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Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered an unsettling speech to European leaders at the Munich security conference Monday, receiving a standing ovation that left an analyst stunned. In an opinion piece for The Guardian published Tuesday, Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of Zeteo, described the "disturbing" 3,000-word address from the Trump administration's top diplomat. Hasan questioned Rubio's "love letter to conquest and colonialism" and called out his "gaslighting" as the son of Cuban immigrants who once called President Donald Trump a "con artist" and "lunatic." He's now telling European leaders they should support America's president. "Did they not realize that they may have been clapping for their own demise? That despite Rubio’s gentler tone and polished language, despite all his talk of transatlantic comity and unity, he was advocating for a geopolitics of vicious authoritarianism. That Rubio may be good cop to Trump’s bad, but their goal is one and the same: to make empire great again," Hasan wrote. Hasan pointed out that it wasn't just what Rubio said — it's what he didn't say. Rubio did not mention Russia or China once in his comments, and despite the concerns of European leaders, he also never spoke of Greenland. And after reports that Trump is still considering acquiring Greenland, Rubio reiterated that Trump hasn't let go of the idea of using military force to take the Denmark territory. "Astonishingly, Trump has refused to rule out the use of military force against Denmark, a Nato ally," Hasan wrote. "He has dismissed concerns about international borders and national sovereignty. And, this weekend, he sent his secretary of state to a conference in Europe that was supposed to be about collective security to deliver a speech that amounted to: America must dominate. Trump must lead. And Europe must get onboard – or else."Instead of praising Rubio, European governments should be wary, Hasan argued. "Again, I cannot emphasize this enough: European officials actually stood up in Munich and applauded a US official praising empire, while serving a US administration whose stated foreign policy goals include the imperial seizure of European territory," Hasan wrote. "Have they lost their minds? The Europeans in that audience may have told themselves that they were applauding a return to stability and even friendship with the United States," Hasan added. "In reality, they were offering a standing ovation for the return of something much uglier, bloodier, and more dangerous. Empire. And this time, it may not stop at Europe’s own borders."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s gushing praise of Viktor Orbán, the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, on Monday was called out on MS NOW as nothing more than an attempt to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump and the far-right MAGA base.During their joint appearance in Budapest, the former Florida senator exclaimed, “I can say to you with confidence that President Trump is deeply committed to your success because your success is our success, because this relationship we have here in Central Europe through you is so essential and vital for our national interests in the years to come.”That led “Morning Joe’ co-host Joe Scarborough to point out that, until Rubio joined Trump’s administration, Orbán was the type of leader that the secretary of state publicly loathed.Speaking with “Morning Joe” regular Katty Kay, Scarborough noted, “What is good for Orban is bad for America, is bad for freedom, is bad for Ukraine, and is only good for Vladimir Putin. And I suppose Donald Trump.”“It is screwed up that any American president would want anything to do with that autocratic thug,” he said. “And for Marco Rubio, a guy caddie for Marco Rubio, a guy who is this, you know, anti-communist hawk and against autocracy and supporting freedom and liberty, for him to be embracing Orbán and saying those things about Orbán, which he does not believe, it is a new low.”Kay observed, “Yeah. I was listening to that speech that he gave in Hungary, and I felt like you that it came off as somebody who was desperately trying to say something they believed in, but it was pretty obvious that they didn't.”“I mean, there is Marco Rubio,” she elaborated. “He's sort of straddling this world where he's looking to 2028 thinking, ‘I have to shore up the MAGA vote. I can't have them abandon me. I have to make sure that Donald Trump is happy.’ Although, apparently, he wasn't with the speech that he [Rubio] gave in Berlin. And make sure the Europeans are also happy, because that's actually what I believe. I still do believe in this world order where America leads. "And he tried to reconcile [with] Europeans and have them in a better position with America at the Berlin Security Conference, at the Munich Security Conference. But then he goes on, and where does he go and visit? The two countries that are the most Russia-aligned in all of Europe. He goes to Slovakia and he goes to Hungary.” - YouTube youtu.be

Many voice hope that moment will mark move away from repression and unrest and a chance to revive economyBangladesh’s new prime minister has been sworn in, sealing a dramatic comeback for the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) and formally closing the turbulent chapter that toppled Sheikh Hasina in 2024.The swearing-in of Tarique Rahman restored an elected government after 18 months of caretaker rule led by the Nobel peace prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. Continue reading...

