His voters won't know about this. Government propaganda is in a different world. He just met with Zelinsky, Putin and the Chinese dictator, and couldn't achieve anything, obviously. In government media he is praised for trying to bring peace everywhere but the evil EU and US don't let him succeed, and we have to vote him otherwise Hungary will get pulled into the war.
Oh, there is Euro football match today, so everyone will hear about this. During the half time break there are not just ads, but also a little news segment where you can hear about his latest achievement. So those who are not interested in politics but football can hear about the adventures of our glorious leader.
Yeah, for sure. I just take comfort in knowing it bruised his ego a little.
As for getting rid of him it's going to take a lot more. Poland gives hope, but the situation there was not as bad as in Hungary.
I just hope that him trying to play an increasingly bigger role globally will lead to his downfall somehow. He clearly has a distorted image of himself and his abilities, which is not a great starting point of aspiring dictators.
I don't generally see videos of politicians, as I get my news primarily from written sources and I don't have much of an interest in rhetorics. It's fascinating to see his words are as idiotic as his actions.
I guess he manages to come across as more convincing in Hungarian.
The risk is having a high frequency of partners and anal sex (passive or active) without condoms. That can very well be the case of an heterosexual male. A lucky one, by the way.
Not higher risk in this case! This should actually lower risk by raising the bar for everyone:
The new regulation excludes individuals who have had protected or unprotected anal intercourse with a new sexual partner in the past four months, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
This hedges against sexual tourism, with further restrictions on donors who have recently gotten tattoos or tick bites, which can be potential vectors for disease.
This is good, as blood-borne pathogens are on the rise in different populations these days, and this will keep recipients safer.
Ok so what hostilities have there been toward the UK, or to any NATO member - from Russia and China and these “Various other countries” that suggest we need to grow or military?
Nothing has happened in the baltics, and there is no specific threat, that can be attributed directly to Russia.
As for Taiwan, they are not a member of NATO and we (Britain) have no defence treaty with them. Perhaps because we do not officially recognise them as a state, and follow the One China policy.
Even if none of that were true, I am not convinced increasing the UK defence budget helps them very much.
I think this guy is a revisionist Tankie. Russia and China have a history of expansionism and conduct provocative military exercises near NATO and Southeast Asian country borders.
Best to ignore them and they can sit in the mud of downvotes for others to read and realize they are full of beans.
I am responding to a comment in support of the increase (in the British defence budget) , on the grounds the “the world is more hostile and we need to be prepared”
No one seems to be able to stand up that claim. You helpfully offered the Baltics and Taiwan, which we’ve addressed, and so I’m hoping that someone will show us something new, that demonstrates Britain does indeed need to be prepared to defend itself from increased hostilities.
It is quite important, because the newly elected Chancellor our the Exchequer has every day since taking office, been doing media to tell British people, “we haven’t got any money”
You're joking, right? Russia regularly threatens to nuke the UK, has done several misinformation campaigns in our political system, and even carried out an assassination using fucking chemical weapons on British soil. Sounds pretty hostile to me.
China has spoken at length about intending to take back Taiwan, an ally, and the west can't let that happen, it would be disastrous. They also had a violent crackdown on Hong Kong which the UK has a unique vested interest in for obvious reasons, state-sponsored Chinese hackers have on multiple occasions targeted UK institutions, including hospitals and the Ministry of Defence.
And yes, various other countries. What, you think nowhere is hostile? There's active battle against Houthis who are attacking merchant and military vessels right now, for example.
If you think countries don't need defensive capabilities, you are wrong. You'd think that would be plainly obvious right now, considering a country in Europe is being fucking invaded right now.
I’m not trying to be a prick here, but I am trying to introduce the idea that you might have relied only on News, to inform yourself about these situations.
For example, you’ve said “Russia regularly threatens to Nuke the UK” - so find a few examples and we’ll go over them together.
What we’re looking for, are words from the Russian government, statements, press conferences and such - primary sources and not from a newspaper (unless the newspaper quotes the source.) Its a very serious issue, so it should demand a high standard of proof, but to save time, we can exclude the ones that are threats of retaliation.
As an extension, look up Britains defence obligations towards Taiwan. You’ve said they are an “ally” to Brtiain but in fact Britain doesn’t even recognise them as an independent State .
Lmao you're acting like the press in Russia is free. It isn't. Nuke threats on state TV, large government-backed papers, government staff, and Putin-allied ex-presidents are government sanctioned.
What obligates the UK to defend its allies? Oh I dunno, promises made, morals, and the cold-hearted pragmatist view that losing Taiwan would be a complete disaster for the UK and the world in general. Semiconductors are kind of a big deal. There's this new invention called the microprocessor - they're pretty neat, and used practically everywhere!
I don't know why I'm bothering talking to a tankie. No matter what I say you'll never shift from your position that Russia/China good, west bad.
Just address the facts instead of yelling slurs like a 14 year old ?
Youve described Taiwan as ally, while Britain doesn’t not even recognise them as a state - because their One China policy.
You think the world is run on morals and promises and that Britain needs semiconductors from TSMC, but you can’t tell me which promise and morals, or why we can’t use semi conductor from any of the other manufacturers.
It’s not unfair to call to you a fucking know nothing Moron, educated by YouTube.
while Britain doesn’t not even recognise them as a state
Very few do. That's unfortunate, but countries can't really get by if China decides to sanction them. They're very embedded in the world economy. So we support Taiwan while not officially recognising them as a state wink wink.
The UK has recognised them more than most though. There are embassies, there have been state visits (extremely rare when it comes to Taiwan), and the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee have stated that "Taiwan is an independent country" - in other words, the UK has went as far as you can go in recognising Taiwan without having sanctions from China.
If you put any thought into the geopolitical and economic ramifications of it, you'd understand why it's a lot more complex than the primary school-level understanding you appear to have of the situation.
You think the world is run on morals
Never said that. You asked why the UK should defend allies being invaded by dictatorships like Russia or China, and I gave that as one of the reasons to do so.
and that Britain needs semiconductors from TSMC
Because they do, along with everybody else.
but you can’t tell me which promise
Committments made to help allies.
or why we can’t use semi conductor from any of the other manufacturers.
Omg are you actually this clueless? Practically everyone uses TSMC. The world would be set back so much without TSMC. They're the market leader. Even Intel uses TSMC.
and morals
You don't see what's morally wrong with Russia or China invading their neighbours, killing thousands, and making them live under a dictatorship? You don't see what's morally wrong with Russia committing a genocide now? The rape and torture they've committed and are committing right now?
Jesus. I mean I know you're a tankie, but that's fucked up even for them.
It's not unfair to call to you a fucking know nothing Moron, educated by YouTube.
I can't say I'm especially pro-military, but I think it's worth noting that a simple budget increase like this is definitely going to be vastly more effective at strengthening our armed forces than what Rishi Sunak BASED HIS ENTIRE CAMPAIGN ON, which was mandatory service for young people.
Budget for good weapons, equipment and vehicles is way more important to a modern army than just having a lot of warm bodies to throw at a target- just look at Russia's atrocious waste of lives in Ukraine.
Well first this doesn't really have anything to do with the article.
But to answer your question:
Be in a situation where your central bank (they can't get bankrupt as they literally print money) doesn't give interest (negative interest even better)
Be big, financially competent and trustworthy enough that no one doubts that you can pay back any loan.
Now people that have too much money and need a convenient place to store that money without too much costs buy your debt for more than what it's worth.
Sorry I somehow forgot the first part of your question.
If I understand correctly they threaten to sell off the debt they hold which will increase the supply of that debt, while at the same time decrease the amount of potential buyers.
To still be able to sell their debt the EU countries now have to (as any country needs a constant influx of money) make the new debt more attractive by offering better interest etc
An investigation has been opened into the financing of French far right National Rally (RN) leader Marine Le Pen's 2022 presidential campaign.Prosecutors in Paris said they will look into allegations of embezzlement, forgery and fraud, and that a candidate on an electoral campaign accepted a loan.The investigation was opened a week ago following a 2023 report by the National Commission on Campaign Accounts and Political Financing (CNCCFP).The commission's role is to scrutinise candidates' election expenses and funding and to flag any issues that arise.
No more details have been given on the reasons for the inquiry, nor has Ms Le Pen's camp commented.The RN has previously received loans from Russian and Hungarian banks.
The Russian loan worth €9.4m (£7.9m), however, was all paid back last year.
In 2017, the RN was charged with giving party members suspected fake jobs as assistants at the European Parliament.
A court will judge Ms Le Pen and 24 other members of her party over the alleged misuse of EU funds in September.A veteran of French politics, Ms Le Pen ran for president in 2012, 2017 and 2022.
She was re-elected to parliament during the first round of France's snap parliamentary election last month.Her party unexpectedly came third, despite having achieved a decisive victory in the European Parliament elections just weeks before.
