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Apr 10, 2026 - World

Donald Trump's public tough-guy posturing on China masks a stunning capitulation to Beijing. When Pentagon officials presented a draft National Defense Strategy last fall that characterized China as the top U.S. security threat — the same assessment his own first administration endorsed — Trump ordered it rewritten in friendlier terms.According to the Wall Street Journal's Heather Somerville, Alexander Ward, and Gavin Bade, Trump "balked" at the Pentagon assessment and commanded his deputy to soften the language. The revised National Defense Strategy published in January struck an entirely different tone."President Trump seeks a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations with China," the document now declares — a stunning reversal from the bipartisan consensus that characterized China as the most consequential U.S. adversary.The shift represents a seismic policy reversal. Trump's own first-term defense strategy took the same hardline approach the Pentagon recommended. Now Trump 2.0 is discarding that bipartisan framework in favor of a new mantra: "Don't rock the boat."The capitulation goes far deeper than rhetoric. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has imposed a stranglehold on China policy, requiring his personal sign-off for any China-related actions. The result is Kafkaesque: senior Commerce officials sit waiting by Lutnick's office or watch for his car outside the building before pursuing routine China policy actions.Other agencies have resorted to workarounds, pursuing a ban on a China-linked router maker by strategically avoiding naming either the company or China in the official order — essentially hiding policy from public view.The reversal has alarmed Trump's own national security aides. China hawks in the administration have adopted gallows humor, calling the shift the "Busan Freeze," referencing the South Korea meeting between Trump and Xi that produced a fragile trade detente.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other officials appealed to Trump to walk back tariffs and dial down the trade war so minerals could flow from China again — an apparent capitulation to economic pressure over strategic security.The pivot was deliberate and premeditated. Trump initially asked national security advisers to develop a harder line on China's technological encroachment. But the president later abandoned the restrictions, and in April, Trump fired Douglas Feith and other China hawks from the National Security Council, dismantling the directorate that had coordinated administration actions on tech and China.Against a president who fancies himself a master dealmaker, China is clearly winning, the Journal is reporting.

Apr 10, 2026 - World

A Russian military court sentenced former Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Popov to 19 years in prison Friday for embezzling funds from Patriot Park, a Moscow military theme park showcasing Soviet and Russian weaponry

Apr 10, 2026 - World

Donald Trump's recent comments on Truth Social and during a speech addressing the war with Iran have made the United States look foolish, a Nobel Prize winner claimed. Paul Krugman believes the president has made America look like a laughing stock in recent weeks. But the long-term damage of doing so makes Trump's administration an unreliable ally to world leaders who would previously be reassured by the US as an ally. Not anymore, according to the veteran economist, who says the recent statements made by Trump have undermined America's world standing. Writing in his Substack, Krugman suggested Trump's rhetoric has not only severed close ties with friendly nations but emboldened other, more aggressive countries to take action. "Think about Gulf states that relied on America to protect them and preserve their access to world markets," he wrote. "Now they know that we can’t and won’t, while Iran holds a knife at their throats.""They’re now looking to themselves for security — and starting to buy equipment and technology from Ukraine, which has learned the hard way how to fight a modern war."Think about Asian and European nations that have swallowed Trump’s many insults, and mostly avoided retaliating against his tariffs, because they feared both U.S. power and the loss of U.S. support. Now America’s weakness and unreliability have been laid bare."Krugman went on to suggest previous statements made by Trump, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, had worsened the war. Trump's comments on the importance of oil have only made it harder for his administration, the veteran economist suggested. "In Trump’s mind, control over fossil fuels is the essence of national greatness," Krugman wrote. "In his inaugural address, Trump declared that 'We will drill, baby, drill … We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.'""But this was obvious nonsense. For one thing, the narrative that woke environmentalists had hobbled U.S. fossil fuel production was at odds with the reality that fracking had in fact caused a boom in oil and gas production that began under Obama and continued under Republican and Democratic administrations alike.""Trump has been doing all he can to block development of wind and solar power, in the apparent belief that this will empower America. But what it actually does is empower regimes that are in a position to disrupt world oil supply, while having little to lose from chaos in the world economy. Which means, above all, Iran."

Apr 10, 2026 - World

Are you feeling lucky? A raffle in France is offering the chance to win a portrait by Pablo Picasso for the price of a 100-euro ($117) ticket, with proceeds going to Alzheimer's research.

Apr 10, 2026 - World

Negotiators of 2015 deal say Tehran has seen how cutting off Hormuz strait can help it counter asymmetry of powerMiddle East crisis – live updatesFormer US envoys who dealt with Iran have said that the US-Israeli attack on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent closure of the strait of Hormuz have given Iran new tools and resolve to resist pressure to shutter its nuclear programme.Two senior negotiators for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief, said the Trump administration’s war had handed Iran a coveted weapon by demonstrating its ability to cut off the strait of Hormuz, an economic chokehold that one negotiator said would help Iran “balance the asymmetry of power” with the US. Continue reading...