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Peter Navarro has become the first former White House official to be jailed for contempt of Congress

Peter Navarro, the architect of then-President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, has become the first former White House aide to be imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with US lawmakers.

The 74-year-old economist, who served as a senior trade adviser to Trump, reported to federal prison on Tuesday at a minimum-security facility in Florida. Navarro was sentenced in January to four months in prison after being convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the US House committee that investigated the January 2021 Capitol riot.

The Trump ally has claimed that he could not provide testimony because his interactions with the then-president were covered by executive privilege – the chief executive’s authority to withhold information from the government’s legislative and judicial branches. “When I walk in that prison today, the justice system, such as it is, will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Navarro has vowed to continue appealing his conviction, warning that his case could be a dangerous precedent. “If I fail in that appeal – after nonetheless serving my full prison term – the constitutional separation of powers will be irreparably damaged and the doctrine of executive privilege dating back to George Washington will cease to function as an important safeguard for effective presidential decision-making,” he said.

One of Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr., said Navarro was persecuted for standing up to “the corrupt January 6 committee.” He added, “Peter is a patriot, while the left’s lawfare is as destructive as it’s ever been.”

Navarro likened his case to the four pending criminal indictments against Trump and argued that “weaponization” of the justice system by US President Joe Biden’s administration makes him afraid for America’s future. “If they can put me in prison, they can put you in prison,” he told reporters before reporting to his jailers in Miami. “Make no mistake about that, and make no mistake about this: They’re coming after Donald Trump with the same tactics, tools and strategies they used to put me over there today.”

READ MORE: Biden escaped prosecution on ‘senile cooperator theory’ – US lawmaker

Another former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, also was sentenced to four months in prison for defying the January 6 committee. His sentence is still under appeal.

Some 2,000 soldiers would be sent in the “initial stage” of the operation, Sergey Naryshkin said

France is preparing its forces for deployment to Ukraine, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin claimed in a statement on Tuesday. Paris allegedly seeks to send as many as 2,000 troops to Ukraine, he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that he “cannot exclude” the possibility of Western soldiers being sent to aid Kiev in its fight against Moscow, branding Russia an “adversary” while denying Paris was “waging war” against it.

Russia’s military and top officials have repeatedly pointed to the presence of French mercenaries already fighting for Kiev on the ground. In mid-January, the Russian Defense Ministry said that more than 60 foreigners, predominantly French nationals, had been killed in a high precision strike against a “temporary assembly point of foreign fighters.”

In the statement on Tuesday, the SVR chief said the French Armed Forces had become “concerned” about the rising number of French nationals dying in Ukraine.

The casualty level has supposedly surpassed a “psychological threshold” and could trigger protests, the statement said, adding that Macron’s government was concealing this information and “delaying” the moment it would have to be revealed.

According to the spy chief, the French military is worried about the government’s plans to send the contingent to Ukraine, considering that such an operation would be difficult to conduct without Russia noticing.

The French soldiers would indeed become “a legitimate priority target for attacks by the Russian Armed Forces,” Naryshkin said.

The claims come as the chief of staff of the French Army, Gen. Pierre Schill, said in an interview on Tuesday that France is prepared to take part in the “toughest engagements” militarily, and is ready to face any international developments. He added that Paris could assemble a division of 20,000 troops within 30 days and an army of 60,000 by joining with divisions from other NATO allies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also claimed this week that Western mercenaries, including French nationals, are dying in Ukraine “in large numbers.” Commenting on a potential NATO deployment to Ukraine, the president also warned that this would be “one step shy of a full-scale World War III.”

If reelected this year, the former US president plans to facilitate negotiations between Moscow and Kiev

The former US leader and Republican candidate in this year’s presidential election, Donald Trump, has reiterated his plans to pressure Russia and Ukraine into working out a peace deal if he returns to the White House.

In an interview on the talk show ‘America First with Sebastian Gorka’ aired on Monday, Trump said negotiations are the only way to “stop the bloodshed in Europe.”

“We have to get both of them [Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky] together, and I’ll say ‘you gotta get this thing done, you’re gonna get it done…’ I’ll get them together and make a deal, and I’ll get it done,” Trump stated, adding that he knows both leaders well and knows exactly what to tell them to make sure that a peace deal is signed.

Trump likened the conflict to a “chess match or a poker game,” which he knows how to play. He accused current President Joe Biden of failing to stop the conflict in the first place, saying Biden is “not much of a chess player,” and that he was not right in placing all of the blame for the conflict on Putin.

“It should have never started… I did discuss Ukraine with Putin… it was the apple of his eye, he would have never done it [started the conflict] when I was [in office],” he said.

This is not the first time that Trump has called for peace talks to stop the Ukraine conflict. In May last year, he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that if he returns to power, he can end the war in one day. When asked how, Trump said that both Zelensky and Putin “have weaknesses and they both have strengths,” which he could use to settle the conflict. Zelensky responded at the time that Trump’s comments were simply part of his “political message.”

Moscow has said it is open to peace talks, but both Kiev and its Western backers have insisted that negotiations can only be conducted on Zelensky’s terms. These include the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine, the return of all former Ukrainian territories, and an international tribunal for Russia’s leadership. Moscow considers these demands unrealistic.

Switzerland recently offered to host a peace summit sometime this year. However, no specific date has been set, and Zelensky has stated that Russia would not be invited to the negotiating table.

Paris is prepared to fight the “toughest” battles to protect its interests, the chief of staff has declared

France is ready to face whatever developments unfold internationally and is prepared for the “toughest engagements” to protect itself, the chief of staff of the French Army, Gen. Pierre Schill, said in an interview published on Tuesday.

In recent weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly refused to rule out Western troops being sent to Ukraine at some point to help Kiev in its fight against Moscow, which he described as an “adversary” of Paris.

France’s forces are “ready,” Schill told Le Monde, stressing that “whatever the developments in the international situation, the French can be convinced: their soldiers will respond.”

Schill said France has “international responsibilities” and is linked by defense agreements to “states exposed to major threats,” and must therefore have its forces trained and interoperable with allied armies.

He added that nuclear deterrence “is not a universal guarantee” because it does not guard against conflicts that would remain “below the threshold of vital interests.” Schill said that the Army must show itself a credible force through responsiveness in terms of force projection and the ability to carry out operations of increased scope.

The general said that France currently has the capacity to commit a division of around 20,000 men within 30 days and has the means to command an army corps of up to 60,000 which includes allied divisions.

In an interview with the TF1 and France 2 channels last week, President Macron said that France is “not waging war on Russia” by supporting Kiev, but labeled Russia an “adversary” and has stood by his remarks that a potential deployment of NATO troops to the country could not be “excluded.”

