richard ranft

All we need for peace in Ukraine is for Russian soldiers to return to Russia.

Foreign Minister @sikorskiradek's full speech at the @UN General Assembly ⬇️

The facts. 🔹 Zelenskyy’s approval rating is 57% 🔹 Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, at 4.00 a.m. — committing a crime of aggression 🔹 Total Military & Non-Military Assistance from US to Ukraine: $118 billion 🔹 Total Military & Non-Military Assistance from the EU to Ukraine: $151 billion 🔹 Zelenskyy is the democratically elected President of Ukraine 🔹 Ukrainian constitution does not allow to hold national elections while martial law is in effect. And, in my humble opinion, Zelenskyy was a rather good comedian, with a law degree, and an incredibly strong leader of Ukraine.

President Musk-Trump suggests that since Russia "fought for that land" in Ukraine "and lost alot of soldiers" doing it, that Russia should keep it. What a piece of shit.

Today, President Trump called our enemy, Russia, before calling our ally, Ukraine. Meanwhile, his Secretary of Defense, ruled out a future for Ukraine in NATO and a restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty over its own lands. Let’s not mince words about what this represents: a surrender of Ukraine’s interests and our own, even before negotiations begin. Trump’s a great dealmaker all right — for the Kremlin.

It is unconscionable to allow Russia to assault Ukraine’s sovereignty, recruit enemies like North Korea to aid in their fight, and then sell out the Ukrainians by conceding the loss of their territory and NATO security guarantees or membership.  By making these and others concessions before negotiations even started, Trump has effectively surrendered to Putin on Ukraine. 1/3

The entire world witnessed allied action in the skies above Israel and neighboring countries. It demonstrated how truly effective unity in defending against terror can be when it is based on sufficient political will. Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Jordan acted together and with maximum efficiency. Together, they prevented terror from prevailing. And they are working together, and in coordination with others, to prevent further escalation. Israel is not a NATO member, so no action, such as triggering Article 5, was required. And no one was dragged into the war. They simply contributed to the protection of human life. "Shaheds" in the skies above Ukraine sound identical to those over the Middle East. The impact of ballistic missiles, if they are not intercepted, is the same everywhere. European skies could have received the same level of protection long ago if Ukraine had received similar full support from its partners in intercepting drones and missiles. Terror must be defeated completely and everywhere, not more in some places and less in others. I thank everyone in the world, every leader and state, who truly assists us with air defense and missiles necessary to protect our skies, as well as training our pilots on F-16s. All of this already works and will continue to work to save lives. However, we can now see how unity can work truly a hundred percent, and how almost a hundred percent of “Shaheds” and missiles can be intercepted. We will discuss it with our partners.

The US, UK & France had the military capacity, political will & urgency to help down over 300 missiles fired at #Israel. They have zero excuses left. #Ukraine’s allies can & should shoot down Russian missiles over 🇺🇦 airspace & the Black Sea. #CloseTheSky amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/14…

The attack on 🇮🇱 tonight was of a magnitude that 🇺🇦 suffers on a fairly regular basis. Same drones. Similar missiles. Week after week. Month after month. twitter.com/realwarmonitor…

how to make a sandwich

The call for submissions is open for the 55th @iasa_web Annual Conference! You can attend online or in person from 23-26 September in beautiful Valencia, Spain. The deadline for submissions is 1st April. Be a part of this wonderful event! 2024.iasa-web.org/welcome #avpres #IASA55

@GaryDickenson could be a jackal, with an extra thin tail

Garden visitor, not our dog and no other dogs for km’s, maybe a jackal?

"Bird identification and taxonomy: what we knew 50 years ago and what we know today". Nice summary by Per Alström youtu.be/YDuUMbUOXJs?si… via @YouTube

Now that it's confirmed Russia will now be launching not only Russian missiles onto Ukrainian cities but North Korean and Iranian missiles as well, let's remind everyone that Ukraine is forbidden to strike any of Russia's launching facilities in Russia with western weapons.

An insect trapped in amber. A team of scientists. What could possibly go wrong?🦖 While it's not quite #JurassicPark, one of our specimens has revealed an extraordinary secret - a song from more than 44 million years ago!🦗 Find out what it was like 👇brnw.ch/21wEoZK

Parrots are intelligent enough to understand touch screen interfaces and they prefer watching videos of other parrots. [📹 insta.beakk] twitter.com/AweInspireMe/s…

Pachelbel's Canon in D, P 37 played by countless trains, the sounds of which were recorded and assembled by the Czech machinist Pavel Jirásek

@zgrosa @wizzair Couldn't agree more, the worst airline ever, incompetent and dishonest with their own customers.

@wizzair Do not fly Wizz Air! They delayed our flight by 6 hours, confirmed they will pay a compensation, and a few e-mails later said they will NOT pay a compensation, without any explanation. Zero responsibility and customer care!

Did you know that we recently added some exciting new routes to and from our Tirana base? 🤩 You can now #WIZZ to 🇷🇴 Bucharest, 🇧🇬 Sofia, 🇨🇿 Prague, 🇵🇱 Krakow, 🇮🇹 Palermo, 🇲🇹 Malta and 🇬🇷 Chania Which destination do you want to fly next on your travel bucket list? ✈️

Pay what you can day coming up! If you're in the Kings Cross area tomorrow, do stop by and visit our current Animals exhibition. Only a few weeks left now bl.uk/events/animals

We live surrounded by hidden songs. I recorded this with a contact mic on a fireweed: chuckles and whines of leafhoppers, and the footsteps of a young shield bug. These sounds are inaudible in air. The leafhoppers shoot their song into the leaf from abdominal buzzers. 1/3