In this news round-up of the week for Friday June 5th, 2026: In an interview with CNN, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader confirms some of the detail of the deadlocked talks with Trump that he's not been admitting. Marco Rubio sets off ripples of concern over Greenland, and NATO, even as the US ambassador to the EU is trying, somewhat feebly, to dismiss them. And Trump has found a new front for slapping tariffs on the rest of the world - and it rests upon a key platform within - um - the ESG movement. Possibly he hasn't noticed that part. Let's discuss.

Congress just passed a motion to restrict President Trump's Iran war powers - something that is a significant embarrassment as he struggles to get a peace deal with the other side. And the Gulf state of Oman is refusing to be cowed by his threat to bomb them if they go ahead with doing a deal with Iran on the Strait of Hormuz. And Israel continues to bomb Hezbollah in spite of Trump's instructions that they should not, because it jeopardises everything else he's trying to achieve. There is just one silver lining, but it's one that Trump is unlikely to appreciate ... let's discuss.

One day after another, it seems that not much is going right for the administration of President Donald Trump. The Iran war is the big quagmire, of course. But increasingly, all those other things that got pushed in - they are hitting a wall. Like Trump's massive slush fund for supporters. And the renaming of the Kennedy Centre and its reshaping around Trump's wishes. And the America 250 celebrations, which have turned into total fiasco. According to Politico, this is now an exhausted operation stuck in a mess of its own making. Let's discuss.

Ignore all the blather about the 'Art of the Deal' - why is Donald Trump in real life actually such a terrible dealmaker? And if that's the case, how did he establish a reputation for being good in business, to the extent where in 2016 a majority of the American public believed it to be true? In this video we look at the key aspects that the professionals say makes for a good negotiator, and observe how Trump fails on all of them. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday May 29th 2026 - President Trump is touting how close the US and Iran now are to the final deal. Well, let's not get too excited. A Russian drone injures two in NATO alliance member Romania and it highlights how difficult responding to grey area provocations by Putin is going to be. And the last month - and the coming year - are likely to see outlier hot weather thanks to climate change and an unusually strong El Nino - so why was Trump saying it had just all been proven to be wrong?

The US needs all the allies it can get amongst the gulf states, you would think. And yet yesterday, President Donald Trump casually threatened to bomb one of the most longstanding ones - Oman - if they dared to do some sort of deal with Iran over managing traffic that traverses the Strait of Hormuz. Add to that the lack of momentum and energy that represents Trump's previous initiative, the Board of Peace - and the Gaza problem it was supposed to resolve. And add to that the fact that both Ukraine and Russia have concluded that, should negotiations between them start up in a more serious tone, the US is NOT the mediating partner they want. It seems that the entire world is increasingly turning away from the spectacle of Trump, as it seeks serious partners and equally serious ways forward to address their all-too-serious problems. Let's discuss.

One minute, President Donald Trump is breathlessly announcing to the world that a deal is on the verge of being signed - the next he is in full pace retreat as the details begin to leak out, and so many people conclude that it is an incredibly weak deal for the United States. So having thought he was about to escape his predicament, he is right back in the mess. As a result, the US attacked Iranian operations. Trump attacked the media. None of it is getting him out of a trap very much of his own making. Let's discuss.

Artificial Intelligence is, by its very nature, a transformative technology. But right now, it seems to be being driven by characters who are happy to set themselves up in messianic roles, to embrace the idea of creative destruction without regard for who and what gets destroyed. It's the sort of situation where smart, enlightened government might take a part. Not so, says President Donald Trump. Maybe yes so, says Pope Leo. It's a serious subject, to be considered carefully, so let's discuss.

After numerous false signals where President Donald Trump would claim a deal was close, only to see Iran deny any such thing - it seems as though all parties are now suggesting that there has been movement, and maybe - just maybe - a deal could be done. According to reporting, the shape of such a deal seems remarkably based on Iranian proposals that Trump dismissed out of hand just weeks ago. So it seems as though the version of what finally gets signed is going to be a lot closer to the "US surrender" version and less like the "total Iran capitulation" version - which makes sense based on the dynamics so far. But can the US under narcissist Trump really bring itself to sign such a thing? Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday May 22nd, 2026: President Trump is ratcheting up the rhetoric and moving the pieces in place for an apparent attack of some sort on Cuba. His own party's lawmakers are in revolt about his latest scheme to hand out approaching two billion dollars of cash to anyone who supported him so much they were prepared to break the law for it. And following Trump's summit last week with Xi Jinping, his place was taken this week by Vladimir Putin, and the language on how they see the world was notably different.