The U.S. continues to provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait after a Senate panel voted in favor of providing Taiwan with $6.5 billion in weapons funding that will help the island control its “security and right of self-determination.” Sen. Robert Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised the passage of the Taiwan...
U.S. Central Command said its forces in Syria clashed with Iran-backed fighters in the country for two consecutive days last week, killing four suspected fighters. The Financial Times noted that the clashes have occurred as the U.S. tries to revive the controversial nuclear deal with Tehran. A senior U.S. official told the paper that the...
Fighting broke out again in Ethiopia between Tigrayan forces and troops from Addis Ababa last week, bringing an end to the months-long ceasefire in the region after a bloody conflict. The Trends Journal has featured detailed coverage of the war since it was launched in November 2020. (See for example “ANOTHER NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER GOES TO WAR,” “ETHIOPIA’S...
Former U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who became the country’s prime minister last week, has pledged to continue to keep ramping up the Ukraine War and fight for Russia’s defeat with the same energy as her scandal-plagued predecessor Boris Johnson. The Conservative Party said Truss defeated her top challenger, Rishi Sunak, the former Treasury head,...
Israel has been accused of carrying out more military strikes on civilian targets in Syria last week after two deadly rounds of bombings that targeted Aleppo International Airport, damaging infrastructure. Syria blamed Israel for the attacks on the airport within a matter of days. Al Jazeera, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that...
Giorgia Meloni, the head of the Brothers of Italy party, appears poised to win the country’s upcoming election later this month along with a coalition that includes Matteo Salvini’s Five Star Movement, and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia. Meloni, 45, has been described in the Italian media as a firebrand with sympathies for Mussolini and who...
The Global Times ran an editorial last week that was critical of comments made by the U.S. ambassador to China about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to Taiwan and said it exemplifies how Washington misunderstands the issue from “top to bottom.” Nicholas Burns, the ambassador, called out China for “manufacturing” a crisis and said...
The Biden administration announced last Monday that it will not release the $3.5 billion it seized belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank after alleging that the Taliban is providing safe harbor for an Al Qaeda leader in Kabul. President Joe Biden believes that he gets to determine how to spend the $7 billion in Afghan assets...
France ended its nearly decade-long military operation in Mali last week after the relationship between the two countries soured after a recent military coup in Bamako. French troops, who have been in the country ostensibly to support the government’s fight against Islamic extremism, have been accused of carrying out “acts of aggression.” These allegations included...
Israeli soldiers raided the offices of seven Palestinian human rights organizations and an Episcopalian church last week. Tel Aviv accused them of having ties to terror cells, to which the NGOs and church denied the claim, saying the raids were launched to intimidate and shut them down. Mazen Rantisi, the head of the board of...