t_mkdf

kravietz, 1 month ago to China

#China was quite openly talking to its internal audience about its strategic goal of creating a dependency on themselves in “international supply chains”. Here’s Xi Jinping speech from 2020:

Firstly, we should stretch the long board, consolidate and enhance the international leading position of advantageous industries, forge some “ace card” technologies, continuously enhance the advantages of the whole industrial chain in the fields of high-speed railway, electric power equipment, renewable energy, communication equipment, etc. and improve the quality of the industry, so as to tighten the dependence of the international industrial chain on our country, and to form a strong counter-control and deterrent ability against artificial supply cut-offs by the foreign side.

Xi explicitly mentions two elements: energy systems and deterrence which leaves no place for ambiguity - this dependence is intended to be used as a weapon. This is literally what #Russia wanted to achieve in 2021 when it artificially raised gas prices, creating an artificial energy crisis in EU, hoping it will deter Europe from engaging on the side of Ukraine in 2022. But in case of Russia, the strategic dependence was gradually disarmed since 2000’s with initiatives such as EU Gas Directive (only one country continuously sabotaged it, actually increasing its strategic dependence on Russia with a new gas pipeline). In case of China the dependence is growing according to China’s plan - where Xi mentioned “renewable energy”, China now controls 80% of the global supply chain for PV manufacturing.

Source: https://www.xuexi.cn/lgpage/detail/index.html?id=13237620485782082031&item_id=13237620485782082031 (translation by DeepL)

kyivindependent, 1 month ago to random

⚡️France to send Ukraine air defense missiles, armored vehicles.

Paris will "unlock a new batch of Aster 30 missiles" for the SAMP/T MAMBA system, the French equivalent of the U.S. Patriot, in response to Ukraine's air defense shortage.

🔗 https://kyivindependent.com/france-to-send-ukraine-air-defense-missiles-armored-vehicles/

anderspuck, 2 months ago to random

Russian state media continue to push the explanation that the arrested terrorists did it for money. Apparently, the salary for becoming a mass murderer was USD 5400.
They don't mention ISIS with a single word.

On a sidenote, it has always puzzled me that Russians in uniform so often wear masks on TV even in situations where it makes no operational sense. Are they not proud to be associated with their service?

rooster, 2 months ago to random

deleted_by_author

osma, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to instagramreality

Documented cases of elections interference by a foreign actor:

Facebook: yes
Twitter: yes
Google/Doubleclick: yes
TikTok: no

You may think that the latter is just lack of investigation, and you may even be correct, but the overall finding will hold nonetheless.

#socialmedia #security #elections

kravietz, 2 months ago to Germany

A new wave of outrage going through media outlets framing #Germany Olaf Scholz statement about presence of #NATO soldiers in #Ukraine. This is just one sample, all media reports sound ery much the same.^1

Germany was accused of a “flagrant abuse of intelligence” after revealing that British soldiers are supporting Ukrainian forces launching long-range Storm Shadow missiles.

I’m just wondering, to whom he really “revealed” that?

1. Russian intelligence - knows about it and actively hunts them, real or imaginary
2. Russian public - this is the most ridiculous concern, because Russian audience since 2023 is being fed continuous stream of news about fighting with NATO, hundreds of “foreign mercenaries” being killed weekly etc.
3. European public - pro-Putin audience just listens to the same news as above, just from Sputnik and RT; pro-Ukrainian audience, like me, is only annoyed by insufficient military support for Ukraine
4. European politicians - I think this is the real protected minority: non-admission of presence of NATO instructors and intelligence in Ukraine allows them to continue the “non-escalation” narrative and pretend to be Chamberlains of the 21st century

Who is that public “secret” being guarded for then? 🤔

ErikJonker, 2 months ago to geopolitics

Even if it's true, why reveal it. Scholz is really becoming damaging to europe , germany and security.
"British soldiers in Ukraine helping fire missiles, Olaf Scholz reveals"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/28/british-soldiers-help-ukraine-fire-missiles-olaf-scholz/
#geopolitics #scholz @geopolitics #germany #ukraine #UK

osma, 3 months ago to random

Theory: societies without a commonly agreed external threat turn against themselves due to evolutionary biology.

