My colleague Matt Steinglass, quitting this fascist platform has written an excellent piece on conscription in Europe & the manpower crisis in Western armed forces. “…few people who planned to vote for either far-left or far-right parties were willing to fight for their country” economist.com/international/…

Very grateful that Christiane Amanpour covered the plight of Elizabeth Tsurkov (@Elizrael), whose humaneness & insightful analysis I’ve missed regularly since her abduction, and especially since October 7.

A sensible Israeli government would recognize that Iran made a strategic error last night, that a rash reprisal would be foolish and that it owes a debt to the Western and Arab partners who helped it. Unfortunately, the current government is anything but. economist.com/middle-east-an…

Ekrem Imamoglu in his guest essay for us this week: “The election has also shown that citizens can form much stronger alliances than political elites. Even if parties and political leaders lose hope in democracy, citizens do not.” economist.com/by-invitation/…

10 months ago, Turkey’s opposition confounded pollsters and squandered the best chance in a generation to unseat Erdogan. Last night, it confounded pollsters again - and handed Erdogan his worst defeat in two decades. What happened? economist.com/europe/2024/03…

March 31st redrew Turkey’s electoral map

Imamoglu declares victory in Istanbul, says he is ahead by more than 1 million votes with 96% of ballots opened.

Turkey’s bombshell local elections: assuming it holds up, the CHP’s showing (38.8%, with almost 40% of ballot boxes opened) is its best showing in any election, local or general, since 1977.

Early local election results in Turkey a big disappointment so far for Erdogan and his AK party. Opposition CHP candidates are leading AK by big margins in Istanbul (8%), Ankara (20%), and Izmir (10%), Turkey’s three biggest cities.

The power of print, even in the absence of print. No digital equivalent.

In Istanbul’s upcoming mayoral elections, policies to earthquake-proof the city have been high on the agenda. On “The Intelligence” Piotr Zalewski explains why the task will prove more difficult in practice econ.st/43x3QpC

Ouch. ‘…“We know Germany is pretty penetrated by Russian intelligence so it just demonstrates they are neither secure nor reliable,” Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, said….’ thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…

Andrey Sakharov’s funeral in 1989 is what Putin sure as hell remembers. That’s why he is afraid of Navalny’s funeral and why Navalny’s mother has to undergo sadistic psychological torture as we speak.

Turkey’s Fifth-Generation Fighter Jet Kaan Makes Maiden Flight bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Meanwhile, at the Russian consulate in Kraków

“If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong.” Via NEXTA

It’s put up or shut up time.

'This is my last territorial demand in Europe.'

- Adolf Hitler, 26 September 1938.

Oleksandr Syrsky new c-i-c. A “hyperactive pedant”, with a mastery of detail, he is well respected by Ukrainian general class. But some western military analysts have their doubts. As do many of those who have been under his strict command.

Fatih Karahan (hitherto deputy CB governor) has just been named as her replacement