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The captain of a ship of the Iranian Navy has handed his vessel over to the Sri Lankan government, a neutral party, for internment, saving the lives of his crew hours after another Iranian warship was destroyed nearby by the United States Navy. Sri Lanka (Ceylon) has assumed control of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ship (IRIS) Bushehr, a fleet supply ship (oiler). Sri Lanka has sent craft to receive the 1970s-era ship within its territorial waters and, per local media, has taken off 208 officers and men, who are to be sent ashore. The ship will now be taken...

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a two-day visit aimed at deepening ties with a key trade and defence partner, a trip that has drawn criticism at home. It is Modi’s second visit to Israel as prime minister. In a post on X, the Indian prime minister said that he has landed in Israel. v “I am extremely honoured to be received by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mrs Netanyahu at the airport. I look forward to engaging in bilateral discussions and fruitful outcomes that strengthen the India-Israel friendship,” he added. In a statement prior...

The men in Zhongnanhai do not rattle easily. Decades of patient statecraft, a foreign policy built on studied ambiguity, and an economy engineered to absorb external shocks have granted Beijing’s leadership a remarkable tolerance for turbulence. Operation Epic Fury, the American-Israeli air campaign now dismantling Iran’s military architecture, has produced something unusual in the corridors of Chinese power: visible confusion. Xi Jinping is scrambling. The word is not used lightly. For a leader who has built his image on strategic composure and long-horizon thinking, the current moment is acutely dangerous. Not because China faces a direct military threat, but because...

On Sunday afternoon, protesters in Islamabad pressed shoulder to shoulder, most of them dressed in black, and chanted slogans that rippled through the crowd. “Death to America, death to Israel,” they shouted in unison. Among them was also Kazim Hussain, who clutched a portrait of Ayatollah Khamenei. The student, also an activist affiliated with Shia group Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), believes that the crisis unfolding in Iran was not a distant geopolitical conflict playing out beyond Pakistan’s western border. For him, it is deeply personal and emotionally moving.“This is not just an attack on Iran. It concerns all Shia Muslims,”...

Washington’s answer to China’s Belt and Road Initiative begins in Armenia, and Vice President JD Vance is in the South Caucasus to pave the way. The Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) may serve as the foundation stone of a broader network of transportation and economic corridors designed to secure critical Eurasian supply chains for the United States and to counter Chinese and Russian influence. However, the region lies on the periphery of U.S. geopolitical engagement; therefore, TRIPP’s implementation will require pragmatic solutions and a return to realpolitik in order to avoid aggressive countermeasures by other regional powers....

RUBAYA, Democratic Republic of Congo - Under the watchful eye of M23 rebels in the hills around the Congolese town of Rubaya, a line of men in rubber boots ferry sacks full of crushed rocks up winding paths cut into the slopes.The laborers are hauling coltan ore, a mineral that powers the modern world. The ore will be loaded onto motorbikes and eventually shipped thousands of kilometers away to Asia. There it’s processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal that fetches more than $300 a kilogram and is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas...

This is a 78 minute documentary from 2011 about people who are trying to build a road in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

HatTip to Ben for calling attention to this remarkable story. Essentially China’s “Belt and Road” initiative is a system of China putting massive infrastructure investment funds into a targeted country in exchange for their ability to extract resources needed for Chinese expansion. However, several nations are now rising up against the Chinese influence as it surfaces in the lives of the citizens.Angola is a case study in China investing billions and with the investment a large number of Chinese citizens arrive set up businesses there. Over time resentment against the Chinese has been building. Then a flashpoint with a massive...

Donald Trump recently announced that the United States would help Pakistan develop its "massive oil reserves," suggesting it could export oil to India in the future. In response, Baloch leader Mir Yar Baloch has written an open letter to the US president, highlighting how encouraging the exploitation of Balochistan's oil reserves would make the US complicit in enabling ISI to enhance its global terror networks. In his letter, the Baloch leader warned against allowing Pakistan's radicalised military and rogue ISI, long accused of sponsoring Al-Qaeda and various proxy groups responsible for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers in Afghanistan,...

India and the US wanted Jaish-e-Mohammed deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar to be designated as a ‘global terrorist’ A month after Beijing shielded Pakistan-based deputy leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Abdul Rehman Makki, an international terrorist, it has done an encore. It has vetoed a similar joint proposal at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), again by India and the US, to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar as a “global terrorist.” He is the younger brother of JeM founder Maulana Masood Azhar, another murderous jihadist. India was understandably incensed at China, castigating it for its “double speak” and...

