Mallen Baker: Faultlines

For the last couple of years, it has looked a foregone conclusion that Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party was going to go down in flames at the next election, and Trump-aligned Pierre Poilievre would rise in his place, bringing the MAGA revolution north of the border. But Trump's jibes, his threats of 25% tariffs and his desire that Canada should become the 51st state, have thrown all the normal polit...

Ukraine has negotiated a form of Trump's critical minerals deal that it is prepared to sign. We haven't seen it yet, but it's clear that it has been nudged just over the line with the removal of the most egregious demands, rather than sailing triumphantly over the line as a well-crafted vehicle for mutual benefit. The truth is that the mere fact of this deal taking place has now changed the dynami...

For the last few weeks, all we've been hearing about has been Doge! According to some, it's slashing through government bureaucracy spectacularly laying waste to fraud and mismanagement. According to others, it's thrashing about randomly causing immense damage to everything it touches. But there are signs growing that maybe it has over-reached, and the pushback isn't coming from the political oppo...

Germany elected a new government yesterday, and the new chancellor led off with his ambition to make Europe and Germany independent of America. As if to highlight this, the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine was marked by various European leaders (and Canada) travelling to Kyiv. The US was not present. And also at the same time, a fight is raging at the UN over different versions of Ukraine re...

February 24th is the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and - as with the previous years, Ukraine and co-sponsors has put a motion to be voted on by the UN general assembly condemning Russia's actions and abuses of human rights, and calling for Ukraine's territorial sovereignty to be upheld. This year, underlining again the complete change in stance, the US administration, under presiden...

Zelensky's refusal to sign an apparently absurdly one-sided deal where Ukraine hands over half of the value of its resources for nothing in return from the USA, has led to pressure being applied. Previously, it was pressure in the form of Trump apparently gearing up to give Putin everything he wants, and at the same time labelling Zelensky "a dictator". Now, it has moved on to the direct threat th...

Trump's demand for total loyalty while also making statements such as 'Ukraine started the war' and 'Zelensky is a dictator' is dividing his natural support base. Some are dancing one hundred percent to his tune. Others are, to varying degrees, either pushing back or finding other ways to try to keep some semblance of integrity. Figures such as Ben Shapiro, Konstantin Kisin, Niall Ferguson are all...

The mere word 'disinformation' has become controversial in the modern culture wars - which is great news for the hostile states who actually use disinformation as a tool of 'war by other means'. In this video, we talk about how the KGB perfected the craft of disinformation, how modern Russian usage differs from the Soviet form, and how the end goal that was always identified for these 'active meas...

This week, Putin and Russian commentators were delighted, and Ukraine and Western ones were distraught, when Trump announced that he had a long call with Vladimir Putin, and they would be meeting soon to begin negotiating for peace in Ukraine. As he did so, he seemed to be making numerous concessions to Putin, even before the talks had begun. How could this make sense, various media commentators h...

China has its sights on reunification with China - what people don't realise is how much progress it has been making over the last year in the direction of satisfying that goal. How has their thinking been affected by the advent of the second Trump term at the White House? Not necessarily in the way you might think. Let's discuss.

When Trump announced his extraordinary vision for the future of the Gaza Strip, many dismissed it as just a madcap idea. But while the enormity of what it would represent has been sinking in, a number of people have started to see how this fits into a negotiating model for the current state of play, based on some of the presumptions that made the Abraham Accords successful. That said, it's a big s...

President Trump has bashed America's close allies Canada and Mexico in return for stuff they were already doing anyway. He has threatened the EU with likewise, and pummelled Colombia into instant submission. And that's before he decides whether he wants to invade Greenland for real. What we're seeing is the abandonment of any valuing of what was termed 'American soft power' in exchange for the har...

At Reagan National Airport in Washington DC, we have seen a major tragedy with the mid-air collision of a passenger airliner and a military helicopter. Almost immediately, the public space has been awash with a blame game. Trump kicked it off, but the mainstream media chose to make his DEI comments the main story. Others hit back, saying the crash was Trump's fault for actions taken in his first w...

The Chinese company DeepThink has just released its latest AI large language model - and it has caused a massive reaction. It runs rings around the American AI models for how cheaply and efficiently it is produced and trained, while matching those models for performance. The implications have seen tech stocks plunging today, with Nvidia, the main AI chipmaker, leading the fall. While it sounds lik...

In his first week back as president of the United States, Donald Trump started making significant noises on the Ukraine war, and his opening pitch could certainly not be described as good news for Vladimir Putin. But does it even matter? Putin has waited out Biden, has endured everything Europe could throw at him - what does Trump even have left at his disposal? Well, it turns out a lot more than...

You hear it often - the mainstream media lies. You can't trust them. But the fact is that - in volume terms - they do so only very occasionally. It's just that in tends to be in dealing with the most important and consequential content when they do. Maybe 5% of the volume, but 50% of the impact. What are the different ways that the media tends to lie, either by intent or simply as a consequence of...

Reports came out on Sunday that the former advisor to the prime minister and Brexit campaign supremo Dominic Cummings has been in discussion with Elon Musk about how to get rid of Keir Starmer before the next scheduled election. But, knowing what we know, it's likely this isn't the sole, possibly even the main, point. More likely, it's Dominic Cummings' plan for a new populist party of technocrats...

In a press conference this week, president-elect Trump said that he wanted to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal - not ruling out the use of military force to do so. Oh, and Canada, but limiting himself to economic force for that job. All of it matters, but Greenland is probably the point of geopolitical tension and change that matters the most. Trump has been clearer and bolder than h...

Elon Musk has been ... busy. Attacking Keir Starmer and his government in the UK, whilst praising Tommy Robinson and calling for him to be released from jail. And attacking Olaf Scholz, and calling for Germany's controversial AfD party to be elected instead. And attacking various MAGA figures over immigration, provoking an attack from Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer and support ... for now ... from...

This channel has always had a perspective, but it has been something of a blank page - always looking at whatever seems important that has come into view. But it's time for that to change - for the channel to become more focused on the biggest themes that come through these videos time and time again. Let's discuss.

Looking forward to 2025 - there's no doubt it is going to be the year of Trump. But not only that, it's going to be the year of peak Trump. With every year that follows, his power to achieve his domestic agenda starts to erode. He will still be operating big on the world stage, although the other players will be developing strategies to deal with him. So the question is - will he hit the ground ru...

In the last week, there has been much comment on the astonishing internet response to the murderer of CEO Brian Thompson. Large numbers of people have expressed support and admiration for the action, have heralded Mangioni as a folk hero, and used the incident to air their grievances about American health insurance companies. In this video, I talk about how this is another step in the ongoing norm...

This week, Keir Starmer made a keynote speech laying out his six milestones for how the Labour government should, in his view, be judged at the next election. It's not the first time since taking office he has launched a set of campaign promises, but it's the most significant time for doing so as talk is rife about how Elon Musk and Nigel Farage could be in line to completely upend British politic...

Lots of groups in these polarised times get accused by their opponents of 'being in a cult'. And sometimes, actually quite often, they have a point. But beware, because half the time while you're pointing to someone else's cultish behaviour, you might be ignoring the self-same telltale signs in your own. So what are the aspects of actual real-life cults that many people have now embraced for thems...

The UK Parliament today debated a groundbreaking assisted death bill that could reshape how we approach end-of-life care. The Labour Party has brought forward legislation that would introduce new palliative care options for terminally ill adults, while ensuring strict safeguards around euthanasia and human rights protections. It's one of those huge moral questions. Let's discuss.