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The World Today |  - US strikes Iran oil terminal
- Israel’s three-week timeline
- Kyiv’s newfound global clout
- Iraq becomes shadow front
- Why Trump struck Iran
- China’s Taiwan incursions
- Gaming faces RAM shortage
- Boosting Nigerian education
- Britain’s electoral future
- Hollywood in crisis
 The first Iranian documentary nominated for an Oscar. |
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Fears grow of global economic crisis |
 2026 Planet Labs PBC/Handout via ReutersFears of global economic turmoil stemming from the Middle East war intensified after the US struck Iran’s main oil terminal. Tehran said the attacks on Kharg Island would trigger retaliation against US-linked energy facilities in the region, deepening concerns about a sustained disruption to global supply. US President Donald Trump called on other countries, including Japan, South Korea, and the UK, to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but the plea drew a lukewarm response, suggesting there would be no quick resolution to Iran’s effective blockade of the critical waterway. Global oil markets are set for another volatile week: The US energy secretary said there are “no guarantees” crude prices — which recently surpassed $100 — would fall in the coming weeks. |
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Israel says it has ample air defense tech |
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Ukraine’s tech gives it new global heft |
 Ukraine wants technology and cash in exchange for helping Gulf nations repel Iranian drone attacks, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, a sign of Kyiv’s newfound international leverage. Ukraine, which has found a cost-effective and sustainable way to defend against Russian drone attacks, sent teams to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as to a US base in Jordan, to help fend off strikes. Zelenskyy proposed a deal with the US to increase output of anti-drone tech. The conflict is “having a profound impact on Ukraine’s international image,” an analyst wrote for the Atlantic Council. Kyiv was seen as having little clout and being dependent on the West for survival, but “a radically different picture is now emerging.” |
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Iraq becomes a shadow front in war |
 The Iran war has made Iraq a battleground once again. Tehran-backed Shia militia have struck US military and diplomatic sites in Iraq, as well as oil installations, an airport, and hotels, while both US and Iranian forces have attacked paramilitary groups in the country. An Iraqi unit was also fired upon, perhaps by US special forces, the Financial Times reported. The fighting has caused little damage but has shut down much of the oil-dependent country’s extraction and exports, and threatens its fragile recovery. Iraq has taken “meaningful steps toward stability,” Gallup noted, and Iraqis have reported higher levels of trust in institutions and feelings of safety. But those “two decades of hard-won progress” could be undermined by the regional fallout from the war. |
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How Israel offered a ‘can’t-lose’ deal |
 Kevin Lamarque/ReutersRight-wing populist criticism that Washington is a puppet in Israel’s conflict with Iran mischaracterizes the US-Israel relationship, and overlooks US President Donald Trump’s own motivations for getting involved, a veteran journalist and commentator argued. Trump has said that he chose to launch the strikes himself: “If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand.” Still, the attacks drew heavily on Israeli intelligence, which penetrated Iran’s political, military, and nuclear networks over decades, Eli Lake wrote in Commentary. Rather than rely on salesmanship, Israel “was inviting the president to place a large bet on a fight it had already fixed,” Lake argued. “Trump likes winners, and the Israelis had offered him a can’t-lose proposition.” |
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China resumes Taiwan incursions |
 Ann Wang/ReutersChina resumed a flurry of military flights around Taiwan on Sunday, ending a mysterious 10-day lull. Beijing, which sees the self-ruled, democratic island as a breakaway province it will eventually absorb, has regularly staged incursions since 2020, in what Taipei sees as a cycle of harassment. Analysts were puzzled by the pause, with some noting it coincided with the annual meeting of China’s legislature. It could also mark a desire to calm the waters before US President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China at the end of the month. The superpowers’ trade negotiators held talks in Paris on Sunday to set the stage for the summit. Beijing has warned Washington against approving an arms sale to Taiwan ahead of the trip. |
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‘RAMageddon’ hits gaming industry |
 Leon Kuegeler/ReutersA global memory shortage driven by the AI boom is threatening to blunt the gaming industry’s multi-year momentum. RAM, random-access memory, is the “green, black, and gold brain of electronics,” the essential short-term storage component of any device, WIRED wrote. Data centers powering new AI tools, though, are consuming massive amounts of RAM chips, creating a “RAMaggedon” in the multibillion-dollar global gaming industry. If devices can’t sufficiently increase their memory capacity, world-building could become less vast and “the innovation will slow down,” a game critic said. At the same time, developers are grappling with the threat posed by the AI tools themselves, though fans have pushed back against games that use even a hint of generative AI. |
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|  What do the smartest leaders do when the pressure is on and the world is watching? Rapid Response goes inside the corner office, spotlighting the real-time decisions that define companies and industries. Host Bob Safian talks with CEOs, founders, and experts about navigating today’s uncertainty, responding to disruption, and the leadership challenges that shape the future of business. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. |
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Boosting Nigerian girls’ education |
 Nuhu Gwamna/ReutersBoosting girls’ education in Nigeria led to an 80% reduction in child marriages, research found. Four out of five girls in the country’s north marry before 18 and 48% before 15, despite it being illegal, partly because families believe that single girls are more likely to be kidnapped. A program involving 1,181 girls paid for school fees and uniforms. Backing for the program from religious leaders was crucial in reducing both fear and stigma around being unmarried, researchers said. At the end of the program, 79% of the girls were unmarried, compared to about 14% of those who did not participate. Marrying and having children later correlate with better health outcomes, researchers told Nature. |
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The future of Britain’s electoral system |
 Temilade Adelaja/ReutersBritain’s electoral system is out of step with political reality, and a change could be coming, a political scientist argued. The UK’s first-past-the-post model suits a two-party system, but in recent years other parties have arisen. The combined vote share for the Labour and the Conservatives parties in 2024 was 57%, down from 96% in 1955. The party system now looks European, the political scientist Vernon Bogdanor wrote in the Financial Times, and it is time to move to a European-style proportional-representation model. A politics blogger noted that for the first time, the incentives align for the major parties to back such a change because they are bleeding support and proportional representation could help both of them, especially the Conservatives, avoid destruction. |
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Oscars mask a Hollywood in crisis |
 As Hollywood celebrates the Oscars on Sunday, the glitz masks a deeper crisis for the entertainment industry: rising production costs. This year, none of the ten Best Picture nominees was primarily shot on a Hollywood soundstage or studio lot, as studios pursue tax incentives and lower costs across the US and overseas. In 2025, California more than doubled its film and TV tax credit program to $750 million in a bid to keep projects from leaving the state. Meanwhile, the industry has been rocked by tens of thousands of layoffs and an identity crisis over the use of AI. This year’s Oscars reflect Hollywood’s struggle to stay competitive as filmmaking increasingly moves to more affordable locations, analysts said. |
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|  March 16: - Nvidia kicks off its annual GTC developer conference in California, with a keynote from CEO Jensen Huang.
- China releases economic data for January and February.
- Foxconn releases quarterly earnings.
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|  Cutting Through Rocks, by Mohammadreza Eyni and Sara Khaki. The 2025 film, the first Iranian documentary nominated for an Oscar, tells the story of Sara Shahverdi, the first woman elected to the council of her village in Iran. Defying custom, Shahverdi, a former midwife and the only female motorcyclist in her region, fights for the rights of women and girls. “Her steeliness and strength are magnificent, but it’s her equanimity that delivers the film’s most powerful jolt,” a New York Times review said. The husband-and-wife directors said that celebrating the film has been difficult amid Iran’s turmoil. But Shahverdi keeps “me hopeful about what the future can bring,” Khaki told CNN before the war. |
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.