Germany met the NATO alliance's target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, finance ministry sources said on Monday, and finished the year with a reserve of 10.7 billion euros ($11.

The return of Trump will once again put European defense spending levels at the center of the United States’ approach to NATO. Over the past several years, NATO members have boosted investments, with about 20 out of 32 members hitting the alliance’s benchmark of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense.

President Donald Trump said NATO countries must sharply increase their defense spending, demanding member states push beyond current benchmarks that many of them already struggle to hit.

BERLIN - Ukraine must win the war against Russia, regain lost territory and be free to join military alliances, Mr Friedrich Merz - favourite to become Germany’s next chancellor - said on Jan 23. Mr Merz said he wants peace in Ukraine but not “at the price of submission to an imperialist power” and stressed that “Ukraine must win the war”.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned that restoring the alliance's credibility after a Russian victory in Ukraine could require trillions of dollars.

European countries have ramped up defense budgets since Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And many leaders have said the increased spending must continue to counter the growing military threat from Moscow.

Russia is rearming faster than first thought for a potential attack on Nato, Germany’s military pointman on Ukraine has warned.

Germany met the NATO alliance's target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, a government spokesperson said on Monday, as the country weighs the need to further boost longer-term military funding commitments.

BERLIN: Germany met NATO’s target to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence in 2024, the government

President Donald Trump has issued a “full and unconditional pardon” to Washington, DC, police lieutenant Andrew Zabavsky and officer Terence Sutton for their roles in the death of 20-year-old Karon Hylton-Brown, a case that drew protests on the heels of the murder of George Floyd.

But not all of the leading conservative populist parties in the world are the same — in rhetoric or on policy.