Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Donald Trump Plans To Take Control of Greenland 'One Way or Another'

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-greenland-speech-us-take-control-2039714

Since his second presidential inauguration on January 20, Trump has suggested he wants to expand American territory in a number of directions. He has urged Canada to join the American Union as its 51st state, demanded the right to purchase Greenland from Denmark and called for U.S. sovereignty to be restored over the Panama Canal.

"We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it.

"But we need it really for international, for world security, and I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it."

A poll conducted by Verian, on behalf of Danish newspaper Berlingske and Greenlandic publication Sermitsiaq, found only six percent of Greenlanders are in favor of the territory coming under U.S. sovereignty.

By contrast, 85 percent were opposed to the idea, whilst nine percent said they were unsure. The survey took place between January 22 and 27 and included 497 Greenlandic citizens over the age of 18.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, wrote: "Trump repeats the threat of [USA flag emoji] occupying, annexing or absorbing [Greenland and Denmark flag emojis]. That's the Putin way of treating countries."

Fact-checking Trump’s address to Congress

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-address-congress/index.html

President Donald Trump made numerous false and misleading claims in his Tuesday speech to a joint session of Congress. The falsehoods spanned a variety of topics, including the economy, climate, immigration and more.

In his speech, just under one hour and 40 minutes, Trump also made a number of false claims about his predecessor, Joe Biden. Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s statements:

Netanyahu's funding for Hamas via Qatar enabled October 7 invasion, Shin Bet reveals

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-844701

The Shin Bet also revealed that SIM cards and sensors along the border were activated ahead of time but were ignored.

While the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) took a significant amount of responsibility for the disasters on October 7 in its report published unexpectedly on Tuesday, it also implicated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by implying that his policies regarding the Temple Mount, the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and the judicial reform led to Hamas’s decision to initiate its long-planned invasion.

Second nurse charged over video threatening Israeli patients posted online by influencer

 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-05/nsw-sydney-man-charged-antisemitic-video-strike-force-pearl/105011996

NSW Police have charged a second Bankstown Hospital nurse over a video posted online that made threats against Israeli patients.

Police said 27-year-old Ahmad Rashad Nadir was arrested at Sutherland Police Station yesterday.

He has been charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend and possessing a prohibited drug.

He has been granted conditional bail and is due in court later this month.

How tariffs will make America poorer

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/04/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-address/

In the first chaotic weeks of his presidency, Donald Trump has demonstrated his contempt for the institutions and alliances that cemented the postwar democratic world. He has shown his disdain for the federal bureaucracy. And he has belittled Congress, repeatedly trying to usurp its powers.

Then on Tuesday, the president revealed his indifference to the voters who put him in office: By imposing substantial tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, countries that account for about 40 percent of U.S. exports and 42 percent of imports, he endangered the livelihoods of millions of the blue-collar Americans who make up his voting base.

But 25 percent across-the-board tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico (with an exception for Canadian oil, which was hit with a 10 percent levy), plus 10 percentage points added to the 10 percent tariffs imposed last month on Chinese goods, will raise prices and cut jobs in America.

Trump’s Tariffs Whack Trump Voters

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china-working-class-voters-dc140dbc?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

Whatever happened to GOP concern for the working class?

President Trump won the Presidency a second time by promising working-class voters he’d lift their real incomes. Which makes it all the more puzzling that he’s so intent on imposing tariffs that will punish those same Americans.

Tariffs are taxes, and Mr. Trump’s latest tariffs are estimated to be about an annual $150 billion tax increase. Taxes are antigrowth. That’s the message investors are sending this week since Mr. Trump let his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico take effect. The President also raised his 10% tariff on China by another 10%. Canada and China retaliated, while Mexico is holding off until Sunday.

As Trump cozies up to Putin, Russia offers to mediate US-Iran nuclear talks

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-trump-cozies-up-to-putin-russia-reportedly-steps-in-to-mediate-us-iran-nuclear-talks/

The news is potentially deeply worrying for Israel, which has sought Trump’s support for a credible military threat against Iran aimed at pressuring it to abandon its nuclear ambitions, but may now be stymied by the US leader’s increasingly cozy relationship with Putin.

Moscow also hosted officials from the Hamas terror group following the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel and has expressed support for Iran’s Hezbollah proxy, forcefully condemning Israel for killing terror leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon in September. Russian President Vladimir Putin last year offered to mediate an end to the war in the Gaza between Israel and Hamas triggered by the Palestinian terror group’s attack.

