.
Europe
France
02/05/2025 US Senator Graham has rallied dozens of lawmakers from both parties to support a plan to impose additional sanctions on Moscow as well as tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy. We will accompany this American initiative with a 17th package of sanctions and we would try to coordinate both the substance and the timing of these two packages of sanctions, French FM Barrot told. Barrot met with his US counterpart Rubio and said that he welcomed their frank talks. We had an unfiltered exchange that allowed us to coordinate closely, but also to acknowledge the convergence of our objectives on regional and international crises, since we want to act in concert, he said. (Source: France 24 "with AFP")
Germany
2 May 2025 Bundestag Vice-President Lindholz said that 'as a designated right-wing extremist group the AfD' should not be treated as other parties, especially in parliament. "Because of their large number of seats, AfD members could be eligible to chair parliamentary committees, but Lindholz said that idea was now almost unthinkable'. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
(Friday), 02.05.2025 Chancellor-designate Merz's CDU/CSU has dropped to second place in the latest Forsa poll released Tuesday, with 24% support - a decline of 4.5 percentage points since their February election victory. Their coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), has fallen to 14%, dropping more than 2 percentage points below their previous election result. Speaking at an event in Hannover today, Germany's outgoing Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the domestic intelligence agency BfV’s new report on the AfD and its designation of the party as a ’proven extremist group,’ citing the party's ideology and actions as incompatible with Germany's democratic constitutional order. The party's predominant understanding of people based on ethnicity and ancestry is incompatible with the free democratic constitutional order, the BfV emphasized in its statement. The agency noted that the AfD seeks to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society while subjecting them to discriminatory treatment. For example, the AfD does not consider German citizens with a migration background from Muslim countries, to be equal members of the society, as it defines German people solely in ethnic terms, the agency explained in its assessment. But Scholz cautioned that filing a Constitutional Court ban petition requires careful preparation, noting that previous attempts to ban another ’far-right’ party, the NPD, were rejected by the Constitutional Court because of procedural flaws, issues with evidence gathering, and legal controversies. The AfD 'party, known for its anti-immigration stance, was initially placed under preliminary observation' in 2019. It was later 'classified as a suspected extremist group' in 2021 - a designation that courts in Cologne and Münster upheld despite the party's legal challenge. That designation 'allowed security services to use stronger intelligence tools for surveillance of the party's activities, such as conducting communications surveillance and recruiting informants to monitor activities of party branches' and their links to outlawed extremist groups. 'All AfD party structures and regional branches will now face heightened security monitoring' for potential anti-democratic activities. "The anti-immigrant party has gained five percentage points since the February snap elections, reached 26% in recent opinion polls becoming Germany's leading party for the first time". (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Poland
(3 May 2025) At a military training ground near the city of Wroclaw, ordinary Poles are lining up, waiting to be handed guns and taught how to shoot. Young and old, men and women, parents and children, they've all come here for one reason: to learn 'how to survive' an armed attack. As well as a turn on the shooting range, the Saturday morning programme, called Train with the Army, also 'teaches civilians hand-to-hand combat, first aid and how to put on a gas mask'. 'We have a military threat from Russia, and we are preparing for this,' says the co-ordinator of the project, Captain Sielicki. He says the programme is oversubscribed, and the Polish government now has plans to expand it so that every adult male in the country receives training. Demand for shelters has soared since Trump took office. The clients are most afraid of Russia. And they're concerned that Nato wouldn't come to defend Poland. But are Poles ready to defend the country if those fears become a reality? A recent poll found that only 10.7% of adults said they would join the army as volunteers in the event of war, and a third said they would flee. Most Polish students in Wroclaw say they wouldn't be ready to defend their country if attacked. The war is very close but feels quite far, says medical student Marcel, 'but if Russia attacked, 'I think I'd run. I would probably be the first one trying to escape the country, says another student, Szymon. I just don't really see anything worth dying for here. Currently, around 216,000 servicemen and women make up the Polish armed forces. The government says they intend to increase that to half a million, including reservists – which would give it the second-largest military in Nato after the United States. ((Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
