Strategic Autonomy: Can Europe Break Free from the US?

Aug 20, 2026 | Europe is reassessing its place in a rapidly destabilizing world.

A stark warning from Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney — that reliance on the United States has become a “weakness” — is now echoing across Europe, where leaders are confronting growing uncertainty about Washington’s long-term commitments.

At a key meeting in Poland, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Tusk discussed deeper defense cooperation, including nuclear deterrence coordination and joint military projects.

The push reflects a broader debate over “strategic autonomy” — Europe’s ability to defend itself and act independently on the global stage — as tensions with Russia persist and divisions widen over conflicts such as the war involving Iran.

But how realistic is Europe’s ambition to become a true geopolitical power? And can it reduce its dependence on the United States without weakening its own security?

We speak to Steven Everts, director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

Liebe im Schatten des Krieges – Remarque & Dietrich | Doku HD Reupload | ARTE

Apr 18, 2026 | In seinem Welterfolg "Arc de Triomphe" verarbeitete der Schriftsteller Erich Maria Remarque seine eigenen Exilerfahrungen und die folgenreiche Begegnung mit Marlene Dietrich. Die Dokumentation rekonstruiert die bewegende Entstehungsgeschichte dieses stark autobiografischen Romans, der heute als ein Schlüsselwerk der europäischen Exilliteratur gilt.

Was bedeuten Flucht und Vertreibung für die Betroffenen? Das beschreibt der Bestsellerautor Erich Maria Remarque in seinem zweiten großen Welterfolg ʺArc de Triompheʺ. Der Roman erzählt die Liebesgeschichte eines verfolgten deutschen Emigranten, der unmittelbar vor Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Paris eine geheimnisvolle Frau trifft. Eine Amour fou, wie Remarque sie selbst mit der Hollywood-Diva Marlene Dietrich erlebt hat – und zwar zu einer Zeit, in der ein Leben im faschistischen Deutschland für beide Weltstars ausgeschlossen war.

Die Dokumentation rekonstruiert die Parallelen zwischen dieser realen Liebesgeschichte und der fiktiven im Roman. In ʺArc de Triompheʺ verarbeitet Remarque nicht nur den Schmerz seines eigenen Heimatverlusts, sondern auch seine über zehn Jahre währende, aufreibende Beziehung zu Marlene Dietrich. Entlang der Lebensstationen des Paares und auf der Grundlage von biografischen und historischen Dokumenten sowie Filmausschnitten – 1947 wurde ʺArc de Triompheʺ in Hollywood mit Starbesetzung verfilmt – begibt sich der Film auf eine mitreißende Zeitreise.

Von Paris und Antibes nach Los Angeles und New York rekonstruiert er die Entstehungsgeschichte dieses stark autobiografischen Romans, der heute als Schlüsselwerk der europäischen Exilliteratur gilt – als literarisches Vermächtnis einer langjährigen Leidenschaft zweier Weltstars.

Dokumentation von Hedwig Schmutte und Rolf Lambert (Deutschland 2025, 53 Min)
Video auf YouTube verfügbar bis zum 30/06/2026

«Notre politique étrangère est en totale déconfiture» : Israël face à l’érosion du soutien occidental

LE FIGARO : DÉCRYPTAGE – En quelques mois, l’État hébreu a vu ses relations se dégrader simultanément avec l’Europe et les États-Unis. Un basculement stratégique qui fragilise Israël.

En quelques mois, Israël a vu se fissurer deux piliers de sa diplomatie : l’Europe, qui durcit le ton, et les États-Unis, où le soutien s’effrite dans l’opinion. Jamais la relation entre Israël et l’Europe n’a semblé aussi abîmée. Le signal le plus fort est venu de Madrid. Mardi, l’Espagne doit demander à l’Union européenne de rompre son accord d’association avec Israël, en vigueur depuis 2000 et conditionné au respect des droits humains.

