Diplomat Daily

WikiLeaks at 20: The leaks that shook the world (VIDEOS)

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 16:36:48 +0000

Founded by Julian Assange in 2006, the platform brought classified documents, covert operations and government secrets into public view..

FILE PHOTO. © Getty Images

Sunday marks 20 years since Australian journalist and activist Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing platform that would publish some of the most consequential leaks of the internet age, exposing classified US war records, CIA hacking tools, mass surveillance and other closely guarded government secrets.

Registered in 2006, the website provided a secure and anonymous channel for whistleblowers to submit material for publication. Its early releases included operating procedures for the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, banking and corporate secrets, and internal documents from the Church of Scientology.

However, it was the scoops published in 2010 that made WikiLeaks a global phenomenon. That year, the website released “Collateral Murder,” raw classified US footage of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad which killed over a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. WikiLeaks later published more than 91,000 documents from the Washington-led war in Afghanistan and some 391,000 reports from the US invasion of Iraq.

In 2012, Assange hosted ‘The World Tomorrow’ on RT. The 12-episode program covered a number of hotly debated topics and featured guests including Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, former Guantanamo Bay inmate Moazzam Begg, and Imran Khan – who would later become Pakistan’s Prime Minister.

Later that year, Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after losing a legal battle against extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault investigation that was later discontinued. He jumped bail, was granted asylum by Ecuador, and remained in the embassy for nearly seven years.

Major disclosures continued, including leaks exposing surveillance of US allies by the National Security Agency (NSA). Documents released in 2015 indicated that the NSA had spied on French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Francois Hollande, leading to a diplomatic row. In 2017, WikiLeaks’ Vault 7 releases exposed an arsenal of CIA hacking capabilities, including techniques aimed at smartphones and internet-connected TVs.

The following year, US plans to seek Assange’s extradition and prosecution became public. In 2019, Ecuador revoked Assange’s asylum and he was arrested by the British authorities and sent to the high-security Belmarsh prison. That year, Washington charged the journalist under the Espionage Act over WikiLeaks’ acquisition and publication of classified material. In 2024, after more than five years in prison, Assange agreed to take a plea deal with the US under which he was sentenced to time already served and returned to Australia.

Assange has since argued that his prosecution set a dangerous precedent for press freedom, telling the Council of Europe that he was freed after having “pleaded guilty to journalism.”

For a retrospective on WikiLeaks’ two-decade history, watch the full report below:

Netanyahu blasts Erdogan as ‘tyrant’ in fiery UNGA speech.

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 13:55:03 +0000

Netanyahu defended Israel from accusations of genocide, praised US President Donald Trump for his support, and attacked Iran and Qatar for funding anti-Israel propaganda.

Speech by Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly in New York, September 24, 2026.AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the UN General Assembly on Thursday evening.

During the speech, Netanyahu defended Israel from accusations of genocide, praised US President Donald Trump for his support, and attacked Iran and Qatar for funding anti-Israel propaganda.

However, Netanyahu reserved his sharpest comments for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling him a "tyrant" and a "super spreader of antisemitic lies."

"Erdogan is a tyrant. He hosts Hamas in Turkey. He has murdered thousands of Kurdish civilians. He denies the Armenian genocide. He jails journalists and opposition leaders," Netanyahu said. "He illegally occupies Northern Cyprus and EU member and he regularly transgresses against Greece. Now he wants to take over Syria."

Netanyahu's focus on Turkey's occupation of Cyprus and transgressions against Greece is particularly timely, as he met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis immediately before the speech.

Erdogan "says he's going to be the ruler of Jerusalem. No, sir. You won't. This is our country, our city, our eternal capital," Netanyahu continued.

Netanyahu also addressed the mass exit by delegates at the beginning of the speech, saying "Israel is also defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this hall. In fact, I want you to know that many of their leaders even thank us privately for taking out Iran's nukes."

"It's hard to imagine more mind blowing hypocrisy," Netanyahu said, "but that's exactly what it is."

Netanyahu downplayed settler violence, calling it "a handful of young juvenile delinquents, about 150 in number, who go, who throw stones, who chop down olive trees. Occasionally they light some fires."

Although he downplayed the scale of the violence, he condemned it, saying that he wouldn't stand for vigilantism: "I can't stand that. I won't stand for vigilantism. We're a country of law. So we put our Shin Bet on them. But that's what they call settler violence."

But he said the number of people injured by settler violence was minimal compared with the number killed or injured by Palestinian violence.

Mamdani and AOC face backlash over smiling exchange at 9/11 memorial

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:09:34 +0000

Republicans criticize the pair’s conduct during the reading of victims’ names, while Giuliani’s security chief says cameras captured a greeting.

Smiling exchange between New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez face criticism after cameras captured a smiling exchange between them as victims’ names were read aloud at the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The brief footage from Ground Zero shows Ocasio-Cortez appearing to laugh while speaking to Mamdani, who smiles back. The broadcast cuts to the pair after showing a visibly distressed mourner with his head bowed. Their conversation is not audible, and the footage does not establish what prompted the exchange.

Mamdani and AOC seem to be having the time of their lives while everyone else is paying respects to the deceased. https://t.co/nG3PhtTbK3
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) September 11, 2026

“Mamdani and AOC seem to be having the time of their lives while everyone else is paying respects to the deceased,” he wrote on X.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also criticized the pair: “How the hell do you laugh while the names of those murdered on 9/11 are being read aloud? Why would you do so?”

How the hell do you laugh while the names of those murdered on 9/11 are being read aloud?

Why would you do so? https://t.co/gOec2hA8Lo
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 11, 2026

However, Michael Ragusa, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s head of security, disputed the interpretation circulating online, saying he had been standing beside them.

“The camera just caught her greeting him hello,” Ragusa wrote on X. “Multiple other politicians were laughing and joking behind me. Republicans and Democrats.”

Ragusa described himself as a lifelong Republican who had frequently criticized both politicians. The New York Post also quoted a source who said Mamdani remained respectful, stayed until the ceremony ended and spoke with victims’ families.

The controversy follows an earlier campaign by some victims’ relatives to keep Mamdani away from the commemoration. Petitioners cited his political associations and positions, including his reluctance to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” and his relationship with commentator Hasan Piker, who had said America deserved the attacks.

BRICS New Delhi Declaration Expresses Concern Over West Asia Tensions, Calls for Exercising Restraint!

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:58:30 +0000

It reiterated the need to invigorate the system of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation and to preserve its integrity and effectiveness to achieve global stability and international peace and security.

BRICS New Delhi Declaration Expresses Concern Over West Asia Tensions, Calls for Exercising Restraint | Image: ANI

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the unanimous adoption of the New Delhi Declaration 2026 at the 18th BRICS Summit being held in the national capital. The declaration expressed deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in West Asia and called for exercising maximum restraint, as well as avoiding actions that could further aggravate the situation.

"We urge to ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations in their entirety and interconnectedness, including respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the States. We encourage increasing efforts, through dialogue and diplomacy, towards a long-term understanding that will contribute to lasting peace, security and stability in the region. We stress the need to work together to maintain smooth flow of global trade, supply chains and energy, in accordance with applicable international law, " the declaration read.

"We express serious concern over deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities under full safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in violation of international law and relevant resolutions of the IAEA. Nuclear safeguards, safety, and security must always be upheld, including in armed conflicts, to protect people and the environment from harm," the resolution added.

The BRICS bloc also called for the implementation of the relevant UNGA and UNSC Resolutions and urged all parties to ensure the maintenance of the ceasefire and full and unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip. "We express deep concern about the continued violence in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreement of October 2025. We call for halting any policies aimed at forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and express concern regarding arrangements that may prejudice the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and legitimise or prolong occupation. We reaffirm that a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved by peaceful means and depends on the fulfilment of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the rights to self-determination and return.

