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A new survey has revealed that many US voters believe they won’t be able to get their country back on track peacefully

Many Americans believe that voting won’t be sufficient to turn their country in the right direction. In fact, a new poll has revealed that heading into this year’s US presidential election, one in five voters think violence may be required to achieve their political objectives.

The PBS/NPR/Marist poll, released on Wednesday, showed that 20% of US adults – including 28% of Republicans – believe that “Americans may have to resort to violence in order to get their country back on track.” That view was shared by 12% of Democrats and 18% of independent voters.

The survey results reflect rising doubts in the US political system. Nearly three in ten Americans, including 61% of Republicans, still don’t believe that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. A USA Today poll released earlier this year showed that more than half of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump’s supporters have little confidence that this year’s votes will be accurately counted.

A University of Virginia poll released last October found that 31% of Trump backers and 24% of Biden voters believe that “democracy is no longer a viable system, and Americans should explore alternative forms of government to ensure stability and progress.” More than four in ten Trump fans agreed that “the situation in America is such that I would favor states seceding from the union to form their own separate country.”

The newly released PBS/NPR/Marist poll revealed that 41% of Americans believe the country has gotten so far off track that it needs a leader who is “willing to break some rules to set things right.” That view was shared by 56% of Republicans, 28% of Democrats and 37% of independents.

The poll shows that as Biden and Trump head toward their volatile rematch in November, the country is in “an incredibly dangerous place,” PBS said. University of Michigan law professor Barabra McQuade blamed Trump for the political tinderbox, saying he had stoked fears to manipulate voters. “Regardless of your politics, the idea of breaking rules and engaging in violence is just antithetical to the idea of America,” she said.

READ MORE: Washington lives in denial over Putin’s victory while gaming its own elections

Trump and his supporters have argued that Biden’s administration has abandoned democratic norms by “weaponizing” the justice system to persecute his political enemies and interfere in the 2024 election. The former president has vowed to pardon many of the people convicted of crimes stemming from the January 2021 US Capitol riot, referring to them as “J6 hostages.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has insisted that Kiev will be allowed to join the Western military bloc

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has capped a meeting of NATO diplomats by doubling down on an issue that helped trigger the Russia-Ukraine conflict: allowing Kiev to join the Western military alliance.

“Ukraine will become a member of NATO,” Blinken told reporters on Thursday in Brussels. “Our purpose at the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership and to create a clear pathway for Ukraine moving forward.”

Blinken made his comments as NATO foreign ministers completed a two-day meeting to rally more international support for Kiev. He spoke at a press briefing alongside Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who argued that Ukraine “deserves to be a member of NATO.” The Ukrainian diplomat added, “This should happen sooner rather than later.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned for the better part of two decades that NATO’s eastward expansion undermines Russian national security and that moving the bloc’s forces into Ukraine would cross a “red line.” NATO-Russia relations have deteriorated so much amid the current Ukraine crisis that the alliance is now in “direct confrontation” with Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

The determination of NATO members to back Ukraine remains “rock solid,” Blinken said at Thursday’s press briefing. “We will do everything we can; allies will do everything that they can to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to continue to deal with Russia’s ongoing aggression.”

The top US diplomat also urged Congress to approve $60 billion in additional aid to Ukraine. The proposal has been stalled by rising opposition from Republican lawmakers since last fall. The administration of US President Joe Biden has already burned through $113 billion in previously approved Ukraine funding.

US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said in an interview on Wednesday that the latest aid bill is likely headed for passage when Congress goes back into session next week. The Georgia Republican argued that Washington’s escalating “proxy war” in Ukraine is making Americans less safe and pushing the world closer to World War III.

READ MORE: US pushing world to WWIII – US congresswoman

Reacting to Blinken’s statement on Thursday, Greene reminded her 3.2 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) that under the NATO charter, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. “Making Ukraine a member of NATO means that the US will be going to war against Russia, as mandated by Article 5,” she wrote.

The nation’s armed forces should be “war-ready,” Boris Pistorius has said

Germany needs to reintroduce conscription, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Thursday as he unveiled an ambitious military reform plan aimed at making the nation’s armed forces fit for a potential conflict. Berlin abolished its military draft in 2011 and its army has since suffered from an acute personnel shortage.

“We have considered that compulsory military service will be reintroduced,” Pistorius told journalists in Berlin as he spoke about the new structure of the Bundeswehr, the nation’s armed forces. Specific plans involving potential conscription models were to be presented in April, the minister said.

The draft was suspended under amendments to the Compulsory Military Service Act passed by lawmakers in 2011. Reintroducing it would now require parliamentary approval. Pistorius did not provide any details about any potential conscription models, but some German media outlets reported that they could be based on the ones used by nations such as Sweden.

In Sweden, only a small portion of military-age youths are drafted every year, but those avoiding conscription face penalties up to jail sentences.

However, the plans were met with skepticism by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and faced opposition from Finance Minister Christian Lindner, according to media reports.

The measure was proposed by Pistorius as part of a major reform that is expected to be set in motion in the coming months, according to the minister himself. The new organizational structure is designed to make the German army more agile and effective and generally “optimally positioned … in the event of an emergency, in the event of defense, in the event of war.”

The military should be turned into a credible deterrent to prevent anyone from even thinking about “attacking us as a NATO territory,” Pistorius said, adding that the most important decisions were “to be implemented in the next few months.”

The German military has been suffering from major personnel and equipment shortages for years. In mid-March, the parliamentary commissioner for the Bundeswehr, Eva Hoegl, revealed in her annual report that the number of military personnel shrank further last year and that the dropout rate was “still very high,” while the number of new applications was decreasing.

A survey conducted at the same time showed that only 10% of Germans expressed confidence that the armed forces could defend the country in the event of a conflict. However, it is unclear if reinstating the draft could change this situation. A poll conducted in December 2023 demonstrated that only 17% of Germans were “definitely” willing to take up arms and defend their country even if faced with foreign aggression.

The US government has reportedly authorized sending thousands of additional munitions to West Jerusalem amid the war in Gaza

The administration of US President Joe Biden has reportedly agreed to provide thousands of additional bombs to Israel, helping to replenish stockpiles that have been depleted by West Jerusalem’s six-month bombardment of Gaza.

The latest weapons transfer was authorized on Monday, CNN and the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing unidentified US government officials. The package includes more than 1,000 MK-82 bombs, which weigh 500 pounds each, as well as over 1,000 small-diameter munitions and fuses for MK-80 bombs.

The weapons transfer was finalized hours after news broke that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed seven aid workers, including US and UK citizens, in a drone strike targeting a humanitarian aid convoy in the Palestinian enclave. Nearly 200 aid workers have reportedly been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since Israel’s war against Hamas began in October.

Although Biden has chided Israel for not doing enough to protect aid workers and other civilians in Gaza, his administration has refused to throttle back its support for the IDF or place conditions on weapons shipments. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to Gaza health authorities, and the UN has warned of a humanitarian “catastrophe” if the IDF goes through with its planned ground offensive at the southern end of the enclave.

“We believe that the approach that we’re taking is working in terms of making it clear to the Israelis what our expectations are,” White House National Security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. He added, “Right now, we are continuing to support Israel because they continue to need military assistance because they continue to face a viable threat.”

Josh Paul, a former US State Department official who resigned last October over military aid to Israel, told CNN that the latest weapons transfer could have been halted after Monday’s drone strike on aid workers. “State Department has the ability to suspend any approval even after the fact, which, given the circumstances, you’d think they’d at least consider,” he said.

READ MORE: IDF deliberately targeted aid convoy – media

Just last week, Washington reportedly approved a weapons shipment to Israel that includes thousands of MK-84 bombs, which weigh 2,000 pounds each. Like this week’s package, it didn’t require approval by Congress because it stemmed from a previously authorized arms sale. The Biden administration is reportedly pushing for legislative approval of a new $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel.

The program is reportedly designed to detect Hamas operatives, but Israeli military sources say it often marks innocents for death

The Israeli military is using artificial intelligence to mark suspected Palestinian militants for assassination with little human oversight or regard for civilian casualties, the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine reported on Wednesday.

The AI system, known as ‘Lavender’, is designed to comb through the personal data of Gaza’s two million residents to draw up lists of those suspected of serving in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), six Israeli intelligence officers told the magazine.

The IDF has never publicly acknowledged the existence of the system, but has been known to use similar software during previous operations in Gaza.

At the outset of Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas, Lavender marked 37,000 Palestinians as militants and placed them on kill lists, the sources claimed. Whereas Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel initially pored over these lists and manually verified each name, humans soon came to serve as rubber stamps for the machine’s lists, one source said.

“I would invest 20 seconds for each target at this stage, and do dozens of them every day,” the officer said. “I had zero added value as a human, apart from being a stamp of approval. It saved a lot of time.”

Lavender works by studying phone records, social media activity, photographs, and movements of known Palestinian militants, identifying common characteristics, and then searching for these characteristics among the wider population of Gaza. The system gives each Gazan a score of between 0 and 100, with those ranked near 100 deemed to be terrorists and therefore legitimate targets. 

