When you put morons in charge, this is what happens

George Pearkes@peark.es · 4h ago

"As part of the partnership, Patel has brought officials from China's Ministry of Public Security, or MPS, to multiple FBI facilities in the United States to share ​intelligence and investigative information."

Some quotes from me on the search for German chokepoints vis à vis China and the broader challenge the EU faces in tackling the China earthquake for European industry. www.scmp.com/economy/chin...

What would a German audit for Chinese supply chain dependencies find?

Although many analysts deem the search long overdue, they warn that German leverage would be both hard to implement and short-lived.

scmp.com

How close would this be without tens of millions of dollars in AIPAC money propping up Stevens I wonder

Sometimes the NYT gets into the he-said, she-said weeds on Trump and completely misses the bigger picture. This story is a particularly egregious example www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/u...

Pirro Meets With Trump at the White House After He Said She ‘Choked’ in Reflecting Pool Case

President Trump said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., “folded like an umbrella.” For now, her job appeared to be safe, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

nytimes.com

We all know that the forced labor 301s were fabricated to replace the IEEPA tariffs. Administration officials have admitted as much. What will they come up with if/when the 301s are ruled illegal? insidetrade.com/daily-news/t...

“We are experiencing a China Shock 2.0," says Tanja Gönner of the BDI. "It is affecting not just individual sectors, but the industrial economy as a whole: through dependencies on CRMs, a significantly undervalued currency, state-induced overcapacity …” www.handelsblatt.com/politik/konj...

Deutsche Wirtschaft: China-Konkurrenz belastet laut BDI die Wirtschaft

Der wirtschaftliche Druck lastet auf allen: Von außen als auch von innen ist die deutsche Wirtschaft einem harten Stresstest ausgesetzt. Brauchen wir mehr Widerstandsfähigkeit?

handelsblatt.com

Infantino asking Trump for a favor www.independent.co.uk/sport/footba...

Tariffs on all countries that call for Infantino’s head? A US ban on soccer? An invasion of Spain to reclaim the 🏆? The possibilities are endless

The CEO of VW called last week for tougher trade measures against China - a signal that the economics of EU-China relations have reached a tipping point. The politics, however, is about to get messy A free summer edition of Watching China in Europe. Stay cool! ☀️😎 open.substack.com/pub/nbarkin/...

Watching China in Europe - August 2026

The CEO of VW has called on the EU to take tougher trade measures against China - a sign that the economics of EU-China relations have reached a tipping point. But the politics is about to get messy.

open.substack.com

A NYT investigation shows that the US dropped a 2,000 pound bomb, one of the largest in its arsenal, on a family home on Iran’s Qeshm Island overnight, killing a couple and their 2-year-old son. Two other children were pulled from the rubble alive #warriorethos www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/w...

Evidence Indicates U.S. Dropped Bomb on Residential Area in Iran, Killing 3 Civilians

The weapon, one of the largest in the U.S.’s arsenal, struck a house in a heavily populated area, according to a Times analysis.

nytimes.com

How China is winning the Trump era, how dark money is perverting US democracy, how a new McCarthyism has turned Anthony Fauci, the personification of expertise and public service, into a villain. These are the stories we should all be focused on👇🏼 podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Politics Podcast · Join The New Yorker’s writers and editors for reporting, insight, and analysis of the most pressing political issues of our time. On Mondays, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yo...

podcasts.apple.com

Trump is turning the US into the backward outlier of the global auto industry by doubling down on the internal combustion engine. The irony is that Elon Musk, whose company Tesla was the first to mass-produce electric vehicles, helped him do it. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Trump Is Losing the Great Electric-Vehicle Race

Donald Trump’s decision to do away with Biden-era efficiency standards and electric-vehicle incentives threatens to turn America into a theme park of internal combustion as the rest of the world moves...

newyorker.com

Hopefully this episode marks the beginning of the end of Infantino’s reign at FIFA www.ft.com/content/5840...

Fifa abandons $20bn stake-sale plan after global backlash

Gianni Infantino says it was ‘clear’ project created divisions not in interest of organisation’s initial objective

ft.com

EU could hit Trump and Infantino at once. I'm sure Belgium would support this.

Finbarr Bermingham@fbermingham.bsky.social · 6d ago

UEFA says FIFA sell-off plan is "an act of coercion" - they should ask the Commission if they can borrow the ACI, not sure they're using it at the moment

“We don’t want to go back to China, but at the same time, we’ve got a business to run” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/b...

Trump’s Tariffs Are Sending Some Companies Back to China

For some U.S. brands seeking a location for their factories, the economic logic is once again pointing to China.

nytimes.com

German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche is deeply unpopular, her ministry is a mess, and her relationship with Merz is broken. In recent months, she has done everything she can to undermine his tougher China policy. And yet she isn't going anywhere. A mystery www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deut...

