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The European Union is launching a new initiative to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (Politico, September 15, 2021). In her recent State of the European Union address, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared, “We want to create links and not dependencies!”—a clear contrast to how the EU and much of the world views China’s project.

Australia signed a deal with France in 2016 to purchase several diesel-powered submarines. In the agreement, touted as “the contract of the century,” France stood to gain both financially and politically (Politico, September 16, 2021). However, Australia recently canceled the deal in order to enter into a pact with the United States and the United Kingdom that would net the island continent eight nuclear-powered submarines—and a security agreement.

In most modern Western countries, people tend to think of wars as being “over there” someplace and not on their home soil—but hasn’t the United States also seen terrorism like that of the 9/11 attacks? Could we see foreign invaders once again attack cities in America, as well as in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other nations—on an even greater scale?

In the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, ethnic forces from a neighboring region, apparently allied with Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister and troops from neighboring Eritrea, may be committing serious atrocities.

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was criticized by global leaders and President Biden’s own party, but its ramifications go well beyond politics. The region has been a quagmire for other nations for nearly two millennia. In recent times, Britain tried to control the nation three times over the last 100 years. Russia also tried to subdue Afghanistan three times, from 1939 to 1979.