Army IDs 3 of 4 soldiers killed in Lithuania training accident
The U.S. Army on Tuesday identified three of the four U.S. soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania last week.
Sgt. Jose Duenez, Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois; Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California; and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were recovered Monday from a peat bog at a training site near Pabrade, Lithuania, the Army said.
“This loss is simply devastating,” said Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, 3rd Infantry Division commanding general, in a statement posted on the 3rd Infantry Division’s Facebook page. “These men were honored soldiers of the Marne Division. We are wrapping our arms around the families and loved ones of our soldiers during [this] incredibly difficult time.”
A fourth soldier was recovered earlier Tuesday. The Army has not released their name, pending confirmation of notification of next of kin.
At the time the soldiers were reported missing March 25, they had been conducting a maintenance mission with an M88A2 Hercules armored vehicle to recover another Army vehicle at a training area near Pabadre, Army officials previously said. The soldiers were deployed to Lithuania as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which has been sending rotations into Europe since Russia invaded the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.
The soldiers were permanently stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
According to the 3rd Infantry Division, Duenez was an M1 Abrams tank system maintainer and had served more than seven years in the Army. He deployed to Poland in 2021 and Germany in 2022, and he was currently serving in the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment.
“Sgt. Jose Duenez will always hold a special place in our hearts. As both a leader and a soldier, he set an example every day — always the first to arrive and the last to leave, greeting every challenge with a smile and a readiness to support anyone who required assistance,” said Capt. Madyson K. Wellens, a commander in his squadron.
Franco was also an M1 Abrams tank system maintainer who had been in the Army for more than six years. He deployed to Korea in 2020 and Germany in 2022.
Wellens said Franco’s “infectious smile and genuine joy in being with his team were matched only by the tenacity and drive. He never asked more of his soldiers than he was willing to give himself — a true testament to his character.”
Taitano was also an M1 Abrams tank system maintainer. He had been in the Army for nearly two years, and this was his first deployment.
Cpt. Matthew Lund, another 5th Squadron commander, said, “Taitano will always be remembered as the spark of the team. He wore a smile on his face no matter the environment or task and constantly brought the team together with his charisma and laughter.”
The initial search for the soldiers included military helicopters, Lithuanian diving teams and hundreds of U.S. and Lithuanian soldiers and law enforcement officers looking through thick forests and swampy terrain. On March 26, search teams found the soldiers’ vehicle 15 feet underwater.
What followed was an arduous, multiday effort to get to the vehicle, which continued to sink and be encased in mud as time went on. Officials brought in engineers, tons of gravel, excavators and slurry pumps. The Polish Armed Forces volunteered a unit of 150 military engineers to help in the recovery. And over the weekend, a U.S. Navy dive crew from Commander, Task Force 68, headquartered in Rota, Spain, arrived on site.
There was a breakthrough in the recovery effort Sunday when the Navy dive crew — after multiple failed attempts — attached steel cables to two of the hoist points on the M88A2 Hercules, the Army said. To get to the hoist points, divers maneuvered through layers of mud, clay and sediment, using a ground-penetrating radar provided by Lithuanian experts to find their way.
Two hours after the cables were attached, the vehicle was unearthed from the bog. By that time, the recovery team grew to include hundreds of personnel from multiple services and countries, the Army said.
Recovery operations continued Monday after the crews recovered the bodies of three of the soldiers. Recovery dogs and their handlers flew in from Estonia on Monday to assist in the search for the fourth soldier. Crews also employed two specialized drone systems, including one equipped with ground-penetrating radar.
“We are incredibly relieved that we were able to bring this recovery to an end and bring closure to all the families, friends and teammates of our soldiers,” said Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, commanding general of 1st Armored Division. “We cannot thank our Allies and fellow service members enough, especially the Lithuanians, who spared no resource in support of this mission. Together, we delivered on our promise to never leave a fallen comrade.”
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, the Army said.
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Thousands of sailors get access to trendy weight-loss app in new deal
You may have seen the ads on Instagram or watched the video spots on YouTube. Noom, a paid weight-loss app that has earned plaudits for getting results in its users, is hot. And it’s now available for free to sailors who failed the service’s Body Composition Assessment standards last year.
As of Feb. 1, the Navy is offering the commercial version of Noom free for a year to these sailors in what the service calls its Fitness Enhancement Program. The Navy’s contract with Noom, which is considered a one-year pilot program, is worth $466,560, paid for by excess funds released by Congress last fiscal year for quality of service initiatives.
“The Navy is paying a discounted rate from commercial individual usage costs; and the service is available at no cost to eligible sailors,” Lt. Kathryn Cole, a Navy spokeswoman, told Military Times.
To register and receive the services, which include a personalized diet plan, weekly challenges, a virtual coaching team through the app, an AI-based food tracker that can calculate calories based on a photo of a meal, and even a 360-degree body scan completed with the user’s phone camera, sailors just need to send their first and last names and government ID number to a Noom-hosted registration link.
A subscription to these features on the app retails for $70 per month or $209 per year. Of note, the Navy’s Noom deal does not cover its newest and most heavily promoted offering, a subscription-based GLP-1 medication to be taken while using the app’s other tools.
“The pilot does not endorse — or cover the costs — of GLP-1 or other anti-obesity medications,” officials said in an info paper about the Noom partnership.
Neither the Navy nor Noom officials had releasable enrollment figures as of March, citing the newness of the program.
“We’re starting to see enrollments come in more and more each day,” Cody Fair, Noom’s chief commercial officer, said in an interview. The message notifying those eligible for the program, he said, had gone out to about 8,000 sailors — a figure the service also confirmed.
According to Navy data, nearly 25,000 sailors, most of them from the junior enlisted ranks, were in a weight management program as of the end of 2024.
The Navy’s Cultural and Force Resilience Office was tasked in March 2024 “to identify, pilot, and assess scaling opportunities to test additional resources to support sailor readiness,” Cole said in responses provided to Military Times.
Noom, she added, met a “strenuous list of capability requirements” that included psychologically based behavior change components, effectiveness shown through peer review, scalability and user data privacy.
Historically, the Navy has at times held the dubious distinction as the most overweight military service. A scientific study published last year found nearly 46% of sailors were overweight and 29% were obese following the COVID-19 pandemic. For comparison, in the same time period 55.8% of Marines were classified as overweight and 12.6% as obese.
While the Navy hasn’t administratively separated any sailors for failing body composition standards since 2017, pending the results of a new study on best assessment methods due later this year, leaders have recently made investments to boost sailor fitness, particularly at the entry level.
In 2023, the service kicked off the Future Sailor Preparatory Course, aimed at improving the fitness and body composition of prospective recruits to bring them within standards for enlistment.
Fair, the Noom executive, said the app and associated programming work because they target unhealthy brain pathways and seek to rewire them, rather than just focusing on promoting healthy actions.
“We start with the mind, and we use cognitive behavioral therapy and other evidence-based protocols to really uncover the root cause of the behavior, and that ultimately creates ‘aha’ moments for the sailors that reshape their habits for good,” he said.
Noom, Fair said, sees particularly strong user engagement, with 50% of all monthly active users logging in on a daily basis. That consistency, which he associated with the “aha moment” of cracking the code on unhelpful behaviors and how to change them, is important to the effectiveness of the program.
The Navy, Cole said, will be tracking the effectiveness of the pilot, which runs through Jan. 31, 2026, based on sailor participation, participant feedback and cost effectiveness.
“Objective data will also be used to determine if the pilot program was successful in increasing the amount of sailors who are within [body composition assessment] standards compared to previous years,” she said.
Fair said Noom will also be tracking how many sailors opt in to the program and how they use it. While the Navy is the company’s first military partnership, he said another service branch reached out to the company in March to discuss a similar deal.
“We’re just starting a conversation there, but certainly … we hope to show success with the Navy and have the ability to branch out to other services within the military,” he said.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Trump’s ‘anger’ at Putin over Ukraine peace deal delay is just play acting
America’s global power and reach are waning by the day as a consequence of Donald Trump’s assaults on the West and his slavish behaviour towards Moscow, …
Donald Trump is peeved. His officials are starting to spin that his plans for almost instant peace in Ukraine may take a lot longer, while Vladimir Putin’s business envoy heads for the White House, supposedly to make amends.
Yet what it truly reveals is that the 47th president continues to be played by the Kremlin.
Trump has unleashed a trade war, expressed colonial designs on two Nato members, scrambled Ukraine’s defensive war plans, shown public contempt for Europe and set about the pillars of American democracy with a sledgehammer.
Trump has shown a remarkable ability to interpret Moscow’s deepest desires and to deliver on them.
That the US president is now saying he is “pissed off” with Putin and is considering – considering – increasing tariffs and sanctions on Russia, is play acting.
The US-Russia trade account is worth about $3.5bn (£2.8bn). That’s nothing. The US doesn’t do enough trade with Russia to make sanctions or tariffs mean anything.
A meaningful threat, one that he has used and applied to Ukraine, would have been in the military realm.
To force Kyiv into agreeing to a ceasefire, Trump cut military aid and then refused to share its intelligence with Ukraine at a time when the Russians were, surprise, surprise, launching a massive offensive to retake the Kursk region from Kyiv’s troops.
The 30-day ceasefire on the Black Sea and a cessation in attacks against energy facilities is desperately needed by Moscow, not Kyiv. Ukraine now rules the Black Sea, and its targeting of Russian energy systems is bringing the war back to Russia.
Cutting military aid and intelligence sharing meant that European nations, including the UK, have rushed to Ukraine’s aid and are frantically planning for a new world without the US security umbrella that has kept them safe for 80 years – and been mostly funded by the US taxpayer.
America’s global power and reach are waning by the day as a consequence of Trump’s assaults on the West and his slavish behaviour towards Moscow.
And yet the White House sees no need to reverse this.
Rather, in a series of meetings and calls over the weekend, officials inside the White House and the state department acknowledged that Putin is “actively resisting Washington’s attempts to strike a lasting peace accord and discussed what, if any, economic or diplomatic punishments could push Russia closer to a deal,” Reuters reported.
Only a team that saw no problem with exploiting Russia’s invasion and mass murder in Ukraine to try to force a minerals deal by handing control of most of Ukraine’s resources forever (plus backpay on previous funding for its war plus interest) could have been blind to Russia’s agenda.
Russia wants all of Ukraine’s resources too. The US has indicated, not that it is theirs to gift, that the 20 per cent of Ukraine that Russia has already stolen is Moscow’s for the keeping.
Russia has been keen to encourage the Trump regime to end the US isolation of Moscow and get back into business with the oligarchs and crooks who run the multinational Russian federation, or empire.
To further this idea, Kirill Dmitriev, the chief of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and Putin’s special investment and international economic adviser, is heading to talks in the US with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East and Russia envoy.
Witkoff was using an unsecured personal mobile phone when he was part of the infamous Signal group on which secret military operational plans were being discussed by Trump’s top intelligence officials, including the heads of the CIA and the director of national intelligence.
Dmitriev, who has a Harvard MBA and is an old friend of Trump’s inner circle, will play Witkoff like a violin and his tunes will be all Russian.
Paris Metro bans David Hockney exhibition poster because artist is holding cigarette
Exclusive: David Hockney condemns ‘dismal’ decision taken by Paris Metro over poster for biggest ever Hockney exhibition
The banned poster: David Hockney sits with his artwork Play within a Play within a Play and Me with a Cigarette (Supplied)
It might seem a perfect match: the French capital – any mention of which inspires images of Seine-adjacent cafes engulfed by a nicotine haze – and one of the world’s foremost advocates of smoking, David Hockney.
But despite the artist famously championing the habit he has enjoyed since 1954, a photograph of the 87-year-old holding a cigarette has been enough to put him at odds with authorities in the capital of the nation famous for Gauloises and Gitanes cigarettes.
Next week, Paris will host the largest exhibition of Hockney’s career, curated by the legendary Sir Norman Rosenthal at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
The exhibition, at the Frank Gehry-designed building in the Bois de Boulogne, will showcase nearly 400 of Hockney’s works over 11 rooms spanning his seven-decade career.
But as the artist prepares for his blockbuster show, citizens travelling on the Paris Metro may be unaware of the significant exhibition taking place in the city.
In a development Hockney described as “complete madness”, lawyers for the Paris transport network have contacted Hockney to inform him that a photograph showing him sitting alongside a new self-portrait cannot be used to advertise the show.
The Parisian transport authorities have taken issue with the fact that Hockney is holding a cigarette in the photograph, but have no objection to the fact that the painting he is holding also depicts him smoking.
The painting is titled Play within a Play within a Play and Me with a Cigarette.
Hockney told The Independent: “The bossiness of those in charge of our lives knows no limits. To hear from a lawyer from the Metro banning an image is bad enough but for them to cite a difference between a photograph and a painting seems, to me, complete madness.
“They only object to the photograph even though I am smoking also in the painting I am holding! I am used to the interfering bossiness of people stopping people making their own choices but this is petty. Art has always been a path to free expression and this is a dismal [decision].”
It is far from the first time that Hockney has faced opposition to his beloved habit, however, with the famed anti-smoking advocate’s father – a 1955 portrait of whom is included in Hockney’s upcoming Paris show – staunchly opposed to the practice.
But for Hockney, the act of smoking is firmly entwined in his work and approach to art.
“He’s 87. He has smoked, I don’t know, maybe 100 cigarettes a day and he still smokes. His lungs are not in a good way, and he accepts that fact,” Rosenthal told The Independent’s editor-in-chief Geordie Greig in a recent interview discussing the upcoming exhibition.
“For him, smoking is a symbol of freedom, to end bossiness. He doesn’t like being told on the packet some awful scare warning. He is very conscious of his physical fragility, but his mind is as clear as is his memory.”
In further remarks following the row with Parisian transport authorities, Rosenthal said: “Madness reigns. To have censorship of this kind with a poster promoting one of the greatest exhibitions of a living artist for a generation is beyond comprehension. Paris is a city of freedom and revolution wrapped into its history – this flies in the face of that.
“This does not make sense. But at least the show is brilliant – the biggest art show ever of Hockney, Britain’s greatest painter.”
The Independent has described the upcoming show as “a spectacular, no-expense-spared, destination event for all art lovers”.
Rosenthal said: “He is the Picasso of our times, and when I say that, people laugh at me, as Picasso was the archetypal artist of the 20th century. But David Hockney is also an incredibly popular artist whose work changes how we see things. When there is a Picasso show at the Tate, there are queues around the block; the same with David. Both really looked, and showed what they saw, and brought joy.”
The exhibition opens on 9 April and is due to run until 31 August.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Stubb: Prantsusmaa või Ühendkuningriik peaks Venemaaga dialoogi astuma
Ukraina liitlastest koosnev nii-öelda tahtekoalitsioon leppis kokku, et vähemalt üks Euroopa liider peaks astuma dialoogi Venemaaga, ütles Soome president Alexander Stubb.
Stubb rääkis Helsingis ajakirjanikele, et 27. märtsil Pariisis peetud arutelul tõdes Ukraina tahtekoalitsioon, et Euroopa liider peab ühel hetkel Venemaa poole pöörduma seoses olukorraga Ukrainas.
Stubb soovitas Prantsusmaal või Ühendkuningriigil alustada kontakti Venemaa presidendi Vladimir Putiniga.
"Minu isiklik eelistus oleks, et seda teeksid meie koalitsiooni esindajad. Teisisõnu Prantsusmaa või Ühendkuningriik," ütles Stubb.
Praegu ei pea Euroopa liidrid Putiniga läbirääkimisi. Täiemahulise sõja alguses rääkisid Putiniga Prantsusmaa president Emmanuel Macron ja Saksamaa kantsler Olaf Scholz, kuid need arutelud ei andnud tulemusi.
Euroopa liidrid on välja jäetud ka hiljutistest USA juhitud relvarahukõnelustest Ukraina ja Venemaaga.
Tahtekoalitsioon, kuhu kuuluvad riigid, kes on pühendunud Ukrainale julgeolekugarantiide andmisele ja potentsiaalsele rahuvalvejõudude saatmisele, pidas 27. märtsil Pariisis tippkohtumise.
Prantsusmaa ja koalitsiooni juhtiv Ühendkuningriik on andnud nõusoleku saata rahuleppe sõlmimise korral väed Ukrainasse.
Stubb ütles ka 31. märtsil, et Soome peab kunagi valmistuma suhete taastamiseks Venemaaga. Ta rääkis ajakirjanikele, et USA president Donald Trump küsis temalt, kas Putinit saab usaldada, mille peale ta vastas, et ei saa.
Kremli pressiesindaja Dmitri Peskov ütles 1. aprillil, et Putin on avatud suhete normaliseerimiseks Soomega.
Soome liitus NATO-ga 2023. aastal vastuseks Venemaa täiemahulisele sissetungile Ukrainas. Soomel on Venemaaga 1300-kilomeetrine piir ning riik on alates sõja algusest tugevdanud oma kaitsealaseid sidemeid lääneliitlastega.
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MON: wsparcie dla Ukrainy płynące przez polski hub nie zmienia się
Wsparcie dla Ukrainy przechodzące przez polski hub utrzymuje się na równym poziomie - powiedział w czwartek szef Departamentu Wojskowych Spraw Zagranicznych MON Lech Drab. Zaangażowanie ok. 40 państw przekazujących to wsparcie nie zmieniło się; to optymistyczne - ocenił na posiedzeniu sejmowej komisji obrony.
Sejmowa komisja obrony narodowej wysłuchała w czwartek informacji MON, MSZ oraz Ośrodka Studiów Wschodnich na temat sytuacji na Ukrainie.
Drab poinformował, że Rosja utrzymuje inicjatywę operacyjną. W dalszym ciągu prowadzi swoje działania i krok po kroku, mimo ciężkich strat, osiąga "jakieś zdobycze terytorialne". Zaznaczył jednak, że nie są to obszary, które wpływają na powodzenie rosyjskiej operacji, a Ukraina w dalszym ciągu skutecznie się broni i nie pozwala na załamanie frontu. Niemniej, Rosja cały czas dąży do zajęcia jak najwięcej terenu, żeby - jak mówił Drab - stworzyć sobie lepsze warunki negocjacji.
Z przedstawionych przez MON informacji wynika, że Kreml priorytetowo traktuje swój budżet wojskowy, a przemysł zbrojeniowy Rosji dostosował się do aktualnej sytuacji na Ukrainie. Drab powiedział, że osiągi tegoż przemysłu zdecydowanie się zwiększyły.
Drab mówił też o udzielanym Ukrainie wsparciu, które - jak zapewniał - w dalszym ciągu jest realizowane. Zaznaczył, że optymistyczny jest fakt, iż wsparcie, które w zdecydowanej większości idzie przez polski hub w Rzeszowie-Jasionce, jest utrzymywany na tym samym poziomie. "To oznacza, że rzeczywiście nie zmieniło się zaangażowanie około 40 państw, które realizują to wsparcie" - powiedział.
Dyrektor DWSZ poinformował o rozpoczęciu transferu sprzętu wojskowego na Ukrainę w ramach 46. pakietu pomocy. "Przygotowujemy donację 47., a może i 48., jeszcze jest to dyskutowane" - powiedział. Jak mówił Drab, Polska przekazała do tej pory Ukrainie sprzęt wojskowy wart ponad 3 mld euro.
