Israel Prepares for Resumption of Full-Scale Bombing Campaign in Gaza

'US-Iran Deal Is Near' Narrative Returns, But Tehran Refuses To Surrender Hormuz Leverage After having heard the same line many, many times before - and yet with no result (instead, more often the opposite of sliding into further conflict and escalation) - Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday welcomed the "progress" made between the United States and Iran in indirect negotiations. CNN and other mainstream outlets are reporting on this "hint" that an interim deal taking shape (again). But given the pattern and track record of such reporting, which has consistently...

Core Durable Goods Orders Soar Most In 4 Years US durable goods orders plummeted 4.5% MoM in May (as expected), dragging orders down 4.3% YoY - the worst annual decline since Nov 2024... Source: Bloomberg However, ex-transports, orders rose 1.4% MoM - up for the 14th straight month - with orders soaring over 10% YoY, the strongest annual surge since May 2022... Adding more confusion, US factory orders fell 1.3% MoM in May (better than the 2.0% MoM decline expected) but dramatically divergent from the 4.8% MoM surge in April (revised down from...

Visualizing Iran's Vast Size & Why Any Ground Invasion Means Years-Long Quagmire Most Americans have little understanding or concept of Iran's size in terms of geography or population. The ethno-religious make-up of the sprawling Mideast/West Asian nation is also deeply important, given the US is already talking about arming and supporting some kind of Kurdish-led anti-Tehran ground operation.  Suffice it to say, Iran's population is more than double (over 90 million people) that of neighboring Iraq's. Iran is also the size of almost half the European continent. All of this is...