By Matthew Knott ,

April 24, 2023 — 3.55pm, The Sydney Morning Herald

Angus Houston and Stephen Smith have delivered a blaring wake-up call to any Australians who think they still live in a sanctuary of safety at the southern edge of the Earth: you’re living in the past.

To those inside and outside the Australian Defence Force who think business-as-usual will cut it in the future: you’re delusional.

Their message to anyone confused about the biggest threat to Australia’s national security is similarly blunt: it is our largest trading partner, China.

Like a pair of doctors delivering confronting news to an ill patient, the two men tasked with reshaping Australia’s military for the 21st century have opted for admirable candour in their defence strategic review.

Rejecting vague language about rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, the former defence chief and defence minister call out just one nation – China – for threatening Australia’s core interests.

Continue reading Defence review pulls no punches: China the biggest threat we face →

The alliance is bolstering its military deterrent in Europe amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has expanded to include Finland.

WRITTEN BY Jonathan Masters, CFR

UPDATED

Last updated April 4, 2023 7:00 am (EST)

Summary

• Established during the Cold War, NATO is a transatlantic security alliance composed of thirty-one member countries, including the United States.
• NATO has focused on deterring Russian aggression in recent years, but it has also conducted security operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, and Somalia. 
• Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many NATO allies are providing Kyiv with extraordinary quantities of military supplies, and the alliance has expanded to include Finland.

Introduction

Founded in 1949 as a bulwark against Soviet aggression, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) remains the pillar of U.S.-Europe military cooperation. An expanding bloc of NATO allies has taken on a broad range of missions since the close of the Cold War, many well beyond the Euro-Atlantic region, in countries such as Afghanistan and Libya.

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a nonmember, in early 2022 has shaken Europe’s security architecture and prompted a major reevaluation of NATO members’ foreign policies and defense commitments. The threat from Russia has generated the greatest tensions with the alliance in the post-Cold War era. It is driving up defense spending and has pushed some longtime NATO partners, namely Finland and Sweden, to seek full membership. Finland acceded to the alliance in April 2023.

Continue reading What Is NATO? →

yesterday, April7, 2023 AP

Muslim worshippers perform Friday prayers outside the Dome of Rock Mosque at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Friday, April 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

JERUSALEM (AP) — It’s become something of a grim, springtime tradition in the Holy Land.

Israeli police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians stockpiling rocks and fireworks inside one of the most bitterly disputed holy sites on Earth. The violence ripples across Israel and the occupied West Bank, and militants from as far away as Gaza and Lebanon respond with rockets.

Continue reading Why do Jerusalem tensions fuel regionwide unrest? →

By Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow, CFR

March 30, 2023 1:20 pm (EST)

Russia’s threat to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus has raised the specter of a new nuclear standoff with the United States and its allies in Europe. It also draws new attention to how such arms are deployed in NATO states.

What’s behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus?

The move that Putin announced in late March would be the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union that Russia has stationed nuclear weapons beyond its own borders, and it raises the prospects for a renewed, destabilizing nuclear arms rivalry with the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies.

Continue reading Nuclear weapons in Europe: Mapping U.S. and Russian deployments →

The first international agreement to protect the world’s oceans aims to create “international parks” in the high seas.

By Jackie Gu, Reuters

PUBLISHED MARCH 30, 2023

After almost 20 years of negotiations, United Nations member countries have agreed upon an international treaty to protect oceans of the world that lie outside national borders.

These waters, known as “high seas,” occupy nearly two-thirds of the world’s oceans. Because they are considered international waters, they lie outside the jurisdiction of any state and have until now never been legally protected, meaning that the marine life in these areas has been under threat from a free-for-all of unregulated exploitation – including overfishing, pollution from ships and human-induced climate change.

Continue reading Changing Tides →

Daily News BriefApril 3, 2023

Top of the Agenda OPEC+ Announces Surprise Cuts to Global Oil Output International oil prices rose today (Bloomberg) after Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting nations announced plans to reduce output (AP) by 1.15 million barrels per day between May and the end of the year. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its partners, collectively known as OPEC+, had not previously signaled plans to slash output. Additionally, OPEC+ member Russia extended its ongoing cut of five hundred thousand barrels per day through the end of the year. The White House called the cuts ill-advised and pledged to work with producers and consumers to bring oil prices down.  The oil producers’ announcement comes as Australia, the European Union, and Group of Seven (G7) countries try to enforce a global price cap on Russian oil. However, Japan negotiated an exemption from the cap due to its energy needs, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Continue reading CFR – Daily News Brief April 3, 2023 →

The World This WeekMarch 31, 2023

The Putin-Xi Summit Reinforces Anti-U.S. Partnership Thomas Graham Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend a welcome ceremony at the Kremlin on March 21, 2023. (Alexey Maishev/Sputnik)The meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Moscow helped both give the impression of a united front, but underlying tensions were also discernible. Get the quick take

Continue reading CFR – The World This Week March 31, 2023 →

Daily News Brief March 30, 2023

Top of the Agenda EU Chief Calls for Europe to ‘De-Risk’ From China During a speech in Brussels today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the European Union (EU) to take a “bolder” stance (Politico) toward Beijing in response to China becoming “more repressive at home and more assertive abroad.” She said this would help Europe “de-risk” itself (Reuters) economically and diplomatically, but that economic decoupling from China is not possible. She also referred to the close relationship between China’s and Russia’s leaders and said China is responsible for advancing a “just peace” in Ukraine that includes the withdrawal of Russian forces. Von der Leyen will visit Beijing next week.  European leaders have diverged in recent months (FT) over their views on China. While the United States has hardened its own China policy through controls on tech exports, trade officials at the European Commission have studied the possibility of controls on outbound European investment.

