RT\u2019s essential stories of the past seven days included an oil-price surge, an AfD shockwave in Germany, and increasingly alarming warnings about AI<\/p>\n
Gulf turns into a shooting gallery
\nThe US-Iran conflict moved increasingly onto the water this week, with oil tankers, warships, and drones all getting involved around one of the world\u2019s most important shipping routes.
\nWashington struck five Iranian crude carriers on Tuesday after previously attacking three other commercial vessels. Tehran retaliated, claiming strikes on eight tankers and two US Navy vessels, while an Iranian attack reportedly damaged several US warplanes at an airbase in Jordan.
\nIran also captured an American underwater drone and, two days later, released footage of a US Saildrone surveillance vessel burning in the water.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Iran retaliates after US strikes on oil tankers (VIDEOS)<\/p>\n
Tehran says the Strait of Hormuz remains under its control and has announced plans for another restricted shipping zone nearby.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Iran destroys US spy Saildrone in Hormuz (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
Oil markets react
\nThe escalating hostilities saw Brent crude surge back above $100 a barrel this week, breaking the threshold for the first time in months.
\nMeanwhile, Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia\u2019s energy infrastructure have added to fears of further disruption as the kingdom\u2019s oil production in August reportedly fell to its lowest level since 1990 amid growing pressure on its usual export routes.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Oil tops $100 as Middle East conflict intensifies\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump dividend
\nAs oil prices continue to destabilize the global energy markets, the fallout is expected to become a major issue in the upcoming US November mid-term election. The US president, however, has refused to back down, promising \u201ca lot more\u201d strikes on Iranian tankers.
\nAs for concerned voters, Trump promised to pay every American adult a $5,000 \u201cTrump Dividend\u201d if Republicans keep control of Congress. He did not explain exactly how the payouts potentially costing well over $1 trillion would be funded.
\nSpeaking of enormous piles of money…
\nAn RT investigation looked at Ukraine\u2019s industrial-scale scam-call business, which is estimated to generate around $1 billion every month and employs some 60,000 people.
\nThe business has also become entangled with allegations that corrupt Ukrainian officials have been taking protection money from the very fraudsters they were supposed to go after, leading to the resignation of Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Call of corruption: What you should know about Ukraine\u2019s billion-dollar scam industry milked by Zelensky\u2019s government<\/p>\n
By Friday, Zelensky\u2019s chief of staff Kirill Budanov was also reportedly under investigation over possible financial crimes.
\nSeparately, the New York Times reported that Ukraine lost around $1.2 billion to fraud, waste and mismanagement in military procurement in 2024 alone.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Ukraine lost $1.2 bn to defense fraud and waste in one year \u2013 NYT<\/p>\n
Washington keeps trying diplomacy
\nWhile investigators searched for Ukraine\u2019s missing money, Washington continued looking for a peace deal. After Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Kiev last weekend, Trump spoke with Putin by phone on Tuesday.
\nMoscow said it hopes Russia-US-Ukraine talks can resume, while Zelensky floated the UAE, T\u00fcrkiye and Switzerland as possible venues.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Russia looking forward to revival of trilateral Ukraine talks \u2013 Kremlin<\/p>\n
Talking to Russia may be catching on
\nWhile Washington has reopened direct channels with Moscow, some European governments that have spent years doing the opposite have increasingly felt the political cost at home.
\nThe clearest example came in Germany, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt last weekend, crushing Chancellor Friedrich Merz\u2019s CDU. Migration was a major issue, but the AfD has also campaigned against sanctions on Russia, Germany\u2019s massive support for Kiev and the abandonment of cheap Russian energy.
