To get the answer to that question, we need to read the Ukrainian constitution, not listen to any administration’s diplomats.

My limited understanding:

• in a “situation of war”, elections are suspended
• a ceasefire may be grounds for ending the situation of war
• the situation of war is ended by a vote of the Rada (parliament)
• quite obviously, that’s done if a ceasefire holds and Russia seems to have followed through with promises

Speculation is a bit fruitless when no agreement has been reached, nothing has been done, and nobody knows if a hypothetical agreement would be respected or not.

Narrator: “they heard him - and replaced it”.

It seems that they successfully shut down pumping oil northwards at Andreapol. As a result, the port of Ust-Luga on the Gulf of Finland (volume about 20% of Russia’s oil exports) no longer gets oil by pipeline. Cutting off 20% of exports is a very (very) good result, worth far more than a remote-controlled light aircraft.

Maybe I’m misreading because one poster above deleted their comment, but I can’t understand: how exactly has TSMC shown “disrespect”? Or was the poster showing disrespect?

Putting corporations aside and speaking of states: the US and Taiwan have respectful and friendly relations. They depend on each other.

Now, a tariff of 25-100% on a partner’s primary export and one’s own vitally important import is more like putting a shotgun to one’s leg out of spite. It would be hurting oneself and hurting the other side - and not a little bit.

The US is a store that Taiwan frequently shops in - a very big defense equipment store, I should say. Some of the toys cost money, but if you buy enough, you get kickbacks - the US gives Taiwan some security assistance for free. It also says it will assist Taiwan if anyone (we can imagine who that might be) attacks it.

Meanwhile, Taiwan is a store the world frequently shops in - a very big microprocessor, memory and microcontroller store. Frequent customers can tell TSMC “it would be nice if you brought some of your business here, we have a vacant spot suitable for your plans”. And it works: one factory will be built in the US, one factory in the EU. Maybe elsewhere too. Getting that to happen didn’t need Trump or insane levels of customs tariffs.

To achieve that, people just negotiated like normal people do. TMSC know they operate in a country prone to violent earthquakes and close to an agressive neighbour, they are quite OK with placing some of their business abroad.

For those who want to read longer, the original article in Berlingske. Not paywalled:

https://www.berlingske.dk/politik/new-poll-shows-overwhelming-majority-of-greenlanders-reject-trump

P.P.S.

The primary suspect was the right one: Vezhen has damage to its anchor. Swedish authorities have boarded it.

Finnish “Yleisradio” reports here that the owner company admits causing the damage: “anchor fell down in harsh conditions”.

The “harsh conditions” here in Estonia, about 300 km from the scene, include a wind speed of 1.2 meters per second. :) On an image from the scene, courtesy of YLE, the sea is flat like a glass table. That’s some harsh conditions…

P.S. A secondary suspect has been identified. “Pskov” (name implies that it’s a Russian ship) had its transponder off while crossing the cable.

https://bsky.app/profile/pekka.bsky.social/post/3lgo6wiwt222j

Some background about the preliminary suspect, m/s “Vezhen”.

• not an old hulk, but a relatively new ship
• registered on Malta
• operated by a company in Bulgaria
• owned by a company in China

Additional source (Reuters): Sweden opens sabotage probe into Baltic undersea cable damage

A source about how the ship maneuvered near the cable.

True, but in a hypothetical alternative, the refining equipment would stay intact and refine more oil. As things are - if a distillation column gets borked, it’s 3 months of stopped production as a minimum. More if it had Western parts, which most of them likely do.

Same here. Forums (about science fiction, aeromodelism, electric vehicles) have been important to me, and continue to be important in some fields.

Eastern Europe: “we know already, and they (pointing westwards) are starting to get it”.

They got some stuff that matters, among them KazanOrgSintez (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazanorgsintez).

A chemical plant in the Bryansk oblast also left the conversation.

And of course, it seems that Ukraine (recently, not today) got the aviation fuel reserves of the Engels air base.

I don’t see any echoes of a monster

I think it’s not possible to see that far. Ability to write good stories and ability to maintain ethical behaviour, they’re probably unrelated abilities.

For example, Yevgeni Prigozhin actually wrote decent children’s stories, but alas, his personal ethics didn’t prevent becoming Putin’s accomplice with a private military company.

That’s some sad reading. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion, from the point where the train crashes back to where the company forces an engineer to cut corners on the design.

Legal classification: probably rape, definitely sexual assault.

An enabling factor: wealth (he was in a position to influence other’s well-being economically, offer hush money and sign non-disclosure agreements).

“‘I’m a very wealthy man,’” she remembers him saying, “‘and I’m used to getting what I want.’”

An excuse: BDSM. The author of the article is correct to note:

BDSM is a culture with a set of long-standing norms, the most important of which is that all parties must eagerly and clearly consent

As for the search for the origin of his behaviour… I think they’re on the right track. Like a former child soldier who carries a war inside them, Gaiman has probably been carrying a lot inside.

