Saudi Arabia: The Kingdom That Tamed the Tribes
The House of Saud built a durable state over older tribal, religious and regional loyalties. Could Yemen change the bargains that have held the kingdom together?
World
The War in Yemen Is Reopening Saudi Arabia’s Oldest Question
A century ago, British money, weapons and air power helped Abdulaziz ibn Saud defeat his rivals and consolidate the kingdom that bears his family’s name. Now Ansarallah’s advance from Yemen is exposing the older tribal and political landscape beneath the modern Saudi state.
Saudi Arabia’s Crisis Puts Turkey and Pakistan’s Defence Promise to the Test
Attacks on Saudi Arabia and Houthi advances in Yemen are testing its defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan. What have the partners promised, and how far are they prepared to go?
A Damaged Pipeline, a Threatened Sea Route: Saudi Arabia’s Oil Dilemma
Pipeline attacks and Ansar Allah’s coastal advance have exposed Saudi Arabia’s alternative to Hormuz. Repairing the damage may prove easier than securing the route.
BRICS Wants Seamless Global Payments. Who Will Set the Rules?
BRICS wants to connect national payment systems such as India’s UPI and Brazil’s Pix. Currency conversion, costs and control remain obstacles to seamless international transfers.
Divided on War, BRICS Takes Aim at the Machinery of Economic Power
Ukraine goes unmentioned and Middle East divisions persist, but the BRICS New Delhi declaration advances a shared ambition for greater control over finance, trade and development.
Putin Warns Europe: Troops in Ukraine Would Mean War With Russia
Putin’s warning exposes a central obstacle to a Ukrainian ceasefire: Europe wants troops to help secure the peace, while Moscow regards their presence as grounds for war.
Saudi Oil Escape Route Threatened as Houthis Seize Red Sea Gateway Island
Houthi forces have seized Mayun Island at the entrance to the Red Sea as drone attacks shut Saudi Arabia’s East–West pipeline, threatening the kingdom’s alternative oil export route and deepening the energy crisis surrounding the war with Iran.
BRICS Summit Opens in Delhi as Leaders Push to Build a World Less Dependent on the Dollar
As Putin, Xi and other BRICS leaders gather in New Delhi, the bloc is confronting a larger question than the creation of a new currency. India, China, Russia and Iran have very different ambitions, but they increasingly share one objective: building payment, trade and financial systems that leave them less dependent on the dollar and Western controlled institutions.
A Short History of BRICS: From Diplomatic Ambition to Global Influence
As BRICS meets in New Delhi, we trace its journey from the pursuit of a multipolar world to a development bank and an expanded membership, examining its achievements and the differences that constrain its ambitions.
Trump’s War Is Coming Home Through America’s Debt
The war with Iran is exposing the financial costs of American power. Higher energy prices and expensive borrowing threaten to squeeze households already struggling with housing costs and student debt, while narrowing Washington’s room to provide relief.
Meng Wanzhou Came Home. Huawei’s American Trial Never Went Away
Five years after Meng Wanzhou returned to China, her negotiated admissions are being used against Huawei. As witnesses testify in Brooklyn, the case revives Chinese suspicions that Washington is using the law to contain a technological rival.
How Yemen’s Houthis Reached the Gate of the Red Sea
Ansar Allah’s advance to Bab el Mandeb has placed Yemen once again at the centre of a struggle over global trade, regional power and foreign intervention. The road to the Red Sea runs through British colonial rule, Saudi influence, failed unification, a devastating war and the Iranian support that transformed the Houthis into a regional military force.
China Can Afford Dearer Oil. Can Its Factories?
China’s export earnings and vast financial reserves provide a cushion against the Middle East energy crisis. But smaller manufacturers face a harder calculation as rising costs meet customers unwilling to pay more, exposing the uneven strength of the world’s industrial powerhouse.
Britain Is Already Paying for the Iran War. What Happens If Oil Goes to $140?
Britain is already absorbing the economic cost of the Iran war as oil approaches $100, gilt yields rise and debt interest costs increase. If crude climbs towards $140, the pressure on inflation, interest rates and the Chancellor’s Budget could intensify sharply.
America Put Huawei’s Founder’s Daughter in Chains. Now It Puts Huawei on Trial
Eight years after Meng Wanzhou’s arrest, Huawei faces a sweeping American criminal trial whose timing threatens to overshadow Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington.
The AfD Has Won. Germany Does Not Know What Comes Next
The AfD has won 43.8 per cent in Saxony-Anhalt but remains three seats short of a majority. Its historic victory exposes the political and economic failures that carried it from an anti-euro protest party to regional dominance.
Defence / China / United States
China Is Preparing for a War of Attrition America Wasn’t Built to Fight
Chinese military thinkers are developing a strategy built on a brutal equation: force America to spend more than it can replace and turn its technological superiority into a contest of industrial endurance.
