I don't know beepers, but any small or middle size country, in this convoluted world, should either heavily diversify in weaponry (Pakistan today) develop their own (France 1960s and Sweden 1980s) or just heavily and unequivocally declare themselves neutral but develop enough defenses to become a pain in the ass (Finland 1950-1990s or Switzerland 1900-2010s). Any other way, you will end up heavily exploited to the bone, when not dragged into an unwanted war)
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To help understand what is happening in Spain:
- This government is a a very precarious situation, even before the ongoing genocide. It is form by a delicate coalition. Now, Spain has traditionally been very sympathetic for the Palestinian cause, and the majority of parties reflect that sentiment.
- Spain is a NATO country so as such it needs mainly US weaponry that US, oddly, to say the least, assigns Israel to be the distributor of critical parts.
- Spain has an army military elite and a Police force (Guardia Civil) that is very linked to the Franco dictatorship so these tend to quietly push their weight for the Israel's side of things.
- Grande-Marlaska is the Interior minister in this coalition. He is from the ruling Socialist Party, but he is well known for years to be very right-wing on many aspects, among them, to side with Israel and working to undermine Spanish position on Gaza. He is the ultimate person to authorize purchases many of these purchases we hear about. The president should had fired him long ago, but, I presume, would severely risk the coalition and cause votes to leave to the Right.
- Since a decade, there is a very right-wing political that, like in most on Europe, is disrupting the political panorama. Nothing bad, per se, but this political party (VOX) was very, very strangely was finance early on by the "People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran", a anti-Iranian organization... why are anti-Iranial organizations doing financing extreme-right wing parties in Europe should been raising some eyebrows but did not. What I do highly suspect is that these groups are not being financed by disgruntled Iranians but some other entity with deeper pockets and with even more eager to see a regime change in Iran.
- Spain police forces, like in most of the world, tend to exaggerate claims of terrorism arrest. Let's not even go that most these terrorist groups have actually links to some western intelligence groups, but overwhelming majority of arrest are for " distributing terrorist links", aka to pass links of joining Al-Qaeda in Syria (oh, the irony!) or passing videos that you would have found on Twitter anyways.... it is a bit like when peer-to-peer file sharing was deemed as clear copyright violation and sent to prison but that you find exact music now in YouTube and composers still get nothing but this is now legal and YouTube lauded as a success story.
- Now there is a case of an attempt of assassination of right-wing politician (Vidal-Quadras) that very early on was blamed on an Iranian agent... there is no proof at all that Iran is behind, probably the only intel on the individual was provided by the CIA or Mossad and happily the Guardia Civil takes it without any further question. Of course, the Cui Bono here never applies in these cases... why would Iran attack politicians of the country in Europe more sympathetic to Palestine and even Iran is never asked... same as why "Islamist" ISIS never attacks Israel but only to countries that Tel-Avid has in the bull-eye at the moment and the occasional attack to Europe to make them remember how bad Islam (ironically, to blame the countries that ISIS is actually attacking!!!).
- In Spain, awkward things are happening since Spain position on Gaza. In spite economically performing good in an ailing Europe, nation-wide blackouts happen for first time, bullet trains cannot run because someone "steals" copper lines, private calls gets release (always in only one side, that is!), etc.
So yeah, that is why Spain says one thing, but them a contract with Israel gets signed, and Spain gets shunned for not wanted to spend more in military... Lets be frank, the overwhelming majority to purchase US weaponry... I would love to Spain dedicate that extra defense spending in diversifying its weaponry on Chinese J-35 (1/2 operating costs of F-35 anyways) and you will see if increase defense is actually Europe' s rational or the facade behind a massive Money Laundering.
Thanks... wait, wait... hold the horses... I can only take one reading at the time! I had never heard about "Anna’s Archive" as a thing... glad you told me and that I searched it.
