Well, who would have guessed that France would wave the white flag and cut a deal with our enemy?
Not me! Up until now, France has been a staunch ally, right?!
“Allies”
Is John Cleese turning… based?
Anyone who has stumbled on John Cleese’s X feed lately will have been in for a bit of a surprise. Where most A-listers use social media to witter on about ‘trans kids’, ICE or the latest cause célèbre, the Monty Python star has blazed an altogether different trail. Broadcasting to his 4.9million followers on X, Cleese has slammed Islamic sectarianism, blasted woke censorship and even quote tweeted a recent piece from spiked. Whisper it, but could Cleese be the ‘based’ national treasure Britain needs right now?
Carney’s Davos speech did a ‘service’ by describing the world in ‘stark’ terms, ex-CIA director says
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a surprisingly conciliatory speech at the Munich Security Conference, and European leaders gave addresses that responded to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s powerful Davos speech and the need for a stronger, more independent Europe.
To cut through the messaging and diplomatic fog, the National Post spoke with former CIA deputy director and acting director John McLaughlin — who was in Munich — for his inside take on allied perceptions of America’s global role, U.S.-Canada ties, and intel-sharing risks and opportunities. Today, McLaughlin is a professor of practice at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
An era of ‘wrecking ball’ politics: What the Munich Security Report says about Canada’s moment of reckoning
Almost every foreign diplomat you run across lately simply gushes about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Davos speech, and how his remarks about middle powers banding together went viral in Europe.
As much as the speech represented a wake-up call for Canada and its allies, a new report that sets up the annual Munich Security Conference extends and sharpens Carney’s argument and delivers a series of stark warnings.
One of them is fairly straightforward — if not somewhat uncomfortable — for Canadians.
Where allies are concerned, it’s not enough to just show up. You’ve got to bring something useful.
Finland’s Plan To Exit Ottawa Landmine Treaty Sparks International Debate
Finland’s government on Tuesday, April 1st, announced plans to begin withdrawing from the 1997 Ottawa Treaty which bans the use, production, and transfer of anti-personnel landmines.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stated that the “fundamentally changed security environment in Europe” prompted the decision and emphasized the need to boost national defense, particularly as Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia.
“We propose that Finland starts to prepare for withdrawal from the Ottawa agreement,” Orpo said. Finland’s parliament must approve the move, which would come into effect six months after ratification.
Such a dopey idea could only be hatched in Ottawa.
The National Review Would Like You to Stop Upsetting the Left
The strategy of polite surrender isn’t working.
In 1867, Karl Marx published Das Kapital. And it was Trump’s fault.
Or as Jim Geraghty at the National Review argues that the “the most lasting legacy of the Trump presidency will be a culturally dominant progressive left.” Geraghty blames President Trump for undermining a strategy of polite surrender that is exactly the reason why the Left dominates our culture (as it has for 70 years), our politics, and now even corporations.