Romania
May 4, 2025 The country heads for two rounds of elections. Romanian elections are best left to the Romanian people. 'President Trump is less concerned with internal politics and more focused on whether a given government serves U.S. interests'. Romania is at the forefront of new American energy ventures in the region. It is likewise a key partner in incorporating American small modular reactor (SMR) technologies into its national energy infrastructure. U.S.-Romanian joint ventures are developing the Neptun Deep natural gas reserves in the Black Sea, ’a project that will make Romania Europe’s largest natural gas producer by 2027'. American companies such as Halliburton, Oceaneering, and Transocean are deeply involved. Transocean is operating one of the world’s largest drilling platforms in the area. ’These firms are well-positioned to support the Ukraine Reconstruction Fund’s efforts to develop Ukraine’s offshore gas reserves in adjacent waters. On the military front, deepening the alliance will assign rotational deployments of U.S. troops to the Mihail Kogălniceanu (MK) base, develop energy, road, and rail connectivity in close coordination with Ukraine’s largest European neighbors Romania and Poland to create resilient transport corridors for Ukrainian natural resource exports and augment existing mine-clearance operations by Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey across the Black Sea with additional measures to protect critical infrastructure. Romania -- as NATO’s easternmost European member - enabled support for American operations ’in Iraq and Afghanistan’. Romania hosts the U.S. Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense System, which ’shields the country from potential Iranian missile threats’. It invested in U.S. military systems, ’including the F-35, F-16, Patriot missile batteries, HIMARS launchers, Piranha armored vehicles, Abrams tanks, drones’. The MK air base near the Black Sea is helping to protect freedom of navigation, ’defend critical infrastructure, and deter Russian escalation.’ 1,840 American personnel are stationed at the MK airbase, ’to which Romania has committed €2.5 billion to modernize’. Admittedly, Romania’s post-communist democratic journey is ongoing. 'Corruption and governance shortfalls, persist'. American commentators ave long critiqued the democratic shortcomings of partner nations, and Romania has not been spared. ’American policy should focus on working with the elected government, regardless of who heads it,’ to secure U.S. interests in the Black Sea. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Arha, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue; an actor in the biannual U.S.-Japan Free and Open Indo-Pacific Dialogue.
Russia
May 3, 2025 Kyiv can’t guarantee safety of foreign leaders on May 9 in Moscow, Zelenskyy says. Chinese President Xi is among the leaders set to attend the Victory Day Parade in Moscow. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
Serbia
(Saturday), May 3, 2025 Serbian President Vučić cut short a visit to the United States yesterday after falling ill. He arrived in Florida on Wednesday and met with former New York Mayor Giuliani and Serbian entrepreneurs from the U.S. Vučić had planned to meet with several senior Republican Party officials and also hoped to see U.S. President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
Ukraine
May 1, 2025 Ukraine signed a deal giving the United States control over a share of its future revenue from natural resources. The announcement late Wednesday that the deal had been signed came after months of fraught negotiations. The agreement involves creating a joint investment fund between the countries. It could clear the way for more consequential talks on U.S. military backing for Ukraine and on the terms of a possible truce with Russia. The U.S.