World
Estonia's prime minister calls on US and NATO allies to be tougher on Russia
As continued U.S. support for Ukraine remains in question, European leaders have been ramping up their own defense spending and industry capacity. Leading the charge is Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas who, at 46, is Estonia’s first female prime minister. Kallas is known for being tough on Russia. Some critics joke she even eats them for breakfast. Russia’s interior minister issued a warrant for her arrest earlier this year, for taking down Soviet monuments, but Kallas has not backed down.
Asked to respond to critics that say she is too tough on Putin, Kallas said, “Can you be tough enough on Putin, considering what he has done?” Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kallas has become one of Putin’s loudest critics.
Kallas has been considered to become the next NATO Secretary General, but some of her opponents say she is too hawkish to lead NATO. To that, Kallas said she does not think Putin should have a say in how NATO runs its alliance.
UKRAINE’S ‘UNDERGROUND RAILROAD’ RESCUES ABDUCTED UKRAINIAN CHILDREN FROM RUSSIAN REEDUCATION CAMPS
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (L) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (R) give a press conference after their meeting in Zhytomyr on April 24, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)
“Russia is the biggest threat to NATO security … if we say that, because of our attitudes towards Russia, we are prevented from taking top positions, then we actually give too much power to Putin to decide how we run our alliances,” Kallas said.
Estonia is on the front line of NATO, sharing a 210-mile border with Russia. Estonia spends 3.2% of its annual GDP on defense and 1.35% of that is for Ukraine to fight the Russians, the equivalent to $378 billion a year.
After the Soviet Union fell in 1991 Estonia became independent, eventually joining NATO in 2004. In 2007 Russia launched massive cyberattacks unlike anything the world had seen. The cyber campaign lasted 22 days targeting Estonia’s parliament, banks and news organizations. Estonia is now the headquarters to NATO’s cyber defense.
Kallas said the attacks in 2007 are nothing like the attacks that Estonia now prevents every day. “We have invested a lot in cybersecurity so these attacks don’t really go through,” Kallas said. But the cybersecurity of hospitals remains a huge concern. “There could be civilian casualties. So we have to prepare,” Kallas said.
Ukrainian soldiers fire a cannon near Bakhmut, an eastern city where fierce battles against Russian forces have been taking place, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 15, 2023. For months, Western allies have shipped billions of dollars worth of weapons systems and ammunition to Ukraine with an urgency to get the supplies to Kyiv in time for an anticipated spring counteroffensive. Now summer is just weeks away. While Russia and Ukraine are focused on an intense battle for Bakhmut, the Ukrainian spring offensive has yet to begin. (AP Photo/Libkos)
These cyberattacks are part of what Kallas calls a shadow war. “While there is a conventional war going on in Ukraine, there’s also a shadow war going on within our societies … What they are really good at is pouring fuel into the fires that are already existing in our societies. So we have to be aware,” Kallas said.
It is not only direct conflict with Russia that Kallas is worried about. She wants to prevent more of a shadow war. It is because of this that Kallas warned against negotiating with Russia to end the war in Ukraine as former President Trump has suggested he will do if elected.
RUSSIA TO CREATE ‘BUFFER ZONE’ IN UKRAINE TO DETER UKRAINIAN ATTACKS
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a concert marking his victory in a presidential election and the 10-year anniversary of Crimea’s annexation by Russia on Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 18, 2024. President Vladimir Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine a decade ago, a move that sent his popularity soaring but was widely denounced as illegal.
“Of course, war is bad and peace is good. But there’s also a difference between peace and peace,” Kallas said.
Under Joseph Stalin, in 1949 her mother was just six months old. She and her family were sent to a Soviet prison camp in Siberia. These labor camps across Russia were known as the Gulag. They were there for ten years before being released.
“Just because a war is over does not mean there is peace, Kallas said.
“Peace on Russia’s terms doesn’t mean human suffering will stop. For my country, one fifth of our population was either deported or killed. Our language, our culture was suppressed. All these things happened while we had peace. So, peace under Russian terms does not mean that the human suffering will stop.”
Russian Army soldiers stand in a military vehicle rolling during a dress rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, May 7, 2022. The parade will take place at Moscow’s Red Square on May 9 to celebrate 77 years of the victory in WWII. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Kallas warned if Putin wins in Ukraine it will inspire other conflicts around the world. “History rhymes and we have to learn from history,” Kallas said, referencing the 1930s and the lead up to WWII.
“If aggression pays off somewhere, it serves as an invitation to use it elsewhere. We know the tensions in the South China Sea, Iran, North Korea. So we’re going to have more conflicts around the world because the aggressors or would-be aggressors in the world are carefully taking notes.”
Asked about skeptics who say Ukraine can’t win the war, Kallas said it is Russia’s goal to make the West believe Ukraine can’t win. “No war has been won when you don’t have a victory as a goal,” Kallas said, referencing this is not the time to negotiate.
Kallas called on the U.S. to continue backing Ukraine and for Congress to pass more funding. “If U.S. is not backing Ukraine, then Russia will win. And then Russia’s friends China, Iran, North Korea are the ones who are actually the leaders of the world. And we don’t want that world.”
