Ognyan Georgiev

curious reporter (personal profile, not connected to editorial positions)

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@anneapplebaum You have got to be kidding me

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

It could verifiably be claimed, that 50% of Bulgaria presidents in the last 20 years have slept with another president.

#wiki #stats

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

Sorry, what??

[Financial Times @FT]

US tax authorities will be barred from pursuing claims against the president, his eldest sons and the Trump Organization under a deal to halt a $10bn lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. https://t.co/UTiZF44UqA

[Smita Barooah @smitabarooah]

The quiet grief of adult friendship: One of the most beautiful articles I've read in a while. Hits hard
https://t.co/qXi6UBaTs3

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@DimitarBechev I think it should be a competition. Its the biggest ad any Bulgarian city can have, so its only fair to give them a shot at competing

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

This is a hard article to read, but I hope you'll do so. I've spent some time reporting on widespread rape and other sexual violence of Palestinian male and female prisoners by Israeli authorities, and the article is now published. The assault victims were warned not to give speak of what they endured -- they were sometimes told they would be killed or raped if they gave interviews -- but they found the courage to do so. One man described being raped three times in a single day in Israeli prison, the third time after he tried to protest. A young woman said the guards would come in at the beginning of each shift and strip her naked and abuse her. Another reported that she was shown photos of herself being raped and warned they would be released unless she cooperated with Israeli intelligence. Even three children who had been detained told me they had been sexually abused. Look, whatever our position on the Middle East, we should be able to agree on being anti-rape. Sexual assaults were horrific when Israeli women were targeted on Oct. 7, and they're equally horrific when Israeli authorities use them against Palestinians day after day after day. We should be able to find common ground in opposing rape. Here's a gift link to the article: https://t.co/aMMHId49OO

[DG MEME 🇪🇺 @meme_ec]

Bulgarians are having so many free elections to make up for the Communist days.

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@anneapplebaum …. Things have been crazier there than I imagined

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@Ryanair 🥲

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

Epic tweet

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.

We had a very good month.

Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.

By mid-February, we had something.

Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.

That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.

Here is what they said, in the order they said it.

February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.

February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.

I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.

February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.

February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.

Not happy with the pace.

We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.

Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.

Not happy with the pace.

February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.

I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.

February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.

February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.

Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."

Rejected.

Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.

The President said they rejected it.

I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.

February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.

February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.

I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.

February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.

The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.

February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.

February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.

The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

When your grandpa finds the new AI filter and posting shit about the neighbors

[Daractenus @Daractenus]

This man is irredeemably and unquestionably insane.

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

Никой не споменава, че ако такава централа дойде в България (мократа мечта на политиците - pun intended), всичко ще стане Плевен.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Google’s single data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa consumed 1 billion gallons of fresh water in 2024. One facility. One year. Enough to supply every home in Iowa for five days.

The reason they need fresh water is pure chemistry. Evaporative cooling towers work by running water over hot surfaces and letting it evaporate. 80% of the water a data center pulls in literally vanishes into the atmosphere as steam. You can’t recycle steam.

The remaining 20% becomes concentrated mineral waste. Calcium, magnesium, silica. Every cycle through the cooling loop makes the water more corrosive. After enough passes, it starts clogging pumps and eating through heat exchangers. Multi-million dollar equipment destroyed by limescale.

Recycled wastewater carries even more of these minerals from the start. You could treat it, but less than 1% of U.S. water is recycled. Most cities don’t even have separate pipes to deliver reclaimed water to industrial customers. A data center wanting to use recycled water would essentially need to build its own treatment plant on site. Meanwhile, municipal potable water costs almost nothing.

So they just drink from the tap. Across all its data centers, Google used 8.1 billion gallons in 2024, nearly double what it used three years earlier. The company claims its water stewardship projects “replenished” 4.5 billion gallons. Those projects aren’t even in the same watersheds where they’re pulling the water. Same playbook as carbon offsets. Consume locally, offset globally, call it sustainable.

The trajectory is the real story. U.S. data center water consumption could quadruple by 2028. That’s 68 billion gallons for cooling alone, before the 211 billion gallons consumed indirectly through electricity generation. Two-thirds of new data centers since 2022 are being built in regions already facing water scarcity.

Nobody’s asking why they use fresh water. They’re asking what happens to the towns sharing a water main with a facility that drinks like 50,000 people showed up overnight.

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@megha_lilly Yep. “Dance like no one is watching” doesn’t work anymore. Pity, spontaneous joys are the juice of life

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@dcsandbrook @TheRestHistory Fabulous! Loved your Cortes series

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@LyubomirZhechev Въпросът не е какви версии допускат хората, а над какви версии работи следствието. Да имаш 6 трупа, да нямаш очевидни доказателства за някоя от версиите и най-важното: да не си установил никакъв мотив, но въпреки това да насочваш работата си само в една посока, е претупване.

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

@calinda_m Всичката кал в София идва от колите, които паркират и шофират в зелени площи и после го разнасят по улиците. Единственият голям град в Европа, в който няма никаква ефективна санкция срещу това, защото “къде да паркират хората”

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

If you pitched this as a screenplay, every studio would reject it for being too unrealistic.

A 28-year-old Vietnamese developer living with his parents programs a game over a single holiday weekend in his bedroom. He uses free ad monetization because he hopes to make a few hundred dollars a month. The game sits untouched in the App Store for eight months.

Then something inexplicable happens. With zero marketing spend, the game goes viral. Within weeks it tops the charts in 102 countries, hits 50 million downloads, and starts generating $50,000 per day in pure ad revenue. He’s making $18 million annualized from a game he built in three days.

So what does he do? He kills it. Not because Apple forced him. Not because Nintendo sued him. Not because a competitor acquired him. He kills it because he felt guilty that people were too addicted. The guilt was ruining his sleep. He tweeted “I cannot take this anymore” and pulled it the next day.

Within hours, people listed phones with the game on eBay for $99,900. Fans sent him death threats demanding he put it back. His only response was “And I still make games.”

The part nobody talks about: he turned down every acquisition offer afterward. A game generating $1.5 million per month, and a solo developer in Hanoi said no to everyone because he refused to compromise his independence.

Every founder in Silicon Valley talks about “mission over money.” Dong Nguyen actually did it, and the internet tried to destroy him for it.

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

Sex is cool but have you skied a whole weekend with someone right at your level, so you arrive everywhere at the same time. #ski #fun

[Ognyan Georgiev @OGeorgiev]

Having seen what he did to Twitter, I can only hope @elonmusk won’t decide to ruin @Ryanair too. It’s basically the main form of connection between the 4 parts of Europe today. #air #EU

[OnlMaps @onlmaps]

Soil agricultural performance in Europe