#IMF Chief

[internationalnewz]

G20 members must mobilise domestic resources for climate finance: IMF Chief

Kristalina Georgiev said in order to make the global economy resilient in a more shock-prone world, it is vital to reach an agreement to increase the IMF’s quota resources before the end of the year.

NEW DELHI: G20 members must lead by example in delivering on the promises of $100 billion per year for climate finance, supported by strengthening the Multilateral Development Banks, Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said on Sunday.

The IMF MD said that while the IMF has secured over $40 billion to support vulnerable countries through our Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) to build climate resilience, countries also need to mobilize domestic resources to finance and manage the green transition through tax reforms, effective and efficient public spending, strong fiscal institutions, and deep local debt markets.

The IMF managing director also called for all countries to pursue sound policies to support economic and financial stability and growth-oriented structural reforms.

This is especially important in emerging and developing countries, where such reforms can boost output by up to 8% over 4 years, she said while cautioning that the global economic recovery is slow and uneven, with medium-term growth prospects being the weakest in decades in an environment of still elevated inflation, high-interest rates, and growing fragmentation.

She said in order to make the global economy stronger and more resilient in a more shock-prone world, it is vital to reach an agreement to increase the IMF’s quota resources before the end of the year and secure the needed resources for the Fund’s interest-free support to the poorest countries through the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

“I call on our members to strengthen the global financial safety net. Since the start of the pandemic, the IMF has injected $1 trillion in reserves and liquidity through lending to nearly 100 countries and the historic SDR allocation; and I thank our members who have helped us reach the goal of channelling $100 billion to vulnerable countries,” she said.

The IMF MD also stressed on the need to harness the potential of digital technology for a prosperous future. She hailed India’s achievement in developing top-tier digital public infrastructure (DPI) stands as a beacon for others.

On digital money and crypto assets, the IMF chief said that the G20 has tasked relevant institutions to improve regulation and supervision of crypto assets even as the IMF is contributing to proposals for a comprehensive policy framework; and advance the debate on how central bank digital currencies could impact the global economy and financial system.

She concluded by saying that India’s G20 presidency is a powerful reminder that when the international community comes together to solve global problems, much can be accomplished.

[shaktiknowledgeblog]

china taiwan news | china news | Pakistan | IMF | sri lanka | pakistan | pakistan news | imf chief economist

Pakistan got shocked by this act of China and got IMF help for Sri Lanka like this The way has been cleared for this debt-ridden country to get a relief package of $ 2.9 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Pakistan, which is suffering from poverty and inflation, has high hopes for its friend China. China has a huge debt to Pakistan, which it is demanding concession. But by showing…

[momxijinping]

[...]

Ultimately, this story about Pakistan is more properly understood as one about the contest between China and the U.S. that pits the rest of the world in the middle. Chinese officials, we learned, regularly told their Pakistani counterparts that Beijing doesn’t see the contest as zero sum, that it’s okay to be friendly with both major powers. The U.S. does not quite see it that way, and Pakistan knows it. The result is the story below. If you’re at all interested in foreign affairs, we think you’ll find this one enlightening.

[...]

In October of 2022, a pivotal year for Pakistan, military chief Qamar Javed Bajwa finally won what he had long been striving for: an official state trip to the United States. His mission was explicit; a document prepared for Bajwa ahead of the visit is titled, “U.S. Re-Engagement with Pakistan: Ideas for Reviving an Important Relationship.”

[...]

From New York, Munir Akram, Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations, began reporting back cables highlighting “sarcastic” comments from his Chinese counterpart, who openly tweaked Akram about Pakistan’s sudden swing toward Washington. In private conversations with their Pakistani counterparts over the past year, as reported by Pakistani diplomats, Chinese officials have expressed displeasure with Islamabad for “switching camps”—rather than merely seeking open relations with both countries.

Now, with their U.S. gamble failing to pay off, Pakistani officials have become increasingly frantic in their efforts to repair relations with China, including, asthe documents reveal, by granting China approval for a military base at the port of Gwadar—a major and longstanding strategic demand of Beijing—and authorizing joint military operations inside Pakistan.

[...]

Internal reports emphasize Pakistan’s wish that its relations with the U.S. and China not be “zero-sum.” “What the Pakistani military prefers is to be able to maintain a balance between their Chinese and U.S. military relationships,” said Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an analyst on Pakistan. “They believe that if things are balanced, both sides will have an incentive to keep relations strong.”

Despite this preference, a classified internal Pakistani intelligence assessment judges China to be a more “natural strategic ally” than the U.S., with whom Pakistan is deemed to share “limited” strategic interests.

Facing such loss of trust from a key ally, the documents also show that Pakistan’s military-backed government privately promised Beijing a long-coveted concession: a Chinese military base in the key port city of Gwadar. Gwadar is a key node in China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative—the last stop in a land corridor through Pakistan that would connect China’s economy westward, and make it less reliant on shipping transit in the South China Sea. 

In return, Pakistan asked for a major upgrade in economic and military assistance from Beijing in order to insulate Islamabad from the fierce reaction from the U.S. such a deal is expected to provoke.

[...]

This August, Pakistani government sources vented frustration to the media over their failed reconciliation with the U.S., lamenting the meager benefits that mending ties had brought. Government sources told the Express Tribune that “Pakistan’s reliance on the United States to secure the IMF package was not yielding the results.” This week, the IMF announced a decision to consider Pakistan’s loan request at an upcoming meeting slated for September 25, raising hopes that a deal may still be secured.

Pakistan’s private concessions to China come as the U.S. State Department has continued to publicly defend the military regime from criticism over its role in rigging elections this February, gross human rights abuses inside the country targeting the press and civil society, and an ongoing crackdown on supporters of now-imprisoned former Prime Minister Khan. That crackdown now includes credible threats to Khan’s life, as he continues to be held in government custody despite repeated rejection by the courts of the charges against him.

“We believe good governance, long-term capacity building, and sustainable market-based approaches that let the private sector flourish are the best paths to sustained growth and development,” the State Department told Drop Site News in its post-publication statement. “Our partnership with Pakistan spans the full range of regional and bilateral issues, including increasing trade and investment, strengthening security cooperation, promoting regional security and stability, building climate resilience, supporting democracy and human rights, and expanding people-to-people ties.”

The rigging of elections this February was met with general indifference in Washington, as has the ongoing suppression of press and political activism in the country.  On the economic front, Pakistan’s imploding economy has consumed Western aid with nothing to show for it but soaring inflation, blackouts, an internet slowed to a crawl, and joblessness. 

18 Sept 2024

[writing-blog-iguess]

Omg i saw your post that your doing Ethan x reader or Aaron hotchner x reader! What if it’s combined? Reader (or oc whichever you prefer) is Ethan’s sister who got out of the IMF and now works for the bau and is dating hotch. One day Ethan shows up (as the dramatic person he is) and tells her he needs her help or both of them are gonna die. Idk something angsty and dramatic

Okay, I um kind of changed it a bit. I saw the words angsty and dramatic and an idea came to mind and I just rolled with it. I hope you don't mind. Also, very sorry for how long this took me, but I hope you like it.

Buckle up boys, it's a long one

---------

She left the IMF after a near death experience. Granted, that was an occupational hazard, and it wasn’t the first one she’s had. But something about this particular experience really rattled her.

Maybe it was disarming a nuclear bomb before it could go off, she wasn’t sure. She had thought her brother had the world ending missions, but she had her fair share of them too. Turned out it ran in the family.

After the debrief, she told Kittridge she was done. He tried to persuade her to become an instructor, even had Ethan try to convince her to stay with them. But the thought of teaching the next generation had her gut churning. So, she said no and left and hasn’t looked back since.

A few weeks after quitting, the director of the FBI tracked her down and offered her a job. Saying that her skill sets were perfect for the BAU. It started off rocky, as it usually does when starting a new job, and it didn’t help that the team had formed a family.

It was fine, they didn’t trust her much given that they knew next to nothing about her. Though there wasn’t a puzzle Garcia couldn’t solve, she seemed to be an exception. Whenever Garcia tried to find anything about her, nothing came up that pertained to her. Stating to the team that she was a ghost; she didn’t exist and what little she found was confidential.

Slowly, and one by one, she wormed her way into everyone’s hearts, and she stopped feeling like an outsider peering through the window.

She’s been with the BAU for five years, and dating the Unit Chief for three. It had been work cracking the hard shell of one Aaron Hotchner, but eventually she had. And along the way fell in love.  

He doesn’t know much about her past before the FBI. Well, he knows more than the rest of the team, but not much. He knows she worked for the government, doing covert assignments. What, she never said and hoped to keep it that way. He knows she has a brother who still worked there, but has never met him.

She doesn’t know how long she can hide that part of her life, but she hopes to keep it away from her current life as far as possible. God knows, Aaron doesn’t need to be pushed into the fray of her past. But she’s a Hunt, and if there’s one thing, she knows that the past will come to collect when you least expect it.

---

“Do you think we’ll get the weekend off?” Emily asked offhandedly as the three of them waited for the elevator. She snorted and shook her head, bringing her coffee cup up and took a sip.

“Doubt it,” she said, “every time we talk about the weekend and what plans we have, we usually get called in.”

“Yeah. But what if we didn’t talk about our plans?” JJ asked. The elevator dinged and the three of them stepped in, laughing.

“Sure, then maybe we’ll get it off. But knowing our luck we still get…” she trailed off as she turned around to see a familiar face through the building doors. And it seemed like time had stopped as she stared at him. He didn’t smile or wave, he just stood there, staring at her as if they were in a staring contest like they had as children.

“Hunt?” Emily called, waving her hand in front of Y/N. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she asked, and she blinked and he was gone. Maybe she had.

“Uh, yeah. I just,” she started and shot her hand forward, stopping the elevator doors from closing. She needed to make sure it was just that, just a ghost. “I forgot something in my car,” she lied though they didn’t buy it. “I’ll meet you up there.” Stepping off, she made her way towards the door, ignoring their calls of worry.

Pushing the door open, she turned her head around and hoped to see Ethan. But he was nowhere to be seen, and she briefly entertained the thought that she was just seeing things. She has been thinking about Ethan a lot lately, it could be her mind playing tricks. But there was a small part of her that knew what she saw was real. That Ethan might be in D.C, and he came to see her.

Grumbling about how stupid brother were under her breath, she walked across the street and hoped that there was something there that told her Ethan was there.

Just as she walked past a payphone, it started ringing. She watched it for a moment, waiting to see what would happen. And when someone went to answer it, it stopped ringing. Okay weird. When the person shrugged and walked away, it started ringing again. It was too much of a coincidence of seeing Ethan and having the phone ring.

“Dammit Ethan. Why couldn’t you make an appointment or something?” she mumbled to herself as she went to pick up the phone. “Hello.”

“In an hour, meet me where the mummies rest,” was all he said before hanging up. She blinked, staring at the receiver in her hand. What?

“What?” she muttered in disbelief. Somehow not surprised with the message. She hung up and glanced at her watch. She wasn’t going into work today, that she was sure of. Sighing, she fished out her phone and dialed.

“Hotchner,” he answered after the third ring. She didn’t answer right away, still in thought of what exactly she was going to tell him. She must have been quiet for a bit too long. She heard rustling and imagined Aaron moving some papers around before checking to see if the call was still connected.

“Honey? Are you okay?” Aaron asked softly, as if he was afraid to spook her. It brought a smile to her face at how fast he can go from Work Hotch to Home Hotch. She sniffled and turned to look up at the building, eyes on the floor she thought his office was. “Sweetheart?”

“Sorry. I-I don’t think I’ll make it to work today,” she finally answered.

“You haven’t gotten sick, have you?” Aaron asked, and wrinkled his forehead in worry was clear in her mind. As if he was standing in front of her. “You were fine this morning.”

“No, not sick,” she confirmed. Scratching her cheek, she debated telling him the whole truth. She decided on half the truth then. “Do you remember my brother?” she waited for his hum of acknowledgement before continuing. “Well, he’s in town.” Okay, she wasn’t sure if he was or not, but it’s something he didn’t need to know.”

“Everything okay?” Aaron asked, she bit her lip, shrugging helplessly, forgetting he couldn’t see her.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen or talked to him in five years,” she sighed out, “it could be nothing but it could be-”

“Something,” Aaron finished the thought for her. And knowing her brother the way she does, it was something. But she wasn’t ready to tell him that, not yet at least. “Go. Take as much time as you need. I think you have saved up vacation days you still need to use.”

“Is this Aaron talking or Hotch?” she couldn’t help but tease. Aaron huffed out a laugh, bringing out a smile from her.

“A little bit of both I suppose,” he answered, “still, take a few days if it’s important. If it’s not, still take them and spend time with your brother. Family is important.” He means it, she knows. Especially after what he went through with Haley. And she takes his words to heart. “Tell me how it goes, okay?”

“I will, thanks Aaron,” she whispered, rubbing her nose. “But are you sure you can handle the workload without me?”

“We handled them before you, I’m sure we’ll manage,” he teased, lifting up her spirits a little. You heard a knock and some mumbling before Aaron came back on the phone. “I have to go; a new case just came up. Stay safe. I love you.”

“You stay safe too, and I love you too.” With that you hung up.

Where the mummies rest. Why’d he have to be so damn cryptic, she’ll never know. If it was anyone else, they wouldn’t know what he was talking about. But since it was her that picked up the phone, and with her love of puzzles and riddles, she knew the answer.

She had an hour to meet him, an hour to prepare for whatever storm Ethan brought with him. Instead of going home or to the car, she turned and started walking towards the Smithsonian. She had hoped the walk would help clear her mind.

But by the time she stood in front of the building, she was in a bundle of nerves. Which was ridiculous, Ethan’s her brother. A brother who you haven’t seen nor talked to since she left the agency.

Feeling a little silly, she shook her head and walked inside. She bypassed all the other exhibits and went straight to ancient Egypt. Once she walked into the room, she slowly made her way around it. Picking up a pamphlet, making it look like she was there for the exhibit and not waiting for someone.

Though she didn’t have to wait long before her older brother stood beside her. She paid him no mind, and kept her focus on the vase she was currently studying.

“You look good,” Ethan finally said after a few moments of silence. She hummed and stole a glance in his direction.

“Could say the same about you,” you shot back, eyes returning to the pamphlet in her hands. “How’d you even find me anyways. Not that I was hiding or anything,” she added as an afterthought.

“You’re my younger sister, of course I’m going to keep tabs on you,” he answered. Furrowing her eyebrows in thought. If that were true, he could have made contact sooner. Right?

“No, you had Benji track me down,” you countered and she didn’t miss the smile that came after. “He’s here, isn’t he?” she asked, looking around. When she couldn’t find the familiar blond, her next target was a security camera. Finding one, she narrowed her eyes as if he was there.

“He says hi, by the way,” Ethan said, finally turning to you.” And that they keep track of everyone who’s ever worked for them. Even after they leave.” Of course, they do. Why that surprised her, she had no idea.

Turning back to Ethan with a huff, her hands crumpled the pamphlet as her grip tightened around it. “Well tell Kittridge I’m not coming back. And getting you to ask me doesn’t change my answer. It’s not like we’ve talked recently,” she said quietly, hurt creeping into her voice.

