Chang’e-5 Regolith Studies Reveal Nanoscale Space-Weathering Processes

Formation mechanism of multilayered structure containing npFe0 particles CREDIT: NIGPAS

May 28, 2026 
By Eurasia Review


On the Moon, the lack of atmosphere and accompanying features such as biological activity, oxygen-rich air, flowing water and rain, wind, and most erosion allows the lunar regolith to preserve a long-term record of surface processes in the space environment.

Such processes, which have a major effect on airless bodies such as the Moon, Mercury, and asteroids, include solar wind irradiation, micrometeorite bombardment, impact melting, sputter deposition, and rapid quenching—all of which continuously alter the structure, composition, and optical properties of surface materials.

Understanding these processes at the micro- and nanoscale is essential for interpreting lunar space weathering, remote-sensing spectra, and the form and distribution of surface resources.

To enhance this understanding, a collaborative team jointly led by Prof. YIN Zongjun from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), together with Profs. SHEN Bing and ZHOU Jihan from Peking University, has conducted systematic studies of impact-glass particles associated with Chang’e-5 lunar regolith grains.


The findings were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets and PNAS. Together, these studies focus on the same type of Chang’e-5 impact glass, revealing the nanoscale evolution of lunar surface materials through two complementary processes: impact-induced silicate phase separation and the formation of nanophase metallic iron.

In the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets study, the researchers examined Chang’e-5 impact glass using aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and spectroscopic analyses.

They identified Fe-rich nanodroplets within Si-rich glass, as well as Si-rich nanodroplets within Fe-rich glass. The nanodroplets were amorphous, i.e., lacked a regular crystal structure, and were found in clusters that had partially merged and grown. The results suggest that micrometeorite impacts not only induce local melting of lunar regolith, but can also trigger silicate liquid immiscibility on extremely short timescales, with rapid quenching preserving the transient phase-separated structures in impact glass where different materials separated from one another.

Building on this work, the PNAS study examined nanophase metallic iron (nanophase Fe0, npFe0) in the impact glass, which is a major product of lunar space weathering. It also plays a key role in modifying the reflectance spectra of lunar soils.

Using electron tomography alongside energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy, the researchers directly resolved the three-dimensional distribution, morphology, local abundance, and iron valence states of npFe0 at the nanometer scale.

In one reconstructed volume, 1,506 npFe0 particles were identified, with an average diameter of approximately 3.4 nm and a median diameter of approximately 2.9 nm. Different layers showed distinct particle sizes, number densities, and Fe⁰ volume fractions, with the Fe⁰ volume fraction in a local large-particle layer reaching up to 30 vol%.

To determine how the nanoparticles formed in different regions, the researchers combined structural reconstructions with elemental and iron valence-state analyses. They also introduced a parameter, ξ, to evaluate the contribution of external electrons during iron reduction.

The study showed that the sulfur-rich layer containing irregular large particles mainly originated from iron sulfide decomposition. It also showed that several layers with high concentrations of small particles were dominated by Fe2+ disproportionation—a process in which Fe2+ is simultaneously oxidized and reduced. The near-surface region exhibited evidence of later modification due to solar wind irradiation, promoting glass-structure modification and npFe0 particle ripening.


The researchers further estimated that metallic iron in mature impact-glass domains could reach 7.1 wt%, substantially exceeding previous bulk-soil estimates for Chang’e-5 samples. This result highlights significant microscale heterogeneity in the distribution of npFe0 in lunar regolith.

Together, the two studies demonstrate that Chang’e-5 impact glass simultaneously records several related processes—impact melting, silicate liquid immiscibility, redox reactions, sulfide decomposition, and solar wind modification. Using electron tomography and high-resolution spectroscopic techniques, the researchers were able to overcome the limitations of conventional two-dimensional imaging and quantitatively reconstruct nanoscale structures and their formation histories in three dimensions.

The findings provide new sample-based insights into the spectral evolution of the Moon and other airless bodies, the processes responsible for forming lunar impact glass, and the distribution and physical state of iron resources on the lunar surface.

