The CDU/CSU trails the AfD by eight points amid economic stagnation and delayed reforms
Germany’s governing CDU/CSU bloc has fallen to its lowest level of support in almost five years, trailing the opposition AfD by eight points, according to an INSA poll published by Bild.
Approval ratings for Merz’s coalition, comprising the Christian Democratic CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democratic Party, have declined steadily since it took office in May 2025. The government has faced criticism over continued economic stagnation and its failure to deliver on pre-election promises.
The survey, conducted by INSA for Bild am Sonntag and published online by Bild on Saturday, surveyed 1,203 people across Germany between August 10 and 14, with a reported margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Support for the CDU/CSU dropped one point from the previous week to 20%, its weakest INSA result since October 2021. The AfD remained unchanged at 28%, making it the most popular party in the poll.
The Greens received 13%, while the SPD stood level with the Left at 12%. The FDP recorded 5% and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance 3%.
Together, the two governing parties received 32%, only four points more than the AfD alone. Several major reforms remain unresolved following coalition disputes over taxes, welfare, and spending priorities.
The findings also showed that 16% of respondents were satisfied with Merz’s performance, while 78% expressed dissatisfaction. Four in five disapproved of the federal government’s work.
“Support has never been so low and rejection so high,” INSA director Hermann Binkert told Bild. He argued that the trend may no longer be reversible because most remaining supporters of the governing parties no longer backed the cabinet.
Around 10,000 people demonstrated against the government in Plauen last week, according to Saxony police, demanding snap elections, lower energy costs, and changes to healthcare, migration, and military policy.
While unchanged from the previous week, the AfD’s 28% rating represents a substantial increase from the 20.8% it secured in the February 2025 federal election. The party has continued to rise in national surveys despite efforts by Germany’s mainstream parties to exclude it from governing coalitions.
Its growing support comes ahead of regional elections in eastern Germany, where it is polling at around 41% in Saxony-Anhalt and 36% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Researchers cited by Reuters have linked the party’s strength there to lower incomes, population decline, labor shortages, and perceptions of political neglect.
A 4-year-old, a 14-year-old, and two adults were hospitalized after gunfire at Charles Young Park in Lexington, Kentucky, local police said
Local police are investigating a shooting at Charles Young Park that killed one person and injured four others in Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday evening.
A 4-year-old, a 14-year-old, and two adults were taken to hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, local police chief Lawrence Weathers said. The person who was killed was not immediately identified.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced the shooting while speaking at a Democratic Party dinner at a downtown hotel. The Lexington Police Department blocked off several roads around the park, while State Police officers were also at the scene, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Authorities have not released information about a suspect or possible motive. Weathers said he did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the public.
The shooting took place during East End Day, a local community event held at the park. Tents remained at the scene as police investigated.
One Lexington Director Devine Carama, who said he was at the event, described the shooting as devastating, local media reported. In a Facebook post, Carama said that he had been sheltering four young people when a person nearby was shot.
“Gunfire at a peaceful event, in broad daylight, with women and children present is unacceptable,” Carama said.
The admission could complicate a separate New York murder trial scheduled for next month
Luigi Mangione has admitted to fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and pleaded guilty to two federal stalking charges.
The 28-year-old entered the plea before US District Judge Margaret Garnett in Manhattan on Friday, according to the Department of Justice. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, with sentencing scheduled for December 18.
Federal prosecutors said that Mangione traveled across state lines and tracked Thompson’s movements before the killing. He pleaded guilty to interstate stalking resulting in death and cyberstalking through interstate facilities resulting in death.
“I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan and he died,” Mangione told the court. He did not enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors, which can allow defendants to receive reduced charges or a lighter sentence in exchange for pleading guilty.
“Today, Luigi Mangione admitted to stalking and murdering Brian Thompson on a Manhattan street in broad daylight,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald said. “No grievance, political belief, or ideological cause can justify murder. With today’s guilty plea, Mangione is being held accountable for a heinous crime that claimed an innocent life and drew national attention,” he added, crediting law enforcement agencies and prosecutors for their work on the case.
Mangione still faces eight felony counts in New York, including second-degree murder, six weapons charges, and possession of a forged instrument, with his trial due to begin on Sept. 8. Following his federal plea, his lawyers moved to dismiss the murder and firearms charges, arguing that New York’s double-jeopardy protections bar him from being prosecuted twice for the same crime.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has said it will oppose the motion, which must be resolved before the case can proceed.
Thompson was shot from behind outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on December 4, 2024, while heading to a UnitedHealthcare investor conference.
The discharged shell casings and bullets found at the scene had the words “deny,”“depose,” and “delay” written on them, apparently in reference to the practice of denying health insurance payouts to clients.
A manifesto attributed to Mangione and published by the media referred to decades of “corruption and greed” in the US healthcare system, describing industry executives as “parasites” and accusing them of abusing the country “for immense profit.”
The case renewed public debate over health-insurance industry practices and access to care. Expressions of support for Mangione on social media have also prompted officials to warn against glorifying the killing or portraying him as a hero.
The DOJ announced in April 2025 that it would seek the death penalty. Garnett dismissed the capital murder and silencer-related charges in January, leaving two federal stalking counts. None of the remaining state charges carries the death penalty, following a 2004 ruling by New York’s highest court that struck down the state’s death penalty statute.
President Lee Jae Myung has called for talks to formally end the Korean War and discuss ways to halt the advancement of Pyongyang’s nuclear program
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday called on Pyongyang to engage in dialogue to formally end the Korean War, which has remained unresolved for more than 70 years.
The two countries have technically continued to be at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Lee, who became South Korean president last year after his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached over his attempt to declare martial law, has sought to improve relations with North Korea and its ally China, which had deteriorated under Yoon.
