The Biden administration has been unable to get Gulf states to increase oil production to bring down prices and some European states are seeking alternatives to Russian natural gas.
The United Arab Emirates’ energy head has endorsed an agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia. Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said that the war in Ukraine should not affect the oil giants’ plans.
Last week, good news emerged from Ethiopia. The federal government announced a truce in its sixteen-month conflict with Tigrayan forces, expressing hope that its action would improve the humanitarian situation in the region and pave the way for lasting peace. Tigrayan forces responded in kind, pledging to make the truce a success.
A slowdown for good or a temporary lull during the storm of war?
While the number of refugees who have flooded out of Ukraine nears 4 million, fewer people have crossed the border in recent days. Border guards, aid agencies and refugees themselves say Russia’s unpredictable war on Ukraine offers few signs whether it’s just a pause or a permanent drop-off.
Tunisian police forces have dismantled about 150 militant cells in the past six months, a spokesman for the National Guard said on Saturday.
He added that some of the foreign militants arrested were planning to join “Jond Kilafha”, a group linked to Islamic State in Libya and in the mountains on the Tunisian-Algerian border.
An Extremist Regime Is Pushing Afghanistan to the Brink
When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, some observers suggested that their approach to governance might prove more moderate this time around. Twenty years had elapsed since the group was last in charge. The country had transformed dramatically, and with the fight against the United States over, tasks like collecting garbage and keeping the lights on now seemed largely nonideological in nature.
The effects of the war in Ukraine are already being felt across the world, from rocking world energy markets to spurring a growing refugee crisis in Europe.
But the conflict could have more ripple effects, including sparking a global food crisis.
Intelligence agencies worldwide are warning that Taliban rule in Afghanistan is radically reshaping terrorist and militant groups in South Asia and around the world.
Specifically, intelligence and counterterrorism officials say that despite Taliban promises to sever ties with al-Qaida and oppose terror groups such as the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, as codified in the 2020 Doha agreement with the United States, there has been scant evidence of progress.
Iran departed from its usual patterns by openly claiming responsibility for a missile strike inside Iraq.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) asserted that the attack was in retaliation for a recent deadly strike by Israel on IRGC officers in Syria.
Iran remains committed to driving U.S. forces out of Iraq and exerting preponderant influence there.
The strike might have intended to shape the formation of a new Iraqi government and maximize Tehran’s leverage in ongoing multilateral nuclear talks.
The Ukrainian military has benefited significantly from security cooperation efforts of the U.S. and its allies, which have provided Kyiv with training and weapons that have proved crucial so far in bleeding Russian forces.
In addition to training provided by the U.S., the U.K. and Canada have also provided training, while a plethora of Western and NATO countries have provided supplies, equipment, weaponry, and ammunition.
Since 2014, the U.S. has supplied Ukraine with more than $2.5 billion in military assistance, including supplying the Ukrainian military with everything from counter-mortar radars to Javelin anti-tank missiles.
According to a recent report from Yahoo News, secret support provided by CIA paramilitaries was indispensable to Ukrainian forces, including snipers and other elite units who benefited from this covert action training program.
In Ukraine, the Russians are still launching airstrikes on the capital city of Kyiv, but it appears the Russian military is less interested now in conducting ground operations there than they have been in the past and are instead now focused on an eastern area of the country known as the Donbas.