MY THOUGHTS on News.

Previously posted on my Facebook Page.

New York Times: “NATO’s Welcome Party for Sweden Is Back on Ice.” After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Warsaw Pact, NATO’s counterpart, disbanded as well. "We believe that the eastward expansion of NATO is a mistake and a serious one at that," Boris Yeltsin told reporters in Helsinki in 1997, with then U.S. President Bill Clinton present. The two signed a statement on arms control. Hence, what is the point of NATO expansion? Or even its existence? 

       NATO members Hungary and Turkey are against Sweden’s inclusion. Finland was accepted last April. Pre-Feb 2022, the Kremlin has openly expressed objection to NATO expansion in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. But a war would somehow justify expansion, isn’t it? Mutual trust is imperative in global peace. Mere presence of NATO, with nearly half of its $2.1 billion 2023 budget shouldered by the U.S., UK, and Germany, continually poses suspicion, intrigue, and animosity. Anyhow, U.S. Congress approval of $113 billion total aid ($50+ billion in military/arms handout already sent) to Ukraine shows that America is willing to spend gargantuan taxpayer money to keep NATO alive. (Visual credit: Popular Mechanics.) 

       Meanwhile, in other news, NATO sec-gen Jens Stoltenberg (short-lived ex-PM of Norway) wants us to believe that Sweden will get into the military alliance. Maybe. If so, that’d be the “trade off” for the thumbs-down on Ukraine. At least, Sweden is not Eastern Europe (but close). ☮️☮️☮️

New York Times: “Biden Says Ukraine Is Not Ready for NATO Membership.” Ahead of the NATO summit this week, President Biden said it was `premature’ to allow Ukraine to join the alliance as the war with Russia continues. Inconsistencies and contradictions punctuate the President’s policy playbook but I dearly hope this one stays. Ukraine out of NATO or NATO’s non-expansion to Eastern Europe is a precondition to end of war. ☮️☮️☮️

New York Times: “How South Korea Puts Its Food Scraps to Good Use.” And adds: “When wasted food rots in landfills, it pollutes soil and water — and warms the planet.” Copy-paste the quoted lines and read up. Facts: How much food is wasted every year in the world? About 1.3 billion tons or a third of all food for human consumption. In the United States? Each year, 119 billion pounds that equates to 130 billion meals and more than $408 billion thrown away each year. 🍲🇰🇷🍲

New York Times: “Thompson Twins Are Ready for the N.B.A., but Not to Split Up.” Check `em out since they are Top Ten draftees: Amen, 4th; Ausar, 5th. Twins are not rare in the NBA though. Next season there could be as many as six pairs of identical twins in the roughly 500-player NBA, including Brook and Robin Lopez, Marcus and Markieff Morris, and Cody and Caleb Martin. Why don’t the All-Stars weekend feature a 2-on-2 contest of twins? Cool? 🧑🏀🧑

Rolling Stone: “Music Made With AI Will Be Eligible for Grammys, But Only Humans Will Be Awarded.” Absurdly funny! Will there be a remake of “Mr Roboto,” uh huh? Seriously, it'd be weird to yell up the stage “...and the winner for Record of the Year is ‘Prozac is my Ding-a-ling.’ AI #45$zz4!w and AI.7ytpz, composers; Pasckie Pascua, performer.” Why don't they just quit all these surreal award-giving nonsense? Who are judging, anyways? AIs too? 🎼🤖😐

Time: “The Price of Cocoa is Soaring. Blame Russia.” What has Moscow got to do with cocoa? What about importers who control price levels to ensure profit? The Ivory Coast and Ghana are the world’s two largest producers of cocoa, more than 50 percent. And while the U.S. and European countries are the top importers, both African countries’ top trading partner is China. This fact: China is the largest foreign investor in Africa over the last 10 years. ☕💰☕

New York Times: “Lithium Scarcity Pushes Carmakers Into the Mining Business.” And adds: “Ford, General Motors and others are striking deals with mining companies to avoid raw material shortages.” Top lithium-producing countries in 2022: Australia, Chile, and China. The United States is a distant #9. But then, EVs account for only 1 percent of 250 million vehicles sold in the U.S. last year. China is #1, a whopping 30 percent! Next are European countries. 

       Apparently, climate change market influencers in America are not doing a fine job. 🚕🔋🚗

Associated Press: “USAID says it’s horrified by conditions in Ethiopia after massive theft of food aid.” No brainer in poorer countries where leadership corruption is an institutionalized murk. Yet this brings back to the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program scandal in 1996. Some 2,400 companies–including giants Chevron, BNP Paribas, GlaxoSmithKline, and Roche–paid kickbacks and illegal surcharges to win lucrative contracts in Iraq while the country was under UN economic sanctions. 

       The scandal allowed Saddam Hussein to pocket $1.8 billion at the expense of Iraqis suffering under UN economic sanctions that time. And of course those businesses involved gained as well. 🍅💰⛽️

Time: “Confidence in Science Fell in 2022—Especially Along Political Lines.” And adds: “A partisan divide in views of both science and medicine emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Americans believe in science but not necessarily its findings, says a new Pew Research report. Questions asked in the study pertain to GMOs, vaccines, climate change. Some 71 percent think that investment in science ultimately pays off. But people gotta argue the politics of stuff first.  🔭👎🔬

Rolling Stone: “Everything We Know About Olivia Rodrigo's New Album 'Guts'.” Olivia’s dad is Filipino; mom, German/Irish ancestry. The Pinay blood got me interested in her music, hoping to hear glimpses of her mother’s cultural roots. But nope. She’s very American as Taylor Swift, In-N-Out Burger, and Disneyland. Which isn’t bad. She is born and bred in the United States. Though I hope she eats adobo and pinakbet, and knows some Filipino language or dialect. 👩‍🎤🇵🇭👩‍🎤