Lee made the proposal in a speech at a ceremony marking the 81st Liberation Day, which commemorates Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.
“Let us put aside our intentions to threaten each other and begin discussions to end the long-running war as the directly involved parties,” Lee said, adding that they could also discuss “effective ways to halt the advancement of the North’s nuclear capabilities.”
Lee said he hoped that the two countries would “sit face-to-face for peaceful coexistence and mutual growth,” and that such talks could provide a forum for discussing ways to curb North Korea’s nuclear development.
North Korea has yet to respond to Lee’s proposal.
In April, President Lee Jae Myung apologized to North Korea over drone incursions into the country. South Korean prosecutors indicted three people – a National Intelligence Service employee, a military officer, and a graduate student – for sending unmanned aerial vehicles into North Korea between September 2025 and January 2026. Seoul had previously denied official involvement in the incursions, saying that they were carried out by civilians.
In March, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described South Korea as the “most hostile state,” vowing to “thoroughly reject and disregard it.” Seoul would “pay the price” for its provocations, he stated.
The group’s attacks are threatening a Red Sea shipping route that has become increasingly important amid disruption in the Strait of Hormuz
Saudi Arabia has announced the formal launch of a multinational maritime defense coalition aimed at safeguarding shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as escalating hostilities with Yemen’s Houthis threaten one of the world’s most important trade routes.
Thirteen countries have completed the procedures required to formally join the alliance, while 15 have signed its joint statement, the Saudi Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
Riyadh described the development as the “actual launch” of the coalition and the beginning of its institutional and operational activation. Saudi Arabia will provide its first commander, while Pakistan is expected to appoint the deputy commander. The alliance is expected to coordinate intelligence sharing, joint exercises and maritime operations aimed at protecting commercial navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The announcement comes amid a sharp escalation between Saudi-backed forces in Yemen and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement following roughly four years of relative calm.
Earlier this month, the Houthis announced coordinated ballistic missile and drone strikes against military camps belonging to Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government. The group said it acted after detecting preparations for an offensive against Houthi-held territory.
Government forces acknowledged casualties, while Reuters cited government sources as saying at least 30 soldiers had been killed.
Tensions have been building since July, when a dispute over direct flights between Houthi-controlled Sanaa and Tehran helped unravel the longstanding truce. After Saudi-backed forces struck Sanaa airport on July 13 to prevent an Iranian aircraft from returning a Houthi delegation from Tehran, the group blamed Riyadh, declared the ceasefire over, and subsequently announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis have since claimed attacks on Saudi-linked shipping and oil infrastructure, while the Saudi-led coalition has struck Houthi military sites in Yemen.
The confrontation poses a particular threat to Riyadh because the Red Sea has become an increasingly important outlet for Saudi oil amid the US-Iran conflict and severe disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Aramco has redirected crude away from Hormuz through its cross-country pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Loadings there have averaged more than four million barrels per day since June, more than four times the level recorded during the same period last year, Reuters reported, citing tanker-tracking data.
With oil and petroleum products accounting for more than three-quarters of Saudi exports, a sustained disruption of Red Sea shipping could therefore threaten a crucial alternative export route.
The coalition’s activation also comes amid reports that Riyadh is preparing for a potentially broader confrontation with the Houthis. The Guardian reported earlier this month, citing Yemeni sources, that Saudi-backed forces were being re-positioned for a possible sea and ground offensive.
The tech billionaire is reportedly planning to make a generous contribution to help Republicans in the November midterm elections
US-based tech billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump have rekindled their friendship after falling out last year, with Musk preparing a major donation to Republicans for the midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people who accompanied the two to China.
Relations between the two men soured in mid-2025 when Musk attacked Trump’s signature tax-and-spending package, calling the draft “utterly insane and destructive.” The rift came despite Musk’s outsized role in the 2024 election cycle. After Trump’s victory, the billionaire was appointed to head the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk’s return to Trump’s inner circle became apparent during their flight to Beijing in May, when he joined the president, Cabinet officials, business executives and family members aboard Air Force One. The two appeared friendly, with Musk discussing plans for new US factories, while Trump talked about a space-launch video and asked about one of Musk’s sons, people aboard the plane told the WSJ.
During the flight, Musk also told Trump he planned to spend at least $100 million on a voter-turnout operation to support Republicans in the November midterm elections and help them retain control of Congress, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the strategy.
The rapprochement reportedly followed nearly a year of behind-the-scenes efforts, including private calls, pressure from mutual friends, invitations to Mar-a-Lago and a White House dinner. Trump and Musk briefly spoke at the memorial service for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who had reportedly sought to reconcile the two.
The WSJ noted that Vice President J.D. Vance, along with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, reached out to Musk after the public rupture with Trump to ease tensions and later maintained contact with him and his allies. Vance reportedly viewed Musk as too important to ignore, given SpaceX’s extensive defense and NASA contracts. Musk, meanwhile, reportedly dropped plans for a new political party partly to preserve ties with Vance, seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
The two men are unlikely to return to the close relationship they once had, according to Trump’s aides. Still, they have resumed speaking roughly once a month, discussing artificial intelligence, China, and world events, people familiar with the conversations said.
Musk played a major role in Trump’s 2024 election victory, publicly backing the president and reportedly spending at least $288 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates.
The renewed alliance comes as Democrats hold an edge over Republicans in the latest national polls ahead of the November midterms, while Trump’s net approval rating has fallen close to a record low amid growing public dissatisfaction with his presidency, including over his handling of the Iran conflict.
