Mallen Baker: Faultlines

King Charles spoke to Congress, and then again at President Donald Trump's own banquet. He impressed many with his skilful diplomacy, and also that while keeping the right side of his host he nevertheless was able to touch on a number of the central faultlines that have opened up in US politics and society. Let's go through the key points of what he covered, why it was effective, why it's differen...

The world is changing - especially in the fact that a growing number of world leaders are prepared to speak the truth in public, caring little any more how it will land with that one individual in the White House. The latest evidence is the comments by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said that Iran had humiliated the United States, and was showing great skill in its negotiations that were no...

At the White House Correspondents' Dinner we saw the latest in a growing line of incidents of political violence directed at President Donald Trump and other members of his cabinet. Like previous attempts, this one failed. But each time nonetheless pushes the United States further and further into the sort of polarised mindset you would associate with civil war. Can the country halt the downward s...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday April 24th 2026. A leaked email shows that President Trump is looking for new ways to bully the world, and specifically punish NATO, now that his favourite tariff weapons have been blunted. The US extends the Iran war ceasefire, although Iran hasn’t agreed to do likewise, so what happens next could go completely off script. The Trump administration seem...

The theory, as expounded by Trump's former strategic adviser Steve Bannon, was that the Trump administration could utterly change America by 'flooding the zone' with so many radical actions that the opposition, and the media, would not be able to keep up. But what Bannon and others forgot was that actions have consequences. And a flood of action could mean a veritable tsunami further down the line...

One of the biggest barriers preventing serious work on an Iran negotiated settlement is the fact that the Iranians have so little trust when it comes to President Donald Trump, and the Americans generally under his rule. He has, after all, while proclaiming 'the art of the deal' shown that he will refuse to honour former deals - even ones that he signed. He will change them after the event wheneve...

After a painful year and a quarter of flattering and pleading with Trump to stay the right side of the Ukraine war, the president's obvious predisposition for Putin's Russia, and his constant insulting and erratic behaviour, has finally led to the inevitable. Ukraine has had enough. In the last few days, President Zelensky has been speaking plainly and critically about the Trump administration in...

President Trump thought he was being forceful in declining to drop the blockade on Iran's vessels in the Strait of Hormuz after Iran had declared it open. But now Iran has reminded him that it still is very happy to walk away from a deal if it doesn't suit Iran's interests - and it does so knowing that, for all his bluff and threats, he really can't. So now he is starting to talk about Pakistan as...

The sight of Donald Trump's America throwing everything it has (nearly) at a smaller, but smarter and more determined adversary - this has been a goldmine of data for Xi Jinping's China, as it considers its options with regard to Taiwan. And, of course, it has likewise been crucially important for Taiwan itself - especially since both Trump's Iran war, and the Ukraine war, have been examples of th...

In this news round-up of the week for April 17, 2026: Iran is demonstrating its leverage as the US pushes Israel into a ceasefire with Lebanon, and the Strait of Hormuz is magically open for business. But it's complicated - and not least by Trump's refusal to reciprocate. President Trump continues his other war with the Pope and seems to be losing bigly. As American corporations have been embolden...

Ever since he became president again, Donald Trump has been enthusiastically burning through any goodwill he might have had, or indeed that the United States might have had. But the pace of the destruction has been massive in the last couple of weeks, since the impacts of the Iran war started to be felt, and since Trump announced his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The number of former supporter...

By all accounts, right up until the moment when Viktor Orban gave his concession speech, things were tense in Hungary's election. After 16 years of autocratic rule - would there be a rabbit pulled out of the hat, an attempt to discard the result ... or what? Well, none of the above - just a massive victory for Peter Magyar and the dawn of a new age for the country. Meanwhile, Trump's MAGA movement...

It was all but inevitable that the talks were going to fail - Iran's position, as correctly described in the 10-point list reported publicly (despite the Trump administration's denial) and President Donald Trump's own 15-point list, were so far apart, and with both sides convinced they won, neither was much willing to compromise. But that leaves Trump with a problem, with an unpopular war, a major...

The Trump team of crack negotiators head to Pakistan for talks, but will the Iranians even show up? Anthropic announces its new AI could basically hack all the systems on the planet without breaking a sweat - so they're only releasing it to all the companies who need to learn how to fix those systems fast. Hungary votes this weekend and we'll find out whether Orban's sixteen-year autocracy can sti...

More and more world figures, leaders, commentators, are agreeing in public that the US seems to have lost the Iran war. And that includes oil company executives, horrified that Trump seems to have accepted Iran will remain in control of the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump is clearly not happy about it - he wants to end the war with the world believing he triumphed. And what seems to be pa...

After all the fire and thunder, the deadline came, and it presented mostly as a feeble capitulation to the need for compromise. In spite of all the usual bluster from President Donald Trump and his administration, all the protestations of 'negotiating from strength' and 'the art of the deal', it seems that Iran is predominantly setting the terms of reference for the discussion, and determined to h...

Immediately after celebrating the rescue of a US airman from Iran, Trump launched into a tirade that was extraordinary even for him - where he threatened actions that would count as war crimes against Iran, suggesting they had to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday to avert it. Just another flip-flop then, following his earlier message that he didn't care if the Strait was open or not? Well, ye...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday April 3rd 2026. After Trump's incoherent address to the nation the backlash against his war on Iran is widening, and given voice by a particularly sharp attack by French President Macron. The Pentagon is looking to exploit its existing treaty with Denmark to open three new military bases on Greenland - but that treaty was struck at a time before the US...

The administration of President Donald Trump was quick to cancel USAID. But quietly since then, it has been reinstating some programmes - with a catch. Increasingly, his 'art of the deal' team are demanding that essential aid for HIV sufferers is tied to preferential access to minerals, and a ten year access to health information for all citizens. The 'deals' are egregiously one-sided, assuming th...

Another day, another verbal twist from the President of War. Yes, now Trump is SO furious at all those Europeans who apparently care about international law and war crimes, that he is threatening to pull the United States out of NATO. It's something we've heard before, and generally it's about trying to terrify the Europeans into dancing to President Trump's tune. But it's getting to the point whe...

President Donald Trump, who just yesterday was threatening to commit war crimes against Iran if it didn't open the Strait of Hormuz, is now on whiplash mode again, and is now talking up the prospect of leaving Iran after a bit more bombing, whether the Strait is open or not. Those countries who need that oil, he said, can sort out the mess (that he is single-handedly responsible for) for themselve...

The multi-faceted stream of consciousness from President Donald Trump about what he wants from the Iran war, when and how he might end said war, and more besides continues. Now he is saying straight out that he would like to take Iran's oil - something that would only be possible if the US actually occupied Kharg island, something which most analysts say could only happen at very high cost. So may...

In principle, Palantir is just a company that helps governments to work smarter. In practice, it has embraced the absence of guardrails of the US administration of President Donald Trump, its technology can be used for expanding surveillance, and for making life and death decisions that are extremely in the public eye right now. Its most high profile project has been its support of ICE's mass depo...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday, March 27th 2026. Trump declares that Iran negotiations, which seem mostly to be conducted between the voices in his head, are going very well - meanwhile Iran is solidifying its control of the Strait of Hormuz. Meta and YouTube were found legally liable by a California jury for deliberately addicting users and causing harm to young people. A finding th...

Even though President Trump declared to the world that peace negotiations with Iran were advanced, and seeing agreement on most points of substance - today the US presented Iran with its starting-position 15 point plan. Iran basically shrugged it off, presented its own demands, and repeated that no negotiations have taken place, and Iran is not interested in a ceasefire. The absurd Trump claims wo...