Category: Fast Thinking

Will the US retaliate against Iran after a deadly drone attack?

JUST IN A new line has been crossed. Iran-backed militias killed three US servicemembers in a drone attack on a base in northeastern Jordan. This is the first time US troops have been killed by enemy fire in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7 and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza,

Will US-UK strikes against the Houthis halt their Red Sea aggression?

JUST IN They’re seeing red. On Thursday, the United States and the United Kingdom carried out air and missile strikes in Yemen after weeks of attacks by the Houthis on shipping vessels in the Red Sea that had disrupted global commerce. Will these strikes deter the Iranian proxy group from further attacks? Will they embroil

Zelenskyy visits DC at Ukraine’s most dangerous moment

JUST IN Sometimes politics doesn’t end at the water’s edge. Amid a difficult stage in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion and congressional division over US policy toward Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting Washington this week to make his case for continued aid for his country. While US President Joe Biden said Tuesday he

Israel’s ground war in Gaza has started. How will it end?

JUST IN “This is our second war of independence.” On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that a “second stage” in Israel’s war against Hamas has begun. Ground operations in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces have two goals, Netanyahu said: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, and the return of hostages

What Prigozhin’s plane crash tells us about Putin’s Russia

JUST IN The plane was flying northwest, then events went south quickly. On Wednesday, Wagner Group founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin and nine other people were reportedly killed when their aircraft, en route from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, crashed under mysterious circumstances. In late June, Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny in Russia that involved a convoy of

The NATO Summit’s underwhelming support for Ukraine

JUST IN It’s a fast track with a slow start. NATO leaders meeting in Vilnius today released their summit communiqué, in which they said that Ukraine no longer needs to complete a membership action plan to join the Alliance—but that an invitation would only be extended “when allies agree and conditions are met.” In the

What’s behind Erdogan’s backing of Sweden’s NATO bid?

JUST IN The wait is (nearly) over. After more than a year of ups and downs since Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has agreed to back Stockholm’s bid to become the Alliance’s thirty-second member. The announcement came on the eve of the NATO Summit in Vilnius after

Prigozhin walks away. Where does his halted mutiny leave Putin?

JUST IN What’s done cannot be undone. Wagner Group founder Yevgeniy Prigozhin launched a mutiny against the Russian ministry of defense this weekend, taking over the Southern Military District headquarters in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don before turning toward Moscow. Then just as suddenly, he halted his advance without a violent confrontation. Hours after charging

Has Ukraine’s counteroffensive really begun?

JUST IN Will we know it when we see it? Ukrainian forces are probing front lines and attacking multiple Russian positions, even as leaders in Kyiv remain cagey on whether Ukraine’s much-anticipated summer counteroffensive has begun. Russia is sending its own signals. After digging in along the front line, Russian forces have ramped up air

What the world should expect from Erdogan now

JUST IN They’re staying the course. A majority of Turkish voters backed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sunday’s runoff election, earning him another five-year term as president and extending his twenty-year hold on power. Yet the vote for continuity comes amid major changes in and around Turkey, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake,