Grenades, Motorcycle Bombs, and Mined Roads: Colombia's Election Week Turns Into a War Zone

Colombia's Election Season Turns Deadly as FARC Dissidents Launch Wave of Attacks

At least 21 people are dead after a bomb blast Saturday on the Pan-American Highway near a tunnel between Cali and Popayán. Authorities blamed the FARC-EMC, a dissident faction led by Iván Mordisco — a former FARC member who refused to join the 2016 peace deal. It was the deadliest strike in a broader surge: Colombia's defense ministry says rebel groups staged 26 attacks with explosives and drones since Friday, targeting civilians and military bases across the country's southwest.

The timing matters. Voters head to the polls May 31 to choose from 14 presidential candidates. Crime is expected to be a top concern. Analyst Sergio Guzmán argues Mordisco's group is trying to "establish its credibility" with whoever wins — building leverage for future negotiations. The FARC-EMC abandoned peace talks with the Petro government in April 2024 and has been fighting ever since, using drone attacks and car bombs while battling the military for control of drug trafficking routes and illegal gold mines in Cauca and Valle del Cauca.

The attack has sharpened the election's central fault line. Petro's party candidate, Iván Cepeda, supports continuing "total peace" talks. Conservative rivals Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia want military pressure first. Petro himself, barred from running again, publicly speculated the violence was designed to help "the extreme right" win — without naming a specific culprit.

Gobble's Take: When a bomb on the Pan-American Highway kills 21 people a month before an election, every candidate's security promise just became the only promise that matters.

Source: NPR World

The Map of Global Trade Has Been Quietly Redrawn — and You're Paying the Tariff

McKinsey's analysts spent months combing through 2025 shipping data and emerged with a finding that upends conventional wisdom: global trade volumes are at record highs, but trade between close geopolitical allies — "friendshoring," in the jargon — has fallen 40% compared to pre-2022 levels. Meanwhile, commerce with strategic rivals kept pace with GDP growth. The net result is $28 trillion in annual flows being reshuffled along political fault lines rather than efficiency curves.

The concrete markers are striking. Vietnam now handles roughly 20% of Apple's production, shifted from China. Mexico overtook China as America's top import source last year, processing $475 billion in goods. The EU absorbed $200 billion in lost US exports as tariff volleys landed. India, despite sustained political tension with Beijing, doubled its electronics imports from China. Total trade volume still rose 3% — the system did not break, it bent into a new geometry where proximity to an ally is measured in strategic risk, not shipping distance.

The cost of that geometry gets passed down the supply chain: the same chip that used to cross one border now crosses four, and the price reflects every checkpoint.

Gobble's Take: "Made in Vietnam" is the new "Made in China" — except the tariff exemption expires whenever Washington's next foreign policy mood does.

Source: McKinsey

The World's Armed Conflicts Are at Their Highest Since World War II

The Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action has released its 2026 Preventive Priorities Survey, drawing on responses from approximately 620 U.S. government officials, foreign policy experts, and academics. The headline finding is not reassuring: the number of armed conflicts globally is now at its highest since the end of World War II. Compounding that, an increasing proportion are interstate conflicts — reversing a post–Cold War trend that had seen state-on-state warfare decline.

The United States is not a passive observer. The source states plainly that no other power has as many allies and security commitments, leaving Washington uniquely exposed to the growing risk of armed conflict. The second Trump administration has pursued a mixed record: seeking to end conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while simultaneously threatening force against several countries — including allies — in the Western Hemisphere. At the same time, it has dismantled U.S. government offices dedicated to strategic foresight and conflict prevention, slashing related funding without replacing those capabilities.

The survey covers thirty contingencies judged both plausible in 2026 and potentially harmful to U.S. interests, ranked across three priority tiers. CFR updates conflict tracking continuously through its interactive Global Conflict Tracker.

Gobble's Take: Tearing down your early-warning system while the threat level hits a post-WWII high is not a strategy — it's a blindfold.

Source: Council on Foreign Relations

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• Trump to Tehran: Dismantle Your Nuclear Program or There Is No Deal
• Mali's Defense Minister Killed in Rebel Offensive — The Sahel's Most Senior Assassination in Years
• Palestinians Vote for Local Councils for the First Time in 21 Years