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Europe
Germany
15.07.2025 The fact that the Basic Law binds the Federal Republic of Germany to the international community and commits German state authority to international cooperation must also be taken into consideration, the judges said in their ruling. They added: "It is a constitutionally enshrined goal to guarantee the Federal Republic of Germany's capacity to act and form coalitions in the context of foreign policy and to ensure its participation in international cooperation." The judges further claimed that Germany’s capacity to form coalitions is a constitutional interest that must also be taken into account when specifying extraterritorial duties of protection. The case stems from a 2012 US drone attack in the Yemeni village of Khashamer that killed two members of the Jaber family. The family filed a lawsuit against the German government with the Cologne Administrative Court in 2014, demanding Germany stop allowing Ramstein to be used for US drone attacks that violate international law. While the Munster Higher Administrative Court ruled in a 2019 appeal that Germany has a constitutional duty to protect those potentially affected by US drone missions conducted via Ramstein, the Federal Administrative Court overturned this decision in 2020. The Jaber family subsequently filed a constitutional complaint in 2021. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
July 15, 2025 In response to a complaint from two Yemeni nationals, the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled today that Germany is not violating international law by allowing the U.S. to partly operate drones from its territory. The complainants argued the German government shared responsibility for attack by hosting infrastructure for the U.S. military and called on Germany to prevent American drone attacks. They also insisted that Germany violated Article 2 of its constitution, which guarantees the inviolable right to life and physical integrity. According to the victims’ lawyers, this constitutional duty of protection also applied to individuals abroad. Judges said that Germany did not bear responsibility for American military action routed through satellite infrastructure based at the Ramstein Air Base, in Rhineland-Palatinate, southwestern Germany. The trial marked another chapter in a long-running debate about whether Germany is responsible for U.S. military action run from Ramstein. In 2010, Berlin didn't object after the U.S. military informed the German government of its plans to install a satellite relay station on air base grounds in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Even though attack drones are controlled from inside the United States, the command signals are routed through the satellite infrastructure based in Germany. (Source: Politico - based in U.S., owned by a German company)
European Commission
(15 July 2025) The European Union has finalised a second list of countermeasures to target US goods worth €72 billion, including Boeing aircraft and bourbon if it decides to retaliate as transatlantic trade tensions intensify. The additional duties would also be slapped on machinery products, chemicals and plastics, medical devices, electrical equipment, wines and other agricultural goods, according to a 206-page list prepared by the European Commission. The EU’s new list of targeted US products includes more than €65 billion of industrial goods, including mostly aircraft (nearly €11 billion), machinery (more than €9.4 billion) and cars (nearly €8 billion). More than €6 billion of US goods hit are agrifood products, mostly fruits and vegetables (nearly €2 billion) and alcoholic drinks (€1.2 billion). The broad package also includes precision equipment and instruments (nearly €5 billion), toys and hobby equipment (more than €500 million), sports guns (nearly €300 million) or musical instruments (around €200 million). 'Imported military products will not be subject to the duties.' (Source: Luxembourg Times)
European Parliament
July 15, 2025 Slovakia risks becoming the next Hungary, EU lawmakers 'fear'. Wilmés, the former Belgian prime minister who now chairs the Parliament’s watchdog for rule of law and democracy, led a group to Slovakia from June 1-3. /Photo/ (Source: PoliticoU.S.)
