Global Geopolitical Series: Key updates from across the world

Here are some key events to keep a tab on,

• Russia-U.S. - Syria: It is no-longer likely; it is going to happen. President Trump and President Putin would meet in Helsinki on July 16th. Syria is likely to be the main issue of discussion along with broad Middle East peace prospect. The issue of Ukraine is likely to get discussed too.      
   
• Korean Peninsula: The effect of the peace prospect continues. Amid economic discussions, North Korea and South Korea have opened communications’ channel. There is soon going to be an inter-Korean basketball match. China has welcomed an increase in the inter-Korean contacts.
   
• Palestine - Israel: Donald Trump is moving closer to another victory as the global rating for PA President Mahmoud Abbas declining after PA’s violent crackdown of Palestinian protesters last month, who were protesting against cuts in their pay packages. President’s special envoy to Jared Kushner announced that the peace plan would go ahead with or without PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Amid tensions with the United States, PA continues to suffer credit crunch. In the latest blow, Australia ended its direct aid to Palestine citing concerns over the report that the money is used for terrorist funding.    
   
• Turkey-Israel-United States: Despite an agreement between Turkey and the United States over Syria, the relation continues to worsen. U.S. lawmakers approved a halt in selling advance U.S. fighter jets F35s to Turkey.  Turkey has also announced its unwavering support for the Palestinians.
   
• Italy election: Italian government is at loggerheads with Brussels over immigration. Though all the leaders have hailed last week’s EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, the leaders could not agree to a clear joint text instead, released a vaguer one.  It was reported that Italy used its veto to block joint agreements on defense unless the issue of immigration is solved with the fulfillment of Italy’s demands.
   
• Trade war: In response to President Trump’s announcement of tariffs, Europe, India, China, Mexico all have announced retaliatory tariffs. Majority of the retaliatory tariffs would go live this month. President Trump has threatened tariffs on imported cars and auto-parts, which could also be announced this month.
   
• Germany: German Chancellor Angela Merkel struggles to find common grounds across Europe over immigration. She failed to reach a broad agreement on EU level but reached bilateral agreements with 14 countries, which would take back refugees from Germany to the first acceptance country.  Now, Horst Seehofer, the current interior minister and the leader of Angela Merkel’s main ally Christian Social Union (CSU) announced that he would step down from his post, which could lead to the end of Chancellor Merkel’s chancellorship unless stricter immigration rules are implemented at borders.
   
• Mexico: left-leaning candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador won Mexico’s presidency in a landslide victory on Sunday. He not only won the majority of the voters but was more than 30 points ahead of his closest rival. According to the latest report, with 43 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Obrador received 53.7 percent of the votes, 30 percentage points ahead of his rival Ricardo Anaya.