The joint declaration noted the current global context of polarisation and distrust and encouraged global action to strengthen international peace and security. "We call on the international community to respond to these challenges and associated security threats through politico-diplomatic measures to lower conflict potential and stress the need to engage in conflict prevention efforts, including through addressing their root causes. We underscore that security among all countries is indivisible and reiterate our commitment to the peaceful resolution of international disputes through dialogue, consultation and diplomacy. We encourage the active role of regional organisations in conflict prevention and resolution and support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of crises," the declaration read.

"We agree to explore avenues for cooperation on the prevention of armed conflicts, UN peacekeeping missions, African Union peace support operations, and mediation and peace processes. We express concern about ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world and the current state of polarisation and fragmentation in the international order. We express alarm at the current trend that has seen a critical increase in global military spending, to the detriment of the provision of adequate financing for development to developing countries. We advocate for a multilateral approach that respects diverse national viewpoints and positions on crucial global issues, including sustainable development, the eradication of hunger and poverty and contributing to the global response to climate change, while expressing deep concern over attempts to link security with the climate change agenda," it added.

The joint BRICS nations declaration also expressed concern about the growing risks of nuclear danger and conflict. It reiterated the need for invigorating the system of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation and for preserving its integrity and effectiveness to achieve global stability and international peace and security.

"We stress the significant contribution of nuclear-weapon-free zones to the strengthening of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, reaffirm our support for and respect towards all existing nuclear-weapons free zones and their associated assurances against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, and acknowledge the paramount importance of the efforts aiming at accelerating the implementation of the resolutions on the Establishment of a Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East, including the Conference convened pursuant to UN General Assembly Decision 73/546," the declaration read.

The declaration said that building on two decades of BRICS, the nations further commit themselves to strengthening cooperation in the expanded BRICS under the three pillars of political and security, economic and financial, and cultural and people-to-people cooperation, and to enhancing strategic partnership for the benefit of people through the promotion of peace, a more representative, fairer international order, a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system, sustainable development and inclusive growth.

The declaration also commended the significant progress achieved under India's BRICS Chairship in 2026, under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability", which the declaration said reflected the shared commitment to strengthening BRICS cooperation in addressing common challenges with a balanced, practical, actionable, inclusive, development-oriented and people-centred approach.

Courtesy: Republic World - Published By: Namya Kapur

20 years of BRICS: From Wall Street acronym to global power center!

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:40:54 +0000

What began as a four-country forum has become an economic heavyweight challenging the old global order.

AI-generated.

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

From an acronym to a new center of power

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

But it was Russia that proposed turning a clever economic acronym into a permanent political forum. That was Moscow’s moment of foresight: Russia recognized earlier than most that the rise of new centers of power would inevitably require new mechanisms for international cooperation.

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

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

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

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at the BRIC leaders’ meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia, June 16, 2009. © Sputnik/Vladimir Rodionov

Keeping Asia’s giants at the same table

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

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

Nor should BRICS be viewed merely as a venue for annual meetings among national leaders. Its agenda spans trade, energy, finance, food security, transportation, and technology. At the same time, the group does not ask its members to abandon their national interests. Its resilience rests on a different principle: However much the participating countries may differ, they recognize one another’s right to choose their own path of development.

Giving multipolarity a financial foundation

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

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

Russian President Putin attends the BRICS Business Council and Women's Business Alliance meeting in New Delhi. From left: Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar, Iranian President Pezeshkian, Prime Minister Modi, and South African President Ramaphosa, September 11, 2026: © Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov

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

Iran’s fight against economic isolation

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

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

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

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

The next 20 years begin in New Delhi

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

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

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

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

Courtesy: RT

By : Farhad Ibragimov – lecturer at the Faculty of Economics at RUDN University, expert and lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Mass Communications, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation

BRICS 2026: Why India’s diplomacy-first approach matters in a polarized world

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:23:37 +0000

New Delhi has consistently backed dialogue and diplomacy while maintaining engagement with different sides across major conflicts.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during an official event. (FILE PHOTO) © Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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

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

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

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

How is India engaging with Russia and Ukraine?

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

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

Days later, S. Jaishankar was in Kiev – on the other side of the conflict line – for the first standalone bilateral visit to Ukraine by an Indian foreign minister. The two sides discussed international peace efforts and possible Indian involvement in efforts to end the conflict.

India has, meanwhile, continued buying Russian oil despite Western pressure. Speaking in Kiev, Jaishankar argued that restricting oil purchases would not itself resolve the conflict.

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

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

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

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

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

He also stressed another priority for India: keeping sea routes open. Modi called for freedom of navigation and commerce and said civilians and civilian infrastructure, including commercial shipping and seafarers, must not be harmed. The issue has direct implications for India, whose energy supplies and trade depend heavily on maritime routes through the region.

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy: RT

UK military sites could become targets – Moscow

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:05:10 +0000

Russia could strike British military facilities in Ukraine and beyond in response to attacks using UK-supplied weapons, spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. © Getty Images / Sefa Karacan/Anadolu

British military facilities and equipment in Ukraine and beyond could become legitimate targets for Russian strikes if Kiev continues to use UK-supplied weapons for attacks on Russian territory, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.

The comments come amid rapidly deteriorating relations between Moscow and London, and a day after Ukrainian forces reportedly used British-French Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles in a strike on Donetsk that wounded at least eight civilians, including two children.

“We have repeatedly warned that the response to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons against Russian territory could be directed against any British military facilities and equipment in Ukraine and beyond,” Zakharova said during a press briefing on Thursday.

Those responsible for attacks on Russian civilians will be punished, she added, warning that their “accomplices and instigators” will also face consequences.

Zakharova accused successive British governments of pursuing a long-term objective of inflicting a so-called “strategic defeat” on Russia, and urged “all residents of the United Kingdom to think about the inevitable, catastrophic consequences of the hostile steps taken by their own authorities.”

The spokeswoman called on the British government to “immediately, decisively and unequivocally” abandon its aggressive policies that threaten to push the conflict “to a fundamentally new level.”

Earlier this week, Britain approved the transfer of classified technology needed to help Ukraine assemble Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles domestically.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by accusing Britain of “participating in this war on the side of the Kiev regime” and warning that Russian forces are gathering intelligence on sites involved in producing missiles and other military equipment in Ukraine in order to destroy them.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also warned last week that Moscow has “every right to regard the proudly proclaimed direct involvement of British missile forces in strikes against Russia as participation in the war, with all the consequences that entails.”

Trump demands compensation from Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:11:48 +0000

The US president made the remark after Tehran sought reparations for the five-month bombing campaign

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Photo by Bonnie

US President Donald Trump has demanded compensation from Iran for Americans and others he says were killed or wounded by Tehran and its allies.

The demand comes after Tehran called on Washington to pay for damage caused during the US-Israeli war launched against Iran on February 28. Reparations are among the conditions Iran has set for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, alongside the withdrawal of American troops from the region, the lifting of sanctions and the naval blockade, the release of frozen assets, and an end to military threats.

Trump responded on Monday, saying that compensation had not previously been discussed in negotiations but that he had now instructed US representatives to include it in all future talks.

“I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said the payments should cover US troops killed in regional conflicts, the families of Iranian protesters, and people affected by wars in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza.

He also cited the 2000 bombing of the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole in Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors. Although Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, a US federal court ruled in 2015 that Iran was also liable. Tehran has denied involvement.

The US has lost 18 service members during the current conflict, while around 500 have been injured. The US military is also believed to have lost dozens of aircraft, including an F-15 fighter jet, several helicopters, drones, and refueling planes.

