The article is very diplomatic about it, but this is Melony attempt to cover up the failure of her whole Albania plan by rebranding it as something that she may then call a success and be believed (well, by her diehard supporters at least).

Yes, but will Trump and Putin chill at a pool and - most importantly - will there be a golden statue of Trump and bearded scantily clothed dancers?

Jokes aside - this is coming from bonkers people who think authority and stubbornness are enough to get things done, which may to a point apply in internal affairs (where there’s an established body of laws that gives the president that authority), but will not work in geopolitics.

Also, making sure you know the least bit about what you are talking about before opening your mouth and letting your ugly thoughts out wouldn’t harm: comparing nowadays Ukraine to WWII Berlin just shows you don’t know anything about (at least one of) the two.

There are precedents. In October 1979, Paul Volcker, newly appointed as chair of the Federal Reserve, drove up interest rates to a remarkable 13% in a bid to tackle inflation, later raising them to 17%.

Back then the problem was rampaging inflation and the (by-the-book) cure was raising interest rates to drive it down.

Nowadays US inflation is not an issue (IIRC it’s like 2% or 3%) and tariffs are gonna bring it up in a confused effort to… rebuild a manufacturing industry? (I’m not sure that’s the goal - it’s hard to say what “great again” means precisely).

In what way would 1979 be a precedent?

Anyway… yes, assuming Trump’s goal is to have more manufacturing in the US, tariffs will “work” - the point is how much that’s gonna cost (in quality of life, not dollars) and who’s gonna pay that price.

Good. Let’s copy that

It feels like 50% of the noise coming from there is flat-out lies, and the other 50% is bullshit instead.

One thing I didn’t get: besides the boring “witch hunt” narrative, is her stance that those people didn’t do work for RN or that it’s fine to use EU-paid personnel for her party in France?

Nah - let’s just use English and distort it to annoy UKers and USers(*) instead! :)

(*) those who notice

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why though?

This has nothing to do with war or peace: the whole thing (back from when the phone call was announced last week) is propaganda.

Here’s what’s worth IMHO:

1. Putin can continue his war, but today nobody wrote that he is cold towards the peace process.
2. Trump can triumphally (trumpally?) announce that he is making great progress (the best progress) towards “peace”.

One passage, attributed to Pope Sixtus V, reads: “Axle in the midst of a sign”.

Pope Sixtus’ tenure began 442 years after the first Pope’s rule, and the passage suggests he is in the ‘middle’ of the papal lineage - thus indicating the end of the world would come 442 years later, in 2027.

The last passage of the book reads: “In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed, and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End.”

The “seven-hilled city” refers to Rome and some interpret the last passage as Peter taking over as the Pope from Francis due to the latter’s chronic lung disease, making Francis the last Pope.

I must say, that sounds like pretty solid proof.

I’m quitting my job, taking on all the debt I can, and spending the remaining two years in as much luxury as possible.

See you in two years, losers!

Isn’t this basically “the deal is done - we just need the other party to agree”? (same kind of announcement Israel and Hamas took turns at)

By and large, nationalists are bound to be disunited when it comes to practical matters, because each one only truly cares about their interests (it’s right there in the name, “national interests” is what nationalist parties call their own interests).

They do seem united when it comes to promoting their “principles”, but that’s because the same propaganda slogans (“us good, them bad”, “less taxes”, etc.) work everywhere and so all nationalists sing the same song.

The only long-lasting relationship between nationalists is where one side is a subject of another, and even those are only stable as long as the power balance doesn’t change.

I read a ton of memes on tiktok - does that count?

Here too (Italy) the education system makes a pretty terrible job at teaching the joys of reading (or those of music, maths, and… pretty much anything to be honest).

Maybe that’s why people love soccer so much… because they have not been properly taught to like other things?

I’ve been told by people who live in the US (California, IDK if it’s the same elsewhere) that kids have reading periods at school where the class is silent and each kid sits by their own and reads whatever book they please.

It made me chuckle at first, but then I started wondering if that could work better than assigning books to read at home and report on like they do here.

Where does the line lay, between withdrawing support and enacting sanctions?

IDK why reading books is considered such a worthy activity per se, and nobody ever analyses what people read.

If we are going to be honest, most books are mere entertainment and there are also a lot of titles that actually make the reader a worse human being (I am thinking of books about conspiracies, neo-far-right manifestos, and similar waste of paper).