China announced 15% tariffs on coal and LNG and 10% on oil and agricultural equipment from the US.

China also announced an investigation into Google.

Source: Bloomberg

Syrian Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Murhaf Abu Qasra:

"The region (YPG/PKK-occupied area) will be liberated, inshallah. But the population must be patient. Resolving this issue peacefully is better.”

“On the issue of foreign fighters in our ranks, first of all, there are few of them; they took part in the fight against the regime, and they have a right.”

Source: New Arab

Arab nations reject Gaza displacement

Foreign ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE & a senior Palestinian official sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio opposing Trump’s January proposal.

Source: Reuters

Canada's PM Trudeau announces that President Trump agreed to postpone the 25% tariff on Canadian goods for at least 30 days.

In return, Canada will boost border security, deploying 10,000 personnel and investing about $1 billion in technology to combat drug trafficking.

New intelligence suggests Iran is exploring a faster, less sophisticated path to nuclear weaponization, should its leadership choose to proceed.

Initially gathered in Biden’s final months and later shared with Trump’s team, the assessment indicates Iranian scientists aim to weaponize their nuclear stockpile within months instead of 1–2 years.

While Khamenei has not formally approved bomb development, Iran is reportedly considering nuclear deterrence due to:

• Weakened proxy forces like Hezbollah and Hamas.
• Failed missile strikes against U.S. and Israeli defenses.
• Israeli airstrikes targeting its missile and nuclear sites.

Though Iran has enough 60%-enriched uranium for four bombs, it lacks a functional warhead.

Intel suggests Iran could accelerate its program by opting for simpler, non-miniaturized designs instead of advanced warheads.

Source: NYT

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that the United States, through USAID, financed the Maidan in 2014.

‘The United States spent $5 billion on the protests in Kyiv, which led to a coup d'état against the first democratically elected government of Ukraine’

Earlier, he stated that US biolabs operate in Ukraine to create ethnic bioweapons.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele offers to detain deported criminals, including American citizens, in his country’s prisons.

El Salvador would accept deported criminals of any nationality, including dangerous convicts in U.S. prisons.

The U.S. would pay a “relatively low” fee, which Bukele says would support El Salvador’s prison system.

Inmates would be housed in El Salvador’s mega-prison, a 40,000-capacity facility criticized for overcrowding and human rights concerns.

Ukraine should be able to use its own resources for post-conflict recovery, says German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Scholz called using Ukrainian resources to fund defense support “very selfish and egocentric.”

The ongoing Canada-U.S. trade dispute has put Canada’s F-35 fighter jet deal under scrutiny, with officials now considering alternatives.

Canada finalized a deal in 2023 to acquire 88 x F-35A jets, with deliveries starting in 2026. However, escalating tensions have led officials to reassess options, including Sweden’s Saab Gripen E.

British Columbia Premier David Eby warned:

“If the U.S. expects Canada to increase defense spending while imposing tariffs, we may be forced to procure from other countries.”

Leaving the F-35 program would be complex, as Canada has invested $613 million since 1997, securing $1.3 billion in contracts for over 100 Canadian firms supplying key aircraft components.

Source: TWZ

Ukraine is ready to provide the US with rare earth resources in exchange for continued aid.

As Trump's plan seems to align with Zelensky's ‘victory plan.’

Zelensky presented an outline of his plan to Trump last September during the US election campaign.

Source: Financial Times

The Russian Federation has taken control of up to 70 per cent of Ukraine's minerals: the most minerals are in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk regions, Forbes has calculated

Their value is $15 trillion.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

Trump proposes not to continue providing assistance to Ukraine on a gratuitous basis, but to provide it on a commercial basis.

It is better, of course, not to provide assistance at all.

A Saudi medical team consisting of 61 doctors and specialists have arrived at Damascus International Airport to support the health sector in Syria and perform delicate medical operations in a number of specialties.

GRAPHIC: Drone drops grenade on Russian soldier’s head.

📸 Ankara

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder hospitalized for "emotional burnout".

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio admits:

A unipolar world was an anomaly after the Cold War.

We are now returning to a multipolar world, facing China and, to some extent, Russia.

The Leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel:

I find it quite disturbing when the Holocaust is politically instrumentalized.

Germany’s politics should be driven not by historical guilt, but by confidence and responsibility for the future.

I don’t care where the term ‘guilt cult’ comes from.

North Korean soldiers stopped fighting in Russia’s Kursk region in mid-January after suffering significant casualties, according to South Korean intelligence.

Reports suggest around 1,000 North Korean troops may have been killed by mid-January.

Their presence has not been detected for two weeks, raising speculation of a temporary withdrawal.