Author: M Barbu

The Future WHO (World Health Organization)

“The alarming amendments offered by the Biden Administration to the WHO’s International Health Regulations would grant new unilateral authority to [WHO] Director-General Tedros to declare a public health crisis in the United States or other sovereign nations, without any consultation with the U.S. or any other WHO member. Specifically, the Biden Amendment would strike the current regulation that requires the WHO to ‘consult with and attempt to obtain verification from the State Party in whose territory the event is allegedly occurring in,’ ceding the United States’ ability to declare and respond to an infectious disease outbreak within the United States, dependent on the judgment of a corrupt and complicit UN bureaucracy.” — Rep. Chris Smith, ranking member of the House Global Health Subcommittee, May 18, 2022.

Does Iran take Israel-Gulf air defense cooperation seriously? – analysis

Iran has already been striking the US in the region in dozens of rocket and drone attacks over the past year.

Reports over the weekend said that Iran was upping its rhetoric against any sort of US-backed air defense pact that might link Israel and several Arab countries together. Ostensibly, such cooperation would be defensive, but Iran and its proxies are currently the only real threat to the region.

Europe’s Rush to Buy Africa’s Natural Gas Draws Cries of Hypocrisy

The EU wants to import as much African gas as it can, but doesn’t want to fund projects that would allow the world’s poorest continent to burn more of the fuel at home.

Near the tip of Nigeria’s Bonny Island, an arrowhead speck of land where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Niger Delta, a giant plant last year produced enough liquefied natural gas to heat half the UK for the winter. Most of it was shipped out of the country, with Spain, France and Portugal the biggest buyers.

IRGC Says it Neutralized Terrorist Cell, 4 of its Members Killed

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said its forces had neutralized a “terrorist cell” in Salmas near the Turkish border.

The IRGC issued a statement announcing that its ground forces tasked with protecting the border triangle with Turkey and the Kurdistan region of Iraq “neutralized a terrorist cell after intelligence monitoring.”

José Eduardo Dos Santos, la dictature et les pétrodollars

L’ancien président angolais est décédé ce vendredi à Barcelone. Retour sur un règne sans partage.

José Eduardo dos Santos passait pour un autocrate discret. Il a marqué l’histoire de son pays pendant des décennies. Déjà à 16 ans, il intégrait le Mouvement populaire de libération de l’Angola (MPLA) alors que son pays cherchait à obtenir son indépendance du Portugal.

West Africa’s Authoritarian Turn

Democratic Backsliding, Youth Resistance, and the Case for American Help

On September 5, 2021, a 41-year-old colonel in Guinea’s special forces took to the radio to announce that President Alpha Condé had been arrested and the constitution had been dissolved. The colonel, Mamady Doumbouya, said he and his fellow coup makers were fulfilling their duty to “save the country.” As he spoke, a photo of the disheveled 83-year-old Condé—slouched on a couch, surrounded by his captors—went viral on social media, inspiring a meme as young Guineans humorously reenacted the scene.

The End of Magic Money

Inflation and the Future of Economic Stimulus

Two years ago, I predicted in Foreign Affairs that the COVID-19 recession, coming on top of the financial crisis of 2008, would lead rich democracies to redefine the outer limits of their monetary and fiscal power, ushering in an “age of magic money.” Because central banks had a long record of containing inflation, the penalty for profligacy would likely not materialize; supersized stimuli could coexist with stable prices. Of course, the success of this experiment would depend on the continued inflation-fighting credibility of central banks, the Federal Reserve foremost among them. “If the Fed loses its independence, the age of magic money could end in catastrophe,” I noted.

Why IRGC issue won’t go away

Even if the US terrorist designation is not lifted, and there is agreement on the JCPOA, the IRGC will still be the power broker of Iranian domestic politics.

As Qatar’s foreign minister visited Tehran Wednesday in an effort to follow up on talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal, there’s no indication the sides have come close to a resolution on the issue of removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the US terror list.