RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE Ukraine’s top general demands 30,000 conscripts a month Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, has said Kiev must mobilize 30,000 soldiers every month to sustain resistance against the Russian army. He also highlighted the growing disparity between the military capabilities of the two countries. In an interview published on Wednesday by the Ukrainian outlet lb.ua, Syrsky claimed that Russia can mobilize up to 5 million trained and experienced troops, with a total potential force of 20 million. He emphasized this gap to underscore the urgency of continued mobilization by Ukraine amid the mounting battlefield pressure. According to Syrsky, Russian forces…

US families accuse Palestinian-American billionaire of facilitating Hamas attacks American families of victims of the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel filed a lawsuit on Monday against a prominent Palestinian-American businessman, Bashar Masri, charging that he provided assistance in constructing infrastructure that allowed Hamas militants to carry out their cross-border rampage. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C., is thought to be the first case of a U.S. citizen being accused of providing major support for the attacks that triggered a wider Middle East conflict and upended the region. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your…

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Chinese nationals captured fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Zelenskiy says President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces had captured two Chinese men fighting for Russia in eastern Ukraine, potentially threatening a fragile peace effort in the three-year-old war. Beijing is a close diplomatic ally of Moscow but is not publicly known to have directly aided in the Kremlin's full-scale invasion, which U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to swiftly end. Writing on X, where he posted a video of one of the alleged men, Zelenskiy said Kyiv has "information suggesting that there are many more Chinese…

What to know about tensions between Iran and the US before their talks this weekend Iran and the United States will hold talks in the sultanate of Oman on Saturday in an attempt to jump-start negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program. Even before the talks, however, there was a dispute over just how the negotiations would go. President Donald Trump insists they’ll be direct negotiations. However, Iran’s foreign minister said they’ll be indirect talks through a mediator. The difference may seem small, but it matters. Indirect talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew…