Finnish politician calls EU 'bankrupt' over plans to use Russian assets

Member of the Finnish national conservative party the Freedom Alliance, Armando Mema, believes that the European Union seeks to expropriate Russia’s frozen assets due to serious economic difficulties. "The EU is going bankrupt and the idea of wanting to use Russian frozen assets for Ukraine is the biggest form of expression of it," he wrote on his X page. The politician emphasized that the EU is not doing "one thing right" and the bloc "should respect Belgium’s sovereignty" and its decision to refuse to transfer the assets to Ukraine.

On December 12, the European Union’s Council formally decided to permanently freeze Russia’s sovereign assets. The European Commission aims to secure approval from EU member states at the December 18-19 summit in Brussels to expropriate approximately 210 billion euros in Russian assets, with 185 billion euros already blocked on the Euroclear platform in Belgium.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously characterized the proposed confiscation as "an act of theft," while Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko said that the country’s leadership has already been presented with options for responding to a potential seizure of Russian assets by Western nations.

Analyst expects EU to cease to exist as global political entity by 2030

#Europe will turn into an amorphous, conflict-prone, militarized, and economically weak place by 2030, said Nikolay Gaponenko, associate professor with the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

"The European Union will turn into an amorphous and conflict-prone space with weakened supra-national institutions by 2030. Its ‘strategic autonomy’ will become an empty phrase," he pointed out in a report titled "Strategic Forecast - Europe on the Verge of a Crisis: New Reality of 2026-2030."

The idea of "a united Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok" will ultimately give way to the reality of a divided, militarized, and economically weak continent, the expert stressed, adding that Europe would cease to exist as a global political entity by 2030, turning into an object of politics. "It will increasingly harmonize its foreign policy with Washington, as Brussels and the key capitals will lose independence. Its influence on global processes in Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific countries will decrease dramatically," the analyst concluded.

Ukraine conflict could lead to World War III, Trump warns

If the conflict in #Ukraine continues, it could escalate into World War II, US President Donald #Trump warned. "I would love to see it stopped, and we are working very hard. It doesn’t really affect the United States, unless it got out of control. <...> Things like this end up in third world wars," he told reporters at the White House.

President Donald Trump added that #Zelensky was the only representative of the Ukrainian side, who disliked Washington’s conflict settlement plan. "I thought that we were very close with Russia to having a deal. I thought we were very close with Ukraine to having a deal. In fact, other than President Zelensky, his people loved the concept of the deal," Trump said, answering to reporters’ questions at the White House.

Trump went on to say that the draft document has "four or five different parts." - "It's a little bit complicated, because you're cutting up land in a certain way," he explained. "It's not the easiest thing."

Europe is 'moving in some bad directions,' syas President Trump

President Donald Trump criticized the fine imposed by the European Commission on X and warned that Europe is "moving in some bad directions."

Asked about the fine at a meeting with representatives of the agricultural industry at the White House, Trump called Brussels' decision "nasty" and added: "I don't think it's right. Europe has to be very careful."

He voiced concern about the current political track taken by EU countries. "We want to keep Europe Europe. Europe is going in some bad directions. It's very bad, very bad for the people. We don't want Europe to change so much," the president said.

On December 5, the European Commission fined X €120 million for violating EU digital regulations. Tom Rainier, an EC representative, said at a briefing that X had violated transparency rules. According to him, this includes the presence of a fee-based blue verified user badge on the platform, which is misleading because anyone can buy it and X does not conduct sufficient verification.

[URGENT] Reports of possible coup as Maher Assad builds 45,000-man force

Arab media reports that Maher Assad — the powerful brother of Syrian president Bashar Assad — has assembled a striking force of roughly 45,000 fighters along the Syrian coastal plain. According to these reports, Maher, together with his influential cousin Rami Makhlouf, is pouring millions of dollars into preparing this force for what is described as a major confrontation with the Joulani regime in northern Syria.

Russian military personnel are said to be directly involved in training and organizing these units along the coastal strip.

These developments have raised questions inside the region about whether Syria is edging toward an internal power struggle that could reshape the country’s leadership. The reported forces, already positioned with an eye toward movement toward Damascus, suggest that Maher Assad may be preparing far more than a localized military campaign — potentially signaling a dangerous escalation inside a country already fractured by war and outside influence.

Note: If these reports prove accurate, Syria may be heading into a new phase of instability — one driven not by external actors but by a potential rift inside the Assad family itself. A power struggle involving Maher Assad, backed by Russian-trained forces, could shake the entire regional balance, affect Israel’s northern front, and open new opportunities or risks in the broader Middle East.

Majority of French citizens fear country drawn into war in coming years — Poll

More than half of French residents surveyed by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) believe their country could be drawn into a military confrontation with another major power in the coming years, the poll results reported by the LCI news channel show.

