Editorial: The president has shown that he will be hard for America’s allies to handle in his second term – but there has been the odd surprising sign of sense
© AFP via Getty
The conversation is no longer just about the present conflict, there is already an undeclared covert war under way
Donald Trump’s characteristically vociferous attempt last week to pressure Vladimir Putin into ending the war in Ukraine, which Russia’s leader launched three years ago next month, is a welcome shift. Throughout the US election campaign, the Republican candidate complained about the cost of military aid to Kyiv. He claimed the war would never have started had he been in the White House, and boasted he could end it “in 24 hours”. Trump also avoided personal criticism of Putin. The nature and history of their relationship has long been clouded in mystery. It still is.
Yet Trump’s tone and emphasis have changed markedly since he began his second term as US president on Monday. Putin’s refusal to enter into unconditional negotiations endangered Russia as much as Ukraine, he said. “I think he should make a deal. I think he’s destroying Russia.” Overt threats quickly followed. Russia’s economy was imploding, Trump said. Putin should “settle now and stop this ridiculous war” or face US tariffs, taxes and additional sanctions. “We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better.”
Continue reading...© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Editorial: Accountability is a fundamental principle of the justice system. If it puts the personal safety of judges in danger, the answer is better security precautions – not censorship
© PA
The US president has issued a blizzard of edicts and announcements. Determining where to focus the fightback will be difficult but essential
Waiting for Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was like watching a tsunami gather force. Everyone could see the threat approaching. But its scale was still shocking as it hit land, and what damage it wreaks will ultimately take months and years to determine.
The deluge is intentional. For supporters, there is a sense of unleashed macho, almost messianic energy – setting the US on a path to national destiny which might take in Greenland, Panama and ultimately Mars. This time Mr Trump has an electoral mandate, a compliant team with a ready agenda, the obsequiousness of billionaires who command the attention economy, and a compliant supreme court which has already granted the president extraordinary power. He aspires to the rule of a monarch. The flood of executive orders, pardons and pronouncements is intended to overwhelm and intimidate, but also to disorientate opponents.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters
© Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters
Editorial: Keen to be non-ideological in its pursuit of economic growth, the government has wisely adjusted its proposed changes to the taxation of non-doms
© Kirsty O’Connor/Treasury
Now the killer is in jail, the process of unpicking where the authorities went wrong can begin
For the families of Axel Rudakubana’s victims, the life sentence with a minimum of 52 years handed to him on Thursday for the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe, and 13 other crimes, cannot end their suffering but brings a close to a painful chapter. Until he pleaded guilty on Monday, the expectation had been for a weeks-long trial. The continuing struggle of survivors was painfully clear from statements read in court. Several girls have life-changing injuries. Alice’s family described their bereavement as a “scar to the soul”. There are few precedents in Britain for the eruption of such extreme violence into a gathering of young children.
Thankfully there has been no repeat of last summer’s riots, when asylum seekers were targeted after false claims that the killer – who was born in Cardiff – was himself a migrant. By announcing three new probes this week, Sir Keir Starmer showed that he grasps the political risks stirred up by this case, as well as its grievous losses.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
© Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Dublin’s latest coalition has finally got parliamentary approval. But there are meteorological and political tempests coming across the Atlantic
The whole of Ireland was put on red alert on Thursday as Storm Éowyn barrelled in from the north Atlantic. Schools in the Irish republic are closed on Friday, all public transport has been stood down and pet owners have been told to keep animals stabled or indoors, with 80mph winds expected to leave trails of destruction before the storm moves on towards central Scotland.
The danger to life and property will be more than enough for most people in Ireland. But it is hard not to see this week’s tempestuous visitation as something of a metaphor for Irish politics, which have had an unusually storm-tossed week of their own as the republic buckles up for a tax-and-tariff battle with Donald Trump’s new administration in Washington.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Maxwell’s/PA
© Photograph: Maxwell’s/PA
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