The United States is facing what is shaping up to be a perfect storm of economic bad news, with higher than normal energy prices and inflation compounded by a spiraling debt crisis and fears of economic turmoil amid high stakes debt limit talks. Meanwhile, BRICS nations are brainstorming a way to de-dollarize the international trade order.
Emerging market investors are slowly but steadily moving away from dollar-denominated debt and assets, instead preferring to park their hard-earned money into local currency bonds, an analysis by fund flow and asset allocation data provider EPFR Global has revealed.
According to the company’s figures, investors pulled out a net $2.65 billion out of primarily dollar-denominated assets between January and April of 2023, but added a net $5.23 billion into local currency bond funds.
Market analysts attribute the switch to attractive yields and falling inflation on local bond markets, and an increasingly unattractive dollar amid uncertainty surrounding interest rate-related volatility. The latter put a major dent in US Treasuries’ attractiveness to investors, and culminated in the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March, and panic among investors.
Fidelity International emerging markets debt portfolio manager Paul Greer expects the trend of weakened demand for dollar-denominated debt and assets to continue for the rest of the year. ABP Invest chief investment officer Thanos Papasavvas says there has been a “clear divergence between emerging market local and hard currency bonds [typically dollars and other major Western currencies, ed.] over the past few quarters with local currency debt looking more attractive on a fundamental and valuation basis.”
The trend of a cautious move away from the dollar, which continues to hold the coveted status of the world’s de facto reserve currency in trade, comes amid the growing risk of the US defaulting on its massive $31.8 trillion debt amid bickering between the White House and Republicans in Congress on federal spending and the debt limit.....More Below
Islamic Republic inflicted “heavy” and “extensive” damage on Israel during its US-backed aggression of June against Iran.
Speaking on Monday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, said in the course of the aggression, Iran dealt a “severe blow” to Israel, which had remained arrogant since the wars in the 1960s, particularly the Six-Day War and subsequent conflicts with Arabs.
“During the war, we inflicted very heavy losses upon the Zionist regime, only a portion of which was made public. Israel itself prevented the full disclosure of the extent of damage caused by Iran’s missile attacks.”
“The reports and images we received from various satellites, together with information obtained from multiple sources in the Israeli-occupied territories, all indicated that the damage sustained [by the regime] was absolutely extensive.”
He said Iranian missiles penetrated through the host of defense systems deployed by several ...
Israeli forces stormed the sealed headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East al-Quds, raiding the long-standing compound in Sheikh Jarrah just days after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly renewed the agency’s mandate.
In a statement on Monday, the al-Quds Governorate, affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA), said Israeli police entered the compound, detained its security guards, and confiscated their phones.
“Israeli police cut off communication, making it impossible to know what is happening inside the compound,” the statement said.
Officials added that the raid was carried out “alongside a complete closure of the surrounding area and extensive searches across all facilities of the building.”
The compound, used as an UNRWA office since 1951, had been vacated earlier this year following a decision by Israel......more below
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/12/08/760269/Palestine-UN-UNRWA--al-Quds--
The document’s dismissal of Europe “as a power of no significance signals that there are three truly great powers left: the United States, Russia and China,” military expert Alexei Borzenko told Sputnik.
The US is also “well aware that we’ve outpaced them on certain types of weapons,” the observer said, citing Russian advances in hypersonics, and the depletion of US and European weapon stocks in Ukraine.
The US is eager to end the crisis in Ukraine, which has proven “a dead-end situation" for NATO "from which the only way out is peace,” Borzenko said, citing the document’s conciliatory language on the conflict and on Russia.
Furthermore, “during negotiations, the Americans figured out what the Kiev junta represents, and how difficult it is to negotiate with it. They understand what kind of crooks they are dealing with” and are tired of it, Borzenko argues.
That’s why various leaders’ recent claims that the Ukrainian crisis could end abruptly seems like a real ...
