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Iran will help Russia build drones for Ukraine war, Western officials say

Iran will help Russia build drones for Ukraine war, Western officials say

The Washington Post reports: After weeks of savaging Ukrainian cities with Iranian-made drones, Moscow has quietly reached an agreement with Tehran to begin manufacturing hundreds of unmanned weaponized aircraft on Russian soil, according to new intelligence seen by U.S. and other Western security agencies. Russian and Iranian officials finalized the deal during a meeting in Iran in early November, and the two countries are moving rapidly to transfer designs and key components that could allow production to begin within months,…

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Kherson’s resistance fighters undermined Russian occupying forces

Kherson’s resistance fighters undermined Russian occupying forces

The Washington Post reports: Ihor didn’t even know the first name of the person who contacted him. The man said he was a member of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces and wanted to know if Ihor was interested in helping fight the Russians occupying his city of Kherson. “Sign me up,” Ihor responded. For months, the two kept up a coded communication over the Telegram messaging app. Sometimes Ihor would be asked to help pinpoint locations from which the Russians were…

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This week, billionaires made a strong case for abolishing themselves

This week, billionaires made a strong case for abolishing themselves

Anand Giridharadas writes: In recent years, a swelling chorus of Americans has grown critical of the nation’s bajillionaires. But in the extraordinary week gone by, that chorus was drowned out by a far louder and more urgent case against them. It was made by the bajillionaires themselves. One after another, four of our best-known billionaires laid waste to the image of benevolent saviors carefully cultivated by their class. It is a commendable sacrifice on their part, because billionaires, remember, exist…

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Ex-Russian spy flees to the NATO country that captured him, delivering another embarrassing blow to Moscow

Ex-Russian spy flees to the NATO country that captured him, delivering another embarrassing blow to Moscow

Michael Weiss reports: “The Russians have no idea,” Alexander Toots, the head of Estonian counterintelligence, tells me, laughing. “They have absolutely no idea he is here. You can be the one to tell them.” Toots was referring to the defection of a Russian spy to Estonia. But Artem Zinchenko isn’t just any spy. He was the first agent of Russia’s military intelligence arrested by Estonia, in 2017, then traded back to Moscow a year later for an Estonian citizen in…

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Jack Smith named special counsel to lead DOJ probes of Donald Trump

Jack Smith named special counsel to lead DOJ probes of Donald Trump

The Wall Street Journal reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a former federal and international war-crimes prosecutor as special counsel on Friday to oversee Justice Department investigations into former President Donald Trump. Jack Smith, who once led the Justice Department unit that investigates public corruption and since 2018 was the chief prosecutor at The Hague investigating war crimes in Kosovo, will be the third special counsel in five years to examine issues involving Mr. Trump. He will lead both the…

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New York Post takes aim at Trump, and hits a nerve

New York Post takes aim at Trump, and hits a nerve

The New York Times reports: Since Election Day last week, The New York Post’s front pages have been merciless to former President Donald J. Trump. First, the paper heralded his political rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, as “DeFUTURE.” A day later, it illustrated Mr. Trump as Humpty Dumpty about to have a great fall. Then, on Wednesday, the paper relegated Mr. Trump’s announcement about his latest run for president to a small headline at the bottom of the page:…

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GOP megadonor Mercer family has no plans to boost Trump’s 2024 campaign as former president loses more allies

GOP megadonor Mercer family has no plans to boost Trump’s 2024 campaign as former president loses more allies

CNBC reports: GOP megadonors Robert Mercer and Rebekah Mercer have no current plans to help former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign for the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. The Mercers, a father and daughter who were among Trump’s major benefactors during his first run for president in 2016, are distancing themselves from the ex-president’s third White House bid and cutting back their overall campaign fundraising, these people said. The people who spoke to CNBC did so…

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Key evangelical figures turn on Trump: ‘He used us’

Key evangelical figures turn on Trump: ‘He used us’

HuffPost reports: Evangelical figures who previously supported Donald Trump are backing off now that he’s announced his third bid for the presidency. “Donald Trump can’t save America,” Mike Evans told The Washington Post. “He can’t even save himself.” Evans was part of a group of evangelicals who met with Trump at the White House, and at one point gave him an award. Now, he says he’s done with Trump. “He used us to win the White House. We had to…

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Will space-based solar power be the next big thing for clean energy?

Will space-based solar power be the next big thing for clean energy?

Scientific American reports: When inventor Charles Fritts created the first crude solar photovoltaic cells in the 1880s, one might have thought the achievement would rapidly revolutionize global electricity production. There is, after all, no power source cheaper, cleaner and more ubiquitous than sunlight. Yet despite enormous (and ongoing) technical advances making solar power ever more capable and affordable, some 140 years on it still supplies less than 5 percent of the world’s electricity. For all its benefits, solar power does…

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Our planet, shaped by life

Our planet, shaped by life

Olivia Judson writes: I want to start with a proposition: if Earth had never come alive, it would be a profoundly different world. Conversely: the planet of today has, to a remarkable extent, been made what it is by the activities of lifeforms. Over the course of the planet’s long history, a history that extends back more than 4.5 billion years, lifeforms have shaped the rocks, the water, the air, even the colour of the sky. A Never-Life Earth would…

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Under Republican control, will the House become an unmanageable mess?

Under Republican control, will the House become an unmanageable mess?

Carl Hulse writes: Republicans managed to make their victory in the House seem like a loss by underperforming so badly. But while they did not win control by anywhere near the margin that they anticipated, they did win. And in the House, even the barest majority can work its will if it can hold together to produce 218 votes. The main question going forward is whether Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who was nominated on Tuesday to lead the new…

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Pelosi, first woman speaker, to depart Democratic leadership in seismic shift

Pelosi, first woman speaker, to depart Democratic leadership in seismic shift

Politico reports: Nancy Pelosi, one of the most powerful speakers in modern U.S. history, will cede the helm of House Democratic leadership after 20 years and take on an unfamiliar role: Rank-and-file member. Since she reclaimed the top gavel in 2018, the first woman speaker — whose legislative prowess has powered her party’s agenda under four presidents — planned to give it up after this term. Yet her decision became more complicated, she has said, by the brutal assault of…

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Inside liberated Kherson, a major hub retaken by Ukrainian forces

Inside liberated Kherson, a major hub retaken by Ukrainian forces

James Rushton and Michael Weiss report: The road to Kherson, scattered with burned-out tanks and vehicles, at one point stops being functional due to a collapsed bridge, requiring a hastily constructed dirt track. The postapocalyptic scenery around Ukraine’s recently liberated city is unsurprising, considering that until about a week ago this area of otherwise unremarkable countryside was among the most fiercely contested pieces of land on Earth. Almost every building on both sides of the road shows some sign of…

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GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump

GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump

The Washington Post reports: A Republican political strategist was convicted of illegally helping a Russian businessman contribute to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. Jesse Benton, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, months before he was indicted again on six counts related to facilitating an illegal foreign campaign donation. He was found guilty Thursday on all six counts. Elections “reflect the values and the priorities and the beliefs of American citizens,” Assistant U.S….

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