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From the aqua vitae of mediaeval Europe to the baijiu of ancient China, distilled alcohol has an incredible global heritage, and today each sip of spirit tells the tale of its birthplace.

Escalation or even all-out war is likely more than ever in recent years, after the killings on Tuesday and Wednesday (30 and 31 July) of two senior commanders of forces hostile to the state of Israel.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen promised single-ticket rail travel across the continent in her re-election pitch to the European Parliament, but a similar initiative in her previous five-year term never saw the light of day.

Ukraine has invited China's foreign minister to visit amid growing dialogue that could eventually lead to a meeting between the two countries' leaders, Kyiv's foreign ministry said on Tuesday (30 July).

A large crowd of anti-Muslim protesters clashed with police on Tuesday (30 July) in a northern English town where three girls were stabbed to death and five other children critically wounded during an attack on a Taylor Swift-themed event on Monday.

Recent comments by Emirati officials that the UAE is planning to launch a tender for a second nuclear plant confirm Abu Dhabi's fears over using renewables to power its artificial intelligence industry, sources have told Intelligence Online. With the huge energy

Engineers specialising in UAVs for Ukraine's GUR military intelligence agency are currently dissecting the debris from a Russian Ivolga intelligence, surveillance

UK defence services giant Serco Plc is currently recruiting for a small but strategic contract with its US subsidiary, Serco Inc.The deal

The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Threat Disclosure Act introduced in the House of Representatives on 18 July by Republican representative for

From Pierce Brosnan's high-stakes gambling at the baccarat table simply to talk to Famke Janssen, who plays the deadly Xenia

UK law firms Astraea Group and Hillmont Partners congratulated themselves and each other for negotiating the out of court agreement

How international pressure can stop the genocidal violence.

Economic fragmentation has insulated the region from the war in Gaza.

A number of Russian dissidents and people convicted for their opposition to Moscow's war in Ukraine have disappeared from Russian prisons in recent days, in what rights activists say is a possible sign that a prisoner swap with the West may be close.

The European People's Party (EPP) has raised security concerns over a decision by Hungary to ease visa restrictions for Russian and Belarusian citizens, fearing it could fuel espionage in the EU, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Tuesday (30 July).

L'Angola, qui joue le rôle de médiateur dans le conflit, a annoncé qu'un accord de cessez-le-feu avait été conclu mardi entre la République démocratique du Congo et le Rwanda, qui soutient la rébellion du M23 au Nord-Kivu.

Summary and Key Points: HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier, returned to Portsmouth after a four-month hiatus for mechanical repairs. Initially set to lead NATO’s Exercise Steadfast Defender, the £3.2 billion carrier encountered a mechanical fault in February.

-Repairs at Rosyth Dockyard included sea trials to ensure readiness for upcoming deployments.

-The 65,000-tonne warship, capable of deploying 36 F-35B Lightning II fighters, sailed under the Forth Bridge and exchanged salutes at the Isle of Wight’s Cowes Week regatta.

-Despite her time in dock, the crew engaged in extensive training exercises. HMS Queen Elizabeth is now preparing for operations later this year.

HMS Queen Elizabeth: UK’s Flagship Aircraft Carrier Returns Home

The Royal Navy flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth finally returned home after being sidelined for four months.

The £3.2 billion ($4.17 billion) carrier had been preparing to serve as the flagship for Exercise Steadfast Defender, NATO's largest naval operation since the Cold War when a mechanical fault was discovered during pre-sailing checks in February. The carrier, forced to head to the Rosyth Dockyard in Scotland in March for repairs to her shaft lines, spent last week undergoing sea trials in advance of her next deployment.

"HMS Queen Elizabeth has completed her defect repair work and capability upgrades at Rosyth and will now undergo a period of sea trials to prepare for future tasking," a Royal Navy spokesperson said earlier this month.

The 65,000-tonne warship arrived in Portsmouth on Tuesday evening, where she will next prepare for operations later this year.

"Whilst no warship wants to find itself spending unscheduled time out of the water, I am enormously proud of the work that has gone on in Rosyth," said Captain Will King, commanding officer of HMS Queen Elizabeth. "Everybody on board is looking forward to getting back to sea, where we belong, and picking up a busy programme in the autumn."

Special Moments for the Flagship

It has already been a picturesque trip for the aircraft carrier – one of two currently in service with the Royal Navy. After departing Rosyth in Fife, Scotland on July 22, HMS Queen Elizabeth sailed under the iconic Forth Bridge towards the North Sea.

