Global Issues and Updates

Russia and China hit back at the United States on July 31 after U.S. leaders blamed them for not doing enough to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions. North Korea over the weekend tested a missile with the capability of hitting the U.S. mainland, prompting Trump to tweet that he was "very disappointed" that China had done "nothing" to help the United States punish Pyongyang. Read more...

The killing of a top Kashmiri commander and his comrade by New Delhi forces has sparked massive protests and violent clashes across the Indian-controlled  Himalayan  valley. Police spokesman Manoj Pandita said on Tuesday that Abu Dujana, of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)  militant  group, was gunned down with an accomplice during a pre-dawn operation in Pulwama district, which is located to the south of the region's summer capital Srinagar. Police Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan confirmed that the two were killed after troops cordoned off on a tip the southern village of Hakripora during the early hours of Tuesday. The two trapped people fired at the Indian troops, triggering a  gunfight  that  lasted  at least two hours, Khan said. Dujana, who had orchestrated several attacks against Indian forces in southern Kashmir, had a  cash reward  of 1.5 million rupees (about $23,400) on his head. Read more...

As Trump reissues his  “lock her up”  talk against Hillary Clinton and assaults the Justice Department, FBI, and media, the Brennan Center recently had a prescient meeting about what to do if President Trump uses some pretext to launch a state of emergency. The room was full of lawyers from past administrations and Congress who had dealt with just this sort of legal issue. Read more...

GETTY Mr Trump was highly critical of past presidents, accusing them of allowing the country to “make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade yet they do nothing for us with North Korea”. He added: “We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!” But Beijing retorted that the problem did not arise in China and that all sides need to work together to find a solution. China is North Korea's closest ally, but Beijing has expressed its anger over despot Kim Jong-Un’s continued nuclear and missile tests. And the eastern bloc has also become increasingly frustrated with American and Japanese criticism that it should do more to rein in the tyrants. The hermit Read more...

(CNN) Chinese President Xi Jinping has emphasized the Communist Party's control over the military as he prepares for a key leadership reshuffle later this year. Speaking Tuesday at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Xi said the military should "carry forward and implement the Party's absolute leadership." "As comrade Mao Zedong once pointed out, our principle is to have the Party command the military, not the military command the Party," Xi said. His words came after a major display of military force Sunday in a grand parade at a base in Inner Mongolia, on China's northern border, in which 12,000 troops, and more than Read more...

At a parade touting  Beijing's massive military might  on the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, China rolled out it's newest intercontinental ballistic missile, the DF-31AG. Unlike the DF-31 before it, the DF-31AG boasts a range extended to above 6,800 miles, which means that most of the continental US is in range,  according to the Center for International and Strategic Studies . Read more...

Deprived of basic safety equipment like  bulletproof  gear,  Indian Army  has finally received 7,500  helmets  after losing hundreds of soldiers in  close encounters  with terrorists and rival troops in recent decades. New Delhi (Sputnik) – In total, the Indian Army ordered 158,279 helmets under fast-track purchase plan. The second batch of 30,000 helmets is expected to arrive by the end of this year, and the rest will be delivered by mid-2019. However, the 1.3 million-strong Indian Army needs more than 300,000 such helmets for its infantry. Read more...

In a major change to the country's procurement policy, the Indian Defense Ministry has authorized its regional command unit to purchase arms and ammunition required for a short and intense war. New Delhi (Sputnik) – The prevailing practice is that the Army has to wait for the Defense Acquisition Council's decision for such purchases, which is a time-consuming process. Now, the vice-chief of army staff can order 46 kinds of ammunition, spares for 10 weapons platforms like infantry combat vehicles through the emergency purchase route. The step has been taken to make up for the major gap in the availability of critical arms and ammunitions required for an intense war of 10-15 days. Read more...

A year after the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, Turkey’s military — the once mighty pillar of a secular, Muslim-majority state with the second-largest standing force in NATO — has lost its Kemalist oomph. The generals who survived the massive purges following that fateful night are so terrified of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s avenging wrath that they rolled their troops inside Syria — a prospect they once resisted — without a whimper. The massive purges that began shortly after the failed coup has seen hundreds of thousands of civil servants, judges, security officials, and employees of state-run institutions fired. Their positions are being rapidly filled, often by under- or unqualified replacements Read more....

