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Showing posts from March, 2018
Trump in a China Shop Attention Walmart shoppers: Those cheap electronics and apparel with “Made in China” tags on them will soon cost more. US President Donald J. Trump on March 22 slapped $60 billion in tariffs on China, retaliating against its theft of technology and trade secrets. The tariffs come at a particularly delicate time as the Trump administration requires China’s support for dealing with the North Korean nuclear crisis.
Putin’s ‘Election’ And Why It’s Time for the West to Get Its Act Together Vladimir Kara-Murza bristles when the words “election” and “Vladimir Putin” are strung together in the same sentence. “There are many ways to describe what happened in Russia [on March 18]. Election is not one of them,” said the Russian opposition figure who, despite surviving two apparent poisonings, remains an ardent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
US Imposes Sanctions on Russia Over Election Meddling US President Donald J. Trump’s administration on March 15 announced new sanctions on Russian individuals and organizations in response to Russian meddling in the 2016 US election and cyberattacks, including attempts to the hack the US energy grid. This is the most significant action by the Trump administration against Russia to date.
Britain Expels Russian Diplomats Over Attempted Assassination. Is that Enough? British Prime Minister Theresa May on March 14 expelled twenty-three Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Moscow after blaming Russia for poisoning a former Russian spy and his daughter in the United Kingdom. The expulsion, which May described as the largest in more than thirty years, will add further strain to an already tense relationship between London and Moscow. But is that an adequate response to ongoing Russian belligerence?
Trump and North Korea: From ‘Fire and Fury’ to Diplomacy Last summer, US President Donald J. Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea if it endangered the United States. A few months later, he derided North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “Little Rocket Man” and said US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was wasting his time attempting to negotiate with the regime in Pyongyang . Kim in turn threatened the United States noting in his new year’s day speech that he has a “nuclear button” on his desk and is ready to use it.
It’s Time for Trump to Test North Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has, in a surprise move, reportedly agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and start talks with the United States on dismantling his nuclear weapons. Both were prerequisites set by US President Donald J. Trump’s administration before it would agree to an initial, exploratory meeting. US President Donald J. Trump promptly tweeted that the rare opportunity to defuse the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula, while a sign of “possible progress,” could also be “false hope.”
Trump May Get His Trade War After All US President Donald J. Trump’s surprise decision to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum , and a tweeted declaration that “trade wars are good” have set off alarm bells across the globe while causing the stock market to plunge.