🇺🇸🇪🇺 EU could hardly call US an ally - European diplomat

🟠 The US remains a partner of the EU, but you can expect far bigger surprises from a partner than from an ally, said Belen Martinez Carbonell, secretary general of the European External Action Service.

🟠 She added that it is still necessary for the EU to maintain an understanding with the United States, as progress in many areas, including foreign policy, would be impossible without it.

🟠 Regarding the potential collapse of NATO, Carbonell stated it is not currently plausible. However, she added that should the most negative scenarios related to the crisis around Greenland happen, the North Atlantic Alliance could cease to exist in its current form.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

☣️US biolabs in Ukraine: From genetic experiments on babies to bioweapons

The 'designer baby' lab experiments in Ukraine, exposed in the Epstein files is yet another case of Western governments and tycoons treating the country as a testing ground and its people as guinea pigs.

Sputnik has for years been digging into Ukrainian biolab scandals:

▫️ In 2022, Russia’s Ministry of Defense revealed that a network of US-funded biolaboratories in Ukraine had stored and researched a range of dangerous pathogens — described as potential components for biological weapons

▫️ US-backed bioresearch activities in Ukraine date back to 2005 and were overseen by the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), with at least 31 laboratories across 14 locations involved

▫️ The Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), engaged in the US military bioresearch, was founded in 1993 and has received over $350 million through US State and Defense Departments

▫️ Metabiota — a US 'disease outbreak prediction' startup and Pentagon contractor, linked to former US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter — had also been involved in the controversial bioresearch

▫️ US-funded labs studied how dangerous pathogens that can be transmitted to humans, including plague, leptospirosis, brucellosis, coronaviruses, and filoviruses could spread via migratory birds, bats, mosquitoes https://news.1rj.ru/str/SputnikInt/9960, and other vectors thus making them "potential biological weapons agents"

▫️ Ukrainian military personnel were used as test subjects in the biolabs. Their blood contained high concentrations of antibiotics, narcotics, and antibodies to pathogens of infectious diseases. European doctors later encountered antibiotic-resistant bacteria while treating Ukrainian soldiers

▫️ Among the goals pursued in the Ukrainian biolabs was the creation of bioagents capable of targeting certain ethnic groups

▫️ The Russian Ministry of Defense underscored that these biological programs reflect Washington’s view of former Soviet states as strategic springboards for NATO expansion

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨 Trump may choose military option on Iran if diplomacy fails – Vance

US Vice President JD Vance said President Donald Trump will “keep his options open” on Iran, pursue “non-military means” first, and could ultimately use force.

💬 “If he feels like the military is the only option, then he’s ultimately going to choose that option,” Vance told Megyn Kelly.

Vance insisted that “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” and said the US would work with “China and Russia and any country” to reduce the number of nuclear weapons worldwide.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 ‘The president has no interest in repeating the history of Iraq’ — Vance

US Vice President JD Vance said President Donald Trump is aware of the risk of “quagmires” in the Middle East and has “no interest in repeating the history of Iraq.”

Vance said Trump’s priority is preventing what he described as “crazy people” obtaining nuclear weapons and triggering a wider nuclear arms race.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 Secretive nature of Ukraine talks in UAE is 'important negotiation tool' - expert

This level of confidentiality is an "important negotiation tool" that can prevent internal pressure on the delegations or the undermining of progress before it is even made, Director of Strategy & Future Department in Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy Manal Al Braiki claimed.

💬 "The secrecy shows that the issues on the agenda are extremely sensitive and touch upon the fundamental 'red lines' of all parties," she added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 ‘We should get some benefit from the bargain’ — Vance on Greenland

US Vice President JD Vance said the United States should gain benefits for helping defend Greenland, arguing the island is critical to US missile defense.

💬 “The Chinese and the Russians have both expressed an interest in controlling Greenland,” Vance claimed.

❌ However, neither Russia nor China has stated any intent to control Greenland.
🇷🇺 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia and China have no plans to “seize” Greenland, adding that the US is well aware of this.
🇨🇳 China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun also urged the US to stop using the so-called “China threat” as a pretext for pursuing its own interests.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📈 Rise in gold prices reflects declining confidence in US economy - analysts

During Wednesday trading, exchange prices for gold and silver rose above $5,100 and $90 per troy ounce, respectively.

💬 "The inability to fulfill budgetary obligations, the need to inflate away a debt, default in any form, or sharp tax increase is politically unacceptable. For the entire world this risks triggering the destabilization of the financial system, and we are already observing the reflection of growing disbelief in the credit quality of the US in gold and silver prices," chief economist of the global credit rating agency Expert RA Anton Tabakh stated.

Rising gold prices are an alarming sign for the dollar, signaling a desire to invest in the more reliable asset, Russia's State Duma Deputy Alexander Tolmachev said, adding that the US national debt threatens economic collapse, pushing to replace the dollar as the world's currency.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇨🇳 China paints sky with record-number drone show in Lunar New Year rehearsal

A record-breaking drone show took place in China's Hefei city, the capital of Anhui province. The rehearsal for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebration featured 22,000 drones.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Vance calls out European hypocrisy in Greenland talks

US Vice President JD Vance said European officials are “so friendly in private” and “willing to make a lot of accommodations,” but then “publicly, they attack us” and claim they “won’t work with the Americans.”

💬 “I’m sorry. It’s all bogus,” Vance said, arguing that Europeans have in fact made “accommodations or concessions” to the United States.

Vance added he expects the Greenland situation to be resolved, saying the outcome would be “good for the United States of America.”

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🏛 Trump announces plans for a triumphal arch in Washington

US President Donald Trump said he plans to build a triumphal arch in Washington, D.C., arguing the capital should have a landmark symbolizing “glamour,” “prestige,” “beauty,” and “strength.”

Trump said the structure would be larger and taller than Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, adding it would stand at around 250 feet. He described the project as bringing a new monumental feature to the US capital.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🔥 'Starmer is finished' — Dmitriev

Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “finished,” commenting on reports that his premiership has entered a “final stage.”

In a post on X, Dmitriev suggested that the UK establishment and media could ultimately claim Starmer was “a Soviet spy,” accusing him of “hiding behind anti-Russian rhetoric while eroding and destroying the UK from within.”

The image of Starmer posted by Dmitriev appears to have been AI-generated.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🚨📑New START: Pillar of world order dangerous to dismantle – analyst

Extending the New START treaty is of importance to the entire world, prominent Thai politician and international political commentator Nitiphumthanat Ming-Rujiralai told Sputnik.

People in Thailand and all across the Asia-Pacific are very hopeful that the limitations contained in the New START treaty will be prolonged in the format proposed by Russia, he underscored.

Ming-Rujiralai called New START a pillar of the world order that is dangerous to dismantle, even amid the ongoing transformation of the world system. The absence of such a pillar is fraught with the possibility of a global catastrophe, the analyst warned.

New START, which limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads and strategic delivery systems of Russia and the US, expires on February 5. The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier expressed regret over Washington's approach of ignoring Russia's idea of both sides extending the treaty for one year.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇦🇪 UAE unveils first stage of Musk’s futuristic Dubai Loop project

The underground high-speed transport network project due to be implemented by Elon Musk’s Boring Company “covers 24 kilometers with a cost of nearly $680.81 million,” Mattar Al Tayer, director general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, said.

He added that the project’s first phase, worth $163.3 million, is “to start immediately” and is expected “to cover six kilometers.” Al Tayer touted Dubai Loop as “a landmark project and the first of its kind to be implemented in the region.”

The project will feature an array of underground tunnels in Dubai and is planned to have a capacity for up to 30,000 passengers per day.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt