The U.S. and Russia say that a major Ukrainian operation has begun
The Eyes of the World Are Upon Ukraine . ........ I use the term “moral equivalent” advisedly. World War II was one of the few wars that was clearly a fight of good against evil. Now, the good guys were by no means entirely good. Americans were still denied basic rights and occasionally massacred because of their skin color. Britain still ruled, sometimes brutally, over a vast colonial empire. ....... Before the war, Ukraine ranked high on measures of perceived corruption — better than Russia, but that’s not saying much. Victory won’t make the corruption go away. ........ Ukraine is an imperfect but real democracy, hoping to join the larger democratic community. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is a malevolent actor, and friends of freedom everywhere have to hope that it will be thoroughly defeated. .......... On the left, in particular, there are some people for whom it’s always 2003. They remember how America was taken to war on false pretenses.......... On the right, by contrast, many of those who oppose helping Ukraine — call it the Tucker Carlson faction — do understand what this war is about. And they’re on the side of the bad guys. The “Putin wing” of the G.O.P. has long admired Russia’s authoritarian regime and its intolerance. Before the war, Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz contrasted what they perceived as Russian toughness with the “woke, emasculated” U.S. military; Russia’s military failures threaten such people’s whole worldview, and they would be humiliated by a Ukrainian victory. .......... If Ukraine’s counteroffensive succeeds, the forces of democracy will be strengthened around the world, not least in America. If it fails, it will be a disaster not just for Ukraine but for the world. Western aid to Ukraine may dry up, Putin may finally achieve the victory most people expected him to win in the war’s first few days, and democracy will be weakened everywhere. ............
Western officials are sounding increasingly positive about Ukraine’s chances.
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Ex-Leader, Is Now Dame Jacinda Ardern Ms. Ardern, who stepped down as prime minister in January, said she had considered declining the title, but accepted it as a way to show gratitude. ......... In January, Ms. Ardern, 42, said she would leave office, a surprise announcement that came nine months before a general election. She cited exhaustion as the cause, saying she no longer had the “full tank plus a bit in reserve” necessary for the role. .
How the India Train Crash Unfolded Investigators of the deadly multi-train crash in India have focused on the possibility that it was caused by an electronic signal system failure. .
Here’s How We Can End the War in Ukraine the people of Kyiv are experiencing an uptick in nightly air attacks from Russia. .
Why Ukraine Needs Those F-16s I met with Ukrainian leaders across the full spectrum of government, including the defense minister, the foreign minister and ministers and other officials involved in law enforcement and economic reconstruction. I had never seen as consistent, disciplined messaging as I experienced here, all of it centered on a single, specific idea: Ukraine needs advanced Western fighters. Specifically, they were asking for American-made F-16s. ........... and even an infrastructure minister began the meeting by handing out a printed argument for supplying F-16s to Ukraine. ....... Crucially, the list also includes the Russian Su-30, Su-34 and Su-35. Russia has hundreds of generation 4.5 fighters. Ukraine has none. Instead it has a few dozen Soviet-era fourth-generation fighters. ........... Don’t be deceived by 2022’s top-grossing movie, “Top Gun: Maverick,” in which (spoiler alert) Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, pilots a decades-old fourth-generation F-14 Tomcat to victory over a number of enemy fifth-generation fighters. In the real world, the generation gap would have been decisive. ........ Western-supplied ground-to-air missiles (most notably, American Patriot missiles) can be remarkably effective against even Russian hypersonic missiles, at best, they can defend only small, confined areas of Ukraine. Vast areas of the front and most of Ukraine’s civilians and civilian infrastructure remain unacceptably vulnerable to Russian air attack. ........... Not only can F-16s fly the length and breadth of Ukraine to offer enhanced air defense; they also have a much greater capacity to strike Russian forces directly at the front and miles beyond. ......... More-advanced fighters can also engage Russian planes that are using a successful tactic called glide bombing, in which they bomb Ukraine from positions outside the range of most Ukrainian antiaircraft missiles.......... not only are thousands of F-16s in service across American and allied militaries; many of those aircraft are being replaced by more advanced planes. Thus they are both numerous and available to Ukraine without degrading NATO capabilities. ..........
He told me to “ask a NATO general how to win this war without aviation.”
.States Are Silencing the Will of Millions of Voters The bill, recently approved by the Texas House and Senate, would nullify any city ordinance or regulation that conflicts with existing state policy in those crucial areas and would give private citizens or businesses the right to sue and seek damages if they believe there is a discrepancy between city and state. That means no city could prohibit discrimination against L.G.B.T.Q. employees, as several Texas cities have done. No city could adopt new rules to limit predatory payday-lending practices. No city could restrict overgrown lots or unsafe festivals or inadequate waste storage. Cities would even be barred from enacting local worker protections, including requiring water breaks for laborers in the Texas heat, as Dallas, Austin and other cities have done after multiple deaths and injuries. ....... and the bill is the latest effort by Republicans to rid the state of any policies that conflict with their hard-right agenda — even if those policies are fully supported by voters in those cities, who elect representatives to serve their interests. ....... “The bill is undemocratic,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio told The Texas Tribune. “It is probably the most undemocratic thing the legislature has done, and that list is getting very long. Local voters have created city charters, and I can’t imagine that they will be pleased to have their decisions usurped by lawmakers.” ......... more than 650 pre-emption bills in state legislatures this year; the large majority have been introduced by Republican lawmakers to curb policymaking in cities run by Democrats. ........ Republicans dislike local control if they are not in charge of it. ........ Many of the recent bills are particularly brazen in their disdain for local decision-making. The Florida Legislature passed a bill in early May allowing businesses to challenge municipal ordinances in court simply for being “unreasonable.” If they win, the businesses can collect $50,000 in attorney fees from the taxpayers if the ordinance is not withdrawn, but cities can’t collect attorney fees if they win. ......... Most of these legislative power plays follow the ideological patterns of the hard-right MAGA core within the Republican Party, which is often more visible at the state than the national level. ............ Restricting these ballot measures is fundamentally about depriving voters of a way to put a check on legislators, regardless of ideology. .......... there were 244 bills introduced last year in 33 states to interfere with election administration, 24 of which passed. .......... In Mississippi, new laws allow the state to take over policing and the court system in Jackson, which is more than 80 percent Black, but nowhere else. ........... Only a handful of states — Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York — allow cities to regulate firearms. .......... Many states are also telling local school boards to change their curriculums to limit classroom discussion of slavery, racial prejudice and the civil rights movement. .
