Stocks, Gold and Oil Plunge in Market Rout

THE TELEGRAPH: Stocks, gold and oil have plunged in a global market rout driven by fears about AI spending and the outlook for interest rates.

Asian markets were pummelled and Wall Street was expected to open lower as a sell-off in precious metals fuelled a downturn across the world.

Gold was down as much as 7pc to nearly $4,400 an ounce, less than a week after hitting a record high close to $5,600. Silver plummeted by as much as 14pc to less than $72, having tipped above $120 for the first time last week. Oil was also down around 5pc to less than $66 a barrel.

Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, said: “Traders are unnerved by the market tumult witnessed on Friday in precious metals.”

Gold and silver sold off sharply at the end of last week as a string of concerns swept the market, from Donald Trump’s trade war to the latest batch of tech earnings.

There were also questions over the outlook for US interest rates after President Trump nominated a Kevin Warsh to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. » | Chris Price | Monday, February 2, 2026

Bitcoin Wipeout Erases Entire Trump-era Gains

THE TELEGRAPH: Cryptocurrency tumbles as US president fuels geopolitical uncertainty

Bitcoin’s entire Trump-era gains have been wiped out after the cryptocurrency was hit by a fresh market sell-off.

The price of Bitcoin dropped sharply over the weekend to around $77,000 (£56,000) as investors fled the notoriously volatile asset.

The losses pushed Bitcoin to its lowest level since last April, when the US president shocked global markets with sweeping tariffs on his so-called “liberation day”.

It signals a reversal of fortunes for Bitcoin after the cryptocurrency surged to almost $125,000 late last year, buoyed by a series of crypto-friendly measures introduced by Mr Trump. » | James Warrington, Media and Telecoms Editor | Sundai, January 1, 2026

Is Trump Destroying the Western Alliance? Will Europe Ally with China?

Feb 1, 2026 | As Donald Trump hits the EU with tariffs and threatens to colonize Greenland (an autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark), European leaders are improving relations with China and seeking new trade partners. Is this the end of the political West and the transatlantic alliance? Ben Norton explains.

Sandra Navidi: „Der amerikanische Traum ist tot“

Autorin Sandra Navidi erzählt, wie Trump die USA ruiniert und wieso sie heute nicht mehr nach Amerika auswandern würde

Es beginnt wie der amerikanische Traum. Vor rund 25 Jahren startet die deutsche Anwältin Sandra Navidi in Manhattan eine Karriere, die sie später in die exklusiven Sphären der US-Finanzbranche führen sollte. Doch bereits kurz nach ihrer Ankunft in New York erlebt sie, wie die Anschläge auf das World Trade Center die Gesellschaft verändern. Einige Jahre später ist sie in der Wall Street angelangt und findet sich im Epizentrum der Finanzkrise wieder. Doch nichts davon erschüttert ihr Bild vom Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten so sehr wie die Ankunft von Donald Trump im Weißen Haus. In diesem Interview blickt die mittlerweile deutsch-amerikanische Unternehmerin und Autorin auf ihren Werdegang zurück. Sie erzählt, wie Trump die USA ruiniert und wieso sie heute niemandem mehr raten würde, nach Amerika auszuwandern.

Interview: Zsolt Wilhelm, Produktion: Laura Schmidt
STANDARD-Podcast LIVE:

Bernie Delivers a Hard Rebuke of Stephen Miller on the Senate Floor

Jan 30, 2026 | Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke out against the military occupation of Minneapolis.

Bernie Sanders is the man who should be the president of the USA. Bernie Sanders is a sensible, decent man. America would be a much better, kinder, milder , fairer country if he were. — © Mark Alexander

Thom Hartmann: The Fall of American Economic Power: Is Trump the Turning Point?

Jan 30, 2026 | Under Trump, tax giveaways to the wealthy and soaring debt replaced economic stability and sacrificed the nation’s future for short-term political gain.

Wieso zerstört Trump die USA? | Sandra Navidi

Sept 21, 2025 | Die Ermordung des rechten US-Aktivisten Charlie Kirk hat die politische Spaltung in den USA nur noch weiter verschärft. Könnte es unter Präsident Donald Trump gar zu einem erneuten Bürgerkrieg kommen? Und kann die Demokratie in den Vereinigten Staaten noch gerettet werden?

