Global Pulse

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  • As Hungary’s Magyar joins EU summit, sidelined Orban meets with far-right allies in Brussels

    As Hungary’s Magyar joins EU summit, sidelined Orban meets with far-right allies in Brussels

    BRUSSELS — For the first time in 16 years, one of European politics’ most polarizing figures was absent from the room when European Union heads of state gathered for their flagship summit in Brussels on Thursday. Over nearly two decades, through countless rotations of national leadership across the bloc, Hungarian nationalist Viktor Orbán stood as an unshakable fixture in Brussels’ corridors of power. His political brand of illiberal nationalist populism not only shifted Europe’s ideological center sharply to the right but also became a template for far-right movements across the continent, even earning admiration from America’s Make America Great Again wing.

    Orbán’s exit from the top table of EU summits comes after he lost Hungary’s national parliamentary election in April, which pushed his Fidesz party into the country’s main opposition bloc. For years, Orbán built his political brand around open confrontation with EU institutions: he repeatedly vilified bloc leaders, violated EU regulations, and systematically eroded checks and balances on executive power within Hungary. He also emerged as the most consistent and high-profile barrier to the EU’s core geopolitical priority of integrating Ukraine into the bloc, leveraging his position as Hungarian prime minister to repeatedly veto EU progress on Kyiv’s accession bid.

    Now, with Orbán on the political sidelines for the first time in a generation, his successor as Hungary’s leader, Prime Minister Péter Magyar, is taking his seat at the summit alongside EU heavyweights including French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — advancing policy priorities that directly contradict Orbán’s long-held agenda. While Orbán was locked out of the main EU summit focused on expanding military and political support for Ukraine, he remained in Brussels to lead a gathering of his new far-right political alliance, Patriots for Europe. The coalition, which unites Euroskeptic and nationalist parties from across the bloc, holds the third-largest number of seats in the European Parliament, giving it significant leverage to shape EU legislation.

    Despite his bruising election defeat — a result widely greeted with relief by EU leaders, who saw it as a popular rejection of Orbán’s hostile stance toward the bloc and his close ties to the Kremlin — the former prime minister shows no sign of abandoning his ideological project. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday ahead of the Patriots for Europe summit, Orbán framed his April loss as a temporary setback, arguing it would do nothing to slow the rise of nationalist forces across the continent. “No one election loss can stop this historical process,” he said. “Anti-migration and sovereigntist political forces in Europe will continue to grow stronger in the coming months and years.”

    Orbán has positioned Patriots for Europe as the vehicle to reshape the EU in his illiberal image. Key policy goals for the alliance include rolling back EU oversight of national rule of law and democratic standards, implementing a harsh zero-tolerance policy on irregular migration, and forging deeper strategic ties with Russia and China. But a major shift is already underway under Hungary’s new leadership: just last week, Magyar’s government lifted Orbán’s long-held veto on the formal opening of Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations, following weeks of bilateral talks with Kyiv that resolved longstanding disputes over minority rights for ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine.

    The removal of Orbán’s veto clears the biggest single barrier to accelerating Ukraine’s accession path, a process set to pick up speed when Ireland takes over the EU’s rotating six-month presidency in July. “Hungary obviously had issues that they were able to resolve to allow this to happen this week,” said Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s Minister for European Affairs.

    Orbán’s confidence in a far-right breakthrough is not entirely unfounded. The movement has notched notable electoral gains across the bloc in recent months: Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party picked up significant ground in French municipal elections earlier this year, while Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has climbed steadily in national opinion polls. Andrej Babiš, a Czech populist and close Orbán ally, returned to the office of prime minister last year, making him the only leader from the Patriots for Europe alliance to currently hold the reins of government in an EU member state.

    Most recently, the far-right secured a major policy win last week, when a joint voting bloc of Patriots for Europe and the center-right European People’s Party passed sweeping EU migration reform. The legislation, which has been fiercely condemned by human rights groups, expands bloc-wide surveillance powers, increases deportation targets for irregular migrants, and establishes offshore migrant detention centers labeled “return hubs” outside EU borders. When the reform passed the European Parliament in Strasbourg, far-right and center-right lawmakers celebrated with chants of “Send them back.”

