Section: US & Canada
Europe Ups Its Game
Twin announcements from Germany and Sweden offer hope that Western Europe may finally be spooked enough to start paying more for defense. First up is Germany, which has announced a plan to increase its military spending significantly, Defense News reports: The German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel has approved plans to increase defense...
Russia and North Korea Play Nice: Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian Dance with Kim Jong-un
Russia and North Korea make up the latest international odd couple. President Vladimir Putin reached out to one of the poorest and least predictable states on earth. So far the new Moscow-Pyongyang axis matters little. But Russia demonstrated that it can make Washington pay for confronting Moscow over Ukraine. The Democratic People’s...
House Votes In Favor Of US Lethal Aid For Ukraine, But Obama’s Tipping Point Not Reached Yet
A resolution prompting the White House to offer military assistance to Ukraine has passed in the House by 348-48 votes. The measure calls on President Barack Obama to give lethal aid to Ukraine, as the conflict with pro-Russian rebels nears the one-year mark. …read more Source: International Business...
Is Russian Literature Dead?
Speaking at an event in January to launch the “Year of Literature,” a series of public events and projects extolling the virtues of Russian letters, President Vladimir Putin laid out his mission to raise the “prestige and influence in the world” of his country’s writers. Generations of American readers weaned on Leo Tolstoy and Boris...
Disarm and Modernize
In the early decades of the Cold War, NATO made arrangements to bury what were known as atomic demolition munitions (in essence, nuclear mines) at key points in West Germany, to be detonated if Warsaw Pact forces ever invaded. Although this plan, if enacted, might have slowed the enemy advance, it also almost certainly would have turned vast West...
Is a Nuclear Iran a Threat or a Distraction?
Once upon a time, no term evoked modernity like “the Atomic Age.” It contained the promise of harnessing the power of the atom for good and for ill. Unleashing the secrets of the atom was what separated the world’s most advanced and powerful nations from the rest. This Damoclean era was ushered in 70 years ago, on July 16, 1945, with the...
Putin says Russia’s military drills will continue
President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that a recent Russian military exercise has marked the beginning of a series of such drills this year, a show of force that comes amid a bitter strain with the West over Ukraine. …read more Source: CTV...
Femen and the theory of toplessness as protest
Neda Topaloski briefly interrupted the business of the House of Commons yesterday—forever entered into history as “[disturbance in gallery]“—when she yelled out from the visitors’ gallery with her objections to Bill C-51, the government’s anti-terrorism legislation. Protests in the galleries are an occasional occurrence, but...
‘Fake’ Crimean Prosecco Outrages Italian Producers
A farmers’ association in Italy are outraged that wine-makers in Crimea are producing “fake” prosecco. Domenico Bosco, wine representative for the Rome-based farmers group Coldiretti, says Crimean prosecco is cheaper than the Italian one, offering up unfair competition to the authentic brand and deceiving customers, since it is sold with...
The Political Perils of a Ukraine Default
Ukraine’s debt standoff is about more than just the losses creditors might incur. …read more Source:...
