Author: Nishabod

Brussels (16/11 – 83) Sri Lanka is still dealing with the aftermath of its most devastating economic crisis since independence, a government without popular support and intensifying geopolitical competition in its neighborhood, a year after the Sri Lanka’s massive unrest. Known as the Aragalaya protests which were spurred by the economic crisis, the protests led to mass resignations across the government with former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country in July 2022. In the year since, the country has secured an IMF agreement, and its economy has ambled toward a slow path of recovery. However, there have still been concerns on the human rights front as the current government of Ranil Wickremesinghe has…

Berlin (24/11 – 50) The Supreme Court of the Republic of Tajikistan sentenced five Pamiri leaders from the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) to life imprisonment. They are Tolib Ayombekov, Nazhmiddin Sherchonov, Imumnazar Shoishirinov, Munavvar Shanbiev and Niyozsho Gulobov. The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan announced their detention in June of this year, presenting everyone as “leaders of an organized criminal group in the city of Khorog” – the administrative center of GBAO. According to information from the law enforcement agency, Shanbiev and Ayombekov were among those with whom the country’s authorities signed separate agreements in October…

An Israeli power company worker was killed by an anti-tank missile strike across the Lebanese border, his employer said Monday as tensions flared between Israel and the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah. Shalom Abudi, 56, was killed on Sunday night “by Hezbollah fire during his work in the Dovev area” — just half a mile (800 meters) from the frontier with Lebanon — according to the Israel Electric Corporation. Since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon’s southern border has seen intensifying tit-for-tat ex-changes, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian group, stoking fears of…

The Palestinians’ longstanding and legitimate grievances have been irrevocably subverted by Hamas’ brazen attack against Israel on Oct 7. Unlike previous rounds of conflicts and clashes between Israel and the Palestinians on the one hand and neighbouring Arab states on the other, Thailand has become a direct casualty like never before, as 30 Thai workers have been killed to date, with at least 16 injured and 17 taken hostage. As a militant political movement motivated by Islamic fundamentalism using methods of terrorism to achieve its objectives, Hamas has made a bad name for the Palestinian cause, eliciting condemnation and opposition…

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has promised to resolve the hostage crisis in Gaza and said it will not stand in the way of aid coming into the besieged enclave – but has vowed it will continue to “remove the terrorist threat” Hamas poses to its citizens. On Tuesday, Hamas freed two women, including 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, who said militants beat her as they took her into Gaza on October 7 but was then well-treated during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave. Three days earlier, Hamas freed American teen hostage Natalie Raanan and her mother after being abducted in…

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Tuesday visited troops deployed near the border with Israel and UN peacekeepers, as Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops clash for a third week.The visit by Prime Minister Najib Mikati to the tense southern province is his first since clashes erupted along the border following a surprise attack by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7.It also came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops along the border on Sunday.Mikati and international governments have been scrambling to prevent the Hamas-Israel war from expanding to Lebanon, where the powerful Hezbollah group warned Israel about a ground incursion into the blockaded…

Israeli efforts to rehabilitate southern communities ravaged by the October 7 Hamas onslaught will take years and go beyond a planned ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet said on Thursday. Benny Gantz, an ex-general who joined Netanyahu from the opposition in an emergency government, signaled to enemies of Israel other than Hamas that they too risked being destroyed. “The battle against Gazan terror will continue within the strip’s territory – going deep, anywhere and at any time required to ensure security for the communities that will be restored and will rebuild…

London (04/11 – 50) US government last week intervened in a lawsuit triggered by Hamilton Reserve Bank in St Kitts & Nevis. Somehow, a small bank based in a county with 50,000 inhabitants and GDP of under $1billion has amassed a $250million face-value stake in a Sri Lankan bond. The mysterious ‘global financier’ aka cunning vulture investor, Benjamin Wey is suing Sri Lanka. This specific bond was issued in happier times in 2012 and lacks some now-common clauses that make bonds easier to restructure. HRB’s $250million is enough in theory to veto any restructuring proposal Sri Lanka makes to that…

Berlin (3/11 – 40) Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will visit China in the upcoming week as the crisis-hit country makes progress on debt restructuring talks with its biggest lender. Wickremesinghe took office in July last year, after a popular uprising, brought on by an economic meltdown, had forced his predecessor out of power. His Oct. 15-19 visit to Beijing will be his first to China since then. Wickremesinghe, who is also finance minister, has been leading Sri Lanka’s push to manage its heavy debt and keep funds flowing from a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. He will…

The October 7th Hamas military operation on Israel had repercussions for both sides. It resulted in significant Israeli casualties, 1,405 Israelis killed, 5,431 wounded and around 230 Israeli hostages. This marked a substantial loss for Israel, undermining the image of its powerful army. Israel has responded by bombarding the Gaza Strip, killing more than 7,000 Palestinians and leaving 17,439 wounded while destroying more than 15,749 homes and arresting more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank.This ongoing confrontation between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2008 shows us that neither Israel nor Hamas could achieve a decisive victory…