Breaking the Black Sea Blockade: How Far Will the West Go?

The Biden administration and EU nations have been painstakingly “careful” to confine the war to Ukraine’s frontiers and the nearby Black Sea, according to reports. They are avoiding anything that might be construed as military escalation with Russia since the beginning of the war. This involves the collection of weaponry that Western nations have given to Kyiv.

PYD Co-chair Ready to Talk to Turkey, Regime

Saleh Muslim, the co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said on Wednesday that they are ready for dialogue with all parties including Turkey to solve the Syrian crisis.

Muslim told North Press, “We welcome all parties that want to solve the Syrian crisis and the Kurdish issue.”

Refugee Resentment on Rise as Poland’s Poorest Squeezed by Cost-of-Living Crisis

Poles are feeling the effects of the cost-of-living rise, though what damage this will do to the ruling party’s popularity ahead of next year’s election is still unclear.

At the Rozycki Bazaar in the North Prague district of the Polish capital, the mood is bleak. The market has existed for 150 years, but the owners of stalls think its days may be finally numbered.

In Impoverished North Albania, a Muslim’s Path to Radicalism

Ibrahim El Salih lost his job and his daughter and grew increasing belligerent in his social media posts. Then he was arrested for “encouraging terrorist acts”.

Ibrahim El Salih used to work as an inspector for the Protection of Territory at his local municipality in Kukes, a small town in northern Albania. A father of two, he was known as a practicing Muslim and a supporter of the opposition Democratic Party.

Open Balkan: Future Belongs To The People

The European Union’s treats Western Balkans states as a wicked stepmother. While this has not significantly changed even after the Russian invasion on Ukraine, it did triggered a fundamental debate on whether the EU wants at all to admit the remaining six Western Balkan countries (Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo) to full-fledged membership. If the EU would have an intent to admit the listed countries to its membership, the question to be asked is how it could do that. Namely, 19 years have passed since the adoption of the Thessaloniki agenda for the Western Balkans, which envisaged membership of the Western Balkan countries in the EU. Other than the promises about European perspective of the respective countries, nothing concrete has happened with respect to their membership in the EU.

Clampdown on African firearms trafficking

An Interpol co-ordinated police operation targeting illicit firearms in Central and West Africa saw 120 arrests and seizure of firearms, gold, drugs, fake medication, wildlife products and cash.

Operation Trigger VIII over six days in June, involved saw 520 law enforcement officials targeting 35 hotspots across Burkina Faso, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) , Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.