Russia’s expanding security ties with North Korea raise weighty foreign policy questions for Japan and complicate the geopolitical dynamics in the Indo-Pacific. 

The provincial and national elections on May 29 come amid waning support for the ruling African National Congress thirty years after South Africa transitioned to democracy.

This update represents violence in Nigeria and related to Boko Haram in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger from May 4 to 10 2019.

This week: encrypted messenger problems in the Middle East, domain name seizures, and a subversive cartoon pig gets banned from the Chinese internet. 

China's third plenum will likely emphasize manufacturing as a tool to remedy domestic economic problems, which may run the risk of heightening tensions with its trading partners.