author

 
 

Meta

Julian E. Barnes
People stand near the scene of a strike on industrial buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on May 17.
WORLD
Jun 29, 2024
Russia sends waves of troops to the front in a brutal style of fighting
Despite huge losses, Russia is recruiting 25,000 to 30,000 new soldiers a month — roughly as many as are exiting the battlefield, U.S. officials have said.
Red Square in Moscow on Oct. 17, 2022. Russian military intelligence, the G.R.U., is behind arson attacks aimed at undermining support for Ukraine’s war effort, security officials say.
WORLD / Politics
May 27, 2024
Russia steps up a covert sabotage campaign aimed at Europe
British and other European diplomats have been pressing countries to call out Russian covert operations more aggressively.
People talk as smoke billows from a nearby strike on industrial buildings in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Friday.
WORLD
May 18, 2024
Ukraine asks U.S. to provide more intelligence on targets in Russia
American officials say they do not want U.S. weapons used in cross-border attacks or intelligence reports used to strike inside Russia.
Leaders of intelligence agencies testify before a congressional committee about worldwide threats in Washington on March 11.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2024
Campaign puts Trump and the spy agencies on a collision course
Some former officials fear that Trump, if elected again, would try to weaken intelligence agencies or undermine their independence.
An image taken from video of a U.S. Navy F/A-18 jet crew’s encounter with an unexplained anomalous phenomena
WORLD / Politics
Mar 9, 2024
Pentagon review finds no evidence of alien cover-up
But the new report suggests that the public’s belief that the government is hiding what it knows will probably continue.
Houthi supporters and other protesters rally in solidarity with the Palestinians in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 27, 2024
After U.S. strikes, Iran’s proxies scale back attacks on U.S. bases
Tehran, wary of igniting open warfare with Washington, has told militia groups it backs to curtail assaults on targets such as military installations.
The war in Ukraine has pitted the United States and its allies against Russian President Vladimir Putin (center).
WORLD / Politics
Feb 15, 2024
Russia’s advances on space-based nuclear weapon alarm the U.S.
A satellite-killing weapon, if deployed, could destroy civilian communications, surveillance from space and military command-and-control operations.
Flour is distributed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency at its headquarters in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, in November.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 28, 2024
Major donors pause funding for U.N. agency as scandal widens
One of the area's largest employers, the UNRWA is a lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, many of whom are facing starvation after 16 weeks of war.
David Grusch, former National Reconnaissance Office representative on the Defense Department's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, testifies during a House subcommittee's hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington last July.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 13, 2024
UFOs remain a mystery to lawmakers after classified briefing
Members of the House went into a confidential briefing hoping for answers about what the government knows about alien life. They emerged with more questions.
U.S. President Joe Biden is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives in the country amid the Israel-Hamas war, on Oct. 18. No other episode in the past half-century has tested the relationship between the United States and Israel in such an intense and consequential way as the Israel-Hamas war of 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 1, 2024
The U.S. and Israel: An embrace shows signs of strain after Oct. 7
No other episode in the past half-century has tested the relationship in such an intense and consequential way as the Israel-Hamas war of 2023.
U.S. President Joe Biden with IBM’s System One quantum computer during a tour of a facility in Poughkeepsie, New York in 2022. Chinese spies are challenging the C.I.A. by deploying artificial intelligence and other advanced technology as the two nations try to pilfer each other’s trade secrets.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 28, 2023
Chinese spy agency rising to challenge the CIA
In recent years, China's Ministry of State Security has sharpened itself through better training, a bigger budget and the use of advanced technologies.
Russian conscripts watch a tank demonstration in Moscow in August 2022. Despite its bravado in public, the Kremlin has indicated its interest in striking a deal to halt the war so long as it could still declare victory.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2023
Putin quietly signals he is open to a ceasefire in Ukraine
The repeated interest in cutting a deal exemplifies how opportunism and improvisation have defined his approach to the war behind closed doors.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after testifying in his civil fraud trial at the State Supreme Court building in Manhattan,  New York, on Nov. 6.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2023
Material from Russia probe went missing as Trump left office
A binder given to the Trump White House contained details that intelligence agencies believe could reveal secret sources and methods.
A screen displays the amount of time Israeli hostages have been held by Hamas militants since they were abducted on Oct. 7, at an event marking the Jewish Sabbath held for families, friends and supporters, in Tel Aviv on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 11, 2023
Israel eyeing deal for Hamas to release all civilian hostages in Gaza
The two sides are negotiating two proposals, one involving a small number of people and one that could involve 100 or more civilians.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  speaks before an audience in Tehran on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 28, 2023
U.S. airstrikes send twin messages to Iran, American officials say
The airstrikes were the latest gamble by the United States to modify Iran’s behavior, few of which have worked in the past.
A memorial for Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot and killed in June outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 24, 2023
U.S. provided Canada with intelligence on killing of Sikh leader
U.S. gave assistance, but communications intercepted by Canada were more definitive in linking India to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Models of military equipment and a giant screen displaying Chinese leader Xi Jinping are seen at an exhibition at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in Beijing last October.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 17, 2023
In risky hunt for secrets, U.S. and China expand global spy operations
The rival nations are taking bold steps in the espionage shadow war to try to collect intelligence on leadership thinking and military capabilities.
An impromptu memorial for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group who died in a plane crash in Russia, in Moscow on Aug. 27. A shadowy fight is playing out on three continents for control of Prigozhin's sprawling interests as head of Wagner.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 11, 2023
After Prigozhin’s death, a high-stakes scramble for his empire
African leaders once allied with the Wagner chief hear a new message from the Kremlin: Russia’s African operations are under new management.
Russian President Vladimir Putin watches a test launch of the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile at Plesetsk cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk region, via video link in Moscow, Russia, in April last year.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 2, 2023
Russia claims its Sarmat ICBM is on ‘combat duty'
Russian military analysts said the announcement meant that the missile had been deployed in a silo and was ready to be used.
A billboard promoting contract army service in front of the Private Military Company Wagner Center in St. Petersburg on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 27, 2023
Kremlin eyes how to bring private military group under its control
The organization’s military prowess, experienced operators and ties to African governments may be too valuable to lose.

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'