"'One of the most important tasks is to create a new world order,' one of the documents dated April 3, 2023, states. 'Western countries led by the United States have tried to impose their own structure, based on their dominance.'" Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Hamas, Iran, the Middle East crisis, China's threat to Taiwan. These are very different stories in very different places. But they're also all connected to a goal shared by many countries around the world: Knocking America from its superpower position, remaking the world order, and reversing the spread and supremacy of democracy. The divisions in America and the craven politics of self-interest are also part of this story, and represent a key (and perhaps the most pressing) threat to the country. In WaPo (Gift Article), Catherine Belton provides a very interesting look at the bigger picture overlaying many of the world's current hotspots. Russia projects confidence as it pursues alliances to undermine West. "Russia has been buoyed by its success in holding off a Western-backed Ukrainian counteroffensive followed by political stalemates in Washington and Brussels over continued funding for Kyiv. In Moscow’s view, the U.S. backing of Israel’s invasion of Gaza has damaged Washington’s standing in many parts of the world. The confluence of events has led to a surge of optimism about Russia’s global position. Officials in Moscow point to growing trade with China, military cooperation with Iran, diplomatic outreach in the Arab world and the expansion of the BRICS grouping of major emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to include Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia."

+ In many ways, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a massive strategic failure as they continue to suffer great losses and see their military might set back years. But that's changing because of America's failure to firmly back Ukraine—something that is music to Putin's ears. Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Is Congress Really Going to Abandon Ukraine Now. "Were [Ukraine's] front line to fall back dramatically, the horrific violence alone would trigger a shock wave through the rest of Europe. Russian occupation of more territory would continue to mean what it has meant for the past two years: torture chambers, random arrests, and thousands of kidnapped children. But an even deeper, broader shock wave would be triggered by the growing realization that the United States is not just an unreliable ally, but an unserious ally. A silly ally." Until we get serious, the Western world will be sh-tting brics.

+ These challenges aren't getting any simpler. An Iran-backed militia launched a drone attack on a base known as Tower 22 in Jordan. 3 US soldiers were killed and many more injured. Drone that killed US soldiers in Jordan followed American drone onto base, causing confusion. "The attack on Sunday marked a significant escalation after roughly 165 attacks on US and coalition forces since October 17, further raising concerns over a broader conflict breaking out in the Middle East while the US and its allies navigate rising tensions on multiple fronts."

2

Tracking a Killer

"With the aim of deciphering all the aspects of a global problem, EL PAÍS has followed the trail through eight cities, three countries and two continents, tracking the most effective serial killer of American adults between 18 and 49-years-old. It murders them more than traffic accidents and firearms." Right about the time the US states started to legalize marijuana, the DEA was cracking down in opiate-dealing pill mills. That presented a market opportunity to drug cartels that sidelined the weed business in favor of meeting the new demand for fentanyl. The network has gone global and the drug keeps getting stronger and more deadly. Fentanyl, the portrait of a mass murderer. "It’s a trip with stops in the slums where drug traffickers cook fentanyl and in the ports along the Pacific, corroded by corruption. It examines the propaganda machinery of Beijing and the Washington offices where the strategists behind a losing war are at work. It sneaks across the border with Mexico — where, in 2022, the authorities seized 370 million lethal doses, more than enough to kill the entire population of the world’s leading power — and climbs the roads along which the trucks take it, hidden among bean jars, to the streets of Philadelphia or San Francisco, the two cities that top the rankings for fentanyl deaths in the world."

3

Borderline Insanity

"The radical and dangerous legal theories being advanced by Texas previously provoked a Civil War and have been broadly rejected for more than a century. So, one might expect Texas to get little support from other states. That is not the case." Judd Legum takes you to Shelby Park in Texas where yet another American vs American struggle is playing out. Who's in charge of the border, the federal government or Texas? Like many of today's points of debate, that question used to have an obvious answer. The second insurrection.

4

I Cant' Drive 85

"Someday in the not too distant future, it might no longer be possible to drive a brand-new car faster than 80 mph in California. That's because state senator Scott Wiener earlier this week proposed a new bill that aims to prevent certain new vehicles from going more than 10 mph over the speed limit. In California, the maximum posted speed limit is 70 mph, meaning anything north of 80 mph would be off limits." (I'm mostly linking to this to provide advance warning to first period teachers at my daughter's high school: If this law passes, we will be tardy.)

5

Extra, Extra

Food Chain Gang: " A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison." AP: Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands.

+ The Art of the Spiel: Since last we met, a "jury in New York put a price on Donald Trump’s inability to keep his mouth shut, awarding the writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages in a defamation lawsuit." Trump has now spent more money on his social media addiction than anyone on earth—other than Elon Musk. And the financial cost of the Trump way could get a lot more expensive. AP: "Within days, Donald Trump could potentially have his sprawling real estate business empire ordered 'dissolved' for repeated misrepresentations on financial statements to lenders, adding him to a short list of scam marketers, con artists and others who have been hit with the ultimate punishment for violating New York’s powerful anti-fraud law." (It's nothing a few fundraising emails can't cover...)

+ H&R Cellblock: "The former Internal Revenue Service contractor who leaked the tax records of former President Donald Trump to The New York Times as well as the tax records of billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to ProPublica was sentenced Monday to five years in prison."

+ Rink Skip: "The Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who was only 15 when she found herself at the heart of a doping scandal at the 2022 Winter Olympics, has been banned for four years. The verdict means that Russia is certain to be stripped of its team gold from the Games, with the International Skating Union expected to formally announce on Tuesday that the medal will go to the United States." (At 15, she certainly wasn't making doping decisions herself.)

+ Mona Fides: Here's a quick Yiddish lesson. Someone who spills the soup is a schlemiel. Someone who the soup is spilled onto is a schlimazel. Someone who throws soup at the Mona Lisa is an assh-le. Mona Lisa: Protesters throw soup at da Vinci painting.

+ Cold Chilean: "Five friends from different countries traveled to South Lake Tahoe to ski and enjoy Heavenly Ski Resort. They all went up the hill in the morning and only four came back down on the evening of January 26, leaving one unaccounted and the rest of them scrambling for answers." Luckily, she wasn't hurt or missing. But insanely, she was in a gondola that the resort shut down for the evening. Chilean woman spends night in Tahoe’s Heavenly Gondola.

6

Bottom of the News

"Empty-nest coaching is a growing livelihood—with training certification, support groups and $250-an-hour private-counseling sessions. Demand is driven by parents who feel an emotional and logistical vacuum after years of shepherding children from one moment to the next." WSJ (Gift Article): When Junior Heads to College, Helicopter Parents Turn to Empty-Nest Coaches. (We preempted this issue in our family by only letting our son apply to colleges in towns where we'd be willing to relocate.)

+ SNL takes on the Stanley cup craze.

+ "NFL Network personality Peter Schrager has correctly predicted the last four Super Bowl champions." And he got the participants in this year's right, too. Sadly, he's picking the Chiefs! (Forget the Super Bowl, just tell me Schrager is taking Biden in November...)