Egyik 19

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Europe

France
Sunday), March 16, 2025  French President Macron wants to lead a charm offensive to convince EU countries to stop buying U.S. defense equipment and buy French and European instead. ’Those who buy Patriot should be offered the new-generation Franco-Italian SAMP/T. Those who buy the F-35, should be offered the Rafale. That's the way to increase the rate of production, he said. yesterday in an interview with several French media. Macron's comments come as European NATO members ’have become even more dependent on U.S. weapons’. This month, the Netherlands and Belgium confirmed they would still buy American-made F-35 fighter jets. Portugal is wobbling about replacing its U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets with more modern F-35s because of the recent position of the United States, in the context of NATO. The French president also clarified what a possible deployment of European troops 'to help' Ukraine could look like. The goal is to ’deploy a few thousand men per nation’, at key points, ’to carry out training programs’ and ’show our support over the long term,’ he said. (Source: Politico - Headquarters U.S., owned by a German company)

Germany
17.03.2025  The German Foreign Ministry announced ahead of the 9th international conference in support of Syria, hosted by the EU, that Berlin will allocate €300 million ($326 million) for social and reconstruction projects in Syria and humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. The ministry emphasized that all measures will be implemented solely through UN aid agencies and non-governmental organizations. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Commission
17/03/2025  On Wednesday, 19 March, the European Commission presents ’its White Paper on the Future of European Defence, along with a closely linked communication on the Savings and Investments Union’. ’The defence paper will outline ways to boost production and readiness, while the investment plan is indispensable to der Leyen's Rearm Europe initiative’. 'We need to ensure that the billions of savings from Europeans' are invested in markets inside the EU, the Commission president wrote to member states earlier this month. European households save €1.4 trillion annually compared to €800 billion in the US - yet €300 billion of those European savings flow into non-EU markets each year. ’The Savings and Investments Union aims to improve the channelling of these savings into productive investments, unlocking the full potential of the bloc's capital markets’. ’According to a draft, the plan targets areas such as encouraging retail investor participation, growing the supplementary pension sector, promoting equity and venture capital investment, and enhancing market integration across the EU’. ’As for defence, the white paper will urge member states to spend more’, spend better, and spend European. 'The latest draft outlines five strategic priorities: securing critical industrial inputs and reducing dependencies, promoting defence skills and expertise, strengthening industrial capacities across the EU, cutting red tape, and removing barriers to the circulation of defence products. Then on Thursday, 20 March - and likely Friday - EU leaders will gather in Brussels to hash out these proposals, set priorities for the next long-term budget (2028-34), and tackle competitiveness, which tops the agenda. ’Defence continues to dominate discussion across the bloc and within its various institutions’. The proposal for a ’Rearm Europe plan’, presented by President der Leyen, raised concerns among MEPs who feel sidelined by the executive’s plans. ’Weber, the German leader of the EPP, criticised Commission der Leyen for bypassing the European Parliament in shaping the defence initiative, arguing that excluding MEPs undermines democratic accountability”. 'The new financial instrument, worth €150 billion in loans, was presented directly to the Council, with the justification that the ’emergency situation’ warrants proceeding without consulting Parliament'. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

European Parliament
17 March 2025  'Renew Europe' calls upon the European Union 'to take immediate action to support Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and similar organisations'. 'This support could involve direct funding, facilitating partnerships, or integrating these entities into existing EU frameworks dedicated to promoting media pluralism and freedom'. (Source: Renew Europe Group)

Russia
(17 March 2025)  By March of this year retreat from Kursk in full swing. Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Russia's Kursk region have described scenes "like a horror movie" as they retreated from the front lines. They recount a "catastrophic" withdrawal in the face of heavy fire, columns of military equipment destroyed and constant attacks from swarms of Russian drones as Ukraine lost Sudzha, the largest town it held. On 9 March in Sudzha was "panic and collapse of the front". Ukrainian troops were trying to leave - columns of troops and equipment. Some of them are burned by Russian drones on the road. It is impossible to leave during the day. Movement of men, logistics and equipment had been reliant on one major route between Sudzha and Ukraine's Sumy region. By 9 March it was all under the fire control. Before Russia retook Sudzha, Ukrainian forces were being pressed from three sides. By 11 March, Ukrainian forces were battling to prevent the road being cut. A few days earlier, they received an order to leave the defence lines in an organised retreat. Russia had amassed a significant force to retake the town. Military experts estimate Russia had amassed a force of up to 70,000 troops to retake Kursk – including about 12,000 North Koreans. Russia had also sent its best drone units to the front. It was using kamikaze and first-person-view (FPV) variants to take fire control of the main logistics routes. They included drones linked to operators by fibre-optic wires - which are impossible to jam with electronic counter-measures. They managed to destroy dozens of units of equipment, and twrecks had created congestion on supply routes. On 11 March Russia had an advantage with more accurate air strikes and a greater number of troops. Western officials estimate that Ukraine's Kursk offensive involved about 12,000 troops. Their ogistics no longer work – organised deliveries of weapons, ammunition, food and water are no longer possible. They were some of their best-trained soldiers, equipped with Western-supplied weapons including tanks and armoured vehicles. Russian bloggers published videos showing some of that equipment being destroyed or captured. On 13 March, Russia said the situation in Kursk was "fully under our control" and that Ukraine had "abandoned" much of its material. "The roads are littered with hundreds of destroyed cars, armoured vehicles and ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles). There are a lot of wounded and dead. Vehicles were often hunted by multiple drones. Many Ukrainians retreated on foot, walking 15km to 20km. 14 March. „Everything is finished in the Kursk region... the operation was not successful." Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers had died since the first crossing into Russia in August. Last week, Zelensky said he believed the Kursk operation had ’accomplished its task’ by forcing Russia to pull troops from the east and relieve pressure on Pokrovsk. But it is not yet clear at what cost. Any 'hopes' that Ukraine would be able to trade Kursk territory for some of its own have significantly diminished. Ukraine's top general, Syrskyi, insists that Ukrainian forces have pulled back to ’more favourable positions’, remain in Kursk, and would do so ’for as long as it is expedient and necessary’. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

March 17, 2025  Russia seeks Nato exclusion in Ukraine's peace treaty. In a broad-ranging interview with the Russian media outlet Izvestia that made no reference to the ceasefire proposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Grushko said that any long-lasting peace treaty on Ukraine must meet Moscow's demands. "We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement," Izvestia cited Grushko as saying. "Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of Nato countries to accept it into the alliance." Moscow is categorically against the deployment of Nato observers to Ukraine, Grushko also reiterated the Kremlin's position. "It does not matter under what label Nato contingents were to be deployed on Ukrainian territory: be it the European Union, Nato, or in a national capacity," Grushko said. "If they appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict." Grushko said that a deployment of unarmed post-conflict observers can be discussed only once a peace agreement is worked out. Grushko said that European allies of Kyiv should understand that only the exclusion of Ukraine's membership in Nato and the elimination of the possibility of deploying foreign military contingents on its territory will work for the region. "Then the security of Ukraine and the entire region in a broader sense will be ensured, since one of the root causes of the conflict will be eliminated," Grushko said. Britain and France both have said that they were willing to send a peacekeeping force to monitor any ceasefire in Ukraine. Australian Prime Minister Albanese said his country was also open to requests. French President Macron said in remarks published yesterday that the stationing of peacekeeping troops in Ukraine is a question for Kyiv to decide and not Moscow. US President Trump is trying to win President Putin's support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week and which Putin says needs to meet crucial conditions to be acceptable. Trump is expected to speak with Putin this week on ways to end the three-year war in Ukraine, US envoy Witkoff told yesterday after returning from what he described as a "positive" meeting with Putin in Moscow. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore)

Asia

Syria
Monday 17 March 2025  Hundreds of Syrian civilians killed in attacks. /Video/ (Source: Sky News - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
Mar 17 2025  President Trump said the U.S. would hold Iran responsible for any future attacks by the Houthis who have launched repeated attacks on shipping passing through the Red Sea and on Israel. The militant group is allied with the Islamic Republic and Hamas. U.S. crude oil futures rose 0.6%, to $67.58 per barrel. Global benchmark Brent traded higher by 0.62%, at $71.02 per barrel. Trump has reimposed a maximum pressure campaign against Iran 'with the goal of driving down the Islamic Republic’s oil exports'. Treasury Secretary Bessent recently said 'the Trump administration’s goal is to collapse Iran’s economy'. The White House believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, an allegation the Islamic Republic denies. Trump’s national security advisor, Waltz, said yesterday that all options are on the table to ensure Iran does not acquire a nuclear bomb. “We cannot have a situation that would result in an arms race across the Middle East in terms of nuclear proliferation,” Waltz said. Trump has said he wants to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran. (Source: CNBC - U.S.)

(Monday), March 17, 2025  The National Nuclear Security Administration - one relatively small outpost in a federal work force - has lost a huge cadre of scientists, engineers, safety experts, project officers, accountants and lawyers. The nuclear agency not only manages the nation’s 3,748 nuclear bombs and warheads, it is modernizing that arsenal  - a $20-billion-a-year effort that will arm a new fleet of nuclear submarines, bomber jets and land-based missiles. Though it was still hundreds of employees short of what it had said it needed, it had edged up to about 2,000 workers by January. Now: retraction. More than 130 employees took the government’s offer of a payout to resign. Those departures, together with those of about 27 workers who were caught up in a mass firing and not rehired, wiped out most of the recent staffing gains. Engaged in top-secret work, tucked away in the Energy Department, the agency typically stays below the public radar. But the Trump administration’s cuts, touted as a cure-all for supposed government extravagance and corruption, are threatening the muscle and bone of operations that involve national security. The exodus is going to make the job more difficult because what you lost were some of your most valuable leaders. The agency lost not only officials deeply steeped in the weapons modernization program, but also a noted arms control expert at a time when President Trump has said he hopes to restart talks with Russia and China about limiting nuclear arsenals. “Contrary to news reports, the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons production plants and nuclear laboratories are operated by federal contractors and have been exempt” from cuts, Dietderich, the Department of Energy’s chief spokesman said. But the loss of staff would hobble the agency’s ability to monitor the more than 60,000 contract employees who carry out much of the agency’s work. The federal oversight is vital. (Source: Dnyuz - Armenia ? / The New York Times - U.S.)

Mar 17, 2025  President Trump today declared all the pardons issued by his predecessor Biden as void, claiming that they had been executed without Biden's approval. "The 'Pardons' that Sleepy Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!, Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Biden, he added. In final hours in office of Biden were issued a series of preemptive pardons to several individuals, including his family members - brothers James and Francis, sister Valerie, and their spouses. Biden stated that his family had been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt him - 'the worst kind of partisan politics'. Additionally, there were granted pardons to figures such as Dr Fauci, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; retired General Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol. These preemptive pardons were intended to protect individuals from potential politically motivated prosecutions by the incoming administration. The specific application of the autopen for presidential pardons has not been extensively tested in courts, leaving room for legal debate. (Source: Hindustan Times - India)

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Europe

Romania
March 16, 2025  On Sunday, the government barred a popular candidate, Georgescu, from running in the country’s upcoming May presidential election. This action was preceded by Georgescu, an independent right-wing candidate who is skeptical of NATO, the EU, and support for Ukraine, winning the first round of the presidential election. His background reveals a man well-versed in human rights and sustainability and whose name has been floated for political leadership long before 2024. It is not his background but his ideas that have struck fear into the NATO and EU establishments. Actions against Georgescu were undertaken following U.S.-backed allegations of Russian interference in the election despite the fact that the then-president of Romania, who has since resigned in the fallout from this scandal, admitted that these allegations were “nearly impossible” to prove. The Trump administration has taken notice. In a blunt speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Vance chided Eurocrats for their glee over Romania’s canceled election. Likewise, Director of National Intelligence Gabbard cited Romania’s canceled election as just one example of European allies acting in an undemocratic manner. American leaders should be more ambitious and view the situation in Romania as an opportunity to reset the U.S. relationship with Europe. Romania could prove the perfect proving ground for the new normal. After he won the first round of Romania’s presidential election, news reports described Georgescu as an 'unknown' who achieved a shock victory thanks to a successful TikTok campaign. A closer look shows that while he is an outsider to the NATO and EU establishments, the reality of Georgescu is starkly different from the portrayal of him as Putin’s puppet. He is a soil scientist who has worked for the UN as a Special Rapporteur and his 2012 report on the long-term deleterious effect of American nuclear bomb testing in the Marshall Islands remains on the UN website today. Following his work with the UN, he worked on sustainability issues with the Club of Rome. Georgescu was discussed as a potential candidate for prime minister as far back as 2010; he was formally proposed as prime minister in 2020 and 2021. Romania is home to Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, the easternmost NATO base in Europe. The Biden administration invested heavily in this base near Ukraine and facing Crimea, planning to turn it into one of the largest in Europe, surpassing the Ramstein base in Germany. Georgescu’s campaign included a skeptical attitude toward the continued presence of U.S. troops in Romania. Meanwhile, President Trump challenges the conventional view of NATO, is seeking to tamp down tensions with Russia, end the war in Ukraine, and has attempted to withdraw troops from Europe in the past. It’s not hard to see how these facts could combine into a recipe for a U.S. drawdown and shifting the burden of Romania’s defense onto Romania. This pragmatic vision diverges from the status quo and the emerging transactional model. Biden’s description of the alliance as a 'sacred obligation' encompasses the status quo. Hungary exemplifies the more transactional model wherein the United States signals a greater defense commitment, including an enlarged troop presence, for countries that spend more on their defense. Georgescu’s model represents a third way which would permit and encourage NATO allies to make their own sovereign defense decisions, emphasizing self-reliance instead of taking the U.S. security guarantee as a given or acting to curry favor with Washington through increased defense spending. This model makes sense for many reasons. As much as we are accustomed to talking about NATO and Europe, these coalitions refer to groups of countries that have very different interests and security needs, making any blanket approach to policymaking unwieldy. An alliance should not and need not attempt to level these differences. Of course, Georgescu being barred from running presents a hurdle to implementing this vision. Nonetheless, his ideas and influence could continue to have an impact on how Romanians think about defense and foreign policy. That said, Washington can and should pursue a reset in Romania regardless of who runs or wins in the upcoming presidential election. Canceling elections and barring candidates from running are decisions most Americans are uncomfortable with. And if Trump is serious about diplomacy with Russia and pivoting to Asia, a troop drawdown in Romania and a cancellation of the plans to expand the airbase would serve both purposes. Doing so would align with American interests, incentivizing our allies throughout Europe to do more for their own defense needs, and simply highlight that the indefinite deployment of U.S. troops can’t be taken for granted. Withdrawing troops from Romania would rattle NATO, yes, but it would demonstrate American resolve and encourage Europeans to do more than just talk about strategic autonomy. This action could even be used as a bargaining chip to incentivize Russia to cease fighting in Ukraine as Moscow has long complained of NATO troops moving ever eastward. If the Biden administration’s plans to expand the airbase and U.S. troop presence in Romania are seen through by the Trump administration, this would keep Washington more committed to tensions with Moscow and tied to an increasingly undemocratic government in Bucharest. It is hard to see that as a mission vital to American interests. It is preferable to maintain good relations with Bucharest and Europe absent the deployment of U.S. troops. However, the American interest in drawing down in Europe and finding a modus vivendi with the only other nuclear superpower remains regardless of how much we like or dislike the governments in Europe. (Source: The National Interest, U.S.)
by Hall, the Communications Manager of Defense Priorities.

North Macedonia
(Sunday, 16 March 2025)  Today a massive fire began at about 2:3o a.m. local time in a nightclub in North Macedonia’s eastern town of Kocani, killing 59 people and injuring 155. (Source: Irish Independent - Ireland)

 Asia

Pakistan
Mar 16, 2025  Baloch insurgents release first visuals of attack on Pakistan military convoy comprising eight buses in Balochistan's Noshki. One of the buses was hit by a vehicle loaded with IEDs, possibly a suicide attack, while another was targeted by Rocket-Propelled Grenades (RPGs), said a Pakistani official. The BLA, which has been seeking the separation of the mineral-rich region from Pakistan and had hijacked a Peshawar-bound train last week, claimed that they killed all 214 military hostages. (Source: India Today)

Syria
16 March, 2025  Ankara, allied with Syria's new rulers who ousted president Assad and took power in December, has called on the European Union to unconditionally lift all sanctions on war-torn Syria ahead of an international aid conference in Brussels tomorrow, to which the country's new authorities have been invited. The European bloc on February 24 already announced an easing of sanctions on Syria's energy, transport and banking sectors. ’The sanctions must be lifted unconditionally and for an indeterminate period,’ Turkey's ministry said. EU foreign ministers have warned that the sanctions they eased could be reimposed if Syria's new leaders break promises to respect the rights of minorities and move towards democracy. Turkey, which hosts nearly three million Syrian refugees, urged reconstruction of Syria to encourage returns, adding that economic opportunities and jobs need to be created. Turkish deputy foreign minister Yilmaz will attend the Brussels conference. (Source: The New Arab, based in London, United Kingdom, owned by a Qatari company)

North America

United States
(Sunday), 16/03/2025  The administration of US President Trump has launched a broad cutback of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other government programmes. On Friday night, shortly after Congress passed the latest funding bill, Trump instructed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. These included the U.S. Global Media Agency, a budget-funded government organisation to which the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia, and Radio Marti, which broadcasts Spanish-language news to Cuba, all report. Together, the networks reached about 427 million people. They date back to the Cold War and are part of a network of government-funded organisations trying to expand US influence. These organisations include USAID, another agency that Trump has opposed. Voice of America’s director Abramowitz said that virtually the entire staff of 1,300 people has been placed on administrative leave. Yesterday morning, Lake, whom Trump appointed as a senior adviser to the U.S. Global Media Agency, wrote on website X that employees should check their emails. In another post she described the U.S. Global Media Agency as "the most corrupt agency in Washington DC." The video released by Lake was filmed in a building leased by Voice of America, which Lake called a waste of money. "We're doing everything we can to cancel contracts that can be cancelled, save money, reduce staffing and make sure your dollars are not misused," she said. The letter instructs employees not to use the Global Media Agency's facilities and to return equipment such as phones and computers. 'In a post on X the Czech Republic's foreign minister Lipavský said he would raise the cuts with the Council of Europe' tomorrow. ’Radio Free Europe is one of the few credible sources in dictatorships like Iran, Belarus, and Afghanistan’, he said. 'Reporters Without Borders, an international non-governmental organisation, said it calls on the US government to reinstate Voice of America and calls on Congress and the international community' to take action. The cuts are a sharp blow to a key element of the post-Cold War order. Trump's downsizing order also includes several other lesser-known government agencies such as the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (a nonpartisan think tank). /Source: Euronews, based in Lyon, France/
See also Lake's announcement: (Source:X): 'Massive national security violations, including spies and terrorist symphatizers and/or supporters infiltrating the agency'; '§100s-of-millions being spent on fake news companies'; "This agency is not salvageable".
March 16, 2025 7:42 a.m.: 146 700 views

Space

(Sunday), 16/03/2025  A SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station today, delivering the replacements for NASA’s two stuck astronauts. The four newcomers  - representing the U.S., Japan and Russia  -  will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Wilmore and Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week, one that has been up there since last year, to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June. (Source: Euronews, based in Lyon, France)
See also: /Video/ (Source: X)
March 16, 2025 6:51 a.m.: 30 500 000 views

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United States
March 15, 2025  US diplomatic and security officials developed the draft list of 43 countries, which suggests a “red” list of 11 countries, an “orange” list of 10 countries, and a “yellow” list of 22 countries. Out of the 43 countries, 22 are African nations.   Citizens of countries on the red list – Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen - would be flatly barred from entering the United States.    Countries on the orange list – Eritrea, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Belarus, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. - will face travel restrictions. Individuals arriving on immigrant or tourist visas would be denied access.    With 16 counties - Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, São Tomé and Príncipe, Zimbabwe - Africa dominates the yellow list. The remaining six countries on the list are Antigua and Barbuda, Cambodia, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and Vanuatu. Countries on the yellow list will be given a 60-day window to address concerns before a verdict is reached.   The list could be changed as it has yet to be approved by the administration. (Source: Premium Times - Nigeria)

March 15, 2025  Democrats confront limits of their minority power after bruising shutdown vote. The days leading up to yesterday’s vote on government spending were particularly bleak after several hourslong meetings that became contentious. Senate Democrats repeatedly left the meetings stone-faced and refusing to talk with reporters. The angst was particularly acute among rank-and-file who have spent years messaging about the perils of shutdowns. Thursday evening, after Senate Democratic Schumer announced he would vote to move forward on the Trump-backed spending measure, ensuring its eventual passage even though Democrats said it would give Trump broad discretion on decisions that are traditionally left to Congress, internal dissension burst into the open. Schumer’s move to support the spending legislation put him in the rare position of bucking his party’s base. He said that of two bad options, a partial government shutdown was worse because it would give Trump even more control to shut down agencies and there would be ‘’no off-ramp'' to get out of it. (Source: Minnesota Star Tribune - U.S.)

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Europe

Hungary
March 15, 2025  Today, in a speech at a party rally in Budapest marking Hungary’s 1848 revolution against Austrian rule, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reiterated his criticism of the European Union’s military support for Ukraine, and his opposition to a Ukrainian accession to the EU. Orbán published earlier today a wishlist which included what Hungarians want from Brussels: a strong veto for national governments, halting migration, the removal of what he said were ’Soros agents’ in the European Commission and peace in Europe, as well as a Union without Ukraine. 'The rulers of Europe decided that Ukraine must continue the war at all costs, and it will get a fast EU membership in exchange, using our money. We can only have one answer to that: a Union but without Ukraine,” he said. The Hungarian leader has taken a hard line in EU talks to support Ukraine, vetoing an EU push to replace U.S. military aid for Ukraine earlier this month and forcing the remaining 26 EU leaders to issue their conclusions without him. He vowed to crack down on a ’shadow army’ in the country, who he said were working for foreign powers. Orbán accused them of taking ’corrupt dollars’ at the expense of their own country. (Source: Politico, an American online newspaper owned by a German company)
by Cokelaere

Serbia
(15 March 2025)  Tens of thousands of people have descended on Serbia's capital to attend anti-government protest against the deaths of 15 people in the Novi Sad railway station collapse last November. Students have been calling for full transparency and accountability over the collapse. They want the government to publish all the documentation relating to the renovation project and say they are not satisfied with the papers the authorities have released so far. They also want those responsible for the disaster to be charged and convicted. Demonstrators blame corruption and corner-cutting for the loss of life. Prosecutors have indicted at least 16 people, but the charges have yet to go to trial. President Vucic described the student protests as "well-intentioned". But he had less flattering words for opposition parties, labelling them members of a "criminal cartel". He accused them of attempting to force the formation of a "'raudulent interim government'. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

United Kingdom
(Saturday), 15/03/2025  UK premier Keir Starmer told some 26 fellow leaders in a group call he hosted that they should focus on how to strengthen Ukraine, protect any ceasefire and keep up the pressure on Moscow. Military chiefs will meet again on Thursday in the UK as the coalition moves into the operational phase, he added. Summit leaders meeting virtually today shifted planning for a peacekeeping force into an 'operational phase.' Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated after the call, which she joined, that Italy's 'participation in a possible military force on the ground is not envisaged". French President Macron today called for joint US and European pressure on Russia to accept the proposed ceasefire. Starmer and Macron have been leading efforts to assemble a so-called 'coalition of the willing' ever since Trump opened direct negotiations with Moscow last month. They said they are willing to put British and French troops on the ground in Ukraine. US Secretary of State Rubio said yesterday he was "cautiously optimistic" about reaching a truce, but a lot more work needed to be done. US President Trump today appointed Kellogg as special envoy to Ukraine. He had previously been described as special envoy for both Ukraine and Russia. (Source: France 24)

Africa

South Africa
(March 15, 2025)  The U.S. Secretary of State Rubio announced yesterday that the South African Ambassador to the U.S. Rasool was no longer welcome accusing him of being a race-baiting politician critical of President Trump. Rubio’s statement followed a webinar where Rasool discussed demographic shifts in the U.S. and the Trump administration's policies. This rare diplomatic move comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and South Africa over a land law and claims made by Trump about discrimination against South Africa’s white minority. (Source: Africa News - located in Lyon, France)

Asia

India
03/15/2025  Christians in the eastern Indian state of Odisha have been denied the right to bury their loved ones until they convert to Hinduism. The denial of burial is a serious violation of fundamental rights. A recent ruling by the Indian Supreme Court is becoming a pretext for more discriminatory acts. “Denying Christians the right bury their dead follows a recent Supreme Court ruling not allowing a Christian in Chattisgarh to be buried in his own land. This has opened Pandora’s box,” Fr Singh, a Catholic priest and human rights activist notes. “It is unconstitutional and a violation of human rights and disrespect for the dignity of person even after death,” Fr Singh explained. What is more, he warns that, “This is an alibi for fanatics to intimidate Christians into forceful abandonment of the Christian faith. This is not in line with our secular faith and social fabric.” The latest case occurred on 3 March, in Siunaguda, a village 20 km from Umerkote (Nabarangpur), when the family of a 70-year-old man was not allowed to bury him. Siunaguda is a Hindu-majority village with only three Christian families. “We accepted Hinduism out of fear,' the elder son of Santa family said, noting that his father had embraced Christianity five years earlier, but was forced to posthumously reconvert to Hinduism. The episode is part of a broader pattern of discrimination against religious minorities. (Source: AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, which headquarters Rome, Italy)

Yemen
March 15, 2025  President Trump said he ordered a series of airstrikes on the Houthi-held areas in Yemen today, promising to use overwhelming lethal force until Iranian-backed Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. The Houthis said 13 civilians were killed in the capital, Sanaa. The Houthis had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, during their campaign targeting military and civilian ships between the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in late 2023 and January of this year, when this ceasefire in Gaza took effect. The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, are in the Red Sea and were part of Saturday’s mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region. (Source: AP News - U.S.)

