The US president and his ally in the Kremlin want to use 100bn euros* of Russia’s frozen assets to be invested in a venture to rebuild Ukraine, while 50% of the venture’s profit would go to the US (according to point 14 of Trump’s initial ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine).

*Additional information: Total frozen assets of Russia that will eventually be used as collateral for the EU preparation loan amount to 140bn euros.

Second addition: In addition to the EU, UK and Canada are also working on a scheme to hand frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.

That’s a global phenomenon,unfortunately. Researchers found PFAS chemicals in tap and bottled water in major cities across the UK and China., just to provide an example.

But are there European countries banning such second jobs?

Many European nations decided to ban MPs from having second jobs precisely for this reason.

I agree with what you’ve said including on the ban of MP’s second jobs, but are there countries in Europe that ban such jobs? It may not be as easy as in the UK, but it’s not completely banned anywhere afaik. Am I mistaken?

Dictatorships dont have the checks and balances. That is just a fact

And? The trend of a society that gets older and older can’t be reversed by dictatorial order. The issue of a countrywide worker shortage can’t be cracked down. A lack of resources to pay reasonable pensions is a problem you can’t shoot at.

Why?

the EU is supposed to “do something”.

The first funding instruments are in place with some of them already issued.

Stockpiles should have been built in the past already. European managers and politicians talked about it during the pandemic, but didn’t do much, but the learning curve might have been steep in the more recent past as Europe might have learned that foreign countries - particularly China - aren’t reliable.

Ukraine was facing a population decline already before 2022, and the war made the situation worse. But Ukraine is by far not alone with the problem of a shrinking population as almost the entire world will face it in the next decades. Only a few countries in Central Asia and Africa are exempted. The decline is especially pronounced in China, where the population will decline by a factor of 2.2 in this century reaching ~600 million, down form the current 1.4 billion) as well as in the U.S., and Russia, where fertility rates have fallen below the population replacement level.

TL;DR:

Lithuania’s interests had been safeguarded and that the country’s annual exports to China had recovered to levels similar to those recorded before Beijing began applying economic pressure on Lithuania [due to Lithuania’s allowance of opening a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius under the name “Taiwanese”, rather than “Taipei”] … The EU said “the main objectives of the dispute were achieved and the relevant trade has resumed."

Yes, but Europe must also revive its renewable energy industry to avoid dependence from malign influence and dependence from abroad …

Germany’s foreign minister to visit China next week, as EU prepares to toughen up on trade

The European Union is expected to toughen its trade stance on China next month, with signs that Germany - the EU’s largest member and economy - is aligning with the shift and that the 27-member bloc may be sufficiently united to push through policy changes that deepen ties with like-minded trading partners …

China’s weaker economy and its move up the value chain of industrial production means it is no longer the reliable market it once was for German exports.

But Germany still remains a key investment partner for China, which is struggling to attract fresh funds as its post-COVID recovery struggles for momentum …

Germany’s foreign minister to visit China next week, as EU prepares to toughen up on trade

The European Union is expected to toughen its trade stance on China next month, with signs that Germany - the EU’s largest member and economy - is aligning with the shift and that the 27-member bloc may be sufficiently united to push through policy changes that deepen ties with like-minded trading partners …

China’s weaker economy and its move up the value chain of industrial production means it is no longer the reliable market it once was for German exports.

But Germany still remains a key investment partner for China, which is struggling to attract fresh funds as its post-COVID recovery struggles for momentum …

Germany’s foreign minister to visit China next week, as EU prepares to toughen up on trade

The European Union is expected to toughen its trade stance on China next month, with signs that Germany - the EU’s largest member and economy - is aligning with the shift and that the 27-member bloc may be sufficiently united to push through policy changes that deepen ties with like-minded trading partners …

China’s weaker economy and its move up the value chain of industrial production means it is no longer the reliable market it once was for German exports.

But Germany still remains a key investment partner for China, which is struggling to attract fresh funds as its post-COVID recovery struggles for momentum …

The high cost is related to the fact that non-Chinese drones are nearly twice as expensive, the RCMP said.

