Fracture within Ecowas and animosity with US provides ideal ground for terrorism in West Africa
Despite the military regimes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger forming an alliance of Sahel states to fight terrorism and to promote economic development, recent attacks with mass fatalities indicate that terrorist groups might already be taking advantage of the lack of a coordinated counter-terrorism strategy in the region.
Fragile geopolitical relations place world on high nuclear war alert as US, Russia grow stocks
However, the most concerning changes regard North Korea, which maintained its military nuclear programme as a core national security strategy. It amassed an estimated 50 warheads and enough fissile material for up to 90 warheads, with developments in ballistic and cruise missile technologies aimed at nuclear delivery.
Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipeline to Europe ends as Ukraine declines to renew transit agreement
The last remaining EU buyers of Russian gas via Ukraine, such as Slovakia and Austria, have arranged alternative supply. Hungary will keep receiving Russian gas via TurkStream, which runs two pipelines under the Black Sea.
Role of Russian billionaires that finance chemical factories that fuel Russia’s war machine laid bare
Peter Harrell, a former senior White House official who worked on Russia sanctions during the war’s first year and is now a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said perhaps it’s time to review those 2022 decisions now that nations that once relied on Ukraine and Russia for wheat and fertilizer have had time to find alternative sources.
Passenger plane flying to Russia from Azerbaijan crashes in Kazakhstan, many feared dead
Azerbaijan Airlines said the Embraer 190 aircraft, with flight number J2-8243, had been flying from Baku to Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Chechnya, but had been forced to make an emergency landing approximately 3km (1.8 miles) from the Kazakh city of Aktau.
Putin’s offer to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war raises doubts about Russia’s military might
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no conditions to start talks with Ukraine and was ready to negotiate with anyone, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But he said any deal could only be signed with Ukraine’s legitimate authorities, which for now the Kremlin considered to be only the Ukrainian parliament.
Western official and Iran officials says the ME nation’s Revolutionary Guards are tightening control over Tehran’s oil exports
Six specialists – Western officials and security experts as well as Iranian and trading sources – said the Guards control up to 50 per cent of Iran’s oil exports, a sharp increase from about 20 per cen three years ago. The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Russia arrests, detains man it says was architect of chemical weapons chief Igor Kirillov assassination
In a video published by the Baza news outlet, which is known to have sources in Russian law-enforcement circles, the suspect is seen sitting in a van describing his actions. It was not clear under what conditions he was speaking and Reuters could not immediately verify the video’s authenticity.
Ukraine kills top Russian general in Moscow it accuses of chemical weapons crimes
Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now a senior Russian security official, was cited by the state RIA news agency as saying that Ukraine’s military and political leadership now faced imminent revenge for Kirillov’s murder.
High ranking Russian general accused by Kyiv of chemical weapon crimes killed by bomb in Moscow
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out a string of targeted assassinations on its soil since the start of Moscow’s full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022.
