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The EU has strengthened its energy security by cutting gas demand by over 20% between 2021 and 2024 and curbing gas imports from Russia. However, this progress masks a new vulnerability for the EU: Incentivising imports of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) has created a potentially high-risk new geopolitical dependency. Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU has gradually reduced its reliance on Russian gas. The bloc’s imports of Russian gas (including pipeline gas and LNG) fell by 75% between 2021 and 2025. Despite this shift, Russia remains one of the EU’s largest gas suppliers. The EU...

Oh, my GOODNESS! This is some wild news coming out of Canada, and I'm not talking about that loser Carney sucking up to Xi Jinping the Pooh.Canada announced its “alignment” with China on the Arctic and Greenland. Really dumb move. https://t.co/z6kyDQmZwB— Marc Thiessen 🇺🇸❤️🇺🇦🇹🇼🇮🇱 (@marcthiessen) January 17, 2026A little over a week ago, the first stops on the petition drive for to force a referendum on separating from Canada began.The petition was approved by Elections Alberta in December, and after getting organized, the teams went out to start collecting the 178,000 verified signatures they needed to force a referendum on...

Netanyahu said he opposes the deployment of Turkish and Qatari troops in Gaza, though a source told Haaretz on Saturday that his public criticism was largely for show. Two additional sources told Haaretz that Netanyahu has been invited by Trump to take part in the Board of Peace. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Knesset speech on Monday that Israel is at odds with the United States and will not accept the presence of Turkish or Qatari soldiers in the Gaza Strip, despite a source familiar with the matter telling Haaretz on Saturday that the composition of the Gaza...

RAQQA, Syria — The Syrian government Sunday announced a ceasefire with the Syrian Democratic Forces, taking almost full control of the country and dismantling the Kurdish-led forces that controlled the northeast for over a decade. The announcement comes as tensions between government forces and the SDF boiled over earlier this month, eventually resulting in a major push by government forces toward the east. The SDF appeared to have largely retreated after initial clashes on a tense front line area in eastern Aleppo province. Syria's Defense Ministry said it ordered the fighting to halt on the front lines after the agreement...

Americans who fled to the Netherlands in a bid to escape the Trump administration are now living in filthy refugee camps, it has emerged. According to Dutch immigration authorities, 76 US citizens claimed asylum in the country last year, a significant increase from the nine that did in 2024. Many of those who have left are transgender or parents to transgender children and are housed in the 'queer block' of an overcrowded camp in the northern village of Ter Apel, The Guardian reported. The camp, which resembles a prison, has guards stationed at every gate and offers less than desirable...

The Kremlin has announced that Vladimir Putin has been invited to join Donald Trump’s “board of peace”, set up last week with the intention that it would oversee a ceasefire in Gaza. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Monday that Russia was seeking to “clarify all the nuances” of the offer with Washington, before giving its response. The claim of an invitation comes with Putin showing no signs of ending his invasion of Ukraine, in which hundreds of thousands have been killed and Russian troops have carried out atrocities against civilians. The Russian president has repeatedly rejected proposals...

A permanent seat on US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" aimed at resolving conflicts will cost countries $1 billion each, according to its charter. Invited world leaders include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. US President Donald Trump's government has asked countries to pay $1 billion for a permanent spot on his "Board of Peace" aimed at resolving conflicts, according to its charter, seen Monday by AFP. The White House has asked various world leaders to sit on the board, chaired by Trump himself, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian premier...

Donald Trump has not ruled out using force to seize Greenland from Denmark as tensions escalate between the US and NATO. The president was asked in a telephone interview on Monday if he would use military force to take Greenland if a deal could not be reached over the Danish territory. Trump gave a simple response: 'No comment.' The president ramped up pressure as he imposed tariffs on eight European nations over their support for Greenland. The tariffs will start at 10 percent next month and rise again to 25 percent in June, remaining in place until a deal is...

At a press conference held by Tom Barrack and Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Jolani) at the Tishrin Palace in Damascus, it was stated that SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdi was ready to attend the meeting but was unable to do so due to adverse weather conditions. In his brief remarks, al-Jolani said: “We have reached a comprehensive ceasefire and full integration between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and a ceasefire order has been issued.” Al-Jolani added that he would meet with Mazloum Abdi at a later date to discuss the details and mechanisms for implementing the agreement. Responding...

The prime minister will take to the Downing Street lectern this morning, after another extraordinary weekend of diplomatic turmoil prompted by US President Donald Trump. Sir Keir Starmer knows that people and businesses in the UK will expect him to respond, in front of the cameras, to the prospect of the UK and European allies being hammered by more US tariffs. It is the latest twist in the row over Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory Trump wants to get his hands on. Trump has said he will impose new taxes on eight US allies - Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the...

