President Trump and his Air Force One entourage have arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, greeted by a lavish red carpet welcome. The American president was received by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, China’s ambassador to Washington Xie Feng, Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxuong, and US envoy to Beijing David Perdue.

Reports describe the extravagant welcoming ceremony as made up of a military honor guard and band, as well as about 300 Chinese youths waving alternating Chinese and American flags.

“We’re the two superpowers,” Trump had told reporters just before departing to China the day prior. “We’re the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”

This is Trump’s first visit there in nearly nine years, and an array of pressing issues will be discussed over the next two days of a packed-out schedule.

Official events with President Xi Jinping will kick off Thursday at 10am (local) with a formal welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, leading into the first meeting with Xi, after which the Chinese leader will host Trump for a state banquet at 6pm.

⚡️ Trump has arrived in China — the first visit by a U.S. president to Beijing since 2017

A day earlier, the U.S. president said Washington does not need China’s help on Iran.

According to Trump, the U.S. will “win one way or another — peacefully or otherwise.”

A meeting… pic.twitter.com/2QWYQZc5q8

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 13, 2026

Also looming large over the historic visit is the ongoing Iran conflict. Just before departing Washington Trump while talking to reporters raised eyebrows in remarking that the financial situation for Americans was not a factor in his decision-making when it comes to Iran and dealing with the nuclear issue. 

“Not even a little bit,” he said in the remarks at a moment Americans continue to face rising gas and food prices, connected to the war.

A day earlier, the U.S. president said Washington does not need China’s help on Iran. According to Trump, the U.S. will “win one way or another — peacefully or otherwise.”

Meanwhile, over in the Strait of Hormuz:

A Chinese supertanker carrying two million barrels of Iraqi crude has passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to ship-tracking data.

The Yuan Hua Hu crude carrier is now anchored off the Gulf of Oman near where the US navy has set up a blockade of Iranian vessels. It marks the third known passage by a Chinese oil tanker through the waterway since the US-Israeli war on Iran began.

Trump has landed in Beijing. Motorcade en route to hotel. pic.twitter.com/PkN5XKz7QB

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) May 13, 2026

While Iran and Taiwan remain pressing geopolitical challenges between the US and China, and for the whole globe really, Trump appears ready to focus on major business deals, per the Associated Press:

But Trump appeared firmly focused on business deals, with Nvidia chief Jensen Huang boarding the plane at the last minute in Alaska and Tesla’s Elon Musk also traveling on the presidential jet.

As the global AI race hots up, China is currently banned from purchasing the cutting-edge chips that Huang’s company produces under US export rules that Washington says are to protect national security.

Trump said in a social media post en route that he would be “be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic.”

But this is how Beijing is going to read this….

Pretty hilarious of him to say that he’s going to China with Jensen Huang to ask them to “open up,” when the whole issue is that it’s the U.S. that banned the sale of advanced Nvidia chips…

You can’t ask China to reverse your own policies 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/B6jSLZxRik

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 13, 2026

Apparently very few of the CEOs were on Air Force One, with the rest flying presumably on private jets…

The US has banned an array of Chinese technology imports, citing national security, and so it’s likely that China will only see this as having to go the other way – that it is the United States which must ‘open up’ to more Chinese business and tech.

The Chinese foreign ministry meanwhile stated Wednesday it “welcomes” Trump’s visit and that “China stands ready to work with the United States… to expand cooperation and manage differences.”

The Pentagon is considering renaming the war with Iran from “Operation Epic Fury” to “Operation Sledgehammer” if President Trump orders a renewed full-scale bombing campaign against Iran, according to an NBC News report published Tuesday.

The report came on the eve of day 75 since the US and Israel launched the conflict. US sources touted to NBC that the United States now has greater military capabilities in the region than it did before the US and Israel launched the war on February 28. But US intelligence is now also suggesting Iran’s missile capability is getting back up and running as well.

After Iran had clearly withstood the shock and destruction of the opening days and couple weeks of major American and Israeli bombing raids over its cities and airbases, Trump belatedly ordered more warships, carriers, and troops into the region (Marine Expeditionary Force) – after which the blockade of Iranian ports was eventually put in place.

