This is a definition of "need" that I am not familiar with.

Frankly: it is ridiculous that Russia (population circa 145 million, awful demographics, GDP of about the same size as Italy) is a security threat to Europe that requires US help to manage. But it currently is. Reversing that is the first aim. And very very achievable.

So as is typical, in his interminable presser Trump dodged answering on Greenland and NATO. But he was notably less combative than in his social media posts and his note to the Norwegian PM. Whether that's because he's less coherent when speaking or because he's walking back slightly, isn't clear

Ice Age art! A lovely little horse figurine sculpted from mammoth tusk around 15,000 years ago! Known as ‘The Little Horse of Lourdes’ it was found in 1886 in the cave of Les Espélugues, Lourdes, Haute-Pyrénées, France. 📷 by me. #Archaeology

Wednesday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

There’s still a taboo in the media about describing Trump’s cognitive state. It’s rooted in the idea that the US President being insane sounds so preposterous that it must be an inaccurate slur. But it’s the hard truth. All of this is a result of Trump being an unstable narcissistic megalomaniac.

Amazing moment on French TV. A French judge explains how Trump sent people from the US Embassy basically trying to intimidate her during Le Pen's trial for embezzlement - something they've done to other judges around the world.

Magnificent.

It’s Penguin Awareness Day which seems like a great excuse to post the greatest ever Wikipedia edit.

@simonjackbbc.bsky.social: ‘Speech from #Carney at #Davos is quite something. Basically saying rules based order is over, other countries must band together to protect themselves against the US. That insurance against the US comes at a cost but so be it. Companies+countries must choose their side.’

DUTCH WARN TULIP BOOM COULD FALTER WITHOUT WIDER ADOPTION

Some perspective: The S&P opened down -1.3% on Trump's Greenland saber-rattling. That's $750 billion of wealth destroyed -- roughly equal to estimates of the value of Greenland. And so ~in dollar terms~ his shenanigans have already cost the US one Greenland, and we've got nothing to show for it.

In January 2025 Silicon Valley's elite lined up behind Trump as he was sworn in for a second term. They've enjoyed a lucrative year since, underscoring Washington's alignment with Big Tech – and its transactional nature. An #FTEdit animated 🧵 on how tech titans have become even richer under Trump 👇

55% of Americans are opposed to Trump trying to buy Greenland, while 86% are opposed to using force to take it. And yet President Veruca Salt wants it, he wants it, he wants it

Google search, Amazon retail, and various social media sites didn’t have to cajole users, scolding people that imagined future benefits won’t materialize unless they adopt a product that doesn’t interest them. People just, you know, used the tech. By choice.

A Danish pension fund, AkademikerPension, has announced plans to sell its U.S. Treasury holdings (about $100 M) by the end of January, citing investment risk concerns. *This is a single fund’s decision and does not signal a broader collapse of demand for U.S. government debt.

Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She was 95.

Anne Applebaum: "Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize." I fully subscribe to this analysis.

He's angry at Norway, so Greenland must suffer? Insane as well as stupid....

🚨 "The EU needs Britain’s arms industry. And Britain needs the EU economic and security blanket." 📉 "By 2025 UK GDP per capita was 6–8 per cent lower than it would have been without Brexit." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/trump-starmer-tariffs-greenland-uk-nato-eu-b2902930.html

I’m confused, so Trump is setting up some parallel international governance structure outside the UN, under his personal control, with a $1bn bribe demanded for membership, and some people take this seriously? Why is anyone treating this with anything other than contempt?

Meme of the day

I suspect the vast majority of those Americans assume that one day they can simply say 'reset' to us, and all will be well. It won't be. America has never ever threatened a European democracy with invasion. Until now. We are in a new era.

All impeachable actions. But remember in Trump's first term, people would talk about the majority of the Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment about presidential fitness. The fact people no longer do so is not because Trump has become more fit, but because the Cabinet's first loyalty is to Trump.

This is a very good point. The November 2025 US National Security Strategy never mentions the Arctic at all. The idea that it's a genuine security priority for the Trump administration is not credible.

Every time the Trump regime uses the words "funded protesters" and "outside agitators" news outlets need to cut to this photo from last week. ICE has invaded these communities. Outside agitators don't show up in their fucking bathrobes.

Based on recent reports from i24NEWS journalist Amichai Stein, Erfan Soltani was allegedly beaten to death in Iranian custody after his execution was postponed. However, this hasn't been confirmed by official sources or other major outlets yet.

Donald Trump, who has cheated on ALL of his wives, is the worst person to point a moral finger at gay people. Fuck him.

Over half the world's population speaks more than one language. Would you have guessed? The current nationalist movement sweeping the world with its hate & noise gives us the impression that most people reject diversity. We need to be louder in all the languages of the world. #GoodMorning, everyone.

Brave Ukrainian energy workers,day and night,in severe frost,are repairing Ukraine’s energy networks destroyed by Russia Russia is trying to organize a “cold holodomor” -an energy genocide Russia is killing the weak&the helpless.It subjects them to torture.We are talking about millions of people.

Europe has - in technical terms - an absolute sod load of potential economic leverage over the United States. It has turned the other cheek due to security concerns. The US seems intent on demonstrating that it will not guarantee European security. So Europe may start using that leverage.

Let's see how the EU responds. Packages of counter-tariffs on US goods were prepared but unilaterally disarmed before the EU-US trade deal last summer. The Commission will have those lying on the shelf that EU leaders could quickly trigger. 4/

UK and EU trade deals with Trump look completely dead now The reality is you can't do a deal with a man who doesn't believe he is bound by any promise or law

This map exposes the Greenland lie. The US used to have a massive military footprint here. Today, they operate just ONE base. If Trump were actually worried about Russian vessels, he would simply open more bases, which Denmark allows

Wow, sure would be pretty crazy if a ton of experts in the artificial intelligence field relentlessly warned everyone about this state of affairs being inevitable over and over for years.

I genuinely don't understood how America took the emoluments clause -- the common-sense bar on a president using his powers to line his own pockets, a law children can understand -- and just said, nah, that doesn't apply for our Very Special Boy.

New data shows a massive increase in AI-generated child porn last year; thousands of videos detected, and "nearly two-thirds were classified as “Category A”—the most severe category, which includes penetration, sexual torture, and bestiality." Reporting from @matteowong.bsky.social

If he thinks he got the Peace Prize but we all know he didn’t, can we just give him a scale model of Greenland with some sort of PowerPoint certificate?

What we still don't know: what the Trump family cut on this deal is. Probably 10%.

Dit schept precies 0 vertrouwen in dit kabinet. Als dit je eerste voorstel is, zijn de prioriteiten helder. Hoe denken ze dat dit overkomt op hun kiezers?

In the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement with Denmark, the US unambiguously recognized ‘the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark’ over Greenland. https://bit.ly/4qH0yug

I am with Macron on this. We need to ween ourselves off the USA as far as is practically possible. They are not an ally anymore and we need to develop our own capabilities as far as possible.

Trump is selling seized Venezuelan oil and putting the cash in a bank account in Qatar. Nothing to see here. www.semafor.com/article/01/1...

99% chance this is what they mean

Danish and Greenland ministers just left the White House. It did not go well. I have a long discussion here of Trump's attempt to get Greenland and why it could lead to World War III. (Gifted.) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

It's finally happening. The Swedish prime minister just announced that a pan-European force is arriving in #Greenland as we speak. No word yet on whether UK forces are among them.