-controlled investment fund would receive revenue from Ukraine’s natural resources. The idea of treating ’aid’ as debt was removed in the final deal. There was no mention of a U.S. security guarantee in the text of the nine-page deal that Ukraine’s government published today. Kyiv and Washington will jointly manage the fund, which will be financed with revenues from new projects in critical minerals, oil and gas - not from projects that are already operating. The agreement does say that future military aid, including weapons and training, will be treated as a U.S. contribution to the fund -- meaning that Ukraine will need to match future aid with resource wealth. The agreement does not change the management of Ukraine’s state-owned energy companies. All natural resources will still be considered Ukraine’s property. The agreement says that the United States and Ukraine want to ensure that countries that have acted adversely to Ukraine in the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine once peace is reached - in other words, Russia. Ukraine’s parliament still has to ratify the agreement, which will probably happen in the next two weeks. Ukraine controls more than 100 major deposits of critical minerals, according to a study by the Kyiv School of Economics, along with modest oil and natural gas reserves. Titanium, used in construction, airplanes, orthopedic implants and as an additive in paint and cosmetics, including sunscreen, among many other things. Titanium mines in central Ukraine account for about 6% of global production, according to Ukrainian media. Uranium: Ukraine has Europe’s largest reserves. Oil and natural gas fields dot several regions of Ukraine, and surveys conducted before the war found offshore natural gas reserves. Lithium, a crucial element in batteries, and other industrial products, including some medications. Ukraine has a third of Europe’s total reserves, although some sites are in war-contested areas. Rare earths that are used in many high-tech sectors, including green energy, electronics and aerospace - Ukraine has substantial reserves that are mostly untapped: Manganese, used for steel smelting. Zirconium, used in the ceramics industry, nuclear fuel rods and artificial diamonds. Graphite, used in steel manufacturing and electric motors. Ukraine is one of the world’s leading producers. What happens next? Zelenskyy is seeking continued American support. (Source: Miami Herald / The New York Times = U.S. „Dpa contributed”)
United Kingdom
May 02, 2025 Prime Minister Starmer will be at the centre of three major defence summits over the next seven weeks, starting with the Joint Expeditionary Force leaders gathering in Oslo next week. This will be followed by the UK-EU meeting in London on 19 May, when it is expected that Britain and Europe will seal a new defence and security pact, and the Nato summit in the Netherlands from 24 to 26 June. Operational military planning inside the British and French-led ’coalition of the willing’ is going ahead in four areas – referred to as safe skies, safe seas, land action (or ’reassurance force’), and regeneration of Ukraine’s armed forces through training. The last of these is seen as the most important to prevent a fresh Russian invasion in the future. An UK land ’reassurance force’ remained a viable option alongside protection of Ukraine’s skies and seas and training the country’s troops. The US President now had a greater interest in protecting Ukraine. Trump approved $50m in military aid to Kyiv shortly before the minerals deal was struck. There is no explicit US security guarantee as part of the minerals deal. Defence insiders have told that France had been happy to send a reassurance force to Ukraine without a US backstop, but the UK had insisted that such a security guarantee must be in place. Experts have warned there may still be problems with Russia accepting a multinational peacekeeping force and that there are risks associated with providing air cover for Ukraine. As soon as you introduce air cover, especially over Ukraine, then the chances of miscalculation or escalation, an air defence unit accidentally downing a plane, that increases quite dramatically, Arnold, senior fellow at defence think tank Rusi, said. (Source: The i Paper – United Kingdom)
Asia
China
May 01, 2025 Workers throughout China are flooding the streets in revolt as U.S. President Trump’s tariffs slam the fragile Chinese export economy. Furious workers are demanding backpay and protesting mass layoffs. Wave of unrest follows a brutal plunge in China’s export orders, now at their lowest since the COVID lockdowns. Outside a LED light manufacturing plant near Shanghai, thousands of unpaid workers shouted furiously at company managers over wages that haven’t been paid since January. In central China’s Dao County, a similar scene unfolded outside a sporting goods store after the company abruptly shut down last week without paying employees. Huang Deming, a garment exporter in southern China, has already sidelined 30% of his workforce after three major U.S. clients walked away. Textile manager Qian said the internal market is so bleak that Chinese factories are locked in suicidal price wars just to stay afloat. In the northeast city of Tongliao, ’construction workers climbed onto rooftops and threatened to jump if their wages were not paid’. Goldman Sachs estimates up to 16 million Chinese jobs could vanish as Trump’s tariffs bite deeper. Trump said the tariffs placed on China are having their intended effect. They were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody’s ever ripped us off, he stated. “They’re not doing that anymore.” (Source: Daily Caller - U.S.)
