Top World News

Feb 13, 2026 - World

Donald Trump is doing something to America that no foreign adversary has ever managed, something Vladimir Putin’s been dreaming about for decades: he’s convincing our oldest and closest allies, countries we fought wars to defend and liberate, and with whom we share a democratic system of government, that the United States can’t be trusted.For example, France’s government just announced it’s ripping U.S. videoconferencing platforms — Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and others — out of its government offices nationwide and replacing them with a new French-created system called “Visio.”That’s roughly 2.5 million French public employees who’ll no longer be using American digital products because the French have concluded that U.S. tech — and the Silicon Valley billionaires’ pathetic fealty to Trump, bringing him bribes and gifts and groveling in front of him — is a national security risk.And it’s not just France: the German state of Schleswig‑Holstein just moved 44,000 employees off Microsoft and over to an open-source platform, and is now considering replacing Windows with Linux. They also dumped Microsoft’s SharePoint file-sharing system, going with open source Nextcloud.We’re no longer seen as a reliable partner: many of our former allies now view us as a potential enemy.Denmark’s government, Swiss authorities, Austria, and other European countries are exploring or implementing similar moves. The EU’s senior official for tech sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, said that Europe’s dependence on American technology “can be weaponized against us.” As ABC News reported:“A decisive moment came last year when the Trump administration sanctioned the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor after the tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an ally of President Donald Trump.“The sanctions led Microsoft to cancel [International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad] Khan’s ICC email, a move that was first reported by The Associated Press and sparked fears of a ‘kill switch’ that Big Tech companies can use to turn off service at will.”It’s the same reason Canada is reconsidering purchasing F-35s from America, which would be another major economic and strategic blow to us. Under a leader as corrupt, mentally ill, and erratic as Trump, few countries are willing to have their essential tech or defense infrastructure vulnerable to his whims and tantrums.Even more shocking, the National Security Desk reports:“In a stunning shift announced today, NATO stripped the United States of command of all three of its operational‑level Joint Force Commands — the four‑star headquarters responsible for leading the Alliance in crisis and war.“For the first time since NATO’s founding, every major operational command will now be led by European officers. The United Kingdom will assume command of JFC Norfolk, Italy will take over JFC Naples, and Germany and Poland will rotate leadership of JFC Brunssum. SACEUR remains American for now, but only symbolically; today’s tectonic move makes a future European SACEUR a matter of timing, not theory.”This isn’t about Europeans “hating America” any more than than No Kings protestors calling out Trump’s fascist actions means they despise our country.Quite simply, European leaders — like millions of Americans — are looking at Trump’s naked embrace of Putin, his open contempt for democracy, and his casual threats against NATO allies and concluding that no critical tech or defense system should ever again depend on the whims of this narcissistic wannabe American strongman.Speaking of wannabe strongmen, ABC added:“Billionaire Elon Musk is also a factor. Officials worry about relying on his Starlink satellite internet system...”Analysts now explicitly warn that Trump’s and his toadies’ hostility to the EU and his willingness to weaponize sanctions and economic tools have made Silicon Valley firms look more like extensions of an unpredictable strongman who ignores the law, rather than the neutral digital providers they’ve historically positioned themselves as.After all, if you’re a European defense or interior minister, you have to ask yourself: what happens to our communications and data if Trump wakes up pissed off at us one morning because we didn’t leap high enough when he yelled “Jump!”Even more distressing, the damage isn’t just confined to tech. It’s hitting the very heart of the Western alliance system — which we largely created — that has kept relative peace since World War II. It’s been Putin’s goal for decades, and now he’s getting exactly what he wants from Trump.When Trump said he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO allies that, he claimed, weren’t “paying up,” European leaders didn’t shrug it off as a joke. European Council President Charles Michel called the comments “reckless,” correctly saying that such statements “serve only Putin’s interest” and