In a nation seemingly on the brink, they were words that Americans needed to hear – coming not from the president but a politician with civility, compassion and rhetorical grace notes.

“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence – it metastasises because we can always point the figure at the other side,” said Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah. “At some point we have to find an offramp or else it’s going to get much, much worse.”

Trump declines to call for unity after Charlie Kirk killing in stunning move
President tells Fox News ‘the radicals on the left are the problem’ and refuses to seek common way forward

Charlie Kirk shooting – follow the latest updates
Full report: Utah governor confirms arrest of suspect
A video, a pastor and a tense meeting: timeline of arrest
Ed Pilkington
Fri 12 Sep 2025 16.12 EDT
Share
Donald Trump has declined to call for the US to come together as a way of fixing the country’s divisions in the wake of the assassination of his close associate, the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, preferring to cast “vicious and horrible” radicals on the left of US politics as the sole problem.

In an interview on Fox & Friends on Friday morning, the US president was asked what he intended to do to heal the wounds of Kirk’s shooting in Utah. “How do we fix this country? How do we come back together?” he was asked by the show’s co-host Ainsley Earhardt, who commented that there were radicals operating on the left and right of US politics.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “very surprised” that former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was convicted for plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election. Nothing happened to Trump here in the U.S. when he did the same thing, culminating in his supporters violently assaulting the Capitol and law enforcement personnel on January 6th, 2021, so “what’s the deal with that?”, to coin a phrase. It makes no sense to Trump, understandably, anymore than Putin sending drones into Poland does. Wannabe dictators around the world must stand up for Brazil’s former wannabe dictator! Down with the South American Marxists!

Secretary-of-State-in-training Marco Rubio —  perhaps emboldened after recently participating in and applauding the criminal act of the U.S. military murdering 11 people in international waters who were travelling in a boat headed for Venezuela —  said “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.” What does that mean? A “witch hunt”? Has Bolsonaro been hunted by witches? Or is Bolsonaro a witch who’s been hunted? Either way, this is alarming new information from Marco that must be taken extremely seriously.

Maybe we are returning to the good old days in which the U.S. government actively and overtly interfered on a regular basis in the affairs of sovereign nations in the Americas. Perfect timing on September 11th, as we commemorate General Pinochet’s coup, facilitated by Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on this date in 1973. Whatever the hell is going on, we can be assured that anything that goes wrong will be the fault of the radical left and the media.

VM
11 Sept., 2025

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday convicted former President Jair Bolsonaro of overseeing a failed conspiracy to overturn the 2022 Brazilian election in a coup plot that included disbanding courts, empowering the military and assassinating the president-elect.

Four of the five justices weighing the case voted to convict Mr. Bolsonaro and seven co-conspirators, including his running mate, defense minister and Navy commander, in a forceful rebuke by one of the very institutions the men sought to overthrow.

There are so many words and cliches condemning the killing of Charles James Kirk, and none of the refrains are unique. “We need to dial back our discourse”, “we need to be tolerant of different opinions,” and “there is no room in American politics for political violence.” Are people blind to the realities that have been swirling all around us? The language has been violent. The discord has been great. There has been a consistent invitation to dine at the table of heated racist discussion posing as legitimate political speech.

Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor
Germany and Italy may have legitimate fears of escalation but this was no accident – it was a violation of Nato territory

Wed 10 Sep 2025 13.29 EDT
Share
By sending a barrage of drones into Polish airspace, Russia is testing Nato’s military response and Europe’s political resolve to stand behind Ukraine with arms and security guarantees in the event of escalation.

The timing can hardly have been a coincidence. Less than a week ago, a 26-nation “coalition of the willing” led by France and the UK announced an agreement on a “reassurance force”, intended to help guarantee Ukraine’s security after any ceasefire in Russia’s relentless war of aggression. Vladimir Putin has stepped up the nightly bombardment of Ukraine in defiance of Donald Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal, and rejected any presence of European forces on the ground.