India has rejected China's offer to mediate and help resolve the Kashmir issue, insisting talks will only take place with Pakistan without the intervention of another nation. China had said it was willing to play a "constructive role" in improving relations between India and Pakistan, especially after the increased hostility along the Line of Control, a de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir valley between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. However, talking to reporters on Thursday, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs turned down China's offer. "We are ready to talk Kashmir with Pakistan, but no third party mediation," Gopal Baglay said. "Our stand is absolutely clear Read more...

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Qatar's envoy to Gaza said Tuesday Doha was committed to funding projects in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave, despite pressure from Saudi Arabia and others who accuse it of supporting extremism. Speaking in Gaza City alongside a top UN official, Mohammed al-Amadi said Qatar would continue to fund projects in Gaza, despite the "siege" imposed by Saudi Arabia and its allies in recent weeks. Read more...

GAZA CITY — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is turning the screws in the Gaza Strip, pursuing a high-risk campaign to squeeze his own people so hard that they might force the Islamist militant movement Hamas to surrender control. The 82-year-old leader’s Palestinian Authority,   Read more....

In a interview for BBC World's HARDtalk, President Erdogan Read more...

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Government forces fired shotgun pellets and tear gas Wednesday in the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir as residents carried the body of a young rebel killed with two other militants during a gunbattle with Indian troops in the disputed region. The gunfight began overnight after Indian troops raided western Radbugh village following a tip that militants were hiding there, said police Inspector-General Muneer Ahmed Khan. He said the gunbattle lasted through the night and the three rebels were killed early Wednesday. Authorities imposed a curfew in downtown Srinagar, anticipating protests and clashes opposing Indian rule because two of the dead men were natives of the Read more...

The week-long series of war games will involve a total of 16 ships -- including the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz, India's INS Vikramanditya, a reconditioned Russian-built aircraft carrier, and Japan's JS Izumo, a helicopter carrier with an emphasis on anti-submarine warfare -- as well as two submarines and more than 95 aircraft. Rising China The buildup of naval power in the region comes at a time of increased tensions between India and China. China has steadily increased its naval presence throughout the Indian Ocean in recent years, part of an assertive blue-water strategy that aims to extend the country's operating ability far from Chinese shores. According to an IndiaSpend analysis of publicly Read more...

China has dispatched its naval forces to the Horn of Africa to set up an  army base in Djibouti, where several global players have a military presence. Members of China's People's Liberation Army marked the incident at a ceremony at a naval base in the southern Chinese port of Zhanjiang on Tuesday, the Chinese Defense Ministry  announced  on its website. Read more..

Some of the smallest countries in the world continue to dominate the list of the world's richest countries, an analysis by  Global Finance Magazine  shows. Read more....

N o surprise here: as it has for the last century, the United States remains the most powerful country on earth. America’s dynamic economy, its constitutional stability (even as we watch the Age of Trump unfold), its deep bench of strong allies and partners (including 5 of the 7 top powers listed below), and its overwhelming military superiority all ensure that the United States sits secure in its status on top of the greasy pole of international power politics. Read more...

The US has  deployed  the Patriot missile system to  Lithuania  to be used in NATO military drills, the first time the advanced missiles have been sent to the Baltics near Russia's border. The long-range anti-aircraft missile battery was brought to the Siauliai military airbase on Monday, ahead of the Tobruk Legacy exercise, and will be withdrawn when the exercise ends on July 22, a Lithuanian defense ministry spokeswoman told Reuters. Read more...

China is running a  hundred-year marathon . It has an unwritten, unofficial, 'secret' plan to supplant the United States as the world's most powerful nation by 2050 – the hundredth anniversary of Communist party's proclamation of the People's Republic of China. To win this marathon,  ying pai  (hawks) in China have drawn lessons from their millennia-old rich history, especially the Warring States period, which culminated in seven feuding states coming together to form one nation under the Qin dynasty. While the prevalent strategic thought in China today is steeped in such militaristic values, it projects itself and its history as one inspired by Confucian pacifism.  Wai ru,  nei fa  (on the outside, be benevolent; on the inside, be ruthless) is its watchword. Read more..