Category: Uncategorized

Evening Analysis – The Gist Britain, Canada, Australia and Portugal’s joint recognition of Palestine signals a rare fracture in the Western bloc that has long moved in lock-step with Washington and Jerusalem. Their decision aligns them with 140-plus UN members and comes after Gaza’s death toll topped 65,000 while Israel continues settlement expansion that imperils…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Good morning. Washington’s first House delegation to set foot in Beijing since 2019 may feel symbolic, but numbers sharpen the picture. Two-way goods trade still topped $660 billion in 2024, yet tariffs exceeding 20 % on average and a 40 % drop in bilateral FDI since 2018 show how far…

Evening Analysis – The Gist London, Ottawa and Canberra’s synchronized recognition of a Palestinian state moves the question of sovereignty from the periphery of Western diplomacy to its center. Three G7 economies have now joined 140-plus nations that already extend de jure recognition, signaling a shift in the cost-benefit calculus of siding unequivocally with Israel.…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Russia’s overnight salvo—40 missiles and an unprecedented 580 attack-drones—killed three Ukrainians, wounded dozens and forced Poland to scramble allied jets as debris neared NATO airspace. Kyiv says 552 drones and 31 missiles were intercepted, but key power and factory sites were hit, while Ukraine retaliated with strikes on Russian oil…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Brussels has broken the funding log-jam: EU ambassadors have endorsed a plan to raise up to €39 billion for Kyiv by securitising profits from the €210 billion in frozen Russian central-bank reserves held at Euroclear, effectively replacing the stalled U.S. tranche of last year’s G7 scheme.(apnews.com) The numbers matter. Interest…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Moscow’s 12-minute trespass over Estonia’s Vaindloo Island does not sound like much—until you count the precedents. It is the fourth Russian air incursion into NATO airspace this year, forcing Italian F-35s to scramble and Tallinn to invoke Article 4 consultations for only the second time since joining the alliance. Three…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Europe at last sharpens the knife it had long waved. Brussels’ 19th sanctions package accelerates a full ban on Russian LNG to 1 Jan 2027 and blacklists 118 “shadow-fleet” tankers, crypto channels and new banks (reuters.com). Energy still funds roughly a third of the Kremlin’s budget; Russian LNG sales to…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist Washington has once again stood alone: overnight the United States cast its sixth veto on a Gaza-ceasefire resolution, blocking a 14-1 Security Council vote that demanded an “immediate, unconditional and permanent” halt to fighting, the release of hostages, and unrestricted aid access.(reuters.com) This procedural move masks structural drift. Two years…

Evening Analysis – The Gist Good evening, 18:32. Donald Trump capped his second UK state visit by urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “deploy the army” against Channel migrants, coupling the demand with a £150 bn U.S.–UK tech-investment pledge.(ft.com) The spectacle—royal pageantry inside Windsor, 5 000 protesters outside—laid bare a trans-Atlantic paradox: ever-deeper commercial ties…

Morning Intelligence – The Gist The Federal Reserve pivoted yesterday, trimming its policy rate by 25 bp to 4-4.25 %—its first cut of 2025—and signaling more could follow. Chair Powell framed the move as “risk-management” amid a cooling labor market, yet dissenting Governor Stephen Miran wanted a deeper slice. Markets lurched: the S&P 500 shed…