u/Humanius — Humanius

**Pro:** It's radical and cool and you get to shoot your gun! Pew! Pew!

**Con:** You occasionally have cases of innocent minorities getting shot by racists

The "racist" between quotes in the headline just means that that one word is a direct quote from someone or something, wheas the rest of the headline is paraphrased. In this case it's a direct quote from a coroner’s inquest by Judge Armitage.

I'm not a fan of this style of quoting, since writing singular words between quotes could easily also be read as insincerity or sarcasm. But it seems to be pretty common in English language media.

**Edit:** Judge Armitage also writes that this police officer being racist isn't just incidental, but rather that the police station he is working at apparently has a work-place culture that has normalised racism (as per the article)

For context, before people jump to conclusions:

Russia is not party to this landmine treaty, and Ukraine having to adhere to this treaty is essentially forcing them to fight against someone who plays dirty while having their arm tied around their back.

Other countries that have announced that they will be withdrawing from the Ottowa Treaty are: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (Coincidentally all bordering Russia or Belarus)

I'm not sure if buying American equipment is a good way to rid ourselves of our dependence on America.

It allows America to control our supply of spare parts and software updates, and it doesn't bolster the European defence industry.

Converting that to a yearly inflation figure:

1.015^12^ =~ 1.196

So about 19.6% yearly, assuming it will stay at 1.5% monthly for the next year.

By Argentinian standards that is honestly not too bad

Failed wheat harvest which caused a bread shortage.

Bread was a staple food in 18th century France.

I'm not quite sure if it is similar to the rice shortage in Japan today however. When the French couldn't eat bread in the 18th century they went hungry, but when the Japanese today can't buy rice they can just buy different food.

Its the difference between barely scraping by on bread, and being inconvenienced by not being able to buy cheap rice.

Would be a noble goal to bring obligations closer to something voluntarily taken and not just obedience.

It may be noble, but it is also a bit out of touch with reality.

When you participate in society (even if it is something as simple as buying groceries at the supermarket) then you have to follow the rules of that society that you participate in. We have decided together as a society, democratically, what those rules are.

You can't then say "I'm not playing by the rules" and expect people to just accept that.

**Edit**: Fixed a typo

This group calls themselves Reichsbürger, and from my understanding it's essentially equivalent to Sovereign Citizens in the US.

Installing a monarchy may be the stated goal, but it is not in itself the reason why people join this group. Rather it is about illegitimizing the current government so that they (supposedly) do not hold power over you.

There are various reasons why people would join a group like that, but a common one seems to be that they are running away from the consequences of their actions in one form or another. If the government is illegitimate, then the pain their society imposes (e.g. unpaid fines, mounting debt, etc) is also illegitimate.

The reason for the government's illegitimacy is irrelevant. All that matters is that the state should be illegitimized in some way.

Correct. There is freedom of movement between the EU and Switzerland.

Switzerland is also part of Schengen, so there is not even a need to show a passport at the border.

The article does say that it was the local council that wanted to prevent them from moving there.

I'm not saying there definitely is a discriminatory motive.. I do not know how the people of Switzerland look at the Romani people.

But given the way Roma are treated in much of Europe, and Switzerland's reputation for being somewhat conservative, I am not discounting the possibility that they are being discriminated against here.

The equivalent in the US would be if a couple of families of black people wanted to move to a predominantly white town in the south, and the county would step in claiming there are no more homes available.

"Travelers" does generally refer to the Romani and Sinti people who live a nomadic lifestyle.

The French version of the article uses the phrase "les gens du voyage", which according to the French Wikipedia page is often used to refer to the "Roma of France (including the Sinti and the Gitanos)".

So I think it's fairly safe to assume that that is what they mean with "travelers" in this article.

Yeah.. It's a bit opaque, I'm not so sure anymore either.

https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEAL

The Dutch Wikipedia page says that iDeal was bought by EPI in 2023. They then launched Wero in 2024, and eventually iDeal will be renamed to Wero (Note it says renamed and not replaced)

Maybe they rebranded it? Maybe they reused the technology? I'm not quite sure if and what the relation is.

**Edit**: This blog post from 2023 claims that EPI said iDeal will be used as the foundation for their (then future) payment platform Wero

https://bankblog.nl/2023/het-nederlandse-ideal-is-verkocht-en-wordt-straks-wero/

~~Its not really new. Wero is a rebrand of the Dutch iDeal which has been in widespread use for over a decade~~

**Edit**: After trying to find a source for that claim, Im not so sure its correct. The EPI did buy iDeal several years ago, but the text I'm finding doesn't say Wero is a rebrand of iDeal outright.

iDeal will be replaced by Wero (either the technology or the branding?) in the NL by 2027

That is basically the point of these counter tariffs.

They aim to hurt US industries, mainly from predominantly Republican states, while attempting to minimize the negative effects for European consumers and industry.

That is why they mostly cover luxury goods like yachts and motorcycles, and agricultural/other goods for which we can change suppliers to a country that is not tariffed.

I suggest you take a look at the Signal messages that got leaked in the Atlantic, they speak volumes.

Those chat logs do not suggest that what America is doing is based on rational policy

There was still the lingering hope that behind the scenes they would have an actual plan.. That the way the American government under Trump is behaving isn't just out of blind hatred for Europe.

That last bundle of straws to grasp are now gone too, and Europe must accept that America is simply no longer our friend and ally.

**Edit**: Typos and autocorrect