His statements drew a wave of denials from most of France’s fellow NATO members and officials – including Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg – about having any intention to deploy their forces to Ukraine.

READ MORE: iPhones won’t work in case of World War III – Russian MP

At the same time, Spain’s El Pais reported on Monday that the US-led bloc has already been involved “in virtually every possible aspect” of the conflict and that active and former military personnel from NATO states have been operating in the country overseeing Kiev’s use of Western-supplied weapons.

Moscow has repeatedly described the conflict as a US-led proxy war against Russia, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against escalation and said that a direct clash between NATO and Russia would be “one step shy of a full-scale World War III.”

The SpaceX CEO has said he uses “a small amount” of the drug to treat depression

Space travel tycoon Elon Musk has opened up about his struggle with depression, telling broadcaster Don Lemon that he uses ketamine to get out of a “negative frame of mind.” Musk’s critics have long accused him of abusing narcotics.

In an interview aired on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Lemon asked Musk whether he would ever consume drugs or alcohol before making “controversial” social media posts. Musk denied ever taking recreational drugs – except for a “puff” of marijuana with podcast host Joe Rogan in 2018 – but explained why he has been prescribed ketamine, which is a Schedule III controlled substance in the US.

“There are times when I have sort of a… negative chemical state in my brain, like depression I guess… depression that’s not linked to any negative news, and ketamine is helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind,” Musk told Lemon. 

A growing body of scientific research suggests that ketamine – most commonly used as a veterinary anesthetic – could be effective at treating depression as an alternative to SSRIs like Escitalopram (Lexapro) and Fluoxetine (Prozac). The drug also shows promise in treating migraines, bipolar disorder, and Huntington’s disease, among other conditions.

Musk told Lemon that he uses “a small amount once every other week or something like that” and has a prescription from “an actual, real doctor.” 

Asked whether he abuses the substance, Musk said that he doesn’t. “If you use too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done,” he said. “I’m typically putting in 16-hour days… so I don’t really have a situation where I can be not mentally acute for an extended period of time.” 

Citing Musk’s associates and business partners, the Wall Street Journal and New Yorker have both run articles accusing the tycoon of using a range of illicit drugs. According to a pair of Wall Street Journal reports earlier this year, Musk regularly binged on LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and magic mushrooms, sometimes with Tesla and SpaceX executives. “People close to Musk,” the paper claimed in January, are “concerned [his drug use] could cause a health crisis” or jeopardize SpaceX’s government contracts.

Musk denied the claims, declaring that the newspaper is “not fit to line a parrot cage.” 

READ MORE: Musk cancels X partnership deal with former CNN anchor

Prior to the interview with Lemon, Musk had only briefly mentioned his ketamine use. In a tweet last year, the billionaire wrote that he had “serious concerns about SSRIs, as they tend to zombify people.” 

“Occasional use of Ketamine is a much better option,” he continued, adding: “I have a prescription for when my brain chemistry sometimes goes super negative.”

The presumptive Republican nominee has said his administration would take “appropriate action” if the British royal lied about using drugs

Former US President Donald Trump has hinted that Britain’s Prince Harry could be deported if it turns out that he lied about his drug use on his visa application. Trump previously accused the royal of “betraying” his family.

In an interview with former Brexit Party leader and GB News host Nigel Farage set to be broadcast on Tuesday, Trump was asked whether he would grant the Duke of Sussex “special privileges” if US immigration authorities discover that he tried to conceal his drug use to enter the US.

“No,” Trump replied. “We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”

“Appropriate action? Which might mean…not staying in America?” Farage pressed.

“Oh, I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me. You would have thought they would have known this a long time ago,” Trump answered.

In his 2023 autobiography, Harry admitted to using cocaine, marijuana, and ayahuasca in the past. Applicants for US visas must answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question ‘Are you or have you ever been a drug abuser or addict?’

Prince Harry and his wife, Meaghan Markle, moved to California in 2020 after stepping down from royal duties. In an interview with ‘Good Morning America’ last month, the prince said that he would consider applying for US citizenship, but that doing so was “certainly not something that’s a high priority for me right now.”

Before the interview aired, the Heritage Foundation – a conservative think tank – sued the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeking the release of Harry’s immigration records. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the DHS to hand over the files, but the department stated on Sunday that it needs two more weeks to locate them. Once found, the judge will then rule whether they can be made public.

Trump met with Harry’s grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, in 2018 and 2019. Then-President Trump described the queen as an “incredible lady,” and claimed that the pair had “too much fun” during 2019’s state visit. 

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland last month, Trump said that Harry “betrayed the queen,” and “would be on his own” in any immigration dispute with his administration. Trump’s “betrayal” comment was likely a reference to Harry abandoning his royal duties and giving a series of interviews accusing the royal family of racism.

Trump is currently the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in this November’s presidential election. The former leader, who has a slight lead on Biden in most recent polls, has vowed to close the US’ southern border with Mexico and institute “the largest deportation operation in American history.”

Kiev does not have the resources or manpower to continue the fight against Russia, Rajmund Andrzejczak has said

Ukraine’s losses in the conflict with Russia should be counted “in the millions,” the former chief of the Polish General Staff, Rajmund Andrzejczak, has claimed. Kiev “is losing the war” and does not have the resources to sustain the fight against Moscow, he added.   

In an interview with the Polsat broadcaster on Monday, the retired general described Ukraine’s battlefield situation as “very dramatic” and insisted that “there are no miracles in war.” 

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to replace his top general, Valery Zaluzhny, with Aleksandr Syrsky has failed to make a significant difference as the same issues remain for Kiev’s new commander-in-chief, Andrzejczak added. 

According to the retired general, Ukraine is suffering deficits in equipment and manpower, with losses taking their toll on its capabilities. 

“They are missing over 10 million people. I estimate that the losses should be counted in the millions, not hundreds of thousands. There are no resources in this country, there is no one to fight.”

“The Ukrainians are losing this war,” Andrzejczak stated, pointing to media reports suggesting that Kiev is running out of anti-aircraft missiles to protect itself from Russian strikes. 

Echoing warnings from several Western leaders in recent weeks, Andrzejczak called for arms production to be boosted and argued that the West should prepare for a full-scale conflict with Russia within two or three years. Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that Moscow has no plans or interest in attacking NATO.

READ MORE: Top US senator tells Ukraine to draft younger soldiers

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu stated last month that Ukraine had lost more than 444,000 troops since the start of the conflict in February 2022. The hostilities have also triggered an exodus of Ukrainian refugees, with almost 6.5 million recorded worldwide, according to UN data.

Officials in Kiev have repeatedly complained that Western arms shipments have been inadequate. Those calls have grown louder as US President Joe Biden’s request to provide an additional $60 billion in aid remains stalled in Congress, due to Republican demands to strengthen American border security. 

