All posts by Đọt Chuối Non
Is it time to call Putin’s war in Ukraine genocide?
In international law, genocide has nothing explicitly to do with the enormity of criminal acts but, rather, of criminal intent.
newyorker – March 13, 2022
“We have to call this what it is,” Volodymyr Zelensky said, late last month, a few days after Vladimir Putin had ordered the invasion and conquest of Ukraine. “Russia’s criminal actions against Ukraine show signs of genocide.” President Zelensky, who lost family members during the Holocaust, and who also happens to have a law degree, sounded suitably cautious about invoking genocide, and he called for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to send war-crimes investigators as a first step. But such investigations take years, and rarely result in convictions. (Since the I.C.C. was established in 1998, it has indicted only Africans; and Russia, like the United States, refuses its jurisdiction.) The only court that Zelensky can make his case in for now is the court of global public opinion, where his instincts, drawing on deep wells of courage and conviction, have been unerring. And by the end of the invasion’s second week—with Putin’s indiscriminate bombardment of civilian targets intensifying, and the death toll mounting rapidly; with more than two and a half million Ukrainians having fled the country, and millions more under relentless attack in besieged cities and towns; and with no end in sight—Zelensky no longer deferred to outside experts to describe what Ukrainians face in the most absolute terms. “I will appeal directly to the nations of the world if the leaders of the world do not make every effort to stop this war,” he said in a video message on Tuesday. He paused, and looking directly into the camera, added, “This genocide.”
Continue reading Is it time to call Putin’s war in Ukraine genocide?
Anthony Morreale: An Interview with Nguyên Ngọc
This interview is very interesting and informative. It is about Nguyên Ngọc and the historical background of Vietnam which he has seen directly.
Gen. Jack Keane: Biden admin doesn’t want Putin to lose – Gen. Petraeus calls on US to send ‘game-changer’ equipment to Ukraine
NATO: Lịch sử một tổ chức quân sự
YÊN BA 26/3/2022 6:00 GMT+7
TTCT – Để hiểu được cuộc xung đột ở Ukraine hiện tại, không thể không nhìn lại một lịch sử rất dài, ít ra là từ những ngày ngay sau cuộc chiến lớn gần nhất ở châu Âu.
Ngày 5-3-1946, trong bài phát biểu tại Đại học Westminster, bang Missouri, Mỹ, Thủ tướng Anh Winston Churchill, người kiên định sự nghi kỵ không giới hạn với nhà lãnh đạo Liên Xô Joseph Stalin (ngược lại cũng thế), tuyên bố: “Từ Stettin ở Baltic tới Trieste ở Adriatic, một bức màn sắt đã buông xuống trên khắp lục địa”.
Chống lạm phát bằng lãi suất
XÊ NHO 2/4/2022 6:00 GMT+7
TTCT – Dân Mỹ nói riêng và dân tình cả thế giới nói chung đều hoang mang trước cơn bão giá đang ập đến. Dù chỉ số giá cả chính thức ở Mỹ tăng 7,9% vào tháng 2 so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái, giá cả thực tế tăng cao hơn thế nhiều lần: giá xăng đã tăng chừng 40%, giá món nào trong siêu thị cũng tăng vài ba chục phần trăm.
Trong bối cảnh đó, Cục Dự trữ liên bang (FED) nước này chỉ nâng lãi suất điều hành thêm 0,25 điểm phần trăm vào tuần trước, làm sao thuyết phục thị trường họ đang sử dụng vũ khí hạng nặng để chống lạm phát?
Lạm phát 14,8%, lãi suất phải trên 20%
Nếu đơn giản hóa mọi yếu tố khác chỉ còn tiền với hàng, sẽ dễ thấy nếu tiền nhiều lên mà hàng giữ nguyên, ắt hẳn giá sẽ tăng. Giá còn tăng mạnh hơn nữa nếu cùng lúc đó hàng giảm xuống.
President Zelensky makes his case for Ukraine to the Russian people
Americans are used to wars against people who don’t so casually speak our language. Zelensky can respond to Russian propaganda by directly addressing the Russian people — in Russian.
By Keith Gessen
NYtime – Published March 11, 2022Updated March 13, 2022
The thing about the videos from the war in Ukraine in 2014 was that there were very few war videos. It was, at least at first, a small-arms war. Fighting, when it erupted, happened on city streets. As soon as shots were fired, whoever was making the video would put away the phone and run.
The videos that characterized the conflict were not of rifle fire but of protests: riot police beating demonstrators as people shouted, “What are you doing?”; later, young men on the same square, outfitted in motley assortments of helmets and kneepads, counterattacking; videos of people arguing; videos of people being forced, in eastern Ukraine, to get on their knees. After pro-Russian forces took over cities in the east and the Ukrainian Army finally moved to restore its authority, there were videos of pro-Russian protesters trying to prevent tanks from entering their towns. These were the images of a country falling apart.
