USA - It is so important to know when you are holding a losing hand. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially insisted that he would never back down, but Donald Trump had most of the leverage in this situation. Canada’s economy is very heavily dependent on foreign trade, and the US is Canada’s number one trading partner. If Trudeau ultimately decided to dig in for a fight, Canada’s economy would have collapsed. Thankfully, he has agreed to negotiate a deal with Trump. To the south, we must give Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a lot of credit for realizing that she simply was not going to win this particular battle. So she has agreed to send 10,000 Mexican troops to help secure the border, and Trump has agreed to pause the tariffs on Mexico for a month as negotiations continue…

PANAMA - In a significant diplomatic shift, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino announced on Sunday that the nation would not renew its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This decision comes after a visit from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, amid concerns from President Donald Trump regarding Chinese influence over the Panama Canal. During his meeting with Rubio, Mulino emphasized that Panama’s sovereignty over the 51-mile waterway, which links the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, would remain intact. However, he indicated a pivot towards closer cooperation with the United States, stating, “I think this visit opens the door to build new relations … and try to increase as much as possible US investments in Panama.”

GREENLAND - While the usual nay-sayers are criticizing US President Donald J Trump’s advancing American geopolitical goals like a bulldozer and forcibly displacing all obstacles, the results can hardly be ignored. Now it’s time for Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to make her first big concession, and say that Denmark is ready to allow the US to boost its military presence in Greenland. Frederiksen is frantically seeking to curb the diplomatic crisis with the Trump administration over the world’s largest island. Americans already have a military base there, monitoring space and detecting missile threats.

USA - President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he is suspending all US aid to South Africa after the latter passed a law on land expropriation, which many fear could lead to Zimbabwe-style seizures of land owned by white citizens. The president made the surprise announcement on Truth Social, his own social media platform, on Sunday evening: "South Africa received $273 million from the US in 2023, according to ForeignAssistance.gov. (Reuters puts the sum at $440 million.) That includes funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). South Africa also has key trade deals with the US."

USA - The US Army helicopter involved in Wednesday's midair collision with American Airlines flight 5342 had been practicing for the event of an attack on the capital. Officials have confirmed that the three soldiers, who all perished, had been rehearsing a plan that involves the evacuation of the White House when their Black Hawk collided with the passenger jet just before 9pm on Wednesday night. Defense sources confirmed the nature of the training exercise to CBS News, after internet sleuths had floated a theory online that it was doing exactly what sources say. Theorists had flooded social media with claims that the chopper was carrying out an emergency evacuation route for the president as part of a Continuity of Government contingency plan. One of the five key aspects of a COG mission is protecting key personnel and infrastructure.

USA - "If one company or small group of people manages to develop godlike digital superintelligence, they could take over the world. At least when there’s an evil dictator, that human is going to die. But for an AI, there would be no death. It would live forever. And then you’d have an immortal dictator from which we can never escape.” Elon Musk (2018)

USA - Several hospital systems in States around the US have paused sex change drugs and surgeries for minors following an executive order from President Donald Trump on January 28 barring the “destructive and life-altering procedures” for people under 19 years old. The order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” states that “it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.” The order also calls for the head of each executive department or agency that provides research or education grants to medical institutions to “immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

USA - WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Hulk Hogan told Breitbart News that the very people complaining about President Donald Trump’s leadership in the White House are the same ones who “got us in this mess” in the first place. After being asked what he thinks about President Trump’s first ten days in office, Hogan said, “We had eight years of Obama, we had four years of Biden, and Trump has helped this country more since the inauguration — even before the inauguration — than they did in twelve years.” “We should be chasing greatness, because this is a great country,” Hogan told Breitbart News. “And if you see who’s complaining about Trump, it’s all the people that got us in this mess.”

GERMANY - The CDU’s Friedrich Merz has shattered the taboo that had underpinned German politics since the war. The unthinkable is now more possible. The tectonic plates are shifting in German politics. A momentous past week has plunged the country into uncertainty – and not just about the outcome of the snap general election on 23 February. The mainstream parties are at each other’s throats, while the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is jubilant. The firewall (“Brandmauer”) against the extreme right, which has held since the end of the Second World War, is showing big cracks. Europe’s most powerful country may be entering a phase of democratic instability. All of this is the result of a spectacular miscalculation by the opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and frontrunner to become Germany’s next chancellor.

USA - The Donald is right to challenge the prevailing anti-tariff orthodoxy. After Trump slapped tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, economists of Left and Right called him a lunatic: protectionism surely means higher prices, disrupted supply chains, trade war. Super triple bad! Yet philosophically it makes sense, and the inability of journalists to see the President’s point of view betrays how far free trade has become a religion – a faith, like any other, that’s prone to myth and hypocrisy.

UK - More than 10 per cent of farmland in England is set to be diverted towards helping to achieve net zero and protecting wildlife by 2050, the Environment Secretary will reveal on Friday. Swathes of the countryside are on course to be switched to solar farms, tree planting and improving habitats for birds, insects and fish. Mr Reed will insist that his framework will not impose changes on landowners, but the figures are likely to reignite Labour’s row with farmers who expressed concerns that the strategy could lead to the Government telling them what they can grow and where. The Government has ambitious targets to increase woodland in England by 20 per cent, or about 265,000 hectares, by 2050, accounting for a third of the change in farm use. It has also set a target to build 1.5 million new homes, install hundreds of square miles of solar panels and onshore wind turbines, and protect 30 per cent of the land for nature.

GERMANY - German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said that Berlin simply cannot afford to spend 5% of its GDP on the military, as US President Donald Trump is demanding from NATO member states. The need to invest more in defense is “undisputed,” but there are limits to what Germany can do, Pistorius pointed out in an interview with Tagesspiegel newspaper on Saturday. He explained that “5% of our GDP would correspond to 42% of the federal budget. That would be almost every second euro spent by the federal government, €230 billion. We could neither afford that nor spend that.”

EUROPE - The European Union has warned Donald Trump faces a firm response if he imposes tariffs on the bloc. A spokesperson for the European Commission said the EU isn't aware of any extra tariffs being imposed on the bloc's products, but Brussels would "respond firmly" to any trading partner that "unfairly or arbitrarily" imposes them on EU goods. They said tariffs, which are effectively taxes imposed on goods imported from other countries, create "unnecessary economic disruption" and fuel inflation, as they push up prices for businesses that pass price hikes on to consumers. The spokesperson said a lot was at stake, adding tariffs are hurtful to all sides and the EU backs low tariffs to drive growth and economic stability within a strong, rules based system of trade. Brussels' warning comes after the US president told reporters on Friday (January 31) he would "absolutely" impose tariffs on the EU, accusing the bloc of treating the United States "so terribly".

FRANCE - On the training course employees are encouraged to ‘become’ plants and animals to teach empathy and inclusivity. Left-wing councils are under fire for sending staff on courses where they pretend to be trees, bats, fish and other “non-human living things” to understand the “connection between species”. Those on the right are incredulous, arguing that taxpayers’ money is being wasted teaching functionaries to speak to plants. But the courses have been defended by environmentalists who say that officials need to learn empathy and inclusivity, especially in light of climate change.

USA - In an apparent ending to weeks of intense speculation, the White House confirmed Friday that President Donald Trump will be leveling aggressive tariffs this weekend on major US trading partners. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump will be implementing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada as well as a 10% duty on China, in retaliation for “the illegal fentanyl that they have sourced and allowed to distribute into our country. These are promises made and promises kept by the president,” Leavitt said.