March 18, 2026
Washington’s bluster and Moscow’s platitudes look threadbare next to Havana’s determination to survive on its own terms.
Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz‑Canel, answered President Donald Trump’s recent boasts about an “honor” in “taking Cuba” with a blunt declaration: any attempt to seize the island would meet “unbreakable resistance.”
Israel launches a series of strikes on Lebanon's capital Beirut and orders evacuations in the country's south, as it continues its offensive against Hezbollah
One blast flattened a building in the city centre - this isn't the so-called Hezbollah heartland of southern Beirut, but an area surrounded by businesses and hotels, writes the BBC's Wyre Davies from the scene
Meanwhile, the US military says it has used powerful "deep penetrator" bombs to hit Iranian missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz; the vital waterway for transporting oil has been effectively blocked by Iran since the war began
By Juliano Fiori
As US power declines, it is destroying the norms and institutions that once organized its international projection of authority. While the US is losing its leadership role, no single power is replacing it as a global hegemon.
If there was still any doubt about our coordinates after a decade of shocks to the normal order of things, the disorientating opening of this year has confirmed that we are not in Kansas anymore. A new geopolitics is taking form, particularly evident in the ongoing US-Israeli bombardment of Iran, in the US abduction of Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela, and in the positioning of European troops in Greenland following Donald Trump’s claims on the island.
Roughly 3,800 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 are now on strike at one of the country’s largest meatpacking plants in Greeley, Colorado, after months of negotiations over wages, health insurance costs, and working conditions. (Chet Strange / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
- US President Donald Trump says it would be "very bad for the future of Nato" if allies don't help secure the Strait of Hormuz - a critical waterway for global oil shipping
- In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump says he expects China to help unblock the strait and could delay a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping if it doesn't
It should not have taken the Iran war to finish the idea that he is an ‘isolationist’.
JANAN GANESH
Published MAR 13 2026
There is an annual real estate mega-conference with the unresonant name of MIPIM that took place this week. As ever, Cannes was the nominal location. “Nominal”, I stress, because those who have visited this bizarre bazaar — full of sovereign investors, Brits on the sauce and middle men of uncertain tax domicile — will know that it could be anywhere. You begin to see how a career at the top end of the property game might instil a certain worldliness in someone: a certain unshockability.
March 15, 2026
In the latest chapter of Middle Eastern propaganda wars, the scene is set for a riveting blend of rumors and reality featuring Iran's Mojtaba Khamenei and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. So, what do you get when an injured leader seeks surgery and another is rumored to have kicked the bucket? A plot twist worthy of a soap opera!
The prime minister has spoken to Donald Trump about the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz "to end the disruption to global shipping", Downing Street has said.
It comes a day after the US president urged the UK and other nations to send warships to the Gulf to help secure the vital oil shipping channel, which has been all but shut since the US and Israel began their war against Iran two weeks ago.
par JEAN Damellos
Ah, isn’t it delightful when the tables turn? Just yesterday, Donald Trump was scoffing at France and its European allies, treating them like a bad baguette and a sour strudel —more croissant-crushing and democracy-derailing than anyone could handle. Fast forward to today, and the same Trump is left looking like a lost tourist in Paris, begging for a little military support while asking, “Where’s my war machine and why do these infidels still fight?” C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?
