Neil MacFarquhar

Forged by Volcanoes, Kamchatka Offers Majestic, Magnetic Wilds (Published 2019)

The #Kamchatka peninsula -- near the epicenter of a massive earthquake in the #Russian Far East -- features as a territory on the #Risk board game, but for more than that here is a previous story on a land of volcanoes, bears and #salmon. With @evazinaida.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/t...

Oops: On Joe Rogan’s podcast in September 2018, Tulsi Gabbard acknowledged that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Rogan called it “amazing” that it took until 2016 for foreign election influence to become a major issue in the U.S.

Airlines’ favourite new pricing trick Our analysis shows that some carriers have started charging more for solo travellers

Another investigation shows that American Airlines and to some extent United Airlines are still price gauging solo travellers compared to the same fair on the same route for two or more travellers. Delta has apparently stopped doing it. www.economist.com/business/202...

Italian Festival Cancels Appearance by Russian Conductor With Ties to Putin

Sales of tickets, though cheap, had been sluggish to see #Gergiev, the Russian conductor and Putin toady, in his first concert in Europe since #Russia invaded #Ukraine. But it seems to be the politics that got the event scrubbed. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/a...

Are We Seeing the Outlines of a New Middle East?

The weakening of Iran, particularly the return of Syria to the Sunni axis, seems like an inflection point in the Mideast www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/u...

Israel’s Attack in Iran Echoes Its Strategy Against Hezbollah

The playbook that Israel is using against Iran was first deployed in decapitating Hezbollah (and Hamas in Gaza), but attacking a country with one of the world's largest militaries is a different order of magnitude from a nonstate militia.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/15/w...

Crimea, Once a Crossroad of Civilizations, Finds Itself Isolated and Under Attack

Crimea, still a key source of tension between Ukraine and Russia, finds itself isolated and increasingly Russian amid the war. To report this story from afar, we basically got in touch with anybody we had ever interviewed there before the war. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/w...

White House Health Report Included Fake Citations

The report released by the presidential Make America Healthy Again Commission referred to fictitious studies on various subjects including drug advertising, mental illness and medications prescribed for children with asthma.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

Trump HHS Department under Kennedy pushing new policies on children's health citing studies that do not exist:
The Trump administration released a report last week that it billed as a “clear, evidence-based foundation” for action on a range of children’s health issues.

…it will be hard to match in the absence of the war.
3. He has been able to use the war to crush critics and any independent opposition.
4. As long as the war continues, few will openly question the costs or the wisdom of starting it in the first place.

Trump way too charitable to Putin as always.

Trump on Fox News conflating his own way of thinking with Putin: “Putin is tired of this whole thing….He’s not looking good, and he wants to look good…Don’t forget, this was supposed to end in one week.”
1. Putin believes he is winning, with time on his side.
2. The war economy is booming and ….

Some Russians do admire #Stalin because he was so ruthless, and some just like to irk the West, but hard not to imagine that his countless victims are spinning in their graves. Of course, admirable organizations like Memorial, outlawed by Putin's Kremlin, worked to document his crimes.

Moscow Metro Installs Replica of Stalin Monument - The Moscow Times Moscow’s Metro installed a replica of a long-removed monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, further fueling debate over Russia’s steady rehabilitation of his image under President Vladimir Putin.

In Russia, nothing quite says "The Bolsheviks are back" than creeping public restoration of monuments to Stalin, the man responsible for murdering or imprisoning millions of Russians. Under Putin, a growing admiration of brutality. www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/05/15/m...

Video: 3 Deals in 3 Countries on Trump’s Trip Three countries on President Trump’s Middle East tour this week are also the sites of recent investments in Trump businesses that benefit the president. Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The ...

The Trump Arabian Peninsula grift summarized:
www.nytimes.com/video/world/...

Message From the Russian Military: ‘We Lost Your Son’ Russia lacks any formal, organized effort to account for legions of missing soldiers. That often leaves relatives in limbo, fending for themselves with scant government information.

