Bloomberg (April 13)
“OPEC+ group of countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, finally agreed to a record cut in their oil production in response to the coronavirus-triggered collapse in demand. But the deal will come under pressure when the world becomes a more normal place again.” When demand returns, “the great battle for market share between the Americans, the Saudis and the Russians will probably restart.”
Tags: Battle, Collapse, Coronavirus, Demand, Market share, Oil production, OPEC, Pressure, Record, Russia, Saudi Arabia
Reuters (April 13)
“China fears a rise in imported cases could spark a second wave of COVID-19 and push the country back into a state of near paralysis.” Bordering Russia, China’s Heilongjiang province has become the new hotspot. On Sunday, “a total of 108 new coronavirus cases were reported…, up from 99 a day earlier and marking the highest number of cases since 143 infections were reported on March 5.”
The Economist (September 21)
“We have found that, whether it is in Democratic politics or Russian dreams of opening an Arctic sea passage, climate now touches on everything we write about…. Because the processes that force climate change are built into the foundations of the world economy and of geopolitics, measures to check climate change have to be similarly wide-ranging and all-encompassing. To decarbonise an economy is not a simple subtraction; it requires a near-complete overhaul.”
Tags: Arctic, Climate change, Decarbonise, Democrat, Foundations, Geopolitics, Overhaul, Russia, Sea passage, World economy
Chicago Tribune (July 18)
“The nuclear arms control edifice that was built up over half a century is in danger of coming apart” as the Trump administration withdraws from the INF Treaty and does not seek to extend New START. “After more than 50 years of U.S.-Russian arms control negotiations and agreements, there is scope for thinking anew about how best to reduce nuclear dangers. But abandoning long-standing agreements and conditioning any new negotiations on including China are not the best way to do that.”
Tags: Agreements, Arms control, China, INF Treaty, Negotiations, New Start, Nuclear, Russia, Trump administration, U.S.
WARC (May 28)
“In eight major markets, including the three largest, internet advertising already takes the majority of media dollars. The $107.5 billion spent on internet ads in America made it the dominant medium for the first time last year, while the balance tipped in China and the UK during 2016.” By the end of this year, “internet is expected to account for over half [52.7%] of media spend for the first time this year” in the key markets of “Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US.”
Tags: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Dominant medium, France, Germany, India, Internet advertising, Italy, Japan, Major markets, Media dollars, Russia, the UK U.S.
New York Times (May 2)
“What the Venezuelan opposition boldly proclaimed on Tuesday as a ‘final phase’ in the opposition’s three-month campaign to oust the Venezuelan strongman, Nicolás Maduro, fizzled out by Wednesday, leaving behind murky claims of secret talks gone wrong, defectors who didn’t defect and Russian and Cuban meddling. What comes next was even less clear than before.”
Tags: Cuba, Defectors, Final phase, Fizzled, Maduro, Meddling, Murky, Opposition, Russia, Strongman, Venezuela
Financial Times (April 16)
“More than a third of Russians cannot afford to buy two pairs of shoes a year, and 12 per cent use an outdoor or communal toilet at home,” according to Russias statistics agency, Rosstat. These and other findings underscore “deepening economic gloom as tepid growth, five years of falling real incomes, high inflation, rising taxes and cuts to social handouts squeeze people.”
Tags: Afford, Economic gloom, Handouts, Inflation, Real incomes, Russia, Shoes, Statistics, Taxes, Tepid growth, Toilet
Newsweek (March 29)
“As a master of misdirection, Donald Trump is exceedingly good at shifting our attention away from things that matter. With a single tweet, he can magically shift the news narrative in an entirely new direction….President Trump’s greatest rhetorical magic trick, however, has been to create the illusion that he won the Presidency of the United States without the aid of the Russian government.
Tags: Attention, Illusion, Magic trick, Misdirection, Presidency, Rhetorical, Russia, Shifting, Trump, Tweet, U.S.
New York Times (February 11)
“Before the fear of being blown up on a plane, or a train, or a sidewalk gave millions of people sleepless nights, before the threat of global climate disaster stirred dread, nuclear annihilation was the stuff of nightmares.” Then the U.S. and Russia took a step back. With the end of the INF Treaty and the Start Treaty set to expire, the nightmares may return. They shouldn’t. “Outspending Russia on a nuclear arms race, as Mr. Trump has bragged he would do, or abandoning an arms control regime that has helped forestall nuclear war for decades, is a foolish game of chicken, with no possible winners.”
Tags: Climate disaster, Fear, INF, Nightmares, Nuclear annihilation, Plane, Russia, Sleepless nights, Start, Threat, Train, Trump, U.S.
Reuters (February 8)
“With his ratings down and state funds needed to hedge against new Western sanctions and raise living standards, Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot afford to get sucked into a costly nuclear arms race with the United States.” The tell could be seen after Donald Trump pulled out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). Putin indicated Russia would do the same thing, but he “did not up the ante.”
