So Lithuania said it first... www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Say what you will about Mark Rutte and his sycophantic ways, but he seems have talked Trump off a ledge yet again.

Trump has also named himself chairman of the board with veto power. Oh, and he invited Russia and Belarus to join.

In other words, Trump wants a new United Nations you can pay to join.

Donald Trump sent a flurry of invitations over the weekend to world leaders to join a new “Board of Peace,” which is being marketed as an international peace-building organization. A permanent seat on the board will cost countries $1 billion. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Nordic defence ministers are flying to Brussels to meet at the NATO headquarters and discuss the next steps in the Arctic. www.euractiv.com/news/nordic-...

Luxembourg becomes the first EU country to issue bonds to bolster its defence budget. www.euractiv.com/news/luxembo...

Great piece from our Madrid correspondent. Spain’s strong defence of international law in response to a US military operation in Venezuela has reignited scrutiny of Madrid’s own position on Western Sahara, where Spain retains a key and politically sensitive role. www.euractiv.com/news/pedro-s...

Great piece from our Madrid correspondent. Spain’s strong defence of international law in response to a US military operation in Venezuela has reignited scrutiny of Madrid’s own position on Western Sahara, where Spain retains a key and politically sensitive role. www.euractiv.com/news/pedro-s...

Slovenia’s anti-corruption watchdog said that liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob breached integrity rules while in office, just two months ahead of elections that could bring the conservative opposition back to power. www.euractiv.com/news/sloveni...

A visual look at exactly how many military assets the U.S. already has in Greenland, via @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/mapped-...

Several EU countries – including Spain, Finland, Belgium and Czechia – have summoned Iranian ambassadors amid a widening diplomatic backlash over Tehran’s violent crackdown on protesters. www.euractiv.com/news/eu-coun...

lol this is the most London thing I've ever seen www.euronews.com/video/2026/0...

The EU’s Defense Commissioner suggested the bloc may need a combined force of around 100,000 soldiers to replace American troops in Europe. He also floated the idea of creating a European Security Council to coordinate defense decisions. ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

I'm back. lazoletters.substack.com/p/slowly-ree...

I'm back. lazoletters.substack.com/p/slowly-ree...

Again, Trump demonstrates that if you negotiate and try to appease him, he will trample all over you. But if you talk tough and tell him to "come get me," sooner or later, he'll fawn all over you. Shared ideology doesn't matter. Trump just loves a tough guy. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/w...

Far-right MEP Sarah Knafo – the partner of former presidential candidate Éric Zemmour – has entered the race to be mayor of Paris. www.euractiv.com/news/far-rig...

Czechia will keep its ammunition initiative for Ukraine alive despite months of domestic political attacks, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš confirmed on Wednesday, marking a sharp reversal from his pre-election stance. euractiv.com/news/babis-u...

Electricity has been restored to hospitals and care facilities following a large-scale power outage in southwest Berlin, but the incident has reignited debate over Germany’s resilience in a crisis. www.euractiv.com/news/berlins...

Man muss sich das vielleicht als eine Art Franchise vorstellen. taz.de/Brandanschla...

The co-chair of the left-populist BSW party argued that von der Leyen only partially and belatedly answered his formal request for information about meetings, calls, emails, and other communications w/ arms industry officials. www.euractiv.com/news/german-...

Via Reuters: TRUMP AND HIS TEAM ARE DISCUSSING A RANGE OF OPTIONS FOR ACQUIRING GREENLAND AND 'UTILIZING THE US MILITARY IS ALWAYS AN OPTION'- WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT

Trump’s newly appointed envoy to Greenland, Jeff Landry, downplayed fears of annexation, rejecting comparisons with Russian-style expansionism. “When has the United States engaged in imperialism? Never,” he said. www.euractiv.com/news/us-envo...

Over the Christmas holidays, the Italian prime minister spent time hanging out at the home of Santiago Abascal, who leads Spain’s far-right anti-migration Vox party. Abascal proudly posted images of Meloni at his dining room table, praising her as a “chica valiente.” www.euractiv.com/news/melonis...