Iran has reported more than 3,300 people killed in US-Israeli strikes, nearly half of them civilians. More than 200 children are among the dead, including over 120 girls killed in a strike on an elementary school in Minab. US strikes have also hit civilian infrastructure, including bridges and water facilities.

Dozens of Iranian political and military leaders have been killed in targeted strikes, including the country’s longtime supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

More than 125,000 civilian buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Iran, including around 100,100 homes and hundreds of schools and medical facilities, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.

The EU opened the gates. Now it’s fighting over who pays

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:07:06 +0000

Behind the chaos on Spain’s African borders lies a deeper struggle over money, sovereignty, and who gets to decide Europe’s future

Migrants crossing from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Thursday, July 30, 2026. © AP Photo/Antonio Sempere

On the last days of July, over 50,000 illegal immigrants breached the defensive perimeters of Ceuta and Melilla and swarmed into the Spanish enclaves in North Africa. This occurred against the backdrop of the grandly adopted New Pact for Migration in Brussels, which officially entered into force on June 12. By August 2, at least 72 people had reportedly died during the crossings.

This latest migration crisis has already sparked debate about the adequacy of EU legislation and exposed the tensions of the partisan political struggle unfolding within the bloc. Shocked observers have been left wondering who will pay for this influx of migrants.

What happened?

The reasons for this unprecedented wave lie far beyond conventional humanitarian considerations and relate to the use of migration as a geopolitical weapon. The simultaneous collapse of Spain’s borders reveals a ruthless combination: On the one hand, King Mohammed VI of Morocco has reportedly once again used the ‘migration switch’ as a tool for direct financial blackmail against Madrid in disputes over subsidies. On the other, transnational smuggling syndicates took advantage of a recent Spanish Supreme Court decision to grant illegal residents amnesty, spreading rumors on social media about a supposed ‘opening of borders’.

Combined with the perfect July calm in Gibraltar, these factors created the most favorable conditions for crossing one of the EU’s most vulnerable borders. Austria, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Finland, and the Czech Republic have already demanded that Spain be temporarily excluded from the Schengen zone. France has introduced strict border controls in the Pyrenees. Europe has once again exposed the problems of ‘different speeds’, or rather, different realities, where the EU’s peripheral states are being asked to contribute far more than they are able to provide to their allies.

Finally, the real trigger for the disaster was Madrid’s own position: The left-wing coalition government of Social Democrat Pedro Sanchez deliberately orchestrated this migration influx. Behind the populist slogans about ‘amnesties’ lies a cynical calculation: Sanchez is solving the problem of legalizing millions of cheap labor to shore up Spain’s declining GDP, while simultaneously constructing a new, loyal socialist electorate from naturalized illegal immigrants.

Having transformed Spain into the ideological flagship of the EU’s left-liberals, Madrid is attempting to unleash a massive blackmail campaign against Brussels, hoping to intimidate its neighbors with the threat of a migrant inundation in exchange for supranational subsidies. But Sanchez’s domestic political ‘trick’ instantly turned the ruling coalition’s Migration Pact into an instrument of institutional suicide.

Why this happened: The Migration Pact and the political map of Europe

When discussing EU migration legislation, it’s important to understand that it has never been perfect. Previously, the general framework was established by an EU directive, while specific procedures depended on the national legislation of member states. Within the EU, these practices have been criticized since the mid-2000s. By 2015-2016, when approximately 2.3 million illegal migrants found themselves at the EU’s borders, the system’s woeful inadequacies could no longer be concealed. However, even then, there was little desire to make significant changes – migrant camps were highly segregated, procedures were closed, and the general public had little understanding of what lay behind the veneer of ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘effective’ refugee integration methods.

Ultimately, extremely lengthy procedures, a lack of adequate criteria and mechanisms for returning people home, and the focus among asylum seekers on moving to the countries with the highest standards of living led to the collapse of the system.

How did this manifest itself? The most desperate and embittered people lived in inhumane conditions until they received refugee status, without opportunities to work and seek medical or other assistance. Deportation rules were dysfunctional, and there was widespread confusion over the registration of migrants moving between EU member states.

To top it all off, refugee flows have always been extremely unevenly distributed – the fundamental principle of European law, which requires applications to be submitted in the country of entry, led to the formation of huge refugee camps on the EU’s southern borders. This, in turn, led to Italian and Greek border services turning a blind eye to refugee flows and not registering them in the Eurodac database.

The illegal immigrants made their way to the bloc’s wealthiest states. There, in turn, poorly controlled ghettos have formed. The rise in crime among migrants has led to the rise in popularity of right-wing and far-right parties in Europe, which actively use anti-immigration rhetoric to attract voters.

Migrants who crossed into Spain are escorted by Spanish soldiers, not pictured, toward the Spanish-Moroccan border in order to return to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, August 2, 2026. © AP Photo/Antonio Sempere

During a recent discussion at the Valdai Discussion Club on this topic, British political scientist and University of Kent professor Richard Sakwa vividly captured the existential depth of this crisis. According to the expert, the EU’s approach to illegal migration has long since outgrown the humanitarian agenda and has become a fundamental ‘conceptual issue’ – a marker of the complete inability of the member states to protect their sovereign borders in the face of increasingly ambitious supranational trafficking syndicates. The situation has been exacerbated by a catastrophic demographic crisis within Europe itself, where total fertility rates are often under 1.5. Against this backdrop, a colossal portion of local budgets is irrevocably wasted on social support for unemployed immigrants, depriving states of resources for sovereign development.

The result of this systemic failure of governance lasting two decades, as Professor Sakwa emphasizes, has been a tectonic shift in political culture, which has abandoned the traditional left-right spectrum. Migration has become an ideological ‘totem’, the electoral gains from which go entirely to the national-conservative flank. Public demand for harsh deportations along American lines – such as those supported by the Restore Britain movement – underscores that the New Europe is entirely pragmatic in its unwillingness to become hostage to Brussels’ civilizational and financial mistakes.

Changes on the European political map and the rise of right-wing rhetoric have forced Brussels to reconsider how to address the situation. This is especially true given that migration-related problems not only bring chaos to European unity but also distract policymakers from what they consider more pressing issues – increasing military spending and weakening Europe’s geopolitical enemies. It was in this context that the new pact was developed.

At the same time, the EU is not prepared to completely purge its territory of immigrants. As Brussels analyst Andrea Bianchi noted during the same Valdai discussion, the Migration Pact was created as a tool to legalize and filter out cheap labor in the interests of transnational capital at the EU core. However, the mechanisms proposed by systemic experts – such as turning the bloc’s southern periphery into training centers for migrants and issuing ‘passports’ – merely camouflage the neocolonial nature of the reform. The EU’s wealthy powerhouses (Germany and France) are seeking to skim the cream of the crop in the form of an adapted labor force, shifting the entire infrastructural and electoral burden onto the frontline states of Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Migrants wait on the beach next to the temporary holding facility (CETI), August 2, 2026, Ceuta, Spain. © Adri Salido/Getty Images

Who pays for the migrants?

The new migration pact clearly outlines ‘solidarity’ mechanisms: arriving refugees must be distributed among all EU countries based on their population size and per capita GDP. Those who refuse to accept them must pay €20,000 ($23,000) for each immigrant rejected.

The people of Central and Eastern Europe are acutely aware that they will be the ones paying for this ‘migration banquet’. This is precisely the reason for the rise of right-wing and populist parties in the region, which can only be discredited globally through serious accusations of corruption, as is currently happening in Budapest and Warsaw.

However, the EU’s globally inadequate fiscal approach to the migration issue will inevitably become the main electoral battering ram in the upcoming elections in many European countries. As a reminder, elections will be held in Italy, Poland, and Slovakia in 2027, and in France and Germany in 2029. As Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs notes, the recent influx into Spain will have a devastating impact on the overall political climate in Europe.

