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Forget the campaign ads. Susan traces two coordinated fronts against Trump’s midterms: a pain machine of diesel prices, Iran, Canada’s tariffs and bond attacks and an AI-apocalypse panic whose paper trail runs straight to London. By Susan Kokinda · This midweek update argues that the midterm elections are being shaped less by campaign ads than by coordinated economic and political pressure: rising diesel prices tied to Ukrainian strikes on…

Russia’s Sergey Lavrov warns that any European attack on Russia would trigger a fundamentally different conflict, while insisting Moscow has no intention of starting one. Ahead of parliamentary elections, RT also examines Russia’s response to Western pressure and speaks with LDPR figure Viktor Bout about the party’s vision. In the Philippines, former President Rodrigo Duterte makes his first public appearance in 18 months as he faces ICC…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has cancelled a planned appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York as political pressure intensifies at home. The decision follows a severe CDU defeat in Saxony-Anhalt, deteriorating public confidence in Merz and further state elections that could reshape Germany's political landscape. Merz Cancels UN Trip as Political Pressure Builds in Germany · Chancellor stays in Berlin after major CDU…

New Zealand's economy expanded 0.2 percent in the June quarter and 2.6 percent compared with a year earlier, avoiding the contraction initially feared after the Middle East fuel-price shock. But beneath the positive GDP headline, growth per person was only 0.1 percent and real national disposable income fell 0.4 percent, raising a more important question for households: is economic growth actually translating into greater prosperity? eLocal…

Families of Israelis killed or abducted on October 7 have released a 12-page dossier arguing that the massacre cannot be explained simply as an intelligence failure on the morning of the attack. Their evidence raises a much larger question: whether years of Israeli government policy helped preserve Hamas, allowed it to strengthen and left extraordinary warnings unanswered before an attack that transformed the Middle East. INR Report: Based on…

Former Ukrainian presidential press secretary Yulia Mendel was prevented from entering the European Parliament building in Strasbourg on Wednesday, where she had been invited to speak at an event advocating diplomacy in the Ukraine conflict. The incident came three days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on his former spokeswoman, although the reason European Parliament authorities denied her entry has not yet been…

For almost four years, three New Zealand children remained hidden in the rugged country around Marokopa with their father, Tom Phillips. The Public Inquiry into their disappearance has now concluded that authorities missed opportunities both to prevent their second disappearance and to bring them home sooner eLocal Report: Based on reporting by Sam Sherwood, National Crime Correspondent for RNZ, and the Report of the Public Inquiry into the…

National says it will pursue separating Pak'nSave from New World and Four Square if returned to government, potentially transforming New Zealand's supermarket market from two dominant groups into three nationwide competitors. The proposal is backed by economic modelling suggesting lower grocery prices, but the same analysis shows the outcome depends heavily on costs, implementation and whether genuine competition actually follows eLocal Report:…

BRICS brings together countries with different political systems, competing strategic interests and, in some cases, serious disputes with one another. Yet rather than collapsing under those differences, the grouping continues to expand, raising a bigger question about the emerging world order: can nations cooperate economically and politically without submitting to a dominant power? INR Report: Based on an analysis by Dmitry Trenin for RT,…

On today’s Sanchez Effect, Donetsk Republic head Denis Pushilin argues that corporate profit, rather than Western rhetoric about ‘justice’, remains a powerful force behind the Ukraine conflict. He discusses European politics, Germany’s economic pressures and continuing Western arms supplies, while outlining reconstruction already underway in Donetsk and an ambitious economic strategy extending to 2042.