Section: US & Canada
If Europe Really Worried About Russia, It Would Get Serious About Defense Spending
Doug Bandow Security, Europe Ignore what they say. Look at what they do. NATO leaders got acquainted with President Donald Trump this week. One can only imagine what they thought of the Donald. Their main objective was to reinforce the efforts of his aides to turn him into a traditional American cheerleader for European dependence. For those...
Inside Cannes, a film festival at a crossroads
Carne y Arena. (Emmanuel Lubezki) Read Maclean’s film critic Brian D. Johnson’s dispatches from the Cannes Film Festival here. Of all the world premieres presented at the Cannes Film Festival this week, none was more exclusive. The film, which had no stars in the cast, was only six and a half minutes long, yet it required a...
Among Lithuania’s Jews, a fight for communal control takes a nasty ethnic turn
Dan Sofer, his wife and son in Vilnius, Lithuania, December 2016. (Courtesy of Sofer) (JTA) — Dan Sofer and his wife considered it a great honor when they became the first couple since the Holocaust to be wed in Lithuania by a chief rabbi of that country. Sofer, a Ukraine-born businessman from Israel, said his wedding in 2004 was a chance to play...
President of European Commission: We Had a ‘Very Frankly Constructed Meeting’ With Trump
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, appeared to confirm Friday that President Donald Trump had complained privately about Germany, but he pushed back against the notion that Trump was aggressive in his criticism. Juncker instead described a “very frankly constructed meeting” with Trump in Brussels and said that...
Trump’s Moral Holiday
In the annals of the Trump era, May 25, 2017, will deserve a special mark. Four remarkable things happened on Thursday, each of which marks a way that this presidency is changing the nation.The first remarkable thing was President Trump’s speech at the NATO summit in Brussels. Many European governments had hoped—which is a polite way to say...
Trump’s Transactionality on Display in Brussels
It was a day full of mixed signals and tense handshakes in Brussels on Thursday. President Trump began the last leg of his world tour, making the rounds at NATO, where he failed to articulate a strong U.S. commitment to Article 5, while at the same time lecturing allies for not living up to their commitments to defense spending over the...
Climate Change Among Most Contentious Issues at G-7 Summit
Climate change is among the most contentious agenda items being addressed Friday at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit in Sicily. U.S. administration officials have said U.S. President Donald Trump, who referred to man-made global warming as a “hoax” during his campaign, will wait until after the summit before making a decision on the issue....
Estonia to expel 2 Russian diplomats, report says
Estonia’s security service has repeatedly said Russia’s intelligence services have strong interest in the Baltic NATO member. Ties also have been uneasy because of Moscow’s support for separatist rebels fighting in Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. …read more Source: San Francisco...
NATO Chief Not Shocked By Trump’s “Blunt And Direct” Speech
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg wasn’t shocked by Donald Trump’s “blunt and direct” speech on defense spending during the U.S. president’s first meeting with alliance leaders in Brussels. In an interview with RFE/RL’s Brussels Correspondent Rikard Jozwiak a day after the May 25 gathering, Stoltenberg said NATO leaders were...
Russia Has One Super ‘Cannon’ That Can Kill Cities
Sebastien Roblin Security, It holds the title of the largest mortar system in use today. Russia maintains just one active battalion of eight 2S4s in service, with over four hundred in reserve. In 2000, Tyulpans played a prominent role in the siege of Grozny in the second Chechen war, systematically “leveling” the city from afar according to one...