undermine the core promise of mutual defense. Of course, serving Putin’s — rather than America’s — interests is exactly what Trump has been doing for a decade now.Even NATO’s Secretary General felt compelled, once again, to publicly restate that Article 5 — the pledge that an attack on one is an attack on all — remains “ironclad,” slapping down the President of the United States.As Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said in response to Trump threatening to unleash Putin on Europe:“He’s more interested in aggrandizing himself and pleasing Putin than protecting our allies. It would be enough to make Reagan ill.”Schiff’s sentiments were echoed by Charles Michel, the president of the European Council:“Reckless statements on #NATO’s security and Art 5 solidarity serve only Putin’s interest. They do not bring more security or peace to the world. On the contrary, they reemphasize the need for the #EU to urgently further develop its strategic autonomy and invest in its defense.”So, here we are: the head of NATO and the head of the European Council reduced to reassuring the world that America’s president doesn’t speak for the alliance when he invites Russia to attack its members. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, couldn’t have come up with something more bizarre.European security analysts now talk openly about “low trust” and “ruptures and new realities” in their relations with the United States. One EU security study notes that Trump has shown “elements of active hostility against the European project,” highlighting his bizarre, paranoid claim that the EU was set up to “screw” the US, as well as his refusal to rule out the use of force to annex Greenland.And now Trump has his emissary visiting rightwing and neo-Nazi parties and think tanks in Europe, offering them American cash and support. He and Putin appear totally committed to making the world safe for dictators and oligarchs by damaging the democracies of the world.America’s and democracy’s enemies, of course, are thrilled. As one European think‑tank piece put it bluntly, Trump’s rhetoric is “a gift to Putin.” When the president of the United States trashes NATO, praises autocrats, and undermines the EU while half of Ukraine is being tormented by brutal cold, the man in the Kremlin doesn’t have to spend a ruble to fracture the West. Trump, like a dutiful dog, is doing it for him.And this isn’t just elite hand‑wringing at the level of governments and ministers; ordinary Europeans are recalibrating their relationship with America, too. Surveys over the past year show European opinions of the United States dropping sharply, a reality we also see in the collapse of European vacationers to the United States.One EU institute reports that nearly three‑quarters of Europeans now see the United States as a “somewhat or very unreliable” partner now, with average Germans among the most skeptical.A broader survey across Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and Italy found U.S. favorability down, sometimes by double digits, with only about one-in-ten respondents expressing real trust in Trump’s America to defend them.Another poll summarized by Politico found that even a majority of Canadians now see the US as a “negative global force,” driven largely by Trump’s erratic behavior and his obsession with self-enrichment, having already collected an estimated $4 billion for himself and his family since he was sworn to office.Put simply, our allies are doing what any rational nation would do when a key partner goes rogue: they’re hedging.They’re hedging by building their own tech infrastructure, so that Trump can’t flip a switch and cut off vital services or demand back-doors into their communications systems or share information with Putin. So Trump can’t hand them over to Putin the way he is Ukraine. They’re hedging by embracing “strategic autonomy,” aka European defense capabilities that don’t rely on Washington or anybody in America.Meanwhile, here at home, Trump and his lickspittle Republicans are busily transforming America into exactly the kind of oligarchic, strongman system our grandparents fought World War II to stop.He’s pardoned insurrectionists, is purging institutions and installing loyalists, and covering up the child-rape crimes of his billionaire friends, all while aligning himself — and, thus, America — with oligarchs and dictators abroad.When you combine that internal authoritarian drift with external contempt for allies and admiration for Putin, you get the worst of all worlds: a United States that can no longer credibly lead democratic nations and may increasingly act as a spoiler on behalf of strongmen, grifters, and oligarchs worldwide. And, of course, on behalf of Putin.Trump promised to “make America great again.” Instead, he’s teaching the rest of the free world that they need to live without us. All to our and our children’s detriment.Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

