On Thursday, May 15, Putin and Zelensky are supposed to meet in Turkey – at least that’s what Trump believes, and “I’m thinking about dropping by to meet them,” has been suggested by him.
Merz and Macron have threatened with far-reaching consequences if Putin does not respect a ceasefire starting on May 12.
Putin has not respected the ceasefire at all and he does not intend to come to Turkey – instead, he is bombing residential buildings in Ukraine and continuing with his slow offensives.
Zelensky has played well in the past month and he will be in Turkey waiting for Putin and will not talk to anyone else. He is ready for a 30-day ceasefire starting from May 12, and he wants to negotiate with Putin personally.
Now Putin is in a weak negotiating position since he had to demand a ceasefire for the May 9 parade, May 8-10, which Zelensky respected. But Putin’s own forces did not respect it and instead pushed towards Ukraine every day. And then on the 11th, some kind of all-out war with drones and robots from Russia as revenge for Ukraine respecting the ceasefire for the parade.
To immediately bring up the bombing and then refuse to negotiate when Ukraine has been fair doesn’t look very good.
Trump has previously tied himself to the mast that there should first be a ceasefire and then negotiations.
And Putin was the one who proposed the negotiations in Turkey.
As for Putin, Turkey did not come to Moscow on May 9, so he cannot rule out that they will arrest him and send him to The Hague.
It would look weak to come running when Ukraine demands it – unmanly.
The likelihood of Putin showing up is probably minimal, I think.
And then Macron and Merz have promised major consequences – excessive force.
And Trump has threatened with major consequences for those who do not want to negotiate, and if Zelensky is in Turkey for a meeting Putin arranged but he doesn’t bother to come, it won’t be easy for Trump to blame Zelensky, I think.
We’ll see – so far, it hasn’t mattered what Russia does or doesn’t do because Ukraine always gets the blame or has to face the consequences, but Macron, Merz, and Trump have all invested heavily in this now.
Ukraine missed an opportunity to humiliate Putin in front of rolling cameras on May 9, which is not the same as targeting Xi Jinping with a drone as the misinterpreters claim.
So for Putin to simply continue as if nothing happened is quite bold, and the important thing now is for Trump to understand that – Macron and Merz seem to be clear on the situation.
I would argue that if Trump, Macron, and Merz turn a blind eye or give Putin a slap on the wrist, we have not only betrayed Ukraine but also taken a big step closer to a global conflict.
Time to put on the big-boy pants and show that total arrogance can lead to painful consequences.
Taurus, Kerch Bridge, additional sanctions, refineries, more support from the USA are just a few things that come to mind off the top of my head 😀
I managed to survive as national security advisor for 14 hours and didn’t lose any classified material – went better than for the two predecessors, that’s for sure. Then I managed to start 26 wars and send the entire fleet to the South China Sea before they stopped me – also delivered on the core mission 👍. It was quite a dramatic Friday to say the least, but now I have rested up. I had to start the last wars via personal WhatsApp since my phone inexplicably stopped working.
One small detail that seems to have been overlooked is that Thyberg’s Grindr account was in the past – he “had” an account. “he had an account on Grindr a number of years ago” – as it has been formulated in the media.
So he thought it was deactivated and therefore did not report it.
Thyberg seems to have held several classified positions and has been an ambassador in Moscow and Washington.
Someone has clearly been digging into his past and saved the information, and that same someone then leaked it to the government 33 minutes after he was appointed – keeping tabs on the past and present…
Since the appointment was announced and then the email arrived, the number of suspects is likely very large, but someone must have had such good observation skills that they knew about the appointment itself.
Presumably, the pictures and emails were prepared in advance, so the person/organization/country in question must have been aware that the government was approaching him for the position even before the appointment – now the circle becomes much smaller.
Either someone had Thyberg under surveillance or had insight into the government, or some entity leaked to a third party, and SÄPO has probably started combing through all the technical details, one can guess?
The national security advisor’s task is extensive.
There are probably three candidates to choose from – Russia to avoid us tightening up, USA/SÄPO/MUST because he has been in Russian service but the government refused to listen to that, or an old bitter ex-boyfriend?
It seems he has worked early in Russia and then got prestigious jobs in Washington and later in Ukraine – suggesting that he didn’t get caught in Russia and start working for the SVR?
His current partner has been with him for five years and he hasn’t exactly been secretive about his preferences, and it’s not 1950 anymore.
There is also another possibility that the picture is a pretext, not the whole truth, and that the information presented would not have been well-received at all, legally. But that’s not even a guess, and I’ve read some who claim to have seen the picture/pictures and that it was what was alleged.
Anyway – this doesn’t look very good, he seemed to be a good candidate and our opposition parties suddenly became LGBTQ+1 haters when it was about a Moderate appointment.