On Tuesday, the warship sailed past the Isle of Wight, where she exchanged gun salutes with the Royal Yacht Squadron as part of the iconic Cowes Week regatta, the BBC reported. The River-class offshore patrol vessel HMS Tyne was reported to be serving as the "guardship" for the regatta. Though the racing events were postponed due to a lack of wind, numerous dignitaries were in attendance for the gun salute, while large crowds gathered to see the carrier sail past on her way to Portsmouth.

Even as the ship had been sidelined in Scotland, the flagship carrier still hosted visits from the heads of the Swedish and Chilean Navies, while her crew was able to take part in various drills and training exercises. That included a team from the Fleet Operational Standards and Training (FOST) organization, which provided a week of firefighting and damage control instruction.

Capable Warship?

HMS Queen Elizabeth formerly entered service in 2020, becoming the first carrier operated by the UK's Royal Navy since the HMS Ark Royal was decommissioned in 2011. The 932-foot-long warship is far more automated and advanced; and is capable of deploying 36 of the F-35B Lighting II fifth-generation stealth fighters. The carrier is able to launch twenty-four of the aircraft in just five minutes and has a maximum recovery rate of twenty-four aircraft in as many minutes.

In addition to carrying what has been described as the most dominant fifth-generation jet fighter in service today, the carrier's air wing is also composed of nine anti-submarine Merlin HM2 medium-lift naval helicopters along with four or five Merlin choppers for airborne early warning missions.  For land operations, the carrier can also carry a mix of other helicopters including the CH-47 Chinook, AH-64 Apache, Merlin HC4, and Wildcat HM2.

However, apart from deploying F-35s against ISIS during her 2021 globetrotting voyage to the Indo-Pacific and back, HMS Queen Elizabeth had not taken part in combat operations.

There was speculation either the Royal Navy flagship or her sister carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, would be sent to aid the United States Navy's mission in the Red Sea to protect commercial shipping from the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, but the plans never materialized. It is unclear now if HMS Queen Elizabeth could finally be sent to the region later this year.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

Image Credit: Creative Commons and/or Shutterstock. 

The Republican presidential ticket of former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) represents a bold and much-needed departure from the failed foreign policy consensus that has dominated Washington for decades. Meanwhile, the administration of the now likely Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, will largely double down on many of these failures.

This “DC Blob,” as once described by President Obama speechwriter Ben Rhodes, has made a series of disastrous errors that have weakened America’s global position and neglected the interests of middle-class Americans, especially in the Heartland. By adopting a realist foreign policy approach reminiscent of President Nixon and a domestic policy of renewal, a Trump-Vance administration is poised to correct these mistakes and put American interests first.

It is next to impossible to overstate the myriad of failures that can be laid at the doorstep of the  Washington establishment as it has spent the still-young early twenty-first century burning through the capital earned by America’s victory in the Cold War. They are numerous and far-reaching. The worst is how both government and business elites helped facilitate China’s rise, which has now left the United States confronting the greatest geopolitical and economic challenges in its history. The Blob naively believed that economic engagement with China would lead to liberalization and democratization. Instead, it empowered a strategic competitor on an unprecedented scale that now threatens American interests globally.

This is by no means the only failure, however. The list of Blob failures also includes:

Neglecting border security: The failure to secure America’s borders has undermined national sovereignty, strained social services, and allowed for a massive influx of deadly drugs, like fentanyl from China, to enter the country and kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Ignoring the American Heartland: While pursuing free-trade policies, Washington elites overlooked the economic struggles of middle-class Americans, particularly in the industrial Midwest.

Pushing Russia into China’s embrace: By expanding NATO to Russia’s borders and dismissing Russian security concerns, the establishment pressed on the most neuralgic points for Russia while inflaming its inherent paranoia and imperialist urges. Even more catastrophic for U.S. interests is that it drove Moscow and Beijing into a dangerous axis that threatens to become dominant in Eurasia, thus threatening the overall U.S. geopolitical position.

Engaging in Middle Eastern misadventures: For over twenty years, ill-conceived interventions and regime change efforts destabilized the region, creating power vacuums that have bred terrorism and refugee crises.

The Trump-Vance ticket offers a clear alternative and appropriate repudiation of this failed consensus, exemplified by the lumbering Biden Administration, which, while making some gestures toward focusing on China and improving domestic industrial policy, falls short of the wholesale change needed.

This is particularly necessary given China’s rapid economic growth and technological progress, which have transformed the geopolitical landscape in Asia. The country has substantially invested in essential technologies like semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology. This technological push, combined with China’s enormous economy and vast population, has made it conceivable that China could become the central global economic actor and put itself in a position to undermine not only American influence but also its domestic economy. If this were to happen, a foreign policy that puts American interests first would be unobtainable under a Sinocentric world order. Thus, an effective balance of power with China must be found to keep America’s Heartland from further decline.