A deep dive into the European Union's defence policy for 2026, via @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/what-to...

The New Year's sabotage – which the left-wing Vulkangruppe took credit for – is the most severe yet to hit Berlin households, with citizens paying the price for the growing availability of easy-to-use manuals for making and deploying homemade firebombs. www.euractiv.com/news/sustain...

The New Year's sabotage – which the left-wing Vulkangruppe took credit for – is the most severe yet to hit Berlin households, with citizens paying the price for the growing availability of easy-to-use manuals for making and deploying homemade firebombs. www.euractiv.com/news/sustain...

A deep dive into the European Union's defence policy for 2026, via @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/what-to...

Over the Christmas holidays, the Italian prime minister spent time hanging out at the home of Santiago Abascal, who leads Spain’s far-right anti-migration Vox party. Abascal proudly posted images of Meloni at his dining room table, praising her as a “chica valiente.” www.euractiv.com/news/melonis...

The U.S. Consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, is seeking unpaid interns to staff its communication channels amid heightened annexation threats from Washington. www.euractiv.com/news/us-seek...

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) intercepted phone conversations of former President Barack Obama while he was aboard Air Force One over several years. The interceptions exploited vulnerabilities in the aircraft’s encryption and known frequencies. www.zeit.de/politik/ausl...

Americans will wake up in a few hours to discover that the government has launched a regime-change operation.

And follow our live blog for minute-by-minute updates from today's high-stakes summit: www.euractiv.com/news/eu-summ...

As we head into today's European Council Summit, where a Ukraine loan backed by frozen Russian assets will be the main topic of debate, a look at where those assets are located: www.euractiv.com/news/reparat...

This really is painful to watch. I don’t know if they believe what they say or they believe they have to say it. Regardless, these are people opposed to American democracy who will be given a lifelong opportunity to corrupt it.

A JetBlue flight from Curaçao, off the coast of Venezuela, halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a U.S. Air Force refueling tanker. “They passed directly in our flight path, the pilot said. "They don’t have their transponder turned on. It’s outrageous.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

An EU target to send two million rounds of large-calibre ammunition to Ukraine in 2025 has been fulfilled on time, announced EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas ahead of a meeting of national foreign ministers on Monday. www.euractiv.com/news/eu-meet...

Every proposal is just another attempt at a money grab www.ft.com/content/746f...

In Hungary, fake profiles of attractive young people have been feeding users pro-government messaging. In Moldova, Russian-linked networks deployed synthetic TikTok “grandmothers” urging voters to back Kremlin-approved candidates. www.euractiv.com/news/how-ai-...

Sorry, Norway, but getting a young man to cook publicly in a skimpy shirt is just as creepy as if you had a young woman do that. www.politico.com/newsletters/...

The leaders of the UK and Denmark have decided that you should act more like populists to beat the populists. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The US Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, dropping some hard facts regarding the developments unfolding around Ukraine and how Trump and his cronies are nefariously involved in it.

Costa said that European countries must be ready to take over NATO leadership from the US in 2027.

For the first time, EU countries will have a European-level safe country of origin list, including Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco, and Tunisia. www.euractiv.com/news/eu-mini...

EU Council President António Costa warned Europe to protect itself from its own allies, after US officials spent days questioning the bloc’s freedom of speech and democratic legitimacy, and openly supporting Europe’s far-right. www.euractiv.com/news/europe-...

This is how you do it.

A whopping 65% of Germans say Germany is acting too cautiously in asserting its interests towards the United States.

Cool piece about how the 1919-1922 Greek–Turkish war still impacts landownership in Greece today, and is causing thousands of angry farmers to block national highways and border crossings across the country. www.euractiv.com/news/angry-g...

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever was met with thunderous applause from Belgian MPs as he rejected suggestions that he is any less pro-European or pro-Ukrainian for opposing the Commission’s plan to use frozen Russian assets to back a loan for Kyiv. www.euractiv.com/news/de-weve...