WORLD ROUNDUPAmerica’s Soft-Power Retreat | The Islamic State Has Regrouped in Somalia — and Has Global Ambitions | Illusions of Containment, and more

Brazil: The Threat from the Right  (Christopher de Bellaigue, New York Review of Books)
Former president Jair Bolsonaro and his allies have brought violence into Brazilian political discourse, with consequences that will endure.

Illusions of Containment  (Tom Stevenson, London Review of Books)
Hamas had been able to take power in Gaza because Israel had failed to circumscribe Palestinian politics within the Oslo boundaries. But in the event, Hamas was useful to Israel’s larger strategy of occupation.

America’s Soft-Power Retreat  (Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker)
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s gutting of U.S.A.I.D. will weaken Washington’s reach, but the U.S. was already losing the fight for global influence.

The Madness of Donald Trump  (David Remnick, New Yorker)
To Benjamin Netanyahu’s delight, Trump proposes the wholesale ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the creation of a new “Riviera.”

Jordan, Home to Millions of Palestinians, Fears Trump’s Gaza Proposal  (Claire Parker, Washington Post)
The push by Trump has turbocharged a reckoning over Jordan’s reliance on U.S. aid and revived existential questions over the country’s identity.

“Riviera of the Middle East”: How Trump Sees Gaza as a Real Estate Deal  (Matt Viser, Jacqueline Alemany and Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post)
A former developer of skyscrapers, resorts and golf clubs around the world, the president in some ways has reduced one of the most enduring political conflicts in recent history to a construction challenge.

Trump’s Tariff Tactics Are an Unpromising Foreign Policy Anomaly (Max Boot, Washington Post)
There’s no U.S. precedent for Trump’s tariff use. But it does evoke China’s economic bullying.

Trump Says He May Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt if They Don’t Take Gazans  (Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Shawn McCreesh, New York Times)
The president turned up the pressure on the two nations to agree to his proposal for them to house the Palestinian population of Gaza and said the Palestinians would not have the right to return to the territory.

The Islamic State Has Regrouped in Somalia — and Has Global Ambitions  (Katharine Houreld, Washington Post)
The Post ventured to the front lines of an offensive against the Islamic State in northern Somalia, where foreign fighters are flowing in and cash is flowing out.

China’s Stunning New Campaign to Turn the World Against Taiwan  (Economist)
Seventy countries have recently backed “all Chinese efforts” to take the island

Kurdish Officials Fear Islamic State Revival as U.S. Aid Cuts Loom  (William Christou, Guardian)
Humanitarian groups worried north-east Syrian camps holding suspected IS members will lose basic facilities.