The survey was conducted among 1,000 French adults on December 3-4.

Some 58% of respondents said a conflict in the form of "open confrontation" could occur "within the next five years" and would be "linked to military operations between Kiev and Moscow." Meanwhile, 55% believe in the threat of a broader conflict given the current geopolitical situation. Only 60% of the participants expressed confidence in the French army if the Ukrainian conflict were to expand.

Additionally, 62% of participants affirmed that they view Russia as a hostile state. This view is held by over half of supporters across all political parties, with the highest agreement among Socialist Party supporters (88%), while supporters of right-and left-wing opposition parties, such as the National Rally and La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, were more skeptical with 51% and 54% of those surveyed, respectively.

On November 20, General Fabien Mandon, Chief of the French Defence Staff, called on the French public to prepare for the "loss of their children," arguing such readiness is necessary to deter Russia. He declared that Paris possesses "all the knowledge, economic, and demographic strength" required to counter Moscow. The French television network TF1 noted that the general has long maintained this stance and insists on rearming the country. Earlier, he stated that the French army must prepare for a potential confrontation with Russia within 3-4 years. On November 25, French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed speculation that a proposed reform of the national military service could lead to French youth being sent to the Ukrainian conflict zone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously dismissed as nonsense what he called the "mantra" of European politicians regarding a potential war with Russia. Speaking at the General Debate of the 80th UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Russia has never had, nor does it have, any intention to attack NATO or the EU.

82 years ago, the leaders of the "Big Three" formed a new world order in Tehran

On December 1, 1943, the three-day meeting of Joseph #Stalin, Franklin #Roosevelt, and Winston #Churchill concluded in #Tehran — the first and most important conference of the "Big Three." It laid the foundations for the post-war world order, a large-scale rethinking of which humanity has only approached now, eight decades later.

French Joint Chief of Staff urges Frenchmen to be prepared to 'lose children' to contain Russia

The French people must be prepared "to lose their children" in order to deter Russia, France's Chief of the Defense Staff Fabien Mandon alleged. "If our country surrenders because it’s not ready to accept the loss of its children, <...> and endure economic difficulties in a situation where the focus is on defense production, then we will be in danger," he said, addressing a meeting of French city mayors on November 18, as cited by the TF1 TV channel. Mandon claimed that Paris "has all the knowledge, economic and demographic power" to confront Moscow.

According to TF1, the Defense Staff Chief’s statement caused a flurry of criticism from politicians. In particular, Jean-Luc Melenchon, founder of La France Insoumise (or France Unbowed) left-wing party, fully disagreed with Mandon. "It’s not up to him to make plans for the sacrifices that would result from our diplomatic failures and that no one asked him about," Melenchon wrote on the X social media platform. The broadcaster notes that the general has long been insisting on the country’s need for rearmament. Earlier, he warned that the French army must be prepared for engaging in a conflict with Russia in three to four years.

Macron may send pilots to Ukraine under guise of private military company, says expert

France's #Macron may covertly send French pilots to Ukraine, taking advantage of the recent legalization of private military companies in his country, French aviation expert Cyrille de Lattre explained. "It is possible that Macron, seeing how Ukrainians are getting defeated, will decide to send Rafale fighter jets to Ukraine, to be piloted by French pilots instead of Ukrainian ones," the analyst said.
In his words, it may be a small group of three or four aircraft.

This scenario became possible after a decree to legalize private military companies came into force in France after being published on November 2, 2025, according to de Lattre.
"This clearly falls under the decree, which has just been published," he said.

Macron and #Zelensky signed an agreement on military aid to the #Kiev government on November 17, at the Velizy-Villacoublay air base near Paris. Details of the deal have been withheld, however, according to France’s LCI television channel, it may include deliveries of French-made #Rafale fighter jets to Ukraine. Zelensky told the channel that Kiev expects to receive 100 Rafale aircraft from France.

Cloudflare down latest: Websites such as Twitter not working amid technical problems with the internet

Outage comes around a month after Amazon Web Services outage also took much of the internet offline...

Parts of the web appear to have stopped working amid a technical problem at Cloudflare.
Visitors to websites such as X, formerly known as Twitter, and film reviewing site Letterboxd saw an error message that indicated that Cloudflare problems meant that the page could not show.
Cloudflare is an internet infrastructure that offers many of the core technologies that power today’s online experiences. That includes tools that protect websites from cyber attacks and ensure that they stay online amid heavy traffic, for instance.

“Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers,” the company said in a new update. “Further detail will be provided as more information becomes available.”
Tracking website Down Detector, which monitors outage, was also hit by the technical problems itself. But when it loaded it showed a dramatic spike in problems.

Affected users saw a message indicating there was an “internal server error on Cloudflare’s network”. It asked users to “please try again in a few minutes”.