One of the leaders of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, nicknamed El Jardinero, was arrested in Mexico - a man who was considered a possible successor to the group's leader, El Mencho, who was killed in February, Reuters reports . Audias Flores, known as the Gardener (El Jardinero), was detained in the western state of Nayarit during an operation by the Mexican Navy.

RIA Novosti columnist Kirill Strelnikov writes in an article entitled “Last chance to win in Ukraine: Europe is betting on Putin’s death”: "...from the latest Congressional Review Service (CRS) report entitled 'Russian Army Combat Effectiveness and Prospects': 'Russian armed forces have undertaken numerous reforms and will be able to maintain the current pace of operations for the foreseeable future; Russia continues to slowly but steadily push back Ukrainian Armed Forces along the entire front

Polish public broadcaster TVP has launched a news channel in Georgian - VT Sakartvelo News. According to a post on the new media's Facebook page, the channel will "provide daily information about current events in the country and international processes affecting Georgia" and also "resist propaganda and offer objective information." VT Sakartvelo News will be broadcast on Belsat TV (TVP's sister channel) from Monday to Friday, as well as broadcast on the YouTube channel and Facebook.

Poland released Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin as part of an exchange with Belarus. Previously, the possibility of Butyagin’s extradition to Ukraine was considered. It is known that Poland released not only an archaeologist, but also the wife of a certain Russian military man from Transnistria, the Russian FSB reported this.

Photo: Nguyen Huu Duong / JetPhotos Доступно на русском Russia’s Defense Ministry uses aircraft formally classified as civilian to transport military cargo, the project Dallas-Analytics found in a recent investigation. As of April 2022, Russia’s commercial aircraft fleet included 1,287 planes, 60 of which were used by various state agencies and affiliated companies for non-commercial transport. That segment includes the 223rd Flight Unit, which is subordinate to the Defense Ministry.

The MSU-270 supercomputer, which operates under the control of Katerina Tikhonova, Vladimir Putin’s alleged daughter, is off limits even to staff of Moscow State University’s Research Computing Center, the independent media outlet T-invariant reports . Journalists found that the machine had been assembled using Nvidia chips imported through gray channels, while VTB Bank, which finances MSU’s AI ecosystem, has been switching to Chinese GPUs since March 2026.

A fire broke out again at the oil refinery in Tuapse after a drone attack on the night of April 28, the regional operational headquarters reported . This is the third such attack over the past two weeks. There are no reports of casualties in the current fire, and the extent of the consequences is also unknown. A fire in the area of ​​the Tuapse oil refinery is detected by NASA satellites.

The Russian Ministry of Defense officially commented on the fighting in Mali, saying that the Afrika Korps prevented the coup, the agency quotes Interfax. According to the ministry, Russian units used planes, helicopters, drones, armored vehicles and artillery during clashes with militants. The Ministry of Defense estimated the number of the group that attempted the armed coup at approximately 12 thousand people.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week confirmed the practice of suicide by North Korean military personnel during the war in Ukraine, which they committed in order to avoid being captured. This follows from his speech, which was quoted by the state news agency KCNA, writes Bloomberg. Kim Jong-un mentioned the practice of suicide at an event marking the opening of a memorial in Pyongyang in memory of North Koreans who died during Russia's war against Ukraine.

A representative of the jihadist group JNIM (affiliated with al-Qaeda), Abu Huzeifa al-Bambari (real name Bina Diarra), said that militants continue to fight in the Malian capital Bamako and have imposed a blockade of the city (a video statement is available to The Insider editors).

Cellist Sergei Roldugin's Talent and Success Foundation last year transferred 10.3 billion rubles to the Academy of Rhythmic Gymnastics, which is headed by Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva. According to Explainer (the “We Can Explain” investigative project), the payment, issued as a donation, is reflected in the annual report of the Roldugin Foundation. At the same time, the fund created to support gifted youth spent only 3.5 billion rubles on training gifted children.

In Nizhny Novgorod, “due to security requirements,” the Victory Parade on May 9 was canceled. The “Immortal Regiment” campaign will be held online. This was reported by Kommersant with reference to the regional government. However, the city will host several public events: a cultural program in Victory Park, a military-historical reconstruction in the Switzerland Park, a military-historical interactive exhibition “Weapons of Russia - Weapons of Victory” and laying flowers at the Eternal Flame.

Latvia has included in its list of undesirable persons three Russian citizens associated with the country's participation in the Venice Biennale. This was stated by Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze.

A member of the Russian opposition delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) (the section representing indigenous peoples), former Deputy Prime Minister of the government of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ruslan Kutaev, in an interview with the Ukrainian YouTube channel “Rizni Lyudi”, made several provocative statements, which a month later he actually repeated in an interview with journalist Alexander Plyushchev for his Breakfast Show channel.

The World Bank has forecast a 24% rise in energy prices in 2026, the highest level since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago. This is a baseline scenario that assumes that the acute phase of the Middle East conflict ends in May. The forecast was published in the Commodity Markets Outlook report, Reuters reports .