#About G20

[formulagroup]

The upcoming G20 Summit is all set to take place in New Delhi on 9 September 2023 to 10 September 2023. It will be graced by numerous global leaders representing the G20 member countries. This edition marks the 18th occurrence of the summit and holds special significance for India as it takes on its inaugural presidency of the event based on the theme of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – “One Earth, One Family, One Future”.

[diomedrian]

I would be so heartbroken if I still don't get calls like. During sept/oct I was like yeah ok no one's hiring bc of Diwali but if I still don't get any screenings and interviews post diwali it's just so terrible surely I can't be all that much unemployable

[marketxcel]

A New Dawn: India charts the course for G20 Summit

G20 decisions hold global implications, impacting economies, industries, and people worldwide. Collaborative efforts among G20 members, invitees, and international organizations underscore a shared commitment to advancing development agendas and sustainable economic growth. India, drawing from its diverse and enriching experience, is poised to lead the way in fostering inclusive and innovative solutions on the world stage.

[kupwaratimes-fan]

LeT militant from Kulgam Killed in Baramulla: Police, says hopeful about successful conduct of G20 summit

LeT militant from Kulgam Killed in Baramulla: Police, says hopeful about successful conduct of G20 summit Srinagar, May 6: A Lashker-e-Toiba militant was killed in an encounter with joint team of police, army and paramilitary CRPF in Baramulla district, officials said on Saturday. SSP Baramulla Amod Ashok Nagpure (IPS) said that a joint cordon-and-search operation was launched on the basis of the…

[miru-n]

tfw you opened up twitter just to see white people talking shit about your culture 🐒 you didn't even season your food, shut your racist ass up

[zvaigzdelasas]

Western support for Israel’s assault on Gaza has poisoned efforts to build consensus with significant developing countries on condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine, officials and diplomats have warned.[...]

In the flurry of emergency diplomatic visits, video conferences and calls, western officials have been accused of failing to defend the interests of 2.3mn Palestinians in their rush to condemn the Hamas attack and support Israel. In the first days after Hamas’s assault, some western diplomats worried that the US was giving carte blanche to Israel to attack Gaza with full force. That had eroded efforts since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to build consensus with leading states in the so-called Global South — such as India, Brazil and South Africa — on the need to uphold a global rules-based order, said more than a dozen western officials.[...] “We have definitely lost the battle in the Global South,” said one senior G7 diplomat. “All the work we have done with the Global South [over Ukraine] has been lost . . . Forget about rules, forget about world order. They won’t ever listen to us again.”

Many developing countries have traditionally supported the Palestinian cause, seeing it through the prism of self-determination and a push against the global dominance of the US, Israel’s most important backer.[...] Some American diplomats are privately concerned that the Biden administration’s response has failed to acknowledge how its broad support of Israel can alienate much of the Global South.[...] Russia and its ally China have cultivated warm ties with the Palestinians. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. “What we said about Ukraine has to apply to Gaza. Otherwise we lose all our credibility,” the senior G7 diplomat added. “The Brazilians, the South Africans, the Indonesians: why should they ever believe what we say about human rights?”[...]

Just four weeks before the Hamas assault on Israel, leaders from the US, EU and western allies attended the G20 summit in New Delhi and asked developing nations to condemn Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians in order to uphold respect for the UN charter and international law. Since last Sunday, many of those officials told the Financial Times they have had the same argument read back at them in demands for condemnation of Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza, and of its decision to restrict water, electricity and gas supplies there.

17 Oct 23

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Content warning for speculation about hypothetical future scenarios of mass death and suffering

Been thinking about how repeating pattern in history seems to be that you can mark every era by its major international incidents, conflicts and disasters, singular in their impact but which nonetheless seem to happen at least once every few decades ago. I see no reason to suspect that this has for any reason stopped being true, and I am fascinated by speculating about what our future history might be, so as a slightly morbid thought exercise;

Which of these hypothetical international incidents/disasters would you believe most plausible or likely to occur in the next 50 years?

