Mallen Baker: Faultlines

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...

The election in Hungary is getting closer - and we've been seeing all the things we knew were coming - Trump's endorsement of Viktor Orban, related to CPAC Hungary conference. Other far-right figures from across Europe turning up to give their support. Reams of Russian disinformation on social media. And ... wait, a false flag assassination attempt? Well, evidence has emerged that the idea was flo...

President Donald Trump has form in claiming that he is in active negotiations with other leaders, or with countries, when the other parties deny any such thing is happening, and it turns out that they were right. So it's somewhat surreal to find him making exactly that sort of claim about the Iranian leadership, when there is precisely nothing you would expect could be achieved by doing so. Except...

In the course of 24 hours, President Donald Trump went from saying that he was looking at 'winding down' the Iran war, to issuing threats to escalate the crisis should Iran refuse to completely open up the Strait of Hormuz. Such massive whiplash on positions suggest that he is getting increasingly agitated about his options, and is looking around - and testing out publicly - the course of action t...

In this news round-up for March 20th 2026: Iran's strike on Qatar has triggered what energy analysts are calling an "Armageddon scenario" for global gas markets — and Trump's denial that the US knew about the Israeli attack that provoked it lacks credibility. President Trump invoked Pearl Harbor during the latest Oval Office struggle session, this time with Japan's prime minister Takaichi. Then pr...

According to one of his best allies in the Senate, President Donald Trump is more furiously angry about having none of America's allies agree to join it dealing with the consequences of his illegal war on Iran, than he's ever been seen. How did we reach this moment? From the time when the consensus seemed to be to flatter and appease Trump, to the point where former allies of the United States are...

In the last few days, the administration of President Donald Trump has been going hard after the media - any journals or networks that have reported the slightest bad news about Trump's Iran war have been getting schooled on being more patriotic. That could just be so much business as usual - except that the FCC Chair Brendan Carr has pitched in to suggest that 'fake news' about the war would be r...

President Trump told NATO allies, as well as countries like Japan, South Korea and even main geopolitical rival China, that they must send warships to help open the Strait of Hormuz - or else. This would be bad for NATO. He would delay his planned visit to Beijing to meet with Xi Jinping. And so far, having spent the last year being insulted, threatened, tariffed and bullied - all of those countri...

It's not a secret that Elon Musk's xAI platform, Grok, is not entirely like other AI models. Specifically, he has gone to great lengths to ensure it absorbs his ethos and "anti-woke" mindset, even as he has been promising it would overtake all the other models any day soon. However, it seems not all has been well in xAI - and Musk has been clearing out the old guard, firing people all over, and ta...

In this news round-up of the week for Friday March 13th 2026. Pentagon insiders reveal that Trump's war on Iran has burned through years of critical munitions in two weeks of his illegal war on Iran. And this could seriously weaken the US in dangerous times. As the Pentagon tries to isolate and damage AI company Anthropic for ethical restrictions on what its system will do, Microsoft has stepped o...

The alarm bells across the world are really starting to sound loudly now, as the short-term effects on the cost and availability of energy and fertiliser is hitting the citizens of countries across the world. President Donald Trump's war of choice with Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz. He has proven unable to reopen it, and the future consequences if this remains the case for an extended perio...