This report says the UAE is asking the US for a currency swap
Don't think this is about dollar shortages:
• The UAE is wealthy
• The Iran war has reduced but not stopped oil exports
• It just signed its own swap deal with Bahrain
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
What I find interesting about this is that, paradoxically, the threat is part of a request for a dollar swap line, which would further entrench their link to the dollar.
But they have also argued that it was President Trump’s decision to attack Iran that entangled their country in a destructive conflict whose effects may not be over, some of the officials said. Emirati officials told the U.S. officials that if the U.A.E. runs short of dollars, it may be forced to use Chinese yuan or other countries’ currencies for oil sales and other transactions, some of the officials said.
Emiratis are threatening to use petroyuans.
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
Reminder: Two 4.5-year @wellcometrust.bsky.social funded postdoc positions at @livunihss.bsky.social Deadline 7 May 2026
Fascinating - I ordered it for our library and look forward to reading it. I'm from that corner of Germany and we had a large French garrison in Landau.
CfP for our 3rd Annual HPE Conference @uscprice.bsky.social @usc.edu sponsored by @usccis.bsky.social and PIPE. Submit by May 30. If you work on MENA, I am running a smaller pre-conference for HPE papers focused on the region. @polisky.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
"there is enough real data for me to refute the modern financial fairy tale that there is a big float of petrodollars sustains the dollar system. This is fun to believe, but not really based in reality." www.cfr.org/articles/pet...
Very useful comparative oil shock data viz.
Lebanon's ministry of health now has counted 2124 deaths from Israeli attacks since March 2.
Of those, 168 have been children.
Brutal
Germanophones, can you recommend any YouTube resources, music, etc. for level B1/B2 German level?
The first paper of my dissertation is published now in @sociologyjnl.bsky.social!
Press coverage of the richest Germans is rare but focused on a minority of highly visible individuals and varies along the historical origins of fortunes.
doi.org/10.1177/00380385261428292
According to the latest count from the Lebanese Ministry of Health, released this morning, since March 2, Israeli bombings in Lebanon have killed at least 2,020 people, including 165 children, 248 women, and 85 health workers, and injured more than 6,000.
www.naharnet.com/stories/3194...
The article does not adress the issue of Israeli natural gas flowing then interrupted through Jordan, this challenging again electricity supply www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
Israeli colonialism or imperialism in Syria strangely is a blind spot here, as is the dependency to Turkiye
Fascinating by @haidhaid22.bsky.social on Syria in the region but also on Syrian economy: Risks (energy price shock) and opportunity (infrastructure hub between Med and Gulf) www.arab-reform.net/publication/...
it's been occurring to me that something extraordinary about LLMs when you interact with them is the base level of 'you're absolutely right, that was a bad mistake' and then apparently moving on completely. it's really making me think about what the *function* of shame is, for humans.
Text: "We're hiring! Assistant Professorship (W1) 'International Politics' (m/f/d)"
Job opportunity at the #GIGA & Osnabrück University: We jointly seek to appoint an Assistant Professor (W1) in #InternationalPolitics (m/f/d) for quantitative research in #InternationalRelations / #ComparativePolitics on Africa, Asia, Middle East or Latin America: www.giga-hamburg.de/de/karriere/...
The ballyhoo over the petrodollar is turning into a foofaraw.
“It all goes back to a shady 1974 deal with Saudi Arabia to price oil in USD! That has been a linchpin of US power for 50 years, but now it’s coming undone!”
Please. Stop believing--and parroting--this baloney.
🇱🇧🔴112 people killed in Israeli strikes today across Lebanon, mostly in Beirut. 837 wounded.
This is the latest and not the final count from Lebanon's health ministry, in one of the deadliest days of the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah.
I don’t think Iran cares much about Lebanon but that is outweighed by its distrust of Israel and the US. It might annul the deal with the US because it isn’t convinced any deal with them will be upheld and it may need to rely on Hezbollah again to open multiple fronts of attack
Hospitals reporting they are overwhelmed with victims. Over 100 strikes in just minutes. Many in Beirut and its southern suburbs.
Aftermath of strikes in central Beirut just now #lebanon
Israel hit all over Beirut. Strikes were in nearly all the neighborhoods surrounding my house. Reports saying many injured and dead. Israel seems to be intensifying before a ceasefire is implemented
Before heading to bed, my 16 year old asked me “just a quick question - was there almost nuclear war today?” We cannot normalize this.
@livunipol.bsky.social invite applications for Bowes Chair PhD Studentship in Politics in any aspect of democratisation, nationalism, and ethnicity studies (broadly understood) relating to Central and Eastern Europe or comparative studies with other regions. www.liverpool.ac.uk/histories-la...
The Commentary Roundtable on The Global Politics of Precarity and Insecure Work, edited by @stellamorgana.bsky.social and I, now has a permanent home in the latest issue of @gpejournal.bsky.social (Volume 5, Issue 1). Read more here: bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...
I think often of a New York Times photo of a little Iraqi girl tending to her parakeets in a bombed house, probably from 20 years ago now. I will think of this man and his sweet dog often now too. People just want to love what they love, care for their little beings, and instead we do this to them
I truly cannot bear to see what this evening will bring.
