Trump’s tariff schedule hits 190 countries in bewilderingly complex, yet consistently catastrophic ways. We are all struggling to process the scale and 3rd order impacts. But it’s by far the most damaging policy of his two presidencies.

🧵on early impact on different nations 1. Lesotho 🇱🇸

The tiny African kingdom faces a 50% tariff on its exports to the U.S., the highest imposed on any nation. US Exports are 10 per cent of their entire GDP and provide the revenue for all core government services - which are on the verge of collapse.

1/ Trump has been conned by Putin. Russia isn’t a global superpower—its GDP (~$2 trillion) is smaller than Italy’s and about 1/15 the size of the US. 🧵 2/ Russia is in demographic freefall—losing around half a million people a year since 2019—its economy is rigid, its living standards appalling, and its most talented people have left.

Was it for this that the US spent 80 years building power and alliances? Not to be a force for good. But instead to impoverish neighbours, threaten those it protected, rob minerals from war-torn countries, and break its promises to 100s of millions of the poorest in the world? 🧵 The post-World War II order was not just about U.S. power; it was about alliances, credibility, and leadership:

•Bretton Woods underpinned global development.
•The Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe, not looted it.
•NATO was created to defend allies, not threaten them.

While everyone is distracted, here is how Trump proposed to take half of all the mineral wealth of Ukraine. Before the negotiations with Putin. No country has tried anything on this scale since the Treaty of Versailles - and those reparations were taken from enemies not allies.

https://twitter.com/carlbildt/status/1891575608603197536

The documents show that the U.S. is demanding a lien (legal claim) on half of all revenues generated from the extraction and sale of Ukraine’s natural resources.

For almost 80 years the concept of a stable predictable US global order led US allies to integrate the most fundamental aspects of their security, and finances into a US-dominated system. They felt this was relatively risk free. Until now. 🧵

https://twitter.com/restispolitics/status/1885357376082981130

The US had been able to borrow cheap money for years, and establish itself as the world’s reserve currency in part because it was seen as a predictable player, surrounded by allies and good for its debts.

An honour to have my IQ questioned by you Mr VP. But your attempts to speak for Christ are false and dangerous. Nowhere does Jesus suggest that love is to be prioritized in concentric circles. His love is universal. 🧵

https://twitter.com/jdvance/status/1885073378442084444

This is what made Christianity so radical among tribal religions. When asked “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus chose a Samaritan—an outsider and theological enemy of the Jews—as the moral exemplar - to challenge the idea that obligation is primarily to one’s own people or community.

DeepSeek has just inverted in an instant some of the most fundamental assumptions about the U.S. lead in technology, the global economy, and the future of energy. It has upended basic predictions from Silicon Valley and the Trump administration on the U.S. lead in the global economy. And it has done so almost overnight. What next….? 2 months ago, Silicon Valley and U.S. enthusiasts were asserting a new world based on American AI. They assumed that the
size of the LLM models, the energy, data and cash they required,, would put the giant American tech companies in a position of unrivalled dominance.

Reading @PryorFrancis ‘s wonderful “scenes from prehistoric life” made me think how our traditional horror at the collapse of the Roman Empire reflects in part the insecurity of recent European elites about the prestige and survival of their own Roman-shaped way of life. (1/5) The steep decline (and in some cases total loss) of literacy, coinage, urban life, mortar, villas, ceramics, classical philosophy literature + politics felt like Armageddon to people - like me - trained to find meaning + values in classical civilisation and Empires (2/5)

1/7 See our 2014 Defence Committee report:
"The reappearance of the threat from Russia underlines the importance of high quality, independent analysis of developments in Russia. The closure of the Advanced Research and Assessment Group has led to a drastic denuding of capability

https://twitter.com/MattChorley/status/1506207892852158464

2/7 "given cuts in FCO budget; the level of ambassadorial representation; the lack of designated language posts; and the minimal size of the FCO desk dealing with Ukraine, this capability gap is not unique to the MOD but represents a significant strategic gap for the Government."

We CAN massively reduce oil demand + thus the more than $500m of oil income we give Putin daily - excluding gas.
It would take a government and civilian effort equivalent to the COVID response.
Here are some possible ingredients focused on passenger vehicles (40% of oil demand) During course of Ukraine crisis across Europe:
• Reduce speed limits to 50mph
• Make all public transport free
• Uber to open technology to allow free civilian ridesharing

This would reduce demand + price of Russian oil, have a catastrophic impact on Putin

+ Help Environment

1/3) On Ukraine + Russian energy - an example of how the UK could reduce energy. The container glass industry consumes about 2-2.5% of industrial energy used in the uk. It takes roughly 1 megawatt of power to make one ton of glass - the industry uses about 2.3 million MW of power (2/3) But it’s technically feasible for the glass+ ceramics industry to produce re-usable durable containers (100 trips+ per container) for bulk of beverages, foods, cosmetics, + cleansing materials.
If each container was used 10x UK’s industrial energy usage cd reduce up to 2%

The new farming and environmental payments are a great betrayal in the making. Small farm incomes are being destroyed while poorer farms are being made to invest in ever larger environmental projects. (Thread)

https://twitter.com/herdyshepherd1/status/1466506959834726412

Many campaigners and some policy-makers are pretending to support these farmers in nature-based farming. But they are actually intending for the environmental payments to cease, the farms to fold, and the land to be abandoned for rewilding. This is deliberate policy.

The Low Line is a new London walk - along the Victorian rail viaducts of Bankside, London Bridge and Bermondsey. This thread has the 5 shortlisted options - please RT - and like your favourite First is Crossings, Clearings and Parades lowline.london/news/green-vis…

While Parliament is prorogued, neither House can meet, debate and pass legislation. Neither House can debate Government policy. Nor may members of either House ask written or oral questions of Ministers. They may not meet and take evidence in committees. The Courts held in 1611, that an attempt to alter the law of the land by the use of the Crown’s prerogative powers was unlawful. “The King hath no prerogative, but that which the law of the land allows him”, ie the limits of prerogative powers were determined by courts.

Principles on Brexit. And a challenge to all other candidates:
1. Will you take No-deal of the table? Completely. It won’t get through the commons. It is a recipe for furtheir delay and uncertainty. It will undermine 300 years of reputation for economic competence. And in particular the conservative party’s reputation for economic competence. And it is, therefore not a credible threat.