Geopolitics & international affairs
On Thursday evening, President Trump announced that his Board of Peace had reached what he called a historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. The word “historic” appears to be the only point on which the parties to the conflict agree. Trump’s version, posted on Truth Social, […]
The Caspian Sea is the one body of water where Russia and Iran could trade without Western eyes. It has no NATO fleet, no American patrols, no reporters watching the docks. Five countries share its shore, and none had an interest in policing what Moscow and Tehran moved across it. On July 25, a Ukrainian […]
A threat works only if people believe you will carry it out. Sanctions are threats with paperwork attached, and the same rule applies. Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration has demonstrated, repeatedly and publicly, that its sanctions can be lifted as quickly as they are imposed. Every demonstration makes the next […]
Before a country sends an ambassador, it asks the host government whether the candidate is acceptable. The question is called the agrément, and the answer is almost always yes, because a no is close to a declaration of hostility. Brazil has not said no to Daniel Perez, the man President Trump nominated in June to […]
The war that was supposed to send the price of oil through the roof has not done so. The reason lies less with the countries fighting than with the world’s largest oil buyer, which has quietly stopped buying. When the United States and Israel struck Iran in late February, the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway […]
A Russian missile struck eastern Poland early Thursday, leaving a 10-meter-wide crater in a field near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia and triggering NATO’s highest levels of alert. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said fragments recovered from the site pointed to a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile. The weapon was part of a massive overnight Russian barrage […]
Beijing has established a regular coast guard presence in waters east of Taiwan for the first time, quietly expanding its maritime encirclement of the island through a gray-zone campaign timed to maximize leverage before the next Trump-Xi summit. The move began in early June, when China deployed Coast Guard vessels to conduct independent law enforcement […]
India has shipped thousands of weapons and ammunition components to Israel since October 2023 despite a substantial risk they would be used in an ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International. The report, titled Made in India: The Supply of Weapons and Ammunition to Israel, documents 2,596 shipments […]
Toyota’s global sales fell for the fifth consecutive month in June, as the Middle East war and an intensifying price war in China ate into the profits of the world’s biggest automaker. The company sold 926,688 vehicles worldwide in June including its Daihatsu subsidiary, down 1.1 percent from a year earlier. Production rose 2.2 percent […]
Pakistan confirmed Thursday that negotiations between the United States and Iran are ongoing, offering the first official acknowledgment of diplomatic back channels as a Qatari gas vessel became the first commercial ship to cross the Strait of Hormuz since Tehran imposed a blockade three weeks ago. Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman, Tahir Andrabi, told reporters that […]
