@mrdown@lemmy.world

I don’t think you read my comment.

@mrdown@lemmy.world

Iran do not pose a security threat to Europe either. Even in Ukraine it is no longer the case.

Your comment amounts to nothing but autocratic propaganda as it is outright false. Even Chinese state media is citing Iran, saying Ukraine is a ‘legitimate target,’ and the Chinese government is supporting the Iranian regime as we know. They are explicitly threatening Ukraine.

That aside, Iran already provided weapons to Russia as you say yourself, and it has thus been posing a significant threat to Ukraine and Europe.

I get your point and fully agree. But I have just a nitpick in that everything Trump, Putin, or Xi (and many other ‘world leaders’) do isn’t for their countries or even their peoples but rather for their personal gains, political power, and money. It’s not so much about the US, Russia, China but rather about individual politicians’ interests and their total indifference toward their countries and the people imho.

No, it has not turned around. It’s gotten even worse since.

But there is no reason imho to repost things that old because we know this already. If we start posting things from last year because they didn’t get better we might soon have a lot of re-reads.

In addition, I don’t see how this is related to Canada.

It’s just another post in OP’s eternal propaganda mission. To give you an idea what I mean: China’s minority policy hasn’t turned around. Russia is still waging a war against Ukraine. Iran is still threatening protesters at home. Should we post all these here in the Canada community?

Yes, but this is well known for 4 months.

This article has been published 4 months ago.

This article has been published 4 months ago.

Ah, a troll. You’ll find this in 5 seconds on the web.

One is here: Russia prepares 10% cut to ‘non-sensitive’ spending in 2026

… The Finance Ministry told Reuters in comments on this story that it is discussing measures to prioritize budget spending with ​other ministries. Andrei Gangan, head of the monetary policy department at the central bank, said an optimisation of spending can only be welcomed … Ordinary ‌people in ⁠Russia have been hit by rising inflation, but are yet to feel widespread pain from an economic slowdown, triggered by high interest rates, while cuts in government spending have not yet caused mass layoffs. The economic situation is made worse by Western sanctions which hurt Russia’s global energy sales … The third source said that the oil price growth will not be sustainable ​in the long term and the current budget situation requires spending cuts regardless of the short-term oil price fluctuations …

The cuts have been announced by the Russian Ministry of Finance, the Russian Central Bank, and other Russian officials. You’ll find multiple sources for that.

But thanks for your sophisticated comment.

@Vinylraupe@lemmy.zip

If Pedro Sanchez values human rights, where has he been all the years when Iranians have been killed by their own regime? What did he say about genocidal politics against Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, and other minorities committed by a brutal regimes in China when seeking business there?

What the sitting Spanish PM is doing is just fighting for his own survival and has nothing to do with morality.

The prime minister is facing a scandal involving a Socialist party hack who allegedly sought incriminating evidence on the police unit that is investigating his wife for alleged corruption and influence-peddling, along with his brother, according to reports. What moral stance is this?

Public anger also lingers over the response of both the national and conservative regional government to the floods in Valencia that killed 229 people in 2024. Back then, Sanchez visited the flooded region, fled the scenery over angry citizens btw. Further questions have been raised after several high-speed train derailments killed dozens of people in January.

Sanchez is loosing even support of the left as demonstrated by Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s deputy prime minister and the communist head of populist left-wing Movimiento Sumar, the government’s main coalition partner. Díaz announced last week that she will not stand in the general election next year.

Recent regional elections in Spain give a glimpse where the country is heading. There is a very strong discontent towards both the ruling Socialists and the conservative Popular Party with the beneficiary being the far-right Vox, as suggested also by recent polls. And this is not in the least owed to Sanchez’s politics who does nothing for the people but only for himself and his own circles.

As an addition: There are many excellent studies illustrating how China leverages its foreign investments across the globe exclusively to its own benefit at the cost of regional economies and their peoples.

As one study from 2023, China as an International Lender of Last Resort (pdf), states,

China’s rescue loans differ from those of established international lenders of last resort in that they (i) are opaque, (ii) carry relatively high interest rates, and (iii) are almost exclusively targeted to debtors of China’s Belt and Road Initiative … Chinese rescue lending is extended at relatively high interest rates. The [U.S.] Fed usually charges margins of around 25 basis points over the LIBOR reference rate. In contrast, the PBOC swap lines show interest rates at margins between 200 and 400 basis points above the Shibor reference rate, while the typical rescue loan by Chinese banks requires interest rates of 5 percent … These rates are also considerably higher than the average IMF interest rate, which has been around 2 percent for non-concessional lending operations over the past 10 years …

In a more recent investigation, researchers showed how China uses collateralizes (pdf) to achieve its goals that. As the study says, Beijing’s practices,

raise new concerns about debt transparency, fiscal management, fiscal autonomy, and the quality of macroeconomic surveillance, particularly in commodity-exporting EMDEs [emerging market and developing economies] … lending to EMDEs by Chinese creditors documents a heavy reliance on collateral unrelated to the stated purpose of the debt: loans secured by commodity revenues are not designed to generate more of these revenue … l lenders can manage subordination risk with so-called “negative pledge” clauses in their contracts, which usually require the debtor to forswear secured borrowing … Chinese lenders’ apparent preference for quasi-collateral means that their security interests are rarely recorded in public registries or collateral filing systems … These factors, combined with confidentiality clauses preventing disclosure, raise asymmetric information problems among creditors …

Both studies complement a strong body of research regarding China’s malign lending practice which show similar patterns across all countries, including, of course, Africa.

he takes a unique stance against the big powers?

Pedro Sanchez is apparently not interested in human rights. He contracted Spain’s judicial wiretapping system to Huawei from China, a country he considers an ‘ally,’ and its dictatorial government is not famous exactly for respecting the rule of law. And this is just one example that shows Sanchez’s character.

Sanchez is doing what he thinks is helpful to his career and nothing else. This person is a shame for his country and entire Europe. He should have resigned long time ago.

Yes, who feeds Africa …

I stopped reading after this extraordinarily peculiar statement.

Sanchez is trying to fight for his own political survival and nothing else. This is just a distraction from his political failures and a series of coruuption scandals involving close Socialist party officials and family members.

What an absurdely weird comment. Transnational repression and foreign interference is part of the dictatorial playbook. The leader in this field is China (globally and in Canada, measured by the number of China’s United Front organizations in relation to the population size), but also by Iran. The regime in Teheran doesn’t care for Iranian citizens and their children, they have been opressing the Iranian population for decades.

In addition to other comments: Russia is definitely an energy exporting country, but Russian oil is sold ​at a discount mainly due to the Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine. This includes a price cap introduced by European Union that has been lowering the price to $44.10 per barrel since February 1. When the price for crude increased this weak to more than $80, Russia didn’t benefit.

A calculation by Reuters also suggests that the situation will further strain Russia’s budget:

State coffers have been drained ​by heavy defence and security spending since Russia began its military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022 … The price of Russia’s Urals oil basket would need to climb by more than 50% ‌from ⁠3,582 roubles ($46.13) per barrel , which was reached on March 2 in order to meet the budgeted levels.

Russia’s budget for 2026 assumes an oil price of 5,440 roubles per barrel, or $59, and a rouble rate of 92.2 per U.S. dollar.

Conversely, assuming stable oil prices, the rouble should weaken to ​117.5 per $1 for the budget ​to be balanced from ⁠around 77.65 currently.

Kirill Tremasov, adviser to the [Russian] central bank governor, said on Saturday that the central bank did not expect the rouble to crumble, ​while the oil rally could be short-lived.

The original title is

Macron orders France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to move from Baltic Sea to Mediterranean

The saddest thing about your comment is that you really appear to think it’s true.

I guess the author is referring to Mr. Carney’s speech in Davos soon after his visit to China where he ‘revived’ ties with Beijing, apparently ignoring its human rights violations.

Let’s hope the best. Sweden has just deployed Gripen in Iceland as part of its Nato air policing according to a report:

The deployment has also provided Sweden with an opportunity to demonstrate the Gripen’s capabilities to Canada. SAAB is seeking to persuade Ottawa to revisit its decision to purchase 88 American F-35 jets produced by Lockheed Martin, offering instead to manufacture Gripens in Canada and create 10,000 jobs.