Nathan Winton 🌻🇺🇦🇺🇸

[Nathan Winton 🌻🇺🇦🇺🇸 @elephants41]

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Twelve years ago, Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, killing 298 innocent people.

Today, we remember every victim and stand with their families, and all the nations that lost their loved ones on that tragic day. The downing of MH17 was nothing but a terrorist act. Russia has made such terror against civilians a defining feature of its policy – toward its neighbors, the world more broadly, and even its own people.

It is important to ensure that the world doesn’t turn a blind eye and that for every Russian crime – both against Ukrainians and against other people – there is justice and accountability.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

ZELENSKYY: I want to emphasize this. Unlike Putin, we're not fighting this war for pleasure or for geopolitics. Russia brought this war to Ukraine and killing our people. Russia wants to destroy our independence and from the first day of this war, we're only defending ourselves.

[Jay Nordlinger @jaynordlinger]

Some still look to us. Let us be worthy of it.

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Today marks the 250th anniversary of one of humanity's brightest, strongest, and most influential dreams – the American Dream of an independent, free, and prosperous nation that defends people's freedom, faith, and the pursuit of happiness.

That dream has endured many trials. It did not merely survive – it has, for two and a half centuries now, served as an example for other nations and helped the entire humanity stand firm and become freer. This was especially important in the 20th century, when America helped save the world from the rule of tyrants and built the alliances and partnerships that, for the first time, gave a large part of humanity lasting peace and the opportunity to develop in freedom.

Now, in the 21st century, America's influence and importance are certainly no less. And we see that particularly clearly in Ukraine, which is fighting for its independence, freedom, and our people's right to happiness with much the same hope, the same purpose, and the same determination with which Americans won and defended their own independence.

We deeply value the support of the United States, especially now, during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. American weapons – from the Javelins that President Trump decided to give to Ukraine to the Patriots that most reliably protect the lives of our people – everything the United States has provided to help us defend our country demonstrates the strength of the American spirit, American resolve, and American technology.

And we know the value of all these words better than anyone. When we ask America for Patriots, we believe that the values of respect for life and for people that prevailed 250 years ago will prevail again today. The world needs the kind of leadership that guarantees protection for freedom and for life.

I wish America a happy Fourth of July, the President of the United States and all Americans every success, and all of us around the world who value America – fruitful cooperation. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." That is what unites all of us – all who respect America and thank America today.

May the dreams of free people always triumph over the evil and hatred of those who seek to destroy freedom. America, thank you! I am confident that if we're in it together, we'll definitely achieve peace! Congratulations on your Independence Day!

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

Ukraine congratulates United States of America with Independence day 🇺🇸🇺🇦

Mother Ukraine monument wears USA colors right now.

[Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC]

Our Flag Was Still There:

[Noah 🇺🇦 @NoahMF]

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea/
With a beauty in His bosom that transfigures you and me/
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free/
While God is marching on

[Michael Beschloss @BeschlossDC]

Statue of Liberty photographed as it was dedicated a hundred and forty years ago this fall:

[World War I as it happened (1914) @WarHappened]

As Tsar Nicholas of Russia declares three weeks of mourning in honour of the victims in Sarajevo, he receives startling news closer to home: Grigori Rasputin, mystic and religious confidant of the Romanovs, has been stabbed while visiting his home in Pokrovskoye.

[Samantha Power @SamanthaJPower]

Starting in early 2025, Elon Musk and the Trump administration began terminating USAID's programs and firing its staff — with Musk himself boasting about "feeding it into the woodchipper." One year ago today, USAID was officially dissolved, its remaining programs haphazardly folded into the State Department. Amid all the lies and misinformation that have followed, some facts about what has actually been lost:

