Geopolitics & international affairs
The 13th night of American strikes on Iran ended at 9 p.m. Thursday Eastern Time. By Friday morning in the Gulf, Iranian drones were falling on three countries that had not been direct combat zones before. Iran’s military said it struck American facilities in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait — a geographic expansion of a war […]
The Choe Hyon is a 5,000-ton guided missile destroyer with 88 vertical launch cells, four-faced phased-array radars, a 127-millimeter main gun, torpedo launchers, and a close-in weapon system derived from Russia’s Pantsir-M. It can fire nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. It was built in about two and a half years. That last number is the one that […]
Donald Trump has threatened the European Union with “substantial” new tariffs after the European Commission fined Google €890 million in an antitrust case. The US president posted on social media that Europe is “robbing” American companies and taxpayers, and that the EU will pay a “very big price.” The fine, announced Thursday, is the latest […]
Arkady Dvorkovich, the Russian former deputy prime minister who has run the International Chess Federation since 2018, has stepped aside after the European Union placed him on its latest sanctions list. He faces a travel ban and asset freeze across all 27 member states. He says he is “voluntarily suspending” his duties but has not […]
Donald Trump announced Thursday that the United States will begin using frozen Iranian assets to compensate for ships and cargo damaged in the Gulf, a move Iran’s foreign minister called “an incendiary precedent” that would create “chaos” in international finance. “These damages may be very substantial but, nevertheless, this is the fair and equitable thing […]
The House of Representatives voted Thursday to direct President Trump to end military action in Iran, with four Republicans joining Democrats in a second congressional rebuke of the war that is now entering its sixth month. The war powers resolution passed 214-208. The four Republicans who broke ranks were Reps. Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian […]
The Trump administration’s new tariff system, which took effect Friday, divides the world into three tiers. Here is which countries fall where and why. The system replaces a temporary 10 percent global tariff that expired this week. The new duties are imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, based on investigations into […]
A bipartisan Russia sanctions package that has spent more than a year winding its way through Congress is finally headed for a Senate vote as early as next week — but only after President Trump added an 11th-hour demand that Iran be included in the bill. The legislation, known as the Sanctioning Russia Act, would […]
Donald Trump has discovered a new kind of diplomatic leverage: civilian nuclear technology as a bargaining chip for recognition of Israel. The president announced Thursday that the recently signed US-Saudi civilian nuclear cooperation agreement will not go forward unless Riyadh normalizes relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords. “The Civil Nuclear Deal… will be approved, […]
The Trump administration has replaced its expiring blanket tariffs with a more layered and complex system — imposing graduated duties on 60 countries under the legal framework of forced-labor enforcement, with rates ranging from 10 to 12.5 percent depending on each nation’s compliance rating. The new tariffs, announced Thursday by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, […]
