This is indeed the object of the game, and G7 leaders are playing it remarkably well. Five stars for 2026 so far

A world ruled by force rather than law is a world where no one is safe. That's exactly where this train is heading.

My whole life, advocating war has been fed to me as “the adult position,” akin to drinking your coffee black or reading the business section of the newspaper. Let’s be very clear — war is the childish nonsense of impulsive destructive idiots playing baby-brained video games with real human lives.

In the Cold War exhibit at the Canadian War Museum, there's an amusing ticker on the TV, saying 'NDP urges calm' We used to laugh (the joke being the flaky lefty party hand-wrings as the world burns) And now, G7 leaders are basically urging calm, while ironically, the NDP statement is very solid

Carney and Starmer’s statements are almost identical. The fine art of diplomacy Hoping Trump will read the ‘we also hated Maduro’ opening paragraph Hoping the rest of the world sees the ‘we like international law’ paragraph under it

Not for the first time, where other European leaders wring their hands over Trump, Spain’s Sánchez draws a line. A stance that is only looking more sensible (more *realistic*) as time goes on.

Look, it’s all very unclear now, but we simply have to wait for the full facts to be released via proper, official channels (Pete’s family WhatsApp group called ‘Memes&CryptoTips’, to which they accidentally add a famous international journalist)

3. On the global level, this is the latest breach in the foundation of a liberal international order that, for all its failings and hypocrisies, remains better than any historical alternative. There is no way Trump can claim these prerogatives for the US and expect other powers to eschew them.

2. On the regional level, this is part of an attempt to impose a new order on the Western Hemisphere, one that posits the US as hegemonic power, neocolonial extractivist, offshore gendarme and imperial overlord, depending on the moment and context. Today was all four depending on where you tuned in.

And if appeasement and flattery fail to rein Trump in, leaders are going to need their publics to a) understand the danger we’re all in, and b) trust leaders to implement riskier policies. Lying to the public about Trump does neither of these things

Leaders are clearly up all night, frantically trying to undo whatever godawful, eejit stunt Trump has now pulled. Leaders know the world is in deep danger. Gaslighting the public by effusively praising these same stunts denies people information they need to understand the world

It is deeply corrosive to public understanding of the peril we’re in, and to public trust in politicians, for leaders to keep heaping effusive praise on Trump and acting like his behaviour is normal and reasonable

Keep coming back to this. I understand why many world leaders are issuing cautious, measured statements But evidently, their real reactions were more like “WTF DEAR GOD THIS IS MAD” I worry measured statements tell populations that the US is behaving normally

I’m sure to Trump this looks like strength but to everyone else calculating their security options this morning it's more confirmation that US power is capricious and the only insurance policy is a nuclear one

Pretty sure when you’re the only member state at the UN voting against resolutions on sexual violence and food security for children, you are the baddies passblue.com/2025/12/30/t...

"If you don’t decide in advance which fights you want, you will spend time bogged down in arguments you never meant to have....This govt is fighting noisily and expensively on terrain it didn’t select, while hesitating on battles that could define it" howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/governing-...

It is to Canada's shame we have not spoken out or supported a Canadian judge being sanctioned by the US Her life is frozen. She cannot use credit cards, travel, move money, or access email. This is not sustainable www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...

It's notable how sincerely and genuinely defence folks believe Europe will be invaded by Russia in the next five years You can disagree with their analysis. And it's definitely not penetrated general public understanding. But it is shaping decision-maker thinking www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Where do we go next on gender equality? My suggestions: - The fight is local - Getting to grips with trade, economics and defence - Men and masculinities - Renewed global norms and frameworks - Chess pieces in place for post-2030 ldhconsulting.org/2026/01/02/w...

A very smart thread with advice for Canada, that Canada is firmly doing the exact opposite of

Start your year off with kind people, children singing, and glimmers of hope for a better world

A tour of the continent....(with some hints of diaspora) I will add Maaza Mengiste's Shadow King (Ethiopia), Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter (Senegal), Jennifer Makumbi's A Girls is a Body of Water (Uganda) and anything by Gaëlle Bélem (Réunion)

The public are nowhere near as consumed with anti-immigrant hatred as the political class believe, but if only one side is making an argument (and has most of the press onside and sets the agenda for the broadcasters) then what do you expect? www.ippr.org/articles/the...

Another joint statement by the UK, Canada and the Nordics, opposing Israel banning iNGOs from Gaza One in three health facilities will close. Aid is already at a trickle and will slow even further. 1.6m people are food insecure www.government.se/statements/2...

The UK, 2025: The Percy family, who have been feudal landlords and Dukes since 1067, are selling a parcel of land in northern England the size of Athens Local people are trying to raise £30m to buy it and protect it www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Men doing this whole “I will vanquish continents for my children” LARP is so goofy in the context of household surveys. It’s nice you’ll kill millions for your daughter, maybe we can start at doing a load of laundry for your wife who does the vast majority of household labor?

Spoiler: They used the money just as wisely as anyone else would, and it's so frustrating that this still isn't a common sense assumption to make.

"Media anti-alarmists are uncomfortable being feminized. They want to show that, yes, they’re anti-Trump, but they’re not one of those sanctimonious, hysterical, annoying, cringe liberals" newrepublic.com/article/2042...

The thing is, a lot of these men have no intent of holding up their side of the patriarchal bargain They want a woman longing for her provider, but all they’ve got are crypto scams and a podcast They’re obsessed with avoiding gold diggers but they’ve got no gold to dig

I am once again saying that incels and conservative men could date all the conservative trad wives and pick mes they want who will happily submit to them. But they don’t want that. They want to take an ambitious woman who won’t submit and break her. It’s a game to these abusive freaks.

And even worse, they demand reactionary centrist responses, where we simply have to meet these reasonable concerns about modalities of aid delivery with evidence and data And in doing so, they whitewash authoritarianism

Politicians are terrified of an electorate they think is far more authoritarian and angry and right wing than it actually is, because they are out of touch because the literal media - the thing that mediates between public and polity - is corrupted

In 2022, the US gave $17bn in humanitarian aid to the UN This year, it’s giving just $2bn and demanding reforms to go along with it Yemen, Afghanistan and Gaza are explicitly excluded www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

“Institutions of politics still reward the performance of command more than the practice of coordination” Why levers are a terrible metaphor for government, and why government should lead systems change instead howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/there-aren...

An incredible story, that Stephanie tells with such kindness and clarity

Rights have to apply to dickheads to be rights

Charlie is one of the kindest, truest people I’ve worked with. To maintain that through 21 years of elected politics is a real feat I’m glad he’s found another way to serve, in his ‘retirement’ www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

There’s huge consumer demand for European night trains. They’re fantastic! A magical way to travel But they’re being strangled by bureaucracy and investor fears www.politico.eu/article/why-...

If you’re going to advocate chucking your country’s admirable and important values which you think make us supposedly superior to The Others and act to protect *everyone* the minute they get tested by a very unsympathetic case, then of what worth are these values?

Labour will somehow manage the double whammy of giving Farage the high ground on racism, and setting a horrendous precedent that we strip non-white people of citizenship for awful tweets www.bbc.com/news/article...

There’s something to be written about the longer-standing ultra catholic strain within the MAGA leadership, that’s now being translated to a British Anglican version by nationalist far right figures

Tommy Robinson carol service is really just the beginning of the CoE’s coming crisis, in which they’re going to have to figure out what to do about their former congregations becoming radicalised into a version of the faith that is aggressive, disavows empathy and has contempt for the weak

As people continue to lose faith in politics and its possibilities, we will continue to see identitarian, mostly (but not exclusively) nationalist movements wrapped up in a religious fervour that religious bodies and institutions will not know how to deal with

damn. I just searched and the piece I wrote for them years ago about domestic violence and Title IX is gone

Macron, Starmer, Merz and Kallas are currently clearing their diaries for the next three days for damage control Once again, trying to find a way to undo whatever nonsense Trump has dreamed up, while appearing to entirely agree with his total genius

For politicians reviewing 2025, the lesson should be; it is not enough to manage without explaining why you are making the choices you are.

Man who bought up 33,000 acres of farmland to avoid tax and moved his business to Singapore after the Brexit he voted for wants your sympathy.

The upper class in Britain sees itself as almost class-less. The benevolent, neutral custodians of the nation Everyone else has politics. They are above such petty notions

There are hundreds of community leaders, youth workers, teachers, who have worked hard and learned leadership the hard way They’d be an asset to Parliament. But their families haven’t owned castles for 600 years

“The reason why Israel is suddenly recognising Somaliland, which has been a breakaway region for decades, is because they and the US are working on a plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians from Gaza to there-despite the risk to regional security” Julia McFarlane BBCNews apnews.com/article/isra...