By Michael Every of Rabobank

April Fools

Spot the April Fools’ Day jokes among the following recent headlines:

The Daily Mail says Trump could technically be President for a further two terms using a loophole Eisenhower considered, running as Vice President to a presidential candidate who resigns after they are sworn into office: then Trump alluded to that possibility.

The Financial Times’ chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman therefore recommends Americans “embrace and push forward” AOC and Bernie Saunders as a defence against a slide into authoritarianism, a-la “Russia, Turkey, and India.”

The Washington Post says a Department of Defence memo declares China the strategic focus, along with preventing the capture of Taiwan: Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorism are all secondary. Further, the US must now guarantee control over the Panama Canal and ensure a military presence in the “near abroad” –a Russian term– of Greenland and Panama, the former of which Trump refuses to rule out the use of military force to obtain.

Worse, the memo says the US cannot fight on two fronts, so Europe must fight Russia itself. That’s as Moscow signed up another 160,000 conscripts, saying they won’t be sent to Ukraine, and Europe only did the latter; and Germany’s intel service reports Russia is most likely preparing for a “large-scale conventional war” with NATO by the end of the decade.

British Steel shut down its Scunthorpe plant after 150 years just as the UK aims to rearm. The government says it had “productive negotiations” with the US on an “economic prosperity deal” –not “co-prosperity”?– as reports say London will buy F-35 fighter jets rather than Eurofighters; yet the UK was also just told “no free trade without free speech” by the US.

Finland’s President dropped in to play golf at Mar-a-Lago and emerged with a deal, Trump saying: “President Stubb and I look forward to strengthening the partnership between the US and Finland. That includes the purchase and development of a large number of badly needed icebreakers for the US.”

Then again, the leading 2027 French presidential candidate, the National Rally’s Le Pen, has just been banned from running for office for five years and sentenced to four years for embezzlement. The same accusation had already circled the French Prime Minister, who wasn’t charged, and Le Pen called it a political attack and appealed, as populists, including Trump, rally round her. Moreover, El Pais reports the EU is considering using their Anti-Coercion Instrument on the US as a response to tariffs, which would be economically escalatory – and geopolitically naïve.

Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Fico claims European Commission President Von der Leyen called him “a complete idiot” for half an hour in a phone call over his attempt to negotiate lower tariffs with the US directly.

Trump is “p***ed off” at Russia’s Putin and may put 25-50% secondary tariffs on Russian oil if he doesn’t play ball on Ukraine peace, as with/double Venezuela. The implications for the oil market are enormous – Brent is just shy of $75, which is surely not what ‘no Russian oil’ implies(?)

An IDF source says a clash with Iran is “inevitable”, and some muse on the same vis Israel-Turkey. Iran’s president rejected direct negotiations with the US, to which Trump replied: “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing – and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.” Iran then warned it will strike the Diego Garcia base if the US uses it to attack it –quite the logistical feat!- as a new airstrip appeared next to the Bab-el-Mandeb maritime chokepoint – a likely UAE contribution.

Trump’s first foreign visit as president will, again, be to Saudi in May, showing big changes may loom. That’s as Israel steels its border with Jordan and, with the unconditional backing of the US, demanded Egypt dismantle its growing military presence in the Sinai Peninsula. Moreover, as Israel’s PM Netanyahu was called out of one of his now-regular court corruption trial sessions for a police interview after two of his aides were arrested for receiving funds from Qatar.

US Secretary of Defence Hegseth just ramped up arms and promises to the Philippines and Japan, and claimed the latter shares a “warrior ethos”. Then China, Japan, and South Korea pledged deepened regional trade relations and, said Chinese media, a joint response to US tariffs, as well as an attempt to denuclearise North Korea.

China passed a law saying if it’s sanctioned by another state, it can legally expropriate that country’s firms’ IP or assets, just as it stressed how open to global businesses it is again.

Canada’s caretaker PM Carney proposed pivoting from “because markets” on housing to post-WW2 state interventionism. There’s a lot of that about, and markets clearly don’t like it.

The EU is reportedly exploring a weaker 2040 climate goal, keeping a 90% emissions-cutting target but changing how countries calculate their progress – either less now, more later; or letting other countries do it for them and buying carbon credits.

