Berlin wants households and industries to help fund a €3 billion emergency gas reserve
Germany plans to make households and businesses pay for a national emergency gas reserve costing more than €3 billion over ten years, German media reported Wednesday, citing draft legislation.
First proposed in July, the 24 TWh reserve would equal 10% of Germany’s storage capacity, or two weeks’ winter consumption, protecting against import disruptions.
The Economy Ministry initially proposed funding it through household and industrial levies rather than the federal budget, but the plan stalled after governing coalition lawmakers rejected this notion, citing already excessive energy costs. Industry associations also demanded state funding. However, media reports claim that despite the backlash, the ministry is pressing ahead with its initial plan.
An October 12 draft leaked to Handelsblatt and other outlets estimates the reserve at €3.08 billion ($3.4 billion) over ten years, enough to replace Germany’s largest gas import facility for 30 days. Unlike seasonal storage, the government-controlled stockpile would be off-limits commercially, reserved for crises including sabotage and infrastructure failures. It would not lower gas prices.
Starting in October 2027, households would pay an extra €3.77–€7.20 ($4–$8) annually through gas bills to fund the reserve. Total yearly costs are estimated at €247 million to €308 million, with households and commercial users covering 40% and industry the remaining 60%, although how much individual industrial consumers would pay remains unclear. Final costs will depend on gas purchases, storage, transport, financing, staffing, and operating expenses. Germany’s state-owned gas market manager, Trading Hub Europe (THE), would set the levy annually rather than the federal government.
Energy Minister Katherina Reiche previously considered budget funding or a hybrid model. However, severe budget constraints reportedly prompted the ministry to stick to its initial plan of 100% consumer funding. Frankfurter Rundschau reported that the draft has already been submitted for interministerial coordination. However, it remains far from becoming law, with government approval, parliamentary scrutiny, and votes still ahead, and discussions in the Bundestag over a possible hybrid financing model ongoing.
Julia Verlinden, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, has criticized the move, telling DPA that citizens would feel the impact of the ambitious gas plans “directly in their wallets.”
Germany’s post-Russian gas predicament
Germany has faced years of severe energy pressure since abandoning Russian supplies following the Ukraine conflict’s escalation in 2022. Alternative imports have sharply raised costs for energy-intensive manufacturers. Berlin has spent approximately €50 billion ($58 billion) cushioning soaring prices since cutting Russian gas imports, Die Süddeutsche Zeitung and Bild reported last month.
The US war on Iran and disruption of the Strait of Hormuz have intensified pressure. Although most German LNG comes from the US, the strait’s effective closure disrupted nearly 20% of global LNG supply, driving wholesale prices higher and undermining commercial incentives to buy and store gas.
As a result, German electricity bills remain among Europe’s highest, averaging 31.4-39.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in late 2026, or roughly €45-€50 monthly for a single-person household. Berlin ranks fourth among European capitals for residential electricity costs.
Meanwhile, Germany’s conventional gas reserves have been under mounting pressure ahead of winter. Following a sluggish summer refilling season, they are reportedly hovering around 60% capacity, an unusually low level for October. German network operators earlier called the EU’s November 1 target of 80%-90% “virtually unattainable.” In September, Berlin even took the unusual step of ordering state-owned SEFE to purchase and inject 8 TWh to shore up winter supplies.
Soaring bills have deepened political divisions. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has gained traction by calling for a return to cheaper Russian energy, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s increasingly unpopular coalition faces pressure over costly gas-fired backup plants and climate-neutrality commitments.
Nord Stream, drones and the ‘Russian threat’
The proposed reserve’s focus on sabotage is particularly notable given the 2022 Nord Stream bombings, which severed key routes for Russian gas to Germany and compounded the country’s energy crisis. Berlin initially refrained from assigning blame, but in July 2026, German prosecutors charged former Ukrainian military officer Sergey Kuznetsov, alleging the attack was carried out by individuals acting on behalf of Ukrainian state bodies. Kiev denies involvement, while Moscow has blamed the West.
The proposal also comes as Berlin and Brussels increasingly cite the purported Russian threat to push through legislation, including tighter security measures and higher defense spending. Just last month, German officials accused Russia of drone activity near airports and other critical infrastructure. Moscow denies the allegations and insists it poses no threat to Europe, describing such warnings as fearmongering aimed at demonizing Russia and distracting from mounting domestic economic and political problems.
Moscow calls Western energy sanctions illegal and counterproductive, arguing that they redirect Russian exports while forcing Europeans toward costlier supplies. Russia has repeatedly offered to cover shortages and resume deliveries but says it received no response. Kremlin economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev warned earlier this year that EU countries would “inevitably beg” for Russian gas as prices rise.
The French politician has warned of massive economic losses and vowed to slash financial aid to Kiev
Admitting Ukraine to the EU would amount to “hara-kiri” for the bloc and inflict immense damage on France, right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen has warned, using the Japanese term for ritual suicide.
Le Pen has long criticized military and financial support for Ukraine, repeatedly pledging to end France’s direct aid to Kiev and calling for sharp cuts to EU-wide assistance.
The politician has emerged as the frontrunner in France’s 2027 presidential race, according to the latest opinion polls, and is projected to defeat both left-wing and centrist rivals in potential runoffs.
Le Pen made the remarks in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday, arguing against Kiev’s longstanding ambition to join the bloc. Making Ukraine a member would be tantamount to “committing hara-kiri,” a scenario bound to result in “absolutely huge economic losses” and the effective loss of sovereignty for France, Le Pen stated.
Earlier this month, the EU rejected Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s demand that Ukraine be admitted by January 2027. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos described the deadline as completely unrealistic, stating Kiev must meet all requirements for “merit-based” membership. A recent survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation indicates support for facilitating Ukraine’s accession has continued to wane, dropping below 50% across the bloc.
Le Pen also reiterated her position on aid to Ukraine, arguing that France, as well as the EU as a whole, could no longer afford to bankroll Kiev.
“The honest thing to do with Zelensky is to tell him, to warn him, in fact, that, listen, we can’t do more, we can’t manage more. [The EU] has already done €90bn of loans; that’s €18bn for France. €18bn is really a lot,” Le Pen told FT.
Separately, she made similar remarks to the Dutch VRT NWS broadcaster, insisting that Paris must tell Zelensky it “can no longer provide this financial assistance” and that the Ukrainian leader should seek monetary help elsewhere. “Perhaps there are other EU countries that are in better financial shape,” Le Pen said, without specifying any candidates for footing France’s bill on Ukraine.
A young French activist says intimidation disrupted her studies, yet the very movements preaching sisterhood look the other way
In nanny states, men become state-dependent tradbros whose solution to an inadequate allowance is to pitch a fit, women get infantilized, and kids become insufferable. But what happens when someone dares to step out of line?
Enter Louise Montagnon – a 22-year-old master’s student, right-wing activist, and recent municipal National Rally candidate from Bordeaux, who has been all over French media debating the young left-wing activists indulging in synchronized tantrums across France, some burning their schools down to protest the lack of educational space. When a country is sufficiently infantilized, you may as well send young people to fight each other on ideological front lines over problems ginned up mostly by grey-haired men.
