Thread archive Most threads focus on Russia and sometimes Kazakhstan. A mix of history, current events, and economics.

"The Scottish government is for the first time giving the bond market a say over the risks of the nation breaking away from the UK." bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

I want to explain why the Defence world is devastated at John Healey's resignation. In every other Dept of State, the worst thing imaginable is manageable - pandemic, flood, riot, even a bond market selloff. Defence people prep, 24/7 for the unimaginable. Today someone stood up for Defence - not "against" HMG but against the public complacency that's limiting HMG's options. No other SecDef has done this... so let's hope this turns the tide.

🚨🇷🇺Long-Stalled Arctic LNG 2 Project Shows Signs of Life as Key Chinese Modules Head to Russia 👉Key construction modules for T3 of Arctic LNG 2 are once again on the move from China to the Russian Arctic after a hiatus of nearly two years. en.highnorthnews.com/politic…

NEW: CENTCOM CONFIRMS: adversaries are buying commercial location data to target US troops. Pentagon acknowledges it's not a one-off threat. We got here thanks to big companies: Who forced advertising everywhere. And it became a surveillance & weapons targeting system. When you use apps they often harvest detailed data from your phone. That data gets piped to an ecosystem of data brokers... who then sell the movements of millions to anybody with a credit card. Customers include: shady players, criminals & military adversaries. The data is incredibly detailed and can be used to track US military & intelligence activity (and that of every other government) and direct attacks. Americans = extra vulnerable Thanks to a lot of lobbying, the US has no comprehensive privacy law. For all of GDPR's flaws, Americans are far less protected from the data broker ecosystem. ...which is now leaving everybody exposed. Troops included. Pentagon Policy? Yikes Right now troops aren't prohibited from using their personal phones (which for reasons explained above are like giant, identifying beacons). And until recently government devices could have ad tracking functionality enabled. Another massive own-goal. Finally it seems like policy is being implemented to disable trackign on gov devices, but the gaps are enormous. Some Action? Now, a bipartisan group of Senators led by @RonWyden has called on the Pentagon to stop the flow of location data & stop using browsers built around collecting advertising data (they specifically call out Chrome). And some other eminently sensible measures. Good but also: experts have been collectively warning about this for almost a decade. What are we doing? Story by @razhael reuters.com/business/media-t…

Hey lazy people: the Vatican made infographics for you

Europe 2050 project: A piece to feel better and hope for more: Things are happening to make Europe stronger. An important contribution by @Enricoletta, which goes against the "Europe is paralyzed" dominant line. Read it and feel (a bit) better. cepr.org/index.php/publica…

1/2 У Львові відкрили меморіальну таблицю Джохару Дудаєву – першому президенту Чеченської Республіки Ічкерія, герою чеченського народу та символу боротьби за свободу. На урочистості присутні, зокрема, прем'єр-міністр Чеченської Республіки Ічкерія (у вигнанні) Ахмед Закаєв.