«European ammunition maker says plant expansion hit by energy-guzzling TikTok site: Norwegian group Nammo blames "storage of cat videos" for threatening its growth».
https://www.ft.com/content/f85aa254-d453-4542-a50e-fa1171971ab0

You know your business is in trouble when you need to pick a fight with Big Kitten to justify your failure to plan for an #EnergyCrisis.

Personally I'm not sure who contributes the most to national security and peace: cute viral cats or weapon manufacturers?

When we do #nuclear sharing, it's freedom. When the others do it, it's vassaldom.

Always priceless NYT.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230622124554/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/world/europe/belarus-russia-lukashenko.html

«Šefčovič laid out a vision for Ukraine to be a major supplier of the critical minerals and products needed for a green overhaul of the EU economy as well as a strategic store of natural gas.»
https://www.politico.eu/article/frans-timmermans-quit-eu-climate-chief-return-dutch-politics/

I'm glad we're wasting no time admitting we're in it in the hope of some nice colonialism.

It's whoopsie week in #war PR land.

A #NATO wannabe accidentally cheers an SS volunteer, a NATO expansionist accidentally does business with the alleged enemy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/25/canadas-house-speaker-apologises-after-praising-ukrainian-veteran-who-fought-for-nazis
https://news.err.ee/1609078387/kaja-kallas-scandal-the-story-so-far

#Kallas #Estonia

Unilateral "sanctions" make the #fossil fuel industry even more wasteful, while the well-connected privatize the formerly public profits: «about $11 billion is going into what might be called a delivery spread. Some of that will represent legitimate shipping costs, but almost all of it goes through anonymous traders or unknown shipping companies.»
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-12-06/oil-prices-how-russia-punched-an-11-billion-hole-in-west-s-sanctions-regime

#EnergyCrisis

Putin's 2h speech is more of the same, why fear it? Some parts were hilarious.

Apparently he's a globalist: it's a "period of severe disease" when the world splits in two, like two hemispheres in a split-brain.
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=fOCWBhuDdDo&t=4591s

"There's no stopping Elon Musk" but global regulation of AI is inevitable.
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=fOCWBhuDdDo&t=6570s

The USSR had a policy of "promoting national languages".
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=fOCWBhuDdDo&t=1165s

(I'm not sure about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Soviet_Union#Soviet_language_policy .)

Interesting The Intercept on how propaganda spreads in the West (with NYT+IDF):
https://theintercept.com/2024/02/28/new-york-times-anat-schwartz-october-7/

You don't need a grand conspiracy on the details. Sideline a few skeptical reporters, give resources to one compliant and inexperienced author, let them fall for the stories of some state actor posing as neutral civilian, publish the result, watch powerful people fall for it. Rinse, repeat.

#ManufacturingConsent posits that media shareholders tip the scales thus in pursuit of money/power.

«I'm the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at #war anywhere in the world».
https://apnews.com/article/biden-speech-transcript-campaign-withdrawal-432dc25a5af4ddebf75d73bfcc0fa72a

Until now I failed to notice that Peace is currently triumphing. My bad.

«"From our side, we must do everything so that this war ends next year, ends through diplomatic means," Zelenskiy said in a Ukrainian radio interview aired on Saturday.»
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-says-ukraine-must-try-ensure-war-ends-next-year-through-diplomacy-2024-11-16/

#War ends in the room where the peace treaty is signed, not on the battlefield. It's as simple as that. It should not have taken 3 years, but it's unquestionably good news that the obvious truth is now being aired on national radio.

«Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine can take back Crimea only through diplomatic means. "We cannot spend dozens of, thousands of our people so that they perish for the sake of Crimea coming back … we understand that Crimea can be brought back diplomatically"».
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/21/ukraine-war-briefing-we-will-regain-crimea-through-diplomacy-not-force-says-zelenskyy

About time, even if he's just pandering to the orange one. For this #war to end, we'll need to hear a lot more diplomacy-boosting talk. Imagine if the USA had caused this change of heart a few years earlier.

"Too many people being killed."
https://meduza.io/en/news/2024/12/16/trump-says-decision-to-let-ukraine-fire-long-range-strikes-into-russia-was-mistake-that-he-might-reverse

I can't remember the last time I heard this stated plainly: that getting more people killed in a #war is not a desirable goal of international policy.

The last mention I can find is from March 2022: «enormous suffering and needless loss of life of women, children, everyone». (And the term "needless" assumes that such deaths could be justified in name of some supposed "need".)
https://web.archive.org/web/20240422064037/https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/08/remarks-by-president-biden-announcing-u-s-ban-on-imports-of-russian-oil-liquefied-natural-gas-and-coal/

«We are deeply concerned by actions, be they negligent or malicious, which cause damage to or threaten the functioning of critical undersea infrastructure. We strongly condemn acts of sabotage to critical undersea infrastructure.»
https://www.presidentti.fi/joint-statement-of-the-baltic-sea-nato-allies-summit/

If upon investigation the sabotage turns out to have been committed by our allies, however, we stand ready to have total amnesia about it.

«Experts say it would be relatively easy to force those plants to shut down if Moscow targeted infrastructure near the reactors, such as so-called open distribution devices and switchgears».
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-lawmakers-war-russia-bombs-nuclear-plant-energy-winter-blackout/

This article implies that there were *no* attacks on critical infrastructure near #nuclear reactors controlled by Ukraine's government. Is it so?

IAEA's 7 pillars and 5 principles include protection of an off-site power supply at all times.
https://www.iaea.org/topics/response/nuclear-safety-security-and-safeguards-in-ukraine

New candidate for Goodhart's law poster boy: metrics invented by someone at the "industrial competence centers for import substitution".

What does "heavy server equipment and industrial storage systems delivered to data centers" even mean? Are they measuring by weight?

https://tass.com/economy/1906885

«In Ukraine, where the media had until recently been largely controlled by oligarchs, nine out of 10 outlets rely on subsidies and USAid is the primary donor».
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/11/trump-usaid-cuts-freeze-press-freedom-ukraine-afghanistan-media-rsf

If your media can be shut down with the stroke of a pen by two oligarchs on the other side of pond, maybe don't boast about being "independent" and oligarch-free. Just say you're a fragile public service in need of support. Public subsidies are a necessary lesser evil.

#uspol #usaid

The #UN security council finally managed to pass a resolution on the #war in Ukraine. Resolution 2774.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160456
https://press.un.org/en/2025/sc16005.doc.htm

The text is not in https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/resolutions-adopted-security-council-2025 yet but it should be exactly the same as the one proposed in the general assembly, https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ltd/n25/047/85/pdf/n2504785.pdf .

(Update: it is. https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n25/050/30/pdf/n2505030.pdf )

In which the NYT suddenly discovers that the USA aren't always the best company to be with at the UN.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/us/politics/trump-diplomacy.html (archived: https://archive.ph/SXESx)

As if that didn't happen all the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_ES-10/22

Only three days ago, calls for an immediate ceasefire were considered outrageous bullying. Sprinkle some nice words from Paris on top, and watch how the press reports change:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/03/uk-france-suggest-partial-truce-russia-ukraine-putin

Andrew Mitrovica is right, we need to focus on substance over appearances.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/3/1/trump-did-on-live-tv-what-other-us-presidents-would-just-do-in-private

#uspol

Starmer is quite the character. We ghosted the other side for 3 years, but now we sent them a nice message so if they don't answer in 3 days they're "dragging their feet".
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/mar/15/keir-starmer-putin-is-dragging-his-feet-over-30-day-ukraine-ceasefire

The hypocrisy and self-entitlement are astonishing, but I'll take it any day if this is how we get to perform a total about-face. Or will politicians who now demand diplomacy go back to the position that there are only military solutions to #war, like nothing happened?

«Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian officials would be present at the talks involving the United States and Russia, but would not be in the same room as Russia.»
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-visits-ukraines-eastern-donetsk-region-2025-03-22/

#CoolAndNormal

The Guardian this morning claimed that the killing of 9 civilians overnight was "among the deadliest attacks on the capital of the three-year #war".
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/apr/24/russia-ukraine-war-kyiv-missile-attack-peace-talks-putin-zelenskyy-trump-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-6809d0178f0848f875062a5f#block-6809d0178f0848f875062a5f

If so, it would seem that the attacks (while horrific) are significantly less indiscriminate than those by the USA-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, which routinely killed hundreds of civilians a day.
https://airwars.org/civilian-casualties/?belligerent=coalition&country=iraq%2Csyria&civilian_harm_reported=yes&orderby=confirmed_fatalities&order=desc

Perhaps the morning news just got carried away and accidentally minimised past attacks?

According to https://airwars.org/conflict/russian-military-in-ukraine/ , there were 5 worse days in March 2022 alone.

#Ukraine

Direct talks between #Russia and #Ukraine already produced a first result: 1000+1000 prisoners will be swapped.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/russia-ukraine-talks-end-in-less-than-two-hours-with-no-ceasefire-deal

Theatrics aside, this is a good first step. A diplomatic solution is the only way to end the #war. 3 years (and countless lives) were wasted pretending otherwise, but now there is some hope. Presumably, many small steps will be needed before a big one can be attempted.

«Any degradation of Russia’s air assets will be good news for European governments, which have struggled to catch up with Putin’s war production when it comes to air defenses. [...]

“By taking them out of the fight, Ukraine has helped to reduce the threat in this regard to NATO and its allies,” Withington said.»

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-02/ukraine-s-long-range-strike-on-nuclear-bombers-rattles-moscow (https://archive.is/qrsmL)

Great. I'm expecting NATO countries to reduce current plans for a #nuclear arms race any minute now. /s

«On the face of it, the US involvement in Ukraine bears little similarity to the 20-year Afghanistan war, not least because there are no American boots on the ground in Europe.»

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-22/ukraine-risks-becoming-to-trump-what-afghanistan-was-to-biden (https://archive.is/hcDTB)

Yeah, sure. USA generals were saying Ukraine would be the next Afghanistan already in January 2022. (That's when I started this thread.)

"#Russia's oil exports have decreased modestly since 2022, shifting toward Asia"
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64125

Maybe at some point "we" (NATO countries) will just accept that we can't force our unilateral will on the rest of the world? Imagine that.

If a country wants to reduce oil exports from oil-exporting countries, it can focus on reducing its own oil consumption. It's that simple.

#EnergyCrisis

"Ukraine and Allies Warn US Against Rush to End [...] #War"

Sounds like a TASS headline but it's actually Bloomberg News.