📄 CENTCOM kills of Al-Qaeda*–linked militant in Syria

US Central Command (United States Central Command) said it carried out a strike in northwest Syria on Jan. 16 that killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim, described as an Al-Qaeda–affiliated leader with direct ties to an ISIS* gunman involved in a Dec. 13 ambush that killed two US service members and an American interpreter.

According to CENTCOM, al-Jasim was linked to plotting attacks and had connections to the ISIS operative responsible for the Palmyra attack.

💬 “The death of a terrorist operative linked to the deaths of three Americans demonstrates our resolve in pursuing terrorists who attack our forces,” CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper said.

CENTCOM added that the strike followed broader operations in Syria launched after the December attack.

*Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries

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🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇱 'Gaza is our show' — US moves ahead as Netanyahu protests — reports

A senior US official told Axios that Washington is pressing ahead with “phase two” of its Gaza plan and that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was not consulted on the Gaza executive board.

🗣 Axios reported Netanyahu issued an unusually pointed objection, saying the announcement “was not coordinated with Israel,” particularly criticizing the inclusion of Turkiye and Qatar. The US official responded that if Israel wants the US to handle Gaza, “it will have to be our way.”

Axios noted Trump has kept a close relationship with Netanyahu, but said many in Trump’s team are increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu’s hardline positions.

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🇪🇺🇺🇸 Europe weighs leverage over US bases amid Greenland dispute — reports

The Economist says US operations rely on European access: a Jan. 7 seizure of a Venezuelan-linked oil tanker depended on British airfields and bases and unspecified support from Denmark, while US monitoring in the Arctic depends on cooperation from Greenland, Iceland, Britain and Norway.

But Europe also has vulnerabilities: many air forces cannot fully operate F-35s without US communications, targeting data and munitions, and a rupture could hit Britain’s signals intelligence and nuclear deterrent.

📈 The Economist reported 62% of Germans support aiding Denmark in a conflict with the US.

⚖️ The result, the magazine argues, is a deep dilemma: European governments are caught between growing public anger over US pressure and their continued dependence on American military capabilities — a tension that could erode trust at the core of NATO without producing an immediate break.

The image is AI-generated

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📹 463 apartments damaged in Caracas after attack — Rodríguez

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said that 463 apartments in Caracas were affected by the US aggression.

She said local and national authorities are responding immediately and working to restore the damaged apartments as quickly as possible, calling for their prompt recovery.

The US military caused the damage during its invasion of Venezuela on January 3, when American forces kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro along with his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores. Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said the attack left around 100 people dead, including civilians, and condemned Washington for violating international law.

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🇫🇮 Finland calls out Trump’s tariffs over Greenland: 'This is a power play’

Finnish lawmakers are calling on Europe to shake off its reliance on the US after Donald Trump announced tariffs against eight European countries opposing his plan to seize control of Greenland, Iltalehti reports.

Jarno Limnell, a Finnish MP from the National Coalition Party, said Trump’s threats signal a sharp and unacceptable shift in US foreign policy toward its allies.

🗣 “This is not trade — it’s a geopolitical power play,” he was quoted as saying.

💬 "It has long been clear that Europe must break free from its strategic dependencies. This doesn’t just apply to our old enemies, but regrettably also to our traditional friends", — wrote Atte Kaleva, another MP from the same party, on X.

According to Henri Vanhanen, a former official at Finland’s Foreign Ministry, Trump’s threats are aimed specifically at countries sending troops or liaison officers to Greenland.

💬 “I believe the sensitivity of this issue was understood, but it really does seem complicated. The changes will be reviewed once again in the United States,” he said.

Trump said that the US will introduce a 10% tariff against eight European countries in February, which will later increase to 25% should a deal for the US to purchase Greenland is not reached.

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🔸 Sorry, Elon! Iran, China and Russia can now jam Starlink

🔸 Trump seeks $1bn contributions for permanent ‘Board of Peace’ seats — reports

🔸 'Gaza is our show' — US moves ahead as Netanyahu protests — reports

🔸 463 apartments damaged in Caracas after attack — Rodríguez

🔸 Europe weighs leverage over US bases amid Greenland dispute — reports

🔸 ‘Tariff threats are unacceptable’ — Macron to Trump

🔸 Denmark cannot count on Ukraine’s support in the Greenland debacle

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⚔️ Tariffs for tariffs: head calls for 'no appeasement' of Trump amid clash over Greenland

A unified European response to American actions is needed as Donald Trump announced tariffs against several EU nations expressing their support for Danish sovereignty over Greenland, Germany’s Green Party leader Katharina Droge said.

