Helena Gonçalves

Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first second of the war, and we have always said that the only reason it continues is Russia. I am grateful to every unit and every brigade defending Ukraine’s positions, ensuring the destruction of the occupiers, and making every effort to provide our country with the strength needed to bring peace closer.

People of Ukraine… know that we have your back. The people of the world respect and support you. We are angered and embarrassed by the weak, petulant, thin skinned, vindictive, ignorant, cowardly man-child Trump. Please accept our apology and know that we #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦

Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine. History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.

Dear Volodymyr @zelenskyyua, we stand with #Ukraine in good and in testing times. We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war. (FM)

Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the agressor. Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.

Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians do. Therefore we are working on a common path to a lasting and just peace. Ukraine can rely on Germany – and on Europe.

They’re breaking out the good Vodka at the Kremlin tonight.

The truth is simple. Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine defends its freedom—and ours. We stand with Ukraine.

Trump berates Zelensky, the leader of a democratic country courageously fighting Russian imperialism, while he allies himself with Putin, a dictator who started the bloodiest European war in 80 years. Sorry, President Trump. We believe in democracy, not authoritarianism.

@ZelenskyyUa @POTUS You are such an example of a great leader and an even greater human being! Thank you for everything you have been doing for your country, for Europe and the world! You are not alone!!

Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.

A Ucrânia pode sempre contar com Portugal, @ZelenskyyUa. 🇵🇹🇺🇦 Ukraine can always count on Portugal, @ZelenskyyUa. 🇵🇹🇺🇦

What we saw in the Oval Office today was beyond disgraceful. Trump and Vance berating Zelenskyy — putting on a show of lies and misinformation that would make Putin blush — is an embarrassment for America and a betrayal of our allies. They're popping champagne in the Kremlin.

What Trump/Vance did today by attacking Zelensky using Putin's talking points would be like in 1940 FDR openly mocking Winston Churchill using Hitler's talking points as the Nazis bombed London. This was TREASONOUS!

Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President @ZelenskyyUa. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.

In a world of trump, who doesn't even remember the bs he said 3 days before, be a Zelenskyi 💪🇺🇦

The voice you hear belongs to Hiva Seyfizadeh, an Iranian singer arrested last night simply for singing in public. Why? Because in today’s Iran, a woman’s voice is a crime, but public executions are not. Hiva defied this injustice with an act of civil disobedience, breaking a cruel law to challenge the mullahs’ oppression. To all female artists, musicians, and global voices of freedom: I urge you to stand with her. Raise her voice. Share her story. Stand against the ISIS regime in Iran. Condemning the Islamist regime that jailed Hiwa for singing is not “Islamophobia.” It is an act of courage and solidarity. The first song in this video carries a powerful message of sorrow and defiance. It tells the new year not to enter a land soaked in blood, symbolizing a nation suffering under oppression.

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read: “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: • Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. • You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.” -Nate White

❗️The Insider journalists have gained access to hundreds of documents related to the death of Alexei Navalny. They show that the cause of death was probably poisoning. In one of the documents, an investigator from the local Investigative Committee's office describes the events that took place before Navalny's death. He claims that Navalny felt pain in his stomach and lay down on the floor. "He had a reflexive eruption of stomach contents, manifested convulsions" - the ruling on the refusal to institute criminal proceedings reads. In the final version of the document, this part of the text disappears. There is no mention of abdominal pain, vomiting and convulsions, The Insider reports. However, the "inventory of seized objects" retains the paragraphs indicating that ‘washes of vomit masses’ and "solid fragments of vomit masses" were sent for examination. I wrote back then that Putin killed Navalny. And many others, too.

Meryl Streep at the United Nations: A female cat has more freedoms than a woman in Afghanistan, "A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face," Streep said. "She may chase a squirrel into the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan."