Ricardo Silva

April 2026 was the worst April for drought in US recorded history, dating back to 1895. Yes, even worse than the Dust Bowl.

Link to the petition: eci.ec.europa.eu/055/public/#/s…

I don't know if people understand just how insanely egregious this is. First of all, 1) not only are NATO spending targets NOT legally binding (nothing in any NATO-related legal text mandates a specific GDP-based threshold for defense spending), but on top of this 2) Spain requested AND RECEIVED an exemption from the 5% target at the 2025 Hague Summit - NATO changed the declaration's language specifically to allow Spain to sign while publicly declaring it would not comply (jurist.org/news/2025/06/n…) This means that, legally speaking and according to NATO's own rules, Spain is doubly within its rights: there is no binding obligation to begin with, and Spain was excused from even this non-binding obligation. That's the first point: Germany's chancellor just endorsed - from the Oval Office - the U.S. punishing a fellow EU nation for refusing to comply with an obligation that doesn't exist in law, under a political pledge Spain was excused from at a NATO summit. The second point is that this 5% target has nothing to do with "defense", quite the contrary in fact: it is pretty explicitly an imperial tribute to the U.S. that will actually **weaken** European defense. That was Spain's main argument for refusing to comply: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that "committing to 5% would not make us any safer" because it "would only reinforce our dependence" on the U.S. (tiempoar.com.ar/ta_article/ped…) That's the insane thing about EU defense spending: in recent years, the more it has spent on defense, the more that spending has flowed to American contractors as opposed to European ones, making the EU defense industry weaker (x.com/adam_tooze/sta…). Increasing spending to 5% doesn't strengthen European defense: it accelerates exactly this transfer. All the more insane given the well-documented production backlogs in the U.S. defense industry and its inability to produce at scale: US defense analysts - including from Trump-adjacent think tanks like AEI (aei.org/research-produ…) - openly acknowledge that European customers would be deprioritized behind U.S. ones in any real conflict. AND, critically, a defense industry from a country that's increasingly hostile to Europe - explicitly so in its National Security Strategy - and whose weaponry has "kill switches" that allows for remote disabling. I mean, the sheer madness of it: anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that DOUBLING your defense spending to enrich a foreign arms industry that has kill switches on your weapons, can't meet its own military's needs, and increasingly treats you as an adversary, is not even remotely a defense strategy - it's suicide. That's why having Merz - in the oval office, sitting next to Trump - endorse economic coercion against the one EU country that's still sane enough to see through this madness is so egregious, and frankly straight-up traitorous. For those who know Asterix and Obelix, Spain is the "one small village still holding out against the invaders" and Merz is Cassius Ceramix, the self-described "gallo-roman" Gaul village chief who's the incarnation of all sycophants after his tribe were conquered by the Romans. I'm with Asterix, and all Europeans should be too.

Industrialism inherently lacks resilience. The richest countries on Earth—who have been systematically looting the Global South for hundreds of years—thought they were immune to the fundamental fragility of long supply chains, energy-intensive production, & high-input ag. Alas…

@bundeskanzler One of the two war criminals who triggered these developments with the illegal invasion of Iran is wanted by the ICC, and your government is harbouring him, in violation of your obligations under international law.

No objection to the $$$ & I love the idea, but I still think it would be smarter to start with a program that doesn’t involve retail locations. Could use the city’s procurement & logistics to supply a citywide buyers cooperative or municipal CSA-type program right away, then grow

It is unbelievable how nonchalantly leaders like @kajakallas and @vonderleyen continue to ignore (and stand against) intl law and the decisions of the highest intl Courts re Israel: among others, I shall remind them, the ICJ ordered Israel to: - withdraw its troops and remove settlers from the WHOLE OF THE OPT by September 17, 2025 and meahwile - other states not to recognise, aid and assist Israel in its wrongdoings. No one can ask Israel to ensure anything other than LEAVING and then responding to justice. It is that simple. Instead, @kajakallas and @vonderleyen's persistence denote knowledge, intent and purpose, which shall be missed by the relevant authorities when assessing their failure to prevent and stop genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and bring to an end the underlying unlawful occupation.

