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Exclusive: Tan Dhesi says Argentinian threats make it more crucial than ever that PM increase defence spendingJavier Milei’s threats to the Falkland Islands make it even more important that Andy Burnham increase defence spending immediately, according to the Labour chair of the defence committee.Tan Dhesi said the comments by the Argentinian president this week show why the government should raise military spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. But he said Burnham’s plans remain mired in confusion after the prime minister appeared to reassure him that the 2030 target would be hit, only for Downing Street to later retreat. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump’s unprecedented oil deal with Venezuela, of which the full details have yet to be made public, is already destined to “backfire” in a spectacular fashion, academic and economic expert Francisco Rodríguez argued on Saturday.“There is still a lot we don’t know about the deal,” Rodríguez wrote in a guest essay published Saturday in The New York Times. “Mr. Trump claims that it will come at no cost to American taxpayers and that it will serve to replenish the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is running at its lowest level since 1982.”Announced last week, the deal will see the United States be granted rights to Venezuela’s untapped oil fields for 100 years, with the U.S. government taking a direct stake in Venezuela's oil reserves — the single-largest proven oil reserves on earth — through a partnership with a private company run by controversial oil baron Alejandro Betancourt López.The deal, however, will likely fail to meet any of the Trump administration’s stated objectives, Rodríguez argued.“This is a country where no one should be surprised to see privatization fail. Nor is this deal likely to make a dent in global oil prices, which the Trump administration has presented as one of the key goals of the plan,” Rodríguez wrote.“It will take years for Venezuelan oil production to increase in a significant way — and even if it does, it will not keep pace with the projected growth in world demand over the next 25 years. Any oil that ends up in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will not be sold in global markets.”The Trump administration has also claimed that the oil deal would help with Venezuela’s “democratic transition.” This goal too, Rodríguez argued, was destined to fail.“Over the past two decades, Venezuelans have lived through the destruction of what was once a prosperous economy and a vibrant democracy. The United States now has both the opportunity and the responsibility to help them rebuild their country,” Rodríguez wrote.“A hazy privatization process that reduces accountability, deepens inequalities and sidesteps institutional reform will not bring democratic change closer. It will push it further away.”

US president suggests he might support his Argentinian ally’s drive to reclaim sovereignty of disputed islandsDonald Trump has long embraced vengeance. “I am your retribution,” he declared to an admiring audience at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he commenced his march back to the White House.It is unlikely Argentina, and far-flung holdovers of the former British empire, were on the US president’s mind at the time. Continue reading...

Canada slapped back at President Donald Trump as he made bizarre threats about trade deficits, a new report shows.Canada will no longer discuss sharing critical minerals as an asset with the United States, Politico reported Saturday.“I don’t get mad," Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson reportedly said. "I get even."Hodgson — referencing the drunken frat-boy classic "Animal House" — was referring to the North Coast Transmission Line, slated to go live by 2032 and double electricity capacity in British Columbia, according to the report. The transmission line will power new critical mineral mines near the Alaskan border — which Hodgson was reportedly quick to point out. "Nothing would make me happier than just saying, ‘You know what, we’re going to use all our electricity here,'" he said. "We’re going to build new mines, new processing facilities."Meanwhile, Trump has been mounting threats against Canada, claiming Friday he could cut trade off entirely and cause Canada's economy to collapse. "Canada would be in a heap of trouble," said Trump. "If I say, 'We're not going to trade,' that means 95 percent of their trade gets wiped out."His comment was subjected to multiple fact checks from critics who argued Trump didn't understand trade deficits and noted Mexico does not provide the U.S. with Hot Tamales, a candy produced in Pennsylvania. Politico accused Trump of a similar misrepresentation."Although Trump keeps insisting otherwise, the U.S. relies heavily on Canadian resources," the news outlet reported. "Washington views Canada’s stockpiles as a bulwark against Chinese dominance of the global market in critical minerals essential to defense, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and virtually every piece of tech."

