A Republican Party, if you can keep it
The US, Iran, drone warfare, Indonesia, and the DRC.
Hello,
Here are the five things you need to know today:
UNITED STATES. Iran is driving schisms deeper than Trump and MAGA.
IRAN. Talks continue but keep veering off script.
DRONES. Lessons emerge on the future of conflict.
INDONESIA. The delay of an MSCI review barely buys Prabowo time.
DR CONGO. As Ebola cases rise, the US changes tack.
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UNITED STATES. When elephants fight
Iran is driving schisms deeper than Trump and MAGA.
The Senate joined the House in passing a war powers resolution, the first since 1973, as an Ipsos poll showed Donald Trump’s approval falling to 34%. Trump was due to visit Congress Wednesday to press Republicans for voter ID reform.
INTELLIGENCE. Trump’s visit, his first in months, is for a lunch that bypassed Majority Leader John Thune, a breach in protocol and another sign that Trump and the GOP establishment are at loggerheads. None of this is new. But after breaking with 47 years of policy on the Middle East, having already torn up Republican norms on trade and economic policy, the party – ahead of both the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential contest – is in an existential crisis.
FOR BUSINESS. Most Republicans remain loyal to Trump and whatever he defines MAGA to be. Yet as his lame duck phase begins, the rebels, ostensibly a “YOLO” faction of disendorsed moderates, will grow. Their loyalties will be less about how Trump treats them than who – JD Vance, Marco Rubio, or someone else – they’ll align with once Trump goes. If they can’t work it out, the GOP risks following the decline of once unassailable parties in other democracies.
IRAN. Versions of the truce
Talks continue but keep veering off script.
Tehran and Washington gave conflicting accounts of agreements on tolls and nuclear inspections as officials from Israel and Lebanon met to discuss a ceasefire neither side could agree was part of the US-Iran deal. Rubio left for the Gulf.
INTELLIGENCE. Rubio is meeting allies in Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE to sell a deal