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Storm Marta sweeps Iberian peninsula just days after Storms Kristin and Leonardo brought deadly flooding and major damageSpain and Portugal have endured another storm over the weekend, just days after the deadly flooding and major damage caused by Storm Kristin and Storm Leonardo last week. Storm Marta passed over the Iberian peninsula on Saturday, bringing fresh torrential rain and killing two people. Storm Kristin killed at least five people after it made landfall on 28 January with Storm Leonardo claiming another victim last Wednesday.The outlook for this week is for more rain across Spain, Portugal and France, especially across north-west Portugal, where more than 100mm is possible during the first half of the week. Some of the heaviest of the rain will transfer to southern Italy and western parts of Greece and Turkey later in the week. Continue reading...

Whenever Donald Trump mucks around in any serious international situation, as the world’s self-anointed savior, odds are things will only get worse. Iran is a good example.In 2015, the US was part of an international coalition that reached agreement with Iran that imposed restrictions on its civilian nuclear enrichment program in exchange for sanctions’ relief. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was agreed to by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — as well as Germany and the EU, and supported by over 100 nations.According to the Obama White House, the agreement “blocks every possible pathway Iran could use to build a nuclear bomb while ensuring -- through a comprehensive, intrusive, and unprecedented verification and transparency regime -- that Iran’s nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful moving forward.”For three years the agreement worked as intended, with regular monitoring and verification of Iranian compliance by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Every indication suggested that the agreement would remain in force, given the power of the broad international coalition that negotiated it and the consequences if Iran failed to comply. Then in 2018, President Donald Trump blew up the agreement, pulling the US out. Renewing US sanctions, Trump claimed JCPOA was a “terrible agreement” — i.e. because Barack Obama helped negotiate it — and Trump said he would negotiate a much better deal. Of course, Trump never negotiated a better deal, like the better deal he never negotiated after pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. With US sanctions renewed despite Iran's compliance with the agreement, Tehran unsurprisingly balked at continuing to cooperate, and the JCPOA fell apart. Had Trump not pulled the US out, the JCPOA could very well have remained in existence today, as President Joe Biden would have maintained US involvement from 2021-2025. Instead, there has been no regular IAEA monitoring of Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Iran has contended that it has no intention of building nuclear weapons, and US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard concurred last year. However, the situation has remained precarious. What would not have occurred had the JCPOA remained in place with US membership? First, Trump would have had no rationale for bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2025, in violation of international law. The US would still be part of the international coalition that was ensuring Iran’s nuclear compliance.Second, Trump would not be threatening more military action if it Iran doesn't come to the negotiating table, using as pretext the lie that Iran is building a nuclear weapon. By pulling the US out of the JCPOA in 2018, Trump has created the very real possibility of yet another illegal US invasion. With Iran staring down the barrel of a gun, Trump will try and accomplish what was successfully negotiated in 2015, then destroyed by him in 2018. For that, Trump deserves nothing but scorn — no matter where his reckless, irresponsible saber rattling leads. In addition, since Trump reimposed heavy US sanctions in 2018, the Iranian economy has contracted severely. The sanctions have contributed to soaring inflation and unemployment, a collapsing currency, less accessible and affordable health care, and millions driven to poverty. The sanctions have played a central role in the economic crisis that helped trigger the current violent protests and the Iranian government’s brutal response. Trump is threatening military action against the government stemming from protests by citizens whose economic woes he helped create. In dealing with Iran, Trump has leaned heavily into the narcissism, megalomania, duplicity, and power-addiction that define him. By peevishly pulling the US out of the JCPOA, he turned a situation that had been dealt with successfully by the powerful international coalition into an international crisis. Results also include the possibility of a broader Middle Eastern conflict. Trump’s high-stakes involvements in the Russian-Ukrainian and Israeli-Palestinian wars have produced similarly disastrous results. By siding with Vladimir Putin and limiting US support to Ukraine, Trump strengthened Putin’s hand tremendously. Russia has continued the killing and devastation in Ukraine with impunity and is now practically assured to be rewarded handsomely for invading a sovereign democratic nation. By siding with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump supported Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people with military aid and refusing to condemn atrocities. Trump ensured that there will never be a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so long as Netanyahu is in power and that the horrific suffering of the Palestinian people will only worsen. At the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, narrator Nick Carraway comments on how chaos created by Daisy and Tom led to the deaths of Gatsby, Myrtle, and George Wilson. Nick says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness … and let other people clean up the mess that they made.” It will take the American people and freedom-loving nations of the world years to clean up the mess Trump is making. It will be left to history to reflect on the incalculable human damage that Trump has inflicted, and he is only getting started. Tom Tyner is a freelance editorialist, satirist, political analyst, blogger, author and retired English instructor.

Donald Trump's latest economic threat will backfire, according to an economist who said that, if the president follows through, a major crisis will be heightened.Peter Schiff, a financial commentator and radio personality who has been raising alarms about America’s affordability crisis, weighed in over the weekend. Previously, Trump himself went nuclear when Schiff did an appearance on Fox News.“Why would Fox and Friends Weekend (of all things?) put on a ‘Stockbroker’ named Peter Schiff, a Trump hating loser who has already proven to be wrong. Either the show made a mistake, or it is heading in a different direction,” he wrote in December.But as it relates to foreign tariffs, Schiff says Trump is about to make a big mistake."Trump threatened to hit Americans with 25% tariffs on imports from countries that directly or indirectly do business with Iran," Schiff said, noting the follow-up effects of that move."Since China does business with Iran and nearly every country does business with China, if Trump follows through the affordability crisis will get worse," the chief economist and global strategist for Europac then added Sunday.A user on X responded to Schiff by Asking Elon Musk's AI chatbot if the take was a correct one. Grok replied, "Trump did post on Truth Social in January 2026 that countries 'doing business' with Iran would face 25% tariffs on their US trade. He signed an executive order on Feb 6 formalizing this... China trades with Iran, so it could be targeted, which might increase US import costs if implemented."

