Red Carpets, Red Flags

Xi hosts autocrats in Tianjin while Trump slaps toll booths on Lady Liberty, plays GI Joe in Venezuela, and hides behind QAnon memes as Ukraine burns.

Good morning! In Tianjin, Xi Jinping is staging his biggest spectacle yet: a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where autocrats and strongmen strut across red carpets while the West looks on with indigestion. Putin is basking in the glow of Xi’s hospitality, conveniently forgetting the part where his missiles just killed Ukrainian children…