Egyik 19

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Europe

Germany
11.06.2025  26% of immigrants - approximately 2.6 million people - consider leaving Germany. ’The main reasons include political dissatisfaction, discrimination in the workplace and during interactions with authorities, high tax burden, and bureaucratic hurdles’. Family considerations and ’better economic prospects in other countries’ are additional factors driving this trend - around 1.2 million (12%) plan to stay temporarily,. while approximately 3 million (30%) are unsure. Approximately 300,000 (3%) already having concrete emigration plans. The EU’s largest economy is currently grappling with an aging population and a substantial shortage of qualified workers in the information technology, renewable energy, construction, and medical sectors. The study found that knowledge-intensive sectors - particularly IT, financial services, and insurance - were most affected, with 30 to 39% of surveyed migrants in these fields indicating they might leave Germany. A slim majority of immigrants (57%, or roughly 5.7 million people) want to stay in Germany permanently. "Those who immigrated for work or education, who have higher education levels, greater economic success, and better language integration, are more likely to consider leaving or have concrete emigration plans," explained IAB researcher Olbrich. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Union
12 Jun 2025 2025  European Heritage Awards winners announced. (Source: European Commission)

Ukraine
June 12, 2025  The June 10 attack. In the early hours of June 10, Kyiv experienced a prolonged aerial assault involving more than 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. The attack lasted for five hours, took place across seven of the capital’s ten districts, featured a combined total of 315 aerial threats and was launched in waves throughout the early morning hours to overwhelm the capital’s air defense systems through sheer volume and tactical diversity, designed to exhaust interceptor stockpiles and exploit gaps in radar coverage. The attack inflicted significant destruction on Ukrainian infrastructure. The drones used in the attack were primarily, the Iranian-made Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 loitering munitions. Russia also launched Iskander-M ballistic missiles and probably Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence announced that it had intercepted 277 out of the 315 aerial threats. The defense network consists of many Western systems, including the IRIS-T, NASAM, and Patriot missiles, as well as legacy Soviet systems such as the S-300. Key infrastructure, including Kyiv’s power grid and major hospitals, remained operational throughout the attack. Repeated attacks of this scale will deplete missile defense stockpiles faster than they can be replenished. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

Africa

South Africa
(Wednesday), 11 Jun 2025  Torrential rain, flooding and landslides claim 49 lives in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, which stretches from the Indian Ocean into high inland mountains, after the severe winter storm truck on Monday with heavy rainfall, snowfalls and strong winds causing damage. (Source: The Guardian – Nigeria)

Asia

India
8:38 PM CEST, June 12, 2025  One passenger survived the crash of an Air India plane bound for London today in Ahmedabad. Air India said the flight bound for London Gatwick Airport was carrying 242 passengers and crew, with 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian aboard. The death toll includes medical students who were in a college hostel when the plane hit the building shortly after takeoff. It appeared the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing. This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner twin-engine aircraft introduced in 2009. Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled nearly 9% before trading opened in the U.S. (Source: AP - U.S.) 

Iran
12 June 2025 - 10:43  Where are Iran's nuclear facilities? Busher, Fordow, Isfahan, Khondab, Natanz, Tehran Research Centre. A complex at the heart of Iran's enrichment programme on a plain abutting mountains outside the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, Natanz houses two enrichment plants: the vast, underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) and the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP). The FEP was built for enrichment on a commercial scale, able to house 50,000 centrifuges. About 16,000 centrifuges are installed there, roughly 13,000 of which are in operation, refining uranium to up to 5% purity. FEP is about three floors below ground. Damage has been done to centrifuges at the FEP, including an explosion and power cut in April 2021 that Iran said was an attack by Israel. The above-ground PFEP houses only hundreds of centrifuges but Iran is enriching to up to 60% purity there. Fordow, on the opposite side of Qom is an enrichment site dug into a mountain and therefore probably better protected from potential bombardment than the FEP. The 2015 deal with major powers did not allow Iran to enrich at Fordow at all. It now has about 2,000 centrifuges operating there, most of them advanced IR-6 machines, of which up to 350 are enriching to up to 60%. Isfahan, Iran's second largest city has a large nuclear technology centre on the outskirts. It includes the Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant (FPFP) and the uranium conversion facility (UCF) that can process uranium into the uranium hexafluoride that is fed into centrifuges. Iran also stores enriched uranium at Isfahan. There is equipment to make uranium metal, a process that is particularly proliferation-sensitive since it can be used to devise the core of a nuclear bomb. The IAEA has said there are machines for making centrifuge parts at Isfahan, describing it in 2022 as a new location. In Khondab Iran has a partially built heavy-water research reactor originally called Arak. Heavy-water reactors pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they can easily produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atom bomb. Under the 2015 deal, construction was halted, the reactor's core was removed and filled with concrete to make it unusable. The reactor was to be redesigned “to minimise the production of plutonium and not to produce weapon-grade plutonium in normal operation”. Iran has informed the IAEA that it plans to start operating the reactor in 2026. Iran's nuclear research facilities in Tehran include a research reactor. Iran's only operating nuclear power plant in Busher, on the Gulf coast, uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it is spent, reducing the proliferation risk. (Source: TimesLive - South Africa)

June 12, 2025  Iran has rejected the latest U.S. nuclear proposal. Supreme Leader Khamenei dismissed calls to halt uranium enrichment, calling them contrary to Iran’s national interests. “Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” Khamenei said. U.S. President Trump has threatened military action if negotiations fail. His envoy, Witkoff, called Iranian uranium enrichment a red line. Javan Daily, the newspaper affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards reported that Iran is prepared to walk away from nuclear negotiations if its demands are not met. It claimed Iran is negotiating from a position of strength, with its nuclear capabilities serving as a deterrent against threats. (Source: IranWire - owned by a UK-based company, registered office address: London, United Kingdom)

June 12, 2025  The U.S. anticipates potential retaliation from Iran, particularly against American sites in Iraq, where pro-Iranian militias previously attacked the embassy in Baghdad following the 2020 killing of Iranian commander Soleimani. The Islamic Republic's Defense Minister warned yesterday that Tehran would target all American bases in the region if a conflict were to erupt. ’We will target all American bases in host countries without hesitation.’ He added that Iran would not remain passive and would retaliate decisively against any aggression. (Source: IranWire - owned by a UK-based company, registered office address: London, United Kingdom)

12 June 2025, 10:03  The 6th round of Iran US talks will be held in Muscat this Sunday the 15th, Oman's foreign minister Busaidi made the announcement on the social platform X. Within hours, it also emerged that Israel is now understood to be considering military action against Iran in the coming days. Sources have told US media a strike could be imminent as Washington and Tehran move closer to agreeing provisions for uranium enrichment. Israel views that as unacceptable as it aims to curb Iran's nuclear capabilities. An accord could see the US lift some of its crushing economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for it drastically limiting or ending its enrichment of uranium. A failure to get a deal could see tensions further spike in a Middle East on edge over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. (Source: LBC – United Kingdom)

North America

United States
12 June 2025  With Israel preparing to strike Iran quickly if Witkoff's diplomacy fails this weekend, U.S. fears Iran's response to Israeli strike would be mass casualty event. Last Thursday, President Trump's envoy Witkoff held a closed-door briefing on Iran with a group of top Senate Republicans. Witkoff told the Senators that military strikes by Israel are on the table if no agreement is reached. He then brought up Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. Witkoff warned that Iran could unleash a mass casualty response and damage if Israel bombs their nuclear facilities. The U.S. is concerned Israel's air defenses would not be able to handle an Iranian response involving hundreds of missiles. According to U.S. intelligence estimates, Iran has 2,000 ballistic missiles with warheads that can carry 2,000 pounds of explosives or more. Israel is within range for many of these missiles. An U.S. official said the Iranian goal is to produce more ballistic missiles than the number of missile defense interceptors Israel has. Iran's retaliation could overwhelm Israel's defenses and cause heavy damage, he said. Iran has also vowed to strike U.S. targets in the region in the event of an attack on its nuclear sites. Testifying today before the House Armed Services Committee, CENTCOM commander Gen. Kurilla said an Israeli strike on Iran would expose U.S. forces in the Middle East to the threat of Iranian retaliation. Gen. Kurilla is no longer expected to travel to Israel this weekend. The U.S. is in the process of withdrawing diplomats and military families who could be in harm's way. The State Department imposed security restrictions today on U.S. diplomats and their families in Israel. Israeli officials say the Israel Defense Forces are on high alert. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’has been waiting for a green light from Trump to make his move’. ’The fact that two previous Iranian missile attacks ended with limited damage and few casualties gave Israeli officials confidence they could deal with similar attacks in the future’. Israel's security cabinet will convene today to discuss the crisis. Witkoff spoke yesterday with Netanyahu about the rising tensions, and will meet his top adviser Dermer tomorrow, ahead of his trip to Oman, along with Mossad director Barnea. Trump stressed today that he wants to avoid conflict but said that will require concessions that Iran has been unwilling to make. Trump added that he still wants a deal and would prefer Israel not do anything to ruin it so long as there's a chance. (Source: Axios - U.S.)

12.06.2025  Sources with knowledge of the situation said that Israel views any nuclear agreement between the US and Iran, particularly if it allows Tehran to enrich uranium, as unacceptable. The sources, however, said they were unaware of any US plans for direct involvement in any possible Israeli strike against Iran. While the US demands a complete halt to enrichment, Iranian negotiators insist the program is non-negotiable and will continue with or without a deal. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Jun 12, 2025, 5:20pm GMT+2  The White House and Congress will need to make hard decisions about how America sees its vast migrant workforce. Even the most dedicated restrictionists, like White House border czar Homan, acknowledge that criminals are a tiny minority. The Trump administration is planning to ramp up civil and criminal prosecutions of companies that employ workers without legal status, Homan said in an interview yesterday. “They’re coming here for a better life and a job, and I get that,” Homan said. “The more you remove those magnets, the less people are going to come. If they can’t get a job most of them aren’t going to come.” Behind the scenes, American companies are freaking out, calling in a panic about the possibility of civil and criminal sanctions, or about the operational impact of losing a huge labor force, said Thomas, a partner at Holland & Hart, who represents employers in immigration cases. Trump appeared to respond to those worries today morning: “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he posted on Truth Social, promising that changes are coming. Major public companies have begun to warn investors that their models depend on migrant labor. Unlike most developed economies, the US has no standardized national requirement that employers use its system for checking workers’ papers, known as eVerify - and many workers evade that system by using a different legal worker’s identity. Almost a quarter of construction workers lack legal status, a 2021 survey found, and as many as half of meatpacking workers. A focus on those industries could also undercut two of Trump’s campaign promises: to make housing more affordable and bring down food prices. While cameras roll for dramatic deportation footage, the industries dependent on illegal migration are maintaining business as usual. “Congress has a job to do,” Homan said. “We’re going to do worksite enforcement operations until there’s a deal made.” Democrats may also see employers, rather than workers, at the center of the debate. The prospect of a bipartisan agreement seems as remote as ever. The US has struggled for decades to reach an agreement to regularize the “magnet” of migration, a tacit agreement system. “I truly believe that nobody hires an illegal alien from the goodness of their heart. They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, and undercut their competition - that hires US citizen employees, and drive wages down,” he told. (Source: Semafor – U.S.)

06/12/25 10:34 AM ET  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new poster online featuring World War II imagery, urging citizens to help locate and report immigrants who are in the country without documentation. Help your country and yourself, reads the poster, which shows Uncle Sam with a hammer nailing a flier to a wall. Report all foreign invaders, it says, providing a phone number to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Trump ordered plans for the U.S. military to assist in his deportation efforts, as DHS officials say threats against ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers have ramped up in recent weeks. (Source: The Hill – U.S.)
See also the poster: June 11, 2025 5:22 pm "Help your country locate and arrest illegal aliens" (Source: X / Homeland Security = U.S.)
14,7Million views

Jun 12, 2025 08:22 IST  Talks between the US and Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program appear to have hit an impasse. US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. (Source: India Today)

June 12, 2025 12:00 AM GMT+2  United States is preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and will allow military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region. The partial evacuations come after 18 months of war in Gaza that has raised fears of a wider conflagration pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and its allies. In an interview released today, Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear programme fail and he said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand. A senior Iranian official told that a military threat has always been part of the United States’ negotiation tactics with Iran. Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon and U.S. militarism only fuels instability, Iran's U.N. mission today posted on X. Iranian Defence Minister Nasirzadeh said today that if Iran was subjected to strikes it would retaliate by hitting U.S. bases in the region. The United States has a military presence across the major oil-producing region, with bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. In recent months the United States had deployed more military assets in the Middle East -- including B-2 bombers, which have since been replaced, and extending the deployment of a second aircraft carrier, which has since departed. Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and its arch regional foe Iran, hosts 2,500 U.S. troops. Iraq's state news agency cited a government source as saying Baghdad had not recorded any security indication that called for an evacuation. Oil futures climbed $3 on reports of the Baghdad evacuation with Brent crude futures at $69.18 a barrel. Earlier today Britain's maritime agency warned that increased tensions in the Middle East may lead to an escalation in military activity. It advised vessels to use caution while travelling through the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz, which all border Iran. The next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States are due in the coming days with Iran expected to hand over a counter proposal after rejecting an offer by Washington. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

6/12/2025  Los Angeles yesterday endured a sixth day of protests that have been largely peaceful but occasionally punctuated by violence, mostly contained to a few blocks. "Los Angeles was safe and sound for the last two nights. Our great National Guard, with a little help from the Marines, put the L.A. Police in a position to effectively do their job," Trump posted on social media today. "They all worked well together, but without the Military, Los Angeles would be a crime scene like we haven’t seen in years." Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to deport immigrants, employing forceful tactics consistent with the norm-breaking political style that got him elected twice. A battalion of 700 Marines would join the National Guard under the authority of a federal law known as Title 10, not to conduct civilian policing but to protect federal officers and property, the military said. "Title 10 forces may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances such as to stop an assault, to prevent harm to others, or to prevent interference with federal personnel performing their duties," the Northern Command said. (Source: MSN - U.S.  / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Wednesday 11 June 2025 18:54 BST  The State Department is preparing to order the departure of all nonessential personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad due to the potential for regional unrest. The Baghdad embassy has already been on limited staffing, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel, but the department also is authorizing the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait. That gives them an option on whether to leave the country. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

6.11.2025 1:40 PM  Polling shows that Trump's focus on the border and his promise to stop the flow of immigrants was a major factor in convincing voters to give him another try at the presidency. The border is no longer the focus. Four months after Trump returned to the Oval Office, the number of migrants crossing the southern border in recent months has been a fraction of what was seen over the past few years. But Trump - and his anti-immigrant advisors, like White House Deputy Chief of Staff Miller - are still in crisis mode. Now, the White House wants you to believe that the crisis extends to nail salons, hardware stores, farms, and restaurants across the country, where undocumented immigrants who are peacefully exchanging labor for dollars are being targeted. Here's how The Wall Street Journal summarizes what's happening: "Federal agents make warrantless arrests. Masked agents take people into custody without identifying themselves. Plainclothes agents in at least a dozen cities have arrested migrants who showed up to their court hearings. And across the U.S., people suspected of being in the country illegally are disappearing into the federal detention system without notice to families or lawyers, according to attorneys, witnesses and officials." The White House wants Americans to believe that rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in communities across the country is merely an extension of its efforts to fix the border crisis and prevent dangerous criminals from entering the country illegally. Distinctions can be lost and context collapses in the face of a crisis. It is one thing for the administration to target criminals and gang members who have done actual harm to people and property.  That is not what is currently happening - as Miller's edict demanding more disruptive arrests makes clear. These workplace raids are not just a new front in the Trump administration's war on immigration. They are a different policy altogether. One that the administration can gleefully use to justify further escalations of force that will erode the civil liberties of immigrants ’and American citizens alike’. (Source: Reason. – U.S.)