In their eagerness to torpedo the Moderates and the Tidö Agreement, they ended up doing the bidding of foreign powers at worst – perhaps it’s time for some self-reflection.
We’ll see what the connection is between the arrested spy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Thyberg, if any. It feels like SÄPO started vacuuming and unexpectedly found something?
Yesterday, I wrote a bit in the comments section about South Africa’s land distribution program since it’s a hot topic now that Trump has intervened, and below is an interesting link that doesn’t support the prevailing narrative. I’ve checked the publication, which is supposed to be credible.
https://theconversation.com/land-reform-in-south-africa-5-myths-about-farming-debunked-195045
I was thinking of another round on Orania and those 2500 Afrikaners who have settled there, as many articles have been written about them in the West. In Kwazulu-Natal, almost only the Zulu ethnic group lives, which is 23% of South Africa’s population – no one seems upset about that as far as I know, and then we have the Xhosa group, which is large and also has a “heartland” where they are in the absolute majority.
Well, Zulu and Xhosa are not the best of friends, so that might play a role in the desire to move to each other’s provinces, but if you look at all the different sub-groups (6-7), they all have some kind of “homeland province” where they are overwhelmingly in the majority.
So politically motivated, therefore, with the criticism.
Yes, 1990 is behind us so now one should probably solve the situation for the minority group currently exposed.
If one wants to be picky – In terms of indigenous people, there was a group called the San living in the area that is now South Africa. Around the same time that Bantu groups came from the north and moved south, Dutch and English colonizers came from the south and moved north. Both acted as the best of ethnic cleansers, and the San group is largely extinct today, with very small populations remaining.
Then the European colonizers and the colonizing Bantu groups met in the middle of South Africa and fought each other until the European colonizers emerged as the winners.
The British then fought the Afrikaners in the Boer Wars and established concentration camps where they were locked up, so the Afrikaners did not have much of a victory after defeating the Bantu groups, they starved to death in the camps.
We all know how the world turned against the apartheid government that came to power in 1948 and fell in 1990 – no further introduction needed. The timing was simply bad because until the Second World War, that’s how all the other European colonizers managed their colonies, but post-World War II, the world moved on. Everyone except MENA and India.
Today, the Bantu groups have a firm grip on South Africa and are starting to dust off old racial laws again, which does not sit well with Western criticism.
Perhaps the easiest solution is for those Afrikaners who wish to do so to move to a willing third country. Giving them an area in South Africa will sooner or later lead to conflict again. Then the whole conflict would be a closed chapter, and they as a group can settle in a new country.
Australia wanted to take them all in, but backed off when there was an outcry from the South African government.
Then it will probably be just like in Zimbabwe, where a small group of well-off individuals stay for money is protection, while the vast majority leaves – there is a risk that those who leave turn out to be competent farmers.
I believe this is the only way – the expropriation of the group’s assets has now reached the level of “we take without paying” with the new law, so it would be better if the UN could intervene with oversight and buy out the Afrikaners so they get paid for their fixed assets and then they can start anew somewhere else. It would also ensure that the money does not disappear into the banking system, which is the next problem they face once they have been paid.
While on the subject, Israel should probably have a very good plan here because I think the West is starting to get tired of this now. It is not possible to extrapolate indefinitely from October 7, 2023.
Now you finally have the opportunity to show appreciation to MXT and his work on the website and the daily (well…) yellow posts – IT has installed a donation button on johanno1.se, if you look around a bit, you will see a QR code.
There is also a donation page for Ukraine on johanno1.se with links to Swedish Rescuers, drones 2 Ukraine, and other organizations that we have learned over time are legitimate and dare to donate to.
On Substack – there is still a chance to follow and become subscribers if it feels more right to go that route, which some have done.
https://bsky.app/profile/johanno1.bsky.social
Don't forget to donate, Ukraine's cause is ours! Support Ukraine!
NOTE: Those of you who do NOT want to allow automatic translation of your comments, please go to your profile page and set it.
Hover over your name at the top right, select edit profile, and you will then find the setting under the language settings heading.
Good morning!
Russian losses in Ukraine 2025-05-14
SLAVA UKRAINI!
Thank you 🙏
I wonder how much LV is left.
It seems endless.
It would be fun to have some statistics on how many artillery duels Archer has won. I have seen a video from UA where it is suggested that they are quite successful, at least before the long-range drones arrived.
AFU, machine-translated: “A total of 163 combat engagements took place in the past 24 hours. The enemy fired a missile and 78 air strikes on positions of Ukrainian units and settlements, using a missile and 138 guided bombs. In addition, they carried out more than five thousand attacks, 93 of which from multiple rocket launchers, and used 2,983 kamikaze drones to destroy them.”
Thank you for an interesting analysis Johan.
And I agree with the praise of MTX, incredible work capacity that one has 👍
And before I am appointed as your eternal enemy, you also have an impressive work capacity Johan 😊
😄
Thank you DenGamle!
Agree with DenGamle, you are super heroes ✊🏻!
Welcome back from the cold as a security advisor, when our Carolinians began to march towards Novgorod, it may have been too much for Uffe.
You definitely would have fit in as part of the team responsible for Africa, where you sorted out the situation after a well-known Biden hugger had managed to dominate the conversation.
The one suspected of sending the pictures of Thyberg is a former ambassador in North Korea, which makes it all a bit more exciting. Did he act on his own to stab a friend in the back, or had he fallen into a honey trap in Pyongyang?
Just want to point out that even Johan agreed with me that there was no genocide going on, which was my point! 😄
You have some similarities with a president who changes his mind three times in the same sentence 🤣
Thank you too Dengamle 👍
Operational information as of 08:00 on 14.05.2025 on the Russian invasion
In total, 163 combat engagements took place over the past day.
⏱️166, 155, 161, 196, 193, 196, 171, 200, 269, 253, 216, 199, 199, 177, 178, 168, 174, 156, 175, 168, 144, 165, 96, 127, 162, 143, 125, 111, 99
#Kharkiv 4⏱️7, 3, 3, 6, 4, 11, 18, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 2, 2, 9, 6, 0, 0, 0, 4, 4, 0, 1, 2, 7, 1
#Kupyansk 2⏱️5, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 3, 5, 7, 6, 6, 5, 6, 9, 7, 3, 4, 5, 4, 1, 3, 2, 1, 7, 11, 4
#Lyman 29↗️💥💥
⏱️20, 25, 8, 17, 27, 24, 21, 31, 22, 16, 27, 27, 36, 21, 18, 20, 22, 19, 15, 20, 14, 25, 12, 14, 17, 20
#Siverskyi 3⏱️6, 8, 4, 8, 5, 6, -, 0, 3, 3, 1, 4, 2, 4, 6, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2
#Kramatorsk 8⏱️4, 4, 9, 10, 6, 10, 5, 4, 10, 6, 8, 6, 6, 13, 10, 16, 13, 8, 13, 1, 6, 4, 5, 7, 6, 8
#Toretsk 6⏱️9, 6, 12, 15, 9, 13, 8, 6, 16, 7, 8, 4, 10, 6, 14, 9, 29, 16, 17, 13, 23, 10, 18, 26, 11
#Pokrovsk 54↘️💥💥💥
⏱️60, 70, 60, 65, 71, 61, 77, 78, 115, 78, 113, 83, 64, 85, 75, 59, 64, 68, 44, 65, 56, 53, 61, 39, 54, 64
#Novopavlivka 30↗️💥💥
⏱️24, 13, 19, 31 , 28, 32, 23, 24, 52, 66, 23, 15, 16, 13, 23, 13, 13, 19, 10, 15, 17, 19, 5, 12, 9, 9
#Huliaipil 0⏱️0, 0, 13, 0 , 0, 1, 1, 2, 7, 5, 0, 6, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
#Orikhivsk 3⏱️6, 6, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4, 14, 3, 3, 5, 4, 5, 0, 5, 1, 4, 4, 9, 3, 5, 3, 4, 3, 3, 1
#Prydniprovsky 5⏱️4, 1, 3, 6, 5, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 5, 1, 1 , 1, 3, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0
#Kursk 12💥
⏱️9, 8, 25, 19, 19, 19, 11, 18 23, 23, 20, 33, 21, 25, 15, 23, 15, 30, 27, 26, 22, 21, 16, 20, 23, 21
Over the past day, the aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Defense Forces hit 14 areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment, one air defense facility and two artillery pieces of the Russian invaders.
Thank you! No major changes, interesting that Pokrovsk is decreasing!
The Russians have tried some new attacking angles against the eastern parts of Pokrovsk, it went even worse than possible.
Thank you 205 👍🏻!
Ominous if it were to turn out as they speculate, Trump and Putin team up and try to force a peace plan on Zelenskyy that is favorable to Russia. Now, I believe Zelenskyy has more integrity than that, but it could end up with Ukraine being portrayed as the one opposing peace.
“Analysis: Dangerous for all of Europe if Putin shows up”
“But what if Putin actually shows up? And Trump as well? The analysis project “Re: Russia,” led by political scientist Kirill Rogov, believes it would be “an incredibly dangerous situation not only for Ukraine, but for all of Europe.” The analysis is published in the independent Russian newspaper Meduza.
