Musk called USAID a criminal organization on X while fronting DOGE. The auditor found 6,780 of 7,510 awards cut and most savings unverifiable. The public megaphone was shut. The private one kept speaking...
A US missile killed at least 175 people, most of them children, at a girls school in Minab. Voters punished the war eight months later, for the price of fuel. The vote changed the managers. The money and the war stayed...
Netanyahu now blames foreign countries for his defeat. Kerry once said the army that removed Morsi was restoring democracy. Five ballots, from Cairo to Jerusalem, show one rule: the vote counts only when it agrees...
For twenty years Washington claimed it was building democracy in Afghanistan. Then it overruled the vote, negotiated without the elected government, and said it was never the mission. Now voters at home learn the same lesson...
Democrats took both chambers and 60 percent said attacking Iran was wrong. But the new Congress sits January 3, a veto needs 67 votes, and the wave replaced the Republicans who voted to restrain the war. The war did not get the m…
Washington approved 500 Patriots for Ukraine, paid by Europe, that may take years to arrive. The same week, a Patriot battery moved to Israel, and the Gulf, which paid cash for hundreds more, was told to brace. Delivery follows p…
A tanker was hit with limpet mines in Hormuz two months after Washington declared the lanes clear. Washington, Tehran and an unconfirmed Iran and Oman deal now draw three maps of one strait. In the Black Sea, Türkiye kept outside…
Taiz, a city of a million, is in famine, its governor says. A road blown up on October 18 cut its food, fuel and water. On October 26, the Muslim powers met in Tehran over missiles and Hormuz. The accounts published so far do not…
Twice in this war, talks were set for the days the bombs fell: June 2025 and February 2026. Now Vance proposes talks for the week the Gulf has been told to brace. And the same Iranian official got the letter one day before the Sa…
Two million Arab citizens are offered as proof Israel is no apartheid state. They voted in record numbers and won 19 seats. In government, those seats could win budgets, safety and fewer demolitions. They cannot change who the st…
Netanyahu lost his majority and blamed the Arab voter, speaking of a Zionist majority that subtracts a fifth of the citizens. Likud prepared fraud challenges before anyone voted. Trump, at 31 percent, has made the midterms condit…
Netanyahu lost his majority and blamed the Arab voter, speaking of a Zionist majority that subtracts a fifth of the citizens. Likud prepared fraud challenges before anyone voted. Trump, at 31 percent, has made the midterms condit…
An Israeli strategist said Sunni states would not unite without a Palestinian state. They did, after Gaza and the Israeli strike on Doha. Israel calls the pact a threat. It gains only if the pact is turned into a war on Iran. It …
Executive Summary: Polls put Eisenkot ahead of Netanyahu. But on Iran, a Palestinian state and the Muslim powers, his rivals share the same doctrine. And the Arab votes that could decide the outcome have been ruled out of any gov…
Executive Summary: Twice before, US diplomats left the region days before strikes on Iran. This week they left Saudi Arabia and cut staff in four more states, as strike plans for after November 3 emerge. The evacuation clock is r…
Executive Summary: Oil rose before the bombs fell on Iran. The war gave Big Oil record profits. Now, days before the midterms, the pump price falls while crude nears 100 dollars. From Kabul to Ankara to Washington, cheap fuel bef…
Executive Summary: A convicted sex offender stayed welcome in banks, ministries, campuses and royal homes for a decade. The Epstein files show a broker of money and access, and UN experts say the abuses may be crimes against huma…
Executive Summary: At Jamal, Muslim historians record, the leaders were close to peace when others started the fight. Today a disputed drone war drains Saudi Arabia and ties down Türkiye and Pakistan, the same states Israeli lead…
Executive Summary: Dozens of leaders marched in Paris for a magazine that mocked the Prophet. Tens of thousands of children, hundreds of journalists, medics and UN staff killed in Gaza and Lebanon got no march. Instead, Paris, Be…
Executive Summary: Five states, not seven. Badr and Mecca are not a new bloc. They are something more useful to Washington: partners taking on the defence of Saudi skies and pipelines that an America short of interceptors will no…
