Iran Already Scrambling For Oil Storage After Two Weeks Of US Blockade

Durov Hauled In For Questioning Again In Paris, Telegram Blasts Case: 'Still No Evidence' As the high-stakes criminal investigation into Telegram nears its second year with no resolution in sight, French authorities have again summoned Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov for questioning. Durov spent around six hours being questioned at the Paris Judicial Tribunal on Wednesday, local media reported, citing law enforcement sources. He's allowed to travel internationally, and to live at his home in Dubai - though he's agreed specific judicial supervision rules, part of which is to periodically return...

Beijing Threatens To Cancel Trump-Xi Summit If US Approves New Arms Sales To Taiwan Chinese President Xi Jinping used today's 18th BRICS Summit to push for a greater diplomatic role in Gulf affairs. The move appears to be transforming the bloc's economic weight into geopolitical influence, really positioning it as a counterweight to US foreign policy. Beijing's leverage also rests on its control over rare-earth and other critical-material supply chains, as it maintains a "quasi-monopolistic" grip on the industry that will persist through the end of the decade. Keeping that leverage...

Bessent Convenes G20 Finance Chiefs To Confront China's $1.2 Trillion Trade Surplus Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with G20 finance ministers and central bank governors later today in Asheville, North Carolina, to discuss strategies for reviving economic growth, correcting global imbalances, reassessing trade relationships with China, and addressing the sovereign debt mess. The agenda today will also include plans to deepen Iran's economic isolation, Reuters reported, citing a senior US Treasury official. The discussions signal a continuation of the financial-pressure campaign Bessent unveiled last week (read here). "The world cannot have...