1 hour ago The US embrace of Russia is an existential threat to the EU. Germany must step up to save it | Catherine De Vries

To counter the crisis caused by Trump, Friedrich Merz has little choice but to abandon decades of military and economic cautionIn February 1945, three world leaders – Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Josef Stalin – met in Crimea for the Yalta conference, to discuss the new world order they would implement after the soon-to-end second world war.Smaller nations were given no say in deciding their fate. The Soviet sphere of influence would infest eastern Europe for decades and US foreign policy dominated the second half of the 20th century. Churchill resisted the end of the UK’s global empire and independence for Britain’s colonies came piecemeal; they were let go with bitterness.Catherine De Vries is professor of political science at Bocconi University in Milan Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago China vows it will ‘fight to the end’ with US in trade war – or any other war

Wolf warrior-style comments mark China’s strongest rhetoric on US president Donald Trump since he entered the White HouseChina’s ministry of foreign affairs has promised that China will “fight to the end” with the US in a “tariff war, trade war or any other war”, marking China’s strongest rhetoric on US president Donald Trump since he entered the White House.On Tuesday, in response to Trump imposing an extra 10% tariff on Chinese goods, taking the cumulative duty to 20%, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said: “Exerting extreme pressure on China is the wrong target and the wrong calculation If the US has other intentions and insists on a tariff war, trade war or any other war, China will fight to the end. We advise the US to put away its bullying face and return to the right track of dialogue and cooperation as soon as possible.” Continue reading...

Events

3 h. ago New Zealand sacks UK high commissioner over remarks questioning Trump’s grasp on history

Ambassador’s question came as Trump restored the bust of Churchill to Oval office

Politics

5 h. ago New Zealand’s high commissioner to the UK loses job after Trump comments

Phil Goff questioned Donald Trump’s grasp of history at a Chatham House event in London, prompting the foreign minister to say his position is ‘untenable’New Zealand’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom has been removed from his role after publicly questioning US President Donald Trump’s grasp of history – remarks that have rendered his position “untenable” in the eyes of New Zealand’s government.At a public Chatham House event in London this week, high commissioner Phil Goff asked a question of Finnish foreign affairs minister Elina Valtonen, who was speaking on how to keep the peace with Russia, with which Finland shares a border. Continue reading...

Politics

6 h. ago New Zealand's most senior diplomat in London loses job over Trump remarks

New Zealand's most senior diplomat in London loses job over Trump remarks  Detroit News

Politics

7 h. ago New Zealand's most senior diplomat in London loses his job over remarks about President Trump

New Zealand's most senior diplomat in London loses his job over remarks about President Trump  ABC News

Politics

8 h. ago Lesotho ‘shocked and embarrassed’ by mockery in Trump’s Congress speech, says foreign minister

Lejone Mpotjoane says behaviour is unexpected from head of state, after Trump claimed ‘nobody has ever heard of’ the countryLesotho was taken aback by US President Donald Trump’s mockery of the southern African nation, its foreign minister has said, vowing that the country was “not taking this matter lightly”.Trump called Lesotho a country “nobody has ever heard of” as he defended his sweeping cuts in aid during an address to Congress on Tuesday. He singled out a past US aid project of “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho”. Continue reading...

Politics

9 h. ago Putin warned 'don't be charmed by Trump – he will try to bend us' by Kremlin mouthpiece

Dmitry Popov has spoken about Trump's latest comments on Ukraine and has noted that military aid to the country is still paused, despite Zelenskyy saying he was ready to negotiate

Events

14 h. ago Growing calls for 'odious' MSNBC star Nicolle Wallace to be fired for shocking comments about cancer

It was a sweet moment that should have unified politicians and pundits, no matter their hatred of the polarizing president.

Events

15 h. ago Trump is turning the media into a mouthpiece of the regime | Lawrence Douglas

As the White House handpicks members of the press pool, questions for the president amount to fluffy valentinesYou know we’re in trouble when Fox News emerges as the great defender of freedom of the press. But such was the case when Jacqui Heinrich, a senior political correspondent at Fox, responded to the news that Trump’s White House would now handpick the reporters who get to cover the president in small settings, with the post: “This move does not give the power back to the people – it gives power to the White House.” Heinrich was specifically responding to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Orwellian claim that letting Donald Trump choose who would cover him was designed to restore power “back to the American people”.The fruits of the new policy were richly on display during the sickening scene that unfolded in the Oval Office last week. If the president and JD Vance’s disgraceful treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t bad enough, there was the unprecedented role that the “pre...

Politics

16 h. ago Democrats are acting sedate and silent during Trump’s worst excesses | Moira Donegan

Trump is getting comfortable in power. And Democrats are nowhere to be seenWhat was the point of Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night? The annual speech – called the “State of the Union” address in every year except the one just after the president’s ascent to office – has long been a somewhat outdated bit of political theater, an event light on policy specifics and heavy on messaging in an era in which political messaging’s most effective venues have long since moved online.It’s perhaps even less clear what a speech to Congress is supposed to mean for this president, who has proven himself so indifferent to constitutional limits on his power – or for this Congress, which has shown itself so willing to abdicate its own constitutional responsibilities. It seems, like so many of the formalities of American politics do now, a bit like a phantom limb: something that Americans keep feeling for long after it has been excised. How long will it be, one wonders, until everyone...