Les relations entre Israël et le Vieux Continent ont durablement été abîmées depuis le début de la guerre à Gaza, mais, ces derniers jours, les mesures hostiles à l’État hébreu se sont multipliées et accélérées. La France a interdit le survol de son espace aérien aux avions américains transportant des munitions à destination d’Israël. En Hongrie, le nouveau premier ministre, Péter Magyar – qui a remplacé Viktor Orban, aux positions très pro-Israël – a annoncé vouloir réexaminer la relation avec l’État hébreu au cas par cas. Même Giorgia Meloni – pourtant réputée proche de Benyamin Netanyahou – a suspendu le renouvellement automatique d’un accord de défense. « Jamais depuis les années 1980 les relations avec l’Europe n’ont été aussi mauvaises », tranche l’ancien diplomate Yigal Palmor. » | Par Stanislas Poyet, correspondant à Jérusalem | lundi 20 avril 2026

Réservé aux abonnés

Hinreißend schöne Musik. Absolut unwiderstehlich! | Reupload

April 13, 2026 | Baby It Rains

Tim Cook Will Step Down as Apple C.E.O.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The longtime leader of the iPhone maker will be replaced by John Ternus, the company’s head of hardware engineering.

Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said on Monday that he would step down after nearly 15 years running an operation that rode the wild popularity of the iPhone to become one of the most influential and valuable companies in the world.

Mr. Cook, 65, will move into a new role as Apple’s executive chairman in September and be succeeded in the company’s corner office by John Ternus, the 50-year-old head of Apple’s hardware engineering.

The retirement of Mr. Cook will end one of the most successful management runs in the history of American business. During his tenure, Apple’s annual profit quadrupled to more than $110 billion, while its value ballooned more than tenfold to $4 trillion.

Mr. Cook replaced the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs shortly before Mr. Jobs’s death in 2011, having earned a reputation for perfecting the nuts and bolts of a global consumer electronics business. Apple has since defined how a modern technology company operates, with products assembled in a supply chain that stretches from the giant operations that Mr. Cook helped create in China to India and Brazil and a popular retail business that operates on five continents. » | Kalley Huang and Tripp Mickle | Reporting from San Francisco | Monday, April 20, 2026

Israeli Soldier Destroys Jesus Statue in Lebanon | BBC News

Apr 20, 2026 | There has been widespread condemnation after an image of an Israeli soldier apparently hitting a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in southern Lebanon went viral.

Israel's prime minister said he was "stunned and saddened”. Its foreign minister said: "We apologise for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt."

Locals say the statue was on a crucifix outside a family home on the edge of Debel, one of the few villages where residents have remained during Israel's war with Hezbollah.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it viewed the incident "with great severity and emphasises that the soldier's conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops".

Trump Has No 'Endgame' In Iran Conflict | Anne Applebaum

Apr 20, 2026 | “He’s always been somebody who in many ways has been unfit to be president.”

Donald Trump does not “think strategically” which is why he began the war in Iran without a clear set of goals, says Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum.

Prix cassés, plages désertes, hôtels fermés pour rénovation… À Dubaï, le tourisme à l’arrêt à cause du conflit au Moyen-Orient

LE FIGARO : DÉCRYPTAGE - La vitrine touristique du Golfe s’adapte difficilement au manque de clientèle étrangère depuis fin février.

Des spaghettis au caviar, les pieds dans le sable, dans un restaurant presque désert. Inga Brykulska, qui partage sa vie dubaïote à 10 000 followers sur Instagram, ne boude pas son plaisir. « Les hôtels et les plages privées multiplient les offres pour faire venir les clients, raconte cette trentenaire, directrice d’une agence immobilière spécialisée dans le luxe. Avant la guerre, c’était une lutte pour trouver une place dans les bons restaurants de la ville. Les prix étaient exorbitants, il n’y avait pas de place. Aujourd’hui on trouve la table que l’on souhaite à n’importe quel moment. »

Dubaï, même pendant le conflit au Moyen-Orient, n’a rien perdu de son côté bling-bling. La vitrine touristique du Golfe avait accueilli 19,6 millions de visiteurs internationaux l’an passé, un record. Depuis fin février, elle se désespère de ne plus attirer aucun visiteur étranger. Pas question de faire la promotion d’une destination située au cœur d’une région déconseillée aux voyageurs, sauf pour raisons impératives. L’Émirat vit au ralenti, avec pour seul soulagement l’été qui arrive : c’est traditionnellement la basse saison, les grosses chaleurs faisant fuir les touristes. » | Par Mathilde Visseyrias et Jorge Carasso | lundi 20 avril 2026

Réservé aux abonnés

Steve Schmidt: Kash Patel Is Dangerous

Apr 20, 2026 | The Atlantic exposed Kash Patel as a paranoid drunk incapable of fulfilling his job and today he filed a $250 million dollar lawsuit against them. Steve Schmidt explains why the most dangerous cabinet in American history is crashing and burning one by one.

