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Trump says he's given instructions to cut off all trade with Spain, citing Madrid's announcement that US can't use its bases

President Trump announced the US is going to “cut off all trade with Spain” over Madrid’s lack of support for the attack on Iran. “We were going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump spent several minutes complaining about the NATO allies’ refusal to allow the US to use their military bases to attack Iran and argued that they don’t spend enough on defense. “Spain has been terrible,” he said. “Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases.”...

Spain says the United States is not using – and will not be using – joint military bases on its territory for operations against Iran, a mission condemned by Madrid. “Based on all the information I have, the bases are not being used for this military operation,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Spanish public television on Monday. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Saturday as an “unjustified” and “dangerous military intervention” outside the realm of international law, in another break from US policy. “The Spanish government will not authorise the...

Is there any better evidence that the Europeans are as hidebound, bureaucratic, and ridiculous as we think they are than this statement from European Union Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran's mullah regime? Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen Following the ongoing situation in Iran, I am convening a special Security College on Monday. For regional security and stability, it is of the utmost importance that there is no further escalation through Iran’s unjustified attacks on partners in the region. 9:44 AM · Feb 28, 2026 Don't let the bombing of Iran, the...

French President Emmanuel Macron called President Trump’s attack on Iran “dangerous” and urged both sides to go back to the negotiation table. “The ongoing escalation is dangerous for all,” he said in a statement posted on social media. “It must stop. The Iranian regime must understand that it now has no other option but to engage in good faith in negotiations to end its nuclear and ballistic programs, as well as its regional destabilization activities. This is absolutely necessary for the security of all in the Middle East.” He also called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security...

Norway’s foreign minister argues that the strikes on Iran broke international law, calling for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. “The attack is described by Israel as a pre-emptive strike, but it is not in accordance with international law. A pre-emptive attack would require the existence of an imminent threat,” Espen Barth Eide says in an email sent to AFP by his office. He does not mention US strikes.

The resolution, adopted last week, made a host of recommendations for the EU to pursue at the 70th annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is set to take place next month. Among the recommendations was a proclamation emphasising the “importance of the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies”. Other proclamations referencing LGBTQ+ people included the need for a “comprehensive tool to monitor and counter democratic backsliding and backsliding in women’s rights”, as well as the acknowledgement of a rise in attacks...

Senior military figures last night urged Sir Keir Starmer to put national security first and let Donald Trump use British bases for an attack on Iran. Downing Street has refused the US permission to launch air strikes from bases in the UK and overseas. That message was reiterated by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper last night when she met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington D.C. She told her counterpart that Britain favoured ‘diplomatic and economic pressure’ on Iran. With Tehran saying it will have a nuclear deal draft ready in a few days, former top brass last night...

When I was growing up in the 1980s, there was a galaxy of left-wing, even socialist, intellectual stars such as Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault and Gore Vidal whose works were like an inkwell that politicians and commentators could draw from. Judging from the Munich Security Conference this weekend, that inkwell has run dry. Take this gem of a comment on global order from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, queen of the democratic socialists: "What we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West we look the other way for inconvenient...

Immediately ahead of tomorrow’s EU summit, French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for the introduction of Eurobonds. Collective debt financing would be the final salvo in the march of Brussels’ central planners.As the 27 EU heads of government convene today with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the stakes are high from a fiscal perspective. A decisive item on the agenda at Belgium’s Alden Biesen Castle is the so-called Draghi Plan. The question hovering above it all is as simple as it is explosive: How can the obvious productivity and growth weakness of the Eurozone economy be overcome? For...

The French leader acknowledged that the strategy European countries had chosen for dealing with the US had proven ineffectiveLONDON, February 10. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump despises the EU and is seeking its collapse, French leader Emmanuel Macron said. In an interview with The Financial Times, he emphasized that the current US administration is "openly anti-European", "shows contempt" for the EU and "wishes its dismemberment." Macron also acknowledged that the strategy European countries have chosen for dealing with the US has proven ineffective. "When there’s a clear act of aggression, I think what we should do isn’t bow down or...