“I know and I’m sorry,” he said, frowning. Shaking his head, he reached out and took her by the arm, guiding the two of them somewhere more private. “Now’s not the time to catch up. I’ve come to ask for help.”

“No,” she said, shaking off his hand. She turned around to face him, crossing her arms over her chest. “I said I was done and I mean it. Tell Kittridge to leave me alone.”

Frustration crossed his features and he took a deep breath before talking. “Kittridge doesn’t know I’m here, he didn’t send me. I’m the one who needs your help,” he said, “she’s back and she’s gunning for you.”

“I don’t-I don’t know who you're talking about Ethan,” she finally answered. Ethan groaned and she stepped back a little at the look he was giving her.

“One of your first missions was to stop a trafficking ring,” he reminded, hoping it’ll jog her memory. She hummed and let her eyes wander around the room as well as her mind. 

As they do, her eyes settle on a person, and something not right clicks in her brain as she continues to stare. And it’s not the ‘it’s rude to stare’ her mom would tell her growing up. No, it’s something else that she can’t put a finger on.

The woman she’s staring at gives Y/N a familiar smile and wave when it clicks.

“No.”

“She’s coming for you and everything that you love.” She faintly heard Ethan say, but all her attention was on the woman across the room. She watched with mild horror as she wiggled a picture back and forth. She may be too far away to see the picture clearly, but she could faintly see the outline of the people in it and it made her heart drop to her stomach.

Pushing the pamphlet into Ethans chest and made her way towards the woman, ignoring her brother’s surprised grunt. The woman turned and made her way out of the room, dropping the picture as she went.

Y/N ignored the picture and kept walking, following the blond. “Sorry, excuse me, pardon me,” she went on as she gently pushed her way through the crowds. She quickened her pace as she kept going, ignoring everyone but the person she was following.

Once she entered the main lobby, she began to run until he pushed her way out the doors. Running down the steps, she looked around and cursed when she couldn’t find her.

“Y/N!” Ethan yelled just as her phone ran. Getting it out of her pocket, she answered.

“Hunt.”

“Long time no see,” the voice said, laughing. Y/n’s grip on her phone tightened at the sound of her voice. It may have been years since she put that person away, but she could never get rid of the voice from her nightmares.

“Whatever game you're playing Lily, it ends,” she hissed, turning around hoping she could find Lily. 

“No game,” Lily said, voice suddenly serious, “you ruined my life, Y/N. It’s only fair I ruin yours.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think you know,” Lily answered, “I mean who gets to find the love of their life? I’m sure Aaron and I have lots to talk about.”

“You stay away from him. Your fight is with me, not him.”

“You brought him the day you met him,” she hissed. “Whatever happens to him will fall on your hands, not mine. See you soon, Y/N.”

She made a noise in frustration as the call disconnected. Ethan grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. He had questions, they were just going to have to wait until later.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asked, Y/N made a face and just as she went to answer, her phone rang. Looking down, Derek’s name flashed and she quickly answered.

“Hey, is Aaron with you?” she asked before he could say anything.

“No. That’s what I’m calling about,” Derek answered, and she could hear the worry in his voice. “We think he’s missing.”

There were a few things she could have said, she could tell him the truth that she knew who had him, or she could lie and act surprised. But there was someone she was thinking about at that moment. “What about Jack? Is he okay?”

“Yeah,” Derek said and she sighed in relief that he was safe. “Rossi went to pick him up once we realized Hotch was gone. Wanna talk to him?”

“If he wants too,” she answered and waited as the phone moved and Jack’s voice filtered through. She smiled and turned slightly from Ethan at his curious look he sent her. “Hey, Jack. How’s it going?”

“Good! Uncle David came and got me and brought me to dad’s work. They said he was busy, as Spencer and Penelope are helping me with my homework,” he answered, “after Penelope said she had some games I could play.”

“That sounds fun,” she said, and couldn’t help the smile Jack brought her. “Make sure they feed you too. I don’t think I’ll come and get you today, sweetie.”

 There was a moment of silence before Jack voiced the question she was hoping to avoid. “Dad’s missing, isn’t he?” Sighing, she rubbed her forehead as she thought of the best way to answer it. “Can you tell me? No one wants to tell me the truth, but I can take it. I know that they’ll find him and bring him back safely. I just want someone to tell me what’s happening.”

She took a moment to breathe before answering Jack. He was right, he deserved the truth no matter what was happening. “Yeah, your dad’s missing. We’re not sure who or what happened but we’re going to fight him.”

“I know,” he said and she felt the weight of trust Jack was giving her. And she made a promise to do whatever it took to find him. Even if it meant going against everyone. “Uncle Derek wants to talk to you. Be safe, okay?”

“I will. I love you,” she said before the phone shuffled back to Derek.

“It’s all hands-on deck, Hunt. We need you back here.”

“I know, but I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?” Derek asked, and she could tell he was getting frustrated with her and her non-answers.

“Trust me okay, I just can’t.” There was silence on both ends, and she could hear the fluttering of people running back and forth behind Derek. She wondered if he was in his office or out in the conference room.

“You know who it is, don’t you?” Derek questioned once he put the pieces together. You didn’t answer, but that was an answer of itself. “Oh man, you do. Then you need to come back to the office, if you know who has hotch. Fill us in.”

“I can’t Derek. Just trust me, okay? I have to go after her, just me. I won’t let you handle my mess.”

“Well, you should,” he grumbled, “we’re family and we help each other no matter what.”

“I know,” she whispered, taking a deep breath she let it out slowly. “But what I’m going to do, it goes against the FBI. Hell, it goes against everything we stand for. And I’m not going to risk your jobs over something I'm doing. You guys had your fair share of that, I’m not adding more to it.”

“You know we don’t care about that.”

“I know, but please Derek. Let me do this my way,” she begged and started counting. It helped with her nervousness, and she only hoped they would understand. Derek huffed and grumbled something before he answered.

“Okay, fine. Do it your way, but we’re not going to stop searching for him our way.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

“But the minute you’re in trouble, call me. And we’ll be there to help.”

“Thanks Derek,” she said, smiling slightly. He grunted and wished her good luck before hanging up.

Tapping her phone against her fingers, she lets her eyes unfocus as she thought. There are many places Lily can go too, but it all depends on who she's still in contact with. She wouldn’t stay in the states long, preferring the warmth over the chilly air of Washington. She always did favour Dubai. Preferred being there and let her lackies do most of the heavy lifting. But she isn’t that stupid to go to places Y/N knows she might go. Maybe somewhere new? Maybe pull one over on her and stay Stateside, just somewhere now here. Maybe…

“You gonna explain what that’s all about?” Ethan asked, making her jump at the sudden sound that was in her ear. She blinked, forgetting that he was there and waiting for her to be done. “You got lost in your head again. Things never change.” He laughed as she turned to him and punched him in the arm.

“Like you’re one to talk,” she said and looked around. “Do you have a rendezvous point?” she asked, Ethan nodded and started walking. She quickly followed in silence, wanting to wait until they weren’t out in the open to talk.

As she walked, she turned off her phone, took out her SIM card and broke her phone. She didn’t want to, there were too many photos she cherished. But she was thankful she backed it up the night before, old habits die hard and she’s glad that was one of them she hasn’t broken.

“Why did you do that?” Ethan asked once they neared a shady looking motel. She raised an eyebrow at the state of it, but didn’t say anything about it.

“I have a friend I work with who’s really good with computers,” she answered, stepping through the door once he opened the door to the room he was staying in. “So much so, she could give Luther a run for his money.”

“Now I don’t know about that,” a deep voice called from somewhere in the room. She turned and looked towards-

“Luther!” she happily called, making her way towards him and gave him a hug. “Oh, it’s good to see you!”

“I just wish it was under better circumstances,” Luther said, patting her back as he pulled away.

“Me too,” she said, going and giving Benji a hug. “But we’re here now and we have to go forward.”

“Right. So now what?” Benji asked.

“Go through the museum’s security systems and comb through it until we find her,” she answered and frowned at the looks they were giving her. “What?”

“We did that and we seemed to have disappeared.”

“Okay,” she hummed, scratching her nose in thought. “So, we look through a different angle. Can you hack into the FBI security feeds?”

“Do ducks quack?” Luther asked as he went to work. In no time, they were watching the FBI offices. She instructed him what offices and the time she had in mind.

She watched as Aaron stepped out of his office with Garcia. They moved towards the conference room and stayed for a few minutes before everyone left the room. As Aaron made his way towards his office, he answered his phone. He paused on his walk, and she could see the worry lines wrinkling around his eyes.

She bit his lip and ignored her brother's stare as she continued watching. A second later, Aaron was rushing out of the office. “Luther?”

“Already on it,” he said, pressing a few buttons. She watched as Luther scanned through the security feeds until she spotted Aaron in the lobby. She watched as two men came up to him, whispering something to him before leaving the building.  

“There,” she pointed out, stopping Luther.

“Who’s he with?” Benji asked, and all she could do was shrug.

“I don’t know, but whoever they are really got to him,” she mumbled, though she already knew the answer to that. She’s just thankful the team got to Jack before Lily could.

“Who is he?” Ethan asked, taking the picture from his pocket and holding it in front of her. “Who are they to you? And why did Lily go after him?”

“It’s like you said, Ethan. She’s coming after everyone that I love,” she answered, taking the photo from him. She stared at it with a soft smile. It was a picture she had taken on one of their days off. Jack had wanted to bake cookies with the two of them, and they couldn’t say no.

They had spent the day baking cookies, at one point Jack and Aaron had gotten into a flour fight. Along with the two of them, the kitchen was full of flour, and Y/N had snapped the photo of the two of them laughing.

“His name is Aaron Hotchner and the boy is Jack, his son. They’re my boys,” she continued when someone cleared their throat. 

“Jack’s your son?” Benji asked, leaning over to see the picture. “Looks more like his dad than you.”

“No, he’s from a previous marriage. But I think of him as my own,” she answered, tracing the photo with her thumb. “And the only reason Aaron would be so frantic is if Jack’s in trouble. He’s safe,” she quickly added at the worried looks they were giving her. Afraid of bringing a child into this. “I don’t know who, but Lily found out about them.”

“So, you're married?”

“No, just dating. But we’ve been together for a couple of years,” she answered with a slight smile. “They’re my world and I would do anything to protect them.”

“Then let’s find them.”

With the photo safely tucked away in her pocket, they set to work. 

Within a few hours the group of agents narrowed it down to four places she could be.

“Now what?”

“We split up,” she suggested, and Ethan immediately shook his head at the thought.

“No, no way am I letting you go off by yourself,” Ethan said, turning towards her. “She’s after you, Y/N. This is what she wants.”

“Maybe not,” she countered, crossing her arms, and giving her brother a challenging look. “No listen,” she continued, raising a hand up to stop him from saying something, “she has a one-track mind, and that’s to hurt me. And to her, she took the only one she thinks can hurt me. Granted, she was almost right, but I digress. With Aaron, she won’t come after me. Now she’s waiting.”

“For who?” Luther asked the question everyone was thinking.

“Me. She’s waiting for the fight to come to her. And I plan to bring it.”

“What if you're wrong? What if this is a ploy to get you alone?”

“Then I’m wrong,” she said with a shrug. “I’m willing to take the chance.” She stared at Ethan, ignoring the other two in the room as they continued their tense staring contest. “I can hold my own, you know that, Ethan. If I’m the first to find her, I’ll back off and call for backup.”

“You’ll wait until I get there?” Ethan asked, she nodded.

“Yes.”

--

Twenty hours later, Y/N found herself wandering around the city of Dubai. It had been a struggle to convince Ethan that she was fine taking Dubia, but she managed. She didn’t think Lily would be here anyway, it’d be the first place they would look, and Lily knew that.

After putting out feelers around the city, she made her way back to her hotel. She was tired from traveling and knew she needed to rest before she could continue her search.

Taking out her burner with the intention of calling Derek to check in, but changed her mind. She didn’t have the energy to explain why she was in Dubai nor the story of her past. Instead, she called Benji.

“Nothing to report here,” he answered when she asked for an update. “My contacts haven’t heard anything. And what Luther said, he hasn’t had any luck either.”

“What about Ethan?” she asked, trying not to sound frustrated. Judging by Benji’s voice, she wasn’t successful.

“Don’t know, haven’t heard anything from him yet. I’m meeting up with Luther and from there we’ll meet Ethan. How about you?”

“I spread the word now I’m just waiting,” she sighed out, throwing a smile to the hotel concierge as she walked past them to the elevator. “I’ll let you know if I’ve found anything.”

“Alright. Good luck.”

Dropping the phone on the bed, she soon followed and closed her eyes. Waiting had never been her strong suit, but for Aaron, she’s willing to try. Besides, finding Lily here was a long shot, so the chances of her here were slim.

A few hours later, Y/N wore up with a start. Groaning when it registered that her phone woke her up, she rolled over and reached for it.

“Hello?” she answered groggily.

“She’s here,” the person on the phone said. Y/N shot up, fully awake.

“Where?”

“In the desert. Apparently, while she was away, she had it built. Don’t know why or how she got the funds for it.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she said, waving away the questions. It wasn’t her biggest worry anyway. “What kind of building?”

“A factor type, I think,” he answered, “though there hasn’t been much work coming out of it. As far as I can tell, it was abandoned once they finished building. I sent the blueprints and everything to ya.”

“You’re the best, Lance. I owe you one.”

Lance snorted at that. “I think you owe me more than one, Hunt. Good luck, kid.”

She stared at the phone in thought. She could go now and take Lily down, save Aaron. But that was a big risk she wasn’t sure she wanted to take. Sighing, she dialed Ethan’s number.

“Found her,” she said as soon as he picked up.

“You wait, you hear me,” Ethan warned. She rolled her eyes as she leaned over to grab her laptop.

“That’s what I’m doing,” she said, going through the email Lance sent her.

“Good. We’ll be there in four hours. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“How can I? You do all the stupid things first.”

By the time they arrived, she was prepared. “Looks like you're ready for war,” Benji noted when he entered her hotel room. She sent him a flat look.

“I had nothing to do but prepare for four hours. Of course, I’m ready.”

“You know where she is?” Luther asked, setting his bags down. Y/N turned her computer around so they had a better view.

“Know where she is, I know the layout of the building and I can guess where she’s keeping him.”

“And you didn’t go there by yourself?” Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow as a challenge. She crossed her arms and shook her head.

“Scouts honour,” she said, raising her right hand. “But I do have a van and everything ready once you’re all caught up.”

“Surprised you're not rushing us out the door.”

“I won’t risk Aaron’s life because I’m impatient.”

 They spent an hour or two planning and memorizing the layout of the building. The plan was that Benji and Luther would stay in the van, directing them as needed. While Ethan and Y/N went inside to look for Aaron and Lily.

When they were all set, they left.

“Alright, looks like she set up security cameras around the building,” Luther noted as he parked in front of the building.

“So much for the element of surprise,” Benji voiced.

“It was never on our side,” Y/N said, checking her gun.

“Is that really necessary?”

“I’m an FBI agent, Benji. I won't go anywhere without it.”

“Noted.”

--

She ran through the building with Ethan, following Benji’s instructions. She turned when he said to turn, sometimes having to double back when there was no way around it. And eventually, she found the room where Lily was holding Aaron.

