Let’s hope …

Anti-authoriatrian generation: Serbia’s youth are rising up against their president’s 13-year rule

I don’t know, but I am not sure whether the number of users is too relevant for this kind of software. If you use it in a country with a low population, it does the same fine job. A big problem we are facing is that online spaces are engineered to capture attention - as the article suggests - rather than to encourage a productive civil discourse. In Taiwan, for example, they built a solution called vTaiwan, which is based on the Open Source tool Pol.is, specifically designed to address this problem.

Maybe some people would be willing to work 996 for a certain amount of time, if and when they get their equal share of the proceeds then …

In somehow related news:

Chinese Electric Cars in Israel Found to Be Transmitting Data to China

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has officially suspended the supply of Chinese electric vehicles from BYD to IDF officers due to concerns over data collection via embedded communication systems and sensors. […] To minimize the risk of information leakage, the e-Call system — the automatic emergency services communication feature — was forcibly disabled in the received vehicles.

However, experts believe that this is not enough. Dr. Harel Menashri, one of the founders of the cybersecurity department at the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), pointed out that Chinese cars should be considered mobile intelligence platforms capable of collecting audio, video, geolocation, and biometric data, and transmitting it to servers in China.

Lol and what about them other AIs

Whataboutism, the rhetorical practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation, by asking a different but related question, or by raising a different issue altogether. Whataboutism often serves to reduce the perceived plausibility or seriousness of the original accusation or question by suggesting that the person advancing it is hypocritical or that the responder’s misbehavior is not unique or unprecedented. Acts of whataboutism typically begin with rhetorical questions of the form “What about…?”

Source

The “tankie.tube” is a channel for authoritarian propaganda.

Vice President of Russia’s State-Owned Oil Pipeline Monopoly Transneft Dies in Apparent Fall From Window, Reports Say

Defence or Welfare? Europe Can Afford Both, and Must

This is a highly biased article with little content. The article links to a couple of other media reports, but the author admits that increased military spending will “likely” result in a further erosion of the decades-old European social compact. I very much doubt that the author has had a look into the budget plan of a single EU member. They mention not a single number in the whole article, no research, it’s just a rant with a bold headline that serves a particular narrative.

What makes the whole thing worse is the sentence:

Europe’s leaders have decided to embrace the sort of massive ramp-up in military spending that so often serves as the prelude to war.

No, the current ‘ramp-up’ of military spending is certainly not ‘the prelude of war’ - simply because the war is already here. It has been happening for more than three years with military attacks on Ukraine and what is sometimes called a ‘hybrid war’ against European countries such as a recent arson attack on a restaurant in Estonia ordered by Russian intelligence .

I don’t see what’s wrong if the European countries spend “3.5 percent of their respective GDPs on core military spending, and another 1.5 percent on security and miscellaneous other expenditures designed to harden economies and infrastructure against cyberattacks, people trafficking, and additional risks and perceived risks to NATO economies.”

Estonia, for example, has been spending more than 5% of its GDP for defense already before the Nato summit, and I argue that this has not so much to do with ‘appeasing’ Trump than with its common border with Russia.

Unfortunately there is only a German version of the study, I don’t know whether you speak German or you may manage to get a automated translation.

Study: Junges Europe 2025 / Young Europe 2025 - (PDF)

In the study (85 pages) you see each question and the response.

Last year the study was also available in English (Young Europe 2024 - pdf)

I hope this helps somehow.

Done :-)

This is a very weird framing of this study. The original study (which is linked in the article) is in German. Those who don’t speak German will find a useful translation provider, I provide the study’s summary literal translation:

>Young people: EU and democracy are good, but reforms are needed

• 57% prefer democracy to any other form of government - 39% think that the EU does not function particularly democratically
• Young Europeans want change - 53% criticize the EU for being too preoccupied with trivialities instead of focusing on the essentials
• Cost of living, defense against external threats and better conditions for businesses should be priorities for the EU
• Only 42% think that the EU is one of the three most powerful global political players

Among others, the study also says (again, a direct translation, I am not paraphrasing):

48% of young Europeans believe that democracy in their country is under threat, compared to 61% in Germany. Two thirds rate their country’s membership of the EU as positive. At the same time, 53% of young people criticize the fact that the EU is too often concerned with minor issues. Half of 16 to 26-year-olds think the EU is a good idea, but very poorly implemented.

