Quite stark comments from Zelensky on the repercussions of surrendering the rest of the Donbas. He speaks quite openly about the potential for losing the army's support and the economy crashing. I wonder how this tweet will look on the day Russia eventually captures the region completely.

A day after Moscow sent a warship to escort tankers through the English Channel, openly defying Starmer’s threat to seize sanctioned vessels, London says it's tracking Russian submarine efforts to spy on critical undersea pipelines and telecom lines on northern Atlantic Ocean floor. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/world/europe/uk-russia-submarines-cables.html

Russia's Supreme Court has elevated Memorial's banned status to "extremist" and ordered its affiliates dissolved. On the same day, the feds also raided what's left of newspaper Novaya Gazeta's Moscow office, another blacklisted, once thriving pillar of Russian civil society.

oh no, i accidentally converted all my google doc quotes to curly quotes

The Avignon Papacy sounds like a forgotten installment in Dan Brown's mysteries

So it turns out that Elbridge Colby is, indeed, insane: “The US,” Colby said, according to a report by The Free Press, “has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.” One U.S. official present at the meeting brought up the Avignon papacy. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/pentagon-threatened-pope-criticized-trump-212552754.html

what the hell went on in their meeting today

"The Trump administration will likely extend its waiver of sanctions on Russian oil this week, former Treasury and State Department officials said — teeing up a similar move on Iranian oil." https://www.semafor.com/article/04/08/2026/trump-administration-expected-to-keep-waiving-sanctions-on-russian-oil-as-iran-call-looms

shocking that the team that brought us those many-pointed plans to solve ukraine have perhaps bungled the iran talks. literally impossible to have foreseen.