North America
US-Iran Peace Talks Stall as Oil Prices Surge Above $108
The apparent breakthrough in the Iran conflict has proved much less durable than it looked a week ago. Negotiations between Washington and Tehran have stalled again, the Strait of Hormuz remains severely restricted, and the…
US and Iran Reach Ceasefire Deal After Seven Weeks of War
After seven weeks of war, the United States and Iran have finally reached a ceasefire framework. The agreement follows the failed Islamabad negotiations last weekend and several days of intense mediation involving Pakistan, Oman, Qatar…
US-Iran Peace Talks Fail as Trump Orders Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
The first serious attempt to end the Iran war has failed. American and Iranian delegations spent roughly 21 hours negotiating in Islamabad, in the highest-level direct talks between the two countries since Iran’s 1979 revolution,…
Trump Gives Iran Tuesday Deadline to Reopen Strait of Hormuz
Donald Trump has given Iran until Tuesday evening to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, threatening strikes against Iranian power stations and bridges if Tehran refuses. The ultimatum comes more than a month after the United…
Iran War Enters Fifth Week as Washington Searches for an Exit
The war with Iran is entering its fifth week, and the political problem is beginning to look more difficult than the military one. The United States and Israel have inflicted enormous damage on Iranian missile…
Iran War Forces India to Confront the Cost of Strategic Dependence
The Iran war is beginning to expose a vulnerability India has spent years trying to manage but cannot eliminate quickly: a country can be strategically autonomous in its diplomacy while remaining deeply dependent economically on…
Iran War Drives Oil Above $100 as Strait of Hormuz Crisis Deepens
Two weeks into the US-Israel war with Iran, the conflict is beginning to move from a Middle Eastern military crisis into a global economic shock. Fighting and disruption around the Strait of Hormuz have severely…
Iran War Expands as Khamenei’s Son Mojtaba Is Chosen as Supreme Leader
Iran has selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader while the war with the United States and Israel continues. The succession is extraordinary not…
US and Israel Launch New War on Iran as Khamenei Is Killed
The Middle East has entered a far more dangerous phase. On 28 February, the United States and Israel launched a large joint military campaign against Iran, striking leadership compounds, missile forces, air defences and military…
Munich Security Conference Exposes a Transatlantic Alliance Being Rewritten
This year’s Munich Security Conference felt noticeably different from the confrontation that dominated the same meeting twelve months ago. In 2025, US Vice-President JD Vance shocked European leaders by arguing that Europe’s greatest threat came…
Trump Drops Greenland Tariff Threat After NATO Talks in Davos
Donald Trump has stepped back from one of the most extraordinary disputes of his second presidency. After repeatedly insisting that the United States needed to acquire Greenland, refusing initially to rule out coercive measures and…
US Forces Capture Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela Raid
The United States has crossed a threshold in Latin America that would have seemed almost unimaginable a year ago. On 3 January, American special forces entered Caracas in Operation Absolute Resolve, captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás…
