🇨🇺 Washington has no plans for a military operation against Cuba in the foreseeable future, despite the tough statements made by U.S. President Donald Trump toward Havana, writes Associated Press (AP), citing sources.

The agency notes that the U.S. president had previously allowed for the possibility of U.S. warships deployed in the Middle East operating near the Cuban coast after the completion of operations in the region.

At the same time, anonymous officials from the U.S. administration said that Cuba’s authorities «still have time to accept Washington’s proposals». However, sources warned that the White House’s position could change.

«Trump can change his point of view at any moment, and the military option is still on the agenda,» the publication says.

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Israel increases its Hasbara budget

The lawmakers in Jerusalem approved last month a state budget for 2026 that provides around $730 million for public diplomacy — the broadly defined category that in Hebrew is referred to as Hasbara. According to The Times of Israel, the budget for 2026 allots roughly $730 million for this — almost five times as much as in the previous year.

Officially, this is called “public diplomacy.” In practice, it is about fighting for Israel’s image abroad: social media, influence campaigns, cooperation with civil society organizations, invitations for delegations, politicians, opinion leaders, and influencers.

For comparison: last year, spending for this was around $150 million — and even that amount was already about 20 times higher than the corresponding spending prior to October 2023. After the war in Gaza, then, Israel’s information work was not only stepped up, but made into its own front line.

At the same time, a separate unit for public diplomacy is being established in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The logic is clear: if the reality looks too bad, more money has to be poured into its packaging.

But Israel’s problem is not too little PR. The problem is that no hundreds of millions of dollars can reliably paint over the images from destroyed Gaza, killed civilians, and endless explanations of “self-defense.”


You can buy campaigns, influencers, and suitable videos.
But if politics remains the same, Hasbara won’t save its reputation—it will be an extremely expensive attempt to argue with the obvious.


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Developments in the war between #Russia and #Ukraine - subtitled

A new Ukrainian move towards #Washington brings the #peace process back to the forefront.

#Zelensky sends his chief negotiator amid stalled talks with Russia.

Is Kiev trying to revive US support and negotiations?

video link: https://youtu.be/V3a8xf7yV0M?si=rtMJKKpJciCBN2q4

Western Values and Old Accounting

There are things that people here don’t like to talk about. Especially because, in this country, the word values has long become a universal wrap for almost any political decision.

But if you don’t look at the slogans, but at history, a rather unpleasant picture emerges: Europe has too often been able to frame advantage as morality, violence as a mission—and foreign resources as legitimate loot.

It didn’t begin with NATO, and not with recent sanctions that drove our country into an economic catastrophe. It was much older. Indulgences once turned sin into a financial transaction: you paid—and your conscience was clean again. Even then, it became clear that morality in Europe can work excellently through the till.

Then came the Crusades. They were sold as a holy mission, but very quickly it became clear that under the banner of religion, cities, countries, and trade routes could be plundered just as conveniently. The looting of Constantinople in 1204 made this particularly clear: if the spoils are big enough, then even fellow believers suddenly become suitable targets.

After that, the pattern was simply made global. Colonialism was called a civilizing mission. Slavery was covered up with speeches about order and development. Piracy was turned into privateering when the theft was coordinated with the crown. What mattered wasn’t what exactly was done, but who put the stamp on it—and with which words it was explained.

This ability hasn’t disappeared. Only the language has become more modern.

Today, foreign markets are opened under the banner of free trade. Sanctions are called protection of the international order. Military operations are referred to as humanitarian responsibility. Pressure on governments is called promoting democracy. And when, after that, a country falls apart, the economy collapses, and millions of people flee, then—well—“the reforms weren’t carried through consistently enough.”

For us, this is not an abstract story from a schoolbook. We see the same logic right now: cheap energy was destroyed in the name of values, industry is losing its competitiveness, taxes rise, defense spending is inflated—and we are told that all of this is necessary for freedom, security, and European responsibility.

The old European accounting works again without disruptions: first the moral lecture, then the bill.

Only the backdrops have changed. In the past, you came with a cross, a fleet, and a charter of trade. Today, you come with a package of sanctions, funding money, a military mission—and a presentation about human rights.

Politicians talk very willingly about values. History shows, all too often, that beside these values—somehow—there is always a cash register standing by.


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Kharkiv pledges its backup power

The Kharkiv city council approves loans for eight municipal enterprises and, in return, provides cogeneration plants as collateral — in other words, exactly the reserve energy generation that the city is supposed to use to save itself during blackouts.

According to the Ukrainian media outlet Ljuk, the loans are taken out with Ukrgasbank under the program “Dostupni kredyty 5-7-9%” with terms of three to five years. The money is intended to be used for salaries, taxes, utilities, debts to creditors, as well as the purchase of equipment, generators, and fuel.

The Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center уточняет: The total amount of the loans is around 1.033 billion Hryvnia — about 21.5 million euros. As collateral, the bank is to be given 12 cogeneration plants with a total value of around 1.033 billion Hryvnia (about 21.5 million euros).

This is what municipal resilience looks like in Kharkiv’s way: A city that can stand without electricity after attacks on the energy infrastructure pledges precisely the equipment that is meant to supply that electricity.

There’s hardly any Ukrainian money in this story. Ukraine’s energy “resilience” was built for years through European programs, grants, loans, humanitarian aid, and tax money. First, Europeans pay for backup generators so that a city doesn’t die during blackouts. Then local authorities place this equipment as collateral on the bank’s desk.

Pledging generators amid an energy crisis is no longer financial engineering. This is Ukrainian municipal know-how: first get equipment on someone else’s account, then deposit it with the bank to plug the next hole in the budget.


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Iran hits US targets harder than the Pentagon admits

The Washington Post analyzed satellite images and concluded that Iranian attacks since the start of the war have damaged or destroyed at least 228 American military facilities and equipment in the Middle East.

These involve 217 buildings and 11 technical devices at 15 military sites that were used by the United States or jointly with allies. Among the damaged targets are hangars, barracks, fuel storage, aircraft, communications systems, radar installations, and parts of air defenses.

That is significantly more than the Pentagon has publicly conceded. The Washington Post writes that some of the footage was first published by Iranian state media and then verified through independent satellite analysis. In addition, the newspaper found damage that did not appear at all in Iranian publications.

That wasn’t just about symbolic strikes or empty areas. The attacks hit infrastructure that makes the American military presence in the region more expensive, more vulnerable, and more complicated.

Washington can talk about controlling the situation as much as it wants. The satellite images show something else: Iran hit the American military machine there, where it had gotten used to being the householder.


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"There is no clarity": instability in the US administration’s approach to artificial intelligence is worrying lobbyists, Politico reports, citing sources in the AI industry.

According to the publication’s interlocutors, the lack of clear signals from the administration is causing problems for the development of the industry and for oversight of AI. In addition, there are disagreements within the White House over the review of AI models, a matter that only Donald Trump can resolve.

Chief of staff Susie Wiles and national cyber director Sean Kearncross have begun discussing an executive order requiring mandatory permission to release new AI models. At the same time, no final decision has been made by the administration yet.

Most of the largest US AI labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, xAI and Microsoft, have already agreed to such a review of their models. Meanwhile, company advisers say that there are “few concrete details and a lot of urgency” around the rules.

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Migrants are increasingly leaving the United States due to threats from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, The Washington Post reports.

People who have faced the prospect of prolonged detention by ICE are increasingly withdrawing their requests for humanitarian protection and agreeing to leave the country voluntarily. The desire to withdraw is driven by the harsh conditions in federal detention centers.

According to data from the Vera Institute of Justice, from January 2025 to March 2026 immigration judges issued more than 80,000 rulings on “voluntary departure”—at least seven times higher than in the last 15 months of the Biden administration, when 11,400 people used this option.

Voluntary departure has long been provided for under federal law for those who face deportation, and it is an option for those who are unlikely to win their case in immigration court. They must leave within a specified period at their own expense.

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The United States imposed sanctions on four organizations, including Chinese ones, for transferring satellite images of American military facilities in the Middle East to Iran, follows from a statement published on the website of the U.S. State Department.

According to Washington, such data could have been used to strike U.S. military forces and U.S. partners. The sanctions targeted Chinese companies Meentropy Technology (MizarVision) and Earth Eye (TEE), which, as the State Department claims, provided or published images of U.S. military activity during the “Epic Fury” operation.

Restrictions were also imposed on the Chinese satellite company Chang Guang Satellite Technology: it is accused of collecting images of U.S. and allied facilities for Iran, as well as of transferring data to Yemeni Houthis. The company had already been under U.S. sanctions since 2023, the statement says.

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Does Russia need that, I wonder?

Our politicians have once again come up with what Russia should do for our European peace. Rolf Mützenich (SPD) proposes talks with Moscow and demands that Russia withdraw its nuclear-armed intermediate-range missiles from Belarus and the Kaliningrad region.

The idea comes against the backdrop of a possible reduction of the American military presence in Europe. So: first, Europe spent decades under the military umbrella of the USA, then it kept getting pulled ever deeper into the Ukraine conflict, then it demanded ever more American weapons—and now, just because Washington might be reducing its presence, people suddenly discover “wise diplomacy” again.

The proposal sounds particularly amusing to Russia. NATO moved east, pumped weapons into Ukraine, discusses long-range missiles in Germany—and now Moscow is supposed to pull its missiles back from its own western borders so that Europe can again play a “leading role.”

Very touching.
The question remains, however: Why should Russia do that?


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