Author: Noel Baldwin

Frankfurt (3/12 – 12) The relatively rapid cohesion of disparate nations, historically competitive or even at war with one another, into the European Union came about in part because of the ongoing threat from the Soviet Union. The specter of a tank invasion from Warsaw Pact nations, today forgotten, was such a reality that the German government kept a major portion of its gold bullion across the Atlantic. The USSR, an ally in World War II after being double-crossed by Hitler – remember the “Non-Aggression Pact signed in Moscow by von Ribbentrop and Molotov – was soon appraised as a…

Ed Currie eats, sleeps and breathes peppers. He calls it his “obsession”. He starts “every morning with what is essentially pepper oil” in his coffee. After taste-testing peppers and hot sauces all day for his South Carolina company, PuckerButt Pepper Company, he will add peppers or hot sauce to his dinner. His favourite pepper to cook with, though not his own creation, is a chocolate scotch bonnet. “I eat peppers all day long,” he says. “If there’s the right kind of dessert around, I tend to put something hot on my dessert.” Even as a pepper connoisseur, tasting his own…

Toronto, Atlanta (24/10 – 10) Not too long ago, “Halloween”, a contraction of the Christian holiday known as “All Hallows’ Eve,” was a time to honors dead saints. Take a look at the multi-billion-dollar enterprise, celebrated on October 31st every year, which it has evolved into, at least in North America, and you’ll find no sainted creatures – but a plethora of devils and the dead. Not to mention the Undead (imagine Yoko Ono) which have leaked out of the hundreds upon hundreds of horror movies, many of them truly horrible horrors, since brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière invented the…

The May 3 state visit of President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon to Kazakhstan showed that the strategic cooperation will grow in the coming years, Yersultan Zhanseitov from the Institute of World Economy and Politics said in an interview with Jibek Joly TV Channel. “I believe the main goal of the visit is purely economic. Trade is one of the biggest topics alongside other topics such as transport corridors as the way to develop our bilateral trade, also politics and geopolitics like matters of Afghanistan and Central Asian integration,” the expert said. According to him, regional integration will play a major…

In September 2021, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia announced a new security partnership called AUKUS. In March 2023, Joint Leaders Statement on AUKUS mentioned that its first major initiative was to support Australia in acquiring conventionally-armed and nuclear-powered submarines, making Australia the seventh member of the exclusive club of nuclear propulsion states. Just as a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said, nuclear submarine cooperation between the three countries involves the transfer of large amounts of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium from nuclear weapon states to a non-nuclear state, which poses a serious risk of nuclear proliferation…

China on Friday urged the U.S., the UK and Australia to stop putting their selfish geopolitical agenda above nuclear non-proliferation obligations and stop coercing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into endorsing their nuclear submarine cooperation. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s remarks that the AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation is the advancement of NATO military infrastructure into Asia, which makes a serious bet on many years of confrontation in the region. Wang said the U.S., the UK and Australia are putting up…

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Mo. – A woman died, and a teenager is hurt after a two-car crash Thursday in rural Missouri. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports that Beth Rutledge, 45, died in the crash. Next of kin have been notified. The other driver involved in the crash, a 16-year-old girl, is hospitalized with serious injuries. The crash happened around 3 p.m. Thursday in the northbound lanes of Missouri Route 21 near Diamond Road. Investigators say Rutledge was driving northbound when the teenage driver pulled into the path. Rutledge then struck the left side of the teenager’s vehicle and died from…

By Tony Capaccio (Bloomberg) A Chinese fighter plane flew within 20 feet (6 meters) of a US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea in what the US Indo-Pacific Command called “an unsafe maneuver.” The unusually close encounter happened on Dec. 21 but wasn’t disclosed until Thursday, when the command issued a statement after verifying the details and getting approval to declassify images including a video. The US RC-135 “was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace” when the Chinese pilot “flew an unsafe maneuver by flying in front of and within 20…

China’s embassy in Manila accused the United States on Tuesday of driving a wedge between the Philippines and Beijing, deploring Washington’s “unfounded accusations” that it said sought to stir up trouble in the South China Sea. The South China Sea has become one of many flashpoints in the testy relationship between China and the United States, with Washington rejecting what it calls unlawful territorial claims by Beijing in the resource-rich waters. Beijing was reacting to a Dec. 19 statement by U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price voicing concern over the reported “escalating swarms” of Chinese vessels in the disputed waterway and an…

Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine program with the United States and Britain will cost up to A$368 billion ($245 billion) over the next three decades, a defense official said on Tuesday, the country’s biggest single defense project in history. U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, a major step to counter China’s naval build up in the Indo-Pacific. Albanese said the program would start with a A$6 billion ($4 billion) investment over the next four years to expand a major submarine base and the country’s submarine shipyards, as well as…