing the officers’ “long records of exemplary service.” About two weeks before his firing, George had reportedly sought a meeting with Hegseth to discuss the removals and what he viewed as unnecessary interference in army personnel decisions – a request Hegseth declined.

George had also served as senior military assistant to then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin under the Biden administration.

NYT sources also noted that George and Driscoll had formed a “tight partnership,” with Hegseth reportedly at odds with the latter.

“Hegseth can’t fire Driscoll,” an unnamed administration official told the Washington Post. “So he’s going to make his life hell.”

Hegseth also fired Gen. David Hodne, who headed the US Army’s Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the chief of chaplains, the WaPo reported. No official reason was given for any of the firings.

George’s term was not due to end until 2027. According to the NYT, as army chief, he had spearheaded initiatives aimed at fielding new drone technologies and AI-powered targeting systems while opposing a new light tank program, arguing it was too vulnerable to cheap UAVs. Gen. Christopher LaNeve – once Hegseth’s top military aide – is expected to serve as acting army chief of staff.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov has held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

After the meeting on Thursday, Modi said the sides had discussed mutually beneficial cooperation in trade, fertilizers, connectivity, and people-to-people ties between India and Russia.

The South Asian nation, which is the world’s second largest fertilizer importer, is looking to boost fertilizer imports from Russia, Belarus, and Morocco as a supply crunch looms due to the Middle East conflict.

The Middle East accounts for about half of India’s fertilizer imports, while Saudi Arabia is its largest diammonium phosphate (DAP) provider and Oman the biggest urea supplier.

Modi and Manturov also discussed the implementation of the outcomes of the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit.

“Welcomed the sustained efforts from both sides to implement the outcomes of the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit held during President [Vladimir] Putin’s visit to India last December,” Modi said in a post on X.

🇷🇺🇮🇳 On April 2, #Russia’s First Deputy PM Denis Manturov paid a working visit to #India, during which he was received by PM @narendramodi.

Meetings were also held with EAM @DrSJaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval & Finance Minister @nsitharaman.

👉🏻 https://t.co/Pa37FHt39y#RussiaIndia https://t.co/ISifLrOt0v pic.twitter.com/w1MDwknwfv

— Russia in India 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbIndia) April 2, 2026

Manturov, who is co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), also held talks with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

The visit assumes significance as New Delhi prepares to host a BRICS summit in September. President Putin is likely to travel to participate in the summit, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said earlier this week.

Manturov is also reportedly laying the groundwork for Modi’s proposed visit to Moscow later this year, as indicated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last month.

US President Donald Trump has fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was accused of mishandling the release of files related to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Both Democrats and Republicans have accused Bondi, a longtime Trump loyalist, of attempting to conceal some emails and photographs from Epstein’s estate. Over the years, Epstein cultivated friendships with high-profile figures, including Trump.

Bondi’s Justice Department was also accused of covering up the circumstances of Epstein’s death in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, which was ruled a suicide.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump thanked Bondi for doing “a tremendous job” fighting violent crime. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much-needed and important new job in the private sector,” Trump wrote.

Todd Blanche, a former lawyer for Trump and Bondi’s deputy, will succeed her as acting attorney general.

“Leading President Trump’s historic and highly successful efforts to make America safer and more secure has been the honor of a lifetime,” Bondi wrote on X.

Over the next month I will be working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche before moving to an important private sector role I am thrilled about, and where I will continue fighting for President Trump and this Administration.…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 2, 2026

In 2025, Bondi came under fire after the DOJ released a trove of files on the Epstein case that contained little new information and denied that the billionaire had kept a client list of individuals to whom he allegedly trafficked women. The DOJ later released millions of emails and images after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025.

Inaccurate media reporting on the latest statements by the defense team in Charlie Kirk’s murder case shows that there is a real risk of “poisoning the jury” and affecting the trial, legal commentator and former lawyer David Freiheit has told RT.

Earlier this week, several outlets reported, citing the lawyers representing Tyler Robinson – the man accused of killing Kirk – that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could not conclusively connect a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body to a rifle found at the scene.

According to Freiheit, some of those reports, such as the one by the Daily Mail, were inaccurate. “The headline was overtly misleading,” he said, adding that the British media outlet said “it did not match, whereas in reality… the ATF or the reports [said] that they couldn't match it based on the fragments, which is not uncommon in these types of incidents.” 

“There's a real concern in this particular case about what they call poisoning the jury,” the former lawyer stated, adding that information provided to the media, whether it is accurate or not, could “ferment… conspiracy theories” and eventually affect the trial.

Freiheit also stated that some questions surrounding the murder do need to be answered. The list of such issues includes a possibility of other people on social media possessing “advance knowledge” about the attack and the reasons for a “lapse” in the campus security that allegedly allowed the suspected assassin to take up a position on an unguarded roof, according the former lawyer.

Watch the full interview here:

The EU is facing a looming energy crisis and the only way to survive is to lift sanctions on Russian oil and gas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on X on Thursday.

He was replying to an earlier post by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who lamented the outcomes of years of EU policy, without seeming to be able to understand its consequences. Tusk bemoaned a “massive energy crisis in Europe,” threat of the US pulling out of NATO, the reported redirection of American arms supplies from Ukraine to the Middle East, as well as Washington easing sanctions on Russian energy supplies.

“It all looks like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s dream plan,” Tusk claimed.

In his response, Orban urged Tusk to worry about his own country and people, rather than Putin.

Instead of warmongering, love and save your country, Donald!

Kremlin investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev chimed in, calling Orban “one of the few voices of wisdom and reason in Europe.”

“He understands the severity of the upcoming energy and economic crisis and, unlike EU bureaucrats, knows what needs to be done to minimize the damage,” he replied in an X post.

Dmitriev has been sounding the alarm about the looming energy crisis since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February.

The bloc’s Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has warned member states to prepare for a prolonged fuel disruption. The consequences would outlast the Iran conflict “because energy infrastructure in the region has been ruined by war,” he told reporters after a meeting of energy ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.

Poland and Romania have to fulfill their obligations under an EU deal and buy €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion) worth of unneeded Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech, a Belgian court has ruled.

The case is linked to the agreements struck by Brussels at the height of the pandemic. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has faced criticism over her role in the controversial deals.

At the time, the commission advocated collectively purchasing billions of shots and distributing them among EU member states struggling to contain Covid-19. It ended up signing multibillion-euro deals with vaccine manufacturers in 2020 and 2021.

Poland refused to comply with its part of the contract in 2022, pointing to an improving situation with Covid and potential abuse of its dominant position by Pfizer. Romania followed suit soon thereafter. The US pharma giant filed a lawsuit against both nations in 2023.

Under the ruling, Poland would have to buy Pfizer vaccines worth €1.3 billion while Romania would have to purchase shots worth €600 million.

Warsaw said it would “pursue all legal remedies available to it to amend this ruling and defend its interests.” Bucharest stated that the requested sum amounts to “the equivalent of ⁠a ... regional hospital in Romania” and also vowed to appeal the decision.

The controversial EU vaccine deal led to the so-called Pfizergate scandal, in which the European Commission and von der Leyen personally were accused of concealing details of negotiations with Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

Von der Leyen was particularly criticized for her refusal to disclose or preserve key text messages she supposedly exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. The issue even prompted a no-confidence motion in the EU Parliament last year, which she ultimately survived.

NASA launched its first crewed lunar flight in more than 50 years on Wednesday, as the Artemis II mission began with liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission comes at the dawning of a new age of competition in space.

What is Artemis II?

Artemis II is the second mission in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to land humans on the surface of the Moon in 2028, and establish a permanent base on the lunar surface in the 2030s. Artemis II is the first crewed mission in the program, and takes place four years after Artemis I – an uncrewed mission which tested the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule.

Who is flying Artemis II?

Artemis II will see American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, orbit the Earth, circle the Moon, and then return to Earth at a record re-entry speed of 40,000 kph (25,000 mph). At one point in the mission, the crew will be further from Earth than humans have ever been, surpassing the record of 400,171 km (248,655 miles) set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

Was the Artemis II launch successful?

A NASA Space Launch System (SLS) rocket roared into motion at 6:35 PM on Wednesday, accelerating the Orion craft to around 27,360 kph (17,000 mph) within eight minutes of flight. A technical error with the rocket’s Flight Termination System (FTS) threatened to delay the launch, but NASA technicians were able to resolve the problem with an hour to spare.

The FTS system allows flight engineers to trigger the rocket’s self-destruction in the event that it veers off course and threatens lives on the ground.

When will Artemis II reach the Moon?

The spacecraft will spend 24 hours in high-Earth orbit – around 74,000 km (46,000 miles) above the planet’s surface – conducting systems tests before Orion’s own engines will fire on Thursday evening, setting the craft on a trajectory for the Moon.

Orion will enter the Moon’s gravitational sphere on Monday, and will begin its lunar flyby later that day. During this phase of the mission, the Artemis II crew will become the first humans to lay eyes on the far side of the Moon, which always faces away from Earth. The Moon’s gravity will then sling Orion directly back toward Earth, and after reentry, the crew capsule will separate from the spacecraft for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, April 10.

Why is NASA returning to the Moon now?

Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17, in which astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt walked on the surface of the Moon. The Apollo missions took place at the height of the Cold War, with the US spending 4% of its federal budget on NASA during the 1960s in a bid to land on the Moon before the USSR. After the first successful lunar landing in 1969, however, the agency’s budget contracted amid waning public interest and economic turmoil.

What disasters have befallen NASA’s space program?

Following the 1969 Moon landing, a series of tragedies further curtailed the US space program. NASA’s Challenger space shuttle disintegrated less than two minutes into its tenth flight in January 1986, killing all seven crew members on board. The disaster was broadcast live on CNN: Images of the craft exploding in a mid-air fireball and silence from mission control witnessed by millions of Americans.

An inquest found that faulty rubber O-rings caused Challenger’s rocket booster to leak hot gases, which ignited the booster’s remaining propellant.

Tragedy struck again in 2003 when another space shuttle, the Columbia, disintegrated during re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board. Columbia’s fate was decided during launch, when a piece of insulating foam broke loose and punctured heat-shielding tiles on the craft’s wing. This damage caused the wing to break apart during re-entry.

Who restarted the US lunar mission program?

An executive order signed by Trump last December declared that “superiority in space is a measure of national vision and willpower.” Trump echoed this language following the successful launch of Artemis II, writing on social media that “we are winning in space, on Earth, and wherever possible – economically, militarily, and now beyond the stars.”

Was the Artemis program delayed?

The Artemis program has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. The Artemis I mission – before it was named as such by Trump – was initially set to take place in 2016, before the date was pushed back to 2021, and then 2022. When Trump unveiled plans to send humans back to the Moon, he originally set a landing date of 2024, which has since slipped back to 2028.

Combined, the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft have cost more than $44 billion to develop. As of last year, the SLS project was six years behind schedule and $6 billion over initial cost estimates, while Orion has cost $3.2 billion more than originally projected. A 2021 report by the Government Accountability Office placed the entire cost of the Artemis program at $93 billion up to fiscal year 2025, and the cost of a single SLS/Orion launch at $4.1 billion.

Who is competing with the US in the space race?

NASA is competing with Russia’s Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which are working on establishing a joint lunar base by 2035.

Furthermore, the US and China have both created space-focused branches of their militaries – the US Space Force and PLA Aerospace Force. Both have tested anti-satellite missiles, both have declared space a warfighting domain, and both are developing space-based missile interceptors and the means to overcome them.

As was the case during the Cold War, competition between Washington and Beijing has split the world into rival blocs. Some 61 countries have signed the Artemis Accords, a set of non-binding rules governing the exploration and commercial exploitation of the Moon and Mars. Russia and China have both condemned the accords, with Moscow describing them as a “blatant attempt to create international space law that favors the United States.” 

Along with Russia and China, 11 other countries including Serbia and South Africa, are taking part in the development of the ILRS.

Can the Moon be mined for resources?

In November 2015, the US Congress passed a bill allowing American companies to own and sell materials they extract from the Moon or other celestial bodies. The Artemis Accords explicitly permit the “safe and sustainable” extraction of resources from the Moon.

The Moon contains substantial deposits of rare-earth elements and Helium-3, an isotope with the potential to power future fusion reactors. These deposits have piqued the interest of commercial space exploration firms. Astrolab and Interlune plan to jointly extract Helium-3 from the Moon by 2029, and have already signed contracts with the US Department of Energy to sell the gas.

According to a research paper published last year, 6,500 craters on the Moon’s surface could contain platinum, palladium, and rhodium worth more than a trillion dollars.

A Ukrainian conscription officer was fatally stabbed in Lviv on Thursday, the national police force has reported.

The western city is widely regarded as a bastion of Ukrainian nationalism and has historically been a stronghold for the country’s most radical parties where support for the country’s war with Russia is thought to be highest.

The officer with the Ukrainian Territorial Recruitment Centers (TCC), which oversees the country’s conscription campaign, was wounded in the neck at around 14:15, the police said in a statement on Telegram.

He later “died from his injuries in hospital,” it added.

A Ukrainian customs officer was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the killing, investigators announced a few hours later.

Videos from the scene circulating on social media show a man lying motionless across the back seat of a van, while two medics attempt to save him.

Last year, former Ukrainian parliamentary speaker and neo-Nazi MP Andrey Parubiy was shot dead in central Lviv. He played an active role in the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, and was also allegedly responsible for crushing ensuing protests against the new nationalist government, as well as ordering attacks on militias in eastern Ukraine in the nascent stages of the current conflict.

Ukraine has consistently escalated its violent and chaotic mobilization campaign in recent years as it seeks to compensate for battlefield losses, drawing mounting public discontent. Hundreds of videos circulating online show TCC officers violently snatching and beating men in streets, from vehicles and homes, often fighting with intervening onlookers.

Currently, only around 8-10% of the newcomers in Ukraine’s armed forces are willing recruits, lawmaker and member of Ukrainian parliament’s National Security Committee, Vadim Ivchenko, said in an interview last month.

Russia is a good place to live for Jews as it has a low level of anti-Semitism and provides a lot of opportunities for development, the country’s chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, has said.

Lazar’s interview was published by Tass news agency on Monday, being dedicated to the beginning of Passover or Pesach, a major Jewish holiday, marking the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This year, it is celebrated between April 1 and 9.

Lazar expressed optimism about the future of Russia's Jewish community. “I believe that not only will the community survive, but we should expect a flood of Jews from other countries, and not only Jews, willing to move to Russia,” he added.

"The level of anti-Semitism in Russia is much lower than in any other country,” he said, adding it is “a pleasant place to live” and has “huge potential.”

The rabbi also said there is “more freedom of worship in Russia than in the West” where they are now “fighting against religion.”

According to Lazar, this poses “a serious problem for believers who don’t want such an unconventional lifestyle to be forced upon them. How do we know it's unconventional? Because God created humans, a man and a woman, so they would marry and then have children,” Lazar stressed.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the country’s Jewish community on Pesach, saying in a statement that it is “gratifying” that “it leads a full and comprehensive life, devoting tireless attention to preserving traditional spiritual, moral and family values, educating the younger generation and actively participating in charity.”

The US-based Combat Antisemitism Movement claimed that a 30% spike in anti-Semitic incidents have occurred globally since the launch of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 27. Arson and bomb attacks against synagogues and Jewish schools have been reported in the US and several Western European countries.

Fuel shortages have spread across France after drivers rushed to fill their tanks following the introduction of price caps, straining supplies at hundreds of stations, according to the Energy Ministry and media reports.

Around 900 stations have run out of at least one type of fuel, including around 700 operated by energy major TotalEnergies, the Energy Ministry said on Wednesday, blaming logistical issues rather than a national supply shortage.

Other estimates suggest that up to 1,600 sites may have experienced temporary shortages amid surging fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict. Diesel prices in France reached record highs of around €2.25 ($2.45) per liter.

The US-Israeli war against Iran has triggered a global energy shock, sending oil prices surging and pushing fuel costs higher for consumers worldwide. The conflict has effectively choked flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for around a fifth of global oil.

On Tuesday, TotalEnergies extended its cap on gasoline and diesel prices at stations across mainland France until April 7, as demand surged following the measure. The company said traffic across its network increased sharply since mid-March, warning of “localized supply tensions,” particularly for diesel.

She said, “there is no risk of a supply shortage at this time,” adding that France still holds around 100 million barrels in strategic reserves. “We still have some leeway and will respond as necessary to occasional supply difficulties.”

Rising energy costs are feeding into the broader economy. French inflation accelerated to 1.9% in March, the fastest since August 2024, with energy prices jumping 7.3% after more than a year of decreases, data from statistics office Insee shows.

Shell CEO Wael Sawan warned last week that Europe could face fuel shortages as damage to Gulf energy facilities from the Iran war disrupts supplies, with jet fuel already affected and diesel likely next, followed by gasoline ahead of the summer driving season.

The crisis has also revived debate in the EU over energy sourcing. Before 2022, Russia supplied around a quarter of the bloc’s oil imports, but the EU has since sharply reduced purchases and plans a full phase-out by 2027.

German pharma giant Bayer has warned that European drugmakers must raise prices on new medicines in Europe to maintain profits amid US pressure to lower drug costs for Americans.

Last year, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to force big pharma to benchmark key medicines sold in the US against prices in other countries, citing unfair pricing gaps. As of March, 16 major drugmakers have struck deals with Washington to cut prices in the US market in exchange for three years of tariff relief.

Though Bayer was not among the companies, the head of its pharmaceuticals division, Stefan Oelrich, told Bloomberg on Wednesday that the company is preparing for a new pricing system and is in talks with governments in Europe, Japan, and other wealthy nations to push for higher prices on new medicines to offset discounts for US consumers.

“In Europe, we need to raise the price level for new product launches,” Oelrich told Bloomberg. “Otherwise, as an industry – and this naturally applies to us as well – we’ll be faced with additional discounts in the US that wouldn’t allow us to recoup our total expenses.”

New drug launches in Europe have dropped by around 35% over the past ten months since Trump’s order, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing GlobalData. Some companies have even withdrawn products from Europe. Amgen pulled cholesterol drug Repatha from Denmark. Indivior withdrew anti-addiction drugs Subutex and Suboxone from Sweden and other markets.

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at NATO and key European leaders, deepening tensions within the bloc over the war against Iran. According to the Financial Times, Washington has also threatened to curb weapons supplies to Ukraine to pressure European countries into involvement in the war in the Middle East.

At a White House Easter lunch on Wednesday, Trump described NATO as a “paper tiger” and voiced frustration that other bloc members have not joined the US-Israeli war on Iran. He said he had sought European backing as a test of their reliability, which they failed to prove and that the US could leave the bloc over the issue.

“I learned about NATO. NATO won’t be there if we ever have the big one,” Trump said.

