He was once one of the world’s most celebrated filmmakers, winning an Academy Award and becoming a fixture at major film festivals. Today, Nikita Mikhalkov is an influential ally of Putin. How did one of Russia’s greatest directors end up here? platformraam.nl/artikelen/30...

Nikita Mikhalkov: from auteur to state ideologue

platformraam.nl

Well, this took a turn:

This is a deliberate and systemic Russian strategy. We reported on how Russian forces are hunting civilians in frontline areas and openly boasting about it: ukraineworld.org/en/videos/hu...

UkraineWorld@ukraineworld.bsky.social · yesterday

Ukrainian police captured the moment a Russian drone hunted down a 52-year-old civilian market vendor, leaving him severely wounded with blast trauma and shrapnel injuries. “This is how Russians ‘fight’. They deliberately hunt civilians,” the police said. 📽️: Telegram / Ukraine`s National Police

Penicillin was not, in fact, the first antibiotic.

3AM question: does the UN still have a Secretary General? You used to hear about these folks from time to time, but it seems awfully quiet nowadays.

⛪️ Russian forces destroyed the Holy Vvedenska Church in Beryslav, Kherson Oblast, in an aerial attack that ignited a fatal fire 🔗 link.nv.ua/zJesCJ 📸: Taras Demyanenko/wikipedia.org

Last month we published the 100th Bellingcat Challenge. To celebrate this milestone, we're launching a brand-new website! Check it out and put your skills to the test with five new challenges... ➡️ challenge.bellingcat.com

Weirdly, despite repeated requests, I haven't had any invitations to Reform press events since I asked a month ago whether Farage was scared of questions about his finances.

Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 2d ago

Nigel Farage just took a question from a 'journalist' at his press conference, who turned out to be his former chief adviser Raheem Kassam, who asks him why the media are being so unfair to him

Appears to be stationary. Would need a video to confirm.

Steffen Rayburn-Maarup@rayburnmaarup.bsky.social · 3d ago

I don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.

In this episode of Ukraine This Week, Anna Belokur examines Russia's covert recruitment networks and how the Kremlin systematically enlists ordinary people to carry out sabotage, espionage, and cyberattacks across Ukraine and Europe. Watch the full episode here: youtu.be/pITde5slL0A

How Russia recruits spies through social media | Ukraine This Week

YouTube video by Kyiv Independent

youtu.be

In this new investigation, Bellingcat and @thetimes.com reviewed public immigration records from the United Arab Emirates. We found that Christopher Kinahan Jr, son of cartel founder Christy Kinahan, was issued with a new visa less than two weeks ago, despite his status as a sanctioned individual.

⚡️ Russia hits another Ukrainian publisher warehouse as attacks on book industry mount.

Russia hits another Ukrainian publisher warehouse as attacks on book industry mount

The strike sparked a fire at the publishing house’s warehouse, engulfing around 10,000 square meters (108,000 square feet), Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram. One man was report...

kyivindependent.com

6,5 hours🔹podcasts I want to listen to today* 1,5 hours🔹on this week’s new music list 100%🔹odds I’ll get distracted by mindless YouTube videos * not including Carlin, he’ll have to wait, also not including all older podcasts I already postponed before

All Protocol Observed Welcome to Issue 247 of The Continent Be aware of your sharing permissions. We got the spreadsheet for how Rwanda pays influencers to craft its shiny image. bit.ly/247_TC

I don't want to hear another vlogger complaining that movie villains are too cartoonish to be believable. If anything, movies are too sympathetic to villains.

NEW: After a 404 Media report about ISBNdb sourcing printed books for AI companies to train on because they don't contain AI slop, the company has removed its webpages about training AI citing backlash and says it was just a "test of market interest."

Company Offering Printed Books to Train AI Stops After 404 Media Coverage

Citing backlash, ISBNdb removed its webpages about training AI, denied ever buying, scanning, or selling a book for AI training, and said the site was a "test of market interest."

