Marco Rubio’s excuses about harm to Ukraine sound just like Meta’s excuses about taking down No Kings’ Instagram. “U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country had not changed its policy on sharing early warnings of Russian missile attacks with Ukraine and that the Pentagon was not deliberately withholding air defense missiles,” Politico reported, quoting Rubio’s “nothing to see here!” excuse: “‘There’s nothing being deliberately denied to Ukraine…. Everything they’ve been doing with Ukraine remains the same. That has not changed. Nothing has changed.” Gotcha.
The gambles of an autocratic human rights abuser don’t pan out. The Economist reported on the consequences of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman’s blunders: “He wagered that he could defeat the Houthis; that he could reshape the Saudi economy; and that Donald Trump would prove a reliable ally. All of them have gone awry at once. The decision to cancel [the Future Investment Initiative] is emblematic of Prince Muhammad’s annus horribilis. He faces a set of interlocking crises, none of which has a ready solution.”
