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MrMakabar

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Falling birth rate in France: 'We may be witnessing a period of very rapid and highly gendered social change' ( www.lemonde.fr )

The decline in the number of births should be seen in connection with the 'gender divergence' between increasingly progressive young women and increasingly conservative young men, observes economist Pauline Grosjean in her column....

MrMakabar ,
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It is already hitting hard and not just Western countries. The fertility rate is below replacement on every continent besides Africa already. Countries like China and Thailand have shrinking populations today. The global fertility rate was at 2.3 in 2023 according to the UN.

MrMakabar ,
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2/3 of global trade is done in US dollars. However a lot of that has currency risk, like say Chinese companies paying their Chinese workers in yuan. So if the dollar looses value compared to other currencies, the old contracts can lead to exporters selling their products for less then they are worth. That is not a good situation to be in for a lot of companies.

In other words Northern Rock would be a joke compared to this.

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She is a hardcore Communist. Her father was a guerilla leader in the Venezuelan jungle. It was obvious to anybody, that she would betray Trump at the first oppurtunity. However being able to sell oil to the US and pay some money to Trump directly via some Qatari payment scheme is still much better then having full blown sanctions on Venezuela. Rodriguez is also a realists and understands that this is actually an oppurtunity to strengthen the country, if it is played smartly.

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The main purpose of the board is to oversee the Gaza ceasefire. So this will probably lead to a bunch of Muslim leaders openly supporting Israel in some votes. To be fair they do not care and many openly do very similar things themself or even took part in it like Egypt. Still the population of the countries does care and mostly supports Palestine.

MrMakabar ,
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Europe is not looking at China too much. The entire "no-limits friendship" with Russia is hurting that relationship pretty badly.

Nato chief cannot negotiate on behalf of Greenland or Denmark, says Danish PM ( www.theguardian.com )

The Danish government has said Mark Rutte cannot negotiate on behalf of Denmark or Greenland over the future of the Arctic island, as the broad outlines of a deal apparently struck by the Nato secretary general and Donald Trump began to emerge....

MrMakabar ,
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If he got Greenland enough time, until the US invades Iran, then it would be fine. Btw Iran war is coming soo. Trump is already moving military assets for it.

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There are the National Guard and State Guards, which could do that.

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The Danes arrived on Greenland before the Inuit. They then settled and left after a few centuries, but indigenous is a problematic argument for Greenland being independent.

‘No other option’: inside the refugee camp for trans Americans fleeing Trump ( www.theguardian.com )

Ter Apel, a small, unassuming Dutch town near the German border, is a place tourists rarely have on their itinerary. There are no lovely old windmills, no cannabis-filled coffee shops and on a recent visit it was far too early for tulip season....

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Especially being an IT professional and going to the Netherlands. DAFT visas, which are for entrepreneurs seem to be one of the most common ways to get into the EU.

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Sure, but there are a lot of countries, which are either cheap enough to retire to or are willing to accept qualified US workers. Also a lot of Americans have some relatively recent migrant background and might apply for citizenship by decent from some countries.

Trump Is Obsessed With Oil. But Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World ( www.nytimes.com )

Chinese technology companies are paving the way for a world that will be powered by electric motors rather than gas-guzzling engines. It is a decisively 21st-century approach not just to solve its own energy problems, but also to sell batteries and other electric products to everyone else. Canada is its newest buyer of EVs; in a...

MrMakabar ,
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And, of course, the crooked politicians here in Europe are actually following America more than China in this.

That is much less the case then it might appear. Out of the Top10 largest EV makers three are European(Volkswagen, BMW and Stellantis). When you look at wind, Europe has a few of the largest companies in the world. Europe is also basically the only place even attempting to compete with China in batteries, since Trump cut US support for that industry. There are plenty of more niche industries as well, in which Europe has some very strong companies.

‘The dollar is losing credibility’: why central banks are scrambling for gold ( www.theguardian.com )

As Donald Trump shatters the global rules-based order, official institutions (and private investors) are scrambling to buy gold: the share of the asset in central banks’ reserves has doubled in the past decade to more than a quarter, the highest level in almost 30 years....

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The USD has dropped significantly already. A year ago 1€=1.0279$ today it is 1€=1.1595$. That is a nearly 13% drop in value.

Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests ( www.theguardian.com )

The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies – particularly in Europe – feel ever more distant....

MrMakabar ,
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Maduro was hostile to the EU too. Why would the EU help a Russian ally to stay in power? Taiwan however is a friend.

But actually more important then that is that a lot of other countries dislike China and have territorial conflicts with them. India, Japan and the entire South China Sea conflict come to mind. They are all going to respond no matter what the US does. It is also unlikely to only be a kidnapping, but has to be a full invasion.

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Canada is running a pretty strong boycott of US products right now. For example of the Canadians planning a trip to the US in 2025 56% of them cancelled it or went to another destination, which is not the US. Seriously airlines are replanning their flights, due to the massive drop in demand. Something similar is happening with US products and services, but some are hard to replace. However Netflix and Amazon are not.

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Canada has a land border with Denmark on Hans Island

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Wero is a replacement for PayPal. SEPA stands for Single **European **Payment Area.

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A lot of countries have local debit cards, which work for local shops and allow you to withdraw money. For France that would be Carte Bancaire (CB) for example. The obvious solution would be to link all of them up. Preferably with a common standard to be issued with new cards. There are co branded ones with Visa and MasterCard, so it should be possible.

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SEPA is obviously European and France has its own debit card CB, which is commonly accepted in stores and by atms. So it is a matter of creating a few million CB cards for the French who do not have them.

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They have to request the use of private land and obviously most of Greenland and Denmark is not a US military base.