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Europe

France
14/03/2025  Boycotts of American products are mobilising tens of thousands of consumers’ in France, Sweden, Denmark and Canada. Created on February 28, the Boycott USA: Buy French and European! Facebook group started in France, encourages members to support the French and European economies by refusing to buy products made in the United States, sharing tips on how to replace popular US brands with local equivalents. (Source: France 24)

Italy
14 March 2025 15:20   Extreme weather 'red alert' in Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna. Many of the areas affected were the same ones hit by flooding and landslides last September and in May 2023 which were linked to unprecedented rainfall. (Source: Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata - Italy)

Romania
14 March 2025  Romania was approving a bill in late February that introduced stricter regulations on social media platforms and online content providers. Key features of the bill were speedy illicit content removal, with material deemed to be inciting violence, hate speech or disinformation on major national-interest topics to be removed within 15 minutes of publication. During this period, platforms would be expected to use algorithms, potentially AI-driven, to analyse and classify content. The bill allowed authorities, including the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) and the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM), to order content removal or site blocking without prior independent judicial review in certain cases. This meant that once content was blocked, affected users must take legal action to restore their posts - a lengthy court procedure that would likely continue until the original message’s relevance and impact had effectively disappeared. On March 11, the government together with TikTok and Facebook announced “a partnership” to fight disinformation, focusing on quickly removing content. The Romanian Government has stated it will step up its efforts to 'combat illegal content online'. The news on March 14 came ahead of contentious presidential elections following the annulled ballot of November last year due to claims, considered unsubstantiated in Romanian media, of Russian interference. On March 27, officials will conduct a test run simulating potential electoral scenarios to evaluate rapid intervention capabilities. Institutions including the Permanent Electoral Authority, the National Audiovisual Council, the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Ministry of Defence will have the power to directly request the deletion of posts or the blocking of users’ access to them. There were strong concerns of possible political use or even abuse, especially regarding the elections. Critics noted there was a major risk of censorship. “While we understand the need for effective mechanisms to combat illegal content, we believe that the urgency imposed by this proposal, the strong reliance on AI, and the broad definition of ‘potentially harmful content’ could lead to errors and potentially infringe on freedom of expression,' lawyers from CMS Law Now, a leading international law firm with 79 offices in more than 40 countries and more than 5,000 lawyers worldwide conclude. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

European Union
14.03.2025  The EU’s $868 billion 'ReArm Europe Plan' could lead to economic collapse due to debt, warns former EU Commission senior economist Alkas. It leaves out funding strategy, leading to concerns amid Germany’s $900B debt agenda, he says. Der Leyen’s plan does not include a clear financial mechanism, raising concerns over how the EU will fund such a large-scale rearmament effort. Under current circumstances the EU is in no position to save its economy or support Ukraine. Especially Germany, being treated as ‘the sick man of Europe', currently is in intensive care, Alkas said. Energy policies have brought Europe’s economy to the brink of collapse. Recovery is impossible with high prices. The Nord Stream pipeline needs to be rebuilt and natural gas should flow through these pipes. Alkas said deindustrialization is rampant across the EU, pointing to plans by the new center-right government in Germany to borrow €900 billion. “Why would they want this? Because they realize their entire industry is now sinking,' he said. Alkas called Europe a bankrupt economy 'trying to salvage itself by supporting Ukraine and preparing for war'. Alkas warned that US tariffs would only exacerbate the situation. 'This much borrowing – one last fatal blow to an already failed economy,' he said. Debt partnership always pits people and countries against one another and it never works in the long run. He mentioned that exemptions to industrial investments can also lead to abuse. Alkas said Europe, with its aging society of 500 million people, has a weak economy. Europe’s ties to (US President ) Trump are being broken, prompting the bloc to become a new power under its own flag, he noted. "Europe cannot become a military power without Türkiye', Alkas added. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

March 14, 2025  The European Union today agreed to drop three Russian individuals from its sanctions list as the price for Hungary's Viktor Orbán to drop a threat to veto Europe's sanctions against Russia. They are oligarch Kantor, Russian sports minister Degtyaryov, and Ismailova, sister of oligarch Usmanov, an Uzbek-Russian mining tycoon. (Source: UPI - U.S.)

Georgia
14 March 2025  Today, US Ambassador to Georgia Dunnigan met with Georgian Foreign Minister Botchorishvili, the first formal meeting held between US officials and representatives of Georgian Dream since the parliamentary elections in October. The meeting came after months of a diplomatic freeze between the US and Georgia, particularly during the final months of former President Biden’s administration. Ambassador Dunnigan outlined President Trump and Secretary Rubio’s top priorities and steps that Georgia can take to demonstrate its seriousness about improving its relationship with the US. (Source: OC Media (Open Caucasus Media), an 'independent' * online news platform. Headquarters Tbilisi, Georgia)
by Ostiller, who after a year at The Kyiv Independent joined OC Media, where he covered Ukraine, Russia, and the South Caucasus.
* "The Trump/Musk cuts could shut us down - permanently", NGO 'OC Media' announces.

Russia
March 14, 2025, Friday  Trump’s special envoy, Witkoff, visiting Moscow yesterday, held late-night discussions with Putin and relayed additional signals regarding the ceasefire proposal, according to Kremlin spokesperson Peskov. Trump has described Putin’s response as very promising but not complete, and has indicated he is open to a direct meeting with the Russian leader. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said there was now a very good chance of a resolution and claimed he had urged Putin to spare Ukrainian troops allegedly surrounded by Russian forces in Kursk Oblast. According to Trump, "thousands of Ukrainian troops are completely surrounded by the Russian military," and he had "strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared," warning that otherwise, it would result in a massacre of a scale not seen since World War II. On March 12, Russian authorities claimed they had regained control of over 86% of the territory in the region, including the key town of Sudzha. Putin stated that Ukrainian forces in the area were facing a complete physical blockade, leaving them with only two choices: surrender or die. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

Friday 14 March 2025  Mr Witkoff, a former property mogul who has become Trump's chief negotiator, and is often referred to as the president's 'fixer', had been dispatched to Moscow to deliver the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire to Putin. After arriving around lunchtime yesterday, he was left 'twiddling his thumbs' for at least eight hours before being called into the Kremlin. Mr Witkoff was leaving Russia not with Mr Putin's agreement but with a list of demands. It's now up to Mr Trump to decide what to do next. (Source: Sky News - United Kingdom)

Mar 14, 2025  Ukraine carried out drone attacks in central Moscow today, hitting buildings not far from the Kremlin, during Trump's envoy Witkoff's visit to Russia for secret talks with officials. Witkoff met with Putin in the Kremlin late yesterday. A plane linked to him had apparently left Moscow at around 2:00am. (Source: NewsBytes - India)

North America

Canada
March 14, 2025  Canadian Foreign Minister Joly, hosted counterparts from Britain, 'the European Union', France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. at the G7 foreign ministers meeting in La Malbaie, Canada, today. 'They reached a deal on a joint statement aimed at showing unity that backed Ukraine's territorial integrity and warned Russia to follow Kyiv in accepting a ceasefire or face possible further sanctions. Washington had sought to impose red lines on language around Ukraine to not harm its talks with Russia and opposed a separate declaration on curbing Russia's so-called shadow fleet, while demanding more robust language on China. The final communique stated G7 opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait by force or coercion. There had been wrangling over language regarding Gaza and the Middle East, notably the notion of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something the U.S. was resisting. (Source: Nikkei - Japan)

United States
March 14, 2025  European security advisers dash to Washington after Witkoff’s talks with Putin. Germany’s national security adviser, Plötner, traveled to Washington today for urgent talks alongside his British counterpart, Powell, and French President Macron's diplomatic adviser, Bonne. The three met with U.S. National Security Adviser Waltz at the White House. (Source: Politico, an American online newspaper owned by a German company)

NATO

March 14, 2025 Friday  NATO Secretary General Rutte has stated that relations with Russia should eventually be restored after the war in Ukraine comes to an end. In an interview with Bloomberg, he noted that it would be normal to gradually return to normal diplomatic relations with Moscow, but emphasized that such a step is not currently possible. He stressed the need to maintain pressure on Russia to ensure that it takes negotiations seriously. Rutte's comments came following his meeting with U.S. President Trump yesterday. Rutte stated that the issue of Ukraine's NATO membership is no longer on the agenda, explaining that Trump has effectively removed that option. Trump dismissed concerns that Russia could pose a direct military threat to NATO, saying he does not believe Moscow would attack a member country. He argued that once the conflict in Ukraine is resolved, Russian troops would have no interest in further aggression. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

5 3 15 .09:15

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Europe

Poland
13-Mar-2025  Poland's President Duda, discussing with Kellogg, U.S. President Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, 'has called on the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons on Polish territory' 'to deter Russia', The Financial Times reported today. (Source: CGTN - China)

March 13, 2025  The Polish Ministry of Defense 'is set to sign a $6.2 billion contract to acquire 180 South Korean K2 Black Panther main battle tanks (MBT) manufactured by Hyundai Rotem. MBT's main armament consists of a Rheinmetall 120mm L/55 smoothbore gun, produced under license in South Korea. 'That follows a previous contract inked in August 2022 for an equal number of the advanced MBTs from Seoul. The Polish Army has received just under half of the vehicles, with the final ninety-six set to arrive later this year. 'In addition, South Korea provided the Eastern European NATO member with 219 K9 self-propelled howitzers, forty-eight KAI FA-50 light attack aircraft, and 218 K239 Chunmoo mobile multiple launch Rocket System (MLRS). That initial deal was valued at $12.4 billion. 'The agreement will be finalized next month, and deliveries of additional tanks will continue over the next four years. Still, that timeline could be truncated if a planned domestic manufacturing center, where the K2 would be produced under license, is approved. Warsaw has already worked with Seoul on adapting the K239 Chumoo MLRS, locally designated the Homar-K. It is mounted on the domestically made Jelcz 8×8 chassis, which replaced the South Korean-made Doosan chassis. It was further outfitted with the Polish TOPAZ Integrated Combat Management System. 'As Warsaw receives the South Korean MBTs, it will continue to supply Ukraine with its aging T-72 and PT-71 tanks. 'Kyiv has already received around 280 T-72M and T-72M1 tanks from Poland and nearly 200 more from the Czech Republic (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Suciu, a Michigan-based writer

European Parliament
March 13, 2025  Belgian federal police conducted raids on 21 addresses in Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia and in Portugal in the early hours today, as part of a corruption probe involving the European Parliament on preliminary charges of active corruption, forgery of documents, money laundering; around 15 former and current MEPs are “on the radar” of the investigators, according to investigative news outlet Follow the Money and Belgian publications Le Soir and Knack. Several individuals have been arrested. (Source: Politico - Headquarters in Arlington County, Virginia, U.S., owned by a company based in Berlin, Germany)
Note: ’Related Tags: Corruption; Cyber Espionage; CybersecurityData / privacy; EU affairs; Lobbying; MEPsMoneylaundering; Telecoms. Related Organization: Huawei’.

European Union
(13 March 2025)  Hungary has threatened to block the EU’s renewal of sanctions imposed on about 2,000 Russians unless oligarch Fridman is removed from the list. /Photo/ (Source: Financial Times - United Kingdom)

Russia
Mar 13 2025  Russian President Putin today said Russia agrees in principle with the U.S.-led ceasefire plan brokered by the White House, backed by Ukraine earlier this week, but stopped short of signing up to any deal, arguing that it needed further negotiation and must lead to enduring peace. “We are in favor of it but there are nuances,” he said when asked about the 30-day ceasefire deal. “The idea [of a ceasefire] itself is correct and we are certainly supporting it, but there are issues that need to be discussed. I think that we need to talk to our American colleagues and partners. Maybe call President Trump and discuss it together. But we support the very idea of ending this conflict through peaceful means,” he said. “Hopefully they all want to end this nightmare,” U.S. President Trump said today, speaking during a press briefing with NATO Secretary-General Rutte. Putin also said a deal must “proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and eliminate the root causes of this crisis.” Putin also questioned whether the 30 days would be used to supply weapons or train newly mobilized units, and how potential violations of a ceasefire would be monitored. Earlier indications from Russian officials appeared to indicate the country would not immediately sign up to the U.S.-led deal. Ushakov, a Russian presidential aide, did not confirm or deny but noted that a truce would give Ukraine a chance to boost its forces, calling the plan 'a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more.' The draft deal would see all Russian and Ukrainian military activities cease, potentially beyond the 30-day term by mutual agreement. It also requires the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children "to Russia.” The U.S. immediately lifted its pause on sharing intelligence and military aid with Ukraine following its sign-up to the deal. Analysts say that Russia is now advancing slowly but steadily in Ukraine. Putin also said today that if the U.S. and Russia struck an energy sector cooperation agreement then Russia could provide a gas pipeline for Europe, benefiting the Continent with cheaper energy prices. European natural gas futures dated to April were 3.5% lower following his comments. (Source: CNBC - U.S.)

13 Mar 2025  'A bombshell new document, which was uncovered by the Washington Post, allegedly shows Putin has no intention of signing up to deal and ending the war, even temporarily. Putin's demands: Weakened US at the negotiating table; Complete dismantling of Zelenskyy's government; No resolution until 2026; Creation of new buffer zone; No European peacekeeping troops; No Nato membership for Ukraine; Sovereignty over 'stolen land'. (Source: Daily Star - United Kingdom)

March 13, 2025  Russia has laid out a list of demands to U.S. authorities that need to be met in order for the war in Ukraine to end. /Video/ (Source: Fox News - U.S.; „Reuters - United Kingdom and The Associated Press - U.S. contributed”).

March 13, 2025  Trump's envoy arrives in Russia for Ukraine ceasefire talks. Kremlin spokesperson Peskov did not say whether Witkoff would meet with Russian President Putin. /Video/ (Source: ABC News – U.S.)

March 13, 2025  Russia has send a list of demands to the US for a ceasefire deal to end the war against Ukraine.  (Source: The Week – India)

Mar 13, 2025  The Kremlin said that U.S. negotiators were flying to Russia. It said Kremlin foreign policy adviser Ushakov and U.S. National Security Adviser Waltz had spoken by phone yesterday. /Photo/ (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Thu, 13 Mar, 2025  Russian President Putin met General Gerasimov during his visit to military headquarters in the Kursk region yesterday and spoke to military commanders there. Russian forces have driven the Ukrainian army out of Sudzha, the biggest town in Russia’s Kursk border region. /Photo/ (Source: Irish Examiner / The Associated Press)

North America

United States
Mar 13, 2025  President Trump’s Ukraine policy is strengthening NATO and investing America in Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity. It is doing so in a way that is realistic and is intended actually to work rather than sound nice. There is a difference between alliances and free ridership. He believes allies must contribute meaningfully to the alliance. ’The European Commission pledged to raise the area’s military spending by nearly $200 billion a year in the aftermath of supposedly disastrous meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky. This demonstrates that the meeting was a great success for the perspective of what the U.S. has been trying to do for years - get the EU to take its own defense seriously’. In just the past few days, Germany ’has made plans for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional defense spending in coming years’. Britain will raise defense spending to 2.5% of the budget in 2017. Other European allies are following suit. The U.S. was the principal backstop for Europe’s regional defense. 'The continent' allowed itself to be invaded by migrants, „spend vast amounts on social programs”, and an ’ever-stronger Brussels bureaucracy’. Europe’s adoption of Trump’s agenda would normally be depicted as a strengthening of the Atlantic alliance, which indeed it is. Recent events show that the U.S. takes the NATO alliance extremely seriously. NATO and Europe have not been abandoned, but shocked to their senses by the president’s brash manner. But they simply did not get the message when it was delivered in calmer tones. Trump understands that paper promises are worthless and suggested a new approach to cementing alliances - by creating real joint interests. The mineral deal between the two countries makes the U.S. directly invested in Ukraine’s territorial integrity, an interest that will exist across administrations. (Source: The Heritage Fundation, based in Washington D.C, U.S.)
By Kontorovich, Senior Research Fellow, Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom

March 13, 2025  NATO Secretary General Rutte visited the White House today. Pledges from European and allied nations to increase defense spending coincide with negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. /Video/ (Source: Fox News, „The Associated Press contributed” = U.S.)

03/13/25  Today, in the Oval Office, during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Rutte, President Trump expressed confidence the United States would annex Greenland, even suggesting the head of the NATO alliance could be a key player in facilitating the acquisition. “And I’m just thinking, I didn’t give it much thought before but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental". You know, Mark, we need that for international security, Trump said, gesturing to Rutte. Rutte agreed that Greenland and the Arctic Circle are critical for security reasons, noting that China and Russia have a growing presence in the region. But he said any discussion about Trump’s attempts to acquire Greenland were outside of his purview. (Source: The Hill - U.S.)

Thu, Mar 13, 2025  The US president said last week that "to further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we've already started doing it". Trump has reportedly ordered the US military to come up with plans to increase the number of troops in Panama as part of his mission to "reclaim" the canal. US Southern Command chief Admiral Holsey sent draft strategies to Defence Secretary Hegseth this week ahead of his visit to Panama next month. /Photo/ (Source: Express - United Kingdom)

Global

13 March 2025  From Michigan to Hungary, foreign factories are facing local pushback. (Source: Rest of World - U.S.)

.5 3 13 19:05

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Europe

Greenland
(12 March 2025)  Greenland's centre-right opposition wins election. The Demokraatit party - which favours a gradual approach to independence - is getting nearly 30% of the vote. About 44,000 Greenlanders out of a population of 57,000 were eligible to cast their votes to elect 31 MPs, as well as the local government. Six parties were on the ballot. Naleraq, another opposition party which wants to immediately kick-off divorce proceedings from Copenhagen and have closer ties with the US, is polling second with about 25%. Prime Minister Mute B Egede's Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) - also a pro-independence party - is third with over 21%. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

European Commission
Mar 12, 2025  The European Commission has invited Syria’s Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) administration to an official conference in Brussels after the slaughter of hundreds of Alawites in the country's west. Hipper, the European Commission spokesperson, revealed at a daily press briefing that ’an invite was sent’ to HTS foreign minister Shaibani to attend the donor conference for Syria's new rulers on March 17, Press Tv reported. Titled ‘Standing with Syria: Meeting the Needs for a Successful Transition’, the donor conference – which the EU has been organizing annually since 2017 – is set to be the first held since the ouster of the Assad administration in December. Hipper said the conference presents a ’very important occasion’ to engage with the new Syrian rulers. HTS-led forces have over the past weeks perpetrated a vast array of massacres against minorities, especially Alawites, in the country’s northwestern coastal region. More than 1,540 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed so far in the violence in the provinces of Tartus, Latakia, Hama and Homs, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). In harsh rebuke of the massacres by HTS-led forces, human rights groups as well as the international community have called for an immediate halt to ethnic cleansing and sectarian-based atrocities in Syria. They have also called for the establishment of an independent international investigation committee under the UN’s direct oversight. EU foreign policy chief Kallas, yesterday ’stopped short of condemning the killings and defended the deeds of HTS militants’. ’It is very, very early to tell whether this goes to the right direction. The first signals are good, but we are not rushing into any kind of arrangements yet, if we don't have certainty,’ she said. Kallas only expressed concern about the risks of sectarian violence in Syria and a resurgence of extremism in the Arab country. According to SOHR, at least 973 Alawite civilians were slaughtered on March 10 alone. Violence has surged in Syria under the HTS rule, with kidnappings and extra-judicial killings reported since the fall of Assad’s government on December 8, 2024. While the HTS administration claims its killing operations target remnants of the old regime, the military crackdown on Alawites that started in early March quickly has descended into open massacres of civilians. (Source: MEHR News Agency – Iran)

March 12, 2025  The European Union's member states would place countermeasures to the Trump administration's steel tariffs. The measures were designed to match the scope of U.S. tariffs, which the European Union said would be worth about $28 billion. The countermeasures were expected to begin on April 1 and be fully in place by April 13, the commission said. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

Wed, 12 Mar, 2025  The 25% US levies on global imports of the metals came into force today. The EU retaliates against Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs with €26bn in countermeasures, which would come into force from April 1. The retaliatory measures target notable US goods - often from Republican states - worth €4.5bn and include Brussels reimposing tariffs on US goods including bourbon whiskey, jeans and Harley-Davidson motorbikes. The European Commission plans further retaliation targeting goods worth €18bn, including a wide range of steel and aluminium products, as well as agricultural produce, such as poultry, beef, seafood and nuts. These tariffs would be imposed from mid-April, after a vote by EU member states and consultations with industry. ’We try to hit … where it hurts,’ said a senior EU official: ’The bloc was targeting soya beans, which are grown in Louisiana, the state of the US speaker of the House, Johnson’. ’We’re happy to buy them from Brazil or from Argentina or from anywhere else’. ’If it came to a situation where we had to go further, digital services or intellectual property could be included,’ France’s European affairs minister, Haddad said. Lange, the German Social Democratic MEP who chairs the European parliament’s trade committee, described the tariffs as ’another dose of self-inflicted tariff pain by the Trump administration’,’particularly bad’ because they target US trade partners, ’they are set arbitrarily, without legal and economic justifications, and they fail to address non-market overcapacity – the main issue steel and aluminium industry across the Atlantic is confronted with’. EU officials said they were talking to counterparts in other countries, including the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Canada and Japan, but there had not been any coordination over responses. Officials not ruled out imposing tariffs or quotas on steel and aluminium from other countries – if US trade barriers resulted in a flood of imports into Europe. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland / The Guardian - United Kingdom)

England
(Wednesday), March 12, 2025  A 59-year-old Russian national was the captain of the Portugal-flagged Solong cargo ship which collided with a U.S. tanker off the coast of England, according to Russ, the owner of the cargo ship. The ship’s 14 crew members were a mix of Russian and Filipino nationals. One of them remains missing and is presumed dead. The Solong collided Monday with MV Stena Immaculate, a U.S.-flagged tanker transporting jet fuel for the American military. /Photo/ (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

Russia
March 12, 2025 Four reasons why Russia have no reason to - may not accept - ceasefire with Ukraine at this stage: Russia is on a serious offensive - a breather to Kyiv would mean an opportunity to regroup and re-energise; Europe’s military industrial complex, the key supporter of the counter-offensive to the Russians, is in a depleted state. 'The European Commission has proposed to set up a 150-billion euro ($157.76 billion) fund to majorly rearm Europe - part of a bigger package that could garner 800 billion euros for the European military buildup'; The Russian economy is with rising stock value, unlike in Europe where the economies are in a spot of crisis; Fourthly, a main military aim to gain a land corridor to Transdniestria, a Russian separatist enclave in Moldova. That aim has not been achieved yet. (Source: The Week - India)

Asia

Iran
(Wednesday), Mar 12, 2025  Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said on Saturday that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations, a day after Trump said he had sent a letter urging Iran to engage in talks on a new nuclear deal. While expressing openness to a deal with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the 'maximum pressure' campaign he applied in his first term as President to isolate Iran from the global economy 'and drive its oil exports down towards zero'. In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said last week, "there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal" to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. Yesterday President Pezeshkian said Iran would not negotiate with the US while being threatened. "It is unacceptable for us that they (the US) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want', state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying. (Source: India Today)

Saudi Arabia
(March 12, 2025)  Following the talks, US President Trump’s administration lifted its suspension of military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine. (Source: AfricaNews - located in Lyon, France)

March 12, 2025  A temporary 30-day ceasefire in the Russian-Ukrainian war is set to be discussed between March 17 and 23, Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office told early today, following U.S.-Ukrainian talks in Saudi Arabia. Teams at the technical expert level will begin discussing all the details, he said. The United States brings the proposals developed during the talks to Russia. (Source: Meduza, located in Riga, Latvia)

North America

United States
12 March 2025  President Trump has promised the US will respond after the EU announced counter-tariffs. (Source: LBC – United Kingdom)

March 12, 2025  President Trump reversed course yesterday afternoon on a pledge to double tariffs on steel and aluminium from Canada to 50 per cent, just hours after announcing the higher tariffs, in rapid-fire moves that scrambled financial markets. The switch came after a Canadian official, Ontario Premier Ford also backed off his own plans for a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity which Canada's most populous province supplies to more than 1 million US homes. Stocks rebounded after Ford said he would suspend the surcharge and Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. US stocks have fallen hard since reaching a record high about a month after Trump took office on Jan 20, with nearly US$5 trillion of market value erased from US indexes. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore)

12 March 2025  The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed legislation to fund the government through 30 September and avert a shutdown at the end of the week. Senate Republicans will need at least seven Democrats to vote with them to prevent a lapse in funding, which could disrupt everything from financial oversight to scientific research and force hundreds of thousands of federal workers to go without pay. Several have said they would vote for the measure to avert a shutdown. (Source: RNZ - New Zealand)

March 12, 2025  The breadth and depth of Department of Defense’s supply chain. The DoD needs to understand the total impact, requires real-time supplier data to understand and mitigate supply chain risks, to have the necessary visibility into the materials and components its warfighters rely on to protect the nation. (Source: War on the Rocks - U.S.)
by Dr. Michienzi, a former senior defense official, the owner of MMR Defense Solutions LLC, a nonresident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

