Ph. Peruvian army personnel during operations against alleged drug trafficking. Cris Bouroncle/AFP via Getty Images, CC BY Michelle D. Paranzino, US Naval War College More than any other U.S. president in decades, Donald Trump has aggressively pursued military interventions in Latin America. On Jan. 3, 2026, U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás
Ph. Even though the Fed cut interest rates in 2024 and 2025, mortgage rates have stayed high, frustrating many would-be homebuyers. AP Photo/Jenny Kane Michael J. Highfield, Mississippi College; Mississippi State University U.S. homebuyers can’t get a break. The 30-year mortgage rate has been stuck at recent highs well above 6% and now averages
Ph. Cubans are trying to carry on with daily life amid ongoing blackouts and economic uncertainty, as shown in this photo of Havana from March 2026. Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images Luisa Blanco, Pepperdine University; Institute for Humane Studies and Isabella Elias, Pepperdine University Cuba has run out of oil, the country’s energy
James Trapani, Western Sydney University After a week of speculation, the US Department of Justice has officially indicted Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old ex-president of Cuba. The charges relate to a 1996 incident in which the Cuban military allegedly shot down two unarmed civilian planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue. The news comes
Alexander Korolev, UNSW Sydney It’s been quite a week for Beijing, with back-to-back visits by the leaders of the United States and Russia. Chinese President Xi Jinping has had his hands full with hosting duties, gun salutes, photo opportunities and high-level talks. Each visit was important in its own way. US President Donald
Ph. Phoenix residents watch presidential candidate Donald Trump speak at the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2024. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin Tatishe Nteta, UMass Amherst; Adam Eichen, UMass Amherst, and Jesse Rhodes, UMass Amherst In recent months, some prominent conservatives and erstwhile allies of President Donald Trump – former U.S. Rep. Marjorie
Richard Youngs, University of Warwick Compounding the alarm triggered by Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the erratic unpredictability of the second Trump administration has made the need for European security autonomy obvious. On a number of occasions over the past year, Donald Trump has loosely intimated that he might leave the Nato
Ph. Cuba’s American liberators, depicted on the left in a political cartoon from 1898 and on the right in an AI image. Cartoon: Blanche S. Crawford, Cartoon History of the Spanish American War (Scrapbook, 1898), 48. AI image: screenshot from Instagram. Images for this article sourced by Jorge Damian de la Paz. Michael
Ph. Grafissimo/Getty David M. Pritchard, The University of Queensland During their high-stakes meeting in Beijing this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly asked US President Donald Trump if the two countries could overcome the “Thucydides trap”. This phrase, popularised by contemporary US political scientist Graham Allison in the early 2010s, is used to
Jonathan Este, The Conversation The initial top line emerging from the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing was that while the two leaders had talked trade, technology and the US war in Iran, the most potentially hazardous issue was Taiwan. The Chinese foreign ministry reported that the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, told the US president,