The October 28-29 gathering is expected to bring together delegations from across Africa and produce a series of agreements
Russian President Vladimir Putin will co-chair the plenary session of the third Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow on October 29 alongside Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, the current chair of the African Union, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced on Wednesday.
The two-day summit, scheduled for October 28-29, will bring together Russian officials and African leaders to discuss trade, investment, security, and broader economic cooperation. The agenda will also include peaceful nuclear energy, independent payment systems, food security, digitalization, and artificial intelligence.
“We have effectively reached the final phase of preparations. Work is being carried out in close cooperation with our African partners,” Zakharova said.
Putin is expected to hold bilateral talks with African leaders and meet with heads of regional organizations on the sidelines of the summit. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will host a working breakfast for his African counterparts on October 28. Zakharova said a substantial package of intergovernmental agreements and commercial contracts is expected to be signed during the event.
According to the spokeswoman, most African delegations have confirmed their participation, with invitations extended to all African heads of state and leaders of regional organizations.
Last month, Zakharova said Western governments were pressuring African states to boycott the gathering and described the interference as a continuation of colonial-era practices. Lavrov also accused France of trying to dissuade African leaders from attending, warning that President Emmanuel Macron would use a visit to Africa to exert pressure.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry official Tatyana Dovgalenko said Western countries continued to exert diplomatic pressure on African governments and had even resorted to financial blackmail to prevent their participation.
The inaugural Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi in 2019 drew official delegations from all 54 African countries, with 45 represented by heads of state or government. The second summit in St. Petersburg in 2023 drew official delegations from 48 countries, with 27 represented by a head of state or the second-highest-ranking official.
Prime Minister Bart De Wever is certain the bloc will not revive the Ukraine-funding proposal he blocked last year
The European Commission will not revive a proposal to seize Russian sovereign assets immobilized at the Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear to finance Ukraine, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has said.
Approximately €210 billion ($236 billion) in Russian central bank assets have been frozen in the EU, most of them held at Euroclear. Brussels has been using profits generated by the funds to support Ukraine through a so-called “windfall tax,” but has stopped short of confiscating the principal over concerns about the legal consequences. De Wever has repeatedly raised those risks at meetings of EU leaders.
“One colleague came to tell me in the hallway that it was as if I had run a flamethrower over that debate,” the prime minister told Belgian lawmakers on Wednesday, according to local media, referring to discussions last year. De Wever was briefing the Belgian parliament on the meeting.
De Wever said he was certain the European Commission would not reopen the debate, although he could not guarantee that individual member states would refrain from doing so.
“Not everyone experienced the discussion,” he said. “New leaders have emerged who are developing a discourse that I was able to nip in the bud last year.”
The proposal that De Wever considers a nonstarter nevertheless received support in various forms from Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, among others, during last week’s European Council summit.
EU leaders previously considered using approximately €185 billion ($208 billion) in Russian sovereign assets held in Belgium to finance Kiev. After De Wever demanded collective guarantees against potential financial and legal consequences, they instead agreed last December to raise €90 billion ($101 billion) through EU borrowing.
European officials claim that the Russian assets could be used to repay the loan. Moscow has denounced both the windfall tax and the proposed confiscation of Russian money as theft.
Kiev has deemed the foreign financing available for 2026-2027 insufficient, with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky requesting an additional €70 billion ($79 billion) last week. The EU has made no new funding commitment and reportedly plans to seek further contributions from other potential donors, particularly the UK and Canada.
Changes to the forum’s membership require agreement from all members, Moscow and Ankara have said
Russia and Türkiye have called for South Africa’s swift return to G20 activities after the US barred the country from participating during America’s presidency amid tensions over Pretoria’s domestic policies and foreign ties.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Pankin and his Turkish counterpart, Berris Ekinci, discussed the issue during consultations in Moscow, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement released on Tuesday. They said any changes to G20 membership must be agreed on by consensus, with greater representation for countries of the Global South and East.
The diplomats also discussed preparations for the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta on October 30-31 and the leaders’ summit in Miami December 14-15. They stressed that the forum should remain a platform for equal dialogue on global economic challenges.
Russia and Türkiye are both members of the G20, which comprises 19 countries, the EU, and the African Union.
US President Donald Trump announced in November 2025 that South Africa would not be invited to the Miami summit, saying it demonstrated that it is “unworthy of membership.”
The Trump administration boycotted the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg that month over allegations that the African country allows “horrific” abuses against its white minority, including killings and land confiscation, which Pretoria denies.
Trump also accused Pretoria of refusing to hand over the G20 presidency to a US Embassy representative. South Africa said it would breach protocol for President Cyril Ramaphosa to hand over to a junior diplomat. The transfer later took place at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation between officials of similar rank.
The South African presidency said US punitive measures are based on “misinformation and distortions.” Prior to the Johannesburg summit, Ramaphosa also rejected US pressure against issuing a joint declaration without Washington’s support. He told reporters on November 20 that South Africa “will not agree to be bullied.”
In December, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio extended the exclusion to all G20 meetings during America’s presidency. South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola rejected the move, saying no single member can unilaterally exclude South Africa, a founding member.
Relations have since deteriorated, with the US announcing visa restrictions in September against officials and people it accuses of enabling racial discrimination, uncompensated land seizures, and inciting violence against minorities in South Africa. US Ambassador Brent Bozell also criticized Pretoria’s ties with Russia, China, and Iran, pledging to challenge its “geostrategic drift” toward America’s competitors.
Ramaphosa warned on Monday that South Africa, which already faces steep US tariffs, must prepare for possible exclusion from America’s preferential trade program for African countries.
All crew members of the MT Al Dasma are safe after the vessel was hit by an unidentified projectile
A Kuwait-flagged tanker carrying 21 Indian seafarers was struck by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the second time the ship was attacked in less than two months. All crew members were reported to be safe following the attack.
The oil-products tanker MT Al Dasma was hit about 11 nautical miles west of Bukha, Oman, sparking a fire that was later extinguished. The vessel remained stationary following the strike, according to maritime security reports.
India is monitoring the situation and remains in contact with the ship’s management company to ensure the crew’s safety, Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Wednesday. “All 21 of our Indian crew members, along with the rest of the crew are completely safe,” Sonowal posted on X.
⚠️ IMPORTANT UPDATE ⚠️
On Oct 21, Kuwait-flagged oil product tanker M/T AL DASMA, carrying 21 Indian seafarers, was struck by an unknown projectile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
All 21 of our Indian crew members, along with the rest of the crew are completely safe.
We are continuously monitoring the situation and remain in close contact with the ship management company to ensure the ongoing security and wellbeing of our seafarers.
The tanker was previously attacked on September 7, southeast of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The vessel was damaged in both incidents, with no pollution reported.