Hundreds of Danish protesters, many of whom are military veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, staged a demonstration in Copenhagen on Saturday outside the U.S. Embassy. The group was protesting President Donald Trump’s push that the U.S. acquire Greenland from Denmark and his remarks at Davos that NATO forces "stayed a little back" when they fought alongside the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. "They have a feeling that they’ve been betrayed," Carsten Rasmussen, president of the Danish Veterans Association, told The Associated Press. "And of course, they are angered by this. They deployed. They fought with the Americans. They...

Germany has issued a travel advisory to its citizens travelling to the United States, citing risks linked to immigration enforcement and public-order situations. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office said on Tuesday that German citizens should be aware of demonstrations and clashes with American migration and security authorities. Why It MattersThe advisory is not a political statement about the U.S. but aims to give impartial information for German citizens travelling to the country at a time of increased tensions during President Donald Trump's aggressive deportation drive.Protests have been held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and other cities against the actions of Immigration and Customs...

At an emergency summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, the building blocks of an empire were beginning to take shape. […] In a brutal new age of world powers, the EU wants to build a bigger, richer, stronger “super Europe” able to resist the dangerous whims of the globe’s autocrats. Turning 27 quarrelsome small to middle-sized powers into a geopolitical heavyweight has been Emmanuel Macron’s largely unheeded call ever since the US president’s first term. This time, though, it is different, multiple Brussels insiders have told The Telegraph. “Let’s take a step back and realize we live in a...

Imagine the internet suddenly stops working. Payment systems in your local food store go down. Healthcare systems in the regional hospital flatline. Your work software tools, and all the information they contain, disappear. You reach out for information but struggle to communicate with family and friends, or to get the latest updates on what is happening, as social media platforms are all down. Just as someone can pull the plug on your computer, it’s possible to shut down the system it connects to. This isn’t an outlandish scenario. Technical failures, cyber-attacks and natural disasters can all bring down key parts...

The prospect of a full-blown trade war between the EU and the US was averted for the second time in less than 12 months following President Donald Trump's dramatic U-turn on Greenland. For Ireland, several uncomfortable truths are emerging after this week’s geopolitical chaos. The trading relationship with the US is part of the bedrock of the Irish economic success story. It is based on Ireland providing an environment of stability for multinationals. One of the certainties important for US corporations is the level of tariffs applied to exports shipped across the Atlantic. […] Fortunately for Ireland, pharmaceuticals and computer...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon released a priority-shifting National Defense Strategy late Friday that chastised U.S. allies to take control of their own security and reasserted the Trump administration’s focus on dominance in the Western Hemisphere above a longtime goal of countering China.The 34-page document, the first since 2022, was highly political for a military blueprint, criticizing partners from Europe to Asia for relying on previous U.S. administrations to subsidize their defense. It called for “a sharp shift — in approach, focus, and tone.” That translated to a blunt assessment that allies would take on more of the burden countering...

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, resembles a pagan ritual in which wealthy, famous, and powerful people come together to worship themselves. It takes place in a secluded ski resort in the eastern Alps, so that “elites” can indulge themselves far away from the planet’s detestable riffraff (that’s you and me). I’ve always thought that if extraterrestrial visitors from another galaxy or dimension were really here and truly interested in making planet Earth a better place, they could start by using their advanced technology to suck up the mountain of globalists in Davos, jettison the whole rock...

This week in Davos has been about many things: AI, geopolitics and markets. But President Donald Trump has been firmly at the front of everyone’s mind. His much-anticipated address at the World Economic Forum drew thousands, with attendees queuing for hours to get into the Congress Hall. I was one of them. I stood in line for more than an hour and a half. Even Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman had to wait in line with the rest of us. I finally cleared security and found a seat — lucky, given that many were refused entry to the hall. As...

Wednesday was the day of the opponents at the annual World Economic Forum gathering in Davos. Donald Trump and Argentina’s Javier Milei tore apart the WEF agenda. One declared globalism as officially failed, the other wielded an intellectual-ethical scalpel through the decayed body of the establishment. Norwegian Børge Brende has been the chairman of the World Economic Forum since last year. He took over after a heated internal personnel debate from the WEF’s founder, Klaus Schwab, who for decades dominated the agenda of this shadowy institution for political will-shaping. Schwab did so with undeniable success. The WEF has become an...