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Joshua Keating

Joshua Keating

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The fierce debate behind Trump’s move on selling AI chips to China

This week, President Donald Trump announced that he would allow US chipmaker Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to China, describing the move as...

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Vox

Joshua Keating

There is a real chance of a US-Venezuela war — so why does it feel fake?

The post-modern philosopher Jean Baudrillard infamously argued in 1991 that the Gulf War did not take place, by which he did not mean that no fighting...

previous day 6

Vox

Joshua Keating

Confused by the Trump administration? Think of it as a royal family.

It was not a particularly subtle gift, but as the recipient himself would probably admit, he’s never been a particularly subtle guy.  When...

06.12.2025 20

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Joshua Keating

America has a new clash of civilizations — with European liberals

America is out of the business of giving patronizing lectures to other governments about how to run their countries and trying to mold other societies...

06.12.2025 20

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Joshua Keating

Why is Trump suddenly so obsessed with Honduras?

The US may or may not be marching toward war with Venezuela, but at the moment, there’s another Latin American country that seems to be occupying...

03.12.2025 9

Vox

Joshua Keating

Why is the US on the verge of war with Venezuela?

Since the early fall, the US has been building up its military forces in the Caribbean and launching airstrikes on alleged drug boats, fueling...

02.12.2025 30

Vox

Joshua Keating

Is there any peace deal that Putin would accept?

The 28-point peace plan is now a 19-point peace plan.  President Donald Trump says the plan for ending Russia’s war in Ukraine that was presented...

27.11.2025 5

Vox

Joshua Keating

Trump’s weird war on “terrorism”

The State Department designated Venezuela’s “Cartel de los Soles” as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) on Monday as part of an escalating...

25.11.2025 4

Vox

Joshua Keating

Trump’s peace plan is a demand for Ukraine’s surrender

The Trump administration has been something of a pendulum in its position on the war in Ukraine, swinging between pro-Ukraine and pro-Russia positions...

22.11.2025 30

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Joshua Keating

When it comes to nukes and AI, people are worried about the wrong thing

It would take about 30 minutes for a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to travel from Russia to the United States. If launched...

20.11.2025 10

Vox

Joshua Keating

The US-Saudi relationship is too big to fail…for now

The most shocking thing about President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman on Tuesday was that anyone...

20.11.2025 6

Vox

Joshua Keating

A few dozen Hamas fighters, trapped underground, could doom the Gaza ceasefire

On Monday, the UN Security Council approved a US-drafted plan that calls for an international security force and that at least keeps the door open for...

18.11.2025 5

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Joshua Keating

The age of AI-run cyberattacks has begun

Menu planning, therapy, essay writing, highly sophisticated global cyberattacks: People just keep coming up with innovative new uses for the latest AI...

15.11.2025 9

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Joshua Keating

What happens when allies don’t trust America to keep a secret?

Can allies still trust the United States with sensitive intelligence in the Trump era? Two stories this week suggest even the closest partners are...

13.11.2025 6

Vox

Joshua Keating

Is there any way out of Sudan’s nightmare?

For the past two and a half years, events in war-torn Sudan have been characterized by wild swings — not only between which side in the conflict has...

08.11.2025 5

Vox

Joshua Keating

How tariffs ate American foreign policy

President Donald Trump has described the ongoing Supreme Court case over the legality of his use of emergency powers to impose tariffs on more than...

06.11.2025 7

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Joshua Keating

Trump just threatened to invade a new country

The big Donald Trump foreign policy question heading into this week looked like it was going to be when and if the US was going to launch military...

04.11.2025 8

Vox

Joshua Keating

A trade truce, a nuclear threat: What to make of the Trump-Xi meeting

Since President Donald Trump’s second term began, his administration’s approach to China has been arguably the toughest aspect of its foreign...

30.10.2025 5

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Joshua Keating

Has Trump actually ended any wars?

In Malaysia on Sunday, on the sidelines of a summit of Southeast Asian leaders, President Donald Trump presided over a ceremony for the signing of a...

28.10.2025 9

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Joshua Keating

Is the US about to attack Venezuela?

The US is up to something in Venezuela. But what exactly?  Since early September, the US military has carried out at least five lethal strikes on...

18.10.2025 4

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Joshua Keating

The Gaza peace deal’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness

After the euphoria and relief of Monday’s prisoner exchange and ceasefire, Tuesday has brought some ominous portents for the future of the Gaza...

15.10.2025 10

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Joshua Keating

The bleak lesson Israel — and the world — might learn from the peace deal

At last, Israel and Hamas have reached a deal — of a sort. On Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump announced that the warring parties in Gaza...

09.10.2025 3

Vox

Joshua Keating

Netanyahu prolonged the war to save himself. It may have worked.

Benjamin Netanyahu has now served as prime minister of Israel longer than anyone in history — three non-consecutive stints over 18 years, or almost...

07.10.2025 4

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Joshua Keating

Trump and Hegseth gather the military’s top commanders for a loyalty test

Could this meeting have been an email? Last week, when news broke that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had ordered hundreds of generals from around...

01.10.2025 10

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Joshua Keating

A reality check on Trump’s Gaza peace plan

After a pivotal Allied victory, years into World War II, Winston Churchill famously proclaimed that when it came to hopes for the end of the war, it...

