The Potemkin Ballot

Today Will Or Won't See A US-Iran Meeting In Doha Which Will Be "Perhaps Important, Perhaps Not" By Michael Every of Rabobank Build 'em up or Burnham down? In typical form, today will or won’t see a US-Iran meeting in Doha; which will be ‘perhaps important, perhaps not’; and either discussing the MoU or unfreezing $6bn of Iranian assets. So, the ‘peacefire’ continues, as expected, but with little chance this holds permanently. Likewise in Lebanon, where the US is pushing to disarm Hezbollah --which refuses-- and Israel won’t leave until that happens....

EU Finally Unblocks €90 Loan For Ukraine, Weighted Toward Military Spending Ukraine has hailed the long awaited approval and release of a whopping a €90 billion loan by the European Union, which belatedly happened Thursday after months of negotiations. "The European support loan for Ukraine has been unblocked - €90 billion over two years," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X. European Union photo "For us this is important, and it will strengthen, of course, our army, Ukrainian forces, and allow us to boost production of air defense systems and work more to protect our energy system...