Important Takeaways:
- Europe faced increased threats “including the possibility of armed aggression against member states”, the European Commission warned on Wednesday as it published a 30-step plan for its 27 capitals to increase their preparedness for crisis and mitigation measures.
- “New realities require a new level of preparedness in Europe,” said commission president Ursula von der Leyen. “Our citizens, our member states and our businesses need the right tools to act both to prevent crises and to react swiftly when a disaster hits.”
- It is partly designed as a wake-up call for some capitals that lack crisis-response capabilities.
- In addition to encouraging “the public to adopt practical measures, such as maintaining essential supplies for a minimum of 72 hours in emergencies”…
- It also calls for more “stockpiling of critical equipment and materials” and measures to ensure continuity of services such as healthcare, water supplies and telecommunications in the event of conflict or disaster.
- “We face an increasing number of external security challenges and a growing number of hybrid attacks,” said Kaja Kallas, the commission’s vice-president for foreign and security policy. “It is clear that Europe must be stronger on all fronts and at every level of society. It is always better to prevent crises than to deal with their consequences.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Diplomats from the United States and Russia met and spoke at the U.S. consul general’s residence in Istanbul, Turkey for over six hours on Thursday, the latest meeting between the countries in a bid to normalize diplomatic relations before moving on to the larger matter of finding a solution to the Ukraine War. The discussions were said to have been focused on allowing the two countries to return to being able to properly operate embassies in each other’s’ nations.
- An agreement was reached to hold further meetings although when and where was not stated.
- Thursday’s talk followed another in-person meeting between Russian and American delegations in Saudi Arabia last week, the first such meeting between the nations in years, and a phone call between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin before that. An ambition of these talks is to get diplomatic relations between the states to a point where the two leaders are able to meet in-person to negotiate an end to the Ukraine War, but no meaningful progress on that has been made public.
- One facet of talks so far has been grumbling from Europe and Ukraine in particular about their not having been invited to these talks. While U.S. diplomats have been mollifying, pointing out these first meetings are specifically about American-Russian relations and Europe and Ukraine will have a seat at the table when relevant in the future, Russia’s Putin was more direct, warning European leaders not to attempt to undermine the process.
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Important Takeaways:
- America finds Europe’s retreat from shared values as the continent turns away from democracy and towards censorship “shocking”, Vice President JD Vance told leaders in Germany in a hard-hitting speech.
- Europe is increasingly acting like the ‘bad guys’ in the Cold War as it turns towards censorship and fails to uphold democracy, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told a stunned hall at Germany’s major annual Munich that despite obsession among the European elite about subversion by Russia and China, actually the greatest threat to the continent is “the threat from within”.
- In a withering check-list of failures of freedom heard of by Americans coming out of Europe in recent months including an annulled election in Romania, threats of social media crackdowns against “hateful content”, and even Christians arrested for praying in public, Vance said these developments are “shocking to American ears”. He said:
- For years we’ve been told everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts cancelling elections and senior officials, threatening to cancel others, we have to ask if we are holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ourselves because I fundamentally think we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values, we must live them.
- Now within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that cancelled elections. Were they the good guys? Certainly not. And thank God they lost the Cold War.
- The old Soviet Union lost the Cold War because they didn’t value the “blessings of liberty”, Vance said, warning you cannot simply “mandate innovation or creativity, just as you can’t force people what to think, what to feel, what to believe”. It is not clear Europe has learned those lessons of the Cold War, he said.
- Listing the particularly egregious cases of government overreach, Vance reflected: “In Britain and across Europe free speech, I fear, is in retreat.”
- Vance’s speech was not just observation, however, and he also made an “offer” to the audience of experts, stating there is “a new sheriff in town” in the form of Donald Trump, and that he is strongly in favor of freedom of speech. He said, to an almost silent room with only scant applause from a handful: “Just as the Biden administration seemed desperate to silence people for speaking their minds, so the Trump administration will do precisely the opposite and I hope we can work together on that.”
- The speech, at the Munich Security Conference, made scant reference to the Ukraine War at all, one of the main topics of conversation hoped for by the European defense and security leaders attending the event this weekend. Doubtless this came as a shock to some given the preponderance of the conflict in the minds of attendees, but evidently saving Europe from itself is a high priority for the Trump White House.
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Important Takeaways:
- US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the war between Ukraine and Russia “must end,” that Kyiv joining NATO is unrealistic and that the US will no longer prioritize European and Ukrainian security as the Trump administration shifts its attention to securing the US’ own borders and deterring war with China.
- In remarks before a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Hegseth also said that European troops should be the primary force securing a post-war Ukraine—something US troops will not be involved in, he added.
