Eurasia

Following a historic loss to Marine Le Pen’s right-wing party in European elections on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he is dissolving the French parliament. Macron said France will hold new elections on June 30 and July 7, a high-stakes maneuver that the WSJ said “stunned” the nation after …

Fidan’s attendance at the BRICS+ summit comes at a time when Turkey’s dismay with the European Union is growing over pending resumption of the modernization of the Customs Union Treaty. ANKARA — Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Sergei Shoigu in Moscow …

Iran’s hard-liners controlled all levers of powers in the Islamic republic during Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency. Despite Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash last month, hard-liners are expected to maintain their dominance as Iranians head to the polls to elect the ultraconservative president’s successor. The powerful Guardians Council on June 9 …

Perhaps for the first time Georgian-American relations are surviving the most critical period for 32-year long diplomatic relations. The span of these relations includes switching from the US humanitarian aid for Georgia in 1990s to the signing of the Strategic Partnership Charter in 2009. Adoption of the law on “Conductors …

It’s unclear why Russia is exploring the import of migrants from much more fundamentalist and dangerous Afghanistan who struggle to assimilate and integrate while scrutinizing migrants from much more secular and safer Tajikistan who have a history of assimilating and integrating into new societies. The Taliban’s Acting Minister of Labor …

Hamas issued new demands in the ceasefire negotiations with Israel on June 11. Hamas made the demands in response to the latest Israeli ceasefire proposal.[i] The demands include determining timelines for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. An unspecified senior Biden administration …

The Iranian Guardian Council approved a pool of six candidates that included mostly hardliners for the upcoming 2024 presidential election. The six approved candidates include five hardliners and one reformist on June 9 for the upcoming presidential election.[i] The Iranian regime likely approved the sole reformist candidate to feign political …

Echoes of the Run-Up to 9/11 From his confirmation hearing to become director of Central Intelligence in May 1997 until September 11, 2001, George Tenet was sounding an alarm about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. In those four years before al Qaeda operatives attacked the World Trade Center and …

Attara, Dakka Sebbe, Nienanpela, Dioura, and Ouro Fer — these five Malian towns saw elders murdered, civilians tortured, and property looted by the Wagner Group in January and February of 2024. And they are not isolated cases. Across the Sahel, the Wagner Group and the Africa Corps perpetrate massacres, rape, …

Israeli War Cabinet minister Benny Gantz resigned from the coalition government on June 9.[1] Gantz said he resigned because of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip, which he believes is ”preventing [Israel] from reaching true victory.”[2] Gantz called for Netanyahu to set an …