📳 NEW EDITION 📳 Is US foreign policy really being run on Trump’s whims… or is there a coherent agenda under the chaos? Economist geopolitics editor @dsorennie.bsky.social takes @seththevoz.bsky.social on a journey into America’s new belligerence.
📳 Listen up: linktr.ee/bunker_pod
Excellent take on China-EU by my colleague @dsorennie.bsky.social, who travelled to both Beijing and Brussels (having lived in both previously) to gauge the rising trade frictions between them.
*Very* sobering assessment of Europe by the Chinese. Nearing contempt, often.
The Economist’s The Telegram: The EU and China are stumbling into a trade war – ‘If China is blamed for destroying European steel or carmaking jobs, say, any German chancellor or French president will face demands to intervene.’
To critics, the mess in the Gulf reflects Trumpian flaws: impatience, hubris, over-reliance on threats, incuriosity about how foreigners think. In fact, several US presidents have made similar blunders. Trump stands out for unusual cynicism & incompetence
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The Bunker podcast – News without the nonsense
Swamped by Chinese exports, Europe nears a point of no return
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America sets too little store by foreigners’ beliefs and values. It’s a costly mistake, each time
Are liberal values a luxury the West cannot afford? Europeans & US allies hear that now in Washington & from Asian, MidEast govts. But here’s the trap: when democracies turn illiberal they don’t become efficient technocracies, they become Russia or Hungary. My column
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To appreciate the global disorder being unleashed by the Iran war, consider the economic and political pain it is starting to inflict on India, a country that usually boasts of thriving on chaos. My column, The Telegram, reported from Delhi
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from The Economist
It’s risky to let Ukraine into the EU-it’s a corrupt, fragile democracy with disputed borders. It’s more dangerous to keep it out. To fight or deter Russia, Europe needs Ukraine.And a spurned Ukraine would be a dangerous neighbour.No easy choices.My column, The Telegram economist.com/internationa...
America’s Founders feared Roman-style decadence.They’d have been alarmed by Trump-era echoes of Caligula, who put his name on temples, erected golden statues of himself, humiliated senators, wooed the public with gladiator games and vowed to make his horse a consul.
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A giant gamble is underway in Iran. The result may take years to be known. An early winner, though, is Israel. Fearing a fight with Donald Trump, allies from Germany to Australia are endorsing Israeli rules of war, notably the killing of enemy govt leaders. My column
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Donald Trump is trying something risky: the half-abandonment of allies. He is willing to do much less for the defence of Europe and NATO, but still expects allies to do as America says. That’s not a stable relationship and trust is crumbling. My column from #MSC2026
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Stanley Pignal
Sense Hofstede
David Rennie
Yes, China has impressive high-speed trains. That is no reason for the West to adopt iron-fisted rule
Chinese officials are connoisseurs of power and coercion. They see Europe as an economic giant with puny geopolitical leverage, hobbled by its need for consensus among 27 members
Swamped by Chinese exports, Europe nears a point of no return