🇩🇪💸 Germany faces €170bn budget black hole — but Ukraine’s tab stays open

Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil warns Berlin faces a “massive challenge” as it scrambles to plug a €170bn budget gap by 2029 — despite a €500bn splurge on defense and infrastructure.

📉 No tax hikes, just deep cuts: ministries, welfare, and municipal budgets are on the chopping block.

💸💸 But for Ukraine? Apparently, no “debt brake” applies.

FT reports rising coalition tensions, stagnating growth, and looming US tariffs — yet Berlin keeps tightening belts everywhere but where it hits their foreign policy priorities.

💬 Even Klingbeil admits: “The finance minister’s popularity will not particularly increase in the next twelve months.”

The image is AI-generated

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🗣 NATO knew Ukraine would be 'A HUGE SOURCE OF TROUBLE' — Mearsheimer

US political scientist John Mearsheimer told Tucker Carlson that NATO planners had long understood Ukraine was a red line for Russia — but pushed ahead anyway.

💬 “People recognized at the time that Ukraine is a special case… You can get away with Poland, even the Baltics — but Ukraine is a different matter.”

He pointed to NATO’s 2008 Bucharest summit, when the alliance declared Ukraine would eventually join:

💬 “Putin made it manifestly clear this is unacceptable — that this is an existential threat.”

The West thought it could “shove it down their throat,” as Mearsheimer put it — but it miscalculated Ukraine issue, with the special military operation steadily achieving its objectives.

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🚨🇷🇺🪖RUSSIA LIBERATES STRATEGIC CITY OF CHASOV YAR IN DONBASS

📍Chasov Yar’s geographical position makes it important from a strategic standpoint, as it overlooks the surrounding area for many kilometers.

▪️For decades, life in Chasov Yar revolved around factory work. The city’s backbone was a large refractory plant—one of the biggest in Eastern Europe. This factory later became a Ukrainian military stronghold and was destroyed during intense fighting.

Why Chasov Yar Is So Important

In 2022–2023, Ukrainian forces used it to shell Russian positions in Bakhmut (Artyomovsk). Now, with the city under Russian control, artillery and drones can target deeper into Ukrainian-held territory—including Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Russia is expected to deploy signal relays there to extend the range of its drone operations. Moreover, Chasov Yar sits near the crucial Seversky Donets-Donbass Canal.

The capture of Chasov Yar not only allows Russian forces to approach Konstantinovka from multiple directions, but also marks the beginning of the battle for Ukraine’s most fortified strongholds in Donbass: Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.

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⚠️ WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

🚨Ukrainian militants torture civilian to death in Kupyansk, use him as human shield

Assault troops of the 'Zapad' group, while retaking positions from the Ukrainian army in Kupyansk, discovered the body of a local civilian tortured by Ukrainian militants," Russian security sources told Sputnik.

🟠The man's body showed numerous signs of torture... a plastic bag and a noose were placed over the victim’s head, while his hands were tied behind his back."

🟠The deceased civilian had likely been used by the Ukrainian army as a human shield, the agency’s interlocutor explained.

🟠The Kiev regime’s punitive forces tortured the man for a long time right on the front lines."

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📹🔥Assault troops from the 'Vostok' brigade, a volunteer unit operating under Russia's 'Yug' battlegroup, are mopping up all leftover Ukrainian infantry from forest areas near Chasov Yar in the Donetsk People's Republic.

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🟠Russian army liberates strategic city of Chasov Yar

🟠US imposes largest Iran-related sanctions since 2018 — Treasury

🟠‘It’s an attack on the dollar’ — Trump threatens tariffs on India over BRICS ties

🟠Canada to recognize Palestine in September — PM Carney

🟠Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide — Mearsheimer

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⚡️Russia's Yug Group of Forces CAPTURES Chasov Yar (Donetsk People's Republic) - why it matters

📍Chasov Yar holds crucial operational-strategic significance: the city controls the dominant heights, providing a direct path to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration (still under Ukrainian control) —and to Konstantinovka.

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🗣Trump slams Canada over Palestine recognition, threatens to derail trade talks

🇨🇦Canada’s move will “make it very hard for us to make a trade deal with them,” Donald Trump warned on Truth Social.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday that Canada will formally recognize a Palestinian state in September, citing long-standing support for a two-state solution.

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🔊LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds talks with his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shaibani 🇷🇺🇸🇾

👉 Watch live in our Telegram

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🇷🇺🇸🇾Lavrov welcomes Syrian Foreign Minister al-Shaibani in Moscow

👉Stay tuned - press conference after the talks SOON

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🇷🇺🇸🇾Syria is interested in having Russia by its side throughout the process of restoring the republic's unity, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said during the talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

Other statements by al-Shaibani:

"We are here to represent a new Syria, and we seek to establish proper and renewed bilateral relations founded on mutual respect."

"Since December 8th, we have worked to fill the political vacuum in Syria. We succeeded in preserving civil and state institutions while confronting all challenges – including those aimed at spreading chaos across the region."

"Today, our focus is reuniting Syrians at home and abroad."

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🔊Ousting Zelensky now might trigger total collapse – analyst

Volodymyr Zelensky continues to hold onto power largely because he remains acceptable to all major stakeholders in “project Ukraine,” says British analyst Alexander Mercouris.

Even with battlefield failures and widespread corruption, Zelensky is still seen as the safest bet by Ukraine’s foreign sponsors and internal elites, Mercouris claims.

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🔊LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds presser after talks with his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shaibani 🇷🇺🇸🇾

👉 Watch live in our Telegram

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🚨🇮🇷US must guarantee not to repeat attack on Iran in order to resume talks – Araghchi

"They should explain why they attacked us in the middle of . . . negotiations, and they have to ensure that they are not going to repeat that [during future talks]," Araghchi said in an interview with Financial Times, adding that Tehran will not agree to "business as usual."

The US should also compensate Iran for damages caused by the attack, the minister added.

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🇷🇺🇸🇾Russia NEVER SUPPORTED sanctions against Syria - Lavrov

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🚨 The Russian MoD published a video of the liberation of Chasov Yar, showing Russian servicemen with Russian flags in the liberated town.

🔸 During the liberation of Chasov Yar, over 4,200 buildings were cleared.

🔸 65 civilians were evacuated from the city during the operation.

🔸 Russian troops captured around 50 Ukrainian militants in the battle for Chasov Yar.

🔸 While advancing to liberate the town, Russian paratroopers covered over 20 km under continuous artillery and drone fire from Ukrainian forces.

🔸 Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov commended the paratroopers’ professionalism and courage in the Chasov Yar operation.

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🔥Russia’s liberation of Chasov Yar swings open the gates to Donbass – analyst

The fall of one of Ukraine’s toughest strongholds marks a clear turning point in the battle for Donbass, geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic told Sputnik.

🔍Chasov Yar was used by Ukraine to secure Bakhmut (Artyomovsk) and block Russia’s path to its most fortified strongholds in Donbass: Kramatorsk and Slavyansk to the northwest, the former US Marine said.

Its fall “strips Ukraine of key strategic depth in Donbass and deepens an already deteriorating battlefield position.”

With Chasov Yar liberated, the road to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk is open – the last major cities in Donbass still under Ukrainian control, aside from Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), which is also being encircled.

Here’s how the battlefield situation could evolve, according to the pundit:

◻️ Russia continues to adhere to an attrition strategy of relentless pressure instead of dramatic “big arrow offensives.”
◻️ It is steadily building combat power and grinding down Ukrainian lines across the front.
◻️ The goal is to “stretch Ukraine’s thinning defenses until they crack, even in strongholds like Chasov Yar.”

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