A Ukrainian delegation arrived on February 28 in Belarus for a round of talks with Russia / credit: Sergei Kholodilin/BelTA/TASS

Ukraine: A Conflict Soaked in Contradictions and New Patterns in War and Media

Even as we deplore the violence and the loss of life in Ukraine resulting from the Russian intervention (and the neofascist violence in the Donbass), it is valuable to step back and look at how the rest of the world may perceive this conflict, starting with the West’s ethnocentric interest in an attack whose participants and victims they believe they share aspects of identity with—whether related to culture, religion, or skin color, writes Vijay Prashad.

Women in burqa in Kunduz City, Afghanistan / credit: Wanman uthmaniyyah on Unsplash

United States Outruns Regional States in Race for Kabul

The U.S. Treasury Department quietly signaled on February 2 that it was “tweaking” sanctions against Afghanistan’s Haqqani Network, a Sunni Islamist militant organization. International banks can now transfer money to the Taliban, including its affiliated Haqqani Network, without fear of breaching sanctions, which means the United States may now have a say in the Taliban-run government, writes M.K. Bhadrakumar.