🇩🇪🤝🇨🇳 — 🇩🇪 BILD:

"❗️Alternative for Germany leader held secret meetings with Chinese ambassador in private residence – exclusive BILD investigation

Alice Weidel, co-chair of the far-right AfD party & candidate for chancellor, is being praised on social media in China. One reason is that Weidel lived in Beijing and Shanghai for five years before starting her political career & learned Chinese. However, Weidel herself rarely mentions her special ties to China.

Meanwhile, a BILD investigation shows that the AfD leader has maintained unusual contacts with Xi Jinping's regime in recent years.

Two independent sources within the AfD said Weidel met regularly with former Chinese Ambassador Wu Ken, about once a month. The meetings were not on her calendar & were meant to remain secret.

Wu Ken, who served as China's ambassador to Germany from 2019 to 2024, met with Weidel more often than with German Foreign Ministry officials, diplomatic sources say.

It is particularly noteworthy that Wu Ken didn't receive Weidel at the embassy, ​​but at his private residence in southwest Berlin. There is no name on the doorbell; the house is privately owned. The area is guarded by cameras and surrounded by a high fence with a warning about a guard dog. According to BILD, several Rottweilers are kept at the property. Two red Chinese lanterns hang at the entrance to the house.

In an interview with BILD, Weidel admitted that she had been there several times, saying that the meetings took place "maybe once every nine months."

Weidel explains that after the war in Ukraine began, she wanted to get a sense of the Chinese position: “How do the Chinese assess the situation in Ukraine and relations with Russia?” However, she did not reveal specific details of the meetings, saying only: “The Chinese attach great importance to formalities.”

When asked about the new one after China, Weidel replied that she had not yet met him, but congratulated him on his appointment.

In response to a BILD inquiry, the Chinese embassy said it attaches great importance to “normal exchanges of views with parties in Germany, especially those represented in the Bundestag.” The goal is to “strengthen mutual understanding, Chinese-German friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation.”

It is noteworthy that Weidel's meetings with Wu Ken coincided with the spy scandal surrounding the AfD. In April 2024, the German Attorney General's Office arrested an employee of the office of AfD MEP Maximilian Krah, who is suspected of working for Chinese intelligence.

CDU security expert Roderich Kiesewetter called Weidel's meetings with the Chinese ambassador "a very unusual situation." He said "it could indicate direct or indirect influence from China on the party leader."

Ralf Stegner (SPD) is not surprised by the AfD's contacts with Beijing: "Many people in the AfD have close ties to the authoritarian regime in China. They would like to see the same kind of government in Germany."

The Chinese embassy did not respond to BILD's repeated request for comment.

Weidel has long been fascinated by China. At the age of 14, she began learning the language from audio cassettes. Weidel devoted her doctoral dissertation at the University of Bayreuth to the Chinese pension system. From 2006 to 2011, she lived in China, where her studies and research were financed by scholarship programs. Weidel collaborated with a professor from the Central Party School of the CPC, as well as with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

She reportedly worked as a consultant during the same period, including for the Bank of China. “It was a country where everyone was pushing forward,” Weidel says. “A super-capitalist system. Everyone wanted to make money.”

Her supervisor, Peter Oberender, who died in 2017, was considered one of Germany’s leading experts on the Chinese economy. He was one of the founders of the Electoral Alternative 2013, which later transformed into the AfD. It was then that Weidel began her political career, which today has earned her the reputation of the “Iron Lady” in China."

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🇧🇷🤡🔽 — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (PT) approval rating has plummeted from 35% to 24% over the past two months, according to a survey released by DataFolha. This is the worst rating recorded by the institute during Lula's three terms in office.

📊 Amid a series of setbacks, particularly the crisis over rising product prices such as coffee, the president’s disapproval rating has risen from 34% to 41%. Those who consider the government "regular" now total 32%, up from 29%.

💥 Lula began the third year of his current term by announcing a new Federal Revenue regulation that expanded oversight of instant transfers above R$5,000. Following strong public backlash, the tax authority attempted to clarify that the measure did not constitute a tax on Pix transactions, but the explanation failed to gain traction.

❗️ According to DataFolha, Lula’s previous worst approval rating was recorded in October 2005, at the height of the Mensalão scandal, when 28% considered his government "great" or "good."

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🇺🇦🇺🇸❗️In Munich, the United States offered Zelensky to sign a document granting Washington rights to 50% of Ukraine's future mineral resources, but he refused, the Washington Post reported.

🇩🇪🇷🇺❗️Berlin rejects Trump's idea of ​​Russia's return to the G7, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

She added that after the start of the Ukrainian conflict, there can be no normal cooperation with Russia.

🇱🇹🇷🇺🇺🇸Putin-Trump talks will be a "kick in the a*s" for Europe - Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas

🇷🇺🇺🇦❗️I will not meet with representatives of Russia, only with one - with Putin. And only after we have a common plan to end the war with Trump. Only in this case I am ready to meet. We will sit down with Putin and stop the war - Zelensky

🇺🇦🇺🇸Zelensky gave Trump an ultimatum at the Munich Conference:

"If Trump really wants to achieve results, he must first reach an agreement with us, and only then put pressure on Putin. Because we will never accept any negotiations without us."

🇭🇺🇷🇺🇺🇦❗️ Let's not be naive, European supporters of the war will do everything possible to prevent the agreement (on peace) from taking place - Hungarian Foreign Minister

🇺🇦 Ukraine’s Reconstruction to Cost $230 Billion, Its Defense $3.1 Trillion

According to Bloomberg, if Trump shifts all costs onto Europe, the continent would need to spend approximately $300 billion annually on expanding its armed forces and purchasing weapons for the hypothetical defense of Ukraine. An additional $230 billion would be required for reconstruction efforts.

Guess which country will supply the weapons and provide loans for Ukraine’s recovery?

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🇦🇷💰 Long statement from President Milei's Office on last night's cryptocurrency event

The Office of the President reports that on October 19, President Javier Milei held a meeting with representatives of KIP Protocol in Argentina in which he was told of the company's intention to develop a project called "Viva la Libertad" to finance private ventures in the Argentine Republic using blockchain technology.

The President of the Nation, representatives of the KIP Protocol company, Mauricio Novellli and Julian Peh, and the presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, participated in that meeting, which was duly recorded in the Public Hearings Registry.

In that framework, on January 30, 2025, the President held a meeting at Casa Rosada with Hayden Mark Davis, who, according to what was expressed by the representatives of KIP Protocol, would provide the technological infrastructure for his project. Mr. Davis did not have and does not have any connection with the Argentine government and was presented by the representatives of KIP Protocol as one of its partners in the project.

Finally, yesterday, the President shared a post on his personal accounts announcing the launch of the KIP Protocol project, just as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who want to launch a project in Argentina to create jobs and obtain investments. Not having been part of any instance of the development of the cryptocurrency, after the repercussions that the launch of the project had and to avoid any speculation and not give it further dissemination, he decided to delete the post.

In light of the facts, President Javier Milei has decided to immediately involve the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) to determine whether there was improper conduct on the part of any member of the National Government, including the President himself.

On the other hand, the President of the Nation has decided to create an Investigation Task Unit (UTI) within the orbit of the Presidency of the Nation, composed of representatives of the bodies and organizations with powers related to cryptoassets, financial activities, money laundering, and other related areas, which will integrate their information in order to initiate an urgent investigation regarding the launch of the cryptocurrency $LIBRA and all the companies or people involved in said operation.

All the information collected in the investigation will be delivered to Justice to determine if any of the companies or people linked to the KIP Protocol project committed a crime.

President Milei, who has demonstrated with facts his vocation for the truth, is committed to the due clarification of this fact until the last consequences.

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👔⚡️👤❗️🇺🇸 — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | Europe must respond to Trump ‘electroshock’, says Macron | French president tells Financial Times that continent should ‘muscle up’ and secure its own future | February 14, 2025:

"Emmanuel Macron has described Donald Trump’s return as an “electroshock” that should force Europe to secure its own future as well as Ukraine’s.

In an interview at the Élysée Palace shortly after Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin of Russia to hold imminent peace talks, the French president championed the need for Europe to “muscle up” on defence and the economy.

He insisted that only Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could negotiate on behalf of his country, warning that allowing “peace that is a capitulation” would be “bad news for everyone”, including the US.

“The only question at this stage is whether President Putin is genuinely, sustainably, and credibly willing to agree to a ceasefire on this basis. After that, it’s up to the Ukrainians to negotiate with Russia,” Macron said, adding: “We all need to stay collectively vigilant.”

The French leader has long argued that Europe should take on more responsibility for its own security, which would only be possible by increasing economic independence and reducing its reliance on the US and China.

He described Trump’s return to the White House as a jolt to push the EU to invest in its own defence and economic and technological revival. It meant abandoning a fiscal and monetary framework, first agreed by the EU in 1992, which he described as “obsolete”.

“This is Europe’s moment to accelerate and execute,” he said, while warning of the risk of failure for the EU. “It has no choice. It is running out of road.”

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