As a nation, the United States, as if we did not already know, is convulsed. Paranoid and divided, giddy with conspiracy and deranged by a fear of totalitarian seizure, hyper partisan and hostile to debate and any loose definition of facts (this condition afflicts the entire political spectrum), the only thing missing so far was this: an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate.
Cutting-edge technologies in the Russian-Ukrainian war are bizarrely mixed with century-old inventions: FPV drones on Starlink with thermal imagers drop shells from the 1950s or ram other drones with a tethered stick, “maize” drones from the First World War shoot down drones with machine guns or turn into unmanned drones themselves, and a wide variety of transport, from horse-drawn carts to unicycles, scurry behind the front line. Russians are going into assault attacks on motorcycles (which they didn’t do even in the Second World War), and the sky is protected by century-old Maxim machine guns with thermal imagers. The Insider tells how the co-evolution of modern technology and century-old equipment has turned the battlefield into a Mad Max sequel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, standing alongside top officials in New York on Friday, underscored the essential need to bolster the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA) across the Middle East amid continued attacks on its mandate, staff, premises and operations.
Latest Developments
Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraq-based Iranian proxy militia, threatened Saudi Arabia in a statement on July 13 for enabling the “the battle against the Palestinians.” Following previous threats to Riyadh, the group criticized via Telegram the “malicious role of Saudi Arabia’s rulers in harnessing their land routes to perpetuate the momentum of the battle against the Palestinians.”
Who Disbanded Iraq’s Army and De-Baathified Its Bureaucracy?
The history of Iraq was already being rewritten by L. Paul Bremer on his flight into Baghdad. It was May 2003, and Bremer, an experienced former ambassador and bureaucratic player—he’d served as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s chief of staff—was just weeks into his new role as presidential envoy to the freshly liberated country. After a flurry of briefings in Washington and a final Oval Office meeting with President George W. Bush, “Jerry,” as everyone called Bremer, had flown into Qatar and on to Kuwait and then Iraq. Bremer’s diplomatic career had taken him to most Middle Eastern capitals, but this was the first time he’d ever seen Baghdad. He had spent the previous two weeks trying to learn as much as he could about the country he would now rule.
From EU aspirations to political turmoil
Georgia’s relations with the West have seen better days. The country has recently found itself embroiled in controversy and diplomatic tensions, stemming from the passage of a controversial “foreign influence” law. This law has had far-reaching consequences, including the suspension of Georgia’s EU membership bid and the annulment of Western financial aid and military drills.
Political challenges among NATO members, the spectre of a second Trump presidency, and a bleaker military situation in Ukraine – compared to the expectations at the 2023 Vilnius Summit for the Ukrainian counteroffensive – made Washington feel like a ‘pre-storm summit’.
In recent days, widespread protests have erupted across many Turkish-controlled towns and cities in the countryside to the north of Aleppo and around Idlib. Some protests have escalated into violence, as clashes have broken out between local armed groups and Turkish forces, resulting in multiple casualties among both protesters and Turkish soldiers. The unrest followed racist attacks against Syrians that started in the Turkish city of Kayseri on June 30, destroying several Syrians’ properties.
INTRODUCTION
At a time when there is widespread anxiety around the world about the fate of democracy but not enough debate on the future of autocracy, Turkey presents an interesting case for scholars and policy-makers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spent two decades in power taking steps to build his neman rule. 2023 was the year when many thought it would finally come to an end. The government’s poor response to the devastating earthquake in February 2023 and Turkey’s mounting economic problems strengthened popular discontent with Erdoğan’s rule. Yet he still managed to win another term as president in the May 2023 elections thanks to the disarray among the six-party opposition coalition and its uninspiring candidate.