What Caught My Eye (no. 7)

Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week

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Here’s this week’s edition of articles that I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.

• Taras Grescoe, Run to the sun: on board Amtrak’s new 47-hour Chicago-Miami sleeper, Financial Times, February 19, 2025. After a shocking week for observers of America’s relationship for the world, I found this review of a new train services between Chicago and Miami very calming.

• Henry J. Farrell and Abraham L. Newman, This Is How Trump Will Smash the Machine of U.S. Economic Power, New York Times, February 17, 2025. Two scholars of how America weaponized the world economy argue that Trump’s tariffs, love of crypto, and search for quick deals undermines America’s economic security.

• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Revealed: Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold, The Telegraph, February 17, 2025. A draft US agreement, leaked to the Telegraph, shows how the Trump Administration sought to control 50% of the Ukrainian economy in payment for past US aid to the war torn country.

• Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way, The Path to American Authoritarianism, Foreign Affairs, February 11, 2025. “U.S. democracy will likely break down during the second Trump administration, in the sense that it will cease to meet standard criteria for liberal democracy: full adult suffrage, free and fair elections, and broad protection of civil liberties.”

• Ana Swanson, Trump Eyes a Bigger, Better Trade Deal With China, New York Times, February 19, 2025. In an administration stocked with China hawks, the must-read business reporter shows how Trump is interested in a big deal with Xi rather than the confrontation his hardliners in the administration seek.

• Alexander Ward, Trump’s Attack on Zelensky Signals New World Order Taking Shape, Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2025. Ward argues that Trump’s embrace of Russia’s propaganda on Ukraine threatens more than the future of Ukraine; it upsets the entire world order built over the past 80 years.

• Mona Charen, America Joins the Jackals, The Bulwark, February 20, 2025. A leading Never Trump commentator records how the last week demonstrates America abandoning its global leadership in ways that cannot be restored.

• Susan Glasser, Donald Trump’s Putin of America, The New Yorker, February 20, 2025.

Finally, in case you missed it here are links to articles I wrote, interviews I did, and a synopsis of my weekly podcast on world news.

• How Trump is Making Russia Great Again, America Abroad, February 19, 2025.

• With Camille Grand and Daniela Schwarzer, We need a new transatlantic bargain, Politico Europe, February 20, 2025.

• CNN International with Becky Anderson, February 20, 2025.

• Transatlantic Tensions and the Future of European Power, Teneo Insights Podcast, February 20, 2025. An overview of how the last week changed US-European relations forever.

• World Review: US-Russia Reset, New Gaza Plans, and Xi's Big Tech Bet, February 21, 2025. With guest host, Carla Anne Robbins.

Happy reading and listening!