Trump spent his first year back in office imposing tariffs on Europe, threatening to withdraw US troops, and flirting with NATO exit. Europe wants to reduce its dependence on Washington.
But the US accounts for over 20% of European exports — Jacob Kirkegaard, Foreign Affairs. 1/
Two-thirds of Europe's cloud market runs on Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Three quarters of European firms run on US software.
Visa and Mastercard handle roughly two-thirds of card transactions in the euro area. 2/
US LNG imports quadrupled between 2022 and 2025 to replace Russian gas.
The EU has committed to ending all Russian gas imports by 2027. If Iran's strikes on Qatar's LNG facilities cause lasting damage, most of Europe's LNG will need to come from the US. 3/
The Turnberry trade agreement locks in a 15% cap on US tariffs on European goods but requires Europe to buy more American LNG.
When the EU Parliament was considering ratification, the US ambassador warned: "I don't know what will happen to energy if they don't go forward." 4/
Europe has signed free trade deals with Australia, India, Indonesia, and Mercosur — over two billion consumers.
It won't close the gap. EU exports to the US total $920 billion annually. Exports to all four new partners combined: around $168 billion. 5/
On tech, the European Commission is preparing a sovereignty package this spring.
France has ordered public servants off Zoom and Microsoft Teams. But European alternatives are more expensive and less integrated. The digital euro won't be ready until the end of the decade. 6/
Kirkegaard: Europe is not simply trapped — it is making a choice. US products are cheaper, better, and more familiar.
European governments cannot change that logic anytime soon. The one area where Europe is reducing dependence is defense — and that is alongside Ukraine. 7X
Ukraine is playing by its own rules in the US game. The US asked Kyiv to stop striking Russian energy facilities. On April 5 Ukrainian drones hit a Lukoil refinery near St Petersburg anyway, writes The Telegraph. 1/
A 30-drone barrage hit the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region — 250 miles east of Moscow. Two facilities were damaged. Photographs showed large flames and explosions lighting up the night sky. 2/
A separate strike damaged a Baltic oil pipeline near the port of Primorsk, between the Finnish border and St Petersburg. 3/
Trump's land-for-security-guarantees formula for Ukraine has stalled. Russia won't stop at the Donbas. It wants to block Ukraine from Western weapons.
Ukraine won't surrender the "fortress belt" and become more exposed — Samuel Charap and Jennifer Kavanagh, Foreign Affairs.
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Negotiations have proceeded on separate tracks. US-Ukraine, US-Russia, Europe-Ukraine.
No meeting has included Russia, Ukraine, the US and Europe together. This creates misunderstandings and makes it impossible to identify terms all parties accept.
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The security guarantees under discussion could actually backfire. A "coalition of the willing" led by France and the UK would deploy troops to Ukraine after a ceasefire — exactly what Russia fears most. More land for Russia, but NATO boots still on Ukrainian soil.
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Lesson for Ukraine from Ray Dalio: We must be strong and ready to endure Russia’s pressure.
Dalio: No country enforces global rules — conflicts spread. Wars are decided by endurance. The US is strongest, but with 750+ bases it’s overstretched — and Iran war is testing that.
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Dalio defines today’s wars as one system: Russia–Ukraine–US–Europe, Israel–Gaza–Iran, and Yemen–Sudan conflicts run at the same time. Nuclear states sit inside these wars, and trade, tech, and capital fights connect them.
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Markets expect a short war and a return to normal. Dalio rejects that view. He says the world has entered an early-stage world war that will last years, not weeks.
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Keane: I do not trust the Iranians at all. Trump does not trust them either. He knows they are liars and cheaters.
My preference would have been to keep the war going as leverage. A ceasefire takes pressure off them, and that is exactly what they wanted from the start. 1/
Keane: The deal has to take away everything military force took from Iran. Number one is nuclear enrichment.
That was the issue at the start. We will know quickly if Tehran is serious when we get to the fine points of the deal, the verification, and the concessions they make. 2/
Keane: If this blows up, we have to finish what we started. It comes down to Kharg Island: take control of it and its oil, or destroy it and force economic collapse.
That is the leverage to bend Iran to our will, and in my view it puts the regime on a path to collapse. 3X
Tucker: Easter morning should have been about resurrection, peace, and victory over death.
Instead Trump threatened power plants and bridges in Iran. Civilian infrastructure, blackouts, refugees and dead noncombatants — including over a million Christians who live in Iran. 1/
Tucker: Millions of Christians backed Trump not because he was pious, but because he looked like a protector — of religious liberty, of Christians, of the unborn.
I think the first moment they should have stopped and asked what this really was came on Jan. 4, over Venezuela. 2/
Tucker: The problem was not that Maduro was anti-American. The problem was the motive Trump gave us: we did it for the oil.
That crossed a line for me. If a country says it can take what it wants by force, it is not defending order. It is legalizing theft at scale. 3X
A Russian artillery shell fired in August 2024 carried a message: “Subscribe to Russians With Attitude.”
The podcast has 422,000 followers on X — mostly American far-right. The Kyiv Independent unmasked the two men behind it. Both fundraised for sanctioned Russian neo-Nazi units. 1/
One lived in Germany for most of his life. Both fundraised for sanctioned Russian neo-Nazi units while building a massive English-language audience. 2/
“Russians With Attitude” built 422,000 followers on X and 5,600 on Patreon — including 1,100 paying subscribers at €5.50 per month minimum, generating at least €6,000 per month. The US makes up 27.6% of their audience. 3/