Europe
Transcarpathia: next Ukrainian flashpoint?
In Ukraine's eastern region of Transcarpathia, ethnic Hungarians and Ruthenians are agitating for autonomy, with the encouragement of Moscow and Budapest.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Oceania
Rival trade pacts vie for Pacific hegemony
China is proposing a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) in a race with the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region.
Europe
Novorossiya resurgent?
With the open encouragement of Putin, separatists in eastern Ukraine are reviving the concept of "Novorossiya" (New Russia)—a dangerous precedent for revanchist claims.
Europe
Ukraine: pro-Russian separatists attack Roma?
A Czech-based Roma website cites reports of an armed attack on Roma homes in the eastern Ukraine town of Slavyansk by pro-Russian separatists.
Iraq
Syria: test ground for anti-Shia jihad?
An “Anti-Shia Alliance” convention in Jakarta brought togehter interntional Sunni militants to declare “jihad” on “heretics”—as sectarian attacks mount in Syria and Iraq.
Europe
Will Ukraine ‘go nuclear’? Looking scarier…
As Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warns of "World War III," Moscow and Kiev mass troops on their shared border, and the US sends more forces to the Baltics.
South Asia
Mt. Everest disaster and global climate shift
Sherpas who guide tourists up Mount Everest go on strike following the deadly avalanche—as destabilization of the Himalayan glaciers portends more such disasters.
Watching the Shadows
Net neutrality and the extinction of journalism
The end of "net neutrality," now broached by the FCC, portends an "enclosure" of the Internet—and the marginalization of all perspectives not officially approved.
East Asia
China and Japan can’t stop fighting World War II
China impounds a Japanese vessel over an unpaid wartime debt, as Japan builds a military base near the disputed Senkaku Islands. This World War II nostalgia is getting too real.
Europe
Ukraine and anti-Semitism: house of mirrors redux
Leaflets distributed in the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk, now under occupation by pro-Russian separatists, order Jews to register with the authorities. Real or provocation?
Greater Middle East
Turkish ‘false flag’ plot on Ottoman site in Syria?
Does the leaked YouTube video reveal that Turkey's intelligence establishment was planning a "false flag" attack on the revered grave of an medieval sultan in Syria?
Europe
Ukraine, austerity and gas
The IMF imposes austerity on Ukraine as Russia jacks up gas prices. Meanwhile, the global industry exploits the crisis to fast-track exports of fracked gas as a "lever against Russia."