.5 3 13 00:28

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Europe

United Kingdom
11 March 2025  It’s not just Trump. The UK views critical minerals as a government priority and wants to open up Ukraine’s vast resources to British corporations. When UK officials signed a 100 year partnership with Ukraine in mid-January, they claimed to be Ukraine’s 'preferred partner' in developing the country’s 'critical minerals strategy'. Yet within a month, Trump had presented a proposal to Zelensky to access the country’s vast mineral resources as 'compensation' for US support to Ukraine in the war against Russia. Whitehall was none too pleased about Washington muscling in. When foreign secretary Lammy met Zelensky in Kyiv last month he reportedly raised the issue of minerals, 'a sign that Starmer’s government is still keen to get access to Ukraine’s riches', the iPaper reported. It’s no surprise why. Ukraine has around 20,000 mineral deposits covering 116 types of minerals such as beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, rare earth metals, and nickel. The country also possesses one of the world’s largest reserves of graphite, the largest titanium reserves in Europe, and a third of the continent’s lithium deposits. These resources are key for industries such as military production, high tech, aerospace, and green energy. In recent years, the Ukrainian government has sought to attract foreign investment to develop its critical mineral resources and signed strategic partnerships and held investment fora to showcase its mining opportunities. The country has also begun auctioning exploration permits for minerals such as lithium, copper, cobalt and nickel, offering lucrative investment opportunities. Media narratives largely parrot the UK government’s interests in Ukraine being about standing up to aggression. But Whitehall has in the past few years stepped up its interest in accessing the world’s critical minerals, not least in Ukraine. Ghani, trade minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, held at least 10 meetings on the subject of critical minerals in 2023 and the first half of 2024, government transparency data shows. Among the companies she met were giant UK mining corporations Rio Tinto and Anglo American, and arms exporter BAE Systems and military aerospace lobbyists, ADS. It is not clear if Ukraine was the subject of these discussions but one other prominent firm Ghani met to discuss 'mineral supply chains' was Rothschilds, which has extensive interests in Ukraine. Ghani held a discussion with the Paris-headquartered global advisory firm in April 2023 while her successor Mak did so the following year in May. Mak met the firm 'to discuss Rothschild’s critical minerals work', the data shows. The corporation was invited to the 2023 Ukraine Recovery Conference held in London and is a member of the UK-Ukraine Finance Partnership. It has also been the main adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance since 2017. Rothschilds, on whose board sits former UK national security adviser Lord Sedwill, has no less than $53bn invested in Ukraine. Writing recently in Unherd, researcher Lee quotes a senior Labour figure saying the UK was involved in extensive negotiations for the whole of last year relating to securing exclusive access to Ukraine’s minerals, but that adequate government support was not forthcoming. Some other meetings have crept into the public domain. Last April, two prominent UK parliamentarians met one of Ukraine’s largest mining investment companies in London to discuss 'British-Ukrainian partnership in the field of critical minerals mining'. BGV Group, which has investments of $100m in Ukrainian mining projects, held discussions with then energy minister Lord Callanan and Seely, then a Conservative MP who sat on parliament’s foreign affairs committee. The company is seeking investors for its graphite and beryllium projects and said in a media release that 'Ukraine has all the prerequisites to become one of Britain’s main suppliers of critical minerals crucial for advanced technologies and the green energy transition'. 'As Ukraine’s ultimate European ally, the UK could leverage its strong position within NATO to help secure mining sites and transportation routes', writes Dovbenko, the founder of UK-Ukraine TechExchange. The UK government’s ‘Ukraine Business Guide’ notes that 'Ukraine has vast resources' and 'a rich mineral base of iron ore, manganese, coal, and titanium'. Certainly, enhancing access to critical minerals has been a broad priority across Whitehall over the last three years. The UK produced its first-ever Critical Minerals Strategy in 2022 and updated this with a ‘refresh’ the following year. It identifies 18 minerals with'“high criticality' for the UK, including several present in Ukraine, such as graphite, lithium and rare earth elements. The UK’s strategy aims, among other things, to 'support UK companies to participate overseas' in supply chains for these minerals and 'champion London as the world’s capital of responsible finance for critical minerals'. As part of its critical minerals strategy, the government set up a so-called Task & Finish group, analysing the risks to UK industry, and including participants from BAE, Rio Tinto and ADS. The group highlights titanium, rare earth elements, cobalt and gallium as among the minerals with a supply risk to the UK military sector. The UK has also launched a Critical Mineral Intelligence Centre and established a Critical Minerals Expert Committee to advise the government. A report by the foreign affairs committee on critical minerals published in December 2023 concluded that 'the UK cannot afford to leave itself vulnerable on supply chains that are of such strategic importance'. A sign of how seriously the government is taking the issues is that it says it will 'ensure consideration for critical minerals is embedded' in the free trade agreements it is negotiating with a range of countries. Accessing minerals overseas often depends on loosening government regulations to enable foreign corporations to strike favourable deals. The 100 year partnership declaration commits the UK and Ukraine to 'supporting development of a Ukrainian critical minerals strategy and necessary regulatory structures required to support the maximisation of benefits from Ukraine’s natural resources, through the possible establishment of a Joint Working Group'. The thrust of the partnership is to 'support a more enabling environment for private sector participation in the clean energy transition' and to 'attract investments of British companies in the development of renewable energy sources.' More generally, the two sides will 'work together to boost and modernise Ukraine’s economy by progressing reforms that aim to attract private finance' and 'boost investor confidence'. As Declassified recently showed, British aid to Ukraine is focused on promoting these pro-private sector reforms and on pressing the government in Kyiv to open up its economy to foreign investors. Foreign Office documents on its flagship aid project in Ukraine, which supports privatisation, note that the war provides 'opportunities' for Ukraine delivering on 'some hugely important reforms'. The UK supports a project called SOERA (State-owned enterprises reform activity in Ukraine), which is funded by USAID with the UK Foreign Office as a junior partner. SOERA works to 'advance privatization of selected SOEs [state-owned enterprises], and develop a strategic management model for SOEs remaining in state ownership.' UK documents note the programme has already 'prepared the groundwork' for privatisation, a key plank of which is to change Ukraine’s legislation. 'SOERA worked hand-in-hand with GoU and proposed 25 pieces of legislation of which 13 were adopted and implemented', the most recent documents note. Much UK foreign policy and wars can be explained by Whitehall wanting British corporations to get their hands on other countries’ resources. The 2003 invasion of Iraq was mainly about oil while decades earlier the UK’s brutal war in Malaya in the 1950s was substantially about rubber. Britain’s support for apartheid South Africa is significantly explained by the UK wanting continued access to South Africa’s massive mineral resources. But the main concern now is China, which is the biggest producer of 12 out of the 18 minerals assessed by the UK as critical. The Ministry of Defence’s major geopolitical forecast, its ‘Global Strategic Trends’, released last year, makes 57 mentions of minerals, noting that they 'will become of increasing geopolitical importance' and could lead to 'new geostrategic rivalries and tensions'. History suggests that Whitehall’s international strategy on critical minerals, and its scramble for Ukraine’s, will continue to shape UK foreign policy and contribute to these future international tensions. (Source: Declassified UK)
by Curtis, the co-director of Declassified UK, and the author of five books and many articles on UK foreign policy.

Asia

Saudi Arabia
March 11, 2025  Diplomatic teams from Ukraine and the United States are holding talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, today in steps toward ending a full-scale war started by Russia in 2022. We're very open, and we want to have very constructive, friendly, partner conversation with our American partners, Yermak told reporters in Jeddah. He did, however, add that security guarantees are very important. /Photo/ (Source: NPR – U.S.)

Tuesday 11 March 2025  The US and Ukraine are currently locked in crunch talks in Saudi Arabia to try and find a way to end Russia’s invasion. One of the proposals that Ukrainian officials brought to the talks in the port city of Jeddah was a truce in the air and sea that would halt such attacks. The meeting has begun very constructively, Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff who is leading the Ukrainian delegation, wrote on Telegram. Ahead of the talks, Mr Yermak said Ukraine stands ready to do everything to achieve peace and security guarantees remained key for Ukraine. US national security adviser Waltz, who is part of the Washington delegation, said during the afternoon that the negotiations with Ukraine were getting there – with the talks stretching beyond six hours. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is leading the delegation from Washington, said he would not be proposing any specific measures to secure an end to the conflict but rather wanted to hear from Ukraine about what it would be willing to consider. “I’m not going to set any conditions on what they have to or need to do,” Mr Rubio said. “I think we want to listen to see how far they’re willing to go and then compare that to what the Russians want and see how far apart we truly are.” Putin has not publicly offered any concessions. (Source: Independent - United Kingdom)

Tuesday 11 March 2025  “The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” US Secretary of State Rubio has said ahead of high-level peace talks in Saudi Arabia. “I think both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation.” “It has been a costly and bloody war for the Ukrainians. They have suffered greatly and their people have suffered greatly, Mr Rubio acknowledged. “It’s hard in the aftermath of something like that to even talk about concessions, but that's the only way this is going to end and prevent more suffering.” (Source: Independent – United Kingdom)

March 11, 2025  American and Ukrainian officials will meet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for major talks today with the goal of charting a course toward ending Russia's three-year-old war. "The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things," Secretary of State Rubio - who will lead the U.S. delegation - said yesterday ahead of the talks. The U.S. delegation include Rubio, national security adviser Waltz and Middle East envoy Witkoff. Ukraine's negotiating group will include Yermak -- the head of Zelenskyy's office - Foreign Ministry Sybiha, Defense Minister Umerov, and Deputy Chief of Staff Palisa. Yesterday, Zelenskyy - who will not take part in today's talks -- traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with crown prince and de facto ruler Salman and said he hopes for practical outcomes, from the U.S.-Ukraine meeting. Trump's administration is pushing Kyiv to make concessions in pursuit of a peace deal to end Russia's invasion. The White House also wants Ukraine to sign off on a minerals sharing agreement Trump has framed as a way to recoup tens of billions of U.S. aid sent to Ukraine since 2022. Rubio said finalizing the mineral deal with Ukraine was "an important topic, but it's not the main topic on the agenda." "There's still more details to work out." Rubio said the Russians "are going to have to do difficult things" too, though Trump and his top officials have not said what concessions Moscow may be asked to make. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

North America

United States
March 11, 2025  On March 3, Trump paused material military aid to Ukraine, and two days later, the U.S. stopped sharing intelligence with Ukrainians. The United States says Ukraine has agreed to its proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia. The decision on intelligence has been reversed following Ukraine’s agreement with the ceasefire proposal. 'France and the United Kingdom have emerged as Ukraine’s biggest backers in Europe. 'Both countries have been among Ukraine’s most vocal supporters over the last few years. ’The renewed support from the EU and the U.K. may allow Ukraine to continue fighting’. ’From Ukraine’s perspective, it needs a new partner in its war against Russia, and the EU can serve that purpose’. „The U.S. may be the country pushing for a ceasefire in Ukraine, but it’s Europe that will play the most vital role in Ukraine’s ability to win the war if it endures’. (Source: The Conversation, a network of media outlets online, with European editors in France, Spain and the UK. Headquarters Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
by Horncastle, Assistant Professor, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada)

Global

11 March 2025  'Across Europe, arms imports soared by 155 per cent between 2020–24 compared to the previous five-year period. Ukraine’s imports were increasing nearly 100 times over compared with 2015-19, according to the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), published on March 10. Ukraine accounted for 8.8 per cent of global arms imports and at least 35 states supplied weapons to the country, with the US leading at 45 per cent of its imports, followed by Germany (12 per cent) and Poland (11 per cent). The US dominated global arms exports, accounting for 43 per cent of total sales, followed by France at 9.6 per cent. Europe has become more dependent on US weapons. According to the report the US has accounted for 64 per cent of European NATO states’ arms purchases over the past five years, up from 52 per cent between 2015 and 2019. European NATO members more than doubled their arms imports compared to the previous five-year period. Almost 500 combat aircraft and other weapons were still on order from the US despite efforts to bolster Europe’s own arms industry. France saw its arms exports to Europe grow by 187 per cent, driven by combat aircraft deliveries to Greece and Croatia, although India took the largest share (28 per cent). The US supplied 107 countries, with Europe overtaking the Middle East (35 per cent compared to 33 per cent) as the top destination for US arms for the first time in two decades. Saudi Arabia remained the largest single recipient, taking 12 per cent of US exports. Some major arms importers, including Saudi Arabia, India, and China, experienced significant declines in import volumes for various reasons, despite high threat perceptions in their regions, said George, SIPRI programme director. Asia and Oceania, despite a 21 per cent drop in imports, remained the largest arms-importing region at 33 per cent of global transfers, with India as the second-biggest importer worldwide. China’s imports fell 64 per cent, reflecting its growing domestic arms production. It was the fourth-largest exporter of arms in 2020–24, with 5.9 per cent of global arms exports. Despite China’s efforts to increase its arms exports, many large importers do not buy Chinese arms for political reasons. Arms imports in West Africa almost doubled (+82 per cent) between 2010-14 and 2020-24. Arms suppliers are using arms exports to boost their influence in this part of the world, including emerging suppliers - primarily Turkey - alongside more established actors such as China, France, Russia and the USA. Nigeria was by far the largest importer, accounting for 34 per cent of West Africa’s total arms imports during this period. While the volume of imports remains relatively small, it has important geopolitical implications. States like Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal seem to be rapidly increasing their imports. Russia supplied 33 nations. It’s exports fell by 64 per cent, citing battlefield needs, sanctions and pressure from the US and allies. Receiving two-thirds of its exports, Russia supplied India (38 per cent), China (17 per cent) and Kazakhstan (11 per cent). (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)
by Deconinck

1 March 2025  Morons writing half-wit stories - journalism now corrupted by leftie activists. Moronification: the educational process that turns promising, intelligent, and semi-sentient young people into fully-functional halfwits. The collapse of editorial standards in the Anglophone media has been through a steady process over the decades, and its main engine has been the capture of journalism-schools by left-wing activists. An almost natural process by which lefty-journalists, usually not being very good at their job and attracted by the amazing holidays and generous salaries offered by colleges and universities, have steadily colonised media-studies courses. This process has normalised the insertion of a left-wing terminology in mainstream media. ’Far right’ is now routinely used – even by “conservative” media – to describe any political movement that wishes to protect the ethnic national identity of any western society or intends to control inward immigration. As the heart-breaking, bloody crisis in Ukraine continues, its mysteries are deepened by the appalling terminological imprecision with which it is covered. Let us hope we are in the final stages of a truly evil war, the terrible truths about which probably remain very secret, and are likely to remain so for a very long time. That the EU was guilty, by smugness, turpitude, laziness and cowardice, for allowing the developing crisis to become a military and moral catastrophe is indisputable. The criminal responsibility of various US governments under Obama and Biden for this monstrosity is similarly irrefutable. The US was waxing hysterical over both the accidental manslaughter of the serial criminal Floyd and the utterly cruel delusions of transgenderism, the latter being as morally wicked and scientifically-deranged as the witch-trials across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Why would Putin not think a war against Ukraine yield quick results? Could he not see how cultural moronification had made the West, especially the US, quite incapable of opposing him? For if our media are bad, and they really are, Europe’s political classes, who have shaped the ladies and gentlemen of the reporting classes around their own selfish, short-sighted priorities, are even worse as another potentially catastrophic horror-story is unfolding in Romania. This too has been characterised by lazy or tendentious and invariably moronified journalism. The EU-supported cancellation of Romania’s elections last December is a truly scandalous departure from the self-proclaimed values of the European Union. Neither term - far-right and pro-Putin- even if accurate, would implicitly justify Georgescu’s exclusion from the democratic process, It is surely a searing indictment of both the EU and its leadership that this crisis had so deepened that Vice President Vance recently felt authorised to speak out about it. To put it all in terms of the 1930s, Ukraine, Romania and Taiwan might well be (if only roughly) the equivalent of Manchuria, Abyssinia and the Anschluss. But at least in those days, democracies were protected by large armies and the political and cultural acceptance of the need for conscription. Poor befuddled Generation Z stand between the West and a global disaster like Emperor Selassie’s light cavalry against Mussolini’s mustard gas, aircraft and tanks. May God now help them, because ’we’ catastrophically failed to do so. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)
by Myers, an Irish journalist, author and broadcaster. He has reported on the wars in Northern Ireland throughout the 1970s, Beirut and Bosnia.

.5 3 11 22:42

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Europe

France
Tuesday 11 March 2025  Army chiefs from more than 30 countries met in Paris today, for talks on creating an international force to deter future Russian aggression once a ceasefire is established. They include troop size, location and, crucially, military options in the event of a transgression. A French military official said the talks included nearly all 32 Nato countries – notably without the United States – as well as Commonwealth nations and Asian powers Japan and South Korea. France’s defence minister, Lecornu, said ahead of the meeting that Ukraine’s own army remained the main security guarantee for the country, adding that France ’will refuse any demilitarisation of the Ukrainian army’. Dutch defence minister Brekelmans said that it’s a dream for Putin, and it’s a nightmare for the rest of Europe Putin will continue his aggressive efforts to increase the influence and the territory of the Russian empire towards his dream to re-establish a Russkiy Mir, or a Russian world. Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk laid out some details around his plan for voluntary large-scale military training of Poland’s adult population in 2026, and expand the target to be able to train 100,000 people in 2027. Those taking part in the month-long training get a one-off salary of 6,000 Polish złoty (£1,200) – with the scheme open to all adults aged between 18 and 60. (Source: Independent - United Kingdom)

Germany
March 11, 2025  Germany hosts about 20 U.S. B-61 nuclear bombs at the Büchel airbase. For much of the past few decades, „a majority of Germans were in favor of getting these nuclear weapons out of Germany”. ’Berlin needs an ambitious nuclear policy rethink that includes a push to recreate nuclear sharing 'at the European level'  - with the continent’s nuclear powers, France and the U.K.’ Leaders of Germany and Poland have already expressed openness to concrete nuclear sharing arrangements, like having French capabilities stationed in German or Polish soil. Members engaged in nuclear sharing would contribute financially to the burden of maintaining the French and British nuclear arsenal. For Europeanizing extended deterrence and nuclear sharing, one option would be to recreate NATO’s nuclear planning group at the European level, with France and the U.K. ’The EU could be collectively represented through the European Council president or the EU foreign affairs chief’;) ’The only other option for Germany’ aside from a ’European nuclear umbrella’ would be to pursue its own nuclear weapons. At this stage, given the „political fallout”, the financial burden and the time that it would take to make a German bomb ’is not a cost-effective alternative’. Germany needs to recommit to civilian nuclear research. Germany’s likely next chancellor CDU leader Merz calls for switching to hoping for the best and still preparing for the worst. ’Uncomfortable this might be for many in Germany’, this 'strategy has to include a Plan B' for nuclear deterrence for the possible end of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. (Source: Foreign Policy – U.S.)
by Benner, a co-founder and the director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin.

Romania
(11 March 2025)  Romanian ’far-right’ Georgescu has lost his appeal against a ruling barring him from participating in May's presidential election. The Constitutional Court issued the final ruling today afternoon. A large crowd who were gathered outside the court in Bucharest shouted "traitors" and "we are going nowhere". They chanted ’Georgescu is president’ and "freedom". (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Russia
Mar 11, 2025  Speaking at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, Kremlin spokesman Peskov cautioned against people getting excited about the prospect of Musk cutting off the Ukrainian military from his Starlink communications system or about Trump's decision last week to suspend military aid to Kyiv. "Don't rush to put on rose-tinted spectacles," Peskov told the audience. "We always need to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. And we must always be ready to defend our interests." Peskov said that Russia was achieving its aims on the battlefield in Ukraine, regardless of what decisions the U.S. was taking. He said the amount of weapons circulating in Ukraine was so large that Kyiv had enough to keep fighting for many months despite the suspension of U.S. deliveries. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore / Reuters - United Kingdom)

March 11, 2025  Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defense systems shot down 337 Ukrainian drones - 91 drones over the Moscow region, 126 over the Kursk region, 25 over the Belgorod region, 22 over the Ryazan region, 10 over the Kaluga region, eight each over the Lipetsk and Oryol regions, six over the Voronezh region, and three over the Nizhny Novgorod region. overnight. By 8:45 a.m. local time today, Russian air defense forces had shot down 74 drones heading toward the capital. In the Moscow region, two people were killed and 14 others injured in the attack in the towns of Vidnoye, Domodedovo, and Ramenskoye, as well as the villages of Yam and Sapronovo. Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) imposed temporary restrictions at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky airports. (Source: Meduza, based in Riga, Latvia)

.5 3 11 23:37

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Europe

Latvia
09th Mar 2025  'European countries should absolutely introduce conscription says Latvian president Rinkevics'. (Source: Joe - a website. Headquarters Dublin, Ireland)

Romania
(Monday), 10.03.2025  Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) on Sunday rejected the candidacy of independent politician Georgescu, a staunch critic of the West and NATO, for the coming presidential election on May 4. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
09.03.2025  France will provide Ukraine with 195 million euros ($211 million) in military aid using the interest from frozen Russian assets, French Defense Minister Lecornu said. 'The new aid package will support the delivery of 155-mm artillery shells and AASM gliding bombs, which will be used by Ukrainian Mirage 2000 aircraft'. 'France is also expediting the transfer of older military equipment, including tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine'. The UK reached a similar agreement with Ukraine on March 1 'to provide a $2.84 billion loan for defense purchases, also backed by frozen Russian assets'. Western countries have frozen roughly $300 billion in Russian assets since the onset of the war. The majority of these funds remain inaccessible, with only about $3.2 billion annually available in interest to fund initiatives like the one announced by France. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
March 10, 2025  Across much of Ukraine, beneath the surface lies the Ukrainian Shield, a massive, exposed crystalline rock formed over 2.5 billion years ago. It’s minerals have become central to global geopolitics. Ukraine has deposits containing 22 of 34 critical minerals identified by the European Union as essential for energy security. It has three major lithium deposits: Shevchenkivske in the Donetsk region, Polokhivske and Stankuvatske in the centrally located Kirovograd region. The Shevchenkivske lithium deposit contains high concentrations of spodumene - the primary lithium-bearing mineral used in battery production. Its reserve is estimated as 13.8 million tonnes of lithium ores. Extracting it requires an estimated US$10–20 million in exploration investment before mining can begin. The Polokhivske deposit at is approximately 270 thousand tons of lithium is considered one of the best lithium sites in Europe because of its favourable geological conditions, making extraction more economically viable. The war with Russia has disrupted mining operations and damaged infrastructure. The price of lithium has surged from US$1,500 per ton in the 1990s to around $20,000 per ton in recent years. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of electric vehicles is projected to exceed 125 million by 2030. A Tesla Model S battery requires approximately 63kg of high-purity lithium. Major automakers are investing billions in electric vehicle production - around 80% of the lithium produced globally is used for battery production. Demand is expected to increase nearly 40-fold by 2040. According to the US geological survey, Ukraine ranks globally as the third-largest producer of the mineral rutile – making up 15.7% of world’s total output. It is the sixth-largest producer of iron ore (3.2% of total output) and titanium (5.8%), as well as the seventh-largest producer of manganese ore (3.1%). Ukraine also has Europe’s largest uranium reserves, crucial for nuclear power and weapons and rare earth elements, including neodymium and dysprosium, which are needed for manufacturing everything from smartphones to wind turbines and electric motors. It is home to the world’s largest proven reserves of manganese ores. There’s approximately 2.4 billion tonnes of it concentrated primarily in the Nikopol Basin on the southern slope of the Ukrainian Shield. The strategic significance of Ukraine’s minerals has gained recognition in international diplomacy. A proposed minerals deal with the US would involve Ukraine contributing 50% of future proceeds from state-owned mineral resources, oil and gas and other extractable materials to a reconstruction investment fund for Ukraine’s post-war rebuilding. The fund would be jointly managed by Kyiv and Washington. Getting access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for military protection means the US can avoid having to buy these minerals from China. Ukraine’s mineral wealth positions it as a potential leader in the clean energy revolution. Even with a 50% allocation to the US, it would still be able to fund domestic infrastructure, industry growth, jobs, economic recovery. (Source: The Conversation, a network of media outlets online. Headquarters Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
by Raji, Research Fellow of Geology, University of Plymouth – United Kingdom)

(9 March 2025)  Russia has already taken back more than two-thirds of its territory in Kursk initially seized by Ukraine. /Photo/ (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates)

Europe
10/03/2025  ’Faced with the United States' withdrawal’, the 27 ’EU member states are taking their security back into their own hands, giving the green light to a plan to rearm Europe, including a budget of €800 billion’. The European Commission has also proposed that member states derogate from the EU's orthodox budgetary rules to finance their defence spending. Dissenting voices are speaking out against the continent's further armament. 'The rearmament of Europe is the next great folly of the European Union," declared Varoufakis, the co-founder of the pan-European leftist DiEM25 movement. "It's going to make us less safe. It will make life nastier, more brutish, shorter in Europe," he added. He believes that defence spending will not generate growth where it is needed. He believes expanding Europe's military would 'dissolve the social fabric' without guaranteeing security. 'It's a way of weakening Europe in the name of making it stronger,' Varoufakis explained. In Germany, Chancellor-in-waiting Merz has opened the door to ’relaxing the debt brake’ to allow investment in the country's infrastructure and defence. ’This is a 180 turnaround’ for the otherwise prudent country, which favoured strict fiscal rules for Greece during the financial crisis'. As the former Greek finance minister who opposed Europe's austerity policy, Varoufakis positively greeted this paradigm shift - albeit with some reservations. "Instead of investing in life, he is investing mostly in death. And if you look at it from a realistic macroeconomic point of view, this is not going to generate growth where it is necessary," Varoufakis explained. "When you buy ammunition, when you buy shells and put them on a shelf, this is not a productive investment." Varoufakis instead calls on Europe to put its own peace plan on the table. "We need to counter-propose our own peace plan. Rearming Europe, buying more weaponry from British Aerospace, from Dallas, from Rheinmetall, this is not going to make any difference to Ukraine. Ukraine needs a peace plan from Europe now". "Pacifism is never a good response to invasion, but opting for endless war is not rational either," Varoufakis concluded. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

