If it’s not threats of military action against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/05/trump-colombia-invasion-petro" rel="nofollow">Colombia</a> and Cuba, or talk of taking <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/07/what-are-trumps-real-options-for-gaining-control-of-greenland" rel="nofollow">Greenland</a> from Denmark, it’s seizing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/07/marinera-seized-tanker-atlantic-us-uk-russia" rel="nofollow">oil tankers</a> in European and Caribbean waters. All of it has world leaders scrambling to figure out how to handle Donald Trump’s revived form of US imperialism. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Pulitzer-winning author Anne Applebaum about what to expect from a world changing by the hour at the hands of the US president