![Donald Trump wants to put maximum pressure on North Korea, threatening "fire and fury".](http://web.archive.org./web/20171018092106im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/y/z/6/q/a/image.related.landscape.460x307.gz1vqu.png/1508193145127.jpg)
If Trump strikes North Korea there is only one outcome
There are viable military options available to the US President but they would be catastrophic.
Peter Hartcher is the political editor and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a Gold Walkley award winner, a former foreign correspondent in Tokyo and Washington, and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His latest book is The Sweet Spot: How Australia Made its Own Luck and Could Now Throw it All Away. His 2005 book, Bubble Man: Alan Greenspan and the Missing Seven Trillion Dollars, foresaw the collapse of the US housing market and the economic slump that followed.
There are viable military options available to the US President but they would be catastrophic.
Bruce Stokes saw the interview on TV and it summed up an astonishing reality of US politics. An American mother says she voted for Donald Trump and then realised that Obamacare had saved her son's life.
The Chinese regime would not like him to hold any official post anywhere. To the Trump administration, this is a plus.
Barack Obama wanted three attributes of Australia for America. He wanted Australia's universal healthcare system, its gun laws and its compulsory voting system.
In this moment between techno-rapture and techno-panic, it would be a real achievement to get some techno-sense.
This is supposed to be the era of Trump and Brexit, Le Pen and Hanson but pro-incumbent electorates have delivered continuity and stability.
Tony Abbott's headbutting didn't do anything to addle his political brain. He turned the incident nicely to his argue his case. Neither should the rest of us allow it to befuddle our brains.
You need to know about the news item last week announcing that a big international conglomerate was forced to sell one of its businesses in China.
While the forces of marriage status quo started this campaign a long way behind, they include one of Australia's wiliest and most successful campaigners.
Five world-changing crises advanced while most media attention was fixed on the hurricane.
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