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Europe
Latvia
09th Mar 2025 'European countries should absolutely introduce conscription says Latvian president Rinkevics'. (Source: Joe - a website. Headquarters Dublin, Ireland)
Romania
(Monday), 10.03.2025 Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) on Sunday rejected the candidacy of independent politician Georgescu, a staunch critic of the West and NATO, for the coming presidential election on May 4. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Russia
09.03.2025 France will provide Ukraine with 195 million euros ($211 million) in military aid using the interest from frozen Russian assets, French Defense Minister Lecornu said. 'The new aid package will support the delivery of 155-mm artillery shells and AASM gliding bombs, which will be used by Ukrainian Mirage 2000 aircraft'. 'France is also expediting the transfer of older military equipment, including tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine'. The UK reached a similar agreement with Ukraine on March 1 'to provide a $2.84 billion loan for defense purchases, also backed by frozen Russian assets'. Western countries have frozen roughly $300 billion in Russian assets since the onset of the war. The majority of these funds remain inaccessible, with only about $3.2 billion annually available in interest to fund initiatives like the one announced by France. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Ukraine
March 10, 2025 Across much of Ukraine, beneath the surface lies the Ukrainian Shield, a massive, exposed crystalline rock formed over 2.5 billion years ago. It’s minerals have become central to global geopolitics. Ukraine has deposits containing 22 of 34 critical minerals identified by the European Union as essential for energy security. It has three major lithium deposits: Shevchenkivske in the Donetsk region, Polokhivske and Stankuvatske in the centrally located Kirovograd region. The Shevchenkivske lithium deposit contains high concentrations of spodumene - the primary lithium-bearing mineral used in battery production. Its reserve is estimated as 13.8 million tonnes of lithium ores. Extracting it requires an estimated US$10–20 million in exploration investment before mining can begin. The Polokhivske deposit at is approximately 270 thousand tons of lithium is considered one of the best lithium sites in Europe because of its favourable geological conditions, making extraction more economically viable. The war with Russia has disrupted mining operations and damaged infrastructure. The price of lithium has surged from US$1,500 per ton in the 1990s to around $20,000 per ton in recent years. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of electric vehicles is projected to exceed 125 million by 2030. A Tesla Model S battery requires approximately 63kg of high-purity lithium. Major automakers are investing billions in electric vehicle production - around 80% of the lithium produced globally is used for battery production. Demand is expected to increase nearly 40-fold by 2040. According to the US geological survey, Ukraine ranks globally as the third-largest producer of the mineral rutile – making up 15.7% of world’s total output. It is the sixth-largest producer of iron ore (3.2% of total output) and titanium (5.8%), as well as the seventh-largest producer of manganese ore (3.1%). Ukraine also has Europe’s largest uranium reserves, crucial for nuclear power and weapons and rare earth elements, including neodymium and dysprosium, which are needed for manufacturing everything from smartphones to wind turbines and electric motors. It is home to the world’s largest proven reserves of manganese ores. There’s approximately 2.4 billion tonnes of it concentrated primarily in the Nikopol Basin on the southern slope of the Ukrainian Shield. The strategic significance of Ukraine’s minerals has gained recognition in international diplomacy. A proposed minerals deal with the US would involve Ukraine contributing 50% of future proceeds from state-owned mineral resources, oil and gas and other extractable materials to a reconstruction investment fund for Ukraine’s post-war rebuilding. The fund would be jointly managed by Kyiv and Washington. Getting access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for military protection means the US can avoid having to buy these minerals from China. Ukraine’s mineral wealth positions it as a potential leader in the clean energy revolution. Even with a 50% allocation to the US, it would still be able to fund domestic infrastructure, industry growth, jobs, economic recovery. (Source: The Conversation, a network of media outlets online. Headquarters Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
by Raji, Research Fellow of Geology, University of Plymouth – United Kingdom)
(9 March 2025) Russia has already taken back more than two-thirds of its territory in Kursk initially seized by Ukraine. /Photo/ (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates)
Europe
10/03/2025 ’Faced with the United States' withdrawal’, the 27 ’EU member states are taking their security back into their own hands, giving the green light to a plan to rearm Europe, including a budget of €800 billion’. The European Commission has also proposed that member states derogate from the EU's orthodox budgetary rules to finance their defence spending. Dissenting voices are speaking out against the continent's further armament. 'The rearmament of Europe is the next great folly of the European Union," declared Varoufakis, the co-founder of the pan-European leftist DiEM25 movement. "It's going to make us less safe. It will make life nastier, more brutish, shorter in Europe," he added. He believes that defence spending will not generate growth where it is needed. He believes expanding Europe's military would 'dissolve the social fabric' without guaranteeing security. 