#European deployment

[rightnewshindi]

यूक्रेन को NATO का झटका: सैन्य मदद और शांति सेना की योजना से यूरोपीय देशों का यू-टर्न, क्या है वजह? #News #BreakingNews #LatestNews #CurrentNews #HindiNews

[munaeem]

How do European countries justify their military interventions in other countries

European countries justify their military interventions in other countries through various rationales, which have evolved over time. The justifications can be broadly categorized into two main approaches: Legal Justifications European nations often seek to ground their military interventions in international law and UN mandates: UN Security Council Resolutions: Many EU military operations…

[aaron04jpg]

Elms guide for Logan Sargeant fans

Starting with what is the European Le Mans Series (ELMS):

It’s a European series of endurance races reserved for cars such as "Le Mans Prototypes" and "Le Mans Grand Touring". The ELMS presents three different categories: LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, LMP3 and LMGT3.

CATEGORIES

* There are 4 categories

* All 4 categories run at the same time on track

* The cars that are performing in those classes are all different in terms of weight, size, engine

Lmp2- Race Number Background Color: BLUE (what Logan is driving !!)

* The category below the top LMH class of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) "Le Mans Prototype 2" (LMP2) is a key part of the “Endurance" family

* Each driver line up must have at least 1 silver or bronze driver, two platinum drivers can not be entered in the same line up

* it allows teams and drivers to progress to the highest level gradually.

* 1st and 2nd LMP2 competitors will be invited to the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Lmp2 pro/am- Race Number Background Color: CYAN

* In 2021, the LMP2 grid included a separate trophy and title for competitors whose cars included a bronze driver in their line-up. This was known as LMP2 Pro/Am.

* In a change for the 2023 season, the LMP2 Pro/Am category will be run as a separate class

* a lineup of 2 or 3 drivers must include at least 1 bronze driver

* The cars will be the same as run in the LMP2 category.

* 1st LMP2 Pro/Am competitor will be invited to 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans.

LMP3- Race Number Background Color: PURPLE

* LMP3 was designed as a training ground for endurance racing, an arena in which drivers, team members, engineers, and mechanics can hone their skills and prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

* lineup must include 1 silver and 1 bronze or 2 bronze

* from what I understand, it is a feeder series similar to f2/f3

Lmgt3- Race Number Background Color: ORANGE

* Le Mans Grand Touring Car, is a set of regulations maintained by the ACO and the FIA for Grand Tourer race cars designed for use in the ACO/FIA motor racing series. *LMGT3 cars are based on production road car models that are built and sold at the time of homologation.

* Cars eligible for the LMGT3 class must be built by a partner manufacturer recognized by the ACO/FIA

* a lineup of 2 or 3 drivers must have 1 silver and 1 bronze or 2 bronze and no more than 1 gold or platinum driver

TYRES

* LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, and LMGT3 competitors run with Goodyear tyres. LMP3 competitors run with Michelin tyres.

* LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am, and LMP3 competitors have one dry and one wet tyre specifications. There are two dry and one wet tyre specifications for the LMGT3 category.

* Unlike Formula 1, any equipment for warming the tyres or keeping them to temperature is forbidden.

RACE WEEKENDS

WEEKEND SETUP

* Free Practice: two Free Practice sessions of 90 minutes.

* Bronze Test: one session of 30 minutes exclusively for FIA-ranked Bronze drivers.

* Qualifying: one qualifying session of 15 minutes per category, which defines the grid order.

* In LMP2 Pro/Am and LMGT3, only Bronze drivers can qualify for the car, whereas in LMP2 and LMP3, it's up to the competitor.

* Race – which lasts 4 hours.

RACES

* Each driver must drive at least 40 minutes during the race. (One stint)

* The winner is the car that covered the greatest distance in their category.

RACE NEUTRALISATION

* If the race needs to be neutralized or stopped for safety reasons, multiple procedures can be decided by the Race Director:

FULL COURSE YELLOW

* Intended for short neutralisations, mainly for interventions lasting equal to or less than one lap.

* Cars must slow down to 80kph.

* The pit lane entry is closed when there is a Full Course Yellow (FCY)

* No overtaking

VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR

* Intended to secure interventions and used for an approximate duration of two laps before deployment of the Safety Car (SC).

* Cars must slow down to 80kph.

* Access to the pit lane will remain open for the duration of the VSC.

* No overtaking

SAFETY CAR

* Intended for long neutralizations.

* All cars must follow the Safety Car and adapt their speed.

* The pit lane entry is closed for three laps when a Safety Car (SC) is announced.

* Overtaking is permitted under defined circumstances.

RED FLAG

* All the cars must head back to the pitlane or stop on track according to the conditions.

PODIUMS

* Each category has its own podium for the three first competitors.

STANDINGS

* Cars and drivers have their own classification in each category.

* One point is awarded for the pole position in each category.

* Points are awarded to the following scale:

1. 25 point

2. 18 points

3. 15 points

4. 12 points

5. 10 points

6. 8 points

7. 6 points

8. 4 points

9. 2 points

10. 1 point

AUTOMATIC INVITATIONS TO THE 2025 24 HOURS OF LE MANS

Okay, like I said before- the teams in these series get invited to WEC Le Mans.