“Zelensky will have limited room for maneuver if Putin and Trump show up in Istanbul with an agreement that Trump will demand he sign.””
https://omni.se/analyser-ar-farligt-for-hela-europa-om-putin-dyker-upp/a/zAJaM9
Putin thus cannot handle 30 days of peace.
He cannot control his troops.
So it breaks immediately 😀
It would be a horror scenario if there were to be a repetition of the White House bullying with Putler playing Vance.
However, I believe even Trump is starting to understand that his friend is not to be trusted.
“If Putin comes to Istanbul, the result of the meeting should be a ceasefire and an exchange of all prisoners, – Zelensky for Liberation.
▪️Putin and I cannot agree on everything right now, it is impossible. But we must find a format for ending the war;
▪️”If I meet with Putin, we must come out with a political victory – a ceasefire, an exchange of all prisoners for all prisoners or something like that”;
▪️Russians will not trust Ukrainians, and Ukrainians will not trust Russians. Only external mediators can guarantee compliance with all agreements
▪️No one knows how long the war will last. But not 10 years. Ukraine will not stand it… It is expensive for everyone;
▪️If Putin does not come to Turkey, it will look like his complete defeat;
▪️Called for new sanctions against the Russian Federation, in particular from the US and the EU.”
“Brazil’s president Lula Da Silva is going to speak with Vladimir Putin and try to convince him to go to Istanbul and negotiate for peace. He says this at a press conference in Beijing, writes AFP.
– It costs me nothing to say: “Hello, comrade Putin, go to Istanbul and negotiate for god’s sake”.”
Really hope they reconsider.
“EU wants to reintroduce tariffs on Ukrainian crops
The EU Commission is planning to reintroduce tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural products this summer, according to sources cited by both Politico and the Financial Times.
The tariffs are set to be raised to the level before Russia’s large-scale invasion of the country, as stated in the document that the newspapers have seen.
– Instead of giving Ukraine a soft transition, the current draft would harm the country’s economy and lead to a hard landing at the worst possible time, says Karin Karlsbro (L), Member of the European Parliament, to Politico.”
https://omni.se/kallor-eu-vill-aterinfora-tullar-pa-ukrainska-grodor/a/LME2mx
See there, a sensible liberal, she might take over the sinking ship.
Speaking of customs duties 🧐
This was probably the dumbest
“At night, 🇺🇦Ukrainian military shot down 0/1 ballistic missiles, 80/145 🇷🇺Russian UAVs, another 42 UAVs were lost in location due to EW action”
😂
“To demonstrate strength, #russia sends two Pootins to #Istanbul.”
https://bsky.app/profile/theseeduneed.bsky.social/post/3lp3cbtpqw22t
It is known that Putin is incredibly security-conscious for his own part. He is incredibly suspicious and will control every detail. A foreign airport – Istanbul – that he does not control with his own security personnel, he will not travel to. He also prefers trains over flights from what I understand. He is not likely to come to Istanbul.
Well, there aren’t many who believe that he will dare to show himself.
Now things have turned for Trump!
Can’t remember the date last time, but then he was at -13% and now he’s up to -10%.
He is still by far the worst in comparison to his previous period, but it’s moving in the right direction!
I thought this post would get a lot of cheers and thumbs up from all the Trump supporters?
I pondered it but realized that only some Biden hugger would come back with the argument that it’s because he has imported cattle from South Africa.
😂👍🏻
He still has a long way to go to reach Zelensky’s level!
“Zelensky’s trust rating rises to 74%, highest since 2023, poll shows. President Zelensky’s trust rating increased from 69% in March to 74% in the first half of May, according to a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS).”
https://bsky.app/profile/kyivindependent.com/post/3lp4q63avk22i
“Egypt has increased potato supplies to Russia by 4.6 times this year” If Russia adjusts the exchange rate to bring in more rubles per barrel of oil, the food prices might skyrocket (even more than they already have)”
Egyptian potatoes are really bad, so it’s delightful in so many different ways 👍🏻.
😂👍
Incredible what knowledge there is here 😄
As long as vodka can be made from them, the Russian is satisfied.
🤣🤣
There we probably have the reason for the shortage of potatoes in Russia, everything is used to make moonshine.
“Ryska drönarattacker träffade flera ukrainska oblast under natten. De ryska attackerna under natten skadade tre personer i Kharkiv Oblast och två personer i Rivne Oblast, samt skadade civil infrastruktur.”
“There was a strike on a Russian logistics base in occupied Tokmak at night.”
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lp4igczlok2m
French nuclear weapons may be deployed in other European countries.
– We are ready to open that discussion, says French President Emmanuel Macron on the French TV channel TF1 on Tuesday evening, according to Deutsche Welle.
I hope we manage to get them here before the 24 wars go too far 😳.
