I know it’s a Saturday night but a Russian court has just arrested our Reuters colleague.
Journalism is not a crime.
Konstantin is a TV producer, not an “extremist”.
He ought to be released immediately.

In which Johnny Harris drags me right back into the rabbit hole of Gulnara Karimova I thought I had long climbed out of. And shines a light on my OCD in the process 😂😂😂

The ode to purifying war on the right was written by Nikolai Gumilev at the outset of WWI in 1914. The czar he praised would be overthrown as a result of that war in 1917, and Gumilev himself would be executed in 1921.

Russia is censoring books by literally blacking out entire sections of text as it wages war on what it calls “LGBT ideology.” Here’s a new biography of Pasolini released in bookstores there this month, with anything concerning sexual identity behind a think black line.

This DOD statement about why CENTCOM didn’t interview any Afghans about the Abbey Gate bombing—or its aftermath in which there’s testimony from Marines that they opened fire—is not surprising, but still revealing about the way the US military has done investigations for 20 years

Evan Gershkovich showing incredible resilience from behind bars, again. #FreeEvan

The don of Chechnya don don

Early morning in Beirut after Israel strikes Iran according to a US official. Live updates here: edition.cnn.com/middleeast/liv…

serious FOMO here

Kharkiv is a weird place where you can drink rose-flavored combucha sitting next to a man who walks his cat, discuss new film premiere on the steps of the Opera house, then wait for the metro for 20 minutes because of the blackout schedule.

Massive Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. At least nine civilians declared dead and more under the rubble of buildings. Ukraine has essentially run out of air defenses because of the cutoff in American aid, and Russia is taking advantage of this strategic…

the most fascinating tidbit in this article on Polish diplomacy: Rzeszawar, the nickname for Rzeszów (a reference to Peshawar, a key mujahideen base in Pakistan during the Soviet-Afghan war). arei-journal.pl/articles/displ…

Opportunity in crisis, the VVP playbook for over two decades edition.cnn.com/2024/04/16/wor…

ICYMI, a fine Terrell Jermaine Starr 🇺🇦🌻🇵🇸✊🏾🇬🇪 interview in which he discusses Bandera Derangement Syndrome with Serhii Plokhy

this wins the day for Best Subtitles

the clock-cleaning heard round the world

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My Kharkiv piece in yesterday's The Sunday Post. Hopefully an online version you can read up soon. Really glad we could go back to find Yulia and Misha two years on - I don't think we do this often enough in reporting.