Egyik 19

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Africa

Democratic Republic of Congo
Tue 25 Feb (2025)  Mysterious illness kills more than 50 people in Democratic Republic of Congo (Source: ABC News - Australia)

Nigeria
13 February 2025  Lassa Fever claims 12 lives in Ondo /Source: allAfrica - offices in Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington, D.C. / Daily Trust (Abuja - Nigeria)/

Uganda
4 February 2025  Uganda begins Ebola vaccine trial after new outbreak (Source: BBC – United Kingdom)

Sun, 02 Feb, 2025  Ebola vaccine trial to begin in Uganda after new outbreak kills nurse (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland / The Associated Press - U.S.)

South Africa
17 February 2025  Hand, foot and mouth disease cases more than tripled in days (Source: Times Live - South Africa)

Asia

China
26 February 2025 Wuhan Covid lab planning ‘ominous’ new bat experiments (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)

Singapore
Feb 10, 2025 Singapore’s imported polio case (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore)

North America

Caribbean

Haiti
February 6, 2025  Treatment for HIV, AIDS in Haiti hit by U.S. foreign aid halt despite waivers from Rubio (Source: Miami Herald - U.S.)

United States

Feb. 28, 2025  Dozens of dead birds found on Long Island beach believed to have died from avian flu (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

February 27, 2025  Trump administration weighs pulling funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine, Bloomberg News reports (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

February 27, 2025  A Texas child who was not vaccinated has died of measles, a first for the US in a decade (Source: AP - U.S.)

26 February 2025  Yale scientists link Covid vaccines to alarming new syndrome causing 'distinct biological changes' to body (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)

February 26, 2025  Measles cases continue to rise in rural parts of West Texas, with 124 confirmed (Source: AP - U.S.)

February 25, 2025  Fears of US public health crises grow amid falling vaccination rates (Source: MedicalXpress - Isle of Man, United Kingdom)

23 February 2025  US measles outbreak leaves nearly 100 ill in Texas and New Mexico (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Sat 22 Feb 2025  Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding (Source: The Guardian - United Kingdom)

2/19/2025  More eggs are being confiscated at the U.S.-Mexico border amid the bird flu outbreak (Source: MSN / LA Times = U.S.)

Feb. 19, 2025  USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is now trying to rehire them, an Agriculture Department spokesperson told  (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

2/18/2025  U.S. reverses plan to shut down free covid test program (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

Feb. 18, 2025  In rural West Texas, a measles outbreak grows with no end in sight. At least 58 cases have been confirmed. Health officials - who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak - suspect 200 to 300 people may be infected. (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

Feb 18, 2025  Montana seeks to ban mRNA shots as vaccine hesitancy soars (Source: Semafor - website, U.S.)

Feb 17, 2025  Trump's aid freeze could cause millions more AIDS deaths: U.N. agency (Source: Japan Times)

February 14, 2025  Louisiana health department says it will stop promoting mass vaccination. Here's what that could mean. The announcement came on the heels of RFK Jr.'s confirmation to lead HHS. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

Fri February 14, 2025  West Texas measles outbreak doubles to 48 cases (Source: CNN - U.S.)

February 11, 2025  Trump's NIH pick co-founded new journal by researchers who challenged the U.S. response to COVID-19. Bhattacharya and Kulldorff, PhD, have founded the Journal of the Academy of Public Health, which will be open-access, will have open peer review, will pay reviewers for their work, and will remove "article gatekeeping' to allow scientists to "publish all their research results in a timely and efficient manner." (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

2/11/2025  What happens when bird flu gets worse? (Source: MSN / The Atlantic = U.S.)

February 10, 2025  2nd strain of bird flu infects cows for the 1st time: USDA. The same strain is linked to the bird flu patient who died in Louisiana. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

10/02/2025  People are going to die': HIV infections could surge if US support is dropped, UNAIDS chief says. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

February 7, 2025  Bird flu is infecting more people than we think. We need to stop it now before a new pandemic begins. The U.S. is not ready for bird flu in humans. (Source: The Scientific American - U.S.)

Wed, Feb 5, 2025  Bird flu: Panic as newer, deadly strain emerges - humans at risk of more severe illness (Source: The Express -  United Kingdom)

5 February 2025  Experts who predicted Covid years in advance reveal how new virus in Alabama could trigger pandemic (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)

2/3/2025  Bird flu crisis enters new phase (Source: MSN / Axios = U.S.)

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A franciák Szíriában

Máraitól

Amit Bejrútban a francia illetékesek már régen tudtak, azt, talán a francia haditanács aggastyánain kívül, kezdi már minden józan politikus tudni Párizsban is: a franciák megbuktak Szíriában. Nemcsak a drúz háborúval buktak el, nem hadászati valóság miatt, mely bizonyítja, hogy a francia hadiszerencse két esztendeig nem bírt e maroknyi vad törzs ravaszságával, életerejével, terepismeretével, kitartásával; mert a drúzok múló sikere természetszerűleg nem annyira katonai erényeiken, mint inkább külső körülményeiken múlott - korszerű hadsereg részére járhatatlan, sziklás terep, bonyolult utánpótlás, éghajlat, gerillaharc -, hanem elbuktak ott és akkor is, ahová katonaság be sem tette a lábát. A franciák mandátumot kaptak Szíriában, nem ugyan a szíriaiaktól, akiket nem kérdeztek meg, hanem a Népszövetségtől; mandátumot, tehát felügyeleti jogot, megbízást, hogy Európa nevében békét teremtsenek és békés felügyeletet gyakoroljanak az európai érdeköveknek egy nyugtalan pontján. A franciák béketeremtés és békés felügyelet helyett egészen mást cselekedtek. Mindenekelőtt felgyújtották az ostoba háborúval az ország békéjét. Ez a háború kiélezett lappangó belpolitikai, üzleti, vallási ellentéteket, melyek Szíriában, ahol huszonnégyféle vallás előírásai szerint imádják az emberek Istent, régtől kiélezettek voltak, s melyeket csak egy nagyon óvatos és nagyon finom kezű diplomácia tudott volna ideig-óráig elsimítani. A franciák a nagyon óvatos és nagyon finom kezű diplomata helyett leküldtek Szíriába kormányzónak egy tábornokot. Azt a Sarrail tábornokot, akinek utcaszomszédságában volt szerencsém Párizsban lakhatni; s ezt csak azért említem, mert láttam ablakomból, amint a párizsi tömeg a szíriai szereplés után visszaparancsolt tábornok ablakait beverte a Boulevard Périer-n. De ha a párizsi tömeg beveri egyik bukott nemzeti hősének ablakait, akkor másnap biztosan fáklyásmenetet rendez egy másik tábornok, másik nemzeti hős, például Liautey számára, akit végül hasonlóan kénytelen a kormány hazarendelni Marokkóból. A háború utáni francia külérdekeket politizáló tábornokok kezére adták. Az eredmények hajszálra fedik ezt a tényt. A franciák érdekesek odahaza, de hasonlíthatatlanul érdekesebbek külföldön. Szíriában néhány nap alatt többet lát az utas a franciákból, mint Párizsban éveken keresztül. A franciákat nagy tulajdonságaik mindenre alkalmassá teszik, csak arra nem, amit legjobban szeretnének: kormányozni a világot. Ha egy francia odahaza szeretetreméltóan mulatságos a maga nyárspolgáriasságában, akkor külföldön nevetségesen esetlen. A francia gyarmati hivatalnok ünneplő fekete ruhában, keménykalappal és kaucsukkézelőkkel utazik le igazgatni a trópusokat. Alkalmazkodni az idegen világhoz, megegyezni az idegen ízléssel, komoly arccal állani meg idegen Isten, idegen életszokás, idegen életütem előtt - minderre képtelen. A francia odahaza általában elég műveletlen, de nagyon okos; külföldön változatlanul műveletlen, de mindenáron ő az okosabb. Gyarmati politikájuk, gyarmati közigazgatásuk kapkodó, sokszor nagyképű s mindig tűrhetetlenül irodai szagú. Mindenhová magukkal viszik bélyegjeiket, pecsétjeiket, hosszú kérvénymintáikat, bonyolult elintézési módszereiket, vörös gombszalagjaikat, s míg odahaza, Franciaországban mindez megbocsátható, csaknem szeretetre méltó fogyatékosságnak tetszik, addig külföldön mindezt türelmetlenül kényszerítik rá a vadidegen környezetre, melyhez e világkép oly kevéssé illik, mint mikor egy őserdő elé táblát állítanak, hogy tilos a fűre lépni. A franciák odahaza sok dologban üdítően naivak (s ez a legjobb bennük, jobb, mint a közép-európai ember kivertsége) és eszményien igénytelenek; külföldön egyszerűen esetlenek és sokszor otrombák. A francia, mint odahaza a kávéházban, úgy a világban sem veszi le kalapját. Ez az izgatott szellemű, finom humorú nép képtelen megérteni az idegen szellemet, idegen életek jókedvét és szórakozásait. Ha más Istent lát, mint a római katolikust, hátra tolja kalapját fején, csettint, és elképedve mondja: „Tiens, olala *.. Ha tekintélyt lát, akinek minden ükapja tekintély volt Mekkában, s a szava embermillióknak parancs, de burnusza gomblyukában nem hordja a kitüntetés piros szalagját, a francia elfordítja előle fejét, és nem köszön neki vissza. Damaszkuszban csodálkozik, hogy nincs mosdótál a mecsetben; de nem teszi be lábát a török fürdőkbe, mert a fürdés odahaza sem erénye. A franciák, ezek az okos, kedves, mulatságos, friss szellemű, kitaláló, udvarias, lelkes franciák külföldön korlátoltak, kapzsiak, mohók, szűk látókörűek és gorombák. Sokszor kegyetlenek. Mindig elhamarkodottak. Odahaza franciák, külföldön mindig hódítók. Az angolok is angolok odahaza és hódítók a külföldön: de meg kell nézni a két államot egymás mellett, az angol protektorátus alatt fölépített Palesztinát, s a francia gondoskodás alatt lerongyolt Szíriát. Érdemes párhuzamot vonni. Palesztinában nem látni az angolokat. Katonáikat a városon kívül tartják, a közigazgatást teljesen rábízzák a bennszülöttekre s bevándoroltakra, sem arab, sem zsidó nem érzi adminisztrációs kérdésekben mellőzöttnek magát, s ha Lord Plumer, a kormányzó reggelire arab effendit látott hivatalosan vendégül, akkor a zsidó Executive urai biztosak lehetnek, hogy meghívó várja őket ebédre. Az angolok meghagyták Palesztinában az egyiptomi fontot, a franciák magukkal hozták és rákényszerítették Szíriára züllött frankjukat. Az angolok kilenc éve békítik és sikerrel békítik a zsidókat az arabokkal, a franciáknak sürgős dolguk volt összeveszíteni a drúzokat a szíriaiakkal. Az angolok, akik odahaza kereskedők, megmaradtak Palesztinában kereskedőknek, akik nagy politikai és társadalmi üzletet készítenek elő; a franciák Szíriába őrmestereket és adóhivatalnokokat küldtek. Az angolok nem angyalok és nem hittérítők, hanem számító és gyakorlati kereskedők, akiknek van szívük idegen országban meghagyni a bennszülött üzletfeleknek ötven százalékot; a franciák mandátumuk első pillanatától mohón és kapzsian száztíz százalékot akartak keresni, papírért kivásárolni Szíriát, hajóhadakkal exportálni a gondjaikra bízott országból mindent, ami olcsón megszerezhető érték, s cserébe leküldték a Galeries Lafayette színes rongyait, Citroén cserebogárautóit, Coty úr illatait és a Francia Bank asszignátáit. Bejrútban a francia hajók éveken át homokzsákkal gyomrukban futottak ki a kikötőből, mert nem akadt szíriai kereskedő, aki hajlandó lett volna exportálni Franciaországba. Az angolok nem nyúltak a nyelvhez Palesztinában, meghagyták közigazgatási nyelvnek az arabot, s beiktatták melléje a hébert; a franciák kerek szemekkel csodálkoznak, mikor a baalbeki tevehajcsár nem beszél velük franciául. Az angolok, mindenkor és mindenütt, üzletet kötnek a világban; a franciák hódítanak és zsákmányolnak. Mikor egy nagy nép kezdi elveszíteni világhelyzeti biztonságát, mikor egy nagy nép kezd elfáradni, mindig harácsolni indul a világban. így csinálta Róma felbomlása előtt, így csinál Párizs. Párizs egy évezreden át a világ lelke volt; ma inkább csak pénzszekrény. Ez a legrejtélyesebb folyamat a világban, mikor egy nép, egy nagy nép kezd elmúlni, megváltozni, kezd elveszíteni egy hatalmi helyzetet, mikor a „nemzetek családjában”, mint ezt politikusok mondani szokták, az egyik hatalmas család kezd néhány nemzedéken keresztül észrevehetetlen okokból letörni, szétomlani. Még minden a helyén van; s valahogy már minden megy lefelé. A francia valamikor forradalmár volt, ma ő a világ burzsoája, a szó kicsinyes, szűkkeblű, garasos értelmében. Milyen nagy ez a nép, milyen sokat adott a világnak - mi rágja most, mi történt vele? Athént, mikor lefelé ment, Kleónok kezdték kormányozni. A tímár, aki dikics helyett jogart vesz kezébe, mindig veszedelmes; nem mert tímár, hanem mert jogar van a kezében. A franciák még nem tanulták meg, amit az angolok már régen tudnak, hogy a szuronynak egy nagy nép világhelyzete intézésében csak alárendelt szerepe van. A franciák egyik utolsó nagy bölcse az emberiség történetét a három ismert, lemondó szóban foglalta össze. Az angolok nem ilyen melankolikusak, ritkán bölcsek, de mindig tudják, hogy az élet bonyolult üzletek láncolata, s mindenhol vannak feltételek - Isten, pénz, hiúság, hazafiság -, melyek egyforma érvényűek és egyformán kényesek Kanadában és Indiában, Kongóban és Párizsban. Az angol, ha kimegy a világba, sohasem fog vitatkozni, hogy az angol Isten jobb-e, mint Buddha, a font jobb-e, mint a rúpia. A francia nem ismer el mást, csak a francia Istent, a francia pénzt, a francia hiúságot s a francia hazafiasságot. A szemléletnek e korlátoltsága lehet bizonyos erő odahaza, de szerencsétlenség, mikor szuronyokkal alátámasztva vonulnak ki vele a világba. A franciák kezdenek egyedül maradni a világban. Még néhány ilyen diadal, s a kör bezárul körülöttük. Amit kívánni nem kell, mert nem történik senki érdekében. A szíriai közjáték lényegtelen vonatkozásaiban is a francia történelem egy új, homályos kimenetelű fejezetét göngyöli fel. Párizsban, ahol még mindig több az eszes ember, mint a politikus, már komoly hangok hallatszottak arról, hogy a franciák feladják szíriai helyzetüket, s leköszönnek a mandátumról, mely az összes érdekelteknek csak pénzbe, vérbe és céltalan erőpazarlásba került. A francia ügynökök visszaviszik Coty illatait és Citroén cserebogarait Párizsba, s a francia tábornokokat, valahányszor politikát csináltak valahol, még nem sírta vissza senki. Az emléknek, melyet a franciák Szíriában állítottak, Janus-arca van; az egyik fej egy tábornoké, a másik egy vigécé. Franciaországnak vannak hasonlíthatatlanul jobb fejei is; de ezekből Szíriának nem volt alkalma látni egyet sem.

* Nocsak, olala... - fr.

(Az 1927-ban megjelent "Istenek nyomában" című kötetből)

Megjegyzés: Márai és felesége 1923 - 1928 között Párizsban élt, kivéve három hónapnyi, 1925. évi közel-keleti tartózkodást.

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Europe

Scandinavia
10/07/2025 - 18:05  Two small spaceports - one in Sweden and the other in Norway - are vying to become the first on the continent’s mainland to launch satellites into space. Both are in the Arctic circle. /Video/ (Source: France24)

European Commission
(10 July 2025)  Der Leyen survives rare confidence vote in the European Parliament. 175 voted in favour; 360 voted against and 18 abstained. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

United Kingdom
10 July 2025  Northwood Declaration - UK-France joint nuclear statement on Nuclear Policy and Cooperation: 'The President of the French Republic and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom reaffirm their longstanding and resolute commitment to nuclear cooperation. There is no greater demonstration of the strength and importance of our bilateral relationship than our willingness to work together in this most sensitive area. In this regard, we commend the important achievements since 2010. Our nuclear weapons exist to deter the most extreme threats to the security of our nations and our vital interests. Our nuclear forces are independent, but can be coordinated and contribute significantly to the overall security of the Alliance, and to the peace and stability of the Euro Atlantic area. As we have explicitly stated since 1995, we do not see situations arising in which the vital interests of either France or the United Kingdom could be threatened without the vital interest of the other also being threatened. France and the United Kingdom agree that there is no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by our two nations. France and the United Kingdom have therefore decided to deepen their nuclear cooperation and coordination. A UK-France Nuclear Steering Group will be established to provide political direction for this work. It will be led by the Presidency of the French Republic and the Cabinet Office and will coordinate across nuclear policy, capabilities and operations. The United Kingdom and France reaffirm their full support for the Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and for our obligations under the treaty. We will coordinate ever more closely to uphold and reinforce the international non-proliferation architecture.' (Source: GOV:UK - United Kingdom)

10/07/2025 - 21:54  French President Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer today announced a new defence relationship that will coordinate their countries' nuclear ’deterrence’ systems. The Northward declaration deal aims ’to jointly protect Europe’. ’From today, our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this continent would prompt a response from our two nations’, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a news conference alongside Macron. Macron said the two countries had created an oversight committee to coordinate their cooperation. The closer cooperation ’had nothing to do with their efforts to create a coalition of the willing to support Ukraine’ in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, he added. Macron has previously said he will launch a strategic dialogue on extending the protection offered by France's nuclear arsenal to its European partners. ’Europe's primary nuclear deterrence comes from the United States’. The US has nuclear arms in Europe and tens of thousands of troops deployed in bases across the continent with military capabilities. France spends about €5.6 billion ($6.04 billion) annually on maintaining its stockpile of 290 submarine- and air-launched nuclear weapons, the world's fourth largest. Britain describes its nuclear programme as operationally independent, but sources missile technology from the US and depends on the US for acquisition and maintenance support. (Source: France 24 „with Reuters’ - United Kingdom)

10/07/2025 - 15:45  During his state visit to the UK, French President Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer are pledging renewed support for Ukraine through the 'coalition of the willing,' aiming to boost military aid outside NATO frameworks. (Source: France24)

Ukraine
(July 10, 2025)  Russia attacked Ukraine with 728 drones and 13 cruise or ballistic missiles in multiple waves on Tuesday night, marking the biggest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine yet. Lutsk, which is home to airfields used by the Ukrainian army, was the hardest hit. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took aim at Ukrainian air bases and that 'all the designated targets have been hit.' Ten other regions were targeted. (Source: Outlook - India)

Asia

Gaza
10.07.25, 08:18 AM  Israeli airstrikes killed at least 40 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including 10 members of a family sheltering in a tent, Nasser Hospital officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis said yesterday. The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza over the past day, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and tunnels. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding weapons and fighters among civilians. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

Iran
20:54 ET, Jul 10 2025  Israel says some of Iran's highly-enriched near weapons-grade uranium stockpile survived US bombings during the 12-Day War last month. Doubts remained about whether Iran quietly removed 408.6 kgs of uranium from its most sensitive sites before the strikes - potentially hiding nuclear material elsewhere in the country. The uranium in question is enriched to 60 per cent - way above levels for civilian usage but slightly below weapons-grade. That material, if further refined to 90 per cent, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs. Tehran admitted that Operation Midnight Hammer - which saw American B-2 Spirit bombers drop more than a dozen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker buster bombs - did cause ’excessive and serious’ damage. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Grossi admitted Iran could still have stockpiles of enriched uranium, saying: 'We don't know where this material could be'. Satellite imagery showed trucks moving out of Fordow in the days leading up to the attack - leading to speculations that Iran moved some of its underground uranium stockpile. However, President Trump dismissed such speculation, saying: "Nothing was taken out... too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" He added that satellite images showed trucks at the site only because Iranian crews were attempting to shield the facility with concrete. Trump claimed that the strikes had obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities and 'completely destroyed' the Fordow enrichment plant. In an interview with Fox News, the US president said the Fordow enrichment site was just thousands of tons of rock and that ’the whole place was just destroyed.’ He said the strikes had landed at ’the perfect time’. He added: ’We went in, we destroyed their nuclear capability and we stopped. It was a beautiful thing and they couldn't have gone on much further.’ The president also slammed leaked preliminary findings from the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency that said the damage was not severe enough to destroy its nuclear programme. But Trump made it clear he would absolutely consider bombing Iran again if it was ever needed, without question, if US intelligence pointed towards Iran enriching uranium to concerning levels. US and Israel, as well as independent experts, agree that all of Iran’s working centrifuges at Natanz and Fordo - some 18,000 - were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Mr Grossi said Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium in a matter of months, despite the damage. Latest satellite imagery appears to show construction work at the Fordow Nuclear Enrichment facility in Qom, located some 60 miles southwest of Tehran. Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordow enrichment facility appears designed to withstand airstrikes. It hosts centrifuge cascades. Military experts have said it could likely only be targeted by bunker buster bombs, such as the latest, roughly 30,000-pound precision-guided GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, in the American arsenal. The US has only configured and programmed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver that bomb, according to the Air Force. Iran's nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 135 miles southeast of Tehran, is the country's main enrichment site up to 60% purity. Israel destroyed the aboveground part of the facility, according to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Another part of the facility on Iran's Central Plateau is underground to defend against potential airstrikes. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium. The IAEA has said it believes that most, if not all, of these centrifuges were destroyed by an Israeli strike that cut off power to the site. The IAEA said those strikes caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area. Iran also is burrowing into the Kh-e Kolang Gaz L, or Pickax Mountain, which is just beyond Natanzs southern fencing. Two separate attacks, attributed to Israel, also have struck the facility. The facility in Isfahan, some 215 miles southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It is also home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country's atomic program. Israel has struck buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site, among them a uranium conversion facility. The IAEA said there has been no sign of increased radiation at the site. Iran has several other sites in its nuclear program that were not announced as targets in the US strikes. Iran's only commercial nuclear power plant is in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, some 465 miles south of Tehran. Iran is building two other reactors like it at the site. Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the IAEA. The Arak heavy water reactor is 155 miles southwest of Tehran. It produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. Parchin military site, south of Tehran, is focused on research and the production of ammo, rockets and explosives. Concerns have been raised that it is also used as part of Iran's nuclear weapon development. Qom uranium enrichment plant is heavily fortified – an initially secret facility where Iran carries out uranium enrichment. The Tehran Research Reactor is at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the civilian body overseeing the countrys atomic program. The 12-Day War began on June 13 when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion. The Israelis also orchestrated Operation Red Wedding - 30 top Iranian military chiefs killed in near-simultaneous blitz. Iran retaliated by launching daily salvos of ballistic missiles across Israel. Less than a fortnight later, Trump joined the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. The US military's flagship B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). The bunker-buster bombs were used to hit Iran's Fordow Nuclear Enrichment Plant. Iran sought its revenge by launching missiles at Al-Udeid Air Base - America's biggest military station in the region. But Tehran seemingly cooked up a fake attack after passing warnings to its Qatari allies, which allowed all US service personnel and aircraft to be moved out of harm’s way. Trump dubbed the expected response weak before announcing that a ceasefire deal had been reached between the Israelis and Iranians. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

July 10, 2025 3:36 p.m. ET  Experts are trying to determine how long it would take Iran to rebuild its nuclear program. Israeli intelligence picked up the nuclear weapons activity soon after the Israeli Air Force killed Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon. That observation prompted the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to prepare for an attack with or without U.S. help. The Israeli official said the evidence gathered about the secret program - which the official did not describe in any detail - had been fully shared with the United States. But in interviews in January, American officials said they did not believe Iran was yet racing for a weapon, even though they described a nascent effort to explore 'faster, cruder' approaches to building one. And the director of national intelligence, Gabbard, told Congress in testimony in March that she saw no evidence the Iranians had decided to build a weapon, a position intelligence officials reiterated in June. In the days surrounding Israel’s attack on Iran in mid-June, and President Trump’s subsequent decision to join in the action, U.S. intelligence officials said they had seen no evidence of a move by Iran to weaponize its stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium. The United States struck two of Iran’s most critical enrichment sites with 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs and aimed a barrage of submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles at a third site, where the fuel could be converted for use in weapons. Speaking at the NATO summit at The Hague two weeks ago, Mr. Trump said the U.S. strikes “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come,” ’and suggested he would be willing to strike again if needed. This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material, which it won’t,’ he told reporters. Since then, Iran has expelled the I.A.E.A. inspectors who were in Tehran during the Israeli and American attacks, and has turned off some of the agency’s remaining cameras and other monitoring devices, cutting off the best window into Iranian activity that the West had. Israel and the United States could be entering a new era of hide-and-seek. Iran seems unlikely to try to rebuild its nuclear sites at Fordo or Natanz. Even Fordo, built deep inside a mountain, was far more vulnerable than its Iranian designers had believed. (One key vulnerability was the existence of ventilation shafts that went deep into the plant; the American attack included strikes that sent the 30,000-pound bombs into those shafts, enabling them to plunge closer to the control rooms and enrichment halls than if they had to blast through the rock.) The vast majority of the effort to get to highly enriched uranium is at the initial stages. Any effort to dig the fuel out from the rubble of Isfahan may be hard to hide from satellite surveillance. Mr. Trump has stuck to his insistence that the Iranian program was ’obliterated,’ and that Iran’s leaders were no longer interested in nuclear weapons after being struck by American warplanes. Defense Secretary Hegseth has said the bombing left the fuel and equipment at the most protected site, Fordo, ’buried under a mountain, devastated and obliterated.’ The administration kept to that line today. “As President Trump has said many times, Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities,’ said Kelly, a White House spokeswoman. ’The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership.” The Israeli official said that Israel has concluded that some of Iran’s underground stockpile of near-bomb-grade enriched uranium survived American and Israeli attacks last month and may be accessible to Iranian nuclear engineers. In a briefing for reporters on yesterday evening, the senior Israeli official did not express concern about the assessment that some of the stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium, stored in casks, had survived the attack. The official, and other Israelis with access to the country’s intelligence findings, said any attempts by Iran to recover it would almost certainly be detected - and there would be time to attack the facilities again. Western intelligence officials confirmed the Israeli assessment, saying that they believed much of the stockpile was buried under rubble in Iran’s nuclear laboratory at Isfahan and potentially other sites. One of the officials concurred that the United States or Israel would know if the Iranians tried to retrieve the enriched uranium. Such a move, the official said, would surely invite a renewed Israeli bombing attack. Israel, the United States and now a growing number of outside experts agree that all of Iran’s working centrifuges at Natanz and Fordo - about 18,000 machines, which spin at supersonic speeds - were damaged or destroyed, probably beyond repair. The question they are now examining is how long it would take the Iranians to rebuild some or all of that capability, especially after the top scientists in their nuclear program were targeted and killed. On one point - whether Iran moved a large part of its stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium just before the American strike in the early morning of June 22 in Tehran - the Israeli assessment differs from the conclusion of Grossi, the secretary general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Mr. Grossi has said he believes that much of the stockpile that was stored at Isfahan was transferred from the site before Israeli and American weapons struck. The senior Israeli official contends that nothing was moved. The storage site at Isfahan, the official said, was too deep for even the most powerful American weapons to destroy. But the U.S. attack on Isfahan did close off many entrances, and appears to have wiped out laboratories that convert enriched uranium into a form that could be used in a weapon, and that would then fashion it into a metal that could be shaped into a missile warhead. The Israeli official said he believed some additional stockpiles are still at Fordo and Natanz, the two major enrichment sites where the fuel is produced. Both were struck by the bunker-busting bombs, and Israel has assessed that recovering those supplies would be too difficult. What remains unknown, American and British officials say, is how fast Iran could reproduce the facilities it has lost, and whether it could do so covertly to avoid another strike. It is not clear how many new centrifuges Iran had under construction in workshops around the country, or when they would be ready to be installed. ’In the years leading up to the attacks, Iran was digging two deep-underground nuclear facilities, one near the Isfahan laboratories and another in Natanz. Neither was a target of the Israeli and U.S. strikes’. But turning them into replacements for the two bombed enrichment facilities would be a major task, and it would require replacing more than 18,000 centrifuges believed destroyed or disabled in the attacks. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)
by Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent, He has reported on the Iranian nuclear program for more than two decades.