“Aaron!” she shouted, skidding into the room just in time to see Lily slip through the room. “Go, I have Aaron,” she said to Ethan, paying attention to him, assessing him.

“Are you sure?” Ethan asked, she nodded and Ethan left the two of them alone.

Y/N slowly approached Aaron, noticing that he was unconscious. She looked him over and sighed in relief when she couldn’t see any physical wounds on him. 

She turned to the bomb that was snug around his neck. Taking a deep breath, she leaned over to study it better. 

“Okay,” she whispered to no one in particular, “okay I can do this.”

Y/n’s earpiece crackled to life and she heard Benji ask, “Do what?” She debated whether to tell him or not. “Do what, Y/N?” He asked again.

“There’s a bomb,” she said, wincing when Benji yelled in her ear. “I can’t exactly move him. It looks like it’ll go off if he moves.”

“Pressure activation?” Luthor asked. She hummed, and leaned closer to get a better look.

“It looks like a twitch could set this thing off,” she confirmed, “damn she’s gotten better at this. Gotta hand it to her.”

“How about we don’t,” Benji mumbled, “how’s your boyfriend?”

���Sleeping for now. But I don’t know how long he’ll be out,” she said, leaning closer. “It also looks like it's radio controlled. And from what I can see around the room, it’s not here.”

“What about the bomb itself?”

She laid on her stomach to get a better look. “No timer, that’s good. And it looks like she made sure she was the only one who controls whether it goes off or not.”

“Oh, that’s good then?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “Like I said, if he moves it goes off.”

“So, then it’s just a really bad game of Russian Roulette,” Benji voiced what she was thinking.

“Looks like it,” she said. And just then, Aaron stirred from his sleep. She cupped his cheeks, and helped him move slowly. “Hey, I know you’re a little groggy but I need you to stay still.”

“Y/N?” Aaron asked, blinking slowly. “What are you doing here? What’s going on?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” she asked instead of answering.

“Um,” he started, furrowing his brows in thought. “I got a call about Jack…Jack,” he said and started to shift. “Jack’s in trouble. We gotta...we have to…”

“Hey, hey Aaron. Jack’s safe,” she soothed, smoothing his cheeks with her thumbs. “Jack’s safe and is waiting for you to come home. But before we can do that, you need to listen to me. Can you do that?”

He studied her before he answered, and she could see the shift in his eyes as he focused on her. “Okay. What do we have?”

“Okay, okay. Currently, you're tied up in a chair with a bomb strapped around your neck,” she answered, ignoring Benji saying that Ethan caught up to Lily.

“And you can’t disarm it?”

“No, I’m afraid I can’t. If I try, it’ll go off. It also goes off if you move as well. So, you need to stay still, okay? It's radio controlled, so we’re waiting for my brother to handle that.”

“You never mentioned that!” Benji shouted in her ear. “Next time say something about it going off if you tried taking it off. Spending all this time searching for a way to disarm it, when there’s nothing we can do.”

“Benji, shut up,” Y/N hissed, “how’s it going Ethan?”

“Working on it,” he grunted and you figured he was in a fight.

 “You’re not alone?” Aaron asked, though it sounded more of a statement.

“No. I’m with people I used to work with. Your team is still in DC looking for you.”

“We’re not in Washington.”

“We’re not Stateside anymore,” she answered and elaborated when he stared at her in confusion. “Dubai. A day or so ago, after your phone call they knocked you out and brought you here.”

“And who are they?”

“Someone from my past,” she said, “I’ll tell you about it once we’re safe. Promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he said and before either of them could say another word, they heard a clicking sound coming from the collar.

“Ethan.”

“Working on it.”

“Work faster.”

“You need to leave,” Aaron said, drawing her attention back to him. Her grip tightened slightly on his face, and she shook her head.

“I will do no such thing, Aaron. I’m staying here with you.”

“I’m ordering you to go,” he said in the voice he uses when they’re out on a case, and he’s barking orders at everyone.

Normally you would listen to him and go, but this isn’t a normal situation. “Respectfully, I’m going to have to disobey.”

“I love you,” he whispered, not wanting to fight with you anymore.

“I love you too,” she whispered back, leaning her forehead against his, and waited.

They didn’t have to wait long before they heard a hissing sound. Y/N held her breath, trying not to be too hopeful.

“You’re in the clear, take it off,” Ethan said after a moment.

“Thank fuck,” she whispered, shoulders sagging as she went to remove it. Once it was off, she gently tossed it to the sighed and hugged Aaron.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Aaron whispered in her hair, hugging her just as tight.

“And I will,” she replied. “What about Lily?” she spoke into her ear piece.

“She won’t be a problem anymore,” Ethan replied, and she could hear footsteps coming towards them. “Come on, let's go.”

After leaving the building, and they were at a safe distance, Ethan detonated the bomb. Once they reached the city, they called it in and went to get Aaron checked out.

While he was busy with doctors, Y/N stepped out and arranged a ride home. “Ready to go home?” she asked once Aaron was in the clear.

“Ready.”

--

The plane was silent after she told Aaron everything about her past, after answering all of his questions. There were snores to be heard from behind her, and if she really listened, she could hear Aaron breath as he processed everything.

But her attention was looking out the window, waiting. For what? She didn’t know, but she hoped Aaron wouldn’t dismiss her.

“Jack?” Aaron asked, breaking the silence.

“Morgan had said Rossi took him out of school when they found out you were missing,” she answered without turning towards him. “I’m assuming he’s still with him now.”

“You don’t know?” Aaron asked, surprised. She shook her head and sighed.

“I cut off communications with them when I found out who was involved,” she said, “it was my mess and I didn’t want them to get in trouble.”

“They wouldn’t have minded,” he said softly. She blew out a breath and slowly nodded.

Silence fell again, and she fought the urge to shake her friends awake at the noise they’re making.

“I need time to process everything,” Aaron broke the silence again. She turned towards him, searching his face to see if there was an underlying message. There wasn’t, but she knew he could always change his meaning.

“Okay,” she agreed, slumping into her chair, “but I’m taking some vacation days for the next week or so.”

“You don’t have-”

“I do,” she interrupted him. “It’ll be easier for the both of us. Please, let me do this.”

Aaron nodded and leaned back into his seat, closing his eyes he let himself relax. “Okay. Okay,” he whispered.

She studied him as she thought. This was one of the possibilities of Aaron finding out. Would she have preferred him accepting her and continuing their lives as normal? Yes. But just having a conversation without the yelling and fighting was more than she could have asked for.

And on some level, Aaron had accepted her for who she is and was as a person. He just didn’t want that person to be in Jack’s life, which is fair. Being an IMF agent might be a bit different then being FBI. It wasn’t a huge difference, but still. Jack can’t lose another parent and Aaron was only protecting his son.

Sighing, she closed her eyes and ignored everyone for the rest of the flight.

Once the plane landed, Y/N watched Aaron get in a taxi and drove off. She felt Ethan move to stand beside her, arm wrapped around her shoulders in a hug. 

“Need a place to stay?” Ethan asked and she side eyed him, confused.

“Don’t you live in LA?” she asked, he shrugged as he sent her a smile.

“So? You’re on vacation and I have a spare bedroom with your name on it,” he answered. She turned to study him for a minute before sighing.

“Yeah, what the hell,” she said after a minute. “Might be good for me.”

She hoped it would, hope that this isn’t the end with her and Aaron. But only time will tell.

[mariacallous]

Among the many disruptive economic policies former U.S. President Donald Trump is promising to pursue if he returns to the White House next year—a list that includes massive tax increases on imports, a global trade war, and an exploding budget deficit—his insistence on a weaker U.S. dollar stands out as bizarre, if not downright counterproductive.

For decades, Trump has clamored for a weaker dollar, first as a heavily indebted real-estate developer, then as a presidential candidate, then as president, and now again as a candidate for reelection. Trump’s weak-dollar push has gained support from key figures such as Robert Lighthizer, his former trade czar, who may well play a pivotal role in a second Trump administration.

Their reasoning is wonderfully simple: The dollar, they argue, is overvalued compared to currencies used by trade rivals such as China, Japan, and Europe. A weaker dollar would make imports that much more expensive for Americans and make U.S. exports that much more attractive on global markets. Voilà—a simple tweak to start balancing an out-of-balance trade deficit that for some reason is their bête noire.

The problem—there are many, but more on that later—is that pursuing such a policy would run directly counter to the one thing that Trump claims to be fighting against, and which seems to still worry Americans the most: high prices.

“It makes no sense to run against high inflation, and then advocate lower interest rates, higher tariffs, and a weaker dollar, all of which will add to inflation,” said Maurice Obstfeld, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “It just makes no sense.”

Or, as researchers at the Brookings Institution put it when Trump toyed with the same idea when he was president: “If the objective of the U.S. administration is to worsen their trade deficit, only temporary devalue the U.S. real effective exchange rate, boost the trade balances of U.S. trading partners, support China’s economy and undervalue China’s real effective exchange rate, provide only a temporary sugar-hit to the U.S. economy, worsen global currency misalignments and provoke retaliation from their trading partners, then this policy will achieve those objectives.”

First, though, Trump and company do have a point. The U.S. dollar is a bit overvalued compared to other major currencies, no matter how you look at it—even if it tripped on the carpet Wednesday over some disappointing economic news. The IMF figured it was about 6 percent to 12 percent overvalued the last time it looked, in 2019, and big rivals such as the Chinese renminbi and Japanese yen are relatively cheap by comparison. (The yen is near 40-year lows to the dollar.)

The bigger question is why. U.S. interest rates are still on the high side to tame inflation, which explains why the yen is tanking. But a lot has to do with the fact that the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency. This means that foreign central banks buy and hold dollars, like everyone else in the global economy, which props up their value. U.S. securities, such as government debt, remain the absolute safe haven for investors in times of trouble, even when those troubles emanate, like during the 2008-09 financial crisis, from the United States. That demand props up the dollar. Massive fiscal deficits in the United States, such as that caused by Trump’s $1.9 trillion tax cut, require foreign funding to finance. That demand props up the dollar.

But the problems with pursuing a weak-dollar policy remain legion, even if the policy were actually workable.

For starters, a weaker dollar would neither put a governor on U.S. imports nor turbocharge U.S. exports, which is the explicit goal of the entire approach. In the very short term, a cheap-money, weak-dollar policy would boost U.S. economic growth, which would put money in consumers’ pockets, which would lead to an uptick in imports. That is why the U.S. trade deficit widens when times are good at home—consumers are flush.

But more importantly for Trump and Lighthizer’s case, a weak dollar would do little to boost U.S. exports. There are all sorts of things beyond the marginal value of the dollar that stand in the way of U.S. goods elbowing their way into foreign markets, from non-tariff barriers and regulatory regimes (no chlorinated chicken in Europe, please) to consumer preferences; massive trucks with poor gas mileage are a terrible fit in a place like Europe with pricey petrol and narrow roads.

The biggest reason, though, is that in the modern world of global supply chains, the ability of the value of any country’s currency to affect the level of exports is quite small. Products are made with inputs from foreign countries, sold to other countries, often re-imported, tinkered with again, and exported again somewhere else. The upshot is that in a globalized world, supply chain intermingling makes the value of the export currency increasingly irrelevant.

Another problem is that the easiest way to force the dollar down is by lowering U.S. interest rates, one of Trump’s long-standing obsessions. The one thing that axiomatically follows lower interest rates (unless you are Japan) is higher inflation, which is exactly what Trump and his acolytes have been bashing U.S. President Joe Biden over for years.

And there is a national security component, too. The United States maintains about 800 overseas military bases in more than 70 countries, which collectively underpin a globe-spanning projection of U.S. power. That is kept running day to day by spending dollars on fuel, power, supplies, and a million other things. The weaker the dollar is, the more expensive it would be to maintain the country’s sprawling overseas commitments, which sits rather awkwardly with Trump’s advisors’ plans for “peace through strength” overseas.

But Trump’s plans for a weaker dollar would be hard to realize in any event, which makes the whole exercise befuddling.

Take the Chinese currency, which, despite years of scolding from U.S. officials before, during, and after Trump, keeps getting cheaper in relative terms. The renminbi is partially pegged to the dollar. If the dollar goes down in value, the renminbi will follow it down like George Costanza’s rock-climbing partner. Other countries can equally stand aside and let their own currencies slide a bit to offset the dollar’s move, and everything goes back to square one.

Then there is the tariff angle. Trump has already vowed tariffs on every country in the world, and especially on China. The last time he did that, China and Europe retaliated in kind. Foreign tariffs would erase absolutely any tiny advantage gained by a cheaper dollar.

And then there is the exploding deficit. One-quarter of the entire U.S. national debt was accrued during Trump’s term, in part due to his massive unfunded tax cuts. He promises to double down in a second term, with more unfunded tax cuts that can only be filled by enticing foreign investors to pay for them—which requires higher yields on U.S. government debt, which would then act to push the dollar back up again, undoing all the work he just tried to do.

So why, knowing what we know about the pitfalls and perils of a weak-dollar policy, is this such a Trump priority? It seems that the lodestars for Trump and his economic brain trust are found in years past, and none of them are particularly good for learning economic lessons.

Trump himself seems keen on replaying the 1930s, not exactly a golden time for the U.S. and global economies. His love of tariffs is well known, but it takes a special breed to make worship of the infamous 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff the hill to die on. He couples that with a love of competitive devaluation of currency to get a trade advantage, another tactic that featured heavily in 1930s beggar-thy-neighbor economic thought (though recent research suggests competitive devaluation only slightly beggared some neighbors and tariffs were a greater evil).

Lighthizer last took his bearings in the 1980s, when the Reagan administration strong-armed Japan over trade, imposed trade restrictions that raised prices and lowered choice for U.S. consumers, and got European allies to help deflate an admittedly overheated dollar with the Plaza Accord, named after the New York hotel in which Trump once made a cameo in a Christmas movie.

But that was, Obstfeld said, a very different time. The dollar was wildly overvalued, there was no common European currency, and Europe was utterly dependent on the U.S. security umbrella during the Cold War. Trump previously threatened to pull out of NATO (and now says he’ll only stay as long as European countries pay their share), refuses to commit to collective defense, and has already started a trade war once with those allies. None of the levers that did the lifting back then are even around today.

Trump has been chasing a weaker dollar for decades and didn’t manage to get there during his chaotic term. He may not get there again, even if he gets to the White House again. But it is a reminder that beyond the crimes and the misdemeanors and the worries about everything else, there are literally dollars and sense at stake this November.

“I just don’t see how the United States can stand alone and be strong. It is all back to the 1930s and isolationism,” Obstfeld said. “It is so misguided.”

[prahelika]

love your recruitment headcanons!! do you have any for benji/will/jane?

benji i can see like wrong place, wrong time getting caught hacking into something big (or not an accident at all?)

but those two i'm not sure...

Thank you so much! This is a lovely question.

I'm inclined to agree with you on Benji. Sometime after graduating from Oxford, he acquired a low-level job as a white-hat hacker, maybe? Got bored, hacked into something important (MI6??), got caught, got offered a clean break.

Brandt... Hmm.

