4 d. ago Inside the mind of Tiger Woods: Why a titanic alliance with Donald Trump and the hidden message in THAT Vanessa Trump relationship unveiling reveal all in his hunt for peace

RIATH AL-SAMARRAI: We should be careful about how much weight we attach to social media numbers, but there was something revealing about Tiger Woods's two most recent posts.

Politics

5 d. ago In defiance of Donald Trump, is a European ‘security council’ emerging? | Paul Taylor

With the US threatening unilateral withdrawal, even from the top Nato military post, five European nations must fill the vacuumIn the face of Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine and Donald Trump’s destabilisation of the Atlantic alliance, an embryonic European security council is taking shape on the hoof. Whether it will prove strong enough to protect Europe’s liberal democracies and deter Russia without US military support may be tested all too soon.Nato was created under US leadership to keep the Soviet Union at bay while suppressing centuries-old rivalries among European powers. The alliance stayed united through the cold war and attracted new central European members after communist rule collapsed. But the spectre of US disengagement now threatens to leave Europe without its nuclear-armed protector.Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Europe doesn’t need Trump to form a western alliance – and one is already taking shape | Martin Kettle

Britain, France and Germany are closing ranks to bolster Nato as the unreliable US president marches to his own drumAn Atlantic alliance without the United States? It sounds like a contradiction in terms – Hamlet without the prince. Yet this is the improbable, disjunctive world we now inhabit. It is the one in which our children and grandchildren will live their lives. Like it or not, the systemic shock launched by Donald Trump is our new reality. Absolutely nothing about Trump’s latest phone call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday has changed that.Europe’s scramble to respond to Trump’s return to power was driven initially by the urgency of maintaining support for Ukraine. Most of the focus was diplomatic: keeping US military aid and intelligence flowing, shoring up damaged channels between Washington and Kyiv, engaging quietly with both Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to both encourage and deter, while moving very publicly to take up more of the security burden. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Carney visits Macron and Starmer as he seeks alliances amid Trump trade war

Canadian PM stresses importance of ‘reliable allies’ in Paris before travelling to London where he was received by kingCanada is the “most European of the non-European countries”, Mark Carney has said during his first overseas trip as prime minister to France and the UK, where he is seeking stronger alliances to deal with Donald Trump’s attacks on his country’s sovereignty and economy.Without mentioning the US president by name, Carney and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, made a joint appearance in Paris to show a united stance against what they said were economic and geopolitical crises – a reference to Trump’s trade war and “America first” diplomacy that has left longtime allies scrambling. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago From London to Lviv: how Trump’s new world order has shaken Europe

At each stop on 1,000-mile trip, discombobulated Europeans are grappling with new and unsettling realities as the US reforges its alliancesEurope live – latest updatesWhile Donald Trump talks of the “big beautiful ocean” separating the US from the war in Ukraine, 1,000 miles of rail track links London St Pancras to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.The 19-hour trip takes in Brussels, the German economic powerhouse of Frankfurt, and Vienna, the Austrian capital, before the train rattles into Kraków in south-east Poland and Przemyśl, the Polish border town where the slimmer railway gauges of western Europe meet the wider tracks of Ukraine and Russia to the east. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Canada PM Carney visits France and UK as Trump trade war deepens

Carney aims to bolster European alliances in wake of US president’s attacks on Canada’s sovereigntyMark Carney, the new Canadian prime minister, has arrived in Paris on his first stop of a visit to France and the UK as he seeks to bolster European alliances to deal with Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada’s sovereignty and economy.Carney is deliberately making his first foreign trip to the capital cities of the two countries that shaped Canada’s early existence. At his swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Carney noted the country was built on the bedrock of three peoples: Indigenous, French and British. He said Canada was fundamentally different from the US and would “never, ever, in any way shape or form, be part of the United States”. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago New Canada PM Mark Carney to visit Paris and London amid attacks from Trump

Newly minted prime minister will sit down with Macron and Starmer but has no immediate plans to meet with Donald TrumpMark Carney, the new Canadian prime minister, is headed to Paris and London seeking alliances as he deals with Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada’s sovereignty and economy.Carney is deliberately making his first foreign trip to the capital cities of the two countries that shaped Canada’s early existence. At his swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Carney noted the country was built on the bedrock of three peoples: French, English and Indigenous. He said Canada was fundamentally different from the US and will “never, ever, in any way shape or form, be part of the United States”. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump's tariff wars forge rare bipartisan alliance in Kentucky as bourbon makers fear escalation

President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs has forged a rare bipartisan alliance among Kentucky’s top leaders — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul

Politics

2 w. ago Ecuador enlists founder of Blackwater private army as ally in ‘war’ on crime

Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election as president, announces partnership with Trump supporter Erik PrinceEcuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has announced a “strategic alliance” with the Donald Trump-supporting founder of the private military firm Blackwater to supposedly reinforce his controversial “war” on crime.Noboa, the rightwing heir to a South American banana empire, announced the partnership with Erik Prince on social media on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago German election winner Merz moves step closer to forming government

Conservative bloc and SPD to start full coalition talks as chancellor-in-waiting plans to revive ailing economyGermany’s conservative election winner Friedrich Merz came a step closer on Saturday to forming a government that he says will revive Europe’s top economy and its armed forces with massive new spending.The bold moves are part of his plan to rebuild Berlin’s standing in Europe, which Merz has said must respond to the sweeping changes driven by US president Donald Trump that have rocked the transatlantic alliance. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Donald Trump’s attack on President Zelensky throws the Atlantic Alliance into jeopardy

Editorial: Reduced US military support is a huge blow to Ukraine and Europe, and an affront to historic allies, whose warriors mingled blood on the battlefields for America

Politics

3 w. ago Hidden sign in Donald Trump's new outburst at Zelensky proves he's no diplomat

The US President's angry statement, while emblematic of the negative diplomatic shift between Kyiv and Washington, is not thought to have ended talks for a landmark agreement

Politics