Cutting off military aid to Ukraine in its hour of need. Imposing heavy tariffs on America’s allies. Cosying up to far-right parties across Europe to sow division. Threatening to annex Greenland and deliberately trying to undermine Canada. Much of the time it’s quite hard to make sense of Donald Trump’s foreign policy. It can be difficult to see any real benefit to America, and at the same time it risks doing a great deal of harm around the world.

Perhaps there’s no real method behind some of these policies. Maybe they are simply driven by spite. Psychologist Simon McCarthy-Jones has made a study of spite and believes that a lot of what the Trump administration is doing is more focused on punishing people and countries that he considers to have crossed him than acting in America’s best interests. He argues it’s an irrational approach that is unlikely to end well.

Did you know that a significant proportion of the first cars on the road were powered by electricity? Me neither. Interestingly, back in the day, these tended to be marketed as “ladies’ cars”. Not a strategy that would work now, you have to imagine. And indeed it may have held back the development of electric vehicles for decades.

Another interesting discovery today is that giving blood is good for your health. It also helps save other people’s lives, if you needed any more incentive.

The latest edition of The Conversation Weekly podcast tells the shocking story of how a remote city in the Amazonian jungle faced near total collapse under the weight of COVID-19. One man even became famous locally for having been apparently buried alive. Five years after the pandemic officially began, we hear the fascinating memories of this surreal time.