International

Russia Unleashes Its Largest Aerial Assault of the War on Kyiv

570 drones and missiles pound Ukraine’s capital hours after Zelensky’s warning, killing over a dozen and rattling NATO’s eastern flank

Background
Russia’s war on Ukraine entered its fifth year in 2026, and the summer has brought no sign of the conflict winding down despite months of on-…

Ukraine’s Drone Campaign Pushes Russia Into Its Worst Fuel Crisis of the War

Background
Now in its fifth year, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has increasingly become a war fought as much over energy infrastructure as over territory. Since 2024, and especially since early this year, Ukraine has dramatically escalated a campaign of long-range drone strikes against Russian oil…

Supreme Court Rebukes Trump, Upholds Birthright Citizenship in 6-3 Ruling

Background
On January 20, 2025, his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order attempting to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to parents who are in the country illegally or on certain temporary visas. The order directly challenged more than a century…

Pakistan-Afghanistan Border War Escalates as New Strikes Spark Dueling Casualty Claims

Background

The conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan's Taliban government — now openly described by both sides as a war — traces back to tensions far older than this year's fighting. The two countries have disputed the legitimacy of the Durand Line, the colonial-era border separating them,…

Israel Recognizes Armenian Genocide in Policy Reversal That Further Ruptures Ties With Turkey

Background
For more than a century, the mass killing, deportation, and starvation of an estimated 1 to 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I has been formally recognized as genocide by dozens of countries, parliaments, and scholarly bodies. Turkey, the Ottoman…

Venezuela's Deadly Earthquakes Compound a Nation Already in Political Upheaval

World Politics Briefing  

Venezuela is reeling from a natural disaster that has landed atop an already extraordinary political transition. Six months ago, on January 3, 2026, U.S. forces carried out Operation Absolute Resolve, striking infrastructure across northern Venezuela while an…