Strained U.S. Ties Seen as Israel Rejects Cease-fire Pleas

Since coming into office a month ago, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has stifled the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in the name of national security. While other regional leaders lead from behind, Sisi’s out-front, proactive model has been more successful at halting the Islamist drive, an outcome that raises the general’s political profile across North Africa and the Middle East but also increases the risks. Egypt is already facing a threat of an incursion through the Gaza Strip by the jihadist terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

By Gordon Chang

The Obama Administration's focus on "engagement" has failed to deter an increasingly belligerent China, as Beijing's top party leaders pay more attention to their increasingly powerful, but divided military.

The European Commission’s investigation of three European Union nations for providing unfair state support to multinational corporations like Google and Starbucks is a warning shot to EU countries with favorable tax agreements. The investigations are also likely to spur momentum for global tax reform, as the United States and the EU increasingly cooperate on tackling tax avoidance.

Special Economic Analysis
by Peter Warburton, PhD

The mainstream print media in Europe recently reported that China will become the world’s largest economy this year, overtaking the United States for the first time. As China’s reported growth rate has been running at 7 percent or more a year, the natural reaction of many was to find the predictions plausible.

Heard in London
by Jeremy Bradshaw

British security services are on red alert following revelations that returning jihadists from Syria and Iraq plan a major attack in Britain. Around 500 individuals from Britain have traveled to Syria to join al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria. Tracking these jihadists as they return to the UK has become a top priority for MI5.

SITUATION REPORT

The fate of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is currently unknown after a video of a man claiming to be Baghdadi surfaced over the weekend amid other claims that Baghdadi was gravely injured during a battle with Iraq security forces and has fled to Syria.