After a suggestion from DenGamle, there is now an arrow in the top right corner to scroll down to the bottom of the page for those who want to quickly get to the end and see the latest comments.
Please provide feedback if any adjustments are needed regarding placement, size, etc.
Oh, so now he wants to quickly scroll past me 😡.
You can trick him, make sure to add new comments all the time so you always appear at the bottom! 😄
👍🏻✊🏻✊🏻!
F***, am I that easy to read 😳
Enormous technological advances proposed by Dengamle, changing the world for the better 👍
Known for being at the forefront of technological development.
Guess who introduced crossbows first in the equipment.
Better to press the button at the top left that looks like a gauge and choose the admin panel. Then you will see the latest posts, regardless of where they are located.
“MiG-29 with two AGM-88 HARMs”
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lp4poldm5s2g
“On May 11, Ukraine targeted the headquarters of the 40th Separate Guards Marine Brigade in Rylsk. According to reports, Deputy Commander Alexander Danilov is said to have died from injuries sustained during the attack.”
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3lp4pna3zqk2j
EC President Ursula von der Leyen confirms the 17th sanctions package against Russia has been approved. Europe further restricts access to battlefield technologies and adds 189 ships from the “shadow fleet” to the list. “This war must end. We will keep up the pressure on the Kremlin.” she said.
Wondering how many they produce.
“French President Macron confirmed that all CAESAR wheeled self-propelled howitzers produced in 2025 will be sent to Ukraine. He also emphasized that the best security guarantee for Ukraine is a strong Ukrainian army.”
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3lp4oe7rubc2j
Here is the answer and 144 pieces wasn’t so bad, but if we look at what Russia is losing, it would only be enough for them for four days.
“France to send Ukraine all 155mm CAESAR self-propelled howitzer systems produced in 2025. France currently manufactures 12 per month – 144 per year.”
https://bsky.app/profile/igorsushko.bsky.social/post/3lp4oarjaau2s
There you can see the difference between peacetime economy and wartime economy. Ukraine is at about three times the number of Bohdanas per month and could produce far more if they had enough vehicle platforms (now they instead produce towed howitzers).
China bought through some bio company 300 million USD in Trump coin 🤣🤣🤣
We said EXACTLY that when it came – the way for other countries’ pay-and-play.
Yes, exactly, a bit like with his media company but even harder to trace.
Trump will go down in history as the first and most crypto-corrupt president! 😂
He probably has extra crypto in his wallet
Do you think it’s a higher level than Clinton’s and Biden’s?
Not sure how much Clinton’s foundation pulled in though
Unbeatable 😂👍🏻!
It would have been more fun if North Korea hacked the shit out and emptied a bunch of accounts.
Considering that they prefer meat waves, barbed wire is probably effective, not even the Russians have knees high enough to get past it.
“The Command of the Support Forces of the Armed Forces of 🇺🇦Ukraine has shown the equipment of a new defense line in the Pokrovsk direction This is a continuous line of anti-tank ditches, “dragon’s teeth” combined with wire barriers.”
https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3lp4tk6vna22e
“Trump, currently on a Middle East tour, said his tight schedule won’t stop him from meeting Putin “to save lives,” hinting he may attend Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul. He also noted the U.S. is always considering secondary sanctions against Russia.”
He should go there tomorrow and wait for Putin
If China paid Trump 300 million USD to move forward, which was presumably the case.
Isn’t that a sign of China’s weakness?
Interesting take, Johan. At least they are aware of what they need to do to have a better relationship with Trump.
It’s hard to say who is suffering the most right now, China has increased exports more than it has decreased towards the USA.
At the same time, the value of this depends on what they export. The USA quickly exempted chips (not the bacon kind) etc. from the tariffs so that an iPhone wouldn’t cost $10,000 each. While cheap plastic items were probably completely stopped, and it may be these volumes that are now landing in other markets. The USA is vulnerable because they are high in the global value chains and depend on imports for their exports. Etc.
Both probably have an interest in normalizing the relationship.
Well thought. The USA has more Chinese tier 3 and 4 in their products than vice versa.
Or perhaps it was simply cheaper than continuing the trade war. With an American president who is for sale, new opportunities arise.
Moving on to the subject of China, and I believe you need to see this in a broader perspective –
-Trump seems to have had a fairly successful meeting in Saudi, he has said the right things and emphasized a lot that the region should develop on its own without the constant democratization attempts from the West. At the same time, Saudi has done something big (for them!!) a while ago and now allows women to dress as they please, and if any man has objections to that, they have to explain themselves in one of the chief prince’s torture chambers. China’s influence in MENA is declining as Iran is under pressure, Hamas and Hezbollah are threatened with extinction, and now Trump is going to tackle Syria as the other MENA countries want so that the country moves in the right direction.