Kiev is also mulling a new mobilization bill that would lower the minimum draft age for men from 27 to 25, with reported plans to send 500,000 new troops to the frontline.

Against this backdrop, the Russian military last month pushed Kiev out of the strategic Donbass city of Avdeevka, also liberating several nearby settlements. The former stronghold has been on the front line since 2014 and was frequently used by Kiev to shell residential blocks in the nearby city of Donetsk.

“Wherever there is a terrorist, we’ll find and eliminate him,“ the Turkish leader said

Türkiye’s military is set to carry out operations to achieve full security along the country’s borders, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

In January, Türkiye carried out a series of airstrikes and ground operations in northern Iraq and northern Syria, targeting members and facilities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara views as a terrorist organization. The escalation followed the death of nine Turkish troops in clashes with the PKK fighters.

The goal of the government in Ankara is to make sure that Türkiye is free from “the dark shadow of terrorism,” Erdogan said during a speech on Monday.

In order to achieve this, “we will completely guarantee the security of our Iraqi border by this summer and will definitely complete our unfinished business in Syria,” he stated.

”Wherever there is a terrorist, we’ll find and eliminate him,” the Turkish leader said, adding that the country “will absolutely not allow these hired killer gangs, who are now gasping for breath, cornered, and on the verge of extinction, to revive and become a burden on our nation again.”

Earlier this month, Hürriyet newspaper reported that the Turkish military was going to conduct a large-scale ground offensive in northern Iraq against the PKK. The government in Baghdad has consented to the military operation on its territory, according to the outlet.

High-ranking officials from the two countries held a security summit in Baghdad last week, saying in a joint statement that “the PKK poses a security threat to Türkiye and Iraq and… that the presence of the said organization on Iraqi territory violates the Iraqi constitution.”

Turkish forces have been deployed in northern Syria since 2016 amid a conflict in the country with the declared goal of fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and other terrorist groups.

The authorities in Damascus condemned the incursion, which was carried out by Ankara without their consent, as an “aggression” against the Syrian state and “a blatant violation” of the country’s sovereignty.

READ MORE: Türkiye arrests hundreds for alleged ISIS links

Erdogan, who has joined Western calls for regime change in Damascus throughout the conflict, said last summer that he was open to a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad with a view to mending relations. However, he said the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syria’s Idlib province shouldn’t be a precondition for the talks.

A UN-backed report warns that mass death is imminent without an immediate ceasefire and food supplies

Famine conditions now exist in the northern part of Gaza, a UN monitor group warned on Monday. Around 300,000 people remain trapped in the area, following months of Israeli bombardment that has left over 31,000 people dead.

The UN-backed report also warns that more than 70% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million faces “catastrophic hunger.” The Integrated Food-Security Phase Classification (IPC) said that mass death is now imminent without an immediate ceasefire and deliveries of food aid to the areas affected by the fighting.

More than a dozen children in Gaza, including newborn babies, have starved to death and many more are at risk from soaring malnutrition. UN aid agencies warned earlier in March that urgently-needed humanitarian aid is being blocked from entering the Palestinian enclave. 

The IPC estimated that two out of every 10,000 people will die daily from starvation, malnutrition, and disease if not helped immediately.

“The actions needed to prevent famine require an immediate political decision for a ceasefire together with a significant and immediate increase in humanitarian and commercial access to the entire population of Gaza,” the report said.

Israel has been criticized by its Western partners since it began launching retaliatory strikes against Hamas militants following their attack on Israel on October 7.

“In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine. We are in a state of famine,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said at the opening of a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels on Monday. He also accused Israel of “using starvation as a weapon of war.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded by saying, “Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza,” and told Borrell “to stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas’ crimes.”

Efforts to reach a truce between Hamas and Israel are ongoing, with no breakthrough so far as the hostilities continue. Heavy fighting erupted on Monday in and around Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital complex. The Israeli Army said it was combatting Hamas militants there and advised civilians to evacuate.

Beijing is reportedly working behind the scenes to convince the EU to invite Moscow to a potential international summit

China will boycott international peace talks on the Russia-Ukraine conflict unless Moscow has a seat at the table, Politico reported on Monday, citing officials familiar with the matter. 

According to outlet, the message was “amplified” during Chinese Eurasia envoy Li Hui’s European tour earlier this month. Li met with Andrey Yermak, the chief of staff to President Vladimir Zelensky, while in Kiev on March 7.  

Ukraine will likely be discussed during German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to China next month. Chinese President Xi Jinping will then travel to Paris in early May and meet his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, Politico said.

The South China Morning Post reported this month that Li told EU officials that a potential peace summit cannot turn into “a conference that produces a plan that is pushed down the Russians’ throat.” 

China has refused to blame Russia for the ongoing conflict and has stressed that the fighting can only be stopped through diplomatic means. In 2023, Beijing unveiled a 12-point roadmap to a peace settlement, urging both sides to de-escalate. Kiev has since rejected the proposal.

Ukraine insists that peace can only be negotiated on Zelensky’s terms, which include the withdrawal of Russian forces from “illegally occupied” territory. Moscow has rejected the demands as a non-starter, stressing that it will not surrender Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions that joined Russia after holding referendums.

Negotiations between Moscow and Kiev effectively broke down in the spring of 2022, with both sides accusing each other of making unrealistic demands. Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently said that Ukrainian negotiators had initially agreed to some of Moscow’s terms, but then abruptly reneged on the deal. 

Kiev’s lead negotiator, David Arakhamia, revealed in November 2023 that his team’s main goal was to “buy time” for the Ukrainian military.

Switzerland has proposed to host a major peace summit sometime this year. However, no specific date has been set, and no list of potential participants has been revealed. 

The US president was told in October that Israeli airstrikes were often carried out without “solid intelligence,” the newspaper claims

The White House knew since late October that Israel was regularly bombing civilian targets in Gaza, but President Joe Biden continued to publicly defend the Israeli military’s conduct, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

On October 27, three weeks into Israel’s war with Hamas, Biden’s top foreign policy officials told a small group at the White House that “Israel was regularly bombing buildings without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets,” the newspaper wrote, citing three sources familiar with the meeting. 

The officials also expressed concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had no clear plan for defeating the Palestinian militant group, with one source telling the Post that “from the very beginning, there’s been a sense of us not knowing how the Israelis were going to do what they said they were going to do.”

At the time, the US was rushing military aid to Israel. Two weeks before the meeting, Biden visited the Jewish state and publicly declared that “as long as the United States stands…[Israel] will not be alone.” On the same day as the meeting, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that the US would not impose any “red lines” on how Israel conducted its military campaign.

