Macedonian Democracy, Russia-Pakistan Pipeline MOU, Trident Junction 18

The Macedonian “name change” referendum was a complete failure, but the government seems insistent to defy the people’s will and press on with its plans to rename the country in order to join the EU and NATO.

This week's show starts off by talking about why the US is threatening to further sanction Syria if Damascus doesn't make progress in America's preferred direction during the ongoing constitutional reform process. Then it switches to some commentary about the US Interior Secretary floating the idea of an anti-Russian blockade. After that, the next topic is NATO's upcoming Trident Junction 18 drill in Norway at the end of the month that's expected to see the participation of 40,000 troops. Once that's done, we cover the memorandum of understanding that Russia and Pakistan signed to carry out a feasibility study for prospectively building a $10 billion undersea gas pipeline that Moscow hopes will eventually connect Iran, Pakistan, and India. And finally, our top story of the week is the failure of Macedonia's "name change" referendum.

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