China’s Robotic Wolves Lead a New PLA Revolution
From robotic wolves and intelligent tanks to drone carriers and electromagnetic catapults, China is building a connected military designed to operate across every domain.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) Reaches the City America’s Vietnam War Made
After 264 consecutive days without a full port call, the USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in Thailand carrying an exhausted crew. Its refuge was Pattaya, a city transformed by American servicemen during the Vietnam War.
To the Victor Belong the Spoils: America’s Venezuelan Oil Deal
After US forces removed Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela rewrote its oil law and granted a Pentagon-linked venture century-long rights over 65 billion barrels. The agreement could revive production but will it rebuild Venezuela or extract its wealth?
Across a Broken Frontier, China and Nepal Unite in Relief
China and Nepal are working across their shattered Himalayan frontier as rescuers search for the missing, monitor unstable lakes and begin the immense task of rebuilding.
A Second Flood Threatens Nepal as a New Himalayan Lake Builds Behind the Wreckage
The glacier collapse that unleashed a devastating flood through Tibet and Nepal has created a new danger. Debris has dammed the upper river again, and millions of cubic metres of water are accumulating above communities still recovering from the first disaster.
Why Should a War Thousands of Miles Away Determine British Electricity Prices ?
More than half of Britain’s electricity is generated from renewable sources, yet international gas prices can still determine the wholesale price of power. As conflict in the Middle East pushes bills higher again, Britain faces an uncomfortable question: why does expensive gas retain such influence over electricity increasingly generated from wind and other renewables?
China / Iran / United States
Trump’s Iran Sanctions Face Their Biggest Obstacle: China
Washington’s attempt to tighten the economic isolation of Iran faces a fundamental obstacle: China, the dominant buyer of Iranian oil. Beijing is warning against expanded US secondary sanctions, raising questions about international law, American financial power and the risk of a wider economic confrontation.
Opinion / Iran / United States
Scott Bessent’s Economic D Day Against Iran Is Built on a Dangerous Illusion
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises to sever every economic lifeline sustaining Iran. Tehran says Washington is claiming authority over other sovereign states. History, geography, China’s resistance and Iran’s leverage over Gulf commerce suggest America can inflict enormous suffering without securing surrender or controlling what follows.
The $40 Trillion Empire: How Debt Built American Power and Began to Consume It
America’s $40 trillion debt is more than a fiscal warning. For half a century, deficits and dollar dominance financed consumption, Wall Street and global military reach. Now interest costs are overtaking defence spending, political consent is weakening, and the machinery of American hegemony is becoming an increasingly expensive constraint.
America’s “Economic D Day” Against Iran May Be a Weapon It Cannot Control
Washington believes unprecedented sanctions can force Iran into submission. But the strategy depends upon Chinese cooperation, while Tehran retains the power to disrupt Gulf oil exports, increase global energy costs and turn America’s economic offensive against the wider world economy.
Cuba Has Survived 65 Years of American Sanctions. Now Washington Is Turning Out the Lights
For almost two-thirds of a century, Washington has tried to make Cuba’s revolutionary government economically unviable. The island survived through Soviet support, rationing, public healthcare, Venezuelan oil and the endurance of its people. Now an American energy siege is turning chronic decline into a struggle for electricity, water, medicine and national sovereignty.
Europe’s Unprecedented Drought Is Drying Its Rivers, Ruining Harvests and Shutting Down Power Stations
Europe’s 2026 drought is spreading through the continent’s physical economy. From nuclear shutdowns on the Danube to restricted shipping on the Rhine and declining harvests in England, the crisis is exposing how electricity, industry, food production and new data centres all depend on increasingly scarce water.
Britain and Europe Are Preparing for Conflict With Russia Without Fully Examining the Consequences
Britain and its European allies are becoming more deeply involved in the war in Ukraine, while Moscow increasingly describes NATO as a participant. A direct conflict remains avoidable, but the risks deserve serious examination from attacks on military and energy infrastructure to pressure on shipping, industry and Europe’s already vulnerable fuel supplies.
The Yen Should Be Rising. Its Failure to Do So Is Exposing Japan’s Trillion Yen Debt Trap
The yen should be strengthening as the interest rate gap with America narrows. Instead it remains stubbornly weak. The market may be signalling a deeper problem: Japan needs higher interest rates to support its currency, but decades of cheap money have left the government with an enormous debt burden that becomes progressively more expensive as rates rise.
Russia Maps British and European Shipping in the Pacific as Putin Threatens Retaliation at Sea
Britain has exploited its command of the English Channel to tighten the pressure on Russia’s shadow fleet. Now Moscow is turning the map around. The Pacific Fleet has identified European-owned merchant ships passing close to Russia’s Far Eastern bases, exposing a maritime vulnerability Britain would struggle to defend.
Inside the Shadow Fleet: The Tanker Britain Seized and the £35 Million Mystery in Its Holds
Britain’s seizure of the Smyrtos, carrying 101,400 tonnes of Russian crude towards India, has exposed the extraordinary machinery behind Moscow’s shadow oil trade. The tanker had lost its flag, its ownership leads to Hong Kong, and its captain now faces prosecution. But the most important question remains unanswered: who owns the £35 million cargo Britain has seized?
