Pablo Picasso Rest 1932
Gervais
The award winning, record breaking #SuperNature now streaming on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/SR0WFCJODs
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) June 6, 2022
6G
World Economic Forum… Humans to be integrated with smartphone technology by 2030 using 6G… Nokia CEO confirms conspiracy theory is real pic.twitter.com/Zuy0CHtXju
— Pelham (@Resist_05) June 8, 2022
Apart from Zelensky’s nonsensical claim (no. 1001), there’s “For eight years they have been killing us” and “Emmanuel Macron has warned that the West must not humiliate Russia”. And I haven’t seen one person point out that the West CANNOT humiliate Russia.
• Zelensky Vows “Full De-Occupation Of Entire Territory” (ZH)
French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that the West must not humiliate Russia if it wants to avoid an unnecessarily prolonged conflict that could spread beyond Ukraine. Since making the remarks days ago, he’s stirred anger among different allies – both in Europe and the US and UK. And he’s again come under fresh criticism and condemnation for the statement. He said last Friday, “We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means.” As part of the comments he offered France’s role as a “mediating power” in the conflict. This after having reportedly held calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin on pretty much a weekly basis since the invasion began in late February.
Macron has come under criticism from some corners of the EU for even holding the calls where he’s attempted to gain diplomatic concessions, and jump start talks again between Moscow and Kiev. But he hasn’t exactly been alone in his push for a diplomatic solution, given two other populous European nations and their leaders – namely German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi – have done the same. Entirely to be expected, Macron immediately received pushback from the Ukrainians, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba writing on Twitter that “Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it.” But the Macron comments have stirred anger in the US as well, with Republican hawk Rep. Adam Kinzinger saying “Emmanuel Macron is humiliating himself,” in weekend statements.
“Russia has already been humiliated, and true to their reputation the French are trying to raise the white flag.” Kinzinger, it should be remembered, has gone so far as to push the Biden administration toward erecting a no-fly zone, which would assuredly push the two nuclear armed superpowers into a WW3 scenario confrontation. Meanwhile, at a moment that direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations are essentially dead, but with Turkey still attempting to intervene diplomatically toward the erection of a UN-backed ‘grain corridor’ on the Black Sea, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in media statements Tuesday that even with the latest Russian gains in Donbas his country will not cede any territory for sake of a negotiated settlement.
“We have already lost too many people to simply cede our territory,” Zelensky said in a virtual address to an event hosted by Britain’s Financial Times newspaper. He said neither is stalemate “an option” and that ultimately “We have to achieve a full deoccupation of our entire territory.” Asked specifically about Macron’s ‘don’t humiliate Russia comments’ from days prior, Zelensky reponded: “We are not going to humiliate anyone, we are going to respond in kind.” The Ukrainian leader’s comments came as the last major holdout city of Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk province could soon fall to Russian forces. Zelensky further commented: “I don’t really understand … humiliating Russia. For eight years they have been killing us. What are we talking about here?”
“Zelenskyy took issue with Emmanuel Macron’s warnings to the west not to treat Russia in the spirit of ‘humiliation’.
‘I don’t really understand . . . . humiliating Russia. For eight years they have been killing us. What are we talking about here?’ https://t.co/25PYSf27tb— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) June 7, 2022
“..the European success we all know was always based on superb and cheap Russian energy.”
• For Europe, From Russia, With Love (Vilches)
The real ultimate EU problem is ´negotiating´ from a position of extreme weakness it has dug itself into and should have always avoided. But at the same time, Europe cannot be anywhere independent from Russia. So the above will affect current and future European production of fuels to fertilizers and everything in between, from kerosene to diesel to gasoline affecting cars, trucks, buses, plastics, pesticides, agricultural, mining and industrial machinery, foodstuffs, water quality and availability, pharmaceuticals, ships, inks, airplanes, polymers, medical and industrial gases, sealing rings & membranes, power transmission, transformer and lube oils, etc., etc., etc.,. Attempting to execute the above under the described terms – and others not mentioned but technically even far more demanding – would be outright engineering and economics madness.
