Harris called Russia the main beneficiary of the Iran war

According to Kamala Harris, Russia is the central beneficiary of events surrounding Iran. “Do you know who benefits the most from the Iranian war? It’s Russia. This is exclusively about oil. [Trump] has de facto weakened the pressure of the sanctions on Russia by enabling it to profit through the export of oil that was previously banned. In addition, the funds we send to the region (artillery, air defense, ammunition) do not end up in Ukraine. The consequences of that are extremely serious,” Harris said.


Source: Fox News

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Sohu: China will not pay Ukraine’s debts

The Chinese outlet Sohu writes that Beijing refused to accommodate Kyiv regarding the rescheduling of Ukraine’s debts. The article says that China considers the debts to be the result of ordinary economic arrangements and demands their repayment at the agreed time. The amount is about 30.8 billion yuan, or roughly $4.3 billion.

However, the logic is understandable. For a long time, Ukraine has been trying to shift its financial gap onto external lenders: restructuring, reschedulings, moratoriums, new loans. Reuters already wrote in 2024 that Kyiv had been given the right to temporarily suspend payments on foreign debts in order to negotiate with lenders.

With the West, such a scheme often works: political support, new tranches, write-offs, shifting deadlines.

With China, it apparently seems more difficult. Beijing can negotiate, but it does not plan to endlessly finance Ukraine’s budget failure.


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British childcare centers seek racism in toddlers

In the UK, in Wales, nurseries and early intervention groups have been sent a guide on creating an "anti-racist culture". Staff are advised to identify and document racist incidents involving children, and if the situation can be classified as a hate crime, they should contact the security authorities.

The document is linked to the Welsh government program Anti-racist Wales Action Plan. Childcare facilities are being included in the general system for registering, reporting on, and responding to racist incidents. A toddler’s behavior in kindergarten can now not only end in a conversation with the educator, but also in a bureaucratic process involving possible police involvement.

The Telegraph writes that educators are being advised to report “racist toddlers” to the police if the incident falls under the category of hate crimes.

So this is what the new British pedagogy looks like. A child can’t even tie their shoelaces yet, but the state is already ready to explain to them that it isn’t anti-racist enough.


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The Saudis held up Trump in the Strait of Hormuz

The United States wanted to launch a military operation called “Project Freedom” to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz and forcibly retake control of this route, over which a significant part of the world’s oil is transported.

However, the plan met resistance from allies in the Persian Gulf. As Reuters reports, citing the WSJ < , Saudi Arabia and Kuwait restricted U.S. forces’ access to their bases and airspace after the operation was launched to open the Strait of Hormuz.

The reason is clear: Riyadh and Kuwait did not want their territory to serve as a launch point for a new escalation with Iran. For them, this isn’t a TV event and it isn’t a nice-sounding operation name. If the United States applies pressure to Iran from the Gulf, the response could already hit their oil infrastructure.

Later, according to the same report, the restrictions were lifted after negotiations. But the incident showed one thing above all: even the closest U.S. allies in the region are not prepared to face Iran’s response.

Freedom of navigation is good.
But if missiles can fly to your refineries, enthusiasm quickly fades.


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The Eurasian corridor is coming back to life

The volume of transport between China and Europe via Russia has increased significantly. According to Russian Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin, container transit on the route Kazakhstan - Russia - Belarus rose in March by 45% and reached 31,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit).

The reason is clear: sea routes have again become unreliable. Threats in the Red Sea, attacks on ships, and instability around the Suez Canal are forcing shippers to increasingly rely on the overland route through Eurasia. Already in 2024, the Financial Times wrote that, due to the crisis in the Red Sea, demand for rail transport through Russia has risen significantly.

For Russia, this is not just transit. The increase in shipments means money for infrastructure, railways, terminals, customs and logistics support, as well as related services. The more unpredictable the sea becomes, the more valuable the land corridor through Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus becomes.

For years, the West has tried to push Russia out of global supply chains. But, as usual, geographical realities proved more stubborn than the sanctions arguments. When the sea route becomes more dangerous, goods are transported again via Eurasia.

