January 18, 2026

Trump Vs NATO - Is This the End for the Alliance as Trump Threatens Invasion? - Silicon Curtain

2026-01-17 | UPDATES #104 | Let’s start with a quote from Yaroslav Trofimov, Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. “We are now at a stage when Trump calls NATO nations putting troops on the territory of a NATO ally a threat to world peace. Actually, he calls Denmark putting troops on Denmark’s own sovereign soil a threat to world peace:

“Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Finland have journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown. This is a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet. These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable.”

January 18, 2026

Ukraine heads to U.S. for security and recovery talks - Morning Report - TVP WORLD

Our main topics today:

Ukraine heads to U.S. for security and recovery talks

A high-level Ukrainian delegation is traveling to Washington to finalize details on security guarantees and a post-war recovery package worth an estimated 800 billion dollars, with hopes of signing agreements during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Zelenskyy warns of new Russian attacks

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is preparing another massive wave of strikes, continuing months-long attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during extreme cold.

Kyiv struggles with power and water outages

Residents of Kyiv face severe energy shortages, with electricity available only a few hours a day and unstable water supplies as repairs to damaged infrastructure continue.

Host: Benjamin Lee

January 18, 2026

Iran's Ayatollah and Trump trade war of words - CBS News

Iran's supreme leader blamed the U.S. for the protests against his regime that resulted in a violent crackdown. Willie James Inman has President Trump's response.

January 18, 2026

China's Losses Spiral - Joe Blogs

China’s exports are booming and the headlines look spectacular. A record trade surplus, shipments surging, and official figures pointing to strength just as many Western economies slow. On the surface, it looks like China is powering ahead.

But beneath the headline numbers, a very different picture is emerging.

Producer prices in China have now been falling for more than three years in a row, forcing companies to cut prices to stay competitive — particularly as tariffs, weak global demand, and intense price competition bite. Export volumes may be rising, but profitability is being quietly crushed.

When you combine falling selling prices with rising costs, the maths becomes brutal. Many firms are now selling more, but earning less — and in many cases, selling at a loss. Estimates suggest that more than half of Chinese businesses are now loss-making, surviving not on profits, but on debt.

We’ve seen this story before. China’s property sector followed the same path — growth funded by borrowing, margins evaporating, and problems hidden for years until the cracks became impossible to ignore. Now those same dynamics are spreading through manufacturing and industry.

Exports are rising. Profits are not. And debt is doing the heavy lifting.

The question is not whether this can continue — it’s how long, and what happens when it finally stops.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
2:33 EXPORTS
3:24 PRODUCER PRICES
5:15 IMPLICATIONS
9:53 LOSSES

January 18, 2026

EU, Mercosur sign trade pact after 25 years of talks - Reuters

EU and Mercosur officials signed a free trade agreement in Paraguay after 25 years of talks, paving the way for the European Union's largest trade accord.

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ASUNCION, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Top officials from the EU and the South American bloc Mercosur signed a free trade agreement on Saturday in Paraguay, paving the way for the European Union's largest-ever trade accord after 25 years of negotiations.

The agreement, designed to lower tariffs and boost trade between the two regions, must now gain the consent of the European Parliament and be ratified by the legislatures of Mercosur members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa joined the presidents of Mercosur countries at Saturday's ceremony, with the exception of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who sent his foreign minister.

The deal received the green light from most European nations last week, despite concerns from farmers and environmental groups, who fear a surge of inexpensive South American imports and increased deforestation.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/eu-mercosur-sign-trade-deal-after-25-years-negotiations-2026-01-17/

January 18, 2026

No Other Choice": Putin Took 'The Decision' Nobody in Kremlin Wanted Him to Take. - The Russian Dude

This video breaks down the moment Vladimir Putin crossed a critical line and made the decision that even insiders in the Kremlin no longer wanted him to make. In his latest address, Putin didn’t just dismiss peace talks or stall negotiations — he openly locked Russia into a war with no end date, no clear borders, and no exit strategy. As speculation about peace deals, Trump-linked negotiations, and possible ceasefire frameworks briefly raised hopes inside Russia and abroad, Putin personally shut every door, making it clear that escalation by inertia is now the strategy. This analysis explains why the war in Ukraine has become longer than the Great Patriotic War Putin constantly invokes, why Russian elites, oligarchs, technocrats, and generals quietly fear endless conflict, and how Putin shattered the fragile internal agreement to keep the war ugly but predictable.

