Latest news

Russian invasion  Negotiations
Negotiators meet Putin: “A difficult situation”

On Saturday evening, meetings began between Vladimir Putin and US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, Reuters reports.

Ahead of the meeting, Putin described it as the three men facing “a difficult situation”, according to Russian state media.

Sources close to the Kremlin have not shown any optimism whatsoever ahead of the meeting. Expectations are “extremely low”, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

– There is no chance of reaching an agreement on the front line until Putin takes the rest of Donetsk, a source told Reuters.

Tomorrow, Kushner and Witkoff will continue on to Kyiv, which will be their first visit to Ukraine ever. Russia and Ukraine have agreed to pause airstrikes for a few days while the Americans are in place.

Middle East Crisis  Iran War
US: Has destroyed three Iranian oil tankers

The US has destroyed three Iranian oil tankers after the Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at two patrolling US warships, writes the Central Command Centcom on X.

According to Centcom, a US aircraft carrier and a destroyer managed to evade several unprovoked Iranian attacks without any casualties.

"Let the message to the Revolutionary Guard be clear: If you fire on two of our ships, we will inflict even greater economic damage on you by destroying three of yours," says Admiral Brad Cooper in a statement. 

New world map
US the only no vote against new map: "Ideological"

Yesterday, 164 UN countries voted in favor of adopting a new, more accurate projection of the world map. Six countries abstained, but only one voted no: the US, several media reports.

The US UN envoy Yaryna Ferencevych condemned the resolution as part of a “much larger and more radical ideological project”.

– Instead of focusing on real issues of international peace, prosperity and good relations, this body is debating map projects from the 16th century, she says.

The resolution means that the UN now recommends the “Equal Earth” map projection, which was developed by an international team of cartographers in 2018.

The Mercator projection, which has been the standard since 1569, exaggerates the size of countries the further away from the equator they are. This means that Africa and Greenland appear to be the same size, when in fact Africa is 14 times larger.

Trump’s USA  The US mid-term elections
Republicans are settling for a Trump-centric election

Despite the fact that the mid-term elections are not about him, that is exactly how Donald Trump paints it in his campaign, and his party colleagues are reluctantly coming to terms with it, writes Axios.

In its eagerness to get couch potatoes to the polls, the party has settled for a Trump-centric strategy, even though many believe it will cost them votes.

– We have no choice. We are in the same boat as him whether we like it or not, says a high-ranking party source.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Republicans are holding a major convention in Dallas with the president as the headliner, and several Trump-focused commercials have begun to be pumped out.

In the eyes of the White House, it is only about one thing: persuading Trump voters to vote in the midterm elections.

– I am not on the ballot, but I am still on the ballot, Trump is said to have said according to a source close to him.

Greek fighter jet crashes – two pilots dead

Two pilots have died after a Greek military plane crashed during an air show outside Athens, Greek media report according to AFP.

The plane, an older American F-4 Phantom, lost altitude and crashed just after takeoff.

The cause of the crash is unclear. The pilots did not have time to eject.