Comments by "seneca983" (@seneca983) on "TLDR News EU" channel.

  1. Possible counterarguments: 2) Cyprus's border dispute didn't stop it from joining the EU. Also, Ireland technically claimed ownership of a part of the UK until 1999. 3) Technically, Greece, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Cyprus, and Malta didn't share a land border with a pre-existing EU member when they joined.
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  2. There's also one more way Sweden might get into NATO: Erdogan losing the election. Though, I have to admit that I don't know what the other candidates think of Sweden's potential accession.
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  3. 1:25 Note, the ICJ only ruled that international law doesn't prohibit declarations of independence. It didn't rule that Kosovo has the right become independent by a unilateral decision.
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  4. While Morocco's motives might be questionable, is it their duty to control who leaves Morocco? Countries usually want to control who can come in but don't place as many restrictions on who can leave.
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  5. It's not unusual among countries in Europe (or most other places). The controversy seems to be strictly inside France. I don't think I've seen all that many outsiders call this wrong or anything.
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  6. It's well compared to a civil war.
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  7.  @tauceti8060  Turkey's location doesn't seem to have hindered it's ability to join the EU. That has been due to other factors. Also, Cyprus is entirely outside Europe geographically but was still able to join.
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  8.  @nettcologne9186  "And if a nuclear power plant explodes in your neighborhood, then we'll keep talking." And if it doesn't, then lets keep building.
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  9.  @concernedcitizens4110  "It’s better to have a coalition government than having 2 diametrically opposed parties that will change policies in 180 whomever goes into power." Having more parties may help with that but it's not a given. Sometimes, what happens is that the parties just arrange themselves into 2 coalitions that similarly take turns in being in power.
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  10. "The Europeans have inflicted a punitive trade embargo on Australia" I don't think it's punitive.
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  11. The migrants might not be the ones that wanted independence. They might have not even been born yet when Comoros got its independence.
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  12.  @dabi2k  "That woman’s surname is SomethingDottir" No, it's not. Patronyms aren't surnames.
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  13.  @hasinabegum1038  That depends on your definition. Many people in Russia and other former Soviet Republics have mixed lineage and may choose to identify one or another ethnicity based on various different things. There are many such people of mixed decent in Kazakhstan that may choose to identify as Kazakh but then change to identifying as Russian if they move to Russia.
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  14.  @escape209  "patronyms internationally almost always get treated as the surname in English speaking countries" That's not true, is it? You don't call the president of Russia Mr. Vladimirovich, do you?
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  15.  @Yaaacar  "Honestly Montenegro, Bosnia&Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Kosovo are way too dysfunctional to make much progress. Serbia and Albania could, but their governments are preoccupied with mostly populism to take the admission procedure seriosly." That sounds very strange to me because you seem to be implying that Albania is less dysfunctional than Montenegro, Bosnia, and North Macedonia. I'm not super familiar with these countries but to me Albania seems way less functional. From what I've heard, it's basically a corrupt mafia state.
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  16. "It's really heartbreaking seeing people equating Belarus to Lukashenka." My impression has been that people are not doing that.
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  17.  @jod125  Coal has radioactive isotopes in it. Some of it inevitably escapes to the air. The much larger amount of fuel used per kWh produced contributes to the amount of radioactive isotopes spread.
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  18.  @waxxxi  "Russia is playing defensive at the moment." Russia has invaded Ukraine. That's an attack, not defense.
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  19.  @shiakas  "Wind and solar are much safer and less harmful." Wind and solar kill more people per kWh produced than nuclear.
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  20.  @deltaxcd  You can always use machine translation, especially if you have installed a browser extension for it.
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  21. Maybe we should try that here in Finland too. So far, we've not have had much luck in getting into TLDR videos aside from a few short mentions.
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  22.  @thomas316  Additionally, the gas pipelines to China and Europe come from different gas fields meaning the current pipes can't in any case be used to divert gas from Europe to China regardless of their capacity.
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  23.  @JohnDoe-jp4em  "Just from an economic perspective alone Gas turbines are preferrable to nuclear" They are definitely not, at least not in the case of nuclear plants that already existed. The cost nuclear power is mainly the high capital cost of the plant. For existing plants that capital cost has already been paid and cannot be recovered by closing the plant down ahead of schedule. The existing nuclear plants should've been kept running until the end of their planned lifetime.
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  24.  British Patriot  "Albania is 60% Islamic meaning 60% of the country is against atheists, freedom of speech, gay rights, womens rights, and so on ." Not really. Many of them aren't very religious.
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  25. It was in 2002 (for physical currency).
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  26.  @geofflepper3207  I don't think it makes sense to let a single event skew your energy policy that much. Any energy source is going to have downsides and nuclear power has killed less people per kWh produced than any other form energy. Should we quickly close down all hydroelectric dams because a single event (Banqiao dam failure in 1975) killed an enormous amount of people?
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  27.  @peterfireflylund  Hmm, I haven't happened to have seen much American opinions on that particular topic.
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  28.  @MadafakinRio  "If you're close to Russia (ESPECIALLY if you're bordering them) don't make them angry and everything will be fine." Or alternatively, be a NATO member if you can. So far, Russia hasn't invaded any NATO members.
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  29. IIRC, Sweden's gun homicide rate is still only something like 1/3rd of that of the US, but that's still a lot higher than other European countries and Sweden in the past.
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  30. I think it's pertinent to add that there's at least one more scandal that wasn't mentioned in this video. The person chosen to replace Vilhelm Junnila as the economy minister is another MP named Wille Rydman. He used to be in the National Coalition Party but left due to pressure after he had been accused of grooming or harassing some underage girls/women. He later joined the (True) Finns Party. After he was named as Junnila's successor an ex-girlfriend of his who apparently has some kind of grudge released some his private messages where he's saying things that can easily prove controversial (such as "Us Nazis don't really these kinds of Jew things.").
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  31. For me, the most surprising part of the results here in Finland was that the Left Alliance got more seats than the Social Democrats.
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  32. I suspect you can find a document describing the methodology if you search for it hard enough. However, I'm too lazy to try to find it.
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  33. "this video fails to mention the Continuation War (1941-44) which ended with further territorial losses to the Soviet Union" But the territorial losses were far less severe than the losses after the Winter War. After the Winter War, Finland lost some quite valuable land containing almost 1/8th of the population including the then second biggest city. After the Continuation War, Finland only lost some sparsely populated territory in the north.
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  34.  @borayiIdiz  "Nobody cares about Sweden's problems. [...] Turkey has much more serious issues." Well, Erdogan currently seems (or at least claims) to care. If no one else cares at all then they presumably don't care to prevent Sweden's entry, especially if they think Turkey has more pressing issues? "It is common belief in Turkey that small countries like Sweden will not be of any use to NATO. This is not at all a wrong thought." That thought is quite incorrect. The geographic position of Sweden (and even more so that of Finland) is good for protecting the Baltic countries who are geographically in a very vulnerable position.
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  35.  @TheRanguna  My understanding is that at least in the case of Sweden and specifically crimes committed with firearms or explosives (and not necessarily all crime types) certain immigrant groups are far, far more likely to commit them them than the native population and many other immigrant groups.
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  36. "The trouble with a bluff is that it can become difficult to back down from." I think that it's actually easy to back off from this bluff (in the current situation) if it even counts as a bluff. A bluff is a threat when there's no intention or capability to carry it out. Here Putin at least claims that he's not threatening Ukraine so it's kind of the opposite of a bluff. You could say that the troop movements are the real message, not words, but because the official position is that it's not a preparation for invasion it's easy to back down without losing face. Also, if he actually invades, then it technically wasn't a bluff since carried out the threat.
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  37. 9:20 In the case of the Great Northern War, Napoléon's invasion, and the World Wars the position ascribed to Russia doesn't make sense (if they actually hold it). In the Great Northern War Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania, and Saxony were on Russia's side and Russia was also initially the aggressor (along with Denmark-Norway and Saxony), not Sweden. During the Napoléonic wars Britain was the enemy of Napoléon and thus on Russia's side when he invaded Russia (and Russia's resumption of trade with Britain was why he decided to invade). In both World Wars many European powers and the US were again on the same side and Russia / Soviet Union. Those were European wars involving various powers including Russia and with other countries on both sides, not some uniquely anti-Russian crusades by the West.
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  38. ​@Never repeats "I think [...] the Finnish President can refer bills to the supreme court to see if they are constitutional before they take effect" I don't think the Finnish President has that kind of power. Checking the constitutionality of bills before they're passed is done by the Constitutional Committee in the Parliament.
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  39. I'm pretty sure they meant current times. The World Wars were long ago.
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  40.  @tylerclayton6081  "China and Japan both have a total debt of above 300% of GDP." That isn't true. Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio is "only" a bit above 260%
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  41. "leading to the Finnish inventing the Molotiv cocktail" Finns didn't invent the Molotov cocktail. Those had been used against tanks in e.g. the Spanish Civil War which had ended only a few months earlier. Finns did come up with the name, though.
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  42.  @carstengrooten3686  On the right side of the river, one boat moving forward (from the camera's perspective) seems to have either a collision or near-collision with a docked boat.
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  43. It's probably more useful for everyone if Austria stays neutral. It can still function as a mediator. Finland and Sweden quite likely can't do that in the same way anymore.
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  44.  @Bayard1503  In this case the product (Urals oil) disappearing from the market would be a good thing.
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  45.  @MaoThe1st  That kind of phenomenon didn't happen in other countries that have adopted the Euro, at least no where near to that extent.
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  46.  @wow1371  "Europe and Asia are not one unified continental plate, they are two separate basically fused together at this point" They are on the same tectonic plate, the Eurasian plate, ancient sutures notwithstanding. Note that e.g. Greece is actually on a different tectonic plate from most of Eurasia so by a tectonic definition it's less of on the same continent as most of the EU than Georgia and Armenia. "Georgia and Armenia border the Asian part of Russia" No, here you're just mistaken. The conventional border of Europe and Asia in the east-west direction is usually taken to be at the Ural mountains. The Caucasus is to the west of the Urals so they border the European part of Russia.
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  47.  @kakzohcjxi4000  This isn't a lie. It's a verifiable fact. You can read on the ICJ website about this decision and it says: "[The Court] also concluded that it was not required by the question posed to decide whether international law conferred a positive entitlement upon Kosovo to declare independence ; rather, it had to determine whether a rule of international law prohibited such a declaration." The ICJ hasn't ruled on whether Kosovo has a right to independence or not.
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  48. They still call themselves "Sannfinländarna" in Swedish which literally means "True Finns".
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  49. In many countries where the president is mostly a figurehead the president is chosen by the parliament. Germany is another example.
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  50.  @evryatis9231  "it means no one will say anything when it happens either" Don't be so sure. In one poll mentioned in one of Perun's videos says that most Belarusians estimate that the Belarusian army would just surrender if sent to Ukraine. That does not bode well for using the Belarusian army in Ukraine.
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  51. The Europeans aren't isolated. Firstly, the lack of a trade deal doesn't mean that trade can't happen. Deals just make trade easier. Secondly, the relative lack of natural resources doesn't have much to do this. Resource exporters are generally happy to sell to Europeans even without a trade deal being agreed (with some exceptions like Russia).
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  52.  @kw2142  Maybe he's being really nitpicky and means that at the time the formal name would have been "European Economic Community".
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  53.  @4tech404  Or it may be due to bakeries paying more for gas or electricity.
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  54.  @MSDGroup-ez6zk  "The majority of [...] commercial jets [...] are using petrol." Really? I thought jets used (aviation) kerosene, not petrol.
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  55. At least in 2008 Russia didn't march into Tbilisi. This is so much worse.
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  56.  @DragonBlueSpirit  "The very mountainous landscape isn't really ideal for biking either." Presumably e-bikes should still work well.
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  57. @Elivinture "If you want to see the contrast, just know that the danish mainland is the second happiest country on earth while danish overseas territories Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world." That's not really a contrast. As unintuitive as it might be, population happiness and suicide rates have a positive correlation.
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  58. The Finnish Center Party isn't Liberal. They're socially more conservative that the main center-right party (National Coalition) and they also favor the state more actively managing the economy.
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  59.  @tengrici431  It wasn't the aggressor in 2020. At least that time it was Azerbaijan that (re)started the conflict.
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  60. The people in the former Yugoslavia (and in the Netherlands) are among the tallest in Europe.
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  61. I've wondered why I've not heard of Moldova applying for EU membership even though Romania has been a member for a while now.
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  62. @@SchizzieMaj But on much smaller scale. The US PMC's aren't supposed to be used as actual combat troops but only as bodyguards etc. (though this job can still lead to combat if an attack happens).
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  63.  @dannyzero692  Fragmenting your military is a brilliant strategy for an autocrat. The military is the force in the country with the strongest capability of staging a coup and replacing the autocrat. To avoid that it's imperative to a) keep the military weak and b) fragment it into competing factions (because even a weak military still has strong potential for coups if unified and under the control of a single individual).
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  64. Greenland left the EU in 1985. (Technically, it wasn't the EU back then but you know what I mean.)
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  65. "Usually the EU doesn't like to inherit border disputes/internal crises." What do you mean "usually"? What's your dataset? Is there a precedent where a country who would have otherwise been able to join wasn't due to a border dispute? I think you're just mistaken here. Ireland and the UK were also able to join despite Ireland claiming a part of UK territory.
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  66.  @BocaoZ  They gave $400 million worth of aid back in 2019 so clearly there's at least some willingness to spend money. Now it might be too late for further aid, though.
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  67.  @darkyada71  In Finland there are no binding referenda. The parliament can amend the consitution on its own. That either requires that the amendment is first passed by a simple majority and then by the next parliament after the next election by a 2/3 majority, or alternatively it can be passed by the same parliament without waiting for the next election but that requires a 5/6 majority. Thus any referendum would be non-binding and even those are uncommon. So far, Finland has only ever had two nationwide referenda: in 1931 on ending the prohibition & in 1994 on joining the EU. Actually, I don't even think the Finnish constitution has anything that would prevent a NATO membership without an amendment but even if it did a referendum wouldn't be a constitutional requirement (thought it's possible that the politicians might still want to have one).
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  68.  @sadeceliff  "as long as you do not meet Turkey's expectations" Do the other candidates have the same expectations as Erdogan?
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  69.  @stormcloaks1042  Isn't he behind in the polls? Ignoring Sweden's and Finland's NATO bids, I would personally hope that Erdogan loses, mainly because of his stupid monetary policy. He's stubbornly persisting in doing exactly the opposite of what a clear majority of economists agree is the right course of action during high inflation. This kind of stubbornness and arrogance in the face of expert opinion does not paint the picture of a rational decision maker. This is causing unnecessary damage to Turkey's economy.
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  70.  @sadeceliff  Remember that this Koran burning was done by a Danish politician.
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  71. "Because of that TC's claim for Taksim for the whole island, not just for the northern part." The word "taksim" means "division" or "partition". What would mean to claim partition or division for the whole island?
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  72. Gas is like 6% of the energy used in Finland on average. Losing it would not be catastrophic. Germany and Italy are in a much worse position when it comes to gas.
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  73.  @geneticengineer9691  "They show YPGs crap flags" Shouldn't they show the YPG flag when talking about YPG?
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  74. "if she was a man, she would've been fired many times over earlier" I'm pretty sure that's not the case. Her scandals have been pretty minor.
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  75.  @attepietarila9950  Stubb lost to a leadership challenge inside his own party and that had nothing to do with wearing shorts. Also, by that time he wasn't the prime minister anyway but rather the finance minister.
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  76.  @attepietarila9950  I don't think that scandal really had any effect on him.
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  77. Cyprus would likely veto Turkey's accession as long as there is no solution.
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  78.  @hayven3494  "he wanted Belarus to be free and not become part of Russia" It's more like that he wanted for Belarus to become a part of Russia but only with himself as the leader of Russia. Since Putin was able to get a firm grip on power in Russia he no longer wanted a union state.
