Your Evening Briefing: Biden Warns Putin Over Radioactive False Flags

US President Joe Biden warned the Kremlin Tuesday against using any radioactive weapons in its war on Ukraine as tensions over a potential nuclear escalation by Moscow climb. Since before its invasion in February, Russia has been accused of trying to muddy the waters by accusing Kyiv of planned “provocations,” unsubstantiated claims that would ostensibly provide cover for Russian “false-flag” operations. Eight months later, widely rejected allegations by Vladimir Putin’s adjutants that Ukraine plans a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack on its own soil have the US and NATO wondering whether Putin is planning to detonate one himself. With Russia losing significant ground in the northeast and southeast of Ukraine in recent weeks, assessments that Putin may be considering a nuclear attack on Ukraine are growing in the West. Others contend this dirty-bomb brinkmanship is the latest Kremlin effort to scare off NATO when it comes to advanced military aid to Ukraine. But Kyiv authorities claimed Tuesday that they’ve seen suspicious activity by Russian forces at Ukraine’s occupied nuclear power plant that could indicate the gambit is real. Such games of chicken have been war-gamed for decades, and they have always had the capacity to spiral out of control.

Persistent worries about catching Covid-19 kept about 3 million Americans out of the workforce, reducing the nation’s economic output by $250 billion in the first half of 2022. As winter approaches, that reluctance may continue. And while a new campaign of bivalent boosters is failing to catch fire in the US, infection and hospitalization rates that had been falling for months are flattening out.