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| New intelligence raised questions about whether Russia would abandon a treaty banning orbital nuclear weapons. Sergei Bobylev/Sputnik, via Reuters |
Russian advances on a space-based nuclear weapon raised alarms
The U.S. has informed Congress and allies in Europe about Russian advances on a new, space-based nuclear weapon designed to threaten America’s satellite network, according to officials briefed on the matter.
Such a weapon could destroy civilian communications, surveillance from space and military command-and-control operations used by the U.S. and its allies. At the moment, the U.S. cannot defend its satellites from such a weapon, a former official said.
Russia does not appear close to deploying the weapon, and it is not considered an urgent threat, according to officials. But the new intelligence, which officials did not describe in detail, raised serious questions about whether Russia was preparing to abandon the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which bans orbital nuclear weapons.
Concerns about placing nuclear weapons in space go back generations. The U.S. experimented with versions of the technology but never deployed them, and Russia has been developing its space-based capabilities for decades. U.S. military officials have warned that both Russia and China are moving toward greater militarization of space, as all three superpowers work on ways to blind the others.
News from the war: Ukraine said that its forces had sunk a large Russian landing ship off the coast of Crimea.
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| Prabowo Subianto greeting supporters in Jakarta, Indonesia. Erlangga Bregas Prakoso/Antara Foto, via Reuters |
A feared ex-general is likely to lead Indonesia
Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s defense minister and a feared former general, appeared to be on track to win the country’s presidential election.
Prabowo had a commanding lead in the three-way race for president, with more than 58 percent of the vote, according to unofficial tallies that have a history of accurately predicting the final results. But it can take weeks for the authorities to declare official ballot counts, and the two other presidential candidates said after the vote on Tuesday that it was too early to name a winner.
If the projections are confirmed, Indonesiawill be left contending with a president who was removed from the army after he was found responsible for kidnapping political dissidents, who has said that the country needs neither elections nor democracy and who was long associated with Indonesia’s former dictator, Suharto.
Critics said that Prabowo’s rise to power could threaten the era of liberty that followed Suharto’s ouster in 1998.
Climate: Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and also has huge reserves of nickel, an essential ingredient in batteries. How the president manages those resources, as well as Indonesia’s forests and palm oil industry, will affect the global effort to slow climate change.
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| Shehbaz Sharif, the once and most likely future prime minister of Pakistan. Arif Ali/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
A new coalition in Pakistan
Opponents of former prime minister Imran Khan formed a coalition government in Pakistan, ensuring that candidates aligned with Khan will not take power even though they won the most seats in last week’s election.
Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which is favored by Pakistan’s powerful military, announced that they had joined the Pakistan People’s Party and others to reach two-thirds majority. The coalition said it would nominate Shehbaz Sharif, a former prime minister, to his old post.
Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., could still pose a serious challenge to the coalition government. P.T.I. has accused the military of tampering with the vote count in dozens of races and has promised a bruising court battle to challenge the results. For many Pakistanis, those accusations damage the legitimacy of Sharif’s coalition, which P.T.I. leaders have accused of forming a government with “stolen votes.”Continue reading the main story
| THE LATEST NEWS |
Middle East
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| Haitham Imad/EPA, via Shutterstock |
| Hundreds of displaced Palestinians fled one of Gaza’s last working hospitals after the Israeli military ordered them to leave and threatened further action to stop what it said was Hamas activity there.Israel carried out lethal airstrikes against Lebanon yesterday in response to a deadly rocket attack in northern Israel.The Israeli news media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had withdrawn from peace negotiations in Cairo. (Netanyahu’s office did not confirm or deny the reports.) |
Europe
| Some European leaders worry that it may be too late to develop the military capacity they need to stand up to Russian aggression without U.S. support, should that waver.A pair of embarrassing suspensions and a reversal on climate policy raise the question: is Britain’s Labour Party its own worst enemy?Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have delayed shipments of black tea to Britain, leading to consumer anxiety even though the supply remains ample. |
Asia
| Confiscated motorbikes are piling up in impound lots in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, after a crackdown on drunken driving.A South Korean court found three former police officers guilty of destroying evidence that the police were aware of safety risks before a crowd crush killed nearly 160 people in Seoul at Halloween festivities in 2022. |
Other Big Stories
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| Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
| A shooting at a Super Bowl victory parade in Kansas City left at least one person dead and injured more than 20, including nine children. |
| The detention of a prominent government critic in Venezuela has shown how far the country is from political change.Up to half of the Amazon rainforest could transform into grasslands or weakened ecosystems in the coming decades, a new study found. |
| X has accepted subscription payments from members of terrorist groups, a potential violation of sanctions, a new report said. |
A Morning Read
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| Amanda Cotan |
Last year on Valentine’s Day, Sydney, the A.I. alter ego inside Microsoft’s Bing search engine, alarmed our tech columnist Kevin Roose when it asked him to leave his wife and be with it instead.
Since then, Roose writes, A.I. platforms have been sanitized into obsequious dorks, and he wonders “if the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, and whether we’d be better off with a little more humanity in our chatbots.”
| SPORTS NEWS |
Uproar, injuries and one win: Inside Inter Miami’s Asian tour.
The cult of Tiger Woods: The golfer introduces his new Sun Day Red brand.
Building for the future: Ferrari is keeping the focus on its Formula 1 2024 ambitions.
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
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| Mary Turner for The New York Times |
Soccer’s possible birthplace
Was the world’s most popular sport born in Wembley Stadium in London; in Manchester, described as the “Home of Football” by England’s tourist board; or someplace else?
A devoted group of amateur historians and volunteer detectives believe that soccer comes from Sheffield, England, a town better known for coal than the beautiful game. They say they have evidence supporting their claim and are trying to make birthplace of soccer part of their city’s identity.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
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| Christopher Testani for The New York Times |
Cook: For supremely tender filet mignon, slow and steady wins the race.
