Alistair Campbell

Which Saudi didn't join.

And again, the final moments of their really strong relationship were probably when they both turned against Qatar.

They were both on a sort of blockade and exclusion of Qatar.

But more recently, it feels as though Mohammed bin Salman is really...

presenting himself as, oddly, he's presenting himself as a force for stability.

They're trying to say the Emiratis are reckless, dangerous, they're provoking civil wars in Africa, they're doing strange things in Chad, they're causing chaos in Yemen.

And MBS is, in fact, this may be the reason for the conflict.

The rumor is that MBS was beginning to look at negotiating for a settlement with the Houthis and that this is what actually triggered the UAE assault.

And maybe also to develop my Trump derangement syndrome, whether the general tenor of the way that Trump conducts himself, his complete lack of interest in international law, his sense that might is right, his sense that he can do whatever he wants, doesn't begin to normalize

UAE popping out of bed in the morning and thinking, well, why don't we send in some armaments to South Yemen and see if we can take over the oil fields from Saudi and maybe America will just step back and let us do it.

Remember, these are all the countries that have been promising untold hundreds of billions of dollars.

to the US and giving amazing contracts to Trump's family.

But if this really went further south, I mean, that was a pretty provocative thing that UAE did, and then a pretty aggressive response from Saudi.

That would be very, very interesting for the region if the UAE-Saudi split deepened.

I remember just skimming the beginning of the book before I got on the plane was him saying that the point is not American ownership of Greenland.

The point is that America has just completely failed to do anything like enough to think about the Arctic.

And in particular, hasn't thought enough about what to do with Alaska before it starts thinking about taking over Greenland.

It drives me absolutely mad because Trump and Vance and Hexeth are somehow making a lot of the international media solemnly stroke their chins and say, well, of course, you know, Trump does have a point about the fact that, you know, Russia poses a threat in the Arctic.

Well, yes, it does.

But the two key points are this.