What do we know about Brandt? He's by the book. Has a tendency to ignore impulses in favour of the rulebook, but can be convinced to step outside the box if the situation demands it. He's an analyst, the Chief analyst. Looking at the timeline, it couldn't have been more than 3-4 years between the Julia fiasco and his rise to Chief Analyst. So, he must have had prior experience. I think a case could be made that he has parallels to Benji, as in, he was a low-level analyst in the IMF before deciding to undergo field training one day.

But that doesn't answer how the IMF got its claws into him in the first place, does it? Here's how I think it went down. He was a security analyst for a high-profile tech company. Some discrepancy in the expenditure sheets led him to conclude that there was something fishy going on behind the scenes. He contacted the authorities immediately, from where the case was handed over to the FBI. He was ordered to become an informant, and collect data without raising anyone's suspicions. Unfortunately for him, he jumped the gun and confronted/confided in one of the higher-ups who then pinned the whole thing on him. In comes the IMF and sweeps him away, and William Brandt develops an aversion to disobeying orders.

We know even less about Jane than we do about Brandt. It's tempting to just say she was a conwoman or assassin or thief, and leave it at that. But that's no fun. So out come the tinfoil hats.

We know that Jane is a good fighter, but not great at seduction missions. (Side note: Ethan backseat driving Jane's flirting with Anil Kapoor is a scene that lives rent free in my head. Be Venus, Ethan? Seriously?) However, she's experienced enough that they gave her command of the mission to retrieve the nuclear launch codes.

I think, as far as Jane is concerned, a simple explanation is key. She might have been involved with the army, as, say, military police. That would explain her skills in combat and her mission planning chops, while still leaving relative inexperience in matters of honeytrapping. Unfortunately, police codes of conduct and personal codes of honour don't always intersect. She might have tampered with evidence to let a morally innocent suspect walk away, which would then attract the attention of other unsavoury people. One thing leads to another, and then, she finds herself thrown in a cell, accused of being an accomplice to a criminal - upon which the IMF swoops in and saves the day.

That's all I have for the moment, and tbh these sound like a bit of a reach. But headcanons are fun so.

[zvaigzdelasas]

A group of House Republicans are demanding that the US use its influence to replace the head of the International Monetary Fund over alleged mismanagement, citing reports of ethical breaches and inability to hold China accountable for its lending and currency practices.

14 Mar 24

[aki-draws-things]

So, my ability to write crossovers still works, I guess. Here, have a MCU/M:I crossover with Clint and Will being the same person (and having forgot what is the real name, so he keeps switching between the two at random times/when he's with one team or another.).

Yes, I know, Avengers would cover for Clint and all, and they do care, Benji is just pissed that he ended up hurt again when he wasn't with the IMF, that's all, plus the whole "they wouldn't catch you when you jump/fall like I do."

Enjoy~~

Shield missions were hard, and dangerous, but Clint Barton liked to think of himself as a specialist. Actually, that was exactly what he was. A highly trained and high level shield agent specialist. But no matter the danger he trusted his team. He trusted Natasha, with his life.

Avengers type of missions were dangerous, most likely deadly, and he was, thank you very much, human. In a team made of superheroes and Gods and supersoldiers and whatever the fuck was around these days. He was human, and humanly breakable, but he also was the best. They were a tight team, they cared for each other, deeply, Clint knew. But the stakes were always high, so high, way higher than he or his clearance level, or even his importance. So Clint never complained about not having a back up all the time, not after the first time, after which Captain America scoffed and said "we were all saving the world, Hawkeye", like Clint was the last recruit and still had to grasp at what they did. But Clint knew. He knew that if they had an eye, an arm or a weapon to spare, they would cover him.

Not cover, though, was the reason he landed, once again, in the bed of a too crowded hospital, with not enough nurses. Sure, there was shield hospital too, and Clint knew he would be transferred there soon enough, just give time for the team to regroup and--

"I hate them."

Clint blinked, a voice cut through the fog surrounding his brain and he smiled.

"no, you don't, you fan boy over all of them." he whispered. Talking hurt. Talking made something inside of him shift in the wrong way. He couldn't catch a proper breath.

"once, perhaps."

The voice got closer, a hand brushed over his forehead and Clint closed his eyes.

"why are you hurt?"

He wasn't asking him what the mission was, hell, everyone saw the avengers fight, he knew. Clint knew exactly what he was asking.

"had to jump... I jumped." he wheezed. Oh, God... That sounded wrong. Wrong on so many levels. He felt something wet in his throat.

"and where were they, Will?"

Will. Clint smiled. He liked when people remembered his real name. Though his shield and avengers teams thought his name was Clint. But it wasn't. Was it? Or perhaps it was Will the wrong, fake one? Could be... He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember - - he couldn't--- he coughed. Blood dripping from his lips.

"hey... Hey, Will, easy. It's okay, it's okay. I'm here. I'll call someone, yeah? We're gonna take care of you."

There was worry latched to the other man's words, and protectiveness, and a hand petting his head as he turned and screamed for help. Clint-- Will couldn't breath without chocking on his blood, he couldn't speak, and his vision gradually turned darker and darker and distant.

"B-- Ben---" he tried, the man turned again to him with tears falling down his cheeks.

Tears? Oh. Oh, no... He hated that. He hated when his team got so worried about him. He hated that they cared to the point of--

"it's okay. I'm here. I'm here. You'll be alright Will. I promise. I promise. Oh, God... I promise. Just stay with me. I--"

Benji babbled before screaming for a nurse again, with more panic.

"trust... You..." Will wheezed letting his eyes fall shut.

The IMF missions were, well... Impossibles. Agent Chief Analyst William Brandt knew what he was getting into every time he accepted, but he wasn't worried. He had his team, he trusted his team to cover for him and to catch him when he fell. Or jumped. Because they were team. They were family.

Yes.

Will trusted them with his eyes closed and his ears ringing and with blood leaking out of his body.

When he woke up again, in a obviously shield hospital room, Captain America was talking quietly with someone, arguing, actually, and clint had a hand wrapped in a warmer pair. He barely turned his head to notice Ethan snoring lightly on a chair next to the bed.

"I don't care who you are. That's a shield facility, Mr Barton is not allowed visitors from outside beside his team."

Briefly Will, or Clint, thought he would see Benji jump and try to strangle the super soldier.

"we are his team." he spit, in an anger that sounded so foreign on his voice. It made Will feel warm as he slowly drifted back to sleep.

"where was the great American hero when his teammate was dying and chocking on his blood?" was the last thing he heard before sleep took him again.

He was safe. He would be okay, just like Benji promised.

Clint, or Will perhaps, turned and stared at the Stark Tower elevator opening, Ethan and Benji entering the hall without even looking impressed and stopping a few steps from the elevator's door.

"who are they? J. Who gave them permission to--"

Clint tried, and failed, not to chuckle.

"tell me you didn't reroute the system. Ben, please---" he chuckled at his cheeks turning a slightly darker pink.

"his idea was to enter from the glass roof. With me." he said, outraged.

He crossed the room, spared just one look at Steve, who frowned briefly before recognizing the two men who didn't leave Clint's bedside at the hospital and grabbed him by both hands, dragging him to his feet.

"come." he sounded sweet. Sweet as the smile now playing on his lips as he dragged him and Clint let himself be dragged. "let's go home."

They stopped an instant when reaching Ethan, when he brought a hand up to caress his cheek, and the back of his neck, before pulling him closer and stealing a kiss.

"Eth--?"

"what Ben said. Let's go home, Agent Brandt."

And yet, despite the use of a title and his last name, his voice was the softest and fondest sound, making Will melt just a little bit.

[nedraggett]

My impossible mission!

Greetings, hello. So, today I reveal a truth: it has been almost thirty years since the first one and yet all this time I have not seen any one of the Mission: Impossible movies. Not a one. Honestly I think this is neither here nor there since everybody has any number of things you’re ‘supposed’ to be paying attention to in art/life/culture but that’s the point, everyone of us comes at that question differently. In my case, it’s a combination of my never really following actors across careers – a film interests me for other reasons and the last time I saw Cruise in a first-run anything was, I’m pretty sure, Interview With The Vampire back in 1994 – and the fact that I was generally “Hm so it’s a bunch of spy movies but he does his own stunts I hear?” which still wasn’t enough.

But time went on and I kept hearing more and more people go “No wait these are actually really good, even if he is insane.” (Insert reasons why insane here, I’m sure we all know them.) So with this new one about out and noticing they were all on Paramount+ anyway (of course I subscribe, Star Trek and Drag Race, c’mon), I figured “Well let me buy a cheap ticket to see this new one on Wednesday and meantime let me actually watch all these older ones.” Which I have done very quickly over the past week and now I share honest-to-god fresh thoughts about the first six for you here [EDIT: plus the new one -- obviously, spoilers will abound]. My summaries follow, and they’re absolutely and totally accurate. Totally.

Mission: Impossible – But Not As We Know It: It’s 1996 and gosh darn it people sure are excited about email and early Zip drives! More on that in a bit. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt playing a smugfuck, but when Jon Voight is your boss sometimes things rub off. They all go to Prague to live the life of post Cold War slackers and get free food at embassy parties, but after various objections most of them are killed while trying to be leet haxorz and the like, so Ethan grabs some sushi to go before another bunch of slackers can hunt him down for his haircut, but not before telling him that they’re sure he is a bad guy who sold out and sold them out. Sure hope this issue doesn’t end up being a constant in Ethan’s career, that would be very frustrating! Ethan remembers something about god and how Emmanuelle Beart is hot (understandable, really) so that leads him to first use a janky Usenet client, then an impossibly showy and memory-eating email program, and then to tell everything to Vanessa Redgrave because why wouldn’t you tell everything to Vanessa Redgrave. After asking Ving Rhames to be an imposing funny guy and Jean Reno to be stubbly, they realize they desperately need the copy of Minesweeper stored at Langley but kept in a way that mostly results in death, which they avoid aside from a rat. But best to keep your knives strapped more closely to yourselves next time, that can cause problems! Jon Voight turns out to be Not Dead but basically argues to Ethan that French people are evil and corrupt which is why they all work for him because he too is evil and corrupt, as one becomes in his stage of his career working 30 years for the state. (Wait, I’ve worked almost thirty years for A state, hold on here.) Anyway, this is a geopolitical argument Ethan objects to, for he has a good heart, and also knows something about bibles placed by the Gideons, so it’s wise to be a theologian. So now it’s time to get on the Chunnel train, get a wind machine to the face, and then after the bad people all die, arrest Vanessa Redgrave. Rude! Time to settle into a nice long nap on a plane, except Ethan remembers too late that maybe the free flight he got on IMF Airlines had some strings attached. Back to the grind! (Real talk: obviously what at the time was controversial as such – ditching all the old characters except a recast Phelps and then reveals him to be the chief asshole this time – was secretly genius, enabling both film and eventual series to keep what was transferably iconic – disguises, handwavey tech, “Your mission should you choose” setups, general skullduggery, heists and breakin schemes, credit sequences showcasing moments from the plot itself and of course the two core Lalo Schifrin themes – and drop everything else. Honestly the quietest of all the films in ways and I will credit de Palma for that, because having everything fuck up at the start and then play the afterechoes out makes Hunt, who after all is being introduced as a character here, seem unsure at times as much as he ramps up plans; the whole London hideout sequence is a good example before we hit the train at the end. Best action sequence: even though it’s anything but fast motion, it’s pretty obviously the CIA breakin, barely any dialogue, tension ratchet to the max and the clearest callback to the original series’s inspiration, Topkapi. Uncredited role: Emilio Estevez, who gets some sharp metal to the face! Wait until President Bartlet hears about that! End theme: U2’s rhythm section when they all thought they were DJs, and they make the theme 4/4 instead of 5/4 so they should be the targets of Ethan’s next mission. Rating: 3.5 out of 5 water condensation drops.)

Mission: Impossible 2 – Slow-Motion Birds: Ethan Hunt decides crawling all over big rocks that will kill him with the help of gravity is a logically relaxing way to spend a day off, but before he can get to El Capitan and film a documentary his new sunglasses talk to him because he was supposedly in a plane that crashed earlier. But surprise! It’s Dougray Scott playing Mr. We’re Quite Alike Really You And I wanting to steal some dread disease to sell to the highest bidder so everyone can probably die including himself if he’s not careful, showing that once again maybe the IMF’s real problem is a bad hiring and HR process, something that will continue to crop up. So Ethan goes to Spain to atmospherically find a required recruit and it pretty quickly turns out that both Mr. We’re Quite Alike and Ethan have a thing for skilled and notorious thief Thandiwe Newton because come on, who across the gender and sexuality spectrum WOULDN’T have a thing for Thandiwe Newton. After that it is determined that Ethan’s hair, jacket and sunglasses means he’s required to go to where The Matrix was filmed and hit all the tourist spots, including horse races where it is vitally important to track down Brendan Gleeson and tell him that acting in In Bruges will be an excellent idea. Ving Rhames and another guy pause from telling sheep dip jokes in the Outback to conclude that escaping by kangaroo is just a myth and Mr. We’re Quite Alike must be confounded before he does bad stuff, and that this all involves breaking into a building and sneaking around while avoiding dying miserably, as opposed to just opening the front door and pretending they’re looking for the toilet. Can’t they be more practical? However, Mr. We’re Quite Alike has already inhabited Ethan’s mindset and face a few times and knows his every move, so Thandiwe decides she’s had enough of both bros and injects herself with something Ethan should have just gotten rid of more quickly but he was dicking around. Typical. Mr. We’re Quite Alike turns out to be a day trader and really wants some cash so he can invest in Beanie Babies, so Ethan and friends break into a special secret place and blow shit up and swap faces and run around, to Mr. We’re Quite Alike’s nettlement. Eventually a bunch of assholes die in cars, on bridges and riding motorcycles, sometimes all at once, leaving Ethan and Mr. We’re Quite Alike to almost but not exactly kill each other until one of them finally does, Thandiwe is convinced that cliff-diving is best done in Acapulco, and eventually Ethan and Thandiwe go hang out so they can look at the Opera House and why the fuck did the universe keep us from having them be the power couple for the rest of the films to follow, come on now. (Real talk: the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom of the series, I guess? Pretty obviously John Woo making a John Woo film and that’s why the birds, the fights, two evenly matched types in the end and so forth. But really, isn’t it kinda obvious – especially given the disguise/swapped personality motifs – that Dougray Scott should have been replaced with Woo veteran Nic Cage? The final showdown alone would probably still be talked about if it was Cage in maniac mode, he probably would have wanted to actually ride some of the bullets he shot and they would have made it work, I just know it. And, let’s face it, Cruise and Newton have a screen chemistry that WORKS. Best action sequence: the end insanity is admittedly great but I do especially like the building breakin and then subsequent fuckup, it’s simultaneously almost what you expect and ‘are you kidding me right now,’ which is key, really. Uncredited role: Anthony Hopkins as a black turtleneck sex cult guru pretending to be an IMF leader, because why wouldn’t he be. End theme: I had seriously almost forgotten that probably one of the most important things in the history of recorded music – Metallica’s freakout about Napster that brought the concept of file-sharing to the mainstream and essentially fully transmogrified the business for the literal next century – was due to their ‘are we nu-metal now?’ contribution to the end, talk about an aural beauty mark. Rating: 2.5 out of 5 physics-defying kicks because while it’s still great and all, in fucking up things with Thandiwe Newton’s experience of filming, the M:I machine lost the perfect foil and the chance to fully go into a Hollywood action equivalent to Lupin III with her as a Fujiko Mine for the rest of the series, nothing against Rebecca Ferguson you understand. Or I guess Michelle Monaghan but SPEAKING OF WHICH…)

