@fbermingham Not surprising. Both governments are under domestic pressure because of their economy. Its what the Chinese are betting on.
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Flask 03
618 posts
Several stories today showing how fear of retaliation can paralyse EU planning on China
1. Germany & Spain lead opposition to Brussels plans to ban Huawei & ZTE from telecoms networks. They want to keep state-level control amid concerns that bans risk retaliation from Beijing
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Lavrov also told Rubio that diplomatic staff should evacuate from Kyiv
Faytuks News@Faytuks
Russia's Foreign Minister has informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Russia will start "systemic strikes on military targets in Kyiv" -TASS
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/thread/
I really dont think this is a good article - the arguments look weak to me and some border on irrelevant or bad-faith arguments...
Franz-Stefan Gady@HoansSolo
„The entire concept of low-cost, counter-drone defense based on propeller-driven systems no longer looks as promising as it did two to three years ago.“ warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/ch…
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@APHClarkson While I agree with your analysis, I have to point out that the German greens know little about social solidarity. They have little contact to the low education and low income parts of society and don't believe that their opinions have any merit.
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If Hungary slides back into standard issue EU politics my worry as someone close to German Greens is that defeat of populism will entrench an EPP machine that though preferable still embodies a mediocre conservatism dismissive of social solidarity and environmental sustainability
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Orbanism without Orban's pro-Russian corruption is basically standard issue EU centre right patronage politics with von der Leyen's EPP political machine at its heart
Martin Varsavsky@martinvars
Péter Magyar is not the anti-Orbán. He is running on a platform that is Orbán without the corruption. As Orban, Magyar opposes the EU migration pact. He voted against the loan to Ukraine. He wants strong borders and has no plans to reverse Hungary’s energy ties with Russia before 2035. On every substantive question that defines the European left-right divide, Magyar sits exactly where Orbán sits. What he promises to change is governance, not ideology. Anti-corruption reforms, rule of law, meritocratic appointments, unlocking frozen EU funds. A voter who backed Orbán for border security and national sovereignty can vote for Magyar without abandoning a single conviction. The only thing that voter has to abandon is tolerance for theft. Orbán did not lose the argument. He lost the trust.
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@KofmanMichael Well, Putin asked his Buddy Trump for a favour? Or threatened to give more support to Iran?
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Interesting development. "The United States Coast Guard is allowing a Russian tanker full of crude oil to reach Cuba, delivering a critical supply of energy to the island nation after months of an effective oil blockade by the Trump administration..."
nytimes.com/2026/03/29/wor…
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@Storch_i @APHClarkson @Markus_Soeder Ohne Habeck zu hassen, ich habe Respekt für ihn, erneuerbare Energien wurden und werden stark subventioniert. Daher ist das sehr heuchlerisch.
Und auch wenn ich selbst ohne Atomkraft leben kann, muss ich sagen, dass sie definitiv weltweit eine re hat große Zukunft haben wird.
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Robert #Habeck macht @Markus_Soeder ein Angebot in Sachen #Atomkraft: wenn er jemanden findet, der ein neues Atomkraftwerk ohne Subventionen baut, dann klopft er ihm auf die Schulter und gibt öffentlich zu, dass er falsch lag.
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@JeremyCliffe @APHClarkson That is most definitely not a important reason, all the exit polls/surveys show that clearly.
It's about the popularity of the candidates and the fact that BW greens are rather conservative.
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Another way in which an Özdemir win would matter: in an age of greenlash, Germany's car-making homeland would have voted in a minister-president who champions electric cars while his CDU opponent worships the internal combustion engine.
youtube.com/shorts/_BsItu2…
YouTube
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Polls have closed in the first of this year's five German state elections, in prosperous Baden-Württemberg. It's looking like a remarkable win-from-behind by the Greens under @cem_oezdemir. Full results over the course of the evening.
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@APHClarkson that they rely heavily on older voters. The mojo is with the left and right wingers.
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@APHClarkson Well, they never find a candidate that is popular. Greens don't win in BW because they are green, but because they have charismatic, seasoned candidates and because they are much more conservative then the federal greens.
What should worry them is...
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This is hands down one of the funniest German politics election results in decades.
If BaWü CDU was a football team it would blow a 10 point Meisterschaft lead in the final month of every season
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❗️Trump said Mojtaba Khamenei's leadership is unacceptable and that he personally must have a role in selecting Iran's next supreme leader, comparing it to what was done in Venezuela.
