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The Twelve-Day War of June 2025: Israel and Iran Have We Turned A Corner?

After years of debate, negotiations, threats and risks, the inevitable finally came: military action. Israel pre-emptively attacked Iran’s nuclear program while neutralising its nuclear scientists and top military men. There was the Six-Day War of June 1967; now we have the Twelve-Day War of June 2025. The combatants: Israel, Iran, and briefly, the United States. Despite all this, have we turned a corner? The state of war started in 1979 after the successful installation of a theocratic, fundamentalist, puritanical regime called the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic Republic overthrew the Shah of Iran, the last sovereign of a monarchy which lasted 2,500 years since the days of Cyrus the Persian, who is prominently mentioned in the Bible. The Shah was replaced by a Shia Muslim cleric, called the Supreme Leader, who possesses broad executive powers, more than the elected Iranian President. The Supreme Leader is the most powerful person in the country. From Day One, Iran announced its...

45/47: Will Trump 2.0 Be Different from 1.0?

The 2024 United States presidential election is over, and the President-elect has a unique vantage point: He is also an ex-president. This is only the second time in US history that a man served two non-consecutive terms (the other was Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President 1885-1889; 1893-1897).   The winner, Donald Trump, is in a class of his own. Colourful and controversial, a ‘street fighter in a suit,’ few people are neutral when he is the topic of conversation. It is important to ask the question: Will a second Trump administration be markedly different from the first? This article will offer some reflections. The road to obscurity: It has been said that Trump’s reelection is the greatest political comeback in American history. It is hard to argue against this point. Four years ago, Trump was heading into the political wilderness. Though he had some stunning successes in his first term, like a roaring economy, appointing a third of US Supreme Court justices, and four Middl...