-India-Pakistan will probably continue as usual, but if nothing else, China has now strengthened enmity with India if that was even possible.
-The UK got a trade deal with the US that they have long wanted but that neither Trump 1 nor Biden ever gave them, almost by chance they have also taken a tough stance against China.
-What we really have left is the EU, and China seems to have lifted sanctions they had against our MEPs as the only news. In the pipeline is the fact that the EU was the adult in the room and offered to buy $50 billion more from the US, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that behind closed doors there are demands aimed at China.
And it will be difficult for the EU to say no because China has shown its teeth on May 9th AND has been caught trying to send weapons to Ukraine.
One can guess that the US is quietly working on tightening the screws on China.
We import and China exports – some of what China exports we can live without because during COVID everything stopped and the world moved on, while other things did not.
China’s exports are jobs, and if they decrease, unemployment in the country increases.
I don’t think we have seen the end of this at all yet.
It is quite obvious that Trump is trying to go for low-hanging fruit in the US to boost support for his policies + he is lucky with inflation. Inflation is low throughout the West now, and as usual, he takes full credit for it 😀
Citizens are probably, just like us, most interested in security and affordability?
So there is a high probability that he can balance this and continue to put pressure on China.
Yes, it is very possible that you are right about inflation, but the tariffs have not really taken effect yet in the USA due to the sluggishness in the distribution systems, so we’ll see when it’s time to measure next time. It may be more noticeable then.
I also believe that things are happening behind closed doors now, Trump is probably starting to understand that he cannot be an enemy to the whole world at the same time. It’s better to, together with us in the detestable Europe, still go after China or at least not be hindered by European feelers eastward that soften the effects of US actions.
And then Trump also has to be prepared to support Europe, which, together with Ukraine, is fighting against Moscow. Quid pro quo, as Hannibal Lecter put it. In this case, continue to provide leadership support and intel to Ukraine and sell weapons. No major sacrifices anymore when he can see China flirting next to Putin at the parade with his own eyes.
But what looks like a penalty kick in an open goal can of course become something completely different in the hands of the kakistocracy, so we’ll see. But I like the trend so far.
Will post tomorrow’s post but China has been in deflation since February and is now lowering the interest rate from 1.4%.
Apparently, the FED will need to lower a bit in the USA from 4.5%, which is what Trump wants, but the USA still has around 2% inflation.
Absolutely, the shaking of the bond market was probably a rather unpleasant surprise for him because after that he adjusted towards Europe and the Ukraine war quite promptly.
He has also backed down against China but not without getting 300 million USD in cash first 🤣🤣
Just want to point out that the security advisor who didn’t become one has been ambassador to Afghanistan 2017-19 and Ukraine 2019-23.
Nothing else!
Now I will read the rest…
Interesting – I was reading articles from SVT and some other 😶
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/nye-sakerhetsradgivaren-stoppas
I think SVT got it from the Wikipedia page?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias_Thyberg
As I read it on the Wikipedia page, he has been to Russia, Washington, and India, as well as the EU, between 2019-2025.
But on the right, it says he was in Ukraine until 2023…
So SVT is as bad as I am at taking in information 😐
If you go to the respective embassy, you can see who the ambassador was at that time. Check under heads of mission.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Embassy_in_Kabul?wprov=sfla1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Embassy_in_Kiev?wprov=sfla1
Regarding Johan number 1’s three possible alternatives in the security advisor scandal (foreign power, upset security service, or vengeful ex): I can imagine at least two more categories: either domestic political opposition (Sveavägen 68) OR a pure trickster who just can’t resist a chance to create chaos / just want to see the world burn (think Chang Frick… or the Joker from Batman).
IF an interval is 33 minutes, one could also suspect aliens. IYKYK.
But Sveavägen 68 or Chang Frick must have saved his indecent pictures from Grndr several years ago – that’s kind of the central point.
Now maybe Chang or S always do that, but he doesn’t seem shady at all, he has held managerial positions at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Social Democrats appointed him to the position in Ukraine.
And ETC has defended him several times now.
And the other thing – 33 minutes…
Slow Russian foreign intelligence in Moscow can hardly keep track of a security advisor without having contacts in our administration.
So I find it hard NOT to conclude that we are infiltrated or that MUST knew he was a Russian agent but then he should have been arrested.
So everything is increasingly sliding into a Russian influence operation with contacts deep within our administration.
But otherwise, of course, aliens are also a good alternative 👍
I have seen many argue for the fact that T’s long-standing well-documented good relations with S mean NOTHING when there is a chance to access the government.
Even if he had a party card and was the godfather of every S-marked nepobaby in the country, he is still just a welcome pawn in the domestic political game.
