I am continuing to go light on the latest about Donald Trump’s relationship to Russia, in the service of finishing up a major post on the subject. In the meanwhile, here is a selection beyond the New York Times and Washington Post headlines.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says that Trump urged him to get closer to Russia.
Concern in Europe about Trump’s stand on Russia.
Thirty-three questions about Trump’s relationship with Russia.
Fidel Castro, who ruled through eleven American presidencies, is dead. The Miami Herald has the definitive (long) obituary. I think it’s a fair assessment; I recall Castro depicted in the United States as a freedom fighter against the landed overlords, and then his turn to Communism and the Soviet Union. As the obit says, we’ll never know if he was a communist all along. All that is vivid to me because my high school hosted a talk on Castro’s 1956 victory, one of my first understandings of international events. Read More
Problems for the next president: North Korea. Assad’s phony farewell to chemical arms. Interview with Assad; hard to tell if he is self-deceived or trying to sell his line.
Attention Donald Trump: Strategic reasons for publicizing military offensives.
Estonia trains citizens for insurgency operations in case Russia decides to invade. The tactics recall those of the Forest Brothers who resisted both the Nazis and the Soviets. Photo from this article; I love seeing Estonia’s forests and countryside, hate seeing the idea of war there. Read More
Denmark has picked up 500 tons of Libyan chemical warfare materials, apparently mostly precursors, and is transporting them to Germany for destruction. (Top photo from here) Read More
Today is Earth Day. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher than ever. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is bleaching because of warmer ocean temperatures. We really have to do something. And it’s hard to see how we can succeed without nuclear power as part of the replacement for coal. But not everyone agrees. Read More
Eleven and a half million documents stolen from the law firm Mossack Fonseca and put on line. Two early stories based on the documents are here and here. There will be more to come. Mossack Fonseca specializes in helping people to hide large amounts of money through offshore shell companies and other means. Here’s an FAQ. The president of Iceland has resigned over the exposure of his company. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin figure in the revelations. Photo: Panama City, where Mossack Fonseca is located. Read More
Everything you need to know about gravitational waves. Supposedly a bit announcement coming on Thursday. Graphic from here: gravity waves from two black holes orbiting around each other. Read More
It’s Spring Festival in China. They’re celebrating with a missile launch (photo from here). So is North Korea, maybe to match the Super Bowl. Read More
Alexei Arbatov considers the possibilities of nuclear war between Russia and the United States. It sounds like Putin’s “strike first” comment made Arbatov wonder if Putin intended that for nuclear war. He decides not, but, I think, not entirely convincingly. This is one of the issues the United States and Russia need to talk about. Read More
This is the most complete account I have seen of the crash of the Russian charter jet in the Sinai. Updates are coming regularly. What is remarkable to me is that Russia is not providing a number of outrageous stories. The chief executive of Metrojet even says it couldn’t possibly have been anything his airline did wrong, just as Western executives often do. ISIS claimed responsibility, but the jet was higher than most ground-based weapons can reach. The animosity toward Russia, due to Russia’s intervention in Syria, is telling, though. Photo from Reuters video. Read More
