We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
šŖšŗāļøš·šŗ Brussels feels like a city preparing for war
Though it is outlandish even to type the words, Brussels the international capitalāthe home of the European Union and seat of the nato allianceāfeels like a city bracing for combat. āEurope is in a fight,ā declared Ursula von der Leyen.
To be sure, the old flaws of pan-European governanceāvapid oratory, bureaucratic turf wars and expensive something-for-everyone compromisesāpersist. For all that, in the headquarters of the eu and of nato, very different institutions at opposite ends of the city, recent months have seen a stark change of mood.
Europeans āonly start organising ourselves when we are threatenedā, says an official. The threats are clear now. The most urgent involve three strongmen who view Europe with either disdain or hostility: Presidents Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Brussels has come to a grim realisation. War is raging on the European continent, in Ukraine, and none of those strongmen is guided by anything resembling European values.
Few EU citizens must worry about the bottom tier, dealing with such basics as food and shelter for survival. Above that comes āsafety and securityā, whether that means an absence of war, a clean environment or freedom from acute want. As governments built welfare states and controlled pollution, progressives called for Europe to tackle problems that align with Maslowās higher needs. Those include ālove and belongingā, āesteemā and āself-actualisationā, or the pursuit of a life of purpose and joy.
European voters seem focused on more basic needs. They have elected a string of conservative national governments, who have sent correspondingly flinty politicians to run EU institutions. After years spent passing onerous environmental and social regulations, the bloc now spends much of its time repealing job-killing rules. New Euro-laws that can secure a majority, whether in the European Commission or European Parliament, often involve get-tough policies, like the removal of asylum-seekers.
There is painful clarity about Europeās defence alliance with America. In the wake of Mr Trumpās latest about-turn on Ukraine, there is exasperation over the time and energy European leaders spend on Trump ādamage controlā. But grief and denial about Americaās unreliability have given way to resignation. It is now a planning assumption that America will give no more aid to Ukraine, and that even its willingness to sell advanced weapons to Europeans for donation to Ukraine will not last.
As for the broader defence of Europe, Plan a is to work with America for as long as possible. Europe still relies on America for ācritical enablersā including intelligence from satellites, long-range weapons, air defences, heavy transport planes and the digital systems that glue different weapons together.
There is much talk of building up Europeās arms industry, but also agreement that it cannot entirely replace America as a supplier for ten years or more, which is too slow for a continent rearming to deter Russia from attacking it. Fear of Russia makes officials wary of even engaging with the most sensitive question of all, whether Europe needs a Plan b for its security, if America walks away one day. Some fear that to discuss American abandonment is to invite a Russian attack. Others seek to identify investments that work with both Plan a and Plan b: either making Europe a better partner for America, or helping it go alone.
Speaking at the WEF, Savor CEO Kathleen Alexander boasts about how her company is "saving the planet" from the evils of agriculture by replacing real butters and oils with synthetic versions made from carbon dioxide and methane. š³
"Savor is part of bringing transformation to the food system by re-imagining how we make an entire macronutrientāfats and oils."
"The result is that we can dramatically lower the planetary footprint of our food system."
"Our food system today uses about 50% of the habitable land on the planet. It's 20-30% of our greenhouse gas emissions."
"And we can reduce all of those by 50-100%."
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[July 3, 2026 EST]
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š®š·ššŗšø Iran Is a Bigger Defeat Than Vietnam | Foreign Policy
At his second inaugural, U.S. President Donald Trump pronounced his hope āthat our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country.ā By losing his Gulf war, Trump has achieved that goal. His choice to launch a campaign against Iran was encouraged by others, but fully his own. It has led to a reversal that marks a strategic calamity far greater than the U.S. defeat in the Vietnam War.
Defeat in the Iranian war looks, on the surface, nothing like other U.S. military defeats. The speed of the war and its remoteness have lent an air of unreality to the whole endeavor. The White House has not been burned, as it was in 1814; there have not been protests against a nonexistent draft. The absence of substantial U.S. casualties in this conflict also masks the scale of the U.S. defeat. To be sure, the war has been deadly: Thousands of Iranians, ...
According to The Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump reviewed military options for a full-scale war against Iran to āfinish the job,ā but has decided, for now, not to move forward.
The report says Trump is concerned that renewed military conflict could hurt the chances of a diplomatic resolution and of dismantling Iranās nuclear program, and that heās shown willingness to let indirect talks in Qatar run past the August 18 deadline. He is said to be fine with continuing limited strikes on Iranian targets if Tehran violates the current temporary deal - as it already has, repeatedly.
How are those negotiations going?
Not well. It seems JD Vanceās āhistoricā face-to-face achievement was a one-off. Washington has been quietly downgraded from talking to the Great Satan to negotiating with the Little Satan instead - a senior Qatari official confirmed that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Qatari officials in Doha, but there are currently no high-level U.S.-Iran meetings ...
