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Austria
13/02/2025 The leader of the ’far-right’ Freedom Party (FPÖ), Kickl, has called for "quick new elections" after coalition talks with his party and the centre-right People's Party (ÖVP) collapsed yesterday. Both parties are unable to agree which would have control of the country's interior ministry. Kickl came first in elections held in September with 28% of the vote. Austria's other parties banded together in order to keep him and his party out of power. When those talks failed, Kickl was invited to hold coalition talks with the ÖVP. Austria's President der Bellen is set to hold talks with the leaders of all parties over today and tomorrow, to explore options for what a new government could look like. In a statement yesterday, he said there would be four possible options for Austria: fresh elections, a minority government, a government of non-elected experts or a new coalition comprised of several parties. Political scientist Filzmaier called the breakdown of negotiations a "bizarre spectacle on the open stage." (Source: Euronews - headquarters Lyon, France)
France
February 13, 2025 Twelve people were injured after man throws grenade into a bar in Grenoble in the Olympic Village neighborhood, after 8 pm yesterday. At least two people were left in critical condition after the grenade exploded. Investigators are looking at a possible connection to drug trafficking and believed it was an act of extreme violence, possibly linked to 'a settling of scores.' (Source: Le Monde „with AFP” = France)
Germany
(13 February 2025) A 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker drove a car into a rally during a strike by public sector workers in Munich today, injuring at least 30 people. The driver of the Mini Cooper accelerated before hitting the crowd. Something must change in Germany, Bavaria state premier Söder told. (Source: BBC News – United Kingdom)
Russia
2/13/2025 U.S. President Trump was offering unprecedented concessions to Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine yesterday - seemingly without getting anything in return. Before the formal peace talks with Russian President Putin even started, Trump and members of his administration dismissed the idea that Ukraine could reclaim its territories that Russia currently occupies, slammed the door shut for Kyiv’s hope of NATO membership, and refused to acknowledge Ukraine as an equal member in the peace process. Kremlin’s talking heads are surprised and amazed that the leader of ’the mightiest nation in the world is treating war criminal Putin as his equal’. Russian state TV and radio stations were full of elated propagandists, who grinned ear to ear. During yesterday’s broadcast of the state TV program 60 Minutes, host Skabeeva described the events as unthinkable and unimaginable. She asked Antonov, the network’s correspondent in Europe, who said that the era of American dominance had ended and surmised that Europe wouldn’t be able to compete with the volume of military assistance America used to provide. Throughout his commentary, Skabeeva couldn’t hide her glee. Co-host of 60 Minutes Popov marveled at the fact that Trump is destroying Western alliances and ’sawing” Europe into pieces’. „The president of the United States called the president of Russia. That alone is already a major success!,” Director General of Mosfilm Shakhnazarov said, during yesterday’s broadcast of The Evening With Solovyov, Shakhnazarov explained. “It’s as if Julius Caesar himself telephoned a barbarian, a chieftain of some German tribe.” Solovyov rejoiced about an assertion by Defense Secretary Hegseth that the United States intended to disregard NATO’s Article 5 in the event Europe militarily engaged with Russia. Political scientist Mikheyev said: ’In this situation, we should make it clear for the Europeans: now we can really strike Brussels, London or Paris, because we can forget about Article 5. You can forget the notion that Americans would step in on your behalf.” Solovyov chimed in to add, ’I like the way you think.’ During today’s radio show, Full Contact, Solovyov approvingly read commentary by the network’s correspondent in the U.S., Bogdanov, who wrote, “During negotiations, the victors are the ones dictating conditions.” (Source: MSN / The Daily Beast = U.S.)
Ukraine
February 13, 2025 With President Trump again in office, changes in the position of the United States in terms of its support for Ukraine are possible, and the pressure on the Ukrainian leadership to accede to demands that it surrender land to the Russians will be intensified. Russia currently controls around 17.3 percent of Ukrainian territory. Putin has made clear that he seeks vast areas in Ukraine beyond the current front lines. He now lays claim to all of four regions in southern and eastern Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts) in addition to Crimea. In recent extensive remarks on the possibility of resolving the conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov made it absolutely clear that Russia requires the Ukrainians to surrender “Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossiya,” which not coincidentally includes these four oblasts. The war has severely degraded Ukraine’s industrial capacity and supporting infrastructure. Restoring Ukraine’s economy is the most crucial element in ensuring the country’s very existence as a viable and secure state going forward. How Ukraine’s economic landscape has been and will be changed? Four of the most economically important regions at the outbreak of the 2022 war (Kyiv city and Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv oblasts) have been among the most heavily attacked by Russian ground, air, and naval forces. The latest estimates available from the World Bank’s Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA3) showed that as of December 2023 the total damage was $486 billion, a figure that has certainly grown significantly since. After suffering a 30 percent decline in 2022, ’the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development estimate that the Ukrainian economy will actually grow in the low single digits in 2024 and 2025’. Exports, reorienting away from Russia and towards the European Union, have suffered major declines since March 2022. Seizure of key industrial plants and resource extraction sites that are place-bound are especially problematic. The closure of the coking coal mine at Pokrovsk and threats against the large lithium mine at Shevchenko, both in the Donetsk region, have negative effects on industries elsewhere in the country that depend on those inputs and on exports of the products thereof. Significant shifts in the spatial distribution of the Ukrainian economy towards central and western regions of the country, which was already underway before 2022, is a key element in the sustainment and even, in some cases, growth of production and provision of services nationally. Foreign direct investment likewise has been directed towards regions further removed from the war zone in the western and central regions. Regions in the central and western parts of the country have increased their share of national exports, another indication that the economy is moving westward. Certainly other key issues will be involved in peace talks, ’such as NATO membership’ and other security guarantees, repatriation of civilians and prisoners of war, and reparations. In November 2022 the U.N. General Assembly voted to hold Russia responsible for paying reparations to Ukraine for war damage. Requiring Moscow to actually pay from its assets abroad for the reconstruction of Ukraine’s economy will be very difficult over the near term and is likely a non-starter. Planning and executing economic development projects in the most favorably situated areas with a view to maximizing and securing future growth will, over the longer term, be Ukraine’s ultimate weapon in achieving its rightful place as a free and democratic country. (Source: War on the Rocks – U.S.)
by Clem, emeritus professor of geography and senior fellow in the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University; Herron, the Eberly Family distinguished professor of political science at West Virginia University; Hoheneder, a doctoral student in earth sciences at the University of New Hampshire; Pelchar, a doctoral student in political science and history at West Virginia University.
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