Montagnon is refusing to sing the dominant tune. “You are the useful idiots of this movement,” she told 17-year-old Erwan on television. He made his name by publicly draping himself over left-wing leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and kissing him on the cheek, having already mastered the politician’s mannerisms while explaining why student life sucked at his slum of a Parisian school near Montmartre. The academy boasts a majestic courtyard and a €120 million renovation project. His particular hardship was having to put in full days.
Montagnon’s message was that the kid hadn’t seen much of the working world and might want to compare class timetables with her before declaring himself a victim. Her argument is dangerous to the movement because if one person can manage, then why can’t you? And when that person is a young woman, the reality becomes especially inconvenient for young men.
Which would explain the violent reaction to this young woman’s mere existence. “Last year, I had to leave my classes during the year because it was no longer possible for safety reasons,” she said during a media appearance. “When you arrive at university and there are 80 people waiting to kick you out, you are no longer safe.” She also explained that during student elections, the library staff wanted her to leave despite what she described as about 200 “brainless leftists” waiting for her outside.
It has also emerged that back in February, she was reportedly distributing campaign literature when her young female colleague was pushed to the ground and she was thrown up against a wall.
Women’s groups lament the Taliban’s exclusion of girls from education, yet appear conspicuously absent when a young woman in France says that intimidation has interfered with her university life. Women should be able to study and participate in public life without being threatened into submission – but only subject to ideological approval or an adequate score on the most superficial diversity scale, apparently.
Montagnon’s offence is actively denouncing the left-wing status quo, exercising her democratic right to dissent. The very sort of independent thinking that feminism is supposed to celebrate – until the independent thinker backs the wrong party or causes.
She fails the longstanding litmus test to qualify for sisterly support. Feminism has become entangled with identity politics in much of the movement, to the point where a woman on the right can demonstrate intellectual independence, self-determination, and meritocratic qualities, yet still be treated as a threat to the ideological monoculture that became synonymous with the feminist movement ever since it sprang up around left-wing actions in the civil rights era.
Women should work to get ahead, provided they’re of the right sort, say the right things, and frame their achievements as contributions to the collective. Individual initiative is welcome, as long as it doesn’t become an inconvenient example of what can be done without adhering to a left-wing political script. And the collective must remain a perpetual victim. Otherwise, what’s even the point of its existence?
There’s something ironically paternalistic about a movement that champions women’s freedom while demonstrating – through its action or inaction – that it reserves the right to decide which of them are valid.
Turns out that the system that Montagnon is being told to navigate may not even be capable of delivering the meritocratic returns that her hard work warrants. Not anymore. Just look at France’s finances.
The country’s debt has climbed well above the EU’s 60%-of-GDP reference value. Now the government needs to rummage around in the couch cushions to find savings in the hope that ordinary people won’t notice, by scratching a few bucks here and there from health-care reimbursements and by de-indexing pension spending from inflation. Seems that the best outcome that Montagnon can hope for is a worthy spot in a broken system that won’t parasitize her hard work too much.
The state has failed this young woman. Not because she’s a woman per se, but because she insists on living her life like a full-fledged human being without limitations that the left imposes on one’s possibilities – either through peer pressure or its insistence on victimhood. And no amount of lip service to women’s rights will compensate when the most basic conditions needed for self-sufficiency to thrive have deteriorated to the point where the hardworking middle class gets exploited as a cash cow.
Montagnon also happens to have stumbled upon institutional feminism’s most shameful secret: the sisterhood is universal in its advertising, but highly selective in its customer service. And particularly as the broke nanny state fails in its effort to placate the handout-insistent masses, women’s liberation should mean embracing and championing independent, freedom-minded women on the right actively seeking to break those shackles. Otherwise, we’re just arguing over who gets to hold the leash.
Germany’s star suspect won’t talk, and his defense team thinks that building the pipeline was the real crime
The trial of Nord Stream bombing suspect Sergey Kuznetsov is underway in Germany, and the Ukrainian veteran’s defense team have revealed their strategy: say nothing and blame Russia. The entire trial, after just one day, has begun to look more like a managed discussion than an inquisition.
What happened to Nord Stream in September 2022?
On September 26, 2022, a seismometer on the Danish island of Bornholm detected two spikes consistent with underwater explosions – one just after 2 AM, and another just after 7 PM. Danish and Swedish authorities then determined that both Nord Stream 1 lines had been destroyed and one Nord Stream 2 line damaged roughly 60 km northeast of Bornholm, while an explosion around 25 km southeast of the island had destroyed the other Nord Stream 2 line.
Nord Stream 1 had been carrying 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas to Germany every year since 2011, while Nord Stream 2 was due to come online in 2022, doubling the project’s total capacity. Gas flow was suspended at the time of the attack, and has not resumed since.
Both Nord Stream lines were opposed by Ukraine, and by every US president since George W. Bush.
Kuznetsov arrived at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court of Hamburg under heavy security on Wednesday. The hearing is the first of 24 sessions scheduled between now and February, as German prosecutors attempt to prove that the Ukrainian military veteran led the sabotage operation that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in September 2022, an act that they say constitutes a war crime.
The allegations against Kuznetsov largely follow the German government’s version of events, which have been drip-fed to Western media outlets in a series of leaks over the last four years. Kuznetsov, prosecutors claim, entered Germany in September 2022 using a forged Ukrainian passport, rented a pleasure yacht with six accomplices, and planted explosives on one of the four undersea lines comprising the Nord Stream project while his team sabotaged the remaining three, all “on behalf of Ukrainian state authorities."
Variations on the story – that the CIA approved or didn’t approve of the operation, and whether or not Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky personally ordered it – have circulated in the media, but Kuznetsov’s alleged involvement remains a constant in most retellings.
American journalist Seymour Hersh has shot down the German story, arguing that the Ukrainian saboteurs would not have been able to transport the requisite deep-sea diving gear and explosives aboard a 15-meter yacht, and almost certainly would have been caught in the act, as NATO was conducting active military exercises in the same area of the Baltic Sea at the time of the alleged sabotage operation. Citing intelligence sources, Hersh maintains that the CIA, working with the Norwegian Navy, used the NATO exercises as cover to plant remotely-detonated explosive devices on the Nord Stream lines.
Kuznetsov is the only one of the seven alleged saboteurs currently on trial. Another suspect, identified as ‘Vladimir Z’, was detained on a film set in Croatia in August and is currently fighting extradition to Germany. According to German media, three civilian divers and the yacht’s skipper – all Ukrainians – remain at large, while a military explosives expert who reportedly took part in the operation was, according to media reports, killed in Ukraine in 2024.
What is the evidence against Kuznetsov?
The prosecution did not present any evidence against Kuznetsov at Wednesday’s hearing. However, Germany’s state ARD and NDR broadcasters have published details from the 136-page indictment against him. According to this report, prosecutors intend to focus on:
A phone call from Kuznetsov to his wife, made in Italian custody last year, in which he defended the bombing as “an official military operation”
Photographs from tourists and speed cameras placing Kuznetsov in Germany at the time of the alleged operation
Traces of the military explosives RDX and HMX from the yacht, the ‘Andromeda’
Internet searches for technical data on the Nord Stream lines and Baltic Sea depths, obtained from Kuznetsov’s phone
What did Kuznetsov say in court?