Trump also recounted conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Both leaders declined to commit forces to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint which Iran effectively took under control in retaliation for the US-Israeli offensive launched in late February.

[ 🇺🇸 ÉTATS-UNIS | 🇫🇷 FRANCE ]

🔸Donald Trump sur Emmanuel Macron :

💬 « Sa femme le traite extrêmement mal. »

* Rires dans la salle *

« Il ne s’est toujours par remis de cette droite dans la figure ! » pic.twitter.com/HtdB7G3UID

— Little Think Tank (@L_ThinkTank) April 1, 2026

Macron, Trump remarked, is “still recovering from the right to the jaw” from his wife – referring to a familial quarrel caught on camera last May. Starmer, he added, has “two old broken down aircraft carriers” at his disposal that he cannot deploy unless his cabinet agrees.

NATO-sponsored Ukraine arms reportedly in peril

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Trump has warned behind closed doors he could suspend deliveries of US-made weapons purchased by Ukraine’s Western backers for Kiev’s forces. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte pushed for a joint statement on March 19 committing to future efforts to safeguard maritime routes in response, sources told the outlet, describing Trump as “rather hysterical.”

The Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), introduced in July 2025 after Trump declined to fund Ukraine aid directly, allows European states to purchase US arms for Kiev. Among the most critical items are Patriot interceptor missiles, which are now in especially high demand due to the Middle East crisis.

Trump linked the two conflicts on Wednesday, arguing that the US “gave so much away to Ukraine” and is now facing a shortage of munitions. But at least the Europeans are “good for paying” for American arms, he added.

NEW - Trump: "We didn't have to go into Ukraine. Ukraine's thousands of miles away across the ocean, but we helped them." pic.twitter.com/ERGcLnWEth

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 1, 2026

The Washington Post has reported that the administration is considering redirecting NATO funds from the PURL program to meet the Pentagon’s immediate needs.

South African National Defense Force (SANDF) troops entered gang-affected areas of Cape Town on Wednesday, local outlets reported. 

The deployment is focused on neighborhoods long affected by gang violence. Daily Maverick reported that residents in these areas have faced ongoing insecurity linked to organized crime and shootings. The operation follows a surge in killings in recent weeks. Local authorities increased security measures after 23 murders were recorded in 11 days in the Cape Flats area.

About 800 soldiers are expected to take part in the operation in Cape Town, according to local media reports. The mission in the Western Cape forms part of a wider national deployment.

The move is a part of the broader Operation Prosper, which involves about 2,200 troops deployed across five provinces. The Presidency said the troops were sent “to support the South African Police Service (SAPS)” and to combat crime and illegal mining.

The office of President Cyril Ramaphosa said the leader had informed parliament of the decision to deploy troops under constitutional provisions. The operation is set to run from March 2026 until March 2027, according to the statement.

The Cape Flats area has long struggled with gang activity and high levels of violent crime. According to reports, residents have been forced to remain indoors due to safety concerns. Citizens reacted to the arrival of troops with cautious relief. According to Daily Maverick, some said the presence of soldiers allowed them to move more freely after staying inside because of violence.

In February, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced increased spending on peace and security as part of efforts to combat crime. Government spending in this area is set to rise from 268.2 billion rand ($14 billion) in 2025-26 to 291.2 billion rand ($16 billion) in 2028-29.

A resident of Odessa successfully fought off several Ukrainian conscription officers using a heavy metal chain, forcing the press gang to retreat into their minibus and flee the scene, according to local media.

Video of the incident, which has been circulating online, shows the man swinging a massive chain at four men in camouflage uniforms. He strikes them one by one as they try to approach him. The officers apparently attempted to use pepper spray, but the man appeared unfazed.

He ultimately prevented them from surrounding him and eventually drove them into their vehicle. After they closed the door, the man started smashing on the minibus and broke the window before the officers drove off.

With Ukrainian forces suffering heavy casualties in the conflict with Russia and volunteer rates plummeting, conscription squads – known colloquially as ‘press gangs’ – have resorted to violent tactics to fill the ranks. The term ‘busification’ has emerged to describe the practice of forcibly stuffing men into minibuses.

Earlier this week, a man claiming to be a US citizen in Lviv managed to stop a violent draft attempt by simply announcing he was American. In March, Ukrainian lawmaker Vadim Ivchenko admitted that fewer than 10% of new recruits join voluntarily, making forced conscription “impossible to abandon.”

Moscow has repeatedly accused the Kiev government and its Western backers of fighting “to the last Ukrainian.” Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated that Ukraine lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone, while Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested total Ukrainian military casualties have exceeded 1 million.

The EU will face a “debt hole” for tapping profits from frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said, warning that the bloc will one day have to return the money to its rightful owner.

Kiev’s Western backers froze around $300 billion in Russian central bank assets in 2022, most of it held at Brussels-based Euroclear.

While the EU has so far been unable to seize the funds outright, it has been transferring profits generated from the assets – estimated at €3.5-4 billion ($3.7-4.2 billion) a year – to Ukraine. On Wednesday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced another €80 million ($92 million) tranche drawn from the proceeds.

Commenting on the announcement, Volodin accused EU decision-makers of being “prone to robbery and theft of other people’s money and property.”

Moscow has described the use of its frozen sovereign assets and related profits as “theft” and “state-sponsored piracy,” warning that it undermines the global financial system. It has threatened “mirror measures,” including seizing Western assets in Russia, and has launched a number of lawsuits against Euroclear. It has also criticized the Western financing of Ukraine’s war effort, warning that it only prolongs the conflict.

In his post, Volodin blasted EU officials for their “ignorance,” referring in particular to Kallas’ interview with RBC Ukraine released on Wednesday, in which she said Russia has attacked 19 countries over the past century – a claim she also expressed last year, though it is not supported by any verifiable records. Kallas claimed that none of these countries – which she did not name – “has ever attacked Russia.”

“After such statements… one is simply ashamed of those who appointed Kallas to this position. And one feels sorry for the citizens of the countries she represents on behalf of the EU.”

Kallas has been criticized over the accuracy of her public statements. Her earlier claim that 19 countries were attacked by Russia prompted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to accuse Europe of “deliberately promoting the inept and uneducated” to top government posts.

Democrats have filed a lawsuit seeking to block US President Donald Trump’s latest executive order restricting mail-in voting, arguing that the Constitution gives states and Congress – not the president – the authority to decide voter eligibility for mail ballots. 

Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and restrict mail-in voting. The measure directs federal agencies to compile state-by-state voter rolls and requires the US Postal Service to send ballots only to those included. It also instructs the Department of Homeland Security to build databases of US citizens eligible to vote in each state.

The move has triggered swift backlash, with critics framing the order as both a legal overreach and a continuation of Trump’s long-running attacks on voting by mail, a method widely used by Americans.  

“President Trump has repeatedly tried to rewrite election rules for partisan advantage,” the lawsuit said.  

“We don’t need decrees from Washington, D.C.,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said. “We’ll see you in court.”  

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said the state would also move swiftly to challenge the measure, adding: “The President wants to limit which Americans can participate in our democracy. California will see him in court.”  

The lawsuit opens a second round of legal fights over the president’s authority to influence election rules. Trump’s opponents prevailed in an earlier case last year, persuading multiple federal judges to block his initial executive order on grounds that it was likely unconstitutional.  

Mail-in voting in the US dates back to the 1860s. Several states, including Oregon, Washington and Colorado, now conduct elections almost entirely by mail, while others widely offer no-excuse absentee voting.   

Trump has repeatedly targeted the system since 2020, claiming widespread fraud. Earlier this year, he claimed that America’s elections are “rigged”, “stolen” and a global “laughingstock.” Trump’s executive order comes ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, which will determine whether the Republicans retain control of Congress.

The Strait of Hormuz will not return to the status quo enjoyed before the US-Israeli war against Iran, a security official has told RT.

The waterway, through which around 20% of seaborne crude oil trade passes, remains effectively closed due to the fighting during the past month. The deadlock has caused economic strains for many countries – including the US, where gas prices surpassed $4 per gallon earlier this week.

The Iranian official said in an interview with RT on Thursday that the “conditions in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the pre-war status quo.”

At the moment, transit through the waterway “remains operational,” but ships “are subject to the approval of the Iranian side and require the flag state of the vessel to establish contact with Tehran,” he said, adding: “To date, no vessel belonging to the enemy or its partners has been granted permission to pass,” referring to the US, Israel, and their allies.

He also urged the international media “to ignore the disinformation campaigns by the US-Israeli side and [US President Donald] Trump personally.”

“Iranian regulation and control over the Strait continues and will persist,” he told RT.

In an address to the nation on Thursday, Trump suggested that countries that depend on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz should “build up some delayed courage… and just take it.” He added that the waterway could “open up naturally” after the war ends, without providing details.

Earlier this week, the Iranian parliament approved a “new regime,” according to which Tehran will collect payment from ships going through the strait.

Ford and Toyota are recalling more than 500 vehicles in South Africa after safety defects were found in certain Ranger, Wildtrak, Puma, and Hino 700 models, according to the country’s National Consumer Commission (NCC).

The recall comes after the NCC was notified by Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (PTY) Ltd (Ford) and Toyota SA Motors (PTY) Ltd. According to the NCC, Ford has informed the commission of recalling 438 units of 2025 Ford Ranger XLT and Wildtrak vehicles.

The recall affects vehicles that were made available for sale between February 18, 2025, and March 18, 2025, and distributed nationally. The NCC’s spokesperson, Pheto Ntaba, said the recall was due to safety concerns. 

“According to Ford, the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve in some of the affected vehicles may fail, which may result in a loss of engine power, typically at speeds below 15 mph/24 kph. Drivers may also experience warning indicators such as a check engine light appearing on the dashboard, weak acceleration, engine vibration, or the engine failing to start. A loss of engine power while driving may increase the risk of an accident,” Ntaba said. 

“This recall is meant to correct the software, as the underlying condition addressed in the earlier recall may still exist. If this is not corrected, in the event of an accident, the performance of the vehicle’s restraint system could potentially be reduced, thereby increasing the risk of injury to occupants,” Ntaba said.

“The affected vehicles have a defect in that the fuel pump housing has an inappropriate surface treatment process done during production. Cracks may develop when repeated high loads are applied to the supply pump, resulting in a fuel leak,” Ntaba said. 

Owners of the affected vehicles are urged to take their vehicles to the nearest authorised Ford and Toyota dealership for repairs. The necessary repair work will be carried out at no cost to the consumer.

First published by IOL

The people of India’s union territory of Jammu and Kashmir see Russia as a counterbalance to the hegemony of Western nations, lawmaker Syed Ruhullah Mehdi has told RT India.

Mehdi said those emotionally affected by the war on Iran, expect Russia to take a line or stand that would be helpful to Tehran. 

“Because at the end of the day, Russia is a power globally which we see as a counterbalancing factor against this hegemony,” Mehdi said in the latest episode of India, Russia, and the World with Runjhun Sharma. “Russia will not let their friends be alone in this fight for survival and fight for their existence.” 

He added that those with such a line of thought “would preferably see Russia playing a pro-active role in this conflict.” 

The politician termed India’s lack of mediation in the conflict “a lost opportunity” as the country is “better suited and was closer to Iran.” He added, “Pakistan is being seen as a potential negotiator in this neighborhood, mind you, where India is a prominent country.” 

The West has no moral authority to talk about killing. “If that is to be taken as an argument, what about the genocide that was carried out in Gaza very recently. More than 70,000 people were killed,” he said. He also pointed out that the US is the only country that has used a nuclear bomb and killed hundreds of thousands.

Mehdi said Ayatollah Khamenei’s martyrdom has been a blessing for the unity of Ummah or the Muslim society. It is for the people of Iran to judge if their government has oppressed its people, Mehdi, who is also a Shia cleric, added.

US President Donald Trump has publicly mocked his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron’s relationship with his wife, Brigitte, sparking outrage in France.

Trump made the remarks during a private White House lunch on Wednesday, the feed from which may have been accidentally posted online. Trump was heard complaining about France’s refusal to join the US-Israeli war against Iran, before saying Brigitte Macron treats her husband “extremely badly” and claiming that the French president is “still recovering from the right to the jaw.” 

The quip was referring to a widely circulated May 2025 video that appeared to show Brigitte Macron pushing her husband’s face aboard a plane after landing in Hanoi. Macron later dismissed the incident as the couple “bickering and joking.”

Trump’s comments, which drew laughter from the audience at the White House, were vehemently condemned in France. Macron told reporters that the remarks were “neither elegant, nor appropriate,” and did not “deserve a response.” French politicians across party lines also denounced Trump for ridiculing a fellow head of state. 

Trump mocks Macron again:

I called up France, Macron, whose wife treats him extremely badly and he’s still recovering from the right to the jaw. pic.twitter.com/bEJgfKaVRg

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 1, 2026

National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet called the remarks “beneath contempt,” adding that “people are dying on the battlefield, yet the US president is laughing and mocking others.” Manuel Bompard of the far-left France Unbowed party also said that despite his own differences with Macron, “I cannot tolerate Donald Trump speaking about Macron and his wife in that manner.”

Trump has responded by branding NATO a “paper tiger” and threatening to pull the US out of the bloc. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also signaled that Washington may “re-examine” its NATO membership after the war.

Trump’s mockery of Macron comes amid a history of scandals surrounding his wife Brigitte. In January, a Paris court convicted ten people for online harassment over conspiracy theories falsely claiming the French first lady is transgender. Separately, she sparked a scandal in December by referring to feminist protesters as “stupid b***hes” in a leaked backstage video, prompting a wave of criticism from activists and politicians.

The US has removed the sanctions on interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The move was announced on Wednesday and marks a significant policy shift as Washington builds closer ties with Caracas after kidnapping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year.

US President Donald Trump previously warned Rodriguez that she could face an even higher price than Maduro if she did not comply with the administration’s conditions. However, he later changed his rhetoric and called relations with her “very good.” Trump said last month that the US  “formally recognized” the interim government.

In March, Reuters cited four people familiar with the matter as saying that the Trump administration was quietly building a legal case against Rodriguez. Federal prosecutors reportedly put together corruption and money laundering charges, and told the interim president that she was at risk of prosecution.

Rodriguez and other Maduro allies were sanctioned by the Treasury in 2018 following Maduro’s reelection, which the US and other countries said was rigged. At the time, Washington claimed that she helped Maduro maintain power.

The sanctions included freezing her assets in the US, banning American individuals and companies from conducting business with her, and blocking her access to the US financial system. Her international dealings and travel were also restricted, effectively isolating Rodriguez from global financial and economic networks.

Rodriguez initially declared that no “foreign agent” would control Venezuela, and demanded that Maduro and his wife be freed. However, she has since moved to align with the administration’s demands, including opening the country’s oil sector to American companies and cooperating on security.

As a result, Washington has imposed control over Venezuelan crude exports, with the proceeds deposited into restricted US Treasury-run accounts rather than going directly to the Venezuelan state. The country holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves – around one-fifth of the total.

Last month, Rodriguez agreed to sell around $100 million in physical gold to the US, with the proceeds similarly controlled by Washington. In January, she also agreed to free more than 400 detainees who the US considers political prisoners.

A fire at an ammunition depot inside a military camp on the outskirts of Burundi’s largest city triggered multiple explosions on Tuesday night, killing 13 people and injuring more than 50 others, the East African nation’s army has said.

According to army spokesperson Gaspard Baratuza, the blaze broke out at a storage unit in the Musaga area of Bujumbura following an electrical fault. The fire ignited explosives at the site, triggering several blasts that sent munitions flying across the camp and surrounding neighborhoods.

Three military personnel are among the 57 people injured, Baratuza told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the inferno also caused “considerable” material damage, with military equipment and installations burned, and houses and vehicles damaged in several neighborhoods.

Bujumbura, Burundi: A massive explosion occurred after an electrical fire at a military store. https://t.co/sEZdW4swHT pic.twitter.com/7mF1VLOlQ5

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 31, 2026

Local officials cited by AP said children who fled were being cared for at the Buhonga Catholic Parish while families regrouped.

The military urged “the entire Burundian population to remain calm and composed, to report any unexploded devices to the authorities as soon as possible, and not to handle them.”

It added that the government retained the capacity to guarantee the country’s peace and security.

Burundi has experienced serious fire-related disasters in the past, including in 2021, when a blaze at Gitega prison killed at least 38 inmates and injured 69 others. The authorities blamed a short circuit for the fire at the overcrowded facility.

The army’s spokesperson, however, said the military camp had not come under attack and urged residents of Gasekebuye, Kanyosha, Kinindo, and nearby neighborhoods not to panic.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has denied claims that he told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that up to 80% of Syrians living in Germany could be convinced to return home within three years.

Merz cited the figure and timeline on Monday during a joint press conference with al-Sharaa, a former jihadist commander who seized power in 2024 after overthrowing the previous government. Following criticism, including from within his own political camp, Merz claimed on Tuesday that the estimate had originated from al-Sharaa.

Speaking later that day at an event hosted by the London-based think tank Chatham House, al-Sharaa dismissed the claim as “exaggerated” and said it did not reflect his position. He emphasized that any repatriation effort would depend heavily on Syria’s economic recovery.

Al-Sharaa said that higher return rates would require substantial investment from Western countries, including Germany, into Syria’s reconstruction.

‘Not wise’ for government to voice specific figures

Migration remains a hot-button political issue across Western Europe. Recent polling indicates a widespread desire for stricter controls and reduced numbers. A major 2025 YouGov survey found that between 64% and 82% of respondents in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain oppose a large increase in new migrants.

Merz’s remarks on Syrian repatriations were broadly deemed unrealistic and irresponsible. Anke Rehlinger, deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is part of the governing coalition, said it was “not a wise idea” to announce “specific figures for specific timeframes” that the public is likely to take as a policy goal.

Daniel Thym, a migration expert interviewed by Handelsblatt, described the 80% return rate as “likely unattainable,” given that only a few thousand Syrians have so far agreed to go home in exchange for financial incentives offered by the German government.

What about Ukrainian refugees in the EU? 

Millions of Syrian fled as the Arab Spring gripped the country, plunging it into a catastrophic civil war that sparked a major migration wave towards the EU in 2014-15. Around 1 million Syrians ultimately settled in Germany, encouraged by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel's open arms policy, which has been largely retained by her successors despite increasingly becoming a political liability.

In 2022, a comparable number of Ukrainians received protection in Germany. The prospects for this cohort to return home remains similarly unclear.

Only about 10–15% of the roughly 6.5 million Ukrainians currently residing in Europe are expected to go back, even if the war ends, Vasily Voskoboynik, head of a Ukrainian labor and migration organization, estimated in a recent interview. He also warned that as many as 1.5 million Ukrainian residents could instead seek work abroad once travel restrictions linked to martial law are lifted.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals for the first time in 52 years after a dramatic extra-time victory over Jamaica.  