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Csöndes nap Damaszkuszban

Írta Márai

A szálloda ablaka kertre néz. A szoba egyszerűsége cellákra emlékeztet. De a nap oly erővel zuhog be az ablakokon a cellába, hogy már hajnalban felébredek a harsány fényességre; kinyitom az ablakot, nap, nap, fényesség, s a kertből a korai nyár minden érett látványossága harsog felém, gyümölcsfák fekete árnyékot vetnek már a hajnali napsütésben is - soha ilyen nagy nyári kertet május elején!... A fogadó különben sem egészen dísztelen, az ágy előtt például perzsaszőnyeg; igaz, az ágyban matrac helyett szalmazsák. Sok virág az asztalon, sok bolha az ágyban. Athénben állítólag több bolha van, s Nápolyban van az egész világon a legtöbb bolha. Egy méltóságos szíriai kihozza a kertbe egy fa alá a reggelit. Megtudom, hogy az éjszaka „nyugodt” volt; szíriai tájszólásban ez annyit jelent, hogy a külső negyedekben nem koncoltak föl senkit. Ez a fogadó, a szíriai szerint, kívül esik a koncolási vonalon; a drúzok csak a külvárosokban koncolnak, ha koncolnak. - És holnap éjjel? - kérdem. Nem, a szíriai nem hiszi, hogy holnap éjjel koncolnak A franciák már három napja nem bombázták Szueidát, nincs semmi ok, hogy a drúzok támadjanak. A drúzok a lehetőséghez képest lovagiasan betartanak bizonyos támadási rendszert: a francia bombázást követő negyedik vagy ötödik éjszaka egy csapat lovas lenyargal Damaszkusz elé, a sötétségben megrohannak néhány külvárosi házat vagy gyöngébb erősítésű francia őrséget, koncolnak egy félórát, felgyújtják a házakat, s a következő félórában száguldanak vissza a hegyekbe. Ezt követően a franciák másnap repülőket küldenek Szueida fölé, s leejtenek néhány bombát. Majd a drúzok, négy-öt nap múlva, éjszaka, leosonnak a hegyekből... Ez két esztendeje megy így... Ez volt a szíriai háború. Nyílt támadásra ritkán került sor. Ülök a damaszkuszi kertben a platán alatt, bámulom a reggelit, s arra gondolok, hogy így szoktam Párizsban, reggeli közben, olvasni az újságok táviratait: ,,Vérfürdő Damaszkuszban.” Vagy: „Portyázó drúz csapatok az éjjel Damaszkusz külvárosaiban mészárlást rendeztek s felgyújtották az arab negyedeket.” Vagy:,,Damaszkusz lángokban.” Sokszor olvastam már ezt, sokszor, reggeli közben. Párizsban mindig felizgattak e hírek; itt, Damaszkuszban közömbös maradok. Mi bajuk az embereknek, hogy nem átallanak ilyen csendes, nagy napsütésben koncolni? Reggeli után elmegyek megnézni Damaszkuszt és a vérfürdőt. Damaszkusz az a nagy keleti város, amely a legerősebb látványossági emléket nyújtja az utasnak: ez a város a tiszta, majdnem hamisítatlan Kelet. így nappal mozgolódik is az utcákon valamilyen óvatos kis élet. Damaszkusz háromszázezer lakosa közül egyharmad, a gazdagok s valamennyire jómódúak, elmenekültek, sokan Palesztinába, sokan Bejrútba, sokan csak a legközvetlenebb környékre. A szegény muzulmán népesség, persze, maradt. Maradt egy pár egyházi méltóság; a magasabb rangú közhivatalnokok Bejrútba vándoroltak. A híres, nagy damaszkuszi bazár ma üres. Egy pár fülkében ácsorognak csak kereskedők, értéktelen tárgyakat vagy a mindennapos élet szükségleti cikkeit árulják, csaknem verseny nélkül. Az árak elég magasak, sok helyen egyiptomi fontban számolnak, így a szállodában is. A város nagy kereskedelmi és idegenforgalma, melynek közvetlen kapcsolata volt békében a távoli Kelettel, teljesen megbénult. A híres és hírhedt damaszkuszi üzletek, a szövetek, selymek, pengék, berakott bútorok, zománcedények elegáns üzleteit becsukták, bedeszkázták. Kelet leghíresebb, mozaikkal kirakott fürdőházai közül egyet sikerült meglátnom Damaszkuszban; a többi üzemen kívül; Damaszkuszban, hogy el ne mulaszszam e rossz szójátékot, most csak vérfürdőt vehet a lakosság. A város hangtalan, dísztelen, vége egy ünnepélynek, s a vendégek leszedték homlokukról a koszorúkat. Hiányzik a városból az, ami feledteti a házak piszkosságát, a szennyet az utcákon, ami színnel és mozgással tölti meg a kopár, poros tereket, deszkával és náddal fedett szűk, homályos utcákat, a bazár halott utcáit: a keleti élet, a mozgalmas semmittevés, az a tevékeny lustaság, mely egész nap sürög és forog, mert fél elárulni, hogy nem csinál semmit, az üde kedvtelés színekben és színes rongyok mutogatásában, ami egyformán fényűzése a tevehajcsárnak és az előkelőeknek. Hogy a koncolásokból mi igaz, mi nem, azt nem sikerült bizonyossággal megtudnom, mert a bennszülöttek, valahányszor szó került erre, rögtön feltálalták a vérfagyasztó és könnyfacsaró rémregényeket; hangos óbégatással, a kegyetlen részletek hangsúlyozásával elevenedtek meg a rémképek: anyák kebléről letépett csecsemők és karóba húzott nagyapák, s mindez számomra, aki Európából jöttem, nem újság s nem is különösség. A drúzok, ahogy az elbeszélésekből megismertem őket, ez a vad, nomád népség, a hagyománynak megfelelően koncolnak, rövid karddal; nem ismerik a sárga gázt, sem az aknavetőt, a tankot, nem a tojásgránátot, repülőik nincsenek, egyszóval kegyetlenségük elavult, s nem mond sokat egy európainak. De a damaszkusziaknak, e jámbor népségnek már ez is elég, s aki mozogni tudott, elhagyta a kincses várost. Damaszkuszban csak a szegény emberek maradtak; és a francia idegenlégió. 

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Nem vagyok különösebb szakértője a katonai erényeknek, de a francia idegenlégiót munkában látnom nem volt egészen érdektelen. A légiónak az a hadosztálya, mely Szíriában táborozott, Marokkóból jött, a riff hadszíntérről. Egyik háborúból a másikba tolták át ezt a mindennél különösebb összetételű, lelki szerkezetű embertömeget, amelynek igazán mindegy, hogy a rifkabilok, a drúzok vagy a szenegálnégerek háborújában kell-e holnap elesni - egyformán nem ismerik ellenségeiket, s egyformán nem kapcsolja őket érdek a háborúhoz, sem hazafias, sem katonai szólamok nem lelkesítik őket, meglehetősen mindegy nekik, hogy Franciaország, amelynek zászlaja alatt harcolnak, győz-e vagy elvérzik, s igazán képzelőerő kellene hozzá föllelkesíteni a világ minden tájáról összeverődött szerencsétleneket egy drúz háború iránt, amihez annyi közük van, mint a bámész turistáknak. S a légió mégis verekedik és - ahogy mondani szokás - jól verekedik. Damaszkusz tele van a légió katonáival. Állandóan őrségek cirkálnak, a külvárosok felé vezető utakat drótsövények, homokzsáktorlaszok zárják el, torlasz és hadikocsis őrség az egyes középületek előtt. Sátrakban táboroznak a város körül vagy hevenyészett kaszárnyákban a város közterein. A kantinokban, ahol bort mérnek számukra, hallottam őket olaszul, oroszul, németül beszélni, az egyiket jó bécsi tájszólással. Jó része egészen fiatal ember. Az arcokban tárgyilagos fáradtság és közöny. Látni néhány sötét férfiút is köztük, de legtöbbje gyermekes és egyszerű. Sok szláv arc, nagyon sok szőke német. A németekkel, így hallottam, egy kis baj volt itt Damaszkuszban; a palesztinai határ igen közel van, Haifában már találnak német konzulátust, sokan megragadják az alkalmat, megszöknek, és német védelem alá menekülnek. De a szökés különben is állandóan időszerű a légióban. Egy-két évig kibírják, aztán legtöbbje megkísérli a mindenáron való szökést; legtöbbjét elfogják, várfogságra ítélik, s ha megismétli, megy életfogytiglan Biribibe. A légió tisztjei a francia hadsereg legkülönb tisztjei. Válogatottan intelligensek, emberségesek, mindje jó családból, választékos neveléssel. A légió őrmesterei a francia hadsereg legalávalóbb vérebei. Kutyakorbácsos kisistenek, kegyetlen basák, akik állatszelídítő módjára járnak osztagjaik között, parancsaik ellen nincsen fellebbezés, maguk a tisztek fegyelmi okokból kénytelenek félrehúzódni és tűrni az őrmesterek nevelési rendszerét. Igaz, ezek az altisztek ritkán múlnak ki természetes halállal. A légió fegyelme nagy, de a légió embereinek lelki hangulata minden fegyelmen túl az állandó „minden mindegy”; s a katona, aki három évet már vasfegyelemben és kifogástalanul leszolgált, kellő pillanatban gondolkozás nélkül veri agyon a puskatussal őrmesterét. A tiszteket ritkábban bántja a legénység. De hol van az a katonai fegyelem, amely visszatartja ezeket az embereket, akik Moszkvából, Bécsből, Münchenből, Pestről, New Yorkból verődtek össze, hogy Franciaország érdekeiért agyonverjék őket Marokkóban, holnap Szíriában, holnapután Indokínában vagy az Isten tudja, hol és miért?.. . Ötös őrjáratokban cirkálnak az utcákon. Rohamsisak, szurony, torlasz, gépfegyver. Állandó háború. Itt minden háznak kertje van, és a legtöbb kertnek vannak eldugott zugai, ahol felkelők lappanganak. Néha tud vendégéről a háziúr, néha nem tud. A drúzok a kisebb ellenség; a nagyobb a láthatatlan, az a lappangó tömeghangulat, ami újabban Kelet minden városában az uralkodó. Az őrjáratok, a légió Damaszkuszt védik a drúzok ellen; de néha azt képzelné az idegen, Damaszkuszt védik a damaszkusziak ellen. A francia kormányzó minden hónapban egyszer ideérkezik néhány napra. A látogatás állítólag megnyugtatja a lakosságot. A külvárosokban ímmel-ámmal építenek a leégett utcasorokban néhány házat. Nem nagyon érdemes építkezni, mert amit nappal emelnek, azt reggelre elhordhatja a tűz, mely éjszaka kerekedett. .. A város fülledt, csendes, bénult. Természetesen itt is statárium, s a hadterület más áldásai. Egyszerű lopásra - nemzeti foglalkozás alacsonyabb szíriai rétegekben - halálbüntetés áll. Ezt a büntetésnemet nem hajtják mindig végre, mert máskülönben hamar kiveszne Damaszkusz megmaradt lakossága is.

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Csöndesen szemel az eső délután a csöndes, fojtott, bénult városban. Egy párizsi formájú kávéházban tisztek kaszinóznak. Hol van Damaszkusz, hol keressem? Hol vannak művészei, kereskedői, papjai, csavargói, komédiásai, kényurai, bölcsei, koldusai? Egy keleti város, ahol nem látni koldust, mert nincsen, aki adjon! Mikor a szerencsétlen Sarrail generális kidobta a bálteremből a drúz főnökök küldöttségét, e glaszékesztyűs, ostoba mozdulattal megfojtotta Kelet egyik legszebb városát, tüzet és kénkövet szórt e szelíd házakra - nem lehet, mégsem lehet ésszel fölfogni és megérteni, hogy mi, európaiak mit művelünk a világban! Mi keresnivalója van itt a légiónak? Hol a jog, hol az emberi vagy isteni jog, népszövetségi határozat, bulla és körszakáll, amely indokolja, hogy Szíriában a franciák háborút viseljenek? Ki érti, ki magyarázza meg a csöndes, megfojtott Damaszkuszi? Nézz bele az üres utcákba, a sápadt arcokba, düh, gyűlölet, kétségbeesés, megvetés beszél minden mozdulatukból - mit keres itt, mit akar tőlük, miért boldogítja őket tankjaival és repülőgépeivel Európa? Mi lesz, ha ezek a tömegek egyszer megmozdulnak, s egyetlen mozdulattal visszalódítanak minket, európaiakat fatornyos hazánkba, tankjainkkal és szerződéseinkkel együtt, s kikergetnek a világból, ahol mohón, kapzsian, gonoszán és kegyetlenül viselkedtünk és eljátszottuk a tiszteletüket? „Mohamed hite a kardot parancsolja. . . ” Este hat óra elmúlt, gyűlnek a mecsetekbe. Ez az egyetlen óra, amikor embert látni az utcán. A minaretek énekelni kezdenek, vékonyan, a mecsetek szőnyegein sűrűn térdelnek Damaszkusz szegényei. Nem ismerem imájukat, de tudom, hogy van benne Európával kapcsolatban valami. Idegenlégió, repülők, torlaszok, szuronyok - mindig ez, mindenütt ez, a kivirult tudomány, ez az embermesterség, ez a betegség, ez a lepra! Nem menekülhetsz előle, mindenütt eléd toppan, Párizsban és Damaszkuszban, őrséget vált és megcsillogtatja szuronyait. Miféle élet ez, miféle istenek vigyáznak reánk? Megyek el innen is, megszégyenülten, semmit nem bocsátva meg, s csak nagyon keveset remélve.

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Europe

Hungary
July 24, 2025  Budapest mayor is probed for organizing city’s banned Pride event. Hungarian state police will question mayor Karácsony, who has been asked to appear for questioning as a suspect sometime next week. Karácsony 'freed' organizers from the need to obtain police permission, organizing the event as ​​a municipal undertaking. Karácsony previously told Hungarian media that he alone bears legal responsibility for organizing the event and that he will be happy to defend himself in court. The government passed legislation in March prohibiting public assemblies that promote or display the LGBTQ+ community, under the pretext of protecting children, and refused to issue police permits that would allow the June 28 Budapest Pride event to go ahead. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

July 24, 2025  The Hungarian government has banned the Irish rap group Kneecap from entering the country, citing 'antisemitic hate speech and open praise for Hamas and Hezbollah.' 'Granting them a stage normalizes hate and terror, and puts democratic values on the line,' a government spokesperson said today. Kneecap’s members are staunch critics of Israel, accusing it of committing war crimes in Gaza - but they have also been criticized for allegedly supporting the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups, which they deny. The band was set to perform at the major Sziget Festival in Budapest on Aug. 11. The Israeli ambassador to Budapest applauded the travel ban. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

European Commission
24/07/2025  Der Leyen warned today that China's ties with Russia were now the 'determining' factor in its relations with the European Union, as she wrapped up 'a tense summit' in Beijing. /Video/ (Source: France 24)

Russia
24.07.2025  Can nuclear weapons help avert a Russia-NATO war? The Ukraine conflict may well pave the way for a larger scale Russia-NATO confrontation. In the event of direct military confrontation, Russia would most likely initially deploy conventional weapons against any adversary. NATO should be under no illusion of achieving facile victory in conventional warfare. The Russian armed forces possess substantial combat experience, including extensive defensive operations. Nevertheless, Russia would confront a formidable adversary. While hard to fathom and with everything suggesting that the scenario remains quite unlikely, it relies on nuclear deterrence as its main pillar. The perception of nuclear weapons as a deterrent has firmly taken root in international relations. In fact, the use of nuclear weapons has evolved into a political and moral taboo, even if military planners and researchers have been exploring and modelling various scenarios involving their use. It is still commonplace to believe that using nuclear weapons is unacceptable and that the odds of a nuclear power facing an aggression are quite low. While nuclear weapons remain the bedrock of deterrence, their employment taboo and ability to avert aggression are again in question. This question is becoming increasingly urgent for Russia considering the prospects of a possible major military confrontation with NATO or its members, or in the context of the Ukraine conflict. In terms of their manufacturing, financial capabilities and resources, NATO countries may well get ahead of Russia at a certain point by making more conventional weapons. This, in turn, would enable them to exert more political pressure based on their military might. There are several varying scenarios for a possible Russia-NATO military confrontation. For example, certain NATO countries may intervene in the Ukraine conflict. There is also a scenario involving a military and political crisis in the Baltics or in other regions. Any developments along these lines risk escalating into a major conflict. Ukraine has been routinely targeting Russian territory with drones and cruise missiles, while also undertaking attempts to invade its territory. Military personnel from certain NATO countries may be joining these operations as formal units and formations rather than by pretending to be off-duty fighters, volunteers or mercenaries. Could such developments be prevented through nuclear deterrence? Superficially, the answer appears affirmative. The Ukraine conflict has demonstrated that missile strikes, aviation assets, artillery systems and similar capabilities - while inflicting damage - fail to critically undermine enemy resilience. NATO possesses damage mitigation capabilities identical to those of Ukraine, merely on an exponentially greater scale. Unlike Ukraine, ’Western countries currently demonstrate reduced psychological tolerance for human casualties’. That said, concerted political mobilisation and strategic propaganda could recalibrate societal sensitivity to losses and acceptance of wartime sacrifices. The fostering NATO's illusion of impunity – the conviction that Russia would refrain from nuclear weapons use due to fears of inevitable retaliation. - renders gradual conventional escalation feasible, potentially expanding from Ukrainian war theatre to a broader regional conflict, necessitating the abandonment of Cold War-era deterrence frameworks. Two alternatives exist regarding Russia's potential employment of nuclear weapons in direct conflict with NATO: preemptive tactical strikes against enemy troop concentrations and critical infrastructure; or comparable strikes following conventional escalation. The former scenario proves politically less sustainable, risking Russia's designation as aggressor and consequent international isolation. The latter, while slightly reducing political costs, still permits accusations that Moscow violated the nuclear taboo first. Both scenarios preserve NATO's capacity to deliver nuclear or conventional counterstrikes. Any Russian nuclear deployment risks devastating retaliation, presenting Moscow with an existential dilemma: persist with conventional operations despite potential defeat; continue tactical nuclear exchanges; or eliminate the adversary by employing strategic nuclear weapons, something that guarantees annihilation by a retaliatory strike. Nuclear warfare admits no victors - only in scenarios where one party demonstrates critical weakness. Any strategic calculus predicated upon an adversary's potential collapse risks catastrophic miscalculation for both sides. The inevitable losers in either nuclear or conventional escalation scenarios include: a) Ukraine as primary battleground; b) Russia facing sustained missile and other types of strikes and potential offensives; c) European NATO members, particularly on the eastern and north-eastern flanks who will be subjected to Russian counterstrikes and, under favourable to Russia conditions, to possible advances of its armed forces. The United States will remain relatively insulated except in scenarios involving the use of strategic nuclear weapons. Though, for Washington, no guarantees exist regarding controllable escalation from conventional to tactical and later strategic nuclear strikes. Yet historical precedent demonstrates that quite often prospective losses did not prevent major catastrophies and conflicts. The possibility of a return to extreme-era dynamics cannot be dismissed. So, the Americans may also be among the losers. (Source: Valdai Club - Russia)
by Timofeev, Valdai Club Programme Director 

Ukraine
July 24, 2025 4:14 AM ET  After protests, Zelenskyy says he'll restore the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies. /Audio/ (Source: NPR - U.S.)

24 July 2025, 09:03  A Ukrainian drone 'spectacularly drops a  homemade incendiary device - thermite munition  - on a shelter of Russian soldiers in a house' in the Donetsk region. The improvised bomb consists of an aircraft flare surrounded by four bottles of gasoline, creating a ’highly effective’ incendiary weapon that ignited intense flames upon impact. 'Such low-cost, easily assembled devices have evolved from Ukraine’s earlier thermite-dispensing drone strikes into more advanced' incendiary tactics. /Video/ (Source: Leading Britain's Conversation (LBC) - United Kingdom)

July 24, 2025 4:01 AM CET  There’s an insidious enemy and corrosive adversary from within - the country’s own semi-autocratic leadership. Ukraine’s presidential administration has been grabbing more power, weakening other governing and regional institutions - including the country’s parliament - while also intimidating critics in a bid to silence them with hue-and-cry campaigns or by labeling them as Russian stooges. Zelenskyy approved a new law, No. 12414, after it was rushed through the Verkhovna Rada with almost unprecedented haste, which will hand substantial authority to the politically appointed prosecutor general, gutting two key anti-corruption agencies which had been zeroing in on top government officials. According to local media, 18 of the lawmakers who voted in favor of the new law are suspects in NABU probes. The law grants the prosecutor general’s office the power to issue orders to these agencies and reassign cases to their own prosecutor, in effect dismantling the safeguards that protect those bodies from undue political meddling. A National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) land-grab probe into former Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshov is something that would have terrified insiders. The new narrative is simple: You’re either with Zelenskyy or you’re a Russian agent. The presidential administration had started going after anti-corruption activists like Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center NGO. Shabunin warned on social media: ’Zelensky’s prosecutor general will stop investigations against all the president’s friends.’ Opposition lawmaker Knyazhitskiy also agrees. “NABU has been close to bringing charges against several extremely influential people, and the authorities needed to protect themselves urgently,’ he told. He also suspects Zelenskyy and Yermak felt they could curtail the independence of the agencies and escape punishment. ’In effect, the anti-corruption infrastructure was dismantled by the votes of 263 members of parliament, NABU chief Kryvonos said at a joint press briefing with chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Klymenko. “The two independent institutions, NABU and SAP, are effectively being made fully dependent.’ In Kyiv, hundreds of protesters gathered near the presidential complex. The move prompted the first country-wide street protests since 2022 - crowds of veterans, active-duty soldiers and civilians gathered in dozens of other towns, including Lviv and the frontline cities of Odesa and Dnipro. Kyiv’s democratic backsliding has finally caught the world’s attention. According to Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and host of the “War Room” podcast, Zelenskyy knows MAGA is trying to nail him on stealing billions. ’Better to have Taylor Greene and the War Room whine about corruption than actually have an office and folks there that he does not control doing something about it,’ he told. For months, EU officials and diplomats ’have been unhappy’ with the purges and reshuffles that have seen the departure of more independent-minded ministers and officials from government, such as former head of Ukraine’s national power transmission network, Kudrytskyi. ’They were uncomfortable with the dismissal of armed forces commander General Zaluzhny - who had clashed with the president over both war strategy and the need to mobilize many more Ukrainians to fight’ - not to mention the inexplicable hold that Yermak seems to have over Zelenskyy. EU officials also expressed ’fears’ that the search for traitors and Russian collaborators mounted by authorities was turning into political witch hunts aimed at silencing critics. ’Until now, these concerns were kept private - largely to avoid undermining Western support for Ukraine’s defense.’ Posting on social media before the new law’s approval, European Commissioner for Enlargement Kos said the situation would hurt Ukraine’s accession negotiations. The ambassadors of G7 nations in Kyiv issued a joint statement expressing their serious concerns. European Commission President has demanded ’answers’ from Zelenskyy. The fierceness of the public response likely caught the EU’s attention as well. The Kyiv Independent, read closely in Brussels, headlined its sharply critical editorial: ’Zelensky just betrayed Ukraine’s democracy - and everyone fighting for it. So why are EU officials only now publicly expressing their worries about this monopolization of power? Zelenskyy and Yermak believe neither the EU nor the U.S. will show as much interest in the activities of anti-corruption bodies as they did before, since 'they will still be forced' to support Ukraine, Knyazhitskiy said. (Source: Politico - U.S., owned by a German company)
by Dettmer, opinion editor and a foreign affairs columnist

Europe
24 July 2025  The thirty-sixth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted to the Security Council Committee concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities (Detail). 'ISIL (Da’esh) continued to represent the most significant terrorist threat to these regions. The nature of this threat has evolved little since the previous assessment and is primarily driven by ISIL-K – with individuals often, although not exclusively, radicalized via social media and encrypted messaging platforms. In contrast to 2024, fallout from the Gaza and Israel conflict had less visible impact. While such events still featured prominently in terrorist propaganda, references to them were less frequent in interviews with suspects involved in either completed attacks or foiled plots. In Europe, several countries remained affected by terrorism. Austria and Germany saw a number of attacks, including some perpetrated by foreign nationals, primarily from the Syrian Arab Republic and Afghanistan. In Sweden, repeated incidents of Qur’an burnings triggered retaliatory acts by radicalized individuals associated with ISIL (Da’esh). France – through a consistent and explicit targeting of ISIL (Da’esh) – had thus far managed to curtail the threat, for example through pre-emptive security operations implemented during and after the 2024 Olympic Games. Nevertheless, the threat level remains high.. The threat throughout Europe remained largely domestic: most individuals implicated in terrorist activity were radicalized locally and motivated by ISIL-K propaganda. One Member State identified four dominant profiles within its domestic threat landscape, namely: individuals under 21, radicalized online, comprising most cases; North Caucasian radicals (although their presence has declined since 2024); convicted terrorists or inmates radicalized while incarcerated; and individuals with psychiatric or psychological disorders. As for the external threat, targeted actions against ISIL (Da ’esh) – while tactically effective – had not eliminated the group’s strategic intent. ISIL-K continued to seek remote recruitment of ideologically vulnerable individuals willing to act further afield. Additional vectors of concern include foreign terrorist fighters of European descent and their families still residing in the Iraq-Syrian Arab Republic conflict zone. Detention centres and camps in north-eastern Syrian Arab Republic remain priority targets for ISIL (Da’esh). An uncontrolled mass release from these facilities would significantly elevate the threat level. The final dimension of this external threat lies in foreign terrorist fighters and widows of ISIL (Da’esh) combatants still present in north-western Syrian Arab Republic. These individuals could attempt to return to Europe with the intent of carrying out attacks. In this context, one Member State has warned that delisting individuals or entities from international sanctions regimes could critically undermine ongoing legal proceedings against foreign terrorist fighters'. (Source: United Nations Security Council, Geneva)
Note: The report covers the period from 14 December 2024 to 22 June 2025.

Asia

China
24.07.2025  European Commission President der Leyen said the EU and China agreed today to smooth rare earth export restrictions. 'She stressed that the bloc's trade deficit with China (€306bn) has doubled in the last decade', and urged a balanced trade so it can remain mutual and beneficial. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

24.07.2025  In his opening remarks at the 25th EU-China summit that began at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi said the Chinese and European leaders should meet the expectations of the people. The Chinese leader along with Premier Li met European Commission President der Leyen and the head of the European Council Costa. Mutual respect, seeking common ground while reserving differences, open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results should be adhered to in the future development of China-EU relations, Xi said, stressing that both China and Europe are constructive forces that advocate multilateralism and open cooperation. China and Europe should strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust, and deepen cooperation, so as to provide more stability and certainty to the world. '’Faced with the accelerated evolution of the world's century-old changes and the international situation of intertwined changes and chaos, the leaders of China and the EU should once again demonstrate their foresight and responsibility and make correct strategic choices that meet the expectations of the people and stand the test of history," he said. The day-long key summit is expected to be dominated by issues ranging from trade disputes to the Russia-Ukraine war. Issues of trade imbalance, market access and rare earths are also on the agenda. Der Leyen, for her part, called the summit an opportunity to "both advance and rebalance our relationship," the two sides’ annual trade being more than $860 billion. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Gaza
July 24, 20254:18 AM ET  Even the sea is off-limits, Israel bans beach access in Gaza, warning it could cost lives. Once a rare refuge in war-torn Gaza, the beach offered relief and a glimpse of freedom. (Audio) (Source: NPR - U.S.)

India
(24 July 2025)  India has resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a five-year gap as the two countries continue to explore ways to mend their strained relationship. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Turkey
July 24, 2025 4:17 AM ET  Russia and Ukraine held a third round of peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday. The two sides failed to make any significant progress towards a ceasefire agreement. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

(24 July 2025) 06:30  Brief talks between Russia and Ukraine ended after just an hour. (Source: The Irish Independent - Ireland)

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Europe

Italy
30.07.2025  “The (Russian) Ministry of Foreign Affairs' publication of a list of alleged ‘Russophobes,’ accused of ‘inciting hatred’ against Russia, is nothing more than yet another propaganda operation, aimed at diverting attention from Moscow's grave responsibilities,' the Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said in a statement. Meloni extended her solidarity to Italy’s Foreign Minister Tajani and Defense Minister Crosetto, also targeted with the same accusation. Other European leaders, including Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, are also on the list. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Spain
30.07.2025  The commission had adopted a flawed strategy by trying to appease and flatter Trump, agreeing to purchase more US weapons and liquefied natural gas areas, Borrell, who served as EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy from 2019 to 2024, said in a post on X. 'Bad strategy leads to bad outcomes,' he argues, adding: "Europe emerges geopolitically weakened from a deal struck in just 1 hour on a golf course.' (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Commission
July 30, 2025  The deadline for the EU executive to contest the decision in the EU’s top-tier Court of Justice passed earlier this month without the Commission appealing. At the beginning of July, der Leyen faced a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament over the case. The debate became the first time she has publicly defended herself over the case. In the case that became known as 'Pfizergate,' reporters asked to see the messages after it was revealed in a 2021 New York Times interview with von der Leyen that she had exchanged texts with Bourla ahead of a multibillion-euro vaccine deal agreed between Pfizer 'and the EU'. Whether the Commission’s non-appeal means that the messages will be released 'is another matter'. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Moldova
30.07.2025  Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said the Moldovan Central Electoral Commission plans to open only two polling stations in Russia, while 73 stations will be opened in Italy, 36 in Germany, 26 in France, and 23 each in the UK and Romania in the Sept. 28 parliamentary elections. Moldova continues to tighten control over opposition political forces, despite its verbal commitment to democratic principles. "In Italy, where around 250,000 Moldovans reside, the authorities plan to open 73 polling stations. In contrast, for the 350,000 Moldovans living in Russia, only two stations are planned'. She highlighted that each polling station receives 5,000 ballots, meaning the setup in Italy will be more than enough to cover the demand, with ballots to spare, whereas in Russia, only 10,000 people out of 350,000 will be able to vote. "There is no doubt that the current authorities have pinned their hopes on the way votes will be cast by the Moldovan diaspora in the West. This is more than just an attempt to influence the outcome but the use of technical methods to produce the desired result,' she said. Kremlin spokesman Peskov went on to highlight violations of the electoral rights of many Moldovans, particularly referring to Moldovan citizens residing in Russia. 'We regretfully acknowledge that the electoral rights of many Moldovans are being suppressed and violated. Regardless of what anyone says in Chisinau, the rights of Moldovans living abroad, including those on the territory of the Russian Federation, should, in our view, be guaranteed," Peskov noted. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
30 July 2025  Live statistics. Since 24 March 2022, the Center for Civil Liberties (joint Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2022) has gathered more than 84,000 cases related to war crimes committed by Russian occupation troops, ranging from murder, rape and disappearances to other violations of fundamental rights. In all the Regions of Ukraine, participant-organisations document events that display features of crimes defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes. (Source: T4P - Ukraine)

(30 July 2025)  Late yesterday, Ukraine's armed forces have confirmed a Russian missile strike hit a military training unit, causing a number of casualties. One Ukrainian war reporter, Taplienko, said it was in the Chernihiv region north of Kyiv which borders both Russia and Belarus. Russia's ministry of defence released video of what it claimed was a strike by an Iskander ballistic missile in a wooded area that involved more than 20 cluster-type explosions. It is the third Russian attack on a Ukrainian training unit in little more than two months. An Iskander missile attack on a camp in the norther border region of Sumy killed six servicemen in May. Another strike killed 12 people and wounded another 60 last month. The commander of ground forces Drapatyi resigned after last month's deadly attack. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Eurasia

Russia
Wednesday 30 July 2025 07:07 BST  Tsunami warnings have been issued after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s Far East early today. A 8.8-magnitude quake struck 119km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Lebedev, regional minister for emergency situations, reported that Kamchatka had seen a tsunami 10-13ft high and urged people to move away from the shoreline. Japan’s weather agency said it expected tsunami waves of up to 10ft and asked people in coastal towns to leave for higher ground. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Wednesday 30 July 2025 06:18, UK  First tsunami waves hit Russia and Japan after 8.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Kamchatka Peninsula. /Video/ (Source: Sky News - United Kingdom)

Asia

Tajikistan
07/30/2025  Dushanbe expels Afghans. At the beginning of July, all refugees and asylum seekers in Tajikistan received text messages ordering them to leave the country within 15 days, otherwise they would be forcibly deported. A statement from the press office of the border control forces reporting to the National Security Committee refers to a growth in the flow of foreign citizens who have entered Tajik territory illegally, some of whom 'clearly violate the rules established for coexistence". These violations include participation in drug trafficking, propaganda of extremism, including through unacceptable behaviour, the presentation of false documents to obtain refugee status, the use of the territory for transit to third countries and the possession of documents of another nationality. Reports have since emerged of the arrest and expulsion of many people, as first reported by the 'Afghan television channel' Amu, according to which these measures also affected those who were officially registered and living in Tajikistan on a completely legal basis. Among those deported are also former collaborators of Afghan state structures who fled immediately after the return of the Taliban in 2021 and who, upon returning to their homeland, risk their lives, as has already happened to many citizens who collaborated with the pro-Western government overthrown after the Americans left the country. There are currently around 9,000 Afghan refugees living in Tajikistan, and the human rights agency in Dushanbe has stated that in 2024, 11,000 asylum seekers were registered by the Ministry of the Interior, 63% of whom came from Afghanistan. Of these, 2,280 have received documents certifying their official refugee status, 2,591 have been granted temporary residence permits. This crackdown comes on top of others already in place against Afghan exiles in Pakistan and Iran in recent months. /Source: Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) - headquarters in Rome, Italy)

North America

United States
(Wednesday), July 30, 2025  After the trade talks between the US and China concluded, in Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday, US Treasury Secretary Bessent said he warned Chinese officials that continued purchases of sanctioned Russian oil would lead to big tariffs due to legislation in Congress, but was told that Beijing would protect its energy sovereignty. Wrapping up two days of US-China trade talks in Stockholm, Bessent said he also expressed US displeasure at China's continued purchases of sanctioned Iranian oil, and its sales of over US$15 billion worth of dual-use technology goods to Russia that have bolstered Moscow's war against Ukraine. Bessent said legislation in the US Congress authorising Trump to levy tariffs up to 500 per cent on countries that purchase sanctioned Russian oil would draw US allies into taking similar steps to cut off Russia's energy revenues. Trump on Monday shortened a deadline for Moscow to make progress toward a Ukraine war peace deal or see its oil customers slapped with secondary tariffs of 100 per cent in 10 to 12 days. Chinese officials responded by saying China was a sovereign nation with energy needs, and oil purchases would be based on the country's internal policies, Bessent said. China remains the largest buyer of Russian oil, at about two million barrels per day, followed by India and Turkey. Bessent said he also has warned his counterpart, Vice Premier He that China's continued sales of goods to Russia that wind up in weapons contributing to the war ’on the European border’ will hurt its efforts to boost trade ties with Europe. (Source: AsiaOne – Singapore)

July 30, 2025  It is a frenzied, renewed interest in the Epstein saga following the Justice Department's statement earlier this month that it would not be releasing any additional records from the investigation, an abrupt announcement that stunned online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump's political base who had been hoping to find proof of a government coverup. The Republican president has faced an outcry over his administration's refusal to release more records about Epstein after promises of transparency, a rare example of strain within Trump's tightly controlled political coalition. Trump has attempted to tamp down questions about the case, expressing annoyance that people are still talking about it six years after Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial, even though some of his own allies have promoted conspiracy theories about it. Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend, was recently interviewed inside a Florida courthouse by the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General Blanche. She’s willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony and if lawmakers agree to satisfy other conditions. Aboard Air Force One while returning from Scotland, Trump said he was upset that Epstein was 'taking people who worked for me.” The women, he said, were 'taken out of the spa, hired by him - in other words, gone.” “I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people,” Trump said. When it happened again, Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. Asked if Giuffre was one of the employees poached by Epstein, he demurred but then said 'he stole her.” Giuffre, Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accuser died by suicide earlier this year. She claimed that Maxwell spotted her working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, when she was a teenager, and hired her as Epstein’s masseuse, which led to sexual abuse. She accused Epstein of pressuring her into having sex with powerful men. Maxwell is serving a 20-year-prison sentence in a Florida federal prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls. (Source: The Korea Herald - South Korea)

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Europe

European Commission
29.07.2025  Brussels is drawing up a strategy to ensure troops can move in a matter of hours, maximum a matter of days, by upgrading 500 infrastructure projects along four military corridors spanning Europe. Europe's current infrastructure requires major upgrades, said Tzitzikostas, EU's transport commissioner. Europe’s roads and railways need major upgrades to enable the rapid movement of troops and equipment across the continent ’in the event of war with Russia’, he has warned in an interview with the Financial Times published today. Tzitzikostas said the current state of infrastructure across the bloc could severely delay ’NATO’s response to a potential Russian invasion along the alliance’s eastern flank’. Tanks called to respond to an invasion could get stuck in tunnels, lead to bridges collapsing and face delays due to cumbersome border procedures, he said. Tzitzikostas stressed that „Europe’ would not be able to defend itself unless 'troops and equipment could move swiftly from west to east. It takes weeks and in some cases months to move military equipment and troops from the western side of Europe to the eastern side. Tzitzikostas is aiming to allocate €17 billion to overhaul roads, bridges and railways across Europe in order to boost military mobility. The corridors are selected in cooperation with NATO commanders. Their exact locations remain classified for security reasons. Tzitzikostas’ strategy, set to be presented later this year, forms part of a wider push to strengthen Europe’s defenses amid reports that the U.S. is considering reducing its military footprint in the region. The initiative complements 'the EU’s broader €800 billion rearmament plan and NATO’s recent agreement to raise defense spending targets to 5% of GDP'. In June, NATO Secretary-General Rutte cautioned that Russia is rebuilding its forces and 'could attack a NATO member by 2030'. Russia has also upgraded at least five suspected nuclear weapons facilities across its territory and in allied Belarus, including one in Kaliningrad. (Source: TVP - Poland')

Tuesday 29 July 2025  The EU-U.S. tariff agreement sealed over the weekend has been described as a dark day for Europe and even a capitulation to American demands’. Part of the agreement involves a commitment to buy American oil and gas. ’Purchases of U.S. energy products will diversify our sources of supply and contribute to Europe’s energy security. We will replace Russian gas and oil with significant purchases of U.S. LNG, oil and nuclear fuels’ von der Leyen said in Scotland on Sunday. ’It’s not only about the trade. It’s about security. It’s about Ukraine. It’s about current geopolitical volatility. I cannot go into all the details,’ EU Trade Commissioner Šefčovič told reporters yesterday. Higher US tariffs part of the price 'Europe was willing to pay for its security and arms for Ukraine’. European countries are buying U.S. weapons to help Ukraine to defend itself. Some are prepared to send their own air defense systems and replace them with U.S. equipment, once it can be delivered. ’The Europeans also are wary’ about a U.S. troop drawdown, which the Pentagon is expected to announce by October. At the same time, Trump is slapping duties on America’s own NATO partners. ’We’re going to be sending now military equipment and other equipment to NATO, and they’ll be doing what they want, but I guess it’s for the most part working with Ukraine,’ Trump said Sunday, sounding ambivalent about America’s role in the alliance. The Trump administration has warned its priorities now lie elsewhere, in Asia, the Middle East and on its own borders. ’That was why European allies agreed at NATO’s summit last month to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more on defense over the next decade’. ’Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win,’ Rutte wrote in a private text message to Trump, which the U.S. leader promptly posted on social media. It remains an open question as to how long this entente will last. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

European Union
29.07.2025  Nine EU members - Belgium, Bulgaria, Southern Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania and Spain - have formally expressed interest in 'receiving loans under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) scheme', the European Commission said Tuesday. 'SAFE is a €150 billion ($173 billion) financial instrument to boost defense production and joint procurement among EU member states. Funded by EU borrowing, it offers competitively priced, long-term loans to support collaborative defense projects, focusing on priority areas like ammunition, drones, and air defense systems. At least 65% of weapon system components must originate from the EU, Ukraine, or EEA/EFTA countries. SAFE also allows limited participation from third countries under bilateral agreements, aiming to enhance EU defense readiness and support Ukraine'. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
9:04 pm, July 29, 2025  His days are numbered. On July 29, a press release appeared on the Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service’s (SVR) official website under the headline “Ukrainian presidential elections held at Alpine resort.” The statement claimed that “not so long ago” in the Alps, unnamed British and American representatives held a secret meeting attended by three of Ukraine’s most influential figures: presidential chief of staff Yermak, military intelligence head Budanov, and former commander-in-chief (now Ambassador to the U.K.) Zaluzhnyi. At this alleged meeting, the SVR claims, “the Americans and the British announced their decision to advance Zaluzhnyi for Ukraine’s presidency,’ with Yermak and Budanov “falling in line after receiving assurances from the Anglo-Saxons that they would retain their current positions.’ In press releases since 2023, SVR has predicted a Western coup against Zelensky. The timeline:    December 2023. West prepares to replace Zelensky. “The Foreign Intelligence Service is receiving reliable information that high-ranking officials from leading Western countries are increasingly discussing among themselves the necessity of replacing Ukraine’s current president, Zelensky.” Replacement candidates: Yermak, Budanov, Zaluzhnyi, former presidential adviser Arestovich, and Kyiv Mayor Klitschko.    June 2024. West prepares to "write off" Zelensky. “Having exhausted Zelensky’s ‘usefulness’ and recognizing the futility of hopes for Russia’s ‘strategic defeat,’ the White House, without hesitation, will throw him on the trash heap of history and replace him with a Ukrainian politician who might prove amenable to conducting negotiations with Moscow about a peaceful settlement of the conflict.” Replacement candidate: Zaluzhnyi.    August 2024. U.S. selects Zelensky’s replacement. “In the current situation, Washington is working through options for replacing the Ukrainian leader with ‘a more manageable and less corrupt figure who would suit most Western allies.’ The White House believes this approach would enable the West to position itself better for potential negotiations with Russia regarding conflict resolution.” Replacement candidate: former Internal Affairs Minister Avakov.     November 2024. U.S. prepares to hold elections in Ukraine. “The SVR reports that, according to information it has received, U.S. State Department officials are actively working on contingency plans to change Ukraine’s current leadership if necessary. Holding presidential and parliamentary elections in the coming year amid ongoing hostilities with Russia is viewed in Washington as one of the ‘legitimate’ ways to remove the ‘excessively arrogant’ Zelensky.” No replacement candidates specified.    February 2025. NATO prepares campaign to discredit Zelensky. “NATO officials consider it necessary to preserve the remnants of Ukraine as an anti-Russian bridgehead at all costs. They plan to ‘freeze’ the conflict by bringing the opposing sides into dialogue to ‘begin resolving it.’ At the same time, Washington and Brussels agree that the principal obstacle is Zelensky, dismissed in Western backrooms as mere ‘spent material.’ NATO seeks to unseat the head of the Kyiv regime, ideally through pseudo-democratic elections, potentially as soon as this fall.” No replacement candidates specified. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

12:09 ET, Tue, Jul 29, 2025  According to website of Ukraine's parliament, a law signed by Zelensky states: 'During the period of martial law for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, on the basis of a letter (written consent) from the commander of the military unit, persons over the age of 60 who are recognized by the military medical commission as fit for military service in terms of health may be accepted for military service under a contract.' Ukraine allegedly suffered massive manpower shortages in late 2024. The Kyiv Independent reported that the law does not list a maximum age limit for service. (Source: The Daily Express U.S.)

29/07/2025 - 07:45  Overnight Russian strikes killed 16 people in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region and four others in Dnipropetrovsk, regional officials in Ukraine said today. More than 40 people were wounded. Russia's summer offensive has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the offensive in 2022. Over the weekend, the Russian army said its forces had "liberated the settlement of Maliyevka" in Dnipropetrovsk, weeks after it seized the first village in the region. (Source: France 24 "with AFP" = France)

Asia

Gaza
(Tuesday), July 29, 2025 | 09:38  Israeli fire killed 78 more Palestinians yesterday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The UN and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties. Aid delivery remains chaotic. Israel said over the weekend that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day and designate secure routes for aid delivery. International airdrops of aid have also resumed. Yesterday, two air force planes from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped 17 tons of humanitarian aid in Gaza - an amount that would fill less than a single aid truck. Aid agencies say the new measures are not enough to counter worsening starvation in the territory. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Lazzarini, warned that airdrops are expensive, inefficient, can even kill starving civilians, and would not address the crisis. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid shipments, said UN agencies collected 120 trucks for distribution on Sunday and that another 180 trucks had been allowed into Gaza. The United Nations and aid groups say the territory needs 500-600 trucks a day to meet its needs. Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures, only targets fighters and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the fighters operate in densely populated areas. (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates / Associated Press - U.S.)

Syria
July 29 2025 08:20  Over 1.5 million internally displaced persons had returned to their home areas, along with about 700,000 refugees returning from abroad in recent months, the U.N. said yesterday. The returns place pressure on already fragile public services such as healthcare, education, and water. U.N. envoy for Syria Pedersen also briefed the Security Council on the recent escalation in the country. He said a ceasefire declared on July 19 in Sweida was largely holding after Bedouin forces withdrew and security units redeployed at the edges of the governorate, but the situation remained tense and volatile. In the northeast, efforts to implement the March 10 agreement signed between the government in Damascus and the YPG/PKK-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) remain challenging. (Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey)

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Africa

30 July 2025  West and Central Africa Cholera outbreak poses crisis for children. Some 80,000 children are estimated to be at high risk of cholera as the rainy season begins across the region. The heavy rains, widespread flooding and the high level of displacement are all fuelling the risk of cholera transmission. Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by consuming food or water contaminated with bacteria. The disease can be treated with oral rehydration solution and antibiotics but can be fatal within hours if untreated. Young children are particularly vulnerable to cholera due to factors such as poor hygiene, inadequate sanitation and access to safe water and a greater risk of severe dehydration. Active outbreaks in the hotspots of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Nigeria are fuelling the risk of cross-border transmission to neighbouring countries.The DRC is reporting more than 38,000 cases and 951 deaths in July. Children under five now account for nearly 26 per cent of cases in the DRC. They may face the worst cholera crisis since 2017. The capital, Kinshasa, is now facing an alarming case fatality rate of eight per cent. Nigeria is with 3,109 suspected cholera cases and 86 deaths as of the end of June. Cholera is endemic in the country. Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Republic of Congo and Togo are also facing ongoing epidemics. A total of 322 cases and 15 deaths were reported in Côte d’Ivoire as of 14 July, 612 cholera cases in Ghana as of 28 April, and 209 cases and five deaths in Togo as of June 22. Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Liberia and Niger are also under close surveillance due to their vulnerability. Throughout the outbreaks, UNICEF has delivered lifesaving health, water, hygiene, sanitation supplies to treatment facilities and communities and proper nutrition to children already at risk of deadly diseases and severe acute malnutrition. The agency has also supported cholera vaccinations. UNICEF West and Central Africa urgently requires $20 million over the next three months to scale up critical support in health, wash, risk communication and community engagement. (Source: The United Nations Office at Geneva)

Asia

India
31 July 2025  Hours after announcing 25 per cent tariffs against India, plus a ’penalty’ for its trade with Russia, the US President Trump once again mounted a sharp jab at India and Russia for their close ties. The two countries can take their ’dead economies down together’, he said on his Truth Social handle today. "We have done very little business with India, their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World," he added. Yesterday, Trump on his Truth Social had also called India’s tariffs on the US to be “the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary Trade Barriers of any Country’. The surprise announcement came a day after Indian officials said that a US trade team would visit from August 25 to negotiate a trade deal. The announcement is being seen as a pressure tactic to get New Delhi to agree to demands made by the US. New Delhi is the largest buyer of Russian oil after China. India's import of crude oil from Russia has risen from 0.2 per cent of total purchases before the Russia-Ukraine war to 35-40 per cent. Trump said India has always purchased a significant amount of military equipment and energy products from Russia at a time when everyone wants Russia to stop the ’killing’ in Ukraine. (Source:Outlook – India)

South Korea
31/07/2025,  Thursday  The US has reached a new trade agreement with South Korea that includes a 15% tariff on its exports. ’The deal is that South Korea will give to the United States $350 billion dollars for Investments owned and controlled by the United States, and selected by myself, as President,’ Trump said on his Truth Social platform yesterday. In addition, South Korea will purchase $100 billion worth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other energy products, Trump said, adding South Korea has agreed to invest a large sum of money for their Investment purposes. Trump also noted that South Korea will completely open its markets to US goods, including cars, trucks and agriculture, while South Korean goods will be subject to a 15% tariff under the deal, and ’America will not be charged a tariff.’ Earlier, Trump said his administration has struck a trade deal with Pakistan as talks continue with other nations, ahead of his self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline. (Source: Yeni Şafak / Anadolu Agency = Turkey)

Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Jul 31, 2025  The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which has significantly widened its mandate since it was founded in 2001 as a regional forum for security issues, has become a prototype for China and Russia to institutionalize their strategic coordination on geopolitical affairs and build a new narrative to reshape the global order. The goal is to legitimize their influence over social and political norms in parts of the world outside the Western-led rules-based order and to promote an alternative world order centered on the United Nations, in which global power is shared by multiple states. Originally focused on border security and confidence-building measures among China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, the SCO today includes 10 member states, among them the three major non-Western powers, along with two observers and 14 dialogue partners from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. Together, they account for roughly a quarter of global GDP and 40% of the world’s population. The expansion has given the organization political weight as a group of non-Western/Global South nations and shows that a China-initiated institution can gain political eminence without Western participation, crediting China as a leader in global governance, capable of achieving multipolarity in the global order. In recent years, the organization has conveyed a worldview emphasizing sovereignty and security, and amplifying Chinese and Russian narratives, such as preventing color revolutions (’anti-Russia independence movements’ in Eastern Europe named for colors) or stopping a new Cold War, as Xi has stated, and shaping a fair multipolar world order, as Putin has remarked. The SCO has also provided a diplomatic platform through summits and ministerial meetings that have allowed both Beijing and Moscow to form a front with Global South countries more aligned with their anti-Western narratives and authoritarian view. It has also expanded its focus to global issues such as reconstructing Afghanistan and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Seen as China’s response to American containment in the Indo-Pacific and Russia’s response to NATO expansion, the SCO appears to be gaining greater geopolitical prominence. A new counter-, if not anti-, Western bloc? It is not an alliance organization, nor does it have a common basis of geopolitical interest. In fact, there is more divergence among SCO members than alignment. The call for collectively building a multipolar global order does not transcend the individual geopolitical interests of its members. China and Russia are aligned but not allied, and they have differing interests in treating Central Asia as their sphere of influence. The Central Asian members must balance their relations with both countries, while engaging with extraterritorial actors such as the EU through the Union’s Global Gateway Initiative. India, which joined in 2017, must balance its engagement with all major powers – China, Russia and the West. India is also a member of the American-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (together with Australia and Japan) and it has ongoing border conflicts with China. The SCO also has no concrete leverage to take collective action. When a full member state of the SCO, Iran was targeted, the organization had little capacity for action beyond issuing calls for de-escalation and condemning both Israel on June 14 and the United States on June 23 for their military strikes. Nor does the SCO hold a unified position, as India refused to join the statement on June 14. Both China and Russia adopted a unified stance in condemning Israel and indirectly calling out the US during the conflict, emphasizing diplomatic solutions and criticizing the attacks as violations of the UN Charter and infringements on Iran’s sovereignty. Their messaging is clearly reflected in SCO statements and demonstrates a deepening strategic alignment in rhetoric, positioning themselves on the moral high ground in contrast to perceived Western double standards – that the West labels Russia a destabilizer for invading Ukraine, while remaining silent on, or even encouraging, Israel’s attack on Iran. China and Russia are advancing an anti-hegemonic narrative against unilateralism, using it to justify their own challenges to the existing Western-led international order. /Source: Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) – Germany)
by Soong

North America

United States
July 31, 2025  Trump threatens Russia’s Medvedev. ’Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!’ Trump wrote in the early hours of today morning. Medvedev has ridiculed Trump's ultimatum to the Kremlin, in which the U.S. president shortened his deadline for the Kremlin to end the war in Ukraine or face crippling economic consequences. 'Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10 … He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war,’ Medvedev blasted on social media earlier this week. ’Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!’ In another post on X, Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, called U.S. Senator Graham ’gramps,” after the Republican foreign policy hawk told him to 'get to the peace table.” “It’s not for you or Trump to dictate when to ‘get at the peace table’. Negotiations will end when all the objectives of our military operation have been achieved. Work on America first, gramps!” Medvedev fumed. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

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Hungary
July 28, 2025 1:40 pm CET  European Commission chief is a featherweight negotiator, Hungarian PM fumes after an EU-U.S. trade deal was agreed. Orbán joins a growing chorus of critics, spanning different positions on the ideological spectrum, who say Brussels could have obtained a better deal. Trump ate der Leyen for breakfast, Orbán ’grumbles’ today morning on his podcast. The Hungarian prime minister is both a longtime critic of Brussels and its leadership and a vocal supporter of Trump and his MAGA agenda. Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó wrote today on X that the deal is ’another sign that Brussels needs new leadership.” (Source: Politico - U.S.)
by 'Stasiuk

Belgium
28.07.2025  EU-US trade deal 'not an agreement we can celebrate,' Belgian foreign minister Prevot says. 'We are fully aware of pressure this will put on our industry.' Prime Minister De Wever also reacted to the agreement: "As we await full details of the new EU-US trade agreement, one thing is clear: this is a moment of relief but not of celebration. Tariffs will increase in several areas and some key questions remain unresolved.' "I sincerely hope the United States will, in due course, turn away again from the delusion of protectionism and once again embrace the value of free trade – a cornerstone of shared prosperity," he said on X yesterday. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

France
28.07.2025  'It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united to uphold their values and defend their interests, resigns itself to submission," the French prime minister Francois Bayrou wrote on X today. He denounced the recent EU-US trade deal as a dark day for the bloc that signaled its 'submission.' (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Italy
28.07.2025  Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni today welcomed the recent EU-US trade deal, speaking to reporters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. "I have always thought, and continue to think, that a trade escalation between Europe and the United States would have had unpredictable and potentially devastating consequences.' Stressing that the agreement remains a non-binding framework and that the details still need to be studied, Meloni noted there is still room to fight, according to ANSA news agency. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Poland
28.07.2025  Poland’s opposition is calling for a formal investigation today after the lower-house speaker, Holownia, also leader of a junior coalition party, Polska 2050, said Friday he had been encouraged to delay convening the National Assembly, pressured to halt the swearing-in of the new president Nawrocki on August 6, calling the alleged plan a 'coup d’etat.' Since Nawrocki, backed by PiS, won Poland’s presidential runoff on June 1, the three-way coalition – Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO), the Left and Polska 2050 – has become increasingly unstable, with Holownia reportedly recently discussing with PiS leader Kaczynski creating a new government coalition. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Commission
28th July 2025  Even the most ardent Europhiles have found it hard to put a positive spin on the deal. Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium and usually the most maniacal of EU fanboys, slammed the deal as not only ‘badly negotiated’, but also ‘scandalous’ and a ‘disaster’, with ‘not one concession from the American side’. Member states, from Ireland to France, have been similarly unenthusiastic. Yet the brutal truth is that the deal reflects how America views the EU – as strategically weak and politically empty. From a military perspective, the deal must have been particularly humiliating. As recently as March, EU elites trumpeted their massive re-armament plan as the key to achieving European strategic autonomy. Shortly after, in typical EU fashion, it was forced to rename those plans from ‘Rearm Europe’ to ‘Readiness 2030’, because some worried it sounded too threatening. The EU, perhaps realising that it couldn’t even talk tough anymore, might well have decided that military subservience to the US was its best bet after all. But it’s the economy, more than anything else, that explains the one-sidedness of this deal. The US is now roughly twice as rich in per-capita terms as the EU, despite the pair being relatively equal just a few decades ago. The US and China lead the way in a host of new technologies, while the EU celebrates its regulations for an AI industry that does not even exist on European soil. The EU’s only answer to its malaise is to propose yet more centralisation and bureaucratisation of Europe’s economies, even though this is one of the very things strangling Europe’s prosperity. For der Leyen and her ilk, it is seemingly just another day at the office. They still see Trump as an aberration, rather than a serious warning to their unaccountable, anti-democratic way of doing politics. In his press conference with der Leyen, Trump openly mocked the totems of her presidency: green energy and borderless migration, two policies never voted on or for by Europeans, yet the ones most unsparingly enforced by Brussels. In fact, the EU’s trade disaster is deeply connected to the wildly unpopular migration policies favoured by EU elites. In both cases, the problem stems from the fact that Europe is governed by a class which has no sense of representing European, let alone national, interests. The EU’s single-minded pursuit of open borders and environmentalism are signs of an elite wildly out of touch with ordinary Europeans – and wildly unprepared for the new global era that Trump is inaugurating. Until Europe’s political class is replaced by national movements with a strong sense of their own interests, the subordination represented by its trade deal with America - which Weber, leader of the European People’s Party described as 'damage control’ and better than not reaching a deal at all - will only be the beginning of its humiliation. (Source: Spiked - United Kingdom)
by Reynolds, the head of policy at MCC Brussels.

28 Jul 2025  Behind the diplomatic talk, analysts say the outcome leaves the EU humiliated and weakened on all fronts - both economically and politically. For Tocci, director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali Italian think tank, the terrible deal struck by the EU raises a deeper question: why. 'What’s perhaps more revealing, is understanding why the EU has, from the very beginning of negotiations, shown such profound weakness and reluctance to take retaliatory action - even in areas where it held more leverage.' In the not-so-distant past, the EU argued that even US tariffs of 10% would meet with retaliation. That fighting spirit was nowhere to be seen in Scotland over the weekend. The EU has chosen to retain strategic dependence on the US for the time being. (Source: The Parliament Magazine – based in Brussels, Belgium, owned by a British company)

28 July 2025  Both sides can paint this agreement as something of a victory. For the EU, the tariffs could have been worse: it is not as good as the UK's 10% tariff rate, but is the same as the 15% rate that Japan negotiated last week. For the US it equates to the expectation of roughly $90bn of tariff revenue into government coffers – based on last year's trade figures, plus there's hundreds of billions of dollars of investment now due to come into the US. One thing is clear: Trump is celebrating. It is less clear what the EU gains. Brussels can point to the fact that the lower rate applies to many major European exports. It also means EU carmakers will face a 15% US import tax, rather than the 25% global tariff that was introduced in April. But in return the EU is 'opening up their countries at zero tariff' to American exports, Trump said. EU steel and aluminium will also continue to face a 50% tariff when sold into the US. It was notable that der Leyen spoke about rebalancing the trading relationship. Previously the EU has argued the relationship is not out of balance as the EU buys far more services from America than it sells to them. It sounded as though der Leyen was deliberately speaking Trump's language in order to seal the agreement. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

United Kingdom
28 July 2025)  No text of the EU-US agreement has yet been published. The EU will still face a new 15% tariff on the goods it sells into America. That is higher than the 10% tariffs the UK faces on goods exports to the US. The detail of the final US-EU agreement, which has not yet been published, is key. The UK's lower baseline tariff rate (10% vs 15%) could offer an advantage to UK-based firms competing with EU-based companies for sales into the US. In the two agreements and around both a lack of clarity make it tricky to compare them. In the case of car exports, the UK-US agreement specifies a quota of 100,000 vehicles a year, which is roughly the number of cars the UK sells into the US at the moment. Each vehicle sold above that quota would be hit with the US's 25% tariff on car imports. In 2024 the EU sold around 758,000 vehicles to the US. The UK-US agreement also says the UK will negotiate an agreement to avoid future US tariffs on pharmaceutical imports. We don't know what the nature of any UK exception would be. On Sunday the US president suggested it would not, EU commission president der Leyen suggested it would. Similarly, it's unclear whether the EU's 15% baseline tariff incorporates existing US import tariffs, or whether, as in the case of the UK's 10% tariff, it will be applied on top of existing import levies. If the UK's tariffs are "stacked" but those of the EU are not, the overall effective tariff imposed on some EU goods could end being lower than what's imposed on some UK goods. UK steel exported to the US is currently subject to a 25% tariff, which is lower than the 50% global rate on imports of the metal imposed by Trump in June. The president granted the UK this partial exemption to allow time for implementation of the US-UK trade deal. UK officials hope that resolved technical issues will mean UK firms will be able to export steel to the US up to a certain quota that avoids even this 25% tariff. US officials have briefed that under the EU-US deal, EU steel will remain subject to the US's global 50% tariff on metal imports, that significantly benefits UK steel exporters relative to their EU counterparts. In theory, EU manufacturers - in steel and other sectors - could move some of their production to the UK to benefit from lower tariffs when exporting to the US. Given the uncertainty surrounding US trade policy, companies in modern supply chains are’nt going to make big, long-term relocation decisions based on marginal tariff differences. To take advantage of any such tariff differences businesses need to feel reasonably secure that the differences will last. The US is the UK's single largest national trade partner. In 2024, the UK exported £196bn of goods and services to the US, 22.5% of all exports. In 2024, the UK exported £358bn of goods and services to the EU, 41% of all exports. Demand for EU exports from the United States is likely to fall. I that were to lead to a slowdown in the European Union, that would be bad for the United Kingdom as it would lead to a reduction in demand. Most economists also expect Trump's tariffs to ultimately slow the growth of the US economy, which would also harm UK firms exporting to the US. (Source: BBC - United KIngdom)

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Europe

European Commission
(Monday), 28/07/2025  European Commission chief der Leyen clinched an agreement Sunday with US President Trump. Both leaders are hailing a good deal. The key takeaways from the deal: There will be a 15-percent across-the-board rate on a majority of EU goods – the same level secured by Japan this month – with bilateral tariff exemptions on some products. 15 percent is much higher than pre-existing US tariffs on European goods averaging 4.8 percent. The deal will bring relief for the bloc’s auto sector, employing around 13 million people. A 15-percent levy will remain costly for German automakers, “but it is manageable”, said trade geopolitics expert Fabry at the Jacques Delors Institute. ’The EU committed to buy $750 billion of liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear fuels from the United States – split equally over three years’ – to replace Russian energy sources. ’And it will pour $600 billion more in additional investments’ in the United States. Trump said ’EU countries – which recently pledged to ramp up their defence spending within NATO – would be purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment’. There are exemptions. Der Leyen said the 15-percent rate applied including semiconductors and pharmaceuticals – a critical export for Ireland, which the bloc has sought to protect. Brussels and Washington agreed a bilateral tariff exemption for key goods including aircraft, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products and critical raw materials, der Leyen said. The EU currently faces 50-percent tariffs on its steel exports to the United States, but von der Leyen said a compromise on the metal had been reached with Trump - tariffs will be cut and a quota system will be put in place. It is understood that European steel would be hit with 50-percent levies only after a certain amount of the metal arrived in the United States. No details were initially provided on the mechanism. Der Leyen described the deal as a framework agreement. The deal needs to be approved by EU member states, whose ambassadors will meet first thing today morning for a debrief from the European Commission. And there are still technical talks to come. She said there has yet to be a final decision on alcohol, critical since France and The Netherlands have been pushing for carve-outs for wine and beer respectively. (Source: France 24 „with AFP” = France)

Armenia
(28 July 2025)  Commenting on possible Armenian-Azerbaijani transport link, Iran has indicated its strong opposition to the U.S. proposal to have an American company run a transport corridor - the so-called Zangezur corridor - to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave that would pass through Armenia’s Syunik region bordering the Islamic Republic. 'This project is not only part of America’s strategy to shift pressure from Ukraine to the Caucasus but is also supported by NATO and certain pan-Turkist movements,' Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene said. The Iranian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Baghaei rejected any arrangement that would change Armenia’s borders or regional geopolitics. Speaking at a July 16 news conference, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian confirmed that the U.S. has suggested that the transit of people and cargo through Syunik be administered by a U.S. company. The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. proposal on July 24, saying that it is part of the West’s continuing efforts to sideline Russia and Iran. The criticism came as Pashinian met with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on the sidelines of a conference held in Siberia. Just hours after those talks, a senior lawmaker from Armenia’s ruling party said that Yerevan has rejected the U.S. offer to lease the Armenian transit routes for Nakhichevan “because we saw a danger of ceding our sovereignty there.” (Source: ազատություն / Azatutyun = Freedom/ - Armenia)

Russia
28.07.2025  Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, who is a former Russian president and prime minister, today assessed the recent trade deal inked between Brussels and Washington, arguing that US President Trump has ’smeared’ Europe with the signing of the agreement. „Trump is harshly pushing through the economic interests of his country,” Dmitry, said on Telegram. Arguing that the deal is completely humiliating for Europeans because it only benefits the United States, Medvedev said the agreement creates huge additional costs for industry and agriculture in many EU countries, and redirects a powerful flow of investment from Europe to the US. He also described the deal as clearly anti-Russian in nature because it prohibits the purchase of Russian oil and gas. ’It is clear that such an approach will lead to further deindustrialization of Europe, to the outflow of investments from Europe to the US, and this will be a very strong blow, first of all, to energy prices, an outflow of investments for European industry, European agriculture,’ Foreign Minister Lavrov, said. He criticized European Commission President der Leyen for ’literally boasting that they are going down this path,’ adding that the agreement will be ’detrimental’ for Europe. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
28.07.2025  Ukraine signs deal on importing Azerbaijani gas via Transbalkan route for 1st time. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

China
Jul 28, 2025  After a company boss destroyed a journalist’s camera earlier this month, state media rushed to the defense, sounding off about the “right to report.” This moral signaling distracts from the systemic violence against journalism that is the real policy of the state. China’s constitutional right to freedom of expression is routinely trampled by a system that pulls journalists back from breaking stories, directs them to avoid sensitivities, and obliterates online posts in the millions. (Source: The China Media Project - now based in the United States, with a research hub in Taipei, Taiwan)

Gaza
Monday 28 July 2025 07:11 BST  Israeli forces kiledl 63 Palestinians across Gaza within hours of ‘humanitarian pause’, health officials say. The military said on Sunday it would suspend operations daily from 10am until 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza and promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to let in food and medical supplies. However, within hours of the so-called “humanitarian pause” taking effect, Israeli forces resumed air raids. Six more people starve to death in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 133, as hunger and malnutrition crisis continues to worsen. The World Food Programme said one in three people in Gaza had gone days without food and about half a million were experiencing famine-like conditions. More than 20 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished, according to the World Health Organization. Israel has severely limited the flow of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, allowing only a small number of trucks to enter each day after enforcing an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, injured over 144,000, and left most of the densely populated coastal territory in ruins and the majority of its 2.2 million people homeless and starving. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Iran
(28 July 2025)  A segment of the diaspora, Iran's monarchist elite based primarily in North America and Europe are staging a comeback, through satellite TV Manoto - a Persian-language channel with over 17 million followers - viral content, and alliances with Netanyahu and Trump. Online narratives, infused with far-right elements, promote a nostalgic slogan: Things were better before; let's make Iran great again. From exile they are attempting to co-opt Iran's opposition by recasting the Pahlavi dynasty as a golden age of freedom. Monarchy supporters seek to reconstruct an Iranian identity rooted in Persianness and the legacy of the Pahlavi monarchy, cast as an era of modernity, freedom and prosperity. In the background emerges a neocolonial dynamic, where the West delegates to a sometimes disconnected or discredited exile elite the production of regime-change narratives. They advance a pro-Israeli stance, supportive of war with Iran and opposed to any form of diplomacy. Reza's - eldest son of the last Shah - wife, Yasmine, posted a picture on Instagram of graffiti reading: 'Hit them, Israel, Iranians are behind you'. Pahlavi's unconditional support for Israel dates back to 1982 when Israeli intelligence attempted to reinstall him via a coup. Since then, he has appeared frequently in neoconservative American media, attended congresses such as the Israeli American Council, mingled with figures like Adelson - a Republican billionaire who proposed 'nuking Iran'  - and relentlessly echoed Netanyahu's hardline stance. He is a regular at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank linked to AIPAC, the main pro-Israel lobby in the US.  He later supported Trump's second term and the maximum pressure strategy on Iran, claiming harsh economic sanctions are 'what Iranians want.' Manoto reinforce the narrative of maximum pressure and foreign intervention. It has become powerful platform for anti-Palestinian rhetoric, instilling in many Iranians that Gaza and Lebanon have "stolen" Iran's wealth via Iranian support for Hezbollah and Hamas - justifying the total abandonment of the Palestinian cause and promoting Pahlavi as a providential figure. Iran's monarchists have joined the new international far right, sidelining the Palestinian question and supporting military confrontation with the Islamic Republic while seeking to shape a new, homogenised Iranian identity around Persian nationalism and the legacy of the Pahlavi dynasty. Paradoxically, they have come to resemble the regime's ultra-conservatives, sharing their opposition to pro-democracy forces, militarism, xenophobia against Afghans and marginalisation of minorities. The monarchist stance contrasts with that of many committed figures for democracy and social justice inside Iran, who are often targeted by monarchists and imprisoned by the regime. This group includes Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammadi, lawyer Sotoudeh, Kurdish feminist activist Azizi and trade unionist Shahabi. These activists have consistently emphasised calls for the defence of human dignity and the fight against all forms of discrimination, state violence, and religious fundamentalism - whether in Iran or Israel. Equipped with technical and organisational skills, they could ensure effective governance if regime change occurs. Iran deserves much more than a choice between the turban and the crown. Their social base remains limited, not only due to the repression carried out by the Iranian state, but also because of the dominance of monarchist currents within the exiled opposition. (Source: Qantara.de, an Internet portal in German, English, and Arabic, owned by the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations since July 2024, when the previous editorial team resigned.)

Iraq
06:34-28 July 2025  A gun battle erupted in Baghdad's Karkh district on Sunday between police and fighters from the state-sanctioned Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), killing at least one police officer and leading to the arrest of 14 fighters. The clash broke out in after a group of fighters from the PMF stormed an Agriculture Ministry building. The arrested fighters belong to PMF brigades 45 and 46. Both brigades are affiliated with Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group. The PMF is an umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitary factions that was formally integrated into Iraq's state security forces. (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat - based in London, United Kingdom, owned by a member of the Saudi royal family)

Taiwan
28 July 2025  Trade talks with China. Trump’s administration has denied permission for Taiwan’s President Lai to stop in New York en route to Central America, after China raised objections with Washington about the visit. China objects to Taiwanese leaders visiting the US, which does not have official diplomatic relations with Taipei. Treasury secretary Bessent and Chinese vice-premier He started a third round of negotiations in Stockholm today. (Source: Financial Times - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
July 28, 2025  The US struck a framework trade agreement with the European Union on Sunday, imposing a 15 percent import tariff on most EU good. The trade between the two allies account for almost a third of global trade. Trump and European Commission President der Leyen announced the deal at Trump’s luxury golf course in western Scotland. after an hour-long meeting. Trump was lauding EU plans to invest some $600 billion in the United States and ’dramatically increase its purchases of US energy and military equipment’. Der Leyen, describing Trump as a tough negotiator, later was telling reporters it was ’the best we could get.’ ’It’s a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability,’ she said. The agreement leaves many questions open, including tariff rates on spirits. The deal calls for ’$750 billion of EU purchases of US energy in coming years’ and ’hundreds of billions of dollars’ of arms purchases, Trump said. The baseline 15 percent tariff will still be seen by many in Europe as too high, compared with Europe’s initial hopes to secure a zero-for-zero tariff deal. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal, saying it averted a trade conflict that would have hit Germany’s export-driven economy and its large auto sector hard. German carmakers, VW, Mercedes and BMW were some of the hardest hit by the 27.5 percent US tariff on car and parts imports now in place. Lange, the German Social Democrat who heads the European Parliament’s trade committee, said the tariffs were imbalanced and the hefty EU investment earmarked for the US would likely come at the bloc’s own expense. Trump retains the ability to increase the tariffs in the future if European countries do not live up to their investment commitments, a senior US administration official told on Sunday evening. The euro rose around 0.2 percent against the dollar, sterling and yen within an hour of the deal’s being announced. Nickel, deputy director of research at Teneo, said Sunday’s accord was merely a high-level, political agreement that could not replace a carefully hammered out trade deal. While the tariff applies to most goods, including semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, there are exceptions. The US will keep in place a 50 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. A senior administration official said EU leaders had asked that the two sides continue to talk about the issue. Der Leyen said there would be no tariffs from either side on aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. We will keep working to add more products to this list, der Leyen said, adding that spirits were still under discussion. A US official said the tariff rate on commercial aircraft would remain at zero for now, and the parties would decide together what to do after a US review is completed, adding there is a reasonably good chance they could agree to a lower tariff than 15 percent. No timing was given for when that probe would be completed. The deal will be sold as a triumph for Trump, who is seeking to reduce decades-old US trade deficits, and has already reached similar framework accords with Britain, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam, although his administration has not hit its goal of "90 deals in 90 days." US officials said the EU had agreed to lower non-tariff barriers for automobiles and some agricultural products, though EU officials suggested the details of those standards were still under discussion. "Remember, their economy is $20 trillion ... they are five times bigger than Japan," a senior US official told reporters during a briefing. ’So the opportunity of opening their market is enormous for our farmers, our fishermen, our ranchers, all our industrial products, all our businesses.’ Trump has fumed for years about the US merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 reached $235 billion, according to US Census Bureau data. (Source: The Korea Herald - South Korea / Reuters - United Kingdom)

(Monday), July 28, 2025  President Trump announced Sunday in Scotland that the U.S. and European Union have come to a trade agreement after high-stakes meetings. /Video/ (Source: CBS News - U.S.)

