HowRu68

The citizens want EU defense and concrete actions, Ukraine and Europe needs it. Now the local and European Politicians need to speed things up and come with actions

Starting 24 February: more news on EU defense stance &plans. Foreign Affairs Council, 24 February 2025 and Geneal council of 25 February:

Preparation for the European Council of 20-21 March 2025 by discussing an annotated draft agenda and the Commission will present its work programme for 2025.

The Council will hold an exchange of views on this programme and, more generally, on annual and multiannual programming.

Some other background info:

• recent speech Antonia Costas 19 feb
• current EU defense security situation
• citizens eurobarometer
• mutual EU defense clause article

(ed)

France's far-right leader Jordan Bardella said Friday he had cancelled his speech at a right-wing meeting in Washington after a "gesture alluding to Nazi ideology" by conservative firebrand Steve Bannon.

Le figaro

LONDON/GENEVA/BERLIN, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. is refusing to co-sponsor a draft U.N. resolution marking three years since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine that backs Kyiv's territorial integrity and again demands Russia withdraw its troops, three diplomatic sources told Reuters, in a potential stark shift by Ukraine's most powerful Western ally.

Capitol/ credits fixed

In light of the new geopolitical reality, its uncertainty, and the growing threats, it is high time for Europe to step up its own security. Europe can no longer fully rely on the United States to defend our shared values and interests, including continued support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Bolsonarists and Trumpists are joining efforts to fabricate a scandal targeting President Lula( Brazil), former U.S. President Joe Biden, and the 2022 election.

Without evidence, they claim that USAID, a federal agency under President Donald Trump’s scrutiny, funded Lula’s victory over Bolsonaro.

Bloc's response to challenges must be 'rapid, intense, vast'

“If we are talking about peacekeepers, then we are walking into the Russian trap because they don’t want peace,” the EU’s top diplomat told Euractiv in an exclusive interview.

alt link

Syrian migrant living in Austria has been hailed as a hero after he rammed his car into an attacker, bringing down a radicalised assailant who had killed one teenager and left five others injured.

The stabbing, described by Austria’s interior minister as having been carried out by a Syrian man who was legally living in the country and who had become radicalised by the Islamic State group, happened on Saturday in the southern Austrian city of Villach.

Xpost/ europe

FYI: I ended up posting this with some reservation. Pravda's mediabias is mostly factual. The story sounds quite credible. Other media's report are more or less similar, but weren't as complete. check out telegraph

TLDR: approx € 5 B worth

AMSTERDAM, Feb 17 (Reuters) - ABP, the Netherlands' largest pension fund, has sold its shares in tech companies Meta (META.O) and Alphabet (GOOGL.O), its CEO told Dutch newspaper FD in an interview published on Monday.

In second quarter of 2024 the pension fund held Alphabet shares worth about 3 billion euros ($3.15 billion) while its Meta holdings totalled 2 billion euros, FD said. Its Tesla holdings were valued at 597 million euros at the time.

Van Wijnen said the sales were not related to the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President and the support he received from the CEOs of those companies.