What Caught My Eye (no. 34)

Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week

Here’s this week’s edition of articles I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.

• John Hudson, Jeremy Roebuck and Samantha Schmidt, Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal, The Washington Post, October 19, 2025. In a deeply reported scoop, the Post showed the extent to which the US was willing to circumvent normal procedures to deport immigrants to El Salvador. To reach the deal with President Bukele, the US agreed to hand over nine MS-13 gang leaders in U.S. custody to El Salvador, even though some of these had informed on the relationship between MS-13 and Bukele.

• Rana Foroohar, America’s rare earth delusion, The Financial Times, October 19, 2025. The FT’s global business columnist writes astutely on U.S.-China rare earth metals competition. She covers the history of how the U.S. allowed China to corner the market on this strategic sector and paints a pessimistic outlook for improved relations.

• Lawrence Freedman, The Trump Peace Agreement: A Fragile Ceasefire in the Middle East, The Financial Times, October 15, 2025. The war historian examines the precarious “Trump Peace Agreement,” a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas beset by mistrust and political fragility. He argues that without swift deployment of a stabilization force, Hamas’s disarmament, and credible governance in Gaza, renewed conflict is inevitable.

• Anat Peled, The Israeli Politician Who Became Netanyahu’s Top Trump Whisperer, The Wall Street Journal, October 18, 2025. Peled profiles Ron Dermer, Israel’s U.S.-born minister of strategic affairs and longtime Netanyahu confidant, whose deep ties to Donald Trump and the American Right have made him one of the most influential figures in shaping Israel’s relationship with Washington. The piece traces Dermer’s two-decade partnership with Netanyahu, his central role in securing Trump’s backing for Israel’s Gaza campaign, and his controversial strategy of aligning Israel closely with Republicans and evangelical Christians at the expense of bipartisan support.

• Vera Bergengruen, Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’ Aims to Dominate the Americas, The Wall Street Journal, October 22, 2025. The Journal’s national security reporter describes President Trump’s revival and rebranding of the Monroe Doctrine into the so-called “Donroe Doctrine,” a sweeping effort to reassert U.S. dominance across the Western Hemisphere. The administration has launched military strikes on drug boats, sanctioned and pressured defiant Latin American leaders, and rewarded loyal right-wing allies. Supporters hail it as “America First” brought closer to home while critics warn it risks reviving U.S. imperialism and driving Latin America toward China.

• Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell, Ukraine, Diplomacy, and the Future of Europe (with Dmytro Kuleba), The Rest Is Politics Podcast, October 2025. In this episode, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba (2022–2024) joins The Rest is Politics to discuss Ukraine’s position in its ongoing war with Russia and the shifting landscape of Western diplomacy.

• Berber Jin, How Sam Altman Tied Tech’s Biggest Players to OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal, October 20, 2025. Jin details how Sam Altman’s aggressive dealmaking with Nvidia, Oracle, AMD, and others has bound much of Silicon Valley’s future to OpenAI, making the company effectively too big to fail amid growing fears of an AI bubble.

• Steff Chávez and Ian Bott, The US Forces Threatening Venezuela, The Financial Times, October 21, 2025. A detailed look at the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, with analysis on what capabilities the presence of different systems gives U.S. forces for potential actions against Venezuela.

Finally, in case you missed it here are links to some of the things I did and wrote this week.

• I wrote on President Trump’s biggest foreign policy success and failure as part of a panel for NOTUS.

• I posted a piece on America Abroad describing Vladimir Putin’s latest attempt to manipulate Trump’s desire for a deal.

• I appeared on The Observer’s The News Meeting podcast, joined Chris Jansing Reports on MSNBC, Alex Witt on MSNBC, and Audie Cornish on CNN This Morning to talk about the latest developments on Ukraine.

• And this week’s World Review focused on the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting and the new oil sanction on Russia.

Happy reading, watching, and listening!