GOOD MORNING. This is Nick Vinocur, bringing you the euphemism of the day, if not the year: “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” That’s what SpaceX engineers called the midair explosion of the Starship rocket, some 2 minutes after takeoff. It may also be what’s happening to some egos on Twitter after Elon Musk removed the blue check indicating “verified” status from anyone who isn’t paying for a subscription. More on that below, but first, the news …

DRIVING THE DAY: WHO’S LEADING EUROPE?       

MACRON AND BIDEN TALK CHINA: Speaking for the first time since Emmanuel Macron returned from a much-commented-on visit to China, the French president and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden discussed the trip, as well as their shared commitment to supporting Ukraine.

Just buds, havin’ a chat: After the international outcry prompted by Macron’s interview with POLITICO, in which he urged Europe not to be America’s follower, the call seemed geared to suggest all was well among allies despite some ruffled feathers (it was part of their “regular exchanges,” wrote the Elysée presidential palace).

One call, 2 readouts: While the White House readout of the call says the two leaders discussed “the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the French one doesn’t mention Taiwan — alluding instead to “the entire Indo-Pacific region.” Likewise, while the French readout says the leaders agreed that China had a “role to play to contribute, in the medium term, to the end of the conflict” (aka Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) and the need to “engage with the Chinese on this basis,” the White House readout makes no mention of Beijing’s role. Make of that what you will — but it doesn’t signal seamless harmony on China between these oldest of allies.

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VDL call: Biden also spoke to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was in China at the same time as Macron, albeit in a more modest fashion. Here again the White House said the two discussed the Taiwan Strait — though the Berlaymont had yet to issue its own statement as of Playbook’s writing. 

Bottom line: Paris and Washington have broadly similar goals in Ukraine, but they don’t see eye-to-eye on China. And it shows.

UKRAINE MUNITIONS SPAT       

UKRAINE JUMPS INTO EU JOINT PROCUREMENT TALKS: Ukraine isn’t a member of the EU quite yet, but its foreign minister landed smack in the middle of talks about how to procure munitions for Kyiv on Thursday with a tweet criticizing “strategic autonomy” and the bloc’s purported “inability to implement its own decision.”

ICYMI: Dmytro Kuleba wrote: “The inability of the EU to implement its own decision on the joint procurement of ammunition for Ukraine is frustrating. This is a test of whether the EU has strategic autonomy in making new crucial security decisions. For Ukraine, the cost of inaction is measured in human lives.” Write-up here.

Say what? The tweet was a rare example of a senior Ukrainian official loudly — and publicly — criticizing the EU, which Kyiv is trying to join, and on which it depends for financial and military support.

Key context: Ukraine desperately needs shells to fuel its ongoing defense against Russia’s attack as well as to supply a widely trailed counter-offensive. The EU has pledged to contribute 1 million shells by year-end, but according to several reports it’s unlikely to meet the goal due to a lack of capacity at EU munitions factories. 

France says non: The shortfall has led countries including Poland to press the EU to buy the shells from third countries like South Korea. But as my colleague Jacopo Barigazzi reported here, France — backed by Greece and Cyprus — is resisting non-EU ammo purchases because of the reasoning that going outside the bloc would deprive European manufacturers and undermine the Continent’s push for “strategic autonomy.”

Burn: Reacting to Kuleba’s tweet, one EU diplomat said: “He might as well have added @EmmanuelMacron to that tweet.” 

1M shells? “While it’s important that we use these funds to reinforce the European defense industry, it’s more important to get ammo quickly into Ukraine,” the person added. “There is still no credible and commonly shared assessment of whether the European defense industry can deliver 1 million pieces in 12 months.”

Not everyone feels that way. Another EU diplomat wrote in to say: “The Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs is working off faulty information. The European Union is moving very quickly and according to plan.”

Everything is going to plan: “The first billion [euros for Ukraine] has been settled and we are already able to transfer the munitions. We will be able to deliver 250,000 munitions before end-May,” said the diplomat above, who like others here asked not be named in order to discuss confidential deliberations. They added that work on joint procurement had “accelerated,” a financial plan for bolstering EU-based arms production would be presented next week, and a second tranche of €1 billion would be signed off “in coming days.”

