Chancellor Friedrich Merz inaugurated a groundbreaking German brigade in Lithuania that is meant to help protect NATO’s eastern flank and declared Thursday that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security” as worries about Russian aggression persist.

He said Berlin’s strengthening of its own military sends a signal to its allies to invest in security.

The stationing in Lithuania marks the first time that a German brigade is being based outside Germany on a long-term basis since World War II. “This is a historic day,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said after meeting Merz. “This is a day of trust, responsibility and action.”

German brigade to be at full strength in 2027

Germany has had troops in Lithuania — which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Moscow-allied Belarus — since 2017, as part of efforts to secure NATO’s eastern fringe, but the new brigade deepens its engagement significantly.

An advance party started work on setting it up just over a year ago and expanded into an “activation staff” of about 250 people last fall. The 45 Armored Brigade is expected to be up to its full strength of about 5,000 by the end of 2027, with troops stationed at Rukla and Rudninkai.

Dozens of military helicopters roared over the central cathedral square in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, as the inauguration wrapped up on a rainy Thursday afternoon, with hundreds of troops and spectators attending. Merz told the event that “protecting Vilnius is protecting Berlin.”

The deployment in Lithuania has been taking shape as Germany works to strengthen its military overall after years of neglect as NATO members scramble to increase defense spending, spurred by worries about further potential Russian aggression and pressure from Washington.

Beefing up the Bundeswehr

Merz said that, beyond the new brigade, “Germany is investing massively in its own armed forces.”

“With this, we also want to send a signal to our allies: let us now invest with determination in our own security,” he added. “Together with our partners, we are determined to defend alliance territory against every — every — aggression. The security of our Baltic allies is also our security.”

Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to increase Germany’s defense spending to the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product and announced the creation of a 100 billion-euro ($113-billion) special fund to modernize the Bundeswehr.

Germany met that target thanks to the fund, but it will be used up in 2027. Even before it took office earlier this month, the new governing coalition pushed plans through parliament to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt.

Merz, the first chancellor to have served in the Bundeswehr himself, told parliament last week that “the government will in the future provide all the financing the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe.”

Lithuania to spend more than 5% on defense

Host Lithuania said in January that it would raise its defense spending to between 5% and 6% of GDP starting next year, from a bit over 3%. That made it the first NATO nation to vow to reach a 5% goal called for by US President Donald Trump.

A plan is in the works for all allies to aim to spend 3.5% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2032, plus an extra 1.5% on potentially defense-related things like infrastructure — roads, bridges, airports and seaports.

Merz said in Lithuania that those figures “seem sensible to us, they also seem reachable — at least in the time span until 2032 that has been stipulated.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier this week that the plan is to increase defense spending by 0.2 percentage points each year for five to seven years.

Merz has plunged into diplomatic efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine since taking office earlier this month.

“We stand firmly by Ukraine, but we also stand together as Europeans as a whole — and, whenever possible, we play in a team with the US,” he said.

Wildlife rangers are being killed at a rate of nearly two a week, and it’s a toll Prince William has said the world can no longer ignore.

This is the reality laid bare in “Guardians,” a new six-part docuseries from the Prince of Wales which offers a rare insight into the dangerous work of rangers operating on the front lines of conservation across the globe.

A champion of the environment for over a decade, William introduces each episode of the series, which aims to capture both the beauty of the natural world, and the brutality of the protectors’ fight to defend it.

“I’ve been dying to do something around this sort of space for a while,” William said after making an unexpected appearance at a screening in London on Tuesday. “This one is particularly special to me, because I’ve got lots of friends and people I’ve met over the years on my trips and going abroad who are living this life on a daily basis.”

Rangers make huge sacrifices and take incredible risks as nature’s front line by standing between poachers and numerous endangered species. They endure similar ordeals to soldiers in combat, routinely facing death, injury, or torture from poachers, and the animals they protect can kill them too.

