U.S. seizure of Russian tanker marks rare escalation in sanctions enforcement against "dark fleet," but experts say move unlikely to trigger confrontation.

Russia has strongly condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker. It heralds a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington that could spread to other areas and affect President Donald Trump’s efforts to persuade Russia to end its nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

First came Russia’s “turtle tank”, a metal shed rumbling across the battlefield. Then Ukraine laughed at the so-called “hairy tank”, coated in long, wavy metal wires.

Russia has launched an Oreshnik missile into Ukraine for the second time since the full-scale war began 2022, in a strike Kyiv’s allies say is meant as a warning for the West. Here’s what we know.

Chinese, Russian and Iranian warships have launched a week of naval drills with host South African off the coast of Cape Town as geopolitical tensions run high over the United States’ intervention in Venezuela.

Despite a close relationship with Caracas stretching back for decades, Russia has been reserved in its response to the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

The attack was just the second time that Moscow had launched the nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic weapon.

Simon Migliano, who compiled the Top10VPN shutdown report, told me “Iran’s current nationwide blackout is a blunt instrument intended to crush dissent, starkly different from the sophisticated, slow-burn digital censorship we’re seeing in Russia.”