Russia-Israel relations: It’s complicated

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Russian President Vladimir Putin with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 9, 2018. Photo: AFP/Sergei Ilnitsky

Being the president of Russia means never having to say you’re sorry, except – remarkably – after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed casually that Adolf Hitler was of partly Jewish descent. Vladimir Putin offered a personal apology to then-Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett. Reflexive Russian anti-Semitism is a dog-bites-man story; a Russian leader’s apology […]

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Myanmar’s junta in a serious but not desperate fight

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Born of Europe’s 19th century wars, it was the quip that neatly captured the difference involving the hard-boiled Prussians from the north German ordinary and the fun-loving Viennese of the Austro-Hungarian Disposition: the Prussian states the situation is serious but not desperate; the Viennese says it is desperate but not serious. Which of today’s Southeast Asian […]

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Geopolitical linkage of anti-US powers

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US President Joe Biden’s administration appears keen on rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Barack Obama administration’s so-called “Iran deal” that notionally guaranteed Iran would not produce nuclear weapons.  A deal remains unlikely. Nevertheless, the very fact that the Biden administration has doggedly pursued the chimerical agreement for so long, and in the […]

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China plans to launch flying taxis by 2025

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China’ s i9000 government has established an ambitious plan to allow flying vehicles to carry passengers to get short distances by 2025. On August 22, the Municipal Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) began a two-week general public consultation on the country’s plan to allow cabs to fly on streets within short distances by 2025, middle distances simply by 2030 and […]

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Ukraine – the situation (August 31, 2022)

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Summary/Overview Ukraine says an offensive in the Kherson region has begun – with some initial achievements. Russia agrees plus says offensive actions have been beaten as well as substantial losses within men and materiel are actually inflicted. Thick haze of war, heavier of propaganda. The International Atomic Power Agency (IAEA) mission to investigate the situation on […]

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Iran lending Russia a big helping hand in Ukraine

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The war in Ukraine is helping one country achieve its foreign policy and national security objectives, but it’s neither Russia nor Ukraine. It’s Iran. Iran is among Russia’s most vocal supporters in the war. This has little to do with Ukraine and everything to do with Iran’s long-term strategy vis-à-vis the United States. As Russia’s […]

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Japan’s nuclear revival in a race against time

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TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Kishida has expressed support for investigations that will probably lead to the first construction of new nuclear power plants in Japan in over a decade. The obvious goal is to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels and exposure to the wild vacillations of oil and gas prices. But also behind […]

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What Powell could learn from Rhee

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TOKYO – As US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell rocks and roils global markets, he may have an unlikely but pivotal ally in Seoul.

Markets everywhere are still quaking over Powell’s August 26 speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he warned that higher interest rates will cause “some pain” and that the Fed’s tightening cycle may persist “for some time.”

Yet Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong seems less shaken than most. That’s an intriguing crouch given how the Fed’s last big rate-hike campaign in 1994 and 1995 devastated South Korea’s economy, along with those of Indonesia and Thailand.

But Korea’s economy has changed radically since the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis. And more recently, the BOK has accepted inflationary realities and utilized its brake pedal well before the Fed decided to act.

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Why Washington must tread carefully with Taiwan

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Taipei has become a routine place to go for US lawmakers and other officials since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s  visit to Taiwan  in early August. Her vacation was soon accompanied by a congressional contingent  led by  Senator Ed Markey, a team of industry negotiators  helmed by  Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, and then, final Thursday night,   a third  congressional delegation. President Joe Biden’ s administration  reportedly  encouraged Pelosi […]

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The Biden-Blinken doctrine: hubris or humility?

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On August 22, The Wa Post published a  glowing profile  of the current US admin of state entitled, “Can Antony Blinken update liberal international policy for a globe gone mad? In the shaping and delivery of the Biden-Blinken doctrine. ” The author, an ex beat reporter for your DC suburbs and longtime contributor towards the Post’s  Style  area, seemed to […]

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