Toomas Hendrik Ilves From Estonia. Where Digital is Native. And come in at #2 in the world in internet freedom. @toomas_ilves@mastodon.social
Estonia
Joined May 2012
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Oh hell, I guess there's nothing left to do but to move over to @ilvestoomas.bsky.social. It seems civilised there. Hope it lasts.
Will be double posting for awhile weaning myself off this hellsite.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Dutch intelligence allegedly hacked Jared Kushner's iPhone after finding it on a Russian GRU officer's server, then tracked his accounts and found evidence of secret $2 billion financial deals with UAE and Saudi Arabia, Vanity Fair reports, citing journalist Matthew Cole's new book.
The outlet says Kushner had signing rights on three secret accounts, nicknamed "Alfa" in the UAE and "Beta" in Israel, including $750 million routed to a UAE government linked charity and funds tied to a secret Israel-UAE defense pact against Iran.
Kushner has denied the report entirely, calling it "outrageous fiction" from someone "either mentally ill or acting with malicious intent."
vanityfair.com/story/jared-k…
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
40T is 300k barrels. Which is 2 (yes, just two, no zeros here) hours of US consumption. Russia will get at least $30m, but likely closer to $50m for that. That will go, among other things, to supporting Iran. If this is not self own, I don’t know what is.
EXCLUSIVE: Tanker carrying 40,000 T of Russian diesel heads to New York after Putin-Trump deal, data shows reut.rs/47zYFZ2 reut.rs/47zYFZ2
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
The oil prices only know one way and this is up. They have climbed continuously in October. Trump’s announcement regarding the minuscule Russian promise has not even dented that, predictably. The Strait of Hormuz is severely disrupted and the Iranian regime plays Trump like a fiddle.
Expect Thanksgiving and Christmas to be an expensive period.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
The shifting explanations from Musk and the administration sound like Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” Except the consequences for Ukrainian civilians are deadly.
Musk says he didn’t do it. The administration says it didn’t either. Yet someone in the administration reportedly told Musk to undo it, and Ukraine reports only partial restoration.
Are we supposed to believe Hegseth and the Pentagon don’t know the status of a capability critical to U.S., Ukrainian and allied security?
Whoever is handing Putin the gift of a more vulnerable Ukraine should at least have the guts to put their name on it. Hiding behind denials while innocent people pay the price is cowardice.
Meanwhile, Putin keeps murdering civilians and trying to starve and freeze Ukraine into submission. Americans deserve answers. Ukrainians deserve the means to defend themselves.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Putin now claims the latest genetic research shows Russians and Ukrainians are one people. It doesn't. Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Poles are genetically close, as you'd expect from centuries of living side by side. But the most recent whole-genome study of Ukrainians finds they form their own distinct cluster, and its authors note that genetics is not a reliable determinant of ethnicity anyway.
National identity is political, cultural, linguistic, and historical. By Putin’s genetic logic, Americans, British, and Australians are one people too. Perhaps London can revive its claims to the breakaway provinces.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
😞
Starshield/Starlink speed restrictions remain in place. Every day matters for Ukraine, because every Ukrainian life matters. Our people are waiting for positive news, hoping that the restrictions will be lifted and our defenders will have the capabilities they need to protect lives.
Unfortunately, as of today, nothing has changed. We continue to wait.
A ship from Turkey to Romania was sunk by a drone attack.
Time to do something perhaps, NATO?
BREAKING: 🇷🇴 Another commercial vessel has been struck by a drone and sunk in the Black Sea, approximately 13 nautical miles off Constanța, Romania.
The vessel, KHORYV (IMO 8138712), was sailing under the flag of the Comoros Islands from Ereğli, Türkiye, to Sulina, Romania, carrying ferrous materials.
According to Romania’s Naval Authority, 13 crew members were on board: 10 Ukrainian nationals and three Azerbaijani nationals. Ministry of Health, report one confirmed death, three crew members missing and nine injured.
The vessel reportedly capsized and sank following the impact. Nine crew members were reportedly rescued from the water by another commercial vessel nearby.
Romanian authorities have launched a major search-and-rescue operation, deploying Border Police vessels and the Artemis, operated by Romania’s Agency for Saving Human Life at Sea (ARSVOM).
A Black Hawk helicopter was also requested, but heavy rain and adverse weather conditions prevented it from reaching the scene.
More updates to follow.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
BREAKING: 🇷🇴 Another commercial vessel has been struck by a drone and sunk in the Black Sea, approximately 13 nautical miles off Constanța, Romania.
The vessel, KHORYV (IMO 8138712), was sailing under the flag of the Comoros Islands from Ereğli, Türkiye, to Sulina, Romania, carrying ferrous materials.
According to Romania’s Naval Authority, 13 crew members were on board: 10 Ukrainian nationals and three Azerbaijani nationals. Ministry of Health, report one confirmed death, three crew members missing and nine injured.
The vessel reportedly capsized and sank following the impact. Nine crew members were reportedly rescued from the water by another commercial vessel nearby.
Romanian authorities have launched a major search-and-rescue operation, deploying Border Police vessels and the Artemis, operated by Romania’s Agency for Saving Human Life at Sea (ARSVOM).
A Black Hawk helicopter was also requested, but heavy rain and adverse weather conditions prevented it from reaching the scene.
More updates to follow.
Nothing demonstrates better the utter chaos of US leadership these days. Forget worrying about Rutte and "Daddy". You cannot count on anything anyone in the US says these days. If European leaders don't crap in their pants and get moving over what has happened these past 10 days, we're in serious trouble: thedailybeast.com/trumps-sec…
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.@GovChristie, you could do the funniest thing right now.
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Kushner's lawyer says he intends to pursue legal action against "those responsible for publishing and disseminating" the Vanity Fair allegations. Those will be some billable hours for Jared given this story is being disseminated all over Twitter, including by elected officials.
Let me be clear: We intend to pursue legal action against those responsible for publishing and disseminating these categorically false and defamatory allegations. We are preserving all legal rights and remedies and will address these matters in the appropriate forum, not through exchanges on social media.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Very nice scoop from @MotherJones, but missing a bit of flavor. Anna Paulina Luna has become Kirill Dmitriev's agent of influence in U.S. Congress and she routinely insists Ukraine is the real obstacle to peace and Russia is the best friend America just hadn't made yet. Bet you'll never guess who her husband's drone company, Nocturnal AI, partners with to boost its bottom line and secure those lucrative Pentagon contracts. Wait for it... motherjones.com/politics/202…
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Either Musk isn't doing what he's told or he's not actually been told to do it.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Great stuff from @shaneharris: "Armed with information that the U.S. provides, Ukraine’s military has launched strikes deep inside Russia. And U.S. spy satellites provide early warning about incoming missiles and drones. Among U.S. personnel on the ground, 'the CIA is in the lead,' a retired senior officer who travels frequently to Ukraine told me. If anything, the Ukrainians, with the CIA’s help, have gotten too good at hurting Russia for Trump’s taste." theatlantic.com/national-sec…
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Is Kushner stupid enough to think that Condé Nast (the most valuable publishing house on earth) didn't legally vet the shit out of this?
I guarantee they spend a literally truckload of cash on lawyers and due diligence before publishing. Guaranteed.
.@VanityFair posted an excerpt from a book containing outrageous and categorically false allegations.
The allegations made by this author are completely insane and never happened. We denied every one of these claims on the record, yet the author failed to provide a single shred of evidence to substantiate any of them. No bank statements, wire transfer records, account numbers, transaction dates, or other verifiable details were provided to support these extraordinary accusations.
During the period in question, I was one of the most scrutinized people in the world, subjected to intense media coverage, multiple congressional investigations, and a special counsel investigation. I voluntarily cooperated with these investigations, providing over 30 hours of testimony. None of these allegations ever surfaced, because none of these events ever happened.
These are outrageous fabrications being presented as investigative journalism. This is not journalism. It is a mixture of fantasy, fiction, and advocacy, written by someone who is either deeply disturbed or acting with sinister intent.
We know FIFA's level of corruption rivals Russia's.
Which makes the EU's decision seem odd to say the least.
But the real question is:
Who got THIS year's FIFA Peace Prize?
politico.eu/article/why-the-…
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
The other thing to keep in mind regarding the Kushner story: the GRU isn’t just a spy service. It is a hopelessly corrupt racket and sell its high-value wares on the black market (more on that in due course). I’d put money on MIVD not being the only third party to get their hands on this material.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Kushner Phone Hack Reveals How Middle East Dictators Bought Him Off trib.al/2NT4jtL
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The Dutch have more integrity than the whole US administration, the best part is airing out the USA's dirty laundry. Truth be told, it's a sight to behold. Masterclass action from the MIDV, love to see it.
toomas hendrik ilves retweeted
Thoughts, prayers for the Dutch Embassy in this difficult moment
“when Kushner used the phone, they could see his screen. Almost as soon as they got inside, the [Dutch] intelligence service began capturing every image of Kushner’s screen as he used it, filing their own cache of surveillance on their internal computer servers.” vanityfair.com/story/jared-k…