Today the winter Olympics open. Russia and Belarus are allowed to participate under neutral flag. Picture by Gatis Šļūka

I also took out of paywall this piece from May, in which I wondered why Trump was constantly acting like a Russian agent of influence even after the Russians humiliated him time and time again. I hope we do not have the answer. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Kremlin’s Epstein Kompromat? Who knows .. but as Phillips concludes „it would help explain a great deal” ..

President Zelenskyy: "In fact,the Russian army used the American proposal for a short-term pause in strikes not to support diplomacy,but simply to stockpile missiles&wait for the coldest days of the year” 📷Destruction at one of Ukraine’s thermal power plants following a Russian strike/Radio Liberty

Chat you made it possible to collect 33 drone detectors and I thank you but we are crazy so we expanded the fundraiser and there’s $6k left to collect, that’s 10 more detectors, so here I am again dzygaspaw.com/monokate-and...

The *things* russians are doing: invading a sovereign state, murdering civilians, creating a humanitarian disaster in extreme cold, abducting children, razing towns to the ground, raping, torturing, looting

This is a great piece by @phillipspobrien.bsky.social on why it is the President and not his evil counsellors that is to blame for ICE and its excesses - and why the media are pretending otherwise.

⚡15% of Kyiv residential buildings remain without heat after Russia's attacks, Mayor Klitschko says.

Everyone freezing on the East Coast or in the Midwest remember: Kyiv has the same weather, except that hundreds of thousands of people don't have electricity, heating or running water

Russian terrorism continues. Terrorists never stop on their own. They can only be stopped. And only by force. The attack lasted all night. Drones, ballistic missiles, anti-vessel missiles. Russia's goal is obvious: to deprive Kyiv and the central regions of power as much as possible.

The Kyiv Independent combed through microchip shipments, revealing that American and European microchips continued to enter Russia in large quantities — mainly from China. Read here: kyivindependent.com/exclusive-am...

Another in a string of must-reads from Phillips

Kyiv is moving to a schedule of 4.5–5 outage rotations: power cuts may last more than 16 hours, according to Yasno’s CEO. Meanwhile, the weather is freezing. This is a humanitarian disaster caused by russia. Please do not look away!

“The combination of extreme cold and wave after wave of Russian attacks are pushing Ukraine’s energy system to the edge,” Maxim Timchenko, CEO of DTEK, the largest private energy company, told FT. “We are facing an unprecedented threat and fighting for every megawatt.” www.ft.com/content/ec1b...

Just sent out my free weekend update. The joint Trump-Putin (or US-Russian) campaign to torment Ukrainians by depriving them of power and heat, reached a crescendo. It cannot be denied that Trump/USA has made the situation worse. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Russia is killing Ukrainians every day: burying us under the rubble of our homes, killing us on our streets, burning us alive in our cars. In offices, cafes, churches, kindergartens, and hospitals. Every day. All the time. It happens so often, it doesn’t even make the news anymore.

Citizenship stripping has become a political tool for authoritarians to signal their credentials. No matter how abhorrent someone’s tweets, or views, the idea REMOVING THEIR CITIZENSHIP should be the response is deranged. Philp & the right in general have lost the plot. #r4today

Christmas attack on civilians in Kyiv. Sure, the Russians want peace

EXCLUSIVE: US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plans to Trump, in audio files reviewed by Bloomberg

A beautiful family was killed by the russians in Ternopil. One boy was seven years old, and the other was not even a year old. On November 20, russians hit a residential building in Ternopil. At least 31 civilians were killed, including 6 children.

This is deranged and dangerous from the Conservatives, and similarly from Reform. If they could enact it, it would rip British society apart, destroy the economy & NHS, & make the UK an international pariah. Every decent politician & political journalist/commentator needs to push back hard.

German study shows how far right sets agenda thanks to mainstream parties reshaping their communications to respond to what are initially fringe issues, boosting the spread of these ideas and signalling to voters that these ideas and stances were legitimate shorturl.at/OFfig

Just sent out this piece. Trunp and Putin are buddies again, all talk of Tomahawks to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia have disappeared. Was it all a charade? Sad thing, is that it might be worse. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

When Putin talks to a Russians he consistently says that they invade Ukraine to destroy the state and nation and correct the path of history. NATO and similar framings are just for the useful foreigners.

Let's cut the "Farage's plan is impractical" line eh? People said the same of Trump and now ICE goons are rounding people up into alligator-infested camps and sending people to Uganda. Need to defend principle of asylum and defend human rights and be against sending people to be tortured and killed

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in Gaza, mostly near food sites run by an American contractor, the U.N. human rights office said.

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency. "Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die" Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

Well, the US was not really thinking of sending more anti air weapons to Ukraine, it was planning on stopping what little was on its way. The US is cutting Ukraine off during this vital moment. Once again, flattering Trump is not the right strategy. A free piece. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Trump is slowly, quietly, lifting sanctions on Russia. And halting previously allocated munitions too. Without an announcement, US policy is beginning to favor not a ceasefire, but Russian success www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/u...

Is global warming accelerating? Over at The Climate Brink I argue that the consilience of evidence from surface temperatures, climate models, forcing changes, ocean heat content, and earth energy imbalance all point toward yes: www.theclimatebrink....

The barrages targeting Ukraine’s capital have been heavier and longer than at almost any point since Russia’s invasion, killing at least 40 people this month. “A few more nights like this and I feel like people are going to start leaving Kyiv again.” w/ @fabricedeprez.bsky.social on.ft.com/4eqYDFB

We can't process the scale of climate shocks. I was speaking to someone from LA about the wildfires. Their view: fires have always happened, so the problem must have been government incompetence. Sure, officials make mistakes *but* they are dealing with crazy weather on.ft.com/3RXWsyV

I made a new poetic scratchcard!

At least 31 civilians slaughtered by two Russian ballistic missiles in Sumy's city centre as people headed to church for Palm Sunday. 2 of the dead are children. Putin's deadly strikes haven't stopped. His commitment to war is ongoing, savage & shameless. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its fourth year, and Trump mulls cutting military aid entirely, here are some ways to help Ukraine and stand with Ukrainians.

Donations, if you can spare some, more needed than ever it would appear #SlavaUkraini u24.gov.ua

Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

February 28th, 2025 -- a date which will live in infamy

Caspar Siegert & James Talbot @bankofengland.bsky.social find that central banks have already made significant progress in incorporating climate-related factors into their monetary policy operations. Central banks can learn from each other and adopt best practices. cepr.org/voxeu/column... #EconSky

A new framework helps central banks to understand the macroeconomic effects of the green transition & describes how agents respond to #climate policies in the near term. S.K. Erlandsen, S.J. Ho, D Kyriakopoulou, A Mahalingam, & J Talbot @bankofengland.bsky.social cepr.org/voxeu/column... #EconSky

@lukasz-k.bsky.social, Danae Kyriakopoulou, & James Talbot @bankofengland.bsky.social set out a framework to assist central banks in assessing and understanding the macroeconomic effects of acute physical impacts from #climatechange. cepr.org/voxeu/column... #EconSky #monetarypolicy

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers. This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

For the FT, I explored a long-term climate scenario that some scientists now think is more likely: Changes in ocean currents plunge northern Europe into the cold. Britain is hit by fierce winter storms; crop-growing becomes next to impossible. How do we respond? Please read: on.ft.com/3Ch5F0J

You are welcome to explore my debut solo exhibition ‘Making Poetry’ at the National Poetry Library in London, which is on until January 5th! 💛 www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/mak...

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,187,177!