The literary broadside comes as Tehran and Washington remain deadlocked over efforts to end their months-long conflict
Iran has invoked Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky to accuse Washington of basing its foreign policy toward Tehran and the wider Middle East on “lies,” as efforts to end the months-long conflict remain stalled.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei cited a passage from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ in a post on X on Saturday, saying it “aptly describes” the predicament in which the US system of governance and its regional foreign policy have found themselves.
“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him,” Baghaei quoted the Russian writer as saying.
The remarks came as Washington and Tehran continued to trade accusations over the conflict and showed little sign of returning to direct negotiations.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump claimed Iran was being “very badly defeated” and described the Islamic Republic as “a very evil country.” He also urged Americans to accept higher gasoline prices while the conflict continues, arguing that paying “a tiny little bit more for your gasoline” was worth preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The price increases have come amid severe disruption to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran restricted the strategic waterway in response to US-Israeli strikes in late February and Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports. The escalation initially sent global oil prices soaring to as high as $120 a barrel.
Trump has cited preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons as one of Washington’s key objectives in the conflict. Tehran, however, maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iran says that no decision to resume talks has been made and that the two sides are currently communicating only through intermediaries. Trump, however, has said Washington is “semi-negotiating” with Tehran while continuing to exert military and economic pressure.
The dispute over the Strait of Hormuz remains one of the principal obstacles to a settlement, with Tehran and Washington making competing claims over control of the strategic waterway.
Biology won’t be denied, and female athletes should not be pushed aside to satisfy woke ideology, fear, or performative silence
Despite the conspicuous difference in size, speed, and strength between the sexes, a debate is now raging in women’s professional basketball in the United States whether to let men compete alongside the ladies.
Nobody would ever confuse Royce White, 35, with a woman. The man with stands 6 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 260 pounds (118 kg), sports a bushy beard, and is bald. He has an ex-wife and two children. In other words, not exactly somebody you would expect to find in the glossy pages of Playboy magazine. But what would never sell at the newsstands may eventually sell at professional women’s basketball games.
Coming out of college, White was selected by the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2012 draft, although he never played for the team due to a severe fear of flying. But apparently he has recovered from that condition because now he has said he would welcome the chance to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).
White, who was a Republican candidate in Minnesota’s Senate primary, admitted to Fox News that he’s transgender and identifies as a woman “sometimes … for [the] purpose of basketball, professional basketball.”
“I think I’d be unstoppable,” White candidly admitted with no apparent shame. “I’ll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I’ll do whatever the girls need me to do… I think it’s only fair.”
Yes, you heard that right. White thinks it’s “only fair” that he be allowed to play in a professional female league where the average height of the players is just 6 feet 0.8 inches (184.9 cm), whereas the average height for male players is 6 feet 7 inches (200 cm).
While much of the WNBA has been strangely silent over White’s career ambitions, Indiana Fever superstar Sophie Cunningham was a rare brave voice in an age of fear and intimidation.
In a lengthy ESPN piece on the WNBA superstar, Cunningham said: “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she says. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
The comment reverberated through the world of sport like a category 8 earthquake. After all, with over 3 million followers on TikTok, Cunningham carries a lot of clout. When she talks, people listen.
Regrettably, however, Cunningham’s comment has turned a regular evening of basketball into a political circus, with half the audience condemning the woman while the other half declaring its support. A popular T-shirt for Sophie supporters is emblazoned with XX-XY, referring to the female and male chromosome pairs and pointing to the inescapable biological differences between men and women. On the other side of the debate, Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve wore a shirt that carried the caption “Trans Kids belong,” when the conversation involves grown men, not children.
The furor was so loud that the White House even remarked on it. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Cunningham during a press briefing.
“The backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing figures across the country is astonishing. They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue, which again, is an 80/20 issue. It’s common sense,” she said.
Clearly, this is a conversation that America needs to have, regardless of the emotions it stirs up. After all, let’s fast forward ten years and pretend that biological males were given a free pass to play on any women’s sport team they desired. It’s not difficult to imagine biological men, who perhaps weren’t good enough to play alongside other males, dominating the women’s league. This has all the power to make female contenders endangered species in their own sport.
Some progress has been made. The US Supreme Court has ruled that states can lawfully ban transgender women and girls from competing in female school and college sports teams. In the 6-3 decision, the court upheld restrictive laws from Idaho and West Virginia, concluding that separate teams based on biological sex do not violate the Constitution or Title IX, the law against sex-based discrimination in education.
Meanwhile, transgender women have been barred from competing in the female categories of the Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced an eligibility policy restricting the female category to biological females, verified via a one-time gene screening, starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The US world of professional sport may wish to take a cue from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which recently updated its guidelines to restrict participation in women’s sports categories strictly to athletes assigned female at birth. Athletes assigned male at birth may practice with women’s teams or play in the transgender category, but they cannot compete in women’s collegiate events.
It’s time for women to speak up and show solidarity with their fellow athletes in the realm of professional sport, lest the entire feminist movement has been for nothing.
Washington is reportedly preparing to authorize the transfer of 70 ATACMS missiles and other weapons worth around $280 million
The planned transfer of US-made missiles and other weapons from Türkiye to Ukraine will “inevitably undermine mutual trust” with both Washington and Ankara, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned.
The US State Department notified Congress earlier this month that it was prepared to authorize the re-export of weapons from Turkish stocks to Ukraine. The package reportedly includes 70 M39 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles, 12 M270 multiple-launch rocket systems, more than 2,500 M26 rockets with cluster warheads, and 47,000 203mm cluster artillery shells.
The total value of the proposed transfers is estimated at around $280 million.
“Attempts to use peacemaking rhetoric while simultaneously supplying weapons to Ukrainian Nazis inevitably undermine mutual trust,” Zakharova said, noting that Turkish officials had repeatedly maintained that Ankara was avoiding deliveries of “lethal” weapons to Kiev.
