Egyik 19

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Europe

Germany
04.08.2025  59% of Germans say they would probably not or definitely not be prepared to defend Germany militarily 'if attacked'. Among women, this reluctance was even higher at 72%. Only 16% of respondents said they would definitely take up arms to defend Germany, while an additional 22% indicated they would probably do so. The poll was commissioned by the media group RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland between July 28 and 29. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

(Sunday, 04.08.2025  Today, CSU leader Soder called for an end to citizen's benefit payments for all those who have come from Ukraine, adding that this should apply not only to future arrivals but to all Ukrainian refugees currently receiving benefits. Germany has taken in more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees since 2022. Last year, German authorities spent €46.9 billion ($54.3 billion) on Burgergeld payments, with €6.3 billion ($7.3 billion) specifically allocated to Ukrainian refugees in the country. Only one in three employable Ukrainians is actually working. The “citizen's benefit” (Burgergeld) payments to Ukrainians are not typically available to refugees from other countries. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey) 

The Netherlands
August 5, 2025 11:18am EDT  ' Netherlands becomes first NATO ally to buy US weapons for Ukraine. Dutch defense minister announces funding for Patriot systems under Trump-NATO agreement '. (Source: Fox News –U.S.)

Poland
August 1, 2025   ' Poland will locally produce the South Korea’s K2 Black Panther Tanks under a $6.5 billion deal. ' (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

European Commission
(1 August 2025)  NGO Transparency - Database of the European Commission’s NGO contracts. The European Commission directly finances thousands of non-governmental organisations (NGO) throughout Europe and beyond. A great number of these organizations pursue political activities. Contrary to the traditional principles of civil society, they do not represent certain groups of society, but the voice and will of Brussels institutions. This website is an essential tool of ensuring transparency. It provides a comprehensive database of the organisations that were supported by the European Commission from 2019 to 2023. (Source: Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament)
Note: Over 37,000 contracts, worth a total of €17 billion.

Russia
Tuesday, August 5, 2025 3:29:55 PM  Russia withdraws from Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. (Source: UAWire - Ukraine)

Switzerland
(1 August 2025)  39% for Switzerland – these are the highest tariffs in Europe. Switzerland sells more (primarily in pharmaceuticals, gold jewellery, watches and machine tools) to the US than it buys. The Swiss trade deficit with the US was $47.4 billion in 2024. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Ukraine
(4 August 2025) 06:30  ' Ukraine's weapons plants remain hidden from Moscow. A key priority of Ukraine is to build its own missiles that match the destructive power and long reach of the Shahed killer drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles that Moscow has been launching in recent weeks. Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s south-eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, recently suffered its biggest aerial attack. It has been home to missile production facilities since Soviet times, and Russia’s defence ministry claimed, after the attack, it had struck facilities producing components for missiles and drones. Ukraine is already producing and using a family of missile systems named Neptune, Palyanytsia, Peklo, and Ruta. According to Kyiv, production multiplied eight times between 2023 and 2024. Zelensky has said Ukraine intends to produce 3,000 cruise and drone missiles in 2025. Long-range missile called Bars (Leopard) is a hybrid between long-range drones and cruise missiles powered by a turbojet engine, giving it great speed and with a range of 700-800km with a warhead of 50-100kg of explosives. Zelensky alluded last year to the successful test of an engine for a homemade ballistic missile - an offspring of the Sapsan Operational-Tactical Missile System – also known as Hrim and Hrim2 – that was conceived in the early 2000s. Everyone, even senior officials, are forbidden to talk about this subject. The only person allowed to reveal anything is Zelensky. Despite the war, despite the missile attacks, we were able to increase our defence industry output by 35 times during the last three years, Sak, adviser to the Strategic industries ministry said. The conflict in Ukraine has seen a profound shift toward drones, with Ukraine planning to produce five million this year. The Russians are trying to destroy any locations they identify where those missiles and other weapons are being developed or manufactured. Three or four smaller, concealed sites replicate the same weapons system and, if one is hit, overall production continues. The sites are protected by air defences to counter Russian missiles and drones. A factory within a sprawling, somewhat dilapidated, Soviet-era industrial zone in western Ukraine previously produced heavy precision machinery and engine parts converted to weapons manufacture in early 2024 to become one of three concealed facilities scattered across Ukraine producing Bucephalus armoured personnel carriers. Until 2022, it was produced at a large plant in the east Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, targeted by Russia early in the full-scale war. The engines are brought in from Germany and the weapons are fitted elsewhere. They produce four per month. ' (Source: Irish Independent - Ireland)

03.08.2025  Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies said they detained four officials as part of a large-scale corruption scheme in which military drones and electronic warfare equipment were procured at inflated prices. Those detained allegedly received kickbacks of up to 30% of contract costs. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

(August 2, 2025)  More than a million Ukrainians have returned to their country after fleeing the 2022 invasion, according to United Nations figures. More than 5 million Ukrainian refugees remain outside the country. In a survey of Ukrainians abroad published in March by the Centre for Economic Strategy, a think tank in Kyiv, 43% of respondents said they would like to return. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

02/08/2025 - 11:22  Russia's military advance in Ukraine accelerated for a fourth straight month in July. Moscow claims to control nearly 80 percent of the Donetsk region. (Source: France 24)

Europe
August 5, 2025 1:51 PM ET  ' 4 European countries agree to buy a combined $1 billion in U.S. weapons for Ukraine. ' (Source: NPR - U.S.)

Africa

(Sunday), August 3, 2025 6:36 AM  Jihadis' operations of isis affiliated forces. Militant groups aligned with the islamic state (isis) are ramping up violence across Africa. Over the past week they claimed a deadly attack against a church in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday and killing of soldiers in Burkina Faso on Thursday. Deep-rooted insecurity makes combatting the group in Africa. The risk is that ’it rises into something much larger that then presents a much greater threat on the global scene, so, a threat direct to the homeland of the United States, or to Europe or outside of Africa’. In 2013 militants in Libya, taking advantage of chaos in the wake of longtime leader ’Qaddafi's downfall at the hands of a NATO-backed rebellion’, had begun to tie their ideology to Islamist violence. In 2017, an isis acolyte from Libya conducted the group's first Africa-origin attack in the West, killing 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. That same year, four U.S. soldiers and five Nigerien personnel were killed in an ambush staged by the islamic state in the Greater Sahara (isgs). Today, isis counts a number of partner groups across the continent. They include isgs, islamic state West Africa province (iswap), islamic state Central Africa province (iscap), islamic state Mozambique province and islamic state Somalia province. For three years now, an absolute majority of deaths due to terrorism globally have been in Africa, including roughly half of all terrorism-related fatalities in the world happening in just the Sahel region. The threat level of all is affiliates are becoming more lethal. They are increasingly demonstrating capacity to hold large amounts of territory or deny governments the ability to function in many areas. Geographical isolation from another may be changing, with the potential for isis' local affiliates to expand further into Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger and pose a large enough threat to some of the criminal groups in Northwest Nigeria. Maybe it absorbs some of those groups. islamic state Greater Sahara might be able to carve out its own presence in that space. A potential connection being forged between isis' fronts in Sahel and West Africa, where the group has stepped up attacks in Nigeria. Already, a junction between the two self-proclaimed isis provinces is being established between Nigeria and the Sahel. With the three junta-led governments of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger having expelled U.S. and French forces in recent years and now focusing Russia-backed operations against Tuareg rebels, the primary challenger to isis in this front is another hardline Islamist group, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM). It is the affiliate of Al-Qaeda that is stopping the attempt of islamic state moving further south. Failed states, corruption, unsustained borders, and most importantly, human rights abuses by local security and armed forces – this combination of conditions risks threatening to set the stage for new attacks once the jihadis find sufficient footing to project their militant plans abroad, as they did from Libya in 2017. When they had a foothold in Libya, on the shores of the Mediterranean, they did not hesitate one second. If they get the means, of course they will. The area of the Sahel that intersects Mali and Burkina Faso has become a global epicenter of jihadist terrorism and continues to pose a severe threat. Al-Qaeda tends to be a little more pragmatic while is franchises tend to be more ideological. Both have proven lethal, both have made gains, and both are contributing to the rising death toll. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan group established in the late 1990s, swore allegiance to isis' Central African outfit in 2018. This group claimed responsibility for the slaying of nearly 40 people at a church in the eastern DRC, along with an earlier massacre against another church in February. Such anti-Christian operations demonstrated that the group once known as the ADF is now applying the orders at the top of the islamic state by the letter. While isis has made enemies of all who oppose its ultra-fundamentalist doctrine  - including other Muslims - targeting Christians both serves the group's desire to inflame sectarian tensions and live up to the prophetic narratives upon which it was founded. Isis affiliated groups have had a history of attacking Christians in DRC but also across other parts of Africa too, and it fits within their playbook. It forms part of their apocalyptic narrative about the armies of Islam having to fight against the armies of Rome (sometimes taken to mean Christians) in the end of times. Isis' in the DRC has in the past made mention of an 'economic war against Christians,' while more recently it has made a more concerted effort to convert local Christians to Islam, in addition to forcing others to pay the jizya [tax on non-Muslims]. The fact that it primarily combats, or more accurately, kills Christians, has been a main feature of propaganda and internal messaging. Isis fighters in the DRC were operating in an area that is overwhelmingly Christian. Africa is divided near-evenly between Christians and Muslims. Home to more than quarter of the world's Christians, the highest portion among the continents, Africa also hosts around a third of the world's Muslims. In Nigeria (as in the Sahel), iswap's area of operation is almost entirely in almost-entirely Muslim areas. The group - and islamic state's central propaganda apparatus, which publishes all official public-facing messaging) - consistently emphasizes attacks on Christians and has in the past carried out attacks on churches. Given the relatively tiny portion of the population that is Christian in their areas of operation, these attacks are probably meant more to antagonize Christians elsewhere in Nigeria - and Christians around the world - than it is to spark religious conflict between Muslim and Christian communities in northeastern Nigeria itself where iswap primarily operates. A number of U.S. officials have come to recognize the threat posed by isis and other Islamist militant groups in Africa. ’Left unchecked, they will have a direct threat on the homeland,’ U.S. African Command (AFRICOM) commander General Langley said in response to a senator's question on the issue during an April testimony. The issue appears to receive comparatively less policy attention that other theaters. All too many armchair 'experts' who never get into the field -- if they travel abroad at all - have are reluctant to acknowledge the problem. It is not just a matter of the fighting terrorism, it is also about access to critical minerals that are needed for national security and economic growth, which can only be safely extracted and processed in partnership with African countries when there is security. U.S. foreign policy has witnessed a significant shift from counterterrorism to competition over resources which has allowed armed groups to take advantage of the situation by spreading into locations beyond America's primary airstrikes. The U.S. setbacks and the escalation in isis operations may ultimately push African nations to work together. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Asia

Israel
(Sunday), 03.08.2025  Israel’s 'far-right' National Security Minister Ben-Gvir led Israeli settlers in a provocative march into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem early today, coinciding with the Jewish commemoration of Tisha B’Av. The settlers stormed the mosque compound in the morning hours performing Talmudic rituals, singing, and dancing under heavy police protection. The incursion included assaults on Muslim worshippers, journalists, and Al-Aqsa guards. The Temple Mount is for the Jews, and we will remain here forever, Ben-Gvir said. Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world's third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

South China Sea
August 4, 2025, 7:14 AM  India, Philippines stage joint sail and naval drill in the disputed South China Sea for the first time. Philippine President Marcos left today for a five-day state visit to India for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top officials to boost defense, trade and investment, agriculture, tourism and pharmaceutical industry engagements. (Source: ABC News / Associated Press = U.S.)

Friday 01 August 2025 10:47 BST  China’s military build-up in disputed waters. China is bolstering its presence in the South China Sea with a 3,200 hectare network of military bases, including some capable of launching nuclear bombers, according to new satellite images of Mischief Reef by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) which tracks maritime security issues in Asia. It’s latest satellite images show sprawling runways, missile shelters, large aircraft hangars amid several high-level military infrastructure resembling a well-defined city. ’They include harbours, large runways, more than 72 fighter jet hangars across the three big island bases, surface-to-air missile and anti-ship cruise missile emplacements, and a lot of radar, sensing and communications infrastructure,' Poling, director of the AMTI, told. China is now in control of 20 outposts in the Paracel Islands and seven in the Spratly Islands. China also controls Scarborough Shoal, which it seized in 2012, via a constant coast guard presence but it has not built any facilities on the disputed feature. China claims sovereignty over nearly all the South China Sea, including areas claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.  A 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal found Beijing's sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision that was rejected by Beijing. Beijing maintains its military expansion in the region is defensive, arranged to protect what it says are its sovereign rights amid opposition from Asian countries that have their own claims. These bases are the result of the quickest example of mass dredging and landfill in human history. In May this year, China landed two of its most advanced bombers in the disputed Paracel islands in the South China Sea, as seen in satellite imagery - long-range H-6 bombers on Woody Island in the Paracel islands, marking the first time China’s most advanced bombers were seen since 2020 and a signal of Beijing’s growing military capabilities. The H-6 bombers are seen as a potential threat to US bases in the region and were also seen deployed in the war games around Taiwan last October. They flew close to the US mainland in July last year for the first time. China's Southern Theatre Command, which covers the South China Sea, maintains two regiments of the bombers, according to the  London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies. The bombers are generally kept at heavily fortified bases on the Chinese mainland, where they would have more protection in a conflict from US attacks in conflict scenarios. (Source: The Independent – United Kingdom)

Syria
August 03, 2025  Syrian army and Kurdish-led SDF clash. Fighting breaks out near Euphrates. A conference of Kurdish political groups in April demanded Syria be governed under a federal system. This year, the Pentagon allocated $130 million for groups in Syria with which it has linked up in counter-isis operations, mainly the SDF, in its 2026 budget. (Source: The National - United Arab Emirates)

Turkey
08.04.2025  ' Türkiye’s defense exports to Europe surged to $1.2 billion in 2023, up from $369 million in 2020 and to over $7.1 billion in 2024. They now account for 22% of the country’s total defense exports. Baykar accounted for one-third of Türkiye’s defense exports in 2023 and one-quarter of all defense and aerospace exports in 2024. EU foreign policy chief Kallas told reporters that, as an EU candidate country, Türkiye could participate in joint projects. In a wave of cross-border collaborations, in March, drone maker Baykar Technologies partnered with Italy’s Leonardo to co-develop next-generation unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The joint venture will operate at multiple sites in Italy and target the European UAV market. Baykar acquired Italy’s 140-year-old Piaggio Aerospace. Turkish firm Repkon signed a deal with a top German defense contractor to co-produce 155mm artillery shells for the German army. Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) secured an agreement in Spain to co-produce and export HURJET – Türkiye’s first indigenously developed jet trainer and light attack aircraft – tailored for next-generation pilot training and close air support. Poland, the first EU and NATO member to purchase Bayraktar TB2 drones, received all 24 units by mid-2024. Albania and Croatia followed, with the latter also acquiring logistics, training and command-and-control systems. In 2024, Aselsan launched a regional office in North Macedonia to coordinate activities across the Balkans. Havelsan, another key Turkish defense player, won a Romanian tender to modernize maritime surveillance using its MATRA software platform. ' (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

North America

United States
8/1/2025  The U.S. Army issued Palantir a contract yesterday worth up to $10 billion over the course of the next decade. The new contract is the largest ever awarded to the software and data analysis company. (Source: MSN - U.S.)

16:35 ET, Aug 1 2025  Trump orders nuclear submarines to be moved near Russia. 'Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

NATO

Aug 5, 2025 1:55 PM EDT  ' NATO coordinating regular deliveries of large-scale weapon packages to Ukraine. ' (Source: PBS - U.S.)

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Németország jövőjéről

- video -

A Világnézet című műsor vendége Bauer, az MCC Magyar–Német Intézetének igazgatója.

A beszélgetés középpontjában Németország aktuális kül- és belpolitikai folyamatai állnak,

különös tekintettel Friedrich Merz nyilatkozataira, az SPD kijevi látogatására, migrációra.

Bauer elemzései őszinték, provokatívak és mélyrehatóak – Németország jövőjéről.

(Forrás: YouTube - Egyesült Államok / Hit Rádió - Magyarország)

7356 megtekintés

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Europe

Hungary
9:54 am, August 25, 2025  At a press conference in Kyiv on August 24, Zelensky hinted that strikes on the Druzhba oil pipeline were linked to Hungary’s refusal to back his country’s bid to join the European Union. ’The war, to which we have no connection, is not a legitimate justification for violating our sovereignty,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó responded in a Facebook post, calling on Zelensky to stop threatening Hungary and stop endangering its energy security. Ukrainian drones have struck the Druzhba pipeline several times since early August, forcing shutdowns. The pipeline delivers Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. The foreign ministers of both countries complained to the European Commission about the attacks, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote to U.S. President Trump. According to Hungarian media, Trump replied that he was angry about the situation with Druzhba. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

France
25-august (2025)  Ambassador Kushner will be summoned to the Quai d’Orsay on Monday 25 August. (Source: Ministère des affaires étrangères - France)

25 August 2025  US ambassador Kushner to France has written to French President Macron to denounce what he said was the French Government’s insufficient action against anti-Semitism, days after similar remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On August 19 the Israeli PM accused Macron of fomenting anti-Semitism, saying it had surged in France following the French President’s announcement in July that he will recognise Palestinian statehood. 'In today’s world, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism – plain and simple,' the ambassador added. 504 anti-Semitic incidents were reported across the country between January and May this year. France is home to around half a million Jewish people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

European Commission
25 August 2025  'On 24 August, we celebrated Ukraine’s Independence Day. 'Europe' continues to stand with Ukraine, every step of the way. 'The EU has provided, and will continue to provide, Ukraine with unwavering political, financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic assistance, for as long as it takes'. 'The goal is a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace for Ukraine. This requires a diplomatic solution. '€59.6 billion have been mobilised in military support for Ukraine'. 'So far, the support amounts to €168.9 billion'. (Source: European Commission - Headquarters Brussels, Belgium)

Africa

Egypt
25/08/2025, Monday  Egypt will host the Bright Star 2025 military exercises, a regular biennial event. It includes naval, ground, air and special forces training. Egyptian army spokesperson Col. Hafez said in a video statement that 13 countries will participate directly with more than 7,900 troops, while 30 others will join as observers. 'US military forces will join the Egyptian Armed Forces, as well as other participating nations, for Exercise BRIGHT STAR 2025 at Mohamed Naguib Military Base, Egypt, 28 August – 10 September 2025,' US Central Command said in a statement on the American social media platform X. (Source: Yeni Şafak / Anadolu Agency = Turkey)

Asia

South Korea
August 25, 2025  U.S. President Trump hosts South Korean President Lee in Washington for their first summit meeting today, after the countries struck a trade deal last month lowering U.S. tariffs on the Asian ally to 15% from a threatened 25%. Alongside trade, U.S. pressure to redefine the decades-long military alliance is set to be a focus. Trump has accused its Asian ally of “free-riding” on U.S. military might, with some 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea to deter nuclear-armed North Korea. In November last year, Seoul agreed to increase its contribution by 8.3% to 1.52 trillion won ($1.09 billion) for the first year in 2026, under a five-year plan. South Korea is currently is allocating 61.25 trillion won, or 2.3% of GDP to defense spending this year. Experts say the summit may include discussions on the idea of adjusting the role of U.S. troops from a focus on countering North Korea to also managing tensions in the Taiwan Strait and deterring China. This could be sensitive for Seoul given how President Lee has sought to take a balanced approach to ties with Beijing. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho has denied Seoul was in talks with Washington over whether to allow U.S. forces to be redeployed in the event of a Taiwan Strait emergency. When it comes to the approach of seeking to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Lee and Trump have a willingness to restart dialogue with Kim and they may deliver a joint message to North Korea. Trump has said more South Korean investment plans will be announced in addition to a $350 billion package agreed last month. South Korea said the leaders will discuss cooperation in sectors such as chips, batteries, shipbuilding, as well as “economic security” in areas such as cutting-edge technologies and key minerals. Investments announced during the summit should include already announced projects such as Samsung Electronics’ new chip factory in Texas and Hyundai Motor’s car factory in Georgia, as well as Hanwha’s plan to expand its U.S. shipyard. South Korea has agreed to invest $150 billion out of the overall investment package on U.S. shipbuilding cooperation. Lee will visit the Pennsylvania-based Philly Shipyard, acquired by South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean and its parent group. The leaders may also discuss the timeframe to cut U.S. tariffs on South Korean car imports from 25% to 15% as agreed under the trade deal. The countries have appeared to have a different interpretation of details of the $350 billion investment fund, while Seoul denied U.S. assertions that it had agreed to open up its rice market. Foreign Minister Cho told parliament that South Korea could try to win approval from Washington to reprocess or enrich its own nuclear material during the summit, saying this is not for nuclear armament, but for industrial and environmental purposes. While President Lee has rejected the idea of nuclear armament, his intelligence agency chief this year called for Seoul to secure the right to enrich uranium to demonstrate its ’potential nuclear capabilities.’ Wi said South Korea was in talks about cooperating on nuclear power projects in the United States. (Source: The Asahí Shímbun - Japan / Reuters - United Kingdom)

