Global Hotspots: Examining the U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal

This week, we are joined by our colleague Shahad Turkistani to examine in more detail the U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal. In other developments, Saudi Arabia joined the U.S. in conducting airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq, drawing retaliatory strikes against Saudi energy infrastructure as regional hostilities expanded, while a Hezbollah drone strike threatened the Lebanese-Israeli ceasefire. In the Indo-Pacific, the U.S. shared a photo of a joint coast guard patrol with Taiwan for the first time, while China warned of retaliatory measures against any future U.S. sanctions on its AI industry. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the U.S. Senate approved new sanctions legislation targeting Russia as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, while Ukrainian forces struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea.

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Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

^{_{Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House during his visit to Washington, D.C., on July 28, 2026. (Photo by Zelenskyy Social Media Account/Anadolu via Getty Images)}}