Related articles here.

How Trump's Speech Reveals Signs of Dementia: Psychologist | The Daily Beast Podcast Livestream

Apr 6, 2026 | Dr. John Gartner joins Joanna Coles for a livestream to examine a new round of Donald Trump’s late-night Truth Social outbursts, including a bizarre Easter Sunday post about Iran and a 1 a.m. attack on the Supreme Court that critics say reads as increasingly erratic.

Gartner, a psychologist and former Johns Hopkins University Medical School professor, breaks down what Trump’s language, fragmented phrasing, and escalating tone may reveal about cognition, impulse control, and stress, as other physicians publicly warn about possible signs of decline.

Convoqué ce lundi devant la justice française, Elon Musk ne s’est pas présenté

LE FIGARO : L’homme d’affaires américain était convoqué ce lundi à Paris en audition libre dans le cadre d’une enquête sur de possibles dérives de son réseau social X.

Elon Musk, convoqué en audition libre à Paris dans le cadre d'une enquête sur de possibles dérives de son réseau social X, ne s'est pas présenté devant la justice française, a déclaré le parquet, sollicité par l'AFP, confirmant une information du Canard enchaîné. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | kundi 20 avril 2026

'Mounting Questions' Over the State of Trump's Health | Former Ambassador

Apr 20, 2026 | “His judgement was always pretty shaky but he’s taken some terrible decisions in the course of the last few months.”

Former UK Ambassador to the U.S. Lord Darroch says there is “a lot of talk” in the American media about Donald Trump’s health since he is “certainly not physically or indeed mentally the man he was in his first term”.

Democracy Now! "Into the Wood Chipper": Whistleblower's Inside Story of DOGE Shredding USAID, 14 Million May Die

Apr 16, 2026 | A new book tells the inside story of the second Trump administration's dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID. Its author, Nicholas Enrich, worked at USAID for over a decade before he was pushed out of the agency in early 2025, when the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency summarily cut its staff and funding. An estimated 14 million people are projected to die "unnecessarily" over the next five years due to these cuts, and nearly a million, mostly children, already have, says Enrich. His new memoir, "Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID," is named after one of Musk's social media posts from that period, when the South African billionaire wrote, "We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper."

Since its establishment in 1961, USAID has saved the lives of tens of millions around the world by treating and preventing serious health issues such as HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, malaria and more. By slashing the agency, the U.S. "pulled the rug out from under people around the world," says Enrich. "We broke promises to millions who were relying on USAID services, and left them hanging out to dry. We broke promises to governments and broke partnerships that will have lasting effects for years to come."


Trump and his cronies are wicked, evil people, as are those who were engaged in DOGE. These people are going to burn in Hell. — © Mark Alexander

Democracy Now! Top US News & World Headlines — April 20, 2026

April 20, 2026

Democracy Now! can be supported here.

The Insider Trading Suspicions Looming Over Trump's Presidency | BBC News

Apr 20, 2026 | Throughout US President Donald Trump's second term in office, traders have been betting millions of dollars just before he makes major announcements.

The BBC has found a consistent pattern of spikes in trades and finical markets just hours, or sometimes minutes, before the president's most significant market-moving statements were made public.

Some analysts say it bears the hallmarks of illegal insider trading, whereby bets are made by people based on information that is not available to the general public.

While others say that some traders have become more adept at anticipating the president's interventions.

Donald Trump : Psychiatric Emergency Continues (April 17, 2026)

Apr 20, 2026 | As our Statement of Medical Concerns, requested by senators, is expected to be brought to the U.S. Senate floor this week, the psychiatric emergency remains unaddressed.

L'Iran exécute deux hommes condamnés pour des liens avec le Mossad

LE FIGARO : Les deux hommes étaient « membres d’un réseau d’espionnage lié au Mossad », le service de renseignement israélien. Ils ont été condamnés pour le crime de « guerre contre Dieu» et pour «collaboration avec des groupes hostiles et le régime sioniste ».

