Tom Crowley

[THE ISLANDER @IslanderWORLD]

🚨'I Warn You - Don't Provoke Russia': Jeffrey Sachs ROARS At EU & US In European Parliament
@vonderleyen @kajakallas

I was walked around the Maidan, and I was told how the US paid the money for all the people around the Maidan. Spontaneous revolution of dignity. Ladies and gentlemen, please don't provoke the neighbor. That's all.
And don't beg to be at the table with the United States.

You don't need to be in the room with the
United States. You're Europe. You should be in the room with Europe and Russia. If the United States wants to join, that's fine. But to beg? No. And by the way, Europe does not need to have Ukraine in the room when Europe talks with Russia.

I'm not their enemy. I'm not Putin's puppet. I'm not Putin's apologist. What do you want?
You want to make sure that the Baltic states are secure. The best thing for the Baltic states is to stop their Russophobia.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

NEW: Peter Thiel is funding a plan to build privatized city-states everywhere from Gaza and Venezuela to small towns in California.

The goal is to replace governments with for-profit companies.

We investigated how Thiel's scheme is already reshaping democracy across the world.

[Mac10 @SuburbanDrone]

Here is the story of 2026 so far:

Trump invaded Venezuela back in January with the goal of cutting off Cuba's last remaining source of oil. The Trump Administration goal is to prove to that communism doesn't work by destroying the economy and the people along with it.

That went so well, that next Trump decided to pull a similar move on Iran. But unfortunately Iran kicked Trump's ass ten ways to Sunday.

Which means that yes the Cuban economy is imploding and the people are suffering tremendously at the hands of Circus Donny, however the U.S. economy is imploding also due to Pedophile Donny.

That's God's work. Let freedom reign.

[𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐙 🇷🇺🇮🇪 @SMO_VZ]

Off my topic...

..but it's a perfectly delivered Story of a USA pilot of the FAMOUS SR71 blackbird ..

Enjoy..

[The Cradle @TheCradleMedia]

VIDEO | "We spotted nine Polymarket accounts, all connected, who made, collectively, $2.4 million betting almost exclusively on US military operations."

Online prediction markets have evolved into a major arena for war profiteering, with traders wagering over a billion dollars this year alone on global military outcomes.

A CBS News investigation revealed that the phenomenon has sparked an entirely new category of insider trading, leading to unprecedented federal prosecutions involving individuals leveraging highly sensitive government intelligence for personal financial gain.

[The Ditch @wereontheditch]

Though the global elite meet in secluded places – like Peter Thiel's secret society in Wicklow – their aspirations are clear: to accrue as much wealth as possible, whatever the damage to the planet, while ensuring their own escape from the consequences

https://t.co/1cfdVtbMWD

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is a really important signal by China to Europe.

The social media account Yuyuantantian, operated by China’s state broadcaster CCTV and created in 2019 during China's first trade war with the US specifically to signal China's position, just wrote a long article (https://t.co/hR6OV0mCTj) on the brewing trade war between China and Europe.

Most notably they say the EU's current strategy of dealing with China "can only produce a paper tiger" (meaning it cannot hurt China) and that China is "not afraid" of a "freezing point" in trade and economic relations with the bloc - meaning presumably a complete halt of trade.

This sentence is eerily similar to what China told Trump when he unveiled the tariffs on China (and the whole world) in April 2025. At the time China's Ministry of Commerce said that "if the U.S. insists on its own way, China will fight to the end" (https://t.co/XXN2cwhGFg).

The context is that the EU is currently working on a series of extremely hostile new legislation packages against China, such as the so-called "overcapacity instrument" on which I wrote a long post at the beginning of the month (see quoted post👇).

This instrument is basically a legal tool that says that if China is competitive globally in a given sector in such a way that it exports a lot, that's proof of overcapacity, and legally it'd mean that the entire sector can be restricted from the EU market.

In essence, it's a law that says: if your products are good enough that people want to buy them, that's grounds for banning them. Which is pretty insane!

There's also a so-called "diversification instrument" being developed alongside it, which - according to Maroš Šefčovič, the EU's trade chief himself - is modelled on how the EU reduced its reliance on Russian energy after the Ukraine invasion (https://t.co/eAGThXFANx) and is developed with China in mind.

In their article, Yuyuantantian say that all of this is part of a "escalate first, de-escalate later" strategy - essentially bullying - that the EU borrowed from watching the US, but without any of the leverage to back it up.