Eight children including two infants among dead in vehicle carrying displaced people, says Sudan Doctors NetworkA drone attack by a paramilitary group has hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said on Saturday.The attack by the Rapid Support Forces took place close to the city of Er Rahad in North Kordofan province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s war. The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area, the group said in a statement. Among the dead children were two infants. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump walked back his criticism of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's agreement to transfer ownership of a strategically located island to Mauritius.The 79-year-old president has complained that the United Kingdom plans to decolonize the Chagos Islands, including the site of the U.S. military base on Diego Garcia, but he said Starmer had reassured him on the transfer of sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago."I have had very productive discussions with Prime Minister Keir Starmer about the Island of Diego Garcia," Trump posted on Truth Social. "It is the site of a major U.S. Military Base, strategically situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean and, therefore, of great importance to the National Security of the United States.""I understand that the deal Prime Minister Starmer has made, according to many, the best he could make," he added. "However, if the lease deal, sometime in the future, ever falls apart, or anyone threatens or endangers U.S. operations and forces at our Base, I retain the right to Militarily secure and reinforce the American presence in Diego Garcia."Trump vowed to keep the base at Diego Garcia no matter what Mauritius might decide in the future."Let it be known that I will never allow our presence on a Base as important as this to ever be undermined or threatened by fake claims or environmental nonsense," he posted. "Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP."

A former US State Department employee has outlined what a "worst-case scenario" would look like following the expiry of the New START deal. The treaty was a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the US and Russia, which expired today (February 5). Donald Trump claimed that, should the deal expire, the administration would move to put another one into effect, though details of this have not yet been confirmed. Russia, who suspended its participation in the New START deal in 2023, confirmed they would still abide by the numerical limits imposed by the deal. Rose Gottemoeller, the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security at the US State Department, has sounded the alarm on what could be the worst-case scenario for the deal's expiration.She told CNN that no longer imposing a numerical limit on Russia's weapons of mass destruction "leaves us in the dust while we're still trying to get organized and the Chinese are building up steadily again."Gottemoeller added a year-long extension could be of benefit to the US, though there is much work to be done when it comes to "plan and prepare" a new deal. She added, "They have active warhead production lines as well as active production lines for other related components for their missile systems that they would be able to upload rapidly. We know they have that industrial capacity available, and we do not have it."Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, disagreed and suggested the treaty is not as powerful a deterrent as the US nuclear arsenal itself. He said, "In theory, it is nice to have limitations, but the main goal of US nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear war, not to have treaties."Trump was flippant when asked about the treaty last month, saying, "If it expires, it expires. We'll do a better agreement."

Outrage erupted Wednesday after The Washington Post announced it would lay off more than 300 people from its newsroom — including a reporter in the middle of a warzone in Ukraine.The reporter received the news under harsh conditions while covering the war in Ukraine. "I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I'm devastated," reporter Lizzie Johnson wrote on X.The move to cut one-third of the staff was met with sharp criticism. "A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world," journalist and professor Bill Grueskin wrote on Bluesky."I am appalled by this. please be in touch if you’re interested in continuing to cover Russia/Ukraine, either full time or as a stringer. least i can do is introduce you to the folks making our relevant hiring decisions," author and political scientist Ian Bremmer wrote on X."I’m so sorry. Thank you for your courageous and indispensable work," New York Times columnist David French wrote on X."So sorry my friend - I truly feel for all of you guys but particularly for those dodging fire," CNN anchor Jim Sciutto wrote on X.

Donald Trump has set his sights on a post-Greenland target and may use tariffs as a way of hindering the country in question. The president's administration carried out an operation in Venezuela and then shifted tact to Greenland earlier this month. While Trump confirmed the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, his campaign in Greenland was far less successful. The president was met with strong resistance from European nations at the time, and it seems he has not yet given up in subsuming the country into US territory. For now though, The Hill columnist Jose Chalhoub believes the president has already shifted his attention to a European nation which could offer oil reserves like Venezuela. Chalhoub wrote, "In Venezuela, enforcement actions continued, even as headlines faded, disrupting supply to Asia and exposing billions in Chinese investments. Cuba, heavily dependent on those flows, was warned that oil would move only on Washington’s terms. The region became a testing ground for how much pressure energy leverage can exert before governments cave."The Americas, then, are a rehearsal. The real audience is Europe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine abruptly ended decades of European dependence on its energy. "A costly divorce — roughly $1,500 per person — was unavoidable. American suppliers surged in, such that the U.S. now rivals Norway as the European Union’s main source of oil, and it is also the source of nearly 60 percent of its liquified natural gas."Despite European countries considering the US an ally, it may not stop Trump from using the economy to his advantage, freezing out some nations who do not give in to his demands. Chalhoub added, "Europe reassured itself that America is an ally, bound by mutual restraint and shared values. But that assumption deserves scrutiny. "Trump’s tariffs demonstrated how readily economic ties can be weaponized. As tensions with Denmark and Greenland escalated, Europeans faced a sobering question: If energy becomes leverage, will Trump take a page from Putin’s playbook?"Europe’s vulnerability is structural. Energy is purchased nationally, not collectively. Pressure applied to a few can fracture solidarity among many. Matching coercion with coercion would invite escalation and play to Washington’s strengths."The gravest mistake would be to continue with the delusion that the U.S. will always be a benign partner. Even an imperfect rules-based order is infinitely preferable to a world governed by oil. Should international restraint dissolve, Venezuela will not be an anomaly, but a warning — the opening of chapter of an era in which power is measured by who controls the tap."