Hopefully we will have none of the technical problems that caused so much trouble with our Live Stream last week.

I would suggest that there are two obvious major topics for discussion:

(1) the Epstein affair, which quite apart from anything else is causing Donald Trump significant political damage. Even if there really is 'nothing to see here' the way this affair has been mishandled has been catastrophic. For myself, unless someone can provide me with a coherent fact based explanation of what I consider to be the heart of the mystery - Epstein's finances - I will preserve my doubts. As Robert Barnes and I discussed on Monday's Live Stream, nothing about Epstein's finances makes sense.

(2) Trump's 'huge announcement' about Russia. The Russians and the Chinese are making clear that they are going to pay no attention, the plan to launder weapons for Ukraine via NATO is vague and makes no sense, and the idea of imposing tariffs on countries which trade with Russia looks like a bluff, which has the potential to misfire. Meanwhile the pace of the Russian advance in Ukraine is actually accelerating. Unfortunately, the fact that this announcement looks to be part theatre and part bluff does not mean that it will not have severe consequences, all of them I suspect bad.

There are of course other things to talk about, such as the return of inflation in the US and Britain....