2026 Needs To Chill Out!!

Oh, since we last spoke, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists say that the world is now closer than it's ever been to destruction. There is a deadly virus outbreak in India, which is causing countries across Asia to reinstate airport screenings. A congresswoman representing Minnesota was seemingly attacked by a man with a syringe. Calls for European countries to boycott [music] the World Cup because of Trump are now growing. The US dollar has crashed to its lowest level in 4 [music] years. Man, can 2026 just chill the hell out? We haven't even made it through the first month [music] yet. But subscribe to the channel if you're out here surviving. So, let's stop the yapping and let's go. We need a new suggestion for a slogan until I get a new whip. >> [music] >> That That was it. Okay, let's kick today off with a pretty wild question. Imagine a World Cup without Europe. Well, that is actually what some fans and politicians are actually calling for right now due to Trump's recent threats. Well, this is about to be the most political World Cup ever. So things really took a pretty serious turn yesterday after the head of Germany's largest party came out and said that he no longer wants to rule out a boycott for the World Cup, stating, "Wait and see what happens in the next few weeks." What What are you suggesting, sir? The crazy part is he's not even Germany's first. The vice president of the German Football Association called for a concrete debate on such measures, and Germany is not the only country in Europe to be talking about this. Scottish MP Hannah Bardell suggested that radical action may be necessary and that a boycott might be that radical action. A petition in the Netherlands has received over 150,000 signatures calling for the Dutch government to actually bar their football team from competing due to Trump's actions against immigrants. Two British members of parliament from the Labor and Conservatives. So they're uniting on one thing and that is boycott because these two politicians have become the UK's first official voices calling for such measures. While TV presenter Pierce Morgan, he's also floated the idea, saying that if eight of the 10 favored teams to win withdraw, yes, eight of those 10 are European, it might concentrate some minds. And I think he's suggesting that this is Europe's biggest leverage over the United States right now, because not only is the World Cup the most watched event in history, but if even just one European team, like Germany, for example, which seems to be the most vocal about this, they decide to pull out, that would be unprecedented. But I'm not going to lie, as of right now, it seems hard to imagine that this would actually happen. Which is why I was so surprised that there was actually so much support for this when I asked you guys over on Instagram. Out of 23,000 votes, over 70% said that European teams should boycott the World Cup. But who knows, maybe it's just angry people on Instagram. What do you guys think here on the calm and collected YouTube? Yeah, [laughter] let us know in the comments. But for now, moving on. Also, since we last spoke, something really strange went down at a town hall meeting in Minnesota, where, of course, the tension around ICE is still huge. So, while condemning the US government and immigration agents, in her address, Congresswoman Elan Omar was seemingly attacked by a man with a syringe. Uh, but the details on this is pretty weird. So, the man who has now been identified as 55-year-old Anthony James, not even going to try and pronounce that, rushed at Omar. He was sat in the front seat and he sprayed her out of the syringe with this unknown liquid. And we still don't know what what it is. And he yelled, "You must resign." before being tackled to the ground by security. He now faces charges of thirdderee assault for this. And according to those on the scene, this liquid had a strong chemical odor. Now, after the incident, Elon Omar posted on X saying that, "I'm okay. I'm a survivor. This small agitator isn't going to intimidate me from doing my work." She also said that she survived a civil war in Somalia as a child. so she'll survive intimidation from whatever these people throw at her. But today, this incident has got a whole lot more attention because Donald Trump is now suggesting that she faked it. Um, she staged it. Now, for some background context, Trump and Omar, they don't see eye to eye, right? That's a nice way of putting it. Trump has called her before garbage and that she should go back to where she comes from. She's actually the first uh congressman in US history to be Somalian. Meanwhile, Omar has called uh Trump creepy and a racist amongst many other things. So, when Trump was asked about this attack, instead of condemning it, he actually said she probably had herself sprayed knowing her. And that is triggered or at least gone alongside with a whole bunch of people now alleging that Omar staged the whole thing. Now, to be clear, there's no actual evidence that this whole situation was staged. And the man who did attack Omar has actually a pretty long history of criticizing Omar online. But yet again, another few days have passed and the situation is just getting more and more intense. But what do you guys think about this situation? Let me know in the comments. But we must move on. Also, just to sprinkle on a little bit of extra chaos into 2026, India are now battling an outbreak of a virus called Nipper. And it's actually triggered so much concern over the past few days that various countries across Asia like Nepal, Taiwan, and Thailand have reintroduced screening procedures at their airports so it doesn't enter their countries. [sighs and gasps] Here we go again. Now, this comes after hundreds of people were potentially exposed to this disease at a private hospital in West Bengal early this month. At least five cases of this disease were confirmed and two nurses are currently in intensive care. Now, while Nippo virus isn't a new disease, it's been around for decades. Actually, the reason it is causing such a concern right now is because of its alarming high death rate. Actually, it's between 40 and 75% and even worse, there's no cure or treatment for it. But caveat to that, the good news is that it isn't as contagious as other airborne diseases like the one we shall not name. And it can only spread amongst humans through close contact with bodily fluids or exposure to infected animals. But that being said, the WHO do actually list this as their top priority diseases. So India, please can you just contain this one for us, for the whole team? We don't we don't want season two. Not yet. [sighs and gasps] Moving on. [laughter] Also, speaking of actually, and this is really not the best time for these two stories to be going up at the same day, but the European Union have just announced that they want more Indians moving to Europe. So yesterday a truly historic deal between the EU and India was announced. And for context, they have been negotiating