The highest point is Svyataya hara (345 m) which since 1958 is named differently, after the founder of NKVD. The picture seems to be from Wikipedia, but blurred the region depicting some monument.
However, as also the Elbrus in russia is blurred, it is made clear that both, Belarus and russia, politically are Asia.
Electronic attack is an act of war. Should stick glonass jammers in Ukraine and the Russian border and blanket them. Then turn about and broadcast all the anti Russian 80s movies directly into their cities.
"Geopolitical risks, responses to China's economic and export strategy and maintaining free trade must be weighed up against each other."
The EU should not only focus on tariffs as the sole aspect of trade imo, but also raise the issue of state-imposed forced labor in China's EV industry, which significantly contributes to cheap Chinese EVs, as well as other violations of human rights abuses there. Among others, this requires unhindered access to Chinese plants across the supply chain for independent audits. Volkswagen itself admitted a few weeks ago that "no full supply chain transparency exists".
Volkswagen statement in May following accusations of forced labour in the Xinjiang plant (operated by VW's joint venture with SAIC)
"[...] as no full supply chain transparency [in China] exists."
Meanwhile, VW had left the joint venture over forced labour accusations.
Another report says:
Volkswagen said in December 2023 that an audit overseen by Markus Löning, Germany’s former commissioner for human rights, found “no indications” of forced labor at the Xinjiang joint venture plant, which is used to road test cars assembled elsewhere in China. Löning conceded, however, that the basis for the audit had been a review of documentation rather than interviews with workers, which he said could be “dangerous.” He also said that “even if they [workers] would be aware of something, they cannot say that in an interview.”
The same report continues:
In June 2023, ECCHR [European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights] filed a complaint with the [German] Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control [...], the German government authority overseeing the country’s Supply Chain Act. The complaint contends that Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are violating their obligations under the law by failing to adopt appropriate measures to identify and prevent the risks of state-imposed forced labor in their supply chains. [The Federal Office] has not yet responded publicly to the complaint.
And:
“We [Volkswagen] have no transparency about the supplier relationships of the non-controlled shareholding SAIC-Volkswagen.”
Booking international train trips in the EU like connecting flights at once. You book the entire trip from perhaps different rail operators at once and get relatively secured connections.
Especially it should imo include that you have to be rebooked onto the next best connection if you miss one because of a delay which currently isn't really the case. Idk if that specific clause is in there but some part of the EU is supposedly working on a platform that at least should allow purchasing tickets for routes across multiple carriers and countries in one ticket.
Germany should invade Kaliningrad since this is an attack on Germany and its allies plus historically Kaliningrad was german territory and that is apparently enough of a reason to justify an attack against another country.
I thought it was obvious that this was a joke referencing one of the arguments Russia uses to justify their attack of Ukraine. Next time I'll add a /s.
/s is unironically a good idea for these kinds of jokes. Related, I seen to have a hard time discerning joke from non-joke in this general area. Sorry about my mod attempts.
Here is an excellent video explaining why international EU train routes are so overwhelmingly terrible.
The problem isn't really investment: it's interoperability, regulations protecting train passengers like flight passengers not existing, and national train companies hoarding their data like hissing gremlins to force users onto their terrible apps/websites.
It is. I can accept train journeys (like, say, London to Rome or Stockholm to Barcelona) taking longer than flying, and would be happy with that in many cases (you can do things on a train, after all). Though when they take longer, are comprised of six discrete journeys which either fall apart if one train is delayed (and if Germany is in the path, this is likely) or require defensively allocating hours for waiting at provincial stations just in case, and cost several times the cost of flying, catching a sequence of trains out of principle feels like wearing a hair shirt.
What should be done: scrap the post-WW2 tax exemption for aviation fuel and use the funds to improve long-distance rail connections.
(Explanation, for those not familiar with politics: the liberal party in Germany is infamous for blocking progressive economical legislation reasoning it would impede freedoms. For example they blocked a ban in advertising food containing high amounts of sugar, claimingit would impede parents' freedom to buy candy for kids (it wouldn't).)
The answer would be high speed night trains. London - Rome takes a bit over 15h by train today. However that includes waiting for connections and a lot of stops on stations. So a direct train would be siginificantly faster probably more like 12-13h. That would mean you could go into a train station in London at 20:00 and end up in Rome at 8:00 for example.
Stockholm - Barcelona is a much longer journey. 2250km instead of 1400km for Rome - London. So a very long nigh train or a connection in Hamburg or Paris. with a night train going from there to Barcelona or Stockholm respectivly.
as much as I love trains (I'm on one while typing this) I can't get myself to spend 170€ for a 21 hour train, even if part of it is spent sleeping, when a 2 hour flight could do the same for 50€.
I don't know if it's just cheaper or if there's massive subsidies like other comments were saying, but for now it's highly unpractical and uneconomical
Losing 1/12 of their annual revenue may be enough to make them miss their quarterly or annual earnings goals which may cause the stock price to dip which may make it a little harder for the rich people to get the tax-free loans that finance their lifestyle... until the stock recovers in a few months.
Not always, the drivers have to be licensed for the countries rail network. Also sometimes they have to change the locomotive. And going to eastern europe sometimes they change the wheelsets because of different track widths.
Europe
Neu