Watching the Storm from Outside the United States

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 6, 2026

Every once in a while, the analytics quietly show something interesting.

Someone in Canada has been reading.

Sometimes it’s one reader. Sometimes a few more. But when that happens, I stop for a moment, because it means someone outside the United States is paying attention to what is happening inside it.

That matters.

Because the work at WPS News is written from a very unusual vantage point. I’m an American by birth, but I write from outside the United States. I live here in the Philippines, where the distance provides a clearer view of how American decisions ripple through the rest of the world.

And in a strange way, that distance also explains why I’m here.

I didn’t leave the United States because of the chaos we see today. I left before it fully arrived. I moved here for love and for political reasons, both of which shaped the life I built in the Philippines.

My wife has since passed on, which is a loss that never quite leaves you. But the political reasons that pushed me to step outside the United States remain as relevant as ever.

Some of us could see where things were heading.

Not because we were prophets or geniuses, but because history has a habit of repeating its patterns for anyone willing to look closely. When democratic institutions begin to erode, when media systems collapse into noise, and when political movements start redefining truth itself, the warning signs become hard to ignore.

The storm clouds were already there.

Living outside the United States now means I watch those developments the same way the rest of the world does. Not as a partisan spectator and not as someone obligated to defend the country at all costs, but as an observer documenting what is happening and how it affects the wider world.

When Washington shifts course, the consequences rarely stay inside American borders.

Canada feels it. Mexico feels it. Europe feels it. Asia feels it.

That is part of the reason WPS News exists.

The internet already has plenty of shouting. It has speculation, rumors, and endless opinion cycles designed to produce attention rather than understanding.

This publication tries to do something quieter.

We slow down. We verify information. And sometimes we simply say, “we don’t know yet,” until the facts become clear. That may not be the fastest approach, but it is the most reliable one.

My background is in telecommunications and radio broadcasting, which is where I first learned the discipline of journalism. In that world, accuracy mattered more than speed. If you broadcast the wrong information, people could act on it.

That lesson sticks with you.

So if someone in Canada or Mexico stumbles across WPS News, the invitation is simple: take a look around. The goal here is not to tell people what to think, and it is certainly not to defend the actions of governments.

The goal is to keep a careful record of what is actually happening.

A quiet archive of the moment we are all living through.

And sometimes, from the outside looking in, the patterns become a little easier to see.

For readers in Canada, Mexico, or anywhere else who have found their way here—welcome. Your time and attention are appreciated more than you probably realize.

Even in the middle of the internet’s noise, careful readers still make the work worthwhile.

For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com