This week we cover a new trade framework between China and the United States, a key meeting at the sidelines of APEC between Canada’s prime minister and Xi Jinping, a highly anticipated rate decision from the Bank of Japan, and early indications that Trump’s new round of Russia sanctions are having their intended effect.

This week we cover new US sanctions against Russian oil majors, the deployment of a US Carrier Strike Group to the Caribbean, a US-Australia rare earths deal, and the outcome of highly consequential midterm elections in Argentina.

This week we cover new EU initiatives meant to shore up defenses along the bloc’s eastern flank, President Trump’s foray into the heart of Argentine politics, and a new political coalition that could shake up foreign policy in Japan.

This week we cover an alleged assassination attempt against Ecuador’s president, global ramifications in the UN’s peacekeeping budget crunch, and the unveiling of Taiwan’s answer to the Iron Dome.

This week we cover a shocking plan to move Iran’s capital due to water scarcity, a new right-wing prime minister taking over in Japan, further warming in US-Pakistan relations, and new efforts by the Pentagon to shore up US missile stockpiles.

This week we cover how sovereignty concerns are derailing Israel-Syria normalization talks; a proposed referendum that could destabilize the Thai-Cambodia border; new Gen-Z protests in Peru; and a geopolitically consequential election in Moldova.

The discovery of a cache of malicious networking equipment in New York City over the weekend could represent a significant development in the ongoing evolution of hybrid warfare.

This week we cover the deployment of a Typhon launcher in Japan; an insurgent fuel blockade in Mali; advances in EU-India relations; and recent Russian violations of NATO airspace.

This week we cover the deterioration of US-Venezuela relations in the wake of a US military strike on alleged drug traffickers; Fitch downgrading France sovereign debt to the lowest rating on record; a new government in Nepal after a wave of deadly protests; and signs of destabilization along the Afpak frontier.

History and geography cast long shadows over Vietnam’s role in the South China Sea Dispute, with Hanoi having to thread the needle between two naval giants under a flag of ‘bamboo diplomacy.’