(Wednesday), 17:07 ET, Jun 11 2025  The anti-ICE riotests continued through today in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city - with another downtown curfew anticipated today night to stop vandalism and looting. White House Press Secretary Leavitt suggested that police in Los Angeles were not being allowed to do their jobs by the Governor of California. A federal judge in San Francisco denied California's request to immediately block Trump from using Marines and members of the state's National Guard on Tuesday, despite Gov. Newsom's pleas. (Source: The Mirror US)

June 11, 2025, 5:20 a.m. ET  On the fifth day of protests in Los Angeles against federal immigration raids, yesterday evening, from a studio in Los Angeles, in a nationally televised address, Gov. Newsom of California implored demonstrators to be peaceful and said those who incited violence or destroy property would be prosecuted. He said 370 people had been arrested so far. Newsom made the case that President Trump’s decision to send military forces to immigration protests in Los Angeles ’has put the nation at the precipice of authoritarianism’. “You are the ultimate authoritarian who shut down restaurants and masked our kids while you went to the French Laundry,’ Gallagher, the Republican leader of the California State Assembly said on X, referencing a dinner party at the famed Napa Valley restaurant that Newsom attended while gatherings were restricted in 2020. The governor is considered a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2028. The address was an unusual move for Mr. Newsom, who has dyslexia and dislikes reading from a teleprompter to deliver formal speeches. Well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals, Mr. Trump's agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses, Newsom said, and that Mr. Trump had inflamed a combustible situation by taking over California’s National Guard, and by calling up 4,000 troops and 700 Marines. ’Other states are next. Democracy is next’, he said. Newsom called on Americans to stand up to President Trump. Not since the civil rights movement in the 1960s has a president sent National Guard troops to quell unrest without the support of the state’s governor. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

Globalization

6/12/2025  The annual Bilderberg Meeting formed in 1954 to foster dialogue between the U.S. and Europe kicks off in Sweden today. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will give a speech on Sweden's and the EU's competitiveness and Sweden's support for Ukraine. Transatlantic relations top the agenda, with Ukraine, critical raw materials and AI also on the list, the organisers said. Other than that, information is scarce. (Source: MSN - U.S. / Reuters - United Kingdom)
See also: This year's delegate list, published by the organisers. (Source: Bilderberg Meetings)

Sun

June 11, 2025  Chaotic solar magnetism in the solar polar region - first-ever images of Sun’s South Pole released by the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

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January, 2020  Bitter rivals.  Iran and Saudi Arabia's 40-year rivalry has plunged the Middle East into sectarian war, fueled sectarian extremism across the Middle East for political gain. Correspondent Smith travels to seven countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen to examine how the power struggle has rippled across the region. /Video - Full documentary, Part One/ (Source: PBS – U.S.)
Note: Since Jan 8, 2020: 3 650 264 views

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France
Aug 27, 2024  In February, France’s President Macron went full hawk on Ukraine by declaring a potential willingness to deploy French troops in Ukraine and then abruptly disappeared from the radar. He went to the Védrine school of international relations, the French foreign minister (1997-2002). Macron appreciates the views of former Prime Minister de Villepin (2005-2007), famous for his strong stance against the war in Iraq and Western interventionism. He also takes inspiration from former President Sarközy (2007-2012), who supports the need to simultaneously build up the European Union, remain in NATO, and seek rapprochement and accommodation with Russia. Macron respects the alliance with the United States but also understands that France’s interests do not always align with Washington’s views. He wants France to play its own part in order to stay relevant on the world stage and remain engaged with Russia, China, and the ’Global South.” When the war in Ukraine started, Macron tried to play the mediator. He visited Putin in Moscow in early February 2022. Macron believed he had averted war after a phone call with the Kremlin. The next day, however, Putin called to tell him he would recognize the independence of the Donbas. In June, Macron warned the West against any aim to humiliate Russia, seemingly in contrast to the hard line of London and Washington. By late 2023 and early 2024, French intelligence had concluded that Ukraine was hopelessly losing the war. Macron had the June elections to the European Parliament on his calendar and little to show for his seven years in power. He lacked the parliamentary majority he enjoyed before. Macron needed something to campaign on for the European elections. Faced with the prospect of a direct clash with a NATO country, Macron believed Putin would be more open to negotiation. And "he believed a hawkish stance would also serve to neutralize Germany’s incentives to rearm” - with France in command, Berlin would feel less need to step up militarily against Russia. French officers warned the president that their forces were in no shape to take on the far larger and battle-hardened Russian military and that a small expeditionary force would likely be decimated without achieving much. Beyond Ukraine, however, assuming the role of the savior of Europe and the “Free World” would serve electoral purposes and help seal German Pandora’s box of rearmament. Macron continued hinting at direct French involvement until June 7, two days before the vote. In June’s European elections, however, Macron’s party suffered a rout. In July, it also lost the parliamentary elections, although that defeat was less severe than feared. The vast majority of the electorate is clearly opposed to sending troops to Ukraine. Already deeply unpopular and isolated, Macron will be unwilling to risk hundreds of French lives for such a distant war nobody wants. Also, German and American exhaustion with the war has already led to a sharp reduction in financial and military support for Kyiv. France has so far proved unwilling to replace them. In late June, Macron promised he would not send French troops to Ukraine for the foreseeable future. Macron’s diplomatic scheme achieved little, as Moscow remained un-phased. And Macron’s core foreign policy principles only partially align with the Biden administration’s focus on the liberal international order. Macron knows full well what Washington likes to hear and throws around the right rhetoric to garner its support but France remains an independent-minded ally with distinct interests. (Source: Responsible Statecraft - U.S.)
by Motin, who holds a Ph.D. in political science, currently a non-resident Kelly Fellow at the Pacific Forum and a researcher at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, author of Bandwagoning in International Relations: China, Russia, and Their Neighbors (Vernon Press, 2024).

Russia
Aug 27, 2024  Russia’s most formidable challenge has been finding ways to credibly deter the West from continuing to aid and supply Ukraine. Just under 30 months ago, the day the invasion commenced, Russian President Putin warned that anyone who interferes will suffer consequences like you have never seen. Putin’s latest scheme to dissuade further Western involvement in the Ukraine war was to threaten to arm the West’s adversaries in retaliation. Russia lacks the capacity to make good on it without running a red pen through other parts of its global portfolio of military, economic, and political interests. Russia is running out of Western enemies that can be armed without negatively impacting its own interests. The limitations point to a set of expectations and norms that, though never codified and largely unspoken, nevertheless has a real disciplining effect on its participants. Just as the Kremlin was reportedly getting ready to arm the Houthi rebels in Yemen against the United States, Washington coordinated a diplomatic push with Saudi Arabia to stay Moscow’s hand. Russia and North Korea signed a defense pact in June, but there is no evidence to date that the Russians are planning to send any major weapons shipments to North Korea. It’s so far been the other way around, with the DPRK shipping millions of artillery shells to Russia. There has not been anything approximating a comparable exchange of weapons between Moscow and Pyongyang. Any large-scale effort to arm the DPRK could prove fatal to Russia’s relations with South Korea, which have not completely tanked following the 2022 Ukraine invasion despite the ROK’s tight-knit partnership with Washington and obvious susceptibility to U.S. interests. Beijing, too, would be left unsmiling by the destabilizing effects that large Russian arms infusions into North Korea could exercise throughout the region, and the China relationship is one Russia can ill afford to complicate. Turning to the Middle East, Iran emerges as an obvious candidate for Russia’s generosity - it is, after all, a U.S. adversary locked in a bitter struggle with one of America’s closest allies, Israel.  But here, too, the Kremlin finds itself navigating. Part of Russia’s complex Middle East strategy following its intervention in the Syrian civil war has been to support a stable, partner-level relationship with Israel. Both Putin and his Israeli counterpart Bibi Netanyahu regard cordial ties between their two countries as a personal achievement, and they have been remarkably loath to jettison this relationship even as the Ukraine war and 2023 Gaza War have found them on different sides of the barricade. Though Moscow has recurrently needled Israel over its conduct in Gaza, these kinds of rhetorical pinpricks are one thing; supplying Israel’s avowed Iranian enemy with major weapons systems is quite another, and, so far, not a bridge Putin has been willing to cross. Smaller potential players remain in Latin America and parts of Africa, but in these cases, the impact of such provisions is likely to be far too small to carry the punitive effect that is Russia’s raison d'être for pursuing this arms transfer policy in the first place. (Source: Responsible Statecraft – U.S.)
by Episkopos, a Eurasia Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an Adjunct Professor of History at Marymount University.

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Europe

European Commission
1 June 2025  In connection with Georgia’s Foreign Agents Registration Act, the Joint Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Kallas and Commissioner Kos reminds that in June and October 2024 the EU accession process of Georgia has been de facto halted. (Source: commonspace.eu – The Netherlands; „with the press service of the European External Action Service’)

Asia

Iran
Jun 1, 2025  According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has significantly expanded its stockpile of uranium enriched close to weapons-grade levels. Iran reiterated that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a religious decree prohibiting nuclear weapons. (Source: India Today)

June 01, 2025  Oman delivered details of US proposal for nuclear deal to Tehran. (Source: The National - United Arab Emirates)

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Asia

Israel
August 26, 2024  Several weeks ago, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Chikli reportedly met in a private residence in Herzliya near Tel Aviv with Zorla, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Israeli private intelligence company Black Cube and the head of its Advisory Committee, former Israel Defense Forces Major General Eiland. According to Israeli newspaper The Marker, the purpose of the alleged meeting was to propose an intelligence operation to be carried out on American soil by Black Cube, on behalf of the Israeli government, with the understanding that intelligence operations carried out by the firm on American soil would not be officially attributed to the State of Israel. The intelligence operation would allegedly target a United States-based organization - “Students for Justice in Palestine”, an American-based organization, whose leaders are primarily American citizens  that stands at the forefront of demonstrations against Israel on university campuses in the United States -demonstrations that the state of Israel views as anti-Semitic. The group has staged numerous demonstrations on university campuses across the United States since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last October. However, it is unclear whether such intelligence operations were indeed authorized to proceed. Following the publication of The Marker report, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs claimed the proposal for the intelligence operation had been initiated by Black Cube and that Ministry officials ultimately rejected it. An official statement issued by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said: „At the company’s [Black Cube’s] request, a meeting was held with the ministry’s professional echelon, and at the end of it, it was decided not to proceed with any engagement”. Black Cube reportedly rejected the spying initiative based on concerns that such a high-risk operation could damage the company’s standing with the United States government and harm its ability to do business on American soil in the future. Black Cube stated: “[Our] company plans and carries out complex intelligence operations for the benefit of legal proceedings, all in accordance with the law of every country in which it operates. Black Cube does not operate and has never planned to operate against students or political protest groups in the USA”. Further information indicates that the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs may be considering executing such an operation after all. (Source: intelNews - U.S.)
by Dr. Barnea, a research fellow at the National Security Studies Center of the University of Haifa in Israel. He served as a senior officer in the Israel Security Agency (ISA). He is the author of We Never Expected That: A Comparative Study of Failures in National and Business Intelligence (Lexington Books, 2021).

