FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- The leader of Germany’s conservative CDU, the party’s candidate to run for chancellor, said on Tuesday that the nation should focus on efforts to reach existing NATO military spending targets before discussing any further increases. “For the next three to four years we will have to focus on reaching at least 2%, where we currently see a funding gap of 30 to 40 billion (euros) per year and that’s what we need to work hard on,” Friedrich Merz told radio station DLF. Germany, which is to hold general elections on Feb. 23, met NATO’s target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, but only thanks to a 100 billion euro ($104 billion) special fund that will run out in 2028. Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has called for a new NATO spending target of as much as 5% of GDP.

 

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CUMBERLAND, Maryland/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Donald Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol four years ago began to leave prison on Tuesday, after the newly installed president issued a sweeping pardon that signaled he intends to make aggressive use of his executive power. The Republican president’s pardon of 1,500 defendants on Monday, Inauguration Day, drew outrage from lawmakers who were endangered in the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. Trump’s clemency extended from the hundreds of people who followed the crowd into the Capitol to the far smaller group who planned the assault on democracy, including some who assaulted and injured some 140 police officers that day.

 

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FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- The leader of Germany’s conservative CDU, the party’s candidate to run for chancellor, said on Tuesday that the nation should focus on efforts to reach existing NATO military spending targets before discussing any further increases. “For the next three to four years we will have to focus on reaching at least 2%, where we currently see a funding gap of 30 to 40 billion (euros) per year and that’s what we need to work hard on,” Friedrich Merz told radio station DLF. Germany, which is to hold general elections on Feb. 23, met NATO’s target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, but only thanks to a 100 billion euro ($104 billion) special fund that will run out in 2028. Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has called for a new NATO spending target of as much as 5% of GDP.

 

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MADRID (Reuters) -- Spanish Labor Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz said on Tuesday she will withdraw from Elon Musk’s social media platform X due in part to the billionaire’s behavior during events linked to President Donald Trump’s inauguration. “I made this decision, which I know is complicated, but I will not be part of a social network based on the use of algorithms that encourage xenophobic ideas, against human rights and encourage the extreme right in the world,” she told state broadcaster TVE. She said the decision followed “Elon Musk’s positioning yesterday, not only with his gestures, but with the absolutely convoluted speeches he is making”. At an inauguration-related event on Monday, Musk raised his arm in a gesture that drew online comparisons to a Nazi salute. Earlier this month, the German Defense and Foreign Ministries said they would stop using X, with the Defense Ministry saying it had become increasingly “unhappy” with developments on the platform. They joined a growing number of German and UK universities, which have departed from X.

 

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TOKYO (Reuters) -- A large fire broke out in a commercial building near a famous tourist landmark, Tsutenkaku Tower, in Osaka in western Japan, local TV footage showed on Tuesday. The fire broke out on the first floor of a five-story building and 26 emergency vehicles have been deployed to the site, public broadcaster NHK reported, citing local police and fire departments. Live images showed part of the building, on a shopping street in downtown Osaka, still burning and dark smoke billowing into the skyline. No other details including whether there were any casualties were available. 

 

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BOGOTA (Reuters) -- At least 20 Colombian fighters from rival rebel factions were killed in weekend clashes over control of a strategic jungle area for drug trafficking, military sources and the human rights ombudsman office reported. The clashes pitted opposing factions from what was once the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) against one another in the country’s southeastern Guaviare jungle. The violence follows an offensive launched by another rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), in northeastern Catatumbo region that left at least 80 people dead and 11,000 displaced. In a social-media post, President Gustavo Petro declared a state of “internal unrest and economic emergency” in the Catatumbo area and accused the warring factions of having “lost their heads.” Armed conflict in Colombia has lasted more than six decades and is funded mainly by drug trafficking and illegal mining. It has left over 450,000 dead and millions displaced.