一 | The Baltic Sea will become an “internal basin” of the NATO bloc after Finland and Sweden join the alliance, with every country bordering the sea barring Russia and its exclave of Kaliningrad to be part of the alliance, Polish President Andrzej Duda has boasted.,“The Baltic sea is essentially poised to become NATO’s internal basin. Two very powerful nations with a long and strong military tradition will become part of NATO soon, extending the Russia-NATO border by 1,400 kilometers, which is no doubt bad news for Russian authorities,” Duda said during a meeting of Poland’s security council on Monday.,Expressing hope that Finland and Sweden are accepted quickly and that their membership is ratified by NATO’s 30 members, Duda stressed that there was “no need for an explanation on how important this decision is for us.”,Late last week, Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko called the push to incorporate the pair of Nordic countries into the Western alliance “one of the saddest episodes in the evolution” of Europe’s security architecture, and warned that Moscow will be forced to beef up its defenses to compensate for new threats.,“This will severely worsen the military situation in the Baltic Sea region, which, as a result of NATO’s expansion…would be turned into an arena if not of military confrontation, then completely unnecessary military rivalry,” Grushko said.,Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last Wednesday that although Moscow does not have the same type of “problems with Sweden and Finland” as it does with Ukraine, the two countries “should plainly and clearly realize that [while] there were no threats before, now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, [Russia] will have to respond in a mirror fashion.”,Mayor of Finland's Border Town Mulls Placing NATO Base Directly on Russia's Doorstep3 July, 12:48 GMT,Finland and Sweden completed accession talks at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, with the bloc indicating in a statement that “both countries formally confirmed their willingness and ability to meet the political, legal and military obligations and commitments of NATO membership.” Allies are due to sign accession protocols on Tuesday, after which they will go out to all 30 member countries for ratification.,The pair of Nordic nations broke with generations of neutrality by announcing their bids for NATO membership this spring after Russia began its military operation in Ukraine. Until now, Sweden had maintained strict bloc neutrality since the 19th century, and has not taken part in any large-scale war in Europe since 1814. Finland became neutral at the start of the Cold War, and continued this policy for decades after 1991.,Swedish PM Refuses to Say if Stockholm Will Deport Kurds Wanted in Turkey as Part of NATO DealYesterday, 11:38 GMT,The countries’ neutrality did not prevent them from leaning in NATO’s direction after the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern bloc. They joined the Western alliance’s ‘Partnership for Peace’ program in 1994, and took part in the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, as well as 'peacekeeping' operations in the Serbian breakaway region of Kosovo after 1999. Both countries’ armies, navies and air forces also regularly take part in NATO-led military exercises in the region.,The planned incorporation of Finland and Sweden into NATO is the latest round of the bloc’s eastward push. Since 1990 and Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch east” promise to Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the Western bloc has undergone three major waves of eastward expansion, swallowing up the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic states in 2004, and Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia between 2009 and 2020. After Finland and Sweden’s accession, there will be just nine countries in Europe, Russia included, that are not part of the US-led North Atlantic alliance.,German Lawmaker Reveals How NATO Fooled Gorbachev About Bloc’s Eastward Expansion Plans31 January 2020, 16:43 GMT。
二 | Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron accused each other of taking extreme stands on abortion policy Monday night as they wrangled over an issue that's become a flashpoint in their hotly contested campaign for governor in Kentucky.During an hourlong debate at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, the rivals fielded questions over education, taxes, public safety and the monthlong strike by autoworkers, which has spread to Ford's highly profitable Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville.The candidates tried to one-up the other in their support for public education. Some of their sharpest exchanges during the televised debate, however, came when asked to lay out their stands on abortion. Their remarks, which took place about three weeks before the Nov. 7 election, came against the backdrop of Kentucky's current abortion law, which bans the procedure except when carried out to save a pregnant woman’s life or to prevent a disabling injury.Beshear said that his challenger celebrated the abortion ban’s passage and pointed to Cameron’s long-running support for the law as written, without exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.“My opponent’s position would give a rapist more rights than their victim," Beshear said. "It is wrong. We need to change this law. We need to make sure that those individuals have that option.”Once Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the state’s trigger law — passed in 2019 — took effect to ban nearly all abortions.Cameron reiterated Monday night that he would sign a bill adding abortion exceptions if given the chance, a position he revealed during a radio interview last month.Cameron went on the attack by pointing to Beshear’s opposition to abortion restrictions passed by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature. As attorney general, Beshear refused to defend a law imposing a 20-week ban on abortion, and later as governor he vetoed a 15-week ban, Cameron said. “That is Andy Beshear’s record on the issue of life," Cameron said. "It’s one of failure for the unborn.”Beshear responded that he has consistently supported “reasonable restrictions,” especially on late-term abortions. Beshear also noted that the 15-week ban lacked exceptions for rape and incest.Abortion polices have been at the forefront of the campaign. Beshear's campaign released a TV ad last month featuring a Kentucky woman who revealed her own childhood trauma while calling for rape and incest exceptions. The woman, now in her early 20s, talked about having been raped by her stepfather when she was 12 years old. She became pregnant as a seventh grader but eventually miscarried.Meanwhile, the candidates took turns touting their plans to improve public education.Cameron accused the governor of mischaracterizing his plan to help students overcome learning loss when schools were closed during the pandemic.“We need a governor that is going to lean into this issue to fight for our kids and make sure that they have the best education system here possible in Kentucky,” Cameron said.Beshear highlighted his own plan calling for an 11% pay raise for teachers and all public school personnel, including bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria staff. He said he's supported educators “every step of the way” to raise their pay and protect their pensions as governor and previously as attorney general.“If we want to make sure that we have a math teacher, a physics teacher, everything we need in our classrooms, we have to pay people closer to what they’re worth,” the governor said.Beshear also made another pitch for his plan for state-funded pre-K for every 4-year-old in Kentucky.Beshear criticized Cameron for supporting a Republican-backed measure to award tax credits for donations supporting private school tuition. The Kentucky Supreme Court struck down the measure last year. The governor and other opponents of the bill said the program would have diverted money from public schools. Supporters said the measure offered opportunities for parents who want new schooling options for their children but are unable to afford them.“He (Cameron) supports a voucher program that would take tens of millions of dollars out of our public school system," Beshear said. "Out of the paychecks of our educators, out of the resources that they need, and again send them to fancy private schools.”Cameron has proposed raising the statewide base starting pay for new teachers, saying it would have a ripple effect by lifting pay for other teachers. Cameron’s plan also would develop an optional, 16-week tutoring program for math and reading instruction.“We need leadership that’s going to catch our kids up,” Cameron said.The candidates were asked to weigh in on the targeted strikes by the United Auto Workers union at all three Detroit automakers. Beshear replied that “this isn’t an either-or. We need the UAW to come out in a strong place and Ford to come out in a strong place, too.”Ford is a major employer in Louisville with two assembly plants in Kentucky's largest city. Ford and its battery partner, SK Innovation of South Korea, are building twin battery plants outside Glendale in central Kentucky — a $5.8 billion megaproject landed during Beshear's tenure as governor.Cameron expressed support for the workers while saying he hopes for a swift resolution. He blamed the labor dispute on President Joe Biden's economic policies, part of his effort to nationalize the campaign by linking Beshear to the Democratic president — a well-used GOP strategy in red states like Kentucky.“We are in this mess because of the inflationary pressures that are coming from Washington, D.C.,” Cameron said.。
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