Now amid the heavier US naval and combined forces build-up in the CENTCOM area, “We are in a better spot now than on February 27,” a US official said to NBC. “We have more firepower and capability.”

The reported name change appears part of the Trump administration’s effort to navigate around the War Powers Resolution, which is the 1973 law designed to limit executive war powers and reinforce Congress’s constitutional authority to declare war.

According to NBC, the name change would be to underscore how seriously the administration is considering resuming the war, and could allow Trump to argue that it restarts the 60-day clock that requires congressional authorization for war, by way of the name change loophole.

While Republicans hold control of the Senate and have a slim majority in the House, there have lately been signs of bipartisan frustration at how the war is going, and the coming financial impact on the American public.

Also, even though the Pentagon has its assets in place if fighting were to resume, fresh reporting in NY Times and elsewhere indicates that Iran too has re-armed and regrouped.

“U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains Substantial Missile Capabilities. Secret new assessments say Iran has operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting that its military remains far stronger than President Trump has asserted,” NY Times reports.

The report also indicates, “The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.”

This further opens up the possibility that US forces could sink into protracted quagmire should the White House choose to escalate the conflict through a renewed bombing campaign, or else launching some kind of ultra high-risk ground operation to recover Iran’s nuclear material.

Interesting how U.S. intelligence reports are fluctuating, one moment Iran’s military is obliterated, another it’s retaining its capabilities. No leadership, then reports of serious cracks in the system, then a conclusion that Mujtaba is consolidating power. That’s completely… https://t.co/3iZAfMhZel

— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@Alihashem) May 12, 2026

Trump is still insisting on taking Iran’s “nuclear dust” out of the country, but how that precisely happens is anyone’s guess – and would likely prove to be a long shot.

On Tuesday, speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said  his country’s military stands ready to “teach a lesson” to any aggressor as Trump has said the ceasefire is hanging by a thread. “Our armed forces are ready to respond and to teach a lesson for any aggression,” he said on social media. “A bad strategy and bad decisions always lead to bad results – the world already understands this.”

After yesterday’s hotter than expected CPI (driven in large part by Energy, but seeing some contagion into Services costs), this morning’s Producer Price print for April was expected to show a major surge in annual wholesale inflation.

With the eight straight monthly increase, PPI rose by a massive 1.4% MoM (vs +0.5% MoM exp) – the biggest MoM jump since March 2022, lifting PPI by a stunning 6.0% YoY (vs 4.8% YoY exp). That is the hottest PPI YoY since Dec 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

Services and Energy saw the biggest rise (while construction costs actually deflated very modestly)…

Core Producer Prices spiked 1.0% MoM (more than triple the +0.3% exp) smashing Core PPI YoY up 5.2% (also the hottest since Dec 2022)…

Source: Bloomberg

And finally, one could argue this is as bad as it gets for the energy component as oil prices have stabilized…

Source: Bloomberg

But of course, the pipeline of those energy costs is perhaps only just starting to trickle into the rest of the economy.

PPI triggered a spike in 2Y yields…

Now back above 4.00% at their highest since March with the market now pricing in a 50% chance of one rate-hike in 2026…

It appears any chance of Warsh cutting rates (as per Trump’s expectations) are off the table… for now.

Finally, there is perhaps a silver lining from this ugly PPI report. Other than airfares (which rose 3%) the components that feed through into PCE inflation were pretty tame; portfolio management fees dropped 2.4% and the various medical-care components showed a maximum rise of 0.3%.

That may mitigate the impact of the report, but it’s still hard to totally ignore the risk that inflation becomes a more pressing concern moving forward. 

Nuclear waste remains one of the most misunderstood aspects of modern energy production in the United States. Critics continue to portray it as a dangerous, unsolvable problem, yet the country has managed it safely and effectively for decades with an impeccable safety record. 

Spent fuel from commercial reactors sits securely in pools and dry casks at more than 70 sites across 35 states. Transportation casks have traveled millions of miles without any releases. Not that there was ever a concern for one of these casks breaking open, considering their testing involves being dropped from helicopters and struck by a rocket-propelled locomotive…

Nuclear waste shipping casks have been through a hell of a lot of testing. Now with Red Alert music. pic.twitter.com/D28AgF9Zgp

— Nick Touran (@whatisnuclear) January 17, 2026

France reprocesses the vast majority of its used fuel, demonstrating viable technology at commercial scale. In the United States, no significant radiation releases have occurred from commercial nuclear waste storage or handling in over half a century.

