Assad
WORLD
Poker Face: Russia’s Transactional Game
Putin promised partnership to Iran, friendship to Israel, and mediation to Trump; Moscow's Middle East strategy is beautifully duplicitous.
BUSINESS
Trump May Have Found His Match in the UAE
Donald Trump visits Abu Dhabi in a new era of US-Gulf diplomacy, blending business with diplomacy in the Middle East, as the UAE redefines U.S.-GCC ties.
WORLD
Abu Dhabi Recalibrates Relations with Syria’s New Leadership
UAE backs Syria’s new leadership with reconstruction aid as al-Sharaa visits Abu Dhabi, signaling shifting Gulf dynamics post-Assad.
BUSINESS
Re-Alignment in the Red Sea: Russia & Iran
Russia and Iran recalibrate influence from Syria to Sudan, leveraging Red Sea conflicts and deepening military ties in shifting alliances.
WORLD
U.S. and Russian Forces Pull Back from Syria
As global powers retreat from Syria, a defiant Israel digs in while Kurdish forces weigh alliances.
Popular
Winter Storm Research Rewrites a Witch Trial Tragedy
As new research published in Smithsonian Magazine this week connects a 1617 Arctic storm to Norway's deadliest witch trials, climate historians reveal how weather shock fed decades of persecution.
Prediction Takes Politics: Prophets and Polymarkets Collide
As 11 Peruvian shamans predicted Nicolás Maduro's fall on 29 December 2025, crypto traders were placing similar bets online—five days before U.S. forces extracted the Venezuelan leader to New York.
Mladenov Takes Over Gaza Board After Regional Veto
Nickolay Mladenov becomes Gaza peace board head after Arab states blocked Tony Blair, raising questions about whose interests guide Washington's selection.
Abu Dhabi Rebuffs British Universities Over Campus Radicalisation
The world’s wealthiest patrons now view Western campuses as hazards, forcing a costly inversion of the traditional hierarchy that once defined global education.
Bury the Lead: MTV ‘Death’ and the Way We Read Now
As MTV continued broadcasting across the United States and most of Europe on 1 January 2026, millions of social media tributes mourned a channel that had never actually shut down.
