| | | | Fareed: The Big Winner in Pyeongchang Is Clear | | | The big winner in Pyeongchang so far? South Korea, Fareed says. "North Korea has, it seems, completely changed course. Remember, the last time you had an Olympic Games in South Korea, in 1988, the North Koreans not only boycotted those games, but perpetrated a terror attack the year before that was widely seen as trying to undermine the Games. Fast forward to today, and North Korean athletes are marching alongside those from South Korea, watched by Kim Jong Un's sister, one of the most important people in the country," Fareed says. "Meanwhile, the Trump administration's policy has been, to be frank, quite incoherent. One day, there's a threat. Another day, Trump or his team talks about meeting with the North Koreans. If there was some kind of calculated good cop/bad cop routine, it would be one thing. But what we have been seeing feels pretty undisciplined. "As a result, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been able to play the good cop to the Trump administration's bad cop to achieve some of his administration's goals, not least reducing the likelihood of a preemptive US attack on North Korea, and following through on his campaign promise of a more moderate policy toward Pyongyang. "For the United States, the aim should be negotiations with North Korea about its nuclear weapons. There is, of course, no guarantee of success, but when you consider the lack of viable alternatives, talks surely have to be the goal. Yet right now, there doesn't seem to be a clear path to reach this goal, particularly because President Trump seems to be of two minds. He doesn't seem able to decide if he wants to be the tough guy or the deal-maker. And until he does, it is hard to see how negotiations can take place." | | Team Trump's "Hello Kitty" Infrastructure Plan: Garofalo | | | America has a massive infrastructure problem. Unfortunately, President Trump's just-unveiled infrastructure plan would do little to help, argues Pat Garofalo for US News and World Report. "There's little reason to believe that states have the capacity to spend enough on infrastructure to hit Trump's topline number, especially since federal funding would make up such a small part of any proposed project. Meanwhile, counting on private financing would ensure that projects for those who need them most would be neglected, since they are almost always the least profitable, and also that the public would get nickeled and dimed via tolls and fees on anything that actually did get completed," Garofalo argues. But the "real problem is that the plan is nowhere near ambitious enough to address the scope of America's infrastructure problem. The US needs trillions of dollars worth of work, not just on roads and bridges, which are the traditional go-to when talking about infrastructure, but on water systems, mass transit, broadband and school modernization. $200 billion, in the context of what America should be spending on this stuff, is just a drop in the bucket. Trump envisions the equivalent of placing a 'Hello Kitty' Band-Aid on a gaping wound." | | No, Israel and Iran Won't Start a War…For Now | | | The shooting down of an Iranian drone that had reportedly entered Israeli airspace and the crash of an Israeli fighter jet at the weekend have ratcheted up tensions in Syria. But Aaron David Miller writes for CNN Opinion that while the conditions seem ripe for open conflict between Israel and Iran, the truth is that neither has an appetite for it – for now, at least. "None of the major players is looking for a regional war," Miller writes. "Russia has no desire to undermine three years of investment in saving the Assad regime, only to see Israel become involved militarily in Syria, which could weaken the Syrian regime and strengthen the United States' hand against Iran. Iran isn't looking for war with Israel either, as it could jeopardize its own gains in Syria. "And Israel has no interest in getting bogged down in Syria or triggering a conflict with Hezbollah, Iran's loyal ally. A war with Hezbollah would rain thousands of rockets and missiles down on Israel's cities, produce heavy civilian casualties, and force Israel to wage a costly war against Lebanon. "More than likely, this coincidence of interests in avoiding war will succeed in deferring a major escalation to some later date." | | Is Gaza About to Explode? | | | Daily life has long been a struggle for residents of Gaza, "the densely populated enclave of two million Palestinians sandwiched between Israel and Egypt," writes David M. Halbfinger in The New York Times. But a growing financial squeeze is setting the stage for a potential explosion. "United Nations officials warn that Gaza is nearing total collapse, with medical supplies dwindling, clinics closing and 12-hour power failures threatening hospitals. The water is almost entirely undrinkable, and raw sewage is befouling beaches and fishing grounds. Israeli officials and aid workers are bracing for a cholera outbreak any day," Halbfinger writes. "For Hamas, the deteriorating situation is leaving it with few options. The one it has resorted to three times — going to war with Israel, in hopes of generating international sympathy and relief in the aftermath — suddenly seems least attractive. "Hamas can count on little aid now from the Arab world, let alone beyond. And Israel, in an underground-barrier project with a nearly $1 billion price tag, is steadily sealing its border to the attack tunnels into Israel that Gaza militants spent years digging. "The collapsing tunnel enterprise, in a way, neatly captures where Hamas finds itself: with no good way out." | | The West's Coming Trash Crisis Is Postponed, Not Resolved | | | When China announced late last year that it was banning many types of foreign waste, Southeast Asian nations stepped in to fill some of the demand for waste processing from Western nations. But unless the West changes its wasteful habits, countries like Vietnam will be overwhelmed – and the United States and others will find themselves with a trash crisis, Resty Woro Yuniar suggests in the South China Morning Post. "Before China's regulation, the country had been importing almost seven million tons of plastic scrap annually, valued at more than US$6 billion, making it the world's top market for exporters such as the United States, Britain and Japan. Much of that scrap has now been redirected towards Southeast Asia, generating concerns that it will complicate regional waste disposal efforts and cause the same environmental problems that prompted the clampdown in China," she writes. "For decades, China had imported recycled scrap plastic for use in manufacturing, but in recent years this practice had come under intense scrutiny following a series of studies highlighting its negative effects. Not least among these was Shantou University Medical College's investigation of the 'world's largest electronic waste dump' – in Guiyu, Guangdong province – which found that up to 80 percent of children in the town had excess levels of lead in their bloodstream." | | | Secretary of State Rex Tillerson continues his trip to the Middle East this week. The visit, which began Sunday in Cairo, is also scheduled to include stops in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Kuwait. NATO holds a meeting of member nation defense ministers from Wednesday in Brussels. Per the Wall Street Journal: "Western diplomats hope to use a high-level gathering of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization this week to keep members US and Turkey from going to battle against each other in Syria." Friday marks the first day of the Lunar New Year. Bloomberg reports: "China's high-speed rail network will once again be put to the test this year as almost 400 million people, more than the US population, are expected to travel by train over the holiday, also known as Spring Festival." | | | | | | |
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