In Sudan’s war economy, gold keeps flowing as miners risk mercury and collapse

By

The Associated Press

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Published: May 25, 2026 

Miner Atta al-Khazin, right, shows a gold nugget produced by artisanal miners after processing ore at a mining site in Dalago Mahas, Sudan's Northern State, Friday, May 8, 2026.(AP Photo/Mohnd Blal)

DAGALO MAHAS, Sudan — The men carried metal detectors as they scanned a mountainous area in northern Sudan in search of gold. One man knelt to examine the ground with a digging tool for the precious metal in an environment that lacks even the most basic safety measures.

They are unregulated miners working in a small-scale private gold mine in the northern town of Dalgo Mahas. The mine is one of thousands of small-scale and artisanal mines scattered across Sudan, part of a sector that is at the center of the devastating war that has at times pushed parts of the country into famine.

Gold has become a major source of funding for Sudan’s treasury after the country lost over two-thirds of its oil revenues with the secession of South Sudan in 2011. The precious metal accounted for 70 per cent of national revenues in the years that followed South Sudan’s departure, providing the Sudanese government with much-needed foreign currency.

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Most recently, gold has been at the center of the ongoing war between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Large quantities of gold have been smuggled out of the country to finance paramilitaries, who control gold-producing areas in Darfur and Kordofan regions, according to United Nations-commissioned experts.

The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based war tracking group that says its toll is almost certainly an underestimate, given the difficulties in reporting.

The war also created the world’s largest humanitarian disaster, forcing over 10 million people to flee their homes. Many displaced people joined the mining industry in order to make ends meet for their families.

“Gold mining is the only thing I can rely on,” said Atta al-Khazin, a 28-year-old miner who abandoned his previous profession as a farmer. “Due to the high oil prices, agriculture no longer covered expenses.”

Zahir Adam, a 35-year-old father from the Darfur city of el-Fasher who worked in gold mining for more than a decade, said the sector has drawn many people since the war broke out over three years ago.

They had “no other option,” he said. “Many young people, and many families, depend on mining.”

Sudan produced 70 tons of gold last year, up from 64 tons in 2024, according to official figures, making it one of Africa’s top producers. Gold generated about US$1.8 billion in revenues in 2025, figures from the state-run Sudanese Mineral Resources Company showed.

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining accounts for the majority of gold extracted in the sprawling country, where safety standards are largely ignored.

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Artisanal miners like the men in Dalgo Nahas usually extract the gold, then crush the ore before applying toxic mercury to create the amalgam. The amalgam is then heated, usually on a stove, to evaporate the mercury and recover the gold.

The process, which includes using hazardous chemicals, is also risky for people living near the mines.

Many of these mines are not controlled by the government. The U.N. panel of experts said in their 2024 report that more than 50 per cent of the gold mined in Sudan was not traded through formal channels but was smuggled out of the country.

Deadly mine collapses are not uncommon in Sudan, where safety standards are not widely applied. Last month, at least seven miners were killed in a mine collapse in the Red Sea province. Thirteen others were killed in another collapse in South Kordofan province in January.

A civilian transitional government that ruled the country for over a year after the military overthrow of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 attempted to regulate the crucial industry.

However, its efforts were aborted by a military coup in October 2021, and the war that began in 2023.

Mohnd Blal, The Associated Press

Libya ‘Central Node’ In RSF’s War Machine

Colombian mercenaries Photo Credit: La Silla Vacía, via ADF

May 28, 2026 
By Africa Defense Forum

New reporting on Colombian mercenaries in Sudan’s civil war shows how outside forces have prolonged the conflict and eroded regional stability.

With the help of a Libyan militia called the Subul al-Salam Battalion, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group used southern Libya as a transit corridor, support base and rear operations center in its war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

The Subul al-Salam Battalion, which is associated with the Libyan National Army, facilitated the transfer of recruits, including Colombian mercenaries, weapons and fuel across the border to support the RSF, according to an April 19 report by a United Nations Panel of Experts on Libya.

“The Panel found that Subul al-Salam was involved across multiple stages of the supply chain to the Rapid Support Forces,” the report stated. “Subul al-Salam exercised functional control over key logistical, security and facilitation components required to sustain the transportation of fighters, fuel, arms and related materiel, including militarized vehicles.”

