🇭🇷 Croatia declared free of landmines after 31 years.
The decades-long effort came at a heavy cost. Over three decades of painstaking and dangerous work, 208 people lost their lives, including 41 deminers. The total cost of clearing the country is estimated at around 1.2 billion euros.
It's over. We won.
The @nytimes —the ideological compass and party organ of the western liberal world—is now ringing the bell for the very movement it once championed. The American Medical Association is backpedaling. A jury just awarded $2 million to a survivor of this barbarism. The wall of "consensus" is crumbling and everyone can see the bricks were hollow.
Let me name names—not of enemies, but of allies.
Dr. @jordanbpeterson who over a decade ago refused to bend the knee before an academic, medical, and political establishment that responded with the unprecedented cancellation of a university professor—unprecedented outside the Cultural Revolution or the very early days of the European Enlightenment, that is—was the spark.
@jk_rowling who risked a legacy worth more than most of us will ever touch because she would not lie.
@TuckerCarlson, @MattWalshBlog —men I share almost nothing with politically, yet who stood firm when it mattered.
@M_Simonyan , who gave this story airtime when Western outlets wouldn't touch it.
Alice Schwarzer @EMMA_Magazin —the grande dame of German feminism—who understood before most that women's rights and this ideology could not coexist.
@JSevincBasad and @jannibal_ , whose documentary "Trans ist Trend" did what journalism is supposed to do: look, ask, and refuse to look away.
My co-star in said film @LuiseVollbrecht, who paid a professional price for stating biological facts that would have been uncontroversial in any prior decade.
And so many others across borders and political lines.
The ensuing struggle brought together the most unlikely single-issue coalition imaginable—Marxists and conservatives, radical feminists and religious traditionalists, biologists and journalists—united by one conviction: you do not mutilate children.
Calling for a "fair and balanced reexamination" of child genital mutilation is different in spirit but not in effect from calling for a "fair and balanced reexamination" of concentration camps. When survivors can testify freely, when critics can speak up in polite society, this most barbarous medical practice since the end of lobotomies will no longer be permitted to stain our civilization.
You might warn me against premature declarations of victory. You'd not be entirely wrong. The long reckoning is yet to come. But whether the Democratic Party establishment has correctly calculated that it must shed a liability before the midterms, or whether NYT editors have independently reached a similar conclusion—the decision has been made and it is irreversible. This movement, for all its institutional implants, had no true grassroots. It was entirely dependent on elite support that is no longer forthcoming.
The 2028 LA Olympics will not see women's faces bloodied and disfigured by boxers who underwent male puberty. Chromosomes matter once more. Biological truth matters once more.
Now—like resistance members in freshly liberated France—we shall not forget each other's contributions to this victory even as we go our separate ways. On the many issues that lie ahead, we will not see eye to eye. I shall remain an unrepentant Marxist existentialist and a devout feminist—in the sense described by Simone de Beauvoir in Le Deuxième Sexe—to my dying breath, while Matt Walsh will almost certainly continue to seek salvation in the teachings of a Jew who lived over a millennium before Karl Marx. The disagreements among our wayward bunch of assorted punks will be aired for all to see.
But let there be no doubt: whenever an institution or authority attempts to reimpose these now-overcome dark age practices on unwitting participants, we shall speak up in unison for our common cause.
The lesson in intellectual humility could not be clearer: In times of crisis, you may find your allies in the unlikeliest of places. Unite in spite of your differences. Speak up for the truth. And the greatest foes will turn into paper tigers.
And you shall prevail.
Dejan Lovren on the 2018 World Cup final:
“I’ve never watched that match, only the highlights and goals because they popped up on YouTube. I’ll always be angry about certain things, that foul on Griezmann because it never existed. And then that penalty… That’s why I don’t want to watch it. Simply, those memories would come back again, the frustration, the anger.”
“Unfortunately, was it from the political side, did it have to be that way? I don’t know. Maybe these are conspiracy theories again, and people will say, ‘Here he goes again, talking.’ OK, we lost, that’s how it is. Who knows what would have happened if we had won the gold.” [Druga strana medalje/MaxSport]
The JANAF oil pipeline through Croatia is crucial for Serbia’s energy security as the country receives much of its oil through it.
The United States recently imposed sanctions on Serbia’s largest oil company, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), which is majority-owned by the Russia gas and oil giant Gazprom.
These sanctions, enacted on October 9 after eight delays since January, aim to disrupt Russia’s ability to fund its ongoing war in Ukraine by targeting its energy revenues.
NIS, Serbia’s only oil refinery and a critical supplier of fuel, is now caught in the crosshairs of this geopolitical struggle, leaving the country grappling with significant challenges to its energy security.
Due to the sanctions, Croatia’s JANAF pipeline has stopped delivering crude oil, which accounted for roughly 30% of NIS’s revenue.
With current crude oil stocks expected to last until November 1 and fuel reserves potentially holding until December, Serbia faces the looming threat of shortages as winter approaches.
The financial toll is already mounting, with NIS projecting losses of €18 million by year-end, potentially escalating to €30 million if the crisis persists.
NIS is a cornerstone of Serbia’s energy sector, supplying over 80% of the nation’s diesel and gasoline, as well as nearly all of its jet fuel and heavy fuel oil.
The sanctions have severed NIS’s access to international banking systems, forcing its 350+ gas stations to accept only cash or Serbia’s domestic Dina card.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has described the situation as “extremely dire,” emphasizing that the sanctions affect every citizen.
One solution to avoid the sanctions would be to nationalize NIS.
There are also discussions suggesting that reducing Russian ownership below 50% to avoid the “majority-owned” designation could be enough to remove the sanctions.
Croatia has expressed interest in acquiring shares through its ties to the JANAF pipeline, and companies like Azerbaijan’s SOCAR and Shell are reportedly eyeing opportunities.
Vučić’s primary goal is clear: secure a stable crude oil supply to prevent a full-blown energy crisis. He has vowed that Serbia will avoid fuel shortages and an energy blackout, prioritizing the nation’s stability.
The sanctions expose Serbia’s heavy dependence on Russian energy. More than 90% of its gas and a significant portion of its oil come from Russia.
This reliance now threatens the country’s energy security, with potential fuel price spikes driving up transportation costs and inflation.
The government faces a potential budget shortfall of 7-13% due to lost NIS revenues, and the company’s 13,000 jobs are in jeopardy.
Ruprecht Polenz oder die plötzliche Entdeckung des Kontextes.
Zwischen Tweet 1 (Kontext zählt nicht) und Tweet 2 (Kontext ist alles) liegen 18 Stunden und der Hinweis auf einen Text, der beim Amtsgericht Berlin-Tiergarten hoffentlich ungelesen bleibt.
Argentina under Javier Milei in 2025:
GDP growth 5.5%, one of the fastest in the world
Inflation down from 211% to 32%
Poverty rate down from 42% to 32%
Sorry Comrades „economists“, free market works, and it works really fast.
Congratulations @JMilei
Milei hat heute Nacht 40% geholt.
Milei hat fast zwei Millionen Kinder aus der Armut befreit.
Milei hat 5% Wirtschaftswachstum.
Milei hat die Mieten gesenkt.
Milei hat die Inflation gesenkt.
Milei hat einen Haushaltsüberschuss.
Merz hat Rezession.
BREAKING: illegal alien who the Biden regime allowed to remain in our country, arrested in Virginia and will be charged with m*rder for strangling a baby to death.
He was also arrested in 2024 but local law enforcement released him instead of handing him over to ICE.