I mean, that's the entire point, right? Media doesn't exist to show the truth, it exists to manufacture consent for some policy direction. If media was supposed to be factual, it wouldn't be funded by biased actors and it wouldn't have an incentive structure that rewards profits more than factual reporting.
Capitalism 🤷♀️
That's why the Saudi's aren't going to piss off the US, China, Russia, or India. Their strategy only works in peacetime.
They're ditching the USD's role as the global reserve currency. Any reduction in reliance on the USD directly impacts the USD's role as a reserve currency.
You don't have to go "I'm never touching the USD again" to ditch it in it's key use case.
I would actually love to see Saudi Arabia take the lead on food engineering. They might lack fresh water, but they have immense amounts of land and sun to play with.
The only alternative I can see is a mass reforestation project.
Wasn't Russia expecting Ukraine to capitulate (basically, like what Armenia did against Azerbaijan)?
They only sent, what, 80000 troops on the initial drive to Kyiv?
Russia's military budget in 2019 was $65 billion. It's a waste of money that's only practical because the US is literally swimming in taxpayer money (mostly because the US doesn't invest in itself, but that's another issue).
Macron was right, but being right is extremely expensive. Meanwhile, the EU's dependence on F-35s for defence isn't too great given the well-known issues with F-35 maintenance and the need for US private contractors in the maintenance loop.
I mean, it's not like Chinese people are stupid. We know what's wrong with society in mainland China, but we also see all the benefits that it's brought. The fact that it isn't talked about doesn't mean that everyone's bought into government propaganda, it just means that people are on average happy enough to not bother with it.
Flipping the firewall is easy. Going to Taiwan or Hong Kong is easy. Emigrating is easy.
Just because someone isn't white doesn't mean that they're stupid ffs
Everyone does this with store bought drones (mostly sourced from China, FWIW). It's so incredibly affordable it's crazy.
Mexico should know better. This is just how the US treats allies that aren't geopolitically significant like Canada and Mexico.
Do people just magically assume the world is some diverse candy land? The boers are probably one of the only people Russia can bring in without expending any political capital. It's that simple.
Nobody was prepared for this evolution of warfare. You can now build an explosive-carrying device the size and radar profile of a large bird.
But, for what it's worth, Russian state media is saying that it was saboteurs... which is probably more likely given the distance from the frontline than an Ukrainian-operated drone.
There is no duo more iconic than Germans and Nazism.
Moving white people to Russia is racist? Huh.
This is the same transition that the West had on China a few years ago. When it becomes clear that you won't become another puppet of the West and want to carve out your own interests, the West immediately flips on you.
the Taliban is creating a large-scale camera surveillance network for Afghan cities that could involve repurposing a plan crafted by the Americans before their 2021 pullout.
I see that the Taliban is taking notes from it's Western occupiers. London has more security cameras per capita than Beijing and Los Angeles isn't far behind. Kabul is slacking.
Who's consuming? China, the single biggest driver of increasing oil consumption for the past few decades, is predicted to hit peak oil this year and their oil demand is collapsing due to the massive market share of EVs in the Chinese market.
You mean, African countries aren't happy about austerity measures under IMF loans? No way...
Yes, but think of the profits.
Where are those profits going? Definitely not to you, that's for sure.