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Die Geissens haben nach dem Überfall im Juni nicht nur ihre Villa aufgerüstet. Carmen Geiss kann über ihr Handgelenk direkt die Polizei rufen.

Egész napos elsőfokú meteorológiai riasztást adott ki kedden (1. 6.) a Szlovák Hidrometeorológiai Intézet (SHMÚ) az ország keleti részére a hóátfúvások és hónyelvek kialakulásának a veszélye miatt. A Kassai kerületre az erős szél miatt (45 km/ó-s szél, 65-80 km/ó-s széllökések) 18:00 órától elsőfokú meteorológiai figyelmeztetés van kiadva. A Kassai kerületben és az Eperjesi kerület északkeleti részén ugyancsak 18:00 órától a havazás miatt (10-15 cm) is elsőfokú figyelmeztetés van érvényben.

Die Genfer Justiz ermittelt wegen der Entführung eines jungen französischen Fussballers in Nyon. Neun Tatverdächtige wurden festgenommen.

In today's edition: Mercosur, France stance, chemicals

Das zweite Spiel in Perth endet für Alexander Zverev im Frust. Nach einem Fehler gibt er einer Taube die Schuld und beschwert sich beim Schiedsrichter. Der Punkt wird nicht wiederholt, anschliessend muss das Mikrofon daran glauben. Später noch das Racket des Deutschen.

Der Schweizer Detailhändler setzte 35,4 Milliarden Franken um – 2,1 Prozent mehr als 2024. Besonders der Onlinehandel hat das Coop-Wachstum vorangetrieben. Den Gewinn gibt das Unternehmen Mitte Februar bekannt.

In den Niederlanden muss der Zugverkehr am Dienstag komplett eingestellt werden. Schuld sind heftiges Winterwetter und eine Computerstörung. Auch der Flughafen Schiphol kämpft mit Problemen, 350 Flüge wurden gestrichen.

The UN report, released last month, calls for a fundamental recalibration of global security and development strategies, prioritizing diplomacy and international cooperation to reverse the current trend of escalating military spending. Credit: UNDP

By Alice Slater
NEW YORK, Jan 6 2026 (IPS)

The United Nations issued a year end Fact Sheet: Rising global military expenditures, starkly illuminating that last year’s record high of $2.7 trillion in military expenditures, caused a cascade of devastating consequences to human well-being, the environment, possibilities for avoiding climate collapse, as well as blows to employment, ending hunger and poverty, providing health care, education, and other ills, due to a lack of adequate funding support.

The Fact Sheet does an admirable job of illustrating the shocking maldistribution of States massive military expenditures and what that money could buy in many instances, such as to end hunger and malnutrition, provide clean water and sanitation, education, environmental remediation, and so much more.

But isn’t it time for the UN to issue a Fact Sheet: Lost Opportunities to Halt Rising Military Expenditures and Heal the Earth? After all, just this summer on the 80th Anniversary of WWII, Russia and China issued a Joint Statement by the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on Global Strategic Security in which they urged that in acknowledging that anniversary and the founding of the United Nations, States and their associations “should not seek to ensure their own security at the expense and to the detriment of the security of other States.” adding that ”the destinies of the peoples of all countries are interrelated.”

Even a cursory examination of the sorry history of the United States and its nuclear alliance, in seeking to secure military domination at the expense of Russia and China, shows a sad list of missed opportunities to accept Russia and China’s offers to negotiate for peace and disarmament, which would have freed up trillions of dollars over the years to address the crisis we now face for preserving all life on earth.

The most recent opportunity that should be on the list, (met with deafening silence by the corrupt western media, laboring under the heavy thumb of their corporate military sponsors, who delight in the billions lining their pockets to produce the burgeoning war machine) was China and Russia’s Joint Statement criticizing the US misbegotten Golden Dome space project and opposing any countries use of outer space for armed confrontation.”

They urged negotiations based on the Russian-Chinese draft treaty to prevent weapons and use of force in outer space, proposed at the UN Committee on Disarmament in 2008 and 2014, where consensus is required to negotiate a treaty and the United States vetoed it each time, preventing any discussion. Amazingly, they further pledged that to prevent an arms race in outer space and promote peace in space, they would “agree to promote on a global scale the international initiative/political commitment not to be the first to deploy weapons in outer space.” In other words, No First Use.

While peace in space is the most recent Lost Opportunity, the first Lost Opportunity happened in 1946 when President Truman rejected Stalin’s proposal that the US turn the bomb over to international supervision at the newly formed UN, so Russia got the bomb.