    Still, the European far-right is not without internal rifts. Fractures have emerged in recent months over key geopolitical issues, including conflicting stances on the Israel-Hamas conflict and reactions to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory belonging to EU member Denmark. For the EU and Ukraine, however, one major barrier has already been removed: with Orbán no longer holding the Hungarian prime ministership, he can no longer use veto power over EU policy to block Kyiv’s accession path, opening a new chapter in the bloc’s expansion and geopolitical direction.

  • Hegseth announces US review of Europe forces, says some allies will fail

    Hegseth announces US review of Europe forces, says some allies will fail

    At a recent gathering of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a sharp rebuke to alliance members he accuses of free-riding on American security investment, while unveiling a sweeping six-month review of U.S. military posture across Europe. The announcement comes on the heels of Washington’s decision to scale back its commitments to the NATO Force Model (NFM), the alliance’s high-readiness rapid-response force.

    Hegseth drew a clear line between compliant and non-compliant allies during his address, stating bluntly: “Some countries will fail, and others will pass with flying colours.” He saved particular criticism for NATO members that restricted operational support for U.S. forces during the ongoing conflict with Iran, a point of tension that has already roiled U.S. diplomatic relations with multiple European allies. The six-month review, branded by Hegseth as “NATO 3.0”, is framed as a push to accelerate a shift toward European-led security on the continent.

    At the core of the standoff is defense spending: Washington is demanding all NATO members meet a binding target of allocating 5% of gross domestic product to defense by 2035, with 3.5% earmarked for core defense capabilities and 1.5% for defense-related infrastructure. Hegseth warned that U.S. financial contributions to NATO’s annual budget would now be tied directly to progress on this target. “Where other allies do not spend with urgency, our dues contributions will go down,” he said, calling out wealthy major economies that continue to pay lip service to the rules-based international order while clinging to decades of free-riding on U.S. security. He declined to name specific countries facing criticism.

    The fissures within the alliance were on clear display throughout the meeting. UK Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis attended the summit without a finalized British defense investment plan, following the resignation of his predecessor John Healey, who stepped down after warning the draft plan fell “well short” of the UK’s required commitments under the 5% target.

    NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte pushed back on the most severe U.S. criticism, noting that alliance members already increased collective defense spending by €90 billion ($103 billion) in 2025, an almost 20% year-over-year rise. He emphasized that European allies are already “backfilling” the air and naval capabilities the U.S. plans to withdraw from the NFM, though senior NATO officials have conceded that not all withdrawn U.S. capabilities can be fully replaced immediately. Rutte confirmed that the U.S. drawdown is already in effect, and he called on all members to present clear, credible roadmaps to hit the 5% target ahead of the alliance’s July summit in Ankara.

    Tensions between Washington and European capitals have been building for months over the Iran conflict. In May, the Trump administration announced it would withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany amid a public dispute with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over German policy on the Iran war. The same month, Washington initially announced a 4,000-troop withdrawal from Poland, before President Trump reversed the decision and pledged instead to deploy an additional 5,000 troops to the country. Poland currently hosts up to 10,000 rotational U.S. troops, and Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed Thursday that Washington is actively considering Warsaw’s offer to host a permanent U.S. military base, with a final decision pending negotiations on agreement terms.

    Earlier this year, President Trump also threatened to cut off all trade with Spain after Madrid refused to allow U.S. forces to use Spanish air bases for strikes on Iran, where the U.S. maintains two key military installations: Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base.

    A NATO official explained the role of the NFM, noting it is a pre-allocated set of high-readiness forces that the alliance’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe can rely on for rapid deployment in crisis scenarios. The U.S. drawdown from this framework marks one of the most significant shifts in transatlantic security burden-sharing in modern alliance history.

  • Men jailed over work for Chinese intelligence in UK

    Men jailed over work for Chinese intelligence in UK

    On Thursday, a landmark sentencing at London’s Old Bailey delivered severe punishment to two men convicted of working on behalf of Chinese intelligence to target Hong Kong pro-democracy dissidents on British soil. After a month-long trial, 40-year-old Chi Leung “Peter” Wai received a total 10-year prison term, while 65-year-old Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen was sentenced to eight years behind bars. Both were found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the UK’s National Security Act, marking one of the most high-profile foreign interference cases in recent British legal history.

