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The Iran War: What are Trump’s Options and How Bad Could It Get ?

  Donald Trump has a problem on his hands…and the USA as a nation now has an even bigger one.... Having been persuaded by Netanyahu, and his own Whit House advisors that an all-out attack on the Iranian regime and its military wing, the IRGC, was the best solution to the ‘Iranian problem’, Trump was clearly expecting the war to be over in a matter of days. This still seems to be his 'default' position for any campaign he starts, despite the lessons already provided by the Ukraine war and the continued attacks by all 3 of the Iranian proxies in the face of massive bombing campaigns since the October 7th HAMAS attack. All this does beg the question of how closely he is really being kept informed, and who is actually driving US foreign policy... Despite the intense battering his military and the Israelis have administered over a wide area of Iran in the last 5 weeks, and the cumulative and continuing decapitation of the old leadership in targeted Israeli raids, the Iranian m...

UK Student Loans – SB or BS ?

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Please see also recent update of 7.4.26 at the end of this text for interpretation of UK.Gov's announcement on the 6% interest rate cap for Plan 2 loans.  ------------------ UK Student loans, and more particularly the repayment thereof, is a hot topic in the news at the moment.  The student body, both past and present, are all clamouring for more favourable terms, given Reeves' recent threshold freeze, the burgeoning cost of living, and progressive rises in student fees.  There are particular concerns about the affordability of the legacy (i.e. Plan 2) scheme which still applies to all loans taken out between September 2012 and August 2023. The majority of outstanding loan balances currently fall under this plan (5.8 million loans were taken out under the scheme in total in England before it was superseded by the current Plan 5 variant).  The terms of this legacy scheme have resulted in crippling interest rates due to the full built-in 3% surcharge above RPI, whi...