The ceasefire agreement reached between Hamas and Israel has been greeted with cautious relief across the world. After two years of relentless fighting, both sides have accepted what President Donald Trump described in his Knesset address as “a moment of joy and soaring hope.”

The human cost that preceded this moment is staggering: roughly 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and 250 others were taken hostage. Since then, Israeli operations have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians—possibly 18,000 of them children—and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. It is believed that over 1,000 members of the Israeli Defense Forces and additional Israeli civilians have also been killed…

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock opened this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York with a sobering warning: this is “no ordinary session.” The phrase was more than rhetorical. It captured a deeper truth that both world leaders and those they represent are now confronting—that the multilateral system, long taken for granted as a stabilizing force, is under unprecedented strain.

For years, the annual assembly has been seen as diplomatic theater. But in 2025, with wars raging, the climate crisis deepening, and great-power rivalry reshaping the global economy, UNGA has become a test of whether international governance can adapt—or whether power will fragment into competing blocs. With the rules of the so-called “rulesbased order” now no longer honored in the observance or in the breach, the stakes are no longer abstract. The outcomes and failures of this year’s assembly will shape trade policy, energy markets, sanctions compliance, ongoing and future conflicts and the durability of the institutions that underpin global governance and economics…

The American airstrike against Iran — codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer — was, in operational terms, a masterclass in the focused use of military power. In the early hours of 22 June 2025, seven B-2 stealth bombers carrying 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs, supported by submarine-launched cruise missiles and over 120 other aircraft, struck Iran’s most fortified and important nuclear facilities at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. The targets were chosen with surgical precision. No American personnel or aircraft were lost.

The strike was executed under the shadow of the Twelve Day War between Iran and Israel, a conflict in which Israeli forces had already inflicted severe damage on Tehran’s air defenses and missile launchers. In a coordinated series of blows, Israeli strikes killed dozens of senior Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists. Iran’s vaunted proxy deterrent network, anchored by Hezbollah, had previously been badly degraded.

The immediate military verdict is clear: this was a devastating, high-tempo strike that neutralized key nuclear infrastructure and struck at the heart of Iran’s overall strategic capacity. But military success does not automatically translate into strategic victory…