Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria continues to enjoy “de facto free gas” from Russia’s Gazprom – a situation which satisfies no one but ensures political stability in the Russian-controlled region, the country’s energy minister says. Victor Parlicov, however, also says that this situation is fragile and not sustainable in the long run.

Can't wait to read the comments for this one (on WaPo, I mean, though comments on my HK nudie pic are welcome as well 🙂) 

While the Belgorod conscripts aren’t officially participating in the war, they regularly come under fire; many have suffered injuries, and at least seven have been killed. At the beginning of the war, the country’s leadership, including President Vladimir Putin himself, promised that no conscripts would be involved in the “special military operation.”

Salting = getting a job with the intent to organize a workplace.

can't even do an audio stream to 400k people xDDDDDD Join in the next "twitter space" to even increase server load :)

When citizens are voting away the democracies they claim to cherish, they are driven in part by the belief that their opponents will undermine democracy first, a new research has shown. The findings suggest that "aspiring autocrats may instigate democratic backsliding by accusing their opponents of subverting democracy". The authors claim that "we can foster democratic stability by informing partisans about the other side’s commitment to democracy." Here is the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01594-w

Under pressure from the outside world and increasingly fearful of internal resistance, Wladimir Putin’s system is turning increasingly to the old Soviet dictatorial playbook. A search for enemies, external and internal, is central and denunciation is its tool. The state encourages the lowest human traits and builds upon its repressive system.

Julian Assange's wife Stella and his lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said that a plea deal was one option to end his incarceration in the way a negotiation led to the release of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks in 2007. “For Julian, this is a life and death situation. Julian has to be free and that is the primary priority,” Stella Assange said. The Australian lawyer for Assange, Stephen Kenny, who also acted for Hicks before his release, said he was doubtful the US Department of Justice would be open to a plea deal. “My assessment of the American position is that they are quite content to see Julian suffer as long and as much as possible."

The Chinese Communist Party has increasingly shifted towards a more authoritarian regime under Xi Jinping, says researcher Elke Spiessens from the Dutch University of Leiden. "You see within the party a tendency to draw more control to Beijing and keep people more under control." Among other things, this new direction manifests itself in China's increasing profile as a nation-state, in which there is no room for an alternative identity, and the Islam appears to be the Chinas government's ideal scapegoat to justify the opression of Uyghurs.

A Jewish president of a mainly Christian land sat down with Muslim soldiers and made a solemn vow as they broke the daily Ramadan fast. “We will return to Crimea,” he said. These were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s words as he supped with Crimean Tatars on the peninsula — one that is linked by land and international law to Ukraine but by conquest and an 18-kilometre bridge to Russia.

“I thought of my father waking before dawn, driving hours through the cool morning mist, to cut grass, to spray and inhale chemicals—to become a spectre. He had done everything right. He worked like an animal for his employers. He had no criminal record. His credit was great. He didn’t drink or do drugs. He went quietly to work every morning and came quietly home every evening. He obeyed his bosses and won employee of the year multiple times. He paid his taxes and mowed his lawn and met with his children’s teachers. He was the ideal immigrant. The American Dream personified. And yet, the moment his broken body could no longer be exploited for its labor, he was doubted and ignored and humiliated. Everywhere he turned for help—workers’ compensation or welfare or Social Security or Medi-Cal or the court system itself—he was treated like a scam artist. A crook. The bureaucracy inherent to these programs turned him into a stack of documents. A list of ailments. He was dismissed and forgotten. Just another spectre in America.”

Tim Hamlett, a political editor who now retires from political journalism in Hong Kong after more than 40 years, says that comparatively harmless cartoonists and writers face a "constant flow of official abuse" by the local government, and provides a grim outlook for people's freedom. There are "dangerous times for people who do not share our government’s high opinion of itself", he says. [Edited for a typo.]

New book points to an internal struggle at the BBC on whether or not politicians lies should even be questioned.

(Deutsch) [Neues Gesetz: EU-Parlament will gegen Methan vorgehen, von Valentina Romano ](https://www.euractiv.de/section/energie-und-umwelt/news/neues-gesetz-eu-parlament-will-gegen-methan-vorgehen/) (French) [Le Parlement vote un règlement contre les émissions de méthane domestiques et importées, par Valentina Romano](https://www.euractiv.fr/section/energie/news/le-parlement-vote-un-reglement-contre-les-emissions-de-methane-domestiques-et-importees/)

After Ukraine’s independence in 1991, Crimean Tatars returned to their ethnic homeland. But they were soon drowned out by the false claim that “Crimea was always Russian.” Ayla Bakkalli, the Crimean Tatar Representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, says that the Russian government keeps trying to drag Crimeans to the past. "Instead, Russia should seek to redefine itself in the 21st century."

Old, but perhaps worth a look since Biden anxiety seems to be rising 

May 9 is Victory Day, the day Russia celebrates the anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II. But Russians don't appear in party mood. "I don't plan to celebrate" one Russian says. "[People] are celebrating victory over a fascist regime at a time when the Russian army is committing the same crimes in Ukraine".

>The Allen shooter was a Tim Pool fan. > >He was inspired by Libs of TikTok. > >These pundits cause stochastic terror. > >They know it. They don't care. > >They're losing the "culture war" and they want to hurt as many of us as they can.

Before the invasion, the Russian far-right was mostly marginalised on the fringes of society, argues Aleksandar Đokić, a Serbian political scientist and former lecturer at RUDN University in Moscow. But now "we have come to the point where we can justifiably claim that the damage done by Putin's mafia regime has led to a full-fledged Nazification of Russia."

Wagner Group, Russia’s infamous paramilitary organization whose first operation was helping Russia annex Crimea in 2014, is well-known for replenishing its ranks with convicted criminals. Its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves no doubt on how the ideal recruit looks like. "He’ll have another fifteen years, or more, ahead of him [in prison]. He’s in for multiple murders, severe assaults, robberies. If he’s fucked up some official or cop, even better.”