News Quiz!
Let's see if we've really succeeded in making our readers reasonably well informed.
Okay, no cheating:
A very quick tour of the world
Ukraine
Ukraine has hobbled Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Could it turn the tide of the war?
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was once considered central to Vladimir Putin’s attempted conquest of Ukraine. But that fleet and its accompanying air wing have been battered by innovative Ukrainian missile and drone attacks, turning the once-feared force into something of an afterthought.
After weeks of speculation that Ukraine was preparing a large counteroffensive in Kherson, the Ukrainian military on Monday finally began implementing orders to push back Russian soldiers in southeastern Ukraine.
Russia
Would Russia change if Putin died tomorrow?
Putin’s rule has reinforced the view of Russia as an “Asiatic despotism” that was so popular among nineteenth century liberals and socialists. (Alexander Herzen described Tsar Nicholas I as “Chingiz Khan with a telegraph.”) The toadying Patriarch Krill’s blessings of Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine and Syria follows a millennia of religious subservience to the state that the orthodox believed could make Moscow “the third Rome” with the messianic right to dominate all orthodox peoples. …
You cannot help but think that if Vladimir Putin drops dead tomorrow someone like him will take power. “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living,” wrote Karl Marx. And nowhere is that nightmare more lurid than in what was once the world’s first Marxist state.
Europe
Baku and Yerevan angered by Russian forces’ failures in Karabakh:
The recent escalation of tensions in Karabakh has acquired a new and potentially destabilizing aspect, one that may matter far more in the future even if current clashes do not spark a new round of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. For the first time, Yerevan and Baku openly expressed anger about the role of Russian forces in Karabakh. Moscow describes these forces as peacekeepers even though they do not meet international standards in that regard, often act in a one-sided manner and fail to do more than only report violations of the ceasefire rather than actually keep the peace. Indeed, these forces’ behavior has been such that some observers have viewed them as creating a new Russian protectorate rather than acting as ostensibly intended. That Armenia has now joined Azerbaijan in criticizing Moscow on this point represents a major change in the positions of the two countries since Russian forces were inserted in the region on the basis of a trilateral declaration at the end of the 44-day war in 2020.
EU promises emergency intervention to rein in energy prices:
Governments have rolled out measures, ranging from direct handouts for households to caps on power prices. But with spending on short-term measures in countries such as Greece now amounting to almost 4 percent of GDP, lawmakers are pushing hard for an intervention on the European level.
Europe’s tiny steps won’t solve its energy emergency. The bad policies that created the crisis are still in place:
Europe’s continued fixation on an unrealistic schedule for eliminating all fossil fuels—including relatively clean natural gas—from its energy supply means that Brussels is actively discouraging gas buyers from concluding long-term contracts with producers. However, LNG and pipeline gas is usually sold on lengthy contracts, since gas production and export infrastructure require substantial investments that are normally recouped over many years. Producers cannot take the risk of a major project without a guaranteed market. That is why Chinese companies have been snapping up long-term LNG supplies from the United States while Europe has tied its hands. Instead, European countries are restarting their mothballed coal- and fuel oil-fired power plants and seeing sharply higher uses of the dirtiest fuels—and rising emissions to go with it. It seems Europe is more comfortable with increased coal consumption over cleaner natural gas, since access to coal supplies does not entail long-term commitments. Although every bit of energy helps, Europe’s self-imposed restrictions on gas contracts condemn the continent to a continued crisis.
Asia
This picture is the US Navy’s worst nightmare:
It is a question that continues to make the rounds on Quora and Reddit as armchair experts debate the vulnerabilities of the United States Navy’s nuclear-powered Nimitz-class and Gerald R. Ford-class supercarriers – namely, “Could China really sink a US Navy aircraft carrier?”
The answer is obvious: Yes, without question.
America should walk the walk in the Taiwan Strait:
The Chinese military response to Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan marks the beginning of a new phase of Beijing’s coercion of Taiwan in an attempt to force a “peaceful reunification.” While China gradually eroded the status quo in the Taiwan Strait in the past several years by cutting off official communication with the Tsai administration in 2016, using its de facto veto to prevent Taiwan from participating as a guest or observer in United Nations-affiliated organizations after allowing it to participate under the Ma administration, sending military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone nearly every day since September 2020, poaching Taiwan’s few remaining diplomatic allies, and punishing countries economically for enhancing their unofficial ties to Taiwan, among other things, its reaction to the Speaker’s visit quickly shattered long-held norms that maintained a semblance of stability.
