2,014 words
Given their bellicose nature and what is at stake, you would think that Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and the Pentagon busybodies would heed Machiavelli’s advice that “A prince should have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline.” But the 2026 Iran War shows that they are complete amateurs in the art of war. (more…)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
2,016 words
From Reuters, February 4, 2026:
GENEVA/WASHINGTON … U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is sounding the alarm on U.N. finances, warning that the world body is at risk of “imminent financial collapse” due to unpaid fees and a budget rule that forces it to return unspent funds. Guterres has repeatedly spoken about the U.N.’s worsening liquidity crisis but this was his starkest warning yet, and it came as the United States, its main contributor – and debtor – is retreating from multilateralism on numerous fronts.
Like the institution of the United Nations he represents, the Secretary-General looks to be old, tired, bloated, enervated and hopeless—a man who has largely given up and is going through the motions. (more…)