President Reagan rejected Gorbachev’s plea to give up Star Wars as a condition for both countries to eliminate all their nuclear weapons when the wall came down and Gorbachev released all of Eastern Europe from Soviet occupation, thus losing the opportunity to abolish our nuclear arsenals.

More Lost Opportunities: the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) up to Russia’s border despite promises made when the wall came down that NATO would not expand east of a reunified Germany:

President Clinton’s refusal of Putin’s offer to go down to 1000 bombs each, and then call all nuclear states to negotiate for their elimination, provided the US stopped developing missile sites in Romania.

President Bush walked out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and put the new base in Romania; President Trump put one in Poland.

President Obama rejected Putin’s offer to negotiate a treaty to ban cyber war! [i]

Had the US been more open over the years to cooperation, instead of losing so many opportunities to make peace, we would be so much more able to deal with the urgency of preserving a livable planet for all and avoiding the dire consequences enumerated in the new UN Fact Sheet on global military expenditures. It’s still not too late to take up the Russian-Chinese proposal for peace in space. May wiser heads prevail.

[i] https://pirm.medium.com/why-no-international-treaty-for-cybersecurity-to-ban-cyber-attacks-5a53d8b3fdd1

Alice Slater serves on the Boards of World BEYOND War and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and is a UN NGO Representative for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Das Medieninteresse könnte grösser nicht sein. Am Dienstag informiert der Gemeinderat von Crans-Montana VS über weitere Erkenntnisse. Eine Opferfamilie wollte die Medienkonferenz verhindern – offenbar ohne Erfolg. Blick berichtet live.

Az ünnepek után elkezdődik a tanítás, és visszatérnek dolgozni az emberek. Az új év első napjaiban a megszokottnál többen utaznak vonattal – tájékoztatott a Szlovák Vasúttársaság (ZSSK). „A legforgalmasabb szakaszon, a Kassa és Pozsony között közlekedő expresszjáratok kihasználtsága jelenleg körülbelül 55%-os.

La destitution rapide du dirigeant vénézuélien et la perspective de le voir comparaître devant un tribunal américain incitent beaucoup à se demander si le droit international a été violé.

La destitution rapide du dirigeant vénézuélien et la perspective de le voir comparaître devant un tribunal américain incitent beaucoup à se demander si le droit international a été violé.

Le gouvernement grec met en place des mesures toujours plus dures pour dissuader les demandeurs d'asile, jugées inhumaines par ses opposants et illégales par l'UE et les organisations internationales. Analyse.

- Articles / Une - Diaporama, Une - Diaporama - En premier, Courrier des Balkans, Populations, minorités et migrations, Grèce, Grèce immigration, Migrants Balkans

Der FC Barcelona holt offenbar Joao Cancelo zurück. Der Portugiese wechselt auf Leihbasis zum spanischen Topklub, für den er schon einmal spielte. Ex-Klub Inter geht dagegen leer aus.

In today's edition: Grids sabotage, plastics regulation, Venezuela fallout, winter bites

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jan 6 2026 (IPS)

While US President Donald Trump has blamed the BRICS and foreign investors for de-dollarisation, his rhetoric, actions and policy measures are mainly responsible for the trend’s recent acceleration.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Threats and reactions
Although Trump is not the sole cause of de-dollarisation, which began much earlier, well before he became president, his recent initiatives have accelerated the trend.

Despite some temporary reversals, the dollar’s post-World War II role as world reserve currency has gradually declined over the decades, especially since the 1970s. Ben Norton has argued that several Trump measures have accelerated this trend.

Trump claims his supposedly ‘reciprocal tariffs’ will reduce the US trade or current account deficit with the rest of the world. But if countries cannot export to the US, they cannot earn dollars to meet their trade and investment needs.

Many believe Trump’s tariffs and other threats are enhancing US leverage vis-à-vis others, but their reactions, including defensive countermeasures, are accelerating de-dollarisation.

Trump’s measures, such as his insistence on bilateral negotiations, have alarmed most nations, including long-time allies. As nations, including allies, rethink their economic relations with and vulnerability to the US, de-dollarisation inadvertently accelerates.

Trump vs the Fed
The US Federal Reserve Bank’s overnight lending or funds rate has been higher since 2022, responding to higher consumer price inflation following the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As the Fed raised interest rates, yields on US government debt rose. But Trump now wants the Fed to cut interest rates to reduce the high debt servicing costs of both the government and private corporations.