Global

World Press Photo Contest 2024

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Europe

Hungary
21 August 2024  Under the new government decree 134, only Ukrainians whose last official address in Ukraine was in an area directly affected by military operations remain eligible for state support. The UN refugee agency said the law change will mean an estimated 2,000-3,000 refugees will lose access to subsidised accommodation. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
by ’Thorpe’

Russia
21 Aug 2024 Ukraine targets Moscow in ‘one of largest ever’ drone attacks. Assault on the Russian capital launched as Ukraine presses on with incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that air defence forces shot down 11 drones over Moscow and its surrounding region, with some reportedly downed over the city of Podolsk some 38km south of the Kremlin. No damage or casualties were reported. The barrage was part of a broader attack on Russia, with the Ministry of Defence saying its air defence units destroyed 45 Ukrainian drones in total overnight. 23 drones were downed in the border region of Bryansk, six in the border region of Belgorod, three in the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to its northeast, and two in the embattled Kursk region, the ministry said. Russia’s state news agency RIA reported that two drones were destroyed over the Tula region, which borders the Moscow region to its north. Following the assault on Moscow, temporary restrictions were imposed overnight at Moscow’s Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports, but all three returned to normal operations later on Wednesday. Hundreds of prisoners were taken and tens of thousands of civilians were forced to evacuate following Ukraine’s lightning raid on Kursk on August 6. Ukraine now claims to control 1,263sq km of Kursk territory, including 93 settlements. Meanwhile, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its forces have taken control of the settlement of Zhelanne in the Pokrovsk district of Donetsk, as part of an overall drive to capture the entire Donetsk region. Russian President Putin met Chinese Premier Li in Moscow, the Kremlin said. After meeting Putin in July, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Kyiv on Friday to meet Zelenskyy, and said he will be discussing ending the war with Russia. India has avoided condemning Russia’s invasion and is the world’s largest buyer of Russian weapons. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

8/21/2024  In the spring of this year, Moscow’s new military appointee overseeing security in the Kursk province dismantled a council tasked with protecting the vulnerable border region. Col. Gen. Lapin said the military alone had the strength and the resources to protect Russia’s border. Earlier this month Ukrainian troops executed a lightning offensive across the border into Kursk, and now say they occupy more than 400 square miles of Russian territory. Now, Moscow seeks to oust Ukrainian forces from its territory. „Russia is still pulling together its reaction to this incursion by Ukraine. There has been a fairly slow and scattered reaction to it,’ said Gen. Cavoli, commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday. The Russian defense ministry hasn’t publicly issued an explanation for how it allowed Ukrainian forces to cross into Russian territory. Hours after Ukraine’s incursion, Russia’s chief of general staff, Gen. Gerasimov, said Lapin’s forces and border guards were working to destroy the enemy in areas directly adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border. In the days leading up to Ukraine’s invasion, Russia’s military correspondents have said, Lapin’s command had sent reports to Moscow warning that Ukrainian forces were building their numbers on the front line. Troops under Lapin’s command still failed to act by enforcing defensive lines or laying mines. When Ukrainian soldiers entered the no-man’s-land between Ukraine and Russia, they were met with no resistance and, inside Russia, no territorial defense forces to help slow them down. ’In Moscow, they simply were not pondering that a scenario like this could happen,’ said Muzyka, director of Poland-based Rochan Consulting, focusing on the Russian military. Likewise, when the Ukrainian soldiers drove into Russia, their first armed resistance was from the 488th motor rifle regiment of the 144th motor rifle brigade, a unit consisting almost entirely of conscripts, who according to Russian policy aren’t supposed to fight inside Ukraine. Under normal circumstances, they would have had around 120 armored vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers. In their first armed encounter, the conscripts likely had between 10 and 20, said Muzyka. ’It wasn’t the first time” poor planning and a lack of men had come together under Lapin’s command. In early September 2022, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack in northeast Ukraine. Without the Russians having sufficiently fortified their thin front-line positions, Ukrainians blew past them using fast-moving field vehicles, followed by heavier armored echelons. Russia’s offensive line crumbled and Ukraine managed to reclaim thousands of square miles in northeastern Ukraine. Following the debacle, Chechen strongman leader Kadyrov called for his resignation. The officer was soon removed from his post and later reappointed as deputy commander of Russia’s forces in Ukraine. ’It has certainly demonstrated the creativity and the battlefield prowess of the Ukrainians,’ said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Ryder. (Source: MSN / The Wall Street Journal = U.S.)

Asia

China
August 21, 2024  China is seriously concerned about a report that said the United Stated approved a nuclear strategic plan to focus on China's rapid expansion in its nuclear arsenal, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday. An annual report by the Pentagon last October said China had more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal, and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030. According to a report by the New York Times, U.S. President Biden approved in March a highly classified nuclear strategic plan that focused on China's quickly growing arsenal, but also seeks to prepare the U.S for possible coordinated nuclear challenges from China, Russia and North Korea. The White House said on Tuesday that the classified nuclear strategic plan approved by Biden this year is not a response to a single country or threat. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

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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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Europe

Hungary
30 May 2025  On 15 March, P.M. Orbán delivered a stinging speech against his opponents, saying Hungary needed a spring clean. He said: “We are dismantling the financial machine that has used corrupt dollars to buy politicians, judges, journalists, bogus civil society organisations and political activists. We will disperse the entire shadow army.” Since then, Orbán introduced a new transparency law that would allow the government to blacklist organisations that receive foreign funding, deeming them a “threat” to national sovereignty and has banned Pride in Budapest. Many groups across the country now fear for their future because of the potential transparency law. Bodoky, the editor-in-chief of Átlátszó, an 'independent' media group says the group is being targeted because they have exposed government corruption. „The transparency law for Átlátszó would mean, most probably, that we go out of business”. “He’s constantly fighting a war against real or imaginary enemies, but what is really new is that he wants to crack down on Hungarian citizens based on perceived non-patriotism or treachery”, he said. Debrecen, Hungary’s second largest city is a conservative bastion. But right in the centre is a liberal island - a community space. This community hub receives some money from the EU and that makes them a target after if the transparency law passes. They say that in the last few years, more and more people are queuing up for their services - a group of women, cooking outside are preparing meals to hand out to those in need in the city. And yet, they all still worship Orbán. Who do they blame for the fact they are in need? A woman lists them off: “They blame the Ukraine war, gay people, migrants, and Brussels”. Across the country, on billboards and bus stops, there are countless posters displaying the images of Zelenskyy, EU Commission President der Leyen, and Weber, the head of the European People’s Party in the EU Parliament. The words read: “Let’s not allow them to decide above our heads”. Hungarians are being asked to vote in a referendum on whether they want Ukraine to join the EU. There is a ’clear opposition figure’ here in Hungary: Magyar, once a member of Orbán’s Fidesz party. He is an MEP and the leader of the ’centre-right’ Tisza party. He’s recently been marching across the country meeting voters. The people are completely fed up with the lies, with the propaganda, with the corruption, Magyar says. But when I ask him whether he’ll roll back all the laws and changes under Orbán, he says that he will keep some of the good decisions, such as the family policy, the tax policy, the fence at the southern border of Hungary against illegal migration. That sounds like he’s not exactly the liberal change ’many’ in the country want. (Source: Channel 4 News – United Kingdom)

Finland
May 30, 2025  Several nations, including Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States, now conduct highway and roadway landing exercises. The road landings are not new; the concept was first introduced during the Cold War, when there was a genuine concern that air bases would be the primary targets in a modern war. Finland has even designed its highways to be readily converted to austere air bases. Dutch F-35s joined Finland’s Baana 25 exercises, simulating highway landings. This is the first time the Dutch F-35s have taken part. The exercises continue through Friday. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

France
30.05.2025  Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Shevtsov met with a French delegation led by Lt. Gen. Onet, head of France’s Directorate for Supporting the Combat Capability of Ground Equipment. Ukraine and France have agreed to boost defense cooperation, focusing on logistical support and adapting to the demands of modern warfare, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Friday. The two delegations explored ways to deepen collaboration in ground combat support, logistics systems, and battlefield adaptation amid the ongoing war with Russia. France has been a contributor of military aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, including Caesar howitzers and air defense systems. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

The Netherlands
May 30, 2025  The Netherlands has received 728,656 visa applications in 2024. The five nationalities with the most Schengen visas obtained by the Netherlands: Turkish nationals obtained 84,240 visas - that is 86.8 per cent of 97,006 applications; Indian nationals: 75,727 visas obtained (83.2 per cent); Chinese nationals: 70,203 visas (96.71 per cent); Indonesian nationals: 51,103 visas, per cent); Filipino nationals: 46,500 visas (95.77 per cent). The number of rejected applications with the number of applications filed overall: Senegal – applicants were rejected 81.05 per cent (5,525 applications were filed); Algeria – 63.4 per cent of 4,388 applications; Mali: 60.8 per cent of 4,275 applications; Ghana: 58 per cent of 8,394 applications; Uganda: 49.97 per cent of 3,326 applications filed. (Source: Schengen News - ?)

Asia

China
May 30, 2025  Representatives of more than 30 other countries today signed the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation in Hong Kong to become founding members of the global organization, following Chinese Foreign Minister Wang. He said the body, headquartered in Hong Kong, aims to help promote the amicable resolution of international disputes and build more harmonious global relations. The ceremony was attended by representatives from some 50 other countries and about 20 organizations, including the United Nations. While the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and PCA *focus on adjudication and arbitration, IOMed introduces a structured, institutionalized form of alternative dispute resolution - namely, mediation - on a global scale, Yan, a law professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said. The International Organization for Mediation would have the capacity to mediate disputes between states, between a state and a national of another state, or in international commercial disputes, Ali, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said. Conventions can provide opportunities to experiment with new approaches, she said, noting rising interest in mediation globally as a means to resolve investor-state disputes. (Source: ABC News / Associated Press = U.S.)

Asia
30 May 2025  A growing number of Asian economies are cautiously moving away from the US dollar by creating alternative trade agreements and increasing their investments in assets such as gold and digital currencies – a trend that analysts say signals a longer-term shift toward a more multipolar monetary system. Singapore, Indonesia and Japan ranked among the top 10 countries making the most progress on this front. While the dollar continues to dominate global markets – accounting for nearly half of SWIFT payments and over 80 per cent of foreign exchange trades – Lodge, vice-president at foreign exchange brokerage FXTM said, diversification efforts are gaining traction in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and among Brics members. In Asia, more transactions are being conducted in Chinese yuan, followed by the euro and Emirati dirham in select bilateral arrangements, he added. A 2023 Asean agreement aimed to prioritise local currency transactions to reduce vulnerability to US monetary policy shifts and trade restrictions. Since then, Southeast Asian member nations have started to engage in direct trade using currencies like the Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht. Indonesia conducts around 15 per cent of its trade with China and Japan in alternative currencies, using the yuan for Chinese transactions and its own local rupiah for its Japanese dealings. India too has established trade agreements using its currency, the rupee, with 18 countries. Each country in the Asian region is pursuing separate strategies to reduce their US dollar dependency. Asian nations want to reduce their trade surplus with the US and are concerned about the weaponisation of the dollar, especially following Washington’s recent sanctions against Russia and Iran. Many Asian countries are now seeking to reduce their dependency on dollar-denominated financial systems and China’s yuan has significantly benefited from the trend. Investors in Asia’s trading hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore have flocked to the gold, which historically has an inverse relationship to the US dollar. Gold has gained 26 per cent so far this year and hit a record high of US$3,450 an ounce on April 22 due to US-China trade tensions and financial market instability. The longer term outlook for gold remains bullish on expectations of a weaker dollar, analysts say. Central banks including those in Asia have been snapping up gold to stabilise their currencies, although record-high prices caused a dip in their purchases in the first quarter of this year, according to the World Gold Council. Individual investors too have shown a similar pattern in their purchases. In the last few months bond yields were rising, gold and bitcoin outperforming. Bitcoin hit a record high of more than US$111,000 on May 22 on bullish market sentiment about supportive US regulations. The cryptocurrency is favoured by younger and institutional investors, emerging as a complementary asset to gold as a store of value, while many are also increasing their bets to currencies like the yuan, the Hong Kong dollar and the euro. In 2025 Singapore is leading with the highest cryptocurrency ownership rate at 28 per cent. A limited number of Asian businesses are using cryptocurrencies for transactions. Central Bank Digital Currencies are proving more significant than decentralised cryptocurrencies for actual de-dollarisation efforts. (Source: South China Morning Post)

North America

United States
May 30, 2025  In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies. Mr. Trump has not publicly talked about the effort since. Behind the scenes, officials have quietly put technological building blocks into place to enable his plan. The Trump administration has expanded Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm’s work across the federal government in recent months. The company has received more than $113 million in federal government spending since Mr. Trump took office, including new contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. (This does not include a $795 million contract that the Department of Defense awarded the company last week.) Representatives of Palantir are also speaking to at least two other agencies - the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service — about buying its technology. The push has put a key Palantir product called Foundry - which organizes and analyzes data - into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and the Health and Human Services Department. Foundry, paves the way for Mr. Trump to easily merge information from different agencies. Mr. Trump’s executive order said he wanted to “eliminate information silos and streamline data collection across all agencies to increase government efficiency and save hard-earned taxpayer dollars.” Creating detailed portraits of Americans, the Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others through government databases, including their bank account numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status. Combining all that data, even with the noblest of intentions, significantly increases the risk of misuse,” Xia, who was a Palantir engineer until last year, said. “Data that is collected for one reason should not be repurposed for other uses,” Ms. Xia said. Privacy advocates, student unions and labor rights organizations have filed lawsuits to block data access, questioning whether the government could weaponize people’s personal information. Palantir recently began helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s enforcement and removal operations team. The work is part of a $30 million contract that ICE signed with Palantir in April to build a platform to track migrant movements in real time. At the Internal Revenue Service, Palantir engineers were also recently brought in to use Foundry to organize data gathered on American taxpayers. Palantir has talked with the Social Security Administration about using the company’s technology to organize the agency’s data. Palantir’s selection as a chief vendor for the project was driven by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. At least three DOGE members formerly worked at Palantir. Two others had worked at companies funded by Thiel, an investor and a founder of Palantir, which was founded in 2003 by Karp and Mr. Thiel and went public in 2020. Palantir specializes in finding patterns in data and presenting the information in ways that are easy to process and navigate, such as charts and maps. Its main products include Foundry, a data analytics platform, and Gotham, which helps organize and draw conclusions from data and is tailored for security and defense purposes. Palantir’s role is the finding of hidden things by sifting through data, Mr. Karp has said last year. Mr. Karp, who donated to the Democratic Party last year, has welcomed Mr. Trump’s win and called Mr. Musk the most “qualified person in the world” to remake the U.S. government. Palantir’s stock has risen more than 140 percent since Mr. Trump’s election in November. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