Within weeks of the war breaking out, however, IDF commanders were allegedly instructing their subordinates to relax this selection criteria and approve strikes on targets only tangentially linked with Hamas. 

“We were told: now we have to f**k up Hamas, no matter what the cost. Whatever you can, you bomb,” one source recalled.

Once marked for assassination, low-level targets would be taken out in their homes – identified using a different AI system called ‘Gospel’ – with unguided bombs, while more precise munitions would be used on higher-ranking militants.

“At 5 am, [the air force] would come and bomb all the houses that we had marked,” a source said. “We took out thousands of people. We didn’t go through them one by one – we put everything into automated systems, and as soon as one of [the marked individuals] was at home, he immediately became a target. We bombed him and his house.”

Lavender reportedly ranks targets by their perceived importance, with one source alleging that lower priority names often include policemen, civil servants, and others who “help the Hamas government, but they don’t really endanger [Israeli] soldiers.”

When a suspect is chosen and an assassination order given, IDF commanders decide how many civilian casualties they deem acceptable to take out the target. According to a source, this number “went up and down” over time, with “20 uninvolved civilians” deemed an acceptable sacrifice at the beginning of the war, and up to 100 considered okay in strikes on top-ranking Hamas officials. 

“It’s not just that you can kill any person who is a Hamas soldier, which is clearly permitted and legitimate in terms of international law,” they said. “But they directly tell you: ‘You are allowed to kill them along with many civilians.”

READ MORE: ‘She asked us to pray for her’ – family of World Central Kitchen volunteer killed in Israeli strike speaks to RT

According to the latest figures from Gaza’s health ministry, Israeli forces have killed more than 33,000 people in nearly six months of fighting in the enclave, most of them women and children. Responding to +972 Magazine’s claims, the IDF said on Wednesday that it “does not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist,” and that it “outright rejects the claim regarding any policy to kill tens of thousands of people in their homes.”

The government has no clear “national defense plan” amid growing concerns of a “pre-war world,” the report said

Britain has no real national plan for the mobilization of its people, industry, or defense forces in the event of a war, Sky News reported on Wednesday, citing a number of defense sources.

The report comes as part of a series by the outlet to “explore how prepared” London is for the possibility of an armed conflict, as numerous government ministers have been warning that Britain is moving into a “pre-war world” amid mounting concerns about Russia, China, and Iran.

Sky News says it conducted interviews with multiple sources, including former senior officers and academics.

One of them was Keith Dear, a former regular Royal Air Force intelligence officer who worked as an adviser to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2020 and 2021. Dear said that he had been unable to find any kind of detailed plan for war while in government.

“Such plans are essential not only to avoid scrambling disorder and early defeats, but also so that our adversaries, awed by our preparedness, are deterred from fighting in the first place,” he said.

 
 “The problem is, there is no plan.” 
 

The defense sources interviewed by Sky News discussed how the apparent lack of a national defense plan means that the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are not configured to fight an enduring war of survival. The same holds for the readiness of the civilian population and industrial base, they said.

“Our air defense [the ability to fend off incoming enemy missiles and drones] is dangerously thin and coastal defense is all-but non-existent,” an unnamed senior defense source was quoted as saying.

A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, who was asked about the allegation that the UK has no national plan for the outbreak of war, responded that the country has “robust plans in place for a range of potential emergencies and scenarios with plans and supporting arrangements developed, refined and tested over many years.” 

Most of the sources who spoke to Sky News pointed to the shortage of weapons and ammunition and a reduction in the country’s heavy industry, such as steel works and car plants.

“Our inability to supply anything like enough munitions or weapons to Ukraine, shows also how hollowed out we have become by buying and building armed forces to no coherent war-fighting plan,” Dear argued. “Weapons without ammunition are useless,” he said.

The outlet says it also reviewed a 1976 copy of a Government War Book that was designed to trigger certain internal measures in the event of a decision by NATO to enter a war.

The entire UK war-book system “was quietly shelved” by the early 2000s, according to the report.

The shift away from war-planning was precipitated first by the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Western governments no longer felt the existential threat of global war. Later, Sky News concluded, the UK government’s focus switched to the threat from Islamist terrorism and fighting wars in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

The US-led alliance would not survive without an external adversary, according to Aleksandr Grushko

NATO perpetuates an imaginary Russian threat because having an external adversary is vital for the military bloc’s survival, a top diplomat has told RT.

In an exclusive interview, Russian deputy foreign minister and former permanent representative to NATO, Aleksandr Grushko, commented on the billions of dollars allocated by the US and EU to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Continuing to spend such resources on “insane goals like confrontation with Russia would be political suicide,” he said.

“The fact is, the Russian threat exists only in the imagination of Americans and western Europeans, specifically those who make confrontation with Russia the basis of their foreign policy,” Grushko added.

The deputy foreign minister also touched on the issue of funding for NATO and the controversy caused recently by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

The US-led military alliance is funded by contributions from its 31 member states, with each country obliged to commit a minimum of 2% of its GDP to defense spending. In 2023, only 11 member states were on course to meet this target, with the US being the largest contributor.

Trump warned earlier this year that he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” with NATO member states that don’t meet their obligations. The comments were met with outrage by the current US administration and were criticized by NATO and its member states.

According to Grushko, NATO’s “manufactured trend of demonizing Russia” is necessary for the survival of the bloc.

“NATO cannot exist without an external adversary. So, all those who can’t imagine their security without NATO obey the Russophobic instructions from Washington and elsewhere, primarily from the capitals of the Baltic states and Warsaw who declared… that they would be the first victims of Russian aggression if it’s not resisted,” he said.

Poland makes the biggest contribution to the bloc in proportion to the country’s economic output, having spent almost 4% of its GDP in 2023. In March, the Polish president called on NATO members to spend 3% of their respective GDPs on defense.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated last week that Moscow was not seeking a confrontation with America’s satellites in Europe. He dismissed as ‘nonsense’ claims made by multiple Western officials that Russia would not stop if Ukraine is defeated on the battlefield.

According to Putin, talk of a Russian attack on Poland or the Baltic states is just propaganda by governments that seek to scare their citizens “to extract additional resources from people, to make them bear this burden on their shoulders.”

Jose Andres has dismissed the IDF’s claim that the deadly attack on the World Central Kitchen aid workers was a ‘mistake’

The Israeli attack that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) charity group in Gaza was not a mistake, as the convoy was targeted “systematically, car by car,” the group’s founder and celebrity chef Jose Andres told Reuters on Wednesday.

Three Britons, a Polish national, an Australian, a Palestinian, and a dual US-Canadian citizen were killed in the incident, which has sparked international condemnation.

Israel's military, the IDF, knew the aid convoy’s movements as there had been clear communication between the WCK and IDF, Andres said.

“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” the chef told Reuters.

The convoy was made up of three cars, including two armored vehicles, which clearly displayed the WCK logo. All three were hit during the strike.

According to the chef, after the IDF attacked the first armored car, the team was able to escape and move to the second armored vehicle. The second car was then attacked, forcing the volunteers to move to the third.

The aid workers tried to communicate to make clear who they were, Reuters cites Andres, but the third car was then hit, “and we saw the consequences of that,” he concluded.

Andres’ account of the events echoes Tuesday’s report in the Haaretz newspaper that said that the IDF bombed the convoy three times intentionally, as it suspected that there was a Hamas operative among the aid workers.

The Israeli leadership apologized for the incident. IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi called the incident a “grave mistake” and said the military had no intention of harming WCK aid workers. The general blamed the strike on misidentification. Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed “deep sorrow and sincere apologies” to Andres. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that such “tragic” and “unintended” incidents happen “in wartime.” 

The air strike was condemned by Israel’s staunchest allies the US, UK, and other countries, including those whose nationals were among the dead.

According to the UN, at least 196 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s offensive six months ago. Hamas has previously accused Israel of targeting aid distribution sites, Reuters notes.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian militants carried out a surprise cross-border raid on October 7 last year, killing some 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. The Israeli military campaign has since left nearly 33,000 people dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

With Kiev fighting Moscow, the bloc has saved its own troops, Jens Stoltenberg has said

Western military support for Ukraine has allowed the bloc to weaken Russia without sending its own soldiers to die on the battlefield, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

Speaking at a summit of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, the head of the US-led military bloc reiterated calls to provide Kiev with more ammunition and weapons in the long term, arguing that this suits Western interests.

“Support from NATO allies and support from the United States to Ukraine is something which benefits our own security interests,” Stoltenberg said.

He noted that “by allocating a fraction of our defense budgets, we have enabled the Ukrainians to destroy significant parts of the Russian combat capability” – and this has been done “without putting any NATO soldier, any US soldier, in harm’s way.”

The secretary-general argued that the West should step up its efforts in this regard, including by making its campaign to support Ukraine more sustainable in the long run.

Several Western media outlets reported earlier this week that Stoltenberg is championing a five-year €100 billion ($107 billion) aid package for Kiev, which would see NATO take on more responsibility from the US in terms of coordinating the assistance.