Indian crews have been caught in several recent attacks on commercial ships in the Middle East. On October 16, the tanker MT ST 3, carrying 15 Indian seafarers, was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz. All crew members were reported safe. Five days earlier, two Indian sailors were reported missing after the tanker MT Petro Dolphin was struck near Oman. Another tanker, MT Valthera, was hit the same day, but all 11 Indian seafarers aboard were unharmed.
The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged bulk carrier Cape Dao also sank near the strait on October 14, weeks after an attack killed an Indian seafarer.
The IMO had recorded 119 confirmed maritime incidents and 24 seafarer deaths across the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East as of October 21.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy said Thursday that four vessels allegedly involved in illegal oil transfers were struck and caught fire in the northern Persian Gulf on Wednesday.
Three more vessels struck mines west of the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC claimed, warning that continued US military provocations could trigger a wider response against American bases in the region, Reuters reported. The Iranian statement did not identify Al Dasma or establish a connection to its attack.
New Delhi previously condemned the recurring attacks on commercial shipping and called for immediate de-escalation through dialogue and diplomacy.
“Attacks on commercial vessels, seafarers and civilian infrastructure must cease,” India’s Foreign Ministry said on October 11, stressing the need to protect freedom of navigation and the uninterrupted flow of maritime commerce.
The Pentagon and State Department reportedly made similar preparations before launching the war against Iran in February
The US military has quietly begun withdrawing troops from bases across the Middle East, while Washington is ordering diplomatic personnel to leave several missions in the region, NBC News reports.
The moves come as President Donald Trump considers launching a new wave of attacks on Iran, and the withdrawals resemble preparations made by the Pentagon and State Department ahead of the initial US-Israeli strikes in February, NBC reported on Wednesday, citing two US officials and two people familiar with the matter.
US troops stationed in Jordan, Qatar, and Kuwait are among those being relocated, according to the report. Washington reportedly intends to maintain a limited presence at its regional bases, including personnel responsible for air defenses and security.
Ahead of the February 28 attack, the Pentagon withdrew large numbers of troops from potentially vulnerable bases to shield them from expected Iranian retaliation. Tehran accused Washington of using Gulf residents as “human shields” after thousands of US service members took shelter in civilian hotels and office buildings.
US Central Command spokesman Timothy Hawkins declined to discuss the reported troop movements, saying US forces are regularly repositioned to “optimize mission readiness” and remained prepared to defend US personnel and interests.
The State Department has also ordered non-essential personnel and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing escalating attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement against civilian airports and other critical infrastructure.
Reuters reported that Washington is preparing additional diplomatic withdrawals across the Gulf, citing US officials, but State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott described reports of further withdrawals as “inaccurate.”
The developments come amid reports that senior US military officials have presented Trump with options for renewed strikes against Iran. According to NBC, the proposals include attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, underground installations, and strategic islands, including Kharg Island, a critical oil export hub, and Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz.
Some of Trump’s advisers, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, have reportedly advocated resuming military operations to increase pressure on Tehran. Others have warned against launching another major campaign without a clearly defined objective.
Hegseth made an unannounced visit to Israel on Monday, holding closed-door talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just days before Israel’s October 27 parliamentary elections. Netanyahu is seeking another term amid mounting criticism of his handling of the wars in Gaza and Iran. Trump has endorsed his reelection bid.
Trump pledged earlier this month that the US would not attack Iran before the November 3 midterm elections, while maintaining that military force remains an option if diplomatic efforts fail. Netanyahu has also ruled out launching new strikes before Israel’s election, but declared on Sunday that Israel is prepared to attack Iran even without American participation.
The US-Israeli war against Iran, launched on February 28, has entered its eighth month, disrupting global energy markets and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has offered to restore normal navigation through the vital waterway within seven days if Washington lifts its naval blockade, eases oil sanctions, and agrees to a broader cessation of hostilities.
Trump has rejected the Iranian proposal as “unacceptable,” while his administration continues to consider whether additional military pressure could force Tehran to accept their terms.
One agent suppressed alerts to human reviewers, while another removed a monitoring system and falsely denied doing so
Two OpenAI agents disabled security monitoring systems during testing, with one later denying it had done so, the company has revealed.
The disclosure follows a string of similar incidents in recent months involving autonomous AI agents, which can independently plan and carry out tasks using external tools.
In a blog post on Tuesday, OpenAI said that the incidents occurred on October 3 and 6, involving its GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Astra agents, respectively.
In the first case, the coding agent tasked with creating evaluation tasks using employee feedback collected via Slack disabled automatic alerts to the company’s security team. According to OpenAI, the agent reasoned that the user’s prior instruction not to send messages on the team communication platform during the process applied to all notifications, including security alerts.
Three days later, the GPT-6 Astra agent removed the monitoring integration of a program it was migrating, taking its cue from a reference it had been fed that did not have the security feature. When asked later by the human user, the agent denied removing the monitoring system.
OpenAI said that it was investigating why the agents disabled the safeguards and working to prevent similar incidents. While the behavior may have resulted from “benign overpersistence” by the agents to complete the task, the company said that it was also “developing evaluations to test whether models might have a propensity to evade misalignment monitoring in particular.”
Last month, the Wall Street Journal, citing Saachi Jain, OpenAI’s head of safety systems, reported that the company had scrapped the release of its GPT-6.1 Astra model. The decision reportedly came after internal testing had found the model to be more deceptive than its predecessors and apt to employ potentially unsafe external tools without first seeking the user’s permission.
Also in September, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that an OpenAI agent had hacked his country’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal, with the company failing to report the breach for nearly three months.
Earlier, in July, OpenAI disclosed that its models had escaped their sandbox during cybersecurity testing, accessed the internet, and hacked into the servers of the Hugging Face online repository for AI models and datasets.
Other developers have reported similarly troubling behavior in tests.
Earlier this month, Anthropic released a report detailing instances of “unintended” actions by its AI models, including Claude Haiku 4.5 providing a bogus tip to Philadelphia police regarding an ongoing homicide investigation.
Calls to halt AI development or impose tighter regulations on the industry have grown louder.
Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton has warned that increasingly powerful AI could eventually escape human control, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has also urged governments to adopt a more active role in imposing safety standards on the industry.
However, US President Donald Trump has brushed off such concerns, saying that restrictions on AI development could allow China to overtake the US in the technological race.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, too, has argued that the world must absorb some “bad things” resulting from AI development, including hacks and scams, as the benefits afforded by the technology far outweigh the drawbacks.
A New Mexico judge has ruled that Facebook’s parent company deceived millions of users about how their personal data was collected and shared
A US judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in civil penalties for deceiving Facebook users about the privacy of their personal data, in a landmark ruling stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which exposed the harvesting of personal information from millions of Americans for political campaigns.
New Mexico District Judge Francis Mathew issued the ruling on Wednesday, following a jury verdict in September finding Facebook’s parent company responsible for nearly 44 million violations of the state’s consumer protection laws.
