Category Archives: US foreign policy

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference

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State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil

A US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a ⁠global conference in Brazil ⁠this week, ​causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online.

Reuters viewed a video of the presentation given at the Aids 2026 conference in ⁠Rio de Janeiro, which shows the errant map displayed halfway during a presentation about the state department’s new health agreements.

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Saudi Arabia prepares sea and possible land offensive against Houthis

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Yemeni sources say Saudis concentrating forces for what could be attack in central Yemen

Saudi Arabia is preparing for a major military offensive against the Houthis by sea and possibly by land in central Yemen, Yemeni sources believe, in a move to break the chokehold on its oil exports through the southern Red Sea.

Saudi forces have been seen withdrawing from the east of Yemen in what could be preparation for a land offensive. At the same time, Riyadh is trying to organise a naval coalition to protect shipping from Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait.

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US hits dozens of targets in Iran overnight as peace efforts under threat

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Central Command says strikes aimed at diminishing Iranian military while mediators say talks are continuing

The US struck Iran overnight and Tehran retaliated at US allies in the region, reigniting the low-intensity, tit-for-tat war as mediators struggled to pull the two countries back to the negotiating table.

The US carried out overnight strikes on Iran – the first in more than five days – hours after Donald Trump vowed to hit the country “very hard” following Tehran’s targeting of a base in Jordan that hosts American troops.

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US joins forces with Saudis to strike Tehran-backed militias in Iraq

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Oil price spikes after flare-up of fighting and claimed Iranian attacks on three tankers in strait of Hormuz

The US military said it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. The strikes on Wednesday killed at least 20 members of a former paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iran groups.

In what Washington cast ⁠as “an attempted surprise ⁠attack” by Tehran, Iran had launched multiple ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. Iran’s target was a US base in Jordan, Axios cited a US official as saying.

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Zelenskyy and Netanyahu brave the whims of Trump’s darkly confounding White House

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Ukrainian and Israeli leaders converge on Washington with criss-crossing fortunes, but knowing they can count on little from US counterpart

The converging visits of Benjamin Netanyahu and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington offer an unusually eloquent snapshot of a world in turmoil, unmoored from decades-old certainties.

Some things remain the same. The US is still an almighty military and economic power and for both foreign visitors, a White House encounter with Donald Trump is critical to their governments and the wars they are fighting.

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US pauses Iran attacks after Trump advised to halt bombing

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Top military officials say campaign has reached its limit of effectiveness and warn of dwindling stocks of munitions

The US has paused strikes on Iran for a third night as top military officials advised Donald Trump to halt his bombing campaign, and diplomatic negotiations have continued to avoid a return to all-out war.

Oil prices fell on Monday as markets responded to the pause in combat.

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Iran-backed Houthis claim missile attack on Saudi Arabia as regional tensions escalate

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Saudi air defences intercept ballistic missiles as Iran reports first night without US strikes in two weeks

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed a missile attack on the southern Saudi city of Jizan on Saturday, after vowing retaliation against the kingdom for attacks this week.

Iran, meanwhile, reported no strikes overnight on Saturday for the first time after two weeks of US attacks. The Iranian health ministry spokesperson, Hossein Kermanpour, said: “Iran had a peaceful night” in a post on X. Tensions, however, remain high.

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Trump’s new tariffs ‘a sales tax that will make life harder for Americans’, say Democrats – US politics live

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Even some Republicans apparently expressing concern over measures against 85 countries

The Trump administration continues to expand its authoritarian and radical drive to revamp voting rules and seize state election powers, though it faces growing resistance from US courts, state officials and Democrats, who warn the moves are sparking “chaos” and endangering voting rights and the rule of law.

Donald Trump’s unprecedented drive to change election rules, which states legally set, is fueled by his obsession with his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, which he falsely attributes to voting fraud, coupled with his fear that Democrats will “find a reason to impeach me” if they take control of the House in November’s midterms elections, say former election officials and legal experts.

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Yemen’s Houthis claim attacks on Red Sea tankers as US launches 12th night of strikes on Iran – Middle East crisis live

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US military says it is degrading Tehran’s ability to threaten ships in strait of Hormuz; Houthis say tankers violated their blockade; US signs nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia

More on Yemen’s Houthis claiming strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea:

The master of one tanker reported being struck by an unknown projectile about 70 nautical miles south-west of Al Shuqaiq, causing a fire that the crew was fighting, the British naval security monitor UKMTO said.

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Trump’s HIV funding cuts having ‘severe and devastating’ impact around the world

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The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief has saved 26m lives globally, but slashing of funds and dismantling of USAID have forced clinics to shut in dozens of countries

No part of the United States’ anti-HIV programme has escaped unscathed from Donald Trump’s funding cuts, despite pledges from the administration to protect care that saved lives around the world, a new report has found.

Funding cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) have caused “severe and devastating” disruption globally, with thousands of staff laid off and many clinics closed, according to research being presented next week at the 26th International Aids Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It warns that changes in US policy risk reversing progress in the fight against HIV/Aids.

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US claims of Cuba’s ‘unique threat’ jar with reality of hunger and blackouts

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State department’s 100-page report is latest push in Trump administration campaign to bring down government

The US government’s latest allegations that Cuba is behind “many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history” and that its leaders pose “a unique threat to American homeland security” have come as startling revelations to those living under the six-month-long US oil blockade in Havana, where desperate people search through piles of uncollected rubbish for food, or else swelter at home in 24-hour-plus blackouts.

The unsigned 100-page report, Cuba: Capital of 21st-Century Communism, published by the US state department on Monday, blames Havana for everything from “the George Floyd riots to the rise of antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses”.

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‘It needs to end now’: Democrats urge Trump to halt Iran war after US troop deaths

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President accused of having ‘lost control of this war’ as deaths of trio in Iranian military strikes fuel rising concern

Democrats have seized on the deaths of three US troops killed in Iranian strikes to urge Donald Trump to urgently reverse his resumption of the war with Iran amid widespread anxiety over climbing casualties.

Even as US forces launched a 10th consecutive wave of attacks against Iranian targets, concern over the deaths of American service personnel threatened to complicate moves to escalate the conflict, which has reignited after he last week walked away from a memorandum of understanding agreed with Iran in June.

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Iran vows not a ‘single drop’ of oil or gas will pass strait of Hormuz as US carries out ninth night of strikes – Middle East crisis live

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Revolutionary Guard says it targeted US aircraft in Jordan and stopped two tankers in strait while American military says it is ‘holding Iran accountable’

The price of oil jumped in early Asian trade on Monday after the US carried out its latest wave of strikes on Iran and a vessel caught fire in the strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude for September delivery rose 2.72% to $90.50 a barrel by around 0100 GMT, after briefly crossing $91 – its highest price since June.

CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military is holding Iran accountable at the Commander in Chief’s direction.

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US launches 10th round of strikes as Iran says it is in ‘full-scale war’

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Diplomats say de-escalation talks continue as Trump vows retaliation over US soldier deaths

The US military said it has launched its 10th consecutive round of strikes on Iran to force the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.

Earlier on Monday, Iran’s president said the country is in a “full-scale war” after the US expanded its aerial campaign and Tehran struck Washington’s Gulf allies, even as diplomats said talks to de-escalate were continuing.

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Two US troops killed and one missing in Jordan after Iranian attacks

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Sirens sound in Bahrain and Kuwait accuses Tehran of targeting civilian sites and infrastructure as Iran strikes US allies

The US retaliated against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) after two American troops were killed and one was missing in Jordan when Tehran launched a wave of attacks against US allies in the Middle East.

Iran’s attacks came as the renewal of US strikes on Iran entered a second week and fighting escalated over the strait of Hormuz.

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Cuba edges toward breakdown as power cuts and US meddling push society to brink

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As Cuba swelters under six-month oil blockade imposed by US, tempers are fraying and unrest is growing

When Cuba’s national grid collapses, as it did for the third time in 10 days on Tuesday, a collective groan spreads across its cities and people wonder, again, whether the island’s antiquated electricity system may soon become unrecoverable.

The 777-mile Caribbean island of 9.5 million people has been sweltering under a six-month-long oil blockade imposed by the US, part of a pressure campaign to bring down its communist government. But the parlous state of Cuba’s infrastructure goes far further back.

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Iran proves it can still inflict damage despite waves of US attacks

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Leaked US intelligence report concluded Iran retained 70% of missiles and launchers after 38-day spring campaign

Iran and the US have been trading blows for six consecutive nights and there are no shortage of signs that the renewed fighting will worsen further. Tehran and Washington remain far apart diplomatically, and though the US retains a significant military overmatch, Iran has more than enough capability to inflict damage.

Friday’s developments are a case in point. A wave of US attacks, with missiles launched from jets, drones and warships, targeted Iranian ports and the south of the country, collapsing a tower at Chabahar, on the Gulf of Oman, and highways and bridges into the strait of Hormuz port of Bandar Abbas, perhaps in an effort to cut it off.

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Marines board tanker amid blockade of Iranian ports as US expands strikes with attacks on bridges

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Boarding of M/T Wen Yao in Gulf of Oman comes as expanded airstrike campaign hits five bridges in southern Iran

American forces boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday as part of the renewed blockade of Iran’s ports that began earlier this week, the US military said.

US Marines boarded the M/T Wen Yao “to ensure full compliance with the ongoing US naval blockade,” US Central Command (Centcom) said in a post on X.

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Brazil vows to retaliate if US imposes 25% tariffs on some of its products

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President Lula’s office says US move is result of pressure on White House by family of predecessor Jair Bolsonaro

Brazil has vowed to retaliate against Washington’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on imports of some Brazilian products.

The office of the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, described the tariffs as “a regrettable milestone” in the history of relations between the two countries and said they were the result of pressure exerted on the White House by the family of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

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Mexico asks US state attorneys general to investigate immigrant ICE deaths

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Since start of Trump’s second term, 14 Mexican immigrants have died in ICE custody and three in agency operations

Mexico formally requested that US state attorneys general criminally investigate cases of immigrants who have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody or during raids, the Mexican government said Tuesday.

The request follows the death of Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Houston. Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, 17 Mexican immigrants have died during immigration enforcement, 14 in ICE custody and three in agency operations.

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