China Tightens Capital Controls the Same Week It Calls the Yuan’s Rise “Irreversible”
TODAY'S NUMBERS: $126.4bn (BRI engagement, H1 2026, a record) · 3.1% (yuan's share of global payments, June 2026) · $50,000 (China's unchanged annual FX...
Andy Burnham’s Anti-Farage Strategy Is Accelerating the Outcome It’s Meant to Prevent
By refusing to call a snap election while Labour is ahead of Reform UK, Burnham is trading the only moment he is likely to...
Central Banks Are Buying Gold Like De-Dollarization Is Already Happening — Are They Right?
Central banks' record, price-insensitive gold buying is a more credible signal of the dollar's structural trajectory than this year's currency markets, because FX markets...
Germany’s AfD Firewall Just Broke in Saxony-Anhalt
The clearest sign Germany's “firewall” against the far right no longer means what it says came four days after Saxony-Anhalt voted. BSW co-chair Amira...
Trump’s Silence on Hormuz Is Now a Fed Problem: What Markets Are Pricing In This Week
TODAY'S NUMBERS: $108 (Brent crude) · 4.98% (US 10-year Treasury yield) · $4,330 (Gold) Oil is pricing a wider Gulf war, yields are pricing...
AfD, Reform UK and RN Aren’t the Same Story
In 2026, a small cottage industry of British commentators started asking whether the UK needs its own version of Germany's Brandmauer — a cross-party...
Do Sanctions Still Work? Russia, Iran and Sudan Say No
On February 1st, the G7's price cap on Russian crude oil quietly reset itself to $44.10 a barrel — down from $47.60, and a...
Why China’s Teapot Refiners Can’t Sanction-Proof This War
A decade of financial sanctions barely dented China's discounted-Iranian-oil trade. Physical strikes on the tankers themselves might close it within months — because Beijing...
Houthi Gains in Yemen Put the U.S. in a New Red Sea Dilemma
The Iran-aligned Houthis have launched a rapid offensive along Yemen's coast, gaining control over key areas that threaten a crucial Middle East waterway, specifically...
What ‘Strategic Partnership’ Is Covering For in Pakistan’s UAE Relationship
A phrase has been circulating in Pakistani official messaging this year: the UAE relationship is moving "from enduring brotherhood to strategic partnership." It is...