Independent News Roundup

The US’ newly formalized control over the majority of Venezuela’s oil reserves and Caracas’ potential withdrawal from OPEC could see Trump 2.0 assembling a “North American-South American Petroleum Exporting Countries” group as part of the US’ power play for control over the global oil market. Will NASAPEC Become The New OPEC? · Opinion by Andrew Korybko · !Will NASAPEC Become The New OPEC? · The US’ newly formalized control over the majority…

America’s rush to build the enormous data centres required by artificial intelligence is encountering an increasingly powerful obstacle: the communities expected to host them. Texas says new requirements have halted as many as 1,800 proposed projects, while restrictions are spreading across states and hundreds of local authorities as residents question who ultimately pays for AI’s rapidly growing appetite for power, water and infrastructure. INR…

Australia's world-first social-media restrictions for children under 16 appear to be facing a fundamental enforcement problem. New usage data indicates the initial decline following the December 2025 ban lasted only weeks, with young Australians steadily returning to major platforms and some younger children now using them at rates exceeding those recorded before the restrictions. INR Report: Based on reporting by David Lindfield for Slay News…

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is calling for tighter controls over AI-powered automatic licence plate readers, warning that surveillance of ordinary citizens' movements has become “out of control”. His intervention highlights a growing international debate over where legitimate law-enforcement technology ends and mass surveillance begins. INR Report: Based on reporting by Frank Bergman for Slay News HERE · Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has…

America’s falling birth rate has acquired a political dimension. Research cited by Slay News finds a persistent fertility gap between conservatives and liberals, but the evidence points to a more complicated mix of attitudes, geography, economics and lifestyle than the headline claim of political “doomism” alone might suggest. INR Report: Based on reporting by Frank Bergman for Slay News HERE · The United States has been experiencing declining…

Crude oil flows may be recovering, but the fuels that actually power trucks, tractors, construction machinery and industry remain under severe pressure. A developing shortage of refined petroleum products has driven US diesel prices to a record high, raising concerns that the next global energy shock could increasingly be felt throughout the real economy. INR Report: Based on reporting by Tyler Durden for ZeroHedge HERE · Global oil markets are…

More than four years into the Russia-Ukraine war, the central question is increasingly not who can gain another town or stretch of territory, but whether either side can achieve its underlying political objectives. Political scientist Dr Nicolai Petro argues that Russia, Ukraine and Europe's leaders remain locked into fundamentally incompatible visions of European security leaving military escalation easier to imagine than a durable settlement.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova joins RT on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok to discuss the Ukraine conflict and the current political situation in the world.

Ukraine's Security Service headquarters is hit by a drone, a day after a street shoot-out between rival intelligence agencies in Kiev. Moscow denies Berlin's claim of an attempted explosive drone attack at a German airport, while Germany's opposition questions the account. Estonia's Defense Minister quits amid a €70m scandal over undelivered shells for Ukraine. In the DRC, health workers face attacks from locals claiming the Ebola outbreak is a…