https://eurasianet.org/trump-brokers-potentially-game-changing-deal-with-armenia-azerbaijan
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/07/us-deal-armenia-azerbaijan-00499285
I must say if this deal holds and comes to fruition, it will be quite the feather in Donald Trump's cap. Or if it goes wrong, it may be viewed by historians in terms of folly and provocation.
https://eurasianet.org/us-strikes-mineral-deals-with-uzbekistan-tashkent-report
https://eurasianet.org/kyrgyz-pm-gets-polite-brush-off-by-us-business-executives
https://www.eurasiantimes.com/china-intrudes-in-russias-backyard-as-moscow/
https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Central-Asia-and-Beijing-after-the-Astana-summit-63374.html
https://eurasianet.org/united-states-and-russia-angling-for-influence-in-turkmenistan
https://eurasianet.org/rumors-of-chinese-land-deals-spark-public-unease-in-uzbekistan
As Ankara seeks to work with Azerbaijan in the creation of a new energy and trade corridor connected to Central Asia, the other big players are also quite active and the region is astir.
https://cne.news/article/4780-as-war-looms-in-europe-some-christians-pursue-pacifism
Articles such as this are always going to grab my attention. I was disappointed to read the statement of Fernando Enns who apparently is unfamiliar with the argument that taking up arms in warfare is viewed by war-advocates as self-defense on a large scale, or even better they will argue that invading a country is an act of love - defending people from a murderous tyrant for example.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/defence/news/italian-defence-minister-questions-relevance-of-nato/
Meloni has one face for Brussels and Washington, and another that she has revealed in her history. Has she changed? Has she mediated? Has she learned that it's one thing to campaign as an opposition party and another to actually govern? Maybe. The jury is still out.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/05/04/how-bob-parry-covered-odessa-fire-that-sparked-a-war/
This is not only a mostly forgotten episode but one crucial to understand the complex of events and motives that led to Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This is not to justify Putin's actions. Rather the story in this case is the need for harsh condemnation of Western media which refused to seriously cover this event (and similar stories) and revisit them during the lead up to Putin's invasion. To this day, the statements of his government have never been taken seriously and when sound bytes are played or recounted out of context the purpose is to suggest he's either insane or simply absurd.
One might wish that Evangelical leaders would be a little more familiar with history. If so, they might raise an eyebrow at the sabre-rattling of politicians and be a little more cynical of their motivations. Make no mistake, many are motivated by nationalist interests vis-a-vis Atlanticism or the EU. Others are simply in line to profit from military expansion and militarism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpPRkyXrBd0
Jeffrey Sachs is something of a rising star when it comes to commentary on Trumpian economics but in particular the question of Russia and American foreign policy. Since the death of Stephen Cohen, Sachs is one of the few voices in academia that commands respect even while positing a counter-Establishment view.
While reading coverage of the Romanian election (with the second round slated to take place on 18 May), I was absolutely floored reading this from a pastor in Romania:
The Russian invasion of 80 years ago is not forgotten. "They distorted everything; they raped our mothers, wives, and daughters. They are less than 200 km from my home. Do I, myself, have to kill somebody? Or to watch how my family is destroyed? Will I be able to preach again from the pulpit ever in my life? Or to run away? To leave everything behind? To leave my flock behind? I am not ready for this, I don't have the strength. I am not Dietrich Bonhoeffer... I am just a simple Christian pastor who serves his Lord in Eastern Europe."
How many times in recent weeks and months have I heard BBC programmes covering the election warning about the lessons of history being forgotten and the threat of Right-wing revisionism? And then to find this?
It's been more than a month since the Signal Group Chat scandal broke. This Politico piece from the end of March is dated but still relevant. Waltz has now been shifted over to UN Ambassador and Hegseth has invited further scandal. Some believe his days are numbered.
