'Stop arming Kiev': Peace protesters in Amsterdam challenge NATO on Ukraine

Dozens rallied in central Amsterdam calling for peace between Russia and Ukraine and an end to arms deliveries to Kiev.

Waving white and blue flags, demonstrators marched through the city urging NATO to pursue diplomacy — not escalation.

Speakers slammed NATO’s role in the conflict, while organizers launched a petition opposing the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague this June.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands is set to deliver its final batch of 24 F-16 yet fighters to Ukraine on May 26.

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🇮🇷💎Iran sits on a $27 trillion treasure – and has only tapped 2%

Only 2% of Iran’s vast mineral wealth has been discovered, the head of the country’s Geological Survey says.

📊With $27.3 trillion in natural resources, Iran ranks 5th globally – yet most of its potential remains untouched.

Global-level processing could unlock over $10 trillion in added value.

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🇭🇺🔥Betting on WAR to save their seats: Hungary torches EU over Ukraine membership push

EU leaders are prioritizing Ukraine – a non-member – over current citizens of the bloc, chief of Hungary's ruling Fidesz-KDNP alliance Tamas Menczer told Kossuth Radio.

➕He claimed that if peace were brokered, EU leaders like Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber would be forced to face the consequences of their bad war calls, roughly $165 billion given to Ukraine, and their own political accountability.

➕He also warned that Brussels wants to cut Europe off from Russian gas and oil, but if that happens, Hungarian households will face skyrocketing bills, with electricity costs doubling and gas bills quadrupling.

💬 “This says goes against Hungary’s interests,” Menczer added.

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😏 More weapons, less Ukraine? Medvedev issues stark warning

Russia’s ‘buffer zone’ could extend across nearly all of Ukraine — if Western military aid to the Kiev regime continues, Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council warns.

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📹 Morocco rolls out red carpet for US nuke bomber

Moroccan F-16s were filmed escorting a US B-52 nuclear-capable bomber through their airspace after the African Lion 2025 drills wrapped up.

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Israel hemorrhaging allies over Gaza pummeling?

While US President Donald Trump has nudged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to dial down its relentless attacks on Gaza, other Israeli allies are going beyond rhetoric, reminded Axios.

🔸 The UK froze trade talks and slapped sanctions on Israeli settlers linked to attacks on Palestinians.

🔸 France is teaming up with Saudi Arabia for a peace summit next month – and may soon officially recognize a Palestinian state.

🔸 Spain already has – alongside Norway and Ireland – with PM Pedro Sanchez branding Israel a “genocidal state.”

🔸 17 of 27 EU foreign ministers now back rethinking the EU-Israel trade deal, thanks to a Dutch-led motion.

Netanyahu's push for so-called "voluntary migration" – widely seen as code for forced displacement – risks turning Israel into an international pariah, the outlet noted.
How far is Israel willing to test its allies’ patience?

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🇺🇸🇪🇺 TRUMP’S TARIFF ULTIMATUM: whichever side Brussels picks, Europe loses

💬 “Trump…is basically telling the EU that they have a decision – do they want 50% tariffs coming from the US side, or do they want high tariffs from the China side?” geopolitical commentator and veteran trade wars expert Thomas W. Pauken II told Sputnik, commenting on the US’s tough love strategy toward the EU.

In a situation where EU export dependence on the US is far greater than it is toward China ($604B+, or 20.6% of total exports to the US in 2024 vs $242.5B, or 8.3% to China), Trump’s ultimatum may pay off, Pauken says.

Of course, “there is no such thing as a foolproof strategy.” It’s possible that Trump’s threats will fail, and that the EU will go ahead with ramping up trade ties with China instead of dealing with the US.

💬 “If they do that, then Trump will have no other choice but to impose the 50% tariffs on the EU and make it permanent,” Pauken said.

Trump’s whole approach is “about getting China and the EU to support” his “amazing and wonderful trade deals,” according to the observer. “If they choose the path of resistance, Trump will simply impose high tariffs on both.”

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🕊Giant 'bird' spotted above the Sun — 10 times size of Earth

Russian solar scientists spotted a mysterious object above the Sun that looks eerily like a bird — with a wingspan of 150,000 km and hovering 2 million km up.

That's over 10 Earths across – but they’re not sure what it is.

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🤖🥊ROBOTS THROW HANDS IN HANGZHOU🥊🤖

The world’s first humanoid fight night just kicked off in Hangzhou — and it’s as wild as it sounds.

👉No, they’re not sentient – yet
✅Yes, they have human controllers
✅And yes, they’re doing flying kicks and trying not to fall over

China’s top robotics minds are using the epic Mech Combat Arena to test how stable the robo-gladiators really are.

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🚨Dozens of Ukrainian drones downed in 7 hours – Russian MoD

Russia’s Defense Ministry says 51 UAVs were intercepted across several regions:

📍21 over Kursk Region,
📍12 over Oryol Region,
📍11 over Tula Region,
📍6 over Moscow Region,
📍and 1 over Kaluga Region.

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🗣Trump’s top GOP House ally touts ‘largest cut in spending of all time’

House Speaker Mike Johnson says the sweeping legislation to cut taxes, regulations and $1.5 trillion in federal spending is like Trump 1.0’s approach “on steroids.”

The bill cleared the House Thursday, heading to the Senate.

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🚨Anarchists hit French power grid over Ukraine arms, pollution

Two anonymous anarchist cells have claimed responsibility for Saturday’s power outage in southern France.

In a statement on the radical platform Indymedia, they cited industrial pollution and France’s continued arms supplies to Ukraine and the Middle East as motives.