'It's a way of weakening Europe in the name of making it stronger,' Varoufakis explained. In Germany, Chancellor-in-waiting Merz has opened the door to ’relaxing the debt brake’ to allow investment in the country's infrastructure and defence. ’This is a 180 turnaround’ for the otherwise prudent country, which favoured strict fiscal rules for Greece during the financial crisis'. As the former Greek finance minister who opposed Europe's austerity policy, Varoufakis positively greeted this paradigm shift - albeit with some reservations. "Instead of investing in life, he is investing mostly in death. And if you look at it from a realistic macroeconomic point of view, this is not going to generate growth where it is necessary," Varoufakis explained. "When you buy ammunition, when you buy shells and put them on a shelf, this is not a productive investment." Varoufakis instead calls on Europe to put its own peace plan on the table. "We need to counter-propose our own peace plan. Rearming Europe, buying more weaponry from British Aerospace, from Dallas, from Rheinmetall, this is not going to make any difference to Ukraine. Ukraine needs a peace plan from Europe now". "Pacifism is never a good response to invasion, but opting for endless war is not rational either," Varoufakis concluded. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)
(9 March 2025) The recent abrupt turn in US foreign policy calls into question a whole range of things the world has taken absolutely for granted. Europe could weigh Trump risk to its US weapons systems. When US foreign policy abruptly changes, the aircraft remain - but contractors, spare parts and badly needed software updates suddenly disappear. Within weeks, more than half the aircraft are grounded. This was the reality for Afghanistan in 2021. Today, a similar spectre haunts US allies in Europe. Many European governments are feeling buyers’ remorse for decades of US arms purchases that have left them dependent on Washington for the continued functioning of their weaponry. If they see how Trump is dealing with Zelenskyy, they should be worried. The Nordic and Baltic states need to think: Will he do the same to us? Most European militaries depend heavily on the US for communications support, for electronic warfare support, and for ammunition resupply in any serious conflict. America was accounting for 55 per cent of Europe’s defence equipment imports between 2019 and 2023 - up from 35 per cent in the previous five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. An appraisal of dependencies and vulnerabilities across international partners - including the US.- would allow reflection on whether there needs to be any strategic changes. What’s the point of Denmark sending F-35s to protect Greenland? Whether the F-35s would fly if the US did not want them to? The plane relies on continuous updates and maintenance support from the US through its Autonomic Logistics Information System - which is to be replaced by a successor programme known as Odin, the Operational Data Integrated Network. The systems manage everything from mission planning and threat databases to maintenance diagnostics. The problem with really sophisticated defence equipment is that it needs so much support from the vendor, that if the vendor decides to stop supporting it, the equipment stops working, if not instantaneously then very, very quickly. More than half of Europe’s advanced combat aircraft - mainly the F-35 and the F-16 - are bought from the US. The UK - a top buyer that makes many parts for the plane - asked for guarantees of operational sovereignty, but no US ally has Washington’s level of access to the source code for the system. Britain’s deterrent has come under particular scrutiny because it relies on submarines armed with Trident ballistic missiles. These missiles are leased from the US and regularly return to the US base in King’s Bay, Georgia for maintenance. Missile testing is also carried out under US supervision at Cape Canaveral in Florida. This reliance is a constraint on the independence of the system. Trident is part of the Mutual Defence Agreement between the US and UK that was prolonged indefinitely when it was re-ratified last November. Given the role the US plays in maintenance, Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners argued Britain should at least investigate the possibility of using France’s M51 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. France and Britain are the only nuclear powers in Europe. Important parts of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance airborne fleet in Europe was effectively mortgaged to the US and predicated on their collaboration. Specific examples include the UK’s Rivet Joint spy planes, P8 Poseidon submarine hunters (used by Norway and ordered by Germany), Wedgetail early warning aircraft, and Protector drones. Many European nations use the US Reaper drone, made by General Atomics, which relies on US-provided satellite communication links and software support. Italy and France needed a lengthy US permission process to equip the drones with missiles. The concern in European capitals is not so much about specific weapon systems but the potential for the US to withdraw communications support and information sharing across any platform, from fighter jets to Chinook and Apache helicopters as well as air-defence systems such as the Patriot. While Trump may have rattled the transatlantic alliance, Finkielman, director of DI Danish Defence and Security Industries, said day-to-day contacts on the industry side continued as normal. “There is a lot of uneasiness about what’s going to happen, but up until now we haven’t felt any changes in the relationship with the US.” Finkielman noted that Denmark made more than 100 parts for F-35 aircraft itself, and was one of many national suppliers. “I don’t know what capability the US has to produce them if they don’t get the Danish elements,” he said. The chief victim of the uncertainty, meanwhile, is just as likely to be the US arms industry, rather than its European customers. Trust is something you can only break once. Shares in America’s leading defence groups have significantly lagged those of their European rivals, which have boomed since Trump’s return to the White House. Though no US orders have been cancelled, few doubt that Europe will begin taking a more independent approach. Heaven help the US arms industry. This is catastrophic from an export standpoint. (Source: Financial Times – United Kingdom)
