Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist and an expert on the Russian state’s intelligence apparatus, offered his insights on Vladimir Putin's thinking in a recent interview. There have been recent reports of purges within the security services after Russia's military failures in Ukraine. He discussed the possible reasons for Putin’s...
Pandering to Beijing has Shrinking Payback
Capitalists have a long and mixed history of pandering to dictatorial regimes. In “America Second: How America’s Elites Are Making China Stronger”, journalist-turned-China-risk-consultant Isaac Stone Fish catalogs those who kowtowed to Beijing, from erstwhile Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It’s fun to...
Putting 3D Printers To Work In Ukraine’s War Zone
On the weekend after the Russian assault on Ukraine began, Andrzej Burgs, founder and CEO of Warsaw-based 3D printing firm Sygnis, heard from his industry friends at 3D Tech Group in Lviv. With their country under attack and all kinds of supplies needed, Pavlo Yesyp and Michail Shulgan asked,...
Zakaria: Russia Is the Last Multinational Empire, Fighting to Keep Its Colonies
The Soviet Union was history’s last great multinational empire. The collapse of empire is always accompanied by bloody efforts by the imperial powers to hold onto their former territories. The French waged brutal wars in Algeria and Vietnam, and the British killed more than 10,000 people in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion....
What I Heard From Passengers on the Last Train Out of Russia
For 31 days, after Vladimir Putin launched an unprovoked war against Ukraine, the train from St. Petersburg to Helsinki had been a slender escape route for disaffected and despairing Russians fleeing to the West. I was there as passengers disembarked after the route's final journey. Many of them described a...
Legal Ethics Experts Agree: Justice Thomas Must Recuse in Insurrection Cases
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, find themselves increasingly in the eye of an ethics storm over her repeated texts urging then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to take steps to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Those texts have raised questions about what Justice...
Everyone Is Worried About Gas Prices, but Diesel Is Driving Inflation More Than You Think
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the fuel that runs the global economy was in short supply. Now some analysts say there could be spot shortages of diesel fuel and prices may stay elevated, even if oil and gasoline decline. Those higher diesel fuel prices are also stoking inflation. For commercial...
Inside Hunter Biden’s Multimillion-Dollar Deals With a Chinese Energy Company
While many aspects of Hunter Biden’s financial arrangement with CEFC China Energy have been previously reported and were included in a Republican-led Senate report from 2020, a Washington Post review has now confirmed many of the key details and found additional documents showing Biden family interactions with Chinese executives....
Biden’s Job Approval Falls to Lowest Level of His Presidency Amid War and Inflation
Amid Europe’s largest land war since World War II, 7 in 10 Americans expressed low confidence in President Joe Biden’s ability to deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a new NBC News poll, and 8 in 10 voiced worry that the war will increase gas prices and possibly involve nuclear weapons. And...
Biden’s Big New Wealth Tax
So much for President Biden’s pivot to the political middle. The fiscal 2023 budget he unveiled Monday re-proposes most of the bad ideas that haven’t passed Congress and adds a new one—a tax on wealth that he refused to endorse as a candidate in 2020. On the economy, he’s...