Perhaps this incident will prompt Sánchez and his Socialist Party base to take seriously from now on what NATO is facing on its eastern border.

@chriswinedoctor.bsky.social U were generous in rating Ch. Plaisance Grand Lopin '21 at 87/100 but yr points still held in '25: Little sweetness, dense but opaque profile en bouche, thin, flat palette, sour finish. Nose improved since yr '22 tasting Their whites are better than this on average.

The IAEA contributed to what little is known about the impact of the June attacks on Iran's nuclear installations. But the challenges to the IAEA going forward in and with Iran will be mammoth. www.worldpoliticsreview.com/us-iran-nucl...

Here in Germany if extreme polarization prompted justices of the Constitutional Court to make such accusations, the country's leadership & everyone else would engage on how to avoid/prepare for a national state of emergency (Innerer Notstand/Notstandsgesetze)

Louis-Ferdinand Céline à Eugène Dabit, 1933: "La vie ne passe plus par la littérature. C'est une ville ancienne capitale comme Dijon abandonnée aux chats amputés...''

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/w... For the IAEA for 3 weeks management of this issue wasn't trivial. When the 12-day bombing got underway, I heard then, there were personnel in Israel, also in Tehran and in a location between Natanz and Fordo.

Read Nicole's thread on Iran timelines. What she was maybe too polite or politic to say is that many op-ed estimates are ultimately less driven by analytical assumptions and more by DC-routine binary myopia: Trump loyalists claim all was destroyed. Trump's foes say Iran can get the bomb in months.

Grossi isn't guessing. The IAEA in fact has some quantitative evidence permitting the conclusion that the centrifuges at Fordo are broken.

"Expert X says Iran could have nuclear weapons in a year." "Expert Y says Iran's nuclear weapons quest was set back between 2 and 5 years." "Expert Z says Iran's nuclear weapons program was virtually destroyed."

IAEA board on Monday could request Secretariat & Iran to re-verify, report on safeguards status of Iran's HEU inventory: All material accounted for? Safeguards continuity? Prerequisites: Iran's cooperation, halt to Israeli warfare in Iran.

Israël se prépare-t-il à mettre un terme aux bombardements?

Das israelische Militär hat die Möglichkeit für den Iran, „eine Atombombe zu erlangen, bereits um mindestens 2 oder 3 Jahre verzögert“. www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/israel-...

But a week of Israeli attacks which have disabled virtually all of Iran's above-ground strategic nuclear infrastructure won't incentivize Iran to have nuclear weapons?

L’islamologue analyse les ressorts et les conséquences de la guerre qui oppose Israël et l’Iran. La chute du régime des mollahs représenterait, selon lui, un tournant historique aussi important que celui de la chute du mur de Berlin. →https://l.lefigaro.fr/S18

Will the next US step be to provide bunker-busting bombs to attack underground nuclear sites in Iran, led off by Fordo? Are US Republicans on board with this US escalation? As long as Israel has command of Iranian air space, probably yes.

This reads a lot like a threat to Khamenei. Kill Americans and we’ll take you out. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

What media on Friday morning called an Israeli attack to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons capacity 24 hrs later looks more like a military escalation prompted by still other aims and having a longer trajectory that may incentivize Iran to cross the line on nuclear arms.

What media on Friday morning called an Israeli attack to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons capacity 24 hrs later looks more like a military escalation prompted by other aims and having a longer trajectory that may incentivize Iran to cross the line on nuclear arms.

Reported absence of detected radiation emissions is not an indicator for a military attack on a centrifuge enrichment plant.

On the same day the German SPD left wing stumps for cooperation & peace w/Putin, Merz protests that Putin has arrested another Russian national politician for the crime of advocating a ceasefire. See this clip beginning at 8:50 www.arte.tv/de/videos/12...

@ericasimov.bsky.social Excerpting a late comment I posted to your 4/21/22 piece: We were shocked by an expensive 2019 Viré-Cruzille from Julien Guillot. Sulfur nose, after 2 decantings still tasted like iron. Some Ziereisen whites also like this. What's behind this? Fundamentalist bio-winemaking?

Tracking with the trend that a disproportionate share of Germany's irregular migrants/political asylum seekers are males between the age of 15 and 25...

nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo... "This newly available historical evidence shows that the U.S. was deeply involved...From the very beginning, government secrecy, obfuscation, lies, and the incomplete and contradictory statements of key American participants confused the record."

Whatever the reason, there were more than 150 million eligible voters who in 2024 did not vote for the Democrats. It may be inevitable that so long as the Ds don't close on why they failed, there will be a lot of speculation to explain their loss.

"Sweetness does not enter the Pythagorean universe." --Arthur Koestler, p. 13.

@chriswinedoctor.bsky.social We opened a bottle of Lieubeau's Chateau-Thébaud 2021 Muscadet: Wow. Meringue/vanille/white chocolate/light citrus, a terrific cuvée. Sufficient acidity. The light floral nose right out of the perfume counter at Printemps. lieubeau.com

Lest we forget: Trump claimed he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. apnews.com/article/trum...