Disclaimer; these scenarios will share my western cultural perspective bias

(Reblog if you vote, as sad as it may be to contemplate future suffering I'm interested in where most people's reads are on this sort of thing)

[selfhelpforstudents]

Studyblr - Introduction Post

Hi everyone! I haven’t done an introduction in ages! So I thought to give it another shot and maybe motivate new Studyblrs to do it too and reach more followers, so we can all be a supportive community! <3 (We already are, but you get the point haha) #studyblrsunite

1. About me

Name: Sophia

Major: Business Administration and Sustainability

Current Average: A+

Where I am studying: Germany and France

Jobs: Student Assistant (Sustainability Department), Working Student at a bank (Sustainable Finance)

Volunteering: G20 Summit, my own EU project “SchoolStainability”, Debating Union Board Memember, Sustainability Lectures @ Uni

Hobbys: helping people, playing the violin, dancing, gym, this blog and insta, going to sweet cafés, studying, being with my cat and boyfriend

2. About this blog

Topic: Studying to get into Oxford (or any elite university), sustainability, mental health

Channels: Instagram, Tumblr, Discord

Posting Frequency: Daily (Insta and Tumblr, posting a bit more on my Insta currently)

Followers: 14,900, (57 on Insta lol)

Challenges: 100 Days of Productivity Challenge; Study smarter, not harder

Thanks for reading and following! I’m tagging some of my favorite people on here (it’s by far not everyone, I love so many people on here) to reblog this and add your own info, so we will have whole chain of studyblr introductions ❤️

@studyingmood @studyforyourself @studyingatsunrise @emmastudies @alilystudies @booknerdstudies @bennistudies @creativelyorganised @decaffs @diaryofastemstudent @learnelle @fluencylevelfrench @ghentlawstudent @hannybstudies @honeylemonstudiess @jennystudy @motivatemycollegelife @nightlystudying @oatberrystudies @problematicprocrastinator @quynhsstudyblog @reading-with-rosie @thecornercoffeeshop @umdiaeuconsigo-studyblr @virtuosicstudyblr @academiix @latetothestudygame @myhoneststudyblr @mal-studyblr @enfleures @medstudentblues @ex-injuria-jus-non-oritur @un-----made @equinesandeducation @caramelcuppaccino @oneanxiousstudybuddy @thelailasblog @siri-of-all-trades @blanketcat31 @waves-and-winds @rxhya

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

‘Morally, nobody’s against it’: Brazil’s radical plan to tax global super-rich to tackle climate crisis

A 2% levy would affect about 100 billionaire families, says the country’s climate chief, but the $250bn raised could be transformative

Proposals to slap a wealth tax on the world’s super-rich could yield $250bn (£200bn) a year to tackle the climate crisis and address poverty and inequality, but would affect only a small number of billionaire families, Brazil’s climate chief has said.

Ministers from the G20 group of the world’s biggest developed and emerging economies are meeting in Rio de Janeiro this weekend, where Brazil’s proposal for a 2% wealth tax on those with assets worth more than $1bn is near the top of the agenda.

No government was speaking out against the tax, said Ana Toni, who is national secretary for climate change in the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“Our feeling is that, morally, nobody’s against,” she told the Observer in an interview. “But the level of support from some countries is bigger than others.”

However, the lack of overt opposition does not mean the tax proposal is likely to be approved. Many governments are privately sceptical but unwilling to publicly criticise a plan that would shave a tiny amount from the rapidly accumulating wealth of the planet’s richest few, and raise money to address the pressing global climate emergency.

Janet Yellen, the US Treasury ­secretary, told journalists in Rio that the US “did not see the need” for a global initiative.

Continue reading.

[phoenixyfriend]

Positive news for the optimistic!

I first heard about this on the BBC Global News Podcast (starts at around 14:40 for me, but that may vary based on the ads they give you), but I found an article from The Guardian as well, if you work best with a text format. Preview:

The G20 group of the world’s most powerful countries is exploring plans for a global minimum tax on the world’s 3,000 billionaires, aiming to end a “race to the bottom” that has enabled the super-rich to pay less than the rest of the population.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Mother Jones:

The world’s 3,000 billionaires should pay a minimum 2 percent tax on their fast-growing wealth to raise about $313 billion a year for the global fight against poverty, inequality, and global heating, ministers from four leading economies have suggested.

In a sign of growing international support for a levy on the super-rich, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and Spain say a 2 percent tax would reduce inequality and raise much-needed public funds after the economic shocks of the pandemic, the climate crisis and military conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.

They are calling for more countries to join their campaign, saying the annual sum raised would be enough to cover the estimated cost of damage caused by all of last year’s extreme weather events.

“It is time that the international community gets serious about tackling inequality and financing global public goods,” the ministers say in a Guardian comment piece. “One of the key instruments that governments have for promoting more equality is tax policy. Not only does it have the potential to increase the fiscal space governments have to invest in social protection, education, and climate protection. Designed in a progressive way, it also ensures that everyone in society contributes to the common good in line with their ability to pay. A fair share contribution enhances social welfare.”

Brazil chairs the G20 group of leading developed and developing countries and put a billionaire tax on the agenda at a meeting of finance ministers earlier this year.

