Bryce C. Barros 白若詩

Europe’s Deepening Security Ties with the Philippines Since 2024, European countries and the EU have intensified military and security cooperation with the Philippines. Manila is emerging as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific.

Since 2024, the EU has intensified military and security cooperation with the Philippines. In a new piece, @barrosbryce.bsky.social examines Manila’s emergence as a key European partner in the Indo-Pacific.

ip-quarterly.com/en/europes-d...

I'm thrilled to write another piece for
@ipq.bsky.social on deepening security cooperation between the Philippines and Europeans.

Enjoy!

Japan says it wants to join a NATO command for the support of Ukraine Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani says Japan wants to participate in a NATO command for its Ukrainian mission as Japan increasingly steps up military ties with the largely European security organ...

Apart from … ALL THE THINGS shaking up assumptions about geopolitics right now, this is amazing and would otherwise be headline news:
apnews.com/article/japa...

🇹🇼 TAIPEI, April 6 (Reuters) - Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the U.S., pledging to remove trade barriers rather than imposing reciprocal measures and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their U.S. investments.

A picture of the Argentine embassy in DC

Gonna go in and ask them for advice now that they have a much saner trade policy than us

“It’s not chaotic” he says the day Trump announced tariffs on hundreds of billions in Canadian goods and then cancelled them within hours

Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining man

Zuckerberg’s Meta considered sharing user data with China, whistleblower alleges Meta went to extreme lengths, including developing a censorship system, in a failed attempt to bring Facebook to millions of internet users in China, according to a whistleblower complaint.

"Meta built a censorship system specially designed for China to review including the ability to automatically detect restricted terms and popular content on Facebook, according to the complaint. The company agreed to hire at least 300 content moderators to support the system, the documents show."

Shipping firms pull back from Hong Kong to skirt US-China risks Some shipping companies are discreetly moving operations out of Hong Kong and taking vessels off its flag registry. Others are making contingency plans to do so.

Some shipping companies are discreetly moving operations out of Hong Kong and taking vessels off its flag registry. Behind these low-profile moves lie concerns that their ships could be commandeered by Chinese authorities or hit with US sanctions reut.rs/4h9f8pu

As discussed by @jamesdjbrown.bsky.social in his forthcoming book on Russian intelligence activities vis-a-vis Japan, "Cracking the Crab."

I know Japanese officials were hoping that Rubio's presence would be reassuring. So much for that.

Not a good move, especially for USEMB Beijing.

Tariff accelerationist bros... our day has finally come

The suspension of U.S. assistance for Ukraine is a very unfortunate and significant development, but it may not have immediate impact. Ukraine is far less dependent on the U.S. for day to day battlefield needs in 2025, than it was in earlier periods of the war. 1/

Investors say it's time to take Trump seriously as markets recoil Markets no longer think Donald Trump is full of bluster and are moving quickly to anticipate a slowdown in U.S. and global growth as he raises a wall of tariffs around the world's biggest economy and trading partners start to respond in kind.

Markets no longer think Donald Trump is full of bluster and are moving quickly to anticipate a slowdown in US and global growth as he raises a wall of tariffs around the world's biggest economy and trading partners start to respond in kind reut.rs/4bsB3Xa

I think Russian intelligence services cannot believe their good fortune at everything that is happening right now. This is a bonanza across the board. The vicious attack on Ukraine, nutters at the FBI, Gabbard at DNI, shredding of CI capabilities. A monumental tragedy for the West.

Here's my pitch—how about, to support our Great Patriot Farmers, the government just buys US wheat, soy, etc directly. Now, we have to do something with all that food but we can't just sell it, so maybe we create an agency to distribute it to starving people around the world...

Boston Globe reports antics of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at Vermont/Quebec library that sits on Canada-U.S. border. She repeatedly stepped over taped boundary marker in middle of the library, referring to Canada as the "51st State" every time she stood in Canada.

Some context for the un-emBloomberged masses of Bluesky: today's GDPNow estimate is literally the worst number excepting COVID that has happened since the indicator existed

if he was trying to cause as much damage as humanly possible, what would he be doing differently?

Rubio also said Russia could become a “permanent junior partner” to China in the same interview which is a reverse psychology move so obvious you kind of have to discount the rest of the stuff he said

Two photos: One shows Zelenskyy in a black quarter zip at the White House meeting, the other shows Elon Musk in a black graphic t-shirt, black topcoat, and black ball cap, also meeting with the Trump cabinet.

One reason why I think respectability is stupid is because it's often used as a mask. Such judgements are rarely about the clothes themselves, but more often about the bodies beneath them. To wit, no one raised an issue when Elon wore a graphic t-shirt and ball cap to meet the Trump cabinet.

I actually give trump pal and Fox host Jesse Watters a lot of credit here in the sense he honestly spelled out why it’s so dumb when Certain People, including “post-left” online guys, try to spin Trump’s mission here as anti-imperialist.

I have covered presidential politics for 40 years. This was the most juvenile display by a President and Vice President I have ever seen. Other presidents treated their enemies with more respect. This is a low point and a dark day for the US. Totally embarrassing.

I was genuinely not expecting a “You should smile more!” take from the disastrous Trump-Zelenskyy meeting

Texas A&M is claiming it needs to ban drag shows from campus because they create a hostile environment for women on campus, and involve the mockery or objectification of women. It's one of the most laughable arguments I can imagine.

Lest you think we’ve done enough damage to our international alliances recently, here’s your reminder that we have tariffs against Canada and Mexico scheduled for Tuesday that Trump has to spend a news cycle making up another reason to “negotiate” away

This is false.
The US actuvely supported the creation of every stage of what is now the EU, bc we believed it was better for us to have a united Europe with us against the Soviets than to have a fragmented Europe obsessed w its own problems and vulnerable to the USSR

this is how I found out Merz is six foot six

Debt and defence headache for Merz after AfD and far left make gains Election winner could struggle to reform strict borrowing rules due to opposition in next parliament

Final results: Merz can govern with just the SPD, which will make coalition building easier. But, and this is a big but: AfD and the Left have together won the seats needed for a “blocking minority” in Parliament.

That will make things difficult, because ..

it just feels quite incomprehensible to me that four months ago to the day I was in the US, talking to people who said that well, it's very close, but maybe she'll manage to get it, the polls look like they're moving in the right direction

four months! an entirely different world already!