CRUXMEDIA

The United States has blocked a Chinese-backed crypto mining firm from owning land near a strategic nuclear missile base in Wyoming. On May 13, the Biden administration said that the mining firm’s proximity to the base could pose a “national security risk”. The order forces the divestment of property operated as a crypto mining facility near the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. The Francis E. Warren Air Force Base houses the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. MineOne Partners Ltd, a firm partly backed by Chinese nationals, and its affiliates are also required to remove certain equipment on the site. Watch the video to know more.

The US has given Saudi Arabia given an informal green light to try to revive a peace deal with the Houthis. The move comes as Yemen-based rebels have been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November. The proposed Yemen UN roadmap for peace was agreed in outline in early December but progress was immediately frozen. Last week, the Houthis claimed responsibility for two missile attacks in the Gulf of Aden. The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on maritime targets, capturing one ship and sinking another, according to the US Maritime Administration. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has been heavily affected due to the threat.

A fight broke out in the Georgian parliament during a debate over the controversial "foreign agents” bill. Georgian lawmakers pushed and shoved each other as the debate heated up. Lawmaker Dimitri Samkharadze from the ruling Georgian Dream party charged at Levan Khabeishvili of the United National Movement. This was after Khabeishvili accused him of orchestrating attacks on opposition supporters. The Georgian parliament voted 84 to 30 to pass the bill, which critics see as a danger to democratic freedoms, in its third and final reading. The legislation now faces a likely veto by Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, which parliament can override by holding an additional vote on the bill.

Right-wing Israeli extremists ransacked at least seven Gaza-bound humanitarian aid trucks on May 14. They were seen throwing supplies from the trucks onto the ground, with the contents of opened cartons lying spilled across the road. Four people, including a minor, were arrested for the attack at the Tarqumiya checkpoint, west of Hebron in the Israeli occupied West Bank. The Tzav 9 Order 9 group claimed credit for blocking the shipment, claiming that the aid “goes directly into the hands of Hamas." Watch the video to find how Israel’s western allies have reacted to the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he backed China's plan for a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine. In an interview to China's Xinhua news agency, Putin said Beijing had a full understanding of what lay behind the “crisis.” Putin also said Russia remained open to dialogue and talks to solve the conflict, if negotiations take its interests into account. Putin also said Moscow and its partners reject the West’s attempts to “impose an order based on lies and hypocrisy.” The Russian President will arrive in China just over a week since entering a new term in office, after extending his rule until 2030. His visit, set to take place May 16-17, mirrors Xi’s own state visit to Moscow just over a year ago. Watch the video to find out more.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said an Israeli soldier was killed during fighting in the southern Gaza Strip on May 14. It marked the first fatality in the Israel military’s push into Southern Gaza’s Rafah city. The slain soldier named as Sgt Ira Yair Gispan, 19, served in IDF’s 7th Armoured Brigade’s 75th Battalion. Gispan’s death brought the IDF’s toll during its ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and operations on the border to 273. Hamas’s Qassam Brigades released a video showing its fighters attacking Israeli tanks and bulldozers in Rafah. The Israeli military named a Hezbollah member who was killed after it carried out an air strike targeting his vehicle in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. The IDF said Hussein Ibrahim Makki was a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Southern Front unit and planned and carried out “terror attacks” against Israel.

Russia’s new defence minister Andrei Belousov said that Moscow's priority was to secure victory against Ukraine while minimising human losses. He also said Moscow was not discussing a new wave of mobilisation, "or some kind of emergency measures" to boost troop numbers. Ukraine's military said its forces pulled back to new positions in two areas of the northeastern Kharkiv region. A top Ukrainian general responsible for defending Kharkiv was sacked on May 13 amid Russia’s advances in the region, as per Kyiv Post. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on May 14 that Russia should and must pay to rebuild that what Putin has destroyed in Ukraine. Watch the video to find out more.

The Turkish President reportedly held an emergency meeting with the heads of intelligence and the Ministry of Justice, the Turkiye newspaper reported. The meeting came after Recep Tayyip Erdogan's coalition partner warned of a possible coup d'état being prepared by law enforcement agencies. Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli warned of a possible repeat of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. The Turkish president reportedly huddled the Justice Minister and National Intelligence Organisation director at the president's residence overnight on May 14.

