The US secretary of state has completed a two-day tour of Central Asia, traveling to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and meeting with the Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik and Turkmeni foreign ministers in Astana. What was the point of the trip? And why are US options for challenging Russia and China in the region so dim? Sputnik explains.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a visit to Central Asia on Wednesday, announcing a $25 million ‘aid’ carrot meant to push countries to diversify trade away from Russia, reiterating US support for “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” and threatening them with the sanctions stick by warning that Washington is “watching compliance” on anti-Russia sanctions “very closely.”
“We’re very conscious of the spillover consequences of Russia’s aggression. We’re doing everything we can to minimize them, to mitigate them and create lots of different opportunities for partners here in Central Asia,” Blinken said during his meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi on Tuesday.
Blinken also took a break from regional affairs to take a potshot at China, the other major partner of Central Asia besides Russia, accusing Beijing of trying to “have it both ways” by rolling out an Ukraine peace plan while simultaneously “continu[ing] to fuel the flames of” the “fire that Vladimir Putin started” by refusing to join Washington in its global effort to sanction Moscow into submission.
Blinken’s travels took him to the Kazakh capital of Astana, and to Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan.....More Below
By PHILLIP NIETO, US POLITICAL REPORTER
GOP lawmakers have released a trove of new emails from pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, including the financier claiming to have compromising photos of 'dirty' Donald Trump.
The House Oversight Committee, which includes Trump loyalist and Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, published 23,000 pages of documents from the estate of the deceased pedophile on Wednesday after the Democrats released a selective batch of emails earlier in the day.
Republican and Democratic members of the committee are investigating Epstein.....more below
Gustavo Petro said that the US president’s actions don’t help stopping drug traffickers
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has denounced the US strikes on alleged cartel vessels in the Caribbean Sea as the Pentagon announced a new operation to fight drug traffickers.
In an interview with NBC News, Petro did not mince words when criticizing US President Donald Trump. “He’s a barbarian,” Petro said in excerpts aired Thursday. “He wants to frighten us,” he added.
The Colombian president did not rule out that some of the vessels hit by the strikes were linked to cartels. “Maybe or maybe not. We do not know,” he said, adding that, “According to due process, the civilized treatment of people, they should be seized and detained.”
Petro described the victims as “poor boatmen” hired by cartels. “Then when one.....more below
China’s innovation drive is reaching fever pitch in 2025. Let’s cut to the chase and focus on four crucial domains.
1.The Huawei Factor
Huawei is already testing its first, self-developed EUV lithography machine capable of producing 3nm chips. Trial tests are going full blast at the research center in Dongguan, and mass production should start in 2026.
It’s impossible to overstate how much of a game-changing paradigm this Chinese breatkthrough – specifically in laser-induced discharge plasma (LDP) - is
all about. It’s set to turn the seminconductor technology...more below