The experts said the RSF in 2025 used a rear base in Libya controlled by Subul al-Salam to coordinate logistical operations from Libyan territory, access the Maateen al-Sarrah Air Base and use the al-Kufra Air Base, which “served both as transit points for Colombian fighters and as sites for the modification of vehicles imported through Libya.”

Colombian mercenaries supplied by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) gave the RSF crucial military support for and participated in the gruesome siege of El-Fasher, North Darfur, in October 2025, according to an April 2026 report by security analysis organization Conflict Insights Group.

“This is the first research where we can prove UAE involvement with certainty,” managing director Justin Lynch told the BBC for an April 22 article. The group’s report “shows mercenaries involved with drones travelling from a UAE base to Sudan before the RSF takeover of el-Fasher.”

As many as 380 Colombian mercenaries have deployed to Sudan since 2024, according to La Silla Vacía, a news website based in Bogotá, Colombia. The mercenaries, known as the Desert Wolves, were associated with a UAE-based company with documented ties to senior Emirati government officials, the report found. The UAE has repeatedly denied accusations by international groups that it provides support to the RSF.

The Desert Wolves brigade, which is composed of four companies of retired Colombian military personnel, reportedly served the RSF as drone pilots, artillerymen and instructors, including “training child soldiers.” In a February 2026 report, the U.N. said that RSF forces committed “widespread atrocities that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.”

Lynch said his group’s report assessed that the UAE-backed Colombian mercenary network “bears shared responsibility for these outcomes. The scale of atrocities and siege in el-Fasher wouldn’t have happened without the drone operations the mercenaries provided.”

In Libya, Subul al-Salam “directly supported” RSF armed operations by deploying units, providing foreign recruits and escorting RSF-affiliated factions across Libyan territory. The RSF remained present in Libya during the U.N. experts’ reporting period from October 2024 to February 2026, resulting in armed clashes with the SAF in Libya in June 2025.

Seeking to disrupt the RSF’s supply route, the SAF in November 2025 launched airstrikes that targeted shipments of vehicles and foreign fighters in transit from Libya to Sudan.

Ismail Jibril Tisso, a prominent Sudanese researcher and author, said southeastern Libya has become an open corridor for war.

“Libya has shifted from being merely a neighboring state to becoming a central node in a transnational supply network, fueling the Sudan conflict with foreign fighters and military equipment amid a growing war economy,” he wrote in an April 5 analysis for Sudanow Magazine.

“As the conflict expands, the fundamental challenge remains whether states and the international community can contain these networks and restore regional security — before the entire region devolves into an open theater of endless conflict.”

AU CONTRAIRE

Ukrainian Crisis Isn’t Worth A New Cold War – OpEd


BRESHNEV AND KISSINGER

Graffiti painting from 1990 on the Berlin Wall called "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love", Photo Credit: Joachim F Thurn, German Federal Archives, Wikimedia Commons

May 28, 2026 
IDN
By Jonathan Power

Both the West and Russia have a responsibility to make sure they don’t throw the baby out with the bath water as their quarrel over Ukraine continues. So much has been achieved since the end of the Cold War. Why throw it away because of Ukraine?

Ukraine is, to exaggerate a bit, a marginal country. The tail should never be allowed to wag the dog. Ukraine has never really counted in world affairs in the 200 years of its existence. Only unthought-through politics can inflate a misdemeanour into a capital offence.

Instead, front and centre of their minds, Russia and the Nato countries should think over what they achieved in the years immediately following the Cold War- nothing less than laying the bedrock of a global security system. There were major agreements concluded to ensure control over nuclear and conventional weapons and to guarantee non-proliferation and liquidation of weapons of mass destruction (including Russia’s withdrawal of that part of its nuclear arsenal based in Ukraine).

The UN began to play a much greater role in peacekeeping operations- 49 of the deployments carried out before 2000 were carried out in the 1990s. The number of international conflicts decreased quite significantly. Russia, China, and other former socialist countries, despite differences in their political systems, were integrated into a single global and financial-economic system.