Se sim, nao e' estranho que o artigo tenha o enfoque nas desventuras financeiras destes 2% com mais do que 100 mil euros nas suas contas? estamos a falar de dinheiro publico para ser usado em emergencias, nao? ou e' dinheiro publico a ser canalizado para os que ja sao ricos?

@Publico duvida no artigo sobre depositos nao cobertos pelo fundo de garantia: estamos a falar apenas de 2% de depositantes? isto e', 98% das pessoas (e/ou entidades legais?) com depositos bancarios esta' coberta? publico.pt/2025/07/18/eco…

The EU claims to care about Gaza and human rights — but right now, behind closed doors, they’re backing down on real measures that could stop Israel’s crimes. On Tuesday, July 15, EU leaders will vote on whether to suspend trade with Israel and finally hold it accountable. They just struck a deal with Israel to allow some aid deliveries — and now they’re hiding behind that deal as an excuse for inaction on Tuesday. Don’t let them. EU leaders: Suspend Israel. No more excuses. @kajakallas, @Antonio_Tajani, @jnbarrot, @radek_sikorski, @jowadephul, @BMeinl, @CasparVeldkamp, and @SimonHarrisTD

On this day 100 years ago, Patrice Lumumba was born. A leader of Congo’s independence movement and its first Prime Minister, he was arrested, tortured, and finally murdered in January 1961 — just months after his country’s liberation from Belgian colonial rule.

BREAKING 🇪🇸🇵🇸 Steel giant Sidenor has suspended all commercial relations with the State of Israel. Earlier this week, the @palyouthmvmt revealed a planned Sidenor shipment of 122 tonnes of steel to Israeli Military Industries (IMI) out of the port of Barcelona. IMI is owned by Elbit Systems, the largest Israeli arms manufacturer operating across the world — and supplied by Sidenor out of Spain for at least 10 months. Now — following the agitation of trade unions such as ESK, LAB, and ELA, and the mobilization of RESCOP, @Palestina_cat, and @BDSmovement — Sidenor has announced its intention to suspend all steel shipments to Israeli ports. Meanwhile, @palestina_cat has filed a complaint with the National Court against Sidenor for alleged complicity in the genocide in Palestine. Their demand now — echoed by the @ProgIntl and the @palyouthmvmt — is urgent: That neither this steel nor any other dual-use steel leaves the port of Barcelona. Join the fight — and help win a people's embargo in Spain and across the world.

Stay safe, my friends. I am painfully aware of the risks you are taking on behalf of all of us—of Humanity. Diplomats & politicians around the world: The Flotilla Giants are taking the heavy lift. PLEASE make sure they are protected, will you? This is the least you can do.

@KelseyTuoc @laurashin Is it slavery if you need to work 3 jobs in order to survive, like so many in the US? Is it slavery if a multinational bought up all the land, automated monoculture farming and then people had to leave for the city for call center jobs? How much exploitation can you live with?

@laurashin That’s very fair! I don’t mind significant further environmental regulations and I strongly support bans on suppliers credibly accused of involvement in slavery.

