Economics

Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh Diplomacy, in the Middle East, rarely arrives as a gesture of peace. More often, it emerges as an extension of war by other means—language replacing artillery, but not intent. The recent U.S.-brokered meeting in Washington on April 14, 2026—bringing together representatives of Lebanon and Israel …

Julian Borger Shah Meer Baloch Andrew Roth The US and Iran have been in indirect talks aimed at extending the two-week ceasefire beyond its expiry on 22 April, as Pakistan’s army chief arrived in Tehran to continue mediation efforts. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, denied on …

Lawrence J. Haas Iran’s economy is already crippled, but still resilient. The US economy is less threatened, but its political system is less tolerant of short-term economic pain. With its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz now in place, Washington faces the twin challenge of maintaining it in …

No one should be surprised by the growing number of voices calling for Britain to return to the EU, or at least to accelerate and deepen the “reset” currently underway. There are four sets of reasons for this: Economic: Brexit has turned out to be even more costly …

Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), visited China from April 7–12, 2026. Following a meeting with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, both leaders indicated their wish to see a peaceful situation over the Taiwan Strait. The KMT leader too remembered the common cultural …

Prior to Donald Trump’s Presidential order for the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, Israel’s recent attack on more than 100 places in Lebanon had violated the long-awaited and most complicated ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran. The seriousness of the Islamabad-brokered peace talk lies in the …

Ryan Fedasiuk Raw computer processing power—known within the industry as “compute”—is quickly becoming the bottleneck in global AI development, and China has taken note. Since February, I’ve run an AI analytics platform called “Digital Embassy.” Half-private intelligence service, half-public good, it synthesizes daily news wires from 22 world …

Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh There are moments in history when events do not merely unfold—they expose. They reveal not only the limits of power, but the limits of interpretation itself. The recent war with Iran belongs to this rare category: not simply a military confrontation, but an epistemological rupture …

The looming May 14–15 summit in Beijing between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping presents a puzzle that conventional geopolitical maps struggle to navigate. As Trump seeks to end the major military operations against Iran before this high-stakes visit, he will find a Chinese leader who is not coming …