Geopolitics

The heat dome that settled over Europe in June 2026 did not come gently. By the time it lifted, thermometers in France had touched 44.3C at Pissos in the Landes region. Spain’s Andujar recorded 45.1C. The United Kingdom broke its June temperature record with 38C, surpassing the 35.6C mark set in Southampton in 1976. Across […]

Three International Criminal Court judges filed a 66-page lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on June 24, 2026, challenging sanctions imposed against them under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14203. The judges argue the sanctions are unlawful and represent an unprecedented attack on judicial independence. The plaintiffs are Judge Kimberly Prost of Canada, Judge Solomy Balungi […]

Brent crude has fallen below $73 a barrel, touching its lowest level since before the Iran war erupted on February 28. The drop is the clearest economic signal yet that the four-month conflict is winding down. The benchmark slid to $72.24 on June 25 before stabilizing, marking a stunning collapse from the war-time peak of […]

Maxim Kruglov, former deputy leader of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, was sentenced to seven years in prison on June 24 for spreading “false information” about the Russian military through two Telegram posts made in 2022. He told the court his conviction amounts to a ban on political dissent. “In essence, this is a ban on […]

The architecture of global trade is being dismantled, not by accident but by design. When U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer addressed the Council on Foreign Relations on May 26, 2026, he effectively declared that the post-1945 multilateral trading order is no longer the foundation of American trade policy. For the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, […]

A Japanese trade delegation walked into a meeting room in Beijing this week led by a Liberal Democratic Party member of parliament. The handshakes were cordial. The agenda was business: supply chain resilience, tariff relief, and resuming suspended commercial ties. It was the first visit of its kind since bilateral relations between China and Japan […]

Ukrainian drones cripple Sevastopol’s power grid, leaving Crimea’s largest city in the dark as temperatures push toward 30C. A coordinated Ukrainian drone strike knocked out the main power substation serving Sevastopol, the largest city in Russian-occupied Crimea, plunging tens of thousands of residents into what officials warned could be a multi-day blackout during a blistering […]

Senate delivers bipartisan rebuke as Congress moves to reclaim war authority on Iran The U.S. Senate voted 50-48 on June 23 to pass an Iran war powers resolution that would require President Donald Trump to seek congressional authorization before using military force against Iran, delivering the most significant legislative challenge yet to the administration’s handling […]

Israel has no intention of withdrawing its troops from southern Lebanon, Defense Minister Israel Katz declared this week, directly undercutting the fragile U.S.-Iran peace process that entered a critical 60-day negotiation window just days ago. Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv, Katz made the government’s position unmistakably clear. “The IDF is prepared… and we […]

Travelers heading to Europe this summer are being warned to expect significant delays at airports and border crossings as the European Union’s new digital border system faces persistent technical problems, staffing shortages, and surging passenger volumes. The Entry/Exit System (EES), which went fully operational across 29 countries on April 10, replaces the traditional passport stamp […]