The recent events in Kyrgyzstan have not only raised the question of what actually happened there, but how we can understand it? The NYTimes and CNN have mostly been awful, with some exceptions: This opinion piece being the major one. On the other hand, Registan.net has been extraordinary. This article on how to understand media […]
A small bomb thrown over the wall of the United States Consulate in Nuevo Laredo on Friday night is recurring fears that Mexico’s drug gangs have their eyes on the US. No one was injured in the attack, but several windows were shattered. US consular offices in Nuevo Laredo and nearby Piedras Negras will be […]
Poland and Poles worldwide of all political stripes are grieving the death of President Lech Kaczynski and his entourage and fellow passengers following the plane crash near Smolinsk, Russia that has claimed over 97 victims of Poland’s elite. Some of Poland’s most important leaders and political figures were on their way to a memorial for the […]
Lawson Brigham, professor of geography and Arctic policy at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, visited UCLA on Friday to speak as part of the Tod Spieker Colloquium Series. Brigham brings an interesting perspective to any discussion on the Arctic thanks to his academic credentials and maritime experience. He received a PhD from Cambridge in polar […]
This morning’s horrific plane crash that killed Polish president Kaczynski his wife and many senior staff en route to Katyn forest contained some tragic irony. Not least that, curiously for a president famous for his anti-Russian sentiments, Kaczynski insisted on continuing to use a safe but ageing Soviet jet for his official travels, long after […]
The High Court declared in a ruling on Thursday that “if any person tries to compel a woman to wear a veil against her consent … that would amount to a violation of her fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution,” The Times published a Reuters piece that reports: “The verdict came in response to […]
On April 6, in the Mukrana forests of Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district in India, 72 members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and one member of the District police force were killed in a gruesome attack by the Naxalites. In addition to the number of causalities, the planning and precision of the Naxal operation stunned the […]
Unbelievable displays of ignorance like this make me wonder if those who accuse the US media’s post-Soviet reporting of bias are just giving it way too much credit. Here is Kyra Phillips, anchor of CNN’s afternoon newscast, on Kyrgyzstan, via Gawker: Kyra Phillips: Kyrgyzstan, impossible to spell, hard to say, good luck finding it on […]
The BBC is debating the merits of whether Israel is getting a free pass from the United States and the world regarding its nuclear program. You know my thoughts from yesterday’s post, but others seem to disagree. Read the discussion here and feel free to defend (or, if you must, refute) your Israel blogger’s position. […]
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is embroiled in a series of corruption scandals, could face arrest when he returns to Israel as authorities are cracking down on his associates and placing a gag order over domestic media to limit leaks about the investigation and pending arrests. At issue is a corruption and bribery investigation […]
As the United States and Russia sign a nuclear arms treaty and the world’s leaders are preparing to discuss nuclear weapons at length next week, Israel isn’t interested to chat about the sensitive subject of its nuclear arsenal. Complicating the issue reportedly are key Israel allies that could be attempting to gain legitimacy in the […]
And then there was one. Seven years after Saakashvili ushered the first of three coloured revolutions in post-Soviet Europe, February’s Ukrainian elections and now the Kyrgyz overthrow of the Tulip revolution have left him the last man (precariously) standing. While it is still unclear what the final outcome will be in Kyrgyzstan (although the opposition […]
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