Canada and China held military talks on September 4 for the first time in eight years. China’s defence ministry published an account of it. The Canadian government published nothing, and confirmed it only when reporters asked, on September 8, the day Canada’s counter-tariffs took effect against Washington.

Since the 1953 overthrow of Iran’s prime minister, the United States has repeatedly used covert action and military force to secure resource access abroad, most recently in Venezuela. China has built its own global reach instead through loans and infrastructure, a strategy now cooling as its own ledger comes due.

OFAC designated 15 Ecuador-based individuals and blocked 10 vessels linked to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG, alongside a lethal US strike campaign the DEA’s own review says hasn’t reduced the cocaine supply.

Taiwan’s counter-drone system cannot detect the radio band, the satellite signal, or the fiber-optic links now standard on newer Chinese drones, a government audit found in July. The gap sits between two different clocks: how fast China’s drone industry moves, and how slowly Taiwan’s military can buy anything.

Six months into a war neither side has won, the president has swapped threats of annihilation for a blockade he is calling a Wall of Steel. Tehran’s answer, delivered by a new set of commanders, is that nothing has changed.

Iran is seeking transit tolls and a post-war role in the strait. Fifty-one countries and Iran’s own June memorandum ruled that out. China is the strait’s largest user at 37.7 percent and vetoed the Security Council resolution to protect its own shipping.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement at Al-Safa Palace. Two of the three governments published an identical four-paragraph statement. That statement is not the agreement, and the agreement has not been released.

A Strait of Hormuz transit arrangement between Iran and Oman is in final drafting, and under it large parts of the shipping route run through Iranian territorial waters. In April, France and the United Kingdom convened 51 countries who stated their opposition to any agreement regime amounting to a de-facto privatisation of the strait. The multinational mission announced at that summit has not sailed, and the statement announcing it explains why.

On 16 March 2026, in the Oval Office, the President of the United States was asked what he would do to Cuba with the military. He declined that question and answered a different one. This is what he said, in full.

Twenty attacks on merchant shipping. One US Treasury designation. A twelve percent move in the world oil price that had completely unwound four days later. Here is what each record says, and the point at which the evidence runs out.