Section: Time (USA)
Can China Promise Blue Skies for 2022 Winter Olympics?
With the 2022 Winter Olympics looming, there are only two significant impediments to China’s efforts to host the Games in Beijing: Almaty, Kazakhstan, and the notorious smog that chokes the Chinese capital. This isn’t the first time China has had to struggle against itself to make sure that an international event isn’t...
Germanwings Faces Legal Fallout from Plane Crash
In the minutes before their plane slammed into a mountainside in the French Alps this week, many of the passengers on Germanwings Flight 9525 witnessed a terrifying scene at the front of the aircraft. The captain of the plane found himself locked out of the cockpit by his co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, as the plane lost altitude at alarming speeds,...
China Challenges America’s Financial Leadership
On March 20, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters that under the right circumstances, his government might become a member of the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). In Washington, which has urged allies to steer clear of the AIIB, jaws dropped. Tokyo, Washington’s closest Asian ally, is disregarding U.S....
U.K. Upgrades Falklands Defenses to Counter Renewed Argentine Threat
Argentina still poses a “very live threat” to the British-ruled Falkland Islands, Britain’s defense minister warned on Tuesday as he announced plans to increase security spending on the South Atlantic islands to counter Argentina’s attempts to improve its military. Michael Fallon told Parliament the government planned to spend...
Putin’s Confessions on Crimea Expose Kremlin Media
It was an awkward test for many Russian journalists. Last spring, their President tried to mislead them—and the rest of the world—by denying that he had sent troops to conquer Crimea. Even as they witnessed Russian forces sweeping that Ukrainian peninsula, reporters on the Kremlin’s payroll were obliged to go along with Vladimir...
Theft of Ukraine’s ‘Golden Loaf’ Reflects Country’s Empty Revolution
When revolutionaries stormed the mansion of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych one year ago, a few of them ran up the winding staircase to the master bathroom, expecting to find the golden toilet that was rumored to be in the house. Instead, as they rifled through the gaudy rooms that day, they found something better, or at least more...
Death Tolls of World Conflicts Rose Dramatically Last Year
The death tolls of the world’s gravest conflicts rose 28 percent between 2013 and 2014, partly due to increased violence from Islamic extremist groups, according to a new report. In 2014, more than 76,000 people were killed in Syria, 21,000 were killed in Iraq, 14,638 were killed in Afghanistan and 11,529 were killed in Nigeria, according...
Tensions Escalate Between Kiev and Moscow Over ‘Special Status’ Bill
Ukrainian legislators approved revisions to a law offering limited self-rule to pro-Russian insurgents in the country’s southeast on Tuesday, angering both rebels and the Kremlin alike who say the move undermines a fragile cease-fire agreement inked last month. The legislation, which was first passed last September, grants “special status”...
GOP Tries to Have Its Pentagon Cake and Eat It, Too
The 2011 budget deal that imposed caps on federal spending has begun to bite. That’s easy to see with the proposed House Republican budget for 2016 that keeps the lid on domestic spending while popping it open for the military—to the tune of more than a third of a trillion dollars over the coming decade. It’s a complicated storyline,...
Putin Puts Russia’s Northern Fleet on ‘Full Alert’ in Response to NATO Drills
Russian President Vladimir Putin put the nation’s northern fleet on full alert in the Arctic Ocean this week, as animosity between the Kremlin and NATO continues to simmer. The order, which was handed down early Monday, allows for the mobilization of 38,000 military personnel, 3,360 pieces of equipment, 41 ships, 15 submarines and 110...