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 Europe

France
25/07/2025 - 11:01  US Secretary of State Rubio blasted French President Macron decision to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly as reckless while Saudi Arabia described it as historic as world reactions to the plan poured in ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in September. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose country already recognises Palestinian statehood, welcomed Macron's announcement. Diplomats say Macron has faced resistance from allies such as Britain and Canada over his push for the recognition of a Palestinian state. Israel's warnings to France have ranged from scaling back intelligence sharing to complicating Paris' regional initiatives - even hinting at possible annexation of parts of the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision by one of Israel's closest allies and a G7 member, saying such a move 'rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy.' In a post on X, he added, 'A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel - not to live in peace beside it'. "Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel; they seek a state instead of Israel.' (Source: France 24 'with Reuters - United Kingdom; AFP - France')

Germany
25.07.2025  Germany says no change in non-recognition of Palestinian state amid mounting international pressure. Government ready to increase pressure on Israel over Gaza and West Bank, chancellery spokesman Kornelius says. According to a report by the Der Spiegel, around 130 officials at the Foreign Ministry have formed an internal group demanding a change in Germany's Israel policy. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Commission
25 Jul 2025  Brussels ’has likely spent too much political bandwidth preparing for elusive US negotiations’ and too little grappling with the headaches coming from China. Yesterday’s summit in Beijing exposed irreconcilable divisions over trade imbalances, market access, and geopolitical tensions. Beijing is showing no intention of fixing spiralling trade imbalances with the EU. The underlying dynamics between the two sides had remained unchanged - if not worsened. The EU receives 14.5% of China’s exports, as opposed to China importing only 8% of EU goods - the EU's trade deficit with China reaching more than €300 billion - and a set of market barriers, such as the presence of a Made in China policy granting local manufacturers preferential conditions in Chinese public tenders. China has no intention of addressing Brussels’ key demands - from opening its market to European businesses and curbing the export of unfairly cheap goods, to halting purchases of Russian oil that help fund Moscow’s war in Ukraine. ’Unlike other major markets, Europe keeps its market open to Chinese goods. This reflects our longstanding commitment to rules-based trade. However, this openness is not matched by China,’ Commission President der Leyen told after meeting Chinese President Xi and Premier Li. Instead of addressing some of the EU’s requests, China had instead piled up a wish-list of its own that spanned from lifting tariffs on electric vehicles (EVs), imposed by the EU last year, to halting the use of the bloc’s foreign subsidy regulation. In exchange, it promised eased export restrictions on critical raw materials, on which most EU industries are dependent. A truce between Washington and Beijing in June left the EU isolated, giving China the upper hand to exploit Europe’s newly weakened position - something that Beijing did by turning to a negotiating tactic that observers have compared to Trump’s approach. That involved drawing up a list of irritants and seeing whether the EU was willing to give in on any of those, whether or not they were directly linked to trade issues. ‘Everything is on the table’ China’s forceful approach resulted in little more than a standoff at yesterday's summit, with European leaders refusing to lift tariffs on Chinese EVs - one of Beijing’s top demands - in exchange for eased restrictions on rare earths. While the EU relies heavily on China for its rare earths supply, China is equally dependent on access to the vast European market for its exports. China cannot afford to lose the EU for too long. The Chinese do not want a new kind of relationship. (Source: The Parliament Magazine – based in Brussels, Belgium, owned by a British company)

Russia
7/25/2025  The roster of offenses that the regime interprets as threatening state security grows. "Any activity or inactivity that, in the view of authorities, increases the vulnerability of the state to hostile actions of the enemy, must be mercilessly and uncompromisingly punished,” said Stanovaya, head of the think tank R.Politik. In the past year, special services have launched investigations into five former heads of Russian regions. Scores of lower-level officials have also been engulfed in a wider crackdown on graft. President Putin had long refrained from engaging in anti-corruption campaigns, maintaining a passive role in public investigations and delegating it to courts and law enforcement. Before the war in Ukraine, few federal-level officials or ministers were put behind bars on corruption charges. With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the arrests of officials have become more frequent - though still rarely at the ministerial level. This changed in 2024, when in the wake of battlefield setbacks, security forces went after the inner circle of former defense minister Shoigu, especially those overseeing military contracting and logistics, prime sectors for graft and mismanagement. Shoigu has been replaced by a technocrat-like Belousov and moved to a largely ceremonial role of secretary of the Security Council of Russia. Ivanov, Shoigu’s longtime deputy who oversaw construction and logistics, was sentenced in July to 13 years in a penal colony for embezzling nearly $50 million. Lt. Gen. Kuznetsov, head of the General Staff’s personnel directorate, was arrested in May 2024 after investigators discovered more than $1.2 million in cash and gold in his home. Lt. Gen. Shamarin, who led the military’s communications division, was arrested that same month on large-scale bribery charges, marking the fourth senior military official to be detained in just a few weeks. Starovoit, the governor of the Kursk region during the war on Ukraine was found dead this month in a suburb of Moscow. He was under investigation for corruption surrounding the construction of fortifications along the border with Ukraine. Just hours before his death became public, Putin had signed a decree dismissing Starovoit from his post as transportation minister, a position he held since spring 2024 following his departure from Kursk. Together with his counterparts in the neighboring regions of Bryansk and Belgorod, was tasked with building fortifications meant to deter Ukrainian forces from entering Russia: trenches, firing positions and the so-called dragon’s teeth, pyramid-shaped obstacles made out of reinforced concrete that are intended to stop or at least impede enemy tanks and vehicles. Ukraine’s surprise breach of these defenses last year and subsequent seven-month occupation of parts of Kursk have set off investigations, including allegations that nearly $13 million meant for the project was embezzled. The dragon’s teeth were of questionable quality and eroded due to rain and snow. Starovoit’s former deputy and successor, Smirnov, did not last a year in the job — he resigned in December and was arrested as part of this investigation in April on suspicion of embezzling more than $12 million of funds earmarked for border defenses with Ukraine. High-ranking employees of a company that built the fortifications, which is also under investigation, testified that they paid up to 15 percent kickbacks to the former governor and his deputy. Smirnov. The precise circumstances of Starovoit’s death remain unclear. His body was discovered in his Tesla, with a Glock handgun beside him - a weapon awarded to him in 2023 for “outstanding service in ensuring the safety of citizens.” “It seems to me that those who eliminated him - those against whom he could have testified after his arrest - are trying to hide his real murder behind the suicide version,’ said pro-Kremlin political analyst Markov. Two officials from the neighboring Belgorod region, a staging site for Russian attacks into Ukraine, have also been arrested this summer on similar accusations. This week, deputy governor of the Bryansk region was arrested on suspicion of abuse of power. Now officials from three of Russia’s border regions with Ukraine have been implicated in corruption over building defensive structures. A minister’s death tells Russia’s elite it is no longer untouchable. (Source: The Washington Post - U.S.)

Asia

Cambodia
25 July 2025 - 11:00  Thailand and Cambodia have for more than a century contested sovereignty at undemarcated points along their 817km land border, which was first mapped by France in 1907 when Cambodia was its colony. An 11th century Hindu temple called Preah Vihear, or Khao Phra Viharn in Thailand, has been at the heart of the dispute for decades, with Bangkok and Phnom Penh claiming historical ownership. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but Thailand has continued to lay claim to the surrounding land. Claims over ownership of historical sites have raised nationalist tension between the two countries, notably in 2003 when rioters torched the Thai embassy and Thai businesses in Phnom Penh over an alleged remark by a Thai celebrity questioning jurisdiction over Cambodia's World Heritage-listed Angkor Wat temple. In 2008 Cambodia attempted to list the Preah Vihear temple as a Unesco World Heritage site, leading to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths, including during a weeklong exchange of artillery in 2011. In 2013 the ICJ again ruled in Cambodia's favour, saying the land around the temple was also part of Cambodia and ordering Thai troops to withdraw. Nationalist sentiment has risen in Thailand after conservatives last year questioned the government's plan to negotiate with Cambodia to jointly explore energy resources in undemarcated maritime areas, warning such a move could risk Thailand losing the island of Koh Kood in the Gulf of Thailand. In February a group of Cambodians escorted by troops sang their national anthem at another ancient Hindu temple which the two countries claim, Ta Moan Thom, before being stopped by Thai soldiers. The governments of Thailand and Cambodia enjoy warm ties, partly due to the close relationship between their influential former leaders. The neighbours have issued diplomatically worded statements committing to peace while vowing to protect sovereignty, but their militaries have been mobilising near the border. Cambodia has deployed truck-mounted rocket launchers, which Thailand said have been used to target civilian areas, while Thai armed forces dispatched US-made F-16 fighter jets, using one to bomb military targets across the border. About 130,000 people have been evacuated from border areas in Thailand to safer locations and about 12,000 families on the Cambodian side have been shifted away from the front lines. (Source: TimesLive - South Africa)

China
July 25, 2025 16:43  Sino-EU dispute over Ukraine intensifies. At their summit in Beijing this week, the leaders of China and the European Union disagreed on many subjects. The worst was Ukraine. “You are supporting Moscow in its prolonged war in Ukraine,” European Commission President der Leyen told President Xi. She could make such an accusation because of a rare mistake by Wang, Xi’s veteran Foreign Minister, in Brussels earlier this month. “We do not want to see Moscow lose the war because we fear the U.S. could then shift more attention to China,' he told EU officials. This removed the mask that China was neutral in the war and had only normal trade with Russia. Russia’s giant war machine used machinery, machine tools and many industrial items exported by China. ’Its soldiers at the front line use drones made in China’ and those made in Russia with Chinese components, as well as Chinese vehicles. ’China’s unyielding support for Russia is creating heightened instability and insecurity in Europe’, der Leyen said in Brussels earlier this month. ’China is de facto enabling Russia’s war economy – we cannot accept this.’ Since Trump arrived in the White House in January, ’Ukraine has become an existential crisis for Europe’. Trump is only willing to 'provide weapons to Ukraine if European countries pay for it'. This will cost them billions of dollars. In addition, 'they have pledged to increase defence spending to five per cent of GDP', money they can ill afford. The assassination or removal of Russian President Putin is most unlikely. He is the best protected man on the planet. 'More possible are a repeat of the collapse of the Russian and German armies in 1917 and 1918'. After the defeat of the Spring Offensive of the Imperial German Army on the Western front in 1918, desertions, mass surrenders and mutinies spread. Up to one million soldiers refused to follow the orders of their commanders. At home, there were mass hunger and shortages. The same happened in Tsarist Russia in 1917. By the end of October 1916, the country had lost between 1.6 and 1.8 million soldiers, with two million taken prisoner and one million missing. Residents of St Petersburg lacked bread, sugar and meat, women turned to begging and prostitution. The Bolshevik Party exploited this anger to stage a revolution. What are conditions inside Russia today? As of mid-June, the Russian army had lost over one million dead, wounded or missing, ’according to the Ukrainian General Staff’. (Source: EJ Insight /= Hong Kong Economic Journal/ - China)
by O’Neill, ’a Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker’

Myanmar
Friday 25 July 2025  The US has quietly lifted sanctions against key allies of Myanmar’s military junta after its leader, General Min Aung Hlaing sent a letter, dated July 11, to Mr. Trump, seeking a reduction in the 40 percent tariff rate imposed on Myanmar, stating he was ready to negotiate a trade deal and praised the president for his “strong leadership in guiding his country towards national prosperity with the spirit of a true patriot”. The U.S. Treasury removed sanctions from four individuals and three companies allied to the junta yesterday without explanation. One of Southeast Asia’s most impoverished countries, Myanmar is a major global source of rare earth minerals. Most of Myanmar's rare earth mines are in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic group fighting the junta, and the bulk of their production is processed in China. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
See also: Cancelled: The rise and fall of Aung San Suu Kyi - documentary /Video (56 min)/

Thailand
25/07/2025 - 11:34  Thai-Cambodian border fighting enters second day. Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia have led to the displacement of over 140,000 civilians as both countries evacuate residents near the border. /Video/ (Source: France 24)

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Europe

Poland
23.07.2025  Polish soldiers fired shots at a group of migrants crossing the Poland-Belarus border in Narewka on Poland’s northeastern border yesterday evening at 8.37 pm local time, injuring a Sudanese citizen, the army said today. ’The migrant's life is not in danger," the statement read. In July 2024, the Polish parliament passed legislation removing criminal liability from uniformed personnel using firearms on Poland’s eastern border. Efforts to curb illegal migration must focus on the EU’s external borders, Polish Interior Minister Siemoniak said Monday during a visit to the Poland-Belarus border with his German counterpart Dobrindt. Siemoniak said Poland has spent 2.6 billion zlotys (€600,000) and deployed 11,000 border guards and soldiers on its eastern border. Warsaw also suspended asylum applications in March. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
23/07/2025 - 14:44  Reports of cyberattacks targeting public entities and private groups are mounting. Administrator of major dark web cybercrime forum, XSS.is, was arrested in Ukraine, with the help of French police and Europol, French prosecutors said today. Active since 2013, the Russian-language site is one of the main hubs for global cybercrime, enabling access to compromised systems, stolen data, the sale of malware and ransomware-related services. The criminal investigation was opened by the Paris public prosecutor's office. The forum also operated an encrypted Jabber messaging server, facilitating anonymous exchanges between cybercriminals. An investigation was launched in July 2021 and was handed over to investigating magistrates on November 9, 2021. A judicial investigation was opened on charges of complicity in attacks on an automated data processing system, organised extortion, and criminal conspiracy. The intercepted messages revealed numerous illicit activities and established that they generated at least $7 million in profits. (Source: France 24 with AFP = France)

July 23, 2025 8:20am EDT  Ukraine sees sweeping protests after the passage of a controversial bill threatening the autonomy of two anti-corruption agencies. In Kyiv, demonstrators gathered outside the presidential administration. The Ukrainian government’s latest move could strain the warming relationship between Zelenskyy and President Trump, who has accused the Ukrainian leader of being a ’dictator without elections.’ Both the U.S. and the E.U. have backed activists in Ukraine demanding independent institutions be established and empowered to clean up corruption, according to Axios. However, the pressure dropped significantly after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

23/07/2025 - 13:16  Thousands of people gathered in the capital and other cities across Ukraine yesterday evening after Zelensky signed a law tightening control over key anti-corruption agencies. The move threatens their independence, critics say, and risks undermining EU ties and billions in Western aid. The mood of anger and frustration among the war-weary Ukrainians prevailed in the crowd yesterday. Some protesters accused Ukraine’s leadership of prioritizing loyalty and personal connections over the fight against corruption. “Those who swore to protect the laws and the Constitution have instead chosen to shield their inner circle, even at the expense of Ukrainian democracy,’ said veteran Symoroz, sitting in a wheelchair because both his legs were amputated after he was wounded in 2022. The Ukrainian branch of Transparency International accused authorities of dismantling the country’s anti-corruption architecture. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova mocked Zelensky’s claim of Russian infiltration into the anti-corruption agency, noting sarcastically that “they might just as well pull a couple of bears out of the corner.” Zelensky didn’t provide examples of what he said was Russian interference. Ukrainian activists called on social media for more protests against the law in the center of Kyiv at 8 p.m. today. (Source: France 24 „with AP” - U.S.)

Wednesday 23 July 2025 11:50 BST  Anti-government protests have broken out in Kyiv as hundreds flocked to the streets to oppose a decision to curb the powers of two anti-corruption agencies. Angry protesters held signs reading ‘F*** corruption’ and ‘Corruption = Death’ while chanting “Ukraine is not Russia”. Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv and a prominent political opponent of Zelensky, was among the protesters. Kos, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, said the move was a “serious step back” for Kyiv’s membership hopes. French European affairs minister Haddad said it ’not too late’ for Kyiv to reverse the decision. It comes as a third round of talks is set to take place in Istanbul, Turkey after previous summits in May and June failed. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

23 July 2025 09:58 BST  Zelensky has approved the delegation which will take part in negotiations today in Istanbul. The delegation will be headed by secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Umerov, who served as Ukraine’s defence minister until days ago. It also includes representatives from the presidential office, the armed forces, the foreign ministry, the security ’sand intelligence’ services, and the Ukrainian parliament. Some other members of the delegation: Diakov, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Navy; Kyslytsia: First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs; Luhovskyi: First Deputy Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service; Ostrianskyi: Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces; Poklad: Deputy Head of the Security Service of Ukraine; Skibitskyi: Deputy Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Wednesday 23 July 2025 08:39, UK  Protests erupt in Kyiv as Zelenskyy clamps down on anti-corruption bodies. Thousands have gathered. It marks the first major rally against the government in more than three years of war. /Video/ (Source: Sky News - United Kingdom)

9:26 am, July 23, 2025  Zelensky said that he had met with the heads of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) following the passage of a new law that strips both agencies of their independence and places them under the control of the Prosecutor General’s office. On July 21, the Ukrainian Security Service and the Prosecutor General’s office were conducting a special operation to 'neutralize Russian influence over NABU.' Passed by parliament on July 22, Bill No. 12414 effectively subordinates NABU and SAPO to the Prosecutor General’s office and strips them of their independence. The legislation gives the Prosecutor General’s office access to all NABU cases and the authority to issue mandatory written instructions to NABU detectives. It also grants the power to close investigations upon defense request, settle jurisdictional disputes unilaterally, and requisition case materials for reassignment. ’The anti-corruption infrastructure will continue to function - just without Russian influence’, Zelensky said in a video address released early today. He added that NABU and SAPO would keep working. Cases that have been sitting idle must be investigated, there’s no rational explanation for why ’criminal cases worth billions’ have been left hanging for years, he said. At the same time, Zelensky did not directly comment on Bill No. 12414. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the heads of NABU and SAPO had urged Zelensky not to sign the bill. The European Union and G7 countries also raised concerns about the measure. Protesters who took to the streets yesterday called on him to veto it. He signed the bill just hours before releasing his video. Nor did he comment on the protests that broke out in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Dnipro in response to the legislation. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

(23 July 2025)  After a bill was passed targeting the country's anti-corruption bodies, protesters gathered in Kyiv yesterday. We chose Europe, not autocracy, said a poster held by one demonstrator. My father did not die for this, said another. Ukraine's chief prosecutor, Zelensky loyalist Kravchenko, will now be able to reassign corruption probes to potentially more pliant investigators, and even to close them. Stamping out corruption is a key requirement for Ukraine's application to join the EU, which provides significant financial assistance to Ukraine, conditional on progress in transparency, judicial reform, and democratic governance, says European Commission spokesperson Mercier. The Ukrainian independent anti-corruption system was set up at Ukraine's Western allies’ insistence and under their supervision 10 years ago. It was a key precondition for their aid and stronger ties ’as Ukraine declared a pro-democracy course’ amid Russia's initial invasion of 2014. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

(Wednesday), July 23, 2025 7:01 AM CET  „EU slams Ukraine’. On Monday, Ukraine announced its state security service had raided National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and arrested two top officials as part of a massive hunt ’for alleged Russian moles’. Critics argue the evidence against the agents is murky and the arrests were a pretext for undermining the independent agencies. Hundreds of Ukrainians took to the streets in protest yesterday after the country’s parliament voted in favor of a bill critics said will weaken the independence of key anti-corruption agencies. The law gives Ukraine’s prosecutor general, who is appointed by the president, power over the previously independent National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). Zelenskyy signed the bill into law last night, giving his office more control over anti-corruption bodies. People are angry at the outrageous ’reforms’ and directing their rage toward Zelenskyy and his office. It’s the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion that protests have been held in the streets of Kyiv, in defiance of the fact Ukraine remains under martial law and the daily bombardment by Putin’s forces. The EU’s Defense Commissioner Kubilius was in Washington yesterday, making the case for more American support for Ukraine. ’He met Senator Graham’, author of a major plan to hit Russia with punitive new sanctions. Then the corruption story broke. “In war trust between the fighting nation and its leadership is more important than modern weapons -  difficult to build and to keep, but easy to lose with one significant mistake by the leadership,” Kubilius said pointedly on X. “Transparency & open European dialogue is the only way to repair the damaged trust.” In a series of statements yesterday the European Commission voiced its alarm at the turn of events. A spokesperson told reporters at the midday press briefing Brussels was concerned and monitoring developments. Criticism of Ukraine is highly unusual in Brussels. Enlargement Commissioner Kos said she was seriously concerned, noting ’The dismantling of key safeguards protecting NABU’s independence is a serious step back.” „Independent bodies like NABU & Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) are essential for [Ukraine’s] EU path. Rule of Law remains in the very center of EU accession negotiations.” She later said she’d had frank discussions (meaning a big bust up) with new Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Kachka, Ukraine’s EU integration lead. ’We’ll continue working with Ukraine on the necessary rule of law reforms & progress on its EU path,’ Kos said on X. So many EU types have been so outspoken in public against Kyiv. The German Foreign Office last night was saying: “The independence and strength of Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions have been key to reform efforts of recent years. Ukraine will continue to be measured against their progress.” Zelenskyy defended the ’reform’ in the early hours of this morning, insisting in a Telegram post that ’The anti-corruption infrastructure will work … NABU and SAPO will work.’ For Ukraine’s EU allies, it’s a nightmare this ’reform’ which could undermine international support for Ukraine’s war effort. „It dismays its staunchest European allies, who’ve been backing its bid to join the EU’. Brussels sees red. Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most infamous ’bad boy’ on ’rule of law’ infringements, has been the one holding up progress on Ukraine’s accession negotiations. Now he can, should he wish, point to rule of law concerns on the other side to justify his continuing obstruction. Many of Ukraine’s European allies will now be bracing themselves for a ’withering reaction’ from MAGA Republicans who have never been sold on Zelenskyy. Trump himself may even weigh in. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
by Ross, chief political correspondent

Asia

Turkey
23.07.2025  A Ukrainian delegation led by National Security and Defense Council Secretary Umerov held today talks with Turkish President Erdogan in Ankara, ahead of the third round of Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations in Istanbul. The discussions covered security situation, regional stability challenges, and the prospects for further defense cooperation, according to Yermak, head of Ukrainian presidential office, who described the meetings as constructive. He said they also talked about the importance of organizing a top-level meeting involving presidents Zelenskyy, Erdogan, Trump and Putin, as a step toward initiating meaningful peace talks to help bring the war to an end. The Ukrainian officials also met Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan and Kilic, chief adviser to Erdogan. The third round of renewed Russia-Ukraine peace talks facilitated by Türkiye is set to begin in Istanbul today evening at around 7 p.m. local time (1600GMT) at the Ciragan Palace. The meeting will be chaired by Fidan. Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization chief Kalin and Chief of the Turkish General Staff Gen. Gurak are also expected to attend. Russia's delegation will be led by presidential aide Medinsky. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

North America

United States
July 23, 2025 The evolution of Rubio, his shape-shifting encapsulates how America’s vision of its place in the world has changed under President Trump. A country that was a linchpin of the postwar international order has retreated into “America First” isolationism, defined by disdain for multilateral institutions and traditional allies, and Trump’s highly transactional approach to foreign policy. Rubio is typical of a certain type of Republican politician that came to see globalisation and neoliberalism as a mistake. Allies dismiss the idea Rubio has changed, insisting that on key issues he has been remarkably consistent. “He’s always said foreign aid must be in America’s interests, he’s always complained about how the US was exporting and projecting liberal social policies on other countries, and he’s always believed that the US cannot be the world’s policeman,” says a former aide. Far from abandoning his values, they say, he has championed them, influencing Trump to adopt a more hawkish posture towards countries such as China, Iran, Russia and Venezuela. Since taking charge of the state department, he has proved a loyal executor of the president’s will. From the start, Rubio moved to align the state department with Trump’s rightwing populist agenda. Rubio increasingly seemed to mimic Trump’s rhetoric. The state department under Rubio has shut down most refugee resettlement programmes while fast-tracking asylum applications for white Afrikaner families alleging race-based persecution in South Africa. Rubio has revoked the visas of non-US students who took part in campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, calling them “lunatics”. He has instructed consular officers to scrutinise the social media feeds of visa applicants to see if they pose a threat to US national security. During a trip to Saudi Arabia in May, Trump said that “far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it’s our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use US policy to dispense justice for their sins”. That was now ending, he said. Rubio always believed that the US cannot be the world’s policeman. But US interventions have not stopped. In May, after German intelligence designated the far-right Alternative for Germany an extremist organisation, Rubio expressed his outrage on X. “That’s not democracy - it’s tyranny in disguise.’ German Chancellor Merz called on the US to “stay out” of German domestic politics. In early May, less than a week after Trump appointed him acting national security adviser, he was expected to address the diplomatic corps in Washington for the first time. More than 100 ambassadors and senior diplomats gathered for the reception. But he never turned up, much to their frustration. He dismantled the US Agency for International Development, America’s main conduit for foreign aid, eliminated or downsized whole departments 'that promote democracy and human rights round the world' and in effect terminated the broadcaster Voice of America. On Tuesday he withdrew the US from Unesco, saying it advanced 'divisive social and cultural causes”. 83 per cent of of USAID programmes have been terminated, 94 per cent of its staff laid off and its remaining functions absorbed into the state department. ’Beyond creating a globe-spanning NGO industrial complex at taxpayer expense, USAID has little to show since the end of the cold war,’ he said in a blog post on July 1. The secretary of state has defended his reforms of a ’bloated, bureaucratic’ agency that was ’more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests”. 246 foreign service officers and 1,107 civil service employees were terminated this month in the state department. In February he struck a deal with El Salvador under which the Central American state promised to take in and incarcerate criminal illegal migrants. Officials say the deal has mainly targeted members of violent criminal gangs. This month, he boasted of some of the Trump administration’s foreign policy wins. It had ’brokered a truce between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan’ and a peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. ’It had persuaded Nato members to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence by 2035’. And it had attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities. Everything Rubio is doing at the state department is consistent with the world view he has espoused for much of his career. Indeed, the man is now arguably the president’s most powerful cabinet secretary. As well as secretary of state, he is also acting national security adviser, acting administrator of USAID and acting head of the National Archives and Records Administration. The secretary of state has proved himself to be a loyal executor of the president’s will. Rubio has also improved his standing with Maga hardliners who once considered him dangerously soft on immigration. Former foes such as Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist during his first term, now consider him an ally. “He will be the Kissinger of our time,” Miller said of Rubio on Fox News in May. In this telling, Rubio’s hopes of becoming the Republican nominee for president in 2028 rest on winning over the Maga base. (Source: Financial Times - United Kingdom)
Some comments:
- Everyone here either doesn't understand what it means to have access to the Foreign Affairs space as a US Senator and then as a candidate for POTUS. Or they don't care. Since 1950, the only Secretary of State with greater access to more people, data, information, and constituency (fundraisers) might be Kissinger. Everyone else had to get the information AFTER getting cleared. And even Kissinger didn't have primary access to constituency like Senator Rubio did.
- Hopefully Secretary Rubio will be the Republican Presidential candidate in the next election. He is loyal to President Trump and should be.
- The first Latino Secretary of State is also a Senator with two decades of experience across multiple committees and a former POTUS candidate. From Florida. That means he knows a lot, learned a lot, and has acted on a lot. America's future is 99% certainly a hemispheric strategy with the demographic growth engine of the LatAm world and the mineral riches of the LatAm world. This cannot be decoupled from American capital, technology, and the natural resource based defenses that the wonderful book "Accidental Superpower" identified. Coming from an establishment Republican, this next bit is the hard part. We still have way too much overhang in the State Department. I'm estimating 25% of the FTEs still have little to no work to do on a daily basis and quite possibly only push paper around for 50% of the week. Contractors are worse, with nearly 50% doing nothing all day. There needs to be ongoing reductions to GG, CS, and immediate contractor cuts. FSOs don't need to be cut.
- I suspect that Rubio has forsaken his presidential ambitions. I took heart when Rubio was appointed. Given his background on the Senate Foreign Relations com. hope was that he would act as a constraint, at least in foreign policy, on the know-nothing Trump in much the same way as McMaster, Bolton, Mattis, etc. had during the first admin. But it is clear that Trump does not want any more awkward, independent advisors second-guessing him. One possibility is that Rubio has trimmed to pursue his own agenda. State is the highest position he is likely to ever hold and in that position one of his priorities has been to establish strong working links with Latin America, a surprisingly neglected (apart from a few honeymoon periods such as the Good Neighbor Policy or Alliance for Progress) area in US policy. He has been one of the most active Secs in this area for sometime and is working assiduously to roll back Chinese opportunism in the region. Some of his acquiescence to Trump forays has been shocking. However, watch his body language in the Zelensky meeting - he doesn't want to be there. Might he even be instrumental in Trump's row back on Ukraine? Some interesting material in this article, but the jury is still out on Rubio.
- Rubio is a splendid family man, a devout Catholic, and served as a fantastic Senator representing Florida. He showed wit and fundraising ability during his Presidential campaign. It's no wonder Adelson wanted him to be VP. You're looking at the future first Latino President of the United States. Power couldn't come any sooner to our wonderful VP Vance and SecState Rubio.
- 12 years of the GOP in the White House will hurt both of you. Deeply. As you enter retirement just think of this: VP Vance becomes POTUS Vance; SecState Rubio becomes VP Rubio; America's hemispheric strategy is in full swing; America's voting demographics are 20% Latino by 2037; VP Rubio becomes POTUS Rubio. Amen.
- As others have noted, this administration may be “America First”, but it is anything but isolationist. The lastest instance of meddling in other countries’ domestic politics, led by Rubio, was the revocation of visas of Brazilian judges prosecuting former president Bolsonaro.
- Even in Trump 1.0 everyone, including the President, said Rubio was in charge of LatAm policy. Which maps well to the LatAm intensive hemispheric strategy that POTUS Trump has today. Once we stabilize immigration, guess which cabinet level agency can create multiple new visa types? Integrate with consulates? Deliver across new software apps to trace and track status and payments? And who runs that Department? Secretary of State Rubio.
- I always find it hilarious how Democrats and Trump haters take on all his behaviors. Denigrating public servants, using cute little nick names, gently ribbing competitors with sarcasm....why not just go full MAGA?
- Looking at those guys in the US and at the current armed conflicts, I have come to think that some people are beyond redemption. This is a depressing view and Id sure like to be reasonably told that I am wrong...

