International

Geneva Talks Put Fragile Congo-Rwanda Peace Deal to Its Toughest Test Yet

Kinshasa/Kigali/Geneva 

Delegations from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda sat down in Geneva on Wednesday for a two-day session that diplomats and analysts alike are calling the most consequential checkpoint yet for the Washington Accords, the U.S.-brokered peace framework that was supposed to…

An Invitation With No Legal Home: Von der Leyen Offers Canada "Associate Membership" of the European Union

Strasbourg 

Ursula von der Leyen used her annual State of the European Union address on Wednesday morning to make an offer no president of the European Commission has made before, to any country, anywhere. Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seated in…

Seventy-Two Hours to Save a Chancellorship: Merz Faces His Party After Germany Votes Again

Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania go to the polls on Sunday. The Christian Democratic leadership meets the same evening, and few in the party expect the conversation to be about state politics.

World Politics 

Friedrich Merz will not be in New York next week. The German…

Boko Haram Denies Secret Truce With Abuja, Complicating Nigeria's Counter-Insurgency Strategy

Abuja/Maiduguri, Nigeria 

A senior Boko Haram figure has publicly disavowed a secret ceasefire that Nigerian security officials reportedly negotiated with the group in June, releasing a video this month that rejects any truce and warns attacks will continue — an unusually direct rebuttal that has thrown a…

Libya's Rival Factions Sign Landmark Election Deal, But UN Warns Trust Remains 'Fragile'

Tripoli/New York 

More than a decade after Libyans last cast a ballot in a national election, the country's long-divided political factions have signed a deal that commits them to holding presidential and parliamentary elections within two years under a single, unified executive authority — a breakthrough…

On His 84th Birthday — Now a National Holiday — Mnangagwa Hints He'll Rule Zimbabwe Until 2035

Harare, Zimbabwe 

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa marked his 84th birthday this week the way few democratically elected leaders do: with a brand-new national public holiday declared in his honor, and with a public suggestion that he intends to remain in office for nearly another decade. Speaking at…