May 30, 2025  Trump has long promised to dismantle the ’deep state’ - a supposed secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions behind the scenes. In 2024, he pledged to supporters that voting him back into the presidency would be “our final battle.” “With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state,” Trump said repeatedly on the campaign trail. “We will liberate our country from these tyrants and villains once and for all.” Four months into his second term, Trump has continued to stoke dark theories involving his predecessors and other powerful politicians and attorneys - most recently raising the specter of nefarious intent behind former President Biden’s use of an autopen to sign papers. The administration has pledged to reopen investigations and has taken steps to declassify certain documents, including releasing more than 63,000 pages of records related to the assassination of President Kennedy. Now that Trump is in power and has stocked loyalists throughout his administration, his supporters expect all to be revealed. Some who take him at his word are beginning to get restless as they ask why his administration, which holds the keys to chasing down these alleged government secrets, is denying them the evidence and retribution they expected. “People are tired of not knowing,” conservative commentator Felder said last week. “We actually demand answers and real transparency. It’s not that hard to deliver.” Delivering on that is difficult when many of the conspiracies he alleged aren’t real, said Uscinski, a political scientist who studies conspiracy theories at the University of Miami. The president has prioritized retribution in his second administration. He has fired federal workers and targeted law firms he disfavors in executive orders. He has ordered the revocation of government security clearances for political rivals and former employees who dissented during his first term. His Justice Department has fired prosecutors who investigated him and scrutinized career FBI agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Many of his supporters would like to see steps taken against people he has long claimed were involved in sinister plots against him, such as former Secretary of State Clinton and former FBI Director Comey. The administration also hasn’t offered proof of the ’egregious crimes ” that have corrupted the federal government for years. Tensions erupted this month when FBI Director Patel and Bongino, dismissed two of the theories that have animated Trump’s base the most - that Trump’s attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a government plot and that financier and sexual abuser Epstein was murdered in a cover-up, In a Fox News interview, FBI Director Patel and his deputy, Bongino said they had been briefed on the attempted assassination of Trump during a rally in July and there was no explosive conspiracy to be revealed. In some of these cases, the ‘there’ you’re looking for is not there, Bongino said. You know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was, Patel said about Epstein’s death in the same Fox News interview. I have seen the whole file, Bongino added. He killed himself. Conservatives online demanded to see the evidence, pointing to Bongino’s past statements as a podcast host, when he suggested the government was hiding information about Epstein. “No matter who gets elected, you get the same foreign policy, you get the same economic policy, and the Epstein videos remain secret’, right-wing podcaster and former Fox News host Carlson said on his show. They told us for months leading up to the Election that it wasn’t suicide, Newsmax host Starnes wrote on X. But now they tell us it was suicide, he added: „Pardon me, but what the heck is going on at DOJ?’ Attorney General Bondi said this month that FBI officials were poring through “tens of thousands” of videos related to Epstein and would make more materials public once they took steps to protect the victims. Bongino ’appeared to try to throw a bone to Trump’s base’ this week when he announced the agency would reopen some prominent cases that have attracted public interest. He said the FBI would investigate the planting of pipe bombs found near the Democratic and Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, the leak of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson draft opinion in 2022 that overturned the constitutional right to abortion and the discovery of cocaine in the White House in 2023. But it wasn’t enough for everyone who weighed in on his X account. In an interview Thursday on “Fox & Friends,” Bongino teased that the FBI would soon release video captured outside Epstein’s jail cell and materials related to Trump’s attempted assassination. He called for patience and noted not all information is the FBI’s to declassify. All the while, Trump has continued promoting theories on his Truth Social platform and elsewhere. He shared a video this month about mysterious deaths allegedly being linked to the Clinton family. And shared someone’s image of himself with former President Obama with the text, “ALL ROADS LEAD TO OBAMA, RETRUTH IF YOU WANT MILITARY TRIBUNALS.” It’s a tactic that distracts Trump’s base and helps inoculate him from criticism, Ophir, a communications professor at the University at Buffalo said. “When something good happens, it’s because Trump is great and his agenda is brilliant,” Ophir said. ’When something bad happens, it’s because of the Obamas or the Clintons or whatever forces are undermining him from within Washington.’ Trump this week fueled theories, that Biden’s use of a mechanical device called an autopen during his presidency meant he didn’t sign his executive orders willingly or that aides profited from controlling it. „Presidents have used autopens for years to sign certain documents’. “Whoever used it was usurping the power of the Presidency, and it should be very easy to find out who that person (or persons) is,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The narrative has gained momentum on the right because of allegations that Biden’s aides covered up his mental and physical decline. He has called for people who operated it to be charged with “TREASON.” (Source: The Associated Press - U.S.)
Note: "The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy'.

NATO

May 30 2025  On May 14 a weapon launched from a U.S. platform was guided by a Norwegian sensor across domains and distances, marking a first for NATO in cross-national ordnance control mid-flight in the framework of Formidable Shield 25, which ran from May 1 to 31, 2025. Formidable Shield is the largest live-fire naval exercise in Europe, primarily executed from Norway and the United Kingdom. The scenarios included a series of complex Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) and Air Defence (AD) missions in a complex operating environment. (Source: Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office - Headquarters Ramstein, Germany)

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Europe

Hungary
May 29, 2025 The leader of this central European country has captured the imagination of many U.S. conservatives who hold Orbán's rule up as a model for conservative populist leadership in liberal Western democracies. Scheppele, who teaches sociology and international affairs at Princeton is now warning that what came to pass in Hungary could come to be in the U.S. Members of the European Parliament now call it an electoral autocracy. Orbán remade the courts, replaced experienced judges with younger more malleable figures. He financially starves 'independent' press, changed the constitution to consolidate his power and passed laws and amendments to stifle civil society and minority groups, the latest an effective ban on pride celebrations. This is really a dictatorship, says Scheppele, who worked in Hungary for years researching the Hungarian Constitutional Court. Budapest, the capital city doesn't have the trappings of an autocracy while strolling through the streets. It's easy to be captivated by the blend of architectural styles, the sprawling public transportation system and the vibrant cafe and restaurant scene where tourists sip wine under twinkling lights. There is perhaps no greater symbol of that cross-cultural consecutive cooperation and admiration than the Conservative Political Action Conference gathering of conservative, populist and ’far right’ activists and politicians now converging on Budapest for a fourth year. "For a long time in the West you had folks on the center right who, let's say, they made excuses," said Reaboi, a ’right wing’ media personality who once lobbied on behalf of Orbán's government in the U.S. Reaboi says the Hungarian leader's unapologetic style when it comes to cracking down on mass migration and ’woke’ inspired American conservatives' policies confrontational approach under President Trump now when it comes to immigration, minority rights, civil society and academia. ’They were afraid of media backlash or something,’ Reaboi said. "Now I think what's the same about [the U.S. MAGA movement and Orbán's Hungary] is just this lack of fear of saying true things." Reaboi bristles at Hungary being labeled a dictatorship. He calls the criticisms "fringe insanity’ and adds that whatever one thinks about Orbán's policies and his party Fidesz he's "been unbelievably successful in putting Budapest and Hungary itself on the map." At the Danube Institute, this research center that overlooks the river that divides Budapest, U.S. conservatives and nationalists have found an intellectual home inside Europe. The government also funds the educational institution Mathias Corvinus Collegium which bills itself as an incubator for young talent in Hungary. Its critics see it as an incubator for future Fidesz-allied elites. Kálnoky, a prominent German journalist of Hungarian descent who heads the journalism school at MCC, says Orbán's presence on the western stage as a populist leader that's inspired U.S. conservatives was a conscious strategy. "A thought process began here that we need to establish bridges towards the Anglo-Saxon conservative world," Kálnoky said. The person who came up with this strategy to reach beyond Hungary's borders, was the head of MCC and the prime minister's political director, Orbán. "He said, 'look to the left, they are globally allied.' They have their networks, they have conferences, they meet, and they have an ideology which unites them, Kálnoky said. So Hungary began reaching out to other like-minded political groups including conservatives in the U.S. and inviting them to Budapest around 2014. They liked what they saw – a populist conservative government that was elected and re-elected. Kálnoky said the pushback from the European Union against what it deems anti-democratic practices from the Fidesz party is its way of controlling a member state that won't fall in line with the majority. PM Orbán accuses the EU of meddling in Hungary's domestic affairs. The European Union is withholding billions of dollars in grants allocated for Hungary's poorest regions. It's also been excluded from an EU-funded student exchange program with other European universities. Kálnoky sees what critics point to as gerrymandering and taking control of the media and the courts as an elected party using its mandate to implement reforms and its program. "There is only one thing that is needed to separate Fidesz and Viktor Orbán from power, and that is that a relative majority of Hungarians vote for someone else than him," he said. "That's all that's needed. And as long as that is the case, how can you speak of an autocracy?" How did Orbán transform Hungary? He started as a more liberal politician when he first won the office in 1998. But after being voted out he morphed into the populist conservative he is today, Scheppele said. In his eight years out of power, he had spent that time planning a comeback with a very detailed plan to remake the Constitution and remake the entire legal system. In the three years after he was elected in 2010, she said he transformed Hungary from a post-communist democratic story. Now she said she recognizes the Orbán playbook in Project 2025, a blueprint for a Republican president written by a conservative think tank of Trump allies and loyalists, some of whom are now in the government. Orbán weaponized the state budget, she said, by starving dissent economically, cutting state advertising to neutral and opposition media and cancelling subsidies to 'non-profits' that would oppose him. Orbán's party, Fidesz, controlling a two-thirds majority in the parliament, pushed through election laws that gerrymandered districts so that Fidesz 'could control more seats with fewer votes with each election'. The religious organizations were consolidated under Orbán who now touts himself as the defender of Christian Europe. He has described himself as the leader of a Christian illiberal democracy, fighting against the multiculturalism and pro- immigration stances of the liberal elite in the European Union. From inside his own party, Magyar, the husband of the former justice minister and 'a party loyalist', broke with Orbán to lead an opposition party that could break Orbán's control of the state. He's fiercely critical of what he calls autocracy under Orbán. ’It's the first time in the last 15 years that you have a real chance to change the situation,’ said Magyar, a former education minister and a sociologist at the Democracy Institute at Central European University. It's why he worries, 'that somehow the government' will find a way to stop Magyar's party from running in the election next year. That becomes more and more visible the farther you go outside the capital where Orbán's policies have brought construction projects to these rural areas. His funding model created jobs and brought new infrastructure, like hospitals. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

Portugal
29/05/2025  Portugal's ’far-right’ Chega party, the government's official opposition party becomes second biggest in parliament according to final results from Portugal's snap general election published yesterday. Support for Chega has grown in every general election since the party was founded in 2019 by a former trainee priest and former television football commentator Ventura. It won 1.3 percent of the vote in a general election the year it was founded, giving it a seat in parliament -- the first time a far-right party had won representation in Portugal's legislature since a coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long rightist dictatorship. Now the party won two of the previously unannounced four overseas constituencies, taking its tally to 60. The centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) claimed the other two overseas seats taking its total to 91, still far from the 116 seats needed to form a majority government. The Social Democratic Party of outgoing prime minister Luis Montenegro is the main party of the alliance. Party leader Santos, a 48-year-old economist, said he would stand down after the initial election results were announced. Montenegro is expected to try to form a minority government after the latest election and he has said he will not deal with Chega. But Ventura called on Montenegro to "break" with the Socialists. Chega's policies include chemical castration for paedophiles, limiting newcomers' access to welfare benefits, and stricter controls on migration which it links to crime and higher pensions. He speaks of restoring respect for the police, and has protested on the streets with Movement Zero, a group of disgruntled police officers with suspected extremist ties who are demanding better pay and conditions. Ventura attended US President Trump's inauguration in January, and has embraced the support of Brazil's former far-right president Bolsonaro. Many voters certainly support the radical and anti-establishment solutions that Chega proposes but others may have chosen the party because of the erosion of the traditional parties' ability to meet expectations. Under a previous PS government, Portugal became one of Europe's most open countries for immigrants. Between 2017 and 2024, the number of foreigners living in Portugal quadrupled, reaching about 15 percent of the total population. President de Sousa is to hold new talks with the leaders of the three main parties today and could name a new prime minister during the day. (Source: France 24 „with AFP”)

European Central Bank
May 29 2025  European Central Bank Governing Council member and Slovakia’s central bank chief Kazimir has been found guilty of bribery today, with a Slovak Specialised Criminal Court ruling he must pay a €200,000 fine or face a one-year prison sentence. Oh… Prosecutors allege that between 2012 and 2019, while serving as finance minister, Kazimir handed over a €48,000 bribe to the then boss of the national tax office to influence tax proceedings. As the verdict can be appealed, with Kazimir maintaining his innocence, he won’t be forced out of office, and is set to participate in the next interest-rate meeting on 4-5 June. And Starmer wants to get closer to the bloc… (Source: Guido Fawkes, a political website published by British-Irish political blogger Staines, who lives in Ireland)

European Commission
May 29, 2025  The European Commission welcomes today's agreement in the Council of the EU on the ’Security for Action for Europe (SAFE) Instrument’. ’As proposed in the ReArm Europe Plan / Readiness 2030, the Commission will raise up to €150 billion on the capital markets, providing financial levers to EU member states to ramp up the investments in key defence areas like air missile defence, drones, or strategic enablers’. ’With SAFE, we are not only investing in cutting-edge capabilities for our Union, for Ukraine, and for the entire continent; we are also strengthening the European defence technological and industrial base. This is about readiness. This is about resilience. And it is about creating a truly European market for defence. Europe is stepping up - with purpose, with unity, and with a clear roadmap toward Readiness 2030’, der Leyen, president of the European Commission said. Member states now have six months from the entry into force of the Regulation to submit their initial national plans, which the Commission will then assess. Following a Commission proposal, the Council is expected to adopt implementing decisions, which will include the size of the loan and any pre-financing which can be up to 15% of the loan. Support can be paid swiftly to cover the most urgent needs, potentially starting in 2025. Member states will need to report on the progress of implementation when they submit their payment requests, which can be done twice a year. The last approval for disbursements can take place until 31 December 2030. In March 2025 the Commission proposed the White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 and its ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 - defence package providing financial levers to EU Member States ’to drive an investment surge in defence capabilities’. ’The activation of the national escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact for defence purposes together with the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loan form the backbone of the ReArm Europe Plan / Readiness 2030, enabling member states to substantially and rapidly scale up their investments in European defence’. This defence package providing financial levers to EU Member States to drive a surge in investment in defence capabilities. ’Under the SAFE loan, the Commission will raise up to €150 billion on the capital markets, drawing on its well-established unified funding approach’. While under the national escape clause Member States will benefit from additional space for defence spending, the EU fiscal rules continue to apply in full. Any deviations from the endorsed net expenditure paths, other than those specified, will be monitored according to the Regulation (EU) 2024/1263 for the entire period of activation. ’The cost of components originating outside the Union, EEA EFTA States, and Ukraine’ should not exceed 35% of the estimated cost of the components of the end-product, reinforcing the 'spend European' principle, according to the agreement. (Source: EU Reporter - a Brussels-based website owned by a company in Ireland)

