In Response To ICC Arrest Warrant, Israel’s Smotrich Orders the Destruction of a Palestinian Village

Before The First Switch Goes Dark Authored by Madge Waggy, Most people imagine that the beginning of a crisis announces itself with unmistakable spectacle. We picture fighter aircraft crossing national borders, emergency broadcasts interrupting television programs or financial markets collapsing within a single afternoon. It is an understandable expectation because history is usually taught through decisive moments rather than the countless ordinary decisions that quietly shaped them. Yet those who spend their careers inside engineering firms, logistics agencies, intelligence communities or infrastructure operators often develop a very different understanding of how the...

Iran's Hardliners Push For Nuclear Weapons As U.S. War Drags On Authored by RFE/RL Staff via OilPrice, It was once taboo in Iran to publicly speak about developing nuclear weapons. The authorities would often point to former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's religious edict barring the development of weapons of mass destruction. Iranian officials have long insisted the country's nuclear program is solely for civilian purposes. Open calls for a bomb from sitting lawmakers and senior security officials would have been unthinkable a few years ago. But with the war with the...

Et Tu, Indonesia! As the squeeze continues on China's energy supply (and Xi has started to lash out here and here), we suspect the next words out of the Chinese leader's mouth (if he spoke Latin) will be "...et tu, Indonesia!" As Stephen Green writes at PJMedia, it might have seemed like one of those dry, bureaucratic, almost meaningless announcements on Monday, when War Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the U.S. and Indonesia "are elevating our relationship to a Major Defense Cooperation Partnership."  This arrangement “will explore mutually agreed cutting-edge...