Shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on January 19, the Voice of America gained an authoritative readout from America’s top diplomat on how Washington views the Ukraine crisis. During an exclusive Kiev interview with Secretary Blinken shortly after his meeting with Mr. Zelensky, VOA’s East Europe…
David Sanger of the New York Times sums up the crisis crisply: —Russian troops are encircling Ukraine from three sides. —There are warnings of crushing Western sanctions against Russia if more of Moscow’s troops enter Ukraine. —Yet there are still “off-ramps” in the crisis. Soon, the United States and NATO are expected to react forcefully…
On January 14, a devastating tsunami struck the Tonga archipelago, a republic of 170 islands close to the center of the world’s largest ocean. The islands, before the unprecedented tragedy, were home to at least 100,000 people. Total casualties are still unclear. Initially, only three deaths were reported — but the total losses are expected…
Anticipating today’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Public Diplomacy Council President Sherry Lee Mueller shared a quote over the weekend: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all of us indirectly.” Contained in Dr. King’s “Letter from a…
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, puts it bluntly. “As people see unaccountable rulers (those not empowered in free elections) prioritize their own interests over that of their publics,” he contends, “a popular demand for rights-respecting democracy remains strong.” The second week of 2022 appears to have been crucial in determining whether or…
Sidney Poitier, according to New York Times’ writer Wesley Morris, was “as crucial in the odyssey of freedom and equality for African-Americans as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther Jr.” Mr. Poitier died on January 8. He was 94 years old, and no cause of death was reported at the time. As Mr. Morris…
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) focuses on four foreign policy news stories to follow this year. “Any one of them,” the CFR website says, “could turn into the dominant news event of the year — or fade away. We’ll know in 12 months which will sizzle and which will fizzle.” The top four are:…
INSPIRING EXAMPLE #1: With the New Year now here, a Dec. 22 Washington Post lead editorial, “A Victory for Democracy,” praised Chile’s recent presidential election as a model for others to consider in 2022. The winner was 35-year-old Gabriel Boric, a member of Chile’s Congress and former organizer of student protests. But what impressed the…
A New York Times obituary summed it all up in this headline reporting the death of Archbishop Tutu on December 26, followed by tributes from around the world to the renowned patriot of peace. The archbishop was 90 years old when he passed away in Cape Town, South Africa. His advocacy of non-violence during the…
Internationally, there were a few positive developments, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. In a CFR article entitled “The Ten Most Significant World Events in 2021,” James M. Lindsay cites several milestones amidst a series of setbacks. Among them, the seemingly unending global struggle to contain COVID-19. Among the leading pluses of the year,…