Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Europe

Hard Numbers: EU bans (most) Russian oil, Israel-UAE trade deal, crowdfunded drone for Ukraine, Pokemon zero-COVID protest

Hard Numbers: EU bans (most) Russian oil, Israel-UAE trade deal, crowdfunded drone for Ukraine, Pokemon zero-COVID protest

Models of oil barrels seen in front of a "stop" sign and the EU and Russia flag colors.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic
Make us preferred on Google

2/3: After weeks of tense negotiations, EU leaders agreed late Monday to an embargo on two-thirds of the oil the bloc now imports from Russia. But there's a catch: holdout Hungary will likely get an indefinite exemption in order to drop its veto.


96: On Tuesday, Israel and the UAE will sign a landmark free trade agreement, Israel's first with an Arab country. The agreement will eliminate 96% of tariffs between the two countries, which normalized ties less than two years ago under the Abraham Accords.

5 million: Lithuanians chipped in 5 million euros ($5.4 million) in an online crowdfunding drive to buy a Bayraktar TB2 military drone for Ukraine. The Turkish-made UAVs are making a difference on the battlefield for the Ukrainians because they enable high-precision airstrikes.

200: A Pokemon character who always has a headache has become one of China's most in-demand toys because people are using it to vent about the government's zero-COVID policy. Plastic figures of Psyduck, given away in KFC children's meals, are being resold for $200 after going viral on social media.

This comes to you from the Signal newsletter team of GZERO Media. Subscribe for your free daily Signal today.

    More For You

    Why Trump can't find the exit ramp in Iran
    - YouTube
    A ceasefire is holding, barely, but the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz isn't forcing real concessions from Tehran. Iran is betting Trump has no appetite for renewed war, and they may be right. Gas prices are climbing toward $5 a gallon and a global recession looms. Meanwhile Russia is cashing in. Higher oil prices are refilling Kremlin [...]
    Hard number: Seeking owners
    Will Fitzpatrick
    It’s not known whether these works were among the hundreds of thousands that the Nazis looted – especially from Jews – during their time in power, but in displaying these pieces, the museum hopes that the public can identify their original owners. Perhaps the most famous lost painting of this kind was Gustav Klimt’s “The Woman in Gold”, which was [...]
    CIA Director John Ratcliffe meets with Cuban officials

    CIA Director John Ratcliffe attends a meeting with Cuban officials at a location given as Havana, Cuba in this image released May 14, 2026.

    CIA via X/Handout via REUTERS
    Cuba has run out of fuel, and the CIA director is there for it.US spy chief John Ratcliffe traveled to Havana yesterday just hours after the communist-run island said it had run out of fuel due to the ongoing US energy blockade. Ratcliffe, the highest ranking Trump administration official to visit, went to reiterate his boss’s vision of a “deal”: [...]
    US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping talking in Beijing, China.

    China's President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump visit the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on May 14, 2026.

    BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Pool via REUTERS
    Xi warns Trump on Taiwan despite friendly start to meetingsUS President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday exchanged friendly toasts and reiterations of commitment on the first day of a Beijing summit flush with pageantry. The friendly tone suggests that both sides hope to maintain the current status quo of fragile detente in a [...]