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Geopolitics: wars, alliances, sanctions, trade and the decisions between governments that shape the world.
1264 articles · page 6 of 27
Papua New Guinea's national parliament has begun a historic debate on whether to ratify Bougainville's 2019 independence referendum, a process that has brought the deep wounds of the region's civil war to the forefront of national politics.
Canada announced a $6.2 billion (€5.7 billion) aid package for its steel and auto sectors on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that US tariffs have 'upended a trade bargain that's existed for decades.' The plan, unveiled jointly with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, directs $3.7 billion to steelmakers and $1.8 billion to automakers over five years. The announcement came as US-owned Cleveland-Cliffs confirmed layoffs at its Hamilton, Ontario, plant, underscoring the human cost of the dispute.
Ukrainian forces struck a weapons plant in Serpukhov, Moscow Oblast, overnight on Oct. 22, according to monitoring channels and independent Russian outlet Astra. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 630 drones were headed toward Moscow Oblast, with most intercepted, but two people were injured in the Voronovskoye settlement. The Kyiv Independent notes that the reports could not be immediately verified.
Four weeks after signing new sanctions on Russia's energy sector, US President Donald Trump has agreed to a deal for Russia to supply diesel to the American and global marketplace, according to a report by John Lyons for Just In. The arrangement, along with reported limits on Ukraine's military-grade Starlink service, has stunned some Republican colleagues and handed Vladimir Putin what the report calls his biggest economic and propaganda victory since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Foreign volunteers fighting for Ukraine are warning that bureaucratic failures and a looming November 10 deadline for residence permits could leave many of them technically in the country illegally, a problem Kyiv acknowledges it must fix to keep attracting desperately needed recruits.
North Korea has said it will resume loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the entire inter-Korean border, while South Korea's defence ministry urged Pyongyang on Thursday to discuss ways to ease tensions and prevent an accidental military clash.
Russian fishing trawlers are being used to spy on Britain's undersea cables, with more than 500 incidents of vessels loitering over or following cable routes recorded in the past four-and-a-half years, a new analysis has suggested. The government is expected to announce plans to crack down on those who damage the cables, proposing lengthy jail terms and unlimited fines.
Four former senior officers of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have described the deep-rooted anti-Tutsi ideology that has sustained the armed group, speaking after defecting and returning to Rwanda. The officers, who underwent rehabilitation at the Mutobo demobilisation centre, told Al Jazeera they were taught to view Tutsis as enemies long before the 1994 genocide, with one recalling that Tutsis were referred to as 'snakes' in military training. Their accounts provide insight into how the group's ideology formed in pre-genocide Rwanda, evolved in exile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and continues to fuel regional instability.
Qatar and France have jointly called for the restoration of freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza, following a meeting in Doha between the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and French President Emmanuel Macron. The two leaders issued a joint statement emphasizing the importance of unhindered movement through the strategic waterway and urging adherence to agreed arrangements in Gaza.
The US Embassy in Ottawa on Wednesday released a fact sheet accusing Canadian officials of seeking to influence the November US midterm elections, pointing to public statements and actions by ministers and premiers that it says are aimed at putting political pressure on the United States. The allegations, which follow a trade war between the two countries that began in 2025, were swiftly rejected by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and other leaders.
Missiles struck Kyiv overnight, wounding six people, shortly after Russia signaled it was ready to resume trilateral peace talks with Ukraine and the United States. President Vladimir Putin agreed 'in principle' to restart negotiations in mid-November, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, but warned that proposals from Ukrainian and European officials had offered little of substance.
Former Congolese president Joseph Kabila has joined a new armed coalition seeking to challenge the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government “by all means, including force,” prompting analysts to warn that a conflict long confined to the country’s east could spread toward the capital, Kinshasa.
Britain's Royal Navy lacks the resources to deter Russian aggression in the seas beyond Scotland, with too few available submarines and warships, the House of Commons defence select committee has warned, urging dramatic progress by 2030.
The US State Department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia, citing near-daily Houthi attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure. The move comes as at least three people were killed in strikes on an airport and an oil facility, and as reports circulate that the Trump administration may be weighing new military action against Iran after the elections.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met at the BRICS summit in New Delhi, with Xi striking a conciliatory tone. However, analysis from the Lowy Institute’s The Interpreter argues that Beijing’s longstanding doubts about India’s rise remain intact beneath the surface.
As many as 12,000 North Koreans working at a Russian drone factory in Yelabuga are victims of 'gross human rights abuses and human trafficking', according to a joint report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the George W. Bush Institute, published October 14.
