Türkiye calls Israel a 'terrorist state', Israel calls Türkiye 'the new Iran'. They have competing interests in Syria, Palestine, the Gulf, Washington, and arms exports. Will they come to blows?

Army and intelligence units will decamp to the Octagon, a complex 65km outside Cairo, to fight the wars and manage the crises of the future

China's all-powerful president turned 73 last month, but there is still no word on his successor. The 2027 Communist Party Congress may offer clues about the next generation

Clashes in the vital port city of Hodeidah were curiously timed, so soon after a senior Houthi delegation attended the funeral in Iran of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

The Turkish and American presidents showed that they enjoyed a good relationship but there are still issues to be resolved, both between them and within the wider alliance

Football at the highest level is no stranger to controversy, and World Cup tournaments are not immune to political intervention. Still, 2026 is proving to be much more than a talking point

The struggle between the Guards and the Speaker

Qassem Soleimani spent years building a network of pro-Iranian proxies or state allies in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Syria fell in December 2024. At the end of June, so did two others

While Ruhollah Khomeini built the revolution, his successor Ali Khamenei built a state designed to survive him. With his son and heir Mojtaba absent from the funeral, what next for the regime?

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is Iran's dominant force militarily, politically, and economically, but there is growing pressure for its armed wing to merge with the Iranian armed forces