The US Trade Representative released a 397-page report detailing other economies’ non-tariff barriers ahead of tomorrow’s ‘Liberation Day’, which cover just about everything imaginable. That’s as The Wall Street Journal says, ‘The Era of Cheap Stuff Was Already Ending. Now Comes the Tariff Threat,’ and Bloomberg adds Trump tariffs “pose a generational challenge to Asian economies built around exports to the US and low trade barriers.”

Yet an FT op-ed yesterday argued ‘Globalisation will triumph over Donald Trump’, quoting those saying even if the US stops buying everything from everyone, within a year, 70 of its trading partners would have redirected all their exports to others, and within five years, 115 would have. To whom? Priced and cleared in which currency? And, if so, why are worrying about tariffs at all?

The market continues to ponder ‘dedollarisation’: in which case nobody is net exporting to the US or has future access to enough dollars to repay their outstanding Eurodollar debts, let alone import bills priced in it, so the global financial system crumbles – and I don’t mean a ‘correction’.

As @balajis puts it: “No reindustrialisation without dedollarisation. But dedollarisation means imperial collapse. On the other hand, so does deindustrialisation! This is the fundamental paradox.”  It has been for some time if you looked at the world with the right lenses, and they also show everything is now about US Grand Macro Strategy, not macrostrategy, to try to square the above circle by whatever means necessary: if lines on maps can move, so will lines on screens.

As two Fed speakers (Williams and Barkin) just said they don’t know where monetary policy needs to be ahead, and that the risk is of higher inflation ahead from tariffs despite matching uncertainty, @daniel_mcdowell puts it: “We’re living through a natural experiment. Can economic and monetary orders built atop particular political orders survive when the latter are dismantled? Markets may very well be grossly underestimating the kind of economic changes heading our way if we continue on this course.”

So, how many April Fools were there today? None. Unless you aren’t looking at any of the above news – then there’s at least one.

Shares of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Xiaomi tumbled in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday following a deadly crash involving one of its SU7 sedans, which claimed three lives on Saturday. The accident has intensified scrutiny over the safety of advanced driving systems, as data from the vehicle has been turned over to local authorities for investigation.

HK shares of Xiaomi closed down 5.5% and have since tumbled into a bear market since peaking in mid-March. Downward pressure began when it raised about $5.5 billion in an equity sale last week to fund EV expansion. 

“Investors might have concerns over Xiaomi’s competitiveness and growth outlook after reports of the car accident,” Shen Meng, director at Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co., said, adding that the completion of the share sale has “also weighed on sentiment.”

The accident is the first major one involving the SU7 sedan, which Xiaomi launched in late 1Q24 and has outsold Tesla’s Model 3 monthly since December. 

On Xiaomi’s Weibo account, the company stated it was “deeply saddened” by the accident and said the “vehicle was in the NOA intelligent assisted driving state before the accident.” 

Here are more details about the accident from Xiaomi:

At 22:44 on March 29, 2025, a Xiaomi SU7 standard version encountered a serious traffic accident while driving on the Chiqi section of the Deshang Expressway. We are deeply saddened by this.

According to preliminary information, the vehicle was in the NOA intelligent assisted driving state before the accident and continued to travel at a speed of 116km/h. Due to construction and repairs on the section where the accident occurred, the self-lane was closed with roadblocks and diverted to the reverse lane. After the vehicle detected the obstacle, it issued a reminder and began to slow down. The driver then took over the vehicle and entered the human driving state, continued to slow down and control the vehicle to turn, and then the vehicle collided with the cement pile of the isolation belt. The last speed that the system could confirm before the collision was about 97km/h.

After the collision, we immediately contacted the owner to understand that it was not the owner who was driving. At the same time, emergency rescue called the passengers on the car, called the police, and called 120 emergency services.

After that, the police arrived at the scene immediately and fully intervened in the investigation of the accident. At the same time, we immediately set up a special team and rushed to Tongling on the 30th. Under the guidance of the police, we actively cooperated with the investigation, evidence collection and other work, and submitted the vehicle driving data and system operation information we had to the police in accordance with the law on the evening of the 31st. We will continue to fully cooperate with the police and strictly follow the results of the investigation to ensure that the handling of the incident is open and transparent.

At the same time, our special team will also contact the families of the accident victims with the permission and guidance of the police, fully assist in the aftermath, and provide support and help.

