Geopolitics & international affairs
Oil passed $90 a barrel again this week. The US launched its 10th straight night of strikes on Iran. The Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. The Houthis have declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia. And the buffers that kept the global economy from collapse during the first half of 2026 are running out. […]
Kyiv’s drone campaign is no longer a nuisance. It is a strategic fact that Russia cannot fix. Ukraine has now struck all 11 of Russia’s largest oil refineries. The most recent target was the Omsk refinery in western Siberia – a record-breaking flight of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) from Ukrainian launch points. The […]
Before the bombs started falling, the Iranian summer was already a crisis. The government promised no blackouts in 2026. Then the war came. Temperature in Khuzestan province has passed 50°C in recent days. Residents there face scheduled power cuts of up to four hours – in a province that produces twice the electricity it consumes. […]
Washington, The third US service member died over the weekend. The White House says the war goes on. The Democrats say it has to stop. The political argument over Trump’s war in Iran has entered a new phase. Not because the president changed his mind, he has not, but because the body bags keep coming […]
Iran has warned Bulgaria not to allow the United States to use its territory for military operations, the clearest sign yet that the war is pushing outward from its original theater and dragging in countries that never asked to be part of it. The Bulgarian government wants parliamentary approval to station up to eight US […]
The Pentagon admitted Monday that nearly 100 US service members have been injured over the last two weeks as Iran’s reprisal attacks against American forces and allies intensify. The admission did not come voluntarily. The New York Times reported first that the Pentagon was withholding information about troop injuries, and the department was forced to […]
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun meets President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, capping a four-day visit to Washington that will test whether the US-brokered framework to end the war in southern Lebanon can actually deliver what it promises. The meeting is the culmination of months of rare direct talks between Lebanon and Israel […]
A Russian warship conducted a live-fire artillery exercise 64 km (40 miles) south of Plymouth on Monday, in international waters but close enough to the British coast to be seen as a deliberate show of force. The frigate Neustrashimy informed the Royal Navy offshore patrol vessel HMS Tyne of its intention to fire its guns, […]
The US-brokered plan to hand over parts of southern Lebanon to the Lebanese government launched its first “pilot zones” this week in three villages: Froun, Srifa, and Zawtar Al-Gharbiya. There is just one problem. Israeli forces never occupied any of them. “These are pilot zones where Israel never set foot,” one local told Al Jazeera. […]
The escalation has started again. President Trump on Monday announced 50% tariffs on most Canadian goods, declaring that Canada unfairly discriminated against American autos, alcohol, and dairy products. But the legal foundation for this move is entirely different from the one the Supreme Court struck down in February, and that raises the question of whether […]