Mówiąc o unijnej misji szkolenia ukraińskich żołnierzy (EUMAM), zauważył, że w jej ramach przeszkolono już ok. 71 tys. Ukraińców. Sama Polska jednak, jak podał Drab, przeszkoliła ich 28 tys., - "nasze zaangażowanie w szkolenie i przygotowanie żołnierzy ukraińskich jest naprawdę ogromny" - ocenił.
Kierownik Zespołu Białorusi, Ukrainy i Mołdawii Ośrodka Studiów Wschodnich Tadeusz Iwański ocenił, że w ciągu najbliższych kilku miesięcy Ukraina prawdopodobnie będzie dysponowała amunicją pozwalającą na spowolnienie postępów Rosji - amunicja ta, w dużej mierze amerykańska, przekazana została Ukrainie jeszcze pod koniec kadencji Joe Bidena. "W dalszej perspektywie tu może być problem, kolejny amerykański pakiet pomocy wojskowej dla Ukrainy wydaje się mało prawdopodobny" - przyznał.
W kontekście sytuacji politycznej na Ukrainie, Iwański zwrócił uwagę, że "po nadziejach na prezydenta Donalda Trumpa, że będzie bardziej pomocny niż jego poprzednik, nastąpiło na Ukrainie gwałtowne otrzeźwienie i rozczarowanie, a Trump w niektórych kręgach uznawany jest wręcz za wroga, podobnie jak przywódca Rosji Władimir Putin". Powołując się na badania opinii publicznej, powiedział, że 70 proc. Ukraińców zmieniło na gorsze swoje nastawienie wobec USA i Trumpa. Tyle samo uważa, że jego prezydentura nie przyniesie Ukrainie niczego dobrego.
Nastroje społeczne jednak - jak mówił Iwański - przyniosły pozytywny efekt dla prezydenta Ukrainy Wołodymyra Zełenskiego. Podobnie jak tuż po wybuchu inwazji na pełną skalę w 2022 r. wyraźny jest tzw. efekt flagi. Iwański podał, że aktualny poziom zaufania wobec Zełenskiego wzrósł do 70 proc., czyli najwięcej od 2022 r. Wzrosło także poparcie wyborcze dla aktualnego prezydenta - po raz pierwszy sondaże dają mu zwycięstwo w potencjalnych wyborach.
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Леонков: "Раммштайн" остался без США, Европа идет на риск, Армения создает для себя опасности.
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Did NATO Expansion Set Off the Ukraine War? | Prof. John Mearsheimer.
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NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels.
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NATO Secretary General with 🇺🇸 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 03 APR 2025.
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NATO-Außenministertreffen: Statement von Annalena Baerbock | 03.04.25
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NATO Secretary General with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine 🇺🇦 Andrii Sybiha, 03 APR 2025.
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NATO Secretary General - Doorstep statement at Foreign Ministers Meeting, 03 APR 2025.
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We Grow Faster and Better Together! Norway's Foreign Minister Calls for Unity!
Asiantuntijat A-Talkissa: Trumpin tullit syövät Suomen kasvun
Yhdysvallat on Suomen tärkeimpiä vientimaita ja tullit iskevät myös Suomen talouskasvuun. Asiantuntijoiden mukaan ongelmia voi kuitenkin kompensoida mahdollinen korkojen lasku.
Helsingin yliopiston taloushistorian professori Jari Eloranta arvioi A-Talkissa, että Yhdysvaltain presidentti Donald Trumpin asettamat tullit kurittavat Suomeen povattua talouskasvua.
– Tämä on tietysti Suomelle erittäin ikävä tilanne. Erilaiset ennusteet talouskasvusta ovat jo nyt hyvin maltillisia Suomen osalta. Kun katsotaan erilaisia arvioita siitä, miten tämä tulevat vaikuttamaan Suomen talouteen niin ne ikään kuin syövät sen mahdollisen talouskasvun.
Yhdysvallat on Suomen tärkeimpiä vientimaita, joten Trumpin eilen julkistamat tuontitullit kolahtavat siis kovaa myös Suomeen. Yhdysvaltain-vienti vastasi viime vuonna 11 prosenttia Suomen kokonaisviennistä.
Elinkeinoelämän tutkimuslaitos (Etla) arvioi, että Suomen bruttokansantuote voi laskea jopa 1,6 prosenttia Yhdysvaltain kaupan vähentyessä tai muuttuessa merkittävästi epäkannattavammaksi.
– En vielä ehkä ennustaisi taantumaa mutta kyllä lähelle sitä mennään todellakin. Jos nämä tullit jäävät tässä muodossa tai puhutaan vaikka kymmenestäkin prosentista, niin kyllä se on iso isku. Se hidastaa talouskasvua ja luo epävarmuutta, Eloranta kertoo.
Danske Bankin pääanalyytikko Minna Kuusisto arvioi kuitenkin, että epävarmuuden lisääntyessä luvassa voi olla uusia koronlaskuja Euroopan keskuspankilta EKP:ltä. Ne vaikuttaisivat suotuisasti muun muassa asuntovelallisiin.
– Yksityisen kulutuksen näkökulmasta meillä on myös positiivisia ajureita edelleen. Itse näkisin, että epävarmuuden kasvu tarkoittaa, että EKP jatkaa koronlaskujaan. Se tulee ilman muuta edelleen tukemaan erityisesti velallisten kotitalouksien asemaa ja sitä kautta piristämään tunnelmaa.
Trump julkisti eilen tuontitulleja Yhdysvaltain kauppakumppaneille. Tullien tarkoitus on Trumpin mukaan työllisyyden lisääminen ja talouden vahvistaminen Yhdysvalloissa.
Ilmoitetut tuontitullit astuvat voimaan vaiheittain 5. ja 9. huhtikuuta. Lähtökohtainen tuontitulli on 10 prosenttia, mutta useiden maiden osalta tuontitulli on huomattavasti korkeampi. Esimerkiksi Euroopan unionista tuotaville tuotteille asetetaan 20 prosentin tulli.
BiH: Niemcy i Austria zakażą wjazdu Dodikowi i jego współpracownikom
Milorad Dodik, prezydent Republiki Serbskiej w Bośni i Hercegowinie, oraz jego dwaj współpracownicy otrzymają zakaz wjazdu na terytorium Niemiec i Austrii - ogłosiły w czwartek w Sarajewie szefowa austriackiej dyplomacji Beate Meinl-Reisinger i niemiecka minister ds. europejskich Anna Luhrmann.
Zakazem, poza Dodikiem, objęci zostaną premier oraz przewodniczący parlamentu serbskiej części Bośni i Hercegowiny (BiH), Radovan Viszković i Nenad Stevandić. Bośniacka prokuratura prowadzi przeciwko nim śledztwo w sprawie domniemanego zamachu na porządek konstytucyjny kraju.
Sąd BiH wydał ogólnokrajowy nakaz aresztowania trzech polityków, a w ubiegłym tygodniu zwrócił się do Interpolu o wydanie międzynarodowego nakazu zatrzymania Dodika i Stevandicia. Interpol wniosek ten odrzucił w środę.
Przedstawicielki rządów Niemiec i Austrii spotkały się w czwartek z szefową centralnego rządu BiH Borjaną Kriszto. Po spotkaniu zapowiedziały "podjęcie działań uniemożliwiających trzem politykom wjazdu na terytorium Niemiec i Austrii".
"Ataki na integralność konstytucyjną Bośni i Hercegowiny ze strony czołowych polityków Republiki Serbskiej są niedopuszczalne i stanowią zagrożenie dla bezpieczeństwa i stabilności kraju oraz całego regionu. Blokują też proces akcesji do UE i zagrażają przyszłości kraju we Wspólnocie" - podkreśliły Meinl-Reisiger i Luhrmann we wspólnym oświadczeniu opublikowanym na stronach rządowych Austrii i Niemiec.
"Dodik swoimi secesjonistycznymi prowokacjami wyraźnie przekroczył z prawnego punktu widzenia czerwone linie. Zagraża bezpieczeństwu, stabilności, porządkowi konstytucyjnemu i integralności terytorialnej państwa" - zauważyła w Sarajewie Meinl-Reisiger.
Minister Luhrmann zaapelowała o "powrót na ścieżkę reform i kontynuowanie drogi do Unii Europejskiej". Obie podkreśliły wsparcie swoich państw dla europejskich aspiracji Bośni i Hercegowiny.
Austriacki dziennik "Der Standard" zauważył w komentarzu do wizyty minister Meinl-Reisinger w BiH, że "austriackie sankcje mogą Dodika zaboleć szczególnie, ponieważ często jeździ do kraju, gdzie ma pokaźną grupę zwolenników".
Najnowszy kryzys polityczny w BiH wybuchł po tym, gdy pod koniec lutego sąd pierwszej instancji skazał Dodika na rok więzienia i sześć lat zakazu pełnienia funkcji publicznych za utrudnianie wykonania decyzji Wysokiego Przedstawiciela Wspólnoty Międzynarodowej w BiH, Christiana Schmidta.
Po ogłoszeniu wyroku parlament RS przegłosował szereg ustaw zakazujących działania na swoim terytorium kilku instytucji centralnych BiH, w tym sądów, prokuratury oraz policji federalnej. Po podpisaniu dokumentów przez Dodika Trybunał Konstytucyjny BiH wstrzymał 7 marca ich obowiązywanie do czasu podjęcia ostatecznej decyzji.
Rosyjskie porty z największym wzrostem przeładunków na Bałtyku, polskie zaliczyły spadek
Rosyjski port Ust-Ługa - największy na Morzu Bałtyckim - powiększył w 2024 r. swoje obroty o 20 proc. Polskie porty, które w bałtyckim Top10 zajmują trzy pozycje, a Gdańsk jest wiceliderem zestawienia, odnotowały za to spadek przeładunków.
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Rosyjskie porty są liderami wzrostów w basenie Morza Bałtyckiego. Ust-Ługa zanotowała wzrost o 20 proc. wszystkich przeładunków, a w Sankt Petersburgu przeładunki kontenerów skoczyły aż o 31,30 proc.
• W Ust-Łudze wzrost był napędzany głównie przez zwiększenie przeładunku ładunków suchych, zwłaszcza nawozów. Za wzrostem w Petersburgu stoją chińskie firmy żeglugowe i MSC (armator z siedzibą w Szwajcarii), podczas gdy wielu innych operatorów wycofało się z rynku rosyjskiego po inwazji na Ukrainę.
• Rosja, mimo że generalnie traci w swoich portach rozrzuconych na wielu morzach, to na Bałtyku zyskuje.
Jak podaje najnowszy raport Actia Forum, w 2024 r. przeładunek towarów w dziesięciu największych portach bałtyckich wzrósł o 3,5 proc. (+16,9 mln ton) w porównaniu z rokiem poprzednim, osiągając 506,4 mln ton.
W ocenie analityków, gospodarka morska na Bałtyku dostosowała się do sytuacji geopolitycznej, zmian w globalnych łańcuchach dostaw, kładąc nacisk na poprawę infrastruktury i przepustowości.
Rosja rośnie na Bałtyku, strategiczne morze dla agresora
Wzrost przeładunków wynika przede wszystkim z aktywności rosyjskiego portu Ust-Ługa
w obwodzie leningradzkim, nad rzeką Ługą, około 150 km na zachód od Petersburga. Utrzymał on swoją pierwszą pozycję wśród portów bałtyckich, zwiększając obroty o 20 proc. i osiągając poziom 135 mln ton przeładowanych w 2024 r., podczas gdy rok wcześniej przeładował 112,5 mln ton.
Wzrost ten był napędzany głównie przez zwiększenie przeładunku ładunków suchych, zwłaszcza nawozów. Port zainwestował w nowy sprzęt (w tym reach stackery, czyli wózki do obsługi kontenerów i pochyłe rozrzutniki), co pomogło zwiększyć wolumen.
W pozostałych portach rosyjskich odnotowano mniejsze zmiany w obrotach całkowitych
. Port Primorsk zmniejszył wolumen o 3,8 proc. do poziomu 60,7 mln ton, podczas gdy port Sankt Petersburg zwiększył o 4,8 proc. (do poziomu 52 mln ton).
Ogółem w 2024 r. wszystkie rosyjskie porty morskie odnotowały spadek obrotów ładunkowych o 2,3 proc., szczególnie w kategorii węgla, metali i ładunków płynnych, natomiast obroty ładunkowe basenu bałtyckiego nieznacznie wzrosły (+0,6 proc.).
Jeśli chodzi o polskie porty morskie, to 2024 r. odnotowały spadek obrotów całkowitych. Mimo to Port Gdańsk utrzymał drugą pozycję w rankingu największych portów bałtyckich
. W ubiegłym roku port obsłużył 77,4 mln ton ładunków, co oznacza spadek o 4,4 proc. w porównaniu z rokiem poprzednim. Spadek przeładunków spowodowany był przede wszystkim zmniejszeniem wolumenu węgla i koksu (-41,3 proc.), zbóż (-6,6 proc.) oraz innych suchych ładunków masowych (-1,8 proc.). Wzrosty odnotowano w kategorii paliw płynnych i ładunków drobnicowych.
W 2024 r. dominującą grupą ładunkową w Porcie Gdańsk pozostały paliwa płynne, stanowiące 51 proc. całkowitych obrotów. Port Gdynia i Port Szczecin-Świnoujście również odnotowały spadek całkowitych obrotów odpowiednio o 8,5 proc. i 8,4 proc.
Więcej o sytuacji w polskich portach
pisaliśmy w tekście:
Piąty w zestawieniu szwedzki port w Göteborgu utrzymał swoją pozycję w rankingu, obsługując w 2024 r. o 6 proc. więcej ładunków niż w roku poprzednim, przekraczając 38 mln ton. Zauważono, że import wzrósł w zeszłym roku i oczekuje się, że trend ten utrzyma się w 2025 r., podczas gdy eksport odnotował niewielki spadek. Większy wolumen w 2024 r. był spowodowany przede wszystkim zwiększonym przeładunkiem produktów energetycznych (+18 proc.) i suchych ładunków masowych (+6 proc.).
Szósty w Top10
Port Kłajpeda wyprzedził w 2024 r. polski port - Szczecin-Świnoujście,
przeładowując 35,5 mln ton w 2024 r. - wzrost o 8,7 proc. (+2,8 mln ton) całkowitych obrotów.
- Największy port Litwy odnotował najwyższy wzrost ze względu na ponad dwukrotny wzrost przeładunku materiałów budowlanych i minerałów w porównaniu z 2023 r. Wyniki te były napędzane ciągłymi inwestycjami infrastrukturalnymi zarządu portu, a także zdecydowanymi wysiłkami firm na rzecz modernizacji sprzętu i utrzymania silnych relacji z klientami - wyjaśnili analitycy Actia Forum.
Przeładunki w największych portach morskich na Bałtyku w latach 2022-2024 [tys. ton]
Duże zmiany w przeładunkach kontenerów. Polskie porty na plusie
W 2024 r. rynek kontenerowy Morza Bałtyckiego doświadczył sporych zmian, ze znacznym wzrostem w kluczowych portach i zmianami w dynamice regionalnej.
Największe bałtyckie porty kontenerowe obsłużyły ponad 9 mln TEU, co oznacza wzrost o 7,8 proc
. w porównaniu z wynikami osiągniętymi w 2023 r. Wynik ten jest wyższy o 648 623 TEU w porównaniu z rekordowym wynikiem po czasach Covid w 2021 r., kiedy gospodarka się ożywiła. Większość największych portów poprawiła swoje wyniki w 2024 r.
Największym portem kontenerowym w regionie Morza Bałtyckiego jest Port Gdańsk.
W 2024 r. port osiągnął kolejny rekord w przeładunku kontenerów z 2 248 764 TEU, co oznacza wzrost o 9,7 proc. (+198 727 TEU).
Port inwestuje w nowy terminal kontenerowy T3 w ramach Baltic Hub, który ma zwiększyć jego możliwości i roczną przepustowość do 4,5 miliona TEU. Pierwsze cztery dźwigi Ship-to-Shore bezpiecznie dotarły i zostały rozładowane na głównym nabrzeżu T3 w zeszłym roku. Obecnie trwają testy i montaż niezbędnego sprzętu, a pełna gotowość operacyjna spodziewana jest do marca 2025 r.
Port Gdynia znacznie poprawił obroty kontenerowe w 2024 r., osiągając 974 586 TEU (+11,5 proc. lub +100 000 TEU) w porównaniu z 2023 r., zapewniając sobie czwarte miejsce wśród najlepszych portów kontenerowych. Największy wzrost odnotował terminal GCT (+16,2 proc.), co przypisuje się uruchomieniu nowej usługi Poland Express Service (Ipex) do Wielkiej Brytanii przez firmę żeglugową Ellerman City Liners. Sąsiedni terminal BCT również odnotował silny wzrost (+8,5 proc.).
W Gdyni trwają prace nad nowym głębokowodnym Portem Zewnętrznym,
który ma mieć powierzchnię około 151 hektarów. Projekt obejmuje terminal kontenerowy o rocznej przepustowości 2,5 miliona TEU i głębokowodne nabrzeża o łącznej długości około 2,5 km, zaprojektowane tak, aby pomieścić największe statki wpływające na Morze Bałtyckie.
Drugim co do wielkości portem kontenerowym na Morzu Bałtyckim w 2024 r. był Port Petersburg. W ubiegłym roku obroty kontenerowe w tym porcie wzrosły o 31,3 proc. w porównaniu z 2023 r., co pozwoliło mu wyprzedzić port litewski, który zajął drugie miejsce w 2023 r. Rosyjski port obsłużył 1 374 000 TEU (+327 512 TEU).
- Głównym czynnikiem stojącym za tym wzrostem była usługa świadczona przez chińskie firmy żeglugowe i MSC (armator z siedzibą w Szwajcarii), podczas gdy wiele europejskich linii żeglugowych wycofało się z rynku rosyjskiego po inwazji na Ukrainę. Ten trend może się utrzymać, w zależności od dynamiki geopolitycznej i globalnej polityki handlowej - zauważają autorzy raportu.
Port w Kłajpedzie zakończył rok 2024 wzrostem obrotów kontenerowych o 1,8 proc. w porównaniu z rokiem 2023. Pomimo wzrostu port spadł o jedną pozycję w rankingu. W 2024 r. Kłajpeda po raz trzeci w swojej historii obsłużyła ponad 1 milion TEU, osiągając 1 069 678 TEU (+18 874 TEU).
Przeładunek kontenerów w porcie w Göteborgu w 2024 r. pozostał na podobnym poziomie jak w 2023 r., wynosząc łącznie 909 000 TEU (-0,6 proc.). Pomimo tego niewielkiego spadku, tonaż ładunków kontenerowych wzrósł, co wskazuje na zmniejszenie liczby pustych kontenerów przechodzących przez port.