The DR Congo prevailed 1-0 in a tightly contested play-off in Guadalajara, Mexico on Tuesday, with former Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe scoring the decisive goal in the 100th minute of extra time.

Celebrations erupted in the capital, Kinshasa, with crowds taking to the streets as news of the victory spread. Authorities in the country declared Wednesday a public holiday after the national team, known as the Leopards, secured qualification.

Calling the result “historic,” the Ministry of Labor and Employment urged people to celebrate “in unity, fervor, and national pride.”

Deputy government spokesperson Jean Maurice Uwera hailed the result on X, writing: “Leopards stepping up for Africa! Congratulations DR Congo, go make the continent proud on the world stage.”

“We did it for us, for you, all the Congolese from all over the world for a whole people who deserve it,” DR Congo defender Joris Kayembe said.

DR Congo’s only previous World Cup appearance came in 1974, when the country competed under its former name, Zaire.

The African state continues to grapple with instability as the M23 rebel group maintains control over parts of the country, fueling ongoing clashes and humanitarian crises.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup finals kick off in mid-June and are being co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico. DR Congo will begin their World Cup campaign against Portugal in Houston on June 17, before facing Colombia and Uzbekistan in the group stage.

African teams have improved their performances at the World Cup over the decades. Cameroon became the first African side to reach the quarter-finals in 1990, followed by Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010. Morocco went even further in 2022, reaching the semi-finals before losing to France.

Several tour guides in Nepal ran a fake helicopter rescue racket to defraud insurance companies in Australia and the UK, the Kathmandu Post has reported. 

Investigations by the paper revealed that the guides first staged a medical emergency, called in a helicopter, and checked tourists into a hospital.

An insurance claim was then filed, which made it difficult for the foreign insurers, mostly operating from Australia and the UK, to verify incidents that purportedly happened at altitudes of 3,000 meters above sea level in remote Himalayan locations, according to the report.

The newspaper first published an investigative report in 2019 about the alleged scam. While Nepalese authorities did not immediately act on the allegations, in 2025 the Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) reopened the case and found that the practice is widespread.

Nepal charges 32 in fake rescue scam

Fake helicopter rescues and inflated hospital bills used to claim insurance payouts, investigators say.https://t.co/q9mA2YlUaZ —by @gauravpkh

— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) March 23, 2026

The CIB probe revealed two methods the guides used to fake an emergency, according to the report.

The first involved tourists who did not want to trek back down from high-altitude points. After an Everest Base Camp trek, which can take up to two weeks on foot, the scammers convinced tourists unwilling to trek back to pretend to be sick. They were then ferried back in a helicopter.

In the second method, guides exploited mild and common symptoms of altitude sickness, and then told the tourists that only an immediate evacuation could save their lives.

The guides also ferried multiple tourists in a single chopper, while supplying separate invoices to each passenger’s insurance company, portraying it as a dedicated flight, inflating claims of $4,000 to as high as $12,000, the report said.

Medical officers acting in concert with scammers prepared discharge summaries using the digital signatures of senior doctors, while creating fake hospital admission records.

Official investigators found that 4,782 foreign patients were treated across local hospitals between 2022 and 2025 in the scam. Some hospitals that received millions linked to the scam have also been identified, according to the report.

On March 12, the CIB charged 32 people with offenses against the state and arrested nine of them. The other suspects are believed to be on the run.

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has signed into law a measure that toughens penalties for same-sex relations and criminalizes the “promotion” and financing of homosexuality.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk called the bill “harmful” and urged the president not to sign it. It was approved by parliament in March by 135 votes, with three abstentions.

The new law doubles prison sentences for what the authorities call “unnatural acts,” including homosexuality, bisexuality, “transsexuality,” zoophilia, and necrophilia, from the previous 1-5 years to 5-10 years, while also increasing maximum fines to 10 million CFA francs ($17,680). Reports on the text say judges are also barred from handing down suspended sentences or reducing prison terms below the established minimum.

Homosexual relations were already illegal in the Muslim-majority country under a 1966 provision. Backers of the measure, including religious groups, cast it as a defense of traditional values.

In a statement on March 12, the UN human rights chief said the law should not be enacted, warning that it “flies in the face” of rights to dignity, privacy, and equality.

Turk also urged the Senegalese government to “repeal the existing discriminatory law” and uphold the rights of all people in Senegal without discrimination.

The US removed Uganda from a key duty-free trade program, and the World Bank froze new loans after Kampala passed an anti-LGBTQ law in May 2023 imposing the death penalty for certain same-sex acts and up to 20 years in prison for promoting homosexuality.

In 2024, Ghana’s Finance Ministry warned that the country could lose $3.8 billion in World Bank funding if the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill approved by parliament is signed into law.

Iran has accused the US and Israel of genocide over the “deliberate” targeting of schools and education facilities in strikes on the country.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said more than 600 schools and educational facilities across Iran have been targeted in US-Israeli attacks over the past month, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Minab where more than 160 children were killed.

”This is not an isolated act of cruelty – it is part of a systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare against Iran,” he wrote. “The term ‘war crime’ falls far short of adequately describing these atrocities. Given the explicit rhetoric of hostility toward Iranians (as a nation) expressed by US/Israeli officials, these crimes amount to genocide.”

The US-Israeli war on Iran began with massive strikes on urban centers on February 28, including the bombing of the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school, which killed at least 175 people, more than 160 of them children. American and Israeli officials initially offered conflicting denials and explanations, with US President Donald Trump even suggesting the attack was “done by Iran.”

This is not an isolated act of cruelty—it is part of a systematic and brutal pattern of illegal warfare against Iran.
In the past 33 days, aggressors have deliberately targeted over 600 schools and educational centers, including the Shajareh Tayyebeh School in #Minab and the…

— Esmaeil Baqaei (@IRIMFA_SPOX) April 1, 2026

However, the Pentagon has opened a probe, and reports claim investigators have already confirmed the US carried out the strike using “outdated targeting data” that misclassified the school as part of a nearby military compound.

While the strike in Lamerd drew scant global attention, the atrocity in Minab has sparked condemnation. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the US and Israel of “cruelty, cynicism, and dehumanization.” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez both declared solidarity with the victims of the “massacre.” However, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the UN Security Council (UNSC) both failed to adopt formal resolutions condemning the atrocity.

The US and Israel have maintained an air offensive on Iran for over a month, killing more than 1,340 people, according to official data. Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and US bases in the Middle East.

US President Donald Trump has called the war on Iran an investment in the future of American children as he delivered his first address to the nation since the start of the conflict a month ago.

In his speech on Wednesday, Trump claimed that Washington was never looking for regime change in Tehran, with its goals being the destruction of Iran’s navy and air force, and denying it the ability to create a nuclear weapon. “These core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” he insisted.

During the 32 days of fighting since the US and Israel launched their attack, Iran “has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat… This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” Trump said.

The fighting would continue “over the next two to three weeks” until the US goals are “fully achieved,” he added.

Trump again warned the authorities in Tehran that “if there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.”

Republican Senator Ted Cruz applauded Trump’s address, saying that the president was “exactly right tonight.”

The US military operation “is an investment in the future of our children and our grandchildren. We are on the cusp of ending Iran’s nuclear blackmail – that makes America much, much safer,” he wrote on X.

Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and not aimed at obtaining a weapon. Earlier this week, high-ranking Iranian MP Alaeddin Borujerdi said the country’s parliament is looking into the possibility of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, arguing that participation in the 1968 accord became pointless after the US-Israeli attack.

Iran has continued to strike Israel and US military facilities in the Persian Gulf, while rejecting talks with Washington. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted on Wednesday that the war will go on until “the aggressor” is punished and Tehran receives full compensation.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov has arrived on a two-day state visit to India as New Delhi prepares to host a BRICS summit in September.

President Vladimir Putin is likely to participate in the BRICS summit, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Rudenko Andrey Yurevich said on Wednesday.

Manturov’s visit is expected to initiate the groundwork for the BRICS summit and for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow later this year.

Manturov is scheduled to hold talks with Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar. He is also due to meet National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The Russian minister’s visit, accompanied by a defense delegation, also assumes significance as India and Russia are boosting collaboration in the defense sector.

In March, India approved proposals to buy defense equipment worth $25 billion, including Russian‑made S‑400 air defense missile systems, as well as various types of aircraft and artillery systems, as part of a rapid military modernization drive.

The S-400 systems demonstrated their capabilities during the brief military standoff between India and Pakistan in 2025.

Manturov’s visit is also expected to kickstart talks to lay the broad contours of a potential visit by Modi to Russia later this year. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last month that Modi is slated to visit the country for his annual summit with Putin.

India’s massive condom industry is facing major disruptions due to material shortages and soaring production costs linked to the ongoing war in the Middle East, local media reports, citing manufacturers.

India produces over 6 billion condoms annually in a high-volume, low-margin market worth $860 million. The sector relies heavily on supplies of silicone oil and ammonia, which stabilize raw latex.

Since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to most ships in response to US and Israeli airstrikes, supply chains for petrochemical-based materials have been disrupted, leading to a “huge shortage” of silicone oil and a projected 40-50% price surge for ammonia, according to industry officials quoted by the Indian Express.

India produced 6.4 billion condoms in 2024, accounting for nearly 17% of global output, according to IndexBox data.

The oil crisis has also prompted hikes in aviation fuel prices for airlines, India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said on Wednesday. Fuel prices are expected to double to a record $2,224 as of April 1, it said, adding that domestic carriers will face a staggered increase, while foreign companies will have to pay the full market price.

US President Donald Trump has urged countries that buy oil from the Middle East to unblock the Strait of Hormuz by force unless Iran reopens the vital shipping route to all vessels.

He made the appeal in his first address to the nation on Wednesday, after weeks of chastising NATO members for refusing to send warships to the region and join the US and Israel in their war efforts.

“To those countries that can’t get fuel, many of which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran… build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait and just take it. Protect it,” Trump said. He argued that securing the strait would be easy, saying the US had “decimated” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and “dramatically curtailed” its drone and missile capabilities.

Trump:

The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage.

They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it.

They can do it easily. pic.twitter.com/Smm8xEhY92

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 2, 2026

In his address, Trump vowed to intensify airstrikes over the next two to three weeks, suggesting the war would continue if Iran refuses to accept his demands.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has triggered a global energy shock that Washington has struggled to contain, sending oil prices surging and pushing fuel costs sharply higher for consumers worldwide. The conflict has effectively choked flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a key artery for roughly one-fifth of global oil supply.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed this week that he had been receiving messages from Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, but denied that the countries were holding talks behind the scenes.

Iranian officials have said that Tehran would end the conflict on its own terms and accused the US of sabotaging previous negotiations.

NASA launched Artemis II, its first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years, on Wednesday.

After a brief delay due to technical issues, a rocket carrying NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

As part of their ten-day journey, the astronauts will circle the Moon and return to Earth in an Orion capsule. It is the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Orion is set to circle the Moon on April 6. The astronauts will travel farther from Earth than any humans in history, surpassing the record of 400,171 km (248,655 miles) set by Apollo 13, according to ScienceAlert.

Poland will not relocate its American-made Patriot air defense missile systems to the Middle East to help the US intercept attacks from Iran, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has said.

Despite US President Donald Trump claiming that the Pentagon has an “unlimited” stockpile of weapons, the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28 has failed to thwart Iran’s ability to strike American bases in the region.

On Tuesday, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that the US had requested that Warsaw lend at least two of its Patriot systems, along with PAC-3 MSE missiles previously sold to Poland, for the war with Iran.

“Our Patriot batteries and their armament are used to protect Polish airspace and NATO’s eastern flank. Nothing is changing in this regard, and we are not planning to relocate them anywhere,” Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on X on Tuesday.

Seven US service members have been killed and nearly 350 wounded in Iranian strikes since the conflict began. Iranian missiles and drones have damaged or destroyed several expensive US radars and an E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control aircraft, according to satellite imagery and on-scene footage.

Trump has admonished NATO members in Europe for refusing to send warships to help the US secure the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to withdraw from the military bloc, which he described as a “paper tiger.” One of the most vocal opponents of the Iran war is Spain, which has refused to allow the US to use its airspace and joint bases for attacks on Iran.

The French government has lashed out at right-wing mayors who have stripped European Union flags from town halls following their election wins. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot condemned the acts as a “betrayal,” framing them as an erosion of freedom and democracy.

The controversy follows municipal elections last month in which Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN) won in dozens of small and mid-sized French towns, more than tripling its mayoral and council positions since the last vote.

In a symbolic gesture, some newly elected RN mayors began their mandates by removing EU flags from town halls. In at least two instances, the mayors removed the flag themselves and posted footage on social media. One of them said that the only “worthy” flag is the blue-white-red French standard.

“This is a betrayal of who we are,” Barrot wrote on X on Tuesday. “This [EU] flag is the flag of a possible hope; it is the flag of freedom, justice, and democracy,” he argued.

Led by veteran politician Marine Le Pen and party president Jordan Bardella, the Euroskeptic RN is France’s largest opposition party, holding a plurality of seats in parliament.

Dehors les drapeaux européens à la mairie !

Place aux drapeaux français 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/QqoymNwUCm

— Christophe Barthès (@BarthesChristop) March 29, 2026

The party has long argued EU policies undermine French sovereignty, particularly on borders, migration, and economic rules. It advocates stricter immigration and asylum policies, prioritizing French citizens in social benefits, and reforms that would give national law primacy over EU rules.

The RN previously called for a referendum on France leaving the EU, with ‘Frexit’ a central issue in its 2017 campaign, but has since abandoned that position.

Bye bye 👋🇪🇺#rassemblementnational #Canohes pic.twitter.com/yPIfVDVw80

— Carla Muti (@muti_carla) March 30, 2026

In the 2026 municipal elections, RN candidates campaigned on security, fiscal management, and local identity, often under the slogan “a safer and better-managed city.”

🇫🇷 Bonne semaine à tous ! #CagnesSurMer pic.twitter.com/YGP71XEjyX

— Bryan Masson (@MassonBryan) March 30, 2026

A three-time presidential candidate who reached the run-off in 2017 and 2022, Le Pen was sidelined last year after a French court convicted her of misusing EU funds. She denies wrongdoing.

Her protege, Bardella, remains a leading figure in opinion polls ahead of the 2027 presidential race.

The BBC has been embroiled in yet another scandal involving child sexual abuse allegations against one of its top presenters.

On Monday, the British state broadcaster confirmed that it fired the star of its Radio 2 breakfast show, Scott Mills, “following allegations about his personal conduct.” It did not elaborate further.

According to Sky News, the BBC presenter was being probed over past allegations of sexually abusing a child under the age of 16 – the UK’s age of consent.

The Metropolitan Police had initially launched an investigation in December 2016 relating to “allegations of serious sexual offenses against a teenage boy,” the news channel reported on Tuesday, citing law enforcement.

The alleged crimes reportedly took place between 1997 and 2000.

“As part of these inquiries, a man who was in his 40s at the time of the interview, was questioned by police under caution in July 2018,” Sky News cited the police force as saying, adding that the probe was eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.

Savile allegedly abused as many as 450 victims – most of them children or young people – over the course of five decades. His alleged crimes shook the UK following his death in 2011, prompting an unprecedented investigation into how the BBC handled the issue.

The European Commission has announced a new financial aid package for the cash-strapped Ukrainian government using the revenue generated from frozen Russian assets. The sum of €1.4 billion ($1.63 billion) would largely be spent on covering Kiev’s debts to its Western backers, the statement said.

Ukraine’s Western supporters froze $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The majority is held at the Belgian-based Euroclear depository. In late 2023, the EU decided it could tap the annual revenues generated by the assets by declaring them ‘windfall profits’ that do not count as part of the foreign sovereign assets it could not legally confiscate.

Russia has said it considers any use of its frozen assets to be theft. It also warned it could retaliate by seizing €200 billion in Western assets held in Russia, but has so far refrained from doing so.

The announcement comes as Ukraine faces a massive budget shortfall, with a projected deficit of around $53 billion for 2025-28 and a forecasted 18.4% deficit in the 2026 budget. El Pais reported in October 2025 that the Ukrainian government could run out of money as early as this month.

In December, the Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit against Euroclear in a Moscow court seeking $232 billion in compensation for frozen assets and lost profits.

The regulator additionally announced that it could expand its lawsuit over frozen assets beyond the Belgian-based depository to include European banks that also hold its funds.

The leaders of the UK and Australia have told their citizens to cut fuel consumption and prepare for months of hardship as a result of the US-Israeli war with Iran. But UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, couldn’t bring themselves to name who’s responsible.

Starmer and Albanese delivered a pair of seemingly coordinated addresses to their nations on Wednesday. “The economic shocks caused by [the Iran war] will be with us for months,” Albanese said, telling Australians to switch to public transport if possible, and promising to cut fuel taxes and prepare for the possibility that “the global situation gets worse and our fuel supplies are seriously disrupted.”

“Australia is not an active participant in this war,” he claimed, despite his government being the first in the world to back the US and Israel’s opening strikes on Iran on February 28.

Starmer struck a similar tone, declaring that “this is not our war,” but warning that “the impact of this war will affect the future of our country.” The British prime minister promised that “no matter how fierce this storm is, we are well placed to weather it,” and vowed to help “reopen” the Strait of Hormuz.

How bad is the energy crisis?

The US-Israeli war with Iran has triggered the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s, if not in history. Around 40% of the world’s oil comes from the Middle East. Nearly a third of the world’s seaborne crude oil transits the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway less than 40 km wide at its narrowest point, which through a combination of Iranian attacks on tankers and hesitance by Western insurers, is de facto closed to maritime traffic.

As a result, Brent oil prices – which serve as a barometer for 80% of the world’s crude oil – have sat above $100 per barrel for three weeks, while gas prices have surged 60% in the EU and more than 100% in the UK. While the crisis is global, its effects are particularly acute in the EU, UK, and Australia, all of which have sanctioned Russian oil and gas, shutting themselves off from a potential lifeline amid the crisis.

The EU once relied on Russia for 45% of its gas imports, before switching to more expensive American and Qatari supplies after 2022. With no date in sight for the resumption of Qatari imports, and with inflation spiking across Europe, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned last week that “we are facing a real shock…probably beyond what we can imagine at the moment.”

Are Starmer and Albanese pressuring the US?

The Strait of Hormuz was open to maritime traffic until the US and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran in the middle of nuclear talks. However, neither Starmer nor Albanese mentioned the US or Israel in their speeches. Instead, both the UK and Australia issued a joint statement – along with 32 other US allies in Europe and the Gulf – blaming the closure of the strait squarely on “Iran’s actions.”

“We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping,” the statement reads, accusing Tehran of posing “a threat to international peace and security.”

