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Europe
Hungary
(Friday), Mar 07, 2025 The EU cannot afford to finance Ukraine's military efforts as U.S. financial aid is no longer guaranteed, Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán said today after the leaders of 26 EU countries signed a statement voicing support for Ukraine without Hungary. Orbán, who has refused to send weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war, and kept close relations with Moscow, said that instead of prolonging the war, Europe should support Trump's peace talks. European leaders yesterday backed plans to spend more on defence and continue to stand by Ukraine in a world upended by Trump's reversal of U.S. policies. The Hungarian PM said the way the EU wants to support Ukraine now, while also boosting Europe's own defence spending, would "ruin Europe." Orbán, an ally of U.S. President Trump, who is also cultivating ties with Moscow, told state radio that his government would launch a domestic, state-funded "public consultation" on Ukraine's European Union accession in the coming weeks. "If now the US quits (financing the war)...why would the other 26 member states have a chance to take this war to the end?," Orbán told state radio. "Today it appears that I have vetoed. But within weeks they will come back and it will turn out that there is no money for these goals." Trump has said Europe must take more responsibility for its security. Yesterday he cast doubt on his willingness to defend Washington's NATO allies, saying that he would not do so if they are not paying enough for their own defense. His decision to shift from staunch U.S. support for Ukraine to a more conciliatory stance towards Moscow has deeply alarmed Europeans who see Russia ’as the biggest threat’. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom / The Straits Times - Singapore)
07/03/2025 In a post shared on X, shortly after the Trump-Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting, Orbán, the leader of the ruling Fidesz party wrote, "strong men make peace, weak men make war," praising Trump for standing "bravely for peace". Orbán has long been one of the EU's most vocal critics. Friendly with Russian President Putin, the Hungarian premier has consistently blocked European military support packages for Ukraine, claiming that Western support prolongs Russia's war. The Hungarian prime minister has urged the EU to follow in Trump’s footsteps and open up direct talks with the Kremlin while blocking the approval of joint conclusions supporting Ukraine at a summit held by Europe's 27 leaders in Brussels yesterday. (Source: Euronews, based in Lyon, France)
Poland
(7 March 2025) Poland announces military training plan for all men. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
European Union
(Friday), 07.03.2025 The EU leaders had a videoconference meeting with leaders of Türkiye, the UK, Canada, Norway, and Iceland -- states that are a member of NATO and not of the EU, said Costa, the president of the European Council yesterday. They debriefed the leaders on the decisions taken at the European Council yesteray night and their meeting with Zelenskyy. During the meeting, Costa focused on Ukraine, while der Leyen on defense issues. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Russia
Friday 07 March 2025 If someone got their passport in August 2022 or earlier, they are most certainly pro-Russian. Around 3.5 million Russian passports have been issued to 'Ukrainians', Moscow’s interior minister Kolokoltsev said. This means around 700,000 have been issued since March 2024, when 2.8 million had been handed out. A Russian law stipulated that anyone in the occupied territories who did not have a Russian passport by 1 July 2024 was subject to imprisonment as a “foreign citizen”. Incentives are also offered as part of the passport, including a stipend to leave the occupied territory and move to Russia, pensions for retirees, humanitarian aid, and money for new parents who have children with Russian birth certificates. After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Russian citizenship was automatically given to permanent residents of the peninsula and those who refused lost rights to jobs, healthcare and property. Hundreds of properties deemed “abandoned” were seized by the Russian government after officials said a Russian passport was needed to prove property ownership. (Source: Independent - United Kingdom)
March 7, 2025, Friday On March 6, Russian President Putin reiterated that any peace terms must provide long-term security guarantees for Russia. Putin also stressed that Russia would not cede any territory in future negotiations. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov stated that Moscow would view any peacekeeping presence as NATO’s direct involvement in the war. Spokesperson Zakharova reinforced this stance, rejecting any proposals that could allow Ukraine time to regroup on the battlefield. Lavrov also claimed that Russia’s demands include halting NATO’s expansion and obtaining security assurances, suggesting that U.S. President Trump understands these concerns while European nations do not. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)
Asia
China