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  79.  @KubiIay  "There’s no buffer anymore for Russia and anything to stop EU from reaching Moskou." Hyperbole much? EU countries invading Russia is an extremely unlikely scenario.
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  80. But the Russians don't have the same kind of supply problems they had in Kherson, at least not at the moment.
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  81.  @exlibrisas  Maybe Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia should institute conscription. Their combined population is higher than that of Finland (6 million vs. 5.5 million) so a large conscript reserve can have a decent impact on their defensive capability. When it comes to aircraft, I don't think it necessarily makes that much sense for them to have fighter jets (though maybe other types of aircraft can make sense). In the case of a potential invasion the jets would be too close to the frontlines to be safe. It probably makes more sense for them to receive air support from other NATO countries and more focus on infantry, artillery, etc.
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  82.  @Robert_H.  "The Green Youth in Germany has nothing against nuclear power. The problem is, we don't have a nuclear repository solution in Germany" That's a minor issue. Temporary storage is fairly unproblematic. "renewable energies produce so much cheaper electricity in Germany than nuclear power plants that it makes no sense at all to continue to rely on them in Germany." I disagree when it comes to the existing plants in Germany. Nuclear fuel is cheap and nuclear plants are cheap to run it makes no economic sense to close them. New nuclear capacity would be expensive due to the high capital cost of nuclear plants. However, when it comes to the existing plants that's a sunk cost and therefore irrelevant. Closing the existing plants was/is a mistake.
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  83.  @degrotemarc9359  "what do you mean "balls"." It's a metaphor for bravery/boldness.
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  84.  @MSDGroup-ez6zk  But you weren't talking about crude oil (a.k.a. petroleum). You were talking about petrol (a.k.a. gasoline) which is refined from crude oil and is a different product from kerosene which is also refined from crude oil.
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  85.  @PhilippBlum  "As it turns out: They don't." What do you mean they don't? Clearly, they do. That was the ECJ ruling. "QE is financing" I disagree. By that logic, any monetary policy is financing. QE is different mostly in that the central bank directly decides the amount of base money to be created rather than deciding it indirectly by deciding on a policy rate.
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  86.  @malxadolasanadam  I don't have one myself but my understanding that you can get an average e-bike for about €2k and less for a simpler model. €2k for a car sounds quite cheap to me, though admittedly I don't have a car either. A car also has higher operating costs due to fuel, insurance etc.
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  87. "I recommend pronouncing a simple H sound instead, which is far nearer to the Ukrainian and Russian phonetic original." That's somewhat subjective. To my knowledge, the sound in Ukrainian/Russia is the unvoiced velar fricative. You could argue that K is closer because it's also a velar consonant (just a plosive rather than a fricative) whereas H is not velar.
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  88.  @gamermapper  "Isn't Albania occupying Kosovo the same way armenia is occupying Nagorno-Karabakh or Turkey Northern Cyprus?" No. There have been accusations of Albania supporting the KLA but any possible involvement by Albania is much smaller and less direct than what Armenia and Turkey have done in the cases of Nagorno-Karabakh and Cyprus.
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  89.  @patavinity1262  "If Russia can't handle Ukraine, they definitely can't handle Finland" Ukraine's population is (or was at the start of 2022) about 8 times that of Finland.
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  90.  @brunokagawa6287  "instructing their "friend" Ukraine to fight until the bitter end" I don't think they're doing that.
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  91. Finland doesn't have any F-35s yet. Currently it's only Hornets.
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  92. "Denmark takes care of a lot of things that the people in Greenland would otherwise have to take care off and pay for itself (foreign politics and military among others)" I don't think Greenland would have to have a military. Iceland doesn't have a military and they do just fine. I think if Greenland ever becomes fully independent they'll likely forgo any armed forces.
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  93. I think it's [x] (unvoiced velar fricative) rather than [h] (unvoiced glottal fricative).
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  94. "for not taking the opportunity to transition to renewable energy when they could" It's not that there was a such a decision or missed opportunity. It's just that such shift isn't easy and wind and solar have become viable fairly recently. The intermittent nature of those renewables has required some kind of peaking power to make up shortfalls for when there isn't that much wind or sunlight. Natural gas works well for such peaking power. It's at least partially the shift to renewables that has made Europe reliant on gas.
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  95.  @الضحاكأبوالمحبة  "Maybe Russia will attack Finland like it did with Ukraine, if Finland joined the NATO" In the case of Ukraine Russia could attack without triggering NATO's article 5 because Ukraine is not a NATO member. If Finland joined NATO then an attack after that would trigger the article 5. That should be a powerful deterrent.
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  96.  @leonhunte2036  Yeah, it's Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands. However for Sweden that acronym wouldn't make sense whereas SDP would make sense even if it doesn't happen to be used there.
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  97. So Finland is doing less badly than Sweden? Incredible.
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  98.  @lookitthis6101  "You can get Medicare in all 50 states. My family had it because we were poor." But Medicare is for the old, not the poor.
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  99.  @wow1371  "Georgia and Armania are already far stretched arguments as they are Asian countries not European ones." Geographically they at least border Europe and maybe even have some land in Europe (depending on where exactly you draw the border) whereas Cyprus is wholly in Asia and does not have a land border with Europe. That said, I don't think the somewhat arbitrary borders between regions (as Europe and Asia aren't really even separate continents) is important. I think it's enough that the country is reasonably close to the main body of the EU. I'd be ready to admit any such country (assuming they fulfill the membership requirements with e.g. having sufficiently good economy, democracy, human rights, etc.) even if they're strictly speaking outside of Europe.
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  100.  @sampohonkala4195  "You can also choose civil service." It's "civilian service", not "civil service". (civil service = virkamiehet, julkishallinto)
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  101. @Never repeats Yeah, but the parliament can override the veto with a simple majority (which is required to pass the bill in the first place) so it's not a very strong power.
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  102.  @blackfalkon4189  The president signing the laws is the normal procedure. Refusing to sign is like a "delaying veto" mentioned. In that case the bill goes back to the parliament which can then pass it with another vote (requiring a simple majority) without the president signing it.
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  103.  @riniscollaku7848  "having the right to declear independece unilateraly" Just because they can declare it doesn't mean that they have a positive right to have independence under international law. The court explicitly didn't rule on that matter.
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  104.  @riniscollaku7848  The point is that the ICJ didn't say on whether Serbia or any other country should recognize Kosovo's independence. It's like if you declared that your own house is now an independent country. Even if a court rules that such a declaration doesn't break any law (as you have a freedom of speech) that still doesn't mean your declaration necessarily has any effect.
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  105.  @riniscollaku7848  "claiming your house is independent from the jurisdiction of the country when the documents say otherwise, you committed fraud" I'm pretty sure that kind of argument wouldn't hold in court in most countries. "if you refuse to pay taxes and utilities, you can just get kicked out" Similarly, Serbia could e.g. try to move its police force or armed forces into Kosovo saying that it's its own territory. I don't personally think they should do that but at least this ICJ decision doesn't say that they wouldn't have the right to do that under international law.
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  106.  @bastiaan4129  "As a European citizen i can only vote for one of the three legislative powers in Europe" The EU has only two legislative bodies: the Parliament and the Council. Also, the Council is similar to the German Bundesrat as that one isn't directly elected either, and also how the US Senate was before the 17th Amendment.
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  107.  @j.p.ijsblok5304  Russia has earlier said that it was reducing its military activity near Kyiv as a gesture of good will to advance the negotiations. A more likely reason was that their advance around Kyiv (and Chernihiv and Sumy) wasn't proceeding according to plan. They also later said that they removed their weapons from Snake Island, again as a gesture of good will. A more likely reason was that it was not practical to have weapons and troops on the island due to Ukrainian bombardment.
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  108. "the occupation is not illegal via the treaty of guarantee signed by Greece, Turkey and UK which gives either nation the right to invade to ensure constitutional order and protect its people." You could argue that about the initial Turkish intervention but the second Turkish invasion in August can't be justified that way.
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  109. The EU mutual defense clause is weaker than NATO's article 5 in two ways. Firstly, it doesn't say that an attack against one is an attack against all. Secondly, it doesn't explicitly mention military intervention.
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  110.  @luqman_md  "If you did not have yet a nuclear waste how can you be the first country to have solved it ????" Of course Finland has had nuclear waste for a while. The recently completed reactor is 5th in the country. The 4 earlier ones have been operating for many decades.
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  111.  @midlander8186  Denmark is more densely populated than Sweden. There are of course differences to Sweden's neighbors but aren't the differences even bigger relative to Spain, France, and the UK? Then a minor nitpick about this: "Sweden's population is a little less than twice that of Denmark or Norway and more than twice that of Finland." You should swap Norway and Finland here. Finland has a larger population than Norway.
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  112.  @GeorgeMasterclass  "therefore legaly even the Turks in the northern part could be considered EU citizens but are not" You're mistaken. They are EU citizens. Or at least the ones that the Republic of Cyprus considers to be Cypriots. Naturalized immigrants from Turkey are not EU citizens.
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  113.  @malxadolasanadam  Cold can probably be dealt with by just dressing warmly enough and Portugal isn't the coldest country in any case. If you're from one of the former socialist countries of Europe, Portugal is still richer than most of them (with some Exceptions like Czechia, Slovenia, and Estonia) so I'd think an e-bike is affordable to a significant part of the Portuguese population. Also note that OP was complaining about the numerous taxes on cars in Portugal; they probably make cars less affordable than e-bikes in most cases.
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  114.  @reiniernn9071  That sounds like enough range for a large portion of commutes. Also, you'd have to consider that even with highest levels of assist your own pedaling will provide almost 30% of the power and likely more than that on average (though in the case of hilly terrain you'd likely prefer the higher amount of assist). That will add to the range you calculated.
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  115.  @gsvick  Yugoslavia could reasonably be counted as West European. It's not that far to the east and it wasn't a part of the Eastern Bloc during socialist times.
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  116.  @ivanmase99  There are similarities, especially if you compare to the US of the past when the federal government was weaker than today.
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  117.  @ivanmase99  That 33% limit is decided by the ECB Governing Council itself. It was 25% before but at some point, they raised it to 33%. Besides, I've not heard of that particular limit being breached (though I wasn't quickly able to find info on it). Have you?
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  118.  @drharnsaft1005  It seems to me that Greeks and Turks share a lot of culture so that doesn't seem like a reason to exclude Turkey due to culture, whereas geography would seem to lead to the exclusion of Cyprus. You could argue religion but then that would also bring into question whether Albania and Bosnia are culturally European.
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  119.  @willc1294  "Average height in any society is usually related to nutrition across several generarions." I'm pretty sure that in modern times in Europe nutrition is mostly good enough that it doesn't affect height anymore and differences are primarily genetic.
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  120.  @neodym5809  Germany, not France.
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  121. Though I think a lot of people consider Romania and Moldova as Eastern European even though Romanian is a Romance language, not a Slavic language.
    3
  122.  @jhutt8002  My main was the messages that the ex-girlfriend made public. I still wanted to mention the earlier accusations because they're something that can also add to the controversy in the eyes of some (whether they should or not).
    3
  123.  @MssIAMNOBODYSPECIAL  It's quite possible that at least part of it is what he genuinely thinks.
    3
  124.  @unbearabletruth4310  "it would be against the EU rules" Is it? Germany has done the same thing with its reunification.
    3
  125. 2:40 Actually, the recognition vs. non-recognition of Kosovo's independence is very close to 50/50 (among UN members).
    3
  126.  @basedkaiser5352  "The E.U is a puppet to America and its companies" Can't be. As Trump said, the EU was "formed in order to take advantage of the United States". (jk)
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  127.  @entropy8634  "How does Saddam not having wmd have anything to do with current analysis of the events?" I suspect his argument is that the analysis he disagrees with comes (in some way) from the US or other Western intelligence services which were proven unreliable in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (I'm not myself taking a position on whether this is a good argument or not.)
    2
  128. GMO isn't really a quality issue. The GMO ban in the EU has no rational scientific basis.
    2
  129.  @rez0_o_  AFAIK no such issues for GMO have been found.
    2
  130.  @csat1078  I specifically said it (GMO) isn't a quality issue. I didn't claim that there wasn't a ban but only that the ban has no rational justification.
    2
  131.  @rez0_o_  You can e.g. check "An overview of the last 10 years of genetically engineered crop safety research" by A. Nicolia et al. There are probably many other reviews as well.
    2
  132.  @123benley  "others who refuse to join" Ukraine would have likely joined for a while now if they could have.
    2
  133. But they were talking about the past, more specifically Trump's term, not the present.
    2
  134. "there is literally a different country in north" It was a single country not too long ago.
    2
  135.  @Anublet90  "You're gonna have to be more specific than that" It's the voiced palatal approximant [j]. Is that specific enough?
    2
  136. Turkey at least has a little bit of land (East Thrace) in Europe whereas Cyprus is geographically entirely outside of Europe.
    2
  137.  @CaribouEno  "Caledonia is missing as French territory in this video" It's a "sui generis collectivity" since 1999.
    2
  138.  @adriench.7148  Did they (i.e. the ones who have come to Mayotte or want to do so) in favor of independence for Comoros or for staying as a part of France?
    2
  139.  @darkyada71  In Finland a referendum wouldn't be required.
    2
  140. What would SPD even stand for? SDP would at least make sense but SPD seemingly doesn't.
    2
  141. "It has been largely privatised in the 90s" That's completely wrong. It hasn't been privatized in the slightest bit. The government owns it in its entirety.
    2
  142.  @aramikami  Thanks for the details.
    2
  143.  @sandhills2344  "Why would one of the least oppressive countries want to join NATO?" Because now Russia seems like an unpredictable menace?
    2
  144.  @lorenzofalorni3961  Ukraine and Georgia? Really?
    2
  145.  @patrickmccutcheon9361  "Btw, I did not see your first point 1); what was it?" My points were in response to 2nd and 3rd of the 5 stumbling blocks mentioned in this video. I didn't comment on the 1st stumbling block (i.e. democratic backsliding in Georgia).
    2
  146.  @wow1371  "I said it is a fused plate consisting of two plates and that is the generally accepted knowledge of Eurasia." But that doesn't make them different continents. We don't say that the east coast of the US is a different continent from the rest of North America just because of the Iapetus suture. We also don't say that Greece is on a different continent from the rest of Eurasia just because it's on a different plate which even hasn't fused with the Eurasian plate. "However that is literally beside the point." OK then. "For every 1 map of Europe including Russian territory up to Urals I can show you two not including Russia at all." I don't think I've seen any explicit definition of the border between Europe and Asia that would put the land borders anywhere else but the Caucasus and Ural mountains. By the conventional definition Georgia and Armenia at least touch the border between Europe and Asia (unlike Cyprus) whether you put the border north or south of them. "This goes back once again to European identity argument." When it comes to identity, Georgians seem to identify as Europeans.
    2
  147.  @wow1371  "1. Continent=/=tectonic plates" Well, you're the one who first brought up tectonic plates, not me. In any case, I don't think there's a reasonable definition for continent that would separate Europe and Asia into different continents. "2. Yet there are more than one map excluding Russia completely." I don't think that's common and wouldn't give much weight such maps anyway. "3. It doesn't matter if they identify as European. Sorry to break it to you but that is not how it works." Well, you're the one who brought up "European identity". In any case, by any reasonable definition I can think of Georgia is at least as European as Cyprus.
    2
  148.  @wow1371  "European identity preceived by the european of europe." Well, if we count Georgia as European then them seeing themselves as European counts towards that. But in case you meant something like "percieved as European in EU member states" then doesn't it still apply? I'm not super familiar with Georgia but I certainly haven't perceived it as "Asian" or anything like that. I've also thought in terms of culture it has more in common with European countries than e.g. Turkey or Iran.
