Global news round-up

 

 

• Germany has chosen an installation near the U.S.-operated Spangdahlem Air Base to house the 35 American-made fighter jets it purchased as part of a military overhaul in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The choice of Buechel is significant because the base is reportedly the storage site of U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany. Given the F-35’s ability to be equipped with such munitions, placing the aircraft at Buechel would be seen as an enhancement of the NATO nuclear [arsenal] in Germany.
  

• US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Dereck Hogan has pledged that over “the next four to five months”, the Biden administration will allocate about $1.5 billion monthly for support of the Ukrainian government, in a statement that comes as inflation has shown no sign of easing in America.
  

• Author Jacques Baud is a former colonel of the General Staff, ex-member of the Swiss strategic intelligence, and specialist on Eastern countries. The characterization of the Ukrainian paramilitaries as “Nazis” or “neo-Nazis” is considered Russian propaganda. But that’s not the view of the Times of Israel or the West Point Academy’s Center for Counterterrorism. In 2014, Newsweek magazine seemed to associate them more with… the Islamic State. Take your pick! So, the West supported and continued to arm militias that have been guilty of numerous crimes against civilian populations since 2014: rape, torture, and massacres….  The integration of these paramilitary forces into the Ukrainian National Guard was not at all accompanied by a “denazification,” as some claim.
  

• Tsunami of economic impacts coming from US-EU sanctions on Russia....beware. Nicholls estimates that 20,000 of UKHospitality members’ businesses are still operating at a loss and 30,000 have no cash reserves." "She warned that 10,000 pubs and restaurants could soon be out of business thanks to a “perfect storm” of inflation, with soaring energy and rental costs. 
  

• Soaring fuel prices in the US have added thousands of dollars to farmers’ costs this year, according to Ty Higgins, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture. He told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency this week that record-high diesel prices have resulted in the cost of sowing crops to double. “Diesel is not the only, but the most necessary fuel in agriculture,” Higgins said. “When you think about the sowing season, imagine how many tractors use diesel, working day and night. What used to require $300-400 a day last year now reaches a thousand dollars,” he added. 
  

• The Pacific islands have emerged as "a key front in Washington's strategic competition with China," said Reuters' report, observers said. Since China is boosting its cooperation with the South Pacific island nations, this has made the US and its allies in the region like Australia more and more anxious as they see the region as their "backyard" and don't allow countries in the region to independently develop ties with other countries, especially a major power like China that Washington sees as competitor. Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Centre at East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that "the US has positioned China as a strategic rival that will try to replace its global hegemony. With this outdated Cold War mindset, the US has persisted to perceive the world as two binary parts, 'us and them.' The South Pacific has become an arena of contention for Washington to contain, deter and impede China's cooperation and partnership." The Marshall Islands used to be a US nuclear weapons testing ground and nuclear waste dump site, Chen said. "The Pacific island countries (PICs) had long been marginalized by the US. However, since China has proactively and successfully engaged in mutual economic, social and cultural collaboration with the PICs as a constructive partner, the US has spared no effort to suppress and ostracize China's presence and interest in this region," he noted. Zhong Feiteng, a research fellow on Asia-Pacific and global strategy from the Chinese Academy of Social Science, said that since Antony Blinken visited Fiji in February, the first visit made by a US Secretary of State to the region in 36 years, the US is trying to send a signal to the world that it won't "let the PICs lean toward China."