Our Best Stuff From a Week on the Brink

Happy Sunday. What should I discuss this week? Here in Cincinnati, it’s hard to think about anything besides the Super Bowl. About 30,000 fans showed up at Paul Brown Stadium on Monday for a send-off rally for the Bengals. (Meanwhile, the Rams had a few thousand people gather at a local high school for a similar shindig.) The only thing that seems to put anyone in a bad mood are the shortages—specifically, shortages of Joe Burrow jerseys and cream cheese. How can you serve Skyline dip at your Super Bowl party without cream cheese?

If only that were the case in the rest of the world. Canadian truckers protesting the country’s vaccine mandate blocked perhaps the most important bridge in North America, over which about a third of U.S. and Canadian trade occurs. (The Morning Dispatch had a great explanation of what’s going on Wednesday.) The Olympics are shaping up to be a major face plant, as ratings are down, athletes are going hungry, and there are concerns that the fake snow is contributing to injuries. I try not to repeat myself, but as I wrote last week: “The International Olympic Committee should take the very simple step of not awarding its global showcase to brutal dictatorships.”

All of that pales, though, in comparison to the situation in Ukraine. After months of “will he or won’t he?” speculation, it looks as though Vladimir Putin is poised to launch an invasion. As the Washington Post reports:

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan cautioned Friday that there is a “very distinct possibility” that Russia will invade Ukraine in a “reasonably swift time frame” and urged all U.S. citizens there to leave immediately.