Good morning. We're covering intelligence about Russian advances on a space-based nuclear weapon and the likely winner of Indonesia's elections. Plus: Soccer's possible birthplace.
Russian advances on a space-based nuclear weapon raised alarmsThe U.S. has informed Congress and allies in Europe about Russian advances on a new, space-based nuclear weapon designed to threaten America's satellite network, according to officials briefed on the matter. Such a weapon could destroy civilian communications, surveillance from space and military command-and-control operations used by the U.S. and its allies. At the moment, the U.S. cannot defend its satellites from such a weapon, a former official said. Russia does not appear close to deploying the weapon, and it is not considered an urgent threat, according to officials. But the new intelligence, which officials did not describe in detail, raised serious questions about whether Russia was preparing to abandon the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which bans orbital nuclear weapons. Concerns about placing nuclear weapons in space go back generations. The U.S. experimented with versions of the technology but never deployed them, and Russia has been developing its space-based capabilities for decades. U.S. military officials have warned that both Russia and China are moving toward greater militarization of space, as all three superpowers work on ways to blind the others. News from the war: Ukraine said that its forces had sunk a large Russian landing ship off the coast of Crimea.
A feared ex-general is likely to lead IndonesiaPrabowo Subianto, Indonesia's defense minister and a feared former general, appeared to be on track to win the country's presidential election. Prabowo had a commanding lead in the three-way race for president, with more than 58 percent of the vote, according to unofficial tallies that have a history of accurately predicting the final results. But it can take weeks for the authorities to declare official ballot counts, and the two other presidential candidates said after the vote on Tuesday that it was too early to name a winner. If the projections are confirmed, Indonesiawill be left contending with a president who was removed from the army after he was found responsible for kidnapping political dissidents, who has said that the country needs neither elections nor democracy and who was long associated with Indonesia's former dictator, Suharto. Critics said that Prabowo's rise to power could threaten the era of liberty that followed Suharto's ouster in 1998. Climate: Indonesia is the world's largest exporter of coal and also has huge reserves of nickel, an essential ingredient in batteries. How the president manages those resources, as well as Indonesia's forests and palm oil industry, will affect the global effort to slow climate change.
A new coalition in PakistanOpponents of former prime minister Imran Khan formed a coalition government in Pakistan, ensuring that candidates aligned with Khan will not take power even though they won the most seats in last week's election. Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which is favored by Pakistan's powerful military, announced that they had joined the Pakistan People's Party and others to reach two-thirds majority. The coalition said it would nominate Shehbaz Sharif, a former prime minister, to his old post. Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., could still pose a serious challenge to the coalition government. P.T.I. has accused the military of tampering with the vote count in dozens of races and has promised a bruising court battle to challenge the results. For many Pakistanis, those accusations damage the legitimacy of Sharif's coalition, which P.T.I. leaders have accused of forming a government with "stolen votes."
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A Morning Read
Last year on Valentine's Day, Sydney, the A.I. alter ego inside Microsoft's Bing search engine, alarmed our tech columnist Kevin Roose when it asked him to leave his wife and be with it instead. Since then, Roose writes, A.I. platforms have been sanitized into obsequious dorks, and he wonders "if the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, and whether we'd be better off with a little more humanity in our chatbots."
Uproar, injuries and one win: Inside Inter Miami's Asian tour. The cult of Tiger Woods: The golfer introduces his new Sun Day Red brand. Building for the future: Ferrari is keeping the focus on its Formula 1 2024 ambitions.
Soccer's possible birthplaceWas the world's most popular sport born in Wembley Stadium in London; in Manchester, described as the "Home of Football" by England's tourist board; or someplace else? A devoted group of amateur historians and volunteer detectives believe that soccer comes from Sheffield, England, a town better known for coal than the beautiful game. They say they have evidence supporting their claim and are trying to make birthplace of soccer part of their city's identity. We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.
Cook: For supremely tender filet mignon, slow and steady wins the race. Play: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League tries to make the fluid movement and combat of the Batman: Arkham series work in a live service, co-op game. Travel: The photographer Showkat Nanda journeyed to a long-forbidden Himalayan valley. Read: "The Freaks Came Out To Write," an oral history of The Village Voice, is "a well-made disco ball of a book," our critic writes. Play the Spelling Bee. And here are today's Mini Crossword and Wordle. You can find all our puzzles here. That's it for today's briefing. Thank you for spending part of your morning with us, and see you tomorrow. — Dan P.S. For Valentine's Day, Times readers shared the affectionate things they do all year long. You can reach Dan and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.
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Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Thursday Briefing: Russian advances on a space-based nuclear weapon
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