franzik

[Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew]

You may have wondered which companies have dumped money into the most of Trumps pet projects.

So we put together a report, and a handy chart. https://t.co/yDjCAbDiq0

[Jessica Berlin @berlin_bridge]

Russia can’t stop Ukraine from blowing up their weapons & oil infrastructure. So they blow up Ukrainian homes, playgrounds, cafes, hospitals, schools, museums, churches...

Forget morals for a moment — do the math & tell me which side is winning.

Now morals back on: Fuck Russia.

[Rep. Jared Huffman @RepHuffman]

Every American should be outraged by what Trump has done to our nation's 250th birthday celebration. What should have been a once-in-a-generation moment to unite the country has been turned into another vehicle for division, propaganda, and political gain.

We uncovered how he hijacked America 250 – watch to see how.

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

.@elonmusk says that no one can name a person who died from his aid cuts. In fact, I've met the kids who are dying, and I've talked to the families who lost children. In my columns, I've cited many, many names of people who have died because of Musk's aid cuts. A few examples:
*Yamah Freeman was a 23-year-old woman who died in childbirth because Musk cut funding for the diesel for ambulances in her part of Liberia. She couldn't get to a hospital and died as people were carrying her there. I talked to her parents and sister in their village.
*Gbessey Kiadu, age 1, died of malaria because of his cuts to malaria medication in Liberia. I talked to his mom in her village.
*Ibrahim Koroma, an infant, died of AIDS in Sierra Leone after he interrupted HIV supplies. I talked to health workers who cared for him.
*Achol Deng was an 8-year-old girl with HIV in South Sudan who died when Musk cut funding for the health care worker who provided her medicines. I talked to the healthcare workers.
I could go on and on. In almost every village you go to in South Sudan, Uganda, Liberia, Sierra Leone or other countries I reported in, you find people dying because of aid cuts. I challenge Musk: Come with me on a reporting trip, and we'll talk to these moms and dads, and you'll see the dying children themselves. I think if you see the kids whose lives are at stake, maybe you'll change your mind.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Let me tell you what just got reported, because you will not believe it until you see it laid out.

The Trump administration cut a billion-dollar tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Tungsten is the metal we need for missile warheads, fighter jets, and computer chips. Trump himself got on the phone to close it. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick worked it from the inside, sending letters, leaning on the Kazakh president, lining up as much as $1.6 billion in federal financing.

Within weeks of those negotiations, investors tied to a firm partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump took a 20% stake in an entity connected to the very same Kazakhstan project their father was negotiating. Around that same time, Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm run by Lutnick’s own sons, raised $210 million for a partner in the deal and pocketed the fees.

The fathers set the policy. The sons cashed in.

Six days after the Trump sons and their partners moved their money, Lutnick signed the final deal.

The reporting found one or both families have financial ties to at least 14 companies working with the government on critical mining deals.

The total federal funding flowing toward those companies tops $8.9 billion.

This is your tax money.

It is supposed to secure our supply chains and protect our troops, not pad the portfolios of the President’s children and the Commerce Secretary’s children.

This is the most corrupt administration in American history. It is not close.

We must keep digging, and keep asking the questions they do not want asked. Republicans in Congress are unwilling to lift a finger. Mike Johnson is running a protection racket.

Either we will end the corruption, or the corruption will be the end of us.

https://t.co/yFOl7zvOhC

[Molly Jong-Fast @MollyJongFast]

This is cool

[franzik @frazi_k]

@iCyclone 💙💛

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Russia has found a new way to wage an information war against Europe, and it runs through Africa.

For a long time, African countries were viewed as one of the audiences for Russian propaganda. But today, there are increasing signs that Africa has become a territory where anti-Western and anti-European propaganda is being produced.

At the beginning of June, this issue was raised on the agenda of a meeting of the European Parliament's Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield (EUDS), dedicated to Russian disinformation and influence operations in Africa.

Moscow is systematically building a network of media outlets, bloggers, community organizations, "independent" journalists, and digital activists in certain African countries. Formally, they appear to be local. In reality, however, they often convey the same messages that the Kremlin promotes around the world: the West is in decline, the EU is hypocritical, France is a neocolonial power, Ukraine is merely a tool of the US, and Russia acts as the defender of sovereignty and a just world order.

What sets this model apart is that anti-Western content is no longer necessarily produced in Moscow or St. Petersburg. It is created by local voices - African journalists, influencers, and media projects. This is precisely what gives it additional legitimacy. When a Russian official talks about "Western colonialism," it sounds like propaganda. When a journalist from Bamako or Accra says the same thing, it sounds and is perceived differently.

At the heart of this campaign lies an anti-colonial narrative. Russia skillfully exploits the historical traumas of African societies, turning the memory of colonialism into a political weapon. Anti-French sentiments are gradually expanding into anti-European ones. Criticism of individual Western states is turning into distrust of the EU as a whole. Added to this are issues of migration, double standards, culture wars, and the war in Ukraine.

