Top World News

Jan 27, 2026 - World

The alliance between Donald Trump and far-right nationalist groups in Europe has become frayed to the point of snapping due to his designs on occupying Greenland and the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros.According to the New York Times, European far-right parties have historically grounded their political platforms on national sovereignty, particularly opposing immigration. However, Trump's contempt for European nations has exceeded their tolerance.While the Trump-nationalist relationship has always been characterized as "awkward," European nationalist leaders have recently adopted a more confrontational stance toward the president. His lengthy speech at Davos intensified existing tensions.Jordan Bardella, president of France's far-right National Rally party, characterized Trump's Greenland remarks as "unacceptable" and labeled tariff threats as "blackmail."Nigel Farage, leader of Britain's far-right Reform UK party and longtime Trump ally, described the Greenland threats as a "very hostile act." Giorgia Meloni, Italy's right-wing prime minister, typically viewed as Trump-friendly, rejected his claims about European military contributions in Afghanistan.Justin Logan of the libertarian Cato Institute explained the backlash: "Whatever the AfD or Rassemblement National believe about civilizational erasure and migration, they're not for the American annexation of a big chunk of Europe."Trump faces additional challenges among far-right Europeans who already harbored suspicions toward America. Polling data shows substantial shares of far-right-aligned voters in Britain, France, and Germany viewed Trump negatively before the recent developments.Trump's unpopularity is particularly acute in France, where association with the president carries political risk and he is described as "politically toxic." Alice Weidel, a leader of Germany's extremist AfD party, directly accused Trump of violating a fundamental campaign promise by interfering in other countries through the Venezuelan invasion.You can read more here.

Jan 27, 2026 - World

Italians were angry Tuesday after news that the US was sending ICE agents to the Winter Olympics in Italy. The announcement reportedly set off confusion after the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the unit was heading to Europe to apparently work as "a security role" for the US delegation at the international event, a DHS spokesperson confirmed with CNN. “They don’t do immigration enforcement (operations) in a foreign country obviously,” the spokesperson said.DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN that “All security operations remain under Italian authority.”“At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations is supporting the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations,” McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN. The move set off outrage among Italians, citing major concern among the Europeans who have watched ICE attack and kill US citizens, including the most recent fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said he would not welcome ICE in his city, which is set to host the opening ceremony on Feb. 6, according to The Associated Press. Vice President JD Vance was expected to attend the event in Milan, where most of the ice sports will be.“This is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips. It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt,” Sala told RTL Radio 102.

Jan 26, 2026 - World

Major automaker Volkswagen has considered cancelling its plans for a US major factory over President Donald Trump's automotive tariffs, according to reports Monday. Oliver Blume, CEO of the Volkswagen Group, said in an interview with Handelsblatt that in the first nine months of 2025 levies issued by the Trump administration had cost the company $2.5 billion and that the company needed to make cuts, Semafor reported. After Trump returned to office, German investments in the US dropped 45% year-on-year in 2025, according to Reuters. The dollar's depreciation was considered a factor while German exports also declined. Other recent political and economic factors have also come into play. "After Trump warned at the World Economic Forum last week of possible further duties on Europe, growing global uncertainty over the stability of trade relationships pushed gold above $5,000 per ounce for the first time," according to Semafor.

