Good morning. Let’s talk about what happens when countries say they’re going to stop shooting at each other.
Fragile peacesThere was a three-day truce last week in the Russia-Ukraine war. A cease-fire in the Iran war continues, though President Trump said it was on “massive life support.” Israel and Hezbollah are still firing on each other despite their cease-fire. Nothing seems to move the needle toward peace. Cease-fires in the age of Trump “have become a tool of performative diplomacy, stand-alone commodities used to manage media cycles while the machinery of war grinds along,” writes Marc Santora, who covers the Ukraine war. A cease-fire looks like peace, and it’s good for headlines. And it’s better when fewer people die. But it doesn’t solve the underlying conflict. And is peace even the goal for leaders in these conflicts? Linda Kinstler wrote about that for The New York Times Magazine last year. By using cease-fires, she asked, “have world leaders avoided difficult conversations about the origins of wars and the possibility of justice, and left the entire world less stable?” Peace on the ground?So how seriously should we take these stopgaps? I asked Marc if cease-fires were helping in Ukraine. Here’s what he told me:
The fighting at the front never stopped, and at midnight Monday, as the truce technically expired, Russia resumed its bombardments of towns and cities across Ukraine. Ukraine also resumed its strikes aimed at the Russian oil industry and military production facilities. Russia’s bombardments often combine attacks on military targets with strikes aimed at purely civilian targets. It blew up an apartment building in Kyiv last week and by Friday, rescue workers had recovered the bodies of at least 24 people, including two children. Same as it ever was. Dread continues in Israel, where I tracked down David Halbfinger, our Jerusalem bureau chief. Life there is precarious right now, he said: In Israel and Gaza, it’s hard to talk about cease-fires with a straight face, or at least without an ironic tone, given that Israeli airstrikes are killing Palestinians almost every day in Gaza, Hezbollah drones are targeting Israeli soldiers and one Israeli division said it killed 60 Hezbollah militants in Lebanon just over the past week. There may not be Iranian missiles hitting Israel, and Israelis in the center and south of the country may not be running to shelters. But for all anyone knows that could change even before you publish this newsletter. I’m sure everyone prefers this to whatever a war would be by comparison, but it ain’t peace, either.
Euan Ward, who lives in Beirut and covers Lebanon, spoke in a similar vein: Lebanon’s cease-fire exists mostly on paper. In the south, I can hear the fighter jets roaring overhead and the thud of Israeli airstrikes in the distance, while evacuation warnings for entire towns remain a daily occurrence. On the country’s highways, there is always the fear that a nearby vehicle could be hit. Even in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, the constant whir of Israeli surveillance drones punctuates a fragile sense of normalcy. Lebanese authorities say hundreds of people have been killed since the truce took effect. Hezbollah, meanwhile, continues to broadcast propaganda videos of attacks on Israeli forces, including drone footage with a macabre, almost Hollywood-like quality. This is not a war that feels over. It seems like wars don’t end any longer, and cease-fires don’t stick, Linda wrote. They become permanent only “if they are accompanied by real political compromises from both sides. Otherwise, the brief reprieve they deliver may turn out to be hardly a reprieve at all.”
Politics
Around the World
What’s the status of the “new” Air Force One? | Cleo Reilly | Hartford, Connecticut Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter in Washington, replies: Trump has watched with frustration as a Boeing project to replace the two jets used as Air Force One has dragged. (They won’t be ready until at least 2028.) So the Air Force is rushing to retrofit a luxury jet that the Qatari government donated by this summer, as a temporary stand-in. An Air Force spokeswoman declined to say how much it would cost — it is at least $400 million. The plane has been inspected to find hidden devices that might be used to spy on the president, and it needs to be painted with a new design Trump picked out. It’s unclear what typical protective measures — such as hardening the electrical systems against the pulse from a nuclear attack — the Air Force might decide to do without. What is certain: It will have high-end luxury accommodations Trump covets, since it was originally built for the Qatari royal family.
The key to making housing affordable? The numbers are clear, the editorial board writes: We’ve got to build more of it. Tech workers understand the danger of A.I. If they band together, they can do something about it, Kate Andrias writes. Here are columns by Lydia Polgreen on Trump’s misunderstanding of power and David French on a Republican who stood up to Trump. The Times Sale ends soon: Expand your knowledge with our experts. Take advantage of our best offer and gain understanding and insight in every area of life. Just $1 a week for your first year of unlimited access to news, culture, cooking and more.
On the half-shell: In parts of Japan, spring begins when pop-up shops known as kakigoya appear. People put on colorful plastic ponchos and gather to eat oysters straight from the water. Chick bait: Birding apps are attracting avian enthusiasts to Colombia, which is home to the most species of birds known to ornithologists. Loyal losers: Would-be authoritarians rely on mediocre employees to maintain power, research found. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was the story of an American family’s secret. Metropolitan Diary: Best slice ever.
35— That is the number of crimes listed as racketeering offenses in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, RICO. They include gambling, murder, arson, drug dealing, kidnapping and bribery. G. Robert Blakey, the principal author of the 1970 law, died this month. He was 90.
Golf: Aaron Rai won the P.G.A. Championship, the first Englishman to do so in over a century. Rai wears rain gloves and puts covers on his irons. Here’s the back story on his quirks. N.B.A.: The Detroit Pistons’ dream season withered away with a 125-94 loss at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Cavaliers advance to the Eastern conference finals for the first time since 2018. They will face the New York Knicks. Soccer: The superstar Kylian Mbappé suggested France’s far-right National Rally party was a threat to the country, reigniting a debate over the role of sports in politics.
Dan dan noodles are a terrific snack or side dish, but a dan dan noodle salad is an excellent meal. Hetty Lui McKinnon’s recipe brings baby bok choy and corn into the mix, but I generally go with mushrooms and sugar snap peas. You could add tofu, too, or crumbled, stir-fried ground pork. Or both! It’s a salad. Bring to it what you like. The dressing can handle all comers, I promise.
Peter Gelb has been the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York for nearly two decades, at a precarious time. Artistic successes have been accompanied by financial hardships — most recently a $30 million shortfall after Saudi Arabia pulled out of a plan to give $200 million. “But as he finishes his 19th season,” writes Adam Nagourney, who covers classical music, “Gelb conveys confidence that he will again find a way to save the opera house that he said he always dreamed he would run.” He’s bold, I’ll give him that. He’s looking for a billionaire to pony up $1 billion. He’d sell naming rights to the opera house. “I am trying to be as entrepreneurial as possible,” he said. “That’s my upbringing and my pedigree.” More on culture
Spend 36 hours on Italy’s Amalfi Coast — or take a few minutes to daydream about it. Notify your next of kin from the afterlife, with the help of this end-of-life project kit the undertakers at Wirecutter dug up. It’s kind of cool? ⚰️ Embrace your authentic (and eccentric) self. (Maybe that’s just me.) Take our news quiz.
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were cartload and doctoral. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, |
