Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank has warned that the risks of Iran war are likely to be underestimated. She also warned that ECB is prepared to hike interest rates to manage the inflationary pressures on Europe due to the war. Lagarde may be talking about the impact on Europe, but this is a clear warning of the scale and magnitude of...
Jerusalem became the stage for the last stand of Man. The Jews (the masters of the glorious city since 1967) locked out the Holy Sepulchre, the most venerable church on the place where Christ died on the cross and was resurrected. It was never ever closed, for hundreds of years, since AD 1009 when the church was destroyed by mad Caliph al-Hakim. This sacrile...
Dissent inside a country’s administration occurs during every war. Most of the time, the government manages to suppress these opposing voices, coercing such people to leave quietly. During wartime, only a handful of officials summon the courage to oppose government decisions. The US Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, straightforwardl...
In his campaign, Donald Trump promised to end the cycle of “endless wars.” Yet, paradoxically, he has become the first US president to enter directly into a large-scale confrontation with Iran, precisely the scenario that previous administrations had cautiously avoided. Netanyahu had previously unsuccessfully set various traps to drag Obama, Biden, and Trump...
Trump announced on Monday [Mar 23-ed] that he extended to Friday his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz under pain of destroying its energy infrastructure, which was supposed to expire that same day, due to supposedly fruitful talks with unnamed members of its leadership. He also declared that the Strait would be jointly controlled by him and t...
In my younger years as an economist the way conservatives, free market economists, and libertarians approached economic policy and whether it would make us more or less free was in terms of business vs. government. Business wore the white hats, and government wore the black hats. What wasn’t realized is that government is captured by business and used for it...
Both armed conflicts directly affect the interests of China. Moreover, there is a well-founded opinion that their instigation is aimed, first and foremost, at undermining the positions of the USA’s main geopolitical opponent in the Greater Middle East and South Asia...
The result is a multi-billion-dollar gamble that has turned Ramadan into a holy war. When the US President’s Special Envoy for Iran, Steve Witkoff, decided to share details of a private conversation with Donald Trump with journalists, he likely didn’t realize he was creating a document for the ages. He described the sincere surprise of the Oval Office...
The US–Israel war against Iran is accelerating the decline of American global dominance, exposing strategic overreach and weakening its alliances. As the conflict reshapes energy flows and security dynamics, Russia and China are capitalising on the chaos to accelerate a shift toward a multipolar world...
At the end of February, Pakistan attacked Afghanistan in retaliation for multiple terrorist attacks inside the country. According to the Pakistani government, different terrorist groups hiding in Afghanistan use Afghan soil to conduct terrorist attacks in the country. Since the return of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistan has seen an unprecedented surge in terrori...
“Fasting in Full Swing: The Middle East Under a Hail of Rockets and Drones,” “Ramadan in Gaza Amidst the Challenges of War.” Many such headlines in Middle Eastern media reflect the atmosphere in which the holy month of fasting for Muslims, Ramadan, is currently taking place. Fasting during this...
Nobody among the 74 nations that participated in the largest edition of the Indian Navy’s multilateral naval Exercise MILAN from February 15 to 25 in Visakhapatnam, India, would have imagined it would usher in the US-Iran war to the Indian Ocean region. That is exactly what happened when one of the three Iranian Navy ships that had taken part in the Internat...
From the 1880s until 1945, Japan pursued a determined imperial policy of military and political supremacy over China, or at least over most of it. What America, Asia, and Africa were to Western European imperial colonizers, China and later Southeast Asia were (or were supposed to be) to Japan. However, in pursuing its imperial endeavours in China and Southea...
Early February 28, Israel and the United States launched an illegal assault on Iran’s territory, in which Ayatollah Khamenei, Iranian leader, and a group of senior Iranian commanders were martyred. In response to this blatant violation, Iran started missile attacks on Israel and its targets and bases in the...
Escalation of the conflict around Iran could have consequences far beyond the Middle East, and some events in the Caribbean region make one think about possible attempts by Washington to shift attention to a new geopolitical front. In hindsight - with the clarity of 20/20 vision - the day before the United States and Israel launched their coordinated strikes...
Large asset managers are facing severe liquidity pressure in their private credit funds. BlackRock capped withdrawals from its $26B HPS Corporate Lending Fund after investors requested $1.2B in redemptions (9.3% of assets) - exceeding the fund’s 5% quarterly limit. Other big names included Blue Owl Capital and Morgan Stanley. But the list is growing every...
The US Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the illegality of imposing certain tariffs was perceived by most of the Democratic press as a serious blow to President Trump’s economic strategy. Disputes over the legitimacy of the new tariffs continue to grow, especially after Trump’s announcement of imposing tariffs ranging from 10% to 15% on all foreign countries ...
Russia values Türkiye as a stable partner, but the current geopolitical situation demands particular diplomatic flexibility and experience. Due to its strategic position and key role in international relations, the Middle East invariably remains a focal point for leading global powers. Türkiye, as one of the key players in this region, the only NATO member, ...
March 2026. The Middle East is ablaze in the most significant conflict since the Arab-Israeli wars. What began as a “retaliatory operation” has rapidly spiralled into a full-scale war between Israel and the United States on one side and Iran on the other. For Donald Trump, who returned to the White House on a wave of promises to end endless wars and put “Ame...
The ongoing US-Israeli attack on Iran has profound strategic and economic impacts on global markets. The US and Israeli attack on Iran has not only revealed President Donald Trump’s hypocritical nature, but it has also exposed the United States and the whole world to significant...