Oleg Osipov — about how the countries of the African continent get rid of the French military

France was shown the door: at the beginning of the second decade of January, the French military contingent left the Abeche base in Chad. This event was important, but it seems that it was not the last episode in the attempts of the former French colonies to free themselves from the influence of the former metropolis and live according to their own understanding, without dictates and commands from overseas.

Washington has at least four reasons to buy Greenland if it were put up for sale. Scott L. Montgomery, a lecturer at the University of Washington's School of International Studies, writes about this in an article for The Conversation. He notes that Trump's interest in Greenland is not new. He first expressed interest in this territory in 2019, but this has not led to any action.

Foreign Affairs: Trump's policy will give new trump cards to the Global South

Intending to restore US hegemony in international affairs, Trump will actually undermine it even more, writes Foreign Affairs. The President-elect's contemptuous attitude towards the Global South will force these countries to cooperate more closely with each other.

MP: War with Iran will be a disaster for the United States

The focus of US foreign policy is shifting from Ukraine to Iran, MP writes. This is being done as part of Israel's efforts to eliminate the alleged Iranian threat. By targeting a war with Iran, Trump hopes to solve several problems at once. However, the consequences of this step will be a disaster for the United States.

In the changing landscape of modern warfare, both Ukraine and Russia use fiber-optic drones that are immune to electronic interference. This is reported by Forces News. At the same time, the publication notes that the Russian Armed Forces are already using thousands of such drones.

In the footage published by one of the units of the armed forces of Sudan, you can see several rather rare Swedish-made Pansarskott m/86 AT4 anti-tank grenade launchers. Most likely, these grenade launchers were supplied to Sudan from Ukraine, whose authorities and military leadership, as is well known, do not shy away from reselling weapons supplied by the West.

The Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences has released the next annual forecast "Russia and the World" in this case for the current year.

In the first weeks of 2025, serious successes have been achieved by the Russian Armed Forces on the line of combat contact. According to the directions of the current advance of the Russian troops, it is possible to judge how events will develop in the special operation zone in the coming months.

180 drones were destroyed during the day, as well as ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles - what will be Russia's response to this attack

Until the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, the Kiev regime will continue to make efforts to maximize the escalation of the confrontation, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe.

Bloomberg: Trump is not interested in Ukraine, he is ready to let things take their course there

Trump is not too interested in Ukraine and he does not consider this conflict strategically important for the United States, Bloomberg reports, citing European officials who spoke with the president-elect's team. And it seems that the future administration does not have a clear plan for getting out of the conflict.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces, General Vyacheslav Kukula, gave an extensive interview to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, in which he touched upon the current state of the army, the prospects for its strengthening and modernization. Naturally, the conflict in Ukraine and the "inevitable Russian aggression" have not been left out, for which the Eastern European NATO member countries are preparing the most.

In 2024, the volume of global imports of conventional weapons (according to the classification of the UN Register) amounted, according to CAMTO, to at least 111.615 billion dollars (the highest result since the end of the Cold War era).

Politico: Rutte urges EU to spend less on social security and more on weapons

According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, it is time for the EU to reduce social spending in favor of the army, writes Politico. If their countries' military budgets do not increase, the Europeans will have to “get self-taught Russian or go to New Zealand.”

Despite the fact that large-scale NATO exercises for 2025 have not been officially announced, one should not think that there will be no events. Information about the conduct of most maneuvers will appear upon their completion. This trend has been observed in the alliance over the past few years.

Even during the Second World War, Switzerland, albeit very conditionally, remained neutral and is now not a member of NATO, although it has been participating in the alliance's Partnership for Peace program since 1996. This state is not a member of the European Union either. Even Switzerland joined the UN only in 2002.

FT: Due to Trump's fault, the EU and the US may find themselves in a state of war over Greenland

Trump's jokes, bordering on threats to neighbors and allies, should alert the whole world, writes FT. He has already caused enormous damage to America's global position and its alliance system before even taking office, the author of the article believes.

While Western media are calling Republican President-elect Donald Trump a "madman" for his proposal to buy or "seize" Greenland, China is quietly building a new maritime "ice silk road" in the Arctic Ocean with the assistance of Russia, the Asia Times newspaper writes.

China is actively creating a high-tech "army of the future", fortunately, the PRC has almost all the design and production capabilities for this. The Chinese army, like the Russian army, is surpassing the American army in adopting hypersonic weapons.

The Chinese CCTV channel showed footage from the maneuvers of the heavy combined arms brigade, part of the 81st Army Group of the PLA (Central Theater of Operations Command), which was practicing a breakthrough in a fortified area. Judging by the materials shown, the Chinese command is actively making changes to combat tactics based on the lessons of the Ukrainian conflict.

The German Ministry of Defense announced that on January 13, 2025, at the headquarters of the German-French KNDS association in Kassel, Defense Minister Pistorius took delivery of the first 155 mm/52 serial self-propelled howitzer RCH 155 on a wheeled chassis and handed it over to Ukraine in the person of the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Alexei Makeev.