The ceasefire is holding — for now. The Strait of Hormuz is technically open. The Dow has had its best week of the year. Oil dipped below $90 a barrel for the first time since early March. On the surface, the worst appears to be receding. But ask economists, energy analysts, and global institutions what…

Under sweltering 90-degree heat beside Douala’s Japoma Stadium, more than 120,000 Cameroonians gathered on April 17 to worship with the first American pope — and in doing so, staged a vivid portrait of where Christianity’s future is being written. The crowd that turned out for Pope Leo XIV’s open-air Mass in Cameroon’s largest coastal city…

From Hegseth comparing a downed pilot’s rescue to the resurrection, to Trump posting himself as Jesus — Pope Leo XIV is mounting a systematic theological counter-argument to Christian nationalism in real time. The dispute between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV looks, on its surface, like a political feud. It is something deeper than that.…

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 —…

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…

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…

Europe & Geopolitics | April 14, 2026 For 16 years, Viktor Orbán ran Hungary like a personal fiefdom — blocking EU decisions, embracing Putin, and serving as Trump’s most reliable European ally. On election night 2026, Peter Magyar’s Tisza Party ended all of it. The consequences stretch from Brussels to Kyiv to Washington. BUDAPEST /…

From Liberation Day to SCOTUS reversals, the most volatile trade policy in American history has paralyzed investment, shattered supply chains, and left CFOs unable to plan a quarter ahead. When the White House announced sweeping new tariffs on April 2, 2025 — a date the administration branded “Liberation Day” — American businesses braced for disruption.…

It is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point. A sliver of water between Oman and Iran. Yet when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz on March 2, 2026, that 21-mile chokepoint did something no military strike, no sanctions regime, and no geopolitical crisis in modern history had ever fully achieved: it simultaneously fractured global…

At 6:32 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, Donald Trump tapped out a post on Truth Social. He announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran and said Tehran’s 10-point peace proposal was a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” The Strait of Hormuz — the 21-mile chokepoint through which 20% of the world’s daily oil supply…