IRGC pounded 25+ US-Israeli targets in 100th wave of Operation True Promise 4 Wednesday, 08 [02] April 2026 1:26 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 08 April 2026 1:31 PM ] https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/0 ... 4-wave-100
Screengrab from footage released by the IRGC on April 8, 2026, shows a man holding an Iranian flag and giving a military salute as a missile is launched toward US‑Israeli positions during the 100th wave of Operation True Promise 4.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) pounded more than 25 strategic targets belonging to the United States and Israel in the 100th wave of the decisive Operation True Promise 4.
The IRGC announced the large-scale offensive in a statement early on Wednesday, saying it was a response to the enemy’s “insolence” the previous day.
“Your sons and servants, by God’s grace and the support of you dear nation, fulfilled their duty last night,” the IRGC said.
The statement said the “crushing blows” hit targets that included 13 energy complexes and oil pipelines affiliated with the United States and Israel, among others.
“The fighters of the IRGC Aerospace Force put American and Zionist enemy targets from the Mediterranean shores to the eastern Hejaz peninsula under heavy fire, so that the foolish enemy understands that attacking the infrastructure of the Iranian people will have severe punishment.”
Press TV @PressTV IRGC released footage of the 100th wave of Operation True Promise 4 in which 25 strategic positions of enemies were targeted
The IRGC Navy, while continuing its smart control of the Strait of Hormuz, also struck several naval targets:
· The LHA-7 helicopter carrier was hit by cruise missiles, suffering damage and deck fires before retreating into the depths of the Indian Ocean.
· The CVN-74 aircraft carrier was struck by several drones, suffering hull damage and also retreating into the Indian Ocean.
· An Israeli drone manufacturing plant in the UAE.
· Oil facilities invested by US companies in LSB, Kuwait.
· US base in Ali Al Salem, Kuwait.
‘Finger on the trigger’
The IRGC warned that its fighters remain ready for further action.
“The Guards, devoted to the Iranian nation, are now listening to the orders of Leader and Commander-in-Chief Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, and their fingers are on the trigger.”
“With the great lessons learned from two imposed wars, they are ready to create an even greater epic if the enemy miscalculates again.”
The IRGC also addressed the United States’ regional partners.
“America’s partners in the region have seen with their own eyes the inability of the US and Israel. It is fitting that they take a lesson and end their cooperation with the enemies of Islam.”
“The enemy has always plotted, and we have no trust in its promises. We will respond to any aggression with a higher level of force.”
The United States and Israel launched their unprovoked war of aggression against Iran on February 28. They assassinated Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and struck nuclear sites, schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure.
Iran’s decisive Operation True Promise 4 was launched in retaliation. Hundreds of ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and drones, have pounded US military bases across West Asia and Israeli positions throughout the occupied territories.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) announced on Wednesday that there was an agreement to a Pakistan-brokered two-week ceasefire after the US accepted Iran’s 10-point proposal, potentially followed by negotiations to effectively end the war.
Pepe Escobar: Iran Just DEFIED Trump, Air Defenses LIGHT UP Over Tehran as War Blows UP Danny Haiphong May 1, 2026
Pepe Escobar discusses signals of the war on Iran restarting as CENTCOM briefs Trump on the US's "final blow" and Iran's air defenses activate overnight. The renowned geopolitical analyst and journalist of the multipolar world breaks down the huge geopolitical shift precipitated by this war and why it's quickly becoming existential for the empire.
Transcript
Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the show. It's your host Danny Hi Fong. I am joined by good friend of the show, independent journalist and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar. Pepe, good to see you again. Good to see you, Danny. And good to see all of you out there. Uh, well, I am I am sorry a little bit because I am now in paradise. So, my initial instinct would be to drop everything we're doing and jump into the underman sea. But we have work to do. Right. Right. Yeah. Well, of course, I am greatly appreciative of you taking the time out today. Everybody hit the like button so more people can hear this conversation as we begin here. So, uh, Pepe, I know you've been deeply covering the latest developments surrounding the war in Iran. You know, overnight there reports of air defenses lighting up in the skies over Tan. We have the Trump administration being briefed or Donald Trump himself being briefed on multiple options to strike Iran. Uh and uh we have of course the uh ongoing uh uh talk uh uh uh you know uh absolutely just I don't even know what to call it. Uh Kabuki theater. Uh Trump just rejected the latest proposal by Iran. The only consistency that I see here, Pepe, is Iran's defiance of all of the Trump administration, the US's ongoing escalations, the blockade, and uh, you know, all kinds of other uh, uh, provocations. But, uh, Pepe, maybe you can help us understand uh, given your latest analyses. You've written two public two latest publications. Uh uh the straight of horror moves is of course at the center of all this. The US sentcom they're all talking about trying to reopen this thing quote unquote. And I'm curious on where we are in the war now and and what you're looking at as we uh move forward here toward possibly a new round of strikes by the US and Israel. Well, apparently uh there's going to be an urgent pronouncement by Trump at 4 p.m. today, right? uh after the markets close. So anything could happen including uh you may try to implement what uh the joint chiefs of stab and the head of Sandcom were building as the final blow. Wow. As far as we know they haven't even delivered the first blow. So they want to deliver the final blow. Well, look, this week has been quite something. A lot of immensely important things happening. Uh let's try to backtrack a little bit because essentially they involve Iran and Russia. First thing uh Arai did uh a very well organized, meticulously organized mini diplomatic tour, Islamabad, Muscat and St. Petersburg. First he went to Islamabad to talk to the Pakistani mediators. Then he went to Oman where he talked to his counterpart but also he was received by the Amir as well and they talked essentially about the straight of Hormuz. Then he went back to Islamabad where he redelivered to the Pakistanis let's say a more concise version of what they had been uh proposing from the beginning. But now uh the order the parameters are different because uh there are essentially three points three stages according to the Iranians and this by the way is what Trump rejected today again. First one is end the war by by all means and this means all wars including especially in fact the war against the axis of the resistance as a whole. It's not only US abstent syndicate against Iran but also against Hezbollah, against Yemen, against the militias in Iraq, against the axis of of of resistance. Number two, an in-depth discussion about a new uh jeridical setup for the straight of Hormuz and only then in the third stage in the third uh stage number three uh a discussion about the Iranian nuclear dosier. It's obvious that Trump would uh reject the whole thing. First of all, if uh if you go straight to number one, that's the graphic proof of the American strategic defeat. And number two, straight of Hormuz, the Americans have zero cards to play unless keep this uh erat blockade indefinitely. And the only thing that register in Trump's mind is he wants a new nuclear deal which whatever happens in the short term, middle term etc is going to be a sort of diluted JCPOA is going to be what we had since 2015 discussed in Vienna then ratified by the UN security council which was stored up by Trump himself and we're going to have a JCPOA 2.0 which is not going to be much different. Then very very important Arshi went to not Moscow sorry to St. Petersburg where he talked not only to Lavrov but he was received personally by the president of Russian Federation for one hour and a half. That in itself is Milky Way spectacular. Trump never Putin never gives heads of state more than half an hour, , , one hour and a half to a foreign minister which tells us leaks aside because he only leaked what was uh the most obvious part. That was a very very serious discussion. so serious that Putin called Trump after that and that also lasted over one hour and a half apparent over one hour and a half. So Putin was basically telling Trump what he discussed with Ara in St. Pete and um what we got from the official Kremling transcript from St. Pete was already quite something everything in terms of Russia basically saying we are all in uh Putin demonstrating uh uh an enormous amount of respect towards Ayatava. He opened uh his uh speech to Arashi saying look last week I received a letter from your new supreme leader and I wish him all the best. you know all the typical protocol or stuff but way beyond that what does that mean that they are talking at the ultra highest level and of course this is deeply uh appreciated by the Iranians and this proves that Putin is is like totally in the game. Russia has skin in the game and now this is made uh public directly by Putin's words and not only his words but his actions immediately after that which is to call Trump for a long long discussion where among other things he said that this has to be resolved diplomatically that uh Trump going back to war is going to be unacceptable not only for Iran but obviously because it will involve the other Persian golf play the other Persian golf players the monarchies. Did Trump register did did he understood the memo? Apparently not. Once again, after this phone call, he was briefed by the joint chiefs and by the the head of Sandcom with the final blow possibilities, which are all of them absolutely horrendous, including attacks on Iranian civilian infrastructure. And of course, they could try another decapitation strike. 