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MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Russia was second after the United States in the total value of EU gas imports with the share of 18.4%, according to Eurostat data and TASS estimates.

The European Union purchased natural gas from Russia totaling 1.4 bln euro in February 2025, up 23.5% annually but 26% less than in January of this year.

The US topped the list with its LNG deliveries, totaling 27.7% and worth 2.13 bln euro. Norway is third with the share of 15% and supplies to Europe amounting to 1.15 bln euro. Algeria is fourth (14.3% and 1.1 bln euro). Azerbaijan is fifth with 5.3% and 408 mln euro.

Thousands of farmers and working-class people in cities and villages across India took to the streets on Monday, April 21 to protest the visit of US Vice President JD Vance. They claim he has come to finalize an agreement which will be a disaster for India’s agriculture and small industries.

Vance arrived in New Delhi on Monday on a four-day tour in the country. As per the reports, the primary agenda of his visit is to finalize a trade agreement between the two countries. The talks over the agreement have been ongoing since the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in February.

The protesters gathered in villages and district headquarters across India with posters and banners denouncing the Indian government’s failures to safeguard their interests and chanting slogans such as “Vance go back,” and “India is not for sale!” In some places protesters also burned effigies of Vance.

Left-leaning All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), the largest farmers’ group in the country, issued a statement on April 18 in which it asked all its units to launch the Vance go back campaign and to oppose the proposed trade agreement with the US. It called the agreement a surrender of India’s interests.

The AIKS statement claimed that Vance’s visit to India “is a part of putting pressure upon the state of India and the corporate-led ruling classes to surrender the national interests to facilitate windfall profiteering to the multinational companies.”

“The Indian prime minister has capitulated to the dictates of the US president Donald Trump and is going ahead with the plans to ease tariff and non-tariff barriers for US products, including farm products,” the statement claimed.

Trump announced a 26% tariff on all Indian exports to the US on April 3 under his administration’s so-called reciprocal tariff regime. Though the imposition of new tariff rates was postponed for three months, Trump has long claimed that India’s tariff regime is unfair to US products, accusing it of blocking access to its markets.

Howard Lutnick, US commerce secretary, has specifically claimed that India will not be allowed to have closed agricultural markets. He had claimed that opening India’s agriculture sector for American farm products was a central objective of the proposed trade deal.

Surajit Mazumdar, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (CESP) at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Peoples Dispatch however that, the argument that “the US is losing out because of its relations with India” is perverse. “If you consider India and compare it with the United States in per capita income terms India is about 5% of the US. The US is an advanced economy, India is relatively still a poor underdeveloped economy.”

AIKS claims opening India’s farm sector to US farm products will harm Indian agriculture – already in a years-long crisis – and affect millions of farmers and their families. Any deal of the nature described by US officials would mean death for India’s dairy industry in particular, AIKS claimed.

“The on-going trade negotiations is a deliberate move so that cheaper cotton, soybean, maize, apple etc. from the US can be dumped in India, literally swamping the market. This will lead to a price crash for Indian farmers,” AIKS claimed.

AIKS claims such a deal would negatively affect the Indian farmers’ struggle against the government’s attempt to introduce corporate interests in agriculture. It also raised concerns that if US farm products flood Indian markets, pushing for a legal minimum support price (MSP) for Indian farm products would become much more difficult.

Vijoo Krishnan, general secretary of AIKS and a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), claimed in a video message on Sunday that, if the trade agreement with the US goes as planned, it will further intensify the crisis of Indian agriculture, increasing farmers’ indebtedness.

“In the last few years over 150,000 farmers have committed suicide due to indebtness, this phenomena may increase in the coming days” if we fail to stop the trade agreement with the US, Krishnan claimed.

AIKS also warned that the impact of India’s surrender to Trump’s tariff war will not be limited to the agriculture sector. “The interests of the MSMEs (Medium, Small, and Micro Enterprises) across sectors like generic pharmaceuticals to auto parts and millions of workers across these sectors are also going to be adversely hit.”

It urged the Indian government to stand up – like countries such as China, Canada, and Mexico have done – to safeguard the interest of India’s working classes and farmers, and to push back resolutely against Trump’s tariffs war instead of surrendering the national interest without a fight.

On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will send to Congress reforms to the telecommunications law to prohibit the dissemination of propaganda paid for by foreign governments or organizations in Mexican media.

