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Japan has committed $6 billion in humanitarian and technical aid to Ukraine for the first half of 2026, a senior Ukrainian official has said.

The announcement of the financial support, which is worth the equivalent of around €5 billion, was made by Olena Kondratyuk, Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, following a meeting with the Japanese ambassador to Ukraine, Masashi Nakagome, last week.

It comes as Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid, leaving large swathes of the country, including parts of Kyiv and several other regions, without electricity, heating or running water amid subzero temperatures.

Tokyo has already delivered more than 2,500 power generators, 65 transformers, and 10 large-scale power generation units to help tackle Ukraine’s energy crisis and prevent further blackouts.

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The temptation is strong to hope that the storm has passed. To believe that a week that began with a US threat to seize a European territory, whether by force or extortion, has ended with the promise of negotiation and therefore a return to normality. But that is a dangerous delusion.

There can be no return to normality. The world we thought we knew has gone. The only question now is what takes its place – a question that will affect us all, that is full of danger and that, perhaps unexpectedly, also carries a whisper of hope.

Forget that Donald Trump eventually backed down from his threats to conquer Greenland, re-holstering the economic gun he had put to the head of all those countries who stood in his way, the UK among them. The fact that he made the threat at all confirmed what should have been obvious since he returned to office a year ago: that, under him, the US has become an unreliable ally, if not an actual foe of its one-time friends.

That much was spelled out in ways both gross and insulting. In the second category comes his latest remark that Nato allies were “a little off the frontlines” in Afghanistan, a despicable affront to the families of the 457 British service personnel and their comrades from across the alliance who gave their lives in that conflict.

In the first category was the unveiling of his latest venture: having earlier told the Norwegian prime minister, who he falsely accused of denying him a Nobel medal, that he was becoming bored of peace, he came to Davos to launch his “board of peace”. Trump is the one book you can judge by its cover, and so the new body’s logo said it all: as one wit observed, it was basically the UN badge “except dipped in gold and edited so the world only includes America”.

That captured the essential points: that the “board of peace” is an attempt to supplant and monetise the post-1945 international architecture, replacing the UN with a Mar-a-Lago-style members’ club where a permanent seat costs $1bn and decision-making power lies in the hands of Trump himself, even after his presidential term expires. That Vladimir Putin has been invited, and Mark Carney shut out, tells you all you need to know.

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President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with its China trade deal, intensifying a feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney, a rising voice in the West’s pushback to Trump’s new world order.

Trump said in a social media post that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”

It was unclear when Trump might impose the threatened tariff. He said in the post it would happen “immediately” if Canada made a deal with China, which Carney did a week earlier, drawing initial praise from the president.

The White House did not offer any additional details.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to U.S. President Donald Trump ‘s comment that “Canada lives because of the United States” on Thursday by saying Canada thrives because of Canadian values.

Carney said Canada can show the world that the future doesn’t have to be autocratic after returning from Davos, Switzerland, where he gave a speech that garnered widespread attention.

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President Trump appeared on Saturday to walk back comments he made earlier in the week, suggesting non-U.S. troops in NATO avoided the front lines in Afghanistan, following widespread anger from British political leaders and military families.

“The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America! In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors. It’s a bond too strong to ever be broken. The U.K. Military, with tremendous Heart and Soul, is second to none (except for the U.S.A.!). We love you all, and always will!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump remarked during an interview at the World Economic Forum on Thursday that the U.S. “never needed” non-U.S. troops.

“You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did – they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” Trump told Fox Business in Davos, Switzerland.

The assertion sparked outrage across the United Kingdom, where leaders spanning the political spectrum, along with former soldiers and parents of fallen military members, slammed Trump for doubting NATO’s commitment to its allies and diminishing the role of non-U.S. troops.

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Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has approved the issuance of gun licences to Israelis in 18 additional illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes to expand illegal outposts that undermine prospects for a two-state solution.

“The importance of the decision lies in the fact that these settlements will now be able to submit applications for a personal weapon licence,” Ben-Gvir, a far-right minister, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday, claiming that the efforts were to “enhance self-defence and increase personal security”.

Israeli settlers have been emboldened by a wide-scale armament programme spearheaded at the start of Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip by Ben-Gvir, and the near-total impunity they enjoy when carrying out attacks.

Israelis living illegally in the occupied West Bank have been armed with military-grade weapons ranging from US-made M16s to pistols and drones. Israeli authorities maintain that holding arms is necessary for their safety, but local and international organisations have long documented the organised, forced displacement of Palestinians from their ancestral lands.

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Air-defense sirens wailed and explosions shook Kyiv early Saturday as Russia launched one of its heaviest assaults in months – just hours after Ukrainian, Russian, and US negotiators convened in Abu Dhabi for peace talks.

Kyiv Post reporters who spent the night in shelters described the barrage as “very, very massive.”

One correspondent added grimly: “I assume the situation following this strike is going to be extremely tough.”

The timing was unmistakable.

“With negotiations underway, Moscow is sending a message written in fire,” said a senior European diplomat in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “This is how the Kremlin negotiates – with missiles.”

Meaghan Mobbs, daughter of former Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, echoed the sentiment in a pointed social media post: 

“With ongoing negotiations in Abu Dhabi, it’s hard not to read this as a signal of Russia’s intentions toward peace. I have stopped guessing at what point such behavior would so enrage POTUS that he decides to double down and give substantial aid to Ukraine.”

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