All Your Base Are Belong To Us, The People’s Carcrash, Our Democracy

You’ve heard of de-Baathification? Now what about de-baseification? The gradual chipping back of US strategic assets in the Gulf as each in turn comes under pressure from drone and rocket fire… till only a handful of super-bases remain.

Iran’s president says country is in ‘full-scale war’ after an expansion of US attacks. They’ve struck US interests in Bahrain, Kuwait - and the Houthis are blockading Saudi ports.

The US was unlikely to win this war - but now it seems it could actually lose it.

Meanwhile…

14%. 18%. 18%

Year-on-year sales drops at Volkswagen, and Audi and Porsche, which it owns, respectively.

Germany’s biggest auto maker is in free fall, with warnings of 50 000 job cuts. But Chinese competition is only half the problem.

Finally, the main public TV station has been shut down overnight. The President has been summarily dismissed by a dubious constitutional amendment. And the opposition leader has been banned from standing for re-election.

The new leader parades round in Mao suits, making agit prop video tours of the former regime’s residences to stoke up his base.

As the airwaves breathe static, will the EU send troops to restore democracy in the little-known far-off nation of Hungary?