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— Three ex-US diplomats drew a sharp parallel between Donald Trump and Liz Truss — warning that turmoil in US Treasuries may signal a loss of safe-haven status, echoing Britain’s 2022 market meltdown.
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— Le Pen’s ban from any election has derailed her 2027 presidential bid, triggering turmoil within her party. Doubts are mounting over her designated successor as voters may turn to alternatives amid accusations of hypocrisy over the party’s demands to be treated differently in the face of justice.
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— Donald Trump’s presidency revives Turkey’s EU ambitions as European leaders, driven by security concerns, reconsider Ankara’s value — armed with NATO’s second-largest F-16 fleet and strategic leverage.
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— Trump’s coalition faces brewing civil war: economic nationalists pine for industrial revival, while techno-elites chase AI utopia. Ideological clashes loom in a paradoxical anti-elite elite. Bannon versus Musk.
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— A satirical take on US-Russia diplomacy under Donald Trump, proposing a ‘merger’ of their foreign services to cut costs. With Marco Rubio echoing Sergei Lavrov’s rhetoric, why not streamline the messaging?
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— John le Carré’s The Tailor of Panama eerily foreshadows today’s geopolitical landscape, echoing Trumpian rhetoric. If ex-spy le Carré saw the future, could ex-KGB Putin possess a similar prescience?
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— Washington’s political chaos mirrors a high-stakes video game, with Donald Trump and Elon Musk as key players, Rashmee Roshan Lall writes. Reality blurs as theatrics, power moves, and dramatic proclamations dominate the scene.
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— Donald Trump embraces a ‘world king’ persona, influencing global politics with imperial ambitions. His return energises Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, despite legal troubles, but can Trump’s influence truly reshape Brazil’s political future?
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— Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration sparks unsettling parallels to dystopian fiction, with his “manifest destiny” rhetoric, Mars ambitions, and frontier ideals raising troubling questions about America’s expansionist and divisive past.
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— Ministers pledge action on sewage pollution after public pressure, but critics call plans vague and inadequate. Activists demand urgent, meaningful steps to hold water companies accountable and protect clean water access.
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— South Korea’s decisive handling of its impeached president contrasts sharply with the US’s failure to hold Trump accountable for the Capitol insurrection, exposing Biden’s Justice Department’s lack of urgency.
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— Elon Musk’s attacks on the US spending bill, labelling it “criminal” and urging electoral consequences for supporting lawmakers, highlight troubling parallels with “state capture,” exposing risks to American political integrity.
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— A devastating cyclone highlights Mayotte, a French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean, where poverty contrasts with its EU status, attracting migrants despite slums and historical ties to colonialism.
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— Donald Trump’s administration is appointing media figures like Kari Lake, Pete Hegseth, and Mehmet Oz to key roles, emphasising communication skills over journalistic integrity, raising concerns about credibility and impartiality.
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— South Korea’s swift public defiance of martial law underscores its strength as a model democracy, while its history of revenge politics highlights the risks of partisan divisions undermining democratic norms.
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— Keir Starmer pledged integrity before his election, yet his government supports secrecy over Rishi Sunak’s investments. A tribunal outcome could reshape transparency on ministers’ financial interests, challenging promises of honesty and public trust.