Darüber spricht US-Expertin Sandra Navidi in dieser Videoversion des STANDARD-Nachrichtenpodcasts "Thema des Tages".

Navidi ist deutsch-amerikanische Autorin und Unternehmerin. Ihr Buch "Die DNA der USA" über die Entfremdung der US-Gesellschaft wurde zum Bestseller.

Moderation: Zsolt Wilhelm
Produktion: Tobias Holub

"Hostile Takeovers": as US Claims Venezuela's Oil, Trump Seeks "Vassal States" across the World

Jan 30, 2026 | In the aftermath of the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, Venezuela has agreed to submit a monthly budget to the Trump administration, which will release money from an account funded by oil sales. It's a deal for the interim government led by Delcy Rodriguéz that historian Greg Grandin calls "governing under the blade." In a further shift away from the nation-building foreign policy of the past several decades of US power, "what the United States is planning for Venezuela is basically to run the country as a vassal state," he says. "This is an arrangement with transactional details that we've never seen before."

Democracy Now! can be supported here.

Trump Could Be ‘the End’ of America, I’m Returning to Politics to Save It | Denver Riggleman

Jan 30, 2026 | "We've never had a president like this. Not this insane, not based on this sort of fascist, authoritarian leaning stuff...I have decided I am going to run again."

Former Republican Rep. and member of the Jan 6 Committee Denver Riggleman says Trump's use of federal agents and upturnign of the world order could be "the end" of the United States.


Trump should have been locked up long ago! — © Mark Alexander

Trump Is Wrong — A Declining Dollar Isn't Great, But Major Trouble

Jan 29, 2026 | Steve Forbes explains why President Trump's support for a declining dollar is not only wrongheaded but dangerous, and why a strong currency is key to our nation's domestic and international safety.

Canada Separatists Accused of ‘Treason’ after Secret Talks with US State Department

THE GUARDIAN: Alberta activists’ covert meetings with US officials revealed, outlining group’s increasingly emboldened efforts

Covert meetings between separatist activists in the Canadian province of Alberta and members of Donald Trump’s administration amount to “treason”, the premier of British Columbia said on Thursday.

“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that – and that word is treason,” David Eby told reporters.

“It is completely inappropriate to seek to weaken Canada, to go and ask for assistance, to break up this country from a foreign power and – with respect – a president who has not been particularly respectful of Canada’s sovereignty.”

The revelations that far-right activists met US state department officials first emerged in a Financial Times report outlining the efforts a group of increasingly emboldened separatists are taking in their attempt to secede from Canada. » | Leyland Cecco in Toronto | Thursday, January 29, 2026

Imagine wanting to leave a first world nation for a third world one, where ill health in old age might bankrupt you, where approximately 20m people must live in trailer parks because they can no longer afford traditional housing, where up to 3 million Americans sleep in their vehicles because they cannot afford anything else, where between 530,000 and 650,000 American families file for bankruptcy at least partly because of medical debt. (That represents over 60% of all personal bankruptcies!) Noting, of course, that up to 32 million Americans simply cannot afford the astronomical costs of any health insurance at all, so they have to live without it. Then, further, approximately 35% of Americans, over 90 million people, live with inadequate health insurance, because they simply cannot afford the quality care needed! (Noting, of course, that in Canada, essential healthcare is provided free at the point of delivery.)

But apart from all the costs and negatives, Canada is an extremely beautiful country; it’s a haven for those seeking civilization on the frenetic American continent.

And these Albertans want to leave all that for the uncertainty of life in America? Unbelievable! They must be the Canadians who will profit from the casino that is Trump’s America, and who wish to assist Trump in breaking up Canada to realize Trump’s wet dream of making Canada the 51st state! — © Mark Alexander

Before the Great Recession, “The Warning” | Full Documentary

Jan 27, 2026 | Long before the economic meltdown in the U.S. that led to the Great Recession, one woman tried to raise the alarm about the threat to the financial system.

“The Warning” unearthed the hidden history of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in the United States. Brooksley Born spoke for the first time on television about her failed campaign to regulate the secretive, multitrillion-dollar derivatives market whose crash helped trigger the financial collapse in the fall of 2008.