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/21/vijay-prashad-brics-industrial-development/
I found Prashad's comments which suggested a comparison between BRICS and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to be timely and worth serious consideration. Western opponents of the NAM always considered it to be unofficially more friendly toward the Eastern Bloc - itself something of a fiction. In this case, the foes of Western Atlanticism are in BRICS and so one could say everyone's cards are on the table. However, it's important to understand why the USSR and China were happy to deal with NAM nations and the West was not. Unlike the United States they did not assume that everyone who wasn't fully on board with them was an enemy. The US has a tendency to cast geopolitics in such terms - stated so bluntly by GW Bush. "You're either with us or against us." - a stance which may or may not drive nations away in the immediate but in the long term it's a position that destroys trust and respect.
I was in a coffee shop and noticed a copy of the Sunday edition (13 April 2025) of the New York Times. While perusing it, I came across a large ad placed by one Eileen Hamilton. It contains two columns, one reads 'Putin' and the other 'Hitler' meant to tease out analogies and make direct comparisons. It got my attention.
https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Do-the-Chinese-really-want-Siberia-62318.html
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3654427-does-china-have-designs-on-siberia/
There is nothing particularly profound or revelatory in this article but it's worth considering and filing away. The issue of resources and the Russian Far East have come up before in history. There were those in Imperial Japan who coveted these lands and had an opportunity to invade from their colony of Manchukuo (the conquered realms of Manchuria) in the 1930's. In fact after the German invasion of the USSR in June of 1941, Stalin hesitated to bring the desperately needed troops from Siberia to the West, as he believed the Japanese would invade - something Berlin was very keen for them to do.
This linked article comes from a Turkish news source. As expected this Wikileaks revelation isn't getting a lot of coverage in the West.
Some are happy to see USAID collapse because of it ties to US intelligence operations. The article (in the AKP-aligned news outlet) mentions Soros and yet a closer read of the historical record reveals that far from being some agent of Internationalist Globalism or Socialism, George Soros was one of the American Empire's 'point' men in the 1980's and 1990's in Eastern Europe. As soon as the Berlin Wall came down, the US sought to consolidate power in Eastern Europe and worked with Soros and many others to subvert politics, create political parties, and spread money around to quickly shift the former Warsaw Pact nations into the EU and NATO. It was highly successful and played no small role in today's tensions with Moscow.
The Trump administration has made the news recently with regard to South Africa and White farmers. I've been following the coverage and I must say I've found it frustrating. I think many outlets have more or less answered and/or explained the misleading nature of Trump's charges. A little more context would be helpful but such endeavours take time.
In late November, Romania's presidential election resulted in Calin Georgescu winning the first round with 23% of the vote. He stood poised to win the second (run-off) round and yet before this could happen, the state intervened and annulled the election. After battles in the courts, it was decided that entirely new elections would take place in May of 2025. It is unclear as to whether or not Georgescu will be allowed to run again - even though he continues to lead in every poll.
I more or less dispensed with these 'miscellany' posts in the summer of 2023 due to the ongoing stalemate. There wasn't much to say.
The big events or developments since then are the August 2024 Kursk Offensive in which Ukraine tried to flip the narrative and invade Russian territory. After some initial and yet modest gains the situation turned into another stalemate and now as 2024 comes to a close, they are rapidly losing this captured territory to Moscow.
https://www.christianpost.com/voices/reagan-moviea-great-reminder-of-what-a-president-should-be.html
The myths and legends were emerging even before his death in 2004. Now twenty years later they've blossomed into full-blown fantasy. This latest film (praised by Richard Land) is undoubtedly an exercise in both hagiography and revisionism.
Parties and politicians formerly aligned with Eurosceptic elements have accumulated a great deal of power and now stand near the pinnacle of the EU hierarchy. They're not there yet and they remain divided but were these Right-wing nationalist groups to come together - Brussels could be theirs.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/09/13/czgh-s13.html
It had been a few years since I picked up Russ Bellant's Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party, the 3rd edition published in 1991. The scandals he reports surrounding World War II-era fascists and the Nixon, Reagan, and GHW Bush administrations have been all but forgotten. And yet it was the Ukrainian angle that drove me to revisit the work - and it revealed some interesting bits of information.
I've written many times about Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of a rebel leader who turned into Moscow's faithful satrap. Usually when Kadyrov's name comes up, it's in reference to his corruption, authoritarian rule, or the hunting down of Chechen rebels abroad - men that would consider him to be a traitor and thus he's proven quite zealous in pursuing these men.
