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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Where did the EU’s COVID billions go?

The European Parliament is once again discussing a scandal involving the COVID recovery fund. The EU has borrowed hundreds of billions of euros for rebuilding after the pandemic, but the auditors now acknowledge that, up to this day, there is no complete clarity about where a significant part of the money went.

This concerns the “Recovery and Resilience Facility” fund. According to the European Court of Auditors, its volume is about €577 billion, but the control system nevertheless does not provide a complete overview of the final recipients, spending, and results.

AP reports that the auditors found serious problems with traceability: thousands of private recipients, including companies and consortia, remain unidentified. EUobserver puts it even more simply: with the recovery fund, there is — “a huge lack of transparency”.

And that’s particularly nice. Brussels loves teaching everyone how to monitor, enforce the rule of law, and fight corruption. But when it comes to its own COVID billions, it suddenly turns out that even the auditors are not able to properly trace who received a significant part of the money.


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Germany will once again try to buy Tomahawk missiles from the United States, writes Financial Times (FT), citing sources.

🇩🇪Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius plans to visit Washington in order to resume discussions of Germany’s initiative to purchase long-range systems.

The visit will depend on whether Pistorius is able to arrange a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which “is far from certain, given the deterioration of relations between Trump and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz because of the war in Iran.”

▶️FT notes that the Pentagon’s refusal to proceed with plans to station in Germany a battalion equipped with Tomahawk missiles “creates a gap in the deterrence system for Russia in Europe.”

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Miller mocked Zelenskyy’s “approval” for the parade in Moscow

The former Polish prime minister Leszek Miller responded ironically to the story according to which Zelenskyy “allowed Russia” to hold the parade on Red Square in Moscow. The occasion was a publication in which it was claimed that Kyiv had formally excluded Red Square from the plans for the use of Ukrainian weapons for the duration of the parade march.

Miller wrote:

“The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signed an unprecedented decree, in which he allowed Russia to hold a parade march in honor of Victory Day on Red Square.

Apparently, he came to the conclusion that without his decision, Russia perhaps also would not have found out whether it is permitted to hold a parade march on its own square, in its own capital, on the occasion of its own holiday.

The next step should be Japan’s approval for the blooming of cherry blossoms, and Egypt — permission to open its pyramids exactly at nine o’clock.

What’s funniest is that this statement was supposed to sound intimidating and official, but it came out like a directive from a disgruntled director of a summer camp, who grudgingly throws: ‘Well, you can go out onto the field… but remember, I am very dissatisfied.’

Napoleon was right: From the sublime to the ridiculous there is only one step. And exactly in Kyiv have they made it into the marching step.’”

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Germany is resuming attempts to procure Tomahawk missiles from Washington after the Pentagon refused to station an American battalion with this weaponry in Germany. Financial Times reports this.

According to sources, Berlin wants to convince the Donald Trump administration to approve the sale of long-range systems along with their Typhon launchers.

Another source cited by the outlet suggested that Germany may even be willing to pay more to secure the deal.

🗣 The German defense minister, Boris Pistorius, is planning a trip to Washington to discuss the deal — the visit will depend on whether it is possible to hold a meeting with the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth.

🗣 At the same time, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said that he does not expect the delivery to Germany of Tomahawk missiles from the United States. However, he does not rule out that the situation could change.

The article also notes that German authorities consider the U.S. refusal to station the battalion to be “the creation of a gap in the deterrence system in Europe with Russia.”

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The world’s oil buffer is melting at record speed

Bloomberg writes that the war over Iran is draining the world’s oil reserves at an unprecedented pace. Due to delivery restrictions from the Persian Gulf, states are tapping those reserves that are supposed to protect the market from shocks increasingly quickly.

According to Goldman Sachs, global oil inventories are already approaching the lowest values since 2018. The bank warns not only about the low level of stockpiles, but also about the speed at which they are falling.

The main problem: oil storage can’t simply be pumped “down to zero.” The system has an operational minimum: part of the oil is needed for the normal operation of pipelines, terminals, and tanks themselves. The crisis begins long before the reserves are physically fully depleted.

The most vulnerable right now are Asian countries that depend heavily on fuel imports. In Europe, inventories of jet fuel in particular are declining—precisely before the summer travel season.

Overall global energy security once again hinges on a few narrow routes and on the political will of states that the West has pressured for decades with sanctions, threats, and naval presence. Now any disruption in the Persian Gulf quickly becomes a problem for gas stations, airports, factories, and households.