“We didn’t truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market,” said Born, who was the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency — the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC]. Born not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to convince the country’s key economic powerbrokers to take actions that could have helped avert the crisis.

The documentary also revealed an intense battle among high-ranking members of former President Bill Clinton’s administration and uncovered a concerted effort not to regulate the emerging, highly complex, and lucrative derivatives markets, which became a ticking time-bomb within the American economy.



It is rather shocking to me that a man as clever as Alan Greenspan was considered to be was such a devotee of Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand was an émigrée from the Soviet Union. She had very extreme, laissez-faire ideas which were verging on the anarchic. That Alan Greenspan, known as ‘The Wizard’ because of his superior understanding of economics, couldn’t see through Ayn Rand’s cranky theories is enigmatic, to say the least. — © Mark Alexander

The Real Reason Donald Trump Wants Greenland | 60 Minutes Australia

Jan 27, 2026 | Greenland has always been a fascinating place- at the top of the world, remote and mysterious - but it has now become the centre of a global race for rare earth minerals. Donald Trump wants Greenland so badly he’s offered to buy it or threatened to simply take it. But, in pole position to reap the rewards of this resource rich territory is Australian mining company Energy Transition Minerals, which claims it has uncovered the world’s largest rare earths deposit.

US dollar Sinks to Its Lowest Level in Four Years

THE GUARDIAN: Dollar drops against basket of currencies after Donald Trump brushed off concerns over slide

The US dollar has fallen to its lowest level in four years after Donald Trump brushed off concerns over the currency’s fall, sending investors fleeing to traditional havens including gold and the Swiss franc.

The dollar dropped by 1.3% against a basket of currencies after the president’s comments on Tuesday, marking its fourth day of declines, then slipped by a further 0.2% on Wednesday morning.

“No, I think it’s great,” Trump said of the weaker dollar, during a visit to Iowa to promote his record on the economy. Asked whether he was concerned about the currency’s slide, he told reporters: “I think the value of the dollar – look at the business we’re doing. The dollar’s doing great.”

The greenback has tumbled by 10% over the past year, while Tuesday’s fall was the largest one-day drop since last April, when Trump announced his sweeping tariff plans, marking a global market sell-off.

The dollar has now touched its lowest level since February 2022, after unpredictable US policymaking, including Trump’s recent threats to take over Greenland and impose further tariffs on European allies, unleashed fresh geopolitical shocks. » | Joanna Partridge | Wednesday, January 28, 2026

If America must go on suffering under Trump’s voodoo economics, it could well soon be on life-support! I have said it before, and I will say it again: Trump doesn’t understand even the basics of macro-economics. Egocentric, megalomaniacal, rapacious businessmen usually don’t. Especially businessmen skilled and talented enough to be able to bankrupt FIVE, arguably even SIX, casinos! For Americans, the future looks bleak. — © Mark Alexander

Donald Trump Backs Separatist Movement of Canadian Province

Jan 26, 2026 | “These kinds of conversations by leading figures in the White House are problematic.”

Overt comments by US representatives in support of a separatist movement in the Canadian province of Alberta are “unbecoming and troublesome,” says former deputy premier of Alberta and founder of the 'Forever Canadian' petition, Thomas Lukaszuk.

U.S Warns Cuba as China Steps In, Challenging U.S. Influence

Jan 27, 2026 | U.S Warns Cuba as China Steps In, Challenging U.S. Influence

This video explains why China has publicly pledged fresh support for Cuba as tensions with the United States rise again. It breaks down Beijing’s criticism of U.S. pressure, calls to lift sanctions, and Cuba’s defensive preparedness, while exploring how shifting power dynamics in the Caribbean and Latin America are drawing major global players into renewed diplomatic rivalry with potential regional consequences.

How Hitler Built a War Economy on Debt and Plunder | SLICE | Full Documentary

Jan 23, 2026 | As soon as he came to power in 1933, Hitler wanted to go to war. Warfare was central to Nazi ideology; the strong had to crush the weak. To go to war, he needed weapons and an army, but Germany had neither. A far cry from the fake images of prosperity, years of adversity had worn the country down. It was a medium-size power like Iran or South Africa today.

