"Specialists argue that North Korea’s propensity to revert to provocations is so deeply embedded that it is part of the country’s DNA."  

-(unknown but some Korea watcher I am sure)

"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"There are sadistic scientists who hurry to hunt down errors instead of establishing the truth."

-Marie Curie

• The concept carries a pedestrian name: the "decentralized" web, or "web3." But its consequences are profound — rewiring the very foundation of social media and speech policing.

• In a decentralized web, you would decide if Trump appears on the web3 equivalent of your Twitter feed — and set your own thresholds on vaccine information providers.

• The Musk camp believes all social media should move into this new state of being.
• Not to overcomplicate things, but this is very similar to how we explained cryptocurrencies to you: Basically, we build a completely public infrastructure for all to see and contribute to, pulling power away from centralized authorities, like the government or big companies.

• Critics, who are powerful and numerous, warn that unsuspecting individuals would be subject to more fake, false or unhealthy information and would be more easily manipulated by bad actors. Most people don't have the time to study what’s real and reliable, and history shows how susceptible most are to harmful misinformation campaigns.
• Supporters counter that the government and big companies are lousy at — and biased in — policing speech so it's time for something radically new.

• The Guardian breaks down the decentralized web in a simple Q&A format.
• WIRED explains how we got here.

• Russian forces with heavy air and artillery support continued assaults on Ukrainian positions in Mariupol in the past 24 hours.
• Russian and proxy forces in eastern Ukraine are likely attempting to consolidate forces and material for an offensive in the coming days.
• Russian forces continued offensive operations from Izyum towards Slovyansk but did not make any major territorial gains.
• Ukrainian forces conducted successful counterattacks towards Kherson from both the north and west.
• Russian forces completely vacated Sumy Oblast.
• Russian General Officers are reportedly instruction commanders to severely restrict internet access among Russian personnel in an attempt to combat low morale.
• The US and NATO should take a strong stance on any Russian threat to use its military forces in Transnistria, the illegally Russian-occupied strip of Moldova bordering Ukraine.

• Main effort—Eastern Ukraine (comprised of two subordinate supporting efforts);
• Supporting effort 1—Kharkiv and Izyum;
• Supporting effort 2—Southern axis;
• Supporting effort 3—Sumy and northeastern Ukraine.

• Russian forces will continue reinforcing the Izyum-Slovyansk axis and attempting to advance to and through Slovyansk to encircle Ukrainian forces.
• The Battle of Mariupol continues, and it is unclear how much longer the Ukrainian defenders can hold out.
• Russian forces have fully vacated the Sumy axis and are regrouping in Belgorod for likely deploying to the Izyum-Slovyansk axis.
• Some Russian forces are likely to return to home stations in Russia while others will re-enter the fighting in the east.

Zelenskyy’s superpower wasn’t to “take risks” or “seize the moment,” as the social media posts and listicles claim. Instead, the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides a case study on the appeal of a powerful narrative and how to execute it to a country’s advantage. Think of Zelenskyy comparing his nation’s plight to the Holocaust in a speech to the Israeli Knesset or addressing European Union on February 24 and saying, “This might be the last time you see me alive.”

You’re not going to learn the playbook for effective propaganda in a business seminar or leadership retreat. When your country is in an existential fight for its survival, narratives matter more than charisma.

Although Putin seems to have his bases covered, the fates of Beria and Khrushchev have shown that loyalties can shift when the Kremlin is in crisis. Bortnikov could conceivably become another Semichastny and switch camps to save his own skin. Even Shoigu and Zolotov, faced with a coalition of Putin’s opponents, might consider jumping ship, just as Beria’s lieutenants did. But one thing seems certain: Any coup attempt against Putin would probably be the most perilous, high-risk operation in Kremlin history.

How did Putin get things so wrong?

Rather than splitting the West, Putin’s assault against Ukraine united it.

The West’s unified front against Russia’s invasion must not be allowed to weaken or erode as the war progresses.

Before the Ukraine crisis, one would have said that the G-20 was the only forum within which one might have hoped for leadership. To counter its rich-country bias, Gallagher and Kozul-Wright propose that it should be made answerable to the Economic and Social Council of the U.N. If that was ambitious before the crisis, it is well-nigh unthinkable now. It will be surprising if the G-20 manages to convene at the leadership level this year.

In the current impasse, it may well be that the most positive impetus for action on global economic problems actually comes from geopolitical competition rather than cooperation. Given Russian intrusion into Libya and Mali, Europe can hardly look complacently at Tunisia’s difficulties. If Washington aims to have an Indo-Pacific strategy that amounts to anything, it should surely be engaged with India in addressing Sri Lanka’s difficulties. Sri Lanka, after all, is the place where the Western critique of China’s aggressive debt diplomacy was first crafted. Might the looming weight of China, finally push Western governments into engaging in active debt diplomacy of their own?

This, to be clear, is not an attractive prospect. The entanglement of great-power politics and debts is dangerous. But what is the alternative? The risk from the point of view of the most fragile and endangered societies is less that the world economy is being reordered in a competitive fashion and more that the intolerable status quo continues and nothing is done at all.

1. Defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the PRC (China)
2. Deterring strategic attacks against the United States, Allies, and partners
3. Deterring aggression, while being prepared to prevail in conflict when necessary, prioritizing
4. the PRC challenge in the Indo-Pacific, then the Russia challenge in Europe
5. Building a resilient Joint Force and defense ecosystem

• Why you should take a defensive sales strategy
• US SpecOps are using AI to look for an edge
• Competitive forces and your Veteran startup business strategy
• Top 5 takeaways from the 2022 defense budget
• How Russia uses the media to convey a false image of military prowess

It may not seem fair to suggest that the UAE avoid giving offense to Washington when so much of American policy is at odds with Emirati interests. What’s more, MbZ may bridle at the notion that he ought to distance himself from Assad while the Biden administration endorses energy deals that benefit Damascus. Yet practitioners of realpolitik know that fairness is rarely a characteristic of international relations. The United States is a superpower while the UAE is a petrostate with a few more than a million citizens. At least in this instance, doing what America wants entails doing the right thing, and that means rejecting reconciliation with the unrepentant war criminals in Damascus.

• 
  

As Putin sees it, the West has been pulling Ukraine away from Russia for centuries.

5.3 million Ukrainians were killed during World War II.

• ANNA REID is former Kyiv Correspondent for The Economist and the author of Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine.

The next Black Swan event is right around the corner. It may come in the form of a massive economic recession, an escalation of hostilities in Europe, or a new spike in a deadly coronavirus. It may also come in the form of a new economic boom from innovative monetary policies, new medical breakthroughs as a result of RNA advances, or a new period of worldwide peace and prosperity that comes from a global community united against oppression. In either case, Black Swans will continue to appear and those leaders who adopt a resilient approach will be ready.