Martin Ruskov @mapto@qoto.org

The schizophrenia of these people is mind-blowing:
"Europe faces growing tensions with the US – its chief supplier of liquefied natural gas – over Donald Trump’s desire to take over Greenland. At a summit in Davos on Tuesday, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, criticised Europe’s adoption of solar and wind, arguing that its lack of domestic battery factories risked making it “subservient” to China.

“If you are going to be dependent on someone, it had better be your best allies,” he said in a justification of the “America first” approach that he encouraged other countries to emulate."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/22/wind-and-solar-overtook-fossil-fuels-in-power-generation-for-eu-in-2025-report

@energisch_ @carolecadwalla.bsky.social let me try too: the picture is the cover of this work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Powerless

Mark Carney on the rupturing world order in Davos. This is an important call to collective action.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7052901

This is how superficial one needs to get to justify an argument of US global supremacy. Arthur Herman and WSJ deliberately choose to ignore Taiwan's unmatched leadership in superconductors and China's in energy. Instead, they turn to Soviet-style resources and headcount arguments. Apparently there is a force driving them to sacrifice whatever authority they might still have.
"China remains formidable. But from Europe and the Middle East to South America and Southeast Asia, the U.S. sets the agenda while China struggles with a leadership crisis. Beijing’s one remaining strategic initiative is its threat to Taiwan. Although very real, this threat is directed at an island less than 100 miles off its coast with 1/60th of its population, which perfectly sums up China’s shrinking influence."
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/america-is-the-sole-superpower-again-0a89e41a

@_elena you know pixelating is pointless since you explain how to see the original list, don't you.

@kristinHenry this message probably needs to be directed to a very specific audience.

I personally hate Italian schools using whatsapp as the only official channel. But that's a conversation I need to have with a couple of very specific people... and it's a long-term effort :(

@SonofaGeorge @TheConversationUS well, not much different from the developed countries. I personally am from Eastern Europe where problems are very similar to China. But even if you look at the US, it's been surviving on immigration. Yet, Trump only acts on popular opinion when trying to curb immigration.

He is successful in it because he is deprived of empathy, but his success is crashing the economy and he will quickly lose popular support. This backlash to immigration is also the driver of the growth of the far right in the EU. Which puts us all in the very same situation you describe in China.

By the way, if Russia is an evidence for something, it is that tyrants with an aging population get more ruthless, not less.