On September 11, Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels announced that they are willing to participate in peace talks headed by the African Union (AU), reports Al Jazeera. This announcement comes after fighting resumed between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in August.
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With the latest effort to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, U.S. allies have stated that they have “serious doubts” that Iran and the U.S. will strike a deal, reports Reuters. President Biden promised to restore the nuclear agreement during his 2020 presidential campaign, yet negotiations appear to be delayed ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
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Beginning September 10, Ukrainian forces launched a significant counter-offensive against Russia, recapturing many cities and marking a major shift in the conflict, reports Reuters. During the past five months of the war, Russia captured 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. However, Ukraine regained those northeastern territories in a surprise offensive that caught the Russians off guard.
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The Taliban have heightened restrictions limiting women’s access to freedom and public society, prohibiting girls from returning to secondary school and women from traveling by airplane without a male companion, Reuters reports.
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Ethiopian and Tigrayan leaders have agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire to halt the civil conflict that has raged in the country’s northern Tigray region for over a year. The United Nations and other international actors are hopeful that the cessation of fighting will allow for humanitarian aid to the region. Reuters reports that the ceasefire comes at a time when “more than 90 percent of the 5.5 million Tigrayans need food aid,” despite Ethiopian authorities affirming that aid deliveries have never been impeded.
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Although the United States and its European allies have so far avoided direct military contact with the Russian armed forces, they have engaged in a different kind of warfare. Economic warfare has been employed to deter further Russian aggression in Ukraine and punish the regime for its illegal territorial expansion.
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, an estimated 3.1 million Ukrainians have fled the country, reported by the Brookings Institution as of March 18. It is currently estimated that the number may reach 4 million if Russia’s military offensive continues at its current rate.
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Across the globe, the world is shunning Russia in a multitude of ways to protest President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. As The New York Times examines, from culture to commerce and sports to travel, many doors have been closed on Russia and its people, in a capacity not seen since the days of the Cold War. Such a worldwide rejection of Russia has been intended to show solidarity with the beleaguered Ukrainians, while also attempting to force President Putin to pull back Russian forces.
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Ukrainians have mounted a “stiffer-than-expected” military and civil resistance since Russian troops invaded the country in late February, the New York Times reports.
The Ukrainian military, one of Europe’s largest with over 370,000 active and reserve troops, has spent billions training its soldiers to counter Russian offenses in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Thus far, it appears that their efforts have paid off – Russia, despite its military and economic advantages, has managed to capture only one major city in 10 days, the southern city of Kherson.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is invading Ukraine. As illogical as the move seems from the perspective of internal politics, the Kremlin’s foreign policy is an attempt at bringing back the olden days of Soviet nationalist sentiment.
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