Politics

Early this morning, Israeli Channel 10 news published a leaked diplomatic cable which had been sent to all Israeli ambassadors throughout the world concerning the chaotic events that unfolded over the weekend in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, which began with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's unexpected resignation after he was summoned to Riyadh by his Saudi-backers, and led to the Saudis announcing that Lebanon had "declared war" against the kingdom. 

President Donald Trump arrived in South Korea Tuesday for his two-day visit bearing a surprisingly diplomatic message: During a press conference with his South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Trump surprised his audience by delivering a message to North Korea that was unexpectedly conciliatory.

When asked about the monthslong diplomatic standoff between the two nuclear powers, Trump said he thinks the two countries are “making progress” toward a diplomatic solution, while urging the North Korean leadership to “come to the table and make a deal."

Pre-war tensions in the middle-east are surging almost as fast as the price of crude... and that is just fine with the Saudi Royal Family, which is willing to risk world war if it means pushing the price of oil back to triple digits.

As expected, Saudi Arabia has cast itself as the victim of external Shia plotting after its internal weekend of chaos which included a missile attack from Yemen, the deaths of two princes and other high officials within a mere 24 hours, and an aggressive crackdown against dissent in the royal family which saw close to a dozen princes placed under house arrest. And as Al Jazeera noted, in this Saudi version of 'Game of Thrones', the 32-year-old Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) shows that he is willing to throw the entire region into jeopardy to wear the royal gown.

The fallout from the Venezuelan bond restructuring has claimed a major victim in Goldman Sachs Asset Management, or rather some of the “muppets” who trusted Goldman to invest their money. However, the route which led Goldman to losing a chunk of client money wasn’t just a case of bad judgement, being riddled with the usual mixture of greed, questionable ethics and government intervention. As we detailed in “Goldman Accused Of Funding Maduro’s Dictatorship”.