ONE does not need to have Mao Zedong’s eyes to see that “everything under heaven is in utter chaos”. There is no continent in the world (except perhaps his China) where conditions are in the control of its leaders. In France, for example, students in the country’s lycées, or secondary schools, are demonstrating against “long school days, overcrowded classrooms, outdated facilities, and teacher shortages”. The protesters are 15- to 18-year-olds. They are too young to vote. Yet their anger threatens to detract from the presidential election in early 2027, when France decides who is to replace Emmanuel Macron.

In South America, countries with valuable natural resources and precious minerals are bracing themselves for a raid by the US. If oil-rich Venezuela can be decapitated overnight, can Brazil, Chile and Argentina be far behind? In Ukraine, an embattled Volodymyr Zelensky finds he has now two adversaries — a determined Vladimir Putin, and a mercurial Donald Trump, who has suggested that the Ukrainians “get a new leader who can make a deal”. The abandonment of Zelensky came a day after Trump agreed to buy diesel from Putin.

Historians who will chronicle the decline and fall of Trump’s presidency may do worse than rely upon Edward........

© Dawn