Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada is under intense pressure to step down after the abrupt and acrimonious resignation of a key deputy on Monday highlighted his deep unpopularity after nearly a decade in power.
On Friday, as Mr. Trudeau tried to save his leadership by rearranging his cabinet, another prominent political ally turned on him, calling him a failed leader and vowing to bring down his government.
Have you got a couple of hours?
Donald Trump could demand Nato allies increase defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, more than doubling the current target.
The president-elect’s team told European officials they will be expected to increase military budgets after he takes office on Jan 20, as he passes the burden of the war in Ukraine on to Europe.
Only 23 of the 32 Nato members meet the alliance’s spending target of 2 per cent, including the UK.
Justin Trudeau has carried out a major reshuffle of his cabinet, changing a third of his senior team – even as a series of blows seemed to guarantee the end of his term as prime minister and a spring election for Canada.
The move on Friday came at the end of a disastrous week that saw the shock resignation of his deputy, calls for his resignation from within his own party and public mockery from Donald Trump.
Moments before the reshuffle was announced there was one last setback, as the New Democratic party, which had been helping keep Trudeau in office, announced it was withdrawing support – essentially writing the death certificate for his government.
Elon Musk has stirred up the German election campaign by endorsing the radical right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), saying that it is the only party that could “save” the country.
The world’s richest man, a sponsor and ally of Donald Trump, has already flirted with the populist right in a number of other countries, including Britain, Italy and the Netherlands.
Elon #Musk würde #AfD wählen! Und Du? #AliceFuerDeutschland #DeshalbAfD pic.twitter.com/LXYxMYPiPp
— AfD (@AfD) December 20, 2024
In recent days several pundits have described Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s current political situation as “the worst” he has ever faced. That’s entirely correct. People are rightly baffled by Trudeau’s refusal to step down.
When you just nip out for Gas & milk
America is wild. pic.twitter.com/mxPZGoLbsM
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) December 20, 2024
h/t Mauser
The death toll of a deadly Christmas market massacre carried out by an anti-Islam doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 as a refugee from Saudi Arabia has now risen to four, according to local reports.
… MailOnline can reveal that al-Abdulmohsen, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the Saudi Arabian city of Hofuf, moved to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg. He has been recognised as a refugee since 2016.
Previous media reports suggest he had worked to help ex-Muslims, particularly women, to flee Saudi Arabia after turning their backs on the religion.
Analysis of his social media reveals tweets in support of Germany’s anti-immigration party AfD, while he has also made comments supporting Elon Musk, far-right thug Tommy Robinson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Car Jihad doesn’t sound very “Ex-Muslim”
Saudi Arabia warned Germany ahead of Christmas market ramming, source claims
… “People like me, who have an Islamic background but are no longer believers, are met with neither understanding nor tolerance by Muslims here,” he was quoted as saying. “I am history’s most aggressive critic of Islam. If you don’t believe me, ask the Arabs.”
The suspect arrested in connection with a deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg was Islamophobic, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters on Saturday.
One of the most momentous weeks of Justin Trudeau’s political career came to a close on Friday with arguably his least momentous cabinet shuffle.
This is not to take away from the personal significance of the moment for any of the new cabinet members, such as Public Safety Minister Dalton McGuinty or Housing Minister Nate Erskine-Smith, who probably expected to leave this Parliament as backbenchers.
(Open link incognito)
Fife "Will (Trudeau) actually step down, I think he will. If he doesn't, it will just be more bleeding out. It will get worse"
"So everybody who's talked to him has come away with a different version of how the discussions that they had with him went"
ICYMI – We have Telford,… pic.twitter.com/2OBtzXy09w
— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) December 20, 2024
Authorities are pursuing the right-wing party while staying strangely quiet on the vandals.
Flemish nationalists could be prosecuted for recording the vandalism of their own offices in Brussels . The incident, which occurred last month the same night as a book launch of French conservative leader Jordan Bardella, saw the headquarters of Vlaams Belang attacked with impunity. Now Belgian authorities seem more concerned with going after the victims than the perpetrators, Nieuw Rechts reports.
That disgruntled Liberal members of Parliament lack the ability to remove their leader is entirely their own fault. It is they who decided to deny themselves the ability to do so.
Fairly late into its decade in government, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives passed something called the Reform Act. Introduced as an amendment to the Parliament of Canada Act as a private members bill by Conservative MP Michael Chong, its purpose was to enhance the power and influence of MPs, ensure none of them could be evicted from their caucus without the approval of their peers and—most important—grant them the power to remove their party leader.
You may recall this oldie: Did you hear about the socialist joke? It’s poor quality but everybody gets it.
Better than anyone, Donald Trump knows that today’s woke-leftists have no sense of humour. Moreover, Trump has learned that ridicule and sarcasm are effective batons for handling such foes. It can bowl them over.
With all the subtlety of a hand grenade, chroniclers of Joe Biden’s presidency have shifted from insisting that Biden’s alleged infirmity was a malicious lie to soliciting sympathy for having had to spend years covering for the obviously infirm president.
The media have a new talking point to trash Trump—they have decided that they will say that the “elected to nothing” Elon Musk is president, and Trump is just his puppet. What a joke.
Not once have I ever seen these same people question who has been the president the last four years while Biden’s mind has clearly been shot. They intentionally spread the lie that Biden was “sharp as a tack” and doing a great job.
They say the U.S. presidency is the loneliest job in the world. Maybe the second-loneliest gig is that of Cabinet secretary in President Joe Biden’s administration.
A piece published Thursday in the Wall Street Journal pulls from dozens of sources who say Biden’s inner circle of trusted aides increasingly kept contact with the president at a minimum, including the people he should have depended on most to consult and advise for the good of the nation.
The vibes continue to shift. Five minutes ago, “cousin marriage” was the punchline to a highbrow joke about the Hapsburg Jaw, or perhaps a lowbrow one about what counted as Normal for Norfolk. Now all of a sudden, the relative silence about it reveals the “unspeakable face of liberalism” according to Matthew Syed in The Times. And it seems lots of others agree with him.
Formerly in the historical deep freeze, it’s the fact that cousin marriage occurs disproportionately in British Muslim communities that has turned it into a hot button issue. Syed — himself of Pakistani extraction — first drew attention to its prevalence in an influential column last year, reminding us that where cousin marriage is practised over several generations, it exposes couples to a significantly heightened risk of bearing children with autosomal recessive disorders. Obstetricians in isolated rural communities have always known this, and now modern access to gene mapping is emphasising the risk.
