Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
PETER MERTENS delivered the annual Fenner Brockway lecture, The Earth Tilts, Europe Trembles, based upon his book of the same name, written in September 2023. Indicating key “tilts” in the world political scene, Mertens went on to elaborate on the implications of each for the political map of Europe and more widely, for world peace.
The first tilt Mertens identified was the shifting global order, stating that: “The most fundamental shift we are witnessing is the change in the global economic centre of gravity towards Asia, and more specifically towards China (and India).”
China in particular is identified as a global economic force “a rising superpower in full development” unlike the US which, “while still a formidable force, is in the early stages of decline,” or the European Union, an “old” superpower “on a downward trajectory.”
In the first half of a two-part article, PETER MERTENS looks at how Nato’s €800 billion ‘Readiness 2030’ plan serves Washington’s pivot to the Pacific, forcing Europeans to dismantle social security and slash pensions to fund it