Asia

Iran
(May 29, 2025)  Iran has given more than four million undocumented Afghan migrants until July 6 to leave the country, Yar-Ahmadi, head of the Interior Ministry’s Office for Foreign Nationals and Immigrants announced yesterday. He said Iran would no longer accept new Afghan migrants. Yar-Ahmadi emphasized that only a limited number of people - in six specific groups - would be eligible to stay under temporary permits. He added that as of now, 2.03 million Afghan nationals hold expired census documents and another two million are living in Iran illegally. Iranian authorities have routinely expelled hundreds of Afghan migrants daily, many of them through the border crossing with Afghanistan’s Nimroz province. (Source: Amu Television - United States)

Israel
May 29 2025  ’Far-right’ Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich announced yesterday the creation in the occupied West Bank of 22 new settlements. We have made a historic decision for the development of settlements: 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria, renewing settlement in the north of Samaria, and reinforcing the eastern axis of the State of Israel, the minister said on X, using the Israeli term for the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967. The initiative had been led by Smotrich and Defence Minister Katz and approved by the security cabinet. The decision also includes the establishment of four communities along the eastern border with Jordan, as part of strengthening Israel's eastern backbone, national security and strategic grip on the area, the Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The party published a map showing the 22 sites spread across the territory. (Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey)

North America

United States
Thursday 29 May 2025  SpaceX and Tesla CEO, Musk has announced he is leaving his position as top adviser to the White House. He led the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in the White House. Musk set a $2 trillion goal in reducing federal spending - something he twice revised down, landing at a reduced $150 billion. His role working for Trump was always meant to be temporary, and he had recently signaled that he would be shifting his attention back to running his businesses, such as the electric car company Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. The former had seen a massive drop in share prices and international backlash as well as vandalism against the cars over Musk's involvement with Trump's government. President Trump even turned the White House lawn into a temporary showroom for the electric cars, urging Americans to follow his example and buy one as DOGE's affects on Tesla saw sales slump. “He’s built this great company, and he shouldn’t be penalised because he’s a patriot.” Musk's relationship with President Trump was an unconventional one, the former receiving apparently unprecedented access to government data and seemingly untethered powers with little to zero oversight. Many credit Musk with President Trump's decisive election victory having funneled close to $300 million into Trump's campaign, using his social media platform X to mobilise supporters. Earlier this year Musk clashed with Trump voters over H-1B visas, a route to US citizenship used by the South African himself as well as heavily used through his companies. On this occasion the president fell in line, marking a departure from the opposition to H-1B's he showed in his first term. More recently the Tesla boss has voiced criticism for Trump's flagship spending bill which prioritises tax cuts and immigration enforcement. Yesterday, Speaker of the House Johnson, thanked Musk for his work and promised to pursue more spending cuts in the future, saying, “the House is eager and ready to act on DOGE’s findings”. Echoing this sentiment, Musk said in his own announcement of his departure: The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government. Asked recently whether he would continue to spend such large amounts of his own money on politics, the billionaire said simply: No - I think I've done enough. (Source: itv - United Kingdom)

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Germany
May 28, 2025  Military-industrial cooperation. Germany and Ukraine 'sign €5B deal on long-range weapons cooperation with Berlin committing to co-develop weapons systems and finance critical battlefield infrastructure. 'Our defense ministers will sign a letter of intent today on procuring long-range weapon systems produced in Ukraine', Chancellor Friedrich Merz said during a joint press conference with Zelenskyy in Berlin. ’There will be no restrictions on range.’ The package covers new contracts for air defense systems, munitions, and logistical support, including maintenance infrastructure and satellite communications. ’The Taurus system, with a range of over 500 kilometers, would enable high-precision strikes deep behind Russian lines’. Germany also confirmed it will finance a significant portion of Starlink satellite coverage in Ukraine. Merz refused to comment on specific weapons systems. (Source: Politico - headquarters U.S., owned by a German company)

Luxembourg
(28 May 2025)  Luxembourg has joined 19 other EU countries led by the Netherlands in calling on the European Commission to expeditiously take action against Hungary over a draft law which would ban the country’s annual pride if the Hungarian authorities do not reverse the measures themselves. They published a joint declaration yesterday. „A number of measures adopted by the Hungarian Parliament" in recent years are targeting the LGBTQ+ community, in particular a law passed in mid-March banning certain events, such as the Pride March. „Constitutional changes” are infringing on the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ people, the declaration states. The European Commission has remained largely silent. The European Commission’s Presidency Office had even discreetly recommended that European commissioners should not take part in the Pride March, in order to avoid provoking Viktor Orbán. The organisers have said that they will hold the event regardless, and many MEPs have stated that they will attend. Luxembourg MEP Angel (LSAP) is one of the European parliamentarians who will be attending the Pride March on 28 June. Angel is openly gay. Der Leyen was elected on the promise of a „pro-European, pro-democracy coalition’, so now is the time to prove where she stands, Luxembourg MEP Angel said. Also read: Luxembourg continues decline in LGBTQ+ rights ranking. Together with his Italian MEP Zan (S&D), Angel has initiated a parliamentary petition, published yesterday and addressed to the president of the European Commission, der Leyen, expressing deep concern at the decision to advise European commissioners not to attend the next Pride in Budapest. A first step could be to send a representative of the European Commission to the Budapest Pride event to show that the European Union 'is defending its values', said Angel. The ideal candidate, according to Angel, is the EU’s Equality Commissioner Lahbib, whose mandate includes proposing a renewed strategy for equal treatment of LGBTQ+ people. The former Commissioner for Equality, Dalli, attended such events. On 28 June in Budapest, delegations from ’the progressive forces’ in the European Parliament are expected to attend. (Source: Luxembourg Times / Virgule = Luxembourg)

Poland
28 May 2025  In April, five members of the US federal judiciary committee wrote to European Commission President der Leyen regarding rule-of-law concerns in Poland. They also targeted what they saw as double standards in the way EU funds were blocked under the PiS government and then promptly released when Tusk’s administration came into office. The chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Mast, has demanded that European Commission President der Leyen clarify concerns over the financing of the Polish election campaign of Trzaskowski, the candidate of the ruling centre-left coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk on June 1, in the second round vote between Trzaskowski and opposition Conservatives (PiS) hopeful Nawrocki. Mast’s letter of May 27 was critical of the positions taken by the European Commission thus far on the situation in Poland. Online accounts have emerged attacking right-wing presidential candidates Nawrocki and the Confederation party’s Mentzen, placed third in the first round, while simultaneously posting content supporting Trzaskowski. These accounts were reported to have spent sums in excess of €200,000 and, 'according to published reports in the Polish media', the funding came from sources in Hungary and Belgium. Mast has written on behalf of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee to der Leyen to address funding concerns, stating that such activities taking place should be met by a reaction of the European Commission if it wishes to avoid being accused of applying double standards with regard to the observance of the rule of law in Poland. Mast’s letter marked further criticism from the US Republicans over Poland. Despite the vocal criticism of the European Commission and the decision to block [billions] of EU funds for Poland for alleged rule-of-law violations under the previous PiS government, it has remained silent with regard to the actions of the present government despite clear evidence that it is not transgressing in this area, Mast wrote. The letter also asked “what role was played by the company Estratos and its shareholders linked to the Democratic Party’ and whether the financing of such activities was in any way connected with funds associated with the US philanthropist and billionaire Soros. It also queried what the European Commission was planning to do about alleged evidence of foreign funding in Poland’s election campaign given it had taken a determined stance in supporting legal action over alleged foreign interference in the Romanian presidential elections last year. Also yesterday, US president Trump’s security secretary Noem attended a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Rzeszów, Poland and endorsed Nawrocki ahead of the decisive second-round vote. She pledged to Poles that if they elected a leader who will work with President Trump, the Polish people will have a strong ally. ’You will continue to have a US military presence here,’ Noem added. Earlier in May, Nawrocki was invited for talks with Washington officials, including a meeting with the US President in the Oval Office. Trump has long enjoyed close relations with the PiS and Poland’s current PiS-aligned President Duda. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

Romania
28 May 2025  NATO-standard munitions co-production project - the United States and Romania can enhance defense production capabilities via potential co-production of both NATO-standard 155-millimeter artillery shells and 120-millimeter NATO tank ammunition. 'These projects are supported by a $920M foreign military financing loan from the U.S. Department of State announced in September 2024. (Source: U.S. Embeassy in Romania)

Russia
28th of May 2025  The major international treaties that are supposed to limit the number of certain missile types and nuclear warheads have fallen apart and the built-in mechanisms for conducting inspections at the opponent’s nuclear facilities have been put on hold. Officially, there has not been a single on-site inspection between the United States and Russia since April 2020. Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces form the backbone of the country’s three-legged nuclear deterrent. In addition to the heavy nuclear bombs that the Missile Forces can launch from buried silos or vehicles, Russia also has air- and sea-based nuclear weapons that can be launched from special bomber aircraft or submarines. Over 50,000 soldiers are part of the Missile Forces, which are divided into three armies, 12 divisions and more than 40 regiments. According to experts, the close to 900 operational nuclear warheads at the missile bases, and the intercontinental missiles that can launch them, ’have more than anything a psychological significance. These are weapons that can theoretically be used. Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces see themselves as a last resort, a purely destructive force that only comes into play when all hope is lost. Their official motto is as poetic as it is terrifying: ’After us – silence.’ ’Danwatch, in collaboration with German Der Spiegel, can for the first time reveal previously unknown details about the enormous upgrade of the military infrastructure at Russia’s most protected facilities’. Danwatch and Der Spiegel has gained access to hundreds of highly detailed blueprints showing how Russia is carrying out an enormous modernization of some of the world’s most sensitive nuclear weapons facilities. „Together we have analyzed more than two million documents relating to Russian military procurement that Danwatch systematically retrieved from a public database over a period of many months. The Russian authorities have gradually restricted access to the database, but we managed to circumvent these restrictions by using a veriety of digital techniques, including a network of servers located in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus’. “Documents like these for extremely sensitive defense projects should never have been publicly available in any way, shape, or form”. ’Danwatch and Der Spiegel have reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for a comment on whether they regard it as a security breach that blueprints have been released to a public database. We have also asked whether they assess that the documents would reveal the bases’ vulnerabilities. They have not responded to our inquiries. (Source: Danwatch - Denmark)

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Europe

European Commission
28.05.2025  The European Union plans to deepen cooperation with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Türkiye, Armenia and Azerbaijan, while advancing regional projects focused on connectivity. The new strategy aims to boost connections and growth by linking Europe with the South Caucasus, Central Asia and beyond, according to an official statement. A Black Sea maritime security hub will be Europe's early warning system in the Black Sea, enhance situational awareness and help protect critical infrastructure, like offshore installations and subsea cables, EU Foreign Policy chief Kallas said. Alongside upgrades, we want better screening of foreign owners in ports and key facilities, Kallas told. She emphasized that the EU would step up demining operations in the area. Kallas also underscored the importance of improving military mobility by upgrading regional ports, railways, and roads ’for transporting heavy military equipment’. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Parliament
28 May 2025  How to finance Europe’s ’long-overdue rearmament’ has dominated political discourse of late, particularly since the Munich Security Conference in February where the message from the United States was clear: Europe must assume greater responsibility for its own defence. The initial response has been fiscal. ’The European Union has championed ReArm Europe - a rearmament programme worth €150 billion of direct investment in defence and a temporary exemption from deficit rules that could unlock a further €650 billion in additional national defence spending’. ’Germany has pledged further investment, alongside other countries’. What’s missing is a parallel conversation about the role of monetary policy. Many member states remain wary of increasing debt levels. Decisions taken now will affect spending well beyond the exemption’s expiration, leading to a natural hesitancy in planning long-term defence outlays. In an environment where EU governments have committed to gradual debt reduction, investors may punish states that simultaneously increase defence spending. Eurozone members are acutely aware of their exposure to bond markets and ratings agencies, and will act cautiously as a result. ’The danger is that this caution will leave Europe under-equipped’. What matters is delivery: air defence systems, munitions, logistics, and personnel readiness. Monetary policy has historically been the EU’s first responder. The central bank’s secondary mandate: to support the general economic policies of the EU. The ECB should consider how it can support the EU’s defence buildup within its mandate. It is not difficult to imagine a scenario in which ’yields begin to rise for member states investing heavily in defence’. The Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI), created in 2022 to prevent unwarranted fragmentation in bond markets, could be adapted or deployed in defence-related contexts. Targeted asset purchase programmes or conditional refinancing mechanisms could be considered. "In its current form, the ECB primarily has a focus on price stability and cannot directly finance member state governments". The entire standing of the institution depends on its insularity from politics and policy goals that may be perceived as temporary. ’Aligning monetary policy with defence goals’ raises questions about ECB’s institutional positioning.  (Source: The Parliament magazine – based in Brussels, Belgium)
by Šuvajevs is a member of the Parliament of Latvia and vice-chair of the Latvian Budget Committee

Russia
(28 May 2025)  Russia’s first textbook on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been added to the official list of educational materials for 8th- and 9th-grade students. According to the publishers, the textbook was developed to encourage young people to explore careers in drone operation and management. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - investigative group, relocated from Moskow to Tbilisi, Georgia)

Ukraine
May 28, 2025  What Europe can gain from Ukrainian arms exports? The EU’s recent establishment of a €150 billion defense fund under the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative 'enables Ukraine’s participation in joint defense procurement and borrowing in partnership with EU members'. These funds can only be spent on defense products where at least 65 percent of components are produced by an EU country, Norway or Ukraine. ’Kyiv has already successfully established joint ventures with European defense partners, like Rheinmetall or Thales’. Opening up Ukraine’s defense industry would allow Ukraine’s economy 'to benefit directly from European rearmament'. Ukraine’s private defense sector has the capacity to produce over 1,700,000 more drones and electronic warfare systems (EWs) than it currently does. Ukraine’s production capacity ’has grown beyond’ what its state contracts cover and what the government has funds to procure. 'Ukraine’s parliament is currently discussing easing wartime restrictions on domestic arms exports'. ’Building on the country’s experience for European rearmament’ would allow the country’s economy ’to directly benefit from European rearmament'. Several ways ’to take advantage’ of this: international partners purchase weapons from domestic producers on behalf of Ukraine; duties and revenues from exports would provide a financial boost to further develop new capabilities. For Europe, 'it would open up a supply of field-tested capabilities and equipment'. Providing a technological edge over the enemy, defy the purpose of ’stockpiling for the possibility of a future conflict’. ’European armies would greatly benefit from access to Ukrainian domestic arms production, allowing them to train soldiers in drone warfare and integrate drone units in command structures, thereby adapting to the realities of modern warfare at low cost’. Over 40 percent of weapons currently used by Ukraine’s army are domestically produced, with a heavy focus on innovative weapons systems. The industry ’needs to scale up its production of strategic weapons, particularly cruise and ballistic missiles and strategic air defense — - which is where cooperation with European partners and investment is most needed’. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
by Parzonka, a coordinator for Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program.
Note: What good can gain? Nothing.

