Global news round-up: Some bad news, some humor and some hopeful trends

• In China: Xi talked about global turbulence, cooperation, and the future of humanity. Trump was basically saying: “It’s an honor to be your friend.” “You are a great leader.” “I only say the truth.” “The children were beautiful.”

• Marco Rubio seems to be very impressed by the ceiling and the lights inside the large hall where Trump and Xi met. On the other hand Hegseth appears to be quite subdued and nervous. My guess he has just realized that his 'USA Über alles' ideas will never work against this ancient civilization - much like in the case of Iran. 

• Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif: “President Trump seems to have an insatiable need to be the center of attention. International relations are serious business; they concern people’s lives and the stability of entire regions. Sometimes it feels as though the whole world is being forced to participate in a multi-billion-dollar therapy session to compensate for the attention it may not have received in its childhood.”
• Things are happening behind the curtains, interesting things. Amidst all the news, suddenly Saudi Arabia has reportedly proposed a non-aggression pact with Iran. Nothing like the impending collapse of the US imperial military. Best not to bet on a loser.

• Ba-boom: Rep. Ed Case (Democrat, Hawaii) explicitly confirms the Pentagon has lost a staggering 39 aircraft in the disastrous war against Iran, exposing the unprecedented destruction of very expensive American military assets. 

• Quote from Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: ‘In the modern world, words mean little, my American colleagues prove that’. 
• Pentagon drone deals line Trump’s pockets: The Pentagon is funneling massive contracts to drone companies personally owned by Donald Trump’s sons, Max Blumenthal has exposed, adding that one of these firms, an Israeli company, is producing tech for the controversial Iran war. 

• It is all connected. Billionaires are building the data centers to power the artificial intelligence that will replace our jobs and the US government is doing it for mass surveillance and war. Oh, and they’re building the data centers over farmland to reduce our food supply, since their AI robots won’t need food. Are you awake yet? Their plan is to replace millions of us with robots to usher in their AI techno-capitalist dystopia. The best way for us to stop it is to stop the data centers that will power it all.

• Kiev showing once more its “European values” and “freedom and democracy”. Zelensky's military body snatchers (recruiters) continue to serve up death sentences as they grab men off the streets and send these “Ukrainian patriots” to the front lines to die within days. For what? NATO's regime change war on Russia.

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink declares a pre-emptive war against American citizens who fight back against his precious AI data centers, warning that people could use inexpensive drones. He admits that BlackRock will control nearly all of the AI data centers being built across the US because the government cannot afford to fund them on its own. “We have to relook at all forms of security. Could it be domestic terrorism using a $3,000 drone? Many more things will have to be underground.” Appears BlackRock knows something we don't about the near future. Nuclear war, climate crisis and/or crashing economy? The rich moving to an underground society? They will need lots of power too.
• Heartbreaking moments as members of the Lebanese Civil Defense receive the news that two of their fellow rescuers have been killed by terrorist Israel. These are the men who spend their days pulling others from beneath the rubble, racing toward fire while everyone else runs away, carrying the wounded, searching for survivors, and trying to preserve what little humanity remains amid destruction. 

• Welt Media (Germany): EU imports of Russian LNG have reached record levels since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. "The EU really wants to give up Russian gas, but reality says the opposite.” The largest importer of Russian gas is France, followed by Spain and Belgium. Earlier, the EU planned to give up imports of Russian energy carriers by 2027.
• Politico: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte proposed that allies enshrine mandatory spending on aid to Ukraine at the level of 0.25% of GDP. The initiative was discussed at the end of April at a closed meeting of alliance ambassadors. The idea is to make support for Kiev stable and predictable, but within NATO it is already causing fierce resistance. France and Britain, in particular, are opposed. Diplomats believe that in its current form, the proposal has almost no chance of implementation. According to calculations, if approved, the scheme could increase annual aid flows to Ukraine to approximately $143 billion. For comparison: in 2025, NATO countries provided about $45 billion in military aid — from weapons deliveries to investments in the Ukrainian defense sector and procurement of weapons through allied mechanisms.

• Israeli journalist Itay Blumental complains that his work has become almost impossible due to the severe censorship. He says most journalists in Israel spend the majority of their time navigating the censorship laws.
• The Hill: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing sanctions against Francesa Albanese, a United Nations human rights investigator whose recent work has focused on the Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

• Finland please be normal dance-a-thon challenge…