The judge concluded that Meta’s misconduct warranted a penalty exceeding $219 billion under state law, but reduced the amount to $25 billion, making it one of the largest financial penalties ever imposed on an American corporation.
“Facebook’s wrongdoing – over the course of years and systematically broadcast to the public – goes to the heart of Facebook’s core business practices,” Mathew wrote in his order.
The case arose from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal, when it emerged that the British political consulting firm obtained personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook users without their consent.
The information was collected through a third-party personality quiz application that exploited Facebook’s system for accessing users’ friends’ data. Cambridge Analytica used the information to develop psychological profiles of voters and deliver targeted political advertising, including during the 2016 US presidential election.
The company was established in 2013 as the American political-data arm of the British SCL Group, a private contractor specializing in behavioral influence, psychological profiling, and strategic communications. SCL also marketed influence and research services to defense clients, including the UK Defense Ministry.
The scandal also exposed connections to Palantir Technologies, a Silicon Valley data-analysis company with extensive contracts involving US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon. A 2018 New York Times investigation revealed that at least one Palantir employee advised Cambridge Analytica’s researchers during the company’s 2014 efforts to harvest Facebook information.
Palantir denied having a formal business relationship with Cambridge Analytica, maintaining that the employee acted in a personal capacity.
Cambridge Analytica collapsed in 2018 amid worldwide scrutiny of its operations, while Facebook faced regulatory investigations, lawsuits, and billions of dollars in penalties.
Attorney General Raul Torrez hailed Wednesday’s judgment as a warning to Silicon Valley that even the largest technology companies could be held accountable for violating consumer protection laws.
Meta has denied misleading users and plans to appeal the ruling, arguing that the unprecedented penalty is unconstitutional. Responding to the jury’s verdict last month, the company also invoked freedom of speech, insisting that Facebook is a forum for free expression.
Numerous PHP-powered platforms were pulled after critical vulnerabilities were detected by AI
Numerous websites worldwide, including government-run pages, temporarily went dark after the AI-assisted discovery of critical vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, which powers around 70% of the web globally.
On Wednesday, the developers of the popular open-source programming language, which helps websites run and display content, issued an urgent security alert over “critical remote code execution vulnerabilities.”
The flaws could allow hackers to take control of affected websites, prompting the release of urgent fixes, with all PHP users “strongly encouraged to update immediately.”
Cybersecurity agencies worldwide, including the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, the UK’s National Cyber Security Center, the Australian Signals Directorate, and the Canadian Center for Cyber Security, issued their own alerts, advising users to apply the patches immediately and prioritize internet-facing systems.
Organizations that were unable to update immediately or that relied on outdated, unsupported PHP versions were advised to take their systems offline until the fixes could be applied.
The announcement prompted France’s Interior Ministry to temporarily shut down prefecture websites, with local government pages also unavailable. In neighboring Belgium, the Foreign Ministry similarly took its websites offline on Wednesday. In the Netherlands, the National Cyber Security Center, the websites of all major political parties, and at least one port took similar precautionary measures.
In Denmark, the national school communication platform was temporarily shut down; in Finland, the government’s public web services went dark.
Disruptions also affected services operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
The flaws in PHP were identified by two cybersecurity companies, Calif and Wiz, in August. PHP developers have since worked on fixes, while keeping the discovery under wraps to prevent malicious actors from exploiting the vulnerabilities.
The cybersecurity companies said they made extensive use of AI models in the process, including Google’s Gemini 4 Argon and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol.
Wiz stated that the “underlying flaws had been present for decades, but demonstrating their exploitability required an exceptionally complex chain of steps, at the edge of what human researchers could practically achieve.”
OpenAI described the case as “one of the most impactful security issues in recent memory,” and predicted that more flaws would be discovered in the coming months with the help of AI.
The city of Lviv proclaimed 2027 the year of Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevich, triggering a new spat with Warsaw
Poland has accused Kiev of making unacceptable “suicidal” moves after the Ukrainian city of Lviv dedicated 2027 to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and its leader, Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevich.
To celebrate the 120th anniversary of Shukhevich’s birth and mark 85 years since the creation of the militant group that perpetrated mass killings of ethnic Poles, Jews, and Russians, the Lviv Regional Council decided on Tuesday to organize “cultural, memorial, scientific, and mass media events,” as well as exhibitions and national-patriotic rallies.
The announcement was met with widespread condemnation in Poland, which regards the UPA as perpetrators of genocide against Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia and its leader, Shukhevich, as a key ‘architect’ of the massacres. From 1943 to 1945, Ukrainian nationalist militants murdered an estimated 100,000 ethnic Poles in the regions, which are now largely part of modern Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the move a “suicidal tactic,” and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called it “unacceptable.” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski condemned the announcement, calling for the resolution’s key sponsor, Lviv regional lawmaker Svyatoslav Sheremet, to be placed on Poland’s travel ban list.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry attempted to downplay the incident, blaming the Lviv regional authorities for making the “harmful decision.” The ministry also said the regional council did not consult any central authorities regarding “the consequences of their actions for bilateral relations with Poland.”
The resolution ultimately vanished from the Lviv council’s website without any explanation. Speaking to Polish media on Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki said Warsaw received assurances from Kiev that the resolution would not be implemented.
“We take on faith the words of the administration of Vladimir Zelensky that this catastrophic decision will not be implemented,” Bosacki stated, calling the disappearance of the resolution from the council’s website a “good sign,” but cautioning against interpreting it as an official cancellation of the celebrations.
Ukraine’s increasingly open honoring of WWII-era nationalists and Nazi collaborators has drawn criticism from Warsaw, which remains one of Ukraine’s key backers in the conflict with Russia.
Poland regards the UPA and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of its 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, as perpetrators of genocide, while modern Ukraine cherishes them as freedom fighters and national heroes.
Earlier this year, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky named a military unit after the ‘Heroes of the UPA’ and established a ‘pantheon of outstanding Ukrainians’ at Kiev’s main military cemetery, where OUN leader and Nazi collaborator Andrey Melnik was reinterred with state honors in May.
Despite the disappointment among voters regarding the state of the economy in the US in recent years, there are observable effects and trends of social improvement.
First and foremost, it’s important to note a significant decrease in the level of violent crime. Of course, after President Donald Trump’s controversial firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erica McEntarfer, for publishing weak labor market figures, trust in American statistics has been considerably shaken. Thus, reports of achieving the lowest murder rate in history – 4.3 cases per 100,000 population – may be politically motivated and deliberately boastful. Nevertheless, a noticeable decline in the rate of murders and other violent crimes has indeed occurred in recent years. This can be attributed to increased federal funding and strengthening of the police force, as well as intensified efforts against illegal immigration during the Trump administration.
A particularly striking aspect of this is the comparison with Canada, which has been and remains a bastion of liberalism in immigration and domestic policy. Unlike the US, where the level of violent crime is traditionally high, Canada has always been perceived as a safe society. But now, everything is changing before our eyes.
Since 2015, the rate of violent crime per capita in the U.S. has decreased by 15.1%, while in Canada, on the contrary, it has increased by 36.9%. As a result, for the first time in history, the land of the maple leaf has surpassed the U.S. in terms of violent crime per capita.
Another significant trend: Gallup polls show that the perception of homosexual relationships as morally acceptable has stopped increasing and even declined in the US The share of those supporting same-sex marriage fell from 71% in 2023 to 64% in 2026. Support for gender transition practices among Americans decreased from 46% to 38%.
The most radical shift has occurred among Republicans. While Democrats’ acceptance of the morality of homosexual relationships remains at 80%, and independent voters have dropped from 74% in 2021 to 64% in 2026, among Republicans, the acknowledgment of homosexual relations plummeted from 56% in 2022 to 35% today (see chart). Only 5% of Republican voters consider gender transition morally acceptable – compared to 42% of independents and 60% of Democrats.
As we can see, the MAGA effect is concentrated within the Republican electorate and primarily manifests in the consolidation of Republicans based on traditional values. At the same time, there is an intensifying value conflict between conservative Republicans and the Democratic Party electorate.
Perhaps the most vivid manifestation of the MAGA effect is that in the summer of 2024, the trend of decreasing births among white Americans was replaced by steady growth, and by spring 2026, the proportion of newborns from white families reached 51.5%, the first increase in five years.
Let’s see if this trend can be maintained, but the mere fact of the growth in births among white Americans is quite remarkable – it demonstrates a surge of optimism in the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) community and proves that they still have fight left in them. In an era of victorious globalization, WASPs in the US were already being metaphorically buried with a derogatory epitaph, yet they suddenly breathed life and showed they are ready to fight for their country, which their ancestors built.
It is noteworthy that conservative and religious Americans have twice as many children as their liberal and non-religious counterparts. Thus, the conservative American community reproduces itself (total fertility rate 2.22), while the liberal American environment naturally shrinks by half in each subsequent generation (total fertility rate 1.02), mainly replenishing itself through immigration.
The descendants of pilgrims and pioneers remember that the primary traditional value is the will to live. Everything one needs to know about MAGA can be boiled down to two points. First, it is the rise of the American spirit. Second, it serves as a visual reiteration of a biblical lesson: the salvation of those who are drowning is in the hands of the drowners themselves.
The three leaders could meet next month at APEC summit in China, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump could hold a “historic” three-way meeting at the APEC summit in China, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is scheduled to take place in Shenzhen, China, on November 18-19.
Speaking to the Russian outlet Vesti on Wednesday, Ushakov said Beijing had already begun preparations for the potential talks.
“Everyone is ready for this, but much, if not everything, depends on the Chinese hosts of the summit,” he said.
The possibility of three-way talks was also discussed during Putin’s meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, according to the Kremlin.
Ushakov described the proposed gathering as potentially “historic,” noting that it would be the first meeting of the three leaders in this format.
Putin and Trump last met in person at a summit in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025, and have remained in contact by phone, most recently on October 9.
Putin and Xi have also held regular talks, including on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek in August. The two previously met in Beijing in May during Putin’s state visit.
Trump and Xi have met twice so far this year, first in Beijing in May and then at the White House last month.
Trump has previously expressed openness to three-way talks, suggesting that nuclear disarmament could be among the issues discussed.
Asked whether the talks could also contribute to peace efforts in the Ukraine conflict, Ushakov said a single meeting would not be enough. “Even if the meeting lasts one, two or five hours, it still won’t be possible to resolve all the problems,” he said.
Commenting on whether the summit could amount to a “new Yalta,” Ushakov said: “I think that if the meeting takes place, there will be a storm of comments and assessments.”
The 1945 Yalta Conference brought together Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss the final stages of World War II and the postwar international order.
The Russian-Slovak intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation is set to meet for the first time since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict
Slovakia will discuss economic cooperation with Russia, including energy supplies, in Moscow next week, the Slovak Foreign Ministry has said.
The landlocked EU nation has remained a buyer of Russian oil and gas despite the deterioration of the ties between Moscow and the EU in the wake of the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The country is supposed to phase out Russian energy by late 2027 under the bloc’s plan to replace Russian oil and gas supplies from elsewhere.
The Russian-Slovak intergovernmental commission for economic, scientific, and technical cooperation has been inactive since November 2021 but is now set to meet next Monday, the Slovak Foreign Ministry announced late on Tuesday. The commission will discuss a broad range of topics, including farming, environment, sports, and culture, and focus on energy supply, including nuclear energy, according to the ministry.
“The fundamental topic will be energy and the possibility to cooperate in securing supplies of strategic resources. The Slovak side is also interested in discussing gas supplies and the continuation of oil supplies,” it said in a statement.
Bratislava continues “to base its approach on its European Union and North Atlantic Alliance membership and keeping commitments of this membership” but wants to create room for dialogue, the ministry said.
Slovakia dissented on the EU’s course to dismantle ties with Moscow and prop up Kiev in the conflict after Robert Fico retook the prime minister’s office in October 2023, for the fourth time in his long political career. Under Fico, Slovakia has remained skeptical of assisting Ukraine and of Kiev’s push to join NATO, while halting government weapons shipments and calling for peace. The stance has resulted in repeated public spats between Bratislava and Kiev, as well as criticism from Brussels.
Last month, Fico warned that Europe was moving dangerously close to a direct clash between NATO and Russia, accusing the West of seeking a “pretext” for a major conflict. He accused EU nations of engaging in increasingly bellicose rhetoric and described the Ukraine conflict as “out of control.”
“The situation has never been as serious and tense regarding the possibility of a pan-European war conflict as it is now,” he said.
The European Commission is preparing for “global power competition” with Russia in the Arctic
The EU has updated its Arctic strategy, and militarism has replaced climate activism as Brussels’ new preoccupation in the frozen north. Despite what the new strategy claims, however, the Arctic is not “the EU’s Northern Neighborhood.”
Unveiled on Tuesday by the European Commission, the ‘Strategy for the Arctic’ describes the region as a “critical” zone for trade, investment, and conservation, and a flashpoint for military confrontation with Russia.
Today, we adopt our new 🇪🇺 Arctic Strategy.
The Arctic is where the tectonic plates of geopolitics collide head-on.
It requires us to change our strategic posture.
And work with like-minded partners that share our values ↓
https://t.co/B6GvgUOCQk
“With Russia and China increasing their footprint and ambition, the Arctic has become a front line of global power competition,” top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a statement. “Our revamped Strategy reflects this new reality and puts security firmly at its core.”
To understand just how dramatic this new focus on security is, it’s necessary to turn back the clock to 2021, when the commission released its previous Arctic strategy.
