Moved over the past 6 months, but on the down low. I suspect we’ll be hearing similar stories from other central banks sooner, rather than later.

Not surprising. There’s been talk of removing gold from the US for a while now. For example Germany and Italy together hold over 2000 tonnes in the US. But there’s been plenty of talk of removing a large proportion of that.

AFAIK France already removed their last remaining gold at the beginning of the year.

I wonder if Blair’s suffering from a psychotic break.

Genuinely delusional thinking.

I’m being unfair. Perhaps he’s just the messenger for someone who’s suffering from a psychotic break.

Although Greece has closer ties with Ukraine, due to the whole Orthodox thing, Ukraine has less missiles to spare. Especially not in the time frame the Israelis are offering. I googled, should be operational within 3 years.

Israel also has plenty of experience fending off the kind of drones the Russians use too, like the Shahed.

In any case, from what I’m reading the Greeks are buying a fully layered Air Defense system, part of the money they’re going to spend will flow back to Greek manufacturers, Cyrpiot manufacturers may also become a production location, and they’re also getting access to the source code, etc. etc. The whole thing will also integrate with their own systems and allow them to develop related industries in Greece and Cyprus.

Alternative is for example buying from the US, but they’re not exactly reliable, and if you ever get what you ordered, you’ll end up paying too much for something that arrived a decade too late.

As the likelihood of war increases, I’m afraid you’ll see more of this kind of thing in the coming years. Israel does have good products to sell, if you’re willing to look the other way.

Necessitas non habet legem - Necessity has no law.

TLDR: Yup. Realpolitik.

Not at all ominous.

Greece and Turkey are historic enemies and the latter’s relationship with Israel has worsened, there’s gas and pipelines to think about, the whole Cyprus thing, Israel has expertise on anti-drone technology at a time Russia is an increased threat, etc. etc.

It makes perfect strategic sense, even if the Greek public are increasingly critical of Israel.

TLDR: Realpolitik. Amoral, unethical, but rational and pragmatic.

Agreed. I think they would have been in a very strong negotiating position.

I think they can’t fathom a changing world where the US or other powers might threaten them or push them around, and couldn’t grasp why joining the EU would make them safer. They’re reliant on NATO for protection, but don’t seem to realise that the US might pull out of NATO sooner rather than later.

They also didn’t seem to understand how being part of a larger whole, could have made them more and not less autonomous. Which is understandable, because it does sound counter-intuitive.

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US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White condemned Cofnas’s suspension and said the Trump administration would review its relationship with the university.

The US will never recover from the diplomatic damage this administration has done and continues to do on an almost daily basis.

Highly unserious people.

You’re not wrong. Hell, a few weeks ago I was banned 500 times by some weirdo, I now suspect because I interacted with you or maybe upvoted one of your comments.

But I hope you’re aware that you may be suffering from CPTSD related hyper vigilance. CPTSD because of all the (ongoing) trauma you face because you’re enby, hyper vigilance because you are now constantly aware of threats.

It’s a perfectly understandable reaction, but it can be very exhausting. Having to carry a knife to a supermarket or be prepared for an attacker while taking a shit, isn’t a fun way to live.

I hope you have been able to create a sanctuary where you can feel safe. I hope you’re also able to get the help you need coping with it. My CPTSD is caused by other things, but for example I find grounding exercises and keeping a gratitude journal useful. Doesn’t change the cause of my CPTSD, but has helped me cope.

So to be clear, I am absolutely not saying that the threats you face aren’t real, but suggesting you take care of yourself because you can’t be hyper vigilant all the time without it negatively impacting you.

TLDR: take care of yourself and an internet hug.

Hope the Russian fascist regime doesn’t decide to take a gamble and test NATO.

The last time the CIA chief visited Moscow was shortly before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Not great that he’s just visited again.

I know Europe’s weak and divided, but Russia taking yet another stupid gamble will backfire. I worry that it will also spark a dangerous nationalist backlash. Europe, nationalism and militarism aren’t a great combo.

On the other hand, according to some climate estimates European cities might face maximum temperatures of 50 (120F) by 2050. So maybe a nuclear winter is for the best.

