Chinese president calls for building closer Belt and Road partnership

China stands ready to work with all parties to build a closer Belt and Road partnership, President Xi Jinping said Wednesday in a written message to the Asia and Pacific High-level Conference on Belt and Road Cooperation.

Xi said the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that he proposed is aimed at carrying forward the spirit of the Silk Road, working together to build an open platform of cooperation, and providing new impetus for cooperation and development among countries.

Asian Countries Welcome G7’s Answer to China’s One Belt, One Road Program

Bangladesh and nations in Southeast Asia are welcoming the Group of Seven’s new answer to China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, saying it will be another source for financing their burgeoning infrastructure needs.

But because the U.S.-led Build Back Better World Partnership (B3W) initiative is scant in details, officials of some governments in the region and analysts say they also are waiting for more information to see how it can help their countries. China has an eight-year head start and has pumped huge amounts of money into its global infrastructure-building program (OBOR).

Warning Shots Fired at British Destroyer in Black Sea, Russia Says

Russian forces said they fired warning shots Wednesday at a British Royal Navy destroyer taking part in a U.S.-led naval exercise in the Black Sea near Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said the action was taken because the HMS Defender entered 3 kilometers into Russia’s territorial waters. Britain says no shots were fired toward the vessel.

Libye : à Berlin, les participants appellent au retrait « sans délai » des mercenaires

Alors que la première conférence de Berlin consacrée à la Libye avait débouché sur des déclarations d’intention, des avancées tangibles ont été notées lors de la deuxième édition. Explications.

La Libye a fait état le 23 juin de progrès en vue d’un départ des forces étrangères de son territoire, avec des discussions russo-turques en vue sur un retrait initial de plusieurs centaines d’hommes de part et d’autre.

Israel Previously Set Eyes on Targeted Iranian Site

The factory producing centrifuges for Iran’s nuclear project, which was reportedly targeted by a mysterious drone attack on Wednesday, was among a handful of facilities presented by Israeli intelligence to the previous White House administration as potential targets for sabotage attacks, The New York Times revealed Thursday.

How Biden Helped Hardliner Raisi Win Iran Election

It was common knowledge that a U.S. failure to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal (known as the JCPOA) before Iran’s June presidential election would help conservative hard-liners to win the election. Indeed, on Saturday, June 19, the conservative Ebrahim Raisi was elected as the new President of Iran.

The Insurgency Against Big Oil

While Australian politicians languish in a world blotched by climate change scepticism and fossil fuel love-ins, global oil and gas companies have been shaken. Three titans of oil fame – Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron – faced a range of decisions in May that promise to dramatically shape their future operations. The point is not negligible, given that this triarchy produced, between 1988 and 2015, 5% of total global scope 1 and 3 emissions.