The EU’s green past
Published on October 13, 2021, the strategy opened by describing climate change as “the most comprehensive threat the Arctic is facing.” Russia’s refurbishment of Soviet-era military bases along its Arctic coastline was presented primarily as something that could “further aggravate the consequences of climate change,” and the EU pledged to work with Moscow “to improve environmental and health security,” and to leave military relations with Russia up to NATO and individual member states.
An excerpt from the EU's 2021 Arctic Strategy
Four months later, Brussels severed relations with Moscow and entered the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Kiev’s side. The title of the 2021 strategy – ‘A stronger EU engagement for a peaceful, sustainable and prosperous Arctic’ – needed an update that reflected the EU’s new militarism.
Brussels claims the Arctic
“Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine has reshaped the security of the Arctic and the EU as a whole,” the new document opens, going on to assert that “the Arctic is not someone else’s frontier. It is Europe’s Northern Neighbourhood and the European Union is part of the Arctic.”
Geography is not exactly on Brussels’ side here. The 27-member union has no coastline on the Arctic Ocean, and only two of its members – Finland and Sweden – have territory inside the Arctic Circle (although a Danish dependency, Greenland left the EU in 1985). Russia accounts for 53% of the Arctic Ocean’s coastline, and 45% of all land inside the Arctic Circle.
To compensate for this, the new strategy proposes that all waters north of 60 degrees latitude be considered ‘Arctic’. The commission argues that this would allow its environmental regulations to “cover the actual footprint of Arctic shipping.” It would also dramatically expand the EU’s ‘Arctic’ territory and population by bringing almost all of Finland and Sweden into the new region, including Finland’s entire 1,340 kilometer border with Russia. It is on this frontier that the EU is preparing for conflict.
War preparations
The strategy sets out a lengthy list of military objectives, with the commission promising to:
“Deepen engagement with NATO” and hold military exercises focused on moving troops and equipment into the Arctic
Develop military logistics corridors from central Europe to the Arctic
Upgrade ports and airports for military use
Expand icebreaker capacity
Expand satellite surveillance of the region and tracking of Russian oil tankers
Develop polar-capable undersea drones
Establish a “Maritime Security Hub” and increase data-sharing with NATO
Deepen military ties with Canada, Iceland, Norway, the UK, and US
The strategy is short on some specifics, and almost all of these goals are presented without an accompanying price tag. The only actual figures listed are €260 million for ten existing European Defence Fund projects, €107 million toward the construction of an undersea internet cable to Greenland, and the €200 million Greenland ‘Partnership Package’, which was announced last month. Although the commission says that this investment package will “support resilience, security and peace in the Arctic,” none of the €200 million in funding is earmarked for explicitly military projects.
Even though these objectives make up more of a wishlist than a set of concrete commitments, one in particular has the potential to push tensions with Russia to the breaking point. The strategy states that the EU will use its ‘Copernicus’ satellite network to track Russian “shadow fleet vessels,” thus making it easier for EU states to interdict and seize them. Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, and Sweden have detained 12 of these vessels since December 2024, a number that would likely increase with the aid of satellite surveillance.
‘Shadow fleet’ is an EU euphemism for tankers carrying Russian oil in international waters. Russian oil exporters do not abide by EU sanctions, nor do importers outside the EU. Nevertheless, EU member states have abrogated the authority to seize them, in what the Kremlin considers “flagrant violation of international law” and “outright piracy and robbery.”
Should the seizures continue, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to respond in kind.
The ‘hybrid war’ deception
The EU’s militarization of the Arctic is justified, the document states, as Russia is “pursuing hybrid strategies against its neighbours… from drone incursions and Global Navigation Satellite System jamming to the sabotage of undersea cables.” In the absence of real, verifiable military action by Russia against Europe, EU and NATO leaders have taken to accusing Moscow of waging “hybrid war,” describing drone sightings, fires, and accidents at weapons factories, protests, and even natural disasters as Kremlin-orchestrated plots to destabilize the West.
A wave of “drone incursions” across northern Europe and Scandinavia last year turned out to be a hoax, with Belgium’s defense minister attempting to pass off a photograph of a police helicopter as a ‘Russian drone’. Around the same time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s PR team lied about Russia “interfering”with her jet’s navigation systems over Bulgaria. Western spy chiefs have since admitted there is no evidence that Russia has sabotaged undersea power and internet cables.
Nevertheless, claims of ‘hybrid war’ have persisted in European politics and media, to the point where some analysts view the claims themselves as a form of “hybrid warfare” against the European public, used to justify military spending hikes and welfare cutbacks.
“When you are sure it is the Russians, or almost sure it is the Russians, attribute it to the Russians,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte advised the bloc’s political leaders and intelligence chiefs earlier this month.
Russia has been holding military exercises in the Arctic for decades, and the refurbishment of its Soviet-era bases in the region has been underway since before the EU published its 2021 Arctic strategy. However, the newly militarized EU is no longer content to handle this matter through old mechanisms – namely the Arctic Council – and insists that countering Russia in the north is its responsibility as well as NATO’s.
The Europeans dictate their terms
The EU’s new strategy calls on Russia to “ensure that freedom of navigation is preserved” along the Northern Sea Route (NSR), a formerly impassable navigation corridor that can now be traversed year-round, thanks to receding polar ice caps and the assistance of Russia’s vast icebreaker fleet. The NSR cuts transit time from China to northern Europe in half, and in August, the first Chinese container ship arrived at the port of Murmansk via this route.
The Northern Sea Route
The NSR skims along more than 24,000 km of Russian coastline, and through internationally recognized Russian territorial waters. Russia is the only state capable of rendering assistance to any ships passing through the route, and vessels wishing to pass in winter must pay to be escorted by Russian icebreakers. Moscow retains the right to deny any ships access to the NSR.
Nevertheless, the EU insists that it has a say over Russian maritime policy, even as it vows to “continue to sanction the shadow fleet entering from the Northern Sea Route” and place Russian shipping under satellite surveillance. The latest Arctic strategy states that the EU will “actively engage” with other nations to ensure freedom of navigation in the Arctic, but omits any possibility of engagement with Russia. Only “like-minded partners,” a term mentioned nearly two dozen times in the document, will be consulted.
Diplomatic and economic disputes in the Arctic were previously handled at the Arctic Council. However, seven of the council’s eight members – every one except Russia – stopped participating in high-level Council meetings in March 2022. That same month, the EU joined Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden in suspending any activities involving Russia within the separate Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
The central fallacy of the EU’s Arctic strategy is that it presumes Brussels can regulate, with laws or with arms, what Russia does in its own back yard. It presumes that the bloc, which has no Arctic coastline, can ignore long-established forums for cooperation and directly dictate terms to a superpower that controls half of the Arctic’s land and sea area; and that by repeating the mantra “the Arctic is the EU’s northern neighborhood,” it can overcome geographic reality and the massive power differential between Russia and everyone else in the region.
