Pierre retweeted
Kallas on Witkoff/Kushner: "We have institutions in place, so we can't just send any person who has no institutional role, like the Americans are sending. Clearly, we should not copy the same patterns."
The ability of this woman to grill people in the sweetest voice 🤌
Pierre retweeted
OTD in 1940 Soviet Foreign Minister arrived by train in Berlin, received Guard of Honor & had friendly meet with Hitler.
If Ukraine was actually Nazi we would sign a peace deal with them & we’d actually honor it. Unlike every other one we’ve signed.
Pierre retweeted
Macron: “Without Europeans, Canadians, Japanese and Australians, there would be no support for Ukraine. There is no more US support.”
Finally, a European leader is saying out loud what needs to be said.
The US has abandoned Ukraine and the free world.
🇪🇺🇺🇦🇬🇧🇨🇦🇯🇵🇭🇲
Pierre retweeted
The sequencing of Ukraine-Russia talks is important.
The priority should be securing a ceasefire, followed by a peace agreement, and only then can there be discussions on Europe's wider security architecture.
Shifting the focus to Europe’s security architecture is diverting the attention away from where it actually should be, which is stopping the killing in Ukraine.
So far, we don’t see any goodwill from Russia.
My remarks at the European Political Community in Dublin ↓
Pierre retweeted
Valtioneuvosto teki tänään periaatepäätöksen Venäjän kansalaisten maahantulon rajoittamisesta. Venäläisten urheilijoiden maahantulo voi vaarantaa Suomen kansainväliset suhteet. Uudet rajoitukset koskevat urheilijoiden lisäksi muutakin lyhytaikaista työntekoa.
um.fi/ajankohtaista/-/asset_…
Pierre retweeted
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has laid out a five-point plan for peace in Ukraine:
1. Integrate Ukraine into NATO’s missile, air and drone defences and send all Patriots to Kyiv
2. Unfreeze Russian assets and give them to Ukraine
3. Enforce more sanctions on Russia and ban all Russian fossil fuel supplies to Europe
4. Move the Coalition of the Willing into Ukraine to defend rear areas and critical infrastructure
5. Develop ironclad security guarantees and expel countries from the Coalition that aren’t willing to fight Russia if a ceasefire breaks down
Pierre retweeted
Wir brauchen keine neue europäische „Sicherheitsarchitektur”. Was wir brauchen, ist, dass Russland sich wie ein normales Land an die Regeln der europäischen Friedensordnung hält.
Pierre retweeted
Ahead of US-Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi, today's Russian papers are not expecting a breakthrough, while presenting potential discussions on European security as a “victory” for Moscow. Other papers report: ‘real wages’ falling in Russia, but underwear sales rising. #ReadingRussia
Pierre retweeted
NEW: Rosneft deep dive by Bloomberg News
+ Officials at Russia’s largest oil producer are concerned that even a few more months of the war with Ukraine could leave lasting damage across the business.
+ One of Rosneft’s biggest refineries, Ryazan, has been shut for more than half the time since it was first hit by Ukraine in May and has run well below full capacity when operating, according to damage assessments seen by Bloomberg.
+ Another, Syzran, has spent much of the past six months either completely shut or operating at less than a third of capacity, according to data reviewed by Bloomberg. The Tuapse refinery has been offline since April.
+ Ukraine is conducting repeat strikes on the refineries as soon as repairs are completed or nearing completion. The need to repeatedly repair damaged equipment is straining operations and causing costs to pile up to levels that Rosneft officials have privately warned cannot be sustained long-term.
+ Some plants have deliberately slowed repairs as a result, stretching work that should take days into weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.
+ Efforts to protect the facilities with shipping containers, nets and steel cables have proved ineffective against swarms of drones, company plans show.
+ The damage is particularly difficult to repair when strikes hit complex secondary units, whose parts would previously have been sourced from the West. It means relying on Russian-made copies and Chinese imports that can take months to obtain and are not always compatible with existing machinery.
+ It’s put Rosneft into financial trouble. Even before the ramping up of Ukraine’s drone campaign, the company saw a “perfect storm” for its finances. Since then, its profits are down and debt is rising despite what should have been a big windfall from the Iran war.
+ Moscow Credit Bank, which is linked to Rosneft, is showing signs of distress with $8 billion of problem loans. It highlights how both Russia’s energy and banking sectors are coming under strain at the same time, a dynamic causing concern to Russian finance officials.
