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# Our Man at the Press Club — Issue 5
- URL: https://theroundabout.eu/our-man-at-the-press-club-issue-5/
- Published: 2026-10-29T15:45:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-29T15:45:24.000Z
- Author: Aristidis Myrmidon
- Tags: Issue 5, Diary

The announcement came on Wednesday — Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone signing a letter of intent to explore a joint bid for satellite spectrum, to be used for direct-to-device mobile connectivity across Europe, to be governed under European rules, by European operators, from ground infrastructure located on European soil. The satellite partner has not yet been selected. The constellation has not yet been built. The timeline has not been specified. I read the press release twice and found it, as I find most press releases, more interesting for what it did not say than for what it did. It did not mention SpaceX. It did not mention Starlink. It did not mention the events of 14 October, when Ukraine lost drone connectivity without warning and nobody could agree whose fault it was. It did not need to. I showed it to a person I know who works on digital infrastructure policy and asked what she thought. “Better late than never,” she said, and went back to her coffee. I found this, as I sometimes do, enormously clarifying.

On the same day that Donald Trump said it was time for Ukraine to have a new president, Russian missiles struck a park in Kharkiv, killing six civilians including children. Russian attacks that week left 550,000 Ukrainian households without power. Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure seventy-six times following the “energy ceasefire” that Trump had announced. I read these figures in the café on the Rue de la Loi, on the same afternoon I read the telco press release, between the same two meetings I can never quite remember the purpose of. The distance between what is happening and what is being discussed had not narrowed since I last wrote about it. If anything it had widened. I ordered another coffee. Outside, on the roundabout, the traffic was going in circles. I found this, as I always do, enormously consoling.

A postscript: Lula won. The person I know who works on Latin American affairs sent me a message on Sunday evening that contained only two words. I will not reproduce them here, but they conveyed, with admirable economy, the relief that follows when a fear turns out to have been unnecessary. I found this, for once, more than just consoling.