However, Politico reported on Wednesday that some NATO members have voiced doubts about the plan, expressing uncertainty regarding the details and where this figure came from in the first place.

In late February, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu estimated Ukraine’s losses at more than 444,000 troops since the start of the conflict. Earlier this week, he said that Kiev had lost more than 80,000 soldiers since the start of 2024.

This comes as Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a highly controversial law lowering the conscription age for men from 27 to 25 to replenish the battlefield losses.

President Vladimir Putin has said that NATO is using Ukrainians as “cannon fodder,” and is using the country as a “testing ground” against Russia, arguing that the West is willing to fight “to the last Ukrainian.”

Washington is aiming to prolong the Ukraine conflict instead of supporting a peaceful resolution, the former Democratic congresswoman has said

The administration of US President Joe Biden has actively thwarted peace efforts in the Ukraine conflict and is trying to prolong the fighting in a bid to damage Russia, former Hawaii Democratic Representative Tulsi Gabbard has said. 

Speaking to Lex Fridman in a podcast published on Wednesday, the former congresswoman insisted that in “an ideal world,” the US president would sit down with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia to find a peaceful solution to the hostilities. 

She doubted, however, that Biden is the “right person” for the job, suggesting that “all the statements and comments that the [White House] has made from the beginning of this war essentially point to their objective being to basically destroy Russia.” 

Gabbard stated that peace in Ukraine should be mediated by the most “effective, neutral broker that there is.” If the current US administration wants to fulfill that role, it should start actively encouraging Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to sit down and begin negotiations, she added.  

In February, Gabbard publicly denounced her former party as enemies of democracy driven by an “insatiable hunger for power,” and officially endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump for reelection this year. 

During his campaign, the former US president has claimed that the Ukraine conflict would never have broken out on his watch, insisting that if voted back in, he would end the fighting “in 24 hours.” 

Kiev, meanwhile, has continued to reject any peace talks with Moscow, after Zelensky legally banned negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government. Instead, the Ukrainian leadership has been rallying Western support for Zelensky’s ten-point “peace formula,” which demands the full withdrawal of Russian forces to Ukraine’s 1991 borders, including Crimea, as well as forcing Moscow to pay reparations and face an international tribunal. 

Russia has stressed that it remains open to talks with Ukraine, but has demanded that Kiev accept the “reality on the ground.” President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Moscow is ready for “a serious conversation” and wishes to resolve the conflict through peaceful means. He has noted, however, that any talks must include security guarantees for Russia and cannot be used as a pause for Ukraine’s rearmament.

NATO members who fail to meet the 2% defense spending threshold are playing “Russian roulette,” Grant Shapps has said

NATO members not spending 2% of their GDP on defense are playing “Russian roulette” with the West’s future, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has claimed.   

In an article for The Telegraph published on Wednesday, Shapps said members of the US-led bloc must accept the West is now in a “pre-war” world and therefore need to raise their military expenditure.  

Many NATO states have for years struggled to reach an agreed threshold of 2% of GDP for defense spending, but the process gained momentum after the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014 and especially after the launch of Russia’s military operation in 2022.  

“We must look beyond that target to shore up our defenses. Yet some nations are still failing to meet even the 2%. That cannot continue. We can’t afford to play Russian roulette with our future,” Shapps wrote.  

Only 11 of NATO’s 32 countries met the bloc’s guideline last year. France and Germany were among those which spent less on defense, according to an annual report, though Paris and Berlin recently pledged they will meet targets this year. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg claimed in February that 18 members are on track this year to meet the 2% target.  

In an article marking NATO’s 75th anniversary, Shapps said the bloc’s members “must give urgent thought once again to the alliance’s future.”   

“We have moved from a post-war to a pre-war world. Russia is menacing our neighbors. China is increasingly belligerent. Iran is using its proxies to cause regional havoc from the Middle East to the straits of Yemen. And North Korea is perpetually rattling its nuclear sabre,” the defense secretary claimed.  

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk delivered a similar message last week, when he said Europe had entered a “pre-war era” in which “any scenario” is possible. Tusk insisted that “no one in Europe will be able to feel safe” if the West does not provide Kiev with sufficient equipment and ammunition for the conflict with Russia.  

Echoing those remarks, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Wednesday that the West needs to “win the argument for NATO all over again with a new generation,” claiming that Europe faces the same situation as in 1938.   

Numerous Western leaders have warned in recent weeks that Russia could attack NATO within a few years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed those claims as “utter nonsense” designed to “beat the money out” of the populations of Western countries.

Washington and London are claiming Beijing sponsored a cybercrime campaign against them three years ago. Why did they wait until now?

In March, the UK, in conjunction with the US and other members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, accused China of engaging in a state-sponsored hacking campaign against them. In response to the alleged 'attack' they launched coordinated sanctions against a small group of hackers and their associated businesses.

The sanctions were particularly big news in Britain, where the government suddenly decided that Beijing had been behind a hack on the electoral commission three years ago. Notably, the country’s Conservative party-aligned newspapers all pushed this narrative in an aggressive fashion.

These accusations by the Five Eyes nations are not so much genuine concerns as they are a deliberate and opportunistic act of political theatre which, largely driven by the US, seeks to slander China for diplomatic and political gain. The sanctions, although narrow in scope and thus meaningless, are designed to try and send a message to and about China. It is essentially a fearmongering campaign, which seeks to both undermine Beijing’s engagement with other countries and serve domestic political purposes in the US.

The rhythm of US escalation and de-escalation with China

The US has an adept foreign policy whereby it intentionally chooses to escalate and de-escalate tensions with China at opportune moments, which is precisely why calls for “engagement” with Beijing coming from Washington D.C. cannot be trusted. The US does not change its goals or its policies, only its tactics in consideration of what suits it at that particular moment. Hence it has always alternated between overtures and deliberate provocations. It usually does so by having a certain report or development leaked to the media at an opportunistic time, in order to craft a particular narrative which mandates a certain set of reactions and policy responses.

To give some examples of such, the Trump administration played down tensions with China directly in 2019, even amidst the Hong Kong crisis, in order to secure a “trade deal” with Beijing. Once it got what it wanted by 2020, and the Covid-19 pandemic struck, it deliberately unleashed a full-on crusade against Beijing on every front. Similarly, the Biden administration came into office and then immediately upped tensions with China on the Xinjiang issue in order to damage China’s ties with Europe in a build-up to coordinated sanctions as a display of transatlantic unity.

After this was done, it then decided it wanted to “cool” things down for a bit and establish “guardrails” so the rhetoric guns went silent for a few months as Washington reached out to Beijing. Then, as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics came, it took the “Xinjiang card” off the shelf again with a number of timed leaks and publications geared towards supporting a Winter Olympics boycott, as well as a sweeping ban on all Xinjiang goods under the premise of “forced labour” at that time.

What we see is that the US does not truly de-escalate with China, it “blows hot and cold” and essentially manipulates the media cycle to pursue its policy preferences as it sees fit. This means that major issues pertaining to China only tend to appear when there is an agenda serving it.

The newest phase

Now, the Biden administration has made a political design to escalate tensions with China by accusing it, in coordination with the Five Eyes, of state-backed hacking and cybercrime. The fact that the British government would sit on such an accusation for three years suggests both clear political purpose and timing. The question is, why? First, we are approaching a Presidential election in the US. It was always an inevitability that the administration would want to appear “tough” on China to prevent the issue from being used as an attack point by Biden’s rival, Donald Trump. As seen in 2020, an election year tends to become a year of very aggressive rhetoric and extreme theatrics.

Secondly, there is the goal of undermining China’s engagement with Europe. It has been publicly announced that Xi Jinping will visit a number of European countries in May, including France. As stated above, the US, with the support of the Five Eyes countries, actively seeks to damage Chinese diplomacy with Europe by weaponizing negative publicity in order to narrow political space for engagement.

What we see from this is that the US engages China on its own terms, but seeks to prevent those it deems as “allies” from doing the same, and thus resorts to psychological warfare through the manipulation of mass media.

In conclusion, when one sees these strategies being utilised, one recognises that the Western media has far less independence and impartiality than it claims to have, but is indirectly subject to the preferences of US policy. W

hen the White House says “jump”, reporters ask, “how high?” and thus we see that a new propaganda campaign has been cultivated against Beijing, but of course, we should not be blind to the reality that there is no greater weaponisation of cyberspace and espionage in the world than the system created by the Five Eyes. And are we really going to pretend the CIA doesn’t hack anyone?

The killing of foreign aid workers in Gaza has reignited calls for a halt to supply of British weaponry

The UK is facing renewed calls to stop exporting arms to Israel, following the deadly bombing by the country’s military of a humanitarian convoy in Gaza, media outlets are reporting.

On Monday, seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers, mostly foreigners and including three British nationals, were killed by Israeli airstrikes that were purportedly targeting a Hamas militant. The incident has sparked international condemnation.