Several attempts were made to legally formalise the new balance of power, culminating in 1990 in a treaty on the reunification of Germany, signed by West and East Germany, the Soviet Union, the US, the UK, and France. There were the Paris Charter of 1990 and the NATO-Russia Founding Act in 1997, which gave Russia important representation at the NATO table. In addition, the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces Europe Treaty was signed in 1999, and negotiations were held on the joint development of missile defence systems.

The young people of today, not least those who triggered the upheavals in Ukraine with their demonstrations in the Maidan in Kiev over a legal document whose essence few people understood- an association agreement with the EU- were of an average age of approximately 25. That means that when the Cold War ended, and the above efforts to create a new world order were put in place, they were in junior school or early in high school. What did they know? And today’s politicians don’t remind them. Instead, they seem to support a new Cold War by other means.
Russia, NATO, and the Failure of Strategic Vision

In the Russian foreign policy magazine, Russia in Global Affairs, Alexei Arbatov of Moscow’s Institute of World Economy and International Relations, observes that “in the early 1990s the US had a unique historical chance to lead the creation of a new, multilateral world order. However, it unwisely lost this chance. The US suddenly saw itself as ‘the only superpower in the world’. Gripped by euphoria, it began to substitute international law with the law of force, legitimate decisions of the UN Security Council with the directives of the US, and OSCE prerogatives with Nato actions”.

“This policy laid time bombs under the new world order: Nato’s eastward enlargement (begun by President Bill Clinton against all the advice of the US’s academic foreign policy elite, I should add), the forceful partitioning of Yugoslavia and Serbia, the illegal invasion of Iraq, the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the failure to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The US treated Russia as if it were a loser country, although it was Russia that put an end to the Soviet Empire and the Cold War”.

Russia, under Boris Yeltsin and then Vladimir Putin, took many of these blows on the chin. They decided not to make a fuss. But then, as the blows accumulated and appeared to be hitting harder, Putin decided to go on the offensive and step by step create a bloody-minded Russia. Now, as Arbatov explains, “What ‘world imperialism’ was formerly blamed for- the policy of building up weapons, muscle-flexing, the establishment of military bases abroad and rivalry in arms trade- is now lauded in Russia. Nuclear weapons have acquired an exceptionally positive meaning.”

Russia may have only 3.5% of the world’s GDP- as against the US’s 26%, the EU’s 19%, Japan’s 4% (to give a Western percentage total approaching 50%)- but it has nuclear weapons.

It is time for the older people of the West and Russia- and, most importantly, young people who can barely remember the Cold War- to read their history and demand a stop to the present dangerous confrontation. “Patriotism”, wrote Samuel Johnson in 1775, “Is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” And, as Trotsky wrote, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”

In the last UK election, foreign policy was hardly discussed, likewise in France. In the US, all front-runners in the last election showed little awareness of the good side of the history of the last quarter-century. Are we going to throw the baby out with the bathwater?

The UK Needs A Fairer Voting System – Analysis

May 28, 2026 
 Elcano Royal Institute
By William Chislett

The replacement of Sir Keir Starmer would bring to five the number of UK Prime Ministers since 2022. Of those since 2010 only one of them remained in the post more than three years. None of them was able to convert winning a majority in the general election into completing their five-year mandate. Such political instability is usually associated with third world countries, not with a nation often described as a home of pragmatism.

What are the reasons for this? The most common ones given are the impact of the divisive Brexit, agreed by a narrow margin (52% to 48%) in a referendum in 2019 and which a majority of voters would now like to overturn, the UK’s economic decline and the impact of social media that has deepened polarisation.

But another factor is also increasingly being blamed for the topsy-turviness: the first-past-the-post voting system (FPTP), under which the candidate with the most votes –even when far short of a majority– wins. Not for nothing is FPTP known as ‘winner takes all’, leaving the other parties that fielded candidates with nothing. This would, prima facie, seem fair. After all, there is only one winner in most competitions, and elections are a competition. But deciding which party will govern a country under FPTP is not the same as winning a board game. There are no consolation prizes, which might often soften disappointment and reward effort; those leaving who voted for the losing parties are left feeling disenfranchised.