Mission: Impossible 3 – Conventional Heterosexual Matrimony: *pulls Rainer Wolfcastle pose and shouts to the sky* “ABRAAAAAAAAAAMS!” Jesus Christ. Okay no, it’s not a disaster really but good Christ almighty. Anyway, fine: flashforward aside where we all realize “Wait can’t we just watch Philip Seymour Hoffman kill people instead?”, Ethan Hunt realizes that settling down in a polite suburb with the world’s most polite and fake-laughy engagement party happening is a really dull way to spend any more time so he goes to the local drug store and asks Billy Crudup “PLEASE get me the fuck out of here, what was I thinking.” Billy Crudup obliges but needs to let him know that he will be dealing with puzzlebox bullshit at the end of it all but such is Ethan’s desperation that Crudup says “Fine, you and Ving go rescue Felicity with the help of Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers” and before Ethan can say “Isn’t that a little on the nose for the mid-2000s” it’s off to Berlin and Felicity’s head exploding a bit, ah well. Laurence Fishburne in his floating across franchises role as Mr. Authority gets mad but Billy Crudup says nice things so obviously Billy’s the real bad guy and what do you know, turns out later he is! Doesn’t Ethan get briefed on this stuff? Anyway, newcomer Simon Pegg, having noted that Ving’s got a pretty sweet deal going, decides to join the early retirement plan on offer, though he’s still working up the ranks by creating Myspace profiles. Ultimately Philip Seymour Hoffman is just too damn charismatic and good an actor so logically he must be captured. Ethan and Rhys-Meyers need to play stereotypical Italians in traffic, to the point where I was surprised their disguise was as DHL guys rather than singing pizza delivery dudes or something, and then they and Maggie and Ving avoid stealing all the Pope’s secrets and the lists of child abusers he’s protecting or whatever in favor of an instant makeover, because it’s all Spy Eye for the M:I around here. Sadly everyone finds out that Virginia is not for lovers, unless you love blowing up bridges, and Ethan gets suspected of being bad again. He definitely has a real problem with that issue, he should talk to somebody about it, like Billy Crudup, and then he runs away because he’s good at that for sure. Anyway Michelle Monaghan got kidnapped, shanghaied if you will, so Ethan laughs politely at Hoffman’s little joke and notes that diving off a tall Chinese building is really fun at night, especially with the help of an automatic pitching machine. Sadly he eventually gets himself kidnapped and outacted by Hoffman demonstrating that he demands better of his minions, leaving Eddie Marsan to go “Wait, am I in this movie?” and Crudup to try and explain that W’s foreign policy is Good, Actually, which Ethan is not pleased with. Pegg helps Ethan run around a lot, alas Hoffman discovers that the laws of physics means he is not in fact an immovable object, and Monaghan saves Ethan with the power of love, because it makes one man weep but another man sing. (Real talk: fucking Abrams, thank god he just retreated to producing and occasional “I have an idea” stuff for the series after this because otherwise the rest of this watch would be a slog. Yes, he can make a solid entertainment at times, he’s done it more than once, but more than anything else in this series this REALLY felt like an extended TV episode of something, not even just Alias. It didn’t help that Michael Giacchino’s music added a lot of sap in the solo-piano moments that are waaaaaaay of their time and place, and I’m mildly surprised a cover of “Hallelujah” didn’t happen at some point. Still the machine itself functioned and while it was still going to need some improvements, I guess it started to figure exactly what M:I as continuing star vehicle needed to be – it’s weird to realize that this IS indeed the only George W. era film of the bunch and it sure does feel like his second term on any number of levels. Also, thank god there were delays on production because Simon Pegg’s role was originally cast with Ricky Fucking Gervais, and I don’t care if Pegg’s not quite your thing because imagine if we had THAT gurning fucking mug to deal with in the rest of the series. Best action sequence: thankfully the whole deal in Rome is pretty engaging, and we get the delightful moment of Philip Seymour Hoffman literally having to act as Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and thus climbing around and doing shit, the film is honestly worth it for that, and RIP to him once more. But honorable mention to the counterintuitive move of not showing anything inside the Shanghai skyscraper once Ethan gets in. Uncredited role: nobody this time but yeah that WAS Aaron Paul wasn’t it. End theme: WOW speaking of mid-2000s, a Kanye track with Twista and Keyshia Cole? Perhaps they realized after this that just going with random cuts and otherwise sticking with the score in the actual end credits was the solution. Rating: 2 out of 5 confused Greg Grunbergs.)

Mission: Impossible 4 – I Climb Thing: Hmm, a movie set in Hungary, Russia, Dubai AND Mumbai? Why this won’t be a problematic watch in 2023! In a surely not symbolic move at all, Sawyer from Lost runs out of a building into the street and is immediately killed by Lea Seydoux. I like this movie already! Ethan Hunt meantime is prepping mentally for a nude fight scene with Viggo Mortensen at some point but is interrupted by Paula Patton and Simon Pegg going “WOULD YOU JUST” so he concludes Dean Martin is just the thing for a prison riot. (Seems like it.) Turns out Paula is sad about Sawyer, but before anyone can ask her to take a psych eval, they are asked to break into the Kremlin for thievery reasons, the concept of ‘too much too soon’ having escaped the IMF. Sadly our Big Bad just beat them to the punch and then proceeds to blow up a big chunk of the Kremlin, which rather irritates the Russian government, leading Ethan to excuse himself before facing a full medical exam without anesthetic and with certain instruments. An actual IMF Secretary explains some more things to Ethan but puts himself in the line of a bullet completely by accident, isn’t that the way! Jeremy Renner insists it wasn’t him because he would use a bow and arrow but Ethan isn’t amused and everyone meets up to go over the fact that they’re now disavowed and without resources except for a train car that would supply most modern governments and the ability to end up in Dubai just like that, very handy. There’s a big shady deal going down but it had nothing to do with the Qatar World Cup bid, whatever do you mean, they’re over there. Regardless, Ethan seeks to make sure Sepp Blatter doesn’t immediately get the launch codes to destroy the DOJ Anti-Corruption Unit, but not before he shows everyone how a real man washes hotel windows. Everyone then seeks to double cross everyone else, which only makes sense, though Lea sadly has irritated Paula some and thoughts are exchanged, except Jeremy goes “Ah fuck it” and uses a gun even though it’s very uncivilized. Ethan runs after a bad guy who is another bad guy, then they go talk to another bad guy who is a good guy who acts like a bad guy to deal with a good bad guy. Heads spinning, they fly to Mumbai and finally Ethan gets to be James Bond! Or at least wear a tux. Dudes get negged, other dudes die, cars drive, people run around, and the bad guy persuades a Russian sub to destroy San Francisco, which causes me consternation I admit. Happily Ethan really has honed his ‘I just need one second, really’ approach, so only the Transamerica building is nicked, but the missile lands right in the water where my sis and her whaleboat rowing crew often practice and that would have been tragic! Hey fuck you Ethan Hunt, do better next time! (Real talk: okay, whatever groundwork Abrams sorta laid down obviously gets perfected here, Brad Bird and team just make this thing sing, something indicated by returning to a version the opening credits style of the show and the first movie, and while the fine tuning of the ensemble wasn’t quite there yet it was much closer than it was, while the full sense of “Oh wait, Tom Cruise really MIGHT actually die” as a marketing hook was now absolutely in place. A quietly genius move NOT to have the chief villain be a big presence, instead someone always just about slipping from their grasp up until the end; meantime, having everything constantly trip them up – even after the Kremlin/Secretary thing, the mask machine breaks down, everyone arrives at the Burj too early, etc. etc. – allows for more thinking on the fly instead of just being a well-oiled machine. While there were plenty of typical comedy moments here and there in a formulaic ‘gotta break tension’ way in the first three films, I honestly believe it’s Cruise’s “No SHIT” moment in the Burj which points the way to the rest of the series knowing how to make comedy actually work from there on in. There’s just enough distance to maybe be able to place it as a mid-Obama era film now in retrospect but it still feels like we’re in the actual sense of these films knowing what they are at last based on where everything would go, as opposed to the formative years. In essence, this was the point in my watch where I went “Oh I get it now” in full, and the fact that the movies started rolling out more regularly, however driven by Cruise going “Wait I’m not getting any younger,” makes total sense. Best action sequence: Dubai obv., part climbing madness, part caper, part shootout and part “Can a man actually outrun a sandstorm?” Uncredited roles: Tom Hollander going “If Hopkins can do it so can I” and Ving Rhames and Michelle Monaghan going “Uh we’re still here, thanks.” Rating: 4.5 out of 5 insufficiently charged climbing gloves.)

Mission: Impossible 5 – Fasten Your Nonexistent Seatbelts: Ethan Hunt suddenly realizes he doesn’t need to check any luggage and happily just makes the last seat on a flight out, though sadly there’s no real time for any drinks service. Annoyed, he decides to leave with their cocktail mixes, for which he is thanked. Suitably relaxed, he goes to a London record store to pickup a Crosley turntable for his Record Store Day purchases, accidentally resulting in the backing up of a bunch of pressings for starving younger bands. As it happens, Ian Curtis is there already looking for a particular bootleg pressing of early demos by Warsaw, so when Ethan scratches the last remaining copy Ian makes his feelings known, adding “All you agents beware.” Lady Jessica almost gets a chance to use the gom jabbar on Ethan but various Sardaukar claim precedence, making Jessica realize that Ethan is perhaps actually the Kwisatz Haderach instead. In Washington, wouldn’t you know it, Ethan’s being accused of being a contrary asshole AGAIN, doesn’t his union step up for him? OG Jack Ryan says the IMF fucks around too much instead of doing proper agent stuff like getting on a submarine in the middle of the Atlantic while Jeremy Renner desperately hopes he won’t be asked about his side gig with the Bourne group. Simon Pegg has had enough of his regular performance reviews and agrees that he needs to relax but confuses a Vienetta with Vienna, but Ethan doesn’t mind and promises him some Phish Food later. Lady Jessica, having been told by the Bene Gesserit to stop fucking around with the Face Dancers and vice versa, complicates matters as do two random Teutons but the show must go on, except the explosive climax is unplanned. Ving Rhames and Renner are too old for this kind of shit but they’re off to Morocco where Ethan really really wants to finally ride a sandworm. Lady Jessica tells Ethan that fear may be the mind-killer but that Ian Curtis desperately wants the master tape for Unknown Pleasures kept in one of the secret Fremen water storage tanks. Everyone proceeds to betray and/or chase everyone else, a perfect excuse for eventually remaking Easy Rider at 200 mph. Thankfully Simon Pegg made a DAT copy but the master tape itself is erased, leading Ian Curtis to swear revenge on behalf of Martin Hannett, kidnapping Pegg and forcing him to listen to muddy Crawling Chaos bootlegs and thus requiring Ethan to deal with the UK Prime Minister as ultimate keeper of all Factory records, except the movie came out a couple of weeks after the Brexit vote so most would have just given up David Cameron to him anyway. Ethan taunts Ian Curtis by driving up the prices of OG vinyl pressings of “Transmission” on eBay as he and Lady Jessica force him to go to the center of the city where all roads meet, looking for them. In the end Ian Curtis is lured into a third stage Guild Navigator’s breathing chamber on Lady Jessica’s suggestion and is captured, as the confusion in his eyes says it all. (Real talk: the Christopher McQuarrie years begin and pretty much all the pieces are about in place now in terms of a core ensemble with moments of variety after; if Bird set the template and tempo for where it all should go then McQuarrie had a perfect handle on how to make all the implicit nonsense make perfect sense in the moment, all while once again finding new ways to kill Tom Cruise or nearly so. One of the best signs came early: the opening credit sequence is now truly a ‘greatest hits’ series of clips of what we’re about to see as per past show and first movie practice, quick, immediate, gives away nothing, sets expectations up. Rebecca Ferguson absolutely brought some necessary energy as well, she and Cruise clearly click in a ‘yeah our characters could fuck’ sense that Newton absolutely had with Cruise and Monaghan just doesn’t (even though it’s clearly shown in 3 that they’re the only characters that did, go figure!). Sean Harris as our chief baddie and implicit Blofeld to Hunt’s Bond is another sharp move, a classic cold English villain who you absolutely want to see get fucked up more than once. Alec Baldwin mostly grouses but hey. Best action sequence: oh Casablanca easy, from the planning the raid on the storage facility to the end of the motorcycle chase, barely any pauses, the whole thing’s a marvel. Rating: 4.5 out of 5 lathe-cut terrorist messages.)