As the article puts it: the actors who can pull off extreme pressure tactics can only do so if they have "absolute leading positions in key areas or irreplaceable international influence." The EU, it notes, has neither, hence them concluding that the EU "forcibly pursuing 'escalate first, de-escalate later' can only produce a paper tiger."

Another very consequential framing in the piece is that they characterize Europe as becoming - essentially - a rogue actor in the international system, that doesn't care about rules anymore. Which they say is suicidal for Europe in several ways.

First of all, as they write, the EU's international identity in the international system - its USP, if you will - rests entirely on being a "normative power," a rules-based institutional actor that you can do business with precisely because it won't move the goalposts on you. That's what made European standards worth complying with and European markets worth the entry cost.

As they explain, the EU had gone against China in the past but always within the rules of the WTO (with tools like anti-dumping and anti-subsidy), and always in a way that was somewhat justified and predictable, basically the cost of doing business.

However, the new approach is designed to be essentially unpredictable and arbitrary- and as such makes Europe less and less attractive and more and more risky.

They point out the irony of Europe on one hand saying it wants more investment and industrial cooperation to learn from China but at the same time "constantly raising the bar for attracting investment and maintaining industrial cooperation."

As they write: "the greater the uncertainty, the less likely long-term capital and supply chains will dare to enter, ultimately harming Europe's own sources of growth."

Secondly, the article exposes what is arguably the most self-destructive contradiction in the EU's entire approach: the EU's stated justification for all these new tools is its "unsustainable" trade deficit with China. But when China came to the negotiating table and said "fine, we'll buy more from you," the EU had nothing to offer - because what China wants to buy is high-tech products, and those are exactly what Europe restricts under its export controls policy (largely at the behest of the US).

In essence, Europe's approach is purely punitive, shutting every door simultaneously: you can't export to us (overcapacity), you can't invest here (unpredictable and arbitrary legal risk), and we won't sell you what you want to buy (export controls).

Now you understand why China is becoming frustrated to the point it's contemplating a "freezing point" in trade and economic relations with Europe. When the party on the other side of the table punishes you for exporting, blocks you from investing, and refuses to sell you what would fix the problem they're complaining about, there's not much left to talk about.

My personal opinion is that it is undeniable that Europe is suffering from grave economic problems, but it's mistaking symptoms for cause: it's doing the equivalent of wanting to punish the runner who overtook you instead of asking why you're getting overtaken.

The car industry is a really good case in point: Chinese EVs really are better than German cars at this stage, and it's NOT because of subsidies (quite the contrary in fact, see this: https://t.co/CuL8Gy0KkF). As such, how does punishing China for their competitiveness help the German car industry, specifically? What would help are rather initiatives to learn from the best: stuff like technology partnerships and welcoming Chinese factories on European soil.

The notion that if you ban China the problem goes away is exactly what the Ming dynasty - in 17th century China - did and that's what directly led to the century of humiliation because it became backwards technologically: it's what we call in French the "policy of the ostrich" ("la politique de l'autruche"), putting your head in the sand and hoping that makes things better.

And timing-wise it couldn't possibly be worse: having cut itself off from Russian energy, caved to American tariffs, and destabilized its own industrial base - the logical next step was apparently to pick a trade war with your largest trading partner and the last remaining great power with genuine goodwill towards you.

Because that's the real tragedy of the China-Europe relationship: there is a genuine and frankly almost touching desire for engagement and cooperation from the Chinese side and Europe is doing everything in its power to squander it.

[Daniel Davis Deep Dive @DanielLDavis1]

I fear there will come a day when historians look back on this day, and this time, and shake their head in amazement, wondering why senior leaders in Europe and United States, for many years and over multiple administrations, didn’t even *attempt* diplomacy to end the Russia\Ukraine war, but exclusively focused on sustaining that war, and to prepare for another one.

The Russia of 2022 clearly did not have a fraction of the capacity necessary to threaten any NATO country. But now, because of the war we have waged against them for 4 1/2 years — and all of the threats like this one here with secretary General RUTTE, Russia is rapidly approaching the point to where they genuinely do have the capacity to threaten us, because we will not stop supporting war against them.

I cannot more strongly emphasize: if Russia were doing to Europe and the west (through a proxy) what we are doing to Russia (through a proxy), we probably would’ve gone to war long ago.

Pretending that Russia wouldn’t react the same way we would, is yet more of our arrogance leaking through; an arrogance that may one day result in us losing a war that should never have been fought, and was never needed for our national security.

[George Galloway @georgegalloway]

Starmer has gone Macron is going Merz is hanging by a thread. Yet Europe has allowed them to drag us to the brink of all-out war.

