Bob Wheaton

Ex BBC global newsman, now free to say anything he wants about politics, world affairs, human rights, democracy, deep space, and health issues.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

SEN. BLUMENTHAL: Director Ratcliffe went to Moscow to tell Putin, in effect, “Don’t escalate.”

Elbridge Colby went to Europe to tell European allies, in effect, “We’re reducing our troop strength here.”

In his speech, Colby mentioned Ukraine once. There’s an inconsistency here.

It's the contradictory messages that are being sent, and Putin sees them as a sign of weakness.

Putin knows that we’ve depleted our stocks of interceptors for those Patriots.

And yes, we have enough to give more to Ukraine, and we should, and so should our allies.

The Saudis have about 2,000, and the Germans have 3,000.

Now is the time to show strength and push back against Putin, who is a mob thug.

He understands only strength. Actions speak louder than words.

[NBC News @NBCNews]

EXCLUSIVE: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told close friends and associates that he is considering a run for president in 2028, according to two people familiar with the conversations. https://t.co/WRrJtIOYEl

[Justin Wolfers @JustinWolfers]

The scarier story isn't a president firing a commissioner over bad jobs numbers. It's what happened last week, quietly, with no front-page coverage: our statistical agency actually put out a number shaped to please the president.⁣
⁣
That's not a bad data point. That's the loss of a shared source of truth. https://t.co/LyjI42W7lt

[Tom Newton Dunn @tnewtondunn]

Burnham and Healey’s first big test. Disappointing result.

[Steve Rosenberg @BBCSteveR]

The Russian press continues to discuss John Ratcliffe’s surprise trip to Moscow. One paper: “The visit of a CIA chief is not a sign of peace & not a sign of war. It’s a sign normal channels are no longer effective and that the heavy artillery is required.” #ReadingRussia

[Nikki Haley @NikkiHaley]

China, Russia, and Iran have divided Americans using bots on social media for years.

This won’t stop until social media companies face consequences for allowing the bots to exist. They could get rid of them today but they don’t want to devalue their companies. It’s time to hold them accountable.

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

6 months ago today, as the US and Israel began attacking Iran, a tomahawk missile hit a school in Iran, killing more than 160 children. Neither Trump nor Hegseth has demonstrated any accountability or transparency.

https://t.co/6BQQ7EREqK

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Exclusive: Fresh U.S. intelligence indicates that the Kremlin sees the U.S. as weakened by the Iran war, offering Russia an opportunity to escalate action against American interests and allies in Europe, according to people familiar with the matter. https://t.co/nOEXanjvty

[John Simpson @JohnSimpsonNews]

Exactly. Imagine Putin is overthrown and his successors want a better relationship with Europe (OK, unlikely, but not absolutely out of the question). The price, as with Serbia, could be Putin’s head on a plate. As with Milosevic, Mladic and Karadzic.

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Exclusive: CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow was preceded by fresh U.S. intelligence indicating that the Kremlin sees the U.S. as weakened by the Iran war, offering Russia an opportunity to escalate action against American interests in Europe. https://t.co/nOEXanjvty

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

A report from Chief of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Oleh Ivashchenko. Our military intelligence has established that, according to internal Russian documents, certain categories of exports from the aggressor state have already fallen by 80% this month alone. These are significant losses for Russia’s federal budget, as well as for regional budgets that were already on the verge of bankruptcy as it was. The Russian side acknowledges that the ships of its Black Sea fleet are basically blocked in Novorossiysk as a result of our drone strikes and are unable to operate at sea. The Russian leadership cannot find a way out of this situation.

Since the Russian fleet is unable to convoy commercial vessels and the shadow fleet entering the relevant ports, among the solutions considered are equipping civilian vessels with small arms, electronic warfare systems, and military personnel. We will prepare appropriate response measures to Russia’s militarization of shipping.

Military intelligence confirms the high effectiveness of our deep strikes, particularly against Russian military production facilities and oil industry sites. According to the available data, based on information from the Russian side itself, after a series of our long-range sanctions against the Kamensky Plant in the Rostov region, the Russians lost a significant share of their capacity to produce solid-fuel rocket engines. We will continue this long-range work.

We now also have updated data on Russia’s production of ballistic missiles and its plans to scale up that production. We will counter this, and it is important that there be corresponding sanctions support in the world’s major jurisdictions. All supplies of components, equipment, and machine tools that Russia uses to manufacture missiles must be completely blocked. And this is also the responsibility of our partners – without foreign components, the Russians are unable to implement a single element of their missile program.

