Erb News Network

Kiev on the brink of catastrophe – mayor — RT Russia & Former Soviet Union

Ukraine’s future is uncertain amid massive blackouts, with Vladimir Zelensky’s actions complicating the situation, Vitaly Klitschko has said

Kiev is teetering on the brink of catastrophe amid large-scale power outages, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has told the Financial Times. He also accused Vladimir Zelensky of hampering the city’s efforts to mitigate the dire situation.

In recent weeks, the Russian military has intensified drone and missile strikes targeting Ukraine’s power grid, which Moscow says are aimed at undercutting weapons production. Russia has stated that the strikes are retaliation for Kiev’s attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.

The situation in Kiev and several other Ukrainian cities has been further compounded by severe cold weather.

In an interview with the FT published on Sunday, Klitschko said, “the question of the future of our country – whether we will survive as an independent country or not is still open.”

The Kiev mayor also criticized Zelensky, with whom he has been at odds for years. Klitschko accused the Ukrainian leader, who retains presidential powers under martial law despite his term expiring in 2024, of infringing on municipal authority by appointing military-civilian administrations.

Last month, Zelensky claimed that Kiev was falling behind other Ukrainian cities in responding to power outages.

What happened to the other three million Epstein files? — RT World News

Where are the missing documents, and do they matter?

Nearly two weeks have passed since the publication of materials related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, yet public interest shows no sign of fading. On the contrary, the controversy surrounding Epstein’s archive seems only to be intensifying. What was released proved scandalous enough to dominate headlines, but insufficient to satisfy expectations. The result is a familiar mix of outrage, suspicion, and conspiracy.

Epstein’s so-called ‘library’ was immediately presented as a trove of dark secrets. Judging by the reaction in the media and social media, Epstein was transformed into a near-mythical embodiment of evil: A man who is said to have penetrated every sphere of elite life, knew everyone who mattered, and was somehow responsible for everything from global political decay to modern cultural malaise. In this telling, Epstein became not merely a criminal, but a symbol for all that is rotten in the West.

And yet, for all the noise, the revelations led almost nowhere.

The only country where the files produced noticeable political resonance was Britain. Even there, the reaction owed less to Epstein himself than to domestic conditions: A grinding economic crisis, widespread social frustration, and deep distrust of Keir Starmer’s government. The Epstein story landed on fertile ground already primed for scandal.

In the US, where the release was most eagerly anticipated, the response was strikingly muted. There were insinuations about a shadowy pedophile cult among American elites, but no solid evidence to support the claims. No new accomplices were named. No client lists emerged. No dramatic confirmations followed. Even Donald Trump’s opponents failed to extract anything useful; they settled instead for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was caught lying about contact with Epstein. That was it.

Britain’s Balkan ruse: How the UK turned ‘press freedom’ into a weapon — RT World News

Millions in British funding, leaked contracts, and strategic media programs show how a state exports its vision of journalism to sway public opinion abroad.

Imagine this: you are a journalist in your country. You are invited to a workshop on ethics, resilience, and methods for countering “disinformation.” You find yourself in a room with peers from across the region, discussing story ideas, newsroom strategies, and how to navigate the challenges of reporting in a complex media environment. Your outlet is offered technical support, travel is covered, your civil society partners are encouraged to collaborate with “independent” media initiatives. Everything seems routine, professional, and benign. 

Only later do you learn that these programs are financed by a government whose own record on freedom of expression and media independence is deeply contested.

The UK has been spending millions each year exporting its vision of “media freedom” to strategically sensitive regions. Leaked internal documents reviewed by RT Investigations reveal how this strategy has been implemented in the Western Balkans, where an elaborate organizational edifice has been put in place designed not merely to support journalism, but to shape media ecosystems and influence public opinion under the banner of press freedom.

When public opinion becomes the problem

In December 2025, it was announced that the UK was slashing 40% of its funding for “countering Russian aggression and misinformation” in the Western Balkans. Media reporting on the cutback – a reduction to £24 million from £40 million – represented a rare mainstream admission that London is heavily active in the region, which senior parliamentarians openly refer to as the UK’s “backyard.” Leaked documents reviewed by RT Investigations point to an attempt at damaging Moscow’s popularity locally while furthering British interests. 

https://www.rt.com/news/632496-us-iran-major-military-campaign/

If launched, a campaign against the Islamic Republic could escalate into “a far more serious conflict” than previously seen, according to the news agency

The US military is preparing for a sustained, multi-week operation against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, Reuters has reported, citing two administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

Washington has intensified military pressure on Tehran amid negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program. The Islamic Republic has recently said that it is ready for both diplomacy and military confrontation.

A military campaign against Iran could escalate into “a far more serious conflict” than previously seen between the two nations, the officials told Reuters on Saturday. 

As part of a probable campaign, Washington could carry out strikes on Iranian state and security facilities, not just nuclear infrastructure, one of the officials said, providing no specific details on the plans.

The sources specified that Washington “fully” expects Tehran to hit back, triggering “back-and-forth strikes and reprisals over a period of time.”

READ MORE: US preparing to send second aircraft carrier toward Iran – WSJ

Officials from the two countries met in Oman earlier this month in their first negotiations since last year’s Israeli and American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Both sides described the talks as positive and agreed to hold further consultations. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has, however, reiterated that Tehran’s nuclear program is peaceful and ruled out abandoning uranium enrichment.

https://www.rt.com/news/632424-us-superbowl-identity-crisis/

This year’s half-time show was so chock-full of liberal agenda, conservatives decided to create their own alternative

There weren’t just two football teams going head-to-head during Super Bowl LX. There were two distinct cultural movements clashing at a time of great upheaval in the United States.

