President Donald Trump gave no specific reason for firing General Charles Q Brown Jr as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff less than halfway through Brown’s four-year term in office. Nor did he give an explanation for similarly ousting other senior military leaders, including the only women ever to lead the Navy and […]
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America First / Belt and Road Initiative / Block 1 / Donald Trump / News / Panama Canal / Ukraine war / United States / US Economic Coercion / US National Interest / US Unipolar Moment / USAID Closure
Why Trump’s global transformation might just succeed
Since returning to office in January 2025, Donald Trump has aggressively pursued a radical reshaping of US foreign policy. In early March, the State Department terminated foreign assistance programs supporting political opposition and regime change in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, deeming them no longer in the US “national interest.” Trump also reversed the Biden administration’s […]
Baltic States / Block 2 / Europe / NATO summit / News / Poland / Romanaia / Russia / US-Europe Relations / World
East-West divide over plan to replace US in NATO
The Financial Times (FT) cited four unnamed European officials to report that “European military powers work on 5-10 year plan to replace US in Nato.” The UK, France, Germany and the Nordic nations are named in the report as wanting to present this proposal to the US during the next NATO Summit in June. FT […]
Block 2 / EU / Europe / Germany / Italy / News / Rheinmetall / Stellantis / World
Is Europe rearming? The jury is still out
The EU has proposed a Rearm Europe Plan that would raise more than € 800 billion ($866 billion) for defense, while Germany has just passed legislation that ostensibly will commit €1 Trillion ($1.08 trillion) to the defense sector. While on the surface it looks like Europe is preparing for the next war, the truth of the matter […]
Block 2 / Fed Independence / Inflation / Interest rates / News / Stagflation / United States / US Federal Reserve / US recession fears
The Fed tilts hawkish with latest interest rate projections
The most important takeaway from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting is not that the benchmark federal funds interest rate was held steady. That was expected. Instead, what stands out from the meeting are signs that Fed policymakers are tilting slightly hawkish despite fears in financial markets that a recession may be looming. A continuation of […]
Block 2 / CIA / Cold War / Espionage / Intelligence / JFK documents / National Security Archive / News / secrecy / United States
JFK assassination-related docs lift secrecy veil from CIA covert ops
These materials are reproduced from www.nsarchive.org with the permission of the National Security Archive. On the day of President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961, “47 percent of the political officers serving in United States embassies were CAS” – intelligence agents working under diplomatic cover known as Controlled American Sources, White House aide, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. […]
Big Bang Theory / Big Wheel / Disk Galaxies / James Webb Space Telescope / News / Science and Technology / Super-spiral Galaxies / The Conversation / World
You know the Big Bang. Now enter the Big Wheel
Deep observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have revealed an exceptionally large galaxy in the early universe. It’s a cosmic giant whose light has traveled over 12 billion years to reach us. We’ve dubbed it the Big Wheel, with our findings published in Nature Astronomy. This giant disk galaxy existed within the first […]
Block 2 / Cold War / Europe / Francesco Sisci / Italy / News / Ukraine War ceasefire / World
A Cold Truce
It’s just days away from a proposal for the long-awaited ceasefire in Ukraine; two months ago, a truce was reached in Gaza, and since then, some Israeli hostages captured during the October 7 massacre have been exchanged for Hamas prisoners. President Donald Trump may fly to China in April for a summit with President Xi […]
DOGE / Elon Musk / Lean production philosophy / News / Opinion / SpaceX / systems engineering / Tesla / The Conversation / Twitter / United States
Musk’s way of streamlining tech startups is wrong for government
Elon Musk has been steadily expanding his political influence since being designated a “special government employee” by United States President Donald Trump in January. Appointed to lead the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has moved to transform government operations by pushing for mass layoffs of government employees and attempting to shut down […]
Climate Change / Club of Rome / Dark Doldrums / Degrowth / Environmental Collapse / News / The Conversation / Ulrike Herrmann / World
The end of capitalism – or the end of civilization?
Beware of hyperbolic headlines. But in this case, I’m afraid, as Ulrike Herrmann’s very readable book The End of Capitalism makes clear, the choice between capitalism and civilization really does seem to be either/or – and the end will probably come a lot sooner than we thought. Anyone who isn’t alarmed about the rapid and […]