Without a strong and coordinated international response in support of Taiwan in the face of these military threats from Beijing, this type of aggression will only continue. The United States should move beyond rhetorically condemning Chinese actions and coordinate a multilateral transit of the Taiwan Strait. This would demonstrate that America has powerful allies that are willing to put skin in the game. In addition to a multilateral response, Washington should increase its transits from its usual one-ship-per-month routine to having more ships transit the Strait more frequently. Beyond the military dimension, the Biden administration needs to prioritize free trade agreement negotiations, beyond the recently announced US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade, to reduce Beijing’s leverage over Taiwan’s economy.
Xi Jinping has inspected the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A translation of Xinhua News Agency’s official account:
“Xi stressed efforts to resolutely implement the CPC Central Committee's decisions, and fully and faithfully carry out the plans and the policies of the CPC for the governance of Xinjiang in the new era. Concentrating on the overarching goal of ensuring lasting social stability, security and enduring prosperity, we should maintain steady progress in our work, further extend reform and opening up in all respects, promote high-quality development, coordinate Covid19 response with economic and social development, and balance development and security imperatives. On our journey in the new era, we will endeavor to build Xinjiang into a beautiful place that is united, harmonious, and prosperous, with an advanced culture, a happy life for all and sound ecological environment.”
Carnegie’s Indian Ocean Initiative HAS released an interactive map, “The Strategic Importance of the Indian Ocean.” You can zoom in on chokepoints, disputed territories, and maritime boundaries, with commentary on key issues in the region.
Drought roiling China’s evaporating economy. It’s turned the lights out on Foxconn and Toyota factories in Sichuan with fears of wider industrial blackouts to come. Sichuan province has extended its factory shutdowns due to a one-month-long heatwave and drought, marking the latest big global supply chain disruption to emanate from China.
US Fed’s wrecking ball slams Asian markets. Chairman Powell’s comments hinting at more rate hikes unleashed new carnage today on Japanese, Korean and other Asian markets.
Middle East
Iraqis across the political spectrum saw this crisis coming, and even as most Iraqis dread it, some political leaders believe a political crisis works to their advantage. The White House and U.S. State Department are naïve if they see Muqtada al-Sadr as a hedge against Iran simply because of his enmity toward pro-Iran power brokers such as former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Badr Corps leader Hadi Ameri. Sadr’s beef with Iran is not ideological, but rather a matter of power. Sadr does not oppose Iran’s system of velayat-e faqih; he simply wants to be the wali al-faqih (guardian of the jurist), Iraq’s own supreme leader. His so-called resignation from politics mirrors Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s positioning immediately prior to the Islamic Revolution, when he repeatedly insisted he had no interest in personal power and wanted to remain outside the system.
Raisi is causing more economic problems than he’s fixing
One year since conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi rose to the presidency, his campaign promises to shield the Iranian economy from sanctions and lift it to new heights have gone wholly unfulfilled. As street protests against the dire state of the economy spread across the country, political stability is being put to a potential make-or-break test for the politically inexperienced leader.
Iranian purchasing power has recently hit record lows amid runaway inflation, stagnant wages and a collapsing currency, galvanizing more and more Iranians to take to the streets to protest against their economic plight and the government’s perceived mismanagement.
Why Iran is pushing so hard for a Russian victory. The Supreme Leader’s advisers in Tehran argue the Islamic Republic must back Russia in Ukraine because Russia is fighting a common enemy: the Western alliance.
Reining in Iran is a complicated business. Gentlemen’s agreements and side deals are going hand in hand with the nuclear talks:
Amid the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (plus Germany) to limit Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, a pertinent question continues to be asked. It is whether a “bad deal” with loopholes is better or worse than a “no deal” scenario that could lead to war, as Iran’s adversaries including Israel seek to destroy its nuclear facilities.
For now, an agreement to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—the original nuclear deal signed between the same parties in 2015 before the US withdrew from it three years later—is likelier to happen than not. That’s because, at this stage, none of the participants in the talks want a war. Even inside Iran and Israel, which is not a signatory of the JCPOA, there would be those who would rather wage proxy wars against each other, with countries such as Lebanon serving as theaters, than have a direct confrontation that could lead to loss of lives in their own countries.
Israel may need a paradigm shift on Iran. Israel could benefit from a new Iran strategy if a nuclear deal is restored, along the lines of the Reagan Doctrine in the 1980s.
… This is a very bad deal. The talks were primarily led by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his envoy to the talks, Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov. Russia has all the while continued its onslaught in Ukraine with the help of Iran, which has been providing arms and sanction-busting advice to the Kremlin. Meanwhile, Iran has continued to plot the assassination of Mike Pompeo, John Bolton, and other former Trump administration officials. But despite all this, the US and Europe have played along, pursuing the goal of reaching a deal at all costs. Russia and China could just sit back and enjoy the view as Iran humiliates them. How long will the US and Europe call this spit rain?