Warto zwrócić uwagę na sytuację największego duńskiego portu w Aarhus. Spadek przeładunku kontenerów trwał tam nadal. W 2024 r. port obsłużył 659 886 TEU, co oznacza zmniejszenie o 2 proc. rok do roku. Jednak we wrześniu podpisano tam umowę z MSC na dzierżawę gruntu pod nowy terminal kontenerowy, którego ukończenie planowane jest na 2027 r.
Interesująco rysuje się też przyszłość Portu Ryga. Pozostaje on jedynym dostawcą regularnego ruchu kontenerowego na Łotwie. W 2024 r. Rygę do swoich tras dodało dwóch nowych operatorów transportu kontenerowego, a na początku 2025 r. dołączył kolejny. Obecnie port jest obsługiwany przez osiem głównych linii kontenerowych: CMA CGM, MSC, Penta Maritime Agencies (jako agent COSCO), Sea Consortium, Unifeeder, Samskip, Reel Shipping i Ocean Network Express (ONE).
Przeładunki w największych portach kontenerowych na Bałtyku [TEU]
Raport analizuje także rynek Ro-Ro i promów w 2024 r.
W 2024 r. rynek Ro-Ro na Morzu Bałtyckim wykazywał zróżnicowaną wydajność w różnych portach, na co wpływ miały warunki ekonomiczne, rozwój infrastruktury i wydarzenia geopolityczne. Pomimo trudnych czasów większość z jedenastu analizowanych portów odnotowała wzrost liczby obsłużonych jednostek frachtowych w 2024 r. w porównaniu z rokiem poprzednim.
Największym portem Ro-Ro na obszarze Morza Bałtyckiego jest Port Trelleborg. W 2024 r. port obsłużył 750 037 jednostek frachtowych, co stanowi spadek o 6,3 proc. w porównaniu z rokiem 2023. Drugi w zestawieniu jest port w Helsinkach obsłużył 671 645 jednostek ładunkowych, co oznacza wzrost o 4,4 proc. w porównaniu z 2023 r., a trzeci port w Talinie, który również odnotował również pozytywny trend w przepustowości Ro-Ro w 2024 r., obsługując około 565 000 jednostek ładunkowych (6,6 mln ton), co oznacza wzrost o 2,6 proc. w porównaniu z 2023 r.
Polskie porty zajmują w zestawieniu pozycje: 6 - Szczecin-Świnoujście, 8 - Gdynia, 11 - Gdańsk. Wszystkie odnotowały wzrost przeładunków ro-ro w 2024 r. w porównaniu do 2023 r., obsługując łącznie 698 000 jednostek frachtowych (+2,99 proc.).
Największy polski port ro-ro, Szczecin-Świnoujście, obsłużył 468 346 jednostek frachtowych (+1,7 proc. rdr.). Na kolejnym miejscu znalazł się Port Gdynia z 201 566 jednostkami frachtowymi (+4,6 proc.), a Port Gdańsk obsłużył 28 212 jednostek frachtowych (+14,9 proc.)
Perspektywy na 2025 r. Porty nadal pod silnym wpływem geopolityki
Rok 2025 będzie nadal kształtowany przez czynniki geopolityczne wpływające na rynek transportu bałtyckiego i gospodarkę. Konflikt na Ukrainie i embarga na surowce, takie jak LPG, ropa naftowa i węgiel, mogą napędzać wzrost przeładunku ładunków masowych w portach. Zakłócenia w handlu i energetyce spowodowane niestabilnością na Bliskim Wschodzie wpłyną na rynek bałtycki.
Bardziej rygorystyczne przepisy UE dotyczące emisji i malejące zasoby ryb napędzają działania na rzecz zrównoważonego rozwoju. Rosja rozbudowuje porty bałtyckie w celu zwiększenia eksportu produktów rolnych, co potencjalnie zmienia przepływy handlowe.
- Jednocześnie rosnący popyt na alternatywne trasy transportowe i zróżnicowane źródła surowców może wzmocnić sektor logistyczny. Poprawa nastrojów konsumentów pod koniec 2024 r. i prognozy wzrostu PKB dają perspektywy ożywienia w obsłudze ładunków drobnicowych - kończą autorzy najnowszego raportu Actia Forum.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Macron suggests pause on US investment as EU leaders condemn Trump tariffs
Von der Leyen calls tariffs ‘a major blow to world economy’ while calling for last-ditch negotiations
European leaders have condemned Donald Trump’s tariffs as “fundamentally wrong” and creating an “immense difficulty for Europe”, while appealing for last-ditch negotiations to avert an all-out trade war.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Trump’s decision to impose tariffs was “brutal and unfounded” and appeared to call for a suspension of French investment in the US until the tariffs were clarified.
“Future investments, investments announced in the last weeks, should be suspended for a time for as long as the situation with the United States is not clarified,” Macron told a meeting of French companies.
Suggesting measures against the US tech sector “where the United States benefits enormously from Europe”, he added: “Nothing is excluded. All the elements are on the table.”
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, lambasted Donald Trump’s “protectionist” tariffs, saying they ran “contrary to the interests of millions of citizens on this side of the Atlantic and in the US, who will unfortunately see their businesses and their purchase power” affected by the measures.
In a strongly worded and defiant speech in Madrid on Thursday morning, Sánchez said the US administration did not distinguish between friends and enemies: “It goes against everyone and everything.”
Sánchez described the tariffs as an “unprecedented” and “unilateral” US attack on Europe, adding: “Returning to the protectionism of the 19th century isn’t a smart way of tackling the challenges of the 21st century.”
Germany’s outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Trump’s decision was “fundamentally wrong” and “an attack on a trade system that has created prosperity all round the world, itself an American achievement”.
France’s prime minister, François Bayrou, said the tariffs were “an immense difficulty for Europe” as well as “a catastrophe for the United States and for US citizens”.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, described the tariffs as “a major blow to the world economy” spelling “dire” consequences for millions of people. She said the EU was prepared to respond, but urged Trump to “move from confrontation to negotiation”.
The EU is expected to announce retaliatory tariffs on US consumer and industrial goods – likely to include emblematic products such as orange juice, blue jeans and Harley-Davidson motorbikes – in mid-April, in response to steel and aluminium tariffs previously announced by Trump.
The bloc has yet to respond to the 25% duties on EU cars that entered into force on 3 April, nor the latest round of reciprocal tariffs announced on Trump’s so-called “liberation day”, dubbed variously “inflation day” and “resentment day” by senior politicians in the European parliament.
The US president announced a 20% tariff on EU exports to the US on Wednesday as part of a sweeping set of measures targeting countries around the world, rich and poor, large and small.
The tariffs would affect 70% of all EU exports to the US, raising a theoretical €80bn (£67bn) for the US treasury, if trade remained unchanged, EU officials estimated.
Von der Leyen said the EU was “preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail”.
The EU executive is facing growing calls to broaden its armoury by targeting US services, from tech companies to big banks.
Bernd Lange, the head of the European parliament’s international trade committee, said: “If we are really on an escalation ladder, then of course we will have a look to the tech giants as well,” although he added: “This is not the first choice.”
The German Social Democrat MEP, who travels to Washington next week, also favours negotiations, but is sceptical. He said only Trump and his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, controlled trade policy and until they were willing to take part in discussions, “negotiations are not possible – that’s really a mess”.
Lange also suggested Trump’s grievances went far beyond European tariffs, as the US’s stated grievances concerned EU legislation, from food law to safe internet rules. “This is of course not the ground for negotiation,” he said.
EU retaliation will have to be agreed by a weighted majority of member states, amid deep alarm over the consequences for European jobs and industry.
The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who cleared her diary on Thursday to focus on the issue, said: “We will do everything we can to work towards an agreement with the United States, with the goal of avoiding a trade war that would inevitably weaken the west in favour of other global players.”
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, described the tariffs as “a painful and bitter blow” that may reduce Polish GDP by 0.4%.
Belgium’s prime minister Bart De Wever said he hoped the western world would abandon “wealth-destroying protectionist madness” and cautioned against rushing into a trade war, saying “stupidity should not be met with stupidity”.
He also said that countermeasures were necessary, but should remain proportional.
The EU-US trade relationship was worth €1.6tn (£1.3tn) in 2023: the EU sells more goods to the US, a surplus of €154bn, thanks to cars and medicines, while the US has a €109bn surplus in services, reflecting the success of its banks and tech companies in Europe.
Senior EU officials declined to speculate on what further countermeasures could look like, but said nothing was off the table. “Retaliation is not a punishment. Retaliation is a means to an end,” said one senior EU official stressing the wish for a negotiated outcome.
Meanwhile, officials are seeking to finalise the first round of retaliatory tariffs amid national lobbying. Behind the scenes, France has been calling for US bourbon to be removed in the hope of avoiding a counter-punch against the French drinks industry. Trump threatened “200%” tariffs on wines, spirits and champagne from France and other EU countries when he learned of the plan to target US whiskey.
The commission is also facing questions over whether it will invoke for the first time the EU’s anti-coercion law, which gives the bloc wide leeway to impose trade and investment restrictions on a foreign government deemed to be using trade as a weapon.
This law could, in theory, allow the EU to revoke banking licences for large US banks, cancel US intellectual property rights in Europe and block US companies from bidding for European government contracts. It can be triggered only by a weighted majority of EU member states – a big step against an old ally many EU governments still hope to win round.
The EU’s most senior trade official, Maroš Šefčovič, is due to speak to his US counterparts on Friday. “We’ll act in a calm, carefully phased, unified way, as we calibrate our response, while allowing adequate time for talks. But we won’t stand idly by, should we be unable to reach a fair deal,” Šefčovič wrote on social media.
EU officials are also bracing for sectoral tariffs to hit three further industries: pharmaceutical, semiconductors and lumber.
The dream of nuclear fusion has been chased by some of the world’s brightest minds for decades. It’s easy to see why — replicating the inner workings of stars here on Earth would mean virtually unlimited clean energy.
Despite a long history of attempts, and several breakthroughs, the dream hasn’t turned to reality yet, and we’re likely many years away from seeing a fusion power plant anywhere on the planet.
Carrying out the process in space might sound like adding an extra layer of complexity to an already complex technology, but it could theoretically happen sooner than on Earth. And it could help spacecraft achieve speeds of up to 500,000 miles (805,000 kilometers) per hour — more than the fastest object ever built, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which peaked at 430,000 miles (692,000 kilometers) per hour.
With funding from the UK Space Agency, British startup Pulsar Fusion has unveiled Sunbird, a space rocket concept designed to meet spacecraft in orbit, attach to them, and carry them to their destination at breakneck speed using nuclear fusion.
“It’s very unnatural to do fusion on Earth,” says Richard Dinan, founder and CEO of Pulsar. “Fusion doesn’t want to work in an atmosphere. Space is a far more logical, sensible place to do fusion, because that’s where it wants to happen anyway.”
For now, Sunbird is in the very early stages of construction and it has exceptional engineering challenges to overcome, but Pulsar says it hopes to achieve fusion in orbit for the first time in 2027. If the rocket ever becomes operational, it could one day cut the journey time of a potential mission to Mars in half.
Just grams of fuel
Nuclear fusion is different from nuclear fission, which is what powers current nuclear power plants. Fission works by splitting heavy, radioactive elements like uranium into lighter ones, using neutrons. The vast amount of energy released in this process is used to make electricity.
Fusion does the opposite: it combines very light elements like hydrogen into heavier ones, using high temperature and pressure. “The sun and the stars are all fusion reactors,” says Dinan. “They are element cookers — cooking hydrogen into helium — and then as they die, they create the heavy elements that make up everything. Ultimately the universe is mostly hydrogen and helium, and everything else was cooked in a star by fusion.”
Fusion is sought after because it releases four times more energy than fission, and four million times more energy than fossil fuels. But unlike fission, fusion doesn’t require dangerous radioactive materials — instead, fusion reactors would use deuterium and tritium, heavy hydrogen atoms that have extra neutrons. They would work on minute quantities of fuel and produce no dangerous waste.
However, fusion requires a lot of energy to start, because conditions similar to the core of a star must be created — extremely high temperature and pressure, along with effective confinement to keep the reaction going. The challenge on Earth has been to create more energy from fusion than is put in to start, but so far we’ve barely broken even.
But if power generation is not the goal, things become less complicated, Dinan says — only the simpler goal of creating a faster exhaust speed.
The reactions that power nuclear fusion take place inside a plasma — a hot, electrically charged gas. Just like proposed reactors on Earth, Sunbird would use strong magnets to heat up a plasma and create the conditions for the fuel — which would be in the order of grams — to smash together and fuse. But while on Earth reactors are circular, to prevent particles from escaping, on Sunbird they would be linear – because the escaping particles would propel the spacecraft.
Lastly, it would not produce neutrons from the fusion reaction, which reactors on Earth use to generate heat; Sunbird would instead use a more expensive type of fuel called helium-3 to make protons, which can be used as a “nuclear exhaust” to provide propulsion.
The Sunbird process would be expensive and unsuitable for energy production on Earth, Dinan says, but because the objective is not to make energy, the process can be inefficient and expensive, but still be valuable because it would save fuel costs, reduce the weight of spacecraft and get it to its destination much faster.
Cutting journey times
Sunbirds would operate similarly to city bikes at docking stations, according to Dinan: “We launch them into space, and we would have a charging station where they could sit and then meet your ship,” he says. “You turn off your inefficient combustion engines, and use nuclear fusion for the greater part of your journey. Ideally, you’d have a station somewhere near Mars, and you’d have a station on low Earth orbit, and the (Sunbirds) would just go back and forth.”
Some components will have an orbit demonstration this year. “They’re basically circuit boards that go up to be tested, to make sure they work. Not very exciting, because there’s no fusion, but we have to do it,” says Dinan. “Then, in 2027, we’re going to send a small part of Sunbird in orbit, just to check that the physics is working as the computer assumes it’s working. That’s our first in-orbit demonstration, where we hope to do fusion in space. And we hope that Pulsar will be the first company to actually achieve that.”
That prototype will cost about $70 million, according to Dinan, and it won’t be a full Sunbird, but rather a “linear fusion experiment” to prove the concept. The first functional Sunbird will be ready four to five years later, he says, provided the necessary funding is secured.
Initially, the Sunbirds will be offered for shuttling satellites in orbit, but their true potential would come into play with interplanetary missions. The company illustrates a few examples of the missions that Sunbird could unlock, such as delivering up to 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of cargo to Mars in under six months, deploying probes to Jupiter or Saturn in two to four years (NASA’s Europa Clipper, launched in 2024 towards one of Jupiter’s moons, will arrive after 5.5 years), and an asteroid mining mission that would complete a round trip to a near-Earth asteroid in one to two years instead of three.
Other companies are working on nuclear fusion engines for space propulsion, including Pasadena-based Helicity Space, which received investment from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin in 2024. San Diego-based General Atomics and NASA are working on another type of nuclear reactor – based on fission rather than fusion – which they plan to test in space in 2027. It is also meant as a more efficient propulsion system for a crewed mission to Mars compared to current options.
According to Aaron Knoll, a senior lecturer in the field of plasma propulsion for spacecraft at Imperial College London, who’s not involved with Pulsar Fusion, there is a huge potential for harnessing fusion power for spacecraft propulsion. “While we are still some years away from making fusion energy a viable technology for power generation on Earth, we don’t need to wait to start using this power source for spacecraft propulsion,” he says.
The reason, he adds, is that to generate power on Earth, the amount of energy output needs to be greater than the energy input. But when using fusion power on a spacecraft to generate thrust, any energy output is useful — even if it’s less than the energy being supplied. All of that combined energy, coming from the external power supply and the fusion reactions together, will act to increase the thrust and efficiency of the propulsion system.
However, he adds, there are significant technical hurdles in making fusion technology in space a reality. “Current fusion reactor designs on Earth are large and heavy systems, requiring an infrastructure of supporting equipment, like energy storage, power supplies, gas delivery systems, magnets and vacuum pumping equipment,” he says. “Miniaturizing these systems and making them lightweight is a considerable engineering challenge.”
Bhuvana Srinivasan, a professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics at the University of Washington, who’s also not involved with Pulsar, agrees that nuclear fusion propulsion holds a substantial promise for spaceflight: “It would be extremely beneficial even for a trip to the Moon, because it could provide the means to deploy an entire lunar base with crew in a single mission. If successful, it would outperform existing propulsion technologies not just incrementally but dramatically,” she says. However, she also points out the difficulties in making it compact and lightweight, an added engineering challenge which is a lesser consideration for terrestrial energy.
Unlocking fusion propulsion, according to Srinivasan, would not only allow humans to travel farther in space, but be a game-changer for uncrewed missions, for example to gather resources like helium-3, a fusion fuel that is rare on Earth and must be created artificially, but may be abundant on the Moon: “If we can build a lunar base that could be a launching point for deep space exploration, having access to a potential helium-3 reserve could be invaluable,” she says.
“Exploration of planets, moons, and solar systems farther away is fundamental to our curious and exploratory nature as humans while also potentially leading to substantial financial and societal benefit in ways that we may not yet realize.”
Republican senators are expressing varying degrees of shock and alarm at the scale of President Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs against trading partners and allies, which sent stock markets into a tailspin Thursday and fueled predictions the country is heading for a recession.
Republicans knew Trump’s announcement on a new round of tariffs — dubbed “Liberation Day” — was coming, but the sweeping nature of Trump’s bold action is sparking a panic among constituents at home.
Republicans from agricultural states are particularly concerned as they worry that U.S.-produced farm products are likely to be targeted first by retaliatory tariffs from trading partners.
Then there’s a general concern that Trump’s tariffs will likely further drive up the price of consumer goods at a time when many Americans are fed up with inflation, which was a driving factor behind Republican victories in the 2024 election.
“There’s a lot that I certainly don’t know,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. “How long are they going to last? There’s a lot of uncertainty.
“One of the things that I’m hearing from folks back home is they’re certainly afraid about what it’s going to mean for price increases, very afraid about that,” she said.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said he’s hearing from farmers in Kansas who are worried they’re going to get hit hard by retaliatory tariffs from foreign trading partners.
“Most Kansans, including agriculture, which is so affected, I think they were expecting something less dramatic,” he said.
Moran said there’s merit to Trump’s arguments that other counties are taking advantage of the United States by benefiting from its relatively open markets while putting up barriers to U.S. exports.
But he said his constituents are worried about how aggressively Trump is wielding tariffs against so many countries.
“I think they’d take a more precautionary method of protecting ourselves,” Moran said of his constituents. “The idea of a tariff to equal the stage has some merit and some support. But I think most Kansans would say, ‘Let’s do this in a more gradual way.’”
Moran said there would “be a greater level of comfort in [having] a more targeted direction for those tariffs to go.”
He suggested that the Trump administration should have done more to distinguish its punitive trade policies between allies and adversaries, a concern echoed by other GOP senators.
Trump’s latest round of tariffs was met with skepticism from even his strongest allies on Capitol Hill. Some are expressing concern about the possibility that trading partners may not succumb to pressure from Trump, which could increase prices for American consumers for months.
“I’m not a fan of tariffs,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said.
