International

Israel Strikes Syrian Airbase to Block Turkish Deployment, Deepening a Regional Rift With Ankara

ISRAEL

Israeli warplanes struck a military airbase in northwestern Syria in the early hours of August 18, an operation Israel says was designed to stop Turkish forces from establishing a foothold there. The eight strikes hit the runway and storage facilities at the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Idlib province, roughly…

A Kenyan Court Just Said Ruto's Election Was Due Last Week. It Also Said: Not Yet.

Nairobi, Kenya  

Kenya is navigating a constitutional puzzle of its own making after a High Court judge ruled that the country's next presidential election was constitutionally due on Aug. 11, 2026 — nine days before this story published — and then immediately suspended her own declaration to prevent the…

UN Warns South Sudan Risks New Atrocity Crimes as Juba Rejects Foreign Pressure Over December Election

JUBA, South Sudan  

South Sudan spent this week caught between two irreconcilable messages about its own future. On Thursday, a United Nations-backed panel of independent experts warned that the country's first national elections since independence, scheduled for Dec. 22, could reignite the…

Russia's Overnight Barrage Kills at Least 14 in Kyiv, Exposing an Air-Defense Gap Widened by the War in Iran

Background

Ukraine's war with Russia is now in its fifth year, tracing back to Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022 and, before that, the 2014 seizure of Crimea. According to the Council on Foreign Relations' running conflict tracker, the war has killed more than a million people on both sides when military and…

Guinea-Bissau Sets Aug. 30 Referendum as Junta Moves to Reshape Presidency Before December Vote

BISSAU 

Nine months after soldiers overthrew Guinea-Bissau's elected government, the military-led transitional authorities are pressing ahead with a rapid, tightly choreographed return to constitutional rule that critics say is being engineered to entrench a stronger presidency before voters get a real say…

Five Years After Tunisia's 'Constitutional Coup,' Saied Faces Economic Collapse and Rising Dissent

Tunis, Tunisia  

Five years to the week after President Kais Saied suspended parliament and began concentrating power in his own hands, Tunisia is marking the anniversary not with reflection but with renewed confrontation. Thousands of demonstrators filled Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the capital on July 25,…