As you all I know I have returned from a stiumulating visit to the United States, where I met many old friends - including and first and foremost members of our Locals Community who were kind and generous enough to travel all the way to Chattanooga and to join us for the 1776 Law Centre Convention - and where I learnt a great deal.

We can absolutely talk about all of that in our Live Stream today.

Briefly and in summary, for all its many well known problems - which we discuss extensively on our Live Streams - I found the United States from every point of view - economic and political - in much better shape than Europe. By way of example, there is still debate and dissent about the current political course in the United States at every level of the political system to an extent which is unknown in Europe. In addition the Constitution and the traditions of the country still provide levels of personal protection to those with dissenting views which simply do not exist elsewhere in the West.

Having said all this, I do not want to sugarcoat the reality. The problems we discuss are there and are real and in some ways they are getting worse. It's just that there is more of a sustained and organised pushback against them than you will find elsewhere.

In the meantime the wars go on, with a a consensus starting to emerge - articulated publicly so far exclusively on independent media and social media but to my knowledge widely shared and the source of much private anxiety in European chancelleries - that Ukraine is rapidly approaching the point of crisis and no return. Suffice to say that Ukraine is now landlocked and was unable by its own admission to shoot down a single Russian missile in the massive attack which took place against Kiev last night.

On the other war - the one in the Persian Gulf - there is total uncertainty about whether or not there is any actual progress in the negotiations, with the Iranians saying today that an agreement on future management of the Strait of Hormuz between themselves and Oman does NOT translate into an Iranian commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz immediately. That supposedly will depend on the future actions of the United States.

So many topics to discuss in our Live Stream today....