Last Post: Hope for a Trump win on Middle East situation

President Trump’s authoritarian style seems to be more suited to war than peace. Perhaps he can help to force a better result in the Middle East conflict before he gets into too much trouble from his tariff policies or from Elon Musk cutting US government services.

Bob Cowley, Broadview, SA

With Trump at the helm, climate change is facing a terminal weather change.

Brian Gallery, Mosman, NSW

The world of disrupters has now been disrupted by President 47 and Musk (“Musk tightens his grip on wheels of power”, 5/2).

Geoff Davey, St Lucia, Qld

Trump’s tariff war against a neighbour and long-time ally channels Henry Kissinger’s view that America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests (“Canadians grapple with sense of betrayal”, 5/2). So nothing personal, given his America First agenda.

Steve Ngeow, Chatswood, NSW

One has to ask if immigrants to this country do not wish their children to absorb our Western values, why did they come here?

Julie Winzar, Palm Beach, Qld

Janet Albrechtsen’s commentary (“Uni bosses should answer for campus hate speech surge”, 5/2) begs the question as to where “merit” rates in the selection criteria for vice-chancellors?

Susan Peatfield, Brisbane

Bowen may possibly be right, but more possibly wrong about achieving net zero. But I’d bet the farm on industry predictions rather than the modelling of his academic experts.

Alex Cleave, North Fremantle, WA

Doesn’t Peter Dutton realise that small business owners are usually too busy to go out to lunch (“Lunchbox finances belittle both sides of politics on tax”, Editorial,’ 5/2)? Can it apply to takeaways?

Roseanne Schneider, Toowoomba, Qld

One of Paul Keating government’s biggest mistakes was to scrap the tax deductibility of the business lunch. The step taken at the time reportedly led to negative repercussions for Australian food producers.

Paul Haege, Darling Point, NSW

The banning of DeepSeek on Australian government devices on opaque “security grounds” seems unnecessarily provocative. What next? Good luck with banning the use of smartphones made in China.

C. Williams, Forrest, ACT

Government efficiency, the great oxymoron of our day.

LJ O’Donoghue, Lorne, Vic