Anders Schröder

China bankrolling Putin’s war to gain advantage over West, MPs told Beijing’s huge support for Russian aggression against Ukraine part of larger threatening posture, air marshal tells Commons committee

China is now bankrolling Russia’s war in Ukraine by providing 60% of the funds needed by Moscow to continue fighting, MPs on the Commons Defence Committee were told today.

The aim is to gain an advantage over the West.

Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara says that the victim was a 37-year-old white man and US citizen with no criminal record and that he was a legally permitted gun owner.

Stella Carlson said that before the shooting, the man was helping vehicle traffic get around the area where ICE agents and observers had started to gather. "The gentleman I was standing next to was focused on helping people who were coming into Nicollet Avenue understand that they needed to take it slow and helping them get through. The ICE agents approached us, told us to back up, back up. I'm not even sure why we were helping them, if anything. And I got on the snow bank, and next thing I knew, they shot him," Carlson said.

"The gentleman I was standing next to was focused on helping people who were coming into Nicollet Avenue understand that they needed to take it slow and helping them get through. ...

"Next thing I knew, they shot him." www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Didn't grasp just how bad the Minneapolis murder was until I watched it with sound. Hearing how he empties his magazine into a guy already lying lifeless on the ground...

I see people now quoting Carney and saying "see, the rules based order was always fake, just a tool for US hegemony". Like I said, while the order was imperfect, I don't agree with that description.

This is fundamentally different from the analogy in Havel were the signs aren't bringing real socialism any closer. Carney is right though in that the order as we once knew it is gone. But like all values, it wasn't imaginary just because it was socially constructed. It existed and it was good.

Yes, Carney is right that the rules based order has alway been imperfect, but he goes too far in his cynicism. The order did constrain stronger actors and established norms to an extent. And evoking the rules based order helped keep that order alive.

This comparison does not ring true to me. In Havel's example, the worker of the world unite-signs were put up by people who had no interest in having the workers of the world unite. By contrast, many of us who talk about a rules based order would like it to be true.

Havel pointed out that no one believed in the sign, yet everyone kept putting them up. This is what he called living within a lie. Carney compared that to the rules based international order, who he claimed was also a lie that we needed to pretend to stop believing in.

Carney in his Davos speech reference communist dissident Václav Havel, who talked about the Greengrocer who lives within a lie. By putting up the "workers of the world unite"-sign in his window the greengrocer signaled not a belief in worker solidarity, but loyalty to the regime.

Okay, we need to talk about Carney's Havel reference. 🧵

Lots of people on their facebook page reminding them of their oath right now.

"It is very important for us that we continue our partnerships. I value the friendships of the three Army chiefs in Norway, Sweden, and Finland." Major General Brian Eifler of the 11th airborne division in 2024.

With the relations the 11th have with the Nordics, would they act if given the order?

Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson published a response on X to Trump's tariff threat.

"We will nåt be extorted. I will always stand up for my country and our allies. Currently there are intense discussions with other EU countries, the UK and Norway regarding a joint response."

The next chance for the Supreme Court to rule that these kind of tariffs are illegal and that the law Trump is using was never meant for this kind of thing will be on Tuesday, when the justices said new decisions will be announced.

Worst case is an armed conflict, loss of all US support for Ukraine and a full scale, long term trade war.

Trump to hit Europe with 10% tariffs if it opposes Greenland takeover US president said levies against eight nations would rise to 25% unless they support his acquisition of the island

I don't see how the EU could back down here. There will be a conflict over this. Best case it stays in the economic realm before Trump blinks or congress pulls him back.

www.ft.com/content/6055...

A US-Danish working group is great. It wastes time, which takes us nearer the US midterms and a potential balance on the executive.

Kilder til DR: Danmark sender militære forstærkninger til Grønland En fortrop fra Forsvaret er ankommet til Grønland, erfarer DR.

Denmark sending reinforcements to Greenland. Seems reasonable, at least this avoids a fait accompli. Hopefully, the Danish forces will be joined by other EU nations.

www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...

What is the arguments against stationing a French and/or British led tripwire force in Greenland? Seems like the only option at this point if we're serious about protecting some kind of rules based order in our own region.

EU decides not to make geopolitical laughing stock of itself by a considerably-less-than-overwhelming majority.

(And I'm the person who generally says trade deals don't have much to do with geopolitics, but I'd submit that this one does.)

New US dietary guidelines call for more protein, less processed food The changes receive mixed reviews from experts, in particular over concerns some could lead to people eating more saturated fats.

The one silver lining here is that no one cares about government dietary guidelines anyway.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Maybe. Or maybe they care more about the spectacle of Maduro in a US prison then they do about the actual outcome for Venezuela. Time will tell.

Assuming they really did take Maduro, I still don't see what the end game is? Do they expect the rest of the regime to just crumble now?

Vi kan klara det här Om optimism i klimatrörelsen

Mycket som var jobbigt förra året, men tillväxten i förnybart är en sak att glädjas över. Jag har skrivit lite om vikten av optimism inom klimatrörelsen.

progressiv.substack.com/p/vi-kan-kla...

A piece of good news for once. Electric vehicle adoption is exploding in many emerging markets.

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

Socialistiskt forum(R).

*Nods in Baudrillard*

Polen köper svenska ubåtar Polen köper tre stycken ubåtar från svenska Saab, meddelar Polens vice premiärministern Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz i ett uttalande, rapporterar Reuters.

Poland will purchase 3 submarines from Saab. A crucial investment for Sweden and Saab as the previous production line stood at a measly 2. Poland is the first buyer outside Sweden, and carrying the development cost alone has been an increasing burden for Swedish defense.

www.svt.se/nyheter/utri...

Uteslutna personer tror alltid att dom uteslöts pga deras "ryggrad" men egentligen uteslöts de för att de är svinjobbiga personer att samarbeta med. Och när de uteslutna sen ska samarbeta med varandra får de själva uppleva detta.