Asia
Saudi Arabia
Monday, March 10, 2025 Zelenskiy travels to Saudi Arabia today. Ahead of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials on ending the war with Russia at an increasingly precarious moment for Kyiv, Zelenskiy is expected to meet the Saudi crown prince. He has said he will not attend tomorrow’s talks with U.S. officials, where the Ukrainian delegation will include his chief of staff, his foreign and defence ministers and a top military official in the presidential administration. Tomorrow’s talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials are expected to focus on a bilateral minerals deal and how to end the war. The United States has upended its wartime policies in its stated pursuit of a rapid end to the fighting, engaging directly with Moscow while cutting off military assistance and intelligence sharing for Kyiv. U.S. officials said they were planning to use the meeting with the Ukrainians in part to determine whether Kyiv is willing to make material concessions to Russia to end the war. Zelenskiy has said Kyiv is ready to sign the minerals deal with the U.S., which would create a joint fund from the sale of Ukrainian minerals. Washington says it is crucial to secure continued U.S. backing. Zelenskiy has called for a truce in the air and at sea, as well as a prisoner exchange, in what he says could be a test of Russia’s commitment to ending the war. Trump special envoy Witkoff, who has been arranging the talks, has said the idea is to “get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well”.“You can’t say ‘I want peace,’ and, ‘I refuse to compromise on anything’,” one of the officials said of the upcoming talks. “We want to see if the Ukrainians are interested not just in peace, but in a realistic peace,” a second U.S. official said: Trump said yesterday that he expected good results out of the upcoming talks, adding that the United States had “just about” ended a suspension of intelligence sharing with Kyiv. With U.S. support in question, Zelenskiy has been urging his European allies to ramp up their support as Kyiv’s battlefield position deteriorates and it faces mounting pressure to retreat from Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region are nearly surrounded by Russian forces, open source maps show. Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France, saying it was a bid to buy time for Kyiv and prevent its military collapse. (Source: DD News, an Indian state-owned Hindi news television channel / Reuters - United Kingdom)
Syria
03/10/2025 Some of the heartbreaking news that has come out of Syria recently: Boutros, a Greek Orthodox priest at the Church of St Elias in Tartus killed in cold blood; Kawi, in Latakia’s al-Datour neighbourhood; an entire family in the town of Banias – grandparents, parents, children – slaughtered in their home; a Christian man, Khoury, in the Syrian Maronite village of Dahr Safra; the mayor of Al-Mazraah, a Christian village in Wādī an-Naṣārá (Valley of Christians); two Christians – father and son – of Armenian origin, in Latakia; the father of Fr Bechara, a priest with the parish of Notre-Dame of the Annunciation, shot in Banias - dozens of men, seniors, women and even children killed, execution-style only because they were Christians, all killed by gunmen affiliated with the new Syrian government of President Sharaa (nom de guerre Julani). The Christian website Assyro-chaldéens, l'histoire continue cites local sources. (Source: AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), which headquarters Rome, Italy)
2025-03-09 The death toll from violent clashes in Syria’s coastal region has risen to more than 1,000, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported today. /Photo/ (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)
North America
United States
Monday 10 March 2025 US F-35 fighter jets are the most sophisticated aircraft available to Europe, purchased by 13 European countries. 'Washington can decline to update the AN/ALQ-131 electronic jamming equipment used by the F-16 fighter jets sent to Kyiv to repel Russian air defences. This would significantly reduce the strength of the F-16s'. European countries are now asking whether the same could happen to the fighter jets they have purchased. Such a move would break European trust in American weapons manufacturers, ultimately proving problematic in the long term. The US has not commented on whether they have the power to ‘kill’ a country’s use of weapons it has sold or leased. There is, however, precedent for countries suspending weapons purchases from the US due to such issues. In 2021, the United Arab Emirates indefinitely suspended the purchase of 50 F-35s, part of a $23 billion deal that also included drones and other advanced munitions, due to what one UAE official described as “sovereign operational restrictions”. Last week, Switzerland’s defence ministry admitted no advanced Western fighter jets were fully independent of US secure data communication systems and GPS satellite navigation. As Germany prepares to receive 35 F-35s in 2026, which cost them €8.3 billion, plus several billion more for the associated infrastructure, local MPs are questioning whether they, like the UAE, should never have made the purchase. (Source: Independent - United Kingdom)
