Last week was the CIA director's secret trip to Moscow, John Ratcliffe. Now, it has been the surprise appearance of the Russian finance minister, Anton Siluanov, at the G-20 meeting being held this week in Asheville, North Carolina. Siluanov's presence at the meeting of central bankers and ministers of the group of nations has infuriated European members, who are already on edge due to the White House's secrecy about the latest moves with Russia that are glimpsed behind the scenes. It had been four years, since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, that the Russian finance minister had physically attended the meeting. Coincidence or not, the last time a CIA director had traveled to Moscow before now was in November 2021.

The United States bombed Iranian targets again this Tuesday. The new wave of attacks comes after Donald Trump promised to "hit hard" Iran in response to Tehran's bombing of US bases in the region, which in turn was the ayatollahs' response to Washington's attack this Sunday on the Iranian island of Larak, located in the Strait of Hormuz.

Crossfire reignites in the Middle East after a month of relative calm. US President Donald Trump has promised that the military will respond to the missiles that Iran launched early this morning against two US bases in Jordan. "We will hit them hard," the Republican said in statements to Fox, where he confirmed that US forces intercepted six Iranian missiles. The Islamic Republic had opened fire early this morning against the US's Arab ally in retaliation for the US attack on Sunday against two Iranian platforms on the island of Larak, located near the Strait of Hormuz. In a statement released by the Iranian agencies Fars and Tasmin, the main military arm of the Islamic Republic specified that the attack was carried out with drones and left several dead and injured, although it did not specify how many.

The director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, traveled secretly to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Naryshkin. The last time the head of the United States intelligence agency – then it was William Burns, a trusted man of Joe Biden – made a secret trip to Russia was at the end of 2021. Three months later, Russian tanks invaded Ukraine. If the precedent is little reassuring, the explanations given by the American president, Donald Trump, are even less so. On Thursday, the Republican said Ratcliffe's secret visit was "semi-routine" and assured journalists that Putin "will not attack any NATO territory." In the White House's diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine, the Russian president has already shown how much he listens to his American counterpart.

The trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her three children – five-year-old Cora; three-year-old Dawson; and eight-month-old Callan – in 2023 concluded this Thursday, and now it is up to the jury to deliver the verdict. The proceedings, which lasted four weeks, have become a deeper case where a more complex reality has been brought to the table: postpartum psychosis.

Canada has embarked on a war of attrition with Donald Trump to mark the limits of his power. When last weekend the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, left the negotiating table stating that he was not willing "to compromise the country's sovereignty", it was already clear that the dimension of the conflict was not merely economic. After a tariff spiral in which Carney responded with 50% tariffs to the 50%% that Trump had applied on Saturday to Canadian products, the US president has gone a step further and signed an executive order this Thursday to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America.

Meta avoids a historic trial and dodges the risk of reliving the 90s setback against tobacco companies. Mark Zuckerberg has agreed with 47 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories to pay approximately 17 billion dollars – about 14.3 billion euros – in exchange for dropping the case accusing the technology company of designing addictive social networks for minors and deceiving consumers about the safety of its products.

A little more than two months before the legislative elections, the Supreme Court of the United States has issued an emergency ruling that only promises to add more uncertainty to an election day that is already expected to be critical. The conservative majority has lifted the judicial blockade on an executive order that President Donald Trump had signed in March to restrict mail-in voting. The magistrates, for now, allow the tycoon to continue with his plan while they deliberate whether the executive really has the powers to dictate how Americans vote. Furthermore, the decision comes while there is still another judicial suspension on one of the sections of this same order.

It doesn't seem like the military front advances, in the Gulf –the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln of the United States set sail last week for home amidst troop unrest – so the White House is returning to the old strategy of economic pressure; now, baptized with the concept of "economic war". Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced this Monday an "unprecedented campaign" of sanctions against Iran, for which he was unable to set a timetable.

The U.S. military appears to have found a way to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz despite the Iranian blockade. Navy ships have managed to find a corridor along the Omani coast through which some vessels are successfully navigating a route that has become highly dangerous due to Tehran's attacks. As happens with so many other operations in this war, it is successful in its tactical objective, but Washington does not achieve a strategic victory. The United States is getting some oil barrels through the strait, although the pre-war pace has not yet been recovered.

