Category: Uncategorized

Evening Analysis – The Gist Russia’s overnight barrage—about 450 drones and 70 missiles, including a record 32 ballistic weapons—shut down power plants across five Ukrainian regions and left 1,170 Kyiv apartment blocks without heat as temperatures fell to -17 °C. The strike lands hours before U.S-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at a first cease-fire…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Gold’s two-week free-fall is now a full-blown rout. Futures briefly pierced $4,500/oz in New York on Monday, extending the metal’s slide to 17 % since its January 19 record high and erasing roughly $320 bn from bullion-backed ETFs worldwide. Silver, down 29 % in the same window, signals that algorithmic…

Evening Analysis – The Gist A Russian kamikaze-drone struck a shuttle bus of DTEK miners near Dnipro, killing at least 12 and injuring seven—hours after similar drones hit a Zaporizhzhia maternity ward and Ukraine’s rail grid. (aljazeera.com) The attack is more than another atrocity: it extends Moscow’s two-year strategy of weaponising Ukraine’s critical-energy workforce. Since…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Russia’s overnight drone strike that incinerated a DTEK shuttle outside Dnipro, killing 12 miners and wounding seven, is more than another atrocity in a 1,439-day war. It exposes Moscow’s strategic shift toward targeting Ukraine’s energy workforce—the human nodes that keep an already-battered grid running at –15 °C. By hitting labor…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Israel’s civil-military body COGAT quietly ran a “pilot” reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing on 1 Feb, its first full test since Israeli forces shut the gate in May 2024. Only 150-200 people may pass at a time—and strictly on foot—despite a waiting list of roughly 20 000 medical evacuees from…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Washington’s quiet re-entry into Caracas is more than a flag-raising ceremony. U.S. chargé d’affaires Laura Dogu’s arrival re-opens a mission shuttered since 2019 and follows the dramatic U.S. seizure of Nicolás Maduro last month. Venezuela still holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves—about 304 billion barrels—and its interim government has…

Evening Analysis – The Gist The U-S State Department has green-lit $6.67 billion in fresh arms for Israel—30 AH-64E Apaches, 3,250 light tactical vehicles and two smaller helicopter-related lots—only hours after certifying a separate $9 billion Patriot-missile package for Saudi Arabia. The approvals bypass the normal 30-day congressional review and land in the middle of…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist The United Nations’ own survival is now the headline: António Guterres has warned in a letter to all 193 members that, unless arrears are cleared or budget rules overhauled, the UN will run out of cash by July. Unpaid dues hit a record $1.57 bn last year; Washington alone owes…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Myanmar’s generals have won the election they scripted—but not the legitimacy they crave. Overnight, the junta-backed USDP claimed 85 % of declared seats after a three-stage vote held under martial law, with turnout slumping to 55 % from roughly 70 % in 2015 and 2020. ASEAN’s foreign ministers, meeting in…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Panama’s Supreme Court has torpedoed CK Hutchison’s 25-year port concession, citing constitutional breaches and an audit that tallied at least $1.3 billion in lost state revenue. The ruling imperils a planned $23 billion sale of the Hong Kong group’s global port assets, freezes China’s only foothold at both ends of…