Politics

Submitted by Gregory Brew via OilPrice.com,

Donald Trump is right to say America’s NATO allies aren’t paying their fair share. As Bloomberg notes, the alliance expects its members to spend 2% of GDP on defense; but it’s no secret that most of them don’t...

Having reaffirmed his skepticism about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and his readiness to make deals with Russia, in European media interviews published last weekend, President Trump leaves European leaders wondering whether they can still rely on the American security umbrella.

Submitted by Barton Edgerton viaGlobalRiskInsights.com,

For several places around the world, 2017 could be a watershed year, as various territorial disputes threaten to boil over amidst a climate of global uncertainty.

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

I’m trying, I swear, to get into the fold, but I just can’t NOT find this hilarious. On the eve of his presidency, Donald Trump tells European leaders, by not telling them diddly-squat, that he doesn’t think they matter all that much. It’s not just that his vision of the EU, and its importance, is very different from theirs, he also remembers very well what many of them have said about him in the run-up to his election for the presidency.