Mission: Impossible 6: Free Mustache Rides – Ethan Hunt is trying to enjoy a nice relaxing dream but Ian Curtis keeps telling him “This is the way, step inside,” and it’s not helping. Ethan is told that three pawnshop balls have been repainted and are being auctioned to the highest bidder, which just shows you how tough the economy continues to be. Sadly the usual exchange of niceties between him and his crew and a generic arms dealer turns out to be an issue due to a bunch of raincoat-wearing Curtis followers insisting there’s a third Joy Division album somewhere. After Ving Rhames skins Wolf Blitzer alive and stuffs Simon Pegg into his pelt, they fool the Norwegian Unabomber and it’s off to Pari–no wait a minute, Angela Bassett employs her low voice against Jack Ryan’s rasp and insists that for the balance between the Big Two that Superman come along, since Jeremy Renner is somewhere upstate checking out on a family that mysteriously dissolved. This Superman, using the cover name Mr. I’m Obviously Going To Betray You, seems more Bizarro-like when he leaps out of a plane and reenacts that one The Dark Knight Rises image with the lightning but Ethan demonstrates that there’s more than one way to crash a party. Working their way through a crowd of pleasures and wayward distractions trying to find Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter Vanessa Kirby of the House of Vanessa, Superman explains he’s trying for a Tom of Finland look but a bunch of French bros laugh in the bathroom and ask when he’s going to the Kingsman auditions and things get complicated. Luckily Lady Jessica is back, and wants to know if Ethan’s just trying to fold space again. Turns out Kirby is in deep cover as amoral blonde Princess Margaret and everyone’s trying to kill her, we can’t have that! She tells Ethan and Superman they have about twenty four hours to spring Ian Curtis if they want the pawnshop balls, and while Ethan realized he wanted time this puts things in perspective. Happily everyone is distracted just right except when they aren’t and a bunch of French people on all sides of the law are angry, time to go! Ian Curtis gets sprung by Simon Pegg, who asks him to sign the Sordide Sentimentale single since they are in France and all, while Lady Jessica shows that Fremen needle guns are good but lasguns might have been better. Logically since everyone’s in Paris they go to London, presumably inside the train this time. OG Jack Ryan is irritated and everyone leaves but Superman confronts Ian Curtis and says “I tried, please believe me, I’m doing the best that I can!” Whoops! Turns out Simon Pegg wanted Superman’s autograph too, but the Curtis fanatics break in after a further triple double dog dare cross and ol’ Jack is left stuck to a flagpole by his tongue, but thank you for your service. Ethan gets his jogging in for the day but Superman flies off to say he stands for truth, justice and the American way but he means the Zack Snyder version so he’s just going to kill everyone instead. Time to crawl around Kashmir before this happens and Michelle Monaghan is there! She’s doing good things! She’d like to catch up over coffee but Ethan notes that he has to pick up his DoorDash delivery assignment within fifteen minutes or he’ll lose his star ratings. Grabbing a helicopter to chase down Superman, who has a competitive route, he leaves Lady Jessica and Simon Pegg to fight Ian Curtis, who complains that the noose around the place is cheap irony, while Michele chats with Ving a bit while adding “Should that be ticking?” Various Things Happen but in the end Ethan remembers “Oh hold on I DO climb rocks don’t I” and taunts Superman by quoting Blues Traveler’s “Hook” at him, which shows he is no better than Benjamin Bratt in Poker Face, the fiend. Still, all three sections of the team simultaneously score Taylor Swift tickets, the world is saved from a fakeout ending, Ian Curtis is left to be a middle-aged man with the weight on his shoulders, Michelle gives Ethan her blessing to apparently make suggestive crysknife jokes to Lady Jessica, and everyone’s happy forever! [Editor’s note: this was later shown to be false.] (Real talk: I really do get what everyone was saying now about how, in a real upending of expectations when it comes to open-ended franchises starting big and petering out, Fallout might well have been the best of the movies to that point. It felt like everyone had everything absolutely down by now, from McQuarrie to the stunt teams to the actors, all the comic moments landed even better than in the last one and those were pretty solid, and for the first time points of continuity from the previous film all have an impact, whether it be the performances of Harris, Baldwin and Ferguson in particular or things like returning composer Lorne Balfe’s musical score, which is easily some of the best of the whole sequence and for once shows a composer working to contrast the Schifrin themes rather than simply shade and riff on them – the various well-employed fakeout/dream sequence sections get soundtracked with this melancholy and ominous chill, a solid move. Hell, even the call back to the rock climbing of M:I 2 made sense because it didn’t have to be explained at all, and it settled the Monaghan arc too in a way that was both obvious for plot mechanics and strangely sweet. Though I kept expecting her new guy to be an Apostle undercover, which was probably the point. Henry Cavill and Kirby were both perfect additions to the overall pool in turn, and the point a friend of mine made the other day that this movie feels the starkest of the bunch – like there’s a tiny group of people at the forefront and all the huge city populations around them are distanced and serene – is apt. Best action sequence: honestly this almost felt like a response film to Mad Max: Fury Road because it barely seemed like it broke for anything. For once the ending felt absolutely earned rather than a ‘we gotta end it because the script is over’ necessity but the actual best sequence is probably the Paris crash/chase/crash etc. deal, though shout out to the bathroom fight as the first near wordless sequence since the CIA breakin in the original movie. Rating: 5 out of 5 Cavill sleeve tugs.)

[EDIT: IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE NEWEST MOVIE YET, STOP READING HERE, Y’KNOW?]

Mission Impossible 7: And Under The Polar Cap Bind Them -- Somewhere in the Arctic a Russian submarine attempts to reenact The Hunt For Red October except nobody told them that they’d be playing the part of the actual sub that was blown up, a minor detail. This is less important than our introduction to the newest ensemble cast member, back after a lengthy retirement, Sauron! Sauron, ladies and gentlemen, let’s give him a round of applause. Ethan Hunt is in Amsterdam chilling so logically he’s got the munchies, only to be told that Lady Jessica hijacked a spice shipment and the Guild is pissed. Near Sietch Tabr, Lady Jessica busies herself with speeding up the irrigation process with some fresh fertilizer, but Ethan suggests letting it lie fallow for a bit. At ComicCon, Hall H is full of bloggers trying to figure out how to use typewriters while backstage there’s an argument about if they can do anything now that the strike’s on. Ethan asks everyone to pardon his stinkbomb but meantime deals with the guy who was chasing after him back in the first movie. He’s his boss now, time for wacky hijinks! It’s straight back to Dune with Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, only for them to realize that they can’t escape ComicCon no matter how hard they try because Deathstroke, Mantis AND Agent Carter are all there stealing and/or stalking them and each other, not to mention the members of an official US antimasking squad who seem bitter that not everyone agrees with the science they really did study themselves. Turns out Mantis isn’t interested in feelings so much as other people feeling dead, which Deathstroke approves of, while Agent Carter has fallen prey to kleptomania, it’s one of those days! Off to Italy where, when in Rome, Ethan does what the Romans do and becomes an impossibly polished and fashionable lawyer just like that, while Deathstroke shows that it’s always vital to carry out research. Agent Carter is narrowly sprung from her plan to simultaneously enter all the national competitions for next year’s Eurovision all at once, but then pretty much every moving vehicle in the city and the occupants and riders therein decide that she and Ethan will jaywalk no more. A typical day in Rome, granted, but their sweet ride seems a little sour while Mantis is very annoyed someone cut her antennae off and wants to explain this with weapons. Agent Carter decides to check in on whatever Hank Pym is doing these days but Lady Jessica is back, having had a refreshing time on Caladan. Turns out Princess Margaret is throwing a big party in Venice so who wouldn’t go there next, and she’s invited everyone! Ethan, Lady Jessica, Agent Carter, Deathstroke, why even Mantis is there but she’s dressed as Harley Quinn and the ComicCon crew doesn’t know what to think. Sauron shows up as well demanding the smallest of things, a mere trifle, and Deathstroke reveals he’s actually the Witchking of Angmar and would like to help kill everyone, but Ethan realizes that the DJ is driving him nuts and he needs some fresh air, a touch the antimaskers still don’t get. Harley Mantis insists it’s actually an Adam Ant tribute but Ethan argues she seems more My Chemical Romance, but sadly Lady Jessica gets stabbed with a Morgul-blade. Ving needs to update his antivirus software while Agent Carter decides that maybe this bunch isn’t as Hydra-ridden as SHIELD. An attempt to combine Murder On The Orient Express with a gender-flipped The Prince and the Pauper proceeds to play out, while Ethan insists to Simon Pegg that he has a totally legit FastPass for the newest Disney ride, though he’s still arguing some of the details as he goes. Wait, a fight on top of a train again, at least there’s no tunnel this timAAAAADUCKDOWNQUICK! The Witchking rues the day magic was invented, Ethan and Agent Carter are relieved that Mantis appreciates a good turn done, and elsewhere Sauron wonders if a tower would be a better hiding spot. Tune in next week year for more! (Real talk: so having taken all the other films in in a rush I did wonder how exactly the pacing would work for this one as a two-part story, and I think they handled it pretty smartly; it’s not as high a peak as McQuarrie’s two previous efforts but it doesn’t have to be as a result. Instead of the near wall-to-wall rush of the past two, there’s a much more deliberate pace here, which oddly enough (but, if the original plan of this being the capping off of the series holds, logically as well) is one of several callbacks to the original film throughout. Henry Czerny as Kittridge most obviously, also all the sleight of hand stuff, and easily most notably Ilsa Faust’s death, the first time a team member (as such) has died since said first film. There’s one other interesting move where, for the first time in the entire series, we get a sense of what Ethan Hunt was like before the IMF -- it’s all fairly tropey, but by not exploring that at all until now it actually feels like an earned moment. My sense of what’s happening is that this is the big setup and the concluding film will be full-on action madness, and the tinges of haunted chill in the last one have a stronger resonance here -- the introductory sequence for Hunt is pretty damn bleak for a start, and after Faust’s death you get a sense of everyone going through the motions for a bit, not as actors, but as people hit with a sudden loss would do, and the film takes a little time to understandably breathe. The absolutely killer sense of how to make comedy work continues: the entire Rome chase scene is just as amazing as that as it is straight action, while the capping insane stunt as teased in the trailers, Hunt going off the cliff, is also the culmination of a ridiculously perfect dialogue between Cruise and Pegg, and I literally laughed at how the stunt ended, all while the tension in the train scenes was building up. And yet, none of it undercuts the action, the sense of time running out -- indeed, so good was all that that when the cliff setting first appeared I was actually surprised by it, even though it was so heavily featured beforehand as noted. I joke about Sauron but seriously, not only is the Entity just one big eye, and also a bit of a One Ring type thing too, the whole setup where instead of letting other governments control Ethan will set out to destroy it is VERY Lord of the Rings, so I think it’s more key to all this than might be guessed. But oddly enough, perhaps, I will argue there’s a specific Bond film you all should go back and check out -- the first one I ever saw, and Roger Moore’s best tougher turn wih the character, 1981′s For Your Eyes Only. That too notably has a Macguffin centered on advanced tech on a wrecked ship, there’s a car chase with a very unsuitable car early on, and how the film ends feels not dissimilar to where this likely will be leading in the conclusion next year. Just a hunch! When it comes to newer cast members, Pom Klementieff is mostly a wordless killer and whether or not you buy the end twist as such, hey, but she does a good enough job, while Esai Morales -- been great to see more of him recently, he did a solid supporting turn in The Master Gardener earlier this year, and he has one of the most underrated speaking voices in acting -- is just a coolly commanding bad guy in the right mode, solid casting and I think better as a more grizzled and equal figure to Hunt than Nicholas Hoult would have been, as was first the case. Hayley Atwell pretty obviously is the main get and you do get a sense of a calm spark with Cruise but, given the film’s plot, no more than that for now, and she holds her own as someone who clearly has done a lot of shit but quickly realizes she’s dealing with a whole new level of it. While I’m a touch suspicious that there’s a feeling of rotating actresses and in out with Rebecca Ferguson’s departure after this -- I will absolutely miss her but I’m glad we had enough of her as we did -- that comment I made back in my M:I 2 review about how Thandiwe Newton could have made the series of a hell of a Lupin III riff? Well here we are with another accomplished career criminal and hell the Rome car chase is centered around a yellow Fiat 500, what more of a nod could you have! Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis pretty clearly feel escaped from a more typical buddy cop setup but it doesn’t break anything, and I do like the office politics grouchiness from Whigham about the IMF ‘clowns.’ Meantime kinda great to see Kirby get to do the playing-someone-playing-someone-else big turn this time, and I’m totally thrilled to see she’ll be back in part two, she’s a fun elegant chaos factor character. Best action sequence: you know, I’m not entirely sure! Again I think the actual best ones we’re going to get in part two so it felt a hair held back at points, but the Rome chase sequence was both amazing and funny as noted, the alley fight with Pom K. pretty brutal if relatively quick, and the train tension/chase/fight/bomb buildup to wrap it up was a smart spot to end on. Rating: 4 out of 5 cigarette lighters.)

In sum and speaking regularly: so yeah, whatever impulse Cruise, producers and everyone else had early on and whatever their thoughts were about how it might go, basically finding the sweet spot between the James Bond model and the Jack Ryan technophilia was a clear stroke of commercial genius, and rather than being beholden to an original show’s requirements/feel they blew everything up to make it their own while never truly abandoning the idea that people will happily shell out for damn good capers writ large. The Schrifin themes absolutely help anchor everything; the main theme is so perfectly balanced between being playful and being intense that on top of being an instant earworm it always conveys the sense that we’re here to be entertained first and foremost. It’s the Bond theme factor certainly and just as powerful. Ethan Hunt is barely a shell of a character, more just a creature as monomaniacal at succeeding in his job as Cruise himself is, so it’s a symbiotic fit. In terms of Hollywood action franchises he’s now played this character in more movies than any of the Bond or the Ryan actors, or Willis as McClane or Stallone as Rambo or Schwarznegger as the Terminator etc, and is as much a superhero as anything in DC/Marvel but, not seen to be as ‘class’ as Bond and actually stumbling and limping at times, retains just enough of humanity, even if more like an alien in a human costume, which would be appropriate. There’s enough ‘are we the bad guys?’ moments going around that you can feel duly critical about the IMF (and implicitly ‘Western interests’ if you will) but of course the story and the perceived audience never wants them to be REALLY bad, it’s all those other ones trying to fuck up Ethan that are the problem. Ving Rhames is the comfortable set of shoes for everything, and that Luther seems to have more of a life than Ethan is so not surprising; Simon Pegg turned out to be a perfect accidental X factor, the ‘goofy’ guy who isn’t a hateable comic relief type; once they finally realized they absolutely needed someone like Rebecca Ferguson too and then cast her, the rest was gravy; transitioning from her to Hayley Atwell brings a different energy but keeps a solid dynamic that I think will hold into the next film. And then after? Guess we’ll see!

[kp777]

By Antonio Gutteres

Common Dreams

Sept. 20, 2023

The following are remarks, as prepared for delivery, given by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres at the start of his Climate Ambition Summit in New York on September 20, 2023. For Common Dreams' coverage of the speech, see here.

Excellencies, friends,

Our focus here is on climate solutions—and our task is urgent. Humanity has opened the gates of hell. Horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods; sweltering temperatures spawning disease; and thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage.

Climate action is dwarfed by the scale of the challenge. If nothing changes we are heading toward a 2.8°C temperature rise—toward a dangerous and unstable world.

We must make up time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting, and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels.

But the future is not fixed. It is for leaders like you to write it. We can still limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5°C. We can still build a world of clear air, green jobs, and affordable clean power for all.

The path forward is clear. It has been forged by fighters and trailblazers—some of whom are with us today: activists refusing to be silenced; Indigenous Peoples defending their lands from climate extremes; chief executives transforming their business models and financiers funding a just transition; mayors moving to a zero-carbon future; and governments working to stamp out fossil fuels and protect vulnerable communities.

But if we are to meet the 1.5°C limit and protect ourselves from climate extremes, climate champions, particularly in the developing world, need solidarity. They need support, and they need global leaders to take action. Action to reduce emissions.

The move from fossil fuels to renewables is happening—but we are decades behind. We must make up time lost to foot-dragging, arm-twisting, and the naked greed of entrenched interests raking in billions from fossil fuels.

The proposed Climate Solidarity Pact calls on major emitters—who have benefited most from fossil fuels—to make extra efforts to cut emissions, and on wealthy countries to support emerging economies to do so.

And the Acceleration Agenda I proposed calls on governments to hit fast forward so that developed countries reach net zero as close as possible to 2040, and emerging economies as close as possible to 2050 according to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

It also urges countries to implement a fair, equitable, and just energy transition, while providing affordable electricity to all: by ensuring credible plans to exit coal by 2030 for OECD countries and 2040 for the rest of the world; by ending fossil fuel subsidies—which the IMF estimates reached an incredible $7 trillion in 2022; and by setting ambitious renewable energy goals in line with the 1.5°C limit.

The Acceleration Agenda also calls for climate justice. Many of the poorest nations have every right to be angry. Angry that they are suffering most from a climate crisis they did nothing to create. Angry that promised finance has not materialized. And angry that their borrowing costs are sky-high.

We need a transformation to rebuild trust. Governments must push the global financial system towards supporting climate action. That means putting a price on carbon and overhauling the business models of Multilateral Development Banks so that they leverage far more private finance at reasonable cost to developing countries.

All parties must operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28. Developed countries must meet the $100 billion commitment, replenish the Green Climate Fund, and double adaptation funding. And everyone must be covered by an early warning system by 2027—by implementing the Action Plan we launched last year.