FPTP gave Britain stable single-party majority governments with both the Conservatives and Labour tending to last their full five-year term in office until 2017 when Teresa May called a snap election in the hope of winning a bigger majority (which did not happen). Boris Johnson then called another early election in 2019. FPTP is used in around one-third of countries, notably in the US and also in Canada and India. MPs serve the constituency they campaign in. As a result they remain in touch with local issues, tackle local problems and have face-to-face contact with their constituents.

A shift occurred in the 2024 election when a record one-third of voters supported none of the three main parties, Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrats. Close to 60% of voters got an MP they did not vote for. Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory, with 411 of the 650 MPs (63.2% of the total) on a mere 33.7% of the vote (see Figure 1). Labour, on that basis, was the most over-represented party, while the hard-right populist Reform UK was the most under-represented (0.8% of the seats on 14.3% of the vote). The Liberal Democrats won a smaller slice of the vote (12.2%) than Reform but because of the nature of FPTP captured 11.1% of the seats.

The UK’s Electoral Reform Society says FPTP is ‘bad for voters, bad for government and bad for democracy’. It said the 2024 result was ‘not only the most disproportional election in British electoral history, but one of the most disproportional seen anywhere in the world’. David Cameron, the Conservative Prime Minister between 2010 and 2016, said the proportional representation (PR) system would allow people into parliament who did not finish first in their constituency in an election and would create a ‘parliament full of second-choices who no one really wanted but didn’t really object to either’. In return, however, for the support of the Liberal Democrats, which enabled him to be able to form a government, Cameron agreed to a referendum in 2011 on the so-called Alternative Vote system –often called Instant Runoff Voting in the US–. It is not a form of PR and is designed to deal with vote splitting. It was rejected by 67% of those who voted.

Spain uses the d’Hondt system of PR. It has produced stable governments, with the Socialists and Popular Party (PP) alternating in power and tending to last their full four-year term in office until 2015 when the political system fragmented with the entry into parliament of two new parties, the hard-left Podemos and the would-be centrist Ciudadanos, and then in 2019 the hard-right VOX. This system, widely used, divides total votes by a series of divisors (1,2,3…) to determine seat allocation and is generally considered to favour larger parties, which helps to form stable majorities.

The PR system is more representative of the electorate and delivers fairer treatment of minority parties and independent candidates. It encourages people to vote and reduces apathy: fewer votes are ‘wasted’ as more people’s preferences are taken into account. It rarely produces an absolute majority for one party and often leads to greater consensus in policy-making. Spain has had majority Socialist and Popular Party governments, partly because in the smaller of the 50 provinces (those with 2-6 seats in Congress) and the way d’Hondt works only the two main parties tend to get elected. Over- and under-representation in PR is much less prevalent than under FPTP. In the 2023 election, the PP, the dominant party, won 39.1% of the seats on 33.1% of the votes (see Figure 2). VOX and the hard-left Sumar won 33 and 31 seats, respectively, on 9.4% and 8.8% of the vote. The Catalan and Basque parties do quite well because they only field candidates in their regions and not nationally.

The disadvantages of PR are that it makes it easier for extreme parties to gain representation (that system applied in the UK’s 2024 election would have given Reform UK around 100 MPs), it can create political gridlock (Spain had four elections between 2015 and 2019 ) and it favours compromise and coalitions that are not always the wisest course when a strong majority government is required to push through much-needed reforms (which some would argue is what Spain needs). It is no surprise that Reform UK is leading the call for PR –it needed 823,522 votes to elect an MP compared with 23,622 for Labour–. It used to be the Liberal Democrats who complained most about FPTP until they did very well in 2024.

Eric Maskin, a Nobel laureate in economics, says PR would make polarisation and fragmentation worse, and voters would no longer have a local MP directly accountable to them. The voting system that would best suit the UK, he argues, is Majority Rule (MR), as it would retain Britain’s traditional and much-loved single-member constituencies, a feature that many would like to keep and which is one of the main reasons why voters are reluctant to move to PR.