    Wai, a former Metropolitan Police officer who joined UK Border Force at Heathrow Airport in December 2020 after years of public service roles including eight years in the Royal Navy and a volunteer constable position with City of London Police, abused his official access to the Home Office’s national database of foreign nationals to track Hong Kong residents who fled the territory’s crackdown on pro-democracy activism. Beyond the charge of assisting a foreign intelligence service that carries a six-year sentence, he was also convicted of misconduct in public office, which added an extra four years to his punishment. In one message sent to Eddie Ma, a former chief superintendent of Hong Kong Police’s Criminal Intelligence Bureau who maintained ties to Chinese authorities, Wai infamously wrote, “Will not let any cockroaches in,” referencing the dissidents he was tasked to monitor.

    Yuen, a former Hong Kong police officer who served as office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, acted as the critical liaison between Wai and Chinese state authorities, coordinating the illegal surveillance network that prosecutors described as a coordinated “shadow policing operation” run for Hong Kong authorities and ultimately the Chinese government. During the trial, the court revealed that the operation did not only target exiled dissidents – it also extended special surveillance attention to high-profile British politicians, including senior Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

    The court also heard that Wai recruited another Border Force officer, former Royal Marine Matthew Trickett, to participate in the surveillance. In November 2023, Trickett was ordered by Wai to follow prominent exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law – one of eight dissidents that Hong Kong chief executive John Lee placed a HK$1 million (£100,000) bounty on that year – while Law spoke at the Oxford Union. Shortly after the pair were apprehended by counter-terrorism police, Trickett was found dead in an apparent suicide, with an official coroner’s inquest scheduled for November this year.

    Delivering the sentencing remarks, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb emphasized the severity of the men’s crimes, stating their actions “threaten the sovereignty of the state.” Several Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, including one who currently has a HK$1 million bounty placed on her by Hong Kong authorities, attended the sentencing in the Old Bailey’s public gallery to observe the ruling.

    While the jury returned guilty verdicts on the main charges, it could not reach a consensus on an additional count of foreign interference linked to an alleged break-in at the West Yorkshire home of a Hong Kong-origin fraud suspect.

    UK law enforcement and prosecution officials have framed the convictions as a stark warning against any foreign interference activity on British territory. Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, made clear in an official statement that this kind of covert activity will not be tolerated. “I want to be really clear that if you are working on behalf of a foreign state, that we in counter-terrorism policing and with our partners will identify who you are and bring the full force of the National Security Act upon you,” Flanagan said.

    Bethan David, Head of the Counter Terrorism Division at the Crown Prosecution Service, echoed that sentiment, noting that Wai and Yuen’s actions were “deliberate, coordinated and carried out with full knowledge of who it would benefit.” She added that the convictions send an unmistakeable message: “transnational repression, foreign interference, unauthorised surveillance, and attempts to operate outside the law will not be tolerated on British soil.”

    The case has sparked renewed official and public scrutiny of transnational repression operations run by hostile states within UK borders, raising urgent questions about the vulnerability of sensitive government systems and the safety of exiled dissidents who have relocated to Britain to escape persecution.

  • The European Union has quietly sought to reopen communication with Russia

    The European Union has quietly sought to reopen communication with Russia

    Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has initiated quiet, low-level diplomatic contact with Moscow to reestablish communication channels, multiple senior anonymous EU officials confirmed Thursday. The tentative move comes as the bloc aims to ensure it is not sidelined from any future negotiations to end the devastating ongoing war.

    The disclosure of the EU’s outreach coincided with fresh developments on the battlefield: Russian officials announced Thursday that Ukraine had carried out one of its largest drone assaults since the 2022 full-scale invasion. The attack targeted a key oil refinery outside Moscow, marking the second strike on the facility in just seven days, and forced widespread disruptions to commercial flight operations at multiple Moscow-area airports.

    This quiet diplomatic opening unfolds against a complex geopolitical backdrop. The 27-nation bloc has simultaneously ramped up its military, political and humanitarian support for Kyiv, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin has worked to cut European leaders out of talks, prioritizing direct negotiations with Washington over Ukraine’s future.

    Two EU officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the diplomatic maneuver, confirmed the contact had occurred in recent weeks. “In the past few weeks, brief contacts were made at diplomatic level to open communication channels but nothing was discussed on substance,” the first official stated. The official clarified that the bloc is not seeking to act as a mediator, but rather to protect its own strategic interests in any future peace process: “In any future scenario, the EU has specific interests that will need to be defended, therefore it is important to have established diplomatic channels with Russia. The EU is not a mediator. It supports Ukraine in its efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace.”

    The Kremlin has not yet issued an official response to requests for comment on the EU outreach. Putin has previously pushed back against European mediation efforts but has not closed the door entirely on communication with the bloc. Earlier this month, he noted, “We have never refused contacts with representatives of the European Union in any format. We are not rejecting contacts. If they want to talk, they know how to reach us. They can pick up the phone and call. If they want to come, they are welcome to do so. It is not Russia that is refusing engagement.”

    According to EU insiders, European Council President Antonio Costa has been leading coordination across EU member states on the framework for potential future engagement with Moscow, aligning on core issues to be addressed when conditions for substantive talks are deemed appropriate.

    The revelation comes just as EU leaders gather in Brussels for their annual summer summit, where Ukraine’s war and its long-term relationship with the bloc will top the agenda. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to address the gathering of leaders, who are expected to advance discussions on deeper political and economic integration with Kyiv. Just weeks ago, Ukraine officially launched accession negotiations with the EU, a years-long process that will require sweeping political and governance reforms even as the country continues to fend off Russian aggression.

    The EU move also follows this week’s G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, where European negotiators secured a joint commitment from former U.S. President Donald Trump to join other G7 leaders in reaffirming unwavering support for Ukraine. Zelenskyy, who attended the summit, hailed the gathering as a success, saying Ukraine had secured key new pledges of military and political support from attending leaders, including the United States.

  • Why dropping ‘Indo-Pacific’ clarifies the Pentagon’s China strategy

    Why dropping ‘Indo-Pacific’ clarifies the Pentagon’s China strategy

    On June 16, the U.S. Department of Defense made a consequential announcement: the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), America’s largest regional combatant command, will officially revert to its original name — U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM). This decision undoes a 2018 rebranding ordered during Donald Trump’s first presidential term, a change that was framed at the time as a deliberate acknowledgment of India’s growing importance to Washington’s regional strategic planning and a formal step to reincorporate New Delhi into Washington’s core “Asia Nexus” of key partners.

    Today, however, analysts read the name reversal as a clear signal of the opposite: a sharp downgrade in India’s standing in U.S. strategic thinking, and a quiet removal of India from that core Asia-focused partnership framework. Clues of this shifting posture had already emerged in late May, during U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s keynote address at the Singapore-based Shangri-La Dialogue, the Asia-Pacific’s premier annual defense security summit. One Asian diplomat in attendance noted that Hegseth reserved India for last in his roll call of regional partners, after singling out for praise South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Even when Hegseth did address New Delhi, his remarks were lukewarm: he only stated that a strong India acting in its own self-interest would help advance a general goal of regional balance of power — far from the language used to describe a close, core strategic ally.

    Importantly, this name change does not signal any reduction in U.S. competition with Beijing. Instead, it brings much-needed clarity to where Washington will focus its efforts and resources when countering China, and which regions it will deprioritize. For observers and policymakers alike, the Pentagon’s decision yields three key, revealing takeaways about the new direction of U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy.

    First, the fact that this major adjustment was made without any immediate crisis triggering it confirms it is a deliberate, calculated messaging move. By rolling back the “Indo-Pacific” rebranding, Washington is making clear that the Indian Ocean is not a central front in its competition with China. This message is intended for both U.S. allies and Beijing. For partner nations, it signals that in any potential conflict over Taiwan, the U.S. will center its operations on the Taiwan Strait, drawing primarily on infrastructure and support from Japan and the Philippines. All other regions will see local allies and partners take primary responsibility for conventional defense: South Korea will manage deterrence against North Korea, European allies will confront Russian aggression, and the Indian Ocean will fall largely to India to monitor and secure. Symbolically, Hegseth did not even utter the phrase “Indo-Pacific” during his Shangri-La address, nor did he acknowledge Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ongoing push to update the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” framework first championed by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — a hint that Japan’s long-held regional strategic framing may soon need a major rethink.