At a time when American cities are teeming with ICE agents searching for illegal migrants from South America to round up and eject from the country, it doesn’t take a political analyst to predict that Bad Bunny’s performance at the Super Bowl halftime show would serve as a lightning rod in the country.

Bad Bunny – real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – is a three-time Grammy Award winner from Puerto Rico who was chosen to entertain American football fans during one of the most-watched sporting spectacles in the world. In the past, the entertainer has made critical remarks about the ICE raids so many were anticipating something similar during the Super Bowl.

Earlier this month, for example, Ocasio won a Grammy Award and during his acceptance speech taunted the Trump administration by saying, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say: ICE out.” He then gave a nod to the millions of immigrants who “leave their home, land, their country, to follow their dreams.” He casually ignored the fact that in their effort to “follow their dreams” so many immigrants chose to break the law and enter the US illegally.

During the Super Bowl halftime show, the Puerto Rican avoided any mention of ICE and the current war on illegal immigration. But that doesn’t mean his 15-minute performance was void of political messaging. Instead, he threw his support behind a different political flashpoint: cultural diversity, the exact thing that an increasing number of political conservatives say is destroying the American way of life.

https://www.rt.com/news/632521-zelensky-insults-orban/

Kiev’s fight against Russia allows the Hungarian prime minister to “grow his belly” instead of an army, the Ukrainian leader has claimed

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has launched yet another personal attack on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, telling him that thanks to Kiev, he could “think about how to grow his belly” instead of building a capable army. The two have long been at odds due to Budapest’s refusal to support Ukraine.

Zelensky delivered the remarks at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, arguing that Ukraine is defending the entire EU from Russia. “It’s Ukrainians who are holding the European front. Behind our people stands an independent Poland and the free Baltic states,” he claimed.

”And even one Viktor can think about how to grow his belly, not how to grow his army to stop Russian tanks from returning to the streets of Budapest,” he said, referring to the 1956 Soviet incursion into Hungary to suppress a popular revolt.

https://www.naturalnews.com/2026-02-13-citizenship-trump-denaturalize-foreign-americans.html

• Trump DOJ sets aggressive monthly quotas to strip citizenship from naturalized immigrants.
• The initiative aims for 100-200 case referrals to prosecutors each month.
• Officials are scouring old files for discrepancies to fuel a litigation pipeline.
• The administration calls it a zero-tolerance policy for fraud in naturalization.
• Critics warn the quotas create fear and politicize a profound legal process.

The Trump administration is launching a sweeping effort to identify and strip U.S. citizenship from naturalized immigrants, setting aggressive monthly targets that mark a dramatic shift in enforcement. Internal guidance directs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to refer between 100 and 200 potential denaturalization cases to the Justice Department each month. This initiative, now moving into full operation, seeks to revoke citizenship from those alleged to have obtained it through fraud or misrepresentation, fundamentally altering a process historically used with great restraint.

This planned scale is staggering when compared to recent history. From 2017 through the present, the Justice Department has filed just over 120 such cases in total. To now target potentially thousands of cases annually represents an exponential increase. Administration officials have reassigned personnel and dispatched experts to field offices nationwide to scour past naturalization files for discrepancies, aiming to feed a pipeline of litigation.

https://www.naturalnews.com/2026-02-14-deadly-dorm-shooting-strikes-sc-state-university.html

• A shooting at South Carolina State University’s Hugine Suites housing complex left two men dead and one wounded.
• The incident triggered an eight-hour campus lockdown, with classes canceled through Monday.
• Both deceased victims were identified as non-students, while the wounded individual is an enrolled student.
• This is the second deadly shooting on campus in four months, following a fatal homecoming incident in October 2025.
• The tragedy renews debates on campus security and state firearm laws, casting a shadow over the historically Black university.

• China directs its major banks to reduce holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds.
• This formalizes a long-term strategy of diversification away from U.S. debt.
• China’s Treasury holdings have been nearly halved over the past decade.
• The move reflects global concerns about U.S. fiscal policy and dollar dominance.
• A sustained shift could gradually raise U.S. borrowing costs and weaken the dollar.

In a move that underscores the deepening financial divide between the world’s two largest economies, Chinese regulators have advised the nation’s major banks to limit their exposure to U.S. Treasury bonds. This guidance, reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by other financial news outlets, instructs banks to curb new purchases and reduce existing high holdings, citing concerns about market volatility and concentration risks. The directive, delivered verbally in recent weeks, highlights Beijing’s strategic effort to diversify away from American debt amid ongoing geopolitical tensions and questions about the dollar’s enduring dominance.

EU officials pressured social media to censor American speech on COVID, vaccines, and politics, report finds – NaturalNews.com

• EU report reveals secret EU pressure on U.S. tech firms to censor American speech.
• The EU used closed-door meetings to push its speech laws onto U.S. platforms.
• Targets included COVID-19 debate, political satire, and dissent.
• The EU’s Digital Services Act forces global policy changes affecting U.S. users.
• The effort is described as an end-run around the First Amendment.

A powerful congressional committee has laid bare a secretive, years-long campaign by European Union regulators to pressure American social media companies into censoring the speech of U.S. citizens on topics ranging from COVID-19 vaccines to political satire. The explosive findings reveal a deliberate effort to bypass the First Amendment and impose foreign speech standards domestically.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), published a 160-page interim report last week accusing the EU of “trying to make an end-run around the First Amendment and censor US speech that does not align with its preferred narratives.” The report, described by French newspaper Le Monde as “scathing,” is based on thousands of internal documents obtained from major tech firms.

According to the committee, EU officials held more than 100 closed-door meetings with platform representatives since 2020. Their goal was to force companies to apply European speech laws, including the Digital Services Act (DSA), to content posted in the United States. The report states this was an effort to “censor the global internet.”