When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visited the White House two months ago, President Trump sold him a brazen dream: The United States would take control of the Gaza Strip, move out the Palestinian population of about two million souls and turn the devastated seaside enclave into a glittering “riviera.” This week, as the…
A doubling of American tariffs on Chinese goods. Nationalist Chinese bloggers comparing President Trump’s levies to a declaration of war. China’s Foreign Ministry vowing that Beijing will “fight to the end.” For years, the world’s two biggest powers have flirted with the idea of an economic decoupling as tensions between them have risen. The acceleration…
U.S. commanders planning for a possible conflict with China are increasingly concerned that the Pentagon will soon need to move long-range precision weapons from stockpiles in the Asia-Pacific region to the Middle East, congressional officials say. That is because of the large amount of munitions that the United States is using in a bombing campaign…
A senior Panamanian official on Monday said he had uncovered evidence of misconduct by a Hong Kong company, a finding that could delay or even scuttle a ports deal that has put China at loggerheads with the United States. Last month the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison agreed to sell a business that encompasses 43…
The European Union is responding to President Trump’s sweeping trade war with a handshake and a punch: It is promising the administration potential wins while also preparing its own retaliatory tariffs on American products starting next week. The questions are whether the enticements are enough, and whether a show of strength could backfire. “Europe can…
Talks between the United States and Iran, which President Trump said on Monday would begin on Saturday in Oman, face considerable problems of substance and well-earned mistrust. But time is short for what is likely to be a complicated negotiation. “We’re at a fork in the road, heading toward a crisis,” said Sanam Vakil, the…
Last week’s “Liberation Day” marked a kind of D-Day in the effort to reorder the international economic system. That reordering is desperately needed to address the system’s imbalances, which have led to deindustrialization and annual trillion-dollar trade deficits for the United States. But remember, far from striking World War II’s decisive blow, D-Day was just…
There aren’t a lot of countries Israel’s prime minister can visit without risking arrest. Which makes the red-carpet treatment Benjamin Netanyahu received in Hungary — Europe’s only proud “illiberal democracy” — all the more noteworthy. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, invited Mr. Netanyahu right after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant last November…
China lashed out at the United States on Tuesday after President Trump demanded that Beijing rescind its retaliatory tariffs or face an additional 50 percent U.S. levy, calling his threat “blackmail,” as tensions between the two major powers rose. The Ministry of Commerce, without referring to the American president by name, said that Beijing had…
President Trump said on Monday that the United States would engage in “direct” negotiations with Iran next Saturday in a last-ditch effort to rein in the country’s nuclear program, saying Tehran would be “in great danger” if it failed to reach an accord. If direct talks take place, they would be the first official face-to-face…