Panic in the studio at the Italian SkyTg24

World-famous economist Jeffrey Sachs: “Well you know, the real story is that the United States ousted the Ukrainian government in February 2014. The Ukrainians didn't really choose, the United States chose for them.”

https://twitter.com/Max_Palmeri/status/1789180144285815226

@FelipeChannel

No country on Earth censors the internet harder than Australia

🇦🇺 🔇 Update from Australia's PM -- you're going to need a Social License to post memes.

🔶️ "Parliament needs to understand how social media companies dial up and down the content that supports healthy democracies, as well as the anti-social content that undermines public safety." -- Minister of Communications Hon Michelle Rowland MP.

📢 "We have a clear message for the platforms. Be better. Do better."

🔶️ "The social media giants seem more determined to wipe trusted news sources from their platforms than scammers and other criminals. This will open the floodgates for misinformation and disinformation."
- Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, the Hon Stephen Jones MP

📎 datahazard

🇪🇨🇲🇽 Ecuador will suspend the service of its consulates in Mexico; The attention will be given in Guatemala and the US

The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador reported that its consulates in Mexico will stop providing service as of May 16, so diplomatic services will only be provided in Guatemala City, Houston and Texas.

The diplomatic representation of Ecuador did not give more details about whether the service in Mexico will return in the future. The office also shared the telephone numbers of the consulates in Guatemala and the United States, as well as the immigration offices in the country to which they can contact.

🇷🇺⚡️Full list of those whom Vladimir Putin proposed to appoint:

The following are offered for consultation:
– for the post of Minister of Internal Affairs – Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kolokoltsev;
– for the post of Minister for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief – Alexander Vyacheslavovich Kurenkov;
– for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs – Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov;
- for the post of Minister of Defense - Andrey Removich Belousov;
– for the post of Minister of Justice – Konstantin Anatolyevich Chuychenko;
– for the position of Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service – Sergey Evgenievich Naryshkin;
– for the position of Director of the Federal Security Service – Alexander Vasilievich Bortnikov;
– for the position of Director of the Federal Service of National Guard Troops – Zolotov Viktor Vasilievich;
– for the position of Director of the Federal Security Service – Dmitry Viktorovich Kochnev;
– for the post of Head of the Main Directorate of Special Programs of the President – Alexander Leonidovich Linz;
- for the post of head of the Accounts Chamber - Boris Yurievich Kovalchuk.

Senators will hold consultations on the candidates proposed by the President at committee meetings on May 13 and at a meeting of the Federation Council on May 14.

GOVERNMENT DEBT AS SHARE OF GDP.

🇮🇹 ITALY: 137%
🇫🇷 FRANCE: 111%
🇪🇸 SPAIN: 108%
🇬🇧 UK: 101%
🇩🇪 GERMANY: 64%
🇵🇱 POLAND: 51%
🇹🇷 TURKEY: 29%
🇷🇺 RUSSIA: 20% ...

GOVERNMENT DEBT AS SHARE OF GDP.

🇯🇵 JAPAN: 252%
🇸🇬 SINGAPORE: 162%
🇱🇦 LAOS: 122%
🇨🇳 CHINA: 83%
🇲🇾 MALAYSIA: 67%
🇹🇭 THAILAND: 62%
🇵🇭 PHILIPPINES: 56%
🇰🇷 SOUTH KOREA: 55%
🇮🇩 INDONESIA: 39%
🇻🇳 VIETNAM: 34% ...

ANNUAL INFLATION RATE

🇦🇷 ARGENTINA: 288%
🇹🇷 TURKEY: 69.8%
🇷🇺 RUSSIA: 7.7%
🇿🇦 SOUTH AFRICA: 5.3%
🇮🇳 INDIA: 4.85%
🇲🇽 MEXICO: 4.65%
🇧🇷 BRAZIL: 3.69%
🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA: 3.6%
🇺🇸 US: 3.5%
🇪🇸 SPAIN: 3.3%
🇬🇧 UK: 3.2%
🇮🇩 INDONESIA: 3%
🇨🇦 CANADA: 2.9%
🇰🇷 SOUTH KOREA: 2.9%
🇯🇵 JAPAN: 2.7%
🇳🇱 NETHERLANDS: 2.7%
🇸🇬 SINGAPORE: 2.7%
🇫🇷 FRANCE: 2.2%
🇩🇪 GERMANY: 2.2%
🇸🇦 SAUDI ARABIA: 1.6%
🇨🇭 SWITZERLAND: 1.4%
🇮🇹 ITALY: 0.9%
🇨🇳 CHINA: 0.3% ...

📖 🇺🇦 🇷🇺 The Russians simply walked in, Ukrainian troops in Kharkiv tell BBC

🔶️ Denys Yaroslavskyi is angry. As the Commander of a Ukrainian Special Reconnaissance Unit, he fought in Ukraine’s surprise offensive in Kharkiv in the autumn of 2022, which pushed back an initial Russian invasion all the way back to the border.

🔶️ “There was no first line of defence. We saw it. The Russians just walked in. They just walked in, without any mined fields” he says.

🔶️ He says officials had claimed that defences were being built at huge cost, but in his view, those defences simply weren’t there. “Either it was an act of negligence, or corruption. It wasn’t a failure. It was a betrayal”.

🔶️ Denys says he believes Russian forces will try to focus on the East and to capture the entire Donbas. But he says Russia is also trying to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses right across the 1,000km front. In Kharkiv they’ve found one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c72p0xx410xo

🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Kharkov direction - the new tactics of the Russian Army. | Lord Bebo

🔶️ Near Kharkov due to the low saturation of the front line with Ukranian infantry Russia is able to use a new tactic.

🔶️ In small infantry groups Russian units are surrounding Ukranian position to force surrender without a fight.

🔶️ This is reason for the rapid advance and the large number of Ukranian prisoners.

🔶️ At the same time, the AFU notes the good interaction of Russian army units on the battlefield. This makes it possible to carry out offensive operations to a sufficiently large depth without stopping for a break and clarifying the situation.

🔶️ In the Donbass, where the Ukranian battle formation is dense, and there are virtually no free zones through which you can pass without encountering serious resistance, Russia has to literally flatten the fortified areas and individual strongholds of the AFU with aviation and artillery. Hence the low speed of progress, big amount of Ukranian casualties and much destruction of the cities.

🔶️ Video: Russian units walk towards an Ukranian position, calmly since there are in defended zones. Ukranian drone operators are not sure what to do. “That’s our defense” one says.

📎 Lord Bebo