Kuznetsov remained completely silent throughout Wednesday’s proceedings. His lawyers explained that as Kuznetsov was an officer in the Ukrainian military at the time of the Nord Stream attack, he cannot testify without divulging state secrets. He will remain silent for the rest of the trial.
What did his defense team say?
Kuznetsov’s lawyers did not outright deny their client’s involvement in the attack. Instead, they argued that the evidence linking him to the operation is circumstantial, pointing out that his fingerprints were not among the prints lifted from the Andromeda, and that the prosecution has no eyewitnesses to call.
“It’s the prosecution’s job to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was involved,” legal adviser Ilya Novikov told reporters after the hearing. Pressed by a reporter, Novikov refused to say whether or not Kuznetsov was denying guilt. “He keeps silent, and this is his position,” he replied.
Justifying the attack
Kuznetsov’s legal team put far more energy into arguing that the Nord Stream attack – the costliest act of industrial sabotage in history – was justified. “Is it unlawful to destroy an aggressor’s infrastructure without harming any human beings?” Defense attorney Nicola Canestrini asked the court. Jes Meyer-Lohkamp, another defense attorney representing Kuznetsov, said that the court should consider whether the pipelines “should have been operating at all in light of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, and whether action against them could have been justified.”
Nord Stream, Canestrini asserted, was “a weapon in the hand of the Russians.”
Canestrini, an Italian lawyer who specializes in defending war crimes and genocide suspects in The Hague, pushed for the case to be dropped, arguing that Kuznetzov had originally been extradited for “sabotage,” not “war crimes.”
Prosecutors countered that the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines was “attack by military means against civilian objects,” and therefore a war crime.
What happens next?
Canestrini and Lohkamp may be pre-emptively justifying the destruction of Nord Stream in anticipation of some smoking gun evidence tying Kuznetsov to the crime. However, they are adamant that the prosecution has no evidence to draw on or witnesses to call, and that Kuznetsov’s position in the military will protect him from testifying.
“He is not permitted to speak. His two immediate superiors told him that he does not have authorization to make any statements – not even to his lawyers,” Lohkamp told the court, adding that under German law, “Anyone who cannot speak out cannot be convicted.”
As such, the case will ultimately rest on the strength of the prosecution’s evidence. However, with no fingerprints and no witnesses, securing a conviction will be no easy task. Given the fact that a guilty verdict would implicate the Ukrainian military in a war crime against Kiev’s largest foreign donor, a logical next question is whether the trial is set up to fail.
Stick with RT for all the latest news on the Nord Stream trial over the coming months.
Radoslaw Sikorski has called for a drastic military buildup, warning that the US, Russia, and China could divide the world into spheres of influence
Europe risks becoming little more than a tourist attraction unless it dramatically expands its military capabilities, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has warned, calling for an increasingly confrontational stance against Russia and refusing to return its frozen assets.
Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday, Sikorski argued that Europe must translate its economic power into military strength to avoid being sidelined as the US, China, and Russia compete for global influence.
”What’s at stake is not whether we will be occupied,” referring to speculation of a Russian invasion, which Moscow has dismissed as nonsense. The main question, according to Sikorski, is Europe’s “status in the global division of power.”
“The triumvirate that divides the world into spheres of influence” will either be composed of the US, China, and Russia, while Europe serves as “suppliers of data and tourist attractions,” or Europe will be the “third leg” of the group instead of Russia, he said.
Sikorski called for a more assertive military posture toward Russia, including the creation of a European army that Russia would never attack.
Moscow has denied that it has any intention of attacking Europe, warning that the continent’s accelerating military buildup could instead provoke a direct confrontation. Russian officials have cautioned that the conflict could be “very short” and potentially nuclear.
The Polish foreign minister also rejected the idea of returning Russia’s frozen sovereign assets, declaring that Moscow will recover the assets “over our dead bodies.”
Around $300 billion in Russian central bank reserves have been frozen by Western countries since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The EU has already begun channeling proceeds generated by the assets to Kiev but has stopped short of confiscating the principal, amid legal and financial concerns.
Belgium – which hosts Euroclear, the clearinghouse that holds most of the frozen assets in the EU – has resisted outright confiscation. Officials warn that doing so could undermine confidence in Europe’s financial system and send “a very bad signal to other countries worldwide” that hold assets in the EU.
Russia has denounced the proposals to seize the assets as outright theft, warning that doing so would trigger legal action and retaliation against Western assets in Russia.
Deputy Defense Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka’s remarks have followed a survey showing that 53% of young Poles oppose the prospect
Poland is mulling reintroducing compulsory military service that was abolished in 2009, Deputy Defense Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka has said. Her comments came shortly after an opinion poll indicated that over a half of Poles under 24 were against the reinstatement of conscription.
In an interview with RMF FM radio station on Wednesday, Sobkowiak-Czarnecka revealed that “discussions at the Ministry of National Defense today cover all possible scenarios.” The official said that she personally is a proponent of universal conscription modelled after the Israeli draft system, where both men and women are called up for service.
Sobkowiak-Czarnecka argued that the pool of volunteers should first be exhausted before moving toward the reinstatement of the draft. The Polish deputy defense minister acknowledged, however, that she has “colleagues who are absolutely opposed” to the idea of compulsory military service.
Earlier on Wednesday, RMF FM reported that a recent Opinia24 poll indicated that 46% of respondents were in favor of reintroducing conscription, while 38% were against, with the other 16% undecided. The share of those opposing the draft rises to 53% in the 18-24 cohort. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Warsaw has announced plans to expand its military from the current 220,000 personnel to 500,000, including 200,000 reservists, by 2039.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the Warsaw Security Forum on Tuesday, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called on the European Union to shift to “war-mode” military production.
In recent years, Poland has emerged as one of the most rapidly militarizing EU nations, with its military spending reaching around 4.7% of its GDP. The country has also been one of Kiev’s staunchest backers in its conflict with Moscow, providing Ukraine with weapons, including artillery systems, tanks, armored vehicles, warplanes, and ammunition. Some estimates place Poland in first place among all other Western countries in terms of the volume of assistance provided relative to its own GDP. Poland has also served as a key logistical hub for Ukraine-bound arms shipments from other countries.
Neighboring Germany has emerged as Ukraine’s top backer in Europe in absolute terms, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The German government is likewise aiming to increase the number of active-duty troops to more than 260,000 by 2035, backed by 200,000 reservists. In recent months, several politicians in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s ruling coalition have floated the idea of reinstating conscription.
A new military service system introduced in early 2026 requires all 18-year-old men to register for potential service. While enlistment remains voluntary for now, parliament can activate compulsory service if recruitment targets are not met or the security situation deteriorates.
The new model has sparked nationwide student protests, with an estimated 45,000 demonstrators taking to the streets in some 100 cities and towns late last month.