The United States has ordered non-essential embassy staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, the State Department said on Wednesday, after an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed at least one person and wounded eight. The order came as Saudi Arabia reported near-daily attacks this month from Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, including a drone interception at an oil field that killed two workers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv and warned voters that only he could prevent annihilation, as Israeli media reported a clash between Netanyahu and the military chief of staff over a directive that could provoke conflict with Iran. Netanyahu has denied the report, but new accounts suggest he has been pushing for renewed action against Iran ahead of Tuesday's election.
Ukrainian forces struck the Russian city of Lipetsk in an overnight drone attack on Oct. 22, according to monitoring channels, with eyewitness footage showing low-flying drones and fires lighting up the night sky. The Russian regional governor confirmed damage to residential buildings and a clinic, while the full extent of the attack could not be independently verified.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine supports a US proposal for three-way talks with Russia and the United States at negotiator level, to be held as soon as possible and preferably before early November, even as analysts question whether Vladimir Putin would risk meeting him.
For the first time, Germany's military has classified the threat of Russian sabotage against its troops and facilities as 'significant', the second highest threat level, following a series of incidents including an explosives laden drone found near the Wunstorf air base in Lower Saxony. The classification, reported by Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Oct. 21, marks an escalation in Germany's response to what intelligence officials describe as a 'shadow war' with Russia.
A Mexican judge has ordered César Jáuregui Moreno, the former attorney general of Chihuahua state, to remain in pretrial detention on treason charges, in a case that has exposed tensions over the role of US agents in Mexico's anti-drug operations. A court hearing is scheduled for Saturday to decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed.
As the Chinese Communist Party prepares for the Fifth Plenum of its 20th Central Committee, rumours again circulate about a successor to Xi Jinping. But a new analysis argues that the real story is not who might replace Xi, but how he relies on two key lieutenants, Premier Li Qiang and senior official Cai Qi, to sustain his rule, forming what one commentator calls a 'central gang of three' that defines elite politics in the Xi era.
Iran has reaffirmed that it will not remove any enriched uranium from the country, even as a wave of diplomatic visits to Tehran this week sought to end the US–Israel war that began in February. The head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said late Tuesday that “not a single gram of enriched uranium will be removed from Iran”, though he did not rule out downblending the material inside the country under international supervision.
Police have been granted a warrant to hold two men for up to seven more days without charge as part of the ongoing investigation into an alleged terror plot linked to suspected Iranian state involvement at RAF Fairford, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) has confirmed.
Russian attacks on Oct. 21 struck a gas production facility in Kharkiv Oblast and critical infrastructure in Dnipro, leaving 30,000 consumers without power, local authorities reported. The strikes are part of a wider campaign targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure as winter approaches, when increased consumption puts additional pressure on a system already damaged by years of attacks.
Dozens of Israeli fighter jets flew to the Iranian border on Monday in what Israeli and US officials described as a training exercise and power projection operation, raising concerns about miscalculation and potential escalation ahead of Israel's October 27 elections.
Russia has released Stephen Hubbard, a retired American schoolteacher held for more than four years, as US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, where the Kremlin agreed to resume US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine that could begin as soon as next month. Witkoff's decision to call Putin a "humanitarian" triggered a bipartisan storm in Washington, with senators from both parties condemning the remark.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has indicated he would accept a peace deal that freezes the war with Russia along its current front lines, marking a significant shift in his public position. The comment came during a Fox News interview on Wednesday, in which he also appeared to seek warmer relations with President Donald Trump following a recent falling out.
Russia will dispatch its first tanker of diesel fuel to the United States on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced, moving ahead with a deal between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump even as Ukrainian drone strikes have slashed Russia's refining capacity by more than half. The 40,000-tonne shipment comes under a Trump-brokered agreement aimed at easing US diesel prices ahead of midterm elections, but analysts say Ukraine's sustained campaign against Russian oil infrastructure makes it unlikely Moscow can meet its export commitments.
Qatar, Turkiye, Pakistan and Indonesia signed a defence industry cooperation agreement in Doha on Wednesday, the latest in a series of moves by regional powers to diversify security partnerships amid the prolonged US-Israel conflict with Iran. The memorandum of understanding, named 'Badr', covers joint production, technology transfers and integrated supply chains, building on existing bilateral military projects.
Japan's trade deficit reached a record 2.81 trillion yen ($17.8 billion) in the first fiscal half of 2026, government data showed Wednesday, as the war in Iran drove oil import prices to new highs and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Both exports and imports hit record levels, with imports surging 20.4% year-on-year to 66.3 trillion yen, far outpacing export growth of 18.4%.
The renewed diplomatic push to end the US-Israel war on Iran is facing a critical impasse, as the future of Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme has re-emerged as the primary obstacle to a ceasefire. A June Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for nuclear limits expired in mid-August without a final deal, leaving a global energy crisis and an expanding regional conflict unresolved.
Poland has sharply escalated its response to a Ukrainian region's decision to dedicate 2027 to the wartime Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and its commander Roman Shukhevych, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk calling the move "suicidal" and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski moving to place the Lviv official behind it on a list of undesirable persons. The dispute threatens to reverse an improvement in relations that President Volodymyr Zelensky said had arrived only days earlier.
The French navy has confirmed that unauthorized drones were detected flying over military installations in southeastern France during the Typhon exercise earlier this month, activating anti-drone countermeasures and prompting a judicial investigation amid a broader European pattern of suspected hybrid attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle to resume three-way peace negotiations with the United States and Ukraine in mid-November, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, following a three-hour meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg. The diplomatic development came as Moscow released a 74-year-old American teacher imprisoned on mercenary charges, and as Russian attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv killed at least five people overnight.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara and Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi met with a Lockheed Martin delegation in Kyiv on Oct. 21 to discuss scaling up the supply of Patriot interceptor missiles, the Defense Ministry said. The talks come as Ukraine faces a severe shortage of the interceptors needed to defend against intensifying Russian ballistic missile attacks, and follow a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and the company two days earlier.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has declared the undersea fibre cables running through the Strait of Hormuz "legitimate new targets" in its conflict with the United States, Israel and others, raising the prospect that the global communications network could become part of the battlefield.
A powerful explosion was heard in Aden, southern Yemen, on Wednesday, as Houthi rebels claimed a ballistic missile attack on a military camp used by the Saudi-led coalition. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the strike targeted the Badr camp in the city, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, and described it as precise and direct. No immediate comment was available from the Yemeni government or the coalition.
The United States has opened a new front in its economic campaign against Iran by sanctioning three Iranian railway companies and seven automakers, targeting the overland trade corridors Tehran increasingly relies on following severe disruptions to its maritime routes. Announced on October 1 as part of Operation Economic Outcast, the sanctions aim to cut off revenue and logistical capacity linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Russian drones struck Kyiv early on Oct. 21, killing at least two people and injuring two others, with one drone hitting a 24-storey residential building and sparking a fire on the 20th floor, local authorities said.
Brussels is looking to Canada, Britain and Japan to help cover a €70 billion bill to keep Ukraine funded, with closer trade and defence ties reportedly part of the pitch as Washington's support looks increasingly uncertain.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on October 26 that peace talks targeting an end to the Russia-Ukraine war are set to restart, according to a report from Al Jazeera. The announcement comes days after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, where the Kremlin freed an American captive as a goodwill gesture and discussed an updated ceasefire proposal.
The EU is preparing to press Canada and the United Kingdom to increase their support for Ukraine, aiming to help close the €70 billion funding gap Kyiv faces next year. The push comes ahead of the EU-Canada summit on 29-30 October and the EU-UK summit on 20 November, as Brussels looks beyond its own budgets to non-EU allies.
US peace envoy Steve Witkoff travels to St. Petersburg on Wednesday to present Russian leaders with the proposals tabled by Ukrainian and European negotiators in Oslo, after Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Washington had restored early-warning intelligence on Russian missile strikes and Donald Trump suggested someone other than Ukraine's president should represent Kyiv in peace talks.
A fragile ceasefire has brought intermittent quiet to the Strait of Hormuz, but for the Iranians living and working on its shores and islands, the war continues to shape their daily reality. Attacks on shipping persist, livelihoods have been shattered, and the sounds of explosions are a nightly routine, as The Guardian reports from Bandar Abbas and Hormuz Island.
A fifth foreign company has pulled out of a plan to build a cable car connecting West and East Jerusalem, a project critics say threatens Palestinian homes and heritage in occupied territory, while Israeli authorities insist the scheme is proceeding as planned.
According to a Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday, Elon Musk ordered the slowdown of a military-grade version of SpaceX's Starlink satellite service used by Ukraine, capping speeds and rendering some drones virtually inoperable. The report, citing U.S. officials and people familiar with the matter, stated that Musk discussed the decision with President Donald Trump soon after it became public.