August 25, 2025  South Korean President Lee sent a special delegation led by former parliament speaker Park to his country’s main trading partner as he travels to Washington to meet U.S. President Trump. South Korea hopes to normalize relations with China that have been strained in recent years, the special envoy from Seoul told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang yesterday, and agreed to boost economic cooperation, Seoul’s foreign ministry said. Lee arrived in Washington early today. Park handed Wang a letter from Lee to Chinese President Xi and invited Xi to the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping in October. “(South Korea’s) new government will pursue a mature development of South Korea-China strategic cooperation partnership based on national interest while continuing to develop the South Korea-U.S. alliance,” Park said. The two sides agreed to work towards substantive progress on economic and supply chain cooperation. In a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang said that development of both countries’ ties has shown that good neighborliness, seeking common ground while reserving differences and expanding cooperation are the right choices. Wang added that China’s policy is to maintain stability and continuity with South Korea and he urged both sides to “improve national sentiment and manage sensitivities properly” to move bilateral relations forward steadily. Diplomatic ties between the countries have improved since a 2017 dispute over South Korea’s deployment of a U.S. missile defense system, which Beijing opposed. But they exchanged harsh words in 2023 about critical comments on Beijing by South Korea’s last president, Yoon. (Source: The Asahí Shímbun - Japan / Reuters - United Kingdom)

August 25, 2025  South Korea cannot “readily agree to” expanding the mission of American troops stationed on the peninsula beyond deterring North Korea, President Lee said ahead of his first summit with Trump today. The ROK leader’s remarks en route to Washington, came against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s push for greater strategic flexibility for U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) to focus more on countering China, a move that would increase Seoul’s responsibility for defending against DPRK attack. Min, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, explained that the U.S. sees strategic flexibility as a way to expand the role of USFK across the Indo-Pacific region. Seoul remains cautious, believing that U.S. forces should primarily serve as a deterrent on the Korean Peninsula, he said. He warned that North Korea’s nuclear and missile development has increased significantly, making it necessary to put in many times more effort than before to achieve realistic progress toward denuclearization, peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. Lee reiterated a belief in dialogue based on deterrence and his three-step road map to achieving denuclearization, despite Pyongyang’s persistent claims that it will never abandon its nuclear arsenal. “My hope was to first pause, then reduce nuclear weapons, and ultimately achieve denuclearization,” he said. (Source: NK News – South Korea)

South America

Venezuela
25/08/2025, Monday  Venezuelans join militia following President Maduro's order to mobilize 4.5 million members as US warships arrive in Caribbean. The military deployment, ordered by President Trump, includes three guided-missile destroyers, an amphibious squadron, at least 4,500 sailors and some 22,000 marines, the Navy confirmed. According to the Pentagon, the purpose of the heightened naval presence is to combat drug cartels in the region. The US Justice Department recently doubled its reward to $50 million for information leading to Maduro's arrest, having accused him of being one of the world’s largest drug traffickers. Guyana and Venezuela have been engaged in a border dispute over the oil-rich Essequibo region. (Source: Yeni Şafak / Anadolu Agency = Turkey)

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Europe

The Netherlands
23.08.2025  Dutch police secretly use controversial AI software by American company Palantir. Prime Minister Dick Schoof reportedly involved in purchasing software in 2011 as director general of police. (Source: Anadolu Agency – Turkey)

Kaliningrad
August 22, 2025 12:32 PM  Russia has been building a listening station on the edge of the Baltic Sea for the last two years, satellite images appear to show. The potential spying facility is in Kaliningrad's Chernyakhovsky district. It began taking shape in March 2023 and is almost finished. Russia could use the purported facility to intercept NATO radio communications and triangulate their positions. The placement of a CDAA-like structure in this region is strategically logical. Such an installation would enable Russia to monitor NATO's electronic communications across Eastern Europe and the Baltic region. It could communicate with submarines in the Baltic Sea or the North Atlantic and support passive intelligence gathering. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Russia
August 24, 2025 1:32 PM  The operators of a Russian nuclear power plant in the country's western Kursk region and Khinshtein, the region's governor said in posts to messaging app Telegram early today that Russian air defenses had intercepted a Ukrainian drone close to the site shortly after midnight local time. The Ukrainian drone detonated as it fell, damaging an auxiliary transformer and sparking a fire. There were no casualties, but one of the reactors was working at 50 percent capacity, the nuclear plant said, adding radiation levels hadn't changed. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, IAEA said it confirmed that radiation was normal around the site. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = The U.S.)

August 24, 2025 7:00am EDT  The current geopolitical situation Moscow is facing is ’a time of 'colossal threats  to the existence of our country' from West’ and Russia needs to update its nuclear capabilities, top nuclear official, Director General of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom Likhachev said this week. ’Therefore, the nuclear shield, which is also a sword, is a guarantee of our sovereignty.’ "We understand today that the nuclear shield must only be improved in the coming years,’ he added. New Start Treaty is set to expire in February. (Source: Fox News – U.S.)

(August 22, 2025) 9:00 a.m. UTC+3  "Peace” Talks. 'We believe that it is pointless to discuss specific proposals regarding the conditions of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine (and even security guarantees) until there is clarity about where exactly the future demarcation line will run, and since a compromise is currently unattainable due to Russia’s unwillingness to make significant concessions'. 'We consider a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin unlikely. Trump has already refused to organize such a meeting, according to The Guardian. It is obvious that no agreement will be reached in the near future'. Trump once again stated that peace must be achieved "within two weeks." The only open question now is whose side the US president will take when the negotiation process finally reaches a deadlock: either Trump will consider Putin to be non-negotiable and possibly increase support for Ukraine, or, on the contrary, reduce such support by accusing Zelenskyy of intransigence, or simply withdraw entirely from the process. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - relocated to Georgia in 2022)

Serbia
22.08.2025. National Assembly Speaker Brnabić: Novi Sad railway station collapse was a 'planned act of sabotage'. She suggested that the collapse was 'the beginning of a colour revolution' - that foreign actors are trying to destabilize Serbia. (Source:  European Western Balcans – headquarters Belgrade, Serbia)

Ukraine
23.08.2025 08:30  Western peace mission in Ukraine: Scale and limits. Reaching agreements around diplomatic issues may be much simpler and easier than carrying out a multi-year stabilization/peace mission on the border with an aggressive Russia. Whether European countries aspire to face the biggest political-military challenge of recent years? How these aspirations will be perceived in their countries, especially in gaining support among voters? There is growing talk of the possibility of sending Western troops, including ground units, to Ukraine to conduct a stabilization/peace mission along the line of demarcation with Russia in the period after the fighting stops. Everything, of course, depends on reaching a „peace agreement” between Ukraine and Russia, which Trump has been pushing for since the beginning of his term. But looking at the details of the possible Western mission, there are numerous political-military doubts. How many countries will ultimately agree to send troops to Ukraine even in the post-war period.  If there is great optimism about the British and French, however, going further, real doubts arise. One should consider the Germans. ’They continue to face problems in simultaneously participating in NATO missions on the eastern flank’. Or Italians.  For them the eastern flank is not a priority. For the countries most involved in the defense of NATO’s eastern flank, led by Poland, Romania, the Baltic states, and the Nordic countries, there will be social and military dilemmas. The scale of the mission in Ukraine and its real capacity to carry out its duties has been suggested in an article in The Wall Street Journal – a contingent of up to 30,000 troops is being discussed. The mere sending of 30,000 soldiers should be expanded by at least another 30,000, which will constitute the necessary rotation and will prepare for departure. Everyone in Europe realizes that such a mission can last not a few months, but literally years. The difficulty level is raised because the US under Trump will not be willing to dislocate its ground contingent to Ukraine. The sent soldiers from selected European countries will find themselves in a highly complicated situation on the ground. They will appear in an area where conventional troops, intelligence services, and Russia’s paramilitary structures are operating. It will be closer to the situation in Lebanon, where both sides, i.e., Israel and Hezbollah, strongly disregarded UNIFIL forces. The current Russian propaganda narrative, implanting in the heads of its soldiers that they are not fighting Ukraine, but rather the so-called „collective West,’ will also become a problem, especially on the tactical level. Suddenly, the West appears at Russia’s borders, materializing the propaganda records as they were. Real threats to the lives and health of soldiers will naturally be threats related to IEDs, mines, but also mortar fire, snipers, and new ones associated with the impact of unmanned systems (not only classic UAS, but also FPVs and potentially UGVs). Regarding the equipment and hardware used, this will be the first mission to require a strong C-UAS component in its entirety and EW. The Russians will most likely try to contest the presence of Western soldiers in the cyber, info, and electromagnetic domains. Mission commanders must contend with a threat to the entire C5 (command, control, communication, computers, cyber) complex on a scale unknown from the Balkans or even the Middle East. All these things will translate into mission costs. Russia will try to test the Western mission from day one, especially if the Russian side will be able to resort to actions below the threshold of war. A massive intelligence crackdown on the Western contingent, which will thus have to have a powerful counterintelligence cover, seems inevitable. And logistics, which will also require a significant outlay of forces and resources, seeing the specifics of Ukraine’s vast territory and the distances over which it will have to operate. What area will have to be covered by the peacekeeping force? 30,000 troops becomes a relatively modest force, knowing that not all of them will be operating, for example, in patrol and observation missions. Then, there is the issue of the Black Sea as a body of water, which should also be considered when conducting security operations. In the case of the maritime domain, it even seems necessary to involve Turkey in such activities. Tere is a window for military action that is much more comfortable for Western countries – air operations, ISR missions, and support in terms of IMINT, SIGINT, etc. Support of air defense operations by land-based systems can also be added to this. The second element is to increase intelligence cooperation, aiming for a systemic view of it, rather than efforts to support Ukraine merely. Qualitative advantages should be exploited to the maximum, guaranteeing clear skies over Ukraine in the post-war period. It will be crucial to maintain the extensive training facilities for Ukrainian forces. ’In the post-war period, Ukraine will need material, equipment, and training support all the more strongly to rebuild its significantly depleted troop resources’. The question of finances: ’Ukraine is potentially set to receive a substantial military support package from the countries supporting it, with estimates as high as around $90 billion’. Most European countries’ defense budgets are already under enormous pressure from meeting NATO criteria, on top of internal economic perturbations.  (Source: Defence24 - Poland)
by Raubo

(August 22, 2025) 9:00 a.m. UTC+3  ’Zelenskyy announced the successful test of Ukraine’s new FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile. The weapon features a range of 3,000 kilometers, a circular error probable of 14 meters, and a warhead weighing 1,150 kilograms. Such a large missile will be easily visible to air-defense radar, and its subsonic speed would allow Russian fighter jets to shoot it down with relative ease. At the same time, Ukraine has shown that Russian air defenses are porous. 'Mass production of the missile is expected to begin by early 2026. Some reports claim that one FP-5 is currently being built per day with plans to scale up by October to seven per day, or roughly 200 a month. FP-1 drones now account for 60 percent of all Ukrainian strikes on Russia. Each UAV costs about $55,000. It is produced at a rate of 100 per day. Their warhead weighs 60 kilograms which is similar to that of a Shahed-136 loitering munition, which carries between 50 and 90 kilograms. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - relocated to Georgia in 2022)

Asia

China
23 Aug 2025  Why is the US uneasy as China’s 5-strong icebreaker fleet arrives in the Arctic? The US coastguard has accused some of the vessels of straying too close to the Alaskan coast, a claim rebutted by a Beijing-based think tank (Source: South China Morning Post)

India
August 24, 2025 Indian envoy to Russia, Kumar, asserted India's will continue to purchase oil from Russia, driven by national interest and the energy security of 1.4 billion people. The Indian envoy pointed out that both the US and the European Union are also engaged in trade with Russia. Kumar said India's oil procurement from Russia stabilised global oil market. (Source: The Week - India)

South Korea
Aug 23, 2025  KST  S. Korean President Lee begins two-day visit to Japan, meets Korean community, (Source: Korea Times – South Korea)

North America

Canada
August 24, 20255:08 PM GMT+2  Canadian PM Carney, in Ukraine, says he backed Ukraine's calls for robust security guarantees as part of any peace deal, saying Canada would not rule out sending troops under such a framework. He and Zelenskiy also signed an agreement on drone co-production. (Source: Reuters – United Kingdom)

Mexico
23.08.2025  Mexican President Sheinbaum said yesterday that remittances from the US have decreased to their lowest since 2022 as US President Trump continues to crack down on immigrants. (Source: Anadolu Agency – Turkey)

United States
23 August 2025  What to know about Bolton, former Trump adviser whose home and office are searched by FBI? Trump reportedly doesn't like Bolton's mustache. Trump has spent a career fixated on image, prizing striking looks and frequently boasting about family members and Cabinet officials who look like they “stepped out of central casting.” (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat - headquartered in London, United Kingdom, owned by a member of Saudi royal family)

23/08/2025  Lieutenant General Kruse will no longer serve as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Defense Secretary Hegseth has fired him, whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of US damage to Iranian nuclear sites angered President Trump. (Source: France 24)

23/08/2025 Saturday  US billionaires Altman, Musk in race to integrate tech into human bodies. (Source: Yeni Şafak – Turkey)

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Europe

Russia
(August 22, 2025) 9:00 a.m. UTC+3  In the evening of Aug. 21, Ukrainian drones attacked the Unecha oil pumping station in the Bryansk region. The station is one of the key nodes of the Druzhba pipeline, and it had already been attacked by the AFU on Aug. 6 and Aug. 12. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team  - relocated to Georgia in 2022)

9:08 am, August 21, 2025  Russian drones and cruise missiles targeted Lviv overnight, damaging private homes, nonresidential buildings, and vehicles. The Russian military also fired cruise missiles at a facility in the city of Mukachevo in the Zakarpattia region, destroying warehouse buildings by 7:00 a.m. The BBC reported that the strike destroyed a plant owned by an American company. Politika Strany wrote that the facility hit was an electronics factory operated by Flex. Russian military launched 574 drones and decoy drones, along with 40 missiles, overnight. Air defenses reportedly shot down 546 drones and 21 missiles. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

Ukraine
(August 22, 2025) 9:00 a.m. UTC+3  Russia has significantly escalated its aerial campaign against Ukraine. In the early hours of Aug. 21, in one of the largest coordinated attacks of the war, Russia was launching over 500 drones and 40 missiles, including 4 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and 2 Iskander ballistic missiles, as well as 19 Kh-101 and 14 3M-54 Kalibr cruise missiles. One of the facilities targeted in the attack was the Mukachevo-based factory operated by the American company Flex, located in the Zakarpattia region. To the best of our knowledge, the plant produces electronics for major global brands, including Google, Nike, Lenovo, Philips and Nespresso. The strike highlights that the presence of American corporations on Ukrainian soil does not inherently ensure their protection. Notably, during a coordinated assault in the early hours of June 10, 2025, a Boeing office in Ukraine was also hit  - yet this incident failed to prompt any discernible response from the United States. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - relocated to Georgia in 2022)

21 Aug 2025  Ukrainian man, suspected of coordinating the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022, viewed by both Russia and the West as an act of sabotage, was arrested in Italy. K. was part of a group that planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm, the German prosecutor’s office said. Officers arrested him overnight in the province of Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast. He will be brought before a German judge after being extradited. A German investigation concluded in 2023 that a pro-Ukrainian group was behind the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. The team that carried out the attack reportedly consisted of two divers, two assistants, a captain, and a medic. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

August 21, 2025, Thursday // 10:03  European allies discuss rapid response plan to deter future Russian attacks on Ukraine. Potential measures range from military support to economic assistance and sanctions. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has endorsed a proposal for postwar security guarantees that would require Ukraine’s allies to respond within 24 hours if Russia launched a renewed attack. The plan resembles NATO’s Article 5 commitment to collective defense but does not include Ukraine’s formal membership in the Alliance. The proposal envisions countries that have signed security agreements with Ukraine quickly deciding on a joint response if Moscow violates a peace deal. Around 10 European states are prepared to deploy troops as part of a deterrence mission. NATO military leaders also met virtually yesterday to coordinate possible support mechanisms. President Trump has suggested Washington could provide air support, stressing that no American ground forces would be deployed. He previously rejected binding guarantees for Ukraine. Trump shifted his stance, on Aug. 18, pointed to missile defense systems or other aerial assets as possible contributions, while the White House later confirmed that air support remains an option. Discussions in Washington considered deploying French and British forces, alongside smaller contributions from other European countries. Sweden and Japan have also expressed readiness to join the  multinational ’coalition of the willing,’ Stockholm offering potential naval and air surveillance assets. Lithuania has pledged both 'troops' and equipment. Poland clarified it will not send forces into Ukraine, instead providing logistical support and reinforcing NATO’s eastern flank. French President Macron has clarified that NATO membership is not under consideration, but stressed that Ukraine’s defense will depend on a strong national military bolstered by binding allied commitments. European officials expect that a package of measures could be finalized as soon as this week. Russia has dismissed the initiatives. Foreign Minister Lavrov declared that security arrangements excluding Moscow were a road to nowhere, arguing that any durable framework should involve all permanent members of the UN Security Council. He also suggested that Western powers and China could contribute alongside Russia. Turkish President Erdogan spoke with Putin yesterday, offering Turkey once again as a possible venue for direct talks between Putin and Zelensky. Hungary has also emerged as an alternative host. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz indicated such a summit could take place within two weeks. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

August 21, 2025 4:01 AM CET  Ukraine prepares to mark another Independence Day this Aug. 24. The Kremlin’s calculations assume a bet on exhaustion. Moscow believes it has the manpower and economic flexibility to sustain a conflict that exhausts both Ukraine and Western allies before it exhausts itself. The country can likely sustain operations into next year without a further mobilization. European efforts are not yet at the speed or scale required to make a tangible impact. What Ukraine needs means: ’Infantry fighting vehicles and tanks for mobility and offensive operations; a steady pipeline of 155-milimeter shells; the mass production and deployment of drones, for both surveillance and strikes; advanced engineering equipment to breach Russia’s defensive lines; and a reinforced logistics backbone to support maneuver across multiple fronts’. ’If the country is to endure and stand in a better position a year from now, it must be strong enough and armed enough to shape the end of the war on its own terms’. Any sense of a credible support package beyond a 12-to-18-month period would also force a shift in the Kremlin’s calculus. (Source: Politico - U.S.)
by 'Sleat, a senior policy advisor for Russia/Ukraine at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

Asia

Israel
August 22, 2025  The Israeli Ministry of Defense (MoD) recently announced that it would acquire two additional Boeing KC-46 Pegasus air-to-air refueling aircraft — in addition to the four that are already on order. Boeing received a $930 million contract in August 2022 for the first four aircraft, which will be delivered before the end of 2026. The deal for the two additional KC-46s is valued at $500 million and will be funded through existing US aid to Israel. The IAF relied on its existing refueling fleet of aging converted Boeing 707 tankers and Lockheed Martin KC-130 Hercules during its 12-day air campaign against Iran in June. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

Tibet
(Thursday), Aug 21, 2025  Xi, 72, makes rare visit to Tibet to showcase control as Beijing prepares for a looming struggle over the successor of the aging and exiled Dalai Lama - who fled into exile after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 - and the hearts and minds of millions of Tibetans. Communist Party cadres waved Chinese flags, People’s Liberation Army soldiers marched with rifles, schoolchildren clapped in unison and Tibetans in colorful robes performed traditional dances at a ceremony marking 60 years since the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the past, Beijing sent senior Communist Party leaders to Lhasa for each decennial celebration of the regional government - but never the top leader himself. Xi last visited Lhasa, the capital in 2021 to mark 70 years of what Beijing calls Tibet’s peaceful ’liberation’ – when Chinese Communist troops took control of the region. Tibetan exiles see it as the brutal invasion and occupation by a foreign army. To govern, stabilize and develop Tibet, the first thing is to maintain political stability, social stability, ethnic unity and religious harmony, Xi told senior Tibet officials at a meeting after landing in Lhasa yesterday, state news agency Xinhua reported. He did not speak at today’s ceremony. According to state media, Xi touted the regional government’s efforts over the past six decades in carrying out a thorough struggle against separatism. Beijing brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous separatist and blames him for instigating Tibetan protests, unrest, and self-immolations against Communist Party rule. The current Dalai Lama has spent more than six decades in exile in India. Tibetan Buddhists believe in the circle of rebirth. When an enlightened spiritual master like the Dalai Lama dies, he will be able to choose the place and time of his rebirth through the force of compassion and prayer. In a memoir published in March, the Dalai Lama states that his successor will be born in the “free world” outside China, urging his followers to reject any candidate selected by Beijing. In July, the Dalai Lama announced that his office will have the sole authority to identify his reincarnation. China’s officially atheist Communist Party insists it alone holds the authority to approve the next Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. That could lead to the emergence of two rival dalai lamas: one chosen by his predecessor, the other by the Chinese Communist Party. The Dalai Lama is insisting that he seeks genuine autonomy for Tibet, not full independence – a nonviolent “middle way” approach that has earned him international support and a Nobel Peace Prize. The Chinese Communist Party has waged a decades-long campaign to discredit the current Dalai Lama and erase his presence from Tibetan life, while tightening restrictions on religious and cultural practices. Since coming to power, Xi has ramped up security and surveillance in China’s frontier regions, intensified efforts to assimilate ethnic minorities, and rolled out a nationwide campaign to ’sinicize’ religion – ensuring it aligns with Communist Party leadership and values. At yesterday’s meeting, Xi called for more efforts to systematically advance ’the sinicization of religion,’ improve the governance of religious affairs and ’guide Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society,’ according to state media. The top leader also called for local officials to advance forcefully, systematically, and effectively key infrastructure projects in Tibet, including a plan to build the world’s largest hydropower facility on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river, and the Sichuan-Tibet Railway. (Source: CNN - U.S.)

North America

United States
(August 22, 2025) 9:00 a.m. UTC+3  The New York Times and The Economist reported that Trump revoked security clearances from 37 current and former intelligence service employees. Many of them worked on analyzing Russia or foreign threats to US elections, which, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under Gabbard, constitutes politicization or the use of intelligence as a weapon to advance partisan goals, or a violation of the rules for handling and protecting classified information. This decision, in addition to significantly reducing the level of Russia-related expertise within the US administration, sends a clear signal to American intelligence service employees that the subject of Russia is dangerous, and investigating its influence on American politics may lead to punishment or dismissal. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - relocated to Georgia in 2022)

August 22, 2025  Could Trump really win the Nobel Peace Prize? (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

August 22, 2025 22:46 IST  Trump said he came to know about the FBI raid on his former National Security Advisor Bolton after it appeared in the news and that he would be briefed about it later in the day. He calls him 'a low life' who can always say something bad about him. (Source: The Week - India)

August 22, 2025 20:35 IST  Trump critic Bolton, who served in the Republican president's first administration as national security adviser, was today subjected to FBI raids at his home as part of an investigation into the handling of classified information. Earlier this month he said Trump had already punished him by removing his security protection. During his 17 months in the first Trump administration, Bolton has locked horns with the president over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea. His scathing book, The Room Where It Happened, painted Trump as ignorant about foreign policy and unfit to run the federal government. Some of the shocking allegations levelled by Bolton in his 2020 book: he learnt that the President did not know that UK was a nuclear power; Trump allegedly asked whether Finland was "kind of a satellite of Russia"; During the 2019 G20 summit in Japan, Trump diverted the conversation with Xi to talk about the 2020 presidential elections, pleading with the Chinese president to ensure he wins; Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the Uighur internment camps. Bolton also alleged that during his conversation with Xi, Trump said he wants to amend the constitution so that he can serve more than two terms; that Trump was ready to do personal favours for 'dictators like Turkish President Erdogan. And the Democrats committed 'impeachment malpractice' by focusing only on Ukraine issue, Bolton said. (Source: The Week - India)

August 21, 2025  A federal appeals court yestersday sided with the Trump administration and halted for now a lower court's order that had kept in place temporary protections for 61,000 migrants from Central America and Nepal. The Republican administration can move toward removing an estimated 7,000 people from Nepal whose Temporary Protected Status designations expired Aug. 5. Temporary Protected Status is a designation that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary, preventing migrants from being deported and allowing them to work. The TPS designations and legal status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans are set to expire Sept. 8, at which point they will become eligible for removal. The Trump administration has already terminated TPS designations for about 350,000 Venezuelans, 500,000 Haitians, more than 160,000 Ukrainians and thousands of people from Afghanistan and Cameroon. Some have pending lawsuits in federal courts. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

 NATO

August 22, 2025  More NATO Leopard 2A8 tanks are heading 'to Russia’s border'. 'In addition to the 44 German-made tanks headed to Lithuania, another batch of 44 Leopard 2A8 MBTs is being acquired by the Czech Republic'. (Source: The National Interest -U.S.)
by: Suciu

Global

Aug 21, 2025  Musk’s AI firm, xAI, has published the chat transcripts of hundreds of thousands of conversations between its chatbot Grok and the bot’s users - in many cases, without those users’ knowledge or permission. On Musk’s Grok, hitting the share button means that a conversation will be published on Grok’s website, without warning or a disclaimer to the user. X users have been warning since January that Grok conversations were being indexed by Google. Google itself previously allowed chats with its AI chatbot, Bard, to be indexed, but it removed them from search in 2023. Meta continues to allow its shared searches to be discoverable by search engines. (Source: Forbes - U.S.)

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Europe

Hungary
August 12, 2025  2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Hungary. Executive sumary: There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Hungary during the year. There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses. The government took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses and identified areas in which it could improve. (Source: U.S. Department of State)

12 August 2025  Hungary PM Orbán refuses to back EU ahead of Trump-Putin talks (Source: Brussels Sigmal - Belgium)

European Commission
(11 August 2025)  Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, said that ministers expressed support for US steps that will lead to a just peace, following the informal virtual foreign affairs council (FAC) - also attended by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha. 'Transatlantic unity, support to Ukraine and pressure on Russia is how we will end this war and prevent future Russian aggression in Europe. Meanwhile, we work on more sanctions against Russia, more military support for Ukraine and more support for Ukraine’s budgetary needs and accession process to join the EU,' she added. The situation and latest developments in the Middle East, in particular the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, were also on the agenda for Monday's foreign affairs council. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will on Wednesday chair an emergency meeting of the coalition of the willing 'which Trump and Zelenskyy will join'. The leaders of Italy, Finland, Poland, NATO's  Secretary-General as well as der Leyen and Costa, who helm the European Commission and European Council respectively, are also expected to participate. France said other videoconference meetings will be held on the same day in various formats, including one attended by President Trump. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

Armenia
Tuesday, August 12, 2025 3:12 AM  Armenians, Georgians, and Central Asians vary in response to Yerevan-Baku Settlement. Geopolitical realities the agreement creates:    In Armenia, ’President’ (PM) Nikol Pashinyan is wholeheartedly in favor of the accord. But many Armenian politicians oppose the deal, viewing it as a harbinger of a further decline in the size of their country or even a harbinger of its complete disappearance. They fear that the arrangements that have been announced will leave them isolated. ’Moscow’ is likely to try to set them against the Pashinyan regime so as to return Armenia to what the Russians believe is their proper place as a part of Russia’s uncontested sphere of influence.    In Georgia, some believe the new transit arrangements will make it easier for Iran to ship via Armenia and then into Georgia for transshipment on to Europe and thus will benefit Georgia and firmly integrate it in the world. Others, most prominently former president Saakashvili who is now in prison, says that the new Zengezur route, one that bypasses Georgia, Iran and Russia will be a disaster for híd republic both at home and abroad, Georgians are ending up in complete geopolitical isolation alongside Iran and Russia. The corridor project would render Georgia’s existing ports – and the planned Lazika port – obsolete, leading to accelerated emigration and deepening poverty.    In Central Asia, the governments have come out in support of the
transit deal, confident that if it is realized, the Middle Corridor transit network will expand and work to their benefit. But many of them remain concerned that there are so many unknowns. (Source: Window on Eurasia – New Series)
by Goble

Russia
August 13, 2025 1:54pm EDT  Russia may gain Ukraine’s fertile, resource-rich territory as Trump proposes land swap. Russian forces currently occupy one-fifth of Ukraine including areas rich in lithium, coal and offshore gas reserves. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

15:27 ET, Aug 12 2025  Russia breaks through Ukrainian frontline as Putin sends 110,000 troops days before Trump summit. It comes as Russia accused the UK of trying to sabotage upcoming peace talks between Trump and Putin. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

August 12, 2025  Russian Ground Forces (RGF) highly likely seized approximately 500-550 sq km of Ukrainian territory in July 2025, the British Ministry of Defence assessed in its latest intelligence estimate on the Russo-Ukrainian conflict - observing that this rate of advance was roughly the same as it had been in June and in previous months. Russian forces are now in control of almost all the Donetsk Oblast south of Pokrovsk. Continued losses and Ukrainian counterattacks have likely frustrated the Russian intent to establish a buffer zone in the Sumy region, the British Ministry of Defence estimated. (The National Interest - U.S.)
by Atlamazoglou

August 11, 2025  Will Russian gas return to Europe? For decades, Russia was Europe’s key source of gas, supplying up to forty percent of EU consumption, some 155 billion cubic meters, in 2021. Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned energy giant, made the bulk of its profits in Europe, which enabled the cross-subsidization of domestic industry and households, as well as advancing an economic development agenda. The political economy in Europe may have already moved against Russian gas. The EU’s stated policy goal is to phase out Russian gas by the end of 2027 and to put an end to Moscow’s ability to weaponize gas exports. Russia was reduced to a marginal supplier, delivering a mere 51.6 bcm in 2024, of which 31.6 bcm was pipeline gas. Still, some EU policymakers have been keen to keep the door open for Russian gas to return - part of a package deal should peace talks on Ukraine eventually come to fruition, reconstituting European industry’s competitiveness on a global scale. A US investor recently seemed interested in operating what’s left of the Nord Stream system after underwater explosions destroyed three of the four pipeline legs. With a major piece of import infrastructure coming back online, Russian gas flows to Europe could resume, now under US control, provided still-existing sanctions on Nord Stream 2 are lifted. Once politically palatable, Russian gas may be back in the game. Whether those molecules will find a market welcoming them is another thing. (Source: The National Imterest - U.S.)
by Goldthau, a Franz Haniel Professor of Public Policy at the faculty of economics, law and social sciences and Director of the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt; Vatansever is Reader in Russian Political Economy in the King’s Russia Institute and author of ‘Oil in Putin’s Russia: The Contests Over Rents and Economic Policy‘. He speaks Russian, Bulgarian, Turkish and English.

Ukraine
13/08/2025 - 20:38  Ukraine will be in 'a situation similar to that of Germany in the Cold War' after ceasefire. Lucas, Professor of International Politics at the University College Dublin Clinton Institute, says that following a ceasefire, Ukraine may find itself in the same position as Germany during the Cold War, enjoying the continued support of the West and integration in Europe, and that Kyiv envisages accepting short-term occupation as Russia struggles economically and holds territory which is 'burnt to the ground.' (Source: France 24)

(13 August 2025)  The war-ravaged territories at the heart of the Trump-Putin summit (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Asia

China
August 11, 2025  China in Europe: July 2025. The one-day China-EU summit held in Beijing on July 24 marked years of diplomatic relations between the two sides. The talks were marked by tension from the start: Chinese President Xi refused to follow protocol and travel to Brussels, insisting that the EU leaders come to China. The decision to shorten the two-day meeting to one at China’s request reiterated Beijing’s obstinance. Trade dominated the meeting agenda. Chief among the EU’s concerns was Chinese industrial overcapacity, fueled by heavy state subsidies. The European Union’s trade deficit with China hit €300 billion in 2024, which Brussels considers unsustainable. Der Leyen noted how unless China addressed its overproduction of goods such as batteries, electric vehicles, solar panels, and steel, “it would be difficult for the EU to maintain its current level of openness.” Despite tensions, some incremental progress was made. The two sides agreed to fast-track licenses for rare earths - materials overwhelmingly controlled by China and essential to European industry. In a thinly veiled jab at Washington, Xi reminded his EU counterparts that “in the face of accelerating changes not seen in a century and a turbulent international landscape, China and EU leaders must . . . make the right strategic choices that meet the expectations of the people and stand the test of history.” The European side was far more interested in discussing Ukraine. Brussels called on Beijing to use its influence over Moscow to push for a ceasefire, as “China has an influence on Russia, like the European Union has an influence on Ukraine. . .  Costa also stressed how as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Beijing has a special responsibility to push for a ceasefire. Overall, the summit made minimal progress on geopolitical issues. Both sides issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to the Paris Agreement and announced that green is the defining color of China-EU cooperation. The joint statement made no mention of the fuel, however. China and the EU also promised to submit new emissions targets before the thirtieth Conference of the Parties in Brazil this November. From July 19 to 28, Serbian special forces conducted joint training exercises in China’s Hebei Province, the first such operation between the two militaries. Code-named Peace Guardian 2025, the exercises included drone-assisted practice missions in urban and rural environments. The recent drills were conducted despite U.S. and EU objections. (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations - U.S.)
by Ruggi

August 11, 2025  For China, the Ukraine war is a laboratory. Confronting Beijing’s role is a strategic necessity. China’s position as the arsenal for Russia makes it a key arbiter of the war’s intensity. By serving as the essential economic and industrial enabler for Russia, China has gained a unique vantage point. It can assess how the components of military systems it is providing in huge numbers perform in combat, gather intelligence on the effectiveness of Ukrainian and Western weapons, and refine the concepts it will use to guide its own weapons development, military training, and organizational structures. ’All of these efforts will serve to ready the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should it one day engage in a conflict with the United States’. As the logistical backbone of Russia’s military-industrial complex, China tests its industrial capacity to support a partner in a sustained, high-intensity conflict and to understand the implications for supporting its own forces in combat. As early as 2023, approximately 90 percent of Russia’s imported microelectronics — the chips essential for modern missiles, tanks, and aircraft — came from China. Nearly 70 percent of Russia’s machine tool imports in the last quarter of 2023, valued at around $900 million, were sourced from China, replacing the high-end German and Japanese equipment Russia could no longer acquire. Beijing also quickly became Moscow’s primary supplier of nitrocellulose, the key propellant for artillery shells, with exports surging from negligible amounts before the war to over 1,300 tons in 2023 — enough to produce hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds. An estimated 80 percent of the electronic components in Russian drones are originating from China. Russia now aims to manufacture an estimated two million first-person view (FPV) drones in 2025. In May 2025, China has not only halted sales of popular DJI Mavic drones to Ukraine but has also restricted exports of key components while simultaneously increasing those same shipments to Russia. Beijing is no longer a neutral observer but a direct participant influencing the war’s daily outcomes. The PLA is gaining critical knowledge about modern warfare — from drone employment to electronic countermeasures — all without putting a single Chinese soldier in harm’s way. PLA intelligence is meticulously studying the performance of key US-made systems, from the Patriot air defense system to the HIMARS rocket artillery. By observing how Russian forces — often equipped with Chinese components — respond to Ukrainian and Western systems and tactics, the PLA gains critical insights into how to counter them. This is particularly evident in the electronic warfare domain. China’s learning is also not passive; in fact, Chinese state-backed hacking groups have aggressively targeted Russian defense institutes to exfiltrate battlefield data that Moscow had been unwilling to share. Te war enables China to observe and adapt to new military concepts. They are also closely analyzing Ukraine’s success with naval drones as a potential template for how Taiwan could resist a PLA invasion. Taiwan manufactures over 90 percent of the world’s most advanced logic chips. ’The loss of this production would trigger a global economic crisis estimated at as much as $10 trillion’. China is closely observing the West’s use of unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia to guide its efforts to sanction-proof its own economy. Beijing is learning how to insulate its own financial systems and supply chains from similar pressure. It has dramatically increased the use of the yuan in bilateral trade, and it is building up its Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) as an alternative to SWIFT. "A diplomatic understanding with Moscow would be ineffectual' if the Russian military continues to be armed and technologically upgraded by Beijing. The People’s Liberation Army is assiduously learning how to counter American weapons, how to wage war in a dense electronic environment, and how to sustain a high-intensity conflict — all without putting a single soldier at risk. Beijing’s state-directed system is designed to rapidly absorb and implement these lessons across its entire military-industrial complex. The central challenge is no longer just about containing Russia; it is about out-thinking and out-adapting a peer competitor who has found the perfect, low-cost laboratory for the next war. Failure to fully grasp the stakes of this learning competition will mean that when the next crisis comes, America may face an adversary that has already fought a war against its weapons and its strategies — and has learned how to win. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
By General Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) who served over 37 years in the US military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands, including Command of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and the International Security Force in Afghanistan. He served as Director of the CIA during a period of significant achievement in the war on terror. He is currently a Partner with the global investment firm KKR and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute. He is the Kissinger Fellow at Yale University, and the co-author of the bestselling book, Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine; Kaluderovic is an entrepreneur in the AI and data center sectors, a Fellow with the International Strategy Forum, and Founder and CEO of Mental Help Global, an AI-enabled social media platform being built in Ukraine.

Philippine Sea
August 13, 2025  United Kingdom, Japan and the United States are training their navies together, drilling in the Northern Philippine Sea, as part of the United Kingdom-led “Operation Highmast.” The drill of HMS Prince of Wales, USS George Washington, and JS Kaga aircraft carriers is bringing together scores of fighter jets and dozens of other warships. The US Navy deployed a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship that can also  carry fighter jets. (Source: The National Interest U.S.)
by Atlamazoglou

North America

United States
12 August 2025  Official Europe is anxious and apprehensive about Friday’s summit in Alaska between Putin and Trump. Perhaps their worst fears will finally be realised, and Trump will force Zelensky to sign a deal that imperils Ukraine’s existence. But perhaps not. It’s worth recalling that this is not the first time that Trump brokered an unprecedented summit with the world expecting him get suckered by or sign a bad deal with a tyrant – with North Korean dictator Kim in Hanoi in 2019. Kim did offer Trump a bad deal. Trump shocked everyone, including Kim, by leaving the summit early. Trump knew this was a bad deal and a day of trying to talk Kim into a better deal was going nowhere, his time was being wasted and that humiliation might be what Kim needed to wise up. Trump knows what he wants and doesn’t submit when he doesn’t get it. What does Trump want from Russia? Trump talks about an end to the war, not a limited ceasefire. Kremlin officials have stated they want to limit the size of any post-peace Ukrainian military and limit its ability to acquire more Western arms. They also want Ukraine to state neutrality between NATO and Russia and not join any mutual defence pacts with other nations. These terms would make Ukraine a sitting duck for a future Russian invasion. Trump’s pattern is to never agree to any deal that does not give him his bottom line. ’All the signals from Washington so far’ indicate that a post-war Ukraine would be genuinely independent – and that means the ability to defend itself. A grateful Ukraine would be happy to repay America for the aid that saved it through this deal. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

August 12, 2025  The U.S. government’s gross national debt has surpassed $37 trillion, a record number that highlights the accelerating debt on America’s balance sheet and increased cost pressures on taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office’s January 2020 projections had gross federal debt eclipsing $37 trillion after fiscal year 2030. (Source: AP - U.S.)

8/12/2025  US deficit grows to $291 billion in July despite tariff revenue surge. (Source: MSN - U.S.)

August 12, 2025.  At his meeting last week with United States Special Envoy Witkoff, Russian president Putin staved off impending US sanctions by proposing a path forward for Ukraine. In return for Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donetsk region, Putin reportedly agreed to pause the war across the front lines. After sitting down with his European counterparts over the weekend, Vice President Vance, echoing his past assessment that Moscow is asking for too much by claiming areas it has not yet captured on the battlefield, appeared to pour cold water on the prospect of Ukraine walking away completely from Donetsk. Instead, Vance set expectations that territorial control would be set at the current line of contact, and in line with “some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with.” President Trump should invite Zelensky to Alaska, a step he has reportedly contemplated. The military strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk in Donetsk are important to Ukraine’s overall military posture that protects Ukraine’s central heartlands. Ukraine would only withdraw from these positions voluntarily 'if it is offered membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), from the West'. The United States should make clear to the Kremlin that while it will accept Russia’s de facto control over parts of Ukraine, it will not offer Moscow de jure recognition of those areas. Under the terms of any ceasefire, Ukrainians living under occupation should be offered an opportunity to pass into Ukraine-controlled territory. The United States should actively support the reconstitution of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). ’Kyiv will need the freedom to purchase liberally from Western arms markets, likely with European financing, for munitions such as Taurus missiles and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets’. The United States should push for limitations on the size and scope of Russian forces in or around the newly occupied territories, and should insist that North Korean troops in Russia, reportedly numbering in the tens of thousands, return home. ’The United States should back European efforts to deploy a reassurance force’ into Ukraine, comprising British or French soldiers which stationed near vital sectors may give Russia pause. Trump should make clear to Putin in Alaska that the price of walking away from discussions or violating a US-brokered deal in the future would be economic warfare on a scale not yet seen. As Putin packs for the meetings in Alaska, the Russian military is cutting across key Ukrainian lines of communication in the eastern part of the country. The stark discrepancy between the Kremlin’s professed offer of a ceasefire and the Russian military’s inch-by-inch push for more territory raises questions about Putin’s true motives. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Rough, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute; Kasapoğlu, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. His work focuses on political-military affairs in the Middle East, North Africa and former Soviet regions.

