The Times of London (July 16)
“Even as US vessels launched hundreds of missiles at Iranian military targets in the past few days, Trump still seemed reluctant to unleash the type of all-out war necessary to bring the enemy to heel. As was the case during the initial five weeks of conflict this spring, the president seems rigidly focused on a low-risk, stand-off warfare, minimising the risks of close-up combat.” With the tactics of Trump’s campaign “explicitly designed to avoid high-intensity battle,” his “objectives are rooted more in hope than in strategy.”
Tags: Campaign, Conflict, Cose-up combat, Enemy, High-intensity battle, Hope, Iran, Low-risk, Military targets, Missiles, Objectives, Reluctant, Stand-off, Tactics, Trump, U.S., Vessels, Warfare
ABC (July 15)
“Runaway demand for turbines from data centres in the US is making new gas-fired power uncompetitive with batteries in the evening peak for the first time…. Australia’s top science agency, the CSIRO, said batteries were helping to lower high evening prices for electricity as the costs of the technology fell and significant extra capacity was added.” Looking further ahead, CSIRO expects “solar and wind power would by 2050 supply as much as 93 per cent of Australia’s electricity needs.”
Tags: 2050, Australia, Batteries, Capacity, Costs, CSIRO, Data centres, Electricity, Gas-fired, Peak, Prices, Runaway demand, Solar, Turbines, U.S., Uncompetitive, Wind power
Wall Street Journal (July 10)
The “dismal reality” is that Trump’s “border taxes are raising costs and have failed to usher in a manufacturing renaissance. His tariffs are “destroying U.S. jobs and raising prices.” The U.S. has shed “some 75,000 manufacturing jobs since January 2025” and it’s estimated Trump’s tariffs added 10.4% to new car sticker prices. Basically, “businesses don’t know what the trade rules or tariffs will be in a few years—or even tomorrow with Mr. Trump. His trade oscillations and border taxes are a major reason the economy hasn’t performed as well as during his first term, and why Americans are so unhappy.”
Tags: Border taxes, Businesses, Cars, Costs, Destroying, Dismal reality, Economy, Failed, Jobs, Manufacturing, Oscillations, Prices, Trade rules, Trump’s tariffs, U.S., Unhappy
New York Times (July 5)
“A quarter of a millennium is long enough to make a nation feel permanent, as though it had always been here and always will be. But the founders… knew that they were making a wager, not a guarantee.” So far, the U.S. has surmounted seemingly existential challenges. “Each time the Republic proved more durable than its mourners predicted, not because of any magic in the system, but because enough people decided the alternative was unacceptable and went to work. Democracy is not a sheltered structure we live inside. It is a habit we must practice — or lose.”
Tags: Challenges, Democracy, Durable, Existential, Founders, Guarantee, Habit, Nation, Permanent, Practice, Surmounted, U.S., Wager
McKinsey (June 30)
“As its 250th birthday approaches, the United States holds its place as the world’s most competitive economy. But safeguarding this economic edge means continuing to evolve.” The U.S. had, for example, been “the world’s leading manufacturer just before the 20th century and held the top position for decades. In the past 25 years, however, mainland China’s share has grown exponentially.”
Tags: 20th century, 250th birthday, China, Competitive, Economic edge, Economy, Evolve, Exponentially, Manufacturer, Safeguarding, Top position, U.S., World’s leading
The Guardian (June 26)
“Xi Jinping has hosted more than a dozen leaders this year, as ‘middle powers’ look beyond the US. China’s leader wants to promote his alternative to the current world order, and his efforts are being assisted by a capricious US.”
Tags: Alternative, Assisted, Capricious, China, Dozen leaders, Efforts, Hosted, Middle powers, U.S., World order, Xi
Fortune (June 22)
“The U.S. farm economy has been fighting one battle after another in recent years, but a new threat is on the horizon that evokes memories of one of the worst agricultural disasters ever.” U.S. farmers were left reeling from low prices, tariffs and most recently Trump’s Iran War, which sent the prices for fertilizer and fuel soaring. Bankruptcies have been rising and now they may face the existential “risk of a ‘mini-Dust Bowl’ as a rare Super El Niño looms.”
Tags: Agricultural disasters, Bankruptcies, Existential, Farm economy, Farmers, Fertilizer, Fuel, Iran war, Low prices, Mini-Dust Bowl, Reeling, Risk, Super El Niño, Tariffs, Threat, Trump, U.S.
The Times (June 18)
Donald Trump “promised to keep the US out of ‘dumb wars.’” This week he “ended one of America’s shortest wars with a deal that leaves an enemy regime in place in Iran, emboldened by its own survival, entrenched in defiance of the civilised world and even potentially enriched by the promise of boatloads of money to help rebuild its battered economy and war-making infrastructure.”
Tags: Battered economy, Civilised world, Deal, Defiance, Dumb wars, Emboldened, Enemy regime, Enriched, Entrenched, Iran, Money, Promised, Rebuild, Survival, Trump, U.S., War-making infrastructure
Wall Street Journal (June 18)
The Japanese yen “has now passed the closely watched 160-per-dollar level at which officials have previously intervened.” There are, however, reasons “why yen interventions this time around may prove trickier.” Even though the BoJ increased “rates to their highest level since 1995 this week,” the interest rate differential persists between Japan and the U.S., and this continues to punish the currency, as does the situation in the Middle East.
Tags: 160-per-dollar, 1995, BOJ, Currency, Differential, Interest rate, Intervened, Interventions, Japan, Middle East, Officials, Punish, Trickier, U.S., Yen
The Guardian (June 18)
“A president’s wishful thinking” is giving way to “uncomfortable realities.” This is not an unconditional surrender, vindication or victory. “The memorandum of understanding signed in Versailles lays bare US failure and the pointlessness of this illegal war…. Having squandered billions of dollars, and thousands of lives, Mr Trump is accepting less than was on offer before the conflict.” The impetuous president “bombed first and negotiated later.” As a result, “Tehran has seen its escalatory tactics succeed, while the US has undermined its own credibility.”
Tags: Billions, Bombed first, Conflict, Credibility, Failure, Illegal, Impetuous, Lives, MOU, Negotiated later, Pointlessness, Squandered, Tehran, Trump, U.S., Uncomfortable realities, Unconditional surrender, Undermined, Versailles, Wishful thinking
