Tag: international relations

Peter Navarro Should Not Have Power Over U.S. Trade Policy—or Anything

Posted on by Lone Candle

“American consumers and businesses bore roughly 93 percent of the cost of Trump’s tariffs, according to one analysis by Moody’s. The U.S. Trade Commission concluded in 2023 that American companies and consumers “bore nearly the full cost” of the tariffs Trump levied on steel, aluminum, and many goods imported from China.”

https://reason.com/2024/12/04/peter-navarro-should-not-have-power-over-u-s-trade-policy-or-anything/

Keir Giles – Russia’s Next War – Who Will Defend Europe from an Aggressive and Militaristic Russia?

Posted on by Lone Candle

Russia is acting aggressively toward Europe and Europe is not responding with enough urgency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE6e-bkSWPM

Towards a New Nuclear Arms Race? Putin, the Breakdown of Nuclear Treaty Limits & MIRVs

Posted on by Lone Candle

Nuclear weapons are on the rise–more of them, more dangerous ones, more advanced ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnZLWjOkHU

Russian Court Denies Appeal of U.S. Citizen Sentenced to 12 Years for Donating $51 to Pro-Ukraine Charity

Posted on by Lone Candle

“A Russian court on Monday denied relief to a U.S. citizen serving 12 years in a penal colony for treason in connection with a $51.80 donation she made, while in the U.S., to a pro-Ukraine charity.
Ksenia Karelina, who is also a Russian citizen, was arrested in January during a trip to visit her 90-year-old grandmother and other family members in Yekaterinburg, Russia. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2012 and became a citizen in 2021.

Trouble for Karelina, 33, began shortly after landing in Russia, where the Federal Security Service (FSB) flagged her after learning she had a U.S. passport. The agency interrogated her, took her cell phone—on which the FSB discovered her 2022 donation to Razom, a charity dedicated to “actively contributing to the establishment of a secure, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine”—and ultimately arrested her for “petty hooliganism,” which was later ratcheted up to treason. Her prosecution is part of a larger Russian crackdown on alleged treason that is unprecedented even by the country’s illiberal standards.”

https://reason.com/2024/11/13/russian-court-denies-appeal-of-u-s-citizen-sentenced-to-12-years-for-donating-51-to-pro-ukraine-charity/

Syria’s Rojava Revolution Is in Grave Danger

Posted on by Lone Candle

“Kobane, Syria, was home to one of the most famous military turning points in history. A small force of Kurdish guerrillas, pressed between the advancing Islamic State group and the Turkish border, was supposed to have fallen quickly in a tragic last stand. Obama administration officials said as much. Instead, the Kurds of Kobane successfully held out for six months, enough time for the cavalry—the U.S. Air Force and rebels from elsewhere in Syria—to arrive.”

…

“Kobane came under attack again. With the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus and the uncertainty over what comes next, Turkey has been seeking an opportunity to wipe out its Kurdish opponents and carve out a puppet state in Syria’s north. With air cover from the Turkish Air Force, militias known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) overran the nearby city of Manbij and marched toward Kobane.
“In the last war, the people fled to Turkey. This time, it will be a genocide,” Berivan Hesen, a member of Kobane’s local government who lived through the Islamic State group’s siege, said via text message on Tuesday. “They are all ISIS by a different name.” Hesen notes that many of the people living in Kobane now had fled from other parts of Syria under Turkish and SNA control, such as Afrin, where the same forces have committed looting, rape, and torture since occupying it in 2018.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to “American mediation” with Turkey, the SDF’s Gen. Mazloum Abdi announced on Tuesday night, withdrawing forces from Manbij in hopes that Kobane would be spared. (The next day, Turkey launched drone strikes across North and East Syria.)”

https://reason.com/2024/12/11/syrias-rojava-revolution-is-in-grave-danger/