“If other nations that are our trading partners respond to yesterday’s announcement by lowering the tariffs that they impose on U.S. goods and services and the U.S. government in turn lowers the tariffs on their goods and services, that would be a good outcome. But if other nations jack up their tariffs and the results are high tariffs all around, that’s a bad outcome for the country,” he said.
“Tariffs are a tax, and I’m not a fan of raising taxes on millions of American cosponsors,” he said.
Trump imposed a 20 percent tariff against European allies and partners in NATO in addition to a 24 percent tariff against Japan and a 26 percent tariff against South Korea, the two countries that form the cornerstone of the U.S. defense strategy in Asia.
He imposed tariffs of 46 percent, 49 percent and 37 percent on Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh, respectively — countries that send hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of cheap goods to the United States.
The reaction from the financial markets was swift and negative Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by nearly 1,700 points, or roughly 4 percent, while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropped by 274 points and 1,050 points or 4.84 percent and 5.97 percent, respectively.
“It’s a bad idea, and I don’t see a way out,” lamented one senior GOP senator who requested anonymity to comment on the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the domestic stock market and the broader economy.
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) introduced a bill Thursday with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell (Wash.) to require the president to notify Congress of new or higher tariffs within a 48-hour time frame and to explain to lawmakers the reasoning for such tariffs. It would also require Congress to pass a joint resolution of approval within 60 days or those new tariffs would expire.
“For too long, Congress has delegated its clear authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce to the executive branch,” Grassley said in a statement.
Private-sector financial experts predict the odds of an economic recession are climbing fast.
J.P. Morgan on Monday had predicted that the probability of a recession stood at 40 percent, citing “heightened trade policy uncertainty” as “weighing on sentiment.”
A day after Trump announced the reciprocal tariffs, J.P. Morgan predicted the probably of a recession now stands at 60 percent.
Goldman Sachs on Monday raised the possibility of a global recession to 35 percent from 20 percent and cut its year-end forecast for the S&P 500 for the second time in a month.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who faces a tough reelection race next year, said he’s already hearing serious concerns from trade associations representing constituents at home.
“I was just in meetings today with different associations. … They’re all concerned,” he said. “The initial concerns are coming out of agriculture because they’re the first to get hit with market access and any retaliatory tariffs.
“It will ramp up from here,” he predicted.
Tillis said that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick needs to have a plan for how to deal with the possibility of trading partners striking back with higher tariffs of their own, which could weigh heavily on the U.S. economy.
“Secretary Lutnick is at the tip of the spear and I’m assuming he’s anticipated this and he’s got a solution for it and we better see it over the next few weeks,” Tillis said of the severe market reaction to Trump’s tariff announcement and the potential for retaliatory tariffs.
Tillis warned that if senior Trump officials don’t have a strategy to respond to the turmoil caused by the new round of tariffs, “we got a problem.”
He also raised the possibility that the United States’s trading partners might band together to increase their leverage in a quickly escalating trade war.
And he questioned Trump’s stated goal of revitalizing domestic manufacturing when rising tariffs are likely to increase the cost of the equipment and supplies businesses would need to purchase to set up new facilities in the United States.
“How do you do that if you have to buy the equipment that’s going to be subject to a tariff, in terms of making the business case?” he said.
In terms of politics, Tillis said: “If it works, it will be fabulous. If it doesn’t work, it’s going to be fabulous for the other side,” referring to Democrats.
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of four Republican senators who voted Wednesday for a resolution to undo Trump’s 25 percent tariff against Canada, said Trump shouldn’t treat allies the same as adversaries when it comes to levying tariffs.
“In general, one of my biggest concerns is we should be distinguishing between our allies and our adversaries and not treat them the same way,” she said.
Цитата:
USA-boikotti leviää jo Suomeen ja kulttuuriin – tästä siinä on kyse
Trump hyökkää sivistystä ja amerikkalaisia taideinstituutioita vastaan, ja se ärsyttää monia Euroopassa.
Nelisen tuhatta ihmistä on liittynyt Facebookissa suomalaiseen ryhmään, jonka tarkoituksena on jakaa tietoa amerikkalaisista tuotteista ja Yhdysvalloissa pääkonttoriaan pitävistä yrityksistä. Vastaavia ryhmiä on maailmanlaajuisesti useita.
Someryhmät liittyvät USA-boikottiin, joka leviää muun muassa Tanskassa ja Ruotsissa. Hieman nurinkurista on se, että Facebook on amerikkalainen alusta.
Sen lisäksi eri somealustoilla näkee #BoycottUSA-aihetunnistetta ja hakukone Googlessa USA-boikottiin liittyvien hakujen määrä on kasvanut etenkin Tanskassa, Kanadassa ja Ranskassa.
Yhdysvaltain presidentti Donald Trump on saanut toimillaan osan ihmisistä takajaloilleen, ja USA-boikotti laajenee Heintzin ketsuppien, McDonald’s-pikaruokaravintoloiden, vaatemerkkien ja Teslojen lisäksi nyt myös taiteeseen ja kulttuuriin.
Ihmiset pohtivat, pitäisikö amerikkalaisten suoratoistopalvelujen tilaus perua tai olla menemättä elokuvateatteriin katsomaan Hollywood-elokuvaa.
Matkustaminen mietityttää
New Yorkin maineikkaassa taidemuseossa avautuu joulukuussa suomalaisen Helene Schjerfbeckin (1862–1946) laaja näyttely. On todennäköistä, että muutama suomalainen jättää matkan USA:han väliin, vaikka Schjerfbeck olisi muutoin houkutellut New Yorkin reissulle.
– Kulttuuriväestä osa ottaa kantaa esimerkiksi seksuaali- ja sukupuolivähemmistöjen kansalaisoikeuksiin ja muihin kysymyksiin, jotka näyttävät olevan Trumpin hallinnon silmissä tärkeitä, tutkija Maria Lindén Ulkopoliittisesta instituutista toteaa.
Hän muistuttaa, että iso osa kulttuuriväestä on arvoliberaaleja ja eri mieltä näistä kysymyksistä Trumpin hallinnon kanssa. Taustalla vaikuttaa myös laajempi ilmiö. Yhdysvallat on Lindénin mukaan ottanut askeleita poliisivaltion suuntaan, ja se voi näkyä jo rajalla.
– Rajan ylittäminen voi olla lähtökohtaisesti uhkaava tilanne. Matkustajaa saatetaan joko kieltää tulemasta maahan tai passittaa takaisin tai ottaa jopa kiinni.
Vaikka Yhdysvaltoihin matkustaminen ei edes olisi mielessä, ilmiöön voi Lindénin mukaan liittyä esimerkiksi se, ettei halua katsoa amerikkalaisia elokuvia ja viihdettä tai hankkia amerikkalaisia tuotteita. Esimerkiksi Tanskassa ihmisiä kehotetaan boikotoimaan niitä Trumpin Grönlantia koskevien tavoitteiden takia.
– Trumpin hallinto ajaa tällä hetkellä yhdistelmää erilaisista asioista, jotka herättävät paljon huolta myös Suomessa. Tällaisen poliisivaltiokehityksen lisäksi esimerkiksi tämä sateenkaariväestöön kohdistuva politiikka, joka luo uhkaavaa ja vaarallista ilmapiiriä joissain tilanteissa jopa vaikka transihmisille.
Trumpin ”puhdistukset” käynnissä
Kun Venäjä hyökkäsi Ukrainaan helmikuussa 2022, Putinia tukevien taiteilijoiden ura lännessä päättyi.
Muutama tunnettu eurooppalainen taiteilija on jo ehtinyt ilmoittaa USA-boikotistaan. Yksi heistä on arvostettu tähtipianisti, unkarilaissyntyinen András Schiff, joka perui kaikki tulevat Yhdysvaltojen konserttinsa, jotka hän oli sopinut Joe Bidenin presidenttikaudella.
Schiff on puolustanut jo pitkään taiteen vapautta ja arvostellut Unkarin pääministeriä Viktor Orbánia siitä, että tämä on nimittänyt poliittiset liittolaisensa keskeisten, aiemmin itsenäisten taideinstituutioiden johtoon. Sama kehitys on ollut käynnissä Italiassa pääministeri Giorgia Melonin johdolla, ja nyt ilmiö on rantautunut Yhdysvaltoihin.
Trump nimitti itse itsensä Washingtonissa sijaitsevan Kennedy Center -kulttuurikeskuksen hallituksen puheenjohtajaksi. Ensi töikseen hän ilmoitti siivoavansa keskuksen ohjelmistosta muun muassa drag show -esitykset. Trumpin kulttuurisota on laajentunut ainakin opetusministeriöön, yliopistoihin ja museoihin.
Maaliskuussa hän ilmoitti lakkauttavansa opetusministeriön ja panevansa Washingtonin liian vapaamielisinä pitämänsä museot kuriin. Yliopistot eri puolilla Eurooppaa ovat tarjonneet ”tieteellisiä turvapaikkoja” tutkijoille, joiden työ on vaikeutunut tai loppunut Yhdysvalloissa Trumpin leikkausten seurauksena. Kyse on tieteen vapauden kapenemisesta.
Цитата:
Trump is getting trade history and economics all wrong
Listening to President Trump enumerate America’s trade grievances this week in the Rose Garden, Democrats must have been aghast — for all the wrong reasons. He was stealing all their lines and their constituencies.
The Democrats have “protected” American farmers and workers since the formation of the 20th century’s international trading order. The yeoman Midwestern farmer, the Detroit auto worker and the Rust Belt steel worker grew up with Democrats’ patronage. The Republicans, meanwhile, stood for free markets, innovation and competitive advantage. Then came Trump.
If they happened to be listening to Trump’s speech, the perfidious Cambodians, Indians and Sri Lankans that he mentioned must have been astounded. For five decades after World War II, the developing world sat on the margins of the global trading order, suffering America’s relentless diplomatic pounding and success with opening their markets. In return, America blocked the import of products in which the developing world had an advantage.
Textiles and other manufactured products faced quotas on American soil. Agricultural products were not allowed in. The mere hint of a spoonful of imported sugar would send Democrats and Republicans tumbling to save their campaign donations.
For example, the 2005 trade agreement the U.S. signed with Central America and the Dominican Republic, known as CAFTA-DR, almost didn’t make it through Congress. The final House vote was 217 to 215 because, in return for accepting American insurance and high-tech products, Costa Rica saved face internally through a minimal amount of sugar exports. That was enough to set off the American sugar industry to block the agreement. Even with NAFTA and USMCA, highly limited imported quotas of sugar came to the U.S.
Only Trump, American farmers and manufacturing unions can now argue that they have “lost” from trade. In fact, America and its European allies wrote trade agreements that made it impossible for the developing world to export anything but raw materials. America provided the highly profitable added value.
The domestic political deal was simple: The competitive end of American industry was allowed to triumph from international trade, but the losing sectors were compensated while encouraging American strengths in high-tech industries and services. Protection for the “losers” was to be tolerated to keep the winners going, and the Democrats especially needed the formers’ votes.
Enter Trump and the angry coalition of the “left behinds,” made worse now with China supplying the kind of immensely trade-distorting subsidies that were once an American specialty.
The American people may have been very hard working, and at the other end of the totem pole from the capitalists, but some unions thwarted industrial innovations. American steel did not innovate with smelters. Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca, whom Trump praised Wednesday, could not turn around in time to manufacture smaller vehicles after the oil price increases in the 1970s. Japanese automakers did, while the American government had to bail out Chrysler.
Trump has long misunderstood the Japanese economic miracle as America getting ripped off.
Uncompetitive sectors of U.S. manufacturing did not decline because the rest of the world ripped off America. They declined because America ripped off the rest of the world and lost its competitiveness via protectionism. The coalition of “left-behind” American farmers and manufacturing workers that Trump has pulled behind him includes former Democratic voters that thrived under a protectionist policy.
Both Democrats and Republicans are complicit in encouraging this coalition. Uncompetitive and protected industries do not suddenly become dynamic. American agriculture and steel declined with what economists call rent-seeking policies that shut out their competitors. We have not seen an industrial policy — beyond trumpeted tax cuts — that would encourage American industry or agriculture to create jobs or to be competitive.
Trump understands the world economy and competitors as personal grievances and punches back. This is a far cry from what presidents once did, carefully calibrating policies to encourage innovation and markets to revive the fortunes of industries such as autos and garments.
By angering every ally in the world, the U.S. will not have the mineral imports it needs to make American manufacturing “great” again. While China sets up industry in Asia, Africa and Latin America to protect its value chains, Trump speaks of the conquest of Canada, Greenland and Panama. Some industrial policy there!
The Republicans who once stood for American innovation and competitiveness are now mummified subalterns watching Trump wreck American science and ingenuity, and encourage rent-seeking in American farming and industry. Only God or a recession can deliver us from economic devils now.
The solution to American problems is not victimizing America but speaking from American strength in research and innovation. But Trump has also waged a war against education, research and innovation.
During the free trade debates of the early 19th century, David Ricardo famously wrote that “corn is not high because a rent is paid, but rent is paid because corn is high.” Translation: Seeking protections makes the price of corn high and thus uncompetitive, therefore accruing undeserved rents to land.
Tariffs are notoriously hard to efficiently calculate. The silly numbers that Trump presented Wednesday calculated the reciprocal tariff as a percentage of U.S. trade deficit with a particular country. This sophomoric trade policy was met with thunderous applause from many American farmers and workers, sundry sycophants and oligarchic rent-seekers.
The rest of the world watches this surreal drama as America shoots itself in the foot.
Цитата:
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs: Here’s how much countries are getting hit
President Trump on Wednesday announced he was imposing reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations, citing what he called years of unfair trade practices.
Trump announced in the Rose Garden that all foreign countries would face a baseline 10 percent tariff, but several nations are being hit with steeper tariffs on imports.
Trump said those reciprocal tariffs will be calculated by combining the rate of tariffs and nonmonetary barriers such as currency manipulation, and then dividing that total in half.
Canada and Mexico are still subject to a 25 percent tariff, with goods covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement exempted.
“The tariffs will be not a full reciprocal. I could have done that, I guess. But it would have been tough for a lot of countries,” Trump said.
Trump held up a poster board laying out the tariff percentage each of those countries would face.
Here’s what Trump says each of these countries will pay in tariffs, from highest to lowest.
The tariffs are set to go into place at midnight.
...
Donald Trump demands France 'Free Marine Le Pen' and brands her presidential election ban a 'witch hunt'
President Donald Trump has offered his support to French far-right leader Marine Le Pen demanding she be set 'free' while branding her ban from elective office a 'witch hunt'.
Le Pen, 56, on Monday was convicted of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament and taking advantage of expenses to employ assistants who were actually working for her party in France.
The matriarch of the hard-right National Rally (RN) party was barred from running for office for five years and given a four-year prison sentence, although she will not go to jail as half of it was suspended and the rest will be served with an electronic tag.
In a post to his Truth Social account, Trump wrote: 'In The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent, this time going so far as to put that Opponent in prison.'
He went on to add that while he doesn't know Le Pen personally he does 'appreciate how hard she worked for so many years'.
The post continued: 'She suffered losses, but kept on going, and now, just before what would be a Big Victory, they get her on a minor charge that she probably knew nothing about – Sounds like a 'bookkeeping' error to me.
'It is all so bad for France, and the Great French People, no matter what side they are on. FREE MARINE LE PEN!'
Trump's DOGE adviser Elon Musk echoed the American president's views as he reposted the message on X (formerly Twitter) writing 'Free Le Pen!'.
President Donald Trump had demanded that France 'free' presidential candidate Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) parliamentary group, leaves the National Rally headquarters after the verdict on Monday
Monday's verdict was seen as a hammer blow to Le Pen's long-held hopes of ascending to the presidency in 2027.
She was also ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and her party was docked $2 million - half of which must be paid definitively, while the other half would be demanded in the event of a repeat offence.
Le Pen could appeal her sentence. If her bid fails, she will get a four-year prison sentence - two of which were suspended and two to be served under house arrest.
Twenty-four people, including Le Pen, were convicted - all of them RN party officials or assistants. Only one defendant was acquitted of any wrongdoing. Le Pen said she will appeal.
She argued the court should not have made her ineligible to run for office until all her chances at appeal had been exhausted, and that by doing so it was clear the court was aiming 'specifically to prevent' her from being elected president.
'If that's not a political decision, I don't know what is,' Le Pen said in the TF1 interview.
She said the ruling marked a 'fateful day for our democracy' but vowed to keep pursuing what she called the now 'admittedly narrow' path to the presidency.
'There are millions of French people who believe in me, millions of French people who trust me,' she added.
'For 30 years I've been fighting for you, and for 30 years I've been fighting against injustice, so I'm going to continue fighting.'
She is allowed to keep her seat in the French Parliament.
Earlier this week, Trump compared himself to convicted French presidential candidate, calling her ban from elective office a 'very big deal.'
'That's a big deal. That's a very big deal,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He expressed sympathy for Le Pen and said her situation 'sounds very much like this country.'
'That's a big deal. That's a very big deal,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
He expressed sympathy for Le Pen and said her situation 'sounds very much like this country.'
'I know all about it, and a lot of people thought she wasn't going to be convicted of anything and I don't know that it means conviction but she was banned for running for five years and she's the leading candidate. That sounds like this country. That sounds very much like this country,' he added.
Trump has long portrayed himself the victim of a government 'witch hunt' and politically motivated prosecutions.
The American president has been subject to many lawsuits from state and federal governments:
• The state of New York convicted him in 2024 of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels but his sentencing was indefinitely postponed following his second election to the presidency
• Before the November 2024, a federal judge dismissed the federal charges relating to Trump's handling of classified documents
• After Trump's election, the special counsel decided to abandon the federal charges related to the 2020 election, citing the Justice Department policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents
• A case against in Georgia is on pause while the courts decide whether a state-level prosecutor can prosecute a sitting president
He denied wrongdoing in all the cases.
Other officials in the Trump administration have echoed the president's stance on Le Pen.
US Vice President JD Vance said yesterday that Le Pen was convicted of a very minor offense and barring her from running for office was 'not democracy.'
'They're trying to throw her in prison and throw her off the ballot,' Vance said in an interview with the Newsmax television channel. 'Look, that's not democracy.'
He said Le Pen had been 'leading in some polls' for France's 2027 presidential election and had been convicted of an 'incredibly minor charge that implicates, by the way, her staff, not even Marine Le Pen herself.'
Musk also slammed the French court's decision, saying: 'When the radical left can't win via democratic vote, they abuse the legal system to jail their opponents. This is their standard playbook throughout the world.'
And State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the department was 'aware' of Le Pen's sentencing.
'Exclusion of people from the political process is particularly concerning given the aggressive and corrupt lawfare waged against President [Donald] Trump here in the United States,' Bruce said.
But she declined to comment specifically on Le Pen's case.
In the face of the widespread criticism of the verdict, one of France's top two public prosecutors denied there was a political element to Monday's decision.
'Justice is not political, this is not a political decision but a legal one, delivered by three independent, impartial judges,' Remy Heitz told RTL radio station.
