Qatar’s ruling emir visited Saudi Arabia on Monday for the first time since signing a declaration with the kingdom and other Arab Gulf states to ease a years-long rift and end an embargo that had frayed ties among important U.S. allies and security partners. Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al …

A rocket attack on a Turkish military supply convoy in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province has killed one soldier and wounded four others, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. Turkish forces retaliated to the attack by firing on targets they identified in the region, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It …

U.S. President Joe Biden said May 10 that Russia has “some responsibility” to address a ransomware attack that has paralyzed the largest U.S. fuel pipeline, although he refrained from directly blaming the Kremlin. Biden said there was “no evidence” the Russian government was involved in the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, …

European and Chinese leaders are urging swift ratification of the trade deal they agreed to in December, after tensions over accusations of human rights abuses in China delayed approval of the deal by European Union lawmakers. The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) took seven years of negotiations and was …

The US–China rivalry has many dimensions, but at its heart is a strategic contest over primacy in the Western Pacific. Although this contest is being waged on many fronts — including economic, diplomatic and ideological — it is essentially military. China seeks to challenge US leadership in the Western Pacific …

The German birth rate is considerably below what’s needed to replace the population. German seniors, meanwhile, are living longer and drawing more on state resources for their pensions and health care. There are basically two ways out of this demographic crisis. First of all, Germany could boost its birth rate. …

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been known as an oasis of calm and stability in a region ridden with conflicts. But last month, as King Abdullah II placed his half-brother, Prince Hamzah, under house arrest along with 18 others, the kingdom’s many vulnerabilities were exposed. There have been succession …

America’s “unipolar moment” has lingered on in the international distribution of space capabilities, but it will not last forever. American space partisans could be forgiven for yawning at the recent announcement that the Russian and Chinese space agencies will build a joint lunar research base. The statement included no timeline, …

Shairbek Dzhuraev, Crossroads Central Asia Peace is on the brink in Central Asia. The border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has reached a new bottom. The clashes of the past week left at least 40-50 people killed, mostly civilians. More than a hundred houses were burned, and remnants of good …