(9 March 2025)  The recent abrupt turn in US foreign policy calls into question a whole range of things the world has taken absolutely for granted. Europe could weigh Trump risk to its US weapons systems. When US foreign policy abruptly changes, the aircraft remain - but contractors, spare parts and badly needed software updates suddenly disappear. Within weeks, more than half the aircraft are grounded. This was the reality for Afghanistan in 2021. Today, a similar spectre haunts US allies in Europe. Many European governments are feeling buyers’ remorse for decades of US arms purchases that have left them dependent on Washington for the continued functioning of their weaponry. If they see how Trump is dealing with Zelenskyy, they should be worried. The Nordic and Baltic states need to think: Will he do the same to us? Most European militaries depend heavily on the US for communications support, for electronic warfare support, and for ammunition resupply in any serious conflict. America was accounting for 55 per cent of Europe’s defence equipment imports between 2019 and 2023 - up from 35 per cent in the previous five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. An appraisal of dependencies and vulnerabilities across international partners - including the US.- would allow reflection on whether there needs to be any strategic changes. What’s the point of Denmark sending F-35s to protect Greenland? Whether the F-35s would fly if the US did not want them to? The plane relies on continuous updates and maintenance support from the US through its Autonomic Logistics Information System - which is to be replaced by a successor programme known as Odin, the Operational Data Integrated Network. The systems manage everything from mission planning and threat databases to maintenance diagnostics. The problem with really sophisticated defence equipment is that it needs so much support from the vendor, that if the vendor decides to stop supporting it, the equipment stops working, if not instantaneously then very, very quickly. More than half of Europe’s advanced combat aircraft - mainly the F-35 and the F-16 - are bought from the US. The UK - a top buyer that makes many parts for the plane - asked for guarantees of operational sovereignty, but no US ally has Washington’s level of access to the source code for the system. Britain’s deterrent has come under particular scrutiny because it relies on submarines armed with Trident ballistic missiles. These missiles are leased from the US and regularly return to the US base in King’s Bay, Georgia for maintenance. Missile testing is also carried out under US supervision at Cape Canaveral in Florida. This reliance is a constraint on the independence of the system. Trident is part of the Mutual Defence Agreement between the US and UK that was prolonged indefinitely when it was re-ratified last November. Given the role the US plays in maintenance, Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners argued Britain should at least investigate the possibility of using France’s M51 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. France and Britain are the only nuclear powers in Europe. Important parts of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance airborne fleet in Europe was effectively mortgaged to the US and predicated on their collaboration. Specific examples include the UK’s Rivet Joint spy planes, P8 Poseidon submarine hunters (used by Norway and ordered by Germany), Wedgetail early warning aircraft, and Protector drones. Many European nations use the US Reaper drone, made by General Atomics, which relies on US-provided satellite communication links and software support. Italy and France needed a lengthy US permission process to equip the drones with missiles. The concern in European capitals is not so much about specific weapon systems but the potential for the US to withdraw communications support and information sharing across any platform, from fighter jets to Chinook and Apache helicopters as well as air-defence systems such as the Patriot. While Trump may have rattled the transatlantic alliance, Finkielman, director of DI Danish Defence and Security Industries, said day-to-day contacts on the industry side continued as normal. “There is a lot of uneasiness about what’s going to happen, but up until now we haven’t felt any changes in the relationship with the US.” Finkielman noted that Denmark made more than 100 parts for F-35 aircraft itself, and was one of many national suppliers. “I don’t know what capability the US has to produce them if they don’t get the Danish elements,” he said. The chief victim of the uncertainty, meanwhile, is just as likely to be the US arms industry, rather than its European customers. Trust is something you can only break once. Shares in America’s leading defence groups have significantly lagged those of their European rivals, which have boomed since Trump’s return to the White House. Though no US orders have been cancelled, few doubt that Europe will begin taking a more independent approach. Heaven help the US arms industry. This is catastrophic from an export standpoint. (Source: Financial Times – United Kingdom)

Asia

Saudi Arabia
Monday, March 10, 2025  Zelenskiy travels to Saudi Arabia today. Ahead of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials on ending the war with Russia at an increasingly precarious moment for Kyiv, Zelenskiy is expected to meet the Saudi crown prince. He has said he will not attend tomorrow’s talks with U.S. officials, where the Ukrainian delegation will include his chief of staff, his foreign and defence ministers and a top military official in the presidential administration. Tomorrow’s talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials are expected to focus on a bilateral minerals deal and how to end the war. The United States has upended its wartime policies in its stated pursuit of a rapid end to the fighting, engaging directly with Moscow while cutting off military assistance and intelligence sharing for Kyiv. U.S. officials said they were planning to use the meeting with the Ukrainians in part to determine whether Kyiv is willing to make material concessions to Russia to end the war. Zelenskiy has said Kyiv is ready to sign the minerals deal with the U.S., which would create a joint fund from the sale of Ukrainian minerals. Washington says it is crucial to secure continued U.S. backing. Zelenskiy has called for a truce in the air and at sea, as well as a prisoner exchange, in what he says could be a test of Russia’s commitment to ending the war. Trump special envoy Witkoff, who has been arranging the talks, has said the idea is to “get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well”.“You can’t say ‘I want peace,’ and, ‘I refuse to compromise on anything’,” one of the officials said of the upcoming talks. “We want to see if the Ukrainians are interested not just in peace, but in a realistic peace,” a second U.S. official said: Trump said yesterday that he expected good results out of the upcoming talks, adding that the United States had “just about” ended a suspension of intelligence sharing with Kyiv. With U.S. support in question, Zelenskiy has been urging his European allies to ramp up their support as Kyiv’s battlefield position deteriorates and it faces mounting pressure to retreat from Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region are nearly surrounded by Russian forces, open source maps show. Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France, saying it was a bid to buy time for Kyiv and prevent its military collapse. (Source: DD News, an Indian state-owned Hindi news television channel / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Syria
03/10/2025  Some of the heartbreaking news that has come out of Syria recently: Boutros, a Greek Orthodox priest at the Church of St Elias in Tartus killed in cold blood; Kawi, in Latakia’s al-Datour neighbourhood; an entire family in the town of Banias – grandparents, parents, children – slaughtered in their home; a Christian man, Khoury, in the Syrian Maronite village of Dahr Safra; the mayor of Al-Mazraah, a Christian village in Wādī an-Naṣārá (Valley of Christians); two Christians – father and son – of Armenian origin, in Latakia; the father of Fr Bechara, a priest with the parish of Notre-Dame of the Annunciation, shot in Banias - dozens of men, seniors, women and even children killed, execution-style only because they were Christians, all killed by gunmen affiliated with the new Syrian government of President Sharaa (nom de guerre Julani). The Christian website Assyro-chaldéens, l'histoire continue cites local sources. (Source: AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), which headquarters Rome, Italy)

2025-03-09  The death toll from violent clashes in Syria’s coastal region has risen to more than 1,000, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported today. /Photo/ (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)

North America

United States
Monday 10 March 2025  US F-35 fighter jets are the most sophisticated aircraft available to Europe, purchased by 13 European countries. 'Washington can decline to update the AN/ALQ-131 electronic jamming equipment used by the F-16 fighter jets sent to Kyiv to repel Russian air defences. This would significantly reduce the strength of the F-16s'. European countries are now asking whether the same could happen to the fighter jets they have purchased. Such a move would break European trust in American weapons manufacturers, ultimately proving problematic in the long term. The US has not commented on whether they have the power to ‘kill’ a country’s use of weapons it has sold or leased. There is, however, precedent for countries suspending weapons purchases from the US due to such issues. In 2021, the United Arab Emirates indefinitely suspended the purchase of 50 F-35s, part of a $23 billion deal that also included drones and other advanced munitions, due to what one UAE official described as “sovereign operational restrictions”. Last week, Switzerland’s defence ministry admitted no advanced Western fighter jets were fully independent of US secure data communication systems and GPS satellite navigation. As Germany prepares to receive 35 F-35s in 2026, which cost them €8.3 billion, plus several billion more for the associated infrastructure, local MPs are questioning whether they, like the UAE, should never have made the purchase. (Source: Independent - United Kingdom)

3/10/2025  The US president's recent remarks reveal that Washington 'is no longer committed to defending Japan, South Korea or Taiwan', an analyst says. US President Trump has issued what analysts are calling an "advance warning" to Japan and South Korea. Last Thursday, he called the long-standing US-Japan security treaty unfair. "I love Japan," the US president declared. "We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don't have to protect us.” The Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States, signed in 1951 and updated in 1960, commits Washington to defend Japan if it is attacked. However, Japan has no reciprocal obligation to come to America's aid. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba responded cautiously. "Japan has no obligation to protect the US, that is true, but Japan is obliged to provide bases for the US," he said. The agreement has allowed the US to establish military bases across Japan, which today house around 50,000 American service members. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said he had "complete confidence that the US will use all of its capabilities, including nuclear, to fulfil its obligations under the Japan-US security treaty". Trump is expected to demand that both Tokyo and Seoul pay far more for the American troops stationed on their soil, threatening withdrawal if his terms are not met. Trump might become less demanding of Japan in the near term if Washington finds itself short of allies. "We have been supporting the whole world," Trump said last week, charging Europe with "ripping off" the US on trade and security. "We were supporting Nato. We were paying the bills for other countries." (Source: MSN - U.S./ South China Morning Post)

10/3/2025  The Trump administration is boosting a powerful force in global affairs: anti-Americanism. Canadians have taken to booing the American national anthem and Panamanians to burning US flags. The British tabloids have tarred and feathered Vice President Vance for insulting British troops. A carnival float in Dusseldorf, Germany, displayed giant puppets of Trump and his Russian counterpart, Putin, shaking hands while squeezing Zelenskiy between them into a bloodied pulp. A sign on the float read “Hitler-Stalin Pact 2.0.” Back at home, the Washington Post has published a guide on how to navigate hostility abroad (“dress neutrally, not patriotically”). Trump embodies critics of the US have always warned about. Yankee arrogance? He and Vance, in the Oval Office. Yankee imperialism? Trump will take over Greenland. Yankee incompetence? Tariffs destabilizing global stock markets, downgrading his own economy. A YouGov poll published March 4 shows positive feelings toward the US have fallen since Trump was elected. The smallest decline (from 48 to 42) is in Italy. The biggest (from 48 to 20) is in Denmark. The mass deportation of migrants starts and the tariffs take an increasing toll on the global economy. Living with America is like rooming with badly behaved teenagers who demand constant attention and think they have solved the mysteries of the universe. Before Trump won the election - wokery - has infuriated people on the right and center with its weaponization of cultural tensions. Its social media sites - particularly Facebook and X - are increasingly seen as agents of division and distraction rather than, creators of a global village. Champions of the US have traditionally defended the nation (and excused its failures) on three grounds: that, as the world’s greatest power, the US provides stability and security; as the world’s leading liberal democracy. The US is becoming a source of global instability, swinging between extremes (President Bush’s crusading democracy promotion to Trump’s isolationism). Under Trump, the US is groveling to the world’s biggest enemy of liberal democracy, Putin. What can pro-Americans fight for today? Nobody outside the US embraces its tariffs. Nobody outside the axis of autocracy backs Trump’s strongman-first foreign policy. Anti-Americanism sentiment is already eroding the domestic support of populist politicians who have aligned themselves with him. Farage’s closeness to Trump could prove to be an electoral problem for Reform. The Canadian Conservative Party, which has enjoyed a massive lead in the polls over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals for two years, has seen its advantage evaporate since January. Western powers are forging alliances that exclude (or at least don’t include) the US. The European Union, particularly in Germany, is beginning to take its military destiny in its hands. The EU has struck trade deals with Latin America and Malaysia and has made various side accords with Canada and China. A number of its allies regard the US, as ’a rogue superpower, a mercantilist behemoth determined to squeeze every ounce of wealth and power from the rest of the world.’ What used to be called nonaligned powers are queuing up to join the BRICS group of emerging-market nations. The genie of anti-Americanism is now not only out of the bottle but doing immense damage. It will take many years to regain the trust of the free world. (Source: MSN / 'The Economic Times – India')
Note: Indian (?) moodmongering

March 10, 2025  Ukraine must cede territory in any peace deal, Rubio says. The secretary of state, heading to talks with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia, said future talks with Moscow will be needed to determine what Russia is willing to give up to end the war. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

10 Mar 2025  SpaceX CEO insists he will not cut Ukraine’s access to internet service despite his disagreements with Kyiv. Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski suggested that Poland, which pays Ukraine’s Starlink costs, might have to seek alternative suppliers if Musk’s satellite network proves to be an 'unreliable provider'. He made the comments after Musk said the Ukrainian army’s “entire front line would collapse” without Starlink. Musk later lashed out at Sikorski himself, posting: “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.” Poland funded about half of the estimated 42,000 Starlink terminals operating in Ukraine at the cost of about $50 million per year. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

.5 3 10 17:39

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Europe

Hungary
March 8, 2025  Hungary and the United States will agree on an economic cooperation package. According to Reuters, Hungarian PM Orbán stated that the economic package would expand the existing political alliance between the two countries. PM Orbán, who has supported U.S. President Trump since his previous term, said that such an economic agreement would help Hungary even if a trade war between the U.S. and the European Union breaks out. Last week, President Trump stated that his administration would soon announce a 25 percent tariff on goods from the EU, which he described as having been created to “screw” the United States. “Hungary will suffer losses [in a trade war], just like all European Union member states. We do not yet know its extent, but we can be sure that it will happen,” Orbán said at the annual conference of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He added that Hungary has a good chance of reaching an agreement with Washington and that the package may restrict or entirely negate the effect of a possible trade war within Hungary. Hungarian officials are currently negotiating with the U.S. to renew a tax treaty that the previous American administration terminated, according to Orbán. ’Hungary is isolated,’ President of the European Council Costa declared in 6 March, at the end of a special EU summit that saw Viktor Orbán voting against the approval of joint conclusions in support of Ukraine, forcing leaders to go ahead with an attached „extract” endorsed by 26. We respect Hungary’s position, but it’s one out of 27. And 26 are more than one, Costa said after an EU summit focused on Ukraine’s future. The concluding text of the summit speaks about ’peace through strength,’ military assistance and security guarantees for Kyiv, all of which Orbán opposed. Before the summit, the Hungarian prime minister publicly signaled his intention to veto the proposed language, arguing that it ran contrary to U.S. President Trump’s deal-making initiative, to which Orbán has firmly aligned himself. After disengaging Hungary from the EU Council decision to continue offering military assistance to Ukraine, Orbán believes that the possible tax treaty with the U.S. will help Hungary “offset, at a national economic level, the losses caused by U.S. tariffs imposed on Europe and will provide compensation both in monetary and real economic terms.” (Source: Greek Reporter – the international Greek news network)
By Chrysopoulos

Asia

Gaza
March 8, 2025  After receiving pushback from the U.S. and Israel, the $53 billion Arab-backed Egyptian plan for the reconstruction of Gaza has garnered support from France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. The plan was meant to counter Trump's Gaza takeover proposal. 'The plan shows a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and promises – if implemented – swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza,' the foreign ministers wrote in a joint statement. The foreign ministers called for a post-war plan based on'"a solid political and security framework,' but reiterated the need for Hamas to not be able to govern Gaza. Additionally, the European leaders said that they are supportive of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) 'central role' in a post-war Gaza and 'the implementation of its reform agenda.' /Photo/ (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

North America

Caribbean

Mar 09, 2025  The past few decades have seen a dramatic increase in Chinese economic and diplomatic influence across the the Caribbean, with one foreign policy expert telling that Beijing wants to "turn the Caribbean Sea into a Chinese lake." Chinese trade with the Caribbean went from $1 billion in 2002 to $8 billion in 2019, when $6.1 billion worth of Chinese exports and $1.9 billion in imports were recorded. While individual Chinese companies primarily have commercial objectives, Beijing is keeping a close eye on the wider strategic picture. As of 2022, ten Caribbean countries had signed up to Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative: Cuba, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. China is funding major Chinese projects, including the development of a $3 billion deep-water port on Grand Bahama, just 55 miles from the U.S. mainland, a $600 million investment to improve the Dominican Republic's electricity grid, $2.1 billion worth of projects in Jamaica and $773 million in Suriname. "On a per capita basis, there is no other part of the Western Hemisphere that receives the quantity of trips for its police and defense force officials two Chinese military institutions, gifts of police and military vehicles and material, visits by Chinese hospital ships, and other [People's Liberation Army] military diplomacy as does the Caribbean," Ellis, a research professor at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute who specializes in the relationship between Latin America and China, said. "The Trump administration could easily employ a carrot and stick approach to roll this back however, by offering trade and investment inducements of its own while making clear the consequences of ignoring a generous offer", Mendoza, executive director of the London-based security think tank the Henry Jackson Society, told. Five of the 12 countries in the world that were recognizing Taiwan, were in the Caribbean and Central America. In a victory for the U.S. president earlier this month, CK Hutchison Holdings, the Hong Kong-based company that owned two ports by the Panama Canal, announced it had sold them to an American BlackRock-led acquisition in a $23 billion deal. China and Russia've got a number of dumpster fires basically on the doorstep of the United States. Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and of course Haiti now. What they're counting on Latin America for is being able to lock down a theater of operations. We're talking about reducing the operations of the United States in the theater of conflict. The Biden administration requested $2.2 billion in USAID assistance for the Caribbean and Latin America in the 2025 fiscal year, so these cuts could significantly impact U.S. influence in the region. (Source: Newsweek - U.S.)

United States
Sat March 8, 2025  "Vance is a fascinating character. He rose from a hard scrabble upbringing in the Appalachians to the Ivy League. He’s exceedingly smart – one reason why his political positioning is often taken as evidence of nefarious calculation. Vance, who briefly served as an Ohio senator, despises traditional media and Washington elites so he’s a natural fit with Trump’s populism. He’s also a US Marine veteran – so he ought to know better about the contribution of US allies to the war on terror. And he got rich in Silicon Valley and has an in with the big tech barons who’ve moved sharply to the right and embraced Trump in his second term. The vice president made his name with “Hillbilly Elegy” a memoir about his childhood in deprived areas of Ohio and Kentucky. The 2016 book explained how deindustrialization fostered poverty and drug addiction and an eventual political backlash against globalized free trade policies. It became a kind of handbook for understanding Trump supporters in his first term. Given that background, it’s not surprising that Vance produced the campaign’s most eloquent arguments for an America First economic policy. At 40, he’s a potential heir to Trump – although the president amusingly refused to anoint him in a recent interview, unwilling to think about ceding his throne so soon. Vance is the epitome of what many Europeans disdain about America. An isolationist, he sees no vital national interest in Ukraine. His bluntness and hint of smugness irk many foreigners, as does his support for Europe’s far-right – including Germany’s extremist AfD. A day before confronting Zelensky in the Oval Office, he rebuked Keir Starmer over free speech in the UK – although the British PM shut him down. Since Vance is young, ambitious, ideological, and has an apparent chip on his shoulder about establishment intellectuals, there’s one vice president he does remind us of Nixon. When Nixon joined Eisenhower’s ticket in 1952, he’d spent about enough time in the Senate to have a cup of coffee – just like Vance. And like his 21st century successor, he was a new breed of GOP ideologue – while the current VP upbraids “woke” liberals, Nixon hounded supposed communists living in the United States. And like Vance, Nixon had his eye on higher things. His ambitions and penchant for the dark side of politics sometimes caused tensions with his more experienced boss – a possible omen for the relationship between Trump and Vance. Nixon used his eight-year vice presidency as a crash course in global affairs that was key to his success as a statesman after he finally won the big job in 1968. Vance however seems unlikely to emulate Nixon’s long global odysseys – he has political interests back home. (Source: CNN - U.S.)

(Saturday), 08 October 2024  The United States has told its allies that it does not plan to participate in military exercises in Europe, ’according to reports’. Trump’s pivot away from the bloc, would see America pull out of exercises beyond those already scheduled for this year. It means that Nato countries will be forced to plan exercises without the participation of the US military, the largest in the alliance. Yesterday, Mr Trump warned that the US may not defend Nato allies who do not meet the spending target. “When I came to Nato, when I first had my first meeting, I noticed that people weren’t paying their bills at all, and I said I should wait till my second meeting”. “And I did. And I brought that up, and I said, ‘If you don’t pay your bills, we’re not going to participate. We’re not going to protect you.’ “And when I said that, as soon as they said that, it was amazing how the money came in, the money came in, and now they have money. But even now, it’s not enough. They should be paying more.’ The Trump administration is redrawing Nato engagement in a way that favours member countries with higher defence spending. The president is said to be considering prioritising military exercises with member countries that are spending the set percentage of GDP on their defence, officials told NBC. The Telegraph reported on yesterday that Mr Trump is also considering pulling US troops out of Germany and redeploying them to Eastern Europe. He is understood to be weighing up „withdrawing some 35,000 active personnel and moving them to Hungary’. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)
by Stringer, Deputy US Editor

.5 2 10 16:23

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Europe

Hungary
(Friday), Mar 07, 2025  The EU cannot afford to finance Ukraine's military efforts as U.S. financial aid is no longer guaranteed, Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán said today after the leaders of 26 EU countries signed a statement voicing support for Ukraine without Hungary. Orbán, who has refused to send weapons to Ukraine since the start of the war, and kept close relations with Moscow, said that instead of prolonging the war, Europe should support Trump's peace talks. European leaders yesterday backed plans to spend more on defence and continue to stand by Ukraine in a world upended by Trump's reversal of U.S. policies. The Hungarian PM said the way the EU wants to support Ukraine now, while also boosting Europe's own defence spending, would "ruin Europe." Orbán, an ally of U.S. President Trump, who is also cultivating ties with Moscow, told state radio that his government would launch a domestic, state-funded "public consultation" on Ukraine's European Union accession in the coming weeks. "If now the US quits (financing the war)...why would the other 26 member states have a chance to take this war to the end?," Orbán told state radio. "Today it appears that I have vetoed. But within weeks they will come back and it will turn out that there is no money for these goals." Trump has said Europe must take more responsibility for its security. Yesterday he cast doubt on his willingness to defend Washington's NATO allies, saying that he would not do so if they are not paying enough for their own defense. His decision to shift from staunch U.S. support for Ukraine to a more conciliatory stance towards Moscow has deeply alarmed Europeans who see Russia ’as the biggest threat’. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom / The Straits Times - Singapore)

07/03/2025  In a post shared on X, shortly after the Trump-Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting, Orbán, the leader of the ruling Fidesz party wrote, "strong men make peace, weak men make war," praising Trump for standing "bravely for peace". Orbán has long been one of the EU's most vocal critics. Friendly with Russian President Putin, the Hungarian premier has consistently blocked European military support packages for Ukraine, claiming that Western support prolongs Russia's war. The Hungarian prime minister has urged the EU to follow in Trump’s footsteps and open up direct talks with the Kremlin while blocking the approval of joint conclusions supporting Ukraine at a summit held by Europe's 27 leaders in Brussels yesterday. (Source: Euronews, based in Lyon, France)

Poland
(7 March 2025)  Poland announces military training plan for all men. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

European Union
(Friday), 07.03.2025  The EU leaders had a videoconference meeting with leaders of Türkiye, the UK, Canada, Norway, and Iceland -- states that are a member of NATO and not of the EU, said Costa, the president of the European Council yesterday. They debriefed the leaders on the decisions taken at the European Council yesteray night and their meeting with Zelenskyy. During the meeting, Costa focused on Ukraine, while der Leyen on defense issues. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
Friday 07 March 2025  If someone got their passport in August 2022 or earlier, they are most certainly pro-Russian. Around 3.5 million Russian passports have been issued to 'Ukrainians', Moscow’s interior minister Kolokoltsev said. This means around 700,000 have been issued since March 2024, when 2.8 million had been handed out. A Russian law stipulated that anyone in the occupied territories who did not have a Russian passport by 1 July 2024 was subject to imprisonment as a “foreign citizen”. Incentives are also offered as part of the passport, including a stipend to leave the occupied territory and move to Russia, pensions for retirees, humanitarian aid, and money for new parents who have children with Russian birth certificates. After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Russian citizenship was automatically given to permanent residents of the peninsula and those who refused lost rights to jobs, healthcare and property. Hundreds of properties deemed “abandoned” were seized by the Russian government after officials said a Russian passport was needed to prove property ownership. (Source: Independent - United Kingdom)

March 7, 2025, Friday  On March 6, Russian President Putin reiterated that any peace terms must provide long-term security guarantees for Russia. Putin also stressed that Russia would not cede any territory in future negotiations. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov stated that Moscow would view any peacekeeping presence as NATO’s direct involvement in the war. Spokesperson Zakharova reinforced this stance, rejecting any proposals that could allow Ukraine time to regroup on the battlefield. Lavrov also claimed that Russia’s demands include halting NATO’s expansion and obtaining security assurances, suggesting that U.S. President Trump understands these concerns while European nations do not. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

Asia

China
Mar 07, 2025  (Trump's) 'apparent readiness to throw NATO and Europe under the bus in order to placate Putin for reasons that are still not well understood could seriously trigger a dark age of chaos'. (Source: China - US Focus, published by the China-United States Exchange Foundation, based in Hong Kong)
'by Cunningham, an independent Scholar' 

Syria
March 7, 2025  More than 70 people were killed, and several others injured after forces loyal to ousted Syrian President Assad clashed with government personnel in country's coastal region, a stronghold of the Alawite minority community. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, the victims comprised 35 government personnel, 32 Assad loyalists and four civilians. A curfew has been imposed in the port cities of Latakia, Tartous and Homs, where the deadly clashes broke out yesterday after Syrian government forces were ambushed during a security operation. The militants took control of military areas, especially the Istamo and Qardaha airports, and fortified themselves in the Latakia mountains. (Source: India Today)

North America

United States
07 March 2025 6:00pm GMT  Trump considers pulling troops out of Germany. 'It is understood that the president is considering redeploying personnel to Hungary, which has maintained a close relationship with Russia'. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)
by Stringer, Deputy US Editor

March 7, 2025  Pentagon is placing probationary employees on leave in advance of mass firings The terminations are expected within weeks under plans to fire nearly one-tenth of DOD’s 55,000 “probies.” (Source: Defense One - U.S.)