In a message released by its embassy in the Netherlands on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry described the document as “another pipe dream of EU hawks.”
“A quick reality check: Russia operates a fleet of 40+ icebreakers. How many does the EU have in total?” the ministry asked. “The Arctic should be a place of cooperation, not confrontation. Maybe it’s time to stop the provocations?”
The US diplomat’s India trip is about leveraging Mukesh-Ambani owned Reliance’s refining capacity to lower elevated global fuel prices
After spending years pressuring New Delhi to cut back its Russian oil purchases, and isolate Moscow, Washington has now changed tack and is seeking India’s help to bring down elevated domestic fuel prices that are largely of its own making.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who skipped New Delhi entirely on his second visit to India this year, made clear what had brought him to the country – the massive refining capacity of Reliance Industries, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
“I’m also here in my capacity as the National Security Adviser,” Rubio said in Mumbai. “Energy is related to national security … we’re going to go see a company that has a tremendous amount of refining capability.”
President Donald Trump’s administration is showing a new urgency to bring down the high fuel prices that threaten Republicans’ prospects in November’s midterm elections. US retail diesel prices reached a record average of about $6.32 a gallon on Tuesday.
American refineries are already operating at close to capacity, and Washington is working with India to increase refining output and bring more petroleum products to global markets, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in Houston the same day.
“Energy politics is inseparable from American geopolitics,” Jindal School of International Affairs adjunct professor and former Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Anuradha Mitra Chenoy told RT. “The US is using energy as a geopolitical instrument, and that is central to understanding Rubio’s visit.”
From Russian oil tariffs to Venezuelan crude
Washington has regularly used energy sanctions to achieve its geopolitical aims. First it took Iranian, and then Venezuelan, crude off the market with the threat of sanctions. Since the Ukraine conflict began, Washington also pressured India to stop buying Russian crude. The argument was that choking off Moscow’s oil revenues would help end the conflict, which is now in its fifth year.
At the same time, the US continued to supply Ukraine with weapons and funds, and started a war with Iran that disrupted energy supplies from the Middle East.
New Delhi has maintained that providing affordable energy to its 1.4 billion people is central to its oil-purchasing decisions. India imports about 85% of its energy requirements, and Russia remains one of its biggest sources of oil.
But the pressure reached a breaking point when the US Congress passed a law last month that threatened “bone-crushing sanctions” on major buyers of Russian energy. New Delhi warned that the proposed measures could affect bilateral relations and global energy markets.
However, as the affordability crisis in America got worse, and Trump’s rhetoric failed to bring down domestic fuel prices in a connected global market, the administration swiftly changed course.
Trump announced a deal with Russia to buy diesel for the domestic market. And cleared the deck for Rubio’s visit by waiving off sanctions on Moscow’s top oil buyers – which includes China and India, allowing Russian oil to flow more freely into global markets.
“None of these tariffs are meant to punish or harm India,” Rubio said in Mumbai, adopting a more conciliatory tone than has come out of Washington until recently.
Why Reliance, and Jamnagar, matter to Washington
Washington’s top diplomat held talks with Mukesh Ambani at Jamnagar in India’s Gujarat state on the second day of his visit. The Reliance refinery in Jamnagar is the largest single-site refining complex in the world, and can process around 1.4 million barrels of crude a day.
It is also one of the few facilities capable of processing large volumes of Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude, which is good for producing diesel – showing its importance to a US administration worried about domestic fuel prices.
Jamnagar already plays a major part in keeping global fuel prices in check – by selling fuel refined from Russian crude to markets including Europe, which sanctions the same crude.
And it is buying more Venezuelan oil, accounting for more than 74% of the nearly $3.6 billion worth of Venezuelan crude imported by India between April and August, according to figures shared by the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) think tank.
Rubio wants Reliance to buy, and process, more of the Venezuelan crude, which the US now controls after kidnapping the country’s President Nicolas Maduro.
“The refining capability exists,” GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava told RT. “The question is whether expanding purchases makes commercial sense.”
Venezuelan crude is cheaper but it also costs more to refine, he pointed out. He also questioned the wisdom of India buying more of the South American country’s oil, which was once subjected to US sanctions.
“It would be very unwise for India to stop using Russian oil,” Chenoy said, pointing out that there are only a limited number of major sources available internationally, and Russia remains one of the most important.
Reliance is also involved in a proposed refinery project in Brownsville, Texas, under a long-term agreement to purchase its output. The facility, which Trump called a $300 billion project in March, is designed to process lighter American shale crude.
The Indian conglomerate “helps utilize and unleash the energy that is being developed in the Western Hemisphere,” Rubio told the Indian Express, describing his visit as an opportunity to identify ways of diversifying energy supplies.
Rubio dodges a Musk-ignited controversy
Ahead of his meeting with Ambani, Rubio had to sidestep the controversy ignited by trillionaire Elon Musk.
The world’s richest man, a prominent donor to the Republican party, had accused Ambani earlier this month of obstructing the launch of his Starlink satellite internet service in India.
Musk targeted Ambani, sarcastically addressing him as “Prime Minister Ambani” and questioning whether his company would allow Starlink to compete in the country.
Starlink, Ambani’s Jio Satellite Communications, and Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb are all at broadly the same stage of regulatory approval for satellite internet connectivity in the country, with security assessments underway, according to India’s Communications Ministry.
Reliance also dismissed suggestions that it was blocking competition.
“Elon Musk is a private citizen,” Rubio told the Indian Express, adding that Musk had the right to express his views.
Rubio also sought to assuage concerns about the India-US trade deal, which has been holding fire despite months of tortuous negotiations. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman described the talks as deadlocked earlier this month, saying both sides were finding it “very difficult” to make further concessions.
“We are weeks, not months, away from, I think, finalizing it,” Rubio said. “I would say we are about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement.”
India has been holding off on finalizing the deal as it wants to lock in a competitive advantage in the US market relative to rival exporter nations.
Pragmatism back on the table
The US administration turning on the charm, so to speak, suggests that Washington’s energy and political interests are taking precedence over its geopolitical considerations and moral grandstanding.
With pragmatism back on the table, Rubio’s visit could mark a step toward easing bilateral tensions and strengthening cooperation beyond the immediate fuel crisis driving the change.
Still India must “carefully examine what it is being asked to commit to, what commercial benefits it can expect, and the risks of future changes in US policy,” Srivastava said.
New South Wales lawmakers have approved turning human remains into soil as an alternative to burial and cremation
Residents of New South Wales, Australia could soon have the option to make a final contribution to their garden upon death, after the state’s parliament approved turning human remains into compost as an alternative to burial and cremation.
The bill, introduced by Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, cleared the upper house on Wednesday after passing the lower house unanimously last week. It now awaits assent, with a minimum two-year wait before going into force.
