Georgiana Ifrim

Russian Drone and Missile Strikes on Kyiv Kill at Least 10

Overnight, Russia launched its deadliest attack on Kyiv in nearly a year. This is a reminder of Putin's cruelty and just another reason the United States must stand firm in our commitment to aiding Ukraine.

Russia is the obstacle to peace, not Ukraine.

Laments about murderous drone swarms don't change a thing- clever air defenses do! UA defenders are synching heavy artillery with recon drones& FPV interceptors. And if we stand together, we can give boost them with a launch station! Still €2850 needed, pls join! euromaidanpress.com/lets-support...

Due to Ukraine's preemptive destruction of Russian strategic bombers, Russia used just 7 planes, fully loaded, to launch 36 missiles (that reached Ukraine) on June 6th.
Previously, Russia would load bombers with only 1-3 missiles each to minimize wear, firing up to 108 missiles in a single attack.

Scientific conferences are leaving the US amid border fears Some meetings have been put on hold in response to foreign researchers’ travel concerns.

'Scientific conferences are leaving the US amid border fears'

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Dietmar Pichler, Austrian expert on countering disinformation Kremlin's strategy aims to demonize Ukraine and engage in victim blaming — Ukrinform.

Thanks for having me- My interview (now in English) with Ukraine’s leading press agency about the impact and mechanisms of the Russian disinformation and influence campaign — and how it affects and reaches us far beyond social media.

www.ukrinform.net/rubric-socie...

SEAI calls on researchers to help accelerate Irish clean energy The Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland's latest funding call includes a themed and a general strand, inviting a wide array of proposals.

SEAI has announced that it will invest around €19m in a pipeline of energy projects over a number of years.

An illustration of a woman crawling out of a red cross made out of money. Headline is: "I got sick during my Ph.D.—but couldn’t afford treatment. Grad students need better support."

"No student should lose valuable time and mental energy over something as fundamental as health care." scim.ag/4kex04a #ScienceWorkingLife

Orban making overtures to Simion made sense from one perspective only: to gain an illiberal ally in the EU Council. Orban chose to make this incredibly costly gamble, essentially betraying the Transylvanian voters his party spent decades cultivating. And he lost. This is likely consequential.

update! Simion, the far-right candidate, lost so conclusively that he actually conceded

Romania's presidential election delivers surprise result Few pollsters and analysts predicted even a week ago that Nicusor Dan, a quietly spoken mathematician and anti-corruption activist, had a serious chance of defeating far-right candidate George Simion ...

Few pollsters and analysts predicted even a week ago that Nicusor Dan, a quietly spoken mathematician and anti-corruption activist, had a serious chance of defeating far-right candidate George Simion in Romania's presidential election, writes Liam Nolan

Pro-EU centrist Nicusor Dan wins tense Romania presidential vote rerun ahead of nationalist George Simion Dan gained more than 54% of the vote, while Trump admirer Simion secured close to 46%, according to nearly complete results.

Pro-EU centrist Nicusor Dan wins tense Romania presidential vote rerun ahead of nationalist George Simion

Bucharest 👇

Poland detects foreign-funded election ads amid fears of Russian interference The disclosure follows a warning from Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who on May 6 said Moscow was carrying out an "unprecedented" interference campaign.

⚡️ Poland detects foreign-funded election ads amid fears of Russian interference.

The disclosure follows a warning from Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who on May 6 said Moscow was carrying out an "unprecedented" interference campaign.

UCD Library Leaving Certificate Study Programme with red open book icon with blue hands on a dark blue background.

Are you a #LeavingCert student or do you know one?📝👩‍🎓

Gain access to the study facilities in the UCD Health Sciences Library from 21 May-24 June through our Leaving Cert study programme.

Find full details & register at
www.ucd.ie/library/use/...
Good luck with your studies!

@ucddublin.bsky.social

While russian drones drop thermobaric munitions on civilians, a Ukrainian sea drone has successfully taken down a russian fighter jet! The operation, conducted near Novorossiysk port in the Black Sea, was carried out by HUR, SBU, & the AFU.
Kudos to the Ukrainian defenders! Ukraine has great cards.

I spoke with NPR about the threatening letters that the Republican administration is sending to medical journals.

OTD in 1945, having just liberated Lithuania from Nazis, Soviet mass deportations resumed, liberating 1000 Lithuanians from Lithuania to provide slave labor for USSR.

