This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here. Sign up here to receive Bellingcat’s biggest investigations by email as soon as they are published. Christy Kinahan, the Irish founder of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group who is being pursued by authorities around the world […] The post Christy Kinahan’s UAE Residence Visa Cancelled appeared first on bellingcat .
China is weathering the Hormuz energy crisis. But copying its model comes with risks Expert comment thilton.drupal 17 September 2026 China absorbed the shock by drawing on stockpiles and a decade of electrification. Europe needs electrification for security, but it needs to decide which parts of the system it is willing to buy from Beijing. Resources are no longer ‘king’ when it comes to energy, wrote Zhao Hongtu and Chen Wenlin in the 1 September 2026 edition of Qiushi , the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship theoretical journal. Mineral-rich economies may have some leverage, but the countries that control ‘transition-related technology, finance and rules’ will gain more influence as the world sees the rise of the ‘electrostate’, with ‘China, India and Brazil becoming the main force of new energy development.’ As a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran, argue Zhao and Chen, energy security has become a priority in national policymaking: ‘clean energy is seen as an important route to security’ and ‘economies that actively embrace the energy transition may occupy more important positions in the future global energy landscape.’ It is unsurprising that a CCP journal would commend China’s efforts in building renewable energy and managing the fallout of the Iran war. But the numbers support their conclusions. The oil importer most exposed to the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz – China imports 70 per cent of its oil, around half of it from the Gulf – has also been the least disrupted. Weathering the storm China’s strength in weathering the Hormuz crisis so far stands in contrast to
Europe · West & Central Asia · East Asia · Oil & energy
Turkey is neither drifting away from the West nor is it coming home. It has become an embedded outsider: a middle power that has learned to build strategic autonomy from inside the Western system rather than by leaving it.
Europe · West & Central Asia · Defense · Global politics
The race for US midterms reveals a rapidly changing Democratic party. Europeans must understand and engage its three camps well before the party could take power
West & Central Asia · North America · Global politics
The Houthis’ capture of Mocha has transformed the war in Yemen – and the geopolitics of the Red Sea Expert comment thilton.drupal 14 September 2026 Iran and its allies can now exert pressure on two strategic maritime chokepoints, with global implications. A more coherent international approach to Yemen is needed. The Houthi armed group recently captured the strategic port city of Mocha in southwestern Yemen and advanced along the coast of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. This represents the most consequential change in territorial control in Yemen for years. For Yemen, the offensive risks reopening a war that never formally ended but had become significantly less violent since the UN-mediated truce of 2022. For the wider region, the implications are also massive. The Houthis’ new territorial position gives them much greater ability to influence maritime shipping through Bab al-Mandab, the narrow passage connecting the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and ultimately the Suez Canal. Together with Iran’s disruption of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran and its allies now have the capacity to exert pressure on two of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints. The Houthis have also launched attacks into Saudi Arabia, including against energy infrastructure, that have reportedly injured civilians. This also constitutes an escalation in the conflict and poses questions for Riyadh and its US ally. — Made with Natural Earth data. The fragmentation of Yemen’s anti-Houthi camp Houthi forces, who control most of western Yemen, made a rapid push down the Red Sea coast last week. Governm
The US Army currently has fifteen Patriot battalions and eight THAAD batteries—finite resources that are badly needed across the service’s global operational footprint. EUCOM needs them to deter an ever-encroaching […]
Europe · West & Central Asia · East Asia · North America · Defense
Three features of today’s unordered world are converging to create a devastating food crisis. Russia’s war in Ukraine is disrupting agricultural exports from both countries. The enduring blockage of the Strait of Hormuz is restricting fertiliser shipments. And this year’s El Niño (a sporadic warming of the Pacific Ocean generating widespread knock-on effects elsewhere) could […]
In urban warfare, the enemy, terrain, population, and tactical problem can change faster than a military’s formal lessons-learned process. Armies cannot wait until a campaign ends to study what happened. […]
Welcome back to Five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern War Institute at West Point. This series features specially selected cadet hosts who are given an incredible professional development […]