Leftists and left-liberals, who have always looked to Spain as an ideological flagship, are finding themselves under unprecedented pressure from conservatives. Ahead of parliamentary elections in Germany and France, the immigration crisis is becoming the main electoral factor, capable of completely redrawing the political map of the EU core. Andrea Bianchi also predicts that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will build her campaign for the 2027 elections on harsh criticism of the Brussels dictate. While even the systemic players in Rome are preparing to use the pact’s inadequacy as an argument for defending sovereignty, for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the migration issue is becoming a matter of existential survival.

For example, in Poland, analysts have already rushed to compare Morocco’s current hybrid attack on Madrid to the migration crisis on the EU’s eastern border, where streams of illegal immigrants were arriving from Belarus. Warsaw withstood the blow, building protective barriers at its own expense and fortifying the border with troops, despite the lamentations of Brussels human rights activists.

In the spring of 2024, the usually pro-European Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, understanding public sentiment, voted against the pact. For the entire following year, he teetered on the brink of open blackmailing Brussels. To avoid losing ground domestically to the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS), which was demanding a referendum, Tusk took the unprecedented step of declaring his readiness to temporarily suspend the right to asylum, enshrined in the 1951 Geneva Convention, due to the crisis on the Belarusian border.

Ultimately, by the end of 2025, when right-wing presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki declared victory, Tusk was given the go-ahead to temporarily relax compliance. But for the Polish electorate, this triumph merely confirmed that sovereignty under the pact is suspended. Poland is financially dependent on EU funds, and the European Commission can suspend those payments if it determines that Warsaw’s actions regarding immigration violate its standards.

The flip side of this story is the stable popularity of the right in Poland, which is predicted to win the next parliamentary elections, despite the latest ‘divorce’ in the PiS party. Also noteworthy is that the Jagiellonian Club, a conservative think tank, has stated that the priority of immigration reforms should be “protecting EU citizens” and “improving deportation mechanisms,” with the overall conclusion that radically harsh measures should be applied to illegal migrants, such as automatic deportation for crimes and drastic cuts in social benefits.

Hungary’s resistance to the migration dictate appeals to the legacy of the 2016 ‘quota referendum’ (kvótanépszavazás), in which 98% of voters opposed the distribution of migrants within their territory. Although the referendum was declared invalid due to low turnout, those 3.2 million votes remain an important argument for Hungarians in negotiations with Brussels. The irony of June 2026 is that immediately after the Migration Pact came into force, this old referendum was turned into a weapon for internal struggle. While still campaigning for office, Prime Minister Peter Magyar accused Orban’s team of secretly preparing migration centers in Vitnyed to save European subsidies in order to appeal to right-wing voters, declaring that Brussels has no right to decide with whom Hungarians live.

Finally, Bratislava sets the final tone in this regional picture. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s position on the Migration Pact is consistent with the glitch diplomacy RT wrote about earlier. During the official vote in the EU Council, Slovakia openly opposed key fiscal reform provisions, while voting in favor of others. Consequently, after the pact was forced into adoption by a qualified majority, the prime minister refused to implement the new rules altogether. Fico has condemned the pact as “the liquidation of a sovereign ethno-cultural landscape.” However, this conceals a pragmatic calculation: he is well aware that Bratislava cannot afford €20,000 fines from its imbalanced budget, but he also won’t accept illegal immigrants, hoping to extract the same temporary concessions for having taken in Ukrainians as Poland and the Czech Republic.

The proclaimed slogans about suspending migrants from the Schengen area are appealing to those citizens who haven’t read the agreement itself and don’t know that temporarily excluding a country from the agreement is impossible – it must do so voluntarily and independently. Secondly, the EU’s southern borders remain vulnerable, preserving the status of frontline distribution camps for the southern and eastern peripheries of the EU. Thirdly, ‘flexible solidarity’ turned out to be a basic scam: Central and Eastern European countries were simply denied their sovereign right to distance themselves from the demographic mistakes of others, and were offered a choice between forced resettlement and steep penalties. Finally, the news that by Friday evening, more than 37,000 foreigners, faced with brutal resistance from assault police, tear gas, and a day without food, voluntarily turned back through holes in the border fence, clearly revealed the true nature of these avalanches.

These illegal flows are driven not by an existential search for asylum, but by a purely pragmatic expectation of unimpeded access to EU social funds, and they buckle before the first demonstration of sovereign physical force. This mass retreat in Morocco fully confirmed that Poland and Hungary were right all along: The continent’s security is ensured not by armchair ‘solidarity’ and the distribution of quotas, but by strict border controls.

By:

Ksenia Smertina, senior lecturer at the HSE Institute for Media,

expert at the Russian International Affairs Council on Eastern and Central Europe.

US launches more airstrikes against Iran after another death of a service member

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 04:17:08 +0000

The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is back in effect, and the U.S. launched a new round of strikes on Iran, after President Donald Trump reversed course on charging a toll in the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States conducted a new round of airstrikes early Monday targeting Iran after announcing the death of another American service member, and Iran fired missiles toward Jordan that risked widening the conflict into neighboring Israel.

Step by step, the U.S. and Iran have inched closer to all-out war as last month’s interim deal meant to permanently end the fighting has crumbled and shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has largely stalled. Both sides have targeted civilian infrastructure relied on by millions of people, while benchmark Brent crude rose Monday above $90 a barrel, further fueling a global energy crisis sparked by the conflict.

The U.S. military said the service member was killed in Iraq on Saturday during the “controlled detonation” of a downed Iranian drone.

“We hit them very hard again tonight,” U.S. President Donald Trump said. “And we did that in honor of the” soldiers killed.

US launches ninth night of Iran strikes

Earlier, the military said its strikes targeted Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to retaliate for Friday’s killing of troops in Jordan. One service member was missing after that attack, and the military’s new statement said “unidentified remains” were found Sunday and were being examined. Since the war began, 17 U.S. service members have been killed.

The United States and Iran are lurching back toward all-out war

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:43:21 +0000

The United States and Iran are crossing each other's red lines, one after the other

The United States and Iran are lurching back toward all-out war following the rapid collapse of an interim peace agreement, with both nations actively engaging in reciprocal military strikes across the Middle East. This latest escalation has completely erased prior diplomatic progress, pushing both sides past their respective "red lines" and threatening global energy security and regional stability.

The Trigger and Collapse of the Truce

June 25 Drone Strike: Just a week after signing a preliminary deal to freeze the war, an Iranian drone struck a cargo ship in the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Waterway Control Dispute: Iran claims the right to manage and tax transit through the strait, labeling a U.S.-monitored alternative shipping route an "unbreakable red line". [2, 3]
U.S. Position: The United States and its international allies maintain that the international shipping lane must remain entirely open, free, and toll-free.

Escalation and Blown Red Lines

U.S. Navy Blockade Restored: President Donald Trump revoked Iran's newly granted oil sales waiver and restored a full naval blockade on all major Iranian ports.
Waves of Military Strikes: U.S. forces deployed unmanned surface vessels and launched heavy missile barrages targeting air defense systems, radar complexes, and over 60 Revolutionary Guard paramilitary boats.
Civilian Infrastructure Targeted: Breaking a major taboo, U.S. strikes expanded into northern Iran and targeted critical infrastructure in the south, destroying bridges, power stations, and a maritime surveillance tower in Bandar Abbas.
Regional Spillover: Iran broadened its retaliation to regional neighbors, launching missile and drone strikes against water desalination plants and U.S. military hubs in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

Current Impact and Rhetoric

Human Casualties: Iranian health officials reported that the recent wave of U.S. strikes has killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 500 inside Iran.
Trump’s Stance: President Trump delivered mixed messages after a NATO summit, warning Iran that "if it happens again, it will get much worse!" while musing that any further action would "happen very fast" or potentially require "finishing the job" by seizing strategic Iranian islands by force.
Economic Threat: The immediate breakdown of shipping safety in the Strait of Hormuz has sparked deep global concerns, as the waterway typically handles roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and liquefied natural gas.

