United States — updates

The Supreme Court took away one tariff power — so Washington reached back to a law from 1930 that nobody had ever used

2026-09-09T12:00:00+02:00

A never-used 1930 statute now carries 50% tariffs on $20bn of Canadian goods — and free-trade status is explicitly no defence.

Congo's copper now has two railways racing to carry it out. One is Western, one is Chinese.

2026-09-09T12:00:00+02:00

Congo and Angola signed a $1.26bn rail deal on 26 Aug 2026 — racing a revived, Chinese-financed line to the Indian Ocean signed nine months earlier.

The nuclear program is gone — the US–Iran war isn't

2026-09-05T20:00:00+02:00

The strikes wrecked Iran's enrichment program — the war's stated aim. Then the ceasefire collapsed and the bombing resumed over shipping. A sourced analysis.

Two CIA officers died in a raid Mexico says it never approved. Trump still hasn't ordered the land strikes he promised.

2026-09-04T17:00:00+02:00

Trump vowed to start 'hitting land' against cartels. Two undercover CIA officers already died in a raid Mexico says it never approved.

China froze its rare-earth crackdown for a trade truce — then blacklisted the two US firms built to escape it

2026-09-04T16:00:00+02:00

China paused its toughest rare-earth rules for a US trade truce — then blacklisted the Pentagon's own fix, MP Materials and USA Rare Earth.

Trump and Xi meet a third time in eleven months — and the truce between them still has no signature

2026-09-04T15:00:00+02:00

Trump hosts Xi on 24 September — the third meeting in a truce built on unsigned promises and a tariff pause that expires in November regardless.

Trump turned Taiwan's own weapons into his bargaining chip with Xi

2026-09-04T12:00:00+02:00

Trump paused Taiwan's $14bn arms package to use as leverage with Xi, while China sanctions US defense firms and Taiwan's own backlog nears $30bn.

The US captured a sitting president, tried him in Manhattan, and is now collecting his oil money

2026-09-02T17:00:00+02:00

US forces captured Maduro in a January raid and flew him to New York for trial. Oil licenses are expanding, and the UN calls it a dangerous precedent.

The Army Secretary Quit Over His Own Defense Secretary's Purge

2026-09-02T16:10:00+02:00

Dan Driscoll resigned after clashing with Pete Hegseth, who has fired or forced out 24 generals since 2025 — most Black or female, none for performance.

Trump's Second Try at Firing the Fed's Lisa Cook

2026-08-31T19:05:00+02:00

The Supreme Court didn't stop Trump firing a Fed governor — it said he skipped a step. He just redid it, and the outcome decides who sets US interest rates.

A gas carrier paid $4.6m to skip the Panama queue — and the canal has not even started rationing yet

2026-08-24T12:00:00+02:00

Hormuz is a war zone and Suez runs 41% below normal. Now Panama is rationing daily slots — and a gas carrier has paid $4.6m for one.

Gangs run 90% of Haiti's capital — the US just lost the legal reason to keep 350,000 Haitians out of it

2026-08-19T14:00:00+02:00

Courts ended legal protection for 350,000 Haitians in the US the same month gangs tightened their grip on Port-au-Prince and famine spread.

The Senate just gave Trump tariff power over Russia's biggest oil buyers — China and India

2026-08-19T13:00:00+02:00

A near-unanimous Senate vote lets Trump tariff Russia's top oil buyers up to 100% — right now that's China and India. It isn't law yet.

The Supreme Court struck the tariffs down. They came back twice under different laws.

2026-08-12T11:00:00+02:00

The Supreme Court ruled the president had no IEEPA power to impose tariffs. A new one replaced it in hours — a third replaced that one the minute it expired.

Canada's customers changed — one of its two export routes exists

2026-07-30T06:30:00+02:00

Japan's biggest refiner is buying Canadian crude and Germany's Uniper has signed 20 years of Canadian LNG. One of those two things has a pipeline behind it.

The tariff that grades allies on a US law

2026-07-24T12:00:00+02:00

Trump's 'forced-labour' tariffs hit 60 economies — but the rate tracks whether a country copied a US import ban, so an ally can pay more than a rival.

The US fought Iran over enrichment — then left Saudi Arabia's door open

2026-07-23T06:30:00+02:00

The US signed a civil-nuclear pact with Saudi Arabia mid-war with Iran over enrichment — and, reports say, left the door to Saudi enrichment open.

Russia ships more to China than ever — and earns less

2026-07-21T01:57:23+02:00

Sanctions didn't stop Russia's pivot to China — they repriced it. Oil volumes hit records, trade value fell 6.9%, and payments are where sanctions bite.