BBC (October 21)
“Concern about Russia’s development and deployment of a missile system that breaches the INF treaty predates the Trump administration.” Still, Trump’s “decision to walk away from the agreement marks a significant setback for arms control. Many experts believe that negotiations should have continued to try to bring the Russians back into compliance.” Instead, the move may prove part of a “wider unravelling of the whole system of arms control treaties.”
Tags: Arms control, Compliance, Experts, INF, Missile system, Negotiations, Russia, Setback, Treaties, Treaty, Trump
Chicago Tribune (May 6)
The Migratory Bird Treaty was enacted to prevent other birds from following the fate of passenger pigeons. Now, however, “the Interior Department has announced a sharp change in how it interprets the law,” which will essentially create a huge loophole that will “excuse any bird deaths that result from accidents, no matter how large or preventable, and limit penalties to cases of deliberate killing. So if a company sprayed pesticides with the purpose of killing a lot of birds, it would be guilty. But if it sprayed the same pesticides to get rid of insects and killed a lot of birds in the process, it would be in the clear.” This is clearly “a new threat to migratory birds.”
Tags: Accidents, Birds, Deliberate, Interior Department, Killing, Loophole, Migratory, Passenger pigeons, Penalties, Pesticides, Preventable, Treaty, U.S.
Washington Post (February 27, 2014)
“The United States is committed by treaty to defend Japanese administrative control in the Senkaku Islands…．But the United States doesn’t want to get dragged into war over a few crags of rock, either, so Washington is also urging caution to Tokyo.”
Tags: China, Defense, Japan, Senkaku islands, Tokyo, Treaty, U.S., War, Washington