\nMerz said he was \u201cdeeply shocked\u201d by the result. He then announced that he would change virtually nothing.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Merz \u2018shocked\u2019 by AfD win but refuses to change course (VIDEO)<\/p>\n
Brussels\u2019 response was hardly more conciliatory, with German media reporting this week that Saxony-Anhalt could lose hundreds of millions of euros in EU funding if the AfD manages to form a government and clashes with Brussels.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
German state could face EU fund freeze after AfD win \u2013 media<\/p>\n
Similar frustration was visible in neighboring Poland, where protesters marched under a \u201cPoland for Peace\u201d banner and accused Warsaw of \u201ctrying to turn Russophobia into our national sport\u201d and pushing the country toward confrontation with Moscow.
\nPublic dissent grows, governments double down
\nNone of this appears to have slowed Europe\u2019s confrontation with Russia. Moscow this week ordered Germany\u2019s consulate in St. Petersburg and Goethe-Institut cultural centers in Russia to close in retaliation for similar measures taken by Berlin.
\nHungary\u2019s new government, which has reversed the comparatively pragmatic Russia policy of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, expelled ten Russian diplomats. Moscow promised a \u201charsh and painful\u201d response.
\nLithuania, meanwhile, moved closer to scrapping its constitutional ban on hosting weapons of mass destruction, potentially opening the door to nuclear weapons being stationed in the NATO country. Moscow warned that any such weapons would become Russian targets.
\n160km \u2018near miss\u2019
\nNorwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store continued the Western \u2018Russian drone\u2019 hysteria by claiming that Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s plane had been \u201calmost hit by a drone\u201d while leaving Moldova. Western media duly ran with the story.
\nHowever, soon after, Moldova itself pointed out that Zelensky\u2019s aircraft had been sitting safely on the ground, faced \u201cno direct threat,\u201d and that the drone eventually crashed around 160km from Chisinau airport.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Moldova debunks drone threat to Zelensky\u2019s plane<\/p>\n
Europe counts the bill
\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov summed up Europe\u2019s current approach rather dramatically, accusing the EU of committing economic \u201charakiri\u201d by cutting itself off from Russian energy while its own citizens and industry bear the cost.
\nThe assessment was only further proved accurate after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, one of Kiev\u2019s strongest supporters, similarly warned on Thursday that the EU can forget about competing with China or the US after cutting itself off from cheap Russian energy.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: EU can forget about competitiveness at current energy prices \u2013 Tusk<\/p>\n
Russia and India are doing business
\nWhile much of Europe remains focused on sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and military confrontation, Moscow and New Delhi spent the week discussing planes, trade, energy, space and investment.
\nThe first INNOPROM. India industrial fair opened in New Delhi, bringing together more than 120 Russian and Indian companies, with agreements covering 105 Russian Il-114-300 regional passenger aircraft and plans for local production of the SJ-100 jet in India.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Indian regional airlines to buy 105 Russian planes<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BRICS summit, as the two countries work toward $100 billion in bilateral trade and closer economic ties.
\nIn other news
\nArtificial intelligence had another reassuring week as Anthropic revealed five cases in which scientists used its Claude models to help research dangerous pathogens and increase transmission of deadly viruses, which could be used to develop lethal biological weapons.
\nThe report came days after Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger said he believes there is a greater than 10% chance AI could \u201ckill all humans\u201d within the next decade, while his colleague Jacob Coxon quit the company, warning that sufficiently advanced AI could one day help create \u201cextinction-level bioweapons.\u201d
\nOpenAI, meanwhile, faced fresh reports that its autonomous agents had once again bypassed restrictions and used outside websites to communicate with one another.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Anthropic reveals five biological weapon risk cases<\/p>\n
The UN, meanwhile, redrew the world this week and officially endorsed a new map that shows Africa closer to its true relative size instead of the heavily distorted Mercator projection. The General Assembly vote was 164-1, with the US casting the only opposing vote.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: UN approves true-size Africa map with sole dissent<\/p>\n
Friday also marked 25 years since the September 11 attacks on the US. Fyodor Lukyanov argued for RT that the attacks ended America\u2019s post-Cold War sense of security, while Washington\u2019s response accelerated the decline of the unipolar order it had dominated.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: How 9\/11 turned a terrorist attack into a generation of war<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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