What Are the Chances for a Negotiated End to the Ukraine War? It’s Complicated.

 

A diplomatic settlement to bring the war in Ukraine to a close won’t be easy. But it’s not impossible.

 

At this stage, most informed observers agree that the Ukraine war will either end at the negotiating table, or remain a bloody stalemate that drags on indefinitely. So what are the prospects for some kind of diplomatic solution to the fighting?

 

BY  BRANKO MARCETIC

 

The crisis on the European gas market could lead to reduced production of toilet paper in Germany, according to Martin Krengel, chairman of the nation’s paper industry association, Die Papierindustrie.

“We are particularly dependent on gas for the production of tissue paper. Without it, we will no longer be able to provide security of supply,” Krengel said in a statement published on Thursday.

According to data provided by Die Papierindustrie, each German citizen uses an average of 134 rolls of toilet paper per year. “In the current energy crisis, our top priority is to provide people with this important commodity,” Krengel stressed.

Last month, the Bavarian Paper Association warned that operating paper plants may become unprofitable if they are forced to work at reduced capacity due to natural gas shortages.

Mostly unnoticed by the public, the EU Commission, in coordination with EU governments, has been working on abolishing regulations ensuring the privacy of digital communications. Under the guise of combating online child abuse, a regulation is to be agreed upon that imposes a duty upon all network-providers to search all communication content for depictions of child abuse or child grooming attempts by adults, if ordered by the authorities.

 

BY Moritz Strohm

 

The concept of “wealth hoarding” has gained traction in the wake of the Occupy movement and the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns, the idea being that billionaires are amassing treasure like mythical dragons in the same way someone with a hoarding disorder amasses newspapers or clothes.

Sam Husseini flags an unhinged exchange between NPR’s Terry Gross and New York Times Magazine writer Robert Draper. 

In a remarkably unhinged analysis, NPR host Terry Gross and New York Times Magazine writer Robert Draper claimed that Russia is a communist country — as they went on about how detached from reality rightwing Republicans are.

After I and others tweeted about this, NPR posted this correction: 

Recently, the UK government released the new version of the National Strategy for Maritime Security (hereinafter referred to as the "Strategy"). The UK believes the move will demonstrate its "critical role in supporting a rule and principle-based international order" at a time rife with global tensions. The new version of the "Strategy" explains the connotation and extension of maritime security and its significance to the UK and sets strategic goals and implementation paths in the field of national maritime security. It can be seen as a window to observe the UK's maritime policy over the next five years or even longer, and it may also have a certain impact on the global ocean governance pattern.

Ocean Strategy under the Conception of "Global Britain"

 

BY Ding Duo

 

Six months after the start of the Special Military Operation (SMO) by Russia in Ukraine, the geopolitical tectonic plates of the 21st century have been dislocated at astonishing speed and depth – with immense historical repercussions already at hand.

To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, this is the way the (new) world begins, not with a whimper but a bang.

The cold-blooded assassination of Darya Dugina – terrorism at the gates of Moscow – may have fatefully coincided with the six-month intersection point, but will do nothing to change the dynamics of the current, work-in-progress, historical shift.

The Neoliberal Order Is Crumbling. It’s Up to Us What Comes Next.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

GARY GERSTLE

 

Neoliberalism may not be dead, but it is no longer the unquestioned ideology of our time. That leaves a huge opening for those on the Left who want to see a political and economic order based on democracy and solidarity rather than unbridled profit-seeking.

Barely audible Zelensky dodges Russian response at UN

Ukraine’s president addressed the UN Security Council via a crackling video-link, in breach of protocol

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky hastily left a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday before Russia's representative responded to his claims.

Appearing by video link, Zelensky had argued that that the freedom of the world depended on Ukraine’s independence and accused Russia of threatening a nuclear disaster at the Zaporozhye power plant and being responsible for inflation, hunger and high energy prices.

His speech was barely audible and he closed his connection before Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia called out his government and its Western backers for being the principal threat to Ukraine’s independence.

I note the Solicitor General’s advice released publicly today regarding the matter of appointments to administer Departments while I served as Prime Minister.

I note that the Solicitor General found that the appointments were ‘valid’ and that ‘while there is some historical precedent for the publication in the Gazette of appointments to administer particular departments of State under s 64, there is no consistent practice in that regard.”

The world is on the edge of nuclear catastrophe in no small part because of the failure of Western political leaders to be forthright about the causes of the escalating global conflicts. The relentless Western narrative that the West is noble while Russia and China are evil is simple-minded and extraordinarily dangerous. It is an attempt to manipulate public opinion, not to deal with very real and pressing diplomacy.

 

BY Jeffrey Sachs

 

There is a video clip making the rounds showing President Biden speaking at a recent NATO summit about the seven billion dollars the US government had - at that time - provided to Ukraine. Attached to that is another clip showing the horrific state of several US major cities, including in Pennsylvania, California, and Ohio. The video of American cities is shocking: endless landscapes of filth, trash, homelessness, open fires on the street, drug-addicted zombies. It doesn’t look like the America most of us remember.

BY RON PAUL

 

Liberal hegemony is an ambitious strategy in which a state aims to turn as many countries as possible into liberal democracies like itself while also promoting an open international economy and building international institutions. In essence, the liberal state seeks to spread its own values far and wide. My goal in this book is to describe what happens when a power­ful state pursues this strategy at the expense of balance­-of­-power politics.

 

by John J. Mearsheimer

There is a special irony at the heart of Scott Morrison's secret accumulation of multiple ministries: it started as an exercise in decentralising power, not concentrating it. 

In early March 2020, when the threat of the pandemic was becoming clear, former attorney-general Christian Porter decided to have an audit of the Commonwealth's powers, to understand how the federal government could respond to the health emergency.

All manner of worst-case scenarios were being war-gamed: What capacity was there to protect particularly vulnerable communities such as remote Indigenous townships? Were travel blockades possible? And under which legislative authority?

 

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen,

Esteemed foreign guests, 

Let me welcome you to the anniversary 10th Moscow Conference on International Security. Over the past decade, your representative forum has become a significant venue for discussing the most pressing military-political problems.

Today, such an open discussion is particularly pertinent. The situation in the world is changing dynamically and the outlines of a multipolar world order are taking shape. An increasing number of countries and peoples are choosing a path of free and sovereign development based on their own distinct identity, traditions and values.