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Bombing of energy infrastructure in Tehran sparks toxic rainfall warnings, record crude price surge, and accusations of war crimes as fires and smoke engulf Iran’s capital.The bombing of major Iranian oil depots and energy infrastructure around Tehran by a United States and Israeli military coalition has triggered massive fires across the Iranian capital, sent crude oil prices surging, and prompted warnings of a growing environmental and humanitarian crisis.The strikes targeted multiple fuel storage facilities in Tehran and nearby provinces and were described by observers as a major escalation in the widening conflict between Iran and the United States and Israel....

The BBC has been accused of mistranslating remarks by Pete Hegseth about the conflict with Iran, after a speech was altered in a way that suggested the United States was targeting the Iranian “people”. BBC Persian, which broadcasts to audiences inside Iran, translated comments by the US defence secretary as saying Washington was bringing death to the Iranian “people”. However, Mr Hegseth had in fact referred to the Iranian “regime” as the target. The error was quickly highlighted by pro-Israel media campaigners, who argued it raised questions about the BBC’s impartiality. The translation also sparked criticism and debate across social...

Keir Starmer has said the conflict engulfing the Middle East could continue “for some time” as he insisted the best way forward in the longer term was a negotiated settlement with Iran. The prime minister said the UK was doing “everything we can” to de-escalate the situation, a clear contrast to the US president, who is focused on regime change and has said it was “too late” for Tehran to negotiate. He defended his decision to block initial offensive strikes by the US and Israel at the weekend, saying he stood by his judgment and denying it had damaged the...

Robert Fico 🇸🇰@RobertFicoSVKREACTION OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC, ROBERT FICO, TO THE BLACKMAILING BEHAVIOR OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKYYI express full solidarity with the Prime Minister of Hungary, @PM_ViktorOrban. If the Ukrainian president continues like this, it may happen that other EU member states will also block the 90-billion loan for Ukraine.And I officially ask all the highest representatives of the European Union and I will be very specific: 👉🏻 the President of the European Commission, @vonderleyen👉🏻 the President of the European Council, @eucopresident👉🏻 and also the so-called EU foreign affairs chief, @kajakallas☝🏻 to distance themselves from these...

Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss funneled millions of dollars to the left-wing organizations that are organizing the anti-Donald Trump "No Kings" protests and spearheading lawsuits targeting President Trump's immigration and energy policies, according to new tax filings obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. They reveal the extent to which Wyss, a foreign national, is central to anti-Trump resistance efforts. The Berger Action Fund, one of two nonprofits Wyss has used to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to left-wing causes, gave a total of $57.3 million to 11 activist groups between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, the disclosures show....

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has seen his approval rating in the United Kingdom plunge to around 50 points underwater, boasted about his country’s decision to stay out of the conflict in Iran to a group of Muslims on Tuesday. Starmer spoke to Muslims at a Ramadan ceremony held at Westminster Hall on Tuesday night and was applauded when he said, “On Iran, I want to make clear that the U.K. was not involved in the offensive strikes of the U.S. and Israel, and that remains the case.” “As many of you know, I never supported the Iraq war...

One thing unites the three great powers: all stand in increasingly strained relations with Brussels and the leading capitals of the European Union. The European Union is steering purposefully toward the introduction of Eurobonds. At the preparatory EU summit at Alden Biesen Castle in Belgium, numerous signs suggest that the multi-billion-euro Draghi plan could soon be set in motion. At the same time, geopolitically, a possible Russian comeback is emerging as fresh trouble for Brussels. The ability to analyze mistakes and rationally weigh realistic courses of action belongs, in evolutionary terms, to our conditio humana. Experience teaches us: those who...

The US launched preemptive strikes against Iran after learning Israel was about to attack — and American troops in the region faced an imminent threat of retaliation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday. Rubio made the revelation on Capitol Hill, where he briefed a small group of congressional leaders on the joint US-Israel offensive.'There absolutely was an imminent threat,' Rubio stated. 'And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a...

A German diplomat once best known for laughing at Donald Trump’s warning that Germany’s dependence on Russian energy would become a problem was unable to finish his speech at the Munich Security Conference as he apparently found the implications of emissary JD Vance’s message from the Trump White House too upsetting. Top German diplomat Christoph Heusgen, infamous for being one of the group of chuckling Germans laughing off Donald Trump at a 2018 United Nations General Assembly broke down in tears on the podium at the Munich Security Conference as he gave the closing speech of the three-day event. Heusgen...

Norway’s foreign minister argues that the strikes on Iran broke international law, calling for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. “The attack is described by Israel as a pre-emptive strike, but it is not in accordance with international law. A pre-emptive attack would require the existence of an imminent threat,” Espen Barth Eide says in an email sent to AFP by his office. He does not mention US strikes.

