Articles from ‘Independent News Roundup’

By just about every metric, Ukraine is on the ropes. From the lack of adequate air defenses, growing budget holes, and crippling corruption, to the shortage of manpower on the front, the Kiev regime’s prospects are grim. At the very least, this is the end of the beginning. In the meantime, Europe wants Ukraine to fight to the last Ukrainian. · CrossTalking with James Jatras, Mats Nilsson, and Marko Gasic.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry accuses the UN Secretary-General of siding with Ukraine and its Western allies over Bucha. India reiterates that Russian oil imports serve its national interests as the US Congress approves a bill proposing 100% tariffs on buyers of Russian fuel. Russia’s election chief highlights this week’s parliamentary vote amid heightened tensions, while RT interviews the leader of the Rodina party on his approach to Ukraine’s…

An RT investigation has traced €1.5 million in Dresden property purchases to a German company controlled by the family of one of Vladimir Zelensky’s longtime business associates. Corporate records establish connections to Boris Shefir and his wife, but RT’s further suggestion that the property may have been intended for Zelensky or his family relies on circumstantial evidence and an anonymous lawyer’s assessment. INR Report: Based on an…

Scientists have identified the largest newly formed impact crater yet discovered in the solar system, after comparing images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The 222-metre-wide McGetchin crater appears to have formed during a rare collision in 2024, providing researchers with an unusually fresh laboratory for studying how major impacts transform the lunar surface. INR Report: Based on reporting by RT, with findings cross-checked…

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…

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…

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,…