Reports from the Associated Press and Reuters are followed by two pieces passed along by Consortium News. In the first a public policy analyst laments the damage the war is doing to already insufficient worldwide efforts to combat global warming. In the other, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel looks at Washington’s addiction to “persistent warfare.” — MCM
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Ukraine puts Russian solider accused of war crime on trial, by Oleksandr Stashevskyi | The Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine — The trial of a Russian soldier accused of killing a Ukrainian civilian opened today, the first war crimes trial since Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor. Scores of journalists packed inside a small courtroom in the Ukrainian capital where the suspect appeared in a small glass cage . . . READ MORE . . .
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Rand Paul stalls quick Senate OK of $40B Ukraine package, by Alan Fram | AP WASHINGTON — Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul defied leaders of both parties Thursday and single-handedly delayed until next week Senate approval of an additional $40 billion to help Ukraine and its allies withstand Russia’s three-month old invasion. With the Senate poised to debate and . . . READ MORE . . .
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UK says new sanctions hit Putin’s network including ex-wife and cousins. From Reuters. LONDON — Britain said on Friday it had imposed its latest round of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s financial network, including his ex-wife and cousins. “We are exposing and targeting the shady network propping up Putin’s luxury lifestyle and tightening the vice on his inner circle,” foreign minister Liz Truss said in a statement. “We will keep going with sanctions on all those aiding and abetting Putin’s aggression until . . . READ MORE . . .
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Ukraine: U.S. Gas & Europe’s Decarbonization Hit, by Michael Davies-Venn | International Politics and Society Links between global energy policy and the war in Ukraine are becoming increasingly clear. The connection is illustrated in as yet perhaps one of the most unfortunate geopolitical outcomes from the ongoing war. While the European Union’s decision to buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States may seem to solve short-term supply energy problems on the continent, it also consolidates the EU’s fossil fuel energy infrastructure. At the same time, it weakens that of renewable energy, creates a leadership vacuum on addressing global climate change, and may well undermine how the EU implements its European Green Deal. It’s important to bear in mind that methane, the main gas in LNG . . . READ MORE . . .
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Five Reasons for Washington’s War Addiction, by William J Astore | TomDispatch Why has the United States already become so heavily invested in the Russia-Ukraine war? And why has it so regularly gotten involved, in some fashion, in so many other wars on this planet since it invaded Afghanistan in 2001? Those with long memories might echo the conclusion reached more than a century ago by radical social critic Randolph Bourne that “war is the health of the state” or recall the ancient warnings of this country’s founders like James Madison that democracy dies not in darkness, but in the ghastly light thrown by too many bombs bursting in air for far too long. READ MORE . . .
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TO BE CONTINUED