7 March 2025 "Most Americans outside the rarefied corridors of power don’t feel particularly threatened by Russia’s regional aggressions, and don’t particularly care what territorial accommodations Ukraine might need to make to preserve its sovereignty. They have however noticed that China has ransacked the American industrial base, and that their past leaders connived in the destruction. If extreme measures like tariffs are needed to revive American manufacturing, then so be it. Their president represents American interests, and not necessarily yours. Unlike your EU, which assiduously guards its rule makers from democratic interference, Americans can overrule their elites at the ballot box and install new leaders with new plans. That you decry this recently demonstrated capacity as a threat to democracy reveals your true view of the institution: a tame beast safely caged and posing no real threat to the likes of der Leyen. EU foreign minister Kallas may believe she can dismiss Trump as the leader of the free world, but a reasonably well-informed American may ask whether her Europe is quite so free as to constitute a community of shared values with the United States. Upstart populist parties and their supporters are excluded from power and surveilled by state security. Elections and referendums resulting in a 'wrong' result are overturned or rerun until a 'correct' vote is achieved. Social media companies can be beggared with multi-billion euro fines for failing to censor free speech. An online jest at a politician’s expense may warrant a police visit. Decades ago, Kundera told Europeans that freedom was the right to make a joke about your leaders. Green party leader Habeck, who has filed hundreds of legal actions against his fellow Germans for ridiculing him online, prefers state coercion to personal embarrassment. "In just a few weeks, President Trump has done more to shift the defence burden onto our allies than any prior US president. Incoming Chancellor Merz may believe he is striking a courageous pose by proclaiming the end of Europe’s security dependence, but this is exactly what Trump and many Americans want from our wealthy German ally. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)
by Pfefferkorn

Mar 7 2025  A TOP secret US spaceship has touched down on Earth after spending 434 days in orbit. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 landed at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California where it was met by hazmat-clad ground crew. The X-37B completed a never-before-seen aerobraking manoeuvre to change its orbit. Aerobraking involves making several passes into the Earth's atmosphere which causes drag to rapidly change the craft's orbit. In doing so, the spaceship expends minimal fuel, making it temporarily invisible to other nations who could be tracking it. The X-37B is a "dynamic unmanned spaceplane", meaning it needs no crew to operate. The shuttle is reusable, making it ideal for testing. It's first visit to space was in 2011. (Source: The U.S.Sun)

07/03/2025  US space company Maxar Technologies today blocked access to its US government-funded satellite images for Ukraine, after the administration of US President Trump stopped sharing information with Kyiv. (Source: DW - Germany)

March 7, 2025  The Federal Aviation Administration halted flights at multiple Florida airports after a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded yesterday night. The eighth Starship test flight attempt also ended in the craft’s disintegration. (Source: Madiaite - U.S.)

.5 3 10 10:13

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Europe

Hungary
06.03.2025  Hungary is on the same page with other European countries on the need to strengthen defense capabilities, the prime minister said today. “My meetings in France confirmed that while we may disagree on the modalities of peace, we do agree that we must strengthen the defense capabilities of European nations,” Viktor Orbán said on X following his yesterday meeting with French President Macron in Paris, ahead of today's European Council’s special summit on European defense and Ukraine in Brussels. Orbán underscored that efforts for defense reinforcement should empower member states rather than Brussels bureaucrats. “We will continue to be in agreement that we do not want to create a super-state in Brussels, and we do not want to subordinate our independence and sovereignty to anyone, including Brussels,” he added. Orbán also assured that Franco-Hungarian relations are in good shape with an exceptionally close cooperation both politically and economically. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

France
06/03/2025 - 05:42  Macron said that a meeting of army chiefs of staff of European nations willing to be involved in possibly deploying European forces is to be held in Paris next week to make sure Russia would not invade Ukraine 'again' after a potential peace deal is signed. Those forces 'would not fight on the front line, but they would be there', once peace has been signed, to guarantee that it is fully respected, he said. (Source: France 24)

European Council
Thu, 06 Mar, 2025  Facing the possibility of a 'fundamental disengagement' under US President Trump, European Union leaders opened a day of emergency summit talks at the European Council building in Brussels today, to beef up their own military defences and make sure Ukraine will still be properly protected by its allies. Today’s summit is unlikely to produce immediate decisions on spending for Ukraine or its own defences. Another EU summit where the real contours of decisions would be 'much clearer' is set for March 20-21. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland)

Moldova
6 March 2025  EU-friendly Moldova’s foreign ministry said it had in no way violated the 1960 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and has rejected allegations by Russia that it had violated diplomatic conventions by declining to formally accept the credentials of Moscow’s ambassador. On March 5, the ex-Soviet State’s pro-European Union President Sandu made it clear she had not invited the ambassador to obtain his accreditation because the Kremlin had been “disrespectful” to Moldova. The Russian ministry said its ambassador, Ozerov, had not been asked to present his credentials to Sandu despite being in Moldova since last October. (Source: Brussels Signal, based in Brussels, Belgium / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Russia
06.03.2025  Putin signed a decree appointing Darchiev as Russia’s ambassador to US. Darchiev’s predecessor Antonov completed his mission in Washington, DC in October 2024. A former researcher specializing in North American studies, focusing on both Canada and the US, Darchiev, 64, comes from an academic background. Fluent in English and French, Darchiev has been serving in Russia’s diplomatic corps since 1992, some 10 years in the US and Canada at the Russian Embassy. From Oct. 24, 2014, to Jan. 11, 2021, he served as Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada. He then returned to Moscow to assume the role of the director of the North Atlantic Department, where he served until his recent appointment. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

06/03/2025  About Moscow’s ’threat to Europe’. Russia has responded with scorn to French President Macron’s televised speech - in which he warned that Russia poses a direct threat to France and Europe - as exaggerated fearmongering and accused him of fuelling unnecessary tensions. Kosachev, a senior Russian senator, claimed Macron had fundamentally misinterpreted Russia’s actions, insisting that the French president was misleading his own citizens and allies. arguing that Moscow was merely reacting to NATO expansion rather than pursuing aggression. While President Putin continues to dismiss NATO’s concerns, Ukraine and its allies argue that Russia’s actions amount to an imperial land grab. Kremlin-aligned commentators accused the French leader of distorting reality, with former Kremlin adviser Markov claiming Macron was engaging in slander and military propaganda against Russia. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Zakharova, ridiculed Macron’s assertion that France has the most effective military in Europe, suggesting that he might want to put that claim to the test. Former Russian President Medvedev mockingly referred to Macron as Micron and predicted his political downfall by 2027. Macron’s speech, delivered in a national address on yesterday evening, framed Russia as a clear and present danger to Europe. He described the war in Ukraine as a global conflict and even floated the idea of extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European allies – an idea that has sparked considerable debate. Macron directly stated: Russia has already turned the Ukrainian conflict into a global conflict. ’President Putin's Russia violates our borders to assassinate opponents and manipulates elections in Romania and Moldova. It is organising digital attacks on our hospitals to stop them operating. Russia is trying to manipulate our opinions with lies spread on social networks’. His remarks come at a time when European support for Ukraine is facing growing uncertainty. Divisions within the European Union over military aid and financial commitments have further complicated the situation. As European leaders gather in Brussels for a summit on supporting Ukraine, they are confronted with the challenge of maintaining a united front. With Russian forces advancing on the battlefield and Western backing wavering, the EU’s discussions are centered ’on reinforcing Ukraine’s defences and ensuring that Europe does not falter in its commitments’. (Source: rfi – France)

03/06/2025  The new balance between the USA, China and Russia. Russian observers say change of guard in Washington has meant China is no longer able to benefit from the conflict in Ukraine, but has been reduced to the role of onlooker. On 27 February, Lin, a representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, observed that ‘relations between China and Russia will continue to develop steadily, despite changes in the international situation’. These statements came the day after the US Secretary of State, Rubio, declared in an interview that Trump intended to modify relations with China, to ‘prevent any form of dependence’ on it. On 28 February, the Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, Shoigu, immediately travelled to Beijing to meet with President Xi and senior Chinese foreign policy officials to ensure that Moscow adheres to China's positions on all regional and international issues. He himself emphasised that ‘the meeting was arranged at very short notice’, basically admitting that he had been ‘summoned’ by the Chinese leadership. Does Beijing call Moscow to account for its new relationship with Trump? Sharipzhanov, a commentator for Radio Svoboda, wonders if the Chinese leadership believes that ‘there is an attempt by Washington to provoke a schism in Russian-Chinese relations’, and to what extent the impromptu summit is due to the irritation of Xi and Foreign Minister Wan. Another worrying sign for Beijing was the vote at the UN on 26th February, when the USA refused to approve the resolution condemning Russia's aggression, assigning Europe the responsibility for security in Ukraine, leading various European leaders to declare the need to become independent from the USA in order to look after the whole of the European Union. According to Sharipzhanov, this ‘should be considered by China as a positive factor’, with Moscow's diplomatic successes in resolving the conflict in Ukraine, something that the leadership in Beijing had been hoping for since the beginning of the Russian invasion. In reality, in this way "China loses the opportunity to calmly observe the conflict's exhaustion, remaining on the sidelines", considering the war in Ukraine a test of the West's resilience. Many observers have expressed the opinion that the confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine makes China the only real beneficiary of the whole situation, and that ’Beijing only supports Moscow with words, while offering some (very cautious) support in circumventing sanctions and in the production of armaments’. The war weakens Russia and allows China ’to expand its influence over Siberia, the Far East’ and all of Central Asia, and makes the West less capable of defending Taiwan from Beijing's ambitions. Now the U-turn by the Trump administration radically changes the situation. With the possible end of the Ukrainian conflict, allowing Moscow to come out of international isolation, thanks to Washington's support - comments Sharipzhanov - ’the descendants of the great Confucius lose the chance to remain sitting on the branch, like the wise monkey waiting for the end of the fight between the two tigers, in which one of the two destroys the other in a deadly embrace, but remains so weakened that the monkey only has to jump on it to achieve full victory’. ’China has not forgotten a similar circumstance that brought ideological enemies closer together: in 1971 Kissinger arrived in Beijing to prepare for Nixon's visit the following year, which allowed China to come out of the closet on the international markets’ and begin the phase of its grandiose economic development, a circumstance that is also being recalled these days by Rubio. Kissinger himself later admitted that the turning towards China played an important role in weakening the USSR, and many are wondering if today the opposite effect might not occur, encouraging Moscow ’to hit back at China’. (Source: AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). headquartered in Rome, Italy)
by Rozanskij

Ukraine
March 6, 2025, Thursday  Several key allies of U.S. President Trump have held confidential talks with Ukrainian opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Tymoshenko and members of the party of former President Poroshenko. These discussions have centered around the possibility of holding presidential elections in Ukraine despite the ongoing martial law. Trump's allies are reportedly confident that Zelensky would lose any election due to growing public discontent over the prolonged conflict and widespread corruption. Zelensky has faced declining approval ratings. Recent polls suggest that he remains 'the most popular' figure in Ukraine, still holds a commanding lead, with 44% of support, while his main rivals - Zaluzhnyi and Poroshenko - are far behind, with Poroshenko securing only 10% and Tymoshenko a mere 5.7%. Both Tymoshenko and Poroshenko have publicly opposed holding elections before the war ends. Tymoshenko has been trying to recruit lawmakers from rival parties to form a new parliamentary majority, banking on the assumption that elections will soon be inevitable. "A growing portion of the population is advocating for peace talks". A majority are more focused on negotiating an end to the conflict, even if it requires significant concessions from Ukraine. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

United Kingdom
March 6, 2025  Zaluzhny, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom accused the United States under Trump of ’destroying’ the world order. Today, at the Chatham House think tank Zaluzhny - a former Ukrainian general sent to represent Kyiv in London last year - said actions by the White House under U.S. President Trump had called into question the unity of the whole Western world, as he attacked U.S. handling of the war in Ukraine. ’We see that it is not just the axis of evil and Russia trying to revise the world order, but the U.S. is finally destroying this order.’ He warned that Trump's negotiations with Russia for an end to the war were a sign the White House was making "steps towards the Kremlin, trying to meet them halfway." The ambassador suggested Moscow's next target ’could be Europe.’ The Ukrainian government appeared to distance itself from Zaluzhny's remarks today afternoon. Its foreign ministry responded that the opinion voiced by the Ukrainian ambassador had been his personal position. Zaluzhny previously served as the military's commander-in-chief and was widely praised for repelling Russia's full-scale invasion of February 2022. He was dismissed early last year after Kyiv's counter-offensive stalled, and Zaluzhny became the ambassador to the U.K. in July. (Source: Politico - Headquarters Arlington County, U.S., owned by a German media company)

March 6, 2025  The prime minister sees the U.K.'s national security as a primary function of his role as prime minister, Starmer’s spokesperson said today. Defense analysts in London called into question the future of the U.K.’s £3 billion-a-year Trident program, which relies heavily on U.S. cooperation to keep running. They are urging the British government to make contingency plans for its aging fleet of jointly-maintained nuclear-armed - Trident-armed - Vanguard submarines. Britain has operational control over its Trident nuclear arsenal. But the missiles, loaded on to four nuclear submarines, are U.S. manufactured, and jointly-maintained by the U.K. and U.S. They are subject to periodic refurbishing by the U.S.. Britain is already working on a replacement for the aging fleet with MPs in 2016 voting to renew the program and press ahead with newer so-called “Dreadnought”-class ballistic missile submarines over the coming years. Defense suppliers Rolls Royce and BAE Systems are working on that project. (Source: Politico)

6 March 2025  ’Contrary to the widespread view, Europeans have a lot of cards they can play. They have, for a start, $200bn of frozen Russian reserves that could be seized immediately and transferred to Ukraine. That sum would go a long way into building the best drone industrial complex in history, something Ukraine is already close to possessing'.    Eutelsat, a European rival to Musk’s satellite communications operator Starlink, said on 4 March that it was actively collaborating with European institutions and business partners, stressing that it had equipment that could enable the swift deployment of additional user terminals for critical missions and infrastructure even if Musk was to disable Starlink in Ukraine.     Also on 4 March, Merz announced a deal with Germany’s Social Democratic Party, his likely coalition partner, 'to exempt defence spending above 1 per cent of GDP from the debt brake' that caps government borrowing. He pledged that Germany would do ’whatever it takes’ to fend off ’threats to freedom and peace’ in Europe. The announcement sent German borrowing costs soaring. The mere suggestion that Europe will need to rearm itself has already given a significant boost to the ailing European economy. European stocks are leading the global markets this year, with double-digit gains of over 11 per cent. So far in 2025, the seven stocks that make up the Aerospace and Defence Index in Europe have gained over 20 per cent, leaving America’s Magnificent Seven stocks - that is, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla - behind. If mere speculation about European rearmament has done this, imagine the effect of a new ’revolution in military affairs made in Europe and Ukraine’, ’a deliberate and coordinated effort to invest in the new generation of weapons systems’. (Source: New Statesman - a British news magazine, published in London, United Kingdom)

Asia

Taiwan
Mar 6, 2025, 10:55 AM  Taiwan’s Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant in Hengchun, Pingtung County, was reported to be releasing large plumes of thick black smoke around 11:30 a.m. local time today. (Source: MEHR News Agency - Iran)

North America

United States
March 6, 2025 U.S.  Secretary of State Rubio in an interview with Fox News on yesterday said the United States, by helping Ukraine is engaged in a “proxy war” with Russia. “It’s been very clear from the beginning that President Trump views this as a protracted, stalemated conflict. And frankly, it’s a proxy war between nuclear powers – the United States, helping Ukraine, and Russia – and it needs to come to an end,” Rubio said. „No one has any idea or any plan” on how to end the war, Rubio added. According to him, the Russian side has “made some progress,” but there are no signs that Russia is winning, so the conflict has reached a stalemate. “All the President is trying to do here is figure out if there’s a path towards peace. We have to engage both sides, the Russians and the Ukrainians,” Rubio said. (Source: Meduza - based in Riga, Latvia / U.S. State Department)

Thu 6 March 2025  U.S. President Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation. The move is expected as soon as April. White House press secretary Leavitt pushed back on the Reuters report in a post on X, saying "no decision has been made at this time." U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson McLaughlin said yesterday that the department had no new announcements. The planned rollback of protections is part of a broader Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the U.S. A Trump executive order issued on January 20 called for DHS to "terminate all categorical parole programs." These programs covered more than 70,000 Afghans escaping the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The administration plans to revoke parole for about 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans as soon as this month. An additional 1 million migrants scheduled a time to cross at a legal border crossing via an app known as CBP One. Thousands more had access to smaller programs, including family reunification parole for certain people in Latin America and the Caribbean. Migrants stripped of their parole status could face fast-track deportation proceedings. Immigrants who cross the border illegally can be put into the fast-track deportation process known as expedited removal, for two years after they enter. But for those who entered through legal ports of entry without being officially "admitted" to the U.S. - as with those on parole - there is no time limit on their rapid removal. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

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Europe

France
(Wednesday), 05/03/2025  In a primetime speech today, French President Macron said France 'will head towards a single goal, one of peace and freedom, true to its history, true of its own principles'. And he called for a major European rearmament. Macron said he will confer with European allies 'on the idea of using France's nuclear deterrent to protect' the continent 'in the face of threats from Russia'. 'Our nuclear deterrence protects us, French 'from Asia'. 'Russia has become now and will continue to be a threat for France and for Europe'. 'We want to ensure that that deterrence applies to all European allies, whatever to be', he said. 'The future of Europe is not going to be decided by Russia, or by Washington'. 'We have Germany, Poland, Denmark, the Baltic states and numerous partners have also announced that they are going to increase military spending. ''France has a unique role to play. We have the most effective army in all of Europe', 'a nuclear capacity'. He said that they have to make 'new budgetary decisions, additional spending which are now essential.' (Source: France 24)

Wed, 05 Mar, 2025  French President Macron has said he will confer with European allies on the idea of using France’s nuclear deterrent' to protect the continent in the face of threats from Russia'. EU leaders are set to address the issue of nuclear deterrence, among other issues, during a special summit in Brussels tomorrow, focusing on support for Ukraine and European defence. Macron said the use of France’s nuclear weapons would remain only in the hands of the French president. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland)

European Commission
(Wednesday), 05/03/2025  Yesterday, der Leyen said the EU plans to bolster Europe’s defence and military spending by activating a mechanism to mobilise €800 billion in special funds, stating that Europe is 'in an era of rearmament' and is 'ready to massively boost its defence spending.' This announcement came after Washington suspended all military aid to Ukraine on Monday. The commission calls for member states to increase their defence spending by 1.5% of GDP on average, unlocking €650 billion over the next four years. It has also proposed extending the €150 billion in loans. The proposal is yet to be discussed at a summit attended by the 27 national leaders in Brussels tomorrow. Germany faces constraints on fiscal spending due to the “debt break” law enacted in 2009, which limits the government budget deficit to 0.35% of GDP. France and Italy may struggle to boost their spending due to limited fiscal capacity. The European Investment Bank is set to propose expanding its mandate to finance projects dedicated to military use. The bank is currently only permitted to fund projects with both civilian and military applications. (Source: Euronews, headquarters Lyon, France)

European Council
05 March 2025  Preparations for emergency talks today between European Union leaders in Brussels were being dominated by Washington’s withdrawal of support to Ukraine. The bloc has agreed 'it must significantly step up defence spending as part of a wider European strategy to placate Mr Trump'. Hungary and Slovakia were successful in blocking leaders from making a political decision on a new support package for Ukraine, which would have supplied €20-30 billion in artillery shells, missiles and drones. The main thrust of discussions between leaders will be on what post-war security guarantees the EU’s 27 countries can offer Ukraine. The principal strategy on the table involves arming Ukraine as the first pillar of the security guarantees - strategy shared by a majority of member states. An official said it was premature to discuss possible troop deployments to Ukraine because there was no ceasefire or final peace settlement on the table. The senior EU official said that Costa, the president of the European Council, would brief non-EU allies, including Sir Keir, in a video conference after the summit, which will be attended by Mr Macron. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)

European Union
March 5, 2025  'Fortunately', Europe is on the verge of a “big bang” moment, which could unlock more than a trillion dollars in funding for European defense over the next decade. An emergency EU summit tomorrow will see European leaders take the first steps in their journey 'to save Ukraine and lead the free world'. If Putin judges that guarantees - and European troops - will only appear once the fighting stops, then he won’t stop fighting. 'A strong Ukrainian military, which cannot be defeated on the battlefield, is the only realistic impediment to Russia’s crude but effective attempts to dominate its near abroad using military force. 'NATO and EU leaders have also identified peace through Ukrainian strength as the best solution for keeping their own citizens safe. 'Europe has been the most generous, providing $138 billion (and committing another $120 billion), compared to $119 billion (and $4 billion) from the United States'. Europe has a plentiful supply of political goodwill toward Ukraine but lacks the fiscal and industrial capacity to make good on it. Ukraine now depends on the defense industry in Europe and elsewhere for two-thirds of its military aid. But current capacity is either low or nonexistent in key areas such as guided weapons, tanks, and aircraft. Meanwhile, the United States has the opposite problem: It can afford and produce much more, but the political desire to do so has disappeared under the new administration. This dramatic reversal in Washington’s policy leaves the burden of 'peace through Ukrainian strength' resting on Europe’s shoulders. Ukraine’s main backers are reaching the political and economic limits of what they can provide. The transatlantic security is no longer Washington’s foreign policy priority. The next NATO summit will take place in June in The Hague, the Netherlands. If every European member of NATO took that opportunity to raise defense spending from their current average of 2 percent to 3 percent - as at least four allies already did last year - it would raise nearly $200 billion. Germany alone could add $220 billion if it agrees on a new ’whatever it takes’ special fund for defense. If negotiations this year over the European Union’s next budget cycle (2028–2034) meet the target set by the bloc’s new defence commissioner, Kubilius, that could add $110 billion to EU defense spending (defense spending in the current cycle was only around $11 billion). If the European Commission is able to repurpose untapped Covid-19 recovery funds, it would make available up to $100 billion, while redirecting portions of the $50 billion EU “Cohesion Fund” - designed to help lower income member states through investment in environment and transport - could make several billion available for defense and security. If Europe agreed to liquidate Russia’s frozen assets, it could provide another $300 billion. As Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has urged: ’Let’s finance our aid for Ukraine from the Russian frozen assets.’ The original purpose of the London summit was to discuss the United Kingdom’s idea for a European “rearmament bank,” a joint fund to issue AAA-rated debt to finance increased defense spending across Europe. European defense’s big-bang moment could be worth well over a trillion dollars. Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting, der Leyen has already previewed some of the measures on the table as part of a package called “ReARM Europe.” These include relaxing the European Union’s fiscal rules on debt for defense spending, a loan program of up to €150 billion ($165 billion) backed by the European Union’s common budget, and reallocating some of the Cohesion Fund. These initial measures still require EU leaders to unanimously agree with them. The biggest threat comes from Hungary, although Budapest’s opposition appears to be narrowly focused on support to Ukraine rather than strengthening European defense writ large. Ukraine’s own defense industry already produces $30 billion a year in weapons. Ukraine is now the world’s largest manufacturer of military autonomous systems, able to make over 4.5 million drones per year. It plans to make 30,000 long-range drones and 3,000 missiles this year. Ukraine already makes 2.5 million artillery and mortar rounds annually. In the last year, Ukraine’s production of artillery systems tripled while production of armored vehicles increased fivefold. Ukrainian Defence Minister Umerov explained that while capacity will reach $37 billion this year, available funding is only $18 billion. In 2024, Denmark became the first country to order weapons made in Ukraine for use by Ukrainian armed forces. To date, around $950 million worth of Ukrainian-made artillery and drones have been ordered by Denmark and delivered to Ukraine. In October, the Netherlands announced a plan to purchase around $440 million of drones from Ukraine, with a 50–50 production share. Last week Norway also committed to buy $312 million of drones and other military equipment from Ukrainian firms. Europe will continue to rely on U.S. companies for advanced air defense, combat aircraft, missile and long-range artillery systems, plus other technology. If Europe can generate a flood of new funding and transform its defense industry, "the only remaining question is what purpose would all this military power serve?" ’Deterrence and defense’. Through their urgent plan to ’rearm Europe,’ European leaders must find a way ’to unlock a trillion euros to fund large increases in defense spending and transform Europe’s industrial base’. One Wall Street Journal headline: “Trump, not Putin, forces Europe to get serious about defense.” After Friday’s shouting match in the Oval Office added more fuel to the fire, Kallas, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, declared: ’Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.’ The most important thing Europe can do for Ukraine and the free world is transform its ability to defend ’the continent from Russian aggression’. The consequences of the confrontation between Russia and the West are global. It is possible that Trump is betting that his unprecedented actions will provide the spark Europe needed to ignite its big bang transformation into a defense superpower. (Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington D.C., U.S.)
by Monaghan, a visiting fellow in the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Africa

Egypt
(5 March 2025)  Arab leaders have approved a reconstruction plan for Gaza, spearheaded by Egypt in collaboration with Palestine. The initiative, now an official Arab League proposal, rejects any forced displacement of Palestinians and outlines a structured path for rebuilding the war-torn enclave. The plan includes clearing debris, restoring essential services, and securing international funding through a trust overseen by the World Bank. The framework preserves Gaza’s legal status as part of a future Palestinian state alongside the West Bank. Egypt will host an international conference in cooperation with the United Nations to coordinate global support. (Source: Africanews, based in Lyon, France. Owner: Euronews)

Central America

Panama
03/05/2025  The Hong Kong company CK Hutchison Holding, which manages two ports in the Panama Canal, one on the Atlantic Ocean and one on the Pacific Ocean, has agreed to sell the majority of its shares to a group led by the US investment company BlackRock for 22.8 billion dollars. Founded by billionaire Li, the company is not owned by the Chinese government, but has controlled the ports since 1997. /Source: AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). headquartered in Rome, Italy/