3/10/2025 The US president's recent remarks reveal that Washington 'is no longer committed to defending Japan, South Korea or Taiwan', an analyst says. US President Trump has issued what analysts are calling an "advance warning" to Japan and South Korea. Last Thursday, he called the long-standing US-Japan security treaty unfair. "I love Japan," the US president declared. "We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don't have to protect us.” The Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States, signed in 1951 and updated in 1960, commits Washington to defend Japan if it is attacked. However, Japan has no reciprocal obligation to come to America's aid. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba responded cautiously. "Japan has no obligation to protect the US, that is true, but Japan is obliged to provide bases for the US," he said. The agreement has allowed the US to establish military bases across Japan, which today house around 50,000 American service members. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said he had "complete confidence that the US will use all of its capabilities, including nuclear, to fulfil its obligations under the Japan-US security treaty". Trump is expected to demand that both Tokyo and Seoul pay far more for the American troops stationed on their soil, threatening withdrawal if his terms are not met. Trump might become less demanding of Japan in the near term if Washington finds itself short of allies. "We have been supporting the whole world," Trump said last week, charging Europe with "ripping off" the US on trade and security. "We were supporting Nato. We were paying the bills for other countries." (Source: MSN - U.S./ South China Morning Post)
10/3/2025 The Trump administration is boosting a powerful force in global affairs: anti-Americanism. Canadians have taken to booing the American national anthem and Panamanians to burning US flags. The British tabloids have tarred and feathered Vice President Vance for insulting British troops. A carnival float in Dusseldorf, Germany, displayed giant puppets of Trump and his Russian counterpart, Putin, shaking hands while squeezing Zelenskiy between them into a bloodied pulp. A sign on the float read “Hitler-Stalin Pact 2.0.” Back at home, the Washington Post has published a guide on how to navigate hostility abroad (“dress neutrally, not patriotically”). Trump embodies critics of the US have always warned about. Yankee arrogance? He and Vance, in the Oval Office. Yankee imperialism? Trump will take over Greenland. Yankee incompetence? Tariffs destabilizing global stock markets, downgrading his own economy. A YouGov poll published March 4 shows positive feelings toward the US have fallen since Trump was elected. The smallest decline (from 48 to 42) is in Italy. The biggest (from 48 to 20) is in Denmark. The mass deportation of migrants starts and the tariffs take an increasing toll on the global economy. Living with America is like rooming with badly behaved teenagers who demand constant attention and think they have solved the mysteries of the universe. Before Trump won the election - wokery - has infuriated people on the right and center with its weaponization of cultural tensions. Its social media sites - particularly Facebook and X - are increasingly seen as agents of division and distraction rather than, creators of a global village. Champions of the US have traditionally defended the nation (and excused its failures) on three grounds: that, as the world’s greatest power, the US provides stability and security; as the world’s leading liberal democracy. The US is becoming a source of global instability, swinging between extremes (President Bush’s crusading democracy promotion to Trump’s isolationism). Under Trump, the US is groveling to the world’s biggest enemy of liberal democracy, Putin. What can pro-Americans fight for today? Nobody outside the US embraces its tariffs. Nobody outside the axis of autocracy backs Trump’s strongman-first foreign policy. Anti-Americanism sentiment is already eroding the domestic support of populist politicians who have aligned themselves with him. Farage’s closeness to Trump could prove to be an electoral problem for Reform. The Canadian Conservative Party, which has enjoyed a massive lead in the polls over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals for two years, has seen its advantage evaporate since January. Western powers are forging alliances that exclude (or at least don’t include) the US. The European Union, particularly in Germany, is beginning to take its military destiny in its hands. The EU has struck trade deals with Latin America and Malaysia and has made various side accords with Canada and China. A number of its allies regard the US, as ’a rogue superpower, a mercantilist behemoth determined to squeeze every ounce of wealth and power from the rest of the world.’ What used to be called nonaligned powers are queuing up to join the BRICS group of emerging-market nations. The genie of anti-Americanism is now not only out of the bottle but doing immense damage. It will take many years to regain the trust of the free world. (Source: MSN / 'The Economic Times – India')
Note: Indian (?) moodmongering
March 10, 2025 Ukraine must cede territory in any peace deal, Rubio says. The secretary of state, heading to talks with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia, said future talks with Moscow will be needed to determine what Russia is willing to give up to end the war. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)
10 Mar 2025 SpaceX CEO insists he will not cut Ukraine’s access to internet service despite his disagreements with Kyiv. Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski suggested that Poland, which pays Ukraine’s Starlink costs, might have to seek alternative suppliers if Musk’s satellite network proves to be an 'unreliable provider'. He made the comments after Musk said the Ukrainian army’s “entire front line would collapse” without Starlink. Musk later lashed out at Sikorski himself, posting: “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.” Poland funded about half of the estimated 42,000 Starlink terminals operating in Ukraine at the cost of about $50 million per year. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)
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