I mean, I take the bus and occasional taxi, fundamentally not that different. Especially now that that’s increasingly difficult if not impossible to do with cash.

Also, unlike the US most modern cars in Europe already have tracking and monitoring included with eCall, that automatically sends your GPS location to emergency services. Ie. the police can track you at all times anyway. And obviously they’re tracking your phone 24/7.

no flock surveillance needed👍🏻

Are you American? The UK doesn’t have flock AFAIK. There’s already a much larger network of CCTV, facial recognition vans, license plate scanners, and the like which are being supplemented by palantir contracts as we speak. This has been a thing for decades now. Millions of cameras across the UK.

You’re shit out of luck already in the UK, unless you cycle everywhere and dress appropriately.

Punishments for drivers are almost universally lenient, unfortunately.

Bit of a tangent, don’t know what happened here, but risk taking behaviour is often associated with suicidality.

I’m not alone in thinking that a lot of suicidal behaviour, conscious or unconscious, flies under the radar because it happens in traffic.

It’s weird how if someone’s suffering mental health issues, we wouldn’t leave them alone with a knife or enough medication to overdose on, but will leave them a set of car keys.

Really hope fully self-driving cars will come on the market soon.

Winter tyre maximum is often lower. 100mph/160kmh is common.

I regularly reach speeds of 240kmh/150mph on the Autobahn. Bog standard VW. TBH it’s boring.

For those wondering, yes it can save time.

For example, if you maintain a high average speed driving from Brussels to Berlin, roughly 750km, you can make it under 6 hours. Add a short lunch break and that means you’re able to leave Brussels in the morning and arrive in Berlin before the rush hour begins. Perhaps still do something in Berlin after you’ve arrived.

If you maintain 80mph/130kmh, in theory it’d take 6-7 hours, but you’re far more likely to get stuck in rush hour traffic. That means you potentially end up DOUBLING journey time. At which point you arrive in the dark and too tired to go to an interview or whatever. Day after sucks too.

So driving fast makes the car a viable alternative to a plane or the ever unreliable Deutsche Bahn. And if you’re not alone in the car, it’s far more environmentally friendly than the plane, even if you’re driving fast.

This is all theoretical. IME nowadays Germany’s Autobahn is 50% road works.

Actually why can any car go that fast?

German car, Autobahn. But most modern cars can go similarly fast. Petrol/gas usually faster than comparable diesel.

The high top speed is a by-product of the amount of power cars now have, power they need to accelerate from 0-60 fast enough for modern traffic, get up a hill, tow a caravan or whatever, and to comfortably and safely maintain motorway speeds.

Cars which can’t reach higher speeds are really slow to accelerate and aren’t comfortable, reliable, or safe at motorway speeds.

Eg. depending on the model a Lada Niva will have a top speed of only 120kph/75mph, but you really wouldn’t want to drive over 100kmh/60mph for extended periods. It’s not reliable, comfortable, safe, and I suspect it isn’t efficient either.

Now obviously, you could limit the top speed but that’s a matter of regulation, and relatively easy to bypass.

Luckily this will soon largely be a thing of the past, electric cars are different. AFAIK you can achieve acceptable levels of acceleration with lower top speeds.

Wouldn’t be surprised. I used the ‘if’ in my comment above advisedly.

Agreed.

I think a lot of people don’t realise that academic texts, especially in the humanities, are sometimes 90% quotes of someone else’s work. It’s easy to paraphrase someone a bit too close for comfort, and fail to cite previous works sufficiently or properly.

This being said, even if this poor guy did plagiarise blatantly, hardly a national news story let alone so much coverage. Something that could have been dealt with internally and reported on when it was resolved. Quite obviously a deliberate racist right wing witch hunt.

Given the context, I assume they mean that Burnham is apologising for a too pro-Israel initial response to what happened in Gaza. Something which of course would further strain the UK’s relationship with Israel.

I found a French source. The only organisation which has complained is CIFOG, an organisation which represents French foie gras makers. As far as I can tell the rest of France doesn’t give a shit.