May, 2022

• 20 May

  Moscow’s ‘defeat’ as Finland, Sweden move to join NATO

  

  Once both countries are admitted into the 30-member security bloc, NATO forces may be right next to the Finnish-Russian border. Russian President Vladimir Putin is waking up to a security disaster. In February, he said that his country’s “special operation” against Ukraine was a preemptive move to terminate NATO’s “endless” …

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• 20 May

  Why Erdoğan’s NATO Blackmail Is Subversion

  

  President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is trying to turn what appears to be the most strategic move in NATO’s history into carpet-trading at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. “The Russian-Kurdish nexus has been a recurring feature of Middle Eastern geopolitics for more than two hundred years, since Catherine the Great commissioned the publication …

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• 20 May

  US plan to remove Kahanist group from ‘terror’ list draws concern

  

  Advocates say US should include more far-right Israeli groups on ‘terrorism’ blacklist, not delist Kahane Chai. Palestinian rights advocates have raised the alarm over US plans to remove a violent, far-right Israeli group from Washington’s list of “foreign terrorist organizations” (FTO), warning that such a move may embolden Kahane Chai’s …

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• 20 May

  Will Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon be weakened by Sunday’s elections?

  

  Lebanon’s first elections since 2018 were held on Sunday, in a country beset by state mismanagement and endemic corruption, whose currency has lost 90% of its value and where 80% of the population lives in poverty. The results of the elections could determine whether the international community will provide Lebanon …

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• 20 May

  Terrorist-linked Hezbollah loses majority in Lebanese elections

  Iran-backed political and militant group Hezbollah lost its parliamentary coalition majority in the Lebanese elections, officials announced on Tuesday. Reformist political groups, including Lebanese Forces, Hezbollah’s main Christian rival, won around 10% of Lebanon’s seats in the first parliamentary elections since the country’s economic crisis began, which were held Sunday. …

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• 20 May

  Bosnia’s Dangerous Path

  

  How U.S. Policy Is Making a Bad Situation Worse In the Balkans, and especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, images from Ukraine of besieged cities, massacres, and mass displacement are re-traumatizing a society that has never been allowed to heal after the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. …

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• 20 May

  The Russian Military’s People Problem

  

  It’s Hard for Moscow to Win While Mistreating Its Soldiers It’s Hard for Moscow to Win While Mistreating Its Soldiers Six days before the invasion of Ukraine, a small group of Russian soldiers huddled together in their tents in Belarus. One of them had covertly acquired a smartphone—barred by the …

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• 20 May

  300,000 Metric Tons of Wheat Bought by Egypt Stuck in Ukraine

  

  Some 300,000 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat that had been scheduled for delivery to Egypt in February and March has not yet been shipped, Reuters first reported. One of the cargo shipments remains stuck in Ukraine’s Chornomorsk Port on the north-western shore of the Black Sea, and four have not …

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• 20 May

  Report: US To Participate in Israeli Simulation of Military Strike on Iran

  

  The US military will participate in a major Israeli drill later this month simulating an airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Tuesday. The drill, part of an exercise dubbed “Chariots of Fire,” will include the air-to-air refueling of Israeli fighter jets by US Air Force tanker …

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• 20 May

  694 Ukrainian Soldiers Surrender at Azovstal Steel Plant

  Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian officials confirmed that negotiations on a solution to the conflict have been suspended as the process is mired in stalemate. On Wednesday, Russia informed that 694 Ukrainian soldiers blocked at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol have surrendered over the past 24 hours, including 29 wounded. “A …

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