1/ The US government has ordered the Swedish city of Stockholm to end its diversity, inclusivity and equality (DEI) programmes within 10 days. The city authorities say the demand is "bizarre" and they won't be complying. ⬇️
2/ The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports that the Stockholm city planning office has received a letter from the US embassy explaining that every organisation doing business with the US government must sign a contract within a few days and agree to end their DEI programmes.
3/ Since February 2025, US embassies around the world have been sending letters to local contractors making similar demands. This seems to be the first time that it's been reported that a similar letter has been sent to a foreign government organisation.
4/ Jan Valeskog, Stockholm's Vice Mayor for City Planning and Sports, calls the letter "completely bizarre". He says that "we absolutely do not intend to do that, it is the opposite of everything we stand for. They should withdraw these strange things."
5/ Valeskog points out that it is in fact the US embassy in Stockholm that needs the city planning office, not the other way round.
6/ "If the US terminates its relationship with the city planning office, the embassy will have difficulty obtaining a building permit if they want to rebuild, for example. That's their headache, not ours."
7/ The Swedish government says that it would violate Swedish law to comply with such a demand. Commenting on similar letters sent to Swedish businesses, Minister for Gender Equality and Working Life Nina Larsson says:
8/ "According to the Discrimination Act, Swedish companies are obliged to work preventively and actively to counteract discrimination and promote equal rights – for example based on gender, ethnicity or disability.
9/ "Otherwise, there may be penalties. Companies should feel secure in the fact that Swedish law is firm. It is also important that we – both politically and from the industries – are clear about this towards foreign clients."
10/ Despite this, there are signs that some Swedish companies have surrendered to Trump's demands. The Telecoms giant Eriksson, which has contracts with the US government and donated to Trump's inauguration fund, has deleted DEI references from its annual report. /end
1/ A Russian veteran of the Chechen war who has deserted from the war in Ukraine has described how poorly-equipped Russian soldiers were forced into assaults, shot by their own side if severely wounded, and stopped by Chechen 'blocking detachments' if they tried to retreat. ⬇️
2/ 42-year-old Alexander (a pseudonym) was mobilised in late 2022 and deserted in August 2023. Although he had health problems caused by his service in the second Chechen war in the early 2000s, these were ignored and he was sent to the occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine.
3/ Although he was based behind the front line, carrying out evacuations and building fortifications near Bilohorivka, his unit experienced continuous losses from Ukrainian attacks. They had to evacuate casualties from repeated failed attacks on a factory by Storm Z units.
1/ The Russian army is sending one-armed and one-legged soldiers into assaults, according to a wounded Chechen soldier who has been assigned to a so-called 'cripple battalion'. He says that the men's fitness status is systematically being falsified. ⬇️
2/ In a video appeal for help addressed to Chechnya's dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, a soldier named Suleiman Khuseinovich Borshigov identifies himself as a member of the 383rd Motorised Rifle Regiment (military unit 11086), based in Voronezh.
3/ He says: "There are sick people among us who were registered as healthy. There are even one-armed and one-legged people among us. They forged all our documents, registered us as completely healthy. They threw us into the assault squad and now they are sending us to slaughter."
1/ Poland's electoral commission has said that there were "major irregularities" in the second round of the recent presidential election, won narrowly by Karol Nawrocki. Votes appear to have been recorded wrongly, or transferred to the wrong candidate. ⬇️
2/ Nawrocki, a pro-Trump figure representing the right-wing PiS party, won by only 360,000 votes. The National Election Commission says there were "incidents that could have an impact on the outcome of the vote" requiring "an in-depth analysis of the reasons".
3/ It highlights "the occurrence of repetitive errors in the protocols of some district election commissions consisting in incorrect assignment of the number of votes cast for individual candidates" and has referred the matter to Poland's Supreme Court.
1/ Israeli operatives who have infiltrated Iran have reportedly been using unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to attack Iranian sites with explosives. It's another echo of the unmanned systems that have been seen in Ukraine. ⬇️
2/ A video from Iran shows Iranian military personnel inspecting equipment in an Israeli "autonomous base" used to control the UGVs. The vehicles were reportedly used to make holes in Iranian defensive structures, through which explosive-laden UGVs were subsequently driven.
3/ Russia and Ukraine have both made extensive use of UGVs, employing them to carry supplies, evacuate casualties, and carry out attacks on enemy positions. As with drones, it seems that Israel has learned lessons from the Ukraine war. /end
1/ Russian military recruiters are enlisting the elderly, alcoholics, drug addicts and the homeless into the army, apparently to meet recruitment quotas. Not surprisingly, the new recruits are proving problematic in training and on the battlefield. ⬇️
2/ A video shows a new recruit, likely in his late 60s, in a firing range literally unable to work out which way round he should hold his assault rifle. A frustrated instructor yells: “Look here, I’m here, look at me, put the assault rifle in combat mode, shoot there”.
3/ The instructor says despairingly: “In general, I don’t know what to teach these people.”
WIth many of Russia's young and healthy men having already perished in Ukraine, Russian military recruiters are now setting their sights lower.
1/ Three years into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a prominent Russian warblogger laments that the Russian people still don't understand what the war is about. He urges the Russian leadership to inspire the people, as with sufficient inspiration "they will go to Poland". ⬇️
2/ Roman Alekhine writes:
"We do not have a description of victory. In the [Second World War], we fought to the death, until a clear victory, in which we clearly intended to "Drive a bullet into the forehead of the rotten fascist scum."
3/ "To knock together a strong coffin for the offspring of mankind." Then there was no "what if we come to an agreement." Everything is simple - a bullet in the forehead and into a strong coffin.