Coming up this week: an audio essays special edition.

Philip and Andrew, going head to head, a half hour each, on two big stories that have a more medium-term feel than the usual weekly news pegs.

In the red corner, Mr Pilkington takes on the bear market. Is an icy wind coming for global stocks? How it could play out? From the bottoming out of NVIDA to the coming age of tariffs, what are the key triggers?

Then, Andrew Collingwood will be taking on medium-term Europe. As the US shrinks from its hegemonic duties, will the EU seize the moment, to attempt to federalise through the stalking horse of re-armament? And given recent trends, could this laager mentality also come with a doubling-down on its own unique brand of autocracy?

Was the editor of the Atlantic actually accidentally included in some rangy groupchat among bros that included a denunciation of European defence policy?

Are you stupid? Have you recently had an aneurysm?

Leaving aside this obvious straw dog, what is Washington actually signalling here?

Meanwhile, the Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans are getting together to sign declarations of mutual support: pledging increased economic co-operation – and gently letting the whole Taiwan thing slide.

When nations with rape slaves level of historical beef are making nice, you know something is shifting.

Finally, is Martin Bormann alive and well and living in Argentina? No. But as Milei’s government releases the papers on the Third Reich, the historical mythology of World War 2 is under attack as never before.

What happens when the post-1945 world order has to deal with the messy reality of the pre-1945 world?

All coming up this week, only for the people who pay.

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The British right is starting to fracture on the Ukraine issue. Where once they would reliably be called upon to paint themselves blue and yellow and raise a whip-round down the dog & duck for more MANPADS – now, as the endgame approaches, a group of the plugged-in are leaving the big tent. The civil war that follows may be its own Donbas.

Meanwhile, further evidence is in that US firms are quietly reorienting their capital expenditure away from data centres and chips, and towards efficiency gains. Some say this is down to the DeepSeek effect. So will the hardware lite business model this implies end up driving a slow puncture into Silicon Valley?

Finally, have you heard of the Trump Put? A backstop against the crazy risks the Trump regime might be running. One that relies entirely on assuming that at some point the government intervenes to arrest a Wall Street bloodbath. It worked in the Greenspan era. But is this a bungee cord without a tether?