Ken Anderson

I’m up in the bright blue sky now.

Marco #Rubio, the chameleon in the war room economist.com/united-states/…

While Trump lectures the world on economic independence, the world just moved on without him. Today, the EU signed a free trade deal with Australia. Earlier this year, they closed one with India. In May, the Mercosur deal covering Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay kicks in. Brussels is signing with everyone. Washington is tariffing everyone. This is what strategic genius looks like, apparently. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the sheer, majestic stupidity of what America is doing. You have the world’s largest economy, built entirely on imported components, foreign manufacturing, overseas credit and a global supply chain so intricate it makes a Swiss watch look like a hammer. And the plan, the actual plan, is to slap tariffs of up to 100% on the entire planet and wait for prosperity to arrive. Here’s the problem, genius. When 90% of what fills American shelves was made somewhere else, you can’t just tax the world into submission. You’re not punishing China. You’re punishing the woman in Ohio buying a toaster. A toaster that, by the way, now costs twice what it did last year because some man in a very large house decided globalisation was for losers. And then there’s Iran. Bombing Iran was supposed to send a message. It did. It sent oil to over $100 a barrel. Magnificent. Americans are now paying through the nose at the pump to fund a military adventure that achieved the geopolitical equivalent of kicking a hornets’ nest while wearing shorts. You wanted energy dominance. You got inflation. Congratulations. The rest of the world watched all this and responded with breathtaking pragmatism. They didn’t panic. They didn’t beg. They opened their laptops, called their trade ministers and started signing documents. The EU didn’t need America at the table. Nobody did. The table got bigger. America just isn’t sitting at it anymore. You cannot bomb your way to cheap oil. You cannot tariff your way out of globalisation when your entire economy is a monument to it. And you cannot isolate yourself from a world that has collectively decided to carry on without you. There is no island. Not even for a country that size. Especially not for a country that size. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

Thirty-six years ago, on March 11, 1990, Lithuania became the first country to break away from the USSR and returned to the family of European nations. Today, we are proud members of the EU and NATO!

Read this, #America. This is what you have to do to stop gunfire on school grounds in the United States. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

The enduring allure of #Dubai brilliantly explained by Janan Ganesh… ft.com/content/fa5caf… We’ll always have Dubai

No we fucking don’t. This is not even close to what’s happening Hey @UKLabour how about introducing a bit of press regulation? Just a thought.

This man is awful.

Donald Trump “has given several rationales for why he’s gone into Iran,” Tom Nichols argues, “but in the end he seems to have settled on regime change.” “I’m sorry to say that the track record of regime change operations make the bad outcomes more probable than the good outcomes,” Nichols continues. Read the story at the link. theatln.tc/n2pSwPNb

‼️ FLASHBACK: Bill Clinton on @TheDailyShow in June 2025, warning “Mr. Netanyahu has long wanted to fight war with Iran because that way he can stay in office forever and ever.”

Kamala Harris called it in 2019: “This president is motivated by his personal insecurities more than he is our national security. If this president is thinking about putting us in a position where we’re in a war with Iran, the consequences will be absolutely unacceptable and tragic in terms of the young men and women who are American soldiers who would be sent and deployed into something that was completely avoidable”