William, 42, who founded United for Wildlife through his Royal Foundation in 2013 to combat illegal wildlife trade, said the series was shaped by firsthand accounts from rangers he’s met and the “vital yet unseen” work they do to protect the planet.

They’re “unsung heroes,” William told the audience. “I like to see the ranger as the glue between the human world we live in and the natural world.”

Chris Galliers, chair of the International Ranger Federation, echoed William, describing rangers as playing an “indispensable role in securing and maintaining the health of our planet.”

“Although often under resourced and supported, their tireless work secures our natural and cultural heritage and the stability of global economies, proving that environmental protection is deeply interconnected with human survival,” he said.

The series follows stories from rangers working in the Central African Republic, the Indian Himalayas, Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, South Africa’s Kruger National Park, Sri Lanka, and the Caru Indigenous land in Brazil.

William has spent years advocating for rangers and conservation teams. He has witnessed the risks firsthand, and has met those who patrol some of the world’s most volatile environments, where many have lost their lives while safeguarding nature.

“This is now one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet,” William said. “And really it shouldn’t be. Protecting the natural world, it shouldn’t be that dangerous.”

“At some point,” he added, “we have to say enough’s enough.”

William also reflected on the power of documentary storytelling, citing David Attenborough as a “big inspiration” during his childhood. The renowned veteran broadcaster’s ability to bring “wonderful parts of the world” into people’s homes is something “Guardians” also strives for, the heir to the British throne said.

“Any future we want from the natural world, has to come from the ranger community being valued, respected, seen,” William continued. “We value them, we care for them, and we hope that momentum builds, and that people support them.”

The series launches just weeks after William paid tribute to two rangers who were killed and another who was severely injured in an attack in Mozambique, which he described as “yet another brutal reminder of the immense sacrifices made by those protecting our natural world.”

In November, William announced a new life insurance initiative for rangers across Africa. The five-year financial package, funded in part by his foundation, will benefit 10,000 rangers, giving them access to health and life insurance cover, as well as opportunities for training and development.

The digital series, launched by United for Wildlife and co-produced with award-winning studio ZANDLAND, will premiere globally on BBC Earth’s YouTube and social channels on Friday with episodes released weekly.

U.S. President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.

“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In fact, the video, published by Reuters on February 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

The blog post showed to Ramaphosa by Trump during the White House meeting was published by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, about conflict and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.

The post did not caption the image but identified it as a “YouTube screen grab” with a link to a video news report about Congo on YouTube, which credited Reuters.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had “misidentified the image.”

She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosa’s “dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government”, had “pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans.”

The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.

“That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in… I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film,” Al Katanty said. “Only Reuters has video.”

Al Katanty said seeing Trump holding the article with the screengrab of his video came as a shock.

“In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people,” Al Katanty said.

Ramaphosa visited Washington this week to try to mend ties with the United States after persistent criticism from Trump in recent months over South Africa’s land laws, foreign policy, and alleged bad treatment of its white minority, which South Africa denies.

Trump interrupted the televised meeting with Ramaphosa to play a video, which he said showed evidence of genocide of white farmers in South Africa. This conspiracy theory, which has circulated in far-right chat rooms for years, is based on false claims.

Trump then proceeded to flip through printed copies of articles that he said detailed murders of white South Africans, saying “death, death, death, horrible death.”

The Trump administration’s move to bar Harvard University from enrolling international students has ricocheted across China, with officials and commentators seeing it through one lens: the growing rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

“China has consistently opposed the politicization of educational collaboration,” a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday, adding that the US move “will only tarnish its own image and reputation in the world.”

Some commentators across Chinese social media platforms took a similar tack: “It’s fun to watch them destroy their own strength,” read one comment on the X-like platform Weibo that garnered hundreds of likes.

“Trump comes to the rescue again,” wrote another, commenting on a hashtag about the news, which has tens of millions of views. “Recruiting international students is … the main way to attract top talent! After this road is cut off, will Harvard still be the same Harvard?”

