The World That Was

Adrian Olivier,

On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to impose 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium into the U.S. on Monday. He also said he planned to make an announcement on reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday. “Very simple, they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said. Those will go into effect “almost immediately,” he said. The reciprocal tariffs plan will be applied to all trading partners, Trump said, but some countries that already charge similar tariffs on American goods that the U.S. charges on their products may not see much change. Steel and aluminum tariffs will apply to every nation exporting the metals to the U.S.  On Monday, Trump said, “This is a big deal, the beginning of making America rich again,” as he signed the proclamation, which said the measures would come into force on March 12. “Our nation requires steel and aluminum to be made in America, not in foreign lands,” he added.

On Monday, France’s National Assembly rejected another no-confidence vote tabled by the left-wing France Unbowed party against the minority government of centrist Prime Minister François Bayrou. Bayrou had used Article 49.3 of the Constitution to pass aspects of the budget by force. The motion received just 115 votes out of the 289 needed to topple the government after the far-right National Rally and the centre-left Socialist Party opted not to support the move. Immediately afterwards, the prime minister invoked article 49.3 again to pass the portion of the bill regarding government expenditure by force, likely inviting another no-confidence vote from the leftist opposition this week. The decision of the Socialist Party not to support votes of no-confidence linked to the minority government’s attempts to pass a budget has deepened tensions within the leftist New Popular Front alliance, which won the most seats in last year’s snap elections while falling far short of a majority in the National Assembly.

On Monday, outgoing Romanian president Klaus Iohannis resigned ahead of a mounting impeachment threat pushed by a coalition of right-wing parties. Iohannis’s mandate was extended in December after the Constitutional Court cancelled last year’s presidential race after accusing Russia of having interfered in the campaign.

On Tuesday, at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in France, U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned against the “excessive regulation” of AI, which he said could curb the growth of the industry. The summit was Vance’s first major policy speech since becoming vice president, and he framed AI as an economic turning point, though he cautioned that “at this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new industrial revolution, one on par with the invention of the steam engine.” The Trump administration will “ensure that AI systems developed in America are free from ideological bias,” Vance said and pledged the U.S. would “never restrict our citizens’ right to free speech.” The U.S., along with Britain, was also noticeably absent from a joint statement signed by more than 60 nations pledging to ensure AI is “open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy.” Vance also took aim at foreign governments for “tightening the screws” on U.S. tech companies. The summit clearly showed the competing AI strategies in the world – Europe pushing to regulate and invest (author’s note: sigh of disappointment and eye roll.), China expanding AI through state-backed giants, and the U.S. doubling down on an unregulated, free-market approach.

On Wednesday, Trump said he and Vladimir Putin agreed to open immediate talks to end the war in Ukraine in a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” between the two leaders. “I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump said he and Putin agreed to visit each other’s country. The conversation Wednesday followed a prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow that Trump yesterday said could be a harbinger for better relations between the U.S. and Russia. Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said they discussed “the possibilities of achieving peace” as well as Ukraine’s technological capabilities, particularly drones. “Ukraine more than anyone wants peace,” Zelensky said in a statement. “We are defining our joint steps with America to halt Russian aggression and ensure a reliable, lasting peace. As President Trump said, ‘Let’s get it done.’” Earlier on Wednesday, Zelensky met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv. Zelensky said they had discussed Ukrainian mineral deposits, which Trump has said he wants access to in return for military aid. Zelensky said Bessent had presented a document about a security and economic partnership between the countries, which the Ukrainian president said his team would work on quickly in the hope of being ready to seal an agreement at a security conference in Munich later this week. The U.S. negotiating team will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz, and Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump said. Witkoff met with Putin when he was in Moscow to pick up Marc Fogel, an American imprisoned in Russia who was released Tuesday, according to a U.S. official.

On Thursday, at least 37 people were injured when an Afghan asylum seeker rammed a vehicle into a crowd of people at a trade union rally in the German city of Munich. A 37-year old mother and her two-year-old daughter later died from injuries they sustained in the attack. The driver was a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, police said, identified in local media as Farhad N. (Author’s note: another clear example of successful integration!)

On Friday, the three-day Munich Security Conference began. JD Vance represented the U.S. and chastised European leaders for suppressing free speech, failing to halt mass migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs. He argued that the greatest threat to Europe was not from Russia but from within. The blistering and confrontational remarks were met with shock at the conference and were later condemned by the EU and Germany. Vance said: “If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people … If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people.” Many conference delegates watched Vance’s speech in stunned silence. There was little applause as he delivered his remarks. Asked by the panel moderator if he thought there was anything in Vance’s speech worth reflecting on, Scholz drew laughter and applause in the crowd when he responded, in a deadpan manner: “You mean all these very relevant discussions about Ukraine and security in Europe?”

On Saturday, Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, said Europe won’t have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine. Kellogg told the conference in Munich that the U.S. would act as an intermediary in the talks, with Ukraine and Russia as the two protagonists. Asked about the prospects of the Europeans being at the table, Kellogg said: “I’m (from) a school of realism. I think that’s not gonna happen.” At a later event at the conference, Kellogg sought to reassure Europeans by declaring this did not mean “their interests are not considered, used or developed”. Trump administration officials have also made clear in recent days that they expect European allies in NATO to take primary responsibility for the region as the U.S. now has other priorities, such as border security and countering China. European leaders said they would not accept being shut out of the talks. “There’s no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine’s future or European security structure, without Europeans,” Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told reporters in Munich. “But this means that Europe needs to get its act together. Europe needs to talk less and do more.” Stubb said the questionnaire the U.S. sent to Europeans “will force Europeans to think”.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Hamas must be destroyed and unable to control the Gaza Strip, as he made his first visit to Israel as Washington’s chief diplomat. Speaking in Jerusalem after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rubio said the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza wasn’t optional. He also praised President Trump’s plan for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and move nearly 2 million Palestinians out of the enclave. “The president has been very clear that Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force,” he said. “They must be eliminated, they must be eradicated.” Last week, Trump said that “all hell” would break out if Hamas didn’t release all remaining Israeli hostages this past Saturday—a threat Israel didn’t carry out. Netanyahu seemed to refer to Trump’s warning when he said: “We have a common strategy and we can’t always share the details of this strategy with the public including when the gates of hell will be open, as they surely will, if all our hostages are not released, until the last one of them.”