China, having styled itself as a “near-Arctic nation”, is jockeying to play a greater role in the contested High North. Beijing attained permanent observer status to the intergovernmental Arctic Council in 2013. In July, Chinese shipping giant Cosco announced plans to send more cargo vessels to the Arctic. Source: SCMP
Israel’s intelligence and transportation minister has called on Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Riyadh to establish full diplomatic relations. Source Aljazeera
Germany’s foreign intelligence service long spied on numerous official and business targets in the United States, including the White House, Spiegel weekly reported Thursday. The magazine said it had seen documents showing that the intelligence service, the BND, had a list of some 4,000 so-called selector keywords for surveillance between 1998 and 2006. Source The Local
The migration policies of the political and other elites of Europe suggest that they are suicidal. The interesting thing to watch in the years ahead will be whether the publics join them in that pact. I wouldn’t bet on it. Source The Wall Street Journal
