Latest news for 28 April 2026

IRAN

Spicy Merz.

As we foreshadowed, the US has dismissed the latest Iranian ceasefire proposal, which would’ve reopened Hormuz but kicked nuclear talks down the road. Meanwhile, Germany’s Merz has argued the US is being “humiliated” by Iran’s leaders, who are “letting the Americans travel to Islamabad and then leave again without any result”. (Guardian)

UNITED STATES

Shooting suspect charged.

Cole Tomas Allen, the suspect in Saturday’s attempted assassination of Donald Trump, now faces three formal charges, with a possible life sentence. (LA Times)

Comment: We wrote about what this latest attempt really means here.

CHINA

Export restrictions.

In swift retaliation after the EU’s latest Russia sanctions targeted China-based entities for supplying Putin’s war-machine, Beijing has slapped seven European defence and telecom firms with export curbs over their sales to Taiwan. (Reuters)

Comment: China’s move is semi-symbolic in the sense Europe sells very little direct weaponry to Taiwan, but the resulting EU pain is real: those firms now stand to lose access to (say) China-made dual-use components and rare earths. The message is a mix of punishment and deterrence: target our firms again and it’ll hurt you. Meanwhile, today’s politburo meeting in Beijing just reiterated similar economic ‘stability’ priorities to last year — one interpretation of this repeat is that actual progress is still pending.

UNITED KINGDOM

Royal diplomacy.

King Charles III has kicked off his four-day state visit to the US — the first by a British monarch in nearly 20 years — ahead of the USA’s 250th anniversary on July 4th. (France24)

Comment: It’s officially about an important anniversary, but the timing helps the Brits use their diplomatic superpower (royal pageantry) to sweeten up a Starmer-sceptical Donald Trump and stabilise UK-US ties amid ongoing spats over Iran.

INDIA

Russian troops in India?

Russia has published the details of an Indian defence pact that entered force in January, enabling the two neighbours to station up to 3,000 troops, five warships, and 10 military aircraft on each other’s territory for the next five years. (Al Jazeera)

Comment: Moscow is hardly known for its transparency, but had a clear incentive to trumpet these details: it’s signalling it still has friends. Meanwhile, India would’ve preferred discretion, but this is basically a doubling-down on Delhi’s omni-directional strategy in a tough neighbourhood (China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc).

COLOMBIA

Wanted.

Colombia is offering a record $1.4M reward for dissident FARC guerrilla leader ‘Marlon’, accused of ordering Saturday’s deadly Pan-American Highway bombing which left 20 civilians dead. (BBC)

Comment: We’re a month out from Colombia’s elections to replace termed-out left-leaning incumbent, Gustavo Petro. On current polling, we’ll most likely see a June run-off between his austere leftist heir (Senator Cepeda) versus whoever consolidates the conservative vote — but investors have sold Colombian assets this week after a poll suggested Cepeda is now polling higher than his two conservative rivals combined, suggesting more popular-but-pricey social policies ahead.

SOMALIA

Beware, pirates.

Suspected pirates have hijacked a cement-laden ship off the coast of Somalia, the second such attack in a week. (Al Jazeera)

Comment: It’s likely a side-effect of Western navies getting stretched across the Red Sea (Houthis) and Hormuz (Iran). We wrote about the world’s most pirate-infested waters here.