404media.co

This is going to make it very difficult to know which sports we should ban them from.

Kat Kerlin@katkerlin.bsky.social · last wk.

Some avocados are female in the morning and male in the afternoon, while others are on the opposite schedule. This helps them avoid self-pollination. How do they do it? A @ucdavis.bsky.social study explains. www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/st...

The FIFA World Cup was predicted to be the biggest betting event in history. Bellingcat researcher @msramalho.bsky.social looked into the data on prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi - and found that fans wagered more than US $14 billion through the two sites www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/07...

Will Ronaldo Cry​? World Cup Fans Bet Billions Through Prediction Markets - bellingcat

Users traded on almost 60,000 outcomes, betting on everything from the sponsor of the Golden Boot winner to whether Cristiano Ronaldo would shed a tear during a Portugal match.

bellingcat.com

I had so much fun writing this piece about how long humans have been mucking about with photos.

Joey ‘Detchibe' W. 🏳️‍⚧️@thestacks.ca · 2w ago

This month in The Stacks, Molly Quell (@mollyquell.bsky.social) takes us through a history of image manipulation, from giant vegetables to disappearings to fairies. thestacks.ca/posts/2026-0...

If you post survey data, news articles, etc. without a link back to the source whenever possible, you are weakening the informational chain of custody and making it harder for other people to confirm that they're seeing accurate information. This holds even if you're mad at whatever it is.

Zach Weinersmith@zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Do you have any extremely niche, but serious, ethical stances?

“The war with Russia has been going on for hundreds of years. And it will never end,” says Vadym “Khmuryi,” a drone pilot with the 15th Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard.

Radio Yerevan was asked why so many Russians are looking to move to Armenia this summer. Radio Yerevan answered that it was a very bad season for wild berries in Russia.

Thanks to @iwriteok.bsky.social for having me on It Could Happen Here, where we go into Ukraine's drone war, the conflict between the reformists and the old guard, and more – podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

Ukraine Update: Political Chaos, Drone War Crimes & More (ft. Romeo Kokriataski)

Podcast Episode · It Could Happen Here · July 28 · 33m

podcasts.apple.com

Of all the (true) things said about him on Posting Through It, the thing Ando Ngo objects to, is that they mentioned he’s 40 years old.

hannah gais@hannahgais.bsky.social · last wk.

Unless Andy Ngo is prepared to correct a profile I wrote of him in 2019, he is 40. I reported he was 33 in 2019. And how many years ago was 2019? Seven. jewishcurrents.org/the-making-o...

We are hiring! The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine’s main English-language news outlet, is looking for a Social Media Manager.

Reader, it was his 'fault'. (And there aren't 'too many', of course.)

John Bull@garius.bsky.social · last wk.

Private message of the day. "Sending you this rather than adding as a comment, as maybe it's not your fault but there are too many women on the podcast you need more men for credibility." yeet thine-self to the blocklist

Pleased to announce that recently my catchy name for eco fiction has been green lit.

Books are not military targets, but according to the Ukrainian Book Institute, Russia has destroyed more than 1.5 million Ukrainian books in July alone.

Ukrainian publishers stand strong despite enormous financial losses from Russian attacks

The moment Svitlana Paveletska, co-founder of Knyholav, received the news that the mass attack on July 19 had wiped out her publishing house's warehouse in Kyiv, she felt an overwhelming wave of grief...

kyivindependent.com

Interesting find: A 1980s British TOP SECRET map showing the flight path taken by SR-71 aircraft on their missions into the Barents Sea, flown from RAF Mildenhall. Source: pinstripedline on the other site.

Paul Atreides doth go to a Frensshe bakerye to picke up breade. Upon arriving at the Frensshe bakerye, Paul Atreides doth fynde that the Frensshe bakeres have lefte a box for hym. Paul Atreides asketh: "What ys yn the box?" And the Frensshe bakeres responde: "Pain."