Feckless and clueless, Donald Trump is lost in Iran, unable to find a way out of the disastrous war he started. Once again, the US military is pummelling the country and, increasingly, its civilian infrastructure. As before, this unlawful bludgeoning strengthens the resistance of a hardline regime that cares little for its people’s suffering. How often have Trump and Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon’s wildling lord of bones, hailed a bogus victory? The president claimed this week to be “winning big”. No one believes him. Even as it counts the vast…
Tag: Ukraine
For allies and adversaries alike, America at 250 is a solid global citizen gone rogue
China: Confident rival hopes to eclipse US Amy Hawkins in Beijing On the shores of Beijing’s central lakes, elderly Beijingers relax under the shade of willow trees. Some swim, some play mahjong, and one old man plays darts: US and Chinese-flagged arrows competing for the bullseye. The adversarial view of US-China relations is typical among people like these who lived through the cold war. Wen Feng, a 60-year-old retiree, described the US as a “troublemaker” – a viewpoint fanned by years of state propaganda casting Uncle Same as a villainous,…
The Museum of Wretched Ideas Has Reopened
It’s the year 2026, and sometimes it feels as if we’re taking a nice leisurely walk through a Museum of Wretched Ideas. Consider what’s happening at home. Tariffs raise prices and restrain economic growth, while the federal government embraces both Gilded Age corruption and a version of the spoils system. A disturbing number of young people on the right are fascinated with fascism. An extraordinary 34 percent of young people overall express a favorable view of communism, and young Americans are far more likely than their parents or grandparents to…
As a Weakened Putin Follows Trump to Beijing, Iran War Offers an Opening
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a state visit in a position of relative weakness. His army is struggling to move in Ukraine. His seat of power, Moscow, has been increasingly vulnerable to Ukrainian drones. Russia’s economy is under severe strain. More Russians are growing tired of what increasingly looks like a fruitless and endless war. Even in better times for Moscow, its relationship with Beijing has been defined by economic imbalance. “China has massive leverage and can dictate exactly what it wants from…
A Shift in Ukraine
For the past few months, the world has been paying a lot more attention to the war in Iran than the war in Ukraine. But the two conflicts have something in common. They both involve nuclear-armed military superpowers that have found themselves unexpectedly stymied by much smaller countries. That’s a new reality of warfare. Today I’m writing about why Vladimir Putin is feeling newly under pressure, why Volodymyr Zelensky is feeling emboldened — and why big powers with the urge to launch a war of choice might want to think…
As Ukraine seeks to edge China out of its drone supply chain, Taiwan emerges as a quiet player
Over the four years that Ukraine has been fighting to repel Russian forces from its territory, its country’s battlefields have become scarred by airstrikes, pockmarked by artillery fire, and littered with the wreckage of cheap aerial drones. The conflict has transformed the economics of modern warfare – with both sides now reliant on these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor the battlefield, evade defences and strike deep into enemy territory. The fighting has so far kept Russia bogged down, trapped behind frozen frontlines, allowing Kyiv to remake the country’s industrial…
Oksana Baiul, Nancy Kerrigan, Lu Chen Revisit Iconic Photo From 1994 Winter Olympics
Interviews by Charley LockeFeb. 18, 2026 NYT
EU calls for ‘immediate’ release of Jimmy Lai after ‘politically motivated prosecution’ – Europe live
From 1h ago EU calls for ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of Jimmy Lai after his jail sentence The European Union has called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of the Hong Kong pro-democracy figure, Jimmy Lai, after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the harshest penalty handed down for national security offences in Hong Kong. In a strongly worded statement released just now, a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic service said the EU “deplores the heavy prison sentence” and called for his immediate release, “also in consideration of…
Babies, Robots and Climate Change
One statistic that stopped me recently is that China’s population is projected by some experts to halve by the end of the century. Halve! China was the most populous country in the world until only three years ago. Birthrates in Italy, Germany and Japan have been low for as long as I can remember. They’re now falling across the world. So what does it mean for humanity when humanity is shrinking? Will it solve climate change by reducing the human footprint? Reduce the disruption of artificial intelligence taking human jobs?…
Alarm raised over Chinese CCTV cameras guarding ‘symbol of democracy’ Magna Carta
Security cameras guarding Magna Carta are provided by a Chinese CCTV company whose technology has allegedly aided the Uyghur “genocide” and been exploited by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, it has emerged. In letters seen by the Guardian, campaigners called on Salisbury Cathedral, which houses one of four surviving copies of the “powerful symbol of social justice”, to rip out cameras made by Dahua Technology, based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. They have also written to the authorities responsible for the Parthenon temple in Greece, which is monitored…