US President Donald Trump announced his support for Azerbaijan in terms of natural gas supplies to European countries. In his opinion, such a solution will ensure global energy security. Obviously, such a situation cannot cause delight in Russia.
What did they talk about at the conference?
There has been a noticeable rift between the Tekhrek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan (IEA) for quite some time, and the causes are not political but ideological.
The IEA has fought against external interference, whereas the TTP, influenced by al-Qaeda, adheres to Takfiri ideology and pursues expansionist objectives. This fundamental ideological difference has resulted in the TTP and Islamic State of Khurasan Province (ISKP) being perceived as natural allies, as they share an identical point of view. However, it should be noted that both factions’ activities have only contributed to increased bloodshed and instability in the region.
Oversight, accountability, and governance of the security sector are essential ingredients to a capable and effective force, mitigating infractions and contributing to a learning environment that improves future practices.
Highlights
ISIS carried out at least 17 confirmed attacks in August in the Homs, Hama, Raqqa, and Deir Ez Zor governorates. These attacks killed at least 40 pro-Assad regime soldiers and wounded 21 additional soldiers and two civilians. There were also seven high quality* attacks during August. August was the most violent month in central Syria since the end of ISIS’s spring campaign when the group heavily targeted civilian truffle hunters across eastern Homs and western Deir Ez Zor. However, as in the months following those attacks, August’s activity was focused on regime security forces rather than civilians.
The American filmmaker Woody Allen said, ““Eighty percent of success is showing up.” If he is correct, America is not succeeding in Central Asia.
But the rulers of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and China, Xi Jinping, leave nothing to chance: Xj has visited every one of the republics and has been to Kazakhstan four times and Uzbekistan three times; Putin has visited Kazakhstan twenty-seven times (the countries share a 7,644-kilometre border), and has been to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan at least a dozen times each.
As Chile marks the 50th anniversary today of the coup that brought strongman Augusto Pinochet to power for almost 17 years — toppling Chile’s democratically-elected socialist government, and resulting in the murders and “disappearances” of thousands of Pinochet’s political opponents — it’s important to recall the central role played by Richard Nixon and Nixon’s national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, in this atrocity.
A U.S.-Iran understanding may have calmed tensions, but this was followed by Kurdish-Arab fighting that did precisely the opposite.
The summer was hot in northeastern Syria, as has been the transition to autumn. The season began with increased tensions between U.S. forces, which maintain a presence in the northeast, on the one hand, and Russia, Iran, and the Syrian regime on the other. According to U.S. officials and leaked documents from the Pentagon, since late 2022 Moscow, Tehran, and Damascus have been cooperating to increase pressure on U.S. forces and drive them out of the northeast. Russia has harassed U.S. and allied aircraft, and has also damaged U.S. drones. Iran-linked groups, in turn, have attacked American forces and carried out escalatory moves such as transporting anti-aircraft missiles into Deir al-Zor Governorate.
In early 2023, India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world with the latter having 850,000 fewer people by the end of 2022—marking the country’s first population decline since famine struck from 1959 to 1961. While this reduction may seem modest considering China’s 1.4 billion population currently, an ongoing decline is anticipated, with UN projections suggesting that China’s population could dwindle to below 800 million by 2100.
On September 10, 2023, the Al-Sahab Media Foundation, the official outlet of Al-Qaeda’s Central Command, released Issue 11 of its Arabic-language Ummah Wahidah (One Ummah) periodic magazine. The current issue is “dedicated to the 22nd anniversary of the #September_attacks,” perpetrated by Al-Qaeda against the U.S. on September 11, 2001.[1]
Every so often, history presents us with stories that sound more like Hollywood scripts than factual events. Among the pantheon of could-have-been episodes from the past, Operation Northwoods stands out as one of the most startling and controversial.