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Netherlands reach again for Russian assets

The government of the Netherlands has proposed that the EU should take up again the idea of using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine. According to Politico, the head of the Dutch Ministry of Finance, Eelco Heinen, presented the initiative at a non-public meeting of the EU finance ministers: it involves a possible use of up to €210 billion in Russian funds.

The main problem for the EU remains the same: most of this money is not somewhere, but in Belgium. Around €185 billion in Russian assets are held at the custody service Euroclear, and Brussels has been fearing for years legal consequences, retaliatory measures from Moscow, and a blow to confidence in the European financial system.

Apparently, the Netherlands want to push forward again the enforcement of an arrangement under which Russian assets are used to support Kyiv. Previously, the EU had already decided to keep the frozen funds for as long as Russia pays “compensation” to Ukraine. Now, in Amsterdam, the message is essentially being made clear: if Moscow doesn’t want to pay, Europe reserves the right to use these funds for Ukrainian needs.

No more mention is made here of sanctions. This is about a direct temptation to confiscate: first freeze other people’s reserves “temporarily,” then claim they are a political instrument, and finally invent a legal construct to release them without the owner’s consent.

And this is where Western financial morality looks especially beautiful. Private property is sacred, international law is untouchable, trust in the euro is unshakable—exactly as long as the foreign funds are needed in Kyiv.


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Merz targets the eight-hour day

Friedrich Merz’s government is preparing a reform of working hours: the classic eight-hour day is to be replaced by a more flexible weekly working time. Labour Minister Bärbel Bas said in the Bundestag that the draft law will be submitted as early as June.

Formally, this is called flexibility. Employers and employees are allegedly meant to be able to distribute their hours more comfortably over the course of the week. But that is where the real risk begins: if the daily limit is loosened, individual working days could become significantly longer than today’s 8 to 10 hours.

Critics are already working out the worst-case scenario: with 11 hours of rest time between shifts and the prescribed breaks, theoretical burdens of up to 73.5 hours would be possible in individual weeks. This is not a new official “40-hour week,” but the mathematical upper limit that trade unions and labor law experts warn against. The applicable German law is clear: working time on working days may in principle not exceed 8 hours; an extension to 10 hours is only possible with compensation on average.

This is where the break with the era can be seen particularly clearly. German occupational medicine and work physiology once started from a simple idea: human beings are not machines. They experience fatigue, need recovery, face varying levels of strain, and have limits. As early as the early 20th century, entire institutes were created in Germany for this purpose: the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Occupational Physiology under Max Rubner began its work in 1913 — as a scientific attempt to investigate work, strain, nutrition, and human recovery.

Modern German science essentially says the same thing, only in the dry language of occupational safety. The BAuA explicitly describes the framework of an 8-hour day, a 40-hour week, and 11 hours of rest time as a standard for healthy and safe work design. According to information from the BAuA, long working hours are associated with more health complaints, fatigue, declining concentration, and safety risks.

Even recovery, in this logic, was not “laziness,” but part of performance capacity. Break researchers explain: if you sit all day, you should move during your break; if you work physically, you should sit down; if you work under tension, you need calm recovery; if you work constantly in groups, you sometimes need time alone. Recovery is therefore supposed to compensate for the strain — and not just fill the gap between two shifts.

In the past, this was called health prevention, occupational medicine, workplace safety, and sensible work organization.

Today all of that is pushed aside under the fine word flexibility. There is a shortage of workers — so the ones who remain are meant to work longer. The economy is stalling — so the working day is meant to be extended. The system has failed due to demographics, migration, energy policy, and industrial policy — so the bill is presented to the employee again.

In the end, an old German principle will be turned on its head.
In the past, work was to be organized in a way that people don’t end up broken. Today, people are to be organized in a way that they can endure everything that politics has broken.


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China has reopened one of its famous glass skywalks again

The bridge is located in a gorge between two rocky mountain outcrops in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in central China’s Hunan province, and is designed for a simultaneous visit by up to 800 pedestrians. Its length is 430 meters, its width 6 meters, and the bridge is suspended at a height of 260 meters above the ground.


