🇺🇸US orders immediate pause to foreign aid, leaked memo says

The US State Department has issued a halt to nearly all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, according to an internal memo sent to officials and US embassies abroad.

The leaked notice follows President Trump's executive order issued on Monday for a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance pending a review of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy.

The United States is the world's biggest international aid donor spending $68bn in 2023 according to government figures. The State Department notice appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇧🇾'God forbid we should end up like Ukraine': Belarusians indifferent to election

The outcome of the 2025 presidential election is not in doubt. Alexander Lukashenko, once dubbed "Europe's last dictator," who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for more than 30 years, will be declared the winner and secure a seventh term in office.

His supporters call it an exercise in "Belarusian democracy". His opponents reject the process as "a farce".

Even Mr Lukashenko himself claims to lack interest in the process.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

West Bank celebrations as freed Palestinian prisoners return

Israel said it freed 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, but 70 of the most serious offenders who were convicted of multiple murders are set to be deported.

Earlier four Israeli hostages returned to Israel after they were handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas in Gaza City.

It is the second part of an Israeli hostage release and Palestinian prisoner swap since a ceasefire was agreed earlier this month.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇵🇱Poland warns against restarting Russia gas supplies

Poland's president has said that gas flows from Russia to Western Europe should never be restored, even if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace deal.

Andrzej Duda told the BBC that the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which have not been used since 2022, "should be dismantled".

This, he said, would mean the likes of Germany would not be tempted to restore Russian supplies to boost its own struggling economy.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇨🇴🇺🇸Colombia backs down on deportation flights after Trump tariffs threat

The US will not go ahead with tariffs on Colombia, after Bogota agreed to accept - without restrictions - deported migrants, the White House says.

Donald Trump had ordered 25% tariffs on all Colombian goods after its president barred two US military deportation flights from landing in the country on Sunday.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro had initially responded by saying his country would accept repatriated citizens on "civilian planes, without treating them like criminals".

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇹🇭Bangkok tackles smog with week-long free public transport

Thai authorities have made public transport in Bangkok free for one week, in an attempt to reduce the number of private cars on the roads and tackle air pollution.

Smog has already led to hundreds of school closures and employees working from home.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇩🇰Denmark to spend billions more on Arctic security

Denmark has said it will spend 14.6 billion kroner (£1.6bn; $2.05bn) to boost security in the Arctic region, in partnership with its autonomous territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

The deal includes three new Arctic ships, more long-range drones with advanced image acquisition capacity and stronger satellite capacity.

"We must face the fact that there are serious challenges regarding security and defence in the Arctic and North Atlantic," Denmark's Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

⚠️Coca-Cola recalls drinks over safety concerns

Coca-Cola has recalled its drinks in some countries across Europe because they contain "higher levels" of a chemical called chlorate.

The firm said in a statement that the recall was focused on Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It added just five product lines had been shipped to Britain, and they had already been sold.

Affected products include the Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Tropico and Minute Maid brands, according to the Belgium branch of Coca-Cola's international bottling and distribution operation.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇺🇸Trump signs orders focused on reshaping US military

US President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders focused on reshaping the US military.

One order signed late on Monday bans diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the military. It will remove the use of race- or sex-based preferences in the armed forces, the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department.

Another reinstates more than 8,000 service members who were discharged for refusing to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇩🇰Danish PM in whirlwind EU trip as Greenland unease grows

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited three European capitals on Tuesday, days after US President Donald Trump reiterated his interest in acquiring Greenland.

Over the space of a day, Frederiksen met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and Nato leader Mark Rutte in Brussels.

Although the leaders were said to have discussed issues including Ukraine and hybrid Russian attacks in the Baltic Sea, the Danish PM's whirlwind trip betrayed the nervousness felt in Denmark over Trump's repeated comments.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇺🇸🇮🇱Israel's Netanyahu invited to meet Trump at White House next week

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House next week.

Netanyahu's office said the visit would take place on 4 February and that he was the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House during Trump's second term.