We are summarizing the information we know so far and have submitted to the police as follows:

• March 29, 22:27:17 NOA activated, vehicle speed 116km/h

• March 29, 22:28:17 Mild distraction alarm March 29, 22:36:48 NOA issued a hands-off warning prompt “Please hold the steering wheel”

• March 29, 22:44:24 NOA issued a risk warning “Please note that there are obstacles ahead”, issued a deceleration request, and began to decelerate

• March 29, 22:44:25 NOA was taken over and entered human driving state, the steering wheel turned 22.0625 degrees to the left, and the brake pedal was opened 31%

• March 29, 22:44:26 The steering wheel turned 1.0625 degrees to the right, and the brake pedal was opened 38%.

• Between 22:44:26 and 28 on March 29, the vehicle collided with the concrete guardrail on

• March 29, 22:44:28 Ecall triggered on the vehicle side.

• 22:44:39 on March 29. Ecall connected on the vehicle side, confirming the accident, calling the police and 120 emergency services.

• 22:45:06 on March 29. Contacted the owner and confirmed that the driver was not the owner.

• 22:47:15 on March 29. 120 was dispatched successfully.

• 120 arrived at the scene at about 23:00 on March 29.

Here is an alleged video of the accident scene on the Dezhou-Shangrao Expressway in Tongling in southern Anhui Province, eastern China. 

Mar 29: three young women — reportedly university students — were killed in a blaze that broke out after the Xiaomi SU7 they’re travelling in crashed into the divider on Dezhou-Shangrao Expressway (德上高速; Deshang Expressway for short) in Tongling (铜陵), Anhui province in the… pic.twitter.com/xjKnn3HMBm

— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) April 1, 2025

Last month, Xiaomi raised its 2025 sales target to 350,000 units. Whether the fatal crash last weekend will dampen confidence and affect sales moving forward remains uncertain. 

Pissed off Canadians are skipping trips to the United States over President Donald Trump’s trade policies and ‘disrespect’ – after Trump’s repeated calls to annex the northern neighbor as America’s 51st state, CNBC reports.

When reached by the outlet for comment, a White House spokesperson said that “everybody wants to come to President Trump’s America,” adding that Canadians “will no longer have to endure the inconveniences of international travel when Canada becomes our 51st state,” while “Europeans are eager to enjoy the Golden Age of America if they so choose to.”

The boycott on travel comes amid a $50 billion travel deficit in the United States – just weeks after former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau encouraged Canadians to “choose Canada,” and suggested “changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer.”

According to the US Travel Association, there is “a question of America’s welcomeness, a slowing U.S. economy and recent safety concerns.

“These challenges are real and demand decisive action,” they continued, adding that it is “actively working with the White House and Congress to advance policies that drive economic expansion and keep the U.S. competitive on the global stage.”

Worldwide Trend

Meanwhile, it’s more than just Canada, as Statista reports. According to Ceylan Yeğinsu of the New York Times, travelers around the world are being put off by the Trump administration’s recent actions, including its new policies and rhetoric. Where the research firm Tourism Economics had initially predicted international travel to the U.S. to grow by 9 percent this year, it recently downgraded its forecast to a 5 percent contraction.

Some Europeans are among those rethinking their trips to the United States in protest against Trump. According to National Travel and Tourism Office data, there was an 8.5 percent decrease in the number of German travelers arriving to the U.S. between February 2025 and February 2024, a 5.6 percent decline in French travelers and a 3.9 percent decline among other countries in Western Europe. The United Kingdom and Italy show a different trend, however, with a 6.9 percent and 0.1 percent increase, respectively, between February 2024 and 2025.

Via Remix News,

Stern Magazine is calling for mass conscription of German youths to join the army, including to ensure the defense of “freedom and diversity.” The reaction to the article has been harsh to say the least, with hundreds of negative comments directed at Stern.

The article, entitled “Others no longer defend us? Then we must do it ourselves!” claims that “the USA no longer wants to protect Germany. This brings a bitter realization: Our unbearable complacency must end.”

The solution? Start drafting German youth to fight the future wars. The author, Tilman Gerwien, a German male noticeable well past the age of someone who might typically be drafted, says that the days of a “dollhouse-like Bullerbü” are over and “we have to grow up.” He details the left’s traditional stance against conscription, which saw German youths demanding American troops leave Germany, was “not only a matter of conscience, but also a lifestyle.” He noted that at demonstrations against NATO, “people hopped around in peace-loving spirits, chanting ‘Out of NATO, into fun!’” All of this has to end, according to Gerwien.

There is no way to know if Gerwien was ever a part of these previous protests or ever shared those sentiments at one time, but it is notable that he is now old enough to not have to face the draft himself. Lucky him.