Executive Summary: Dozens of Israeli jets flew through Syrian and Iraqi skies to the border of Iran and turned back. Some US officials suspect Israel hoped Iran would fire. Trump pledged no attack before the midterms. His pledge …
Executive Summary: Netanyahu ordered a multi day campaign against Iran for October 10, seventeen days before Israelis vote. Trump stopped it to protect his midterms. The war was postponed, not cancelled, and the brake comes off w…
Executive Summary: Hegseth flew unannounced to Israel to discuss resuming war on Iran. But Netanyahu wants quiet until October 27, Trump has promised no strike before November 3, and Tehran is stalling talks to deny Trump a win. …
Executive Summary: French schoolchildren marched for teachers. Then shops burned, and the debate became curfews and protest bans. Paris condemned Tehran for repressing protesters, and Europe questioned Islamabad after its riots. …
Executive Summary: Egypt moves to defend Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan activate the Mecca pact, Washington shares targets. Every partner draws the same line: defend the kingdom, do not fight in Yemen. Riyadh is building a sh…
Executive Summary: Romanian F-16s shot down two Geran drones near Sulina after ten days of attacks on ships near NATO shores. Some suspect Kyiv is trying to drag NATO in. The record points to Moscow, but the effect serves Kyiv: a…
Executive Summary: Albertans vote Monday on ten questions. Separation is likely to fail. The questions on charging and restricting temporary residents may pass, on wording a pollster says overstates support, for a deficit driven …
Executive Summary: In the same year, with the same weapons, the TPLF lost Mekelle in weeks while the Houthis struck Riyadh airport 20 times in eleven days. Drones favour the side with a supply line, and punish movements that figh…
Executive Summary: Washington lifted sanctions on the Eritrean army on September 18. Days later the TPLF went to war, and Eritrean troops crossed into Ethiopia. Within weeks Mekelle fell and Ethiopian tanks reached the Eritrean b…
Executive Summary: Riyadh airport was attacked at least 20 times in eleven days while the coalition said 100 jets were striking Yemen. Seven years of air power failed before. The Houthis do not need to win. They need to survive a…
Executive Summary: The 100,000 troops in the Saudi plan are Yemeni, not Saudi. Riyadh supplies jets and money while its airport closes and its investment showcase goes hybrid. The only modern model of total victory is Sri Lanka i…
Executive Summary: Azerbaijan is turning hijab wearing girls away from school, and the world is quiet. Afghanistan has seen this: reforms pushed from above in 1928 and 1978, then closed schools. The state that forces the scarf of…
Executive Summary: Ukraine voted at war in 2014 and 2019, yet Kyiv now says a vote must wait for a ceasefire only Putin can grant. Polls point to a reason: Zelensky leads a crowded first round but loses every runoff tested. The w…
Executive Summary: In February a Starlink speed cap blinded Russian units. In October a similar switch hit Ukraine, days after Trump demanded an end to refinery strikes. Service is back and the strikes have resumed. Ukraine holds…
Executive Summary: Netanyahu offered to fight the Houthis for Riyadh and was refused. His army chief warned a strike could delay the October 27 election. What if the Houthi war serves both sides of the enmity, and Netanyahu most …
Executive Summary: Houthi missiles killed at least 12 at Riyadh airport as Saudi air defences failed. The Patriot and THAAD stocks Gulf capitals rely on were rapidly used up early in the US war on Iran. Riyadh is defending itself…
Executive Summary: Paris with Hanoi in 1973, Doha with the Taliban in 2020, an Oman deal with the Houthis in 2025. America keeps ending its wars at a table with the enemy it set out to destroy. Seven months into the Iran war, Teh…
Executive Summary: In four days, Ukrainian drones shut three Yandex data centres, including those housing its AI supercomputers. In the Gulf, AWS still cannot restore data lost to Iranian strikes six months ago. Unlike a refinery…
Executive Summary: India detained more than 2,000 people protesting the removal of about 130 million names from voter rolls. A day later, Pakistan suspended the elected government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. One edits the voters, the …
