perestroika

Not really.

The only veteran with weight here is Petro Poroshenko, the president who took office after Yanukovich fled, and left office after losing elections to Zelensky.

Sadly, Poroshenko has been harassed quite considerably (charges are being considered, his properties have been sanctioned)... for things he did as a president, did openly, and at that moment, did for the benefit of Ukraine. One of those deeds was buying coal from Russian-occupied territories - until coal could be obtained from other places.

To me, the accusations against him have seemed more than a bit unfair - a man who did what he could in 2014 has been held against today's standards and found wanting. It is natural that Trumpists would seek out Poroshenko and try to talk him over to their side. Him being pissed off, he might not reject their advances.

Former President Petro Poroshenko, the de facto leader of Ukraine's opposition, said following the scuffle that he wouldn't criticize Zelensky "because this is not what the country needs now."

Following his team’s reported meetings with members of the Trump administration, the former president changed his tune and lashed out at his successor.

He criticized Zelensky for the sanctions imposed on him and said that Zelensky is the "unfortunate leader of the team who moves the nation to dictatorship."

However, on the background of today's Ukraine, the person with the biggest amount of support - ex-commander of the armed forces Zaluzhny - has probably not been approached, or has rejected them.

Frederica Matteoni (writing in German for Berliner Zeitung) probably has checked her sources.

Gaza: Hamas soll jungen Protestteilnehmer zu Tode gefoltert haben

Edit, a few days later: The Telegraph quotes a known person who's describing what they did.

Hamas tortures protester to death and leaves body on family’s doorstep

Also, this is not new behaviour from Hamas. Take of look at historical precedents, I'll give a selection extending back to 2015.

1. Torturing people has been everyday business for Hamas. Recently, on retreat, Hamas had to abandon some security camera storage media.

Shackled and whipped with canes: Israel uncovers 'thousands of hours' of sickening footage showing Hamas interrogators torturing innocent Palestinians

2. A few years ago, in 2022, they had an execution spree. France 24 reports:

Gaza's Hamas executes five Palestinians, including two for 'collaboration' with Israel

3. Back in 2015 they had a big execution spree. The Guardian reports:

Hamas executed 23 Palestinians under cover of Gaza conflict, says Amnesty

Maybe it is time to stop and consider: maybe both Israel and Hamas are committing crimes of the most severe kind. History is not in short supply of one one tyranny fighting another.___

I probably don't know the correct term in English. It's a product for starting a fire in a wood-fired stove or campfire. A rectanglular block of wood fiber soaked in oil.

It wouldn't help. The thing that gives you lift is the mass of displaced air. Difference from the (lack of) mass of the lifting gas is minimal.

My bet would be that it's glass etchant.

Typically not an acid, but a fluoride salt, since acids containing the fluoride ion are very dangerous (I've got a reminder of it on my leg, splashed some stainless weld cleaner on my trousers without noticing at first. Goes bad extremely fast, heals extremely slow. Affected areas should be immediately flushed with water, and possibly followed up with soda water.)

I would guess it's potassium bifluoride or ammonium bifluoride. Or if really acid, then hexafluorosilicic acid.

I wonder if there's a point. Dropping gravel from a drone would likely achieve the same effect, and gravel is literally dirt cheap - one can collect it from a roadside.

Speaking of drones, my bet would be that it's a DIY drone, if the vandals intend to play safe - factory made drones contain privacy risks inherent to their WiFi connections (a WiFi scanner could record a unique MAC address that can be linked to something). WiFi allows for anonymity only if you have a card that can enter monitor / inject mode and software equips packets with deliberately spoofed 802.11 headers.

A self made drone using the simplest possible guidance protocol might cut it. If it transmits analog video, the droner would have to avoid recording themselves - if countermeasures are set up, a radio scanner might catch a copy of their video feed. But if they transmit encrypted video, then it wouldn't betray them.

So, there's a reasonable chance that if the vandals are competent, they will indeed be extremely hard to catch (unless they crash their machine).

As for vandalizing in public parking lots, I disagree with that - if one has decided to vandalize, one should know better where to vandalize.

The main point: Ukraine has a preference / permission for joining the EU written into its current constitution. The EU has various rules about competition and markets, so...

The European Commission will make an assessment of the text, which could grant a preferential treatment to American companies, once there is a "concrete agreement with letters black on white," Paula Pinho, the Commission's chief spokesperson, said on Friday.

Now, if Trump's team can write a text that adheres to EU competition rules, then Zelensky might give it the green light. But can they? Are they even thinking about it currently?

The headline is mistaken. I checked out an article with photos from the scene.

The limousine was authentic. The place was nice, a few blocks from the FSB headquarters.

But there was no "tremendous explosion" - the car just burnt. Every house had its windows intact, the car itself had its windows intact while burning, etc.

Explanations: technical malfunction, passer-by with fire cubes and a lighter.

Ah, nice to remember. :) I'm used to speaking and writing UK English - I learnt it that way and it became a habit. (In the UK, they write colour intead of color, labour instead of labor, tyre instead of tire, grey instead of gray, etc.)

Prediction: what EU and China will be doing shortly - not out of good will, but because they were wronged and they know the problem is Trump, not the United States in general - will be carefully targeted tariffs designed to hurt Trump's main support bases. It's been done before.

Summary of what I understood:

• Florida work force: 27% born in foreign countries
• Florida farm workers: 60% born in foreign countries
• Florida state: eager to persecute immigrants

Proposal:

• allow child labour for unlimited hours, if home schooled or distance learning
• allow 30 hours per week during study sessions
• allow 6 days of consecutive work
• allow work during school hours
• allow early and late work, even if school next day
• allow more than 8 hours per day, even if school next day

That seems 19th century stuff. Back then, in the bad old times, anarchists shot politcians and workers had street battles with cops over this kind of minor issues.

I think the "dying soon" bit was Zelensky trying to make him more paranoid. Putin seems to already be fairly paranoid and Zelensky giving predictions about his death will probably have effect on his peace of mind and diet. :)

Yes. But it would be a violation of international law, so they should not be willing.

If the matter somehow transforms to obtaining the assistance of El Salvador in this case, a credible proposal of EU economic sanctions would hasten a compromise.

To be honest, I'm not fully understanding why El Salvador accepted those people from the US.