“The issue is that they are paying for ads with a discriminatory message,” she said, referring to a commercial against illegal immigration sponsored by U.S. National Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Sheinbaum considered that Noem’s commercial, which has been airing on television for months and was broadcast during the weekend’s soccer matches, is discriminatory.

“A message from President Donald Trump to the world: If you’re considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it. Let me be clear: If you come to our country and break our laws, we will prosecute you. Criminals are not welcome in the U.S.,” the National Security Secretary said.

In response, the Mexican president will seek to revive a section of the Federal Telecommunications Law that was repealed in 2014, during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018).

With this, foreign governments will not be allowed to pay either traditional media or social networks to broadcast “propaganda” in Mexico.

“Broadcast and television licensees and permit holders in the country will not be allowed to transmit political, ideological, or commercial propaganda from foreign governments or entities, nor permit the media operating under their licenses to be used for purposes that could influence internal affairs,” it was stated.

In a landmark achievement for robotics, the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon concluded in Beijing's E-Town on Saturday, with "Tiangong Ultra" – developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center – securing the championship. The robot completed the 21.0975-kilometer course in 2 hours and 40 minutes, maintaining a steady pace of 7 to 8 kilometers per hour throughout the race.

The route featured a mix of flat surfaces and slopes with a maximum gradient of 9 degrees. Competitors faced six left turns and eight right turns, including tight 90-degree angles, demanding precise balance during navigation. A final 1.5-kilometer straight stretch before the finish line tested sprinting capabilities, showcasing the robots' adaptability to varied conditions.

Twenty teams participated, fielding robots of drastically different sizes. Tiangong Ultra – the tallest competitor at 180 cm and 52 kg – mirrored adult human proportions, while the compact "Little Giant Robot" stood just 75 cm and weighed 10 kg, highlighting the spectrum of design approaches in this emerging field.

Described as the first open-environment long-distance endurance test for humanoid robots, the event aimed to foster collaboration across the industry chain. Organizers emphasized its role in accelerating technology transfer from labs to real-world applications through professionally crafted rules and human-machine coordination frameworks. By bridging innovation and practicality, the race seeks to unlock the "blue ocean market" of new and uncontested market spaces for humanoid robotics, driving breakthroughs in autonomous mobility and collaborative systems.

NEW YORK, April 19. /TASS/. US authorities are ready to recognize Crimea as Russian territory within the framework of a peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

According to the news agency, this move is "the latest signal that President Donald Trump is eager to cement a ceasefire deal" and the settlement in Ukraine.

The sources indicated that "a final decision on the matter hadn’t yet been taken."

The news agency reiterated that in Paris on Thursday, Washington presented its allies with proposals to enable a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, "including an outline of terms to end the fighting and ease sanctions on Moscow in the event of a lasting ceasefire." Additionally, the proposal presumes that all territories liberated by Russia remain under its control. Discussions will continue in London next week.

In March, the Semafor portal reported, citing sources, that the Trump administration is considering officially recognizing Crimea as part of Russia in connection with the Ukraine peace deal. US representatives are also discussing calling on the UN to take a similar step.

After the Western-backed February 2014 coup in Ukraine, Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum, in which 96.7% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, which the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) ratified on March 21, 2014. Despite the convincing results of the referendum, Kiev has refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia.

A new report from the US National Intelligence Council categorically denies any connection between Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela and the now-defunct criminal group known as the Tren de Aragua (TDA). The report contradicts the central argument used by the US administration and Venezuelan far-right opposition leader María Corina Machado to justify mass deportations of Venezuelan migrants without legal protections.

The document, published by The Washington Post and reviewed by the Telesur news agency, was unanimously supported by all 18 US intelligence agencies—except the FBI, which maintains moderate reservations—and concludes there is no evidence that the defunct Tren de Aragua operates under orders from Caracas.

This is the second assessment in two months to contradict these claims made by President Donald Trump, who in March invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport hundreds of Venezuelans accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua, sending them to a mega-prison in El Salvador without due process.

Trump’s justification relied on the theory that the Tren de Aragua was part of an “invasion” led by Maduro—an argument echoed by far-right actors such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Machado.