Iran
2 May 2025 Is the so-called “uranium enrichment” issue a diversion? Judging by comments and leaks from the Iranian Foreign Minister Araqchi and President Trump’s American envoy Witkoff - although problems remain - things are going smoothly. Trump himself keeps saying that he expects “a good agreement” without spelling out what that means. Tehran pundits muse about an historic turnaround that would see the US investing over a trillion dollars in Iran while the regime is given the green light to continue merrily enriching the uranium it does not need. Iranian President Pezeshkian goes further by talking about “rebuilding the whole region in peace and with prosperity for all.” The fact, however, is that so far nothing has happened. The two sides have not fielded their full teams and seem unable to establish a clear agenda for talks. Nor are they in agreement about how long the talks should last. Trump says he had given the “Supreme Guide” in Tehran two months to make a deal or else, a timespan to coincide with the president’s 1OO first days which has already come and gone. Te global commentariat seems persuaded that the Araqchi-Witkoff tandem are on course to do what their predecessors in almost half a century of talks Iran and the “Great Satan” failed to do. The biggest sign for such optimism is Supreme Leader Khamenei’s open intervention to endorse the talks and silence its critics. He has even re-written parts of religious history to claim that making “temporary peace” with a foe is not only permissible but actually commendable. Much of the current “feel-good” messages transmitted from Tehran and Washington suggest positive imagination as therapy - thinking that things are going the way you want is half way to having that actually happen. Trump wants Iran to dismantle its nuclear program after which the US would lift the sanctions. We are faced with a typical situation in which one side refuses to act until the other side has acted first. Ie: ’I will do what you want after you have done what I want. But if I get what I want why should I give what you want when I always maintained that you had no right to ask me to do what you want’. For decades, Tehran has said it has no plan for developing a nuclear weapon and has no intention of doing so in the future. The US under President Obama briefly accepted that and did all he could to get Iran off the hook. President Trump didn’t buy that bundle and scrapped the Obama “nuke deal”. This is why opponents in Tehran of talks with the US are talking about “guarantees” that if Iran agrees terms with the US, the “Great Satan” should guarantee that another administration in Washington would not scrap the deal. In the past two weeks, a number if retired Iranian diplomats have penned op-eds or written columns to demand “cast iron guarantees”. There is, of course, one non-judicial way to make sure a deal sticks: If Iran expects to be treated differently it should become different. Remove the root causes of enmity. For example, let’s start by releasing the US hostages and make sure that no further hostages are taken during what remains of Trump’s term. Next, give up the temptation to revive Hamas, Hezbollah and half a dozen Iraqi groups through sneaky schemes while smuggling arms to what is left of the Houthis. Also, end burning of flags, attacks on embassies and calls for this or that nation to be “wiped off the map”. And if you don’t mean to attack targets as far as Europe, stop developing long-range missiles. Then join the rest of the world in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) accords against money laundering and funding terrorism. Iran is part of a black-listed trio that includes North Korea and Myanmar. (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat - headquartered in London, United Kingdom, owned by a member of the Saudi royal family).
by Taheri
Syria
May 2, 2025 Syria’s Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hijri has condemned an 'unjustifiable genocidal campaign' against his community after sectarian clashes killed 102 people. He called in a statement yesterday for immediate intervention by ’international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes’. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory monitor said the 102 death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians. In the southern Druze heartland province of Sweida, it said 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 in an 'ambush' on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday. The monitor told the fighters were killed by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defence and gunmen associated with them. Israel carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday and has also sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights. Defence Minister Katz was saying his country could respond 'with significant force'. He threatened intervention if Syrian authorities failed to protect the Druze minority. Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists. The Syrian government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya, area near Damascus, to ensure security, and accused outlaw groups of instigating the clashes. Hijri said he no longer trusts ’an entity pretending to be a government… because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias… and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres’. Israel’s military said today it launched air strikes. ’Fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the palace’ in the capital Damascus, a military statement said. (Source: Macau Business – China / AFP – France)
North America
United States
May 3, 2025 As it stands, the deal recently signed between the Trump and Zelensky administrations is a bad deal for America. Yet again, the Ukrainians are trying to pull the Americans into a deepening - and widening - commitment to their defense. It is not in America’s interests to go along. For the United States the deal amounts to an extended commitment to Kyiv’s defense — at a time when the United States is already overextended all around the world. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
2 May 2025 The CIA has launched a Chinese-language social media campaign calling on government officials in China to switch sides and leak secrets to the United States. The two videos released on yesterday depict fictional scenes involving Chinese officials who approach the top intelligence agency after becoming disillusioned with the ruling Communist Party of China. The videos, which were released on platforms including Facebook, Telegram, Instagram and X, contain instructions on ’safely’ and ’securely’ contacting the CIA, including by using the dark web browser Tor. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)
May 3, 2025 Radio Free Asia said today it will lay off almost all of its staff and close production in several languages, including a rare Uyghur service - as the world’s only editorially independent news service in the language - after President Trump cut off funding. It will terminate 280 staff members in Washington, accounting for more than 90 percent of its US-based workforce, as well as 20 positions overseas. Radio Free Asia will also terminate services in Tibetan, Burmese and English. It will maintain production in Mandarin, Cantonese, Khmer and Vietnamese. The Trump administration in mid-March said it was ending financing for US government-funded broadcasters, including Voice of America. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — created to reach inside the Soviet bloc during the Cold War — remains operational, ’with the Czech government stepping in to keep it afloat’. (Source: Macau Business - China / AFP - France)
May 2, 2025 President Trump yesterday signed an executive order which instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House said the outlets receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’ The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republicans have long complained about them. Just two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts. (Source: The Associated Press - U.S.)