For a Stable, Strong Core, Forget About Crunches If the goal of your workout is to walk away with a chiseled six-pack, you’re missing the point. ....... “Breaking this stigma of thinking that you have to do 100 crunches and that’s going to make back pain go away and get the core strong, that’s the misconception” ....... the abdominal muscles are just one of the major muscle groups that constitute the core; it also includes deep muscles in your pelvis, hips and back; smaller stabilizing muscles along your spine; and the diaphragm........ The core stretches from the pelvis all the way up to the neck and it surrounds the trunk — the central part of your body that houses most of the internal organs. ......
Think of the core as a cylinder
.... “It wraps 360 degrees, and all of those muscles interact with each other in a systematic way.” ....... If core muscles are tired or weak, then the ligaments in your back take over and can get strained, causing back pain. .
Get the Best From ChatGPT With These Golden PromptsOur personal tech columnist shares how to improve many parts of your life. .
Li Shangfu: China’s defence minister at Shangri-La Dialogue warns of ‘cold war mentality’ in digs at US After refusing to meet with his US counterpart, general says ‘some countries’ interfering in others’ business but Beijing does not seek confrontation .......... China’s defence minister, Li Shangfu, has said a cold war mentality is resurgent in the Asia-Pacific region, but Beijing seeks dialogue over confrontation. The remarks came after Li refused to formally meet the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. ........ “Mutual respect should prevail over bullying and hegemony.” ........ Taiwan is a self-governed island that considers itself independent and has never been ruled by China’s Communist party regime. China’s president, Xi Jinping, has made it a goal to see Taiwan reunited with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary. ......... It is undeniable that a severe conflict or confrontation between China and the US will be an unbearable disaster for the world.” .......... On Sunday, China’s military rebuked the US and Canada for “deliberately provoking risk” after the allies’ navies staged a rare joint sailing through the Taiwan Strait. The US Navy’s 7th Fleet said the guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canada’s HMCS Montreal conducted a “routine” transit of the strait on Saturday “through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law”. ....... The US military said that during the transit, a Chinese navy ship cut across the bow of the Chung-Hoon twice, forcing it to slow down to avoid collision. It was the second close encounter between the American and Chinese militaries in less than 10 days after one of Beijing’s fighter planes swerved in front of one of Washington’s surveillance planes. ........... Li on Sunday questioned why vessels of the US and allies were there in the first place. China did not have any problems with “innocent passage” but “we must prevent attempts that try to use those freedom of navigation [patrols], that innocent passage, to exercise hegemony of navigation”. ......... Li told the Singapore summit: “In essence, attempts to push for Nato-like [alliances] in the Asia-Pacific is a way of kidnapping regional countries and exaggerating conflicts and confrontations, which will only plunge the Asia-Pacific into a whirlpool of disputes and conflicts. ......... We must not forget the severe disasters brought by the two world wars to peoples of all countries, and we must not allow such tragic history to repeat itself.” ......... Li shook hands with Austin at a dinner on Friday but the two have not had a deeper discussion, despite repeated US demands for more military exchanges. ......... Speaking privately the sidelines of the conference, two Chinese military officers said Beijing wanted clear signs from Washington of a less confrontational approach in Asia – including the dropping of sanctions against Li – before military-to-military talks could resume. .
Washington won’t stand for China ‘bullying’ US allies, Lloyd Austin tells summit Defence secretary also criticises Beijing’s unwillingness to engage with US on military crisis management ........
the US remains committed to maintaining the status quo on Taiwan and would prefer dialogue over conflict.
........ Speaking in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s top security summit, Austin lobbied for support for Washington’s vision of a “free, open and secure Indo-Pacific within a world of rules and rights” as the best course to counter increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region. .......... Austin said he was deeply concerned by China’s unwillingness to “engage more seriously” on military crisis management, warning that talks were key to avoiding conflict. Open lines of communication between US and Chinese defence and military leaders were essential, he said on Saturday. “The more that we talk, the more that we can avoid the misunderstandings and miscalculations that could lead to crisis or conflict,” Austin said. “A cordial handshake over dinner is no substitute for a substantive engagement.” .......... “We are committed to ensuring that every country can fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” Austin said. “And every country, large or small, must remain free to conduct lawful maritime activities.” ......... “To be clear, we do not seek conflict or confrontation,” he said. “But we will not flinch in the face of bullying or coercion.” Austin said the US remained “deeply committed” to the longstanding one-China policy, which recognised Beijing as the government of China but allowed informal relations with Taiwan, and continued to “categorically oppose unilateral changes to the status quo from either side”............ “For responsible defence leaders, the right time to talk is anytime,” Austin said. “The right time to talk is every time. And the right time to talk is now.” .
