Gulf shipping tensions escalate even as Washington insists all is calm, allies from Tokyo to Brussels publicly break with the US over ICC sanctions, and Kyiv's internal crisis widens.

Gulf under pressure

  • China's two largest state tankers have avoided both Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab since late July, even as Trump insists the strait is open and no Iran talks are planned — more.
  • The UAE has severed all trade and financial transactions with Iran after an Iranian missile reached its territorial waters, as Tehran warns Gulf states against helping US forces — more.

Allies push back on Washington

  • Japan called US sanctions on ICC President Tomoko Akane, one of its own citizens, "extremely regrettable" — the first G7 government to publicly criticize the campaign — more.
  • European governments followed, calling the sanctions a "flagrant attack" on judicial independence — more.
  • Trump paused new tariffs on Canadian goods for three days, pulling back from a threatened jump to 50% duties as a trade deal nears — more.
  • An analysis piece links scaled-back US-South Korea drills and Middle Eastern talk of a non-American "layered security" architecture into a pattern of allies hedging against conditional US guarantees — more.

Kyiv's political crisis

  • Fired drone-program chief Mykhailo Fedorov publicly demanded wartime elections, defying martial law and deepening the worst crisis of Zelensky's presidency — more.

Europe

  • ECB President Christine Lagarde told the WEF in Geneva that Europe's post-war growth model is broken, not cyclically slow, citing trade restrictions, high energy costs and Chinese competition — more.
  • Germany's environment ministry is seeking up to €50 million to repair Chernobyl's reactor shelter after a drone strike damaged it — more.