9 minutesAnd of course the wet dream of sending Delta forces or whatever to capture uh the uranium that they don't even know if it's in Isfahan anymore and it's not. Most of the Iranian is out of is is Fahaman and is now in smaller packages and it's a little bit everywhere and nobody knows where where it is exactly. And of course today Trump said uh I I I I reject the new Iranian offer and he's trying to pose like he is in charge and he has cards to play. He has zero cards to play apart from this erat blockade which may have uh one of two Hollywoodish Netflix productions of you know the Marines jumping on board a tanker here and there but that's it. Most tankers are going back and forth dribbling football style. the American block. The Americans cannot locate a it's it's ridiculous. From the southern Indian Ocean to the Arabian Sea, it's like 1,000 kilometers. This is completely absurd because obviously cowards cannot be in the Sea of Oman, much less in the Persian Gulf. So yeah, so you have tankers dribbling it and the Iranians are masters of dribbling sanctions, blockades, harassment, maximum pressure, you know that they have PhDs on that, you know. So that's it. And Pakistan early this week, they opened six overland corridors. So uh people tend to forget and just look at the map. What is the the the the shortest way between Iran and China? What is it? What's in the middle? Pakistan with excellent relations to both. So obviously everything that Iran needs to do the back and forth via Pakistan and it's an even uh oil if it's transported via highways lesser quantities but can also be done. Same thing in the China Iran railway. They can transport some oil via the China Iran railway across Medistan, then Kygystan, Kazakhstan going to Sing Jang and Exactly. And this is less than uh the maritime um uh corridor. So obviously these people in Washington, they are not very familiar with maps of Eurasia. They they simply don't understand all those stands over there. It's too complicated for them. But the people who actually live in Eurasia and have been trading among themselves for at least 2,500 years, they know it very well and they know all the corridors, ancient corridors, new corridors, overland corridors. So it's not that is uh uh uh reigning anymore especially with this uh once again apparently there is a blockade but nobody knows how how this blockade is actually being enforced and where nobody even knows where these bloody destroyers are far away in the southern Indian Ocean. So maybe maybe some of them are in near Sri Lanka. They they in fact they boarded a tanker not far from Sri Lanka by the way and another one not far from um Southeast Asia from the street of Mala. So that's it. These are Trump's cards. But it's dangerous. It's always very very dangerous uh Denny because uh considering the volatility of uh the man in question, considering how much pressure he's under, considering that deep down in his psyche, he knows that he [ __ ] up and there's no way back. Yeah, we are still hostages of his uh uh volatility and that's what makes it so dangerous. Please go ahead. No, I mean I I think those are all great points and to this point about the blockade, I don't know if you saw this from uh uh Mr. Galibbah the uh you know speaker of the Islamic the parliament in Iran, but also he's like the head negotiator. But just this response about Iran's massive borders. I mean, when you total the length of the entirety of the United States, east to west, you're still a thousand kilometers short of Iran's total borders. And of course, this is great for Pete. You know, this is he has to explain to Hex that kilometers. What's a kilometer? But again, that just speaks to uh and then it just speaks to Iran's mentality here, though. It seems like Iran is exercising a vast amount of strategic patience and is not letting up at all on its core demands. uh despite the fact that as you said, I'm not going to play the video because it's on the outside of the Air Force One and incredibly noisy, but uh he Trump just said, as you said, the volatility here, uh that the the briefing with Sentcom was to go over options to blast the hell out of Iran and finish them forever. And that's that's the narrative right now despite massive increases in the oil prices and a lot of anxiety about what targeting of oil infrastructure in Iran would mean for the entire region. But uh uh you know maybe you can talk about two these bigger moves. I know you wrote a couple of pieces recently. uh one the UAE has left uh uh OPEC and uh you know and uh there's of course this kind of like chokepoint politics happening where the US is so obviously desperate about Iran's control of the straight of Hormuz but the way they're behaving is they're it seems like they're trying to choke 15 minutesoff uh as much of global trade as possible that goes through not just the straight of Hormuz but the entirety of these waterways that are so critical that I know you follow. Uh so maybe you can talk about this as part of this war. Uh Scott Besson is saying this blockade will last until February 27th conditions exist which seem to never seem to be uh quite a fantasy that's never going to happen again. But you're this this idiot has never been to Iran. He has never been to Eurasia. doesn't know [ __ ] about how Eurasia works or the Iran as the crossroads of Eurasia. These people have no idea about that. Well, uh the great uh let's say the great American blockade uh project. This is how I defined it. It started it was very very simple. Venezuela. But basically what they were doing in Venezuela, they were shooting boats of field of fishermen. That that was the American blockade. But it worked because of uh everything that was already rotten in Karacas. So the next step is was the big test straight of Hormuz for this great blockade project. It's essential for the West to control Hormus because essentially it would control Iranian exports via Hormuz, not so much uh the other Persian Gulf monarchies, but Iran's exports by passing the petro dollar. and later. Obviously, as we can see by ourselves right now, this is going terribly wrong from an American imperial talisoccratic point of view. The next step will be Malaa and that's where it gets even more complicated because the blockade project is Iran but most of all China. in the minds of the conceptualizers of this blockade and we can certainly uh stress that the Elbridge KBY is the brains behind the concept it's to blockade uh supply lines energy supply lines to China obviously these people don't look at what's going on over land zillions of examples Power of Siberia 1 and soon power of Siberia 2. The gas pipeline from Turk Manistan to Sing Jang. Uh Kazakhstan oil pipelines from Kazakhstan to Singh Jan. Myamar h gas pipeline from Myamar to Yunan province in southern China and all that. So that the zillions of of possibilities and for the Chinese so far before the blockade there was no problem for uh tankers uh leaving from Iran and going uh to China. the blockade. The Americans don't have the cojones to blockade a Chinese tanker in the Arabian Sea in the southern India. Well, first of all, they will never go to the southern let's say in the Arabian Sea for for that. They they will never do that. They they don't have the guts to do that. What they were trying is to blockade Iranian ships. Iranian ships, they among other uh dribbling strategies, they can navigate very close to the Iranian uh in Iranian territorial waters within the 12 uh nautical mile limit. Then same thing in the Pakistani uh territorial waters all the way to Mumbai. So this is one of the things they they are doing. The number of uh Iranian tankers that were not seized but rerouted. Let's put it this way. It's nobody knows for sure. We cannot trust anything that Sencom says by the way. So uh this blockade uh works uh uh as a Netflix fantasy. Yes, definitely. But in real life is a completely different story. And obviously