The circumstances surrounding the planned transfer remain “extremely contradictory,” according to the spokeswoman, who said it was unclear who had initiated the re-export or how and when the munitions would reach Ukraine.
Zakharova also questioned why Washington and Ankara had decided to open another “Pandora’s box” while both countries claim a special role in efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
“The issue is not only the casualties and destruction that the authorities in Kiev seek to increase, but also the serious damage to our bilateral relations with Washington and Ankara,” she said.
Because the weapons were manufactured in the US, their re-export from Turkish stocks requires authorization from Washington. The State Department submitted the relevant documents to Congress on August 6.
Under US law, Congress has 15 calendar days to review the proposed transfer. No separate approval vote is required; unless both chambers adopt a joint resolution blocking it, the administration’s authorization automatically takes effect.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned Western weapons deliveries to Ukraine, arguing that they prolong the hostilities and make the US and other NATO countries direct participants in the conflict.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last month that Western weapons supplies, military advisers, and satellite intelligence provided to Kiev amounted to “direct participation” in the war against Russia.
Russian officials have also repeatedly accused Kiev of using Western-supplied long-range weapons against civilian targets. Moscow has specifically pointed to a June 2024 ATACMS strike on Sevastopol, in which Russian authorities said four people, including two children, were killed and more than 150 injured. The Kremlin said at the time that the sophistication of the US-made missiles meant Washington was directly involved in their targeting and operation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has similarly claimed that NATO military specialists provide Kiev with intelligence and help coordinate precision strikes, including attacks that have hit homes, energy facilities, schools, and hospitals.
The US president has threatened to declare the waterway “a territory” of his country after “defeating” the Islamic Republic
The Strait of Hormuz will remain under Tehran’s control, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has said, calling on Washington to “stop indulging in delusions.” The statement comes in response to President Donald Trump saying he would soon declare the sea passage a “territory of the US.”
US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February prompted Tehran to close the strait, with Washington responding by imposing a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The blockade disrupted traffic through one of the world’s most important energy corridors, initially sending global oil prices soaring to as high as $120 a barrel.
“Once and for all, accept the reality: up to this point, you have suffered strategic and heavy defeats; the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,” Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in a post on X on Saturday, adding that the waterway “will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command, and as long as you do not accept the reality of defeat and cease your fanciful delusions, Iran will continue to enforce the blockade.”
Gharibabadi also said that Hormuz “cannot be seized by tweet, nor by aircraft carrier, nor by issuing an order, nor by an election speech,” highlighting that Tehran “neither fears threats nor cowers before displays of power.”
Speaking on Friday at a police academy in Nassau County, New York, Trump claimed that the Islamic Republic was being “very badly defeated” and said that, once victory was secured, “pretty soon, I’ll be declaring the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the US.”
Earlier this month, Tehran set out a series of conditions for reopening the strait, including compensation for war damage, the lifting of sanctions, and the release of frozen Iranian funds, and a permanent end to hostilities against Iran and its regional allies. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has also said that reopening Hormuz will depend on Washington fully accepting Tehran’s conditions.
Last week, Trump said his administration was in no rush to reach an agreement. In an interview with Axios, he said Washington was “low-keying” the negotiations while allowing economic pressure on Tehran to build.
The talks, which the US president described as “semi-negotiating,” followed weeks of disagreements over a 14-point memorandum of understanding that established a temporary ceasefire, provided for the gradual lifting of the US blockade of Iranian ports, and called for the restoration of commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Fighting resumed in July after both sides failed to agree on how the deal should be implemented.
The prime minister has pointed to manufacturing, chips, nuclear power, and digital growth as pillars of a developed India
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday outlined the country’s achievements and priorities for future growth as the world’s largest democracy marked its 80th Independence Day.
Addressing the nation after hoisting the Indian national flag at Delhi’s iconic Red Fort, Modi cited India’s rapid economic growth from being one of the ‘Fragile Five’ economies in 2013 to a $4.15 trillion, fast-growing major economy, and said the country is emerging in the eyes of the world as a widely accepted and respected nation.
The ‘Fragile Five’, was a term for Türkiye, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Indonesia, which were overly dependent on unpredictable foreign investments and large current account deficits to fuel their economic growth.
“Our country is not going to move forward with small dreams,” Modi said, noting the country rises through the “strength of its dreams, its resolutions, and its capabilities.”
📹🇮🇳 ‘We Can No Longer Move Forward With Small Dreams’: Modi’s Big Message From Red Fort
Listing India’s achievements in the last 12 years since his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, Modi said the country’s defense production has increased fourfold, electronic manufacturing has increased sevenfold, and digital transactions have increased 100 times.
Modi pointed to the success of his Make-in-India initiative, and cited the three chip plants that the country has built, with plans to add eight more. “Chips are indispensable; without them, the world would come to a standstill,” he said, as Indian positions itself to benefit from the global demand for chips driven by the boom in artificial intelligence and data centers.
This, however, raises the demands for energy security, Modi acknowledged, stating that the South Asian nation will need electricity “on a very large scale.”
The Indian leader reiterated the country’s target of achieving a capacity of 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047 and highlighted the need for accelerating offshore exploration to find oil and gas that could replace imported energy that makes the national economy vulnerable to external shocks.
⚛️ AI Needs Power, PM Modi Wants Nuclear To Bring It
Pointing to GPUs, AI and data centres, Modi said, “Energy security is the need of our times,” adding that India will need electricity “on a very large scale” and is targeting 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047.
New Delhi in December 2025 passed the SHANTI Act (the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act), which modernizes India’s nuclear framework and opens the door to greater private sector participation in India’s nuclear energy industry, which has been lacking so far.
The country currently operates 24 nuclear power reactors across seven different sites with a total installed capacity of 8.78 GW. This includes Russia-built Kudankulam designed to house six VVER-1000 reactors with a total planned capacity of 6,000 MW. Units 1 and 2 were connected to the national grid in 2013 and 2016, respectively, while units 3, 4, 5, and 6 are at different stages of implementation and construction.
Overall, India currently has ten reactor units with a combined capacity of 8,000 MW are under construction, while pre-project activities for ten additional reactors are also underway.
Focus on self-relaence
“It is our conviction that India must not be dependent on other countries. We must become self-reliant,” Modi stated, calling for strengthening the country’s capabilities and protecting national interests.
Modi outlined seven broad areas that he said would be central to his government’s goal of turning India into a developed country by 2047. These included manufacturing, agriculture and food production, technology and innovation, connectivity – including high-speed rail – defense production, the green and blue economy – such as green hydrogen, renewables and energy storage – as well as the expansion of India’s soft power such as yoga, which he called “an energy for the world, and a major source of confidence for India.”
“India possesses a stable political mandate, a stable government, a vibrant democracy, a robust judiciary, and guiding all of us is the Constitution of India,” Modi said. He also noted that the youth are the “biggest beneficiaries” of India’s development, and said his government will run free online coaching networks for competitive exams for students. The move comes weeks after student-led unrest rocked the country’s capital and led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Celebrating friendship
India achieved independence from British rule on August 15, 1947, through largely non-violent means and beginning the end of Western colonial rule over the world. Independence Day celebrations were held across the country, in state capitals and various offices.
In Moscow, Indian Ambassador Vinay Kumar raised the tricolor at the Indian Embassy as the Indian national anthem was sung. In a symbolic move, a group of Russian and Indian motorcyclists rode across the city to celebrate the decades of close ties, marked by cooperation and trust.
🇮🇳 Tricolour Goes Up In Moscow As Indian Embassy Marks Independence Day
India’s Ambassador to Russia Vinay Kumar hoisted the National Flag at the embassy as Independence Day celebrations brought together the Indian community in Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated India on the occasion, saying ties with New Delhi continue to develop under the two countries’ “special and privileged strategic partnership.”
Moscow’s ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, assured New Delhi in his Independence Day message that Russia’s support “remains the same today and will continue tomorrow as well” amid the West’s attempts to coerce India into isolating its traditional friend. “Jai Hind. Long live the friendship of Russia-India,” Alipov added.
🧵 🇷🇺-🇮🇳 The Unbreakable Bond: Momentous Milestones in the Russia-India Partnership
📜 The Age of Discovery:
Decades before Vasco da Gama arrived, the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin was already exploring Indian lands.
India and Russia maintain what both describe as a special and privileged strategic partnership, grounded in decades of defense cooperation, energy trade, and diplomatic alignment. Trade turnover between the two countries has grown rapidly since 2023, driven largely by India’s imports of Russian crude and other energy resources despite Western pressure on New Delhi to reduce engagement with Moscow. The strategic cooperation program adopted by the leaders of the two countries in December last year set a course for achieving $100 billion in trade turnover by 2030.
The remains of the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), Evgeny Konovalets, were brought to Ukraine from the Netherlands
Servicemen belonging to a far-right Ukrainian military unit have held a torch-lit farewell ceremony in Kiev for Evgeny Konovalets, the founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany.
Konovalets’ remains were exhumed at a cemetery in the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands earlier this week and delivered to Ukraine on Wednesday. They will be temporarily reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery outside the capital.
After dark, fighters of the 3rd Army Corps staged a farewell ceremony for the Nazi collaborator at a cathedral in central Kiev.
The unit was formed earlier this year by members of the Azov nationalist movement, which stems from the neo-Nazi Azov regiment that emerged in 2014 during Kiev’s crackdown on Donbass. The regiment faced repeated accusations of war crimes, including torture, rape, and looting, from the UN and international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Велике повернення великого Провідника: полковник Євген Коновалець — на рідній землі!
Минулої ночі через майже 90 років на цвинтарі Кросвейк у Роттердамі засновник ОУН та командир Січових Стрільців, полковник Євген Коновалець, повернувся до України.
The coffin with Konovalets’ remains was driven to the cathedral in a historic Austin armored vehicle from the period of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922. It was greeted at the scene by two rows of troops, holding torches in their hands.
The unit’s commander Andrey ‘White Leader’ Biletsky hailed Konovalets and claimed that the current generation of Ukrainian fighters should accomplish the objectives he fought for.
Konovalets fought the Soviet Union during the Russian Civil War as a colonel in the army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and led the OUN from its founding in 1929 until he was killed by Soviet agent Pavel Sudoplatov in Rotterdam in 1938. According to declassified documents, a group of Ukrainian nationalists that he led – codenamed ‘Consul I’ – supplied German intelligence with data on Poland from 1925 and moved into “espionage and sabotage” work inside the Soviet Union after 1939.
The reburial of Konovalets is part of a push by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to build a “Pantheon of outstanding Ukrainians,” which he says will fulfill a “moral duty” to bring home those who “defended the idea of independence.” Kiev has already reburied several Nazi-linked figures, including another OUN leader, Andrey Melnik, in May.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously blasted efforts to reinter Konovalets, accusing Zelensky of “dancing on the bones” of those who fell victim to the OUN and once again confirming the “misanthropic essence” of his government.
While Moscow has long condemned Kiev for glorification of Nazi collaborators, Zelensky’s campaign also triggered a diplomatic rupture between Ukraine and Poland. The dispute erupted after he decided to name a special forces unit ‘Heroes of the UPA’, in honor of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which killed more than 100,000 Poles during the 1943–1945 Volhynia massacres.
