Nothing suggests that HMS Defender’s passage was anything but continuous and expeditious. But the UK should avoid relying on Ukrainian “permission” as a justification.
Pipes for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline are loaded onto a ship at a German port, June 1, 2021.
Stefan Sauer/picture alliance via Getty Images
Nord Stream 2 is a pipeline that will deliver Russian gas to Western Europe – and, by extension, increase Putin’s influence across the continent. That makes Ukraine and some other countries nervous.
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin meeting in 2011, during the Obama presidency.
Maxim Shipenkov/EPA-EFE
When announcing financial penalties on Russia earlier this year, Biden hinted at the prospect of ‘further’ sanctions. An energy scholar explains what Biden may have meant.
Biden is expected to confront Russian leader Vladimir Putin (center) over his stalwart backing of Europe’s last dictator, Alexander Lukashenko (left).
From left to right: Sergei Ilyin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images and Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Some tension was inevitable at the June 16 US-Russia summit. But Vladimir Putin’s defiant support for Belarus’s rogue regime now pits him harder against the West.
EPA-EFE/ALEXEI DRUZHININ / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN / POOL
Belarus’ leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has gone to extraordinary measures to cling to power. Last weekend, this included the state-sanctioned hijacking of a passenger plane.
A permanent Moon colony could become a reality in a few decades.
NASA/Dennis Davidson/WikimediaCommons
In the coming decades, governments and private companies will set up permanent bases on the Moon and Mars. And at some point, the first galactic baby will be born.
Military units like the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade shown here are just one component of U.S. national cyber defense.
Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office/Flickr
Fragmented authority for national cyber defense and the vulnerabilities of private companies that control software and infrastructure stack the deck against US cybersecurity.
In Belgrade, Serbia, residents and visitors queue to be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus (March 28, 2021).
Oliver Bunic/AFP
While Serbia’s Covid-19 infection rate continues to be worrisome, the country has shown the ability to vaccinate a higher proportion of its population than EU nations.
The FBI’s latest cybersecurity moves bring the government into new territory – inside privately owned computers.
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
The courts have given the government the authority to hack into private computers unannounced. The action addresses a clear threat, but it also sets an unsettling precedent.
A tiger crosses a road in India’s Ranthambore National Park.
Aditya Singh/AFP via Getty Images
An infrastructure boom threatens endangered tigers across Asia. Scientists want to know more about how tigers behave near roads so they can design wildlife-friendly transportation networks.
Police arrest a protester at a Moscow rally in support of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who fell ill while in prison and is now hospitalized.
Alexander Demianchuk\TASS via Getty Images
There’s not much the world can do to stop authoritarian rulers from persecuting their political opponents, as shown by the standoff over Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who is ill and imprisoned.
U.S. President Joe Biden, with presidential climate envoy John Kerry, opened the Leaders Summit on Climate on April 22, 2021, by announcing new U.S. targets.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The average person is likely to be able to survive on a hunger strike for two months, provided they are drinking water. Here’s how the human body can manage for so long without food.
Ready to launch: the Russian vaccine could help Europe’s rollout lift off.
Juan Ignacio Roncoroni/EPA
The genius of the Paris climate agreement was getting major oil producing countries to agree to a target, but they still have widely different views of energy’s future.
Russia has been beefing up its Arctic icebreaker fleet to take advantage of the changing climate.
Lev Fedoseyev\TASS via Getty Images
Russia is attempting to claim more of the Arctic seabed, an area rich in oil, gas and minerals. It’s also expanding shipping and reopening Arctic bases. Here are two things the U.S. can do about it.