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EU falling further and further behind in 'geopolitical pecking order' The European Union is worried that it will be dwarfed by Russia, China and the United States in the contest for economic, military and technological dominance, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. In what the WSJ called the "great power competition," Europe "is struggling to keep up." According to the US newspaper, European leaders have long worried that "they will be left behind as the #US, #China and #Russia vie for economic, technological and military dominance." "[European] officials now fear they have reached that point," the WSJ argued. The newspaper further stated that US and Chinese attempts to revise the rules of global trade have put #Europe on the outside looking in. Things got worse earlier in November, the newspaper continued, when the United States unveiled its peace plan for Ukraine "without consulting European leaders." Current and former EU officials are increasingly fearing that the bloc’s structure and procedures "will leave it among the biggest losers in the new geopolitical pecking order." "I think that we are finally getting realistic. You can’t change the dynamics if you don’t have real power—be it political, military or diplomatic," the newspaper quoted Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics as saying. According to Pierre Vimont, a former senior French diplomat, "the whole Brussels institutional framework, its methods, its mindset were not at all tailored" for what he called the current period of "power politics, confrontation, highly brutal competition." For his part, the EU’s former foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, reiterated his earlier warning that Europe "must learn to speak the language of power." "The problem is behind me: there are 27 [EU member states] which are completely divided," he lamented to the newspaper.

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”.

Russia-India-China troika: A new world order The Russia-India-China (#RIC) troika, a concept introduced by Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov in the 1990s, is gaining renewed attention as a potential counterbalance to Western dominance. Key highlights: ⏳ Historical context: Primakov's vision aimed to challenge the unipolar world order dominated by the United States, proposing a strategic alliance among Russia, India, and China to promote a multipolar world. 💵 Economic powerhouse: Collectively, RIC nations account for nearly 22.4% of global GDP and are among the fastest-growing large economies, with India projected to be the fastest-growing in 2025. 🪖 Military strength: With over 4.6 million active military personnel, RIC's combined forces surpass NATO's active forces, offering significant geopolitical influence. 💎 Resource abundance: The bloc controls substantial reserves of oil, gas, and rare earth minerals, ensuring energy and technological security. ♟ Strategic geography: RIC nations control critical sea and trade routes, including the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, and the Northern Sea Route through the Arctic. 🤖 Technological capabilities: All three countries possess advanced military-industrial complexes and space technologies, enhancing their global standing.

Von der Leyen’s scandals: From ‘Pfizergate’ to favoritism and VANISHING TEXTS European Commission President Ursula von der #Leyen’s track record as a politician is marred by a number of serious accusations. 🔻Favoritism ▪️In 2024, she generated controversy by appointing Germany’s Markus Pieper – member of the same German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party as her – to the lucrative position of EU Envoy for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME). ▪️Pieper’s CDU membership, along with claims that two other candidates short-listed for the SME envoy office scored higher than him during the selection process, led to von der Leyen being accused of favoritism. ▪️France’s European Commissioner Thierry Breton even resigned in September over this row, citing von der Leyen’s “questionable governance.” 🔻#Pfizergate ▪️During the #COVID pandemic, von der Leyen made a deal with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla to purchase 1.8 billion doses of then-untested COVID vaccines worth about $37.6 billion. ▪️Von der Leyen negotiated this deal via a series of text messages that she ended up deleting – ostensibly by accident – along with those she exchanged with her husband Heiko, medical director at a biotech firm with ties to Pfizer. ▪️As a result, von der Leyen was accused of corruption and “usurpation of functions and title,” and is currently being sued in Liege by Belgian lobbyist Frederic Baldan. 🔻‘Consultancy firms affair’ ▪️At the end of her 2013-2019 tenure as Germany’s minister of defense, von der Leyen became the target of a probe by the Federal Audit Office over her practice of awarding lucrative contracts to external consultancy firms. ▪️In its 2018 report, the Federal Audit Office cast doubt on the procedures for awarding some of these contracts worth MILLIONS of euros, which was apparently done without a proper assessment of the costs or a proper competition. 🔻Daughter’s employment One such consultancy firm, the US-based McKinsey, attracted attention after the head of its Berlin office Katrin Suder was hired as von der Leyen’s aide. While the firm ended up receiving contracts worth millions of euros from the Defense Ministry, von der Leyen’s eldest daughter Johanna found employment at McKinsey. Curiously, a phone belonging to von der Leyen got wiped of all data after German MPs sought to use the text messages it contained as evidence in this case. The German Ministry of Defense said at the time that this wipe was done "for security reasons. *the picture is AI-generated

