politics

The United Kingdom, for the first time in its centuries-long history, stands on the threshold of genuine disintegration. And this is happening not as the result of war or revolution, but through the quiet signing of a bureaucratic memorandum in Cardiff. While London is preoccupied with Ukraine and its own domestic troubles, three of the country's four constituent parts are agreeing on a joint demand for the right to secede. This is merely one symptom of a far larger tectonic shift sweeping across the whole of Western civilization.

Who are Yemen's Houthis, and how many of them are there today? They are a Shia insurgent movement that officially calls itself "Ansar Allah." The group controls territory home to 60-65% of Yemen's population. Its armed forces number up to 350,000 fighters. This week, in September 2026, the movement broke through to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, sending world oil prices surging past 100 dollars a barrel.

Who the Houthis Are and Where the Name Comes From

Britain and Russia were not always adversaries. For three centuries — from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century — relations between the two powers remained genuinely friendly. During that time, Russia saved Britain itself from military catastrophe on three separate occasions in the largest conflicts of the modern era. The turning point came precisely when Russian expansion into Central Asia first directly touched what London considered the absolute priority of its foreign policy: the security of India.

Trump desperately needs at least one victory on the international stage. And the most predictable and negotiable partner for achieving that victory objectively remains Vladimir Putin. That is precisely why Witkoff and Kushner flew to Moscow again. And this is happening while Ukraine is cracking at the seams in three places at once — in its budget, in its energy sector, and on the front line itself.

Three Hours in the Kremlin and a Desperate Race Against Time

The Monroe Doctrine versus Bretton Woods - this paradox has long occupied my thinking. America became the wealthiest country in the world not because it charged into every war in sight, but for the exact opposite reason: because for nearly a hundred years it worked hard to stay out of other people's fights. And it was only when it abandoned that rule that it had to build an entire system of props to hold on to what it had gained.

At his press conference following the SCO summit in Bishkek, Putin uttered a phrase that was meant to sound like an exposure of Western hypocrisy, but in fact sounds like a statement of a long-obvious fact. More than 99% of Ukrainian grain under the grain deal went not to starving African countries, but to a perfectly well-fed Europe. The West deceived us again. The question is different: why did we expect any other outcome from countries that officially labeled us an existential threat?

Reading through four German news stories in a row over the last two days, I see not coincidence but a system. Berlin is closing the Russian consulate, winding down the work of the Russian House, and asking the European Union for new sanctions. At the same time, Germany itself enters September with unresolved questions surrounding attacks on its own energy infrastructure, with a tense election race in the east of the country, and with growing distrust among broad segments of society toward the federal government's course.

Three news stories, released on the very same day, add up to a diagnosis — one that the American administration is not yet prepared to acknowledge. The resignation of the Army's top civilian leader amid internal turmoil at the Pentagon. Ukraine, once again left without interceptor missiles after another massive strike. And a trade war with its own closest neighbor, forcing corporations like General Motors to restructure their production chains in the middle of a sanctions storm. Each of these stories looks like a separate item on its own.

A Month-Long Lull, Then Fire Again

On August 30, the U.S. military struck two Iranian missile launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM described the action as "limited and precise," targeting IRGC personnel allegedly preparing to lay naval mines directly in the strait. According to unofficial reports, two people were killed and two others wounded. It was the first known American strike since late July, when Trump himself ordered a pause in operations against Iran.

It is hard to find a more contradictory and painful image for Venezuela than this one: a country whose president was bombed, captured, kidnapped and taken out of its own territory by the United States is now celebrating oil agreements with the very same power that, only yesterday, was exercising a relationship of force over it.