Within 2 years over half were dead. Imagine mass deportations taking place today...

Hungary’s Economy Unexpectedly Shrinks on Industry Output Slump Hungary’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter due to an industry slump, highlighting the country’s trade exposure even before US President Donald Trump embarked on a global tariff war...

💥Hungary's economic crisis is deepening. Viktor Orbán promised a “flying start,” but the country is back in recession—before Trump’s tariff war fallout has even hit. Orbán, who has ruled the country since 2010, blames Ukraine, the EU—anyone but himself.

His chances of reelection are slipping away.

Vacancy: Senior Programme and Communications Manager - Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy is seeking applications for maternity leave cover for the Senior Programme and Communications Manager at the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI).

Applications are open for the role of Senior Programme and Communications Manager as part of the @dri.ie‬ team based @ria.ie.

This is a specific-purpose maternity leave cover contract. Find out more and apply by 21 May

www.ria.ie/about/careers/vacancy-senior-programme-and-communications-manager

Meta, Amazon and Google accused of 'distorting' key AI rankings A test of AI model performance across the industry is being gamed by technology giants, making objective scientific comparison impossible, researchers have claimed

A complex and contentious tale of AI benchmarks...

AI is a trillion-dollar industry, and researchers say that tech giants are "distorting" the league table of chatbot performance.

www.newscientist.com/article/2478...

Russian forces once again struck civilian apartment buildings in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

Was it fair to rerun Romania's presidential election? On Sunday, Romanians will vote for a second time in six months to elect their country's new president. This second election takes place after an unprecedented decision by Romania's top court to annul ...

www.rte.ie/news/2025/05...
I think this is a good analysis. "In short, it supports the argument that the court's decision was taken in the interest of protecting Romanian democracy."

A Witch Hunt at the State Department Trump’s commissars are looking for ideological enemies.

"American officials have now been explicitly asked to make lists of their contacts with other Americans, for no practical, legal, or national-security reason"
Read @theatlantic.com on a State Dept witch hunt

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: IUA Future of Ireland with Minister James Lawless. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join Minister James Lawless T.D., Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, as he outlines his priorities and plans for the future of Ireland’s higher education and ...

You can now register for the IUA Future of Ireland hybrid event! Join Minister Lawless T.D. as he outlines his priorities and vision for the future of higher education and research in Ireland.
🗓️ Date: May 12th
🕜 Time: 1.30 - 2.30pm
📍 Register to watch online: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Ukraine has exposed Trump’s true identity: as a vandal, an autocrat, a gangster and a fool | Jonathan Freedland This presidency places authoritarian ambition above all – and now the people of Ukraine are paying the price, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

Ukraine has exposed Trump’s true identity: as a vandal, an autocrat, a gangster and a fool | Jonathan Freedland

Canadians bombarded with rightwing content on Musk’s X ahead of election FT analysis finds network of social media accounts attacking Liberal leader Mark Carney

“A Financial Times analysis of more than 350,000 posts on X related to the election, gathered since the snap poll was announced in March, revealed a network of co-ordinated accounts pushing content to boost Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and tarnish his counterpart, the Liberal’s Mark Carney.”

Mariupol residents with his child in their flat

Mariupol residents with his child in their flat

💔 Russians are taking more than just land in #Ukraine — they’re taking people’s homes.

Houses, where once Ukrainian families lived peacefully, now are stolen by #Russia.

Read more stories about #Mariupol residents in such situations in our article: texty.org.ua/articles/114917/

Scoop: Trump envoy’s conflict of interest: a Russia-linked business partner Steve Witkoff, Trump's Special Envoy, has a serious and unreported conflict of interest in Russia-Ukraine negotiations: his relationship with Ukraine-sanctioned businessman Len Blavatnik.

From @timkmak.bsky.social, on conflicts of interest: Steve Witkoff's Russian-linked business partner

open.substack.com/pub/countero...

Moscow proposed an Easter ceasefire. According to Ukrainian soldiers, the shooting never stopped Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an Easter ceasefire starting on April 19, claiming that it would "test Ukraine's sincerity in pursuing peace talks,"  but across the front line, Ukrainian so...

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced an Easter ceasefire starting on April 19, claiming that it would "test Ukraine's sincerity in pursuing peace talks," but across the front line, Ukrainian soldiers tell the Kyiv Independent they have yet to see any sign of it.