Politicians and experts push for reduced reliance on Beijing as Berlin ‘would not and could not evade’ economic fallout of Taiwan invasion

Germany met NATO's target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, the government said on Monday, though well short of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's call for as much as 5%.

Poland's president has said that gas flows from Russia to Western Europe should never be restored, even if Russia and Ukraine reach a peace deal. Andrzej Duda told the BBC that the Nord Stream gas pipelines,

Russia is rearming faster than first thought for a potential attack on Nato, Germany’s military pointman on Ukraine has warned.

The changed rules agreed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Cabinet still require parliamentary approval. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Trump’s return as president, saying Ukraine looks forward to working with him. Russia’s casualties mounted to a record high of 434,000 in 2024, with 150,000 deaths, Ukraine’s commander in chief of the armed forces said. The toll is higher than the previous two years combined, he said.

On Monday, Bavarian State Police reported that drone flights were spotted over German armed forces (Bundeswehr) sites in Manching and Neuburg an der Donau. Three drones were reported flying on December 18 over the airfield in Manching, which is used to test the airworthiness of new aircraft ordered for the German military.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the potential bankruptcy or sale of the operator of the completed but never launched Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would amount to "theft".

Germany's cabinet has decided to authorise the army to shoot down suspicious drones seen near military sites or other critical infrastructure.

The findings, in a poll by Allensbach for a foundation linked to Germany's liberal, pro-business Free Democrats, showed that only users of Elon Musk's platform X came close to the same propensity for believing in conspiracy theories as TikTok users.

Russia's Rosatom energy company is building Turkey's first nuclear power plant. But construction has been delayed because of the nondelivery of German-made parts.