• USAID saved more than 3 million lives a year at a cost of less than $10/month per American. That is what was destroyed. On purpose.
• According to Boston University's Global Impact Counter — which tracked deaths attributable to the cuts until it stopped operations in February 2026 — an estimated 781,000 people died preventable deaths in the first year, including 518,000 children.
• Global child mortality (the number of children who die before their fifth birthday) rose in 2025 for the first time in 35+ years — by 200,000 additional deaths.
• USAID's 50-country disease surveillance network — the system that cut outbreak response times from 2 weeks to 48 hours — is gone. We are now watching an unprecedented Ebola outbreak unfold in real time — with the highest first-month caseload and death rate in modern history.
• Programs reaching 93 million women and children were cut 92%. TB programs cut 56%. Water and sanitation cut 86%. Over 2,000 health facilities permanently closed.
• 25 million fewer people received humanitarian assistance in 2025. The overall humanitarian budget was slashed 74% — from $14.1 billion to $3.7 billion.
• 363 million people face acute hunger in 2026. The famine early-warning system that would have seen it coming went dark for five months.
• $1.7 billion in democracy and governance funding (election monitoring, anti-corruption work, support for independent media and civil society) was terminated.
• 360+ independent media outlets lost funding. Hundreds of legal clinics closed.
• Far from saving money, the Trump administration itself has already said the dismantlement will cost taxpayers at least $19.2 billion in cancellation fees, severance, and penalties. That's more than half of USAID's annual budget — spent on destruction and closeout, not support for vulnerable people.
• American farmers, universities, and businesses are among the casualties too. USAID partnered with more than 3,500 U.S. companies and maintained 17 university-based research labs. Its work with U.S.-based contractors and the private sector generated hundreds of thousands of American jobs and multiplied the return on every dollar spent. Those markets and partnerships are gone.

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

People far savvier and more accomplished than this used to hang about the Hotel Lux in Moscow in the thirties, waiting to be given something useful to do. Instead they were purged. Admirers of Bolshevism don't know much about what they admire. https://t.co/ZlqAaS63ny

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Talking about socialism is a luxury paid for by the successes of capitalism. As I wrote in 2016:

"A popular rebuttal is to invoke the socialist leanings of several European countries with high living standards, especially in Scandinavia. Why can’t America be more like happy Denmark, with its high taxes and giant public sector, or at least more like France? Even the more pro-free-market United Kingdom has national health care, after all. First off, comparing relatively small, homogeneous populations to the churning, ocean-spanning American giant is rarely useful. And even the most socialist of the European countries only became wealthy enough to embrace redistribution after free-market success made them rich. Still, why cannot America follow this path if that is what the people want? What is the problem if American voters are willing to accept higher taxes in exchange for greater security in the embrace of the government?

The answer takes us back to all those inventions America has produced decade after decade. As long as Europe had America taking risks, investing ambitiously, attracting the world’s dreamers and entrepreneurs, and yes, being unequal, it could benefit from the results without making the same sacrifices. Add to that the incalculable windfall of not having to spend on national defense thanks to America’s massive investment in a global security umbrella. America doesn’t have the same luxury of coasting on the ambition and sacrifice of another country."

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

APPLEBAUM: Clearly, Trump is somebody who was cultivated by Russians for many years. Clearly, when they talk to him, they spend lot of time thinking about how he can be manipulated, and he seems to respond. Trump is easy to manipulate if you know which buttons to push and so on.

[1776 Live @250YearsAgoLive]

Thomas Paine publishes an open letter in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, under the name “Republicus,” which advocates for the name “United States of America” for the new nation now emerging.

This is the first time such a term has been used.

[World War I as it happened (1914) @WarHappened]

Austrian police are immediately on the lookout for accomplices to the two assassins already caught: Ferdinand Behr, friend of Gavrilo Princip (but uninvolved in the murders), is being taken into custody, hounded by outraged locals.

[World War I as it happened (1914) @WarHappened]

It's a beautiful day in sun-drenched Sarajevo, whose inhabitants are ready to host prestigious guests: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, joined with his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, is about to take a pleasant drive through the city to kick off their official visit in the region.

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

The resources Russia poured into vilifying them, only to then normalize relations with the new government they serve. Now they're pulling people from the rubble in Venezuela.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Ukraine, leader of the free world in more ways than one.

[Terry Moran 🇺🇸 @TerryMoran]

This guy’s a leader of the rigged-elections camp.

Admits he can’t prove anything. Says it doesn’t matter.

Because the “structure” allows “fraud that cannot be detected.”

Can I prove the moon is made of cheese? No. But that is part of my proof that the moon is made of cheese.