Accomplishing this requires a sophisticated, multifaceted geopolitical grand strategy combined with domestic reforms to ensure America remains innovative while empowering those so long disenfranchised by the era of hyper-globalization.

First, the United States should demand that its European NATO partners increase their defense spending. America can no longer play the role of GloboCop and must prioritize increasingly national debt-limited resources in the decisive theater of Asia.

Second, relations with Russia must be recalibrated. Pursuing regime change in Moscow is a dangerous gamble, as is continuing to allow Ukraine to use U.S. equipment to strike deep into Russia. The risks of catastrophic inadvertent nuclear escalation are real. Further, continuing this policy will continue the consolidation of the Sino-Russian axis. Instead, the United States should lean on Europe to balance Russia in its backyard while seeking opportunities to drive a wedge between Moscow and Beijing. This won’t be easy, and it will take time. However, if the western flank of Russia can be settled into a stable line, China’s long-term threat to Russia in Central Asia can begin to be appreciated by the Putin regime and, more importantly, its eventual successor.

Third, while the United States should make sure Israel is taken care of during its existential confrontation with Hamas while also being able to balance Iranian ambitions, the United States should continue to limit its direct involvement in the region, adopting a policy that does not embrace any one regional power.

Fourth, the United States should unambiguously embrace India and not allow India’s relations with Russia to become a stumbling block. The U.S.-India relationship should be seen through a broader geopolitical lens rather than focusing primarily on moral or trade issues. India represents an essential and powerful counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific.

Fifth, the United States should continue strengthening its relations with Japan and fully resource an actual pivot to Asia while shifting defense investment from Europe.

Sixth, the United States should embrace a “strategy of denial,” as outlined by former Trump administration defense official Elbridge Colby, to ensure China does not invade Taiwan. If it does, China could gain control over the production of high-end semiconductors and the ability to challenge U.S. naval power and the open system of fair trade.

A vital component of the Trump-Vance approach would be a domestic agenda that implements a strategic industrial policy to revitalize American manufacturing and protect critical industries. While the Biden administration has begun some worthwhile movement in this direction, including supporting the CHIPS Act, their focus on climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements for subsidies have led to energy cost increases and difficulty in getting dollars out the door as effectively for industry. A Trump-Vance team would build off of these underperforming efforts by:

1. Embracing an all-of-the-above energy approach that ensures affordable electricity for industry, tech users, and everyday consumers. This means exploiting the inherent advantages geography has given the United States through copious natural resources.

2. Reshoring critical supply chains and reducing dependence on China for essential goods and technologies. This includes improved mining of these materials in America alongside efforts at dramatically increasing domestic refining capacity.

3. Increasing government funding for cutting-edge research and development to maintain America’s technological edge.

4. Supporting critical industries and sectors like semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

5. Investing in homegrown workforce development to ensure all Americans can effectively compete in high-tech industries.

6. Deregulating as much of the American industry as possible to ensure that investments actually meet their objectives of modernizing transportation networks, broadband, and energy systems to support economic growth.

Other essential policies include a robust focus on fair trade policies that protect American workers and industries from unfair competition, especially from China. Other policies would put the Heartland front and center and support small Main Street businesses over Wall Street by reducing regulatory burdens and providing targeted assistance to entrepreneurs.

The Trump-Vance Administration should address the opioid crisis by investing in treatment and prevention programs, securing the border, and getting tough on China for its “reverse-opium war” on America by flooding streets with fentanyl.

A Trump-Vance administration will prioritize border security by completing the wall, enhancing technological surveillance capabilities, cracking down on visa overstays and illegal employment, and finally deporting those who have entered America illegally, not just giving lip service to doing so.

Unlike the stale shibboleths of the current elite, this comprehensive foreign and domestic strategy recognizes the realities of a changing global order. It prioritizes American interests at home and abroad. It effectively competes with the only great power with the capacity to undermine the living standards of everyday Americans—China—by laser-focusing on this competition while making sure our allies pull their weight. It also makes suitable investments at home and finally secures our border while defending American sovereignty.

By rejecting the failed policies of the Washington Establishment and adopting this approach, the Trump-Vance ticket offers a path to renewed American strength, unity, and prosperity rather than division and decline.

Greg R. Lawson is a Contributing Analyst with Wikistrat. Follow him on LinkedIn and X @ConservaWonk.

Image: Jonah Elkowitz / Shutterstock.com.

As Russia and China back President Nicolás Maduro, Western powers urge the leader to step aside.

Le marché d’Uzi, situé à 93 kilomètres au nord de Bunia (Ituri), est de nouveau opérationnel après six ans de fermeture, due à l’activisme des groupes armés.

Cette réouverture a été possible grâce aux efforts de pacification menés dans cette région par les autorités provinciales.