Furthermore, Albanese has sent surveillance aircraft, stocks of air-to-air missiles, and military personnel to the UAE, while Starmer has allowed the US to use the British-American air base on Diego Garcia to attack Iran. Despite aiding the US in a war that Starmer claims is “not ours,” the British PM has been publicly humiliated by US President Donald Trump. Starmer’s decision to grant access to Diego Garcia took “too long,” Trump complained last month, adding that he was “greatly disappointed” in his ally. 

What does the crisis look like for ordinary people?

The most immediate signs of an energy crisis are felt at the pumps, where rising fuel prices foreshadow increasing costs of everything else dependent on oil: namely food, consumer goods, and the means of transporting them.

In Russia, where export controls have been introduced to protect Russian consumers, Gasoline prices currently sit at around $0.83 per liter, down from $0.87 in February.

What is Trump doing to resolve the crisis?

Trump has said fuel prices will fall once the conflict ends, predicting on Tuesday that military operations could cease in “two to three weeks.” However, his messaging on Iran so far has swung between claims that peace is imminent, and threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” until Tehran capitulates – each abrupt shift in tone seemingly timed to calm energy markets.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump claimed that “Iran's new regime president… has just asked the United States of America for a ceasefire.” Trump added that he would grant Tehran a ceasefire once the Strait of Hormuz “is open, free, and clear.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed Trump’s claim as “false” and “baseless.”

Trump is due to discuss Iran in a speech to the nation later on Wednesday. It is unclear whether his address will signal escalation or deescalation. However, the Pentagon announced the deployment of another aircraft carrier – the USS George H.W. Bush – to the Middle East on Tuesday, and with plans reportedly being drawn up for a ground invasion of Iran, the conflict and resulting energy crisis may drag on significantly longer.

The war’s second ‘ring of fire’ is no longer forming around Iran. It is already there. What we are witnessing is not a limited clash between a state under pressure and its immediate enemies, but the gradual emergence of a wider regional confrontation in which Tehran’s allied forces are moving from symbolic solidarity to practical engagement.

In Lebanon, Iraq, and now once again in Yemen, groups aligned with Iran are opening new fronts and making any American or Israeli campaign far more difficult to execute. If Iran cannot stop pressure by matching superior military power plane for plane or missile for missile, it can still answer by stretching the battlefield across time and space.

That is the real significance of the current escalation. Wars are easiest to sell and easiest to sustain when they look concentrated, technically manageable, and politically clean. They become much harder to continue when every strike produces another zone of instability, when every advance prompts retaliation, and when every promise of decisive success runs into a new and costly complication.

Iran and the forces loyal to it understand this perfectly well. Their goal is not necessarily to win a spectacular conventional victory over Israel or the US. They are trying to deprive their adversaries of a quick result, to turn military superiority into strategic over-extension, and to make the price of escalation rise with every passing week.

Israel is getting mired in Lebanon

Lebanon has become the clearest example of this dynamic. Israel entered the confrontation with Hezbollah expecting that greater firepower, harsher pressure, and deeper incursions would eventually impose a new reality in the south of the country. But so far the campaign has not produced the kind of result Israeli leaders would need in order to claim genuine success. Israeli officials are still speaking openly about expanding operations and about the need for a broad security zone in southern Lebanon. That does not sound like a completed military mission. It sounds like a campaign still searching for a workable outcome.

Israel remains capable of inflicting enormous damage on Lebanon. It can devastate border villages and infrastructure, and force large numbers of people from their homes. But the ability to destroy is not the same as the ability to impose control. A military campaign can appear overwhelming on television and still fail to neutralize the armed force it was meant to break. Hezbollah remains capable of hitting Israeli territory, and that single fact tells us that the war in Lebanon has not been resolved in Israel’s favor.

Israel is also suffering losses, not only in military terms but in political and psychological terms. Reports of fallen soldiers and continuing battlefield casualties show that Hezbollah is still able to turn southern Lebanon into a dangerous combat zone for the Israeli army. This is important because Israel’s military doctrine relies heavily on speed, on offensive initiative, and on the demonstration of dominance. A campaign that drags on, consumes manpower, exposes soldiers to attrition, and leaves northern Israel under continuing threat is not simply unfinished. It becomes strategically corrosive. It undermines the image of effortless superiority on which deterrence partly depends.

Hezbollah continues to create an environment in which Israeli ground operations are costly, risky, and politically burdensome. Israel may seize or enter territory, but it still has not demonstrated that it can transform that presence into a stable and secure military arrangement. As long as Hezbollah keeps imposing losses on Israel, the campaign remains strategically incomplete.

Hezbollah is demonstrating to the entire pro-Iranian regional camp that Israel can be denied a clean military outcome. That message matters in Iraq, in Yemen, and in every arena where forces aligned with Tehran are watching closely. Every week in which Hezbollah continues to strike back weakens the notion that Israel and the US can simply pummel the region into submission through superior firepower. That perception encourages allied groups to escalate because it suggests that resistance is not futile and that prolonged confrontation can produce strategic leverage, even against a stronger opponent.

Iraqi fighters activate

Iraq is the second arena where this logic is becoming visible. For years, Washington tried to handle pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq through a familiar formula of pressure, selective strikes, deterrent warnings, and political bargaining. That formula is now under severe strain. The Iraqi factions loyal to Iran are again attacking Western interests and American-linked facilities, and their posture is hardening as the regional crisis grows. Any American move toward direct ground involvement against Iran would not remain confined to Iranian territory. It would immediately activate the Iraqi theatre in a much more serious way.

That possibility is now being discussed with increasing seriousness because Iraqi armed groups are presenting themselves as a reserve force that could mobilize in Iran’s favor if the war enters a more dangerous phase. This is not yet a mass transnational deployment on a scale that would determine the outcome of a large war by itself. But that is not the most important issue. The key point is that the Iraqi arena is being prepared politically, organizationally, and psychologically as an extension of the Iranian front. If Washington were to attempt a ground operation against Iran, it would face not one battlefield but several at once.

Washington appears to have assumed that by concentrating military pressure on Iran, it could either isolate Tehran or intimidate its regional allies into caution. But the opposite dynamic is taking shape. Pressure on the center is activating the periphery. Iran’s allies do not need to defeat the US or Israel in direct set-piece battles – only to ensure that no front can be fully closed, no rear area can be treated as safe, and no military plan can be presented as limited and controllable. That alone is enough to alter the political mathematics of war.

The Iraqi dimension is especially dangerous because it sits at the intersection of military operations, internal state weakness, and competing sovereignties. Iraq is not a sealed theatre. It is a country in which militias, parties, foreign forces, and state institutions coexist uneasily. Any renewed cycle of attacks on Western targets can therefore produce consequences far beyond the immediate strike. It can reignite internal tensions, weaken already fragile governance, increase pressure on the Iraqi government, and deepen the long-running struggle over whether Iraq is a sovereign balancing state or a contested zone inside a larger regional conflict. Once that process begins to accelerate, it becomes very difficult to contain.

Yet the most strategically explosive development may be the renewed role of Ansar Allah (the Houthis) in Yemen. For nearly a month, the movement was relatively restrained in this specific phase of escalation. That relative quiet led some observers to believe that Yemen might remain a secondary theatre while events centered on Iran, Lebanon, and the Gulf. But this reading now looks premature. Ansar Allah has signaled a return to direct action against Israel, and even more importantly, it has once again raised the specter of pressure on maritime traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb strait.

That threat cannot be dismissed as rhetorical theater. Bab el-Mandeb is one of the great chokepoints of the global economy. It connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, which means it is part of the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia through the Suez Canal. If this corridor becomes unsafe on a sustained basis, the consequences extend far beyond the region. Shipping companies reroute. Insurance premiums surge. Delivery times lengthen. Fuel costs rise. Supply chains absorb new friction. The shock travels outward through freight markets, commodity prices, and industrial planning. In the modern world, a narrow stretch of water can become a multiplier of global instability.

This is why even the threat of closure is almost as bad as closure itself. Markets do not wait patiently for a waterway to be blocked in definite terms before reacting. They respond to risk. If Ansar Allah signals that ships tied to Israel or to its supporters may face attack, and if the movement demonstrates that this threat is credible, then the commercial effect begins long before a formal blockade exists. Some carriers will avoid the route. Others will demand sharply higher rates. Naval escorts may become more common. A military problem turns into a commercial one, and a commercial problem soon becomes a macroeconomic one.

A serious disruption in Bab el-Mandeb would also hit the Gulf states in complicated ways. On the surface, high oil prices often appear beneficial for energy exporters. But in wartime the picture is much less straightforward. Gulf monarchies depend not only on price levels but also on predictable flows, secure shipping, investor confidence, infrastructure safety, and the broader perception that the region remains a viable center for trade and finance. A war that pushes up energy prices while simultaneously making maritime transit less secure can produce gains on one side and losses on the other. It can raise revenue while also raising risk. It can improve the price per barrel while damaging the political and logistical environment needed to move that barrel efficiently.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular would face a difficult balancing act. Both states have tried to reduce their exposure to open-ended regional wars while preserving close security relationships with Washington. But a wider confrontation involving Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Israel would undermine that balancing strategy. Even if they avoid direct military participation, they remain physically embedded in the conflict zone. Their ports, export routes, desalination infrastructure, airports, and industrial facilities exist within missile and drone range of hostile actors. In other words, geography limits neutrality. The Gulf states can try to hedge politically, but they cannot fully hedge physically.

The effects on the global economy could be severe if this pattern continues. The most obvious risk is a combined shock to energy and logistics. If pressure on the Strait of Hormuz coincides with renewed disruption in Bab el-Mandeb, the world economy would face stress on two of its most sensitive arteries at once. Oil prices would rise not simply because of lost supply, but because of fear, insurance costs, and the scarcity premium that always appears when multiple chokepoints are threatened simultaneously. Gas markets would become more nervous. Shipping costs would climb. Import-dependent economies would feel the squeeze first, especially poorer countries already vulnerable to debt, inflation, and food insecurity.

This is how regional wars become global economic events. They do not need to shut every route completely or destroy every refinery to trigger wider consequences. They only need to make enough critical routes uncertain at the same time. Once uncertainty spreads across energy and transport, it feeds into everything else: Freight becomes more expensive, manufacturing inputs arrive later, food prices rise through transport and fertilizer costs, central banks face renewed inflation pressure and governments face budget strain. Political instability follows economic stress, especially in countries where societies are already exhausted by previous shocks.

Have the US and Israel miscalculated?

All of this points to a broader conclusion. The conflict is expanding because the forces aligned with Iran are deliberately making it expand. Their strategy is not based on rapid decision or spectacular breakthrough. It is based on the controlled multiplication of pressure points. Hezbollah keeps the northern Israeli front unstable. Iraqi factions raise the cost of any deeper American military involvement. Ansar Allah threatens one of the world’s most important maritime corridors. Iran itself remains the central actor, but it does not need to act alone in a linear and isolated fashion. Its allies provide strategic depth, geographical spread, and the ability to transform one war into several interconnected confrontations.

From this perspective, American planners appear to have miscalculated. They may have believed that forceful pressure would narrow Iran’s options and restore deterrence. Instead, it risks producing the opposite result. Rather than isolating Iran, escalation is drawing its allied forces more tightly into the conflict. Rather than shortening the crisis, it is lengthening it. Rather than concentrating the battlefield, it is fragmenting it across the region. That is a dangerous trajectory, because a dispersed war is often harder to win than a concentrated one. It taxes logistics, political patience, alliance cohesion, and public confidence all at once.

What happens next will depend on whether the US and Israel continue to believe that greater military pressure can still produce strategic clarity. That belief now looks increasingly questionable. The longer the war continues without a decisive and stable outcome in Lebanon, the more confidence Hezbollah and its allies will gain. The more American assets are threatened in Iraq, the more difficult it becomes to present deeper intervention as manageable. The more Ansar Allah raises the cost of shipping through Bab el-Mandeb, the more the conflict escapes the boundaries of local war and enters the realm of global economic disruption.

That is the central lesson of the present moment. Military superiority does not automatically translate into political success, especially in a region where allied non-state actors can open multiple fronts with relative flexibility. The US and Israel retain enormous destructive capacity. But destruction is not the same thing as control, and control is not the same thing as victory.

In that sense, the strategic initiative is no longer defined only by who can strike harder. It is increasingly defined by who can force the other side to fight on too many maps at once. Iran and the forces loyal to it appear determined to do exactly that. They are trying to stretch the conflict in time, to stretch it across geography, and to erode the ability of their adversaries to maintain focus. For now, that strategy is working far better than many in the US and Israel.

Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the US-Israeli war against Iran and the wider regional escalation, marked by ongoing missile and drone exchanges.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to step up strikes on Iran, saying Iranian power plants could be targeted next. The announcement came just hours after US forces hit the country’s tallest highway bridge linking Tehran and Karaj, rendering it inoperable.

“Our Military… hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants! New Regime leadership knows what has to be done, and has to be done fast!”

Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari responded, warning of immediate retaliation if Washington follows through.

The video featured footage of the Stargate UAE project, a major AI infrastructure hub under construction in Abu Dhabi, part of a US-backed initiative led by OpenAI. Zolfaghari said Iran would “do whatever it takes” to defend its interests, suggesting these projects could become targets.

Earlier, Iran said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed “in the long term” to US and Israeli ships. Trump urged Tehran to “make a deal before it is too late.” Iranian officials have denied they are seeking a ceasefire or engaging in talks.

Latest developments:

• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said strikes on civilian infrastructure, including bridges, would not force Iran to surrender, calling them a sign of “defeat and moral collapse.”

• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned US-Israeli strikes on Iranian health facilities, citing over 20 verified attacks since March 1 and at least nine deaths.

• US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George.

• The IRGC claims it shot down a second US F-35 over central Iran.

• The UN Security Council is set to vote on Saturday on a proposal authorizing “all necessary means” to secure transit through the Strait of Hormuz, effectively allowing the use of force against perceived threats to shipping.

Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.

A Russian melanoma patient has received the first personalized cancer vaccine in what is hoped to be a breakthrough in the treatment of the disease, the Russian Health Ministry said in a statement to TASS on Wednesday.

Last year, the ministry approved two domestically-made medicines: Neooncovac, an mRNA-based vaccine for advanced melanoma, and Oncopept, a peptide treatment targeting aggressive colorectal tumors. Both began human pilot trials in 2025.

On Tuesday, Neooncovac was administered to its first clinical patient, a 60-year-old male with stage three skin cancer, according to Aleksandr Ginzburg, scientific director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which helped develop the breakthrough anti-tumor medicine.

“So far, he is doing well; there have been no adverse reactions to the drug,” Ginzburg told Russian news portal Gazeta.ru on Wednesday. “He is 60 years old and has stage three melanoma with metastasis. The vaccine specifically helps fight metastases.”

Samples were taken from the patient’s tumor and non-tumor tissue, and researchers analyzed the genome to create a customized vaccine that trains the immune system to attack cancer cells, Ginzburg explained.

“This is a fundamentally different approach – not simply treating the disease, but ‘training’ the immune system to recognize and destroy precisely those cells that pose a threat,” he told TASS on Wednesday.

The patient will be given 8-9 doses of the medicine at intervals of 2-3 weeks, with his immune response recorded after each injection. Results are expected after three months of treatment.

Neooncovac is currently in the final stages of being made available for free treatment under Russia’s national health insurance system, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters on Wednesday.

The Gamaleya Center, which made the first registered Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, is also working on medicines targeting other oncological conditions, including pancreatic, kidney and non-small cell lung cancer – one of the cancers with the highest mortality rate worldwide.

The husband of former US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem allegedly led a double life as a cross-dressing fetishist who spent thousands of dollars on online models and shared photos of himself in exaggerated feminine attire, according to a Daily Mail investigation.

Kristi Noem, often called ‘ICE Barbie’ online over her glamorous appearance, led the DHS from early 2025 until her removal in early March and was in charge of the Trump administration’s controversial nationwide crackdown on illegal migration, overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.

The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that her husband, Bryon Noem, an insurance executive, used the alias ‘Jason Jackson’ to communicate with women involved in the ‘bimbofication’ scene – a subculture centered on exaggeratedly feminine Barbie doll aesthetics.

Reviewing hundreds of messages and images, the Mail said Bryon Noem sent at least $25,000 via Cash App and PayPal, lavished praise on the models’ surgically enhanced bodies, and shared selfies in which he appeared wearing tight pink shorts, crop tops, and what looked like balloons or prosthetics to mimic large breasts.

Secret double life of Kristi Noem's crossdressing husband Bryon: The pouting 'busty bimbo' photos and trove of explicit messages https://t.co/4GvCcfPK9j

— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) March 31, 2026

In one exchange, he reportedly wrote: “you turn me into a girl.” In another, he also appeared to acknowledge his wife’s rumored affair with longtime Trump operative Corey Lewandowski, telling a model: “I know. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

The revelations have prompted warnings from former intelligence officials who said the behavior could have exposed Kristi Noem, who oversaw sensitive national security operations until her firing last month, to blackmail. 

“If a media organization can find this out, you can assume with a high degree of confidence that a hostile intelligence service knows this as well,” former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos told the Mail.

A representative for Kristi Noem told the New York Post she was “devastated” and that “the family was blindsided by this.” The couple, which has been married since 1992, have three adult children.

Asked about the reports, US President Donald Trump said he “feels badly for the family.”

Kristi Noem was removed from her position at the DHS amid mounting controversies, including criticism over her immigration enforcement tactics and two fatal shootings by federal agents. She has since been named special envoy for the ‘Shield of the Americas’ initiative.

Polls ahead of the Hungarian elections point to an opposition victory, but players behind the scenes expect Prime Minister Viktor Orban to come out on top. Others say it’s a scenario ripe for a Kiev-style ‘color revolution’.

However, Politico has also reported that “many” EU leaders secretly believe an Orban victory is “likely.” Hungarian EU Affairs Minister Janos Boka thinks that the disparity between public surveys and private sentiment is no accident, and that by skewing polls, Magyar and his allies in Brussels are “building the narrative that if they lose the election, then this is an illegitimate result.”

Notorious intervention hawk Michael Weiss put Boka’s worries into words last week. “If Orban tries to steal this – and he almost certainly will – it’ll be Euromaidan on steroids in an EU/NATO country. Watch closely, America,” he warned in a post on X.

If Orban tries to steal this — and he almost certainly will — it’ll be Euromaidan on steroids in an EU/NATO country. Watch closely, America…. https://t.co/F62x0oSo47

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) March 25, 2026

Weiss, who previously ran a Ukraine regime change outfit he claimed was journalism, was referring to the post-election coup that toppled a democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, in 2014. Orchestrated by the US, the Maidan/Euromaidan coup set in motion a chain of events that culminated in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

However, there are some fundamental points war hawks in armchairs would like you not to notice; differences between Budapest and Kiev that would make forced regime change a far more difficult prospect if Orban wins.

