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The War Horse – “Critics Say It’s Built to Reach One Conclusion: The researcher leading the assessment also led a controversial 2015 Marine Corps study that the defense secretary has used to argue women should not serve in combat roles Two months before Pete Hegseth appeared in front of Congress to testify in his confirmation …
This map shows three dimensions of the global arms landscape for 167 countries, across six five-year periods from 1996 to 2024. Military Spending % GDP — each country’s defence budget as a share of its economy, sourced from the SIPRI Military Expenditure Database. Arms Imports — the average annual value of major arms imported, in …
Fortune via Yahoo Finance – and is now paying $24 billion a week in interest on its debts: “Despite concerns from debt hawks, the U.S. government is continuing to borrow at pace: For the fiscal year of 2026 so far, the federal deficit has totaled just under $1.4 trillion. The first nine months of this …
Semafor: The US has left more than 40 African nations without a Senate-confirmed ambassador, hampering Washington’s efforts to engage in security and diplomatic missions across the continent. Some 41 African countries currently lack a confirmed envoy, including Nigeria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, and Sudan. While there are vacancies across the diplomatic corps, the …
ABCNetAU: “The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz almost immediately caused a fuel price shock felt in bank accounts around Australia. Even if the Strait returns to normal, that shock will keep sending prices up in a range of industries. Economic ripples will filter through to a plethora of products, such as plastics, fertilisers, building …
WSJ Gift Article: “This article is the first of two parts. “We are drawing a line here,” began Emmanuel Macron, president of France, according to several leaders present and their most senior aides. For a year, America’s closest allies had tried to placate Trump with a mix of flattery and concessions on mutual-defense and trade …
Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University via LinkedIn – “Three years ago this month, the Justice Department indicted Donald Trump under the Espionage Act for concealing and refusing to return classified documents—the first time a president had been charged with a crime, let alone one so grave. But President Trump hasn’t had to face …
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 27, 2026 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and …
“A new Pew Research Center survey finds negative – and often overwhelmingly negative – views of U.S. President Donald Trump in regions around the globe. Across 36 nations polled, a median of 23% of adults express confidence in his leadership of world affairs. In many countries, confidence in Trump has slipped since last year. Overall …
WSJ no paywall [click the down arrow in the lower right hand corner of the page]: “A senior Trump administration official read out President Trump’s memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and wind down the war with Iran in exchange for financial incentives for Tehran that will begin immediately. Another official, speaking …
CRS Report Since The Arab Gulf States, the Iran Conflict, and U.S. Relations. R48971. June 3, 2026. February 2026, U.S./Israel-Iran conflict in the Persian Gulf region and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most shipping have presented fundamental risks to the security and economic vitality of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) …
Follow up to CIA ends publication of its popular World Factbook reference tool – Manuel Longo: “When the CIA World Factbook faded as a free, machine-readable source, a swath of public-interest country data was effectively orphaned. Bamwor rebuilds it as open data: 261 countries and 5.2M cities, in four languages, as CSV/JSON with a permanent …
