This week, we have seen leaders in western Europe forced to move from fumbling cautious politeness to action as a result of the US president's various pronouncements.

DXY was firm. AUD legged down the leg up. Jaws still open. Oil was flogged. Can’t find an obvious reason. Commods mixed. Miners down. EM Deep Seeking continues. Junk yawn. Yields rolling? Stocks puked. US housing and services data was soft but not terrible. Perhaps everything was exaggerated by Batwoman’s new coronavirus. More likely were

After what happened in the US on January 20th and subsequently, I have found myself constantly scrolling through assorted writings on Substack, where a large number of reasonably literate Americans, and some very astute Australians (e.g. John Quiggin, Tim Dunlop) are fulminating, or at least aghast at the idiotic petulance from the Mango Mussolini. I also recently heard this sort of scrolling being appropriately termed ‘doomscrolling’. This is defined as: “The act of spending too much time reading negative news online, especially on social media”.

Congratulations must go to the Albanese government and its Grand China Grovel, for it has delivered what is left of “Australia” a truly unprecedented outcome. When Qantas pilots jetting across the Tasman have to worry about the threat of potshots from Chinese warships, the stabilisation in relations between Canberra and Beijing has reached its limits.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has downplayed the absence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting, calling it “not a train smash.” Ramaphosa insisted that the US would still follow the outcomes of the discussions.

The rapid development of Artificial General Intelligence and advanced AI systems has ushered in a new era of technological capability. These systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated, capable of performing tasks that were once thought to require uniquely human intelligence.