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Category: War

The forces of scarcity hitting Asia may soon spread across the world

The forces of scarcity hitting Asia may soon spread across the world

Damien Cave writes: When the war in Iran started on Feb. 28, Asia expected to see serious, gradual impacts from losing access to a huge portion of the world’s oil and gas. But the conflict’s economic and social impacts have hit the region harder and faster than officials and experts expected. Many countries across the Asia-Pacific are experiencing sudden jolts of disruption that they are struggling to manage, with some comparing the crisis’s breakdowns and scope to the Covid pandemic….

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Distrust, dishonesty and Trump’s elusive Iran deal

Distrust, dishonesty and Trump’s elusive Iran deal

Axios reports: President Trump told reporters to expect a peace deal with Iran by Monday, and said Monday morning that Vice President Vance was heading to Islamabad for talks. But Vance was actually still in Washington, waiting for a signal from Tehran before boarding his plane — a sign of the deep uncertainty over what will happen next. The big picture: Trump wants the war to end, now, on his terms. But there’s only one day left before the ceasefire expires, Iran still controls the…

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Ukraine: For the first time in years, outright victory seems possible

Ukraine: For the first time in years, outright victory seems possible

Brynn Tannehill writes: The end of 2024 looked grim for Ukraine: President Trump was promising no further aid, and Hungary under Viktor Orbán was vowing to block any further European Union financial support. Seeing an opportunity, Russia poured all the manpower possible into collapsing Ukrainian front lines, hoping to convince Trump that Russia’s victory and Ukraine’s defeat were inevitable, so that he would pressure Ukraine into a peace treaty favorable to Putin. Instead, Ukraine dug in. They continued to innovate,…

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UAE in talks with Trump administration about possible financial lifeline

UAE in talks with Trump administration about possible financial lifeline

The Wall Street Journal reports: The United Arab Emirates has opened talks with the U.S. about obtaining a financial backstop in case the Iran war plunges the oil-rich Persian Gulf state into a deeper crisis, U.S. officials said. U.A.E. Central Bank Governor Khaled Mohamed Balama raised the idea of a currency-swap line with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Treasury and Federal Reserve officials in meetings in Washington last week, the officials said. The Emiratis emphasized that they had so far…

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UAE minister: More than 90% of Iran’s targets were civilian infrastructure

UAE minister: More than 90% of Iran’s targets were civilian infrastructure

Politico reports: The United Arab Emirates’ minister of state said Sunday the country had been hit with over 2,800 missiles and drones in the first 40 days of the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran, adding that more than 90% of the targets were civilian infrastructure. Reem Al Hashimy, the UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation, said during a Sunday morning appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that Iran was seeking to destroy the UAE’s “model of prosperity and tolerance….

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Why the ceasefire in Lebanon won’t stop Israel’s expansionist ambitions

Why the ceasefire in Lebanon won’t stop Israel’s expansionist ambitions

Dimi Reider writes: No other Israeli border has been as consistently restive for so long, and no outside actor has inflicted devastation on Lebanon as routinely or as dramatically as Israel: from cross-border raids in the first decades of statehood, to full-scale invasion in 1982, to the current war — the most lethal conflict in Lebanon since the devastating civil war of 1975-1990. Lebanon has also been the unwilling setting for a more definitive strain of Israeli wars — those…

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The disconnect between markets and the unfolding global economic crisis

The disconnect between markets and the unfolding global economic crisis

The Washington Post reports: As stocks soared this week and oil prices dropped amid an apparent cooling of tensions between the United States and Iran, it may have left the impression that the energy shock that rattled the world would quickly fade, along with the risk of sending the global economy into recession. The optimism may have been short-lived. On Saturday, Iran’s military announced it would reimpose restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, throwing the critical waterway’s status into doubt….

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‘You cannot beat geography’: Iran already has a nuclear weapon. ‘It’s called the Strait of Hormuz.’

‘You cannot beat geography’: Iran already has a nuclear weapon. ‘It’s called the Strait of Hormuz.’

The New York Times reports: The United States and Israel launched their war against Iran on the argument that if Iran one day got a nuclear weapon, it would have the ultimate deterrent against future attacks. It turns out that Iran already has a deterrent: its own geography. Iran’s decision to flex its control over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point through which 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows, has brought global economic pain…

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Trump is wishing away the war against Iran the way he did Covid. The stock market is buying his lies

Trump is wishing away the war against Iran the way he did Covid. The stock market is buying his lies

Jason Sattler writes: Everyone has finally picked up the pattern. When the stock market is open, Donald Trump is a peacemaker — Mr. Art of the Deal. Then the closing bell rings and the monster awakes. He becomes the sort of bloodthirsty beast who nods along to Pete Hegseth quoting Pulp Fiction as if it’s the Bible. And the march to global war continues. The rally that followed his latest peace headfake made real people real money. The peace was…

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Netanyahu torched U.S. support for Israel for a generation

Netanyahu torched U.S. support for Israel for a generation

Axios reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wreaking havoc on Israel’s standing with Americans as the Iran war supercharges a deterioration in relations with the U.S. Why it matters: Israel’s polling collapse among younger Americans is hitting Congress, too. Lawmakers who started out staunchly pro-Israel are becoming increasingly vocal critics. “We need to have a discussion about how to normalize that relationship and what change is necessary; there’s no doubt about that,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) told Axios. Zoom in: Every…

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U.S. sailors in Middle East rationing their food supplies, families report

U.S. sailors in Middle East rationing their food supplies, families report

USA Today reports: Dan F. was alarmed when his daughter, a Marine aboard the USS Tripoli, a warship deployed to fight the Iran war, sent him a photo of a meal served on the ship. A lunch tray, two-thirds empty, carried one small scoop of shredded meat and a single folded tortilla. A picture of a mid-April dinner on the USS Abraham Lincoln, shared by a service member with his family, was similarly unappetizing – a small handful of boiled…

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Diplomatic cables show the war against Iran is damaging the U.S. on multiple fronts across the world

Diplomatic cables show the war against Iran is damaging the U.S. on multiple fronts across the world

Politico reports: The Iran war is risking America’s global security ties and damaging its reputation, especially among the world’s Muslims, according to a set of State Department cables obtained by POLITICO. The cables, dated Wednesday, described the fallout of the war for America’s standing in three countries in different parts of the world: Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Indonesia. U.S. diplomats at embassies in the countries’ capitals painted damning portraits of an America under siege in multiple media spheres by pro-Iranian actors…

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Colonial expansion: Support for settlement of Lebanon goes mainstream in Israel

Colonial expansion: Support for settlement of Lebanon goes mainstream in Israel

Jewish Currents reports: Uri Tzafon’s vision of establishing Israeli settlements in Lebanon has advanced significantly over the last six weeks. What was considered a fringe curiosity in 2024 is transforming into the new Israeli conventional wisdom—backed by an organized movement with broad support from politicians and the media. Even as negotiations could force Israel to halt its bombardment of Lebanon, the next time Israel attacks, Uri Tzafon will be one step closer to building civilian settlements atop the ruins of Lebanese villages….

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Pope Leo says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

Pope Leo says ‘world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ amid feud with Trump’s White House

The Guardian reports: Pope Leo XIV has said that the world is being “ravaged by a handful of tyrants” who spend billions on war, in comments that will be seen as another sharp escalation in his almost week-long feud with the White House over the US-Israel war on Iran. The first American-born pontiff did not mention Donald Trump by name, but used his speech in Cameroon on Thursday to denounce world leaders that invoke religion to justify violence against other…

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Israel hits a low point with Democrats in Congress

Israel hits a low point with Democrats in Congress

Axios reports: Israel’s relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is rapidly deteriorating, with a growing number of lawmakers saying they can no longer support U.S. funding for even the country’s defensive weaponry. Why it matters: Opposing the use of American taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system was “seen as insanely fringe four years ago,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) told Axios. No longer. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told Axios he “cannot support more military assistance” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he has…

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Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction

Hegseth channels his inner Tarantino with fake Bible verse from Pulp Fiction

Richard Luscombe writes: It was perhaps inevitable that a braggadocious Christian nationalist defense secretary elevated from his role as a weekend Fox News television host would pluck a fake Bible verse from a violent Hollywood blockbuster and present it at a Pentagon prayer session to rally the troops for the “holy war” in Iran. Certainly among a glut of stories swirling around Pete Hegseth this week, including articles of impeachment brought against him by a group of ambitious Democratic lawmakers,…

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