US President Barack Obama said former Russian President Vladimir Putin and his hand-picked successor should expect an in-person reminder the Cold War is over when the US leader makes his first trip to a Moscow summit.
Days before he departs for Russia, Obama said on Thursday that Putin “still has a lot of sway” in his nation as its nominal prime minister.
“I think that it’s important that even as we move forward with [Russian] President [Dmitry] Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations is outdated,” he said. “Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.”
In an interview with reporters, Obama discussed a wide range of topics: The president said he could see abandoning his own proposal to indefinitely hold some terror detainees — “it gives me great pause” — and that he would not be comfortable ordering such a disposition for Guantanamo Bay prisoners without congressional action.
In light of recent Supreme Court cases dealing with highly charged questions about the nation’s racial progress, Obama said the high court was “moving the ball” away from affirmative action.
Yet he also noted that the justices had not foreclosed the continued use of racial preferences in hiring and college admissions, which he said he supported in some circumstances. In any case he said affirmative action was neither the panacea — nor the problem — that it’s often made out to be.
With most experts in agreement that there’s a good chance Iran could have a usable nuclear bomb sometime during his presidency, Obama said: “I’m not reconciled with that.”
The 24-minute interview, with Obama nearly six months into his job and his approval ratings still high, ranged from the serious to the silly. Asked to let Americans in on a secret about White House life, the president chose the pastry chef and rued that “the best pie I have ever tasted” is a challenge to the first couple’s self-discipline and waistlines.
Asked to choose between basketball greats Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, Obama — a committed hoops player and fan of Jordan’s Chicago Bulls — didn’t pause for even a second.
“Michael,” he said, picking the retired superstar. “I haven’t seen anybody match up with Jordan yet.”
Scheduled to depart tomorrow for a trip to Russia, an international summit in Italy and his first trip to Africa as president, Obama praised Moscow for its cooperation in international efforts to persuade North Korea and Iran to abandon their nuclear development programs.
After North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test in May, the UN approved “the most robust sanction regime that we’ve ever seen with respect to North Korea,” he said.
He expressed optimism he could get international agreement for even tougher action if North Korea persists in defying demands that it dismantle its nuclear weapons and stop production.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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