WORLD ROUNDUPUK Immigration Nearly Triples | China’s Indo-Pacific Folly | Russia’s Mid-War Military Restructuring, and more
·· UK Immigration Nearly Triples Despite Brexit Promises
Increase comes as British leaders vow to “take back control of the UK’s borders”
·· Green Energy Investment Tops $1 Trillion, Matches Fossil Fuels
Investment in cleaner energy is on the verge of overtaking spending on fossil fuels for the first time
·· China’s Indo-Pacific Folly
Beijing’s belligerence is revitalizing U.S. alliances
·· Will Russia’s Mid-War Military Restructuring Work?
The manpower may be there. The military hardware is not.
·· The EU Can, and Should, Designate the IRGC as a Terrorist Group
There is no shortage of evidenceto support designating the IRGC as a terrorist group
UK Immigration Nearly Triples Despite Brexit Promises (DW)
Record numbers of people are moving to the UK even as the pro-Brexit government promises to crack down on immigration. Roughly 50,000 EU citizens left the UK over a one-year period, while 331,000 non-EU citizens arrived.
Green Energy Investment Tops $1 Trillion, Matches Fossil Fuels (AFP / Phys.org.)
Investment in cleaner energy is on the verge of overtaking spending on fossil fuels for the first time ever after exceeding $1 trillion last year, a report on Tuesday said.
Despite the milestone, spending on energy transition technology must immediately triple to meet the target of net-zero emissions by 2050 to combat climate change, according to research group BloombergNEF.
Investment in sectors such as renewables, nuclear, zero-emission vehicles or recycling projects totaled $1.1 trillion last year, matching spending on fossil fuels, the report found.
This is up 31 percent on the previous year, and marks the first time the investment total has been measured in trillions.
China’s Indo-Pacific Folly (Andrew D. Taffer and David Wallsh, Foreign Affairs)
In December 2022, Japan released its first national security strategy in nearly ten years. The document committed Tokyo to strengthening the U.S.-Japanese alliance “in all areas.” And Japan is not alone. Over the last half decade, almost all U.S. allies across the Indo-Pacific have deepened their partnerships with Washington and formed new networks with one another.
At first blush, this might seem puzzling. Chinese President Xi Jinping has voiced his desire for the United States to withdraw from the Indo-Pacific, and his government has upheld China’s long tradition of expressing hostility toward Washington’s alliances, which form the foundation of the U.S. presence in the region. Many analysts, including Rush Doshi and Elizabeth Economy, have argued that Beijing has a disciplined and coherent strategy to drive a wedge between the United States and its Indo-Pacific allies. But far from a well-executed campaign, Beijing’s effort to erode U.S. alliances has been incoherent and undisciplined, strengthening, rather than weakening, U.S. alliances in the region and producing an energized U.S.-led coalition poised to constrain Beijing for years to come. (Cont.)