12.08.2025  The U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) Lieutenant Colonel Fritz, writing for the Breaking Defense portal, presented a plan aimed at acquiring new territories for the United States. Lt. Col. Fritz’s original idea concerns Russia’s Commander Islands - chain of islands, located at the junction of the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. The United States would gain additional protection for Arctic sea routes and the ability to deploy further undersea surveillance technologies. As Fritz points out, the Commander Islands are located near a possible route from China’s Jianggezhuang naval base to the Arctic region. The chances of a sale are currently negligible. (Source: Defence24 - Poland)

12.08.25  Trump extends US-China trade truce for 90 days, delays escalation of tariff war. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he signed the executive order for the extension, and that 'all other elements of the Agreement will remain the same.' (Source: The Telegraph - India)

United Nations

August 12, 2025 12:56 AM ET  China and the U.S. clash at the U.N. over the Panama Canal.

Global

August 12, 2025  2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices / Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (Source: U.S. Department of State)

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Europe

European Council
August 19, 2025  The EU Treaty puts representing the bloc externally on matters of common foreign affairs and security policy squarely in the hands of the Council president. Costa and his team worked through the peak holiday period to ink joint statements from the EU capitals backing Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Europe’s role in negotiations. As the official representative of the EU’s heads of government, leaders might object if they perceive Costa as sleepwalking through a Commission power-grab. Costa, a former Portuguese prime minister, has been reluctant to meet Trump, especially in person, telling journalists there’s no reason to make the pilgrimage to Washington or Mar-a-Lago when he can just pick up the telephone. The Socialist, who is still refining his English skills, likely has little to gain from quality time with Trump and needs to stay on the good side of powerful conservatives if he wants a second 2.5-year term. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

European Union
August 19, 2025 7:10 am CET  EU ambassadors convened in Coreper at 1 a.m. for a quick debrief. Just 12 hours later, their top bosses are set to log on for a virtual EUCO at 1 p.m. CET. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Ukraine
August 20, 2025  The United States and most of Europe would prefer to avoid a physical entanglement in the conflict. Thus far, NATO’s member states have provided tens of billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine. They have also trained Ukrainian troops on how to wage modern warfare. However, putting boots on the ground as part of a security guarantee is a wholly different matter - and something that many NATO nations have expressed  deep reticence about. Meanwhile, the European Union is preparing another sanctions package against Russia. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

United Kingdom
Tuesday 19 August 2025 19:42 BST  Sir Keir Starmer has led a follow-up meeting to the White House gathering with 30 international leaders to discuss the next steps for ensuring Ukraine’s security. The United Kingdom has taken a leading role in shaping European proposals. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spearheaded the creation of a ’coalition of the willing’, a group of allies prepared to go further than financial and weapons support. Under this plan, international reassurance forces could be deployed in Ukraine „after a ceasefire or peace deal”, helping to deter renewed Russian attacks and to provide reassurance that Kyiv is not left to stand alone. The plan was discussed in a virtual meeting today attended by more than 30 international leaders. The virtual meeting, co-chaired by Sir Keir, also discussed possible further sanctions on Russia. The European Union’s existing training mission for Ukrainian troops will also continue in the years ahead. Moscow has dismissed Western plans for security guarantees. The Russian foreign ministry yesterday reiterated its opposition to the deployment of Nato or Nato-affiliated troops in Ukraine, warning that such a move would be seen as a direct threat to Russia’s security. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

(Tuesday), August 19, 2025 5:13 pm  A new book about Prince Andrew, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Lownie was published in the UK by Murdoch’s publishing company, HarperCollins, in around 60,000 copies. Entitled was released in the UK last Thursday, with extracts serialised in the Daily Mail depicting Prince Andrew as arrogant, self-serving, and in denial about his links to Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted paedophile who died in a New York prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The book claims that the Duke of York was a useful idiot to Esptein, who gave him respectability, access to political leaders, and business opportunities. The book also claims that while the Royal Family banned the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from mixing personal business with working on behalf of the monarch, Andrew was doing it for at least 25 years. While Andrew was still in the Royal Navy and undertaking official engagements on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, he was in business or working closely with Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark in Azerbaijan in the mid-1990s, and stayed there on extended periods of leave. Later, Andrew became the UK’s special representative for trade and investment. His frequent trips to the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and the Gulf states were often official visits, but according to the book, there were private trips too, and some mixing both, in breach of royal travel rules. Claims about Trump’s wife Melania and her relationship with Epstein will be deleted from future editions of the book. It comes after Melania threatened to sue former president Biden’s son, Hunter, for $1bn after he claimed Epstein introduced her to Trump. It also follows Trump’s threat to sue Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal for $10bn over claims that he wrote a bawdy birthday card to Epstein containing the outline of a naked  woman. In the US, the book is self-published by Mr Lownie. (Source: The i Paper - United Kingdom)

'Europe'
19th August 2025  A geopolitical pantomime. The leaders of Ukraine’s European allies remain utterly dependent on America’s protection. Following President Trump’s Alaska summit with Russian president Putin on Friday, they got to spend a few hours on Monday acting like world statesmen in the East Room.  And they did so in front of The Donald himself. It was quite a performance on the part of British prime minister Keir Starmer, French president  Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and a few others. In between offering praise and thanks to Trump for his efforts to end the war in Ukraine, they talked of the importance of maintaining European security, and of the necessity, in Starmer’s words, of achieving a ‘lasting peace’. The leaders promise to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. They’ve drawn up plans to form a so-called coalition of the willing to defend the future borders of Europe’s eastern-most nation. Over the course of the past three-and-a-half years of war, they haven’t exactly rallied to Ukraine’s side. Yes, they’ve sent arms, but only reluctantly and slowly. And the financial aid they’ve wired to Kyiv may be in the billions. But it’s been dwarfed by the amount they’re still spending on Russian fossil fuels. Last year, EU member states spent €21.9 billion on Russian oil and gas while allocating just €18.7 billion to Ukraine in financial aid. The key objective of their trip to the White House was to beg America to continue to shoulder the burden of Europe’s defence – as it has done for decades, even after the end of the Cold War. That’s why Monday’s discussion between Trump and Ukraine’s allies seemed to focus so much on the so-called security guarantees the US could offer Ukraine after the war’s end. They were desperate for the US to continue to play a key role in deterring ’future Russian aggression’, to continue to play its decades-long role of ’Europe’s protector. The original aim of NATO, that archetypal Cold War institution, was to keep the Americans in Europe and the Soviet Union out, to paraphrase its first secretary general, Lord Ismay. It seems the aim of Europe in a potential postwar Ukraine is similar – to keep the US invested in Europe’s protection while deterring an irredentist Kremlin. Europe’s leaders know Trump is understandably desperate to bring an end to the war. They know, too, especially after Friday’s summit with Putin, that the US is prepared to give ground to Russia, whatever the cost to Ukraine. On Friday afternoon in Anchorage, Alaska, there was open talk of ‘land swaps’, as if Trump and Putin were negotiating a real-estate deal rather than carving up a sovereign nation. Putin wants Ukraine to give up the Donbas region in its entirety, even the parts Russia has not won on the battlefield. ’Europe’s leaders seemingly did not dare broach this issue at the White House summit. In the interests of preserving the semblance of Western unity, indeed in the interests of keeping Trump onside, they buried the very real points of contention and animosity between Ukraine and Russia beneath platitudes and pleasantries. The result was a summit lacking in real substance. A summit that didn’t set potential negotiations between the US, Ukraine and Russia back, but didn’t advance them either. Before entertaining Europe’s leaders, Trump called Putin for a catch-up. After they had departed, Trump called the Russian leader again to give him an update. It was a telling moment. Europe was treated as a child to be placated and patronised, while the grown-ups got on with the serious business of geopolitics. This was a hastily arranged summit designed to showcase Europe’s power and influence. Instead, it exposed the opposite. (Source: Spiked - United Kingdom)
by Black, associate editor of Spiked.

Africa

Nigeria
August 20, 2025  The death toll from a shooting at a mosque in northwestern Nigeria has risen to 50. Gunmen stormed the mosque in the town of Unguwan Mantau, in Katsina state, during morning prayers yesterday. Such attacks are common in Nigeria’s northwestern and north-central regions, where local herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water. Separate from the conflict between farming and herding communities, Nigeria is battling to contain Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast, where some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million displaced, according to the United Nations. (Source: ABCNews - U.S.)

Asia

Israel
20/08/2025 - 20:10  Israel has entered the first stages of its planned assault on Gaza City after a clash with Hamas and already has a hold on the outskirts of the city, Israeli military spokesman Defrin told today. (Source: France 24)

20/08/2025 - 13:54 GMT+2  Israel to call up 60,000 reservists ahead of new military operation in Gaza City. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said today that the Defence Minister Katz has approved plans to begin a new phase of operations in one of Gaza's most densely populated areas, and that it would also lengthen the service of an additional 20,000 reservists currently part of its forces. Israeli troops are already operating in the Zeitoun and  Jabaliya neighbourhoods of Gaza City to prepare the groundwork for the expanded operation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently said the main objectives of the war are to secure the release of the remaining hostages and ensure Hamas and other militants can never again threaten Israel. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

North America

United States
20 August 2025  Director of National Intelligence Gabbard sent out an email to Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) employees yesterday announcing the launch of 'ODNI 2.0,' the culmination of a months-long effort to reduce redundancies and cut costs, including employees. This will reduce ODNI by over 40 percent by the end of the fiscal year 2025 and save taxpayers over $700 million per year, an ODNI press release announcing the shift says. ODNI oversees 18 separate intelligence arms of the U.S. government, serving as a hub designed to connect them. When Gabbard took over the agency, it had between 1,850 - 2,000 staff. Some officials noted how the reforms will target the 'deep state'. The layoffs would be effective by September 30, 2025. Artificial Intelligence and how foreign actors can deploy the technology is an area of interest for the agency. Fighting insurgents abroad, like isis, is now less of a focus. Other disciplines, like the ODNI's Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC), are being shut down altogether. The National Intelligence University (NIU) will merge with the National Defense University (NDU) into a joint program now overseen by Secretary of Defense Hegseth instead of the ODNI. Sen. Cotton, the chair of the Senate's intelligence committee, recently put forward a proposal that would limit the number of ODNI staff to 650. (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)

Tuesday 19 August 2025 19:12 BST  Like unruly schoolchildren. New pics of Trump holding court in Oval Office branded ‘embarrassing’ as ’world’ leaders - his European counterparts on chairs opposite him - sit around his desk. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom) /Photo/

(19 August 2025)  Why Oval Office map has played crucial role in Trump's view of Ukraine war? (Source: BBC – United Kingdom)

August 19, 2025, 12:35 PM After the Trump Ukraine Summit what was actually agreed to? Nearly all the big questions remain unanswered. During his Oval Office meeting with Zelensky yesterday, Trump twice declined to rule out sending in U.S. troops to ensure Ukraine’s security as part of a final peace deal. Today, he once again ruled out having U.S. troops participate in any Ukraine peacekeeping force. He said that Washington could potentially provide air support. He suggested that Britain and France could take the lead in backstopping Ukraine’s sovereignty after any eventual peace deal. The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected outright the idea of any NATO troops in Ukraine to shield the country from renewed Russian aggression. It’s also unclear what is meant by the notion of “Article 5-like” security guarantees for Ukraine that Trump envoy Witkoff said Putin had agreed to at the Alaska summit. Article 5 is NATO’s mutual-defense clause; without the involvement of the trans-Atlantic alliance, there is no formal mechanism to bind any ’coalition of the willing’ to come to Ukraine’s future defense. Ukraine isn’t a member of NATO. The apparent condition that Trump conceded after his Alaska meeting with Russian President Putin about Ukraine never joining the alliance also raises questions about just how to guarantee the long-term security of Ukraine.    What good are these security guarantees when Ukraine watched the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and the 2015 Minsk accords be shredded by all signatories?    Trump reportedly interrupted his follow-on meeting with European leaders late Monday to speak with Putin about a meeting with Zelensky. Yet it remains unclear if Russia - which has refused previous entreaties from Kyiv - would agree to such a meeting, and if so, where it would be held and what the agenda might be.    Would Ukraine be able to countenance surrendering Crimea? The eastern Ukrainian territories collectively known as the Donbas are trickier; some parts, such as Donetsk, are still battlegrounds and have not yet become Russian enclaves, with industries, as well as a future hope for natural gas extraction. Hiving off the entirety of eastern Ukraine to appease Russia would leave Ukraine smaller, but also with a hungry neighbor poised to use its new acquisitions as a launchpad for future land grabs.Ukraine’s constitution bars the cession of national territory unless such a move is ratified by a nationwide referendum.     What would a U.S.-brokered agreement that legitimized the forcible redrawing of national borders do to the international system? The United States, at least beginning in the 20th century, used to be firmly opposed to wars of annexation. But then, prior U.S. administrations didn’t openly entertain the idea of annexing Greenland, reclaiming the Panama Canal, or forcibly making Canada the 51st state. So that rules-based order might be dead already.    What would any peace deal do about reparations and war reconstruction? The United Nations already tabulates Russia’s damage to Ukraine at $524 billion and counting. Europe, the United States, and a few other countries still hold nearly $300 billion of frozen Russian Central Bank assets, which ’could be used to pay for part of the reconstruction’. The staggering Russian economy is hardly in a position to underwrite Ukraine’s recovery, even if the Kremlin agreed to do so. That would likely leave the bill on Ukraine and its European neighbors.    What happens if all this diplomacy comes to naught? Trump has previously said he would walk away from the Ukraine peace process if he can’t force an agreement. If Ukraine can’t abide national amputation, or if security guarantees don’t materialize, or if Russian peace overtures prove hollow after all, both sides may be back to the trenches by the autumn. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)
By Johnson, a staff writer at Foreign Policy covering geoeconomics and energy.

19.08.2025  US Secretary of State Rubio will head US-Ukraine-Europe security guarantee commission with Ukrainian and European officials to develop comprehensive security guarantees for Ukraine, potentially featuring American air power. Ukrainian and European national security advisers will join discussions to formulate an arrangement within the coming days. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

August 19, 2025  America’s coming crash. Will Washington’s debt addiction spark the next global crisis? (Source: Foreign Affairs – U.S.)

Tuesday 19 August 2025 07:46, UK  Key takeaways from White House talks between Trump, Zelenskyy and EU leaders.     Security guarantees: The US leader said that there would be some form of security guarantees for Ukraine, but did not reveal whether this would involve US troops. Mr Trump said Mr Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine. He added: ’I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We're going to help them, and we're going to make it very secure.’ "When we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent,’ French President Macron said.     No  ceasefire needed for peace deal: For the past six months, a ceasefire has been Mr Trump's priority, but after meeting Mr Putin in Alaska,suddenly it's not. Mr Putin wants a settlement first, ceasefire later. Ukraine and Europe want a ceasefire first, then a deal. Mr Trump said there did not need to be a ceasefire in Ukraine, because a peace deal could be worked out while Ukraine and Russia are at war. But German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said "we would all like to see a ceasefire".     Trilateral meeting: The US president said that there will be a trilateral meeting between himself, Mr Putin and Zelenskyy. The latter said he was ready for such a meeting and Mr Trump confirmed that Mr Putin was as well. Mr Macron said that while a trilateral meeting is important, a quadrilateral summit would also need to take place after.     Exchanges of territory: "We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory," the US president said ahead of the multilateral talks. He said such exchanges would need to take into consideration the current line of contact. This comes after Mr Putin has reportedly made demands to take control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine during the Alaska summit with Mr Trump as a condition for ending the war. Zelenskyy previously ruled out handing any territory to Moscow. (Source: Sky News - United Kingdom)

19 August 2025 - 07:00  Trump administration revoked more than 6,000 student visas, state department says. (Source: TimesLive - South Africa)

(19 August 2025) 06:44  “I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy. After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step,” Trump wrote in a social media post. He acknowledged a time and location for a gathering had not been set, adding that US Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio and special envoy Witkoff would work to coordinate the possible meeting. Multiple European officials said that they expected another virtual meeting with Trump as soon today to discuss the particulars of security guarantees they could collectively offer to Kyiv. In Washington, the leaders spent the afternoon praising each other and underscoring their unity. 'During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America,' Trump said. 'Ukraine proposed buying $100 billion in American weapons and another $50 billion deal to produce drones with Ukrainian companies, with financing provided by Europe', the Financial Times reported yesterday. Trump publicly said he had convinced Putin that allowing allied security deals would be necessary for a peace deal, and indicated that 'he was interested in continuing to sell Kyiv weapons'. Zelenskiy cited a program to provide Patriot air defense batteries — 'paid for by European allies' — to the country. (Source: Luxembourg Times / Bloomberg - U.S.)

(19 August 2025) 06:34  After speaking with the European leaders, Trump called Putin, then said a summit between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders was being set up, with European leaders saying that could come within two to three weeks. A separate meeting with Trump joining them would follow afterward. For now, the leaders agreed to continue conversations to first hammer out security guarantees and leave the discussion about territories in the Donbas with Russia for later. After Trump and Putin spoke, Kremlin aide Ushakov said the two discussed the idea of raising the level of Russian and Ukrainian representatives taking part in direct talks. There was no commitment to Putin’s participation. (Source: Luxembourg Times / Bloomberg - U.S.)