We previously covered Visual Capitalist’s depiction of nuclear waste around the world and how the most dangerous waste represents less than a quarter of one percent of the total nuclear waste. 

A recent Utility Dive article highlights shifting approaches to this issue and examines the Department of Energy’s proposal for “Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses.” These facilities would manage the entire nuclear fuel cycle, including reprocessing or recycling of the nation’s approximately 95,000 metric tons of spent fuel, which increases by roughly 2,000 tons each year. 

The campuses aim to combine waste management with regional economic benefits, creating long-term jobs and revenue streams for host states. Interest has already emerged from several states, including Utah, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, Idaho, and Nebraska.

TN is the global epicenter of nuclear energy, & we’re grateful for a new opportunity to lead the nation with a proposal to locate a @ENERGY Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus in Oak Ridge.

Link: https://t.co/019O2Hu3Sc pic.twitter.com/26NfsQahP4

— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) April 2, 2026

U.S. taxpayers currently bear the costs for waste management and legacy cleanup. The DOE’s Environmental Management program operates with an annual budget exceeding $8 billion, while the federal government’s liability for permanent disposal now stands at more than $56 billion. The Trump administration also recently asked for an expansion of the funding. 

Yet this material increasingly looks like a valuable resource rather than solely a liability. Private companies are beginning to compete aggressively for access to spent nuclear fuel. The DOE recently awarded over $19 million to firms including Oklo, Curio Solutions, Flibe Energy, and SHINE Technologies to advance recycling, transmutation, and isotope-harvesting technologies. 

Startups view the material as a feedstock for new reactor fuel, medical isotopes, and industrial applications rather than waste. As demand grows for high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) and specialized isotopes, competition for this resource is expected to intensify.

Nuclear waste is incredibly hazardous, if mishandled. But, America has not mishandled it. With private-sector innovation now treating spent fuel as a strategic asset, the longstanding “problem” is transforming into an economic opportunity.
 

Authored by Ted Newson via CapX,

At its peak, Britain was known as the workshop of the world. Sheffield produced high-quality steel, Manchester still had a strong textiles sector and the West Midlands was world-renowned for its cars. Glasgow, Sunderland and Newcastle were shipbuilding hubs, Stoke-on-Trent produced ceramics.

Cities around Britain provided steady employment for skilled tradespeople, keeping communities together and wealth distributed around the country. In the 1980s and ’90s, this was underpinned by looser employment regulations and strong energy security through North Sea oil and gas. Businesses could hire who they wanted, for a wage they were comfortable paying and without soaring energy bills to worry about. Just ten years ago, electricity prices were around £31/MWh, today they have almost tripled to around £90/MWh. When competitors such as the United States don’t have a nationwide carbon tax while Britain has had a carbon price floor since 2013, it is easy to see how business can quickly become uncompetitive.

Britain’s industrial sector was promised lower energy bills through renewables; instead, it is paying higher prices and additional taxes to subsidise green policies. The Climate Change Committee recently forecast offshore wind electricity prices of £35/MWh by 2040, the reality suggests that this is unlikely. Using intermittent renewables to power energy-intensive industries brings with it its own problems, creating high energy prices in wind and solar droughts when domestic firm power isn’t readily available.

Even by 1990, around one-sixth of Britain’s GDP came from the manufacturing industry. The country was still in the top five global manufacturing powers and possessed competitive steel, car, and chemical industries. At this time, our industrial energy prices were reasonably similar to the rest of Europe, with allies like Germany and Italy paying more than the UK. Today, the UK’s industrial energy prices have risen by 669 percent—dwarfing increases of 389 percent in Germany and 544 percent in Italy. A driving force behind this is underinvestment in reliable electricity generation and the idealistic belief that intermittent renewables, backed up by government subsidies, can replace firm sources of power such as coal and gas.

In the pursuit of lowering carbon emissions, Britain has abandoned its manufacturing sector. As we have artificially inflated energy prices through policy costs and made employing people harder, our industries have shifted to countries with more business-friendly environments. While rising comparative wage rates naturally encourage industry to shift overseas, the British government has further pushed industry away through deliberate choices. This has created job losses and regional decline as former manufacturing towns lose historic businesses.