Known as ‘terramation’ or natural organic reduction, a body is placed in a vessel with wood chips, straw, and other plant material. Microbes break down the remains, producing material that can eventually nourish trees and gardens.
US operator Recompose says its process takes 8-12 weeks, including a curing period. Remaining bones are mechanically ground down and mixed back in, and artificial implants are removed.
Under the NSW bill, families can take the resulting compost home to nourish a memorial tree or garden, or arrange for it to be placed elsewhere. However, choosing to become garden material remains a personal decision; operators are barred from turning a deceased person’s remains into compost against their written wishes.
Supporters of the method say the method uses less land and energy than conventional burial and cremation and could ease the financial and environmental burden of dying.
“We are running out of burial space [and] that space can cost as much as $50,000 [Australian dollars],” Greenwich told ABC in June. He predicted that composting will become cheaper than cremation, although local prices have yet to be established.
Not everyone is pleased with the proposal. NSW Premier Chris Minns said in June that he felt “a bit weird about it.” Catholic Weekly columnist Michael Cook described it as a “bizarre solution to saving the planet,” arguing that composting conflicts with religious respect for the human body.
Similar human composting practices have already been approved in several US states and part of Germany. England and Wales are considering rules that could eventually allow it.
Despite fierce electoral competition, the country’s leading parties take similar positions on Gaza
Israel’s leading political parties hold broadly similar positions on Palestinian statehood and Gaza despite their fierce electoral rivalry, RT correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij reports.
With parliamentary elections scheduled for October 27, the report examines whether a change of government would bring any significant shift in the country’s policies toward the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud party, has categorically rejected the creation of a Palestinian state.
“There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu declared.
His position is echoed by several political rivals. The leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, has said that the idea of a two-state solution “has died,” while Gadi Eisenkot, head of the centrist Yashar party, has ruled out Palestinian statehood under a government he leads.
Even Yair Golan, leader of the left-leaning Democrats, has described a two-state solution as “too ambitious” for now, instead advocating civilian separation while retaining Israeli security control.
The two-state solution, long backed by the UN and much of the international community, envisages an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The similarities in position extend to Gaza, where the main parties all support disarming Hamas and maintaining Israeli military involvement, although they differ over who should govern the territory.
Military conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews remains a major point of contention, with disagreements over long-standing draft exemptions triggering widespread protests.
With smaller factions potentially playing a decisive role in forming the next coalition, Dubenskij raises the question of how much Israel’s policies could change after the vote.
Gazprom and CNPC are negotiating terms for the planned Power of Baikal pipeline, which could carry 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually via Mongolia
Russia and China could finalize agreements on a major new gas pipeline by the end of the year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said on Wednesday, in a potential breakthrough that would significantly expand Moscow’s energy exports to Asia.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of talks between Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang in St. Petersburg, Novak said the planned Power of Baikal pipeline was among the issues discussed.
“Our companies – Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation – are negotiating a second route for gas supplies from Russia to the People’s Republic of China,” he said. “We are waiting for our companies to complete commercial negotiations and hope they will reach the relevant agreements by the end of the year.”
Li arrived in St. Petersburg on Tuesday for the regular meeting of the Russian and Chinese heads of government.
Russia already supplies gas to China through the Power of Siberia, a more than 3,000-kilometer pipeline launched in 2019. It carries gas from the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia and the Kovyktinskoye field in Irkutsk Region through Russia’s Far East and across the border near Blagoveshchensk, connecting to a Chinese network extending toward Shanghai. Its annual export capacity is 38 billion cubic meters (bcm), with deliveries reaching 38.8 bcm in 2025.
The planned Power of Baikal, previously known as Power of Siberia 2, would open a major new energy corridor. The roughly 2,600-kilometer pipeline is designed to deliver up to 50 bcm annually from Russia’s Arctic gas fields on the Yamal Peninsula to China via Mongolia, including the Soyuz Vostok transit pipeline.
Unlike Power of Siberia, which draws gas from eastern Siberia, the new route would tap western Siberian reserves that previously supplied Europe, giving Moscow a major new outlet for gas following the collapse of much of its European market. Novak said the project was renamed Power of Baikal to distinguish it from the existing pipeline and reflect its planned route along the southern shore of Lake Baikal. The precise route remains subject to final commercial agreements.
Together, the two pipelines would give Russia a combined nominal export capacity of around 88 bcm annually to China – roughly 80% of the 110 bcm combined capacity of Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, built to supply Russian gas to Europe via the Baltic Sea.
Gazprom and CNPC signed a legally binding memorandum on the project in September 2025, envisaging deliveries of 50 bcm annually over 30 years. A final supply contract, however, was not signed. Pricing is a key sticking point, with media reports suggesting Beijing is seeking rates close to Russia’s domestic prices, while Moscow has pushed for more commercially favorable terms. President Vladimir Putin said last year that pricing would follow a market-based formula similar to that used for European supplies, stressing that there would be “no charity” on either side.
The expansion comes as Russia accelerates its energy pivot toward Asia in light of Western sanctions and EU efforts to phase out Russian supplies. Before the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, Europe was Russia’s largest pipeline gas market, with Gazprom providing around 40-45% of the bloc’s total gas imports. Deliveries subsequently plunged as Brussels pursued alternative suppliers and imposed successive sanctions on Russia.
Meanwhile, China has emerged as Russia’s largest pipeline gas customer, with Power of Siberia reaching its full contracted capacity and further export routes under development.
Unlike oil, which can be redirected by tanker, pipeline gas requires extensive infrastructure, making Power of Baikal a key project in Moscow’s efforts to replace lost European demand. Moscow has repeatedly accused Western governments of undermining European energy security through their sanctions policies.
The shift also follows the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines that previously brought Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea. Novak said on Wednesday that Moscow remains ready to resume deliveries through the one Nord Stream pipeline string out of the four that remained undamaged.
“We have one of the four strings in working condition. If European consumers and politicians want it, supplies can, of course, be delivered through that line,” he said. The decision rests primarily with European countries, particularly Germany, where the pipeline terminates, Novak added. He said the three damaged strings could also be restored if demand and economic conditions justified repairs, suggesting it would not take long to bring them back to working order.
Russia has repeatedly offered to resume energy supplies to Europe, particularly in light of the disruptions to global markets caused by the Middle East crisis, but says its proposals have received no response from European governments.
Ural Airlines is starting tri-weekly direct services to New Delhi from Ekaterinburg next week, the airline has told RT India
Russia’s Ural Airlines will start direct flights to Delhi next week, as it seeks to benefit from a spurt in business travel and tourism between the two countries.
The flights will operate from Ural Airlines’ base, Koltsovo Airport in Ekaterinburg, to New Delhi three days a week, on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, the airline told RT India.
The service will start on October 25.
“The decision to launch regular flights was driven by both commercial and strategic reasons,” the airline said, citing strong demand and the availability of a suitable fleet of Airbus aircraft.
