Military history is littered with the corpses of apex predators. The Gatling gun, the battleship, the tank. All once possessed unassailable power – then were undermined, in some cases wiped out, by the march of new technology. “Speed and stealth and firepower,” the head of the Australian Submarine Agency, Jonathan Mead, told the Guardian two years ago of Australia’s forthcoming fleet of nuclear submarines. “The apex predator of the oceans.” But for how much longer? In the first quarter of the 21st century, nuclear submarines have proven a formidable force:…
Tag: World news
Trump ‘ready’ to impose sanctions on Russia if Nato nations stop buying its oil
In Truth Social post, US president also suggests members consider imposing tariffs of 50% to 100% on China Donald Trump has said he is ready to impose sanctions on Moscow, but on the condition that all Nato allies agree to completely halt purchases of Russian oil and implement their own sanctions. He also suggested members of the transatlantic alliance consider imposing tariffs of 50% to 100% on China for its purchases of Russian petroleum as a way to help end the war. Continue reading… The Guardian
Trump or no Trump, Europe’s relationship with the US will never recover | Nathalie Tocci
Is the transatlantic rupture temporary or structural? Is Donald Trump the cause of the rift, or is the US president only a symptom of underlying trends? Optimists latch on to the hope that the stability we have lost can be restored post-Trump. Having spent the past few days in Washington, I doubt it. Even in recent history, things were not quite so bad for the transatlantic relationship. The current tensions make the first Trump administration look like a walk in the park for Europeans. It is one thing to withdraw…
The axis of upheaval: inside the 12 September Guardian Weekly
Xi Jinping had been waiting for the right moment to serve notice of China’s growing might and influence to the rest of the world, and the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war provided the Mao-suited Chinese leader with the perfect opportunity. Last week’s bombastic (or should that be bomb-tastic?) military parade in Beijing – in the presence of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and a host of other global strongmen – was intended as a show of force and stability to contrast sharply with the chaotic unpredictability…
Trump reportedly asks EU to impose 100% tariffs on India and China to put pressure on Russia
Donald Trump has asked the EU to impose tariffs of up to 100% on India and China as part of an effort to force the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to end the war in Ukraine, according to reports. The US president made the demand during a meeting between US and EU officials discussing options to increase economic pressure on Russia on Tuesday, according to the Financial Times, BBC and Bloomberg, who cited multiple sources familiar with the discussions. One US official reportedly said that the Trump administration was “ready to…
UK’s new business secretary Peter Kyle expected to visit Beijing in first week
The UK’s new business secretary, Peter Kyle, is expected to fly to Beijing this week as part of Keir Starmer’s continuing efforts to revitalise the UK’s trade relationship with China and provide growth to the British economy. The former science and technology secretary, who was promoted in Friday’s government reshuffle, is expected to land in China on Wednesday, picking up the schedule of his predecessor, Jonathan Reynolds, who is now the chief whip. Kyle will first travel to Washington as part of the preparations for Donald Trump’s state visit to…
‘There is only one player’: why China is becoming a world leader in green energy
China’s vital statistics Chinese power took on an old-fashioned hue in the past week with a huge military parade, a gathering of former allies Russia and North Korea, and President Xi Jinping’s defiant vow not to be intimidated by bullies. Soldiers march during a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. Photograph: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images That display reminded many of the cold war, but it captured only a fraction of China’s far greater modern…
Brainless bodies and pig organs: does science back up Putin and Xi’s longevity claims?
Perhaps it was the extravagant display of deadly weaponry that prompted Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to mull on mortality at this week’s military parade in Beijing. It was more banter than serious discussion, but with both aged 72, the Chinese president and his Russian counterpart may feel the cold hand on the shoulder more than Kim Jong-un, the 41-year-old North Korean leader who strolled beside them. Speaking through a interpreter, Xi told Putin that 70 is considered young today, prompting Putin to claim that human organs can now be…
One by one, leaders learn that grovelling to Trump leads to disaster. When will it dawn on Starmer? | Simon Tisdall
Sucking up to Donald Trump never works for long. Narendra Modi is the latest world leader to learn this lesson the hard way. Wooing his “true friend” in the White House, India’s authoritarian prime minister thought he’d conquered Trump’s inconstant heart. The two men hit peak pals in 2019, holding hands at a “Howdy Modi” rally in Texas. But it’s all gone pear-shaped thanks to Trump’s tariffs and dalliance with Pakistan. Like a jilted lover on the rebound, Modi shamelessly threw himself at Vladimir Putin in China last week. Don…
Xi, Putin, Kim and the optics of a new world order
Waving beatifically over the crowd of 50,000 spectators assembled in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, Xi Jinping exuded an aura of confidence that many leaders in the west could only envy. To his left stood North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of an increasingly strident hermit kingdom. To his right was the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Xi’s “old friend” and China’s biggest ally in opposing the US-led world order. The last time that the leaders of these three countries were together in public was at the height of the…