Executive Summary: A century after Britain signed its treaty with Ibn Saud and backed the revolt against the Ottomans, Riyadh has invoked a pact named after Mecca and called in Türkiye and Pakistan. The heirs of the Ottomans are …
Executive Summary: Russia publicly rejects an energy truce while privately asking Washington for sanctions relief in exchange for one. With refining at a twenty year low and fuel exports banned, the price Moscow has named shows w…
Executive Summary: On September 18, Washington lifted sanctions on the Eritrean army. Nineteen days later it crossed into Ethiopia. The Iran war made the Red Sea coast vital, and a small state moved against a giant once the leash…
Executive Summary: No bomber was hit and no drone was found, yet a dozen US B-1s left RAF Fairford over a suspected Iran linked drone plot reportedly modelled on Ukraine and its Spiderweb strike. The perimeter of the Iran war now…
Saudi backed forces say they retook Mokha and the coast at Bab al Mandab. The Houthis deny it and are striking Saudi airports. The bigger change is political: Riyadh now owns the anti Houthi camp alone, and every fracture inside …
Ships are sinking in the Black Sea, tankers are hit daily in Hormuz and Bab al Mandab is a battlefield. Meanwhile the state that has policed free navigation for decades is blockading Venezuela, Cuba and Iran. The sea has acquired…
Gulf states bought the most advanced air defences on the market. In the Iran war they ran short of interceptors, and Washington rationed the refills. From Moscow to Riyadh, the lesson is the same: whoever owns the factory owns th…
A UN report says more than 200,000 tonnes of explosives fell on Gaza in under two years. Israel counts targets, Washington counts shipments, and no one publishes what was dropped, by type, on whom. Now 60,000 more heavy bombs are…
On October 5 the Makkah alliance ordered the rapid deployment of forces into Saudi Arabia, two months after signing and before its machinery exists. The pattern is visible: those who pay send no soldiers, those who are paid send …
Türkiye now designs and builds drones, drone carriers, tanks, frigates and air defence, and proved its drones in Karabakh and Idlib. Its exports hit a record in 2025. But its tanks, drones and fighters still depend on foreign eng…
Saudi Arabia is preparing an offensive of up to 100,000 Yemeni troops to retake Bab al Mandab. Pakistani air defence, Turkish drones, American targeting and French soldiers fill every layer except Saudi infantry. The goal is a co…
Iranian media say the IRGC Navy hit seven tankers in five days. Maritime monitors call the weapons unknown projectiles. Iranian claims, warnings and targets line up, and no evidence yet points elsewhere. The story is still develo…
Iran says it can now strike a moving target with a long range ballistic missile. Washington says its carriers evaded every attack. From Ain al Asad to Al Udeid, American denials have been revised upward each time the evidence arr…
Pakistan has sent soldiers to defend Arab states since 1970 and now has 30,000 to 40,000 in Saudi Arabia. The Makkah pact promises that an attack on one is an attack on all, yet its text is unpublished and nothing defines what Ri…
More than 1,000 Tomahawks and 1,000 Patriot interceptors spent, rebuilding into 2030, tankers hit on the ground. The Iran war shows American deterrence is advanced but scarce, while Chinese arms arrive cheap, plentiful and with f…
Crude is creeping back through Hormuz, but diesel is still scarce. With midterms five weeks away, Washington is pressing Europe to empty its emergency reserves while threatening to cut off the American diesel Europe now depends o…
The United States makes 5.3 million barrels a day of diesel and heating oil and uses 3.6 million. Yet Louisiana declared an emergency. The shortage is not in production. It is in where the barrels go, and in how Washington now us…
In 1992 the Pentagon wrote that no new rival should emerge and named Western Europe as a region able to generate global power. Since then Europe lost Russian gas and Gulf fuel, Venezuelan oil passed to American hands, and Washing…
Washington helped Ukraine burn Russian refineries, then pressed Kyiv to stop. It blockades Iran, escorts the Gulf and now weighs cutting diesel to its own allies. Control is not destroying supply. It is deciding who receives it...