Well, I was referring to Post-WWII USSR. Finland did loose 1/3 of its land to Moscow's ambitions earlier on. However, unlike Ukraine today, Finland discovered what the Soviets wanted from them was to cover a security hole more than just grab plain land mass. Finland gave them that security and no more confrontation ever since and Finland was able to prosper immensely... even during the most expansionary moments and power of the Soviets. All that lesson from the Finnish elders is forgotten now, and instead of neutrality, they choose now to follow Kyiv's path and head to NATO.
I'll check that book.
Conscription per se is a healthy thing for a country and individuals alike, as long there is the option of opting for non-military training, that I think most in Europe have that option. But these new policies are not been set in place with that rational in mind!!! The rational, is that there is a drive for war and, due to Europeans not having appetite for it, they need to force people into the service (of course, pairing it with strong policies against any anti-war dissidence!)
How northern Europeans are falling into this scheme is perplexing! A decade ago I would never though Sweden and Finland would have given up on their military neutrality when they have benefit so much from even when the USSR was indeed aggressive an invaded Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary but now that Russia partially only invaded neighbor Ukraine and because it was about to become a de-facto NATO country and Russia had set that up as a red line for more than a decade (not to mention the 14000 deaths of completely disfranchised 5 million Russian speakers in Ukraine since 2014.)
Even if you believe that Moscow really wanted to invade European Union members, Sweden and Finland would had simply be left alone so it could concentrate in the large powers… short like Germany did in 1930s… now, a hypothetical aggressive Russia would have no other chance than getting rid of Scandinavian posts first to set their fleet free into the Atlantic.
Finland, after promising Moscow a non-NATO alliance, enjoyed a formidable peace and developed a amazing democratic that became the envy of the world… but now considers Moscow far more dangerous than the Moscow of the 1950s… but of course, Israel’s aggressiveness and genocide in Gaza is not enough for the Scandinavians to even bother the Israeli ambassador. Are you really that blind to what is happening today?! The level of propaganda today in the north of Europe must be out of this world!? Nothing is left of the cold-thinking and the right combination of pragmatism + idealism from what Scandinavians used to be known for, nothing!
I am now with IronFox, I forgot the reason I left Fennec. Does anyone know the advantage of one vs the other?
How northern Europeans are falling into this is perplexing! A decade ago I would never though Sweden and Finland would have given up on their military neutrality when they have benefit so much from it. Even if you believe that Moscow really wanted to invade European Union members, Sweden and Finland would had simply be left alone so it could concentrate in the powers... short like Germany did in 1930s... now, a hypothetical aggressive Russia would have no other chance than getting rid of Finland first. For real... postWWII, the URSS invaded for years Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary... while Finland, after promisinng Moscow a non-NATO alliance, enjoyed a formidable peace and developed a amazing democratic that became the envy of the world... but now considers Moscow far more dangerous than the Moscow of the 1950s... but of course, Israel's genocide in Gaza is fine for Finland too to no reason to bother the ambassador. The level of propaganda today in the north of Europe must be out of this world!!!
Highly unlikely that Russia has any interest of invading others than Ukraine; militarily it just impossible (with constriction or not) and would had been just a nightmare to manage tens millions of people you don't even know their language, let alone culturally different. Russia became agressive after NATO backstab an agreement it had with Moscow on Libya and creating the coup in 2014 in Kyiv, completely disfranchising millions and millions of eastern Ukrainians so it could perform constitutional changes to join NATO... After multiple warnings to NATO (a last one just 2 months before, Moscow decided to invade. I still do not agree with Moscow invasion, yet I do recognize it was Washington who deliberately instigated the mess probably calculating they would either gain a new NATO member or cause a war that will devastate Russia.... either way, they saw it as a win-win... at the expense of Ukrainians social cohesion, and getting rid of what was their only problem, massive corruption by all parties.
And you should not. This claim, as stated, is unlikely to be true, but not for lack of will, it just seems hard to pull it off as claimed.