For the Kremlin, this is an extremely profitable investment. First, such infrastructure is cheaper than traditional state-run media. Second, it allows the origin of these campaigns to be concealed. Third, it creates the illusion that anti-Western sentiments arise naturally, rather than being the result of coordinated efforts.

During the aforementioned session in the European Parliament, Nigerian investigative journalist Philip Obaji Jr. explicitly warned MEPs about Russia's use of African media networks to extend its influence beyond the continent. In other words, propaganda can be funded in Moscow, produced in Bamako, disseminated through accounts in Accra or Lagos, and influence voters in Amsterdam, Paris, or Berlin.

Of course, there is no evidence yet of the existence of massive "African troll factories" that are interfering on a massive scale in European elections. But there is already sufficient evidence of another process: Russia is forming a local ecosystem in Africa for the production and legitimization of anti-Western narratives.

In fact, the issue at hand is a new architecture of Russian influence. It is no longer simply the export of propaganda from Russia, but the creation of a network of local intermediaries who make it sound like the voice of other societies. This is much more effective and much more dangerous.

Thank you, Philip Obaji @PhilipObaji, for your excellent work!
I highly recommend following his account.

[MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch]

The Supreme Court released four decisions today. All were 6-3 or 7-2, with the right-wing majority writing the opinions. Quick summaries below:

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

APPLEBAUM: What Russians do is they put out not one lie, but million lies, or not one explanation, but one after another.

It's a propaganda technique. They just flood people with massive, contradictory stories, and sooner or later, people won't pay attention to anything at all.

And there's so much information all the time that people eventually just tune out, and they say, "I don't know what's true, I don't know what's not true, I don't believe anything, I'm not going to engage in this issue, I'm not going to get angry about it, I just don't want to know anything at all."

[franzik @frazi_k]

@brokenbarpublic Progress… wonderful!❤️🐈‍⬛

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

This is a stunning strategic defeat and Trump is without parallel as a strategic loser.
https://t.co/kauAA7r3A6

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Cervical cancer deaths fall to zero in young women given vaccine https://t.co/JM73OorKHT

[franzik @frazi_k]

@bunsenbernerbmd Sending love to you all and hoping Brix pulls through. 💕 Thanks for the updates.

[franzik @frazi_k]

@bunsenbernerbmd So sorry for that. I really hope Brix recovers!❤️‍🩹

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

Today is Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, representing eight decades of a man who has done more than anyone to hurt the West, elevate its enemies, and trap us in a post-truth nightmare.

While he is certainly a symptom of a deeper political illness, he has actively made things much worse.

Let us be clear that there is nothing to celebrate today, because Trump is the most traitorous, deeply corrupt, and overall worst president in the history of the US. He is a compromised, horrible human being who has lost the respect of anyone with half a brain. His deep ties as a best friend to Jeffrey Epstein prove he knew exactly what was going on behind closed doors. He is the lowest of the low.

He has spent years threatening American allies, appeasing foreign enemies, and losing the reckless trade wars he started.

His leadership has left Americans poorer, more stupid, more polarized, and trapped inside a decadent, ever more authoritarian joke of an administration that hurts the whole world.

He is a traitor. His alignment with autocracy is clear in how he sides with Russia over Ukraine and China over Taiwan. He even systematically undermined domestic safety by installing a Russian asset as the Director of National Intelligence and an anti-science, anti-vaxx Russian asset as Health Secretary. No one is better than Trump at sabotaging the US.

The only bright side to his birthday is that he is old, ensuring he will not be able to stay in power forever. He will never be missed by anyone with a brain and/or a heart, and if I believed in hell, I would seriously doubt it is bad enough for him

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Sportswashing is a standard tool of authoritarians, put on a grand stage at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Like the IOC, FIFA doesn’t "stick to sports" when it does this; it provides a propaganda platform. This year's hosts are democracies, but Trump knows the game. My latest:

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

The question is how long Trump will continue to side with losers Putin and Russia. The GOP showed signs of life for Ukraine, which is winning on the battlefield. Trump will never be disloyal to Putin, but acting as his proxy may not be politically viable for much longer.

[Nico Lange @nicolange_]

Aber das Friedensabkommen! Aber Boris Johnson!

Es wird behauptet: „Der Westen hinderte nach Kriegsbeginn am Abschluss eines Friedensabkommens, Selenskyj kurz das unter Vermittlung der Türkei zwischen Russland und der Ukraine fertig ausgehandelt war.“ Diese Behauptung ist falsch.

Richtig ist: Es gab im März 2022 kein fertiges und von beiden Seiten akzeptiertes Friedensabkommen. Der Westen hat die Ukraine nie an Verhandlungen oder Abkommen mit Russland gehindert.