* LMP2: 1st and 2nd placed competitors in the overall classifications will receive LMP2 invitations.

* LMP2 Pro/Am: 1st placed competitor in the overall classifications will receive a LMP2 invitation.

* LMP3: 1st placed competitor in the overall classifications will receive a LMP2 invitation.

* LMGT3: 1st placed competitor in the overall classifications will receive a LMGT3 invitation

TEAMS/DRIVERS

* 44 cars are to race during the 2025 season of the European Le Mans Series

* Line-ups are composed of two to three drivers per car.

* 14 LMP2s, 7 entries in the LMP2 Pro/Am class, 10 LMP3s and 13 LMGT3s.

* to take part in the European Le Mans Series, you must be a categorized driver (based on the FIA Drivers’ categorization.)

* the categorization can be adjusted following the pace of the driver during the current season and his/ her results in the series he/she is taking part in.

* The drivers can be rated in 4 classes: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. 


PLATINUM DRIVERS (just some basics)

* has held a Super Licence (for Formula One)

* has won the Le Mans 24 Hours in a professional category (LMP1 / LMGTE Pro)

* has been a Factory Driver, paid by a car manufacturer, with results to match

* has finished in the top 3 in the general classification of an F3 international series or major international single-seater championship

GOLD DRIVERS

* has finished in the top 3 in the general classification of a secondary international single-seater series

* has won the general classification of a regional or national single-seater series

* has competed in the FIA F2, GP2, GP3, FIA F3 or Super Formula series since 2012 and has finished on the podium on three or more occasions in one calendar season.

* is a driver whose average lap time has been consistently as fast or faster over the majority of the season than the average lap time of Gold drivers competing in the same event of the season

SILVER DRIVER

* driver aged under 30 and not satisfying the criteria of categories Platinum and Gold

* driver who has finished in 1st place in the general classification of regional or major national championships or international series, or has won a major endurance race

* driver who has won a non-professional drivers' series or a regional, national or international single-make lower category series organized by a Manufacturer

* has competed competitively in high-level international karting competitions

BRONZE DRIVER

* Any driver who was over 30 years old when his/her first license was issued, and who has little or no single-seater experience.

* Any driver over 30, previously categorized as Silver, but with no significant results (titles, pole positions or race wins) and whose performance has been shown to be that of a Bronze driver in a monitored series.

* Any driver under 30 years old with a license issued for the first time during the same year as their first categorization and who has not competed in high-level international karting competitions.

WHERE IS LOGAN

now that we have that info dump, let’s find out where Logan fits in

Logan is going to be racing the number 18 (Ls2 SAR18)

He is racing with IDEC Sport Racing LMP2

His teammates (all three will be racing under #18)

Jamie Chadwick - 3x W Series Champion, Formula E test driver, Formula 1 Williams development driver, Indy NXT race winner

Mathys Jaubert - I don’t a lot but he is 19, finished in the top 3 of Porsche championships

Please feel free to correct me or add things in reblogs/replies :) I am very new so I will be learning with everyone 🙌

[the-californicationist]

FaceTime (Price/Reader)

Warning: video/phone sex

It was around lunchtime when you usually heard from John. His deployment was stationed in some Eastern European locale, and over there, it would be late at night. He usually texted you throughout the day, and you’d wake up to his updates, but it had been radio silence for at least twenty-four hours and you were nervous.

You tried to stay busy, keeping yourself calm by talking to your friends and calling your mom, but the house was so empty without him. Sometimes you stole a cigar just to smell his smoke in the house again, lighting it on a plate like incense. He’d be cross if he found out, but you knew he’d forgive you. 

You logged out of your work email and undressed to hop in the shower. Then, just as you were about to step in, you heard your phone buzz. Abandoning the running shower, you lunged for your phone, turning it over to see John’s profile photo on the screen, smiling at you.

“John?” You panted, fear crawling up your throat. 

“Hey, love,” he whispered, his voice low and gravelly. He sounded exhausted.

“Thank God. I was worried sick. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he sounded like he wanted to say no, “Everything’s fine.”

That was his code for ‘don’t ask.’ It made you even more concerned, but you kept that to yourself, not wanting to add to his mental stress.

“I miss you, John,” you sighed. 

Then, he was video calling you. You were naked, but he was careful. He would never call you in front of anyone. You swiped up to answer it. 

He seemed surprised to see your bare collarbones. He was shirtless, too. Ready for bed, alone in his bunk. 

“Oh, hey,” he smiled, “Look at you, pretty thing.”

You blushed, 

“Right back at you, handsome.”

He grinned, rubbing his big hand across his chest. You loved it when he did that. There was something so hot about his fingers petting through his thick chest hair, flashing over his pink nipples, warming his tired muscles, rippling and rising with his breaths. 

“Mm, careful, love. I’m already missin’ ya. Start praising me and I’m gonna grab you through this phone,” he joked with you, playfully threatening, flirting through his tiredness. 

“Wish you would, John,” you moaned, testing his limits. If you were lucky, maybe he would take the bait.