The meeting did little to change the rhetoric of Biden or his officials. The president didn’t criticize Israel over the repeated bombing of a refugee camp in early November. Likewise, the White House publicly backed Israel’s decision to bomb Gaza’s largest hospital later that month, with Kirby telling reporters that Hamas had hidden a command center beneath the facility. 

Behind the scenes, however, US officials worried that such a statement would be seen by the Israelis as a “green light” to attack the hospital, the Washington Post reported. Democratic Senator Chris van Hollen told the newspaper that there was “some disconnect” between what Kirby said and what US intelligence reports actually showed, without explaining further.

Amid growing discontent from his own voters, Biden has since become more critical of Netanyahu. As early as January, the US president claimed that he was “quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.” However, “When those conversations yielded little result, US officials offered few public rebukes and no evident consequences,” the Post’s sources said.

“At every juncture, Netanyahu has given Biden the finger,” van Hollen told Axios in January, declaring that the Biden administration is “pleading with the Netanyahu coalition, but getting slapped in the face over and over again.”

Netanyahu announced on Friday that he had approved plans to attack the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. Rafah is currently home to more than a million Palestinians displaced from other parts of the enclave, and Biden told MSNBC earlier this month that an Israeli operation there would cross a “red line.” 

Biden partially walked his comments back moments later, telling MSNBC that Netanyahu “has a right to defend Israel,” but must “pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost.”

At least eight people were reportedly killed as the Afghan militants traded cross-border fire with the Pakistani military

Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of killing eight civilians in an air raid on Monday. The Islamist group responded by opening fire on Pakistani targets, allegedly wounding seven people.

Pakistani jets “bombarded the homes of civilians” in the early hours of Monday morning, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. Mujahid said that the bombing killed eight people in the provinces of Paktika and Khost, both of which border Pakistan.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry did not comment on the alleged civilian casualties but said that the Pakistan Air Force had launched “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations” against Taliban-sponsored terrorist groups operating in the two provinces. These groups include the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad says have used Afghanistan as a staging ground for attacks on Pakistani soil.

The Taliban denies sheltering the TTP. While Hafiz Gul Bahadur once led a Taliban faction in Pakistan, his current relationship with Kabul is unclear.

The most recent of these attacks was on Saturday, when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden truck into a military checkpoint in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A splinter group of the TTP claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed seven Pakistani soldiers.

Mujahid said that Taliban fighters responded to Monday’s airstrikes by targeting Pakistani military outposts with heavy weapons. Pakistani officials told Al Jazeera that three soldiers and four civilians were wounded by mortar fire.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which has a long experience of freedom struggle against the superpowers of the world, does not allow anyone to invade its territory,” the Taliban spokesman stated.

Although an American ally, Pakistan provided military and financial aid to the Taliban before and during the US invasion of Afghanistan. That relationship has since soured, with Pakistan fencing up its side of the Afghan border and deporting hundreds of thousands of Afghans late last year. Tit-for-tat killings have become commonplace along the frontier since 2022, with the Pakistani government accusing the Taliban of sheltering terrorists and Kabul accusing Islamabad of violating Afghan sovereignty.

READ MORE: Taliban winning war against opium trade – UN

Not a single country officially recognizes the Taliban government, which took power in Kabul in 2021 during the final stage of the withdrawal of US troops. The UN does not recognize the group’s authority over Afghanistan, and the Taliban has boycotted power-sharing talks in Qatar.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has said neighboring Moldova’s “only solution” is further integration with the bloc.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has endorsed Moldova’s pro-Western president’s reelection campaign, declaring that the former Soviet state would not exist without support from Bucharest.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu is seeking re-election this fall, promising to maintain her government’s pro-Western trajectory and make the country a full-fledged member of the EU by 2030. Despite just 22% of Moldova’s population expressing trust in Sandu, she is backed by multiple EU leaders, including Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

Sandu’s reelection “is the only solution for the Republic of Moldova to continue to have a European route,” Ciolacu told Romania’s Digi24 news outlet on Sunday.

“I want to remind you that Romanians live in the Republic of Moldova, only Romanians,” Ciolacu continued. “This state is sustainable thanks to the involvement of the Romanian state and of Romania. I think it is our duty as Romanians to continue to support our Romanians from the Republic of Moldova.”

More than 80% of Moldova’s 2.5 million people speak Romanian as their mother language and roughly a quarter of the population hold Romanian passports. However, while Sandu has spoken favorably about the country’s eventual unification with Romania, around two thirds of Moldovans oppose the idea. A majority of Moldova’s population also opposes joining NATO, while only a slim majority supports EU membership, according to a poll carried out earlier this month. 

Furthermore, the self-declared republic of Transnistria, located in eastern Moldova, is home to more than 200,000 Russian citizens. In 2006, 98% of Transnistrians voted to secede and pursue future integration with the Russian Federation.

Transnistrian legislators last month called on Moscow to take “measures to protect Transnistria amid mounting pressure from Moldova.” The Kremlin promised to “carefully consider” the request.

According to recent opinion polling, Sandu is nech-and-neck with socialist rival Igor Dodon, who favors closer relations with Russia. While Moldovans once associated Sandu with liberalization and prosperity, they now associate her with “poverty, arrogance, and anti-democratic abuse,” Dodon said in December.

Russia’s envoy urged the organization to force Kiev to abide by international rules

The obvious lack of a reaction to Ukrainian attacks on Russian cities demonstrated by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has encouraged Kiev to keep killing civilians, Moscow’s representative at the organization Alexander Lukashevich stated on Monday.

The comments came as Ukraine intensified its attacks on Russia’s border regions last week ahead of the country’s presidential election, which took place Friday through Sunday. The attacks involved drone raids, artillery strikes and attempted ground incursions. The assaults on Russia’s Belgorod Region alone have claimed the lives of 11 civilians, including children; 82 more were injured, according to the local health authorities.

“The OSCE leadership is once again demonstrating biased approaches, continuing to divide people into categories and sorts and blatantly ‘not noticing’ the victims of attacks carried out by the armed formations of the Kiev regime against peaceful residents of the Russian regions,” Lukashevich said in a statement posted on the official Telegram channel of the Russian mission.

The official highlighted that the OSCE leaders had offered nothing but “politicized statements” to back Kiev’s criminal regime, accusing the organization of demonstrating hypocrisy that “goes beyond all possible boundaries.”

Lukashevich also urged OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ian Borg and Secretary General Helga Schmid to immediately condemn the intense, indiscriminate shelling of Russian cities by Ukrainian militant groups. 

READ MORE: OSCE violating its mandate – Moscow

According to the envoy, the organization must call on the Ukrainian authorities and their sponsors from NATO to stop killing civilians, and immediately choose a political and diplomatic path to resolve existing tensions instead. 

