This is so funny - Dmitriev talking about free speech. X is banned in Russia Facebook is banned in Russia Instagram is banned in Russia LinkedIn is banned in Russia Signal is banned in Russia Discord is banned in Russia Snapchat is banned in Russia

In February, I happened to be watching Vance’s speech at MSC next to a super senior European official. She gasped: oh god, they hate us. A continent in decline, downing in illegal migration, pursuing censorship under Soviet-style European Commissioners. The US national security

The U.S. national security strategy came up at 11 pm Washington time. It has two pages on Europe. We and others have written about it. Yet the @EU_Commission has no comment. "We have learned about the publication of this report. We did not yet have the time to look into it..."

No one is better dressed than a 60-year old Milanese woman. Chic is innate.

The Belgians say a reparation loan for Kyiv carries risks that could be disastrous. “The worst option of them all”. Von der Leyen is marching on - with new guarantees. One diplomat: this is now politics. https://t.co/HeiRoK35sd

The European Commission will provide Belgium with sweeping guarantees to unblock a controversial reparations loan for Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen has said, forging ahead with the plan despite risks deemed "disastrous" by Belgian authorities.

Watch Live: #EuropeToday — Former EU top diplomat Mogherini held in fraud probe, Ukraine, NATO and greenwashing.

Temperature check*

Commission will present a renewed legal proposal tomorrow, I’m told, which could be debated by ambassadors as soon as Friday and serve as a temperature on the Belgians. Nothing matters more in Brussels than this. Top file.

"This is not dirt. These are people. There are 4 million Ukrainians living in these occupied territories." @general_ben, former Commander of US Army Europe, told on #EuropeToday that Kyiv cannot accept Trump’s plan and hand its territories over to Russia.

Netanyahu asks for a formal pardon from corruption charges

European Parliament cuts reference to UAE from Sudan war resolution

Nobody is asking Belgium to "sustain on its own the risks and exposures that would arise from the option of reparations loan" which would rightly be shared across EU. Letter full of straw men and hides behind international law in ways that would reward Russia for violating it.

What's odd about this letter is it seems to be a grab bag of every possible argument against the loan. It's a legal nightmare. But it's also a risk for the €. And it will ruin peace talks.. Is the last point, that it will get in the way of Trump's peace deal, the key reason?

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever rejected using frozen Russian assets for a reparations loan to Ukraine, calling it risky and “fundamentally wrong.” He urged the EU to raise €45 billion through joint borrowing instead to support Kyiv.

A brutal letter from the Belgians. Frozen assets proposal is fundamentally wrong, unequivocal risks and could undermine peace talks. Good luck with this one. Big December clash brewing in Brussels. https://t.co/Z2Hm2UgeCO

"For Russia, any peace deal is about permanently redrawing maps. It is about returning to great power relations and spheres of influence," Ursula von der Leyen has warned amid US-led peace talks.

Hi from Strasbourg - now real exasperation at the Belgians over the Russian frozen assets. Still firmly on their position, have not really moved despite options paper from the Commission, now asking for legal texts for each proposal (frozen assets or debt). One diplomat tells me:

Together with the leaders of Europe, Canada and Japan, we have declared our readiness to work on the 28-point plan despite some reservations. However, before we start our work, it would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.

European leaders pushback on US peace plan, say it’s only a draft