A White House official confirmed there would be a meeting early next week, but said the date and time had yet to be finalised.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇺🇸US judge temporarily blocks Trump's freeze on federal grants and loans

A US judge temporarily halted President Donald Trump's order to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants and loans, minutes before it was set to come into effect on Tuesday.

Judge Loren AliKhan's order to pause the plan until next Monday at 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) came in response to a lawsuit filed earlier in the day by a group of organisations representing grant recipients.

The lawsuit claims the White House's temporary freezing of already approved funding violates the law.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

💶EU foreign policy chief says defence spending must rise

➡️Read Here

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇻🇪🇺🇸Venezuela frees six US men after Trump envoy meets Maduro

Venezuela has freed six US detainees after talks in Caracas between President Nicolás Maduro and a senior Trump administration official.

The release of the men was announced on social media by Donald Trump and his special envoy, Richard Grenell. Their names have not been made public.

Grenell - who published online a photo of the six on board his plane - said they had spoken by phone to President Trump to thank him.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇨🇦Canada 'will stand up to a bully', says PM contender Carney over Trump tariffs

Mark Carney, the frontrunner to be the next Canadian prime minister, has said his country is "going to stand up to a bully" after US President Donald Trump announced tariffs of 25% on Canada.

59-year-old Carney said Canada will "match dollar for dollar the US tariffs".

As well as levying a 25% tariff on Canadian imports on Saturday, the White House has announced tariffs of 25% on Mexico and 10% on China.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇺🇸US system predicting global famine offline amid Trump freeze

The United States' system for monitoring famine globally has been taken offline amid President Donald Trump's order for a 90-day freeze on nearly all US foreign assistance.

The Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) was established after the 1984 famine in Ethiopia, as part of a worldwide effort to prevent a repeat of its devastating impact.

It was designed by US government agencies, including its international development body USAID and the space agency Nasa.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇸🇾Sharaa vows to pursue criminals as Syria's transitional president

Syria's new president Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to "pursue the criminals who shed Syrian blood and committed massacres and crimes" in his first address to the nation since the fall of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa has been named president for a "transitional period", seven weeks after he led the rebel offensive that overthrew Assad.

He committed to issuing a "constitutional declaration" to serve as a "legal reference" during the country's transition, following the suspension of the old constitution.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇦🇺Australia bans DeepSeek on government devices over security risk

Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices and systems over what it says is the security risk the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup poses.

DeepSeek stunned the world in January when it unveiled a chatbot which matched the performance level of US rivals, while claiming it had a much lower training cost.

Billions of dollars were wiped off stock markets internationally, including in Australia, where stocks tied to AI - such as chipmaker Brainchip - fell sharply overnight.

The Australian government has insisted the ban is not due to the app's Chinese origins but because of the "unacceptable risk" it poses to national security.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

South Africa's president calls Musk to calm Trump land row

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved to defuse a row with the new US administration over a new land law by speaking to Elon Musk.

Mr Musk is a close adviser to US President Donald Trump, who on Sunday threatened to cut all future funding to South Africa over allegations that it was confiscating land and "treating certain classes of people very badly".

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇨🇳🇺🇸Beijing hits back – can China and US avoid trade war escalation?

Beijing has made its decision. After days of warning of counter measures and urging Washington to enter negotiations and "meet China halfway", it has decided to hit back – or at least threaten to retaliate with its own tariffs.

China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the US from 10 February.

The date is important. It means there is still time for the world's two largest economies to step back from the brink of a trade war.

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts

🇺🇸🇲🇽US and Mexico reach deal to put tariffs on hold - for now

US President Donald Trump has delayed introducing 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico for a month while the two countries hold "negotiations".

Trump said he would "immediately pause the anticipated tariffs", which were due to come into force on Tuesday.

The last-minute breakthrough came after a phone call between Trump and President Claudia Sheinbaum, in which the Mexican leader agreed to send 10,000 members of the National Guard to the US-Mexican border to "prevent the trafficking of drugs, in particular fentanyl, from Mexico to the US".

✅@virals ⭐️Boosts