Mallen Baker: Faultlines

In (yet another) moment of the truly surreal, President Trump announced this weekend that he is sending a hospital ship to Greenland to help with all the people getting sick there who are being left untreated. Which is odd, since that's not happening. It seems, on its face, to be the world's clumsiest attempt to curry favour with a people who you've literally just united against you by threatening...

In this news roundup of the week for Friday February 20th 2026. The Supreme Court strikes down President Trump's emergency tariffs in the single biggest setback since he started his second term. We discover exactly why Trump flip-flopped yet again on the UK transferring ownership of the Chagos islands. And Trump makes a dramatic new announcement - about aliens.

Trump's Board of Peace had its first meeting today, and it was pretty much what you would have expected. Lots of praise for Trump, lots of big promises for the great future ahead of Gaza with all the development that will be coming - and relatively little attention to the tricky obstacle that none of it can happen until Hamas agrees to disarm, which they show little inclination to do. And while Tr...

It would be entirely possible for President Trump, or A.N.Other autocrat, to seek to dismantle the guardrails of democracy in their country and all the rest of it, while still keeping a firm grasp of what is, or isn't reality, and dealing with it as needed. But that is not the current way, because Trump is determined to believe only his own version of reality, even when that is massively and easil...

Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke this weekend at the Munich Security Conference, and he made probably the most cogent and professional speech on behalf of the MAGA world view we've heard. Unfortunately, the sentiments it expressed stood in stark contrast to the words of his boss and the actions of the administration - a fact that was not lost on his audience. But the quality of the spe...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday February 13th 2026. As the Epstein Files revelations have continued to appear, the talk has turned to just how far-reaching the so-called Epstein Class has turned out to be - and it's feeding a real push for messaging around the midterm elections. The Trump administration abolishes the basis for most climate regulation in America. And Trump is staring I...

As the Munich Security Conference kicks off this year - the same one that was made famous last year thank's to JD Vance's speech telling Europeans to shape up - NATO is conducting exercises in Greenland. The official story is that this is all about reassuring US President Trump that the country is defended against the nefarious Russians and Chinese. But it is obviously widely understood that it's...

President Trump has attacked Canada again, and this time said that he will prevent the opening of a new bridge between the two countries. And this is ostensibly because of a long list of supposed grievances, up to and including something about China banning ice hockey. But the real story is more prosaic, and one that seems unlikely to go away any time soon. As much to do with the quiet but determi...

Greenland was the pivotal moment. Before then, appeasement was the only game in town. But now, Europeans are increasingly joining Canadians in resisting Trump's America in the ways that are available to them, and governments are frantically seeking to reduce their exposure, and to "derisk" their integration, with the US economy. This is going to take time, but it's worth noting some of the ways th...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday February 6th 2026, President Trump is getting very focused on the mid-term elections. We discuss what that’s likely to mean. And because he likes to share the love, the Trump state department Is allocating pots of cash for subverting European democracy - Or ‘spreading American values’ as they describe it. And bad news if you’re fed up of hearing about T...

Out of all the names that have come out in the latest massive tranche of Epstein files, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, and all the others - not one of them are that of Britain's prime minister Keir Starmer. And yet, right now he is seriously at risk of the scandal sinking his premiership as many of his own MPs turn against him. And it all comes down to his appointm...

In this news round-up of the week for January 30th 2026 - Trump's string of humiliating retreats in recent days continued with this week's abject U-turn on the subject of ICE operations in Minnesota, and the killings there of protestors. The Trump administration also is caught out having meetings with Albertan separatists, looking for support to break up Canada. And the UK risks enraging Trump by...

From the start of his second term, President Trump has been 'flooding the zone' with large numbers of major norm-breaking initiatives. The strategy was intended to overwhelm the opposition, exhaust the watchdogs, to get as much done as possible in the shortest time. The problem with that strategy, especially when so many of the initiatives are frankly misconceived, is that the consequences will ev...

European leaders have become clear post-Greenland crisis that Europe needs to disentangle itself from President Trump's America. But Mark Rutte, Secretary-General of NATO, and most famously the 'Trump-whisperer', has other ideas - arguing that purely on a practical basis, Europe is incapable of defending itself without the central participation of the United States. But does that really hold up -...

The yawning gulf between the claims made by the Trump administration after the shooting of Alex Pretti and the events shown by the video evidence widely seen since, has put the US into a major pivot point. Moreso than after the first event, which could have been dismissed as a one-off, an aberration, now all Americans, including GOP senators, including former presidents, and including an awful lot...

We already knew President Donald Trump was irritated that Canada's Mark Carney's speech got rave reviews at Davos. And that it plainly laid out - in words that other leaders have not been daring to voice out loud - how Trump has changed the world, and what medium powers should be doing collaboratively to deal with it. Now, Trump is venting big time by threatening 100% tariffs against Canada should...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday January 23rd, 2026 - Trump's America has a major armada of military force currently heading for Iran. Trump says it's "just in case", but then similar type messages were made about Venezuela. Mark Carney is disinvited from Trump's Board of Peace, which deprives him of the chance to sit down with autocrats and even war criminals from across the world. An...

So Trump did a complete U-Turn on Greenland, and everything is now all right again. Right? Well, not so fast. Why hasn't this detail been written down, and how can the Trump administration have any trust for the process when, just a week ago, they immediately tried to reframe their discussions with Greenland to their own benefit? The fact is that the process of negotiating an 'off-ramp' deal seems...

The Trump administration has stormed the World Economic Forum at Davos in force - and his senior lieutenants, such as Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent have been ruffling feathers and making waves. Today it was Trump's turn, and on the topic that everyone has been talking about, we saw the start of a climbdown from the reckless rhetoric of threatening the use of the military against Greenland. This...

President Trump told Norway that because - in his mind - the country snubbed him for the Nobel Peace Prize, now he believes he no longer needs to only be about peace. Make of that what you will. Meanwhile, he has been announcing and gathering together his so-called Board of Peace, which already has some eye-catching invitees, and a rapidly expanding remit. Meanwhile, Trump is still refusing to rul...

Yesterday, Trump made good on his threats and announced new tariffs to be levied against eight European countries for daring to defy his wish to annex Greenland against the wishes of its residents and of Denmark, whose territory it currently is. And FINALLY this move seems to have pushed the European leaders to the point where they are now ready to give up on the ever-lasting strategy of seeking t...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday January 16th, 2026: Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado hands her medal to President Trump - and it's as cringeworthy as you would expect. Trump threatens punitive action against the countries standing up for Greenland, even as US lawmakers are drawing a line. More consequences of Trump's policies become visible, as Canada's Mark Carney agrees...

He was a highly influential Trump endorser in the election - but he has been critical several times since the Trump administration took office. And this week, in his most forthright commentary yet, even comparing ICE officers to the Nazi Gestapo. This is just a side-note, of course, to the massive chorus of concern that President Trump's souped up immigration police is morphing before our eyes int...

Staring directly in the face of the End Of NATO, the European NATO countries, along with Denmark and Greenland, have come up with their best version of an off-ramp - a solution that would enable President Trump to claim a win, while still keeping Greenland's territorial integrity intact, and the NATO alliance, at least in name. But Trump dashed all hopes with new contributions that made it clear h...

Over the weekend, we heard that Trump had instructed options to be drawn up for taking Greenland through military action. Also, the European NATO members discussed what could be done to fend this off. And the proposal was made that they should send their own military forces to Greenland as soon as possible. But the reason they said they were doing this is certainly not the actual reason. Let's dis...