It was known: Washington named China its only true rival. It was planned: energy became a declared lever of power. It was predicted: Hormuz would hurt Asia. Then Venezuela, Iran and Russian refineries fell, and the oil tap moved …
The US government documented that Hormuz fed Asia, not America. Banks modelled the price shock. Washington built the export machine. Then war closed the strait, and American petroleum exports hit a record 13.6 million barrels a d…
On September 24, Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly under an active ICC warrant while UN agencies count hundreds of their own staff dead, dozens of their facilities destroyed and hospitals reduced to mass graves...
Saudi Arabia already fields Patriot and THAAD, and Britain and France have both sent more interceptors. Yet on September 19 Turkiye said it was ready to meet Saudi military needs. Owning an advanced missile is not the same as own…
On September 25, Yemen called for general mobilization against the Houthis while Saudi, Turkish and Pakistani chiefs met in Riyadh to deepen intelligence sharing, coordination and capability integration. One mobilizes men. The ot…
Everyone argues about whether four ageing leaders are reckless. The question nobody asks is how few people it now takes to end a civilisation, how little time they are given, and why the arrangement was built that way...
Hormuz now carries under a quarter of its pre war oil, Bab al Mandab carries more than before, and more crude is going round the Cape of Good Hope than through either. The oil was not stopped. It was made to travel further...
Rich countries are required by treaty to hold ninety days of fuel. Egypt and Pakistan are required to hold nothing. The reserve that would end the rationing costs less than one quarter of this war has already cost them...
Ukraine is destroying the machines that turn Russian crude into diesel. The Gulf war is doing the same to shipping. Nobody asks who pays, and the answer is the countries that own neither refineries nor ships...
Eighty confirmed attacks, twenty two dead seafarers, and almost no published findings. Everyone argues about who fired. Nobody asks why, seven months into this war, no one has been made to find out...
North Korea fired two missiles in the week Seoul offered a staged deal. Three Muslim states disarmed under Western assurance and were invaded, bombed or overthrown. Pyongyang read that record and reversed the order...
Ukraine has dropped kamikaze ground robots more than ten kilometres behind Russian lines. No machine chose a target. But the human is being removed from war one step at a time, and no government will announce the step that matter…
Washington holds Hormuz. Europe is gathering warships at Bab al Mandab. A British tanker keeps British built Saudi jets in the air between them. The two gates of the Gulf are being secured by powers from outside the region...
The machine gun at Omdurman, the tank at Gaza, thermal sights in Iraq. Each time, the Muslim world learned the new weapon as its target. Artificial intelligence is now choosing targets in Iran and Gaza, and the pattern is repeati…
Washington kept its understanding with the Houthis and declined to refuel Saudi jets. Within weeks Britain sent a tanker to do exactly that. The Kingdom is handed from one Western capital to the next...
Riyadh built a 1,200 kilometre pipeline so its oil would never depend on Hormuz. Drones shut it, and Saudi crude is now moving back through the strait where American warships decide what passes...
A cloned voice on a radio network moved a front line that ten years of war and the eighth largest military budget in the world could not hold. Hardware can be bought. Command cannot.
Washington told Kyiv to stop striking Russian diesel because it was hurting the world. A week later Ukraine struck the Moscow refinery. The war that shut Hormuz drew no such protest, though consumers everywhere pay for both.
A Chinese DF-15A booster fell in Yemen in the same weeks that Washington refused to fight for Riyadh. The ballistic missile the Kingdom can fire without Western permission came from Beijing, not from Europe.
Türkiye condemned the Houthi attacks and told Riyadh it would meet its military requirements. It also urged that Saudi Arabia be kept out of the US and Iran war, and it closed an Iranian bank under US sanctions pressure...
