Tune in to Saturday Extra on ABC Radio National for my extended interview with Prime minister Anthony Albanese:

Move over James Bond. Britain can deploy a more effective agent of the state. The man with the golden mace. My latest on that Royal visit, and that subversive speech to Congress. Historical anomalies abound….. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Startlingly, America only achieved universal suffrage in 1965, with the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act. That's why attacks on the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court - a court the founding fathers never intended to be so supreme - is so dangerous for US democracy.

Like the response to mass shootings, the reaction to political violence is starting to follow a familiar template, which says more about Trump’s America than the shooting itself. My latest at History Never Ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

As a young Washington correspondent in the 1990s, I used to love these set-piece black-tie dinners, but the rot set in years ago. A few curmudgeonly and random thoughts on the White House Correspondents' Dinner........ substack.com/@historyneve...

I launched my History Never Ended Substack on the eve of the Iran war. It’s now the primary home for my writing. I hope people will give it a look and considering subscribing. All the content is free. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

My interview on ABC Saturday Extra with the national treasure that is Deborah Mailman on her new film Wolfram and the need to tell more Indigenous stories. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Trump is finding it harder to conjure an alternative reality. The illusionist is no longer so spelling-binding. One of his most devastating political superpowers, to bend the truth in his favour, is failing him. A weekend read: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Trump is having an annus horribilis: the presidential illusionist is no longer so spellbinding and losing his power to create Trumpian alternative realities. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

News organisations need to be unflinching in their use of strong language to describe Trump. Too often we have normalised the abnormal. Mea culpa. I did it myself at the BBC and often came up against institutional timidity. My weekend read. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“Jesus of Mar-a-Lago” and the questions it raises for the media. With some lessons that I learnt from covering Trump 1.0. My latest at History Never Ended. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

From Rocky to Rock of Ages….

Trump’s double blockade, a NASA splashdown and the sinking of Viktor Orbán. My latest at History Never Ended….. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The Everything War - US v. Iran; West v. West; Trump v. Trump, MAGA v. MAGA; President v. Pope; America v. America. So much to unpack. My weekend read at History Never Ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The everything war - US v. Iran; Trump v. Trump, US v. NATO; MAGA v. MAGA; President v. Pope; Ameruca v. America. My latest at History Never Ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Before the conflict began, the Strait of Hormuz was regarded as an international waterway. Now it looks more like an impregnable fortification offering a security guarantee for a murderous regime. Trump’s mission unaccomplished. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Later this month King Charles will visit Washington, stand alongside Donald Trump and pretend that everything is normal and that this social media post never happened. That is how captive Britain has become to a special relationship that has long been a servile relationship.

After his open “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH” post, this piece feels timely. What to tell a child Trump: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

One of the features  of this conflict has been to hear figures who claimed the Iraq war would be a cakewalk say the same thing about Iran. In this long read piece, I’ve tried to explain why America forgets the lessons of its forever wars:

Trump’s follies - the vertiginous Versailles presidential library, the White House ballroom on hold and, most importantly, the exit ramps in the Iran war he has no idea how to construct. My latest: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Trump’s follies: a ballroom, a presidential library, and some still to be constructed exit ramps. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

American Amnesia: why do successive US presidents keep forgetting the lessons of the forever wars? open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

A remarkable photo from #NoKings in DTLA from Connor Sheets of @latimes.com www.latimes.com/california/l...

Canberra is Australia’s most improved city. Discuss www.smh.com.au/national/syd...

Feels like we need to reframe the question asked since the start of Trump 2.0 from where is the resistance to where is the support? This is Philadelphia, the cradle of US liberty. Similar large-scale #nokings protest across the country.

When our daughter was born in 2020, I wrote her a letter trying to make sense of the land of her birth. It was Covid. The George Floyd protests unfolded outside our windows. A tough time. I’ve written an update. What to tell a child about Donald Trump: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“Donald Trump is flailing, not just for an exit strategy but a political strategy. Even if he wanted to - and I suspect he does - he can hardly blame senior administration figures because that would undercut his boasts about having already won the war.” open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Why do the forever wars so quickly become forgotten wars? Why are the lessons of past failures repeatedly and routinely ignored? My latest at my Substack “History Never Ended”. All content is free. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

What should I tell my American daughter about Donald Trump? My latest long read: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

When GHW Bush was leading America through the Gulf War, its most successful post-WWII conflict, Donald Trump was filing for bankruptcy on the Trump Taj Mahal casino. My long read on the differences between these wartime presidents. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“Good. I'm glad he's dead”, Trump on the death of Robert Mueller, who volunteered for Vietnam when his blue blood family connections could have got him a deferment, won a Bronze Star for valor, and a Purple Heart and who served F.B.I. director in the immediate aftermath of 911.

Who is winning or losing is not the ideal way to frame the question. Who is exerting more influence over the course of this conflict is more key. Right now, that is Iran. My latest at History Never ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Quite the lede from The Economist: and quite the cover. “Although President Donald Trump says he has “destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military Capability”, the 0% that remains is playing havoc with the global economy.” And now quite the cover:

Dire Strait: the epic fallout from Donald Trump’s expanding war of choice. My latest. My latest at History Never Ended. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

America’s most successful wartime president since 1945 understood the horrors of war, the value of diplomacy, the need to respect allies and the importance of learning from history. He was the anti-Trump. My latest: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The anti-Trump: America’s most successful modern wartime president. My essay on how Operation Epic Fury should have learnt from Operation Epic Fury. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

A fifth member of the Iranian women's football team has withdrawn a claim of asylum in Australia. On ABC Saturday Extra, we spoke to Shiva Amini, a former Iranian footballer who faced the exact same dilemma and threats. She is in exile in Switzerland: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

The unshocking oil shock: the known known of the Iran war. My weekend History Never Ended Substack open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The holy warriors of Operation Epic Fury - my latest Substack post at History Never Ended. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

I set up the History Never Ended a few weeks back because events were coming at us so thick and fast, and I wanted to try and make more sense of them. It’s given me a new lease of journalistic life. This is my welcome later. I hope you’ll give it a read. substack.com/@historyneve...

Those finely-tuned “special relationship” antennae on the roof of the Foreign Office which pick up the faintest tremor have been ripped from their moorings and landed somewhere in the Urals.

When I first started out as a journalist I thought it paid to have a background in US history when covering America. Then I thought it would probably be better to be a constitutional lawyer with expertise in jurisprudence. Now I think it would be useful to be a psychiatrist.

Struggling to think of a US military mission where the rationale was so poorly explained, incoherent and inconsistent, where planning for the next day was so shambolic, and where the ultimate aim was so ill-thought out. My latest at History Never Ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Donald Trump’s expanding war of choice. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Under Trump, we are seeing a breakdown in US diplomacy and a broader global diplomatic malaise. The collapse of the rules-based international order is as much an operational problem as a structural one. My latest post. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Iran and the global diplomatic malaise. Often we talk about the breakdown of the rules-based international order. We need to talk more about the breakdown of global diplomacy and the decline under Donald Trump of US statecraft. My latest post, free to all open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen,” is it often said. Perhaps we should amend that. There are weekends when decades happen. And the past 48 hours have been about much more than Iran. My longread connecting some dots. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen.” Perhaps that should read: there are decades when nothing happens and weekends when decades happen. And it’s only Saturday.

This looks like one of the most major US strikes of the past decade with the most minimal public explanation beforehand of the past 50 years.

This generated a lot of interest on ABC Saturday Extra. A conversation with Marianne Williamson, who twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. America at 250, the future of the Democratic Party, the illiberalism of the left. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...