It wasn't just Trump who was critical of the verdict. Other conservative leaders in Europe blasted it.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the ruling against Le Pen disenfranchised millions of voters in France and the EU.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also blasted the verdict against Le Pen
'I don't know the merits of the accusations against Marine Le Pen, or the reasons for such a strong decision,' Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party, told Il Messaggero.
'But I think that no one who cares about democracy can rejoice at a sentence that targets the leader of a major party and deprives millions of citizens of representation.'
Russia also waded in.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters: 'More and more European capitals are going down the path of trampling over democratic norms.
'Of course, we do not want to interfere in France's internal affairs, we have never done so.
'But in general, our observations of European capitals show that they are not at all reluctant to go beyond democracy during the political process.'
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Kamala Harris: ‘I’m not going anywhere’
Former Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at a leadership summit for Black women in California on Thursday, previewing her political future after losing the 2024 election to President Trump.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Harris said during her nearly eight-minute speech at the Leading Women Defined gathering.
Harris, who represented the Golden State in the Senate from 2017 until becoming vice president in 2021 under former President Biden, is widely thought to be mulling a run for California governor in 2026. She’s expected to make a formal decision by the end of the summer.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, another ex-Biden official, threw his hat in the ring Wednesday, announcing a gubernatorial campaign in the state.
Early polling has shown that if Harris were to launch a bid, she would be the Democratic front-runner. The former vice president nabbed nearly 6 in 10 likely primary voters in a February survey from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill.
She has previously sidestepped questions on whether she would join the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who cannot seek reelection because of term limits.
Harris did not mention Trump by name during her rare public address, but she remarked on the “fear” felt in “these last few months in our country.”
Trump returned to the White House in January, four years after he left following his loss to Biden.
“There were many things that we knew would happen, many things,” Harris said in a nod to her presidential campaign.
“I’m not here to say, ‘I told you so,'” she said with a smile as the crowd cheered. “I swore I wasn’t going to say that.”
Slovakia to cull 350 brown bears after fatal attack
In other parts of the world, programs are being implemented to prevent problematic bears from becoming accustomed to the presence of humans
Slovakia has declared a state of emergency throughout the country following a fatal brown bear attack on a 59-year-old man, who died in the Detva region in the center of the country, a few days ago. Following the incident, the government has approved the culling of up to 350 brown bears, a number very similar to the total bear population in Spain — there are about 370 between the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenees — and about a quarter of all bears in the Central European country (about 1,300, according to the BBC). Bear attacks are rare in Spain because the government implements programs to prevent them from becoming accustomed to the presence of humans.
“We can’t live in a country where people are afraid of going to forests, where people become food for bears. The intensity of bear attacks is increasing significantly, and we are in a period when they should be hibernating,” Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said Thursday after a Cabinet meeting, in which the measure was approved.
“Slovakia will address preventive abatement in areas, as is the case in Romania. While there were some 650 bear encounters in 2020, there were as many as 1,900 last year. The increase is absolutely clear; the figure goes up every year,” said Environment Minister Tomáš Taraba. Regarding attacks on people, 108 have been recorded in the Central European country over the past 25 years, according to official data.
These bear attacks have resulted in human fatalities only twice: last October in Liptovský Mikuláš, in the north of the country, and now in Detva, although there have been injuries and the presence of these animals has kept many communities on edge. Meanwhile, the number of animals slaughtered since 2000 has risen to 604 individuals, with 2024 being a record year: 94 shot and 50 killed as a result of traffic accidents, poisoning, poaching, or intraspecies attacks, according to data from the same ministry.
The state plans to kill 350 bears, reducing the brown bear population to fewer than 1,150 individuals, a figure estimated by experts based on data from six years ago. Taraba estimates that a total population of 800 animals is sufficient for the species to be viable. The emergency situation declared by the Slovakian government requires the removal of all bait, while the elimination of the animals can only be carried out by emergency teams, not hunters.
Greenpeace Slovakia and other environmental and conservation organizations have harshly criticized the government's decision to prioritize the killing of brown bears, arguing that it ignores scientific evidence and jeopardizes biodiversity conservation. These NGOs maintain that conflicts with these animals often stem from improper waste and food management, and that there are effective, non-lethal methods to prevent incidents.
An endangered animal in Spain
In Spain, brown bears were critically endangered in the 1980s, with around 60 or 70 individuals remaining in two scattered regions (the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenees). An ambitious recovery program has increased the population to 370 animals in four decades. The risk now is that some animals will approach towns and become habituated to humans, causing incidents or dangerous situations. To prevent this, the region of Asturias has implemented a program to control what it calls problematic bears, that is, those that approach containers or houses because that’s where they can most easily obtain food.
When a bear is considered to be engaging in these behaviors, a cylindrical trap filled with food is set up. When the bear enters, it is put to sleep, blood and fur samples are taken to assess its health, and a GPS collar is fitted to help understand its movements. This is where the second phase begins, called “conditioned aversion”: its movements are tracked, and when it approaches a food source in a village, wildlife rangers are alerted. The moment it begins to eat, non-lethal rubber bullets are fired at it so the animal associates the two sensations and won’t do it again. This prevents many encounters between bears and people.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
‘We can’t sit back and watch’: Former MI6 boss says Britain must get ready for war as Putin threatens Europe
Exclusive: As a Russia-Ukrainian ceasefire looks no closer, Sir Alex Younger tells The Independent how the UK is too detached from the threat posed by Putin – and that our ‘collective effort’ needs to change
According to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, there was a 300 per cent increase in unconventional attacks on Europe by Russia last year (EPA)
Britain needs to rearm and build reserves through a form of national service to defend against Vladimir Putin’s hopes of dominating eastern Europe and undermining the West, the former head of MI6 has warned.
Sir Alex Younger said people in the UK must realise that the threat from Russia – and its closeness to the US – is real, adding: “Putin and Trump together have done their best to persuade us that the rules have changed.”
Reflecting on whether Britain has the mettle for a full-scale war, he told Independent TV: “I worry – we have disarmed militarily, self-evidently. We’ve largely dismantled our military and industrial base, which is a big problem.
“We have, for many years, been completely free of any form of existential threat.
“We’ve unforgivably… launched a set of wars of choice, which have imposed sacrifice needlessly on young people and there’s great cynicism about this idea of collective effort to defend your country.
“I think we’re more comfortable thinking about the army as like the England football team; they go and do their thing over there and we watch it on telly – and that can’t happen anymore.”
Discussing what needs to be done to prepare, Sir Alex, known as “C” during his time as spy chief, added: “You’d have to ask a soldier about the actual efficacy of things like conscription. I have no idea… I know that it just needs to be a more integrated feature of everyday life.
“I think that will bring broader benefits. So I think this is probably more about a more creative and broader conception of what the reserves is.”
Sir Alex, a computer science graduate and former officer in the Scots Guards, gave a distinctly British establishment response to the question of whether or not, after backing Putin so publicly, Trump could be working for Russia, an allegation which has been made against the US president in the past, without any evidence.
“I mean, who knows? I personally don’t think he’s a Russian agent. I went out of my way not to find out because why would you want to know? So I don’t know.
“In a sense, that’s not the point. The point is he agrees with Vladimir Putin. He agrees that big countries get additional rights over small countries, particularly in their own backyard.”
There can never have been a time before this when asked, in public, whether the president of the USA could conceivably be a Russian agent that the former head of MI6 would have replied with a political shrug.
Speaking on the first episode of The Conversation, a new expert-led discussion series on Independent TV, alongside the US defence secretary’s former envoy to Nato, Dr Rachel Ellehuus, Sir Alex said Britain had fallen behind other European nations in its ability, and willingness, to defend itself.
“It really depends on how close to Moscow you are. I think in Finland it’s well understood and there’s a properly integrated resilient culture where everyone is accustomed to playing their part. I think we go to Portugal at the other end that’s just not true – and in a sense that’s understandable.
“I think the UK is quite conflicted as well. We’ve got this astonishing history, which makes people readier to conceive of Britain playing a much more active role, but I think here too, there’s real concern about being asked to actually do stuff.”
By that he means contribute large numbers of people to fight but also to comprehend that a hybrid war with Russia – where disinformation, cyberattacks and economic pressure are equally important – is already underway.
Dr Ellehuus, now director general of the Royal United Services Institute, Britain’s leading security think tank, laid out the threat that European nations are urgently trying to cope with.
This threat has intensified following the sudden change in strategic ideology in Washington under Trump.
Since his inauguration, Trump has signalled that Europe must pay for its own security. He has also said that he no longer sees the Nato alliance that has underpinned western security for 80 years, as useful.
He has threatened to colonise both Canada and Greenland. He has also supported most of Putin’s claims on at least a fifth of Ukraine and agreed that it may “not be a country”.
Dr Ellehuus, an American, said that while the threat posed by the Kremlin had been persistent, it has been the dramatic shift in Washington that has been the greatest strategic shock.
“The galvanizing moment for Europe? Yes. Take a look at the Trump-Putin relationship or the Trump/Maga-Putin relationship,” she said.
“President Putin is trying to redraw the map. Some of the changes that were made at the end of the Cold War that left Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova as not part of the Soviet Union but neither part of Nato or the European Union, left them in a kind of limbo.
“[It] created an opportunity for him to chip away at the margins of those countries and create pockets of instability or insecurity that would prevent them from fully integrating into Nato or the EU.
“Am I saying he’s going to invade the Baltic states or Poland tomorrow? I’m not. But he is going to test the boundaries of what we call Article 5, which is the commitment that an attack against one Nato ally is an attack against all of them.
“He’s already been pushing the boundaries of that through below-the-threshold activities that aren’t conventional attacks.”
According to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, there was a 300 per cent increase in unconventional attacks on Europe by Russia last year, 2023-2024.
“Roughly 27 per cent of the attacks were against transportation targets (such as trains, vehicles, and airplanes), another 27 per cent were against government targets (such as military bases and officials), 21 per cent were against critical infrastructure targets (such as pipelines, undersea fiber-optic cables, and the electricity grid), and 21 per cent were against industry (such as defence companies),” the CSIS said in a report last month.
Sir Alex said Trump, Putin and China’s Xi Jinping appear to be carving the world up into spheres of influence which sweep aside notions of national sovereignty in places like Europe.
On top of that, the longstanding issue of trust is now being undermined by the US. Both in terms of military doctrine, as shown by Nato’s Article 5, and in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing system between the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Trust between the US and its allies under Trump was strained when Sir Alex was in charge at MI6, after Trump blurted out secret intelligence of an Isis bomb plot to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
It also has been badly damaged by the recent Signal messaging group scandal.
The mess flowed from the US president’s decision to put inexperienced leaders in the top intelligence jobs, Sir Alex suggested.
“Whatever you think about that, it comes at a cost just in terms of a basic understanding of the environment in which we all operate and the threats that exist.
“On the face of it, using a phone, an iPhone or whatever it is, to plan an attack you don’t want your enemy to know about, is not sensible.”
The use of personal mobile phones for top secret communications was unforgivable, Dr Ellehuus said.
These communications were usually held over secure video link because they involved not only US (or UK) personnel, but forces and intelligence agents who could be at risk on the ground.
Whatever the strains, and new risks, that the Trump administration has now brought to western intelligence agencies, Sir Alex said CIA officers would “die in a ditch” to protect their human sources.
“It is a very unusual time. But all I am saying when it comes to the defence of the integrity of our capabilities as five [eyes], there will be a very, very strong machine in operation to retain the integrity, even if I can’t belittle the idea that it’s more at risk than it was.”
Одна из немногих статей о беспилотниках с российской стороны.
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Russia revolutionizes warfare with fiber-optic-controlled drones
Ukraine leads the way in unmanned vehicle innovation, but the invaders are advancing with weapons that have been key to their recapture of territory in Kursk
In the border area between the Sumy and Kursk provinces, between Ukraine and Russia, the tops of many trees are covered with giant cobwebs of fine cables, similar to fishing lines. One of the bloodiest battles of the war is taking place in this area, and it is where Russia has most forcefully introduced a technology that has revolutionized military tactics in 2025: the massive use of bomb-carrying drones connected to the pilot by a fiber-optic cable.
This innovation prevents the aircraft’s connection from being disrupted by what is known as “electronic warfare,” that is, by disruptive radio frequency signals. On both sides, many vehicles and defense barriers incorporate these antennas, which emit radio frequency signals that cut off the remote connection between the pilot and the drone. Fiber-optics are immune to this.
Its operation is ingenious and simple: the drone has a built-in reel with a cable, which can be between three and 15 miles long. If, during flight, the cable becomes entangled in an obstacle, such as trees, the vehicle continues flying because the reel keeps releasing it, and it remains connected to the pilot.
Russia began deploying these drones experimentally a year ago, but it wasn’t until last December that their use became widespread. Ukraine followed suit shortly afterward, but its production level remains behind that of the enemy. Their presence is detected along the entire front line, but it has been especially felt in Kursk, where they are playing a key role in nearly expelling Ukrainian troops from the Russian province.
This is what the military personnel interviewed this month by EL PAÍS in the Sumy region, bordering Kursk, explained, as corroborated by numerous videos shared by Russian military accounts on social media. Most of the drones used in Russian attacks on the retreating Ukrainian forces in Kursk have fiber-optic connections, and not only on Russian soil. This newspaper was able to verify, based on debris from recent attacks, that the range of these devices reaches up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) inside Ukrainian territory.
“The only way to stop them is to protect the logistics routes with nets, but you can’t cover a highway with kilometers of nets,” a high-ranking officer in the Ukrainian military’s intelligence services explained to EL PAÍS in Sumy in March. This soldier, who only provided his first name, Roman, warned that the cost of these drones is much higher than that of remote-controlled vehicles because they require kilometers of fiber-optic cables and the cylinder that charges them.
An analysis by the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform in March established that the average cost of a reel and fiber-optic cable is close to €1,000 ($1,082). Added to this is the price of the drone, which, in the case of the most commonly used models, FPV (first-person view) guided by a camera mounted on its front, ranges between €300 and €600 ($324-$649). Roman estimated that three months ago, the average cost of 15 miles of fiber-optic cable and the reel was €2,000 ($2,164).
Eighty percent of global fiber optic production is carried out in China, and Ukrinform claims that economies of scale are allowing the price per meter of cable to be reduced, but at the same time, quality is deteriorating. Roman, the Ukrainian intelligence officer, believes that hands the advantage to Russia because on the enemy side, the burden of military financing falls entirely on the state, and fiber optic drones are a priority for the Russian military. On the Ukrainian side, however, a good portion of the drones arriving at the front depend on private donation campaigns, and their cost leads to fewer units.
Shotgun shells
One of the peculiarities of Russia’s use of fiber-optic drones is that they are in the hands of highly trained units. This is the case in Kursk, and also at another point on the front, in the battle for Chasiv Yar, in the Donetsk region. These vehicles are piloted by highly trained teams that even reach Ukrainian artillery positions, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the enemy: “They can even fly between tree lines to determine if our howitzers are there; unfortunately, they are causing many casualties,” says Andriy Horetskiy, commander of a battery of Ukraine’s 26th Artillery Brigade.
Since February, the presence of these vehicles in this sector of the Donetsk front has skyrocketed, according to this officer. Horetskiy adds that the most effective way Ukrainian forces have found to shoot down these drones is with something as rudimentary as shotguns that fire buckshot, because the small lead bullets disperse and have a better chance of hitting their target.
Ukraine is accelerating the use of this technology, and some experienced voices predict that it’s only a matter of time before fiber-optic drones become dominant across the 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) of the war front. This was reiterated last February in an interview with Lieutenant Colonel Roman Kuziv, head of the Ukrainian medical forces for the eastern provinces. Kuziv follows the details of drone bomb operations in the war and reveals that at the most intense points of fighting, almost 60% of the wounded are from attacks by unmanned vehicles.
Kuziv points out that neither side has found an effective way to stop fiber-optic drones. But one of the laws of military theory is that as offensive technology advances, so does defensive technology. The Russian Air Force has based much of its tactics to support its infantry advances on strikes against the front lines of Ukrainian defenses with guided aerial bombs. This weapon has been another of Russia’s few technological victories in the war. It is a system that allows the bomb to glide and be guided. But the Ukrainian forces have developed radio frequency systems that disrupt the connection with the bomb, similar to those used with drones. The result is that by 2025, they are rapidly reducing the accuracy of Russian bombing.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of intelligence for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, warned in December 2024 that fiber-optic drones “are a huge problem” for them, and predicted they would be the weapon of choice by 2025. “We must all work together to find a technological solution that will counter such a large number of these devices,” he said. Three months later, there’s still nothing stopping them.
В Мелкобритании началась массовая компания «подготовки населения к войне». Задачи конечно местные – отвлечение населения от коллапса островной экономики. Но так можно и заиграться.
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Defence chiefs meet in Kyiv to discuss plans for future international 'reassurance force' in Ukraine.
Defence Secretary Join Healey is set to convene the next meeting of the so-called "coalition of the willing" in Brussels next week.
Defence chiefs have met in Kyiv to discuss the size and make-up of the proposed international "reassurance force" to back up any future peace deal in Ukraine.
The UK's chief of the defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin joined his Ukrainian and French counterparts on Saturday for discussions about how to bolster the country's military.
Their meetings focused on the structure, size and composition needed for any armed force to back up an eventual peace deal, the Ministry of Defence said.
"The UK is ironclad in our support for Ukraine, which is why we're stepping up for a just and lasting peace," Admiral Radakin said.
"Our meetings looked at how we can build on the formidable capabilities of the Ukrainian Army and put them in the strongest possible position to deter Russian aggression."
It comes after at least 19 people were killed in a Russian attack on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's home city and as the UK's defence secretary is set to convene the next meeting of the so-called "coalition of the willing" on Thursday.
With 30 countries expected to contribute to the coalition, John Healey will host defence ministers in Brussels alongside his French counterpart.
He will then chair the Ukraine Defence Contact Group with his opposite number from Germany on Friday.
"Our coalition of nations, working at pace and willing to stand with Ukraine for the long-term, is a stark contrast to Russia who stand alone with only North Korea for a friend," Mr Healey said.
"As Putin prevaricates over a ceasefire, we will continue to ramp up our military planning, exploring the air, sea and land forces that could support a lasting peace in Ukraine.
"However, we will not jeopardise the peace by forgetting about the war.
"That's why in the week ahead we will also convene the Ukraine Defence Contact Group to supply Ukraine with the military equipment they need to put them in the strongest possible position as they fight back brutal, continuing Russian attacks."
The UK and France have been at the forefront of the coalition, which would see armed forces from a number of European and NATO countries on the ground in Ukraine acting as peacekeepers.
In theory they would deter any further Russian aggression and violations of a potential ceasefire.
But since the initial Russian invasion in February 2022, Vladimir Putin has said he will not accept NATO troops in Ukraine - leaving many doubting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's plan.
The idea has been dismissed by the Trump administration, with US special envoy Steve Witkoff describing it as "simplistic" and "posture and pose".
Downing Street has said it is still in the "planning phase" of how the coalition would work in practice - and has been so far unable to answer questions on operational details.
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Brits should prepare a 72 hour 'survival kit' as Putin plots to sabotage gas pipelines and cause mass blackouts, warn spies
Fears of a plot by Russia to sabotage Britain's energy pipelines means families should pack a 72-hour 'survival kit', security advisers have warned.
