Thailand dissolved its parliament on Friday and set the country on a fast track to a new election early next year—right as deadly fighting with Cambodia grinds on along a long-disputed border. The mechanics were formal and familiar. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul asked for dissolution. King Maha Vajiralongkorn approved it. The endorsement became effective when… Read More »Thailand Hit the “Reset” Button in the Middle of a Border War

Europe has a strange new export. It is not wine. It is not cars. It is not cheese. It is interest income. After more than three years of sanctions, about €210 billion in Russian central bank assets remain immobilized inside the EU, with a very large share sitting at Euroclear in Belgium. And now the… Read More »The Frozen Fortune and the Courtroom Thaw

Northern Japan got another hard shake on Friday, just days after an even stronger quake in the same broad region. Japan’s weather agency said the earthquake struck off the Pacific coast of Aomori prefecture at 11:44 a.m. local time. The agency first put the quake at magnitude 6.7, then revised it to 6.9. The depth… Read More »A Shallow Quake, a Small Tsunami, and a Very Fast Advisory

Kupiansk is not a famous name in most living rooms. It is not a capital. It is not a postcard city. Yet it keeps showing up in the story because it sits where routes and rivers argue with each other. This week, Ukraine says it has retaken parts of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region, after… Read More »Kupiansk, Again: The Town That Refuses to Stay Quiet

María Corina Machado walked into Oslo and said the quiet part out loud. Nicolás Maduro will leave power, she said, “whether negotiated or not.” She also said she is focused on a peaceful transition. Those two lines sit together like mismatched shoes. One sounds like force. The other sounds like calm. But most of all,… Read More »Oslo, A Balcony, and a Promise Venezuela Has Heard Before