Iran overland, they don't care. And of of course they can even use the Caspian later on if that's the case. Uh with a little bit of infrastructure adjustment, they could use their Caspian ports. Uh going for instance to uh Turkmanbashi in Turk Manistan and then connecting with uh Central Asia, the rest of Central Asia. So uh the the let's say the big picture of controlling this checkpoints is there but the Americans don't have the means to implement it because the all of that presupposed their control in the straight over that's why now this is an obsession for the whole industrial military complex and also for Trump even though for Trump the number one obsession is the nuclear deal which he tore up originally. So, uh that's why he keeps rejecting everything because if we look again at this three stage Iranian proposal which probably the last redaction is quite similar to because they are basically refining what started with the 10 points to these three top points which are already included in the original 10 points. uh they know that sanctions relief uh this is a com we can you they can only discuss that if there is an end to the war. So you know there the logical person thinking about the whole thing is extremely logical but obviously for Trump is illogical by definition obviously he has to refuse it right but the thing is can the Americans sustain this non-blocade blockade for another let's say a month this will collapse the global economy even more than it's already collapsing the global economy. So, we're going to have a global revolt against the thing sooner rather than later, right? And of course, the rest of the world will personally blame Trump for this global economy crisis and for basically detonating famine in absolutely crazy proportions, a little bit everywhere. And there's already a list of very fragile countries that includes Yemen, uh Egypt, Bangladesh, uh Somalia, Sudan, and many others. And of course, uh the Iranians, they have been telegraphing, faxing, sending emails for the whole planet over and over again. Look, we're not going to flinch. That's it. We go till the end and they want to restart the war against us. No problem. Our response now is going to be much much worse than it was before. Right? So we go back to zoom zoo zwang all the time. Right. Danny, anything he does, he's still trapped. And even if which we know it's not going to happen, even if he declares a mission accomplished, we won. I'm leaving. This means uh de facto accepting a monster strategic defeat with uh global consequences. We cannot even imagine, right? So he cannot leave. He needs an offramp that he can sell as a victory. All the offramps spell out defeat. All of them with no exception. Even if he bombs Iran to the what what was it? uh stone ages as he say ages stone ages even if he bombs he run to the stone ages is not going to change anything and of course and this uh they have to keep saying it over and over again everybody our friend professor Marandi uh members of parliament uh people linked to the IRGC some of the best independent Iranian analysts everybody saying the same saying look if we're attacked again just wait we'll We already have our target list and it's going to be a hardcore and it will include US vessels. So it takes one missile sinking an American aircraft carrier. Very very simple scenario. Wow. Oh, has a storm come for you? This is the weather here in in in the undermanc comment our podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's that's incredible actually. Yeah. You are describing a storm indeed. And here it is. So this this is the storm guys. So, uh, how can you possibly sell what already started as a strategic defeat because of a single fateful decision by a completely unprepared president controlled by the usual suspects? We all know who they are. How can you backtrack from that? And how can you possibly spin that into a victory? It's it's it's absolutely impossible. So So no wonder uh anything that he says, of course, the only thing that he's very very good at is to control the new cycle. He opens his mouth, he says something absolutely stupid, monopolizes the new cycle all over the planet. But uh uh is this going somewhere? Of course not. And then you compare with the extremely measured now it's it's great because the the Iranians uh discover the power of soft power in fact and of course when we we have some of their tweets are absolutely you know hilarious. Not to mention uh the Lego angle. They conquered the whole planet with their Lego videos. So they are winning the soft power war as well which until a few days ago we saw was an American monopoly forever. Not anymore. So so what's left for even after he listens to Putin for one hour and a half. This means that Putin probably outline in minute detail the consequences of doing something stupid like uh restarting uh the war. Still it doesn't register. So that's where we are. We are in the middle of a very dangerous uh strategic impa uh strategic impass uh Danny and all of you. And there is no way out unless the president of the United States would start thinking in 27 minutesrealistic terms. And we know all of us we know that it's absolutely impossible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, great points, Pepe. And, you know, for the Trump administration, it seems, uh, there no matter what which of these options is chosen in terms of a quote unquote offramp for it, you said it it is no matter what, it'll be a defeat for the United States. Um, and if we if we just look at all of those options, they all have to take into consideration Iran. The United States would rather behave in a vacuum and do whatever the hell it wants, even if it means uh uh, you know, walking away from a war. But, uh, no matter what, the United States has to address Iran. It has to address these core demands because it seems to me that Iran is not just going if if the United States declares it's over tomorrow, but there's still a blockade. Iran is still going to respond. Iran isn't going to give up anything and Iran is still going to put pressure to ensure that it gets uh uh what it wants. And I think that's that's kind of a historically um unfamiliar place for the US to be in in such so so direct in such a direct manner in a war that it started. Uh now it has to face this reality of uh it is the one that's replying. Even if Trump says, "Oh, we'll finish them off. We have these finishing blows. I'm not satisfied with the proposals, the demands." It's still Iran that's the one saying, "This is what we want. What's your response to this?" rather than the other way around. Uh the Iran isn't really listening to the maximalist demands that the US is putting out there. That's why this is uh I'm coming back with my initial point uh not 60 days ago maybe uh 40 days ago already. It's the war that defines the 21st century uh geopolitically. Whatever happens and we are already seeing the emergence of not yet a force power as uh professor Pape has been saying no and we're not there yet but a very very strong middle power that is capable of staring down one of the three top powers in the This is already wow the consequences will be we'll will feel the consequences for not not only for the rest of this century but beyond uh Iran is now at the center of geopolitics and the whole planet especially the whole global south is paying attention uh learning their lessons. Uh people are amazed at how a country under 47 years of sanctions which has been deliberately impoverished by the Americans all this time but manage to organize themselves against of odds to exercise uh their independence, their sovereignty and especially militarily to absorb everything that was thrown Against that it is immensely impressive and everything made in Iran which makes it even more impressive. Everything is indigenous. So uh yes, yeah, yesterday I was looking at photos of Saigon in 1975 and yes, you look at those Vietnamese in Saigon in 1975 and say, "Yeah, now you have your brothers, the Iranas in 2026." It's the same spirit, resistance, sovereignty, and against all odds, you go to the end. uh the empire is not capable of doing that. And now even worse and now they lost the war in record time. Literally they lost this war in the let's say in the first 10 days it was we could see that it was already lost and that they will never uh uh reach those uh lofty objectives targets whatever. So as so this is an unmanageable by definition and and there is a a a a parallel a mirror image of the Ukraine story. The difference now is that Trump uh inherited the Ukrainian debacle. So in the in the Ukraine story, 32 minutesTrump has to manage the strategic defeat even though he did not cause it. Now it's even worse. He has to manage a strategic defeat that he provoked. He he doesn't have the intellectual capability to deal with that. Absolutely impossible. When you look at his uh uh previous history, when you look at how he deals with adversity, when he looks at when we look at his uh mafio Tony Soprano mindset, it's absolutely impossible. And on top of it, he's not the main player. He's just an actor. The people who are behind, the people who are really responsible for the war, that's it. They they also never had