“Silence and inaction by the OSCE leadership now will mean not only encouragement of attacks by the Kiev regime against the civilians of the Russian Federation, but also its personal responsibility for further armed escalation,” the diplomat concluded.

Beijing is considering taking part in event, according to its ambassador in Bern

China is examining the possibility of taking part in a proposed Swiss-hosted peace conference on the Ukraine conflict, Beijing’s ambassador to Bern, Wang Shihting, told the daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung on Monday.

Last month, Switzerland announced plans to organize a peace summit, which would take place “by the summer.” No specific date has been set, nor has a list of participants been revealed. However, Ukraine has indicated that Russia can only be invited if it agrees in advance to a litany of preconditions.

Beijing has reportedly been pushing to have Moscow invited to the peace talks, with Wang saying on Monday that all parties must be involved to end the ongoing conflict.

“The crisis must be prevented from getting even worse, or even getting out of control,” the envoy said, noting that China has already put forward a strategy for a political end to the conflict, and adding that Beijing has been following the Swiss proposal and is considering taking part.

“The territorial sovereignty of all countries must be respected, and the UN Charter must be adhered to,” Wang stressed. “We should support Russia and Ukraine resuming direct dialogue as quickly as possible so that the situation can be gradually de-escalated,” the diplomat recommended.

Moscow has called the proposed peace conference plan “pointless” and indicated it has no intention of participating, even if officially invited.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that the proposed forum would be dedicated to the promotion of the ‘Zelensky peace formula’ which Moscow has panned as unrealistic.

Zelensky’s plan includes the full withdrawal of Russian troops and a return to Ukraine’s 1991 borders, holding Moscow accountable and forced to pay reparations, among other conditions. Kiev’s basic demands remain the same, while legitimate Russian interests are being ignored, according to Zakharova. She insisted that Switzerland has “lost” its neutral status and cannot serve as a platform for peacekeeping efforts.

Ukraine’s Western backers insist that a peace settlement can only be achieved on Kiev’s terms and have vowed to continue weapons deliveries for “as long as it takes.” Russia, meanwhile, has stressed that no amount of foreign aid will change the course of the conflict.

Peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev were held in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 but broke down, with each side accusing the other of making unrealistic demands. Russian President Vladimir Putin has since said that the Ukrainian delegation had initially agreed with some of Moscow’s terms, but then abruptly reneged on the deal.

The Kremlin has said that it remains open to discussions, but only if Kiev recognizes the “reality on the ground.”

The pardoned ex-lobbyist could be given a fundraising role for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sources have claimed

Donald Trump could hire former lobbyist Paul Manafort for his presidential election campaign, sources have told the Washington Post. Manafort was convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion in 2018 after being linked to the ‘Russiagate’ saga, before being pardoned by Trump as he was leaving office. 

Citing anonymous sources, the newspaper reported on Monday that presumptive Republican nominee Trump appreciates Manafort’s personal loyalty and intends to entrust him with raising funds for his bid for a White House return in November’s election.

The move, however, “would likely revive discussion of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election,” the Post claimed. Manafort formerly served as chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign before being dismissed over allegations of illegal lobbying.

He had spent years as a Republican operative before becoming a lobbyist for foreign clients. Manafort was later accused of neglecting to register as foreign agent and fraudulently hiding profits from the US tax authorities.

Manafort emerged as a key target for attacks on the Trump campaign in 2016 due to the fact that Viktor Yanukovich, the Ukrainian president ousted in 2014 in the US-backed armed coup in Kiev, had been among his clients.

Western media widely described Yanukovich as “pro-Russian” due to his voter base in the predominantly ethnic-Russian eastern part of Ukraine and his reluctance to integrate with the EU at the expense of tariff-free trade with Moscow.

Yanukovich employed Manafort’s services to improve his government’s standing with the West. The American engaged the bipartisan lobbying apparatus in Washington, working with major firms such as the Podesta Group, which is closely linked to the Democrats. Co-founder John Podesta had a senior position in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Manafort came to the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller, who was charged with investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential vote. While the probe failed to produce charges against Trump for supposedly colluding with Moscow, Manafort’s conviction was played up by media hostile to the then-president as circumstantial evidence that such a link existed.

READ MORE: Trump plans to ‘reform’ CIA and FBI – Politico

Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020, just as his term in office was about to end. The Republican publicly praised his “brave” former campaign staffer in an interview in 2018, comparing him favorably to another ex-associate, long-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen. The same month, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations related to payouts to adult film actress Stormy Daniels over an alleged affair she had with Trump.

The Chinese leader says he is sure that Russia will be able to achieve even more success under the president’s continued rule

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on his historic landslide victory in Russia's presidential election, which has paved the way for his fifth term in office.

According to the Central Election Commission, with almost all ballots counted, Putin had 87% of the votes. Voter turnout, unprecedented in the country’s modern history, exceeded 77%.

In a letter quoted by Beijing’s foreign ministry on Monday, the Chinese leader noted that Putin’s victory is proof that he enjoys the support of the Russian people, and expressed confidence that under his leadership, Russia “will be able to make greater achievements in national development.” Xi added that China attaches great importance to vibrant bilateral ties.

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that Beijing hoped that Russian-Chinese cooperation “will continue to move forward” under the strategic guidance of the two residents. “China and Russia are each other’s largest neighbors and comprehensive strategic partners in the new era,” Lin added.

During his victory speech on Sunday night, Putin pointed out that Russia-China ties are a “stabilizing factor” for the entire framework of international relations, expressing hope that these bonds would be maintained, in no small part due to “our good personal relationship with the president of the People’s Republic of China.”

The two countries have for decades enjoyed close economic and political ties, with Beijing refusing to support unprecedented Western sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict. The deep partnership between the two countries was further underscored by Xi’s historic visit to Moscow last March. Putin reciprocated, traveling to Beijing in October.

Xi was not the only world leader to congratulate Putin on his re-election. He was joined by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a host of leaders from post-Soviet republics, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Western countries have not sent any congratulatory messages to Putin amid the stand-off over Ukraine, with many calling the election “unfair,” a charge denied in Moscow.

However, Leonid Sevastyanov, the head of the World Union of Orthodox Old Believers, who says he is in contact with Pope Francis, noted that the pontiff had also congratulated Putin on his landslide victory.

The reported test comes after Pyongyang decried the latest joint drills held by the US and South Korea

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Monday, the Yonhap News Agency has reported, citing senior South Korean military officials. The launches were carried out as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Seoul for a state visit.

The ballistic missile tests, Pyongyang’s first in two months, were detected between 7:44am and 8:22am local time, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) stated. The missiles traveled around 300km and landed in the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan), they added. 