We examine how Putin’s demand for recognition of territories Russia hasn’t even captured signals a shift away from diplomacy toward permanent confrontation, why fake negotiations were used to stall sanctions and distract the West, and how the Kremlin exploited delays in Washington and NATO decision-making. The video dives into the core reason the war cannot end: for Putin, war is no longer a tool of policy but the foundation of his relevance, power, and identity. Peace would mean accountability, decline, and fading influence — outcomes he refuses to accept. Instead, duration itself is reframed as virtue, turning Ukraine, Russia, and Europe into hostages of one man’s need to remain central on the global stage.

This is a deep geopolitical analysis of Putin’s strategy, the collapse of real peace talks, Russia’s internal exhaustion, the risks to NATO and European security, and why every ceasefire proposal fails at the same point — Putin’s refusal to let the war end. If you’re trying to understand why the Ukraine war keeps dragging on, why negotiations keep collapsing, and why escalation risks are rising despite global fatigue, this video lays it all out.

January 18, 2026

New rage on Minneapolis streets sparked by anti-immigration supporters - CBS News

Protesters who support the surge of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis clashed with counter-protesters Saturday, while state officials announced that the Minnesota National Guard had been mobilized. Adding to the mayhem was the freezing January weather. Ian Lee reports.

January 18, 2026

Let's talk about Trump driving China and Canada together.... - Belle of the Ranch

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about Trump's tariffs driving Canada and China together and nuclear-powered electric vehicles.

I guess I should start with the big news. Carney beat Trump. There's really no other way to say that. This one deal is just the first step, but the momentum has shifted and Trump is kind of out of juice. Trump's tariff policy did what the experts said, drove longtime allies closer to adversarial nations.

As we talked about a few days ago, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney went to China. As we suggested, he came home with trade agreements. Trump's erratic trade policy created uncertainty. Markets hate uncertainty. Speaking of China, Carney said, "Our relationship has progressed in recent months with China. It is more predictable, and you see results coming from that.”

Predictable is the opposite of uncertainty. Markets like predictability. Trump is trying to downplay the massive backfire that just occurred, "Well, it's okay. That's what he should be doing and it's a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that.

Let's be clear, Trump's tariffs were meant to strongarm Canada on the economy. The problem is that Canada put a world-renowned economist in the prime minister's slot. Trump was simply outmatched. Carney has pursued other economic partners while Trump continues to alienate ours.

Trump's trade war in Asia may be unwinnable. China has no reason to work with the US because they're gaining influence and we're losing it. My guess is they'll start stringing him along the way Russia does.

So, what's in the deal? The headline stuff is important. There's reduction on tariffs for Chinese electric vehicles coming into Canada, which will probably lead to Chinese investment in Canada. Then there's reductions on tariffs for Canadian agriculture products heading into China. Imagine a country's leader trying to get better market access for farmers? I'm sure American farmers would love to have Carney as their president right now.

Beyond the headline parts of the deal, there's something else. China and Canada will work together on oil and gas. Oh, and natural uranium. That's going to matter a lot as many countries, including the US, restart nuclear power operations.

Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said, "We just got absolutely rolled in this Canada China deal. A stark foreign policy failure with domestic economic consequences." The most basic principle in politics and geopolitics is loyalty to friends. And we weren't just disloyal, we were hostile. So here we are.

Now, here's the other part, and it's the part that people who supported Trump's tariffs refused to allow themselves to grasp. Canada now has an economic interest to support Chinese foreign policy a little bit more. As Trump pushes our European allies away over some nationalist fever dream involving Greenland while saying he was worried about Chinese influence, one of our closest allies is stepping out of line with US trade policy and in line with China's. The world order that kept the US and the US economy at the top is cracking. Our economic Humpty Dumpty didn't fall. He was pushed from the White House roof.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.