a plan B. So they cannot blame Trump. Trump can blame somebody in his team, a very mediocre team, but the people who run 33 minutesthe show are going to blame him. And he knows it. and that adds to his desperation because there won't be anybody to save him in the end. So uh there is an element of Shakespearean tragedy in all that even though obviously apply Shakespeare to Trump is a stretch of the imagination but uh but we can have a glimpse of how desperate he is at the moment. Yeah. And it seems to all boil down to uh Pepe, you know, I don't know if you saw it, but CNN actually better late than ever uh published this investigation of what happened to the US military sites. It's all coming out. It's all coming out. 16 of them were damaged, including highv value targets. And in this investigation work I play because it is quite long but uh they find out that almost all of these sites have either been damaged vitally or unusable. So, uh, that is, I think, uh, uh, at the bottom of all of this is this acknowledgement that no matter what the United States does, Iran can continue to do this, which will, uh, push the, uh, global economic uh, uh, overheating that's occurring to uh, an even uh, higher boiling point. Um, and you know, Pepe, you wrote an article recently about uh the UAE leaving the GC, not the GCC, uh, the OPEC, and I'm curious on the GC as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe you call it the uh creating an Arab Israel. And uh it it you know, at this point, it seems like the consequences of the war, the US and Israeli war in Iran are are just are so far reaching that it's it's even impacting uh the future of these uh Gulf vessel states. So maybe you can comment on this because it seems like the [ __ ] is is rolling downhill. Um even if this move is being portrayed I think by the United States as a uh almost like a checkmate uh that is going to help oil prices but it's deeper than that. Maybe you can talk about this. Much deeper. Well the whole thing in the GCC is collapsing Danny. Well the GCC is already uh I would say irreparably split. Uh Kather and Oman are being are playing real politic especially Oman and Oman you know they have a very nice diplomatic core uh they are very discreet uh not flashy like the the Emirates for instance and of course they they're they're talking to Iran from the beginning Qatar for the moment they are also in the background but they know that they need a working relationship with Iran. Saudi Arabia is uh it's complicated but at least they are in the camp that is trying to find uh some sort of agreement. It's important because they were uh me a member of those four Sunnis that first met in Islamabad in the beginning of all this uh uh let's say the Islamabad Kabuki the extended Islamabad Kabuki the first meeting was Egypt Turkey Saudi Arabia and Pakistan so from the beginning they were trying to find some sort of uh of course they deferred to Pakistan as the top mediator haters, but they were on the table. It's important. Guess who was not on the table? The Emirates. And when we say Emirates, we need to make a distinction. This is not the seven Emirates. This is basically Abu Dhabi, Dubai. The other ones, they don't we we have nothing to do with whatever you're doing in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. So it no wonder we already have circulating the possibility of the Republic of Sharah springing up one of these days. Fascinating story. Um MBZ MBZ. Okay, let's go straight to the point. He's a bloody gangster. Extremely dangerous, opportunistic. uh people who know him close say wow if you think that uh MBS is a a rotten apple and by the way in the beginning MBZ was the mentor of MBS so extremely dangerous character he made his bet even before the war he made his bet with the Abraham Accords and even before the war he made his bet that he was going to align the Emirates with US and Israel and of course part of IMAC which as it stands now is dead for all practical 38 minutespurposes and once again we have to remind all of you I'm sure most of you know about it IMAC is not uh India Middle East corridor it's a misnomer it's Israel center on the part of Hifa Saudi Arabia the Emirates Europe India corridor because the idea the central idea of IMAC is to make Israel the key trading hub connected to two Arab nations and then connect to Europe and Indian markets for as it stand this thing is dead it's very very hard to recover later on uh and then we enter into the big clash between Riyad and Abu Dhabi, the competition between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Now, in terms of how to deal with Iran, this is graphic in front of everybody to see. Saudi Arabia is trying some sort of arrangement, some sort of composition, uh even diplomatic. and the UAE for all practical purposes they are at war against Iran and Thran knows it and there will be blood there will be a response. The Iranians know exactly what the UAE did in terms of facilitating or even unleashing attacks on Iran from UAE soil. So there will be a response. So what MBZ's uh master plan? Okay, I need to sell as much oil as I can. If he's inside OPAC, he needs to respect the quotas. So far, the quot for the UAE was a little over 3 million, 3.4 million max. They built capacity to export 5 million barrels a day. How can they do that inside OPEC? They can't. So, bye-bye OPEC. Bye-bye OPEC plus. So they can sell as much oil as they want and as their Asian customers especially want. Three top customers of UAE are China, Japan and India. So they can sell as much as China, Japan and India want. Trump loves it because this will uh oil prices will theoretically go down. But the problem is Iran will look at that and said, "Look, uh, no, you're not get away so easy like that. You still we still owe you a response for what you did to us during the war. This means Fuja, the oil terminal of the UAE, is not going to be safe anytime soon. And it just takes, you know, a little flash for the Iranians to bomb Fuja for in MBZ's plans collapse completely. Of course, uh on top of that, the conceptual approach of MBZ, he aligned himself with the US and Israel because he wants to turn the UAE into a sort of Arab Israel. And that's when it's going to be analyzed in detail by the other GCC members and the BRICS members because once again everybody don't forget the UAE is a full member of bricks. So MBZ I'm not sure who's been advising him but uh wow this is going nowhere. It's a an extremely risky bet with no guarantee that it's going to work at any level uh in terms of energy markets, geopolitically of of course geoeconomically, militarily, you name it. Not to mention that the GCC and uh the bricks when they look at that. Wow. So that's why we can even uh u consider the possibility that sooner or later they're going to leave the Arab League and the GCC as well. After all, it's uh Arab Israel. What the hell they have they're going to do at the inside the GCC or inside the Arab League. Very, very dangerous. So the Iranians are looking on that for the not doing anything. It's fascinating. The Iranian silence on the UAE for the moment is fascinating because depending on what happens next, there will be something and of course one of the reasons that uh an extra reason that MBZ made his risky bet is that from the beginning he was saying we are not going to pay the toll in the straight of our moose And closing it all up, uh, Danny, the big big thing, he made his bet that he's going to stay with the petro dollar. And that's why Trump loves the move. Yeah. So, he's not he's betting on the petro dollar. And at the moment, to bet on the petro dollar is not exactly a long-term view. No. No. I I I mean it it seems like the the UAE is following a potential pattern for the rest of the uh I guess the Gulf vassel states, which is to despite the obvious unfavorable position of the United States in this war uh to kind of form a circle around the United States and and become even more ingratiated than even uh they were before. and and that that that is a risky a very risky gamble since it seems to be their behinds that are going to be the ones that are uh uh you know that pay the biggest price. Uh if and we know it's not even an if it's when the United States and Israel want to engage in more hostilities, more acts of aggression against Iran, right? I mean that's what it seems like. It's it's very curious decision, right? Uh Danny. Yeah. Yeah. Anything any anything is possible. Exactly. We're not startled by anything anymore. Could even be this weekend. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that gets that begs the question, Pepe. You know, a lot of people are concerned about uh the position of of China, the position of Asia uh in the multipolar world out of all of this. Uh uh what's your view right now on that? Uh it appears there is no panic coming from any I was just in China. There certainly is no panic coming out of China is any panic panic in China is I'll be going next fine I made up my mind I want to go before Trump arrives in Beijing uh from what I've been reading and talking uh to people before I go same thing they're not panicking they're just observing it's the Chinese way of course now uh it's careful considerations here and there. Uh nothing, no abs language absurdities, you name it, you know, very composed. But of course uh they are paying a lot of attention to individual mo moves of their Persian Gulf suppliers and that means Saudi and UAE especially and of course with Iran there's no problem because even before when when the IRGC navy were they were collecting 46 minutesthe toll booths in krypto or in yan no problem the Chinese they had free passes and they will always have free passage. By the way, the Russians as well, the Iranians said, I think yesterday that Russian ships, they don't need to pay any fees whatsoever. So, uh countries, country by country, they are already negotiating with Iran. That's the same. The jeridical status of the straight of Hormuz is going to be something completely different. And nobody is complaining. They will adapt and the toll boos in real no problem. Everybody will adapt and of course maybe a lot of them will the the second option will be E1 obviously and of course the Iranians will accept it. Yeah. So none of that can be changed by the US. None of it. None of it. it we are already in a different system completely different not to mention now that Iran is well but in in a geopolitical global terms wow now Iran is respected as a major power by everybody the eur the Europeans are already starting individual European nations are ready to okay how are we going to deal with that you know not Brussels Bruss Brussels is lost. That that thing is uh you cannot even qualify it how stupid it is. But individual nations in Europe that we're going to have to do our own deals. So obviously we're going to have individual European nations negotiating the passage of their tankers uh with the with the Iranian government. Of course. Of course. Yeah. And I don't know, you've probably noticed, Pepe, that uh the United States, Donald Trump is continuing despite the uh perhaps uh the need to close ranks, build support for the war. Uh he is uh very uh keen on uh kind of bludgeoning Europe uh and beating over so-called European allies which have not been so useful uh in the war on Iran. So now there's of course Germany, Italy, uh these countries uh threatening to pull troops. It's like okay, but I'm I'm curious on your it's like all right, I'm you know, but but of course you know how the uh oligarchy how the uh you know the the elites how they view it is this is a big tragedy, right? There's a huge uh problem here. But what's your view on this? because it seems like there is at least some uh constrnation, anger by uh the United States and Trump administration over the fact that uh Europe doesn't really have I mean you talk the US has no cards to play. Uh uh Europe is running in the negative and certainly cannot afford to it can't 49 minutesafford to lose anything else. I mean it already know what a card means in Europe. Cards what's that? If they lose any access to these waterways, if they're blockade, you know, if they're blockaded because of blockades, I mean, it's a complete disaster for it already is. I mean, we know that uh uh the European economies are being hit pretty hard by what's going on. So, your thoughts on this position of Europe and Trump? And you have those abs, those intergalactic uh idiots in Brussels still talking about sanctions on Iran. Can you believe this? Well, uh, anything that Europe does or doesn't, uh, it's their zoo, but their zuk zang is different. Their zuk zang is the stupidity zoom zang, but every move they they make is by definition stupid. And of course, uh, knives on their collective backs, right? So we what we're going to see from now on is more and more uh national individual nations uh initiatives which goes in parallel to the progressive collapse of not only the EU but also NATO. They are on go going to the you know plunging into the dark pit in parallel inevitably. Um what it depends on countries that have a strong dependence of imported energy. They are in dire straits. Some are slightly better in the case of France for instance because they still have uh nuclear energy and they have a gas deal with Algeria which is not so bad. But Germany, wow, absolute disaster. And of course uh even if the opposition says look we 51 minutesneed to start talking with the Russians again as it stands with the current uh discombobulated sausage as uh prime minister. Nothing's going to happen. And Brussels forget it. Brussels Brussels forget it. Brussels they they would impose sanctions on both uh Iran and Russia till the end of time by the way the the storm here comment of the storm here is fant they are they are deep into our conversation then no totally yeah no I mean it is uh I I I love it I love uh the uh the background noise it's very um it's very apt I think for uh going on here Well, I guess finally in the last uh five or uh or so we have here Pepe. I wanted to ask you about this development which I know you've been writing about. Uh I know you've been uh uh talking about Indonesia in particular. There's a lot of I think ripple effects from this war. Uh but one appears to be of course uh even despite the US doing its best to bludgeon countries uh over the head, Asia, Europe, everywhere uh to pull away from China, uh countries like Indonesia are playing a very delicate game and there was a big the big news that they have fully linked their QR payment systems uh together which is big because these two countries are are very big trade partners and have actually achieved quite a lot in recent years. Uh but I'm curious on what your thoughts are on this. This whole war has really put up the question of what is the future actually of the petro dollar of the US dollar and of the international financial system dominated by the United States and uh we just it seems like we're seeing move after move uh away from it uh despite the threats that exist from this uh war. So your thoughts on on this uh development here is this post that uh this is excellent because it goes straight to the point for uh most people traveling across Asia mostly businessmen but also tourists they uh they can use Alipe virtually everywhere now which was not the case until I would say two years ago. uh the real boom of Alip pay all across Asia started last year and Union Pay as well. So uh a lot of people across Asia now they have they don't have a Mastercard or a Visa card. They have a Union Pay card and this is something well I saw this from the beginning and uh I never cease to be amazed how Union Pay they basically conquered the Asian market. Okay, it took a while 2012. Okay, 14 years but uh in retrospect 14 years is not much. In the beginning they had nothing. For instance, when I was in Hong Kong, uh uh okay, I I dealt with HSBC. One day they gave me a Union Pay card and I arrived in Europe and I couldn't use it. There was only one bank in France that accepted Union Pay. So, so I came back to Hong Kong. I went to talk to the guys. I said, "Guys, what is that?" They said, "Well, why why why don't you tell us, your customers, that you give us a Union Pay card and not a Visa or a Mastercard?" They said, "Yes, because um they made a mega offer to us." They said, "We give you anything you want. you. HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, if you start switching from Visa and Mastercard to our card, 55 minutesHSBC obviously because they probably got a mega bonus for that. They start doing that in 2012, 13, 14. Now in Europe, everywhere you go, you can also use Union Pay. So Visa and Mastercard are being expelled from the market little by and across Asia everybody is using uh QR codes from their banks once again bypassing completely uh the American system. That's the future and this is the future that the Chinese are also implementing with their payment system sips the Chinese international payment system. the the Russian SPFs, the Iranians, they have their system as well. So soon they're going to coordinate all these payment systems, especially the three big ones, China, Russia, and Iran. And that's it. You don't need to go through the American control system anymore. That's it. In the case of Russia and Iran, they have deep experience because they're are they're ultra sanctioned. Uh in the case of China, it's complicated because uh the Chinese are always afraid of secondary uh sanctions. But if you're using uh the Chinese international payment system, no problem. And of course, if you use Union Pay, it's a Chinese bank. It says Chinese credit uh facilitating credit mechanism completely outside of the the western system. So no wonder it's a it's a huge hit here all all across everywhere around here. Uh now here in Thailand you can you can you can go to a stall in the street and you can you can use union pay or alipe literally everywhere. It's something that was not happening until two years ago. Now, now it's lightning speed, you know. That's it. This is so the Iranians when they look around there there are many many options and and of course the Russians as well because the Russians when they were expelled from Swift they had to start from scratch. So obviously they asked they asked the Iranians okay h how have you been dealing under sanctions for so long? So they learn a few lessons from the Iranians as well. Yeah. And