Snapshots

The kingdom’s pandemic-related financial woes may force its leader to suspend the country’s gridlocked legislature in order to pass a crucial debt law, and potentially other overdue reforms.

The country’s deteriorating social and economic conditions are driving support to Islamist parties, raising the risk of a government crackdown that fans the flames of radicalism.

Brussels’ proposed new Pact on Migration and Asylum lacks a mechanism to distribute migrants across the bloc, meaning countries in the Mediterranean will continue to carry most of the burden.

The success of the White House’s attempt to score a pre-election policy win by shifting its position in favor of extending the nuclear arms control treaty will depend on Moscow playing along.

The IMF’s announced $1 billion disbursement will help fill some of Angola’s financing gaps, though there is clearly a market view that the country may still require more comprehensive debt restructuring.

The move is likely an effort to leverage factional disarray within the GNA as Hifter seeks to strengthen his position in international negotiations and get financial relief.

Israeli efforts could provide a case study for other countries also facing publics increasingly resistant to a return to lockdowns.

If in a surprise outcome Italian voters reject the reform, the odds will increase of an early general election in the middle of a deep economic crisis.

Comments by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicate growing concern that the Federal Reserve lacks the policy tools needed to achieve objectives related to U.S. employment and inflation.

Pyongyang will likely refrain from reaching out to the United States for dialogue and from major strategic weapons system tests before the end of 2020.

China is likely the only major economy that will have positive growth for 2020 as a whole.

Brussels has said it can reach no trade deal with the United Kingdom unless the bill is scrapped, increasing the potential for trade disruptions starting Jan. 1, 2021.