Pope Asks Putin for a Cease-Fire for a Ukrainian City Under Siege

© Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press

© Alessandra Tarantino/Associated Press

© Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is approaching its fifth year. Since February 24, 2022, Europe and the United States have rolled out a battery of sanctions intended to strangle the Russian economy to the point where regime change would be the only viable outcome for the Kremlin. The wave of restrictions, however, has several loopholes — some deliberately left by the West to preserve certain exchanges, such as a limited purchase of hydrocarbons.

© Vyacheslav Prokofyev (Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool Sputni)
“I made a fortune with Trump’s memecoin, but I lost it all the following month,” a user on X admits. “It’s a perfect Ponzi scheme,” says another. “It’s a scam, a fraud.” On other social platforms there are thousands of comments like these, ranging from investors asking “What did you expect?” to others who watched their savings vanish after chasing the promise of quick gains.

© SOPA Images (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett)