A top Venezuelan lawmaker has voiced concern about the oil deal with the United States that hands Washington a 35 percent stake in a Venezuelan oil company that was just rewarded with rights to about 20 percent of the country’s oil reserves, according to the Financial Times.
European countries have been footing most of the bill for the Ukraine war and promised another $105 billion loan through 2027, but piggy banks are running low and politicians are facing struggling economies, just as Kyiv requested tens of billions of dollars in additional funding to keep up the fight for the rest of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a serious political blow after Alternative for Germany (AfD) saw big gains in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, as he watched his own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lose over half of its support since 2021 and is now polling at 17.4 percent, according to the Financial Times.
The Alternative for Germany [AfD] party saw its best performance ever in Sunday’s election in Saxony-Anhalt, the eastern state, after securing 44 percent of the vote as the country continues to turn on Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), founded in 2015, has been seen inside the country as a burgeoning agency tasked with investigating top officials – some of whom have close ties with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Financial Times reported.
France announced on Saturday that it will provide Ukraine with missile interceptors after an increase in ballistic missile attacks by Russia in response to Kyiv’s decision to escalate and use drones to attack Moscow’s energy infrastructure.
The Kremlin announced that it shot down about 1,500 Ukrainian drones in an attack that started in the late-night hours on Saturday and continued into Sunday, as Kyiv continues its attempt to apply pressure on Moscow’s war economy by targeting soft targets across the country.
Protests have broken out in Caracas and other regions of Venezuela over worsening power outages since the U.S.’s kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, and the public has expressed frustration that the economy continues to lag despite promises from Washington.
The Ukrainian military last week took credit for striking two Russian oil refineries deep inside the country in what President Volodymyr Zelensky has referred to as “long-range sanctions” to try and cripple Moscow’s war economy.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) continues to rise in polls as the country turns away from Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his coalition, and analysts are expecting record gains for the party during the September elections in three eastern states.