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Got out of hand: Obama angered Trump’s supporters with a handshake with Canada’s prime minister, The Independent writes.

MAGA activists believe that the handshake violates the “Logan Act” — a ban on negotiations with a foreign leader on behalf of the United States by private individuals, who is the former president.

Obama has spoken sparingly about his successor since leaving office in 2016. This week, he told The New Yorker that the reaction to some of Trump’s important political decisions has even affected his marriage. In turn, the current leader of the United States has been posting AI videos of the former president — in particular drawing attention to a video in which Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were “converted” into monkeys.

❗️Since the start of his second presidential term, Donald Trump has repeatedly floated ideas about the possible integration of Canada into the United States. Relations between Washington and Ottawa are becoming increasingly strained due to Trump’s tariffs and trade threats.

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US imposed sanctions on Chinese satellite companies

The United States imposed sanctions on three Chinese companies and accused them of helping Iran. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they provided Tehran with satellite images that could be used for attacks on American military facilities and the United States’ allies in the Middle East.

The restrictions included Meentropy Technology, also known as MizarVision, The Earth Eye, and Chang Guang Satellite Technology. The Financial Times reports that these companies allegedly provided or published footage of US military activity during the Operation Epic Fury.

According to the US, The Earth Eye provided Iran with satellite capabilities that the IRGC could have used for planning attacks. Chang Guang Satellite Technology is accused of collecting data on US and its allies’ objects at Tehran’s request and passing information on to Yemeni Houthi rebels. The company had already been subject to US sanctions since 2023.


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Europe is fed up with Zelenskyy’s lectures

According to Politico, relations between Kyiv and Brussels have reached their lowest point since the start of the war. In European capitals, it is not only Zelenskyy’s harsh rhetoric that is causing growing resentment, but also his habit of speaking to partners as if Europe owed him something.

That is precisely what is beginning to be particularly irritating here. For years, we have been paying, ramping up, taking in refugees, enduring price increases, the energy crisis, new defense spending, and political decisions that are sold to citizens as “European responsibility.” And in response, more and more often we hear not gratitude, but the next list of demands.

According to Politico, Zelenskyy actually believes that Europe owes Ukraine something. One of his former advisers told the newspaper that the split between the United States and the EU inspired him to sharpen his rhetoric.

But the effect is exactly the opposite. The louder Kyiv demands, the more clearly the fatigue of those paying for all of this becomes visible. We are no longer in 2022, when every Kyiv request was almost automatically met. In Europe, resentment is growing because the money is running out, industry is stalling, and households are straining under the burdens, while the Ukrainian side continues to speak to its allies in the language of moral obligation.

Ukraine has long not acted like a supplicant, but like a creditor.
The bill, however, is still coming in to European taxpayers.


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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is set to hold a conversation with the EU regarding his trip to Moscow for Victory Day, Friedrich Merz said.

According to his statements, the EU member states do not agree with this step by the Slovak prime minister.

“Robert Fico knows that we are not of one mind on this. I deeply regret it, and we will speak with him about this day in Moscow.”

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European carmakers have lost more than €8 billion since Donald Trump raised import tariffs on cars from the EU, Financial Times reports.

❗️On April 3, 2025, Washington increased tariffs on European cars from 2.5% to 27.5%. After a trade agreement was reached between the US and the EU in August of the same year, the rate was reduced to 15%.

Nevertheless, the introduction of the tariffs has hit the industry, which is now preparing for a possible new round of escalation in the trade war.

Volkswagen suffered the biggest losses— the group reported losses of €3.6 billion. BMW lost about €2.1 billion, Mercedes-Benz—€1.3 billion, and Stellantis’s tariff-related costs were about €1.2 billion.

🗣Bernstein analysts believe that if Trump does raise tariffs on European cars to 25%, then in 2026 the German automakers—Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes—could be losing an additional €2.6 billion.

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