The sky could fall in any day.
uncertain
sky → fall → day
Unending wars, expanding humanitarian crises, rising authoritarianism, dysfunctional democracies, rampant racial and religious extremism, and unchecked lawlessness cast a dark cloud as the west’s new political year begins.
asserted
year → expand → cloud
Set all that against a backdrop of staggering global economic inequality, corporate and individual greed, irresponsible government indebtedness, dangerous AI gambles, climate breakdown and proliferating nuclear weapons, and a truly apocalyptic global outlook begins to take shape.
asserted
outlook → set → shape
It’s enough to make anyone shut their eyes, cover their ears and utter a Munch-like scream.
asserted
anyone → ’ → scream
And it’s only getting worse.
asserted
it → get → ?
Democratic leaders who promise a better, safer, more optimistic future – what Britain’s freshly arrived prime minister, Andy Burnham, calls a “new era of possibility” – cannot escape this wider international context.
asserted
minister → promise → context
Last week’s global bond market upheaval, sparked by external factors, left Burnham’s cash-strapped government struggling with sharply increased borrowing costs before he barely got started.
asserted
he → spark → costs
The fact he chose Ukraine for his first overseas trip, while symbolically important, highlighted another grim reality.
asserted
he → choose → reality
As a lead opponent of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Britain now finds itself in a de facto state of war with Russia – and facing attack.
asserted
itself → find → attack
Argentina, too, is eyeing UK defence vulnerabilities.
asserted
Argentina → eye → vulnerabilities
These are not the sort of possibilities Burnham envisaged.
asserted
Burnham → envisage → possibilities
Little wonder some analysts believe a third world war has already begun.
asserted
war → believe → ?
Those who say this is over-dramatic should consider the following snapshots of the state of the world in 2026.
asserted
this → say → 2026
From Kyiv to Khorramshahr, Kordofan and Kachin, conflicts flare and subside but never seem to end.
asserted
conflicts → flare → Khorramshahr
All-out Russian aggression in Ukraine, now mostly comprising daily attempts to murder and terrorise civilians, is into its fifth year.
asserted
aggression → comprise → year
Trump has lost his Iran bet, but keeps killing and bombing with no end in sight.
asserted
Trump → lose → sight
In southern Sudan, appalling atrocities go unchecked.
asserted
atrocities → go → Sudan
In Myanmar, a people’s war against a brutal junta rages on.
asserted
war → rag → junta
Israel’s response to the 2023 massacres has triggered an ongoing regional war embroiling Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and the Gulf states.
asserted
response → trigger → Palestine
Worldwide, record numbers of people are displaced by conflict.
asserted
numbers → displace → conflict
Increasingly interconnected, these wars threaten to merge into one uncontrollable global conflagration.
asserted
wars → interconnect → conflagration
The alliance system, key pillar of the post-1945 order, is eating itself.
asserted
system → eat → itself
Donald Trump taunts Europe and Nato with tariffs, troop withdrawals, barbs and insults at a time of acute vulnerability.
asserted
Trump → taunt → vulnerability
Canada and the US are at daggers drawn as the White House bully fatuously threatens Venezuela – or Greenland-style annexation.
asserted
bully → draw → Venezuela
China aids North Korea, which also aids Russia, which aids Iran, which aids Hezbollah and the Houthis.
asserted
which → aid → Hezbollah
In Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia, China looms menacingly as partnerships with Washington fray.
asserted
partnerships → loom → Washington
In Taiwan, fears of invasion grow, aggravated by Trump’s obsequious appeasing of Xi Jinping.
asserted
fears → grow → Jinping
Everywhere you look, humanitarian crises caused by war, the climate crisis or natural disasters are producing chaotic mass migrations, malnutrition and disease.
asserted
crises → look → migrations
Increasingly, the suffering overwhelms a UN-led aid system crippled by US and UK funding cuts.
asserted
suffering → overwhelm → cuts
In the fertile West Bank, 900,000 Palestinians, their homes and farms besieged by settler extremists, are now food insecure, the World Food Programme says.
asserted
Programme → besiege → extremists
In Somalia, millions go hungry amid record drought and predicted El Niño-related flooding.
asserted
millions → go → flooding
Colombia and Afghanistan face similar perils.
asserted
Colombia → face → perils
Humanitarian and human rights outrages take individual form, too.
asserted
outrages → take → form
In Hong Kong, for example, an ailing Jimmy Lai, brave champion of free speech, languishes in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement, a tortured casualty of Chinese communism’s hatred of democracy and civil rights.
asserted
Lai → ail → democracy
Is a crash coming, reminiscent of 2008, only worse?
asserted
crash → come → 2008
The US just notched up a record $40tn in national debt.
asserted
US → notch → debt
Unmanageable current-account deficits, rising inflation and the huge, draining diversion of investment into bloated AI tech companies all point to what market analysts cutely call a “disorderly correction”.
asserted
analysts → rise → what
Meanwhile, unaffordable northern-hemisphere energy and food prices loom this winter, exacerbated by Trump’s Middle East forever folly.
asserted
prices → loom → East
In the worst case, all this could translate into global recession and yet more political instability.
uncertain
this → translate → recession
It’s a gigantic bubble waiting to burst.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
…and 24 more, not listed.