Does Germany want another war?

German man who lived through WWII fears anti-Russian rhetoric from Friedrich Merz.

“Since Hitler, no one has ever agitated against Russia as much as he did, That reminded me of when I was 9 years old….. What’s happening here is a disaster.” pic.twitter.com/LGrx2fRhJx

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 24, 2025

He is a part of the trend of the German establishment left suddenly becoming gung-ho in recent years, especially since Putin invaded Ukraine. The old Green Party ideals of removing NATO from Europe and pursuing an anti-war agenda have been jettisoned. In this sense, much of the establishment left has become outright hawkish. With Trump now in office, the hawkishness from this German establishment has now gone into overdrive, with the Greens joining forces with the CDU to promote a defense-oriented Germany.

Will Germans fight for the “New Germany?”

Of course, the “New Germany” does not exactly have people lining up to fight for it, and that is a real problem for the establishment. Much of the conservative youth no longer see a Germany they would lay down their lives for, and in fact, the “New Germany” openly despises these AfD-voting youths, and maybe even sending them to the front would solve this “problem.”

Meanwhile, the left-wing youth is coddled and mostly pacifist. This “Spiegel/Stern left” may like the idea of soldiers going off to fight on their behalf, but they don’t actually want to do the fighting themselves. The old notions of “honor” and “heroes” have been widely mocked and denigrated by the German elite, which Stern acknowledges,

So, who will fight?

Well, in the end, there doesn’t have to be a “reason” for conscription. Youths in Germany, just as in Ukraine, will be forced to the front for the likes of Stern’s editorial staff when push comes to shove, but it’s a nice thought for these journalists that these youths will at least think they have something worth dying for.

So, what should they die for? Stern addresses this problem, as the very atomized and multicultural society it promotes reduces the will for Germans to die face down in some trench at the frontline.

The magazine writes, “Taking all of this into account, Germany faces a tremendous challenge. We must dare to embrace more ‘heroism’ – and less hedonism. More communal commitment and less responsibility-avoiding individualism. And be careful not to lose sight of what we want to defend: freedom and diversity. If the pendulum swings too far toward individualization, we become defenseless. If the focus is too strongly on defense, the ghosts of the past are awakened, keyword ‘national community.’ It’s important to find the balance.”

See, Stern doesn’t want right-wing people who love their country fighting a patriotic war at the front. This could lead to people voting for the AfD, and then… Hitler will come back. This is the logic of Der Spiegel, Stern, and many others.

They instead want iPhone-wielding hipsters who love diversity dying in the trenches. These iPhone-wielding youths should be at the front to defend guys like Gerwien so they can go to Vietnamese restaurants, attend book readings from African authors, and enjoy art installations from Brazilian LGBT activists.

German youth should die for all the above, not for the “German people,” or the “German flag,” or “hearth and home” or any of that other fascist nonsense that typically united nations and led men to lay down their lives for each other and their families.

Stern also appears relatively sure this youth will indeed be dying as well, saying they “will have to take up arms at some point.”

“At the very latest, when conscription comes into effect, ‘they’ (the Bundeswehr) will be all of us – even if only because our children and grandchildren will have to take up arms at some point,” writes Stern. “This raises the question: What are we prepared to fight for and, when push comes to shove, to die for? The fact that we are being asked to answer for the first time in decades is the true ‘turning point.’”

However, as Stern writes, German youths are not just fighting for diversity, but also for “freedom.” 

Notably, if you have any problem with “German freedom,” such as Germany’s harsh free speech laws, then your freedom should be curtailed with a visit from the police, as is increasingly the case in Germany.

Of course, freedom and democracy are tied together, and German youths should be fighting at the front to defend a government increasingly intent on banning the second most popular party in the country, the AfD, which just hit a new polling high this week at 23.5 percent. But freedom also means banning political parties, and we must all fight for the right to ban political parties whose opinions we do not agree with, especially if that party is opposed to the war in Ukraine, which all German youth (future soldiers fighting for diversity) should support..

It all sounds very confusing, but “freedom and diversity” certainly sound good as long as we don’t look at the details.

It is also worth noting that despite Germans being called to “defend diversity,” the cover of Stern is remarkably lacking in diversity. It’s two White people, a boy and girl.

German media makes propaganda push urging young people to fight in wars.

“Would you fight for Germany?” asks Stern in an article supporting conscription.