You heard the fabric of his sweatpants rustle, and when he repositioned the phone, you saw his pink cock being dragged out, heavy and hardening under its commander’s grasp. You moaned again, more enthusiastically this time, 

“Oh, fuck. I miss that cock,” you propped your phone up on the sink, leaning it against a bottle of soap and the tap. 

You saw your body on the screen, tossing your towel on the counter to show him your entire naked form. Your hands found your breasts, pulling at your nipples, squeezing the flesh for him and for you, feeling better by the second. Your hands were no match for his hands, but it would have to pass. 

“This cock misses you, baby. Why don’t you touch that soft little cunt for me, hm?”

You do as he says, eagerly sinking your fingers into yourself to obey him, sending waves of pleasure through your core as you do. You’re not ready yet, and you work yourself slowly as you watch his giant hand pump his fat shaft faster and faster in the darkness of his bunk. 

“I can’t wait for you to come home, John. I need to taste you again. I want you to put so much come in me that I feel full from it.”

“You like how I taste, love?” His voice was strained. He was concentrating on watching you fuck yourself on your hand. 

“I love it,” you confessed honestly, “You want me to show you how much?”

You didn’t wait for him to reply. You gathered your wetness on your fingers and showed it to him, making sticky strings of your own come drip between your fingers. He groaned, and then he gasped when he watched you lick them clean. 

“Fuck, do that again.”

You dipped your fingers into yourself, coating them with your own fluids and bent down closer to the camera so he could see the gleam of your juices as your fingers slid into your waiting mouth. You used your tongue to show him how clean they were. 

He groaned loudly, a familiar sound, and you saw white streams of come burst from his rosy tip, melting down his shaft like a tall candle. 

“Bloody hell, I needed that.”

You smiled, making a mental note to charge your vibrator before you get in the shower. You needed to let off the insane tension he had just built up inside of you.

You blew him a kiss and he caught it with his free hand, 

“Me, too. Call me tomorrow?”

“No need. Tomorrow, you’re gonna get the real thing.”

[gremlingottoosilly]

Would König indulge in his s/o’s change in behaviour in terms of maybe they’re reading more wedding planning magazines/looking up old Austrian castles that are specifically for ceremonies? The s/o has probably just given in and accepted they’re now wifey status but still wants a big/luxurious wedding?

The moment you start calling him something other than a loser monster incel, he is ready to buy you a small European country for wedding purposes only. This guy lives for this fake domestic fantasy - a pretty wife with bare feet and a few pets on her hips, cooking him dinner when he is home from deployment in another unstable regiment. If you as much as kiss him before he goes to run errands, he will buy you a castle and a lordship over it - he is a simple man with simple needs and a very fucked up definition of domestic life. He doesn't intervene in the process, considering it being a mainly female interest and he doesn't want to seem overbearing - so he would just give you a modest set budget in the GDP of a small Balkan country and let you get absolutely loose with it. His friends are not very fit for a royal wedding or even a wedding in general - but he trusts that you'd find enough people to fill in the space so you could finally feel like a small princess just like you deserve. He is driving you to various castles for the wedding options, only half-listening as the agents were talking about renting, possible decorations, great history of the space - they tried to talk to him at first, especially since you probably isn't really good at German, but they quickly understood his role in this whole ceremony. Konig might want to marry you as soon as possible, but he couldn't care less about the ceremony - he'd marry you in the first courthouse down the road, but he wants to humor his silly wife with her silly requests.

[femsolid]

Some crazy french scandals you've probably never heard of:

In 2023, a senator invited an mp to his apartment to celebrate his election. He went to the kitchen alone and put GHB in her drink. When he came back he was acting weird and urged her to drink it fast. When the drugs started to take effect, she thought she was dying of a heart attack and he tried to calm her down, but she ran from the apartment and called for help. She was taken to the hospital and he was later arrested. He claimed that he didn't mean to put the drugs in her drink, he was doing a magic trick and the drugs fell into her drink by mistake. On his phone search history the police found that he had been reading about rape drugs. The trial hasn't happened yet, so for now he's still working as a senator and has refused to step down.

In 2024, it was revealed that children were being tortured and raped at a catholic school for decades. The french prime minister was made aware of this in the 90s and did nothing. He is now being investigated by the parliament. He was questioned for more than 5 hours (it lasted this long because he refused to give a straight answer) during which he spent most of his time insulting leftist MPs and pretended to be the victim. The investigation is still ongoing and more than 45 children, now adult men, have come forward. The video of him slapping a little boy while visiting an impoverished neighbourhood resurfaced. While questioned by the parliament he explained that the boy was trying to steal from him and that sometimes hitting a child can be educational. Hitting a child is illegal in France.

2018: During the yellow vest protests, policemen were routinely brutalising, maiming and even killing people. During a rally on may 1st, a policeman was filmed beating a woman and then a couple. However, on closer inspection, it was revealed that the man was impersonating a police officer and that he was president Macron's close friend and bodyguard. The police let him borrow their uniforms and helmet to beat up protesters.

