Posts

2025

100 DAYS OF MAYHEM ​ ​What does imposing tariffs on an island solely populated by penguins, rehiring mistakenly fired public servants and a top security leak detailing attack plans have in common? The sloppiness of the first three months of the Trump White House which promised peace only to deliver a tariff war, hiking prices after promising lower inflation. This from an administration which had plotted its vengeful return for years. And uncertainty became a modus operandi as the U.S. adjusted some of the tariffs while doubling down on China. By then protests had taken to the streets of dozens of cities, and it was hard to tell what was upsetting Americans the most. To a shaky wall protecting it from foreign goods, driving up prices and sending retirement funds in a downward spiral, the White House added new scrutiny for visitors at the border which sometimes made the return of US residents themselves a concern. Meanwhile the tariffs could come or go, the bitterness of those ...

2024

BOOSTING DEFENCES ​ Ukraine is no longer just calling younger reservists to serve but prisoners as well and Sweden, a new NATO member, is boosting defence spending, while countries from Poland to Lithuania try to beef up their ranks so close to the enemy's borders. Russia's recent battlefield successes, all the while recent exercises involved the use of tactical nuclear weapons, have put Europe on alert, and some would say on a war footing, as the French president refused to walk back statements NATO may one day have to send troops to Ukraine. A million Ukrainians have stepped up to serve after recent changes to conscription laws, and some 4,500 Ukrainian conscripts have agreed to sign contracts under a new parole law as parliament passed a bill that would allow some categories of prisoners, though certainly not those serving for the worst offences, to be conscripted. The country which is short of everything from ammu-nitions to able-bodied fighters, has been changing it...