About three months ago, when thousands of Lebanese went into the streets demanding systemic change and opposing corruption, they likely never thought that their move would lead the country into a dead end and bankruptcy. Although many politicians were asking Saad Al-Hariri not to resign from his post as the prime minister, the Americans, French and Saudis convinced him to ...
Oil prices increased in the final months of the previous year and after the drone’s attacked the Aramco refinery. However, after Aramco was able to reach its level of production and export capacity before the attack, relative stability returned to the oil market. Subsequently, there was no change in the oil market, given the surplus oil supply in the market ...
Europe UK: Conservative victory On December 12, snap parliamentary elections were held in Great Britain. The Conservative party of Prime Minister Boris Johnson won, receiving the majority of votes. Johnson is now poised to break the Brexit deadlock. On December 19, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, in a speech to Parliament on government priorities, said that by January 31, 2020, the country must leave the ...
Europe Triumph of the Right in Spain The Eurosceptic right-wing Spanish party Vox was the main winner in the recent parliamentary elections in Spain, which took place on November 10. VOX won 52 seats in parliament, becoming the third most powerful political force in Spain. Compared to the elections had been held in April, VOX increased the number of seats in parliament by 28 seats. The Socialist Workers Party ...
Europe Riots in Catalonia On October 14, riots broke out in the Spanish province of Catalonia. The large crowd of protesters blocked roads and railways in opposition to the state’s decision to imprison the former leaders of the Catalan government. The Supreme Court of Spain charged them in relation to illegal separatist activity. The Spanish authorities were unable to stop ...
Europe France: militarizing space On September 3, French Defense Minister Florence Parley signed an order to establish and organize a “Space Command” (Commandement de l’Espace – CDE) to work in tandem with the French Air Force. France plans to transform the new Space Command into joint Aerospace Forces. Paris does not exclude the possibility of mobilizing weapons for use in ...
PART 1: ANTECEDENTS, POTENTIALITIES AND WEALTH A brief history of the balkanization of Ibero-America. First of all, I want to clarify why I will be using the term “Ibero-America” instead of “Latin America.” The region in question stretches from northern Mexico to Ushuaia in southern Argentina, and is made up of a majority of Spanish and Portuguese speakers. The denomination ...
Ever since tragedy struck on 9/11, numerous discussions and arguments about what actually took place on that day have continued. Many people contend that there are numerous technical inconsistencies Washington’s version of events, while others argue that the attack may have served as a pretext for the intervention in Afghanistan that immediately followed. For further reading regarding the debate around ...
Europe G7: the split intensifies The G7 summit was held in France between August 24 and 26. The leaders of the US, France, Germany, UK, Canada, Japan and Italy discussed internal contradictions between the world’s leading economies, particularly between Washington and the rest of the member nations, and compromises were reached on some issues. The United States and France signed ...
The U.S. and Iran are locked in a tough confrontation for forty years. They do not have direct diplomatic relations and are engaged in a major ideological war, playing an important role on the geopolitical map of the world at the same time. Nonetheless, although Tehran and Washington have turned into two hostile camps over years of the stand-off, they ...