NATO

20.08.2025  NATO's top military officials reiterated their commitment to supporting Ukraine during a meeting of the alliance’s chiefs of defense in Brussels. Dragone, NATO’s Military Committee chair described the gathering as a great, candid discussion and highlighted an update on the security environment delivered by the alliance’s new Supreme Allied Commander Europe. On Ukraine, Dragone said the alliance confirmed its support, stressing that the priority remains a just, credible and durable peace. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

South America

Venezuela
Aug. 19, 2025  US deploys warships near Venezuela (Source: Korea Herald - South Korea)

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Europe

Hungary
August 18, 2025  NATO ally issues warning to Ukraine after Russia pipeline strike. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

European Commission
17 August 2025  European Commission President der Leyen and Zelensky are holding a joint press conference in Brussels. EU will defend Ukraine for 'as long as it takes’, der Leyen says, for a just and lasting peace, which ’must be achieved through strength’. (Source: France 24)

(Sunday), 17.08.2025  The European Commission president announced that she would welcome the Ukrainian president in Brussels this afternoon, adding they will both participate in a meeting of the 'Coalition of the Willing' via videoconference. Zelenskyy and Trump will meet in the White House tomorrow. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

16.08.2025  The EU foreign policy chief Kallas said that 'European' security is 'not up for negotiation.' 'The real root cause of the war is Russia’s imperialist foreign policy, not an imaginary imbalance in the European security architecture,' she concluded. Trump and Putin were upbeat after their more than three-hour closed-door talks, with the Russian leader saying they had come to reach an "understanding." After the meeting, Trump said that it is now up to Zelenskyy and European leaders "to get it done." Moscow won't end the war until it realises it can't continue, Kallas said. 'So Europe will continue to back Ukraine, including by working on a 19th Russia sanctions package,' she stressed. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Council
18.08.2025  European Council President Costa said today that he convened a video conference of EU leaders for tomorrow to discuss the outcome of high-level meetings in Washington on Ukraine. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
Aug 18th 2025  Putin’s “land swap” is really a grab for Ukraine’s fortress belt. He wants Trump to secure for him what Russia’s army cannot. (Source: The Economist - United Kingdom)

7:02 ET, Aug 18 2025   The Russians have already declared the United States an ally and are storming Mala Tokmachka in M113 armoured personnel carriers….with Russian and American flags. (Source: The Sun - United Kingdom) /Video/

August 16, 2025 4:00 AM  Highlights of Putin statement after summit with Trump. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore)

16.08.2025  According to a Defense Ministry statement, Russian forces captured the village of Kolodiazi, situated about 12 kilometers northeast of the city of Lyman, a key front in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war in the eastern Donetsk region. The statement further claimed that its forces also took control of the village of Vorone in the Dnipropetrovsk region, located about 24 kilometers northwest of the strategic town of Velyka Novosilka. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
12:53 pm, August 16, 2025  Zelensky announced that he will meet with U.S. President Trump at the White House on Monday, August 18. He made the statement after a phone call with Trump, which he described as long and substantive. Toward the end of the call, European leaders also joined the discussion. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

United Kingdom
18.08.2025  European countries are prepared to deploy 50,000 ground troops to Ukraine if a ceasefire is agreed. UK, France leading effort under 'Coalition of the Willing' to deter further Russian attacks, according to Finnish daily Iltalehti. An operational plan has already been drawn up to send an entire army force, commanded by a Western general, 'as part of a security guarantee' for Kyiv. The force would be supported by allied air and naval units, ensuring protection of Ukrainian airspace. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

'Europe'
18.08.2025  The lesson of the Alaska Summit is 'clear': Trump is unwilling to make Moscow pay for its aggression against Ukraine, no matter how many ultimatums he issues. ’The only viable path for Europe is to seize the initiative, demonstrate leadership to Washington and increase pressure on Moscow’. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
by Majcin, a Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels

Europe
17.08.2025  A group of senior European leaders - French President Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Stubb, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and European Commission President der Leyen will travel to Washington tomorrow to join talks on Ukraine with US President Trump and Zelenskyy. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

(Saturday), August 16, 2025  European leaders in a ’coalition of the willing’ in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia War are rushing to form united front - to show unity - before Zelenskyy arrives in Washington Monday. The phrase coalition of the willing once described the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Today, ’Europe’ is using it to block any peace deal that redraws Ukraine’s borders by force. Trump is now pressing for a three-way summit with Putin and Zelenskyy  fast, possibly as early as Aug. 22. The goal, he has said, is to get all sides in the same room and test whether a breakthrough is possible. Such a summit would mark the first direct encounter between the three men since the war began. French President Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will meet virtually Sunday. In their Aug. 13 joint statement, Macron, Starmer and Merz said the coalition would reject territorial concessions under force and push for binding security guarantees for Ukraine. "There are a lot of European leaders, but they rely on me - very much rely on me. If it wasn’t for me, this thing would never get solved until the last person breathing is dead,’ Trump said at a press briefing last week. Axios reported Putin’s terms would shift far more land to Russia than Ukraine would gain. He also floated China as a possible guarantor, a move that would push NATO aside. 'European nations see that as a direct challenge to their security system'. Zelenskyy will arrive in Washington on Monday as President Trump takes the lead in pushing for a settlement. Trump’s push for a  three-way summit will show whether Europe’s coalition has real influence or if Washington and Moscow set terms alone. 'European' leaders believe their coalition can give Zelenskyy added support as he enters the talks. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

Africa

Mali
(August 18, 2025)  Mali says thwarted coup supported by ‘foreign states’. (Source: news24 - South Africa)

Asia

Iran
August 18, 2025  'We are not in a ceasefire, we are in a stage of war,' Safavi, a military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said. (Source: The National - United Arab Emirates)

North America

United States
Mon, Aug 18, 2025  Trump has interrupted the meeting with European leaders to call Putin. (Source: Express - United Kingdom)

(August 18, 2025)  Trump meets with Zelenskyy and European leaders at White House. (Source: YouTube / The Associated Press = U.S.) /Video/
798 979 views

18 Aug 2025  US President Trump told Ukraine to give up hopes of getting back annexed Crimea or joining NATO as he prepared to host Zelensky and European leaders in Washington today to press Kyiv into accepting a peace deal with Russia. (Source: Bangkok Post - Thailand)

August 18, 2025  Trump plans to face the White House press pool with Zelenskyy alone, before meeting together with the Europeans almost two hours later. Oval Office spray featuring only Trump and Zelenskyy at 1:15 p.m. local/7:15 p.m. Brussels time … meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy and the Europeans at 3 p.m. local/9 p.m. Brussels time. Diplomats said Kallas looks likely to call a meeting of foreign ministers in the coming days, seeking to keep up the pressure on capitals. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Sunday 17 August 2025  Why is Zelenskyy bringing a posse of European leaders to the US for peace talks? Bringing a gang of leaders along could be an attempt by Mr Zelenskyy to prevent a repeat of the infamous Oval Office showdown with Mr Trump and the vice-president, Vance, in February. Their inclusion as mediators 'could help prevent' a repeat of the Oval Office clash. Mr Vance completed his ambush of Mr Zelenskyy by mocking him for not wearing a suit, with Mr Trump adding that the Ukrainian didn't "have the cards right now with us". The disastrous meeting ended with Mr Zelenskyy prematurely leaving the White House. At the US-Russia summit on Friday, Mr Trump (quite literally) rolled out the red carpet for Mr Putin and even let the Russian leader take a ride with him in the presidential limousine dubbed The Beast. Mr Zelenskyy is set for a less warm welcome. (Source: Sky News - United Kingdom)

Aug. 16, 2025 2:05 p.m. ET  Trump told European leaders after his meeting with President Putin of Russia yesterday in Alaska that he supported a plan to end the war in Ukraine by ceding unconquered territory to the Russian invaders, rather than try for a cease-fire, according to two senior European officials. In return, Mr. Putin offered a cease-fire in the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again, the senior officials said. Mr. Trump has dropped his demand for an immediate cease-fire and believes a rapid peace treaty can be negotiated, so long as Mr. Zelensky agrees to cede the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops. Mr. Trump will discuss that plan with Zelensky of Ukraine on Monday at the White House, and there were discussions today about whether other European officials would join him. Mr. Zelensky and the ’European’ leaders have strongly opposed such a concession of unoccupied land, which also contains important defensive lines and is mineral rich. It will be up to Ukraine to make decisions on its territory, the officials emphasized, adding that international borders must not be changed by force. Mr. Trump did not mention during the call imposing any further sanctions or economic pressure on Russia, the officials said. But the European leaders emphasized that they would continue sanctions and economic pressure on Russia. On a more positive note, the European officials said, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Putin agreed that Ukraine should have strong security guarantees after a settlement, but not under NATO. American troops might participate, Mr. Trump told the Europeans. Mr. Putin also asked for guarantees for Russian to become an official language again in Ukraine and security for Russian Orthodox churches, the officials said. Mr. Putin has so far refused to meet with Mr. Zelensky, considering him an illegitimate president of an artificial country. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)
by Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, based in Berlin.

August 16, 2025 8:00am EDT  Trump, Putin speak to media after Alaska meeting: 'There's no deal until there's a deal'. (Source: Fox News – U.S.)
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Europe

Germany
13.08.2025  Germany, alongside other NATO allies, has agreed to finance one of the first US weapons and ammunition packages for Ukraine worth up to $500 million. The announcement came following a video conference meeting of the leaders of the 'Coalition of the Willing,' a group of nations committed to supporting Ukraine. The meeting was co-chaired by French President Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
8:50 am, August 15, 2025 Russian President Putin arrived in Magadan in Russia’s Far East on August 15. Later on August 15, Putin and Trump are scheduled to meet in Alaska to discuss ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. On the eve of the U.S.–Russia summit, supporters of Ukraine staged a protest in Anchorage, with additional rallies planned for the day of the talks. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

Aug 14, 2025  Here’s a look at the biggest buyers of Russian oil via boat in 2025. (Source: GZERO Media - U.S.)
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August 13, 2025 1:54pm EDT  Russia may gain Ukraine’s fertile, resource-rich territory as Trump proposes land swap. Russian forces currently occupy one-fifth of Ukraine including areas rich in lithium, coal and offshore gas reserves. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

Wednesday 13 August 2025 12:29 EDT  The U.S. and Russia are set to suggest a West Bank-style occupation of Ukraine as a way of ending the war, according to The London Times. Russia would have both economic and military control of the occupied parts of Ukraine, utilizing its own governing body. The suggestion was put forward during discussions between President Trump’s envoy Witkoff who also serves as the White House’s Middle East envoy and his Russian counterparts. The U.S. believes the suggestion will solve the issue of the Ukrainian constitution prohibiting giving up territory without organizing a referendum. The new occupation proposal may lead to a truce following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. According to the proposal, Ukraine’s borders would remain officially unchanged, similar to the borders of the West Bank, even as Israel controls the territory. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is illegal. The occupation isn’t recognized by the U.S., and it’s only partially recognized by Russia. Last September, the United Nations ordered Israel to end the occupation by a vote of 124 to 14, with 43 countries abstaining. Israel has ignored the resolution and voted against the measure, as did the U.S. More than 150 Israeli settlements have been established in recent years. Citizens of Israel who live in the West Bank must adhere to Israeli law, while Palestinians are subject to martial law, and they’re unable to vote in Israeli national elections. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
by Kilander

August 13, 2025  Why the Trump-Putin Summit won’t bring a Ukraine Deal. Putin has given no indication that he is interested in reaching a durable settlement to end the Russia-Ukraine War. (Source: The National Interest – U.S.)
by Saunders

Serbia
Wednesday, August 13, 2025  The president’s supporters have recently started organizing counterdemonstrations. Clashes erupted at protests in Vrbas, Serbia yesterday, between opponents and supporters of the government. Dozens of people were injured, including 16 police officers. Protesters have said that government supporters attacked them first in Vrbas and also further south in Backa Palanka and later in Novi Sad and the southern city of Nis. Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but President Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China. (Source: The Washington Times / /Associated Press = U.S.)Ukraine

9:58 AM CEST, August 15, 2025  Ukrainian defenses face a challenge as Russian troops make gains ahead of the Putin-Trump summit. (Source: AP – U.S.)
by Arhirova, based in Kyiv; Stepanenko, Maloletka and Zhyhinas in the Donetsk region, Yurchuk and Babenko in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

13/08/2025 - 20:38  Ukraine will be in 'a situation similar to that of Germany in the Cold War after ceasefire, enjoying the continued support of the West and integration in Europe, and Kyiv envisages accepting short-term occupation as Russia struggles economically and holds territory which is 'burnt to the ground.', Lucas, Professor of International Politics at the University College Dublin Clinton Institute, says.  (Source: France 24)

(13 August 2025)  The war-ravaged territories at the heart of the Trump-Putin summit. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

13/08/2025 - 18:21  According to data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War, Russia said today that it had taken two villages close to Dobropillia. Zelensky acknowledged yesterday that Russian troops had advanced by up to 10 kilometres near the eastern coal mining town of Dobropillia. Russian forces have been closing in on a key territorial grab around the part of industrial heartland, city of Pokrovsk, in the eastern Donbas region. Ukrainian forces struck the oil pumping Unecha station in Russia’s Bryansk region overnight today, according to a statement from Ukraine’s General Staff Unecha transports oil to two pipelines with an annual capacity to pump 60 million tons.  The operation was carried out by units of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine’s army and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry, the statement said.  (Source: France 24 „with AFP - France and AP - U.S.”)

’Europe’
August 13, 2025  One of two things will happen in Alaska. Either Trump and Putin will emerge with a deal, which Trump will try to sell to Ukraine and Europe, orthey won’t. ’The genuinely significant discussions are not in Anchorage, but in Europe’s own capitals, defense ministries, and industrial boardrooms, and the risk is not that Europe overreaches, but that it undershoots’. 'The continent' has done everything possible to align itself with the US administration. As two of the world’s superpowers grope for a solution that meets their own interest, Europe and Ukraine find themselves in the unfortunate position of hoping that the summit, any deal that emerges from the talks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, just outside Anchorage, will come at their expense. In their anxiety, and Ukraine Europe are aligned. Ukraine today finds itself trapped between two equally dangerous strategic illusions: an American belief that Russia can be persuaded to stick to any agreement it signs, or to provide lasting security guarantees for Ukraine; and a European belief that its own security can continue to rest primarily on US power. Together they threaten to shape a settlement -  if not this week in Anchorage, then at some point in the future  - that leaves Ukraine exposed and Europe dependent. The American illusion is rooted in the idea that Moscow can be brought. For a regime strategically and ideologically committed to imperial dominion, and whose economic machinery and coercive apparatus are entirely dependent on geopolitical conflict, the outcome to accept Ukraine’s  sovereignty in exchange for concessions is simply not available. The only ceasefire Putin can accept in Ukraine is one in which Moscow faces no genuine deterrent against renewed aggression. The European illusion, meanwhile, is a legacy of a post-Cold War settlement. The so-called peace dividend was unevenly distributed, NATO’s operational cohesion and deterrent credibility have for decades rested on US leadership and expenditure, even as shifting international and domestic politics have undermined America’s strategic commitment to Europe. Even as Europe builds a larger defense-industrial base and rekindles conversations about strategic autonomy, leaders from London to Warsaw remain unable to imagine a security architecture in which the US is not the fundamental pillar.  Europe had the chance to act decisively, abandoning efforts to get a seat at the Trump-Putin table and building their own table, firmly planted in the bedrock of Europe’s own strategic interests. Europe took the easier option, hoping the tide would turn. European leaders have sought to influence American policy without marshaling the political, military or fiscal capital needed to make that influence real. As a result, it’s not only Ukraine’s future that is being discussed largely without Europe’s decisive input: it’s Europe’s future, too. ’Europe’ will never have all the resources it needs to assure itself of victory'. Failing to go to diplomatic war with the army it has, however, assures it of defeat. (Source: The Center for European Policy Analysis /CEPA/ - U.S.).
by Greene, Director for Democratic Resilience at CEPA, a Professor of Russian Politics at King’s College London. Prior to moving to London, he lived and worked for 13 years in Moscow.

August 13, 2025  European leaders optimistic: Trump listened to them on Ukraine ceasefire. But U.S. president “as always, talked a lot about what he would do, but in a way that no one could say what exactly he was going to do,” official tell. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

North America

United States
August 15, 2025  US military deploying over 4,000 additional Marines and sailors to the waters around Latin America and the Caribbean as part of Trump’s counter-cartel mission. The US military deployed destroyers to the areas around the US-Mexico border in March to support US Northern Command’s border security mission and reinforce the US’ presence in the western hemisphere. The additional assets being moved now, however, will fall under US Southern Command. A memo signed by Defense Secretary Hegseth earlier this year stated that the US military’s “foremost priority” is to defend the homeland, and instructed the Pentagon to “seal our borders, repel forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities, and deport illegal aliens in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.” The same memo also formally asked Pentagon officials for “credible military options” to ensure unfettered American access to the Panama Canal, CNN reported at the time. (Source: CNN - U.S.)

15 August 2025 Trump and Putin could decide Ukraine’s fate at a meeting its leader wasn’t invited to. Putin demanded all of Luhansk and Donetsk in exchange for a ceasefire and freezing the frontlines in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in effect attempting to secure at the negotiating table what his forces had failed to seize in battle. Ironically, it has fallen to European leaders, rather than US diplomats, to prepare Mr Trump for the summit – leaders who will not be present when he faces Putin, a former KGB officer renowned for his guile. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)

(Thursday), Aug 14, 2025  Around 1,000 Ukrainian refugees in Alaska will be watching closely when Russian President Putin arrives on Friday to meet with US President Trump. Those Alaskan refugees are just a small percentage of the 240,000 Ukrainian refugees who came to the US under Biden’s Uniting for Ukraine program, which was suspended after Trump took office earlier this year. (Source: GZERO Media - U.S.)

August 14, 2025  'A chess game' - Trump gears up for Alaska summit with Putin. (Source: NPR – U.S.)

August 14, 2025  Epstein’s mysterious death occurred six years ago this month - but 22 people in the sketchy billionaire’s orbit have also died under murky circumstances, fueling fears of a cover-up by powerful figures seeking to erase potential witnesses. From the predator’s alleged victims to house managers, lawyers, accountants, investigative journalists and pimps, the list of unexplained fatalities traces a dark money trail that leads straight to Epstein’s inner circle. (Source: The National Enquirer – U.S.)

13 August 2025  Trump is preparing to offer Putin access to rare earth minerals to incentivise him to end the war in Ukraine. A number of money-making opportunities for Putin will include opening up Alaska’s natural resources to Moscow and lifting some of the American sanctions on Russia’s aviation industry. „Proposals include giving Putin access to the rare earth minerals in the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia. Other incentives include lifting export bans on parts and equipment needed to service Russian planes. Western countries have restricted Moscow’s access to crucial spare components and other equipment since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, forcing airlines and the military to cannibalise old aircraft for replacement parts. With a fleet of more than 700 planes dominated by Airbus and Boeing, Russian airlines could return to the American suppliers for critical parts and maintenance. Mr Trump is also considering offering Russia opportunities to tap into the valuable natural resources in the strait that separates it from the US. Alaska, separated from Russia by just three miles of the Bering Strait, is estimated to hold significant undiscovered oil and gas reserves, including 13 per cent of the world’s oil. Developing Russia’s presence in the strait would bolster Putin’s strategic interests in the Arctic region, which accounted for 80 per cent of Russia’s gas production in 2022. The US leader revealed his intention to seek an immediate second meeting with Putin, this time involving Zelensky, after their one-on-one talks in Alaska. The US president had attended a virtual summit with Zelensky and other European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer, Macron and Freidrich Merz as part of a series of calls ahead of the Alaska meeting. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank could be used as a model for ending the war. Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, similar to Israel’s de facto rule of Palestinian territory. European diplomats say there has been no notable change in Putin’s overall war aim, which is to topple Zelensky’s government and replace it with a Moscow-friendly proxy. The Russian president’s aides described the tete-a-tete primarily as a discussion on “Russian-American relations”, hinting at boosting trade co-operation. (Source: The Telegraph – United Kingdom)

13 August 2025  US court says Trump administration can cut billions in foreign aid. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

August 13, 2025  Former US Army Special  Operations soldier exposes part of Putin's 'personal crusade' that should 'upset Americans'. Velicovich analyzes Russian President  Putin's 'true face' ahead of his meeting with President Trump. (Source: Fox News - U.S.) /Video/

5 8 15 .01:20

Europe

Russia
(Thursday), August 14, 2025 12:20pm EDT  Putin praises Trump’s ‘sincere’ peace efforts and signals possible US-Russia nuclear deal. F Today, Putin said on TV that the U.S. was "making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict." The Russian leader also reportedly mentioned possible future "agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons." First US-Russia meeting since 2021 comes as Russia and the U.S. hold the world’s largest nuclear weapons arsenals and have a treaty limiting the number of strategic weapons they may possess, which is set to expire in February, adding more pressure to the upcoming talks. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) covers strategic nuclear weapons and caps the number of deployed warheads at 1,550 on each side. There has already been some nuclear tension between the two nations in recent days, as Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia after the country’s former president made ’highly provocative statements.’ The Kremlin downplayed the move but warned all sides to be "very, very careful" about nuclear rhetoric. Friday’s high-stakes meeting in Anchorage will be the first U.S.-Russia summit since June 2021. It marks a crucial moment for Trump, who has been pushing for an end to the war. Trump has threatened very severe consequences if Putin does not agree to peace with Ukraine, but he has not detailed what that could mean. Zelenskyy, whose relationship with Trump has been rocky, yesterday wrote on X that he saw ’no sign’ that the Russians are preparing to end the war. He has been working to bolster support among some world leaders ahead of the Trump-Putin summit. This week, he met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street, and he traveled to Belin to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Starmer and Merz co-chaired yesterday’s meeting of the ’Coalition of the Willing’ - a gathering of nations that back Ukraine - alongside French President Macron. Vice President Vance and Special Presidential Envoy for Ukraine Gen. Kellogg were also in attendance. (Source: Fox News – U.S.)
by Wolf

Thursday 14 August 2025 17:04 BST Russian President Putin has indicated he wants to pursue a new nuclear weapons agreement with US President Trump, ahead of their anticipated summit in Alaska tomorrow. Moscow views the Ukrainian situation as integral to a complex web of security concerns that have elevated East-West tensions to their highest point since the Cold War. Despite Kyiv's repeated calls for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, Mr Putin has resisted. The potential accord is framed by Mr Putin as part of a wider initiative to bolster global peace, coming amid persistent pressure from Mr Trump to de-escalate the three-and-a-half-year conflict in Ukraine. Progress on a new arms control treaty at the summit could allow Mr Putin to present himself as actively engaged in broader peace efforts. This, in turn, might help dissuade Mr Trump from imposing new sanctions on Russia and its key exports, including oil, a measure the US leader has previously threatened. Such a development could also signify a broader push to mend relations with Washington, particularly concerning trade and economic ties, areas the Kremlin believes hold significant untapped potential. Throughout the war, Mr Putin has delivered veiled threats about using nuclear missiles and warned that entering a direct confrontation with Russia could lead to World War Three. They have included verbal statements, war games, and lowering Russia's threshold for using nuclear weapons. According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia and the United States have estimated military stockpiles of 4,309 and 3,700 nuclear warheads respectively. China trails behind with an estimated 600. The fact that Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other country gives it a stature in this domain that far exceeds its conventional military or economic power, allowing Mr Putin to face Mr Trump as an equal on the world stage when it comes to security. Signed by then-US president Obama and his Russian counterpart Medvedev in 2010, the New START treaty caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy. Each is limited to no more than 1,550, and a maximum of 700 long-range missiles and bombers. Strategic weapons are those designed by each side to hit the enemy's centres of military, economic and political power. The treaty came into force in 2011 and was extended in 2021 for five more years after US President Biden took office. In 2023, Mr Putin suspended Russia's participation but Moscow said it would continue to observe the warhead limits. The treaty expires on 5 February 2026. Security analysts expect both sides to breach the limits if it is not extended or replaced. In a symptom of the underlying tensions, Mr Trump this month said he had ordered two US nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia because of what he called threatening comments by Mr Medvedev about the possibility of war with the US. The Kremlin played down the move but said "everyone should be very, very careful" with nuclear rhetoric. Separately, an arms race looms over shorter- and intermediate-range missiles, which can also carry nuclear warheads. During Mr Trump's first presidency, in 2019, he pulled the US out of a treaty that had abolished all ground-based weapons in this category. Moscow denied his accusations ’that it was cheating’. ’The United States plans to start deploying weapons including SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles, previously placed mainly on ships, as well as new hypersonic missiles, in Germany from 2026’. Russia said this month it no longer observes any restrictions on where it might deploy intermediate-range missiles. (Source: The Independent – United Kingdom)
by Trevelyan