How the US masterminded Maidan

Presented by Western media as a popular uprising, the ‘Maidan’ revolution was a creation of the US State Department and run out of a very compliant US embassy. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a State Department sub-agency, pumped around $14 million into Ukrainian activist groups from 2011 to 2014, the US embassy funded pro-Maidan media outlets, and between 1991 and 2014, the US funnelled a total of $5 billion into “democracy-building programs in Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said in 2014.

The NED boasted in a 2015 report that US-funded organizations “played important roles in the peaceful protests in Kiev.” By the time the report had been published, the “peaceful protests” had descended into a bloodbath, with Western-funded far-right militias massacring nearly 100 pro-Western protesters in a false-flag operation, and pro-Western neo-Nazis burning 46 anti-Maidan protesters alive at the Trade Unions House in Odessa. Awkward questions for the neocons, neolibs, and the righteous.

Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Victoria Nuland promised military aid and a billion-dollar loan to opposition politicians, and famously handed out cookies to pro-Western activists in Kiev. Together with US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, she helped choose the government that would replace Yanukovich’s. When asked by an obsequious Pyatt in a 2014 phone call if the Europeans might disagree with her choice of candidate, the notorious hawk infamously declared “f**k the EU.”

Now the US backs Orban

The situation in Hungary is radically different. US President Donald Trump is a staunch ally of Orban, and has endorsed the Hungarian PM’s reelection campaign, while Vice President J.D. Vance is scheduled to make a high-profile trip to Budapest just days before the April 12 election.  

Furthermore, the US embassy in Budapest has been cleared of ideologues – among them President Joe Biden’s ambassador, David Pressman – and the NED and USAID have both been gutted by Trump. Put simply, the US has stripped back its regime-change machinery in Hungary, and has a keen interest in an Orban victory.

Could the Europeans trigger a Hungarian Maidan?

Nuland and the Americans may have been in the driver’s seat in 2014, but the Maidan coup was also backed by the EU, UK, and the panoply of civil society and activist groups funded by the likes of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

The EU and UK are committed to arming and funding Ukraine, and therefore both have a vested interest in Orban’s removal. Under Orban, Hungary has used its EU veto powers to delay every package of energy sanctions imposed on Russia by the bloc, opposes Ukraine’s accession to NATO, refuses to supply arms to Kiev, and is currently, along with Slovakia and the Czech Republic, vetoing a €90 billion EU loan package for Kiev.

As RT outlined in the first installment of our ‘Battle for Hungary’ series, the EU has already brought the full weight of its online censorship machinery to bear on Hungary ahead of the election, and plans to keep speech restrictions in place for a week after the vote. However, the bloc’s ability to pressure Orban directly is already nearly exhausted. The EU has withheld funds equal to 3.5% of Hungary’s GDP since 2022 over Orban’s refusal to accept non-European migrants, his banning of LGBT propaganda, and alleged judicial independence concerns – all without triggering meaningful popular unrest in Hungary. Should Orban win, the last remaining tool in the EU’s arsenal is to strip Hungary of its veto rights, an idea already floated by Sweden, Lithuania, and a host of unnamed “EU diplomats” interviewed by Politico earlier this month.

The UK has played a more low-key pre-election game than the EU. However, British Ambassador Justin McKenzie Smith held a closed-doors meeting with pro-Western activists and journalists in Budapest on March 4. The event was organized in conjunction with Political Capital, a think tank funded by the European Commission, Soros, and the NED.

British journalist Catherine Belton attended the event, and three weeks later ‘broke’ a story revealing contacts between Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. As RT explored earlier in this series, Hungarian opposition journalist Szabolcs Panyi collaborated with EU intelligence agents to obtain this information by wiretapping Szijjarto.

Szijjarto does not deny speaking to Lavrov, maintaining that such diplomatic outreach is part of his job. The real scandal, he insists, “is that a Hungarian journalist is colluding with foreign secret services in order to wiretap a member of the Hungarian government.”

Can Soros stoke a revolution?

Soros’ Open Society Foundations played a pivotal role in fomenting the Maidan coup, or in its own words “supporting civil society.” Around 2014, the Hungarian-born financier’s work in Ukraine included providing legal aid to pro-Western protesters, funding pro-Western media, and financing anti-government think-tanks.

“I set up a foundation in Ukraine before Ukraine became independent of [the USSR],” Soros told CNN in 2014. “And the foundation has been functioning ever since. And it played an important part in events now.” 

Soros’ influence in his native Hungary has been severely curtailed by Orban. Hungary criminalized the provision of aid to illegal immigrants in a 2018 law named the ‘Stop Soros’ act. This law effectively forced Open Society Foundations to cease operations in Hungary, and forced Soros’ Central European University out of the country. However, at least 153 organizations in or dealing with Hungary were still in receipt of Soros’ money as of last year, according to the Center for Fundamental Rights, a conservative think tank.

Soros is therefore still capable of exerting some influence on Hungary, however diminished and indirect that influence may be nowadays.

Hungary in 2026 is not Ukraine in 2014. Orban’s opponents have no support from the US, and the EU’s anti-Orban rhetoric and funding freezes failed to prevent his victories in the 2018 and 2022 elections. Moreover, Brussels is extremely unlikely to instigate or incite post-election violence in one of its own member states. Meanwhile, the UK’s involvement has thus far been limited to encouraging anti-Orban propaganda.

Still, the Maidan playbook is not the only blueprint for regime change and election interference. The EU used its same censorship tools to stifle support for Euroskeptic candidate Calin Georgescu in Romania’s 2024 election: when Georgescu won a shock victory anyway, the country’s pro-EU judiciary simply overturned the result.

Brussels should not count on any help from the Hungarian legal system, however. Orban has been in power for 16 years, created the Supreme Administrative Court that handles election-related cases, and appointed its chief justices. Even if Magyar were to win, his Tisza party would need a two-thirds majority to overhaul this system.

All of this being the case, a post-election coup is likely out of the question in Hungary, should Orban win a fifth consecutive term in office. Before the election, however, all manner of spy games and influence campaigns are already underway.

Ukrainian draft enforcers have begun employing new, more elaborate tactics to catch potential conscripts unawares, the Berliner Zeitung (BZ) has reported. The steps are said to include deploying women as well as officers disguised as civilians.

Pressure on Kiev to mobilize more troops to continue the conflict with Russia is increasing, leading to “growing tensions in the daily life” of Ukrainian citizens, the German outlet said in an article on Monday.

Kiev’s press gangs have increasingly begun wearing civilian clothing as Ukrainian men tend to flee as soon as they see people in military gear in the streets, it said.

According to BZ, the patrols now in many cases include female employees of recruitment centers, which is also done to catch possible conscripts off guard.

There were reports of draft enforcers snatching men on transport and as soon as they get off trains and buses.

The mobilization drive has also moved from smaller villages to major cities, including Kiev, the paper added.

Ukrainian media have also reported conscription officers using fake accounts on dating sites to lure men of conscription age out of their apartments. As a result, “a significant number” of males who thought they were going on a romantic rendezvous ended up being sent to the front.

Ukraine barred nearly all adult men from leaving the country following the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022. Kiev’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly brutal over time, with hundreds of cases being documented where enlistment officers have violently snatched conscripts from the streets, using pepper spray and even firearms against them.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the Kiev government and its Western backers of being willing to fight “until the last Ukrainian.”

South Africa’s government has moved to blunt the impact of surging global energy prices, announcing a temporary cut to the general fuel levy to ease pressure on consumers, Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday.

The levy will drop by R3 ($0.16) per liter from April 1 to May 5, reducing petrol levies to R1.10 ($0.06) and diesel to R0.93 ($0.05) per liter.

Officials described the move as a balancing act between shielding households from rising transport and food costs and maintaining fiscal discipline. The one-month intervention is expected to cost the state around R6 billion ($320 million) in lost revenue and will be subject to review.

South Africa relies heavily on imported crude oil and refined fuels. Diesel prices have surged by up to R7.51 ($0.44) per liter, while petrol rose by R3.06 ($0.18), sending shockwaves across the country. By Tuesday evening, some filling stations in eastern Johannesburg were reportedly turning motorists away after running out of both diesel and petrol.

The decision comes amid conflict in the Middle East after US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran began on February 28, which have driven oil prices above $100 per barrel. According to South Africa’s Central Energy Fund, the country is facing “historically high fuel price increases from April.”  

The move follows a directive from President Cyril Ramaphosa to address rising petrol and diesel prices. Minister Mantashe said the average Brent crude price rose from $69.08 to $93.67 due to ongoing conflict between the US and Iran, which “has affected crude oil supply, especially through the Strait of Hormuz.”

AI giant Anthropic has mistakenly published its own top secret internal code, triggering a viral wave of github rewrites and inflicting potentially catastrophic commercial damage on the Amazon-backed business model.

The developer of the Claude chatbot described the incident as a release issue “caused by human error, not a security breach,” according to US technology news website VentureBeat on Tuesday.

Anthropic was designated a “risk to national security” by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in February after disagreements with the Pentagon over the use of its artificial intelligence systems.

The code spread rapidly online, with versions of the code being placed on code-sharing platform GitHub and replicated thousands of times within hours, according to Ars Technica and The Verge. Anthropic moved to remove the material and issued takedown notices, but the material had already been widely copied and circulated, the reports said.

According to VentureBeat, by exposing the “blueprints” of Claude Code, the leak may have given “bad actors” a “road map” to bypassing security checks or tricking the tool into running hidden commands or accessing data without the user’s knowledge.

A separate data leak reported in February exposed internal materials revealing details of Anthropic’s unreleased model, known as Claude Mythos, after thousands of draft documents were left accessible in a public data cache.

US and Israeli strikes on Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have implications for Africa that extend far beyond politics in the Middle East. This external shock has once again demonstrated Africa’s structural dependence on global commodity markets.

The problem isn’t just that African countries are deeply integrated into global trade; it’s rather the nature of this integration: in Africa, most countries primarily act as consumers of fuel and finished goods and lack a robust industrial base that could help absorb shocks.

Consequently, any crisis quickly transforms from an external event into an internal macroeconomic challenge for Africa.

The war in Iran has already triggered significant volatility in the oil markets. In March, Brent soared above $95 per barrel, occasionally reaching around $110. This is primarily due to the destabilization of supply chains and the risks surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. More than a quarter of the world’s maritime oil trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz and about one-fifth of global oil and petroleum product consumption. One-fifth of the global trade in liquefied natural gas (LNG) also passes through this critical chokepoint. 

Setting aside the political, ethical, and international legal aspects of the conflict, the key consequence for the global economy is clear: instability in the oil markets and rising costs on products originating from the Middle East. This isn’t just oil, petroleum products, and LNG but also methanol, ammonia, urea, and other petrochemical products essential for agriculture, industry, and transportation, since much of their production is concentrated in the Persian Gulf.

For Africa, the impact is particularly strong when it comes to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is widely used for cooking meals.

Africa’s vulnerability is exacerbated by the structure of its economy. Most countries on the continent lack a developed industrial base and sufficient processing capacities. Even African nations that possess their own oil and gas reserves remain heavily reliant on imported refined products and other finished goods.

In this context, any rise in oil prices hits Africa harder than it does China, India, or other industrialized economies that can process raw materials domestically and partially offset price fluctuations through their own industrial supply chains. Naturally, an increase in oil prices almost automatically leads to higher costs on petroleum products – gasoline, diesel, heating oil, and jet fuel. Automobile transport remains the backbone of logistics in many African nations, and diesel generators provide not only backup electrical supply, but are the primary source of electricity for millions of businesses and households. As a result, rising fuel prices inevitably lead to increased costs on food, construction materials, imports, passenger transport, and nearly all consumer goods.

This blow will hit fuel-importing countries particularly hard. Net fuel importers account for about two-thirds of GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa. This means that Africa as a whole will suffer from this crisis, even if certain oil-exporting nations may temporarily benefit. My estimates suggest that if the current crisis persists for several months, major net importers such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, and others could see inflation rates spike by 1-3 percentage points, and there will also be a slowdown in GDP growth.

Conversely, rising oil prices promise additional revenue for exporters such as Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and others. These countries may experience a temporary boost in their budgets, increased fiscal revenues, and renewed investor interest in the oil and gas sector, as high prices typically revive enthusiasm for exploration and new extraction projects.

However, we must not overestimate the scale of potential benefits. A significant portion of resource rents still flows to foreign companies, service contractors, traders, and creditors. Additionally, an increase in budget revenues does not always translate into sustainable domestic growth, industrialization, or the establishment of extensive production chains.

Amidst this backdrop, Algeria stands out as a country that effectively converts some of its external commodity advantages into tangible internal benefits. The state’s role in the oil and gas sector is much stronger thanks to the national oil company, Sonatrach; this enhances Algeria’s ability to redistribute resource rent within the economy compared to other exporters. Algeria experienced a similar cycle between 2022 and 2023. Against the background of high energy prices in Europe, the World Bank and IMF have reported that Algeria’s economy returned to stable growth (4%), emerging from a prolonged period of stagnation.

Another consequence of the current crisis is that it may divert the attention of Middle Eastern nations away from Africa. According to experts from the Center for African Studies at HSE University, the Gulf states – particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, along with Iran and, to a lesser extent, Qatar – have recently emerged as key external players in Africa and have significantly altered the balance of power on the continent.

Consequently, Africa again finds itself in the position to which it has been confined for decades by global politics: forced to grapple with the consequences of global crises that it had no part in starting. The situation with Iran starkly illustrates this point.

As long as most African nations rely on imported fuel, finished goods, and external logistics, fluctuations in the global market will translate into inflation, current account deficits, rising external debt, and social unrest.

The strategic response for Africa lies not in reacting to individual crises but in reducing its overall dependence on them. This can be achieved by enhancing domestic processing capabilities, improving energy and transportation infrastructure, expanding the internal industrial base, and utilizing natural resource rents more effectively in exporting countries. Only then can external shocks stop automatically morphing into internal crises.

The United Arab Emirates is getting ready to become the first Gulf nation to commit its military to the US-Israeli war against Iran, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing Arab officials.

Since the start of the conflict a month ago, the UAE has been hit by some 2,500 Iranian missiles and drones, more than any other country in the region, including Israel. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed due to the fighting, the country’s oil output has been reduced by more than half, while stock markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have lost around $120 billion in value.

The Emirates wants the Strait of Hormuz unblocked for oil trade so badly that it is ready to assist the US militarily in doing so, the WSJ said in an article on Tuesday.

The nation’s diplomats have privately urged Washington to form a military coalition with European and Asian countries to take control of the waterway, the sources said.

The leadership in Abu Dhabi is currently “actively” looking at ways in which the country could contribute militarily to securing the waterway, including through mine clearing and other support activities, they said.

The Gulf state also wants the US to occupy the islands in the strait, including Abu Musa, which have been under Iran’s control for a half-century, but are claimed by the UAE, the Arab officials added.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington could withdraw from the conflict in two to three weeks and “will not have anything to do with” what happens in the Strait of Hormuz after that. Unblocking the waterway, through which 20% of seaborne oil trade passes, will be a task for “whoever uses the strait,” he insisted.

US tech giant Oracle has laid off 12,000 employees in India, the PTI news agency has reported. Globally, the company has cut around 30,000 employees, according to media reports.

Oracle employs about 30,000 people in India, including those affected by the present round of layoffs.

The impacted workers told the Moneycontrol website that another round of job cuts is likely within a month.

Oracle informed the affected employees about organizational changes in an email sent at 6 AM, stating that “a decision has been taken to streamline the operations, and as a result, unfortunately, the position you currently hold will become redundant,” according to Moneycontrol.

The company has reportedly offered 15 days’ salary for each completed year of service for the fired employees in India. It has also offered leave encashment, gratuity based on eligibility, and pay for a one-month notice period, apart from a two-month salary as a top-up for laid-off employees.

The development comes as Oracle increases capital expenditure to build data center infrastructure capable of handling artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.

A 2025 report by the Indian government think tank NITI Aayog estimates that up to 20% of jobs in IT services and call centers in India could be impacted by automation by 2031.

A Citrini Research report titled ‘The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis’ estimated that by 2028, India’s IT services industry could slow down dramatically as clients shift to AI coding agents at significantly lower costs.

India’s largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), laid off around 12,000 employees, representing roughly 2% of its global workforce in 2025. Nearly 700 Amazon employees in India lost their jobs in January as part of a restructuring process. Microsoft cut around 15,000 jobs globally in 2025.

The Kremlin has dismissed Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s claim that Moscow issued a two‑month ultimatum for Kiev to withdraw from Russia’s Donbass region, insisting that the troops should have left the region long ago.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the idea of a withdrawal deadline “is not about two months,” stressing that Zelensky “must make the decision today for the Ukrainian armed forces to leave the borders of the Donetsk People’s Republic.”

“This has been said for a long time, and he should have done it yesterday. It could have saved the lives of thousands of people and stopped the hot phase of this war,” Peskov said.

Peskov’s remarks came a day after Zelensky claimed in an interview that Moscow had informed Washington that it expected Kiev to withdraw from Donbass within two months. The Ukrainian leader said that if Kiev refused, Russia would capture the territory anyway and the terms of a settlement “will be different.”

The status of Donbass, which voted to join Russia in 2022, remains one of the main obstacles to peace negotiations. Moscow has repeatedly stated that Ukraine’s full withdrawal from the region is essential for a sustainable settlement.

Trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US have been on hold due to the Iran war, with Peskov describing the pause as “situational.” He reiterated on Wednesday that Moscow remains open to negotiations but that the focus of American mediators has shifted to the Middle East.

Zelensky has consistently rejected territorial concessions, calling the withdrawal from Donbass a threat to European security. Meanwhile, Russia insists that any lasting peace must include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and recognition of the regions that voted to join Russia.

The UK is facing one of the largest economic shocks of any country from the Middle East conflict, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned, saying it is “especially exposed” to surging energy prices due to its heavy reliance on gas-fired power.

Energy importers across Europe are taking the hardest hit after prices surged in the wake of US- Israeli strikes on Iran in late February and subsequent retaliatory attacks across the region. The crisis has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz – a key shipping route that carries about a fifth of global oil supply – choking off flows and driving up fuel and input costs.

In a blogpost by senior IMF officials including chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas earlier this week, the Fund said heavily indebted governments would have little room to cushion the blow, leaving households and businesses more exposed. It added the Middle East war’s impact would be “both global and highly uneven,” with some countries, including the UK, facing a renewed squeeze on living standards.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday urged the public to “act as normal,” insisting that fuel supplies remain secure.

