Manuel Erhardt @erhardt@librem.one

Putin hat seinen Geschichtseinflüsterer des russischen Ultranationalismus Medinski ausgeschickt, um in Istanbul „Verhandlungen“ zu inszenieren. Die „Ursachen des Konflikts“ sollen besprochen werden. U aus Putins Sicht ist die Existenz einer souveränen Ukraine die wahre Ursache.👇🏼

#Russia railways loading has been dropping since 2022 but this years - the black line at the bottom - has been the worst for years. Railway loading is one of the proxies for general state of economy, especially in Russia whose industry heavily depends on railways. This chart comes from a video[^1] by a Polish railways expert Ryszard Piech.

But then pretty much the same thing is reported by a Russian VChK-OGPU channel which reports 8.6% cargo volumes in April against the last year. The channel report that RZhD (Russian Railways) are going through severe financial problems due to dropping cargo traffic and the short-term perspective is grim, as the company faces massive layoffs.

wow, no more anti-vax memes, there's already a perfect one

An interesting paper on #Ukraine #migration into #Poland with very interesting findings:

We examine the impact of two massive and unexpected inflows of Ukrainians on voting behavior in Poland. The two migration shocks, caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, allow us to disentangle the effects of conflict induced labor migration from those of refugee inflows. Using an instrumental variable approach, we find that greater exposure to labor migrants reduces support for conservative parties in the short run and subsequently shifts voter preferences toward pro-redistribution parties. We do not find similar effects for refugees, who, unlike temporary labor migrants, had access to social benefits. However, exposure to both types of Ukrainian migration leads to a decrease in far-right voting. This effect emerges only after the salience of Ukrainian migrants increases due to the escalation of Russia’s aggression and the rise of anti-Ukrainian rhetoric from the Polish far-right. The backlash from Polish voters against the far-right rhetoric is ten times stronger in areas exposed to refugees than to labor migrants. Our results are robust to the use of a number of instruments and several sensitivity checks.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5223038

⚡️Ukraine proposes extending truce beyond Easter Sunday.

"Thirty hours is enough for headlines, but not for real confidence-building measures," President Volodymyr Zelensky said. "Thirty days can give peace a chance."

🔗 https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-proposes-extending-truce-beyond-easter-sunday/

❗️🇲🇩 Russia wants to replace Moldova’s leadership with pro-Kremlin puppets and use the country against Ukraine, warns President Maia Sandu. She emphasized that Ukraine remains Moldova’s shield — and Chișinău has a moral duty to stay out of Putin’s war.

https://www.jurnal.md/ro/news/9e52a81ca0a35a0d/video-maia-sandu-despre-miza-kremlinului-sa-schimbe-conducerea-cu-oameni-loiali-si-sa-foloseasca-rm-impotriva-ucrainei.html

Fakt des Tages

As long as #Hezbollah remains an active force in the region, #Israel 🇮🇱 will see no need to exit southern #Lebanon 🇱🇧 (& will face no significant pressure to withdraw).

👉🏾 Lebanon’s 🇱🇧 president says he seeks to disarm Hezbollah this year https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/middleeast/lebanons-president-says-he-seeks-to-disarm-hezbollah-this-year-intl/index.html

While President Zelenskyy was in Kryvyi Rih mourning 9 children killed on their playground by a Russian missile, Trump's special envoy Steven Witkoff hung out with Putin who fired the missile.

Citizens of the US, you deserve better leaders.

I do not tire of enjoying seeing people enthusing about how they've set up their first self-hosted service, or how they've tried a piece of Free software for the first time.

Each is an achievement in its own right, irrespective of how many people have done it before them.