The French economist Gabriel Zucman is now fleshing out the technical details of a plan that will again be discussed by the G20 in June. France has indicated support for a wealth tax and Brazil has been encouraged that the US, while not backing a global wealth tax, did not oppose it.

Zucman said: “Billionaires have the lowest effective tax rate of any social group. Having people with the highest ability to pay tax paying the least—I don’t think anybody supports that.”

Research from Oxfam published this year found that the boom in asset prices during and after the Covid pandemic meant billionaires were $3.3 trillion—or 34 percent—wealthier at the end of 2023 than they were in 2020. Meanwhile, a study from the World Bank showed that the pandemic had brought poverty reduction to a halt.

The opinion piece, signed by ministers from two of the largest European economies—Germany and Spain—and two of the largest emerging economies—Brazil and South Africa—claims a levy on the super-rich is a necessary third pillar to complement the negotiations on the taxation of the digital economy and the introduction earlier this year of a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent for multinationals.

“The tax could be designed as a minimum levy equivalent to 2 percent of the wealth of the super-rich. It would not apply to billionaires who already contribute a fair share in income taxes. Those, however, who manage to avoid paying income tax would be obliged to contribute more towards the common good,” the ministers say.

“Persisting loopholes in the system imply that high-net-worth individuals can minimize their income taxes. Global billionaires pay only the equivalent of up to 0.5 percent of their wealth in personal income tax. It is crucial to ensure that our tax systems provide certainty, sufficient revenues, and treat all of our citizens fairly.”

[miynt0012]

[SIM DOWNLOAD] Neuvilette | Genshin Impact

maxis match | one outfit | full cc list

yeep-

he just sort of happened lol

I also made Miko I'm gonna share her soon :0

please don’t share my sims / pictures of my sims on the gallery or on any other platform

DOWNLOAD: mega

cc list:

skintone

lamatisse - bare skintones

genetics

yooniesim - imperfection teeth set | spookysims - lip masks | PYXIS - about face (skin details) | goppolsme - eyebrows G20 | NSW - a thousand nights set (eyebags n4, philtrum n1 mm overlay) | okruee - misc face details | mmsims - eyelashes v6 | NSW - male asian collection (eyes n25) | NSW - cartoon style genetics set (north male skin, matte face add-on n1) | obscurus - maxis match genetics set (nostrils nosemask) 

hair

johnnysims - gerald hair (v1) | the kunstwollen - lynn hairstyle (ombre overlay) 

makeup

goppolsme - liner cc11 |

accessories

clumsyalien - miracle cc pack (rae scarf)

clothes

gorillax3 - single coat AM | saengchung - spring collaboration (spring overfit pants)   

shoes

simandy - "something went wrong and that's why I'm here." set  (tokki boots) 

extras

kijiko - ea eyelashes remover | obscurus - set for eyes (male eyes preset) | NSW - male asian collection (lips preset m n11-18) | obscurus - male body presets | NSW - male presets: face collection (nose preset n15) | joshseoh - universal hair overlay | joseoh - lighting overlay 2.0 (true black merged)    

please take a look at my TOU before downloading!! thank you!

[inkandguns]

So my plants are growing taller than the fence and are starting to stink - that means pretty soon it will be harvest time. Last year I carried the PSA AK-103 except for when it got dark and I busted out the AR-15. At the time it was the only rifle I had with a light on it.

This year I have more options. The worst threat I imagine we could encounter is 4 dudes with semi-auto rifles showing up in a vehicle to shoot a few people and rob the place once everyone else is chased off. Distance is a concern, with the max defensive shot range being about 80-100 meters. If it was less than 50 I’d just carry a handgun.

The options:

Custom AR-15 - ACOG, custom trigger, match barrel, surefire 60 rd coffin mag

PSA AK-103 - the classic. Aimpoint red dot and 30 round mags

Beretta 1301 - loaded with 1 oz hollow point slugs - I would carry a pistol as well, probably the 10mm G20

Marlin 336 - one drawback here is no light, but I have been told we’re working shorter days this year. The other drawback is that it’s a 1964 and in great shape so getting rosin all over it and banging it around isn’t high on my to-do list.

Haven’t made up my mind yet but I’m leaning heavily towards the shotgun. People tend to have a strong reaction to being shot with a 1 oz slug. Sails through car doors and windshields no problem too.