But simultaneously attempting many impossible projects as now required throughout Europe within an ultra-narrow 6-month time-frame and everybody at the same time is sheer nonsensical stupidity, doomed to fail. Why do it then ? Because it´s mandated by the prevailing post-Brexit-US-Anglo-Saxon Russophobia that now hypnotized European leadership foolishly and irreversibly endorses. Henry Kissinger knows it, but do they?. Naturally, the EU leadership has made mistakes all along the 21st century, both technical and political, as fallible humans cannot avoid it. But the captains of the European ship this time around are going a long step further by unbelievably forcing its sailors to run around the deck like a bunch of beheaded chickens with no sense of purpose in rapidly approaching shallow waters in what seems to be a deliberate suicidal attempt.
This has never happened before in recent history as the European success we all know was always based on superb and cheap Russian energy. The plan and policies were led by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder who thought it out bottom-up, top-down, sideways, from left to right, from right to left, crossways, you name it. Until finally in the late 1990s reached the conclusion and convinced the European family of nations that Franz should marry Natasha. And so they remained happily married with many healthy and ambitious children until 2022 whereby the post-Brexit US Anglo-Saxon axis achieved the unthinkable by turning Europe against Russia yet again for the third time in a century as Prof. Michael Hudson has correctly observed. Meanwhile, absurdly enough, Poland is now proposing yet additional sanctions against Russia as if they did any good
Zelensky has claimed 30,000-40,000 Russian casualties. Nuff said.
• Kyiv Keeps US in the Dark on War Realities: NYT (Celente)
The New York Times, citing current and former U.S. officials, published a report Wednesday that American intelligence agencies have “less information than they would like about Ukraine’s operations and possess a far better picture of Russia’s military.” Beth Sanner, a former senior intelligence official, told the paper: “How much do we really know about how Ukraine is doing?” “Can you find a person who will tell you with confidence how many troops has Ukraine lost, how many pieces of equipment has Ukraine lost?” she asked. The Trends Journal has pointed out since the beginning of the conflict that it was nearly impossible to find the number of casualties suffered by Ukrainian troops in Google searches.
But if you were interested in finding out Russia’s war dead, there were dozens of article links. Zelensky vowed to fight for every inch of his country, but how he plans on doing that — without NATO joining the war — is anybody’s guess. The Times reported that the U.S. has a better understanding about Russia’s military’s condition than Ukraine’s. Even Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate in May: “We have, in fact, more insight, probably, on the Russian side than we do on the Ukrainian side.” Why did the U.S. agree to send Kyiv advanced rocket systems when it did not have a clear picture about the war’s development, and why has the Biden administration been so positive about Ukraine’s chances against Russia?
Stephen Biddle, a professor of international affairs at Columbia University, told the paper, “I’m not sure it’s in the interest of the American public or Ukrainian public to have Ukrainians be upfront about their losses if the result is it strengthens the Russian war effort. But that means we don’t really know both sides of the story.”
“To put it simply: we are facing a crisis on top of a crisis.”
• Is US/NATO (with WEF help) Pushing For A Global South Famine? (Hudson)
U.S. Cold War strategy is not alone in thinking how to benefit from provoking a famine, oil and balance-of-payments crisis. Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum worries that the world is overpopulated – at least with the “wrong kind” of people. As Microsoft philanthropist (the customary euphemism for rentier monopolist) Bill Gates has explained: “Population growth in Africa is a challenge.” His lobbying foundation’s 2018 “Goalkeepers” report warned: “According to U.N. data, Africa is expected to account for more than half of the world’s population growth between 2015 and 2050. Its population is projected to double by 2050,” with “more than 40 percent of world’s extremely poor people … in just two countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.”
Gates advocates cutting this projected population increase by 30 percent by improving access to birth control and expanding education to “enable more girls and women to stay in school longer, have children later.” But how can that be afforded with this summer’s looming food and oil squeeze on government budgets? South Americans and some Asian countries are subject to the same jump in import prices resulting from NATO’s demands to isolate Russia. JPMorgan Chase head Jamie Dimon recently warned attendees at a Wall Street investor conference that the sanctions will cause a global “economic hurricane.” He echoed the warning by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in April that, “To put it simply: we are facing a crisis on top of a crisis.”