Asia

Afghanistan
May 28 2025  As per habit, I got ready and started towards the office (in Afghanistan, we work on Sundays). The moment I arrived at the entrance door of the building of PEN Afghanistan, things did not seem the way they usually did; there was something different about that day. I entered the building. We used to have images of famous writers hung on the walls, along with some pictures and mementos of PEN activities pinned and glued to the wooden boards, and several contemporary and classic pieces of art on the flat surfaces of canvases. However, that day, the walls were empty of images, the mementos were gone, and the canvases seemed soulless. As I kept walking, my eyes were not able to find any traces of the familiar objects in my surroundings. The whole two-floored PEN building was lifeless, as if its soul had been snatched away from its body. I started checking the news, as was my habit, when I was called to an urgent meeting. The moment I arrived in the meeting room, I noticed the worried look on the faces of my colleagues, and my heartbeat grew faster; something was definitely wrong. It happens sometimes that despite sensing something, you are still not able to put a finger on what it is. At the meeting, Dr. Hamed, general director of PEN Afghanistan, informed us that the Taliban had arrived at the gates of Kabul city, and at any time now they could enter the city. He requested that we leave the office and go home. The city has not changed its golden yet gloomy outfit since that Sunday, the 15th of August *, the day that changed the lives of everyone in Afghanistan forever, the Sunday that left a massive scar in the hearts of millions of people. (Source: Penopp - Sweden)
by Suhrabie
* year 2021

Caribbean

Haiti
May 28, 2025  The Haitian government has hired American contractors and has signed in recent months a contract with Mr. Prince, who founded Blackwater Worldwide to work on a secret task force to deploy drones meant to kill gang members. The authorities have yet to announce the death or capture of a single high-value target. Prince, a private military contractor and prominent supporter of President Trump, is working with Haiti’s government to conduct lethal operations against gangs that are terrorizing the nation, killing civilians and seizing control of vast areas of territory and threatening to take over its capital. After the U.S. occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq ended, security firms like those owned by Mr. Prince started seeing big streams of revenues dry up. Blackwater no longer exists, but Mr. Prince owns other private military entities. Security experts said he has also been scouting Haitian American military veterans to hire to send to Port-au-Prince and is expected to send up to 150 mercenaries to Haiti over the summer. He recently shipped a large cache of weapons to the country. The full terms of the Haitian government’s arrangement with Mr. Prince, including how much it is paying him, are unknown. The State Department has provided millions of dollars in funding to equip and train Haiti’s National Police. It said it is not paying Mr. Prince or his company for any work in Haiti. Haiti’s crisis has deepened since its last president was assassinated in 2021. Armed groups escalated the violence last year by uniting and taking over prisons, burning down police stations and attacking hospitals. About one million people have been forced to flee their homes and hundreds of thousands are living in shelters. U.N. officials have warned that the capital is in danger of falling under complete criminal control. A $600 million international police mission started by the Biden administration and largely staffed by Kenyan police officers failed to receive adequate international personnel and money. Haiti’s undermanned and underequipped police force is struggling to contain the gang. Since drone attacks targeting gangs started in March, they have killed more than 200 people. Rampant government corruption is a key reason Haiti’s finances are in shambles. Haiti’s experience with private military contractors goes back decades. When U.S. forces returned former president Aristide to power in 1994 after he was ousted in a bloody military coup, he was accompanied by a private security team from the San Francisco-based Steele Foundation. Blackwater faced legal problems over its work for the U.S. military in places like Iraq, including an episode in 2007 in which its employees killed 17 civilians in Baghdad. (President Trump pardoned four Blackwater guards in 2020.) Prince, donated more than $250,000 to help elect Mr. Trump in 2016. In 2017, he proposed a plan to use contractors to take over Afghanistan. In 2020, The New York Times revealed that he had recruited former spies to help conservative activists infiltrate liberal groups in the United States. A year later, the United Nations accused him of violating an arms embargo in Libya, which he denied. In recent years, in Haiti Colombian mercenaries hired by an American security firm were accused of taking part in the 2021 assassination of the last elected president Moïse. U.S. military contractors doing defense work overseas are required to obtain a license from the State Department, but those licenses are not public record. Mr. Prince has been trying to expand his portfolio and has traveled overseas in search of new business, said McFate, a professor at the National Defense University and author of “The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order.” 'It’s always worth noting where Prince is going, because it’s sort of a barometer of where he thinks Trump world might end up, and he wants to make a buck from it,” Mr. McFate said. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

North America

United States
May 28, 2025  America depends on ocean shipping. The U.S. needs ships to deliver nearly 90 percent of its armed forces’ supplies and equipment, including fuel, ammunition, and food. Commercial shipyard capacity is essential for surge construction of warships and sealift-support ships that transport equipment and troops in times of national emergency. Yet the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity. Of the tens of thousands of large vessels that dot the oceans, a mere 0.13 percent are built in the United States. China fulfills roughly 60 percent of all new shipbuilding orders and has amassed more than 200 times America’s shipbuilding capacity. Most U.S. imports and exports travel on foreign-built ships, owned and crewed almost exclusively by nine giant carriers based in Europe and Asia. By the end of 2024, these carriers had organized into three cartels that controlled about 90 percent of the U.S. containerized-shipping trade. After a ship arrives at a U.S. port, the crane that lifts containers from its cargo hold will probably have been made by a single Chinese corporation that produces 80 percent of all ship-to-shore cranes in the United States. China also makes 86 percent of the truck chassis onto which containers are loaded. Some 95 percent of the containers themselves are built in China. In the early days of the pandemic, foreign cartels raised the cost of spot contracts on certain shipping lanes by up to 1,000 percent while making a record $190 billion in windfall profits. ’They also rejected hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. agricultural exports, preferring to race back to China with empty containers to fill with more profitable Chinese imports while American-grown food rotted on the docks’. Because so few commercial ships fly the American flag and employ American mariners, the U.S. faces a critical shortage of civilian sailors needed to crew Navy support vessels. In November 2024, the Navy confirmed that it would lay up 17 support vessels, some delivered as recently as January, because of crew shortages. More alarming are shortages of support ships themselves. The U.S. would need more than 100 fuel tankers in the event of a conflict in the Pacific. It has access to about 15. After World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, the United States was so reliant on European shipping, freight rates soared. Foreign lines increased the rate to charter a vessel or ship key goods by about 20 times. The United States was effectively cut off from the rest of the world. The domestic economy went into a recession as goods piled up on the docks and imports stopped arriving in American ports. Congress passed a series of bills that poured public funds into bolstering U.S. shipping and shipbuilding capacity. Extensive public investment led to the construction of more than 2,300 vessels for World War I and more than 5,500 vessels during World War II. The United States became the world’s preeminent shipbuilder. Congress created a new agency, the United States Shipping Board (later replaced by the Federal Maritime Commission), which was charged with regulating the industry like a public utility. During the 1980s, however, Congress and Reagan abandoned the regulated-competition approach. Reaganites argued that the FMC, which at the time had a budget of just $11.8 million, had become a bloated bureaucracy. Congress passed a series of bills during the Reagan and Clinton administrations that stripped the FMC’s ability to regulate ocean-carrier cartels. As the rise of containerization led to ever larger ships, fixed costs grew. This increased carriers’ incentives to fill empty space on ships, even at steep discounts, because at least they would lose less money than if the space were unsold. American-flag carriers, which had higher costs than foreign counterparts, were particularly hurt by the rate wars, especially after the Reagan administration withdrew subsidies that had helped U.S. carriers defray the costs of paying crews livable wages. Shipyards in Asia began to enjoy massive government subsidies. Shipbuilding all but disappeared in the United States. At a time of escalating tensions with China, the United States has virtually no surge capacity to build naval or sealift ships. In fact, China builds all the commercial ships that the U.S. government contracts to provide military support. The central problem is not just inadequate investment or insufficient tariffs. It is the abandonment of a system of regulated competition that structures the industry to meet public purposes. Carriers would be required to offer all shippers, big and small, similar prices and terms of service. Combined with robust public investment in shipping, shipbuilding, port services, and mariner training, this system would re-create the market rules once used to address the challenge of unregulated monopolies in ocean shipping. (Source: The Atlantic - U.S.)
by Rao, a transportation policy analyst at the Open Markets Institute.

Global

May 28, 2025  Nostalgia ruins economies. The profound economic disruptions of the last few months might push analysts to revisit the idea that nostalgia is a grave, even life-threatening condition. The most notable example came on April 2, 2025, when U.S. President Trump rolled out a suite of massive, ostensibly reciprocal tariffs designed to restore the glory days of American manufacturing - resulting in a market crash. Trump’s announcement prompted a great deal of intellectual, as well as economic, shock. But he is not the first world leader to try cutting off his country. From the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, China sealed up its empire out of fear of outside influence. Japan did the same for much of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, during its shogunate era. They were united by the belief that closing off the nation to preserve traditions would bring about economic and even spiritual health. Each of these cases ended poorly. Europe, unlike China and Japan, did not try to avoid economic development. European countries embraced new technologies that allowed them to build up powerful governments and militaries - with the purpose of building vast colonial empires. As the continent urbanized, many began to fret about the dwindling numbers of farmers and peasants, particularly during the Great Depression, which began in 1929. The widespread misery of that era made the old image of rural life appear more attractive than ever, resulting in specifically peasant political movements that promised a return to an idyllic, agrarian past. The rural ideal was strong enough that it formed a key component in building new coalitions of a populist right. In fact, farmers constituted such a large part of the electorate that these movements even acquired power within the center and the left. It was in Germany that the most striking - and devastating - use of agrarian romanticism occurred. The National Socialist Party rose to power in large part by capitalizing on agricultural depression, with the Nazis relying heavily on rural propaganda to win the votes of German farmers. We must recognize that without our own land, without our own peasantry, there can be no economic prosperity in Germany, that all notions of export and import and of the global economy are nothing to us but concepts that may be useful but can never replace our own living space and our own peasantry These are the foundation of every healthy economy, Hitler declared in one typical 1932 election speech. When he wooed rural audiences in the south of Germany, he even wore antiquated peasant dress, with traditional rural jackets and, sometimes, lederhosen. The principal architect of the Nazis’ rural political program was Darré, the author of the tract New Aristocracy of Blood and Soil, Darré had a reputation for being both a student of technical farm matters and a feverish proponent of German expansion, which he believed was necessary for Germans’ well-being. In his view, pure-blooded Germans should abandon the poisonous big industrial cities for a healthy life of the land. After being appointed minister for agriculture, Darré pushed for Germany to conquer territory so that the country’s city dwellers would have fields to plow and settle. But he was hardly the driving force behind Germany’s efforts to expand its borders. His efforts focused on creating a compulsory corporatist guild-style organization of farmers and pushed through a law prohibiting farms from being split up or sold by German peasants. But in reality, farmers continued to feel overburdened, abandoned by a government that wanted to industrialize quickly, largely for military reasons. The number of agrarian workers in Germany continued to drop. After Hitler became chancellor in 1933, the Nazi leader lost patience with rural policies - and with Darré - once he no longer needed peasant voters. By 1937, Hitler openly expressed his contempt for 'peasant philosophy stuff' and refused to receive Darré or entertain his requests. After 1939, his only response to farmer demands was to send forced laborers to work in their fields. The rural dream at the heart of German nostalgia ultimately ran counter to the Nazis’ drive to assert a racial hierarchy rooted in technology and industrialization. After World War II, 'Europeans' ’embarked on an alternative: encouraging a move out of the countryside while paying the remaining farmers substantial subsidies’ - ’more an effort to keep the dwindling losers of globalization on its side while still moving the economy forward’. In the 1980s, the Common Agricultural Policy (as it is called) accounted for over 70 percent of the European Community budget. Today, however, it consumes just over 25 percent of the EU’s budget. The continent’s people accepted that peasant life was firmly in the past rather than something that one could resuscitate at full capacity. Nostalgia now it has come roaring back into mainstream politics, again fueling European populism. This time, however, the nostalgic sentiment surrounds the loss of manufacturing. Italy, whose household appliances, textiles, and clothing trade were most vulnerable to the China shock, fell first, bringing about western Europe’s first postwar populist government by making Berlusconi prime minister in 1994. Now, even Europe’s industrial motor, Germany, is tottering as the populist Alternative for Germany grows in popularity, particularly in the eastern parts of the country most conspicuously left behind. But no country appears more afflicted by nostalgia than the United States. Anger about globalization and the country’s growing diversity is, after all, part of what propelled Trump to the White House. And especially since winning his second term, Trump has worked to make good on his atavistic promises. The president explicitly sold his sweeping tariffs as restorative. His commerce secretary, Lutnick, likewise depicted the tariffs as Washington seizing back its glorified past. China, Lutnick said, had created an “army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones” - jobs that would once have belonged to Americans. Now, he said, that kind of activity would return. Trump replaced most of his tariffs with a flat ten percent levy after the stock market tumbled. But no matter how high the rate, tariffs are unlikely to restore lost jobs, especially as the automation revolution looms. AI now threatens office workers in a way analogous to robots in factories during the first wave of industrialization during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As the world changes around voters, the familiar image of men working in the mines while their wives prepare meals at home is so comforting to many Americans that they are willing to make radical sacrifices to get it back. It is why U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent can argue that any tariff-induced pain is really a detox period, and why Trump can talk of tariffs as an operation and as medicine. The economics of nostalgia, its inevitable failure only breeds a cultural nostalgia that may be even more dangerous than the cutoffs. When the United States doesn’t get its jobs back - and in fact loses more as a result of the disruption caused by tariffs - Washington, might double down on assertions of American superiority. After all, someone must be to blame for the failure of economic policies that so many Americans endorse. Nostalgia, then, becomes both the cause of problems and a coverup for them. People are worried about the radically transformative technology of today. The twin forces of globalization and technology are upending jobs, communities, families, and social relations. The idea of going back to an airbrushed, idealized version of the world is thus highly attractive. As an individual feeling, it may be comforting. But as a policy prescription, it poisons discourse and breaks apart the body politic. Returning to an imaginary lost homeland is not an option. (Source: Forreign Affairs - U.S.)
by James, Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University, the author of Seven Crashes;
James, a visiting doctoral researcher at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, working on a Ph.D. on the history of nostalgia.

