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Finland and NATO: When push came to shove

Finland and NATO: When push came to shove

Henri Vanhanen writes: For many, Finland’s decision has represented a sudden change of heart regarding military alignment. While NATO membership certainly did not seem likely in the early months of this year, Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine left Finland with no other option. Yet, applying for NATO membership was also something Finland was ready to do if push came to shove, and this was enabled by three factors. Firstly, since 2004, Finland had formally practised a ‘NATO option policy’, meaning…

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The real reason America doesn’t have gun control

The real reason America doesn’t have gun control

Ronald Brownstein writes: After each of the repeated mass shootings that now provide a tragic backbeat to American life, the same doomed dance of legislation quickly begins. As the outraged demands for action are inevitably derailed in Congress, disappointed gun-control advocates, and perplexed ordinary citizens, point their fingers at the influence of the National Rifle Association or the intransigent opposition of congressional Republicans. Those are both legitimate factors, but the stalemate over gun-control legislation since Bill Clinton’s first presidential term…

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Viruses that were on hiatus during Covid are back — and behaving in unexpected ways

Viruses that were on hiatus during Covid are back — and behaving in unexpected ways

STAT reports: For nearly two years, as the Covid pandemic disrupted life around the globe, other infectious diseases were in retreat. Now, as the world rapidly dismantles the measures put in place to slow spread of Covid, the viral and bacterial nuisances that were on hiatus are returning — and behaving in unexpected ways. Consider what we’ve been seeing of late. The past two winters were among the mildest influenza seasons on record, but flu hospitalizations have picked up in…

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Physicists rewrite the fundamental law that leads to disorder

Physicists rewrite the fundamental law that leads to disorder

Philip Ball writes: In all of physical law, there’s arguably no principle more sacrosanct than the second law of thermodynamics — the notion that entropy, a measure of disorder, will always stay the same or increase. “If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations — then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations,” wrote the British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington in his 1928 book The Nature of the Physical World….

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George Soros: Open societies are in a struggle for survival

George Soros: Open societies are in a struggle for survival

George Soros writes: Since the last Davos meeting, the course of history has changed dramatically. Russia invaded Ukraine. This has shaken Europe to its core. The European Union was established to prevent such a thing from happening. Even when the fighting stops, as it eventually must, the situation will never revert to the status quo ante. Indeed, the Russian invasion may turn out to be the beginning of World War III, and our civilization may not survive it.1 The invasion…

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Russia benefits from the global food crisis it helped create

Russia benefits from the global food crisis it helped create

Bloomberg reports: Russia’s war against Ukraine, while deepening a global food crisis, has made the invader among the biggest winners of the mess it helped create. The war has blocked Ukraine’s grain exports by sea, cutting off vital supplies for countries from Somalia to Egypt. The disruption, topped by hot weather and droughts that are hurting wheat crops in other parts of the world, has sent prices of the grain to near-record highs and is threatening hunger in parts of…

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‘We have been invaded by fascists,’ says Viktor Marunyak, the ‘sheriff’ of Stara Zburievka

‘We have been invaded by fascists,’ says Viktor Marunyak, the ‘sheriff’ of Stara Zburievka

Olga Tokariuk reports: Viktor Marunyak, a village head of Stara Zburievka in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, has been known not only as one of the longest-serving mayors, but also as a movie star. His international visibility helped save his life after he was abducted by Russian soldiers during the invasion of Ukraine. Marunyak was one of the protagonists of “Ukrainian Sheriffs,” a documentary directed by Roman Bondarchuk, winner of several international awards and Ukraine’s 2016 Oscars entry. The movie tells…

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High-profile Russian defectors are rejecting war

High-profile Russian defectors are rejecting war

The Guardian reports: Igor Volobuyev spent two decades working in the heart of the Russian business establishment, first for Gazprom and then for its affiliate Gazprombank, where until February this year he was vice-president. Then Vladimir Putin launched his war on Ukraine in late February, and Volobuyev decided he could no longer stand living in Russia. He packed a small rucksack of possessions and a stack of cash, and flew out of the country on 2 March, pretending he was…

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Opposition to gun control is rooted in racism

Opposition to gun control is rooted in racism

Jay Michaelson writes: As legal scholar Reva Siegel and others have demonstrated, (white) conservatives’ opposition to gun regulation began in the wake of the civil rights movement and the rise in the 1970s of the ‘New Right,’ made up of former segregationists, cultural conservatives (the ‘moral majority’), and white politicians demanding ‘law and order.’ While the 1972 Republican party platform had actually supported gun control, the Reagan Revolution transformed the party. (Ronald Reagan wrote an article praising individual gun ownership…

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America’s addiction to gun violence

America’s addiction to gun violence

Ross Barkan writes: The mass shooting in Texas that killed at least 19 schoolchildren and two adults on Thursday came on the heels of the horrific, racist slaughter in Buffalo, New York. “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Joe Biden asked in a national address, sounding more like a beleaguered Democratic voter than the president of the United States. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep…

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New evidence suggests Al Jazeera journalist was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces

New evidence suggests Al Jazeera journalist was killed in targeted attack by Israeli forces

CNN reports: Several shots ring out in quick succession, cutting through a clear, blue spring morning in Jenin, in the West Bank. Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack. The cameraman filming the scene scrambles backwards to take cover behind a low concrete wall. Then a man cries out in Arabic: “Injured! Shireen, Shireen, oh man, Shireen! Ambulance!” When the camera operator pans around the corner, Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh can be seen lying motionless, face down on…

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The Kyiv Independent responds to appeasement promoted by the New York Times

The Kyiv Independent responds to appeasement promoted by the New York Times

In an editorial, The Kyiv Independent says: The New York Times editorial, “The War in Ukraine Is Getting Complicated, and America Isn’t Ready,” published on May 19, immediately caused an uproar in Ukraine. A veiled manifesto of appeasement from a newspaper known for its stellar coverage of Russia’s horrific invasion has disappointed many. In the editorial, the New York Times editorial board argues that it’s too dangerous to assume that Ukraine can win the war. It says “Russia is too…

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Will American howitzers make a critical difference in a war that has mostly become an artillery battle?

Will American howitzers make a critical difference in a war that has mostly become an artillery battle?

The New York Times reports: Camouflaged in a heap of branches cut from nearby trees, the weapon that Ukraine hopes will make a critical difference in its war with Russia is all but invisible from more than a few feet away. Soon, a single round shoots out with a boom and a howling, metallic shriek as it sails toward Russian positions. It is the American-made M777 howitzer. It shoots farther, moves faster and is hidden more easily, and it’s what…

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The pro-Russian attempt to link the Buffalo shooting to Ukraine

The pro-Russian attempt to link the Buffalo shooting to Ukraine

Chris York reports: Ten people lay dead and a teenager armed with an assault rifle and a written tirade promoting white supremacy had been arrested. Yet just hours after the horrific mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, a small corner of the internet was trying to pin the blame nearly 5,000 miles away, in Ukraine. The link was tenuous at best: A photo of the shooter, 18-year-old Payton Gendron, shows him wearing clothing emblazoned with a “sonnenrad,” a neo–Nazi symbol…

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