Immer wieder taucht der Mythos auf, dass die Ukraine nur wenige Wochen nach Kriegsbeginn dazu bereit war, bei Friedensgesprächen in Istanbul ein fertiges Abkommen mit Russland zu unterzeichnen. Der Westen, vor allem der damalige britische Premierminister Boris Johnson (2019–2022), hätte in Kyjiw darauf gedrängt, dieses Abkommen zu verwerfen. Dieser Mythos wird verbreitet, um den Eindruck zu erwecken, dass die Schuld für den Krieg spätestens ab diesem Zeitpunkt beim Westen liege. Das ist falsch.

Tatsächlich verhandelten im März 2022 die Ukraine und Russland auf Vermittlung des türkischen Präsidenten Recep Tayyip Erdoğan zunächst in Antalya und dann in Istanbul miteinander. Die Ukraine war in diesen Gesprächen grundsätzlich dazu bereit, über die Änderung des Ziels einer Mitgliedschaft in der NATO zugunsten wirksamer Sicherheitsgarantien durch Russland und westliche Staaten nachzudenken. Weitere Punkte in diesen Verhandlungen waren russische Forderungen nach einer Verkleinerung der Größe der Streitkräfte der Ukraine und eine mögliche Verschiebung einer Klärung der Zugehörigkeit der Krim.

Die Ukraine bestand ihrerseits auf einem Rückzug der russischen Armee auf die Linien vor dem 24. Februar 2022 und auf endgültige Entscheidungen der wesentlichen Punkte einer möglichen Einigung in einem Treffen zwischen den Präsidenten Wolodymyr Selenskyj und Wladimir Putin.

Ein fertig verhandeltes Abkommen, dem beide Seiten zugestimmt hätten, gab es nach dem letzten Treffen in Istanbul am 29. März 2022 nicht.

Zeitgleich mit den laufenden Verhandlungen in Istanbul mussten die russischen Truppen nördlich von Kiew aufgrund ihres gescheiterten Angriffs auf die ukrainische Hauptstadt den Rückzug antreten. Die Ukraine gewann damit auch die Kontrolle über die Kiewer Vororte Butscha und Irpin zurück. In den Tagen ab dem 29. März 2022 deckte die Ukraine russische Gräueltaten in Butscha auf. In den Straßen des Kiewer Vororts fanden die einrückenden Streitkräfte der Ukraine Leichen von Zivilisten mit auf dem Rücken gefesselten Händen, Opfer von Vergewaltigungen und von grausamer Folter. Allein in Butscha quälten und töteten die russischen Besatzer innerhalb eines Monats mehr als 450 Zivilistinnen und Zivilisten. Der Charakter des russischen Kriegs gegen die Ukraine wurde damit für die Ukrainer und die gesamte Welt sichtbar.

Präsident Selenskyj und die ukrainische Regierung vertreten seit der Offenlegung der Massaker von Butscha die Auffassung, dass der vollständige Abzug der russischen Besatzer vom gesamten Staatsgebiet der Ukraine und die Verfolgung und Bestrafung der durch russische Soldaten begangenen Kriegsverbrechen Bedingungen für Friedensverhandlungen sind.

Der damalige britische Premierminister Boris Johnson besuchte Kiew erst am 9. April 2022. Johnson sagte bei diesem Besuch, dass die in dem Entwurf eines Abkommens in Istanbul vorgesehenen Sicherheitsgarantien durch Großbritannien und andere westliche Staaten aus seiner Sicht nicht leistbar wären. Solche Sicherheitsgarantien hätten eine direkte Kriegsbeteiligung der westlichen Partner bei einem erneuten Aufflammen des Konflikts zur Folge. Das entspricht der Position, die auch Deutschland, Frankreich und die USA vertreten.

Weder Großbritannien noch die USA, Frankreich oder Deutschland drängten die Ukraine jemals dazu, ein Abkommen nicht zu unterschreiben oder Verhandlungen abzubrechen. Seit Kriegsbeginn vertreten die Regierungen dieser Staaten konsequent die Haltung, dass es allein Sache der Ukraine ist, ob, wie und worüber Friedensverhandlungen geführt werden.

Eine ausführliche Darstellung lässt sich hier nachlesen: Yaroslav Trofimov: Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence. Penguin Press, 2024.

[Nico Lange @nicolange_]

Positionen wie die von Klaus von Dohnanyi liefern keine Analysen und beruhen nicht auf der tatsächlichen Lage sondern drücken kollektive deutsche Gefühlslagen aus, die tief in der politischen Kultur der Bundesrepublik verankert sind: Es geht um Angst vor Eskalation, Sehnsucht nach Stabilität, Überforderung durch geopolitische Komplexität, Misstrauen gegenüber Machtpolitik und einen Wunsch nach moralischer Entlastung. (“Beide Seiten sind Schuld.”) Diese Aussagen bedienen emotionale Resonanzräume und sind deshalb für sachliche Argumentationen kaum offen. Putin profitiert leider von der emotionalen Rückwärtsgewandtheit und nutzt sie gezielt aus.