First, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Tass; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Then, via Consortium News and Popular Resistance, an essay from Tom Dispatch. — MCM
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Unprepared for long war, U.S. Army under gun to make more ammo, by Marc Levy | AP SCRANTON, Pa. — One of the most important munitions of the Ukraine war comes from a historic factory in this city, where tons of steel rods are brought in by train to be forged into the artillery shells Kyiv can’t get enough of — and that the U.S. can’t produce fast enough. It is at the vanguard of . . . READ MORE . . .
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France, Baltic states dismayed after China envoy questions Ukraine sovereignty. From Reuters. PARIS — The Baltic countries along with France are appalled by comments of the China’s ambassador to France on the sovereignty of former Soviet states like Ukraine. Ambassador Lu Shaye had said in an interview that “ex-USSR countries” including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania “don’t have actual status in international law because there is no international agreement to materialize their sovereign . . . READ MORE . . .
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Russian field engineers cleared German mines of Ukrainian army. From Tass. MOSCOW — Personnel of the engineer unit of the Western Military District detected and destroyed about 200 mines of German make, installed by Ukrainian nationalists in residential quarters of a settlement in the special military operation area, the Russian Defense Ministry says. “Ukrainian army units installed mines using remote mining systems produced by Germany in a settlement on . . . READ MORE . . .
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Spurring an endless arms race, by Michael Klare | Tom Dispatch On March 13th, the Biden administration unveiled its $842 billion military budget request for 2024, the largest ask (in today’s dollars) since the peaks of the Afghan and Iraq wars. And that’s before the hawks in Congress get their hands on it. Last year, they added $35 billion to the administration’s request and, this year, their add-on is likely to prove at least that big. What explains so much military spending? The answer offered by senior Pentagon officials and echoed . . . READ MORE . . .
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MAY BE CONTINUED