Politics

17 h. ago Advice to Keir Starmer: stop the fawning over Trump. Then help plan for a better world without him | John McDonnell

We need a ‘coalition of the willing’ capable of bringing together those in Europe and the global south. Britain should facilitate thatThere are only so many times Donald Trump can be offered a state and royal visit to temper his political tantrums. With his latest attacks on Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the halting of aid to Ukraine, it’s already clear that not even the offer of a bed for the night at Balmoral has worked.The silver lining of the Trump experience over the past fortnight is hopefully that it leads to a more realistic appraisal not just of the implications of the re-election of this narcissistic, bullying, corporate thug, but an understanding of the role the US has played over generations. Trump and his gang members JD Vance and Elon Musk are just the ugliest of faces of the US global policy pursued for a century at least.John McDonnell is MP for Hayes and Harlington. He was Labour’s shadow chancellor from 2015 to 2020 Continue reading...

Politics

17 h. ago MAGA loses its mind over MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace’s ‘sickening’ comments about Trump honoring young cancer survivor

‘MSNBC should fire Nicolle Wallace. Disgusting,’ far-right pundit Charlie Kirk raged following Nicolle Wallace’s remarks

Politics

20 h. ago The fact that humans can only survive on Earth doesn’t bother Trump – and I know why | George Monbiot

He is surrounded by people who have grandiose plans and dreams beyond our planet. Vengeful nihilism is a big part of the Maga projectIn thinking about the war being waged against life on Earth by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their minions, I keep bumping into a horrible suspicion. Could it be that this is not just about delivering the world to oligarchs and corporations – not just about wringing as much profit from living systems as they can? Could it be that they want to see the destruction of the habitable planet?We know that Trump’s overriding purpose is power. We have seen that no amount of power appears to satisfy his craving. So let’s consider power’s ultimate destination. It is to become not only an emperor, but the last of the emperors: to close the chapter on civilisation. It is to scratch your name indelibly upon a geological epoch. Look on my works, ye vermin, and despair.George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

20 h. ago The LA Times’ AI ‘bias meter’ looks like a bid to please Donald Trump | Margaret Sullivan

The paper’s billionaire owner, who barred it from endorsing Kamala Harris, is leaving human journalists out of the equationThe past few months have been brutal ones for the readers and journalists of the largest news organization in California, the Los Angeles Times.Since he bought the paper in 2018, the billionaire and medical entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong has become something of a Donald Trump acolyte. Continue reading...

Politics

22 h. ago While our eyes are on the welfare state’s destruction, Trump is building a police state | Judith Levine

Republicans aren’t simply shrinking the government. They’re investing billions in defense, border control and prisonsLast week, the federal human resources department sent out a seven-page memo ordering agencies to submit detailed plans on how they will work with the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to slash their payrolls. To do this, they were to eliminate whole job categories – except one. Untouchable were positions “necessary to meet law enforcement, border security, national security, immigration enforcement, or public safety responsibilities”.While we’ve had our eyes on the wrecking ball–Doge pulverizing social services, environmental protection and scientific research, we’ve hardly taken notice of what is being constructed. In the footprint of the already shabby, now half-demolished US welfare state, the Trump administration is building a police state. Continue reading...

Politics

22 h. ago Playing the victim: how Trump’s clash with Zelenskyy paved the way for the suspension of military aid | Lilie Chouliaraki

Who is really suffering from this conflict? We are, said the US president, in a move straight from the populist playbookDuring a dramatic Oval Office meeting last Friday, US president Donald Trump confronted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a move that upended the long-established narrative of Russia as the aggressor and Ukraine as the victim.In the conversation, which quickly escalated into a tense exchange, Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war with Russia by refusing to engage in peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin. His rhetoric suggested that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for escalating the conflict and that the US had unfairly borne the burden of Ukraine’s resistance. Trump constructed a new hierarchy of suffering, one in which the US emerged as the primary victim, Ukraine as the source of its burdens and Russia as innocent of blame.Lilie Chouliaraki is professor of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and...

Events

26 h. ago As Republicans thunderously applauded and Democrats walked out in droves, Trump’s Congress speech showcased the US divide | Lloyd Green

The president continues to yearn for adulation, but self-deprecation and modesty were nowhere to be found in his address to CongressTrump declares administration ‘just getting started’ in address to CongressDonald Trump is busy while the world around him is mired in chaos. Six weeks into his second term, he has reversed the course of US policy towards Ukraine, imposed tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, and delegated the task of slashing government to Elon Musk. The stock market swoons.Recession and stagflation are no longer hypotheticals. The term “trade war” fills the headlines. The Dow sits hundreds of points below where it stood on Inauguration Day. Trump’s second term is already consequential and controversial. Continue reading...

Politics

31 h. ago DAILY MAIL COMMENT: US arms freeze shows impotence of Europe

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: By freezing all US military aid to Ukraine, Donald Trump is dealing a crippling blow to its brave defence against Vladimir Putin 's war machine.

Politics

40 h. ago Gabby Allen 'relieved' as Casey O'Gorman loses major TV job after Love Island

Casey O'Gorman has reportedly turned his back on Made in Chelsea after winning Love Island, and Gabby Allen is happy for one major reason

Politics