From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello, welcome to Free Expression from The Wall Street Journal. I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large, the

Wall Street Journal, and I can say we're back. Thank you very much indeed for your patience while we've been away.

Took a slightly unexpectedly long sabbatical, but I'm delighted to say that free expression

is back. We'll be here weekly analysing and dissecting the major issues that are confronting

America and the world. And, well, in the last month or so, did we miss anything? Well,

since we last spoke, the stock market's down about 10%, the dollars down about 5%, bond yields are

up. And in coming weeks,

we'll talk about the ongoing economic crisis that has greeted President Donald Trump's plans

to remake the world economy. But of course, there's plenty of other things going on here

in the US and around the world. And this week, we're going to restart the podcast by looking

at what's happening with

national security here in the United States and our partnerships around the world. War continues

in Ukraine. Sadly, President Trump has not yet been able to bring an end to that crisis.

Uncertainty continues about what may happen in the Middle East, particularly with Israel and its continuing

war against its enemies. And of course, whether or not how much the United States gets involved

in an attempt to either strike a deal with Iran or maybe to take military action there. And of course,

wider geopolitical issues continue to loom large with China. And of course, part of Donald Trump's

efforts with his tariff regime is to sort of enlist the rest of the world in America's larger

confrontational struggle with China. So to look at all of those issues. And this week, I'm delighted

to say that I have a really admirable guest to take us through those, and that is

Admiral William McRaven. Admiral McRaven is a forming Navy SEAL who served as the commander

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