WASHINGTON—The Trump administration’s dealmaking blitz with Belarus has secured the release of hundreds of detainees. By trading targeted sanctions relief for the release of political prisoners in Belarus, the White House has helped free more than five hundred people from unjust captivity. A similar deal with Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus would produce major rewards, with much less risk. To pursue this “grand deal” in Azerbaijan, the Trump administration should work with Congress to propose ending a ban on arms sales to Baku in exchange for the release of unjustly detained individuals—some with US ties—sitting in the country’s jails. This is a rare moment for a bipartisan win-win and a relatively cost-free way to upgrade US relations with a key strategic energy and transport partner that borders both Iran and Russia. With […]

On March 13, commencing at 11:30 a.m. for approximately 30 minutes, Mr. HORII Iwao, State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, held a meeting with the Hon. Ralph REGENVANU, Minister for Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and National Disaster Management of the Republic of Vanuatu, who is visiting Japan. The overview of the meeting is as follows.

Picture a vessel carrying thousands of pounds of narcotics toward U.S. shores. The ship runs with no transponder or electronic trace, slipping through open waters under cloud cover. Overhead, a network of advanced satellites capture every movement. Within minutes, automated systems fuse imagery, signals and open-source data, alerting analysts who can pinpoint the ship’s location and intercept it before it reaches land. That’s the kind of coordination national security leaders are striving to make routine, and it depends on the ability to turn data into clear, actionable insight. However, while the limiting factor used to be access to enough data, Nicholas Bousquet, vice president of strategy for the intelligence community at GRVTY, stated that national security leaders now face the challenge of navigating an influx. “What we’ve seen in the […]

Vast and global “black markets”—what national-security practitioners call shadow economies—are no longer peripheral nuisances but core strategic terrain. Trade executed outside regulatory, taxation, and enforcement frameworks prolongs wars, defangs sanctions, frays alliances, and helps rogue governments and groups survive and thrive. These flows have long been treated as problems for law enforcement, but military and defense policymakers and planners must increase their efforts to account for and stem them. Shadow trade enables regimes and insurgent groups to survive extreme pressure. Iran’s illicit oil exports help sustain the regime amid punishing sanctions. North Korea endures through complex illicit portfolios: counterfeit currency, arms smuggling, cyber theft, and forced labor. Russia earns billions by evading sanctions on oil, gas, and gold exports. Oil-smuggling states create front companies and “dark fleets” of tankers—Russia alone […]

Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer is “not co-operating” with authorities and has not confessed to carrying out the shooting, Utah’s governor Spencer Cox has told US media. Suspect Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody some 33 hours after Kirk, a 31-year-old right-wing activist, was shot dead in Orem on Wednesday. Speaking to ABC News, Cox, a Republican, said people around Mr Robinson had been co-operating with the investigation. Cox appeared on various US news outlets on Sunday morning, where he also reiterated concerns regarding social media in the aftermath of Kirk’s death.The governor was also asked about a New York Times report alleging Mr Robinson had spoken to others after the shooting via the Discord messaging platform, including allegations that he joked about being the gunman. Cox told ABC News: […]

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will meet Stormont ministers on Tuesday to discuss how to grow Northern Ireland’s economy, as part of her first visit to Belfast. She will also visit Studio Ulster, Northern Ireland’s largest film and TV virtual production studio, to look at how government spending is helping the “creative industries”. About a third of the funding for the £72m project came from the government’s Belfast Region City Deal. Reeves is expected to meet Finance Minister John O’Dowd and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly during her trip.Stormont’s first and deputy first minister met Reeves last September, in a bid to lobby for “fairer” funding for public services in Northern Ireland. Since then, the government has faced criticism over its plans and subsequent U-turns on winter fuel payments and changes to […]