[Daniel Davis Deep Dive @DanielLDavis1]

⚠️ PUTIN’S VIEW: “EUROPE HAS BASICALLY DECLARED WAR ON RUSSIA.”
Professor John Mearsheimer (@MearsheimerJ) warns that Western leaders’ rhetoric — including Ursula von der Leyen’s — “reinforces the point” that Moscow now believes the West is fully in the fight.

He says that from Vladimir Putin’s perspective, “Europe has basically declared war on Russia,” and that the U.S. and Ukraine “don’t respect Russian red lines.”

Mearsheimer adds that President Trump, who once vowed to end the war, is now “moving in that direction” toward escalation — driven partly by events in the Iran war.

His question is blunt and chilling: “If you’re in Putin’s shoes… what do you do?”

This is the most dangerous phase of the conflict — and the West may be sleepwalking into it.

👉 Watch the full clip — the stakes for U.S. strategy and European security are enormous: https://t.co/QhdPMuoR6F

🏷️#RussiaUkraineWar #JohnMearsheimer #USStrategy #NATO #EuropeanSecurity #Geopolitics #NationalSecurity #UkraineWar #GreatPowerConflict #DanielDavisDeepDive

[Nate Hagens @NJHagens]

In today’s edition of "How to Think About the Future," I outline four distinct future worlds – composites that emerge from various combinations of economic conditions, geopolitical scenarios, power structures, and Earth systems stability.

https://t.co/XBEeoN9Vur

[Chay Bowes @BowesChay]

Ukraine has lost approximately 2.4 million soldiers since the start of Russia's operation in Ukraine in 2022

Russian hackers PalachPro and the NoName057(16) group have breached databases belonging to the Ukrainian General Staff and Ukraines territorial recruitment centers (TCCs)

They also hacked Ukrainian medical institutions and morgues.

Citing leaked data, losses stood at 1.7 million by August 2025 and crossed 2 million by December. The first six months of 2026 alone reportedly cost Kiev around 400,000 men matching total losses for all of 2023. The heaviest casualties are concentrated on the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) Konstantinovka Lyman Zaporozhye and Kupyansk axes averaging roughly 500 AFU losses per day on each.

Mash also reports that foreign mercenary deaths have stopped being logged as combat losses instead recorded as accidents. Per the leaked data around 5,000 foreign fighters serving with the AFU have been killed a number said to be rising as TCCs continue recruiting foreign nationals many of them Argentine and Brazilian nationals aged 20 to 23.

PalachPro and NoName057(16) are the same groups Mash credits with earlier deploying AI assisted facial recognition across roughly 50000 surveillance cameras in Ukraine and the EU.

[Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 @ejmalrai]

So Europe did participate to the US-Israel illegal war on Iran by offering logistics to 4000-5000 US flights engaged in the war. These are Italy, Germany, the UK, Romania, Portugal and others.

International law is in the dust bin of the world (no) order.

[Roger Hallam @RogerHallamCS21]

Good Morning Britain just called me to appear on the show. Topic: whether it’s okay for everyone to get air-conditioning.

I said 2°C is now locked in and if we don’t overcome capitalism we’ll have far more important things to worry about than AC - like starving to death.

He decided it would not be good for me to go on..

[Nate Hagens @NJHagens]

In this episode, I'm joined by earth scientist and thermodynamicist Tad Patzek (@PatzekW) for an exploration of the mechanics and mathematics of global heating itself.

Watch/Listen: https://t.co/PW9ALSEWrC

[JustDario @DarioCpx]

Because of damage to many of its refineries, Russia can announce an export ban on diesel at any moment. In case you didn't know, Russia is the second-largest exporter of diesel.

[Geopolitics & Empire @Geopolitics_Emp]

Energy consultant @aeberman12 contends that because energy production growth is flattening, the era of endless economic expansion is coming to an end. Berman highlights how modern geopolitical conflicts, specifically involving Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, are struggles over dwindling resources. He dismisses renewable energy and EVs as insufficient solutions, labeling them as economic losers that fail to reduce actual hydrocarbon consumption. Ultimately, the discussion suggests that as energy becomes more expensive and difficult to extract, the world faces increasing economic fragmentation and a decline in living standards. ☢️🛢️🪫🔌

[Dr Harold News @DrHaroldNews]

Micheál Martin says when the time comes for him to step down as Fianna Fáil leader, he will do the honourable thing like Paschal Donohoe and transfer €10 million to his future employer.