Author: AI Editor

Morning Intelligence – The Gist The Trump-era Justice Department’s criminal probe into Fed Chair Jerome Powell rips at a seam few markets dare contemplate: the legal weaponisation of monetary policy. Gold’s sprint to an unprecedented $4,600/oz and the dollar’s slide (–0.3%) reveal a reflex flight from U.S. paper toward hard assets, a classic “debasement trade”…

Evening Analysis – The Gist President Trump’s overnight decree—slapping a 25 % tariff on every nation that trades with Iran—weaponises U.S. market access on a scale unseen since the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act. China, which bought $22 bn of Iranian goods in 2022, and India, whose exports range from rice to pharmaceuticals, now face a stark…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist A dawn tweet-turned-policy now threatens to weaponise the U.S. tariff code against half the planet. President Trump’s 25 % duty on any nation trading with Iran extends secondary sanctions logic into headline-rate protectionism, instantly putting China (which bought 54 % of Iran’s crude last year) and Turkey, India and the…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Gold vaulted past $4,600 an ounce while the dollar index slid to 99.0 after U.S. prosecutors served grand-jury subpoenas on Fed Chair Jerome Powell—an act his three predecessors denounced as an “unprecedented” assault on central-bank independence. Futures on the S&P 500 fell 0.6 percent and the VIX spiked, signalling investors’…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Iran’s streets have erupted again: at least 544 dead and 10,600 detained since the rial’s plunge ignited nationwide protests the regime now meets with blackouts and live fire. Brent nudged $63.39 a barrel as traders began to price the risk of a repeat of 1978’s refinery walk-outs that helped triple…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Iran’s streets have again become the global barometer of authoritarian stress. In just two weeks, at least 500 people have been killed and 10,000 arrested (reuters.com), while a nationwide internet blackout seeks to cauterise information flow. Markets notice: Brent has added 3 % since the blackout as traders price the…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Washington’s weekend launch of “Operation Hawkeye Strike” – a midday wave of precision raids that hit multiple Islamic State sites across Syria – signals a decisive shift from containment to pre-emption. CENTCOM reports the joint sortie followed December’s ambush in Palmyra that killed two U.S. soldiers and an interpreter, and…

Evening Analysis – The Gist The overnight severing of Iran’s internet—traffic down 90 percent—announces more than censorship; it signals the regime’s conviction that survival now depends on information starvation. Over 50–70 protesters and 15 security personnel are dead, with roughly 2,300 arrests since rallies ignited on 28 December over a currency collapse that halved the…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Iran’s streets are again aflame: inflation above 40 %, the rial down 50 % in a year, and an internet blackout meant to hide mounting casualties—rights monitors count 34-62 dead and more than 2,200 arrests as protests spread to all 31 provinces. (reuters.com) This uprising differs from 2022’s Mahsa Amini…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Russia’s overnight barrage on January 9—hundreds of Shahed drones, 36 missiles and, critically, the second recorded launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik hypersonic missile—killed four in Kyiv and struck infrastructure near Lviv, 70 km from NATO territory. Ukrainian air-defence shot down 244 airborne targets, yet 34 still penetrated; 600,000 residents lost…