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CIA has video footage of Putin engaging in oral, anal sex with his Judo instructor

The Central Intelligence Agency is in possession of more than five-and-a-half hours of video footage of Russian President Vladamir Putin engaging in a range of sexual activities with his late mentor and judo instructor, the billionaire Anatoly Rakhlin and others.

Foreign Policy

A fraught linkage: US-China trade, US-EU tech

By Claude Barfield Over the past weeks, the Joe Biden administration has pursued two geographic bookends of US foreign economic and strategic policy — namely the first public statement of US trade and investment policy toward China and the convening of the US-EU Trade

China

The Biden administration’s new (old) China trade policy

By Claude Barfield On Monday, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai gave a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies laying out “the starting point of [the] administration’s strategic vision for realigning our trade policies towards China.” Tai, a savvy, adroit

Foreign Policy

Australia stands alone again in social media content rulings

By Bronwyn Howell In February, Australia led the world with its competition-based law requiring Facebook and Google to reach a compensation agreement with media firms regarding the use of copyrighted news material on social media. While the ensuing stoush resulted in Facebook

Foreign Policy

After Mike Calvey’s flawed trial, who will invest in Russia?

BY ELISABETH BRAW Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny’s trial and conviction in February this year were closely watched and condemned by a range of international organizations. Good. But a similarly important Russian trial has also ended in a conviction, and

Foreign Policy

Trade deficit with China grows by $158 billion

BY DEREK SCISSORS Remember when our trade deficit with China mattered? Half-year figures for Sino-American goods trade were published Friday, but you’re in good company if you missed it. It’s hard for the bilateral trade deficit to affect the US

Foreign Policy

Melting diplomatic ice at Arctic Council meeting

BY ELISABETH BRAW Ordinarily, the Arctic is perceived as a sleepy region where nothing much happens. Well, this week something happened, and not just the continued climate change that is causing irreparable damage to this delicate part of the world.

Foreign Policy

Minsk’s shameful kidnapping of an opposition journalist

BY ELISABETH BRAW Yesterday brought the extremely odd news that a Ryanair flight between Athens and Vilnius, carrying much the usual Ryanair crowd, had been forced to land in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Why would Belarusian authorities mess with

Foreign Policy

Swedish Navy asks the public to be on the lookout

BY ELISABETH BRAW Anyone who has ever visited London has seen the posters and heard the announcements on Tube stations instructing people to “see it, say it, sorted.” The public awareness campaign encouraging people to report odd behavior to the

Foreign Policy

Putin, Ukraine, and Biden

BY LEON ARON Whether or not Russian troops cross the Ukrainian border to start yet another invasion of Ukraine, the reasons for Russia’s massing troops on the Russian side of the line fall into two categories. The first, permanent and

Foreign Policy

Biden avenges Russian grayzone aggression

BY ELISABETH BRAW In the grayzone between war and peace, the targeted country always struggles with the dilemma of when and how to respond to aggression. In the United States, neither the Obama administration nor the Trump administration managed to

China

Professor charged with stealing $1.75 million in research for China

Communist China has long benefitted from American-funded research stolen by Chinese academics who infiltrate colleges throughout the United States. This month a criminal indictment sheds light on a recent scheme allegedly masterminded by a Chinese professor at one of the nation’s top-ranked

Foreign Policy

Despite pandemic, Mexican cartels remain criminal threat to U.S.

Mexican cartels adjusted to restrictions imposed by the global pandemic last year to smuggle huge amounts of narcotics into the U.S. and remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the country, expanding the market as methamphetamine deaths skyrocket. The government

Foreign Policy

Marijuana legalization won’t curb Mexico’s drug cartels

BY RYAN C. BERG Mexico is poised to become just the third country in the world to fully legalize marijuana (after Uruguay and Canada). If legalized, the size of the country would make it the world’s largest legal cannabis market. Already, headlines are