Peter Ricketts, former national security adviser to then-Prime Minister, now-Foreign Secretary David Cameron, stated on Wednesday in comments on the incident that Britain had now “reached that point.” He urged the UK to send a “signal” to Israel that it has not been taking its obligations under international law seriously enough.

“Sometimes in conflict you get a moment where there is such global outrage that it crystallizes a sense that things can’t go on like this. I hope that this awful incident will serve that purpose,” Ricketts told the BBC.

Britain’s main opposition parties demanded on Wednesday that the Conservative government publish legal advice it has received on whether Israel has broken international humanitarian law during the war in Gaza.

David Lammy, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, said “there are very serious accusations that Israel has breached international law.”

He called on the government to “publish the legal advice now,” claiming that “if it says there is a clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law, it’s time to suspend the sale of those arms.” 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not commit to publishing the legal advice, but said that London followed a strict “set of rules, regulations and procedures” over licensing arms exports.

UK ministers say defense sales to Israel were worth about £42 million ($53 million) in 2022. According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade, a group lobbying for an end to sales of weapons, the UK has approved at least £474 million ($560 million) in exports to Israel since 2015.

Those exports reportedly include parts for missiles, tanks and combat aircraft, including tires, ejector seats, fan propellers and laser targeting equipment for jets being used in Gaza.

Britain is also involved in making parts for American-made F-35 fighter jets that are used by the Israeli air force, according to arms-control expert Roy Isbister of campaign group Saferworld.

“The UK produces 15% of every F-35, and so if the UK says ‘no’ to exports, that does become significant, and an issue for Israeli capabilities which would risk upsetting the Americans,” Isbister told The National.

The EU and the US consider Serbia an easy target

Modern international politics, as practiced by Western countries, sometimes take on a completely absurd character. Recently, the Political Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) approved the membership of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo in the Council of Europe. Let us remember that we are talking about a territory that is not a state recognized by all members of the international community, including many of PACE’s own participants. Additionally, its leaders are rightly suspected of cross-border criminal activity of the worst kind.

But should we be surprised?

It has long been no secret that all the so-called pan-European organizations have effectively become instruments of the United States and the European Union, whose sole purpose is to promote some of their policies towards the rest of the world. It can be security, in which case the OSCE is involved, or human rights, for which the Council of Europe is used. Even environmental policy is in the hands of the West - that, too, is a purely political story.

In other words, absolutely everything is used to create endless pressure on those with whom the US and the EU are currently facing off against. We recall, for example, a case in which one of the European Parliament’s resolutions on the elections in Russia included a reference to the need for Moscow to lift sanitary restrictions on vegetable products from an EU country.

It is not surprising that all institutions and agreements in which the West has a dominant position lose their original meaning over time. No-one in Washington, Brussels, Berlin or Paris really remembers why the OSCE or the Council of Europe were created. This may seem like a joke, and an exaggeration. However, many years of experience in dealing with our American and Western European colleagues have make it abundantly clear that they have such a distorted perception.

This is partly due to the almost total impunity with which the West has operated since the Cold War. It is also due to the fact that all these institutions were created to serve the very specific selfish goals of the US and EU. We in Russia, like many others, once genuinely believed that international politics could develop along the lines of new principles after the Cold War. But it turned out that this was not the case. 

Where the West is aware of its irresponsibility, it acts as if we are not even in the 19th century, but in the 17th or 18th century. Moreover, the Balkans are indeed a very special topic for Brussels and Washington. If the West was cynical about its post-Cold War “legacy”, it was doubly so about the former Yugoslavia.

In relations with Russia, and even with the rest of the former Soviet Union, the US and Western Europe still tried, or pretended to try, to maintain a certain ceremonialism, to make a show of the relative equality of their partners. At one stage, Russia was even invited to participate in the G8, the main body for coordinating Western policy towards the outside world. Of course, we are well aware that all these ritualistic actions meant very little in practice. In the mid-1990s, for example, no one in the West hid the fact that the activities of the Council of Europe were nothing more than a nice backdrop for putting pressure on Russia and other “post-Soviet” countries. From the point of view of formalities and ritual declarations, however, everything looked civilized for a long time. Russia was even able to use certain instruments of the Council of Europe – very limitedly, of course, and where it did not interfere with the US, EU or the nationalist regimes in the Baltic republics under their tutelage.

We should hardly be surprised that a gang of organ traffickers has been admitted to the Council of Europe. This is quite natural, after all the support the Baltic regimes have received from Brussels and Washington. Their policies towards minorities and freedom are basically similar to the most radical examples of 100 years ago.

Serbia’s prime minister responded by saying that his country might withdraw from PACE. But there are serious doubts that Belgrade will ultimately decide to do so.

First, if a Serbian politician openly opposes Western dictates, he puts the lives of his citizens directly at risk from the same Kosovar militants and religious fanatics. We have already seen time and time again how even minor manifestations of Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo have been met with an immediate armed response. This was followed by the strongest warnings from Brussels and Washington. Secondly, a formal expression of discontent with the EU by Belgrade would likely immediately lead to open or undeclared sanctions against Serbia. We do not know the structure of the country’s foreign trade well enough, but even the obstruction of transport and logistics routes would probably cause irreparable damage to it.

So with the republic surrounded on all sides by NATO countries, the consequences for the Serbian economy and population would be very dramatic. Despite the fact that the vast majority of Serbs believe that Kosovo is part of their sovereign territory, the ruling party would be doomed to lose the next elections. This is for two reasons: first, because of the worsening economic situation, and then because of the new concessions to the West that it would have to make in order to achieve a softening of the pressure from Washington and Brussels. In the same case, if Belgrade decided to do what it wants, everything would end very tragically for it.

After all, past experience tells us that the US and EU are unlikely to mind if another failed state appears in Europe. 

For all the mistakes and ambiguities of President Alexander Vucic and his government’s position on Russia, it has so far done relatively well at the only task it can really control – which is prolonging the uncertain state of affairs. Moreover, it has generally been quite neighborly in its dealings with us, especially given Belgrade’s geopolitical position.

The state of Western attitudes towards Serbia and its people is really interesting, because it reflects an irrational hatred that is not easy to explain. Perhaps it is a matter of psychology and perception – Americans and Western Europeans may see the Serbs as “Russians” who are weaker and can be defeated. They are much smaller than Russia, disproportionately weaker, and surrounded by zones of total NATO influence.

In this case, what is happening in the Balkans is a very pertinent, if tragic, example for Russia of what would happen to us if we were forced to surrender. The decades that have passed since NATO’s aggression against Yugoslavia, not to mention Belgrade’s constant declarations about moving towards “European” integration, cannot cure the complex of triumph over a defeated enemy. 

Serbia, of course, is not likely to join the EU or NATO. But it is very possible that it will survive the pressure from these extremely aggressive blocs. That is what we will have to see in the next decade.

The chief of the US-led bloc has reportedly suggested a five-year, $107 billion plan to provide Kiev with weapons

Ukraine should be able to enjoy a stable stream of Western arms supplies in the long term rather than relying on voluntary donations, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

Speaking ahead of the NATO foreign ministers summit in Brussels on Wednesday, the bloc’s chief stressed that Kiev – which has repeatedly complained of a lack of ammunition and weapons – “has urgent needs,” while warning that any delays in assistance would have consequences on the battlefield.

In this light, Stoltenberg urged NATO allies to “shift the dynamics of our support.” “We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul. So that we rely less on voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments,” he said, adding that those pledges would have to last for at least several years. “We will also discuss a multi-year financial commitment to sustain our support,” NATO boss added. 

According to Reuters, to secure long-term support for Kiev, Stoltenberg had proposed a five-year €100 billion ($107 billion) package of military aid to Ukraine. Under the plan, the US-led military bloc would also reportedly take on more responsibility for coordinating the assistance to Kiev from the US amid concerns that the reelection of GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump could undermine the Western campaign to support Ukraine.

When asked about the specifics of the plan, Stoltenberg declined to go into the details, adding that he did not expect it to be fully fleshed out in the near future. “We will hopefully move forward towards consensus, and then we will have an agreement in place by the summit” in Washington this summer, he noted.

Russia has repeatedly condemned Western arms shipments to Ukraine, saying that they will only prolong the conflict and that Kiev will not be able to exist without foreign support.

On Tuesday, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, argued that NATO is seeking to retain control over Ukraine in a bid to use it as an “anti-Russia” bridgehead, noting that the bloc has been pumping Kiev with weapons since the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014.

A neo-Nazi-linked activist wants the town councilor fired for observing Russia’s presidential election

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations has demanded that a small-town councilor be fired for traveling to Russia to observe the country’s recent presidential election and congratulating Vladimir Putin on his “transparent and comprehensive” victory. 

Adrian McRae of Port Hedland in Western Australia flew to Moscow last month as part of an international delegation to scrutinize Russia’s presidential election. A little-known councilor from a town of just 15,000 people, McRae drew attention back home when he appeared on Russian TV passing on his congratulations to Putin, who won the election with 87% of the vote.

“In my lifetime, the world has never seen such a transparent and comprehensive victory as what we saw here over the last three days,” McRae declared. 

