America

‘This is a serious situation for Japan’. That was the verdict of the business editor on NHK’s morning news programme today. Given the normally exquisite understatement of Japanese broadcasters, this kind of language suggests a full-blown crisis is looming. The crisis in question is the Trump administration’s declaration that it would be slapping a 25 per cent duty on all Japanese goods (separate to sectional tariffs already in place) to kick in from 1 August. This outcome is not set in stone and there is still the possibility of further movement in the remaining three weeks or so. But with Trump calling Japan ‘spoiled’ in recent soundbites and the Japanese

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has announced that he intends to create a new third party in the US called the America party. After his own poll on X showed that two out of three favoured the venture, the outspoken billionaire has now put his money where his mouth is and taken the plunge to found and finance his new party. Although the 54-year-old owner of X, Tesla, SpaceX and other hi-tech enterprises has been a US citizen since 2002, because he was born in South Africa he cannot run for president himself. But he says he will fund the new party after spectacularly falling out with President Trump

At yesterday’s Nato summit in The Hague, all but one of the 32 leaders agreed to increase their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP as President Trump has been demanding. The exception was Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. His insistence that actually 2.1 per cent will be enough has enraged President Trump.  Trump described the Nato summit’s achievements as ‘tremendous’, celebrating its recognition of the need for other Nato members to take up the burden of the defence of Europe. He added that ‘it was 2 per cent [of GDP] and we’ve got it up to 5 per cent’. But he had harsh words for Spain, describing the

Donald Trump’s presidency is often compared to a reality TV show. Yet that conceit barely captures the radical strangeness of his leadership. Trump is a hypnotist, a master of persuasion who tries to shape world events through CONFUSION, BIG BOMBS and CAPITAL LETTERS.  ‘THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!’ he announced in the early hours this morning.  How will Trump the peacemaker respond to such a clear abrogation of his demands? For an hour or so, it seemed as if Trump could be right. Iran and Israel did make the right noises, through the correct channels, about a cessation of fire. But then this morning,

That was fast. In the space of a few weeks, President Donald J. Trump has gone from being the idol of the Republican isolationists to the hero of the hawks. Only a few days ago, the Wall Street Journal editorial page was complaining that ‘Maga isolationists want the President to pressure Israel to stop the war before Iran’s nuclear sites are destroyed’. Now, as Israel pounds Iran, Trump increasingly appears to be embracing the role, not of peacemaker, but of a war president – one ready and willing to unleash, or at the very least abet, fire and fury against the mullahs. The hawks are rejoicing, and they have plenty to rejoice about. ‘Bombs

The pro-immigration protests that erupted last week in Los Angeles have now spread across the United States. On Tuesday there were confrontations between police and demonstrators in Atlanta, Chicago and Denver, where tear gas was used to disperse a crowd. Police in New York City arrested 45 people as they came under attack from a variety of projectiles thrown by a mob that numbered several hundred. Demonstrators shouted ‘shame, shame’; one local councillor, Shahana Hanif, accused the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of ‘attacking our communities’. The anti-ICE protestors are in the minority The protests began in L.A. last Friday when ICE officers began rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in

On the night of Monday, June 9, Russia carried out a combined strike on the territory of Ukraine, launching ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as attack drones. The first to fly, as always, were the so-called Shaheds, invaded into the country from various directions. Not long ago, American leadership meant something We in Kyiv anxiously awaited the continuation, remembering that in a recent telephone conversation with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin had warned he would have to respond to Ukraine’s major drone attack on Russian airbases. We also understood that the US president preferred not to interfere, portraying the bloody war as a conflict between “two young children fighting like