Trump pushing Ukraine for more than just minerals to restore US aid

While the US president wants the deal signed, he is also demanding a shift in Volodymyr Zelensky’s approach to peace talks, including a willingness to make territorial concessions to Russia, NBC reports, citing officials.

Donald Trump also wants to see progress toward elections in Ukraine and possibly for Zelensky to step down.

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❗️Trump says Zelensky took money out of the US under Biden "like candy from a baby," and does not think he is grateful.

🔸 Trump calls nuclear weapons the biggest existential threat, saying they could "blow your heads off for miles and miles and miles."

🔸 Trump says he would love to cut defense spending but not at this time.

🔸 Trump says he expects to reach a deal with Ukraine on critical minerals.

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Surging violence in Syria: what you need to know

1️⃣The interim Syrian government’s “security operations” against “remnants of the regime” in Alawite-populated areas of Tartus, Jableh and Latakia have entered their third day.

2️⃣An attack on the Sadkop oil storage and distribution center in Latakia was reportedly repelled by security forces, with large-scale power outages following the incident, SANA reported.

3️⃣Syria’s Interior Ministry has deployed reinforcements to Tartus’ outskirts “to ensure security and stability.”

4️⃣Interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani) has called on Assad supporters to lay down their arms, and said “those who insist on violence will be held accountable in a fair court.”

5️⃣Activists have alleged “targeted killings” of local residents, estimating that over 700 civilians, including women, children and the elderly have been killed, and warned casualties could rise.

6️⃣Syrian Red Cross staff have been barred from entering coastal areas on grounds that the situation is too dangerous.

🔊Check out the reactions:

🗣Russia stressed the “paramount importance” of “abiding with [Syrians’] legal rights, regardless of national or religious affiliation” and reaffirmed its “fundamental” support of Syria’s “sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.”

🗣The EU blamed pro-Assad forces, while calling for the protection of civilians “and respect for international humanitarian law.”

🗣Syria’s Christian churches rejected any actions threatening public peace, while condemning the targeted “massacre” of civilians.

🗣The spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community called for an end to the operations along Syria’s coast, and condemned the “targeted killings” taking place.

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Israel pitches Arrow system for US Golden Dome defense shield

Boaz Levy, CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), says his company is well-positioned to contribute, citing “three decades of its cooperation with the United States on missile defense,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

President Donald Trump announced the Golden Dome in January 2025 as a US-built missile defense shield, inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome, but designed for broader threats.

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⚔️Romanian rector challenging Georgescu’s candidacy IS ON SOROS’ PAYROLL

SNSPA university administrator Remus Pricopie has launched an appeal to bar Calin Georgescu from running in Romania’s presidential elections. But Pricopie is no ordinary academic. He’s linked not only to the Romanian secret services, and the political elite, but George Soros.

🔍Soros sponsorship:

🟠In 2020, Pricopie’s SNSPA – the National School of Political and Administrative Studies, was invited to join an academic financing network into which Soros’ OSF pumped over $1B.

🟠 “The SNSPA, a member of the European Civic Consortium, was invited to collaborate with the newest global network of universities. The announcement was made…by George Soros at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos,” a SNSPA press release said at the time.

🔍Spy ties:

🟠Pricopie hired Florian Coldea as a professor at the SNSPA. Coldea is an ex-deputy director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) suspended in 2017 and placed under investigation in 2024 over suspected links to drug traffickers. Coldea remained employed at SNSPA until last summer.

🟠Previously, media uncovered Pricopie’s close links to George Maior, ex-SRI director, who had led Romania’s NATO accession negotiations, served as ambassador to the US, and has been a regular speaker at Harvard, Atlantic Council, and AIPAC events.

🔍Big fish linked to Romania’s political elite:

🟠In 2024, outgoing President Klaus Iohannis awarded him the Order of the Star of Romania for contributions to the Fulbright Program, a soft power tool set up and funded by the US State Department. Five years before, Iohannis gave him the National Order of Faithful Service.

🟠Pricopie’s name was reportedly even once floated as a candidate for PM by two establishment parties – the Social Democratic Party and the social liberal PRO Romania.

Pricopie has been obsessed with Georgescu ever since his rise to superstardom ahead of last year’s election. He's praised the cancellation of the vote as evidence that “the Romanian state works.” Now it's clear why.

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🗣‘Climate lunatics’ think global warming is ‘existential threat’ – but nuclear weapons that can ‘blow your head off’ are REAL risk for humanity, Trump told Fox News.

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🏭 A century ago US businessmen built factories in Donbass – now Russia invites foreign partners for rare earth metals

President Putin said Russia is open to working with foreign companies, including from the US, on rare earth metal mining in the Donbass and Novorossiya regions which have rejoined Russia. Russia has a history of foreign partnerships there – here are some examples👇

🇺🇸 US

🔸 In the late 1920s and early 1930s, US companies helped industrialize the USSR. The cooperation was mutually beneficial as the US was suffering the Great Depression, while the Soviets needed rapid growth after World War I, the 1917 revolution and the Civil War.

🔸 The USSR partnered with Albert Kahn, known as "the man who built Detroit." His firm, Albert Kahn Associates, designed 570 industrial sites across the USSR, including in the Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkov regions. Among them were a foundry in Lugansk and a heavy machinery plant in Kramatorsk.

🇧🇪 Belgium

🔹 In the late 19th century, Ernest Solvay and other Belgian industrialists invested in Donbass, founding a soda factory in Lisichansk and the Lyubimov, Solvay & Co. company with Russian partners.

🔹 Between 1896 and 1900, they turned Konstantinovka into an industrial hub with glass, mirror, ceramic and chemical factories.

🇬🇧 UK

◼️ Charles Gascoigne founded the Lugansk Factory in 1797 to produce cannons and ammunition for the Black Sea Fleet.

◼️ In the 1870s, John Hughes built ironworks in Donetsk – then Yuzovka – supplying iron rails for Russia’s railway network. Some claim he founded the city, but settlements already existed there.

🇩🇪 Germany

🔶 Germans settled in Donbass in the mid-18th century. In 1788, Catherine II invited German Mennonites, who boosted local agriculture.

🔶 They founded many colonies, some of which became towns – such as Boykovskoye (Telmanovo), originally Ostheim ("Eastern Homeland").

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💰 Much-touted Trump crypto summit proved much ado about nothing: digital money expert

🗣It was “a first-class public relations event for media consumption,” Paul Goncharoff told Sputnik.

💬 “The bottom line is that Bitcoin, Ethereum and similar cryptocurrencies in possession of the US Government will be concentrated in a special fund to be considered an asset of the United States,” the veteran financial analyst and consultant said.

✍️ Other key takeaways:

🔸 The fund will include cryptocurrencies that have been seized, impounded or otherwise similarly obtained, and not be bought using taxpayer dollars.

🔸 Also noteworthy is the administration’s support for stablecoins – a type of crypto that can be pegged to the dollar, other fiat currencies and other assets.

🔸 Trump’s support for blockchain, AI and other innovative tech is important, according to Goncharoff, given that previous administrations have threatened to penalize some of them.

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⚡️The Russian Battlegroup Sever has liberated the settlements of Malaya Loknya, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, and Kositsa in the Kursk region, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

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🗣Elon Musk just delivered a brutal takedown of Polish Foreign Minister

When Radoslaw Sikorski – husband of Russophobic US war cheerleader Anne Applebaum – claimed Poland was footing the bill for Starlink in Ukraine, Musk shot back: “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost.” Ouch 😨

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