🗣💛🗣 Signal that Israel is STILL BESTIES WITH US? JD Vance may visit Israel after Trump GHOSTED Netanyahu

🗣The White House is arranging meetings between US Vice President JD Vance and Israeli leaders ahead of a possible visit on May 20, Israel’s Channel 12 reports.

Newspaper Israel Hayom says US officials insist it is not a “compensation visit” after Donald Trump skipped Israel during his recent Middle East tour. Instead, Vance’s trip aims to support regional de-escalation efforts.

Trump’s Gulf jaunt resulted in major deals with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE—while leaving Israel notably sidelined. The snub has fueled speculation of a deeper strategic shift in US regional priorities.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚠️Chevron’s toxic spill in Colorado could take HALF A DECADE to clean up

So far, the oil giant has recovered 91,272 barrels of waste fluid at the Bishop Well site in Galeton, Colorado, according to filings cited by CPR News.

A containment failure at the site caused pressure loss and sent crude oil and natural gas blasting into the air on April 6.

The incident triggered:
🟠A flood of toxic sludge into the surrounding environment.
🟠The temporary shutdown of Galeton Elementary School.
🟠Evacuation orders for residents within half a mile, with some still unable to return home.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇮🇷☢️NO NUKES, NO SECRETS: Iran doubles down on nuclear red lines

At the Tehran Dialogue Forum, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that Iran remains committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has no intention of producing nuclear weapons.

💬 “Iran has never sought nuclear weapons, based on our religious and moral principles. We’ve consistently addressed international concerns through transparency and dialogue,” Araghchi stated.

💡 Background:

🟠Comes days after tense US-Iran talks
🟠Tehran offers enrichment adjustments (not elimination)
🟠Forum packed with Middle Eastern power players

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨Europe must brace for surge in arms smuggling, ‘drone drug gangs’ once Ukraine conflict ends - report

“A huge amount of hardware of all denoscriptions” leftover in Ukraine will create “a boom in the grey economy for army surplus, including cars, clothing and dual-use equipment,” and a “wave of serious arms trafficking” involving heavy weapons.

That’s according to a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) studying risks associated with a potential halt to the fighting and the lifting of martial law.

🔍The report warns of two forms of arms trafficking post-conflict:

🟠small-scale overland smuggling to Europe, where criminals prefer “discreet” handguns, and sometimes assault rifles and grenades
🟠“larger-scale” smuggling using containers to Africa, the Middle East and potentially Latin America, involving ex-military acting as brokers, and shipment of RPG launchers, MANPADs, heavy machine guns and assault rifles in bulk to conflict zones and criminal groups.

“For Europe, the influx of modern, high-powered weaponry into criminal hands could revolutionize the underworld,” Gi-TOC warns, citing the dramatic increases in Swedish and French gangs’ use of violence already witnessed recently.

The report CONFIRMS concerns Russia has been expressing since 2022 – that the proxy war in Ukraine will inevitably become a gangster’s paradise for criminals and arms smugglers.

➕Beyond arms smuggling, the report warns of:

🟠Vets, foreign mercs, IDPs and refugees taking to crime, with 4-5 million ex-military armed with new lethal skills, including drone warfare, which “under the right tutelage, could form new, drone-based organized crime groups,” such as “drone drug gangs.”
🟠“Cyber veterans,” forgers and ex-special forces who may form highly violent and proficient gangs.
🟠“Healing” of regional organized crime links disrupted by the conflict.
🟠A boom in sex trafficking, scam call centers, synthetic drug production and other criminal enterprises.
🟠Embezzlement of reconstruction funds and conflict between Ukraine’s new and old oligarchs.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇬🇧 UK’s billion-dollar tugboat upgrade: Because nuclear subs need fancy escorts

Britain is splashing out £850 million ($1.1 billion) on a glow-up for its submarine support fleet — because even Trident-carrying nuke subs deserve a little luxury.

🔹 The shopping list:

▪️Six new tugs for Vanguard and Astute-class subs

▪️18 other vessels, including ammo barges, crew transports and oil tankers

▪️Supplier: Dutch shipbuilder Damen because Brexit means… buying European?

🤔 Bonus irony:

The Royal Navy’s four Vanguard subs, armed with Trident II nuclear missiles, will retire in the 2030s – so the tugs are just a stop-gap until the new Dreadnought class enters service.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️US special envoy Steve Witkoff hopes the planned phone call between Trump and Putin will be successful and help clear obstacles in resolving the Ukraine conflict.

