UK libel laws sound way more reasonable to me. They force you to take accountability for your speech. Generally opinions and even hyperbole are fine (e.g. in this case, it’s likely OK to say that you think this person is Darth Vader). But if you spout some nonsense factoid about someone, be prepared to have some proof. US could definitely use some of that (it would put a lot of right-wing media companies out of business immediately, and I’m all for it)

Least surprising outcome

claiming the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, said they would “not be blowing up ships anymore.”

Is there any confirmation from them, or is he making shit up again?

* IF the EC decides to move forward with the review and IF the review recommends suspending it and IF the EU Parliament votes to suspend it; each if being significantly less likely than the previous.

Not even a review. It’s a call for a review.

Can someone explain with less legalese? In my reading, the court decided that it did not have the jurisdiction over it because… UAE decided that it didn’t want the court to have jurisdiction over it? That shit would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

If you oppose the genocide GO HOME

So that anyone with even a shred of decency is gone and only the most rabid genociders remain? I think organizing a protest - even as meek as this - is better than just running away.

There’s no credibility to lose at this point. He has been lying for his entire life, no way he’s stopping now.

It can always get worse. “Only” ~200000 deaths from Israel’s actions for now, or ~10% of the population, which Israeli pieces of shit see as “90% still to go”. One can imagine how a total famine can speed up the genocide significantly.

Expansionist? No.

Putin literally started an imperialist land war to expand the territory and capture resources (and stay in power for a while longer).

You’re confusing the Soviet regimes of the past with the current country.

No, you have it backwards.

The Soviet government at least had some noble goals for their expansion, and measurable improvements to the lives of people on the captured territories.

Russia is an oligarchy and the only goals are territorial gains, resource exploitation and enriching the richest at the expense of the poor under the pretext of wartime nationalism. Same as the US, really, but with less power and resources.

Look at where progressive policies have gotten the west thus far!

You seriously think that the current state of the west is due to “progressive policies” and not capitalism and nationalism? If anything, progressive policies (women’s rights, LGBT inclusion, secularization, education for all, universal medical care (in places where it exist), and some limited labor rights) are one of rare good things that’s been happening in the west.

the people seem to overwhelmingly support the government despite these serious shortcomings

BTW, few people actually support the government. The best way to confirm this is to look at the public reaction to the attempted coup by Prigozhin in summer 2023. It ranged from apathy to amusement, the same kind you would have if you were watching Fast&Furious 21 (or whatever number they’re up to). However most people don’t oppose the government either and just go about their daily lives. It’s similar to what most Americans are doing right now despite their country turning to mask-off fascism, dismantling all their all social safety nets and flaunting a world war.

Not if you’re simply parroting western propaganda, which you are!

I was born and grew up in semi-provincial Russia. I had two neighbors who went through the prison system and told me about their experiences.

Russia isn’t some backward country. Like most western countries, they have various types of prisons or gulags.

Semi-agreed.

Central, more well-developed parts of Russia are not backwards (in fact I really liked the soviet heritage of microdistricts, well-developed public transit, socialized medical care and the remains of the education system); the “provinces” (in which I grew up) absolutely are, compared to the even the worst bumfuck nowhere in Europe.

Russian jails (СИЗО) and low-security prisons (колония общего режима) are OK relatively speaking. However if you are in for a “political” crime you’re most likely going to end up in a high-security prison (колония строгого режима or тюрьма) in which conditions are seriously worse, including forced labor, denial of medical care, regular isolation, beatings by prison guards and other inmates.

And then there is the heavily prevalent “prisoner culture” which ensures that people who’ve been in for more than 3-5 years come out with completely destroyed psyche and lack of any real-world social skills. One of my neighbors who spent 5 years in a low-security prison for drug use in the 2000s came out a broken man and was in and out of the system for as long as I knew him.

I agree that the US prison system absolutely sucks ass and must be abolished entirely. Russian (high-security) prisons are still worse (except maybe for Gitmo and the El Salvador thing, which are a fucking disgrace to humanity).

Gulag is just Russian for prison

No it fucking isn’t, how hard is that to check? ГУЛАГ (GULAG) stands for Главное Управление ЛАГерей (Main Administration of [labor] Camps), a controversial system of labor camps in 1930s-50s (colloquially up to the 80s). Back in Russia I’ve almost never heard anyone use it to refer to the modern prison system. It is sometimes used in a set phrase “Digital Gulag” to refer to the government’s attempts to censor the internet, but that’s about it. Funnily enough the word is used in the general sense of “brutal prison” in the West only - and that is indeed western propaganda.

For further context, opposing the war can and does lead to 10-15 years imprisonment in Russia, and Russian prisons are even worse than ones in the US.

The sad/scary part is that the missile research did indeed work pretty damn well.

What the hell is Trump admin trying to achieve here? China was already overtaking the US in scientific research. Randomly detaining researchers just because they’re foreigners (among other things like defunding universities) ensures that in 5-10 years US will be hopelessly behind on everything from social sciences to medicine to physics, the list goes on really, and not just behind China but likely behind EU too. This really does seem like an empire in decay, however I’m willing to bet that people working on missiles to kill brown children will continue to be well-paid until the bitter end.

We can agree that China is a more stable partner than the US. My point is that party leadership can also change there, leading to policy changes - it just doesn’t happen as often and there’s usually no dramatic swings when it does. It’s a scale, not a binary thing.

Nah, if the US starts a world war it will suck for literally everyone, not just those voters. You’re likely to be drafted too, regardless of where you live.

In a sense that’s true for any country, though. The only differences are (1) how often the policy changes and (2) by how much. US used to have a 4-year cycle and much less variance in the policies and so it made some sense to get into long-term agreements. Even in the last 8 years, agreements reached by Trump were continued by Biden (e.g. NAFTA). Now though the cycle is like 4 days and the policy swings are 180°, so it only makes sense to enter into extremely short-term, transactional agreements, or if you have no other choice (like Ukraine).

self defense acts are not homicides

They absolutely are. There’s even a term for it - justifiable homicide.

I think they’ve majorly underestimated how much the world is going to condemn this. It was one thing to “protect it’s citizens”, it’s another thing entirely to outright invade another nation.

I think you’re majorly overestimating how much the world cares.

Israel has been invading other nations literally continuously throughout its existence. You can debate that it is to “protect it’s citizens”, and there may even be some truth to that sometimes, but it’s clearly generally been the aggressor since its founding. And (almost) nobody cared.

I’d be shocked if Europe doesn’t sanction Israel

Some strong-worded letters will surely be sent, and politicians will call on “all sides to stop the hostilities”, which in practice means Israel gets to keep whatever it could occupy. Maybe a couple of somewhat left-leaning countries (Spain, Sweden, Norway, etc) will sanction Israel individually, but then they don’t have much trade by this point anyway so they have no negotiating power. As for the rest, trading (including trading weapons) with Israel is profitable monetarily and beneficial politically, so not much will really change.