Dangerously Reasonable - The Mallen Baker Show Mallen Baker

It has been the sort of week that will be referred to in decades, even centuries, hence as being one that was a turning point in history. There is a lot to come, but let's see if we can make sense of where we have gotten to in just the last few days.

In the US, in the UK and the EU - the proposed shift from internal combustion cars to electric vehicles is starting to become a major factor in a big political shift that's going on. What's driving it (pun not intended!), and just how far is it going to go in rocking our old political assumptions? Let's have a look.

This week, Rishi Sunak just announced pushing back of a few net zero targets - but much more significantly signalled a shift in campaign positioning that has thrust the issue to the centre of the conflict between the two main parties in advance of the general election. Labour leader Keir Starmer now has to work out if this is a great opportunity, or a poison-laden trap. It's a more subtle question than the ideologues on either side think it is.

More mainstream voices are starting to be raised highlighting the likely outcome for where America is currently headed. One of them is Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor whose book 'Principles for dealing with a changing world order' identified the cycles that inevitably define the rise and fall of empires. Let's have a look at what he has to say.

Elon Musk is so often at the centre of every important issue or controversy - he is a techno-optimist, he is pro-free speech, he is desperate for man to colonise Mars - you name it. He is also powerful on the world stage. And somewhat unaccountable. Is that a problem? Let's discuss.

Two months in to Ukraine's counter-offensive, and so far - while there have been gains - they are well short of what people had hoped for. The implication is that this war is going to last years not months, notwithstanding the unexpected. How does that realisation begin to change the landscape - for Russia, for Ukraine, for the West?