As the UK pursues Net Zero environmental targets – leading to the closure of coal-fired power stations – the country has become increasingly reliant on supplies of gas and electricity from abroad in order to 'keep the lights on'.
Nearly 40 per cent of the UK's gas supply is imported from Norway, much of which comes through the single, 700-mile Langeled pipeline.
Concerns that the Russians are planning a sabotage operation have escalated since one of their spy ships, the Yantar, was detected mapping the UK's critical underwater infrastructure in the North Sea in recent months.
With the UK reported to have come close to blackouts during the past winter – saved only by emergency reserves and electricity imported undersea from Denmark – security experts have argued that British households should follow the example of the EU, which has advised citizens to pack a three-day survival kit.
This should include water, non-perishable food, medicines, a battery-powered radio, a torch, identity documents and a Swiss Army knife.
The protection of critical undersea infrastructure will form part of the Government's Strategic Defence Review (SDR) by former Nato secretary-general Lord Robertson this year.
It comes after Moscow was linked to a string of apparent sabotage incidents in the Baltic Sea in the past two years, affecting cable and pipeline links. Germany's Nord Stream gas pipelines were also sabotaged in 2022.
Separately, the Russians are also believed to have placed listening devices on offshore UK wind turbines in an attempt to track the movement of British submarines.
Pictured: Teesside Offshore Windfarm at Redcar off the north east coast of England
A source said: 'We know that the Russians are active in the North Sea and have the power to cripple our energy links.
'We need to become much more self-sufficient, and quickly. And households should be ready for all eventualities.'
MPs fear that Ed Miliband's obsession with Net Zero has made Britain more vulnerable to Russian sabotage.
The Energy Secretary has pledged to make Britain a 'clean energy superpower' by using fossil fuels for no more than 5 per cent of its electricity by 2030.
The UK's last coal power station, at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, was shut down last September, having run since 1967.
The two gigawatts of capacity it once provided was enough to power up to two million homes. In the next few years, the UK is also likely to lose at least two of the nuclear power stations that currently provide a steady supply of electricity and stabilise the entire grid.
That will leave the nation even more reliant on wind and solar farms – where production plummets if the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine – backed up by a fleet of ageing gas-fired power stations.
Sources say the UK's power supply is currently propped up by a handful of ships arriving each week with supplies of liquefied natural gas from either Qatar or America.
Tory MP Nick Timothy said: 'The pursuit of decarbonisation at all costs leaves us less secure and with energy prices that are terrible for families and ruinous for business. Ed Miliband is making us more and more dependent on electricity imports.
'But interconnectors [high-voltage electricity cables] are exposed and vulnerable to attack by hostile states like Russia.' On January 8 Britain is understood to have come closer than it has for many years to having to impose electricity blackouts.
Freezing temperatures and outages on some interconnectors and gas-fired power stations meant generating capacity was down at a time of peak demand.
Meanwhile, plummeting wind speeds reduced the amount of power that could be generated by the nation's wind farms. If demand had outstripped supply then grid operators would have been forced to blackout chunks of the country, with analysts reportedly claiming that Birmingham would have been a likely target.
The risk only receded when the UK's energy system operator forked out about £17million to keep two gas power plants from turning off and a high-voltage cable bringing electricity from Denmark to the UK, called the Viking Link, was also switched on early from a planned maintenance outage to provide more power.
'We are now massively dependent on electricity imports and we are going to become more dependent on those imports,' one source said last night.
'The director general of MI5 has warned about GRU [Russia's military intelligence service] tactics in Western countries, including sabotage or arson. Energy infrastructure is a sitting duck.'
Fears of Russian sabotage have grown since four cables under the Baltic Sea were severed in just three months.
On Christmas Day the crucial Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia was damaged by an oil tanker dragging its anchor along the seabed.
And Defence Secretary John Healey last year ordered a Royal Navy Astute-class nuclear submarine to surface yards away from the Russian spy ship Yantar after it was suspected of interfering with subsea cables in the Irish Sea.
The Yantar is believed to be able to deploy a three-man mini-submarine, called Pr1860, which is capable of operating at depths of 20,000 feet.
It can also deploy an array of remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles that security experts fear could be used to lay explosives on pipelines.
The UK's most important pipeline – the Langeled – runs from the Nyhamna gas processing plant on the Norwegian island of Gossa to the Easington gas terminal in County Durham.
It carries up to 26billion cubic metres of gas to the UK each year – more than a third of what the country consumes annually. Dr Sidharth Kaushal, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defence thinktank, said: 'Energy in general and gas in particular is an area of acute concern.
'I would point to the very heavy reliance on the Langeled pipeline from Norway as being essentially a single point of failure within the system.'
A Government spokesman said: 'Investing in clean power and the economic opportunity it provides will boost our security and bring down bills.
'It also removes any dependency on hostile states, which we are countering further in the case of Russia by supporting Ukraine, standing by our Nato allies and disrupting Russian malign activity.'
A Government source said that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer intended to 'reignite our industrial heartlands' by investing in carbon capture and storage and creating more wind farms.
They said: 'We are focused on ensuring that the UK has the defence it needs, with plans to reach 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2027.'
The source added that there were no plans to encourage households to pack survival kits.
Kraje UE zebrały już ponad 50 proc. amunicji potrzebnej Ukrainie
Prezydent Ukrainy Wołodymyr Zełenski powiedział, że potrzebuje 5 mld euro na zakup co najmniej 2 mln pocisków artyleryjskich; obecnie mamy już ponad 50 proc. tego, co potrzebne - powiedziała unijna wysoka przedstawiciel ds. zagranicznych i bezpieczeństwa Kaja Kallas w Warszawie.
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"Prezydent Wołodymyr Zełenski powiedział, że potrzebuje 5 mld (euro - PAP) na zakup co najmniej 2 mln pocisków. Cieszy mnie, że już mamy różnego rodzaju propozycje, że poszczególne państwa proponują swój wkład w tę inicjatywę. Mamy już ponad 50 proc. tego, co jest potrzebne, a oczekuję, że także dzisiaj państwa zadeklarują, co jeszcze zrobią w najbliższym, krótkim czasie, by wesprzeć Ukrainę" - powiedziała.
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Polska spółka zbrojeniowa odgrywa ważną rolę w gotowości norweskich pocisków
Na początku kwietnia 2025 r. w Wojskowych Zakładach Elektronicznych (WZE) odbyło się spotkanie podsumowane zakończoną umową dotyczącą odtworzenia gotowości technicznej norweskich pocisków NSM. Polska planuje ich dalszą modernizację, a kluczową rolę w tym programie odgrywa spółka WZE.
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[size=16] Polska Marynarka Wojenna zaczęła pozyskiwać norweskie pociski przeciwokrętowe w 2008 r. Pierwsza podpisana umowa dotyczyła dostawy 50 takich rakiet.
• Obecnie Morska Jednostka Rakietowa dysponuje dwoma dywizjonami tego sprzętu.
• Planowane jest pozyskanie kolejnych czterech dywizjonów tych pocisków. Kluczowe kompetencje w zakresie serwisowania i napraw rakiet NSM ma WZE.
Najpierw kilka informacji ułatwiających nawigację. Poddźwiękowe przeciwokrętowe pociski manewrujące NSM (Naval Strike Missile), które opracowano we współpracy międzynarodowej z MBDA, pojawiły się w Polsce dzięki współpracy z norweską firmą Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
Polska Marynarka Wojenna zaczęła je pozyskiwać w 2008 roku, kiedy podpisano pierwszą umowę na dostawę 50 pocisków, w tym dwóch testowych. Wartość pierwszej oferty norweskiej firmy wynosiła prawie 421 mln zł i była niższa od konkurencyjnej propozycji złożonej przez Bumar - we współpracy z producentem pocisków RBS-15, firmą Saab Bofors Dynamics oraz kilkoma innymi podmiotami - o ok. 520 mln zł.
Kolejne zamówienia miały miejsce w 2010 r. (38 sztuk za 332,56 mln zł) i 2014 r., co łącznie dało 74 pociski, nazywane morskimi kłami polskiej marynarki.
Drugi dywizjon pocisków NSM Polska kupiła kilka lat później. W 2015 r. zdecydowano połączyć oba dywizjony w jeden związek taktyczny. W najbliższym czasie ma powstać trzeci dywizjon rakietowy.
Zapłacimy za niego ok. 3 mld zł. Dzięki offsetowi związanemu z umowami nową wiedzę oraz kompetencje potrzebne do serwisowania i napraw rakiet NSM, a także do ich współprodukowania, zyskały spółki Polskiej Grupy Zbrojeniowej: PIT-Radwar i Wojskowe Zakłady Elektroniczne (WZE).
Autonomiczne naprowadzanie zapewnia wysoką precyzję trafienia
System NSM (Naval Strike Missile) to zaawansowany pocisk manewrujący, ważący ok. 400 kg, mający 4 m długości, 70 centymetrów szerokości i 1,4 m rozpiętości skrzydeł w czasie lotu, który wyróżnia się kilkoma kluczowymi cechami technicznymi.
Jego zasięg to ponad 200 km, co pozwala na zwalczanie celów poza horyzontem (Over-the-Horizon). Wyposażony jest w system nawigacji satelitarnej GPS oraz autonomiczne rozpoznanie celu (ATR). Pasywne naprowadzanie umożliwia bardziej precyzyjne trafienie. Technologia stealth, czyli zmniejszony przekrój radarowy (RCS), utrudnia wykrycie przez radary.
Głowica bojowa o masie 125 kg zdolna jest do skutecznego niszczenia celów. Choć nie zatopi większego okrętu, to może wyeliminować go z walki.
Pocisk charakteryzuje się wszechstronnością. Może być używany zarówno przeciwko celom morskim, jak i lądowym. Jego napęd stanowi dwustopniowy silnik rakietowy na stały materiał pędny wraz z silnikiem turboodrzutowym.
Pocisk Naval Strike Missile wyróżnia się na tle innych, zwłaszcza starszych pocisków manewrujących, właśnie zmniejszonym przekrojem radarowym (RCS), co utrudnia jego wykrycie przez radary. Dzięki wyposażeniu w zaawansowany system rozpoznania celu (ATR) oraz nawigację GPS wyróżnia się też autonomicznym naprowadzaniem, co zapewnia wysoką precyzję trafienia.
Mankamentem jest brak możliwości wykorzystania pełnego zasięgu rakiety
Nie bez znaczenia jest też wszechstronność pocisków NSM, które mogą być używane zarówno przeciwko celom morskim, jak i lądowym, co czyni je bardziej uniwersalnym, a także zasięg, który wynosi ponad 200 km, co jest porównywalne z innymi nowoczesnymi pociskami manewrującymi - takimi jak Tomahawk czy Harpoon.
Od Harpoona pocisk NSM oferuje bardziej zaawansowaną technologię stealth i autonomiczne naprowadzanie. Natomiast w porównaniu do pocisku Tomahawk jest bardziej kompaktowy i lepiej dostosowany do operacji w trudnych warunkach morskich. Do tego NSM może lecieć na bardzo niskiej wysokości (sea-skimming), co zwiększa jego skuteczność w unikaniu systemów obrony przeciwrakietowej.
Mankamentem jest brak możliwości wykorzystania pełnego zasięgu rakiety ze względu na brak dostatecznych środków rozpoznania i wskazywania celów na takie odległości. Dwie stacje radiolokacyjne TRS-15C umożliwiają jedynie naprowadzenie na cel na odległość 40 km, bo na taki tylko zasięg pozwala krzywizna ziemi.
W Polsce system NSM jest kluczowym elementem Morskiej Jednostki Rakietowej (MJR), która chroni wybrzeże przed potencjalnymi zagrożeniami. Obecnie posiadamy jedną MJR, która składa się z dwóch dywizjonów ogniowych wyposażonych w system NSM.
Każdy dywizjon ma sześć wyrzutni rakietowych, co daje łącznie 24 pociski gotowe do użycia. W ramach nowego kontraktu z Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, podpisanego w 2023 roku, Polska planuje zakup kilkuset dodatkowych pocisków NSM dla kolejnych czterech dywizjonów rakietowych, czyli dwóch kolejnych MJR.
W pierwszej połowie marca 2025 r. wicepremier i szef MON Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz poinformował, że w Wojsku Polskim powstanie Brygada Rakietowa Marynarki Wojennej, utworzona na bazie istniejącej już Morskiej Jednostki Rakietowej. Koncepcja jest już podpisana.
Rozwijamy zdolności serwisowe i produkcyjne rakiet przeciwokrętowych
Kupimy pociski NSM w najnowszej wersji Block 1A, które mają zasięg przekraczający 250 km. Będziemy je otrzymywać w latach 2026-2032. To niejedyna znacząca poprawa parametrów taktyczno-technicznych tego pocisku w porównaniu do wcześniejszych wersji.
Wersja Block 1A wprowadza również kilka istotnych ulepszeń, które czynią NSM Block 1A jeszcze bardziej wszechstronnym i skutecznym narzędziem w nowoczesnych operacjach wojskowych:
• nowe funkcje głowicy naprowadzającej z ulepszonym systemem rozpoznawania celów (Seeker Assisted Target Recognition), który zwiększa skuteczność zarówno przeciwko celom morskim, jak i lądowym;
• nowe możliwości w zakresie planowania i realizacji misji, co pozwala na bardziej precyzyjne dostosowanie do warunków operacyjnych;
• modernizacja systemów sterowania, dzięki czemu wszystkie pojazdy dowodzenia są wyposażone w najnowsze Coastal Defence Console (CDC), które oferują zaawansowane funkcje taktyczne i lepszą ergonomię.
Polska planuje dalszą modernizację systemu Naval Strike Missile w ramach współpracy z Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace w programie odtworzenia gotowości technicznej pocisków DLM (Depot Level Maintenance).
Wojskowe Zakłady Elektroniczne odgrywają kluczową rolę w tym procesie. W ramach tego programu Polska rozwija zdolności serwisowe i produkcyjne, co pozwala na pełne zabezpieczenie potrzeb Sił Zbrojnych RP.
Norweskie rakiety stanowią ważne ogniwo w polskim systemie odstraszania
Wojskowe Zakłady Elektroniczne rozpoczęły współpracę z Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS w zakresie serwisowania systemu NSM-CDS już w 2021 r., po wieloletnich przygotowaniach obejmujących szkolenia personelu, dostosowanie infrastruktury oraz spełnienie wymagań formalnych. Był to pierwszy program DLM dla pocisków NSM realizowany przez państwo niebędące ich producentem. Prace prowadzone w Centrum Serwisowania Pocisków Rakietowych zakończono w 2024 r.
Dla WZE pod tym względem bardzo dobry był 2023 r. W czerwcu tego roku spółka podpisała z Kongsberg D&A list intencyjny dotyczący kontynuacji współpracy i transferu wiedzy po wygaśnięciu umowy z 2021 r. - do momentu zawarcia nowej.
W ramach tego porozumienia między Agencją Uzbrojenia a Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS norweska spółka zobowiązała się do dostawy rakiet NSM dla nowo powstającej Brygady Rakietowej Marynarki Wojennej.
We wrześniu 2023 r. podpisano umowę o rozszerzeniu kompetencji WZE w programie DLM, obejmującą dostawy urządzeń systemu NSM-CDS oraz rakiet NSM. Proces ten ma zakończyć się do 2030 r.
Dzięki pozyskanej technologii i wieloletniemu partnerstwu WZE w pełni zabezpiecza potrzeby Sił Zbrojnych RP w zakresie utrzymania technicznego systemu NSM-CDS i pocisków NSM przez cały okres ich eksploatacji. To jeden z najlepszych polskich kontraktów na współpracę w tym sektorze, jaki dotychczas zawarto.
Dodajmy, że rakiety te stanowią ważne ogniwo w polskim systemie odstraszania broni dalekiego zasięgu. Wśród nich mamy też pociski wystrzeliwane z powietrza, m.in. AGM-88G AARGM-ER, które będą uzbrojeniem samolotów wielozadaniowych F-35.
Polska kupiła też pociski JASSM o zasięgu 370 km, które są używane przez samoloty F-16 produkcji amerykańskiej, oraz pociski JASSM-ER o zasięgu wydłużonym do ok. 1000 km, które stanowią uzbrojenie samolotów F-16 C/D.
Tone it down, Macron – men drowning in fragrance is a total turnoff
Whether you’re the president of France or a teenage boy, drenching yourself in any kind of scent just isn’t the one
The French president sprays ‘industrial amounts’ of Dior’s Eau Sauvage each day as some sort of deliberate assertion of power (AP)
Nothing turns a woman off more than the smell of Lynx Africa. Or short-sleeved tiki shirts. Baby voices, too. I won’t go on – that’s a different article – but of all the icks we might encounter, someone’s scent is undoubtedly paramount.
It’s a well-documented fact that we are attracted to some smells and repulsed by others. You’ll have heard the word “pheromones” bandied around a lot in regard to this, referring to how our “natural scent” can be key when it comes to who we do and don’t fancy. The science remains split on how legitimate that is, by the way. But I’d argue that the scent we choose to apply to ourselves is just as – if not more – important when it comes to matters of the heart.
This brings me back to Lynx Africa. For those lucky enough not to be familiar, it’s a particularly potent aftershave that is marketed as a cross between bergamot and sandalwood, offering a woody and powdery scent designed to be refreshing. In reality, it’s more like rotting masculinity with a splash of discarded mango and favoured by teenage boys with porn addictions and emotionally unavailable men in their 30s in desperate need of therapy. Frankly, even the slightest whiff of it has me retching and thinking of all the 15-year-old boys who drowned themselves in the stuff at school.
The smell was all-consuming and would linger long after someone wearing it walked past. Perhaps the boys mistook it for some sort of seduction strategy – I assure you, it was not. But for whatever reason, a lot of men still love to smother themselves in scent, often at the expense of passers-by. This week, we learned that Emmanuel Macron might be one of them. According to Le Parisien journalist Olivier Beaumont in his new book, The Tragedy of the Elysée, the French president sprays “industrial amounts” of Dior’s Eau Sauvage each day as some sort of deliberate assertion of power.
“Less-accustomed visitors may find themselves overcome by the floral and musky scent, as refined as it is powerful,” Beaumont writes. “It is a sign of one thing: that the president is in the building. Just as Louis XIV made his perfumes an attribute of power when he paraded through the galleries of Versailles, Emmanuel Macron uses his as an element of his authority at the Elysée.”
I’m not sure who told Macron, or indeed any man, that this is a good idea. But someone has to make it stop. Look, a little fragrance here and there is fine. And deodorant is important: nobody’s suggesting you start reeking of body odour. But anything more than a spritz or two, and you’re losing at least four points of hotness. Nobody wants to snog someone while feeling like they’ve just walked into a perfume shop. There’s just something deeply disturbing about a man who wears too much fragrance, like he’s an ostrich fluffing up his feathers for his next mating dance. It’s overpowering. It’s embarrassing. It’s too try-hard.
