Jim Scrivener 🇺🇳🇪🇺🇬🇧🇭🇺🇬🇪🇺🇦

It’s completely brilliant. I was nervous that a sequel to the excellent Shades of Grey would disappoint but this was a fantastic conclusion that actually had explanations and an ending instead of leaving everything open and unsatisfying. An absolute triumph!

What I love about John Dean is that he is pretty much the only person who can say ‘this is worse than Nixon’ and everyone has to believe him:

Government’s wins are often invisible: Systems that avoid plane crashes; alliances that avert war; surveillance that prevent pandemics.

Government wins are often *the avoidance of loss.*

So how do we tell the story of the destruction of government? The story of future losses *not* averted?

There'll be no deal about Ukraine without Ukraine. America has no ability to enforce it, any more than it has the right to enforce it. If it attempts to insist on one, it will be one of the most shameful moments in its history. And one of the most humiliating.

Defiant and unwavering: Georgia’s president Salome Zourabichvili is focus for hope

‘Let’s see who will be leaving’: Georgia’s presidential standoff nears crunch point Georgian Dream government threatens pro-west president with jail if she refuses to leave office on Sunday

www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

Would you like to see your teaching story published in my next Cambridge University title? For details click here: bit.ly/4fOa229

Protest in Damascus today calling for a democratic, secular and civil state

Bodies of civilians are lying on the road, russia decided to kill them today.

They struck the village of Shevchenkove in the Kharkiv region with an "Iskander" missile today around 3:00 PM. Two women and one man were killed.

All four Georgian opposition parties/coalitions have jointly addressed OSCE/ODIHR, requesting the activation of the "Moscow Mechanism"; Special mission to investigate election manipulation, legal violations, and acts of violence committed by the Russian regime against the Georgian people.

Georgia’s ruling party to appoint far-right Russia loyalist as president Constitutional crisis deepens as opposition denounces move by Georgian Dream party as ‘illegitimate’

www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Georgians risk serious injury and jail in fresh pro-EU protests More than 300 people have been arrested and police are accused of using unnecessary force on the streets.

Georgians risk serious injury and jail in fresh pro-EU protests

A North Korean voice that Kim Jong Un would like to silence North Korean defectors have been infiltrating the North with outside media for two decades, through balloons floated across the border or radio broadcasts.

North Korean defector Kim Seongmin continues broadcasting into his homeland despite terminal cancer, risking his life to deliver critical news to North Koreans cut off from the outside world. | via @nytimes

Pro-opposition sources suggest ex-PM Irakli Gharibashvili has left GD

I'm highly sceptical. Could it be true?

If so this could be huge

You do wonder if the Guardian is really losing track of what news is important in the world today.
And where is the report on the Georgia Revolution? Nowhere in the dozens and dozens of articles on its front page.
Please don’t fail us like this. The world is at a crisis.

Will Elon Musk give Nigel Farage $100m to make him PM? The Tesla boss, who used his immense fortune to help Donald Trump’s campaign, is turning his attention to Britain

Farage on Elon Musk: "I'm in touch with him & he is very supportive of my policy positions. We both share a friendship with Donald Trump & Trump has said good things about me in front of Musk"

As I've said before, politics isn't politics anymore. The game has changed. Warning signs are sounding.

5. Protesters report that there was a very increased sense of solidarity and helping each other.

It is also noteworthy that protests are everywhere in Georgia, even in remote towns.

Overall, I believe, this night inspired many, convinced many, and frightened the regime a lot. 7/7.

3. People knew that on the morning of November 30, the reason protesters underwent hell was because they were fewer than the police. So thousands stayed overnight and into the morning. This ensured that the police could not chase individuals for arrests and beating that much. 4/

2. It was also imperative that the fighting spirit had to be the same, if not even stronger. And it was much stronger, at an unprecedented level. The police had to endure a lot this night. 3/

1. Early morning on November 30, the shockingly vicious targeted violence against individual remaining protesters was aimed at making us fear for our lives, not just our health, for the first time. It was imperative that the crowd had to be even larger then. And it doubled! 2/

The night of November 30/December 1 had several significant victories for the people of Georgia. It is possible that it was the decisive night overall. Let’s have a look. #GeorgiaProtests 🇬🇪🇪🇺
📷 Radio Liberty, early morning December 1, Chavchavadze Avenue

A man counters the police with a video of police brutality from the previous morning. He’s later detained, but the courage and spirit! 🔥🇬🇪🇪🇺 #GeorgiaProtests
📷 Publika

The similarity of events in Georgia to what happened in Ukraine 20 & 11 years ago is striking. That Tbilisi looks today very much like Kyiv in 2004 and 2013 illustrates deep flaws in the popular narrative that some uniquely Ukrainian developments have led to the largest war in Europe since 1945.

🇬🇪👊 Georgia: Barricades around Parliament building and fights with security forces!

Georgia: Thousands protest in Tbilisi after EU bid suspended Thousands gather in Tbilisi for a second night running, after the government suspended its EU membership bid.

My thoughts are entirely with Georgia today. I stand with the Georgian people, fighting for their freedom and democracy, determined to avoid subordination to Russia. Slava, Ukraini. Gaumarjos, Sakhartvelo! www.bbc.com/news/article...

You know the GD’s getting cooked when you can’t see an empty horizon from Tbilisi Mariott towards Rustaveli. And this time this cooking temperature has no elections or anything else to hope in, so they’ll be applying for chef masterclasses. #GeorgiaProtests

Dear @washingtonpost.com Why is there nothing (NOTHING) about the situation in the Republic of Georgia anywhere on the long front page of your app news? This revolution is vital for the future of the world and for the USA. You can’t ignore it. #Georgia #Tbilisi

🇬🇪✊ Protesters gather again in Tbilisi!

More people today! #GeorgiaProtests
📷 Bachana Sajaia