July, 2022

• 5 July

  Iran Intervenes To Stop Turkish Invasion of Northern Syria

  

  Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad thanked Iran Saturday night for helping to reduce tension between Damascus and Ankara. Turkey has been threatening in recent weeks to invade northern Syria, launch a military operation against Kurdish militias in the area, and establish a 30-kilometer buffer zone along the border by removing …

  Read More »
• 5 July

  Ukraine Asks Turkey to Detain Russian Ship Allegedly Carrying Stolen Wheat

  

  Ukraine has asked Turkey to detain a Russian-flagged cargo ship it says is carrying Ukrainian wheat. The Russian-flagged cargo ship Zhibek Zholy is carrying 4,500 metric tons of Ukrainian grain taken from the Russian-occupied port of Berdyansk, Ukraine’s foreign ministry has charged, according to Reuters. The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office …

  Read More »
• 5 July

  Deteriorated Situations

  Yemen Conflict parties extended April truce for two months, while negotiations over access to Taiz city remained central sticking point and divisions surfaced within govt. Warring parties 2 June renewed UN-mediated April truce for two months; truce – which is longest in effect since start of war in 2015 – …

  Read More »
• 4 July

  Keeping The Energy In The Room

  

  It may seem like technology advances year after year, as if by magic. But behind every incremental improvement and breakthrough revolution is a team of scientists and engineers hard at work. UC Santa Barbara Professor Ben Mazin is developing precision optical sensors for telescopes and observatories. In a paper published …

  Read More »
• 4 July

  Iran’s Simmering Discontent In The Caspian Sea

  

  While the leaders of NATO were meeting in Madrid last week, another gathering was taking place 5,300 km to the east in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, where the leaders of the five littoral states of the Caspian Sea (Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan) gathered for the 6th Caspian Summit. It was …

  Read More »
• 4 July

  High Inflation Spells Predicament For Major Central Banks

  As the European bond market falls, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said on June 28 that the central bank will start a bond-buying program on Friday to curb possible debt crises. The ECB is considering maintaining “flexibility” in its reinvestment allocation to its massive EUR 1.7 trillion bond-buying …

  Read More »
• 4 July

  Jokowi’s Russia-Ukraine Mission Offers Hope, But He Must Follow Up

  

  Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s shuttle diplomacy to Ukraine and Russia this week offered some hope for peace but he needs to follow up with further dialogue to ensure his efforts are not a mere flash in the pan, analysts said. While his mission to persuade Moscow to declare a …

  Read More »
• 4 July

  Goodwill gestures and de-Nazification: Decoding Putin’s Ukraine War lexicon

  

  Ever since Russian troops first crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, the Kremlin has employed characteristically euphemistic language in order to downplay the criminal nature of the unfolding invasion. This has led to the creation of an entire alternative reality where Russian troops are noble liberators waging a chivalrous …

  Read More »
• 4 July

  Why Russia’s economy is more resilient than you might think

  

  Since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the United States and Europe have deployed tools of economic warfare with the explicit goal of crippling the Russian economy and rendering the Kremlin unable to wage its war of aggression. The alacrity and scale of the Western response—which has included freezing Russia’s foreign-currency …

  Read More »
• 4 July

  Algeria has been isolated for years. Now it’s making a shaky return to the world stage.

  Long viewed as North Africa’s most isolated and inscrutable country, Algeria is suddenly the belle of the ball. This year, Algeria has hosted official visits from Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and the foreign ministers of France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and the United States (the first …

  Read More »