I dislike having to plead with the public to make the case for the worthiness of the things I want to spend my money on; it's a free country, and it should be sufficient that it's my money. But I keep having conversations in which I say 'yeah I like cheap low quality goods and they make my life better' and people express incredulity at the very idea, or insist that I'm rationalizing what is obviously a deep void of meaninglessness, so let me describe what cheap goods mean to me. The first thing it means is that I can try things. If a hobby requires gear or supplies or books or whatever else, and there's no cheap version of those things, I know myself - I simply never dip my toes in the water in the first place. It's not worth spending $1000 to figure out whether my kids like camping. But if camping gear is cheap, we'll try it. We did some camping with cheap gear, we liked it, now maybe we'll upgrade and get good, long-lasting stuff. I started playing D&D with a $5 bag of dice. I've spent an embarrassing amount on gorgeous metal dice now, but if it'd cost that much to get started I would never have tried at all. 5yo developed an enthusiasm for armored knights and swordfighting, so we tried out some SCA events. Because it's easy to get cheap Viking tunics, I now own one. I was never going to spend hundreds of dollars on the nice version. (I was also never, realistically, going to find something that niche on the local buy nothing groups which I participate in.) When consumer goods are expensive, it's not worth taking risks and trying things you might end up disliking, or might not have the skill to execute on. We had an awful landing on our stairs where the door to the yard opened and the wood was badly damaged by six years of people tracking in water and mud. I wanted to try putting down vinyl tile flooring there, but I'd never laid vinyl flooring before and I'm not exactly a home improvement pro. I wouldn't have tried it if it was expensive, but it was $20, so I was willing to take the leap. It turns out to be very easy to install and it looks so much better now. With greater confidence in my DIY skills I've ordered wallpaper for the kids' rooms. The fact that consumer goods are cheap also lets me try out companies I don't already know and trust. If something costs $200, I'm only going to buy from a company that has a good reputation, where I trust the warranty, which has been around a while. For cheaper products, I'm willing to take a chance on new entrants just off seeing an ad and some credible good reviews. The second thing it means is that I can do crafts and experiments and activities at the microschool. It has ten kids now; buying ten of anything will start to pinch the pocketbook. But because consumer goods are cheap, I can buy the things we need for papermaking when we're learning about how papermaking works, or model city kits when we're talking about urban design, or play money for practice making change and running a business. I can buy a gumball machine so we can take it apart and look at the mechanism. I can buy so, so many books. Do you have any idea how expensive books used to be? Do you have any idea how many our microschool library now has? My children will never run out of good books to read because consumer goods are cheap. Or they were cheap, last week. I keep talking to people who have in mind huge swathes of the consumer economy that they're sure we don't really need. Big TVs, someone said to me last week. Surely you can admit we don't really need big TVs. I do not admit this. Sometimes six or eight kids want to crowd around downstairs in my home and watch a movie or play Smash together and they need a big TV. 4-cent bouncy balls, surely we don't need those. I do not admit this; I bought a bunch for a civics lesson last week. Would it be such a big deal if toasters were $100? Yes, because I would never buy one to disassemble and learn how it works. How about Shein clothes, surely no one needs those? Actually, I kind of like that I can attend costume parties! I have a cheap Victorian ballgown with an absurd hoopskirt my children like to hide under, and it makes my life better! I would not pay four times more for a better version of any of these things. I would just do without them; they are not important enough to break the bank for. But my life would be worse without them. It would have less spontaneity in it, less curiosity, less whim, less exploration. If you find that cheap consumer goods cause you depression, my condolences. I think that's a skill issue. Cheap consumer goods make it easier for me to live the life I want to live, surrounded by the people I want to live it with, while donating to charity and saving for retirement and living within my means. You can raise my taxes, but don't pretend you're really truly doing me a favor while you do it.

@KelseyTuoc Of course everyone likes cheap stuff. The problem is that stuff is cheap due to a massively unjust system that seems to be benefiting you for now. There's not enough earths for everyone to live like you - so you singing praises to cheapness is at best naive & at worst complicit.

@ben_j_todd The insurance sector is about to collapse due to extreme weather events et al. But maybe that kind of data is not convenient for the growth-acolytes of world in data? Also, biodiversity and ecosystem collapse means no food. I hope you can also see how that is relevant.

Natural disasters are only 0.06% of global deaths and declining. Why no pandemics, Taiwan conflict, nuclear attack?

Survey of 900 experts by World Economic Forum reveals they have bizarre views about the biggest global risks. Most severe 10 year risk is extreme weather events??

A minimum fact-based headline appropriate for this week would be something like: "Israeli soldiers have beheaded babies, murdered aid workers in summary executions, and carried out targeted assassinations of journalists in an escalation of the ongoing Western-backed genocide".

“On Abundance” I wrote about the absurdity of the neoliberal and light pink flavors of abundance, and the failure of the dominant vision for degrowth. Also: what we should do instead L 🌱 i 🌱 n 🌱 k 🌻 I 🌱 n 🌻 B 🌱 i 🌱 o 🌱

@jasonhickel I'd argue it does have a vision: shiny technology and impressive wealth displays. The amount of vanity metrics around it are overwhelming, distracting you from the actual metrics of profit, distorting the concept of progress until you believe it is actually desirable

What's striking about capitalist civilization is that it has no real direction. There's no vision for social progress, no commitment to improving human welfare or ecology. All we get is the chaos of profit-oriented production and accumulation as the world burns around us.

Under intl'law, persecuting those who oppose Apartheid constitutes Apartheid itself. As we may be confronted with a case of global Apartheid, defending the defender is a global civic duty.