Notes and Essays -- John Brown

David French, Opinion Columnist, This Is What Is Worrying Me About the War in Ukraine, The New York Times , Sept. 28, 2023 A sunflower pokes through a partially destroyed brick wall. Credit...Illustration by George Douglas; images by John Moore and Art Images/Getty Image s One of the most important things to do when writing and thinking about the course of a war is the hardest for a journalist — it’s to wait. Don’t say anything and watch events unfold. When analyzing or covering a conflict, there are some things that are immediately apparent — like the failure of a Russian missile attack over Kyiv , or Ukraine’s urgent military need for better fighter aircraft — but other seemingly simple questions are surprisingly difficult to answer. When I traveled to Ukraine in May, I could see missile attacks firsthand, the vital role of Western equipment in the war effort and the remarkable courage of the Ukrainian people. But there were other things I saw that I couldn’t process immediately. I...

image (not from article) from The House voted 335-91 for the measure, which includes $16 billion in disaster relief but omits aid for Ukraine [ jb emphasis ] . The Senate is expected to pass the bill, and White House officials said President Biden supports the measure.  By Siobhan Hughes and Kristina Peterson, The Wall Street Journal , Updated Sept. 30, 2023 3:39 pm ET; for more details, see The Washington Post

"The studios also have a license to build artificial-intelligence tools and train them on writers’ scripts, after rejecting a demand from writers that they pledge not to do so. However, writers get some significant AI protections, too. They won’t lose out on writing credits or compensation when AI tools are used to assist in creating scripts." image and text from The Wall Street Journal

Major logistics hub for war is humming despite espionage and a diplomatic row between Warsaw and Kyiv  Ammunition that arrived in Rzeszów, Poland, was recently prepared for shipment to Ukraine. CHRISTOPH SOEDER/DPA/GETTY IMAGES By Sharon Weinberger, The Wall Street Journal Updated Sept. 30, 2023 12:06 am ET RZESZÓW, Poland—Polish authorities first got wind of a Russian-organized espionage operation targeting a crucial logistics hub for Ukraine’s war from an unexpected source: an inebriated man stumbling along spotted a suspicious camera pointed at railroad tracks not far from the local airport. The discovery by the local resident sparked an organized search that led to the discovery of more cameras at rail stations and rail crossings. In March, the country’s security services announced that they had dismantled a spy ring that was planning to derail trains used to transport weapons destined for Ukraine. The spy ring, and the effort to stop it, speaks to the critical role of the logi...

Elon Musk Wants to Save Humanity. The Only Problem: People. Walter Isaacson's biography of the billionaire entrepreneur depicts a mercurial “man-child” with grandiose ambitions and an ego to match. llustration by Jan Robert Dünnweller; Photo reference by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images Headline from The New York Times , Sept 9, 2023; see also

CNN image from Variety By Thom Poole and Joshua Berlinger, CNN Updated 8:56 a.m. ET, September 30, 2023 What we're covering Slovakia  heads to the polls today  for parliamentary elections that could radically  reshape its approach  to Ukraine and create deep rifts within NATO. The frontrunner is a pro-Kremlin figure who said he would stop sending arms to Ukraine. Russia targeted more than 100 eastern Ukrainian settlements in attacks  on Friday  and launched at least 50 drone strikes on southern Ukraine overnight. Moscow has been pounding Ukrainian grain and energy infrastructure. As the Kremlin celebrated the one-year anniversary of the illegal annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, it also  announced citizens there  would be subjected to conscription for the first time. Ukrainian police  arrested  two people suspected of hiding a Russian anti-missile system left over from fighting in the early days of the war. 17 ...