It was also revealed that he was unduly authorised to carry a gun, to use a car paid by the government, and to own a badge authorising him to enter the parliament despite not being a member. He was sentenced to 1 year of house arrest wearing an electronic bracelet and 2 years of suspended sentence.

In 2025, Marine Le Pen, the popular leader of the french neo-nazi party was convicted of embezzlement. This was estimated to have caused a loss to European funds of 4.8 millions of euros.

She was accused of having hired fictitious assistants when she was a member of the European Parliament. In reality, they were working for her party. The court found there was “no doubt” about the existence of the scheme. She was sentenced to a five-year ban on running for public office with immediate effect and two years to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet.

Let's talk about the left a little bit. The leader of the french left is so agitated and emotional he's an infinite source of memes here.

However, in 2018, things took a disturbing turn when more than 100 policemen, and a few prosecutors were sent to his home at around 7am, armed and with a warrant to search through all his belongings. They also visited a dozen of his coworkers all at the same time, in what appeared to be a very well prepared sting operation. The reason was unclear, though there were suspicions of embezzlement. It was something we'd never seen before in France, in terms of police deployment, and it seems excessive, especially given the fact that nothing came out of it.

However, that's not what people remember from that day.

During the policemen's search, the leftist leader, joined by other mps, became very angry as they were not allowing them to be in the room and witness the search. He screamed a lot, got in their face and was so upset he shouted weird things like "I'M the republic! Don't touch me, my person is sacred!!!" (which have become catchphrases in France) and "break down the door comrade!!!" which made the media talk for days and speculate about his mental state.

The policemen pressed charges against him, one of them stating that he was on sick leave for a week and had to get psychological support because he had nightmares after being shouted at by the leftist leader who responded that he probably shouldnt be a cop if he was that fragile. He was later convicted of "rebellion" against a police officer and had to pay 8K to the policeman. He also got 3 months of suspended sentence.

Obviously I should finish with Macron:

In 2018, a young horticulturist told president Macron it was difficult for him to find a job. Macron told him that all he had to do was cross the street and work as a waiter. In 2016, a unionist criticized him and Macron responded "You don't scare me wearing a T-shirt! The best way to buy yourself a suit is to work." In 2017, he stated: "When you go to the train station, you walk by people who succeed and people who are nothing." In 2018, when everybody became aware that his bodyguard had been impersonating a police officer to beat up protesters, Macron responded to the french people with "Come and get me!" In 2018, he said: "People who are having a hard time financially need to be more responsible. Some are doing well, but others are fucking around." In 2019, he said he was unhappy that yellow vest protestors were being invited to speak in the media: "Jojo with his yellow vest is considered an equal to a minister or mp!" During the yellow vest protests, a middle-aged woman who was just standing there and holding a peace flag was charged by the riot police and left unconscious on the ground. The whole scene was filmed and photographed. Macron said it was her fault for being there and told her that "she should be wiser in the future." However, the police chief responsible for the attack was later convicted. In 2024, when actor Depardieu was being investigated after being accused of rape by several women, Macron stated that Depardieu was a fantastic actor who made France proud and that he wouldn't participate in this witch hunt. In 2025, Depardieu was convicted on two counts of sexual assault.

In a book written by 3 journalists, they quote Macron as saying about the state of french hospitals: "the problem with emergency wards is that they are filled with Mamadou!" a blanket name he uses to call black men. Three weeks later, he told several african governments who had expelled french military from their countries that they forgot to thank France. He explained that the only reason african countries had their sovereignty was because of the french army. He added "it's okay, they'll thank us eventually" to which the Tchad foreign minister responded that he had a "contemptuous attitude towards Africa" and added: "we don't have a problem with France, but french leaders need to learn to respect african countries and their sovereignty." Macron also called the people of Haiti "complete cunts".

In 2017, he visited Mayotte, a french island, and joked that their traditional boats mostly served to fish immigrants. A few years later, when a typhoon hit that same island and killed several people, leaving the rest without drinking water and living in slums, the people of Mayotte were angry and desperate by the lack of support from France. Macron came to visit them, got angry and screamed: "I'm not responsible! I'm not the typhoon! You're complaining but you're quite happy to be french! If you weren't french you'd be 10 000 times in more shit! Yes I'm angry! Because you're disrespectful!" In 2017, he visited another french region, the french Guyane where people were on a strike. Indeed, people were complaining once again about being left out and living in poverty. Macron talked to the media and said that all the strikes needed to stop because it was "preventing the island from functioning." Problem: the french Guyane is not an island. It's situated on the south american continent between the Surinam, Brazil and Venezuela...

That's all I have for today! I hope our misery was entertaining. As a bonus, here is Macron getting slapped by some random french guy:

Au revoir.

[fortunxa]

to my followers from the US:

i’m from a european country. today’s political science exam had an open question about the LA protests against ICE agents and Trump’s military net across the state (his deployment of the National Guard and the Marines).

we had to explain why your democracy is dying and how it’s moving into an authoritarian regime—not IF but WHY/HOW. let that sink in if you haven’t yet.

that being said, if you follow me and support Trump—go fuck yourself 💙

[munaeem]

European Military Deployments: A Global Overview

European countries do have military deployments in various parts of the world. This fact is often overlooked in discussions about economic challenges and immigration. Here’s a list of countries where European nations have significant military presence: Africa Central African Republic: France, Portugal, and several other European countries have troops deployed under the MINUSCA…

[probablyasocialecologist]

Israel’s​ actions can’t be seen in isolation from the US, since American protection shapes the environment in which Israel operates. The deployment of US aircraft carrier groups to the region (along with a few British warships) was intended to show neighbouring states that Israel wasn’t acting alone, thus mitigating the risk of regional opposition. The war itself is a transnational effort. Bombs manufactured in Texas are fitted with precision-guidance systems from Missouri, shipped to Europe, then flown, perhaps via British bases in Cyprus, to Israel before being dropped on Gaza. US and European foreign policy is aligned to enable Israel to do precisely what it is doing now. The US quickly provided an additional $14.5 billion of emergency aid to Israel for the war effort. Military supplies include 2000 Hellfire missiles and 57,000 155mm shells. When the IDF came close to running down its stores of 120mm tank shells the State Department approved a shipment of 14,000 more. On 20 October the White House requested the removal of all restrictions on access to munitions it has positioned in Israel.

Tom Stevenson, Rubble from Bone

[mariacallous]

The United States has long had a clear message to its European allies: Do more!

Spend more on defense, shoulder more risk, accept more inconvenience, spurn Soviet and Russian natural gas, catch Kremlin spies, push back against communist-led trade unions, send European armed forces to fight in U.S. wars—the list was long. Europe’s contribution was never enough. Indeed, discontent about burden-sharing precedes the founding of NATO. At a 1949 Senate hearing on U.S. accession to the alliance, Secretary of State Dean Acheson was asked if this would mean “substantial numbers of troops over there.” He responded: “The answer to that question, senator, is a clear and absolute no!” The assumption at the bloc’s founding was that U.S. support was a bridge to European self-reliance.

Ten years later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower complained that self-reliance wasn’t happening. “Our forces were put there on a stop-gap emergency basis,” he said, according to a 1959 memo. “The Europeans now attempt to consider this deployment as a permanent and definite commitment.” He complained that allies were trying to make the United States a “sucker.” Every U.S. president since then has reiterated the complaint, none more than Donald Trump.

But behind Washington’s repeated call for Europe to “do more” usually came a second one: “Not like that.” The worst-kept secret of trans-Atlantic security policy is that from the dawn of the Cold War, the United States sought not only to bind Europe into a common defense against the Soviet Union but also to keep it in a state of tutelage. That meant strangling all attempts to build independent European defense structures or strategies.

Some Europeans have resisted this. In 1958, French President Charles de Gaulle requested a tripartite NATO directorate for nuclear strategy. When Britain and the United States refused, he withdrew the French Navy’s Mediterranean fleet from NATO command and withdrew permission for U.S. nuclear weapons to be stationed on French territory; the U.S. Air Force had to hurriedly shift 200 warplanes out of France. In 1963, he withdrew the country’s Atlantic and English Channel fleets from NATO command; in 1966, he demanded that all NATO bases be removed from French territory and pulled France out of the alliance’s command structure.

The threat from the Soviet Union overshadowed these rows. Few doubted that, in the event of a military conflict, France would fight alongside NATO allies. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 and the threat from Moscow appeared gone—and as NATO allies grew impatient with U.S. leadership that was overambitious in some places, overly hesitant in others—European allies began to assert their own priorities.

A signal event was the 1998 Franco-British cooperation agreement signed at Saint-Malo, France, which stated that the European Union (to which Britain in those days belonged) “must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises.” Then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright responded by firmly telling NATO allies that Europe’s nascent efforts to cooperate on security should mean “no diminution of NATO, no discrimination, and no duplication.”

The advocates of European defense have had a rocky ride in the quarter-century since then. The more France talked up “strategic autonomy,” “emancipation,” and other buzz-phrase concepts, the more Britain and other Atlanticist members of NATO pulled back. The EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy generated “more words than warriors,” as Julian Lindley-French, the chairman of the Alphen Group, told me.

Now that has changed. Spooked by Russia’s war in Ukraine and trans-Atlantic ructions, the Europeans are serious—deathly serious—about taking care of their own defense and security. The war of words is raging. University of Oxford historian Timothy Garton Ash writes of “America the Horrible.” British House of Lords member Andrew Roberts decried the “sheer brutality” of the Trump administration’s behavior, which he said had thrust Britain into “utterly uncharted territory.” German Chancellor-elect Friedrich Merz, a lifelong supporter of German Atlanticism, calls for German “independence” from the United States. “The free world needs a new leader,” said EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, who was previously the prime minister of ultra-Atlanticist Estonia.

Current woes are only the start. What happens if the White House not only pulls out of supporting Ukraine but dismisses Russia’s next European invasion as a mere “border skirmish” unworthy of U.S. involvement? Or worse—what if a Russia-aligned White House actively opposes European action to aid the invaded country? Washington could disable any weapons that use U.S. high technology, cut off access to satellites and other critical infrastructure, and shut down NATO’s U.S.-run headquarters.