In 1965, when Neil was 5 years old, his parents, David and Sheila, left their jobs as a business executive and a pharmacist and bought a house in East Grinstead, a mile away from what was at that time the worldwide headquarters for the Church of Scientology. Its founder, the former science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, lived down the road from them from 1965 until 1967, when he fled the country and began directing the church from international waters, pursued by the CIA, FBI, and a handful of foreign governments and maritime agencies. David and Sheila were among England’s earliest adherents to Scientology.

/…/

Palmer began asking Gaiman to tell her more about his childhood in Scientology. But he seemed unable to string more than a few sentences together. When she encouraged him to continue, he would curl up on the bed into a fetal position and cry. He refused to see a therapist.

Reading this, it seems obvious that Gaiman developed his behaviour due to trauma during childhood and youth - and has been exhibiting behaviour patterns that became normalized for him during time in the cult.

As for people whom he assaulted, it seems that they too carry a pattern - they were vulnerable at the time. Some had already experienced violence on themselves. Which, it seems - often hadn’t been resolved, but had become normalized. They were not the kind of people whose “no” is followed by physical self-defense or the full weight of legal options - and Gaiman understood enough to recognize: with them, he could get away with doing things.

She didn’t consider reaching out to her own family. Her parents had divorced when she was 3, and Pavlovich had grown up splitting time between their households. Violence, Pavlovich tells me, “was normalized in the household.”

Well, what can I say about it…

…it is customary that accusations be investigated by cops (who hopefully cannot be bought) and presented as charges to a court of law. The defendant should have a chance to deny or excuse their actions, but if deemed guilty, is required to give up time or resources either as compensation or punishment. A court could make lesser or greater punishment dependent on taking action to fix one’s behaviour traits - seeking assistance and not offending again. Those harmed should be offered assistance by their societies.

I can only speculate, since I’m not from there. To my understanding you aren’t either.

If war came here, I would probably stay. Maybe because I’m an aeromodelist that flew drones already in 2004. I would probably think “it’s bad stuff, but I have trained for this job for 20 years”. But if someone didn’t give me a correct job to do, I’d politely refuse. Jail is better then stupidity.

If someone thinks that jail is better than any participation in war, I understand.

If someone thinks that emigration or hiding is better than jail, I understand. If my home country wanted my building or flying skills to invade or conquer, I’d disappear or resist.

But there is something you need to understand, which I feel from reading your post that you don’t.

In Ukraine, the president changes, in Russia, the same guy rules since Yeltsin picked and propped him up 25 years ago (after so much stealing that Putin’s first decree was to give Yeltsin and his family immunity, and of course, after Yeltsin had started enlarging presidential power during the constitutional crisis and the Supreme Soviet (parliament) had been fired upon). Putin continued that path, but the word “autocracy” seemed appropriate until recently. In the last decade, only the term “dictatorship” seems appropriate. Full totalitarianism hasn’t been achieved yet, but is approaching fast.

In Ukraine, you can campaign and demonstrate against the government and my anarchist comrades operate above ground. Some of them have voluntarily joined the army, and some have died. Some have gone there from Russia, joined the Ukraininan army, and some of them have died too. They weren’t patriots. They just knew the difference and knew the cost of Putin’s regime to society. Officially, they fought for Ukraine. In their own mind, they fought to stop Putin’s conquest and help break his regime (which had imprisoned and killed people who mattered to them).

In Russia, they operate underground. Saying the wrong stuff gets 5 years. Army has a habit of torturing and shooting its members. Police has a habit of torturing people. Courts take direct commands from the prosecutor and security apparatus. Opposition politicians die of poisoning or get railroaded to prison.

If one has any interest in politics, the difference between Ukraine and Russia is massive. Only for a person who wants to eat in the morning, work during day and eat in the evening - with no interest in society whatsoever - only for that kind of a person is the difference limited. Yes, it’s possible to live in both countries. Sun still rises and wind still blows.

Indeed, war has a flip side of selection. Ukraine will lose some percentage of its society and Russia will lose some percentage. The social profiles of the people who are lost - can be understood. Both societies are burning through their groups most willing to fight, but the way of mobilizing people differs considerably, so the groups that lose most members will differ by country.

I will tell as much as I know about the profiles.

• professional military -> very big losses on both sides
• national guard and interior troops -> medium to big losses on both sides
• volunteers (trained, well motivated) -> medium to big losses on both sides, they fight better than others, but also get sent to more dangerous misssions
• conscripts (untrained, young) -> big losses only on Russian side, almost no losses on Ukrainian side (they don’t send folks under 25 to the front unless they volunteer)
• reservists (trained, old) -> big losses only on Russian side, since they practise meat attacks (Ukrainians aren’t willing to attack under such conditions)
• convicts (training varies, age varies) -> big losses on Russian side, since they practise meat attacks (Ukrainians only recently allowed convicts to join the war, and I have no idea about how they train or fight)
• a Russian special seems to be burning through ethnic minorities from remote places