Step back: Talks about arms procurement are ongoing. Foreign ministers are due to meet on Monday. Kuleba’s tweet ramps up pressure on the EU to deliver on its munitions pledge at a time when Europe is focused on the subject. What’s remarkable is that the quip was so blunt and public — as if Kyiv already had a seat at the EU table.

MEANWHILE, IN UKRAINE: Kyiv is increasing its purge of double agents who helped Russia invade, writes my colleague Veronika Melkozerova.

FURTHER LISTENING: More in this week’s EU Confidential podcast. The special guest is Catherine Ashton, who discusses her new book, “And then what?: Inside Stories of 21st Century Diplomacy,” negotiating the Iran nuclear deal, Russia’s war in Ukraine and proving her critics wrong.

SANCTIONS BACK ON EU DIPLOMATS’ PLATES: EU ambassadors are expected to meet the European Commission starting today to suss out what the next (in case you lost track — 11th) sanctions package against Russia could entail. Spoiler alert: it won’t be groundbreaking, Leonie Kijewski reports.

What countries want: Poland and the Baltic states — and separately Germany — have been pushing for sanctions on the nuclear sector. Their efforts center on state-owned Rosatom companies, which they argue should be sanctioned. As a first step, they suggest targeting top executives in the firm. Several countries are also likely to put forward a proposal to ban imports of Russian diamonds worth hundreds of millions of euros per year.

What the Commission wants: Ursula von der Leyen says she wants to focus on closing loopholes and how to implement existing sanctions better.

Now read this: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former Russian political prisoner and CEO of Yukos Oil company, writes about the anti-Putin Russian opposition in an opinion piece for POLITICO

RAMSTEIN MEETING TODAY: U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin faces a daunting task as he heads to Germany to host a meeting of international defense chiefs supporting Ukraine: He needs to convince Kyiv that U.S. confidence is unbroken after its secret doubts spilled into the open. Full story here by Laura Seligman and Lili Bayer.

TWITTER LIQUIDATES THE BLUE TICK       

BRUSSELS TWITTERATI SAY BYE-BYE TO STATUS SYMBOL: They went not with a bang, but a whimper. At some point on Thursday evening, all blue ticks on legacy accounts that haven’t paid for Twitter Blue disappeared. Playbook checked in on a few well-known handles in EU circles to see how they were handling the news.

Henrik Ilves, former president of Estonia: “I’ll see what happens. The quality of Twitter is increasingly degraded and if losing my blue check means the experience will be even more degraded I shall simply stop using it. I go to Twitter far less frequently than before, mainly because it is less of a source of news and developments than it used to be.”

Matt Karnitschnig, chief Europe correspondent at POLITICO: “Many journalists (present company excepted) are status-obsessed narcissists with too much time on their hands. It’s difficult to imagine how Twitter would have become the force it is without their help. Few will pay — not because of the cost, but because it’s just not cool. Without the hacks, Twitter will lose its mojo. No one will go there anymore; it’s too crowded (h/t Yogi Berra).”

Alberto Alemanno, professor of EU law at HEC business school: “After over 10 years of diligent daily use of Twitter, the prospect of losing my blue tick sounds particularly unfair. Yet in the absence of alternative avenues where to convey my thoughts I’ve no choice but to stick to Twitter to preserve my voice (as an independent academic).”

Stanley Pignal, Brussels correspondent for the Economist: “For journalists who are already established on Twitter, I don’t think it will make much of a difference. But for newcomers, having verification did help them gain credibility, for example when trying to contact sources. So from that point of view, it’s a shame.”

Luke de Pulford, Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China: “For those of us engaged in China work, we regularly have to deal with impersonation — even today. Removing the blue check strips away what little protection remains against this, and turns Twitter into a haven for state sponsored online harassment.”