North America

United States
(Wednesday), 05/03/2025  Hungary's Foreign Minister Szijjártó yesterday met with US Secretary of State Rubio. According to a statement from the US State Department, "The Secretary underlined the urgency of ending the war in Ukraine and ensuring lasting peace and stability in the region." Szijjártó 's meeting with Rubio came as the Hungarian government threatened to oppose an EU bloc-wide accord or joint statement on Ukraine ahead of tomorrow's extraordinary summit dedicated to Ukraine and EU defence. In a ’Rearm Europe Plan’, EU Commission president der Leyen said yesterday that member states ’might raise as much as €800 billion to fund a significant defence increase’. Hungary, unlike the majority of European countries, has been a staunch critic of EU. Prime minister Viktor Orbán, has frequently criticised, and threatened to veto EU sanctions against Russia over its aggression but has ultimately always voted for them. On Sunday, some European leaders at a summit in London floated the idea of a ’coalition of the willing’ among member states that could send troops on the ground to Ukraine as a guarantee after a potential peace deal. Leaders of the UK, Canada, France, and other EU countries present at the summit also agreed to keep military aid flowing into Ukraine and to ensure any peace talks and agreements respect the country's sovereignty. Reacting to the summit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán slammed the idea and berated the leaders, saying they wanted ’to continue with the war instead of opting for peace.’ (Source: Euronews, based in Lyon, France)

05/03/2025  The United States has "paused" intelligence sharing with Ukraine after a breakdown in relations between Kyiv and the White House, CIA director Ratcliffe said today. (Source: France 24)

05.03.25  Request to the Grok 3 (beta) version of the artificial intelligence bot on Musk’s platform, X: "Analyse Trump’s speech to US Congress". The AI turned in a surprisingly cogent analysis, complete with reference to the “campaign promise to dismantle the federal bureaucracy, though the execution has drawn criticism for incompetence”.     “Since I don’t have the full text of President Trump’s 2025 speech to the U.S. Congress (delivered on March 4, 2025), I’ll provide an analysis based on the available context from the search results and general insights into Trump’s rhetorical style and policy priorities. This speech, his first joint address to Congress in his second term, offers a window into his agenda and approach after returning to office on January 20, 2025. Below is an analysis structured around key themes, delivery, audience reception, and implications, drawing on the details provided.    Key Themes    Triumphalism and Electoral Mandate:     Trump opened his speech with a strong assertion of victory, claiming “America is back” and touting his November 5, 2024, election win as a “mandate like has not been seen in many decades.” He highlighted winning all seven swing states, securing 312 Electoral College votes, and a significant popular vote margin. This framing aligns with his tendency to emphasize personal and political success, positioning his administration as a transformative force. However, reports note his victory margin was narrower than he suggested, indicating possible exaggeration to bolster his narrative of overwhelming support.    Policy Priorities:.   Economy and Tariffs:    Trump pushed his reciprocal tariff policy, set to begin April 2, 2025, arguing it would incentivize domestic production (“If you don’t make your product in America, you will pay a tariff”). He also praised the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Musk, for uncovering “hundreds of billions” in fraud - though specifics remain vague. Critics highlight his minimal focus on inflation, a pressing public concern, suggesting a disconnect from voter priorities.   Immigration:    Border security featured prominently, with Trump claiming a drastic reduction in border crossings (8,326 in February 2025, per his Truth Social post). He urged Congress to fund deportations and wall construction, though his administration’s deportation pace has lagged behind Biden’s, contradicting his campaign promises of mass deportations.   Foreign Policy:    Trump addressed peace efforts in Ukraine and the Middle East, announcing a freeze on U.S. military aid to Ukraine after a contentious meeting with President Zelenskyy. He recited a letter from Zelenskyy indicating a willingness to negotiate, claiming “strong signals” from Russia for peace. His brief mention of foreign policy (a few minutes in a 100-minute speech) and provocative ideas - like welcoming Greenland into the U.S. - signal a disruptive approach to global alliances.    Cultural Flashpoints and Government Overhaul    Trump celebrated eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, declaring, “Our country will be woke no longer,” aligning with his base’s cultural priorities. He also touted firing tens of thousands of federal workers, framing it as part of a broader government “reshaping” via DOGE. This reflects his campaign promise to dismantle the federal bureaucracy, though the execution has drawn criticism for incompetence (e.g., firing critical experts and leaking classified data).    Rhetorical Style and Delivery. Length and Tone:     At 100 minutes (or 99, per some sources), Trump’s speech set a record for the longest presidential address to Congress, surpassing Clinton’s 2000 State of the Union. Its defiant, celebratory tone leaned into campaign rally energy rather than traditional unity-seeking rhetoric. He avoided detailed policy explanations, focusing on bold claims and viral moments, consistent with aides’ reported strategy to dominate post-speech media cycles.    Partisanship:     Trump directly needled Democrats, lamenting their lack of applause and accusing them of intransigence (“There is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy”). This combative stance, paired with his comparison to George Washington, underscored a self-aggrandizing narrative over bipartisan appeal.    Performance:    Observers noted a shift from his more restrained 2017 address. Emboldened by his victory and unrestrained by impeachment or opposition control of Congress, Trump’s 2025 delivery was unscripted at times, reflecting his “weaves”—tangents that energize supporters but risk alienating others.    Audience Reception    Republicans:    GOP lawmakers cheered, chanting “USA” and offering standing ovations, particularly for tariff and border security proposals. House Speaker Johnson hailed it as a “triumphant return,” reflecting party alignment with Trump’s agenda.    Democrats:    The opposition was visibly hostile. Rep. Green’s ejection for interrupting, signs like “Save Medicaid” and “Protect Veterans,” and walkouts signaled deep dissent. Guests like fired federal workers underscored Democratic efforts to highlight policy fallout. Sen. Slotkin’s rebuttal criticized Trump’s recklessness, contrasting his approach with a call for responsible change.    Public:    Pre-speech polls (e.g., CNN’s 48% approval rating) suggest a polarized reception. Post-speech sentiment on X ranged from praise for his “Golden Age” vision to accusations of lies and exhaustion, indicating the address did little to broaden his base.    Implications    Legislative Push:     Trump’s calls for border funding and tax cut extensions test his influence over a slim Republican House majority and a Senate with differing priorities. His hands-off approach to budget reconciliation details leaves uncertainty about execution.    Polarization:    The speech entrenched divisions, offering no olive branch to Democrats or moderates. This risks gridlock if GOP unity falters, especially with contentious issues like tariffs sparking trade war fears.    Global Signal:    Freezing Ukraine aid and floating Greenland’s acquisition signal a retreat from traditional U.S. leadership, potentially emboldening adversaries and straining alliances.    Critical Assessment    Trump’s address was a defiant sales pitch, doubling down on campaign promises rather than adapting to governance realities. Its length and bombast catered to his base but ignored broader economic anxieties (e.g., inflation) and offered scant detail on implementation. While effective as theater - crafting moments like the Zelenskyy letter - it lacked the substance or outreach needed to unify a fractured nation or Congress. Historically, such speeches aim to set a tone; Trump’s set one of relentless disruption, for better or worse. For a deeper analysis, access to the full transcript would refine these observations. If you have specific aspects you’d like explored further (e.g., a particular policy or reaction), let me know! (Source: Telegraph India)

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Europe

Denmark
03.03.2025  Denmark today took over the rotational presidency of the UN Security Council from China for the month of March. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Union
01/03/2025  Macron said he is ready to 'open the discussion' on a possible future European nuclear deterrent, following a request from Germany's next leader Merz. 'Merz has stressed the need for the continent to move quickly to achieve independence from the United States on defence matters. However, not all European leaders were ready to jump to 'Ukraine's aid'. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, one of the closest partners of both Trump and Russian President Putin, thanked Trump for standing "bravely for peace". "Strong men make peace, weak men make war," Orbán posted on X. (Source: France 24)

Russia
2 March 2025  Yesterday, Russia unleashed Iskander-M missile attack 'to sink the Panama-flagged MSC LEVANTE F - reportedly Swiss-owned - container ship in Odesa carrying cargo of British weapons for Ukraine.' (Source: Daily Mail - United Kingdom)

Ukraine
March 2, 2025  Uniformed personnel, abducting a youth while he was out walking his dog on the morning of February 28. The soldiers had the Ukrainian insignia on their uniform and spoke Ukrainian. "Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems, US Vice President Vance had accused Zelensky of forcefully sending people to the frontlines to fight Russia. Those sharing the viral video claimed thousands of such footage that showed civilians being taken away to fight for Kyiv from across the country are available on the internet. /Video/ *. (Source: The Week, India)
* From X
Note: Since 7:11 PM 1 March 2025: 11 900 000 views

Ukrajna
2025. III. 2. "Józanabb elemzők szerint azért sem írhatta Ukrajna alá, hiába készítette elő az ásványi anyagok átadásáról történő megállapodást, mert igazából egy titkos paktum keretében ezt már rég odaígérte a briteknek akik a háború első perceitől igen benne vannak ebben a háborúban. (Forrás: Kossuth Rádió - Magyarország)

United Kingdom
(3 March 2025)  At the summit of some European leaders in London, Britain and France said they were working on 'a European-led solution' to the conflict. After the meeting, hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday, Zelensky said a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia was 'still very, very far away'. He added that he expected the US to continue backing Ukraine despite his own fraught relations with Trump. "This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn't want there to be Peace as long as he has America's backing," Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social media network. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

(Sunday), 02/03/2025  Defence summit /video/ (Source: France 24)

March 1, 2025  Britain’s leader Keir Starmer voices support during meeting with Zelensky who arrived in London for 'crucial' talks, one day after his public argument with US President Trump over Russia’s war and peace talks. /Video/ (Source: CNN – U.S.)

Australia

Mar 02, 2025 Chinese warships circumnavigate Australian territory. Australia’s military spotted three Chinese warships on Feb 10 in the Arafura Sea, off the northern tip of Australia. The ships were just setting out on an unprecedented voyage that would bring them within 150 nautical miles of Sydney. On Feb 19 by the nation’s spy chief Burgess, without naming China, warned that Australia faces unprecedented interference and espionage threats. On the morning of March 1, the warships were 890km south-west of Adelaide. Deploying warships to the area with no apparent purpose beyond intimidation is out of the ordinary. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore)
by Pearlman, based in Sydney. He writes and explains matters on Australia and the Pacific to readers outside the Oceania region.

North America

United States
March 4, 2025  U.S. President Trump has paused military aid to Ukraine, a White House official said. “President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” said the official yesterday. Since Russia’s invasion three years ago, the U.S. Congress has approved $175 billion in total assistance for Ukraine, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The Trump administration inherited $3.85 billion worth of Congressionally-approved authority to dip into U.S. arms stocks for Ukraine. It was already unlikely for that assistance to be used. Beyond the military portion, U.S. assistance to Ukraine also includes budgetary assistance, largely delivered through a World Bank trust fund, and other funds that had been delivered through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The U.S. decision left many questions unanswered, including whether munitions for the already delivered weapons systems can now be supplied or if the U.S. would still share intelligence with Ukraine on target identification and missile launches. If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine, Vice President Vance said in an interview on Fox News. France, Britain 'and potentially other European countries' have offered to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire – something Moscow has already rejected – but say they would want support from the U.S., or a 'backstop.' The Hungarian government, a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Moscow and the bloc’s financial and military support for Ukraine, said of Trump’s pause in military aid: “The U.S. President and the Hungarian government share the same stance: instead of continuing weapons shipments and the war, a ceasefire and peace talks are needed as soon as possible.” (Source: Daily Ausaf, an international Urdu daily newspaper, headquarters Islamabad, Pakistan / Reuters - United Kingdom)

4th Mar 2025  Earlier today morning US Vice-President Vance said: “Here’s the problem with the Europeans - they need to be realistic, and the craziest part about this is sometimes you have European heads of state who in public will puff up their chest and say ‘we’re in this with President Zelensky for the next ten years’. And in private they’ll pick up the phone and say ‘this can’t go on forever, he has to come to the negotiating table’. “I honestly don’t care what the Europeans say in public. What I care is what they say in private and what they need to be saying to President Zelensky is ‘this can’t go on forever, the bloodshed, the killing, the economic devastation, it’s making everyone worse off’.” (Source: The Scotsman - Scotland)

March 4, 2025  U.S. Security Cooperation with Ukraine. Fact Sheet / Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. "The killing must stop". "President Trump wants to promote peace, and at his direction we are ready to provide the strong, decisive leadership necessary to reach a sustainable resolution. The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. Effective March 3, 2025, we are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution. To date, we have provided $66.5 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately $69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014. We have now used the emergency Presidential Drawdown Authority on 55 occasions since August 2021 to provide Ukraine military assistance totaling approximately $31.7 billion from DoD stockpiles". The full, extensive list  of Air Defense; Fires; Ground Maneuver; Aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Systems; Anti-armor and Small Arms; Maritime; Other capabilities. "To date, nearly 50 Allies and partner countries have provided security assistance to Ukraine. Among their many contributions to Ukraine, Allies and partners have delivered 10 long-range Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), 178 long-range artillery systems, nearly 100,000 rounds of long-range artillery ammunition, nearly 250,000 anti-tank munitions, 359 tanks, 629 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), 8,214 short-range air defense missiles, and 88 lethal UAVs". (Source: U.S. Department of State)

(March 4, 2025)  US President Trump's new 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada took effect today, along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20 percent, launching new trade conflicts with the top three US trading partners, after Trump declared that all three countries had failed to do enough to stem the flow of the deadly fentanyl opioid and its precursor chemicals into the US. The 20 percent tariff will apply to several major US consumer electronics imports from China previously untouched by prior duties, including smartphones, laptops, videogame consoles, smartwatches and speakers and Bluetooth devices. China responded immediately after the deadline, announcing additional tariffs of 10-15 percent on certain US imports from 10 March and a series of new export restrictions for designated US entities. China's new tariffs announced today targeted a wide range of US agricultural products including certain meats, grains, cotton, fruit, vegetables and dairy products. US farmers were hard hit by Trump's first-term trade wars, which cost them about $27b in lost export sales and conceded a share of the Chinese market to Brazil. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa would respond with immediate 25 percent tariffs on US$20.7 billion worth of US imports, and another US$86.2b if Trump's tariffs were still in place in 21 days. He said previously that Canada would target American beer, wine, bourbon, home appliances and Florida orange juice. Ontario Premier Ford told that he was ready to cut off shipments of nickel and transmission of electricity from his province to the US in retaliation. Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council representing Detroit automakers, called for vehicles that meet the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement's regional content requirements to be exempted from the tariffs. Both the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso fell against the greenback. Trump on Saturday opened a national security investigation into imports of lumber and wood products that could result in steep tariffs. Canada, already facing 14.5 percent US tariffs on softwood lumber, would be hit particularly hard. A week earlier, Trump revived a probe into countries that levy digital services taxes, proposed fees of up to US$1.5 million on every Chinese-built ship entering a US port and launched a tariff investigation into copper imports. These add to his plans for higher "reciprocal tariffs" to match the levies of other countries and offset their other trade barriers, a move that could hit the European Union hard. (Source: RNZ - New Zealand / Reuters - United Kingdom)

March 1, 2025  Zelensky’s diplomatic failure. Zelensky did not “do his homework” when stepping foot into the Oval Office with President Trump and his Vice, Vance. Zelensky’s mission was to secure a historic minerals deal, a pact vital for Ukraine’s struggling economy and ongoing war effort. Instead, he left humiliated, escorted out of the White House by a low-level aide - Deal canceled, lunch scrapped. Even one of Ukraine’s most vocal allies in Washington, Senator Graham, suggested that Zelensky should either “resign” or “change.” This failure was about a leader who misread the room, misunderstood his opponent, and mishandled a moment of geopolitical weight. Ukraine is in a fight for survival. The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, its economy is in freefall, and Russia shows no sign of relenting. Kyiv’s military ’success’ depends on continued Western aid. The United States is the only power capable of counterbalancing Russia’s aggression. Yet, rather than negotiating from a position of pragmatism, Zelensky chose confrontation. He miscalculated, treating a high-stakes diplomatic engagement as a public relations stunt. He came to Washington seeking a security guarantee. However, the Oval Office was the wrong place, and Trump was the wrong person to strong-arm. Trump did not respond to emotional appeals or moral arguments; He values leverage, loyalty, and transactional politics. Zelensky walked into the room already weakened. His previous actions: speaking at a Harris campaign rally, posing for partisan photo-ops in U.S. battleground states, and failing to assist Trump in 2019 when asked to find information on Biden ahead of the 2020 election, had eroded any goodwill he might have still had. Then, he challenged Vice President Vance on live television, escalating tensions and ensuring his failure. If Zelensky believes Europe can replace the U.S. in Ukraine’s war or negotiations with Russia, he has ignored history. The European powers, once dominant, are now mere shadows of their former selves. Their economies resemble that of one of fifty States, their military strength is comparable to the Illinois National Guard, and their geopolitical influence has long faded since 1945. Unlike past American presidents who indulged the fiction of European autonomy, Trump refuses to play along. French President Macron, banking on his rapport with Trump, visited Washington in hopes of steering him toward a more nuanced approach. Trump, unimpressed, saw only weakness. Weeks later, he imposed a fresh wave of tariffs on European goods. The same fate befell Britain’s prime minister. After initially expressing reservations about Trump’s return to power, he rushed to the White House to mend ties, carrying a personal invitation from King Charles III. Trump did not need to remind him of Britain’s dependence; the prime minister arrived hat in hand, eager to reestablish relations. Europe’s response to Trump’s foreign policy has been one of reluctant adaptation. Some leaders continue to express skepticism. Others, like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, fully support Washington’s approach. Europe remains deeply vulnerable and dependent on the U.S. for security. The war in Ukraine has made this clear. European nations have provided significant military and financial aid to Kyiv, but without U.S. support, the war likely would have been lost long ago. The challenge for European leaders now is not just maintaining support for Ukraine but doing so without antagonizing Trump. Many European governments understand this reality. They have taken steps to ensure they remain in Washington’s good graces, primarily by ’purchasing U.S. military equipment and reinforcing their NATO commitments’. Poland and the Baltic states, discuss to prioritize strong ties with the U.S., knowing full well that their security depends on it. Zelensky seems to have ignored these lessons. His failure in the Oval Office was a failure to grasp the new reality of international politics. The war with Russia is not a stage for grandstanding. It is a brutal contest where survival depends on strategy, not theatrics. The world has changed, and so has the balance of power. If Ukraine is to endure, its leader must learn the rules of the game. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Charai, the Publisher of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune who serves on the boards of directors of the Atlantic Council, the International Crisis Group, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the Center for the National Interest.

February 28, 2025  President Trump and Zelenskyy in Oval Office. /Video/ (Source: YouTube / White House - U.S.)
235 085 views

NATO

March 1, 2025  The Trump administration is vocalizing its desire to cut a deal with Moscow rather than continue the war. Some of the pro-Ukraine hawks in NATO are concerned that Russia will take Ukraine and then ’attack an actual NATO member state, like Poland’. The Netherlands’ snap deployment of a pair of F-35s stationed in Estonia to assist what they feared was a surprise Russian assault on neighboring Poland is a great example of the high-tension situation in Europe today - NATO almost went to war with Russia earlier this week. The two Dutch F-35s were sent into Poland to ensure that the Russians ’were not possibly initiating a wider attack’ against a key NATO member. Russian commanders might very well have assumed this was the NATO attack they have long feared was coming. Nerves are frayed on both sides, especially as neither side fully knows what the outcome of the war will be. Any objective observer would have seen that the Russians were not attempting a wider attack on Poland. Putin favored a relatively limited military campaign against Ukraine rather than seeking an expansive blitzkrieg through Europe. This was not the first time that NATO had a scare during the Ukraine War. And a new, hawkish government reigns supreme in Poland. NATO should stop looking for a casus belli with which to justify a direct conflict with the Russian Federation that is far stronger than it has generally acknowledged. Instead, the alliance must seek an end to the war. Moscow may one day decide to try their luck once more against a NATO member. But that day will not be any time soon. Indeed, Moscow will need to spend the next decade or so rehabilitating its forces after the Ukraine War is resolved. NATO should not be itching for a fight with Russia right now. Those planes should have never been deployed into Poland when and how they were. Greater restraint is needed to let the diplomats from the United States and the Russian Federation have a chance of resolving the war without further bloodshed. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
By Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest, a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book: A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine.

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Europe

European Commission
24.02.2025  'There can be no other solution other than a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the EU foreign policy chief Kallas said today’. Speaking at joint news conference after a meeting of EU-Israel Association Council, she said: We support the Palestinian Authority and its return to Gaza. We support the return of every displaced Palestinian for whom Gaza is their home. She added: When the time comes, the EU will also support Gaza's reconstruction, together with the regional actors. Palestinians must be able to live in Gaza /Photo/ (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

February 24, 2025  European Union’s foreign policy chief Kallas insisted today that the U.S. cannot seal any peace deal to end the war with Putin 'without Ukraine or Europe being involved'. The EU’s top diplomat also highlighted what she claimed were 'pro-Russian positions being taken up by the Trump administration'. ’You can discuss whatever you want with Putin. But if it comes to Europe or Ukraine, then Ukraine and Europe also have to agree to this deal,’ Kallas told reporters in Brussels, where she is chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers. Kallas travels to Washington tomorrow for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Rubio. In terms of the U.S. message, she said it was ’clear that the Russian narrative is there very strongly represented.’ Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Witkoff, notably suggested yesterday that Russia was "provoked" ahead of the Ukraine invasion by increasing talks of Kyiv joining NATO. Putin’s spokesperson, Peskov, said Russia does not see any way to resume ’dialogue with Europe’ after the European Union adopted its 16th round of sanctions against Russia on the third anniversary of the invasion. The measures include targeting Russia’s so-called "shadow fleet" of ships that it exploits to skirt restrictions on transporting oil and gas, or to carry Ukrainian grain. The EU said 74 vessels were added to its list. EU foreign policy chief Kallas said the new sanctions also target ’those who support the operation of unsafe oil tankers, videogame controllers used to pilot drones, banks used to circumvent our sanctions, and propaganda outlets used to spout lies.’ Asset freezes and travel bans were imposed on 83 officials and entities. More than 2,300 officials and entities have been hit since the invasion began. By adding new sanctions, European nations appear to be convinced that the war should continue, Peskov said. This stands in contrast with searching for ways to resolve "the conflict around Ukraine which is what we are currently doing with the Americans," Peskov said. Speaking about Russia’s changing relationship with the U.S., Peskov welcomed "attempts by Washington to really understand what was the root cause of this conflict." The U.N. General Assembly, meanwhile, is expected to vote today on dueling resolutions: Ukraine’s European-backed proposal demanding 'an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from the country' and a U.S. call for a swift end to the war that never mentions Moscow’s aggression. (Source: Fox News; „The Associated Press contributed to this report” = U.S.).

European Union
February 24, 2025, Monday  Billions in new military aid pledged for Ukraine by European and NATO partners. Today, EU foreign ministers convened to discuss the provision of additional military aid to Ukraine, with the potential package amounting to as much as €30 billion. The final figure has not yet been determined. EU leaders are set to deliberate on the matter next week. Due to opposition from some member states, including Hungary, the aid is likely to be structured through individual state contributions rather than an official EU-wide package. During the Support Ukraine forum in Kyiv,     Canada has committed additional military aid to Ukraine, including 25 LAV-3 infantry fighting vehicles and four F-16 fighter jet simulators. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that this aid would be supplemented with additional ammunition, equipment, and medical supplies. Canada will also transfer the first installment of its US billion aid package, funded by proceeds from frozen Russian assets.    Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, attended the anniversary events in Kyiv alongside EU and European leaders. Denmark announced a new - approximately €268 million (2 billion Danish kroner) - aid package for Ukraine, used for ammunition supplies and the development of a brigade-sized Ukrainian force in cooperation with Nordic and Baltic countries. Denmark has pledged 405 million Danish kroner (approximately .8 million) for humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts.    Finland has committed €4.5 million to the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU) for 2025-2027, supporting infrastructure reconstruction and basic services.    Norway will provide 12.5 billion Norwegian kroner (.1 billion) for humanitarian and energy security support.    Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was announcing a €1 billion aid package for Kiev. He emphasized Spain's commitment to Ukraine's reconstruction efforts. Spain and Ukraine would collaborate on supporting the Ukrainian diaspora. Sánchez reaffirmed Spain's support for Ukraine's EU accession.    Sweden will contribute 1.2 billion Swedish kroner (3 million) for air defence systems as part of a broader .2 billion aid package.    From the European Union, Ukraine is set to receive a €3.5 billion financial aid payment in March. European Commission President der Leyen emphasized Europe’s commitment to strengthening Ukraine during this critical time. She ’noted that the EU and its member states have provided a total of €134 billion in support to Ukraine', ’more than any other international partner’.    "Reports indicate that the EU continues to spend more on Russian oil and gas than on financial aid to Ukraine, purchased €22 billion worth of fossil fuels from Russia in 2024, surpassing the €19 billion allocated to Kyiv". Data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) and the Kiel Institute for World Economics (IfW Kiel) reveal that the continent remains a significant buyer. Russia continues to circumvent sanctions through shadow tanker fleets, with up to half of its tax revenues stemming from oil and gas sales. To address this issue, the EU is actively seeking ’alternative energy sources’, including increased imports from the United States. Meanwhile, Russia’s oil and gas revenue surged by 41% in the first half of 2024, reaching .12 billion, driven by rising oil prices and a depreciating rouble. (Sources: Novinite – Bulgaria; "Radio Liberty; X"= U.S.; Ukrainska Pravda; The Kyiv Independent = Ukraine; The Guardian – United Kingdom)

Russia
24.02.2025 The Chinese and Russian leaders today discussed over phone strengthening strategic cooperation between their countries and Moscow’s recent contacts with Washington, the Kremlin said, describing the conversation as “warm and friendly”. The Chinese side expressed support for the ongoing dialogue between Russia and the United States and its willingness to help find a peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian conflict, the statement said. This was the second phone call between the two since US President Trump assumed office last month. Xi echoed the Kremlin saying Russian-Chinese relations are strategic in nature, not subject to external influence and not directed against anyone. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

China
(Monday), February 24, 2025  China says its forces have begun live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin today, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the two countries. The exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run through Thursday evening. In the nearby South China Sea over the Spratly and Paracel Islands and maritime areas China has been been growing aggressive and in October assaulted 10 Vietnamese fishermen near the Paracel Islands, three of whom suffered broken limbs. China's claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, while Indonesia has also figured in violent confrontations with the Chinese coast guard and fishing fleets in the waters around the Natuna Islands. Leaders in Australia and New Zealand also said China should have given more warning before its navy conducted an unusual series of live-fire exercises in the seas between the two countries, forcing flights on Friday and Saturday to divert on short notice. (Source: ABC News / Associated Press = U.S.)