There always have been a minority of people who experience the world through threats - these were the warrior/defenders when we needed constant defense.

As societies experience extended peace, these warrior types seek new threats to defend against - lately turning against imaginary threats in their immediate surroundings.

kravietz, 3 months ago to poland

An excellent analysis from #Poland Jacek Raubo for Defence24.pl portal. Raubo looks at #Russia chances of unrolling an actual war with #NATO through a popular Western perspective of that being “irrational” and “suicidal”, and thus unlikely. It’s in Polish and automatic translation should work pretty well, but I’ll drop a few teaser quotes:

The mere assignment of tasks to the [Russian] intelligence services does not always have to coincide with the search for answers, but on the contrary with the reinforcement of the theses of their own decision-making centres.

Previously, Raubo correctly described Russian decision process as concentrated in a narrow circle and thus susceptible to extreme cognitive biases. The above paragraph essentially means that even a perfectly efficient foreign intelligence is always processed by political players in Kremlin.

It is conceivable, for example, that an appropriately formatted picture of the transformation of NATO, which speaks of a continuous weakening of this defence alliance, is being conveyed to the Russian elite. Or, conversely, a twisted image of imaginary threats from NATO increasing emotional tension among decision-makers in charge of the decision-making process.

So the decision to invade a NATO country, even in a hybrid manner, may be a “rational calculation” based on irrational foundations and goals:

According to the author, this is why we are now so often talking about a scenario that also involves the possibility of hostilities breaking out in Europe, where a NATO member would be attacked. Putin’s team has already shown repeatedly that we are not talking about the stereotypical ‘great chess master’ who sees a dozen moves ahead of the West. Russia can make an error of judgement, which is why it is so important in this regard to have a strong deterrent in NATO and Europe, as well as showing concrete examples of a show of force, such as the Steadfast Defender 2024 manoeuvres. This helps to reduce the possibility of a belief in Russian decision-making circles that their image of NATO and the West as a weak system is correct.

And, most importantly, Russia’s inflated war propaganda founded on the “besieged fortress” narrative cannot be ignored as a factor:

Even Prigozhin’s operetta-like ‘putsch’ told us a lot about what could happen if more soldiers and mercenaries were suddenly demobilised, but without achieving strategic success. Not to mention the whole nomenklatura that is making war more important. Let us remember that this is nothing new, as it was the same with the war in Chechnya. But now, because of the full-scale invasion, this practice is on a much larger scale. Subsequent months and already years of war underline that even successive territorial conquests and the occupation of parts of Ukraine will not necessarily satisfy this system of state propaganda, emotions, money and people. Therefore, unfortunately, the authorities in the Kremlin might as well look for the desired breakthrough in a direct clash with NATO, if only over the Baltic states.

Full article: https://defence24.pl/geopolityka/pokonana-rosja-tez-moze-zaczac-wojne-z-nato-opinia (in Polish)

osma, 3 months ago to random

Many times we focus on increasing productivity by improving tooling. But not all productivity tooling is long-term good. Case in point: handwritten notes, while not as fast or convenient as typed notes, improve learning.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-better-for-memory-and-learning/

anderspuck, 3 months ago to Ukraine

Vlad Vexler says that he does not like reaction videos where the theme is something like “Vlad Vexler destroyes Peter Zeihan", because it's not productive. And then he goes on to absolutely ripping Peter Zeihan apart in this video about #Navalny.
It's worth watching if you want to understand the criticism of Navalny about nationalism, his position on #Ukraine, etc.
https://youtu.be/n02DhUQJo90?si=WC-WVGb0tIeXLwqm

anderspuck, 3 months ago to random

If the U.S. will play a smaller role in European security going forward, we need to have a conversation about nuclear weapons. The current UK and French arsenals are not sufficient to deter Russia, but the big question is if the solution is to grow their stockpiles, or if more countries need to join the nuclear club.