The most vulnerable nations on Earth are facing a “tidal wave” of debt repayments as a Chinese lending boom starts to be called in, a new report has warned. The analysis, published on Tuesday by Australian foreign policy thinktank the Lowy Institute, said that in 2025 the poorest 75 countries were on the hook for record high debt repayments US$22bn to China. The 75 nations’ debt formed the bulk of the total $35bn calculated by Lowy for 2025. “Now, and for the rest of this decade, China will be more debt collector than banker to the developing world,” the report...

China-India Going To War Soon After Pakistan's Attack two neighbors with nuclear weapons on the brink of war india carrying out its deepest strikes inside Pakistan in more 0:07 than 50 years we are committed to take firm and decisive action against 0:13 terrorists and those who support them china's role is very interesting here on one hand is their iron brotherhood with 0:21 Pakistan on the other is the reset with India amid the trade war with the US what does China value more India has 0:29 just unleashed hell on Pakistan over the past few hours dozens if...

As China’s Belt and Road initiative tightens worldwide, the U.S. has a rare opportunity to stymie its inroads into Latin America. “We often say that to get rich, we must first build roads; but in coastal areas, to get rich, we must also first build ports.” – Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the China Central Committee The Chinese Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop CopiaPort-E, Chile’s deep-water port on the Pacific, raises national security questions given that Todd Callender, Esq., the CEO of the insurance conglomerate Cotswold Group in Barbados, would prefer to sell to the...

In the tariff war between China and the United States, a lot of chatter in the Pravda Media is about Xi Jinping's defiance, his outreach to European countries and other less important but collectively significant developing countries, and his retaliatory moves against America. They make it sound like China has a lot of cards to play in the trade war with America. China has put civilian government officials on a "wartime footing” and ordered a diplomatic charm offensive aimed at encouraging other countries to push back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. https://t.co/rZWU2zsARQ— The Japan Times (@japantimes) April 14, 2025Collectively,...

Even though the Communist Party of China is officially atheist, and the central government was once wary of religion, subtle signs and increasing activities show there is a changing attitude towards religion in order to unite China and its neighbors. In March last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping stood in the offices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, and extolled the profound impact Buddhism has had on China. "Buddhism originated in ancient India," said Xi, the leader of the officially atheist Communist Party of China. "After it was introduced into China, the religion went...

The tides are turning. After Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit, Panama has AGREED to: 🔴 Grant U.S. Navy ships FREE passage through the Panama Canal. 🔴 TERMINATE its canal deal with China—cutting Beijing’s grip on global trade. 🔴 EXIT China’s 2017 ‘Belt and Road Initiative’—ending CCP influence in the region. This is a MAJOR blow to China’s expansionist agenda and a massive WIN for American dominance. The globalist order is crumbling, and the U.S. is BACK.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Sunday, making it clear that the U.S. won’t tolerate China’s growing influence over the Panama Canal. “Secretary Rubio informed President Mulino and Minister Martínez-Acha that President Trump has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal,” the State Department said in a statement. “Secretary Rubio made clear that this status...

MASSIVE win for @SecRubio Following his meeting with the Panamanians, the country’s president announced that it will not be renewing its deal with China’s Belt and Road ... If people don’t know anything about the historic Silk Road and China’s Belt and Road initiative, it’s time to learn. ... Ahhhh HA! Trump is right! The Chinese has been using the Panama Canal and Panama has been profiting… .... the last admin was working for the CCP ... Now let's do Cuba. Let's get rid of the Communist regime in Cuba once and for all. There should not be a communist...

President Joe Biden on Wednesday bragged about his administration’s plans to build a solar farm in Africa that U.S. taxpayers are funding a $900 million loan for. Biden’s boast occurred during a speech hosted by the League of Conservation Voters, in which he promoted his administration’s energy and environmental policies, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a seemingly non-existent railroad from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean and “one of the largest solar plants in the world” in Angola. To fund this solar plant — which is a partnership between the Angolan government, and U.S.-based firms AfricaGlobal Schaffer and...

KOLWEZI, Democratic Republic of Congo — Little about Kolwezi, a small city in southern Democratic Republic of Congo, hints at its global importance. Nondescript and ringed by slag heaps, pits and quarry lakes, the city is home to some of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the world. Now, Kolwezi is at the center of U.S.-Chinese competition over critical minerals. Earlier this year, mining firms began shipping ore along a U.S.-backed railway that terminates in Angola's Atlantic port of Lobito. A massive infrastructure project is focused on this rail line -- which is viewed as a bid to counter...