New START nuclear arms treaty between US and Russia has expired. US and China urges citizens to leave Iran now. Beijing is livid over Panama Canal ports decision

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On Thursday the world woke up entering uncharted territory as the US-Russia New START Nuclear Treaty has expired without renewal. The pact’s last active day was February 4.

While there’s yet hope that a comparable replacement could soon be forged between the globe’s largest nuclear-armed powers and rivals, there are no current intensive talks happening on this front which have a ‘legal’ status related to international arms control.

Russian state media on Thursday has issued confirmation the last remaining nuclear arms pact between Washington and Moscow has ceased. According to statements in TASS:

The final day of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) falls on February 4, 2026. The United States has not responded to a proposal made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2025 to continue observing the treaty’s quantitative limits on warheads and their delivery systems for one more year after its expiration.

The document itself does not provide for another formal extension, as was done in 2021. As a result, beginning on February 5, if no reaction comes from Washington, the last bilateral agreement regulating US-Russia relations in the sphere of strategic stability will become history, Vedomosti writes

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uncharted-territory-us-russia-now-have-no-limits-nuclear-weapons

China is lashing out at Panama after the country’s top court torpedoed a key Chinese-linked operations contract at the Panama Canal, warning that the Central American nation “will inevitably pay a heavy price” if it doesn’t reverse course.

Under immense US pressure from the Trump White House, Panama’s Supreme Court last week ruled to void the operating license of Hong Kong–based CK Hutchison for ports on both ends of the canal – Balboa on the Pacific side and Cristóbal on the Atlantic.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/billions-chinese-investment-flee-panama-beijing-livid-over-canal-ports-decision