One of the key guarantees against authoritarian rule in the United States is the independence of a number of key institutions, especially the judiciary, but also academia, the press, and legislators. We know that President Trump is keen to maximise executive power - but is it simply a case of testing the boundaries and pushing them as far as they w…

A new report about the state of democracy in the world makes for sobering reading. But the most striking thing about it is that it adds additional content to note that, since the date of the report deadline, the first weeks of the Trump Administration have seen the US autocratising - becoming more autocratic and less democratic - is happening at a …

So President Trump finally held his call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. And for all his advance pronouncements that they would be carving up the assets of Ukraine in this call, it seems as though they got nowhere close. Instead, as the read-outs show, Putin agreed to nothing that Trump wanted him to do - at least with regard to Ukraine - a…

The Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has announced an end to her party's support for the previously consensus climate change policy target of net zero by 2050. In a speech that has created shockwaves through the UK parliamentary system, she said that the target was impossible to achieve, and policy debate would be better served by being real…

President Trump and President Putin have a direct call scheduled to take place tomorrow (Tuesday 18th Mar). In talking about it, Trump said that part of the discussion would cover the division of assets, including land and energy infrastructure. This, along with several other indicators that have emerged today, suggest that Trump remains of a mind …

The awkward pause continues, with Russia's President Putin keeping the world, and specifically President Trump, waiting and guessing about his ultimate response to the Ukraine ceasefire proposal. But while Trump continues to talk the process up, almost unnoticed signs are emerging that Putin is preparing his population for the contingency that it's…

Nobody has been so embedded with the Trump operation as Elon Musk has been over the last couple of months. And it's fair to say he's been everywhere - every government department, all over social media, in the faces of various world leaders and other figures. Energetic, rude, abrasive, headline grabbing. But his popularity has plunged. His business…

Putin has said he accepts Trump's unconditional ceasefire agreement ... with some conditions. In this video, we look at the game of chess that's being played out, the complementary objectives Putin is trying to achieve, while seeking to manage the unpredictability and thin skin of the US president. And why Ukraine is worried, and probably should be…

Trump had a dream of the Gaza Riviera, where the Palestinians had been cleared from their own country and resettled in neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, leaving a redeveloped paradise for the beautiful people to enjoy. Unsurprisingly, the Arab states were not on board with this vision, and so Egypt has delivered its very own plan. The Arab states have…

So the US - Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia conclude with a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. A full ceasefire, not the partial one the Ukrainians had initially wanted. Why is the distinction between the partial and total ceasefire important - and how did the Ukrainians manage to get a clause inserted that potentially side-steps the trap that Russia a…

Various people have been asking if the radical new type of government the US has found itself with - undoubtedly more authoritarian by instinct than previous incumbents - should be labelled with one of the big ugly words of history - fascism. Various people do - but in this video we highlight exactly what that label describes, why it shouldn't be d…

The US-Ukraine talks begin tomorrow in Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine at least will find out then just how ruthless the US intends to be in threatening to let Putin overrun their country unless they agree to cede territory to him in the negotiations. Ukraine is going still with an agenda that assumes there will be a process where someone meets them half…

I've had a couple of YouTube comments recently asking if the slightly different tone of videos in the last few weeks means that the non-partisan position of the channel has been put aside. In other words, am I now 'off the fence' - at least when it comes to Donald Trump? This doesn't quite catch the whole point of non-partisanship as practiced on t…

When he first said it, everyone thought he was joking. It was a joke that Canadians found insulting, but even so. But then in subsequent discussions, Canadian prime minister Trudeau and his officials found that Trump was getting very specifically detailed in the treaties and historical agreements that defined Canada's border - documents he feels ca…

The current European leaders, along with the NATO Secretary General, are all agreed that NATO remains solid, the United States partnership likewise, the mutual defence promise at the heart of the Treaty has the full commitment of President Trump. And we all know that they don't believe that at all. They say it because they hope that they can buy ti…

Today it was revealed that senior members of the Trump administration have been talking to the political opposition in Ukraine, seeking to find who would be the alternative leader to Zelensky who would be more palatable to Vladimir Putin, and who would embrace America's help to get them elected? This is all in line with the plan we know the US and …

Zelensky has sent the letter to president Trump that was demanded - agreeing to sign the one-sided minerals deal, to put himself 'under Trump's strong leadership' and to agree to an early ceasefire. This is what Ukraine's European allies, such as Keir Starmer from Britain, and Emmanuel Macron from France, have urged him to do. But it's a trap. He k…

In spite of Europe's hopes that somehow there would be a path to keeping Trump onside with supporting Ukraine, the inevitability of the dashing of those hopes is now plain to see. Trump has pulled military support for Ukraine - including weapons that were agreed before he came to office that were literally in the process of being delivered. The int…

Europe and Ukraine's desperate plan is to win back Trump to the cause of supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. But while they work on the details of that, the US is relaxing more of its measures against Russia and signalling a ramping up of the normalisation of relations. The Kremlin is delighted - and a Putin Trump summit is now be…

Europe has been regrouping with president Zelensky and trying to come to terms with the fallout from the massive meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday. And British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is primed to act as a key facilitator to bring Ukraine and the US together - putting together an alternative peace plan that Trump can support, which will hav…

Macron and Starmer had had visits to the White House that had been described as triumphs, simply because they avoided humiliation. In other words, they avoided exactly what then happened with President Zelensky at the end of the week. But he had a much harder job than they did - they had been able to fail on Ukraine gracefully, but he did not have …

We are being told that UK prime minister Keir Starmer's visit to Trump in the White House was a 'triumph'. On one level - that of managing a potential unpredictable encounter that could have spiralled off into embarrassment at any point - I suppose it was. But in terms of the real meat of the discussion - the clash between the new Trump 'might-make…

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 becom…

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…

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…

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 ragi…

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 chang…

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 dicta…

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…

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…

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 c…

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 A…

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 te…

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 …

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 A…

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…

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 l…

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 Cumm…

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 …

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 …

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 h…

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 …

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 co…

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 …

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…

We know the story - China is dominating the EV industry with its remarkable and cheap cars which the Western bloated manufacturers simply can't compete with. But of course, there's a lot more going on than that. In China, most of those companies are losing money hand over fist, trying to get enough market share so they can be one of the handful lef…

In the UK, farmers are protesting in a way they haven't in recent times. They are furious about proposed inheritance tax changes to be brought in by the Labour government. The government claims the changes will only affect a tiny minority. The national farmers union claim they have got their numbers wildly wrong. Who's right - and is there a better…

One of the regular topics of discussion in the media in the US recently has been how polarised and divided the country has become, even to the extent where there is regularly speculation about what a new civil war would actually look like, if things continued to worsen. How did America get here? How did it end up with two parties of extremes circli…