🚨 Merz briefs Trump on plans to seize €140B in Russian assets

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed providing Ukraine with interest-free loan using frozen Russian central bank funds during a call with President Trump.

Russia has repeatedly condemned the asset freezes as "theft" and vowed retaliatory measures.

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⚔️ Draft-age men arm up to resist Ukraine’s draft squads

👉 Men of connoscription age in Odessa are arming themselves with knives and blades to fight off being dragged to the front lines, a local resident told Sputnik.

“If they’re draft dodgers — they’re also starting to carry something in their pockets. Basically, most of them already have a bit of fight in them — and they’re all armed now,” the woman said.

📹 Videos showing forced mobilizations in Ukraine have been widely circulated online, showing Zelensky’s enlistment squads using brute force, beating men of draft age, and hauling them off to undisclosed locations.

Ukraine’s military is scraping the barrel, drafting everyone from inmates to the sick to be sent to the meat grinder...

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🚨🪖💸 Ukrainian POW reveals price of dodging battlefront meat grinder

The price of “dodging” service in the Ukrainian Armed Forces ranges from $10,000 to $15,000, a Ukrainian POW revealed.

“If you don’t want to be sent to the front line, you pay your commander out of your own pocket — and he makes sure you’re not sent there,” he said.

🗣 He claimed that he surrendered because of “horrific” losses on the battlefront and rampant corruption among unit commanders.

Ukrainian troops who refused to fight were beaten — and in some cases, executed, he noted.

The POW also claimed that Ukrainian artillery shelled several homes with civilians inside in a village in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

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🔶 Tensions flare in Portland: Tear gas, arrests at ICE protests

🔶 Hostage release is going 'very quickly' — Trump

🔶 Ukraine blocks discharged mercenaries from leaving

🔶 Zelensky’s office monopolizes army drone supplies — reports

🔶 Ukrainian POW reveals price of dodging battlefront meat grinder

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🚨🇨🇿 Czech election winner Babis may put the brakes on supporting Ukraine

📄 Andrej Babis, whose opposition ANO party won the Czech elections and will now form a government with right-wing Eurosceptic parties SPD and AUTO, could steer the country toward pulling back support for Ukraine, Finnish Iltalehti reports.

Voter fatigue over the support given to Ukraine is real, and it may be reflected in the upcoming government program, Heino Nyyssönen, an associate professor at the University of Turku, tells the outlet.

“There are many people in the Czech Republic who feel that too much money is being spent on Ukraine,” he says.

Nyyssönen added that current Prime Minister Petr Fiala tried to steer the election campaign in the direction of an “East-West arrangement in the Moldovan style,” but voters didn’t respond well to his attempts to play the anti-Russia card.

👉 Former Czech PM Andrej Babis is known for opposing military aid to Ukraine, Brussels’ green agenda, and increasing NATO defense spending. The new coalition is expected to align with the political stance of Hungary's Viktor Orban and Slovakia's Robert Fico.

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🔥🇮🇳 India’s elite Golden Gunners rock high-altitude drills with deadly precision

Using drones, sensors, quadcopters, and heavy artillery, they obliterate targets with pinpoint accuracy.

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🗳🚫 Blackmail & lawfare against rivals: Is Zelensky prepping for second term?

Zelensky’s office is quietly plotting for the next election, making sure his rivals are left in the dust, opponents told Western media.

👉 Aides are pulling out all the stops, using every tool at their disposal—including lawfare—to intimidate, smear, and sabotage political foes, an ex-minister claimed. “They’re basically blackmailing anyone they see as a potential threat,” they added.

Back in September, the expired leader of Ukraine’s regime said he was “ready not to go for the second term because it’s not my goal.” But critics aren’t buying it.

“He’s actually bullish about his chances of winning reelection,” opponents have claimed.

⚔️ Furthermore, Zelensky has reportedly been furiously lashing out at anyone who fails to paint an unflinchingly flattering image of Ukraine to Western partners.

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🚨🚨🚨UK preparing new provocation - Russian Intel

The United Kingdom is furious that years of British efforts to secure a “strategic defeat” of Russia are collapsing and is preparing a new provocation, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said.

According to the British plan:

👉A group of Russian traitors fighting for the Ukrainian Armed Forces is to carry out an attack on a Ukrainian Navy ship or a foreign civilian vessel in a European port

👉The agency says members of the group have already arrived in the UK for sabotage training

👉After the “terrorists” are “discovered,” it is planned to announce that they were acting on “Russia’s orders”

The agency emphasized that London is counting on Europe’s Russophobic political elite to eagerly swallow the fake story of “malicious Kremlin agents” as justification for increasing military aid to Ukraine and further militarizing a “united Europe” to fight “Russian aggression.”

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🚨 No basis to accuse Russia in Europe's drone situation - Kremlin

🔊 Many European politicians are currently inclined to blame Russia for everything, often without any grounds and in a sweeping manner, Kremlin spox Dmitry Peskov says.

📍 He adds that Trump’s statement regarding Putin’s proposal on the New START Treaty gives reason for optimism that the US will support the initiative.

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🇷🇺🪖 Brit volunteer fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine sets passport ablaze

Aiden Minnis posted footage online of himself in combat fatigues setting the document alight in front of a large Russian flag in protest at the UK government's “threat” to revoke his citizenship.

🔊 He ends the clip with the words “Glory to Russia" before firing an assault rifle into the air.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD UPDATE: HUGE GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️OTRADNOYE IN THE KHARKOV REGION LIBERATED

The liberation of the settlement will give the Russian Armed Forces the opportunity to expand control along the border to the east and link up with units operating there.

◻️ The Russian Armed Forces struck energy and oil industry facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces

◻️ Air defense superiority: Russian air defense systems shot down a Neptune guided missile and 356 drones

◻️ Ukrainian losses: 1,465 troops killed or wounded

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🚨 🇷🇺 Russian flag raised over Otradnoye

Russian forces have fully cleared the settlement of Otradnoye in the Kharkov region.

Official combat footage has been released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

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🇫🇷 🤷‍♂️ France’s prime minister resigns after just 27 days

Sebastien Lecornu becomes the shortest-serving French PM in history, breaking Michel Barnier’s 90-day record.

Here's what you need to know about the no-more PM:

🔶 Lecornu has become the fourth PM to fall since January 2024, after Francois Bayrou

🔶 He was one of the most unpopular PMs from the start, with approval around 32%

🔶 Seven in 10 French citizens were disappointed by his appointment; over half viewed him negatively

🔶 68% doubted he could form a government meeting public expectations; 83% were pessimistic about France’s future

🔶 The media rated his ability to push the 2026 budget through parliament as very low amid political divisions.

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🚫☢️ Tomahawks in Ukraine risk nuclear Armageddon within hours—Ex-Pentagon advisor

🗣 If Ukraine uses US Tomahawk missiles, America could be facing war with Russia within a matter of hours, says retired colonel and former top DoD advisor Douglas Macgregor.

“That war could rapidly escalate to the nuclear level, and once you hit the nuclear level, you have almost no control,” he warns.

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🗣 One loses job because 'Democrats being intransigent' - Hassett

📍 While the partial government shutdown continues amid a political impasse, NEC Director Kevin Hassett puts the blame on the Democrats, claiming:

💬 "They've got Trump derangement syndrome. They don't really know how to govern when he's in the White House and they're just flailing about."

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🇫🇷 📉 'Macron must go': France in political freefall

Political chaos grips France after PM Sébastien Lecornu resigned just 27 days after taking office — only hours after unveiling his new cabinet.

Opposition leaders exploded:

“There can be no stability without new elections,” said Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (RN) party.

💬 “Macron must go!” declared Mathilde Panot, head of the France Unbowed (LFI) parliamentary group, as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, LFI’s founder, demanded an immediate vote on the president’s removal.

From Marine Le Pen saying another PM appointment would be “the end of the joke” to David Lisnard urging Macron to resign “for the sake of France,” demands for dissolution and early elections are multiplying.

🔊Even Macron’s allies sound disillusioned: “We’re watching a spectacle we didn’t choose,” admitted MP Éléonore Caroit.

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🚨 Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have officially kicked off in Egypt, with the focus on negotiating hostage exchanges and prisoner releases.

Sources say the discussions are setting the stage for a potential deal, marking a significant step forward in the ongoing conflict.

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🚨 Trump’s Gaza peace plan: Viable solution or dead on arrival?

👉 As Israeli-Palestinian talks commence, it remains unclear whether this Trump-promoted initiative can finally end Netanyahu’s war in Gaza.

🗣 Hamas may agree to release the hostages, as the US and Israel demand, but it is unlikely to disarm or give up its “decisive role in being part of the future government of Gaza,” notes Dr. Lorenzo Trombetta, a Rome-based senior analyst and UN consultant on the Middle East.

🇮🇱 There probably won’t be any complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip – instead, the IDF will likely halt its operations for the duration of the prisoner exchange before resuming hostilities.

🔊 The real problem, Dr. Trombetta explains, is that Netanyahu uses the Gaza War to remain in power, so he will likely try to find any justification – “perhaps even bombing Tehran” – to resume fighting.

🟠 The fact that Trump’s proposal is “missing key action plans” and requires “more agreements and discussions” to work does not help either, observes Dr. Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

🟠 At the same time, he notes, successful implementation of the plan’s first stage may open “a real political path for ending this war once and forever” since Israel would lose the justification to continue the onslaught when the hostages return home.

📍 Dr. Qarmout even postulates that Netanyahu has a good chance of saving his career by selling the hostages’ release as a win to his constituents.

🟠 Meanwhile, Ankara-based security and political analyst Dr. Hasan Selim Ozertem insists that the key player in this entire scheme actually resides in Washington DC.

🟠 Thus, he posits, it all essentially comes down to whether Trump can pressure Israel into abiding by the ceasefire, seeing how Netanyahu is mostly interested in his own political future whereas Hamas lacks any meaningful leverage besides the hostages.

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