The pageantry began Monday amid heightened security concerns and a growing rift over the Iran war. The U.K. hopes the president’s love of pomp and the king’s “poker face” can help heal their alliance.

The British prime minister appears to be in the sharpest peril of his 21 months in office, after revelations that Peter Mandelson was appointed despite red flags.

The symbiosis between the president and European nationalists has reached a potential breaking point as he issues genocidal rhetoric and criticizes the pope.

Peace talks broke down over Iran’s nuclear program, which has survived two decades of international diplomacy seeking to curtail it and more than five weeks of bombing.

Amid fierce disagreements, the dramatic, last-minute decision to halt attacks seems less like an exit ramp than a rest stop for all sides.