McRae’s comments infuriated Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) co-chair Stefan Romanov.

“You’ve made the statements, you’ve offended people, you’ve gone against the international community, you’re trying to portray a picture that those in Russia have voted for a president who is now brutalizing Ukraine,” Romanov fumed, addressing McRae via ABC News on Tuesday.

“You know what? Go and do your work with the Russian government, go and do your work with the Russian embassy and let somebody represent the community according to community values,” Romanov added.

In addition to leading the AFUO, Romanov was the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists’ Stepan Bandera faction (OUN-B) from 2009 to 2022. Under Bandera and after his arrest, the OUN-B collaborated with Nazi Germany, taking part in the mass murder of Poles during World War II amid Adolf Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union. As OUN-B leader, Romanov has spoken at rallies organized by the neo-Nazi ‘Svoboda’ party in Ukraine.

Former Port Hedland Shire President Arnold Carter has joined Romanov in calling for McRae’s dismissal, while Western Australia Premier Roger Cook called the councilor’s comments “bizarre,” and encouraged “the people of Port Hedland to express their dissatisfaction with that.”

In an interview with Nine News on Monday, McRae explained that a “chance meeting” in January with Russian ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky had piqued his interest in traveling to Russia to observe the election. Fresh from winning his own local election in Port Hedland, he said that he arrived in Moscow last month with “a few, probably media-driven preconceived notions” about Russia.

“But coming back…their democracy is more transparent and more certainly more professionally run, the logistics and management of their election process leads anything I’ve seen, certainly in the West,” he told the Australian network.

Allegations that McRae and his fellow observers were “being played” by Russian authorities, or that the election itself was unfair are “not only insulting to me,” McRae said, “but I’m sure the Russian people, if they heard that, it would be an absolute slap in the face.”

McRae added that he paid his own way to Russia, and that the trip “had nothing to do with anything Port Hedland council related.”

The airstrike was a mistake, officials have admitted, following global outrage and accusations of intentional targeting

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has described as a “grave mistake” the bombing of a humanitarian convoy in Gaza on Monday. Seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers, mostly foreigners, were killed in a three-stage strike that was reportedly intended to target a Hamas militant. The incident has sparked international condemnation.

Halevi took to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday to apologize for the strike that left three British citizens dead, as well as a Polish and an Australian national, a Canadian-American dual citizen, and a Palestinian.

”I want to be very clear – the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened,” Halevi said in a video statement published on the official account of the IDF.

The general went on to describe the incident as a “grave mistake,” and said the IDF were “sorry for the unintentional harm” caused to the members of the WCK.

Another apology was issued to WCK founder Jose Andres by Israeli President Isaac Herzog. He called Andres to express “deep sorrow and sincere apologies,” the Times of Israel newspaper has reported, citing a statement from the president’s office.

The acknowledgements come after Andres lashed out at a remark made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he suggested that such “tragic” and “unintended” incidents happen “in wartime.”

“The airstrikes on our convoy were not just some unfortunate mistake in the fog of war,” Andres wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily. “It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by the IDF.” 

Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday that the IDF had targeted the WCK convoy intentionally because of suspicion that a Hamas operative was traveling with the group. The outlet’s defense sources said the cars had been “clearly marked on the roof and sides” with the WCK logo, but that an IDF unit responsible for the security of the route “identified an armed man” with the group and “suspected that he was a terrorist.”

The incident drew condemnation from the international community, including from the staunchest allies of Israel, such as the US and the UK, and other nations whose citizens were among the dead.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian militants carried out a surprise cross-border raid on October 7 last year, killing some 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. The Israeli military campaign has since left nearly 33,000 people dead, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Venezuelan farmer Juan Vicente Perez Mora has passed away two months before his 115th birthday

The world’s oldest man, Juan Vicente Perez Mora, died at the age of 114 on Tuesday in Venezuela, according to local officials.

The retired farmer became the oldest living male in 2020, and was officially recognized as such by Guinness World Records in 2022, when he was 112.

Perez died two just months before his 115th birthday in Venezuelan state of Tachira, according to Governor Freddy Bernal.

“Our dear Juan Vicente Perez Mora, today with deep sadness and pain we say goodbye to you, to that archetype of a man from Tachira, humble, hard-working, peaceful, enthusiastic about family and tradition,” Bernal wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro commented on his passing, saying: “Juan Vicente Perez Mora has transcended into eternity at 114 years old.”

Perez was born in the town of El Cobre, in the Andean state of Tachira on May 27, 1909 and was the ninth of ten children. The farmer, known as Tio Vicente, began working at age five with his father and brothers, helping with the sugar cane and coffee harvest, according to a 2022 statement by the Guinness World Records.

READ MORE: Africa’s youngest elected president takes power

While still working in agriculture, Perez went on to become a sheriff in Caricuena in 1948 and was responsible for resolving land and family disputes for ten years, Guinness said. 

A father of 11 children, as of 2022 he had 42 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren.

His secret to a long life, according to Guinness World Records, was to “work hard, rest on holidays, go to bed early, drink a glass of aguardiente every day, love God, and always carry him in your heart.”

Currently the world’s oldest living person is Maria Branyas Morera, who celebrated her 117th birthday in Catalonia, Spain, last month.

The oldest person ever was French woman Jeanne Calment, who lived to the age of 122 and died in 1997, according to Guinness.

Hundreds of millions of dollars is being funneled to religious NGOs to entice and support illegal immigrants across the southern border

At a time when millions of Americans are homeless and in need of medical treatment, Washington is more concerned with playing host to millions of illegal immigrants south of the border.

How many Americans would like to receive cash debit cards, food, clothing, medical treatment, shelter, and even “humanitarian transportation” for doing absolutely nothing, aside from breaking the law? Well, sorry, because American citizens don’t qualify for the massive handout that surpasses $1.6 billion dollars, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The freebies are going to millions of US-bound migrants in 17 Latin American nations and Mexico instead.

In what was once a matter of quiet speculation is now an open secret: the Biden administration is using hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to fund a variety of NGO initiatives aimed at helping illegal immigrants enter the US from Latin America and Mexico.

Under the auspices of a United Nations-led “Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP),” the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have been sending taxpayer funds to various religious nonprofit organizations, which then dangle the juicy enticements before thousands of migrants, opening the floodgates to a wave of illegal US southern border crossings.

Exhibit number one. With an estimated 25% of the US population declaring membership in the Catholic Church, it might be expected that this denomination and its various offshoot organizations would spend the bulk of its funds tending to its American flock. Shockingly, that is not the case.

The prominent Catholic Charities USA and its various related agencies, for example, while not among those operating south of the border alongside the United Nations, receive “tens of millions of dollars in federal subsidies to oversee illegal immigrant transportation” north of the Rio Grande and resettlement operations to various sanctuary cities inside of the US.

At the same time, some 13 franchises of the nonprofit Caritas, whose website proudly pronounces that it is “inspired by the Catholic faith” and is “the helping hand of the Church,” will allocate $12.3 million to immigrants south of the border, much of it as hard cash, according to the UN database.

According to USA spending (here and here), and cited by Todd Bensman of CIS, USAID and the State Department’s PRM have doled out in excess of $11 million to the NGO Caritas Brazil, since the mass migration program started in 2021, including $3 million pledged through December 2024 to “overseas refugee assistance programs for the Western Hemisphere” that include “food, non-food items, shelter, health, [and] psychosocial support.”

It can’t go unnoticed that the same sanctuary cities that are putting illegal immigrants up in hotels while giving them free meal tickets, are the same places where thousands of tent cities overflowing with homeless people – many of them with serious medical problems and deadly addictions – have popped up over the last five years. Are the churches and various religious organizations opening their doors to these needy citizens? Judging by the deplorable state of the streets in America, it certainly doesn’t look like it, nor does the Biden administration seem to care.

Another example of a religious nonprofit serving as “co-smuggler” in the illegal trafficking of human flesh is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which has pledged $17.1 million in assistance to immigrants in at least seven Latin American nations during 2024, according to the UN’s RMRP planning documents. In fiscal year 2022, 47% of revenue reported by HIAS was the result of grants from government organizations, primarily from the State Department, but also from the Department of Homeland Security, according to the group’s tax filings and other sources, with the rest deriving from powerful corporate sponsors and other sources.

Meanwhile, in just the last year, the State Department’s PRM and USAID have forked over to the International Organization of Migration $1.4 billion, by far the highest amount on record, according to USAspending.gov.

So what’s going on here? Why is the Biden administration so obsessed with using taxpayer dollars to fund a massive influx of illegal immigrants into the country at a time when America already has enough poor people to take care of? Is it really the case that the Democrats are working on behalf of strictly humanitarian interests, or is something else at play? When dealing with the world of politics, it’s not a bad idea to think more in terms of power, not compassion.

