Martin Ruskov @mapto@qoto.org

Across Europe, the financial sector has pushed up house prices. It’s a political timebomb

"While housing lies at the heart of political disillusionment today, it is for the same reason becoming a primary trigger for mobilisation across Europe. In October 2024, 150,000 protesters marched through the streets of Madrid demanding action. Some governments, including Denmark and the Netherlands, are introducing policies to deter speculators. But real estate capital continues to hold the power, so it continues to get its way – including by exploiting loopholes, and lobbying against policies that put profits at risk. In 2021, Berliners voted in favour of expropriating and socialising apartments owned by stock-listed landlords. But under pressure from the real estate lobby, politicians have stalled this motion. That same year Blackstone – Spain’s largest landlord with 40,000 housing units – opposed plans to impose a 30% target for social housing in institutional portfolios. Struggles against the immense structural power of real-estate interests will be hard fought."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/07/europe-financial-sector-house-prices-politics

Football hooliganism is the same everywhere. It survives only where the authorities deliberately tolerate it.
https://www.aljazeera.com/#flips-6375253710112

Human stupidity knows no limits:
Experiencing extreme weather and disasters is not enough to change views on climate action
https://theconversation.com/experiencing-extreme-weather-and-disasters-is-not-enough-to-change-views-on-climate-action-study-shows-260308

I didn't.

Did you know that many international conglomerates are potentially liable for assisting the occupation of Palestine? I didn't.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they

El Pais is doing an amazing work in showing how citation metrics is a call for abuse (gaming to be more precise).
https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2024-12-05/dozens-of-the-worlds-most-cited-scientists-stop-falsely-claiming-to-work-in-saudi-arabia.html

History keeps repeating, dictators keep pulling each-other's strings.

"In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to its author, used an expletive to describe the embattled prime minister — “Fuck him,” he reportedly said — and accused Netanyahu of disloyalty."

https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-posts-clip-of-prof-calling-netanyahu-obsessive-about-getting-us-to-fight-iran/
#Trump #Netanyahu #JeffreySachs #Iran #Israel #Palestine #Lebanon #Syria #Iraq

Bernie Sanders:
"In the first round of strikes Israel assassinated the man overseeing Iran's nuclear negotiation team"
https://www.aljazeera.com/#flips-6374623035112

"He has identified three levels of human signals that we’ve lost in adopting AI into our communication. The first level is that of basic humanity signals, cues that speak to our authenticity as a human being like moments of vulnerability or personal rituals, which say to others, “This is me, I’m human.” The second level consists of attention and effort signals that prove “I cared enough to write this myself.” And the third level is ability signals which show our sense of humor, our competence, and our real selves to others. It’s the difference between texting someone, “I’m sorry you’re upset” versus “Hey sorry I freaked at dinner, I probably shouldn’t have skipped therapy this week.” One sounds flat; the other sounds human."
https://www.theverge.com/openai/686748/chatgpt-linguistic-impact-common-word-usage