The irony is that women love the way men naturally smell – at least, all the women I know do (myself included). I’ve had long conversations about the allure of male sweat, for example, and watched as women have practically climaxed while talking about the scent of a man they’ve just started dating. It’s genuinely something we discuss, knowing just how powerful a man’s natural scent can be, whether it’s on your body or your bedsheets. Maybe it’s lust. Maybe it’s pheromones. But I’ll tell you one thing it definitely isn’t – and that’s Lynx Africa, or any other potent perfume for that matter.
My advice to men who favour their fragrance is to throw it away immediately. Chances are you smell pretty good already – consider it another patriarchal perk, as if you needed any more.
_________________
С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Вьетнамский сценарий. Как и почему 50 лет назад пал Южный Вьетнам и грозит ли его судьба Украине
30 апреля исполнится ровно 50 лет падению Южного Вьетнама. В этот день в 1975 году в Сайгон вошли войска коммунистического Северного Вьетнама и повстанцев из Вьетконга, что положило конец длившейся долгие годы войне, в которой на стороне южных вьетнамцев воевала американская армия.
Кадры эвакуации из посольства США, когда сотни и тысячи вьетнамцев, которые сотрудничали с американцами, пытались попасть на последний вертолет, стали с тех пор одной из самых ярких иллюстраций краха политики Америки. Точно также как и кадры попыток афганцев попасть на улетавшие американские самолеты из Кабула в августе 2021 года.
Между войной во Вьетнаме и нынешней войной в Украине аналогии уже проводятся давно. Но раньше это делали, в основном, россияне в духе, что "все проамериканские режимы заканчивают одинаково и также как Сайгон пал, так падет и Киев".
То, что Москва использует подобный образ в информвойне не является удивительным.
Удивление вызывает то, что, в последние недели, судьбой Южного Вьетнама начали пугать Украину украинские же эксперты и журналисты. Делают они это в связи с мирными инициативами Трампа. Они сравнивают их с заключенным в 1973 году мирным соглашением, которое выводило из Южного Вьетнама американские войска, но при этом не давало ему никаких гарантий безопасности на случай нападения Северного Вьетнама. С учетом этого, комментаторы в Украине указывают на то, что мирное соглашение без гарантий безопасности от Запада Киеву будет означать новое нападение России уже в ближайшем будущем.
В то же время, любые аналогии нынешней войны в Украине с Южным Вьетнамом являются предельно натянутыми и, более того, прямо оскорбительными для украинцев.
Безусловно, есть сходство в том, что американцы ни в 1973 году во Вьетнаме, ни сейчас в Украине не хотят давать никаких гарантий безопасности, предусматривающих их участие в войне. Хотя и по разным причинам. 50 лет назад они приняли решение вывести войска из Вьетнама, а потому, естественно, и не обещали Сайгону военной защиты, так как целью мирных соглашений для Вашингтона был выход из войны, а не возобновление в ней участие (и на этот счет, к слову, в Америке был двухпартийный консенсус). А сейчас США не хотят давать каких-либо гарантий безопасности Украины, которые подразумевали бы возможное вступление в войну с Россией, из-за риска ядерного конфликта. И это определяло как линию поведения администрации Байдена, так определяет сейчас и линию Трампа. И также как и Сайгон с позицией американцев тогда ничего поделать не мог, также сейчас и Киев вряд ли может как-то повлиять на изменение позиции Вашингтона.
Кроме того, есть аналогия, что 50 лет назад американцы старались завершить войну во Вьетнаме в рамках своей линии на восстановление связей с Китаем, чтоб усилить раскол между китайцами и СССР (тогдашним главным противником США). И этот расчет оправдался. А сейчас Трамп хочет завершить войну в Украине, чтоб "оторвать" Москву от Пекина, который в США считают теперь главным противником.
Также есть схожесть в коррумпированности южновьетнамских и нынешних украинских властей, зависящих при этом от западной помощи (правда, в отличие от Сайгона, Киев, помимо США, имеет и другой источник финансирования - Европу, которая может продолжать помогать деньгами Украине, даже если американцы перестанут, причем Вашингтон ничего против этого не имеет).
Однако, на этом аналогии практически заканчиваются.
И вопрос "не будет ли гипотетический российско-украинский мир похожим на вьетнамский, став передышкой перед новой войной" не имеет однозначного ответа "да".
Представим ситуацию, что Киев и Москва заключают перемирие. А потом, может дать, и мирное соглашение, исходя из того, что за каждой стороной останутся территории, которые они уже контролирует. При этом Украина не получает каких-либо гарантий безопасности от США и других стран НАТО.
Возможно ли, что Москва в такой ситуации возобновит боевые действия, как это сделал Северный Вьетнам? Ответ "да" – самый простой, но не факт, что верный.
Поскольку он не учитывает те глобальные различия, которые имеются между вьетнамской и украинской войной. И самое главное из них – это отличие между армиями Южного Вьетнама и Украины.
Южновьетнамские войска не представляли из себя реальную силу, а потому основную тяжесть боевых действия взяли на себя американцы. Это означало одно: без армии США Южный Вьетнам был обречен в любом случае. Тот факт, что Вашингтон в конце 1974 года, уже после вывода войск, прекратил помощь, не изменил ситуацию, а просто ускорил падение Сайгона.
В Украине американцы не воюют. Да, США оказывали Киеву большую помощь, но ни один взвод армии США на линию фронта не прибыл. И не один самолёт по армии РФ не нанес удар. ВСУ уже четвертый год воюют сами и сохраняют боеспособность. Фронт не рушится. Основное оружие нынешней войны - дроны, Украина производит самостоятельно и имеет по ним с РФ паритет. Да, продолжение войны несет для Украины большие риски истощения. Но, если война завершится, то новое нападение РФ, если оно и будет, пойдет примерно по такому же сценарию, как и российское наступление на севере Харьковской области в мае 2024 года с занятием нескольких сел и половины Волчанска. В этом плане куда более опасным, чем мир без гарантий безопасности, для Украины является продолжение войны с риском потерять помощь США.
Фактор второй – Вьетконг. Внутри Украины нет массового пророссийского партизанского движения, которое бы вело вооруженную борьбу с правительством.
Фактор третий – внутренняя ситуация в РФ. Возможно, Путин и хотел бы достичь своих максимальных целей даже после гипотетического завершения огня. Но у него нет того дисциплинированного и "заряженного" на войну общества, которые было в Северном Вьетнаме. Имей его Кремль объявил бы всеобщую (а не ограниченную) мобилизацию еще в 2022-м. Но он этого не сделал и даже новые волны частичной мобилизации не объявляет, предпочитая вместо этого платить огромные деньги контрактникам. В такой ситуации сложно представить, что он начнет новую войну после завершения нынешней (если только Украина сама не попытается отбить силой потерянные территории). Более того, есть огромные сомнения, что Путин вообще предпринял бы вторжение в 2022 году, если б знал какое сопротивления окажут ВСУ.
Другой вопрос, пойдет ли Кремль сейчас на прекращение огня, с учетом того, что это не устранит, как любят говорить в Москве, "первопричины конфликта" в лице враждебной к РФ власти в Киеве. Но опыт последних трех лет показал, что военным путем установить лояльный Москве режим в Украине если и возможно, то лишь огромной для России ценой (и то, нет гарантий, что получится).
А потому, даже если Кремль после заключения мирного соглашения зальет деньгами украинское политическое пространство для прихода к власти нужных ему политсил, это все равно обойдется ему дешевле, чем новая война.
Возвращаясь к событиям 50-летней давности во Вьетнаме, можно сказать, что главный вывод из них для Украины и любой другой страны заключается в том, что при определении стратегии своей политики, нужно исходить, в первую очередь, из собственных реальных сил и опираться на них. А не полагаться исключительно на помощь внешних игроков, особенно если они находятся где-то далеко за морями-океанами. Какие бы они не давали сейчас "гарантии безопасности", они их в любой момент могут отозвать, если их интересы поменяются.
Кто и почему на Западе "замалчивает" удар по Кривому Рогу
Владимир Зеленский во вчерашнем вечернем обращении снова дал понять, что Запад недостаточно осудил Россию за ракетную атаку на Кривой Рог, где позавчера погибли 19 человек.
Он заявил, что «неправильно и опасно умалчивать о том, что это Россия убивает детей баллистикой». Эту мысль Офис президента вынес в название текстовой версии обращения.
«Вчера вечером и сегодня многие в мире заявили о своей позиции после этого удара – позиции явного неприятия российского террора. Всем, кто это видит и не закрывает глаза, а говорит правду ясно и ясно, должны быть благодарны не только мы в Украине, но и весь мир», - сказал президент.
Из его формулировки, впрочем, следует, что есть и те, кто «не видит и закрывает глаза».
Комментарий этот прозвучал после того, как посол США Бриджит Бринк, комментируя удар, не уточнила, кто его нанес и призвала к окончанию войны. Что вызвано «неприятное удивление» Зеленского.
При этом действительно, уровень комментирования трагедии в Кривом Роге оказался для западных стран непривычно сдержанным.
Особенно со стороны ключевых стран-партнеров Украины из Европы. Британия, Франция, Германия и Польша осудили Россию только на уровне послов. Ни министры иностранных дел, ни главы правительств или президенты тему прилета по Кривому Рогу не комментировали.
Разве что министр иностранных дел Польши Сикорский в своем Х сделал репост украинского паблика на эту тему, но не сопроводил его никаким текстом. Не было реакции и среди руководителей США. А Трамп в ночь после удара РФ по Кривому Рогу, опубликовал с «веселым» комментарием видео американского удара по скоплению хуситов.
При этом, аналогичные трагедии с массовыми смертями - вроде удара по вокзалу Краматорска весной 2022 года или по дому в Днепре зимой 2023 года - осуждали и западные лидеры (в случае Краматорска - Джонсон, Макрон и Шольц), и их министры иностранных дел (Бербок после Днепра обвинила РФ в военном преступлении). Сейчас промолчала даже глава МИД Германии, которая на днях побывала в Киеве.
Что же до США, то здесь наблюдается вообще полнейшая смена риторики. Если сравнить нынешнее заявление посла Бринк с предыдущими, сделанными по аналогичным поводам, то виден крайне резкий разворот.
Ранее Бринк напрямую винила Россию в ударах куда меньшего масштаба. “Ужасные кадры очередного жестокого нападения на Краматорск, в то время как Россия продолжает свои бессовестные удары по городам, населенным пунктам и жителям Украины», - так она комментировала, к примеру, гибель двух человек в Краматорске летом 2023 года. И подобные посты она писала практически по каждому похожему случаю.
То есть, реакция Бринк поменялась вместе с президентом США. Это уже вызвало массовые комментарии украинских пользователей против посла.
Отметим, что уже сегодня, комментируя удар баллистикой по Киеву, Бринк отметила, что его нанесла РФ, но не призывав при этом Россию к ответу и не называя удар "бессовестным" (последний скриншот). В Центре противодействия дезинформации при СНБО, впрочем назвали это "прогрессом".
На более высоком уровне Россию осудили Молдова (высказалсь президент Майя Санду), Евросоюз (верховный представитель Кая Каллас), Эстония (глава МИД) и Нидерланды (министр обороны).
Но, судя по недовольству Зеленского, он ждал аналогичных заявлений от главных союзников. Однако высшее руководство ключевых европейских стран, а также США, пока не спешит присоединяться к осуждениям. Также не прокомментировали тему Кривого Рога в НАТО.
Украинские власти удар по Кривому Рогу сейчас подают как аргумент в пользу необходимости усиления давления на РФ, поскольку Москва "не хочет заканчивать войну". Именно такой мессидж украинская власть пыталась донести до США еще до трагедии в Кривом Роге. И эти усилия после российского удара по городу резко возросли. Траур объявили не только в Кривом Роге, но и в ряде других городов по всей Украине.
Но, как видим, на высоком уровне Запад этого тезиса не подхватывает. Вопреки тому, как это было, к примеру, после Бучи, которая стала для многих стран поводом резко усилить помощь Киеву. Или после других похожих трагедий.
И это очень тревожный знак для Украины, который говорит о том, что внимание Запада к войне и смертям гражданского население постепенно падает и притупляется. И это уже не является поводом для ужесточения позиции в отношении РФ. Возможно, впрочем, это связано с тем, что сейчас в США ждут какого-либо прогресса по мирным переговорам и не хотят сорвать его резкими заявлениями в адрес Москвы. И, если эти ожидания не оправдаются, то риторика может стать жестче.
Впрочем, есть мнение, что данный тренд более долгосрочный.
«Эти удары Искандерами все больше воспринимаются в Штатах как проекция таких же "высокоточных" израильских ударов по Газе. Уиткофф уже объяснял в интервью Карлсону, что Украина для России - как Газа, и, следовательно, они "имеют право на самооборону". Надо просто привыкнуть, что никакого осуждения или реакции от Вашингтона не будет», - пишет украинский журналист Алексей Степура.
Что означают протесты против Трампа и на что они повлияют?
Вчера в США прошли первые массовые протесты против политики Трампа с момента его избрания на второй срок.
Они были хорошо организованы и скоординированы. Их поддержали многие видные представители Демпартии США.
Очевидно, оппоненты президента оправились от первого шока и начинают постепенно «качать ситуацию», организуя уличное давление.
Эти процессы нельзя недооценивать. Мы уже писали, что у Трампа в США очень большой антирейтинг. И победил он на выборах только потому, что Демпартия выставила против него откровенно слабую кандидатуру – Камалу Харрис (слабее нее был только Байден).
Но негатив в отношении Трампа никуда не делся. Да, его поддержка сейчас находится на самом высоком уровне за все время его президентства (включая первый срок) – 47%. Но 51% выступают против него.
Ко всему этому добавляются радикальные перемены, которые проводит Трамп, чистка «глубинного государства», резкий разворот курса по многим направлениям, начало «мировой торговой войны», которая означает глобальный переворот с не очень понятными перспективами, в том числе, и для самих Штатов. Уже падает фондовый рынок, что усиливает тревожные ожидания.
В таких условиях стоит удивляться не тому, что начались протесты, а тому, что они начались столь поздно.
Впрочем, Трамп вряд ли их сильно испугается. Тем более, что у него есть и своя мощная и довольно радикальная группа поддержки. И улицу он так просто демократам не отдаст. А потому классический сценарий «Майдана» и «цветных революций» в США не сработает. Однако, внутреннее противостояние в американском обществе протесты наверняка радикализируют, что может иметь далеко идущие последствия для стабильности государства.
Тем более, что у Трампа в госсистеме есть три слабых места, которые могут использовать его противники.
Первое – это власти штатов, значительная часть которых контролируют демократы. Второе - это суды. Третье – это Конгресс, в обеих палатах которого у республиканцев большинство, однако часть республиканцев не любит Трампа и могут переметнуться к Демпартии. Таких не так уж и много и для импичмента не хватит, но для блокирования действий президента, через лишение его де-факто большинства в Конгрессе, этого может быть достаточно.
Скажутся ли протесты на политике Трампа в отношении Украины, может ли он занять более «проукраинскую» позицию, чтоб избежать обвинений в «работе на Путина», как это происходило во время его первого срока? Вряд ли. В отличие от 2017-2020 годов тема Путина и Украины сейчас далеко не самая главная в перечне обвинений в адрес Трампа. Да и объективно тяжело раскрутить внутри США «зраду» вокруг намерений Трампа завершить кровопролитие в далекой стране, чтоб тратить на нее меньше денег американских налогоплательщиков. Скорее есть перспективы ужесточения «антиукраинской» линии Трампа, если Киев слишком уж явно поддержит протесты (что, кстати, не факт – Зеленский в данном вопросе скорее проявит осторожность, чтоб не нарываться на новые проблемы с Белым домом).
В то же время, эти протесты могут сказаться на другом направлении внешней политики Трампа – намерениях напасть на Иран. Здесь уже будет идти речь о непосредственном участии в войне Америки, причем в качестве ее инициатора. И если эта войне не ограничится лишь точечными ударами по Ирану, если в ответ Иран нанесет удары по военным объектам США на Ближнем востоке и американская армия начнет нести ощутимые потери, а война затянется, то это враги Трампа внутри страны наверняка постараются использовать по максимуму для разворачивания против него кампании с обвинениями в «бездарном ведении войны» и «втягивании США в авантюру».
Все это увеличивает риски для Трампа войны с Ираном.
Также это делает еще более проблематичным проекты по аннексии Гренландии и Канады, которые и ранее не пользовались поддержкой большинства американцев.
Хотя, как все уже убедились, Трамп человек резкий, а потому может наплевать на любые риски и продолжать гнуть свою линию. Другой вопрос, что сопротивление этой линии будет все более жестким.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Inside the Valley of the Vapes: Residents of deprived Pennine town blast influx of pop up stores which has made them the vaping capital of UK
People living in Britain's vaping hotspot have slammed the town's 'addiction' with vaping in the deprived Pennine town.
The former Lancashire mill town of Accrington has been revealed as the most 'vape-obsessed' area.
Analysis by vape retailers Haypp has revealed that it has the highest number of vape shops in the UK with almost 40 per 100,000 residents.
Residents have blamed the town's deprivation and that vaping is 'more addictive' than smoking.
Most welcomed the ban on disposal vapes which is due to come into force in June.
Unemployed vaper Andy Young, 60, said: 'We have so many vape shops here. Too many, really. So many people vape because there is nothing else to do and it is so run down.
'I used to smoke 40-a-day but vaping is worse because you always have it in your hand and you can just have a puff on it all the time.'
He added: 'The disposal vape ban is a good idea.
Unemployed vaper Andy Young (above) said he welcomed the ban on disposal vapes which is due to come into force in June
Analysis has revealed that Accrington has the highest number of vape shops in the UK with almost 40 per 100,000 residents
'Too many kids seem to buy them. I go to reputable shop but there are a few which aren't. Anything that stop kids getting into vaping is good.'
Mother-of-three Emily Brown, 34, said: 'It's ridiculous there are so many vape shops. You go into a corner shop or newsagents and they are all selling vapes.
'No wonder so many people are vaping here. There's not much going on for people in the town. A lot of other shops have closed down.
'It can be pretty depressing, the state of the place.'
Standing outside his office for a vape, accountant Matthew Moore, 27, said: 'There are a lot of vapes shops here.
'It's pretty mad really. Hopefully the ban on disposal vapes will stop a lot of kids doing it. I think it's a good idea.'
Mother-of-three Emily Brown said the number of shops selling the devices was 'depressing' and impacting the town
The bright advertising methods used to promote vapes has been said to make them more appealing to younger people
Ms Brown said almost all Accrington corner shopnewsagents and are all selling vapes
Mother-of-three Shannon Morgan, 29, said: 'There are a crazy amount of vape shops here.
'They are all over the place. Vaping is pretty addictive as you just take a drag all the time.'
Father-of-one Dave Harris, 31, said: 'You see so many people walking around vaping.
'It's shocking and every other shop seem to selling vapes. A lot of people seem to be addicted to vaping.
'But I'm not sure the disposal ban will work. The kids will just buy another vape.'
The town is famous for its football team Accrington Stanley which was one of the founding members of the football league in 1888.