In a nutshell, the Biden administration hopes to attract as many illegal immigrants into the country and turn them into loyal voters so Democrats can create a permanent one-party state. And judging by the outstanding numbers, the cynical strategy just might work.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report for fiscal 2023 shows that the number of non-detained illegal immigrants has surged from 3.7 million in FY 2021 to nearly 4.8 million in FY 2022 and almost 6.2 million in FY 2023, making Joe Biden – in cahoots with faith-based NGOs – the greatest smuggler of human beings in the history of the United States.

‘Sato’ may end up the only family name by year 2531 if married couples aren’t allowed to retain their own, research has concluded

Japanese citizens will all have the same family name in 500 years’ time unless married couples are permitted now to use separate surnames, a new study has suggested.

Organized by the Think Name Project and led by Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor of economy at Tohoku University, the study is part of a campaign to raise awareness of the implications of not amending a law dating back to the late 1800s.

If the government continues to require married couples to share the same surname then every single Japanese person will be known as ‘Sato-san’ by 2531, the research projected.

“If everyone becomes Sato, we may have to be addressed by our first names or by numbers,” Yoshida explained, according to media. “I don’t think that would be a good world to live in,” the academic added.

According to a March 2023 survey, ‘Sato’ already tops the list of Japanese last names, accounting for 1.5% of the total population, while ‘Suzuki’ comes a close second.

Japan remains the only country in the world that requires spouses to use the same name. Couples reportedly have to choose which surname to share when they marry, but in 95% of cases, it is the woman who changes her name.

The government has, nevertheless, allowed maiden names to appear alongside married names on passports, driving licenses and residence certificates.

Meanwhile, conservative members of the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) argue that changing the law would “undermine” family unity and cause confusion among children.

The study, published in March but first reported-on this week, sparked speculation of an April fools’ day prank, but Yoshida said that he wanted it to make people reflect on the matter, according to The Guardian.

The US Secretary of State has criticized Kiev’s cross-border drone attacks, while France’s foreign minister has tacitly endorsed them

The US and France, two key NATO members, have failed to see eye to eye on Ukraine’s drone strikes, which are increasingly targeting facilities deep inside Russia. Standing next to each other during a press conference in Paris on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne reacted differently to a question about the developments.

Ukraine launched drone strikes against several Russian oil facilities in March, claiming they “deliver a symbolic blow by bringing the war closer to Moscow” and disrupting the flow of fuel to the military on the front lines. The attacks continued in April, with the most recent one targeting several industrial facilities in Elabuga and Nizhnekamsk, cities in the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, earlier on Tuesday.

Blinken sought to distance himself from the situation by saying that the US had “neither supported nor enabled strikes by Ukraine outside of its territory.” Sejourne, however, appeared to be backing any move Kiev made, arguing that Ukraine was merely defending itself.

“The Ukrainian people are acting in self-defense, and we consider Russia the aggressor, and, under such circumstances, there is hardly anything else to say,” he told journalists, adding that he had no specific comments on the drone strikes. Neither of the two diplomats addressed the differences in their positions on the issue.

In late March, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted that Washington had sought to stop his forces from targeting Russian oil refineries with drones. “The reaction of the US was not positive on this,” he said at that time, maintaining, however, that the US was powerless to stop the attacks.

Earlier that month, the Financial Times also reported that the White House was concerned that the Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure would lead to a hike in gas prices. This could potentially damage President Joe Biden’s election bid, the paper said at the time.

Moscow responded to the Ukrainian attacks by targeting power plants across Ukraine. Zelensky then claimed that Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory were a form of deterrence, since Kiev was running out of Western-supplied air defense missiles.

What resources will Tehran be able to use in response to the attack on its consulate in Syria?

On Monday, the Israeli Air Force struck a building near the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital. As a result of the attack, the consulate building was destroyed and the commanders of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unit, Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, were killed.

President Ebrahim Raisi has already warned that “this unfair crime won’t go unanswered.” 

“Zionists must know that they will never achieve their sinister goals with such inhumane actions and, day by day, the resistance front and the disgust and hatred of free nations against their illegitimate nature are being strengthened, and this cowardly crime will also not go unanswered,” he said. 

What the answer will be is still unknown. However, in recent years, Tehran has managed to become a full-fledged superpower in the region, with support in many countries in the Middle East.

Shadow of Iran

The escalation of the conflict in Gaza, which started with the Hamas-led invasion of Israel last October (“Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”) and the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) subsequent military operation that claimed tens of thousands of lives, gave rise to much speculation about the weakness and short-sightedness of the Israeli leadership and the exceptional military training of Israel’s opponents. And it’s not just Hamas that we’re talking about, but Iran.

Iran was immediately accused of being involved in the Hamas attack. The WSJ reported that Iran had trained the Palestinians and instructed them on how to break through the Israeli border.

Moreover, it was said that Tehran had green-lighted the attack. The detailed coordination of the operation allegedly took place during a meeting between senior members of Hamas, Hezbollah, and two other Iran-backed militant groups in Beirut shortly before October 7. Officers of the IRGC also attended the meeting.

Later, the IRGC stated that the Hamas attack had been planned as revenge for the 2020 murder of the head of the Quds Force (part of the IRGC), General Qassem Soleimani. However, rumors about Iran’s direct involvement in the anti-Israeli operation haven’t been verified.

On November 3, 2023, the secretary general of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, publicly stated that Iran had not been involved in operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

“The decision behind this operation was 100% Palestinian, and its implementation was 100% Palestinian. [It was launched] in order to draw the attention of the whole world to this problem. Its planners hid it from everyone, even from the movements of the Axis of Resistance,“ he said.

“Absolute secrecy is what ensured the brilliant success of the operation through the element of astonishing surprise. The Islamic Republic of Iran publicly supports the resistance movements but it does not exercise any guardianship over them [or] over their leaders.”

On the one hand, this statement made by the leader of Iran’s main proxy force in the region marked the lines which Iran was not ready to cross. On the other hand, Nasrallah reminded the world that Iran was able to confront Israel and its allies without starting World War III. In fact, the Axis of Resistance – an informal regional alliance between several Middle Eastern nations and political organizations which oppose the West and Israel and are united by Shiite ideology – was created for this very purpose. 

In a way, Iran has created the world’s most successful coalition, which proved itself capable not only of restoring order in the region and fighting terrorism, but also challenging global forces.

The “Party of God” heads the resistance

After the explosion in the port of Beirut, when chaos reigned in Lebanon, I talked with one of my friends from Hezbollah. At the time, he assured me that it was largely due to the efforts of Hezbollah that the country didn’t fall into the abyss. And yes, Iranian funding had a lot to do with it. After all, Hezbollah is made up of ordinary Lebanese people who support their country’s economy. However, it would not be fair to say that Hezbollah is totally dependent on Iran and subordinate to it, since Iran has a special relationship with the countries that are part of the Axis of Resistance. However, to gain a deeper understanding, let’s start from the beginning. 

The roots of Hezbollah go back to the early 1960s, when a clerical movement arose in Lebanon that wanted to revive the key principles of Islam. The idea was proposed by several Muslim theologians who had just returned from Najaf, Iraq, where they had been studying in Shia seminaries. Two of these people are particularly noteworthy.

The first is Imam Musa al-Sadr, who was educated in Qom, Iran. He embarked on his political journey in the Lebanese city of Tyre, but his activities soon spread throughout the country. Al-Sadr was very popular, he often spoke at various mass cultural and educational events and surrounded himself with prominent intellectuals from various backgrounds. In 1967, he created the Supreme Islamic Shia Council (SISC), an official religious institution that supported the Shiite community. Many politicians, even those who shared Sadr’s faith, disapproved of this. Nonetheless, al-Sadr continued his political activities. He founded the Movement of the Oppressed and a military group to fight against Israel, called the Lebanese Resistance Regiments (the Amal Movement). In all his sermons, the Imam called for war with Israel. Eventually, Al-Sadr was abducted in Libya, where he came at the invitation of President Muammar Gaddafi on August 31, 1978. His fate remains unknown.

The Imam’s work continues

Modern-day Hezbollah is associated with the name of another Muslim theologian, Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah. This prominent Shiite scholar built a cultural center that included a mosque and a religious school in east Beirut. After moving to the southern suburbs of the city, he led prayers at the Imam al-Rida Mosque and became involved in politics, drawing on the experience of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Fadlallah founded the Association of Charitable Organizations, which united many educational, religious, and social institutions. This organization played an important role in the further development of Hezbollah, and Fadlallah himself has been called its leader, although he claimed that this was not true. Gradually, the organization grew, it established a power vertical and acquired symbolic attributes. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 greatly contributed to the development of Hezbollah. 

In Lebanon, there was an urgent need to create a single Islamic organization that would unite all Shiite groups. Islam was to become the intellectual, religious, ideological, and practical foundation of the proposed political party. The party’s main goal was to resist the occupation, and its leader was to be a sayyed – i.e. a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. 

Nine representatives of the main Islamic groups held a meeting, and issued a document known as the Manifesto of the Nine. This manifesto was sent to Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, who approved it.