MrMakabar ,
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I did not had Trump joing Just Stop Oil on my 2026 bingo card.

Trump leaves Venezuela's opposition sidelined and Maduro's party in power ( apnews.com )

Venezuela’s opposition supporters have long hoped for the day when Nicolás Maduro is no longer in power — a dream that was fulfilled when the U.S. military whisked the authoritarian leader away. But while Maduro is in jail in New York on drug trafficking charges, the leaders of his repressive administration remain in...

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Chevron owns some oil production in Venezuela. Trump put sanctions on that in Feburary. If they restart that it would probably be around the 50million barrel mark this year and more in the coming years.

EDIT: If he is talking about that.

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Those elections are in nearly two years and the polls still look decent for Tusk. Poland might even move left, if Razem gains ground.

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Bold of you to presume he has a soul.

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I see the organized crime debt market needed an extra boost....

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The same group has a history of attacking the German railway system. So I am just going to call bs on them caring about the enviroment. Honestly this smells like a Russian operation to make the German left look like cunts. We actually know that they paid people to destroy combustion engine cars and leave paphlemts calling the German Green Party resposnible for it.

I know they are anarchists, but it is probably imporant to say, that the power plant is owned by the city state of Berlin.

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There is currently some thought, that Russia is behind it. One of the signs of it, is that they write of a politican named Vans. They probably mean Vance, but used some translation system from Russian, were Vans and Vance are spelled the same way.

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If you want to blame leftist environmentalists for something it is usually about them trying to destroy the social order and wanting to ban everything. When you take those ideas to the extreme you end up at anarcho-primitivism. Since few people have any idea what anarcho-primitivism even is and a lot of the media is on the side of the right, you just let the journalist call them say "Leftwing militants" and let them quote some pro environmental stuff to blame that group. Hell the Guardian did that too. That way more moderate leftist and environmental groups will be seen as terrorists, which let thousands suffer.

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and they meet Maduro a few hourse before he was kidnapped.

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Then why is China building aircraft carriers?

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The honest truth is that Europe benefits from what Trump just did. Venezuela has a lot of oil, which it can not produce due to lacking technology. What they had in that tech they bought from Russia financing the war Europe cares about the most. With more Venezuelan oil on the market oil prices will fall, which hurts Russia. At the same time lower oil prices means less money to wage wars in the Middle East, which is good for Europe.

Venezuela's government accuses US of attacking civilian, military installations in multiple states ( apnews.com )

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — At least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time Saturday in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. The government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations in multiple states....

MrMakabar ,
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This is not a coup, but an invasion. A coup would be local elites overthrowing the government. This however is clearly the US.

MrMakabar ,
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This is going to end up badly. Venezuela has a lot of armed groups and crime anyway. Some of them will fight the US. With all the drugs in South America, they probably will end up financing themself using drug money, creating exactly what the US claims Venezuela is today.

The good part is that Maduro is incompetent, so there is a chance of somebody better leading the country at some point.

MrMakabar ,
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Just look at Venezuelas economy. Hyperinflation, people starving, local production collapsing due to subsidies foreign competition and so forth. To be clear this was not due to sanctions. This got really bad when Maduro became president in 2013 and sanctions only started in 2017.

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At some point, does not mean the US puppet government will be good. However so far we have seen US supported puppets be kicked out of the countries at some point. Whoever manages to do that is probably going to be some sort of leftist and at least is competent enough to kick out the Americans.

MrMakabar ,
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The sanctions against Venezuela under Chavez were about as serious as US sanctions against Israel. The US does not care about what you do, as long as you deliver oil to them.

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Like with Cuba, the Democrats have maintained the pressure on Venezuela.

Nope, Biden cut sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba.

Obama killed Gaddafi for his African currency.

Gaddafi was killed by his own people for being a dictator.

Democrats must have been involved in the recent changes in Peru, Bolivia and Equador.

Peru did have elections and some issues, but nothing which could be called a regime change. Similar story for Ecuador. Bolivia had a failed coup, but that is not a regime change.

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Jack reads: "This is going to end up badly."

Jack thinks: "That guy must support the US invasion of Venezuela"

Really?

MrMakabar ,
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It’s crazy people don’t talk about Israel’s connection to Epstein and the child rape ring…

Epstein had contacts to basically everybody. That makes it easy to highlight connections of his to groups or people you dislike, while ignoring the ones, which you like. So some die hard Zionist can easily ignore the Mossad connections and focus on for example Chomsky. Since most media is pro Israel, they basically always just focus on Trump or Clinton instead.

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Just fyi Nigeria has the 11th largest oil reserves in the worl.

MrMakabar ,
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It kind of does, but then you look at the list and kind of realize a pattern of this Trump administrations actions.

  1. Venezuela - common threats of war, seizing tankers
  2. Saudi
  3. Iran - recently bombed and heavy sanctions
  4. Iraq
  5. Canada - annexation threats
  6. UAE
  7. Kuwait
  8. Russia - heavy sanctions and it kind of looks like support to blowing up tankers by Ukraine
  9. USA
  10. Libya
  11. Nigeria - recent bombing

This has not even been a year and we are 5/11 with one of the countries being the US.

MrMakabar ,
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Usha Vance is going to have a lovely time.

MrMakabar ,
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Obviously. Everybody knows that if the US is able to invade Venezuela and set up some puppet government. The big question is if they end up with some sort of rebell movement. That however would be supported secretly. Also neither helped Iran, so that was to be expected.

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You got to hand it to Infantino. I thought that going lower then the "I feel a migrant worker" speech was impossible, but the cut off hands dooming earth award for Trump might just do it.

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That can be changed. Pretty sure Trump is not opposed to slavery.