World
Minnesota braces for what’s next amid immigration arrests and in the wake of Renee Good shooting
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer, Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Sunday braced for what many expect will be a new normal over the next few weeks as the Department of Homeland Security carries out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.
Protesters screamed at heavily-armed federal agents and honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt their operations in one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes.
There was some pushing and several people were hit with chemical spray just before agents banged down the door of one home on Sunday. They later took one man away in handcuffs.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners in the neighborhood where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed Wednesday, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but the Twin Cities remained anxious. Minneapolis public schools on Monday will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said on Sunday that the investigation into Good’s shooting death shouldn’t be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened,” Smith said on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
“That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn’t be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.
Thousands of people marched Saturday in Minneapolis, where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.
___
Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis, Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.
World
Netanyahu and Rubio discuss US military intervention in Iran amid ongoing nationwide protests: report
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the possibility of U.S. intervention in Iran, according to a report.
The two leaders spoke by phone Saturday as Israel is on “high alert,” preparing for the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Iran, according to Reuters, citing multiple Israeli sources. A U.S. official confirmed the call to Fox News Digital but did not provide additional details.
The report comes as nationwide anti-regime demonstrations across Iran hit the two-week mark.
On Saturday, the Iranian regime triggered an internet “kill switch” in an apparent effort to conceal alleged abuses by security forces and as protests against it surged nationwide, according to a cybersecurity expert. The blackout reduced internet access to a fraction of normal levels.
KEANE WARNS IRANIAN REGIME TO TAKE TRUMP ‘DEAD SERIOUS’ ON PROTEST KILLING THREAT AMID ONGOING DEMONSTRATIONS
Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds his end-of-year press conference at the State Department in Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2025. (Kevin Mohatt/Reuters)
On Sunday, Iran’s parliament speaker warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America strikes the Islamic Republic.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf issued the threat as lawmakers rushed the dais in the Iranian parliament, shouting, “Death to America!” according to The Associated Press.
President Donald Trump offered support for the protesters on Saturday, writing on Truth Social that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”
IRANIAN MILITARY LEADER THREATENS PREEMPTIVE ATTACK AFTER TRUMP COMMENTS
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
At a news conference Friday, Trump said Iran was facing mounting pressure as unrest spreads across the country.
“Iran’s in big trouble,” he said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago. We’re watching the situation very carefully.”
The president said the U.S. would respond forcefully if the regime resorts to mass violence.
“We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Protests in Iran intensify for the 12th day. (The National Council of Resistance of Iran)
Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department and White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey, Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
Four killed, 20 injured in overnight Russian strikes across Ukraine
Published on
Russia fired more than 150 drones overnight into Sunday targeting close to two dozen locations across Ukraine, killing at least four people and injuring 20 more.
Ukraine’s Air Forces say they intercepted 125 drones aerially but confirmed that at least 25 strike drones struck their targets.
They added that Moscow’s latest barrage mainly targeted Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, all of which were targeted in Saturday’s overnight strikes as well.
Local officials in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia say the strikes targeted residential areas and energy infrastructure. More than 385,000 homes were affected by electric, gas or water outages, at a critical time as temperatures plunged to 10 degrees below Celsius.
Regional lawmakers say service was restored to most of the affected households and areas by Sunday morning, but added that emergency work was still being carried out to restore power to the remaining homes.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of timing their attacks with the cold peaks of winter as to maximise civilian suffering.
“They struck targets that have no military purpose whatsoever – energy infrastructure, residential buildings. They deliberately waited for freezing weather to make things worse for our people. This is deliberate, cynical Russian terror specifically against civilians,” wrote Zelenskyy in a post on X.
He also noted that this week had seen heightened Russian assault on Ukrainian cities, announcing that his country’s defence forces recorded thousands of attacks using a variety of different weapons.
“Over the course of this week, Russia launched almost 1,100 attack drones against Ukraine, more than 890 guided aerial bombs, and over 50 missiles of various types – ballistic, cruise, and even the Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile.”
The Ukrainian leader thanked all units responsible for protecting the country and responding to attacks, and praised their tireless efforts and resilience.
He also called on allies to ensure his embattled country maintains “stable support”, in defence and diplomatic fields as coordinated dialogue efforts continue in search of peace.
Meanwhile, Russia says that one person was killed in Ukrainian strikes on the western city of Voronezh. Officials say a young woman succumbed to her wounds at an intensive care unit of a local hospital after debris from a drone fell on her house during Saturday’s attacks.
They added that at least three others were injured in the attacks which targeted more than 10 residential apartment buildings, private homes and a high school.
The city of Voronezh lies just 250 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and is home to approximately one million people. The attacks, which Kyiv have yet to confirm, came after the Kremlin’s major offensive on Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday.
Additional sources • AP
-
Detroit, MI1 week ago2 hospitalized after shooting on Lodge Freeway in Detroit
-
Technology5 days agoPower bank feature creep is out of control
-
Dallas, TX3 days agoAnti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis
-
Delaware3 days agoMERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach
-
Dallas, TX7 days agoDefensive coordinator candidates who could improve Cowboys’ brutal secondary in 2026
-
Iowa5 days agoPat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star
-
Health1 week agoViral New Year reset routine is helping people adopt healthier habits
-
Montana1 day agoService door of Crans-Montana bar where 40 died in fire was locked from inside, owner says