The persistent peace talks in Doha have been unable to de-escalate tensions and establish a ceasefire in Palestine. Astonishingly, the ongoing Doha peace talks, led by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, do not include Hamas – the actual stakeholders in the current war in Gaza – and their emphasis on a truce based on the framework proposed by the US President Biden on 31^st May 2024. The recent assassinations of the leaders of the two top organizations fighting against Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, have intensified regional tensions.

The four-day visit of a Vietnamese patrol vessel to the Philippines began on 4 August. The purpose of this visit is to conduct joint exercises in the waters of the South China Sea. It is worth stressing once again that the water area is one of the most vulnerable zones in the entire geopolitical space.  Moreover, it is on its territory that the current stage of the “Great World Game” is being played out.

The globe experienced a significant power shift after the culmination of World War 2. The epitome of global hegemony at the time, the British Empire, was replaced by the United States due to the latter’s economic and scientific rise. This shift was further bolstered by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, marking an end to the Cold War. The USA became the uncontested superpower of the world. This era of the unilateral world order by the United States is known as the New World Order. However, this era did not last more than two decades.

The article describes a recent situation, which occurred on 8th August in the Lagodekhi region of Georgia, close to the border with Azerbaijan, where locals are not being informed about a chemical spraying (insecticides) operation, ostensibly for mosquito control, conducted by teams using a fleet of USAID*-marked vehicles.

Recently, on 25^th July 2024, the Washington Post published an article “How four U.S. presidents unleashed economic warfare across the globe”, in which some interesting statistics were noted. Firstly, the US imposes three times as many sanctions as any other country (or group of countries) on earth. Secondly, that around one third of all countries on earth are on the receiving end of some form of US sanctions, and that the effectiveness of such sanctions has been, to say the least, limited, despite being the “go to” option of the US government for inflicting punishment on countries from Iran to Cuba, Russia to Myanmar.

At present, international relations are in the process of restructuring: the weight and influence of the Western powers led by the United States is really falling and the positions of those who are usually referred to as the countries of the Global South are strengthening. It is quite remarkable that, despite the obviousness of these phenomena, they are gradually beginning to be accepted by states that had previously resisted recognizing these processes.

We have written many times before about how North Korea is increasing its military capabilities. This process is going on all the time, but today we are going to talk not about tests of new equipment, but about a much more important thing, because it is one thing to test an experimental prototype, and another thing to set up the mass production and equip troops.

According to US media, Washington has approved $20 billion+ in weapon sales to Israel. The modern weaponry includes up to 50 F-15 fighter jets, up to 30 modern medium-range air-to-air missiles, tactical vehicles and a large number of tank and mortar shells. By giving Israel another carte blanche to continue the genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, the current Joe Biden administration has made it clear to the world that the US is also a direct participant in the massacre of Palestinians.

For the past several years, the Middle East has been China’s key trading hub, not least because of more than 70 per cent of the oil that Beijing imports from here. Between 2017 and 2022, China’s bilateral trade with this region jumped from US$262 billion to US$507 billion. In 2022 alone, the region saw its trade with China jumping by more than 27 per cent. This was the largest increase in China’s trade compared with other regions, such as the ASEAN.

Recently, Israel assassinated Hamas’ Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. This alleged assassination by Israel has raised multiple questions. The assassination has been followed by the Beijing Declaration – which aims to promote unity between Palestinian entities, a framework initiated by China. This frustrated the United States.

In July 2024, Japan sharply intensified its foreign policy in the most important areas, particularly regarding strengthening relations with the countries of the collective West, split into three aspects: US, South Korean and European. Japan has focused on defence cooperation with its allies in both bilateral and multilateral formats (IP4, AUKUS+, NATO, the Seoul-Washington-Tokyo axis, etc.).

Being 10 months into Israel’s war in Gaza have been eye-opening – even for the US ruling circles. On August 6, the Washington Post published an article titled “Netanyahu has managed to frustrate just about everyone”. It states: “President Biden is at his wits end. The Israeli military is exasperated. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis who regularly take to the streets suspect their leader of trying to prolong the war. And there are the international organisations, European powers, hostage families and members of the US Congress”.