Putin meets Xi and Modi at SCO summit: As it happened

The leaders of Russia, China and India have gathered in Bishkek for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit

Published 31 Aug, 2026 10:47 | Updated

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kyrgyzstan on Monday.

The three national leaders will later attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian group of nations seeking to improve security and economic ties.

Originally a five-member regional group that included China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan which signed its first agreement in Shanghai, the SCO has since expanded to become the biggest regional organizations for cooperation. It includes ten permanent members, 15 dialogue partners and two observer states.

The group has a range of political, security and economic goals and has been called by its members a key mechanism in transition to a new multipolar world system,replacing the period of US unipolarity that followed the Cold War.

The SCO states say Western nations are engaging in increasingly hostile and disruptive activity as their global dominance slips away, and having a forum where other nations can agree on joint responses to new challenges becomes more important.

https://www.rt.com/news/644870-putin-sco-xi-modi/

Icelanders give cold shoulder to EU’s ‘bureaucrats and warmongering’ (VIDEO).

Too long to post

RT explores the reasons why people in the island nation chose to keep the European Union at arm’s length

Published 31 Aug, 2026 09:37

Icelanders appear to have found a way to have their cake and eat itby rejecting a proposal to restart integration talks with the EU, RT’s Rachel Marsden reports.

In a referendum on the weekend, almost 53% of voters in the northern Atlantic nation supported maintaining the status quo rather than exploring the possibility of EU membership.

The small island country already has access to many of the benefits offered by the economic bloc, but cannot be dictated to by Brussels on key domestic policy issues, such as access to fishing resources or immigration policy.

Watch the video to learn more.

https://www.rt.com/news/644880-iceland-eu-referendum-outcome/

Trump demands Canadian companies relocate to US

The US president has said businesses will avoid impending tariffs by moving south

Published 31 Aug, 2026 04:32 |l

US President Donald Trump has urged Canadian businesses operating in the American market to relocate south of the border “immediately,” amid an escalating trade war between the two neighboring nations.

The demand follows Trump’s announcement of new 50% tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, automotive parts, and steel, set to take effect on January 1, in response to what he called Canada’s “unequal treatment” of American vehicles, dairy products, and alcohol. The duties are in addition to 50% levies imposed earlier this month on around $20 billion worth of Canadian imports. Ottawa has vowed to retaliate with “dollar-for-dollar” measures.

In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump described Canada as “one of the Worst Abusers” in trade, while crediting tariffs with having “revived, and indeed saved” the American automobile industry.

“I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything,” he wrote. “They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop,”he added, describing Canada’s leadership as “the worst” among those he has ever dealt with.

“Let all Canadian Companies that are doing business with America move to the United States, immediately,” Trump said in a follow-up post. “When you move back, there are no TARIFFS!”

Trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa collapsed on August 21, with each side accusing the other of making last-minute changes to a proposed comprehensive agreement. The following day, the US imposed 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian products, including wine, cement, plywood, and clothing.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by announcing duties of up to 50% on around 700 American products, scheduled to take effect on September 8.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario – Canada’s most populous province and the center of the country’s automotive industry –has urged Ottawa to consider progressively stronger retaliation, including restrictions on oil, potash, and strategic mineral exports.

He has also threatened to raise electricity prices or halt supplies to the US altogether, potentially affecting 1.5 million American homes and businesses.

Trump dismissed Ford’s threats as “bluster,”branding Canadian leaders “clowns” who needed to “fall in line,” and hit back on Thursday by signing an executive order directing federal agencies to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” on US government maps, contracts, documents, and communications.

https://www.rt.com/news/644861-trump-canadian-companies-relocate-us/

Tehran urges return to June deal, oil prices rise as Trump vows to hit Iran ‘hard’

MON, AUG 31 2026

KEY POINTS

• A tanker was struck by three unknown projectiles while transiting eastbound through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.

• Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard reported on Monday the interception of a U.S. MQ-9 drone over the eastern Strait of Hormuz.

• While neither side appeared to be seeking a return to full-scale war, both signaled they were prepared to respond to further attacks.

Oil prices extended gains Tuesday as traders mulled the threat of escalation, following the resumption of U.S.-Iran military strikes and more turmoil in the Strait of Hormuz.

A tanker was struck by three unknown projectiles while transiting Hormuz on Monday, according to an incident report from the the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Centre.

Brent

crude futures, the international benchmark, were up 1.6% to $91.90 a barrel by 8:19 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures added 2% to $87.48 per barrel.

The tanker was sailing in the southern shipping lane close to the Omani coast, the UKMTO said, adding that no casualties were reported.

Iran launched an attack on two American bases in Jordan on Monday in retaliation for the U.S. strike on its Larak Island. American forces targeted two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island on Sunday, reportedly killing three, saying that Tehran intended to launch rockets carrying sea mines into the Hormuz Strait.

The small island, located in the strait, has been a critical military and shipping control point for Iranian forces, helping them keep a firm grip on vessel traffic through one of the world’s most critical maritime routes.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit on Tuesday that Tehran would immediately reciprocate if Washington agreed to return to its commitments under the interim deal signed in June, according to the Iranian Student News Agency.

The back-and-forth hostilities marked the first time that the U.S. and Iran traded strikes in over a month.

While neither side appeared to be seeking a return to full-scale war, both signaled they were prepared to respond to further attacks. “We are going to hit them hard,” President Donald Trump told Fox News on Monday, saying that “there will be a response” to Iran’s attacks on U.S. military bases in the region.

Analysts largely view the U.S. strike on Larak Island as an attempt to break a deadlock rather than a shift in strategy. “By hitting the launchers rather than broader Iranian military infrastructure, the U.S. appears to be punishing a specific behaviour rather than, at least for now, broadening its war aims,” said Ali Vaez, deputy program director at International Crisis Group.

“It is enforcing the blockade,” said Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, adding that the Trump administration’s goal was to further degrade Tehran’s capabilities to mine the Strait of Hormuz, while focusing on economic coercive measures as the midterm elections approach.

Washington has ramped up pressure to squeeze Iran’s already-torn economy with “secondary sanctions” that punish nations and businesses buying Iranian crude oil. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers gathering, that Iran was “lashing out kinetically” because the new sanctions were taking a toll on its economy.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump reportedly said Iran’s financial systems, armed forces, and governing body have been largely degraded. “It doesn’t mean we won’t smack them to see what happens,” the president said.

The war, now stretching into its seventh month, has disrupted global energy supplies and sent shock waves through global financial markets.

“This is fundamentally an endurance contest,” said Brodsky, as Trump has demonstrated an “unpredictability” that should concern the Iranians, and Tehran may lash out more aggressively militarily as the economic pressure mounts.

(https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/us-iran-war-trump-hormuz-tanker-attack-shipping-sanctions-.html

Treasury Sec. Bessent and Larry Kudlow participate in a fireside chat at G20 meeting

9/1/26

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh christened Monday’s gathering of the Group of 20 finance ministers in Asheville, North Carolina, by singing the gospel of growth.

“The world is awash in debt,” Bessent told reporters before kicking off the two-day meeting, “and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this.”

32:42

https://www.youtu.be/4X_jU2GRnyU