Global weekly brief — 18 October 2026
Across the coverage this week, positions were put on the record and few arrangements followed them. Washington wrote the Russia sanctions act's tariffs into an executive order and waived them in the same text, with no expiry date. Armenia proposed exchanging the enclaves by equal area, and Baku did not answer. The three Sahel states negotiated with ECOWAS as one bloc for the first time, agreed working groups and signed nothing. Bulgaria and Romania asked NATO for help after drone strikes on merchant ships reached Romania's waters, and no allied measure had been decided by the end of the week. At sea the exposure widened without any rule changing: a second large ship sank in the Strait of Hormuz, and tankers were struck off Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast. In Gaza the commercial channel from Israel stopped while aid continued, and the parties dispute who stopped it. Levant published its first weekly review since launch. Syria and Taiwan published reviews and are not elevated.