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"An early morning to get to #Buffalo - rocking @CanalsideBflo for our best #American fans, can't wait!"

That was Jeff Burrows, drummer with the Tea Party, tweeting in the early a.m. on Thursday, and rather handily encapsulating the feeling of excitement that has been building here since the announcement that the revered Canadian trio would be making its Canalside debut during the week that included both the 4th of July and Canada Day.

Our relationship with this masterfully grandiose trio goes back to the beginning, when word of a progressive-minded new band boasting the beautiful bombast of Led Zeppelin and the genre-stretching influence of Middle Eastern and Indian music began to seep over the border.

Many sweaty and inspired Buffalo concert-club dates ensued throughout the '90s, and our love affair with the band was in full flight.

In many ways, Thursday's Canalside show represented the full flowering of that relationship, for this was a major stage for the band, and a payoff for the loyal fan.

The Tea Party's music is huge, dramatic, deeply-hued and broadly dynamic, which is to suggest that it is more than up to the task of filling a vast space. That's exactly what happened straight out of the gate on Thursday, as the group tore into "Writing's On the Wall," and singer/guitarist Jeff Martin's agile upper-baritone resounded across the waterfront.

In February, the band celebrated the 20th anniversary of its critical and commercial juggernaut "Transmission" with two sold-out nights at the Town Ballroom, during which that album was performed in its entirety. Eager, one assumes, to give their audience something different, the band offered a setlist on Thursday that pulled from nearly every aspect of its 25-year career. It was an undeniably strong cross-section of spirited (and spiritually charged) Tea Party music though if I had to quibble, I'd have asked for something additional from the often-overlooked masterwork "The Interzone Mantras," perhaps the sexy and super-charged "The Master & Margarita."

Ah, but who can argue with a set that included an early take on "The Bazaar," a song that in many ways is the quintessential Tea Party epic, all Phrygian mode majesty and rhythm section propulsion, Martin's darkly brooding singing lending a sinister, dramatic effect?

This was glorious. And LOUD. Let's not forget the significance of amplitude here, for the band's manipulation of light and shade runs the full volume gamut. Honestly, we could've gone home happy after this tune, but Martin, Burrows and bassist/keyboardist Stuart Chatwood were just getting started.

"Psychopomp," a heart-rending "Heaven's Coming Down" into U2's "With or Without You," and a rather frenzied "Save Me" filled out a set that included encores of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused," the Rolling Stones' "Paint it Black," and David Bowie's "Heroes," the last of which put us over the top.

I've seen this band some 30-plus times over the years. If this wasn't the best of the bunch, it was certainly close to it.

Original post:
Review: Tea Party concert at Canalside - Buffalo News

U.S. News & World Report

Ukraine official: Worm likely hit 1 in 10 state, company PCs News & Observer A Ukrainian government official estimates that as many as one in 10 personal computers at companies and government offices across the country may have been compromised in the cyberattack that erupted on June 27. Dmytro Shymkiv, the deputy head of ... Ukraine Scrambles to Contain New Cyber Threat After 'NotPetya' AttackU.S. News & World Report Ukraine says it foiled 2nd cyberattack after police raidWichita Eagle Ukrainian Software Firm's Servers Seized After Cyber AttackNBCNews.com TheSpec.com -AP News -Reuters all 215 news articles »

Excerpt from:
Ukraine official: Worm likely hit 1 in 10 state, company PCs - News & Observer

This article first appeared on the Atlantic Council site.

As President Donald Trump prepares for his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow at the G-20 in Hamburg, Germany, the US Department of Commerce is making two important trade decisions that threaten the economic and geopolitical stability of Ukraine.

In 2014, as Ukraine was reeling from the annexation of Crimea, and as Russian-backed separatists were battling in the Donbas, the US International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce handed down decisions that added antidumping duties on the importation of steel oil country tubular goods, a category of steel pipes important in the drilling industry.

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Because of the extraordinary circumstances in Ukraine, the Department of Commerce issued a suspension agreement in September 2014 that has allowed Ukraine to make limited sales of these pipes in the United States at fair prices determined by the Department of Commerce.

These prices are set high enough in advance so as to eliminate any possibility of dumping, which takes place when the Department of Commerce concludes that the import price is less than home market price or when the import price is less than the cost of production.

The suspension agreement has provided Ukraine the ability to plan and predict its US sales, bringing stability that is not present under an antidumping order, especially during this perilous period in Ukraine.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at the Bipartisan Policy Institute May 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty

But even as the Ukraine crisis continues and despite the small volume of Ukrainian produced steel oil country tubular goods which make up less than one percent of exports to the United States, the Department of Commerce has announced that it intends to let the US-Ukraine antidumping suspension agreement expire on July 10 and in doing sever an important lifeline for Ukraine to the West.

In addition, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has also triggered a sweeping Section 232 national security investigation of all steel imports into the United States, which threatens to further restrict Ukrainian steel imports. A similar case was brought in 2001, and the Department of Commerce concluded that steel imports had no detrimental effect on national security.