Under MR voters would rank the candidates in their constituency (or as many of them as they wish) in order of preference. The winner is then the candidate who would defeat each rival in a head-to-head contest according to the rankings. Maskin compares MR to 10 friends choosing a restaurant for dinner. ‘The four carnivores all prefer Steakhouse to Salad Bar to Tofu Table. Three of the vegetarians have the ranking Salad Bar > Tofu Table > Steakhouse, and the remaining three, Tofu Table > Salad Bar > Steakhouse. Under first-past-the-post, the meat-eaters win; Steakhouse comes first with 40%. But Salad Bar –the winner under MR– is a more democratic choice: 60% prefer it to Steakhouse, and 70% rank it above Tofu Table’.

A fairer voting system than FPTP would not in itself resolve the profound malaise in British politics, but it would make the electorate feel better represented and produce more collaborative governments that, in turn, might put an end to the quick turnover in Prime Ministers.About the author: William Chislett (Oxford, 1951) is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute. He covered Spain’s transition to democracy for The Times of London between 1975 and 1978. He was then based in Mexico City for the Financial Times between 1978 and 1984. He returned to Madrid on a permanent basis in 1986 and since then, among other things, has written more than 20 books on various countries.
Source: This article was published by Elcano Royal Institute

‘No To Ten Million’ Vote: Should Switzerland Cap Its Population? – Analysis

May 28, 2026

SwissInfo

By Balz Rigendinger

On June 14, Swiss voters will head to the polls to decide on the “No to ten million” initiative, which seeks to cap immigration. What impact would such a restriction have on the country?

How did this initiative come about?

The right-wing Swiss People’s Party launched the “No to ten million” immigration initiative, arguing that immigration had increased in an uncontrolled manner since 2007 and that the population could soon exceed the ten-million mark (it is currently 9.1 million). Now, it says, it is time for Switzerland to pull the emergency brake.

After previous immigration initiatives in 2014 and 2020, this is the third time Switzerland’s largest party has put forward a proposal with a similar aim. Voters narrowly backed the mass immigration initiative in 2014, but the People’s Party argues that it has not been properly implemented.

What’s the goal of the initiative?

With the “No to ten million” immigration initiative, the People’s Party aims to force the government to ensure that the permanent resident population does not exceed ten million before 2050. If the population reaches 9.5 million before then, the government and parliament would already be required to step in.

In the asylum sector, this would mean that provisionally admitted people would no longer be granted permanent residence permits. Family reunification would also be restricted.

As for regular immigration, Switzerland would in a second stage have to renegotiate international agreements that contribute to population growth. If that proved insufficient, it would ultimately have to terminate its free movement of people agreement with the European Union.

What are the supporters’ arguments?

The People’s Party believes that immigration is putting a strain on Switzerland, referring to it as “pressure from population density”. It points to overcrowded trains, congested roads, a tight housing market, rising crime, high social security costs and other negative trends which it attributes to immigration.

Hence it is calling for “sustainable population development”, which is why it also refers to the proposal as the “sustainability initiative”. “We have lost control. Many people increasingly feel like strangers in their own country,” says co-initiator and People’s Party parliamentarian Thomas Matter.

The party’s key argument is the so-called immigration spiral. It claims that population growth driven by immigration requires even more immigration to meet the people’s needs. This vicious cycle must be broken, it says.

The initiative distinguishes between asylum and regular migration. It emphasises that “too many and the wrong people” were immigrating to Switzerland. Based on this, it proposes initial measures in the asylum sector which would still allow up to 40,000 skilled workers or other individuals to enter the country each year.

What are the opponents’ arguments?

Opponents warn that the proposal could jeopardise Switzerland’s prosperity. They have dubbed it the “termination initiative”, saying it would ultimately lead to the termination of Switzerland’s agreements with the EU. It is also labelled the “chaos initiative” for the uncertainty it would create.

The government and parliament reject the initiative, arguing that it would undermine the bilateral approach with the EU and that Switzerland was dependent on immigration. This, they say, is not only because of a shortage of skilled workers in the economy, but also because of demographic developments in the resident population. They stress that the social security system, based on a pay-as-you-go model, depends on continued contribution from the working population.

They also claim that, so far, Switzerland has absorbed immigration well and that there was no “pressure from population density”. Integration and growth, they say, are part of Switzerland’s success model.

The left is particularly critical of regulating the asylum sector, which accounts for only a small part of immigration. Meanwhile, centre-right parties warn that chaos could descend on the asylum system especially if, in a worst-case scenario, the Schengen and Dublin agreements governing this sector were to be terminated.

What does the initiative mean for the Swiss Abroad?

How the initiative would affect the Swiss Abroad remains unclear as the federal and cantonal authorities still need to work out the measures. The proposal defines the permanent resident population in a way that excludes the 830,000 Swiss Abroad.

The Council of the Swiss Abroad warns that, if accepted, the initiative could jeopardise the free movement of people and therefore recommends rejecting it. It argues that the approximately 475,000 Swiss Abroad living in the EU/EFTA area have a strong interest in preserving free movement.

What are the economic implications?

“The Swiss economy has always relied on foreign workers,” the Swiss People’s Party writes at the outset of its proposal. While it argues that immigration is largely to blame for the shortage of skilled workers, opponents point to the existing shortage of skilled labour.

Opponents argue that many sectors depend on foreign labour, including healthcare, construction, hospitality, agriculture and tourism. “Switzerland is growing and growing and growing,” says People’s Party’s president Marcel Dettling. Yet the benefits of this growth do not reach the population and that immigration does not address the shortage of skilled labour, he says.

The Swiss business federation economiesuisse warns of uncertainty, bureaucracy and a worsening shortage of labour, if the initiative is accepted.
What are the implications for the relationship between Bern and Brussels?

If accepted, the initiative would put the free movement of people at risk in the long term and create new uncertainties in the relationship between Bern and Brussels as a population cap contradicts the fundamental principle of free movement.


In the worst case, Switzerland would have to renegotiate the free movement of people, or at least secure a safeguard clause. However, the safeguard clause negotiated in the new agreements with the EU would not be compatible with the initiative’s objectives. If Switzerland were to terminate the free movement of people agreement because of the initiative, the existing bilateral agreements with the EU would also be null and void.

The United States: A Major Energy Exporter And Importer, Especially In Petroleum – Analysis

May 28, 2026 
By EIA


Total energy exports from the United States reached a record 31 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) in 2025, 2% more than the previous record set in 2024. U.S. energy imports were 21 quads, down 5% from 2024. Taken together, net trade—total imports less total exports—reached 11 quads of net exports in 2025, a record and 20% more net exports than the previous record set in 2024.

Petroleum accounts for most U.S. energy trade and is the largest source of both exports and imports. U.S. petroleum exports remained near records in 2025, with most exports going to other countries in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Energy companies in the United States trade with others across the world in a global market. In general, energy companies in the United States can:Sell products to U.S. customers

Export products to customers in other countries

Import products from other countries

Store products for later

Petroleum companies in the United States can also import crude oil and petroleum products to be further processed and sold, either domestically or re-exported to other countries. Crude oil must be processed at refineries before it can be used as petroleum products, such as motor gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.

Petroleum has been the largest source of U.S. energy exports since 1999 and accounted for 63% of total energy exports in 2025. U.S. petroleum exports grew substantially during the past decade in part because:The United States removed restrictions on crude oil exports in 2016.
Domestic production and export infrastructure expanded.
Global demand increased, including from Europe’s recent ban on seaborne crude oil imports from Russia in 2022 and petroleum products in 2023.

The Gulf Coast region is the only net petroleum-exporting region in the United States, but its net exports are enough to outweigh the net imports of all other regions, making the United States as a whole a net petroleum exporter. Petroleum has been the largest source of total U.S. energy imports since at least 1949, our earliest year on record, and in 2025 accounted for 83% of imports. In 2025, total petroleum imports into the United States were 17 quads, down 6% from 2024.

Natural gas has been the second-largest source of U.S. total energy exports since 2016. In 2025, U.S. natural gas exports were a record 9 quads, accounting for 29% of total energy exports. From 2015 to 2025, natural gas exports from the United States quadrupled as both domestic production and LNG export capacity increased to meet global demand. Similar to petroleum products, demand for U.S. LNG in Europe increased as countries sought alternative supply sources after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.


Natural gas has been the second-largest source of total U.S. energy imports since the late 1950s and accounted for 16% of total imports in 2025. Natural gas imports from Canada are important to help stabilize the U.S. market during periods of supply and demand imbalance, such as during cold winter months.

