Oil futures have seen their biggest weekly drop in nearly two months as news swirled of a potential US-Iran deal that could see the Strait of Hormuz reopened and a ceasefire extended between Washington and Tehran.
Brent oil crude futures fell to $92.69 a barrel, a weekly drop of more than 10 percent.
(March 3, 2026)
With more than three days since Israel killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as more than 550 others – including at least 165 children – the bloc, touted as a leader of the Global South, is nowhere to be found.
(April 17, 2026)
Great powers emerge in crises, and BRICS may have just missed their moment. While the war involving Iran could have marked a turning point, the bloc remained silent, unable to display a common position. This silence questions its real credibility in the face of its global ambitions. Behind the image of a counter-power to the West, this sequence above all exposes deep divisions and structural fragilities that rhetoric is no longer enough to mask.
(June 18, 2025)
While Israeli strikes target sensitive Iranian sites and Tehran responds with missiles on Tel Aviv, the military escalation is redefining balances in the Middle East. However, a strategic absence intrigues: that of the BRICS. As a new member of the bloc, Iran was counting on solid support against its arch-enemy. Yet neither Moscow, Beijing, nor New Delhi are committing. This silence exposes the limits of an alliance that Tehran viewed as a counterweight to Western hegemony.
(May 5, 2026)
If he decides to act, the US president will pull Israel into a state of alert that will delay the Knesset‘s dissolution and lead to the election being held as scheduled in October. If Trump chooses not to strike Iran again, Netanyahu will lead Israel to an election on Sept. 1. Sources who have spoken with Netanyahu recently say the prime minister is leaning toward moving up the election, partly due to the erosion of his security achievements.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard University amid a campus review of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the university announced Wednesday.
Summers, who has been on leave since November and whose name appeared hundreds of times in newly released Epstein files, will leave at the end of the school year, according to a statement from Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton.
Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States and one of his country’s most influential and controversial political figures of the past three decades, resigned from the Labour Party Sunday night and may face removal from the House of Lords amid renewed scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender.
Doha has signaled that if this proposal is rejected, it can no longer guarantee the safety of regional channels or shield Iran from the consequences of U.S. military action.
However, this year‘s Davos forum may be shaping up to be one of the most confrontational and divisive in its history. Inviting Trump reflects the expectation that he will be confronted with a broad international consensus – that economic globalization is an irreversible force. The US delegation, however, may come with a different agenda: to promote economic nationalism and argue that the existing globalization model no longer aligns with core US interests, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
In a statement, the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and eight other European countries said troops from a “coalition of the willing” with US support could “assist in the regeneration of Ukraine’s forces, in securing Ukraine’s skies, and in supporting safer seas, including through operating inside Ukraine”.
sraeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon says the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on UNRWA is “shameful.”
“They are blaming Israel for not cooperating with UN organs… They should be blaming themselves. Those organs became breeding grounds for terrorists. Take for example UNRWA… an organization that supported Hamas for years,” Danon says.
Israeli media also quoted the defence minister as saying that at the end of Trump’s plan, “Hamas will be disarmed, the Gaza Strip will be demilitarised, and the IDF [Israeli army] will remain in controlling areas to protect the communities”.
Former attorney general Avichai Mandelblit warned Monday that the government’s plan to oust his successor, Gali Baharav-Miara, could result in the “complete destruction” of Israeli democracy.
“This is a recipe for complete destruction of democracy and the rule of law in the State of Israel,” he told Kan public radio when asked about the possibility that Baharav-Miara’s potential replacement would scrap Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing years-long corruption trial.
“The pendulum has swung back to [support for] Israel.“
“It’s unlikely the EU will suspend EU-Israel agreement due to Iran Israel war,” one of the sources said.
The announcement’s significance lies in the fact that some public opinion polls have favored Gantz’s number two, fellow former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, over the current party leader.
The announcement came as most polls have shown National Unity shrinking to below 10 seats, after reaching over 30 in polls conducted in the weeks and months following the October 7 Hamas massacre.
Speaking to Russia’s Izvestia newspaper on Friday, the country’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, reaffirmed the Kremlin’s readiness to assist both Tehran and Washington in resolving their outstanding differences.
“The Russian Federation has repeatedly stated its readiness to assist Iran and the United States in reaching an agreement on nuclear issues,” the official said.
Ireland‘s Taoiseach Micheál Martin called the situation in Gaza ‘hell on earth’. He told The Europe Conversation that Israel is committing war crimes, and criticised the EU’s lack of response. Food and medicine have been blocked from entering the besieged area for almost 60 days.
Israel has long criticised involvement of the United Nations, seeing it as biased, and has banned work of the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.
Asked about the lack of a role for the United Nations, whose efforts have been impeded by Israel, Bruce said: „Endless press releases and Hamas appeasement have not delivered food, medicine or shelter to those who need it.“
„We must reach for the most modern possibilities, also related to nuclear weapons and modern unconventional weapons.“
Additionally, he backed withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention, which bans anti-personnel landmines, arguing that Poland must adapt to evolving security threats.
It is understood Sky Shield has been drawn up by former RAF planners working in conjunction with Ukraine’s armed forces, and it has been canvassed before European defence ministries. However, there has been no real appetite from European leaders to sanction patrols of Ukrainian skies while the war is ongoing.
Those involved believe the pace of events in the last week means that ideas about protecting some of Ukraine’s airspace can now get a fresh hearing, though the plan also serves to highlight how important and efficient air protection would be as part of providing security guarantees to Kyiv in the event of a ceasefire.
An Israeli cabinet meeting to approve a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas was delayed Thursday morning after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the militant group of “reneging” on parts of the agreement.
Israel‘s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was cutting his visit to Europe short on Wednesday so that he could take part in security cabinet and government votes on a Gaza hostage release and ceasefire deal.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said final details were being ironed out, saying in a statement that it hoped “details will be finalized tonight.”
„In light of the current developments in Syria, the impact of which on this country and the entire region is yet to be realized, Russia has requested urgent closed-door consultations of the UN Security Council. In particular, it is important to know what is going on in this environment around the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights. We expect that these consultations will ne held in the second half of the day on Monday, December 9,“ he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Turkey‘s foreign minister will meet with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Doha on Saturday to try to find a solution to the renewed fighting in Syria and avoid chaos on its doorstep.
The three countries have been partners since 2017 in the Astana process seeking to end the civil war in Syria. This is despite the fact they have supported opposite sides on the battlefield.