July 23, 2025  How U.S. forces should leave Europe? In the six months since U.S. President Trump came into office, European leaders promised a sharp increase in defense and defense-related spending at the NATO summit in June. Europe is introducing new financial mechanisms and breaking down barriers to cooperation in its defense industry. A more capable Europe would become the kind of partner that Washington wants and needs, and it would gain the freedom to set its own strategy as a global power. To ensure that this necessary rebalancing proceeds, the Trump administration must withdraw substantial numbers of U.S. forces from Europe, starting now, and truly shift the burden of the region’s conventional defense onto the continent. To encourage Europe to follow through on its own promises, Washington must lay out a realistic, targeted, and phased plan that cuts U.S. troop levels in Europe roughly in half ’over the next four years’ while keeping in place forces vital to U.S. security interests or forces that Europe cannot reasonably replace in that time. The best window for Europe to take on a greater share of the burden for its defense is now - not in five or ten years when political will may have faded or an emergency elsewhere forces a sudden U.S. withdrawal. Competition with China and the emergence of other global powers have altered the United States’ strategic reality. Washington can no longer maintain the global military primacy it enjoyed after the end of the Cold War. To avoid overstretching, the United States must allocate its assets prudently - which means withdrawing from or downsizing in some parts of the world. Not to do so would drain the country’s resources, worsening a domestic fiscal crisis and killing any hope of retaining the global military lead that the United States still enjoys. The reality is that U.S. troop deployments in Europe are larger than necessary to defend core U.S. interests on the continent, so they will remain near the top of the list of cuts. This is because ’many U.S. forces in Europe are unneeded given the current threat level” and becoming redundant as Europe’s military might grows. Russia’s long-range nuclear weapons and advanced cyber-capabilities put the United States at risk, as do Russian covert agents who spy, disrupt civil society, and have assassinated private citizens. Russian tanks and artillery, however, do not. Concentrating U.S. resources on nuclear, cyber, and gray-zone defense while leaving land defense largely to European allies will be a more sustainable division of responsibilities as Washington pares down its commitments. The war in Ukraine is often cited as a reason to keep U.S. forces at current levels. But with the Russian army dug in in Ukraine, the Kremlin cannot seriously contemplate a conventional attack on a NATO country for at least the next few years. Some U.S. forces in Europe are essential to protect the East Coast of the United States from a Russian sea-based attack from the North Atlantic, particularly through the ocean gaps between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. Other U.S. conventional weapons stationed on the continent, such as the Rivet Joint, Global Hawk, and P-8 reconnaissance aircraft, collect crucial intelligence. To remove such capabilities would be unwise. U.S. naval forces in Europe offer a suite of weapons used for different tasks, some of which they must continue to perform ’in Europe’ for the foreseeable future. One cannot remove a destroyer’s Tomahawk missiles, whose land-attack function Europe can be expected to replace, without removing its Aegis radars, which are a cornerstone of ’Europe’s’ missile defense network. Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarines, a key component of the U.S. nuclear triad, require access to certain naval bases in Europe. The use of the base in Rota, Spain is also important for the U.S. Navy’s logistics network and power projection to other regions of the world. Responsibly managing a drawdown while keeping many essential capabilities in position is not abandoning Europe. The drawdown itself should be predictable and focused, proceeding in phases and targeting primarily land power and, to a lesser extent, air power. Early in the war - Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine - U.S. force levels peaked above 100,000—a huge increase from the approximately 60,000 troops stationed on the continent before 2022. These have since been reduced to around 80,000. Three years later, it’s clear the threat of an imminent Russian attack is minimal. The Trump administration should therefore announce plans to begin an immediate withdrawal of these forces, to be completed by the end of 2026. The squadron of U.S. F-35s that is expected to begin operations this fall should join the first round of removals - Europe already has plenty of fighter aircraft of its own. The Trump administration should therefore lay out a broader drawdown of U.S. conventional forces with a deadline of January 2029, cutting them to roughly half of today’s levels and rebalancing them to include primarily naval forces, a smaller proportion of air power, and a limited number of ground forces. To achieve this force mix, the United States should remove the armored brigade combat team that has been rotating through eastern Europe since 2017, the European combat aviation brigade and artillery capabilities that have been deployed since 2018, and most short-range air defense units. European armies can take over the deterrent function if properly trained and equipped. Two of the six Arleigh Burke destroyers that the U.S. Navy has sent to Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine should be redeployed to the Indo-Pacific, where the need is greater. Most U.S. fighter aircraft, such as F-35s and F-16s, currently in Europe for deterrent purposes can be removed as well, given Europe’s large and growing stock of high-end aircraft. As U.S. forces are reduced, staff at U.S. headquarters across Europe can also be downsized. The Trump administration should also discuss with Europe’s strongest military powers the possibility of naming a European official as Supreme Allied Commander Europe - NATO’s top command post. This high-visibility position has traditionally been held by the commander of U.S. forces in Europe. This responsibility would accelerate the transition to European leadership of European defense. A drawdown would leave a meaningful backstop of U.S. forces in Europe, including two army brigades, support aircraft, and most naval forces. ’U.S. command and control, special forces, space forces, theater ballistic missile defense, and other elements that only the U.S. military can provide would stay in place’. Remaining forces would preserve vital U.S. interests: protecting the U.S. East Coast, maintaining nuclear deterrence, and supporting the country’s world-class collection of intelligence. Washington could pursue additional drawdowns in the 2030s - or, if changing security conditions make it necessary, send some forces back. Europe’s current military weaknesses are easily exaggerated, as is Russia’s current conventional threat to NATO. ’The members of the European Union alone already have 1.3 million soldiers under arms, roughly the same number as the United States has and slightly more than Russia’s 1.1 million’. European forces would be fighting defense ’should Russia attack’, they would not need as many forces as the aggressor to maintain an advantage. European NATO allies already deploy large units to the Baltics, including German soldiers permanently stationed in Lithuania. European combat airpower is highly advanced and could badly weaken Russian forces ’attempting to invade a Baltic country or Finland’. Russia, meanwhile, has proved less capable than once feared. Some specific U.S. ground systems will be difficult to replace. Long-range artillery and air defenses, for example, are expensive, in high demand, and hard to produce. But ’Europe’s procurement funds are growing by tens of billions of euros annually’, which should make buying and deploying many of these systems possible within the next few years. Europe can also strengthen its arsenal by increasing its drone warfare capabilities. Outlining its withdrawal plans will simplify Europe’s defense calculus, help Europe think practically about its procurement goals. ’For the next few years, Europe will still need to buy a great deal from the United States’. The State Department should prioritize Europe as it approves ’sales of the systems the United States is withdrawing’. The Defense Department and the White House should work with U.S. defense firms to overcome their resistance to making the technology transfers necessary to help European industry fill gaps quickly. The era in which the United States enjoyed wide latitude to project military power all over the world is long over, and Washington cannot delay making adjustments to avoid a cycle of overspending and relative decline. The United States needs bold action now to sustain the momentum already underway to realize a credible European self-defense, for its own sake and for Europe’s. European leaders are recognizing the real risk that the United States might not come to the defense of their continent. It is their moral and political responsibility to ensure they can protect their populations by strengthening their own defenses. And this is their opportunity to build a more self-reliant, more confident, and more capable Europe. The danger now is that Europe will lose its momentum of self-defense  - and that the United States, by delaying an expected drawdown of forces from the continent, will let it. Hesitating would undermine Europe’s progress and risk locking in a suboptimal security structure for years to come. (Source: Foreign Affairs - U.S.)
by Chivvis, Director of the American Statecraft Program and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

.5 7 23 12:26

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Europe

Poland
Tuesday 22 July 2025  Poland prepares 40-page manual titled Safety guide ‘to coping in case of war' or natural disaster, an interior ministry official says. ’Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has repeatedly warned that the threat of a global war is serious and real’. Russia has repeatedly denied that it engages in sabotage or cyberattacks on other countries and says it has no intention of starting a war with NATO. The booklet will be released online in September in Polish. Ministry plans to deliver printed copies to all 14 million households in Poland. (Source: The Independent – United Kingdom)

European Commission
July 22, 2025  The European Union’s first-ever commissioner for defense and space has issued a stark warning: the world’s most dangerous moment could arrive as soon as 2027, 'when Russia and China may coordinate aggressive moves designed to overwhelm Western defenses'. Kubilius ’echoed’ recent remarks by U.S. Air Force Gen. Grynkewich, NATO’s top commander for air operations. Grynkewich had warned last week that the United States and its European allies must be prepared to fight two wars simultaneously, should Russian President Putin escalate in Ukraine or Eastern Europe, and in the Pacific if Chinese President Xi launches an invasion of Taiwan. ’We’re going to need every bit of kit and equipment and munitions that we can in order to beat that,’ Grynkewich said. Later yesterday evening, Kubilius said the U.S. has the right and reason to turn its focus to China, to start to shift more and more toward the Indo-Pacific. Former Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Davidson testified before Congress in 2021 that China could attempt to forcibly reunify with Taiwan by 2027. Kubilius traveled to Washington to assess potential shortfalls in European defense capabilities as the U.S. increasingly pivots its strategic attention toward the Indo-Pacific. He said EU member states are actively preparing for a shift in the American military posture on the continent. As of 2025, more than 80,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Europe – a presence widely expected to decline „in the coming years’. ’We don't know what Americans will decide’ Kubilius said. He noted that the EU has reduced its reliance on U.S.-made weapons from 60% of total imports to 40%, and hopes to lower that dependency further through increased domestic production. Kubilius ’underscored the critical importance of maintaining unwavering support’ for Ukraine’s defense against Russia. President Trump announced that the United States would offer advanced weapons systems to Ukraine – ’on the condition that European partners cover the cost’. ’We're going to be sending Patriots to NATO and then NATO will distribute that,’ Trump said last week. As defense commissioner, Kubilius is tasked with ’implementing an ’$840 billion framework to ’Re-Arm Europe,’ including a €150 billion loan’ facility available to member states for building out their armed forces and industrial capacities. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

July 22, 2025 6:00 am CET  Here are the winners and losers from EU’s retaliation plan against US tariffs. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Moldova
Tuesday 22 July 2025  Plahotniuc, a fugitive Moldovan oligarch implicated in a $1 billion bank fraud and other illicit schemes was detained today in Greece. He fled Moldova in 2019 as he faced a series of corruption charges including allegations of complicity in a scheme that led to $1 billion disappearing from a Moldovan bank in 2014, which at the time was equivalent to about an eighth of Moldova’s annual GDP. Plahotniuc has denied any wrongdoing. He fled to the U.S. from Moldova in June 2019 after failing to form a government with his Democratic Party. The U.S. declared him persona non grata in 2020 and his whereabouts were unknown for years. His assets were frozen in the U.K. and its overseas territories. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Ukraine
July 22, 2025 - 11:15:21  Russia unleashed one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months. A drone struck the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district. The heaviest strikes hit the city's Darnytskyi district. The overnight Russian barrage of Kyiv began shortly after midnight and continued until around 6 a.m. It was the first major attack on Kyiv since Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Kellogg, arrived in the city last Monday. Russia halted strikes during his visit. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its attack used drones and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. It said the barrage successfully targeted airfield infrastructure and Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. The Ministry said its forces shot down 74 Ukrainian drones overnight. Twenty-three drones were shot down in the Moscow region, 15 of which were intercepted over the city itself. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 426 Shahed and decoy drones overnight and on Monday, as well as 24 missiles of various types. It said 200 drones were intercepted with 203 more jammed or lost from radars. In a video address, Zelenskyy said another round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was planned for tomorrow. He discussed the preparations with Umerov, who led the Ukrainian team in the previous two rounds. French Foreign Minister Barrot arrived in Kyiv yesterday for talks with Zelenskyy. They spoke about expanding defense cooperation, including a decision by French companies to start manufacturing drones in Ukraine. ’Britain and Germany chaired a virtual meeting yesterday to discuss US President Trump’s plans for NATO allies to provide Ukraine with weapons’. ’Trump’s arms plan, announced a week ago, involves European nations sending American weapons, including Patriot air defense missile systems, to Ukraine via NATO - either from existing stockpiles or buying and donating new ones’. The so-called Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting was led by British Defense Secretary Healey and his German counterpart Pistorius. It was attended by US Defense Secretary Hegseth, NATO leader Rutte and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Grynkewich. Ukraine waits for Patriots. Ukraine’s new Defense Minister Shmyhal, who until recently served as prime minister, urged allies to speed up deliveries of American air defense systems. Patriot systems could come ’thanks to Switzerland’, whose defense ministry said Thursday it was informed by the US Defense Department that it will reprioritize the delivery of five previously ordered systems to support Ukraine. European Commissioner for Defense and Space Kubilius visited Washington yesterday ahead of talks with US officials about European defense and support for Ukraine. He welcomed Trump taking a harder line on Putin. If you combine American economic power and European economic power we are something like 20 times Russia’s power, he said. ’We need political will.’ A senior NATO official said the alliance is still coordinating the delivery of other military aid - such as ammunition and artillery rounds - which includes aid from the US that was briefly paused. Germany has said it offered to finance two new Patriot systems for Ukraine and raised the possibility of supplying systems it already owns and having them replaced by the US. But delivery could take time, German Chancellor Merz suggested - it is a question of days, perhaps weeks. (Source: The Korea Herald - South Korea / AP - U.S.)

United Kingdom
22.07.2025  The British government has agreed to a final investment decision to give the Sizewell C nuclear plant the go-ahead. The government has approved a multibillion-pound deal for Sizewell C, which will provide clean, homegrown power to the equivalent of six million homes. The cost of construction is around £38 billion (some $51 billion), which Canadian pension fund La Caisse, UK energy firm Centrica, and Amber Infrastructure will jointly fund. The government - the single largest equity shareholder in the project - will take an initial 44.9% stake; La Caisse will have 20%, Centrica 15%, and Amber Infrastructure an initial 7.6%. French energy giant EDF is taking a 12.5% stake in the project. as well as a proposed £5 billion ($6.7 billion) debt guarantee from France’s export credit agency, Bpifrance Assurance Export, to back the company’s commercial bank loans. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Europe
22.07.2025  No justification remains for Israeli military operations in Gaza, French foreign minister Barrot told the broadcaster France Inter. He warns against worsening 'already catastrophic situation.'    German Development Minister Alabali Radovan criticized her government today for not signing a declaration by more than two dozen countries that demands an immediate end to the war in the Gaza Strip. 'I would have liked Germany to join the signal sent by the 29 partners. What is happening in Gaza right now is incomprehensible. Innocent children are dying. People are starving,' Alabali Radovan told the Rheinische Post newspaper.    Israel 'must stop killing people at distribution points,' says European Commission foreign policy chief Kallas.    British foreign secretary Lammy warned today that if a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is not reached soon, further action against Israel could be taken. He recalled that in response to Israeli practices, the UK sanctioned Israeli ministers, halted free trade talks with Israel and suspended some arms export licenses. His remarks came after more than two dozen countries, including the UK, Australia, and Japan, as well as the EU, condemned Israel's inhumane killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip yesterday and demanded that the war in the besieged enclave end immediately. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

Japan
22.07.2025  European Council President Costa and European Commission President der Leyen today reached Japan for a summit with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba tomorrow. They began their trip to Japan by visiting World Expo 2025 in Osaka. Costa and von der Leyen are scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi in Beijing on Thursday. In 2024, the total trade in goods between the EU and Japan reached €130.7 billion (around $137.9 billion). (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Southeast Asia
Jul 22, 2025  China is set to expand its influence over Southeast Asia's development as the administration of U.S. President Trump and other Western donors slash aid, a study by an Australian think tank, the Sydney-based Lowy Institute said Sunday. Total official development finance to Southeast Asia - including grants, low-rate loans and other loans - grew modestly to $29 billion in 2023, the annual report said. Based on recent announcements, overall official development finance to Southeast Asia will fall by more than $2 billion by 2026, the study projected. Trump has halted about $60 billion in development assistance - most of the United States' overseas aid program. Seven European countries - including France and Germany - and the European Union have announced $17.2 billion in aid cuts to be implemented between 2025 and 2029. The United Kingdom has said it is reducing annual aid by $7.6 billion, redirecting government money toward defense. Poorer countries such as East Timor, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are being left behind and social sector priorities such as health, education, and civil society support that rely on bilateral aid funding are likely to lose out the most. A deepening divide could undermine long-term stability, equity and resilience, it warned. Across most of Southeast Asia, around 86 million people still live on less than $3.65 a day. China's relative importance as a development actor in the region will rise as Western development support recedes. Beijing's development finance to the region rose by $1.6 billion to $4.9 billion in 2023 - mostly through big infrastructure projects such as rail links in Indonesia and Malaysia. China's infrastructure commitments to Southeast Asia surged fourfold to almost $10 billion, largely due to the revival of the Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port project in Myanmar. By contrast, Western alternative infrastructure projects had failed to materialize in recent years. "Similarly, Western promises to support the region's clean energy transition have yet to translate into more projects on the ground - of global concern given coal-dependent Southeast Asia is a major source of rapidly growing carbon emissions.’ (Source: Japan Times / AFP - France; -JIJI - Japan)

North America

United States
July 22, 2025  Speaker Johnson said he would shut the House down early for the summer tomorrow to head off Democrats’ calls for votes for greater transparency into the investigation of Epstein, the sex offender and former friend of President Trump.    The U.S. says it will withdraw from UNESCO, again. The move reflects Mr. Trump’s deep mistrust and distaste of multilateralism and international institutions. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

(22 July 2025)  United States President Trump will impose 100% tariffs on countries such as India, China and Brazil if they continue to buy oil from Russia amid the war in Ukraine, Republican Senator Graham said on Sunday in an interview with Fox News. The three countries will have to choose between the American economy and helping Russian President, he said. ‘We’ll crush your economy’, US senator Graham warns: If [India, China and Brazil] keep buying cheap Russian oil…’we are going to tear the hell out of you and crush your economy.’ India and China are among the countries whose imports of cheaper fuel from Russia have increased since 2022. ’On July 16, North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief Rutte also warned that secondary sanctions could hit India, China and Brazil’ if they continue to trade with Russia. NATO is a military alliance of 32 countries, including the United States and several members of the European Union. (Source: Scroll – India)

.5 7 22 21:58

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Europe

Hungary
21.07.2025  Hungary and Serbia will jointly build a new oil pipeline aimed at safeguarding affordable energy supplies amid ongoing EU efforts to reduce dependence on Russian energy, Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó announced today. The pipeline, with an expected annual capacity of 4-5 million tons, is planned to become operational by 2027. Hungary will construct 180 kilometers of the new infrastructure as part of the project. 'Brussels wants to cut us off from Russian oil and gas, forcing Hungarian families to pay two to four times more. We won’t allow that,” Szijjártó told in Budapest. “We are building new sources, not shutting them down.” According to the minister, the pipeline will help protect Hungary’s long-standing utility cost reduction program and shield families from energy price hikes driven by EU policies. Budapest has repeatedly warned that ending access to Russian energy would harm its economy and raise household costs, as over 80% of Hungary’s oil imports currently flow through the Druzhba pipeline. In 2023, Hungary and Serbia also launched joint investments in gas infrastructure, including a new interconnector aimed at enhancing regional energy security. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Belgium
Monday, 21 July 2025  King Philippe of Belgium has called the humanitarian situation in Gaza 'a disgrace to humanity,” although he did not specifically mention Israel. “I join everyone who denounces the serious humanitarian abuses in Gaza, where innocent civilians, trapped in their enclave, are starving and succumbing to bombs,' the King said in his annual speech ahead of Belgium’s national day. He also called for an immediate end to the 'unbearable crisis.' King Philippe spoke of a meeting he had with a Palestinian and an Israeli father who had both lost a child. He said, “They have put aside their feelings of revenge and chosen to transform their suffering into a message of peace.” The Flemish Forum of Jewish Organisations had criticism about the speech. They do not understand why King Philippe did not also mention the terrorist attack of October 2023 and the hostages who are still held in Gaza. (Source: Royal Central - United Kingdom)

Poland
21.07.2025  The largest conventional oil field in Poland has been discovered in the Baltic Sea, six kilometers from the northwestern Polish port of Swinoujscie, the Canadian firm Central European Petroleum announced today. The Wolin East field is estimated to contain 22 million tons of recoverable hydrocarbons and 5 billion cubic meters of commercial-grade natural gas. Central European Petroleum described it as one of the biggest in Europe. Natural gas deposits within the Wolin concession could be equivalent to more than 300 million barrels of oil. Drilling is being carried out by the US firm Noble Corporation, while Zenith Energy, a well engineering consultancy and project management company, announced earlier this year that the Wolin East 1 well had been successfully delivered to Central European Petroleum. The country imports much of its gas as liquefied natural gas from the Middle East and the US via new terminals in Gdansk and Swinoujscie, as well as natural gas delivered via pipeline from Norway. This Baltic Sea discovery is expected to reduce Poland’s reliance on foreign energy resources and could also affect the nearby German energy market. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Romania
July 21, 2025  Romania has signed a framework agreement to buy Israeli-made Shorad-Vshorad anti-aircraft systems for $2.3 bln the Romanian defence ministry said today. The framework agreement with the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems - maker with U.S. backing of Israel’s Iron Dome defence system - provides for the signing of three further contracts, through which six integrated anti-aircraft systems will be acquired. The contracts will also cover training, ammunition and logistical support. The framework agreement will run for seven years, with the first two Vshorad systems to be delivered within three years of the signing of the first of the three further contracts, the ministry said. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Russia
21 July 2025  In Finland, CheckFirst researchers work to combat online disinformation. They tracked down several versions of the highly secretive Russian signals intelligence (SIGINT) unit Center 16 challenge coins issued by the Russian government, found on a variety of publicly available websites, as well as on the websites of Russian challenge coin manufacturers, such as GosZnak, SpetsZnak, or Breget. Based on this OSINT methodology, CheckFirst researchers were able to identify 10 distinct directorates within Center 16, which specialize on various aspects of defensive and offensive cyber espionage. Previously only a single Center 16 directorate had been identified in the unclassified domain. By examining geographic indicators found on several of challenge coins, such as maps or coordinates, CheckFirst researchers were able to partly map out the geographic structure of Center 16, locating nearly a dozen interception facilities throughout Russia. (Source: intelNews – U.S.)
by  Fitsanakis
The report

Ukraine
July 21, 2025, Monday // 08:54  Aerial assault began around 11:40 p.m. on July 20, when air defense systems were activated in Kyiv Oblast. By 12:24 a.m. on July 21, authorities issued a countrywide air-raid warning as the threat of missiles extended to all of Ukraine. A second national alert followed at 3 a.m. as Russian MiG-31K aircraft, capable of carrying Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, were detected in the air. The Ukrainian Air Force also confirmed launches of Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea and reported that Tu-95 strategic bombers had taken off from Russia's Murmansk Oblast. Between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., Russia carried out a massive combined aerial assault on Kyiv and other regions across Ukraine, deploying attack drones alongside cruise and ballistic missiles. The overnight strikes triggered widespread damage. Fires were recorded in four city districts: Darnytskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, Dniprovskyi, and Solomianskyi. In the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk, Russia used multiple types of missiles and Shahed drones, damaging civilian infrastructure across at least three villages within the Ivano-Frankivsk hromada. In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Russian forces struck several communities in the Nikopol district - Nikopol, Marhanets, and Chervonohryhorivka hromadas - using FPV drones and artillery. The strikes damaged infrastructure. Another drone strike hit the Mezhova hromada in Synelnykove district, again targeting infrastructure. Ukrainian air defenses shot down seven Russian drones over the region. This renewed wave of strikes adds to the recent pattern of Russian attacks targeting cities far from the frontline. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

Asia

Gaza
July 21 2025 08:33:17  Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces opened fire on crowds of Palestinians trying to collect humanitarian aid in the war-torn Palestinian territory on Sunday. The U.N. World Food Programme said its 25-truck convoy carrying food aid "encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire' near Gaza City, soon after it crossed from Israel and cleared checkpoints. Eighty were killed as truckloads of aid arrived in the north. Nine others were reported shot near an aid point close to Rafah in the south, where dozens of people lost their lives just 24 hours earlier. Four were killed near another aid site in Khan Yunis, also in the south. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (U.N. OCHA) agency, 87.8 percent of Gaza is now under displacement orders or within Israeli militarized zones, leaving "2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed." Israel yesterday withdrew the residency permit of head of the OCHA office in Israel, Whittall, who has repeatedly condemned the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Saar, in a post to X, accused him of spreading lies about the war in Gaza. (Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey)

Iran
Jul 21, 2025  Even moderates in Tehran have stopped trusting Western promises. In the contemporary era, there have been at least four major betrayals by the United States that continue to underscore Iran’s fear of foreign duplicity. So, what should the West expect now? It doesn’t matter who rules Iran. The leadership - regardless of name or face, whether wearing a crown, a turban, or a tie - shares a foundational belief: the West cannot be trusted to keep its word, honor its deals, or respect Iranian sovereignty. This doesn’t mean Iran is inflexible or incapable of negotiation. But its starting point is not trust, it’s caution. (Source: Responsible Statecraft - U.S. )
by Khatami, a member of the National Committee of Etehad-e Mellat, a leading reformist party in Iran, where he chairs its Foreign Policy Committee. He holds an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Tehran and focuses on U.S.–Iran relations. He has written in Persian and co-authored three books on regional politics.