Sorry, nothing personal, you’re worth more as cannon fodder, typ.
This individual is, as far as I can understand, well regarded and respected in all mainstream political camps – but WHAT DOES IT HELP?
Is there ANYONE one is not willing to sacrifice if it serves one’s purposes (regardless of party?)
No honour among thieves – and politicians.
It seems like “spies” are coming in so fast that it requires paper and pen to keep track of the number.
Can we guess that the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs spy has connections to Iran primarily?
The person connected to a foreign political movement, on the other hand… More openly, there are so many possible alternatives. 🙁
Another one..
“Another employee of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is being investigated for serious unauthorized handling of classified information – in a separate case. This is reported by Dagens Nyheter.
Thus, there are two investigations underway against two individuals suspected of serious unauthorized handling of classified information. Both were detained and later released.”
This is somewhat interesting – The Ministry for Foreign Affairs seems to have double-digit percentages on the infiltration of foreign powers here.
Interesting, so it’s not just our former ambassador in North Korea who is suspected. It will probably soon be revealed who the other person at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is.
China is now warning the United Kingdom that last week’s trade agreement with the USA could lead British companies to exclude Chinese products from their supply chains. This is reported by the Financial Times.
According to the newspaper, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that the UK is “aligning itself with the USA”.
According to China, the agreement targets a third country, which violates a basic principle in international agreements.
Good then I was right in my assumption above 😎
I will think of birds that cannot fly birds and that have extremely poor vision and are searching for food…
😂
🧐
🤣
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to crack down on antisemitism, but an NPR investigation shows that three people in his administration have or have had connections to known antisemites.
Among other things, the White House liaison to the US Department of Homeland Security, Paul Ingrassia, is said to have connections to several people who openly advocate antisemitic ideas. Ingrassia tells NPR that the narrative NPR presents “lacks all credibility”.
https://omni.se/granskning-tre-trumptoppar-har-koppling-till-antisemiter/a/0VyP5G
“The Council of Europe supported the creation of a Special Tribunal for the crimes of the Russian Federation. ❗️The decision was made in Luxembourg during the annual meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.”
“The 15th Kara-Dag Brigade stopped an attempt by enemy bikers to break through in the Kupyansk area.”
https://bsky.app/profile/maks23.bsky.social/post/3lp54bs6mu22b
Cycling shooting has never really been a particularly offensive unit
There were no balloon tires with kevlar 😳.
The episode about Palme, USA/CIA, the Soviet Union, and in the end Putin’s infiltration. Very interesting.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7MM7BXC7Z5zQZJEIkLd6CQ?si=aefaf939158448eb
Theutenberg is ok
Interesting from Kenneth Gregg! –> Russia has lost **around one million soldiers in the war**, all dead <-- "The former Russian governor in the occupied Donetsk, Pavel Gubarev, claims - referring to "contacts" within the Russian Ministry of Defense - that Russia has lost **around one million soldiers in the war**, all dead. The claim has attracted great attention on Russian social media, while no official source has yet denied it. If the information were to be confirmed, it would represent a significant deviation from the Ukrainian figures, where the dead and severely wounded together amount to just under one million." NOTE: I have persistently insisted, with the stubbornness of a fool, that Ukraine, faithful to its honesty, has underreported!
I had to give in during the spring of 2024 unfortunately, but I have been claiming all along that injuries occurred and then non-war-related injuries.
After a few statements from UA, I gave up 😀
One million dead and two and a half to three million injured. If that’s true, then it’s darn near a miracle that Russia hasn’t given up already!
Well, here we seem to be forgetting the entire previous discussion…
So, WIA was not 1:3 in the Russian army but rather 1:1.
Considering that they sent out sick people on crutches and crawling on the ground…
Found this: https://charter97.org/en/news/2025/5/14/640495/#google_vignette
Herregud! With a KIA like that?
Conservative estimate (low estimate):
WIA = 3 × 1,000,000 = 3,000,000
MIA = 0.2 × 1,000,000 = 200,000
Total: ≈ 4.2 million losses
Completely insane losses if it’s true!
Ukraine only reports from the front. They probably don’t have much insight into suicides, murders, accidents, and diseases that occur further back. Then we have the injured who seem to survive but still don’t.
A million sounds like a lot but not entirely impossible!
Yes, and we can add FTE = Fled The War.
Then it’s a couple of million more.
We round off to 10 million dead 🧐
Minst! ✊
Sounds good and reasonable!
Rounding down? 🧐
You don’t think that if it’s connected back to Sveavägen 68 and then linked to his sexual orientation + national security, that it would make Watergate look smart?
After all, it’s an election year…
I’ve checked a bit more – on May 8th, he received the assignment and many newspapers reported on the press release just before lunch.
