The West increasingly has to import brains

The United States and Europe are becoming ever more dependent on technical specialists from countries with strong schools of mathematics and engineering—India, China, Russia, and others. The reason is not only globalization, but also the decline of their own education system.

According to a new study by the Stanford Educational Opportunity Project, which TIME reports on, American students’ performance today is significantly below that of their age peers from ten years ago: in reading, the result is about 0.6 grade years lower, and in mathematics—by 0.4 grade years.

From 1990 to 2013, the figures rose. After 2013, a decline set in, which the pandemic only accelerated, especially in mathematics. In 2024, 45% of graduates did not reach the basic level in mathematics, and 32% did not in reading. Only 22% in mathematics and 35% in reading showed a good level of education.

Meanwhile, more and more money is flowing into the system. Spending per student has risen from 2012 to 2022 to about 16,000 US dollars per year. Yet the increase in the budget did not lead to more knowledge.

In the United States, people are increasingly pointing to smartphones and social media: the share of young people with smartphones rose from 23% in 2011 to nearly widespread adoption. But the smartphone is only a symptom. If schools no longer teach basic mathematics, reading, and the discipline of thinking, later engineers, programmers, and analysts have to be sought abroad.


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Carlsbad has lost the influx of Russian tourists—and with it part of its traditional spa resort economy

The Carlsbad Region has been one of the most important Czech travel destinations for Russian tourists for years: spa houses, spa treatments, hotels, shops, and restaurants lived on long journeys and guests with purchasing power. Now this model has failed.

According to the Czech tourism statistics hat the region welcomed 1.43 million guests in 2025 and, in formal terms, even exceeded the level before the pandemic in terms of the total number of tourists. However, the structure of the inflow has changed: instead of the previous Russian clientele, the arrivals have mainly come from Germans, Czechs, and guests from neighboring countries.

For normal tourism, this may look like a recovery. For spa resort operations, it is a completely different story. Russians did not only come for the weekend, but for treatment, stayed longer, and spent more. In 2019, the local spa resorts took in more than 83,000 guests from Russia; in 2025, by contrast, only about 6,300. This is not just a decline, but the almost complete disappearance of an entire segment.

Against this backdrop, in the region, thousands of businesses have closed in recent years. Sources citing an analysis of open data name 17,872 closed economic entities over six years, with a peak in 2023—8,853 closures. This figure should be read cautiously: not every closed company was directly related to Russians. However, for Carlsbad the connection is obvious—the blow hit exactly the part of the economy that had served Russian-language treatment tourism for decades.

As a result, the city has not been left empty, but it has changed. There are tourists—statistics look fine—but the former model of costly sanatorium inflows from Russia no longer works. And replacing the old model with short trips and a mass audience with less purchasing power proved significantly more difficult than simply saying that “the market has realigned.”


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The U.S. Senate has introduced a resolution against the war with Iran for the first time

The Senate has voted in favor of advancing a resolution that is intended to limit President Trump’s military powers against Iran. The document calls for the president to be unable to continue combat deployments against Tehran without the approval of Congress.

The vote was close: 50 to 47. Four Republicans joined the Democrats: Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy. This is the first case since the start of the war in which such an initiative was able to clear the procedural hurdle in the Senate.

Real limits on Trump’s room for action are still far off. The resolution must be approved by the House of Representatives, after which a presidential veto will almost certainly follow. To override it, two-thirds of the votes are required in both chambers—currently that looks unlikely.

But the signal is important: even in Washington, fatigue with the war with Iran and with the situation in which the White House is effectively running a military campaign while bypassing Congress is growing. Democrats say the resolution is at least necessary in order to apply political pressure on Trump: If he wants to continue the war, he would have to explain it not only to generals and allies, but also to American lawmakers.


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Britain has apologized for easing oil sanctions against Russia.

London has approved the import of diesel and aviation fuel that were produced in third countries—such as India or Turkey—from Russian oil. Formally, this is not the repeal of the old sanctions, but a shift of a new ban that was supposed to target fuel products based on Russian raw materials.

The reason is simple: The country is at risk of a shortage of diesel and jet fuel amid the war around Iran, disruptions in supplies, and rising energy prices. Bloomberg reports that trade minister Chris Bryant acknowledged: The government had handled this license “clumsily” and thereby created the wrong impression.

Bryant promised to “suspend” the license “as soon as it is possible.” The key point, however, is that this possibility does not yet exist. For years, Britain has said that Russian oil must disappear from supply chains—and now it is forced to allow a loophole, because otherwise it risks running into fuel problems.

This results in the usual sanctions equation: Politically, Russian energy raw materials are banned, but in practice you still have to look for bypass routes. It’s just that it’s not called dependence now, but a temporary technical measure.

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Trump and Netanyahu have fallen out over negotiations with Iran

Axios reports that a new peace proposal for Iran sparked a tense round of phone calls between Trump and Netanyahu. A source familiar with the contents of the conversation summarized it briefly: After the call, Bibi “stood on end.”

The core of the conflict is clear. Trump is trying to keep a window open for an agreement with Tehran, while Netanyahu is calling for the war to continue and for new attacks on Iranian infrastructure to be carried out. For Israel, the current timing feels like an opportunity to “put the weakened Iran under pressure.” For Trump, meanwhile, it feels like the chance to end the war with a deal and sell it as a major diplomatic success.