    2
  149.  @sampohonkala4195  "There is no need to be a pacifist, it is an open option for anyone, no reason needed." That's not true. You need to sign a form saying that you can't serve in the military due to reasons of conviction.
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  150.  @timogul  "Ok, twist my arm on it." The reason you gave was being at war a few decades back. When Yugoslavia broke up, to my knowledge only Slovenia and North Macedonia managed to become independent without fighting. "Cut off trade." That would be an excessive measure. It would only impoverish innocent Serbian civilians and make peace more difficult to achieve without any real benefit. "They could if NATO made a deal with them to that effect." It's at least unclear if Nato members would sign up for that but at any rate they don't enough reason to trust Nato.
    2
  151.  @rapperx9820  But the original decision to close them was made during Schröder's government which also included the Greens.
    2
  152. There isn't strictly speaking an EU constitution. The treaties are the closest equivalent.
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  153. @Never repeats OK, I checked it too and, yes, the president can ask for their opinion but it's just a non-binding opinion.
    2
  154.  @blackfalkon4189  I'm not sure why the process is like that. If I had to guess I'd say that maybe it's because it seems to be common practice around the world that the president or the king/queen signs all the laws. So the drafters of the Finnish constitution may have wanted to just copy that practice but not give the president an actual veto power like in some countries. But that's just my guess. I'm not familiar with the relevant history.
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  155.  @Dendarang  "Otherwise, the most obvious thing that will happen is that any Turk that wants to immigrate to the EU will be able to do so through Cyprus, it will be de facto admitting Turkey into Schengen." Your point here sounds rather confused. Being in the Schengen doesn't mean being subject to the free movement of people in the EU. Schengen means the lack of border checks. If Turkey were to be admitted to Schengen then people in Turkey could also travel to other Schengen countries without the hassle of border formalities like showing your passports at customs. However, that doesn't grant the right to live in EU member countries. That's a completely different thing. Or do you mean that Turks would utilize the lack of border checks to go to EU member states and then illegally overstay there?
    2
  156. "C'mon guys... pony up for a copy editor, please?" You'll just need to donate (or buy merch) enough to pay for that.
    2
  157.  @eksiarvamus  Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are called the "Baltic States" so Estonia is Baltic in the geographic (but not in the linguistic) sense.
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  158. It wouldn't be a job done. The TRNC isn't a part of Turkey.
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  159. 2:40 It's not true that the Balticconnector is the only import channel. Finland is also renting (together with Estonia) an LNG terminal ship named Exemplar from an American company.
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  160.  @sri33333  "Do you realise that Estonia is a small country" Russian speakers are a big enough minority that finding teachers shouldn't be a big problem. It hasn't been a problem for Estonia until now. "Do you really want to compare us with Turkey with its 85 million people?" Your original point, which I responded to, only said that there shouldn't be any obligation to arrange teaching in any non-official language. That point didn't mention size which is a different point entirely so using Turkey as an example seemed perfectly reasonable. Furthermore, in my comment I did mention that e.g. the number of the speakers of the minority language is one factor in determining how reasonable is to expect for the government to arrange schooling in that language. I think Russian speakers a big enough minority in Estonia that arranging Russian language schooling shouldn't be a problem. Estonia has managed until now and I don't see a reason to change that. "and also quite poor" I don't think you can count Estonia as poor anymore. As an example, its real GDP per capita is already (somewhat) higher than that of Spain and Portugal.
    2
  161.  @V01DIORE  Hmm, it seems my comments and a couple of yours were removed.
    2
  162.  @charlesburgoyne-probyn6044  "Serbia as the lead nation had many serbs in Croatia and Bosnia who didn't generally want the federation to breakup. They started the wars by braking away from Yugoslavia actually!" AFAIK, the Yugoslav constitution gave the right of secession to the constituent republics. Thus de jure Croatia and Bosnia had the right to break away and I don't think you can reasonably say that they started the war; or at least they're not the only culprits. Surely the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Serbian Krajina in Croatia must share at least part of the blame.
    2
  163. With negative prices couldn't someone make money by buying gas to receive money and then just flare the gas?
    2
  164. "I have always wondered how a federal republic system (the same system in my country Switzerland) would work in Cyprus." One fear that the Greek Cypriots have about a federal solution is that it wouldn't end up like Switzerland but more like Bosnia with a deadlocked government.
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  165. "And seems to me, germany is working on that..." It seems to me that Germany has been doing the exact opposite.
    2
  166.  @envysart797  "If Ukraine takes back Kherson, there’s no easy way to protect Crimea." If you mean actually making a large scale offensive into Crimea, I don't see that happening. The Ukrainian's would have to fight through the very narrow isthmus of Perekop to enter Crimea and they can't rely on naval support as they don't have much of a navy. That seems too difficult. If you mean just blackmail through throttling the water supply into Crimea, that's more realistic. Such blackmail probably wouldn't cause Russia to give up Crimea but it might cause them to give up other areas if the war is also going badly enough.
    2
  167. "Poland should invest in the future, not the past." Nuclear is an investment into future.
    2
  168. Reminds me of the War of the Wooden Bucket.
    2
  169.  @JOHNSMITH-if9jr  It's a conscript army meaning it's made of ordinary people and a clear majority of ordinary people in Belarus don't want to invade Ukraine so there is close to zero motivation for doing things like that among the ranks. It also means that it's not that loyal to Lukashenko. Thus he needs separate (professional, not conscript) internal security forces who are more loyal to him.
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  170.  @TimurtheElephantslayer  "Greece stalled for time instead of admitting they're wrong" What kind of "stalling" are you talking about? Should Greece have agreed to something very quickly, or what are you saying. Also, the military junta in Greece had already collapsed before the second Turkish invasion so whatever Greece might have been wrong about before shouldn't have been relevant at that point anymore.
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  171.  @WuzZAZzuW  "I dont agree. It was the right decision." It was definitely a bad decision. I don't see any reasonable reason to close existing plants before the end of their usable life.
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  172.  @WuzZAZzuW  I don't think that's what you said. It's not that the decision was too quick but rather such decision should not have been made at all. Of course, once plants reach the end of their useful life they will be decommissioned but that doesn't require any separate decision by politicians to end nuclear energy at some point. There is no good reason to make such a decision. Closing too old plants doesn't require such decision at any speed.
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  173. "Belarus is not a separate country it was de facto annexed by Russia years ago." I don't buy that. Lukashenko just keeps promising a union state, maybe, someday, to keep getting cheap gas and oil.
    2
  174.  @martinswitzer6534  "But our wealth tax is negligible" That doesn't mean it's not the second-highest like Slithermotion claimed.
    2
  175. The Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands has a parliament with 7 members.
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  176.  @pjhgerlach  What is the "mistake" the EU did with Hungary? Was the EU supposed to have a crystal ball showing how Hungarian politics are going to shift in the future?
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  177.  @lichansan1750  "Then the German court could be forced to decide that Germany can no longer be part of the EU" I find it hard to believe that a German court would decide that Germany is no longer a member if the German parliament doesn't also want that.
    2
  178. I'm not sure doing merely that would help Russia. Russia did that early in the war but the strain of extra front clearly wasn't worth it and they withdrew.
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  179.  @markobucevic8991  "Russia was never historically under Sweden." Yeah, but the part of Russia that has Saint Petersburg in it was between the Time of Troubles and the Great Northern War.
    2
  180. At least the EU is a much simpler entity.
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  181. One possibility is that earlier they still planned to hold on to the city and wanted to make logistics easier by removing the need to supply civilians and then later decided to abandon the city alltogether.
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  182. "You see, the Dutch already had some strong suspicions Draghi was just saving the Italian economy at the cost of Dutch citizens' capital by keeping the inflation rate as high as possible instead of keeping the eurozone financially stable." Lol! Inflation was below the 2% target for the majority of his term. Even if inflation had been higher it wouldn't have been a cost to the Dutch.
    2
  183.  @lordanonimmo7699  "The natural gas is mostly used as heating [...] things that Nuclear energy cant really help a lot." Nuclear energy can definitely help a lot with heating, either through electric forms of heating or more directly through district heating.
    2
  184. 2:00 "Western European countries like Portugal and Greece" Since when is Greece "Western European"?
    2
  185.  @orionlt1028  "what winter what 500 years?" He was talking about the winter of 1708/09. "Battle of Poltava where swedish empire was crushed was in July" That battle indeed happened in the July of 1709 but that's not really relevant to what OP (mightymagnus) said since Charles XII had turned south before that during the preceding winter.
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  186.  @orionlt1028  What do you mean excuses? Many soldiers died of exposure. Are you saying that the frozen corpses were just making excuses to not march or what?
    2
  187.  @orionlt1028  "enemies had warm summer weather?" Obviously not during the winter. Wasn't that clear to you or why are you asking?
    2
  188.  @MSDGroup-ez6zk  In what place does petrol mean petroleum? At least Merriam-Webster gives it as a synonym for gasoline and nothing else.
    2
  189.  @MSDGroup-ez6zk  I have never been to any English speaking country so I'm relying on dictionaries etc. I've never seen any dictionary use "petrol" for crude oil.
    2
  190.  @kyriacosmenikou5175  "I am sure that the EU regrets allowing Cyprus to join." Is that really the case? I don't see this being that big of a problem for the EU (compared to the case of Cyprus not being a member but this issue still being unresolved). On the other hand, the EU may have regretted it back in 2013 when the Cypriot banks imploded.
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  191. "This oil is very poor quality due to its high sulfur content." Are you sure about that. At least Wikipedia says that WTI oil is light and sweet where "sweet" means low sulphur content.
    2
  192.  @PhilippBlum  "The point of QE is to manipulate the market in a way which is benefitial for countries with bad ratings." I'm not a mind-reader so I can't know for certain why the ECB chooses to do what it does. However, QE has a clear justification independent of any country's bond spreads. Inflation in the Eurozone has been below the 2% target and without QE it would have been even more so. The ECB did right when implementing QE even if they did it for a wrong reason; or rather they were wrong in that the QE program was too small. "Therefore it's just financing these countries with other instruments." There isn't a clear difference to normal monetary policy which also involves buying assets. "With QE the ECB becomes a direct participant in the bond market. And bonds are a direct instrument to finance governments. Ergo they manipulate the way governments are financed. The treaty clearly states that the ECB doesn't have that power." Buying government bonds is a normal way to conduct monetary policy all over the world. Technically, before the QE program, the ECB didn't directly buy government bonds but rather banks' bonds with government bonds as collateral but that's a minimal difference.
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  193.  @joyboy6535  Likely they'll continue the fight for a while longer. Most likely don't want to make the invasion too cheap for Russia.
    2
  194.  @yomamacrib3297  That's pure nonsense. There's no reason to presume that the US would have invaded Russia.
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  195.  @yomamacrib3297  "ok so why would The U.S. want to setup a military base on Russias borders?" The US wasn't in any kind of process of setting up a base in Ukraine. If the US wanted a war with Ukraine, now would be the perfect time. There's no reason to assume the US would have attacked Russia.
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  196. Education has degraded in Finland too, though perhaps less so than in Sweden.
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  197. Have one-state solutions worked better?
    2
  198. @@abitmorerational "The Swedish murder rate is no different to the rest of Europe and it seems that the Malmo crime stats haven´t actually increased. I think this is the problem it´s perception rather than actual reality." I'm under the impression that that's partly right and partly wrong. To my knowledge, if you only look at homicides (and other crime) in total, you're right. However, if you specifically look at gun violence (and probably also bombings) it has sharply increased in Sweden and now much worse than many other countries in Europe. It doesn't budge the total statistics that much since most homicides are still things like drunken idiots stabbing or pummelling each other to death. However, guns and explosives make bigger headlines. This perception generated by headlines can be argued to maybe be somewhat distorted but it's not a total nothingburger either.
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  199.  @suicidesquats9325  "because of what happened in the beginning" I think that says that Sweden's measures should have, in hindsight, been at least a little stricter in the beginning.
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  200. "Its guarantor status gave it the right to interfere when the republic was in danger." You could argue that about the initial Turkish intervention but not about the second Turkish invasion in August.
    2
  201. "But, in its turn, the EU is free to sanction them (or even kick them out)" There's no provision in the EU treaties to kick a member state out.
    2
  202. 3:50 Firstly, saying that the Blues "did pretty well" is completely incorrect. They didn't get any seats in 2019. Secondly, it might be pertinent know that this "moderate offshoot" was actually the "old guard" of the party which didn't like that the party became almost completely captured by it's newer anti-immigration wing.
    2
  203.  @danielwebb8402  I'm not 100% sure what he's referring to but here's my guess. The electricity price faced by consumers is capped by law in the UK. This has lead to some power utilities to go bankrupt with the wholesale price of electricity being higher than the price they charge their customers as they've made a loss on every kWh. There have been talks of bailing out the utilities with taxpayer money.
    2
  204.  @3ndrei  "Kosovo does recognise Serbia, so it makes no sense to ban license plates from a country that you recognise" It was a tit-for-tat move. Therefore recognizing Serbia doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't make sense.
    2
  205. Albania is a basket case. It would need to improve significantly.
    2
  206.  @reiniernn9071  I'd think the range should still be enough for most trips. Of course, that depends on the circumstance of each person.
    2
  207.  @riskinhos  What? Because one person can't use them, no one can? Not everyone has to do what your grandma does.
    2
  208. The nuclear waste is not a big issue. The amounts are comparatively small so temporary storage is fine.
    2
  209. "To have a state according to international law you need a fully independent authority" Do you have a reference for this? Which international law are you talking about?
    2
  210.  Pandaboi  "For example building high speed rail would take multiple political terms, so a left-wing government has no incentive to start building it when a right-wing government can jump in and take credit." That can potentially be an issue but there are some factors that can mitigate it. One aspect is that Finland has tended to have 3 big parties and the government would usually involve 2 of those (+ some smaller parties). That means that very likely at least 1 of the major coalition partners would also continue in the next government no matter what happens in the elections. The rise of the (True) Finns has somewhat changed this dynamic, though.
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  211. How the jurisdiction treats residents is not necessarily important. In the past, many wealthy people who did not live in Switzerland had Swiss banks hold and manage their wealth which, due to the strict banking secrecy, allowed them to commit tax fraud without getting caught.
    2
  212.  @LisaCulton  Even if your wealth is managed by a Swiss bank the capital gains related to that are still usually taxable in the country of your residence (depending on the country and circumstance). If you fail to disclose that income it's typically fraud and in the past, you could get away with that kind of fraud due to the Swiss banking secrecy.
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  213. One difference to the Nullification Crisis is that in this case the ECB isn't that dependent on the Bundesbank. The ECB could, at least in theory, just itself buy all the bonds that the Bundesbank sells or refuses to buy and the German courts would be powerless to prevent that.
    2
  214.  @justaemptymall  China just wants friends/allies/vassals. It doesn't want to stop countries from joining the EU. In fact, if China successfully gains an ally in the western Balkans and that country then gets into the EU that just gives China more influence inside the EU which is something China would want.
    2
  215.  @altrag  "both Spain and the UK have adamantly affirmed that they will not relinquish their claims" I got the impression that the UK would be ready to relinquish their claims but only if that's what the people of Gibraltar want, which they don't.
    2
  216.  @ggoddkkiller1342  "TLDR does so poor research sometimes, first of all Nagorno-Karabakh is a part of AZERBAIJAN not Armenia" What? The video explicitly said that that NK is internationally recognized as being a part of Azerbaijan. How exactly has TLDR done poor research here? Did you not watch the video or did you just miss that part?
    2
  217.  @ggoddkkiller1342  "check the map they kept showing in the video" I thought Artsakh had already lost the regions surrounding NK in 2020.
    2
  218.  @tengrici431  I'm not commenting on whether it was justified or not but in 2020 it was Azerbaijan that initiated the hostilities.
