As you would have noted, my blogs are no longer as regular but I will continue to endeavour to provide updates as and at when necessary.

So much has happened since the last blog along the same themes with no solutions found yet on the Israeli - Palestinian situation. Both sides have still not reached any agreement even though there had been temporary ceasefire that allowed for humanitarian aid and exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Since then, there hasn’t been any other agreements as the White House and the Countries involved in brokering a peace deal continue to urge both parties to reach an agreement.

The sticky issue appears to be that Hamas is opposed to Israel maintaining its forces on key entries between the two borders in the Philadelphi corridor with Egypt and Rafah crossing. In addition, Hamas wants the agreement to include “a permanent ceasefire, complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, the freedom of residents to return to their areas, relief and reconstruction, and a serious exchange deal.”

Meanwhile, Hezbollah backed by Iran has been firing rockets and missiles into Israel in response to the assassination of some of their leaders & Hamas, to which, Israel responded in pre-emptive strikes to major attacks planned by Hezbollah. Both sides have indicated that they do not want a conflict nor further confrontation that would result in a war in the region. Let’s hope it all quietens down and that all remaining hostages are freed and returned to Israel while Palestinians have peace and can begin to rebuild their lives and Country. Why the suffering is being prolonged and protracted baffles the human mind and imagination!

The Ukraine invasion by Russia which is still on, took a new turn when Ukraine started an offensive incursion into Russian territory. Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory in the Kursk region but wants peace and for Russia to leave it’s territory. Russia has been evacuating residents in the Kursk region as a result. 

The World experienced a major Global IT outage that caused disruption across the banking, healthcare, retail sector, media, transport, hospitality etc. Crowdstrike, the Company that was responsible attributed the problem to a faulty update, whereby, content update for security sent systems into a blue-loop. The CEO, George Kurtz apologised for the major disruption whilst they tried to resolve the issue by identifying, isolating and fixing the defective content that was uploaded to get the  systems back, up and running.

In the UK, the Labour Govt won majority elections and came to power on a mandate to grow the economy and relief the suffering of citizens. UK interest rates were reduced from 5.25 in June 2024 to 5% in August whilst in the US, the interest rate is between 5.25% to 5.50% but the Fed has indicated it will reduce rates given that the Economy is slowing with lower employment rate and unemployment at 4.3% and inflation at 2.9%.

The US target rate is to bring inflation down to 2% as the lending rate is at 5.3% which is quite high. The Manufacturing data shows the US economy to be slowing whilst the Services data will provide an over all picture of the state of the economy when it is released. The slowdown is fuelled by economic uncertainty, political uncertainty and high valuations of technology stocks that are now correcting themselves!

The US Elections took off with a twist after the incumbent President Joe Biden was forced to step down from running for a 2nd Term and was replaced by his Vice President, Kamala Harris who was confirmed as the Democratic Party nominee last week and would now face the Republic Nominee, ex President, convicted felon and traitor Donald J Trump in the 2024 Presidential election in November. VP Kamala Harris has come into her own and out of the shadows of the President by proving and positioning herself as the Centrist candidate to win the election. It would be wonderful to have the first female US President in 2024. Quite appropriate and timely, too!

The fires are raging again in Greece, and threatening to spread towards Portugal and Spain. We hope they can be contained with less destruction & devastation, as well as, the volcanic eruption in Iceland that has been spewing a lot of molten lava and smoke that is reaching the UK. 

The 2024 Olympics took place in Paris, France. The games went very well but not so much for the Opening and Closing ceremony which wasn’t to everyone’s taste and likeness. There were a few controversies about some female participants in Boxing and soon, the Para-Olympics kicks off! Congratulations to all participants and winners and best wishes to all of the Para-Olympians.

Also, the US Open starts today and will last for two weeks. In F1, Lando Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix for McLaren’s team while Max Verstappen came 2nd for Red Bull and Leclerc came 3rd for Ferrari. Congratulations to all 3. McLaren has been doing very well this season and wish them the best!