For now, the biggest shift is in decision-making. Dismay, disgust, and growing dread have shocked Europeans into ending the disagreements among themselves that have hamstrung European security since the United States sabotaged the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt during the 1956 Suez crisis. At the time, the French decided never to trust the Americans again; the British decided never to have another trans-Atlantic row. Today, the former European Atlanticists who for decades acted as a skeptical, pragmatic brake on any talk of a European army, defense budget, military headquarters, or intelligence service have become the accelerators of change. “We have all turned into Gaullists,” Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said in February.

Talks are advanced on a new defense and security pact between the EU and Britain, which will end a nine-year post-Brexit blight in cross-channel relations when it is likely signed in May. Ministers from Britain regularly attend EU summits, as do those of non-EU Norway. Big EU member states, such as Germany and France, which have jealously guarded their national security interests over Brussels’s meddling, are now more willing to see the European Commission—led by former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen—take the lead with joint borrowing, new agencies, new powers, and new scope.

All this has practical consequences. For a start, this is a terrible time to be selling U.S.-made weapons or any kind of high-tech system in Europe. Trump has publicly mused on restricting the features of new, sixth-generation F-47 fighter jets sold to allies, saying: “We’d like to tone them down about 10 percent, which probably makes sense because someday, maybe they’re not our allies, right?” Worries are also growing about a so-called kill switch on U.S.-built weapons that would allow Washington to unilaterally restrict, for example, access to software and data systems. This U.S. technological veto previously stopped Ukraine from using British Storm Shadow missiles—which contain U.S.-made guidance systems—against targets inside Russia.

Trump’s loose lips are sinking deals. Portugal and Canada are reportedly considering canceling part of their purchase of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters. Having seen Elon Musk withhold satellite service to Ukraine, Italy has backed out of acquiring Starlink. The Danes are debating whether Trump’s threats to Greenland mean they should choose the Franco-Italian SAMP/T NG air defense system over U.S. Patriots in a contract due to be signed later this year. British arms manufacturers have gone on a marketing offensive, highlighting their “Trump-proof” supply chains.

Plans are also advancing for a major European financial instrument to fund defense. (Disclosure: I am one of the authors of a proposal for a European Rearmament Bank.) A key condition: Only contracts with European arms manufacturers will be financed. All this will not only cost U.S. jobs, profits, and taxes—it will erode U.S. influence over Europe, too.

Intelligence sharing has been another bastion of U.S. influence in Europe. For decades, the vast capabilities of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and other agencies have given the American side the upper hand in relationships with their European counterparts. Leads from the U.S. side have helped countries such as Germany and Estonia catch Russian spies. In return, European agencies were glad to help out with any niche capabilities that might prove useful.

No longer. European spymasters now think twice about sharing their choicest morsels with U.S. counterparts. “Suppose it ends up in the PDB and he blurts it out?” one European intelligence official told me, referring to the President’s Daily Brief, the highly classified daily distillation of the U.S. intelligence community’s most topical secrets. Europeans also worry about the administration’s capriciousness. They saw intelligence sharing with Ukraine turned off in order to punish the government in Kyiv for its reluctance to follow along with U.S. cease-fire plans. Suppose the White House decides to give another European ally the same medicine? European intelligence efforts were once mocked. Now they are gaining budgets, clout, staff, and expertise.

The transition is going to be messy. Europe is still woefully short of the troops, tanks, artillery, munitions, logistics, surveillance, and other assets needed for a solid conventional defense; it also lacks the air power and long-range weapons needed for effective conventional deterrence. Even providing a modest reassurance force in a post-cease-fire Ukraine looks fanciful without U.S. logistical and other support.

Compensating for that will require an imposing display of political unity that says “don’t mess with us”—plus convincing plans for rearmament, conscription, and nuclear posture. Europeans must also get to grips with Russian attacks below the threshold of outright war: sabotage of infrastructure, cyberattacks, dirty money, and propaganda. All that will mean not just the sacrifice of some national political sovereignty and a bonfire of other taboos but also higher taxes, lower living standards, and less generous public services.

The trajectory is clear. The more Trump proclaims “America First,” the more Europeans hear sauve qui peut—and stampede away from the wreckage of an alliance that they wrongly took for granted. Every step in that direction creates more clout for Europe and less leverage for the United States. As von der Leyen noted recently, “Reality is a strong ally.” And reality is pushing hard for change.

Paradoxes abound. The United States will end up with something it always wanted to avoid: a lean, mean, muscular, independent-minded Europe. Indeed, it would not be too fanciful to build a monument to Trump in central Brussels, setting him alongside the founders of European unity such as Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Simone Weil.

It’s not all bad. This new entity—one might even call it the United States of Europe—may be a capable, effective partner for future U.S. administrations in dealing with China, combating climate change, and more. But it will be far more a partnership of equals. On other issues—such as global financial management, conflict in the Middle East, and international law—Europeans will have their own ideas and their own priorities. They will assert them unhesitatingly and perhaps uncomfortably. The era of tutelage came at a price. But Americans may miss it when it’s gone.