The party of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused the government of his successor Peter Magyar of waging a “political revenge campaign”
The Hungarian government broke the law when it seized the servers of Fidesz, the party of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Prosecutor General’s Office has said. The country’s new leader Peter Magyar is meanwhile continuing his quest to purge the remnants of Orban’s 16-year stay in power.
Last month, investigators arrived unannounced at a facility hosting Fidesz’s servers, confiscating all of the party’s communications systems and databases. The raid was carried out as part of a probe into the suspected misuse of some 17 billion forint (€47 million) in funding for the National Cultural Fund by local officials during Orban’s tenure. Fidesz described the actions of Magyar’s cabinet, which came to power after an election win in April, as an “unprecedented” overreach unseen in the country since the fall of Communism in 1989.
On Wednesday, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement that while the order to seize the servers was valid, the way it had been carried out “amounted to a fishing expedition.”
Instead of looking for a specific piece of evidence identified in advance, the investigators snatched the entire body of data in hopes of finding potentially incriminating information there, it explained.
“This approach constitutes an unlawful practice under both EU and Hungarian law,” the statement read.
The General Prosecutor’s Office has ordered the Bács-Kiskun County chief prosecutor in charge of the case to repeat the seizure, but this time to only collect data directly related to the investigation.
Fidesz was left dissatisfied with the ruling, again insisting that the actions of the investigators were “illegal.”
“We call on the government to immediately put an end to the arbitrary political revenge campaign packaged in the form of an official procedure… and to return our servers,” said one of the party’s senior MPs, Boka Janos.
Veteran Hungarian journalist Mark Bollobas, who used to be the editor-in-chief of English language news channel DunaTV, called it “sort of a legal victory” for Fidesz, but added in a post on X that it “doesn’t change the fact that the government and the prosecutor’s office... took advantage of a police search to gain data that they shouldn’t have access to.”
“You would have to be naive to think that this data has not already been copied… and shared with the relevant people,” Bollobas argued.
Magyar’s Tisza party, which came to power on the promise of “regime change,” has begun to actively dismantle the legal, media, and financial structures set up by Fidesz. The new government changed the constitution to impose a 12-year term limit on MPs, effectively banning Orban from running again. Fidesz has repeatedly labeled Magyar’s conduct “authoritarian.”
Evgeniia Chikunova won the 200m breaststroke as Russian athletes continue to compete under neutral status
Russian swimmer Evgeniia Chikunova has taken the gold at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris despite continuing restrictions on Russian athletes.
The 21-year-old won the 200-meter breaststroke on Friday in 2 minutes 19.32 seconds, setting a new championship record. Chikunova has held the world record in the event since April of 2023, when she broke the previous mark at the Russian National Championships in Kazan.
Chikunova is competing in France as a neutral athlete under European Aquatics rules, which still prevent Russian swimmers from representing their country at the championships.
Russia was banned from some international events starting in the mid-2010s, and the trend sharply accelerated following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
Evgeniia Chikunova has an emotional reaction to her win in the 200m Breaststroke Final 💙
Since the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision last month to provisionally lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee and withdraw its recommendations restricting Russian athletes’ participation, various sporting bodies have lifted their bans on athletes from the country.
Athletes have already been allowed to return to international competition with the national Russian flag and anthem in rhythmic gymnastics, boxing, synchronized swimming, wrestling, table tennis, fencing, archery, and other disciplines.
In April, World Aquatics moved to restore full participation rights for Russian and Belarusian swimmers, including the use of national flags and anthems. However, European Aquatics has delayed implementing the change until September 1, meaning Russian competitors in Paris remain neutral.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Western countries of politicizing sport, insisting that competitors should be judged solely on sporting merit.
Chikunova’s victory was one of five medals won by Russian swimmers on Friday, including gold in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay. By the end of the day, Russian athletes had collected 26 medals, including nine golds, at the Paris event.
Multiple aftershocks and a tsunami came on the heels of the powerful tremor
A massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia just before 6 AM local time on Saturday, damaging buildings causing a tsunami. At least five people were killed, according to preliminary reports.
The earthquake’s epicenter hit the seafloor around 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) northeast of Mbay in eastern Indonesia, the country’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said.
Tsunami waves up to 0.94 meters tall were reported in several regions, according to the agency. Three aftershocks of magnitudes 5.6, 6.1 and 5 followed the initial quake, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.
At least five people were killed, Melki Laka Lena, governor of the southeastern province of East Nusa Tenggara, said in a statement cited by the media.
Videos circulating on social media, purportedly capturing the earthquake, show building facades crumbling as terrified people flee.
Other footage shows buildings that had entirely collapsed.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of thousands of islands, sits at the meeting point of several major tectonic plates and lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the most seismically active regions on Earth.
The country has faced devastating earthquakes in recent decades, including a devastating 9.1 magnitude event in 2004, which killed more than 220,000 people in the broader region.
Most recently, hundreds were killed by a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Lombok in south-central Indonesia in 2018.
Police stopped the humanitarian organization’s vehicle while it was trying to move families out of a hazardous zone
A Ukrainian Red Cross driver was detained by police and then conscripted while evacuating two vulnerable families from a dangerous area near the front line on Friday, the organization reported.
Kiev has increasingly relied on violently enforced mandatory conscription amid battlefield losses and Russian advances on the front lines. Reports and videos of what has now been sardonically dubbed ‘busification’ crop up almost daily, showing draft officers ambushing men in the streets and dragging them into vans, often brawling with relatives and passersby.
