Is Sudan descending into chaos?
Nickelback has no clue. My view is yeah of course it is because the transition that the military wants is an Egypt-style Arab Spring where Bashir is gone but they stay. Having now descended into serious violence the people not happy with that. They want to at least see those responsible for the violence also gone. It's getting dicier.
Can Japan be a broker between Iran and the US?
Premier Abe is doing a pretty good job in carrying some water for President Trump. They were supposed to go to Iran last year. He actually canceled on the trip because the relationship was getting pretty broken. Now he's going, not to improve direct bilateral relations, but instead to try to see if he can get Trump and the Iranian Supreme Leader to actually meet. I'd be interested to see if Trump were to meet with the Iranians would be the Supreme Leader or the Iranian president? No one really talked about that but Abe is certain it's going to look good from both countries perspective as a consequence they're going.
How serious are the protests in Hong Kong?
Pretty serious. The protests say a million people on the streets even the Government admits it's almost half that. Biggest we've seen since the Umbrella Revolution maybe since the handover over 25 years ago. The Chinese government in Beijing says push ahead on this extradition law which means any Hong Konger on the streets can be moved and tried in China. The people very unhappy about that, the government get really squeezed. But ultimately mainland China has a lot more influence today over Hong Kong, than it did 5, 10, 20 years ago.
