World politics

World politics

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.

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".

The new year is still young, yet Donald Trump's fixation on expanding his homeland signals a troubling geopolitical shift. From Venezuela to Greenland, the world is unmistakably moving away from the relative stability of the post-cold war era not least also because of Russia's war against Ukraine. This erosion of long-established norms has severe implications for Europe, a continent whose core political philosophy is built on limiting (national) power.

Archaeological evidence shows that early humans, particularly hunter-gatherers, lived in small, mobile groups. These groups roamed vast landscapes in search of food and resources. Mobility was essential for survival, allowing early humans to adapt to changing environments. According to research from Our World in Data, a respected platform led by economist Max Roser, most of human history was spent in this nomadic state. This lifestyle fostered flexible social structures. Leadership was temporary, and decisions were made collectively.

President Patrice Talon's governing coalition is projected to strengthen its already powerful position in Sunday's elections, with the main opposition Democrats party barred from the local polls. The streets of economic capital Cotonou were calm as polling stations opened at 7am local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, according to the AFP news agency. Polls are scheduled to close at 5pm (16:00 GMT).

The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump's use of force in Venezuela, his desire to take over Greenland, and the historical echoes of the Administration's new imperialist projects. The panel also considers Trump's brand of "narcissistic unilateralism" and the increased risks of global conflict when foreign policy is based on one man's whims.

Occasionally, history generates smooth changes from one era to another. More commonly, such shifts occur only gradually and untidily. And sometimes, as the former Downing Street foreign policy adviser John Bew puts it in the New Statesman, history unfolds in a series of flashes and bangs. In Caracas last weekend, Donald Trump's forces did this in spectacular style. In the process, the US brushed aside more of what remains of the so-called rules-based order with which it tried to shape the west after 1945.

The U.S. mission to seize Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has pushed the concept of regime change back into everyday conversation. "Regime Change in America's Back Yard," declared The New Yorker in a piece that typified the response to the Jan. 3 operation that saw Maduro exchange a compound in Caracas for a jail in Brooklyn. Commentators and politicians have been using the term as shorthand for removing Maduro and ending Venezuela's crisis, as if the two were essentially the same thing.

For an inveterate liar, Donald Trump is remarkably honest. The best guide to what he thinks is what he says. When forecasting his likely course of action, start with his declared intentions removing the president of Venezuela, for example and assume he means it. When he says the US must take possession of Greenland, he is not kidding. The motives are sometimes muddled but rarely hidden.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us: that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

By many accounts, those most impacted by the attacks - Venezuelans living and working in Venezuela - are resolutely opposed to the strikes, with thousands mobilizing in numerous Venezuelan cities in protest. (The death toll from the US strikes currently stands at 80 soldiers and civilians, a figure whichwill likely go up as the dust settles.) Though the attacks are still too recent to get accurate polling data of the country's sentiments, a November survey found that 86 percent of Venezuelans preferred for Maduro to remain head of state to resolve the country's economic woes.