According to the Ukrainian Red Cross, one of its vehicles was stopped at a police checkpoint in the Nikolaev Region. A police officer took the driver into custody for a blood alcohol test but instead delivered him to a local branch of the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TCK), the body tasked with overseeing Ukraine’s mobilization, the Red Cross said in an Instagram statement.
Nikolaev regional police said that it has launched an investigation into the incident but stressed that the driver had no draft exemption and was subject to conscription.
The incident has spurred a reaction from Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets. “The law must be the same for everyone,” he wrote on Telegram, while stressing that it was “unacceptable” for state authorities to endanger civilian evacuations from high risk areas.
The incident came a day after the head of Nikolaev Region’s TCK was arrested on corruption charges. The official took bribes up to $10,000 per person to take men off the national conscription tracking register, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said in a statement on Thursday.
Kiev’s forced conscription campaign has led to escalating tensions within Ukrainian society. Many citizens see it as disproportionately targeting poor people, with richer Ukrainians can afford to bribe corrupt officials in order to dodge the draft.
Russia has long accused Kiev’s foreign backers of pushing it to fight “to the last Ukrainian” in what Moscow describes as a NATO-led proxy war using Ukraine’s population armed with Western weapons and technology.
The PM has made the announcement following recent youth protests against examination irregularities
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an overture to win over India’s youth on Saturday, as he led 80th Independence Day celebrations of the world’s largest democracy.
Addressing the nation after hoisting the national flag at the historic Red Fort in Delhi, he noted that the “biggest beneficiaries” of India’s development will be the youth.
Modi announced that his government would set up free online coaching networks for various competitive examinations, leveraging India’s robust digital public infrastructure and freeing families from the heavy financial burden they incur from sending their children to private coaching institutes.
The government will also train 11 million young people in artificial intelligence skills to prepare them for the new jobs that are opening up.
India, the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people, also has the world’s largest youth population, with the average age around 29.
#WATCH | Delhi: From the ramparts of the Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "The race for coaching classes has become a massive burden for our middle-class families. Every parent feels that if they don't send their child to a coaching class, they aren't considered a… pic.twitter.com/Qq74edZTl2
The country recently saw widespread youth protests over the leaks of the questions for a national medical entrance test, ultimately forcing the then federal education minister to resign. The fiasco, and the police violence against the protesting students in the national capital and other cities, stoked anger in the country, especially among the middle class.
Modi earlier announced a panel of experts to suggest reforms in the conduct of competitive exams, and pushed through a law mandating stricter punishment for those who tamper with exam integrity.
The prime minister’s online coaching initiative would be a blow to the country’s thriving private coaching networks, some of which have been blamed for the exam scams in recent years. The industry is valued at up to $15 billion.
India achieved independence from British rule on August 15, 1947 through largely non-violent means. Most of Britain’s other colonial possessions and those of other European powers would follow suit in the coming decades.
Solving Europe’s migration crisis requires confronting the colonial mindset driving global displacement—a step Brussels refuses to take
When European officials talk about migration, their lexicon is rich with high-minded platitudes – “humanitarian values,”“human rights,”“rules-based order,” and “shared responsibility.” Yet behind this rhetoric lies a transactional reality: The European Union’s single overarching policy on migration and asylum is keeping people out, regardless of the human cost and despite all the EU common values.
For decades, Brussels has refused to address the root causes of global displacement. To do so would require confronting a persistent colonial mindset – one that views the Global South, and Africa in particular, as a warehouse of raw resources to be extracted, while abandoning its populations to economic destruction and conflict.
As the late Muammar Gaddafi once bluntly observed, the Africans heading toward Europe are simply chasing the wealth that was stolen from them, leaving their own countries impoverished – a simple logic that is hard to argue with. Instead of fostering genuine development or equitable partnerships, Europe’s approach relies on outsourcing its border enforcement to North African buffer states, effectively turning neighboring regimes into outsourced jailers for Fortress Europe.
The July 30-31 border shock in Ceuta exposed the total bankruptcy and fragility of this setup. When tens of thousands of young Moroccans and migrants surged toward the Spanish enclave, Europe was confronted not just with human desperation, but with the logical consequence of its own security dependency. Yet the anomaly of the aftermath only deepened suspicion over what was actually taking place: The next day, the vast majority of those who crossed hadreturned to Morocco. Under normal conditions, individuals who risk life and limb to reach EU territory do not simply turn back; that thousands did so as quickly as they arrived suggests the wave was less a genuine migration movement than a staged demonstration of force.
Rabat understands precisely how vulnerable Brussels is; whenever diplomatic frictions arise, border controls suddenly soften, demonstrating that North Africa holds the ultimate asymmetric leverage over European security. In the end, we should not lose sight of the fact that both Ceuta and Melilla are historically Moroccan territories occupied by Spain – an unresolved colonial footprint that Rabat can exploit whenever it seeks to pressure Madrid.
However, the Ceuta shock loses its “spontaneous” appearance when viewed alongside shifting diplomatic signals from Washington. Despite the Trump administration’s signature anti-immigration rhetoric, official Washington quietly signaled an unprecedented openness to Rabat’s territorial ambitions weeks before the surge.
In a report accompanying the Fiscal Year 2027 State Department appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee explicitly noted that Ceuta and Melilla are “administered by Spain, located on Moroccan territory, and remain subject to Morocco’s longstanding claim.” By reducing centuries of Spanish sovereignty to mere administrative control while encouraging diplomatic talks over the cities’ future, the committee’s language sent Rabat a potentially consequential signal: Challenging Spain over the enclaves might carry less political cost in Washington than previously assumed.
This signal was further compounded by Washington’s growing frustration with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez over his refusal to allow US military bases to be used for operations against Iran, his vocal opposition to Israeli policy in Gaza, and Madrid’s lagging defense spending.
