Russia has lost more than 350,000 soldiers in Ukraine war, new estimate finds

Russia has lost more than 350,000 soldiers in Ukraine war, new estimate finds

The New York Times reports: About 352,000 Russian soldiers had died in the war against Ukraine through the end of 2025, according to a new estimate, underscoring the high cost that President Vladimir V. Putin is willing to bear to pursue his battlefield aims. The figure was released on Saturday — the day of Russia’s annual May 9 parade celebrating victory over Germany in World War II — by the exiled Russian media outlets Meduza and Mediazona. The number raises…

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How much advantage are Republicans gaining through redistricting?

How much advantage are Republicans gaining through redistricting?

Nate Cohn writes: The redistricting wars heading into the November midterm elections had been in a stalemate, with each party’s tit-for-tat gerrymanders roughly canceling each other out. It’s not a stalemate anymore. Over just the last two weeks, new court rulings and new congressional maps have put Republicans on track to add more than a dozen districts that voted for President Trump. It would be enough for Republicans to obtain a significant structural advantage in the House of Representatives, giving…

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Tensions emerge in Netanyahu-Trump alliance: ‘They have screwed each other pretty badly’

Tensions emerge in Netanyahu-Trump alliance: ‘They have screwed each other pretty badly’

Julian Borger writes: Benjamin Netanyahu interrupted an uncharacteristically long silence over the Iran conflict this week with a video commentary insisting he had “full coordination” with Donald Trump, with whom he spoke “almost daily”. The insistence that all was rosy in the US-Israeli relationship followed weeks of reports in the domestic press that Israel was no longer being consulted over the Iran conflict, and even less over Pakistani-brokered peace talks. Such is the scepticism over Netanyahu’s trustworthiness among the general…

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Israeli army chief says West Bank troops ‘killing like we haven’t killed since 1967’

Israeli army chief says West Bank troops ‘killing like we haven’t killed since 1967’

The Guardian reports: The Israeli army chief in the West Bank has said his troops were “killing like we haven’t killed since 1967”, including fatally shooting Palestinian stone-throwers, according to an Israeli report of his comments. The remarks by Maj Gen Avi Bluth, head of the army’s central command, were made in a recent closed forum but were leaked to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. Bluth has so far not denied the authenticity of the Haaretz account. The Israel Defense Forces did…

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Thoreau the scientist – how environmental research informed ‘Walden’ and later works

Thoreau the scientist – how environmental research informed ‘Walden’ and later works

Henry David Thoreau investigated the Sudbury River as America’s first river scientist. Robert M. Thorson By Robert M. Thorson, University of Connecticut The steam locomotive chugged its way toward Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Aug. 15, 1859. On board was an impatient young scientist wanting to understand the math and science governing how river channels should behave. After disembarking at Harvard College and searching the stacks of its library, Henry David Thoreau checked out “Principes D’Hydraulique,” a three-volume tome of hydraulic engineering….

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If wings came before flight, what were they for?

If wings came before flight, what were they for?

Lily Burton writes: Flight may be one of evolution’s most iconic innovations, but zoologist Piotr Jablonski is convinced that early wings were first meant to be seen, not to fly. The idea came to Jablonski after studying bird behavior in the American West. He noticed some birds would fling out their wings or fan out their tail feathers to lure insects into the open. Then the birds would catch and eat the bugs. If early winged dinosaurs were the ancestors…

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Trump is ‘bored’ with the war he started

Trump is ‘bored’ with the war he started

Jonathan Lemire writes: President Trump really, really wants the war with Iran to end. He has declared victory many times, including about three weeks ago, when Iran briefly reopened the Strait of Hormuz. He has repeatedly extended his cease-fire deadlines instead of following through on his (sometimes-apocalyptic) threats to resume hostilities. This week, his administration abruptly abandoned an effort to escort ships through the strait in part because of a fear that it could provoke violent, escalating confrontations. Trump is…

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China sees a ‘giant with a limp’ as U.S. drains weapons on war against Iran

China sees a ‘giant with a limp’ as U.S. drains weapons on war against Iran

The New York Times reports: A grinding war in Iran has so severely drained American firepower that Chinese analysts are openly questioning Washington’s ability to defend Taiwan. That shifting calculus threatens to undercut President Trump’s leverage in his high-stakes summit next week with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Since the war began in late February, the United States has burned through around half of its long-range stealth cruise missiles and fired off roughly 10 times the number of Tomahawk cruise…

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For Putin, problems (and paranoia) keep mounting

For Putin, problems (and paranoia) keep mounting

Joshua Yaffa writes: In recent months, the normally placid waters of Russian politics have been marked by the appearance of small but noticeable ripples—not yet indicators that Vladimir Putin’s hold on power is in immediate danger but that the war in Ukraine is beginning to meaningfully transform the country’s economy and politics. The current tensions began to appear around the start of the year, when the Kremlin banned or restricted most messaging apps, except for one that had been developed…

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‘This is not democracy’: Voting rights activists shocked by speed of states moving to stifle Black voters

‘This is not democracy’: Voting rights activists shocked by speed of states moving to stifle Black voters

The Guardian reports: The reaction speed of southern states to the US supreme court’s decision last week in Louisiana v Callais has been breathtaking for voting rights activists. One week after Callais, Louisiana’s governor has ordered the state’s ongoing congressional election to be set aside while state lawmakers redraw maps to eliminate a Democratic-majority – that is, a Black-majority – seat covering Baton Rouge. Alabama’s Republican-majority legislature is drafting legislation in a special session that will allow it to set…

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Trump vowed to fight crime in Minneapolis. Then federal prosecutions plunged

Trump vowed to fight crime in Minneapolis. Then federal prosecutions plunged

Reuters reports: The Trump administration blitz that flooded Minnesota with immigration agents also dramatically slowed other federal investigations and prosecutions into an array of serious crimes, a Reuters review of federal court records found. New gun and drug prosecutions stalled. Several top prosecutors quit. Some federal agents disappeared from drug task forces and gang cases. Others took the unusual step of bringing their investigations to state authorities. U.S. President Donald Trump touted the immigration operation as an urgent crime-fighting effort,…

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Meta is entering its zombie era

Meta is entering its zombie era

Julia Angwin writes: There is a moment when internet companies get the stink of death on them. For AOL, it was 2003, when it became clear that its users were abandoning its clunky dial-up internet service for far-faster broadband. For Yahoo, it was 2015, when its last-ditch acquisition spree failed and it sold itself to Verizon. For Meta, that time is now. I believe the company — one of the most powerful media organizations in the world and one of…

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What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting

What causes lightning? The answer keeps getting more interesting

Charlie Wood writes: Before he changed the way we understand lightning on Earth, Joseph Dwyer studied the weather in more cosmic settings. Using the sensors on NASA’s Wind satellite, orbiting a million miles away, he watched flares shoot out from the sun and analyzed the particles that stream from the sun’s surface. But when he relocated to Florida around the turn of the millennium, Dwyer felt ready for something new — something he and his students could investigate on their…

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U.S. intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump’s blockade of Strait of Hormuz for months

U.S. intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump’s blockade of Strait of Hormuz for months

The Washington Post reports: A confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship, four people familiar with the document said, a finding that appears to raise new questions about President Donald Trump’s optimism on ending the war. The analysis by the U.S. intelligence community, whose secret assessments on Iran have often been more sober than the administration’s…

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