June, 2021

• 16 June

  How OPEC Shook Off a Historic Crash to Successfully Stabilize Oil Markets

  

  The global clout of OPEC, never one of the world’s most admired institutions, reached a nadir in April when a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia triggered a price war just as global oil demand was collapsing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Three months later, the cartel has re-emerged as …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  Turkey’s muddled approach to Palestine

  

  Ankara sees a recently ratified security cooperation deal between Turkey and the Palestinian Authority as groundwork for a possible maritime boundary agreement between Turkey and Palestine. Experts see such prospects as far-fetched. As the Holy Land emerges from a fresh round of clashes, Turkey has ratified a comprehensive cooperation agreement …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  Erdogan’s meeting with Biden more spin than substance

  

  The two leaders’ first meeting as heads of state led to detailed discussions, but there were no breakthroughs. The long-awaited meeting today between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden went pretty much as expected, with none of the big issues poisoning ties between the NATO allies …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  Syria’s last aid crossing in balance as Biden to meet Putin

  President Joe Biden will seek to stave off another surge of civilian suffering in the devastating war in Syria when he meets President Vladimir Putin this week, appealing to Putin to drop a threat to close the last aid crossing into that country. Russian forces have helped Syrian President Bashar …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  New Israel government vows change, but not for Palestinians

  Israel’s fragile new government has shown little interest in addressing the decades-old conflict with the Palestinians, but it may not have a choice. Jewish ultranationalists are already staging provocations aimed at splitting the coalition and bringing about a return to right-wing rule. In doing so, they risk escalating tensions with …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  Critical entities targeted in suspected Chinese cyber spying

  A cyberespionage campaign blamed on China was more sweeping than previously known, with suspected state-backed hackers exploiting a device meant to boost internet security to penetrate the computers of critical U.S. entities. The hack of Pulse Connect Secure networking devices came to light in April, but its scope is only …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  Buoyed by allied summits, Biden ready to take on Putin

  Fresh from supportive summits with allies, Joe Biden declared himself ready Tuesday to take on Russia’s Vladimir Putin in far more confrontational talks — a climactic finish to the most important week of meetings in his young presidency. Biden meets for his first talks as president with the Russian leader …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  NATO Secretary General: Summit will be pivotal moment

  Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg previewed the 14 June NATO Summit in an online press conference on Friday (11 June 2021), calling the gathering of 30 world leaders a “pivotal moment for our Alliance and for our collective security”. Describing a world of growing global competition, he said that the NATO …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  2 confidants of senior Jordan royal charged with sedition

  The prosecutor of Jordan’s state security court on Sunday filed sedition and incitement charges against two confidants of King Abdullah II’s half-brother Hamzah, marking the latest step in a rare, intrigue-filled palace drama that has rattled the Western-backed kingdom. The affair erupted into the open in early April when Hamzah …

  Read More »
• 16 June

  IDF strikes Gaza Strip after incendiary balloon fires

  A number of fires broke out in southern Israel on Tuesday, with at least 20 of them sparked by incendiary balloons launched from Gaza. The IDF struck a number of military sites belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night in response to 20 fires sparked by incendiary …

  Read More »