German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Trump’s NATO comments:

I have great respect for the achievements of the American nation and of the United States as an ally over the past decades. But respect must be mutual. Respect has to be earned.

To speak about the fallen soldiers of our allies like that is simply indecent and disrespectful. We all made that very clear.

And one should also remember: so far, this was the first and only time NATO’s Article 5 was invoked — after September 11 by the United States.

Everyone stood by the USA. To claim something different today is simply not true.

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German Defense Minister Pistorius on Zelensky’s Davos speech:

Zelensky is speaking out of desperation as the leader of a country in extreme distress. I share his view that Europeans could and should do more to support Ukraine.

But to say that Europe is not capable of defending itself is wrong. Conventionally, we are capable of doing so — and we are becoming stronger.

And we still have an alliance with the Americans; that has not been canceled.

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BREAKING: Russian forces withdrawing from Qamishli airport in Syria, with fighter jets, helicopters, and military equipment being loaded onto transport aircraft.

Source: K24

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German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on the Bundeswehr:

We cannot work miracles. You cannot make up for thirty years of neglect overnight. But we are making progress.

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France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot will visit Türkiye tomorrow to discuss bilateral ties, trade, defense cooperation, EU relations, Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz hits back at Pam Bondi making several demands:

There are 2 million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on, start with those.

French far-right politician and leader of the Reconquête party, Éric Zemmour:

For thirty years, we were led to believe the world was governed by law and trade. In reality, it was governed by American power.

That era is over. China is now the United States’ main rival. Russia has returned to the international stage. The BRICS are asserting their independence.

French far-right politician and leader of the Reconquête party, Éric Zemmour, on Greenland:

The United States have a tradition of buying territories. They bought Louisiana from Napoleon and Alaska from Russia.

When they cannot buy, they have also conquered them by force — Mexico remembers this, having lost Texas and California.

French far-right politician and leader of the Reconquête party, Éric Zemmour:

For thirty years, France and Europe were made to believe they could do without power.

That is the crime of those who governed us — and of the one who now sports fine sunglasses — of having disarmed us.

If Europe were strong, this would not be happening. Because European countries weakened themselves and believed in the myth of law and trade, the states that remained strong are now making us pay the price.

French far-right politician and leader of the Reconquête party, Éric Zemmour:

We could not wage even a small war without American logistics.

We must not pretend we are stronger than we are. We have become very weak.

NEW: The EU has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok over its ability to generate sexualised and “undressed” images, including harmful deepfakes and content involving minors, under the Digital Services Act.

CEO of TikTok's U.S. joint venture, Adam Presser:

We made a change to designate the use of the term Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute as hate speech.

Over the course of 2024, we tripled the amount of accounts that we were banning for hateful activity.

We also have, I think over two dozen Jewish organizations that are constantly feeding us intelligence and information when they spot violative trends.

There is no finish line.

Russian soldier disguised as a penguin got lost in Ukraine’s snowy steppes, got killed.

NEW: Taiwan says it is closely monitoring “abnormal” changes in China’s military leadership after a top general was put under investigation.

Russia Today’s Margarita Simonyan is battling cancer.

Satellite imagery shows Israeli forces have bulldozed large parts of Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, leveling homes and land despite a ceasefire, raising concerns that the campaign could be clearing ground for future settlement plans, an Al Jazeera investigation found.

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Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani:

On Thursday, at the meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels, I will propose — in coordination with our partners — adding the IRGC to the list of terrorist organizations, as well as imposing individual sanctions on those responsible for these heinous acts.

German Foreign Minister Wadephul:

We know that hybrid threats are very real here in the Baltic Sea region.

This includes the fact that Russia is deliberately destroying undersea cables.

German Foreign Minister Wadephul on the shadow fleet:

They are not only a threat because they continue to generate revenue for Russia.

They are also a threat to all Baltic Sea states, because we often see vessels in a catastrophic technical condition with poorly trained crews.

Just imagine one of these large oil tankers running aground off our coasts. Both the Latvian and the German Baltic coasts would immediately be heavily polluted.

An ecological catastrophe would be imminent, with serious economic consequences for the entire tourism sector.

German Foreign Minister Wadephul on Russia:

For good reason, Russia is not seriously considering a short-term attack on NATO territory — because we are strong.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini:

We have heard Zelensky who, after all the money, after all the efforts, after all the aid, even has the nerve to complain.

My friend, you are losing the war, you are losing men, you are losing credibility and dignity.

Sign the peace agreement as soon as possible.