The Week in Review Also available in video format:   Russia Suspends Participation in the "New START treaty" Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, but not entirely withdrawing from the pact yet. New START's official name is The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The agreement envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance. Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address, Putin also said that Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does so, a move that would end a global ban on nuclear weapons tests in place since Cold Wa...

The Week in Review Also available in video format: https://youtu.be/lFlEDmEs9ek Four UFOs (UAPs) Shot Down In the wake of four mysterious objects being shot down over North America, a member of NASA's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) panel—set up to study unexplained sightings in the sky—has weighed in on what these latest objects could be. The last object, said to be octagonal in shape, was shot down over Lake Huron by U.S. military fighter jets on Sunday. The first of the four objects, identified as a Chinese surveillance balloon, was shot down on February 4. But China has denied any involvement with the other objects, including one shot down over Deadhorse, Alaska, on February 10 and another over the Yukon in Canada the following day. "The object recently shot down over Lake Huron was described by one of the pilots as octagonal and hovering at 40,000 feet with no obvious means of propulsion or lift," Joshua Semeter, a professor of electrical and computer enginee...

The Week in Review  Also available in video format: https://youtu.be/UWHyTvt-sdY Earthquake in Turkey and Syria The week started with terrible news A massive, deadly earthquake struck southern Turkey before dawn local time on Monday. The 7.8-magnitude quake has killed thousands of people in Turkey and neighboring Syria. It also triggered dozens of destructive aftershocks. Turkey sits in an earthquake hot spot. Three tectonic plates — the Arabian, Anatolian and African plates — meet in this region, and as they slide past and squeeze against each other, they build up friction and stress that gets released as earthquakes. The  death toll is a result of several factors: the sheer size of the quake; the fact that it struck relatively close to the surface; and its proximity to where people live. Monday’s quake originated just about 11 miles below the surface. That means the seismic waves did not have to travel far before they reached buildings and people on the surface, leading to m...

The Week in Review   Also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/neqUxWXBRG4 This was a big week in the economic and financial fronts, hence this report might be a bit longer than usual. News Highlights Tensions in Iran                  Iran said one of its ammunition depots was attacked in a drone strike. This happened while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel. It’s not known who was behind the strike near the central city of Isfahan late Saturday and there’s been no official statement by Iran casting blame. But Tehran has often pointed the finger at Israel for similar incidents in the past. The Wall Street Journal reported past Sunday that Israel was responsible, citing unnamed US officials and people familiar with the operation. The aim was to look for new ways to contain Tehran’s nuclear and military ambitions, the report said. Goldman Says Risk to Oil Market From Iran Attack Limited For Now The US and Israel are in ...