Energy-intensive industry such as steel manufacture cannot survive when industrial energy prices are four times that of the United States. In fact, Britain has the fewest steel plants left in the G7, with plummeting production capabilities, especially for virgin steel. No matter how low other input costs are, such high energy costs will repel investment. A recent example of this is the collapse of the long-established pottery firm Denby. While Britain remains gifted with abundant, high-quality clay, energy prices and the transition to electric kilns have rendered the sector unsustainable.

This problem is much the same across the rest of Britain’s manufacturing sector. Energy prices drive up unit costs, before government legislation further entrenches high wage bills and punitive taxes. From every direction, the business sector is attacked—and manufacturers, as the most energy-intensive type of industry, are most exposed. Britain’s deindustrialisation has many causes, but shortcomings in energy and workforce policy go a long way toward explaining why many once-prosperous enterprises are now shutting down. Britain has already lost a significant share of the manufacturing capacity that once formed the bedrock of its economy and national security, and the decline continues.

That does not mean more government is the answer. A laissez-faire approach to workforce policy was a key reason behind the prosperity of Britain’s manufacturing sector as late as the 1990s. Industrial towns created reliable paths into work for young people without the need for state intervention, strengthening communities and keeping regional employment rates across Britain healthy.

It is government policy that keeps getting in the way. A rising minimum wage has pushed businesses to cut back on hiring, while post-1990s legislation has made it easier to unionise, harder to fire staff, and capped working times. This has increased staff costs and has made turnover harder, slowing the jobs market.

An advanced economy can typically rely on productivity gains to offset higher energy prices and wage rates. However, Britain’s dismal productivity growth in recent years, compounded by chronic underinvestment, has made that much harder to achieve—and the scale of recent energy price increases has rendered those traditional offsets inadequate. Even advanced industries such as pharmaceuticals and chemicals are now considering moving abroad. This risks losing jobs and undermining strategic domestic production.

Bringing back manufacturing to Britain is by no means an easy task. But prioritising low energy prices, on-the-job training and less heavyhanded labour regulation would allow sustainable businesses a fighting chance. Only by significantly improving our industrial competitiveness can we have any hope of bringing back Britain’s great industries of the past.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials have drafted a memorandum that could open a formal channel for Kiev to export battle-tested war technology to the U.S., while also easing the path for U.S. defense firms to form joint ventures with Ukrainian “war unicorns” to mass-produce low-cost, one-way attack drones.

The report comes from CBS News, citing three sources familiar with the matter, who say U.S. State Department officials and Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, are working on a new defense deal that would capitalize on innovations forged during the four-year grinding war in Ukraine, such as FPVs, AI kill chains, ground robots, drones, and other low-cost technologies that are now proliferating around the world.

Two weeks ago, we pointed out that it was inevitable that Ukrainian drone and counter-drone technologies would soon be exported to the U.S. We tracked U.S.-based Axon’s investment deal flow with Ukrainian firms, which suggested this technology was inbound for the U.S. market. Axon’s angle is selling to police forces nationwide.

We also noted that the passive acoustics early-warning counter-drone sector is going to heat up (read here), especially in the era of data centers. There are Ukrainian firms with battle-tested counter-UAS systems that the U.S. badly needs.

Also, last month, we joked that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went full “Lord of War” and could become the world’s top dealer of low-cost drone interceptors.

To our amazement, the U.S.-Iran conflict appears to have accelerated this:

• Zelensky Touts That 20 Countries Seek Ukraine Drone Deals

We noted last month:

Ukraine’s capital markets have been frozen by war, leaving many of the country’s battlefield-proven “war unicorns” starved of traditional funding. However, the Middle East conflict has accelerated a new export pathway, as drone warfare and AI-enabled kill chains reshape how militaries think about defense.

This is exactly what the CBS report said:

Drone collaboration with the U.S., Ukrainian officials told CBS News, would be mutually beneficial, as American financing would help both countries expand their defense production output.

Our view is that a flood of Ukrainian defense firms will transfer battlefield-proven technologies into the U.S. market, tap into deep pools of capital, and leverage underused industrial capacity to scale production of low-cost attack drones and interceptors – this is exactly what the Department of War wants.

