Today is the Russian Orthodox Christmas, but it is also unfortunately a day of extreme and growing international tension.

Obviously the big news story over the last week has been the US attack on Venezuela and the abduction of President Maduro. Trump has now set out his conditions, demanding that Venezuela give a proportion of its oil (perhaps most or even all of it) to the US to be sold and the profits to be allocated by him. The repercussions of this affair cannot be exaggerated.

However we have lots of other things happening as well:

There is a superpower confrontation between the US and Russia already shaping up, with Russia apparently deploying a (nuclear?) submarine to protect a tanker the US is trying to seize.

There are the threats against and the domestic crisis inside Iran where the Pezeshkian government looks to me likely to unravel.

There is the European 'coalition of the willing' summit in Paris which has doubled down on support for Ukraine and the deployment of a European intervention force there.

There is the breakdown in the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

There is the continuing war in Ukraine.

Truly we live in interesting times.

These topics and much else to discuss.