President Joe Biden was still on his holiday getaway in St. Croix when he spoke with his national security team on the first morning of 2024. The Iran-backed Houthis had launched yet another attack on international shipping in the Red Sea, and the president was ready to discuss the possibility …
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Iran Update, January 10, 2024
Key Takeaways: Hamas published several videos of its operations in the northern Gaza Strip, messaging that it still has a military presence there. The al Qassem Brigades and other Palestinian militias are not destroyed in the northern Gaza Strip and maintain a limited presence there, especially around southern Gaza City.A …
Read More »Sunsetting the War on Terror — Or Not
This week marks the 22nd anniversary of the opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, the infamous prison on the island of Cuba designed to hold detainees from this country’s Global War on Terror. It’s an anniversary that’s likely to go unnoticed, since these days you rarely hear about the …
Read More »Is grab of gas and oil resources a reason for displacing people of Gaza?
In recent days the death of at least 22,000 people and enormous other distress including the displacement of a vast majority of the people of Gaza have been caused as a result of the highly disproportionate response of Israel to the terrible attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. While …
Read More »Operation Iron Swords (Updated to 1 p.m., January 9, 2024)
The southern arena: The IDF forces focused on fighting in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip where they found a series of arms factories, including factories manufacturing long-range rockets. The sites were linked to a branching network of tunnels which were used to transport the weapons throughout the …
Read More »POLAND RISKS POLITICAL CHAOS AS NEW GOVERNMENT FACES DOWN OLD GUARD
Two top PiS politicians, one of them the former interior minister, are jailed, in what could become a major battleground for the former ruling party as it attempts to force early elections.On Wednesday morning, the former Polish interior minister Mariusz Kaminski and his ex-deputy, Maciej Wasik, woke up in prison …
Read More »BIRN Fact-Check: Was Kosovo’s First Transitional Justice Strategy Worth the Wait?
Kosovo’s first-ever transitional justice strategy is soon to be adopted, almost 25 years after the war ended – but experts argue that although it’s a step forward, it doesn’t do enough to address the problems that have persisted since 1999. More than two years since the drafting of Kosovo’s first-ever …
Read More »Serbian Democracy is Paying a Price for Western Geopolitical Interests
Western actors in the Balkans prioritize regional stability above all other considerations – and while Vucic delivers that, they will continue to view election irregularities as a secondary matter.Just five days after highly controversial elections in Serbia, the social media accounts of the US embassy in Belgrade published a video …
Read More »Is Qatar, That Built Hamas’s Empire of Terrorism, An Honest Broker?
If the ruler of Qatar really wanted to end the hostage saga, all he has to do is issue an ultimatum to Hamas that if the hostages are not released within, say, 48 hours, he will expel all the Hamas leaders who are still in Qatar and stop funding and …
Read More »India’s Role As A Rising Energy Provider To The EU: Key Influencing Factors – Analysis
The commencement of the Ukraine war in February 2022 sparked an unforeseen surge in energy trade, particularly in oil, between Russia and India. Prior to the war, Russia contributed a mere one percent to India’s total oil imports. However, within a year, this share witnessed a remarkable escalation, reaching 35 …
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