The case against Meta could become a rerun of the historic 1990s litigation that managed to place limits on large tobacco companies after years of failed lawsuits. The 233-page lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg's company is based on the same legal architecture as the case against tobacco companies: the issue is not to prove the company's responsibility for the damages suffered by minors, but rather the commercial practices directed at young people and the fact that the company continued despite being aware of the harmful effects of its product.

The comment made by Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff on Sunday about Natalie Harp, assistant to US President Donald Trump, could have remained a mere anecdote. But the fury with which the White House reacted has dragged the 35-year-old assistant, who often appears in the tycoon's photos, to center stage, highlighting the woman's omnipresence in the president's daily life.

The consequences of the social media business model may be catching up with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The giant led by Mark Zuckerberg faces the first session of a trial this Tuesday that could place limits on what part of the US administration considers digital excesses. 29 US states, led by Colorado, California, New Jersey, and Kentucky, accuse the multinational of having introduced features and dynamics on its main platforms that generate addiction among children and adolescents.

Measles, a virus that the United States had considered eradicated in 2000, is breaking contagion records in the country. With more than 2,300 people affected – and the count continues to grow – 2026 is already the worst year for contagions in two decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 93% and 94% of individuals who have contracted measles were not vaccinated, or it was not recorded that they were. But who the White House has decided to declare war on is not the disease, but the vaccines.

First was the withdrawal of the THAAD anti-aircraft defense system – which has a deterrent function against North Korea – and now, the reduction of joint military exercises by the US and South Korean armies. Donald Trump announced this Monday that the Pentagon will reduce the maneuvers it conducts annually on South Korean territory, in response to the "Seoul's refusal to help him in the Iran war. The US president also mentioned his "good relationship" with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as one of the reasons.

In February 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House after Donald Trump returned to power to guarantee American military support. It was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders after the Republican regained the presidency in the US and also a time when Patriot missiles, crucial for defense against Russian attacks, were already beginning to be scarce in Kyiv. That day Trump berated Zelensky, telling him he had no cards. What the leader perhaps did not imagine was that, a year and a half later, he would find himself in a similar situation: the Pentagon is having trouble resupplying its Patriot missiles.

Luigi Mangione has pleaded guilty to federal charges for the murder of the CEO of the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson. The young man, 28, admitted to the judge that he shot the CEO on December 4, 2024, outside a New York hotel: "I shot Mr. Thompson. I was aware that my actions would make him fear for his life or for possible bodily injury. I knew that what I was doing was illegal."

The journalists accompanying the US President, Donald Trump, on the return flight from Turkey were not the only ones who remained inside Air Force One threatened while the Republican secretly took another plane.Members of the US government were on board the decoy aircraft, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to US government sources revealed to the "New York Times.Normally, when the US president boards one of the White House's various jets, it officially becomes Air Force One. But on this occasion, when the Republican clandestinely left the old Boeing to board Air Force C-32, the name was not changed. Even though Trump was not on board the aircraft, the old model continued to be called Air Force One so that it would act as a decoy for the Iranians.

US President Donald Trump announced this Wednesday afternoon that Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her position at the end of the month. In a post on Truth Social, the commander-in-chief explained that Leavitt is stepping down from the front lines to be with her family. Recently, the White House spokeswoman had been on maternity leave after having her second child. "From now on, she will be one of my top advisors outside the administration and an influential voice within the party as we work to win the midterm elections," the commander-in-chief wrote.

Donald Trump did not return from the NATO summit held in Ankara with the old Air Force One, as the White House had reported at the time. On July 8, the US president did not use either the old presidential plane or the new Boeing gifted by Qatar, but rather Air Force C-32. The Secret Service used the catering vehicle to secretly transfer the Republican from one plane to another, according to government sources revealed to various US media outlets. The Washington Post, the first to break the exclusive story, explains that an Iranian threat to assassinate Trump triggered the operation.