This week we saw the first real challenge to the EU’s ever-growing sanctions regime against Russia. Predictably, it was Hungary who threatened to derail what should have been a standard renewal of the over 1,200 people and 100 companies that the bloc has slapped visa bans and asset freezes on since Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in February.
Global inflation was generally moderating when the pandemic began, and the downward trend continued into the early months of the crisis. But surging prices since late 2020 have pushed inflation steadily higher. The average global cost of living has risen more in the 18 months since the start of 2021 than it did during the preceding five years combined.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has inspired civilisationalist leaders to emerge from the woodwork and publicly define their states as civilisational rather than national entities.
These leaders speak of civilisational or ethnic worlds with borders that transcend national frontiers, not nation-states. How far they may wish to push claims that challenge the nation-state-based international order is likely to be heavily influenced by whether Mr. Putin achieves his civilisationalist goals in Ukraine.
The Wisdom of Rummy
Almost 20 years ago, in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I had the opportunity to meet the late Donald Rumsfeld. Say about him what you will, but he was great with the troops and, despite being the US Secretary of Defense, spoke to us all well and treated us as equals. He came off as “one of the guys” and didn’t want any special perks. He even tried to wave off a personal security detail (PSD) as he insisted on walking a few hundred meters to a large outdoor speaking engagement. He indeed walked, PSD alert and close by, chatting with soldiers the entire time.
U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters arrested dozens of Islamic State militants and rescued four women who were being held chained in tunnels at the massive al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria that houses IS families, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
Italian energy group Eni (ENI.MI) said on Wednesday it had agreed to acquire BP’s (BP.L) business in Algeria, including two major gas fields.
Albanian counter-terrorism police searched the empty Iranian embassy in Tirana on Thursday, hours after Iranian diplomats burned papers inside the premises following the severing of diplomatic ties over a cyberattack.
Maintenant que l’armée française s’est complètement retirée du pays, il va être difficile d’imputer à l’ancien colonisateur les revers des soldats de Bamako et l’avancée des groupes jihadistes.
Avec une poignée de mercenaires russes, la junte malienne doit désormais assumer ses responsabilités alors que les Casques bleus sont progressivement mis sur la touche et que la Cedeao est en train d’assouplir son train de sanctions économiques. La récente attaque menée contre le camp de Kati, à moins de 20 km de la capitale, n’est guère rassurante à cet égard.
As Russians struggle to maintain a steady source of ammunition and artillery, they look to their Asian neighbor North Korea for arms.
War rages – again – in northern Ethiopia. The resumption of conflict on 24 August between the federal military, forces from the Amhara region, which borders Tigray, and Eritrean troops, on one side, and Tigray forces, on the other, marks the breach of a roughly nine-month truce that had largely halted some of the world’s deadliest fighting. The return to blows is a setback for a struggling peace process and strenuous efforts to get food to millions of besieged Tigrayans. Although it is unclear exactly why combat restarted or whether either side planned a sustained campaign, both immediately escalated, with a Tigrayan offensive to the south into Amhara and a joint Ethiopian-Eritrean incursion into Tigray from the north. Sustained full-blown hostilities would mean prolongation of a likely unwinnable war, creating more mass suffering. Instead, the Ethiopian parties must renew the truce and overcome the obstacles that have impeded the beginning of formal talks. Concerted high-level pressure by donors, many of whom have been distracted by the Ukraine crisis, will likely be vital to any breakthrough.