Europe’s Perfect Storm: Drought, War and the Coming Food Shock
Europe’s drought is damaging crops, draining rivers and constraining power generation just as the Iran war disrupts oil and fertiliser supplies through Hormuz. Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea escape route is under pressure too. The consequences are already reaching the 2026 harvest; what happens to Europe’s rain and the war this winter could determine the harvest of 2027.
The Japanese Money That Helped Finance America Is Coming Home
Japan spent three decades exporting cheap capital and became America’s largest foreign creditor. As the yen slid towards ¥164 to the dollar, Washington intervened not just to support Japan, but to contain a threat to the Treasury market and the financial system built on cheap Japanese money.
Africa Is Building a Financial System of Its Own and the Dollar Is No Longer Always Needed
Africa is building the financial infrastructure its continental market has long lacked. PAPSS, direct African currency trading and regional settlement networks are beginning to connect economies once linked more efficiently to London, Paris and New York than to each other — reducing the dollar’s role without pretending it can simply be replaced.
Britain Has Money. Why Can It No Longer Build?
Britain has world class finance, universities, science and enormous pools of capital. Yet it invests less than any other G7 economy and struggles to build infrastructure, housing and productive capacity. The deeper British malaise is not simply a shortage of money, but a failure to turn wealth, research and investment into things the economy needs.
The Iran War Is Becoming Many Wars and Washington May No Longer Be Able to Stop Them
From Yemen and Iraq to Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, the war with Iran is reactivating older conflicts with grievances and political agendas of their own. Even a settlement between Washington and Tehran may no longer be enough to bring the wider Middle East crisis to an end.
The Old Middle East Is Breaking Apart, A New Order Is Taking Shape.
The confrontation with Iran is becoming something larger than a war. From the Strait of Hormuz to Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon, the old American-led security architecture is being challenged by regional powers determined to impose costs of their own. Out of the conflict, the outlines of a different Middle East are beginning to emerge.
Russia’s Greater Resources Are Beginning to Decide the War as the Battle Moves to the Cities
Russia’s larger population, deeper industrial base, greater energy resources and superior capacity in missiles, aircraft, air defence and large-scale weapons production are steadily widening the imbalance with Ukraine. As the war moves from the front line into cities, infrastructure and the machinery of the state, the underlying balance increasingly points towards a Russian victory.
Why Sanae Takaichi Closed Japan’s Throne to Princess Aiko
Japan’s first female prime minister has introduced one of the most significant changes to the Imperial Household in decades. Rather than allowing Princess Aiko to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne, Sanae Takaichi’s government chose to reinforce male-line succession through a new legal framework, exposing a deeper struggle over history, political power and the future of Japan’s constitutional monarchy.
The Economics of Power: Why the West’s Greatest Challenge Begins at Home
Military strength no longer rests on armies alone. Artificial intelligence, sovereign debt, industrial capacity, energy security and manufacturing have become parts of the same strategic system. As America competes with China while financing unprecedented technological and military expansion, the real question is no longer who has the strongest military, but which economic system can sustain power over time.
The Ceuta Illusion: Why Europe’s Border Did Not Collapse
The dramatic scenes in Ceuta were widely described as an invasion of Europe. They were not. The migrants entered a small Spanish enclave but could not freely travel to mainland Spain. The real story is how migration became a geopolitical weapon, exposing Europe’s dependence on Morocco and turning one frontier into an instrument of political pressure. I think this framing is stronger because it tells the reader something surprising in the first sentence and accurately reflects the article’s central conclusion.
Russia Calls It a War With the West as Ukraine and Iran’s Conflict Begins to Merge
A Ukrainian drone has killed an Iranian sailor in the Caspian, Russia has paralysed Ukraine’s Black Sea corridor, and the Iran war is consuming missiles and fuel needed in Europe. The conflicts remain separate in command, but their targets, weapons, shipping routes and retaliations are rapidly converging.
Inside the Slow Destruction of Ukraine’s Donbas Fortress
For more than a decade Ukraine transformed the Donbas into one of Europe’s most formidable defensive systems, binding cities, mines, railways and roads into a single fortress. Russia’s campaign has become the slow dismantling of that military landscape, where the decisive battle is no longer only for cities, but for the roads and connections that keep the fortress alive.
The Deindustrialisation of Germany: How Europe’s Economic Engine Began to Break Down
Germany’s industrial model once appeared unassailable, built on engineering excellence, affordable energy and global exports. Today suppliers are cutting thousands of jobs, factories are closing, and China has become both competitor and investor. This is the story of how Europe’s economic powerhouse reached its most serious industrial crisis in decades and whether it can still reverse the decline.
Three Days Without American Strikes. Is the Iran War Ending or About to Resume?
America prepared a wider attack on Iran, but senior commanders warned Trump that further bombing might expose US forces without breaking Tehran’s control of Hormuz. As Washington tests a diplomatic pause, Netanyahu arrives to argue that stopping now would allow Iran to claim victory.