Russia integrated the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into its submarine fleet, a significant upgrade to its strategic nuclear arsenal. The Bulava missile was accepted after rigorous testing, including a successful test launch from a distance of 5,632 km. Russian state media quoted the missile's chief designer Yuri Solomonov as saying its adoption was announced in a decree dated May 7. The decree was signed the same day that Putin began his new six-year term in the Kremlin. Putin warned the West that direct intervention by NATO* troops in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear conflict. Watch the video to find out more.

A Russian general in charge of personnel issues has been detained on suspicion of engaging in criminal activity, Tass news agency reported on May 14. News of the arrest of Lieutenant-General Yuri Kuznetsov came amid a wider overhaul of Russia’s defense ministry. Kuznetsov served as the head of the 8th Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces from 2010 to 2023. He was detained "on suspicion of criminal activity”, Tass reported, adding that his workplace and residence had been searched. Currency worth the equivalent of $1 million as well as "gold coins" and other "luxury items" are said to have been found in his possession.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on May 14 to show US solidarity with Ukraine as it struggles in the battlefield. Blinken arrived by overnight train from Poland on an unannounced trip and met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky told Blinken Kyiv needs two Patriot air defence batteries for Kharkiv as the region is being pummelled by Russian air strikes. Russia continued its attack on towns and villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. Ukraine's security council chief said Kyiv sees no risk of an imminent ground assault on Kharkiv. US President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian-enriched uranium on May 13. Watch the video to find out more.

The Israeli military responds to the death of a UN employee and the injury of another in southern Gaza’s Rafah on May 13. The IDF said that the pair were hit in an active combat zone, but further details are under investigation. According to a UN spokesman, the pair were driving to the European Hospital in southern Gaza when one of the staffers was killed. The IDF says that according to an initial review, the UN vehicle was hit “amid fighting in an area defined as an active combat zone.” The IDF claimed that it had "not been made aware of the route of the vehicle", without attributing responsibility for the strike. The attack marked the first death of a UN international employee in the Gaza war, even as a large number of local staff have been killed.

Ukraine's ability to intercept Russian missile attacks has declined, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on May 13. The worsening performance of Ukraine’s air defences comes as Russia increases drone and missile attacks, and fires more harder-to-hit weapons. Ukraine intercepted around 46% of Russian missiles in the last six months, which is a sharp fall from the 73% it achieved in the preceding six-months. In April, Ukraine’s interception rate fell to 30% for missiles fired by Russia on Ukrainian targets, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Watch the video to find out more.

The US and Taiwan navies conducted unofficial joint drills in the Pacific in April, Reuters reported. The drill was conducted amid daily Chinese incursions into Taiwan's air defence identification zone and drills by Chinese forces near the island. According to officials quoted by Reuters, the drills, which were not publicised, took place in the Western Pacific. Officials also said "multiple military assets" were involved and the drill was dubbed "unplanned sea encounters" as it did not officially exist. Another official said the "unplanned encounters" of the two navies involved mostly basic exercises. Watch the video to find out more.

Israel stepped up its bombardment on the eastern areas of the Rafah city of Gaza, killing people in an airstrike on a house in the Brazil neighbourhood. Residents claim Israeli tanks have cut off the Salahuddin Road that bisects the eastern part of Rafah, which remains a "ghost town”. Israeli tanks, under cover of heavy fire from air and ground, pushed further into Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 13. The armed wing of Hamas said its fighters were engaged in gun battles with Israeli forces in one of the streets east of Rafah, and in the east of Jabalia. Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that an all-out Israeli offensive on Rafah would provoke "anarchy" without eliminating Hamas.

Russia pounded over 30 villages and towns in Kharkiv after launching a ground offensive in the Ukrainian border region, officials said. Ukraine's General Staff acknowledged that Russia "currently is achieving tactical success" after driving a wedge into Kyiv's defences. In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that fighting was going on in a string of villages in the Kharkiv region. Russia has slammed US silence on the deadly Ukrainian attack on Belgorod. Ukrainian forces struck an oil terminal and electrical substation in western Russia, a security source in Kyiv told AFP. Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said if the West wants to solve the Ukraine conflict on the battlefield, "so be it." Watch the video to find out more.