This comes as Russia, China, and a growing list of countries race to stockpile drones and interceptors before the next major conflict.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

A horror report has laid bare the EU’s staggering rise in sex crimes over the last decade. Sexual violence offences have nearly doubled since 2014, while recorded rapes have surged 150 per cent. 

Around 1.9 million sexual offences were logged between 2015 and 2024 alone, with 256,302 occurring in 2024. Between 2015 and 2024, EU authorities recorded 664,293 rapes. The vast majority of victims were women.

The findings, compiled by The Campaign for an Independent Britain, Stand for Our Sovereignty, and think tank Facts4EU, tie directly into the migration crisis that began in 2015 under Angela Merkel. 

Horror report lays bare the EU’s staggering rise in sex crimes as fears soar over PM opening the floodgates https://t.co/7HmFYG6JCr

— GB News (@GBNEWS) May 11, 2026

Critics warn that restoring any form of freedom of movement could import the same wave of violent crime the continent is now battling.

The report’s authors note the sharpest increases coincide with the 2015 migration surge, though they caution that definitions and reporting practices vary by country. 

Trends, however, do not lie. Sexual violence offences jumped 94 per cent between 2014 and 2024. Rapes rose 150 per cent in the same period.

This latest report matches what we have already documented. Rape reports in Spain have surged by a whopping 322 per cent over the last decade.

The pattern repeats in Germany, where foreigners are vastly overrepresented in violent crimes and rape cases have risen 72 per cent since 2018.

This data comes as Keir Starmer faces fresh pressure not to fling open Britain’s borders through any EU “reset.”

Starmer’s government lost control of more than 30 councils and around 1,500 councillors last week. Rather than double down on secure borders and British sovereignty, he is eyeing a Brussels reset that could expose the UK to the very crime wave now engulfing the EU.

Britain has struggled with rising sexual offences linked to illegal migration and certain communities, but re-entering EU free-movement schemes would only make the problem worse. 

Starmer’s talk of “a new direction for Britain” at the upcoming EU summit has sovereignty campaigners on high alert. After Labour’s heavy local election losses, opponents fear he will trade Brexit red lines for single-market access – and that price could include renewed freedom of movement.

The message from this latest batch of stats is clear. Unchecked migration from cultures that do not share Western values on women’s safety leads to more rapes, more sexual violence, and more shattered lives. 

Sovereignty, secure borders, and putting your own citizens first are not optional extras – they are the bare minimum required to protect women and children.

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Authored by Vijay Jayaraj via PJMedia.com,

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called the nuclear phaseout a “serious strategic mistake” that left Germany short of firm power that turned the Energiewende into the most expensive energy transition on the planet. This is an early marker for a developing worldwide retreat from policies that sidelined nuclear power and demonized coal, oil, and natural gas.

German and Japanese Nuclear Embarrassment

Germany stubbornly closed its last three functioning nuclear reactors in April 2023 right in the middle of a crippling energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine. As pragmatists predicted, German citizens now suffer under punishingly high electricity prices and remain heavily dependent on imported energy.

The green dream was sold as a route to “cheap” renewables, yet the reality for German households and factories has been record‑high electricity prices, complex subsidies for favored businesses and individuals who conform to the climate narrative, and a grid that struggles on windless days or under gray skies. 

Japan made a remarkably similar error but is finally correcting course. After the Fukushima disaster, the government panicked and shut down all 54 of its nuclear reactors. Today, Japan is slowly restarting those idle units.

The pattern is plain to see. Countries abandon dependable power sources under political pressure, then spend years rebuilding what they had demonized and dismantled.

Regret Over Abandoning Fossil Fuels

This is why I anticipate a cascade of similar reversals by national leaders who participated in a destructive campaign that stripped grids of dependable, affordable, and abundant coal, oil, and natural gas.

Politicians are already quietly hitting the brakes on their aggressive fossil fuel phaseouts when reality bites. The massive Groningen gas field was scheduled for permanent closure due to localized earthquake risks. Yet in 2024, the Dutch Senate delayed the final shutdown vote when lawmakers demanded guarantees that abandoning the domestic resource would not jeopardize energy security.

