As fighting raged at Debaltseve, emergency negotiations, brokered by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France, took place in Minsk. These produced a ‘package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements’ (‘Minsk-2’). This document, signed on 12 February 2015 by representatives from the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine, the DNR and LNR, has been the framework for subsequent attempts to end the war.51 Minsk-2 is not an easy document to grasp. The product of hasty drafting, it tries valiantly to paper over yawning differences between the Ukrainian and Russian positions. As a result, it contains contradictory provisions…

To responsibly confront Chinese ambitions, the United States must incentivize regional partners to view China as a larger threat than America to their interests. As realists and restrainers have argued for years, the most obvious candidate for this project is Russia—but Russia is far from the only prospect. Like Russia, India shares a border with China, and a capable but conscientious strategic partnership between Washington and New Delhi will be a necessary part of any efforts to check a rising China. India and China have a history—a very recent history, even—of confronting one another militarily, primarily over where the border between…

If Donald Trump officially enters the next presidential race, that doesn’t mean his former vice president will stay out of the contest. ike pence spent much of his vice presidency quietly catering to the whims of President Donald Trump. But on January 6, he broke with Trump by refusing to overturn the 2020 election results. And now, Pence is eyeing a presidential run of his own, even though his old boss hasn’t ruled out a 2024 campaign. Pence wouldn’t necessarily stay out of the race even if Trump jumps in. “If you know the Pences, you know they’ll always try to…

PFIZER AND OTHER large pharmaceutical corporations are pushing to block legislation that would make it easier for whistleblowers to hold companies liable for corporate fraud. In the midst of a dizzying legislative environment, with much attention focused on the Build Back Better debate, major corporate interests, including Pfizer, are fighting an update to the False Claims Act, a Civil War-era law that rewards whistleblowers for filing anti-fraud lawsuits against contractors on behalf of the government. The law has historically returned $67 billion to the government, with whistleblowers successfully helping uncover wrongdoing by military contractors, banks, and pharmaceutical companies. The law has been particularly thorny for Pfizer.…

E-books in relation to study and research There is much debate in the literature about which format will prevail – electronic or print. Some authors argue that electronic will replace print, while others do not see electronic as ever being an alternative to print books for all purposes. Most have hedged their bets. Studies on user behaviour indicate that print and e-books are not used in the same way. In the academic environment, e-books are generally used for quick reference, but for more serious study users prefer print books. Obviously, print books and e-books enable different learning styles, and as…