Sweden has offered to host nuclear weapons during wartime amid calls for the new NATO member to ban their deployment. Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson said he was open to allowing nuclear weapons on Swedish soil in wartime. Sweden's parliament is set to vote on a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the US in June. Swedish Peace and Arbitration Association has demanded the government to mention in the DCA agreement that Sweden will not allow nukes on its soil. However, PM Kristersson said "in a war situation it's a completely different matter, (it) would depend entirely on what would happen”.

The parents of over 900 Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza have signed a letter urging the military to call off an offensive in Rafah. The parents addressed the letter to Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). US Secretary of State Blinken has warned that the US may suspend the sale of more weapons systems to Israel if it proceeds with a ground offensive in Rafah. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers were heckled on May 13 at Memorial Day events held in honour of fallen soldiers and Israeli civilian victims.

The US formally ordered it all 1,000 combat troops to withdraw from Niger. The drawdown, which could still be reversed until it is complete, does not include embassy security personnel, Politico reported on May 10. The order came after Niger’s military junta declared it would revoke its military cooperation deal with Washington back in April. Later, the Pentagon announced that it would begin discussing plans for “an orderly and responsible withdrawal”. US officials had continued to negotiate with the junta over the terms of the withdrawal. Watch the video to find out more.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has ruled out the possibility of NATO forces intercepting Russian missiles over Ukraine. Speaking to The Times, Cameron said “there are many things we can do to help Ukrainians that are non-escalatory”. This included supplying anti-tank weapons, long-range artillery and other military aid that Russia has repeatedly warned would only exacerbate the conflict. He made the remark after being asked why UK intercepted missiles “going into Israel but no Ukraine.” Moscow had earlier warned European leaders from intentionally stirring up tensions around the situation in Ukraine.

In a major blow to Ukraine, its FrankenSAM air defence system was reportedly destroyed by Russia in Kharkiv. A video on social media showed the destruction of the hybrid FrankenSAM system. According to Russian military bloggers, the system was destroyed by the Russian troops using the Lancet loitering munition. This is a major milestone as it marks the first reported destruction of the FrankenSAM system since its introduction into the Ukrainian battlefield. The Eurasian Times reported that Russian bloggers claimed that a second FrankenSAM was also destroyed using an Iskander ballistic missile. Several Ukrainian military bloggers dismissed the claims as fabricated. Watch the vidoe to find out more.

Hezbollah announced that it launched a new heavy rocket to strike an Israeli military position in Mount Dov in Israel on May 12. In a brief statement, Hezbollah that it had launched several Jihad Mughniyeh rockets, for the first time. It said the rocket targeted a gathering of Israeli troops near the Zebdine site in the Shebaa Farms. The statement also added that the projectiles hit the designated targets precisely and caused significant damage in the area. Watch the video to find out more.

Egypt announced on May 12 that it would support South Africa’s lawsuit in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. Egypt’s backing of the case assumes significance as it has been one of the key mediators in the continuing ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas The proceedings at the ICJ in The Hague are currently underway to examine South Africa's claim. South Africa said that Israel's offensive in Gaza, initiated after Hamas's massacre, aims at "the destruction of the population" in the Palestinian enclave. Watch the video to find out how is Egypt-Israel peace deal at risk?

In a major cabinet reshuffle since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has removed his longtime ally Sergei Shoigu as defence minister. The Kremlin said Andrei Belousov, a former deputy prime minister who specialises in economics, will replace Shoigu. The 68-year-old has had a decades-long political career of unmatched longevity in post-Soviet Russia. Watch the video to find out why did Putin replace Shoigu?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to defend Kharkiv as Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack in the area. On May 10, Russian forces launched an armoured ground attack near Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, opening a new front in the ongoing conflict. Ukraine sent reinforcements as fighting raged in the border areas of the region, said the country’s Ministry of Defence. Watch the video to know more about the Russia-Ukraine war.