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Europe
Poland
May 31, 2025 The second round of presidential elections in Poland will take place on June 1st. Nawrocki, presidential candidate supported by the Law and Justice party will compete with Trzaskowski, the ’pro-European’ (?) ruling party's candidate. Polls are showing a tight race between Warsaw’s mayor, Trzaskowski, and his conservative challenger, Nawrocki. President Trump met with Nawrocki at the White House earlier this month and sent DHS Secretary Noem to a meeting of CPAC in Poland. She offered an endorsement, speaking in support of Nawrocki. Noem said he would rule in the style of President Trump. "I just had the opportunity to meet with Karol and listen. He needs to be the next president of Poland. Do you understand me?’ she said. The conservative Law and Justice party recruited Nawrocki, an outsider with no prior political experience, to be its candidate for president to replace outgoing President Duda, a close ally of President Trump. The Law and Justice Party governed Poland from 2015 to 2023, until it lost parliamentary elections led by Donald Tusk’s center-left Civic Platform coalition. Although the Polish president is nominally symbolic, the president does wield the power to veto legislation passed by parliament, which could derail the incumbent government's domestic agenda if the president is of a different party from the prime minister. "Nawrocki has a good chance of winning the election. This would clearly demonstrate the Polish people's desire to counter the current government's liberal politics," Żaryn, Advisor to Poland's current President Duda, told. Tyrmand, a U.S.-based Polish dual citizen who advises conservative sovereignty-defending political figures and parties across Europe, told from Europe, "We in Poland, who saw the previous unchecked PO (Tusk’s party) government from 2010-15, know how this ends if Tusk’s puppet candidate Trzaskowski ends up securing the presidency in the runoff. Poland’s tightened alignment with the EU will come at the expense of previously strong ties with the USA and the previous and now returned Trump administration. This will weaken Poland militarily and economically. "This runoff is existential for Poland maintaining its multi-party democracy with the existent check and balance of the last 15 years of having, in essence, a two-party duopoly. The right-wing president, Duda, has been the one check given his veto power to reject the Tusk government’s agenda since the country’s government turned over in late 2023 toward left-leaning (self-described and so-called by the compromised leftist media as ’centrist’ but in reality very left) Eurocentrists. If that veto is lost, Polish sovereignty will be a distant memory as Tusk devolves national competences toward Berlin and Brussels who have been his paymasters for nearly two decades, and he has been their ready, willing and able pliant stooge.’ Nawrocki as president would likely continue the policies of Duda, further sinking Tusk's popularity as many in Poland feel that Tusk has not lived up to his campaign promises. If Nawrocki wins, expect a tough fight between the Tusk government and the President, as they are polar opposites on a number of issues, especially foreign policy. Nawrocki, who met with President Trump and Republican leaders in Congress, would likely push for even closer relations with the U.S. A win for Trzaskowski means Tusk will have the ability to drive his agenda, with the new president likely endorsing his proposals, laws and ambassadorships. A victory for Trzaskowski will also be received positively in Brussels as he is seen as ’pro-European’ and in line with the EU’s priorities of „democratic governance’ and judicial independence. The Warsaw mayor favors closer ties with Brussels, Berlin and Paris but will also look to maintain stable relations with the U.S. While there is a rising number of voices that are critical of continuing support for Ukraine as the war drags on, no matter who wins, Poland’s foreign and defense policy and its support for Ukraine in its war against Russia is 'unlikely' to change. Poland has been one of Ukraine’s toughest backers in Europe, providing 5 billion euros worth of overall aid, ’including nearly 4 billion euros in military aid’, since the war began. Since the European refugee crisis of 2015, Poland has taken a tougher stance on immigration, particularly from the Middle East. Poland has been much more welcoming to Ukrainian's fleeing Russian aggression, it has taken in more than 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees since February 2022. Qvortrup, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Studies at the Australian National University, said a Nawrocki win would be a roadblock to further European integration with another leader critical of Europe taking power. A win for Nawrocki would be unwelcome for the leaders in the most powerful EU countries, especially in Germany. „It's not the signal they would want," Qvortrup told. (Source: Fox News / „The Associated Press contributed’ = U.S.)