Russia launched a barrage of ⁠drone strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure overnight on Monday, cutting off power in five regions across the country amid freezing temperatures and high demand, Ukrainian officials said. The Ukrainian air force said that Russian troops had launched 145 drones. Air defense units shot ‍down 126 of them, it said. "As of this morning, consumers in ‍Sumy, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv regions are without power," the energy ministry said in a statement. "Emergency repair work is underway ⁠if the security situation allows." In the southern Odesa region, energy and gas infrastructure was damaged, the regional...

President Trump may be overplaying his hand in negotiations for Greenland, economists are warning, after the Oval Office threatened new tariffs on E.U. countries if they did not support America’s demand to purchase the territory.Over the weekend, President Trump posted on Truth Social (a site he owns) that “starting on February 1st, 2026, … Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland, will be charged a 10% tariff on any and all goods sent to the United States of America.“On June 1st, 2026, the tariff will be increased to 25%. This tariff will be due and...

President Trump has warned America’s European allies “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace” after he missed out on last year’s Nobel Prize amid a new round of threats to annex Greenland.Trump’s message, initially sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, was forwarded to multiple European ambassadors in DC, according to PBS. “Dear Jonas,” the message reads. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now...

A new poll has found that a majority of British people want to see Brexit reversed and the UK rejoin the European Union. This year marks ten years since Britain infamously voted to leave the EU. But after a decade of Brexit lies and failure, it seems public opinion has well and truly shifted on the matter. According to a new Deltapoll Survey for the Mirror, nearly six in ten (58%) Britons would vote for the UK to rejoin the EU if a second referendum was held. Perhaps unsurprisingly, support for rejoining the trading bloc was highest among 18-14-year-olds (86%),...

PARIS/OSLO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump linked his drive to take control of Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying he no longer thought "purely of Peace" as the row over the Arctic island on Monday threatened to reignite a trade war with Europe. Trump has intensified his push to wrest sovereignty over Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, threatening punitive tariffs on countries which stand in his way and prompting the European Union to weigh hitting back with its own measures. The dispute is threatening to upend the NATO alliance that has...

To get its citizens to have babies, the Chinese Communist Party has pulled every lever. The efforts have largely failed. For the fourth year in a row, China reported more deaths than births in 2025 as its birthrate plunged to a record low, leaving its population smaller and older. The government on Monday said 7.92 million babies were born last year, down from 9.54 million in 2024. The number of people who died in 2025, 11.31 million, continued to climb. The latest population figures were reported alongside economic data that showed China’s economy grew 5 percent in 2025. The number...

<p>French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that his country has now overtaken the US as the main provider of intelligence to Ukraine.</p><p>"Where Ukraine was overwhelmingly dependent on American intelligence capacity, a year ago, two-thirds is today provided by France. Two-thirds," Macron said in a New Year's speech to the French military.</p>

Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) – The collective wealth of the planet's billionaires soared to a record level in 2025, charity Oxfam reported Monday, warning of "highly dangerous" political consequences as the global elite gathers for the World Economic Forum. US President Donald Trump's policies in particular spurred the fortunes of the ultra-rich, which jumped 16.2 percent in the first year of his second term to $18.3 trillion, the NGO said in a report released each year ahead of the Davos forum. "Actions of the Trump presidency including the championing of deregulation and undermining agreements to increase corporate taxation have benefited the...

The Nobel Foundation, the group responsible for administrating the various Nobel prizes, on Sunday issued a clarification around the rules for handing out the prizes after Venezuela‘s opposition leader María Corina Machado offered her peace prize to President Donald Trump, which he accepted. “The Foundation upholds Alfred Nobel’s will and its stipulations,” the foundation wrote in a statement posted to X on Sunday. “It states that the prizes shall be awarded to those who ‘have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,’ and it specifies who has the right to award each respective prize.” “A prize can therefore not, even symbolically,...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded a nearly $1.7 billion contract to construct vital border barriers and advanced “smart wall” technology in New Mexico’s remote Bootheel region. Announced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on January 6, 2026, the $1,679,170,000 award went to Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. (parent of Fisher Industries) for 49 miles of primary border wall and 60 miles of secondary barriers in Hidalgo County, between Border Monuments 1 and 49. The project includes patrol roads, cameras, sensors, and detection systems—creating a layered, high-tech deterrent against illegal crossings, drug trafficking, and threats to national security.