Friday 9th of January 2026
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a meeting of backslapping jackasses in paree.....

Ukraine must create conditions that encourage its young men to remain in the country rather than flee to Western Europe, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said.

Merz made the statement while standing next to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky at a press-conference following a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting in Paris on Tuesday. Additionally, the UK and France announced plans to send troops to Ukraine “in the event of a peace deal”with Russia, despite the fact that Moscow has categorically ruled out the deployment of any NATO forces in the country.

According to the German chancellor, rebuilding Ukraine and providing security guarantees are indivisible issues. Only an economically strong Kiev can present a credible deterrent to Moscow after the conflict is settled, he said.

However, Ukraine’s Western backers have “certain expectations” that Kiev should meet in exchange for economic assistance and help with rebuilding, he added.

Ukraine must make sure that its young men can find decent jobs in their own country rather than travel to Germany, Poland, or France… and I think this is an expectation that Ukraine can meet and will meet,” Merz insisted.

The chancellor refused to speculate on how soon a diplomatic solution might be found, saying “no one can say today whether the arms will be silenced in Ukraine in six weeks or in six months.”

Following the outbreak of the conflict with Russia in February of 2022, Ukraine barred nearly all adult men from leaving the country. However, the rules were relaxed for males aged 18 to 22 last August, reportedly leading to almost 100,000 young men fleeing the country.

Kiev’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly brutal amid manpower shortages caused by heavy losses at the front, large-scale draft dodging, and desertion. Hundreds of cases have been documented where enlistment officers have violently snatched conscripts from the streets.

Last month, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the authorities in Kiev have told draft officials to “tighten the screws to the max” to get as many as two million new troops by early 2026.

READ MORE: Putin envoy mocks Zelensky’s new staffer

Throughout the conflict, Moscow has repeatedly accused the West of willing to fight Russia “until the last Ukrainian.”

https://www.rt.com/news/630687-ukraine-men-zelensky-merz/

 

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MEANWHILE:

The UK provided “enabling support” to the US military in seizing the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera, the British Defence Ministry has said.

The oil tanker was interdicted on Wednesday in international waters to the northwest of Scotland. The Pentagon claimed the vessel, formerly known as ‘Bella 1’, had been involved in alleged “violations of US sanctions.”  

The UK assisted the US during the operation at Washington’s request, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. 

“Our UK Armed Forces showed skill and professionalism in support of a successful U.S. interception of the vessel Bella 1 while on its way to Russia. This action formed part of global efforts to crack down on sanctions busting,” it said.

Britain claimed the interdicted vessel has a “nefarious history” and allegedly acted as a “part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion.” The US, meanwhile, said the seizure of the tanker was related to the “blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil.” 

Moscow has acknowledged the capture of the vessel. The country’s Transport Ministry stated that the Marinera had received a temporary permit to fly the national flag on December 24. The ministry accused the US of violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which ensures freedom of navigation in international waters.

The tanker made international headlines late last year when it was first targeted by the US military after allegedly approaching Venezuela. At the time, the ship’s crew refused to allow the US Coast Guard servicemen on board, heading to the Atlantic instead with US forces in pursuit. During the chase, the vessel changed its name and flag.

Shortly after the capture of the Marinera, the US said it seized another tanker in the Caribbean Sea, the ´Sophia´. The US military described the vessel as “a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker.”  

“The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The US Coast Guard is escorting M/T Sophia to the US for final disposition,” the US Southern Command has said.

https://www.rt.com/news/630707-uk-tanker-capture-support/

 

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SEE ALSO: 

European Military Hubs Across Ukraine /Col Jacques Baud, Patrik Baab & Lt Col Daniel Davis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmR9bCOhNQI

 

[GUSNOTE: MACRON IS IN THIS ONLY TO GIVE HIM THE OCCASION TO SMIRK...]

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

in a hurry.....

THE EU HAS VOWED TO DEFEND GREENLAND TILL THE CASH IS RIGHT?...

 

How much would you sell your country for?

by Michael Pascoe

 

Donald Trump is not just trolling on a takeover of Greenland, writes Michael Pascoe. Will it be the money or the gun … or both?

If Donald Trump offered you, say, $1,000 to become an American citizen, would you do it? 

Lots of people, millions of people, would be happy to pay that much and more for US citizenship let alone be paid, but in light of what the US has become, maybe not you. 