Both Poland and Germany have justified their respective military buildups by claiming that Russia is harboring aggressive plans against NATO member states. Moscow has repeatedly dismissed these allegations as “nonsense” and even suggested providing written guarantees that it has no such plans.
President Vladimir Putin has accused European NATO member states of openly preparing for war with Russia while using bogus claims. Moscow has also repeatedly warned Western nations against supplying ever more sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine, saying that the bloc is becoming increasingly involved in the conflict with Russia, with potentially dire ramifications.
The current spat between the Ukrainian leader and US president could become the point of no return for their relations, the international law analyst believes
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky may have tested the limits of his relations with US President Donald Trump too much, likely leading to a full breakdown in ties between the pair, international law analyst and academic Alexandre Guerreiro has told RT.
Zelensky and Trump have been engaged in a bitter public spat in recent days, primarily revolving around Washington’s decision to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports. Zelensky branded the move a “weak decision by strong partners” while demanding more support from the US. Trump, in turn, suggested it is time for Ukraine to get a “new president” instead of Zelensky, whose tenure formally ended two years ago, although he has refused to hold new elections under the pretext of the conflict with Russia.
Zelensky has a long history of engaging in public spats with foreign leaders and high-profile figures, Guerreiro said, pointing out that these situations “repeat themselves whenever a partner or an ally opposes Zelensky.”
“In 2025 he attacked Bart de Wever because of Belgium’s hesitation regarding the possibility of diverting Russian assets frozen at Euroclear. Robert Fico, Viktor Orban have always been bullied every time they called for talks with Russia. Whenever someone suggests negotiations, Vladimir Zelensky publicly creates tension,” he said.
With Trump, however, Zelensky may have become “overconfident” thanks to the backing he has received from the EU and UK, Guerreiro suggested, adding that the Ukrainian leader ultimately “suffers from ingratitude and opportunism.”
“He refuses to acknowledge all the support he has received, including the sacrifices of Western bloc citizens, attacks those who help him, and only says ‘thank you’ once he gets what he wants,” Guerreiro added.
The analyst suggested that the Ukrainian leader has likely reached the point when the US president will “lose his temper once and for all” with him. “I believe that now President Trump is about to [lose] his patience with him,” he said.
The British prime minister’s attempt to pin the 2016 referendum on Russia was a desperate piece of political opportunism
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s attempt to blame Russia for the Brexit vote is a crude attempt to undo the referendum and tie the UK back to Brussels. It’s also imploding dramatically.
In an appearance on the ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast on Sunday, Burnham said that he sought answers about alleged meddling in the 2016 Brexit referendum after taking office this summer.
“I asked the question coming to Downing Street: Well, was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? I’ve had the clear answer that yes, there was.”
Burnham did not identify who had provided the assessment or present any evidence to back it up. Nor did he say whether the alleged interference actually affected the result of the referendum. However, he insisted that anti-establishment movements in Britain, France, and Germany – where Chancellor Friedrich Merz has claimed that the right-wing AfD are “Russian-backed” – are “instigated via our enemies, namely Russia.”
On June 23, 2016, Britain voted to leave the EU by a margin of 51.89% to 48.11%. The vote was largely driven by a public desire to reclaim sovereignty, control immigration, and humiliate the country’s political elites, the majority of whom favored continued EU membership.
Six months later, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw announced in parliament that Russia “probably interfered” in the vote. Bradshaw conceded that “we do not have the evidence for that yet, but it is highly probable.” His claims were picked up by media outlets in Britain and the US, where the ‘Russiagate’ hoax was taking root in Washington.
A parliamentary committee stated in April 2017 that the collapse of a voter-registration website in the runup to the referendum could have been the work of a Russian or Chinese denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. In November of that year, City University alleged that 13,000 bot accounts – some of them Russian – were tweeting about Brexit before and after the referendum.
X, then called Twitter, rejected the City University study, stating that it found no evidence linking the bot accounts with Russia; separate research tying Russia to the ‘leave’ campaign was found to be fabricated by an anti-Brexit group funded by liberal billionaire George Soros; and in 2020, a parliamentary report found “no evidence of successful interference in the EU referendum.” At the time, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that “a retrospective assessment of the EU referendum is not necessary” in light of the report.
All of this begs the question: ten years after the Brexit vote, why is Burnham conjuring up the specter of “Russian interference” again?
Burnham’s big break
Burnham’s political maneuvering is obvious here. The British PM has repeatedly said that he would like to see the UK rejoin the EU, and two weeks before appearing on ‘The Rest is Politics’, he opened his speech at the UN General Assembly with a reference to Brexit, lamenting that “my country has lived through the disruption it brought.”
Speaking at his Labour Party’s annual conference a week later, Burnham argued that “Brexit has done more harm than good.” The following day he pledged to forge closer relations with Brussels and, if politically feasible, “go all the way” and rejoin the union.
Burnham has refused to say whether he intends to run his next election campaign on a platform of EU membership. However, he has promised to have “a serious dialogue about the different options for our relationship in the long-term” when he meets EU leaders in Brussels next month.
With the UK and EU both embroiled in a proxy war with Russia, there is no more effective way to delegitimize the Brexit vote at the moment than by tying it to Moscow. Burnham made this explicit in an address to Parliament on October 12, arguing that it would be “a dereliction of duty” not to pursue closer relations with the EU, given Russia’s alleged interference in the referendum.
The hoax crumbles
The prime minister’s confidence began to crumble under questioning. Asked by Conservative MP Julian Lewis “exactly how he thinks Russia was able to alter the result of the referendum,” Burnham replied that Moscow’s interference in British elections was “a matter of record,” without elaborating further.
Responding to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, Burnham claimed that he never implied that the result of the referendum was invalid, before repeating the same “matter of record” line.
Burnham’s lack of evidence became clear when his foreign secretary, Stephen Doughty, appeared on ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’ the same day.
“What did Russia do during that Brexit referendum?” host Susanna Reid asked Doughty, who responded that he was “not going to get into the specifics.”
“Why are you not getting into specifics when the Prime Minister has just got into the specifics on the podcast?” Reid pressed.
Asked repeatedly about Russian interference in the Brexit vote, Doughty gave a variation on “Russia attempts to interfere in all of our democratic processes. They’ve been doing this for many, many years” every time.
“This is embarrassing,” co-host Ed Balls interjected. “It’s really bad for politics when you just blatantly don’t answer the question on something so important and go back to a nonsensical line, which is contradicted by what the prime minister just said.”
The final nail in the coffin came from MI5 Director Ken McCallum. McCallum is no stranger to anti-Russian opportunism, having pushed for mass internet surveillance to prevent Russia causing “mayhem on British and European streets.” However, he warned on Tuesday against exaggerating “Russian influence” on Brexit, arguing that debating the influence of “Russian trolls” on the vote “play[s] into our adversaries’ hands by making these trolls look 10ft tall.”
The Burnham playbook
Burnham has a habit of making extraordinary claims without the extraordinary evidence to back them up. After five Londoners were arrested outside RAF Fairford in an apparent terror bust last month, the British PM told the BBC that there are “strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened.”
