The Baltic states are linked by their experience on Russia’s western borderlands: one of subjugation and dispossession, @isaacstanbecker writes. He spent a month in those countries, learning how they are preparing for a possible Russian attack: theatln.tc/5TkfNzvr

A deep dive into the Baltic states' extensive preparations for a Russian invasion, from @isaacstanbecker who tracks "the emergence of a new order, in which Ukraine matters as much to the security of Europe as the United States" theatlantic.com/magazine/202…

NEW: “If a seagull shits in the harbor, we know what it had for breakfast, we know where it nests, and we know when it last went to Russia.” Read @isaacstanbecker on the Baltic preparations for war with Putin. theatlantic.com/magazine/202…

The Baltic states have spent years preparing for the possibility of a Russian invasion. Their citizens are ready to fight—with the help of the United States, or without it, @isaacstanbecker reports: theatlantic.com/magazine/202…

"'The enemy has to know,' General Raimundas Vaikšnoras told me, “that if they step one foot in our territory, we will strike back.” Read @isaacstanbecker on Lithuania's preparations for war against Russia: theatlantic.com/magazine/202…

The late philosopher Jürgen Habermas believed that “the essence of democracy was discourse, back-and-forth argument about ideas and values,” Adam Kirsch writes. America’s autocratic turn darkened what Habermas called a “politically rather favored life”: theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…

"In March, the director of NATO policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense was abruptly reassigned, current and former U.S. officials told me. Mark Jones, who had spent more than two decades working on NATO and Europe policy as both a soldier and a civil servant, was viewed as being out of step with the administration’s jaundiced view of the alliance." -- @isaacstanbecker: theatlantic.com/national-sec…

In March, the Pentagon’s director of NATO policy was abruptly reassigned—undermining U.S. cooperation with European allies as the war in Iran was creating a new crisis in transatlantic relations, @isaacstanbecker reports: theatlantic.com/national-sec…

RT @SimonaFoltyn: Harrowing account of @shellykittleson's kidnapping in Iraq, written by her. theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0…

Viktor Orbán’s transformation of Hungary has been, in many ways, the proof of concept for today’s MAGA movement—and this model of governance was “rejected soundly” by voters in Hungary’s election, @isaacstanbecker reports. theatln.tc/Y8m6YhXt

Papa Leone XIV al Tg1: «Io non ho paura dell’amministrazione Trump, parlo del Vangelo e continuerò a parlare ad alta voce contro la guerra. Non ho intenzione di entrare in un dibattito con lui».

Viktor Orbán has been ousted—and efforts by Washington and Moscow to prop the autocratic leader up give his defeat implications that extend far beyond Hungary, @isaacstanbecker reports from Budapest. Read more: theatln.tc/YuVDTcTb

Budapest now

In remarks at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, a Hungarian educational institution funded by dividends on shares in companies that process Russian oil, J.D. Vance is mocking EU countries for making themselves dependent on Russian oil.

No questions at the Vance-Orbán press conference about the vice president’s decision to openly campaign in the Hungarian election in the same breath that he accuses Ukraine and “Brussels bureaucrats” of maliciously doing the same.

An ally of J. D. Vance who once prophesized a Queen Melania now works for Viktor Orbán’s government—and reflects the stakes of the Hungarian election for the MAGA movement, @isaacstanbecker reports. theatlantic.com/politics/202…