President Donald Trump downplayed the severity of the Iran war when pressed by reporters in the Oval Office during an executive order signing ceremony on Friday."The Vice President said yesterday that he would not describe the conflict with Iran as a war…If this is not a war, what exactly is it?" asked ABC's Rachel Scott. Trump replied, "I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us. It's not a big thing."When Trump was reminded that 18 people have died and are facing "record-long deployments," Trump shot back, "Why is it record long? How long were we in Vietnam? We're in 5 months now."The president's flippant comments earned instant outrage from commenters on social media."A quote — 'small potatoes' — that Republicans would absolutely hang over the head of a Dem president if he uttered it," wrote The Bulwark's Sam Stein. "Underscores the disparity in the messaging machines between the two parties.""Ordering Americans into harm’s way is maybe the most solemn and serious responsibility of the Commander in Chief. And this guy calls it small potatoes?" wrote Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), himself a veteran of the Iraq War. "Every chicken hawk cheerleading this reckless war owns his disrespect of our troops and their patriotism.""Every day he does the most un-American thing possible, and every day it's something new," wrote Tucson-based attorney Joe St. Louis. "I thought I was numb to his callousness, but God this makes by blood boil."

President Donald Trump's "incoherence" in a little-noticed exclusive interview with GB News caught the eye of a British journalist who was startled by what he witnessed, he said Friday. During the interview, a rambling Trump managed to touch on subjects ranging from immigration to Meghan Markle's return to Britain, prompting iPaper columnist James Ball to argue the president was an “elderly man” who no longer had a grasp of reality.“Trump has always been a little chaotic, with at best a loose relationship with the truth," he wrote. "But based on his remarks in an extended interview with GB News, the US President is only getting worse. In the space of minutes, he managed what amounted to little more than a concentrated stream of nonsense about the UK, Iran, and even the Falkland Islands.” Ball took umbrage with Trump's claim that he was "saving your country" — arguing the U.S. president was doing something very different.“The US President seems fixated on securing the gratitude of British and European politicians for a war they didn’t want him to start, which never secured congressional approval, and for which he’s never formally set out any goals," the columnist wrote. "It also doesn’t seem to have made us any safer – quite the opposite.”According to Trump, England stood at risk of an imminent nuclear threat from Iran, to which Ball replied, “This is an odd way to understand a nuclear capability.”“Countries don’t immediately launch nuclear missiles as soon as they obtain them – instead, they generally use them to try to deter invasion by their adversaries,” he reasoned. “Why Iran would immediately launch its theoretical nukes against European nations who hadn’t involved themselves in the war against it is never spelt out by Trump.”Ball pointed out that US presidents rarely give interviews to foreign media, and only when they have ”something important to say, or a serious message that he needed to make sure reached the people of that country.”On that count, Trump failed, Ball argued.“Instead, it was a display of an increasingly elderly and incoherent man, ranting only semi-coherently about world affairs," he wrote. "Trump used to be a man who wanted to look in control at all times. Now, though, he just looks like he’s lost it." - YouTube youtu.be

Togo-sponsored resolution called to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to GreenlandThe United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump issued a menacing threat Friday to blow up the United States’ global trade in an attempt to coerce the Federal Reserve to cave to his demands.“We should have the LOWEST RATE of any country in the World, like ‘the old days.’ Without the United States agreeing to allow them their big surpluses, and we could stop that immediately, they would no longer be considered financially ELITE!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.“LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ridiculous and very costly Tariff decision, strongly acknowledged ‘the President’ has an absolute right to do. ITS BETTER THAN TARIFFS! The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart - BE PATRIOTS for a change.”Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said Thursday that a possible interest rate hike was in play and would be determined by a forthcoming inflation report set to be published next week. Meanwhile, rising oil prices sparked by Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran have inflated costs and deepened inflation concerns among experts.“High interest rates put the U.S.A. at a very unfair disadvantage, and I won’t allow that to happen!” Trump continued.