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NEW: Nigeria’s government and Boko Haram reportedly agreed to a secret ceasefire in June, according to an investigation by the New Humanitarian, which cited three people with contacts inside the jihadist group. The truce reportedly grew out of negotiations to free 360 people abducted from the village of Ngoshe in March, for which the outlet reported Abuja paid around $3.7 million. It’s a striking turn for a government that has publicly ruled out talks with Boko Haram and repeatedly denied paying ransoms. President Bola Tinubu has instead approved 28,000 new troops and four new army divisions. Some analysts caution the pause may simply give Boko Haram room to regroup. The reported deal also excludes ISWAP, the group’s more sophisticated rival in the Lake Chad region. Get the whole story in the comments. #Nigeria #BokoHaram #LakeChad #Sahel

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LATEST: Israel ordered Britain on Wednesday to close its consulate in occupied East Jerusalem within 30 days. The move is retaliation for London’s decision, announced a day earlier alongside France and Canada, to ban imports of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The consulate has been Britain’s channel to Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza for decades. Israel also barred Britain from training Palestinian security forces and banned 11 British lawmakers, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, from entering the country. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the British sanctions “morally distorted.” Get the whole story at the link in the comments. #Israel #WestBank #UKForeignPolicy #Diplomacy

A Jamaican delegation handed King Charles III a petition on Monday seeking as much as $10 billion in reparations for Britain’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade—and asking that the claim be settled in court rather than by politics. Get the whole story at the link in the comments. #Jamaica #Reparations #Caribbean #Britain

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired a dozen ballistic missiles into southern Saudi Arabia overnight Tuesday, igniting fires at oil facilities, injuring 73 people and pushing crude prices higher. Riyadh has vowed to “take all necessary measures” in response. When the US-Iran war began, many observers expected the Houthis to open a second front against Saudi Arabia. World Politics Review editor-at-large Judah Grunstein notes it was the Saudis who struck first, hitting Sanaa’s airport in July. Judah’s read is that renewed war would likely not shift the balance of power in Yemen—the Houthis outlasted eight years of Saudi and Emirati intervention and two US air campaigns—but Riyadh enters weaker this time around, with its coalition split, Iran less inhibited and US interceptor stockpiles depleted. Get the whole story, plus Judah’s analysis, at the links in the comments. #SaudiArabia #Yemen #Houthis #OilPrices

Central Asia is becoming one of the clearest test cases for how societies respond to deepening Chinese economic influence. Over the past year, China overtook Russia as the top trading partner of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—a shift tied to Beijing’s Belt and Road ambitions and to governments’ need to diversify away from Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine. But the more China invests, the more resistance it seems to generate. More than two-thirds of regional protests against foreign governments or investors between 2018 and 2021 targeted Chinese projects, and residents near a revived $275 million logistics hub in Kyrgyzstan remain openly hostile to construction near the border. “We don’t need their presence here – we have everything we need,” one resident told World Politics Review. Governments across the region are caught between economic necessity and public backlash—a tension analysts say will keep shaping Central Asia’s foreign policy for years to come. #CentralAsia #China #Kyrgyzstan #GlobalPolitics Read the full story, and WPR’s analysis of the shift, at the links in the comments.