Call it an arms race

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NEED TO KNOW:

The world has gone retro. The 80s are back. And no better evidence of it can be found than in the growing tensions between NATO and Russia. After so many years of detente, all that old Cold War rhetoric is returning with a vengeance.

While it's been building ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin became president, it really got going when he decided — to the apparent surprise of the West — to take the holiday peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine. Things have only gotten worse as Russia surreptitiously supports pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Putin would say that the West started it by supporting the protesters who took down Ukraine's pro-Russian — and wildly corrupt — former president, Viktor Yanukovych. In fact, Putin has accused the West of engineering the whole thing.

Either way, the result is the same: thousands of Russian and NATO forces are now holding rival military exercises while their political leaders are resurrecting Cold War behavior that includes provocative deployments, nuclear threats and talk of a new arms race.

Putin earlier this week said Russia would be bulking up its nuclear strike force with 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Pentagon, as such, is building an elaborate missile shield, which would include the use of coastal warships, to protect American cities.

Someone pick up the red phone.

WANT TO KNOW:

As you no doubt heard, Donald Trump declared his intention to run for president. While his chances of actually winning are desperately slim, he will surely help shape the policy debate for a little while. There are few — on the left or the right — who are particularly excited about that.

Even his announcement, which came on Wednesday, was controversial. At one point, he said: “They are not our friend, believe me …  They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

He was talking about Mexicans. All of them. It's hard to be more offensive than that. He went on to say that, if elected as the leader of the so-called free world, he would build a giant wall between the two countries. There is a wall already. But Trump's wall would obviously be even bigger, and longer. And better. Because he's Donald Trump.

Anyway, Mexico is not happy, as Globalpost Senior Correspondent Ioan Grillo reports. You can count it as Trump's first diplomatic scuttlebutt as a presidential hopeful. Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade called Trump ignorant and prejudiced. And no one really came to his defense.

STRANGE BUT TRUE:

The Copa America, South America's top soccer tournament, is being played in Santiago, Chile.

It's a really big deal in South America. Pretty much everyone watches it. They bolt from work as soon as the opportunity arises to frantically drive home, switch on the television, crack a beer, and settle in for hours of soccer. A key part of this tradition is the barbecue. Everyone grills before, during and after the game. This year, however, the government is urging fans to put out those fires.

That's because the pollution in Santiago is nearly unbearable. The government says the games will go on no matter how bad it gets. But, meanwhile, it's scrambling to make sure the air doesn't get worse. Part of the problem is that Santiago sits at the bottom of a valley where air gets trapped. The other part of the problem, reports GlobalPost Senior Correspondent Simeon Tegel, is that the air is filled with particulate from diesel vehicles, factories, burning wood, and apparently barbecues.

On Tuesday, the Chilean Environment Ministry declared a “pre-emergency” in the capital as a result of the high levels of air contamination. It kept 300,000 vehicles off the road and forced the closure of 800 factories. But there was no game that day. On Friday, Chile will play rival Bolivia. And the government is nervous that the air will get so polluted its international image will be hurt. So it's telling people not to barbecue. Because it thinks that's the solution. Seriously. That's how many people barbecue during these things.