Japan
July 21, 2025 - 10:08:11  Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s ruling coalition failed today to secure a majority in the 248-seat upper house in a crucial parliamentary election, NHK public television said. The loss is another blow to Ishiba’s coalition - Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed Komeito - making it a minority in both houses following its October defeat in the lower house election, and worsening Japan’s political instability. Soaring prices, lagging incomes and burdensome social security payments are the top issues for frustrated, cash-strapped voters. Stricter measures targeting foreign residents and visitors also emerged as a key issue, with a surging right-wing populist party leading the campaign. US President Trump has added to the pressure, complaining about a lack of progress in trade negotiations and the lack of sales of US autos and American-grown rice to Japan despite a shortfall in domestic stocks of the grain. A 25 percent tariff due to take effect Aug. 1 has been another blow for Ishiba. It was the first time the LDP has lost a majority in both houses of parliament since the party’s foundation in 1955. (Source: The Korea Herald - South Korea)

Syria
Monday), July 21 2025 08:45:19  Calm returned to southern Syria's Sweida province on Sunday, after a week of sectarian violence between Druze fighters and rival groups. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave an updated toll late Sunday of 1,120 killed since the violence erupted a week ago, including 427 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the minority group, as well as 354 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin. The Observatory had said Druze fighters retook control of the city on Saturday evening. Residents of Sweida city number at about 150,000. Government security forces had blocked roads leading to the province in order to prevent tribal fighters from going there. The United Nations migration agency said more than 128,000 people in Sweida province have been displaced by the violence. Israel had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week. (Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey)

North America

United States
Mon, July 21, 2025  Deep-sea mining. The leader of one of the most aggressive seabed mining startups spent years invoking global warming to spark interest in extracting avocado-sized rocks rich in electric-vehicle battery metals from the bottom of the ocean. We want to help the world transition away from fossil fuels with the smallest possible climate change and environmental impact, Barron, the Australian chief executive officer of a company then known as DeepGreen, told a 2019 meeting of the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA), which for a decade has been debating regulations to allow the mining of untouched, biodiverse deep-sea ecosystems in global waters. More than a thousand miles southwest of Mexico on a September morning in 2022, a yellow, 80-metric-ton machine slowly rumbled across the seabed on tank-like treads, a plume of sediment billowing behind. During a two-month test for Barron’s firm, renamed as The Metals Company (TMC), the 38-foot-long prototype vacuumed up 3,000 metric tons of nodules, sending them through a tube to a specialized surface vessel called the Hidden Gem. TMC hailed the trial as a success. Allseas, a Dutch-owned, Swiss-registered offshore engineering and construction company, developed the technology, the world’s only working prototype of a nodule mining system. The company supplies the apparatus to TMC and is its second-largest shareholder. To meet TMC’s production targets, it must now build a much bigger version capable of harvesting nodules nearly around the clock under crushing pressure far from shore. TMC would help ensure the nation's energy security and industrial competitiveness for generations, Barron said before a congressional committee in Washington, DC., earlier this year. TMC had successfully tapped into the US president’s pursuit of China-free metals, expressed as a desire for dominion over Canada and Greenland. The global seabed, TMC repeatedly emphasized as it lobbied politicians and the White House, holds the planet’s largest estimated reserves of minerals like cobalt and nickel in the form of black rocks called polymetallic nodules. These cover the Pacific Ocean floor by the billions. Trump cleared the way for a race to the abyss to extract nodules, even though seabed mining technology remains under development and commercially unproven. In April, President Trump issued an executive order expediting US licensing of seabed mining, departing from international law to unleash what the administration called a ’gold rush’ to ’counter China’s growing influence.’ The country is set to conduct ISA-sanctioned tests of two seabed mining machines in the Pacific over the next year. Within days of Trump's order, Canadian-registered TMC’s US subsidiary filed the world’s first application to mine the seabed in international waters, including an area it licenses from the ISA. An $85 million investment from a leading Korean metals processor soon followed. Nasdaq-listed TMC’s shares, which have periodically languished below a dollar, hit a 52-week high of $8.19 on Thursday. A Silicon Valley startup called Impossible Metals, meanwhile, has applied for a license to explore and possibly mine nodules in US waters off American Samoa, with an aim to raise $1 billion. Then on July 14, a top executive at US defense giant Lockheed Martin told the Financial Times the company is in talks to give seabed miners access to international areas of the Pacific it licenses from the US. At the ISA’s annual meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, delegates today decried Trump’s move, with China’s representative denouncing the US for unilateralist hegemonic acts and attempting to replace the global standards with US standards. China already dominates the critical minerals supply chain on land. 97% of global nickel ore processing capacity lies outside of North America. China processes 74% of the world’s cobalt ore, according to a 2024 report from the Wilson Center. China also maintains more than 80% of the capacity for refining those metals into advanced EV battery materials. Delegates in Kingston ordered a report on ISA-licensed seabed miners at risk of violating their contracts with the body, a thinly veiled reference to TMC and other companies that might also seek to apply for US licenses to mine in international waters. The countries that TMC relies on for seabed mining and processing technology are among the ISA’s 169 member nations (plus the European Union) that oppose unilateral mining in international waters. A Japanese corporation, Pacific Metals Company, that planned to process TMC’s nodules has now told investors that it would only “launch operations once the international rules are finalized.” In a recent investor briefing, Pacific Metals emphasized that when it comes to nodule processing, it considers “international credibility to be a material issue.” All those parties have a legal obligation to ensure that deep sea mining only takes place through the ISA, says Robb, an Amsterdam-based attorney who specializes in ocean litigation. Whether nations would be enabling deep-sea mining through commercial relationships with US-licensed seabed mining companies was the subject of whispered conversations among ISA delegates this month as they continued drafting mining regulations. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea prohibits unilateral mining by any country or corporation. It also requires the ISA to administer the global seabed for the benefit of humanity, with any royalties from mining divided among member states. The US never ratified the treaty, though it had generally adhered to its provisions and still participates in ISA proceedings as an observer. Pressure is growing on member states to not supply technology to seabed mining companies the US licenses, process their nodules or buy metals from them, as the treaty mandates ISA countries treat unilateral mining as illegitimate. Thirty-seven ISA countries support a moratorium on seabed mining until its environmental impacts are better understood. “Product lines derived from ventures that violate international law will carry reputational and legal concerns that increase the risk of the investment and can undermine its return,” ISA Secretary-General Carvalho said. While TMC has told investors it expects to begin mining within a year of receiving a license, the technology to extract minerals from the seabed at depths of four kilometers be years away from being deployed at scale. Its competitiveness with terrestrial mining is unknown, as is the economic viability of processing and refining seabed minerals amid seesawing metal prices and the growing market share of battery technologies not reliant on nodule metals. The US lacks metallurgical capacity to refine nodule minerals. Given the rapid evolution of batteries and other relevant technologies, there is great uncertainty about the future demand for critical minerals, researchers at RAND wrote in a recent report. “A seabed mining industry, as a whole, faces considerable opposition from nations and organizations concerned about the potential negative environmental impacts.” At the ISA, delegates convened behind closed doors on Friday to debate how to respond to TMC’s plans. Barron, who once sat with the delegation of a tiny Pacific island nation that sponsors one of TMC’s ISA contracts, has been absent this year. ’The US has every right to pursue seafloor resources in international waters,’ he wrote Wednesday on X. TMC however, cautioned investors in a May securities filing that a US mining license wouldn’t be recognized internationally, which could affect “logistics, processing, and market access” for the seabed minerals TMC mines. A US seabed mining license would require TMC to deploy American-built and owned vessels. How the companies would comply with that mandate is unclear. Allseas said in a statement that it would take about two years to engineer the technical systems to support full-scale mining but it won’t begin that work “until we are confident that all relevant regulatory conditions are met.” Allseas, which itself owns an ISA-licensed seabed mining company, has come under pressure from Dutch politicians and activists not to provide technology for unilateral mining. In a May 14 securities filing TMC said it’s evaluating U.S.-based vessel options. The US hasn’t built a specialized seabed mining ship like the Hidden Gem. Only eight US ocean-going bulk cargo carriers - large ships that can hold tens of thousands of pounds of nodules and transport them to shore - are in service. Seven of them are at or near the end of their lifespan, according to a 2024 US Maritime Administration report. Impossible Metals uses a nodule collector, called Eureka, that’s designed to hover above the ocean floor, its robotic claws selecting individual nodules that its artificial intelligence program determines aren’t inhabited by marine organisms. Scientists estimate that at least 30% to 40% of deep ocean life in the seabed targeted for mining live on nodules. The company has delayed a planned trial of the Eureka in an ISA-licensed area of the Pacific until at least 2027 because the technology needs further refinement. Impossible Metals’ mining license application is for US waters, not areas controlled by ISA. And any mining wouldn’t happen until at least the early 2030s. In a small lab in Pasadena, California, scientists at an Impossible Metals spinoff called Viridian Biometals are trying getting the metals out of the nodules. Nodule minerals precipitate out of seawater, forming layers around a piece of whale bone, a shark tooth or another small object at the rate of a few millimeters every million years. Nodules contain nickel, cobalt and copper particles scattered throughout every rock, mostly embedded in a matrix of manganese oxide. Viridian scientists are tinkering with rock-breathing microbes that oxidize nodules to extract the most valuable metals. As microbes inside a freezer oxide the manganese bits, they release nickel, cobalt and copper ions into a solution. All this happens at ambient temperature and pressure, which saves an enormous amount of energy and doesn’t produce any toxic waste, says Viridian CEO Macris. “We love what Viridian is doing but we’re just not sure if it will be mature enough when we need it,’ says Impossible Metals’ CEO Gunasekara. TMC has found one overseas metals processor. Last year, Pacific Metals Company of Japan fed a 2,000-ton pile of nodules collected by TMC in 2022 into an electric-arc furnace to produce 500 tons of a material. In February, it was smelted into a nickel-cobalt-copper alloy. In April, Pacific Metals announced it would transition from processing nickel ore to smelting nodules. But it doesn’t expect full production to begin until 2029 at the earliest. TMC has also struck a deal with metals giant Korea Zinc, which is assessing the feasibility of refining nodules into battery materials, a process TMC has so far tested only in the lab. If TMC, Impossible Metals and other companies mine the ocean floor under a US license, then federal law requires the minerals to be processed and refined in America. Aside from Viridian’s early efforts, the US has no such capacity. A single facility in the US capable of processing and refining nodules would cost several billion dollars, and could take up to a decade to reach full production, according to Verbaan, director of metallurgy technical services for Swiss testing and certification company SGS. The US tax and spending bill enacted on July 4 allocates $5.5 billion to the Department of Defense for investments in critical minerals supply chains. (Source: Yahoo / Bloomberg = U.S.)
"1$: 0.8564 euros"

Jul 21, 2025 09:26 IST  "No one is above the law". Obama handcuffed, put in jail: Trump posts AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform, amid poll fraud charge. The video comes after the Trump administration accused Obama of election fraud in 2016, with the US President backing calls for his prosecution. Trump's Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Gabbard has accused the former President of attempting to undermine Trump's victory in the 2016 election. Citing declassified documents, Gabbard claimed senior officials during Obama's regime manufactured and politicised alleged intel assessments to show that Trump's win was due to Russian interference. She also called for Obama and former senior US national security officials to be prosecuted, which has also been echoed by Trump. (Source: India Today)

NATO

21.07.2025  NATO Secretary General Rutte participated today in an online meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group -  hosted by German Defense Minister Pistorius and UK Defense Secretary Healey - aimed at enhancing support for Ukraine by 'providing additional US assets through investments from allies in Europe and Canada'. NATO will coordinate the initiative through its command in Wiesbaden, Germany, at the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which manages logistical hubs in the eastern part of the alliance territory. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

.5 7 21 12:41

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Vatican
20 July 2025, 12:51  Speaking after the Sunday Angelus, Pope Leo mourns the three Gazans killed in an attack on the Holy Family Catholic parish in Gaza city, which he says is just one of the continuous attacks on Gaza’s people and holy sites. The Pope appealed for “an immediate halt to the barbarity of the war' and for “a peaceful resolution of the conflict'. He urged the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, “as well as the prohibition against collective punishment, indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population'. During his phone conversation on Friday with Benjamin Netanyahu, Pope Leo urged a renewed push for an end to the conflict, and lamented the 'agonizing price' being paid by Gaza's civilians. (Source: Vatican News)

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Asia

July 18, 2025 at 16:20 JST  Asian countries are offering to buy more U.S. liquefied natural gas in negotiations with the Trump administration as a way to alleviate tensions over U.S. trade deficits and forestall higher tariffs. Vietnam’s government signed a deal in May with an American company to develop a gas import hub. JERA, Japan’s largest power generator, signed new 20-year contracts last month to purchase up to 5.5 million metric tons of U.S. gas annually starting around 2030. Trump discussed cooperation on a $44 billion Alaska LNG project with South Korea, prompting a visit by officials to the site in June. The U.S. president has promoted the project as a way to supply gas from Alaska’s vast North Slope to a liquefication plant at Nikiski in south-central Alaska, with an eye largely on exports to Asian countries while bypassing the Panama Canal. Thailand has offered to commit to a long-term deal for American fuel and shown interest in the same Alaska project to build a nearly 1,300-kilometer pipeline that would funnel gas from. The Philippines is also considering importing gas from Alaska. India is mulling a plan to scrap import taxes on U.S. energy shipments to help narrow its trade surplus with Washington. Japan had agreed to buy more despite being so awash in the fuel that it was being forced to cancel projects and contracts to offload the excess to Asia’s growing economies. Analysts warn that strategy could undermine those countries’ long-term climate ambitions and energy security. Experts say LNG purchasing agreements can slow adoption of renewable energy in Asia. Energy companies that profit from gas or coal are powerful vested interests, swaying policy to favor their business models. The Alaska LNG project is widely considered uneconomic. Both coal and renewable energy in Asia are so much cheaper that U.S. gas would need to cost less than half its current price to compete. Tariffs on Chinese steel could make building gas pipelines and LNG terminals more expensive, while longstanding delays to build new gas turbines mean new gas power projects may not come online until 2032. A global glut in LNG will likely drive prices lower, making it even harder for countries to justify locking into long-term deals with the United States at current higher prices. The world shifts rapidly toward cleaner energy sources like solar or wind. Locking into long-term deals could leave countries with outdated infrastructure. Building pipelines, terminals, and even household gas stoves creates systems that are expensive and difficult to replace. If renewable energy grows fast, reducing the need for LNG, countries may still have to pay for gas they no longer need. Many LNG contracts include “take-or-pay” clauses, obliging governments to pay even if they don’t use the fuel. Pakistan is an example. Soaring LNG costs drove up electricity prices, pushing consumers to install rooftop solar panels. As demand for power drops and gas supply surges, the country is deferring LNG shipments and trying to resell excess fuel. Experts said that although countries are signaling a willingness to import more U.S. LNG, they’re unlikely to import enough to have a meaningful impact on U.S. trade deficits. South Korea would need to import 121 million metric tons of LNG in a year - 50% more than the total amount of LNG the U.S. exported globally last year and triple what South Korea imported. Vietnam - with a trade surplus with the U.S. twice the size of Korea’s - would need to import 181 million metric tons annually, more than double what the U.S. exported last year. A core concern is over the long-term stability of the U.S. as a trading partner, said Overland, head of the Center for Energy Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. The U.S. is not a very predictable entity - to rely on energy from there is a very risky proposition, he said. LNG only contributes to energy security when it’s available and affordable. This was the concern during the recent potential disruptions to fuel shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and earlier during the war in Ukraine, when LNG cargoes originally destined for Asia were rerouted to Europe. Despite having contracts, Asian countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were outbid by European buyers. Events in Europe, which can seem very far away, can have an impact on availability and prices in Asia. Asian countries can improve their energy security and make progress toward cutting carbon emissions by building more renewable energy. There is vast room for that given that only about 1% of Southeast Asia’s solar and wind potential is being used. (Source: Asahí Shímbun - Japan / The Associated Press - U.S.)

North America

United States
July 18, 2025  Under Trump, the administration has increasingly moved away from the promotion of democracy and human rights, largely seeing it as interference in another country's affairs. Itt has moved to reshape the State Department's human rights bureau, which it said had become a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against 'anti-woke' leaders. Trump officials have repeatedly weighed in on European politics to denounce what they see as suppression of right-wing leaders, including in Romania, Germany and France, accusing European authorities of censoring views such as criticism of immigration in the name of countering disinformation. Now, US Secretary of State Rubio instructed US diplomats worldwide not to comment on the fairness or integrity of elections conducted by foreign countries, according to an internal note seen by Reuters yesterday. "When it is appropriate to comment on a foreign election, our message should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests," said the cable. A State Department spokesperson said that this approach was consistent with the administration's emphasis on "national sovereignty". (Source: PIME)

18 July 2025  Some Trump supporters have demanded the release of more information on Epstein, causing a rare fracture in his base of support. Trump has pushed back, calling the matter a hoax. Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006. 'Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Epstein, I have asked attorney-general Bondi to produce any and all pertinent grand jury testimony, subject to court approval. This scam, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now! Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. (Source: TimesLive - South Africa / Reuters - United Kingdom)

18.07.2025  Attorney General Bondi in February said during a Fox News interview that the list of Epstein's clients was "sitting on my desk right now to review," a statement at stark odds with the Justice Department's announcement this month that no such document exists. Speculation has mounted that it includes the names of prominent members of the rich and powerful. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier yesterday that a racy letter from Trump is one of dozens of notes included in an album that was created to celebrate Epstein's 50th birthday. The leather-bound memento was compiled by Epstein's long-time aide and convicted child sex trafficker Maxwell in 2003, according to the Journal. It also included letters from former Victoria's Secret CEO Wexner and pro-Israel attorney Dershowitz. The lurid nature of Trump's purported letter is akin to several others in the collection that was reviewed by the Journal. It consists of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman that appears hand-drawn with the name "Donald" written below her waist, "mimicking pubic hair," the newspaper reported. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

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Europe

Germany
17.07.2025  Through a two-year collaboration between Berlin's Health Ministry, the German military, and 12 of the capital's medical facilities, German authorities have developed a comprehensive contingency plan for hospitals in Berlin ’to prepare for potential war scenarios’. The contingency planning addresses several critical scenarios, including ’military attacks on the metropolitan area’, hybrid threats, natural disasters and infrastructure collapse. Key questions addressed in the framework include maintaining critical hospital services during conflicts, distributing patients during emergencies, and ensuring adequate emergency power, medical supplies, and medications. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Commission
17.07.2025  The European Commission today said that it has referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union for refusing to comply with a key EU ruling on investor-state arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
8:29 ET, Jul 17 2025  Soldiers were killed ‘in mass poisoning by laced bottles of water, convulsing and moaning in agony and slipping into unconsciousness as medics scramble to help. Russian war channels suspect it was part of a Ukrainian sabotage operation. At least four soldiers were said to have died in excruciating pain after drinking from bottles labelled "Our Water", allegedly supplied to the front line in a humanitarian consignment. Several others are said to be in critical condition. The deadly incident unfolded in the Panteleimonivka area of Donetsk. The water reportedly came from Simferopol and was distributed under the guise of aid. As poisoned soldiers writhed on one front, an aerial onslaught across Ukraine was striking shopping centres, apartment blocks, and industrial targets. In the town of Dobropillia, a 500kg glide bomb dropped by Russian forces ripped through a busy shopping centre, killing two and wounding at least 25. At least 54 shops and 13 residential buildings were hit. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

Ukraine
July 17, 2025  Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 Ukraine has experienced 2000 total attacks on health care. 285 health workers were killed and 245 health workers injured. 1059 attacks damaged or destroyed hospitals and clinics. The new data is from a coalition of global and Ukrainian organizations. The dataset uses the definitions of attacks on health care as defined by the World Health Organization and used by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. (Source: Physicians for Human Rights - a New York-based advocacy organization, U.S.)

United Kingdom
17.07.2025  At a ceremony in central London, the UK and Germany today signed a Friendship and Cooperation Treaty aimed at strengthening bilateral ties across defense, foreign policy, economic cooperation, and migration. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

Gaza
17.07.2025  Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni today slammed Israel's deadly attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza. Two women were killed in the attack. The attacks against the civilian population that Israel has been carrying out for months are unacceptable, Meloni wrote on X.  (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Central America

Panama
Jul 17, 2025 at 3:21 AM EDT  The United States has trained for the defense of the Panama Canal during a joint exercise with the Central American country amid concerns over China's growing presence in the region. U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 25th Infantry Division arrived in Panama to advance joint security efforts between the two nations, including site surveys for potential future training locations The exercise, code-named PANAMAX-Alpha Phase I and scheduled from July 13 to 18, The Joint Task Force-Bravo of the U.S. Southern Command deployed three helicopters - two UH-60 Black Hawk and one CH-47 Chinook aircraft - for the exercise, which took place at three air bases in Panama. The Southern Command is one of the Pentagon's combatant commands, responsible for "providing contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation" within its area of responsibility - a region that includes Central America, South America and the Caribbean. A U.S. naval hospital ship, USNS Comfort, has been conducting a medical mission known as Continuing Promise 2025 iacross Central and South America since May 30. (Source: Newsweek - U.S.)

North America

United States
July 17, 2025, 3:30 PM GMT+2  New U. S. assessment finds American strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites. The two others were not as badly damaged and may have been degraded only to a point where nuclear enrichment could resume in the next several months if Iran wants it to. The assessment was briefed to some U.S. lawmakers, Defense Department officials and allied countries in recent days. As early as last fall and into this spring, U.S. Central Command had developed a much more comprehensive plan to strike Iran that would have involved hitting three additional sites in an operation that would have stretched for several weeks instead of a single night. Army Gen. Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, had developed the plan to go all-in on striking Iran. That option was designed to truly decimate Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Under the plan, the United States would have hit six sites repeatedly to inflict the kind of damage necessary to completely end the program. The plan would also have involved targeting more of Iran’s air defense and ballistic missile capabilities. Planners projected it could result in a high number of Iranian casualties. U.S. officials expected that if that were to take place, Iran would target American positions, for example in Iraq and Syria. Some Trump administration officials believed a deeper offensive option against Iran was a viable policy. Trump was briefed on the so-called all-in plan, but it was rejected ultimately because it would have required a sustained period of conflict. It was at odds with his foreign policy ’instincts’ to extract the United States from conflicts abroad, not dig deeper into them, as well as the possibility of a high number of casualties on both sides. As more intelligence comes in, the United States could find itself back in a conflict there. Assessments of Iran’s nuclear program after the U.S. strikes are expected to change over time. The U.S. strikes targeted three enrichment sites in Iran: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. U.S. officials ’believe’ the attack on Fordo, which has long been viewed as a critical component of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, was successful in setting back Iranian enrichment capabilities at that site by as much as two years. The United States hit surface targets at Isfahan with Tomahawk missiles and did not drop GBU-57s there, but it did use them at Natanz. In late June CIA Director Ratcliffe said the only metal conversion facility at Natanz, required for nuclear enrichment, was destroyed to the point that it would take years to rebuild. Ratcliffe also said that the intelligence community believes the strikes buried the vast majority of enriched uranium at Isfahan and Fordo and that thus it would be extremely difficult for the Iranians to extract it to resume enrichment. The United States has not seen indications that Iran is trying to dig out the facilities. The official also said Israel believes Iran’s nuclear program has been set back by up to two years. From their point of view, the regime in Tehran now faces a credible threat of more airstrikes if Israel and the United States believe it is trying to revive clandestine nuclear work. Iran’s air defenses have been largely destroyed, making it all but impossible for Iran to defend against further strikes on facilities in the future. Asked late last month whether he would consider bombing Iran again if intelligence reports concluded Iran can enrich uranium at a level that concerns him, Trump said: ’Sure. Without question. Absolutely.’ (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

(Thursday), July 17, 2025  Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. It was Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Trump. The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy - like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair. The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret.” When he turned 50, Epstein was already wealthy from managing Wexner’s fortune and was socializing with Trump, Clinton and other powerful people at his Manhattan townhouse, Palm Beach, Fla., home and private Caribbean island. Epstein and Trump spent time together in the 1990s and early 2000s and were photographed at social events, including with Maxwell and Melania. A 1992 tape from the NBC archives shows Trump partying with Epstein at his Mar-a-Lago estate; Trump is seen pulling a woman toward him and patting her behind. A 2002 New York magazine profile of Epstein quoted Trump. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump said. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it - Jeffrey enjoys his social life.' Trump, along with others including Clinton, also appeared several times on flight logs for Epstein’s private jet. Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 and he was arrested that year. Trump has said their friendship ended before Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, served time in a Florida jail and registered as a sex offender. In 2019, the FBI confiscated evidence from Epstein’s properties in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York. When Epstein was arrested again in 2019, Trump said he hadn’t talked to Epstein for about 15 years. Epstein died in 2019 in jail after he was arrested a second time and charged with sex trafficking conspiracy. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein’s sex-trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Allegations that bureaucrats covered up Epstein’s connections with participants in his trafficking scheme were fanned by people now in top roles in the Trump administration, including FBI Director Patel and his deputy, Bongino. in June Musk, amid a public feud with Trump, alleged that the FBI was withholding documents from the Epstein case because Trump was in the files. On July 8, Trump criticized a reporter for asking about Epstein. “Are people still talking about this guy, this creep?” Trump said. “Do you want to waste the time?” Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.” Earlier Tuesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he believed some Epstein files were 'made up' by former Presidents Obama and Biden and former FBI Director Comey. (Source: The Wall Street Journal - U.S.)

