Positive thinking

Luca Trenta, Swansea University The US government has killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the elite wing of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards, in an air strike that took place in the early hours of January 3. This is the latest and most dramatic development in the ongoing proxy conflict between the US and Iran. Much of that conflict has taken place on the territory of Iraq, including a recent attack on the US embassy compound . The Trump administration explicitly blamed this recent attack on Iran. In turn, Iranian authorities, including Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif , have accused the US of committing an act of “international terrorism” in killing Soleimani in what they was described as an “extremely dangerous and foolish escalation”. While it is too soon to say what the consequences of this latest US operation will be, the killing of the Iranian general certainly signals an escalation in the US policy of assassination and t...

Nafis Alam, University of Reading   The US has unnerved the world oil market by ramping up the pressure in its long-running dispute with Iran. It has announced that, after May 1, it won’t renew the exemptions given to eight countries that enable them to buy Iranian oil. Those affected, which include China, India, Japan, Italy and South Korea, will face sanctions from Washington if they don’t comply. The move will likely squeeze global oil supply at a time when it is already struggling from disruptions in Venezuela , Libya and Nigeria . Indeed, the Brent crude price has already risen on the back of the announcement to US$74 (£57) per barrel, the highest since last November. President Donald Trump has said he is confident that a supply crunch can be avoided thanks to extra output from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but traders and Asian petrochemical firms are sceptical that these countries will fully comply. In recent months, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC mem...

Jacqueline Best, University of Ottawa Ten years ago, on Oct. 3, 2008, United States President George W. Bush signed the “Troubled Assets Relief Program” (TARP) that promised $700 billion to support banks and companies that were hit by the global financial crisis. As U.S. Congress granted its support for the historic bill, it seemed like liberal democracy was rising to the challenge posed by the global financial crisis. Yes, the bill would be very expensive for American taxpayers, but the cost seemed justified in the face of the potential collapse of the global economy. A decade later, the financial crisis is a distant memory, the TARP funds have been repaid with interest and stock markets are reaching new heights. Yet switch from the business pages to the front page and a much darker picture appears: a particularly virulent strand of right-wing populism is popping up around the world, while Doug Ford and Donald Trump are wreaking havoc with our democratic institutions....

Donald Trump does not like Amazon and already several times in the past he attacked the group and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, arguing that if he won the election he would have proposed much more restrictive laws. Now, Axios, the online newspaper, writes that the American President would be ready to go against Amazon asking for more taxes. According to the sources of this US political online paper, Trump is «obsessed» by Amazon and he wants to change the tax treatment because several of his friends told him that their businesses were destroyed by the online retail giant.  Amazon has destroyed the malls and stores, continues Axios, citing Trump's conversations. Several times on Twitter the US President attacked Amazon claiming that it had hit the retail industry causing job losses.  The common stock unit, which faces the worst month since 2016, widens the losses, and it enters the correction territory. In fact, the shares of the e-commerce colossus lose 10.9% compared to the ...

Facebook suspended the profile of Cambridge Analytica, a well-known, British data analytics firm. The profiles of Strategic Communication Laboratories, Cambridge University psychologist Aleksander Kogan and the head of Eunoia Technologies, Christopher Wylie, were also suspended. Paul Grewal, Vice President of Facebook confirmed that Professor Kogan in 2015 had violated policies by passing data to Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica is partly owned by Robert Mercer, big supporter of Trump. It is believed that the company had an important role during the American elections and the Brexit referendum. Kogan's app, thisisyourdigitallife, proposed a predictive personality test, describing on the social network as "a search app used by psychologists". The app got the information legitimately, but it violated Facebook's platform policies" passing the information to SCL/Cambridge Analytica and Eunoia Technologies. The app also collected other information, such...

Simon Reich, Rutgers University Newark It is a short distance from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue to the United Nations headquarters on First Avenue, but these are different worlds. Donald Trump’s native world is one of unilateralism and competition, with more than a hint of bravado and aggression. The U.N.‘s world is one of multilateralism and cooperation, with a heavy dose of diplomacy and collaboration. Those two worlds met when Trump gave his first speech to the U.N. as America’s president. And the nationalism and pragmatism of the relatively recently inaugurated leader of the U.S., if no longer the free world , collided with the cosmopolitan, enduringly optimistic, if often weary, leadership of the U.N. Not surprisingly, it starkly contrasted with Barack Obama’s final speech to the U.N. a year ago. 'It’s complicated’ Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has conceded on several occasions that foreign policy is “complicated. ” And his speech at the U.N. reinf...