    2
  219. There's no motive for the CIA to destroy the Balticconnector.
    2
  220. Should Cyprus be excluded too then?
    2
  221.  @drharnsaft1005  What precisely is the criterion?
    2
  222. That $20 billion figure is not that relevant for the likelihood of default in the near future. It e.g. includes as a cost that fallen soldiers won't be contributing to the economy for what would have been the rest of their lives. That's the effect on Russia's whole economy. The effect on government budget from that particular effect is much smaller since the government hardly takes 100% of the economy as income. Secondly, it's a very long term cost. The short term effects on how much the Russian federal government needs to fork out cash right now to keep the war going is much smaller.
    2
  223.  @statostheman  "I bet it will end the EU membership for the Swedes." Lol, Sweden will almost certainly not leave the EU. I would be willing to bet on that.
    2
  224. "we just found out Russia will not tolerate any NATO bases or nuclear weapons on its boarder nearby to Moscow" Finland is further away from Moscow than e.g. Lithuania and nukes are unlikely to be stationed in Finland. "Much safer to be neutral and benefit from cheap Russian energy supply with no sanction damage to their economy." That is not a good option while Russia is invading Ukraine.
    2
  225.  @lmcsquaredgreendale3223  As a disclaimer, I'm not a linguist either. I'm just a layman who's somewhat interest in linguists.
    2
  226. What about Moldova? Also, what about other language groups?
    2
  227.  @SophiaAstatine  Obviously that's not what he meant. Fusion power is still far from being commercially viable.
    2
  228. A broken anchor was found from the seabed so now we do know with high certainty how the pipeline was damaged (though not whether that was accidental or deliberate).
    2
  229. I saw it on the news that Ukraine is still going ahead with planting and harvest but it remains to be seen how effective that is going to be.
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  230. "Neutrality didn't work for the Netherlands and Belgium in 1940." Though it did work for the Netherlands in 1914-18.
    2
  231.  @jkausti6737  My main point was the incriminating messages. I mainly mentioned the earlier accusations for the sake of completeness because it might still contribute to controversy in the eyes of some people.
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  232.  @jhutt8002  No, it doesn't. I'm not voicing an opinion on whether Rydman should be considered a controversial choice. I'm only mentioning it for the benefit of foreigners who might not know about it but might be interested. For what it's worth, my impression is that the recently revealed messages were a bigger point of controversy than the past accusations (though I've seen also the perspective that some in the National Coalition Party might not like having a former "disgraced" member become a minister).
    2
  233.  @morgwai667  At least at this moment Russia being able to fund its invasion seems worse.
    2
  234. "As a swiss something I never understood is why countries have non-binding referendums." If the politicians decide to have a referendum they're unlikely to then against the result even if they could (unless maybe if the margin is very thin or the turnout very low). Often the motivation for them to have a referendum is either to make sure that the decision has enough popular support or alternatively they can avoid the backlash from either decision by having the people make the decision instead.
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  235. "How does that blackmail work?" There's a short term relief.
    2
  236.  @ebonymaw8457  "Not having a military is not an option if Greenland wants to maintain sovereignty." Which country would invade according to you?
    2
  237. I don't think that's correct. AFAIK, the consumer price indices in different countries do take into account the different consumption baskets in those countries.
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  238.  @thomasdalton1508  I don't see why there should be an adjustment for such "value". If you buy a car even if you don't strictly need it, it's still an expenditure and how much it costs still affects you. Of course, you might skip buying a car entirely if you don't need it but if a smaller percentage of income is spent on cars, that is taken into account in the basket of goods for the consumer price index.
    2
  239.  @aurelspecker6740  If in country B a smaller percentage of consumer spending is on cars, then car prices affect that country's consumer price index less.
    2
  240.  @thomasdalton1508  I don't think I'm confusing them. A PPP adjustment still requires some kind of price index. I don't know if they use specifically CPI or some other index but some kind of index is needed. If the two countries use indices with a different composition for the goods baskets, some kind of average can be taken.
    2
  241.  @aurelspecker6740  At least some price indices do include "hedonistic adjustment" for changing quality but I'm not sure if that's included in PPP comparisons.
    2
  242. Banking secrecy is hardly a requirement for neutrality.
    1
  243. Is there even a need for revolution? There are elections in a couple of years and, to my knowledge, Georgian elections aren't a sham like the Russian ones.
    1
  244. There M/S The World which is like the Freedom Ship except it's of a normal cruise ship size.
    1
  245. Billions of USD or SEK? If you meant the former, that seems rather overoptimistic. The population is about 10 million so billions per year would mean hundreds per person per year. Surely Swedes would not smoke so much weed that just the tax from them would be hundreds per person on average?
    1
  246. "Ruzzia is insane enough to destroy dams and there is the mother of all reservoirs beyond the Nova Kakhovka dam." That reservoir is the one feeding the North Crimean Canal. If they destroy that dam draining its reservoir then Crimea will be without fresh water and next years harvest there will be ruined. Is Russia insane enough to hurt Crimea in this way?
    1
  247.  @christopherg2347  The 2014 harvest failed. They were able to make up for the lost water after that but it was more expensive. Back then Ukraine didn't even cut of the water entirely but only reduced the flow greatly. Also, right before the current invasion drinking water reserves in Crimean cities were very low. If the water gets cut off completely it is a big problem for Crimea unless Russia supports it at great expense.
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  248.  @christopherg2347  What do you mean "let the reservoir standing"? If they destroy the dam (as you suggested they might) and thus drain the reservoir, that doesn't seem like letting it stand. Or did you mean something else. In any case, agriculture is a much bigger user of water. I don't think Crimeans will die of thirst in any case but losing the water would be a big loss to the areas economy, or at least Russia's budget if it goes hard on replacing the lost water.
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  249.  @christopherg2347  I meant that I don't think Russia is going to destroy the dam because they'd lose the fresh water with it.
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  250.  @christopherg2347  What confused me was that you wrote "then" when it should have been "than".
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  251.  @entropy8634  Ad hominem isn't always a fallacy. If some person advances their expertise or secret information (as an intelligence organization might) then it may be rational to take into account their track record when considering that argument. Though I'm not sure whether CIA has publicly said anything on this so coder entity's argument might still be irrelevant here. However, I still want to make the general point that ad hominen is in order in some contexts.
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  252.  @rez0_o_  OK, I'll give you a link but I'll do it in a separate comment so that this one doesn't get removed by YouTube. If the comment with the link gets removed by YouTube you can find the paper by searching the title.
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  253. If Switzerland just has low taxes, that's OK. However, if their banking secrecy allows people to commit tax fraud without getting caught, which was the case in the past, then that's a problem.
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  254.  @ozgurd5920  "yes multicultural ottoman empire was not too long ago too" You don't even have to go that far. Independent Cyprus after British rule but before the crisis in the '70 is still well within living memory.
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  255.  @mikicerise6250  "It is if they want to be friends." It's certainly not the norm.
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  256. Refugees are a type of migrants.
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  257.  @truthbetold818  "We first need to stop comparing Sweden to its neighbouring countries." Why?
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  258. "I can't see reducing or stopping gas flow from Russia completely, as helping Ukraine." It can help Ukraine because less income would mean that the Russian government would have a harder time prosecuting the war. Something like half of the Russian federal budget comes from the export of hydrocarbons.
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  259. It seems they also left out the Estonian island of Hiiumaa and the Danish island of Bornholm.
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  260. They liked the Portuguese policy.
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  261.  @hissukka6619  You can also define "capital" as the city that functions as the seat of the government (whether it's officially called that or not). By that criterion Bern is the capital of Switzerland (and the capital of the Netherlands is the Hague, not Amsterdam).
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  262. But Finland doesn't border Belarus.
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  263.  @BlunderCity  Interesting, thanks for the info.
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  264. "The recent decline in wheat prices" Have wheat prices declined? I thought they had gone up.
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  265. The US doesn't have a motive to do this.
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  266. "the US has given more aid to Ukraine than all of Europe?" To my knowledge, the figures are for aid that has been decided/announce, only some of which has already been delivered. I'm not sure if the order would change if only aid that has already been given would be counted. Maybe I'm a bit pedantic for focusing on your precise wording but it's still important to note that there can often be significant delay before the aid makes its way to Ukraine. Also note that there is a great deal of uncertainty of how to value military aid. It's not an easy task for an accountant to decide how to value e.g. a Bradley donated by the US or a T-72 donated by Poland (or something). But in any case, that doesn't significantly change the big picture which is that in absolute terms the US makes up a large portion of the aid.
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  267.  @coops1992  "Not really" What's your justification for that claim? By "more" OP obviously meant in absolute terms. Unless the absolute amounts are wrong it's not correct to reply "not really". "their support per GDP is pretty pathetic" What counts as "pathetic" is subjective but I don't think that wording is justified here. Their support per GDP might be lower than that of the countries with highest per GDP figures but I think it would be strange to call all but the highest per GDP figures "pathetic". Europe (which here means the EU, the other European NATO countries, and Switzerland) has a higher GDP than the US so by that logic the average European contribution is even more "pathetic" and only a few countries have made non-pathetic contributions.
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  268.  @SelfProclaimedEmperor  Russia doesn't have a reason to attack it's own pipeline. It could just withhold exports through it without destroying it (which in fact had done before the bombings). However, this time Russia does have a possible motive.
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  269.  @donnievance1942  "This dam is most likely a gravity dam, not an architecturally structural dam." Wikipedia says its type is "earth-fill embankment with gravity sections".
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  270.  @aleks5405  "It was privatised in 1995 as VR-konserni" No, it was restructured as company then but it was not privatized (and to nitpick the name is VR-Yhtymä or in English VR Group, not VR-Konserni). "The state owns more than 50% of the company" That is an understatement as the state owns full 100% of the stock. It is not private in any way (unlike the other companies you mentioned).
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  271.  @aleks5405  "Well Tapio is a private company that is also 100% owned by the state." If it's owned 100% by the state then it's not been privatized. There has to be at least some private ownership for the word "privatization" to apply.
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  272.  @aleks5405  "It doesn't matter who owns the corporation" Quite the opposite. If the company is 100% owned by the state it's public. The other factors you mentioned are not a part of the definition of public/private. "The Finnish government agrees that VR is part of the private sector" No, it doesn't.
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  273.  @ardaturkoglu11  I don't know who specifically you're referring to. I don't think I've been inconsistent in this regard.
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  274.  @ardaturkoglu11  "I'm referring to westerns." That's a very large group of people. Many Westerners say different things because they believe different things. Were you referring to me since put your comment under my comment? (I am from a country that's usually considered Western.)
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  275.  @ardaturkoglu11  In this thread I only see one commenter (der defr) calling Erdogan a dictator and he didn't seem to make any predictions about the upcoming election. Also, we don't know if he's a Westerner or not; his channel page doesn't give a location.
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  276. I'm hoping that tobacco could be banned someday but it probably can only be feasible if the use has declined enough before that.
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  277.  @SusCalvin  Here in Finland comparisons are often made to Sweden. For many, many years Sweden seems to have been doing better, at least in terms of economy (but not necessarily in e.g. primary education or gun violence) having more GDP growth, less unemployment, and less debt. Sweden having worse GDP growth figures now is a little bit of a surprise.
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  278.  @SusCalvin  I'm more referring to the past 2 or 3 decades, not the Cold War era.
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  279. But to be fair, the Europol logo is much more boring.
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  280.  @javi185javi  "The EU is not the ruling body of the Council, its the Committee of Ministers." No, the Council (not Committee) of Ministers, or formally the "Council of the European Union" is a part of the legislative branch of the EU together with the European Parliament.
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  281.  @madselmvig1457  "EU is the governing body of the EU Council" The council they talk about in this video is the Council of Europe which is not an EU institution.
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  282. The EU treaties don't have any provisions for forcibly ejecting a member state.
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  283. Real GDP per capita is $21,000. Also, they have a decent GDP growth rate.
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  284.  @Joeseanag24  The Cyprus dispute isn't.
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  285.  @Lyallpuriya  I don't agree but Georgia is majority Christian in any case.
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  286.  @jirislavicek9954  Cyprus probably sees Turkey occupying a part of their territory as well. Though maybe it's less problematic because it's an older issue and Turkey is less erratic than Russia so even if the status quo is problematic peace can be maintained.
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  287.  @jokerofmorocco  That seems overly indirect. Turkey currently wouldn't fulfill membership requirements and can't be let in anyway unless all members agree. There's no reason to not let Georgia in just so that Turkey wouldn't join. The border disputes etc. are clearly much more important.
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  288.  @sampohonkala4195  But you do need to affirm that you can't serve due to reasons of convictions. The form you have to sign has the following text: "Vakuutan vakaumukseen perustuvien syiden estävän minua suorittamasta asevelvollisuuslaissa säädettyä palvelusta."
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  289. "if this was a deliberate damage to the pipe line and a bombing in Finish territory(?)" I think the damage occurred in the narrow strip of sea between the Finnish and Estonian territorial waters so technically not Finnish territory. Of course, it was still in either the Finnish or Estonian EEZ (not sure which one).
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  290. I think it would be even better if the Vatican joined NATO.
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  291. @Zaydan Alfariz According to Wiktionary it means something like "color" in Sanskrit. However, it seems to have other unrelated meanings in other languages so the name of the Bulgarian city likely doesn't come from Sanskrit.
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  292.  @intervrt  People's Parties and People's Republics are not related.
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  293.  @intervrt  They are related in the sense that usually People's Republic implies (claimed or real) socialist ideology, though there are exceptions like the Donbass people's republics. People's Parties, however, tend to more often be center-right than socialist.
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  294. "Prigozhin has never served in the Army" The Soviet Union used to have conscription, right? Why wasn't Prigozhin drafted?
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  295. Which part is incorrect?
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  296. Don't most countries have jets? It's not something to be surprised about.
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  297.  @timogul  I don't think that's any argument for not having jet planes. There's probably more potential for conflict with neighbors in the Balkans than in some other parts of Europe. Even if the probability for such a conflict isn't all that big having jets is probably more important to Serbian than, say, Switzerland.
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  298.  @timogul  That makes no sense. Firstly, most countries have jets and are not considered less trustworthy for it. Secondly, who would help them and could they really rely on that? If they'd have a conflict with Bosnia would Croatia help them, or vice versa? And even if your logic would make sense then shouldn't Serbia also be expected to help their neighbors if needed rather than just (somehow) getting protection without giving anything in return; if they're also expected to help their neighbors they'd need military capabilities to do that. The truth is that most countries want to have the capability to defend themselves. Just trusting, without even any explicit promise, that your neighbors would help is a more risky proposition. Also, you're more likely to get help if you also have some capability to defend yourself so that you don't just fold immediately. Would you say that the UK having a navy makes them less trustworthy? They should have none that! France can help them if they're ever attacked.
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  299.  @timogul  "IF NOT for how they had a war a few decades back" By this logic none, of the ex-Yugoslav republics other than Slovenia and North Macedonia should have jets. "cannot agree that their neighbor even EXISTS" Countries don't usually so easily let go of the territory they had. They've still shown the willingness to make agreements and they've not e.g. tried to bomb Kosovo with their jets. Trying to impose the unreasonable requirement of them having no capability to defend themselves would not be conducive to peace. How would you do that anyway? What would you do if they refuse to give up jets? "In the meantime, if someone attacks them, Nato can defend them." Nato doesn't have an obligation to defend them. They have no reason to trust Nato here.
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  300.  @timogul  "That would only happen if the Sebian government found jets more important than their people, and if their people let them get away with that." It's not a stretch to imagine that both the government and the people wouldn't want to be totally vulnerable, especially considering that past conflicts are still very much in living memory. "That's really their problem." It's also a problem for anyone wanting to enforce some kind of no jets policy unless they don't care at all about causing misery to ordinary people in the Balkans.