At the same time, my Acceleration Agenda calls for business and financial institutions to embark on true net zero pathways. Shady pledges have betrayed the public trust. Shamefully, some companies have even tried to block the transition to net zero—using wealth and influence to delay, distract, and deceive. Every company that truly means business must create just transition plans that credibly cut emissions and deliver climate justice, in line with the recommendations of my High-Level Expert Group.

Excellencies, friends,

The future of humanity is in your hands—in our hands.

One Summit will not change the world. But today can be a powerful moment to generate momentum that we build on over the coming months, and in particular at the COP.

We can—and we must turn up the tempo. Turn plans into action. And turn the tide.

Thank you.

[upsettingandunfortunateclasshate]

The world was moving from a period of “relative predictability – with a rules-based framework for international economic cooperation, low interest rates, and low inflation” into a new age of heightened economic fragility.

[etxrnaleclipse]

Benji Dunn Full Biography

History/Family

Benji is the second child to Andrew Dunn and Victoria Dunn. He has one older brother, Jonathan Andrew Dunn, who is four years older than him. Benji’s father worked as an accountant while his mother was a member of the British Army. Being an army child meant moving around a lot for the boys, but they eventually came to like the excitement of moving. The family wound up settling in America when Benji was 13, where he finished his secondary school education, however when he graduated, he applied for and was accepted into Oxford University. Benji returned to England when he was 19 and attended Oxford for his Bachelors and his Masters, and on graduation, he decided that he enjoyed life in America and returned to his family.

As mentioned, Benji has one sibling. Jonathan was born February 22nd 1972. Jonathan married his wife, Emily, in 1999. They have two children, Luke (born in 2003) and Sophie (born in 2009).

Education/IMF

Benji studied Computer Science, with units taken in Biological Science at Oxford University. He graduated with distinctions and high distinctions all around before continuing to take his postgraduate MSc in Computer Science.

Upon returning to America after he completed his masters, Benji was on the lookout for jobs in the field. He took a few here and there, until one day, he found what looked like a great opportunity.  It seemed to be just a regular advertisement for a technician job with the Department of Transportation in Washington DC.

Figuring it would be interesting to give it a try, Benji put in an application as the technician and decided to see what would happen. Needless to say, he was very surprised when he was offered a job with them. At the age of 26, he packed up, said goodbye to his family, and moved over to DC. It was only once he arrived there that he found out that this job was far from normal.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL He worked in IMF’s technician labs until taking the field exam in early 2011. He spent some time shadowing Agent Trevor Hanaway, a field agent who had been working out on away missions for quite a few years. He later joined Trevor’s team, consisting of the agent himself and Agent Jane Carter. Both agents really took him under their wing and Benji learnt a lot from them, growing to consider them close friends. They ran a few missions together until they were sent after a file containing Russian nuclear launch codes. A simple enough mission, but nothing in their job is ever simple. When it was clear that someone else was after the file, Trevor was killed by a contract killer, Sabine Moreau, and the file was lost.

Amidst their grief for Trevor, Jane and Benji were then sent to extract Ethan Hunt from Rankow Prison in Moscow in order to track down the codes and stop emerging nuclear extremist Kurt Hendricks, codename Cobalt, from detonating a bomb that would throw the United States and Russia into a nuclear war. After their infiltration of the Kremlin was thrown into disarray by Hendricks himself, resulting in the destruction of a large section of the building and the blame falling on the trio, Benji, Ethan and Jane found themselves fugitives. With IMF shut down due to the president initiating Ghost Protocol, they were forced to work underground, along with mysterious chief analyst William Brandt.

After many near misses, the team managed to prevent the detonation and Hendricks was killed. Ethan chose the three to join his team once more and Benji, despite being plagued by nightmares and cold sweats from his first major mission, Benji jumped at the opportunity.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION When CIA Director Hunley shut down the IMF for ‘misconduct’ after the events of the Cobalt mission, Benji found himself once again stuck behind a desk. For six months, he was dragged through weekly polygraphs by Hunley to test his loyalties to Ethan, resulting in him having to perfect his lies. When he was tricked into going to Vienna to help Ethan, he realised just how much trouble his friend was in and insisted on staying to help him track down a Rogue Nation, known as the Syndicate, despite the potential risks. Sadly, those risks became a reality when Benji found himself kidnapped by menacing Syndicate leader Solomon Lane, used as leverage to control Ethan’s actions. Lane strapped a bomb to Benji’s chest and placed him on a highly sensitive pressure trigger in a crowded London restaurant, leaving Benji fearing for his life and the lives of those around him. Fortunately, Ethan managed to convince Lane to let Benji go and the team were able to bring him down together. This very near miss has left Benji shaken and despite his attempts to shove his feelings aside, he is struggling with the aftermath. He hopes that with his teams help, he can move on from this.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE FALLOUT Two years after the events of Rogue Nation, Benji has done his best to push through his trauma and is continuing his work as a field agent, even getting to don a mask as he always dreamed to. But with the existence of the remaining Syndicate agents, known as The Apostles and led by a mysterious man John Lark, Benji was pulled back into a world he wanted to forget by having to break Solomon Lane out of prison. He pushed his personal feelings towards the man aside and got the job done, however whilst trying to prevent Lane and Lark from killing a third of the world’s population, he found himself at death’s door once again. Ambushed by Lane, set on finishing what he started in London, Benji was brutally beaten and hung from the neck, almost dying from his injuries in the process. Saved by Ilsa, he was able to work alongside her, Luther and Ethan to prevent two plutonium-based explosives from detonating.

Medical Info

Benji is short sighted and has worn glasses since he was 14 years old. When working, however, he tends to wear contact lenses, as they are far more practical for his line of work.

Benji’s only known allergy is to peanuts. This makes it difficult for him to wear masks in the field as some of the compounds are peanut based. (Inspired by a fanfiction found here)

Benji has no history with mental health issues, however he has developed some symptoms of PTSD following his abduction in London.

His oldest scar is one that runs across his forehead, a straight line above his right eyebrow. When he was 5, he was playing in their grandparent’s garden with his brother, then 9. Jonathan accidentally pushed Benji while playing and Benji fell and hit his head on the bird bath.

His fingertips are calloused from the Cobalt mission, the wiring having cut up the skin quite badly.

[xtruss]

Exclusive: Imran Khan on His Plan to Return to Power

— By Charlie Campbell | April 3, 2023 | Time Magazine

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan sits for a portrait in his Lahore residence on March 28. Next to Khan are tear gas canisters he says were thrown at his house. Umar Nadeem for Time Magazine

Political leaders often boast of inner steel. Imran Khan can point to three bullets dug out of his right leg. It was in November that a lone gunman opened fire on Khan during a rally, wounding the 70-year-old as well as several supporters, one fatally. “One bullet damaged a nerve so my foot is still recovering,” says the former Pakistani Prime Minister and onetime cricket icon. “I have a problem walking for too long.”

If the wound has slowed Khan, he doesn’t show it in a late-March Zoom interview. There is the same bushy mane, the easy laugh, prayer beads wrapped nonchalantly around his left wrist. But in the five years since our last conversation, something has changed. Power—or perhaps its forfeiture—has left its imprint. Following his ouster in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April 2022, Khan has mobilized his diehard support base in a “jihad,” as he puts it, to demand snap elections, claiming he was unfairly toppled by a U.S.-sponsored plot. ​​(The State Department has denied the allegations.)

The actual intrigue is purely Pakistani. Khan lost the backing of the country’s all-powerful military after he refused to endorse its choice to lead Pakistan’s intelligence services, known as ISI, because of his close relationship with the incumbent. When Khan belatedly greenlighted the new chief, the opposition sensed weakness and pounced with the no-confidence vote. Khan then took his outrage to the streets, with rallies crisscrossing the nation for months.

Photograph by Umar Nadeem for Time Magazine

“Imran Khan can communicate with all strata of society on their level,” says Shaheena Bhatti, 63, a professor of literature in Rawalpindi. “The other politicians are … not going to do anything for the country because they’re only in it for themselves.”

The November attack on Khan’s life only intensified the burning sense of injustice in members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, who have since clashed with police in escalating street battles involving slingshots and tear gas. Although an avowed religious fanatic was arrested for the shooting, Khan continues to accuse an assortment of rival politicians of pulling the strings: incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif—brother of Khan’s longtime nemesis, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif—as well as Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer. (All have denied the accusation.)

In addition to bullets, Khan has also been hit by charges—143 over the past 11 months, by his count, including corruption, sedition, blasphemy, and terrorism—which he claims have been concocted in an attempt to disqualify him from politics. After Sharif’s cabinet declared on March 20 that the PTI was “a gang of militants” whose “enmity against the state” could not be tolerated, police arrested hundreds of Khan supporters in raids.

“Either Imran Khan exists or we do,” Interior Minister Sanaullah said on March 26.

Pakistan sometimes seems to reside on a precipice. Its current political instability comes amid devastating floods, runaway inflation, and resurgent cross-border terrorist attacks from neighboring Afghanistan that together threaten the fabric of the nation of 230 million. It’s a country where rape and corruption are rife, and the economy hinges on unlocking a stalled IMF bailout, Pakistan’s 22nd since independence in 1947. Inflation soared in March to 47% year-over-year; the prices of staples such as onions rose by 228%, wheat by 120%, and cooking gas by 108%. Over the same period, the rupee has plummeted by 54%.

“Ten years ago, I earned 10,000 rupees a month [$100] and I wasn’t distressed,” says Muhammad Ghazanfer, a groundsman and gardener in Rawalpindi. “With this present wave of inflation, even though I now earn 25,000 [$90 today] I can’t make ends meet.” The world’s fifth most populous country has only $4.6 billion in foreign reserves—$20 per citizen. “If they default, and they can’t get oil, companies go bust, and people don’t have jobs, you would say this is a country ripe for a Bolshevik revolution,” says Cameron Munter, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.

Police fired teargas to disperse the supporters of the former Prime Minister as they tried to arrest Khan in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 14. Hundreds of Tehrik-e-Insaf supporters clashed with riot police as they reached Khan's residence. Rahat Dar—EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

“Our economy has gone into a tailspin,” says Khan. “We now have the worst economic indicators in our history.” The situation threatens to send the nuclear-armed country deeper into China’s orbit. Yet sympathy is slim in a West put off by Khan’s years of anti-American bluster and cozying up to autocrats and extremists, including the Taliban. He calls autocratic Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “my brother” and visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on the eve of the Ukraine invasion, remarking on “so much excitement.” Khan can both repeatedly declare Osama bin Laden a “martyr” and praise Beijing’s confinement of China’s Uighur Muslim minority. He has obsessed on Joe Biden’s failure to call him after entering the White House. “He’s someone that is imbued with this incredibly strong sense of grievance,” says Michael Kugelman, the deputy director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Yet Khan can legitimately claim to have democracy on his side, with poll numbers suggesting he is a shoo-in to return to power if the elections he demands happen. “His popularity has skyrocketed,” says Samina Yasmeen, director of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at the University of Western Australia. “No matter what he says, even if it’s irrational, the reality is that people are angry and taken by his message.”

“Imran Khan is the best bet we have right now,” says Osama Rehman, 50, a telecommunications engineer in Islamabad. “If [he] is arrested or disqualified, people will come out onto the street.”

The state appears to flirt with the idea. Police raids on Khan’s home in the Punjab province capital of Lahore in early March left him choking on tear gas, he says, as supporters brandishing sticks battled police in riot gear before makeshift barricades of sandbags and iron rods. “This sort of crackdown has never taken place in Pakistan,” says Khan. “I don’t know even if it was as bad under martial law.”

After Khan left his compound to appear in court on March 18, traveling in an armored SUV strewn with flower petals and flanked by bodyguards, the police swooped in while his wife was home, he says, beating up servants and hauling the family cook off to jail. He claims another assassination attempt awaited inside the Islamabad Judicial Complex, which was “taken over by the intelligence agencies and paramilitary.”

Police arrested 61 supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan during a search operation near Khan’s residence, in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 18, 2023. K.M. Chaudary—AP

The confrontation could remain in the streets indefinitely. Prime Minister Sharif has rejected Khan’s demand for a snap election, saying polls would be held as scheduled in the fall. But “every narrative is being built up [for the government] to justify postponing the elections,” says Yasmeen. On March 22, Pakistan’s Election Commission delayed local balloting in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, from April 30 until Oct. 8.

“Political stability in Pakistan comes through elections,” Khan points out. “That is the starting point for economic recovery.” From the U.S. perspective, he may be far from the ideal choice to helm an impoverished, insurgency-racked Islamic state. But is he the only person that can hold the country together?

“Never has one man scared the establishment … as much as right now,” says Khan. “They worry about how to keep me out; the people how to get me back in.”

It’s indicative of Pakistan’s malaise that its most popular politician in decades sits barricaded at home. But the nation has always been beyond comparison—a wedge of South Asia that begins in the shimmering Arabian Gulf and ascends to its Himalayan heights. It’s the world’s largest Islamic state, though governed for half its history by men in olive-green uniforms, who continue to act as ultimate arbiters of power.

The only boy of five children, Khan was born Oct. 5, 1952 to an affluent Pashtun family in Lahore. He studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Oxford University, and it was in the U.K. that he first played cricket for Pakistan, at age 18. Britain’s sodden terrain also provided the backdrop to his political awakening.

“When I arrived in England our country had been ruled by a military dictator for 10 years; the powerful had one law, the others were basically not free human beings,” he says. “Rule of law actually liberates human beings, liberates potential. This was what I discovered.”

Khan in his Lahore residence on March 28. Umar Nadeem for Time Magazine

On the cricket pitch, Khan was a talisman who knitted together mercurial talents and journeymen into a cohesive whole, a team that overcame extraordinary odds to famously lift the Cricket World Cup in 1992. There were glimpses of these qualities when Khan rose to become Prime Minister: running on an anti-graft ticket, he fused a disparate band of students and workers, Islamic hard-liners, and the nation’s powerful military to derail the Sharif political juggernaut. His crowning achievement remains the Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital in Lahore, which he opened in 1994 in memory of his mother, who succumbed to the disease. It is the largest cancer hospital serving Pakistan’s impoverished, boosting Khan’s administrative credentials.

Khan spent 22 years in the political wilderness before his 2018 election triumph. But once in power, the self-styled bold reformer turned unnervingly divisive. Opposition is easier than government, and Khan found himself bereft of ideas and besieged by unsavory partners, even kowtowing to the now-banned far-right party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan despite its support for the extrajudicial killing of alleged blasphemers. There were some successes: Pakistan received praise for its handling of the pandemic, with deaths per capita just a third that of neighboring India. His “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami” reforestation drive was popular, as was the 2019 return of international test cricket, the most prestigious form of the game, following a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team and a decade-long hiatus.

Khan’s private life has rarely been out of the headlines. His first wife was British journalist and society heiress Jemima Khan, née Goldsmith, a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales. She converted to Islam for their wedding, though the pair divorced in 2004 after nine years of marriage, and her family’s Jewish heritage was political dynamite. (The couple’s two sons live in London.) Khan’s second marriage to British-Pakistani journalist Reham Khan lasted nine months. According to a 1997 California court ruling, Khan also has one child, a daughter, born out of wedlock, and he’s struggled to quash gossip of several more. In 2018, six months before he took office, he married his current wife, Bushra Bibi Khan, a religious conservative who is believed to be the only Pakistan First Lady to wear the full-face niqab shawl in public.

