Free Republic

If NATO is so much against sending troops to Ukraine, why doesn’t NATO demand that the soldiers already there be sent home? On Monday, February 26, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany would not provide its Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine because doing so would require German troops to be sent there to operate them, just as the British are operating the Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles. The British cried foul and accused Scholz of a “flagrant abuse of intelligence” – meaning that Scholz confirmed what everyone already knows, that NATO officers and trained personnel are in Ukraine...

...the authors of a new article in Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, have some potentially upsetting news for local food aficionados: 'Local food' cannot simply be equated with 'sustainable food'; in most cases, it neither can ensure food security nor does it necessarily have a lower carbon footprint. For the environmental sustainability of food systems, many more factors matter than just transportation, not least consumers’ dietary choices … In terms of economic sustainability, selling via short supply chains [those with few intermediaries between farmer and consumer] into local markets can benefit certain farmers, while for other producers it...

Neither side has the appetite for all-out war but experts fear their intense strategic competition in which both conduct carefully calculated tests of the other's resolve could spill over into violent confrontation. And US military expert Lyle Goldstein warned there was a solid chance the US could lose the first fight with the People's Liberation Army in the event of a full-on conflict. Prof Goldstein from the Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute in Newport, Rhode Island, told Newsweek: "It is very plausible to say there is no guarantee of victory in the first phases." He said scenarios for...

It is interesting anyway. Watch the difference in Covid totals, I am not saying any country wants to 'take the lead' in this category. But watch, nevertheless. India seems poised to, at least, challenge America, at this questionable total.

China is a land where society changes every couple of months. You leave a town, and come back in six months and all the roads are different. New buildings are everywhere. The kids are using new slang, and new apps and everything is radically different. It’s kind of unnerving. Foreigners come to China, and are amazed at how different it is compared to their expectations. Locals are totally immersed in the change and look outside China with wonder at how could anyone stand to live elsewhere where everything changes at a glacial pace. China is rushing head-first into the new...