North America

United States
(Monday), February 24, 2025  President Trump welcomed French President Macron to the White House for talks today. He looks to quickly end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trump is set to hold a meeting Thursday with another key European leader, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Their visits come after Trump shook Europe with repeated criticism of Zelenskyy for failing to negotiate an end to the war and rebuffing a push to sign off on a deal giving the U.S. access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals, which could be used in the American aerospace, medical and tech industries. Trump administration officials say they expect to reach a deal this week that would tie the U.S. and Ukrainian economies closer together. European leaders also were dismayed by Trump's decision to dispatch top aides for preliminary talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia without Ukrainian or European officials at the table. It follows a public spat, with Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” and charging Kyiv with starting the war. Zelenskyy then angered Trump by saying the U.S. president was living in a Russian-made ’disinformation space'. Confronting Trump might not be the best approach, analysts say. Another clash is set to play out at the U.N. today after the U.S. proposed a competing resolution that lacks the same demands as one 'from Ukraine and the European Union for Moscow’s forces to immediately withdraw from the country.' Just over a month into his second term Trump also has made demands for territory - Greenland, Canada, Gaza and the Panama Canal. That complicated dynamic makes this week's task all the more difficult for Macron and Starmer. Trump has shown a considerable measure of respect for the Russian leader. Trump said this month that he would like to see Russia rejoin what is now the Group of Seven major economies. Russia was suspended from the G8 after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. Macron said he intends to tell Trump that it’s in the joint interest of Americans and Europeans not to show weakness to Putin during U.S.-led negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. He also suggested that he'll make the case that how Trump handles Putin could have enormous ramifications for U.S. dealings with China, the United States' most significant economic and military competitor. ’How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?,’ Macron said on social media. Trump dismissed Zelenskyy's complaints about Ukraine and Europe not being included in the opening of U.S.-Russia talks, suggesting he's been negotiating “with no cards, and you get sick of it.” Putin, on the other hand, wants to make a deal, Trump argued Friday. “He doesn’t have to make a deal. Because if he wanted, he would get the whole country," Trump added. (Source: Time – magazine based in New York City, U.S.)

24 Feb 2025  An American Airlines flight from New York to New Delhi was diverted to Rome after unspecified security concerns were raised. Fighter jets from the Italian Air Force were filmed flying alongside the airliner. /Video/ (Source: Al Jazeera)

Space

Feb 24, 2025  NASA will launch the next crew on an older SpaceX Dragon capsule on March 12, allowing astronauts Wilmore and Williams who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since last September to return to Earth. (Source: Hindustan Times - India, „With inputs from Associated Press” – U.S.)

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Europe

Germany
(Monday), February 24, 2025  Germany is a country under stress. Merz, the head of the Christian Democrats, is set to become the next chancellor in a coalition government with the Social Democrats, who headed the previous government but sank to a mere 16 percent of the overall vote. Saturday, at a festive political rally at the Loewenbraeukeller, Merz had already intimated to the audience that America was not necessarily a reliable partner of Germany and Europe. On Sunday, he went further. He warned that Trump’s America bore similarities to Putin’s Russia and that Germany could not count on Trump extending the American nuclear umbrella over Europe. On national television, he said: ’My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.’ ’It is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans, this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe, he added. ’At the heart of Merz’s apprehensions is the war in Ukraine'. Under Merz, Germany will play a key role in bolstering European support for Ukraine. During the Cold War, the Franco-German relationship was key to countering the Soviet Union. Merz will revive it ’to counter Putin’. French president Macron consulted with Merz before traveling to Washington today to meet with Trump about Ukraine. ’Merz will move to bolster defense spending’. But his narrow victory means that he faces a conundrum. The Christian Democrats and Social Democrats have 328 seats. With the AFD waiting on the sidelines, any new German government coalition ’must hang together or hang separately’. The left and right possess a blocking minority in the Bundestag with 216 seats - reform of the debt brake or special funds, dependent on a 2/3 majority, could only occur with their cooperation. Both the ’far-right’ Alternative for Germany (AFD) Party, which scored over 20 percent in the election to become the second largest party in the Bundestag, and the ’far left’ Die Linke party favor an emollient approach toward Moscow. What’s more, a faction in the SPD, as Forstner, the Washington representative of the Hanns-Seidel Foundation, believes in “the continuation of Ostpolitik tradition,” or détente with the East. “They are still holding to the strategic belief,” he notes, “that there is no peace in Europe without Russia. And Moscow holds the key to eastern European security.” (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

Greece
February 24, 2025, Monday  U.S. President Trump has reportedly ordered the closure of the U.S. military base in Alexandroupoli, Greece, Greek newspaper Dimokratia reported. It is a significant shift in U.S. military strategy in the region. Reports suggest that the closure was a result of a joint request from Russian President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan. Turkey, has long been opposed to U.S. military presence near its borders. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

Ukraine
Feb 24, 2025  If Zelensky were to resign or if elections were held, several key figures have emerged as potential successors.     General Zaluzhny served as Ukraine's commander-in-chief of the armed forces from 2021 to 2024 and now holds the position of ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was dismissed as head of the military on February 8, 2024, and replaced by General Syrsky. Zaluzhny's growing popularity among both the public and the military fueled speculation that he posed a potential political challenge to Zelensky's presidency. He and Zelensky have clashed over the general's war strategies and the challenge of mass mobilization. Zaluzhny has not ruled out the possibility he would run for office. The Economist reported on February 19 that it had obtained internal polling indicating Zelensky would lose a future election to Zaluzhny by 30 percent to 65 percent in a wartime election.    Budanov is the head of Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency. An InfoSapiens poll conducted from November 15 to 27 ranked Budanov second after Zaluzhny, with a trust rating of 54.6 percent. Zelensky held a 53 percent trust rating, while Zaluzhny led with 76.8 percent. In a YouTube interview Budanov suggested a ceasefire could be reached this year. How long it will be, how effective it will be - is another question, Budanov said.    Stefanchuk, the chairman of Ukraine's Parliament (Verkhovna Rada), has also been floated as a potential successor to Zelensky. A key ally of the president, Stefanchuk has strongly opposed calls from Trump and Putin for Ukraine to hold elections. He has yet to declare any presidential ambitions.    The U.S. and Russia are engaged in talks to potentially broker a peace deal to end the war - without Ukraine's participation. White House press secretary Leavitt told on February 22 Trump is "very confident" a deal could be reached as early as "this week." (Source: Newsweek – U.S.)

NATO

24 February 2025  Merz, expected to be the next German chancellor after winning his country’s elections on Sunday, has called on Britain and France to extend their nuclear protection as he seeks ’independence’ for Europe from Trump’s America. Mr Merz said last Friday that Paris and London should discuss ’whether their nuclear protection could also be extended to us’ before warning on Sunday that the US under Mr Trump was now indifferent to the fate of Europe. The United States has long guaranteed Europe’s safety with an arsenal of around 100 nuclear missiles, many of them stationed in a US military base in Germany. France’s nuclear ’deterrent’ is currently independent from Nato, while Britain’s forms a key part of the alliance’s defence strategy. Posting a few French nuclear jet fighters in Germany should not be difficult and would send a 'strong message', a French official told. Deploying fighter jets ’would send a message to Putin’, the source said, while diplomats in Berlin suggested it ’would pressure’ Sir Keir Starmer to do the same. Macron, the French president, spoke with Mr Merz on Sunday night before travelling to the White House to present his plan for European security and the defence of Ukraine to Mr Trump. At the White House summit, the US president suggested his country would not provide security guarantees to Ukraine after a peace deal was signed. Mr Macron said peace must not be a surrender of Ukraine as he also called on Europeans to do more to protect the Continent. Mr Macron also interrupted Mr Trump and corrected him on how much Europe spends on defence. Meanwhile, the US clashed with its allies over a UN resolution on the Ukraine war. Washington voted with Russia against a motion that condemned Putin’s war and called for his forces to be withdrawn. On Monday night, Mr Trump told reporters that European troops ’may go into Ukraine as peacemakers’ and that Putin would accept it. “I’ve asked him that question,” Mr Trump said as he hosted Mr Macron. “He has no problem with it”. The US president suggested that the war in Ukraine could end within weeks. Mr Macron also said a truce in the war could be done in the weeks to come, in an interview with Fox News after his meeting with Mr Trump. The US president said Zelensky could travel to Washington this week or next to seal a minerals agreement, which he called “very close”. Meanwhile, speaking in Moscow, Putin expressed Russia’s readiness to collaborate with the US on rare earth metals production. In remarks broadcast on state television, Putin also said Russia did not rule out European countries participating in a peace settlement. Mr Macron has been pushing Europe to hold a debate on the role that French nuclear weapons can play in the Continent’s defence. Prime Minister Sir Keir has sided with European leaders rather than Mr Trump on the issue of resolving the war in Ukraine, and wants to sign a security and defence pact with the EU. France’s arsenal is believed to contain an estimated 300 nuclear weapons, under its 'force de dissuasion’ programme, with sea and air-based launch capabilities. Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent consists of four Vanguard-class submarines which can carry up to 16 warheads each. German diplomatic sources suggested that talks on a European deterrent for their country had not started, with Mr Merz locked in discussions on forming a coalition government. ’My understanding is that on the CDU side, the thinking is we need a nuclear umbrella, we want to have a say in this, we should be ready to talk about this and we are willing to pay for it’, a diplomat said. The request would be unlikely to be formally made unless the Americans pulled their nuclear deterrent out of Germany. Addressing world leaders via video link at a summit in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of the Kremlin’s invasion, Sir Keir said that Moscow does not hold all the cards in this war. He added that Britain was ready and willing to support a future peacekeeping deal with ’troops on the ground’, unlike the United States. On a visit to Kyiv yesterday, Johnson, the former prime minister, told there was a ’moral case for Ukraine to have its own nuclear weapons as the threat from Russia rises'. (Source: Telegraph - United Kingdom')

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Europe

Germany
(Sunday), 23.02.2025  Germany’s Merz 'rules out' coalition with 'far-right' AfD after declaring victory in parliamentary elections today. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Council
23.02.2025  European Council President Costa announced today that European Union leaders will convene for a special summit on March 6 to address the ongoing war in Ukraine and broader European security concerns. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
February 23, 2025  From Trump’s perspective, this is a Biden war that has already been lost. "And politically, it’s much easier for Trump to seek peace than his European counterparts because he campaigned on an anti-war message, repeatedly blaming Biden for the war and saying it would never have happened if he were president". Trump wants to find a quick fix and move on. If it fails, he can wash his hands of it and let the Europeans deal with it. Europe 'clearly doesn’t know what to do now': it can’t accept defeat, but neither can it pretend that Ukraine can win the war without US support. 'Europe’s war strategy is in tatters'. On current trends, it would take Russia until the end of the year to capture the rest of the eastern province of Donbas, without which an end to the war is unlikely anyway. (Source: The Conversation - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

(23 February 2025)  If you need me to leave this chair, I am ready to do that. And I also can exchange it 'for Nato membership' for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in response to a question during a news conference. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Europe
February 23, 2025  Global leaders tend to speak of Europe the same way they speak of Russia, China, and other nations. However, to state the obvious, Europe is not a nation. It’s a collective that, on multinational matters, works through multilateral institutions, most prominently NATO and the European Union. Those institutions require consensus before acting and, not surprisingly, often struggle to find it. ’What has tended to force consensus and maintain European unity, especially at key moments of international crisis, is American leadership’. This remains the case today. Lest anyone doubt the importance of U.S. leadership, compare the Western response to Putin’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 to the Western response to his invasion of Ukraine in 2022. For the former, President Obama chose not to send arms to Kyiv, imposed only minor sanctions on Russian individuals and private institutions, and largely eschewed diplomatic efforts to end the war. Despite its concern over Putin’s continental aggression, Europe did not come together to take bolder action on its own. In the end, the West came to accept Russia’s seizure of Crimea (if not officially). For the latter, President Biden chose to oppose Putin’s invasion forcefully, crafted a broad coalition of Western nations to coordinate a comprehensive strategy, and worked closely with those nations to provide increasingly lethal arms to Kyiv and impose increasingly tough sanctions on Moscow. It is only because of those U.S.-led actions that, to date, Ukraine has rebuffed Russia’s attempted conquest. Now, Trump and his team are calling for a Russia-Ukraine peace agreement, acceptance of Crimea as a part of Russia, no Ukrainian membership in NATO, and security guarantees for Ukraine that are backed by European and non-European - but not American - troops. Trump is urging NATO members to boost their defense spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product, though NATO’s benchmark is 2 percent and Washington itself spends only about 3 percent. Will Europe, acting on its own after a peace agreement that it played no role in shaping, step up forcefully enough to deter Russia from resuming its war against Ukraine? ’This seems like an awfully risky wager for the new team in Washington to make. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Haas, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and the author of, among other books, Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World.

Asia

Iraq
February 23, 2025  Prime Minister Sudani stressed the urgency of restarting oil production and exports within a week with a target of 300,000 barrels per day through the state-owned SOMO company, during a meeting with Kurdistan Region President Barzani. His statement followed a Reuters report claiming the administration of US President Trump was pressuring Baghdad to resume Kurdistan’s oil exports or face sanctions alongside Iran. The suspension of oil exports from Kurdistan and Kirkuk since March 2023 has cost Iraq over $17 billion. (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat, heardquartered in London, United Kingdom, supported by the Saudi government) 

Lebanon
(Sunday), 23/02/2025 Mourners dressed in black, some waving Hezbollah flags or clutching portraits of the group's slain leader Nasrallah, gathered in their thousands to attend his funeral today in a stadium on the outskirts of Beirut. (Source: France 24)

North America

United States
23.02.2025  US President Trump on Sunday praised German Christian Democrats' election victory, calling it a "great day for Germany and the US." "Much like the US, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years," Trump said on X. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

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Europe

Bulgaria
(Saturday), 22/02/2025  Bulgarian consumers boycott major food retail chains and supermarkets in the country over discontent with rising grocery prices. Shoppers are demanding a law to regulate prices and asking supermarkets to limit their profit margins on foodstuffs to less than 30%. Last Thursday's boycott, the second of this year, led to a nearly 30% drop in the turnover of the stores, according to local media. Many consumers in the country say they hope the boycott will bring about a change in prices. For many small grocery store owners, the boycott has led to a favourable increase in sales, with regular customers purchasing more foodstuffs at their shops. Organisers of the boycott are demanding supermarkets limit their profit margins on foodstuffs to less than 30% and want parliament to pass a law to regulate prices. They have called for a fresh boycott on 27 February and urged the authorities to act. Consumer protests and boycotts over rising food inflation and high prices began sweeping across the Balkan region in January, starting in Croatia. A similar boycott has taken place in Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Greece. (Source: Euronews - Headquarters Lyon, France)

February 22, 2025  Bulgaria's new government, which was approved last month after October's snap election, the seventh in four years, has reaffirmed the country's commitment to joining the euro zone next year. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov has said the 2025 state budget will set a deficit of about 3%, paving the way for the introduction of the euro on January 1, 2026. However, the country still needs to meet an extended inflation target before an examination of the country's bid. Bulgarians are divided over the introduction of the euro, with many worrying that it will cause prices to skyrocket, as happened in Croatia in 2023. Bulgaria's Revival party, which has accused the central bank and the national statistics agency of "fabricating data" to enable the introduction of the euro, has called for a wide public debate on the economic effects of its introduction. Several thousand supporters of Revival party scuffled with police today. while trying to storm the building of a European Union mission during a protest against the country's plans to adopt the euro next year. The anti-government protesters, chanting "Resignation" and "No to the Euro", threw red paint, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at the EU building in the capital Sofia, setting the front door on fire before the police pushed them away. Around 10 police officers sustained minor injuries and about six people were detained. The protests began in front of the European Union country's central bank, with protesters setting effigies of European Central Bank President Lagarde and other officials on fire. Some waved Bulgarian, Soviet Union or East German flags, while others carried placards reading "We don't Want the Euro". "We don't want Bulgarian financial independence to be destroyed". „We want to keep the Bulgarian lev." Kostadinov, the Revival party chairman, told media: "We are here to defend our freedom." ’Economists say that Bulgaria, where the lev has been long pegged to the euro, would attract more foreign investment if it adopted the single currency and secure credit ratings upgrades that could cut its debt financing costs’. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Germany
Feb 22, 2025  The Trump administration’s apparent intent to decouple U.S. foreign policy from the NATO alliance and cozy up to Putin has rattled Germany in advance of elections tomorrow. Politico reported early yesterday that conservative candidate Merz 'said Germany needed to discuss nuclear sharing options with the U.K. and France, a move that represents a drastic turn in German policy - away from the U.S. and toward ‘strategic autonomy’ with its allies in Europe.' /Source: SpyTalk, a U.S. newsletter/

Russia
Feb 22, 2025  Russia may be willing to use a portion of its $300 billion in frozen assets to help rebuild Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal but insist that some of the funds be allocated to occupied territories. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, over $300 billion in Russian central bank reserves were frozen, with most - 191 billion euros ($198 billion) - held in Belgium's Euroclear depository. The discussions reportedly come amid negotiations between US and Russian officials following their Feb. 18 meeting in Saudi Arabia. The G7 has previously announced that these funds will remain frozen until Russia pays for the destruction it has caused in Ukraine. The EU has already begun leveraging proceeds from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine. In January, Ukraine received 3 billion euros ($3.09 billion) as part of the EU's Ukraine Facility, funded through interest earned on the frozen reserves. The US and G7 partners have pledged nearly $50 billion in loans to Ukraine, backed by revenue from Russian assets. According to Reuters, one of the sources said Russia could agree to allocate up to two-thirds of frozen assets for Ukraine's reconstruction, provided accountability guarantees. The remaining funds, Moscow reportedly insists, would go toward rebuilding Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, which the Kremlin claims as part of Russia. The distribution of funds and the allocation of reconstruction contracts remain key points of contention. It is unclear whether the frozen assets were discussed during the talks. A separate Kremlin-linked source, not directly involved in negotiations, said Russia still demands a gradual easing of sanctions and the full release of its frozen assets. (Source: MEHR News Agency – Iran)

Feb 22, 2025  Russian intelligence has established a new unit that is behind a spate of attempted killings, sabotage, and a plot to put incendiary devices on planes. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Special Tasks is based out of the headquarters of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, on the outskirts of Moscow. The Journal reports that the department was stood up in 2023 in response to Western support for Ukraine, and it “includes veterans of some of Russia’s most daring clandestine operations in recent years.” Known to Western intelligence officials by its Russian acronym SSD, the unit has absorbed other units, including GRU Unit 29155, which has been blamed for everything from assassinations abroad to bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the so-called Havana Syndrome anomalous health incidents that have plagued U.S. diplomats, intelligence officers, and others. The department also runs an elite special operations center known as Senezh, where Russia trains some of its special forces. /Source: SpyTalk, a U.S. newsletter/

Ukraine
Feb 22, 2025  Ukraine's access to SpaceX's Starlink internet service may be at risk due to a disagreement over critical minerals with the United States. Last fall, Ukraine suggested opening its critical minerals sector to allied investments as part of a 'victory plan' to strengthen its hand in negotiations. Trump backed the move, seeking rare earths and other minerals from Ukraine in return for financial support during the conflict. The Trump administration has demanded $500 billion in mineral wealth from Ukraine as repayment for wartime aid, without offering specific security guarantees in return. The proposed deal would have entitled Washington and American companies to 50% of Ukraine's critical minerals, including graphite, uranium, titanium, and lithium. The conflict erupted after President Zelenskyy rejected a US proposal for shared ownership of Ukraine's key minerals. The mineral dispute was a major issue during talks between US special envoy Kellogg and Zelenskiy. Ukraine was warned that Starlink services could be terminated if no agreement on mineral access was reached. Haring from the Atlantic Council emphasized the strategic importance of Starlink for Ukraine's military operations, particularly its drone capabilities. "Losing Starlink would be a game changer," she said. (Source: NewsBytes – India)

22 February 2025  Between 5,000 and 7,000 civilians, most of whom are elderly or disabled, remain in Pokrovsk from a pre-war population of 60,000. They survive in freezing, unlit basements with no electricity, living off humanitarian aid, at the mercy of relentless Russian glide-bomb and drone attacks. They do not want to leave, because their whole lives are in Pokrovsk. A mass exodus began last summer when, in one month, the population dropped from 48,000 to just 16,000. Last month, the Russians began marching up the city’s left flank, taking the town of Kotlyne just a few miles away. It is the last stop on the railway line connecting the city to the unoccupied regions to the west. Its capture amounted to the loss of a key supply line. The Russians have begun attempting to advance along the railway line. The capture of Kotlyne also brought the Russians closer to one of the last remaining highways into Pokrovsk – the E50, a couple of miles to the north. Its loss would significantly complicate Ukrainian logistics. Any vehicles coming into Pokrovsk, whether military or civilian, are being targeted by Russian drones. Only a Ukrainian police unit called the White Angels, a specialist evacuation unit, is still entering the city to rescue the remaining citizens. When Bondarenko, an aid worker for the International Rescue Committee asks civilians why they do not leave the towns and villages around Pokrovsk, their answer is often the same: home is home, even if it’s bombed. Some have even come back after initially fleeing. Every second person he sees breaks down when they receive their financial aid, he said and they have to be calmed down and given water. As the Russians inch closer to Pokrovsk, civilians well behind the front line are now evacuating in greater numbers. “If we were discussing this topic a few months ago, most internally displaced people (IDP ) would have been coming from the Donetsk region, from Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad, the neighbouring city,” he says. “Now, we are even talking about IDPs from Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, the areas bordering the combat zones.” (Source: Independent – United Kingdom)

Asia

Iran
Feb 22, 2025  Tensions in the Middle East have reached a boiling point after a tit-for-tat exchange of threats between Iran and Israel. ’Operation True Promise 3 will be carried out at the right time, with precision, and on a scale sufficient to destroy Israel and raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,' Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Jabbari warned. In response to these threats, Israeli Foreign Minister Sa'ar said, "If the Jewish people have learned anything from history, it is this: if your enemy says his goal is to annihilate you - believe him. We are ready." This is the third threat from top IRGC officials in a week. Brigadier General Fadavi and Brigadier General Hajizadeh had also made similar statements pledging to destroy Israel as part of Operation True Promise 3. The increased rhetoric comes with the IRGC simultaneously ramping up missile production. Iran recently received a 1,000-ton shipment of rocket fuel precursor chemicals from China claimed a report published by The Jerusalem Post. The IRGC also unveiled a new underground ’missile city’, an underground missile base ’designed to target destroyers in strategic southern waters’. Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi has warned that any Israeli or American attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would lead to an ’all-out war’ in the region. This comes as reports suggest Israel might launch a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear program by midyear. (Source: NewsBytes – India)

North America

United States
Feb 22, 2025  With Russia set to restore its diplomatic missions in the United States, it’s worth remembering why they were shut down in the first place: Russia waged a startlingly open and aggressive intelligence effort inside the United States. One example was Russia’s effort to map America’s underground communication nodes by dispatching intelligence officers to beaches, deserts, and Middle America. What FBI agents found especially unnerving was the Russians’ focus on communication nodes near military bases. 'According to multiple sources, U.S. officials eventually concluded that Moscow’s ultimate goal was to have the capacity to sever communications, paralyzing the U.S. military’s command and control systems, in case of a confrontation between the two powers,' Dorfman reported in Foreign Policy. /Source: SpyTalk, a U.S. newsletter/

Feb 22, 2025  A group of 200 U.S. intelligence community veterans, former ambassadors, Congressional staffers, and others calling themselves The Steady State have banded together to warn of the dangers of President Trump’s “capitulation to Russian interests.” Giving in to Russian demands undermines the foundational principles of U.S. foreign policy, signals weakness, and invites further aggression, the Steady State wrote in a letter to Congress. 'As veterans of national security policy, we understand that Ukraine’s struggle is not merely a regional conflict but a frontline battle in the broader contest between democracy and authoritarianism,' the group wrote in a letter to Congress. /Source: SpyTalk, a U.S. newsletter/

22/02/2025  US President Trump has announced a new phase of Ukraine war ceasefire negotiations between American and Russian delegations in the Saudi capital Riyadh on 25 February. (Source: Euronews - Headquarters Lyon, France)

22.02.25  US President Trump has once again raised USAID’s funding efforts purported $21-million grant to promote ‘voter turnout’. Trump, as usual, also questioned why such a significant amount was spent abroad when a similar sum could have been used to boost voter turnout in the US. „I want voter turnout too," Trump said at the Governors Working Session. '$29 million to strengthen the political landscape in Bangladesh went to a firm that nobody ever heard of. Got 29 million. They got a check. Can you imagine? You have a little firm, you get 10,000 here, 10,000 there, and then you get 29 million from the United States government. There are two people working in that firm. Two people. I think they're very happy, they're very rich. They'll be on the cover of a very good business magazine pretty soon for being great," he added. (Source: Telegraph India)