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  301.  @timogul  "Then they make their bed, and they have to eat it." So poverty and instability. It'd just be a dumb move to try use such measures for one's imposition. (And it's not them "making their bed" to just not accept unreasonable demands by outsiders.) "Again, you would enforce it economically, not militarily" That's what I was talking about. You'd thrust misery in the form of poverty unto ordinary citizens. "I don't know why you're arguing this as if there's a rational position on your side of the discussion." I could say the same thing to you. Has any politician or diplomat who has been working this issue considered your idea to be a good one?
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  302.  @timogul  "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." This "stupid prize" is excessive. Also, Serbia is no longer under Milosevic & his ilk. "No, their leaders would be doing that, by preferring jets to fixing those problems." I mean, trying to impose a no jets policy would likely result in that. It would be stupid to try as the harm done would be so great. Those who would suffer the harm wouldn't be comforted by and argument about who's morally culpable. "But that doesn't mean it isn't the right course of action." Not necessarily but it's some indication that people more knowledgeable about this haven't tried to pursue that route.
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  303. I don't think ending the war would have as big of an impact on the cost of living as you believe. Even after the war ends relations with Russia are likely difficult and hydrocarbon imports from there won't resume quickly.
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  304.  @TheFkryrtsv  "before 1974 Taksim was used for the whole island becoming a province of Turkiye" I find that hard to believe. Why would they use the term "partition" if the idea wasn't to split the island somehow?
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  305.  @darksector1389  "It honestly upsets me that western European countries (Italy, Germany, France)" They have provided weapons to Ukraine, though.
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  306. Banking secrecy is hardly a requirement for neutrality.
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  307. In countries that tend to have single party governments those parties are often themselves somewhat akin to a coalition as they often contain multiple internal factions.
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  308.  @aidanquiett668  "Whats with all the ceremonial government leaders in Europe?" In the US that might not happen on the federal level but there are plenty of cities with ceremonial mayors and where the actual governing is done by city managers or some other position like that.
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  309.  @_MrMoney  How much of that job is just representation and ceremonies rather than actually helping the president with substantial decisions? In any case, the vice president is both symbolically and de facto subordinate to the president.
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  310.  @ezz625  For Putin to stay in power it's enough to keep the party going in Moscow. He can suck the rest of the country dry to do that. Even if most of Russia struggles that will not threaten him as long as the privileged population of Moscow can still enjoy their creature comforts.
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  311. "And if they don't pay those fines?" I'm only speculating here but maybe the EU could start seizing assets that are located in other EU member states.
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  312. "If that's true, how could the EU parliament ever override a sovereign country's constitution?" The EU parliament certainly can't decide to do whatever. The EU treaties transfer certain limited powers to the EU and each member state has accepted these treaties. If the treaties are in conflict with that country's constitution then that country's parliament shouldn't have passed the accession treaty (or should have passed it as a constitutional amendment).
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  313.  @kayaritvards9200  "while doing that also put ocalan in the picture" TLDR's style (so far) hasn't included using pictures of people as stand-ins for organizations or countries. They've only used flags or country silhouettes with flags in them (with eyes and legs added). No reason to change the style for this one instance.
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  314.  @dorothyprior-gib  He probably meant that it doesn't consist of ants.
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  315.  @jeffevarts8757  It happens to the best of us. :)
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  316. I think Ukraine should give up on getting Crimea back. It's too difficult to take back a majority there didn't want to be a part of Ukraine.
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  317. If that somehow happened it would at least reduce the chances of Finland and Sweden joining. However, that scenario is almost certain to remain completely hypothetical.
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  318.  @eksiarvamus  It's the aforementioned three countries. The term "Baltic States" usually refers to these three countries specifically. Maybe that's somewhat illogical but it's in very common usage nonetheless.
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  319.  @eksiarvamus  Not linguistically, no but that's not what it's referring to.
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  320.  @eksiarvamus  Well, "Baltic" doesn't only refer to the Baltic languages. Anyway, I don't know why that name was chosen but it's in common use nonetheless.
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  321.  @minaolenella869  But those countries are the members of the Baltic Assembly. Latvians and Lithuanians also speak a Baltic language. The Estonians don't speak a Baltic language but based on geography and membership in the Baltic Assembly makes it logical to call Estonia a Baltic state as well just like Finland is called a Nordic country even though Finnish isn't a North Germanic language.
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  322.  @minaolenella869  "You are confusing cause and consequence here." No, it doesn't matter which is the cause. Calling the members of the Baltic Assembly "Baltic" makes sense.
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  323.  @minaolenella869  "not, if the members dislike it" Does any of the member countries dislike it? "What if people start to call US, Canada and Mexico Naftas?" It wouldn't sound problematic even if that kind usage hasn't become common.
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  324.  @minaolenella869  "members dislike it.And multiple people have already told you that." This is the first time I've heard of it and eksiarvamus hasn't said it, at least not explicitly, so only a single person has said it to me so far. "It is frankly disrespectful that all Baltic states are known off is Soviet occupation" At least I don't associate the name Baltic States with that. "So you are really saying that it would not be problematic, if people say, that US Canada and Mexico should all unite into one country and have one president. And all three countries are basically the same?" I have not said they should unite into one country. Just using a name like Baltic Countries (or Nordic Countries, or Benelux Countries, etc.) doesn't imply they should necessarily unite (any more than they already have). The OP of this thread, Vojtěch Nitra, suggested a Baltic Union but I've not made any such suggestions myself.
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  325.  @nirutivan9811  I don't think so. He used the wording "through its territory" [emphasis mine]. That wouldn't make sense if "it" in that sentence referred to a convention.
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  326.  @nirutivan9811  "That also doesn‘t make sense" Yeah, because he should've said "Bern" instead of "Geneva". "I understand it that he meant the convention and the „it“ referred to Switzerland, which (in my opinion) makes the most sense." That wouldn't make sense as a sentence structure at all because then "it" would be referring to something that wasn't mentioned which is not how that word functions. Also, the Geneva Convention doesn't place the kind of restrictions mentioned here. What IMHO makes most sense is that "it" was referring to the Swiss government with the capital being used to refer to it except that he made a mistake and said "Geneva" when he should've said "Bern".
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  327.  @nirutivan9811  I forgot that you mentioned the Hague convention but that doesn't change my argument. The sentence structure doesn't make sense with reference to any treaty in that place and I don't think the Hague convention would prevent arms shipments in any case. "He says „from or through it“. From or through the Swiss Government doesn‘t make a lot of sense either." He doesn't (quite) say that. He says "from or through its territory" which does make sense as a reference to a country's government (but not to a treaty). "In my opinion it makes the most sense that the „it“ is referring to the country of Switzerland (even if it wasn‘t mentioned before)." This is basically the same as what I said. Capitals are generally used to refer to countries' and their governments in the context of political decisions. In this case then "Geneva" was clearly meant as a reference to Switzerland and its government, not any convention. Using "it" to refer to something that hasn't been mentioned makes zero sense because "it" refers to things mentioned previously. (Well, it does have some other uses such as a formal subject but that doesn't apply here.)
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  328. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  329. Could Austria maybe become and intermediary?
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  330. This was done by a ship dragging its anchor.
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  331.  @moisuomi  I don't remember it getting much attention.
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  332.  @moisuomi  Do you mean that Yle made sure it did get a lot of attention or that it made sure that it didn't get a lot of attention?
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  333. @Zaydan Alfariz I don't know about that.
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  334. Well, that's about 21% lower than half. I think you can still reasonably say that it's (very) roughly close to half.
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  335.  @Patrick-y4d1z  Half or 3300 is 1650. 1300 is about 79% of 1650, i.e. about 21% lower than it.
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  336.  @Patrick-y4d1z  "It's exactly 10.61% below 50%." No, it's 10.61%-points below 50%, not 10.61%. These are different things and I was talking about percentages, not percentage points.
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  337.  @Patrick-y4d1z  "If half is 50%, then 39.39% is 10.61% less. Yes, you're correct in that these are also referred to as percentage points." According to standard terminology, 39.39% is 10.61%-points less than 50%, and 21.22% less than 50%, because 10.61% is 21.22% of 50%. These are what percentages and percentage points refer to (in this context). Your wording "are also referred to as percentage points" would seem to imply that percentages and percentage points would be alternate names for the same thing. That would be incorrect if that's what you were trying to say. These terms have a difference for a reason. As a simpler example, an increase from 2% to 3% is an increase of 1%-point and it's also an increase of 50%. These two terms exist to make clear which one of these one is talking about.
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  338.  @XzaroX  "If US Suddenly decided to ban Mexican immigrants [...] there would be an outrage." The US already severely restricts immigration from Mexico. The reason there is so much illegal immigration from Mexico is because for the vast majority of them legal immigration is impossible. On that front the US doesn't seem that different to begin with. (Spanish language schooling might be another matter.)
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  339.  @northbreeze0111  I suspect that Erdogan will lose the election next year due to his bonkers monetary policy.
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  340. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  341.  @dex6316  "these countries don’t have “historical quarrels”. They were dominated and ruled by Russians repeated in a brutal fashion." That is a historical quarrel.
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  342. The exchange rate on its own is just an arbitrary number (unless you e.g. compare it to the exchange rate at an earlier time or something). E.g. 130.16 Yen = 1 Euro doesn't mean that the Yen isn't "robust". It's mostly an arbitrary number.
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  343. The US Border Patrol budget was about $3.8 billion and the US Coast Guard budget roughly in the vicinity of $10 billion, meaning they're much larger.
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  344. Such a comparison to the last year is misleading as this time Russia might switch off the gas which didn't happen the last time.
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  345.  @dimamatat5548  At least in the short term the shortfall will more likely be covered by dirtier fossil fuels such as oil shale.
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  346.  @dimamatat5548  While it's possible to install more solar panels, that isn't free and doesn't fully substitute gas in any case. While solar panels have been getting cheaper, Estonia isn't an ideal location for them. Since Estonia is a fairly northern country, solar panels would generate the least electricity when it's needed the most. This is in contrast to gas which is well suited to be used as peaking power during high demand or lack of other supply. Also, oil shale (which is among the dirtiest of fossil fuels) power plant capacity is something that Estonia already has so they're likely to be used. Additionally, this damage to the pipeline has let out a (small) burst of unburnt methane which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
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  347. Czech GDP per capita is 30% lower. That's sizable but not enormous.
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  348. The digraph 'kh' denotes the sound [x] which English does not have. It reasonable that they approximate it with a sound that English does have like K.
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  349.  @usarkarzts4207  I don't think either of those makes the situation different.
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  350. In Sweden the gangs pay teenagers to commit murders.
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  351. "How fast is time going..." Presently, it's going at the rate of one second per second. Zing!
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  352. Frontex is a border control agency. For the most part, such an agency shouldn't need to conduct underwater surveillance.
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  353. For an autocrat like Putin the centralization of violence can be more dangerous. If his top general decides to become the leader and stage a coup there might not be anyone to prevent it. Better to create parallel competing structures to ensure that you remain in power.
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  354. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  355. Turkey at least has a bit of land in Europe (East Thrace) whereas Cyprus is wholly outside of Europe geographically.
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  356.  @sri33333  "Government should not be obligated to finance schools in languages that are not official language of the country." I strongly disagree with you here. Governments should also have an obligation to treat national minorities well rather than ignore them. This should also include schooling in their language (though of course this depends on a variety of factors like the number of speakers of the minority language). Do you think that e.g. the Turkish government has no obligation to provide Turkish language schools?
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  357.  @helengolovina4597  Russian speaking Estonians pay taxes just like everyone else. It's not unreasonable to expect that they would also get government services funded by taxes like schooling for children.
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  358. "EU: Shut down all Nuclear power!" Not all EU, just a couple of member states.
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  359.  @KubiIay  "destabilising the nation trough covert action and propaganda" For the purpose of trying to do something like that to Russia it doesn't seem that relevant whether Belarus has pro-Russia leadership or not.
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  360. He might have meant say "to" rather than "from".
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  361.  @AnnedolfFrankler911  "Finland was not neutral in WW2." Finland was neutral up to the Winter War but was invaded nonetheless.
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  362.  @AnnedolfFrankler911  "Finland had claims on Soviet land." That's not true. Finland didn't claim any Soviet land.
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  363.  @AnnedolfFrankler911  "Greater Finland, mate." This was just the dream of some people in Finland. Finland a state wasn't making any claims on e.g. East Karelia. Prior to the Winter War, Finland had declared neutrality in the war between Germany and Poland, Britain, & France. However, neutrality didn't prevent it from getting invaded.
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  364. It's pretty ironic that the literal Eastern Realm (Austria / Österreich) is actually Western.
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  365.  @ablorenz  Maybe it should be renamed to Zentralreich. That would be an awesome name. :)
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  366. You could also word that as "I was got" if you wanted to avoid the tautophony.
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  367. Does Greenland even have unionist parties? I was under the impression that every single party there is at least in principle in favor of independence and they only disagree on the conditions and timetable for independence.
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  368.  @Vasanistis12  Who was that?
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  369.  @Vasanistis12  Thanks for the info. After having read on this a bit I think it might be bit of an exaggeration to say that he developed the cantonal system since cantons had also existed before in the Old Confederacy but I admit that it's still interesting that he had a hand in crafting the new constitution after Napoléon.
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  370.  @Chris__-ky4ci  "There is no fair solution to this." Do you have an opinion what the government of the Republic of Cyprus and/or of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus should do or try to do about this? While you're probably correct that there is no solution that doesn't make someone angry, keeping the status quo for longer and longer might eventually just ensure that the division of the island becomes permanent.
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  371. A refugee is a type of migrant (excluding maybe internal refugees).
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  372.  @peterebel7899  Don't put words into my mouth. I never claimed that anyone wouldn't be worth thinking about nor did I claim that this is voluntary. My only point was just that the word "migrant" also applies, not more.
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  373.  @peterebel7899  Temporary migrants are still migrants. Also, many refugees never go back but that doesn't mean they aren't refugees.
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  374.  @peterebel7899  I don't have a comment on the discussion on this topic in the UK. I'm only saying the term "migrant" applies (even if it might be bit inspecific), not any more than that.
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  375.  @peterebel7899  You can say that TLDR should be more specific but saying that the term "migrant" isn't correct is going too far because the terms just means "a person who moves from one place to another".
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  376. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  377. The video title says "it failed" and the video thumbnail also says "failed" but at the end of the video you say it hasn't failed just yet. That's a clear contradiction.
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  378.  @jys76  "Since Russia is not a British colony..." According to the Russian nationalist Dmitry Galkovsky, Russia is a "cryptocolony" of the UK.
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  379.  @wadde_fakman  At least when it comes from Trump's disqualification from e.g. the Colorado ballot, the case failed in the SCOTUS. I don't know enough to have a firm opinion on the merits of that case but, if the SCOTUS made the right decision, then clearly the rule of law is still alive and well in the US. By contrast in Russia, the rule of law is not followed and any semi-credible opposition candidates get disqualified based on fake reasons or jailed based on trumped up charges. (Haha! "Trumped")
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  380.  @danwelterweight4137  "Renewable energy produce tremendous amounts of CO2 emissions" That's not true. Solar, wind, and hydro have low greenhouse emissions. Wind in fact has the lowest greenhouse emissions of all forms of energy (whereas nuclear has the second lowest).
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  381. It might be that Ukraine couldn't hide a planned attack anyway. If that's true then there might be little downside to announcing it.
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  382.  @fox280-mb6jy  They later found a broken anchor from the seabed.
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  383. He didn't print enough. The monetary policy was still too tight but at least not as tight as that of his predecessor, Trichet.
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  384. He might have meant say "to" rather than "from".
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  385.  @petrmaly9087  perus = basic/ordinary
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  386. One relevant thing I've sometimes seen in the news is that apparently not many people aspire to be teachers in Sweden so those that train to be teachers tend to be ones that didn't get anywhere else. (Disclaimer: I'm from Finland so I'm not super familiar with the situation in Sweden. This is just something I've sometimes seen mentioned in the news.)
