| | | | One Big Consequence of the Russia Scandals: Weekly Standard | | The Trump administration doesn't want to have to seek congressional approval before easing sanctions. The trouble is, as far as Russia is concerned, the administration has simply lost the benefit of the doubt, the Weekly Standard editorializes.
"[T]he Trump team has lost all credibility on the question of Russia. Second-guessing by the media and politicians of both parties will be the inevitable accompaniment to every White House announcement about Vladimir Putin or Russia," the magazine says.
"All this casts the White House's objections to the sanctions bill in the worst possible light. Maybe President Trump isn't looking for a way to be soft on Putin, but it looks that way. The president's preposterous suggestion that the two countries set up a joint 'Cyber Security unit' to guard against election manipulation…makes it look even worse.
"And what would the White House think it can accomplish with the authority to loosen sanctions, anyway? Does anybody think Putin's government is anywhere near ready to engage in good-faith negotiations in response to economic sanctions? Surely not even this president believes he can get Russia to consider respecting Ukraine's borders, for example, or to cease from meddling in the elections of democratic adversaries."
| | Could Chinese Communications Networks Become Unhackable? | | A Chinese city says it has conducted a successful trial of an "unhackable" quantum communications network that could ultimately make it impossible for other countries to listen in to the country's communications, the Financial Times' Yuan Yang reports.
"Quantum key distribution (QKD) networks are more secure than widely used electronic communication forms. A classical channel, such as a telephone or internet cable, can be tapped by an eavesdropper without the sender or recipient being aware. But if a quantum channel is tapped, it alters the information being relayed, and the disturbance alerts the parties using it that something is amiss."
"Chinese policymakers have been concerned about protecting domestic cyber space since whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations of U.S.-sponsored internet surveillance and amid growing awareness of the cost of hacking attacks. As a result, government support has poured into quantum research."
| | Can America End Afghan War? Not Without Beating this Group | | | The key to the success of stepped-up U.S. efforts in the Afghan war is clear – putting down the threat posed by the Haqqani network, argue Rahmatullah Nabil and Melissa Skorka in the Wall Street Journal.
"Since 9/11, Haqqani has evolved from a relatively small, tribal-based jihadist network into one of the most influential terrorist organizations in South Asia," they write.
"It is largely responsible for the violence in Kabul and the most notorious attacks against the coalition. It masterminded the 19-hour siege on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in 2011, and allegedly facilitated an assault on a U.S. Consulate near the Iran border in 2013 and a 2009 suicide bombing of a U.S. base in Khost province, which killed seven CIA operatives. The group also holds five American hostages in Pakistan. Since the 2013 death of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Haqqani has become the only group with the cohesion, influence and geographic reach to provide Pakistan with 'strategic depth' -- a territorial buffer on its western border." | | How America Shortchanges the World | | It's not surprising many Americans are willing to listen when the Trump administration suggests that other countries aren't paying their fair share in foreign aid. After all, surveys show that Americans typically believe their government spends far more on aid than it actually does, writes Peter Singer for Project Syndicate. The truth is, though, that despite spending almost $34 billion on assistance in 2016, the country doesn't really pull its weight.
True, in absolute terms, the United States last year "spent more on foreign aid than any of the countries that met the target." But Germany, despite its economy being less than one-fifth the size of the United States, spent more than 75 percent what the U.S. spent. "If Trump's proposed cuts are implemented, while Germany maintains its aid spending, the U.S. would no longer be the biggest donor, even in absolute terms."
"Another significant comparison is with the UK, which is clearly not as wealthy as the U.S. – its per capita GDP is 31% lower. Yet a few years ago, with bipartisan support, it reached the recommended 0.7% level -- more than three times the proportion of gross national income spent by the U.S. It has since maintained that level."
| | Europe's Getting Nervous About Trump's Iran Review: WSJ | | European diplomats are putting on a brave face, but in private they are increasingly worried about the Trump administration's review of the Iran nuclear deal, writes Laurence Norman in the Wall Street Journal.
"European officials still believe the Trump administration won't abandon the nuclear deal, but many fear Washington will keep it under a rolling review. That, they say, would crimp economic benefits Iran expected from the agreement by persuading already cautious Western banks and investors to stay away -- whereas President Barack Obama's top officials urged engagement with Tehran. European diplomats also worry that if the U.S. commitment remains uncertain, Iran may respond by attempting limited violations."
| | Why China Might Not Democratize | | The conventional wisdom has long been that as China becomes richer, it will inevitably democratize. But growing restrictions on free political speech are calling that assumption into question, argues Tyler Cowen for Bloomberg View.
"[T]here are two powerful arguments that China will not become democratic. First, China never has been democratic in thousands of years of history, and perhaps that history simply will continue," Cowen says.
"Second, the middle to upper middle class is still a minority in China, and will stay so for a long time. A smaller country can build up in percentage terms a larger middle class, by exporting, than can a very large and populous country. There's just not enough demand in global markets to elevate all or even most of the Chinese people, and so Chinese inequality likely will stay high, to the detriment of democratic forces."
| | Earth Witnessing "Biological Annihilation" | | The Earth is experiencing a period of "biological annihilation" as the planet undergoes its sixth major extinction event, according to a team of scientists.
"[C]onservatively almost 200 species of vertebrates have gone extinct in the last 100 years. These represent the loss of about 2 species per year. Few realize, however, that if subjected to the estimated 'background' or 'normal' extinction rate prevailing in the last 2 million years, the 200 vertebrate species losses would have taken not a century, but up to 10,000 years to disappear," the scientists say.
"In the last few decades, habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive organisms, pollution, toxification, and more recently climate disruption, as well as the interactions among these factors, have led to the catastrophic declines in both the numbers and sizes of populations of both common and rare vertebrate species." | | | | | | |
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