The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine also has evidence that operations have stopped at one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in Kstovo, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, which processed 17 million tonnes of oil annually, as well as at other oil refining facilities. I thank our warriors for their accuracy. Glory to Ukraine!

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Over the past day, our warriors imposed sanctions on 16 targets in Russia. In particular, there were long-range responses against oil facilities – Russia’s oil wallet that finances the war. They also struck airfields, a missile unit, and infrastructure that is constantly used to launch attacks against Ukraine. Our sanctions also hit a military enterprise and Russian logistics.

The war must return to where it came from. Ukraine responds to Russian strikes, and we do so in a way that ensures the cost of the war for the aggressor inevitably rises. We are justly reducing Russia’s capacity for aggression. I thank all the warriors involved for their accuracy! Glory to Ukraine!

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Kellogg: Russia did not want me on the negotiating team.

Washington should have told Moscow: you do not choose our negotiator. We do.

Instead, they let Putin shape it and brought in his friends.

I wanted to handle both Ukraine and Russia, but the president decided otherwise.1/

[Frank Gardner @FrankRGardner]

What could have prompted the CIA chief to make his sudden visit to Moscow?
https://t.co/MyKLHwDoaK

[Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @rshereme]

The United States asked Ukraine not to strike Moscow while senior American officials are visiting the russian capital, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Think about that.

When American officials travel to Moscow, Washington apparently has no problem asking Ukraine: Do not attack Moscow while we are there.

But just days earlier, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner canceled their planned visit to Kyiv around Ukraine’s Independence Day because of “heavy russian air strikes on the city.”

So why didn’t Washington simply ask russia: Do not attack Kyiv while American officials are there?

Apparently, the United States can ask Ukraine to stop bombing russia to protect American officials in Moscow. But it cannotask russia to stop bombing Ukraine to protect American officials in Kyiv.

Instead, Witkoff and Kushner canceled their trip.

This tells you something important about American diplomacy under Trump.

Washington repeatedly demands restraint from Ukraine while accommodating russia. It expects Kyiv to adjust its military actions around American diplomacy, while seemingly accepting that Moscow will continue bombing Ukrainian cities whenever it wants.

You cannot be an honest broker when the rules apply only to one side.

That is blatant hypocrisy.

[David Axelrod @davidaxelrod]

No party with a president as unpopular as @realDonaldTrump has averted major midterm losses.
He knew that when he ordered @GOP governors to rewrite congressional boundaries.
The SCOTUS just handed him a second lever to throw these elections into chaos.
https://t.co/ifpuy6PH0e

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

Canada sees Trump's America as "a pseudo-democratic fiscal basketcase of a nation, whose only apparent foreign policy objective has become domination for the gratification of its president’s slapdash vanity." https://t.co/LED5tGcOb6

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Former US VP Mike Pence: Ukraine is winning because it reinvented warfare.

Ukrainian soldiers and Zelenskyy changed the equation. Drone strikes deep inside Russia changed the dynamic, Ukraine sank Russian ships in the Black Sea, and the Donbas front is now at a stalemate. 1/

[The New Republic @newrepublic]

How Trump’s Crazed Fury at Canada Is Already Backfiring Badly for Him https://t.co/39dfigIFJ3

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Over the years of war, Ukraine has built an almost entirely new defense industry. Modern. Technological. An industry that meets the challenges of war. And today, we can all see the results of this work – on the ground, at sea, and in the sky. Ukrainian strength that we saw today on Khreshchatyk, on the Dnipro, and in our skies is the first-ever drone parade of its kind.

Ground robotic systems – Termit, Rys, Simba, Ardal, Zmiy, and Ratel. Our fleet, which Ukraine created during the great war – Ukrainian naval drones. Sea Baby, MAGURA, and Sargan. Our aerial target interceptors – P1-Sun, Litavr, and Sting. Ukrainian bombers – Vampire, Lasar, and Heavy Shot; SHARK and LF-400 reconnaissance drones; our long-range sanctions – Morok and Sichen. And this is only part of what Ukraine can already be proud of.

Ukrainian might. What we use to protect the lives of our people. What makes this war distinctive now. And what, after this war, will enable Ukraine to become a true security provider. We have something to show. We have reasons to thank the Ukrainians who produce and use our weapons. We have the means to defend Ukraine’s independence.

🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