The emerging deal is much worse than the original one. It may have been cast as just a tweaked version but it includes many more concessions. What's worse is that it does not take into account the time that has gone by since 2015 and the limited time left before the sunset clauses take effect. The deal does not address the Iranian nuclear archive and the various violations that the International Atomic Energy Agency has been investigating over the possible military dimension to the nuclear program.
Cozying up to Biden has been a disaster. Whoever runs Israel's government in the coming year will need to drop the “nice guy” routine with Biden and return to a tougher approach:
Jerusalem must now confront two crucial issues. One is how to cope with the impending reality of a newly empowered and enriched Iran. The second is whether to risk angering Biden by taking actions, either military or further covert operations, to forestall the Iranian threat at a time when the United States will be trying to pretend that it has solved the nuclear problem. …
Biden thinks that he can force Israel to live with an Iran that is a threshold nuclear state. He will do this by offering carrots in terms of aid and empty assurances about taking action if Iran were to break out to a nuclear weapon. … For all of the trappings and benefits of this great friendship even under Biden, a US-Israel relationship that is predicated on Jerusalem keeping quiet about American policies that are abetting an existential threat is no alliance at all. While the Jewish left has acted as if standing up for Israel’s interests will damage the alliance, what we’ve learned in the last year is that not speaking up can do even more harm to it.
Netanyahu orchestrates merger between far-right Israeli parties: In an effort to guarantee a 61-seat majority at the November 1 elections, opposition head Benjamin Netanyahu mediated and pushed far-right Religious Zionism and ultranationalist Itamar Ben-Gvir to run on one ticket.
Americas
Colombia: The cost of 50 years ff failed drug policies.
Colombia, not the United States, has been the chief victim of drug trafficking and failed anti-narcotics policies. It has a right, if not a duty, to seek other ways of curbing a chain of actions that have corrupted its society.
Like Afghan war, the war on drugs must end. The United States has long dictated policy regarding narcotics, and Colombia, in particular, has paid a heavy price.
How Trumpworld is backing Bolsonaro:
Gettr, the social network run by Donald Trump’s former adviser Jason Miller, has sponsored conservative conferences in Brazil ahead of October’s presidential elections, which Steve Bannon has called the most important in South American history.
Is Mexico’s president pushing for “Mexit?”
In irking Mexico’s chief trading partners with decisions affecting energy firms, the country’s leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is tinkering with the free-trade pact that is the very engine and ballast of Mexico’s vast, and vulnerable, economy.
Lithium monopoly? Beijing expands in the lithium triangle:
China aims to expand its influence in the “Lithium Triangle” as a component of a broader campaign to construct a near-monopoly in the global lithium market. The Lithium Triangle, comprising Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, accounts for approximately 56 percent of global lithium supply. Beijing’s acquisition of multiple Argentinian, Chilean, and Bolivia lithium mining operations enables China to dominate regional lithium operations. From 2018- 2020, China invested approximately US$16 billion on mining projects in the Lithium Triangle and will likely continue to invest in the region.
Africa
Severe flooding kills scores in Sudan. Flooding in Sudanese cities has claimed around 100 lives and displaced thousands, and many angry citizens blame the political class for its failure to act.
Japan to push for Africa seat on the UN Security Council.
Japan will push for an African seat at the United Nations by using its place on the world body’s Security Council.
“Japan reiterates its determination to redress the historical injustice against Africa of not being represented through a permanent membership on the Security Council,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
Global
Why young people love nuclear energy:
…. Marxmeier is convinced that nuclear power is the only practical solution that would allow Germany’s energy supply to be completely independent of other countries. He cannot understand the focus on “volatile renewable energy sources,” or why “we shut down nuclear power plants before coal power stations, which are far more damaging to the environment.”
Constructive suggestions from the Ayatollahs
Britain is finally going down the drain, after centuries of looting world nations of their wealth through military occupation to build an exploitative economy that is now cracking and may fall apart in view of the fact there is no political leadership in London. …
According to public opinion both the candidates for the prime minister’s post are incompetent and not expected to stem the economic rot since both belong to rich families who do not feel the pains of the common man. … Britain is thus in the grip of unqualified politicians, not much aware of realities around the world, which means they are politically naïve persons whose policies may further ruing the national economy.
Got 'em all.
Like that great American philosopher, Dizzy Dean, said, it ain't bragging if you can do it.
No. Walt Whitman said something similar, but from a different perspective.
Eric Hines
100% woohoo! Mostly guesses, but the quiz is educational in its own right -great idea, make it a regular feature.