17 July 2025  The Department of Justice (DoJ) and the FBI published almost 11 hours of footage amid calls for greater transparency regarding the Epstein case, which has been the subject of conspiracy theories for years. It went on to say: "After a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019. Epstein was awaiting trial for child sex trafficking charges. Two minutes and 53 seconds of footage showing the outside of Epstein's prison cell before his death appears to have been removed from the video. There are theories that he was killed to keep him from talking. Analysis of the metadata of the video by Wired has revealed that the 'full raw footage' of the evening was edited and saved repeatedly on May 23, 2025. The video has a gap in the footage between 11:58:58pm and 12:00:00am that Attorney General Bondi has attributed to a nightly system reset. The cut to the footage takes place milliseconds before the one-minute nightly reset gap. The video was edited and saved multiple times over a period of more than three and a half hours before it was exported and uploaded to the DoJ's website on July 14. In a memo announcing its publication, the DoJ said that edits had been made to increase the brightness and contrast for greater clarity. (Source: LBC – United Kingdom)

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Europe

Greece
16 July 2025  Greek PM Mitsotakis ‘sidesteps criminal probe’ in alleged €2.5B farm fraud. Greek farmers announced they would protest against what happened and demanded to receive the funds they claimed they were entitled to. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

The Netherlands
16th July 2025  Princess Amalia of the Netherlands officially graduated from the University of Amsterdam. The Princess of Orange is graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics from the University of Amsterdam, a three year degree. Her thesis topic: AI law in Europe. It has been a busy few months for the Dutch heir as she completed her degree and carried out royal duties. She is continuing on at UvA for another bachelor’s degree, this time in law. And in addition to her second degree, she will be completing her military reservist training over the next two years at Defensity College. (Source: Royal Central – United Kingdom)

European Commission
July16, 2025  The Commission has proposed a central EU budget of €1.816 trillion for the seven-year period from 2028. It claimed that the budget will amount to €2 trillion because it’s factoring in a rise in inflation. ’The debt repayments will service the EU’s loans on capital markets and will not be spent on priorities such as agriculture or defense. The European Parliament and national capitals must approve the final sum. Many governments are likely to push for a smaller budget, or one with different priorities, than the Commission is proposing. By contrast, much of the Parliament wants the EU to have ’greater firepower’. The overall €1.816 trillion figure is expressed in 2025 prices and compares with a budget of €1.2 trillion between 2021 and 2027, also in current prices.  The Commission would allocate €865 billion to National and Regional Plans, which might include regional policy and the Common Agricultural Policy, which currently make up two-thirds of the EU budget. Farmers’ subsidies and payments to poorer regions will make up a significantly lower share of total spending in the next years to come. The Commission would allocate €410 billion to the European competitiveness Fund, €200 billion to Global Europe, which includes development aid and assistance to neighboring countries, and €292 billion to other programs including nuclear decommissioning and justice and €49 billion for the Erasmus+ study exchange program. Three new taxes are targeting electric waste, tobacco products and companies in the EU to repay the post-Covid debt, which is estimated to cost €25 to €30 billion per year. A carbon border tax and a take share of the revenues generated by the emissions trading scheme (ETS) are expected to add up to €58 billion per year. Der Leyen’s ’big idea’ is to steer funding away from how EU money has traditionally been spent - on agriculture and regional development - toward defense and innovation. The EU’s 27 governments and the Parliament have to unanimously approve the plan. Alongside Germany’s reservations, France is also unwilling to increase its contributions, squeezed as it is by a soaring deficit and ballooning debt. (Source: Politico – U.S.)

European Union
16.07.2025  Farmers protest in Brussels over possible agricultural subsidy cuts in EU budget. Carrying banners reading "Don't abandon agriculture" and waving national and agricultural union flags, around 200 farmers from various EU countries gathered in front of the European Parliament in Brussels to protest possible cuts to agricultural subsidies in the EU's new long-term budget. The demonstration, organized by farmer unions, took place as the European Commission met to finalize the draft of the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework expected to be unveiled today. Currently, about one-third of the EU budget goes to agricultural subsidies. Farmers worry that in the new budget, the commission may merge key funding streams, potentially leading to reduced support for farming. The protesters marched to the European Commission headquarters. In recent years, farmer protests across Europe have been fueled by environmental regulations, high fuel and fertilizer costs, and competition from cheaper imports, particularly from Ukraine. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
16.07.2025  Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal welcomed today the European Commission’s new €2 trillion ($2.3 trillion) budget proposal for 2028 - 2034, praising the inclusion of €100 billion for Ukraine’s recovery, resilience and EU membership efforts, highlighting the dedicated 'military support Ukraine would receive through the European Peace Facility'. The plan includes €200 billion for external action, half of which is earmarked for Ukraine. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

Iran
July 16, 2025  A foreign tanker suspected of smuggling two million litres of fuel has been seized by Iran in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian media reported today. Mehr did not provide any further information on the ship such as its owner or nationality. (Source: The National News - United Arab Emirates)

Wednesday 16 Jul 2025  Initial signs that Iran and the US would resume nuclear talks this week have dissipated, raising fears of a re-ignited military conflict. Intentional leaks and rumours are keeping the situation tense. News reports about regional parties concerned about renewed Israeli attacks on Iran, along with resurfacing Iranian threats to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz are keeping everybody on their toes. Yet, as the traditional wisdom goes: there is no endless war and military conflicts usually lead to negotiations towards a political settlement. Some analysts argue that Netanyahu wanted to divert Trump’s attention to other paths in the region that would weaken Iran further before sitting at the negotiating table. Netanyahu is asking for more strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. He is also working on speeding up an agreement with the new Syrian regime. Meanwhile, as Trump pushes for ending war on Gaza, Israel is re-igniting its war on Lebanon. As many in Israel and the West note, Netanyahu needs to keep Israel at war to stay safely in power till October next year, thus avoiding any sentences in the trials he is facing for corruption and other charges. Whether Trump is willing to support Netanyahu in that personal endeavour is not clear. (Source: Al Ahram - Egypt)

Iraq
16.07.2025  Three oil fields in northern Iraq were struck by bomb-laden drones early today, causing significant damage to infrastructure but no casualties, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) said. wo explosive drones struck the Peshkhabur oil field between 6.00 am and 6.15 am local time (0300-0315GMT), followed by a third drone hitting the Tawke site around 7.00 am (0400 GMT). (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Indonesia
Wednesday 16 July 2025  US president announces Indonesia to pay 19% tariffs, Jakarta will purchase 50 Boeing jets along with $15bn in US energy products and $4.5bn in agricultural goods as part of new trade deal. Indonesia is not a top US trade partner – just under $40bn in 2024 – trade between the two countries has been growing. US exports to Indonesia grew by 3.7 per cent last year, while imports increased by 4.8 per cent, resulting in a goods trade deficit of nearly $18bn. (Source: The Independent - United kIngdom)

Japan
Jul 15, 2025  Plenty of contentious issues loom ahead of Sunday’s elections in Japan: A shrinking economy, falling real wages and no trade deal to shield against U.S. President Trump’s tariffs. But the narrative has instead been dominated by a fringe group and its chatter about the nation’s growing cohort of foreign residents. Japan’s right-wing fringe is no MAGA or reform movement - Sanseito’s rise shows a protest vote, not a populist wave. A spike in the polls for the right-wing Sanseito has alarmed mainstream parties and shifted the debate to its anti-immigration policies. Leader Sohei denounces globalism and wants fewer overseas workers. The party’s "Japanese First” slogan intentionally riffs on Trump. But what has really captured attention are the opinion surveys for Sunday's Upper House vote, where Sanseito has polled as high as second place. There are areas of concern, from how easy it is for nonresidents to purchase property to overly accommodative scholarship programs, where Japanese might feel hard done by. The electorate is unlikely to put their faith in a party whose leader opposes vaccinations and advances crackpot views such as cancer being invented after World War II or wheat being pushed on Japan by the U.S. to destroy the country’s food culture. Sanseito’s ideas make for good headlines and will no doubt find some backing. But in all likelihood 'it will stay on the fringes, where it belongs'. (Source: The Japan Times)
by Reidy, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the Koreas.

Syria
Jul 16, 2025 6:57 PM CET  Israel launched a series of airstrikes on central Damascus early today, targeting what it called key Syrian military infrastructure, including the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters and a facility near the presidential palace. 'The IDF will continue to operate forcefully in Suwayda to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their complete withdrawal,' Israel’s Defense Minister Katz warned before the strikes.  Clashes erupted over the weekend between Druze militias and local Bedouin forces. Almost 250 people have been killed in the violence since Sunday. There are an estimated 700,000 Druze living in Syria, with a further 300,000 in Lebanon and 140,000 in Israel. U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Barrack today called for an immediate ceasefire in Suwayda and urged all parties to de-escalate. (Source: Time - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
22:33 BST, 16 July 2025  The US Geological Survey (USGS) detected major 7.5 magnitude earthquake around 4:30pm ET, hitting in the Pacific Ocean just south of the Alaska Peninsula, near the Shumagin Islands, southeast of Sand Point. Tsunami could hit coastal areas of southwestern Alaska. This region is home to an around 17,000 people who were alert through the sound of blaring sirens blaring. (Source: Daily Mail – United Kingdom)

July 16th, 2025 4:39  Desperate Deep State/MSM pushes Epstein Hoax in attempt to fracture & bring down the Trump Administration. "The Radical Left Democrats have hit pay dirt, again! Just like with the fake and fully discredited Steele Dossier, the lying 51 ‘Intelligence’ Agents, the Laptop from Hell, which the Dems swore had come from Russia (No, it came from Hunter’s bathroom!), and even the Russia, Russia, Russia Scam itself, a totally fake and made up story used in order to hide Crooked Hillary’s big loss in the 2016 Presidential Election, these Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at – It’s all they have – They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates. Also, unlike Republicans, they stick together like glue. Their new scam is what we will forever call the Epstein Hoax, and my past supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Epstein Hoax. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter. Make America Great Again!, Trump wrote on Truth Social Today, at 8:43 AM. The message comes after dozens of prominent MAGA political commentators recently spoke out against the Trump DOJ’s botched release of the Epstein files, including an edited video that was supposed to prove Epstein killed himself. Yesterday, President Trump claimed only bad people and fake news care about the deceased pedophile’s child sex trafficking ring. The bad people are pedophiles! The American people want the intelligence agency pedophile blackmail network exposed and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. (Source: Infowars – U.S.)

Globalization

16.07.2025  In the relatively near future, we may have about 15 nuclear powers (instead of 9, as now). However, there is no reason to think that such a development of events will radically change the foundations of international politics or have catastrophic consequences for the world. 'The likely consequences of a clash between India and Pakistan, Iran or Israel will be extremely dramatic for their populations. However, they do not threaten the survival of man as a species and the cessation of civilised life on Earth. Millions, perhaps tens of millions, will die, but the catastrophe will still be comparatively local in nature. And the nuclear superpowers will act as peacekeepers, forcing the conflicting parties to compromise. Such a peace, of course, does not look like the most desirable option for the development of international politics. However, it is precisely this that now seems the most probable and, most likely, the lesser evil compared to the nightmare that a direct clash between Moscow and Washington threatens us with'.  (Source: Valdai Discussion Club - Russia)
by Bordachev.

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Europe

Germany
15.07.2025 The fact that the Basic Law binds the Federal Republic of Germany to the international community and commits German state authority to international cooperation must also be taken into consideration, the judges said in their ruling. They added: "It is a constitutionally enshrined goal to guarantee the Federal Republic of Germany's capacity to act and form coalitions in the context of foreign policy and to ensure its participation in international cooperation." The judges further claimed that Germany’s capacity to form coalitions is a constitutional interest that must also be taken into account when specifying extraterritorial duties of protection. The case stems from a 2012 US drone attack in the Yemeni village of Khashamer that killed two members of the Jaber family. The family filed a lawsuit against the German government with the Cologne Administrative Court in 2014, demanding Germany stop allowing Ramstein to be used for US drone attacks that violate international law. While the Munster Higher Administrative Court ruled in a 2019 appeal that Germany has a constitutional duty to protect those potentially affected by US drone missions conducted via Ramstein, the Federal Administrative Court overturned this decision in 2020. The Jaber family subsequently filed a constitutional complaint in 2021. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

July 15, 2025  In response to a complaint from two Yemeni nationals, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled today that Germany is not violating international law by allowing the U.S. to partly operate drones from its territory. The complainants argued the German government shared responsibility for attack by hosting infrastructure for the U.S. military and called on Germany to prevent American drone attacks. They also insisted that Germany violated Article 2 of its constitution, which guarantees the inviolable right to life and physical integrity. According to the victims’ lawyers, this constitutional duty of protection also applied to individuals abroad. Judges said that Germany did not bear responsibility for American military action routed through satellite infrastructure based at the Ramstein Air Base, in Rhineland-Palatinate, southwestern Germany. The trial marked another chapter in a long-running debate about whether Germany is responsible for U.S. military action run from Ramstein. In 2010, Berlin didn't object after the U.S. military informed the German government of its plans to install a satellite relay station on air base grounds in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Even though attack drones are controlled from inside the United States, the command signals are routed through the satellite infrastructure based in Germany. (Source: Politico - based in U.S., owned by a German company)

European Commission
(15 July 2025)  The European Union has finalised a second list of countermeasures to target US goods worth €72 billion, including Boeing aircraft and bourbon if it decides to retaliate as transatlantic trade tensions intensify. The additional duties would also be slapped on machinery products, chemicals and plastics, medical devices, electrical equipment, wines and other agricultural goods, according to a 206-page list prepared by the European Commission. The EU’s new list of targeted US products includes more than €65 billion of industrial goods, including mostly aircraft (nearly €11 billion), machinery (more than €9.4 billion) and cars (nearly €8 billion). More than €6 billion of US goods hit are agrifood products, mostly fruits and vegetables (nearly €2 billion) and alcoholic drinks (€1.2 billion). The broad package also includes precision equipment and instruments (nearly €5 billion), toys and hobby equipment (more than €500 million), sports guns (nearly €300 million) or musical instruments (around €200 million). 'Imported military products will not be subject to the duties.' (Source: Luxembourg Times)

European Parliament
July 15, 2025  Slovakia risks becoming the next Hungary, EU lawmakers 'fear'. Wilmés, the former Belgian prime minister who now chairs the Parliament’s watchdog for rule of law and democracy, led a group to Slovakia from June 1-3. /Photo/ (Source: PoliticoU.S.)

Eurasia

15 July 2025 6:00am BST  Two sworn enemies are now aligned against Moscow. Armenia aligns with Azerbaijan and threaten Russia’s last big card in the Caucasus. The collapse of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan began with the arrest of seven nationals from the former Soviet republic last month in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. They were held as part of an investigation by Moscow into mafia-style killings dating back 25 years. Within days, two suspects – both ethnic Azerbaijanis – died in custody. Others appeared in court visibly bruised and beaten. The Azerbaijani authorities are using the situation to bolster their position at home and abroad by escalating tensions with Moscow. In Azerbaijan Russian cultural events were cancelled, the Baku bureau of the Kremlin-owned Sputnik news agency was raided, a group of Russian IT workers was arrested and accused of drug-trafficking and cybercrime. Then came the threat, on Russian state TV, that Baku could be taken in three days, echoing rhetoric used before the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The shift was underlined by a publicised call between Mr Aliyev and Zelensky, in which they discussed forming closer ties. Armenia, after fighting a series of brutal wars with Azerbaijan over 30 years, is aligning with its old enemy ’to push Putin out of the South Caucasus’. On July 10, Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, met Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister of Armenia. Their direct talks focused on the Zangezur Corridor, a proposed route linking Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave via southern Armenia. The corridor would fulfil a pan-Turkic dream of physically connecting Azerbaijan with Turkey and would form part of the “Middle Corridor” trade route from China and Central Asia to Europe. Under the 2020 ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the route was to be monitored by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). It allows Russia to control trade routes and leverage relationships with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Now Mr Aliyev is wanting to cut Moscow out of the deal and have it fully under Azerbaijani control. The fallout threatens Russia’s prized North-South Corridor – a trade route linking Moscow to Iran and India that runs through Azerbaijan. Losing access to the corridor could deliver a real economic blow, especially as Russia seeks ways to get around Western sanctions. Mr Pashinyan visited Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, in Istanbul last month, to discuss the Zangezur Corridor. Armenia and Turkey have no formal diplomatic ties. Mr Pashinyan has one of the lowest approval ratings of any leader in the world. Like Azerbaijan’s, Armenia’s ties with Moscow have frayed – especially since 2023, when Russian peacekeepers largely stood aside during Baku’s lightning offensive to retake the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nearly the entire Armenian population fled, and Azerbaijan was accused of ethnic cleansing. Since then Mr Pashinyan has leaned towards the West and sought reconciliation with Baku, believing that Armenia’s long-term future is threatened if it maintains hostile relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey. The West has floated the idea of putting the route under neutral international control, such as a Swiss or American firm, effectively excluding Russia altogether. The Kremlin, meanwhile, is trying to reframe the standoff as a Western plot. “The scriptwriter and conductor of disagreements with Azerbaijan is located outside the post-Soviet space,” said Karasin, chairman of Russia’s international affairs committee. Dzhabarov, a Russian senator and former KGB officer, went further by accusing MI6 and Turkey of stirring unrest. For now, Russia will continue blaming the West while working behind the scenes to try to salvage its relationships. (Source: The Telegraph – United Kingdom)

Asia

Israel
7:07 PM CEST, July 15, 2025  An Israeli ultra-Orthodox party that has been a key governing partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early today it was leaving the coalition government. United Torah Judaism’s two factions said they were leaving the government because of disagreements over a proposed law that would end broad exemptions for religious students from enlistment into the military. The ultra-Orthodox say their men are serving the country by studying sacred Jewish texts and preserving centuries’ old tradition. They fear that mandatory enlistment will dilute adherents’ connection to the faith. But a court last year ruled Netanyahu’s government must enlist the ultra-Orthodox so long as there is no new law codifying the exemptions. Without UTJ, the coalition holds just 61 out of parliament’s 120 seats. Elections are currently scheduled for October 2026. Since the start of the war in Gaza, demand for military manpower has grown and 'hundreds of soldiers have been killed'. (Source: AP - U.S.)

Japan
July 15, 2025  Japanese media revealed on July 6 that Japan plans to transfer its Abukuma-class destroyer escorts - six 30-year-old warships - to the Philippines, potentially marking the first such export in modern Japanese history. (Source: Forecast International’s Defense & Security Monitor - U.S.)

Syria
July 15, 2025 | 11:01  Israel strikes military tanks in Syria, where government forces clash with Druze militias. "We will not allow harm to the Druze in Syria,” Israeli Defence Minister Katz said in a statement. Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. The Druze developed their own militias during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war, during which they sometimes faced attacks by the islamic state group and other militant groups. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. On several occasions, Druze groups have clashed with security forces from the new government or allied factions. In May, dozens were killed in fighting between pro-government gunmen and Druze fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana. In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces. Israel was saying it does not want Islamic militants near its borders. Syria's Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people have died and nearly 100 others have been injured, including 14 members of the security forces. (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates / Associated Press - U.S.)

North America

United States
7/15/2025  Trump admitted during a press conference yesterday that it was his wife who played a key role in pointing out the duplicity of the Russian president. “I go home, I tell the first lady: I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “She said: Really? Another city was just hit.’ He added: “We thought we had a deal numerous times. I get home, I’d say, ‘First Lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we’re finished.’ And then I’d turn on the television or she’ll say to me one time, ‘Well that’s strange because they just bombed a nursing home.’’ Melania being the one to help prevent a complete abandonment of Ukraine from this admin is not what I expected but also tracks exactly with how Trump makes decisions, quipped an user, referring to an oft-cited adage on social media that Trump tends ’to parrot’ the opinions of the last person who spoke to him. Following the latest setback with Putin, Trump reportedly asked Zelensky if his country’s military was able to hit Moscow and St. Petersburg with missiles in order to make Russia feel the pain. The president also threatened Russia with severe tariffs if Putin does not agree to a ceasefire within 50 days. (Source: MSN / The Daily Beast = U.S.)

15 July 2025  Weapons for some, tariffs for others. As part of a multi-billion-dollar agreement ’between NATO and the United States’, Ukraine is set to receive a large amount of American military equipment paid for by several European countries in the Atlantic alliance. The US President has also announced the introduction of 100 percent tariffs against Russia's economic partners if a peace agreement is not reached within 50 days. However, with 50 days to prepare for sanctions, some believe that the Kremlin is getting off lightly. Others question whether such tariffs can even be enforced: they would inevitably damage diplomatic relations between the United States and countries like China, India and Turkey, which buy their oil from Russia. /Cartoon/ (Source: Voxeurop - headquarters in Paris, France)

July 15, 2025 / 10:36 AM EDT  Trump threatens countries that do business with Russia with 100% tariffs. Here's who it could impact. After Mr. Trump warned of the possible 100% secondary tariffs, Russia's stock market rose 2.7%, and the value of the Russian rouble actually strengthened relative to the dollar. (Source: CBS News - U.S.)

Tuesday 15 July 2025 15:28 BST  'Trump has privately discussed striking Moscow with Zelensky', as he considers whether to send long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, according to reports. In a recent phone call, Mr Trump asked him why he had not struck Moscow to ramp up the pressure on the Kremlin. 'We can, if you give us the weapons,' Mr Zelensky responded, a source told the The Washington Post. 'The US president has privately encouraged Kyiv to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, the Financial Times reported. He is considering sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, one of the weapons used by the US in its dramatic strikes on Iran last month, according to the Post'. Mr Trump has committed billions of dollars of American weapons to Ukraine, a significant boost to Ukraine’s war effort and the relationship between Kyiv and Washington. The medium-to-long-range cruise missiles could reach Moscow - but they are not currently on the list of supplies the US is due to send. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

8:30 am, July 15, 2025  The U.S. Senate will put off advancing a bill to tighten sanctions against Russia and its trading partners after President Trump signaled that he is prepared to take action unilaterally, Senate Majority Leader Thune said yesterday. The bipartisan sanctions bill, introduced by Republican Senator Graham and Democratic Senator Blumenthal, calls for 500-percent tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian oil, natural gas, or uranium - including China, Brazil, and India. The bill has the support of 85 senators. Earlier, Trump delivered his promised statement on Russia, declaring that if no ceasefire agreement is reached in Ukraine within 50 days, the United States will impose 100-percent tariffs on imports from Russia and its trading partners. He also announced that 'the United States and the European Union had reached an agreement to supply arms to Kyiv, with Europe covering the costs'. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

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Europe

United Kingdom
16 July 2025  Based in a Brutalist 1960s office block near London’s Waterloo station, Zinc Network has managed to stay largely out of the public eye. In recent years the company has recruited hundreds of internet celebrities for various clients, particularly in central and eastern Europe, a key battleground in the information war with Russia. Young influencers are often grateful for the funding and rarely question who the funder is. They just take money and sell their followership to a paying client. The influencers are instructed to sign non-disclosure agreements prior to being told about Foreign Office involvement. In 2022, Zinc signed a £9,450,000 contract with the Foreign Office, which is due to end in December this year. The documents show that Zinc was contracted to help counter disinformation in 22 countries across Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, and in the Baltics. Influencers’ videos for the Foreign Office are devised with direct input and oversight from Zinc Network staff and ensured that every video “feels authentic', are ultimately sent to government officials for final approval before being posted online. Zinc has also conducted similar projects for other major clients. They include working with USAID in the South Caucasus to 'build a new brand identity' that expresses 'physical and emotional solidarity' with people, in a bid to make them 'more resilient to Russian hostile influence'. The work has included a campaign to mobilise young voters in the 2023 Slovakian elections. That election was ultimately won by Robert Fico’s left-wing nationalist Smer party, which is seen as being pro-Russian and which has been “dependent on older voters” – compared to the younger, pro-Europe Progressive Slovakia party. One former employee said that, by targeting younger voters, Zinc Network’s campaign amounted to 'interference in a sovereign country’s internal affairs'. The source said that the company’s executives “see the world through their British eyes”, adding: 'It looked like dictating the foreign will.' (Source: Declassified UK - United Kingdom)
by Williams, the Declassified UK's chief investigator. His book, ‘Parliament Ltd’, exposed widespread corruption in British politics and sparked multiple inquiries by Westminster authorities.

Asia

Turkey
16 Jul 2025  Fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party have been laying down their arms in ceremonies conducted within the framework of Turkish-Kurdish peace negotiations. The PKK members’ symbolic gesture received a very positive response from Ankara. The doors to a great, strong Turkey -  Century of Turkey  -  have been fully opened, Turkish President Erdogan said during a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on 12 July, describing the disarmament ceremony as a victory for Turkey’s 86 million citizens, Turks, Kurds and Arabs. Urging the public to have confidence in the government that is working to secure a better future, he said that “we will facilitate the process with care and urgency, without harming anyone, and closely monitor the laying down of weapons.” Any peace process will have to navigate through obstacles posed by the hardline factions on both sides, whether the Kurdish militants or the far right Turkish ethnonationalists. Clarity in the form of a concrete vision or roadmap so far, remains lacking. (Source: Al Ahram - Egypt)