USA Today (March 18)
“It would be foolish to think that Putin — basking in record popularity and surrounded by hard-line advisers — will do anything other than press the objective he has pursued for years: restoring the historic subjugation of Ukraine to Russia’s will.” The U.S. and “Europe, which has deeper trade ties to Russia” must not mislead themselves. They “must make clear how high the price of further aggression will be.”
Tags: Advisers, Aggression, Europe, Hard line, Objective, Popularity, Price, Putin, Russia, Trade, U.S., Ukraine
3/18 Issue
For bellwether Japan and the rest of the world, the Wall Street Journal writes the key to growth amid graying demographics “will be finding new solutions to engage older Americans in the workforce.” According to the Chicago Tribune, the missing Malaysia Airlines flight should provide another clear call to action. Authorities everywhere should be availing themselves of Interpol’s passport database to verify each passenger’s identity.
Euromoney notes that just about everybody was wrong-footed at the beginning of 2014 “as new depths of pessimism about emerging markets were plumbed.” Sensing another debacle, Forbes sounds the alert that Singapore is Iceland in the making. It may just be a matter of time before “its economic bubble is punctured.”
Also looking to the future, the Financial Times writes that with Germany on board, there is now “a better chance of EU nations supporting tough sanctions if Mr Putin’s aggression escalates.” USA Today cautions that nobody should mislead themselves about Putin. “It would be foolish to think that Putin…will do anything other than press the objective he has pursued for years: restoring the historic subjugation of Ukraine to Russia’s will.”
Putin was not the only autocrat being called out for behaving poorly. The Wall Street Journal asserts that the U.N.’s report on human rights abuse in North Korea “demands action,” lauding the quality and objectivity of the report.
While the likes of Putting and Kim Jong-un might have to contend with sanctions, the LA Times reports that vulnerabilities in the nation’s electricity grid could leave the golden state, indeed the entire nation, without electricity for a year or more. And that’s just some of the illumination found in the news last week.
…..
Last week’s Global News highlights appear below and also at http://www.irken.jp/gn/ where stories for this week will soon appear. As always, links are provided to the original source so you can get further detail, but please note these are frequently updated and links that were valid at publication may later be broken.
