Eurasia

Eight years after a dry run for the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) was conducted between Mumbai and Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas, the Russian authorities are keen to convert this corridor into a significant logistics artery. The centrepiece of such plans is to make Astrakhan, a city about 100 kilometres …

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has reappointed Ahmad Jannati, 95, to another six-year term as the head of the Guardian Council. If still alive by then, he will finish his term when he turns 101. According to Khamenei’s decree, issued on Saturday, two other clerics, Mohammad-Reza Modarresi Yazdi and Mehdi …

The president of the BRICS International Forum expects Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to join the group “very soon”. In an interview with Russia’s Izvestia, Purnima Anand said that China, Russia and India discussed this issue during the 14th BRICS Summit, which was held online last month. “All these countries …

American President Joe Biden landed in Israel on Wednesday and started his four-day tour of the Middle East, the first since he took office. Moments after landing in Tel Aviv, he delivered a speech which outlined his intentions during this controversial tour. Biden has visited Israel several times before becoming …

U.S. senators evaluating President Biden’s nominees for two influential military assignments said Thursday that Russia’s spreading influence in volatile parts of Africa is jeopardizing American interests and implored both to prioritize the burgeoning policy dilemma, if they are confirmed. Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee appealed to Marine Corps …

Badly needed grain has been piling up in Ukrainian ports since Moscow invaded, but Russia’s top diplomat is in Africa saying the West is to blame. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia likes to cast himself as the leader of a global movement rising up against domination by the United …

Palestinian police said unknown assailants on Friday shot and wounded an official affiliated with Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers in the occupied West Bank. Nasser al-Shaer, who served as deputy Hamas prime minister for a year and a half after the group won the last Palestinian elections in 2006, was admitted …

Forged British passports are being sold online using slick advertising promising buyers that the documents will pass UK biometric border controls, UK media reports. The fakes include security features — holograms and watermarks — visible only under the ultraviolet lights in airport scanners. They are being sold via TikTok and …

Convert to Islam travelled to Syria in 2015 after Isis leader called for Muslims to join terror group A former Irish soldier has been jailed for being a member of Isis. Lisa Smith, 40, was sentenced to 15 months behind bars at a court in Dublin on Friday after she …

The threat of a Turkish invasion into northern Syria could lead to an ISIS jailbreak Turkey’s strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plan to purge the U.S.-allied Kurdish force from northern Syria could create an Act 2 for the Islamic State terrorist movement to build a new caliphate, noted experts on …