Saudi Arabia announced this Friday the closure of its East-West pipeline, a key alternative route to the Strait of Hormuz, following multiple attacks that occurred on Thursday.

It was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the ill-fated head of the Wagner mercenary group, who first began recruiting soldiers from Russian prisons to send them to fight in Ukraine. In mid-2022, he personally toured penal colonies, promising pardons to those who joined his ranks. A year later, the Russian army also began recruiting, and now, in need of personnel to advance on the front and take control of the entire Donbass, it is once again looking to those who have lost their freedom due to their criminal acts.

With the Iran war, the US president, Donald Trump, has made backtracking a habit. In the midst of efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end the conflict initiated by Washington and Tel Aviv at the end of February, the president uses backtracking as a pressure tool, although he risks calling his credibility into question. The latest example took the form of a message on Truth Social on Monday, where Trump claimed he had authorized a new wave of attacks against Iran starting this Tuesday, but postponed them after three leaders of the allied Gulf monarchies requested more time to negotiate the nuclear agreement.