In 2024, the US federal government paid about 3% of GDP in debt interest alone. Although such debt exceeds 120% of GDP, debt service costs are deemed manageable as long as interest rates remain low.

Trump’s pressures on the Fed to cut interest rates have inadvertently undermined investor confidence and prompted ‘flights [from dollar assets] to safety’.

Trump’s recent campaign against his earlier Fed chair appointee, Jerome Powell, has inadvertently raised investor concerns about his espoused monetary policy priorities.

Inflation fears persist
Investors now worry that Trump is pressuring the Fed to cut interest rates. They believe this will stoke inflation and cause the dollar to fall against other major currencies. As Trump is seen forcing down interest rates, he risks being blamed for persistent inflation.

If the Fed buys US Treasuries to reduce yields, for a new round of ‘quantitative easing’ (QE), dollar asset investments will realise lower, if not negative, real yields.

Although inflation hawks’ worst fears of higher inflation have not materialised so far, few believe tariffs will not raise inflation.

Expecting Trump 2.0 to impose more tariffs, many US companies stockpiled imports before April 2. As tariffs took effect and stocks declined, prices rose.

Many investors have sold their dollar assets as monetary authorities worldwide seek alternatives to the greenback. Such sell-offs lower the dollar’s value, further spurring de-dollarisation.

Trump now wants to lower US Treasury bond yields as foreign governments and investors seek alternatives to holding dollar assets.

Many are considering switching to non-dollar assets despite stagnation tendencies elsewhere in the Global North, especially in Europe and Japan. If investors stop buying dollar assets or sell them to purchase non-dollar assets, de-dollarisation will gain momentum.

Foreign demand falling
Washington is understandably worried that foreign investors will dump Treasury securities. In 2015, a third was held by foreigners, but this has since fallen to under a quarter.

The ‘Mar-A-Lago Accord’ proposal, which requires foreign governments to hold US Treasury ‘century bonds’ for 100 years despite assured losses, will compound resentment.

Lowering Treasury bond yields is both risky and difficult due to the highly financialised US economy. Past bond market turmoil has triggered stock market selloffs, lowering Treasury yields, share prices and tax revenue.

Government and corporate borrowing costs rise together. As trillions of dollars’ worth of corporate bonds mature over the next two years, high interest rates will raise corporations’ borrowing costs. Many want to refinance at lower interest rates.

These efforts to bring down interest rates are apparent to all. But lower interest rates and negative ‘actual yields’ for Treasury securities will ensure high inflation persists.

De-dollarisation accelerating?
Trump’s actions, especially threats of tariffs and sanctions, have elicited diverse reactions, often undermining dollar hegemony and accelerating de-dollarisation.

Many recent developments have undermined public confidence in the US government and the rule of law, accelerating de-dollarisation.

As investors sold US assets in mid-2025, the dollar saw its biggest fall since the 1973 oil price hike. It fell by over 10% against other major currencies, triggering temporary falls in the prices of many financial assets, including equities and bonds.

Since then, there has been increased capital market uncertainty and volatility, as in the US bond market, although a strong rally followed the ensuing stock market crash.

In many recent episodes of financial volatility, dollar liquidity was considered the safe option. But in 2025, confidence in dollar assets fell, prompting selloffs and de-dollarisation.

Thus far, Trump has been adept at managing short-term volatility, but his style implies no one knows when the music will stop.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Novak Djokovic wird später in die Saison starten als geplant – er sei physisch nicht bereit. An das erste Grand-Slam-Turnier des Jahres in Melbourne reist er damit ohne Spielpraxis. Der Serbe verzichtet auf das ATP-Turnier in Adelaide von kommender Woche.

Der Transfer von Michael Gregoritsch von Bröndby nach Basel schien nur noch Formsache. Nun geht er aber zu Augsburg, der FCB muss weiter nach einem neuen Stürmer suchen. Tobias Wedermann sieht die Absage nicht unbedingt als negativ.

Noah Okafor ist in der Nati zur Persona non grata mutiert. Der 25-Jährige überzeugt momentan bei Leeds Woche für Woche mit starken Leistungen. Deshalb muss man sich die Frage stellen, ob er wieder eine Option für die Nati ist.

Nach einem turbulenten 2025 sorgt der FC Zürich für die ersten dicken Schlagzeilen des neuen Jahres. Mit Steven Zuber (34) verliert der sportlich enttäuschende FCZ auf und neben dem Platz einen seiner Leader. Da stellt sich die Frage: War sein Abgang eine Rache-Aktion?