Yemen’s Houthi movement has been in the spotlight recently for its military actions in the Red Sea; multiple commercial ships have been targeted in an attempt to warn Western powers, in particular, the United States and the United Kingdom, to end their support for the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Somalia’s internationally-recognized government has once again appealed for the removal of the UN weapons embargo, citing the urgent need for weaponry and supplies to counter the Al-Shabab insurgency.
Haiti is currently facing its highest levels of gang violence in recent years, prompting the country’s self-proclaimed prime minister to seek foreign intervention. Despite the complications and failures of previous interventions, recent surveys indicate that both citizens and local charities might be open to this approach.
The Houthi movement in Yemen is pressuring the internationally-recognized government in Aden to fulfill promises which were tentatively agreed in ceasefire negotiations. Laying in the background, however, are the movement’s long-standing demands for economic and social justice which will provide equitable treatment to those who live in the mountainous northern areas of the nation.
A long-lasting peace deal could finally be in the works for Yemen after delegations from Saudi Arabia visited the rebel capital of Sanaa for talks with Houthi rebels. These discussions quickly led to prisoner swaps, helping to increase the level of trust.
Now that Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations following their talks in Beijing earlier this month, hopes have emerged that the eight-year civil war in Yemen may finally be coming to an end. However, there is yet to be any specific plan to include the troubled South Arabian nation within bilateral peace negotiations.
US economic sanctions on Russia and Iran have pushed the two countries closer by supplying them with a common need for security policy cooperation as well as trading opportunities outside of Western markets. The two nations are looking for new opportunities to work together, and one result is an Iranian military drone factory being built inside Russia.
For years the internationally-recognized government of Somalia, based in Mogadishu, has been in a running battle with the Al-Shabab insurgency, but recent advances by the Somali Armed Forces, backed by the US military, as well as division within the Islamist movement itself, appears to have put Al-Shabab on the back foot.
Greece’s far-right ruling party New Democracy recently introduced a new police force which will be deployed to all universities. Not only is Greece now ranking first in Europe in terms of the proportion of its budget spent on the police, but it also reverses steps the country had taken to liberalize the nation after the end of the military junta in 1974.
Japan is beginning construction today, January 12, of a new base intended to be used primarily by the US military on the uninhabited island of Mageshima in Kagoshima Prefecture, despite years of resistance to the controversial plan and a questionable process by which the island was acquired by the government.