Using this rationale, the US government invoked the Alien Enemies Act, last employed during World War II to imprison 110,000 Japanese-Americans. The law permits deporting or detaining foreigners without due process if their home country is at war with the US or conducts a “predatory incursion.” Legal experts note the law requires a clear foreign government link, which the report explicitly refutes.

“The idea that Maduro runs the Tren de Aragua and sends criminals to infiltrate the US is absurd,” said Geoffrey Ramsey, a Venezuela analyst at the Atlantic Council. “The group operates more as a decentralized brand than a hierarchical structure.”

In response to questions from The Washington Post, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, dismissed the report as the work of “deep state actors”—a term Trump allies use for officials allegedly undermining his agenda. The White House defended the deportations as necessary to “protect the US from terrorists,” without providing evidence.

China has gone over 70 days without importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, according to Kpler data cited by the Financial Times. This move is a response to Beijing’s imposition of 49% tariffs, making U.S. LNG commercially unviable. The last shipment arrived on February 6, while a second vessel was diverted to Bangladesh to avoid the tariffs.

Although the U.S. supplies only 5-6% of China’s LNG (5-6 million tons in 2025), the halt affects 13 contracts valid through 2049 and threatens 28 million tons per year in U.S. projects. Experts like Anne-Sophie Corbeau (Columbia University) predict that China will avoid new contracts with the U.S., prioritizing energy autonomy.

Beijing has quadrupled its imports of Russian LNG since 2022, making Moscow its third-largest supplier after Australia and Qatar. Ambassador Zhang Hanhui confirmed that Chinese companies are seeking to expand agreements with Russia, taking advantage of lower prices following European sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

China redirects 70% of imported U.S. LNG to Europe, profiting in higher-priced markets. This maneuver demonstrates China’s ability to reshape global energy flows, while the U.S. faces risks in key projects and a reciprocal tariff escalation (up to 245% in some sectors).

China will carry out intensive space missions, including Tianwen-2 for asteroid exploration, in 2025, an official of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Thursday.

The Tianwen-2 mission will carry out an asteroid flyby and sampling, and the Shenzhou-20 and Shenzhou-21 crewed spacecraft are also scheduled for launch this year, said Liu Yunfeng, deputy director of the CNSA's system engineering department, at a press conference on the upcoming Space Day of China.

In terms of international collaboration, Liu confirmed two major projects: the China-Europe joint space mission – Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) – which aims to uncover how solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetosphere, and an electromagnetic monitoring satellite jointly developed by China and Italy, which will support research into earthquake prediction.

China will deepen space cooperation with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), BRICS nations, and European partners, Liu said. Efforts will focus on advancing collaboration in lunar and deep space exploration, including jointly promoting the construction of the international lunar research station, he added.

Within the BRICS framework, China will continue advancing the development of the BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation to enhance disaster emergency data sharing, Liu said.

China will also provide satellite services to BRI partner countries, supporting their space capacity development and fostering sustainable progress in agriculture, disaster prevention, and smart city initiatives, he added.

Amidst the irregularities that characterized the second round of general elections in Ecuador, held last Sunday, April 13, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced that he “cannot recognize the [results of the] elections in Ecuador,” regarding the irregularities that have characterized the second round of general elections in Ecuador, held last Sunday, April 13, and the count tallied by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Petro justified his stance by citing irregularities highlighted by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the state of emergency decreed by the then-president and reelection-aspiring candidate, Daniel Noboa, in seven provinces of the country—where more than half of the electoral roll is concentrated, with leftist orientation—hours before the vote.

“The Army directed the election day, the polling stations, and the vote count,” Petro explained. “There are no free elections under a state of siege.”

A BYU graduate student has had his Form I-20 revoked without notice and told to go back to Japan before the end of April. He is among dozens of international students in Utah who were told their visas had been revoked last week.

He and his attorney, Adam Crayk, told KSL NewsRadio the federal government revoked his visa without prior notice due to what the government said was “otherwise failing to maintain status.”

Crayk said he only has two speeding tickets on his record, as well as a catch and release violation from a fishing trip in 2019, which was dismissed with prejudice in court.

Crayk told Dave & Dujanovic that Onda has little to no social media footprint. He said he does not have a history of speaking out about politics or participating in protests; rather, he just posts pictures of his family.

Crayk said he’s learned through court filings that the government is using AI technology to locate any criminal activity amongst student visa holders and revoke their visas. He said this is being done without human cross-references.