Eurasia
15 July 2025 6:00am BST Two sworn enemies are now aligned against Moscow. Armenia aligns with Azerbaijan and threaten Russia’s last big card in the Caucasus. The collapse of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan began with the arrest of seven nationals from the former Soviet republic last month in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. They were held as part of an investigation by Moscow into mafia-style killings dating back 25 years. Within days, two suspects – both ethnic Azerbaijanis – died in custody. Others appeared in court visibly bruised and beaten. The Azerbaijani authorities are using the situation to bolster their position at home and abroad by escalating tensions with Moscow. In Azerbaijan Russian cultural events were cancelled, the Baku bureau of the Kremlin-owned Sputnik news agency was raided, a group of Russian IT workers was arrested and accused of drug-trafficking and cybercrime. Then came the threat, on Russian state TV, that Baku could be taken in three days, echoing rhetoric used before the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The shift was underlined by a publicised call between Mr Aliyev and Zelensky, in which they discussed forming closer ties. Armenia, after fighting a series of brutal wars with Azerbaijan over 30 years, is aligning with its old enemy ’to push Putin out of the South Caucasus’. On July 10, Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, met Nikol Pashinyan, the prime minister of Armenia. Their direct talks focused on the Zangezur Corridor, a proposed route linking Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave via southern Armenia. The corridor would fulfil a pan-Turkic dream of physically connecting Azerbaijan with Turkey and would form part of the “Middle Corridor” trade route from China and Central Asia to Europe. Under the 2020 ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the route was to be monitored by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). It allows Russia to control trade routes and leverage relationships with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Now Mr Aliyev is wanting to cut Moscow out of the deal and have it fully under Azerbaijani control. The fallout threatens Russia’s prized North-South Corridor – a trade route linking Moscow to Iran and India that runs through Azerbaijan. Losing access to the corridor could deliver a real economic blow, especially as Russia seeks ways to get around Western sanctions. Mr Pashinyan visited Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, in Istanbul last month, to discuss the Zangezur Corridor. Armenia and Turkey have no formal diplomatic ties. Mr Pashinyan has one of the lowest approval ratings of any leader in the world. Like Azerbaijan’s, Armenia’s ties with Moscow have frayed – especially since 2023, when Russian peacekeepers largely stood aside during Baku’s lightning offensive to retake the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Nearly the entire Armenian population fled, and Azerbaijan was accused of ethnic cleansing. Since then Mr Pashinyan has leaned towards the West and sought reconciliation with Baku, believing that Armenia’s long-term future is threatened if it maintains hostile relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey. The West has floated the idea of putting the route under neutral international control, such as a Swiss or American firm, effectively excluding Russia altogether. The Kremlin, meanwhile, is trying to reframe the standoff as a Western plot. “The scriptwriter and conductor of disagreements with Azerbaijan is located outside the post-Soviet space,” said Karasin, chairman of Russia’s international affairs committee. Dzhabarov, a Russian senator and former KGB officer, went further by accusing MI6 and Turkey of stirring unrest. For now, Russia will continue blaming the West while working behind the scenes to try to salvage its relationships. (Source: The Telegraph – United Kingdom)
Asia
Israel
7:07 PM CEST, July 15, 2025 An Israeli ultra-Orthodox party that has been a key governing partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early today it was leaving the coalition government. United Torah Judaism’s two factions said they were leaving the government because of disagreements over a proposed law that would end broad exemptions for religious students from enlistment into the military. The ultra-Orthodox say their men are serving the country by studying sacred Jewish texts and preserving centuries’ old tradition. They fear that mandatory enlistment will dilute adherents’ connection to the faith. But a court last year ruled Netanyahu’s government must enlist the ultra-Orthodox so long as there is no new law codifying the exemptions. Without UTJ, the coalition holds just 61 out of parliament’s 120 seats. Elections are currently scheduled for October 2026. Since the start of the war in Gaza, demand for military manpower has grown and 'hundreds of soldiers have been killed'. (Source: AP - U.S.)
Japan
July 15, 2025 Japanese media revealed on July 6 that Japan plans to transfer its Abukuma-class destroyer escorts - six 30-year-old warships - to the Philippines, potentially marking the first such export in modern Japanese history. (Source: Forecast International’s Defense & Security Monitor - U.S.)