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  387. In the short term coal is going to be used more leading to increased emissions.
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  388.  @GwainSagaFanChannel  Yeah, but the usage is going to at least temporarily be even higher than before.
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  389. Ukraine has no motive to blow up the Balticconnector.
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  390.  @doublehelix7880  It's not a big deal. Uranium is cheap compared to the amount of electricity it contains. Most of the cost of nuclear power is the capital cost of the plant and the cost of fuel is minor in comparison. More expensive uranium doesn't affect the cost of nuclear power very much.
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  391.  @advancedomega  No, it isn't.
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  392. Just have them join Schengen and the customs union but remain in the UK (unless the population wants to join Spain). Having border control between Gibraltar and the rest of the UK shouldn't be a major issue.
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  393. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it's not anymore.
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  394. I'd hope that they'd join the EU though I think they likely won't, at least not any time soon. (As for NATO, there is no need to join it at all since they're already surrounded by it.)
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  395. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  396.  @ichbinueber18  "wind is actually safer" Wind has the lowest greenhouse emissions (and nuclear the second lowest) but wind isn't the safest. It kills more people per kWh than nuclear.
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  397.  @captainvanisher988  "So unless the migrants since 1974 are deported back to Turkey, the reunification will never happen." What about the children of those migrants who were born and have lived only in Cyprus? Wouldn't it be unreasonable to send them to exile from a country where they have lived their whole life?
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  398.  @captainvanisher988  "Not exile, relocation." A forced relocation is basically an exile, at least in the case of those people who were born in Cyprus and might have never lived in Turkey. Exiling or forcibly "relocating" them would seem unethical to me.
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  399.  @archaeaoris900  It having happened before doesn't make it right. I won't try to judge the Israel/Gaza case here but I think at least expelling people who were born on the island and have lived there a long time would be a wrong thing to do. In the case of recent immigrants from Turkey it might be more understandable but insisting on expelling for whom Cyprus have been their only home goes too far.
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  400.  @archaeaoris900  "Using settlers is a war crime." But two wrongs don't make a right. Mass expulsion can be a war crime as well. "The biggest problem are the settlers, what can you do with them?" It might be possible to expel recent immigrants but those who have lived on the island all their lives shouldn't be expelled. So what can you do with the latter group? I can think of only 3 options: 1) Accept that they should get at least a permanent residency in a reunified Cyprus and probably a citizenship in the long term. 2) Permanent partition of the island (with the North probably ceding some territory to the South, e.g. Varosha). 3) Current unhappy status quo. This might mean that at some point some countries (mostly Turkic ones) would start recognizing the North if no progress is made in untangling the problem.
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  401.  @archaeaoris900  "Mass expulsion is not a war crime, under specific circumstances. Else no country would be able to remove illegals from its territory." Illegals usually haven't lived in the country all their lives. "Also, we have seen it before many times, with the biggest such case being the population exchange between Greece and Turkey" Well, that wasn't a good thing by any measure. At least to me, this comparison makes the proposition seem less acceptable, not more. "Where will they live and work?" At least if they have paid for the properties they would have to at least receive some financial compensation. Or alternatively the Greeks who lost their property could be just financially compensated. Who would pay for it? Ideally Turkey but getting Turkey to agree seems too difficult. Probably it would have to fall on the government of the reunified Cyprus with maybe some outside contribution from e.g. the EU. "3) Yes, this can happen but it doesn't matter." If the Greek Cypriots think that this kind of expulsion is a non-negotiable condition for reunification, then I guess this is the only somewhat reasonable outcome that can actually be achieved. It's not a very good outcome for either the Greek nor the Turkish Cypriots but I just don't see any alternative (assuming your opinion is common enough) for better or for worse.
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  402. If you're talking about the nuclear shutdown that was already decided during Schröder's government.
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  403. My understanding is that Greek Cypriots don't want a union with Greece anymore.
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  404. "its just how you say airforce in russian (Vozdushno-desantnye voyska), its like RAF or USAF" No, they are airborne troops a.k.a. paratroopers which is not the same as an airforce like RAF or USAF.
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  405.  @retard1488  No, problem. I might also add that it's common for airborne troops to have at least somewhat of an elite status. This is because they are given a very difficult job, namely being dropped in the enemy's rear where there is a risk of being cut off if regular infantry doesn't reach them. Thus airborne troops are often more selective than regular infantry.
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  406. Relative depreciation isn't necessarily "worse". It depends on the specifics. Sometimes countries may purposefully seek to depreciate their currencies to make their exports more competitive.
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  407.  @Deepthought-42  Yeah, exchange rate movements can reflect market optimism or pessimism but that doesn't mean that the movement itself is necessarily bad. If some country's economic prospects worsen then it's probably better for that country that its currency weakens somewhat.
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  408. Probably not the Turkish one.
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  409. Finland used to also be counted among the Baltic states after its independence.
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  410.  @POLITICUS-DANICUS  You're mistaken. After the WWI the term "Baltic country" was used to refer to the countries on the Baltic Sea which had for the first time acquired independence from the Russian Empire. This included Finland. The term ceased to be applied to Finland after it joined the Nordic Council.
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  411.  @POLITICUS-DANICUS  It is true.
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  412.  @POLITICUS-DANICUS  It is. Just claiming otherwise doesn't burst any "bubbles".
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  413.  @POLITICUS-DANICUS  The whole term "Baltic country" is mostly an informal rather than some kind of official categorization by some international organization and the meaning has varied over time. Currently there is the so called "Baltic Assembly" which is kind of official but it has only existed since 1990. Prior to the 1900s the term was used of various countries that have shoreline on the Baltic Sea, including e.g. Sweden and Denmark. After WWI it was used of those countries on the Baltic Sea that had recently gained independence from the Russian Empire, i.e. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (not sure about Poland). After Finland joined the Nordic Council after WWII the term stopped being applied to it. All of this is mostly informal usage which has shifted over time. If you want to be a pedant you could say that any country with Baltic shoreline is a Baltic country. Or you could say that only countries speaking a Baltic language are Baltic which would exclude Estonia.
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  414.  @POLITICUS-DANICUS  You're similarly just repeating your claim that it wasn't. In fact, it was after WWI but not anymore.
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  415. 1:28 The Congress of Vienna had already started before the 100 days and Waterloo.
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  416.  @seanlander9321  "The embargo was designed and is maintained in order to achieve economic damage to Australia." What is your evidence that this is the motivation for the tariffs? The most common motivation for tariffs is to protect domestic production. Also, tariffs aren't an "embargo" since plenty of import from Australia does occur. "€1.4Bn of mostly tariff free Russian grains imported" Why do you claim Russian imports are "mostly tariff free". The latest figures for the tariffs on e.g. Russian cereals is €95 per tonne which is quite far from "tariff free". I kind of seems you're making stuff up. "Australian grains with a minimum of 50% tariff" Again, where does this figure come from? Or are you just making stuff up? I found a PDF from the Australian National Farmers' Federation stating that the average tariff on agricultural products imported to EU from Australia is 14.2%. The PDF was from 2021 so the tariff may have changed. However, it seems unlikely that it would go that high.
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  417. You can become a candidate before you fulfill all the requirements.
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  418. That's just economic cooperation. That alone doesn't make then not neutral.
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  419.  @nonyabisness6306  Generally "neutral" is understood to mean that they're not militarily aligned. The EU is primarily not a military alliance. It's not a requirement to not adhere to certain regulations to qualify as neutral.
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  420.  @nonyabisness6306  How distant would they have to be to count as neutral? Would they need to cease all cross-border trade (except with Liechtenstein) to be neutral? If not, do they purposefully need to have different regulations from the EU?
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  421.  @nonyabisness6306  I don't understand what you mean. A military alliance could also be equal but it wouldn't be neutral.
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  422.  @nonyabisness6306  "But if you take 2 NATO countries and a third non-aligned...well no neutrality there." This is a very confusing sentence and I don't understand what you're saying. You seem to say that "non-aligned" implies there's "no neutrality". "Who do you think they are closer to, Russia or the EU? a quick look at their agreements makes it very clear they are firmly on the EU side." Trade agreements don't necessarily mean that they'd be on the EU's side so they alone don't make them non-neutral. A decision to participate in e.g. sanctions might make then non-neutral but that's a different thing from agreements making them non-neutral.
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  423.  @nonyabisness6306  "If there was a dispute for which you'd want arbitration, you would never in a million years accept an arbiter who has strong economic ties with the other partyr....because that makes them biases i.e. not neutral." That definition of "neutral" is so strict that almost no country can ever fulfill it. E.g. Belgium at least used to be neutral by the virtue of the Treaty of London. However, due to their geographic location they still had strong economic ties to France and the Netherlands so apparently they never were neutral to begin with. Who can be neutral by your definition? I guess a remote island nation or a self-isolating nation like North Korea if they are also actually self-sufficient. Other than that, no one be neutral and the term is largely useless. In practice, people don't use the term "neutral" this strictly. Generally countries can still be neutral despite economic ties if they're not militarily aligned. E.g. even the EU members Austria and Ireland are generally considered neutral (and previously also Sweden and Finland but probably not anymore due to their NATO applications).
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  424.  @nonyabisness6306  "So, would Russia agree that Switzerland is neutral? No, they wouldn't." I'd say if Switzerland had refrained from sanctioning Russia then Russia likely would have considered them neutral despite their integration with the EU. Of course, Switzerland did participate in sanctions so that does probably mar the neutrality in Russia's eyes but it's specifically this decision and not the earlier agreements with the EU.
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  425. Which part would be relevant to this?
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  426.  @anarcho-boulangistllamaent2023  Technically Ireland also didn't have effective control of all the territory it claimed before 1999.
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  427.  @GlennRA3  "The Ukrainian letter "X" is pronounced like the English "H"" No, it's pronounced [x], not [h].
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  428.  @GlennRA3  "No, it is not pronounced as the English letter "X."" I didn't say it's pronounced as the English letter 'X'. I said it's pronounced as [x] which is the IPA symbol for the voiceless velar fricative. It's the same sound as in the "José" example you gave. "the closest sound in English being "H"" Which sound is the closest is subjective. Some people might think that it's [kʰ], some that it's [h]. There isn't one objective answer. One point to note is that apparently in English [x] can act as an allophone for [kʰ] when speaking quickly which might be the reason why some feel that [kʰ] is the closest sound.
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  429.  @GlennRA3  "Really? You think it is subjective? Ask 100 people what English letter the Spanish "J" (José) sounds like. Do you think you will get any answer other than "H"?" Well, I don't have the time to do something like that and I don't live in an English speaking country so getting the perceptions of English speakers would be even more difficult. But what would I predict to get if I did that? I don't know for sure but I wouldn't be surprised by either answer. Also note that [x] and [k] are both velar sounds whereas [h] is not velar, so [x] and [k] are closer to each other in that regard (but [x] and [h] are closer in the sense that both are fricatives). "As to the Ukrainian "X", in my six years of studying Ukrainian since I moved here in 2016, I have only heard it pronounced as "H."" I'm assuming you mean that you perceive [h] being the closest sound to it that English has (not that it's the same sound). However, that's subjective. There's no guarantee that other people perceive it the same way.
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  430.  @GlennRA3  I don't think I disagreed with you on semantics.
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  431.  @GlennRA3  "Then I am not sure what your point is. We are not talking about what the letter "X" sounds like when spoken by native Ukrainians." The remaining point is that it's subjective whether [h] or [kʰ] is the closer sound. Unless there is some kind of official English pronunciation for these city names, both [h] and [kʰ] are fine to use as approximations for [x] when not aiming for native pronunciation. Initially you also said: "The Ukrainian letter "X" is pronounced like the English "H"" but it seems that might have been just slightly sloppy wording.
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  432.  @GlennRA3  We both agree that it's pronounced [x] (since you said it's the same as 'J' in José). We didn't disagree on that. The only disagreement was on whether [h] is the closest sound to [x] in English or whether it can be either [kʰ] or [h] depending on the person (and therefore subjective). That has nothing to do with knowing Ukrainian.
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  433. It is decriminalization.
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  434.  @RoderikPlas  "That's because there are still legal restrictions that criminalise the possession of drugs." Possession is criminalized only for amounts above a certain limit. It's reasonable to call that decriminalization (of use and possession of small amounts).
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  435. But "refugees" is a subset of "migrants" (at least if you exclude internal refugees).
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  436.  @pjhgerlach  Yeah, but what I was saying is that admitting Hungary wasn't a mistake considering the information available at the time. If you make 100% rational decisions based on info that you can get that should minimize the likelihood of bad outcomes but not all the way to 0%. Bad outcomes are always a risk.
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  437. "Germany’s final nuclear phase-out was passed after the Fukushima disaster, during chanchellor merkel" Originally, the phase-out was decided during Schröder's government. Merkel's government only expedited the schedule for it.
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  438. @jimrrussell8250 That isn't the case. For coal and gas the primary cost is the fuel, not the plants (i.e. the opposite of nuclear).
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  439. @jimrrussell8250 "so how does a multi million investment make profit then?" Even if the capital cost of the plant were zero, the price of the electricity has to be high enough to cover the cost of the fuel. This is a bigger factor. "Ofc you have to demand a high price for idling it 50% of the time" An electricity producer can't demand a price. It takes the market price and either produces electricity for that price or doesn't. Once a power plant has already been built, its capex is sunk cost and no longer affects the decision whether to run the plant or not.
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  440. "EU still trying to appease the Monster of Moscow, huh?" No, not really.
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  441.  @Lithuanian_NAFO_lad  OK, I think at least Latvia doesn't have conscription but based on googling they're planning to reintroduce it.
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  442.  @noop9k  "This is wrong, Renewables don’t produce that much usable energy in Germany." What is wrong? I didn't talk about renewables. Did you mean to reply to someone else?
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  443.  @kalterverwalter4516  Why not?
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  444.  @pugdad2555  The downsides of fossil fuels are far greater than a small probability of a meltdown. "If Russia would bomb the nuclear plant in Ukraine, make makers you think another country won’t bomb your country’s plants?" In Finland the new reactor is on the western coast. If Russia troops were to reach that things would already be rather dire. Also, the site already has 2 previous reactors so adding a 3rd one probably doesn't increase the risks of Russian bombardment.
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  445. Many of those people were born in Estonia and have never been to Russia.
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  446. Clearly the name is justified.
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  447. "The real problem is that public opinion doesn’t really matter much in an autocratic society." Public opinion did somewhat matter in 2018 when Putin partially backed out from his unpopular (though probably necessary) pension reform. Of course, things might be different now as the laws against dissent are more draconian.
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  448. "not European at least culturally" Cultural categories are kind of nebulous. What do you think makes Turkey not European culturally?
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  449.  @bailey2103-3  "its markets, foods, religion, clothing, and other cultural characteristics" When it comes to religion, that could be used to say that Albania and Bosnia are not culturally European. As for food and clothing, are those that different from e.g. Greece?
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  450. English doesn't have that phoneme so it's understandable that the might mispronounce it.
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  451.  @liamnixon4428  That's somewhat subjective. The correct pronunciation and K are both velar sounds whereas H is not velar. Maybe it sounds closer to K for an English speaker. I've read that in fast speech English speakers may pronounce Ks as [x] so they might have trouble distinguishing those sounds.
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  452.  @fox280-mb6jy  No, it was (almost certainly) a ship dragging its anchor. A broken anchor was found from the seabed.
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  453. Usually inflation figures using consumer basket of goods is called "headline inflation" and that minus food and energy (which tend to be very volatile) is called "core inflation" and it's used to get a more stable figure that doesn't jump up and down.
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  454. The trouble with Belgium has been the tax breaks on "excess profits" and other rules benefitting multinational corporations. Individual taxes have nothing to do with it.
