🚨🇺🇸🇷🇺US special envoy Steve Witkoff says he assesses the talks with Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Davos as “very positive,” Sputnik correspondent reports

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👍🏻"Very positive," US special envoy Steve Witkoff told RIA Novosti following talks with Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in Davos.

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🚨🇷🇺🇺🇸Meetings with US representatives are proceeding constructively, Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev says

He adds that more and more people are recognizing Russia’s position.

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🫣‘Macron is trapped’: double standards in French president’s Davos speech

French UPR party leader François Asselineau says President Emmanuel Macron "approved Trump's operation in Venezuela".

💬"He approved Trump asserting the law of the strongest over international law," Asselineau says.

👉But now "he finds himself forced to call for a return to international law and multilateralism in an attempt to counter Trump's desire to press his advantage by laying claim to Greenland."

🎤Macron’s statement "about the need for European unanimity," only "touches on Europe’s permanent problem — that Europe doesn’t really exist."

💬"It’s a fictitious entity made up of 27 states with different national interests," Asselineau says. "We can already see this with Greenland. For example, there are several states that are not very critical of Donald Trump."

📍Calling Macron's position "extremely fragile," he stresses that France is now "on very bad terms" with global powers including the US, China and Russia.

💬"It's something like the twilight of the Macron presidency," Asselineau argues. "Like many French people, I hope it ends as quickly as possible."

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🇷🇺🇪🇺 Why EU ‘has no alternative’ but to return to Russian gas imports sooner than later

🔶 Fears are growing as Europe becomes increasingly dependent on American LNG—once viewed as a safe alternative to Russian gas, but now seen as uncertain amid strained transatlantic relations, according to a media report.

🔶 With EU–US tensions rising over Ukraine and Greenland, “it is virtually impossible for the bloc to stop buying American LNG without having to allow Russian gas imports to return,” says Dr. Mamdouh G. Salameh, international oil economist and global energy expert.

🔶 He notes that while the threat of halting US LNG imports “could act as a deterrent against Trump annexing Greenland,” the reality is that “the EU has no alternative but to return to Russian gas sooner than later.”

🔶 According to Salameh, the US sabotage of Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline network was intended to “forever sever Russian gas supplies to Europe and ensure that US LNG replaces Russian gas permanently.” Instead, he argues, “this turned out to be a real financial disaster for Europe’s economy.”

🔶 He points to 2025, when the EU economy grew by only about 1.4%, with many German and other European companies—including Volkswagen—relocating in search of cheaper energy.

🔶 Looking ahead, Salameh warns that the EU’s plan to end all Russian energy imports by early 2027 “will mean anemic economic growth for Europe’s economy.”

🔶 As a result, he says, the bloc now faces “a big dilemma, namely letting its economy stagnate if not shrink or lifting sanctions on Russian gas.”

🔶 With Europe now “squeezed between a rock and a hard place,” Salameh concludes that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin who “will have the last laugh.”

🔶 He adds that Putin could choose to resume gas supplies to Europe—a move that, he argues, could reshape the future of NATO and Europe’s relationship with the US.

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🔊 Trump dismisses Somalia: 'Not even a country'

"Backward country…worst country in world… They don't have anything that resembles a country."

Somalia is currently holding the rotating Presidency of the UN Security Council for January 2026.

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🤔 A new 1776 coming to Davos? Looming US split from globalist Europe echoes break from imperial Britain – analyst

👉 US President Donald Trump is heading to Davos, marking his first in-person appearance since 2020.

In last year’s speech, he signaled a reversal of Washington’s policies toward Europe and lambasted the EU’s “unfair” treatment of the US. What will his message be this year?

💬 "I hope that President Trump lays out a forceful warning to Europe that surrendering national sovereignty to unregulated and corrupt 'globalist' interests is anathema to American – and European – interests," Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel tells Sputnik.

📍 He believes the US’s breakaway from Europe and its entrenched elites will continue.

💬 "The Europe of 2026 resembles the England of 1776, which America broke away from, at considerable cost to England, looking back over 250 years of modern history," he adds.

Why the decoupling trend is here to stay

🟠 The European Union “has already proven to be a disaster for citizens and for the private sector, with an arrogant and bloated government bureaucracy,” the analyst points out, while raising alarm about the bloc’s quest to draw itself into a military conflict with Russia.

🟠 The developments in the UK, are "especially concerning" given its assault on freedom of expression, "addiction to conflict with Russia" and its failures to protect its borders and citizenry.

💬 "On its present course, Europe risks triggering America's outright withdrawal from NATO and lessening our military presence there, a move which seems long overdue," Ortel concludes.

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⚔️ Canada has military contingency plan for US invasion similar to Afghan insurgent tactics — Report

Canadian Armed Forces have developed a response plan for a US invasion, envisioning insurgency-style resistance similar to that of the Afghan Mujahideen after conventional forces are overrun "in less than 2 days," The Globe and Mail reports, citing government sources.

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🚨 US seizes 7th sanctioned oil tanker near Venezuela

SOUTHCOM announced the boarding and seizure of the Liberian-flagged tanker M/T SAGITTA this morning under President Trump's Caribbean "quarantine" of Venezuelan oil.

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🇪🇺 EU has no leverage to push the US around on trade - analyst

📍 Brussels will be the bigger “loser” after pausing the ratification of the August 2025 framework agreement on a trade deal with the US. The latter’s massive trade deficit with Europe is simply too large, economics professor Daniel Lacalle says.

💬 “The trade surplus with the United States is very large [$138B from Q1 through Q3 2025, ed.]. I do not think that it is a positive outcome for anyone…as the US may also suffer in terms of prices of imports,” Lacalle told Sputnik.

🟠 The observer doesn’t expect the deal to be done away with altogether, given its promise of putting an end to trade wars with cross-the-board tariffs of 15% on most European exports, and 0% on an array of US imports.

🟠 But the US’s massive deficit makes it much less sensitive to further tariff barriers than Brussels.

🟠 The European Parliament formally paused ratification of the trade pact Tuesday amid Washington’s threats of tariffs over Greenland.

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📑 Pentagon will scale back US role in NATO advisory groups — report

The US War Department plans to gradually reduce its participation in roughly 30 NATO Centers of Excellence, which train alliance forces in key warfare areas, by not replacing about 200 military personnel as their assignments expire.

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🚨 Israel obstructs search for last Israeli prisoner's body — Hamas

Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesman, stated that the group has provided all information on the prisoner's body in accordance with mediation efforts.

Despite Israel's "repeated obstruction" of search operations beyond the Green Line, Qassem claimed that Hamas remains prepared to cooperate with any efforts that lead to finding the body.

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🗣 Israel's withdrawal from Gaza must be focus of Trump's Board of Peace — Qatar's PM

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told the WEF that a return to normalcy for Palestinians should be the "key focus" of President Trump’s newly formed Gaza peace council.

He confirmed Qatar has been invited to join the diplomatic initiative.

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