Economists warn that the British economy is now in a far weaker position than four years ago, when the EU and UK began to phase out affordable Russian gas and oil over the Ukraine conflict.

Former Bank of England deputy governor Howard Davies said this week the UK could be heading towards an energy crisis comparable to the turmoil of the 1970s, when oil prices quadrupled after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war as Arab producers imposed an embargo on Western nations. He warned that Middle East supply could remain constrained, keeping prices elevated – if not as high as $150 a barrel, then well above the roughly $60 seen before the current crisis.

UK natural gas prices have more than doubled since December, while Brent crude – near $60 before the conflict – briefly topped $116 earlier this week before easing to about $100 a barrel on Wednesday.

A three-day nationwide transport strike in Senegal, launched on Monday at the call of the Federation of Road Transport Unions of Senegal (FSTRS), has disrupted mobility in Dakar, leaving residents struggling to commute.

Roads in the capital appear unusually clear due to the absence of public transport, local news agencies reported. Union leaders had decided that no transport vehicles should operate across the country. Despite the strike call, some operators have continued working, although their limited presence have failed to meet demand.

The protest movement, backed by the Senegal Road Transport Union, is rooted in long-standing grievances over sector governance and the government’s refusal to formally recognize a new union formed in February 2026.

Transport workers have also accused authorities of systemic harassment and corruption on national roads. Among their key demands is the immediate enforcement of previously agreed measures, particularly those aimed at cutting down the number of roadside checkpoints.

Earlier this month, the FSTRS withdrew from talks with the government, accusing the authorities of a “frivolous approach” and procedural neglect.

Although the strike was announced in advance, the authorities introduced contingency measures. The Executive Council for Sustainable Urban Transport (CETUD) said operators including Dem Dikk, Aftu, and Dakar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) have been mobilized to maintain services and meet daily transport needs.

US War Secretary Pete Hegseth has refused to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to NATO’s collective defense, pointing to the bloc’s refusal to assist or participate in the American-Israeli war on Iran. 

Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing on Tuesday, Hegseth stated that the future of US involvement in NATO will ultimately be decided by President Donald Trump, but noted that many issues with the bloc have been “laid bare” in the Iran conflict. 

“A lot has been shown to the world about what our allies would be willing to do for the US when we undertake an effort of this scope on behalf of the free world,” Hegseth said. He argued that Iranian missiles did not pose a threat to the US, but to its “allies and others,” who responded to Washington’s request for assistance with “questions, or roadblocks, or hesitations.” 

“The President is pointing out that you don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,” Hegseth said.

In an interview with the Telegraph published on Wednesday, Trump himself confirmed that he is strongly considering pulling the US out of NATO if it fails to join the war against Iran, labelling the bloc a “paper tiger.”

A number of NATO states have opposed the unprovoked war being waged on Iran by the US and Israel, with several members, including France and Spain, openly refusing to participate in the operation or allow Washington to use their bases or airspace for attacks.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at bloc members for their reluctance, branding them “cowards” on social media and claiming that NATO was “a one-way street” and that the US “no longer ‘need[s]’, or desire[s], the NATO countries’ assistance.”

India has hiked aviation fuel prices for international flights amid a surge in oil prices globally due to the Middle East conflict.

Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices have more than doubled to a record $2,220.45 per kiloliter, according to India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

ATF prices in India were deregulated in 2001 and are revised on a monthly basis, based on a formula involving international benchmarks.

“Due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and extraordinary situation in global energy markets, the price of ATF for domestic markets was expected to increase by more than 100% on April 1,” the ministry said.

ATF prices in India were deregulated in 2001 and are revised on monthly basis based on a formula of international benchmarks. Due to the closure of Strait of Hormuz and extraordinary situation in global energy markets, price of ATF for domestic markets was expected to increase by…

— Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas #MoPNG (@PetroleumMin) April 1, 2026

To insulate domestic travel costs from the substantial increase in international prices, state-backed oil companies have passed on a partial and staggered increase of 25% ($0.16 per liter) to airlines operating domestic flights.

Other carriers, including charter operators, will pay the full market rate. For them, prices have risen by $1,187.49 per kiloliter, or 114.5%, to $2,224.11 per kiloliter, the statement said.

This is the first time ATF prices in India have crossed the $2,145.36 per kiloliter mark. The previous high was recorded in 2022, when rates climbed to around $1,179.95 per kiloliter following the Ukraine conflict.

The federal government also hiked commercial natural gas prices by $2.09 per 19-kg cylinder in line with global trends.

However, domestic natural gas, gasoline, and diesel prices remained unchanged.

State-backed fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum normally revise ATF and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) prices on the first day of every month based on international benchmarks and exchange rates.

RT has looked into how Iran has used cheap, AI-generated clips to mock US President Donald Trump and the American military, countering the multibillion-dollar US media machine during the conflict in the Middle East.

Videos by Tehran address the latest developments in the war, warning that US troops will face “hell” if Washington launches a ground operation, making fun of Trump’s fear of the ‘No Kings’ protests and reiterating the Iranian narrative that the US president ordered the attack on February 28 to distract the public from the Epstein files.

In the US, the effort to convince the population that the war against Tehran makes sense is spearheaded by the empire of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which includes the likes of Fox News, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

It targets different audiences with tailored narratives, adopting a measured tone for educated elites, while not shying away from making bogus claims – such as suggesting that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is gay – or relying on slogans such as “short-term pain for long-term gain” when addressing everyday people.

Iran has presented a video utilizing extraordinary AI technology. "Come on over, Americans—we're waiting for you; hell is ready for you!"—a superb visual presentation.#IranWar‌ #IranRevolution2026‌ pic.twitter.com/dHQ7KxLf4w

— Sagar Times সাগর টাইমস (@sagartimeslive) March 31, 2026

The Iranian approach, however, appears to be more effective, with its often-bizarre AI-generated clips going viral and sometimes being shared by the mainstream media outlets themselves. At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings have plummeted to around 36%, with around 60% of Americans saying that the US military action against Iran has gone too far, according to Ipsos polls.

Wake up babe, a new Iran trolling movie just dropped pic.twitter.com/b3qRbEyI7y

— Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79) March 30, 2026

Israel’s Defense Ministry has announced retaliatory steps against France after US President Donald Trump openly criticized the European NATO member for refusing to allow access to its airspace for arms shipments being delivered to the Middle East.

Posting on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump described the French decision as “very unhelpful” to the US-Israeli war on Iran, adding that Washington “will remember” the move. France’s restriction on facilitating weapons transfers to Israel came alongside a broader embargo on arms sales to West Jerusalem introduced more than a year ago.

Israeli Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram stated in a Channel 12 interview on Tuesday that he and Defense Minister Israel Katz aim to curb reliance on foreign arms suppliers, especially from countries such as France that Israel does not view as “friendly.”

Macron ally diverts to Lebanon

According to Ynet, Alice Rufo – a deputy to French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin and a reported close ally of President Emmanuel Macron – had been scheduled to visit Israel on Sunday.

Reports differ on the sequence of events, with some suggesting France’s airspace denial came after Rufo’s visit was scrapped by West Jerusalem. Sources cited by Reuters indicated this marked the first time Paris had refused access to an Israel-bound arms shipment since the regime change campaign against Iran was launched over a month ago.

Mounting diplomatic fallout

Macron introduced the arms embargo on Israel in late 2024 as part of a broader effort to pressure West Jerusalem over its military action in Gaza. Israeli defense firms have also been barred from showcasing products at French arms exhibitions.

Although France continues to export certain dual-use goods to Israel, volumes have declined significantly. A parliamentary report in 2025 noted that such exports – which require case-by-case approval – totaled €76.5 million ($88.6 million) in 2024, representing a 60% drop compared to the previous year.

Israel ‘turned its back’ on Macron’s conciliatory moves

Israel has “turned its back” on Macron despite a series of recent French efforts to ease tensions, Le Figaro has said.

In November, Israeli companies were permitted to showcase their goods at the Milipol internal security exhibition in Paris. The following month, France signaled it would not join other European countries in boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s participation.

However, Israel appears uninterested in rapprochement, Le Figaro argued. It noted that even before the latest dispute, West Jerusalem had dismissed French objections to its planned military incursion into Lebanon, a former French mandate territory.

Trump urges allies to ‘take’ Iranian oil

Over the past several days, the Trump administration has indicated that the US campaign against Iran could conclude within two weeks. Some analysts, however, suggest the messaging may be a strategic distraction as the Pentagon has moved thousands of marines and airborne forces to the Middle East in preparation for a possible face-saving yet risky ground operation.

Rufo, the French junior minister, remarked on Wednesday that NATO was designed as an organization protecting the Euro-Atlantic area and “not intended to carry out an operation in the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that such a deployment would be against international law. She appeared to be responding to Trump’s latest suggestion that the US could pull out of the bloc, made in an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

In a separate Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said nations such as the UK that face fuel shortages but decline to support the US and Israel should either buy American oil or “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.”

The outcome of the war with Iran will determine America’s capabilities on the world stage for years to come. That is what makes the current conflict in West Asia so consequential, far beyond the region itself.

US policy toward Iran has become increasingly erratic. Rather than focus on the president’s shifting rhetoric, it is more useful to examine the logic underpinning the confrontation. Washington appears to have convinced itself that the moment is right to act decisively against Tehran, exploiting what it perceives as a window of vulnerability.

The objective, viewed in isolation, has a certain cold rationality. A single, well-executed strike could, in theory, achieve several long-standing goals at once: settle the historical grievance of the 1979 embassy crisis, remove a regime seen as hostile to Israel, gain leverage over key energy resources and transport routes, and weaken emerging Eurasian integration projects. Advisers appear to have presented this as a rare opportunity. The president accepted the argument.

But such ambitions rest on a fundamental miscalculation. Iran is not Iraq in 2003, nor Afghanistan in 2001. Its military capabilities are far more substantial than those of any adversary the United States has confronted directly in recent decades. It is a large, resilient state with deep strategic depth and a capacity to inflict serious disruption on global trade and energy flows.

This last point is critical. Iran’s geographic position gives it leverage that few countries possess. Even limited escalation could threaten shipping routes and economic stability far beyond the Middle East, directly affecting the interests of the United States and its allies. That reality alone complicates any attempt at a quick, clean victory.

The original assumption appears to have been that Iran would capitulate quickly. What that capitulation would look like was never entirely clear: regime collapse, coerced compliance along the lines of Venezuela, or a negotiated settlement sharply limiting Tehran’s power. In any case, a prolonged conflict was not part of the plan.

Now that the conflict has dragged on, a more fundamental question has emerged: what exactly constitutes success?

This dilemma reflects a broader shift in American foreign policy. “America First” is often interpreted as isolationism or restraint. In practice, it has meant something else entirely, the pursuit of US objectives without responsibility and, ideally, without cost. The underlying principle is simple: achieve maximum benefit while minimizing commitments.

For a time, this approach appeared to work. In his first year, Donald Trump managed to pressure partners into accepting American terms, often by leveraging overwhelming economic power. But that strategy depends on the absence of meaningful resistance. It becomes far more dangerous when applied to a situation that cannot be controlled.

Creating a major geopolitical crisis and expecting others to absorb the consequences while Washington extracts advantages is a different proposition altogether. It risks destabilizing not just adversaries, but the entire system in which the United States itself operates.

This shift carries profound implications. A hegemon that no longer seeks to provide stability must rely more heavily on coercion. But coercion, to be effective, requires credibility. The dominant power must demonstrate clearly that it can impose its will when necessary.

Iran has become the test case.

The United States has, in effect, chosen this challenge for itself. The stakes are therefore exceptionally high. A failure to achieve a decisive outcome would not simply be another setback, it would call into question Washington’s ability to act as a global power under the new rules it is attempting to establish.

This is what distinguishes the current conflict from previous campaigns. Iraq and Afghanistan ended without clear victories, but they were fought under a different strategic paradigm. Today’s confrontation is more openly transactional, more explicitly about power projection, and less constrained by legal or ideological considerations.

That makes defining victory both more urgent and more difficult. In a war of choice, the criteria for success are not fixed in advance. Yet certain outcomes would clearly fall short. It is difficult to imagine, for example, that any operation could be considered successful if Iran retains effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint of global significance.

The longer the conflict continues without a clear resolution, the more the pressure on Washington will grow. Ambiguity is not an option for a power seeking to redefine its role in the international system.

The conclusion is stark. The United States now needs a decisive victory. The alternative, a drawn-out conflict with no clear outcome, would undermine its position not only in the Middle East, but globally.

At the same time, the likelihood of a negotiated settlement appears low. The demands on both sides remain too far apart. That leaves escalation as the most probable path forward.

The risks are obvious. But for Washington, the cost of failure may be even greater.

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

Russia and India should boost their collaboration on energy security to support the Global South’s requirements, foreign affairs expert Robindra Nath Sachdev has told RT India.

US President Donald Trump has urged allies facing high fuel prices to get their “own oil” from the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Israeli war on Iran. Restoring free shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is not among Washington’s military objectives, and it expects other nations to tackle the issue, US officials have said.

“The way I take a message from this entire crisis is that India should wake up and should get real. We depend upon imported crude oil, imported energy, imported LPG, and imported coal – even for our electric plants,” Sachdev told RT India.

He said there was a need for great cooperation between Russia and India.

“India should fast-track its thorium program. I mean, on the entire spectrum of energy, let us see where we are. Let’s get real,” he said.

India’s organic energy capacity should be boosted, he added.

“We have the world’s largest reserves of thorium. We have the most advanced technology program in Thorium. We’ve not been able to convert it into industrial grade so far,” he said, blaming bureaucratic and scientific delays.

Sachdev said India and Russia could collaborate and develop the technology.

This can be bundled for India’s energy security, he said, adding, “this bundle of technology and raw material can be sold, provided to the countries of the Global South.”

India can avoid geopolitical and supply chain risks by shifting to a thorium-based cycle to fuel its nuclear reactors, analysts have said.

This would pave the way for the Global South to get genuine energy security from a balanced source like India, Sachdev said.

He added that it’s time for the rest of the world to wake up, diversify, and not be dependent on just one source of energy.

Lebanon has asked the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut to hand over a suspected Israeli Mossad agent, according to Lebanese security chief Hassan Choukeir, who alleged that the suspect was involved in bombing and assassination plots.

According to AFP, a Syrian-Palestinian national who also holds a Ukrainian passport was detained by the Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah in September 2025 after parking a motorbike rigged with explosives on a road leading to Beirut airport through the city’s southern suburbs.

“After checking his name and photograph, we became aware that he is wanted by the Lebanese judiciary,” Choukeir told AFP. The embassy did not respond to the French media outlet’s request for comment.

Ukraine is among a number of European countries which support the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran. Vladimir Zelensky has offered to help the US and Gulf states hosting American bases intercept Iranian drones and secure the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has warned that it would consider Ukraine a legitimate target if it intervenes in the Middle East.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has hit back at his Croatian counterpart, Zoran Milanovic, who canceled an upcoming regional summit and accused Belgrade of hostile rhetoric.

On Monday, Milanovic announced that he was canceling this year’s Brdo-Brijuni meeting, an annual summit of Balkan countries, which was to take place in Croatia next month. In a statement on his website, Milanovic argued that “the political statements and actions” of Vucic “disrupt interstate relations, and threaten peace and stability in the Southeast European region.” He added that Vucic’s visit to Croatia was “not possible.”

Speaking to the Tanjug news agency later that day, the Serbian leader responded, saying: “He is absolutely right, I don’t belong there.”

“As for the statements and what Zoran Milanovic is referring to, I am not his lackey,” Vucic said. “Croatia should not feel any danger from Serbia, but they won’t silence us and won’t dictate what we can say.”

Milanovic dismissed Vucic’s claims at the time as “silly,” and denied that cooperation between Croatia, a NATO member, and Albania and Kosovo could be considered a military alliance.

In 1999, NATO carried out a bombing campaign in Serbia in support of ethnic Albanian insurgents in Kosovo. In 2008, the Albanian-led authorities in Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade, which has been recognized by most Western states, but not by countries such as Russia and China.

Serbia’s relations with the Western-backed government in Kosovo remain tense and have led to occasional military standoffs, as Belgrade has accused the Albanian-led authorities of persecuting ethnic Serbs.

By this time, we are all familiar with the image of some harried schoolteacher attempting to maintain control over a classroom where the majority of students are transfixed by their smartphones instead of the dusty chalkboard. The dangers of social media for the minds of young and old alike has already been well-documented, and the amount of time that students spend on their handheld devices is increasing with each new study conducted.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tracked the real-time phone habits of middle and high schoolers and found something that should disturb every teacher and parent. Phone usage appeared during every single hour of the school day, and not a single student in the study went the entire school day without using their mobile phone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the students who used their phones most often also showed noticeably less self-control.

Published in JAMA Network Open, this new study monitored the phone habits of 79 students aged 11 to 18 over two consecutive weeks and found the average teen racks up more than two full hours of screen time during school time alone. That’s approximately one-third of their total daily phone use – and over a quarter of the entire school day! But the more disturbing discovery wasn’t how long students were on their phones. The alarming factor was how often the students were reaching for their devices, and how that nervous, knee-jerk habit appears to be linked to concentration levels.

Like infants reaching out for their favorite security blanket, students reached for their phones an average of 64 times during the school day, and those who grabbed their devices most often scored worse on a standard test that measured concentration and self-control. The study shows a link not just between phones and distraction, but between compulsive phone use and the kind of mental discipline adolescents need to learn and develop.

“They’re missing out on real life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable for growth during a critical period of one’s life.”

To say that smartphones have become a pervasive feature of adolescents’ daily lives would be a gross understatement. More than 95% of American teens reported access to a handheld device and nearly half described themselves as “almost constantly” online as of 2024. The authors of the study aim to determine how this omnipresent force, which acts just like a drug for its millions of users, shapes adolescent development, “particularly in contexts such as school that are designed to foster sustained attention, academic engagement, and social growth.”

The authors of the study wrote: “Developmental theories of self-regulation suggest that adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to distraction, given ongoing maturation of prefrontal cognitive control systems alongside sensitivity to rewarding social information. The constant availability of smartphones therefore will increase social media distraction during school hours, creating unique challenges for adolescents’ ability to regulate attention and maintain focus on academic tasks.”

In other words, teachers face greater obstacles than ever before when it comes to controlling their classrooms. Needless to say, teachers should not be required to compete against smartphones in the classroom. Across the study, phone use was monitored during every hour of the school day, from 8 AM until the final bell at 3 PM. On average, screen time increased progressively from about 16 minutes at 8 AM. to more than 22 minutes by 2 PM. One particularly distracted student racked up more than five hours of phone use during school across the study period.

