Advertise on podcast: Mallen Baker: Faultlines

Two things are going to explode after the mid-term elections have finally taken place - assuming that the results are anything like what the polls are predicting. One - President Donald Trump will launch a wide array of attempts to block, deny, obfuscate and overturn the result. And two - Trump administration members will escalate a period of savage infighting that, to all reports, has already started. What will emerge as the outcome of all that is as uncertain as it was when the Trump rioters were starting their attempt to break into the Capitol Building. Let's discuss.

The weekend saw an intensity of rioting that shocked even a French public that is very used to street protests as a way of life. President Donald Trump said that it was all about immigration - but then that's what he says about any problem on the continent of Europe. The reality is that it's a combination of popular discontent, a hard crash of public expectations versus massive government debt, and also the deliberate stoking of the fires by malign external forces. All those factors are influencing most European countries right now - arguably France is just the canary in the coal mine. Let's discuss.

Two stories show how the imperial Trump presidency is going to continue to shake the world over the next two years, regardless of what happens in the coming mid-term elections. One - his attack on Europe for working to reduce its dependency on the US. He wants to use leverage as a weapon, and he will fight hard to prevent his victims from reducing his leverage. And two - his wish to achieve a grand deal with his chosen peer group - Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping - to foist a settlement on Ukraine without its involvement, and where it is left with only deeply unpalatable options. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday October 16th 2026: President Trump responds to Ukraine's defiance of his demand for them to stop bombing Russian oil - and it's rather tame. For now; Indications are growing that corporate CEOs are gearing up for the moment where they can declare to the world that they never supported Trump, and they just wanted to get back to business as usual; India is seeing a major citizens movement pushing back against an extraordinary move to purge the voting rolls, in a manner Donald Trump could likely only dream of; And Albertans are about to go to the polls to decide whether to consider the province leaving Canada.

President Donald Trump came out this week as an agent of Putin's Russia, and adversary of Ukraine, and did so while demanding that Ukraine stop hitting Russian oil refineries. If it didn't, the US would likely withdraw all support. And it paused support for long enough to show what that would feel like. President Zelensky and Ukraine stared that possibility in the face - and went back to bombing refineries anyway. And he gave a frank interview where he plainly and simply spoke the truth about the current situation, causing panic in places you would least hope to see it. Let's discuss.

Having threatened dire consequences if Ukraine didn't agree to President Donald Trump's demand that they stop attacked Russian oil refineries, over the last couple of days we've seen signs that those threats have turned into some action - maybe just temporary, to demonstrate to the Ukrainians what they stand to lose - maybe the beginning of a permanent withdrawal. This development, following Trump's breathtaking diesel deal with President Putin, lays out the US / Russia alliance in the starkest possible detail. What will Ukraine and its allies do about it? Let's discuss.

The top military leader of NATO just openly explained the alliance's strategy for dealing with possible Russian incursions into the territory of a NATO member. It's a construct that has obviously been carefully put together - but maybe not solely as the best military strategy for dealing with Putin. More like, the most that could have the faintest chance of sticking given that squatting at the heart of the alliance is one President Donald Trump. Let's discuss.

Following his shock deal with Russia on diesel, President Donald Trump followed up by making it starkly clear that he is going to use that deal to try to force Ukraine to give up its most powerful weapon against Russia. Ostensibly, it's to lower world diesel prices (which it won't) and it serves the convenient purpose of seeking to deflect blame for high gas prices from Trump's war on Iran. But longer term, it all seems to be about forcing Ukraine to blunt it's attacks, or else give up the last vestiges of US support. Both choices leave Ukraine weaker than before - but just one will force the former allies of the US to make a stand. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday October 9th 2026. President Trump acts tough on Iran, but can't cover the fact that the US has been mostly running away from them in the last couple of weeks. The US finds itself similarly in retreat over the one-sided deals it tried to force African countries into in return for health aid. And the protests in France this week highlight the huge crisis that is coming for the entire developed world if it doesn't pay attention and bit the bullet earlier rather than later.

The polls continue to give worse and worse news for Trump and the GOP over the coming mid-term elections, and now the signs are all over the place that panic is setting in. This involves President Trump posting constantly on social media, firing off in all directions, picking absurd fights, focusing on everything except the issues that seem to matter most for Americans. But in the course of all the thrashing about, there are signs that desperation is also taking a potential darker turn. Let's discuss.

One woman died from an unspecified illness in Russia - which wouldn't be a point of concern except that she worked in a laboratory that deals with the plague, and post-Covid there are concerns about just what sort of work might be being done, by a Russian state known to be involved with bioweapons research, to modify such bacteria - maybe into a form that could shape a new global pandemic. The odds are against that - but the incident is revealing just how little we learned from Covid, and how badly wrong it could actually go in the age of President Trump, Vladimir Putin and the movements across the world that are inspired by one or both of them. Let's discuss.

In this news round-up of the week for Friday October 2nd 2026. The G20 trade ministers revolt against the Trump administration's demands that they line up behind America's trade agenda. It turns out that abusing allies turns them into ex-allies. Britain's new prime minister has electrified the political climate in the United Kingdom with just a speech - but what's really changed, and why might wider lessons be applicable? And Robert F Kennedy Junior's MAHA movement continues to fall out of love with the Trump administration - and it's now got to the point where you could see them finally parting ways soon after the mid-terms are over.

NATO members have just discovered that the Trump administration has set up a meeting to discuss the future of the alliance, and has pointedly NOT invited some of its key members, including the United Kingdom and France. This seems to be the latest move in President Trump's plan to punish any allies who refuse to behave as vassal states, while rewarding those that have been more compliant. Alongside Pete Hegseth's 'state of the force' speech yesterday, and the demand that Europeans release diesel stocks for America's convenience - the emerging picture is clear that we are in for a rocky couple of months. Let's discuss.

Recently, President Donald Trump has increased the pace of his attempt to rehabilitate Vladimir Putin's Russia in the world community. To all appearances, this seems driven by an increasingly urgent wish to strike lucrative deals with it, perhaps recognising that the options will narrow after a mid-term election setback, should that be imminent. So all the talk about needing to get peace with Ukraine first seems to be on the slide. And he has come up with a new feeble cover for such an act - even just days after having signed into law a bill that was intended to toughen sanctions. So what's going on? Let's discuss.

Two things in one week. One - European countries have been meeting together to look at how they respond - outside of NATO - to Russia's increasing hybrid warfare against them. And two - a leaked report from the Belgian Foreign Ministry reveals how they see, and are responding to, US President Donald Trump internally. Saying the things that they really don't want to go public on, and which give the context for why they are forming an alliance that sidesteps the Atlantic treaty. But can a Europe which is gearing up for a new wave of internal conflict really act in concord against a clear and present danger? It's not clear they can. Let's discuss.