I don’t say that everything is perfect, but the whole study paints a completely different picture than this article - and especially its headline - appears to suggest.

[Edit my comments for clarity, translation has not been edited.]

This is a very weird framing of this study. The original study (which is linked in the article) is in German. Those who don’t speak German will find a useful translation provider, I provide the study’s literal translation:

>Young people: EU and democracy are good, but reforms are needed

• 57% prefer democracy to any other form of government - 39% think that the EU does not function particularly democratically
• Young Europeans want change - 53% criticize the EU for being too preoccupied with trivialities instead of focusing on the essentials
• Cost of living, defense against external threats and better conditions for businesses should be priorities for the EU
• Only 42% think that the EU is one of the three most powerful global political players

Among others, the study also says (again, a direct translation, I am not paraphrasing):

48% of young Europeans believe that democracy in their country is under threat, compared to 61% in Germany. Two thirds rate their country’s membership of the EU as positive. At the same time, 53% of young people criticize the fact that the EU is too often concerned with minor issues. Half of 16 to 26-year-olds think the EU is a good idea, but very poorly implemented.

I don’t say that everything is perfect, but the whole study paints a completely different picture than this article - and especially its headline - appears to suggest.

@[email protected]

Your remarks regarding “lessons in realpolitik” and the alleged U.S. policy and the rest is all mentioned in the linked article. Just read it.

But your comment:

If the economic development continues, Taiwan will want to join China.

is pure Chinese propaganda as you know. Taiwan has said the exact opposite multiple times.

I don’t want to defend nor attack England, France or anyone else, but we should never look at one metric when assessing a market. The EU provides some useful insights on its website about the bloc’s housing market (unfortunately without the England or UK data …).

When measured by the gross value added (GVA) of a country’s construction sector as a share of total GVA, France is persistently below the EU average. In 2023, the EU countries with the largest shares were Slovakia (8.4%), Romania (8.3%) and Lithuania (7.3%), and with smallest Greece (2.1%), Ireland (2.6%) and Malta (4.2%).

Regarding the number of dwellings approved for construction between 2010 and 2023, France saw the largest decrease (-27%), followed by Finland and Italy (-36% and -50%, respectively). The largest increases were in Bulgaria (+269%), followed by Ireland (+123%) and Estonia (+117%).

We must also look at how affordable housing is. According to the EU data, Greece, Denmark, and Germany appear to have he least affordable housing in the EU.

You’ll find a lot of interesting data on the site: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/interactive-publications/housing-2024

There is a book (free download available) on Russia and the Far-Right: Insights From Ten European Countries

It describes Russia’s “patterns of influence over the far-right […] milieu in Europe”.

Russia removes Taliban from list of banned terrorist groups

Just an example, there are more on the web.

@[email protected]

Germany does not intend to resume diplomatic ties with Afghanistan, so this part of your statement is false.

The rest of your statement may occur from the fact that you have (intentionally?) misunderstood my comment.

As much as I agree with Mr. Türk, it unfortunately is a “logical and consistent step” as Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said. We must not forget that Russia didn’t even adhere to bans on mines in peace time: Moscow has never signed the Ottawa Treaty and has used anti-personnel mines in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Maybe I am wrong, but if I lived in one of these countries bordering Russia, I would even better understand this decision I guess.

Exactly. This.

Old (from 2021), but good: Profiting from authoritarianism: How Tim Cook Surrendered Apple to the Chinese Government - (alternative YT link is here)

A new video from May 2025: Apple’s unsolvable China problem: How Apple Sold Its Soul to an Authoritarian Regime- (alternative YT link is here)

This is horrible, but unfortunately not the most horrible thing regarding this country. A Taliban diplomat on Tuesday [1st July] assumed the role as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Russia.

A move taken by China already in 2023, making Beijing the first government worldwide which assumed diplomatic ties with the Taliban-ruled “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, stating that “China respects the national sovereignty of Afghanistan and the decisions of the people of this country” …