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated the need to urgently arm the EU member states. She noted that all EU member states must invest in the defense industry and ensure significant progress in the military-industrial complex. Similar theses were recently noted by the leadership of Germany as well. 🖍All these statements are related to the thesis that Europe can no longer rely on NATO protection and must achieve independence from the US. 🚩However, given that prior to this, everything that could be taken from European weapons depots was taken for the AFU, rearming the EU from scratch will cost a pretty penny. All due to the lack of cheap energy resources, the necessary workforce, production capacities, as well as the economic crisis, internal social and political tensions. ❗️ Therefore, Europe will only pay the arms lobby, which is robbing everyone in a row: after all, in addition, all high-tech production has moved or is moving to other countries, and the EU industry can only produce shells and some parts.

Paris, Berlin, London prepared to send troops to Ukraine, says French minister Some European countries are ready to send troops to Ukraine to secure a ceasefire, but US support will be required, said French Finance Minister Eric Lombard in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "We are starting a technical discussion. There is general agreement that to guarantee a ceasefire it will be necessary to [have] European troops in Ukraine. UK, Germany and France are already willing to do that, but other member states of the European Union will contribute as well," he said. "Those troops will arrive after the ceasefire in order to guarantee that the ceasefire is respected. But if we want the ceasefire to be respected, we need a US backup and I mean that Americans agreed to do that." The minister did not elaborate on what Washington could do to ensure that the ceasefire is respected.

Nuclear technologies in Kiev regime’s hands pose global security threat, says Russian diplomat #Nuclear technologies in the hands of #Zelensky’s criminal regime pose a grave threat to international #peace and security, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria #Zakharova said in a statement on the Ukrainian army’s attack against the #Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The diplomat pointed out that overnight into February 14, news outlets had reported of another provocation staged by the Kiev regime, targeting the Chernobyl nuclear plant. "We have repeatedly warned that the #Kiev regime is preparing such provocations. Unfortunately, our fears turned out to be justified. All this confirms that nuclear technologies in the hands of Zelensky’s criminal regime pose a grave threat to international peace and security," Zakharova pointed out.

New US administration recognizes Russia's military successes in Ukraine, says American Analyst The current US administration has recognized #Russia's military #successes in #Ukraine, which is reflected in "new realism in American foreign policy," Theodore A. Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told TASS. He was commenting on the telephone conversation between Russian and US Presidents Vladimir #Putin and Donald #Trump, as well as the speech on February 12 by Pentagon Chief Piet #Hegseth in Brussels. "US Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s speech in Brussels on February 12, acknowledging the unambiguous reality of Russia’s military accomplishments in Eastern Ukraine, is a further indication of a new realism in American foreign policy," the expert said. "Anyone who looks at the war in Ukraine should now know that Russia has won, and the priority for everyone involved should now be to stop the unnecessary loss of Russian and Ukrainian lives. The objective should now be to quickly agree to and implement a new European security structure that accommodates the national security interests of all European powers," Postol stressed. "President Trump’s public comments following his more than one-hour phone conversation with President Putin indicated that the discussion between them went very well. In particular, President Trump’s acknowledgment that Russia has a right to a solid-binding agreement about NATO not expanding into Ukraine is extremely important. It is also an implicit acknowledgment of the damage to Russian-US relations caused by the undeniable history of US past withdrawals from treaties and improper reinterpretations [by Washington] of treaty agreements over the past more than 20 years," Postol said.

Greenland welcomes US investments in its economy, says minister #Greenland is interested in US investments in its economy, including mining and energy, said Naaja #Nathanielsen, Minister of Business, Trade, Mineral Resources, Justice and Gender Equality of the autonomous territory. "There are ample opportunities for American investments into Greenland. <…> We primarily have the first part of the value chain both in the fishing and the mineral sectors. But tech has a growing impact in these sectors and investments into this would be very interesting. Also, our developing energy sector would be a great place for American tech investments, not to mention infrastructure and possibly in defense as well," she said in an interview with The American Conservative journal. The politician also added that the island's authorities are currently working on a foreign direct investment act that will ensure a screening of foreign investors into Greenland. According to Nathanielsen, especially Greenland's the mining sector could be beneficial to securing supply chains to the U.S., since the island has many of the minerals, which are on the US list of critical minerals. In this context, the minister expressed hope for a new cooperation agreement with the United States in this area. On January 7, President #Trump said that Greenland should join the United States. He threatened to impose high trade tariffs on Denmark if it did not cede the island to the United States. During his first presidential term, Trump proposed buying Greenland. Back then, the Danish and Greenlandic authorities rejected the idea.