It's always a good bet to believe what Trump says. (From last October and yesterday.)

Listening to Pete Hegseth yesterday, I was struck by how he seemed to want to turn the U.S. military into the Russian military, with more internal and external violence publicsphere.news/p/hegseths-v...

My column on Europe's economic security is here -> ip-quarterly.com/en/under-pre...

These stories of state-led law enforcement cruelty with no respect for process, inflicted on ordinary citizens with tiny infractions, remind me of my time reporting from authoritarian China.

Outstanding summary of why Moldova's rejection of Russian electoral influence - bribery, really - matters to us from @snellarthur.bsky.social.

NEW newsletter: Trump "is using every instance of political violence perpetrated by delusional loners to accelerate an authoritarian consolidation of power." publicsphere.news/p/the-new-bi...

Pleased to be a part of this issue ->

Merz says to give Ukraine's military a €140 billion interest-free loan on the frozen Russian assets. Russia would pay it back at the end of the war. That kind of money would be a game-changer for Ukraine's military; the vast majority of Ukrainian drone manufacturers can't scale without capital.

This has the formatting of a college student who was asked to turn in a two-page paper, but takes a lot of space to write the name and date at the beginning to make it look like he didn't do the assignment 45 minutes before class started.

The irony of the Trump Justice Department indicting James Comey is that the former FBI director tipped the election for Trump in 2016. Without Comey's late October letter to Congress about Clinton’s email server, Trump would have lost.

Also, it's very useful to read people writing about America from abroad. They will see things and connect the dots in a way that people who have lived in the U.S. our entire lives (like me) won't.

Germany’s Merz pushes to use frozen Russian assets to unlock €140bn for Ukraine on.ft.com/4gQGPET

KIMMEL, on the Pentagon’s new reporting “pledge”: “.. They want to pick what the ‘news’ is. I know it’s not as interesting as muzzling a comedian, .. but it’s nuts that we aren’t paying more attention to it.”

NEW newsletter: Why governments driven by conspiracy theories are dangerous publicsphere.news/p/a-governme...

Trump, in pursuit of a Nobel Peace Prize: "Your countries are going to hell." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/23/u...

More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

"it's too much liquid" going into the baby, instantly up there with the injecting bleach moment.

Russian involvement not ruled out.

NATO statement on Estonian incursion: "Russia should be in no doubt: NATO and Allies will employ, in accordance with international law, all necessary military and non-military tools to defend ourselves and deter all threats from all directions."

"In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration" www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/t...

Been light on posting here -- I was in Ukraine. Some early thoughts on my trip... publicsphere.news/p/ukraine-an...

Reminded, today of how Putin forced a show called "Puppets" off the airwaves early in his reign and later brought the whole country under his control.

One day, everyone will be Prime Minister of France for 15 minutes.

Curious what's going to happen to Trump's big lawsuit against the WSJ now. House Dems released the document; it's exactly as the reporters described it. How is that libel?

As the U.S. job market stalls, the Trump family is getting rich. www.bbc.com/news/article...

For its report on an alleged state corruption investigation, the Kyiv Independent is under pressure by the company who made the much-hyped Flamingo missile. It appears to be a naked attempt to intimidate its journalists, baselessly accusing them of "aiding Russia." www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...

CBS News is giving up the power it has to hold “Face the Nation” interviewees to account. Following pressure from Trump, it has agreed not to edit interviews, even to remove false statements or propaganda uttered by political operatives and officials, or add explanatory context.

Our new article w @aylinmatle.bsky.social "The Case for Berlin Supplying Arms to Taipei" was published in the @ipq.bsky.social. Taiwan is struggling with the effects of insufficient and late US #weapons deliveries. It would be in the interest of Germany to step in. ip-quarterly.com/en/case-berl...

Some video commentary on the SCO summit and the Tiananmen Square parade publicsphere.news/p/enemies-of...

and it cost 721m, which could've built a lot of housing to alleviate a chronic shortage, fixed public transit, etc.

Inaccurate for the NYT to call Poland's president "largely ceremonial." He has vetoed all the ruling coalition's major legislation in his first month in office! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

I will probably follow up on this tomorrow, but it's true as ever: the US is alienating friends and its enemies are teaming up and snatching former friends. publicsphere.news/p/under-trum...

From the SCO’s Tianjin Declaration. Europe is neglecting geostrategy at its peril.

I am a monthly Meduza supporter and I urge you to be one too!

JUST IN: President Donald Trump revoked Kamala Harris’ Secret Service protection on Thursday, according to a copy of a letter reviewed by CNN.

Kyiv, Boryspilska street, on Kyiv's Left Bank. This is the aftermath of one of Ru's deadliest strikes against Kyiv's residents. Families lived here. 22 people were found dead on this site, as rescuers are still at work. 1/

My piece on the growing water crisis in occupied eastern Ukraine. Completely man-made and not solvable until the war ends. “Dams have been destroyed, and there is no canal: It’s just not there. You will have to build it all from scratch.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/29/w...

By tariffing India, Trump undid 30 years of U.S. outreach in a matter of days and has driven New Delhi towards Xi and Putin. publicsphere.news/p/under-trum...

NEW post: Under Trump, it's better to be America's enemy rather than its friend. publicsphere.news/p/under-trum...

Turns out you CAN’T indict a ham sandwich. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...

Good piece on what the new Polish president is up to. He's busy this August. polandwatch.substack.com/p/veto-spree...

The many bad political and economic developments we face have many causes but looming large is the great financial crisis of 2008-9. Sam notes that its importance is often missed and demonstrates its continuing impact. (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/the-financ...

The news from the past few days is a stunning example of what happens when the state decides it wants to crush just one guy

"The immunity decision is the single most dangerous decision the Supreme Court has ever made in all of American history. It is a shocking decision that protects authoritarian criminal behavior by presidents and makes it impossible to hold them accountable." publicsphere.news/p/q-and-a-tw...

If you believe Trump's words, you might have gotten excited when he said that restricting Ukraine from striking deep inside Russia didn't make sense under Biden, who later reversed it. But Trump is actually restricting it.

NEW newsletter interview with two political scientists, Terry Moe and William Howell, on their new book on the rise of the "strongman" presidency publicsphere.news/p/q-and-a-tw...

“ICE is seeking to spend millions of dollars on SUVs and custom, gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words “DEFEND THE HOMELAND,” according to a contractor’s social media post and records that describe the decked-out fleet” www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

In the 90s, Stephen Glass made up a bunch of stuff; he was a real person. Now it's not even clear that this fabulist exists under their byline. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...

Nearly 1000 drones and missiles launched against #Ukraine in the past 72 hours, including over 600 in the last 24 hours.

I wrote about Israel’s assassination of Anas al-Sharif, a brave journalist in Gaza, and the work of local journalists everywhere. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/o...