Asia

China
August 14, 2025  What China wants (and fears) from a Trump-Putin Deal? Beijing would prefer to see a frozen Russia-Ukraine conflict and a Moscow less burdened by sanctions. Trump and Putin meet in Alaska this Friday to discuss „ending” the war in Ukraine. Beijing will carefully study every handshake, phrase, and subtle signal that emerges from the talks. For China, such a meeting is about the deeper structure of global order that could emerge afterward and especially whether the outcome will help lock in a Eurasian balance of power favorable to Beijing’s strategic ambitions. Alternatively, an agreement could bind China into a new set of constraints on sanctions enforcement and technology controls, as well as its relationships with key European states. Since February 2022, Xi has walked a narrow political and diplomatic ridge, publicly professing “neutrality” and respect for sovereignty while actively providing Russia with material and technological support. At the same time, Beijing has strengthened what it calls a “no limits” partnership with Moscow. A US-Russia bargain that effectively freezes the frontlines and normalizes some of Russia’s gains would, in most respects, suit Beijing. It would preserve a strategic partner in Eurasia and avoid an outcome in which Moscow is weakened to the point of dependency on the West. Conversely, a deal that ties any ceasefire to tough, enforceable restrictions on Chinese dual-use exports to Russia would be unwelcome. This is why the choreography of the Alaska meeting - who initiates, who concedes, and what details are left vague - matters as much as the headlines. Beijing’s conduct since the start of the war has been guided by three interlocking imperatives. The first is to ensure Russia’s survival as a functioning strategic actor. Moscow remains China’s only peer-level counterweight to Washington across the Eurasian landmass. It is also a vital supplier of discounted energy and raw materials, and a partner in constructing alternatives to a US-centric order. This explains Beijing’s consistent support - through expanded energy trade, dual-use technology exports, and diplomatic cover in international forums - to ensure Russia avoids a humiliating defeat. Xi and Putin have framed their partnership as a civilizational alternative to Western leadership, extending their cooperation well beyond the war into investment, space technology, and cultural exchanges that reinforce a sense of long-term alignment. The second imperative is to erode US primacy without triggering a direct military confrontation. China’s so-called peace proposals, calling for ceasefires, negotiations, and opposition to nuclear threats, are designed to portray Beijing as a responsible global power. Simultaneously, they subtly shift blame toward NATO enlargement and Western ’bloc politics.’ These rhetorical positions are calibrated to resonate with the Global South, where Beijing’s refusal to join sanctions regimes and its economic outreach to Moscow have been noted approvingly. China has also avoided high-profile diplomatic events, such as the peace summit in Switzerland, that might corner Moscow into concessions it does not want to make. In European and transatlantic capitals, this posture has come to be described as strategic neutrality - neutral in name but tilted toward Russia in effect. The third imperative is to preserve Beijing’s diplomatic space in Europe, avoiding a hard, Cold War–style split. China continues to court European leaders and present itself as an indispensable broker for global stability. By keeping open the prospect of participating in Ukraine’s eventual reconstruction, Beijing positions itself as both a pragmatic partner and a player whose cooperation is needed to resolve global crises. This balancing act has produced mixed results: in 2024–25, Xi’s high-profile visits improved dialogue but also deepened suspicion that China is complicit in prolonging the war. The Alaska summit poses both opportunities and risks for Beijing. In the most favorable scenario, the war would be frozen with only loosely enforced conditions. This would consolidate Russian territorial gains, allowing Moscow to remain a strong partner and a distraction for Washington, while lowering the immediate risk of escalation that could disrupt China’s own priorities. Such an outcome might also trigger “sanctions fatigue,” especially in Europe, leading to softer enforcement and more room for Chinese banks and tech firms to operate in Russia. Beijing could even claim an image boost, presenting itself as supportive of renewed U.S.–Russia engagement without altering its policy in any meaningful way. The more dangerous scenario is one in which the Alaska outcome explicitly targets China’s economic lifelines to Russia. Broad secondary sanctions could pressure Chinese financial institutions, logistics providers, and component manufacturers. Tighter enforcement on critical technology exports - such as machine tools, semiconductors, optics, and UAV components - could force Beijing into difficult choices between supporting Russia and safeguarding its own industrial policy. If the deal gains European endorsement and Kyiv’s reluctant cooperation, it could also undermine China’s narrative in the Global South that it is championing peace without Western diktats. In the lead-up to Alaska, Beijing’s public messaging is likely to be supportive of “dialogue” but vague on specifics, reiterating familiar lines about indivisible security and opposition to nuclear escalation. Privately, Xi will use his influence with Putin to urge restraint, keep nuclear threats off the table, and negotiate a ceasefire that eases sanctions without loosening the strategic bond between the two states. Meanwhile, China will continue to expand its sanctions-resistant infrastructure - yuan-ruble settlements, alternative logistics corridors, and networks of intermediary firms - to insulate itself from any enforcement measures that might emerge from the talks. Once the summit concludes, Beijing will adapt its narrative to suit the outcome. If there is a deal, it will claim this validates China’s long-standing advocacy for dialogue. If the talks fail, it will fault Washington’s overreach or Kyiv’s inflexibility, while offering to participate in reconstruction when “wiser heads prevail.” This dual-track narrative helps Beijing finesse its central paradox: insisting on sovereignty and territorial integrity in principle, while enabling Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territory in practice. By framing any settlement as a temporary stabilization measure, China can defer the sovereignty question indefinitely - a tactic it also applies to Taiwan and disputed areas of the South China Sea. Europe’s response to the Alaska meeting will significantly shape China’s room for maneuver. If the EU treats a ceasefire as an opportunity to “de-risk” but not decouple from China, Beijing can reinvigorate trade diplomacy and resist U.S.-led technology controls. But if European leaders perceive that China has pocketed strategic gains while enabling aggression, they could push for tighter export controls, more rigorous screening of outbound investments, and closer alignment with U.S. sanctions enforcement. From any Trump-Putin bargain, China will try to extract three main benefits. It will seek incremental sanctions relief - enough ambiguity to allow banks, insurers, and shippers to expand higher-value transactions with Russia without fear of sudden reversal. It will value the reduced risk of sudden escalation, freeing Beijing to focus on domestic growth, industrial upgrades, and regional initiatives from the South China Sea to Central Asia. And it will seize the chance to recalibrate relations with key European states such as Germany and France, offering targeted cooperation in green technology and reconstruction that minimizes security concerns while maximizing political goodwill. What Beijing fears most is being explicitly named and targeted in the agreement, losing its role in the geopolitical narrative to a bilateral Trump-Putin “fix,” and seeing the sanctions logic applied to broader US technology controls in Asia. If these risks emerge, China’s response will combine symbolic compliance - publicly tightening controls on a few niche items - with broader defiance, maintaining critical flows through intermediaries and alternative channels. It will also intensify its courtship of Europe, using business delegations, climate cooperation, and reconstruction offers to draw EU preferences away from Washington’s enforcement priorities. Simultaneously, Beijing will double down on its messaging to the Global South, stressing its consistency and contrasting its conduct with what it portrays as Western hypocrisy. For Beijing, Alaska is not about ending the war so much as shaping the next phase of the world order. It wants a United States constrained by multiple commitments, a Russia preserved as a strategic partner, and a Europe kept within reach of Chinese diplomacy. A ceasefire that freezes the front lines, preserves Russian leverage, and leaves China’s support networks intact would mark a quiet but significant victory. A deal that triggers a sanctions crackdown on Chinese banks and suppliers would accelerate the very containment Beijing most fears. Either way, Xi will present China as a consistent and pragmatic power in Eurasia - laying the groundwork for a geopolitical order that will matter long after the Alaska photo opportunity has faded. (Source: The National Interest – U.S.)
By Dr. Yang, a Research Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University,  the Founder and President of Citizen Power Initiatives for China and author of For Us, The Living: A Journey to Shine the Light on Truth and It’s Time for a Values-Based “Economic NATO.”

North America

United States
August 15, 2025, 1 PM ET  The tiny White House club making major national-security decisions. Trump has pushed out career experts and aides who challenged him. Rubio quickly restructured the NSC, which had grown to more than 300 people in recent years. By late May, 100 staffers had been dismissed and numerous NSC offices had been closed or consolidated. Vance’s aide Baker and Wiles’s aide Gabriel, both of whom were named deputy national security advisers in May, are now key figures in managing the smaller, more streamlined NSC. In addition to the core decision team of Trump, Vance, Rubio, and Wiles, Miller plays a key role on issues related to homeland security. On decisions involving Russia and Israel, envoy Witkoff is included. And on military matters, the president pulls in Hegseth and General Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This time, the principle is that the only things that are done are things specifically directed by the president. (Source: The Atlantic – U.S.)

August 14, 2025 1:50 pm (EST)  Presidents Putin and Trump are holding their first bilateral meeting since 2019 with the fate of Ukraine’s war seemingly in the balance. What sort of deal - and Ukrainian territorial concessions - Putin and Trump could agree to at a U.S. air base in Alaska? In recent months Trump has directed more criticism at Putin for increasingly destructive Russian attacks on Ukraine, setting an August deadline for Russia to show commitment to a ceasefire or face harsher sanctions. Russian and U.S. officials agreed to a bilateral summit to try to reach common ground. Their decision to exclude Zelenskyy from the meeting raised alarm in both Kyiv and European capitals. What is considered the most realistic scenario and its consequences for European security at the August 15 summit? Russia is with control of part of the east of the country, including Crimea and much of the Donbas region. The prospects for best, worst, and most likely outcomes:    Kupchan: ’The best summit outcome would be if Trump forges a framework agreement with Putin that can earn the support of Ukraine and NATO allies. Following the Alaska summit, Trump would „begin” discussing the deal with Zelenskyy and NATO leaders to build a unified transatlantic position that can then serve as the basis for further negotiations with Russia. Such an agreement would likely have the following elements: A ceasefire in place, potentially including minor land swaps; Neither Ukraine nor the West would recognize the 20 percent of Ukraine occupied by Russia as Russian territory, but they would agree not to attempt to retake it by force; Russia would acknowledge that the 80 percent of Ukraine still controlled by Kyiv is a free, sovereign, and independent country. A free Ukraine would have the right ’to acquire the military capability to defend itself and to choose its future alignment, including European Union membership’; „NATO would no longer aim to offer Ukraine membership and would agree to limit the presence of NATO troops and armaments” in Ukraine; As the agreement is implemented, the United States and its allies would agree to incrementally scale back economic sanctions against Russia. The worst outcome would be Trump agreeing to a flawed deal that is unacceptable to Ukraine and NATO allies. Putin has yet to back away from his maximalist war aims, which include regime change in Kyiv and Ukraine’s demilitarization - effectively turning Ukraine into a vassal state. Were Trump to agree to such a deal in the service of achieving a ceasefire, he would then tell Ukraine to take it or leave it. Ukraine would reject the deal, and Trump could then end all support for Ukraine. The result would be breach in transatlantic relations and, potentially, Putin’s successful subjugation of Ukraine. The state of play after the summit will likely look much like the state of play before the summit.; Russia is making progress on the battlefield, Ukraine is facing manpower and resource constraints and continues to suffer withering air attacks. Putin believes, probably correctly, that time is on his side. He has every reason to buy more time by going through the motions of diplomacy with Trump while continuing the fight, hoping to break Ukraine politically and install a pro-Russian regime. The meeting itself is a prize for the Russian leader - a seat at the table with the U.S. president and an end to years of diplomatic isolation. Let’s hope that in offering Putin that prize, Trump has good reason to believe Putin is ready to compromise.    Fix: A summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska - without the presence of Zelenskyy - is itself a victory for the Russian president. ’European’ efforts have focused on finding out what possible peace proposals are actually on the table. The best plausible outcome would be to first push for an unconditional ceasefire, as the starting point for discussions. U.S. officials have already toned down expectations for the summit, framing it as a listening exercise. A good deal would demand ’reciprocity’ in any territorial concessions and establish a roadmap for direct, high-level Russian-Ukrainian talks. Putin could refuse these terms, which would likely result in Trump hardening his stance against Putin. Or he could tentatively agree to them, enabling the West to move forward more united and therefore stronger. Both of these outcomes, while unlikely, are still possible. The worst-case scenario for Europeans would be an agreement between the United States and Russia that is unacceptable to Ukraine and Europe, especially if the United States tries to coerce them into a deal along the lines of Russia’s Istanbul framework proposal. These are the red lines from Europe’s and Ukraine’s point of view: Ukraine’s demilitarization and a stop to Western weapon deliveries; Constitutional reforms; A demand for Ukraine to give up territory in the East - the most fortified part of the frontline - without a reciprocal significant Russian withdrawal from occupied territories, especially if not accompanied by security guarantees; A premature lifting of sanctions that is not linked to tangible progress towards peace; A rollback of the U.S. and NATO presence in Eastern Europe, as demanded by Putin in December 2021; A normalization of U.S.-Russia relations that bypasses Europe and Ukraine. In the aftermath of a worst-case scenario, Europeans and Ukrainians ’could try’ to reverse the agreement or simply to refuse to implement it. „The United States would be seen as turning away from Europe and the West,” in favor of a U.S.-Russia rapprochement. Ukraine would be perceived by Trump as the obstacle to peace, not the victim of aggression. There has been little preparation for this last-minute summit and neither side has clear areas for compromise. Still, a summit that yields no substance would be better than one that pits the United States and Russia together against Europe and Ukraine. The most likely outcome: Trump and Putin will agree to agree - Trump’s favorite instrument in the past, allowing him to produce one-pagers that provide little detail but give the impression of a victory. As he has done before, he may overestimate his abilities, to the detriment of Ukraine.    Stares: In Trump’s world, a week can seem like an eternity with his norm-breaking pronouncements and head-spinning U-turns. The past week has been no exception. Exactly seven days after Trump warned Putin that the United States would impose punishing new sanctions and secondary tariffs for having failed to halt the fighting in Ukraine, the two leaders will sit down in Alaska to discuss whether a deal can be reached. At past summits of this kind - certainly those before Trump’s first term - most leaders were expected to do was deliver their talking points and sign off on whatever had already been agreed. Not so with the upcoming Alaska summit. Although the White House is lowering expectations about what to expect from the meeting - now calling it a listening exercise - everything we have come to know about Trump’s penchant for freelancing and going off script whenever he pleases means we should not dismiss a range of possible outcomes. The least likely is the best-case outcome: both leaders call for an immediate ceasefire and commit to meaningful peace negotiations. Setting out some basic principles and parameters for how to proceed in the form of an initial framework agreement or roadmap would also be welcome. Ideally, Trump would have listened closely to what Ukrainian and European leaders told him about their red lines in the consultations they held before the summit - not the least being that no deal with Putin should be struck, or can be expected to stick, without their approval. If this scenario plays out - and it’s a big and improbable if - there’s no reason why a truce could not take immediate effect and peace talks between Russia and Ukraine - with or without U.S.participation - commence soon after. The worst-case scenario: The summit quickly dissolves into rancorous exchanges and a dangerous rupture in U.S.-Russia relations ensues. ’Some observers might perversely welcome this result’ in the expectation that the United States would thereafter decisively commit to Ukraine’s victory by finally ’removing all limits on supplying it with the necessary military aid’ while imposing much harsher economic sanctions on Russia. How confident can anyone be that additional U.S. military aid and economic sanctions would have the desired effect? How much more human suffering would ensue if the war drags on, not to mention a return to Cold War levels of great power confrontation? Such a reaction from Trump, however, is hardly assured; he could just as easily wash his hands of trying to make peace and leave Ukrainians and Europeans to their fate. Somewhere in the middle of the range of possible outcomes is probably the most likely - no real progress toward ending the war but no significant setback either. A temporary suspension of attacks on urban centers (but not on the front lines) might even be floated as a good faith commitment to peace. This would cost Putin little. And Trump could claim he got something from Putin. Both sides will claim that the talks were candid and productive. (Source: The Council on Foreign Relations – U.S.)
by    Kupchan, a senior fellow at the CFR and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University;     Fix, a fellow for Europe, and     Stares,who is the John W. Vessey senior fellow for conflict prevention and director of the Center for Preventive Action.

.5 8 15 08:29

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Europe

Hungary
08.08.2025  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán today called on European leaders to convene a summit with Russian President Putin, warning that without direct engagement, the continent risks becoming a minor player in shaping its own security. Speaking on Kossuth Rádió, Orbán argued that both French President Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz should already have met with President Putin in an effort to push for a ceasefire
in Ukraine. He underlined that disputes should be resolved through negotiations, insisting, as in previous years, on holding a Russian-European summit. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Armenia
Aug 9, 2025  Armenia and Azerbaijan have committed to a lasting peace, U.S. President Trump said yesterday as he hosted the leaders of the South Caucasus rivals at a White House signing event of a joint declaration. The two former Soviet republics are committing to stop all fighting forever, open up commerce, travel and diplomatic relations and respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Trump said at the event. ’But if there's conflict ... they're going to call me and we're going to get it straightened out,’ he added. Christian-majority Armenia and Muslim-majority Azerbaijan have feuded for decades, went to war twice over the disputed Karabakh region, from where almost the entire local population of around 100,000 ethnic Armenians left for Armenia. The fine print and binding nature of the deal between the longtime foes remained unclear. The agreement includes establishing a transit corridor passing through Armenia to connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan. The United States will have development rights for the corridor in the strategic and resource-rich region. The losers here are China, Russia, and Iran, a White House official said. President Aliyev offered to send a joint appeal, along with PM Pashinyan, to the Nobel committee ’recommending Trump receive the Peace Prize". Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed on the text of a comprehensive peace deal in March. Azerbaijan had later outlined a host of demands - including amendments to Armenia's constitution to drop territorial claims for Karabakh - before signing the  document. Aliyev also thanked Trump for lifting restrictions on U.S. military cooperation with Azerbaijan. (Source: The Japan Times / AFP - France, JIJI - Japan)

Russia
2025-08-06 21:04  Russian President Putin held a three-hour meeting in Moscow with US Special Envoy Witkoff to discuss the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin stated today. Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Ushakov, described the talks as very useful and constructive, noting that they covered both the Ukrainian conflict and strategic cooperation between Russia and the United States. (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)

Ukraine
10/08/2025 - 17:33  'Zelensky says he will not allow' Ukraine to be excluded from Putin-Trump negociations. (Source: France 24)

August 7, 2025  In Gallup’s most recent poll of Ukraine - conducted in early July - 69% say they favor a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible, compared with 24% who support continuing to fight until victory. In 2022, 73% favored Ukraine fighting until victory and 22% preferred that Ukraine seek a negotiated end as soon as possible. (Source: Gallup - U.S.)