The manifesto was then adopted by the majority of the religious groups in Lebanon. Their leaders dissolved existing partnerships in favor of a single new structure, which became known as Hezbollah. One of the prominent leaders of the movement, Sheikh Naim Qassem, in his book 'Hezbollah: The Story From Within', wrote that the Lebanese Shiites enlisted the support of Tehran from the very beginning. The guardians of the Islamic Revolution were given an order to support the allies in their fight against Israel, primarily through military training and the provision of necessary infrastructure. A delegation of high-ranking Iranian military officials came to Syria, and Damascus agreed to deploy the IRGC to Lebanon. 

Training camps were set up in Lebanon’s Bekaa region, and a system was developed that included military, religious, and moral training of the fighters. Young people flocked to the training camps. The experience of the Palestinian resistance was also taken into account. All this yielded results in the war with Israel and later allowed Hezbollah to become an official political force that represented the interests of a large part of the population.

Today, Hezbollah continues to build up its military forces, despite external and internal pressure (certain forces in Lebanon speak in favor of disarming the movement). Hezbollah’s military arsenal includes dozens of types of missiles and drones. The group also has ballistic missiles with a range of between 500km and 700km. According to its secretary general, Hezbollah has around 100,000 fighters.  

Iran supports Hezbollah with hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Today, the group takes an active part in the Palestinian conflict. According to a recent report, the organization conducted 1,194 military operations on the Israeli border, leading to heavy losses on the Israeli side–  an estimated 2,000 people were killed and wounded and hundreds of pieces of military equipment were destroyed. 

Iran’s influence in Iraq

In early September, I went on a pilgrimage to Iraq for the annual Arbaeen March, which gathered tens of millions of Muslims from all over the world. We walked 82km from the city of Najaf (which Shia Muslims consider sacred) to the city of Karbala, and throughout this journey, I couldn’t help but wonder how well everything was organized. The people were provided with food, medical services, transport and, most importantly, their safety was ensured. This was largely possible due to the assistance of Iran, which traditionally helps organize this important event for Shia Muslims. 

However, just a few decades ago (from 1980-1988), Iraq and Iran were in the midst of a bloody war. In eight years, this conflict claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on both sides. The fact that both countries are considered centers of Shia Islam added to the problem. The main centers of religious education are located both in Iraq and Iran – in the cities of Najaf and Qom, respectively. The main spiritual authority in Iraq is its supreme leader, while in Iraq it is the great Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. As a result, the Shiites in Iraq became divided based on whether they were oriented towards Iran or Iraq.

The country’s most powerful political forces are connected with Tehran and, as a result, Iraq has become one of the important centers of the Axis of Resistance. This has been clearly demonstrated by the current conflict in Palestine. For example, in November of last year, it was reported that US military bases in Iraq and Syria had been attacked 58 times since the start of the Hamas operation on October 7.

The high level of coordination between the groups which carry out the attacks and Tehran is quite obvious. At the end of January 2024, the media reported that the strike on the US base was carried out a few hours after Iran vowed to avenge the attack on IRGC forces in Damascus. According to some reports, the militants were members of Iraq’s Shiite militia Harakat al-Nujaba. However, many similar groups operate in Iraq.

Popular Mobilization Forces (Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi)

The Popular Mobilization Forces are the largest and most powerful paramilitary group in Iraq. Some reports claim that it became the third-largest military force in the country last year. Official reports show that, from 2001 to 2003, the Popular Mobilization Forces doubled in number – from 116,000 fighters to 238,000. In comparison, the number of soldiers in the regular army increased by 25,000 (to 450,000) over the same period, while the number of police officers in the country increased by 22,250 (to 700,000). The growth is explained by the active financing of this Tehran-backed group.

The need for such an organization arose after the city of Mosul was captured by Islamic State (IS) terrorists in June 2014. At the time, 1,500 terrorists forced thousands of soldiers to flee the city. Prior to this, IS terrorists had captured the cities of Hit, Fallujah, and most of Anbar province. It became obvious that the Iraqi Army was not able to cope with IS. At that time, Iraq’s government decided to integrate the militia into the country’s security services, and Iraq’s Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a ‘fatwa’ on the “righteous jihad” against IS on June 13, 2014. He called on the people of Iraq to take up arms and defend “their country, their people, and their shrines,” and to join the security service. The fatwa strengthened the authority and legitimacy of the Popular Mobilization Forces. In light of the threat posed by IS, intra-Shiite competition subsided and Iran’s influence in Iraq grew. 

In June 2014, the city of Tikrit was captured by terrorists and 1,700 military personnel were brutally executed (this is known as the Camp Speicher massacre). The shocking footage quickly spread on social media, and the Popular Mobilization Forces gained public support which increased even more after the fighters managed to push IS out of Tikrit. In April 2015, the city was liberated.

The fighters from the Popular Mobilization Forces were assisted by the IRGC’s Quds Forces, led by Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. To this day, the Popular Mobilization Forces continue to maintain close military, intelligence, and financial ties with Tehran. It became a legal organization at the end of 2016, when the Iraqi parliament legislated for its status. The Interior Ministry listed more than 67 different brigades, which belonged to the umbrella organization. It is important to note that not all brigades are Iranian proxy forces. However, the Badr Organization and Kataib Hezbollah are considered the most authoritative pro-Iranian groups. 

By 2019, the Popular Mobilization Forces included both fighters who were oriented towards Iran and those who recognized the authority of Ayatollah al-Sistani. 

The Badr Organization

This group came into existence a long time ago. During the Iran-Iraq War, it helped Iran fight against Saddam Hussein. Hadi al-Amiri – the organization’s leader and experienced field commander – was one of the few people whom IS militants truly feared in 2014. Al-Amiri publicly declared his support for Iran. In 30 years, he had come a long way – from a guerrilla fighter who took part in the Iran-Iraq war on the side of Tehran, to a military commander in charge of one of Iraq’s best Shiite brigades. He also served as the Iraqi transport minister. Al-Amiri had gone from a national traitor to an Iraqi hero who was considered a key figure in the fight against IS.

In 2019, the US accused al-Amiri of attacking the US embassy. The attack was a response to US air raids on the militia bases of Kataib Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran.

Kataib Hezbollah

The Iraqi branch of Hezbollah, formed in 2003, has up to 30,000 fighters. Like the Badr Organization, Iraq’s Hezbollah publicly supports Iran, and is oriented towards the Islamic Republic and its supreme leader both spiritually and politically. The group took an active part in resisting US forces during the Iraq War. It also fought against terrorists on the side of Syrian President Bashar Assad. According to some reports, Kataib Hezbollah fighters are trained by instructors from the Quds Forces, which are part of Iran’s IRGC.

The US believes that the recent attack in which three US soldiers were killed on the Jordan-Syria border was carried out by Kataib Hezbollah. The Pentagon publicly declared this. Meanwhile, the militants have claimed responsibility for more than 150 attacks on US troops since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023.

The group used to be headed by Jamal Jafar Ibrahimi, better known as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who came from Basrah, Iraq. However, he died on January 3, 2020 as a result of a US airstrike near Baghdad Airport. The legendary Iranian general, the head of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, was also killed at that time. Al-Muhandis was Iraq’s deputy national security adviser, a member of the Iraqi parliament, and the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces. 

In addition to the above-mentioned groups, which operate under the auspices of the Popular Mobilization Forces, we may also note the Iraq-based militant groups “Imam Ali Brigades,” “Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba,” and “Saraya al-Khorasani.”

Iran’s influence in Syria

It would not be an exaggeration to say that, during the war against terrorists that began in 2011, Iran, along with Russia, played an important role in saving Syria. From the start of the conflict, Iran sent volunteer fighters, military equipment, medicine, fuel, and ammunition to Syria. Tehran opened a line of credit and allocated huge funds to support the government in Damascus. This helped Assad hold out until 2015, when Russia’s Air Force came to the aid of Syria and radically changed the situation at the front. 

During the war years, Iran formed many paramilitary groups in Syria that helped the Syrian Army. However, Shiite militias in the country preserved their independence and were never directly subordinate to the official command of its army.

Liwa Abu al-Fadhal al-Abbas (LAFA)

The Al-Abbas Brigade is closely linked to the Syrian Republican Guard and was named after Abbas ibn Ali – the son of the Shiite Imam Ali. The brigade was formed in 2012 with a specific goal – to ensure the safety of the Sayyida Zeinab mosque in Damascus and other holy sites in Syria revered by Shiites. 

Reliable sources claim that the brigade is divided into smaller groups, named after the 12 Shiite Imams, and consists mainly of Iraqi, Lebanese, and Syrian Shiites. Initially, there were about 500 fighters, but in 2013 the number of volunteers increased to 10,000. All fighters completed a 45-day training course in Iran, during which they were trained to use weapons such as grenade launchers, Kalashnikov assault rifles, and sniper rifles. 

The Fatemiyoun Brigade 

This group was officially formed in 2014. It mainly includes Shiites from Afghanistan, known as the Hazaras (which make up around 10% of the country’s overall population). The fighters are recruited from among the millions of Afghan refugees who live in Iran. In Afghanistan itself, the brigade is known as “Hezbollah in Afghanistan.”