“North Korea fired at least three missiles, and their trajectories were similar to those of [the] KN-24,” a senior military official was quoted as saying. The KN-24 is a solid-fuel ballistic missile with a range of up to 410km and an estimated payload of 400-500kg.

“We strongly condemn North Korea’s latest missile launch, which is a clear provocation that seriously threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula,” the JCS said.

The Defense Ministry in Tokyo confirmed the launch, saying all three missiles had traveled about 350km before landing in waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 370km from the coast. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the tests, adding that Japan was analyzing them while working with the US and South Korea.

The launches come after South Korea and the US wrapped up large-scale annual joint military drills earlier this month. The 11-day Freedom Shield exercises on the Korean Peninsula reportedly involved twice the number of troops compared to 2023 and carried out roughly double the number of field-training drills.

North Korea branded the exercises “reckless” and a “further escalation of military threats,” claiming they were preparation for “an invasion attempt.” Earlier this month, Pyongyang warned the US and South Korea to stop any further “provocative and destabilizing” actions, adding that “a nuclear war may be ignited even with a single spark.” 

Blinken arrived in Seoul on Monday to attend the Summit for Democracy conference hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol. The event, an initiative of US President Joe Biden, is reportedly aimed at discussing ways to stop democratic backsliding and the erosion of rights and freedoms worldwide. Blinken is expected to meet his South Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, during the visit.

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The Russian leader has called the political situation in America a “catastrophe”

The US has become a global laughing stock by criticizing democratic processes in other nations while suppressing a presidential candidate in its own election, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has claimed.

Speaking to journalists in Moscow early on Monday morning, shortly after preliminary results indicated he would be reelected with 87% of the vote in the Russian presidential election, Putin stated that the “whole world is laughing at what is happening” in the US.

“We are behaving with more restraint than their opponents in other countries, but this is just a catastrophe, not a democracy – that’s what it is,” the Russian leader added.

Putin claimed that the current US administration is using all its resources to attack a candidate for this year’s presidential election, seemingly referring to Donald Trump. The former US leader is facing a litany of lawsuits despite being the presumptive Republican nominee for the vote in November.

In a pre-election interview earlier this week, Putin insisted that Russia does not meddle in foreign elections and will work with any elected US president.

“I think it’s obvious to everyone that the American political system cannot claim to be democratic in any sense of the word,” he said in an interview with journalist Dmitry Kiselyov. Putin refused to comment further on the current presidential campaign in the US, but described the atmosphere as becoming “increasingly uncivilized.”

The final day of the Russian presidential election coincides with the anniversary of the utterly meaningless move against the incumbent

One year ago, on 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued two politically important – to put it neutrally – arrest warrants, one for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the other for Maria Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights, a position within the Office of the President.

The warrants reflected that the ICC, to be precise its Pre-Trial Chamber following the court’s Prosecutor Karim Khan, found what it considered “reasonable grounds to believe that President Putin and Ms. Lvova-Belova bear criminal responsibility for the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” Khan further argued that “these acts… demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these children from their own country.” In sum, the arrest warrants depicted an extensive kidnapping operation during wartime.

Public – and published – opinion in the West preponderantly celebrated the warrants as not only justified but salutary. They were supposed to promote the protection of civilians during war and put pressure on Russia by increasing its international isolation, a geopolitical aim that the West was struggling to achieve.

As the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, this was “the first time the leader of a nuclear superpower” was “called to account before the court, an independent institution established … to end impunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” The American President, Joe Biden, thought the ICC operation made “a very strong point.” Not to be outdone, reliably extremist Senator Lindsey Graham and equally reliably conventional publicist Fareed Zakaria both displayed historical illiteracy by absurdly claiming that Putin was copying Hitler. Historian here: Hitler’s victims would have disagreed.

Some Western commentators warned that the warrants were unlikely to be enforced and that convictions were even less likely. Yet such reservations did not challenge the overall Western consensus that the ICC move was both correct and, in some way, useful, even if mostly in a “symbolic,” that is, really, political manner.

Russian officials, unsurprisingly, responded very differently. They rejected both the charges as “null and void” and the jurisdiction of the ICC. Russia, like the US, is (after withdrawing in 2016) not a signatory state to the 1998 Rome Statute, on which the court is based. Hence, the decisions of the ICC have “no meaning for Russia,” as Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put it. Russia even started its own investigation against members of the ICC, and later Graham.

Russian commentators, as well as dissenting voices in the West, also denounced the ICC warrants as an abuse of judicial procedures for political purposes, amounting to a form of information war or lawfare against Russia. The Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo and Max Blumenthal, for instance, investigated the ICC’s evidence and found that it was fundamentally flawed. Their work was thorough, and their findings were detailed as well as, for the ICC and Karim Khan personally, deeply embarrassing.

The key point was that Khan had based much of his case on a report produced by the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale University, an organization “funded and guided” by the US State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, an entity the Biden administration established in May 2022 to advance the prosecution of Russian officials.” In addition, the executive director of HRL, Nathaniel Raymond, started contradicting himself. Whereas he had initially made grandiloquent public statements in the Graham-Zakaria register – even including a bizarre reference to “genocide” – he greatly toned down his allegations once challenged by investigative reporters. No wonder, as the HRL report was weakly sourced, and its content actually contradicted Raymond’s inflammatory rhetoric.

In other words, the ICC prosecutor had relied on a tainted source that crudely served the information warfare purposes of Russia’s main geopolitical opponent, to such a degree that even its executive director ultimately got cold feet. That this badly undermined Karim’s case and his reputation as a professional needs no further belaboring. Washington will be Washington, but why should the ICC join it? If, that is, it seeks to be respected.

In legal terms, the cases have already been shown to be shoddy. They are unlikely to succeed, and not only because of practical and political obstacles, but, more importantly, because there is much more politics than evidence behind them. In terms of those politics, ironically, they have also failed: The warrants have not led to or increased the isolation of Russia or its president. If they have weakened anything, then it is the standing of the ICC, and, in particular, of its Prosecutor Karim Khan. The ICC is already struggling with a deserved reputation as a willing tool of Western geopolitics, while turning a blind eye to the West’s crimes. The attempt to engage in geopolitical lawfare on Russia during a Western proxy war against it has made this image problem worse. Whether a coincidence or not, the fact that one of the judges who issued the warrant for the Russian president has just become the ICC’s new president will only deepen this impression of bias.

Yet what has recently cast an especially harsh new light on the ICC’s campaign against Russia is a matter of comparison, namely between the ICC’s treatment of Russia and of Israel. And, to get a popular piece of nonsense out of the way: comparison is not “whataboutism.” Justice, and that is what courts are supposed to be about, cannot exist without consistency. To assess consistency requires comparison. The cry of “whataboutism” is merely the last refuge of the special pleaders, that is, those who want bias and thus injustice as long as it favors their own side.