The crisis exposed the hypocrisy of the EU foreign policy establishment and laid bare ideological fractures across Europe. When similar migration spikes occur along Europe’s eastern borders, Brussels officials such as Kaja Kallas immediately decry them as “hybrid warfare” and an existential threat to democracy. Yet when a key Western partner in North Africa utilizes the exact same border pressure mechanisms against a dissenting member state like Spain, the EU’s reaction is a fractured double standard. Madrid’s isolation was engineered not only from Washington and Rabat, but from within Europe itself, led by conservative governments hostile to Sánchez’s unyielding pro-Palestinian stance and defiance of the mainstream Atlanticist consensus.
Capitalizing on the chaos, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government swiftly suspended the Schengen free-movement agreement with Spain, reinstating border checks to punish Madrid politically. Countries as far away as Denmark even called for Spain to be suspended or expelled from Schengen – a reactionary escalation never directed at Germany when it welcomed over a million asylum seekers in 2015. Rather than standing in solidarity with a member state, Europe weaponized the shock, demonstrating that Rabat succeeded in triggering a secondary systemic crisis inside Fortress Europe itself.
Following the outbreak of the post-October 2023 war, Spain emerged as Europe’s most aggressive critic of Israeli military actions. Sanchez moved beyond standard diplomatic pushback by formally recognizing a Palestinian state and repeatedly accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and explicitly labeling Israel a genocidal state. By invoking the term “genocide” multiple times on the international stage, joining South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice, and cutting off arms transfers, Sanchez isolated Spain from mainstream Western backing. This made Madrid uniquely vulnerable to a tripartite geopolitical retaliation: Tel Aviv provided intelligence backing, Washington offered diplomatic cover and greenlit Morocco’s sovereignty over the enclave, and Rabat unleashed asymmetric migration pressure on Ceuta to bring down an unruly European regime.
The possibility of high-level geopolitical manipulation behind the Ceuta surge was not entirely dismissible. As many observers point out, the sudden border breach served a dual purpose: providing European far-right “vultures” with an immediate anti-immigrant weapon while simultaneously delivering geopolitical punishment to Sanchez’s government for its principled foreign policy. The reaction of Israeli officials – such as UN Ambassador Danny Danon cynically mocking Spain’s state of emergency and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanding Madrid “open its doors” to Gazans – exposed an unmistakable appetite for retaliation against Spain’s recognition of Palestinian statehood and accusations of genocide.
Whether through explicit collusion or strategic alignment, the convergence of Moroccan territorial ambitions, American pressure over military bases and trade, and Israeli anger created an asymmetric pincer movement. In this framework, Morocco acted as the operational hammer on the ground, while Washington and Tel Aviv provided the diplomatic cover, turning human desperation in Ceuta into a deliberate, multi-national strike aimed at crippling an unyielding European administration.
This geopolitical pincer movement exposes the fundamental structural flaw at the heart of Europe’s externalized border regime. By converting displaced people into diplomatic currency and neighboring states into indispensable jailers, Fortress Europe has not secured its frontiers; it has rendered them volatile flashpoints for foreign leverage.
On the ground in Ceuta, the immediate casualties of this strategic maneuvering remain the thousands of young Moroccans and migrants trapped between heavy-handed Spanish security forces and a regime in Rabat that views its own youth as disposable bargaining chips. Far from achieving the stability Brussels constantly preaches, this transactional framework leaves European policy vulnerable to external blackmail.
As long as Europe relies on externalized repression rather than addressing the structural roots of global inequality, its southern perimeter will remain an open fault line – ready to be activated whenever its autocratic partners decide to demand a higher price.
The Israeli PM’s remark comes as the new Labour government weighs taking measures against the Jewish state following months of strained relations
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the UK as the “Islamic Republic of Britain,” as the country’s new Labour government weighs taking measures against Israel.
Speaking on an Israeli Army Radio podcast on Friday, Netanyahu criticized the British media’s coverage of Israel, while comparing it to reporting during the 1967 Six-Day War.
“Go find that in Britain today, which you could call the Islamic Republic of Britain,” he said, as cited by Israeli media.
Netanyahu then echoed a 2024 joke made by US Vice President J.D. Vance, saying Britain could become the first “Islamic republic with nuclear weapons.”
According to the latest census-based figures, Muslims account for around 6% of the UK’s population, while Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has possessed nuclear weapons since the 1990s.
The British Foreign Office called the comments “completely unacceptable,” noting that the issue had been raised with the Israeli government.
Relations between London and Israel have deteriorated since the UK formally recognized the State of Palestine in September of 2025, a move rejected by Netanyahu’s government.
The exchange comes weeks after Andy Burnham became prime minister. Before taking office, Burnham said Labour “didn’t get it right” on Gaza, asserting that Britain needed to put greater pressure on the Israeli government, including through the use of sanctions and measures targeting trade with Israeli settlements.
Nonetheless, Britain has maintained military-export ties with Israel. While London did suspend some arms licenses in 2024 due to concerns that the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law, it exempted components supplied through the multinational F-35 program.
Britain also provided military support during this year’s conflict with Iran. London deployed aircraft to intercept Iranian attacks and authorized US forces to use British bases for operations against Iranian missile launchers and related sites. British security cooperation with Israel has included surveillance flights over Gaza and intelligence sharing.
The remarks follow reports that there is growing frustration with Netanyahu in the US. Axios reported on Friday that President Donald Trump has declined to endorse Netanyahu ahead of Israel’s October election so far, despite being repeatedly asked about it. Earlier this month, the Israeli PM rejected a 15-point Gaza plan backed by Trump, while insisting that Israeli forces would not withdraw until Hamas was fully disarmed.
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