    For Beijing, the message is equally unambiguous: the U.S. is now laser-focused on the Taiwan Strait as its top priority in great power competition.

    The second takeaway is that India is being formally written out of the core contingency planning for the scenario that matters most to Washington: a potential conflict over Taiwan. Current U.S. intelligence assessments hold that Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed the People’s Liberation Army to be prepared to seize Taiwan by force if required by 2027, and the current U.S. administration has little patience for regional powers that refuse to take a clear side. Washington is now prioritizing frontline allies such as South Korea and the Philippines, which Hegseth characterized as partners that recognize they exist on the immediate front lines of competition with China. India has long maintained a policy of strategic non-alignment on the Taiwan issue, and the U.S. has abandoned its long-held hope that New Delhi will eventually align firmly with Washington against Beijing.

    Third, and most surprisingly, by repositioning India as an ordinary regional partner rather than a central strategic pillar, Washington gains far more flexibility in its engagement with Pakistan, India’s long-standing archrival. The current Trump administration has already built close ties with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, tapping him as a critical backchannel to Iran, relying on his mediation to defuse the 2025 military crisis between India and Pakistan, and including him in high-level talks about expanding the Abraham Accords. Pakistan has grown in strategic relevance to the U.S. not because of its rivalry with India, but because of China’s ongoing westward strategic and economic pivot. Over the past 15 years, China has steadily reduced its dependence on vulnerable maritime energy routes that pass through Indian Ocean chokepoints such as the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Hormuz, shifting instead to overland energy pipelines that cross Central Asia. As the U.S. adapts to this Chinese reorientation toward Eurasia, Pakistan, not India, has emerged as the more strategically valuable partner for Washington.

    In the view of analyst Ken Moriyasu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former correspondent for Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, the return to the PACOM name simply reflects these new strategic realities. It is a recognition that clear, focused prioritization — rather than vague geographic expansions or ill-defined values-based alignment frameworks — will define how the U.S. competes with China, and that this shift is the right strategic adjustment for current conditions.

  • Phillips’ maiden test century leads priceless morning for New Zealand at The Oval

    Phillips’ maiden test century leads priceless morning for New Zealand at The Oval

    On a sun-drenched Thursday morning at London’s iconic Oval cricket ground, New Zealand pulled off a stunning lower-order batting performance, headlined by Glenn Phillips’ first career test century, that pushed the Black Caps to a far higher first innings total than most analysts predicted against England.

    Resuming day two at 291 for seven wickets – a position where New Zealand’s coaching staff privately targeted 350 runs as a strong outcome, with the tail exposed and England poised to take the new ball – the visitors compiled an overall total of 391 all out. Phillips was the final wicket to fall, finishing unbeaten? No, out for an even 100, capping a remarkable comeback for the lower order.

    England’s chances of a swift wrap-up of the New Zealand innings were derailed by two key factors: an over-reliance on short-pitched bowling that failed to trouble the New Zealand batters, and the delayed return of their most potent fast bowler, Jofra Archer. Archer, playing his first test match since December, had delivered a blistering spell of eight consecutive overs on day one that left spectators breathless, but the effort left him fatigued heading into the second morning.

    Archer did not appear until the 19th over of the morning, just before the lunch break. By the time he entered the attack, Phillips and tailender Kyle Jamieson had already turned the game on its head. The pair shared an 87-run partnership from just 96 balls, with 74 of those runs coming in 12 overs in the first hour of play that saw New Zealand sail past the 350 benchmark.

    Jamieson, New Zealand’s 2.07-meter tall pace bowler, capitalized on a dropped catch when Ben Duckett, fumbling into bright sun with sunglasses perched on his cap, put him down at 15. Despite being hit twice on the helmet by short deliveries, Jamieson batted with remarkable confidence, growing his overnight score of 6 to 41 off 48 balls – his highest test score in six years of international cricket. He struck six new boundaries after play resumed, including two beautifully timed cover drives, before being bowled by part-time spinner Jacob Bethell, who finished with England’s best bowling figures of three wickets.