Mar 07, 2025 (Trump's) 'apparent readiness to throw NATO and Europe under the bus in order to placate Putin for reasons that are still not well understood could seriously trigger a dark age of chaos'. (Source: China - US Focus, published by the China-United States Exchange Foundation, based in Hong Kong)
'by Cunningham, an independent Scholar'
Syria
March 7, 2025 More than 70 people were killed, and several others injured after forces loyal to ousted Syrian President Assad clashed with government personnel in country's coastal region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority community. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, the victims comprised 35 government personnel, 32 Assad loyalists and four civilians. A curfew has been imposed in the port cities of Latakia, Tartous and Homs, where the deadly clashes broke out yesterday after Syrian government forces were ambushed during a security operation. The militants took control of military areas, especially the Istamo and Qardaha airports, and fortified themselves in the Latakia mountains. (Source: India Today)
North America
United States
07 March 2025 6:00pm GMT Trump considers pulling troops out of Germany. 'It is understood that the president is considering redeploying personnel to Hungary, which has maintained a close relationship with Russia'. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)
by Stringer, Deputy US Editor
March 7, 2025 Pentagon is placing probationary employees on leave in advance of mass firings The terminations are expected within weeks under plans to fire nearly one-tenth of DOD’s 55,000 “probies.” (Source: Defense One - U.S.)
7 March 2025 "Most Americans outside the rarefied corridors of power don’t feel particularly threatened by Russia’s regional aggressions, and don’t particularly care what territorial accommodations Ukraine might need to make to preserve its sovereignty. They have however noticed that China has ransacked the American industrial base, and that their past leaders connived in the destruction. If extreme measures like tariffs are needed to revive American manufacturing, then so be it. Their president represents American interests, and not necessarily yours. Unlike your EU, which assiduously guards its rule makers from democratic interference, Americans can overrule their elites at the ballot box and install new leaders with new plans. That you decry this recently demonstrated capacity as a threat to democracy reveals your true view of the institution: a tame beast safely caged and posing no real threat to the likes of der Leyen. EU foreign minister Kallas may believe she can dismiss Trump as the leader of the free world, but a reasonably well-informed American may ask whether her Europe is quite so free as to constitute a community of shared values with the United States. Upstart populist parties and their supporters are excluded from power and surveilled by state security. Elections and referendums resulting in a 'wrong' result are overturned or rerun until a 'correct' vote is achieved. Social media companies can be beggared with multi-billion euro fines for failing to censor free speech. An online jest at a politician’s expense may warrant a police visit. Decades ago, Kundera told Europeans that freedom was the right to make a joke about your leaders. Green party leader Habeck, who has filed hundreds of legal actions against his fellow Germans for ridiculing him online, prefers state coercion to personal embarrassment. "In just a few weeks, President Trump has done more to shift the defence burden onto our allies than any prior US president. Incoming Chancellor Merz may believe he is striking a courageous pose by proclaiming the end of Europe’s security dependence, but this is exactly what Trump and many Americans want from our wealthy German ally. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)
by Pfefferkorn
Mar 7 2025 A TOP secret US spaceship has touched down on Earth after spending 434 days in orbit. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 landed at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California where it was met by hazmat-clad ground crew. The X-37B completed a never-before-seen aerobraking manoeuvre to change its orbit. Aerobraking involves making several passes into the Earth's atmosphere which causes drag to rapidly change the craft's orbit. In doing so, the spaceship expends minimal fuel, making it temporarily invisible to other nations who could be tracking it. The X-37B is a "dynamic unmanned spaceplane", meaning it needs no crew to operate. The shuttle is reusable, making it ideal for testing. It's first visit to space was in 2011. (Source: The U.S.Sun)
07/03/2025 US space company Maxar Technologies today blocked access to its US government-funded satellite images for Ukraine, after the administration of US President Trump stopped sharing information with Kyiv. (Source: DW - Germany)
March 7, 2025 The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights at multiple Florida airports after a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded yesterday night. The eighth Starship test flight attempt also ended in the craft’s disintegration. (Source: Madiaite - U.S.)
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