Amid the spectacle of the start of the Winter Olympics, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered solidarity to his counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting in Beijing amid high tensions with the West. The February 4 visit was their first in-person summit in two years after Xi stopped seeing foreign …

“There is a growing threat that seeks to transform the European Union into an ideologically charged federalist super-state; a corporation which disregards national identity and sovereignty, and therefore democracy, plurality and the interests of the citizens of the nations that form the Union. This drift endangers the Union itself by …

In a hugely consequential advisory, the US Treasury Department quietly signalled on Wednesday that it was “tweaking” the sanctions against the Haqqani Network. The international banks can transfer money to Taliban, including Haqqani Network without fear of breaching sanctions. Washington simply issued clarifications dilating on the relaxation of sanctions announced …

“There is a sense of open, almost joyful viciousness in all this pro-war, anti-Russian sentiment on opinion pages and television broadcasts. It is certainly racist and demeaning in tone. Such is the first step in convincing the public that the “transgressor” is equivalent to a retrovirus.” John Stanton, Dissident Voice, …

Which human rights matter enough to put politics above sports? For decades, the United States and its European allies have gotten to decide the answer at their convenience. On February 4, the 2022 Winter Olympics are set to open in Beijing. With this, the Chinese capital will become the first …

True Promise Brigades, a little-known Iraqi group, claimed responsibility for the latest in several attacks on the UAE. As tensions between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Iran-backed Houthi rebels over the war in Yemen continue to rise, a little-known armed group in Iraq has come to the fore. Calling …

Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi’s successor has yet to be revealed, but he’ll most likely be another Iraqi steeped in Islamic fanaticism, experts said. The death of the Islamic State leader in a raid by U.S. special forces on his Syrian hideout was a devastating blow to the resurgent terrorist group, …

Putin and the Perils of Information Isolation When Western leaders and observers speculate about what will happen to Ukraine, they usually focus on one man: Russian President Vladimir Putin. And for good reason. Under Putin, Russia has increasingly become a personalist regime—an authoritarian system in which power is concentrated in …

The UK government’s recent release of information on Moscow’s intentions in Ukraine is not the first time intelligence has been released as evidence, and raises questions about who delivers the message and what information should be used. Last week, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss issued a statement on a Russian plot …

The recent attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on the UAE demonstrate both the strengths and weaknesses of long-range strike capabilities as tools of proxy war. Over the past weeks, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have conducted three long-range strikes on the UAE, which involved attacks using the Zulfiqar ballistic missile and …