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But the problem in the US is that many don't want peaceful cooperation. The far right in particular sees the left as the enemy with no right to govern the country. While balance and cooperation would be great, there's no fundamental reason why equilibrium should prevail.

Trump's Gaza plan is naive and nonsensical and won't go far. He won't back down of course, although I don't know how he's going to spin this. Even his own advisors apparently didn't know what he had in mind until he announced it. Now they're trying to back away from it, but he has shown the world once again what a loose cannon he is, not that anyone need a reminder.

He won't be impeached. The Democrats are wasting time that would be better spent taking him (and Musk) to court for spending three weeks ignoring the law.

I can never work out whether you’re serious or just stirring the pot again, GON.

Let’s see what he says tomorrow. Twenty four hours is a long time for him to hold one thought in his head. Bibi probably put him up to it, but by tomorrow he will have spoken to somebody else and changed his mind.

That's an empty threat because he can't leave posthumous instructions. If he's dead, he's no longer the president so his orders in the envelope on his desk are meaningless.

Why would they want to go backwards?

Why would they want to swap the Danes for the Americans? If they want to be independent and know they sitting on massive natural resources, why would they give that away just to become another US state, especially the way the US is self-destructing under the new management.

The Saudis aren't impressed. They have already issued a response to Trump's plan, strongly objecting to moving the Palestinians and said they won't recognise Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state. Their UN envoy said leaders and people should respect the Palestinian's desire to stay in Gaza. I can't see how Trump can force an entire population to leave and legally (or illegally) take over their country. Even if he did, it wouldn't be long before the US occupiers had a few shots fired at them by someone, and then the US would be embroiled in another conflict in the Middle East together with the Israelis. He's not winning many points towards his the Nobel Peace Prize so far.

That makes the quoted value of my superannuation balance fictitious too. Now you've got me worried.

Following his meeting with Netanyahu he’s just announced that the US plans to take over ownership of the Gaza Strip and rebuild it for the ‘world’s people’ to live in. That should be interesting. Netanyahu thinks it’s a great idea.

He's just written an executive order instructing his team to come up with a plan for creating a sovereign wealth fund. There's nothing wrong with that and it works well in Norway and Saudi Arabia who fund theirs with oil profits, but given that the US is currently $36t in debt it's unclear how this fund is going to be funded. However, he has confidently said that it will soon be one of the biggest funds in the world. He's suggested the fund could help finance the purchase of TikTok, or they could do a partnership with very wealthy people. I wonder if he's got a proposition for Elon.

Although he claims the border issues as the main justification for the tariffs, his latest statement in Canada’s case is that they now have 30 days ‘to see whether or not a final economic deal can be structured’, meaning he wants Canada to buy more from the US than they buy from Canada so he ‘wins’. He already had a trade deal with an ally that he could have renegotiated, but now he’s got a suspicious and angry neighbour to deal with that rightly sees him as a threat. The ‘Art of the Deal’ doesn’t seem to be off to a good start.

Facts don't matter to Trump. He clams the deficit is $200b-$250b. The unrelated border stuff is just another excuse to justify the tariffs. If Canada applies their own 25% retaliatory tariffs on certain imports, as they have said they will, Trump will probably threaten to go to 50% on his. True to his character, he wants to bully his way to domination of allies and enemies alike. Subtlety is not one of his strengths.

I’m hardly a supporter, but it’s primarily about punishment and payback because he sees the fact that the US buys more from Canada than the Canadians buy from them that they are being treated very unfairly because it should be the other way around. He also wants to stop drugs and immigrants coming into the US across the Canadian border, although it’s hard to see how tariffs are supposed to do that. Same story with Mexico. To make matters worse, he’s torn up his own free trade agreement with these countries in the process. What does that tell the world about his trustworthiness?

He’s just told Americans to expect some ‘pain’ as a result of his tariffs, but that ‘it will be worth it’. He’s also said before that ‘trade wars are good and easy to win’. Well, maybe not. Some of his supporters may be feeling the first twinges of concern that their cost of living may not be going down like he promised. OT’s right that he may be at the wheel but others are in control of the clutch, brakes and gears. As he’s such an erratic and angry driver, a crash seems inevitable.

I also remember listening to the radio one night waiting for my number to come up as they read down the list of marbles they’d pulled out. Although I was a permanent resident and not an Australian citizen I still had to register for the call up. The ridiculous thing was that I wasn’t eligible to volunteer for the army, but being conscripted was OK.

Not a MAGA cap. It says `"Make America Normal Again".

I agree with what Bill Maher says but it takes two sides to agree to compromise. i’m sure the vast majority of Palestinians and Jews don’t hate each other snd would live happily enough side by side given the chance. Israel has been repeatedly attacked since it was created and has hit back to defend itself, which it has a right to. It has also spent decades pushing into the West Bank and creating new settlements. The conflict will continue until all the countries in the region accept each other’s right to exist. Hamas wants Israel to disappear, which it won’t, but the hardliners in Israel don’t want a two-state solution. If Trump can fix that he’s a better man than I give him credit for.

Another predictable move by Trump to wind back the protections consumers, including his MAGA supporters, currently have: The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, was fired on Saturday, prematurely ending a five-year term that was scheduled to run through late 2026. “With so much power concentrated in the hands of a few, agencies like the C.F.P.B. have never been more critical,” Mr. Chopra wrote in a letter he posted on social media announcing his departure. He will appoint a loyalist to ensure banks, lenders and other sharks have less accountability.

Yes it was, and for all his urbane sophistication, Netanyahu is just as much a terrorist in the region as the Hamas militants.

Yes, I agree. The problem is that despite Trump's lofty and self serving rhetoric in that video, which someone else wrote for him because he would never have been capable of writing it himself, there is no solution to that particular problem because the antagonists on both sides will never agree to a peaceful solution. The Israelis want the Palestinians out of the region and the Palestinians want the Israelis out. A two state solution in the Middle East won't work because too many on both sides don't want it. Furthermore it's in Netanyahu's personal interest to keep the conflict going and remain in power (and out of jail) against the will of a large portion of the Israeli population, while destroying both Hamas and tens of thousands of innocent civilians and turning Gaza into a pile of rubble, all aided and abetted by the US Government. Neither Trump nor anyone else can solve this problem. Least of all Trump who is totally clueless when it comes to diplomacy. Netanyahu only came to the ceasefire table when Trump took over because he needs US weapons. He had learned how to manipulate Biden and he certainly knows how to manipulate Trump.

He should send that message to Netanyahu instead of sending him 2,000lb bombs to drop on his neighbours.

This is his latest idiotic move - ordering the US Army Corps of Engineers to release a big flood of water on Friday from two dams in northern California. He previously said the recent fires around San Francisco wouldn't have happened if only they'd listened to him earlier, so he's decided to fix the problem and claim `Victory!'. Unfortunately: - While the water may have been useful to downstream farmers had it been released later in the year, they don't want it now. - The water is flowing to low-lying land in the Central Valley, and none of it will reach Southern California which is on the other side of the mountain range. - The loss of water is depleting reserves that may be needed if there is a drought. - Trump initially ordered 5,500 cu ft per second to be released but this was dialed back to 1,500 cu ft/sec to "ensure that the channels would hold". - Water is often released ahead of forecast storms to manage inflows, but this only involves small quantities of controlled flows. - Local water managers had to rush on Thursday to prepare for an abrupt onslaught of water they had not asked for. Trump wins big again! This guy is just an embarrassment and the sooner he's gone the better.

He has just ordered the US Dept of Agriculture and other organisations to remove all references and documents relating to climate change from their websites. The climate in America is officially great again.