Smoke rose over the Riyadh airport fuel depot as the Houthis claimed strikes on the Saudi capital. From Hormuz to Bab al Mandab, the war on Iran is turning into a war over the corridors that carry Gulf energy to the world...
Washington met the Houthis in secret, secured its own ships, left Saudi vessels outside the pledge and refused to fight. Four days later it notified Congress of a $24.3 billion F-35 sale that cannot reach this war...
Iran against the Gulf. Pakistan against Afghanistan. Baghdad purging its own. Ansarallah against Riyadh. In the same week the Israeli prime minister reportedly offered military participation to the Arabian Peninsula, and his chie…
The crown prince telephoned twice and asked for strikes. He was told the United States protects freedom of navigation while regional partners take the lead. That sentence is the doctrine published in January, and this was its fir…
The declaration condemns deliberate attacks on safeguarded nuclear facilities and does not say who carried them out. In the same document it names the blockade of Cuba. The difference is not severity. It is the seating plan...
The air was not safe. The trades were not innocent. The warning was not lost. In every case the official body cleared it and somebody outside the building established otherwise, usually years later, usually after the records were…
The executive director of the commission was the author of the September 2002 preemption strategy used to justify Iraq. Its chairmen say they did not know when they hired him, and learned only in the final months...
The American Joint Chiefs signed a proposal to stage terrorist attacks on American citizens and blame a foreign country. It was classified for thirty five years. Anyone describing it before 1997 would have been called a lunatic...
The bid is for two thousand chips, which is nothing. It is for military, security and surveillance use, plus a national database linking the civil registry to facial and voice recognition. Both rivals are offering to build it...
In June 2025 Washington said an Iranian missile strike had done minimal damage. Independent imagery showed a 15 million dollar communications terminal destroyed, and the Pentagon conceded hours after publication. It is issuing de…
An entity with no address, no staff and no legal existence published 560,000 words in nine days, declared itself to the Justice Department as Israeli government material, and was built to be read by machines that do not check dec…
Missiles were fired at an American carrier and a destroyer. Washington answered by destroying an Iranian tanker. Tehran reads the answer as confirmation of a hit, which is the argument a party makes when it cannot produce a photo…
The Mecca Pact binds Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to treat an attack on one as an attack on all. Its members disagree about who the enemy is, and the record of the past six months shows it...
The Mecca pact names no enemy, has produced no action in a regional war, and its members disagree on who threatens them. Read as a defence alliance it makes no sense. Read as the removal of an American bargaining chip it makes pe…
The pipeline signed in Kabul has the same name, the same Saudi partner and the same American in the room as the one abandoned in 1998. What changed is that the gas is now Afghan, and unlike the Turkmen gas it replaces, it has not…
The agreement of October 2025 ended the bombardment and did not end the killing. Eleven months later the deaths continue at a rate of a few each day, which is the rate at which a death stops being news...
An agreement to share upstream warnings was reached after the flood of July 2025. When the water came again in August 2026, the alert arrived from a Nepali district office after the river had already entered the country...
A party the state intelligence service classifies as extremist won a plurality in a German state, on a platform of refusing to fund Ukraine, in the same week American envoys negotiated in the Kremlin and briefed Europeans last...
Washington sent a property developer and the son in law of the president. Moscow met them with the man its own Treasury designated as running a slush fund for Putin, and gave them lunch for three and a half hours before the Kreml…
Six months in, with missiles over Kuwait the same day, the vice president declined to call the fighting a war. Read as election messaging it is spin. Read as law it is the entire defence on which the campaign rests...
Washington published a doctrine built on the premise that it cannot fight in two theatres at once, then spent the year proving it by pulling air defences out of the Pacific and Europe for a war it said allies would carry...
The Orders Book is where American commanders can formally disagree with an order and carry it out anyway. Its contents reached the press. The response was not to answer the objection but to reduce the number of people who can rea…
