Beijing, Mar.3.─ The plan was a simple one. We'd arranged to meet a woman in her village in China's central Hunan Province and to then travel with her by train to Beijing, filming as we went.
But we never did get to meet our interviewee.
The story we ended up with, however, reveals more about the exercise of power in China than any interview ever could.
Washington DC, Mar. 1 (WSJ).─ Donald Trump’s challenge Tuesday night was to look like he was up to the Presidency after a rocky start and set a clear direction for Congress. He succeeded more on the former than the latter, and the test now will be whether he can corral a fractious Congress to deliver in particular on tax reform and health care.
As a presidential rookie, Mr. Trump showed he could deliver a speech on this kind of stage in a calm and measured way. We haven’t seen enough of that in his first five weeks, and in that sense on Tuesday he rose to the occasion in democracy’s center ring. He was less tendentious than in his inaugural, and he began and ended with notes of unity and inclusiveness that have been too few in his early days.
Rome, Feb.28.─ For those who still deny the tangible impact of climate change, please note that the extended spell of high global temperatures is continuing; the Arctic is witnessing exceptional warmth with record low ice volumes–the lowest on record; global heat is putting Asia on higher risk than ever, and Africa is drying up.
Also please note that almost one half of all forests is now gone’ that groundwater sources are being rapidly depleted, and that biodiversity has been deeply eroded.
In fact, reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said that global average surface temperatures for the month of January were the third highest on record, after January 2016 and January 2007, says the UN World Meteorological Organization.
The estimated yield for North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, in September 2016, is between 20 and 30 kilotons.
Feb. 28.─ North Korea successfully tested a solid-fueled missile earlier this month, the latest in a series of technological leaps. Instant experts allege Pyongyang is not yet a serious nuclear threat to the U.S. Some reporters say North Korea does not have “miniaturized” nuclear warheads for missile delivery and that its weapons are primitive—even after five nuclear tests. These are dangerous delusions.
Washington DC, Feb.20.─ The 22 national security advisers who served Donald Trump’s predecessors included two army or marine generals. On February 20th Mr Trump equalled that tally in less than a month, by appointing Lieutenant-General H.R. McMaster to succeed his disgraced former adviser, Mike Flynn.
Like the belligerent Mr Flynn, whom Mr Trump sacked after 24 days in the job, after it was revealed that he had lied about a private conversation with a Russian diplomat, Mr McMaster appears to conform to the president’s idea of a fire-breathing war-fighter. He is stocky, bullishly charismatic and as a young tank commander in the first Gulf war was decorated for battlefield prowess. After bumping into an Iraqi armoured column, Mr McMaster’s troop of nine American tanks destroyed over 80 Iraqi tanks and other vehicles without suffering a single loss.
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