Geopolitics

Iran closes Strait of Hormuz again as Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire frays under cross-border strikes Iran announced the re-closure of the Strait of Hormuz on June 20, directly linking the move to Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon that Tehran said violate the terms of the interim Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with the United States. The closure marks […]

Ukraine struck multiple Russian fuel and military targets across Crimea and the Krasnodar region on June 21 in a coordinated wave of drone and missile attacks that killed at least five people, wounded dozens more, and pushed Moscow’s energy infrastructure deeper into crisis. The strikes reflect Kyiv’s intensifying strategy of “long-range sanctions” designed to degrade […]

Diplomats sit in one room, warplanes fly in another, and tankers stay anchored in the Strait of Hormuz. That is the picture on June 21 as U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Switzerland to open direct talks with Iran while Israeli airstrikes pounded southern Lebanon and Iran kept the world’s most vital oil chokepoint […]

Are Ukrainian drones exposing genuine gaps in Russian air defenses, or are the vulnerabilities being exaggerated? When nearly 1,000 Ukrainian drones swarmed Moscow on June 18 in the largest attack on the Russian capital since the war began, the images that emerged were striking. Thick plumes of black smoke billowed from the Kapotnya oil refinery, […]

The G7 friendship that seemed to promise so much has shattered in spectacular fashion, with Donald Trump and Giorgia Meloni trading bitter accusations over a disputed photo that has now triggered a full-blown diplomatic crisis between Washington and Rome. What began as an offhand remark by President Trump to an Italian broadcaster has spiraled into […]

Trump vows no Iranian tolls in Hormuz but opens door for US charges, exposing fragile ceasefire deal President Donald Trump declared Saturday that Iran will not charge tolls on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, but his accompanying warning that the United States could impose its own tolls if peace talks fail has laid bare […]

Trump’s Iran deal leaves Israel feeling sold out by its closest ally The deal President Trump struck with Iran this week was never going to please Israel. But the scale of the anger now pouring out of the country suggests something deeper than policy disagreement. Israelis across the political spectrum say they have been betrayed […]

The children keep dying, and the world calls it a ceasefire An Israeli strike hit a house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday. Among the dead were two children. Also killed was Ahmed Wishah, a cameraman for Al Jazeera. Wishah’s brother, Mohammed, also worked for the network. He was killed by […]

The peace deal Donald Trump signed with Iran this week may end the shooting, but it does not settle what the war cost — in lives, in political capital, or in the region’s trust in American guarantees. Two stories that emerged on the same day capture the gap between the deal’s tidy framework and the […]

Israeli officials and U.S. lawmakers from both parties have unleashed a wave of criticism against the U.S.-Iran peace deal signed on June 17, arguing that the Memorandum of Understanding amounts to a strategic surrender that fails to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, missile arsenal, or support for proxy militias across the Middle East. The deal, which […]