Our advice: The @sternde editorial staff should volunteer for duty in Ukraine now before the war comes to Germany. pic.twitter.com/F6ONkT2tok

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 25, 2025

Considering Germany’s youth are becoming more and more diverse, one would think that it would have been the perfect opportunity to feature a Black or Arab person. Go to any clothing store in Germany or any other Western country, and the classic motif of the Black male paired with the White female is ubiquitous. However, as those on the right often point out, when the threat of real wars start, the White males suddenly start appearing more and more frequently in the recruiting ads of the armed forces.

Laughably, the Stern call to action quotes military historian Sönke Neitzel, who told the magazine in support of conscription: “What are we waiting for?” “That 100 percent of the population is in favor of it?” He claims people won’t like it, but it simply has to happen.

Well, maybe they could at least wait until there is 20 percent of the population supporting such measures? A new Forsa poll shows that only 17 percent of Germans are willing to take up arms and die for their country. In short, Stern’s vision of an army of conscripts ready to die for Germany sounds a bit like Hitler at the end of the war, who was completely separated from reality and moving armies around on the map that did not exist.

Of those 17 percent, how many of them are older people or women who actually would not take up arms or even be forced to take up arms should the call to war come?

As Remix News reported in the past, the Ukrainian army has had something the German army did not, which was a patriotic, hardcore, right-wing element that was willing to “die for Ukraine.” Not all of these soldiers were neo-Nazis, but many certainly were. A huge number of these soldiers are already dead, and the war may be coming to an end. Ironically, Ukraine may end up more like Germany in the end with the death of these soldiers, as calls by Ukrainian business leaders to accept the mass importation of migrants to replace the soldiers lost are becoming more of a mainstream idea.

Germany’s push for conscription will continue, with hundreds of billions being directed into weapons purchases. The only problem is that Germans are not going to want to fly these fighter jets or drive these tanks.

Die #Zeitenwende entscheidet sich nicht bloß an neuen Milliarden für die #Bundeswehr. Sondern vor allem daran, ob wir bereit sind zu tun, was uns fremd geworden ist: kämpfen. Unsere aktuelle Titelgeschichte lest ihr hier: https://t.co/TwwzNWW0AA pic.twitter.com/Ragr35s9hq

— stern (@sternde) March 19, 2025

As the X comments note, Germans do not seem especially enthusiastic. One user writes: “Why should you fight for a country that you can’t even be proud of?”

Another responds: “You’ve failed with your miserable war training and war mentality. Only 17% of Germans want to defend Germany with weapons in hand, according to the latest Forsa survey. You won’t have my children, you miserable indoctrinators and arms industry lobbyists!”

Another asks how old the boy on the cover of the magazine is: “Shouldn’t the question be: Would you give your child? How old is the boy on the cover? 17? Man, man, man… This is on the level of ‘Jesus would have been vaccinated.’”

Some do not even want people to buy Stern, period.

“No—don’t fight! And don’t buy that stupid state propaganda magazine either,” wrote another.

Read more here…

One massive impact the Trump administration has already had, DB’s Jim Reid writes in his latest Chart of the Day note,
is to upend decades of German fiscal conservatism (although one can debate whether Zelensky’s meltdown in the White House at the end of February was staged precisely to provoke Trump’s response, so that the outgoing German government can ram through the massive, €1 trillion spending package before the AfD would block it for good). 

However their tariff actions are also further denting one of Germany’s key sectors, namely autos. This morning we launched an additional paper in our new Deutsche Bank Research Institute looking at how Germany could encourage resources to move between Autos and Defence as the former scales back and the latter rapidly grows. See it here.

Today’s Chart of the Day from Reid shows how far Germany lags many of its peers in terms of defense spending so there is plenty of scope for change.

At the same time, auto factories have chronic overcapacity, with many operating at just a quarter of capacity and urgently looking to reduce their workforce. Production is down by almost a third from its peak in 2011, as much of it has shifted abroad and as buyers pick cheaper alternatives to German cars.

Retooling auto factories is easier said than done though, so it will take several years, even after orders are received. And the clusters of auto and defense factories are in different parts of the country, limiting the ability to simply update machinery and swap workers from one line to another.

The good news, according to Reid, is that with the right incentives and reforms there can be some transition between the two. 

