Section: US & Canada
Christmas Is Coming
This weekend in Gdańsk, Santa Claus, or, to be precise, Saint Nicholas, arrived on the boat amid fireworks and song to light up a huge Christmas tree, to take a ride in a special Christmas tramway, and to initiate a great motorcycle parade of Santa Clauses on motorcycles. Saint Nicholas’ Day, observed on December 6 in Central Europe, is the...
Joe Biden urges Ukraine lawmakers to fulfill promise of uprising
KIEV, Ukraine — Vice President Joe Biden urged Ukrainian leaders on Tuesday to curb the power of the business moguls dominating society and to fulfill the promise of the popular revolution that pushed out a pro-Moscow government last year. Addressing the Ukrainian parliament, Biden sternly lectured lawmakers to put aside their self-interests and...
Activists call for united front against Ukraine’s corrupt oligarchs
KYIV – If there’s anything that Ukrainians can agree on, it’s that the country’s headed for an enormous crisis next year that promises to alter the current state of affairs, particularly the ongoing domination of the nation’s corrupt oligarchy. Not only have Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy...
Candle-lighting remembrance is first to be held at new Holodomor Memorial
WASHINGTON – This year’s candle-lighting remembrance ceremony in Washington for the millions of people who died in Joseph Stalin’s genocidal famine, the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine, was unique. For the first time, the annual commemoration took place at the site of the Holodomor Memorial, constructed this year and dedicated three...
Russia warns of penalties on Kyiv after failed trade talks
Russia is likely to penalize Ukrainian imports starting in January after negotiators failed to agree on ways to address Moscow’s objections to Kyiv’s free-trade agreement with the European Union. “It is a very probable scenario that there will not be an agreement before January 1,” when the EU trade pact goes into effect, and that […]...
Ukraine Partially Restores Electricity Supplies to Crimea
Ukraine partially restored power to Crimea on Tuesday, after a series of explosions last month damaged high voltage lines supplying electricity to the peninsula, annexed by Russia in March, 2014. Electricity started flowing again along one of the four power lines destroyed by blasts during protests against Russia’s annexation of Crimea....
Former U.S. ambassadors, generals, members of Congress demand more funding for Ukraine
On November 18, a diverse group of military and foreign policy leaders released a letter urging Congress to enhance and expand U.S. economic, military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine as part of the final negotiations on fiscal year 2016 appropriations. The signatories include former ambassadors, military leaders and officials in Democratic...
The Meaning of Montenegro’s NATO Membership
NATO’s invitation to Montenegro to become the alliance’s twenty-ninth member has significance far beyond the Connecticut-size Balkan country. First, despite current European crises, and in the face of Russian opposition, the alliance members held fast to a core element of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, NATO enlargement, thereby...
Biden Tells Ukraine to … Do Nothing
U.S. apparently wants Kiev to keep its maligned government. …read more Source:...
2015: The Year in Photos, January-April
Argiris Mantikos / APAs the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back at some of the most memorable events and images of 2015. Among the events covered in this essay (the first of a three-part photo summary of the year): Conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels, the beginning of the new Star Wars hype, the growth...
