MONITOR DEFENSE SPENDING

“It's a really, challenging period, but as as I'm talking of, I will say that now we are not paid, but these are our neighbors, the people we share, the churches. She says she's now counseling neighbors through unintended pregnancies.”

“Integrity and her crew, four astronauts flew 700,237 miles. We hit our flight path angle target within point 4%. We flew an entry range of 1,957 miles, and we landed within less than a mile of our target. What a tremendous day.”

“In a statement, James says an investigation found people arriving at New York Presbyterian's hospitals in New York City received inadequate care that, quote, put vulnerable patients at risk. Her report alleges people with mental illness weren't properly screened. And in some cases, patients who appear to pose serious risks to themselves or others were left unsupervised or received no care.”

“Israel says that it will have full control of the Lebanese town of Bin Shabeel, quote, within days. The town has become the center of intense fighting. It's part of land that Israel says it's seizing from Lebanon to create what it calls a buffer zone so Hezbollah can't fire rockets into Israel.”

“I haven't heard a single person saying I want to move out of Dubai permanently as a result of this war. Some people have relocated temporarily. I think some people on the margin might leave, but I haven't heard that yet. I think people who live there are going to prove to be stickier than we think. The attraction of new people is probably going to ease on the margin, but there was a long queue of people who wanted to move there.”

“You have this sort of crowding out. Do you really need multiple mega airports with multiple global airlines? Probably not. Do you need multiple megaports? Probably not. Do you need multiple financial centers? You have a financial center in Dubai, another one in Abu Dhabi, an old one in Manama, Qatar has one, Saudi has one. You probably just need one. That creates a form of cannibalization and competition.”

“The defense spending will go up, one because they need to replenish on the defense systems that they've been using over the past six weeks. And second because they're realizing that the world is a far more dangerous place than it was six weeks ago. If you spend more on defense, and if your income is lower, that necessarily means that what you sent to the world in terms of capital exports will come down.”

“This war has taught us that if you have a root out of the Strait of Hormos, you're probably insulated and you are in a better position than otherwise. If you're Saudi, if you're the UAE and you have these alternative routes to Hormus, it's probably one of the better investments that you've made over the past few decades and it's paying off now. Geography is kind to you because you could do this unilaterally.”

“US Southern Command posted grainy videos on social media showing explosions that destroyed two small boats alleged to be smuggling drugs. Many legal experts say these strikes amount to execution without trial or simply murder, and some allies in South America and Europe have stopped sharing some intelligence with the US military as a result.”

“If you have a root out of the Strait of Hormos, you're probably insulated and you are in a better position than otherwise. I think now Saudi Arabia is probably making more money out of all exports compared to the pre war periods simply because they have that pipeline that goes from the east of the country to the Red Sea. If you think about it, Saudi Arabia exports thirty percent less now, but all processes are up by a lot more.”

“Given that it's controlling the Strait of Hormos, given that it actually has discovered that the weight to pressure the US and Israel is by imposing costs on the global economy via attacking the golf. That's not a safe world that the golf want to be in. Even if this current system in Iran does not survive and we have a new system, they've learned the same lesson, which is basically, if you get attacked, this is how you get out of it.”

“As the sale of US made electric vehicles continue to slump, China EV sales are having a banner year. China's Association of Automobile Manufacturers says experts have plug in hybrids and EVs in March rose more than 140 over the same time last year.”

“The spike in gasoline prices following The US attack on Iran caused a major jump in inflation in March. Inflation had been undergoing a slow decline before the war began, but consumer prices were up 3.3% over March 2025. That's the biggest jump in almost two years.”

“The big thing that happened in Kuwait in 1990 is that they started investing less in town and sending most of their wealth abroad, and over decades that means deteriorated infrastructure. You can trace what is happening there in terms of the electricity shortages in Kuwait in twenty twenty six to an event that happened in nineteen ninety. The lessons will be deep and broad and they'll go to unexpected corners, including architecture.”

“This is not the first time that the US security umbrella disappoints the Gulf. This is one episode out of several. There's this current one which is probably the biggest. There was an episode in twenty seventeen when Cutter faced a blockade from its neighbors and didn't get the US protection that it wanted. In twenty eighteen and nineteen there were attacks on energy facilities in the Gulf and the US was nowhere to be seen.”

“You cannot have a Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result. You have hundreds of millions of people dead, and it's not gonna happen. So I can't, I think he's very weak on crime and other things. So I'm not I mean, he he went public. I'm just responding to Pope Leo.”

“Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has secured a parliamentary majority. His Liberal party won the majority Monday night following two special election victories. Carney has said that a win would help him deal more effectively with the trade war started by president Trump.”

“It has, revealed this new source of leverage that, the rest of the world didn't realize. It's, essential, for the Trump administration to make sure that however this ends, it doesn't end with Iran, in control of of the strait.”