Politics
Trump Says America Will Help Guarantee Ukraine’s Security. That May Be More Important Than the Territory Ukraine Eventually Loses or Keeps.
The diplomatic atmosphere around Ukraine has changed considerably in only one week. After Donald Trump’s Alaska meeting with Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington on 18 August accompanied by an unusually powerful…
Trump Gave Putin a Red-Carpet Welcome in Alaska. There Is Still No Ceasefire. The Summit Has Changed Who Is Being Pressured to Compromise.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on Friday for nearly three hours in the first US-Russia presidential summit since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The symbolism was extraordinary.
More Western Governments Are Moving Towards Recognising Palestine. Recognition Cannot Create a State by Itself, but Refusing Recognition Until a Perfect State Already Exists Creates Its Own Circular Problem.
The diplomatic argument over Palestinian statehood is changing rapidly. France has announced that it intends to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Britain has said it will recognise Palestine…
Trump’s Tariffs Are Becoming Permanent. The World Is Not Returning to the Old Free-Trade System.
Donald Trump’s tariff experiment is beginning to look less like a temporary negotiating tactic and more like the foundation of a new American trade system. On 31 July, Trump signed an executive order setting revised…
Thailand and Cambodia Are Fighting Over Their Border. It Is a Reminder That a Line Drawn More Than a Century Ago Can Still Become More Politically Valuable Than the Land Around It.
Thailand and Cambodia are now experiencing their worst military confrontation in more than a decade. Fighting erupted on 24 July along their disputed frontier and rapidly expanded across several locations, with artillery, rockets and ground…
The Epstein Files Are Becoming a Political Problem for Trump. The Bigger Story Is What Happens When a Movement Built on Distrust of Institutions Finally Controls the Institutions It Said Were Hiding the Truth.
The controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein has returned to the centre of American politics, but this time the political pressure is coming substantially from within Donald Trump’s own coalition. For years, parts of the American right…
NATO Has Agreed to Spend Far More on Defence. Trump Will Call It a Victory. Europe Should Ask Why It Took Doubting America to Make Europe Invest Seriously in Itself.
The NATO summit in The Hague has formalised one of the largest changes in Western defence policy since the end of the Cold War. Alliance members have committed themselves to a new target under which…
Trump Has Signed His “One Big Beautiful Bill”. America Is Cutting Taxes, Increasing Defence and Border Spending, and Cutting Parts of the Safety Net at the Same Time. The Arithmetic Eventually Has to Meet the Politics.
Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on 4 July, turning much of the economic programme on which he returned to the White House into legislation. The package makes major elements…
Israel and Iran Have Stopped Fighting. Trump Says the Nuclear Programme Was Destroyed. But a Ceasefire Is Not the Same Thing as Solving the Nuclear Problem.
The direct war between Israel and Iran has, for now, ended almost as suddenly as it began. After twelve days of Israeli strikes, Iranian missile attacks and the unprecedented American bombing of Fordow, Natanz and…
The United States Has Bombed Iran’s Nuclear Facilities. Trump Says the Programme Has Been “Obliterated”. The Harder Question Is Whether America Destroyed a Nuclear Threat or Changed Iran’s Incentive to Build a Bomb.
The United States has now entered the Israel-Iran war directly. Overnight, American forces struck Iran’s three principal nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, using B-2 stealth bombers and bunker-busting munitions against facilities that Israel…
Israel Has Attacked Iran’s Nuclear Programme. Iran Is Firing Ballistic Missiles Back. This Is What Happens When One Country Believes Waiting for Deterrence to Work Is More Dangerous Than Starting a War to Prevent It.
The shadow war between Israel and Iran has become an open interstate war. On 13 June, Israel launched a large-scale series of strikes across Iran, targeting nuclear facilities, missile infrastructure, air defences and senior military…
Trump Has Sent the National Guard Into Los Angeles Against California’s Wishes. The Immigration Debate Is Becoming a Much Larger Argument About Who Actually Controls the State.
Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has produced its first major confrontation between the federal government and one of America’s largest Democratic-controlled states. Federal immigration raids across Los Angeles beginning on Friday triggered protests around detention facilities…