of course uh Russia is a very complicated case. For instance, I I go to Russia a lot. Uh what I do in Russia cannot do outside of Russia because it's of course we you you cannot use Swift or the American system. And even a mega bank in Russia like Spare is one of the biggest banks in the world. You cannot 58 minutesuse your mirror card anywhere because of the American system. So that's why they are all work. Okay, let's which is something that they have to do inside bricks. It's one of the first things that bricks should do. introduce the famous bricks pay bricks card whatever for the moment it's complicated because it takes a long time testing and very complicated Danny most of these nations they are still connected to the American system right so try to explain to the Indians that from now on we going to use the bricks uh system of payment very complicated. The UAE, for instance, the UAE is going to be impossible. They're going to have to be thrown out of bricks eventually, you know. Because after all, they are linked with Israel and the US. Yeah. Yeah. Moving very fast. This internationalization alternative payment system, it's absolutely inevitable and there's absolutely nothing the Americans can do about it. No. Yeah. Uh this is the future and of course Iran there was reports that Iran I know there were early reports about in the straight of Hormuz the toll system uh settling that in Chinese UN but now it seems like there's reports Iran settling their own currency which is a very interesting development. It it conforms to what you just said in terms of Iran, Russia, and China spearheading. It strengthened their currency which was attacked directly by the Americans early this year uh late last year and early this year. Um good thing for them and of course the UN is going to be uh the backup currency. There's no question about that. But they need to promote their own currency. Of course. Yep. Yeah, definitely. Well, this has been a great conversation. Pepe, how about we do this? Everybody, uh, be sure to hit the like button, but I have both of Pepe's articles that we spoke on today in the video description below, as well as, uh, his Telegram and X accounts. Um, I want to thank everyone who watched. I want to thank the new members here. And Pepe, do you have any uh anything else you want to announce or or say before we head out of here? Thank you. Uh, well, I'll be here for another week and then I'm going to China before Trump arrives in Beijing. So maybe we should have a conversation after uh Trump's trip to China. This is going to be quite something. Wow. Yeah, it will be quite something. Uh and I and I think what's quite something about it too is uh what is the status of this war on Iran because that's going to be a huge influence on we already know what China is aiming at here. They've talked about Taiwan. They're already signaling that Taiwan is going to be a major uh point for them to emphasize. But if the war on Iran is either back on or unsettled, it's going to be make it's going to make it's going to make this visit I think uh very very interesting, very targeted and and potentially. Well, the Chinese have no illusions. They're not expecting much from this. You you talked to our great friend, Professor Jang Wei. Yeah. Did he talk to you about the war in Iraq? Yeah. Yeah, that was mainly the topic you know and his view was uh you know the civilizational perspective of course where he always comes at but uh everything we've been saying here he I mean he views it as a massive uh defeat for the United States and that if it doesn't get its act together it's only going to get worse and worse and worse leading to of course um you know the the world especially the important players like China uh moving on ahead and uh saying goodbye to the United States. In a lot of ways, I that seemed to be his view is like the world is is looking at the US with you know uh a kind of death wish that it has and and view it what what to do about that from here and everyone of course has different it's good because he knows the west well. He travels to the west a lot. Absolutely. There are not many ultra highlevel Chinese scholars that know the west well. He's one of the few. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And everyone can catch that. Uh the interview is up still. Uh it was live which was great. Uh so be sure to check that out. Um but yeah, Pepe. Okay, we'll head out of here then. Hit the like button everybody. Uh that will spread the show around. Uh Pepe's uh where you can find him and his articles are both in the video description. Of course, all the places to support this channel are there. Thanks to all the viewers, moderators, everybody who came out today. And I'll be back again soon. And I'll let you know when. Bye-bye.
Late Show Home Shopping with Jon Stewart The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Apr 23, 2026
Stephen Colbert is joined by his longtime friend and "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart to announce a HUGE drop of memorabilia for The Late Show's charity auction. Visit http://colbertlateshow.com/ebay to bid on these one-of-a-kind items and grab a "The Last Show" t-shirt while you're at it! All profits go directly to World Central Kitchen.
Transcript
Welcome back everybody. Give it up for Louisis Ko and the great big joy machine. [cheering] There you go [applause] folks. In case in case you're not aware, the network has canled the show. And um and of course that boo is just our audience honoring CBS's hit show Ghosts. Boo. The motto is Boo, right? It's Boo. So, we're going to have to leave the beautiful Ed Sullivan Theater and more importantly, all the beautiful stuff in it, which legally is property of the network. But they're not really paying attention to us at this point. So, instead, we're harnessing the power and style of home shopping to sell it all and donate the proceeds to charity. This is Late Show Home Shopping canceled clearance sale. Bye-bye. Bye. [cheering] [music] [applause] [applause and cheering] 1 minuteWelcome to the shop. Tonight we are selling items that will make your friends say wow and your accountant say why. Everything you see here plus more is up for auction on our website colbearlatehow.com/ebay or use this QR code. QR codes you know their slogan. The thing that makes your dad say, "Can I please just get a real menu?" Go bid on these items, folks, because all the proceeds will go to the charity of my choice, which is Joseé Andre's World Central Kitchen. Joining me [applause and cheering] joining me tonight as always, please welcome my co-host, John Stewart. [cheering] Baby, can you see? Oh my goodness. [cheering] Look at that. Please, [applause] please have a seat. John, thanks so much for being here. 2 minutesAlways, Stephen. I came as soon as I heard about your cancellation. [laughter] That happened nine months ago, John. Uh, what day of the week was it? Uh, it was on a Thursday. Ah, I only pay attention to news on Mondays. My mistake. Now, let's sell some great items for a great cause. Let's do it. First up is a beautiful piece of decor. It's the red carpet our guests walk on to enter the Late Show stage. Yes. Before our guests can enter. Before our guests can enter, they first have to walk down this carpet and stand on the little gold star at the [music] end, waiting for Steven to call their name. It's all part of the sick head games he plays to make himself feel important. Busted. This [laughter] gorgeous carpet has welcomed countless guests to the Late Show like presidential candidates, American icons, and the crew of trained cats called the amazing Acroats, [cheering] which means you're going to want to clean it because the Acroats also sprinkled some Acrope. Now, John, what would you pay for an incredible item like this? What would I pay? I mean, it's a I mean, with the cats and all I'm going to say 40 to $50 million. I'm That's what I would pay. Great guest, John. But as always, wrong. In order in honor or in order of my favorite guest that I've ever had on the show, we are starting the bidding at just 50. Well, to make this red carpet even better, I'm going [music] to be throwing in my own celebrity rug. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, [cheering] you can get That's right, my [applause] You can get the wig I wore during the first season of the Daily Show. And as you can tell from looking at it, time is a mother. Yes. [applause] A cruel, cruel mistress. It really is just the worst. Up next, we have an item so rare, basically, no one even knew it existed. You can put the head away. All right. No one knew it existed until this very moment. It is a prop certificate I had made for a joke when I hosted the 2006 White House correspondent dinner 20 years ago this month. Four years ago this month, [applause] it was part of the only joke, and this is true, the only joke I cut on the fly while I was up at the podium. You see, George W. Bush had just given out a lot of medals of freedom to a bunch of the staff who [music] were overseeing Iraq and it wasn't going well. And I mentioned that he gives out these medals of freedom like candy, but nobody gives him [music] anything. And that ended tonight. So I was going to give him the highest honor a citizen can give a president this certificate of presidency that reads from Steven Colbear to George W. Bush in recognition that you are president of the United States. I even signed it, dated [applause] it. There you go. Fantastic gift. [applause] My My plan was to hand this to George W. Bush and say, "Why don't you give this to your mom? She could put on the refrigerator or something." Oh, that's such a such a lovely gesture. [music] I I can't remember. Why didn't you do that? Well, John, I'm not sure if you are familiar with that speech, but by the end, the vibes were a little tense. So, [laughter] I decided to not do that joke, which means I still have this item, and it's now perfect for anyone out there who was a fan of my 2006 correspondents in her speech or of George W. Bush or somehow of both rare group. That's a ven diale. You know what? That is gorgeous. And to make this even better, I'm going to throw in my own certificate. This [music] is very exciting news. I've never before given this for all the people who have mixed up my name over the years. It's a certificate that says I hereby declare that you are right. My name is actually John Dailyaly. Uh you were not wrong when you said it that way and it was not embarrassing at all. And that's signed John uh Stewart and and then of course uh Liwoods at the end which I dropped so that people don't know [music] I'm a Jew. [cheering] Wow. John, I had no idea. No one does. No one knew. They can't tell at all. I thought you were a defrocked priest. Son, I've seen that one. That is going to make someone very happy andor very confused. Last and also largest folks, we are selling off the giant sign from the top of our set that reads the Late Show with buy this and like me, you could have the Late Show hanging over your head for the rest of your life. And by the way, if that's not enough, I am also going to throw in, and this is very exciting news because it's a wonderful sign, a limited edition [music] Daily Show mug. Wow. That I have signed. Stephen, that's what that's what I'm generous. Wow. John, how much would you pay for all these incredible items together? And before you [music] answer, let me just take a sip of water. [laughter] [laughter] Yes. Oh, yeah. No, I was I was So, yeah. Well, you would get the giant sign, the standard size uh mug, uh which is I don't know, like 20 bucks [cheering and applause] here. Very hard not to. Very hard not to. I understand, John. There's no way. There's no way way we could start bidding that high. Well, Stephen, uh, what would you like to start the bidding at before you tell me? Do you mind if I take a sip of water? Not at all, John. John, you got the big sign, the Daily Show mug, and I will throw in the Late Show mug I just used for that spit take. And we are starting bidding at just $19.99. [laughter] [laughter] [cheering] If I may, uh, that is actually tremendous value. Thank you, John. To bid on these great items and more, head to colarlatehow.com/ebay, where you can also buy our commemorative The Last Show t-shirts. [cheering] [applause] What? What? There are Wait, what? [applause] There are [screaming] you what? There are t-shirts. Oh my god. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. [cheering] Yes, John. Yes, John. They're t-shirts [applause] and they're very absorbent. We'll be right back. Reporter. [cheering] [music] [cheering]
BIG ESCALATION: Putin ’STEPS IN', Orders Russian Warships To Escort Tankers As Tensions Boil? Times Of India May 2, 2026
The Baltic Sea is on the verge of a military escalation. Russia has warned that it is ready to deploy warships to escort its commercial fleet, responding to aggressive NATO insurance inspections and the new "Baltic Sentry" mission. With the Kremlin reflagging its "shadow fleet" to claim sovereign immunity and placing armed security on tankers, the "Gray Zone" conflict is turning white-hot. NATO warns that mixing warships with under-insured tankers is a recipe for a catastrophic clash or environmental disaster.
Transcript
Russia is now openly considering naval escorts for its commercial fleet in the Baltic Sea. A move that could sharply raise military visibility in one of Europe's most sensitive waterways. According to Russian officials, Moscow is weighing the deployment of warships to accompany Russian flagged merchant vessels amid what it describes as growing Western pressure and encroachments against its maritime activity. Artum Bulattov, ambassador at large for the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Sputnik that European Union and NATO are using the Baltic as a testing ground for unilateral mechanisms to control international navigation and target undesirable nations. Bullet emphasized that Moscow will use a full range of available means including legal, 1 minutepolitical, and military resources to ensure the unhindered movement of Russian flagged vessels. The warning follows a period of escalating maritime friction in Northern Europe. 12 European nations led by the UK and Germany began aggressive insurance inspections of the Shadow Fleet earlier this year. In March 2026, Swedish and Belgian forces executed high-profile boardings and detentions of vessels suspected of sanctions violations and espionage. Moscow has identified the recently launched NATO mission Baltic Century as a direct attempt to establish a blockade. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grusko stated the mission poses an existential threat to Russia's economic security. The Kremlin has already begun reflagging tankers to the Russian Registry to claim sovereign immunity and has reportedly placed armed mobile fire groups from the FSB linked Moran security group on certain high value tankers. The deployment of full naval convoys would mark a significant escalation in the grayzone conflict between Russia and the West. While Moscow maintains these escorts are purely defensive, NATO officials express concern that the presence of Russian warships alongside aging underinsured tankers increases the risk of a catastrophic environmental accident or a direct military clash. Europe is quietly building a new naval front and this time it's outside NATO. In a significant strategic shift, Britain and nine northern European allies are moving to create a multinational maritime force independent of NATO structures aimed at countering what London calls growing Russian activity in European waters. The announcement came from Admiral Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the first seaord and chief of the naval staff during a speech at the Royal United Services Institute where he confirmed that members of the Joint Expeditionary Force or Jeff signed a statement of intent last week to establish the new force. The force will be composed of member nations from the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force or Jeff, including the Netherlands, the Nordic nations, and the Baltic States. According to Jenkins, the initiative aims to achieve full operational integration by 2029, featuring real war plans to counter a surge in Russian maritime activity. The first sea lord claimed that Russian incursions into British and Allied waters have increased by nearly 30% over the last 2 years, warning that the intensification of surface and submarine deployments by Moscow remains the gravest threat to European security. Despite the ongoing focus on the conflict in the Middle East, Moscow has dismissed the formation of the maritime force as hysterical with Dmitri Medviev, deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, saying the Kremlin harbors no aggressive plans toward Western Europe. Medviev warned that the persistent rhetoric from London and Brussels regarding an inevitable war risks creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Russian officials have characterized the move as a domestic political distraction intended to justify the rearm initiative and record high military spending across the continent. Tensions in the English Channel and North Sea have reached a friction point following Prime Minister Kier Starer's March directive to potentially seize Russian oil tankers. In response, Moscow has deployed armed frigots to escort its energy exports through British waters. While the Guardian reports that nearly 100 tankers have passed unimpeded since the escort policy began, the new Jeff Naval Force will be commanded directly from London to provide a more agile, regionally focused response than the broader 32nation NATO alliance. By 2029, this integrated fleet will effectively place the naval assets of 10 nations under a singular London-based command for northern Atlantic operations, formalizing a northern European defense block capable of independent kinetic action.
[Robert Fico, Slovak Prime Minister] Everyone criticizes me beforehand, but when I returned from a meeting with Putin, everyone in the toilets in Brussels asks me what he said. such heroes. Why don't they go and communicate with him themselves? Then I categorically reject those narrow-minded ideological blinkers some insist on wearing. Anyone is welcome to come to me and explain why they believe I should not be meeting with President Putin. Regardless of that, I am going to meet with him.