Jan 25, 2026 - World

As I wrote this column, Donald Trump was speaking at the Davos Economic Summit. This event rightly has often been derided for pandering to elites and corporations while shallowly nodding to concerns about the environment, civil rights and economic inequality as the billionaires and world leaders fly in on their private jets.But this year it was at the center of the fear and chaos over Trump’s war on NATO and Europe, his demand for a Nobel Peace Prize, and his desire to seize Greenland.In his rambling speech, lying about his so-called accomplishments, Trump appeared to rule out using military force to take Greenland (after implying for days that he would seize it, as he put it, “the hard way” if he needed to do so). But, Trump said, he wants “immediate negotiations” to acquire Greenland because it is “undefended.” He’s made repeated false claims that it is being circled by Russian and Chinese ships.Was this another Trump TACO? Possibly. But don’t think he won’t threaten World War III again, nor demand the Nobel Peace Prize again in return for not waging war as he continues to grab for Greenland. We’ve come to know the tired performance in which Trump demands the world’s attention, the media complies, and international relations are damaged.Greenland, of course, is, always has been, and — barring any change in circumstances — always will be “defended” because it is part of NATO. That means the U.S. is defending it, along with the rest of the alliance. So everything that’s happened in the past few days around this issue is pure idiocy, and all about Trump’s ego and his desire to own land which I’m sure he’d like to rename “Trumpland.”But that’s what we have come to expect from the debilitating dictator who is waging war on his own country, sending thousands of violent goons to terrorize Minneapolis while continuing to dodge the Epstein files.The world, for its part, is moving on. The speech at Davos by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney was a powerful synthesis of this. There is a new world order, he said, as the U.S. not only cannot be relied upon for stability; it can’t be trusted in any agreements and will at any time lash out with punishing tariffs or threats of domination.This new order will be a painful adjustment for the world and, in particular, those considered long-time allies of the U.S. But the people most hurt will be Americans, seeing Trump rip up trade agreements as the rest of the world makes new alliances. The very people who voted for Trump, hoping he was going to make life more affordable, will be more miserable than ever.As Ryan Cooper reported at the American Prospect, Trump, in repealing the government investments in green energy in the Inflation Reduction Act, has already doomed the American car industry with his war on electric vehicles:Now, thanks to that betrayal, plus Trump’s lunatic trade and foreign policy in general, the American auto industry is bleeding out.Consider Canada, which has historically been one of the biggest markets for American cars, being quite similar culturally, already heavily integrated into the U.S. auto industry (along with Mexico), and also one of the few places that will buy our big stupid trucks.America’s share of the Canadian auto market has been tumbling, down from about half in the previous decade to just 36 percent, because of Trump’s deranged trade war and threats of annexation, which has sparked a massive nationalist backlash and a mounting customer boycott of anything American.And that brings me back to Carney’s speech. He urged world leaders not to continue to yearn for a past order whose presentation was pretty fictional anyway:Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure 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.The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have relied — the WTO, the UN, the COP, the very architecture of collective problem-solving — are under threat. As a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions that they must develop greater strategic autonomy in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains. And this impulse is understandable.A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.Carney urged the “middle powers” of the world to unite — economically, militarily, and geopolitically — to become a force that can stand up to the great powers. It’s ambitious, but it’s the only thing that they can do, he said. As the European Union leaders described new trade deals with India, Brazil, China, and other countries, Carney also touted new trade agreements:We’ve agreed to a comprehensive strategic partnership with the EU, including joining SAFE, the European defence procurement arrangements. We have signed 12 other trade and security deals on four continents in six months.In the past few days, we’ve concluded new strategic partnerships with China and Qatar. We’re negotiating free trade pacts with India, ASEAN, Thailand, Philippines and Mercosur.The U.S. is pulling itself away while many of its spurned friends are making new alliances. As Carney noted, this is about survival and the inability to count on the U.S.:The question for middle powers like Canada is not whether to adapt to the new reality — we must.The question is whether we adapt by simply building higher walls or whether we can do something more ambitious.Now, Canada was amongst the first to hear the wake-up call, leading us to fundamentally shift our strategic posture. Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumptions that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security, that assumption is no longer valid. And our new approach rests on what Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, has termed value-based realism.Or, to put it another way, we aim to be both principled and pragmatic. Principled in our commitment to fundamental values, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter and respect for human rights.And then this line:Our view is the middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.In the first Trump administration there was an idea that Trump was an aberration. The hope was that he or someone like him would never return. The U.S. would go back to the order of the last century, and, even with all its flaws — including the U.S. and other great powers continually exempting themselves from the rules — it would all work out. But now there’s the realization that it’s done. And Carney sees it as a moment of opportunity and even liberation.We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy, but we believe that from the fracture we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just. This is the task of the middle powers, the countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and the most to gain from genuine co-operation.The powerful have their power. But we have something too: the capacity to stop pretending, to name realities, to build our strength at home and to act together.That is Canada’s path. We choose it openly and confidently, and it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us.With that, Carney laid it out for the business and political leaders of the world, receiving a standing ovation.Trump today ranted and lied at Davos, and he will continue to do so whenever he speaks. But he is making himself and the U.S. more and more irrelevant, as much of the world has no choice but to move on and find safety by joining together and making new friends.In forcing that, Trump is making America weaker by the day. Can we bring the country back? That will depend on the 2026 elections — and all of us working hard to stop the GOP from enabling him — as well as on the 2028 elections. And, though it perhaps can be done, whoever becomes president will have an enormous task in gaining the trust of the world once again.

Jan 25, 2026 - World

Voting ends in month-long poll derided internationally as sham designed to cement army’s grip on powerVoting in Myanmar has ended with the military-backed party expected to win a landslide victory after a month-long election that has been widely derided as a sham designed to cement the army’s grip on power.The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected criticism of the vote, saying it has the support of the public and presenting it as a return to democracy and stability. Continue reading...