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news Kosovo

Kosovo and Serbia Verbally Agree on 'Implementation Deal'

While EU hails an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo on normalisation of ties, Serbian and Kosovo leaders put very different spins on it, and Serbia’s President Vucic kept insisting he did not sign anything.

Balkan Insight | 19 Mar 2023

news

Where is Nithyananda’s ‘Kailasa’?

Fugitive rape-accused Nithyananda is in the news after his disciple Vijayapriya Nithyananda, along with five other women, represented his ‘country’ Kailasa at a UN conference.

India Today | 6 Mar 2023

news Nagorno-Karabakh

UN Court Orders Azerbaijan to End Roadblock

The International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to “ensure unimpeded movement” on the highway connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been virtually closed for more than two months.

Eurasianet | 23 Feb 2023

news Taiwan

War game suggests Chinese invasion of Taiwan would fail at a huge cost

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2026 would result in thousands of casualties among Chinese, United States, Taiwanese and Japanese forces, and it would be unlikely to result in a victory for Beijing, according to a prominent independent Washington think tank.

CNN | 9 Jan 2023

news Spratly Islands

China Accused of Fresh Territorial Grab in South China Sea

China is building up several unoccupied land features in the South China Sea, according to Western officials, an unprecedented move they said was part of Beijing’s long-running effort to strengthen claims to disputed territory in a region critical to global trade.

Bloomberg | 21 Dec 2022

news

The self-proclaimed kingdom that doesn’t recognize Germany

In the depths of the countryside in eastern Germany, there’s an invisible border.

BBC | 12 Dec 2022

news Chagos Archipelago

UK Agrees to Negotiate with Mauritius over Handover

The UK has agreed to open negotiations with Mauritius over the future handover of the Chagos Islands, in a major reversal of policy following years of resistance and legal defeats in international courts. The intended agreement will allow for the return of former inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Guardian | 4 Nov 2022

news

Raising the Drawbridge

By some estimations, Australia hosts around a third of the world’s self-declared micronations. There are three good reasons why

The Guardian | 22 Oct 2022

news Taiwan

Xi Jinping Opens Chinese Communist Party Congress with Warning for Taiwan

President says he supports peaceful reunification but will ‘never promise to renounce use of force’.

The Guardian | 16 Oct 2022

news Crimea

Miss Crimea Fined for Singing Patriotic Ukrainian Song

Olga Valeyeva, who won the Miss Crimea 2022 beauty pageant, and an unnamed friend were found guilty of ‘discrediting’ the Russian army by singing the patriotic Ukrainian song ‘Chervona Kalyna’ on a balcony.

The Guardian | 4 Oct 2022

news Donetsk People’s Republic

Staged Referendums Yield Expected Result

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to illegally annex four partially occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine lurched forward Tuesday, as Russian officials and Kremlin proxy leaders claimed that staged referendums showed that more than 95 percent of voters want to join Russia — an absurd level of support.

Washington Post | 27 Sep 2022

news Nagorno-Karabakh

New Clashes Along the Border

Armenia has said nearly 50 of its soldiers have been killed in clashes along the border with Azerbaijan, in the worst escalation of hostilities since a 2020 war.

The Guardian | 13 Sep 2022

news

Chinese Pair Plotted 'Mini-State' in Pacific Nation

A Chinese couple plotted to set up a mini-state on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific, bribing MPs and officials along the way, US prosecutors say. The man and woman tried to persuade lawmakers to set up a ‘Semi-Autonomous Region’ (SAR) on a remote atoll.

BBC | 9 Sep 2022

news Jammu & Kashmir

For Kashmiris, resolution to decades of conflict remains a distant dream

When Indians mark 75 years of independence this month, poet Zareef Ahmad and others in Kashmir may feel there’s not much to celebrate.

NPR | 23 Aug 2022

news

Lamb, the World’s Newest Micronation

Thirteen years after he bought it, Uri Geller, a master of the grand gesture, has decided to elevate Lamb’s status from a private Scottish island to that of a country, with a flag, constitution and anthem. Settlement on the island itself is not allowed, its only inhabitants being puffins, guillemots and an assortment of other seabirds - and until recently a solitary rat.

BBC | 7 Aug 2022

news Nagorno-Karabakh

New Tensions Explode over Karabakh

New tensions erupted over Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday as three soldiers were killed and Azerbaijan said it had taken control of several strategic heights in the disputed region.