Pointing out that the Covid pandemic has been capped by inflation as the war in Ukraine has made matters “much worse, and threatens to further increase inequality” she concluded that: “The economic consequences from the war spread fast and far, to neighbors and beyond, hitting hardest the world’s most vulnerable people. Hundreds of millions of families were already struggling with lower incomes and higher energy and food prices.” The Biden administration blames Russia for “unprovoked aggression.” But it is his administration’s pressure on NATO and other Dollar Area satellites that has blocked Russian exports of grain, oil and gas. But many oil- and food-deficit countries see themselves as the primary victims of “collateral damage” caused by US/NATO pressure.
I notice Russian players shine in the NHL playoffs, and haven’t seen one word about banning them.
• Ukraine to Ban ‘War and Peace’ From Being Taught in Schools (SN)
Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ and other classic historical novels that portray the Russian military in anything other than a negative light will be banned from being taught in Ukrainian schools, it has been announced. “All these will be completely excluded from foreign literature,” first deputy Minister of Education Andrey Vitrenko said in an interview with the TV channel Ukraine 24. “So, for example, ‘War and Peace,’ this will not be studied in Ukraine anymore,” he added. Vitrenko said that his ministry was working on compiling a list of books that will be banned in line with an announcement last month by Kiev’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy that works of literature “promoting Russian propaganda” would be removed from Ukrainian libraries and replaced by Ukrainian books.
Quite how banning a book that is revered the world over and was first published in 1869 will stop Putin’s war machine is anyone’s guess. We have previously documented the increasing intolerance and censorship of all things Russian, even if they have absolutely nothing to do with Vladimir Putin or the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Wimbledon tennis tournament has banned Russian players from competing this year even if they denounce the actions of their own country. There have also been calls for Russian athletes to be subjected to ideological purity tests before they are allowed to compete in international tournaments. In perhaps the most ludicrous example of Russophobia, Siberian cats were banned from competing in international cat competitions.
“Since capitalism is a predatory social and economic system, predatory personalities rise to power.”
• Is Lasting Peace Possible? (Hathaway)
Militarists point to history and say it’s just one war after another. But that’s the history only of our patriarchal civilization. The early matriarchal civilization of south-eastern Europe enjoyed centuries of peace. UCLA anthropologist Marija Gimbutas described the archaeological research in The Living Goddesses. No trace of warfare has been found in excavations of the Minoan, Harappa, and Caral cultures. Many of the Pacific islands were pacifistic. The ancient Vedic civilization of India had meditation techniques that preserved the peace, and those are being revived today to reduce stress in society.
Our society, though, has a deeply entrenched assumption that stress is essential to life. Many of our social and economic structures are based on conflict. Capitalism’s need for continually expanding profits generates stress in all of us. We’ve been indoctrinated to think this is normal and natural, but it’s really pathological. It damages life in ways we can barely perceive because they’re so built into us. We don’t have to live this way. We can reduce the stress humanity suffers under. We can create a society that meets human needs and distributes the world’s resources more evenly. We can live at peace with one another. But that’s going to take basic changes.
These changes threaten the power holders of our society. Since capitalism is a predatory social and economic system, predatory personalities rise to power. They view the world through a lens of aggression. But it’s not merely a view. They really are surrounded by enemy competitors. So they believe this false axiom they are propagating that wars are inevitable. In the past their predecessors defended their power by propagating other nonsense: kings had a divine right to rule us, Blacks were inferior to Whites, women should obey men. We’ve outgrown those humbugs, and we can outgrow this one.
Aaron Kheriaty, MD: “New levels of systematic mendacity. Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) is not a thing. These are cardiac deaths. Stop pretending we don’t know why they are elevated. Just f***ing stop. Enough of this. It’s only a mystery if you are blind.”
• Healthy Young People Are Dying Unexpectedly From A Mysterious Syndrome (DM)
People aged under 40 are being urged to have their hearts checked because they may potentially be at risk of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. The syndrome, known as SADS, has been fatal for all kinds of people regardless of whether they maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle. SADS is an ‘umbrella term to describe unexpected deaths in young people’, said The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, most commonly occurring in people under 40 years of age.The term is used when a post-mortem cannot find an obvious cause of death. The US-based SADS Foundation has said that over half of the 4,000 annual SADS deaths of children, teens or young adults have one of the top two warning signs present.Those signs include a family history of a SADS diagnosis or sudden unexplained death of a family member, and fainting or seizure during exercise, or when excited or startled, reported news.com.au.