Khan, left, lifts elder son Suleman while his ex-wife Jemima carries younger son Qasim during a march towards the U.N. offices in Islamabad in 1999. The Khans led some 100 demonstrators in an anti-Russian rally protesting against attacks in Chechnya. Reuters

It all fed Khan’s legend: the debonair playboy who grew devout; the privileged son who rails against the corrupt; the humanist who stands with the bloodthirsty. His youth was spent carousing with supermodels in London’s trendiest nightspots. But his politics has hardened as his handsome features have lined and leathered. He provoked outrage when in August 2021 he said the Taliban had “broken the shackles of slavery” by taking back power (he insists to TIME he was “taken out of context”) and has made various comments criticized as misogynistic. When asked about the drivers of sexual violence in Pakistan, he said, “If a woman is wearing very few clothes, it will have an impact on the men, unless they’re robots.” Khan has refused to condemn Putin’s invasion, insisting, like China, on remaining “neutral” and deflecting uncomfortable questions onto supposed double standards regarding India’s inroads into disputed Kashmir. “Morality in foreign policy is reserved for powerful countries,” he says with a shrug.

Khan in the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Pakistan won under Khan's captaincy this year. Fairfax Media

At the same time, Khan’s ideological flexibility has not stretched to compromises with opponents. He claims it was the military’s unwillingness to go after Pakistan’s influential “two families”—those of Sharif and the Bhutto clan of former Prime Ministers Zulfikar and Benazir—for alleged corruption that caused his relationship with the generals to fray. “If the ruling elite plunders your country and siphons off money, and you cannot hold them accountable, then that means there is no rule of law,” he says.

Yet analysts say that it was Khan’s relentless taunting of the U.S. that torpedoed his relationship with the military, which remains much more interested in retaining good relations with Washington. To journalists and supporters, he has accused the U.S. of imposing a “master-slave” relationship on Pakistan and of using it like “tissue paper.” To TIME, he insists that “criticizing U.S. foreign policy does not make you anti-American.” Still, by 2022, the generals no longer had his back. The common perception among Pakistan watchers is that Khan’s fleeting political success was owed to a Faustian pact with the nation’s military and extremist groups that shepherded his election victory and he is now reaping the whirlwind.

Cricket captain turned politician Imran Khan shakes hands with supporters during a rally in October 2002 in Shadi Khal, Pakistan. Paula Bronstein—Getty Images

He appears to relish in the perceived injustice, the walls closing in. On March 25, Khan addressed thousands of supporters in central Lahore from a bulletproof box above a green-and-red flag with the initials of his PTI emblazoned on a cricket bat—once Khan’s weapon of choice, though now he wields words with similar potency.

“I know you have decided you wouldn’t allow Imran Khan back in power,” he said. “That’s fine with me. But do you have a plan or know how to get the country out of the current crisis?”

If Pakistan’s economic woes are reaching a new nadir, the trajectory was established during Khan’s term. A revolving door of Finance Ministers was compounded by bowing to hardliners. (After appointing renowned Princeton economist Atif Mian as an adviser, Khan fired him just days later owing to a backlash from Islamists because Mian is an Ahmadi, a sect of Islam they consider heretics.) In 2018, Khan pledged not to follow previous administrations’ “begging bowl” tactics of foreign borrowing, in order to end Pakistan’s cycle of debt. But less than a year later, he struck a deal with the IMF to cut social and development spending while raising taxes in exchange for a $6 billion loan. Mismanagement exacerbated global headwinds from the pandemic and soaring oil prices.

Meanwhile, little was done to address Pakistan’s fundamental structural issues: few people pay tax, least of all the feudal landowners who control traditional low-added-value industries like sugar farms, textile mills, and agricultural interests while wielding huge political-patronage networks stemming from their workers’ votes. In 2021, only 2.5 million Pakistanis filed tax returns—less than 1% of the adult population. “People don’t pay tax, especially the rich elite,” says Khan. “They just siphon out money and launder it abroad.”

Instead, Pakistan has relied on foreign money to balance a budget and provide government services. The U.S. funneled nearly $78.3 billion to Pakistan from 1948 to 2016. But in 2018, President Trump ended the $300 million security assistance that the U.S. provided annually. Now Pakistan must shop around for new benefactors—chiefly Saudi Arabia, Russia, and China. When Khan visited Putin last February, it was to arrange cheap oil and wheat imports and discuss the $2.5 billion Pakistan Stream gas pipeline, which Moscow wants to build between Karachi and Kasur. More recently, China has stepped in. In early March, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China approved a $1.3 billion loan rollover—a fiscal bandaid for a gaping wound.

Khan in his Lahore residence on March 28. Umar Nadeem for Time Magazine

But if Khan recognized the problem, he did little to solve it. After his election in 2018, he was in an uncommonly strong position with the backing of the military and progressives, as well as the tolerance of the Islamists. Now, with all the bad blood and open warfare among these factions, even if he claws his way back, “he’ll be in a weaker position to actually effect any reforms,” says Munter, the former U.S. ambassador, “if he had any reforms to begin with.”

When asked for his step-by-step plan to get Pakistan back on track, Khan is light on details. After elections, he says that a “completely new social contract” is required to enshrine power in political institutions, rather than the military. If the army chief “didn’t think corruption was that big a deal, then nothing happened,” Khan complains. “I was helpless.” But the path to this utopia remains murky. Asked how he plans to turn his much trumpeted Islamic Welfare State ideal into a reality, Khan talks about Medina under the Prophet and the social conscience of Northern Europeans. “Scandinavia is probably far closer to the Islamic ideal than any of the Muslim countries.”

But the military looms large in Pakistan partly because national security is a perennial issue. Many assumed that the newly returned Taliban would stamp out all cross-border attacks from Afghanistan. But Pakistan recorded the second largest increase in terrorism-related deaths worldwide in 2022, up 120% year-over-year. “It was Khan who was pushing for talks with [the Taliban] at all costs,” says Kugelman, of the Woodrow Wilson Center. “That embrace is now experiencing significant levels of blowback.”

That Pakistan is moving away from the U.S. and closer to Russia and China is a moot point; the bigger question is who actually wins from embracing Pakistan. The $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was supposed to be the crown jewel in President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, linking China via roads, rail and pipeline to the Arabian Sea. But Gwadar Port is rusting and suicide bombers are taking aim at buses filled with Chinese workers. Loans are more regularly defaulted than paid. Today, even Iran looks like a more stable partner.

Ultimately, competition with Beijing defines American foreign policy today, meaning Washington prioritizes relations with Pakistan’s archnemesis India, which is a key partner in the Biden Administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy to contain China. Toward that imperative, the White House turns a blind eye even to New Delhi’s continued close relationship with Putin. The U.S. kinship with India may mean Pakistan was always destined to move closer to China. But after the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, Pakistan is not the strategic lynchpin it once claimed to be—and memories are hardly fond; Pakistan secretly invested heavily in the Taliban. “Lots of Americans in Washington say we lost the war in Afghanistan because the Pakistanis stabbed us in the back,” says Munter.

What happens next? Many in Khan’s PTI suspect the current government may declare their party a terrorist organization or otherwise ban it from politics. Others believe that Pakistan’s escalating economic, political, and security turmoil may be used as grounds to postpone October’s general election. Ultimately, all sides are using the tools at their disposal to prevent their own demise: Khan wields popular protest and the banner of democracy; the government has the courts and security apparatus. Caught between the two, the people flounder. “There are no heroes here,” says Kugelman. “The entire political class and the military are to blame for the very troubled state the country finds itself in now.”

It’s a crisis that Khan still claims can be solved by elections, despite his broken relationship with the military. “The same people who tried to kill me are still sitting in power,” he says. “And they are petrified that if I got back [in] they would be held accountable. So they’re more dangerous.”

—With reporting by Hasan Ali/Islamabad

[vaningyen]

Mit csinált ez a bank? Kaliforniai startup-körökből dollármilliárdos betéteket gyűjtött, és egy kicsit magasabb hozammal abból hosszabb futamidejű amerikai állampapírokat vett. Ezen volt egy kis nyeresége. Ám amikor emelkedni kezdett a kamatszint, a betétesek jobb befektetési lehetőségeket láttak a piacon. A bank nem emelhette a betéti kamatokat magasabbra, mint amit a meglevő állampapírok hoztak, mert nem akart veszteséges működést, hiszen akkor szép lassan csődbe ment volna. Így viszont a betétesek elindultak másfelé, kivonták a p��nzt a bankból.

https://telex.hu/gazdasag/2023/03/29/svb-credit-suisse-corvinus-bis-imf-kamat-inflacio

hogyan lehet valaki egyetemi rektor, és minek szólal meg, ha ekkora faszságokat mond? az svb betétei nem azért csökkentek, mert a startupok mit tudom én állampapírt vettek, hanem azért mert 0 bevételük volt nem 0 költséggel és nem kaptak új befektetéseket. később meg azért, mert az összes betétes mögött ugyanaz a pár kockázati tőke alap állt, akik szóltak mindenkinek, hogy vegyék ki a pénzüket a bankból (ahol tavaly április óta nem volt chief risk officer). van ezer bank ami nem ment csődbe, és ennek a fő oka az, hogy azok betétesei nem egyetlen csetszobában beszéltek a dolgaikról. egy idióta bank, idióta ügyfelekkel nem rendszerszintű kockázat.

a reálgazdaságnak meg tán jó is, hogy it szakemberek nem a következő piramisjátékot fejlesztik, hanem inkább rendberakják mondjuk a southwest airlines informatikai rendszerét, és ezért nem kell többszáz járatot törölni. win-win.

[mariacallous]

Russia’s invasion has wrecked Ukraine’s economy, which is projected to shrink by as much as 35 percent this year, according to World Bank estimates. Fighting has uprooted millions of people from their homes, choked off access to the country’s ports, disrupted agriculture, and driven up defense spending.

As the fighting looks set to drag on into next year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has estimated that Ukraine will likely face a $38 billion budget deficit in 2023—much of which is set to be covered by financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). With every day that the war continues, the costs of postwar reconstruction, currently estimated at $349 billion, are driven ever higher.

The economic fallout from the war hasn’t been contained to Ukraine, as the spiraling costs of food and energy have exacted a painful toll across the global south.

Ahead of the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington next week, where the impacts of the war will undoubtedly be in focus, Foreign Policy sat down with Odile Renaud-Basso, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the largest institutional investor in Ukraine, to talk about the costs of reconstruction, whether Russia should pay, and how long-lasting these changes will be. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Foreign Policy: I’d like to start with Russia’s war in Ukraine. First of all, what are the EBRD’s priorities for Ukraine as the conflict continues?

Odile Renaud-Basso: Our key focus in Ukraine is to support the real economy, which is support to key infrastructure such as railways, electricity, energy supply. We provided some financing to Naftogaz [Ukraine’s state energy firm] to secure buying but also support to the private sector in the agribusiness. And now we have started working with municipalities. For example, we have a loan upcoming for Lviv city, and we are working with others in order to help them with the financing of infrastructure or needs for the internally displaced people. The more the economy is sustained and active, the more there will be some tax revenue to contribute to the sustainability of the government.

FP: How has the real economy been affected by eight months of war?

ORB: Our assessment is that real GDP in Ukraine will shrink very substantially, by 30 percent in 2022. But this is due to the level of destruction in the east and southern parts of the country.

One of the biggest challenges has been with the agribusiness, how to export Ukraine’s grains. We are seeing what we can do in Romania, in Moldova, in Poland, to facilitate what Europe calls a “solidarity lane,” which is alternative infrastructure to enlarge Ukraine’s scope for exports West.

The price of energy, as with everybody, will have a big impact on Ukraine. You’ve also seen that some big public companies are also in the process of restructuring their debt. So, the liquidity situation is challenging, the capacity of the clients to pay. It’s a war economy, so it’s a very, very challenging environment for businesses. Another big challenge is that, in the current context, the capacity and willingness from partners to take risks is much more limited, and of course the capacity to access finance is more restricted than in a non-war situation.

FP: How concerned are you that Ukraine could face a full-scale economic collapse?

ORB: That’s why it’s very important to continue to provide support to the country, and that’s why they need financial support of around $3 billion, $3.5 billion, a month. Otherwise, the country’s economy will collapse, I think. They need this external assistance at all levels on budget, on more infrastructure, on the real economy, in order to sustain the country in a way that is required for the war.

FP: There are fears of a global recession mounting in Europe and the United States. How concerned are you about donor countries’ abilities to sustain their support for Ukraine?

ORB: I think it’s a challenge. Up to now, what we’ve seen is a lot of support and the capacity to mobilize a lot of support very quickly. But I think the willingness and the understanding that there is a need for sustained effort is there. Of course, we need to see whether this effort is really sustained over time. I think that also there is an understanding that a prolonged war is quite likely. As people are preparing for a long war, it will call for a strong narrative from Western countries on why they need to support Ukraine for such a long period.

FP: Top Ukrainian officials have suggested that the war recovery should be funded by the assets of Russian oligarchs that have been seized by Western authorities. What do you make of that proposal?

ORB: I think legally speaking it’s very challenging. I know there is a lot of reflection work ongoing, but I think the legal solution is not there yet. I think we should not underestimate the challenges, even if I fully understand the rationale and the logic of it from Ukraine’s perspective. But I think this needs to be looked at very seriously.

FP: Is the EBRD involved in those discussions?

ORB: No, we are not. I think it’s more for national governments, central banks, and treasuries to look into that. So, as a bank, we are not actively exploring this. We are, of course, following the discussion but not actively involved in that discussion.

FP: The World Bank, Ukrainian government, and European Commission last month jointly assessed that Ukraine’s economic recovery could cost $349 billion in the short term—but the war is still ongoing. What are your projections for how much money Ukraine would need to recover from the war if it lasted another six months or year or even five years?

ORB: It’s very difficult to have a definitive figure because of course it depends completely on the scenarios of the war. And we see that in the areas where the war is very active, the level of destruction is growing. It’s very difficult to measure. I’ve seen a lot of figures mentioned, from $700 billion to $200 billion or $300 billion.

FP: What’s your expectation of how the war is going to impact other post-Soviet economies beyond Russia and Ukraine?

ORB: It very much depends on the situation of each country. In Central Asia, Armenia, Georgia, we have seen an influx of people moving their savings, in order to avoid sanctions, out of Russia to be able to use them. The very close neighborhood [around Russia] is quite economically resilient.

Energy importers that are very highly dependent on Russia’s gas are suffering. We can see now already a huge impact on inflation. In the Baltic countries and Poland, we have seen a reduction of risk appetite in the market and some challenges to issuing debt. Mediterranean countries in particular are very much affected by food price increases. They are very dependent on Ukrainian and Russian food staples, such as wheat and sunflower oils, plus fertilizers.

We are working a lot in Central Asia so they can develop alternative trade corridors because a lot of things they were exporting were done through Russia. This war has caused quite structural changes on trade and its impact on the way trade is organized between China, Central Asia, Europe. Also, the way energy is traded will be completely changed. The structural changes in the global economy triggered by the war will be very important.