Yeah, but non-Chinese drones are also not made under slave-like conditions.

Putin is desperate as he’s struggling to find trade partners. India used to be the biggest buyer of Russian crude oil but has been decreasing its volume significantly this year - and the downward trend goes on (with even China, Russia biggest ‘ally,’ significantly reducing its Russian oil imports as the trade data reveals).

There is not only the ‘U.S. factor’ of sanctions as the elephant in the room. Australia, Canada, the EU, and many others are in the process of negotiating new trade agreements with India. If Mr. Modri chooses to go with Putin’s Russia, he knows that he will have a tough stand with these Western partners. And this isn’t worth the price.

I am not a legal expert, but I guess if one files a lawsuit against you then you’ll have to at least defend yourself, at least in Western democracies. So as a legal layman I would say simply ignoring might not be an option.

Experts now apparently have found a legal way to use Russian asset as collateral for this reparation loan.

A quick reminder that Russia has already seized (seized, not frozen!) Western assets within Russia of around 50 billion euros. The Kremlin introduced ‘rules’ that allowed it to confiscate assets of what it called ‘unfriendly countries’ as early as 2023. Among the affected Western companies whose assets were seized are Carlsberg and Danone, based in Denmark and France respectively. Both companies were ‘punished’ - according to the Kremlin - for halting their business in Russia.

So can he demand accountability now? Or will this be again seen as ‘crossing the line’?

@davel@lemmygrad.ml

Lemmygrad./ml [users] frequently share posts that support authoritarian regimes, as seen in their support for China, North Korea, and Russia. Moreover, their support can extend beyond backing these authoritarian regimes, even cheering on their violent actions, as evidenced by their posts on the Russian invasion of Ukraine …

Lemmygrad./ml … also serves as a hub for left-wing extremist subreddits that faced restrictions from Reddit. [There is] an increase in user activity and toxicity levels on Lemmygrad.ml following the migration of r/GenZedong and r/GenZhou. Furthermore, our analysis of the content revealed posts supporting authoritarian regimes, endorsing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and exhibiting anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric. Our findings underscore the importance of studying left-wing extremism on decentralized platforms alongside right-wing extremism to gain a comprehensive understanding of the full spectrum of political extremism on the Decentralized Web …

Source

The degree of Chinese propaganda in this thread is astonishing even for Lemmy. It’s almost hilarious how the reality (may it be intentional or unintentional) is ignored just to make the West look bad and China portraying as the big and only.

There is a lot wrong in ‘the West’ with housing, and countries offering sometime reasonable solutions, and sometimes not. But China has a long way to go also in this respect as the housing condition for a large portion of Chinese people is devastating.

As one research study (here is the archived link) says:

Depending on how one defines homelessness, China has either a very tiny homeless population or an extremely large one. Compared to other countries, there very few vagrants: people living on the streets of China’s cities without means of support. But if one counts the people who migrated to cities without a legal permit (hukou), work as day laborers without job security or a company dormitory, and live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions on the edge of cities, there are nearly 300 million homeless.

Unlike the ‘communist’ agenda of China that is conveyed here in this thread, a study’s conclusion is:

Free market fundamentalism is responsible for the emergence of this sort of homelessness in China.

Another commentary concludes,

China is confronted with a housing paradox. The housing market is crashing, yet more than a fifth of the Chinese population is homeless.

It’s really is to find reliable and very good sources on homelessness in China.

It also tells you a lot that as anger mounts in Hong Kong over apartment fires, Beijing warns against ‘anti-China disruptors’ – (archived link).

But I understand that you cannot discuss this here. As some sort of projection of their own behaviour, they accuse others of ‘propaganda’ and ignore the facts. It is likely this why Lemmy is still a niche and, as long as this sentiment prevails, will never meaningfully grow imo.

[Edit typo.]

Just read a [BBC article]https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8e5j20g27o():

… Several residents have revealed in interviews that the fire alarm did not sound when the fire broke out. Authorities said on Friday that they had checked the fire alarms in all eight blocks and found that they were not working properly …