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

    ​Students and their supporters take part in a protest in Serbia

    Students and their supporters take part in a protest demanding snap parliamentary elections, continuing an anti-corruption movement sparked by a deadly railway station collapse in Novi Sad in November 2024, in Belgrade, Serbia, May 10, 2026.

    REUTERS/Djordje Kojadinovic
    Students keep the pressure on ruling party in SerbiaStudent protesters will take to the streets in Serbia this weekend in the first major demonstrations this year against President Aleksandar Vučić. Students have become a significant political force in Serbia over the last two years: in 2025, then-Prime Minister Miloš Vučević resigned after [...]
    The tide is turning in Russia-Ukraine war
    In the early hours of May 17, more than 500 Ukrainian drones punched through three of Moscow’s four air-defense rings. They hit oil infrastructure, military-industrial plants, and apartment buildings in and around the capital, killing at least four and wounding a dozen. Coming three days after a deadly Russian barrage that Ukrainian officials [...]
    ​Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showing his identity document with the other hand on his heart

    Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shows his identity document to the media during registering his candidacy for Iran's upcoming presidential election in Tehran, on June 2, 2024.

    Rouzbeh Fouladi/ZUMA Press Wire
    The US and Israel planned to install a Holocaust denier as Iran’s presidentYou heard that right: before the Iran war began, the United States and Israel planned to make former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – a Holocaust denier who has called for the destruction of Israel – the new leader, according to a New York Times report. Evidently, [...]
    Russia's costly invasion
    Eileen Zhang
    Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to China this week to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping. Under the leadership of these two men, who have met dozens of times, Russia and China have forged what they call a “no limits” partnership. Russia is a major source of natural resources for China, while Beijing has helped Moscow weather increasingly harsh [...]