Category: Uncategorized

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…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Washington’s decision to seize de facto command of Venezuela’s oil—50 m barrels on day one, with plans to triple output—recasts crude as a geopolitical lever rather than a mere commodity. Brent rose 0.7 % to $62.39, defence stocks hit records, and a bipartisan U.S. Senate bloc moved to curb further…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Washington’s Venezuelan shock-therapy has entered its second week. 100 people lie dead after a 150-aircraft U.S. raid that whisked Nicolás Maduro to a Manhattan courtroom; crude from Caracas—up to 50 million barrels—is now earmarked for sale through U.S-controlled accounts, nudging Brent down 4 % in overnight trading. Today the Senate…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Washington’s overnight edict yanks the U.S. out of 66 multilateral bodies—35 non-UN groups plus 31 UN entities, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and UN Women(reuters.com). A companion move hours later seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers to finance post-coup “stabilisation,” signalling that the White House is replacing rules-based…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Washington has just rewritten the Monroe Doctrine with special-forces ink. By snatching Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and forcing a “voluntary” transfer of 30–50 million barrels of crude to the U.S., Trump weaponizes oil diplomacy while Caracas and Havana count their dead—at least two dozen Venezuelan officers and 32 Cubans so…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist The overnight Washington-Caracas bargain to rush 50 million barrels of seized Venezuelan crude—worth roughly $2 billion—into U.S. refineries is far more than a headline dip in Brent below $61. It rewrites two decades of “maximum-pressure” sanctions doctrine: the White House now treats Venezuela’s reserves as a strategic stockpile to tame…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Paris’ “Coalition of the Willing” summit moved the war’s centre of gravity from the battlefield to the balance-sheet. A leaked draft pledges “politically and legally binding” guarantees—up to and including military intervention—should Russia strike again (reuters.com). The text is now endorsed in Brussels, London and Washington, and even AP notes…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist The overnight ouster of Nicolás Maduro by a U.S.–led “law-enforcement” raid has up-ended hemispheric politics. Caracas has installed oil czar Delcy Rodríguez as interim president, while the Swiss cabinet hurriedly froze every asset linked to Maduro worldwide, signalling Europe’s alignment with Washington’s gamble. With the United Nations’ emergency debate denouncing…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Washington’s lightning seizure of Nicolás Maduro—completed in 148 minutes and now before a Manhattan judge—upends not only Caracas but the global energy chessboard. Venezuela’s 770 kb/d of crude exports are effectively frozen, nudging Brent 1.2 % higher to $87.60 and sending gold to a three-month peak as traders hunt safe-havens.(reuters.com)…