January 18, 2026

From Black Sea to Atlantic, Russian oil tankers taken down one by one - RFU News

Today, the biggest news comes from the Russian shadow fleet.

Here, events unfolding far beyond Ukraine’s coastline point to a shift in how pressure is being applied against Russia’s war economy. Within days, actions in two distant seas lined up in timing and effect, closing off routes Moscow has relied on to keep oil moving.

Over the same short window, the United States and Ukraine struck Russian maritime logistics in different theaters. In the Caribbean, US forces moved to seize the tanker Olina, a stateless shadow-fleet vessel operating under a false flag and listed on multiple sanctions regimes, removing it from service while still at sea. At the same time, a Russia-bound tanker in the Black Sea was hit by a drone near Turkey’s northern coast, damaged badly enough to force it to stop, seek assistance, and submit to inspection instead of continuing toward the port of Novorossiysk. These were interventions that took ships out of circulation, not statements or warnings.

On the American side, the operation centered on the seizure of Olina, a shadow-fleet tanker previously sanctioned under an earlier name for transporting Russian oil and now operating without a valid flag. US Coast Guard cutters moved to board the vessel in Caribbean waters under international law, marking the third Russian-linked tanker to come under US control in just two days. This seizure fits into a broader enforcement campaign targeting shadow-fleet tankers carrying Venezuelan and Russian-linked crude, which quietly removes vessels from circulation before they can complete their routes. At the other end of the route, Ukraine’s strike targeted a tanker transiting the Black Sea on its way to load Russian crude. The drone attack caused visible damage on deck and in the engine area, halted the ship’s progress, and triggered a request for assistance from the Turkish coast guard. As the ship was empty at the time, no oil was spilled, and no crew members were injured, but the voyage was completely. For a vessel operating on tight schedules and thin margins, that interruption mattered as much as destruction.

The alignment of these actions was deliberate, applying pressure to Russian maritime logistics from both ends at the same time. With seizures in the Atlantic and Caribbean and a strike in the Black Sea, Russia is now facing disruption across every major maritime route it relies on, rather than pressure concentrated in a single contested zone. This represents a new peak in operations against the shadow fleet, where enforcement is no longer absorbed locally but applied across multiple seas at once, leaving fewer fallback routes and clearing the assumption that tankers can simply divert around trouble. What changed this week is that the United States transitioned from sanctions and monitoring to direct enforcement at sea, aligning its actions with Ukrainian strikes in real-time. As a result, the central question for Russia is no longer where to reroute cargo, but whether a voyage can be completed at all without interruption.

The practical effect is that in addition to these, the Baltic is already increasingly monitored, and transits near Nato coastlines carry growing interception risk. To compensate, tankers are taking longer routes, detouring around controlled areas, loitering offshore to wait out patrols, and avoiding choke points whenever possible. Each of these choices adds distance, time, and cost, and a voyage that once followed the shortest commercial route now requires extended detours. Those added costs compound quickly, as longer voyages reduce the number of trips a tanker can complete each year, and even when tankers are not seized or struck, the effort to evade enforcement across multiple seas cuts directly into profitability and capacity. In effect, global enforcement turns every mile sailed into a liability, shrinking Russia’s usable shadow fleet not through destruction, but through cost and inefficiency.

Overall, these parallel actions show how coordinated pressure can reshape the maritime environment far beyond a single strike or seizure. The practical effects compound quickly. Each seized or disabled tanker removes carrying capacity immediately, disrupts loading schedules at hubs like Novorossiysk and Ust Luga, as well as signals to insurers and flag states that enforcement is active and unpredictable. By acting in different theaters within the same timeframe, the United States and Ukraine turned regional disruption into a global problem for Russian oil logistics. Secure maritime corridors are disappearing one by one as enforcement spreads across multiple seas. As those gaps widen, the revenue streams that sustain Russia’s war effort come under growing strain.

January 18, 2026

Lovett Goes Off on ICE as Their Poll Numbers Collapse - Lovett or Leave It

This week, Trump turns up the volume, and America shouts right back. ICE is no match for Minnesota nice.

CHAPTERS
0:00 - What a Week!
8:45 - Ad Break
11:33 - What a Week continues!