He believes the US has, to some extent, succeeded in narrowing the differences between Russia and Ukraine.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Israeli army announced the start of large-scale ground operations in the Gaza Strip as part of Operation "Gideon's Chariots."

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇨🇳💎 China’s rare earth squeeze: US F-35 jet fighter production at risk

The delays in licenses could cause serious disruptions for US and European firms relying on Chinese minerals, with Tesla, Ford and Lockheed Martin voicing concerns.

💥 Why it matters:

▪️Lockheed Martin, Tesla, Ford sweating over magnet shortages

▪️Europe’s window to avoid production chaos ‘rapidly closing’, German industry warns

🔋 What’s happening?

In April, Beijing expanded export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and magnets used in electric vehicles, wind turbines and fighter jets like the F-35, in response to tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

The Financial Times says it is unclear whether China has started approving exports to the US after Washington and Beijing agreed to reduce tariffs for 90 days at talks in Switzerland in May.

Trump imposed high tariffs on Chinese imports in April, with China responding in kind – leading to tariffs of 145% on Chinese goods in the US and 125% by China – before both sides agreed to temporarily reduce tariffs by 115% to 30% and 10%.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚰️Former CIA chief predicts Ukraine’s shelf life?

David Petraeus has graciously given Ukraine a survival estimate of four to six more months in the fight against Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime has “a margin of safety” for at least that long, the ex-CIA Director told Ukraine’s NV radio.

👉Petraeus also expressed confidence that US support will continue, and hinted that more sanctions on Vladimir Putin are in the pipeline, claiming that Russia’s national welfare fund might run dry “sometime next year.”

❓Pinning hopes on the next sanctions round doing what the previous ones didn’t?

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

European country to Telegram: ‘Censor conservatives - for democracy!’ (Durov says ‘hard pass’)

The plot: An unnamed European govt (🥖) demanded that Telegram "silence conservative voices" ahead of Romania’s election.

💬 Durov’s clapback:

▪️"I flatly refused."

▪️"You can’t ‘defend democracy’ by destroying it."

▪️"Or ‘fight election interference’… by interfering." (🤯)

Irony is delicious: This is the same EU that frets over "disinformation" while manufacturing it.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

☢️🤝 Iran mulls nuclear deal with Arab states and US

🇮🇷Tehran is considering the idea of creating a nuclear consortium involving Middle Eastern countries and the US, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said.

💬 "If this progresses further and the issue is raised seriously, we may consider it and express our opinion."

✍️The New York Times reported that the proposal was made by Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as an alternative to the US demand for Iran to abandon its nuclear program.

👉It would allow Tehran to enrich uranium to 3.67% and supply it to Arab countries for civilian purposes, with international observers working at nuclear facilities.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 German troops in Moldova: EU stepping stone to war with Russia?

🇲🇩🇩🇪 The deployment of a German military advisory group to Moldova is part of the EU’s long-term preparations for war against Russia, says Andrey Safonov, lawmaker from Transnistria’s Supreme Council.

📍The German presence in Chisinau follows a Moldova-Germany defense agreement signed in Berlin, aimed at boosting military cooperation between the countries amid NATO's increased presence.

🗣 Safonov warns:

💬 “This is a step toward reshaping Moldova’s army into a NATO-style force… The EU appears to be preparing for a conflict with Russia in the late 2020s or early 2030s.”

He also claims a new Euro-globalist military bloc—led by Germany, France, and the UK—is taking shape, with ambitions targeting the former Moldavian SSR, including strategic interests in southern Ukraine and Odessa.

💬 "Perhaps the Germans seek control over Moldova itself. But they'll face resistance from the Romanians, who covet the absorption of the entire former Soviet Moldavia. We're seeing a tangled web of interstate disputes alongside shared anti-Russian objectives—a truly globalist project. This objectively increases the risk of renewed war on the Dniester," Safonov concluded.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Trump Treasury chief blames Biden for Moody’s credit downgrade

💬 “Moody’s is a lagging indicator – that’s what everyone thinks of credit agencies,” Scott Bessent said after the last of the big three credit rating agencies stripped the US of its triple-A rating.

💬 “We didn’t get here in the past 100 days. It’s the Biden administration and the spending that we have seen over the past four years that we inherited,” Bessent told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, adding that the Trump administration is “determined to bring the spending down and grow the economy.”

