Bonus was listening to Academy Award winner Mark Rylance who said Remembrance Sunday should serve as a moment to ‘refocus our every effort to avert war’

Was awesome to meet @zackpolanski.bsky.social at yesterday’s Alternative Remembrance Ceremony organised by the Peace Pledge Union and chat about challenging everyday militarism, and commemorating ALL victims of war.✌🏻🕊️☮️

#peace #remembrance #whitepoppy

While Lukashenko initially encouraged exports to Russia, he imposed an export ban earlier this year, as Belarus struggled to feed its own people, let alone its Russian allies.

This highlights the growing tension between political loyalty to Moscow and the harsh economic realities at home.

But as Russia’s economy cools down under sanctions and mounting war costs, Belarus is sinking with it.📉

This year, Belarus' exports of machinery, lumber, and consumer goods to Russia fell over 70%. GDP growth has slowed to just 2.1%, the budget deficit is widening, and inflation continues to climb.

Since the fraudulent 2020 election, Western sanctions have hit key Belarusian exports (oil🛢️, potash🪨, and fertilizers🪴).

Sanctions expanded after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. These hit hard; Belarus' GDP shrank 4.7% in 2022, exports fell 20%, and the IT sector hollowed out as firms fled abroad.

🇧🇾 Belarus’ economy is quickly unraveling: facing slowing growth, sanctions, inflation, and now even a potato crisis in the country once known as Europe’s ‘potato basket.’🥔

Here’s how it happened (a thread)🧵👇

A new poll shows more than half of French want Bayrou out and #Macron to resign:

🗳️63% say they are in favour of new elections

🚪68% say that if the vote fails Macron should step down

📝50% approve of Mélenchon's call for Macron to resign

Read the full report here ➡️ www.ifop.com/publication/...

This breakthrough clears the way for the formation of a new government and ends a political stalemate which:

⚖️👩‍⚖️ Froze 111 draft laws and municipal budgets

🇪🇺💶 Suspended €600M in EU funding

💰🪙 €800,000 spent on MP salaries for less than 1.5 days of work (as of July 21, 2025)

🇽🇰 Six months since parliamentary elections, and following over 50 failed attempts, Kosovo’s parliament has finally elected a new speaker🗳️

Lawmakers chose Dimal Basha from acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s Vetëvendosje party.

🟢 Basha recieved 73 votes in favor in the 120-seat house.

... if PAS can’t secure a majority, coalition building will be tough. Most other parties are either pro-Russian or ambivalent, potentially weakening Sandu’s position at a crucial moment for Moldova’s EU future 🇪🇺

Whilst these polls don't consider Moldova's large diaspora (who tipped the scales for Sandu in last year's razor thin presidential election and EU referendum)🪒...

🧵🚨 Moldovan parliamentary election watch (Sept 28)🇲🇩: Polls show President Maia Sandu’s pro-EU PAS in the lead, but still short of a majority. In 2nd is the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc, whose support has risen following the ban on fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor’s more radical, Kremlin-linked🇷🇺parties..

🧵 (2/3) The effectiveness of sanctions would be compounded by the fact that Israel's economy is under some strain at the moment. After almost two years of continuous war, Israel is suffering from stagnant growth rates, chronic labour shortages, and an unsustainable budget deficit.

🧵 (1/3)Why hasn't the EU imposed sanctions on Israel yet?!⛔

Israel’s economy is highly dependent on EU trade, investment, and financial reserves. This means the bloc holds quite a bit of economic leverage over Israel and could, in theory, hit Israel hard…if the political will exists to impose them.

one more thing ticked off the bucket list✔️ @tldrnews.bsky.social

A few months ago, pro-regime Serbian tabloids 'reported' on a video I wrote for TLDR on the Serbian economy, which they twisted into a pro-Vučić narrative.📰🔍🗯️

(3/4) As for GDP growth, it's set to slow down rapidly next year📉...

(2/4) To bring down it's high inflation rate, the central bank hiked interest rates by a record of 21% in October, which caused uproar among buissness who've seen their borrowing costs soar since Russia's invasion.

Buisness bankruptcy rates, have also already surged by 20% this year.📈💸