Berliner Zeitung:

Erschütternd sei aber eine Einsicht, die sich aus Gesprächen mit Ukrainern ergebe: Dass sich reiche ukrainische Männer vom Krieg freikaufen könnten. 10.000 Euro würde es heute kosten, das Land zu verlassen, wenn man nicht eingezogen werden möchte, erzählt ein Taxifahrer. Die Armen in der Ukraine, sie tragen das Leid auf ihren Schultern, sagt er. Sie hätten keine Wahl und müssten kämpfen. Es ist eine von vielen polnischen Perspektiven auf den Krieg.

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Federico Dolce from MERA25 Italia and Julijana Zita from MERA25 on the attack on Yanis Varoufakis that they and other DiEM25 members witnessed in Athens.

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The three major Polish paramilitary operations in Upper Silesia are commonly known as “uprisings,” and will be therefore also called so in the following. One has nevertheless to keep in mind that the area with its indigenous population, and especially with its prosperous industrial area, was claimed by Germany and Poland at the same time, and that the Germans had the better arguments—given the fact that the area had been part of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries and was not a Polish territory taken away in the course of the partitions of the late eighteenth century. The conflict was about territory and economic assets, not about challenging an oppressive German regime by Polish freedom fighters.

—Jochen Böhler, Civil War in Central Europe, 1918-1921, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 108.

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Köpfe

Paul Levi, etwa 1920 bis 1925

„Levi hat den Kopf verloren. Er war allerdings der einzige in Deutschland, der einen zu verlieren hatte.“

—Lenin, in Charles Bloch, Paul Levi – ein Symbol der Tragödie des Linkssozialismus in der Weimarer Republik, in Walter Grab, Julius H. Schoeps (Hg.), Juden in der Weimarer Republik, (Sachsenheim: Burg-Verlag, 1986), 249.

This quote seems today quite apropos.

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Katja Kipping: „Franziska Giffey hatte Angst vor der Stimmungsmache der Springerpresse“

Berliner Zeitung:

Berlins Sozialsenatorin Katja Kipping (Linke) hat der Medienmarke „Table.Media“ ein Interview gegeben, in dem sie die Gründe für das Scheitern der rot-grün-roten Sondierungsgespräche beschreibt. Die Politikerin sagt, dass Franziska Giffey bei ihrer Entscheidung, Koalitionsgespräche mit der CDU zu führen, wohl vor dem medialen Druck der Medien des Springer­konzerns eingeknickt sei. „Ich glaube, das Verheerendste an ihrer (Giffeys, Anm. d. Red.) Entscheidung ist folgendes: Sie hatte Angst vor der Stimmungs­mache der Springerpresse. Damit hat sie diesem Teil der Presse eine unglaubliche Macht eingeräumt. Die wissen in Zukunft, sie müssen nur mit einer Kampagne drohen, dann knickt sie ein.“

Kipping sagt, dass Giffeys Angst vor den Medien der zentrale Grund für die heutigen Koalitions­gespräche mit der CDU sei. „Dominant war die Angst von Franziska Giffey vor der medialen Stimmungs­mache gegen sie. Das ist die zentrale Ursache. Und dann kam als Anlass obendrauf, dass es zwischen Grünen und SPD vor allen Dingen in der Verkehrspolitik Differenzen gibt.“

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Die innere Sicherheit

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Leon “Leo” Jogiches * 17.07.1867 – † 10.03.1919

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Blinken’s Moscow policy criticized by envoy who helped free Brittney Griner

Guardian:

Cameron Hume, a career diplomat who was an ambassador under Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama, said: “For a secretary of state to not want to even get body language or two words from Sergei Lavrov about the situation in Moscow, in the Kremlin, in the people who are close to [Vladimir] Putin, during a time of war was striking to me.

“I would want those little tiny windows into that reality, given the stakes.”

Hume said: “I think if you have problems with people, you’re a diplomat, you’re just supposed to meet with them. And that doesn’t convey that you’re weak, soft or anything else. It conveys you want to explore how you deal with the problem rather than ignore how you deal with the problem.”

Hume also said: “There’s been a general habit of American diplomacy, which has strengthened or become more dominant in the last 30 years, that if we don’t like what somebody’s doing, we will name them and shame them and we will then assume that’s all we have to do. And we’ll go out and have lunch

“You can’t resolve complicated conflicts just sitting on your laurels and saying I’m morally superior.”

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Seymour Hersh reacts to NYT story claiming Ukrainian divers blew up Nord Stream

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“Wouldn’t you go to prison to help end this war?”

Seymour Hersh:

Dan strolled to the U.S Attorney’s office in Boston—there were scores of journalists waiting—and had a brief chat with the reporters before turning himself in for what all expected would be the trial of the decade. He told the crowd that he hoped that “the truth will free us of this war.” And then, as he fought his way to the courthouse steps, a reporter asked him how he felt about going to prison. His response struck me then and still makes me tingle: “Wouldn’t you go to prison to help end this war?”

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New York Times spokesperson came to paper from National Security Agency

Jon Schwarz, The Intercept_:

Charlie Stadtlander, director of external communications for the New York Times, joined the paper directly from the National Security Agency, where he served as head of public affairs.

According to Stadtlander’s LinkedIn page, he’s worked for the Times since January 2022. Before that, he held his position at the NSA starting in 2019.

The Times corporate website publishes a constant stream of short posts about staffers joining the paper or changing positions, including in its external communications department. However, the news of Stadtlander’s hiring and his background does not appear on the webpage of press releases.

All of this raises obvious questions. Is being the spokesperson for the nation’s most prestigious newspaper a completely different job from being the spokesperson for the NSA? Or are they pretty much the same job? Most importantly, are the perspectives of the two institutions fundamentally different — or are they, in more ways than you might imagine, fundamentally the same?

Before the NSA, Stadtlander had the same genre of job at the U.S. Army Cyber Command, as well as the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan.

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Intelligence Suggests Pro-Ukrainian Group Sabotaged Pipelines

New York Times:

New intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, a step toward determining responsibility for an act of sabotage that has confounded investigators on both sides of the Atlantic for months.

Die Zeit:

Die deutschen Ermittlungsbehörden haben bei der Aufklärung des Anschlags auf die Pipelines Nord Stream 1 und 2 offenbar einen Durchbruch erzielt. Nach einer gemeinsamen Recherche von ARD-Hauptstadtstudio, des ARD-Politik­magazins Kontraste, des SWR und der ZEIT konnte im Zuge der Ermittlungen weitgehend rekonstruiert werden, wie und wann der Sprengstoff­anschlag vorbereitet wurde. Demnach führen Spuren in Richtung Ukraine.

In internationalen Sicherheitskreisen wird nicht ausgeschlossen, dass es sich auch um eine False-flag-Operation handeln könnte. Das bedeutet, es könnten auch bewusst Spuren gelegt worden sein, die auf die Ukraine als Verursacher hindeuten. Allerdings haben die Ermittler offenbar keine Hinweise gefunden, die ein solches Szenario bekräftigen.

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