The World Health Organisation and Donald Trump's administration still maintains contact despite the United States leaving the organization this year. While the WHO is less dependent on U.S. financing, it has made it clear that it believes the world is less safe without its involvement. Insiders and admin officials told The Guardian columnist Devi Sridhar that, even though the U.S. had severed ties with the health body, it was still in touch with it. Sridhar wrote, "We have China and Russia increasing their bilateral ties to low-income countries, tying together global health aid with their influence. And we have health threats such as the H5N1 variant of bird flu, antimicrobial resistance and continual disease outbreaks requiring rapid information-sharing and coordinated response."The U.S. government knows this. I am told that in all practical ways, Trump’s leadership team is still engaging with the agency privately, while lambasting it publicly."Sridhar suggested the reason for opening private channels and yet blasting the organization publicly is to play up the MAGA voter base ahead of the midterm elections. She wrote, "This plays to his MAGA base who need a foreign enemy to attack, while also ensuring the U.S. has the necessary global intel on health risks that the WHO holds. Yet again, Trump says one thing publicly while doing the opposite privately. "In another 'emperor has no clothes' moment, the real story is that the U.S. government is more dependent on the WHO than vice versa." Professor Sridhar, a chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, also claimed the World Health Organisation had nearly buckled under MAGA pressure in the past. "A senior WHO staff member told me that it had been pressed to align with the MAGA talking points on the links between vaccines and autism, and paracetamol in pregnancy and autism, as well as climate-change denialism," she wrote. "When the agency pushed back that this wasn’t scientifically accurate, it was reprimanded."Having studied the WHO (and co-written a book on it), it is bizarre to watch the U.S. government attacking the very agency it has been the architect and champion of for years. The entire UN system was premised on the idea that cooperation across countries could prevent collective catastrophes like the Second World War. "U.S. leadership has been central to global campaigns against smallpox, polio, HIV/Aids and reducing child mortality. Financially, too, the U.S. has been the single largest contributor to the WHO, through assessed contributions and voluntary funding tied to specific programmes."

Voting was largely peaceful in an election seen as a test of Bangladesh’s democracy after years of political turmoil The Bangladesh Nationalist party, led by Tarique Rahman, has won a sweeping victory in the country’s first election since a gen Z uprising toppled the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina.Results from the election commission confirmed the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, returning the party to power after 20 years, while the rival alliance, led by the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, won 77 seats. Continue reading...

Donald Trump is doing something to America that no foreign adversary has ever managed, something Vladimir Putin’s been dreaming about for decades: he’s convincing our oldest and closest allies, countries we fought wars to defend and liberate, and with whom we share a democratic system of government, that the United States can’t be trusted.For example, France’s government just announced it’s ripping U.S. videoconferencing platforms — Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and others — out of its government offices nationwide and replacing them with a new French-created system called “Visio.”That’s roughly 2.5 million French public employees who’ll no longer be using American digital products because the French have concluded that U.S. tech — and the Silicon Valley billionaires’ pathetic fealty to Trump, bringing him bribes and gifts and groveling in front of him — is a national security risk.And it’s not just France: the German state of Schleswig‑Holstein just moved 44,000 employees off Microsoft and over to an open-source platform, and is now considering replacing Windows with Linux. They also dumped Microsoft’s SharePoint file-sharing system, going with open source Nextcloud.We’re no longer seen as a reliable partner: many of our former allies now view us as a potential enemy.Denmark’s government, Swiss authorities, Austria, and other European countries are exploring or implementing similar moves. The EU’s senior official for tech sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen, said that Europe’s dependence on American technology “can be weaponized against us.” As ABC News reported:“A decisive moment came last year when the Trump administration sanctioned the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor after the tribunal, based in The Hague, Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an ally of President Donald Trump.