💬 "The EU must not back down in the face of Trump's tariff threats. A clear message to Trump is needed: the EU will respond to tariff threats with counter-tariffs," she stated.

She also accused German leader Friedrich Merz of a "retreat and appeasement" strategy towards Donald Trump, adding that now "defending the international order requires confidence and clarity."

Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced 10% tariffs against Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands that are to stay in place until the US takes over Greenland.

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🗣 French politician to Macron: ‘Spare us your Ukraine - Let’s save France!’

Its high time Emmanuel Macron started addressing France’s own problems, says the leader of France's The Patriots party, Florian Philippot.

Macron claims that “France is committed to the sovereignty and independence of nations,” the politician reminds on X, quipping sarcastically: “Oh really? Except its own, apparently.”

💬 “Spare us your Ukraine, your Greenland, and your EU. Let’s save France!” Philippot fumes.

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🤔 US bullying over Greenland may shatter transatlantic ties - ex-US army officer

It would be foolish for any European entity to “come to military blows” with the US over Greenland, says retired US Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis, adding that “It's just not worth it.”

💬 “But by capitulating to that, it will put into cement and guarantee that everybody in Europe is going to recognize that this is no longer… the transatlantic relationship that existed,” he notes. Now it's “adversarial,” where the weaker side is warned “you will do what you're told or I will kill you.”

America, in Davis’ opinion, is heading down a path where it is going to create enemies out of what were its friends. “This is a dangerous place for us, and we're going down a path that we should never go down.”

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👉 Britain should remember its fragility before sending new missiles to Ukraine — ex-Pentagon advisor

The UK is in terrible shape and is really weak, so it pushes for supplying Ukraine with 500-km missiles to strike Russia indirectly, former senior DoD advisor Douglas Macgregor said, adding Russia could respond if pushed.

💬 "The British ought to seriously examine their own fragility… The Russians aren’t going to attack London and blow anything up, but there are lots of military targets that could easily be brought under attack and absolutely annihilated," he added.

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📹 Watch Russian drone strikes wipe out Ukrainian vehicles & troops across front

00:00 Russian drone operators smash Ukrainian armored vehicles and trucks on a rotation and resupply run, including a US-made M113 APC, in a Lancet strike.

📍 Zaporozhye region

00:19 Russian UAVs neutralize Ukrainian personnel and robotic ground systems

📍 Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) area

00:34 UAV teams of the Volunteer Corps engage Ukrainian personnel in the Kramotorsk-Druzhkovka area.

📍 Donetsk People's Republic

01:06 Russian FPV drone teams destroy an enemy pickup truck.


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🇺🇸🇬🇱 TRUMP’S GREENLAND GAMBIT: How he could enter history alongside Polk and McKinley

👉 Donald Trump’s push to acquire Greenland isn’t just a geopolitical quirk. If he were to pull it off, he would enter history as one of the major territorial expansionists of the United States — a successor to presidents who reshaped the country’s map:

🟠 James K. Polk (1845–1849) — annexed Texas, Oregon, and vast territories after the war with Mexico.

🟠 William McKinley (1897–1901) — took control of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, turning the US into a colonial power.

📍 Trump could add Greenland (2.1 million km²) to the US, making the country the second-largest in the world by area, overtaking Canada.

👉 Greenland is not just “ice and penguins.” It is:

✅ A key foothold in the Arctic

✅ Vast resources and continental shelf

✅ A step toward an “American polar empire”

🟠 If McKinley “brought” the US islands, Trump could “add” an entire continental fragment. It would be the largest territorial deal since Alaska in 1867 — and a modern continuation of America’s expansionist tradition.

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🚨 Margarita Simonyan compares Donald Trump to former US presidents

🗣 “Trump is not even Reagan. He’s not even Kennedy. In terms of his ambition to grind down everything he touches and create something new, Trump is Lincoln. Whether he succeeds or not, I don’t know," Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, told Russian media.

🔊 "Is it good for Americans? For Americans, of course, it’s good. Is it good for the rest of the world? Not really. Because whenever something is good for one, it’s bad for another. When the wolf is full, the lamb is dead. And when the lamb is alive, the wolf is hungry,” she continued.

📍 In her view, Trump’s actions have led to a change in the “label of the era” worldwide — something she says last happened after World War II.