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  455. "theyre at war" They're not at war. No declaration of war has been made and they're not participating in hostilities.
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  456. 5:45 Auto-captions: "Voki the Chinese Serbian Monastery"
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  457. "the ready to use gas pipeline is not used because that would make us dependent on gas ???????? Which we are, there is shortage and Russia want to give it. How evil." It's just waiting normal regulatory approval. The German regulators want the company responsible for the pipeline at Germany's end to be incorporated in Germany rather than Switzerland.
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  458. "The move to renewables was not naive." What was naive wasn't the move to renewables but the move away from nuclear (in some countries).
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  459. Considering the increased living costs cheaper wheat should be welcomed by consumers.
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  460.  @andrasadam8256  Northern Ireland wouldn't join as a new member state but as a part of Ireland, so it wouldn't be the same.
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  461. "or used in breeder plants" I don't think anyone has yet managed to make an economical breeder reactor. I wouldn't rely on something like that. (Nonetheless, nuclear waste is still easy to deal with because the amounts are rather small.)
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  462. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  463. The classic solution is to divide people under you into competing factions which you balance against each other. I suspect that's one of the reasons for Putin using PMCs parallel to regular military. Prigozhin can't easily stage a coup because people like Gerasimov and Shoigu wouldn't allow that but similarly Prigozhin can make it more difficult for Gerasimov to stage a coup
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  464.  @lordanonimmo7699  The more north you go the less gas is used. North of the Baltic Sea gas isn't used very much for heating so I think you're mistaken.
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  465.  @Flo_Henk  They basically use the US dollar. The paper money used is just the US dollar. They, however, mint their own coins because coins are much heavier than paper notes, and importing them from the US would be too expensive.
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  466.  @firstlast8190  "Only if they're Thorium based." Thorium is too untested. It should be developed but in the mean time we also need to build more conventional nuclear plants as to not delay decarbonization too much.
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  467.  @firstlast8190  "you're stating this as though it's theoretically impossible to implement" No, not at all. I only said that it's (still) untested and that it should be developed. I wouldn't say that it should be developed if I thought it would be theoretically impossible to implement.
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  468.  @firstlast8190  "it's only untested because most countries apparently crave developing nuclear weapons more than developing safer and more sustainable energy." You have it backwards. The interest in thorium reactors (and some other alternatives like fast breeders) was sparked by the apparently looming running out of uranium which partially due to high demand caused by the nuclear arms race. Interest has waned because many new sources of uranium have been discovered and arms limitations have seen many decommissioned nuclear weapons turned into fuel. As long as uranium is cheap there's less incentive to develop alternatives. "You're argument could have been used against Tesla developing EV 10 years ago" No, it couldn't. I literally said it should be developed.
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  469.  @firstlast8190  "you're forgetting that it was shelved because Thorium only generates a small fraction of waste compared to Uranium(ie. Useless for countries that desire to build nuclear weapons)" Commercial reactors have a high burnup making them unsuitable for producing weapons grade uranium. There are a lot countries using nuclear power but most of them have promised not to develop nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Profileration Treaty. For the most part choosing to use uranium as a fuel in nuclear plants has little to do with nuclear weapons manufacturing. Also, thorium reactors operate by converting thorium into uranium-233 which is, at least theoretically, suitable for making a nuclear weapon so it's not clear to me that it would be better in that respect. "Of course it could be used. 10 years ago you'd probably be saying that EVs wouldn't be viable because more research needs to be done" Of course it could not. I wouldn't be saying things like that and I have not used the word "viable" (nor "unviable") here. At any rate, developing a new vehicle takes at least some time (though much less than a new type of power plant). Saying (back then) that it probably makes sense to continue using ICE vehicles until EVs hit the market on a large scale would probably not be controversial at all. Change doesn't usually happen in an instant.
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  470.  @firstlast8190  "it totally has to do with weapons manufacturing" It (mostly) does not. "Ask Iran about those bs treaties cause they sure don't work by your reasoning." Iran is just one country. Most countries using nuclear energy don't make weapons manufacture an consideration. Even in Iran there's no technical requirement for the nuclear electricity plants for weapons manufacture. "There's no risk of meltdowns" That's a potential benefit but it's not clear to me how large that is since most nuclear reactors don't meltdown. "Its clear you just want to argue and be the smartest man in the YouTube comment section at this point." I don't think so and couldn't I levy the same accusation at you if just responding to comments warrants it? "Personally I don't think there's any realistic downside in attempting to implement that technology." I have not even argued against that. I only said that we should also build uranium reactors in the meantime. That's all.
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  471.  @firstlast8190  "Even when Fukushima went off, it affects reached the west coast over hear." There was no real effect there. I don't hear people saying that we shouldn't have hydro plants because some of them have failed.
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  472. I think waste oil collected from e.g. restaurant kitchens for the purpose of recycling could probably be transported in actual barrels.
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  473. "Finland propably doesn’t want or need foreign NATO troops on it’s soil during peace time." Why not?
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  474. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  475. "The EU is not like the USA." The USA in the past was a lot more like the EU is today (though obviously not exactly the same). It just has gotten more centralized over time.
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  476.  @bobing1752  "yes, our energy companies are making a butt ton of money and that could indirectly benefit us. But the problem is that we are also paying a lot more, which is directly hurting us." If Germany etc. are willing to pay enough it makes economic sense for France to export.
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  477.  @MM-kz9pd  "Unfortunately the west is providing more and more ammunition to Ukraine which means there will be more and more blood." It's not good if aggression, such as by Putin in this case, is allowed to happen unimpeded.
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  478.  @orionlt1028  That didn't stop that particular winter from being a major hindrance for their war efforts.
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  479.  @orionlt1028  Of course they are the same for both sides. I never said they're different.
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  480. The digraph 'kh' denotes the sound [x] which English does not have. It reasonable that they approximate it with a sound that English does have like K.
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  481. No.
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  482. But the US doesn't have a motive to destroy the Balticconnector.
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  483. "Why don't they speak Estonian? Is it a very hard language to master? Like Chinese?" I think you're exaggerating the difficulty differences between different languages.
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  484. Have you ever heard of the Kalmar Union?
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  485. Not even during the Kingdom of Montenegro?
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  486.  @migooknamja  "This is all due to unnecessary sanctions" They aren't unnecessary. There's a war going on.
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  487.  @migooknamja  There were sanctions in 2014 as well though they were lighter.
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  488.  @migooknamja  Trying to save Ukraine isn't nuts (money laundering notwithstanding).
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  489.  @migooknamja  Plenty of people complain about it so "nobody" is certainly not correct. Maybe something should be done about that war but it's at least better if the West at least sometimes reacts to unjustified invasions like this. Btw, what do you think should have been done about Yemen?
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  490.  @migooknamja  "Nothing should be done about Ukraine." Well, I disagree with this. At least the current sanctions are warranted. It's better if the whole world sees that invasions are at least made as costly as possible so there will be less in the future. "The USA is falling apart from within and the USA needs to focus on itself." The USA is not very reliant on trade with Russia. Current sanction regime is fairly cheap for the USA to implement and doesn't come at the cost of any domestic policy. "The EU is a globalist organization that needs to be disbanded immediately." Well, I disagree but that's a whole different question in any case.
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  491. "Oh no now they have to buy american fracking gas." This has no effect on that. The gas coming in was seaborne anyway (from the US and elsewhere).
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  492. "Russian gas/oil monopoly safe" But the main customers lost, at least on the scale of some years. "Separatist regions still firmly under Russian control and more fortified by the day, so no chance of Ukraine ever joining NATO." That was already the case before the present invasion. "Crimea connected to Russian mainland, so no more supply problems." It was already connected to the Russian mainland by a bridge (and could be supplied by sea even without it). There weren't supply problems (aside from the water mentioned in your point number 3).
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  493. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it's not anymore.
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  494.  @Theorimlig  "It does cause air pollution, but not inside the house." You're kind of mistaken here. It pollutes the surrounding air which is where you get the indoors air from as houses aren't sealed. (Of course, fumes aren't vented directly in the indoors air but it's not like any heating method has done that for centuries so it's a rather irrelevant point.)
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  495.  @supposedlysavvy  When it comes to oil it makes sense to blame the consumers of it. Many of us still need it though many could also cut down on its use. It doesn't make sense to consider those countries that just happen to have oil deposits to be environmentally worse.
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  496.  @waxxxi  "if Russia were to make Mexico their allies and send their army kn the US border the US would be dropping nuclear bombs on Mexico" I'm pretty sure that's not the case (EDIT: and it wouldn't be justifiable in any case).
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  497.  @AradaAqIyo  I meant that at least Russia didn't take over the whole country. This time Russia is going much further. "We don't care about cities we care about people here." This time a far larger share of the Ukrainian people who are going to be directly affected than the share of Ukrainians affected in 2014 or the share of Georgians affected in 2008. All of these events were bad but there are still degrees to how bad they were. The current war is the worst of them.
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  498.  @AradaAqIyo  I know that Russia didn't push into the entire country but only into Tskhinvali and Abkhazia. That's still less bad that what Putin is currently attempting in Ukraine.
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  499.  @leykimayri  "Then what is the reason for the NATO's expansion" Probably that these countries want to join and NATO members generally want to admit new members that they're friendly with. The proposition that the US would want to attack Russia, a nuclear armed country, is rather unlikely. Clearly, the US doesn't even want to clash with the Russian forces in Ukraine; attacking Russia itself would go way beyond that so there's little reason to believe there's any desire for that. If you (or anyone) thinks that the US wants to attack Russia, then why do you think that they're not attacking the Russian forces in Ukraine now? That would be a perfect justification.
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  500.  @leykimayri  "Again, there is no reason for the NATO’s expansion." I gave one possible reason above so I don't agree but if you're right that there is no reason then the reason can't be a plan or desire to attack Russia since that would be a reason as well. "for sure though they want to block Russia and have missiles a few dozens kilometres away from Moscow in order to easily put pressure on Russia whenever they want and try to control it." That kind of plan makes no sense. Both the US and Russia have ICBMs that reach the other side of the globe. "The best interest of the countries neighbouring Russia is to stay unaligned." I'd say at least EU membership has been economically beneficial for those that have joined. Ultimately this is a complicated question and people can disagree about this. Thus also the decision maker in these countries may or may not agree with you.
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  501.  @leykimayri  "Again, there is no reason for NATO’s expansion, especially after the fall of USSR." Well, that's your opinion but even if you're right that hardly implies that the US or NATO had any intention of attacking Russia. "In addition, NATO, a self-claimed “defensive” alliance, attacked, bombed and invaded twice non aligned countries which had not attacked any NATO country with the justification of “humanitarian intervention” (Yugoslavia and Libya)" Whatever you think of these actions, they hardly mean that NATO would attack Russia, since Russia is much bigger and has nukes. "In addition there is a HUGE difference between having missiles thousands of kilometres away from you even if they can still reach you and having them in your doorstep. Remember USA and Cuba" There isn't a big difference nowadays. Back then ICBMs were new and thus there weren't that many of them and they were inaccurate and unreliable. That's why medium range missiles in Cuba (and Turkey) were such a big deal. That's not the case anymore. But in any case, Ukraine quite clearly wasn't going to join NATO anytime soon, so the above is a moot point anyway.
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  502. The US has a much stronger federal government.
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  503.  @weird-guy  At least in the case of Finland there's been more than 2 decades of decline, at least if you use PISA results as the metric. In 2000 did extremely well compared to most other countries participating in PISA but it's been downhill since then. PISA results have flaws as a metric for education quality but it probably still tells you something.
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  504. @@abitmorerational But remember that the amount of risk from each of these factors depends on the person. You can drastically reduce your chances of being the victim of the most typical kind of violence by e.g. not binge drinking in a rowdy sort of company but gang violence is more likely to strike uninvolved bystanders so depending on your situation it may be rational to be more worried about it. Also, it may also be appropriate to react before the gun violence becomes a bigger threat on the whole.
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  505. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  506. Seems like the farmers and Extinction Rebellion have some things in common (i.e. tactics).
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  507.  @joseph-mariopelerin7028  All I meant was the blocking of roads/streets as a tactic.
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  508.  @EVOpower  Both block roads/streets which is what I meant.
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  509.  @EVOpower  Even if that were true it doesn't seem to have any implication on what I said (which was squarely about the blocking of roads/streets as a protest tactic).
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  510.  @EVOpower  What does that have to do with my comment? I was specifically commenting about the tactic of blocking roads/streets. That farmers produce food, which we need to live, doesn't in any way mean that farmers haven't done any blocking of roads/streets in these protests.
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  511.  @EVOpower  What does that have to do with my comment? It's a total non sequitur.
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  512.  @archmad  Having Finland and Sweden in NATO makes it much easier to defend Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania due to e.g. the possibility of using planes deployed from there.
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  513. "The EU law becomes local when the local parliment 'mirrors' EU law, which almost always happens (there are extremely rare cases when in past it did not happen)." That's not quite the case always. What you describe is how directives work. However, EU laws (not directives) supersede national law. Any conflicting national law is considered disapplied if e.g. cases come up in courts.
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  514.  @9_9876  "You should get Galicia" Maybe, if it's the one in Ukraine and Poland.
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  515. "About the not close down the airspace , because enemies is just a rebels that not suppose to have a Military-grade Anti-Air missile" Even so, not closing the airspace is a risk. Maybe without the benefit of hindsight the risk may have seemed small but in the airline industry and airplane manufacturing safety is a top priority. In airplane design and operating procedures much smaller risks are taken seriously. I think here the risk was big enough to warrant closing the airspace (and for the airlines to avoid it voluntarily).
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  516. I think some might consider it being Eastern either a) because it's Slavic or b) because it used to be socialist (though not a part of the Eastern Bloc).
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  517. "Galicia" Are you talking about the one in Spain or the one in Ukraine and Poland?
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  518. "In my book, this is not "politely asking", this is "yelling in my face"." But that's different because that's just market logic. It's not like politicians have considered different price levels and decided on the current one.
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  519.  @joaquinescotoaleman4320  "How Cyprus was allow to the EU when 40% of its territory is under occupation? I mean Moldova can't make it until its resolved Tranistria issue" There's no rule that says that Moldova can't join before resolving the Transnistria issue.
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  520.  @Gerico9008  There's e.g. an Albanian politician named Tom Doshi who is or was an MP and a party leader and he was at some point found to be running his own criminal organization. Mind you, he didn't merely have connections to organized crime but actually headed his own organization.
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  521.  @arron390  What do French nukes have to do with my comments?
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  522.  @mandalePP1999  That convention is only signed by countries in the Americas. I don't see the relevance for Bosnia, which is in Europe.
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  523.  @mandalePP1999  I'm not entirely convinced by that. Firstly, it's not clear to me that all of the content of that convention were broadly accepted unwritten principles. Secondly, it seems to me that in practice Bosnia is treated as a state in international relations (despite the powers of the HR) so whatever unwritten principles there are in favor of it being a state seem to be stronger.
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  524.  @mandalePP1999  "The fact that somebody can entertain international relations with other entities does not mean that it is a state." I didn't (merely) say that it can entertain international relations but rather that it is in practice treated as a state in said relations.
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  525.  @mandalePP1999  "I can treat you as a state as well, but does it make you a state?" It matters little whether you treat anyone or anything as a state. If other states treat something as a state then that actually matters.
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  526.  @mandalePP1999  "you didn't read my answers or didn't understand them." I think I did read and understand them and I did reply to them.
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  527. Wouldn't it be a bit inconvenient to split Istanbul into two different countries?
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  528.  @WhichDoctor1  "they'd have to get it through the pipeline that was just blown up" Both Finland and Estonia can still get American gas even without this pipeline.
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  529. "This is not a 'presidential system' as you suggest at the end of your clip." He didn't suggest that. Yes, he used the word "presidential" but it's clear from the context that he didn't mean it in the sense of presidential vs. parliamentary system.
