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Leading Republican senators during their weekly briefing in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., USA, on May 20, 2025.

Douglas Christian/ZUMA Press Wire

House passes Trump’s tax agenda, but senators will now have their say

By a margin of just one vote, the US House early on Thursday passed a budget bill containing President Donald Trump’s tax agenda, which centers on making his 2017 tax cuts permanent. Some last-minute changes to the bill helped to get it over the line: House Republicans increased the SALT-cap to $40,000 and accelerated the introduction of work requirements for Medicaid. But can the GOP get the bill through the US Senate? Lawmakers in the upper chamber are already plotting changes to the legislation...

You can Chagos your own way: UK hands islands back to Mauritius, leases back base

More than two centuries after taking the Chagos Islands from France, the United Kingdom relinquished the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius, but will continue to lease a US-UK military base there, on the island of Diego Garcia, for another 99 years. The UK says the deal, which creates a 24-mile buffer zone around the base, is meant to ensure its long-term security amid growing Chinese aggression in the area. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the deal.

Taiwan adds new drone units as part of shifting military strategy

Ever wary of a potential Chinese invasion, Taiwan announced that it will introduce its first-ever drone units this year. The move is part of Taipei’s evolving strategy of effectively deterring Beijing rather than preparing for a direct fight. “Overall, the cross-strait military balance still tilts toward China’s favor, since China spends a lot more on defense,” says Eurasia Group regional expert Ava Shen. “So it’s more pragmatic for Taiwan to be a ‘porcupine,’ so to speak.”

Then-Bank of England Governor Mark Carney shakes hands with then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang before the 1+6 Round Table Dialogue meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, in Beijing, China, on September 12, 2017.

REUTERS/Etienne Oliveau/Pool

Amid a trade war and annexation threats, most eyes are on the US-Canada relationship right now. But the future of Canada’s relationship with China, the world’s second-largest economy, is also an open question, and observers wonder what rookie Prime Minister Mark Carney is going to make of it.

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US President Donald Trump announces he has selected the path forward for his ambitious Golden Dome missile defense shield, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.

Chris Kleponis/Pool/Sipa USA

Donald Trump wants to protect the United States from ballistic and hypersonic missiles with a “Golden Dome,” and Canada, officially, wants in. The details of the program and Canada’s role are still to be determined, but Trump says the total cost will be $175 billion (the Congressional Budget Office says more) and the project will be completed by the end of his term. Experts wonder whether such a defense system is even possible, given the technological difficulty of intercepting ICBMs and space-based launches. But the US president says Canada will pay its “fair share.”

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gives a thumbs up as he departs after meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., USA, on May 6, 2025.

REUTERS/Leah Millis

Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, won the election largely by adopting a pugnacious “elbows up” posture against the Trump administration. But now that he’s in office, he’s adopted a more diplomatic posture. His meeting at the Oval Office two weeks ago was remarkably civilized. He even called Donald Trump a “transformative president,” though a careful observer will note the ambiguity attached to the characterization. The meeting was a prelude to future talks on trade and a renegotiation of the USMCA.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Kursk-II nuclear power plant under construction, in the Kursk region, Russia, on May 21, 2025.

Kremlin.ru/Handout via REUTERS

Putin takes a victory lap

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Kursk on Tuesday for the first time since the Kremlin declared that it had ejected Ukrainian fighters from the Russian region. It’s another flex for a leader who signals no interest in halting the war in Ukraine. The next challenge for Moscow: Can its army secure major battlefield gains this summer to further boost its bargaining position?

Activists press Mexico’s government on cartel “death camp”

Pressure is growing on Mexico’s government to take action against drug cartels that have kidnapped, tortured, and killed tens of thousands of people over the last two decades, after relatives of some of the 120,000 disappeared persons learnt this week about a “death camp” in the western state of Colima. Authorities discovered mass graves there 18 months ago, but only just passed on the information to victims’ families. Taking on these gangs is a complex task for President Claudia Sheinbaum, as local authorities lack the manpower and firepower to quell them.

US vs China in the DRC

Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has picked a fight with China over its cobalt and wants US help. The sub-Saharan nation banned exports of the metal – an essential input for the battery, defense, and aerospace industries – in February, but China’s top cobalt producer, COMC, is now pushing the DRC to lift the ban. The DRC produces about three-quarters of the world’s cobalt, and is seeking to engage the Trump administration to find new investment partners in a bid to limit Chinese influence in its cobalt trade.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini brief the media at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, on December 11, 2017.

REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

Israel under fresh pressure

The UK and EU threatened Tuesday to revise trade ties with Israel unless PM Benjamin Netanyahu stops the new offensive in the Gaza Strip and allows sufficient humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave. This comes after the UK, Canada, and France threatened Israel on Monday with “concrete measures,” like sanctions. Netanyahu and his far right coalition allies say they are intent on destroying Hamas, though critics warn Israel is becoming a “pariah.”

The Morales of the story: Bolivian heavyweight to defy election exclusion

Bolivia’s socialist powerbroker Evo Morales, who governed from 2006 until he was ousted in protests in 2019, is officially ineligible to run in this August’s presidential election because of term limits. Yet he has pledged to mobilize his supporters to defy this rule, setting up a potentially destabilizing contest as his once-formidable leftwing MAS movement splinters into rival factions.

Democratic donors try a pivot to podcast

Faced with the vast array of conservative or MAGA-friendly online influencers who helped Donald Trump to win the 2024 election, Democrats and their donors are now trying to cultivate a creator economy of their own ahead of the 2026 midterms. There’s lots of money and pitches, but can you really create a viable ecosystem of influencers overnight? Authenticity, the heartbeat of any political campaign, is hard to create in a lab. You’re either a born killer or you’re not.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney leaves his office on Parliament Hill after his second day in office, on April 30, 202.

Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto

G7 Finance Ministers meet in Canada

Finance ministers from the G7 group of advanced democracies meet on Tuesday, with Trump’s huge “Liberation Day” tariffs still looming large. Can they really reach a common position on key issues such as commerce, climate, AI, and Ukraine? It’ll be a good bellwether for the upcoming G7 leaders summit next month.

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