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🔸 RUSSIA AND UKRAINE COMPLETE 1,000-FOR-1,000 POW SWAP – Russian Defense Ministry

🔸 TRUMP’S TARIFF ULTIMATUM: whichever side Brussels picks, Europe loses

🔸 Iran sits on a $27 trillion treasure – and has only tapped 2%

🔸 More weapons, less Ukraine? Medvedev issues stark warning

🔸 Israel hemorrhaging allies over Gaza pummeling?

🔸 Orban on Ukraine in EU: HUNGARY WON’T FOOT THE BILL

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🤡 Trump’s ‘Made in the USA’ manufacturing: brought to you by Japanese & Chinese robots

The Trump administration’s push to revive modern, automated domestic manufacturing will require the widespread use of advanced industrial robots from abroad, including China.

🔸 Japan, China, Germany and South Korea – all targeted by Trump’s trade wars to one degree or another, produce roughly 70% of the world’s robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

🔸 China’s prowess in the field is “growing rapidly,” Axios says, citing the successful prioritization of robotics in the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative, launched under President Xi’s guidance in 2015.

🔸 As for the US, its industrial robotics capabilities are lagging behind –going from pioneering the use of robots at automotive manufacturing in the 1960s, to seeing Japanese and European companies catch up and overtake the US thanks to lack of investment, government support and union resistance.

🔸 The White House hopes major investments required to rebuild the industrial robotics sector can be resolved through tax incentives, and assures its reshoring efforts are designed to “directly address” issues like foreign robot imports in manufacturing “critical to national and economic security.”

🔸 An array of US tech-focused companies, including Tesla, Agility Robotics and Figure AI are working on a new generation of domestic industrial robots. For now though, about 40% of robotic systems in the US come from Japan, 16% from China, and 12% from Germany.

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🇺🇸🇿🇦 Insult, meet injury: US wants South Africa to give its companies VIP access after Trump tirade

The Trump admin is pushing South Africa to ease local laws that require foreign firms to hand over stakes to black-owned businesses — calling them “barriers” to US investment, the City Press reports.

In response, SA offered a workaround: let firms like SpaceX build local infrastructure instead. That likely clears the runway for Starlink to launch in the country.

👉🏻Meanwhile, the US wants in on South Africa’s strategic mineral mining — and Pretoria is eyeing big LNG imports in return.

The May 21 Trump-Ramaphosa meeting in Washington went off-noscript when Trump confronted Ramaphosa with “white genocide” claims — complete with videos and photos, some of which had no relation to South Africa.

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⚓️ Western Europe’s major ports are a mess as Trump’s tariff whimsy takes its toll

Wait times for berth space have increased by 77% in Bremerhaven, 49% in Hamburg, 37% in Antwerp between late March and mid-May.

That’s according to a new report by London-based maritime consultancy Drewry.

The chaos is blamed on:

🔹 labor shortages
🔹 low water levels on the Rhine River
🔹 Trump’s rollback of hefty 145% tariffs against China, triggering a sudden burst in shipping demand, with Europe caught in the middle.

Similar patterns are being reported in Shenzhen, LA and NY.

Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd, says it could take up to two months to untangle the mess.

Worst of all is the uncertainty associated with the abruptness of Trump’s tariff threats and rollbacks, which Bloomberg says are making it hard for shippers to adjust orders, resulting in delays and rate hikes.

The latest Trump threat – 50% tariffs on European goods if a trade deal can’t be reached, “would likely reduce EU exports to the US for all products facing reciprocal duties to near zero – cutting total EU exports to the US by more than half,” Bloomberg says.

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🚨 Douglas Macgregor’s BOMBSHELL advice to Trump on Ukraine

A “buffer zone” east of the Dnepr River would give Russia sufficient security “against any future threats that may emanate from what remains of Ukraine,” but the rump state would likely to be subjected to territorial claims from western neighbors, the ex-Trump Pentagon advisor says.

Everyone from Poland and Romania to Hungary and Moldova would like a piece of western Ukraine, according to Macgregor.

💬 “President Trump: suspend all aid to this Ukrainian disaster, get out, offer to host a conference…Let them all come, without us by the way. We can have a representative that sits in and listens, but let the people in it and around [Ukraine] make the decision on where the new boundaries will be drawn,” Macgregor told Daniel Davis on Davis’s Deep Dive podcast.

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👋 President Maduro greets Sputnik

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sent greetings to the Sputnik audience after voting in Sunday's elections in Caracas.

"Sputnik, greetings! We'll see you soon in Russia," he said.

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🇺🇸🪖 US military spending more on recruitment & retention than 1/3 of NATO allies do on defense, period

The Pentagon has doled out over $6 billion in bonuses between 2022 and 2024 to try to incentivize troops to enlist or reenlist.

🔸 Army recruiting bonus spending jumped from $281M in 2022 to $391M in 2024, while retention bonuses increased from $393M to $569M, respectively.

🔸 In the Navy, recruitment bonuses hit $230M, $391M and $378M over the three-year period, while retention spending reached $603M, $727M and $779M.

🔸 The Air Force’s recruitment bonuses soared from $6.3M in 2022 to $25.8M in 2024, while retention bonuses climbed from $98.8M to $541M.

🔸 Bringing up the rear, the Marines spent just $6.3M on recruitment bonuses in 2022, but $25.8M in 2024. As for retention, the numbers doubled, from $99.7M to $201M.

By 2024, the DoD was spending over $2B on incentives. That’s more than the spending of nine of NATO’s 32 members.

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