Pakistan’s interior minister is in Tehran as the US downs more Iranian drones over Hormuz!

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:23:42 +0000

People walk under a banner showing portraits of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

CAIRO (AP) — Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the U.S., as the American military said it shot down two more Iranian drones over the Strait of Hormuz that threatened international maritime traffic.

The latest action came as the U.S. administration presses Iran to make a deal to end the war in the Middle East, which has strained the global economy and threatened a hunger crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

The heaviest fighting ended with a preliminary ceasefire on April 8, but the sides have not been able to agree on a long-term end to the war.

Fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah continued, meanwhile, despite last week’s announcement that a U.S.-brokered ceasefire had been extended.

Pakistani senior official in Iran

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is in Tehran to deliver a message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei from Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iranian state-run IRNA news agency.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named the Islamic Republic’s ruler after his father was killed on the first day of the war on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel lauched a bombardment campaign against Iran.

Naqvi met with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni late Saturday, and held talks Sunday morning with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to official Iranian media.

There were no details on the contents of the message. Pakistani authorities have said Islamabad, with support from regional countries including Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, has been working to help bridge differences between the United States and Iran and encourage efforts aimed at reducing tensions and ensuring the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Fire continues between Israel and Hezbollah

Meanwhile, the new ceasefire in Lebanon, which was announced during U.S-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington last week, did not appear to be holding.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah has rejected the U.S.-brokered deal and instead endorsed Iran’s demand that ending the war in Lebanon be part of the negotiations with the U.S.

Israel struck what it said were over 150 Hezbollah military sites over the weekend, including rocket launchers and command centers, across southern Lebanon.

Early Sunday, Israel identified at least five projectiles launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, which were intercepted or fell in open areas. Hezbollah did not immediately claim to have fired projectiles at Israel. However, the militant group acknowledged it attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon on Saturday, the Israeli military said.

The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south in its latest ground invasion, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas. Its closure has jolted the world economy.

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until he considers Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

Lebanon’s army commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, headed to Pakistan Saturday at the invitation of Pakistan’s army chief. The Lebanese army gave no further details and did not say whether it is related to Pakistan’s mediation between Iran and the U.S.

Iran says it targeted US air base and Navy

The U.S. military said Saturday that it had shot down several Iranian missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies, and struck some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response.

“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” U.S. Central Command said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted the Ali Al Salem air base, which hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

The U.S. military said there were no reports of harm to U.S. personnel.

Earlier in the month, Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person and wounding dozens.

The U.S. military has kept up its blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s grip on the strait, a crucial corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments.

Energy prices have spiked, posing political problems for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of midterm congressional elections in November.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel.

Dutch protesters set asylum shelter on fire (VIDEO)

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Wed, 13 May 2026 09:28:31 +0000

A screenshot from a video of an anti-refugee protest in Loosdrecht, Netherlands, May 12, 2026. © RT / Social media

Anti-immigration protesters set an emergency refugee shelter on fire in the Dutch town of Loosdrecht on Tuesday evening, following weeks of demonstrations against the arrival of asylum seekers.

According to NOS, an angry crowd threw firecrackers at a town hall building that the authorities said would temporarily house refugees. The incident occurred after the first group of 15 asylum seekers arrived earlier that day.

The crowd also threw objects at police officers and attempted to block firefighters from accessing the site. The fire was eventually extinguished, and several people were detained, NOS reported.

🇳🇱 More footage of Dutch protesters setting fire to a new asylum centre in Loosdrecht while blocking firefighters from reaching the area.pic.twitter.com/3diZ5cArz9 https://t.co/rW4AAjeMF7
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 13, 2026

Previous protests in Loosdrecht, a town of 8,600 people, forced the authorities to scale back plans to house 110 asylum seekers to 70.

Last month, a petition opposing the opening of the shelter, signed by 3,000 people, was submitted to the authorities. Despite protests from local residents and business owners, a court ruled in favor of allowing the vacant town hall to be used to house refugees.

Several right-wing politicians joined the rallies, with Gidi Markuszower, the leader of the Dutch Alliance (DNA), telling the crowd that refugees should “go back to their own country.”

Pro-immigration politicians condemned the violence, with some claiming that many of the protesters were not from Loosdrecht. Justice Minister David van Weel suggested that “groups with bad intentions” may have exploited the protests to incite violence, according to Dutch News.

Chernobyl: Fall-out 40

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Fri, 08 May 2026 14:02:08 +0000

Chernobyl, Ukraine’s first nuclear power plant, 1984 © RIA

CHERNOBYL. THE NAME

The Chernobyl Power Plant included four nuclear reactors. Construction on the first one started in 1970, and it went online in September 1979. Construction of Unit 4, where the disaster took place, began in April 1979. It went into operation on December 1983. When the disaster occurred, building work had already commenced on Units 5 and 6.

The Chernobyl plant used the latest nuclear technology the Soviet Union had at its disposal. The RBMK-1000 (High Power Channel-type Reactor) was a pressurized water-cooled early Generation II reactor, which was able to generate vast amounts of electricity cheaply. The RBMK-1000s were present in Units 2, 3 and 4, while they were also planned to be installed in Units 5 and 6, which were under construction.

HOW THE REACTOR WORKS

Chernobyl Power Plant Reactor

What makes the RBMK reactor special is the combination of a graphite moderator and water coolant, which allows un-enriched uranium to be used as nuclear fuel. The graphite moderators are interspaced with fuel rods in their pressure tubes, and a mixture of helium and nitrogen gas is introduced between the blocks to prevent the graphite combusting.

The water is pumped into the bottom of fuel channels and as it progresses up the pressure tubes, it boils and produces steam, which is used to drive turbines and produce electricity. The water not only produces steam, it is also used as a coolant, to ensure the core does not become overheated.

In most reactors, the nuclear reaction is slowed when the amount of steam in the system increases, because the neutrons are still traveling quickly. If the neutrons are traveling at a high speed, they are less likely to split uranium atoms, which means that the reactor produces less power.

However, in an RBMK reactor, the opposite occurs and the neutrons slow down even if steam bubbles start to appear, due to the use of graphite as a moderator. This means that the neutrons are able to split more uranium atoms, meaning the reactor’s power is increased.

THE ODDS OF DISASTER. 1 IN 10,000 YEARS

Chernobyl nuclear power plant control room, November 1985 © RIA

Vitaly Sklyarov, the Minister for Power and Electrification in Ukraine was so confident about the safety of the Chernobyl plant that he made the claim that «the odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years.» He made the comment in Soviet Life, an English-language magazine published by the Soviet embassy in the US. Meanwhile, the magazine also quoted shift supervisor Pyotr Bondarenko, who considered Chernobyl to be safer than driving a car.

« Robots and computers have taken over a lot of operations. In order to hold a job here, you have to know industrial safety rules to perfection and pass an exam in them every year. » — Chernobyl Powerplant shift supervisor Pyotr Bondarenko

The magazine also stated that if an accident were to occur at the power plant, the fallout would be minimal.

« Even if the incredible should happen, the automatic control and safety systems would shut down the reactor in a matter of seconds. The plant has emergency core cooling systems and many other technological safety designs and systems,» the publication concluded.

THE ACTUAL CHERNOBYL

Entrance to the town of Chernobyl, June 1986 © RIA

Chernobyl actually has its own history, which dates back hundreds of years and is not connected with the nuclear disaster. It is the name of a town near the plant, which is in the far north of Ukraine, near the borders with Belarus and Russia. It is about 130 kilometers due north of Ukraine’s capital Kiev, on the bank of the Pripyat River, a tributary of the Dnieper River.

Having once boasted a population of over 40,000, Chernobyl was turned into a ghost town by the nuclear disaster. It’s population is now measured in the hundreds. Most are essential exclusion zone staff, and none of them are permanent residents due to mandatory limits on radiation exposure.

PRIPYAT

Photo by RT’s Alexey Yaroshevsky

The 1986 disaster actually took place closer to the city of Pripyat than Chernobyl. Pripyat was specially built by the Soviet authorities to house those working at the power plant. The city had a population of over 50,000. People were attracted to live and work there because of the high wages on offer, as well as the chance to work at the cutting edge power plant.

The Soviet Life magazine, published by the Soviet Embassy, was gushing in its praise of Pripyat in an issue printed in February 1986, saying it is ’’made up mostly of young people’’ with an average age of 26 and that «people come to us willingly.»

Pripyat Mayor Vladimir Voloshko said the town’s streets are ’’abounding in flowers. The blocks of apartments stand in pine groves. Each residential area has a school, a library, shops, sports facilities and playgrounds close by."

NUCLEAR POWER AND THE SOVIET UNION

The world’s first grid-connected nuclear power plant reactor in Obninsk, Russia, 1974 © RIA

Since the 1960s, the Soviet Union had looked to expand its nuclear power program, after the Beloyarsk nuclear power station, the country’s first large scale power plant of the kind, was brought online in 1964.

In 1980, RBMK-1000 reactors produced 64.5 percent of all electricity in the Soviet Union, according to a paper by Boris Semenov, a Soviet delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was published by the Agency. He added that nuclear power was favored by the authorities because it was less damaging to the environment.

Semenov mentioned that RBMK reactors were favored because they only required low-enriched uranium and the fabrication of the main components could be carried out at existing manufacturing plants, without the need for new industrial factories to be built.

NEXT CHAPTER

2. THE DISASTER

What went wrong

The test

April 26, 1986

Victims: first in a long list

~~(full-width)~~

Russia tests groundbreaking cancer treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:07:00 +0000

The personalized drug will tackle a patient’s stage three melanoma, with results expected in the coming months.

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.

According to Andrey Kaprin, head of the National Medical Research Center of Radiology at the Russian Health Ministry, this approach represents a new method of treatment.

“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.

Preclinical animal trials had shown tumors disappearing in many cases, with metastases responding in around 90% of tests, Ginzburg has previously said.

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.

What to Know About Cicada, the New COVID Variant?

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:55:00 +0000

Conceptualized COVID Omicron virus Sakchai Vongsasiripat—Getty Images

By now, it’s no surprise that the COVID virus continues to mutate, and new strains still pop up. The latest one is even making an unwelcome encore after first appearing on the scene in 2024.

Here's what to know about the reemergence of the COVID variant, Cicada.

Why is the new COVID variant called Cicada?

BA.3.2, nicknamed Cicada, first started infecting people in South Africa in late 2024, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It was overcome by other variants, but it reemerged and began causing infections in the U.S. about a year later—following a pattern of being dormant and active, like a cicada. Cicada isn’t responsible for a large number of new infections in the U.S. yet, although it’s been behind about 30% of Europe's COVID infections in recent months.

How is Cicada different from previous COVID strains?

Scientists say that Cicada carries 70 to 75 new mutations in the spike protein, the portion that the human immune system recognizes and targets. That's more than in the more dominant variants that began circulating in 2023. But on the more reassuring side, Cicada is still part of the Omicron family of viruses, which first appeared in 2021 (also in South Africa), which means it may still share some genetic similarities to recent variants.

How widespread is Cicada?

So far, Cicada has caused infections in more than two dozen states in the U.S., although information on COVID infections, and the strains behind them, are less reliable than they used to be and not as precise. More people now use at-home tests, and doctors and public-health officials are not required to report COVID cases as frequently as they once were.

Does the COVID vaccine protect against Cicada?

Because Cicada is part of the Omicron family of COVID viruses, updated vaccines that target Omicron’s dominant strains, such as JN.1, are still effective in fighting BA.3.2. However, they may provide less protection given the changes in the virus. "Does the current vaccine provide some protection? Lab data would indicate yes, but not as much," says Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and past board member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. "It would appear that all the protections we have from our experience with the virus and with vaccines probably offer more limited—not zero—but more limited protection against this strain." That's based on lab studies the CDC says showed that Cicada was able to evade some vaccine-based protection.

Recent confusion over changes in the federal government's recommendations for who should get an annual COVID shot is leading to lower COVID vaccination rates overall, says Schaffner. That includes people who are most vulnerable to developing severe disease and being hospitalized, such as the elderly and people with weaker immune systems. According to the CDC, COVID hospitalizations peaked at the end of December and beginning of January, particularly among those age 75 or older.

"If we look at the patients who continue to be admitted to the hospital with COVID, they are members of the high-risk groups, but they also have one other characteristic almost universally in common—and that is they are not up to date on their vaccines," Schaffner says.

High-risk people should be getting a COVID vaccine not just in the fall but also before the summer season, CDC says, since COVID seems to peak twice a year, unlike the flu. The vaccine isn't meant to prevent them from getting COVID infections, but rather to potentially shield them from developing severe enough disease that sends them to the hospital. "The function of the vaccine is to keep us out of the hospital," says Schaffner. "It's not very good at preventing milder disease; it works best by averting severe disease." The fact that many of the people hospitalized for COVID are not up to date on their vaccination suggests that the shot, while not directly targeting Cicada, can still provide some protection.

What are the symptoms of new COVID variant?

The symptoms aren't different from those of previous COVID variants: sore throat, fever or chills, headache, cough, body aches, and runny nose. They are similar to symptoms of the flu, so the best way to know if you have COVID is to test yourself. Most symptoms last for a few days to a week.

Do COVID tests still work on Cicada?

It's still a bit of a question mark, Schaffner says; the data aren't yet available. But some experts say that since these tests look for parts of the virus that change less easily, they should still be able to detect Cicada.

Does Cicada cause worse disease than previous variants?

It’s not clear yet whether Cicada’s mutations are causing worse COVID disease compared to previous variants, or whether it will become a dominant strain if it’s able to evade the human immune system. Doctors will need to study more cases to know for sure.

by - Alice Park

Donald Trump: US NATO exit ‘beyond reconsideration’ after Iran war rift

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:42:00 +0000

The US president criticizes the alliance, calling it a ‘paper tiger’ over its reluctance to join a US operation to forcibly reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump speaks to journalists aboard Air Force One on March 29, 2026AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

US President Donald Trump said he is strongly considering withdrawing the United States from NATO, following disagreements with allies over the war with Iran. In an interview with The Telegraph, Trump said a potential US exit from the alliance is now “beyond reconsideration.”

The remarks come after NATO members declined to join US efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping route that has been disrupted during the conflict. Around 20 percent of the world’s oil typically passes through the strait, and its closure has contributed to rising global energy prices and concerns over a broader economic impact.

Trump sharply criticized the alliance, stating, “I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.” He added that the lack of support from allies during the current conflict reinforced his long-standing skepticism.

Referring to the response from European partners, Trump said, “Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe.” He added that he had not strongly pressured allies to participate, saying, “I just said, ‘Hey’… I just think it should be automatic.”

The US president also compared the situation to previous conflicts, including support for Ukraine. “We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them,” he said. “They weren’t there for us.”

NATO allies have been cautious about becoming directly involved in military operations linked to the Iran conflict, particularly in efforts to secure maritime routes in the Gulf. The alliance has not announced any collective military action related to reopening the strait.

Netanyahu: We have shaken the Iranian regime

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:40:00 +0000

In an address on the eve of Passover, PM Netanyahu said Israel delivered ’10 blows to the axis of evil,’ including to Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, West Bank militants, the Houthis and Iran.

Benjamin Netanyahu alongside Health Minister Haim Katz and Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov, March 9, 2026Kobi Gideon/GPO

On the eve of Passover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel is “stronger than ever” and deepening its military campaign against Iran and its regional network.

Netanyahu said Israel, in coordination with the United States, is continuing to conduct a campaign to systematically weakening the Iranian “axis of terror.” He said Israel has inflicted major damage on Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, claiming decades of Iranian investment in these systems has been “wasted.”

He described the conflict as part of a historic struggle, referencing what he called “ten blows” delivered against Iran and its regional allies, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Assad regime in Syria, terrorist groups in the West Bank, and the Houthis in Yemen, along with direct strikes against Iranian nuclear infrastructure, missile capabilities, regime assets, security forces, and senior officials.

Netanyahu said the campaign has shifted the regional balance, moving Israel from a defensive posture to a more proactive military strategy. He said Israel is now operating in unprecedented coordination with the United States and emphasized what he called “historic” cooperation with Washington.

He added that Israel is also building new regional partnerships alongside existing alliances, stating that additional agreements are taking shape in response to the Iranian threat.

Netanyahu said Israel paid a “painful price,” confirming the deaths of four soldiers and extending condolences to their families, while expressing support for wounded troops. He framed the war as a national struggle requiring unity, saying Israelis share a “common destiny” and responsibility for the country’s future.

Netanyahu concluded his statement by asserting that Israel has “shaken” the Iranian regime, warning that it will “sooner or later fall,” while stressing that the military campaign is ongoing and its objectives have not yet been fully achieved.

Russia steps up high-level engagement with India amid global tensions !

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:48:00 +0000

Foreign Minister Lavrov and Deputy PM Manturov are planning to visit New Delhi as the countries increase energy cooperation.

Moscow has announced several high-level engagements with New Delhi in the coming weeks as tensions in the Middle East continue to squeeze energy supplies.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov will visit India, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said following Russian‑Indian inter‑ministerial consultations in New Delhi on Tuesday.

While the dates for Manturov’s visit are not clear, Lavrov will be in the Indian capital on May 14-15, where he will participate in the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting.

Tehran has formally requested that New Delhi use its BRICS chair to call for a consensus on the US-Israel war on Iran.

Sergey Lavrov to Visit New Delhi for BRICS Meeting in May

The Russian Foreign Minister will be in the Indian capital on May 14-15 to participate in the meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers.

Lavrov's participation was confirmed by Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko… pic.twitter.com/Mv6QYC3grs
— RT_India (@RT_India_news) March 31, 2026

India has increased its purchases of Russian oil since US President Donald Trump temporarily waived sanctions on crude from Russia. “Our Indian friends really consider this period, which began on March 12, as an opportunity to replenish those reserves [of energy resources] that have been depleted,” Rudenko said, according to TASS. “We are talking about spot supplies, on ships that set sail before March 12. Oil is sold at the market price.”

India, which became one of the largest importers of Russian crude after March 2022, was purchasing the oil at heavily discounted rates until earlier this year. It bought almost 2 million barrels per day in 2024 and nearly $44 billion of crude from Moscow last year.

India scaled back purchases late last year under pressure from Washington, turning instead to Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Much of this Middle Eastern oil subsequently became trapped in the Persian Gulf after the US and Israel started their war against Iran, squeezing availability and pushing Brent crude prices to as high as $120 per barrel earlier this month.

New Delhi is now importing around 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil per day, a 50% increase from February.

India and Russia are also discussing the resumption of the direct sales of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the first time since the Ukraine conflict escalated.

Donald Trump is willing to end the war even if Hormuz remains closed - report

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:15:00 +0000

US officials to the Wall Street Journal: President Trump made it clear to his aides that he is willing to end the military operation against Iran without an immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz

Donald Trump - ASSOCIATED PRESS/AP

Officials in the administration told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that President Donald Trump is prepared to end the military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.

According to the report, Trump and his advisers assess that forcibly reopening the strategic waterway could exceed the four- to six-week timeframe set for the war. As a result, the administration is willing to accept that Iran may retain a significant hold over the strait in the short term while deferring the issue to a later stage.

Sources cited by the Wall Street Journal said Trump has prioritized weakening Iran’s naval capabilities and reducing its missile stockpiles over immediately restoring maritime traffic. The current approach envisions scaling back military operations once those objectives are met, alongside increased diplomatic pressure on Tehran to resume trade flows.

Despite public statements on social media warning of strikes on Iranian oil infrastructure if the strait is not reopened “immediately,” Trump has at times downplayed its direct importance to the United States in internal discussions, suggesting it is an issue for other countries to address.

Officials and former policymakers involved in planning told the newspaper that Iran’s ability to control the strait could weaken as its military assets are degraded. For now, military options to reopen the passage remain under consideration but are not among the administration’s immediate priorities.

Dozens of bodies exhumed from latest Kenya mass grave site.

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:30:00 +0000

At least 25 of the remains, most of which were severely decomposed, were of children, according to a government pathologist.

Grave diggers exhume bodies from a mass grave at Makaburini public cemetery in Kericho, Kenya, March 24, 2026. © AP Photo

Kenyan authorities have exhumed at least 33 bodies, most of them children, from a mass grave at the church-owned burial site in the western town of Kericho, police confirmed on Thursday.

The discovery marks the third major mass grave incident in Kenya in recent years. In 2023, police exhumed hundreds of bodies in southeastern Kilifi County linked to the Shakahola starvation cult, where more than 400 followers of jailed religious sect leader Paul Mackenzie allegedly died after being instructed to starve themselves to “meet Jesus.”

Homicide detectives in the East African nation dug up the remains of eight adults and 25 children, along with several dismembered body parts, following the discovery of the mass graves last Friday.

On Sunday, police announced they were recording statements from witnesses after securing the scene to “preserve the integrity of potential evidence.”

Government pathologist Richard Njoroge told reporters on Thursday that, of the 25 children, autopsy results revealed eight were male, ten were female, and the gender of the remaining children could not be determined. He said some of them were neonates and others were fetuses.

“They were in various stages of decomposition. Only a few were fresh, the other ones were severely decomposed,” Njoroge said.

Mohamed Amin, chief of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, said efforts are ongoing to “establish whether these bodies were buried lawfully and how they arrived” at the cemetery.

Local media reports and initial investigations indicate that at least 13 unclaimed bodies may have been transported from Nyamira District Hospital to the Makaburini cemetery.

Under Kenyan law, hospitals and morgues must obtain court approval before disposing of unclaimed bodies after 14 days.

Two men – a county public health officer and the cemetery manager – have reportedly been arrested and are currently under questioning by authorities.

Last month, investigators uncovered the remains of 52 more people buried in shallow graves in Kilifi.

In 2024, nine bodies were discovered at a dumpsite near a police station in Nairobi, the national capital. A Kenyan police watchdog said at the time that it was investigating potential police involvement in the incident.

Netanyahu in Arad: Iran has 'capacity to reach deep into Europe' - Video

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:13:00 +0000

“If you want proof that Iran endangers the entire world, the last 48 hours have given it"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the scene of the crash in Arad - Avi Ohayon / GPO

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking Sunday at the site of a missile strike in Arad, said recent Iranian attacks demonstrate that Tehran poses a threat not only to Israel but to global security, urging stronger international action against the Islamic Republic.