BREAKING: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney blindsides Trump by forming a super alliance of 40 powerful countries to defeat his disastrous MAGA agenda. Carney has become one of Trump's most brilliant adversaries... According to Politico, the European Union, composed of 27 nations, as well as a geopolitical bloc of 12 Indo-Pacific countries, have begun negotiations to form one of the largest economic alliances in the entire world. This historic pivot comes as Trump continues to wage erratic tariff wars on close allies, turning the once-stable United States into a deeply unreliable partner. The talks are being led by Canada and will be the fruit of Carney's vision of a world in which the so-called "middle powers" unite to undermine Trump's tariffs and make themselves immune to his bullying coercion. If successful — and it certainly appears to be heading in that direction — the supply chains of countries as far off as Canada, Malaysia, and Germany could be intwined into one super supply chain. “The work is definitely coming along,” a Canadian government official said to POLITICO. “We’ve had very fruitful discussions on it with other partners around the world.” “We see a lot of value in increasing trade among the EU and [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership] parties, which would also contribute to enhancing supply chain resilience,” stated a Japanese trade official. Last month, Carney gave an astonishing speech at the Davos World Economic Forum during which he announced the end of American dominance, stating that the "bargain no longer" works for the rest of the world. American hegemony once offered benefits, now it offers only chaos. "Let me be direct, we are in the midst of a rupture not a transition," Carney said during that speech. "Over the past two decades a series of crises in finance, health, energy, and geopolitics have laid the bare risks of extreme global integration." "But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons," he said, referring to Trump. "Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructures as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination." He predicted that allied nations would "diversify to hedge against uncertainty" and "rebuild sovereignty" and that's exactly what's happening with this nascent trade alliance. Carney said that the deal will "create a new trading bloc of 1.5 billion people." Left out in the cold would be the American people, who will be forced to stand by as the citizens of other nations enjoy easier, cheaper access to reliable goods. Trump has made us a world pariah, and the price will be shouldered by your wallet. “We hope that if that’s a success, if you can see tangible benefits in different areas, that could also entice other countries to join in and team up in a positive sense,” said Klemens Kober, the Director of Trade Policy, EU Customs, Transatlantic Relations at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce. “So the more the merrier," Kober added. This is what happens when you elect an ignorant conman and give him unilateral power over foreign policy. Trump and his MAGA sycophants thought that the rest of the world would simply roll over as America proceeded to pillaged and ransack their coffers. Instead, they'e banding together to completely shatter the balance of power forever. Please ❤️ and share if you think that Trump is the worst president in American history!

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and The Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum, highlights a contradictory message from the U.S. administration: while encouraging Europe to rearm and be strong, the U.S. is also supporting far-right, pro-Russian movements in Europe that oppose the very unity and defense spending needed for that strength. “But I think just to go back for a second, you know, the message from the United States in the various different speeches that are given at Munich and elsewhere is now somewhat strange because the message to Europe is: "Okay, we want you to rearm, we want you to rearm, we want you to be strong, we're not going to be there to help you, or maybe not, or maybe a little bit, maybe with some nuclear weapons if it's absolutely necessary." But, you know, you'll have to make a guess about that. And at the same time, exactly at the same time, the administration is supporting far-right politicians in Europe, sometimes with bear hugs, as you say, and sometimes perhaps with money. They've said they will be supporting far-right think tanks and movements with State Department funding. And these movements are pro-Russian. They are opposed to defense spending. They are opposed to the European unity that is necessary for Europe to revive itself and revive its defense industries. And so people feel, you know, which is it? I mean, they're telling us—Americans are telling us—they're leaving, but at the same time, they're helping out the people who would prevent Europe from being strong. So I think there's a lot of doubt and suspicion about what U.S. policy really—I think it really is.”

The only winners of Brexit were sitting in Moscow and Beijing. It was a masterclass in self-sabotage that divided our continent and weakened our collective security. Instead of making the UK or Europe stronger, it handed Russia and China the fragmented West they always wanted

Human rights are under full-scale attack around the world. It's happening in plain sight & often led by those with the greatest power. But human rights are not a slogan for good times. They are a duty at all times. We must stand up for them even when it is difficult & costly. Especially then.

Putin cannot win the war. He is caught in a vice of his own making economist.com/leaders/2026/0… from The Economist

How four years of war have changed Russia economist.com/briefing/2026/… from The Economist

Putin, Xi, Musk, Thiel, Trump, and Vance all want Europe divided. A united Europe is too powerful for them to intimidate. That is why EU rules frustrate them. It’s the only force in the world that makes them follow the rules. For them, the EU is pure kryptonite

We must stop pretending that Brexit was just a domestic choice. It was a successful Russian hybrid operation designed to shatter Western cooperation. This betrayal has left both the UK and the EU more vulnerable to aggression. Those who still defend it are idiots or traitors