European Union
31/05/2025 EU has imported €209bn of Russian fuel since start of the war. The EU and Ukraine’s Western allies have paid more to Russia for its fuel than they’ve provided in aid to Ukraine, data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air shows. Russia earned over $233 billion from fossil fuel exports to EU countries between February 2022 and February 2025. In contrast, total aid allocated to Ukraine during the same period amounted to $73 billion. In the past year alone, Europe’s gas imports from Russia rose by up to 20%, with LNG exports hitting record highs. (Source: France 24)
Ukraine
31.05.2025 ’Ukraine has signed a licensing agreement to use NATO's non-commercial Command and Reporting Center (CRC) System Interface software’, which will allow its and the alliance's aircraft to coordinate operations within a unified digital system, Deputy Defense Minister Chernohorenko announced on Friday. The CSI software is a key component of NATO's Link-16 data exchange protocol, also known as the alliance's military Wi-Fi. It will aid in the coordination and control of Western-supplied aircraft such as the F-16 and Mirage 2000, as well as integrated air and missile defense systems such as the Patriot. NATO has yet to issue a public statement on the development. The CSI software is already in use by most NATO member states. Its deployment marks a major step in aligning Ukraine’s digital battle management capabilities with those of the alliance. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Asia
Iran
5/31/2025 Iran and the U.S. have held five rounds of nuclear talks and are seeking to complete a framework for a deal that would set out joint positions on key issues to be decided. President Trump has said the talks are progressing well. The two sides are divided on whether Iran can continue to enrich uranium under a deal. Iran has continued to produce highly enriched uranium at a pace of roughly one nuclear weapon’s worth a month over the past three months despite talks between Washington and Tehran on a new nuclear deal, the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency atomic agency said in a confidential report circulated to member states. Iran had grown its stockpile of 60%-enriched uranium to 408.6 kilograms from 274.8 kilograms in early February. In its documents circulated to member states on Saturday, the IAEA also presented a comprehensive, longer report detailing Iran’s failure to cooperate with a probe, started in 2019, into undeclared nuclear material found in Iran. The report was demanded by European powers. European officials have said they will decide by the summer whether to press ahead with the so-called snapback of sanctions on Iran at the U.N. Security Council, if Tehran doesn’t start to fully cooperate with the nuclear probe. The option of reimposing the sanctions expires in October under the 2015 agreement. Iran says it has answered the questions with all information available. The agency said in its report that Iran’s ’lack of answers and clarifications’ has led it to conclude that Tehran had an undeclared structured nuclear program until the 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material. ’Iran retained unknown nuclear material and/or heavily contaminated equipment, and other assets, arising from’ the nuclear program at a site in Tehran from 2009 until 2018, ’after which items were removed from the location.’ ’The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear-weapon State to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern,’ IAEA Director General Grossi said in the report. The agency said in its report that Iran’s lack of technically credible answers leaves open the possibility that Iran may still have undeclared nuclear material that it is able to use for non-civilian purposes. President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb, White House press secretary Leavitt said Saturday, adding that Trump’s special envoy Witkoff had sent a detailed proposal to Iran. “It’s in their best interest to accept it.” Even if a framework is agreed, it could take protracted and difficult technical talks to reach a final deal. Trump withdrew the U.S. in 2018 from the 2015 nuclear agreement, which placed tight but temporary restrictions on Iran in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. In a joint statement by Iran’s foreign ministry and atomic agency, Tehran called the IAEA report unbalanced and labeled some of the charges baseless. Iran has warned it could withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and change its nuclear doctrine if sanctions are reimposed. The country’s leadership has pledged not to pursue nuclear weapons. Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never acknowledged that, has threatened military strikes against Iran’s nuclear facility if Tehran seeks to build a bomb. Trump confirmed this week he had told Israel that attacking Iran now wouldn’t be appropriate. In 2024, U.S. intelligence officials said Iran was carrying out work that would help Tehran learn how to make a nuclear weapon. (Source: MSN / The Wall Street Journal = U.S.)
North America
United States
31 May 2025 US President Trump said yesterday that he would double steel and aluminium import tariffs to 50 percent from next week, aimed at protecting domestic industries. According to the US International Trade Administration, from March 2024 to February 2025, Brazil was the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States with 3.7 million metric tons, followed by Mexico with 2.9 million. The first is Canada. Argentina, whose President Milei maintains a close relationship with Trump, was the sixth-largest exporter of aluminum in 2024 to the United States, with more than 176,000 metric tons, according to US data. The United States imports about half of the steel and aluminium it uses in industries such as automotive, aeronautics, petrochemicals and consumer staples such as canned goods. (Source: Buenos Aires Times - Argentina)
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