♲ Europe Says - 2024-04-08 02:00:05 GMT
https://www.europesays.com/1144779/ Launch of the R-27R/ER air-to-air missile by the MiG-29 fighter from one of the Ukrainian Tactical Aviation Brigades. Summer 2023 #CombatFootage #Conflicts
#conflicts
Now that their top military commander has been fired, perhaps we'll see increased improvement of the Ukrainian position.
♲ Europe Says - 2024-02-03 23:23:06 GMT
https://www.europesays.com/1036948/ Ukraine’s SBU unit ‘A’ showing a week’s work. Destroying 11 tanks, 28 armoured vehicles, 24 artillery pieces, 2 Air defence systems, 6 EW jamming systems, 73 regular cars/transport vehicles & recon systems #CombatFootage #Conflicts
2023 was most a really nice year, personally. Obviously being extremely privileged, living in a country which isn't at war, isn't really suffering from #climatechange (yet) and isn't a total police state (yet, we're going that way). I made new social connections, kept old ones alive and dug deeper into the wonderful world of #polyamory (😘's to my darlings). I had many wonderful moments with my kids, who all stayed healthy and are growing up to be fantastic, if not sometimes annoying, little human beings. I traveled, visiting Brussels for FOSDEM + friends and then Prague, all by train, and then a family trip to the UK by plane. I went to awesome #gigs, the highlights being Jinjer, Gojira (twice!), Trivium, Ignea, Huora, Vimma, Infected Rain, 22-Pistepirkko, Soilwork and many others. I almost broke my leg in a moshpit 🤘. I went on more dates than I can remember. I attended many marches, against the populist right wing government Finns decided to vote in, but also to demand more climate action. I also attended various XR actions, though not as many as I would have liked. I survived three rounds of layoffs.
But most of all, the year was about #cycling. I managed to log 182 activities into Strava for a total of 3227km, which is more than 2022 and 2021 combined (1503km and 1280km, respectively). I made my first 100km+ day ride by visiting Porvoo and tested out some bikepacking gear during rides in Tallinn and Tampere. I also started planning my first proper multi-week #bikepacking trip in central Europe for May 2024.
Still, seeing the year as positive does require forgetting a lot of things that are not personal. Like the utter failure of #humanity to converge on climate action. Personally, I've already lost hope. We're just going to ride over that cliff. How big the drop is just depends on what we do to mitigate it. Currently we're not doing much, and the direction isn't necessarily going to improve. With right wing governments on the rise, climate action just isn't going to be a priority. And at least in the democratic countries, you can't go blaming "the government for not doing anything" when it's the voters who are gullible fools, voting populist right wing parties for very very selfish reasons. We, the citizens of these countries, are responsible for change not happening. Maybe this crisis is just too big for our species to handle.
2023 was also the most violent year in a long time, with more #conflicts globally than we have had since a long time. While the world should be converging on the big issues, we're doing what humanity knows best - building borders based on imaginary nationalist ideas and smashing each other to pieces.
Can we, as a species, improve in 2024? That remains to be seen.
The unresolved #conflicts around the world jeopardize the #future
The #war on #terror has only ensured that there are more terrorists today and they are also better equipped. Anyone who manages to capture a #cargo ship in the #RedSea and sink it in the #SuezCanal can have a serious impact on the global #economy.
Background: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-21/yemen-houthis-release-footage-of-cargo-ship-seizure/103133228
#Yemen #terrorism #trade #danger #security #problem #conflict #military
#Facebook owner #Meta briefly blocks #hashtags tied to #Bucha killings
Human rights groups have critized Meta's approach to removing violent content during #conflicts, saying its practice of purging the data from its servers after 90 days results in the deletion of critical #evidence of #war #crimes.
#Ukraine #Russia #violence #crime #conflict #death #news #media #internet
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Solidarity
https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1491877228426280963
Bringing people #together to #resolve #conflicts without #war is not #weakness - it is #strength. #berniesanders
Militarism and the police: how our streets became battlefields
When faced with #conflict, human beings respond in various ways and often choose #solutions that avoid #violence. We are very good at #negotiating, #communicating, #cooperating, as well as, of course, submitting to those more #powerful than us. Violence in our societies is pervasive; it is experienced every day by victims of #crime, domestic and more. But the systemic way #armies and #militarized #police units plan and prepare for the use of overwhelming violence is specific and unique.
A key example of militarized #policing is the #suppression of #protest and #dissent. Social movements come into conflict with the #authorities via lobbying, #protests or direct actions. Authorities respond to these #conflicts in various ways, sometimes reaching for militarized options. This violence is planned, trained for, repeatedly rehearsed and often delivered in a calculated way that aims to disorientate, overwhelm or eliminate the perceived enemy or threat.
Through the lens of #militarism, conflict stops being something that drives #change and #transformation; it becomes a #threat to be neutralized and the individuals and groups driving conflict become enemies akin to a foreign invading #army. Violence of this nature relies on its perpetrators’ #obedience to orders, the #dehumanization of its victims, and a heightened perception of threat.
The experiences of the democracy movement in #HongKong serve as one particularly extreme example. While in Hong Kong these tactics have been deployed by an #authoritarian #government, we have seen similar examples of police violence leveled against #activists across the world — in Chile, France, Germany, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Africa, South Korea and the US, to name but a few.