Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

Russian troops have taken control of the settlement of Berezivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin would not dare to attack a NATO country, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at the Munich Security Council on Saturday, adding that Moscow would face the “full onslaught” of the alliance if that were to happen.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday used his speech at the Munich Security Conference to criticize Europe for what he said was censorship of free speech and said the continent faces a “threat from within,” without offering any specifics on ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict. At several points in his speech, Vance minimized the risk of political interference by Russia, taking a similar stance to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has railed against claims by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election. “For years, we’ve been told that everything we fund and support…

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio discussed Syria, Gaza, and the Ukraine-Russia war, as well as bilateral issues during their first in-person meeting in Munich on Friday, according to the information released by the Turkish foreign ministry sources. Fidan told Rubio about Türkiye’s views on measures that regional countries in the Middle East can take against Daesh [ISIS], the diplomatic sources said, adding he had also called for the ceasefire in Gaza to be made permanent. The two also “extensively discussed” possible developments on the achievement of peace between Ukraine and Russia, the diplomatic sources said.

Three federal judges will consider on Friday whether Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting team known as DOGE will have access to Treasury Department payment systems and potentially sensitive data at U.S. health, consumer protection, labor and education agencies. The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has swept through federal agencies since Republican Donald Trump became president last month and put the chief executive of carmaker Tesla in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of Trump’s dramatic overhaul of government. In Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas will consider a request by Democratic state attorneys general to extend a temporary block…

U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Friday backed a German far-right party as an eligible political partner in remarks rebuffed by Berlin as unwelcome interference in an upcoming election. The anti-immigration AfD, currently polling at around 20% ahead of the February 23 general election, has pariah status among other major political parties in a country with a taboo about far-right politics because of its Nazi past. In a policy dubbed the “firewall”, parties have formed a consensus not to work with the AfD, which is under surveillance by the German domestic intelligence service. In an apparent reference to the catchword,…

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there were signs that cooperation with the United States on defence could continue but Europe must in any case do everything it can to better guarantee its own security. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, to be broadcast on Sunday, Scholz said everything must be done to ensure NATO can continue to function, although this “will not be an easy task.” Scholz comments come after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Europe on Thursday against treating America like a “sucker” by making it responsible for its defence.

NATO has agreed on a plan to increase its rapid reaction capabilities, Poland’s defence minister said at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. “A plan has been adopted to increase rapid-reaction capabilities,” Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters. “In practice, it is an increase in the capabilities of protection, especially of the eastern flank of NATO, especially Poland, by all allied forces.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that Tehran’s enemies may be able to strike the country’s nuclear centres but they cannot deprive it of its ability to build new ones. He made his comments after the Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence believes Israel is likely to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran’s nuclear programme by the middle of the year. “They threaten us that they will hit nuclear facilities… If you (the enemy) strike a hundred of those we will build a thousand other ones… You can hit the buildings and the places but you cannot hit those…

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he hoped to reach a deal on critical minerals with the United States at the Munich Security Conference later this week after a top U.S. official presented him with a first draft agreement in Kyiv on Wednesday. Zelenskiy told a joint news conference that he had a productive and constructive discussion with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He said they did not discuss natural resources in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.