“The sanctions led Microsoft to cancel [International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Asad Ahmad] Khan’s ICC email, a move that was first reported by The Associated Press and sparked fears of a ‘kill switch’ that Big Tech companies can use to turn off service at will.”It’s the same reason Canada is reconsidering purchasing F-35s from America, which would be another major economic and strategic blow to us. Under a leader as corrupt, mentally ill, and erratic as Trump, few countries are willing to have their essential tech or defense infrastructure vulnerable to his whims and tantrums.Even more shocking, the National Security Desk reports:“In a stunning shift announced today, NATO stripped the United States of command of all three of its operational‑level Joint Force Commands — the four‑star headquarters responsible for leading the Alliance in crisis and war.“For the first time since NATO’s founding, every major operational command will now be led by European officers. The United Kingdom will assume command of JFC Norfolk, Italy will take over JFC Naples, and Germany and Poland will rotate leadership of JFC Brunssum. SACEUR remains American for now, but only symbolically; today’s tectonic move makes a future European SACEUR a matter of timing, not theory.”This isn’t about Europeans “hating America” any more than than No Kings protestors calling out Trump’s fascist actions means they despise our country.Quite simply, European leaders — like millions of Americans — are looking at Trump’s naked embrace of Putin, his open contempt for democracy, and his casual threats against NATO allies and concluding that no critical tech or defense system should ever again depend on the whims of this narcissistic wannabe American strongman.Speaking of wannabe strongmen, ABC added:“Billionaire Elon Musk is also a factor. Officials worry about relying on his Starlink satellite internet system...”Analysts now explicitly warn that Trump’s and his toadies’ hostility to the EU and his willingness to weaponize sanctions and economic tools have made Silicon Valley firms look more like extensions of an unpredictable strongman who ignores the law, rather than the neutral digital providers they’ve historically positioned themselves as.After all, if you’re a European defense or interior minister, you have to ask yourself: what happens to our communications and data if Trump wakes up pissed off at us one morning because we didn’t leap high enough when he yelled “Jump!”Even more distressing, the damage isn’t just confined to tech. It’s hitting the very heart of the Western alliance system — which we largely created — that has kept relative peace since World War II. It’s been Putin’s goal for decades, and now he’s getting exactly what he wants from Trump.When Trump said he would “encourage” Russia to attack NATO allies that, he claimed, weren’t “paying up,” European leaders didn’t shrug it off as a joke. European Council President Charles Michel called the comments “reckless,” correctly saying that such statements “serve only Putin’s interest” and undermine the core promise of mutual defense. Of course, serving Putin’s — rather than America’s — interests is exactly what Trump has been doing for a decade now.Even NATO’s Secretary General felt compelled, once again, to publicly restate that Article 5 — the pledge that an attack on one is an attack on all — remains “ironclad,” slapping down the President of the United States.As Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said in response to Trump threatening to unleash Putin on Europe:“He’s more interested in aggrandizing himself and pleasing Putin than protecting our allies. It would be enough to make Reagan ill.”Schiff’s sentiments were echoed by Charles Michel, the president of the European Council:“Reckless statements on #NATO’s security and Art 5 solidarity serve only Putin’s interest. They do not bring more security or peace to the world. On the contrary, they reemphasize the need for the #EU to urgently further develop its strategic autonomy and invest in its defense.”So, here we are: the head of NATO and the head of the European Council reduced to reassuring the world that America’s president doesn’t speak for the alliance when he invites Russia to attack its members. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, couldn’t have come up with something more bizarre.European security analysts now talk openly about “low trust” and “ruptures and new realities” in their relations with the United States. One EU security study notes that Trump has shown “elements of active hostility against the European project,” highlighting his bizarre, paranoid claim that the EU was set up to “screw” the US, as well as his refusal to rule out the use of force to annex Greenland.And now Trump has his emissary visiting rightwing and neo-Nazi parties and think tanks in Europe, offering them American cash and support. He and Putin appear totally committed to making the world safe for dictators and oligarchs by damaging the democracies of the world.America’s and democracy’s enemies, of course, are thrilled. As one European think‑tank piece put it bluntly, Trump’s rhetoric is “a gift to Putin.” When the president of the United States trashes NATO, praises autocrats, and undermines the EU while half of Ukraine is being tormented by brutal cold, the man in the Kremlin doesn’t have to spend a ruble to fracture the West. Trump, like a dutiful dog, is doing it for him.And this isn’t just elite hand‑wringing at the level of governments and ministers; ordinary Europeans are recalibrating their relationship with America, too. Surveys over the past year show European opinions of the United States dropping sharply, a reality we also see in the collapse of European vacationers to the