For much of the 2000s, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s serial governments and Hamas’s leaders have found each other useful for their own purposes, a The Washington Post analysis explains.
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Facing threat of Trump’s return, Ukrainians ramp up homegrown arms industry
“It will be very difficult for us to fight alone with such a huge monster. But the civilized world has two options: to help us restore our 1991 borders, or to throw away all claims of shared values and just watch us bleed,” Serhiy Prytula says.
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Putin gets caught in his own trap, with Russians not caring enough to save him
“After spending years cultivating public apathy, the Russian president found his people indifferent to his fate,” Anne Applebaum writes.
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For COVID long-haulers, the pandemic is far from over
“I have heard of long COVID clinics closing and dropping patients. At some point, the doctors that are researching it may just give up. Where does that leave all of us?” long COVID patient Frank Ziegler asked.
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Massive Tesla data leak reportedly details Autopilot complaints
Via The Los Angeles Times, summarizing reporting from the German newspaper Handelsblatt: “How bad is Tesla Autopilot’s safety problem? According to thousands of complaints allegedly from Tesla customers in the U.S. and around the world, pretty bad.”
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‘Something was badly wrong’: When the U.S. realized Russia was actually invading Ukraine
A must-read from Politico: “A first-ever oral history of how top U.S. and Western officials saw the warning signs of a European land war, their frantic attempts to stop it — and the moment Putin actually crossed the border.”
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Billionaires at Davos don’t think COVID is a cold
“We don’t deserve to be shoved back into poorly ventilated workplaces while our politicians and press assure us that only crazy people would demand to breathe clean air,” writes Julia Doubleday.
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The looming Republican dispute over Ukraine
Recently elected Republicans are ready to fire up the base with anger over billions spent to protect allies overseas.
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Translated excerpts of intercepted phone calls by Russian soldiers shed light on failure of Putin’s plans
“In phone calls to friends and relatives at home, Russian soldiers gave damning insider accounts of battlefield failures and civilian executions, excoriating their leaders just weeks into the campaign to take Kyiv.,” The New York Times reports.
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Peak inflation? Why some prices are tumbling fast
“Crude oil, wheat and lumber are among commodities that have tumbled recently. Shipping rates on major trade routes are sinking from record highs. And used-car prices, which surged during the past two years, are showing early signs of tailing off,” The Globe and Mail reports.
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Jonathan Pie: Bye Bye Boris
Watch a British humorist react to the news that Boris Johnson is resigning as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
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Battle for Donbas will be decisive, former British commander says
“Donbas could put the Russians back on a successful footing or bring them to what is essentially a defeat,” says General Sir Richard Barrons, the former commander of the UK’s Joint Forces Command.
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Watch President Joe Biden’s speech in Warsaw responding to Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine
Watch President Biden deliver remarks on the united efforts of the free world to support the people of Ukraine, hold Russia accountable for its brutal war, and defend a future that is rooted in democratic principles.
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Fitch downgrades Russia’s credit rating amid Ukraine crisis, says default is ‘imminent’
“They can’t get their hands on money or securities or goods or services. They are outcast and they will over the shorter term freeze to death,” financial services veteran George Ball said in comments to The Washington Post.
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“Financial nuclear bomb” falling on Russia as a consequence of Putin’s aggression, ex-Russian central bank governor says
“The war came and the money ran out — the money ran out sooner than the war ended,” said Sergei Aleksashenko.
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Dan Shaughnessy reflects on how the Olympics have become “a big bowl of bad”
“The Beijing Olympics… are a big bowl of bad, unfolding in a country ruled by fear and oppression,” the Boston Globe columnist writes.
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Putin is making NATO stronger, whether he starts a war in Ukraine or not
“The Russian leader may have thought NATO was in disarray and the U.S. in retreat, but we’ve already seen it’s quite the opposite,” David Rothkopf writes in a piece for The Daily Beast.
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In Russia, the pandemic is beating Putin
“A deadly virus can’t be ignored, jailed, exiled or co-opted — nor can it be locked down without great economic cost. That puts President Vladimir Putin of Russia in a bind. The pandemic, perhaps his hardiest foe to date, has starkly revealed the limits of his power,” writes Alexey Kovalev, the investigations editor at Meduza, an independent Russian news outlet.
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How the September 11th attacks changed us
“The betrayal of America’s professed principles was the friendly fire of the war on terror,” Carlos Lozada writes.
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Biden, allies frustrated with media’s hawkish coverage of Afghanistan withdrawal
“After years of ignoring Afghanistan, many close to the Biden White House — and the president himself — feel some major outlets are adopting a pro-war stance,” Huffington Post’s Daniel Marans writes.
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Siberia’s wildfires are bigger than all the world’s other blazes combined
“Siberia is so vast that huge fires can burn without threatening any major settlements, transportation systems or infrastructure — but are still part of a swath of infernos that together are larger than all the other blazes around the world,” Robyn Dixon reports.
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