Whilst this particular article is new, the story has been out now from other sources for a while. And it looks like the US has shot itself in the foot here, because that’s been cited as at least part of the motivation for the EU looking to become independent in banking and technology from the US.

Well, good. It should have happened a long time ago; better still the situation should never have been allowed to arise.

Mais … le chat! 😺

This is the point; you’re completely right. If every time a country makes a mistake they are shunned by those around them then those who are trying to disrupt progressive politics are succeeding. Johnson was elected by far fewer than 50% of the population; indeed in that election (2019) progressive parties won 52.8% of the vote, and under any decent election system we would then have had a progressive coalition. At the very worst we’d have still been within the single market and customs union, and in all probability they would have been a confirmatory referendum (which would have doubtless left us within the European Union).

However it was over 50% of voters that voted for tRump, and they knew what they were getting. So I fear the US has gone beyond a threshold.

There’s a widespread view in Europe, which I happen to share, that the US is lost - for a considerable time. It’s unlikely to be a dependable ally for at least a generation.

This is going to hurt Europe, but in the longer term US isolationism will hurt the US more than it will hurt the rest of the world. It makes a lot of sense for the opposition party in the US to be trying to prepare the ground for a repair of those relationships if and when they gett into power.

Good luck to them, but I think it’s going to be too late.

Milk of Magnesia. Coconut milk. Dandelion milk. These are all descriptions of very long standing (100s of years).