The former chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was arrested last week in an anti-corruption probe for allegedly working with a criminal group in laundering about $10.5 million tied to a construction project just outside the capital, bringing unwanted attention to the country’s corruption problem.
ECONOMIC UPDATE
Again, as we have detailed and continue to detail by the pure facts and indisputable data, the illegal Iran War launched on 28 February by just two politicians – President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – has inflicted severe socioeconomic and geopolitical damage across the globe.
WAR’S ENERGY SHOCK WORSENS THE U.S. ECONOMIC DIVIDE
Since 28 February when the Iran War began, Americans have spent $45 billion more on gasoline and diesel fuel than they would have if fuel prices had remained at pre-war levels, according to data from the U.S. government and the Oil Price Information Service.
SPECIAL REPORT: IRAN WAR DISRUPTS WORLD’S OIL SUPPLY
As we have detailed since the Iran War was illegally launched by the United States and Israel on 28 February, the war has inflicted severe socioeconomic and geopolitical damage across the globe.
MORE TRUMP LIES: PRESIDENT PROMISED IN MARCH THAT U.S. WILL INSURE SHIPS IN THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ
About a week after President Donald Trump and Israel launched the illegal war of aggression against Iran, and the Iranians effectively shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz to commercial ship traffic, the American leader took to social media to assure ship owners and operators that Washington would provide risk insurance at a “very reasonable price.”
NEW EVACUATION ORDERS ISSUED FOR SOUTHERN LEBANON AS ISRAEL CONTINUES DEADLY ATTACKS
The IDF issued new evacuation orders across southern Lebanon on Sunday after another deadly week of attacks across the country amid the so-called ceasefire.
DO WE STILL HAVE A CONSTITUTION?
This week, President Donald Trump announced that he plans to give away tax dollars without congressional or judicial authorization to his friends and allies whom he believes were mistreated by the Biden administration. Can he legally do that?
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
NextEra Energy, North America’s largest electric power and energy infrastructure company, is buying Dominion Energy in an all-stock deal valued at $66.8 billion.
LVMH WILL SELL HANDBAG MAKER MARC JACOBS FOR $850 MILLION
LVMH, the luxury industry’s largest conglomerate, will sell handbag brand Marc Jacobs to a partnership between global brand manager WHP and G-III Apparel Group, which owns an array of fashion brands including Calvin Klein, DKNY, Donna Karen, and Tommy Hilfiger.
HONDA POSTS FIRST-EVER ANNUAL LOSS AS EV INVESTMENT SOURS
On 14 May, Honda Motor – Japan’s second-largest auto company – posted its first annual loss since it went public in 1957 as it wrote off more than $9 billion in costs to restructure its electric vehicle (EV) operation.
U.S. Economy
SPOTLIGHT: THE PRIVATE CREDIT INDUSTRY CIRCLES THE DRAIN
With the FSB’s warning and HSBC’s object lesson, banks are likely to pull back even further on loans to private credit funds.
CALIFORNIA’S JOB GROWTH HAS ALL COME FROM THE CARE INDUSTRY
From 1 March 2022 through 31 March 2026, the number of jobs in California’s healthcare and social assistance industry grew by 25 percent, according to U.S. labor department data analyzed by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a bipartisan research organization.
TRUMP’S “GOLDEN DOME” WILL COST $1.2 TRILLION, CBO SAYS
Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system that would cover the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii will cost $1.2 trillion as now planned, 15 times more than the $185 billion the defense department has projected, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said.
The Iran War
TOP IRANIAN ADVISER WARNS TRUMP NOT TO FALL INTO ISRAEL’S ‘STRATEGIC TRAP’
A top adviser to Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a social media post on Sunday that President Donald Trump risks falling into a “strategic trap” that has been set up by Israel.
IRAN’S TOP DIPLOMAT SAYS U.S. IS IN DECLINE, IRAN WILL NEVER SURRENDER
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s top diplomat, attended a BRICS meeting last week in New Delhi and spoke about the U.S.’s illegal war of aggression against his country and likened Washington’s war to the last, desperate throes of a declining power.
IRAN’S DEFENSE SYSTEMS REMAIN ‘ROBUST,’ DESPITE TRUMP’S CLAIM THAT THEY HAD BEEN ‘DESTROYED’
U.S. intelligence agencies have been warning lawmakers in Washington that, despite the claims from the Trump administration that Iran’s military has been decimated, Tehran still maintains a lethal supply of missiles and drones that pose a formidable risk to forces in the region.
Hi-Tech Science
“LIVING PLASTIC” CAN DEGRADE WITHIN DAYS
A discarded piece of plastic can take one thousand years to dissolve and even then, it can leave microparticles that make their way into food systems and living things ranging from bacteria to humans.
UNDERSEA GENERATOR RUNS ON MICROBES
At Michigan Technological University, a team developed a system to power subsurface sensors for a long time.
A GUT BACTERIUM COULD BE THE CAUSE OF AGE-RELATED MEMORY LOSS
Scientists at Stanford University were intrigued by research elsewhere suggesting that gut bacteria are involved in cognition.