The bad news is that the German (and European_ market has already priced in much if not all the upside from the massive, €1 trillion spending binge, when in reality it will take years for the money to flow through to where it can be used productively and end up as revenue and profits across the private sector, which means that European stocks – and the euro – are in for a very rude awakening in the near-term.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Department for Education data in the UK has revealed that a toddler under the age of four was kicked out of a nursery after being accused of being “transphobic.”

Yes, really.

The Telegraph reports that the child was removed during the 2022-23 academic year for “abuse against sexual orientation and gender identity.”

A toddler was suspended from nursery after being accused of being transphobic or homophobic, The Telegraph can revealhttps://t.co/qBRYoYuvWd

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) March 31, 2025

The statistics also indicate that a further 94 pupils at primary institutions were suspended or permanently excluded for ‘transphobia or homophobia’ in the same year.

Ten of the other pupils were under seven years of age.

I’m lost for words.

A TODDLER has been expelled from a nursery because they were “transphobic or homophobic”.

Something is deeply, deeply wrong with our country. pic.twitter.com/nZ7thMI56Y

— Alex Armstrong (@alexharmstrong) March 31, 2025

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, commented, “Every once in a while, the extremes of gender ideology throw up a story that seems too crazy to believe, and a toddler being suspended from nursery for so-called ‘transphobia’ or homophobia is one such example.”

“Teachers and school leaders involved in this insanity should be ashamed of themselves for projecting adult concepts and beliefs on to such young children,” Joyce added.

“Children shouldn’t be taught any nonsense about gender identities…”@HJoyceGender on the toddler suspended from nursery for “transphobia” with @TalkTV pic.twitter.com/9TilQL1Q2c

— Sex Matters (@SexMattersOrg) March 31, 2025

Lord Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, further remarked “I would have thought that if your ideology is so rigid it justifies you punishing toddlers for not complying with it, that’s a powerful argument for discarding it in favour of something less dogmatic.”

Absolute clown world.

This is totalitarian insanity. If you think small children should be punished for being able to recognise sex, you are a dangerous zealot who should be nowhere near kids or in any position of authority over them. https://t.co/IZI0sP58ss

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 31, 2025

The poor child probably just asked why a boy had a girls name or why a girl was wearing boys clothes, which is what children do, they’re curious about things as they should be.

— IanG 🎗️ (@IanGee2023) March 31, 2025

When transgender ideology is held above the care of toddlers, it’s a clear sign that something is profoundly broken in Western society.

— The Higher Self (@Higherself2024) March 31, 2025

A real headline in 2025.

To be fair, transphobic toddlers are the most hateful. pic.twitter.com/iahQ4UvZaa

— Josh Howie (@joshxhowie) March 30, 2025

I feel so sorry for children being essentially forced to say what is not true 😭 it actually does break my heart

— Tessieroyalsevensamurai 🇬🇧🇮🇪 (@TessaOutlook) March 31, 2025

*  *  *

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Denmark has taken pride in being among the top four military donors to Ukraine over the past more than three years of war. The tiny Scandinavian country has consistently touted its huge financial contribution to the fight against Russia. 

“The information from NATO underlines that military support for Ukraine is an absolute priority for the government. In my view, this is a clear expression of Denmark’s support for Ukraine as long as it is needed. And it is a support that we in Denmark can be proud of,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen recently said.

But now Denmark has found itself embroiled in the unusual Greenland controversy, which escalated when President Trump said he has refused to take “military force off the table” in discussions on a potential US acquisition of Greenland.

Trump talking annexation of what is still a territory of Denmark – which itself is a NATO ally of the United States – is deeply awkward to say the least.

“Many accusations and many allegations have been made. And of course we are open to criticism,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in the wake of Vice President JD Vance’s provocative visit to Greenland. “But let me be completely honest: we do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies. And I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies.”

Russian sources are now highlighting the fact that Denmark has “gambled its security away to arm another country 1,000 km away” amid the ongoing spat over Greenland’s fate with the US.

For example Sputnik has pointed out that “While it has a population of just 6 millino and a $428 billion GDP, Denmark has consistently led the Western alliance in the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, with its arms deliveries the FOURTH LARGEST after the US, Germany and the UK, totaling $8.2 billion, and non-military aid adding up to $1.15 billion.”

