Yesterday, on his Truth Social platform, US president Donald Trump announced that he would ‘substantially reduce’ his country’s joint military exercises with South Korea, based on his ‘very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea’. In the same post, he noted: ‘While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, “No thanks!”’ Trump’s move reveals Washington to be an increasingly unreliable security guarantor for Seoul, despite the alliance forged at the end of the second world war. In our current issue Emil Pacha Valencia writes about one curious legacy of the country’s rapid modernisation, achieved under US auspices: South Korea’s enduring, shapeshifting relationship to shamanism.

Elsewhere, France’s far right draws lessons from Israel’s apartheid system; under pressure, Cuba makes market reforms; Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia mobilised people across the world. To dive into the stories behind the news, read ‘the longer view’ each month. Our entire archive is available online to subscribers.