Wirtschaftsministerin: Warum der Kanzler bei Reiche vor einem unlösbaren Dilemma steht

Ist die Wirtschaftsministerin die nächste auf der Streichliste? Das hätte der Kanzler wohl gern. Doch sie ist geschützt. Auch, weil der mögliche Ersatzkandidat ein neues Dilemma bringen würde.

handelsblatt.com

PwC published reports on AI and electric vehicles riddled with fake footnotes, misattributed claims and unverifiable information, the latest example of a Big Four firm’s slapdash use of AI-generated content. www.ft.com/content/7e14...

PwC published ‘thought leadership’ reports marred by AI hallucinations

Big Four consultant is latest firm found to have produced slapdash work while marketing expertise on the technology

ft.com

Europe may have an over-regulation problem. But when I read dystopian stories like this, I am quite happy to be living in Europe. Across the pond, unethical mega-companies and corrupt local officials are colluding to screw ordinary Americans www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/t...

How Meta Got Everything It Wanted in a Secret Louisiana Data Center Deal

A Times examination details how the Silicon Valley giant used private talks with local officials to start a project big enough to cover nearly six square miles.

nytimes.com

A Canadian woman of Chinese origin who was interning at Nato’s military headquarters in Belgium has been arrested on charges of spying. Arrest is the latest in a long line of espionage attempts in Belgium which hosts Nato civilian and military HQs and the EU as.ft.com/r/44db3c09-c...

Nato military HQ intern arrested on suspicion of spying

Belgian officials say operations have not been compromised after a Canadian national of Chinese origin is detained

as.ft.com

Peking duck is the latest salvo in an escalating EU-China trade conflict m.youtube.com/watch?v=6KaZ...

EU targets Peking Duck in dumping probe | DW News

YouTube video by DW News

m.youtube.com

Trump shows at the White House correspondents dinner that a fragile ego and self-deprecatory humor are incompatible www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/u...

At Correspondents’ Dinner, a Rambling Trump Hurls Insults

President Trump gave the keynote speech as relations between his administration and the press continue to deteriorate.

nytimes.com

Musk has no problem with neo-Nazis. He made the Hitler salute. He spreads racist hate speech on a regular basis. He knows what the AfD is all about. That is why he supports them. The idea that he is blissfully ignorant about what the party represents is ridiculous

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 2w ago

At one point she notes that AfD, the German political party that Musk supports, has "real neo-Nazis." Musk literally just shrugs.

Here's the list of the 14 EU entities that have been hit with Chinese export controls in response to the EU's 21st sanctions package (which blacklisted 14 Chinese entities). There is one household name: Germany's Rheinmetall www.mofcom.gov.cn/zwgk/zcfb/ar...

Volkswagen getting crushed in China: Q2 deliveries down 36.6% and operating profit from Chinese JVs could be close to zero in H2 2026 uploads.vw-mms.de/system/produ...

I’m told this man has landed safely back in Turkey apnews.com/article/germ...

Germany has deported a Uyghur man to China, his mother says

Germany has deported a Uyghur man to China, raising concerns about his potential detention. Arafat Adil, a dual Chinese-Turkish national, was seeking asylum in Germany.

apnews.com

Beijing is applying the same state-backed industrial playbook to agriculture that turned China into a global powerhouse for solar panels and electric vehicles www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

EU’s Trade Probe of Peking Duck Foreshadows Another China Shock

Farm products are once again in the crossfire of trade tensions between China and the European Union. This time, the target isn’t French wine or Dutch cheese — it’s Peking duck.

bloomberg.com

Greece has flown under the radar in recent years as leaders like Orban, Fico and Sanchez (for his China policy) drew criticism for their cozy relationships with authoritarian regimes. No longer

Stanley Pignal@spignal.bsky.social · 2w ago

EU agrees 21st sanctions package but at great cost: allowing Greek shipping firms (essentially one firm) to keep exporting Russian LNG. My read: While this exemption may help Mitsotakis at home, it will severely dent the PM's hopes of landing a top EU job one day. Memories are long in Brussels.

Jamieson Greer gives himself an “A” for a tariff policy that was 1) deemed illegal by the Supreme Cout 2) triggered retaliation from China that forced the US to back down and 3) haven’t reshored jobs (their main objective) podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...

More Trump Tariffs Are Coming

Podcast Episode · The Daily · 20 July · 40min

podcasts.apple.com

EU capitals failed to reach a deal during all-day talks, as Greece continued to insist on a carve-out from a Russian LNG shipment ban. Ambassadors will reconvene tomorrow morning hoping to clinch a deal and avoid the situation of surge in the Kremlin's income from crude oil exports.

Henry Foy@henryjfoy.ft.com · 2w ago

As EU ambassadors begin a crunch debate on the next round of Russia sanctions, with billions of euros worth of LNG exports and oil revenues hanging in the balance, the @financialtimes.com editorial board lays out the crude truth Background here: as.ft.com/r/3ac50792-e...

How can any self respecting member of congress continue to fund a deeply unpopular war with no articulated strategy or end-goal? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/u...

Hegseth Estimates Iran War Has Cost $37.5 Billion

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is requesting as much as $70 billion in emergency military spending after nearly five months of war.

nytimes.com