How about $10,000? $100,000? $1,000,000? That’s a lot of zeros. It could buy you a better-than-average house. OK, it would be in Adelaide, but it would still be better-than-average for that city. 

Maybe your citizenship simply isn’t for sale. I don’t like to think this but, at a price, I’d bet most Australians would sell. It’s like the possibly apocryphal story of George Bernard Shaw and the society lady:

Shaw: “Would you sleep with me for a million pounds?”

Woman: “Certainly.”

Shaw: “Would you sleep with me for one pound?”

Woman: “What do you think I am?”

Shaw: “Madam, we’ve already established what you are. Now we’re just haggling over the price.”

If the price is right

That moral issue of haggling over the price is likely to be a question sooner rather than later for Greenlanders. 

There are only about 60,000 of them. If the price of a house is a general yardstick for a large, impactful, mind-changing amount of money, 5 million kroner for every man, woman and children would do it. 

That’s about US$500,000 each, so a total cost to the US of US$30 billion, only about what we’re paying for a single nuclear-powered submarine we’re not going to get as part of AUKUS. 

To buy Greenland for US$30 billion would be an absolute steal. Trump would be pulling off the real estate deal of the century, something he’d no doubt like even more than the Nobel Peace Prize. We can only imagine how much commission he’d somehow collect.

Heck, let’s be generous and make it 10 million kroner for each Greenlander, US$60 billion all up for the US Treasury, $89 billion in our money, the price of two phantom subs. And throw in some Trump crypto for the Danish royal family as a tip. “Our” Queen Mary might get an autographed Trump bible.

But for Denmark

Of course it’s not quite that simple a transaction or as speedy. There’s Denmark to deal with. Buying off the 6 million Danes would be more expensive, yet “buying” rather than invading Greenland is what Trump’s foreign secretary Marco Rubio has said is the main plan. 

To buy cheaply, Trump’s operatives need the Greenlanders to go ahead with achieving full independence from Denmark, something that was already on the domestic Greenland political agenda.

In normal American imperial times, that would involved generous sponsorship of local politicians and perhaps the odd unfortunate accident for any leader proving difficult. Once the Greenlanders were free of Denmark, the haggling over price could commence. 

Oh wait, they’re already doing the old American imperial thing as well as the new-old Superpower bullying. From those lefties at The Economist: ( ) 

“The CIA and the National Security Agency have also reportedly stepped up surveillance of Greenland’s independence movement, and been tasked with identifying locals sympathetic to America. The Danish government summoned American diplomats three times last year over reports of spying and running a covert influence campaign in Greenland. Denmark’s military-intelligence service raised concerns about America in its annual threat assessment last December.”

But these are not normal American imperial times. 

Trump is in a hurry. 

The worse things get for him at home, the more he’s inclined to focus abroad. It’s so much easier. 

He could look to history for inspiration. The Spanish American war, America’s last big colonial land grab, started with a mysterious explosion aboard an American ship in Havana harbour, an explosion blamed on Spain with enthusiasm for war whipped up by ratbag American press. Cue Fox News. 

(From that 1898 war, America seized the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam and Wake Island. While it was in the mood, it annexed Hawaii as well.)

Time for a false flag?

It is not beyond the imagination of the Trump gang to have a security crisis at its existing missile security base in Greenland and thus move to “secure” the place. 

Yes, that would be the end of NATO which wouldn’t worry Trump. A win-win. 

The threat of such an action could speed up the haggling over price. If Greenlanders sensed they could be made instantly much more wealthy or simply be annexed, how many zeros was that offer again?

It is a bleak scenario, a depressing return to the international lawlessness of the 19th century when might was blatantly right, not just effectively so. 

The money or the gun?

Consider what it would be like for Australia to be in Greenland’s position, if we were smaller and closer to the US. Here’s the money or the gun. 

Life would go on much the way it does. American companies, especially those that donate to the Trump gang, would control our resources, run our most profitable businesses. Major media companies would follow the right-wing line. Chinese companies would not be welcome. Criticism of the government would be unwise. There would be American military bases. 

Like I said, life would go on much the way it does now, America already has its bases. That’s why it won’t happen, along with the fact that we are, thankfully, outside the hemisphere Trump has declared as belonging to America. We know our place. 

It looks like Greenland will have to decide it’s place. The final word goes to Financial Times columnist Edward Luce:


if you think Trump is just trolling on Greenland, book yourself a holiday in Caracas.

 

https://michaelwest.com.au/how-much-would-you-sell-your-country-for/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.