The original article contains 251 words, the summary contains 217 words. Saved 14%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
At what point will a naked war for resources with Saudi Arabia make sense? Like if a leader went to the EU/America/Japan/Korea and said, "we're gonna take the Saud's oil and sell it for $25/barrel to everyone that helps us for 25 years." And then we went to the public and said, "25 years to get off oil for good" when does that ship?
The issue with the Gulf Wars is that we wanted to control the oil resources via local proxy. Honestly, we (the US, I realize this is on the Europe@) could use our Navy to directly control about half of Saudi Arabia's oil and buy ourselves time to get off oil.
The Saudis don't have a Navy. About half their reserves and a massive chunk of Iran, Kuwait and the other Gulf State's reserves are in the Gulf. We don't have to set foot on the Peninsula.
Neither does Ukraine. Still decimated the russian navy.
Also to nip this whole "argument" in the bud, and I'm not even going into how terribly colonialistic your proposal is, how many billions of euro would you propose to put into essentially propping up a already dead technology. Fossil fuels have to be eliminated by 2050. Why wage war for something we won't even need in 25 years.
We WANT to increase fossil fuel prices. To hasten the change to renewables, the higher the potential savings the better.
Fossil fuels have to be eliminated by 2050. Why wage war for something we won't even need in 25 years.
I don't think that fossil fuel usage will be eliminated in 25 years given the opposition to mass nuclear deployment. I think this would ideally be a carrot that dictates green energy buildouts in exchange for subsidized oil.
The issue is that currently, the cost of extracting oil exceeds $25/barrel. Personally, I would be glad to see the Saud family ousted from Arabia, as there are countless reasons to consign those disgusting Salafists to the dustbin of history. However, reducing the price of oil at this moment is not feasible.
This analysis is from 2019 and it doesn't break down the cost difference for onshore vs. offshore oil. But it estimates the cost for the Saudi's at $8.98/barrel (approximately $11.01 in todays dollars).
Do you have the analysis where it says $25+/barrel. It is certainly possible that production costs have risen significantly in the last half decade.
Turns out people really don't like being ruled over by nakedly colonialist regimes, and when people really don't like things they tend to blow stuff up, and when people blow stuff up, it hurts the bottom line of oil companies, i.e. the only thing you care about for some reason.
Do you want to create a second Iran? Because that's what happened there.
Ah yes, the sea, a place famous for how difficult it is to get away with crimes. I see no flaws in your plan. The seas around the Arabian Peninsula specifically haven't had any notable activity from anti-Western rebel groups in 2024.
So we need the ECB to start QE in a big way to buy back government bonds. However the Saudis do not own too many.
We also have to go electric on transportation and that much much faster. Only a third of the EUs oil comes from the US and Norway. The rest comes from mainly dictatorships. Going green means supporting democracy. Staying on fossil fuels means supporting dictatorships.
Yep, even if you didn't care about the environmental aspect (which you should), not having to rely on dictatorships all over the place for your energy needs should be enough reason to transition away from fossil fuels.
Glad my money isn't wrapped up in EUR. QE = inflation.
I'm all for going green, it's worth mentioning that having trade with dictatorships is a two-way street, we can also use that trade as leverage to hold them slightly accountable.
In this case it gives the Saudis central bank money, which then leads to more money being removed over the coming years. Since the Saudis want to dump it, they have to sell it below market value. Due to that at intresst this means the ECB is moving money out of the monetary system. Hence this is deflationary. We actually saw that in the real world as well. QE meant low intresst rates. The intresst rates shot up as soon as QE was stopped.
There are a lot of battery factories being built in the EU right now. Even if they come from China, it is a one time purchase and not a total dependence.
This might change in the near future some time ago(not to sure how long exactly) I read an Article about a massive ore field of the resources needed for electrical components being discovered in Denmark Sweden.
Iirc: For certain materials like Lithium as well as Rare Earths, China basically has a monopoly on processing currently. E.g. with Lithium, Australia and Chile are major sources of the raw materials but virtually all of it is processed in China. Even if the raw materials come from the EU, there may be a major piece of the supply chain missing.
Okay, that's fair. I'm not entirely sure but I know that Intel is building a processing plant in Germany. I don't know if they use raw materials, or they also rely on other manufacturers to produce stuff for them.
Chip plants are another matter yet again. They usually work with silicon wafers into which they a chip surface.
I don't know where Intel get their materials from either. The silicon processing industry is largely Chinese again—I think Western and Japanese countries do have the appropriate factories and technology too though.
I just read, that TSMC also plans on creating a processing plant in Germany(near Dresden) so in the near future we might see chips made entirely in Europe.
Europe
Heiß