Sugary Pastries Instead of Alpine Cuisine!
“After a few days of Swiss-German food here, I might as well switch to beetles and insects. Next year I’d rather bring packaged sweet breakfast pastries from the U.S.”
Scott Bessent stood in Davos in front of cameras and made a joke that reveals more than he would probably like. After a few days of Swiss cuisine, he said, he could just as well switch to insects, and next year he would rather bring packaged American sugar pastries from the supermarket. It was meant as a casual remark, intended as a jab at Europe. But Davos is not a holiday camp, it is a place of political power, and whoever speaks there never speaks only privately. Bessent mocked food culture and reduced sustainability to ridicule. Europe appears as a self-flagellating province, America as the land of convenience. That nutrition, climate, and resources are real conflicts disappears into the joke. What remains is a tone that belittles serious questions and replaces responsibility with laughter.
“I Am Legal”
In Minneapolis, armed ICE agents chased a child, threw the child to the ground in the snow, and put handcuffs on them while the child screamed that they were legal - not out of defiance, not out of provocation, but out of naked fear. A child who has understood that words might be the last protection when everything else falls away. The cold came from the ground, the force from above, and in between a body that had done nothing wrong. It was not about danger, not about resistance, not about protecting the public. It is about displaying power where it cannot defend itself. Whoever hunts a child is not hunting order, but an image, a signal of who is allowed to feel safe and who can become a target at any moment. When a child has to shout “I am legal,” law is no longer a safeguard, but a coincidence. Then fear is the actual instrument. And one no longer asks what America has become. One sees it.
Talks Without Solid Ground
In Abu Dhabi, representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and the United States met for talks that promise more than they can so far sustain. It is the first known time that envoys of the Trump administration have sat at the same table with both parties to the war. The timing is deliberate, because political pressure is growing. In the days before, negotiators traveled between Davos, Washington, and Moscow while the war continued. In Ukraine, power outages persist, winter is harsh, attacks continue. In Davos, Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke of an agreement that was almost finished. At the same time, it remained unclear what this confidence was based on. The decisive questions remain unresolved. Above all, control over territories in the east of the country is still on the table.
Donald Trump met Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum behind closed doors and afterward spoke of progress. In Moscow, Vladimir Putin received American negotiators for hours of talks. In parallel, meetings took place in Abu Dhabi in changing formats, sometimes separate, sometimes joint, sometimes in smaller groups. The United States sent civilian and military representatives. On the Ukrainian side, security and military officials took part. Russia sent delegates from the defense apparatus. What exactly is being discussed remains largely unclear. Moscow calls it a working group on security issues and insists that an end to the war without territorial concessions is not possible. Kyiv sees precisely that as the greatest risk and demands binding guarantees for its own security. Since 2014, Russia has brought about a fifth of Ukrainian state territory under its control, at a high cost to itself as well. The front line is long, the attrition enormous, the economic consequences tangible.
These talks are taking place far away from the war. And yet the same question hangs over them as for years: whether real negotiations are taking place here or whether time is merely being bought.
Investigation Against a Dead Woman
The United States Department of Justice wanted to pursue criminal action against Renee Good even though she was already dead. Not to clarify anything, but to fix blame. Even death was not enough to end the pursuit. An FBI request was meant to allow a killed mother from Minnesota to be treated posthumously as a suspect, with the allegation of assaulting an officer. A judge stopped it. Not out of compassion, but because even in this system a boundary exists. The attempt nevertheless remains. A state that continues to investigate when life has long since ended is no longer seeking truth. It is seeking justification. Whoever turns the dead into suspects is not defending law, but its own violence. This is not an isolated case, it is a pattern. And it says everything about a system that cannot let go because otherwise it would have to explain what really happened.
Disrespectful Toward Those Who Were There
The former head of the British Army, Lord Richard Dannatt, found clear words for Donald Trump’s claim that NATO troops had avoided the front lines in Afghanistan. The statement was disrespectful, false, and outrageous, Dannatt said, and it did not reflect the reality of that war. Many soldiers from the United Kingdom and other NATO countries were engaged in combat, conducted patrols, treated the wounded, and lost comrades. Trump’s portrayal brushes aside that service and strips it of any recognition. Dannatt openly questioned whether someone who speaks about allies in this way is fit for the office he holds. It is a rare but unmistakable criticism from a military voice, spoken out of a sense of duty to those who served there. Such words are spoken when silence is no longer possible.
“Never Been at the Front”
Polish General Roman Polko, who led the GROM special unit in Iraq and Afghanistan, contradicted Donald Trump without hesitation. Trump’s statements about the deployment of NATO troops were not only false, but disrespectful toward those who fought. Polko called him a coward who had himself never been at the front. The words were not spoken from political calculation, but from experience. From the perspective of an officer who knows what deployments mean, what they cost, and what they leave behind. Whoever diminishes the service of others devalues sacrifice and responsibility at the same time. Polko’s words are clear because they come from proximity. They remind us that credibility is not a claim, but something earned. And that one speaks differently about wars when one has not only commented on them, but lived them.
Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis
Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis is two years old. Her father, Diego Tipan Villacis, wanted to drive home with her after shopping, nothing more. In Minneapolis, this everyday moment ended abruptly. ICE agents stopped the car and took father and child with them. Hours later, Chloe was sitting on a commercial flight to Texas. At that time, a federal judge had ordered her immediate release. That order did not matter. Chloe was separated from her mother without any legal basis. For a two-year-old child, this is not a file, not a procedure, but unfamiliar arms. Fear that has no name. While all of us worked, while organizations, lawyers, and help of all kinds were being organized, time runs against a child who has done nothing wrong. This incident is barely describable in words. It shows what happens when even judicial boundaries become meaningless. And what state power does when it meets someone who cannot protect themselves. And in Germany, around 25 percent want the AfD. Honestly: “Is this what these voters want?”
Policing at the Lowest Level
The sheriff of Cumberland County, Kevin Joyce, reacted to the arrest of a correctional officer by ICE with a clarity that leaves no room for interpretation. Policing at the lowest level, he said. Nothing more. The sentence suffices because reality carries it. An officer, part of the public service, is detained by a federal agency without any compelling reason being apparent. The action cannot be factually explained based on the known sequence of events. What remains is an operation defined not by necessity, but by state terror. That a sheriff publicly criticizes this step says a great deal in these times. When even security authorities distance themselves, the balance shifts. And precisely therein lies the danger.
TikTok Remains, the Questions Too
TikTok remains online in the United States after years of uncertainty and political threats. A new American joint venture is to secure operations, while a sale to Chinese owners is off the table. The app itself remains the same, but the internal operation changes. The recommendation mechanism will in the future be retrained on American user data, licensed from the previous owner. That promises small shifts that can have major effects. Because what users see determines whether they stay. At the same time, doubts remain as to whether security concerns are truly resolved. The legal framework prohibits close cooperation in operating this mechanism, and precisely here lies the open flank. New terms of use regulate content more strictly, especially for children and for artificially generated material. The ownership structure brings political proximity, which for many heightens concerns about influence over content. For merchants and creators, one thing above all matters: that the shop stays open. Many depend economically on this platform. In the end, the agreement is a postponement, not a conclusion. TikTok continues, but under scrutiny.