Did all of this screen time negatively influence the ability of students to concentrate? To find out, researchers tested the high school student’s concentration using a go/no-go task, a standard exercise in which participants are instructed to activate a button in response to one image but hold back when they see another. This test measures a person’s ability to override an automatic impulse, a key attribute of self-control. Among those examined, students who picked up their phones more often during school performed worse.

The results of the study will assist school administrators and parents in the ongoing debate as to whether or not smartphones should be banned from school. Some nations, meanwhile, have gone further. Australia has banned children under 16 from registering on social media and Malaysia introduced a similar ban in January. The European Parliament is openly discussing following the example of these two countries.

Perhaps we should end here with a quote by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who allegedly said his children were not allowed to use smartphones and computers, “because it takes two weeks to become an advanced user, but a childhood spent staring at screens costs something far more valuable: time for real development.”

US President Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy is often dismissed as chaotic or erratic. In reality, it reflects a deeper shift that is unlikely to disappear when he leaves office. Beneath the surface lies a consistent worldview, one shaped by populism and nationalism, that’s steadily gaining ground, both within the United States and globally.

This shift is already reshaping long-standing institutions. Nowhere is this more visible than in Washington’s relationship with its European allies.

For decades, US foreign policy rested on a simple premise: alliances, above all NATO, were the foundation of American power and influence. That consensus held across party lines for nearly 80 years. Today, it’s breaking down.

Trump is not merely skeptical of alliances, he openly questions their value. His reaction to the refusal of European allies to support US and Israeli military action against Iran was telling. Writing on Truth Social, he described NATO as a “paper tiger” and accused American allies of cowardice. “Everyone agrees with us, but they don’t want to help. And we, as the United States, must remember this,” he said.

The message is blunt: if allies don’t act when Washington calls, then their status as allies is called into question.

There are growing signs of this shift: sharper rhetoric, fewer high-level engagements, and plans to reduce the American role within NATO’s command system. This is no longer just political theater.

Even when constrained by Congress, as in the decision to block a rapid reduction of US troops in Europe, the administration has adjusted tactics rather than abandoning its objective. The restriction on cutting troop levels below 76,000 slows the process, but doesn’t change its direction. The broader aim remains clear: shifting responsibility onto Europe.

A key element of this strategy is the gradual transfer of operational control. Reforms to NATO’s integrated command structure are already underway. Soon, all three of the alliance’s operational commands will be led by Europeans. This marks a significant step towards transforming NATO into a European-led organization.

If the United States relinquishes its central role in force planning and command, the consequences will be profound. NATO may remain intact in form, but its substance will change. Washington will no longer lead the alliance in the way it once did.

This isn’t simply a matter of one president’s preferences. Trump reflects a broader shift in American public opinion.

Don’t mistake it for isolationism. The recent strikes on Iran demonstrate that Washington remains willing to use force when it chooses. The change is more subtle, and more consequential.

The United States no longer wants to be bound by obligations.

Alliances and institutions that once defined American leadership are now seen as constraints. The emerging model is one of leadership without commitments: the ability to act freely, without being tied to the interests or expectations of partners.

That is a fundamentally different approach to international relations. It leaves NATO in an uncertain position, still formally intact, but increasingly hollowed out.

In time, the alliance may survive. But it will no longer be the same organization that defined the transatlantic relationship for generations.

And it’s far from clear that Europe is ready for what comes next.

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

A Russian An-26 military transport plane crashed in Crimea on Tuesday evening, killing all 29 people on board, the Defense Ministry has said.

According to the MOD, communication with the aircraft was lost at around 6 PM local time during a “routine flight” over the strategic Black Sea peninsula.

The Russian Defense Ministry said there were “no signs of external impact on the aircraft,” implying that the plane had not been shot down by Ukraine. TASS cited a source as saying that the plane crashed into a mountain.

RIA Novosti reported that preliminary data suggests the aircraft may have suffered a technical issue.

Israeli lawmakers led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have been filmed cheering and rejoicing at the passing of a controversial death penalty bill. Rights groups, foreign nations, and even the UN warned that the newly adopted legislation is discriminatory and would disproportionally target Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Under the law that was passed 62-47 in the Knesset on Tuesday, Palestinians found guilty of deadly terrorist attacks aimed at “ending Israel’s existence” would be executed by hanging. In the occupied West Bank, military courts would rule on such cases. In Israel, they are to be processed under the criminal law. Sentences are to be carried out within 90 days of the ruling, with no right of clemency. Judges can only switch death penalty with life imprisonment under some unspecified “special circumstances.”

Ben-Gvir, who is seen in a video released by the Knesset producing a bottle of alcohol in the chamber, lauded the development as a “day of justice for the victims and a day of deterrence for our enemies.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also appeared at the Tuesday parliament session in person to vote for the law but did not take part in the celebrations.

“Such laws and measures will not break the will of the Palestinian people or undermine their steadfastness,” the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated.

The law has drawn criticism and condemnation from rights groups, foreign nations and the UN. Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Australia issued a joint statement on Monday expressing “deep concern” over the “de facto discriminatory nature” of the legislation and urged West Jerusalem to abandon its plans.

Israel abolished death penalty for murder in 1954. The only execution carried out in the Jewish state was that of a Nazi Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann on genocide charges in 1962.

Ukraine’s delay of an EU inspection of the Druzhba oil pipeline for nearly two weeks is “not smart,” unnamed diplomatic sources have told Euractiv. Kiev had earlier agreed to allow the bloc’s experts to check the conduits for alleged damage.

The Soviet-era pipeline has been used to deliver Russian crude through Ukrainian territory to Hungary and Slovakia. Kiev claims the pipeline was damaged in Russian strikes – something that Moscow denies. Budapest has also rejected Kiev’s claims, arguing that the Ukrainian authorities deliberately halted the flow for political reasons.

Earlier in March, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that Kiev would allow an EU-funded inspection of the pipeline. According to Euractiv, the team is still waiting for a green light from Kiev to go to the site despite being in Ukraine for weeks.

“We don’t have a clear picture of what the Ukrainian play here is,” an EU diplomat told the media outlet. Other sources contacted by Euractiv called Kiev’s actions “unclear” and “not smart.”

“The only way out of this stalemate is to check the situation on the ground and see there what the truth is,” the diplomat stated. Last week, Bratislava also said that it would veto the next round of Russia sanctions, as well as derail any attempts to simplify Kiev’s potential accession to the EU if the pipeline issue is not resolved.

In mid-March, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky stated he was opposing the resumption of Russian oil shipments, and accused Brussels of “blackmail” over the inspection. Moscow retorted earlier this month that it was Kiev that subjected Hungary and Slovakia to “energy blackmail,” warning that Ukraine’s aggressive stance threatens the energy security of the bloc.

Investigators could not match the bullet that killed conservative influencer Charlie Kirk to the rifle used by his alleged assassin, lawyers for the suspect have claimed. The accused killer’s defense team is using this fact to push for a delayed trial.

Tyler Robinson’s lawyers said in a recent court filing that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could not conclusively connect a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body to a rifle found at the scene, citing an internal report by the agency.

The full ATF report has not been made public, but Robinson’s lawyers cited excerpts from the document in a request to delay a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. The 22-year-old suspect’s legal team stated that they need more time to review the bullet analysis, and to analyze the DNA of multiple other people found at the crime scene.

Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was shot in the neck and killed almost instantly at an event on a Utah college campus last September. His death sent shockwaves through the US, with President Donald Trump posthumously awarding Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and describing the conservative icon as “a visionary and one of the greatest figures of his generation.”

Prosecutors have said that DNA matching Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, but the case has nevertheless spawned multiple conspiracy theories – including the widely spread claim that Kirk was killed for turning on TPUSA’s pro-Israel donors and opposing US strikes on Iran.

Every firearm leaves a unique imprint on a bullet as the projectile leaves the barrel. When enough fragments are found in good condition, ballistic analysts can match the projectile to the weapon with almost 100% confidence. Robinson’s lawyers suggested in the filings that they may point to the lack of a match in an attempt to dismiss charges against their client.

US President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of troops to the Middle East and said he wants to seize Iran’s foremost crude export hub, Kharg Island, to “take the oil.” However, such an assault promises heavy losses and a logistics quagmire for Washington, according to former US Army officer Stanislav Krapivnik.

In an interview with RT on Tuesday, the military-political expert said that Trump wants to cement a “win” in his war on Iran to claw back some domestic support.

“They have to show a win, because right now, they can’t sell this war,” he said. Only 30% of Americans support the war, despite the usual tendency to “rally around the flag” during a conflict, even an “unpopular” one, he added. “[Support is at] 30% and falling. They don’t know what to do.”

Krapivnik expressed skepticism that Trump’s generals would be “willing to tell him the truth” about potential casualties.

The approach: 200 kilometers of open water

Thousands of US paratroopers, marines, and special forces soldiers have reportedly been deployed to the Middle East as Washington considers seizing the key oil hub, which handles most of Iran’s crude exports.

US forces could go by sea, but will “more likely” approach from the air, he said.

Their main options include C-130 transport planes, “which are relatively slow-flying large aircraft,” helicopters, or V-22 Ospreys, “which can carry only 22 troops apiece,” Krapivnik said. The notoriously unreliable vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft has earned the nickname ‘widow maker,’ having led to 30 deaths before it even entered active service in 2007.

“Getting there, they’re going to take casualties. They’re going to be losses in aircraft,” Krapivnik said, stressing that the Iranians are “dug in and waiting to defend” the largely flat island. Any approaching aircraft would face Iranian man-portable air defense missiles, which “could easily take these planes out,” he added.

Once disembarked, US forces will face the task of fighting through Kharg Island and clearing the remaining industrial and residential buildings in its northern areas.

“They’d have to clear the city, every building… They’re gonna have casualties, and a lot of casualties,” Krapivnik said.

All the while, US forces would face constant strikes from Iranian missiles, Shahed-type UAVs, and FPV drones, as the island lies 36.5 kilometers (23 miles) from mainland Iran, Krapivnik said.

Any crude the US could seize would only be local reserves, given that Tehran would simply shut off its oil pipeline to the island, he added.

A logistics nightmare

In Iran’s 45 degrees Celsius climate, a soldier in combat would need three to four liters of water a day, he stressed.

“If you drop 2,000 guys on there, you need 8,000 liters of water every single day… never mind food, ammunition… never mind how you’re going to evacuate the wounded,” he said.

Watch the full video below:

Welcome to RT’s live coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the wider turmoil across the Middle East, which continues to be affected by missile and drone strikes from both sides.

As the war on Iran entered day 32, missiles struck an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar as well as Kuwait’s airport on Wednesday, while US and Israeli airstrikes relentlessly pounded Tehran. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has announced that he’s nearly ready to end the war.

Trump claimed that Iran’s president wanted a ceasefire ahead of his speech to the American people, scheduled for Wednesday. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, however, had earlier stated that the US suggestions for halting the conflict contain “largely excessive, unrealistic, and unreasonable demands,” contradicting Trump’s earlier claims that Iran had agreed to “most of” the requests on the list.

Trump also suggested that the US is considering leaving NATO over what he cast as its lackluster military support for the Iran war.

Here are the latest developments: 

• US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has claimed that “regime change in Iran has occurred,” telling reporters that “if Iran is not willing, then the US War Department will continue with even more intensity.” 
  
  
• Echoing Trump’s criticism of NATO members, Hegseth remarked that “you don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them.”
  
  
• Iran and the US are engaged in “exchanges of messages” but are not holding any talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi has said.
  
  
• The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is slated to go to the Middle East along with three destroyers, two US officials said, as quoted by Associated Press. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors. It comes as thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have also begun arriving in the Middle East, according to two other US officials.

Follow our live coverage below for continuous updates. You can also read our previous updates here.

Hey, good news! The EU has found a new source of desperately needed gas amid the current energy crunch. The bad news? It’s in the US. So it will serve America, first. With Europe getting any sloppy seconds that Daddy Trump feels like overcharging it for when he isn’t threatening to invade.

It’ll be the French energy multinational, TotalEnergies, serving it up to the US like a waiter at a Montmartre bistro, forced to smile and bow while the guest pockets the silverware.

Even better? The company wasn’t even supposed to be over there doing that. They had planned to be building offshore windfarms. But instead, Trump’s Department of the Interior now says that they made a deal with the French company to spend roughly a billion dollars investing in American gas operations in exchange for getting about the same amount of cash back for agreeing to say goodbye to its green wind dreams in the US.

Team Trump calls it an “innovative agreement driven by President Donald J. Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda.” But the CEO of the European company is making the cucking sound like a big win.

“TotalEnergies is pleased to sign this settlement agreements with the DOI and to support the Administration’s Energy Policy. Considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees,” said TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne, while adjusting his knee pads, before continuing to service Trump via official US government press release.

“Furthermore, these agreements, under which we will reinvest the refunded lease fees to finance the construction of the 29 Mt Rio Grande LNG plant and the development of our oil and gas activities, allows us to support the development of US gas production and export.”

Well, good riddance to – er, I mean, so much for Europe’s green dreams, I guess. But at least it means they’ll get easier access to more desperately needed LNG, right? Since they’re the ones doing the heavy lifting. Not without securing a trade agreement on America’s terms, they won’t. Which is why they’re aiming to ratify a trade agreement with their tormentor.

Brussels had been concerned about the agreement that was struck with Trump back in 2025, named the Turnberry Agreement after the US president’s Scottish golf resort where it all went down. The deal was about tariffs. Specifically, it gave a huge break to the US with ZERO tariffs on some of its exports to the EU, while slapping a 15-percent tariff on EU imports to the US. Another master stroke of cuckoldry.

And yet Trump still won’t stop talking about how the EU is constantly stiffing America on trade. Which explains why the EU has been dragging its feet on ratifying it, worried that maybe it was putting too many eggs in a very unstable basket. Something that the US warned it against doing with Russia, being only too happy to step up to offer a costlier overdependency on itself instead.

The EU is doing the exact same with green energy, turning its back on nuclear power before its beloved green renewables were even ready for prime time. Which also went about as well as you might expect from these central planning geniuses. Calling it a screwup, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced the need to yank another €200 million from taxpayers to “support investment in innovative nuclear technologies.” The same ones they’d been busy vilifying until recently.

Hard up for gas, struggling to reverse course on nuclear – and now Trump is bribing them with their own money to forget about wind and invest in American gas. All that’s left now is to just hope that it’s enough for Daddy to not withhold the gas produced by their investment from them.

About the only thing they still have going for them is that the EU member states haven’t yet officially ratified the deal to totally sell themselves out. One can hope, right?

“A deal is a deal and we should stick to the Turnberry joint statement,” said EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.

Whoops, okay. Well, maybe not.

Wait. What’s going on over here in this other back room?

The German industrial city of Osnabrück is grappling with the idea that its embattled Volkswagen factory could be saved – but only if it switches from making cars to producing components for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, reports the Financial Times.

Similarly, EU leaders have publicly wallowed in wishy-washiness when it comes to US-Israeli aggression in the Middle East. “Strategic ambiguity,” is what they call it. Which is cuckspeak for “talking out of both sides of my mouth.” But the Wall Street Journal has outed Europe for playing a key role in refueling and supporting the same US operations which they purport to denounce. So instead of acting to match their own words, they let Washington have its way, and then tell their own citizens that European governments will have to come up with a plan to pay for all the cost of living damage that is beyond their control.

Please, won’t someone please help Europe off its knees, already? It’s getting to the point where it risks entirely forgetting how to stand up.

The Finnish Supreme Court has found Christian Democrat MP and former cabinet minister Paivi Rasanen guilty of “insulting homosexuals” in a 2004 church pamphlet, in which she described gays as having a developmental disorder.

The conviction of the 66-year-old politician is based on a pamphlet titled ‘Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity’. A guilty verdict was also handed down to Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola, who was involved in publishing the text.

Rasanen was fined €1,800 ($2,100), while Pohjola received a €1,100 ($1,300) fine. The court also ordered the defendants to remove parts of the text that it ruled unlawful from the internet.

According to the ruling, the pamphlet insulted homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation. In the publication, Rasanen argued that homosexuality constitutes a “developmental disorder.” The court stated that such claims amounted to incitement against a group.

The MP was acquitted on a second charge related to a 2019 tweet in which she accused the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland of “elevating shame and sin” for becoming an official partner of a gay pride parade.

Rasanen, a medical doctor, served as Finland’s minister of the interior between 2011 and 2015. She said she was shocked by the ruling and announced plans to consult lawyers about an appeal.

“I am taking legal advice on a possible appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. This is not about my free speech alone, but that of every person in Finland,” Rasanen added. “A positive ruling would help to prevent other innocent people from experiencing the same ordeal for simply sharing their beliefs.”

The US-based Alliance Defending Freedom International, which represented Rasanen throughout the case, called the conviction “an outrageous example of state censorship.”

Moscow will not supply oil to countries backing an “anti-market” price cap scheme, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko has said, as demand for crude rises amid the Middle East conflict.

Western countries backing Ukraine, including the G7 members and Australia, said they would phase out Russian oil and gas imports following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
These countries cut purchases and forced Russia to sell crude at a discount to global benchmarks under a price cap system, currently set at about $44 per barrel.

However, in recent weeks this trend has partially reversed: Russia’s Urals crude has been sold to India and other buyers at a premium, with Urals DAP West Coast India prices exceeding $121.5 per barrel on March 19, 2026, and trading about $3.9 per barrel above Dated Brent, compared to a discount of around $12 per barrel in early March.

Energy prices surged after the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28, prompting retaliatory attacks across the region. The crisis has led to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil supply. Iran has effectively blocked transit for ships from non-friendly nations, sending oil prices up nearly 50% to almost $120 per barrel earlier this month.

Amid the price spike, the US temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil loaded onto tankers before March 12, with a license allowing its sale until April 11. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move could bring Russia about $2 billion in budget revenues.

Several Asian countries have already moved to secure Russian crude after Washington eased the restrictions. Nations including Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam have signaled an interest in buying Russian oil, while major importers India and China have continued to snap up available cargoes under the waiver.

The breakaway region of Kosovo has approved sending troops to Gaza as part of a force proposed by US President Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’, its prime minister, Albin Kurti, announced on Monday. 

Speaking in a televised meeting, Kurti stated that Kosovo is “ready to participate and help the people of Gaza, because we ourselves have been and are beneficiaries of international forces since 1999.” 

The Albanian-separatist state, a product of the NATO-backed war on Yugoslavia that included the bombing of Belgrade, controversially declared independence in 2008, despite concern from many nations about the precedent set. 

Kosovo remains unrecognized by over 90 UN member states, including Serbia, Russia, China, India, Spain, and Greece. Meanwhile, former Kosovo president and insurrection leader Hashim Thaci has been accused of war crimes and is awaiting a verdict from The Hague while facing a separate trial for obstruction of justice. 