[slyandthefamilybook]

...And here we come upon a problem as basic as the nature of knowledge itself: all of our prodigious cognitive and computational abilities are inadequate to a full comprehension of our complex world. As humans, we remain heavily dependent on certain tools of perception and conception that our cultural and biological heritages have taught us are useful. These tools–such as language, causal logic, religion, mathematics–are indeed powerful, but they are powerful precisely because they reduce complexity to intelligibility by projecting our mental concepts onto the world. One consequence of this is that our recognition of significance is always what some philosophers call "theory laden," meaning that it is shaped by what our theoretical framework and cognitive tools encourage us to recognize as meaningful. Anti-Judaism, as I have argued throughout this book, is precisely this: a powerful theoretical framework for making sense of the world.

...

After all, no matter how overrepresented the Jews may have been among the European "bourgeoisie," they remained a tiny minority of that class. How could that tiny minority convincingly come to represent for so many the evolving evils of the capitalist world order? More broadly, how could untold millions of Europeans (and not only Germans) come to believe–or act as if they believed–the claims of the Nazis (and not only the Nazis) that Jews and their conspiracies so threatened the security of the world that they needed to be excluded, expelled, or exterminated? According to Horkheimer and Adorno, the liquidation of the Jews of Europe was not grounded in "reality." It took place in the vast gap between and explanatory framework ("anti-Semitism") that made satisfying sense of the world to a significant portion of its citizens, and the complexity of the world itself.

They set out to explore that gap in a philosophical history of modern thought they drafted in 1944 and later published as Dialectics of Enlightenment. Their final chapter, "Elements of Anti-Semitism: Limits of Enlightenment," suggested that what gave anti-Semitic ideas their power was not so much their relation to reality, but rather their exemption from reality checks–that is, from the critical testing to which so many other concepts were subjected. "What is pathological about anti-Semitism is not projective behavior as such, but the absence of reflection in it." In their terms, the problem is a heightened resistance to reflection about the gap between our ideas about Jews, Judaism, or Jewishness, and the complexity of the world. From their point of view, anti-Semitism provides adherents with a cognitive comfort: the fantasy that the gap between our understanding of the cosmos and its fearful complexity does not exist.

...

...[A]cross several thousand years, myriad lands, and many different spheres of human activity, people have used ideas about Jews and Judaism to fashion the tools with which they construct the reality of their world. The goal of my project, like Horkeheimer and Adorno's, is to encourage reflection about our "projective behavior," that is, about the ways in which our deployment of concepts into and onto the world might generate "pathological" fantasies of Judaism. And my choice of method owes something to Auerbach's conviction that the study of a given moment, problem, or even a single word in the distant past can teach us something about a much longer history, extending even to our own.

Selected excerpts from Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (2013 Nirenberg, David)

[russo-woso]

My clingy girl | Chloe Kelly x reader

Summary You surprise Chloe at one of her matches and her clingy side comes out

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Baby, i'm so sorry. I wish I could be there. I really wish I could but I've still got roughly two months left." You apologised to Chloe over the phone.

You had been deployed in South Sudan for just over 9 months.

You had gotten used to being deployed for such long periods but there wasn't a day that went by that you wished you was at home with Chloe, going to her matches to support her.

Your job in the British army was so rewarding, but so demanding and sometimes heartbreaking at times.

This deployment was harder than any before though.

The last time you were in England, you had just been let go from being deployed for 7 months. That was in early July of 2022. This meant that you were able to watch Chloe in the euros. Including the final.

You were in the family and friends section with her family during the final. To this day, you still can't explain how proud you are of chloe. Not only for scoring the winning goal, but just for everything she's achieved.

Once the final whistle blew, Chloe ran straight over to you, engulfing you into a hug before pulling you in for a bruising kiss.

Once the celebrations were over on the pitch, and the trophy lifting ceremony was over, Chloe came over to us once again, but this time you got down on one knee.

That day will always be one of the best days of your life. You got to watch your girlfriend become a European champion, and then afterwards, you managed to make her your fiancé and soon to be wife.

The very next day, you got a phone call saying you had 48 hours before you was being deployed again.

You and Chloe were both sad that you had to say goodbye to each other but Chloe took it the hardest.

As the flashbacks of Chloe's face when you left played, a familiar voice was heard over the phone, bringing you out of the trance you were in.

"Y/N, I know you'd be there if you could. Don't be sorry, babe." Chloe said, her voice breaking as she said it.

The lionesses had a big match against Brazil. It was a one match tournament called the finalissima and with Chloe's top notch performances at the minute, there was no way she wasn't going to play.

"Listen Chlo, I only have thirty seconds left on the phone. I love you so much, baby. So so much. You're going to smash it during--" You began but the sound of beeps indicated that your time on the phone had run out.

You put the phone down before returning to your set up bed which currently had a framed picture of you and chloe on it.

The picture had just been taken when you had proposed to her.

You gently kissed the glass covering the photo as a tear ran down your face.

"Corporal Y/L/N, we need to talk."

————————

That conversation is what lead you to here, on your way to Wembley.

You had been let go from deployment for a month.

