Für mich war’s damals Die Zeit - hat mir mein erzkonservativer Vater ein Abo geschenkt in einem seltenen Anflug von politischer Toleranz.

Where are the numbers?

These decisions, together with concerns about future funding cuts, have led to an exodus of researchers from the United States, with scientists now seeking to continue their careers outside of the country.

“Exodus”? That’s vague.

An analysis published in Nature found that 75 percent of American scientists surveyed were considering leaving the country.

Considering?

Meanwhile, data from Nature Careers, a global scientific employment platform, reveals that between January and March of this year, American professionals sent 32 percent more applications to foreign institutions compared to the same period in 2024. Furthermore, the number of American users exploring opportunities outside the country increased by 35 percent.

At the same time, international interest in working in the United States has declined significantly. During the first quarter of the year, applications from scientists from Canada, China, and Europe to US research centers fell by 13 percent, 39 percent, and 41 percent, respectively.

That’s more like it!

Incidentally I learned that the Euro has overtaken the US dollar again (used to be the other way round last time I looked, some time last year).

So, “Die Welt” sucks. Maybe it used to be a newspaper as serious as the title suggests, but now it’s just for idiots who think they’re above BILD.

There is, however invented, a bit of truth in the article:

There is a cookie jar called Trumpism. And some (European) politians simply cannot resist sticking their fingers in it.

but more often it is simply aimed at causing chaos and unease.

Russia’s hybrid warfare has been doing this for a loooong time; what’s new is that they seem to focus more on physical attacks instead of “mere” disinformation trolling.

piecemeal and hard to prove.

Unfortunately it will always be hard to prove, until Russia allows co-operation with foreign investigators. Which, of course, they won’t do because they know well enough that any serious investigation would ultimately point to the Kremlin. Deniability. Plausability doesn’t matter to them - the more rumors and finger-pointing the better.

This account of Russia’s sabotage offensive is based on thousands of pages of court documents from Britain and Poland, interviews with current and former security and intelligence officials in several European countries and the US, and discussions with people who knew some of the perpetrators.

“It’s easier to deal with spies under diplomatic cover or even [deep-cover] illegals,” said one senior European security official.

See, I know they’re right. No doubt in my mind. I just hope we ever get to the point that this is unambiguously proven. Not that this will make tankies and such shut up, but still, facts are facts.

They are getting access through software. Just read the first sentence of the article.

The way I understand it is if you order a large enough batch they will produce whatever you want, from an actual plan of a circuit board etc.

Of course they could theoretically still install something there, but nobody has complained about it wrt iPhones, to give but one example. Or various alternative devices like Pine64 offers.

That’s what I mean with know-how: we don’t need them to design the stuff for us. We mostly depend on the cheap prices of manufacture.

Sure, designed in Europe and built in China would still be more expensive but not prohibitively so, as opposed to designed AND built in Europe, from scratch.

China has had the world by its balls for a long while through (consumer) electronics. But that’s largely because of low prices, not because of know-how.

An inverter is a relatively simple device. I understand it needs to be accessed remotely but not to make it work per se.

How about we let China make the hardware but not the firm/software? We have the know-how.

Once again it comes down to digital sovereignty.

soooo… Greenland, then? Tell me when they start moving troops. Until then: social media ragebait.

I’m desperately hoping for these things:

1. the AfD gets disbanded as soon as possible. If Germany keeps dragging its feet it just gives them more ammunition. The legality is clear on this. And I know, there will be protest from their constituency, and ranting and raving and pulling of hairs, but it just needs to be done.
2. the - some - other parties figure out how to use social media properly. Die Linke seems to have it down rn. I’m not sure if this requires bringing “cool” people to the front while “uncool” people do the actual work / hold the actual power in the back, but if it does, just make it so! Because it certainly would be better than uncool people like Merz being the populist face of the party while at the same time making policy that seems to aim more at saving face than actual policy.

Tyrants all over the world are cheering you on, Donny! Keep kneecapping America!

Seriously, VOA must be the one American “Freedom of Speech” thing I could get behind: broadcast where press freedom is oppressed. Give the people there a choice, a second opinion.

Just like with USAID he just doesn’t understand that it also means soft power. He really wants to cut down on the USA’s global influence. And none of his aides is telling him what’s what. That alone is circumstantial evidencve that Putin is pulling strings.

TIL VISA is actually a US company.

Visa is probably the most common in the EU? We’d need a replacement for that.

… oh, Germany already has it, with 70% marketshare!

I was going to say something like “I liked the USA better when it had no clue about foreign politics” but then I realised that maybe that’s just because we weren’t the target before. Is Europe now part of the USA’s definition of Middle East?

The true solution would be to get the people to ditch these idiots, and to do that, we need to fight disinformation and far-right propaganda on social media.

Agreed. But it seems that the EU is also doing something about that. Just like with AfD, they’ve been dragging their feet for way too long but now something* gave them a jolt.

We currently have an interesting success story of Die Linke (proper left-wing party) who managed to garner votes by embracing social media and *cough* populism in, what seems to be, a Good Way.

My first thought when I saw the headline!

BTW, the AfD immediately complained to JD Vance and asked him to do something. That’s going to backfire hard.

Nobody’s doing this. You’re arguing against your own fantasies.

They broke the law. You’re arguing for changing the constitution* to let the AfD continue practicing unconstitutional* politics, because you don’t want to make the AfD stronger?

* “Grundgesetz” - close enough

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I hate this so much, helplessly watching a people getting destroyed in real time.

Yep. My current dentist is Ukrainian. And she’s good.

Anyhow, I wouldn’t call my mum radicalized*, just a general mood of complaining about everything. She spends too much time looking at this stuff and then thinks that’s just how people talk nowadays. And she has no concept of fact-checking or even an inkling of which news to trust and which not. If it comes from a “friend” it’s by default more trustworthy than me saying “well maybe that statistic doesn’t even exist, or if, it says something very different”. That said if we sat together I might be able to talk some sense into her, but we live far apart.

* though I’m thinking with discomfort who she might have voted for

My mum too, very xenophobic, spouting half-digested arguments about them using up all our money. And she came to this country as an adult, and heavily relied on support the first few years (well, relied or not, it was given). Once they give into Facebook etc. their brains become malleable like rotten fruit.

Maifestspiele roughly 100 years later.

👋 We have a day off tomorrow, May 1st. The funny thing in Finland is that it’s completely secularised. I’m sure deep inside it’s still Labor Day, but for the people it’s a celebration of spring, often the first time to have a group picnic, some costumes, etc. Bit of a Carnival. The cities have students doing silly stuff.