Like a true dictator. #Iran
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BREAKING
President Trump tells Axios he must be personally involved in picking the next supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and that Khamenei’s son is not an acceptable option.
Full Story: bit.ly/4lb9TsV
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@markito0171 That would be great for Orbans election, wouldn't it?
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@APHClarkson If Erdoğan wants to stay in power, he needs the Kurdish parties. So he can't be to brutal.
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Turkish responses to a Kurdish military incursion into Iran would depend entirely on how much leverage the Turkish state has over those insurgent forces.
Ankara's responses are not going to be as straightforward as many assume.
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@MohammadAr98813 @Osinttechnical If you want to sprout nonsensical propaganda, at least use ChatGPT to write your posts. Your English is atrocious.
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@Osinttechnical And thank u for upgrading them for iran. They got the pkg that was successfully fell intact in iraq. Americians r quite generious in sealing their own fates either by jews, own gov, iran.
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@JeremyCliffe @tazgezwitscher Sad thing is making jokes is all they are capable of. Their politics are rather unpopular.
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Germany’s @tazgezwitscher on Merz’s trip to Washington: “Clueless tourist stranded in crisis zone”
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@FurkanGozukara We had the same discussion when those drones appeared in 🇺🇦. They found cheaper ways to shot them down there, will happen here to.
Your islamo-fashist friends are finished. Even if the regime survives they will be a shadow of their former self.
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CNN will never give you this info :
Iran sends a drone at a US base. It costs $50k. America fires a $1m missile. It misses, so two more follow. $3m spent to kill one $50k drone. Iran makes 500 a day and has 80,000 stocked. Cheap drones. Costly missiles. Math ain't mathing
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@RALee85 @Deepstate_UA What are the perceived reasons? Weather, Starlink?
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.@Deepstate_UA assesses that Russia occupied 126 square kilometers of territory in February, the slowest monthly rate of advance since July 2024.
t.me/DeepStateUA/23…
Rob Lee@RALee85
.@Deepstate_UA assesses that Russia occupied 445 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in December. 35% of these advances occurred in the Slovyansk/Siversk direction and 26.5% in the Pokrovsk direction. t.me/DeepStateUA/23…
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@Teoyaomiquu Well you could continue to insult Europeans for being to cowardly. Certainly made me stop donating. To your fundraisers, not to others.
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It's been incredibly challenging for me to fundraise as of late, but you can help by simply reposting, liking and commenting. Thank you so much. We are currently stuck at 44% and it's not moving at all .
✙ Constantine ✙@Teoyaomiquu
Hello, our shop in Kharkiv is working non-stop to deliver the engineering equipment. We are some of our best to make sure Ukrainian units have means to build fortifications and shelters. I am asking for your help by donating or sharing, liking and commenting on this post. New equipment such as this costs 140,000$ per machine. We are buying them for 20k-30k repairing for 10k and with logistics average cost of the 7 ton excavator is around 30-40k USD. This is 1/3 to 1/4 of the cost of the new machine, and after the repairs it's ready to work for another 3-4 years. Now, why are these machines so important? Whatever video of the Ukrainian command center, drone pilot position, infantry position or an artillery position you see in the news, it's always buried underground. Ukraine has severe engineering equipment shortages to build the fortifications. On top of that, centralized engineering units often build something that isn't as functional as needed. Our organization empowers battalion and brigade level units with excavators to build exactly what they need and save lives of their service men. I am asking you to donate to our cause, we have been providing aid to Ukraine for the past 4 years, and as of late, donations have dried out and fundraising became extremely difficult. Please consider donating: Donation link: paypal.com/donate?campaig…
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@fbermingham @noahbarkin It's not a German task it's a EU task. And other then all the China fans are insisting, efforts are under way.
But developing technology that substitutes or avoids rare earth magnets for example is not flashy enough. So people don't care.
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"Lastly, there is a growing sense, nearly a year into the Merz government, that the challenge of de-risking from China is too big and complex a challenge for the German state to tackle. All the stars have aligned."
From @noahbarkin
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“The first thing Xi said to Merz was that unification with Taiwan would happen,” one person who was on the trip told me. This triggered what one diplomat described to me as an “intensive discussion” between the two leaders on Taiwan.
open.substack.com/pub/nbarkin/p/…
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Ayatollah Alireza Arafi has been named Iran's interim Supreme Leader following the killing of Khamenei, sharing duties with President Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Mohseni Ejei until a permanent successor is chosen, Iranian media reported. #Iran
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