💬 “What did it say back then? ‘Human rights,’ ‘freedom of speech,’ ‘respect for minorities.’ Can you imagine how people in Venezuela are now laughing through tears at all those slogans?” Simonyan asked.

👉 She described the new name of the era with a line from a fable by Ivan Krylov:

💬 “Starting this year, our era is called this: ‘You’re guilty simply because I’m hungry.’ You could say that’s how Donald Trump, the leader of the so-called ‘free world,’ has named it,” the editor-in-chief noted.

📍 She stressed that she does not approve of this at all. Nevertheless, she said, Trump belongs to a “dying breed of Americans who ‘built’ the country.”

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

▫️ The Russian Armed Forces struck an airfield in the Sumy region, from which Ukrainian forces launched jet-powered drones toward Russia's Kursk and Bryansk regions

▫️ Russian troops struck drone assembly plants, as well as energy and transport facilities operating for the Ukrainian Army

▫️ Air defense superiority: 6 guided bombs, 9 HIMARS missiles and 220 drones shot down

▫️ Ukrainian losses: around 1,210 troops killed or wounded

Read about the origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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🚨🇫🇮 ‘Greater Finland’: Leaders staked expansionist delusions on Nazi Germany

After gaining independence from Soviet Russia in 1917, Finland wasted no time turning rabidly aggressive towards it, Russian historian Professor Mikhail Myagkov, head of the Center for War & Geopolitics at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, tells Sputnik.

👉 Fueling this stance was the idea of a so-called ‘Greater Finland’ – an expansionist concept that had emerged in nationalist circles prior to the revolution, says the historian, who is also Scientific Director for the Russian Military Historical Society.

This imaginary ‘state’ was to include all of Soviet Karelia, Estonia, the mouth of the Gulf of Finland together with Petrograd, the Kola Peninsula, and Arkhangelsk.

To advance this agenda, brutal acts were perpetrated against Russians and Russian-speaking residents on Finnish territory.

💬 “The Vyborg massacre in early 1918 is a stark example: Russian workers, soldiers, and officers were simply exterminated in a nationalist frenzy that engulfed the country’s leadership and parts of society,” says the historian.

1919 - 1921 Finnish offensive against Soviet Russia

🔸 Citing the alleged threat of a ‘Red’ takeover, troops under Carl Gustaf Mannerheim first crushed local leftists, then used the pursuit of ‘Red Finns’ as cover to invade Soviet Karelia

🔸 The Finns advanced on multiple fronts, including toward Petrozavodsk, but were repelled

🔸 Finnish troops carried out deep raids into Soviet Karelia, burning villages and killing thousands of civilians

Nazi Germany - key to ‘Greater Finland’ dream

Even during WW I, despite Finland being part of the Russian Empire, pro-German organizations operated there, and fighters were secretly recruited to serve on the German side, notes Myagkov.

📍 After the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, pro-German sentiment in Finland became virtually dominant, since many Finns saw Germany as the key to fulfilling their expansionist ambitions.

After Hitler came to power, influential Finnish circles pinned their hopes on Nazi Germany, convinced it would inevitably go to war with the Soviet Union.

This was seen as a golden opportunity to finally realize the dream of a “Greater Finland.”

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🚨🇺🇸 If Trump acquires Greenland, it would be the LARGEST land grab in US history

📍 The idea to get Greenland would mark the largest territorial addition in US history — even surpassing the landmark Louisiana Purchase of 1803, according to the New York Post.

The numbers that stand out:

🔶Louisiana purchase (1803): 2.14 million km²

🔶Texas annexation (1845): ~1.01 million km²

🔶Alaska purchase (1867): ~1.53 million km²

🔶Greenland: ~2.17 million km²

👉The US hasn’t added major territory in nearly a century.

👉 The last significant US territorial acquisition came in 1917, when Washington purchased the US Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million. The islands - St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John - were acquired during World War I for their strategic value in protecting Caribbean sea lanes and the approaches to the Panama Canal. They remain unincorporated US territories.

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🇭🇺 Orban: 'War councils' replacing political talks in Europe

💬 "27 ministers and heads of state are sitting around the table when we are meeting in Europe. And I say to you most definitely that they… will go to war. These meetings are not political discussions; these are lately war councils," Hungarian PM Viktor Orban states.

According to him, European officials are now openly discussing scenarios of defeating Russia, extracting reparations, and forcing Moscow to "pay back the money we're now giving to the Ukrainians."

Elected European leaders are spending money on weapons, arming themselves, as well as Ukraine, Orban says, adding:

💬 "There's a real preparation for war in Western Europe."

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