This is shameful

Die Frage ist ja nicht ob, sondern wann US-Waffenlieferungen auch für europäische NATO-Staaten zum unberechenbaren Glücksspiel werden

Vance faces first global test as U.S. negotiator with Iran YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

It was a pleasure to join @pbsnews.org for the current episode of Compass Points to discuss the Vice Preisdent‘s diplomatic engagement, the US war on Iran, Hungary, and much more.

Thanks @lisad.bsky.social for the great questions!

@amgerinst.bsky.social

youtu.be/tKO58Qu44uk?...

New era alliance management…

A notable warning, coming from a head of state in Europe who has one of the closest relations with Donald Trump.

France, Germany split on potential US role in European plans to help secure Hormuz While Europe talks, the Trump administration says U.S. forces can protect the waterway on their own.

Hm.

No agreement is ever final...which makes it ever more hard to reach any new ones with anybody...

“We gave them a good trade deal. Better than I had to. Which can always be changed,” Trump said

Our evaluation of Claude Mythos Preview’s cyber capabilities | AISI Work We conducted cyber evaluations of Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview and found continued improvement in capture-the-flag (CTF) challenges and significant improvement on multi-step cyber-attack simulati...

This paper represents a small but deeply impressive and genuinely important achievement by the much maligned British state in what is probably the most important global issue of our era.

Hear me out ( 🧵) 1/

www.aisi.gov.uk/blog/our-eva...

Germany, Ukraine elevate ties to strategic partnership with new defense deal "Now, more than ever before, we want to learn from one another," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

⚡️ Germany, Ukraine elevate ties to strategic partnership with new defense deal.

"Now, more than ever before, we want to learn from one another," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

Hungary chose to be a member of the EU. And Hungarian voters overwhelmingly rejected Orban’s anti-EU stance. MAGA can’t get its head around this.

Trump has handed JD Vance his most difficult mission yet As the US vice-president leads peace talks with Iran, he must balance warring factions, a demanding boss and his own political future.

My thoughts in this BBC piece on the negotiation dynamic as US-Iran talks begin in Pakistan

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Hah-now that’s a compliment! 🥴

Hab die Ehre gehabt, meine Sicht auf den Iran-USA-Verhandlungen mit dem NDR-Radio zu diskutieren. Vielen Dank @ndr.de !

My thoughts on the U.S. negotiations with Iran, in German, with NDR Radio👇🏻

The cost to rebuild US bases in GER, ITA, ESP, etc. in other parts of EUR would be enormous, take years. To say nothing of negotiating new basing arrangements, US access and operational restrictions.

This @wsj.com piece suggests Pentagon reliving the 2020 Trump scramble to move from GER to BEL.

After pager attack on Hezbollah, Hungary offered help to Iran Revelations about a 2024 call offering assistance raise questions about Hungary’s ties to Iran as the Trump administration backs Prime Minister Viktor Orban for reelection.

So, if Hungary is the best EU friend of Russia and China, and also offers to help Iran investigate an Israeli operation against Hezbollah...it's hard to recall what the US interest is in trying to save Orban's political skin?

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

My experience watching Trump "negotiate" with Kim Jong Un was: Kim never offered to disarm, Pompeo would wishcast disarmament, lots of media would amplify, a couple of summits happened, but no deal emerged ... leaving Kim stronger than before. Maybe this time is different.

Party At Ground Zero YouTube video by Fishbone

Fishbone: Party at Ground Zero

youtu.be/vrONIb9gQ-k?...

'A' Bomb In Wardour Street (1997 Remaster) YouTube video by The Jam - Topic

'A' Bomb in Wardour Street

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMhQ...

EU leaders vent anger after Hungary's Orban keeps blocking Ukraine loan European Union leaders failed to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday ​to lift his blockade on a 90-billion-euro ($103 billion) EU loan to help Ukraine keep up its fight against ...

And since taking office, Merz has been even more critical of Orban, especially for blocking EU assistance to Ukraine

www.reuters.com/business/ene...

#MerzMail 210: Victor Orban auf „Friedensmission“ Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser, alle sechs Monate wechselt in der Europäischen Union die Ratspräsidentschaft. Ihr kommt vor allem die Aufgabe zu, die Sitzungen und Tagungen auf allen Ebenen des Rates, vo...

Chancellor Merz, to his credit, criticized Orban's fealty and service to Putin before becoming Chancellor 👇

www.friedrich-merz.de/merzmail/mer...

Germany's Union parties long justified their kid-gloves treatment of Orban as a means of keeping Fidesz in the European People's Party, which Fidesz left in 2021...

Orbán’s Enablers German Conservatives and the EU Council’s Unanimity On December 12, 2022, as the first news of Eva Kaili’s arrest and “Qatargate,” the European Parliament’s first major corruption scandal, broke, Hung...

Further detail here, including in the post-Merkel era:

americangerman.institute/2023/01/orba...

Hungarian PM Orban visits Bavaria's CSU The arch-conservative Hungarian prime minister has made an appearance at the conference of Bavaria's CSU party in southern Germany. His planned visit has raised some eyebrows in other quarters.

At times during the Merkel era, the CSU used Orban as a way to signal opposition to Merkel, such as his invitation in 2018 to the CSU's retreat for the party's leadership:

www.dw.com/en/hungarys-...

Ungarn: Ex-Kanzlerin Merkel trifft Orban in Budapest Vor zehn Jahren waren Angela Merkel und Viktor Orban in der Flüchtlingskrise politische Gegenspieler. Jetzt empfing der Ungarns Regierungschef die Ex-Bundeskanzlerin in seinem Amtssitz.

Six months ago, with no compelling need, and after his anti-EU, pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine, pro-China priorities were manifestly obvious, here's Angela Merkel paying him a visit👇

www.handelsblatt.com/politik/inte...

There's a distinctly MAGA-Republican context to JD Vance's Hungary trip + also a broader anti-EU obsession of the far-right, as @donmoyn.bsky.social highlights in this good 🧵.

But during Orban's premiership since 2010, no one has done more to support him than Germany's center-right CDU+CSU leaders.

The president threatening nuclear annihilation of a country against which he launched a war a few weeks ago.

US Deploys Bulk of Stealthy Long-Range Missile for Iran War The next steps in the US military campaign against Iran will commit nearly its entire inventory of stealthy JASSM-ER cruise missiles, drawing them from stockpiles devoted to other regions.

The Iran War has gobbled up a breathtaking amount of U.S. military capability vital for deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

I think Tuesday we get to find out whether the chairman of the joint chiefs, the CENTCOM commander and others are willing to carry out illegal orders.

One of the greatest decisions the Ukrainians made was in not listening to the western analytic community which was saying that they needed to concentrate on drafting more soldiers and send them to the front.