Serge Schmemann

Netanyahu’s Cynical Political Game

The devastation of Gaza is at intolerable levels and getting worse; the Israeli government is under intense pressure from the families of hostages to do far more to free them before they perish; the United States and Arab states, anxious to avoid a regional war, are trying to mediate an end to the…

The Woman who Embodied the Myth of the Good Monarch

To function in an otherwise normal democracy, a hereditary monarchy requires that the citizenry accept a bit of fiction — namely that one family, standing above politics, can represent the nation and its values. That takes a bit of doing, especially with that most scrutinized royal house of them…

How to Avoid a Nuclear Disaster in Ukraine

There were reports on Saturday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has a team of experts ready to visit Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant within days. It would not be a minute too soon: Artillery shells are landing with chilling regularity in and around the facility, Europe’s…

US, Russia and the Total Lopsidedness of Prisoner Swaps

Reports are circulating that the United States is negotiating with Russia to exchange two Americans being held in Russian prisons for a notorious arms dealer serving time in America. The deal is totally lopsided: The two Americans — the basketball star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, a security…

The Information War in Ukraine Is Far From Over

If the first casualty of war is truth, then the corollary in Ukraine is that information is the first battlefield. That was where the war began, in early 2022, weeks before Vladimir Putin sent the first rockets, armored vehicles and troops into Ukraine, when he claimed that the massive buildup…

The Day the Soviet Flag Came Down

On Dec. 25, 1991, at 7:32 p.m., the Soviet flag came down over the Kremlin, and the pre-revolutionary Russian flag of white, blue and red horizontal stripes took its place. It was a momentous moment but was witnessed by only a handful of foreigners and an irate Soviet war veteran on Red Square. …

I Wrote the Lead Times Article on 9/11. Here’s What Still Grips Me.

Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, an English teacher in central Washington State assigned her eighth and ninth graders to write poems based on the lead article in The Times. The teacher, Tammy Grubb, said her intention was to give the students a way to process their feelings. The poems were…