Alice Bateman

Happy Birthday Phil Edmonds. He formed a classic chalk-and-cheese spin partnership with John Emburey for Middlesex County Cricket Club and England. Born in Zambia, Cambridge-educated Edmonds started his Test career with 5/28 vs Australia at Headingley in 1975, but after two five-fors in his first four Tests, he never took another in his remaining 47. He finished with 51 Tests, retiring in 1987, before a brief comeback for Middlesex in 1992.

Polish $58k GDP vs Spanish $58k GDP

IF THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT DOES NOT RESUME OIL SUPPLIES TO SLOVAKIA ON MONDAY, ON THAT SAME DAY I WILL ASK THE RELEVANT SLOVAK COMPANIES TO STOP EMERGENCY ELECTRICITY SUPPLIES TO UKRAINE. Since the beginning of the war, Slovakia has been helping Ukraine. Around 180,000 Ukrainians are currently on our territory, we provide humanitarian assistance, and we organize joint government meetings. We are doing substantially more for Ukraine than some other countries. The Ukrainian president refuses to understand our peace-oriented approach and, because we do not support the war, he is behaving maliciously toward Slovakia. First, he halted gas flows to Slovakia, causing us damages of €500 million per year. Now he has stopped oil flows, causing us further losses and logistical difficulties. If the West does not mind that the Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up, Slovakia cannot accept Slovak-Ukrainian relations as a one-way ticket benefiting only Ukraine. Slovakia is a proud and sovereign country, and I am a proud and sovereign Slovak. If oil supplies to Slovakia are not resumed on Monday, I will ask SEPS, the state-owned joint-stock company, to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine. In January 2026 alone, these emergency supplies, needed to stabilize the Ukrainian energy grid, were required twice as much as during the entire year of 2025. Given President Zelensky’s unacceptable behavior toward Slovakia, treating it as a hostile country, I consider it absolutely correct that I refused to involve the Slovak Republic in the latest €90 billion military loan for Ukraine.

There is a strange misconception in the U.S. government that the war in Ukraine is about the territory of Donbas. They believe it because... putin said so? They just cant stop repeating nonsense about giving up Donbas, right? It is not a war for Donbas. It is a war to destroy Ukraine as a state, strip away its independence, erase Ukrainian culture, expand the russian empire, and carve Putin’s name into history as a new emperor, or something close. In this context, giving up the most fortified territory of Ukraine - the remaining part of Donetsk region - without a fight would be the stupidest move. It simply cannot happen. Because once Russia takes the most fortified territory of Ukraine without resistance, it gains better ground to attack further, to reach its goal, and to destroy Ukraine. And it absolutely, undoubtedly will do just that.