NB: Of the Twitter users contacted by Playbook, only one said they had paid for Blue — and asked not to be named. Other Blue accounts complained that they now looked like losers. Most formerly verified people were taking pride in the fact that they weren’t going to pay. But it’s also clear that Elon Musk has succeeded in his bid to ruffle Twitter’s legacy accounts, judging from the number of tweets — ironic, indignant or “relieved” — from those who’ve lost their tick.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS       

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM NEW EU ENVOY TO DC: After POLITICO’s scoop on the nomination of a Lithuanian diplomat as the next EU ambassador to the United States, Playbook spoke to several diplomats to ask how Jovita Neliupšienė, currently deputy foreign minister of Lithuania, had nabbed the crucial job, and what sort of ambassador she would be. 

East rising: Per two EU diplomats, Neliupšienė had several advantages over other candidates, including the interest for a female candidate, that she hails from an Eastern European country, and has a well-developed network in the United States. They cited growing pressure on the External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic arm, to name more Eastern and Central Europeans to senior diplomatic roles.

Fickle customers: Once on the ground, Neliupšienė — who once spent more than half a year in Omaha, Nebraska, completing her doctoral thesis — will face the challenge of representing a frequently divided EU without losing agency. As one person familiar with her thinking told Playbook, she will have to manage the task of representing not just the EEAS, which appointed her, but also the EU executive and Council.

Despite the complexity, the person said that Neliupšienė approached her assignment with a clear sense of mission: Working to strengthen the transatlantic alliance and maintaining Western support for Ukraine. She would aim to “keep the bond as strong as possible for as long as possible and, if it’s possible, even to institutionalize it,” the person said.

Another task: Bolstering communication. While the EU suffers from the perception that it does far less than the United States on Ukraine, the bloc’s contributions are substantial when grouped together. Getting that message across is another challenge for Neliupšienė, who’s due to start working in the new year.

BREXIT BASH: Ambassadors from all 27 EU countries will gather at a secret location in England later this month for private talks about the post-Brexit relationship with the U.K., reports my colleague Cristina Gallardo. The EU Delegation to the U.K. is organizing “the first ever EU Heads of Mission Retreat” on April 28-29, according to an invitation.

NOW READ THIS: Shawn Pogatchnik has a moving interview with Good Friday Agreement architect George Mitchell, speaking about the leukemia battle that left him unable to read a newspaper.

IN OTHER NEWS       

LULA LATEST: There was some relief in Brussels that Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seemed to attempt to rebalance his approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, my colleague Jacopo Barigazzi writes in to report. “You will have seen that President Lula, going back to [a] difficult balancing act, [somewhat] backtracked yesterday on the statements he made last week and has moved in a different direction,” said a senior EU official. “There will be a lot of ups and downs” but “I don’t think the statements by Lula will have an impact on the Mercosur negotiation,” he added, referring to the EU’s trade agreement with the Latin American Mercosur bloc, which has yet to be signed.

Background: As Playbook reported, after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Lula said the U.S. “needs to stop encouraging war,” a line that triggered a criticism from the U.S. and Brussels. The EU, in a document scooped by POLITICO, said it is “concerned about Brazil’s position on Russia’s war on Ukraine.” But a few days later, Lula condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Anchoring Lula: Brazil’s president is heading to Madrid and Lisbon next week, and is expected in Brussels in July for a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. The EU should expect that Lula “in unequivocal terms, tells the world his views on international politics,” said the official quoted above. The summit declaration is another way to be really sure that Lula shares the EU’s stance on Russia’s brutal invasion: “We’re working on the declaration,” the official said, “that should firmly anchor the principles that we stand for.”

EU PENSIONS BY THE NUMBERS: Arnau Busquets Guàrdia takes a look at pensions across the Continent, in figures and charts.

FRIDAY FUNNY: Paul Dallison’s latest Declassified humor column is titled: “Education reforms don’t add up, but Fox’s lawsuit does.”

AGENDA       

— Czech President Petr Pavel in Brussels. Meets with Council President Charles Michel at 9:30 a.m. … Parliament President Roberta Metsola at 10:30 a.m., with a joint press point at 10:15 a.m. … Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at 11:30 a.m.

— Ursula von der Leyen receives Prime Minister of Moldova Dorin Recean at 2:30 p.m.; receives Director General of the European Space Agency Josef Aschbacher. Watch.

— Commission VP Vĕra Jourová in The Hague; meets with President of Eurojust Ladislav Hamran; with President of the International Court of Justice Joan Donoghue.

— Commissioner Mairead McGuinness in Dublin; delivers a keynote address to the Business Leaders’ Conference at the Enterprise Ireland Summit; speaks at the annual Corporate Lunch of the Ireland-U.S. Council.

— Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni receives Prime Minister of Moldova Dorin Recean; receives Ambassador to the EU of Italy Vincenzo Celeste.

— Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski in Miyazaki City, Japan; participates in meeting of G7 agricultural ministers.

— Commissioner Johannes Hahn in Bratislava, Slovakia; meets Prime Minister Eduard Heger.

— Commission HR/VP Josep Borrell receives Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu.

— Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, hosted by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg doorstep at 9:10 a.m. Watch.

BRUSSELS CORNER       

MOOT POINT: The final of the European Law Moot Court competition is being held today at the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg. Closing arguments will be broadcast live from 2:45 p.m. here.

MORE NIGHT TRAINS: Belgium’s federal government is paving the way for more international night trains to and from the country. The government wants to attract new train operators to run routes via the EU capital, by paying railway infrastructure fees and traction energy costs. The 2023-2024 budget is €2 million, Playbook reporter Ketrin Jochecová writes in.

Routes: At the moment, the only night train from Brussels is to Vienna. From the end of May, you’ll be able to take one to Berlin. There are plans for a route to Prague, which has already been postponed twice, in 2024, and another to Barcelona in 2025.

Problem 1: Money. Peter Baeyens from the NGO Back on Track Belgium, which campaigns for a European night train network with Brussels as its center, told Ketrin that while any additional government funding is welcome, the Belgian measures are a drop in the ocean.

Problem 2: A lack of specialized carriages. “New operators are having trouble finding sleeping wagons,” Baeyens said. Those that exist “are refurbished ones from the 60s and 70s,” which often don’t have the modern amenities passengers expect. Those that do go on the market are in high demand, “so every new project cannibalizes others.”

PARC DU CINQUANTENAIRE TRANSFORMATION: To celebrate Belgium’s 200th anniversary in 2030, the Parc du Cinquantenaire and its museums will get a facelift. More here.

NICK CAVE IN BRUSSELS: Australian singer Nick Cave and journalist Sean O’Hagan are heading to Brussels to talk about their book, “Faith, Hope and Carnage,” on June 4. Tickets go on sale today at 11 a.m.

ONE WORLD IN BRUSSELS: The international human rights documentary film festival One World is on, running until April 27. Details here.

SPOTTED … At POLITICO’s cocktail launch event on Thursday: Kasper Ernest from Affordable Medicines Europe … Susan Danger from American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union … Boyan Novakov of Boeing … Sophia Chrysopoulou of Coca-Cola Brussels … Ronan Breen of Deliveroo Europe … Sara Carrer of the U.N. World Food Program … Robert Torvelainen of Wolt … Spanish perm rep’s Daniel Prada Jiménez de Cisneros … POLITICOs U.K. Editor Kate Day … and many more.

BIRTHDAYS: MEP Valentino Grant; BBC’s Caroline Wyatt; Barry O’Connell of U.N. Security Council; Charité’s Laura Hanke Vela; EU whistleblower Robert McCoy … and POLITICO Europe celebrates our 8th birthday (here’s a throwback pic).

CELEBRATING SATURDAY: Former Council President Donald Tusk; MEPs Jaak Madison and Michael Gahler; Former MEP Hermann Winkler; Vladimír Špidla, former Czech prime minister and European commissioner; Anna Drozd from CCBE; International Maritime Organization’s Roel Hoenders; European Commission’s Jeroen Reijnen.

CELEBRATING SUNDAY: MEP Paul Tang; POLITICO’s Cory Bennett; European Commission’s Pernilla Sjölin; Lionel Sola of the European Defense Agency; Court of Justice of the European Union’s John Heffernan; Portland’s Daphne Cafritz; Head of Global Magnitsky Justice campaign Bill Browder.

THANKS TO: Jacopo Barigazzi, Clea Caulcutt, Suzanne Lynch, Playbook reporter Ketrin Jochecová and our producer Grace Stranger.

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