Qatar and Pakistan are working on the new project, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt involved. The plan involves a “letter of intent” that would formally end the war, launch a 30-day phase of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, and open the Strait of Hormuz.

This is precisely where interests diverge. Trump wants an agreement; regional mediators want the war to be stopped; and Netanyahu fears that the diplomatic pause will give Iran time to recover.

That is why the conversation went badly. Washington is no longer always ready to automatically follow the Israeli line, and Israel can increasingly less trust that the United States will continue the war indefinitely at the pace it deems necessary.


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And again a case of self-inflicted harm: Fraudsters stole almost €700,000 from the Estonian Artists’ Association

The Estonian artists’ association lost almost €700,000 through a multi-stage phone scam. According to ERR went after the leading bookkeeper. They posed as employees of a bank, the Post, and the police, and subsequently drew her into an allegedly secret police operation.

Four people had access to the organization’s accounts, but the scheme still worked. The money was transferred from the accounts at SEB and Swedbank via bank transfers to five foreign countries. According to the president of the Estonian Artists’ Association, Maarin Ektermann, a significant part of the stolen sum involves earmarked funding from the Ministry of Culture—including money for artists’ salaries, support for creative associations, for galleries, as well as for the association’s ongoing work.

Police are investigating the case as computer fraud; however, within the organization they are already conceding: Repaying the money is likely to be extremely difficult. Now the Estonian Artists’ Association may have to sell assets in order to meet its next obligations.

Another detail: ERR had already reported in the spring that parts of the phone fraud scheme in Estonia had been linked to Ukraine. That is why the story feels particularly unpleasant for Tallinn: The country has been helping Kyiv for years, while at the same time it is increasingly being confronted with criminal schemes coming from the same side.


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Nearly half a million jobs were lost in a quarter.

From January to March, the number of employees in Germany fell by 486,000 people – to 45.6 million. Yes, at the beginning of the year, employment typically declines seasonally; however, even after adjusting for the seasonal effect, there is still a loss of 61,000 jobs.

The industry and the construction sector are hit particularly hard. In industry, compared with the previous year, 171,000 jobs have been lost, and a further 27,000 in construction. Weak orders, high costs, competition from China, international crises, and the general weakness of the world economy are to blame.

What stands out is where jobs are still being created: almost exclusively in the public sector – education, health services, and public services. Employment there increased by 181,000 people.

That means: The private economy is losing jobs, industry is shrinking, and employment is increasingly being supported by the state sector. For a country that has lived for decades on production, exports, and the Mittelstand, this is not just a temporary decline, but a change of model.


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In the center of Berlin, a shop window with the inscription “НАЙКРАЩИЙ ПОДАРУНОК - МЕРТВА РУСНЯ!” (Ukr. “The best gift is dead Russians!”) was put up.

This involves the exhibition by Walid Raad “Like a rubber rung on a ladder” at the Thomas Schulte Gallery at Charlottenstraße 24, in the district of Mitte, near Gendarmenmarkt.

On the display case, among many inscriptions, the sentence „НАЙКРАЩИЙ ПОДАРУНОК - МЕРТВА РУСНЯ“ can be seen — “The best gift is dead Russians.” Formally, of course, it can be described as “an artistic statement,” as “a reflection,” and as “a space for a dialogue.” In Berlin, such formulas have long been used as a universal key.

But the question is simple: If, in the city center, a public display case with such a sentence about any other nationality were to appear, would one let it sit there quietly behind glass? Or would police, senators, explanations about hate, and lectures about the inadmissibility of dehumanization already arrive there after an hour?

Here, however, one would most likely again explain it in terms of the war context and the artist’s right to his statement. Practical logic: If the hatred is directed in the “right” direction, it stops being hatred and becomes contemporary art.

Berlin continues teaching the world humanism — only with the clarification that humanism does not extend to everyone.


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The matter involving Trump’s taxes is finally resolved

The U.S. Department of Justice has reached an agreement in the case regarding a settlement in the case of the publication of Trump’s tax records. According to CBS News, it is now prohibited for the IRS, based on old tax returns, from taking action against Trump, his family, and his business.

This is formally part of a settlement following the scandalous data leak. The result is, however, much more interesting: the tax authority can no longer draw on his earlier tax returns to carry out a retroactive audit.

For the average American, IRS letters mean audits, penalties, and the constant fear of making a mistake on the form. For the president, it is an agreement under which old questions are simply filed away.

That is the whole story of equality before the law: one can have his life ruined by the tax office because of a few lines on his tax return, while the other can settle with the state so as not to experience harassment anymore.


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The execution of a killer in the United States was canceled because they were unable to install a catheter for the inmate— the next attempt will be made in 2027. NBC News reports this.

As the Department of Corrections said, the reason was problems installing an intravenous catheter for administering the lethal injection. The inmate’s lawyer, Tony Carruthers, said she saw her client “grimace and moan” and called what was happening “a horrifying spectacle.”

The governor of the state of Tennessee granted the 57-year-old inmate a one-year stay of execution.

❗️Tony Carruthers was supposed to become the first person executed in Tennessee in 2026. He is accused of kidnapping and murdering three people in 1994. The man continues to insist on his innocence for many years, and his lawyers say there is no direct evidence of his involvement in the crime.

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