The plan was elegant in theory: maximum economic pressure, crippling sanctions, and targeted tariffs would force Iran to the negotiating table on American terms. Instead, oil hit $144, gas prices broke records, inflation surged, and Iran submitted its own 10-point peace proposal — which Trump called “workable.” Someone’s strategy is backfiring. It isn’t Tehran’s. WASHINGTON…
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From 50% tariff threats on China to a full naval blockade, Trump has deployed every economic weapon in his arsenal against Tehran. Iran is still at the table — on its own terms. Donald Trump built his second-term political identity on the power of economic coercion. Tariffs brought China back to the table. Tariffs extracted…
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Trump pardoned him. California disbarred him anyway. John Eastman — the architect of the legal strategy to overturn the 2020 election — has been stripped of his law license in a landmark ruling that exposed the limits of presidential pardon power and sent a direct message to every lawyer who puts loyalty above the law.…
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As Pope Leo XIV tours Africa calling for dialogue and an end to the Iran war, Trump keeps attacking — losing even his closest European ally in the process. The setting was deliberately chosen. On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV stood inside a mosque in Algiers — the first papal visit to Algeria in history —…
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The January 2025 ceasefire was supposed to end the Gaza war in phases. Phase 1 held — barely. Phase 2 collapsed before it began. Now US envoys are talking directly to Hamas — a designated terrorist organization — in a last-ditch attempt to revive a deal that may already be beyond saving. DOHA / WASHINGTON…
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PERSIAN GULF / WASHINGTON — This is what maximum pressure looks like from the water. As of April 14, the United States has deployed 15 warships — anchored by a carrier strike group, guided-missile destroyers, submarine escorts, and maritime patrol aircraft — in a naval blockade formation encircling Iranian ports across the Persian Gulf and…
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Thousands of US troops on high alert, Kharg Island seizure plans on the table, Iran threatening to shut the entire Gulf — and a framework deal that Axios says is now within reach. The next five days decide everything. On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump told the world the Iran war was “very close to over.”…
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From a US naval blockade that NATO allies openly refused to join, to Chinese tankers transiting Hormuz in defiance, to the Pope, Canada and Hungary — the Iran crisis is becoming a catalogue of Trump’s limits. There is a theory of American power that Donald Trump has spent his entire second term road-testing: that the…
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Two countries blocking each other’s exports, oil near $105 a barrel, Iran’s inflation at 44% and climbing — and a ceasefire that expires in six days. The economic stakes have never been higher. When Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf taunted Donald Trump on social media Sunday — “Enjoy the current pump figures. With the…
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Viktor Orbán’s stunning election defeat hands Trump and Putin a geopolitical loss — and hands the EU a historic opening. But Peter Magyar’s Hungary will be more complicated than Brussels is celebrating. It was, in retrospect, a remarkable alignment of interests. The President of the United States and the President of Russia rarely back the…