Anne Applebaum

The American bombardment of Iran has been launched without explanation, without Congress, without public support. Above all it has been launched without a coherent strategy for the Iranian people, and without a plan to let them build a legitimate Iranian state.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/trump-has-no-plan-iranian-people/686194/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK39POyonwPE2yyusxSA7Qtyk&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Four years have passed since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia was supposed to win in three days. Instead, Ukraine reinvented modern warfare, built a drone industry, and can destroy a thousand Russian soldiers in a day. Ukraine can win.

Quietly, the Trump administration is now ending even the life-saving aid that they promised would be preserved

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/02/trump-state-department-ending-aid-seven-african-countries/686106/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3xzCPg7Z1oVNh5eTu3qO-Zc

Remember: Viktor Orban has built a corrupt, stagnant Hungary that is much poorer than it should be

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/viktor-orban-hungary-maga-corruption/682111/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3yuJNKCeSUHqZt7t_axS7lQ&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

"Voter suppression is one of the core tools of authoritarianism. It is how you shift from democracy to autocracy. And for millions of Americans, it’s about to become the norm"

https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/02/how-autocrats-meddle-with-elections/685383/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3-tileaFXnSfZDTI7SgDZJQ

I grew up with the Washington Post, wrote editorials for the Washington Post and published a column there for more than 15 years. To watch its owners destroy it, seemingly deliberately, in just an year and a half is devastating.

"Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize."

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/trump-letter-to-norway/685676/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK36YjEx6PWcaiwVCToEIk3KY

Read Frank Foer's amazing essay on the civil servants we have lost

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/02/trump-federal-worker-layoffs-interviews/685321/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK30xgoY3fXoYOjD66qhzz448

In the new season of Autocracy in America, I will ask how the Trump White House is rewriting the rules of US politics.
First episode: How ICE and the National Guard are being used not just to enforce immigration, but to project power

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4BajijN7B5aYQLzca4fgd4

Venezuela’s government is arresting journalists and sending paramilitary forces to suppress anyone who is too happy about Maduro's removal

https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/db53b592-55b4-4ec4-8c73-39a0f73b2d8b

With David Frum, discussing Venezuela, spheres of influence and what Trump's actions mean for America and the world

https://youtu.be/5oSRcLWxzYA?si=GfI0-SiIP867UpgU

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/national-security-strategy-democracy/685270/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3ws_RC4Aaob-Nw76Fh2AJk0

If we can't even identify our enemies then how can we fight them?

Trump's National Security Strategy is the longest suicide note in American history

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/national-security-strategy-democracy/685270/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK35ibcb27LjcQKIf6tB8WqQM

An earlier version of Trump's National Security Strategy specifically said that the US should try to break up the EU, to get Italy, Austria, Hungary and Poland to leave

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/12/make-europe-great-again-and-more-longer-version-national-security-strategy/410038/

In Ukraine, the state itself is investigating the government, the cabinet, the president’s closest advisers. By contrast, it is impossible to imagine Kash Patel’s FBI investigating anyone in Trump’s White House. Any Russian who investigates Putin goes to jail

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2025/12/ukraine-fighting-corruption-trump/685162/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK33X0lgpfLuVN_3VQ2IrzF5k

"By dangling multibillion-dollar rare-earth and energy deals, Moscow could reshape the economic map of Europe—while driving a wedge between America and its traditional allies"

Read this excellent @wsj.com account of the business deals behind the "peace"negotiations

https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/russia-u-s-peace-business-ties-4db9b290?st=V4zco4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/trumps-war-peace/685024/?gift=hVZeG3M9DnxL4CekrWGK3x5H8-x30wTOq6lDtv0xjW4&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

“These are people who did everything by the book, paid taxes, had no criminal records, opened businesses and contributed to their communities...now they have become collateral damage in this cruel, unjust and inhumane political game.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/11/08/venezuelans-begin-fleeing-us-protections-end-threat-war-looms/

Russian strikes against maternity wards are not accidents. They are part of a strategy: Intimidate women and children, kill babies, create refugees. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63727260