Continue reading President Zelensky makes his case for Ukraine to the Russian people
Horror at ‘mass killings’ in Ukraine as men slaughtered with bodies littering streets
As Russian forces withdraw from the areas around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, some of the horrors of what they have done are being revealed with bodies being discovered littering the streets of towns
A Ukrainian soldier walks past the body of a civilian, who according to residents was killed by Russian army soldiers, as it lies on the street in Bucha (Image: REUTERS)
2022 Hong Kong Policy Act Report
2022 Hong Kong Policy Act Report
REPORT
BUREAU OF EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS
MARCH 31, 2022Share
Consistent with Sections 205 and 301 of the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 (the “Act”) (22 U.S.C. §§ 5725 and 5731) and section 7043(f)(3)(C) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022 (Div. K, P.L. 117-103), the Department submits this report and the enclosed certification on conditions in Hong Kong from March 2021 through March 2022 (“covered period”).
Summary
The Department of State assesses that during the covered period, the central government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) took new actions directly threatening U.S. interests in Hong Kong and that are inconsistent with the Basic Law and the PRC’s obligation pursuant to the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 (Sino-British Joint Declaration) to allow Hong Kong to enjoy a high degree of autonomy. In the Certification of Hong Kong’s Treatment under United States Laws, the Secretary of State certified Hong Kong does not warrant treatment under U.S. law in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1, 1997.
Continue reading 2022 Hong Kong Policy Act ReportHow Britain let Russia hide its dirty money – podcast
This week, as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, we revisit this piece by Oliver Bullough from 2018. For decades, politicians have welcomed the super-rich with open arms. Now they’re finally having second thoughts. But is it too late?
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Continue reading How Britain let Russia hide its dirty money – podcast
Was it inevitable? A short history of Russia’s war on Ukraine
To understand the tragedy of this war, it is worth going back beyond the last few weeks and months, and even beyond Vladimir Putin
Listen here
Read the text version here
Continue reading Was it inevitable? A short history of Russia’s war on Ukraine
The Struggle for Myanmar – Podcast
Is Myanmar heading into civil war — or already there?
Nikkei – Nikkei staff writers – February 5, 2022 09:29 JST
NEW YORK — Welcome to Nikkei Asia’s podcast: Asia Stream.
Every week, Asia Stream tracks and analyzes the Indo-Pacific with a mix of interviews and reporting by our correspondents from across the globe.
New episodes are recorded weekly and available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other major platforms, and on our YouTube channel.
The revolt against liberalism: what’s driving Poland and Hungary’s nativist turn? – podcast
For the hardline conservatives ruling Poland and Hungary, the transition from communism to liberal democracy was a mirage. They fervently believe a more decisive break with the past is needed to achieve national liberation. By Nicholas Mulder
Written by Nicholas Mulder, read by Tanya Cubric and produced by Esther Opoku-Gyeni
Sat 21 Aug 2021 12.00 BST – Last modified on Mon 23 Aug 2021 09.19 BST
- Read the text version here
19 năm cuộc chiến Iraq: Kế hoạch loại bỏ Saddam Hussein được chuẩn bị “bài bản” thế nào?
Soha – Đại sứ Nguyễn Quang Khai – 24/03/2022 20:12
Ngày 20/3 năm nay, người Iraq tưởng nhớ lại 19 năm ngày liên quân 49 nước do Mỹ cầm đầu xâm lược đất nước của họ vào năm 2003, lật đổ chế độ của Tổng thống Saddam Hussein.
Rạng sáng ngày 20/3/2003, cuộc tấn công mở màn bằng các cuộc không kích nhắm vào toà nhà chính phủ và bộ máy lãnh đạo Iraq. Tổng thống Mỹ George W. Bush tuyên bố chiến dịch “Tự do cho Iraq – Operation Iraqi Freedom” bắt đầu. Các lực lượng bộ binh của Mỹ và Anh được máy bay, xe tăng, đại bác… yểm trợ từ Kuwait vượt biên giới tràn vào lãnh thổ Iraq.
Iraq bị đánh hội đồng. Hội đồng Bảo an Liên hợp quốc không có cuộc họp nào, không có lệnh trừng phạt được áp đặt, không có nghị quyết lên án Mỹ và đồng minh.
Joint Statement on Armed Forces Day in Myanmar
MEDIA NOTE
US Department of State – OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON
MARCH 26, 2022
Following is a joint statement on Armed Forces Day in Myanmar issued by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union and the Foreign Ministers of Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Republic of Korea, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Begin text:
On Armed Forces Day, we remember those killed and displaced by violence over the last year, including at least 100 people killed on this day alone one year ago.
Some countries continue to supply lethal assistance to Myanmar’s military regime, enabling its violence and repression. We urge all countries to support the people of Myanmar by immediately stopping the sale or transfer of arms, military equipment, materiel, dual-use equipment, and technical assistance to Myanmar, in line with UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/75/287. We reiterate our call on the military to cease its violence and restore Myanmar’s path to democracy.
End text.
Đọt Chuối Non 