8:32 pm, August 6, 2025  Russian forces attacked a gas compressor station in Odesa region that facilitates Azerbaijani gas transit to Europe. Dozens of drones targeted the site near the Romanian border. Energy officials accused Moscow of trying to undermine Kyiv’s ties with Azerbaijan, the United States, and its European allies. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia)

Africa

Ghana
Wed, 6 Aug 2025 18:20:11 WAT  A military helicopter crashed and claimed the lives of eight people, including Defence Minister Boamah and Environment Minister Mohammed in Ghana’s Ashanti region en route from Accra to the gold-mining town of Obuasi, today. (Source: Daily Trust - Nigeria)

Asia

Cambodia
7 Aug, 2025 08:48 PM  Cambodia PM nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize after ceasefire. (Source: New Zealand Herald)

China
Aug 08, 2025  Owning farmland outright, and the associated supply chain infrastructure. While Western governments have historically trusted in global commodity markets to secure their food and raw materials, others - like China and the UAE - have opted for direct control. According to the non-profit organization GRAIN, UAE-linked companies have acquired approximately 960,000 hectares of farmland globally since 2008. One estimate puts China’s overseas land acquisitions - across agriculture, forestry, and mining - at 6.4 million hectares, roughly the size of Latvia. These countries have shown great strategic foresight in seeking to secure their long-term food supplies. 'When the next crisis comes, the fact that so much of the world’s food supply is controlled by a few states means that the rest of the world will either be forced to fight over the remaining supplies or accept whatever terms the owners impose. (Source: Reaction.life - United Kingdom)

Gaza
(8 August 2025)  Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan to take control of Gaza City. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in the city in the north of the Gaza Strip. It was the enclave's most populous city before the war. A statement released by the office of the Israeli prime minister outlined what it said were five "principles" for ending the war: The disarmament of Hamas; The return of all hostages, both living and dead; The demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip; The establishment of an alternative civilian administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. The IDF said the military would prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the "civilian population outside the combat zones". Before the cabinet meeting Netanyahu said he wanted Israel to control all of Gaza. The army's chief of staff voiced his strong opposition to a full takeover of Gaza. Reports in Israeli media suggest the military will not move into Gaza City immediately - and residents will need to leave first. An alternative plan was a more limited proposal from the army's chief of staff. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Iran
10 August 2025  Iran angered by US-backed plan to develop Armenian trade corridor. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Aliyev signed the US-brokered peace accord at the White House with US President Trump. The deal grants Washington exclusive development rights to a strategic route across Armenia linking mainland Azerbaijan to its Nakhchivan exclave, bypassing both Iran and Russia. Russia, a traditional ally and broker in the strategically vital South Caucasus, was excluded from the deal, despite its border guards stationed on the Armenia-Iran border. While supporting the summit, Moscow urged that solutions be developed by regional countries themselves with support from their immediate neighbors - Russia, Iran, and Turkey - warning against the 'sad experience' of Western mediation in the Middle East. “This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries,' Velayati, senior adviser to Khamenei said, referring to Azerbaijan and Armenia. 'It will become their graveyard.' Kayhan, a daily under the supervision of Supreme Leader Khamenei, described the agreement to build the Zangezur corridor as a great betrayal and warned that it must not go unanswered by the Islamic Republic. 'Iran should use the levers at its disposal to confront them and, as a first step, can invoke the Geneva and Jamaica conventions to ban the passage of US- and Israeli-affiliated vessels through the Strait of Hormuz,' wrote the daily today. (Source: Iran International)

Pakistan
08 Aug 2025 - 07:32 pm  The Pakistani army announced today that 33 militants were killed during a military operation carried out by its forces in the Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan. (Source: The Peninsula - Qatar)

Syria
16:28, 08 Aug 2025  A newly released intelligence report warns the Captagon trade is financing conflict across the Middle East. Drug terror groups in Syria planning to flood Europe with ultra-addictive 'Jihadi speed.' There are heightened fears the amphetamine type narcotic captagon drug worth about £10 a tablet, being smuggled out of Syria, through Turkey will spread as far as UK streets within months and have the dual effect of feeding addiction, increasing crime and it will also have a destabilising effect. Iran-backed networks Hezbollah are in on the smuggling free-for-all along with islamic state and al-Qaeda affiliates. Hezbollah and even Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are known to have flooded Lebanon and beyond with captagon. It is believed that since Assad was toppled last year 1.1 tons of the drug was smuggled into Europe. (Source: Mirror - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
Aug 09, 2025  Tensions continue to grow by the day between the United States and NATO versus Russia, China, Iran and the BRICS aligned nations. In the run-up to the 2024 Presidential election, tech giant and defense contractor Palantir CEO Karp said in an interview with the New York Times in August of last year.that he thinks it is very likely the U.S. will be involved in a three-front war with Russia, China and Iran. So, he argues, ’we have to keep going full-tilt on autonomous weapons systems’, because our adversaries will - and they don’t have the same moral considerations that we do. ’Where you have technological parity but moral disparity, the actual disparity is much greater than people think.’ Mr. Karp said that we are very close to terminator robots and at the threshold of ’somewhat autonomous drones and devices like this being the most important instruments of war. You already see this in Ukraine.’ He declared himself pro draft. Karp is a bit of an enigma to some when it comes to his relationship with President Trump and the company, since Karp is a socialist and progressive and voted for Biden in 2020 and backed VP Harris.  At the same time, he has distanced himself politically from Palantir co-founder Thiel, who is the polar opposite politically and a huge supporter of Trump. Earlier this year, Trump came under heavy criticism when the New York Times revealed his administration contracted Palantir to collect all of Americans’ private and unique data to build a master database, building off of previous executive orders Trump signed that deregulates data sharing among federal agencies. ’We’re basically already at war with Russia: All Trump would have to do is seriously stop giving weapons and intelligence to Ukraine, order a systematic withdrawal, and let Europe deal with it; and since Europe can’t, as NATO is very dependent on the U.S., the war would eventually have to come to an end”. ’But the U.S. is not and will not be. VP Vance, who is a literal puppet and plant of Palantir, has already said that the war in Ukraine ’will not end anytime soon.’ He was telling the truth this time’. The illusion that we are only aiding Ukraine will cease eventually and the war will ramp-up as Russia presses deeper into Ukraine. Trump and Israel already got the ball rolling with Iran. But there is no question that war will restart over there in short order. This latest “cease fire” is just a short break before it ignites again; especially now that Israel is moving to fully occupy Gaza, which will most likely require U.S. boots on the ground to pull-off that operation - an operation that is going to take a lot of time, money and lives. As for China, the propaganda is so obvious (to those not listening to the neocons and legacy media and controlled-op podcasts) that China is not a threat to us at all, nor does it have an imperialist history as implied by the neocons and warmongers. This trade war is only the beginning. We know that the seeds have been planted for a staged war in Taiwan for which the U.S. - though taciturn and two-faced in its messaging, from the Biden and Trump administrations - will pretend to stand for Taiwan and send them weapons when China gets the nod from its handlers to occupy Taiwan. If Palantir CEO Karp is saying we’re going to have a three-pronged war with Russia, China and Iran, we ought to believe him: they are one of the groups supplying the technology after all. Mark 13:7 And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. [8] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. (Source: The WinePress News | Substack - U.S.)

Aug. 8, 2025  President Trump has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

08.08.2025  US border saw 3 consecutive months of zero illegal crossings, says homeland security secretary Noem. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Thursday 07 August 2025  The country-specific round enforced today, together with the president's earlier tariffs on specific sectors such as automobiles and steel, will increase prices 1.8% in the short term, the Budget Lab at Yale estimated. That’s the equivalent of a $2,400 loss of income per U.S. household, according to the non-partisan policy research center. Americans face an average tax of 18.6% for imported products, the highest rate since 1933. Trump last week signed an order to suspend the “de minimis" exemption that has allowed shipments valued at $800 or less to enter the U.S. duty-free. It is now set to be eliminated for low-value packages from every country on Aug. 29. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

06/08/2025  President Trump today signed an executive order imposing an additional 25 percent tariff on goods from India, raising total US tariffs on the country to 50 percent, effective in 21 days. It is aimed at pressuring both India and Russia 'as part of US efforts to end the war in Ukraine'. (Source: France 24 "with AP" - U.S.)

6 August 2025  'I have received additional information from various senior officials on, among other things, the actions of the Government of the Russian Federation with respect to the situation in Ukraine,’ states the order announced on Wednesday, Trump said. 'After considering this additional information, among other things, I find that the national emergency described in Executive Order 14066 continues and that the actions and policies of the Government of the Russian Federation continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.' It comes as further details emerged following "constructive" talks between Putin and Witkoff in Moscow, with Trump taking to his social media platform Truth Social to declare the talks 'highly productive'. 'Great progress was made! Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies,' Trump continued. ( Source: LBC - United Kingdom)

. 5 8 13 02:44

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Europe

The Netherlands
30/Jan/2025  Multiple variants of tick-borne encephalitis virus  in voles, mice and ticks, the Netherlands, 2021 to 2023 (Source: Eurosurveillance - published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, headquartered in Solna, Sweden)

North Macedonia
30/Jan/2025  One health investigation following a cluster of Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever, North Macedonia, July to November 2023 (Source: Eurosurveillance - published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, headquartered in Solna, Sweden)

Spain
06/Feb/2025  Effectiveness of catch-up and at-birth nirsevimab immunisation against RSV hospital admission in the first year of life: a population-based case–control study, Spain, 2023/24 season (Source: Eurosurveillance - published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, headquartered in Solna, Sweden)

Ukraine
25/02/2025 - 10:11 GMT+1  US funding freeze could mean HIV treatment delays for thousands in Ukraine (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

United Kingdom
07.02.2025  UK hospitals report busiest week this winter as norovirus cases continue to rise. There were an average of 98,101 patients in hospital each day (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

14:59, 27 Jan 2025  Rare human case of bird flu detected in UK as public issued urgent reminder. The case sparks concerns about a potential bird flu pandemic if human-to-human transmission occurs (Source: Manchester Evening News - United Kingdom)

Europe
11:16 BST, 18 February 2025  Measles cases surging at Europe's ski resorts: Holidaymakers warned after outbreaks of viral infection hits several countries (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)

2/18/2025  How COVID pushed a generation of young people to the right (Source: MSN / The Atlantic = U.S.)

Africa

Democratic Republic of Congo
Tue 25 Feb (2025)  Mysterious illness kills more than 50 people in Democratic Republic of Congo (Source: ABC News - Australia)

Nigeria
13 February 2025  Lassa Fever claims 12 lives in Ondo /Source: allAfrica - offices in Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington, D.C. / Daily Trust (Abuja - Nigeria)/

Uganda
4 February 2025  Uganda begins Ebola vaccine trial after new outbreak (Source: BBC – United Kingdom)

Sun, 02 Feb, 2025  Ebola vaccine trial to begin in Uganda after new outbreak kills nurse (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland / The Associated Press - U.S.)

South Africa
17 February 2025  Hand, foot and mouth disease cases more than tripled in days (Source: Times Live - South Africa)

Asia

China
26 February 2025 Wuhan Covid lab planning ‘ominous’ new bat experiments (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)

Singapore
Feb 10, 2025 Singapore’s imported polio case (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore)

Carribean

Haiti
February 6, 2025  Treatment for HIV, AIDS in Haiti hit by U.S. foreign aid halt despite waivers from Rubio (Source: Miami Herald - U.S.)

North America

United States
Feb. 28, 2025  Dozens of dead birds found on Long Island beach believed to have died from avian flu (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

February 27, 2025  Trump administration weighs pulling funding for Moderna bird flu vaccine, Bloomberg News reports (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

February 27, 2025  A Texas child who was not vaccinated has died of measles, a first for the US in a decade (Source: AP - U.S.)

26 February 2025  Yale scientists link Covid vaccines to alarming new syndrome causing 'distinct biological changes' to body (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)

February 26, 2025  Measles cases continue to rise in rural parts of West Texas, with 124 confirmed (Source: AP - U.S.)

February 25, 2025  Fears of US public health crises grow amid falling vaccination rates (Source: MedicalXpress - Isle of Man, United Kingdom)

23 February 2025  US measles outbreak leaves nearly 100 ill in Texas and New Mexico (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Sat 22 Feb 2025  Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding (Source: The Guardian - United Kingdom)

2/19/2025  More eggs are being confiscated at the U.S.-Mexico border amid the bird flu outbreak (Source: MSN / LA Times = U.S.)

Feb. 19, 2025  USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is now trying to rehire them, an Agriculture Department spokesperson told  (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

2/18/2025  U.S. reverses plan to shut down free covid test program (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

Feb. 18, 2025  In rural West Texas, a measles outbreak grows with no end in sight. At least 58 cases have been confirmed. Health officials - who are scrambling to get a handle on the vaccine-preventable outbreak - suspect 200 to 300 people may be infected. (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

Feb 18, 2025  Montana seeks to ban mRNA shots as vaccine hesitancy soars (Source: Semafor - website, U.S.)

Feb 17, 2025  Trump's aid freeze could cause millions more AIDS deaths: U.N. agency (Source: Japan Times)

February 14, 2025  Louisiana health department says it will stop promoting mass vaccination. Here's what that could mean. The announcement came on the heels of RFK Jr.'s confirmation to lead HHS. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

Fri February 14, 2025  West Texas measles outbreak doubles to 48 cases (Source: CNN - U.S.)

February 11, 2025  Trump's NIH pick co-founded new journal by researchers who challenged the U.S. response to COVID-19. Bhattacharya and Kulldorff, PhD, have founded the Journal of the Academy of Public Health, which will be open-access, will have open peer review, will pay reviewers for their work, and will remove "article gatekeeping' to allow scientists to "publish all their research results in a timely and efficient manner." (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

2/11/2025  What happens when bird flu gets worse? (Source: MSN / The Atlantic = U.S.)

February 10, 2025  2nd strain of bird flu infects cows for the 1st time: USDA. The same strain is linked to the bird flu patient who died in Louisiana. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

10/02/2025  People are going to die': HIV infections could surge if US support is dropped, UNAIDS chief says. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

February 7, 2025  Bird flu is infecting more people than we think. We need to stop it now before a new pandemic begins. The U.S. is not ready for bird flu in humans. (Source: The Scientific American - U.S.)

Wed, Feb 5, 2025  Bird flu: Panic as newer, deadly strain emerges - humans at risk of more severe illness (Source: The Express -  United Kingdom)

5 February 2025  Experts who predicted Covid years in advance reveal how new virus in Alabama could trigger pandemic (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)

2/3/2025  Bird flu crisis enters new phase (Source: MSN / Axios = U.S.)

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Europe

Scandinavia
10/07/2025 - 18:05  Two small spaceports - one in Sweden and the other in Norway - are vying to become the first on the continent’s mainland to launch satellites into space. Both are in the Arctic circle. /Video/ (Source: France24)

European Commission
(10 July 2025)  Der Leyen survives rare confidence vote in the European Parliament. 175 voted in favour; 360 voted against and 18 abstained. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

United Kingdom
10 July 2025  Northwood Declaration - UK-France joint nuclear statement on Nuclear Policy and Cooperation: 'The President of the French Republic and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom reaffirm their longstanding and resolute commitment to nuclear cooperation. There is no greater demonstration of the strength and importance of our bilateral relationship than our willingness to work together in this most sensitive area. In this regard, we commend the important achievements since 2010. Our nuclear weapons exist to deter the most extreme threats to the security of our nations and our vital interests. Our nuclear forces are independent, but can be coordinated and contribute significantly to the overall security of the Alliance, and to the peace and stability of the Euro Atlantic area. As we have explicitly stated since 1995, we do not see situations arising in which the vital interests of either France or the United Kingdom could be threatened without the vital interest of the other also being threatened. France and the United Kingdom agree that there is no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by our two nations. France and the United Kingdom have therefore decided to deepen their nuclear cooperation and coordination. A UK-France Nuclear Steering Group will be established to provide political direction for this work. It will be led by the Presidency of the French Republic and the Cabinet Office and will coordinate across nuclear policy, capabilities and operations. The United Kingdom and France reaffirm their full support for the Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and for our obligations under the treaty. We will coordinate ever more closely to uphold and reinforce the international non-proliferation architecture.' (Source: GOV:UK - United Kingdom)

10/07/2025 - 21:54  French President Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer today announced a new defence relationship that will coordinate their countries' nuclear ’deterrence’ systems. The Northward declaration deal aims ’to jointly protect Europe’. ’From today, our adversaries will know that any extreme threat to this continent would prompt a response from our two nations’, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a news conference alongside Macron. Macron said the two countries had created an oversight committee to coordinate their cooperation. The closer cooperation ’had nothing to do with their efforts to create a coalition of the willing to support Ukraine’ in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, he added. Macron has previously said he will launch a strategic dialogue on extending the protection offered by France's nuclear arsenal to its European partners. ’Europe's primary nuclear deterrence comes from the United States’. The US has nuclear arms in Europe and tens of thousands of troops deployed in bases across the continent with military capabilities. France spends about €5.6 billion ($6.04 billion) annually on maintaining its stockpile of 290 submarine- and air-launched nuclear weapons, the world's fourth largest. Britain describes its nuclear programme as operationally independent, but sources missile technology from the US and depends on the US for acquisition and maintenance support. (Source: France 24 „with Reuters’ - United Kingdom)

10/07/2025 - 15:45  During his state visit to the UK, French President Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer are pledging renewed support for Ukraine through the 'coalition of the willing,' aiming to boost military aid outside NATO frameworks. (Source: France24)

Ukraine
(July 10, 2025)  Russia attacked Ukraine with 728 drones and 13 cruise or ballistic missiles in multiple waves on Tuesday night, marking the biggest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine yet. Lutsk, which is home to airfields used by the Ukrainian army, was the hardest hit. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took aim at Ukrainian air bases and that 'all the designated targets have been hit.' Ten other regions were targeted. (Source: Outlook - India)

Asia

Gaza
10.07.25, 08:18 AM  Israeli airstrikes killed at least 40 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including 10 members of a family sheltering in a tent, Nasser Hospital officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis said yesterday. The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza over the past day, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and tunnels. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding weapons and fighters among civilians. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

Iran
20:54 ET, Jul 10 2025  Israel says some of Iran's highly-enriched near weapons-grade uranium stockpile survived US bombings during the 12-Day War last month. Doubts remained about whether Iran quietly removed 408.6 kgs of uranium from its most sensitive sites before the strikes - potentially hiding nuclear material elsewhere in the country. The uranium in question is enriched to 60 per cent - way above levels for civilian usage but slightly below weapons-grade. That material, if further refined to 90 per cent, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs. Tehran admitted that Operation Midnight Hammer - which saw American B-2 Spirit bombers drop more than a dozen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker buster bombs - did cause ’excessive and serious’ damage. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Grossi admitted Iran could still have stockpiles of enriched uranium, saying: 'We don't know where this material could be'. Satellite imagery showed trucks moving out of Fordow in the days leading up to the attack - leading to speculations that Iran moved some of its underground uranium stockpile. However, President Trump dismissed such speculation, saying: "Nothing was taken out... too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!" He added that satellite images showed trucks at the site only because Iranian crews were attempting to shield the facility with concrete. Trump claimed that the strikes had obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities and 'completely destroyed' the Fordow enrichment plant. In an interview with Fox News, the US president said the Fordow enrichment site was just thousands of tons of rock and that ’the whole place was just destroyed.’ He said the strikes had landed at ’the perfect time’. He added: ’We went in, we destroyed their nuclear capability and we stopped. It was a beautiful thing and they couldn't have gone on much further.’ The president also slammed leaked preliminary findings from the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency that said the damage was not severe enough to destroy its nuclear programme. But Trump made it clear he would absolutely consider bombing Iran again if it was ever needed, without question, if US intelligence pointed towards Iran enriching uranium to concerning levels. US and Israel, as well as independent experts, agree that all of Iran’s working centrifuges at Natanz and Fordo - some 18,000 - were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Mr Grossi said Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium in a matter of months, despite the damage. Latest satellite imagery appears to show construction work at the Fordow Nuclear Enrichment facility in Qom, located some 60 miles southwest of Tehran. Buried under a mountain and protected by anti-aircraft batteries, Fordow enrichment facility appears designed to withstand airstrikes. It hosts centrifuge cascades. Military experts have said it could likely only be targeted by bunker buster bombs, such as the latest, roughly 30,000-pound precision-guided GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, in the American arsenal. The US has only configured and programmed its B-2 Spirit stealth bomber to deliver that bomb, according to the Air Force. Iran's nuclear facility at Natanz, located some 135 miles southeast of Tehran, is the country's main enrichment site up to 60% purity. Israel destroyed the aboveground part of the facility, according to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Another part of the facility on Iran's Central Plateau is underground to defend against potential airstrikes. It operates multiple cascades, or groups of centrifuges working together to more quickly enrich uranium. The IAEA has said it believes that most, if not all, of these centrifuges were destroyed by an Israeli strike that cut off power to the site. The IAEA said those strikes caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area. Iran also is burrowing into the Kh-e Kolang Gaz L, or Pickax Mountain, which is just beyond Natanzs southern fencing. Two separate attacks, attributed to Israel, also have struck the facility. The facility in Isfahan, some 215 miles southeast of Tehran, employs thousands of nuclear scientists. It is also home to three Chinese research reactors and laboratories associated with the country's atomic program. Israel has struck buildings at the Isfahan nuclear site, among them a uranium conversion facility. The IAEA said there has been no sign of increased radiation at the site. Iran has several other sites in its nuclear program that were not announced as targets in the US strikes. Iran's only commercial nuclear power plant is in Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, some 465 miles south of Tehran. Iran is building two other reactors like it at the site. Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the IAEA. The Arak heavy water reactor is 155 miles southwest of Tehran. It produces plutonium as a byproduct that can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. Parchin military site, south of Tehran, is focused on research and the production of ammo, rockets and explosives. Concerns have been raised that it is also used as part of Iran's nuclear weapon development. Qom uranium enrichment plant is heavily fortified – an initially secret facility where Iran carries out uranium enrichment. The Tehran Research Reactor is at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the civilian body overseeing the countrys atomic program. The 12-Day War began on June 13 when Israel launched Operation Rising Lion. The Israelis also orchestrated Operation Red Wedding - 30 top Iranian military chiefs killed in near-simultaneous blitz. Iran retaliated by launching daily salvos of ballistic missiles across Israel. Less than a fortnight later, Trump joined the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. The US military's flagship B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped more than a dozen 30,000lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). The bunker-buster bombs were used to hit Iran's Fordow Nuclear Enrichment Plant. Iran sought its revenge by launching missiles at Al-Udeid Air Base - America's biggest military station in the region. But Tehran seemingly cooked up a fake attack after passing warnings to its Qatari allies, which allowed all US service personnel and aircraft to be moved out of harm’s way. Trump dubbed the expected response weak before announcing that a ceasefire deal had been reached between the Israelis and Iranians. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

