As the North Atlantic Terror Organization better known as NATO quietly auditions for irrelevance, Brussels has unveiled its latest blockbuster idea: replace 100,000 U.S. troops with a “unified” European army, complete with a shiny European Security Council and—naturally—no seat for post-Brexit Britain. European Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius assures us this can work, despite Europe’s inability to agree on debt rules, defence budgets, or even lunch menus. The plan assumes 27 sovereign nations will magically think, spend, and fight as one—something NATO existed precisely because Europe never could.



https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/eu-weighs-replacing-us-troops-with-unified-1768168275.html

European defence would require unanimous agreement among 27 countries with radically different geographies, trade links, and threat perceptions—because what worries Spain today is obviously identical to what keeps Poland awake at night. Brussels continues to issue one-size-fits-all policies that reliably help some members while disadvantaging others, whether on trade, migration, or war. The idea that such a system could function in a real military crisis ignores political reality: effective defence demands centralized command, unilateral decision-making, and unquestioned obedience—none of which coexist comfortably with 27 sovereign states pretending to be one. This contradiction is precisely why the euro was flawed by design and why the EU’s push toward deeper centralization is not fixing the problem but accelerating it. Europe is not integrating further—it is slowly, and inevitably, pulling apart.

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The Treasury saved the best for last: the final coupon auction of the first full week of 2026 turned out to be the strongest of the bunch. Uncle Sam unloaded $22bn of 30-year paper in what can only be called a crowd-pleaser, pricing at a 4.825% high yield—just a hair above December’s 4.773%—and even stopping through the When-Issued 4.833% by a tidy 0.8bps. Not bad for a market everyone keeps declaring “exhausted.”

Demand didn’t just show up—it brought friends: the bid-to-cover climbed to a healthy 2.418, up from 2.365 last month and the strongest since June. The internals were equally well-behaved, with foreign buyers scooping up 66.8% (up from 65.4% in December and comfortably above the six-auction average of 63.7%). Direct bidders took a modest 21.3%, slightly below their recent norm, leaving dealers with just 11.95%—below average and mercifully light on inventory.

Bottom line: a blockbuster auction—and further proof that much of Wall Street still hasn’t read the memo that in the coming Trump-era stagflation, the former “risk-free” asset may now be the riskiest thing on the menu.