Markus Hell

Working in research policy in Brussels. Trying to keep up date with EU/national politics, but really just enjoy everything from literature to urban transport.

[Dave Keating @DaveKeating]

🇪🇺President @VonDerLeyen looks right at @PM_ViktorOrban as she discusses Ukraine. And she has uncharacteristically tough words.

"The world has witnessed the atrocities of Russia's war. And yet, there are still some who blame this war not on the invader, but the invaded. Not on Putin's lust for power, but on Ukraine's thirst for freedom. So I want to ask them [Orban], would they ever blame the Hungarians for the Soviet invasion of 1956?"

"We Europeans may have different histories and different languages. But there is no European language in which peace is synonymous with surrender and sovereignty is synonymous with occupation. The people of Ukraine are freedom fighters, just like the heroes that freed central and Eastern Europe from Soviet rule."

"And there's only one path to achieve a *just* peace for Ukraine and for Europe. We must continue to empower Ukraine's resistance with political, financial and military support."

[Timothy B. Lee @binarybits]

This is close to right but not quite. Rationalists think most problems are like chess—"deep" and not too fact-intensive—such that you can make progress just by thinking harder. Empiricists think most problems are shallow—the hard part is usually getting the right knowledge.

[fernbahn.de @MarcusGrahnert]

Auf den Tweet habe ich gewartet... (@DB_Bahn sicher auch): Vorbehaltlich Zulassung ist für Mitte Juni die Umstellung der ICE #Frankfurt->#Amsterdam/#Brüssel auf #ICE3neo vorgesehen. 🙂

Damit Ablösung der störanfälligen ICE 3 aus dem Jahr 2000.
Reihungen https://t.co/EtmJlzHQuz

[꧁꧂𝐖𝐚𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐤𝐲’࿆۞ @Reach4ACopsGun]

In June 2001, Konstantin Petrov, an immigrant from Estonia, got a job as an electrician at the restaurant atop the north tower of the World Trade Center. He was an amateur photographer and captured some of the last images of the interior of the WTC buildings. (thread 🧵)

[Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen]

Together, we are bringing light to Ukraine!

Ukrainians can exchange their old bulbs at the post office for energy-efficient LED bulbs.

The EU is gladly providing 35 million of them.

Every kW of energy saved is precious to counter Russia's energy war.

[Pablo Pérez @PabloPerezA]

There is a section called "humour" in the audiovisual library of the European Commission and I cannot stop looking at it.

[Dave Keating @DaveKeating]

A furious-looking @EP_President Metsola is now addressing the Parliament on #Qatargate.

"It would be no exaggeration to say that these have been among the longest days of my career. I must choose my words carefully, in a manner that does not jeapordise ongoing investigations..."

[New Scientist @newscientist]

Bats and death metal singers use the same throat structure to growl https://t.co/auMWaFUhk3

[Francis Scarr @francis_scarr]

Russian TV host Andrei Norkin's realisation that his country lacks freedom of speech:

If I back the decision to withdraw from Kherson, I'm going to jail for questioning Russia's territorial integrity

And if I oppose it, I'm going to jail for discrediting the armed forces

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

BREAKING!!!
Russia leaves Kherson.
Absolute Ukrainian triumph.

[Temur Umarov 马铁木 @TUmarov]

Ping-pong diplomacy, Kazakhstan version

[Markus Hell @Babellibrarian]

@LINGUA_IGNOTA_ Tickets are bought, looking forward to next week!

[Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs @EU_Growth]

🆕report on European #SMEs out now!
Some key facts follow in THREAD.

99.8% EU businesses are SMEs and 93.1% are micro-enterprises with <10 employees👨‍🍳👩‍🏭👩‍💻

SMEs produce 52 cents of every euro🇪🇺💶 of value added
👉 https://t.co/R1JJHqy6EK

🧵1/3👇

[Pascal Smet @SmetPascal]

Thanks Billy!
You had a nice but bumpy ride. It's a pity that ride ends here. But your contribution to the (mental) shift that many Brusselers made is undeniable and irreversible.

[Markus Hell @Babellibrarian]

@waitbutwhy One of your wbw posts showed a spectrum of opinions incl a "ridiculous" one like "we should eat babies". Clearly there disgust would be justified (and imo in others eg racism/homophobia).

Question for us as society should be where this line is, not pretend it doesn't exist.

[Gareth Harding 🇺🇦 @garethharding]

Grand-master, Belgian style - looks like an ageing rocker but still manages to beat four players simultaneously, while necking a can of strong lager.

[Gitanas Nausėda @GitanasNauseda]

From this month on - no more Russian gas in Lithuania 🇱🇹.

Years ago my country made decisions that today allow us with no pain to break energy ties with the agressor.

If we can do it, the rest of Europe 🇪🇺 can do it too!

[Sam Greene @samagreene]

Vladimir Putin is increasingly fighting two wars: one in Ukraine, and one at home.

A week in, neither is going terribly well.

(A 🧵, in case that wasn't obvious.)

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

In a show of solidarity with Ukraine, capitals across Europe have lit up some landmarks in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

📸: Brussels' Cinquantenaire Arch, Berlin's Brandenbourg Gate and Downing Street in London.

[Anne-Marie Descôtes @amdescotes]

🇺🇦