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Europe

Poland
27/05/2025  The European Commission today permitted Poland to repurpose nearly €6 billion in post-COVID funds to finance defence projects, when the college of commissioners endorsed the Polish request by written procedure. 'Poland will be the first to invest billions from the National Recovery Plan in security and defence'. Warsaw was allocated nearly €60bn - of which 25.3 billion are grants - of the Commission's €650 billion plan Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) aimed at kickstarting COVID-stricken economies across the EU. Article 41 regulates the financing of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which includes the Union’s defence policy. Paragraph 2 stipulates that expenditures resulting from measures with military or defence implications are expressly excluded from financing from the EU's budget. RRF support for the defence sector may include financing the expansion of industrial capacity, the technological development of defence products, as well as investments that serve both civilian and military purposes, such as transport infrastructure, the Commission spokesperson also said. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

European Commission
27 May 2025  EU chief der Leyen denounced as ’abhorrent’ Israel's deadly wave of strikes on civilian facilities in Gaza including a school, during a call with Jordan's King Abdullah II yesterday. ’The expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza targeting civilian infrastructure, among them a school that served as a shelter for displaced Palestinian families, killing civilians, including children, is abhorrent,’ der Leyen said, according to an EU readout of the call, AFP reported. ’The European Commission has always supported - and will continue to support - Israel's right to security and self-defence," she said. ’But this escalation and disproportionate use of force against civilians cannot be justified under humanitarian and international law,’ der Leyen warned. The commission chief demanded that Israel immediately restore aid delivery in line with humanitarian principles, with the participation of the UN and other international humanitarian partners. The European Union has struggled to have an impact on the conflict due to long-standing divisions within the bloc between countries who back Israel and those considered more pro-Palestinian. The EU last week launched a review of its association agreement with Israel over alleged human rights abuses in Gaza, after 17 of its 27 member states backed the move. Germany will decide whether or not to approve new weapons shipments to Israel based on an assessment of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Foreign Minister Wadephul said in an interview published on Friday. Wadephul questioned whether Israel's actions in its war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza were in line with international law. The comments build on a shifting tone from Berlin. "For me, there is no question that we have a special responsibility to stand by Israel's side," Wadephul said. "On the other hand, of course, this does not mean that a government can do whatever it wants," he said. Yesterday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said airstrikes on Gaza were no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 assault on Israel killed some 1,200 people and triggered the war. (Source: Asharq Al Awsat – headquarters London, United Kingdom, owned by a member of Saudi royal family)

European Union
27.05.2025  EU affairs ministers gathered today in Brussels to hold a hearing on the state of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary. The Article 7 process against Hungary was launched in 2018 after the European Parliament called for action over 'alleged rule of law breaches', particularly concerning the judiciary and media freedom. Since then, EU ministers have held seven hearings and are now holding the eighth, but have not advanced to the second phase, which could lead to sanctions such as suspending Hungary’s voting rights. Sanctions require unanimous approval by member states, excluding the country concerned, while a formal reprimand needs backing from 80% of states. In the case of the recovery and resilience facility of Hungary, at this point in time, about €18 billion ($20 billion) is not available to Hungary. Hungary has repeatedly denounced the process as a political attack. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
Tuesday, 27 May 2025  Russian forces have seized four border villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, just days after Russian President Putin stated he had ordered the establishment of a buffer zone along the border. Putin said he told the Russian military to create a security buffer zone along the border but provided no public details of where the proposed zone would be or how far it would stretch. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

United Kingdom
27.05.2025  The Arctic is becoming an increasingly contested area, as countries seek 'to exploit new reserves of gas, oil, and natural minerals' exposed by melting ice due to rising global temperatures, which are also opening previously inaccessible shipping routes. The UK today announced a new artificial intelligence-driven initiative to strengthen its monitoring capabilities in the Arctic, to detect ‘hostile state' activity. During his Arctic trip today, Foreign Secretary Lammy would unveil the new UK-Iceland scheme. He will become the first UK foreign secretary to visit one of the Arctic’s northernmost inhabited points when he travels to the Svalbard Archipelago. Lammy cited the crucial role of the 'Arctic' frontier for geopolitical competition and trade. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

North America

United States
May 27, 2025  Russia criticized the U.S. for its Golden Dome anti-missile system, announced recently by President Trump, saying it undermines strategic stability. Today morning, Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry told Washington to abandon the deployment of weapons in space. China also recently urged the U.S. to abandon its Golden Dome project. Golden Dome is partly in response to the growing threat of advanced Chinese and Russian missiles. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

NATO

5/27/2025  In Northern Europe, the U.S. military is ’doubling down’. The high north and the Baltics have been thrust into the center of U.S. war planning, as their access to shipping routes, territory and energy reserves will be crucial to the West in a new era of geopolitical conflict. The region is hawkish on Russia. ’It is driving European efforts to rearm and boost defense budgets’. The Trump administration wants the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to get more lethal. ’A testing ground is Europe’s north’, where NATO faces Russia on two sides. A dozen U.S. Marines recently took position in a field on a Swedish island about 200 miles from the Russian city of Kaliningrad and fired their mobile rocket system. The dummy munitions splashed into the Baltic Sea. U.S. military commanders say their posture remains firm. From a U.S. Army perspective, my orders haven’t changed, said Brig. Gen. Saslav, deputy chief of staff for operations for U.S. Army Europe and Africa. ’I have been doing this too long to get hyperfocused on political winds and messaging that isn’t orders.’ During a three-week exercise, U.S. and U.K. forces joined Nordic and Baltic troops to practice potential war scenarios including live-fire drills, blood resupplies by drone and airborne jumps above the Arctic circle in Norway. ’The goal was twofold: deter Russian aggression’ and more firmly integrate allies in this strategic corner of Europe, including new NATO members Finland and Sweden now, how NATO has a continuous piece of territory north of the Arctic Circle. Finland shares an 800-mile border with Russia. Norway’s border with Russia is close to the Kola Peninsula, home to Moscow’s main submarine force, the Northern Fleet. ’The Nordic NATO enlargement has also made it easier for NATO to transfer reinforcements to the Baltic states in the event of a military crisis or conflict in that region’, said Atland, senior research fellow with the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, which advises Norway’s armed forces. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have long warned of Russia’s militaristic ambitions and provide sophisticated intelligence about their larger neighbor. It’s not about creating a club inside the club, it’s about making NATO stronger, said Edström, Swedish chief of defense staff. Gotland is among the most strategic locations in Northern Europe, allowing the deployment of sensors and long-range weapons systems to dominate air and sea operations in the Baltic region. Former Swedish defense chief Bydén last year said that Russian President Putin had both eyes on Gotland. As Russia’s maritime strategic locations in the Baltic Sea are very weak, ’any conflict’ will include Russia immediately seeking to occupy key port areas in the Baltics, Finland and Poland,” said Lundqvist, Sweden chair to the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies in Alaska. The key military strategic location of Gotland will most likely be the scene of hostile action ’in the opening stage of conflict’, he said. After being demilitarized for years, Gotland is at the heart of Swedish rearmament. ’In war’, the island can serve as a hub for NATO logistics and control of sea line communications, and to help build up offensive capabilities for deep strikes on enemy soil. Hundreds of conscripts arrive each year – ’an awkward fit among the residents, many of whom relocated here in recent years, attracted by Gotland’s natural serenity and medieval cobblestoned streets”, not expecting shooting ranges in their backyard. The ’projected wartime strength’ on the island is about 4,500 troops. To simulate the defense of Gotland, a U.K. pathfinder platoon last week carried out reconnaissance. Days later, 110 U.K. paratroopers dropped 1,000 feet from two A400M transport aircraft onto an open field before trekking through the night through woods to secure an aircraft-landing zone. In Lithuania, NATO forces simulated evacuations and treatment of casualties through three types of medical and evacuation systems, each of which belonged to different nations. Around midnight, a unit of U.S. Marines arrived nearby with a mobile rocket system, which can be deployed quickly in the event of war. Hours earlier, the Marines had been in Norway. After launching the dummy munitions - poles made of concrete - the Marines flew the system to Finland for a similar demonstration. The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, fires Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets, or GMLRS, with a range of about 45 miles, and longer-range Army Tactical Missile System known as ATACMS, which can shoot up to 186 miles. Ukraine has used the system to hit Russian logistics, tanks, bridges, infantry groups and ammunition depots. The American-led rocket launch on Gotland relied on complex, multinational communication involving sensors, command-and-control and airfields in several countries. (Source: MSN / The Wall Street Journal = U.S.)

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Európa      Europe

Magyarország
(2025. V. 26 / 2021) Támogatások: Nézd meg, hogy mi jár a családok tagjainak. (Forrás: Családbarát Magyarország Központ)

Hungary
26.05.2025 So many countries in the EU and centralized decision makers in the EU are not family friendly, Hungary’s culture and innovation minister Hankó said at the International Family Forum held in Istanbul today. He praised Turkish President Erdogan for his support of the traditional family model. Many policies introduced here in Türkiye were inspired by Hungarian examples, as Hungary is a family-friendly country with a family-friendly government. Our first goal is to protect the traditional family model, he said. Hankó highlighted that LGBTQ propaganda is forbidden in Hungarian schools or for those under 18, adding that the country brought forward debate on the issue with the European Commission. Hungary plans to significantly expand its pro-family policies in the coming year, allocating 5% of its GDP to support families and encourage higher birth rates, Hankó said. Providing financial assistance to families is a central part of Hungary’s strategy to address demographic challenges. Hungary will implement new tax reduction measures, with a key initiative being the exemption of nearly all mothers from paying personal income tax. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Germany
26.05.2025  ’There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine. Neither from the British, nor from the French, nor from us, nor from the Americans,’ German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at the WDR European Forum in Berlin, allowing Kyiv to strike military targets inside Russia. This means that ’Ukraine can now also defend itself, for example by attacking military positions in Russia’, he said. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

26.05.2025  German Chief of General Staff Gen. Breuer approved a report on May 19, which aims to make the German army more effective in air defense. The Bundeswehr ’will purchase integrated missile defense, short and medium-range air defense systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and weapons against drone swarms’. The German military also aims to expand and further develop modern air attack capabilities, including attack and defense capabilities in cyberspace. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

Israel
May 26, 2025  A dual U.S.-German citizen has been arrested on charges that he traveled to Israel and attempted to firebomb the branch office of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, officials said yesterday. The man, Neumeyer, walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails but got into a confrontation with a guard. Law enforcement then tracked Neumeyer down to a hotel a few blocks away from the embassy and arrested him, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York. Neumeyer, 28, who is originally from Colorado, had traveled from the U.S. to Canada in early February and then arrived in Israel in late April. He had made a series of threatening social media posts before attempting the attack, prosecutors said. Israeli officials deported Neumeyer to New York Saturday and he had an initial court appearance before a federal judge in Brooklyn yesterday, the same day his criminal complaint was unsealed. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

North America

United States
May 26, 2025  'I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all. We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities," Trump said. Asked if he was considering more sanctions on Russia, Trump said, 'Absolutely.' Upon returning to Washington, Trump posted more comments on social media, saying of Putin, 'He has gone absolutely CRAZY!' Trump also criticized Zelenskyy, posting that he is 'doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don't like it, and it better stop." (Source: The Korea Herald - South Korea)

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Europe

Russia
12:16, Sun, May 25, 2025  Ukraine launched repeated military drone attacks when Putin made a visit close to the war zone, Russian air force Major-General Dashkin said. „The air defence group in this area destroyed 46 aircraft-type [Ukrainian military drones].’ The region borders Ukraine. Major-General Dashkin said: "The intensity of the attack during the flight of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's aircraft over Kursk region increased significantly. We simultaneously conducted an air battle and ensured the safety of the presidential helicopter in the air. "The task was accomplished. The attack of the enemy drones was repelled, and all air targets were hit." A state TV host asked if this meant Putin’s helicopter was actually in the combat zone. Dashkin replied: "Yes, that's right." The claim of Ukrainian drones targeting Putin were made by Vesti Nedeli, a propaganda show on Kremlin-funded TV. His secret visit - which was not disclosed until it had ended - included a tour of Kursk Nuclear Power Plant-2, which is under construction in the Kursk region. (Source: Express – United Kingdom)

