In a tacit admission that US influence in the Islamic world is in freefall, the Biden administration is openly seeking the People’s Republic of China’s help in extricating itself from its self-inflicted fiascos in Gaza and Yemen.
The notion that non-Western powers might band together to resist the depredations of Europe and the United States has been around since the late 19th century, but only now has the power balance shifted to a sufficient degree that the era of Western global dominance is actually coming to an end.
The US government stands alone among the world’s major nations in supporting the continuing massacre of the civilian population of Gaza.
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.
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.
Canadian military intervention in Haiti now appears unlikely in spite of the request by Ariel Henry, who is acting as Haiti’s prime minister, for a “specialized armed force” to be deployed in his country against endemic gang violence. Instead, international sanctions on individuals are being employed to do the work.
As many as eleven people around the world are dying of hunger and malnutrition every minute—outpacing Covid deaths—according to a report published Friday by the international charity Oxfam.
The Covid-19 crisis has elevated the visibility of the World Health Organization (WHO) as never before. Indeed, this may be the very first time that a bureaucratic agency of the United Nations, not the Security Council or General Assembly, has become a focus of global media attention. It is quite unfortunate, then, that the WHO’s main face at this crucial juncture has turned out to be a political hack.
The Shingetsu News Agency has been keeping a running log of the major developments in Japanese politics since January 2012. The following is our contemporary account of the entire year 2012.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on January 7, 2019.
