Alastair Thompson Profile picture
Apr 5 6 tweets 4 min read
The EC President Ursula @vonderleyen held a very impressive wide ranging Q&A today with The European Parliament, focussed more on the #EuropeanGreenDeal and long term issues than #Ukraine. It is the first such Q&A with the President in 12 years.
The session demonstrates the unique qualities of the European Union and its Parliament as a deliberative multi-nation decision making body with very real powers in relation its sovereign members which are bound by mutual benefit rather than sanction.
@vonderleyen was asked and answered some very tough questions about the “rule of law” issues related to Poland and Hungary, two countries which are on the front line of the Ukraine refugee crisis.

Notably absent from the proceedings; rancor and grandstanding.
On the issue of #climatechange the signature policy ambition of this Commission the #EuropeanGreenDeal was addressed in multiple contexts in a manner which seemed sober and sensible. With undertakings to protect the energy vulnerable provided.
My impression from the Q&A is that this could possibly involve reopening existing agreements around energy pricing and or joint national level taxation and subsidy measures to blunt the impact of soaring gas prices.
At the end, in the final question NZ received a favourable indication regarding its trade negotiations with the EU.

President @vonderleyen in answer to a question on #mercosur NZ and Aus. negs. signaled out the NZ agreement as being the deal which has made the most progress.

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More from @althecat

Apr 6
Today Sheba (@PushStartMedia1) and Getty Photographer @JemalCountess went on field trip with the team from Gondar University who have been researching prison facilities in Welkaite operated by the TPLF starting, we think, in the 1980s during the Derg War.
Tomorrow afternoon the research team from the University of Gondar with whom Sheba and Jemal are travelling will be holding a press conference to discuss the findings their research which began in Jan. 2021.
Read 11 tweets
Apr 6
Thread...

Three videos sent this evening from Welkaite where @PushStartMedia1 and @JemalCountess are being shown a former prison complex by a former inmate of the TPLF facility who was held here in 1990.
@PushStartMedia1 @JemalCountess The video above shows a torture chamber in Dejena, where victim (survivor) Chery Gebremariam 57 years old was locked up back in 1990

He was imprisoned for not accepting the TPLF or Tigrayan identity, 74 others locked up here that he knew. 32 survived, 42 dead.
The gentleman talking is Cheru who identified this location. He’s saying: "We used to say 'we are Amhara, we from Gondar not Tigray' and that is why we were targeted and arrested and tortured."
Read 5 tweets
Apr 4
Dear @twittersafety I don’t know whether this is real or not, but I do know it is suddenly being shared by a known TPLF disinformation account as news is breaking about mass graves being found in Welkaite (aka Western Tigray).
One of the replies says this is a video of military training which seems possible, but the video cold literally he from anywhere, and when it comes to misusing images and videos of atrocities, starving children and dead bodies TPLF’s disinformation army are the experts.
I appreciate @twittersafety that you are currently focussed Ukraine but it’s worth noting that the death toll in the Ethiopian war started by the TPLF on U.S. election night last year - civilian and military - is much higher than that yet experienced in Ukraine.
Read 9 tweets
Apr 4
What was Invest #99p is now Cyclone #23p and ought to really have a name by now.

As you can see here the track model spaghetti it’s remnant are likely to being #extremeweather to NZ

THREAD on this system attached. There is more to this than just a late season cyclone.
Read 4 tweets
Apr 3
Europe is experiencing some wild weather, including Ukraine which has had a fair bit of rain & snow over the past 48 hours. This animation very clearly shows the incoming cold northerly winds colliding with tropical atmospheric rivers delivering snow from France to Belarus.
This animation zooms in on Ukraine which does not currently have functioning weather radar - so the rain/snow appears to stop at the Western border.
These animations show the rain activity - via @meteoblue over the same 24 hour period.
Read 4 tweets
Apr 3
Long range forecasts show some unusual early season #Cyclone activity over the coming 16 days in the West Pacific and Bay of Bengal.

In particular a storm is shown developing in the Bay of Bengal - traversing the BoB before reversing direction and heading back due East.
The impact of this reversal is remarkable and has potentially positive results in relation to two cyclones which are shown here spinning up on either side of the Phillipines. At the end of this 16-day animation you can see them suddenly reversing direction and heading NE.
The cause of this unusual activity appears to be related to high temperatures/high pressure over the Arabian Sea. In this Water Vapour Transport animation you can see the forecast reversal of wind/water vapour direction taking place over Southern India 12-13 April.
Read 5 tweets

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