Azerbaijan's authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, was re-elected president after winning the Nagorno-Karabakh war and can turn his country into an energy and trade hub halfway between Asia and Europe.
Hackers stole data from the Romanian Parliament, demanding money for ransom. Such ransomware attacks are launched by both criminals and state actors.
The victory of the pro-independence candidate in the Taiwan elections complicates once again China-USA relations. China’s economic difficulties, the elections in the USA and the crisis in Yemen can however prevent an escalation.
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed, among other things, to establish a direct line of contact. It is a step forward in the bilateral relationship, after years of tensions.
A made-up story tries to explain China’s economic success, apparently with the aim of warning against a threat to Western civilization.
After earlier this summer, the federal government of Germany presented its new security strategy, Olaf Scholz’s Cabinet has now released a national strategy on China, which marks a new first for Berlin.
Russian-Chinese relations appear to be flourishing. But Beijing is looking for its own interests: it wants to attract the countries of Central Asia into its orbit and could even aim to recover Outer Manchuria.
Xi Jinping visited “dear friend” Vladimir Putin in Moscow to promote his peace plan and sign deals that will take trade to $200 billion. For Putin, increasingly isolated internationally, the visit was a lifeline. For Xi, an opportunity to promote China's interests and his own image.
Russia and China are looking for peace solutions in Ukraine, while the West wants a protracted war, according to Russian state media reporting on the talks in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. In reality, it is Russia that started the war and is continuing it by keeping troops in Ukraine and trying to seize even more of that country's territory.