[Robert Fico, Slovak Prime Minister] What is the answer to a potential NATO collapse? Because in reality, a total NATO collapse could very well happen. Let's not pretend that NATO is immutable or that we cannot easily foresee a situation where the alliance might cease to exist. What alternatives do we actually have? Currently, there are simply none. The only alternative is I don't want to burden you. Article 47 of the founding treaties which states that if one European Union member state is under an attack of aggression from another state, the other European Union member states should come to its aid. This all occurred during the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris when many European nations stepped forward to provide vital assistance to France. Those were the coordinated assaults on major department stores and various other public places. That is precisely why we really ought to initiate a serious discussion here in Slovakia regarding what this security is actually supposed to entail. We simply cannot ensure such security by ourselves. We are unable to secure it entirely on our own. We can only ever hope to be a part of something larger if we act collectively. Or perhaps is it then a fundamental question of our neutrality. To be honest, I really do not know. Over in Slovenia, the party that won the elections is now actively opening up the topic of a referendum on the neutrality of Slovenia itself. We are currently navigating through uncharted waters. So I would advise being extremely cautious about engaging with anything other than collective security at this moment. Maintaining collective security remains a matter of the utmost importance to us. Finally, we must consider the proper functioning of international organizations which are fundamentally designed to ensure lasting peace and stability throughout the world. What was the original purpose behind the creation of the United Nations in the first place? Well, it was primarily intended to guarantee global peace and deploy military force only when it was absolutely essential to preserve that stability. Honestly, the UN has become nothing more than a total pathetic joke in these modern days. Tell me, who was it that actually stopped the Americans in Iraq? Who was it that managed to stop Russia in Ukraine? Who was it that stopped the Americans in Iran? Who stopped the Americans in Venezuela? Just to give you a clear example. And I truly fear that other nations will follow, countries that are very, very much on the United States's map of strategic interests. And today I am speaking primarily about the case of Cuba and the diplomatic situation involving Denmark and Greenland is still far from being resolved. A scenario where the United States will likely continue to be actively asserting its own strategic interests. So here we find ourselves today. We are perceived as a sovereign state, a sovereign country. I believe we have successfully instilled in the public mind the idea of a sovereign foreign policy oriented towards all four corners of the globe. The west has run dry. Forgive me, it has run dry in terms of economic opportunities. We must look for economic opportunities elsewhere. That is why we are also looking to the south to Africa and we have visited several countries that is the reason why we have visited nations like Kazakhstan, Usbakistan and many others Azarbaian as well. We are actively searching for new opportunities. Vietnam, China and I believe that we are performing quite well across many different areas. Are we to persist with this specific policy moving forward? It is after all a completely sovereign and independent policy. I categorically reject those narrow-minded ideological blinkers some insist on wearing. Anyone is welcome to come to me and explain why they believe I should not be meeting with President Putin. Regardless of that, I am going to meet with him. Everyone criticizes me beforehand, but when I returned from a meeting with Putin, everyone in the toilets in Brussels asks me what he said. Such heroes. Why don't they go and communicate with him themselves then? After all, we have to talk to these people. And that is why we bet on communicating with everyone. And I firmly believe that there are very few governments across the European continent that maintain such extensive international relations. This begins with our high level dialogue with Chinese President Xiinping as well as our discussions with Vietnamese President Tulam. Furthermore, we were recently present in Brazil where we held meetings with Brazilian President Lula. In essence, we are simply striving to maintain an open and constructive engagement with every nation. For instance, I have personally engaged with the United States. In Europe is a Shia Europe. We have opportunities to meet both through European councils and bilaterally. However, these bilateral meetings are no longer as important as they used to be because we have multilateral meetings at the European Council level. That is precisely why international organizations like the United Nations, much like the European Union, must undergo major changes and fundamental reforms. Because if the UN Security Council cannot function and lacks the capacity to guarantee that if a crisis occurs somewhere, we can send someone in to restore order, then this entire security mechanism created after the Second World War is rendered practically useless. It's not a good time. H we're under pressure from oil prices. Depending on how President Trump wakes up that when he wakes up in a good mood, oil prices go down. When he wakes up in a bad mood and make some statement, oil prices automatically automatically go up. We are currently engaged in a very difficult and ongoing struggle to secure other vital sources of oil for our nation. There was an informal summit held just last week and President Zalinski was in attendance to represent his country. During his formal address, President Zalinski spoke at length regarding the monthly casualty figures that have resulted from this ongoing war. However, they continue to guard these specific numbers as if they were a highly classified state secret. Even the Russians don't talk about their own. Russians like to talk about Ukrainians. Ukrainians don't talk about their own, but they talk about the Russians. So, the Ukrainian president said, I hope I remember the number correctly, that there was a month recently this year where 35,000 Russian soldiers were taken out, meaning either dead or severely wounded. 35,000. I really don't mean to question your figures, but it honestly strikes me as a rather exaggerated number because the way we fight wars has changed so much in the modern era. It is certainly not a simple frontal charge anymore. You cannot simply line up 20,000 soldiers and send them marching into battle the way they used to do back during the first or the second world war. These are relatively small, highly mobile operational groups of soldiers currently on the move. And that is precisely why 35,000 dead and seriously wounded soldiers represent such a staggering significant number to me. All right, so this is the specific message that President Zilinski is currently conveying to the Russian side. Meanwhile, the Russian side is telling the Ukrainian side that they have suffered at least equal losses, if not significantly higher ones. Let's say that's a realistic number. that it's realistic. Let's say it's 20,000 on one side and 20,000 on the other. Let's be conservative. That's 40,000 people dead or seriously injured every month in a year. That's times 12, 480,000. That's like wiping out Bratislava where you don't have a single child or elderly person left. You have absolutely no one there. If only there were some sense to be found in all of this. We all acknowledge this fact and we keep repeating it throughout the European Union that this ongoing war has no military solution that there is no way for anyone to win it through military means. Neither neither side will emerge victorious. Yet there remains a persistent drive to fund this conflict as the dominant view is that it serves to economically undermine the Russian Federation. This may be true to a certain degree but not to the extent that some media outlets are suggesting. Therefore, we must consider that uh I make absolutely no secret of the matter. I am certainly not the type of person to beat around the bush. I do not believe in feeding people a bunch of empty promises. I am currently heading to a very important high level meeting with the Russian president which is officially scheduled to take place on the 9th, specifically the 9th day of May. I will most certainly be speaking about the ceasefire once again in the near future. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary are not participating in this particular loan agreement. So we have absolutely nothing to do with it because I refuse to provide or be any part of the loan itself. Out of that total of 90 billion, 60 billion is allocated for weapons and 30 goes to the running of Ukraine. This effectively means that Ukraine has enough money for the next year. So I see absolutely no prospect of the war in Ukraine ending because it has the resources to continue the war. You just have to keep pushing and pushing and pushing. There is a prevailing strategy, my dear colleague, which suggests that peace negotiations will supposedly only take place once one of the sides has become so incredibly weak that they will have no choice but to agree to talk. But honestly, when will anyone ever actually admit that they are weak enough to finally agree to such negotiations? That is precisely why, in my humble opinion, we are still in for a rather long and drawn out military conflict.
I Know Why Trump Is Terrified of Firing RFK Jr. | Inside Trump's Head The Daily Beast May 2, 2026
Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles examine a White House spiraling under the weight of Donald Trump’s collapsing authority, as disastrous poll numbers sink into the 30s and panic spreads through his inner circle; they trace the quiet unraveling of RFK Jr. as his anti-vax crusade backfires and allies plot a face-saving exit, while a bitter, calculating Tucker Carlson turns on Trump and positions himself for 2028, exposing the raw opportunism driving the movement; all of it unfolds against the grinding uncertainty of the Iran war, a conflict with no clear victory, no public support, and no exit, leaving Trump increasingly isolated, his team turning on itself, and the entire project teetering toward a reckoning that no one inside seems able to control.
Trump IGNORES Congress, Uses EMERGENCY POWERS To Send Billion-Dollar Weapons To Mideast Allies Times Of India May 2, 2026
The Trump administration has invoked emergency powers to bypass the standard congressional review process and fast-track over $8.6 billion in arms sales to key Middle East allies, including Israel, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE. The deals include advanced missile defense systems, precision-guided munitions, and other military equipment. Officials say the move was necessary due to urgent regional security concerns amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East. The decision has drawn attention for its speed and scale, as billions in defense contracts are pushed forward under emergency authority.
Einar Tangen: U.S. Destroying World Order to Keep Hegemony Glenn Diesen May 2, 2026
Einar Tangen is a Senior Fellow at Teihe Institute and a Senior Fellow at CIGI. Tangen discusses how the US is dismantling the international system in a desperate effort to restore its global hegemony.