The ‘International Stabilization Force’ (ISF), was envisioned in a UN Security Council resolution passed last November in support of Trump’s 20‑point plan for postwar Gaza. It has since become part of Trump’s broader Board of Peace established in January to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction and the implementation of the ceasefire. 

The ISF’s stated mission includes training a new Palestinian police force, securing the borders, maintaining security, protecting humanitarian operations, and helping demilitarize the enclave. 

Other countries, such as Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE, have been in talks about contributing, while major Western powers, including Germany, France, and the UK, have declined to join the board or the force. 

Russia has said it is studying an invitation to join Trump’s Board of Peace, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has noted that the initiative now seems irrelevant given US aggression in the Middle East. China has declined, citing its commitment to a UN‑centered international system. 

Despite a ceasefire reached between Hamas and Israel last October, violence in Gaza has persisted. Israeli forces have killed at least 680 Palestinians since the truce began, according to local health officials, raising the overall death toll since October 2023 to more than 72,000, the majority women and children.

India’s Ministry of Defense last week signed a contract worth 4.5 billion Indian rupees ($46 million) with Russia’s state-owned Rosoboronexport for the procurement of the Tunguska air defense missile system for the Indian Army. These cutting-edge missiles will enhance India’s multi-layered air defense capabilities against aerial threats including aircraft drones and cruise missiles. The agreement will further strengthen the Indo-Russian strategic defense partnership.

Meanwhile, the Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday cleared a proposal to procure five additional S-400 long range surface-to-air missile systems for the Indian Air Force from Russia, months after the S-400 systems demonstrated their outstanding capabilities during Operation Sindoor, the short but instance military standoff between India and Pakistan in May 2025. 

AD systems in modern wars

Ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have re-emphasized the importance of potent Air Defense (AD) systems. These are critical, multi-layered, and technology-driven frameworks that play a decisive role in modern warfare by protecting assets, denying enemy air superiority, and facilitating offensive operations. Modern AD systems have transitioned from purely defensive tools to strategic enablers.

As part of the “layered defense strategy,” modern AD systems (S-400, Patriot, and Iron Dome) combine long-range, medium-range, and short-range radars and missiles to protect high-value targets, cities, command and control centers, military assets, and nuclear sites against varied threats. In addition to combat aircraft and missiles, AD systems are essential for detecting and destroying small, inexpensive drones, which are used to saturate, deceive, and damage defenses as part of the counter-drone capabilities.

Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) has thus become an important mission for air operations. The modern AD systems have to adapt to engage emerging threats such as high-speed ballistic missiles, ultra-low flying cruise missiles and hypersonic threats. Modern AD is also integrated with Electronic Warfare (EW) systems that can jam or blind enemy sensors and guidance, providing a “soft-kill” alternative to physical destruction.

Mobility is important to enable “Shoot and Scoot” capability by allowing them to change positions rapidly to avoid detection. Possessing a robust AD shield acts as a major deterrent and gives nations a stronger hand during diplomatic and military crises. Modern AD operates within an Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) ecosystem, also called the “system of systems” that connects radars, satellites, weapon platforms, and in-flight weapons, to provide a real-time, comprehensive air picture. Future development focuses on Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) to counteract the high cost of interceptor missiles, with some systems potentially costing as little as $2,000 per shot.

Countries are investing in domestic AD technologies (India’s Akash and Kusha AD Systems) to reduce dependence on foreign imports and ensure the ability to produce systems at scale. In contemporary combat, AD systems determine the ability of a military to operate and survive. As seen in recent conflicts, the ability to protect key assets and deny the airspace to an adversary is often the deciding factor in war.

Highly efficient solution

The 2K22 Tunguska (NATO: SA-19 Grison) is a Soviet-era tracked, self-propelled, anti-aircraft system that combines guns and missiles for short-range air defense (SHORAD). It is a unique hybrid platform that combines both surface-to-air missiles (9M311, 10 km range) and high-speed anti-aircraft twin 30 mm auto-cannons for close-in defense, firing up to 5,000 rounds per minute, effective from 200m to 4km against air targets. The single chassis provides comprehensive protection. Its 360-degree radar can detect threats up to 18 km away, along with a digital fire control system for high precision.

The missile component can strike targets at altitudes of up to 3,500 meters, filling the gap between man-portable systems and long-range high-altitude batteries. All-terrain tracked armored chassis, allows it to keep pace with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles across rugged terrain and in diverse weather conditions. The system includes back-up optical tracking capabilities, allowing engaging targets even if the radar is being jammed by enemy electronic warfare.

As modern warfare shifts toward drone-heavy tactics, for India, Tunguska’s rapid-fire guns provided a cost-effective and highly efficient solution to swarm threats. It will strengthen India’s multi-layered air defense network, acting as a vital shield for mobile army columns that are vulnerable to sudden aerial strikes.

Potent deterrent: S-400 ‘Sudarshan Chakra’

The S-400 is a Russian mobile SAM system, developed in the 1990s by Russia’s NPO Almaz as an upgrade to the S-300 family of missiles, joined the Russian armed forces in 2007. The system is complemented by its successor, the S-500.

The system has four radars and four sets of missiles covering different ranges. The maximum target detection range is 600 kilometers and targets can be engaged as far as 400 kilometers. The five batteries of S-400 contracted by India in 2018 cost $5.43 billion, including with reserve missiles.

The system's ground mobility speed is close to 60 km/h on roads and 25 km/h cross-country. It takes five minutes to be operational and fire when ordered while driving. Otherwise system response time is just 10 seconds. Time between major overhauls is 10,000 hours. Its service life is at least 20 years.

In Russia the system was made operational around Moscow in 2007. Russia reportedly deployed the S-400 in Syria. The system has been widely used in the on-going conflict in Ukraine, and there are claims it has shot-down many aircraft. Meanwhile Ukraine has reportedly used Western weapons, mainly US-made ATACMS missiles, to hit S-400 units on the ground.

Belarus has unspecified numbers of S-400 units. Deliveries to China, of the six batteries ordered began in in January 2018. Four batteries consisting of 36 fire units and 192 or more missiles were delivered to Turkey. Algeria is another operator. Some other countries like Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Serbia have also shown interest. South Korea is developing the KM-SAM, a medium-range SAM system based on technology from S-400 missiles, with assistance from NPO Almaz.

India took deliveries despite the American threat of invoking CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act). The recent conflict has revealed the rough location of two systems, one each being in Punjab and Gujarat. As per open sources, the third is somewhere in the east. The systems have been tested in various Indian military exercises.

At the 16th L.M. Katre Memorial Lecture in Bengaluru in August 2025, Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh lauded the S-400 air defense system as a potent deterrent. The S-400’s lethality, and the accuracy of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles were a game changer in Operation Sindoor. He highlighted the system’s operational success, strategic value in protecting Indian airspace, and contribution to maintaining an edge in regional air security. Despite geo-political challenges, the Indian Air Force had maintained interest in acquiring additional S-400 systems to further strengthen air defense. Clearly the side with better air defense systems could inflict significant damage and deter the adversary from carrying out strikes.

For a long time, the Indian Air Force’s strategy, tactics and therefore inventories have been designed for offensive-defense. During Operation Sindoor, nearly five Pakistani fighter aircraft were reportedly shot down by the Indian S-400. Interestingly, the S-400 achieved its farthest kill ever by destroying a High Value Air Asset (HVAA) at reportedly 314 kilometers. These were over and above the aircraft destroyed during airfield strikes, Air Chief had said.

During its retaliatory strikes on Indian military targets, Pakistan claimed that two S-400 systems at Adampur and Bhuj were neutralized. International media acknowledged that all such claims were false. It was later revealed that after firing their missiles the S-400 elements were moved as a standard tactic. Immediately after the ceasefire, Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Adampur and addressed the personnel with the S-400 launcher in the background. A similar visit was made by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Bhuj.

Several systems got universal praise during the conflict with Pakistan. These included the S-400 AD System, India’s indigenous Akash AD system, the DRDO 4D (Drone, Detect, Deter, Destroy) counter-drone system, and the BrahMos anti-surface missiles. French Scalp missile also proved extremely accurate and destructive.

Why India needs more S-400s

India is a continent-sized country, with a total geographical area of approximately 3.287 million square kilometers. India has a total land border of approximately 15,200 km, bordering seven nations. The total coastline measures 7,516 km. India is among the most threatened nations, with serious boundary disputes with two nuclear-armed neighbors. India has had military conflicts with both. A much smaller country, Israel (land area 20,770 square kilometers) has around 10 mobile “Iron Dome” defense batteries.

Thus India’s decision to obtain five additional S-400 systems make imminent sense. In the long run India will require close to 20 such systems. These will be achieved by inducting the indigenous “Kusha” AD system which will be of S-400 and later S-500 class.

More avenues

Aerospace has become the primary domain in modern warfare, and this reality dovetails with the depth of India–Russia defense ties. Nearly 60% of Indian Air Force aircraft are of Russian origin, and Russian platforms and weapons have served India for decades, starting with the MiG‑21s of the 1960s. More recently, the S‑400 and the Su‑30MKI–BrahMos combination have performed strongly in Operation Sindoor, underscoring the continued relevance of this partnership.

Against this backdrop, several logical avenues for future cooperation suggest themselves: higher‑tier air and missile defense systems such as the S‑500; potential participation in fifth‑generation fighter programs like the Su‑57 under a Make in India framework; and deeper collaboration on undersea deterrence, including support for India’s nuclear submarine ambitions. There is also scope for co‑development of long‑range air‑to‑air and air‑to‑surface missiles – building on systems such as the R‑37M – comprehensive upgrades of the Su‑30MKI fleet, and joint ventures in loitering munitions and kamikaze drones, where both sides face large-scale requirements and India can contribute industrial capacity.

In an era where control of the air and near‑space is increasingly decisive, India and Russia have both the legacy and the technological base to move their aerospace partnership into new, more advanced domains.

The leaked phone conversation between Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov was insignificant, the EU nation's top diplomat has said.

Szijjarto reacted on Tuesday to the publication of the call, which he claimed had been intercepted by “foreign intelligence services.” The 94-second recording was released by the Polish outlet FrontStory, which attempted to present it as evidence of the minister “acting on behalf of the Kremlin.”

The audio captures Szijjarto and Lavrov discussing EU sanctions imposed on the sister of businessman Alisher Usmanov, as well as efforts by Hungary and Slovakia to have her removed from the blacklist. Writing on X, Szijjarto said the recording essentially reflects the Hungarian government’s publicly stated view that Western “sanctions are a failure, causing more harm to the EU than to Russia.”

“Hungary will never agree to sanction [by targeting] individuals or companies essential for our energy security, for achieving peace, or those with no reason to be on a sanctions list,” Szijjarto added.

Allegations of foreign surveillance of the minister’s communications had previously triggered an investigation in Hungary of journalist Szabolcs Panyi. In an audio recording published earlier this month by a Hungarian conservative outlet, Panyi claimed ties to the Brussels-aligned opposition Tisza party and said he had provided Szijjarto’s phone number to a foreign intelligence agency.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party is heading into a general election in mid-April, with polls indicating a possible loss of its majority. His campaign has centered on opposition to what he describes as diktat from Brussels. Orban has warned that his political rivals would pursue policies harmful to Hungary’s national interests, including bankrolling the Ukrainian government and backing the country’s bids to join the EU and NATO.

The Polish outlet is part of a broader media ecosystem connected to US and Western European grant-distributing organizations. It works under the umbrella of VSquare, alongside with Panyi’s Direkt36 publication. FrontStory deputy editor-in-chief Anna Gielewska is a co-founder of VSquare. Its reporter Anastasia Morozova – a regular VSquare contributor like Panyi – previously worked for the Ukrainian branch of Radio Free Europe, a CIA-founded US government propaganda network.

A Ukrainian drone has exploded near the entrance of the administration building in Russia’s Belgorod Region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

Three people were injured in the “terrorist strike” in Belgorod, Gladkov wrote in a post on social media on Tuesday.

The administration’s facilities manager has been hospitalized with shrapnel wounds to his legs, abdomen and arm, the governor said. Two women requested medical attention, one also an employee and another a visitor, he added.

The exterior and glazing of the administration building have been damaged as result of the attack, Gladkov said.

The governor also published a video of the strike, which captured the drone exploding near the entrance to the building and civilians fleeing to safety.

Kiev targeted Belgorod Region with dozens of UAVS during the day. A civilian was killed in an FPV-drone attack on in the village of Belyanka, he said.

Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions, which all border Ukraine, have suffered from regular drone attacks on energy infrastructure and residential areas during the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.

Russian officials have described the aerial incursions as desperate “terrorist attacks” meant to compensate for the setbacks Kiev’s military has been suffering on the battlefield.

Moscow has retaliated with a long-range strike campaign of its own, targeting dual-use infrastructure, including power grid facilities and military sites in Ukraine with missiles and drones. Russia maintains that it never targets purely civilian sites.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that Moscow has given Kiev two months to withdraw its forces from areas still under its control in Russia’s Donbass region. Zelensky made the comments ahead of scheduled talks with the US on Wednesday about resolving the conflict.

Zelensky stated that the upcoming negotiations with Washington are set to focus on a potential trilateral agreement to end the conflict and that one of the main issues remains the question of territory.

While Kiev continues to insist on freezing the conflict at the current battle lines, Zelensky claimed Moscow has told Washington that it expects to liberate all of Donbass within the next two months.

“Ukraine has two months to withdraw, and then the war will end. And if Ukraine doesn’t leave, then Russia will capture Donbass and the terms will be different,” Zelensky said, paraphrasing Moscow’s alleged comments to Washington.

Last week, Zelensky also claimed in an interview with Reuters that the US had ruled out security guarantees for Ukraine unless it ceded control over the Donbass to Russia. He stated that President Donald Trump had shifted his priorities towards the Middle East and was now applying pressure on Kiev to end the conflict with Moscow.

Donbass, along with two other former Ukrainian regions, overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in 2022, and Moscow has insisted that Kiev’s full withdrawal from the territory is a key condition for a sustainable peace. 

The Kremlin has also said that it does not oppose security guarantees for Kiev in principle, but has insisted that they must not be one-sided or aimed at ‘containing’ Russia, and should only come after a peace deal is reached.  

It also maintains any settlement must include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of the regions that voted to join Russia as its territory.

At least 53 people were killed in attacks on predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria’s Plateau and Kaduna states on Sunday, according to International Christian Concern (ICC), a Washington-based religious organization.

Of the total, at least 40 deaths were reported in and around Ungwan Rukuba in Jos North, Plateau State, following a late-night attack, while another 13 people were killed in an early morning assault on Kahir village in neighboring Kaduna State, ICC said.

Plateau State authorities imposed a 48-hour curfew on Jos North on Sunday after gunmen raided the Gari Ya Waye community in Angwan Rukuba. Officials said the assault claimed 28 lives and left several others wounded.

ICC said another 10 people died in separate gunfire reported earlier on Sunday in Eto Baba and nearby student residential areas, adding that the victims were Christians.

Police have reported they received a distress call at about 8:30 PM reporting gunfire in the Angwan Rukuba area and launched a joint operation with other security agencies to track down the attackers.

“The victims were law-abiding citizens going about their normal activities when the enemies of peace unleashed this senseless attack,” Plateau State Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang said in a statement posted on Facebook on Monday.

Plateau State, in Nigeria’s central Middle Belt, has long been hit by violence linked to land disputes, communal tensions and reprisals, with the conflict often portrayed as ethno-religious between mainly Muslim Fulani herders and mostly Christian farming communities.

On March 13, gunmen ambushed a joint patrol in the Kanam area of Plateau State, reportedly killing at least 20 security personnel and vigilantes, including two senior military officers.

The West African nation has faced a surge in violence since November, with US President Donald Trump placing Nigeria on the list of Countries of Particular Concern amid allegations that more than 7,000 Christians were killed there in 2025 alone.

Washington has since deployed military personnel to Nigeria in a non-combat role to provide training, technical support and intelligence sharing, after previously carrying out airstrikes against Islamic militants in the country’s northwest on December 25.

An Iranian strike that reportedly destroyed a depot of Ukrainian anti-drone systems in Dubai served as a “slap in the face” to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, a Middle East expert has told RT.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Navy and Aerospace Division reportedly hit the depot while targeting US military sites in Dubai. Ukraine, however, has denied that the reported incident took place.

Farhad Ibragimov, a Middle East expert at Russia’s Financial University, said that the strike should be seen as a clear signal from Tehran to Kiev and its backers that Ukrainian assets would be “legitimate targets” if Kiev was involved in the US-Israeli war against Iran.

The warning was Iran’s way of responding to Ukraine’s involvement “in deeds, not words,” he suggested, adding that Tehran “would be prepared to declare war on the Kiev regime if it does not back down.”

According to Ibragimov, Iranian officials see Zelensky as a figure they should not “stand on ceremony” with and believe he must be addressed in a language he understands.

Since the start of the current Middle East conflict, Kiev has moved to deepen its involvement by supplying the Gulf states with technology and expertise to counter drones, drawing on its battlefield experience against Iranian-designed systems, according to media reports.

Earlier this month, he said 201 Ukrainian military experts specializing in counter-drone operations were deployed in the Middle East and the Gulf region, and that another 34 were ready to be sent. He added that the specialists were dispatched at the request of Kiev’s backers, including the US.

Middle Eastern governments are “not so naive” as to “follow Zelensky’s lead,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said, warning that cooperation with Kiev could prove a “catastrophic miscalculation.”

Earlier, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed Zelensky’s tour of Middle Eastern countries as “surreal” and suggested he should instead “go to the cartels.”

Over 70 people have been killed and dozens injured in an attack on a gold mine in South Sudan, Vice President James Wani Igga said in a statement on Monday. 

The assault took place over the weekend in Khor-Kaltan, Central Equatoria State, located roughly 70 kilometers southwest of the capital, Juba. 

“At least 73 local miners have been tragically killed and 25 others seriously injured,” he said as quoted by several local news agencies. Igga called for an investigation and urged the authorities to identify those responsible, referring to them as “unidentified assailants.” 

“Your grief is the nation’s grief. We stand with you in this dark hour and pledge that the blood of your loved ones will not be shed in vain,” Igga said, addressing the families of the victims.

Police spokesperson Kwacijwok Dominic Amondoc confirmed to AP that dozens of bodies were found at the scene, while some survivors fled into nearby bushland.

The mining region has frequently experienced clashes driven by competition over gold between artisanal miners, companies, and armed actors.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM/SPLA-IO) condemned the killings and accused government troops, asserting they hold control over the area – an allegation the army has not commented on. 

The latest attack follows another recent deadly incident in the country that left at least 169 people dead in a pre-dawn attack in South Sudan’s Ruweng Administrative Area, with dozens more injured. The assault, blamed by the UN on “unidentified armed youth,” also killed several local officials.