Turkey’s economy is in a bad way. In June the budget deficit, seven times higher than a year earlier, reached 219.6 billion lira ($8.37 billion). The forecast for July shows it widening still further. On July 16 Turkey raised the tax on gasoline, adding to the recent two percent increase …
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Ukraine war: why a ceasefire based on partition of territory won’t work
Even as Ukraine’s counteroffensive pushes slowly forward, some observers are calling for the warring sides to negotiate a ceasefire. This would create a de facto demarcation line separating areas held by Ukrainian forces from those under Russian control at the moment the fighting stops. Others argue, however, that a ceasefire …
Read More »US troop surge to aid Middle East shipping echoes past confrontations with Iran
A resurgence in tensions between the U.S. and Iran in Middle Eastern waters is harkening back to the playbook of clandestine maritime conflicts that has pitted the two countries against each other for more than four decades, according to analysts. Approximately 3,000 Marines and sailors landed in the Middle East …
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