Section: News & Summaries
Netflix almost global
Netflix’s video-streaming service went live in more than 130 countries on Wednesday, covering almost the entire globe. ||| Las Vegas – Netflix’s video-streaming service went live in more than 130 countries on Wednesday, covering almost the entire globe except China, in a huge global push by Chief Executive Reed Hastings to...
Merkel to receive Four Freedoms Award
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named as this year’s recipient of a prestigious international award. ||| The Hague, Netherlands – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named as this year’s recipient of a prestigious international award, with organisers lauding her “great moral leadership” in Germany and pivotal role...
How Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Sabotaged the Reform Process
Viktor Shokin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, was upbeat in his New Year’s message to colleagues. While “2015 was a difficult and responsible year for us all,” he wrote, we “carried out unprecedented reform and overhaul of the prosecutor’s system, bringing it closer to European standards.” Almost thirty...
Ten Reasons Why I’m Optimistic About Ukraine’s Economy in 2016
The outlook for the Ukrainian economy in 2016 is positive. Many important reforms were carried out in 2015. The necessary exchange rate adjustment has occurred and most required bank closures have taken place. The parliament has adopted tax changes and a decent budget for 2016. The debt restructuring deal has postponed foreign debt service. The...
Airline ‘bans checked bags on flights’
Malaysia Airlines temporarily banned checked-in baggage on its flights from Kuala Lumpur to Europe due to strong headwinds. ||| Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday temporarily banned checked-in baggage and limited the weight of cabin bags on its flights from Kuala Lumpur to Europe due to strong headwinds.Starting late Tuesday...
Putin’s Next Potential Target: The Baltic States
Although Russia’s economy is reeling and its military forces are increasingly engaged in Syria and Ukraine, NATO commanders, governments, and analysts are concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adventurism has not run its course. Most anxieties focus on the Baltic states as Russia’s next potential military...
From Ordinary Business Trip to Russian Jail: Former Ukrainian Political Prisoner Exhorts West to Keep Pressure on Russia
Editor’s Note: Yuriy Yatsenko testified before the US Helsinki Commission in Washington on December 11, 2015. His remarks have been shortened.I am a Ukrainian citizen who was illegally arrested and detained by the Russian Federation for over a year for political reasons. Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov, and others who are less known have...
What Will 2016 Mean for Ukraine?
In 2015, Ukraine proved it wasn’t a pushover. The country united in the face of Russian aggression and Russian President Vladimir Putin learned that if he wanted his Novorossiya project, it was going to cost him more than a few little green men.Notably, the war in Ukraine was completely absent from Putin’s December 2015 address to the...
New Russian Management of the Donbas Signifies Putin May Be Ready to Negotiate
On December 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed one of his close, trusted aides, Boris Gryzlov, Russia’s representative in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, which concluded the two Minsk agreements on the Donbas in September 2014 and February 2015. This appointment suggests an important change in Russia’s policy...
New OSCE Chairman is satisfied with the ceasefire in Donbas while 3 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the first two days of the new year
New OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier is satisfied with the ceasefire in Donbas and hopes for further development. “It gives hope that the parties to the conflict will discuss other difficult steps that yet have to be made to fully implement the Minsk Agreements, to find constructive solutions,...