Japan's National Intelligence Agency begins work this month — the country's first centralised spy service since the Second World War, with about 700 staff and FBI backing. The launch comes as a New York Times investigation exposes a Russian military-intelligence unit procuring missile and drone components from Aeroflot's Tokyo office.
For two years Western economic pressure on Russia looked blunt. With Moscow's summer offensive stalled and its sovereign-wealth cushion nearly gone, the calculus is shifting — and Europe's frozen-asset leverage, a slice of it held in Luxembourg, sits at the centre of it.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, more than 1,100 Ukrainians have been arrested for collaborating with Russian handlers — one in five of them minors. Ukrainian authorities cite a 15-year-old named Vitalii, paid only $23 of a promised $200 to set fire to a railway signalling cabinet outside Chernihiv. RTL reported the figures on 9 May 2026.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin named former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a preferred interlocutor for renewed dialogue with Europe, the SPD's foreign-policy spokesperson on 10 May 2026 said any offer should be examined seriously and that Europe must not be sidelined as the United States and Russia decide Ukraine's future.
A 72-hour ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine took effect on 9 May 2026, paired with a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange. US President Donald Trump said the pause should run through Russia's Victory Day commemorations and serve as the springboard for talks on ending the war that began in February 2022.