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5·23 hours agoWhat does Switzerland say about China’s support of Russia in its war in Ukraine?
Addition:
The report by the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) and consultants zeb said on Thursday that Swiss policymakers should develop an approach to sanctions that ensures neutral Switzerland remains a safe haven for banks and their customers […]
Shortly after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland decided to adopt EU sanctions against Moscow. One measure was to freeze assets belonging to sanctioned Russians.
August Benz, deputy head of the SBA, raised concerns about Switzerland’s rapid adoption of sanctions […]
According to bankers, Switzerland’s clear stance on the Ukraine war has raised fears among foreign customers that it could support further Western sanctions in the future.
41·2 days agoI wouldn’t say they ‘redesigned’ it. As the Wikipedia article reads, among others:
However, after Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, religious conflicts re-emerged, and the Shadian problem as an example shows an unreconciled discord between the CCP and Islamic religious groups in China.
In 2022, the government began renovations to remove the Arabic-style architecture from the Grand Mosque of Shadian and replace it with Chinese-style pagoda architecture. The renovations were completed in 2024.
As the linked article suggests, things are getting worse. This ‘redesign’ is pure propaganda.
[Edit typo.]
Yes, just to provide some detailed numbers regarding the UK from an article I posted recently in a similar community (article from May 2024):
A vast subsea nuclear graveyard planned to hold Britain’s burgeoning piles of radioactive waste is set to become the biggest, longest-lasting and most expensive infrastructure project ever undertaken in the UK. The project [UK’s nuclear waste dump] is now predicted to take more than 150yrs to complete with lifetime costs of £66bn in today’s money…The waste itself includes 110,000 tonnes of uranium, 6,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuels & about 120 tonnes of plutonium. – Source
Burying Radioactive Nuclear Waste Poses Enormous Risks – (Archived link)
Although it may not produce the emissions that burning fossil fuels does, nuclear power presents many other problems. Mining, processing and transporting uranium to fuel reactors creates toxic pollution and destroys ecosystems, and reactors increase risks of nuclear weapons proliferation and radioactive contamination. Disposing of the highly radioactive waste is also challenging. […]
Even without an accident, trucking the wastes will emit low levels of radiation, which industry claims will produce “acceptable” exposure. Transferring it from the facility to truck and then to repository also poses major risks. […]
The spent fuel will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, and contamination and leaks are possible during storage, containment, transportation and burial. Industry, with its usual “out of sight, out of mind” approach, has no valid way to monitor the radioactive materials once they’re buried. […]
Nuclear power is enormously expensive and projects always exceed budgets. It also takes a long time to build and put a reactor into operation. Disposing of the radioactive wastes creates numerous risks. Energy from wind, solar and geothermal with energy storage costs far less, with prices dropping every day, and comes with far fewer risks.
Addition: I posted that recently in a similar context:
IAEA-database of nuclear and radiological incidents
Note that although the list which is linked above gives an impression of the spread, diversity and frequency of incidents and accidents with nuclear power plants and radioactive transports, it is not a complete list of all nuclear incidents and accidents; different national regulators have different regimes as to which incidents to report to the IAEA and which not.
That’s by far enough here.
Additional interesting stats, especially regarding statement on the safety of nuclear energy and waste:
IAEA-database of nuclear and radiological incidents
Note that although the list which is linked above gives an impression of the spread, diversity and frequency of incidents and accidents with nuclear power plants radioactive transports, it is not a complete list of all nuclear incidents and accidents; different national regulators have different regimes as to which incidents to report to the IAEA and which not.
One article on nuclear energy in the UK from May 2024 says:
A vast subsea nuclear graveyard planned to hold Britain’s burgeoning piles of radioactive waste is set to become the biggest, longest-lasting and most expensive infrastructure project ever undertaken in the UK. The project [UK’s nuclear waste dump] is now predicted to take more than 150yrs to complete with lifetime costs of £66bn in today’s money…The waste itself includes 110,000 tonnes of uranium, 6,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuels & about 120 tonnes of plutonium. – Source
[Edit typo.]
A related article with interesting stats on the world’s nuclear power plants: the U.S. and France have the largest fleet, but China Is rapidly building new nuclear power plants as the rest of the world stalls
“There are probably not more than seven countries that have the capability to design, manufacture and operate nuclear power plants,” Cui Jianchun, the Chinese foreign ministry’s envoy in nearby Hong Kong, said during an official visit to the plant. “We used to be a follower, but now China is a leader.”
Here are some charts on Germany’s energy mix and long-term development (April 2024), it supports @superkret@feddit.org’s statement:
Yeah, not just redirecting funds, they can also use forced labour to lower their production costs.
They have already done that, just read their Project 2025.
These comments have nothing to do with economics.
The member countries approved the Commission’s move already.
May I ask where this happend?
Yes, and according to an EU report in 2023, only 0.065% of the bloc’s sheep population had been killed by wolves and there had been no reports of fatal wolf attacks on humans for 40 years. Source (you need to scroll down to the end of the article for these numbers).
it’s not implausible that this operation could have been setup without Chinese government involvement
Sure, the Chinese government knows nothing. It’s not that the CCP is surveilling every inch in the country, including in Xinjiang and Tibet. This is just a small firm which does that without any knowledge by the government (/s, just to be safe).
Suppose you see such posts on social media, would you really think, “Ah, that’s a funny joke”, and laugh about it?
As the article suggests, there haven’t been too many with that sense of humor to say the least.
I don’t omit the context. They say it was intended as a joke after it backfired on social media, and the company’s apology - as the article states - is somewhat quiet (on the other hand, the Chinese government - usually not averse to censor content it deems unpleasant - apparently had no problem with it).
A detail that is buried somewhere in this article is that Fico’s government apparently takes de facto control of Slovak parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, which is traditionally controlled by the opposition. So there is no independent oversight at all.
It’s time for the EU and its member states to ban any surveillance software and protect EE2E (including abandoning such things like ‘chat control’) if they want protect Europe from the further rise of authoritarian regimes.
Again, flip over to any other industrialized nation and you’re going to find the same media trends. You get to fixate on “China Media Bad” because you’re not getting spammed with American propaganda about Hindu nationalists or Japanese fascists. But then we are as guilty of drinking the propaganda kool-aid as any other country. And a big part of that kool-aid is the exceptionalism mentality that insists we’re clear-eyed while everyone else is being brainwashed.
What a rubbish. I live in a (Western) country where racism and nationalism and all the sh’t that it entails is much older than modern-day China, but the media isn’t controlled here. Journalists and bloggers and private persons on social media can freely write and criticize, including the government.
I wondering when you get tired here about this whataboutism. In the context of the death of a 10-year old this is even disgusting.
Let us not forget the people in Xinjiang who pay a harsh price for cheap Chinese EV cars. Unfortunately, forced labour and supply chain transparency wasn’t an issue here.