HowRu68

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.”

Oona Anne Hathaway is an American legal scholar specialized in international law and U.S. foreign relations.

In conclusion:

" The decades of imperfect but transformative peace that the U.N. Charter helped create now faces the same fate. As the United States fails to abide by the underlying principle of the international legal system it once championed, the already ailing system faces total collapse."

A criminal network is behind the fireworks attacks against the police in Amsterdam’s Floradorp neighborhood on New Year’s Eve, National Police Chief Janny Knol said in the television program Pauw de Wit.

On New Year’s Eve, the police intervened multiple times after groups set fires on Dotterbloemstraat in the Floradorp neighborhood. Riot police had to disperse crowds so that firefighters could extinguish the fires. During these confrontations, people in the crowds pelted officers with fireworks. The unrest followed tension in Floradorp after Mayor Femke Halsema banned the city’s annual bonfire due to safety concerns.

1. The Russian Model: Biohazardous Disinformation

The concept of disinformation as a “biohazard” underscores its infectious nature. Like a virus, disinformation spreads invisibly, mutates rapidly, and exploits the vulnerabilities of its host societies. Thus, the NDU Press article notes, Russia’s campaigns are tailored to the sociopolitical fault lines of target countries—race, immigration, economic inequality, and vaccine hesitancy, among others. Meanwhile, this precision targeting is facilitated by data analytics and AI-driven algorithms that allow for hyper-personalized influence operations.

2. Evidence-Based Countermeasures: A Path Forward

• Resilience involves enhancing societal immunity to disinformation. This includes media literacy education, public awareness campaigns, and investment in independent journalism.
• Transparency requires holding platforms accountable for the algorithmic amplification of false content and enforcing robust content labeling standards.
• Deterrence suggests imposing costs on perpetrators through sanctions, cyber countermeasures, and diplomatic censure.

3. However, as the Brill article argues, strategies must also respect democratic values and avoid sliding into counterpropaganda or censorship.

NOTE: Happy New Year and let's be alert together. In light of the ongoing wars, turmoil and new events, I thought this hand-out could be helpfull.

“Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected. We call for restraint,” she wrote.

Her comments were echoed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, with Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribera adding that “we need a rules-based world.”

France went a step further with its foreign minister condemning the American operation on social media. According to Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Maduro “gravely violated” the rights of Venezuelans, but the military operation that led to him being grabbed “contravenes the principle of non-use of force, which underpins international law.”

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the United States has provided a textbook example of how to deal with dictators in Venezuela and "knows what to do next".

Arch

Hours after the U.S. invaded Venezuela to seize President Nicolás Maduro, President Trump sent a warning to the governments of Mexico, Cuba and Colombia that their countries could be next.

Why it matters: The stunning attack on Caracas follows Trump's recent assertion of his own version of the Monroe Doctrine, and the president's comments that the U.S is not afraid to put "boots on the ground" in the country suggest that the administration won't hesitate to have an ongoing presence in the region.

It has been a “fucking nightmare”. But sometimes a nation needs a nightmare before it can fully awaken to long-simmering crises.

The US had to come to this point. We couldn’t go on as we were, even under Democratic presidents. For 40 years, a narrow economic elite has been siphoning off ever more wealth and power.

I’m old enough to remember when the US had the largest and fastest-growing middle class in the world. We adhered to the basic bargain that if someone worked hard and played by the rules, they’d do better than their parents, and their children would do even better.

I remember when CEOs took home 20 times the pay of their workers, not 300 times. When members of Congress acted in the interests of their constituents rather than being bribed by campaign donations to do the bidding of big corporations and the super-wealthy. Trump has precipitated a long-overdue reckoning.

That reckoning has revealed the rot.

It has also revealed the suck-up cowardice of so many CEOs, billionaires, Wall Street bankers, media moguls, tech titans, Republican politicians and other so-called “leaders” who have stayed silent or actively sought to curry Trump’s favor.

Note: I think this trend holds true for many recent crises in other countries as well, directly or indirectly. We need to reveal the rot and all do our own reckoning.

Cross-posted

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday revealed details of the latest US-backed 20-point plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying it has been sent to Moscow for feedback. Zelensky gave a point-by-point briefing to journalists in Kyiv, including details on the creation of demilitarised zones.