Continue reading CFR – Daily News Brief, March 30, 2023 →

Daily News Brief March 28, 2023

Top of the Agenda British, German Tanks Reach Kyiv as Ukraine Prepares for Spring Offensive The first deliveries of British Challenger tanks and German Leopard 2 tanks reached the Ukrainian capital (FT), German and Ukrainian officials confirmed. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces completed training (The Guardian) in the United Kingdom on how to use the Challenger tanks. Poland sent tanks to Ukraine late last month, and Spain is expected to do so by the end of the week. Ukraine’s spring counteroffensive against invading Russian forces will depend (BBC) on continued weapons support from the West, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. He will give a virtual address today (AFP) to kick off U.S. President Joe Biden’s second annual Summit for Democracy.

Continue reading CFR: Daily News Brief, March 28, 2023 →

The Biden administration is inviting around 120 countries to join its Summit for Democracy next week, but two of its NATO allies aren’t getting a call.

Turkey and Hungary have been left off the invitation list for the major summit, which Team Biden bills as one of its hallmark foreign-policy initiatives, meant to shore up democracies worldwide and stanch the rise of autocracies.

Backsliding. The spurning of two NATO allies, confirmed by three U.S. officials who spoke to SitRep, reflects a mounting concern with the degree of democratic backsliding in Turkey and Hungary, even though Washington is relying on both to support the West’s strategy against Russia as the war in Ukraine rages on—and needs both to approve Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO as full-fledged allies.

Continue reading Summit for Democracy snubs for two troublesome U.S. allies →

Xi Jinping used the annual legislative session to lock in his tenure as president and reinforce China’s assertive foreign policy and the reemergence of its economy.

Article by Ian Johnson

March 17, 2023 4:05 pm (EST)

This month saw the Chinese rite of spring known as the lianghui, or “two sessions”: the annual meetings of the national advisory committee and the country’s parliament. Neither body holds much power, and it’s easy to write the whole exercise off as empty theater. Yet, public rituals are meant to deliver messages, and this year’s lianghui offered two important points: President Xi Jinping and his muscular foreign policy are here to stay, and China is back open for business after three years of fighting COVID-19—even if its return to growth is bolstered through unsustainable deficit spending.

Continue reading How to read Xi’s muscular message on China’s global role →

SÁNG ÁNH 25/03/2023 13:32 GMT+7

TTCT – Saudi Arabia làm lành với Iran mở ra hy vọng về một Trung Đông bớt đi những tang thương bom đạn.

4 h sáng 14-9-2019, quân Houthi (thân Iran) từ Yemen bắn qua Saudi 25 máy bay không người lái, có lẽ giá thành là 15.000 USD một chiếc, tức tổng trị giá 375.000 USD. 19 chiếc trúng đích là khu Nhà máy dầu Abqaiq-Khurais, làm tê liệt sản xuất trong hai tuần. 

Khu nhà máy này chiếm 1/2 sản xuất dầu của Saudi (mà dầu của Saudi thì chiếm 5% của thế giới) – khoảng 5,7 triệu thùng/ngày.

Cuộc tấn công khiến Saudi mất 365 triệu đô la một ngày với giá dầu lúc đó là 64 USD/thùng. Tuy dần dà cũng khắc phục được, thị trường chứng khoán Saudi mất ngay 40 tỉ USD. 

Continue reading Saudi Arabia và Iran: Bán anh em xa… →

By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN

Updated 5:12 PM EDT, Thu March 23, 2023

03:15New YorkCNN — 

In his first appearance before Congress on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Chew was grilled by lawmakers who expressed deep skepticism about his company’s attempts to protect US user data and ease concerns about its ties to China.

It was a rare chance for the public to hear from the Chew, who offers very few interviews. Yet his company’s app is among the most popular in America, with more than 150 million active users.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Thursday’s hearing.

Washington has already made up its mind about TikTok

The hearing, which lasted for more than five hours, kicked off with calls from a lawmaker to ban the app in the United States and remained combative throughout. It offered a vivid display of the bipartisan push to crack down on the popular short-form video app and the company’s uphill battle to improve relations with Washington.

Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, opened Thursday’s hearing by telling Shou: “Your platform should be banned.”

The US government is once again threatening to ban TikTok. What you should know

Chew used his testimony to stress TikTok’s independence from China and play up its US ties. “TikTok itself is not available in mainland China, we’re headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore, and we have 7,000 employees in the U.S. today,” he said in his opening remarks.

“Still, we have heard important concerns about the potential for unwanted foreign access to US data and potential manipulation of the TikTok US ecosystem,” Chew said. “Our approach has never been to dismiss or trivialize any of these concerns. We have addressed them with real action.”

Continue reading TikTok CEO in the hot seat: 5 takeaways from his first appearance before US Congress →

Al Jazeera English – 16-3-2023

The US invasion of Iraq kicked off a cycle of violence and instability that persists to this day. #AJStartHere with Sandra Gathmann explains how the invasion set Iraq on a troubled path, and where things stand twenty years later.

How the US invasion shaped Iraq | Start Here