(The fact that this is now a discussion just goes to show the shortsightedness of American isolationalism.)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/15/uk-europe-nuclear-shield-donald-trump-germany-nato-deterrent

randahl, 3 months ago to random

Putin thinks he is playing 4D chess, when in reality he is predictable like a 4-year-old who stole the cookies.

Trump's position on Ukraine and NATO is exactly what Putin wants. But by Trump revealing his hand, accidentally admitting he wants Russia to do "whatever the hell they want" to NATO countries, Putin fears American voters will not elect his favorite presidential candidate, Trump.

So what does he communicate? Ah yes… of course:

osma, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Here's the thing about gravity batteries: without very large reservoirs of the pumped hydro kind, they can't store a lot of energy, because most of their volume will be empty space. This one at Pyhäsalmi, Finland, would use a 530 metres deep mine shaft (of the 1400 meters total mine depth), yet store only 20 MWh of energy. Stick that same shaft full of batteries? Much higher energy density.
https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/02/06/this-disused-mine-in-finland-is-being-turned-into-a-gravity-battery-to-store-renewable-ene

kevinrothrock, 3 months ago to random

glancing at the news today from Putin and Biden, it is hard to escape the fact that two very old men are running Russia and America right now

hart, 3 months ago to random German

Die deutsche Autoindustrie verschläft den Wandel hin zur Elektromobilität
Ein zügiges/besser sofortiges #Verbrenneraus für die deutsche Autoproduktion wäre hier sinnvoll,
#mobilitätswende
https://t.co/struwezFM5?s=09

anderspuck, 3 months ago to random

I see a large number of people saying that Russian anti-war presidential candidate Boris Nadezhdin is a Kremlin asset to legitimate Putin’s reelection. That is not the case. They allowed him to collect signatures for that reason but his campaign has gained much more traction than they are comfortable with.

From: @meduza_en
https://masto.ai/

t_mkdf, 4 months ago to Russia

A new video by @anderspuck

What do people mean when they say that #russia might challenge #nato?

It probably won't be at the Vistula but close to Vittula.

https://youtu.be/ZY7GPBSyONU?si=W2VtM3yS8oRm23Pi

gisiger, 4 months ago to random German

THIS! And it's not just the #NYT or the American media, it's a global problem. And it's not just a matter of military issues, it's a matter of security issues in general. It seems to me that the coverage of cybersecurity has got a little better in the last few years.

Also, as someone who has served, this is why I have turned to alternative sources like Ryan McBeth, Perun or @anderspuck since the invasion of Ukraine.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=4_1bFbk9MIQ

EU_Commission, 4 months ago to random

Share of energy from renewable sources in 2022 (%):

🇸🇪 66 🇫🇮 47.9 🇱🇻 43.3 🇩🇰 41.6
🇪🇪 38.5 🇵🇹 34.7 🇦🇹 33.8 🇱🇹 29.6
🇭🇷 29.4 🇷🇴 24.1 🇪🇺 23 🇸🇮 22.9
🇬🇷 22.7 🇪🇸 22.1 🇩🇪 20.8 🇫🇷 20.3 🇨🇾 19.4 🇧🇬 19.1 🇮🇹 19 🇨🇿 18.2
🇸🇰 17.5 🇵🇱 16.9 🇭🇺 15.2 🇳🇱 15
🇱🇺 14.4 🇧🇪 13.8 🇲🇹 13.4 🇮🇪 13.1

This is the way to go, but we must accelerate to meet our 2030 renewable energy target of at least 42.5%.

To achieve it – among others – we sped up permitting procedures for projects on renewable energy and proposed a Wind Power Action Plan.