Signing day

Recently: Why are Colombian armed gangs and militias launching so many drone attacks? Robert Hamilton on the new art of war.

Today: Congo and Rwanda signed a peace deal in June. Rwandan troops haven’t withdrawn. M23 keeps advancing. Thursday brought another ceremony in Washington—with fighting still underway in South Kivu. So why sign again?

+ For members: How has Europe become the destination for so much dirty money—and what are European states doing about it? Tena Prelec on why it is so hard to root out grand corruption.

& New music from Makthaverskan ...

The ceremony and the ground

On Thursday in Washington, Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame signed documents before a “Delivering Peace” backdrop at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. At roughly the same moment, AFP journalists in South Kivu heard weapons fire outside M23-controlled Kamanyola. Local officials reported houses bombed, civilians dead. The ceremony ratified a June deal whose terms—Rwandan troop withdrawal, end to M23 support—remain unfulfilled five months later. What Thursday added were economic agreements on critical minerals, infrastructure, and energy. Why did both governments sign again when June’s commitments remain unmet?

The new economic deals suggest an answer. Washington is scrambling to counter Chinese dominance in Congo’s cobalt and coltan, essential for electric vehicles and defense systems. Denis Mukwege told Reuters the deals were driven by minerals, not peace: “This morning, in my native village, people were burying the dead while a peace agreement was being signed.” The structure supports him. Security commitments are old; economic agreements are new. M23 isn’t party to any of it. Whether mineral access becomes contingent on security compliance—or flows regardless—will show what Thursday actually produced.

Meanwhile

• Old friends under new pressure. Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in New Delhi on Thursday for his first visit since the 2022 Ukraine invasion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted him at the airport—a gesture India reserves for its closest partners. The visit marks 25 years of strategic partnership as U.S. President Donald Trump imposes 50 percent tariffs on Indian goods, punishing New Delhi for buying Russian oil.
• The empty press room. The New York Times sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon on Thursday, challenging restrictions that prompted at least 30 outlets—Fox News, CNN, Newsmax among them—to surrender credentials rather than pledge not to seek unauthorized information. This week, Hegseth welcomed pro-Trump influencers as the “new Pentagon press corps.”
• The congressman from Laredo. Trump announced on Wednesday that he’s pardoning Representative Henry Cuellar, the Texas Democrat indicted in 2024 on charges of accepting nearly US$600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani state company and a Mexican bank. Trump claimed Cuellar was prosecuted for criticizing former President Joe Biden’s border policies. Cuellar filed for reelection as a Democrat the same day.
• The streaming endgame. Warner Bros. Discovery received binding bids this week from Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount Skydance. Netflix submitted a mostly-cash offer for streaming and studio assets—HBO Max, DC, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones. Paramount, backed by Saudi, Qatari, and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, wants the whole company. Bank of America analysts: a Netflix win means “the streaming wars are over.”
• Fragments and counting. Israel on Thursday identified remains returned from Gaza as those of Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai agricultural worker killed on October 7, 2023. One deceased hostage’s remains—the Israeli national Ran Gvili—are still missing. Since the ceasefire began in October, 20 living hostages and 27 sets of remains have returned. Phase two, Trump said, is “moving along.”

For members

Inside the house

How has Europe become the destination for so much dirty money—and what are European states doing about it? Tena Prelec on why it is so hard to root out grand corruption.

On Monday, the European Union announced a breakthrough: The Council and Parliament reached a deal on the bloc’s first-ever anti-corruption directive, harmonizing definitions of bribery, misappropriation, and obstruction of justice across all 27 member states. “A win for Europe,” according to the lead negotiator, Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle. The same week, the U.S. administration confirmed it would not enforce beneficial-ownership legislation meant to prevent shell companies—part of a broader rollback in America that has frozen the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, floated golden visas for wealthy foreigners, and gutted the agencies that once led global anti-corruption efforts.

Two continents, two directions. But is Europe’s new framework enough for the job?

Here in The Signal, Tena Prelec explores how European policy makers still misunderstand what they’re fighting. Kleptocracy isn’t foreign interference, Tena says; it’s a transnational network that operates with the active cooperation of Western elites. London offers oligarchs a “one-stop shop”; Cyprus sold them passports; Austria and the Netherlands provide structures to hide ownership. The Ukraine war made corruption a political issue overnight—but only corruption from hostile states. Dirty money from the Gulf, from Azerbaijan, from anywhere geopolitically convenient still flows freely. Until Europe treats grand corruption like organized crime—targeting the networks, not just the foreigners—the new directive may be less a breakthrough than another piecemeal fix …

New music

‘Pity Party’

The Swedish punkish-dreampop outfit Makthaverskan is back with a first single for an album that won’t be out until April—bright, searching, propulsive. And Maja Milner’s still searching for a relationship that works.