this deal for 20 years. They started when I was six. Now I'm 26 reporting on this. Insane. Now the deal is intended to strengthen economic ties, create jobs, cut tariffs, establish a global supply chain, allow free trade between the two parties, amongst many other things. This is a big ass boy. In fact, it was actually described as the mother of all deals by the European Commissioner Ursula Von Delean. And it's not just trade because Ursula also said that the greatest wealth that we have is our people. And because of that, the EU will now facilitate the movement of students, researchers, and seasonal and high-skll workers as well as launching the first EU legal gateway office in India to support Indian talent moving to Europe. In simple terms, this will make it easier for Indians to work in the 27 countries in the EU. And in case you're wondering how this duo came together, it's because Ursula Vanderlayan said that India and Europe have so much in common. And I think why this is causing so much discussion right now online is because it comes at a time where the EU and the US are taking completely different approaches when it comes to immigration. And that's despite them historically having such common shared values. And so the big question off the back of that is in the next decade, which strategy will work out better? Let me know what you think in the comments. But for now, moving on. Also, since we last spoke, the US dollar god, so many catastrophes today, has crashed to its lowest level in four years. It also saw its biggest single day drop since Trump's big liberation day tariffs, which triggered, you know, global markets to crash. So, let's talk about why the hell this is happening. Well, firstly, for a while now, the dollar has actually remained really weirdly strong and stable despite, you know, the global tariffs and the world chaos. But all of that changed this week. And there's a couple reasons why. Firstly, Reuters is reporting that investors who love good old predictability are getting spooked. And I mean, it's not hard to see why. Because just in the first month of 2026, Trump has threatened to take control of Greenland. He then slapped more tariffs on European countries because they didn't like the Greenland idea. He moved to criminally indict the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. He captured the Venezuelan president. And over the weekend, he threatened Canada with an effective trade embargo. So, it's safe to say that predictability in the US and global markets for that fact, not really going on right now. Which is also why gold and silver booming. And just to add another thing into the mix of all of that is a US government shutdown. We might be looking at another one. You see, because of what's happening in Minneapolis with ICE, Democrats are now saying that they will refuse to vote for the DHS funding bill unless it included major reforms or limitations for ICE enforcement. Now, if Republicans and Democrats can't agree on that funding bill by the end of January, the US government could face yet another shutdown. And if that happens so soon after the longest in US history last year, I don't think markets will react very kindly. Now, there's a few other more technical reasons, including the Japanese yen going up, but the point is it's those are the reasons mainly. We don't have time to get in the weeds today. Let's move on. Also, speaking about ICE, actually, um, since we last spoke, ICE is now going international, [laughter] but not in the way that you think. Actually, the AP is now reporting that US immigration agents are now going to have a security role at this year's Winter Olympics in Italy. And no, they're not going to be rounding up migrants and deporting them out of Italy, but rather, according to insiders who spoke with the AP, they will fulfill a security role for the US delegation, which includes JD Vance, Marco Rubio, who will be attending the opening ceremony in Milan next month. And so, for reasons I guess still unclear, ICE were the ones that were chosen to fulfill this bodyguard role. Yeah, I'm not too sure why. Maybe they just couldn't resist the pun. And I mean the choice of ICE being the ones to do this has not gone down very smoothly because the mayor of Milan is actually very strongly opposed to this idea. He said in a radio interview that this is a militia that kills a militia that enters into the homes of people they are not welcome in the city. So yeah um don't know how the US and Italy are going to squash that one but guess you'll subscribe to the channel and find out very soon once we cover it. Moving on. And lastly, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the world is now closer than it's ever been to destruction. This episode is really quite tragic. Nice positive way to start the year, huh? So, for those who don't know, all the way back in 1947, a group of scientists, including Einstein and Oppenheimer, they decided to create an advocacy group together to annually assess the risks of the world like nuclear war, climate change, and disruptive technologies like AI. Now, they use this clock as a symbol of the likelihood that people are going to do something to end humanity. And as I'm sure you've guessed, when the clock hits midnight, I guess it's over. Death, destruction, war, done. And the thing is, if it's been a good year, it moves back away from midnight. If it's a bad year, like pretty much every single year we've had for a really long time, then it gets closer. I mean, it started at 7 minutes and then two years later, the Soviets did their first nuclear test, dropped down to 3 minutes, went down to 2 minutes after the US tested their hydrogen bomb, went all the way back up to 17 minutes after the end of the Cold War. Hallelujah. We're saved. But then fast forward to 2024, uh, because of the war in Ukraine, nuclear, bio, climate, and AI concerns, that was 90 seconds to midnight. And then this year we've moved to 85 seconds to midnight, closer than ever before. Apparently because Russia, China, and the US and other countries even have become quote increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. The scientists also cited the risk of nuclear war, climate crisis, potential misuse of biotechnology, the increasing use of artificial intelligence without adequate controls. quote, "Hard one global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner takes all power competition and undermining the international cooperation." Now, the bulletin does emphasize that this is not a literal prediction of doom, but rather just a stark warning and a call to action. The group say that the clock could be turned back if the leaders and nations work together to address these existential risks. What an episode. Um 2026 truly does need to chill the hell out. I really hope I can bring you some good news on Friday. In fact, I will make it my priority to bring you some good news. So, make sure you subscribe to the channel because at the very least, at least you're updated. And I will see you on Friday. [music]