Ekaterinburg is the largest transport and industrial hub in the Urals. Direct flights from the city will significantly slash travel time from the Urals and Siberia.
Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov recently said the number of airline services to India a week could soon jump nearly fivefold to 71 from the current 15.
“Siberian Airlines (S7) and Ural Airlines are actively working on the possibility of launching regular flights to Delhi from Novosibirsk and Ekaterinburg,” Alipov told RT.
“We are awaiting a response from our Indian partners,” the ambassador said.
S7 Airlines also told RT it is planning to launch a service between Novosibirsk and Delhi during the autumn-winter schedule. Tolmachevo Airport in Novosibirsk is a key hub for S7.
Officials in Tatarstan also previously indicated they are in talks with the East-West Group and Russian authorities about launching direct flights to India, including to its financial hub, Mumbai.
India and Russia are similarly boosting ties in the civil aviation sector. Two Indian domestic airlines have signed agreements on buying 85 Russian passenger aircraft, as Moscow and New Delhi move to expand cooperation in civil aviation and manufacturing.
The new services come amid an expected surge in activity in various sectors including tourism, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and food processing, information technology, engineering, and transport and logistics. India and Russia expect bilateral trade to hit $100 billion by 2030.
The Baltic Fleet vessel has reached Namibia after visiting Mozambique, Tanzania and Seychelles during its training trip
A Russian Navy training ship has arrived in Namibia as part of a voyage around Eurasia and Africa, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. The Baltic Fleet vessel ‘Perekop’ docked at the port of Walvis Bay after crossing the Indian and Atlantic oceans.
According to the ministry, the ship covered more than 1,800 nautical miles in seven days. During the journey, cadets from the Baltic Naval Institute continued their practical training, taking part in navigation watches, plotting courses using onboard instruments, and practicing maneuvers through narrow waterways. They also received instruction in ship operations and damage control.
The vessel was welcomed in Walvis Bay by representatives of the Russian Embassy and the Namibian navу. The visitors who toured the ship were briefed on its operations and the training program for future naval officers. The crew and cadets are also to visit local attractions during their stay.
Earlier in October, ‘Perekop’ called at the port of Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. The vessel also made stops in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Victoria, the capital of Seychelles, in September as part of its ongoing voyage.
According to Sputnik, the voyage is scheduled to conclude on December 9, 2026, after taking the vessel through four oceans, 14 seas, 23 straits, nine bays, and two rivers, with calls at 20 ports, including 12 overseas.
The ‘Perekop’ is not the first Russian naval ship to visit Africa. In July 2025, another Baltic Fleet vessel, the ‘Smolny’, visited the Republic of the Congo as part of a regional tour that also included Equatorial Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe. The ship had previously called at several African ports in 2024, including in Namibia, Angola, and South Africa.
Russia previously deployed warships to South Africa for joint naval exercises. In January 2026, the Russian Navy’s ‘Stoikiy’ corvette and ‘Yelnya’ tanker took part in the multinational Will for Peace drills off the South African coast.
The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed officials who claimed the SpaceX founder ordered restrictions on satellite services used by Ukraine to launch drone strikes on Russia
The Wall Street Journal has challenged Elon Musk’s denials over alleged restrictions on satellite services used for Ukrainian drone strikes deep inside Russia. The outlet has cited anonymous White House sources who have claimed that the SpaceX founder and Starlink owner had personally ordered restricting the service.
Ukrainian officials last week claimed that SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications service and its military-grade version, Starshield, which Kiev uses for frontline drone operations, stopped working on drones traveling faster than 160 kph (100 mph). Neither Starlink nor SpaceX has publicly acknowledged a technical “signal or service failure,” leaving the questions of whether an actual service restriction took place, and if so what could have caused it, unconfirmed.
What has Ukraine claimed about Starshield?
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky initially claimed, without evidence, that Kiev had been told “technical malfunctions” had caused a service slowdown. He later shifted the blame to Washington. On NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday Zelensky claimed, again without citing evidence nor being asked to provide it, that an order had come from the US government. According to Zelensky, Kiev had even secretly despatched cars to the EU, where they could drive "legally" at 180kph (110mph) where tests allegedly surfaced discrepancies in Starlink performance between the EU and Ukraine.
Musk has categorically denied that he instructed SpaceX to restrict either service, nor has he confirmed that any restriction or slowdown took place.
The WSJ cited anonymous sources who contradicted him, alleging on Tuesday that he personally ordered speed limits on Ukrainian hardware connected to the satellite network.
Even the WSJ's sources accounts differed. Some claimed that Musk acted unilaterally; others said he consulted senior administration officials, including President Donald Trump, before making the decision. The outlet also claimed that SpaceX representatives contacted the White House to coordinate their accounts of whether the restrictions had been agreed on with the administration.
What has the US government said about Starshield?
Musk earlier insisted that Starshield is owned and controlled by the US government, meaning any speed or usage restrictions are determined by the US military and ultimately Trump – who denied that he ordered the restrictions, though he said on Monday he “would like to find out” who did. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both said the administration was not behind the restrictions, with Bessent rebuking Zelensky for making “reckless” allegations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also rejected the claims. Questioned about the allegation during a visit to India on Wednesday, he warned Kiev against escalating the dispute, saying Ukraine “would not exist” as a sovereign state without US support.
Relations between Zelensky and Washington have effectively collapsed in recent weeks over sanctions on Russia and Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. Both Musk and Trump have sharply criticized Ukraine’s attacks on Russian diesel refineries, blaming them for global fuel shortages and soaring prices at the pump.
Speaking at the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump warned Zelensky that he is “going to have to want to make a deal.” He also criticized the cost of supporting Kiev, saying the US has received “absolutely nothing back” except “grief, death and tremendous monetary loss.”
What did Kiev say about Starshield?
Despite Zelensky’s evidence-free assertions and there being no record in the public sphere to support it, the Western press and Ukrainian diplomats are echoing the claims regardless. Ukraine’s ambassador in Washington, Denis Senik, said on Tuesday that Kiev is still “waiting for the official response from contacts with the Pentagon and SpaceX” to understand what happened.
What did the Kremlin say about Starshield?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that Moscow is unaware of the reported Starlink restrictions, but stressed that “overall, of course, it would be better if such amazing technology… was not used for military purposes at all.” Moscow has condemned Western military assistance for Kiev, arguing that it only prolongs the conflict and obstructs peace efforts.
There is no proof on the public record or in the public domain that the Starshield was affected. The only suggestions supporting the idea such an incident took place are Vladimir Zelensky's uncontested claim that Ukrainians sent cars to the EU with Starlink terminals to compare data and the claims of an anonymous Ukrainian officer who told German media giant Axel Springer's Global Reporter's Network, seemingly during the alleged service restriction, that all operations were on hold.
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