Anton Okmyanskiy

This is objectively extraordinary: x.com/clashreport/st… Jake Sullivan, one of the most senior former U.S. officials, says that the U.S. is in a war aimed solely at destroying Iran, one of humanity's oldest civilizations, against the U.S.'s own interests, at the behest of Israel, a 76-year-old state. Listen to the video: he says that Israel's objective in the war "is just break Iran -cause chaos," basically destroy the country, "because as far as they’re concerned, a broken Iran is less of a threat to Israel." Which he says is not in the US's interests "because a broken Iran means a broken global economy, as they continue to threaten the Straits of Hormuz. It means a potential refugee flow, like we saw after the war in Syria into Europe." He also says the Trump administration cannot answer what their own objective is in the war "because they don't know why they're there in the first place," implying that they're there mainly at the behest of Israel (otherwise they'd be able to articulate at least one reason). The curse of the "former official" strikes again... This is the same Jake Sullivan who, as National Security Advisor, oversaw the unconditional U.S. support for Israel's destruction of Gaza. Apparently breaking a people at the behest of Israel is only bad when a different administration does it...

Another disturbing example of Canada’s reckless assisted suicide policy: a family member learned their mother had been euthanized only after the fact, through a call from a doctor they had never met. No notice. No conversation. No chance to say goodbye. When life-and-death decisions exclude even close family, it raises serious questions about whether so-called safeguards are protecting the vulnerable or abandoning them. westernstandard.news/news/mother-re…

The federal government is refusing to publicly release an agreement with the Musqueam Band that recognizes Aboriginal title over a vast area of Metro Vancouver. What is perhaps more perplexing is no mainstream media outlet has even reported on this agreement. dailyhive.com/vancouver/musq…

we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company. #### today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i'll be straight about what's happening, why, and what it means for everyone. first off, if you're one of the people affected, you'll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if you’re outside the U.S. you’ll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you're being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay. we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly. i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures. a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we've pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we've built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers. we're not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i'll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold. to those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that's a fact that i'll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward. to those staying…i made this decision, and i'll own it. what i'm asking of you is to build with me. we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we're going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that's what i'm focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow. jack