Now, we know for sure is that Israel wants to completely obliterate the social and psychological being of all Palestinians and would go to any extend to just do that. This also avoid having massive piles of deaths on videos (that will look just too much as those in 1940s), yet are equally effective to achieve the genocide they want at the end. Many of these claims may not even be made by a Palestinians, but by an IDF's psyop unit to discredit argumentation (as the rationale in not allowing any foreign press, so all claims can be said was "by Hamas").
What it is indisputable today is that there is a pure and exclusive intent for genocide in Gaza. For Gazans life has been meticulously calculated to be so devastated that stories like this have little effect now on their life, it seems created more for foreign consumption. Gazan's have experienced far worse cases of continuous and cruelly designed evil... it is like for us try to identify if Benigni's La vita è bella was based in a real life story or not... you think the people who went through those camps would had even care to debate it?!
I would love a competent social psychologist to enter here, but it is hard to grasp how Gazans, children and adults, if ever given a chance, can possible ever mentally recover from the damage cause by this continuous and ever increasing evil.
The US is making full usage of the bases in Europe to support Israel, without them it would have been logistically very hard; short of like the invasion of Afghanistan without the collaboration of Pakistan. These US bases fall under the US European Command (EUCOM) but are integrated into NATO’s architecture. The European NATO members, not only provide the bases, but subsidize the costs (e.g., infrastructure, utilities), therefore, becoming participants with the Israeli Campaign.
Countries can have some say. Spain, for instance, blocked some US airplanes destined to some campaigns, but it is just symbolic since the US just need not to declare the intention (or lie) and that is the end of the restrictions. It is not like Spain is going to inspect the vast amount of tonnage the US military is moving through Spanish ports, let alone between US bases. US could easily avoid the bases in Spain and use instead Germany, Italy and Morocco, but why would do so, when you can just humiliate your vassals in their face and have no repercussion at all... same as blowing up Nord Stream 2.
I am in this path too, but not for everyone. The Firefox (and variants) in Android is ok for normal browsing but would not log into highly sensitive sites nor is recommendable for many users that are not careful with settings and updates. Brave (and others privacy friendly ones), with its flaws, it is better in that arena, so recommended for them.
Also, we may not like it, but if we criticize company attempts to become financial viable, we are doing at disservice to our FOSS community. We should just point what you don't like from Brave and let our audiences decide for themselves.
I don't use Brave, still with the more insecure Android Firefox variant (Firefox for Android is subpar in security), but I am glad Brave do want to expand here and for many users it is for sure the best option. No need to insult, whether you agree or not with them. If it is open, it is open and everything else should be secondary and for individual to choose on their own. Go Brave! Hope many more come too.
For visa holders and green cards they have been doing that for a decade at least, I wonder if it is optional for them too.
Regarding opting out, we should. It is inconvenient, we get faces, but we should.
- The more scans they get of your face (age, expressions,...) , the more accurate their profile of you will be...
- To make an statement. If we just accept these things, they will keep pushing for more.
I haven't play much with them but this is my take:
Deepin. (Just released v25) Based on Debian. Community distro. Very well done and very modern look. It is heavy though and the beta I tried had glitches. Being primarily developed in Chinese though one can tell English was added later. If they only dedicated a bit more effort on languages it would be amazing. It is as much different from Linux Mint as it gets... for better or for worse, but I like their take.
Ubuntu Kylin. Institutional cooperation with Canonical. Haven't tried it. It is just Ubuntu catering their offer to the Chinese market. If you like Ubuntu's or Mint and you language is Chinese, this is for you.
OpenKylin. Fully Independent (No Debian, Arch...). Community distro. Its usage for now seems to be more for institutions though.
There are others but for niches.
China, of course, it want to get independent from MS and Apple so in the next years is going to push heavily for alternative OS so it will be interesting to see what, and for sure, our FOSS community will benefit from that as DeepSeek benefited the AI.
Oh for sure! No doubt, at least makes people conscious of that. Now, the larger companies don't have any problem bypassing the EU law and the incentives are mainly untouched for them to change.