Russia has further deepened its ties with the Islamic Republic since the start of the Ukraine war, and signed a strategic cooperation treaty with Iran in January. Though the previous Biden administration backed Ukraine, supplying it with weapons, Trump on Monday suspended military aid days after a stunning public clash between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump in the White House where the US president berated the visitor, accusing him of being a warmonger.

Can Trump End Russia-Ukraine War in 90 Days? His plan is to give Russia everything they want at Ukraine's expense!

 https://www.newsweek.com/can-trump-end-russia-ukraine-war-90-days-what-betting-odds-say-2039619

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to end the war in Ukraine within "24 hours." While the self-imposed deadline came and went, the president has continued to call for a fast end to the war.

Trump, during a White House press conference on Monday: "The deal could be made very fast. It should not be that hard a deal to make. It could be made very fast. Now, maybe somebody doesn't want to make a deal. And if somebody doesn't want to make a deal, I think that person won't be around very long.

That person will not be listened to very long. Because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal. I believe certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal, they've suffered more any anyone else."

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, in an opinion article published by U.S. News & World Report on Monday: "The only way to get a real peace deal would be to convince Putin that he cannot conquer any more territory. That would entail the U.S. and our European partners giving Ukraine more weapons to create a stalemate on the battlefield. Trump, however, has signaled the opposite...

Trump and his team have not proposed in public a single concession that Putin should make to end this war. Not one. Yet we are already seeing signs of Putin's future demands: limits on the number of soldiers Ukraine can have in its army, a ban on Ukraine importing weapons and other constraints on Ukraine's sovereignty."

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Trump Ally Turns on JD Vance Over Ukraine Remarks: 'Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!'

 https://www.newsweek.com/nigel-farage-jd-vance-response-ukraine-2039324

British MP Nigel Farage, an ally of President Donald Trump, has issued a surprise condemnation of Vice President JD Vance over comments which appeared to insult Britain's military service.

Farage, leader of the party Reform UK, responded to Vance's remarks on Fox News dismissing an offer for British and French troops to uphold a peace in Ukraine.

Vance disparaged any cessation of hostilities being overseen from "random countries that haven't fought a war in 30 or 40 years."

Farage said on Tuesday: "JD Vance is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong," adding that for 20 years, British troops had fought alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan in which the U.K. "stood by America.

Fox News in TOTAL PANIC as Trump CRASHES MARKETS

'Not an economist alive' who would defend Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China: Economist

Trump’s Old World Order

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trumps-brave-old-world-foreign-policy-ukraine-blow-up-china-russia-trade-allies-7e32b02a?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s

Does he want deals with Russia and China to carve up the planet? He should tell Americans.

With his first weeks back in office, and especially after Friday’s Oval Office brawling with Ukraine’s president, it’s clear President Trump has designs for a new world order. Perhaps he could share this vision with the country when he addresses Congress on Tuesday.

The conventional view of Mr. Trump is that he’s above all transactional. He wants deals, at home and abroad, that he can sell as great successes. But the way his second term is unfolding, this may undersell his ambition. Mr. Trump’s strategy seems to be moving toward that of Tucker Carlson and JD Vance, who view America as in decline and no longer able to lead or defend the West.

Canada Bites Back With Multibillion-Dollar Trump Tariff Revenge

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/canada-bites-back-with-billion-dollar-trump-tariff-revenge-plot/

Canada is not taking Donald Trump’s tariffs on the country lightly.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit back with his own sweeping series of counter-tariffs on U.S.-made products after the Trump administration’s levies on Canadian imports went into effect just after midnight on Tuesday.

“Today, after a 30-day pause, the United States administration has decided to proceed with imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports and 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian energy. Let me be unequivocally clear—there is no justification for these actions,” Trudeau said in a statement before the tariffs came into force.

Trump Tariff War Sparks Retaliation From China, Canada, Mexico

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china-stock-market-today-03-04-2025?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1

Stocks continue slide; Dow declines 400 points

 President Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada took effect first thing Tuesday. Canada responded with plans to impose 25% tariffs on nearly $100 billion of U.S. imports, and Mexico's president said it would also retaliate, with a range of moves to be announced Sunday.

The U.S. also introduced an extra 10% tariff on Chinese imports overnight, adding to a levy imposed a month ago, and other existing duties. China swiftly announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods, and other measures against American companies. Beijing also filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization.

Investors were rattled: the Dow industrials and other indexes fell in morning trading Tuesday, while gold surged, Wall Street's "fear gauge" picked up, and global equities largely retreated. Stocks had slid Monday, after Trump confirmed tariffs would go ahead.