4 GW new nuclear power capacity for western Canada. Note that the rationale for this investment is very familiar: projected demand for large amounts of busbar electricity, driven by economic growth with additional benefits for climate mitigation. Not about niche technologies and applications.

La Salle and Adams. If you walk down La Salle and cross Jackson, you can walk through the plaza, grab a coffee at Ceres, and catch your Metra train in 2 minutes time.

Trump: "The reason we're not talking about tariffs with Russia is because we're not doing business essentially with Russia". US-Russia trade totalled $3.5 billion in 2024. US-Lesotho trade totalled $240 million in 2024, yet Trump imposed a 50% tariff on the impoverished country.

I found incoming Clinton and later Obama Dems touchy, even obsessed about their new security protocols & privileged access, and previous Rep admins more comfortable about being in charge & thus more willing to share grey area info. But Trump's group appears astoundingly careless in this regard.

Lawrow spricht von Gesprächen über die Inbetriebnahme von Nord Stream 2 mit USA. Wenn das stimmt, muss Merz der Moskau-Connection in seiner Partei endlich den Stecker ziehen. Wer Milliarden in unsere Verteidigung steckt, darf Putins Kriegskasse nicht mit Gasgeld füllen. Klartext, jetzt.

So in retaliation the EU will impose a like tariff making overpromoted hot wines from Ynez CA more expensive than fine 1er cru wines from the Côte de Nuits. Here in Old Europe we will cheer.

Rubio sez: Because Russia & China “are big, powerful countries w/nuclear stockpiles" US shd normalize in interest of "maturity & sanity in diplomatic relations.” Ukraine & its European allies need be aware going forward that this take may resonate in US academic and think-tank establishment.

Henk Slebos' last words to me on the phone 20 years ago: "Ik heb je niets meer te vertellen." --I don't have anything more to tell you. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

How did my Berlin neighborhood Tempelhof-Schöneberg vote? 20% Left Party; 19% CDU; 18% each for SPD and Greens; 9% far-right AFD. interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/bundesta...

@dschwarzer.bsky.social articulated the same points on @artede.bsky.social newscast this evening: 1.) There will remain a transatlantic relationship based on mutual interests and interdependencies; 2.) Trump is moving US in a direction in which supporting democracy is no longer a mutual interest.

Is Berlin still a divided city? Results on Zweitstimme (vote for party in state parliament) from yesterday's polls say yes. Hard-right AFD fared well in Eastern districts, Western districts leaned toward CDU and Greens.

But if CDU/CSU and SPD form a a government it won't be a "Grand Coalition." The two parties today got 45% of the vote. Back in 1966 Groko was truly "grand." The two groups then accounted for 90% of the German vote.

Not so fast. Merz also qualified on the same TV show this evening here that "I don't believe" that the transatlantic defense relationship is finished, and said that he would work on shoring up that relationship, adding that the US would likely remain critical for Europe's defense.

For your information in case you thought tariffs against Canada were a good idea.

@alexandreblaineau.bsky.social George Sand à GF 8/12/1874: "Il y a une personne qui pourrait te modifier et te sauver, c'est le père Hugo, car il a un côté par lequel il est grand philosophe, tout en étant le grand artiste qu'il te faut... Il faut le voir souvent. Je crois qu'il te calmera... "

@riversidelodge.bsky.social Over the decades, I would say that if there is a Chablis 1er Cru that periodically underperforms, then it is Fourchaume. Agree? Not so in your experience? Any idea why that might be the case?

French govt auditors estimate cost of a single new EPR nuclear power plant unit at EUR 20+ B. Its report focuses on 2020-24 & doesn't explain why new build costs dramatically escalated since 2010s, when UAE built 4 units at EUR 6 B each. www.ccomptes.fr/sites/defaul...

Some folks might interpret the specificity of this US sanctions action at ZNPP as in effect sheltering Rosatom top management from further sanctions pending a future broad ceasefire deal which would protect Western industry's interest in business-as-usual with Rosatom.

You've got to be kidding. Your D-colleagues in WH & Congress claimed TT ban is about national security concerns. NS can be a convenient fig leaf for a lot of things, both in China and US, but TT looks like an attribute of 15-yr-old airheads.

A decision by Russia to build nuclear power plants in Iran won't be a business decision. Rosatom took a USD 3-digit million loss at Bushehr-1, Iran proved a difficult client, & company management by itself would not be very inclined. en.mehrnews.com/news/227056/...

@chriswinedoctor.bsky.social 2nd tasting Berthiers' Terre de Marne 2021. Delicate honey, anise, orange zest en bouche, impressed more this time, maybe winter cod filets in crème fraiche/butter sauce did it? Real test: Compare blind Marne, Silex, Caillotte vignoblesberthier.fr/nos-trois-te...

In January 20, 1961, the temperature at noon was 22 degrees and 8 inches of snow had fallen in the morning. John F. Kennedy still had his inauguration on the steps of the Capitol.

@majidsattar.bsky.social Bitte Ihre heutige Glosse "Amerikas Inferno" zu Waldbrände, Trump, Musk, Newsom auch in übersetzter Fassung für US-Leser posten. Letzter Absatz "Populisten..." gestochen scharf.