In our Monthly Energy Review, we convert energy sources measured in different units to common units of heat, called British thermal units (Btu). We use Btu to compare different types of energy that are not directly comparable, such as barrels of petroleum and cubic feet of natural gas.

Principal contributor: Mickey Francis

Source: This article was published by EIA

 

Output of Czech hydro plants drops by 30-50% amid continued drought

A CEZ hydropower plant in Czechia. / CEZFacebook

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By Albin Sybera in Prague May 27, 2026

The output of Czech hydro plants is down by nearly a half as country copes with continued drought.

“In comparison to long term average the production of hydroelectric plants as between about 50-70%,” Martin Schreier, spokesperson of majority state owned energy utility ČEZ, was quoted as saying by online news outlet Seznam Zprávy (SZ).

Last year the output at hydroelectric plants dropped by 40% as a result of drought, with which the country has been coping in recent years, SZ reported, noting that Czechia is among the fastest warming countries in Europe and that the drought has already impacted freight via country’s rivers, including the Elbe river, an important northern freight route to Germany.  

Besides the rising temperatures, Czech soil also suffered from decades of industrial and agricultural use which significantly decreased its ability to retain water.

Earlier this month, SZ reported that this year’s drought could be the worst one in 65 years, noting that in March and April the country registered only 32 millimetres of rainfall, which is the least since 1961, according to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (ČHMÚ).

From January to April, the country registered only 101 millimetres of rainfall and is on course to register lower rainfall in the first half of the year than in last year, when it was 222 millimetres, the least on record since 1965.

 

Flávio Bolsonaro turns to Trump as Brazil probe deepens

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro solicited financial backing from a scandal-plagued banker for a film about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to messages published by Intercept Brasil. / agencia senadoFacebook

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By bnl Sao Paulo bureau May 27, 2026

Flávio Bolsonaro travelled to Washington on May 26 for a private meeting with US President Donald Trump, seeking to shore up his political standing ahead of Brazil's October presidential election as a financial scandal involving a jailed banker threatened to erode his chances of reaching the Palácio do Planalto.

A White House official confirmed the encounter, which did not appear on Trump's public schedule.

The visit came as Flávio's campaign absorbed a significant polling blow. An AtlasIntel/Bloomberg survey of 5,032 people conducted between May 13 and 18 put President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead by 48.9% to 41.8% in a second-round runoff scenario — a swing of roughly seven percentage points from an April poll that had Flávio narrowly ahead at 47.8% to Lula's 47.5%. In a first-round scenario, the seasoned leftist leader led with 47% against Flávio's 34.3%. The poll carries a margin of error of one percentage point.

The shift followed reports by investigative outlet The Intercept Brasil, based on leaked messages from a federal police probe, alleging that Flávio had negotiated a commitment of up to BRL134mn ($26.85mn) from Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, to finance a biographical film about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. Earlier reporting cited the figure at BRL60mn ($12mn). Federal investigators estimate that the alleged fraud linked to Banco Master reached BRL12bn ($2.3bn).

Vorcaro has been in custody since March, accused of attempting to bribe a former central bank director, a charge he denies. His attorney declined to comment.

Flávio, a son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro — barred from running for office after being convicted of plotting a coup following his 2022 election defeat — has denied any wrongdoing, acknowledging that Vorcaro had agreed to finance the film but describing the arrangement as a private sponsorship with no favours exchanged. His campaign communications chief has since resigned, amid what the financial newspaper Valor described as a crisis for the senator's pre-campaign.

Despite the turbulence, conservative allies sought to project calm. "Moments like this deserve our attention. He needs to make it all clear," said Senator Marcos Rogério, speaking at the Esfera forum in São Paulo state. "This thing will not bar his candidacy at all." According to AP, political analyst Lula Guimarães argued the timing of the revelations mattered, suggesting the damage would have been greater had the allegations emerged closer to election day.

After the White House meeting, Flávio posted on Instagram that Trump had presented him with a "challenge coin,” a medallion traditionally associated with the US armed forces, describing it as a "rare gesture, reserved for allies." He was dismissive when asked about the polling figures. "A crisis of what? This is an election campaign. It has its ups and downs," he said.