The five men – plus two more suspects arrested afterwards – have all been released on bail. No explosives were found in their vehicles, and no link between the men and the Iranian government has been established, according to all available information. However, Burnham told the BBC that “we can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part,” before telling Parliament that the supposed terror plot was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Tehran has described the incident as “a clumsy false-flag operation,” aimed at “advancing an anti-Iran campaign and evading accountability for Britain’s involvement in the US-Israeli military aggression against the Iranian people.”
Likewise, Moscow has repeatedly denied interfering in the Brexit referendum. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Burnham’s allegations as “the latest baseless accusations made without any proof.”
Burnham’s claim would never have been torn apart in parliament, in the media, and by his own domestic intelligence agency had ‘The Rest is Politics’ host Alastair Campbell pushed back and demanded evidence or elaboration. However, Campbell has a track record of embellishing facts to suit political narratives, with disastrous consequences.
Campbell was serving as then-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s communications adviser in 2002 when he ordered a dossier on “Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction” to be “sexed up” in order to make a stronger case for joining the US-led invasion, according to Defense Ministry expert Dr David Kelly.
An inquiry found that Campbell changed multiple lines within the dossier to make Iraq appear more threatening. Among them was a line stating that Iraqi forces “may be able to deploy” chemical weapons against British troops within 45 minutes of receiving an order, which became “are able to deploy.”
Campbell then compiled a second dossier, now known as the “Dodgy Dossier.” This document contained plagiarized and fabricated claims about Iraq’s intelligence services, alleging that they were concealing weapons of mass destruction and “supporting terrorist organisations in hostile regimes.” None of these claims were true.
The second dossier was published in February 2003. Five weeks later, Parliament held a vote to join the invasion, with Burnham one of 139 Labour MPs voting in favor of the war. Burnham has since said that, if he could go back to 2003, he “wouldn’t have voted for it.”
More than two decades later, Burnham is once again making “dodgy dossier”-tier accusations in service of two foreign conflicts, and in aid of his own political ambitions.
The incident is a “catastrophic failure” amid growing tensions with Argentina over the Falklands, the paper’s source says
The British Navy has been left without its only icebreaker after HMS Protector suffered double engine failure at sea, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday. The breakdown adds to mounting concerns about Britain’s readiness for a major war and persistent funding problems.
HMS Protector, which was originally built in Norway in 2001, suffered simultaneous engine defects while departing Britain and had to be towed back to the Devonport naval base in Plymouth, the report says.
Maintenance failures are suspected, according to The Telegraph, although the full extent of the damage is unclear. If it cannot be repaired, a replacement may not arrive until the 2030s, the paper said.
One Navy source cited by The Telegraph described the incident as a “catastrophic failure.” Former HMS Endurance Commander Tom Sharpe warned that losing the icebreaker would undermine Britain’s presence in the South Atlantic amid renewed tensions with Argentina over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas, as they are known in Argentina) and the Sea Lion offshore oil project, as well as growing competition in the Arctic.
“These ships cost a tiny fraction of the defense budget yet deliver an outsized effect in presence and soft power,” Sharpe said.
HMS Protector typically deploys to the South Atlantic and Antarctic, conducting hydrographic surveys, supporting scientific stations, and carrying personnel for inspections under international agreements. The vessel, which has a crew of around 88, does not have any heavy weapons but can carry machine guns and embark specialist Royal Marines.
The UK relies on the ship to project its influence in the Antarctic, where its territorial claims overlap with those of Argentina and Chile, though they have effectively been frozen under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. Britain also operates a separate civilian icebreaker, RRS Sir David Attenborough, but it cannot replace HMS Protector’s naval patrol role.
The reported incident comes after the UK Navy announced in July the retirement of two more Type 23 frigates, leaving the fleet with just five frigates alongside six destroyers. Around the same time, retired Naval Staff chief Lord Alan West suggested that the British fleet has been reduced to the worst state in history.
In March, First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins acknowledged that the Navy is not ready for war, saying it aims to reach that level of preparedness by the end of the decade.
Officials have also sounded the alarm over the hollowed-out military budget, with the Treasury struggling to find £4.7 billion ($6.2 billion) for its multi-year military investment strategy.
The crackdown comes as nationwide demonstrations over school staff shortages and education funding disrupt hundreds of institutions
French police have launched violence charges against student protesters in Paris, arresting young demonstrators as security forces crack down on schoolchildren protesting against staff shortages and underfunding in education, RT correspondent Nadege Abderazzak has reported.
The protests began in late September at a high school in Créteil, a Paris suburb, where teachers and students protested severe staff shortages and deteriorating facilities. The movement quickly spread across France, with thousands of students demanding better education funding and an end to cuts in public services. Demonstrators have also challenged government spending priorities, calling for money to be spent on schools rather than weapons.
Reporting from Paris on Wednesday, Abderazzak described police charging at demonstrators and arresting a young protester. “We’re witnessing a very violent charge by the security forces who have just arrested a young individual,” she said, pointing to the detainee lying on the ground.
Abderazzak said that tensions had persisted for two hours, with an estimated 300 to 400 protesters facing three to five times as many police officers and gendarmes. The march had begun at Paris City Hall, she said, noting that two demonstrations had been authorized by the Paris Police Prefecture.
Since the protests erupted last month, the unrest has repeatedly escalated into confrontations, with police deploying tear gas, water cannon, and stun grenades against demonstrators. Thousands have reportedly been detained and hundreds injured nationwide since late September, including minors. A 15-year-old boy reportedly lost a hand after picking up a police grenade.
By early October, protests had disrupted more than 1,000 educational institutions, with over 160,000 demonstrators taking to the streets on Tuesday, according to authorities. Protesters have challenged France’s spending priorities, demanding: “Allocate money to education, not to buying arms,” according to media reports.
The police crackdown has drawn international criticism, including from Iran, which condemned the use of force against students, while French authorities have defended their response and pledged additional school staff.
The protests come as President Emmanuel Macron’s government cuts public spending while pouring billions into militarization and military aid to Ukraine. France has boosted its 2026 defense budget by €6.7 billion to €57.1 billion, with another €36 billion earmarked for military spending through 2030.
Meanwhile, France’s budget deficit is expected to hit 5.4% of GDP this year, with public debt climbing to 119.3%. Despite the mounting financial strain, Paris has pledged to keep supplying Kiev with weapons, including missiles and air defense systems.
Vehicle shortages have turned promised deportation initiatives into “real-life satire,” according to union leader
Berlin police have been unable to carry out planned migrant deportations because of a shortage of functioning vehicles, Welt has reported, citing a police union warning about the German capital’s deteriorating fleet.
Several operations could not proceed as planned because officers simply did not have enough vehicles to collect people scheduled to be returned to their home countries, Frank Teichert, Berlin chairman of the German Police Union, told the newspaper.
The shortages have caused considerable frustration, turning every promised “deportation offensive” into “real-life satire” on the ground, he said.
Some 159 of Berlin’s 3,304 police vehicles have been unavailable because of workshop work, according to a parliamentary inquiry. Teichert also said more than half the fleet meets at least one criterion for replacement.
