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Received — 28 April 2026 World News - RFI
Received — 27 April 2026 World News - RFI

Europe, Asia driving surge in global military spending: report

By: RFI
27 April 2026 at 10:30
World military spending rose again in 2025, reaching a record $2.9 trillion (€2.67 trillion), according to new figures from Stockholm-based global armament watchdog SIPRI. This comes as governments responded to war, strategic rivalry and uncertainty, with Europe and Asia leading the push for rearmament.

Received — 26 April 2026 World News - RFI

Chernobyl, 40 years on: the disaster that triggered the downfall of a superpower

26 April 2026 at 16:30
As radiation spread across Europe in April 1986, so did the truth about a political system built on silence. Four decades on, RFI spoke to history and politics professor Oleg Kobtzeff about how the Chernobyl nuclear disaster exposed the USSR's culture of secrecy, and was among the catalysts for its collapse.

Trickle-down impacts of Middle East war, from pistachios, to copper, to leather

26 April 2026 at 16:03
As oil prices surge and key shipping routes close because of the war in the Middle East, the downstream effects are impacting different markets around the world, from pistachios and bananas to luxury leather goods, as industries are being forced to adapt to disrupted supply chains and increased costs.

Turkey steps up as Europe's indispensable and uncomfortable defence partner

26 April 2026 at 15:53
Europe is turning to Turkey to fill the security vacuum left by an increasingly unreliable United States. But as Nato's secretary-general was praising Ankara's growing military role this week, the European Commission president was placing Turkey in the same bracket as China and Russia. The contradiction points to a dilemma that is only going to deepen.

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