International news and analysis: Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Americas, and Africa.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will travel to Beijing in early June for working-level meetings on the trade truce, in the first cabinet-level American visit since the Iran war began.
May 18, 2026 · 7 min read
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency session of Israel's Security Cabinet on Saturday morning hours after Muscat Round 3 ended without agreement, in a meeting Israeli officials described as a review of military options.
May 16, 2026 · 6 min read
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Tehran on Tuesday morning unannounced, the first cabinet-level Chinese visit to Iran since the U.S. naval blockade began on April 12.
May 12, 2026 · 6 min read
The Foreign Affairs Council ended Sunday with no joint statement after Germany and France pulled in opposite directions on whether to back the American blockade of Iran.
May 10, 2026 · 6 min read
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei told Friday's sermon at Tehran University that the missile program is 'not on any table.' The remark narrows what Witkoff can bring back from Muscat.
May 8, 2026 · 5 min read
Mojtaba Khamenei was installed in March under Revolutionary Guard pressure rather than clerical consensus, and his first major public appearance outside Tehran on May 1 underlined a political reality that should be central to American strategy: the man Witkoff is negotiating with through the Omani channel cannot accept terms the Guards consider concessions, which constrains both what is achievable in Muscat and what the United States should expect from any agreement that emerges.
May 7, 2026 · 5 min read
The Sounion II, fully laden with Saudi crude bound for Rotterdam, was struck Friday morning in the Bab el-Mandeb strait by an Iranian-supplied anti-ship cruise missile, the first significant attack on commercial shipping in the corridor since the November 2025 ceasefire and a deliberate signal from Sanaa that the Iran war's southern front has been reactivated in response to the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
May 1, 2026 · 5 min read
Sultan Haitham bin Tariq personally invited Vice President Vance and Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi to Muscat after the Islamabad track collapsed, reviving the back channel that produced the 2013 nuclear opening and offering the only diplomatic address that both Tehran and Washington have historically been willing to use.
April 28, 2026 · 6 min read
China's foreign ministry demanded an explanation after Trump claimed Chinese ships were among those turned back from Iranian ports. Beijing has not confirmed the claim but called the blockade 'a violation of international maritime law.'
April 15, 2026 · 3 min read
Beijing is the largest buyer of Iranian crude and has a direct interest in the strait reopening. The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports threatens to draw China into a conflict it has carefully avoided.
April 14, 2026 · 2 min read
Peter Magyar, a Fidesz defector, won a constitutional supermajority on an anti-corruption, pro-NATO platform. The Socialists fell below the parliamentary threshold for the first time in the post-communist era. Hungary did not swing left. It replaced one conservatism with another.
April 13, 2026 · 5 min read
The Islamabad negotiations stretched past midnight as the two sides clashed over Hormuz, Lebanon, and enriched uranium. Pakistani mediators called the tone 'largely positive.' The stalemate over the strait persists.
April 11, 2026 · 4 min read
Starmer's virtual summit produced statements, working groups, and the illusion of collective action. The strait will reopen when American naval power makes it reopen, or when the war ends. A Zoom call with 40 flags changes neither timeline.
April 2, 2026 · 5 min read
The broadest multilateral alignment of the Iran conflict includes NATO allies, Gulf states, and Pacific partners. The commitment is easy. The execution will be hard.
March 21, 2026 · 4 min read
Netanyahu confirmed that Israel 'acted alone' in striking the world's largest natural gas reserves. Trump asked Israel to stop. For now, it has.
March 20, 2026 · 4 min read
The world's largest LNG exporter has suspended shipments. Europe and Asia, still recovering from the last energy crisis, face another one.
March 16, 2026 · 4 min read
Brasilia sees a narrow window to lock in the long-delayed agreement before a potential shift in French politics closes it permanently.
March 10, 2026 · 3 min read
NATO's new 5 percent GDP spending target, Germany's procurement overhaul, and a continent forced to confront the possibility that America has other priorities.
March 10, 2026 · 4 min read
The Assembly of Experts chose Mojtaba Khamenei unanimously, under IRGC pressure, during a war. The theocratic republic is becoming a dynastic autocracy.
March 9, 2026 · 4 min read
The March 31 summit was supposed to be about trade. Now it is about leverage, and China has more of it than it did a month ago.
March 9, 2026 · 4 min read
Moscow did not start the Iran war. But it is the conflict's biggest strategic beneficiary, and Western attention is exactly where Putin wants it.
March 7, 2026 · 4 min read
Nearly 900 strikes in the first twelve hours targeted nuclear facilities, missile sites, and command centers. Supreme Leader Khamenei is reported killed. The Middle East has entered a new era.
March 1, 2026 · 4 min read
New Delhi's refusal to cooperate on extradition requests has frozen diplomatic ties and is testing the limits of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing framework.
February 28, 2026 · 3 min read
Berlin's new defense budget marks a historic shift in European security and a long-overdue response to American pressure on NATO burden-sharing.
February 26, 2026 · 2 min read
The agreement deepens Tokyo's security footprint in Southeast Asia and signals a more assertive Japanese posture in the South China Sea.
February 24, 2026 · 2 min read