The United States has already spent $25 billion on the military operation against Iran, Acting Pentagon Auditor Jules Hurst reported . The largest portion of that money went toward ammunition, as well as maintenance and “equipment replacement,” he said. No other details are provided. American authorities have not previously officially announced the cost of participation in hostilities in the Middle East, which have been going on for two months.

Top health official Anna Popova, the head of Russia’s consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, told journalists earlier today that there are currently “no health risks” for residents of the town of Tuapse on the Black Sea coast, despite an ongoing fire at an oil refinery following repeated Ukrainian drone strikes over the past two weeks.

In Moscow, the Victory Parade in the Great Patriotic War on May 9 will be held without military equipment. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported this on its Telegram channel. Also, students of the Suvorov military, Nakhimov school and cadet corps will not participate. “Pupils of the Suvorov military and Nakhimov schools, cadet corps, as well as a column of military equipment, due to the current operational situation, will not take part in the military parade this year,” the message says.

Photo: Reuters The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday, April 28, that it will withdraw from OPEC and OPEC+, with the decision taking effect May 1. In the long term, the move could lead to lower oil prices and carry negative implications for Russia, economists interviewed by The Insider said.

German federal police detained Sergei K., a citizen of Kazakhstan, on April 28 on suspicion of spying for Russia, Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced earlier today. Law enforcement officers also searched “the premises of the accused and a person who was not suspected of the crime.” The arrest warrant says Sergei K. is suspected of passing information to a senior intelligence officer in Moscow. They had been in contact since at least May 2025.

Deputy Prime Minister and Putin's plenipotentiary representative in the Far East Yuri Trutnev criticized the prices of apples in grocery stores in Chukotka. According to him, during a visit to the region, he went into one of the stores and discovered that the cost of a kilogram of apples reached a thousand rubles. “To be honest, this price is impressive.

The US Mint has been violating the law for decades requiring it to make bullion gold coins exclusively from newly mined American gold, The New York Times has found . Journalists traced the supply chain and discovered that gold from illegal mines in Colombia controlled by the Clan del Golfo drug cartel, as well as from Mexican and Peruvian pawn shops and from a Congolese mine partially owned by the PRC government, came into the melting pots of the refineries that supply metal to the mint.

US President Donald Trump, speaking with reporters at the White House, said that Ukraine had already been defeated militarily. The statement came shortly after his telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin. Trump said: “I think Ukraine is militarily defeated, okay? You wouldn't know it if you read fake news, but militarily... Look at their fleet! They had 159 ships. Every ship is now under water." He also added that all Ukrainian aviation was destroyed.

Belarus has banned travel across its border to third countries for Russians who received summonses and a ban on leaving the Russian Federation. This information was confirmed to Belsat by the State Border Committee of Belarus. The department also admitted that Moscow and Minsk have a mechanism for exchanging data on persons who are prohibited from leaving Russia: “If they answer that travel is not limited, then please, you can leave the territory of Belarus.

On April 29, inspectors from the Italian Ministry of Culture began inspecting the Venice Biennale fund. The reason was the decision to reopen the Russian pavilion at the exhibition, which is scheduled to open to the general public on May 9, writes Il Fatto Quotidiano. Officials will request documentation related not only to the Russian pavilion, but also to the Israeli and Iranian exhibits.

The American company Palantir, co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, has recruited more than 30 high-ranking British officials - former ministers, intelligence chiefs and members of the House of Lords, writes The Nerve. According to the publication, this practice creates an “acute risk” of corruption, since British legislation is unable to deal with numerous conflicts of interest.

The Ministry of Health of the Nizhny Novgorod Region sent a letter to subordinate institutions prohibiting inserting emoji into electronic medical documents - they usually appear in documents created using ChatGPT. A copy of the letter is at the disposal of MIA Statsionar-Press, whose chief editor, Alexey Nikonov, published this information in his channel in the Max state messenger.

In the city of Tuapse in the Krasnodar Territory, which has been under attack by Ukrainian drones for several weeks, a gas filling station was destroyed. As reported in a report by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, OJSC Tuapsegorgaz spoke about this. It is noted that the entire liquefied gas tank farm has been destroyed and there is no way to deliver gas to gas tanks (special tanks) of apartment buildings.

The United States has imposed sanctions against 35 companies and individuals associated with Iran and its financial system. The US State Department reported this. According to State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott, the restrictions are aimed at participants in “shadow” banking networks through which, as Washington claims, tens of billions of dollars are redistributed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, military programs and intermediaries associated with terrorist activities.

Private English-language schools with a hybrid education format “Dialogue” and Le Sallay, created by immigrants from Russia, were forced to close due to financial problems - the legal entity began bankruptcy proceedings. The founder and head of the schools, Sergei Kuznetsov, spoke about this on his Facebook page. “Today is one of the hardest days of my life. Yesterday, at the Board of Directors of Le Sallay Studies, we decided to bankrupt the company and close our schools.