As early as April 2023, another Grayzone piece of reporting found that Khan was stalling “the ICC’s case against Israel, frustrating human rights lawyers who represent the victims of grisly violence in the besieged Gaza Strip.” As critical lawyers pointed out even then, a court genuinely interested in the unlawful displacement of civilians, should have put decades of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians at the center of its activity.

In addition, the ICC stopped investigating American war crimes in Afghanistan. The US, in return, started displaying a favorable attitude – and offering generous financial support – to the ICC, which, previously, it had threatened with invasion in case it should ever dare prosecute Americans.

And all of that before Israel’s current genocidal campaign in Gaza, which began after the Hamas attack in early October 2023. Tel Aviv and its Western supporters – in criminal terms, which do apply here, accomplices – have pretended Israel has responded with a “war” on Hamas. But, in reality, everything – explicit Israeli statements, tactics, and, last but not least, the open display of sadism by many of its soldiers and civilians as well – show conclusively that this is not “war,” terrible as the latter is. Instead, this is a genocide executed with the purpose of ethnic cleansing, to be precise, the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza (at least).

Prompted by South Africa, even the International Court of Justice – in a sense, the ICC’s “sibling” organization – has already recognized that genocide is at least a plausible possibility. It is important to understand that ICJ cases take years to conclude. At this point, a finding of a plausible possibility of genocide is the worst imaginable outcome for Israel already. In view of the fact that Tel Aviv has since then resolutely disregarded all the instructions the ICJ issued to restrain its assault, it is all the more likely that, in the end, Israel will be fully convicted.

And yet while the ICJ deals with cases between states, the ICC tries individuals – and has been conspicuous by its reticence to charge Israeli citizens. Critics have pointed out that the court and Khan himself have, once again, been very slow in reacting to Israel’s crimes. Mick Wallace, an Irish member of the European Parliament, has denounced Khan as a “pawn of US Empire” who has displayed  pro-Israeli bias and cannot “be trusted to deliver justice.” Only Khan’s removal, says Wallace, could save the ICC from irrelevance. The BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement, a key player in Palestinian and international resistance to Israel, has even accused Khan of being an accomplice to Tel Aviv’s genocide and, unsurprisingly, also called for him to be fired.

Only recently, as we are now looking back on half a year of unrelenting Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza (and, as a matter of fact, elsewhere, too) have Khan and the ICC slowly started stirring themselves. Yet even now their efforts appear disingenuous. For instance, when finally appointing a prosecutor to lead the investigation into Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, Khan managed to find perhaps the worst candidate imaginable. Andrew Cayley is obviously well-embedded in the British establishment. He used to serve as the UK’s chief military prosecutor. He is a committed and open Conservative, while claiming that that does not tarnish his objectivity. Last but not least, according to The Guardian, Cayley “played a key role in a process that resulted in” the ICC giving up on a “long-running investigation into allegations that UK military personnel committed war crimes in Iraq.” Ask yourself: If you were Palestinian, would you expect fair treatment from a man with this CV?

As if to make things even worse for its own reputation, the ICC has recently added arrest warrants against two high-ranking Russian officers. In their case, the essence of the charges is that they are held responsible for attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine that, the court alleges, went beyond what humanitarian law permits. Really? The same court that has never issued similar warrants against US officers, while the comprehensive devastation of infrastructure – on a scale that Russia has not matched in Ukraine – is routine in American warfare? The same court that is dragging its feet over Israel’s assault on Gaza, which is all about mass killing of civilians not “only” directly but by the deliberate and virtually total destruction and crippling of infrastructure?

The ICC is neither promoting nor protecting human rights and international law. In reality, its obvious and indecently manifest political bias is undermining both. Is it possible that, one day, the ICC will change course, abandon its current role as an instrument of Western geopolitics, and finally do its job: pursue justice without bias? Maybe. No one knows the future. But one thing is predictable: If the ICC continues in what we might call the Khan mode of flagrant subservience, then it will become irrelevant, and soon.

Kiev’s forces will soon be able to target only one in five incoming Russian projectiles, the paper has reported

Ukraine has told its Western backers that munitions for some of its air defense systems could be almost used up by the end of March, the Washington Post has reported, citing US officials.

According to the sources, representatives of Kiev made the warning during a security conference last month, the paper wrote in an article on Friday.

Ukrainian forces, which previously managed to shoot down four out of every five missiles fired by Russia, may soon be able to target only one in five, one of the officials claimed.

The lack of air defense missiles is going to “have a significant effect on life in Ukraine’s urban centers,” the source said.

Russia has been carrying out a large-scale missile and drone campaign against Ukrainian military targets, defense-industrial complex facilities and critical infrastructure since the fall of 2022. Russia Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said previously that the aim of the attacks was to “crush Ukraine’s military potential.”

On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said that a US-supplied Patriot air defense system had been destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region. Last week, it published a video of a successful strike on a Soviet-era S-300 air defense system deployed by Ukraine in Russia’s People’s Republic of Donetsk.

The US officials who talked to WaPo warned of “catastrophic breakdown of Ukrainian lines in the grimmest contingency and the likelihood of massive casualties in the best” if Kiev does not get more military assistance from Washington.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has been trying to push through another $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine since October last year, but has so far been unable to break the resistance of hardline Republicans, who are demanding increased funding to secure the border with Mexico.

READ MORE: Ukraine’s ammo shortage hurting US strategy – White House

Moscow has repeatedly warned that deliveries of weapons to Kiev by the US, EU and their allies will not prevent it from achieving the goals of its military operation and will only prolong the fighting, and may increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO. According to Russian officials, the provision of arms, intelligence-sharing, and training of Ukrainian troops means that Western nations have already become de-facto parties to the conflict.

The US might never have another election if he doesn’t win in November, the former president has said

Former US President Donald Trump has warned of a “bloodbath” for the American automobile industry and the country as a whole if he doesn’t win a second term in the US election on November 5.

Trump made the remark during a rally in Vandalia, Ohio on Saturday while speaking about his plans to protect US carmakers from Chinese competition.

The former president addressed China’s leader Xi Jinping from the stage, saying that “you and I are friends, but… those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now… you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us, no.”

“We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected,” the presumptive Republican nominee in the election added.

Trump urged Americans to vote for him in the fall, saying: “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.”

Later in his address, he also cautioned the crowd that “if this election isn’t won, I’m not sure that you’ll ever have another election in this country.”

Trump’s speech that evening was mostly improvised as he complained about not being able to use the teleprompter due to strong winds. “I can’t read this damn teleprompter. This sucker is moving. Like reading a moving flag in a 35-mph wind,” the 77-year-old said.