“If you want proof that Iran endangers the entire world, the last 48 hours have given it,” Netanyahu said, referring to recent missile fire on Israeli civilian areas. He said the intent behind the strikes was “to murder civilians,” adding that the lack of fatalities in Arad was “due to luck, not their intention.”

Netanyahu warns Iran now has the “capacity to reach deep into Europe,” saying its missile threats, including long-range launches, put “the entire world in its sights” and require an international response pic.twitter.com/zGfTyMLAVL
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) March 22, 2026

Netanyahu also cited Iran's missile launch toward Jerusalem late last week. The missile landed near major religious sites, including the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He described the incident as evidence of indiscriminate targeting of symbolic and civilian areas.

WATCH: The moment an Iranian ballistic missile fragment hits Jerusalem's Old City

👇 For more news and updates, visit our official website👇 https://t.co/4eQnhFUouN pic.twitter.com/q2sMM2wFaw
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) March 20, 2026

In addition, he referenced reports of a long-range missile launch toward Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, saying it demonstrated Iran’s expanding capabilities. He also claimed Iran had previously targeted European territory, including Cyprus, and warned that such developments place multiple regions at risk.

Netanyahu visits strike site in Arad - Avi Ohayon/ LPO

“They have now the capacity to reach deep into Europe,” Netanyahu said. “They are putting everyone in their sights.”

He further accused Iran of threatening international maritime routes and energy supply lines, saying Tehran was attempting to “blackmail the entire world.”

Calling for coordinated international pressure, Netanyahu said Israel and the United States were acting together and urged other countries to follow.

“The call is not only for the security of America and Israel, but for the security of the entire world,” he said, adding that more global involvement was needed.

Responding to reporters, Netanyahu said Israel’s military response is focused on Iranian leadership and infrastructure rather than civilians. “We’re going after the regime… the IRGC, their leaders, their installations, their economic assets,” he said.

Yemen's Houthis escalate attacks on Israel as they are drawn into Iran war - with vital trade route at risk of shutdown| Video

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:02:00 +0000

A missile has been fired from Yemen towards Israel, the IDF says it was intercepted.
At least two dozen US troops have been injured in strikes on a Saudi air base.
Missile strikes and drone attacks continue across the Middle East.
The conflict enters its second month today after the first strikes on Iran took place on February 28

Yemen's Houthis escalate attacks on Israel as they are drawn into Iran war - with vital trade route at risk of shutdown| Video

Yemen's Houthis have claimed to have struck parts of southern Israel with 'a barrage of cruise missiles and drones' in a second attack today.

It comes after Israel's military said it had successfully intercepted the first strike earlier today, but the move raises concerns that the armed militia could join Tehran in attacks on shipping in the region.

Experts fear that the Houthis could close the Suez Canal after the Yemeni militia joined the conflict in the Middle East overnight by firing a missile towards Israel.

The Houthis could target ships in the the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a choke point which leads to the Suez Canal, or even the canal itself, Mohamad Elmasry, a professor of Media Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, has said.

BREAKING: Yemen’s Houthis continue attacks on Israel. Israeli air defenses intercepted and shot down a suspected Houthi drone over the southern city of Eilat moments ago, amid ongoing regional tensions. pic.twitter.com/7dlCK0U8Nc
— Baba Banaras™ (@RealBababanaras) March 28, 2026

This would mean a second major shipping route closed in addition to the Strait of Hormuz, potentially causing significant harm to the global economy - with vessels unable to retain insurance to travel through the region.

Elsewhere, more than two dozen US troops have been wounded in Iranian strikes on a Saudi air base in the past week, sources have said, including 15 in an incident at the Prince Sultan air base on Friday.

Strikes continued across the region overnight, including in Iran, Lebanon, Israel and Bahrain.

Israel has threatened to escalate strikes on the Islamic regime, while US President Donald Trump yesterday hinted he was considering sending troops into the region - something Iran warned would see them exact a heavy price.

India approves purchase of Russian S‑400 among new defense orders worth $25bn

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 03:44:00 +0000

Russian missile systems and Su‑30 fighter jet engines are part of a modernization push.

The Indian government on Friday approved proposals to buy defense equipment worth $25 billion, including Russian‑made S‑400 air defense missile systems, various types of aircraft, and artillery systems, as part of a rapid military modernization drive.

The procurement proposals were cleared by the Defense Acquisition Council (DAC), the Defense Ministry's highest decision‑making body on military purchases, chaired by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.

An official statement from the ministry said the approvals include additional Russian S‑400 Triumph systems, transport aircraft to replace the country’s ageing fleet of Soviet‑era An‑32 and Il‑76 planes, and various artillery systems. The procurements also cover armor‑piercing tank ammunition, gun systems and aerial surveillance systems for the army, life‑extension upgrades for Su‑30 fighter jets operated by the air force, and hovercraft for the coastguard, the ministry said.

The statement noted that the new approvals cover five S‑400 units, in addition to the five previously contracted by India in 2017. Three of those have already been delivered, with the remaining two expected to arrive this year, according to media reports. The systems were praised by the Indian military during the standoff with Pakistan in 2025.

Separately, the ministry signed a 4.45‑billion‑rupee ($47 million) contract on Friday with Russia’s military exporter, Rosoboronexport, to acquire Tunguska air defense missile systems for the army.

In total, India has approved 55 proposals worth 6.73 trillion rupees ($71 billion) and signed contracts for another 503 proposals amounting to 2.28 trillion rupees in the fiscal year ending March 31, the statement said, adding that both figures are the highest in a single financial year.

India is the world’s fifth‑largest military spender and the second‑largest arms importer after Ukraine, according to the latest data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Over 60% of Indian weaponry is of Soviet or Russian origin, although the country has been actively seeking technologies and equipment from a wider range of suppliers, including France, the US, Israel, and Germany, while also increasing the share of domestically developed and produced systems.

Death toll rises in Kenyan flooding

noreply@blogger.com (Diplomat Daily) — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 16:07:00 +0000

Police said over 2,600 families have been displaced, while Nairobi is the hardest-hit region

Floods have killed at least 81 people across Kenya this month, with emergency teams deployed nationwide as heavy rains continue, the Kenyan National Police Service said on Sunday.

Authorities stated search and rescue operations were ongoing in coordination with other agencies, as rising waters triggered flash floods, displaced about 2,690 families, and damaged infrastructure. Fatalities were reported in eastern, coastal, Nyanza, Rift Valley, and central regions.

“Nairobi remains the hardest-hit region, with 37 victims,” according to a statement. The death toll across the country has risen by dozens in the past two weeks.

Officials in the capital have intensified drainage clearing, river desilting, and clean-up operations, while also demolishing illegal structures built along riverbanks to reopen blocked waterways and improve water flow. Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has also ordered an urgent overhaul of the Nairobi Dam to reduce the risk of further flooding.

Kenyan police warned that the rains were expected to persist and urged the public to remain cautious. Authorities said emergency units remained on high alert.

Torrential rains in Kenya set in on March 6. Owing to its equatorial climate, the African state generally has two rainy seasons annually. The principal one, referred to as the “long rains,” typically runs from March through May and delivers the most intense precipitation across much of the country, including the capital, Nairobi. On February 24, the Kenya Meteorological Department announced the start of the March-April-May (MAM) long rains nationwide.

Kenya is not the only African nation to be hit by severe flooding linked to torrential rains. Earlier this year, intense downpours in Mozambique led to widespread flooding and forced authorities to declare a nationwide red alert. According to regional officials, more than 650,000 people were affected, with tens of thousands of homes submerged and critical infrastructure – including schools and health centers – damaged.

In South Africa, prolonged downpours have inundated the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, killing at least 30 people, damaging thousands of homes, and prompting evacuations, including in Kruger National Park.