Moody’s downgraded the US on May 16, citing rising debt and political gridlock affecting fiscal policy. The US had previously been rated Aaa by Moody’s since 1917. Fitch downgraded the US to AA+ in 2023, citing fiscal deterioration, debt and gridlock. S&P did so in 2011, citing political instability and a heavy debt burden ($14.7 trln, pretty quaint compared to today’s $36.8 trln).

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💴💵China’s unloading of US Treasuries: quiet DOLLAR-DITCHING STRATEGY in action

News that the UK has replaced China as the second-biggest foreign holder of US Treasuries is a sign of the Asian nation’s long-term policy goal of expanding the reach of its own currency without “rocking the boat” of global financial stability, says economist Alasdair Macleod.

🇨🇳While China’s Treasuries holdings fluctuate over time, “the background is that China in the long term wants to do away with the dollar,” Macleod, a leading independent money and credit specialist, explained to Sputnik.

💬 “China is making fairly positive moves in that direction to spread the use of her own yuan for trade rather than the dollar within certainly the ASEAN nations. And also, that will be extended to members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and also BRICS.”

To that end, the recent opening of Shanghai Gold Exchange vaults in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia are important steps toward the internationalization of the yuan for trade.

💬 “It is absolutely clear, particularly since President Trump came into office, that the Asian hegemons, China and Russia, have been keen to distance themselves from depending on the West for finance, for capital, for political influence and commercial trade. And to that extent, China has particularly been switching her export markets away from America,” Macleod said.

➕According to the economist, it’s important to distinguish between Chinese and British/Japanese investment in US Treasuries.

China’s holdings are owned by the People’s Bank of China, whereas in the UK and Japan it’s financial institutions, banks, investment managers and offshore US interests looking for superior bond yields.

💬 “It’s very different in character compared to China,” Macleod said. China sees its Treasury holdings as part of its foreign exchange reserves, accumulated mainly through its massive trade surpluses with other countries, and used to manage dollar holdings and ensure currency exchange rate stability.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇺🇸🇮🇷Witkoff outlines US’s ‘one very, very clear RED LINE’ in Iran talks

🗣“We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability,” the Trump special Middle East envoy said, adding that the US has “delivered a proposal to the Iranians” meant to address the issue “without disrespecting them.”

Earlier Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that Iran would “never abandon our peaceful nuclear program,” and would “not accept coercion” on the issue. “They want to sanction us? We’ve been under sanctions for a lifetime,” he said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

✈️Тrump’s Treasury chief SHUTS DOWN CNN host on Qatari Air Force One jet gift

There are 100 billion reasons for the US to accept the Qatari gesture, Scott Bessent told Jake Tapper after the host pointed out that no country would give away a $400 million jet “just to be nice.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

👊🏻Rubio hits back at critics over US policy on Afrikaner refugees

🗣“We’ve often been lectured by people all over the place about how the United States needs to continue to be a beacon for those who are oppressed abroad – well, here’s an example where we’re doing that,” the US secretary of state told CBS’ Face the Nation.

59 white South Africans arrived in the US on Monday as part of what the Trump administration has said would be a larger relocation, sparking a firestorm of criticism from liberals accusing Trump of fast-tracking or prioritizing them over other asylum seekers. President Trump has characterized the treatment of Afrikaners as a “genocide.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🪖Can Israel defeat the Houthis if it struggles with Hamas? Ex-IDF Air Defense Commander calls for reality check

🗣“The question is not why we aren’t doing anything significant, but whether it is possible to defeat an organization that’s 2,000 km away,” Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, commander of Israel’s Air Defense Forces from 2015-2018, told Israeli media.

A regional alliance was unable to defeat the Houthis “in seven years, the Americans declared a unilateral ‘victory’ after two months. Deadly attacks [by Israel, ed.] will not bring results,” Haimovich stressed.

Regarding the war with Hamas, Haimovich said the goal of ‘defeating’ the militia is unrealistic. “Hamas is an ideology…The concept of ‘destroying Hamas’ has no hold on reality.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

💸Bewildered Bessent asks how previous administrations allowed US to be ripped off on trade for so long😬

🗣“With a few exceptions, the countries are coming with very good proposals for us,” the Trump Treasury secretary told CNN.

“These are excellent proposals, but I wonder – how did we get here?” Bessent asked.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan takes lead in Romanian presidential run-off

📊 Exit poll results:

Nicușor Dan (incumbent): 54.9%

George Simion (opposition): 45.1%

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇴Opposition eurosceptic candidate George Simion claims victory in the Romanian presidential election, defying earlier exit polls.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt