Brandon Jordan is a journalist based in Queens, New York, who has written for publications such as The Nation, In These Times, Truthout and City Limits. You can follow him on Twitter @BrandonJ_R.
Iranian strikes on Gulf energy sites and renewed threats against American installations are exposing how decades of US military expansion in the Middle East have tied Washington to regional regimes while increasing risks of wider war.
Unusual oil and stock trades worth hundreds of millions of dollars occurred minutes before the president’s social media announcement about Iran peace talks, prompting calls for investigations into possible insider knowledge.