Syria
July 15, 2025 | 11:01 Israel strikes military tanks in Syria, where government forces clash with Druze militias. "We will not allow harm to the Druze in Syria,” Israeli Defence Minister Katz said in a statement. Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. The Druze developed their own militias during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war, during which they sometimes faced attacks by the islamic state group and other militant groups. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. On several occasions, Druze groups have clashed with security forces from the new government or allied factions. In May, dozens were killed in fighting between pro-government gunmen and Druze fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana. In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces. Israel was saying it does not want Islamic militants near its borders. Syria's Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people have died and nearly 100 others have been injured, including 14 members of the security forces. (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates / Associated Press - U.S.)
North America
United States
7/15/2025 Trump admitted during a press conference yesterday that it was his wife who played a key role in pointing out the duplicity of the Russian president. “I go home, I tell the first lady: I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “She said: Really? Another city was just hit.’ He added: “We thought we had a deal numerous times. I get home, I’d say, ‘First Lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we’re finished.’ And then I’d turn on the television or she’ll say to me one time, ‘Well that’s strange because they just bombed a nursing home.’’ Melania being the one to help prevent a complete abandonment of Ukraine from this admin is not what I expected but also tracks exactly with how Trump makes decisions, quipped an user, referring to an oft-cited adage on social media that Trump tends ’to parrot’ the opinions of the last person who spoke to him. Following the latest setback with Putin, Trump reportedly asked Zelensky if his country’s military was able to hit Moscow and St. Petersburg with missiles in order to make Russia feel the pain. The president also threatened Russia with severe tariffs if Putin does not agree to a ceasefire within 50 days. (Source: MSN / The Daily Beast = U.S.)
15 July 2025 Weapons for some, tariffs for others. As part of a multi-billion-dollar agreement ’between NATO and the United States’, Ukraine is set to receive a large amount of American military equipment paid for by several European countries in the Atlantic alliance. The US President has also announced the introduction of 100 percent tariffs against Russia's economic partners if a peace agreement is not reached within 50 days. However, with 50 days to prepare for sanctions, some believe that the Kremlin is getting off lightly. Others question whether such tariffs can even be enforced: they would inevitably damage diplomatic relations between the United States and countries like China, India and Turkey, which buy their oil from Russia. /Cartoon/ (Source: Voxeurop - headquarters in Paris, France)
July 15, 2025 / 10:36 AM EDT Trump threatens countries that do business with Russia with 100% tariffs. Here's who it could impact. After Mr. Trump warned of the possible 100% secondary tariffs, Russia's stock market rose 2.7%, and the value of the Russian rouble actually strengthened relative to the dollar. (Source: CBS News - U.S.)
Tuesday 15 July 2025 15:28 BST 'Trump has privately discussed striking Moscow with Zelensky', as he considers whether to send long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, according to reports. In a recent phone call, Mr Trump asked him why he had not struck Moscow to ramp up the pressure on the Kremlin. 'We can, if you give us the weapons,' Mr Zelensky responded, a source told the The Washington Post. 'The US president has privately encouraged Kyiv to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, the Financial Times reported. He is considering sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, one of the weapons used by the US in its dramatic strikes on Iran last month, according to the Post'. Mr Trump has committed billions of dollars of American weapons to Ukraine, a significant boost to Ukraine’s war effort and the relationship between Kyiv and Washington. The medium-to-long-range cruise missiles could reach Moscow - but they are not currently on the list of supplies the US is due to send. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
8:30 am, July 15, 2025 The U.S. Senate will put off advancing a bill to tighten sanctions against Russia and its trading partners after President Trump signaled that he is prepared to take action unilaterally, Senate Majority Leader Thune said yesterday. The bipartisan sanctions bill, introduced by Republican Senator Graham and Democratic Senator Blumenthal, calls for 500-percent tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian oil, natural gas, or uranium - including China, Brazil, and India. The bill has the support of 85 senators. Earlier, Trump delivered his promised statement on Russia, declaring that if no ceasefire agreement is reached in Ukraine within 50 days, the United States will impose 100-percent tariffs on imports from Russia and its trading partners. He also announced that 'the United States and the European Union had reached an agreement to supply arms to Kyiv, with Europe covering the costs'. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)
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