Power outage in all of Portugal, something to do with "tension issues" in power distrolibutors (idk Im not an electrician)
I'm already hearing bazinga brains talking about PUTIN PUTIN PUTIN, wish I could line these people up in minecraft and.....tell them they're not that important
Vietnamese lady I follow on twitter called this the "Most consequential political reform since reunification in 1976" and since the Doi Moi reforms and a part of an informal Doi Moi 2.0 which has been happening recently.
Also, President Xi received in Vietnam a kind of "airport reception" not seen since 1991
Blurb from a paper I'm not gonna read:
"While territorial disputes remain, party-state ties have overall never been as deep and penetrating as these days (army, associations, media, education, tourism, sci-tech, security, more), and Vietnam is nonetheless navigating through it."
"Beside the +40 deals to be signed this time, the $8.4bln-worth China (Yunnan)-northern Vietnam railway link is the highlight, with construction beginning in late 2025. In my view, the visit is also originally due to the strained relationship (2023-25) between Vietnam & Cambodia."
What do they want the US to do, send Juan Guaido in?
I guess it's over for canadian black obama
Did anyone here invest in turkish cement and get the bag? Really we should've seen this coming.
Photos of thousands of Syrian refugees returning from Turkey.
The guy on the latest radio war nerd said that in Turkey, much like everywhere else these days, there's been a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, which syrians have been a primary victim of and having them return on their own without even having to deport them is a huge politican win for erdogan (though elections aren't until 2028 so I don't know if he'll remain popular by then)
BIG escalaTION in the Georgian elections situation.
The EU parliament passed a resolution to:
A re-run under international supervision
A transparent investigation into violations
International refusal to recognize results
In response the government has decided to close down the matter of opening negotiations with the EU until 2028 and they're also refusing budget grants from the EU until 2028
People are protesting at the parliament, folow Sopo Japaridze for more updates.
Incredibly funny that the EU is going to "lose" georgia because of its own intransigence
Great point by Branko Milanovic regarding Moldova's EU referendum. 
It is absolutely bizarre, but very much in keeping with how EU operates, to vote on EU membership when no-one is offering it.
Macedonia voted in such a silly referendum in 2018. Did anything happen? No new member was accepted for 11 years. Countries are in a limbo for decades. It is a waste of time & energy to think about it.
Moreover, to be accepted several countries (incl. France) require referendum which would definitely reject new members,
Referendums like the one in Moldova are meaningless & they simply add fuel to fire and destabilize countries for nothing.
Same thing I was thinking, there is no guarantee that any more countries, even ukraine, will actually get to join the EU even, they're just going to get in line forever. Which affects the countries' politics negatively (in the eyes of europhiles), ie Georgia
What EU does is to play an entertaining game. It displays to small countries pictures of wealth to come, countries begin fighting within themselves for these illusory pictures, and nothing real ever happens. What EU does is what in French is called "miroiter". You disembark in a poor country, show them in a mirror all kinds of glowing things, they get excited, and in exchange fo these images, they give you land. It worked wonders in the 19th century.
Both EU/NATO and Russia want to provoke conflicts and even civil wars in the European neighboring countries. Creating dissention and political mobilization over absolutely unattainable things (like EU membership which is a mirage) is the right way on that path. For small countries that are polarized in many respects, it is a suicide in this geo-political climate, to choose one or the other side. Neutrality or non-alignment is not just a "nice" policy. It is necessary in order to survive without a civil war. Libya & Iraq are cautionary tales.
Feels like something Trueanon would tell you to do before the feds take your phone
Weeks there are and decades happen there happen weeks decades where where
Portuguese communist party put out a statement congratulating Maduro and denouncing attempts to overthrow the election, followed by the expected outrage and indignation of the professional media class (in debates and tv media where the party is not invited to) and the twitter ultra-left. So "what about vuvuzela, you support maduro dictator" is back as the main anti communist party talking point for now, beating out "skava ukraini you support putin".
There's always this same type of indignation from the soft-left and center as if THIS is the time the communists will drop our support for peace and non-aggression and adopt whatever narrative NATO wants us to, like the other left groups in this country do.
Maybe people will have forgotten all this by the time the party's Onward summer festival rolls around in september 6/7/8 and the PSUV sends a delegation with venezuelan goodies and stuff (last year I got a chavez poster), it's a fun time to be here if anyone wants to visit portugal btw.
Power is back on in some parts of Portugal. I'm getting word that apparently amidst mass suspicious of a russian attack provoked by an image of a fake news CNN Portugal article shared around whats app people were filling up supermarkets to buy non-perishables, water and toilet paper, same thing happened when covid started because of a whats app message saying covid caused extreme diarrhea.
Around me everything was pretty chill, a lot of work was canceled and it seems most people took it as a chance to touch grass and socialize, I walked around and a lot of cafes were well attended. Overall the blackout lasted 8 hours.
As for me I busted out my pirated nintendo 2ds to play kid icarus and I watched Jackie Brown. Since work was canceled today and Friday is worker day this will be a 3 day work week.