You hadn't told Chloe, you wanted it to be a surprise for her.

God, you couldn't wait to see her again. To hold her again, to feel her lips on yours.

You had spoken to Leah and she had managed to make sure you had a seat.

On the way back to England, she had messaged you explaining that to get you a spare ticket, she had to inform UEFA you'd be coming and they wanted you to help give out the medals.

You figured it made sense agreeing to it because it would be the perfect way to surprise chloe.

The main thing on your mind though, was chloe. Your Chloe.

————————

You had arrived at Wembley, in your full uniform, and made your way to the family and friends box.

Chloe's family spotted you straight away, gasping and immediately jumping up to hug you.

You sat down and watched the match.

Tears welled in your eyes when you saw Chloe.

She wasn't in the starting 11, but you saw her sitting on the bench, waiting for her turn to shine on the pitch.

With a goal from Ella Toone in the 23', we had stayed in the lead all throughout the game.

Chloe had come on in the 74', which ultimately made you cry again.

Somehow, 3 minutes into injury time, Brazil managed to find an equalizer meaning the game would go into extra time.

Everyone was sat on the edges of their seats all throughout the extra thirty minutes.

A loud sigh was visibly heard when the final whistle blew, indicating that the game would go to penalties.

Georgia was the first to take the penalty, which she successfully did, The Brazilian player doing exactly the same.

Ella missed the following penalty, but the Brazilian player did too.

It was when Rachel scored her pen, and the Brazilian player didn't, that a surge of hope ran through you.

Alex followed next, scoring her penalty.

Once the Brazilian player had scored a penalty for Brazil, Chloe stepped forward to take one.

She placed the ball down onto the penalty spot and took a few steps back.

The ref blew her whistle and Chlo took her iconic leap before smashing the ball into the back of the net.

You jumped up, hugging Chloe family before focusing my attention onto the pitch again.

You saw Chloe running into the corner before saluting.

It had become her new celebration, she had explained over the phone that it was dedicated to you. 

You started making yourway down to the tunnel because the trophy ceremony would be soon.

As you waited in the tunnel to be announced, you placed my cap on your head, making sure it was straight.

"And to award the medals and the trophy, please welcome Colonel Y/N Y/L/N." The announcement was made and you made your way onto the pitch.

Your eyes landed straight on Chloe, who looked as though she was about to fall to the ground.

A massive smile grew on your face as she started running towards you.

She jumped into your arms, her legs wrapping round your hips, your hands supporting her up.

"Hi, baby." You croaked, your voice breaking, as she buried her head into your neck.

"Are you really here?" She managed to get out through the tear as you nodded your head. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, my love. More than you'll ever know."

Chloe then took her head out of your neck and placed both hands on your cheeks, her thumbs rubbing over them.

She then leant in and you made the final movement to connect your lips.

"I've waited to do that for nine months." She admitted and you put her down on the floor, pressing your lips on hers once more.

"I know. And we've got a whole month to make up for times we couldn't." You tell her, resting your hands on her hips, holding her close to you.

"We can plan our wedding now, we can go out for walks at night like we used to do, I can show you the best cafe in town. It's just opened but it has the best coffee and every time I go in there it just reminds me of you. Oh, and I can show you—" Chloe rambled on and on but you just looked at her in awe.

"Baby, I don't care what we do, as long as I'm with you." You told her and bought her in for a kiss

"I love you so much."

"I love you too, babe, but as much as I don't want to let you go, I've got to give your teammates their medals." You pointed out to her, pointing at her teammates who were all watching the interaction between you and Chloe.

"I don't want to let you go." Chloe whispered in your ear.

"How about you stand next to me whilst I give out the medals and then I'll give you yours at the end. That way you don't have to leave me." You chuckled at her clinginess and intertwined your fingers with hers, taking off your cap and putting it on her head. “My clingy girl.”

[maxknightley]

Since Moses canonically parted the red sea with a beyblade, does that mean dreidel are a sub-category of beyblade, or are beyblades a sub-catagory of dreidel?

Since Moses necessarily predates the Maccabees, and thus the miracle for which Chanukah is celebrated, the beyblade logically has seniority.

Thinking of it phylogenetically, the dreidel is the "descendant," and thus should be considered the same sort of thing as any other "descendants" of the beyblade - e.g. the glaive from Krull. Therefore, in much the same way that "birds are dinosaurs," dreidels are beyblades.

Interestingly, the term "beyblade" was actually introduced by Christians - in a roundabout way. Byzantine accounts of the Ottoman conquests of the 14th and early 15th century often mention "a sort of perpetually whirling sabre, set in motion by the enemy's mystics and commanded by their beys to wreak havoc on our walls and troops." (See The Oxford History of Byzantium, Mango, 2002).

Of course, cannons would eclipse these blades by the mid-15th century, at least as far as practical military deployment was concerned. Many of the now-obsolete blades would later be sold off to European traders, who would in turn sell them to nobles and scholars in Italy and France - where they would become known as Lames de les Beys, i.e., "Blades of the Beys." From there the etymology is straightforward.

All of this is from a historical standpoint, of course. Halachically speaking, the dreidel is considered a beetle.