#geopolitics

#geopolitics

I want to tell the US President Donald Trump that we don't want a new Cold War. We don't want interference in any other country; we want all countries to be treated equally, Lula told a news conference at the end of his three-day trip to India on Sunday.

In an era of overlapping crises, corruption is no longer a side issue it is a structural threat to achievinginternational equality and even freedom itself. Each year, Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, a league table of 182 countries, is greeted with predictable theatrics: praise where it flatters power, condemnation where it can be weaponised, and hollow promises of reform that quietly expire once attention moves on.

"Everyone should take their cue from us, instead of criticising us," he said at the Munich Security Conference, after US Vice President JD Vance used his address at the annual gathering last year to attack European policies on immigration and free speech. "I believe that Europe is inherently strong and can be made even stronger yet," he added.

He had flown in from Mar-a-Lago and, he told me, was there to observe. The next day, he watched as Åsa Rennermalm, a Rutgers University professor who studies polar regions, sat onstage with European foreign ministers and spoke out against cuts to U.S. science funding. "A leading US Arctic scientist is on stage absolutely ripping her country to the delight of the audience," Dans wrote on X. "Embarassing." He punctuated his post with an American-flag emoji.

We want to speed up the European Union, we want to make it better, and we want to ensure that we have a competitive industry in Europe.

Countries are increasingly settling aside old grudges to lessen their reliance on Washington. As Donald Trump continues to unleash havoc on allies and trading partners, countries are scrambling to forge new alliances and mend broken ones as they try to shield themselves from a mercurial American president. The past few months have seen a flurry of diplomatic moves by governments seeking to lessen their reliance on the United States, including among countries that had long nursed grudges against one another.

In 2025, the administration of US President Donald Trump ordered the US Agency for International Development to be closed; this year, it withdrew the country from 66 international organizations. Other Western nations that are plagued with high levels of debt and pressure to prioritize domestic challenges have slashed their foreign aid, too. According to projections, official development assistance dropped by 9-17% in 2025, amounting to some US$55 billion.

Data has become the defining currency of global power. The nations and organizations that can manage, protect, and share it responsibly will shape the future of economic resilience and international cooperation. In an era where artificial intelligence and digital interdependence connect every market and mission, the ability to build and maintain trust in data is now a central pillar of both commerce and diplomacy.

The announcement of a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" between Brussels and Hanoi last week places the EU side by side with China, the United States, and Russia as one of Vietnam's top-tier diplomatic relationships. Vietnamese President Luong Cuong described it as a "historical milestone underlining the great achievements that the two sides have made," during a meeting with the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, in Hanoi.

as it has little or nothing to do with the economic cycle: it is the financial world's response to the global order proposed by the U.S. president, whose first commandment (or second, depending on the day) is to limit risk. And from political fragmentation and the speed at which it is unfolding a different financial world is emerging, one in which the dollar and the U.S. have lost part of their aura of exceptionalism.

It has been clear for many years that China's status as a second global superpower poses challenges to the world's democracies. Donald Trump's marauding behaviour as president of the first-placed superpower makes those challenges more acute. In the past, the UK's relationship with Beijing has been anchored, and sometimes dictated, by the alliance with Washington. Mr Trump's contempt for former allies, expressed as sabotage of Nato and a scattergun imposition of tariffs, scrambles the old strategic calculus.

THE TITLE OF THE KW SHOW is "RATIO." The term comes from economics, this idea of balance. But I'm applying it to the conflict here in the DRC, which is based around our strategic rare minerals. I'm talking about customs, electronics, space, minerals. In my country, we only ever talk about making phones, about buying a new phone. I advise young people who are looking at the front of their phone-at the screen-to keep the back of their phone in mind;

Gold extended its advance on Tuesday, trading close to record levels after hitting an all-time high in the previous session. The move reflects strong safe-haven demand amid escalating trade frictions and persistent geopolitical uncertainty. On Monday, Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on goods from South Korea. The renewed tariff rhetoric has added to concerns over global growth and reinforced demand for safe-haven assets such as gold.

"It's interesting they've gone for that so early," he said. "Maybe they feel they need to make more revenue."

U.S. President Donald Trump, with his lust for Greenland and hectoring of Europe, thinks the world is at his mercy,and thatthe U.S. is invincible. He's right on the first point. But he discovered this week that he's wrong about the second one. In Davos at the World Economic Forum, Trump climbed down on his Greenland threats after his actions caused chaos in the markets.

"We won't get anything unless I use excessive strength and force, when we would be unstoppable. I won't use force," he said.

Donald Trump has told the Davos economic forum without us, most countries would not even work, but for the first time in decades, many western leaders have come to the opposite conclusion: they will function better without the US. Individually and collectively, they have decided to live in truth the phrase used by the Czech dissident Vaclav Havel and referenced by the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, in his widely praised speech at Davos on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning, Bitcoin was trading at around $91,000, which was down around 4.5% over the past five days. It had been trading around $95,000, but took a tumble late Sunday evening, suddenly falling to less than $93,000, and trended downward early Tuesday. Ethereum, or ETH, followed a similar trajectory: ETH values are down almost 8% over the past five days, and are currently trading just north of $3,000. XRP did the same and, as of Tuesday morning, is down roughly 7%.

The weather is sunny and (relatively) warm in Davos, but there's a definite chill in the air. Maybe it's the heightened security. Maybe it's the long lines already forming. Maybe it's that there are reportedly a lot more people here than there have been in a long time. Whatever the case, everyone seems to be on edge. Multiple attendees told me they were already feeling exhausted, as if we were halfway through the week, even though we're just getting started.

Trump continued, pacing now. He spoke of weakness, of maps redrawn by hesitation, of allies who handed away strategic ground and called it diplomacy. If Britain could give up islands in the Indian Ocean, he asked, why should America hesitate in the Arctic? Greenland entered the room like a ghost-vast, white, and suddenly very real.

The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world. The signing ceremony in Paraguay's capital, Asunción, marks a major geopolitical victory for the EU in an age of American tariffs and surging Chinese exports, expanding the bloc's foothold in a resource-rich region increasingly contested by Washington and Beijing.

Meanwhile, signs that the planet's health is worsening are unmistakable. Last year was among the warmest on record globally, with average temperatures far above long-term baselines and heat driving more extreme weather worldwide. In 2025, brutal heatwaves baked much of the Indian subcontinent with temperatures near 48 °C, stressing health systems and agriculture across India and Pakistan. Europe and the Mediterranean faced record wildfires and prolonged heat, forcing tens of thousands to evacuate and worsening drought conditions.