    Phillips, who resumed the day on 49, brought up his half-century from just the second delivery of the morning with a top edge that cleared the wicketkeeper. With Archer resting on the sidelines, Phillips ruthlessly punished wayward short deliveries from England’s seamers Sonny Baker and Josh Tongue. He surpassed his previous highest test score of 87, set against Bangladesh in 2023, and brought up his milestone century off 133 deliveries, decorated with 18 boundaries, adding to his existing record of two centuries each in ODI and T20 international cricket.

    In a moment of good sportsmanship, Phillips reached his hundred with two runs and a single off the returning Archer, who responded with a warm congratulatory tap on the back. Shortly after, Archer claimed the wickets of Matt Henry and Phillips to end the New Zealand innings. In the three overs remaining before lunch, England moved to 15 without loss, setting the stage for an absorbing second innings battle.

  • British man dies in paragliding accident in Spain

    British man dies in paragliding accident in Spain

    A tragic paragliding incident in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region has claimed the life of a 63-year-old British citizen, regional authorities confirmed this week. The fatal crash was reported to emergency responders at approximately 1:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. BST) on Wednesday, in the Palau de Noguera area just outside the small town of Tremp.

    When first responders arrived at the remote crash site, they found the man with critical, life-threatening injuries. Rescue teams administered urgent on-site first aid ahead of the arrival of advanced medical teams, but the victim could not be saved and was pronounced dead shortly after.

    Palau de Noguera sits in close proximity to Àger, a well-known destination for paragliding and hang gliding enthusiasts that sits on the southern edge of the Pyrenees mountain range, drawing hobbyists and professional pilots from across Europe each year. According to early unconfirmed reports from local Spanish media outlets, the paraglider became entangled in overhead power lines before crashing to the ground. Official investigators have not yet verified this account or released any formal conclusion on the root cause of the accident.

    A large multi-agency response was deployed to the scene following the incident: three Catalan fire brigades and two separate medical teams arrived to secure the site and provide care, while the region’s primary law enforcement agency, Mossos d’Esquadra, deployed five specialized teams from its citizen security and criminal investigation divisions to process the scene. Local media reports indicate that authorities will coordinate with British consular officials to formally notify the victim’s next of kin and support repatriation efforts. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has confirmed it is providing consular assistance to the man’s family in the wake of the tragedy.
    “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Spain,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said in a brief statement Thursday.

  • First Russian shadow fleet vessel enters Channel since Smyrtos boarding

    First Russian shadow fleet vessel enters Channel since Smyrtos boarding

    Weeks after a dramatic UK interception of a sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker upended the routing of Moscow’s energy shipments to global markets, one vessel has broken ranks, sailing through the English Channel for the first time since the operation, according to ship-tracking data analyzed by BBC Verify.

    The tanker in question, the Forwarder, is a Russian-flagged vessel already sanctioned by the United Kingdom, United States, and European Union. It departed the Russian Baltic port of Primorsk on June 12 after loading crude from the region’s largest refinery, a key export hub for Russia’s energy sector, and entered the English Channel Wednesday evening en route to Dongying Port in China. The ship is currently sailing south through the waterway.

    The development marks a sharp break from the pattern that emerged after early Sunday morning’s UK commando operation to board and seize the Smyrtos, another sanctioned shadow fleet tanker. In the days following that interception, tracking data shows dozens of Western-sanctioned Russian oil tankers altered their planned routes to bypass the Channel entirely, rerouting around the west coast of Ireland to avoid any risk of interception.

    As of Thursday, ship tracking data also indicates a British Royal Navy patrol ship, HMS Tyne, is operating in the immediate vicinity of the Forwarder. A NATO official previously confirmed to BBC Verify that Russia has assigned the frigate Admiral Grigorovich to escort sanctioned shadow fleet tankers transiting the region, though it remains unclear if the warship is accompanying the Forwarder. The Admiral Grigorovich made headlines earlier this week when it fired warning shots at a British civilian yacht that approached its position in the Channel, and as of Wednesday evening, it had not moved far from the site of that encounter.