France 24 | 3 Aug 2022

analysis Taiwan

In Visiting Taiwan, Pelosi Capped Three Decades of Challenging China

From her first days in Congress, Nancy Pelosi was willing to confront China’s leaders. As she looked toward her legacy, the California Democrat was not about to back down this time.

The New York Times | 2 Aug 2022

news Kosovo

New Tensions on Kosovo-Serb Border

Kosovo’s government has postponed the implementation of new rules that would force people in majority ethnic Serb areas to swap their Serbian-issued car number plates for Kosovan-issued ones. This decision follows on clashes in protest over the new rules.

BBC | 1 Aug 2022

report Donetsk People’s Republic

In Crimea and the Donbas, Organized Crime Reigns Supreme

Since they first separated from Ukraine in 2014, a nexus of crime, corruption and rebellion has flourished in the Russian-backed Donetsk and Luhansk ‘People’s Republics’ as well as Russian occupied Crimea, a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime found.

OCCRP | 15 Jul 2022

news Ceuta & Melilla

Death Toll Rising After Thousands Storm Spain’s Wall in Africa

The death toll among those who attempted to scale the fence into the Spanish enclave of Melilla last week continues to mount. With 29 dead, mostly sub-Saharan African, the figure, if confirmed, is among the worst-ever disasters for the Spanish enclave on the north Moroccan coast.

EU Observer | 27 Jun 2022

news Hans Island

Canada and Denmark Settle ‘Whisky War’

Canada and Denmark resolved a half-century-old border dispute, splitting the ownership of Hans Island, a 1.2-square kilometer mound of rock halfway between Nunavut and Greenland. The new border will divide the island roughly in half, following a natural ravine from north to south.

Politico | 14 Jun 2022

news Taiwan

China Warns Taiwan Independence Would Trigger War

China has warned the US that any attempt to make Taiwan independent from China will trigger military action by Beijing’s forces. Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe met his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of an Asian security summit in Singapore.

BBC | 12 Jun 2022

news Northern Cyprus

Cyprus to UN: Turkey seeks full control of breakaway north

Cyprus will lodge a complaint with the United Nations over Turkey’s new financial assistance deal with breakaway Turkish Cypriots that demonstrates Ankara’s “complete control” over them, the president of the ethnically divided island nation said Monday.

The Washington Post | 6 Jun 2022

news Somaliland

Why Taiwan has found an unlikely friend in Somaliland

The small African state of Somaliland legally doesn’t exist. But Taiwan has spied an opportunity to make its mark.

ABC news Australia | 5 Jun 2022

news Jammu & Kashmir

India’s Kashmir sees upsurge in violence

Indian security forces have killed six militants in Kashmir in the past 24 hours while militants shot dead a female TV performer and a police officer, officials said on Thursday, following the conviction of the region’s best-known separatist.

reuters | 26 May 2022

news Transnistria

Ukrainian War Casts Shadow over Transnistria

Moldova raises concerns over suspected destabilisation campaign in Russia-backed breakaway region.

Financial Times | 3 May 2022

news Abkhazia

Georgian diorama artist protests against Russian aggression

Artist Tamuna Ianvarashvili uses the dioramas as a form of peaceful protest against Russia’s occupation of Georgian regions and its brutality in invading Ukraine in February.

AGENDA.GE | 19 Apr 2022

news Transnistria

Journey to Transnistria: Inside Russia’s Disinformation Bubble

Reporters of The New York Times traveled inside Transnistria, a Moscow-backed breakaway state in Moldova, to find out how Russia’s disinformation campaign stretches beyond its borders.

The New York Times | 15 Apr 2022

news Donetsk People’s Republic

Russian separatists built new crypto to evade sanctions

Scammers targeted people in developing countries.

ACS | 6 Apr 2022

news South Ossetia

Kremlin Plays Down South Ossetia Leader's Call to Join Russia

The Kremlin has played down a suggestion by the president of South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia, that the unrecognized state could become part of Russia.

The Moscow Times | 31 Mar 2022

news Kuril Islands

How a war in Ukraine crushed the hopes of thousands of elderly Japanese

Soviet soldiers barged into Hirotoshi Kawata’s home on Sept. 4, 1945, searching for hidden Japanese soldiers and valuables. Kawata, then 11, remembers understanding only two words they said: tokei, or wristwatch; and sake, which they went on to loot from the home.

The Washington Post | 31 Mar 2022

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