L'Iran a exécuté lundi deux hommes condamnés pour des liens avec les services de renseignement israéliens, a annoncé la justice, dernière exécution d'une série depuis le début de la guerre avec Israël et les États-Unis. « Les peines de mort de Mohammad Masoom-shahi et Hamed Validi ont été appliquées à l'aube », a indiqué le site Mizan Online, organe du pouvoir judiciaire. » | Par Le Figaro avec AFP | lundi 20 avril 2026

Iran Vows Retaliation for U.S. Attack on Cargo Ship

THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Trump said that a U.S. Navy destroyer had fired on an Iran-flagged vessel that was trying to evade a blockade. He also said an American delegation was heading to Pakistan for more peace talks, but an Iranian official said there were “no plans” for negotiations.

Iran on Monday toughened its threats to retaliate after the United States attacked and seized an Iranian cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz, an escalation that put pressure on the fragile cease-fire set to expire this week.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman also said Monday that there were “no plans” in place for the next round of peace talks in Pakistan, even as President Trump said American negotiators would arrive in the country in the evening for a second round of negotiations since the two-week truce went into effect on April 8. A White House official said Vice President JD Vance was expected to lead the delegation.

Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, accused the United States of engaging in actions that in “no way demonstrate seriousness in pursuing a diplomatic process,” according to Iran’s state news agency, IRNA.

The comments from Iran echoed similar rhetoric from the run-up to the first round of talks, which took place over a week ago and ended without an agreement to end the war. At the time, Iran’s top negotiator had cast doubt on the negotiations even taking place just hours before the Iranian delegation arrived in Pakistan.

A U.S. Navy destroyer fired on the Iranian cargo ship on Sunday after it defied a weeklong American blockade of Iran’s ports, Mr. Trump said. Marines were searching the ship as officials weighed whether to tow it to Oman, a U.S. official said.

Iran’s armed forces warned that they would soon retaliate against the United States for what they called “armed piracy,” according to Tasnim, a semiofficial Iranian news agency. Iran War Live Updates » | Tyler Pager, Shirin Hakim, Sanam Mahoozi, Rebecca F. Elliott and Aaron Boxerman | Monday, April 20, 2026

Steve Rosenberg: Who Are the Kremlin's Friends in the West?

Apr 20, 2026 | One Russian paper today claims “Life has become four times more joyous.” Another reports the country’s economic reserves are “largely exhausted.” Plus: “a new drop in the approval rating of the [Russian] authorities.” And who are the Kremlin’s friends in the West?

Trump’s Presidency Is What Evil Looks Like: Absurd, Frightening, Cruel

THE GUARDIAN — OPINION: Commentators have said that the US president’s clownishness and lack of ideology somehow make him less dangerous. They’re wrong

Over the past few weeks, a random kaleidoscope of images has been flashing through my head. Some are characters from movies not seen since childhood. Others are snippets from literature or iconic art. What joins them all is an exaggerated, almost kitschy evil.

These images seem to be standing in for the real carnage my brain is trying to process: the bodies pulled from the rubble in Gaza, a school full of young pupils blown apart in Iran. The more than 1 million people in southern Lebanon expelled en masse from their homes. (Alex in the film of A Clockwork Orange appears, eyes clamped open as liquid is dripped into them, unable to blink away what is scorching his vision.)

What is so bewildering about the cruelty is how it has been allowed to pass, its casualness. Donald Trump hovers above the circus of death and chaos. (Billy, the clown-faced puppet in Saw, pops up rasping, “I want to play a game”.) Trump defies attempts to make his actions cohere with any particular strategy. His wars, killing of innocents, and indeed, the threatening of entire civilisations are reshaping the world, but without him even having orchestrated some master plan. He is animated by little more than momentary impulses and resentments. » | Nesrine Malik | Monday, April 20, 2026

It must surely have dawned by now on all sensible Americans that the man who leads them is not presidential material! The man is too unstable to be a politician, still less a political leader. That this man is supposed to be the leader of the free world, the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, and entrusted with the nuclear codes is more than just alarming, it is terrifying! The powers-that-be should remove this man from the White House immediately! — © Mark Alexander