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Description: Somalia’s fractured government faces yet another challenge as Al Shabab’s resurgence in the country has arrived coupled with intensified clashes between militants pertaining to the five semi – autonomous member states. The latest armed confrontations were focused in Beled Hawo town, in the country’s southern Gedo region in the federal state of Jubaland, where militants were attacked by the Somali army. The army is politically aligned with the government in the capital, Mogadishu, and attempted to overtake control of the province from the local militants which left up to 5 people dead and several injured. The Al – Qaeda aligned terrorist group, Al Shabab has also
Description: Ukraine’s President, Volodymir Zelenskyy, announced that Ukraine has delivered a proposal to Russia to reinstate peace talks on Wednesday, 23 Jul in Istanbul. The proposition was reportedly delivered by Rustem Umerov who stated that Ukraine was awaiting Russia’s response. Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, downplayed speculations regarding any concrete breakthroughs as he stated that extensive bilateral diplomatic engagement lays ahead before any timeframe or peace framework could be discussed. The developments follow mounting pressure on Russia to reengage in the peace talks after US President Trump threatened to impose new wave of sanctions and reinforced
Description: The Canadian company, Central European Petroleum (CEP) has announced it uncovered one of the largest oil and gas deposits in Poland’s Baltic basin. The site, deemed Wolin East 1, reportedly contained up to 33 million tons of retrievable crude oil deposits and up to 27 million cubic meters of natural gas. The discovery amounted to as much as 20 times of Poland’s annual oil and gas production and is expected to drive investment opportunities and impact the country’s energy policy which was struggling to introduce potential alternative solutions. The discovery was hailed by Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and MEP (Minister of European Parliament) Dariusz Jonski,
Description: Thailand has accused Cambodia of violating the Ottawa land mine treaty, after a patrol of Thai solders encountered unexploded land mines which detonated on predetermined patrol routes with Cambodia. Cambodia has disqualified Thailand’s accusations by stating that the country is filled with unexploded ordnance from decades of war and accused Thailand for breaching the previously determined patrol routes and violating Cambodia’s territorial sovereignty. Thailand stated they would increase border patrol capacities and issue a formal condemnation of the incident requesting accountability from Cambodia. Cambodia has emphasized the need for the border dispute to be re
Description: US President Donald Trump and Philippine’s President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met in the White House where they concluded a bilateral trade agreement between their countries. The Philippines agreed towards a symbolic decrease from 20% of levies on exports to the US to 19%, which was considered extremely favorable for the US, while putting the Philippines in an unfavorable position regarding bilateral trade with the US. The Philippines are considered one of the staunchest US allies in the Indo – Pacific as they share more than 70 years of strategic partnership with the US mostly concentrated on defense cooperation. Ferdinand downplayed his country’s unfavorable trade
Description: Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, reportedly plans on investing up to $8 billion in the development of 17 crude oil refineries on the US market as part of the bilateral trade agreement concluded last week. The contract would be signed with the US engineering firm KBR Inc. as Indonesia looks to deliver on its trade deal provisions with the US where the country so far pledged to invest in the dominant US industries such as oil, aerospace and technology. With the new development, the bilateral trade potential between the US and Indonesia could reach $34 billion with the state – owned energy company Pertamina also considering large scale investments in U
Description: Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the country’s Army have begun expanding the civil war frontlines towards the oil – rich region of Kordofan. The region is located in the central parts of Sudan and has become the centerpiece in the renewed offensive launched by the Sudanese Army due to it’s vast oil deposits and pipelines crucial to the country’s energy supply. Fighting in Kordofan began last week in the western villages of Al Fula and Abu Zabad where more than 300 people were killed in the week – long clashes between the RSF and the Sudanese army. Recent expansions of the frontlines indicates that the Army would attempt to assume control of the region push
Description: Four pro – Russian parties have announced the political unification into a joint bloc in order to pursue the reestablishment of relations between Moldova and Russia. The bloc of parties would be comprised of the Party of Socialists, the Heart of Moldova and Future of Moldova political parties as well as the Moldovan Communist party. The leader of the Party of Socialists, Igor Dondon, announced the political alliance stating the incumbent ruler Maia Sandu and her Party of Action and Solidarity must be derailed from their pro – EU initiative which allegedly threatened the country’s national interests. Moldova’s Central Election Commission (CEC) previously blocked
Description: US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, announced a planned trade meeting between Chinese and US trade representatives to take place in Stockholm next week. Bessent said the meeting would be used to ease trade tensions and potentially agree towards continuation of the tariff deadline which would effectively enlarge the negotiating period. The Treasury Secretary also stated that the US wanted to distance China from its export and manufacturing driven economy and reach a potential consensus on making it more consumer – based in order to surmount the alleged bilateral trade deficit. The announcement arrives as the US concluded trade deals with Vietnam, Indonesia, the
Description: Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghei, stated that Iran held talks with China and Russia on its disputed nuclear program and scheduled a meeting with foreign representatives from the E3 Group of countries. Baghei highlighted that China and Russia remained adamant in resolving the dispute with Iran’s nuclear program through dialogue and diplomacy and their support in the matter was unequivocal. The negotiations with France, the UK and Germany were scheduled to be held on Friday, 25 Jul in Istanbul amid threats from the European group of countries to reimpose the so – called snapback sanctions mechanism which is a provision of the 2015 JCPOA (Joint c