The Nazis launched themselves into an extraordinary operation of financial manipulation and managed to revive the economy by producing enormous quantities of weapons. That was the Nazi economic miracle of the 1935-1936 period: an overheated economy that needed a war to continue its mad race. In 1939, Hitler embarked on a war financed on credit, enormous credit using spoliation and upcoming appropriation as collateral.

Documentary: Blood Money Inside the Nazi Economy EP1 : A World War on Credit Directed by Gil Rabier Production: GoGoGo Films (2021)


WIKIPEDIA: Hjalmar Schacht’s Mefo bills »

‘Mother of All Deals’: EU and India Sign Free Trade Agreement

THE GUARDIAN: Deal expected to ease access for European cars and wine, in return for Indian exports of textiles, gems and pharmaceuticals

India and the EU have finalised a landmark free trade agreement, which the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, hailed as the “mother of all deals”.

The agreement comes after almost two decades of on-off negotiations between India and the EU, which vastly accelerated in the past six months and were finally concluded late on Monday night.

The deal is expected to open up India’s vast and traditionally tightly guarded market to the 27 nations in the bloc, with a focus on manufacturing and the services sector. It is expected to ease market access for key European products, including cars and wine, in return for easier exports of textiles, gems and pharmaceuticals.

The agreement is expected to double EU exports to India by 2032 by eliminating or cutting tariffs in 96.6% of traded goods by value, and will lead to savings of €4bn (£3.5bn) in duties for European companies, the EU said.

“Europe and India are making history today,” von der Leyen said in a statement after landing in Delhi, where she met with the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday. “We have concluded the mother of all deals. We have created a free trade zone of two billion people, with both sides set to benefit.” » | Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi | Tuesday, January 27, 2026

This news should help sober up the backward-thinking Brexiteers! Prepare the stocks for Farage! — © Mark Alexander

Europe Needs a Dramatic Strategic Revolution - Now: Historian Robert Kagan

Jan 20, 2026 | Investigative journalist and co-founder of the Nerve Carole Cadwalladr talks to conservative historian and former historian Robert Kagan about the critical geopolitical moment we are in. With the Trump administration moving rapidly towards dictatorship, Kagan says, European governments need to completely change tack, fast. “I feel like the administration has done everything except climb up on the roof of the White House and yell what they're going to do,” says Kagan. ”Trump is already talking about how you don't really need these midterm elections.” "Europe needs to become self-sufficient in both military and economic terms" and without drastic action, “risks becoming a collection of fiefdoms of the great empires of the world... Some of them under Russia's thumb, some under America's thumb, maybe some influenced more by China.”

The Nerve is a new, fiercely independent media platform covering culture, politics and tech. Set up by a collective of five former Guardian journalists, including the investigative reporter Carole Cadwalladr, who believe that the UK needs more truly independent journalism as we have never been more in need of an independent, fearless press. Having nerve is the key quality the world needs now.

Trump’s Wrecking Ball Pushes US Allies Closer to China

THE GUARDIAN: n the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat

f geopolitics relies at least in part on bonhomie between global leaders, China made an unexpected play for Ireland’s good graces when the taoiseach visited Beijing this month. Meeting Ireland’s leader, Micheál Martin, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China’s president, Xi Jinping, said a favourite book of his as a teenager was The Gadfly, by the Irish author Ethel Voynich, a novel set in the revolutionary fervour of Italy in the 1840s.

“It was unusual that we ended up discussing The Gadfly and its impact on both of us but there you are,” Martin told reporters in Beijing.

China is on a charm offensive with western leaders, a path cleared by Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic and destabilising power grabs on the global stage. Although Europe breathed a sigh of relief this week when Trump withdrew the threat of using military force in Greenland and said he would not impose tariffs on opponents of his plans in the Arctic, the US no longer seems like a reliable partner.

An editorial in the Chinese newspaper the Global Times made Beijing’s pitch clear: headlined “Europe should seriously consider building a China-EU community with a shared future”, the state media article said the world risked “returning to the law of the jungle” and that China and the EU should cooperate in building “a shared future for mankind”.

No country can afford to cut ties or truly antagonise the world’s biggest economy. But in the search for stability, US allies are turning to the country that many in Washington see as an existential threat: China. » | Amy Hawkins, Senior China correspondent | Sunday, January 25, 2026