To mark the start of 2026, and also the milestone of 150k subscribers for this channel, a Q&A, where we cover Trump, Venezuela, Europe, Greenland, economic collapse, and a great deal more besides. Also, I recount the moment where I nearly died in Washington DC. Seriously.

Trump enjoyed his most dramatic "success" at the start of the year, with his military's flawless operation to grab Nicolas Maduro, and to extort Venezuela into giving the US exclusive access to its oil resources. He promised big as a result - American oil companies would now invest $100 billion into Venezuela's crumbling oil infrastructure to bring it back up to peak productivity. But in a major humiliation to arguably his biggest achievement so far, the oil companies are turning him down. It turns out that Trump's promises are not something they feel they can take to the bank. Even an industry used to managing risk finds President Trump plain too risky. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday January 9th, 2025. The US takes another step towards normalising political violence with the shooting of a woman by ICE in Minneapolis. President Trump declares that it might well be that he has to choose between taking Greenland and keeping NATO intact. Elon Musk’s Twitter is on the verge of being banned from the United Kingdom, and maybe the European Union. And the White House launches a new website with its own version of recent history - that is as bad as you might expect.

Since the operation against Nicolas Maduro, the Trump Administration has been in bullish mood about its ability to use military power to get anything it wants around the world. And one of the most commonly mentioned targets in the last few days has been Greenland. They assume that the US has such overwhelming force, nobody would try to stop an armed invasion. But Denmark is a member of NATO, and the pledge is that an attack on one is an attack on all. So will European NATO members actually fight for Greenland should it come to it? Let's discuss.

Two things we've learned in the last couple of days. One - the Trump administration officially could not care less about international law, at least - if it should ever prove to be a constraint on them doing exactly what they want to do. And two - for all that MAGA social media posts have been bigging up the initial celebration of Venezuelans at Maduro's downfall, Trump actually is just fine with an authoritarian regime staying in place, just with someone different at the head of it. So all those people who initially celebrated are now feeling crushing disappointment, and the ones actually living in Caracas are hiding from the armed militia crackdown. Let's discuss.

So the plan to oust Nicolas Madura resulted in an attack, during which the dictator and his wife were seized and transported to the United States. This is an undoubted breach of international law, but Trump and MAGA don't care about that. It also broke the rules of the United States, but nobody seems inclined to enforce those. Nevertheless, this isn't just another mad President Trump moment - this has pushed Trump, the bully who used tariffs to put extreme pressure on other countries - across the line into the use of military force to do likewise. This makes it highly likely more will follow. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for January 2nd 2026, President Trump threatens military action against Iran, as the regime there tries to cope with mass protests. Global warming is already hitting Southern Europe so hard that growers there are having to give up traditional crops such as citrus fruit. Elon Musk makes a shocking observation about the state of government that someone really ought to do something about. And the people that took Russian money to fund MAGA Influencers have been allowed back into the US - because foreign interference is just fine so long as it’s Vladimir Putin.

What are the three basic values and processes of democratic systems that we are most in danger of losing - both in Trump's United States and much of Europe, and elsewhere in the world? And - having identified what makes a healthy democracy work, how can we halt the process of democratic decline that we see all around us? In other words, how can we make 2026 the beginning of the fightback for democracy against autocracy? Well, let's discuss.

The New Year is upon us - a time for new beginnings! But for President Trump, the early days of 2026 could see the Supreme Court ruling on the legality of his tariffs - and to all appearances the merits of the case are overwhelmingly against him. Should the justices rule accordingly, the tariff Plan B will be invoked - and the administration will pretend it's all okay, but it will have defanged Trump by removing his most powerful and arbitrary weapon. Let's discuss.

In the first half of 2025, the massive investment in Artificial Intelligence data centres was by far the largest part of the economic growth that the US economy registered. This reflects a breathtaking scale of activity. But every action has an equal and opposite reaction - and communities across the United States, across the political divide, are starting to vigorously protest all these new energy-hungry data centres. And that presents a particular problem for Trump, allied as he is to the tech billionaires. Let's discuss.