This is so pathetic now. US companies does " pretend" to storage data in Europe, then, 4 years later a couple of them are found out they did not (others did too but were not found to doing so) and an investigation and lawsuit is brought up and 6 years later found guilty and penalized a maximum of 10% of profits for that year (so effectively 1% profit/yr cost of business). Profits brought by the breach of European safeguards... tens times more than the potential penalties. Any CEO has to, by law, give the maximum profits to their investors, and they are just doing that.
But of course, the EU just won't do that litigation dance with the Chinese companies, the EU knows well it is just a scam to pretend doing something to protect europeans... to Chinese companies, because US does not like, the EU just ban them. The EU will never ban a US company, no matter how many violations they do.
My entire family is ad free for years... with the exception in podcasts. I am tempted to block them too (is there a way now?) but still not too intrusive... it is a way for me to keep connected to the ad world anyways. Now, the moment they abuse them here tii... I'll find a way to block these.
First, Naomi and her team are doing a fantastic work in security for masses, easily top 5 worldwide!
AI is capable but we are still failing at program it properly, gosh, even well funded companies are still doing a poor job at it... (just look at the misplaced ads and ineffective we still get.)
What I want, and it is easy to do TODAY, is AI checking our FOSS... so many we use and just a tiny, tiny minority of it goes with some scrutiny. We need AI to go through the FOSS code looking for maliciousness now.
Many would have loved Vestager sunbeam60... and that is partly why Spitzenkandidat was ruled out... A minority imposed their candidate instead.
Yes, the parliament approved UVDL (narrowly), but I guarantee you the overwhelming majority of representatives did not had the opportunity to contrast the candidates at all and most were forced to vote based in party lines... again, that is why the "not like the system is enshrined in law" process was dismissed and obscure dealings was put in place instead. You really think for this critical position that is normal... it is not like hiring a summer intern!
I would love a strong EU, that really worked for the people, the member's institutions and European companies alike... what instead, the EU has become since 2010 is just toxic. Even, the people that used to admire the EU like in Spain or Romania have become skeptical of the manipulations and the EU getting out of its mandated competencies, let alone increasing hypocrisies within its domain.
We don't know and, let us be frank, due to the nature of the community, it is impossible to know... Distros could report the downloads but if it became a KPI, it will be abused right away.
Fedora is well funded and probably the best overall. Now, its ties to US and IBM/Red Hat will keep it constrain in growth.
OpenSUSE is a second contender in funding and best overall, but German branding has taken a deep these last years... I know the government actions should be separate but, in reality, is that SUSE as a company will be constrained in growth too, therefore OpenSUSE. Its community need to be more global too.
Debian is king still. Much of development depends on the previous 2. However, in spite of huge progress lately, still not the best for new Linux users. That is why Linux Mint, Ubuntus, TuxedoOS still exist, but their growth won't be much as Debian gets better and better, but always a step behind the corporate funded ones. For today
The Chinese Linux offerings are becoming well funded are very interesting... but there is a bridge to cross that most of the world still not ready to cross... partly, because there are reasons to be skeptical since the community developing it is highly regional, partly is just plain racism. It is a pity, because these would have the biggest potential for a mayor breakthrough with all that money and human capital pouring from different companies, but I don't see it capable of breaching that regional aspect.
Finally we have Arch. I see it better positioned for future than Debian TBH, but we are talking 5 years down the line. It won't be Arch though, it will be some new variant like CachyOS is doing today that brings Arch to the public... maybe KDE's new bet?!
If you understand the intricacies of Spain.
Spaniards has been very sympathetic to Palestine since decades ago, but the current coalition government is very week. Spain, unlike countries in Latin America or Ireland does have a significant trade with Israel so it has more to loose with commerce restrictions. Let's no mention the amount of pressure Spanish politicians must be facing from US and Germany for its stands on Gaza.
Of course, Spain should do more, but I have a feeling US will penalize it heavily and the extremely fragile government coalition would fall and elections would be called. In this elections, a notable winner would be VOX as the king maker, a party, kid you not, financed early on by anti-iranian groups (AKA... Israel!!). Spain is doing A LOT given the circumstances.