May 1, 2025 President Trump held a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden today, where he signed an order establishing a new commission aimed at protecting religious liberty in America. The president paid homage to the sacred Judeo-Christian values that formed a solid foundation for America’s founding, praising the importance of prayer in America and vowing to protect religious liberty while in the White House. Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick (R) will serve as the chairman of the Religious Liberty Commission. (Source: Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) - U.S.)
May 1, 2025 The US and Ukraine entered into an agreement yesterday, launching a first-of-its-kind partnership for the reconstruction and long-term economic success of Ukraine. "This partnership between the United States and Ukraine establishes a fund that will receive 50% of royalties, license fees, and other similar payments from natural resource projects in Ukraine. That money will be invested in new projects in Ukraine, which will generate long term returns for both the American and Ukrainian peoples. As new projects are identified, resources in the fund can be quickly allocated towards economic growth, job creation, and other key Ukrainian development priorities. Indirect benefits will include a stronger private sector and more robust, lasting infrastructure for Ukraine’s long-term success. The partnership will be controlled by a company with equal representation of three Ukrainian and three American board members, who will work together through a collaborative process to make decisions for allocation of fund resources, such as investment and distributions. The partnership will also bring the highest levels of transparency and accountability to ensure that the people of Ukraine and the United States are able to enjoy the benefits of Ukraine’s reconstruction. Natural resource projects will include minerals, hydrocarbons, and related infrastructure development. 'If the United States decides to acquire these resources for ourselves, we will given first choice to either acquire them or designate the purchaser of our choice. Economic security is national security, and this important safeguard prevents critical resources from falling into the wrong hands. Importantly, this partnership sends a strong message to Russia – the United States has skin in the game and is committed to Ukraine’s long-term success. No state, company, or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine, including participation in projects supported by fund resources. (Source: WhiteHouse.gov/wire/ - U.S.)
1 May 2025 21:21 Trump replaced White House national security adviser Waltz with Rubio as interim. Waltz, a 51-year-old former Republican lawmaker from Florida, faced criticism inside the White House when he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides. The national security adviser is a powerful role that does not require Senate confirmation. Trump said he would be nominating Waltz to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Waltz's deputy, Wong, an Asia expert who was a State Department official focused on North Korea during Trump's first term, is also leaving his post. (Source: Sunday World – Ireland)
01.05.2025 US President Trump called on Truth Social for an immediate end to all purchases of Iranian oil and petrochemical products today, and warned that violators would face sweeping secondary sanctions. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Space
2 May 2025 / Thursday, 24 April 2025 Kosmos 482 Descent Craft (1972-023E, cat. nr. 6073) reentry forecasts: The current nominal forecast is reentry on 11 May 2025, 03:41 UTC ± 2.2 days. The lander module from a 1972 failed Soviet Venera mission is in a semi-globular Titanium protective shell, that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere. It is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact with a mass of just under 500 kg, 1-meter size, impact speed (after atmospheric deceleration) of about 65-70 meter per second (~242 km/h). On May 2, the object was in a 332 x 150 km orbit, with apogee coming down by 12 km/day and perigee by 1 km/day (and these values increasing each day). The reentry is an uncontrolled reentry. At the moment, we cannot say with any degree of certainty when and where it exactly will reenter. The reentry can occur anywhere between latitude 52 N and 52 S, and from our current modelling (see below) the reentry should happen near May 10th, 2025 (but this is dependent on a.o. how solar activity develops in the coming two weeks) /Source: SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log - The Netherlands/