Ukraine
(May 25, 2025) A Russian drone-and-missile attack targeted Kyiv, and other regions in the country for a second consecutive night, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens. Russia used 69 missiles of various types and 298 drones. Sunday's targets included Kyiv and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Ternopil, Zhytomyr regions. Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 110 Ukrainian drones overnight. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

European Court of Human Rights
May 25, 2025  Denmark - which is set to take over the presidency of the European Union in July - and eight other countries blasted the European Court of Human Rights for imposing limits on deporting criminal migrants. Today Denmark published a letter demanding more leeway to expel immigrants who commit crimes. "Many have come here via legal pathways. They have learned our languages, believe in democracy, contribute to our societies and have decided to integrate themselves into our culture. Others have come and chosen not to integrate, isolating themselves in parallel societies and distancing themselves from our fundamental values of equality, democracy and freedom,’ the letter read. ’In particular, some have not contributed positively to the societies welcoming them and have chosen to commit crimes.’ The letter goes on to argue that the court's interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights has ’limited our ability to make political decisions in our own democracies,’ citing examples where the court has blocked the deportation of illegal immigrants. Denmark and the signatories request that the court make more room for European countries to deport illegal immigrants who commit violent or drug-related crimes, as well as allow for European governments to track illegal immigrants more closely. "We need to be able to take effective steps to counter hostile states that are trying to use our values and rights against us. For example, by instrumentalizing migrants at our borders,’ the letter adds. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

Asia

Afghanistan
(25 May 2025)  Repatriation of immigrants from Pakistan and Iran continue. At least 4,700 families were returned home over the past week - 3,130 families from Iran, and 1,560 families from Pakistan from May 15 to May 23, either forcibly or through so-called voluntary returns. The latest figures add to the fastest population movements Afghanistan has seen in recent years. In a recent report, the Norwegian Refugee Council said that since Pakistan began its deportation campaign in September 2023, more than one million Afghans have been expelled, with another 600,000 expected to be forced out in 2025. Iran has already returned over one million Afghans in 2024 alone. (Source: Amu Tv - U.S.)

Gaza
25.05.2025  An Israeli missile launched by Israel ’with advanced precision-targeting technology capable of identifying everyone inside a home’, struck where pediatrician Dr. Najjar’s 10 children and husband, Dr. Najjar, were staying in the Qizan Al-Najjar area in eastern Khan Younis. One child survived the brutal strike and is in critical condition in the ICU, alongside his father. The atrocity came three days after Feiglin, leader of the 'far-right' Israeli Zehut party, the former Knesset member from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said: ’Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy.’ (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

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Europe

Belgium
Saturday, 24 May 2025  Princess Elisabeth, the heir to the Belgian throne, has been caught in the middle of US President Trump’s ban on foreign students attending the prestigious Harvard University. Princess Elisabeth has just completed her first year. The 23-year-old is studying public policy after graduating with her bachelor’s degree from Oxford University in England. Princess Elisabeth has returned home to Belgium for the summer. It remains to be seen if President Trump will grant an exception to a future head of state. (Source: Royal Central)

European Union
Saturday 24/05/2025  Israel can rely on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe as loyal allies for historical and ideological reasons. Their closeness to Israel also stems from the fact that parts of their populations fled to Israel to escape the Holocaust and anti-Semitism that was rampant under communist rule. Another phenomenon is also growing in some countries: aversion to liberal democracy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, and former Czech President Zeman all share the political views of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It is particularly useful for Netanyahu to have a leader like Orbán who can try to block decisions made by Brussels. During Netanyahu's recent visit to Budapest, Hungary announced that it would withdraw from the International Criminal Court, against which an arrest warrant is in effect for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza. Another factor that strengthens support for Israel in Central and Eastern Europe is the narrative that Israel is on the front lines of the war against Islam, which allows local far-right movements to cover up their anti-Semitism. There is also a connection between politics and business. Slovakia last year became the first NATO member to buy the Israeli Barak MX air defense system for 560 million euros ($630 million). In 2023, Germany signed a deal with Israel to buy the Arrow-3 anti-missile shield for an estimated $3.5 billion. Poland is an exception in the region, as its position on the Gaza conflict is closer to that of Brussels. Poland has distanced itself from Israel on several occasions, including after the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which 1,218 people were killed according to official figures. Warsaw, a staunch supporter of Kiev, is also outraged by Israel’s reluctance to provide military support to Ukraine and for not explicitly condemning the Kremlin. Although Poland previously supported Israel, it recognized the state of Palestine in a vote at the UN General Assembly in May 2024. In the same vote, the Czech Republic and Hungary voted against it, while Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Romania abstained. (Source: The Arab Weekly - 'sister publication of Al-Arab, owned by a Lybian family, put out by Al Arab Publishing House in London')

Russia
24.05.2025  Russian Defense Ministry claims settlement of Odradne in eastern Donetsk region went under control of its forces. The ministry added that yesterday night it carried out a coordinated group strike using precision-guided weapons and drones on facilities of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, producing missiles, attack drones, and also on the center for electronic intelligence and the position of a US-made Patriot air defense system. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

Gaza
May 24, 2025  The AP spoke with seven Palestinians who described being used as shields in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and with two members of Israel’s military who said they engaged in the practice, which is prohibited by international law. They told that Israeli troops are systematically forcing Palestinians to act as human shields in Gaza, sending them into buildings and tunnels to check for explosives or militants. According to some Palestinians, it’s also happening in the occupied West Bank where the army has intensified its operations. The practice is banned by international law. The Supreme Court outlawed the practice in 2005. The two Israeli soldiers who spoke to the AP - and a third who provided testimony to Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers that collected testimonies about the practice from within the military - said it was referred to as the ’mosquito protocol’ and that Palestinians were also referred to as wasps and other dehumanizing terms. The practice sped up operations, saved ammunition, and spared combat dogs from injury or death. The Israeli military says it prohibits using civilians as shields and has long accused Hamas of using the practice. Convincing soldiers to operate lawfully when they see their enemy using questionable practices is difficult, said Schmitt, a distinguished professor of international law at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Israeli officials and other observers say Hamas uses civilians as shields as it embeds itself in communities, hiding fighters in hospitals and schools. (Source: AP - U.S.)

May 24, 2025  At least 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza in a 24-hour period, Gaza’s health ministry said yesterday. The dead included 10 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, four in the central town of Deir Al Balah and nine in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north. Israel said it will continue to strike Hamas until all of the 58 Israeli hostages are released - fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive, according to Israel - and until Hamas disarms. .” (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates)

Nato

May 24, 2025  Europe needs a new Great Power, Nato is just a social club. Once very deserving yet utterly indefensible countries such as Estonia were included in Nato - along with Poland, which mustered just 42,000 combat soldiers out of its population of 33 million a mere three months before Putin’s full-scale invasion began - it stopped being an effective military alliance. Instead, it became a kind of social club. The Nato calendar is full of meetings at the “Supreme Allied Headquarters” in Mons in Belgium, where all manner of military and related issues are addressed often very professionally and quite freely - except that nobody is allowed to mention, however politely, even the most glaring military shortcomings of fellow allies, which undermine important war plans. The highpoint of the Nato calendar is the splendid summits with all flags flying, in which the arrival of new countries is greatly celebrated, regardless of their ability to actually defend themselves. Both heads of state and heads of government are invited to those gatherings on the premise that there is strength in numbers, with no concerns about the inherent difficulty of reaching any agreements in such a vast crowd. In the last summit, held in Washington DC in July 2024, Biden’s confusion of President Zelensky with Putin added a touch of humour to otherwise gloomy proceedings: nobody in attendance offered any suggestions on how to end the war in Ukraine. Tripartite agreement is clearly easier than contending with dozens of European Nato members, from Estonia to Norway to Spain. A simple decision by the British, French and German governments to operate a joint foreign and defence policy coordination office would be quite sufficient to announce the arrival of the Great Power missing from the European scene. It would only require the designation of very few senior diplomats and military officers of each country, seconded from their ordinary duties to serve as joint crisis managers. The one thing necessary to make it work is that these individuals would each need immediate access to their respective leaders in the event of a crisis, overcoming the inevitable resistance of all others who must be left out. The left-out European capitals still pretend to matter. Brussels, too, would be outraged, where for all her charms President Der Leyen cannot conceal the inability of the European Commission to help assure Europe’s safety from threats large or small. 'France, Germany and the United Kingdom now have a new opportunity to combine forces and endow Europe with the Great Power it urgently needs. If they do not act, more wars are likely’. (Source: UnHerd - United Kingdom)
by Professor Luttwak, a strategist and historian known for his works on grand strategy, geoeconomics, military history, and international relations.

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Europe

European Union
23/05/2025  US President Trump today threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025, lamenting that negotiations with the EU are going nowhere, accusing the 27-member trading bloc of stalling trade talks. Today early morning, Trump said the EU had been formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on trade and took a swipe at the difficult negotiations taking place. Stock futures on Wall Street fell on the news. The current US baseline is 10 percent levy against goods coming from the EU. The EU recently was threatening to hit US goods worth nearly 100 billion euros ($113 billion) with tariffs if the ongoing talks fail to lower levies on European goods. (Source: France 24 with AFP)

23.05.2025  Nine EU states called for a new and open-minded conversation about the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly in terms of migration. "We have to restore the right balance," was stated in an open letter released by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office yesterday, signed by leaders from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic Denmark Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland. The letter urging a review of its application was made public following a meeting in Rome between Meloni and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, both of whom have taken a hardline approach to migration.(Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Europe
May 23, 2025  Fears for crops as drought hits northern Europe. Parts of northern Europe have seen their worst drought in decades in recent weeks. Countries including France, Belgium, Britain and Germany have seen much lower levels of rainfall than usual in some areas this spring, leaving the soil parched and dusty, with farmers from Scotland to the Netherlands fearing the dry spell will dent harvests if it continues. Water shortages can stunt the growth of crops such as wheat, corn, rapeseed and barley. The unusually dry weather has already delayed the life cycle of crops that would normally have sprouted by now. Britain suffers its driest spring in well over a century. According to the Environment Agency, levels in Britain’s reservoirs have fallen to exceptionally low. The Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) in early May twarned that the previous three months had been exceptionally dry, with just 63 millimetres of rainfall. Since 1874, there have only been seven times when less rain fell during the period from February to April, it said. Denmark has also seen above-average temperatures for the time of year. The country’s drought index, which runs on a scale of one to 10, has been above nine since May 15, the first time this has happened so early in the year since the index was established in 2005. In France, air temperatures have been warmer than usual, meaning plants need more water from the soil. Groundwater levels remain satisfactory. Northern France has been on drought alert since Monday after seeing the same rainfall between February and early May as it would normally see in a month. Strong northeast winds have also dried out the soil, with farmers increasingly turning to irrigation. Water for irrigation is primarily obtained from surface water such as rivers, lakes and reservoirs or from groundwater using wells and aquifers. Until five years ago, irrigation was not even considered in the north  - these days it can as much as double crop production, but you need the resources to do it. From February 1 to April 13, Germany saw 40 litres of rainfall per square metre, the its lowest level since records began in 1931, according to the German Weather Service (DWD).  Germany’s environment minister warned in April of a high risk of forest fires and poor harvests due to a worrying lack of rain. In the Netherlands, it has not been this dry since records began in 1906. The Federation of Swedish Farmers said it was too early to say what the impact on farming will be this summer but advised farmers to go over their water planning. The dry spell in northern Europe contrasts with southern Europe, including Spain and Portugal, where rainfall has been up to twice the usual amount for the time of year. (Source: Macau Business - China / AFP - France)

Asia

South Korea
23.05.2025  An option being developed by the Pentagon is to pull out roughly 4,500 troops from South Korea and moving them to another location in the Indo-Pacific region, including its island territory of Guam, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. According to the report, the proposal has not yet been submitted to President Trump for approval. Some 28,500 US troops are currently stationed in South Korea. Last month, US Indo-Pacific Command Commander Adm. Paparo Jr. opposed any troops withdrawal from South Korea and warned it would jeopardize their ability to prevail against North Korea, and in other possible conflicts against China and Russia. An unnamed Pentagon spokesperson told the agency that there is currently no policy announcement to make regarding any potential US troop reduction in the region. South Korea's Defense Ministry today also said there is no discussion held between Seoul and Washington over any possible withdrawal of troops. (Source: Anadolu Agency -Turkey)

North America

United States
May 23rd, 2025  Vice President Vance gave the commencement address at the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony in Annapolis today. Vance declared the era of uncontested US dominance is over * while urging the U.S. to look inward in order to dominate globally. He declared a generational shift in foreign policy away from the U.S. ’meddling’ in other countries. Vance praised President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East and said it signified the end of a decades-long approach to foreign policy that was a break from the precedent set by founding fathers. 'We had a long experiment in our foreign policy that traded national defense and the maintenance of our alliances for nation-building and meddling in foreign countries’ affairs,' he added. Even when those foreign countries had very little to do with poor American interests. „Our leaders traded hard power for soft power. We stopped making things: everything from cars to computers to the weapons of war, like the ships that guard our waters and the weapons that you will use in the future,’ he continued. “Too many of us believed that economic integration would naturally lead to peace by making countries like the People’s Republic of China more like the United States. What we’re seeing from President Trump is a generational shift in policy. The Trump administration has reversed course. No more undefined missions. No more open-ended conflicts. Returning to a strategy grounded in realism and protecting core national interests. Vance  argued that policy failed and warned that China and Russia are now working to surpass U.S. power globally. (Source: Mediaite - U.S.)
* See also: VP Vance delivers Naval academy commencement speech /Video/ (Source: YouTube - U.S.)
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