Last year a 31-year-old woman, Catherine Keane, died in her sleep while living with two friends in Dublin. Her mother Margherita Cummins told the Irish Mirror, ‘They were all working from home so no one really paid attention when Catherine didn’t come down for breakfast.’ ‘They sent her a text at 11.20am and when she didn’t reply, they checked her room and found she had passed. ‘Her friend heard a noise in her room at 3.56am and believes now that is when she died.’ Ms Cummins stated that her daughter ‘went to the gym and walked 10,000 steps every day’. ‘I take some comfort in that she went in her sleep and knew no pain and I’m grateful for that. I always worried about the kids driving in the car but never saw this coming. I never thought I’d ever lose a child in my life,’
Oh f**king stop already.
• Fifth Jab Being Considered In Israel (JPost)
Due to the increase in morbidity, the epidemic treatment team will convene on Wednesday to discuss the provision of a fifth coronavirus vaccine to at-risk populations, KAN reported. According to KAN, a third vaccine for Israelis ages 5 to 12 is also being considered for those who want it. Medical staff would be obligated to receive a second or third dose. Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, who himself had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, is currently in quarantine and is working from home, Maariv reported. He had already discussed with senior officials in his ministry about the recent spark in COVID-19 cases.
After the meeting was over, Horowitz urged the general public to “use discretion and wear a mask when necessary, including on public transportation.” He recommended that those elderly or at-risk should wear a mask in closed spaces, “even if it’s not mandatory.” The amount of COVID cases reported yesterday was the highest in Israel in over a month and a half, with approximately 3,731 testing positive, the Health Ministry reported. The Health Ministry is also considering bringing back requirements to self-isolate for those who test positive for the virus. The ministry also intends to examine in the coming days whether the level of immunity in the population has decreased following the morbidity increase, Ynet reported.
And again: Oh f**king stop already.
• Moderna Says Omicron-containing Booster Outperforms Current Vaccine (Stat)
Moderna said Wednesday that using a new version of its Covid-19 vaccine as a booster led to a superior antibody response against the Omicron variant compared to its current shot. The company said it plans to submit its data to the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks and that it hopes that the new booster will be available in the late summer. Moderna’s booster, called mRNA1273.214, is a bivalent vaccine, meaning it contains mRNA coding for the spike protein for both the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the newer Omicron strain. The company had previously released data showing that a bivalent vaccine containing mRNA coding for the spike protein for the original virus and the protein from the Beta variant of SARS-CoV-2 provided better antibody protection than the original vaccine.
Moderna said giving vaccinated volunteers a boost with mRNA1273.214 increased geometric mean titers, a measure of antibody levels, eight-fold. The FDA has been holding public hearings on how to choose which strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus should be included in booster shots in the fall and who should receive those shots. Another meeting on whether and how the SARS-CoV-2 strain composition of Covid-19 vaccines should be modified is being held on June 28. However, companies have warned that choices will need to be made soon in order for vaccines to be available in the fall. In a statement, Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said that the data mean this bivalent vaccine is “our lead candidate for a Fall 2022 booster.”
Twitter likes the fakes and the bots, it’s all about the numbers.
• How Fake Is Twitter’s User Data? (ET)
Over the last several weeks, the perception has grown that Elon Musk will not be the emancipator of Twitter, freeing it finally from its mysterious algorithms that throttle, block, and ban perfectly wonderful accounts solely based on the political vendetta of employees and management. It’s said that he has cold feet, as if Elon’s demand for better data is purely a cover for emotional doubt. That’s simply not true. What he has intuited—that Twitter underreports the sheer fake accounts and bot armies that use its platform—could in fact become another scandal for our age. Twitter says it’s only 5 percent. Elon has crowd-sourced the question and suspects it is closer to 20 percent. The truth is out there, but Twitter is not forthcoming. Why might this be?
Here is where we get to the core of the issue: the reach data provided by these companies—this pertains not only to Twitter but to hundreds of thousands of sites—form the basis of its pricing structure for advertisers and therefore drive the fundamentals of the business model. The business model is that these companies sell your content—which you provide because you want your views known—to advertisers so that they can sell to you. Advertisers are charged for access to your brain based on an overall estimate of how many users are on the platform and how broad is the reach. Accuracy is of huge importance here. But accuracy has not exactly defined the way these companies have long operated. The data are subject to manipulation in the extreme.
