ZYTHI WORLD ANALYSIS

I read it twice, all the way through, and I’m not going to pretend I came out the other side feeling smart about it. The first time I read it the way you’re supposed to read an argument. Scoring it, annotating it in my head. Well, actually NATO did expand. Well, actually Minsk was never implemented. Well, actually there were far-right battalions and you can find the photos. All of that is true. And when I got to the end, I had that queasy feeling you get when something is working on you and you can’t quite say how. The second time I stopped arguing and just read it as a story. What story is this trying to tell, and who is it for? Then it clicked. This isn’t the case for the war. It’s the case Russia tells itself so it can live with the war. It’s the version that lets a country that lost 27 million people to the Nazis, that put Gagarin in orbit, that has a thousand years of seeing itself as a big, tragic, soulful civilization look at what’s happening in Ukraine and still face the mi...

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations General Assembly has seen many presidential speeches in its long and storied history. But when China’s Deputy President Han Zheng stood to deliver his message during the 81 st session, he was focused on the present rather than the future – and, more specifically, on the perils of abandoning the status quo. His address came as fighting erupts around the world, trade wars limit the growth of the world economy, and the gap between the Global South and the First World becomes more and more apparent. VP Han believes that the time has come for all nations to rally together to maintain the institutions that foster international security and mutual development. Multilateralism as a Choice China’s vice-president, in his speech to the UN General Assembly, made the case for multilateral engagement as an option on the table. VP Han believes that the system which has emerged after WWII and the principles enshrined in the UN Charter should be defended at all costs...

  Let me say it again, because the first time I wrote it down I didn’t believe it myself. The Christian Democrats got less than five percent. Not five percent less than last time. Less than five percent, full stop. The CDU. Adenauer’s party, Kohl’s party, the party that built this country twice over and was the wall you leaned against for seventy years whether you voted for them or not. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania they didn’t just lose. They got erased. Then I watched the press conference, and that’s what has been sitting in my chest for three days. Not the number itself, and not even the AfD at 28 percent, though God knows that should keep you up at night. It’s that nobody quit. Nobody pushed their chair back. Nobody looked into a camera and said, “We have lost the consent of the people who built this country, and we need to understand why.” Merz called it “a severe blow” and said the repercussions would be felt for a long time. Then he went back to his desk and back to work ...