Within a week of the German chancellor’s admission of a nuclear energy fiasco, the country’s energy minister lamented at an oil and gas conference the push of net zero policies, indirectly referencing the abandonment of fossil fuels.

In the United States, President Donald Trump took executive actions aimed at preventing some coal plants from closing, including orders that kept aging facilities like the J.H. Campbell plant in Michigan running to “avoid summer blackouts.”

South Africa’s Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe consistently fights international pressure to quickly abandon coal. “You don’t destroy what you have on the basis of hope that something better is coming,” he says. Mantashe rightly insists that protecting the ability of the state to supply energy must remain a priority.

India offers the most powerful example of this energy pragmatism. The country has signaled that coal will remain the backbone of the economy for decades, even as its diplomats make empty promises about reaching net-zero by 2070. Deputy Power Minister Shripad Naik recently revealed that India had added a massive 7.2 gigawatts of new coal capacity in the 2025–26 fiscal year alone and would add 307 gigawatts of total coal capacity by 2035.

A majority of Western countries, especially in Europe, utterly lack this basic foresight on energy security. Many countries have locked in policies that tear down coal, oil, gas, and nuclear plants before they have built credible alternatives. They chase targets for emissions reductions. They downplay the costs to their citizens.

Energy security has become more prominent in the news because of turmoil in the Middle East. Yet a war may not be needed to launch the next generation of energy crises. When the next prolonged cold spell, drought, or demand surge hits, the weakness of the anti-fossil fuel approach will show up in higher bills, rolling blackouts, and public anger.

Russia on Tuesday announced that it has successfully completed a test of the “Sarmat” intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a new ‘doomsday’ weapon which has had a troubled roll out and development, but which has not yet been fully deployed as part of Russia’s military arsenal. 

While in 2023 the cutting edge heavy missile was reportedly put on ‘combat alert’ – according to some headlines at the time – the following year saw at least one test deemed unsuccessful and a failure. This was seen as delaying its full combat deployment.

Interfax was the first to report Tuesday’s new Sarmat test, with Russian President Putin in follow-up remarking that its range could exceed 35,000. And Reuters has followed with:

Russia has ​successfully tested ‌its new Sarmat intercontinental ​ballistic missile, ​Sergei Karakayev, the ⁠commander ​of the strategic ​missile forces, told Russian President ​Vladimir ​Putin on Tuesday. Putin said ‌that ⁠Russia planned to put the ​Sarmat ​on ⁠combat duty by ​the end ​of ⁠this year.

The nuclear-capable Sarmat ICBM was previously touted by President Putin as being capable hitting “any target on Earth” – and is widely believed to be by far the longest-range missile in Russia’s arsenal (or in the world for that matter). It’s been nicknamed by NATO the “SATAN II”. 

The Sarmat, which is in a “superheavy” class of missiles, has a short initial boost phase which gives it better ability to elude all conventional anti-missile defense systems, given this results in a much smaller window of time to track it. By design, its super long-range gives it the ability to reach targets thousands of missiles away in the United States or Europe.

According to its specifications, it’s by far the heaviest missile Russia possesses – at over 200 tons – and heavier than all foreign competitors: 

This allows it to carry around 15 warheads, up to 750kt. (The bomb US dropped on Hiroshima was 15kt.)

This would be enough to wipe out a country the size of France. It can also carry hypersonic missiles, rendering most missile defense systems ineffective.

It has long been in development – since 2009 – and has been in testing phase for many years, some test flights of which may have failed. The Sarmat has been touted as being able to reach speeds of nearly 16,000 mph.

Putin early in the program described: “The new complex has the highest tactical and technical characteristics and is capable of overcoming all modern means of anti-missile defense. It has no analogues in the world and won’t have for a long time to come.”

❗️ President Putin Receives Report on Successful ‘Sarmat’ Intercontinental Missile Test – Kremlin

The successful launch will allow the first regiment to be put on duty by the end of the year, according to the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces.

