Lisdey Espinoza Pedraza By the time the results boards cleared in the early hours of 8 May 2026, the verdict was impossible to soften. Reform UK had seized over 1,400 council seats across England, taken control of 13 local authorities, and planted its flag in places that had …

Dr. Shehab Al-Makahleh There are wars conducted with missiles, drones, and precision-guided munitions, and then there are wars waged more quietly, more insidiously, against memory itself. The tragedy of Gaza today lies not merely in the pulverized skeletons of its streets, the collapse of its hospitals, the obliteration …

Lama Al-Rakad In the age of social media, “behind the scenes” no longer refers merely to smoke-filled rooms, intelligence briefings, or closed political meetings. Today, the real backstage is digital. It is hidden inside algorithms, engagement metrics, media war rooms, and coordinated influence networks that quietly manufacture what …

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Russia immediately agreed to a proposal from US President Donald Trump to extend the ceasefire with Ukraineand carry out a prisoner-of-war exchange. “We immediately agreed to this. Moreover, in my view, it is a justified proposal, motivated by considerations of …

“Israel” established an illegal clandestine military outpost in Iraq’s western desert to support its aggression against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing individuals familiar with the matter, including US officials. According to the accounts, the installation was set up shortly before the war began and …

Rameen Siddigi Trump arrives in Beijing on May 14. The summit was originally scheduled for March, then postponed because the US got embroiled in a war in the Middle East that nobody fully planned for and nobody has yet fully ended. That delay, accidental as it was, turned …

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to continue as leader, despite heavy losses in local elections raising doubts about his ability to govern. Critics within the Labour Party have suggested he should resign, but currently, there is no leadership contest. Starmer’s personal approval ratings are among the lowest …

Dr. Dan Steinbok Israeli military aggression has “reshaped both the physical and ecological landscape” of southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese report (which does not consider the impacts of Israel’s latest barrage of attacks this spring). In her foreword, Lebanon’s minister for the environment Tamara el Zein notes: …

Federico Verri The Strait of Hormuz has rarely been spoken about outside of emergency language: naval escorts, insurance rates, oil prices, missile ranges, LNG disruption and freedom of navigation. We should have the former, but we need the latter as well. Framing the issue through that vocabulary is …