So the President Trump's United States just dropped a bunch of its 'bunker buster' bombs on the nuclear enrichment sites in Iran. Technically, that means it has joined the war between Iran and Israel. But it all depends on what happens next - because neither Trump nor Iran has an interest in taking each other on in a long drawn-out conflict. That said, even if it ends quickly (no guarantee), Trump has crossed a line that has a bunch of consequences built in. Let's discuss.

The Trump Administration's trademark abrupt bullying has just led to key regional ally Japan cancelling an annual security summit. Between America's sudden unreliable ally status, and its assault on Japan's economy via tariffs, it is now quickly re-evaluating its options. Just as all that is happening, the US has woken up with a start to not one, but two ways they might be directly threatened by China that they hadn't seen coming. Not exactly the best time to be losing allies left, right and centre you might think.

You read that right - The Fordow nuclear enrichment site in Iran, located as it is beneath a mountain, is considered by some in the Pentagon to be so hard to reach, that even America's famed 'bunker-buster' might not get the job done. In which case, the only conceivable alternative - well, it would cross a red line that the world has been observing without fail for eighty years. And yet we know that President Trump loves nothing more than ignoring other people's red lines. But would he seriously consider this one? According to the White House, nothing is off the table. Let's discuss.

New research by the Pew Research Centre has looked at worldwide attitudes to President Trump, and as a consequence Trump's America. Some of it won't be hugely surprising - yes, with the exception of five countries in the sample, Trump is viewed negatively. But some of the results are less intuitive, some are downright bizarre. And many of them tell a story about how we see the world, and what we're looking for in a time of conflict. Let's discuss.

The G7 Summit of 2025 may come to represent the last gasp of the old rules-based world order, condemned to impotence and irrelevance as President Trump pondered whether to enter the war with Iran, and showed the shift symbolically be leaving the summit half way through. But there's a lot at stake in just how Trump's new 'might-makes-right' world order gets shaped - and an early taste of the glory of military victory might be extremely bad for what comes next. Let's discuss.

The most frequent setbacks to the Trump Administration have been in the courts, up to and including the Supreme Court with its Trump-appointed judges - as things it seeks to do are found to be illegal. Of course, this has been met with Trump bluster - lots of name calling and probably empty threats to do with impeachment. But the authoritarian playbook has plenty of history for how such issues get dealt with - and now Trump is making a move that firmly follows exactly that guide. And if this line gets crossed, America should know that the floodgates are truly open towards a different sort of society. Let's discuss.

The G7 summit is under way in Canada, and the biggest agenda item by far is the war between Israel and Iran. Almost certainly, nothing said or done there will make the slightest difference. Since Russia's war on Ukraine showed up the brutal logic of nuclear-armed power, the entire world has shifted in ways that weren't first apparent. And that means that Israel will stop at nothing to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons - and this conflict likely will just be the first of its kind. Let's discuss.

This weekend, we saw the tragic eruption once again of political violence in America. Unfortunately, this is just the extreme end of a growing wave of threats, intimidation and occasionally worse that is hitting public officials at all levels. While America has gone through waves of more and less violent periods in its recent past, this wave is distinctive, and it is very much coming as part and parcel of a new authoritarian moment. Such times call for clear heads and careful analysis, so let's make a start.

Something happened almost, but not quite, unnoticed. Trump admitted that his administration's approach to its mass deportation project was having a major consequence - and the policy on illegal immigration has been quietly changed as a result. That in itself is quite interesting - but it actually reflects a solid reason why Trump's authoritarian experiment can only ever go so far before it hits similar roadblocks. And while his populist playbook is highly effective, it gives hints as to how it can perhaps be countered in the future. Worth discussing anyway.

Israel has transformed the world geopolitical stage again by launching a direct and sustained assault on Iran. It wrongfooted President Trump by doing so in open defiance of his wishes, and it has presented him with a massive dilemma. Because the president who is both Israel's staunch ally AND the president who promised not to get involved in foreign wars, is now caught on the edge of events he can't control. The day before he's due to strut in front of the largest and most powerful army in the world, the question really is what does that even mean in an era when 'big history' has returned with a vengeance? Let's discuss.