Will Ukraine Break the Bad News Cycle?
Plus: Why Biden Can’t Blow the Debates
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CATHY YOUNG: Can Ukraine Break the Bad News Cycle?
AMONG UKRAINE’S INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS, the passage last month by Congress of the long-awaited bill authorizing more U.S. aid generated a brief moment of euphoria. But with the start of the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, much of the commentary has shifted toward defeatism. How “bleak” is the situation there, and how worried should Ukraine’s supporters be?
Even staunch supporters of Ukraine, such as exiled Russian opposition leader and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, are sounding pessimistic: His alarming May 16 Twitter thread, based on his remarks at an antiwar conference in Berlin, started with the words “The West is losing the war” and predicted that, without a massive new Western effort, “the fall of key Ukrainian regions to Putin” was inevitable in the next two years. The following day. Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment and Rob Lee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, both experts on the Russian military, painted a less dire picture but described Ukraine’s current situation as “serious” and warned that “things are likely to get worse before they get better.”
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MONA CHAREN: Biden Can’t Blow the Debates
ONE WORRY WAS LAID TO REST last week—that President Biden was in denial about the state of the race. He’d been saying for some time that the polls were wrong. Axios reported that this view was common in the Biden camp. “The dismissiveness of the poor polling is sincere, not public spin, according to Democrats who have spoken privately with the president and his team.”
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Wednesday! The Alitos have yet another weird flag (NYT) to explain, and no, not the Phillies Pennant.
RIP The Riverfront Times… The venerable alt-weekly closed suddenly today. It was an important paper that did good work, and it was fun to read. And the ads, oh the ads, always good for a laugh. Definitely one of the papers that influenced me when I was in college to be interested in good writing. RIP.
Can Bryson DeChambeau break par… With a $100 set of Walmart kids’ clubs?
Paul Manafort has been back channeling campaign tips… through top Trump aides since last year, Republicans tell 24sight News.
Greg Gutfeld Has Amnesia… Trump Absolutely Tried to Steal The 2020 Election (Mediaite)
Hearts, Minds, and Huevos… Matt Labash on “why meatspace beats screen life, and the beautiful simplicity of Tom Petty.” 🔐
Why 295,000 businesses… are in this little building (Phil Edwards).
Повторите пожалуйста? Tucker takes to the airwaves. In Russia. (Newsweek)
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