Mark Mardell

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There may be universities in the world with a more striking view than Swansea Bay Campus, but I haven't come across them.

At one end of the languid curve of the bay lies the Port Talbot steelworks, steaming gently in the autumn sunshine, at the other, the green undergrowth of the Gower Peninsula.

In between, miles of pale sand merging into an equally flat sea. Perhaps one day this strand will be home to a technological miracle, a revolutionary world first. Or perhaps not. Time and tide will tell, but more on that later.

I'm not here for the view, but the politics.

This campus thinks of itself as poised on the cutting edge of a technological revolution and the academics I talk to are all highly excited by the potential to be a world beater.

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It's a pretty place for some very hard talking by the EU's man in charge of Brexit talks.

The stately hotel the Villa d'Este, on the shores of magnificent Lake Como replete with baroque chandeliers, statues of nymphs and marble columns is not a hard sell.

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It must be serious. They've deployed the Royals.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been on tour in Germany with a very specific purpose: to reassure the country that Brexit doesn't mean the break-up of a beautiful relationship.

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These days it's not that weird seeing a man born in 1949 rocking the crowds at the Glastonbury Festival.

Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Richard Hell were all born that year and I am sure they could still get the campers roaring. The novelty value was that it was a politician, Jeremy Corbyn, who was lapping up the love this year.

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What does Chancellor Philip Hammond's increasingly vocal stance on Brexit say about his intentions, his prime minister and his party?

Is the chancellor intent on using his soft power to take on the hard Brexiteers? He's certainly using it to isolate one very vulnerable prime minister.

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Don't be fooled out of seeing the big picture. This is not politics as normal.

The carefully constructed house of cards has been swept away. It is politics more chaotic, more brutal than any thriller.

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The jovial Conservative Party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin is deep in what should be enemy territory, the market square in Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. He bumps into one man who could have been sent by Central Office, if not central casting.

"I was brought up in a mining village, Mum and Dad always voted Labour, but I've started to see a bit of sense. You've got to trust Theresa May, haven't you?"

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Some White House watchers have noted that weekends can be tricky for President Donald Trump.

A number of crises have blown up on a Friday and not been sorted out until Sunday.

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The Russians have reacted with a mixture of contempt and fury to the cancellation of the foreign secretary's trip to Moscow.

It suggests they do, perhaps surprisingly, care quite a lot about it.

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Zachodnia bus station in Warsaw is big, bustling and busy.

People laden with 57 varieties of luggage - from smart suitcases to supermarket bags tied together with string - queue in the spring sunshine, passports open, tickets in their hands.