The problems stem from years of underfunding, Benjamin Jendro, a police union spokesman, said. Officers regularly encounter worn brakes, seat belts, buckles and interiors, while the vehicle budget remains at 2016–17 levels despite higher prices and increased demand.
The problems also extend to the fire service, where vehicle shortages force neighboring stations to cover calls, increasing travel distances and response times, according to the firefighters’ union. External repair costs have also risen from around €4.7 million in 2024 to nearly €8 million last year.
Berlin’s interior administration maintains that reserve vehicles ensure operational readiness, while acknowledging that limited funding and rising procurement costs are hampering efforts to replace aging equipment.
The failures come despite Germany’s promises to tighten migration controls, expand border checks and accelerate deportations. Growing public frustration over immigration, housing shortages, and subsequent pressure on public services has continued to fuel mass protests in recent months both in Germany and across the EU.
European governments have pledged faster removals, but implementation has continued to lag. EU countries issued around 110,000 deportation orders in the second quarter of 2026, while fewer than 37,000 people were actually removed from the bloc, according to Eurostat. Missing documents, legal challenges and receiving countries’ refusal to cooperate have remained obstacles to deportation.
US President Donald Trump has increased pressure on Vladimir Zelensky to halt strikes on Russian refineries and to hold an election
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has disrupted Ukrainian drone missions by abruptly restricting the military’s high-speed access to the Starlink satellite network, according to officials in Kiev and frontline commanders. The complaints come as US President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on Vladimir Zelensky to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries and hold a long-overdue presidential election.
The development was reported on Wednesday by Sergey Beskrestnov, Zelensky’s technology adviser, who claimed that SpaceX had imposed a speed limit of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) on Starshield, its military-grade satellite communications service, without informing Kiev in advance.
“Our defense forces were not notified of this restriction, and it has resulted in the disruption of several missions,” he wrote, adding that the move was clearly connected to the “current political situation.”
Later, he added that the curbs imposed on long-range missions are only part of the problem, as the restrictions also impact Ukraine’s interceptor drones, rendering them less potent in tackling Russia’s own strike UAVs.
The disruption was corroborated by four Ukrainian frontline sources cited by Ukrainskaya Pravda. According to the article, one commander provided footage showing two drones losing connectivity above cloud cover and becoming unable to complete their mission.
Ukraine’s 7th Air Assault Corps also confirmed serious operational problems, noting that satellite connections were dropping for 10–20 seconds at speeds of just 110–120 km/h, well below the reported 160 km/h limit. It also warned that slower-flying drones become more vulnerable to Russian air defenses, while aircraft used in mid-range strikes against Russian logistics could become impossible to launch or operate effectively.
Sergey Sternenko, a Ukrainian activist and former Defense Ministry adviser, suggested that SpaceX had acted at the request of the Trump administration. Neither Washington nor Musk has commented on the reports.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also weighed in, addressing Musk directly. “Hey, Elon Musk, big man, are you playing politics with your products again?” he wrote on X. Poland spends approximately $50 million annually on Starlink services supporting Ukraine, and Sikorski had previously threatened to reconsider those payments after SpaceX announced roaming restrictions affecting Polish customers, a decision which was later rolled back.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had no independent information about the reported restrictions but argued that “it would be better if remarkable technologies such as Starlink were not used for military purposes at all.”
Starlink has become a cornerstone of Ukraine’s military communications since the escalation of its conflict with Russia in 2022, with Kiev’s forces relying on the network for reconnaissance, logistics, and drone control. However, SpaceX has refused to enable the service for strikes deep inside Russia, with Musk reportedly believing that doing so would escalate the conflict.
The reported disruption comes as Trump has ramped up pressure on Kiev to stop attacking Russian oil refineries – something Zelensky said he was ready to agree to on the condition that Moscow stops targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The US president has also eased restrictions on Russian diesel exports following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, triggering Zelensky’s pushback.
Musk echoed Trump’s criticism of the strikes, writing on X that “Zelensky has gone too far.”
The Trump-Zelensky feud also turned personal, with the US president suggesting that Ukraine needs “a new president.” The Ukrainian leader’s presidential term ended in 2024, and he has refused to call a new election, citing martial law. Russia has since declared him “illegitimate,” arguing that his dubious status is a major obstacle to signing a binding peace deal.
The group is ready for peace talks but Riyadh should lift its blockade and withdraw from Yemeni territory, Abdulwahid Abu Ras has told RT
Yemen’s Houthis will continue retaliatory strikes against Saudi airports and oil facilities as long as Riyadh continues its military operations in Yemen, the Houthi administration’s acting foreign minister, Abdulwahid Abu Ras, has told RT.
He said the fighting could end if Saudi Arabia lifted its blockade and withdrew its forces from Yemeni territory.
Recent Houthi-claimed strikes on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport have killed at least 14 people and injured more than 300 over the weekend. On Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition struck a fuel depot near Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
The minister described the group’s approach as “an eye for an eye,” saying Houthi forces were targeting Saudi oil facilities, infrastructure, and military positions in retaliation.
“Siege for siege, airport for airport, ports for ports, and escalation for escalation,” Abu Ras told RT India Managing Editor Ashok Bagriya in an exclusive interview.
The renewed confrontation began in July when strikes on Sanaa airport were followed by Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, breaking years of relative calm following a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022. United Nations envoy Hans Grundberg warned last week that Yemen had returned to full-scale war.
“Our red lines are that the blockade on Yemen, our airports, and our ports must not continue,” Abu Ras said. He also demanded access to the country’s oil and gas resources.
He said the Houthi administration remains prepared for direct negotiations with Riyadh despite Saudi Arabia allegedly failing to implement earlier humanitarian agreements. “We invite the Saudi regime to sit at the negotiation table to implement what was agreed upon,” Abu Ras said, calling for humanitarian facilities to be kept out of the fighting.
Abu Ras, however, ruled out Sanaa imposing tolls or fees on commercial vessels using the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which its forces now control after recent advances along the coast. “This is out of the question… Sanaa is keen to keep the shipping lane and commercial traffic in Bab el-Mandeb completely normal in every sense of the word.”
The minister also sought to separate the fighting in his country from the conflict between the US and Iran, the Houthis’ main backer. “The Yemeni position is a declared position regarding its internal cause, its national cause… which have nothing to do with any external agenda.”
“Whether the brothers in the Islamic Republic of Iran reach solutions with the American side or not, this is a completely separate issue,” he said.
Abu Ras accused the UK of adopting hostile positions in the UN Security Council, providing cover for Saudi actions, and legitimizing them in international forums.
“Such interventions further complicate the conflict and drag the region towards a potentially larger conflict, which could lead to repercussions and consequences that affect everyone,” the minister warned.
A military exercise in the south-Atlantic islands the UK claims as its own included, for the first time in years, amphibious maneuvers
British troops have practiced retaking the disputed Falkland Islands in the event of another Argentine attempt to take over the territory, The Times has reported.
The exercise comes as tensions rise between Britain and Argentina over a British-Israeli oil project near the islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas. Buenos Aires claims sovereignty over the territory and surrounding waters.
