Sunday Comics

Oleksky Kustovsky
Oleksky Kustovsky
Photos from inside the Chernobyl reactor building! Small correction: “Chornobyl” is the spelling preferred by Ukrainians, not just a transliteration artifact. Top photo from here. Read More
It often seems like this would be a better world without Vladimir Putin in it. It’s easy to succumb to ideas about his death or removal from office. But who would be likely to succeed him? Read More
Estonia and Finland are planning a 60-mile tunnel beneath the Gulf of Finland to connect Helsinki and Tallinn. The ferry trip can be pretty rough. Photo: Helsinki harbor. Read More
Photo: Jason Rezaian, Washington Post reporter, and his family after his release from Iran. His story here. Read More
Jeff Koterba
Today will probably be Implementation Day in the Iran nuclear agreement. Jim White has pulled the relevant sections from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Agreement. There will be many news stories. The short version is that Iran has, much more quickly than I expected, disassembled its easy pathways to a bomb and opened up for intensive IAEA inspections in return for lifting of a great many sanctions. This will depress the price of oil, as Iranian oil comes on the markets.
Update (10:30 am, MST): Iran has released 4 American prisoners, in exchange for the release of 7 Iranian prisoners in the US. Below the fold: Relevant documents and news reports on Implementation Day, which came in just under the wire, Vienna time.
The Volunteer Verification Corps in action. As soon as I saw the footage of the North Korean missile test, I knew the crew at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies would be on it. Here’s their analysis. Top photo is from that analysis. It also looks like the test was from a barge, not a submarine. North Korea presents a perfectly successful hydrogen bomb test to the world, then a marvelous missile test. Neither is quite what North Korea wants us to think. That means we have time to work on diplomacy. My op-ed in the Globe and Mail. Read More
North Korea’s nuclear test last week is its fourth since North Korea left the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003. Here is the official North Korean statement on the test. It claims that the test was of a hydrogen bomb, conducted in “the most perfect manner.” Read More