Two high-ranking gravediggers share their Reddit-level advice on resuscitating the bloc.
In the world of Western mainstream media political commentary, not everything is fun. In fact, mostly, things are grimly serious, the sort of seriousness that comes with solid, never-questioned self-importance. But sometimes that professional pomposity reaches a tipping point when strenuous efforts to be very earnest involuntarily produce priceless outcomes.

That is the case with a recent elephantine op-ed that has surfaced in Politico under the illustrious names of Gabrielius Landsbergis and Garry Kasparov. Its one, relentlessly reiterated argument is touchingly simple as well as out of touch with the world we really live in: The EU, this fantasy goes, is too consensual, peaceful, and nice (tell the migrants drowning in the Mediterranean or traded as slaves in Libya with de facto EU support). It must become tough, decisive, and fierce, with plenty of arms and gritty oomph. Because otherwise it won't survive in a world shaped by the big bad "global network of authoritarians" (I won't enumerate them here; it's just the usual suspects of every Centrist's fever dream) and, for good measure, terrorists, too. (Surely, the latter, at least, do no longer include Mr. Jolani, the former leader of the Al Qaeda franchise in Syria who has recently been reborn miraculously as an avatar of diversity now going by Al Sharaa?)

Landsbergis is a political nepo baby, enthusiastic NATO sectarian, and the former foreign minister of Lithuania. While popular at international meet-ups of adult - so they say at least - Europeans calling US presidents "daddy," a 2023 poll back home in Lithuania saw him fail to breach the 2-percent threshold. If that sounds like perfect material for a blind date with Kamala Harris, Landsbergis certainly has time on his hands after losing his constituency last year and announcing he wanted to take a break from politics. No less, it seems, than his voters clearly needed a break from him.

Kasparov is, by comparison with Landsbergis, at least an original phenomenon, the idiot savant of chess. A former world champion, he has now spent decades proving that one can be a chess genius and a perfect dunce in every other respect, especially politics. Since he has combined this obstinate - and almost brave, if that is the word - playing to his worst weaknesses with an equally stubborn obsession with going after Russia and its leadership he still has his fans, in the West.

Together, Landsbergis and Kasparov have signed off on a gargantuan effort to produce another Long Telegram. Clearly, they are driven by a comically misplaced ambition to best American diplomat and Ur-Cold Warrior' George Kennan - a complex, dour, and vain man, but certainly no fool, as his later fall from official grace and opposition to daft Western expansionism showed - who issued the renowned call to arms against the Soviet Union in 1946/47.

With the collapse of the INF Treaty and NATO's eastward reach, Cold War specters awaken on European soil — and Moscow prepares its answer.

As the U.S. and NATO advance missile systems eastward under the banner of defense, Russia responds with its own rearmament, lifting long-standing restraints. The latest shift is not abrupt, but the culmination of years of warnings, warnings that now echo with the sound of missiles returning to Europe. With the INF Treaty defunct and the promises of dialogue fading, the continent faces the specter of a new arms race. It will be one that is more chaotic, less restrained, and dangerously close to ignition.

From Warnings to Warheads: Putin's Prophecy Fulfilled

For over a decade, the Kremlin has signaled that NATO's encroachment and missile deployments would trigger a strategic rupture. That moment has arrived. Moscow had shown restraint for several years after the US withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019. Although legally freed from its obligations under the accord, Russia opted for a self-imposed moratorium, vowing not to deploy ground-based intermediate-range missiles unless similar US systems appeared near its borders. That condition, the Russian Foreign Ministry statement recently asserted, no longer applies.

"Since 2023, we have observed instances of US systems capable of ground-launched INF strikes being transferred to the European NATO countries for trial use during exercises that clearly have an anti-Russian slant."

The statement also pointed to broader US and allied efforts to institutionalize deployments of such missile systems across multiple theaters.

With his coalition on the brink, the Israeli leader has doubled down on war - and the settler dream - at the expense of peace.

In a move that surprised no one but carries sweeping consequences, Israel's cabinet has formally signed off on the capture of Gaza City - a decision nearly two years into the grinding war in the Strip. The government laid out five official objectives:

- dismantling Hamas's military capabilities,
- securing the return of all living and deceased hostages,
- demilitarizing the enclave,
- expanding Israeli control over its territory, and
- installing a new civil administration - one that answers to neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.

But behind the bullet points lies a more calculated play. For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the operation is not just about battlefield gains. It's also about political survival - and, some say, setting the stage for something far more permanent.

The US president once again criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing hostilities to escalate.

The Ukraine conflict could have escalated into World War III under his predecessor Joe Biden, US President Donald Trump has claimed.

He has frequently argued that global tensions peaked when relations between Moscow and Washington hit their lowest point during the Biden administration. Since returning to office in January, Trump has reestablished US diplomatic ties with Russia, which had been suspended since the conflict's escalation in February 2022.

Speaking to journalists at the White House on Friday, Trump claimed that, if not for his administration's actions, the Ukraine conflict "would have ended up being a world war."

"We've brought it down a long way, but when I first came in, I thought, 'Wow, this thing is really bad. "Now the only question is: when is it going to be settled? And it could be very soon."

The president again labeled the conflict "Biden's war" and criticized what he described as the previous administration's vast military support for Kiev. "Through Biden and his people, we're probably in for $350 billion," he said.

Leaders in Kiev have squandered massive Western assistance while ruining the country in the process.

Ukraine's Western-backed leadership has "sold out" the country since the 2014 Maidan coup while wasting billions in foreign assistance and bankrupting the economy, former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has said.

Speaking in an interview aired on Thursday, Azarov, who held his post between 2010 and 2014 and fled to Russia after the Maidan coup, recalled that while Kiev's Western backers had poured vast sums into Ukraine over the past three years, local officials have failed to use the money to improve the country:

"This enormous amount of money, if it had been put to good use, could have transformed Ukraine. Over more than a decade since the Western-backed coup in Kiev, the Ukrainian government has failed to build even a single metro station. The Kiev leadership has also done incredible damage to the country's economy."

Addressing fellow Ukrainians, he said:

"The homeland has long since been sold out. Its natural resources are sold - actually, just given away. Industry is sold, agriculture is sold, everything is gone, you have nothing."

He questioned the purpose of continued fighting with Russia, stating:

"What are you defending? [Vladimir] Zelensky? Is he really so dear to you that hundreds of thousands of people should be laid in the grave?"

Netanyahu's security cabinet has approved a plan to takeover the whole of the Gaza Strip, including intense operations in Gaza city, resulting in outrage among some European capitals, who see this as doubling down on the carnage which has left over 60,000 Palestinians dead, based on Gaza health sources.

Germany has announced itself as the latest European nation to suspend its arms exports to Israel, noting that these could be used in human rights violations and potential war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Berlin backs the anti-Hamas fight, however.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz made clear as Israel's military is poised to take over Gaza city his government will not approve or transfer any exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza until further notice.

The Trump administration on Friday ordered all federal agencies to eliminate any records related to workers' COVID-19 vaccination status, noncompliance with pandemic-era mandates or requests for vaccine exemptions.

The rollback of vaccine record retention requirements was announced by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in a memo to all federal department and agency heads.

OPM explained that the move is in response to recent litigation and is part of the Trump administrationʼs broader effort to reverse "harmful pandemic-era policies" imposed by former President Joe Biden.

"Things got out of hand during the pandemic, and federal workers were fired, punished, or sidelined for simply making a personal medical decision," OPM Director Scott Kupor said in a statement. "That should never have happened."

The investigation is being run out of Albany and focused on possible deprivation of rights allegations

The Department of Justice convened a grand jury to investigate New York Attorney General Letitia James, marking an escalation in President Donald Trump's fight with New York's top prosecutor.

The investigation is being run out of Albany and focused on possible deprivation of rights allegations, two well-placed sources familiar with the probe told Fox News Digital.

The investigation, which came at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, is in an early stage, but Fox News Digital has learned that James's office received subpoenas for documents this week, including for information related to her civil fraud lawsuit against Trump.

Global pressure mounts as Israel chooses famine over peace.

Israel's war on Gaza has never been solely about "defeating" Hamas. This week's reporting makes that clearer than ever. If you read just one article this week, Tareq Hajjaj documents how Israel is engineering chaos in Gaza's aid system, shooting at desperate civilians, and allowing looters to operate freely so that food does not reach starving people. Qassam Muaddi reports on leaked Israeli cabinet minutes that confirm they deliberately chose starvation as a weapon of war, rejecting a ceasefire in favor of forcing Gaza's surrender through hunger.

This policy is not hidden. It was discussed from the very beginning, nearly two years ago, and is still openly embraced by senior Israeli figures and the majority of the Israeli population. That brazenness is finally eroding Israel's legitimacy around the world. The International Sociological Association's suspension of the Israeli Sociological Society is the latest sign of an expanding academic boycott. In United States politics, Bernie Sanders's recent resolutions to block weapons sales did not pass, but they showed something important: Palestine is becoming a litmus test inside the Democratic Party, and electeds are starting to respond to the shift in the party's base on these issues.

Washington's aggressive posture reveals a fundamental misreading of the multipolar world/

US President Trump has rattled Washington's ties with New Delhi to an unexpected degree. Countries, including, India were prepared for rough diplomatic weather after Trump won his second term, but did not anticipate the kind of onslaught he has unleashed on the global system and diplomatic norms.

Trump's latest attack on India and the BRICS countries explains this underlying dynamic. The BRICS aspire to play a greater political, economic and financial role in global affairs. This aspiration is based on shifts of economic and concomitant political and financial power towards the so-called emerging powers or middle-income countries.

BRICS countries have already begun to use their national currencies in trading with each other as much as possible. The use of draconian financial sanctions on Russia by the West has accelerated this process.

Today, almost all trade operations between Russia and China are conducted in rubles and yuan. India too is encouraging the use of its national currency in payment transactions with select countries. A significant portion of the trade between India and Russia is now settled using a rupee-ruble mechanism.