Happy Lunar New Year

Best wishes to all our readers for the New Year. If you don’t celebrate at this time then congratulations on getting some time to spend with your family if you were lucky enough to get a few extra days off.  

Last, best, hope for peace in Ukraine

As the Ukraine ceasefire kicks in there is ongoing tension in contested region. Although heavy shelling has stopped there is still regular small arms fire as reported by CNN. The above map shows the complex areas of buffers zones as collated by the BBC Just before midnight, President Poroshenko ordered the commander of what Ukraine […]

Global Warming Deniers – Can’t see the wood for the trees?

The latest research by the Max Planck Institute and Leeds University reveals that global warming is not and has not been a linear progression in the last 150 years. Global warming deniers have been making great claims in the last few years that global temperatures seem to have ‘stalled’. In fact the temperature of the […]

Over 1 million displaced, Ukraine in Crisis

I’ve been using the following infographic from Deutche Bank for almost six months now. It’s still relevant from a geopolitical and business management perspective. However, what it doesn’t capture is the scale of the humanitarian crisis which has continued to escalate over the intervening period. In this Reuters article today it is estimated that over […]

‘Boy’s Own’ war adventure goes wrong for Islamic State volunteers

The Islamic State has in just a couple of months executed at least 116 foreign fighters who wanted to quit jihad and return home, a British-based human rights monitoring group claims. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the men killed were foreign fighters who had joined the insurgency but were caught trying to leave […]

‘عدو عدوي هو صديقي’ My enemy’s enemy is my friend

IHS Jane’s 360 defence weekly reported that Iran was the first country to begin attacks on the Islamic State (IS) at the start of the year. This week Jane’s broke the news that Iran’s airforce is bombing the IS, (Phantom & screenshot below) news that has been confirmed by a US spokesperson this week. Adversity […]

OPEC -v- Shale Oil

OPEC announced today that it will maintain its current levels of production. As expected this has further suppressed market prices with both Brent and NY prices hovering around USD70 mark. This is a four year low and let’s bear in mind its not that long since OPEC were saying USD100 a barrel was a sustainable […]

While we focus on Ebola – don’t forget Dengue

Does the current focus on Ebola reflect perceptions or reality? There is no doubt Ebola is a terrible virus with tragic consequences for those affected and their families.  But is its current prominence due in part to the fact it can be caught by anyone anywhere and the consensus is the symptoms are horrifying. Meanwhile […]

The dodgiest duo in the suspect six

Indonesia gets an unfairly bad press in this article but other than that the conclusions for Brazil and Russia seem difficult to dispute. Fundamental changes in the economic systems in these coutries make long term change and improvement unsustainable. Surprisingly this article barely touches on India another emerging economy where changes are being made but […]