In this way, Tehran recruited Afghans to protect the interests of Syria and the Syrian government, which, throughout history, has been loyal to the Islamic Republic. According to certain information, the Fatemiyoun Brigade is mostly made up of the Army of Muhammad –  a Shiite militant group formed during the Soviet-Afghan war. These militants had also fought against the Taliban. The brigade is divided into smaller units. For example, the group includes the Abuzar Brigade, which consists entirely of Afghan militants. 

According to the US Institute of Peace (USIP), Fatimiyoun militants are generally between 17 and 35 years old. Shiism isn’t the only motivation for joining the brigade – many fighters face economic problems and are vulnerable due to their migrant status. The report says the militants are often recruited from the same village or workplace – this encourages them to watch over each other and operate more effectively at the front.

The Fatimiyoun Brigade under the command of IRGC officers took part in Assad’s offensives. It fought in the Syrian cities of Homs, Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and Idlib. The brigades possess modern Russian T-90 tanks. According to various sources, they have between 10,000 and 20,000 fighters. However, this information dates back to 2017, since Iran reduced the number of fighters following the victory over IS. The youngest and oldest fighters, as well as those who violated discipline, were the first to be demobilized. Today, the brigade is no longer active, but experts believe that, if needed, Iran could call up to 40,000 trained fighters at any moment. At least 10,000 of them possess combat experience.

The Zainebiyoun Brigade

This group mostly includes Pakistani Shiites (from the Kurram and Balochistan regions). The name of the unit refers to the main Shiite shrine in Damascus, which was barbarically attacked by IS militants in 2013. After this incident, the region started actively mobilizing Shiite militants. The Pakistani brigade numbered between 2,000 and 5,000 fighters. It was often spotted near Damascus, as well as near Aleppo and Idlib, and has participated in the Syrian Army’s offensives. The IRGC was also responsible for the training and financing of the Zainebiyoun Brigade.

Paradoxically, experts believe that the brigade is one of the least known and poorly studied Shiite armed groups that operated in Syria under Iranian command. 

One of the last Pakistani Shiites to die in Syria was Zaki Mohammad Abbas. He was buried in the city of Qom in Iran, which the Shiites consider holy. Little is known about Abbas – his name may be a pseudonym, and his place and year of birth, occupation, as well as the location and circumstances of his death in Syria remain unknown. 

In an interview with Panjereh on June 23, 2016, Zainebiyoun’s chief commander, Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, stated that the main reason for the group’s mobilization was the threat to Shiite pilgrimage sites in Syria. He said that Pakistani Shiites wanted to “rush to the defense of the shrines” and take part in the “apocalyptic battle against terrorists.”

According to Mousavi, “Iran is the main center and command headquarters of this war.” The commander also said Pakistani Shiites had written a letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asking for permission to fight in Syria, to which Khamenei verbally replied: “Those who are able to fulfill their duty should do so to the best of their ability.”

Several sources claim that the Zainebiyoun Brigade is under the direct command of the IRGC.

Yemen’s Houthis

Until last year, few people talked about the Yemeni fighters from Ansar Allah. But things changed when they rose up against the US and its allies. The Houthi group was the only force in the region that dared to tell the truth about the events in Palestine and stood up for the Palestinians. On January 12, 2024, the US and UK attacked the positions of the Houthis in Yemen. This strike was a response to the blockade imposed by the Houthis on Israeli ships (as well as ships heading to and from Israel) in the Red Sea.

The Houthis are also called “Iran’s proxies,” and it is believed that Iran has transferred modern drones and missiles to Ansar Allah, which made it possible for the group to attack deep-sea targets and modern ships. However, the Houthis are a lot more independent than, for example, Iraq’s militia brigades or Hezbollah. There is no evidence that they are dependent on Iranian aid or under Tehran’s direct influence.

Ansar Allah’s cooperation with Iran resembles a union formed on the basis of ideological and religious affinity. However, the Houthis have their own understanding of the situation in the region, as well as their own goals and methods, which we wrote about in detail in an earlier article.

Chaos has reigned in Yemen since the unification of South Yemen and North Yemen in 1990. The latest conflict began with a dispute between the Sunnis and Shiites in 2004. In Saada, a city in northwestern Yemen, the Shiites spoke out against the Sunni authorities, whom they accused of religious oppression and corruption. Naturally, Iran supported the Shiites. As a result, the religious minority demanded independence and an armed uprising began, which was headed by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, who was killed in late 2004. The fighters are called “Houthis” in his honor, but officially, the movement is called Ansar Allah (“Supporters of God”).

After Hussein’s death, his brother Abdul-Malik al-Houthi took over as the movement’s leader and the fighting continued. Yemen’s authorities called the Houthis a “pro-Iranian fifth column.” In response, the movement accused Yemen’s political establishment of treason and said it served the interests of Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi religious movement. Today, we may assume that Iran and Yemen are closely tied, united by their common goal of fighting against the US and Israel. In this regard, the Houthis are also an important part of the Axis of Resistance.

Conclusion

Tehran resorts to a revolutionary approach in its foreign policy in order to improve its positions in the Middle East. This has transformed it from a peripheral power that barely survived the eight-year war with Iraq into a regional superpower with global ambitions. 

Iran’s success in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen is a result of its long-standing support for the region’s main political forces. Moreover, Iran has a deep understanding of the cultural characteristics of those countries where the Shiites make up either the majority, or the socially and politically important part of the population. 

As for Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, we must also note the economic ties between these nations and Iran. Iraq and Iran are involved in cultural exchange – for example, Shiite scholars and religious pilgrims regularly travel between the two countries. This allows the two nations which were once at war to grow closer to each other. 

Iran not only engages in the policy of exporting the Islamic Revolution, but also protects the interests of the Shiites and acts as a guarantor of their security. Iran has proven that it does not withdraw when it comes to war. At the same time, Iran promotes the pro-Palestinian agenda and the liberation of Jerusalem, which makes it popular among many Sunnis in the region.

As of today, Iran and the Axis of Resistance coalition which it heads are the only forces in the region that are ready to confront the US. Meanwhile, the Americans are losing their authority in the Middle East and becoming more despised by the local population.

Thomas Bach has been interviewed by notorious pranksters Vovan and Lexus

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has admitted to a pair of pranksters that Ukrainians have been asked to spy on Russian athletes online so that they could be banned from the upcoming Paris Games.   

In a video-call posted on Tuesday, in which one of the Russian duo known as Vovan and Lexus impersonated an African official, Bach claimed that by sanctioning Russian athletes, the IOC is “punishing those who are responsible for the annexation.”  

The IOC chief was apparently referring to the former Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye, which overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referenda in 2022. They followed the Crimean Peninsula, which did the same in 2014 after a Western-backed coup in Kiev.  

“No Russian anthem can be played and no Russian flag can be raised [at the Paris 2024 Olympics],” the IOC president stated.

Answering a question on whether Russian athletes who support the Ukraine conflict deserved the right to take part in the Olympics, Bach revealed that the IOC has a special commission which monitors public statements by athletes in support of the government in Moscow.   

“We have a special supervisory commission together with an independent company which is monitoring the internet, the media, and public declarations,” he stated.   

“We also offered the Ukrainian side – and not only offered, but also asked to provide us with their knowledge about the behavior of such athletes or officials,” Bach further revealed.  

He stressed that any athletes found to have expressed support for the Russian government will be banned from the Olympics.   

Russian athletes are allowed to participate in the Games as neutrals in individual sports, but are barred from team events.  

After the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the IOC recommended that athletes from Russia and its close ally Belarus should not be allowed to compete in international events. In December last year, the body ruled that a limited number of people from the two countries could participate in the Olympics as AINs (individual neutral athletes).  

In March, the international body announced that the maximum number of Russians who could qualify for the Paris Games was 55, while Belarus is limited to 28 athletes. However, according to IOC director James Macleod, the two nations are unlikely to meet the quotas, and around 36 Russian and 22 Belarusian athletes are expected to make it to the Games.  

Several top-ranking European officials, including Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, have fallen for prank calls by Russian duo Vovan and Lexus in recent months, during which the politicians revealed their thoughts on sensitive topics such as the Ukraine conflict.

Multiple victims and the suspect are all 12 years old, according to the police

A student has been killed and two others injured in a school shooting near the Finnish capital Helsinki, local police have reported, adding that the victims and the suspected perpetrator are all 12 years old.

The incident happened on Tuesday morning at a lower secondary school in the city of Vantaa, just to the north of Helsinki. Police said they had been alerted to the shooting just after 9am and arrested a suspect in the capital soon afterwards.

One student died at the scene while two others were rushed to hospital, according to an update from law enforcement issued several hours after the shooting. Initial reports said three students had been injured.

The unnamed suspect is a student at the school and had a handgun in their possession. Officers seized the weapon and took the apparent shooter into custody.

According to the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper, law enforcement initially stated the age of the victims as 13, but later corrected that information. Students and teachers at the facility had been told by officers to take shelter and await instructions, the report added. Further updates are expected later on Tuesday.