Adding insult to injury for Ukrainian steel, a major benefactor of Commerce's protectionism is the Russian steel company TMK and its US subsidiary TMK IPSCO.

According to the US International Trade Commission in 2014, TMK IPSCO is, along with US Steel, one of the two leading US mills producing steel oil country tubular goods and supplied 16 percent of the US domestic market. TMK IPSCO is owned by Dmitry Pumpyansky, a Russian oligarch and Putin ally.

In 2008, TMK acquired IPSCO from the Swedish firm SSAB. In this period, there was a massive flight of oligarchs and their money from Russia with many taking up residence in the United Kingdom, leading some writers and commentators to bill London as " Londongrad."

Pumpyansky did not leave Russia and instead sold his majority share in TMK as security for a $1.85 billion loan from Russian state banks. As of May 2017, he is back in control of TMK.

All the world will be watching when Trump and Putin hold their first meeting. It would be tragic if the Trump administrations dual steel trade decisions that have such potentially harsh consequences for Ukraine are not properly factored into US policy preparation.

The combination of the looming suspension agreement deadline and the upcoming presidential meeting has prompted Ukraines Prime Minister Volodymyr Groisman and Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv to send formal letters to the US Secretaries of State and Commerce as well as the US Trade Representative requesting a continuation of the suspension agreement and an exemption from any 232 barriers that Commerce might recommend to Trump.

Contrary to the intent of US sanctions against Russia, which in the past few weeks the Senate has voted to tighten, the Trump administration's Department of Commerce decision could punish Ukraine while advancing the business interests of Putins close ally.

If this administration goes through with its plans to restrict Ukrainian steel shipments to the United States and further weaken Ukraines economy, Trump would be handling Putin a great gift at Ukraines grave expense.

Daniel Valk is the president of North American Interpipe.

Read more:
Trump Hands a Trade Victory to Putin at Ukraine's Expense - Newsweek

BBC News

Trump tells Russia to stop 'destabilising' Ukraine BBC News US President Donald Trump has called on Russia to stop "destabilising" Ukraine and other countries and end support for "hostile regimes" such as those in Syria and Iran. Speaking in the Polish capital Warsaw, Mr Trump urged Russia to "join the ... Merkel and Trump Discuss North Korea, Middle East, UkraineU.S. News & World Report Trump Warns Russia Must Stop Destabilizing Actions in UkraineNBC New York The Latest: Trump-Merkel tackle NKorea, Mideast, Ukraine - Honolulu, Hawaii news, sports & weather - KITV Channel 4KITV Honolulu National Post all 1,281 news articles »

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Trump tells Russia to stop 'destabilising' Ukraine - BBC News

Ahead of a scheduled bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump on Thursday called on Russia to cease its destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere and to end its support for hostile governments in Syria and Iran.

Western nations, he added, must also be vigilant against terrorism and keep their borders closed to those who reject our values, and who use hatred to justify violence against the innocent.

Story Continued Below

Trump spoke at Warsaws Krasinski Square, near a monument to the Warsaw Uprising, where a crowd waving American and Polish flags repeatedly interrupted his speech to chant "Don-ald Trump." Before his speech, Trump laid flowers at the monument, which commemorates a 1944 uprising against the Nazis, as the crowd shouted "glory to the heroes."

During his speech, the president heaped praise upon Poland as a longtime U.S. ally, holding it up as an example of resilient Western democracy and warning against a trio of threats such democracies face today: terrorism, Russian aggression and the steady creep of government bureaucracy.

Of the latter, a threat Trump said is invisible to some but familiar to the Poles, Western nations must remember that they became great not because of paperwork and regulations but because people were allowed to chase their dreams and pursue their destinies.

Susan B. Glassers new weekly podcast takes you backstage in a world disrupted.

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The fundamental question of our time is, whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Trump said. Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?

The trans-Atlantic alliance between the U.S. and Western Europe is as strong as ever and maybe, in some ways, even stronger, Trump said. And while the Soviet Union no longer threatens Europe, Russia continues to loom, the president said.

"Today, the West is also confronted by the powers that seek to test our will, undermine our confidence and challenge our interests," Trump said, perhaps alluding to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "To meet new forms of aggression, including propaganda, financial crimes and cyberwarfare, we must adapt our alliance to compete effectively, in new ways and on all new battlefields."

Trump, who conspicuously made no mention of the U.S. commitment to NATOs mutual defense agreement during a visit to the treaty organizations headquarters in May, said Thursday that the U.S. has demonstrated not merely with words, but with its actions that we stand firmly behind Article 5, the all-for-one, one-for-all collective defense provision. He also praised Poland for its defense spending, an issue on which Trump has been insistent with NATO members.

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Trump: Russia must stop 'destabilizing activities in Ukraine and elsewhere' - Politico