July 10, 2025 3:36 p.m. ET  Experts are trying to determine how long it would take Iran to rebuild its nuclear program. Israeli intelligence picked up the nuclear weapons activity soon after the Israeli Air Force killed Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon. That observation prompted the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to prepare for an attack with or without U.S. help. The Israeli official said the evidence gathered about the secret program - which the official did not describe in any detail - had been fully shared with the United States. But in interviews in January, American officials said they did not believe Iran was yet racing for a weapon, even though they described a nascent effort to explore 'faster, cruder' approaches to building one. And the director of national intelligence, Gabbard, told Congress in testimony in March that she saw no evidence the Iranians had decided to build a weapon, a position intelligence officials reiterated in June. In the days surrounding Israel’s attack on Iran in mid-June, and President Trump’s subsequent decision to join in the action, U.S. intelligence officials said they had seen no evidence of a move by Iran to weaponize its stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium. The United States struck two of Iran’s most critical enrichment sites with 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs and aimed a barrage of submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles at a third site, where the fuel could be converted for use in weapons. Speaking at the NATO summit at The Hague two weeks ago, Mr. Trump said the U.S. strikes “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come,” ’and suggested he would be willing to strike again if needed. This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material, which it won’t,’ he told reporters. Since then, Iran has expelled the I.A.E.A. inspectors who were in Tehran during the Israeli and American attacks, and has turned off some of the agency’s remaining cameras and other monitoring devices, cutting off the best window into Iranian activity that the West had. Israel and the United States could be entering a new era of hide-and-seek. Iran seems unlikely to try to rebuild its nuclear sites at Fordo or Natanz. Even Fordo, built deep inside a mountain, was far more vulnerable than its Iranian designers had believed. (One key vulnerability was the existence of ventilation shafts that went deep into the plant; the American attack included strikes that sent the 30,000-pound bombs into those shafts, enabling them to plunge closer to the control rooms and enrichment halls than if they had to blast through the rock.) The vast majority of the effort to get to highly enriched uranium is at the initial stages. Any effort to dig the fuel out from the rubble of Isfahan may be hard to hide from satellite surveillance. Mr. Trump has stuck to his insistence that the Iranian program was ’obliterated,’ and that Iran’s leaders were no longer interested in nuclear weapons after being struck by American warplanes. Defense Secretary Hegseth has said the bombing left the fuel and equipment at the most protected site, Fordo, ’buried under a mountain, devastated and obliterated.’ The administration kept to that line today. “As President Trump has said many times, Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities,’ said Kelly, a White House spokeswoman. ’The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership.” The Israeli official said that Israel has concluded that some of Iran’s underground stockpile of near-bomb-grade enriched uranium survived American and Israeli attacks last month and may be accessible to Iranian nuclear engineers. In a briefing for reporters on yesterday evening, the senior Israeli official did not express concern about the assessment that some of the stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium, stored in casks, had survived the attack. The official, and other Israelis with access to the country’s intelligence findings, said any attempts by Iran to recover it would almost certainly be detected - and there would be time to attack the facilities again. Western intelligence officials confirmed the Israeli assessment, saying that they believed much of the stockpile was buried under rubble in Iran’s nuclear laboratory at Isfahan and potentially other sites. One of the officials concurred that the United States or Israel would know if the Iranians tried to retrieve the enriched uranium. Such a move, the official said, would surely invite a renewed Israeli bombing attack. Israel, the United States and now a growing number of outside experts agree that all of Iran’s working centrifuges at Natanz and Fordo - about 18,000 machines, which spin at supersonic speeds - were damaged or destroyed, probably beyond repair. The question they are now examining is how long it would take the Iranians to rebuild some or all of that capability, especially after the top scientists in their nuclear program were targeted and killed. On one point - whether Iran moved a large part of its stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium just before the American strike in the early morning of June 22 in Tehran - the Israeli assessment differs from the conclusion of Grossi, the secretary general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Mr. Grossi has said he believes that much of the stockpile that was stored at Isfahan was transferred from the site before Israeli and American weapons struck. The senior Israeli official contends that nothing was moved. The storage site at Isfahan, the official said, was too deep for even the most powerful American weapons to destroy. But the U.S. attack on Isfahan did close off many entrances, and appears to have wiped out laboratories that convert enriched uranium into a form that could be used in a weapon, and that would then fashion it into a metal that could be shaped into a missile warhead. The Israeli official said he believed some additional stockpiles are still at Fordo and Natanz, the two major enrichment sites where the fuel is produced. Both were struck by the bunker-busting bombs, and Israel has assessed that recovering those supplies would be too difficult. What remains unknown, American and British officials say, is how fast Iran could reproduce the facilities it has lost, and whether it could do so covertly to avoid another strike. It is not clear how many new centrifuges Iran had under construction in workshops around the country, or when they would be ready to be installed. ’In the years leading up to the attacks, Iran was digging two deep-underground nuclear facilities, one near the Isfahan laboratories and another in Natanz. Neither was a target of the Israeli and U.S. strikes’. But turning them into replacements for the two bombed enrichment facilities would be a major task, and it would require replacing more than 18,000 centrifuges believed destroyed or disabled in the attacks. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)
by Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent, He has reported on the Iranian nuclear program for more than two decades.

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Europe

Hungary
July 24, 2025  Budapest mayor is probed for organizing city’s banned Pride event. Hungarian state police will question mayor Karácsony, who has been asked to appear for questioning as a suspect sometime next week. Karácsony 'freed' organizers from the need to obtain police permission, organizing the event as ​​a municipal undertaking. Karácsony previously told Hungarian media that he alone bears legal responsibility for organizing the event and that he will be happy to defend himself in court. The government passed legislation in March prohibiting public assemblies that promote or display the LGBTQ+ community, under the pretext of protecting children, and refused to issue police permits that would allow the June 28 Budapest Pride event to go ahead. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

July 24, 2025  The Hungarian government has banned the Irish rap group Kneecap from entering the country, citing 'antisemitic hate speech and open praise for Hamas and Hezbollah.' 'Granting them a stage normalizes hate and terror, and puts democratic values on the line,' a government spokesperson said today. Kneecap’s members are staunch critics of Israel, accusing it of committing war crimes in Gaza - but they have also been criticized for allegedly supporting the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups, which they deny. The band was set to perform at the major Sziget Festival in Budapest on Aug. 11. The Israeli ambassador to Budapest applauded the travel ban. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

European Commission
24/07/2025  Der Leyen warned today that China's ties with Russia were now the 'determining' factor in its relations with the European Union, as she wrapped up 'a tense summit' in Beijing. /Video/ (Source: France 24)

Russia
24.07.2025  Can nuclear weapons help avert a Russia-NATO war? The Ukraine conflict may well pave the way for a larger scale Russia-NATO confrontation. In the event of direct military confrontation, Russia would most likely initially deploy conventional weapons against any adversary. NATO should be under no illusion of achieving facile victory in conventional warfare. The Russian armed forces possess substantial combat experience, including extensive defensive operations. Nevertheless, Russia would confront a formidable adversary. While hard to fathom and with everything suggesting that the scenario remains quite unlikely, it relies on nuclear deterrence as its main pillar. The perception of nuclear weapons as a deterrent has firmly taken root in international relations. In fact, the use of nuclear weapons has evolved into a political and moral taboo, even if military planners and researchers have been exploring and modelling various scenarios involving their use. It is still commonplace to believe that using nuclear weapons is unacceptable and that the odds of a nuclear power facing an aggression are quite low. While nuclear weapons remain the bedrock of deterrence, their employment taboo and ability to avert aggression are again in question. This question is becoming increasingly urgent for Russia considering the prospects of a possible major military confrontation with NATO or its members, or in the context of the Ukraine conflict. In terms of their manufacturing, financial capabilities and resources, NATO countries may well get ahead of Russia at a certain point by making more conventional weapons. This, in turn, would enable them to exert more political pressure based on their military might. There are several varying scenarios for a possible Russia-NATO military confrontation. For example, certain NATO countries may intervene in the Ukraine conflict. There is also a scenario involving a military and political crisis in the Baltics or in other regions. Any developments along these lines risk escalating into a major conflict. Ukraine has been routinely targeting Russian territory with drones and cruise missiles, while also undertaking attempts to invade its territory. Military personnel from certain NATO countries may be joining these operations as formal units and formations rather than by pretending to be off-duty fighters, volunteers or mercenaries. Could such developments be prevented through nuclear deterrence? Superficially, the answer appears affirmative. The Ukraine conflict has demonstrated that missile strikes, aviation assets, artillery systems and similar capabilities - while inflicting damage - fail to critically undermine enemy resilience. NATO possesses damage mitigation capabilities identical to those of Ukraine, merely on an exponentially greater scale. Unlike Ukraine, ’Western countries currently demonstrate reduced psychological tolerance for human casualties’. That said, concerted political mobilisation and strategic propaganda could recalibrate societal sensitivity to losses and acceptance of wartime sacrifices. The fostering NATO's illusion of impunity – the conviction that Russia would refrain from nuclear weapons use due to fears of inevitable retaliation. - renders gradual conventional escalation feasible, potentially expanding from Ukrainian war theatre to a broader regional conflict, necessitating the abandonment of Cold War-era deterrence frameworks. Two alternatives exist regarding Russia's potential employment of nuclear weapons in direct conflict with NATO: preemptive tactical strikes against enemy troop concentrations and critical infrastructure; or comparable strikes following conventional escalation. The former scenario proves politically less sustainable, risking Russia's designation as aggressor and consequent international isolation. The latter, while slightly reducing political costs, still permits accusations that Moscow violated the nuclear taboo first. Both scenarios preserve NATO's capacity to deliver nuclear or conventional counterstrikes. Any Russian nuclear deployment risks devastating retaliation, presenting Moscow with an existential dilemma: persist with conventional operations despite potential defeat; continue tactical nuclear exchanges; or eliminate the adversary by employing strategic nuclear weapons, something that guarantees annihilation by a retaliatory strike. Nuclear warfare admits no victors - only in scenarios where one party demonstrates critical weakness. Any strategic calculus predicated upon an adversary's potential collapse risks catastrophic miscalculation for both sides. The inevitable losers in either nuclear or conventional escalation scenarios include: a) Ukraine as primary battleground; b) Russia facing sustained missile and other types of strikes and potential offensives; c) European NATO members, particularly on the eastern and north-eastern flanks who will be subjected to Russian counterstrikes and, under favourable to Russia conditions, to possible advances of its armed forces. The United States will remain relatively insulated except in scenarios involving the use of strategic nuclear weapons. Though, for Washington, no guarantees exist regarding controllable escalation from conventional to tactical and later strategic nuclear strikes. Yet historical precedent demonstrates that quite often prospective losses did not prevent major catastrophies and conflicts. The possibility of a return to extreme-era dynamics cannot be dismissed. So, the Americans may also be among the losers. (Source: Valdai Club - Russia)
by Timofeev, Valdai Club Programme Director 

Ukraine
July 24, 2025 4:14 AM ET  After protests, Zelenskyy says he'll restore the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies. /Audio/ (Source: NPR - U.S.)

24 July 2025, 09:03  A Ukrainian drone 'spectacularly drops a  homemade incendiary device - thermite munition  - on a shelter of Russian soldiers in a house' in the Donetsk region. The improvised bomb consists of an aircraft flare surrounded by four bottles of gasoline, creating a ’highly effective’ incendiary weapon that ignited intense flames upon impact. 'Such low-cost, easily assembled devices have evolved from Ukraine’s earlier thermite-dispensing drone strikes into more advanced' incendiary tactics. /Video/ (Source: Leading Britain's Conversation (LBC) - United Kingdom)

July 24, 2025 4:01 AM CET  There’s an insidious enemy and corrosive adversary from within - the country’s own semi-autocratic leadership. Ukraine’s presidential administration has been grabbing more power, weakening other governing and regional institutions - including the country’s parliament - while also intimidating critics in a bid to silence them with hue-and-cry campaigns or by labeling them as Russian stooges. Zelenskyy approved a new law, No. 12414, after it was rushed through the Verkhovna Rada with almost unprecedented haste, which will hand substantial authority to the politically appointed prosecutor general, gutting two key anti-corruption agencies which had been zeroing in on top government officials. According to local media, 18 of the lawmakers who voted in favor of the new law are suspects in NABU probes. The law grants the prosecutor general’s office the power to issue orders to these agencies and reassign cases to their own prosecutor, in effect dismantling the safeguards that protect those bodies from undue political meddling. A National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) land-grab probe into former Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshov is something that would have terrified insiders. The new narrative is simple: You’re either with Zelenskyy or you’re a Russian agent. The presidential administration had started going after anti-corruption activists like Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center NGO. Shabunin warned on social media: ’Zelensky’s prosecutor general will stop investigations against all the president’s friends.’ Opposition lawmaker Knyazhitskiy also agrees. “NABU has been close to bringing charges against several extremely influential people, and the authorities needed to protect themselves urgently,’ he told. He also suspects Zelenskyy and Yermak felt they could curtail the independence of the agencies and escape punishment. ’In effect, the anti-corruption infrastructure was dismantled by the votes of 263 members of parliament, NABU chief Kryvonos said at a joint press briefing with chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Klymenko. “The two independent institutions, NABU and SAP, are effectively being made fully dependent.’ In Kyiv, hundreds of protesters gathered near the presidential complex. The move prompted the first country-wide street protests since 2022 - crowds of veterans, active-duty soldiers and civilians gathered in dozens of other towns, including Lviv and the frontline cities of Odesa and Dnipro. Kyiv’s democratic backsliding has finally caught the world’s attention. According to Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and host of the “War Room” podcast, Zelenskyy knows MAGA is trying to nail him on stealing billions. ’Better to have Taylor Greene and the War Room whine about corruption than actually have an office and folks there that he does not control doing something about it,’ he told. For months, EU officials and diplomats ’have been unhappy’ with the purges and reshuffles that have seen the departure of more independent-minded ministers and officials from government, such as former head of Ukraine’s national power transmission network, Kudrytskyi. ’They were uncomfortable with the dismissal of armed forces commander General Zaluzhny - who had clashed with the president over both war strategy and the need to mobilize many more Ukrainians to fight’ - not to mention the inexplicable hold that Yermak seems to have over Zelenskyy. EU officials also expressed ’fears’ that the search for traitors and Russian collaborators mounted by authorities was turning into political witch hunts aimed at silencing critics. ’Until now, these concerns were kept private - largely to avoid undermining Western support for Ukraine’s defense.’ Posting on social media before the new law’s approval, European Commissioner for Enlargement Kos said the situation would hurt Ukraine’s accession negotiations. The ambassadors of G7 nations in Kyiv issued a joint statement expressing their serious concerns. European Commission President has demanded ’answers’ from Zelenskyy. The fierceness of the public response likely caught the EU’s attention as well. The Kyiv Independent, read closely in Brussels, headlined its sharply critical editorial: ’Zelensky just betrayed Ukraine’s democracy - and everyone fighting for it. So why are EU officials only now publicly expressing their worries about this monopolization of power? Zelenskyy and Yermak believe neither the EU nor the U.S. will show as much interest in the activities of anti-corruption bodies as they did before, since 'they will still be forced' to support Ukraine, Knyazhitskiy said. (Source: Politico - U.S., owned by a German company)
by Dettmer, opinion editor and a foreign affairs columnist

Europe
24 July 2025  The thirty-sixth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted to the Security Council Committee concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities (Detail). 'ISIL (Da’esh) continued to represent the most significant terrorist threat to these regions. The nature of this threat has evolved little since the previous assessment and is primarily driven by ISIL-K – with individuals often, although not exclusively, radicalized via social media and encrypted messaging platforms. In contrast to 2024, fallout from the Gaza and Israel conflict had less visible impact. While such events still featured prominently in terrorist propaganda, references to them were less frequent in interviews with suspects involved in either completed attacks or foiled plots. In Europe, several countries remained affected by terrorism. Austria and Germany saw a number of attacks, including some perpetrated by foreign nationals, primarily from the Syrian Arab Republic and Afghanistan. In Sweden, repeated incidents of Qur’an burnings triggered retaliatory acts by radicalized individuals associated with ISIL (Da’esh). France – through a consistent and explicit targeting of ISIL (Da’esh) – had thus far managed to curtail the threat, for example through pre-emptive security operations implemented during and after the 2024 Olympic Games. Nevertheless, the threat level remains high.. The threat throughout Europe remained largely domestic: most individuals implicated in terrorist activity were radicalized locally and motivated by ISIL-K propaganda. One Member State identified four dominant profiles within its domestic threat landscape, namely: individuals under 21, radicalized online, comprising most cases; North Caucasian radicals (although their presence has declined since 2024); convicted terrorists or inmates radicalized while incarcerated; and individuals with psychiatric or psychological disorders. As for the external threat, targeted actions against ISIL (Da ’esh) – while tactically effective – had not eliminated the group’s strategic intent. ISIL-K continued to seek remote recruitment of ideologically vulnerable individuals willing to act further afield. Additional vectors of concern include foreign terrorist fighters of European descent and their families still residing in the Iraq-Syrian Arab Republic conflict zone. Detention centres and camps in north-eastern Syrian Arab Republic remain priority targets for ISIL (Da’esh). An uncontrolled mass release from these facilities would significantly elevate the threat level. The final dimension of this external threat lies in foreign terrorist fighters and widows of ISIL (Da’esh) combatants still present in north-western Syrian Arab Republic. These individuals could attempt to return to Europe with the intent of carrying out attacks. In this context, one Member State has warned that delisting individuals or entities from international sanctions regimes could critically undermine ongoing legal proceedings against foreign terrorist fighters'. (Source: United Nations Security Council, Geneva)
Note: The report covers the period from 14 December 2024 to 22 June 2025.

Asia

China
24.07.2025  European Commission President der Leyen said the EU and China agreed today to smooth rare earth export restrictions. 'She stressed that the bloc's trade deficit with China (€306bn) has doubled in the last decade', and urged a balanced trade so it can remain mutual and beneficial. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

24.07.2025  In his opening remarks at the 25th EU-China summit that began at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi said the Chinese and European leaders should meet the expectations of the people. The Chinese leader along with Premier Li met European Commission President der Leyen and the head of the European Council Costa. Mutual respect, seeking common ground while reserving differences, open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results should be adhered to in the future development of China-EU relations, Xi said, stressing that both China and Europe are constructive forces that advocate multilateralism and open cooperation. China and Europe should strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust, and deepen cooperation, so as to provide more stability and certainty to the world. '’Faced with the accelerated evolution of the world's century-old changes and the international situation of intertwined changes and chaos, the leaders of China and the EU should once again demonstrate their foresight and responsibility and make correct strategic choices that meet the expectations of the people and stand the test of history," he said. The day-long key summit is expected to be dominated by issues ranging from trade disputes to the Russia-Ukraine war. Issues of trade imbalance, market access and rare earths are also on the agenda. Der Leyen, for her part, called the summit an opportunity to "both advance and rebalance our relationship," the two sides’ annual trade being more than $860 billion. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Gaza
July 24, 20254:18 AM ET  Even the sea is off-limits, Israel bans beach access in Gaza, warning it could cost lives. Once a rare refuge in war-torn Gaza, the beach offered relief and a glimpse of freedom. (Audio) (Source: NPR - U.S.)

India
(24 July 2025)  India has resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a five-year gap as the two countries continue to explore ways to mend their strained relationship. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Turkey
July 24, 2025 4:17 AM ET  Russia and Ukraine held a third round of peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey yesterday. The two sides failed to make any significant progress towards a ceasefire agreement. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

(24 July 2025) 06:30  Brief talks between Russia and Ukraine ended after just an hour. (Source: The Irish Independent - Ireland)

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