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Europe must unite or it’s ‘finished,’ Poland’s Tusk warns as Trump salivates over Greenland

Europe must unite or it’s ‘finished,’ Poland’s Tusk warns as Trump salivates over Greenland

Politico reports: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk issued a dire warning about the future of Europe, saying the continent is “finished” without unity, following a week that saw fractures in the stances of EU countries on foreign policy. Tusk, a pro-European centrist, wrote on social media Monday that Europe won’t be taken “seriously” if it is “weak and divided: neither enemy nor ally.” “It is already clear now. We must finally believe in our own strength, we must continue to…

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Trump now ‘runs’ Venezuela because Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Prize

Trump now ‘runs’ Venezuela because Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Prize

Larry Diamond writes: To understand the depth of Donald Trump’s betrayal of the democratic movement in Venezuela, it is necessary to appreciate the consummate courage, planning, and organization behind the opposition victory on July 28, 2024. For her valiant efforts to organize and lead the campaign for democracy, María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. In her moving acceptance speech on Dec. 10, read by her daughter (due to her late arrival in Oslo from a perilous…

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Venezuela raid enriches MAGA ‘vulture’ investor, Paul Singer

Venezuela raid enriches MAGA ‘vulture’ investor, Paul Singer

Judd Legum writes: This June, when Trump sought funds to bankroll a primary challenger to Thomas Massie (R-KY), who raised Trump’s ire by supporting the release of the Epstein Files, Singer contributed $1 million, the largest contribution. Since Trump was first elected in 2016, Singer has met personally with Trump at least four times. “Paul just left and he’s given us his total support,” Trump declared after meeting with Singer at the White House in February 2017. “I want to…

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U.S. foes and allies denounce Trump’s ‘crime of aggression’ in Venezuela at UN Security Council meeting

U.S. foes and allies denounce Trump’s ‘crime of aggression’ in Venezuela at UN Security Council meeting

The Guardian reports: The meeting had been requested by Colombia, which delivered a carefully calibrated rebuke of Washington. The country’s ambassador, Leonor Zalabata Torres, condemned the US action as a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity. “Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,” she said. “There is no justification whatsoever, under any circumstances, for the unilateral use of force to commit an act of aggression.”…

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Microbes may hold the key to brain evolution

Microbes may hold the key to brain evolution

Northwestern University: A groundbreaking new study reveals that changes to the gut microbiome can change the way the brain works. Humans have the largest relative brain size of any primate, but little is known about how mammals with larger brains evolved to meet the intense energy demands required to support brain growth and maintenance. A new study from Northwestern University provides the first empirical data showing the direct role the gut microbiome plays in shaping differences in the way the…

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Trump says the U.S. ‘needs’ Greenland — Europe should take him at his word

Trump says the U.S. ‘needs’ Greenland — Europe should take him at his word

Olga Lautman writes: When a sitting U.S. president openly claims the right to seize foreign territory for “security” and resources, Europe is no longer dealing with rhetoric but with timing. Yesterday should have been another clear wake-up call that these threats are no longer hypothetical. As with Venezuela, which Trump sought to act against during his first term, Greenland has been on his agenda since at least 2019. The difference is that during his first term, there were still restraints—Congress,…

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Trump and Rubio plan to control Venezuela through threats and coercion

Trump and Rubio plan to control Venezuela through threats and coercion

The New York Times reports: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday appeared to pivot away from President Trump’s assertion a day earlier that the United States would “run” Venezuela, emphasizing instead that the administration would keep a military “quarantine” in place on the country’s oil exports to exert leverage on the new leadership there. When asked how the United States planned to govern Venezuela, Mr. Rubio did not lay out a plan for a U.S. occupation authority, like the…

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‘Naked imperialism’: How Trump intervention in Venezuela is a return to form for the U.S.

‘Naked imperialism’: How Trump intervention in Venezuela is a return to form for the U.S.

The Guardian reports: The US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, follow a long history of interventions in South and Central America and the Caribbean over the past two centuries. But they also mark an unprecedented moment as the first direct US military attack on a South American country. At a press conference after Maduro’s capture, Donald Trump said that “American dominance in the western hemisphere will never be questioned again”. But since the mid-19th…

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Trump’s Venezuelan oil bonanza may prove elusive

Trump’s Venezuelan oil bonanza may prove elusive

Reuters reports: Venezuela is unlikely to see any meaningful boost to crude output for years even if U.S. oil majors do invest the billions of dollars in the country that President Donald Trump promised just hours following Nicolás Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces. The South American country may have the world’s largest estimated oil reserves, but output has plummeted over the past decades amid mismanagement and a lack of investment from foreign firms after Venezuela nationalized oil operations in the…

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Trump wants to unlock Venezuela’s oil reserves but the world doesn’t have much appetite for more oil

Trump wants to unlock Venezuela’s oil reserves but the world doesn’t have much appetite for more oil

The Wall Street Journal reports: For months, the U.S. sold its pressure campaign against Venezuela as a way to curtail drug trafficking. Now, it’s about getting American energy companies access to one of the world’s largest oil bounties. The Trump administration’s move to oust Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in a surprise military operation early Saturday will pave the way for U.S. oil companies to regain a foothold in the South American nation, President Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference….

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Bipartisan opposition to data center boom puts AI industry’s growth plans at risk

Bipartisan opposition to data center boom puts AI industry’s growth plans at risk

CNBC reports: Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and right-wing Gov. Ron DeSantis agree on virtually nothing. But they found common ground this year as leading skeptics of the artificial intelligence industry’s data center boom. The alignment of two national figures on the left and right signals that a political reckoning is brewing over the AI industry’s impact on electricity prices, grid stability and the labor market. The opposition could slow the industry’s development plans if it reaches a broad bipartisan…

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Hundreds of iceberg earthquakes detected at the crumbling end of Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier

Hundreds of iceberg earthquakes detected at the crumbling end of Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier

Copernicus / ESA, CC BY By Thanh-Son Pham, Australian National University Glacial earthquakes are a special type of earthquake generated in cold, icy regions. First discovered in the northern hemisphere more than 20 years ago, these quakes occur when huge chunks of ice fall from glaciers into the sea. Until now, only a very few have been found in the Antarctic. In a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, I present evidence for hundreds of these quakes in Antarctica…

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Trump’s imperial ambitions

Trump’s imperial ambitions

Julian Borger writes: Trump’s belief in his own global omnipotence, and his desire to grab the territory and natural resources of other countries has been held in check until now by his fear of entanglement in foreign wars. He claimed (falsely) to have ended eight wars, and his greatest ambition in 2025 seemed to be winning the Nobel peace prize. Less than a month ago he was brandishing a hastily confected substitute, the Fifa peace prize. That act of self-abasement…

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Trump promised MAGA the U.S. wouldn’t police the world – now it’s running Venezuela

Trump promised MAGA the U.S. wouldn’t police the world – now it’s running Venezuela

James Ball writes: America was supposed to be done with being “the world’s policeman”. Donald Trump said so repeatedly during his first term, and during his campaign in 2024. MAGA was sick of seeing US troops deployed around the world, of spending billions on conflicts thousands of miles away, of hearing about places they’d never heard of. Donald Trump would put America first. Today, President Trump announced the United States will be running Venezuela for the foreseeable future – at…

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