World politics

World politics

When fear dominates, nuance and exceptions fade. Over time, this dynamic creates insular echo chambers that amplify threat narratives while filtering out contradictory evidence. What is particularly striking, and deeply concerning, is that this climate of dread is no longer confined to one group. It is now mirrored across political divides, leaving many people-regardless of affiliation-feeling powerless, overwhelmed, and chronically anxious.

One foreign policy achievement that Donald Trump prefers not to boast about is his role in helping Mark Carney win last year's Canadian general election. The incumbent Liberal party faced crushing defeat before Mr Trump threatened to annex Canada. Mr Carney's candidacy was buoyed up by a patriotic rally against US bullying. Perhaps because his country has also been coveted by Mr Trump, Mr Carney has given one of the most clear-sighted responses of any democratic leader to the US president's designs on Greenland.

Europe is weighing retaliation if President Donald Trump imposes more tariffs - and it threatens the US's big global advantage. French President Emmanuel Macron pushed to activate what's commonly referred to asa trade "bazooka" in response to Trump's recent threat to impose an additional 10% tariff on European countries unless they agree to a deal ceding control of Greenland.

The announcement on 17 January that Washington will impose punitive tariffs of 10% to 25% on eight European allies unless they facilitate the complete and total purchase of Greenland is likely to be the death knell of the post-1945 transatlantic order. By linking the territorial sovereignty of a Nato ally to trade access, the US has transitioned from Europe's security guarantor to a 19th-century imperial rent-seeker. This is a moment of profound rupture.

Armed with bulldozers and tear gas, the Israeli military forcefully entered the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) office in Sheikh Jarrah, in East Jerusalem. They targeted at least two UNRWA buildings for demolition, and fired tear gas in a vocational school serving young refugees in Qalandia, on the outskirts of Jerusalem; the Palestinian Authority said that Israeli forces hit a 15-year-old boy in the eye with a rubber bullet.

At their disposal are mainly three options: The use of the so-called "trade bazooka" a never-before-used instrument that could even go as far as restricting market access for US companies in the EU. The implementation of retaliatory tariffs. The suspension of the EU-US trade deal, which has yet to come into effect. EU heads of state and government will meet for a summit on Thursday a dinner cobbled together in haste to coordinate which of those options the bloc will use in response to Trump's threats.

The abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by the United States military and the subsequent threats by Washington to intervene in Iran during its recent upheaval have generated a tide of enthusiasm in hawkish pro-Ukraine circles in the West. If Moscow's allies are weakened, then Russia also gets weaker, the simplistic logic goes. Although he criticised US interventionism in the past, US President Donald Trump is newly infected with the regime change fever once spread by his Democratic predecessors.

Myanmar's military-backed political party has extended its lead after the second round of voting, according to official figures from the country's election body, and the country now heads into the final phase of its three-stage general election amid widespread conflict. The latest data published on Friday indicates that the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is on track to win 182 seats from the combined first and second phases of voting, more than half of the seats in the country's 330-member lower house.

Yemen's Saudi-backed presidential leadership council has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Salem bin Breik and appointed Foreign Minister Shaya Mohsin al-Zindani as the country's new prime minister, the state news agency Saba has reported. Bin Breik formally submitted the resignation, which was approved by the council, before Zindani was named to form the next cabinet, Saba said on Thursday.

Naef was clear as to the reason for the government's failure a lack of unity and clear command structure. For years, government soldiers and other anti-Houthi fighters have adhered to conflicting agendas across the country, with many of the fighters in the south supporting the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC). A solution to that division, Naef thought, was far-fetched. However, more recently, things have changed.

A flag is certain the wind admires it -the breeze flaunting it so its crowns, leaves, crosses, bands of colour, or stars float in air, ready to be honoured, deferred to. In turn the flag at times pats the wind streaming past, confirming they stand together, believing the wind thinks of itself as Tunisian wind orAmerican wind. To people who live under the flag open in its glory, or relaxed against

The National Congress approved a legislative decree ordering the National Electoral Council to count the votes and tally sheets from the November 30 elections. The measure was passed with the participation of only 69 pro-government lawmakers and their allies. Castro supported the initiative and argued that electoral authorities had unjustifiably refused to scrutinize 4,774 tally sheets, representing the votes of 1,558,689 citizens.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Oman urged Donald Trump not to launch airstrikes against Iran in a last-minute lobbying campaign prompted by fears that an attack by Washington would lead to a major and intractable conflict across the Middle East. The warnings of chaos from the longstanding US allies appear to have helped persuade Trump late on Wednesday to hold off for the moment on a military assault.

Donald Trump is threatening to take over Greenland, the territory of a Nato ally, possibly by military force, as Vladimir Putin is trying to take over Ukraine. Even if he doesn't actually do it, this is a new era: a post-western world of illiberal international disorder. The task now for liberal democracies in general, and Europe in particular, is twofold: to see this world as it is and to work out what the hell we're going to do about it.

A year after Donald Trump's return to the White House, a global survey suggests much of the world believes his nation-first, Make America Great Again approach is instead helping to make China great again. The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies particularly in Europe feel ever more distant.

Transcendent moments in geopolitics that reverberate around the world are no longer just forged in the streets or inside situation rooms. They are increasingly engineered in the digital sphere, where actors, often with a self-serving agenda, compete to control the narrative, define its meaning and decide who speaks for whom. In recent weeks as protests erupted in Iranian cities, the hashtag #FreeThePersianPeople trended on X.

On Sunday, the Syrian government declared it had taken control over the areas Aleppo previously under the control of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. And the Kurdish forces announced they were pulling back. During the fighting, buildings were destroyed, at least two dozen people were killed and reports say that more than 140,000 people were displaced. But then on Tuesday this week, the Syrian government accused the Kurdish paramilitary of regrouping

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, has accused Israel of treating Palestinian lives as expendable, linking the hellish impact of a deadly winter storm in Gaza directly to the deliberate destruction of the enclave's infrastructure. Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic on Tuesday as a deep weather depression pummelled the Gaza Strip, killing at least seven children, Albanese said the weather disaster had exposed the depth of Israel's disregard for civilian survival.

The new body is part of the White House's 20-point plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas. It is expected to temporarily oversee the running of Gaza, manage its reconstruction, and be made up of world leaders. UK diplomats are seeking more clarity from the US State Department on the role of the board and its members. Government sources told the BBC "a formal invitation has not been received and the decision has not been made".