[liceparade]

the scene between johnny nuking arasaka and getting soulkilled always bothered the hell outta me bc like. this is the first time we meet saburo and he's staring out at the mushroom cloud and i mean, that's an instantly resonant image with both 9/11 and the bombings at hiroshima and nagasaki, right. and so i assumed this was deliberately framed by the game as like, an insight into saburo's motives for complete control (Never Again, basically) and that it would like, grapple with the tower attack memorial and the ramifications of johnny's actions later but it...really doesn't, by in large.

it bothers me. at the time of playthrough i chalked it up to an explicit failure of the game to deal meaningfully with atrocity, and for the most part i still feel that is missing from the story.

but thinking about it more, and reading generously--alt tells V explicitly in their conversation beyond the blackwall that johnny's recollections are unreliable, and the off-screen knowledge of key facts that differ from johnny's memories. namely, that morgan blackhand led the charge and shaitan attacked smasher, not johnny; that johnny didn't unplug and kill alt exactly like that, though he and rogue et al. did unwittingly contribute to her death and imprisonment by arasaka; that johnny had likely been killed by smasher before being soulkilled, so this whole memory could be a fabrication.

taken together, these points of unreliability suggest that 50 years in Mikoshi have amplified johnny's self-aggrandizement and guilt, giving himself a locus of control he never had. he attacked the tower, he killed alt, he is the butcher of blaviken.

so with a really generous stretch, this confrontation with saburo could be read as staging of johnny's complex feelings of guilt, helplessness, rage at having been violated by soukiller and tortured in Mikoshi, and twisted pride at having left his mark--a violent, bloody mark--on the world.

another, more tenuous point: character design. another thing that snagged my attention was how johnny's character model has tower attack-related tattoos in the flashbacks leading up to the tower attack. this might be for game design reasons, idk. the relic has essentially recompiled all the engram's memories, but since he died before he got a chance to hit up the ripperdoc for a commemorative tattoo, i think it can be read as a subconscious symbol. (the G20 motif could be a reference to August 20th, the date of the tower attack, so i liberally interpreted all three tattoos as tower-related).

there's obviously a tie-in to the game's running use of tarot symbology. i don't pretend to know anything about tarot, so i'll leave more complex thoughts in that vein to someone who knows more.

i'll similarly spare you any posturing about homeric ekphrasis, but it's notable that johnny's metal arm might be of arasaka make (he's tellingly tried to scratch off the logo), which creates a strange parity of imagery: the mechanical arm, from which johnny takes his stage name moniker, was installed by arasaka during his military service, but his subconscious has populated his organic arm with symbols of his violent, but ultimately self-defeating rebellion.

to me, this evokes an framework theme: johnny, the man and the engram, is as much an artifact of arasaka as he is a paragon of hyperindividualized counterculture. arasaka created him, in more ways than one. reckless, unchecked corporate subjugation seeded violent rebellion. in turn, johnny's methods are their methods, albeit with more forthrightness: he is ruthless, callous, paranoid, and habitually dominates everyone around him, even those closest. by the time he turns to rogue for help, we see he's alienated or turned on everyone his rebellion could meaningfully be for, notably including himself--even though he does mean to escape with spider and rogue, his final act as a living man is essentially self-destruction.

"protecting the things you love instead of destroying what you hate" may sound trite when stated so plainly, but this is the journey he undergoes with V.

his fundamental failure that sets the rest in motion is his failure to protect alt--not in chauvinist, damsel-in-distress sense, though that does factor in, but to know her for who she is, not as an extension of himself (as rilke says: love that greets, borders and protects). in his conversation with thompson (the journo) at the ripperdoc, he reveals he doesn't even know the extent to which she's famous netrunner and assumes arasaka must be there for him. we don't know their relationship outside of that scene, and it isn't any moral or personal failing of his that he can't save alt, but it is his continuous and pervasive failure to fundamentally know or understand her as she was that sets into motion all the rest of his destruction.

which leads to my conclusion: that despite the flaws of the tower attack premise and staging invoking real-life death and tragedy, it is a core strength of the narrative that johnny's character arc isn't one of atonement, but one of learning in death to live, with and for others.

[cherrylng]

ROCKIN’ON - MUSE (November 2009)

MATTHEW BELLAMY INTERVIEW

●"The Resistance" is an amazing piece of work. 「(Laughs) You liked it, thank goodness.」

●I think it must be a very well thought-out concept album, from the composition and arrangement of each song, to the fact that the last three songs are a suite, to the lyrics. How did you come up with the concept for this album? 「In a way, I think this work is a dramatic reflection of my real life. Because of the current situation in the UK— well, especially the political situation during the time we were making this album. Various protest actions, such as the G20 protest rally (an appeal to the world's 20 major financial conferences held in London in April 2009), the shock of the economic crisis, and the revelation that British parliamentarians were embezzling money (*the British media revealed that many members of parliament had unfairly requested additional benefits for private financial aid, housing allowances, etc. under the pretext of “public expenses”, which developed into a major scandal)… Well, it seems to have calmed down a bit now (September 2009), but at that time there was a very strong feeling among people demanding “change” - breaking down and denying the current system. It was flowing, wasn't it? That's partly because I’ve been away from England for a while now and have been living in Italy, so I guess I was absorbing information about England even more voraciously. I was probably missing England a little bit, so I watched British news on TV, read newspapers, and closely followed the coverage of various events at the time. By looking at the current situation in Britain from the outside, I was able to develop an objective perspective within myself.

