HowRu68

Donald Trump has told the Davos economic forum “without us, most countries would not even work”, but for the first time in decades, many western leaders have come to the opposite conclusion: they will function better without the US.

Individually and collectively, they have decided “to live in truth” – the phrase used by the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel and referenced by the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, in his widely praised speech at Davos on Tuesday. They will no longer pretend the US is a reliable ally, or even that the old western alliance exists.

A French magistrate has said two Trump administration emissaries approached her seeking to lobby against an election ban on the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Magali Lafourcade, the secretary general of France’s human rights commission (CNCDH), an independent body that advises the government, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) she had reported the content of the meeting to the French foreign ministry immediately, fearing a potential “manipulation of the public debate in France”.

clip YT EP, ca. 4 mins

"The EU supports Denmark and the peoples of Greenland and we are united in our resolve (...) We are Europe and we will always stand up for our way."

Info: The measures threatened over the weekend by the United States' administration will not help improve security in the Arctic.

At the beginning of Parliament's plenary session today, President Metsola addressed the increased pressure put on Denmark and Greenland by the US administration. Transatlantic and Arctic security can absolutely be achieved without the destabilising impact of calling Greenland and Denmark's sovereignty into question, she added.

The Parliament will debate the EU's response to President Trump's claims on Greenland on 20 January at 13:00 CET.

Senior European diplomats are due to hold crisis talks after Donald Trump said he was targeting eight European nations with tariffs over their opposition to his attempt to annex Greenland.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said Trump’s tariffs would be a mistake, and the Dutch foreign minister, David van Weel, described the US president’s threats to allies as “blackmail”, as reaction from European leaders continued to pile up.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will urge the EU to use its powerful anti-coercion instrument if the US goes ahead with the tariffs in the standoff over Greenland, Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday, citing his team.

We fight for greenland.

Cool song, lyrics an vid. Save Greenland #ed by Tomsen dk

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SINGAPORE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A landmark global treaty to safeguard biodiversity in the high seas came into effect on Saturday, providing countries with a legally binding framework to tackle threats such as overfishing and meet a target to protect 30% of the ocean environment by 2030.

The U.N. treaty, also known as Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), was finalised in March 2023 after 15 years of negotiations, and will allow the creation of a global network of "marine protected areas" in vast and previously unregulated ocean ecosystems lying in international waters.

• UN Link

A Dutch anti-immigration influencer who has promoted conspiracy theories such as the “great replacement” appears to have had her authorisation for visa-free travel to the UK revoked.(..)

Your presence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good,” it stated.(..)

“You’re always welcome in Hungary!” said Orban, whose country hosted her and others from the far right and hardline conservative parties in 2024 when she addressed the Conservative Political Action conference (CPAC).

Vlaardingerbroek spoke last year in London at Britain’s largest ever far-right protest, organised by the activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Appearing in a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Generation Remigration” – a reference to a far-right buzzword regarded as a euphemism for forced mass deportations – she said: “They are demanding the sacrifice of our children on the altar of mass migration. Let’s not beat about the bush – this is the rape, replacement and murder of our people … Remigration is possible, and it’s up to us to make it happen.”(..)

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Germany's GDP hits US$ 5 trillion (€ 4,47 T) jn January 2026. (Bundesambt).

Germany eked out 0.2 per cent growth in 2025, as Europe’s largest economy slowly recovers from a multiyear recession.

The estimate is in line with the latest forecast from Germany’s central bank and marks the first annual GDP growth since 2022.

Economists hope that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s debt-funded investment spree will result in a higher growth rate this year as the government forks out billions of additional euros on infrastructure and defence.

EU Defense commissioner Andrius Kubilius on Sunday floated the idea of creating a “powerful, standing ‘European military force’ of 100,000 troops,” lending his voice to a growing chorus of calls for a common continental defense as Russia threatens its neighbors.

“How will we replace the 100,000-strong American standing military force, which is the back-bone military force in Europe?” the former Lithuanian prime minister asked in a speech in Sweden

At the conference, Kubilius also laid out the case for the creation of a “European Security Council” that “could be composed of key permanent members, along with several rotational members.”

“In total, around 10 to 12 members,” he continued, “with the task to discuss the most important issues in defense,” adding that the power exerted by this type of unified voice could help tip the scales in Ukraine’s defense as it tries to hold off the Russian invasion.

Added: The new position " Commissioner of Defense & Space" exists since december 2024. And is being fulfilled by Andrius Kubilius He's a former PM of Lithuania

Russia has lost at least 19 generals killed since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, investigative outlet The Insider reported, citing open-source data and reports from Russian and Ukrainian sources.

Not all of the deaths were officially confirmed by Russian authorities, the outlet said.

The EU is reportedly demanding guarantees the UK will compensate the bloc if a future government reneges on the Brexit “reset” agreement Keir Starmer is currently negotiating.

The termination clause is a stark reminder of the painful and costly divorce in which the EU set up a colossal €5.4bn (£4.7bn) fund to help its member states cope with the disruption caused by the UK’s exit in 2020.

Anand Menon, the director of UK in a Changing Europe, said: “We shouldn’t be surprised that the EU is playing hardball. After all, they have decided that we need these agreements more than they do. As such, they will extract every last concession.”

TL; DR; it will take many years.

Swedish producer is trying to to accelerate the process of extracting the elements vital for hi-tech products. The LKAB iron ore mine at Kiruna in Sweden is close to one of Europe’s largest-known deposits of rare earths (..).

The 17 rare earth elements – all found in Kiruna – include neodymium and praseodymium, critical materials for the powerful permanent magnets needed for everything from electric cars to household appliances and military jets. From mine to refined end production could take 10 to 15 years, say experts.(..)

“I think people often miss the point. They say ‘why don’t we just produce rare earths in Europe?’. But you have to have the entire supply chain to do that,” says Nigel Steward, a professor at Imperial College London, a materials scientist and a former executive in the US mining industry."(..)

The experience in Kiruna shows just how challenging it is to reduce the EU’s dependency on China, which is now the core supplier of rare earth magnets and willing to choke supplies, as it did last year, if politically desirable.(..)

State-owned LKAB is now trying to accelerate the process of mining, extraction, and separation of the crumbs from the ore, to help the EU de-risk as quickly as possible.(..)

"I’ve been talking in Brussels the past two or three years about the huge disadvantages we created in the 1970s and the 1980s when we closed the mining industry and started importing metals from South America, Africa, Australia,” he says.(..)

Asked why it has taken the EU so long to wake up to the dangers of dependency on China’s rare earth supply, he is blunt: “Politicians will never be more courageous than the voters.”