The Russian state media outlet featured the following list:

Denmark has cleared out its arms caches of up to 100% of certain weapons to arm Kiev, including:

• 19 F-16s (over 60% of Denmark’s fleet)
• All 19 (100%) of its CAESAR howitzers
• At least 30 of 195 Leopard 1A5 and 14 of 107 of Leopard 2A4 tanks
• Over 50 of 125 M113 APCs
• 500 Stinger MANPADs, 2,700 LAW anti-tank weapons
• Harpoon coastal defense systems, Marder IFVs, engineering equipment, radars, drones, small arms, and soldiers’ gear, from uniforms to field hospitals, living containers and first aid.

The publication then concludes, “Who knew that blowing your defense capabilities on a proxy war against Russia could come with serious risks?”

Danish support for Ukraine broken down by year, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark:

Indeed, in this ongoing major diplomatic spat with the Trump administration, which also involves disagreement over who can provide and sustain better Arctic defense, Denmark now has less military muscle to back up its claims to being able to properly secure Arctic regions like Greenland.

Authored by Julianne Geiger via OilPrice.com,

The EU’s ban on re-exporting Russian LNG is now officially in effect. It essentially halts ship-to-ship transfers at EU ports meant for third-country buyers and the optics are attractive–it’s another cut into Moscow’s energy revenue stream. Whether that translates into pain for Russia is another story.

The re-export ban, passed back in June 2024, only targets Russian LNG cargoes passing through EU ports en route to Asia and other markets. These trans-shipments made up a paltry 2.7 million tons last year—under 10% of Russia’s 34.7 million-ton LNG export total. 

Gas analysts say much of that could be redirected to European buyers, who continue to quietly increase their own purchases from Russia despite loud political promises.

In fact, EU imports of Russian natural gas rose 18% in 2024, according to Reuters who cited Ember, and February 2025 data shows no signs of slowing – averaging 74.3 million cubic meters per day, up 11% from the month before. 

So while the EU wants to “wean off” Russian gas by 2027, for now, the addiction is alive and well.

The real twist is logistical. 

Icebreaker vessels from Novatek’s Yamal LNG can’t access Arctic terminals during the November–June freeze, so they offload at EU terminals like Zeebrugge and Montoir for re-export. About 47 such transfers occurred in 2024, according to ICIS, mostly under long-term contracts with players like Shell, TotalEnergies, and Gunvor.

The new ban forces Moscow to get creative, likely leaning more on Murmansk, Kaliningrad, or even Mediterranean alternatives. It won’t strangle Russian LNG, but it will raise costs and complicate things for Novatek and its partners—perhaps a death by a thousand logistical cuts.

The EU gets a symbolic win, Russia loses a convenient logistics channel, but the gas will keep flowing.

The Sentencing Council of England And Wales, a non-departmental public body (faceless bureaucracy) which determines the guidelines for court punishments of convicted offenders, has recently made controversial changes and ignited a firestorm among the native British populace. 

The council has announced that special exceptions in sentencing will be made for ethnic minority offenders (the majority of violent crime in Britain) and religious minority offenders, as well as female offenders.  In other words, everyone except white males will enjoy reduced sentencing, creating a two tier justice system that targets white men for harsher treatment.

Conservative shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick has called the guidance “two-tier justice” and “blatant bias” against Christians and straight white men, as he said it would make “a custodial sentence less likely for those from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood claim they oppose the policy change and will take action to pass legislation against it.  However, such a process could take many months and both Starmer and Mahmood have expressed favoritism for migrants and Muslim groups in the past.  Their “opposition” could be purely theatrical and few Brits believe that they will actually make an effort to block the Sentencing Council’s two-tier system. 

“White men are going to be treated a lot tougher by judges from Tuesday, compared to other groups.”

The absolute state of the UK. pic.twitter.com/XKbQ9uOqGu

— iamyesyouareno (@iamyesyouareno) March 28, 2025

The legal development arrives on the heels of multiple government programs enforcing mass censorship of the British public.  Keir Starmer has expressed consistent hostility toward native Brits who oppose open immigration policies.  Numerous citizens have been fined and arrested for posting critical opinions on social media.  Some have been arrested simply for displaying British flags in the sight of migrants.  Others have been arrested for complaining online about local government officials.

UNBELIEVABLE.

6 British police officers arrested this dad in front of his children and threw him in a cell because he critisized the school leadership.

Soviet Britain.pic.twitter.com/p1NQDXafEt

— PeterSweden (@PeterSweden7) March 29, 2025

The country has been spiraling into far-left authoritarianism and there doesn’t seem to be a viable counter movement to correct the problem.  Mass immigration has been the most divisive crux, with rising violent crime over the past decade and cultural replacement becoming a legitimate concern.  Some areas of Britain including London are essentially unrecognizable compared to a decade ago.  