When I was growing up in the 1980s, there was a galaxy of left-wing, even socialist, intellectual stars such as Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault and Gore Vidal whose works were like an inkwell that politicians and commentators could draw from. Judging from the Munich Security Conference this weekend, that inkwell has run dry. Take this gem of a comment on global order from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, queen of the democratic socialists: "What we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West we look the other way for inconvenient...

At an emergency summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, the building blocks of an empire were beginning to take shape. […] In a brutal new age of world powers, the EU wants to build a bigger, richer, stronger “super Europe” able to resist the dangerous whims of the globe’s autocrats. Turning 27 quarrelsome small to middle-sized powers into a geopolitical heavyweight has been Emmanuel Macron’s largely unheeded call ever since the US president’s first term. This time, though, it is different, multiple Brussels insiders have told The Telegraph. “Let’s take a step back and realize we live in a...

The prospect of a full-blown trade war between the EU and the US was averted for the second time in less than 12 months following President Donald Trump's dramatic U-turn on Greenland. For Ireland, several uncomfortable truths are emerging after this week’s geopolitical chaos. The trading relationship with the US is part of the bedrock of the Irish economic success story. It is based on Ireland providing an environment of stability for multinationals. One of the certainties important for US corporations is the level of tariffs applied to exports shipped across the Atlantic. […] Fortunately for Ireland, pharmaceuticals and computer...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon released a priority-shifting National Defense Strategy late Friday that chastised U.S. allies to take control of their own security and reasserted the Trump administration’s focus on dominance in the Western Hemisphere above a longtime goal of countering China.The 34-page document, the first since 2022, was highly political for a military blueprint, criticizing partners from Europe to Asia for relying on previous U.S. administrations to subsidize their defense. It called for “a sharp shift — in approach, focus, and tone.” That translated to a blunt assessment that allies would take on more of the burden countering...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy dropped a barrage of truth bombs on his European allies about their collective failure to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and be respected by his US counterpart, Donald Trump. Invoking the spectacle of Bill Murray's classic comedy, Groundhog Day, at a speech in Davos, the Ukrainian president said the UK and Europe are stuck in a doom loop, repeating rhetoric about what needs to be done - without taking the action required to make things change. This, he said, meant they were left scrambling to respond to world events instead of standing united as a great...

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, resembles a pagan ritual in which wealthy, famous, and powerful people come together to worship themselves. It takes place in a secluded ski resort in the eastern Alps, so that “elites” can indulge themselves far away from the planet’s detestable riffraff (that’s you and me). I’ve always thought that if extraterrestrial visitors from another galaxy or dimension were really here and truly interested in making planet Earth a better place, they could start by using their advanced technology to suck up the mountain of globalists in Davos, jettison the whole rock...

This week in Davos has been about many things: AI, geopolitics and markets. But President Donald Trump has been firmly at the front of everyone’s mind. His much-anticipated address at the World Economic Forum drew thousands, with attendees queuing for hours to get into the Congress Hall. I was one of them. I stood in line for more than an hour and a half. Even Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman had to wait in line with the rest of us. I finally cleared security and found a seat — lucky, given that many were refused entry to the hall. As...

Wednesday was the day of the opponents at the annual World Economic Forum gathering in Davos. Donald Trump and Argentina’s Javier Milei tore apart the WEF agenda. One declared globalism as officially failed, the other wielded an intellectual-ethical scalpel through the decayed body of the establishment. Norwegian Børge Brende has been the chairman of the World Economic Forum since last year. He took over after a heated internal personnel debate from the WEF’s founder, Klaus Schwab, who for decades dominated the agenda of this shadowy institution for political will-shaping. Schwab did so with undeniable success. The WEF has become an...

"If that would happen, there would be a big retaliation on our part, and we have all the cards," the US leader statedNEW YORK, January 22. /TASS/. Serious tit-for-tat measures can be taken if European countries start selling US bonds, President Donald Trump told Fox Business television in an interview. "If they do, they do. But you know, if that would happen, there would be a big retaliation on our part, and we have all the cards," Trump said. Danish pension fund AkademikerPension made the decision earlier to sell US Treasury Bonds amid the conflict around Greenland. The fund plans...

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Trump slams open borders, green energy dogma, and elite-driven economic decline.U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a blunt, confrontational address at the World Economic Forum, using the Davos stage to reject the globalist consensus that dominates the annual gathering of political and corporate elites. In a speech that cut sharply against the forum’s open-borders ideology, Trump condemned mass migration policies pushed by Western governments and international institutions, announcing that his administration would immediately halt federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities.” He dismissed them as “sanctuaries for criminals,” arguing that unchecked immigration undermines public safety, wages,...