where they are stuck picking up the tab for people who never contributed to the local economy and are now draining it of resources

Pensions in the EU are entirely different from how it works in the US. I don’t know how it is there, but here it is the nation you worked in that coughs up the pension money. Additionally, from what I’ve heard from retirees who did move to Spain, they have to pay income tax on their pensions to the Spanish government which means that these people would actually be contributing to the state coffers similarly to someone who was working. So, in other words you have money coming in from abroad, being contributed in taxes and spent on goods & services locally, boosting the economy.

Besides, the people who can afford to move abroad for retirement usually are the wealthier sort, so not the burden you make it out to be.

Had a quick look at their statements. The IRGC claimed to target “IDF C4I, along with a military intelligence facility located in the Gav-Yam Technology Park”.

The edge of the technology center area is 1.2km from the location of the missile strike, which seems to have been the main hospital building of the medical center. Whilst I don’t know where in the tech center area the “intended” target is, this puts the hospital area as a whole at a distance of 900m-1.5km. This is within the CEP (circular error probable) for some of Iran’s ballistic missiles, but at least from a cursory search they appear to have armaments with enough accuracy to not risk hitting the hospital when aiming at their supposed target and sufficient range to hit Israel.

Every European nation has to deal with waves of retirees leaving the work force. It’s no excuse. The general solution is increasing retirement age & per capita productivity whilst cutting down on government spending in other areas unless they fancy debt financing. Different GDP strengths is exactly why it’s a % goal rather than an absolute amount to keep things fair.

Now that isn’t a reply I expected considering how well established this particular narrative is in the mainstream.

But here you go, a well sourced academic article on the topic:

https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-path-to-october-7-how-iran-built-up-and-managed-a-palestinian-axis-of-resistance/

Duh. OP asked about the position world leaders hold on the topic, not The Entire History of Everything™. Hence, the latter was cut for brevity.

Here’s the short version (yes, this is incomplete because even writing this is a small essay. If somebody feels like adding context please do so), to answer your question on the background to their statement & position. The position is fairly common outside Lemmy at least.

History, history, history… (very long story)

2022: Israel was working on normalizing relations with the Arab countries. Things are relatively peaceful in the ME, albeit pretty shit for Arabs in Gaza & WB, not a warzone though. This succeeding would have been a threat to the Iranian network of terrorist organizations (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, groups in Syria such as the IRGC).

Iran pushes forth October 7 to reignite tensions, training Hamas operatives & such.

Hamas attacks Israel on Oct. 7 kicking off the war - other Iranian proxy groups soon join in. Initially there is no direct conflict between Israel & Iran.

2024 april - IDF strikes the Iranian consulate in Syria to take senior officers in the Hezbollah chain of command and assassinates several others. Iran retaliates with missiles against with strikes against Israel proper.

After that, tit for tat strikes in increasing magnitude and escalations which have culminated in the current situation. No, it was not surprising, this conflict was always fundamentally between Israel & Iran and has been slowly escalating for a long time.

This person has had sixteen name changes. It’s frankly absurd.

Originally “Isabella Khatibi Ghabagh Tabeh”, born in Teheran. Currently “Fariba Juliette Jennifer Vancor”.

It’s a finnish gov:t newspaper reporting on a gov:t study.

Here’s the link:

https://www.ttl.fi/en/topical/press-release/the-benefits-of-remote-work-are-not-equally-distributed-impacts-vary-between-employee-groups

Kinda shit meme that spurs on a misinformed perspective…

Tensions and clashes in the region are primarily sectarian differences (cultural, religious) rather than skin colour - and besides, most ethnic groups in the region (Arabs, Jews, Persians and others) are rather diverse when it comes to melanin.

Just for the record, even in Italy the winter tires are required for the season (but we can just have chains on board and we are good).

Double checking and it doesn’t seem like it? Then again I don’t live in Italy. Here in Sweden you’ll face a fine of ~2000kr (roughly 200€) per tire on your vehicle that is out of spec.

https://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/travelling-motor-vehicles/motor-vehicles/winter-tyres-in-europe.html

Granted that you need to write a more complex law, but in the end it is nothing impossible.

…and thus it is much simpler to handle these kinds of regulations at a lower level. No need for everyone everywhere to agree, people can have rules that work for them where they live, folks are happier and don’t have to struggle against a system run by bureaucrats so far away they have no idea what reality on the ground is (and they can’t, it’s impossible to account for every scenario centrally). Even on a municipal level certain regulations differ, and that’s completely ok!

An EU directive has no effect in Italy unless a law that acknowledges it is enacted. True, we must write a law that implement the directive but it is not an automatism.

This is exactly what I wrote in the comment you replied to, albeit with different wording? Basically the only other options if the nation does not want to comply is: a) suffering punitive actions from the EU indefinitely or until they comply or b) leaving the EU.

This is obviously subjective depending on what you want to achieve with your llm, but “Bad” data in that it showcases the opposite of what is desirable output. Think bunk conspiracies, hostility, deception, racism, religious extremism etc.

Interesting - I can sort of intuit why it might help. Feeding the model bad data and instructing training it to identify it as such would be advantageous compared to being entirely unaware of it.

How do you mean? Most authoritarian regimes are maintained with fear and violence. Even in democratic states that don’t primarily rule through fear the government generally has a monopoly on using violence to enforce the law.

Seems like a shoddy ripoff of the “meme”/infographic from the Hong Kong protests:

Poor sods. The CCP trampled all over them, and now they’re all stuck under Beijing’s boot.

What you’re not understanding is that quashing a protest with force doesn’t make the anger just go away.

Please don’t try to guess what I think, understand or don’t understand, because you are arguing against a straw man of your own making.

Given that your account is 4 days old I’m going to leave it there. I have no interest in engaging someone who may be a bad-faith troll. We can have another talk if you’re still around in a month or so.

Read up on the '92 LA riots. Do you think US authorities are willing to use more, or less force today than then? Do you think LA civilians today have a larger, or lesser capacity for violence?

Thankfully I don’t think US authorities are anywhere close to PRC or Russia levels of force usage against civilians, but I would bet on the badges coming out on top if it came to a chicken race. That’s not to say it wouldn’t get ugly.

Sure they can, that’s called a revolution - in that case those who caused the disorder get called “heroes” and “freedom fighters”.

If they get smushed by the current authorities coming back in force, then they get written into the history books as “criminals”, “rebels” or “insurrectionists”.

Winner writes history and all that.

That depends on what you mean by integrate. There are many clear examples where it makes no sense to enforce homogenous legislation. Europe is a big place, and it makes sense to have different systems in different places.

Take tires for instance - in the Scandinavian countries we require winter tires for the season, something which would make no sense in Italy for instance.

The EU is one entity, consisting of several member states. Just like my own country consists of many regions and municipalities with their own elected officials.

Member states are forced to comply with legislation passed by the EU, even if a majority of the citizens of a state do not want to implement it. Technically there are two other options - sufferimg massive fines and punitive actions by the EU, or leaving. I’d rather not have to endure either of those, so instead I complain, loudly, online, to politicians, MPs and MEPs.