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Description: Ukraine and the US are set to renegotiate the disputed rare earth minerals deal after the initial draft was leaked to the public and heavily disputed by Ukrainian experts. The first draft saw Ukraine effectively giving ownership to deposits of rare earth minerals to the US as well as critical oil and gas natural resources. Ukraine’s Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko stated that the new agreement would approach the issue from a standpoint of protecting Ukraine’s strategic interests and substantially boosting the country’s economy. She also added that several experts would be included in the negotiations, including sectors such as security and foreign affairs.
Description: South Korea’s Constitutional Court has ousted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his illegal imposition of martial law in Dec last year. Han Duck – Soo would serve as the acting President until a precise date is determined for the upcoming elections scheduled to be held in Jun. Yoon declared martial law in Dec citing concerns over the misuse of the majority in the parliament by the opposition, which instigated the worst political crisis in modern era for South Korea. Lee Jae – Myung, populist leader of the Liberal Democratic Party is the most likely candidate to replace Yoon, however, he as well faces legal challenges on the basis of corruption. Impa
Description: The major shareholder of the Chinese social media platform TikTok, ByteDance, has halted the sale of TikTok’s operations in the US to an American – based company in light of Trump's tariff imposition. In light of recent interest from large companies such as Amazon and a business consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely, TikTok’s fate on the American market remains severely uncertain. US President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for the sale for additional 75 days via presidential executive order which was severely opposed by the Democrats. TikTok’s sale of operations on the US market was initiated over privacy and influence concerns, as the US Senat
Description: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet has officially inaugurated the expansion of the Ream naval base in the country, just two weeks before the scheduled visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Manet also praised Chinese President Xi for enabling and facilitating the development of the expansion but also stated that China has no exclusive rights to the base even though the countries are close allies. Chinese media and news outlets however projected the inauguration differently and stipulated the base to be of future use for joint military and naval drills, which cited serious concerns over Chinese influence. Prime Minister Manet also stated that Japanese naval ves
Description: The M23 rebels and representatives from DRC’s government have reportedly engaged in private negotiations mediated by Qatar. Officials from both sides met in Doha where the seizure of violence in the eastern parts of the DRC was heavily discussed. M23 rebels have overtaken significant strategic cities in east DRC, which were rich with rare earth metals in violent confrontations with DRC’s military. The negotiations in Doha have apparently laid the groundwork for the upcoming direct public negotiations set to be held on 09 Apr. M23 rebels in the private meetings have allegedly agreed on refraining control over Walikale to the DRC’s military as a show of good faith
Description: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the President of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake as they discussed the deepening of strategic ties between the two countries. Joint sustainable energy project has been announced with the introduction of a 120 – megawatt solar power plant which would be developed in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. The presidents also discussed debt restructuring as India has assisted Sri Lanka with $4 billion in 2022 when the country faced substantial financial crisis due to market fluctuation. Modi’s visit to Colombo signals a battle over influence with China, which has already developed $3.2 billion oil refinery in Sri
Description: The global markets plummeted as China imposed reciprocal tariffs of 34% on US imported goods, as the global trade war started impacting the largest stock markets. Market indexes such as S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average saw their largest drops ever since the Covid pandemic of 6% and 5.8% respectively. China has answered Trump’s imposition of tariffs by adding up to 27 US companies on the trade sanctions list which ranged from food products to military and defense components. China also filed a lawsuit against the US with the World Trade Organization while officials stated they were open to direct negotiations with their US counterparts regarding the t
Description: Almost five months after the deadly collapse of the Novi Sad railway canopy, the political crisis in Serbia still persists. The massive student protests on 15 Mar in Belgrade where more than 300,000 people amassed, were followed with stymied response from the sitting government. Clashes between the protesters and the police intensified in the past couple of weeks as the Vucic regime targeted people with perfidy methods such as salary cuts, targeted harassment and temporary imprisonment. The resignation from Prime Minister Milos Vucevic hasn’t dissuaded the protestors who are now seeking Europe’s support as they started cycling towards the Council of Europe’s hea
Description: Leaders from the European Union, Antonio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen, held the first Summit with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Costa and Leyen discussed the deepening of strategic ties between EU and the Central Asian countries, especially in the sectors of critical raw materials, transport, digital connectivity, water and energy. The discussions were followed by Leyen’s announcement of a Gateway Investment Package that amounted to $13.2 billion for the mentioned areas of cooperation. The Summit was praised by the Uzbekistani President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who stated that the Central As
Description: Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy met with military representatives from the UK and France in Kyiv, where the potential deployment of peacekeeping forces was discussed. Official representatives from the UK Defense Ministry have stated that such force would need to be bolstered by US support and amount to at least 15 thousand soldiers. The discussions were considered as a prelude towards further negotiations which would be held in Brussels in the near future. Russian and Ukrainian air forces in the meantime continued to exchange attacks, as Russian drones targeted Zelenskyy’s hometown Kryvyi Ryih where up to 9 children were killed in the attacks and 50 othe