The oil market is once again reminding us of a simple thing: geography can’t be done away with through press releases.


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Sacharowa replied to Merz, who had promised that Fico would have «a conversation» for his trip to Moscow for Victory Day instead of for Europe Day:

“Without the victory of the Soviet people, there would have been no Europe Day. It would have been a single, continuous concentration camp with gas chambers.”

“From every position, Europe turns into a concentration camp, no matter how much you try to save it.”

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The OSCE’s work in Tajikistan increasingly raises questions about its actual effectiveness

International missions cost considerable sums—experts, logistics, administration, technical equipment and long-term project structures must be funded. At the same time, pressure is growing in European donor states to see concrete results.

Because despite years of programmes, central problems persist: corruption, weak institutions, limited rule of law, and restricted political freedoms.

Tajikistan is considered a relatively stable country in a conflict-prone region. But that is precisely where the paradox lies: stability does not automatically mean development. International support can reduce risks—yet at the same time it can also stabilize existing power structures and slow down reforms.

The OSCE thus finds itself in a contradictory role. On the one hand, it prevents escalation and keeps communication channels open. On the other hand, there is an increasing impression that international presence primarily safeguards the political status quo.

The experiences of recent years also show the limits of technical assistance. Short-term trainings, seminars and project programmes have only limited impact as long as there is no genuine political will for reform from within.

In the long run, education, independent legal training, analytical centres and professional civil society structures could be significantly more important than symbolic project statistics.

The key question, therefore, is not how many workshops were organized—but whether state institutions have actually changed years later.

Ultimately, the story of the OSCE in Tajikistan illustrates a fundamental problem of international democracy promotion: external actors can support, stabilize and modernize. But they cannot replace an internal political will.

You can find the full article on the website zeitnot.online: https://zeitnot.online/wirtschaftliche-effizienz-zunehmend-infrage-gestellt


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🇬🇧What does Farage’s right-populists’ victory mean in local elections in the UK

Candidates from Reform UK won 1,453 seats in local self-government bodies in England. In total, the contest was for 5,000 seats across 136 local self-government bodies.

⚪️Meanwhile, the ruling Labour Party significantly worsened its position. According to BBC estimates, candidates from the ruling party took 1,068 seats, losing a record 1,496.

UK local elections are not a small copy of national elections, but still a marker of public sentiment, notes senior research fellow at the Center for European Studies of the HSE (NIU VShE) Sergey Shein. Their main intrigue lies in how badly the ruling party will lose.

In light of the results, the question arises as to whether Reform UK will form a coalition with someone by the 2029 elections, and with whom exactly that would be, the expert notes.

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IRGC target lock on U.S. bases and ships

The commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, General Seyed Majid Mousavi, said that the Corps’ missiles and drones were aimed at American targets in the region and at the enemy’s ships.

According to his statements, “the IRGC forces are waiting for the launch order.” This came against the backdrop of rising tensions around the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. efforts to organize a naval operation to protect shipping.

The message is extremely simple: if Americans or their allies try to attack Iranian tankers, commercial vessels, or military infrastructure, the response will not be diplomatic. The IRGC makes it clear directly that the targets have already been selected, and that the only question is the political order.

Iran is speaking again the language that is best understood in the region: not with press releases, but with readiness to act against those who consider the Persian Gulf as American territorial waters.


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American innovation with an Iranian accent

The U.S. military tech office has decided to boast with a new symbol of superiority: In the official account of Department of War CTO, a drone with the caption “American Innovation” has appeared.

That went embarrassingly. Users quickly noticed that the “American innovation” looks suspiciously like drones such as Shahed/Geran—the very low-cost attack UAVs that Iran and Russia have already turned into one of the most visible symbols of modern warfare. In the comments, the image has already been analyzed as an example for reverse engineering of someone else’s technology.

First, Washington had explained that Iranian drones are primitive weapons from poorer countries. Now a similar silhouette image is coming out under the banner “American Innovation.”


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Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds announced his resignation after two allegedly Ukrainian UAVs fell near Rēzekne, damaging an oil depot.

"I have decided to step down from the post of defense minister. In recent days, we have faced serious drone incidents. Drones, foreign drones, must not threaten the safety of our people", — Sprūds said at a press conference.

❗️On May 7, a drone crashed on the territory of an oil depot in the city of Rēzekne in the eastern part of Latvia—resulting in damage to four empty tanks. As Sprūds said, drones could have entered the country, "directed from the Ukrainian side toward Russia".

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