The drills, held from September 27 to October 2, included amphibious landings for the first time in years, according to the newspaper. During the exercise, Argentina announced international arbitration proceedings against Britain in an effort to block the $2.2 billion oil project.
British forces regularly hold exercises with local troops on the islands. The latest Cape Upholder drills involved around 150 British paratroopers from the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (2 PARA), and 100 members of the Falkland Islands Defense Force.
The exercise took place in several locations on East Falkland, including near San Carlos where British troops landed during the 1982 war with Argentina. According to The Times, the drills included amphibious operations to retake the islands, rather than the usual focus on defending them.
Argentine President Javier Milei, an ally of US President Donald Trump, has renewed his country’s claim to the islands and opposed the Sea Lion oil project. British firm Rockhopper and Israeli company Navitas plan to begin oil production about 220 km (137 miles) north of the islands in early 2028.
Britain has also urged Interpol to reject Argentine requests to arrest people involved in the Sea Lion project, including British nationals, The Guardian reported. London argues that the requests are politically motivated.
In early September, Milei announced plans to revive a naval base project in Ushuaia, southern Argentina. He called British plans to extract oil claimed by Argentina a threat to its sovereignty and reaffirmed Buenos Aires’ goal of regaining control over the Falklands.
Trump has also questioned whether Britain retains the military capabilities it had under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the 1982 Falklands War, while declining to give a clear commitment of US support in the event of another conflict.
“You went there and you just took it back very quickly,” Trump said in a September interview with GB News. “I just don’t know if you have the capacity to do it.”
The Times quoted the commanding officer of the 2 PARA contingent as saying the exercise “gave us the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of our forefathers” while also exploring “how the cyber and space domains could affect missions like this in the modern era.”
The islands had no permanent indigenous population before European settlement. France, Britain, Spain, and Argentina subsequently established settlements or asserted authority over the archipelago before Britain took control in 1833.
The Russian government supports neither side’s territorial claim, advocates for peaceful resolution of the dispute, and opposes possible militarization of the South Atlantic.
The pontiff’s surgery has raised questions over who would run the Catholic Church if he became incapacitated
Pope Leo XIV has had part of a lung removed after being diagnosed with cancer, the Vatican has announced. The diagnosis has exposed a gap in Vatican law, which has no clear procedure for transferring papal authority if the pontiff becomes too ill to govern.
The 71-year-old pope underwent surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Tuesday after doctors discovered a small tumor. The Vatican confirmed that surgeons removed the lower lobe of his right lung and that tests identified the cancer as pulmonary adenocarcinoma, one of the most common forms of lung cancer.
“The surgery was completed successfully, within the expected timeframe and as planned,” the Vatican said in a statement. The operation lasted approximately 90 minutes, with the pope spending about three hours in the operating room. Doctors reported no complications.
Leo spent a calm night in the hospital, the Vatican said on Wednesday. His public engagements have been canceled through October 20, with doctors expecting him to remain hospitalized for about a week.
The pontiff, elected in May 2025, had previously said the lung nodule was small and detected at an early stage. Doctors have yet to say whether he will need further cancer treatment.
Pulmonary adenocarcinoma can affect both smokers and nonsmokers. While tobacco use is a major risk factor for lung cancer, exposure to secondhand smoke, radon and asbestos can also contribute. Leo has no known history of smoking, although cancer has affected several members of his family. His mother died of cancer in 1990, while the Vatican announced on Tuesday that his older brother is also battling the disease.
Under canon law, even a pope who is unconscious or permanently unable to govern remains in charge. Unlike secular heads of state, he has no deputy who automatically assumes his powers.
The Vatican’s day-to-day operations continue under senior officials, led by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was attending a conference outside the Vatican during Leo’s surgery.
“We were all struck by the serenity with which the pope announced this procedure,” Parolin told reporters on Tuesday. “Am I worried? Yes, because I certainly didn’t expect something like this.”
The problem has troubled the Vatican for decades. In 1965, Pope Paul VI prepared letters proposing his resignation in the event of serious illness. Pope Francis later drafted a similar letter to be invoked if he became medically incapacitated.
Neither document was ever used and their legal validity remains uncertain. Canon law requires a pope to resign freely, leaving no clear way to transfer power if he becomes permanently incapacitated.
Ahmed bin Sulaiman Al Rajhi was addressing a forum in Riyadh when warnings sounded amid escalating Houthi attacks
A missile alert interrupted a speech by a Saudi minister, Ahmed bin Sulaiman Al Rajhi, while he was addressing an economic forum in Riyadh on Monday, amid escalating Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
The incident occurred at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Centre, when warning notifications sounded simultaneously on the minister’s phone and those of audience members.
Al Rajhi, the human resources and social development minister, briefly acknowledged the alerts before calmly continuing his speech.
“We are under the protection of the Lord of the Worlds. God willing, may God turn their plot back upon them,” he told the audience.
The interruption came after two consecutive Houthi attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh over the weekend, which killed more than a dozen people, including several foreign nationals.
Residents reported hearing several powerful explosions in the Saudi capital on Monday night, according to Al Jazeera. The Saudi military said its air defenses had intercepted at least one Houthi ballistic missile targeting Riyadh, along with two additional projectiles launched toward the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.
Saudi Arabia’s aviation authority announced on Monday that Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport would remain closed until October 17 following the deadly strikes.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack. In an exclusive interview with RT, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a spokesperson for the group, described the strike as retaliation for years of Saudi bombardment of Yemen’s civilian infrastructure.
He warned that the Houthis would continue targeting Saudi military facilities and critical infrastructure until Riyadh ended its involvement in Yemen, lifted its blockade and agreed to a “comprehensive and permanent peace.”
Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015, leading a military coalition supporting the internationally recognized government against the Houthis.
Large-scale fighting largely subsided following a UN-brokered truce in 2022 but flared up again in July after Saudi-backed Yemeni forces struck the Houthi-held Sanaa Airport.
Last month, the Houthis seized large stretches of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and territory around the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, including the port of Mocha.
Saudi-backed government forces have since launched a counteroffensive, claiming to have recaptured key positions near the vital shipping route connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Riyadh has stepped up its air support for the offensive, intensifying strikes on Houthi-held territory in recent days. According to the group, Saudi bombardments have killed nearly 400 people since early September, many of them civilians.
Officers fired tear gas as protesters hurled cobblestones during nationwide demonstrations demanding better learning conditions
Clashes between protesters and police continued in Paris on Tuesday as high school and university students staged their fifth round of nationwide demonstrations demanding better learning conditions.
In the capital, the most intense clashes took place at Place Vauban, a square near Les Invalides, the historic military complex housing Napoleon’s tomb.
Police fired volleys of tear gas, while protesters hurled cobblestones and launched fireworks at officers.
More than 6,800 people have been detained since the demonstrations began last month, when students joined striking public sector workers. Around 161,500 people took part in protests on Tuesday, including 41,500 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. Organizers put nationwide turnout at 480,000.