(Saturday), Feb 22, 2025  FBI Director Patel takes over the bureau that he spent eight years criticizing. 1,000 staff and special agents at the Pennsylvania Ave. headquarters were ordered into field offices around the country - and another 500 employees will be relocating to the FBI’s facility in Huntsville, Ala. The biggest changes came hours before Patel took his oath of office. Before he arrived all the support employees on the seventh floor where the director's office is - executive assistants and people who move the paper around, the bureaucracy  - they were all told to pack their desks …They were being reassigned, and they were to be removed from the seventh floor and then when he arrived with his own team the director's suite was sealed off, and no one else saw him essentially assuming command. Patel, finally confirmed by the narrowest-ever margin for an FBI nominee by far - 51-49 -  may be getting advice from a group of ex-FBI agents who call themselves “The Suspendables.” The Washington Post reported that these self-described victims of the FBI’s “weaponization” against conservatives have forged bonds with Patel, in some cases accepting financial help from his nonprofit foundation, and have been in contact with him since his nomination. Some of the “Suspendables” have singled out two senior FBI officials - Perkins and Veltri - for punishing political conservatives. Veltri and Perkins were among the eight high-level officials forced out of the bureau shortly after Trump’s inauguration at the request of acting deputy attorney general Bove.    A federal judge temporarily blocked the CIA and the Office of Director of National Intelligence from firing 11 people whose jobs were eliminated to comply with President Trump’s executive order seeking to end federal diversity programs. A total of 51 officers working in diversity and recruiting were placed on paid administrative leave and may be fired. That would be the largest mass dismissal in nearly a half-century. The CIA’s diversity office was closed, and office staff, including Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Laurienti, were placed on administrative leave. CIA Director Ratcliffe issued a memorandum Tuesday stating that Laurienti and other employees in the agency’s now-shuttered Diversity and Inclusion Office needed to go and gave them a choice: take retirement, resign and be paid through September, or be fired.    A Facebook account purportedly belonging to a former Soviet intelligence officer made the startling claim that the KGB recruited Trump under the code name “Krasnov” in 1987. The Daily Beast ran a story, which mysteriously vanished a few hours later. Maybe that’s because it’s not true? The Facebook account’s alleged owner is Mussayev, who served as chairman of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan in the 1990s and is now living in exile in Vienna. The post claimed that in 1987, Mussayev learned about Trump’s recruitment while serving in the KGB’s Sixth Directorate, which he said was responsible for recruiting businessmen from capitalist countries. The report raced around social media, exciting anti-Trump partisans. One problem: the KGB’s First Directorate handled foreign intelligence and recruited Americans; the Sixth Directorate was responsible for economic counterintelligence and industrial security. Another problem: Online biographies reveal that in 1987, Mussayev, then 23, worked in the central office of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, not the KGB. He fled Kazakhstan in 2007 amid a corruption scandal.  In 2015, he faced charges in Austria for the abduction and murder of two Kazakh bankers but was acquitted. How come such an explosive allegation is popping up just now, nearly a decade after such allegations reached a fever pitch during Trump’s first term? Could it be that the Facebook 'Mussayev' is a fake, a sophisticated disinfo op? And why use Facebook, a playground for fake personas and foreign disinformation, to air such a charge (instead of a carefully arranged press conference with documents and the backing of experts)? And to what end? One possibility is that it was designed by enemies of Trump - pick a name, any name - to boost the anti-Trump fury while he’s on a roll in Washington. Another, far more devious, ploy, but much in the Russian disinfo DNA, could be that it was actually designed by Moscow to be unmasked in order to embarrass and discredit the legions of people who believe that Putin has some sort of direct leverage over Trump, It’s real wilderness of mirrors stuff.  /Source: SpyTalk, a U.S. newsletter/

22/02/2025  President Trump today said he would appoint retired Air Force Lt. Gen. “Razin” Caine as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Air Force Gen. Brown Jr., a Biden appointee. Caine worked for three years at the Central Intelligence Agency until December 2024 as associate director for military affairs. Before, he was director of special-access programs at the Pentagon from 2019 to 2021 and a deputy commanding general in the fight against the islamic state, based in Baghdad in 2018 and 2019. Caine, was commissioned in 1990 and served in various roles in the Air Force over more than two decades, including as a fighter pilot. He has also served in the National Guard. Caine has also worked in the private sector as a serial entrepreneur and investor, has held varied private-sector roles, including advising the security and space technology company Voyager and co-founding a Texas-based private airline that was later acquired. He retired from the military last year. Every previous appointee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 1949 has been either a four-star general or an admiral. This requirement can be waived, however, if the president “determines such action is necessary in the national interest,” according to the law. If confirmed, Caine would be promoted to general. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer in the Pentagon while holding the position and the principal military adviser to the president. The chairman heads the body consisting of top-level leaders of the main branches of the military. The role does not have executive authority to command combatant forces, and its primary purpose is to provide advice and opinions to the presidential administration. Six years ago at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) the president described a “perfect” man named “Raisin Caine” whom he had spoken to while visiting troops in Iraq. Trump recounted a conversation in which Caine told him their mission could be “totally finished” in one week if they could use more force. “Why didn’t my other generals tell me that?” Trump said he responded. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

22 February 2025  President Trump yesterday fired the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals. The president will also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Adm Franchetti, as well as the air force vice chief of staff. He is also removing the judge advocates-general for the Army, Navy and Air Force. Pentagon was already bracing for mass firings of civilian staff, an overhaul of its budget and a shift in military deployments under Trump's new America First foreign policy. While the Pentagon's civilian leadership changes from one administration to the next, the uniformed members of the US armed forces are meant to be apolitical.    Brown, the president's top uniformed military adviser, was serving a four-year term meant to end in September 2027. He was relieved with immediate effect, before the Senate confirms his successor. During last year's presidential campaign, Trump spoke of firing “woke” generals and those responsible for the troubled 2021 pullout from Afghanistan. „I want to thank Gen Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family, Trump wrote. Brown, a former fighter pilot who has held commands in the Middle East and Asia, recounted experiencing discrimination in the military in an emotional video posted online after the 2020 killing of Floyd, which sparked nationwide protests for racial justice. Defence secretary Hegseth had been sceptical of Brown before taking the helm of the Pentagon with a broad agenda that includes eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military. In his most recent book, Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and military veteran, asked whether Brown would have got the job if he were not Black. “Was it because of his skin colour? Or his skill? We'll never know, but always doubt - which on its face seems unfair to Brown. But since he has made the racecard one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn't really much matter, he wrote in his 2024 book The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free. Trump said in a post on Truth Social he would nominate former Lt-Gen Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer.    Franchetti was the first woman to command the US Navy. Her 2023 nomination by then-president Biden had been a surprise. Pentagon officials had widely expected the nomination to go to Adm Paparo, who at the time led the navy in the Pacific. Paparo was instead promoted to lead the US military's Indo Pacific Command.    On his first day in office, Trump fired Adm Fagan as head of the US Coast Guard. She had been its first female commanding officer.    It is unclear whom Trump administration will pick to become the new judge advocates-general for the Army, Navy and Air Force. In his 2024 book, Hegseth was highly critical of military lawyers, saying most “spend more time prosecuting our troops than putting away bad guys”. (Source: Time – South Africa / Reuters – United Kingdom)

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Europe

United Kingdom
Feb 21, 2025  A sobering message for Starmer ahead of talks with Trump via Number 10. As Britain’s Prime Minister gears up for a critical meeting with Trump in Washington next week, NATO’s former second-in-command to Europe has a sobering message for him. Keir Starmer “will just be laughed out of court, frankly”, warned General Shirreff today, ’unless there’s been a clear signal from the UK Government that defence spending is going to rise to probably around 3 per cent as a starter’. Britain spends around 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence, which is higher than NATO’s current target of 2 per cent. But it’s well below the whopping 5 per cent figure Trump is demanding of other alliance members, while threatening to encourage the Russians to do whatever the hell they want to any NATO country that doesn't cough up. In its election manifesto, Labour promised to increase the military’s budget to at least 2.5 per cent, which would cost around £5bn extra a year. RUSI estimated back in 2022, that increasing defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 would require £157 billion worth of additional spending over eight years. The government’s winter fuel payment cut to pensioners is forecast to save £1.3 billion in 2024-25. Britain’s tax burden is already at a post-war high - in the financial year to January, the UK borrowed more than £118 billion - the fourth highest borrowing period since comparable records began in 1993. One key issue to tackle to find savings will be the rising levels of economic inactivity in Britain. The number of individuals in Britain on out-of-work sickness benefits - who are not actively seeking employment - currently stands at 3.2 million. That’s a rise of one million in just five years, with an associated welfare cost of another £10 billion a year. In some parts of Glasgow and Grimsby, almost a third of the working-age population is on sickness benefits. When it comes to the ballooning £48bn UK welfare bill for sickness, which is expected to increase to over £60bn by the end of the decade if trends continue, the fault, lies not with the individuals claiming sickness benefits but with flaws in the system, which mean those struggling with long-term illness are not supported to return to the workplace, and those wanting to return to work are actively disincentivised from doing so: combine sickness benefit with disability benefit (or “PIP”) and it adds up to more than the minimum wage. Reeves is planning £5 billion of welfare cuts at the spending review. The Work and Pensions Secretary, Kendall, is understood to be pressing the Treasury to use some of the savings for an expansion of back-to-work support services for the long-term sick, insisting this measure will pay for itself and is in everyone’s interest. Ahead of the spending review, Reeves is under heavy pressure from officials in the Ministry of Defence who insist that any savings generated should be prioritised for their department. When it comes to increasing defence spending, a bigger budget is only half the challenge: the other crucial task will be ensuring that money is spent wisely. Ministers will be required to make about how best to allocate resources between land, air and sea. When it comes to investment in tech and hardware, a recognition of the ever-greater role that AI plays in defence and deterrence is important. Warnings about the danger of re-arming without re-industrialising will also place demand on ministers to strengthen their support for Britain’s steel industry. Another sticking point as Starmer gears up for his trip across the Atlantic next week. (Source: Reaction.life - news website, United Kingdom)
by Allen, Deputy Editor

North America

United States
February 21, 2025  President Trump delivers remarks at the Governors Working Session /Video/ (Source: YouTube / White House = U.S.)
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February 21, 2025  ... - The administration knows where wants to go. There’s no interagency process, but when has that ever stopped a Trump administration before? Kellogg, the president’s special envoy for Ukraine, stayed in Europe after the others left and talked to European leaders. He even made a trip to Kyiv. So they aren’t completely ignoring Europe. But the administration clearly intends to be in the driver’s seat on negotiations. They even sent around a survey asking states what they can commit to future Ukrainian defense in concrete terms. The elephant in the room: seems like Trump is having some kind of personal spat with Zelensky. He took to Truth Social this week to refer to him as a “dictator” and suggested that Ukraine should hold new elections. Trump also suggested - not so subtly - that Ukraine itself was responsible for starting the war. This is some attempt at 12-dimensional chess from the administration, some people have argued that this is just about pushing Zelensky to the table. Then Zelensky refused to sign a document committing some of Ukraine’s mineral resources to the United States, almost as a kind of reparations for U.S. aid. At least some of these resources are in Russian-occupied areas, and others will be hard to extract in wartime       - What Trump does? In his first term, he said nice things about Putin while instituting a hard-nosed underlying policy. The idea of using Ukrainian critical minerals as collateral for U.S. assistance would give the United States a direct stake in the long-term security and stability of Ukraine. A good strategy starts with a clear goal. How will Ukraine be secured in the long run? Many European allies are promising to commit troops as a kind of trip-wire force. But what if deterrence fails and Putin attacks anyway? Will these European nations, like Sweden and the United Kingdom, really go to war with Russia? Are they expecting an American military backstop? If so, how is that different from NATO membership for Ukraine? Some kind of American backstop could still commit the United States to fight a war with Russia over Ukraine - something the Trump administration is keen to avoid. There is too much talk about a trip-wire force and not enough talk about the military strategy for defending Ukraine. One should start with the defense strategy and then design the trip wire accordingly.      - There are a lot of different proposals out there for what to do next: neutrality and security guarantees, global south peacekeepers, even Europe leaving NATO! The most prevalent is this notion that Europe will send troops, either to act as peacekeepers or as a trip-wire force to prevent future conflict. All the European discussions of a trip-wire force are pointless. They’re not credible, barely practical, and all of them require U.S. support of some kind. ’The only viable approach is a Ukraine that is strong enough to deter future attacks’. It’s quite achievable, particularly when Europe and the United States aren’t pouring thousands of rounds of ammunition and arms into an active conflict. It’s also likely to be more acceptable to Russia than some token European force, and it gives the Europeans more breathing space to build up their militaries for their own defense. ’I sincerely hope this is one of the options the administration has on the table; it’s win-win-win. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)
by Ashford, a columnist at Foreign Policy and a senior fellow with the Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center, an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University, and the author of Oil, the State, and War; Kroenig, a columnist at Foreign Policy and vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, a professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His latest book, with Negrea, is We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War. 

(February 21, 2025)   '1991 – 2025 Ukraine’s struggle for independence in Russia’s shadow' /Photo/ (Source: Council on Foreign Relations - Headquarters New York City, U.S.)
Note: A version

NATO

February 21, 2025  Ukraine’s biggest backers in percent of GDP. For the Baltic states - NATO states near Russia - helping Ukraine ’is a strategic necessity’ given their geographic vulnerability. Estonia is contributing 2.2 percent of its GDP, Lithuania 1.8 percent, Latvia 1.5 percent. Denmark has a vital interest in the security of the Baltic and Arctic regions. It allocates more than 2 percent of its GDP to supporting Ukraine. The U.S. is the 12th largest contributor as a share of GDP (0.5 percent). Europe as a whole provided more than 132 billion euros in financial, humanitarian and military aid. The U.S. has provided nearly $120 billion (115 billion euros), far more than any single European country or the EU. The U.S. is the biggest contributor of military aid, providing roughly five times more than Germany, the next largest contributor. If Washington has its way, Europe's share of the burden is about to rise. /Map/ (Source: Geopolitical Futures - U.S.)

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Europe

France
2/20/2025  France and Britain, the only nuclear powers among the Europeans, have been drawing up plans for a ’reassurance’ force that could be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire deal, a proposal that would require U.S. support. French President Macron convened a meeting Wednesday evening as part of his efforts to bring together a crisis coalition of sorts. It was the second urgent meeting this week at the Élysée presidential palace. Leaders of 19 countries, including European allies and Canada, joined mostly by video link. After the meeting, Macron outlined three conditions for a long-lasting and solid peace: Ukraine must be included, an agreement must have robust and credible guarantees, and Europe’s security concerns must be taken into account. ’We are convinced of the need to increase our defense and security spending and capabilities for Europe and each of our countries’, Macron said. Macron is due to visit Trump in Washington Monday, and will be followed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer later in the week. Starmer called Zelensky yesterday to express support and said it was ’perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime,’ according to the British prime minister’s office. Trump’s national security adviser Waltz, speaking at the White House briefing, said the president is “very frustrated” with Zelensky, referring to a deal that would give the United States a stake in Ukraine’s natural resources. “The fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we’ve offered,” Waltz said, adding that he hopes there will be an agreement “very soon.” Waltz also pushed back today against concerns that Ukraine was being shut out of negotiations over its own future. “We’ve had plenty of engagement and dialogue,” he said, adding that Kellogg “is literally there right now” and that the administration was consulting with European allies. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

Poland
February 20, 2025  The Three Seas Initiative (3SI), championed by Polish president Duda, received strong support from President Trump during his first term. European leaders with strong American backing should articulate a fitting vision and strategy at the upcoming Three Seas Initiative Summit in Poland in April. Poland should engage the 3SI member states and the European Commission to announce a bold and expanded vision that serves both European and American interests by inviting Trump to the summit. 3SI is an opportune vehicle to realize the region’s growing import across Eurasia optimally. There are two key avenues for cementing 3SI as a European priority and advancing American interests. First, establish 3SI as the primary conduit for constructing military mobility corridors to buttress NATO’s forward posture along an expanded front from Finland to Romania. Central to this vision is improved road and rail connections that would link NATO’s front lines to the region’s economic hinterlands and the three key ports of Trieste on the Adriatic, Gdańsk on the Baltic, and Constanța on the Black Sea. This bolstered interconnectedness enhance deterrence against Russia. It would be indispensable to the reconstruction and security of a post-war Ukraine. Second, institute 3SI - in close coordination with the European Commission - as the primary launchpad for the European Global Gateway initiative. Trusted connectivity can be achieved. To the south, the Global Gateway-3SI region through Trieste connects to burgeoning Indo-Mediterranean trade driven by the world’s fastest-growing large economy, India, along with the Gulf states and Israel. A reinvigorated 3SI coupled with the India-Middle East-European Economic Corridor (IMEC) is well positioned to usher in a “New Golden Road” that can drive Indo-European trade and commerce to new heights in the twenty-first century. President Trump recently announced that he and Prime Minister Modi have “agreed to work together to help build one of the greatest trade routes running from India to Israel to Italy and onwards to the U.S. - connecting our partners, roads, railways and undersea cables.” To the east, the three sea regions connect with the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Central Asia, establishing a Central Asia-Caucasus-Europe Economic Corridor (CACE). The European Global Gateway project boasts subsea digital and power lines across the Black Sea to the Caucasus as one of its flagship projects. CACE stands to elevate freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and indemnify Ukrainian coastal integrity.  To the north, the three-seas region connects to Baltic and Arctic NATO member states for greater coordination in advancing shared security and economic interests from the Gulf of Finland to the Gulf of Alaska. The upcoming 3SI Summit offers a propitious platform not only to expand 3SI’s vision but also to increase membership. 3SI should endeavor to include all major European littoral nations of the three seas, in particular Italy and Ukraine. The fifteen-member 3SI becomes an indispensable regional actor in shaping the future of European security and prosperity. The primary objective is to attract private institutional investors to infrastructure projects. Member states may consider a 3SI-NATO Fund with earmarked budgetary contributions to leverage matching private funds in constructing dual-use military mobility corridors. If optimally executed, the above strategy may transform Eastern Europe to a degree comparable to what the Marshall Plan achieved for Western Europe. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Arha, President of the Free & Open Indo-Pacific Forum and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue; Debski, Professor of Strategy at the College of Europe in Natolin, Warsaw; Riisalo, former Minister of Economy and Technology of Estonia.

Ukraine
2/20/2025  Amid war of words, President Trump's envoy meets Zelensky today. Retired Lt. Gen. Kellogg, Trump’s envoy on the war in Ukraine arrived in Kyiv soon after Trump describing the Ukrainian president as failing and blaming him for Russia’s 2022 invasion of the country. Zelensky countered that Trump was repeating misinformation about him and the war. Ukraine is ready for a strong, truly beneficial agreement with the President of the United States on investments and security, Zelensky wrote on Telegram after the meeting. At the request of the American side, the format of the meeting was for a protocol photo op. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

Feb 20, 2025  Pressured by Putin and Trump, walls close in on Zelensky. Outgunned Ukrainian forces have slowly lost territory to Russian troops over recent weeks. US President Trump described Zelensky as a corrupt "dictator" and claimed he was no longer Ukraine's legitimate leader. Zelensky accused Washington of helping Putin come out of isolation and said Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble. Zelensky, a former comedian, won accolades abroad and drew comparisons with Winston Churchill when he remained in Kyiv in February 2022. In Kyiv, the ground is shifting rapidly beneath Zelensky's feet. He called off an official visit to Saudi Arabia this week. The leader's problems mount at home. The 47-year-old has seen his approval ratings plummet. Old political rivalries are resurfacing. Zelensky’s decision last week to sanction former president Poroshenko sparked protests in parliament. Poroshenko described the move as a huge blow to internal unity. The mayor of Kyiv Klitschko - a long-standing rival of Zelensky - said the spat was harming both democracy and the country as a whole. A source in the Ukrainian presidency said there was no panic within Zelensky's office. Zaluzhny, the former head of the army tipped to be the favourite in any upcoming election, this week refused to rule out that he would stand in a presidential vote. (Source: Barron’s – U.S. / Agence France-Presse)

United Kingdom
Thursday 20 February 2025  A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir Starmer spoke to Zelensky today evening to express support for him ’as Ukraine's democratically elected leader’. Zelensky was elected as president of Ukraine in May 2019. Previously scheduled to go ahead in 2024, elections were not held as a result of martial law being in place. /Video/ (Source: Independent – United Kingdom)

Thursday 20 February 2025  UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer will reportedly present the peacekeeping plan agreed in Paris to US president Trump during a visit to Washington, D.C. next week, as he hopes to lead European efforts to influence the future settlement in Ukraine. He will push for US fighter jets and missiles to be on standby in eastern Europe to deter Russian forces from breaching any agreed terms. The plan will see troops stationed in Ukraine’s strategic cities, ports and nuclear power stations - but kept well away from the frontline. There would be a heavy emphasis on intelligence and surveillance capabilities, allowing European countries to send a smaller number of troops on the ground in Ukraine.  But they would be backed up by a “US backstop”, which Sir Keir said was the “only way” to deter Putin from attacking again. The backstop may include US fighter jets in Romania and Poland, or a large multi-national land force stationed on Nato’s eastern borders ready to move into Ukraine if necessary to protect European troops. Downing Street hopes that Trump will be inclined to accept this proposal, largely as it does not involve having US troops stationed in Ukraine. (Source: Independent – United Kingdom)

Asia

Turkey
20.02.2025  At least 31 terrorists were "neutralized" in counterterrorism operations in northern Iraq and Syria over the past week. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

North America

United States
Feb. 20, 2025  Patel, a longtime loyalist to President Trump, was confirmed by the Senate today as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He previously worked on Capitol Hill and in the first Trump administration, after working as a federal prosecutor in Washington and a federal public defender in Florida. Patel is a firebrand who appeared on a broad array of conservative media shows and has spoken about his desire to "come after the people in the media." At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 30., he distanced himself from Trump's sweeping pardons of Capitol rioters, saying he disagreed with the commutations of individuals who assaulted law enforcement officers on Jan. 6. Democratic senators confronted Patel about his repeated contentions that the 2020 election was stolen. The final vote was 51-49. Since Trump took office a month ago, the head of the Washington Field Office - which oversaw the sprawling Jan. 6 probe - was forced out, as were six of the FBI’s most senior executives and multiple heads of FBI field offices around the country. The FBI ultimately handed over the names of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases as requested. Patel has a close relationship with a network of conservative former FBI agents who were pushed out over the past several years. It is predicted that Patel would do what needs to be done at the FBI, which is not just dismantle this agency from the top headquarters down to 56 FBI field offices, but also hold accountable those agents who have used their unaccountable power to weaponize the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country against the political foes of the regime. (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

February 20, (2025)  The Center for the National Interest hosted two experts on Russia, Ukraine, and the war to discuss these issues and more. Dr. Gvosdev is a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and a non-resident fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, a former editor of The National Interest and a current contributing editor; Haring is a senior advisor at Razom for Ukraine, a non-governmental advocacy and assistance organization, and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, where she was previously deputy director of the Eurasia Center and editor of Ukraine Alert. She recently returned from meetings in Ukraine. Saunders, the president of the Center for the National Interest, moderated the discussion. /Video/ (Source: YouTube / The National Interest = U.S.)
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Note: A summary opinion (insight): 'The Bundeswehr is now an army where you have one infantryman to every four kennels. Was it now the British have more admirals than they have ships in the British, in the Royal Navy?'

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Europe

European Union
(Wednesday), February 19, 2025  European Union ambassadors approved today the 16th package of sanctions against Russia, banning Russian aluminum imports and imposing new export bans on Moscow. This package is now expected to be approved by EU ministers at a regular meeting next Monday. Despite last-minute concerns expressed by Greece, EU countries agreed to stop imports of Russian aluminum. Downstream Russian products of the metal have already been blocked, and the European Commission proposed in this package to also ban primary aluminum. Absent from the package is a full ban on Russian liquified natural gas (LNG). The issue has been caught up in trade talks now just getting started with U.S. President Trump’s administration, with Brussels holding off on barring Russian LNG until it potentially strikes a deal to buy more American LNG. Source: (Source: Politico – U.S.)

Ukraine
Wed, 19 Feb, 2025 - 10:00  US President Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Mr Kellogg, is in Kyiv for talks with Zelensky and military commanders. Mr Kellogg said his visit is “a chance to have some good, substantial talks”. “We understand the need for security guarantees,” he said in comments on his arrival at Kyiv railway station. His visit comes after Trump suggested Kyiv was to blame for the war which enters its fourth year next week and talks between top American and Russian diplomats in Saudi Arabia sidelined Ukraine and its European supporters. Mr Zelenskyy cancelled his planned today trip to Saudi Arabia. He has said any settlement will require US security commitments to keep Russia at bay. “It’s very clear to us the importance of the sovereignty of this nation and the independence of this nation as well … Part of my mission is to sit and listen,” the retired three-star general said. Mr Kellogg said he will convey what he learns on his visit to Mr Trump and Secretary of State Rubio “and ensure that we get this one right”. The battlefield has brought grim news for Ukraine in recent months. A relentless onslaught in eastern areas by Russia’s bigger army is grinding down Ukrainian forces, which are slowly but steadily being pushed backwards at some points on the 1,000km front line. (Source: Associated Press – U.S.)

Feb 19, (2025)  Russia unleashed a mass drone attack on Ukraine's southern city of Odesa for the second night running today, knocking out power for some 5,000 residents. Nearly 90,000 people had been left in the dark in Odesa district in and around the city. Zelenskiy said a similar number was without heating. The temperature in the Black Sea port was about minus 6 degrees Celsius. The strikes had triggered a fire at a restaurant and a storage facility and damaged an administrative building. One person was injured. Photos on social media showed areas of the city in darkness. Four people, including a child, were injured in the initial attack yesterday. The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 167 drones overnight yesterday in the region and elsewhere in the country. Air defence units and mobile drone hunting groups shot down 106 of them, and 56 drones were 'lost' ’in reference to the military using electronic warfare to counter unmanned aircraft, it said’. Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian power infrastructure since March 2024, knocking out about half of the available generating capacity and causing widespread blackouts. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)