In their 2022 book Sinostan, Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersen saw Central Asia as China’s “inadvertent empire”. If that is true – and the five-country region embracing Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan (informally called the C5) certainly sits at the heart of China’s Belt and Road Initiative – then Beijing could not have chosen…
TALLINN, June 9 (Reuters) – Ukraine has signed a drone deal with Latvia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday as he met with Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs on the sidelines of a summit between Ukraine and Nordic and Baltic states in the Estonian capital Tallinn. “These are concrete things to strengthen our joint defense…
June 9 (Reuters) – Three people were killed in a Russian attack on the town of Chuhuiv in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday, with emergency services working to extinguish a fire. Two men, one 70 years old and one 50, and a 70-year-old woman…
KYIV, June 5 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s open letter offering face-to-face peace talks to end the war in Ukraine was addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin but meant to echo through the corridors of this week’s St Petersburg investment forum, and beyond. Zelenskiy published the letter on Thursday evening as Putin briefed foreign news…
ST PETERSBURG, Russia, June 4 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposals for peace in Ukraine could end the fighting, but said Kyiv needed to compromise — and that he saw no signs of that, so was ready to fight on to victory. Speaking to foreign media editors…
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, June 4 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sidestepped a question on whether or not he would stay in power until 2036, saying that it was too early to talk about the issue and that in any case only God knew if he would be healthy enough. Asked by Reuters…
A worker pans through ore at a tungsten mine, operated by Trinity Metals Group, in northwest of Kigali, Rwanda, on Friday, May 23, 2025. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Iran war has caused well-documented price spikes and shortages on a range of items Americans depend upon. Oil and gas, of course, but also…
ESET has published a report on nation-state-aligned cyber activity between October 2025 and March 2026, identifying sustained operations by China-aligned groups against targets in Venezuela, Syria, South Korea and the Gulf. Chinese threat actors remained active across maritime, energy, government and advanced technology targets during the period. ESET linked that activity to areas where Beijing…
June 1 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that warnings of a possible massive Russian strike on Ukraine remained in effect and urged residents to pay special attention to air raid alerts. “Intelligence warnings regarding Russian strikes remain in effect. A massive strike is possible, they have prepared one,” Zelenskiy said in his…
Ukraine and Russia traded aerial attacks on Saturday as President Volodymyr Zelensky held what he called a special meeting on next steps with top aides. A view shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in…