In early July last year, Sino-Egyptian relations leaped forward after Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited Cairo, fresh from the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. On September 1 to 2, 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited…
History, Conflict, Terrorism, Political Talk and Anecdotes
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Trump Missed One Inside the US… It’s about Consistency
In the heart of New Mexico, USA, in between Raton and the NRA Whittington Center, Trump missed something, a small river called Canadian River. 😁 If he likes renaming geographical areas and place to “America” this and that, he should be consistant, at least. The river looks more like a…
long range shooting
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Shooting The One-Mile Target In New Mexico
The image below is of the one-mile target on the side of a mountain at the NRA Whittington Center (NRAWC) in New Mexico, where some friends and I were privileged to spend the last few days shooting at it… Missing it and hitting it. The target is a 30-inch circle….
Lebanon History
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Insightful Past: Did this News Team Know Who They Were Speaking With on the Beach In Beirut in 1970 Before the Civil War?
The Lebanese Civil War (1975 – 1990) is complicated and fascinating (and, of course, it is connected to what is happening in Lebanon today). Anyone who knows the convoluted factors and events that led to the Civil War will find this “pre-war” 1970 Thames TV report interesting and one of the…
China-Egypt
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China’s Long Military Courtship of Egypt: Opportunity, Influence, and Limits
MiG-23 fighter jets began arriving in China in 1978, with Beijing scheming to reverse-engineer the Russian aircraft. Egypt would deliver six Soviet MiG-23s to China over five years, as part of a barter payment for Chinese aircraft. The reverse-engineering effort to create a Chinese version of the Russian MiG-23 was…
Canada-US
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China, The Great Divider: The Canada-US Trade Rift
It appears to me that Canadians are divided between supporting Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party government walking away from the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) free trade talks, and those who believe Carney walked away from the agreement at the last minute with malicious intent, for his own…
History, Conflict, Terrorism, Political Talk and Anecdotes
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An Iberian Conquest Apologist Posting: Historical Facts and Context Matter
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn on August 11. See: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/iberian-conquest-apologist-posting-historical-facts-context-de-melo-imhsc/?trackingId=3k%2FdFIXzUlfaJGmFn64fZQ%3D%3D There is a posting in Spanish that presents a lot of misconceptions and misdirection that has been taught for a long time about the Islamic invasion of Iberia (i.e. what is today Spain and Portugal) and Islamic rule….
Portuguese Colonial War
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Soldier of Fortune Magazine: First Chill: Baptism by Fire in Mozambique
An amusing account of a Portuguese soldier’s first experience in combat in Mozambique during the Portuguese Colonial War. Published today by Soldier of Fortune Magazine. The soldier is my uncle. The SOF publisher says my uncle was very dashing. Haha. The article is a republication of an original piece written…
Terrorism
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When Mass Murderers Become Heroes: The Legacy of PFLP Kozo Okamoto
The infamous Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Japanese Red Army (JRA) terrorist Kozo Okamoto, who took part in a deadly terrorist attack on Tel Aviv’s Lod airport over 50 years ago, died on July 23, 2026 in Beirut. The May 30, 1972, attack is known as…
China-Iran
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War, Sanctions and The China-Iran Partnership
Over the decades, the relationship between China and Iran has evolved into a distinctive strategic interdependency, but the dominant theme is Iran’s growing dependence on China—an asymmetry which carries risks for Tehran. China’s modern economic and strategic defence partnership with Iran began around 1970, before the Islamic Republic’s revolution, when…