📹: Russian MoD pic.twitter.com/6euvdKssds

— RT_India (@RT_India_news) May 12, 2026

But despite this rosy presentation of the Sarmat’s purported capabilities, it has faced an uphill battle from the start, and there were manufacturing problems being reported even nearly a decade ago. For example:

The heavy, liquid-fueled Sarmat ICBM is being developed as a replacement for Russia’s older R-36M missile (NATO Reporting name: SS-18 Satan). The Sarmat’s large payload will allow for up to 10 heavy warheads or 15 lighter ones, or as many as 24 hypersonic Yu-71 glide vehicles (Sputnik News, June 11, 2016). Production of the new missile and its prototype was entrusted to the Krasnoyarsk Machine Building Plant (Krasmash), which suffers from serious equipment depreciation issues—in 2010, fewer than 20 percent of machines at its fabrication facility were less than 20 years old (T. V. Yankova, A. M. Ragozina, “Techno-Economic Justification of Equipment Modernization at Krasmash,” Actual Problems of Aviation and Cosmonautics, No. 6: 2, 2010). The quality and lead time of the order will depend on the modernization of the production facilities at Krasmash. Efforts toward this end have already started: more than 16 billion rubles ($274 million) will reportedly be invested by 2019. And Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has taken a personal interest in making sure these modernization goals are met.

But by now the Kremlin is stressing that prior troubles have been resolved and smoothed out, and that this nuclear-capable beast is set to be the heavy ballistic long-range missile of Russia’s future defense.

Via Remix News,

Last week, reports that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is investigating France’s right-wing, anti-migration party National Rally (RN) for misallocation of EU funds made the rounds. At its core, the case involves a complaint filed last December by the association AC!! Anti-Corruption with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) in Paris. 

These allegations have already been contested by RN, but the party must also now face scrutiny from Brussels, as the funds involved include EU money.

The charge is that the National Rally misused the funds by allocating money received for media training for its leader, Jordan Bardella, not for his work as an MEP, but with the aim of helping him to prepare for France’s 2027 presidential election. Other members of the party have also been named in connection with the same charge.

Bardella posted on X that the investigation is not news and certainly nothing new for the party, labeling the charges as politically motivated slander.

Nous n’avons strictement rien à nous reprocher. L’association à l’origine de la plainte est une organisation d’extrême-gauche revendiquée, dont les déclarations agressives laissent peu de doute quant à leurs intentions.

J’ai déposé plainte il y a plusieurs semaines pour… https://t.co/GNkyGB5lbd

— Jordan Bardella (@J_Bardella) May 7, 2026

“We have absolutely nothing to reproach ourselves for. The association behind the complaint is a self-proclaimed far-left organization, whose aggressive statements leave little doubt as to their intentions. I filed a complaint several weeks ago for slanderous denunciation,” he wrote, while assuring that he and his party would fully cooperate with the EPPO.

National Rally has been in the top spot in recent polling, despite its former leader, Marine Le Pen, having been sidelined by a similar case last year. She is appealing that decision, but for now has made it clear that Bardella will run on the RN ticket for president.

The party’s popularity, with or without Le Pen, cannot be a surprise to its rivals, given the slew of issues France has been suffering from due to its policy of mass immigration and lax deportation: Elderly rape, minor prostitution, failing education, robberies, violent rape, concerns over sharia law, and murder. As the mother of 18-year-old Théo, who was stabbed to death by a Senegalese migrant who ended up avoiding prison, said: “You can kill in France with impunity.”

Meanwhile, the media and the left prefer not to draw attention to the link between increased migration and violence.

And yet, a new website and real estate browser extension for Chrome is offering data on immigration levels, insecurity, and Islamization rates of neighborhoods for prospective buyers in the latest sign that the French public is highly concerned about record-breaking numbers of immigrants.

According to a recent ifop poll, 60 percent of French believe there is “a replacement of the French population by non-European populations, mainly from the African continent.” The same poll found that 66 percent see it as a bad development. Only 9 percent noted it as good.

This is a major factor why the National Rally has been surging in the polls, and why left-wing parties and activist organizations will do anything to bring them down — first targeting Le Pen and now Bardella. Other party politicians and staff members have been implicated in both cases.

Such efforts are not unique to France, with efforts ongoing for years over in Germany to bring down the anti-migration AfD party, which has also seen a massive rise in popularity.

With reports indicating France is spending over €2 billion a year on housing and healthcare for asylum seekers and illegal migrants, RN’s rivals will need more than accusations of misappropriated funds to stop voters from exercising their desire for change.

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