The prospect of a military confrontation between the US and China is receding, as is the prospect of a conflict over Taiwan, according to a relaxed Donald Trump talking to Australian journalists and politicians during Anthony Albanese's visit to Washington . But even if conflict were to occur, America might not be calling on Australia, or Britain, to fight alongside it.

That's cheering news, if not much emphasised by media reportage of a visit wreathed in smiles and pretended mutual affection, all rather against the predictions of many journalists, particularly Murdoch mouthpieces. They had had it that Trump would be instinctively hostile to Albo, whom he knows to be an unabashed socialist (which to Trump means communist), and a critic of Israel's actions in Gaza. It had been predicted

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