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    Trump wants our attention. Let’s stop falling for his geopolitical clickbait | Catherine De Vries

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    Whether he’s targeting Greenland, tariffs or Iran, Trump’s agenda is to distract – because a Europe that is always reacting is never planningWhen Donald Trump reassured the world that he would not, after all, use force to acquire Greenland – after days of threatening as much – he was doing what he does best: turning geopolitics into a spectacle. Whether Trump ever truly believed the US should acquire a vast Arctic territory belonging to a Nato ally is secondary to the fact that, once again, he ensured that Europe and the rest of the world were focused on his agenda.Trump is not a politician who responds to events – he seeks to make them. Not because he is deeply invested in policy detail, but because he understands a defining feature of contemporary politics: attention is power. In an era of information overload, there is no scarcity of data or analysis; what is lacking is attention. And whoever controls that controls the debate. Continue reading… More

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      The Returning Nightmare: Europe’s Far Right and the Fading of Democratic Memory

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      In April 1945, on a surviving piece of wall amid the ruins of Berlin, someone had written a chilling message: “We will return.” For decades, neither Nazism nor fascism managed to take root again in Europe. Yet today, the rapid rise of far-right parties across the continent suggests that the shadows of that dark era… Continue reading The Returning Nightmare: Europe’s Far Right and the Fading of Democratic Memory
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      in US Politics

      ‘They threw us out like baggage’: Russian family deported from US to Costa Rica still in limbo

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      Alexander, his wife and son, who fled danger under Putin, fighting for security – and compensation – after torment of migration journeyAlmost a year after Donald Trump strong-armed a deal with Costa Rica to receive 200 people from other countries who were being deported from the United States after being denied the right to request asylum, a small handful remain there in legal limbo and fighting for compensation.The asylum seekers flown to Costa Rica in chains last February, despite not being criminals, were from 20 other countries, chiefly parts of Asia and Africa and included 81 children. They had all tried to request refuge at the US-Mexico border but were quickly removed from American soil after Trump returned to the White House and effectively closed the US asylum system. In the face of a variety of political difficulties with deporting them to their native countries, the Trump administration sent them to Costa Rica, as he did others to Panama. Continue reading… More

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      The Guardian view on Europe’s payments problem: sovereignty starts at the till | Editorial

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      Donald Trump’s leverage over Visa and Mastercard highlights a blind spot in Europe’s ‘independence’ strategy. Emulating India’s response might helpWhen the centre-left French politician Aurore Lalucq posted a warning last Wednesday that Donald Trump could cut off Europe from international payment systems, the clip went viral. To many, her message made sense. After all, if Mr Trump was prepared to test allies’ boundaries over Greenland, it is not far-fetched to imagine Visa and Mastercard becoming used against a recalcitrant Europe.The US can turn off payment systems it controls. Russia learned this first-hand after sanctions were rightly applied for its invasion of Ukraine. As up to 60% of Russian retail transactions depended on Visa and Mastercard for authorisation, the ban left many ordinary people stranded without access to funds and unable to buy goods. Under Mr Trump, America’s goal is to “help Europe correct its current trajectory”. Given such talk, Ms Lalucq, who chairs the European parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee, is not wrong in calling for an “Airbus of European payments” to protect the EU. Continue reading… More

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      How Domestic Racism Is Undermining Finland’s Global Credibility

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      Finland has long occupied a rare moral high ground in global politics. A country routinely ranked among the world’s most transparent, least corrupt and most sustainable states has built a reputation that extends far beyond its borders. In Asia, Finland is seen as a quiet exemplar of social trust. In Europe, as a principled small… Continue reading How Domestic Racism Is Undermining Finland’s Global Credibility
      The post How Domestic Racism Is Undermining Finland’s Global Credibility appeared first on Fair Observer. More