For example, Twitter has proven to be absolutely awful at policing the number of fake accounts that pretend to be some famous person with large followers. One might suspect that getting rid of such accounts should be part of Twitter’s main focus. I’ve dealt with it for years and spent far too much time getting rid of them. Who has such time? It’s ridiculous. But have a look at this problem which has been going on for many weeks now. Brownstone’s Martin Kulldorff has a famous Twitter account but I can easily search his name which turns up many fake accounts. Notice the slightly different spellings. This isn’t rocket science! Does Twitter do anything about it? Not in many weeks.
If this is any indication of the underlying realities, Twitter has a very big problem. Instead of focusing its energies on censoring good accounts, it might have applied its energies to solving a problem that affects all users.And yet there is more at stake. Consider that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has initiated an investigation into Twitter. If the company has falsely reported its real user base, that stands in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Paxton has given the company until June 27, 2022, to produce evidence for how it calculates the numbers it has routinely touted to advertisers. We’ll see. It will probably end up in court.
The full firehose. But Musk should first check how much of the data has been manipulated.
• Twitter Will Reportedly Give Its Full Data Stream To Elon Musk (Eng.)
Twitter could comply with Elon Musk’s demand for more data about its users as soon as this week. According to The Washington Post, the company plans to give the billionaire full access to its full “firehose,” an internal database that includes details on the more than 500 million tweets posted to the service every day. In addition to representing a real-time record of what’s happening on Twitter at any moment, the trove includes device data and information about the accounts that access the platform. After Twitter accepted Musk’s $44 billion buyout offer in April, the billionaire announced in May the deal was “temporarily on hold” over concerns he had about fake accounts.
Twitter has consistently claimed that bots represent less than five percent of its daily users, a number Musk says he wants to confirm before moving forward with the acquisition. On Monday, Musk accused the company of committing a “material breach” of the merger agreement by allegedly refusing to disclose enough information about fake accounts. At the time, Twitter said it would “continue to cooperatively share information” with Musk as it worked toward completing the transaction. “We believe this agreement is in the best interest of all shareholders,” the company told The Post, reiterating its statement from Monday. “We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement at the agreed price and terms.”
How many bots and fake accounts there are on Twitter is important to Musk because that number would have a significant impact on his ability to monetize the platform through ads. Musk has committed about $33 billion of his personal wealth to buy the company, and he’s required to go through with the deal unless he can show Twitter misled him or that its value has changed.
“..100% certainty that Hunter Biden “was the only person responsible for the activity on this hard drive and all of its stored data.”
• 168,000 Deleted Files Recovered From Hunter Biden’s Laptop (WE)
A cyber forensics expert commissioned by the Washington Examiner recovered over 168,000 deleted files from a copy of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. Many of the deleted files were system files, application files, or duplicates of user files stored elsewhere on the laptop. Some of the recovered data, however, shed light on his financial dealings in 2018 and early 2019, as well as his personal dealings during that time frame. Also recovered from the drive were deleted pictures of government ID cards for two individuals linked to President Joe Biden’s son. Konstantinos “Gus” Dimitrelos, a former Secret Service agent who has testified in over 100 classified, criminal, and civil matters, retrieved the deleted files from unallocated space on the hard drive using a technique called data carving.
The existence of recoverable deleted user files adds another layer of authenticity to the hard drive, Dimitrelos said. “In order for user-created data — including personal photographs, bank records, invoices, business records, third-party data such as the driver’s licenses of other persons, chat conversations, and medical records, as examples — to exist within the unallocated hard drive space, the computer user would have had to manually delete the files,” Dimitrelos said. “Any Robert Hunter Biden recovered files in unallocated space was there as a result of deletions by the user ‘roberthunter.’” Dimitrelos has examined the Washington Examiner’s copy of the hard drive and determined with 100% certainty that Hunter Biden “was the only person responsible for the activity on this hard drive and all of its stored data.”
Many of the recovered user files were attachments to text messages that Hunter Biden sent to or received from his associates. The text messages contain markers indicating that an attachment was deleted. One of the recovered text attachments was a selfie he took in which he can be seen holding a vape pen. He attached the photo to a message sent to an unknown person Jan. 30, 2019. “That’s the weed vape pen that a Russian Escort left in my room before I came here this time,” Hunter Biden texted them.
“..the doctor who prescribes hormones to children asked Walsh whether chickens cry..”
• What is a Woman? (Laura Dodsworth)
It turns out that the best way to disrupt transgender ideology is to ask one simple question: what is a woman? Creator Matt Walsh asked each contributor the same question with purist focus in this brilliant and horrifying new film. The obstructions, circular reasoning and threats to walk off the set revealed that gender is like “a jenga tower”, as Walsh says. I spoke to Walsh about the film just a few days after its release. It has gone down a storm and Walsh was busy fielding interviews. He was also cautious; a publicist was off camera in our video call, and they recorded the interview. I don’t blame them for wanting to keep the record straight. What is a woman? is wildly controversial and successful, and that attracts peevish and disingenuous reviewers.
Transgender ideology is defeatingly complex and ever-shifting. The film’s success lies in its determined pursuit of the answer to one question. I asked Walsh why he focussed on this truth, whereas other activists have honed in on particular aspects, such as feminists arguing for women’s sex-based spaces and rights. “Philosophically it’s the best way to approach this issue,” he replied. “There are practical reasons why rights matter. I want to protect the rights of women and children, all those things matter and I care about them too. But the first thing is that it’s not true. That’s the important thing, first and foremost. Then we can establish all those other things. The loss of rights can be tackled after truth. Trans activists will ask why you care so much about what a woman is, but that’s sleight of hand.”
There was a palpable difference between the interviewees who were prepared to offer honest answers and those who would not. The first set seemed at ease. The trans man, in particular, was brutally raw, hiding nothing. In contrast, those who couldn’t answer the question seemed different – their body language was off, their answers evasive. They seemed to be thinking ahead, denial and defence almost visible on the surface, while cogs whirred just below. The social sciences professor replied with fallacious logic. In one of the more bizarre moments, the doctor who prescribes hormones to children asked Walsh whether chickens cry. A trans woman and a congressman flounced off camera. They didn’t just deny the simple biological truth (that a woman is an adult human female), they denied the concept of truth itself. The professor asserted that “invoking the word truth was condescending”.
Google translate from Finnish.
• This Is What Erdogan Promised (IS.fi)
The NATO process in Finland and Sweden has been at a standstill for three weeks due to opposition from Turkey. Not even NATO accession talks have been allowed to begin. There have been charges against Turkey, especially in Sweden. Turkey launched its publicity campaign on 13 May, five days before Finland and Sweden applied for membership in Brussels. “The Nordic countries are like guest houses for terrorist organizations,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan . Turkey’s violent drumming has raised the question of whether something went wrong in Finland’s diplomatic efforts in the spring. How did Turkey surprise Finland?
In an interview with IS, the president of the Republic Sauli Niinistö said that there was no reason to doubt Turkey’s position before Erdogan’s sharp exits. According to Niinistö, in a telephone conversation on 4 April, Erdogan clearly expressed his support for Finland’s efforts. – At the end of a rather long discussion, he said that you are applying for NATO membership, we will look at it favorably, we will assess it favorably , Niinistö says. Should the speeches have been treated with greater caution? – It is quite difficult to get started because it is not true if something is repeatedly reassured not only to me but also to our Foreign Minister and even to the Secretary General of NATO. It would have been difficult to justify a solution that we are not moving forward because Turkey’s positive position is not correct or we suspect it is not. Should this be the way to go? No.
Is it possible that there have been differences of interpretation between Finland and Turkey? – There is no possibility of misunderstanding. Besides, the continuation of the April 4 call is a bit ambitious. On 5 May, Foreign Minister [ Pekka Haavisto ] confirmed that he had a discussion with Turkish Foreign Minister [ Mevlüt ] Cavusoglu and stated that there were no problems. And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued a similar statement on behalf of NATO in early May. – If there was still a clear perception in NATO on May 5 that there are no problems, then we have to believe it. That fact raises this issue more on the NATO table than on our table.
Gonzalo: Whatever remains
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