- “The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said. And he added that any security guarantees offered to Ukraine “must be backed by capable European and non-European troops.”
- “To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine,” he said.
- “We’re also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe,” he said
- Hegseth emphasized that the US “remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe. Full stop. But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Leaders in Europe and Canada have said they will not let Donald Trump’s plans to hit their steel and aluminum exports with tariffs go unchallenged.
- Trump said he was “simplifying” the rules and the measures would boost domestic production.
- “This is a big deal, the beginning of making America rich again,” Trump said, signing the proclamation, which said the measures would come into force on 12 March.
- “Our nation requires steel and aluminum to be made in America, not in foreign lands,” he added.
- The US is the world’s largest importer of steel, counting Canada, Brazil and Mexico as its top three suppliers.
- Canada alone accounted for more than 50% of aluminum imported into the US last year.
- The tariffs will raise the cost of bringing the metals into the US, sparking concern among businesses in the US that rely on the imports and many world leaders because it will make it more expensive for companies to sell their products in the world’s largest economy.
- Trump officials said the latest moves were aimed at stopping countries such as China and Russia from avoiding tariffs by routing low-cost products through other countries.
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Important Takeaways:
- One question is whether the new administration and Europe will provide security guarantees to prevent Russia from taking more territory.
- The one gold-standard security guarantee that Ukraine wants is an invitation to join NATO. But it could not get that under Mr. Biden, and an invitation is unlikely during Mr. Trump’s presidency.
- So, U.S. and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire.
- Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications.
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Important Takeaways:
- Scientists studying the new mpox strain that has spread out of Democratic Republic of Congo say the virus is changing faster than expected, and often in areas where experts lack the funding and equipment to properly track it.
- That means there are numerous unknowns about the virus itself, its severity and how it is transmitting, complicating the response, half a dozen scientists in Africa, Europe and the United States told Reuters.
- A new strain of the virus, known as clade Ib, has the world’s attention again after the WHO declared a new health emergency.
- The strain is a mutated version of clade I, a form of mpox spread by contact with infected animals that has been endemic in Congo for decades. Mpox typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and can kill.
- Congo has had more than 18,000 suspected clade I and clade Ib mpox cases and 615 deaths this year, according to the WHO. There have also been 222 confirmed clade Ib cases in four African countries in the last month, plus a case each in Sweden and Thailand in people with a travel history in Africa.
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Important Takeaways:
- Leaders from across Europe expressed support for Ukraine and concern about the direction of the United States on Thursday at a security-focused summit clouded by worries about whether the U.S. will remain a reliable ally if Donald Trump wins a second presidency
- Newly elected U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed around 45 heads of government to a grandiose English country mansion to discuss migration, energy security and the threat from Russia as he seeks to restore relations between the U.K. and its European Union neighbors four years after their acrimonious divorce.
- Starmer said that the U.K. plans to take a more active role on the world stage, especially when it comes to Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion and to people-smuggling gangs organizing irregular migration.
- Trump’s skepticism about NATO has long worried U.S. allies. Trump’s choice of Sen. JD Vance, an opponent of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, as vice presidential running mate has heightened concerns.
- Hungary’s pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said a Trump victory would be “the best news for everybody, because he’s a man of the people.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The US military has raised the alert level of several of its bases across Europe to the second-highest level in a move that hasn’t been seen ‘in at least ten years.’
- The US Army Garrison in Stuttgart, Germany, America’s military headquarters in Europe, bases in Rheinland-Pfalz and Ramstein, and Aviano Air Base in Italy were all put on alert level ‘Charlie’ over the weekend, several publications reported.
- The ‘Charlie’ threat level only ‘applies when an incident occurs or intelligence is received indicating some form of terrorist action or targeting against personnel or facilities is likely,’ according to the US Army.
- It is not currently known why the four bases, which together make up the largest overseas US military community, raised their threat levels.
- But a US official told CNN that they haven’t seen a threat level this high ‘in at least 10 years’, adding that this usually means the military is aware of an ‘active-reliable threat.’
- In addition to the formally raised alert level, Spangdahlem Air Base in West Germany told airmen from its 52nd Fighter unit that they were prohibited from wearing their uniforms off-base, and must commute in civilian clothing, military publication Stars and Stripes reported.
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Important Takeaways:
- Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons in today’s wars
- The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe.
- “There are things worth fighting for,” said Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. “Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other. We’ll learn one of these days, but I won’t be around for that.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presence at the D-Day commemorations with world leaders who are supporting Ukraine fused World War II’s awful past with the fraught present.
- Feted everywhere they go in wheelchairs and walking with canes, veterans are using their voices to repeat their message they hope will live eternal: Never forget.
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