All this and much more in the full story here: bloomberg.com/news/features/…
Pierre retweeted
Russia has destroyed a center for children with disabilities in the Poltava region, according to its founder, Anna Andriienko.
The "Kolibri" (Hummingbird) center supported children with special needs in their development and their adaptation to life. A direct hit and a devastating fire completely destroyed classrooms and therapy rooms, teaching materials, and rehabilitation equipment—the latter of which was unique in the region.
Pierre retweeted
I don't recall Churchill being particularly "respectful" towards Nazi Germany. (In one speech he called Hitler “a monster of wickedness, insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder” and “this bloodthirsty guttersnipe.” Zelenskyy has been positively restrained in comparison.)
Pierre retweeted
In 1973 an archaeologist digging at Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern England, found something that wasn't supposed to survive. It was a pile of thin wooden slivers, about the size of a postcard, covered in faded ink.
They turned out to be letters. Hundreds of them, written by Roman soldiers and their families around 100 AD, before Hadrian's Wall was even built. They survived 1,900 years because they'd been dumped in wet, airless ground where nothing could rot them.
What do Roman soldiers on the edge of the empire write about? The same stuff soldiers have always written about.
One soldier gets a care package and a note telling him it includes socks, two pairs of sandals, and two pairs of underpants. Somebody back home was worried he was cold. Northern England will do that to you.
A cavalry officer named Masclus writes to his commander asking for orders for the next day. Then he adds a P.S.: his men have run out of beer, and could the commander please send some.
A supply contractor complains that the roads are so bad he doesn't want to risk his animals on them, and he's waiting on money he's owed. Logistics have always been a nightmare.
One report sizes up the locals. The writer notes the Britons have no armor, that they have lots of cavalry, and that they don't mount up to throw javelins. Then he calls them "Brittunculi." Roughly "little Brits." It's a Roman insult, and it's the only time that word has ever been found anywhere.
But the most famous one is a birthday invitation.
A woman named Claudia Severa writes to her friend Sulpicia Lepidina, the commander's wife at Vindolanda, inviting her to her birthday party on September 11. A scribe wrote most of it. At the bottom, Claudia added a few lines in her own hand, telling her friend she'll be waiting for her and calling her "my dearest soul."
That scrawl at the bottom is believed to be the oldest surviving example of handwriting by a woman in Latin.
Two officers' wives at the end of the known world, a long way from Rome, trying to get together for a birthday.
The tablets are now at the British Museum. In 2003 the British public voted them the country's top treasure.
Pierre retweeted
Conversation in Moscow:
"What hopes do you have for peace?"
"None."
"What could bring peace closer?"
"A miracle."
In this extended Reading Russia: a revolution, a war, an election and an exhibition.
Pierre retweeted
Förra veckan ankom den första spårvagnen från Göteborg till Mykolajiv där den först ska anpassas för den 89 mm större spårvidden och sen kommer sättas in i trafik. 39 ytterligare spårvagnar kommer under de närmsta två åren att skickas till Mykolajiv. De är samtliga 50-55 år gamla, men då underhållet skötts som det ska är de ändå i bättre skick än de 46 som Mykolajiv stad förfogar över nu så tacksamheten är stor över att få dessa spårvagnar som tagits ur trafik i Sverige.
I maj var förare och tekniker i Göteborg för att få en treveckors utbildning på de här goa spårvagnarna.
Från svensk sida skänks inte bara själva spårvagnarna utan även transporten ner till Ukraina betalas. 🇺🇦🤝🇸🇪
Pierre retweeted
After the US midterms, one Russian paper this morning: “The main reason for the Republicans’ failure is clear – and its name is Trump.” Another: “Most voters are tired of Trump’s political shows…tired of being deceived, tired of being told ‘sugar’, but it doesn’t taste any sweeter.’ #ReadingRussia
Pierre retweeted
Coming soon to an inbox near you: "it wasn't the tariffs" and "real tariffs haven't been tried." Don't buy it.
A) It wasn't ONLY the tariffs, but the polls/results are clear: they were a BIG anchor.
B) This IS real tariffs. They raise prices BY DESIGN, fuel cronyism/carveouts, hurt smallbiz & many manufacturers, alienate allies, & cause many other problems/distortions - especially when done by executive action (which boosts uncertainty).
There's a reason these taxes have been mostly abandoned - by the US and every other rich country. The GOP should stop listening to the protectionist fundamentalists (and cronies) and abandon them too.