La tension ne retombe pas place Vauban. Les forces de l'ordre multiplient les charges et l'emploi de grenades pour repousser les manifestants en marge de la manifestation des lycéens et étudiants. https://t.co/Ac8YyhJ2Cz
🔴 La police complètement submergée par les jets de pavés, place Vauban
Une voiture en flammes et des équipements des forces de l’ordre abandonnés
📸 @AdrienAdcaZz @LibreQg
#13Octobre #blocus #lycées #BlocusUniversités https://t.co/kkcbfVIjCy
While government officials acknowledged the legitimacy of students’ grievances, they blamed far-left activists for the violence and accused La France Insoumise (LFI), the third-largest party in parliament, of inciting unrest. The party rejected the allegations and called on protesters to refrain from violence.
Regain de tensions dans le cortège parisien de la mobilisation des lycéens et étudiants, les forces de l'ordre sont visées par des tirs de mortiers d'artifice et des projectiles https://t.co/0UL198v5VV
Une voiture a été incendiée en marge de la manifestation des lycéens et étudiants. Intervention des forces de l'ordre et des pompiers. https://t.co/lQ04gw7Bn1
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez also accused the left-wing groups Le Poing Leve and Revolution Permanente of encouraging violence during student protests in the Paris suburbs. Both groups rejected the allegations, accusing the minister of overseeing a “brutal crackdown.”
Students and trade unions accused police of using excessive force. The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), France’s internal police watchdog, is investigating 36 cases of alleged misconduct.
On Tuesday, a police officer was charged with “aggravated violence” in connection with an incident in Tours on September 30, when a 16-year-old student lost an eye after being struck by a projectile fired from an LBD, a police weapon that fires less-lethal rounds.
In an effort to address student demands, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on Tuesday that the government is sending 3,000 substitute teachers to high schools that face the most severe staff shortages.
The Saudi national allegedly sought information about confidential meetings and used encrypted surveillance equipment
An OpenAI employee has been arrested for allegedly planting a recording device in a conference room at the company’s California office where executives discussed highly confidential information, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.
FBI Director Kash Patel identified the suspect as Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national who had worked as an engineer at OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, since July 2025.
If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
According to an unsealed criminal complaint, OpenAI staff discovered an audio recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room at the company’s San Francisco office around September 30. The device “had been concealed in toilet paper,” and its contents were encrypted.
Security camera footage allegedly shows Alfozan entering the conference room and looking behind the television where the device was planted. OpenAI security personnel later discovered that the suspect left a bag containing a second recording device in another room.
According to the complaint, Alfozan used a productivity tool to make multiple inquiries about where executives held meetings, despite having no authorization to attend them. The document also alleges that a chatbot account associated with Alfozan’s spouse contained prompts about covert recording devices.
“This serious situation underscores why winning the global super intelligence race is a national security prerogative,” Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton said.
The incident comes amid intensifying technological competition between the US and China, as well as concerns raised by OpenAI and other technology companies that increasingly capable AI models could access external networks or act without authorization.
Former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher Jacob Coxon claimed earlier this month that China “already has spies” at both companies. Beijing has denied allegations of stealing trade secrets.
Trump has backed calls for stronger safeguards at AI companies but rejected proposals to slow the development of AI models. Earlier this month, he appointed Clayton to lead a White House AI task force.
A bipartisan group of 12 lawmakers has urged the president to reverse his Russian diesel deal, arguing it will do little to lower fuel prices
A bipartisan group of 12 US senators has urged President Donald Trump to abandon a diesel deal with Russia, arguing that it will betray Ukraine while doing little to curb surging energy prices.
The decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports, announced on October 9, reportedly blindsided Ukraine and America’s European allies, reigniting Trump’s public feud with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.
The dispute comes ahead of the November midterm elections, with Republicans seeking to retain control of Congress.
In a letter sent on Tuesday, the senators argued that “granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine.” They claimed that the move will have “a negligible impact on fuel prices,” while the proceeds will allow Russia to fund its military operations in Ukraine and “advance its security cooperation with China, Iran, and North Korea.”
“It will also endanger servicemembers operating overseas in support of Operation Epic Fury,” the senators wrote, referring to the US war with Iran. They urged Trump to impose additional sanctions on Russia and its trading partners under legislation named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham, a vocal Russia hawk, which the president signed into law last month.
The letter was signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal, Thom Tillis, Jeanne Shaheen, Susan Collins, Dick Durbin, Alan Armstrong, Sheldon Whitehouse, Lisa Murkowski, Jack Reed, Chris Coons, Mitch McConnell, and John Cornyn.
Trump has defended the agreement with Russia as beneficial to American consumers. “I made the right choice for the American People – ALWAYS, AMERICA FIRST!” he wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
According to Axios, Trump decided to strike a deal with Moscow after Zelensky rejected “half a dozen” US requests to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, which Trump blamed for rising gas prices.
Trump also suggested that it is “time for Ukraine to get a new president” after Zelensky criticized him for easing sanctions on Russia. Zelensky’s five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, but he has not called new elections, citing martial law which was imposed following the escalation of the conflict with Russia.
Trump also pointed out that the EU has continued to import Russian energy despite pledging to phase it out. The bloc has spent more than $320 billion on Russian energy since 2022, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said earlier this month.
Ken McCallum’s remarks came after Prime Minister Andy Burnham claimed Moscow interfered in the 2016 referendum
MI5 chief Ken McCallum has urged the public not to exaggerate the impact of alleged Russian attempts to influence the outcome of the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum.
McCallum’s comments came after some pro-Brexit politicians accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham of questioning the legitimacy of the vote by claiming it is “clear” that Russia interfered.
Russia has firmly denied that it meddles in British domestic politics, including the 2016 referendum.
“There is a really important difference between interference attempted and outcome swayed… It’s quite important to focus on the difference between what may have been attempted and what actually resulted,” the UK spy chief said on Tuesday, as quoted by The Guardian.
McCallum suggested that “Russian trolls” would “be delighted because they are front page news again despite the comparative unimpressiveness of what they do at all points along the journey.”
“I am a little bit anxious that we don’t play into our adversaries’ hands by making these trolls look 10ft tall,” he said.
Without providing supporting data, the MI5 chief claimed that Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, “came in pretty strongly around the referendum,” and that “there was a certain amount of interference attempted through trolls and bots and so forth.”
In 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU despite the government campaigning to remain. The unexpected result prompted Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to resign.
Appearing on ‘The Rest Is Politics’ podcast over the weekend, Burnham said, “I asked the question coming to Downing Street, was there interference in the 2016 referendum from Russia? And I’ve had the clear answer that yes, there was.” According to Reuters, he did not provide evidence of the alleged interference attempts.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who was a leading figure in the Leave campaign in 2016, called Burnham “a liar.”
“There was no Russian interference. And the Russia hoax has run all the way through this,” Farage said.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the prime minister of having “implied that the referendum result was illegitimate because of Russian interference.”
Following the backlash, the government said Burnham “absolutely accepts the referendum result.”
RT has long denied that it attempted to sway the Brexit vote. “British PR professionals failed to properly promote the benefits of Britain’s EU membership and blamed their failure on RT and Sputnik. They cannot accept that their fellow citizens are capable of thinking for themselves, reading something other than The Times, and voting as they please,” RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said in 2018.
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