"Throughout its history Russia, and the Soviet Union before it, has used ‘false flag’ operations, carrying out aggressive actions while blaming its enemies but, for more than a year, the Putin regime has been blaming Ukraine, NATO, and the United States for the war in Ukraine. Does it really need another excuse to try to kill Zelensky? That isn’t stopping Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Putin’s Security Council, a frequent and rabid Tweeter, from claiming it is time to ‘physically eliminate’ Zelensky." (CNN)
Botswana wants to disrupt the global diamond business (Yinka Adegoke)
Serbia to tighten gun laws after two mass shootings in a week (FT)
A Subway Killing Stuns, and Divides, New Yorkers (NYT)
These are the women, among many others, who advocated and pushed for Uzbekistan to finally criminalize domestic violence. (The Diplomat)
The Tucker Carlson Implosion Continues. (VF)
“A strong and howling night wind penetrates the cracked windshield. An uncomfortable, clinging coolness embraces your entire body like a damp sheet.” (The Abandoned)
Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner Group boss says he will pull fighters out of Bakhmut (BBC)
This teen wants to be Uganda’s first MLB player. His coach and family are using TikTok to get him there. (LAT)
War With Chechnya Brutalized Russian Society, and Ukraine Is Paying the Price (Natalia Antonova/Foreign Policy)
"The dire economic situation of many of those fleeing is not going to be helped by the inflation reported in parts of landlocked South Sudan, CAR and Chad as a result of the fighting." (BBC)
“As unexpected as it appears, Erdogan’s comeback is characteristic of a politician who has repeatedly shown his skill at using state resources to his advantage and at dividing or neutralizing his opponents. Recent electoral races in Turkey have unfairly favored Erdogan since he rammed through a switch to an executive-style presidential system in 2018: key bureaucrats openly support the ruling AKP and make state resources available to it, and supposedly independent bodies such as the Turkish electoral board and many Turkish courts take cues from the president.” (Foreign Affairs)
"Maia Sandu does not just have an admirable set of public principles. She also has the stiffest challenge of any pro-western leader in Europe after Volodymyr Zelenskyy: a struggling post-Soviet economy; pro-Russian secessionists who have sealed off a chunk of the state; an ethnically divided electorate; and the constant threat of the Kremlin meddling to overthrow her." (FT)
Uganda’s Twitter battleground. (CJR)
11 witnesses testified in Donald Trump’s rape trial. Here’s what they said. (Politico)
"Unfortunately, for Paramount, the days in which Wall Street tolerated dumping vast resources into the steaming business are long gone. Profitability has become more important than subscriber growth." (Reliable Sources)
"As it turns out, writers — even ones working on extremely successful shows — have been getting a raw deal for a long time, thanks to what have become industry norms around staffing, streaming, and season length." (Parker Molloy)