United States.One EU institute reports that nearly three‑quarters of Europeans now see the United States as a “somewhat or very unreliable” partner now, with average Germans among the most skeptical.A broader survey across Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, and Italy found U.S. favorability down, sometimes by double digits, with only about one-in-ten respondents expressing real trust in Trump’s America to defend them.Another poll summarized by Politico found that even a majority of Canadians now see the US as a “negative global force,” driven largely by Trump’s erratic behavior and his obsession with self-enrichment, having already collected an estimated $4 billion for himself and his family since he was sworn to office.Put simply, our allies are doing what any rational nation would do when a key partner goes rogue: they’re hedging.They’re hedging by building their own tech infrastructure, so that Trump can’t flip a switch and cut off vital services or demand back-doors into their communications systems or share information with Putin. So Trump can’t hand them over to Putin the way he is Ukraine. They’re hedging by embracing “strategic autonomy,” aka European defense capabilities that don’t rely on Washington or anybody in America.Meanwhile, here at home, Trump and his lickspittle Republicans are busily transforming America into exactly the kind of oligarchic, strongman system our grandparents fought World War II to stop.He’s pardoned insurrectionists, is purging institutions and installing loyalists, and covering up the child-rape crimes of his billionaire friends, all while aligning himself — and, thus, America — with oligarchs and dictators abroad.When you combine that internal authoritarian drift with external contempt for allies and admiration for Putin, you get the worst of all worlds: a United States that can no longer credibly lead democratic nations and may increasingly act as a spoiler on behalf of strongmen, grifters, and oligarchs worldwide. And, of course, on behalf of Putin.Trump promised to “make America great again.” Instead, he’s teaching the rest of the free world that they need to live without us. All to our and our children’s detriment.Thom Hartmann is a New York Times best-selling author and SiriusXM talk show host. His Substack can be found here.

Destined to a perilous life with no right to an education or to vote, state recognition ‘gives them hope’, campaigners sayThrough the decades that the Daulatdia brothel in Bangladesh has existed, children born there have been invisible, unable to be registered because their mothers were sex workers and their fathers unknown. Now, for the first time, all 400 of them in the brothel village have their own birth certificates.That milestone was reached after a push by campaigners who have spent decades working with Bangladesh’s undocumented children born in brothels or on the street. It means they can finally access the rights afforded to other citizens: the ability to go to school, to be issued a passport or to vote. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump denounced one of his purported golfing buddies who's being credited with steering U.S. efforts to revive Venezuela's oil industry.The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night that energy magnate Harry Sargeant III, who the paper described as a 68-year-old former Top Gun pilot and sometimes Trump golfing partner, was perhaps the only American businessman with ties to the U.S. president and recently deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro."Sargeant is now in position to be the latest of the president’s allies to reap a windfall based on his second-term policies and actions," the Journal reported."Trump is pressing U.S. firms to move in fast as his aides work to loosen the sanctions restrictions that were imposed on Venezuela during his first administration," the report added. "Many U.S. companies are nonetheless proceeding cautiously, wary of investing huge sums until the country’s politics are stabilized and a legal framework is in place for foreign companies ... Sargeant, though, isn’t waiting. He met in person last week in Caracas with Maduro’s longtime deputy and economic manager Delcy Rodriguez, to discuss plans to get his businesses up and running."The 79-year-old Trump denied the Journal's claims about Sargeant's efforts in Venezuela since U.S. forces removed Maduro and handed him over to U.S. law enforcement to stand trial on narcoterrorism and firearms charges."Relations between Venezuela and the United States have been, to put it mildly, extraordinary!" Trump posted Thursday morning on Truth Social. "We are dealing very well with President Delcy Rodriguez, and her Representatives. Oil is starting to flow, and large amounts of money, unseen for many years, will soon be greatly helping the people of Venezuela. Marco Rubio, and all of our Representatives, are doing a fantastic job, but we speak only for ourselves, and don’t want there to be any confusion or misrepresentation.""There is a story about a man named Harry Sargeant III in The Wall Street Journal," the president added. "He has no authority, in any way, shape, or form, to act on behalf of the United States of America, nor does anyone else that is not approved by the State Department. Without this approval, no one is authorized to represent our Country. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP."