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/ Today's Ukrainian drone attack on Russian air bases was launched using drones concealed in shipping containers. It shows that Ukraine has managed to weaponise the global logistics system, and will alarm security planners worldwide. ⬇️
2/ Video from the scene of the attacks shows drones flying out from the top of a standard 20 ft shipping container. Photos released by the Ukrainians show that the drones were concealed in hidden compartments, with the roofs likely ejected explosively.
3/ It's not clear how they were controlled, but judging from the fact that pictures seem to have got back to Ukraine in real time, some kind of satellite control - perhaps through a relay in the containers - seems likely.
1/ Two fatal bridge collapses in 24 hours have highlighted the shoddy state of Russia's railway infrastructure. Despite a recent record level of investment, much of the money has been stolen by corrupt contractors and Russian Railways officials. ⬇️
2/ The Russian Crime website, which tracks corruption in Russia, reports that "schemes for embezzling tens of billions of rubles, procurement abuses, overstated project costs, and abuse of official position for personal gain have been uncovered" in Russian Railways (RZD).
3/ The scale of the problem is systemic and spans the length of Russia. In 2023 alone, 143 criminal cases of corruption were opened against employees and officials of Russian Railways, with 111 people convicted so far.
1/ Jimmy is absolutely correct about this, and I want to point out something that a lot of people don't seem to have addressed: what happens if the drone operator lets this guy go?
2/ He's not going to hang up his gun and go back to Russia to live the rest of his life in peace. Even if he wants to, his own side will imprison and torture him until he agrees to rejoin the assault squads. This is what will happen to him:
3/ Or his commanders might simply decide to execute ("zero out") him.
The only way this man is leaving the war is if he's dead or too badly injured to continue fighting - nothing less than the loss of a limb will do (and sometimes not even then).
1/ Evidence reportedly from the scene of the assassination of the deputy mayor of Stavropol, former Russian army major Zaur Gurtsiev, suggests that the bomb which killed him and his companion Nikola Penkov was remotely detonated. ⬇️
2/ A circuit board, reportedly found at the scene by Russian police investigators, is shown in a photograph published by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. According to the channel:
3/ "The part is identical to those used in mechanisms for opening a barrier (by remote control or by phone). Batteries were also installed in the explosive device (fragments were found at the scene),...
1/ The killer of the deputy mayor of Stavropol, former Russian army major Zaur Gurtsiev, is reported to have been a man whom he met on a gay dating website. The man, Nikita Penkov, may not have known he was carrying a bomb. ⬇️
2/ Apparent details from the police investigation have been reported by the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel. According to the channel, Gurtsiev met Penkov on a gay dating website. The two were said to have been meeting for the first time in a discreet nighttime rendezvous.
3/ "During the investigation, explicit correspondence was found, where they sent each other naked photos, etc.
1/ This graph from @JonBruner tells an important story: America's current dominance in science only began after the mid-1930s, when persecuted scientists began fleeing universities in Germany and then elsewhere in occupied Europe.
2/ Note especially the complete lack of German Nobel Prizes in physics between around 1933 and the 1950s. Hitler specifically persecuted "Jewish physics", prompting Einstein and others to flee to the US (enabling the US to build the atomic bomb, so it was very consequential).
3/ The current anti-science movement in the US has a similar hatred of entire fields, especially climate science and medical science. The whole government-funded scientific enterprise is being systematically defunded, but those fields seem to be particularly singled out.