    The legal and strategic context for any potential interception of the Forwarder differs dramatically from that of the Smyrtos, maritime analysts note. In March, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a new policy allowing British armed forces to board sanctioned vessels transiting UK waters that violate international law. The Smyrtos was sailing without a registered flag after Cameroon delisted the vessel from its registry before the voyage, giving UK authorities clear legal grounds to act. The ship is currently held off Weymouth, and its captain faces charges for violating UK sanctions.

    By contrast, the Forwarder is officially flagged to Russia, and analysts say there is no publicly available evidence to prove it is flying a false flag. That legal distinction changes the risk calculus for Western nations, experts argue. Intercepting a vessel that is clearly Russian-flagged, particularly if it is accompanied by a Russian military escort, would represent a major escalation of tensions between the West and Moscow, making an interception unlikely according to most observers.

    “Going after vessels that are falsely flagged or misusing a flag of convenience is one thing, but this would be going after Russia directly which would be a further step up in escalation,” explained Frederik Van Lokeren, a former Belgian naval officer and maritime security analyst. “Since this is a Russian-flagged vessel, possibly escorted by a Russian warship, I don’t expect the UK, or any other Western country, to attempt to board her.”

    Mark Douglas, an analyst with New Zealand-based Starboard Maritime Intelligence, echoed that assessment, noting the unique legal standing of the Smyrtos operation. “Given that the Cameroon registry had delisted Smyrtos before she sailed through the Channel there were definitely reasonable grounds to suspect the vessel was without nationality,” he said. “Forwarder, on the other hand, is flagged by Russia and despite the opaque ownership structure we have no information to suggest that is a false flag.”

    BBC Verify has reached out to the UK Ministry of Defence for comment on the Forwarder’s transit and HMS Tyne’s deployment near the vessel.

    The shadow fleet of anonymous, aging tankers has emerged as a critical lifeline for the Kremlin after Western nations imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian energy exports following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to UK Ministry of Defence estimates, the fleet now numbers more than 700 vessels and carries roughly 75 percent of all Russia’s sanctioned oil exports. Data from BBC Verify collected in May found that nearly 200 shadow fleet vessels had passed through the English Channel in the months after Starmer’s interception policy announcement, with at least 94 crossing briefly into UK territorial waters.

  • Ivory Coast’s Wahi denied entry to Canada

    Ivory Coast’s Wahi denied entry to Canada

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America has been rocked by fresh off-field controversy, as Ivorian international forward Elye Wahi has been barred from entering Canada for his nation’s critical Group Stage match against Germany this Saturday. The 23-year-old Nice attacker, who started in the Elephants’ opening tournament win over Ecuador, is currently entangled in a French domestic investigation into alleged spot-fixing in Ligue 1, marking the second time a World Cup participant has been denied Canadian entry over ongoing legal issues in this edition of the tournament.

    Reports first emerged last month that Wahi was taken into police custody ahead of the World Cup, with accusations that he intentionally received a yellow card during a May 2025 Ligue 1 fixture between Nice and Metz. Spot-fixing, a form of match manipulation that targets specific in-game events rather than the final result, allows corrupt actors to profit from manipulated betting markets; in this case, the fifth yellow card of Wahi’s 2025-26 season triggered an automatic suspension for the first leg of Nice’s relegation play-off against Saint-Étienne on 26 May. The first leg ended in a goalless draw, with Wahi returning for the second leg to score twice in a 4-1 victory that secured Nice’s spot in France’s top flight for the following season.

    French judicial authorities have confirmed the broad outlines of the investigation without explicitly naming Wahi. A spokesperson for the Marseille Public Prosecutor’s Office told The Athletic that a 23-year-old Ligue 1 player was arrested as part of a probe into organized fraud, organized sports corruption, criminal proceeds handling, and money laundering. Following questioning in police custody, the player was released, with investigations still ongoing as of the tournament’s opening week.

    The French Football League (LFP) later confirmed this week that it had been alerted to “an unusually high volume of bets placed on a warning [yellow card] involving the player Elye Wahi.” In an official statement, the governing body of French professional football noted that it would refrain from further public comment amid the active investigation and ongoing confidentiality requirements ordered by law enforcement, and that no disciplinary proceedings have been opened to date. The LFP added, however, that it reserves the right to take action as the probe progresses, and reaffirmed its commitment to protecting the integrity of French club competitions: “it will act with the utmost firmness against any behaviour that could compromise it.”

    The Ivorian Football Federation (FIF), which confirmed Wahi’s entry denial in an official statement released June 17, said it has not received formal notification of any judicial or administrative proceedings against the player. “To date, the FIF has not been officially notified of any judicial or administrative proceedings involving him,” the statement read. “In this particularly delicate period, the FIF extends all its support to the player and reaffirms its confidence in him. Elye Wahi remains an important element of the Ivory Coast national team.”

    The federation confirmed that Wahi will not travel with the squad to Toronto for the Germany fixture, after failing to secure the required entry authorization from Canadian authorities. Wahi will remain in the United States until the Elephants conclude their Group Stage matches, which include a subsequent fixture against Curacao in Philadelphia next Thursday. BBC Sport has reached out to both Wahi’s representatives and FIFA for additional comment on the matter, with no formal response released as of publication.

    Wahi’s entry denial comes just days after another high-profile World Cup participant was barred from entering Canada: Ghana star Thomas Partey, the former Arsenal midfielder, was refused a visa after he failed to disclose ongoing criminal proceedings in the UK, where he faces seven charges of rape and one count of sexual assault related to allegations from four separate women between 2020 and 2022. Partey has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is scheduled to stand trial in 2027. A last-ditch appeal by the Ghanaian government for a special temporary entry waiver for the Panama match was rejected by Canada’s federal court in Ottawa, leaving Partey unable to participate in Ghana’s opening tournament win.

  • Putin and leaders of Southeast Asia agree to bolster ties at a summit in Russia

    Putin and leaders of Southeast Asia agree to bolster ties at a summit in Russia

    On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin opened a landmark Russia-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Russian city of Kazan, using the occasion to celebrate three and a half decades of diplomatic and economic cooperation and push for deeper ties between Moscow and the 11-nation Indo-Pacific bloc. The gathering, which brought together leaders from across ASEAN’s member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam — concluded with a formal agreement to expand the bilateral “strategic partnership” that has defined relations between the two sides for decades.

    In his opening address to the assembly, Putin emphasized that this partnership has emerged as a critical stabilizing force for the entire Asia-Pacific region, at a time when global geopolitical tensions are creating widespread uncertainty. “It is a strategic partnership that serves as an essential stabilizing factor in the Asia-Pacific amidst geopolitical turbulence, contributing to the formation of a balanced security architecture and equitable mutually beneficial cooperation,” Putin told attendees.

    The summit’s working agenda centered on three core priorities: an open exchange of perspectives on pressing global and regional security issues, a comprehensive review of ongoing cooperation initiatives between Russia and ASEAN, and the mapping out of priority areas for joint work in the coming years. Putin highlighted that collaboration between the two sides has already expanded across a broad range of sectors, spanning counterterrorism and responses to emerging transnational security threats, trade and foreign direct investment, energy, agriculture, digital transformation, scientific research and technological development, tourism, and people-to-people cultural exchanges.

    In a joint declaration signed by all participating delegations at the close of the summit, leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment to building a “just multipolar world” governed by international law and the core principles laid out in the United Nations Charter, with a focus on advancing mutually beneficial cooperation and equal respect for the sovereignty of all nations. The document labeled the Kazan summit a transformative milestone in Russia-ASEAN relations, and participants pledged to maintain regular high-level diplomatic engagement to continue advancing their shared strategic goals.

    Beyond the plenary summit sessions, Putin held a series of closed-door bilateral meetings with individual ASEAN leaders. The event was co-chaired by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as the Philippines currently holds ASEAN’s rotating rotating bloc presidency.

    ASEAN’s 11 member states maintain widely varying foreign policy alignments: some members, including the Philippines, have long-standing security alliances and alignment with the United States, while others maintain deep trade and security ties with both China and Russia. In recent years, following sharp spikes in global energy prices triggered by widespread geopolitical disruptions, multiple ASEAN capitals — including the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam — have either increased imports of discounted Russian crude oil or publicly expressed interest in expanding energy purchases from Moscow.