33 minutes after the press release, an email with his pictures was sent to various emails in the government.
On May 8th, DN asked about the pictures, which they had received information about as the first newspaper, presumably in the afternoon?
Then resignation, etc.
So –
– they deliberately waited until he got the job.
– DN was prepared.
DN should inform SÄPO because these are matters concerning national security.
Ok – what points to Sveavägen 68 Merle?
This would be a reply to Merle above
(Are you able to edit when posts end up in the wrong place? Something to bring to the tech wizard MXT? 😎)
Read my response at 16:09.
I don’t think ANY party has ANY honor.
I believe ALL parties are willing to make domestic party politics out of any issue.
I don’t think ANY party hesitates to sacrifice their own mom/best friend/firstborn son/lapdog in the 200K class IF it means a chance to discredit the opponent.
Applies of course to DN as well.
Nicely played by whoever it was, that the media would think one more time and avoid stirring up a very effective /sh*t/storm would not have been likely.
We are rightly outraged by the clowns in e.g. the USA, we just shouldn’t be blind to how clownish our own are (regardless of party, media, etc).
The difference between the blocks is not ethics, it’s that the conservatives are bunglers/amateurs and the Social Democrats are experts, both in doing this, and in getting away with it (with practically anything). They would eat Watergate for breakfast, and ask for dessert, a refill, and a digestif without blinking. They damn well deserve respect for this level of shamelessness, hands down.
However, I’m not sure that they 1) have the skills for the whole protonmail circus unless they’ve made a recent top recruitment/got a Lidner-esque snap
2) would care to cover their tracks. Why bother? They will get away with it anyway, and they know it.
And that’s what puts them further down on the list in my book. But they are definitely on the list.
Where do you find information about Protonmail?
Found it
“The 🇬🇧UK Ministry of Defence has released satellite images of the 🇷🇺51st GRAU arsenal, which exploded on April 22.”
https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3lp56v3uuq22x
I am getting more and more the feeling that this Thyberg thing will not go away.
Now I see that the newsrooms also received the pictures at the same time as the government office, so no one leaked from the government at least.
And that also explains DN’s question to those idiots.
“In the Kursk region, Ukraines 110th Territorial Defense Brigade reportedly neutralized 14 Russian soldiers and destroyed 4 motorcycles used in assault operations.”
Thyberg’s pictures and the anonymous email cannot be Russian influence op.! RU can’t be that fucking stupid! Because for RU it’s better that he stays in power so they can blackmail him with the pictures.
No, it must be someone who has something personal against him or maybe Must or Säpo have flagged him as unsuitable.
Säpo does sound far-fetched though, as they usually put their foot down on such things before appointing someone, or am I wrong?
The only reason it would be SÄPO/MUST/USA is if the government refused to listen and after Landerholm I think all they do is listen so we can dismiss them.
Blackmailing him might not have worked, they have already tried and then it was best to get rid of him 😀
Merle believes in political opposition.
And then we also have an old boyfriend on the list.
A thought:
The images that were sent out contain viruses and/or some kind of spyware…. and they will of course circulate around different departments.
Which gives the sender a lot of interesting data and/or points of attack.
THAT was the real mission.
Yes, that would definitely be a stylish resolution to the spy movie 😀
If I understand this correctly – someone sends an email to the Prime Minister’s Office with Thyberg’s not so dressed pictures and has created an anonymous email for the purpose but used the name of another diplomat at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
And it is this diplomat that SÄPO (Swedish Security Service) immediately arrests and announces that he has been released but is still suspected and SVT (Swedish Television) reported a possible connection to the Thyberg scandal?
One does not feel directly safe in that the spearhead of SÄPO is protecting the country here.
So – one gets DN (Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper) to take the bait immediately and then SÄPO also runs the errands of the perpetrator…
The Russian violation of Estonian airspace not only coincided with a NATO exercise (as described by the media) but also with Estonia’s attempt to intercept a ship from the shadow fleet.
https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3lp5khfzjkk2d
I wrote before that Estonia did not act in isolation and that Europe stood behind.
If we sent up our incident preparedness, did the rest of Europe send up their incident preparedness?
Or will Estonia get scared now and stop intercepting ships?
Yes, NATO’s incident readiness was raised.
“Portuguese Air Force F-16 fighter jets deployed to Ämari as part of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, responded to the incident and conducted a reconnaissance flight.”
https://news.err.ee/1609694252/russian-fighter-jet-breaches-estonia-s-airspace
There is probably a Gripen fighter jet stationed in Malbork, Poland nowadays, participating in NATO operations. It made headlines when it premiered and escorted a Russian signal intelligence plane that flew very close to NATO airspace.