After a two-day summit with Xi Jinping, Donald Trump has not yet decided whether to approve the sale of US weapons to Taipei worth 14 billion dollars. The Chinese leader warned him that Taiwan was a red line. That a mismanagement of the island issue could put both countries in “an extremely dangerous situation.”
With the aim of reducing the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz for its national economy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have announced the construction of a new pipeline that will connect the country from west to east. This project will allow avoiding transit through the enclave through which one fifth of global trade passes and is expected to be operational by 2027. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was informed about the details during the meeting of the Executive Committee of the state oil company ADNOC. The “West-East” project will double the company’s export capacity through Fujairah, on the eastern coast, facing the Gulf of Oman.
Are you in agreement that the province of Alberta should stop being part of Canada to become an independent state? This is the question that many voters in this region, bordering the United States, will have to answer after the separatist group “Stay Free Alberta” collected the necessary signatures to call a referendum. 178,000 were needed; they got 300,000. This fact marks a before and after for the province, which sees its secessionist aspirations approaching under the watchful eyes of Washington and Moscow.
Last week, the European Political Community (EPC) summit held in Armenia had a special guest. It was Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, who became the first non-European leader to attend a meeting of this intergovernmental forum that since 2022 brings together about fifty countries from the continent.
The United States is considering a formal accusation against former Cuban president Raúl Castro in connection with the downing of planes from the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, according to sources cited by CBS. This investigation has come to light after it was revealed that the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, met this Thursday in Havana with high-ranking officials of the Cuban Government, as confirmed by both Executives.
The Trump administration has taken a further step in its decision to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Europe and has canceled the deployment of 4,000 soldiers to Poland as part of a more ambitious plan to cut its military presence on the continent.
A group of young Israeli settlers corners an ultra-Orthodox Jew in one of the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem: “traitor, coward, you are a disgrace to this country,” spits a teenager, dressed in loose clothing and the characteristic tzitzit, the four cords tied at the waist traditional of the Jewish religious attire. The crime of his compatriot is wearing one of the purple vests of the Standing Together association, dedicated to the peaceful protection of Palestinians against settler attacks in the West Bank.
With a grand parade of flags waved by children, a military review of the honor guard, a visit to the sacred Temple of Heaven, and an opulent banquet in the Great Hall of the People, Xi Jinping has charmed Donald Trump with a pomp superior to that usually granted to his visiting counterparts. The American leader has returned the hospitality with a level of praise that his European allies, including the kings of the United Kingdom who visited the White House two weeks ago, will hardly hear.
The Prime Minister of Latvia, Evika Siliņa, has resigned this Thursday after her coalition government has been shaken in recent weeks following a collateral incident of the war in Ukraine.
The war in Iran has left the Gulf countries in a very delicate situation. The missiles and drones launched by Tehran in the first weeks of the conflict have shattered their image as an oasis of stability, while the blockade of Hormuz threatens to ruin their economy, which is highly dependent on crude oil exports.