30.09.2025 20

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Joshua Keating

Europe is readying for direct conflict with Russia

In the early months of the war in Ukraine, Gen. Mark Milley, then chair of the joint chiefs of staff, carried a note card in his briefcase outlining...

25.09.2025 5

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Joshua Keating

Turning point or political theater? The big push for Palestinian statehood, explained

Palestinian statehood has never had so much international support — or seemed less attainable.  As world leaders gather in New York on Monday for...

23.09.2025 3

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Joshua Keating

Russia just inched closer to open war with NATO

Nineteen suspected Russian drones entered Polish airspace on Monday, where they were intercepted by a joint operation that included Polish, Dutch, and...

11.09.2025 4

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Joshua Keating

What Israel’s strike in Qatar could mean for Gaza

Israel’s attempted killing of Hamas’s senior global leadership on Tuesday was the clearest indication in months that the war in Gaza is unlikely...

10.09.2025 7

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Joshua Keating

Why it’s called the Department of “Defense” in the first place — and why Trump wants to change it 

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday renaming the Department of Defense the “Department of War.” The move on...

06.09.2025 20

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Joshua Keating

What happens when Trump combines the war on drugs with the war on terror

With this week’s unprecedented deadly military strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean, it’s clear that the US plans to use...

05.09.2025 5

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Joshua Keating

Why the Ukraine war is so hard to end

At the height of the Iraq war, bloggers coined the term “Friedman unit” in reference to the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s habit of...

04.09.2025 4

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Joshua Keating

Are America’s four main adversaries really in cahoots?

Editor’s note, September 2, 12:10 pm ET: This week, the leaders of Iran, North Korea, and Russia, along with around two dozen other heads of state,...

02.09.2025 5

Vox

Joshua Keating

Donald Trump is a globalist

The defining photo of the recent White House Ukraine summit will likely turn out to be one depicting five European leaders plus the leaders of the...

01.09.2025 10

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Joshua Keating

Gaza’s famine is now official. What does that change?

The hunger crisis in Gaza reached another grim milestone on Friday when the world’s leading hunger watchdog confirmed that a famine is taking place...

22.08.2025 5

Vox

Joshua Keating

Why Ukraine won’t just give up its territory

Ukrainian forces still control 2,550 square miles of the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donbas, an area roughly the size of Delaware. For...

19.08.2025 5

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Joshua Keating

Is it possible to “win” a nuclear war?

Following their first meeting in Geneva in 1985, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev issued a historic joint statement...

05.08.2025 10

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Joshua Keating

How Gaza’s hunger crisis reached its “worst-case scenario”

The “worst-case scenario” is unfolding in Gaza. Though there are larger hunger crises in the world in terms of sheer numbers, Gaza is, in many...

31.07.2025 10

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Joshua Keating

Trump and Netanyahu weren’t on the same page for long

One month ago, while announcing US airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program, President Donald Trump said that he and Israeli Prime Minister...

22.07.2025 10

Vox

Joshua Keating

Israel is taking its old Gaza model abroad

During an Oval Office meeting on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had nominated President Donald Trump for a Nobel...

11.07.2025 10

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Joshua Keating

Will we know if the next plague is human-made?

In October 1979, a top-secret CIA intelligence report featured the first inklings in the West that something unusual and disturbing had allegedly...

08.07.2025 10

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Joshua Keating

Why the US just can’t quit Middle East wars

In April 1980, President Jimmy Carter authorized Operation Eagle Claw, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the American hostages held at the US...

25.06.2025 90

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Joshua Keating

This time, it’s Trump’s war

Donald Trump claimed during his 2024 campaign for president that America had fought “no wars” during his first presidency, and that he was the...

22.06.2025 50

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Joshua Keating

Is Israel trying to destroy Iran’s nukes — or topple its government?

Iran’s state broadcaster, which was bombed mid-broadcast by Israel on Monday, was many things to many people. It was the employer of hundreds of...

18.06.2025 10

Vox

Joshua Keating

Will the US get drawn into the Israel-Iran war?

In announcing Israel’s strikes against Iran’s military leadership and nuclear program last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the case...

13.06.2025 4

Vox

Joshua Keating

Why Trump probably can’t cut Musk loose

Breaking up is hard to do — especially when one party is a billionaire with near-unassailable dominance of the nation’s ability to launch things...

06.06.2025 5

Vox

Joshua Keating

Ukraine hasn’t won over Trump. But it might not need to.

President Donald Trump’s seemingly infinite patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin may, in fact, have limits.  “Something has happened to...

30.05.2025 3

Vox

Joshua Keating

The return of the nuclear threat

Humanity has lived with nuclear weapons for so long — 80 years, this year — without destroying itself, that we sometimes take them for granted....

27.05.2025 2

Vox

Joshua Keating

Why Trump’s biggest global allies aren’t very happy with him

Is President Donald Trump leading a vanguard of right-wing populist world leaders, working together to lay waste to the liberal international order...

21.05.2025 7

Vox

Joshua Keating

Trump’s surprising new approach to Israel

What’s the opposite of a “bear hug”? That was the phrase often used to describe President Joe Biden’s approach to Israel since the October 7,...

15.05.2025 3

Vox

Joshua Keating