Feb 13, 2026 - World

Destined to a perilous life with no right to an education or to vote, state recognition ‘gives them hope’, campaigners sayThrough the decades that the Daulatdia brothel in Bangladesh has existed, children born there have been invisible, unable to be registered because their mothers were sex workers and their fathers unknown. Now, for the first time, all 400 of them in the brothel village have their own birth certificates.That milestone was reached after a push by campaigners who have spent decades working with Bangladesh’s undocumented children born in brothels or on the street. It means they can finally access the rights afforded to other citizens: the ability to go to school, to be issued a passport or to vote. Continue reading...

Feb 12, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump denounced one of his purported golfing buddies who's being credited with steering U.S. efforts to revive Venezuela's oil industry.The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that energy magnate Harry Sargeant III, who the paper described as a 68-year-old former Top Gun pilot and sometimes Trump golfing partner, was perhaps the only American businessman with ties to the U.S. president and recently deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro."Sargeant is now in position to be the latest of the president’s allies to reap a windfall based on his second-term policies and actions," the Journal reported."Trump is pressing U.S. firms to move in fast as his aides work to loosen the sanctions restrictions that were imposed on Venezuela during his first administration," the report added. "Many U.S. companies are nonetheless proceeding cautiously, wary of investing huge sums until the country’s politics are stabilized and a legal framework is in place for foreign companies ... Sargeant, though, isn’t waiting. He met in person last week in Caracas with Maduro’s longtime deputy and economic manager Delcy Rodriguez, to discuss plans to get his businesses up and running."The 79-year-old Trump denied the Journal's claims about Sargeant's efforts in Venezuela since U.S. forces removed Maduro and handed him over to U.S. law enforcement to stand trial on narcoterrorism and firearms charges."Relations between Venezuela and the United States have been, to put it mildly, extraordinary!" Trump posted Thursday morning on Truth Social. "We are dealing very well with President Delcy Rodriguez, and her Representatives. Oil is starting to flow, and large amounts of money, unseen for many years, will soon be greatly helping the people of Venezuela. Marco Rubio, and all of our Representatives, are doing a fantastic job, but we speak only for ourselves, and don’t want there to be any confusion or misrepresentation.""There is a story about a man named Harry Sargeant III in The Wall Street Journal," the president added. "He has no authority, in any way, shape, or form, to act on behalf of the United States of America, nor does anyone else that is not approved by the State Department. Without this approval, no one is authorized to represent our Country. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP."

Feb 11, 2026 - World

European nations may be set to freeze out the United States following Donald Trump's push to take control of Greenland, a political commentator has claimed. Colonel Robert Hamlin believes NATO members, European countries, and world leaders are wary of Trump after his Donbas showmanship. Leaders will meet at a summit in Munich, Germany, later this month to deliberate on world affairs, and the US may find itself frozen out of such a conversation. Col. Hamlin believes this could be a direct response from Europe after Trump tried to strongarm his way into ownership of Greenland. He wrote in The Hill, "As the grandees of geopolitics gather in Munich, the realization is dawning that there is not much to be done about Trump. Until voters rein him in, the goal will be to circumvent America and preserve what can be preserved. "The question is whether there will be enough trust left whenever the U.S. comes to its senses and returns to the table. After the monumental Trump betrayal, that is not at all so clear."The meeting could also see world leaders reduce their reliance on the US, with Col. Hamlin suggesting those countries meeting in Munich will try their best to stick to the rules. "America’s erstwhile allies will try to preserve as much of the rules-based order as possible, reduce their vulnerability to U.S. coercion, and at least try to keep the door open for America to return if and when it chooses to do so," he wrote. "But expect also economic and strategic workarounds, and the beginning of a campaign to project to American voters, with an eye to November, that their clueless leadership is engaged in terrible self-harm."The dense web of institutions and alliances built after World War II were not only primarily underwritten by the U.S., but also arguably made it the main beneficiary. This reality clashes violently with Trump’s narrative — cynical and seductive, but also stupid — that our allies have taken us for suckers."

Feb 11, 2026 - World

The unpredictable rhetoric of Donald Trump could cause a disaster in global politics, according to those relying on the United States's presence. Countries across the world were given a taste of what the president is willing to do for his administration when he levelled threats at Greenland and captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Peter Mortensen, a family therapist and psychologist from Denmark, told Politico that the US he once knew is no more and that looking to the country for support is no longer an option. He said, "I talk to more people up here who say that our original belief that we can trust the United States and that they will always be there, they’re a strong force in the world — that has been shattered really seriously."Donald Trump is so unpredictable that whatever he takes as a personal insult he can make into a geopolitical crisis." Trump would write a letter to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre earlier this year after failing to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Canada could be stirring Trump's wrath against the world, too, by aiding Nuuk and its residents. Politico columnists Mike Blanchfield and Calder McHugh wrote, "Opening a Canadian consulate in Nuuk, the capital of the autonomous territory of Greenland in the Kingdom of Denmark, has been in the works for over a year. "But the timing, coinciding with both another round of menacing from U.S. President Donald Trump and bracing talk at Davos by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of the need to forge new alliances, is not lost on anyone here."Into that vacuum arrives Canada. Their new strategy of working harder to be a player on the world stage, building alliances and offering security guarantees that they once left to the United States, is taking shape in Nuuk. "Canada’s outreach to their Arctic neighbor could well be the beginning of the country’s attempt to build their own international bona fides and wriggle out of Trump’s shadow."