U.S. hopes to cripple Russian oil industry, officials say

U.S. hopes to cripple Russian oil industry, officials say

The New York Times reports: The Biden administration is developing plans to further choke Russia’s oil revenues with the long-term goal of destroying the country’s central role in the global energy economy, current and former U.S. officials say, a major escalatory step that could put the United States in political conflict with China, India, Turkey and other nations that buy Russian oil. The proposed measures include imposing a price cap on Russian oil, backed by so-called secondary sanctions, which would…

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The Russian military’s culture of indifference toward its own troops

The Russian military’s culture of indifference toward its own troops

Dara Massicot writes: Six days before the invasion of Ukraine, a small group of Russian soldiers huddled together in their tents in Belarus. One of them had covertly acquired a smartphone—barred by the military—and together, the group logged on to Western news sites. There, they read a story that shocked them: according to Western intelligence reports, Russia was about to invade its neighbor. One of the soldiers called his mother in shock about what he had read. She told him…

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Russian defense spending surges to $300 million a day during Ukraine war

Russian defense spending surges to $300 million a day during Ukraine war

The Moscow Times reports: Russia spent more than $300 million per day on defense last month as its invasion of Ukraine continued to drag on, according to Finance Ministry data, more than doubling its pre-war defense spending. Defense spending has increased every month since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in late February as Russia’s Armed Forces failed to secure a quick victory and settled for a strategy of capturing eastern territories. If Russia’s defense spending in February totaled…

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China directs party elites to shed overseas assets, eyeing Western sanctions on Russia

China directs party elites to shed overseas assets, eyeing Western sanctions on Russia

The Wall Street Journal reports: China’s Communist Party will block promotions for senior cadres whose spouses or children hold significant assets abroad, people familiar with the matter said, as Beijing seeks to insulate its top officials from the types of sanctions now being directed at Russia. The ban, outlined in an internal notice by the party’s powerful Central Organization Department, could play a role in Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s efforts to increase his influence at a twice-a-decade leadership shuffle scheduled…

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Conservatives defend a sanitized version of ‘The Great Replacement’

Conservatives defend a sanitized version of ‘The Great Replacement’

Adam Serwer writes: Three years ago, when a white-supremacist fanatic killed dozens of people in El Paso, Texas, the reaction from the right was unreserved condemnation. When another white-supremacist fanatic killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, last week, the reaction from some figures on the right was to acknowledge that the guy had a point about this whole “replacement” thing. Large sections of the manifesto attributed to the Buffalo shooter were plagiarized…

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What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

What is our hidden consumption of microplastics doing to our health?

Katharine Gammon writes: Martin Wagner was annoyed that his colleagues were always talking about microplastics in the ocean. It was 2010 and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch had been headline news. Here was this massive gyre, formed by circular ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean, reportedly brimming with plastic particles, killing sea turtles and seagulls. Wagner, a professor of biology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, whose lab focuses on the impact of plastics on human and ecosystem…

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How Ukraine’s farmers are dodging bombs to feed the world

How Ukraine’s farmers are dodging bombs to feed the world

Grid reports: It is a slow, silent process — and it unfolds in the dark. Yuriy Russu, who works on a farm near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, describes it this way: After sunset, he and his fellow farmers shut off the lights around their fields. Buildings, streetlights — everything goes dark. Then they wait for the skies to fall silent — the threat of airstrikes is ever present, Russu told Grid. “We wait for the fighter jets to fly away,”…

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EU plans ‘massive’ increase in green energy to help end reliance on Russia

EU plans ‘massive’ increase in green energy to help end reliance on Russia

The Guardian reports: The EU plans a “massive” increase in solar and wind power, and a short-term boost for coal, to end its reliance on Russian oil and gas as fast as possible. In a plan outlined on Wednesday, the European Commission said the EU needed to find an extra €210bn (£178bn) over the next five years to pay for phasing out Russian fossil fuels and speeding up the switch to green energy. Senior officials conceded that in the short…

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Why Finland joining NATO is more shocking than anyone realizes

Why Finland joining NATO is more shocking than anyone realizes

Fred Kaplan writes: The fact that Finland and Sweden are about to join NATO is even more remarkable than many media accounts portray. Not only have both countries maintained a studied neutrality for many decades, they—especially Finland—have done so under the thumb of pressure from Moscow. During the Cold War, the term Finlandization was coined to describe a nominally independent country whose foreign (and, to some extent, domestic) policies were dictated by a neighboring great power. In the 1970s, when…

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To Russia’s detriment, much of the military culture and learned behavior from the Soviet era still endures

To Russia’s detriment, much of the military culture and learned behavior from the Soviet era still endures

The New York Times reports: Army vehicles were so decrepit that repair crews were stationed roughly every 15 miles. Some officers were so out of shape that the military budgeted $1.5 million to re-size standard uniforms. That was the Russian military more than a decade ago when the country invaded Georgia, according to the defense minister at the time. The shortcomings, big and small, were glaring enough that the Kremlin announced a complete overhaul of the military to build a…

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Ukraine aid splinters the GOP

Ukraine aid splinters the GOP

Politico reports: The Republican establishment is striking back against a right flank attempt to turn its opposition to Ukraine aid into an “America First” talking point. Congress’ nearly $40 billion package of help for the war-torn nation is taking heat from a growing number of conservative lawmakers, candidates, activists and even former President Donald Trump. Their case against spending on Ukraine’s battle against Russia is all about redirecting taxpayer money to domestic problems — but it’s alarming fellow Republicans who…

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Study identifies outdoor air pollution as ‘largest existential threat to human and planetary health’

Study identifies outdoor air pollution as ‘largest existential threat to human and planetary health’

Inside Climate News reports: Since the turn of the century, global deaths attributable to air pollution have increased by more than half, a development that researchers say underscores the impact of pollution as the “largest existential threat to human and planetary health.” The findings, part of a study published Tuesday in The Lancet Planetary Health, found that pollution was responsible for an estimated 9 million deaths around the world in 2019. Fully half of those fatalities, 4.5 million deaths, were…

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The more technological power grows, the smaller we become

The more technological power grows, the smaller we become

Audrey Borowski writes: For [the philosopher Günther] Anders, the disasters of the 20th century were simply the logical outcome of a pernicious process that had already been underway for many years, involving the gradual exclusion of mankind from all production processes – and, ultimately, from the world created by those processes. The real catastrophe in this regard, which Anders hoped to make ‘visible for the first time’, lay in the transformation of the human condition, a transformation that had become…

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We must recognise the evil of Putin’s war in Ukraine and be more courageous in our response

We must recognise the evil of Putin’s war in Ukraine and be more courageous in our response

Alar Karis, President of Estonia, writes: The peace that had reigned in Europe since the end of the Balkan wars seemed to many to be permanent. The prevailing mindset was that conflict between nations which in the 20th century would have culminated in war could now be resolved diplomatically. Russia’s attack on Georgia in 2008, its annexation of Crimea in 2014, and its overt support for separatists in Donbas were not enough to shake this faith in peace. Russia’s aggressive…

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