On October 9th, U.S. officials met with representatives of the Taliban for the first talks after American withdrawal from Afghanistan in August. These talks, taking place in Qatar, are expected to focus on issues of humanitarian aid, the evacuation of American citizens, and the ongoing containment of extremist groups in
On Saturday the 2nd of October, Taiwan announced a scrambling of its fighter jets following the largest-ever incursion of Chinese aircraft into its airspace. As Beijing celebrated the founding of the People’s Republic of China, 38 aircraft flew through Taiwanese airspace in two waves, including two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers. The
On 17 September, American officials admitted that an August drone attack in Kabul did not kill an ISIS-K operative as initially claimed. Instead, the drone strike which occurred on August 29 killed an aid worker and nine other members of his family. United States officials have apologized, but surviving members
Over the weekend of September 11th, Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will visit Iran for talks to try and ease a standoff that has emerged between Iran and the Western world over the former’s nuclear program. Earlier this same week, the U.N. atomic watchdog
In Afghanistan, resistance against Taliban rule continued to mount over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of September. In Kabul, dozens of women marched on the presidential palace to demand their rights under a Taliban-led Afghanistan. Meanwhile, violent resistance in the Panjshir Valley region north of Kabul continued as
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have made major gains over the past week. At the time of writing, on Sunday the 15th of August, the Afghan government no longer controls many of the nation’s major cities. Since August 9th, the Taliban has managed to seize over 22 provincial capitals throughout the
On Friday, August 6th, the United Nations’ special envoy for Afghanistan has made clear to the UN Security Council that the war in Afghanistan has entered a more destructive phase. Violence continues to engulf Afghanistan as the Taliban make further advances in the wake of foreign withdrawal. Late last week,
On Friday, the 30th of July, Libya’s main coastal road was finally reopened after years of conflict. The resumption of traffic along the road was a key element of a ceasefire agreed upon last year. Observers hope that this move will draw the nation’s east and west closer together. The
On Saturday the 17th of July, Afghan politicians and Taliban representatives met in Qatar once more in efforts to end fighting in Afghanistan. With the ongoing withdrawal of foreign fighters in recent weeks, Taliban forces have been able to amass serious gains in a short period. Recent estimates find that
On Sunday the 11th of July, the leaders of North Korea and China exchanged messages vowing to strengthen cooperation between their two nations. These messages came on the 60th anniversary of a treaty of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance between the two nations, and at a time when both may
As of 2 July, American military forces officially left Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, located 30 miles north of Kabul. Control was transferred to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in a ceremony on the third, ending 20 continuous years of its occupation by the United States. This withdrawal of American
On Saturday, 12 June, the Group of Seven (G7) nations revealed plans for a major infrastructure program for lower-income countries. This program, dubbed the “Build Back Better World” (B3W) initiative, is clearly intended as a Western-aligned alternative to Beijing’s ‘Belt and Road’ (BRI) infrastructure initiative, which some commentators believe to
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is set to meet with American President Joe Biden on Friday the 25th of June following a surge of violence in Afghanistan. The meeting between Biden and Ghani, joined by Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of Aghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, will be the first face-to-face
On May 28, Germany formally apologized for the genocide of the Herero and Nama people of Namibia during the nation’s colonial period. As part of this apology, the German government offered to fund 1.1 billion euros worth of reconstruction and development projects in Namibia over 30 years. While this offer
On Saturday the 15th of May, Israel launched further airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, a major escalation of ongoing violence that killed a family of 10 in a refugee camp, bombed the home of a senior Hamas leader, and destroyed a high-rise building containing The Associated Press and other media
On Saturday the 6th of March, Pope Francis held an historic meeting with Iraq’s Shia leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. This marked the first time a pope and a grand ayatollah had ever met. In this meeting, Francis thanked al-Sistani for his defence of Iraq’s weakest and most persecuted in
With the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden as the 46th President of the United States, many observed that this appeared a new era in American foreign policy. Biden made it clear during his campaign and his inauguration that the United States needed to turn away from the isolationist attitude of
On the 22nd of January, the Biden Administration announced its intention to review the February 2020 peace agreement reached with the Taliban under the Trump Administration. This comes amidst a retooling of American foreign policy under the Biden administration, with President Biden seeking to re-establish America’s credibility on the world
On Saturday the 12th of December, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on world leaders to declare states of ‘climate emergency’ in their nations, in the hopes that this would spur greater action to avoid climate change. Guterres’ comments came during his opening statement to the Climate Ambition Summit,
On the 27th of November, one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists was assassinated in eastern Tehran. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a high-ranking nuclear physicist, was often named by Western intelligence as the leader of Iran’s military nuclear program until its disbanding in the early 2000s. No group has yet claimed responsibility for
