A lot of very talented people at @hrw.org just got laid off.

NetFreedom Pioneers reached millions of Iranians with satellite filecasting technology. Now they’ve stopped, because of Trump holdups in funding. Worrisome pullback. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Pandemic preparedness in the US has been leveled a crippling blow with the cancellation of multiple #BARDA contracts to help develop mRNA vaccines. No other vaccine platform produces vaccine so quickly; without mRNA, Americans will have a long wait for pandemic vax. www.statnews.com/2025/08/05/m...

Nora Gamez Tórres has another major scoop on Cuba—while its people suffer, the military has a massive, secret cash hoard. www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

If you are wondering what is this fabled “Dead Hand” that Dmitry Medvedev is threatening with, I’ve got you covered. www.davidehoffman.com/the-dead-han...

Another journalist life and legacy worth our time today wapo.st/4lP9onV

In an inspiring and moving tribute, the National Endowment for Democracy today awarded the Democracy Service Medal posthumously to the Cuban democracy fighter Oswaldo Payá on the 13th anniversary of his murder by the Castro regime. From L: Reinaldo, Rosa María, Ofelia and Oswaldito accept the award

The author of Gorky Park had only spent two weeks in Russia before writing the huge bestseller. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/b...

Sometimes the most important news is not on the front page: a culprit has been identified in the great (terrible) honeybee die-off. And this is very worrisome: mites that are resistant. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The Washington Post opinions has published a five-part series, The Next Nuclear Age, which concludes today with a look at how suddenly a nuclear war could begin. wapo.st/4npIWCp

Join us TODAY to talk about Russia’s century of deep cover spies. carnegieendowment.org/events/2025/...

Accidents and mishaps are a fact of life with nuclear weapons. The next nuclear age is coming. To understand how it might all go wrong, look at how it almost did. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

We are entering a new age of nuclear weapons--and the outlook is deeply worrisome. A new opinion series in The Washington Post explains why. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/int...

This melancholy but powerful new book from Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan is out today and tells the heart-wrenching story of hopes born and dashed — their own — in Russia. Two great journalists open their souls.

A good essay — rights can’t be taken away like this. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Thinking today of my Wash Post colleague Jamal Khashoggi — Saudi exponent of democracy, murdered for his views by thugs sent from the Kingdom. His body never found.

Pretty cool opportunity at the International Spy Museum. These don’t come around very often…

Ruth Marcus is a must-read, now in The New Yorker.

Martin Wolf nails it in today’s @FT — “The cult of the strongman is a perennial folly.”

Saddened at the passing of Mario Vargas Llosa, who was unwavering in his support for Oswaldo Payá and his Varela Project — a quest for democracy and freedom in a dictatorship. Condolences to his family. He wrote this for “Give Me Liberty”:

One million Americans died, just a few years ago. Have we learned nothing at all from the calamity?

This is a tragedy of the first order—a self-inflicted wound on an institution that represents the best of our democracy and civil society. Do you think there is anything like it in Moscow or Beijing?

This is profoundly counter-productive.

This is terrific news — Cold War historian Sergei Radchenko has won the prestigious Lionel Gerber prize for his examination of Soviet thinking in the Cold War.

For those who may have missed the keen mind of Ruth Marcus lately, have no fear — she is writing. For the New Yorker.

Oh what a different time it was. Elected president in 1988, Bush immediately pledges to work with Congress.

U.S. Terminates Funding for Polio, H.I.V., Malaria and Nutrition Programs Around the World www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/h...

Important and urgent column from Max Boot: wapo.st/4i2iPxP

These are heart-wrenching letters Alexei Navalny wrote before his death and received later. I am amazed at his steely calm in the face of personal suffering. He wanted to talk about books. He is the Sakharov of our age. en.zona.media/article/2025...

Friedman has it exactly right. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/o...

How physicist Evgeny Velikhov helped end the US-Soviet nuclear arms race An appreciation by Frank von Hippel, Thomas Cochran, Richard Garwin, and Roald Sagdeev In @thebulletin.org thebulletin.org/2025/02/an-a... #ColdWar #Gorbachev #Reagan #armscontrol #nuclearfusion #nuclearweapons #nukesky

We had our differences, but Rogov was a gentleman and a scholar, if you would just listen for a few hours. RIP.

Jason Rezian says having his freedom taken away helped him understand its value — a conversation with Vladimir Kara-Murza. See Jason’s new column published by The Post’s press freedom initiative: s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...

I appreciated this morning's @steveinskeep.bsky.social interview with @davidehoffman.bsky.social on @npr.org. Americans want to learn a lot more about Russian oligarchs right now, for obvious reasons. Inskeep gave Hoffman some space to tell that story. But... 1/ www.npr.org/2025/02/04/n...

Sure, everyone drinking up detergent will stop the next pandemic. Brilliant.

To complete the trilogy is one of the best ever non-fiction espionage books: The Billion Dollar Spy” by @davidehoffman.bsky.social. www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1785...

Big news from Cuba: José Daniel Ferrer Garcia has been freed from unjust imprisonment. He’s holding up the sign of ‘L’ for ‘Libertad,’ and was an original backer of the Varela Project seeking democracy in Castro’s dictatorship. There are hundreds more who must be released.

A lesson for oligarchs: politics can be deadly https://www.ft.com/content/503ceb0b-651d-491c-b54e-6a0ecbb3bb09

So happy to report that Danuta Peredyna has been freed from wrongful imprisonment in Belarus after serving more than two years for an anti-war social media post. Danuta figured prominently in The Post’s editorial series in 2023 about young people unjustly seized by dictatorships. wapo.st/40uBXik

Meta is throwing in the towel with anarchy.

Five years ago some infectious diseases experts were starting to grasp that the world was watching the emergence of a new pandemic. #Covid was a painful experience that should have taught us a lot about pandemic preparedness. But we seem to be unwilling to learn. www.statnews.com/2025/01/06/c...

One of the CIA’s towering Cold War espionage officers, Burton Gerber, has died at 91. [gift link] wapo.st/4fFXE33

Another major scoop from Nora Gamez Torres of the Miami Herald: companies run by Cuba’s military have stashed away billions of dollars, financial records show. Read more at: www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-... www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...

One of the many laudable accomplishments of Jimmy Carter’s post-presidency was his 2002 address in Havana, on live televison, endorsing the Varela Project for democracy.

If Putin is such a genius, why are hundreds of thousands marching 25 days in a row in Georgia in order to stay out of Moscow’s clutches? Ukraine fighting a war of survival? It is NOT back to the USSR for these people, who want to live in democracy. Photo: @Ezz_Gaber_Photo