The announcement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a clear escalation of a dispute between the oldest and the richest Ivy League institution and the White House and part of a broader drive to tighten control over international students in the US amid an immigration crackdown. The administration of US President Donald Trump has revoked hundreds of student visas in nearly every corner of the country as part of a vast immigration crackdown.

Harvard and Trump’s administration have been locked in conflict for months as the administration demanded the university make changes to campus operations. The government has homed in on foreign students and staff it believes participated in contentious campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

But the revocation isn’t just about a feud between a university and the US president. It’s also the latest in a widening rupture between two superpowers.

For years, China sent more international students to America than any other country. Those deep educational ties are being reshaped by a growing geopolitical rivalry that has fueled an ongoing trade and tech war.

“This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Thursday.

The DHS statement included claims of ties between Harvard and Chinese institutions or individuals linked to military-related research, as well as with an entity blacklisted by the Trump administration for alleged human rights violations. It links to information about a letter that bipartisan US lawmakers sent earlier this week to Harvard requesting information about the university’s alleged “partnerships with foreign adversaries.”

‘Absolute shock’

The ability of elite American universities to recruit top students from around the world, many of whom often go on to stay in the United States, has long been seen as a critical factor in America’s science and tech prowess, as well as a key source of income for its universities.

The decision by the DHS both bars Harvard from enrolling international students for the coming academic year and requires current foreign students to transfer to another university to maintain their status.

International students make up more than a quarter of Harvard’s student body, with those hailing from China making up the largest international group, according to a tally on Harvard’s International Office website.

Among those students is Fangzhou Jiang, 30, a student at Harvard’s Kennedy School, who said he couldn’t believe it when he heard that his university status was in jeopardy and immediately began to worry if his visa was still valid.

“I was absolutely shocked for quite a few minutes. I just never anticipated that the administration could go this far,” said Jiang, who is also the founder of an education consulting company helping foreign students gain admission to elite American universities. “Ever since I was young, when it comes to the best universities in the world, from a young age, I learned that it’s Harvard,” he said.

Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton and Yale are household names in middle class China, where American universities have for years been viewed as a path to a prestigious education and a leg-up in China’s fiercely competitive career-ladder.

China was the top source of international students in the US for 15 straight years since 2009, before it was surpassed by India just last year, according to figures from Open Doors, a US Department of State-backed database tracking international student enrollment.

Along the way, US-China educational ties have cultivated close relationships between Chinese and American academics and institutions, while US universities and industry are widely seen to have benefited from their ability to attract top talent from China, and elsewhere, to their halls.

Harvard has educated Chinese figures like former Vice Premier Liu He, who played a key role negotiating Trump’s phase one trade deal during the American president’s first term.

But those ties have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as the US began to see an increasingly assertive and powerful China as a technological rival and a threat to its own superpower status.

More than 277,000 Chinese students studied in the US during the 2023 to 2024 academic year, down from over 372,000 in the peak 2019-2020 year – a decline that coincides with the Covid-19 pandemic but also increasing friction between the two governments.

Meanwhile, rising nationalist sentiment and government emphasis on national security in China have led to a shift in perception about the value of American versus Chinese universities.

Reverse brain-drain

The Department of Homeland Security’s claims regarding Harvard’s institutional ties to entities and individuals with ties to military-related research are the latest move reflecting deep-seated concern in Washington about Chinese access to sensitive and military-applicable American technology via academia.

To crack down on the perceived threat of Chinese students conducting espionage on US soil, Trump introduced a ban during his first term that effectively prevented graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields from Chinese universities believed to be linked to the military from gaining visas to the US.

His first administration also launched the now defunct China Initiative, a national security program intended to thwart China’s intelligence activities in the US, including those aimed at stealing emerging technology from research universities.

The program, which drew comparisons to the McCarthy-era anti-Communism “red scare” of the 1950s, was cancelled by the Biden administration after facing widespread blowback for what was seen as over-reach and complaints that it fueled suspicion and bias against innocent Chinese Americans.

Trump’s broader tightening of US immigration policy during his second term has now unleashed a new wave of insecurity and uncertainty for many students and schools.

While those concerns are shared by international students from many countries, the heightened tensions between the two countries have elevated pressure on Chinese students and scholars – and the impact has already been seen.

And for some students at the start of their academic and professional careers, the latest development leaves them unsure about what to do next.

Among them is Sophie Wu, a 22-year-old from China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen, who was accepted at a graduate program at Harvard this fall, after finishing her undergraduate degree in the US. Wu said she felt “numb” after hearing the news.

Iran and the United States are set to begin a fifth round of high-stakes nuclear talks in Rome on Friday amid growing skepticism in Tehran about the chances of a deal as Washington hardens its position.

The sources said Iran’s participation in the Rome talks is solely to gauge Washington’s latest stance rather than pursue a potential breakthrough.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated Tehran’s red lines before he departed for Rome on Friday.

“Figuring out the path to a deal is not rocket science,” he posted on X before his flight. “Zero nuclear weapons = we DO have a deal. Zero enrichment = we do NOT have a deal.”

The Trump administration has demanded Iran stop all uranium enrichment activity, which lead US negotiator Steve Witkoff says “enables weaponization.” Uranium, a key nuclear fuel, can be used to build a bomb if enriched to high levels. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and says it is willing to commit not to enrich uranium to weapons-grade as part of an agreement.

Speaking Thursday, Araghchi said Iran was open to enhanced monitoring by international inspectors but would not relinquish its right to pursue nuclear energy, including uranium enrichment. Washington is offering to wind back crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for de-nuclearization.

The US had previously sent mixed signals about whether Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium, but in recent weeks it has hardened its stance, insisting that no enrichment will be permitted.

That shift has prompted officials in Tehran to question Washington’s commitment to a deal, as Iran has repeatedly said enrichment is a red line in negotiations.

“The media statements and negotiating behavior of the United States has widely disappointed policy-making circles in Tehran,” the sources said in a joint message. “From the perspective of decision-makers in Tehran, when the US knows that accepting zero enrichment in Iran is impossible and yet insists on it, it is a sign that the US is fundamentally not seeking an agreement and is using the negotiations as a tool to intensify pressure.”

Initially, the sources noted, some Iranian officials believed Washington might seek a “win-win” compromise. However, a consensus has now emerged that the Trump administration is steering discussions toward a deadlock.

The sources said that although neither the US nor Iran wants to leave the negotiating table, the position of the US is making the talks unproductive and formal meetings are unlikely to continue much longer.

They said that Tehran no longer takes seriously US efforts to distance itself from Israel’s hardline stance on Iran, and it sees proposals made by the American side as following the agenda of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has insisted that no enrichment be allowed in Iran.

On Friday, Iranian delegates in Rome aim to probe whether the US has revised its approach. The sources suggested that Tehran will likely take a tougher stance unless the US offers tangible concessions.

US imposes more sanctions ahead of talks

Washington has kept up the pressure on Iran with fresh sanctions and threats of war even as diplomatic talks continue.

On Wednesday, the US State Department announced new measures, identifying Iran’s construction sector as being “controlled directly or indirectly” by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and 10 strategic materials that it said Iran is using in connection with its nuclear, military or ballistic missile programs.

“With these determinations, the United States has broader sanctions authorities to prevent Iran from acquiring strategic materials for its construction sector under IRGC control and its proliferation programs,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson criticized US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the move, calling it “as outrageous as it is unlawful and inhuman.”

“The US’s consecutive rounds of sanctions only reinforce our people’s deeply held belief that the American decision makers are set to make every malign effort to hinder Iran’s development & progress. These sanctions, announced on the eve of the fifth round of Iran-US indirect talks, further put to question the American willingness & seriousness for diplomacy,” Baqaei wrote on X.