The cavalier attitude that the #Kremlin has toward Russians, still treating them more like subjects than citizens, is reflected in the tens of thousands of missing soldiers from the #Ukraine war and a backlog of 15,000 unidentified corpses. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/w...

Pressed about what concessions #Russia had offered in peace talks, Trump said, “stopping taking the whole country.” Russia predicted at start of invasion that they would take #Ukraine in three days, but turned out it lacked a competent army. Giving up something unachievable is not a concession.

Mountains of shame on Shari Redstone and everyone else involved here trying to settle such a ridiculous and baseless legal action. They’re so poor, all they have is money and they will eventually pay the price for their grotesque behavior.

Vice President Vance gives no indication of what territory Russia would have to give up if conflict frozen along current lines. “Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

Lawyer for U-M protester detained at airport after spring break trip with family Dearborn lawyer says feds tried to seize his cellphone at Detroit Metro Airport as he returned from spring break trip with his family.

Lived in so many countries like Russia and Egypt where people were constantly harassed by petty officials at the behest of the government and now that miserable system has come to the USA. For what? www.freep.com/story/news/l...

Trump administration deports gay makeup artist to prison in El Salvador A gay man with no known criminal record sought asylum in the U.S. He's since become one of 238 Venezuelan migrants deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration.

60 Minutes could find no criminal records for 75% of the Venezuelans the U.S. sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. https://cbsn.ws/4clubLP

As Tensions Escalate Between Trump and Europe, Meloni Is Caught in the Middle Each new crisis, whether over Ukraine or tariffs, has made the Italian prime minister’s balancing act that much harder.

In Viareggio, Italy, the annual carnival parade is famous for political satire. One float featured a 50-foot statue of Meloni. The float’s creator had dressed the figure in a pink suit jacket, swaying inside a pair of oversize gray jodhpurs like those once favored by Mussolini. shorturl.at/jwTXH

RFK Jr. Turns to a Discredited Vaccine Researcher for Autism Study David Geier has been hired as a senior data analyst at H.H.S. According to several people, he will examine any potential links between vaccines and autism that were debunked long ago.

Kennedy hires another quack -- one who actually practiced medicine without a license.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/h...

Oleg Gordievsky, K.G.B. Officer Turned Double Agent, Dies at 86 While climbing the ranks of the Soviet spy agency, he spent more than a decade working for British intelligence as one of its most highly placed moles.

The extraction of this KGB double agent from Moscow across the Finnish border is a gripping yarn that bests Le Carré in that it is true. The story forms the heart of the book “The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War” by Ben Macintyre.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/w...

Video: Surveillance Footage Shows Arrest of Tufts University Student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and a Muslim, was heading out to break her Ramadan fast with friends Tuesday night when she was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security.

What part of this is protecting the American value of free speech? www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...

Putin has suggested since at least 2014 that Russia should absorb Ukraine, yet #Witkoff, the Trump envoy unable to name the provinces occupied by #Russia, said this: “Why would they want to absorb #Ukraine? For what purpose, exactly?" Dangerously ignorant that Putin wants to reconstruct an empire.

Upper West Side around Columbia oddly a bit of a desert for good food and just gets worst. Absolute bagels shuttered a few months ago and today Silver Moon Bakery is closing, driven out by a rent hike. Such a loss.

A U.S. Investor Helped Build Russia’s Economy. He Was Jailed on Bogus Charges. As President Trump promotes renewed business ties with Russia, an American investor has a warning: Anyone there can become a pawn.

The arbitrary nature of Russia’s court system makes it a particularly dubious place to do business www.nytimes.com/2025/03/23/w...

Private Island Comes on the Market in Italy The sale of an island just off the coast of Bacoli, near Naples, has pit the quest for a rich investor against a more communal alternative.

Your own little Capri in the middle of the Gulf of Naples? www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/w...

Turns out the NYTimes has employees from every state except Idaho. I have nothing to do with the hiring process, but for all you Idaho reporters out there I suspect you might have an edge in applying right now….