Geopolitics & international affairs
Iran detained two French diplomats in Tehran on July 19, held them for four hours, and, according to the French foreign minister, struck one of them. More than a week later, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned France’s ambassador to demand an apology. The incident began when Iranian security officers picked up two French diplomatic staff […]
Nigerian troops acting on an intelligence alert evacuated 21 female students from an internally displaced persons camp in Monguno, Borno State, after detecting suspected ISWAP/JAS terrorists carrying improvised explosive devices near the site. The students were moved to a barracks before any attack could be carried out. Three who suffered seizures during the evacuation were […]
Taiwan produces the most advanced semiconductors on earth. The chips that run the world’s most sophisticated military systems – American fighter jets, missile guidance, drone swarms – are largely made on the island. But Taiwan’s own armed forces are struggling to adopt the AI tools that those same chips enable. A detailed analysis published by […]
The war between the United States and Iran is not one conflict. It is a cascade. Every time one front goes quiet, another ignites elsewhere. The latest flare-up is in the Red Sea. Tehran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen fired missiles and drones at two of Saudi Arabia’s most strategically important oil facilities on the coast, […]
The two biggest wars of the decade just collided in a place that had been separate from both. Iran has warned Ukraine of retaliation after what Tehran says was a Ukrainian strike on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea that killed one sailor and wounded another. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Russian […]
Germany has a problem that most countries would find hard to understand. Its shops are closed on Sundays. Not some shops. Almost all of them. The Ladenschlussgesetz, the shop-closing law, has been in place for more than a century and is protected by Germany’s Basic Law. On Sunday, you can buy gas, pick up a […]
The US House of Representatives passed a spending bill this month that includes $500 million in foreign military financing for Taiwan. The money is real. The political signal behind it is pointed. And it comes at a moment when the White House has gone quiet on the island’s defense. President Trump has not approved a […]
Kazakhstan is not at war with anyone. But its oil exports have been shut down by drone strikes it blames on Ukraine, aimed at infrastructure inside Russia. So the government in Astana is left pleading for the war next door to stop, or at least to freeze. On Saturday, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sat next to […]
The birthplace of the Japanese state is now officially a World Heritage site. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, meeting in Busan, South Korea, voted Sunday to inscribe the “Asuka-Fujiwara: Archaeological Sites of Japan’s Ancient Capitals and Related Properties” on the list. It is Japan’s 27th World Heritage site, 22 cultural and five natural. The decision took […]
Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down with Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday. The meeting was confirmed over the weekend by a White House official, and it comes at a moment when the politics of Ukraine aid in Washington are shifting in unpredictable ways. Zelensky will be in Washington anyway. He is attending the […]
