Russia, Ukraine Agree To Breakthrough 32-hour Orthodox Easter Ceasefire

Russia Closes Border Crossings With Several NATO States After Finland Lifts Nuclear Ban Finland's parliament has finally followed through with a previously threatened move to reverse its decades-long ban on nuclear weapons. The June 17 vote to lift the ban in effect legally authorizes the Nordic country to receive, transport, and facilitate the movement of nuclear weapons on its territory as part of allied operations, with the representatives' final tally at 125 to 61. Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO in April 2023 - having abandoned its historic neutrality in...

US Blocks Regular $500 Million Cash Pallets Flown To Iraq, Over Pro-Iran Militias In confirmation of some early reporting we featured at the start of this week, The Wall Street Journal has verified something that Iraqi officials themselves were denying just days ago: the US is blocking Iraq's regular dollar shipments in order to pressure it's Iran-backed militias. "The Trump administration has suspended U.S. dollar shipments to Iraq and frozen security cooperation programs with its military, escalating the pressure on Baghdad to dismantle powerful Iranian-backed militias," said Iraqi and US officials interviewed in...

Core US Factory Orders Surged In March To Best YoY Growth Since Nov 2022 Headline Factory Orders rose 1.5% MoM in March (dramatically better than the 0.6% MoM expected) - the best since November. February's data was also revised higher. However, overall, orders were only up 2.1% YoY - the lowest since JUly 2025 Source: Bloomberg Core Factory Orders surge 1.6% MoM (also better than the 1.3% MoM expected) and up for the 5th straight month. That dragged the YoY growth in core orders up 4.09% YoY - the best since Nov...