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  530.  @nautilusshell4969  The word "presidential" in this case just meant "relating to the office of the president" so the "presidential system" just referred to how the president is chosen and how the office functions (mostly the former in the context of this video). It didn't mean that the wider government would function as a presidential (rather than parliamentary) system.
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  531. Montenegro seems much more likely than Albania considering the rather sorry state Albania is in.
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  532.  @wutheringheights739  But many politicians there have mafia connections. Apparently one MP and party leader (Tom Doshi) was even running his own criminal organization rather than merely having connections to one.
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  533.  @wutheringheights739  Albania has a very serious problem with organized crime. I recall that one party leader not merely had connections to organized crime but was actually running his own criminal organization.
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  534. Nope, married.
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  535. Including China and North Korea?
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  536. "What people really care about is not that more os less people would die of drug missuse" I'm pretty sure many people do care about that at least somewhat. Depends on the individual of course.
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  537.  @unfathomablyunfathomable  "Russia retaliates against themselves? Tf?" No, the Balticconnector isn't a Russian pipeline.
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  538.  @unfathomablyunfathomable  I find it unlikely that Russia would have blown up the Nord Stream pipelines. It had no reason to blow up its own pipelines because it could just withhold gas exports through them and that's what it had, in fact, done before they were blown.
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  539.  @juliane__  "And inflation was higher than gdp growth. So no plus for the people." No, the GDP growth reported here is real growth, i.e. by how much nominal GDP growth exceeded inflation. So you're wrong here, unless you meant that inflation exceeded real GDP growth (or equivalently, inflation was more than half of nominal GDP growth) and I don't see why you would care about that.
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  540.  @chickenfishhybrid44  "Easy to "make line go up" when you just increase population. Same thing is happening in Canada and the GDP per capita has been decreasing" No, as was mentioned in this video, GDP per capita also grew (in real terms), though by less than in the US.
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  541. Communist China invaded Vietnam in 1979.
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  542. WTO did authorize retaliatory tariffs for both the EU and the US.
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  543. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  544. That's quite possible.
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  545.  @winterh46334  "Nuclear isnt profitable" To my knowledge, France's plants have been profitable.
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  546.  @winterh46334  "Thats why no one in the private sector has ever built one." That certainly is not true. Here in Finland 2 pre-existing reactors and a third one that was recently completed are owned and operated by a private company (TVO). (Of course, it didn't build the plants itself but contracted out the work. Nonetheless, they at least estimated it to be profitable. The first 2 reactors didn't have significant problems in construction though the third one is over a decade behind schedule.) "uranium isnt infinite and only gonna last about 80 years" That 80 years is for presently known deposits that are economical to mine at present uranium prices. If prices rise the supply expands a lot (but won't affect the price of nuclear energy much because most of the cost is capital cost). I'm not suggesting new plants should be subsidized but at least permissions should be granted (if plans are safe enough) and existing plants shouldn't be closed while they can still be used.
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  547. It would actually be the first time, if it happens. So far the shortest government lasted 44 days in 1944.
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  548. "Wait, what? They don't even bother to make their BS sound internally plausible." Lukashenko doesn't. It's not really his war. I've even seen some (well, actually just Kamil Galeev) claim that he's deliberately mixing in completely illucid stuff in his propaganda messages as deliberate sabotage. I don't know if that's true or not but at the very least for him it doesn't matter as much whether anyone actually believes him. Putin has more reason to make his propaganda believable.
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  549. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  550. Solar isn't that good of an option in this case because it's less effective during the winter when gas consumption is higher. Wind might be better but I don't think getting a huge increase in capacity for this year's winter would be feasible.
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  551. They try to arrange so that the profits are made in the Cayman Islands. One possibility is that the company in the Cayman Islands holds all the patents and other IP the company has and the parts of the company that are in other countries pay royalties to the Cayman company thus decreasing their profits and increasing the profits occurring in the Cayman Islands.
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  552.  @ggoddkkiller1342  You can say that they should have some word other than "cede" but it's clearly just a slightly sloppy wording, not any kind of poor research. They clearly said that NK is internationally recognized as being a part of Azerbaijan.
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  553.  @ggoddkkiller1342  "acting like Armenia occupied only NK in last 30 years" At least I didn't get the impression that they acted like that. This is a relatively short video so it's understandable that they don't mention all of the details of the conflict.
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  554.  @ggoddkkiller1342  "they lost more than surrounding oblasts Azerbaijani forces entered NK" Fair enough, but I still think it's fine for them to just show the area of NK. The precise location (and the ebb and flow) of the frontlines of the conflict is secondary to the topic of this video.
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  555.  @alwaysdisputin9930  "Therefore Spanish people use C e.g. Barcelona." Barcelona is in Catalonia. In Catalan that "c" is pronounced as [s], not as [θ]. You could therefore say that the English pronunciation is more correct than the Spanish pronunciation (if we take native pronunciation as "correct").
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  556. "Kherson is pronounced Herson [...] Oh and the same for Kharkiv (prn. Harkiv) silent K." No, the 'KH' digraph is pronounced as [x], not [h]. This similar to how in English "philosophy" isn't pronounced "hilosohy" and "think" isn't pronounced "hink". The letters 'P' and 'T' in those instances aren't silent but rather a part of the 'PH' and 'TH' digraphs. Same goes for the 'K' in the 'KH' digraph (when Cyrillic is transliterated into Latin alphabet).
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  557.  @GrayFoxHound9  "No, K is silent one here. First sound is h, not k." No, that's not correct. The 'KH' digraph is pronounced as [x], not [h]. These are different sounds. It's like in English you don't say that the 'T' in "think" is silent and therefore it's pronounced as "hink". That 'TH' is a digraph and so is 'KH'.
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  558.  @alwaysdisputin9930  "But Ukranians just say Harkiv?" No, the Ukrainian pronunciation is [ˈxarkʲiu̯], at least based on Wiktionary. "The letter X represents K + S. e.g. "sex" sounds the same as "seks" So I don't get why you're saying KH represents X You don't say KSarkiv?" I wrote [x]. It's the IPA symbol for the voiceless velar fricative, a completely different sound. I didn't write [ks].
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  559. The digraph 'kh' denotes the sound [x] which English does not have. It's understandable that they might approximate it with a sound that English has.
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  560.  @RipMachine1  No, but "has" begins with the sound [h]. Kherson begins with the sound [x]. These are different sounds.
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  561.  @RipMachine1  It's not the same. The sounds [h] (unvoiced glottal fricative) and [x] (unvoiced velar fricative) are different. They are not the same. Maybe you could argue that [h] is a closer approximation of [x] than [k] but that's subjective. It may be that [k] sounds closer to [x] for an English speaker.
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  562.  @CorporalCookie  They later found a broken anchor from the seabed. It looks like it almost certainly was an anchor (and more precisely, that particular anchor).
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  563.  @fox280-mb6jy  They later found a broken anchor from the seabed. It now looks pretty certain that that was the cause.
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  564. The US corporate taxes are pretty average and they used to be the highest in the world before they were cut during Trump.
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  565. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  566. "Didn't Lukashenko fear that his population would try to bring him to fall if he took part in the war? What changed?" I don't think anything has changed. Empty threats (and use of Belarusian territory) are his contributions to the war. He probably still wants to avoid direct involvement.
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  567.  @Tamachii12  "The owner commands bite, the orc has to obey...simple as that..." Lukashenko is craftier than that. He just promises to obey, someday, maybe, but never actually delivers. He has also been promising a union between Russia and Belarus for a long. He gets cheap oil and gas as a repayment. Despite this he's never going to deliver on his promise (unless he can become the leader of the united Russia-Belarus).
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  568.  @Tamachii12  Why? What would Putin do if he doesn't comply?
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  569.  vv bbibbi  Did you mean to reply to Green Cappy rather than me?
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  570. But based on more recent information the Russian ship (Sevpormut) isn't a likely suspect anymore. A more likely suspect is a Hong Kong flagged vessel named New New Polar Bear.
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  571. Did they use that word anywhere? Are you sure you're not confusing "agnostic" (the view that the existence or non-existence of God is unknowable) and "agonist" (a chemical that binds to a receptor and activates it)?
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  572. If the debt grows slower than the GDP it can be sustainable.
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  573. The US doesn't have a motive to do it.
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  574.  @cathere8646  "they loose all" What do you mean?
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  575. 6:20 Doesn't that also mean that France is making a lot of money from its energy exports? It would seem unwise to not capitalize on the high prices by restricting exports.
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  576. And similarly for the Estonian island of Hiiumaa and the Danish island of Bornholm.
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  577.  @nobodyknows3180  The digraph 'kh' denotes the sound [x] which English does not have. It reasonable that they approximate it with a sound that English does have like K.
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  578. "Kherson is pronounced Herson because if a K is followed by a consonant the K is silent like Kharkiv is pronounced Harkiv." It's not quite like that. Rather the digraph 'kh' denotes the sound [x] which English does not have. It's understandable that they might approximate it with some other sound that English actually has.
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  579.  @SwissSareth  They mentioned marijuana. They weren't hiding anything. You may quibble about what would be the best wording but I think it's worth mentioning that marijuana was the only one to go up.
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  580.  @CedarHunt  There's no obvious motive for Russia to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines.
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  581. Orbán isn't a diehard fan or a lackey of Putin. His primary goals are to stay in power and suck in as much benefit as he can. Thus he won't make Hungary leave the EU. Why would he? He would be just foregoing the economic benefits. Better to just stay in while still badmouthing the EU.
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  582.  @prunabluepepper  "You also say, that minorities and foreigners are more likely to be arrested for trafficking, which is logical, since most drug dealers in Portugal come from Morocco." The point was that when a person is caught possessing an amount of drugs above the criminal limit the police exercise their discretion to arrest or not arrest in a way such that e.g. a Moroccan is more likely to get arrested than a non-foreign looking Portuguese person.
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  583. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  584. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it's not anymore.
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  585. "Well lets not pretend east and west division of europe has anything to do with actual geography( Finland)" You could justify that geographically by also considering Northern and Southern Europe separate from Eastern and Western Europe. That way you can also count Greece as Southern rather than Eastern. You could also count Central Europe separately though that would make things quite messy.
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  586. They have agreements. They can even mint their own euro coins.
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  587. Solar is a bad option for the winter. You need something else.
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  588.  @surgeon9039  No, the ship in question seems to be a Hongkong flagged ship named New New Polar Bear.
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  589. "Possibly, Putin could announce another round of "partial" mobilisation, which in reality would be a slow general mobilisation according to logistical limits." He doesn't need to announce anything like that. He can just continue mobilizing more people under the current decree and just not disclose how many have been drafted.
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  590.  @charlesbeaudry3263  "The fact that Russia was running surplusses means that the private sector was not lending to the government." They would have lent had Russia been borrowing.
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  591.  @jesuszamora6949  Maybe not completely sure but since Russia didn't have much trouble finding lenders for the amount it did borrow it probably could have borrowed at least somewhat more. Also, the low levels of debt and oil income probably made it seem like a safe borrower. On the other hand, the oil income also meant that it didn't need to borrow that much.
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  592.  @charlesbeaudry3263  "They could not borrow in roubles because nobody would lend them the money." No, that's just incorrect. They could have borrowed at least somewhat more but they chose to spend less than what would have required borrowing.
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  593. They really are teenagers.
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  594. "Only about half of russia's 640 billion in Foreign reserves is frozen that is Russia still has well over 300 billion Dollars/Pounds/Euros that it can use." The non-frozen assets are things like Chinese Yuan reserves and gold reserves. It's not so easy to use those to pay off Dollar/Pound/Euro denominated debt.
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  595. That'd be wrong.
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  596.  @jwil4286  I don't think it would have been necessary to expel Germans from Königsberg/Kaliningrad after WWII. Stalin just did it because he wanted a strategic port and didn't care about morality. It is just not right to do ethnic cleansing just because you think Russia might be expansionist in the future otherwise.
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  597.  @jwil4286  "before you say “regime change”, know that Russia has the largest nuclear stockpile in the world" Doesn't the same nuclear stockpile also preclude such ethnic cleansing?
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  598.  @jwil4286  If you invade Russia itself with the aim of ethnically cleansing a portion of it from Russians is aggressive enough that Russia might fear destruction in such a case. (You might not consider Crimea to legitimately be a part of Russia. However, for this particular argument Russia's own perspective on it is what matters.)
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  599.  @akhsdenlew1861  Yeah, I mostly mentioned it for the sake of completeness.
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  600. "The spike in the summer was mainly due to increased tests" How do you know? Why didn't increased testing cause similar spikes in other countries in the summer?
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  601.  @larstenfaelt1859  But isn't a similar thing true for Sweden's neighbors as well? Early on there wasn't enough testing capacity for everyone with symptoms but later that was expanded greatly. Nonetheless, those countries did not experience similar summer spikes.
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  602. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  603. Lukashenko is too sly. He doesn't want Belarus to be dominated by someone else than him. He pretends to be friendly with Putin/Russia and makes these plans for union between Belarus and Russia but never gets to advancing those plans in a concrete manner (unless he can somehow make himself the next president of Russia/Belarus).
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  604. That's a bad idea. Ukraine doesn't need more enemies to fight.
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  605.  @ozzyphil74  "Sweden was the aggressor. They manufactured a pretext to attack Russia including using a false flag attack." What false flag attack are you talking about? E.g. Russian troops besieging Narva in 1700 was clearly not a false flag attack. "Secondly, while Russia and Britain were nominally allies against France in the Napoleonic wars, this was more of a loose situation." But still Britain being the enemy of Napoléon, who invaded Russia, speaks of it not being some kind of uniform anti-Russia sentiment in (West) Europe. Moreover, Napoléon and Russian had been friendly before. The reason Napoléon invaded was that Russia had left the anti-Britain blockade and resumed trade. Thus the war was at least just as much about Napoléon's anti-Britain sentiment.
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  606.  @philipuwumarogie9796  I was talking about 4 of the 5 invasions mentioned in this video. There were 3 wars between Sweden and Russia in the 18th century but I'm pretty sure this video was talking about the first one of them, i.e. the Great Northern War which began in 1700.
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  607.  @philipuwumarogie9796  "That's why..." Maybe, though that is different from the point I was addressing in my original comment.
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  608. It's not crazy. It's better than the alternatives.
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  609. 0:20 Isn't this map misleading? You seem to be implying that the Republic of Cyprus is also claiming the British territory on the island which I don't think is the case.
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  610. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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  611.  @J.o.s.h.u.a.  It's not aspiration. It's a voiceless velar fricative [x].
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  612.  @J.o.s.h.u.a.  Is "aspiration" common knowledge?
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  613.  @J.o.s.h.u.a.  "It's the sound the letter H makes in English" Isn't that a voiceless glottal fricative?
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  614.  @J.o.s.h.u.a.  Really? Well, that's confusing because that doesn't match the terminology used in phonetics.
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  615.  @Elldallan  My comment was merely about how the (possible) blackmail works. I agree that Germany should not phase out nuclear power but that's somewhat outside the scope of my previous comment.
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  616.  @charlesmadre5568  Greenland already has at least one US base (in Thule). It's not much of a sacrifice anyway.
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  617.  @skp8748  A Hong Kong flagged ship named New New Polar Bear seems to be the most likely suspect.
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  618. Cyprus is geographically entirely outside of Europe but it was still included.
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  619.  @andriusgimbutas3723  Wut?
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  620.  @mariosathens1  Islands are still usually counted as part of regions like Europe or Asia if they're close enough to the continent. E.g. most people would say that Japan is in Asia even though it doesn't include any continental mainland. Similarly Cyprus is quite close to the coast of Anatolia so I would say it's geographically in Asia.
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  621. The Panama canal zone used to be a part of the US but it isn't anymore.
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