The team of US President Joe Biden interpreted Trump’s mentioning of a “bloodbath” as a threat of “political violence” from their rival. “He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge,” Biden’s campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt responded to the accusations later on Saturday, telling CNN that “crooked Joe Biden and his campaign are engaging in deceptively out-of-context editing.”

READ MORE: ‘A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin’ – Hillary Clinton

Leavitt clarified that the former president was speaking exclusively about the country’s car manufacturing industry. “Biden’s policies will create an economic bloodbath for the auto industry and autoworkers,” she said.

SpaceX reportedly signed a $1.8 billion contract with US intelligence services back in 2021

Elon Musk’s secretive Starshield project will allow the US military to track targets and support American and allied ground forces in real time almost anywhere on Earth, Reuters has reported, sharing new details of the billionaire’s dealings with the Pentagon.

SpaceX has been launching prototype military satellites alongside “civilian” payloads on Falcon 9 rockets since at least 2020, before eventually securing a lucrative $1.8 billion contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in 2021, Reuters wrote on Saturday, citing five unnamed sources familiar with the project.

The vast constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites will be able to track targets on the ground in real time nearly anywhere worldwide, the sources claimed. One of them boasted that Starshield would ensure “no one can hide” from the US government. The system also reportedly aims to be “more resilient to attacks” by rival space powers.

It remains unclear how many Starshield satellites are currently operational and when the system is expected to fully come online, with SpaceX and the Pentagon ignoring Reuters’ requests for comment. The NRO claimed it is developing “the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen,” but refused to comment on SpaceX’s role in the project.

The SpaceX CEO previously acknowledged the development of the military alternative to the “civilian” Starlink system, saying in September that it would be “owned by the US government” and controlled by the Department of Defense.

“Starlink needs to be a civilian network, not a participant to combat,” Musk said, referring to the use of the satellites in Ukraine throughout the conflict with Russia.

Musk donated around 20,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its military operation in February 2022. Since then, Kiev’s troops heavily relied on the system to maintain communications and operate combat drones along the front line.

While pledging support for Ukraine, Musk has repeatedly said he favors a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The billionaire has come under fire from US officials after refusing Kiev’s demands to use the Starlink network to aid strikes on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. In turn, Musk argued that activating Starlink in Crimea would be in breach of US sanctions. In the absence of any direct orders from the US leadership, SpaceX opted not to contravene regulations despite Kiev’s request to do so, the tycoon explained.

Earlier this month, US lawmakers reportedly launched another probe into SpaceX, after Ukrainian claims that Russian troops had allegedly used Starlink satellite service on the conflict frontline. Musk has denied the allegations, insisting that “no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia.” The Kremlin has also insisted that the Russian military has never ordered Starlink terminals.

The act, like most of the bloc’s virtue signaling, is the opposite of what its name ought to herald

The EU’s new Media Freedom Act has now been voted into law, with 464 votes for, 92 against, and 65 abstentions.

There are some news outlets whose coverage of the vote I’d like to see. Like RT’s, where you’re reading this right now. But anyone who’s viewing this from inside the European Union’s bastion of democracy and freedom is likely doing so via a VPN connection routed through somewhere outside the bloc, to circumvent its press censorship.

Nothing in this new law suggests that this will change, or that there will be increased access to information and analysis for the average person. Such improved freedoms might lead to people making up their own minds rather than having various flavors of a similar narrative served up for mass consumption. As has become par for the course in so-called Western democracies, inconvenient facts and analysis will still be dismissed as “disinformation” and criticism of the establishment still qualified as an effort to sow division – as though dissent itself wasn’t supposed to be proof of a healthy and vibrant democracy.

So, now that we’ve gotten out of the way any hope of lifting the EU’s top-down censorship in the absence of due process, exactly what kind of lip service does this new law pay to the lofty notion of media freedom?

No spying on journalists or pressing them to disclose their sources. Well, unless you’re one of the countries that lobbied to be able to keep doing this – like France, Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Sweden, and Finland – so basically, a quarter of EU countries. Oh, but they have to invoke national-security concerns in order to do so. Which, as we know, they’re very discerning about. Like, they didn’t at all implement a virtual police state and extend its powers under the guise of fighting a virus with which French President Emmanuel Macron kept saying they were “at war.” Nor did Amnesty International point out the sweeping “Orwellian” trend across Europe, at least as far back as 2017, of exploiting domestic terrorist attacks to permanently embed what were supposed to be extraordinary powers into criminal law, via measures like “overly broad definitions of terrorism.” So, no doubt they’ll be equally reasonable when slapping the “national security threat” label on a journalist whose work they want to peek at.

At least now, under this new law, they do have to fully inform any targeted journalist of the steps being taken against them.

Another thing that changes is that there’s to be a centralized database into which “all news and current affairs outlets regardless of their size will have to publish information about their owners,” according to an EU press release. May we propose a first candidate for that? The NGO Reporters Without Borders has praised this new law as a “major step forward for the right to information within the European Union.” The same NGO also just launched a “Svoboda” (Russian for “freedom”) satellite package eventually consisting “of up to 25 independent Russian language radio and television channels” aimed at Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltics. The launch took place at the EU parliament, in the presence of EU “values and transparency” commissioner (yes, that’s a real title), Vera Jourova, who has said in support of the new media law that “it is a threat to those who want to use the power of the state, also the financial one, to make the media dependent on them.” But she has also said about this new Russia-targeting initiative that the EU state needs to “use all possible means to ensure that their work, that facts and information can reach Russian-speaking people.” This is the same person who advocated in favor of banning Russia-linked media outlets in the EU.

Anyway, you first, guys. Show everyone else how it’s done. Also, does this mean that all financial interests in the form of advertising spending will also have to be declared by corporate media? Because state-backed media platforms are already transparent; it’s the much more discretionary interests underpinning the more commercial platforms that tend to be much less obvious to audiences. Audiences may not know or understand, for example, why a particular corporate media outlet might focus on a particular nation state with softball interviews, travel pieces, and fluffy documentaries, and treating it with kid gloves in news coverage, when in reality the same country is pumping a ton of ad revenues into the place.

In any case, Queen Ursula von der Leyen’s battalion of bureaucratic desk jockeys is set to grow in ranks now with a new “European Board for Media Services” coming online as a result of the new law. Because freedom isn’t going to police itself, pal.

The name itself Media Freedom Act really is the first clue that it’s probably not all that much about freedom. Kind of like how the “European Peace Facility” fund is used to buy weapons, or the “election” of the handpicked EU Commissioner is really just what any normal country would call a confirmation vote.

It’s a pretty safe bet that whenever the EU kicks the virtue-signaling into overdrive, using feel-good language to sell it, the reality is probably the opposite of what’s advertised.