Our World

12/15/2025

YEMEN: The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) launched a rapid military offensive across southern Yemen on 2 December 2025, seizing control of key districts in Hadramout, the country’s most resource-rich governorate, and consolidating its hold over Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government, and large stretches of the southern coastline (Royal United Services Institute).

While STC controlling the majority of Yemen’s southern littoral may constrain the Houthis’ ability to operationally expand attacks into the Gulf of Aden, the benefit may outweigh the costs.

12/15/2025

EUROPE/CHINA: Warning lights are flashing across Western markets. Europe is still hitting the snooze button.

China exported its way to record global trade surpluses last year, breaking the previous record with a month still to spare. With no meaningful domestic reform in sight, it is time to abandon the comforting fiction that Beijing will ever pivot towards a consumption-led economy. The Communist Party has made its choice. The export engine stays at full throttle, whatever the cost to Western industry (Foundation for Defense of Democracies).

Warning lights are flashing across Western markets. Europe is still hitting the snooze button. China exported its way to record global trade surpluses last year, breaking the previous record with...

12/15/2025

USA/CHINA: President Donald Trump announced on December 8 that the United States would allow Nvidia to sell its powerful H200 chip—a critical piece of technology in the artificial intelligence (AI) race—to China. The president said in a social media post that the Commerce Department was negotiating the final details, and he said that other tech companies like Intel would be offered a similar opportunity. Trump also noted that the chips would only be sold to approved U.S. customers and that 25 percent of the revenue would go to the U.S. government as a tax (Council on Foreign Relations).

Three CFR experts discuss President Donald Trump’s decision to allow Nvidia to sell advanced AI chip sales to China and what implications it could have for the future of AI, U.S. national security po…

12/15/2025

AUSTRALIA: A fatal antisemitism attack in Bondi Beach, Sydney, saw 15 people killed during a Hanukkah celebration. This comes amid rising antisemitism and anti-Israel activity in Australia (Mid East Journal).

A fatal antisemitism attack in Bondi Beach, Sydney, saw 15 people killed during a Hanukkah celebration. This comes amid rising antisemitism and anti-Israel activity in Australia.

12/15/2025

INDIA/CHINA: India’s US$77 billion Brahmaputra hydropower initiative and China’s mega-dam at the Yarlung–Tsangpo Great Bend are turning the Himalayas into a digital hydropower flashpoint. Both states are tying dams to AI-enabled grids and data centres, but share no mechanism to manage the Brahmaputra. As China preserves its ‘hydrological hegemony’ and India builds counter-capacity with US and Japanese backing, they risk ecological damage, regional instability and potential conflict (East Asia Forum).

India and China’s Brahmaputra dam race is fuelling an energy–data rivalry, turning the Himalayas into a flashpoint of Asia’s energy geopolitics.

12/15/2025

JAPAN: The agreement document of 12 items announced upon the establishment of the coalition government between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin) includes the item: "Strengthening national intelligence functions and comprehensive reform" (Japan Institute of International Affairs).

The Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), founded in 1959, is a private, nonpartisan policy think-tank focused on foreign affairs and security issues.

12/15/2025

KOREA: Under the 2001 Korea-China Fisheries Agreement, South Korea and China established a jointly managed maritime area called the Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) in the Yellow Sea (West Sea). The agreement was the first fisheries agreement between the two countries and was designed to temporarily manage overlapping exclusive economic zone (EEZ) claims in the Yellow Sea. The agreement created the following: 1) exclusive fishing zones for each country; 2) a jointly managed provisional measures zone (PMZ); 3) transitional zones with limited shared fishing; 4) a joint fisheries commission for coordination; and 5) enforcement rules. The agreement encourages transparency, rule-making, and mutual consultation in this shared maritime zone (Beyond Parallel, CSIS).

12/15/2025

RUSSIA: Since February 2022, Russia’s exiled opposition has faced a dual credibility gap. In order to maintain their credibility within Russia, they must avoid being perceived as Western proxies. However, to gain support from Europe and Ukraine, they cannot hedge on issues such as occupied territories or accountability for war crimes (Finnish Institute of International Affairs).

Since February 2022, Russia’s exiled opposition has faced a dual credibility gap. In order to maintain their credibility within Russia, they must avoid being perceived as Western proxies. However, to gain support from Europe and Ukraine, they cannot hedge on issues such as occupied territories or ...

12/15/2025

Despite warnings of an impending insurance crisis driven by climate-related catastrophes, 2025 will be extremely profitable for the property and casualty industry.

AEI’s Roger Pielke Jr. notes that these profits are inconsistent with the alarm that climate advocates have sounded.

12/14/2025

SLOVENIA: Slovenia’s election to the United Nations Security Council, with 153 votes against Belarus’s 38, was more than a victory over an authoritarian competitor. It confirmed Slovenia’s status as a reliable democratic actor, trusted to contribute to global stability amid geopolitical fragmentation. This symbolism now sits uncomfortably besides the country’s domestic reality. With its term at the Security Council coming to an end, the Šutar Law came into force: a measure that would allow police to designate entire neighbourhoods inhabited by Roma as “security zones”; grant sweeping powers to conduct identity checks without suspicion; enter homes without warrants; install surveillance equipment; and issue fines that dwarf annual household incomes, among others (New Eastern Europe).

Slovenia's shift on internal security risks turning a diplomatic triumph into a European vulnerability.

12/14/2025

EUROPE/USA: Over the past five years, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have launched the most sweeping antitrust offensive since the breakup of American telephone monopoly AT&T. They have opened cases against Google, Meta, Apple, and Amazon, arguing that these companies stifle competition, and request radical remedies, including forced selloffs. Yet a reckoning looks unlikely. Recent rulings suggest shifts in digital marketplaces are weakening the antitrust cases. The time-lag between complaint and remedy spans years. In between, new competitors and technologies have emerged, most importantly in artificial intelligence (Center for European Policy Analysis).

European and American regulators trying to rein in Silicon Valley’s largest digital platforms find themselves playing catch-up to innovation.

12/14/2025

INDIA: After a steady rise for nearly three years, India’s imports of Russian crude oil declined significantly in November 2025. This followed sanctions by the United States on Russian energy companies and the imposition of substantial reciprocal tariffs on India, including duties on Russian oil purchases. In response to these economic pressures, Indian oil companies are reassessing their trade relationships with Russian counterparts (Carnegie India).

This piece examines India’s response to U.S. sanctions and tariffs, specifically assessing the immediate market consequences, such as alterations in import costs, and the broader strategic implications for India’s energy security and foreign policy orientation.