Tourist shocked by what he sees in London. pic.twitter.com/pH8kRm3gJB

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) March 30, 2025

The use of unfair sentencing standards for white offenders is another clear attempt to silence native British citizens that speak out against the ongoing woke multicultural takeover of the country.  It is also an attempt to normalize far-left ideological prejudice against white people within the judicial system.  This was always the intended end game of the woke movement.

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

A Spanish conservative lawmaker is facing a hate crime investigation after a press conference in which he highlighted the link between mass immigration and rising crime rates — a connection supported by official data but often ignored by Spain’s far-left administration.

José Antonio Fúster, national spokesman for the populist Vox party and member of the Madrid Assembly, addressed the media on July 29 last year, where he read out the forenames of several dozen individuals arrested during violent incidents in Barcelona that weekend.

“Sabar, Omar, Nassim, Abdelkader, Salah, Salah, Younes, Karim, Jamil, Amir, Ali, Oussama, Hassan… I can go on. Do you notice any patterns? Do you notice anything?” Fúster asked.

“We do, and this is what we have been denouncing for a long time, that the open-door policy of the Popular Party and the PSOE has direct consequences on the security of Spaniards,” he added.

Though the list he read had the surnames redacted and had already circulated online via party channels, his public use of it has led the National Police to file a report for alleged incitement to hatred. Fúster, protected by parliamentary immunity as a sitting deputy, expressed disbelief upon receiving the notification last week and doubled down on his comments.

“We’re constantly told that immigration and crime have no link,” Fúster said, as cited by Spanish digital newspaper The Objective. 

“But they’re not fooling anyone. The criminals that Spaniards endure in their neighborhoods have names — and we all know them.”

Vox maintains that spurious criminal complaints are part of a wider effort to silence those who raise valid security concerns. The party highlighted charges against MP Rocío de Meer last year for writing, “The future of this country is dark,” in response to the birth of a child named Ayoub in a rural Spanish village, and Jordi de la Fuente, another Vox figure, who is awaiting trial over a 2019 protest targeting an asylum center.

José Antonio Fúster: “El listado de los 50 primeros detenidos durante la noche del sábado en Barcelona: Sabar, Omar, Nassim, Abdelkader, Salah, Salah, Younes, Karim, Jamil, Amir, Alí, Oussama, Hassan… puedo seguir. ¿Notan ustedes algún patrón?”.

Según algunos denunciar la… pic.twitter.com/0cARZATX1w

— Sr.Liberal (@SrLiberal) March 30, 2025

The party continues to call for reform of Article 510 of the Penal Code, which defines hate crimes, arguing it has been weaponized to censor uncomfortable conversations. In a recent interview, Vox leader Santiago Abascal remarked, “What they call ‘hate speech’ is often just speech they hate. We’re simply describing reality, and it’s backed by the government’s own data.”

Some of that government data was reported on by Remix News last month after an information request by La Gaceta online newspaper found a growing trend in violent crimes involving foreign nationals.

Between 2013 and 2023, for example, homicides involving foreign suspects soared by 69 percent compared to a 28 percent increase in total cases.

Similarly, the Spanish Interior Ministry’s own crime stats for 2023 revealed that the top 10 Spanish cities with the highest rates of violent robberies and intimidation were all located in Catalonia, with foreigners vastly overrepresented.

The data showed that there are 8,505 inmates in Catalan prisons and that 50.48 percent of them are foreigners.

When focusing on specific violent offenses like rape, 91 percent of those convicted in Catalonia are foreigners. When it comes to sexual assault and rape combined, 64.2 percent of all prisoners are foreigners.

Fúster received plenty of support from party colleagues following the news of the criminal complaint.

“Sabar, Omar, Nassim, Abdelkader, Salah, Salah, Younes, Karim, Jamil, Amir, Ali, Oussama, Hassan… they were the ones arrested. And yes, we could go on because it was a list of the first 50 arrested during a single night in Barcelona,” said Vox secretary general Ignacio Garriga.

“Let them denounce us all, we will continue to tell the truth regardless of who it may be,” he added.

“Let’s not forget that the surnames of the criminals who have condemned us to this are others: Sánchez, Bolaños, Marlaska, Montero, Díaz… and their bipartisan allies,” wrote party leader Santiago Abascal on X.

Read more here…