Author: Kushagra Bansal

Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, landed in Taiwan on Friday, vowed US support, and claimed her journey through Asia, which sparked extraordinary military exercises by a furious China, was never about upending the regional balance of power. Pelosi and a congressional delegation were in Japan for the final leg of a trip through Asia that also included a quick and unannounced stop in Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own. This angered Beijing. It held live-fire drills in the waters surrounding Taiwan, with five missiles landing in Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).…

A day after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid a solidarity visit to the self-governing island, China conducted its largest maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, deploying dozens of planes and firing real missiles close to Taiwan. As part of scheduled drills in six zones that are expected to last until noon on Sunday, China’s military reported that multiple conventional missile firings occurred in the waters off Taiwan. According to state broadcaster CCTV, it activated over 100 aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, as well as over ten vessels. According to Taiwan’s defense ministry, the country sent…

As part of its effort to put pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program, the U.S. placed sanctions on a Chinese company on Monday, claiming that it had assisted in the sale of Iranian oil and petrochemicals for millions of dollars in East Asia. In separate statements, the U.S. Treasury and State Departments revealed that they had sanctioned a total of six businesses, four of which had their headquarters in Hong Kong, one in Singapore, and one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One of Iran’s main petrochemical brokers, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co. (PGPICC), was accused by the…

On Tuesday, amid Chinese rage over U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her visit to the island, four American warships, including an aircraft carrier, were positioned in the waters east of Taiwan on what the U.S. Navy called normal deployments. A U.S. Navy official informed Reuters that the carrier USS Ronald Reagan had crossed the South China Sea and was now south of Japan, east of Taiwan, and in the Philippines Sea. The guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam and the destroyer USS Higgins are operating beside the Reagan, which is headquartered in Japan. The official, who spoke on anonymity,…

Speaking on “Victory Day,” the armistice day for the Korean War, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, criticizes both the United States and South Korea. Kim Jong Un stated that Pyongyang needed to strengthen its defenses due to the danger presented by the United States in a speech to commemorate the armistice that put an end to hostilities in the Korean War, known in North Korea as “Victory Day.” According to state media, the nuclear war deterrence of our country is also completely ready to mobilize its absolute strength truthfully, accurately, and speedily to its task, he added. “Our…

Hundreds of protesters, largely Muqtada al-Sadr’s followers in Iraq, enter the heavily guarded Green Zone to demonstrate against the choice of a rival coalition as prime minister. Hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets, the majority of them supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the country’s foremost Shia figure, to protest the candidacy of Iran-backed parties for prime minister. When the protestors broke into the capital’s high-security Green Zone on Wednesday, which houses governmental institutions and diplomatic embassies, there were no legislators present in parliament. Only security personnel were present inside the structure, and they looked to have made it quite easy…

The Tunisia opposition claims that President Kais Saied’s fragility is demonstrated by the low turnout for the constitutional referendum. The country’s opposition claims that the low turnout of only approximately 30% demonstrates the president’s weakness and the legitimacy of the process, despite the fact that the results reveal that Tunisians have approved the new constitution put forth by President Kais Saied. 94.6 percent of voters approved the constitution, according to preliminary data released on Tuesday evening by the Tunisian Independent Higher Election Authority (ISIE). Before the final outcome is declared at the end of August, an appeals process lasting a…

A prominent public servant in Kenya has had her assets frozen, there is a member of parliament who was fined $7 million for corruption and sentenced to 67 years in prison, and there are MPs who have been found guilty of bribery, economic crimes, and impersonating corruption investigators. All are running in Kenya’s presidential and parliamentary elections on August 9, adding to voter resentment over the widespread corruption in a nation that has long been regarded as one of East Africa’s most dynamic democracies. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the government’s anti-corruption agency, suggested that 241 candidates be barred…

Pope Francis apologized to Canada’s native people on their territory on Monday by condemning the Church’s involvement in institutions where indigenous children were abused. Pope Francis Pope Francis apologized for Christians’ complicity in the “colonizing mentality” of the time when speaking at the locations of two old schools in Maskwacis, Alberta. He also urged for a “serious” inquiry of the schools to aid in the healing of survivors and their descendants. Francis, who arrived and left in a wheelchair due to a shattered knee, stated, “With humiliation and remorse, I humbly seek forgiveness for the evil committed by so many…

Over the past week, fighting in Tripoli and Misrata has claimed at least 17 lives in Libya, many of them civilians. Both Fathi Bashagha, one of Libya’s two competing prime ministers, and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, whose internationally recognized administration is based in Tripoli, are from Misrata. However, since his appointment by the nation’s eastern-based parliament, Bashagha has mostly avoided Misrata, which has long been considered a bastion of support for the Dbeibah administration and resistance to General Khalifa Haftar, the militia leader who supports the parliament. However, many there are now apprehensive of Dbeibah since he recently made a deal…