John Brown's Notes and Essays

As the Soviet Union’s final leader, Mikhail Gorbachev dreamed of a “common European home,” but three decades later that tantalizing idea remains out of reach. image from article, with caption:  East Berliners reaching toward West Berliners as they climb the Berlin Wall early on Nov. 10, 1989. Credit... Jockel Finck/Associated Press By Roger Cohen , The New York Times , Aug. 31, 2022, 4:14 p.m. ET [original article contains additional illustrations]     Roger Cohen is the Paris bureau chief of The Times. He was a columnist from 2009 to 2020. He has worked for The Times for more than 30 years and has served as a foreign correspondent and foreign editor. Raised in South Africa and Britain, he is a naturalized American.   @ NYT    PARIS — Mikhail S. Gorbachev believed the Soviet Union could be preserved without recourse to violence. This proved to be a misunderstanding of the nature of the repressive empire he ruled. The Soviet imperium collapsed in 1991, its ending embraced by the West as

An Aug. 29, 2022 headline from an article in The New York Times by  Vanessa Friedman, documented by the below photograph, with the caption: " Lila Moss Hack [jb see ] on the runway at a Versace show in Milan, with her insulin pump visibly attached to her thigh." Credit...Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images See also: " Adidas Frees the Nipple With Its New Sports-Bra Campaign for Women [:]  The German sportswear brand released an internet-breaking image of bare breasts to accompany a sports-bra collection of 43 diverse styles, The Wall Street Journal   (image from article)

Western officials are puzzled by the Russian leader’s decision to avoid mass conscription. But analysts say he is intent on maintaining a sense of normalcy to prevent any public backlash.  image from article:  Russian soldiers on a billboard in Moscow last week that read, “Glory to the Heroes of Russia.”   Credit...  Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Imag es  By Anton Troianovski , The New York Times , Aug. 31, 2022 Updated 12:13 p.m. ET [original article contains additional photographs]  President Vladimir V. Putin says Russia is fighting for its very existence in Ukraine, taking on a country that is conspiring with the West to destroy his nation. In high-octane talk shows on state television, the war is presented as a continuation of the Soviet Union’s fight for survival against Nazi Germany.  But if the battle is existential, the Kremlin’s actions do not bear that out. Six months into the biggest land war in Europe since World War II, Russia continues to wage it with a