Washington tightens the vise on Iran, NATO fires over the Baltic for what may be the first time, and Prague admits its nuclear bet just got far pricier.

Middle East: the squeeze on Iran tightens

  • A second carrier, the USS George Washington, is steaming toward the Middle East to join the USS Abraham Lincoln, as the Treasury readies an "economic isolation" sanctions package on Iran for next week — more.
  • The Pentagon says its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz can continue indefinitely; Brent crude is rising and a UN official warns Yemen could be drawn into a wider conflict — more.
  • Shipping traffic through Hormuz, the world's busiest oil chokepoint, has thinned further as Washington signals more pressure is coming — more.

Baltic and Taiwan: rehearsing the next crisis

  • NATO jets shot down a drone that crossed into Latvian airspace near the Russian and Belarusian border on Friday; Finland separately closed part of the Gulf of Finland as a precaution — more.
  • Taiwan's Han Kuang drills simulated an internet blackout severe enough to knock out apps like TikTok, rehearsing for a Chinese blockade or communications cutoff rather than a full invasion — more.

Europe: money and tariffs

  • Trump imposed tariffs of up to 100% on imported drones and parts but spared European and British manufacturers, aiming to rebuild US drone production — more.
  • Czechia's new Dukovany reactors, built by South Korea's KHNP, will cost around 700 billion crowns — nearly double the roughly 400 billion crowns announced when the government picked KHNP in July 2024 — more.

Also worth a glance

  • Analysis: four different security bets this week were all called "deterrence" — a Saudi-Pakistan-Turkey mutual-defense pact, NATO's Eastern Flank network, an EU arms-production plan for Ukraine, and North Korean threats — with no shared mechanism between them — more.