Mother-of-three Shannon Morgan said the number of vape shops in the town was 'crazy'
The town is famous for its football team Accrington Stanley which was one of the founding members of the football league in 1888, but has become the UK's vape capital
Father-of-one Dave Harris said it was 'shocking' to see so many people using vapes in the area
The League Two side is known as 'the club that wouldn't die' as it went bust in 1966 before reforming and climbing back up through the leagues.
It was also the star of an iconic 1989 TV milk ad which featured the famous line: 'Accrington Stanley... who are they?'
Away from Accrington, research found that Bolton came in as the second-most 'vape-obsessed', with 33 vape businesses for every 100,000 residents.
Manchester, Darwen, and Stockport complete the top five, with Salford and Altrincham also appearing in the top ten.
The least 'vape-obsessed' area in the UK is the London borough of Bexley, with 0.44 vape shops per 100,000 residents.
Цитата:
«Запрещать нужно полностью» В Госдуме захотели прекратить торговлю вейпами. Запретят ли их в России?
В России хотят полностью запретить оборот вейпов и жидкостей для них.
В конце января 2025 года в Государственной Думе подготовили к обсуждению законопроект, полностью запрещающий в России оборот вейпов, а также никотиносодержащих и безникотиновых жидкостей для них. Изменения предлагается внести в закон «Об охране здоровья граждан от воздействия окружающего табачного дыма, последствий потребления табака или потребления никотинсодержащей продукции». Инициативу, которую, по словам спикера Вячеслава Володина, поддержали все фракции, планируется включить в примерный план работы нижней палаты парламента на март 2025 года. 16 февраля глава думского комитета по молодежной политике Артем Метелев подтвердил, что законопроект может быть рассмотрен палатой в весеннюю сессию.
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Цитата:
Мосгордума предлагает на федеральном уровне запретить рекламу вейпов в сети
Внести в Государственную Думу законопроект о запрете на рекламу дистанционной продажи табачных изделий и вейпов постановила Московская городская дума. Документ предполагает внесение изменений в федеральные законы «Об информации, информационных технологиях и о защите информации» и «Об охране здоровья граждан от воздействия окружающего табачного дыма, последствий потребления табака или потребления никотинсодержащей продукции» и в КоАП РФ.
Разработчики документа указывают, что более половины (59%) информации о дистанционной продаже никотинсодержащей продукции сегодня размещено в соцсетях. Ее покупка несовершеннолетними возможна с помощью курьерской доставки (более 50%), доставки через пункты выдачи (40%) или постаматы (8%). При этом 77% страниц в социальных сетях не запрашивают подтверждение возраста покупателя.
В настоящее время онлайн-торговля никотинсодержащей продукцией уже запрещена федеральным законом. Столичные законодатели предлагают пойти дальше, и на федеральном уровне установить запрет также на распространение в Интернете и социальных сетях сведений о дистанционной продаже табачной и содержащей никотин продукции, а также разного рода кальянов, вейпов и т.п.
Мосгордума подготовила законопроект о внесении правок в Кодекс Российской Федерации об административных правонарушениях. Законодатели предлагают наказывать штрафами за распространение информации о вейпах, от трех до пяти тысяч рублей на физциц, на должностных лиц - от двадцати до сорока тысяч, на юрлиц - от ста до трехсот тысяч.
Также законодатели предлагают ужесточить наказание за повторную продажу табака и вейпов несовершеннолетним. За это предлагается налагать административные штрафы на граждан в размере от шестидесяти до семидесяти тысяч рублей; на должностных лиц - от трехсот до четырехсот тысяч; на юридических лиц - от шестисот до восьмисот тысяч рублей Кроме того, депутаты предусмотрели приостановку действия предприятия, продавшего вейп или сигареты несовершеннолетним, сроком до 90 суток.
Pasty wars! Shop owner in Cornwall seaside town clashes with furious locals over £10 pasties... and says she wants to charge even MORE (despite rivals being much cheaper)
A Cornish pasty seller in one of Britain's most picturesque villages has complained that whingeing locals are stopping her from charging £13.50 per pasty.
Terri Munday runs the Mousehole Deli and Kitchen near Penzance, Cornwall, where it costs £10 to have a pasty to eat in.
She had planned to increase her prices to £13.50 this month - but told MailOnline she was prevented by 'abusive' customers moaning about money.
Fellow Cornish pasty sellers a few miles down the road charge as little as £4.60 for similarly sized pasties and blasted Terri for flogging her food at such 'extortionate' prices.
However, Terri defended her prices and said the £10 tag for the pasties made by local mother and son duo Ann and Fergus was actually evidence of her 'trying to keep the costs down' as she also had to provide and wash the plates she serves them on.
She told MailOnline: 'As if life is not hard enough. Our pasty prices have absolutely nothing to do with making money off tourists or second home owners.
'It should be 13.50 to make [the] 70 per cent margin we need to run a business. This is us trying to keep the costs down.
'My team have had abuse on the phone and over the counter about prices, which has been totally heartbreaking for us and them, particularly in April when prices are due to increase.
Terri and Caleb Munday (pictured), who run the Mousehole Deli and Kitchen, charge £10 for a pasty. Terri (right) complained to MailOnline that locals whining about her high prices were stopping her from raising the price of a pasty to £13.50
Currently, Terri sells pasties in her shop for £10 to eat in and £6.50 to take away. Pictured: Pasties in her shop last week. Pork pies were also on sale for as much as £12.50
'Now I am going to have to run at a loss and delay this process.'
Terri's deli sits in the heart of Mousehole, a beautiful village long considered to be Britain's second home capital.
Last week, MailOnline revealed that Cornwall County Council was urging locals to fight back against out-of-towners turning their stunning haven into a ghost town.
Yet this week the talk of the town has been Terri's £10 pasties.
Locals said the pasties were delicious but even the local councillor who had lived in Mousehole for almost 20 years admitted she would never pay a tenner for them.
Thalia Marrington, 50, the deputy leader of the Cornwall County Council Liberal Democrats and a Mousehole villager for 18 years, said she expected pasties to cost 'a little more' in Mousehole.
She said: 'I know they are expensive. They are nice. It's what I expect in Mousehole. You do pay a bit more.
'They do try, but we live in a goldfish bowl. They have to make it out to [the] season.
Terri's Mousehole Deli and Kitchen (pictured) overlooks a stunning harbour and sells pasties for up to £10 each
Terri was perplexed as to why anyone wouldn't fork out £10 to pay for this Cornish pasty accompanied with salad
Pictured: The stunning view outside the expensive delicatessen in the Cornish village of Mousehole
Mousehole (pictured last week) is thought to be the second home capital of Britain
'I wouldn't pay £10 for a pasty but I would spend £6.50 for an Ann's pasty and eat out.'
Former police officer Elaine Bawden, 66, who grew up in Mousehole, admitted the pasty price at Terri's shop was expensive but understandable.
She said: 'The delicatessen in the village [is] aimed more at the holiday trade rather than residents.
'Yes they are more expensive but that's the case wherever you purchase quality goods. You wouldn't buy your weekly shop there!'
Elaine's friend Neil Brockman, 61, also grew up in the village and said the pasties were his favourite.
When other pasty sellers in neighbouring villages within five miles of Mousehole heard about the £10 pasties, they were shocked.
Pasty maker Sarah Shaw owns the Cornish Hen Deli in Penzance and charges £4.60 for a traditional pasty.
Elaine Bawden, 66, (pictured) grew up in Mousehole and said it made sense that Terri charged high prices because the pasties were high quality
Neil Brockman, 61, (pictured) was born in Mousehole and lived there for 45 years. He said the pasties sold at Terri's deli were his favourite
Local Lib Dem councillor Thalia Marrington, 50, (pictured) said she wouldn't pay £10 for the pasties but was happy to give £6.50 for a takeaway
When she heard about Terri's prices in Mousehole, she said they were even more expensive than London prices.
Sarah said: 'Are you kidding me?
'I don't know how they can justify £10 for a pasty. They must be gold-plated.
'They can't be making them themselves. We make everything from scratch.
'The beef is from the local butcher, we use Cornish butter.
'But good luck to them. I can't quite believe that.'
Ian Lavender, 70, runs Lavenders Deli Bakery in Penzance with his wife and son.
He charges £4.70 for a pasty, although he admitted he increased the prices this week from £4.20 because of rising costs.
Ian Lavender, 70, (pictured) runs Lavenders Deli Bakery in Penzance with his wife and son
He charges £4.70 for a pasty, although he admitted he increased the prices this week from £4.20 because of rising costs
At Lavenders even a giant steak pasty was only £6.90, more than £3 cheaper than a £10 Mousehole Deli and Kitchen pasty to eat in
When he heard Terri's deli in Mousehole was charging £10 for a pasty and had hoped to increase to £13.50, he said: 'I'm going to move to Mousehole!'
Ian added: 'That's extortionate. We have always tried to keep our prices at a reasonable rate because the area is not wealthy.
'We have to try keep the prices within people's budgets.'
Yet not all pasty sellers were surprised. Hellys Bistro in Penzance stocks pasties from Lavenders and sells them for £7.
Tom Murray, a worker at Loafs Bakery in Penzance, pauses before taking a bite of one of the bakery's pasties
The Cornish store charges £4.85 for a pasty, each of which is around 450g in weight
Linda Jeha (pictured) is the owner of Aunty May's in Newlyn, where she sells pasties £4.95
Pictured: A fresh batch of Aunty May's Cornish pasties are readied to be sold to the public
Pictured: Elle Toms at Warrens bakery in Newlyn, a few minutes drive from Mousehole
Warrens is one of the oldest pasty chains in Cornwall and boasts loyal customers across the region
The shop charges just £4.75 for a medium traditional steak pasty (pictured this week)
Assistant head chef Ethan Willie, 23, said he wasn't shocked because of Mousehole being a tourism hotspot, which he suggested made everything naturally more expensive.
He explained: 'With the summer coming, Mousehole is one of the more touristy destinations.'
MailOnline analysis of shops selling pasties between Mousehole and Penzance at the moment found the Mousehole Deli and Kitchen sold the most expensive ones at £10.
The cheapest were sold at Rowe's Cornish Bakers in Penzance for £4.30, where you could also buy two for £7.30, coming out at an average of £3.70 per pasty.
Pictured: Pasty shop worker Lee Parsons at the Cornish Hen Deli in Penzance, which sells traditional pasties for £4.60 each
Owner Sarah Shaw couldn't believe her ears when MailOnline revealed one of her rivals was selling psaties for a tenner
She said: 'Are you kidding me? I don't know how they can justify £10 for a pasty. They must be gold-plated'
Even so, Terri was horrified that people might view her shop in a negative light and strongly defended her staff and her business style.
She said: '[£10 is] just the price to make less than industry standard margin.
'They are hand made by Ann and her son Fergus, not [a] fake chain-baked product you might be used to!
'They are massive and weight approximately 475g with steak from Fergus's farm.
'Ann and Fergus sell them to us for £3.15.
'Then you have to add on pasty tax for a ''reheated baked good'' unless it's straight out of the oven, which is what we try to do as we bake them on site. So we should sell them for £7 if reheated!
'Then I have to pay £12.45 per hour for a chef to bake them plus extortionate electricity, equipment, maintenance [and] parchment.
'Then we have to pay someone the same hourly rate to sell it, plus equipment to reheat, storage, bags, cleaning etc.
'Then to have [pasties] in I have to buy plates, have a premises, hire more staff to serve you, and make it into a restaurant item.
'Seriously, you think that's not ok for £10?'
She added: 'Locals get a discount and monthly deals so we look after [everyone], not that we can afford to but to us, community is everything.
'We employee 32 local staff, have eight apprenticeships and need to stay open all year to service this.
'We embrace tourism in Cornwall. That brings in £2billion to the county each year and supports over 35,000 jobs.
'It's hard enough to run a small restaurant in this climate with national living wage, supermarkets monopolising retail items so it becomes cheaper to shop there than with our suppliers [and dealing with] the extra £15k increase in national insurance we as a business have to try and find.'
The work of Banksy? Locals suspect graffiti of girl holding toilet seat shaped balloons outside public loos in London could be latest masterpiece by mystery street artist - do YOU agree?
A suspected Banksy artwork has appeared on a boarded up public toilet in London.
The artwork shows Banksy's signature image of a girl holding gold balloons in the shape of toilet seats.
The 'cheeky' graffiti was spotted by residents on Thursday in Clerkenwell Green, Farringdon.
Al Scott, who owns Scotti's Snack Bar that overlooks the boarded-up toilet said he met a mysterious man painting the scaffolding earlier in the week.
'Some bloke came in the morning and said I'm just doing some painting,' Scott told MailOnline.
He added: 'He came in a bit early and asked if I could do him a roll.
'I made him an egg and bacon roll he seemed like a nice guy. He said had to get a train from Farringdon to Paddington.
'He came in about quarter to seven Monday or Tuesday. He said he'd been doing a bit of decorating but then that (the graffiti) came after.
A suspected Banksy artwork appeared in Clerkenwell Green, Farringdon, leaving locals intrigued
A man 'wearing a tradesman jacket and overalls with a flat cap and glasses' was spotted painting by the boarded-up toilets
A notice is displayed next to the artwork forbidding people from removing or tampering with it
'He had a flat cap and glasses he looked a bit outlandish nothing distinctive he was wearing a tradesman jacket and overalls.
'He was a white guy he's got to be in his 40s.
'It seems like no one's got cameras that face on the square which makes it an interesting spot to choose to do it.'
Chris Hristov, 25, who works at the Crown Tavern, overlooking the square agreed that the location is discreet.
He said: 'I think none of the cameras around here point to the toilets so it's deliberate.
'It happened overnight all I saw was a big group of people taking pictures the next day.
'It kind of makes sense because it's a bit cheeky there's a public toilet it's got a girl holding toilet seats.'
A notice is displayed next to the piece 'forbidding' people from removing or tampering with it.
The work is painted on the side of a boarded-up public toilet and depicts a girl holding gold balloons in the shape of toilet seats
Residents in Farringdon are torn over whether or not the painting is the work of the famous British artist
The sign reads: 'Verification of authenticity is currently being sought via the approximate channel, the Pest Control Office website, as it is the correct procedure.'
The Pest Control Office is the official body that verifies Banksy's work.
Sally, a local resident said she interpreted the notices as a 'joke'.
She said: 'I think it's an April fool's joke.
'I think it's a joke about the fact the public toilet has been boarded up forever.'
James Hawkings, 27, a lighting technician working in the area agrees.
He said: 'It doesn't look like his normal level of quality but they are authenticating it.
'It does look like it could be a bit budget.
'I think it's a fake, I think it's a ruse.'
But others disagreed with him suggesting that the work could have easily been painted by the famous artist.
Ray Hong, 24, a fashion designer told MailOnline: 'I think it might be a Banksy. I think it's cool.
'We're based in the area I usually come to the street to go to Waitrose and this is new.
'I would say it's good to have some art in this area. It's nice for the community that it's here I love to see this.'
Echo Dheng, 26, an art director agreed, adding that it could boost the cost of house prices in the area.
Residents hope the new painting could boost the cost of houses in the 'busy' area where it is rare to see such an artwork
She said: 'I think the Farringdon area is so busy and it's rare to see artwork here.
'I think the artwork might influence the house prices it might improve it. It's really nice.'
And while the graffiti hasn't been verified yet, resident John Sacks, 78, said it's added 'cheer' to the area.
He said: 'I was told it was here so I came down to see it.
'It's nice to see it here, whether it is a Banksy or not.
'Anything you can do cheer up this place is really nice.'
That's not the first time a mysterious suspected Banksy painting has excited north Londoners, however.
Almost exactly a year ago, locals living in Finsbury Park were certain Banksy had been at work in the area.
Londoners awoke to an artwork on a building near the park showing a splattering of green painted behind a bare tree to look like foliage, with a stencil of a person holding what appears to be a pressure hose next to it.
After the painting was posted to social media, hundreds of Banksy fans began flocking to the site to inspect whether it was truly the work of the mysterious artist. James Peak, who created the BBC Radio 4 series The Banksy Story, was one of those who rushed to the scene.
A suspected Banksy artwork appeared overnight on the side of a building in Finsbury Park, north London, almost exactly a year ago
Hundreds of Banksy fans flocked to the scene to decipher whether or not it was indeed his work
Larry Fraser, 47 , and James Love, 53, stole Banksy's Girl with Balloon painting from Grove Gallery, Fitzrovia
'To my mind it looks like a dead cert,' he told the BBC.
'But as ever with Banksy - you never quite know, until he fesses up by posting it on his website.'
One of the works which did indeed make it to Banksy's website was his famous Girl with Balloon painting. The painting was stolen in a heist of Grove Gallery, Fitzrovia, in late September.
The painting, with an estimated value of £250,000, was taken by Larry Fraser, 47, and James Love, 54, who were both arrested a short time later.
Fraser, 47, admitted non-residential burglary at Kingston Crown Court but Love denied the charge.
Love will face trial next September, with Fraser's sentencing adjourned until after its conclusion.
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Artist behind Trump portrait branded 'the worst' by president says her business is 'in danger of not recovering'
Sarah Boardman, the artist behind an official portrait of Donald Trump which the president said was "truly the worst", says the viral backlash has put her 41-year-old business at risk.
The portrait of President Trump by Sarah Boardman. Pic: AP
An artist whose official portrait of Donald Trump was publicly criticised by the president said her business is now "in danger of not recovering".
The Republican leader made headlines at the end of last month when, in a post on his Truth Social platform, he said the portrait hanging in Colorado's State Capitol had been "purposefully distorted".
Following the criticism, officials said the portrait would be taken down and it has since been removed.
Sarah Boardman, the British artist who painted the Trump portrait, said in a statement to Sky News she felt her "intentions, integrity, and abilities" had been "called into question" when the president criticised the oil painting.
In his post, Mr Trump said a portrait by the same artist of former US president Barack Obama was "wonderful" but "the one on me is truly the worst".
Sarah Boardman. Pic : AP
Referring to Ms Boardman, whose collection of official portraits also includes one of former president George W Bush, Mr Trump said "she must have lost her talent as she got older".
He then added: "In any event, I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one."
Almost two weeks since the criticism, Ms Boardman has now responded saying her business has been detrimentally impacted.
She said: "President Trump is entitled to comment freely, as we all are, but the additional allegations that I 'purposefully distorted' the portrait, and that I 'must have lost my talent as I got older' are now directly and negatively impacting my business of over 41 years which now is in danger of not recovering."
The artist also described how "for the six years that the portrait hung in the Colorado State Capitol Building Rotunda, I received overwhelmingly positive reviews and feedback".
"Since President Trump's comments, that has changed for the worst," she added.
Ms Boardman said the Colorado State Capitol Advisory Committee, Denver, commissioned her to paint the official portrait of President Trump for the Denver State Capitol Gallery of Presidents.
"The reference photograph and my subsequent 'works in progress' were all approved, throughout that process, by that committee," she said.
"I completed the portrait accurately, without 'purposeful distortion', political bias, or any attempt to caricature the subject, actual or implied. I fulfilled the task per my contract."
_________________
С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
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