At the same time, my relationship with my current lover (Gaia Polloni) is also very important to me. You could call it romance, but yeah, that’s why those two things, politics and love, were in a sense bisecting my daily life at the time. I think if you listen to the album, you can hear that there's a more dramatic, dramatized version of that happening in the album. They serve as a setting for this album. For example, the first song sings of ideas such as revolution, uprising, and a strong desire to overthrow the status quo and change, while the second song sings about an immersion into love that can almost be called a retreat. I want to feel free by being locked up in the world of two people. It is also a desire to be freed or to escape from the various problems faced in reality, such as the government, or from the many unpleasant people that one cannot trust at all. It's a feeling I've had for a while now. In this context - a romance in the midst of political unrest, upheaval, and change - each song on the album depicts a different emotional journey. This is the same thing with “1984,” and that's why I quoted a few things from that book. But the ending of the album is - what can I say, I'm not a particularly religious person, but I'm leaning towards a bit more of a spiritual direction.

In the first half of the album, I use love or romance as a means of escape, but at the conclusion of the album, I objectify the world and the people who live in it, and it becomes very objective. So, so to speak, I'm trying to objectively view the Earth and the people living on it over a longer period of time. In that sense, that last suite can almost be called science fiction, but in a sense, it's a song that starts from the perspective of the universe as evolution. Evolution is a process that progresses on a cosmic scale, and probably occurs all over the universe. Part 1 of that song has a character with a distant, bird's-eye view, looking at everything from a distance. It's almost as if the person is just gazing at various problems, problems for which there seems to be no way to solve them, from afar. So, in Part 2, the idea of escaping from that planet is depicted, and some of the inhabitants of that planet escape to outer space. So, well, we're stepping into a bit of a science fiction world (bitter smile). But then I realized that I really like that movie, Stanley Kubrick's "A.I." (*Kubrick's legacy project, adapted by Spielberg). The first half of the film depicts a typical everyday story, but towards the ending, it becomes very dramatic and reaches the level of a sci-fi drama. I really like that development. So I guess that movie may have partially influenced me. Although the majority of his (Kubrick’s) work depicts extremely mundane and “global” topics such as various problems faced by humans, love relationships, happiness, and the joy of love, in the end he depicts a completely different and spiritual place. I like the idea of making an album that goes somewhere far away from everything and is cut off from this world.」

● At the end, in the eleventh song, you sing, “Let's start over again.” This work, which opens with the order of the revolution and describes the path to its defeat, seems to contain an eternal cycle in which the revolution begins again, returning to the beginning at the end. 「Yeah, yeah. It is a kind of loop! (laugh). It's a kind of cycle of life, of things. I have also studied the work of Richard Dawkins (a Darwinist sociobiologist. He advocates memetics, which compares the spread of culture to genes. His representative works include The God Delusion). I was reading about evolution and Darwin's theory of evolution, and that influenced me a lot. Was it last year? The Darwin Memorial Festival (*Charles Darwin's 100th anniversary) was held.」

In the album's conclusion, I try to objectify the world, or rather, the earth and its inhabitants, in a longer term.

●I think it was this year. 「Yeah, yeah. That's one of the things that brought me into contact with Darwin's research and literature. I read it, and I got really into it. I read that the inside of a human being is almost like a computer program, that the inside of DNA is a storehouse of information from the past, and that the genes are basically spreading this information. In this way, some information survives, while some is eliminated. In a sense, genes are the main force controlling our lives. In this way, we are almost a shadow or reflection of something else. I think that is a very interesting way of thinking.」

●Do you think the human race is still evolving? Are we on the right track? 「Yes, of course! I think we are still in the process of evolution (laughs). But are we going in the right direction? If you ask me, I don't know. I mean, if you read books about evolution, you realize that some parts of the species are always surviving. So, for example, the way we are now, the framework within which we live, the way we live, all of these things may eventually disappear completely. There are even some people who think that the current human species does not have much longer to live! (laughs) Well, I personally sometimes feel that evolution is something very spiritual. The inner workings of evolution are actually very exciting, and through it we can gain a different perspective on time, and a different view of life. For me, it's much more rewarding to learn about it than religion, or, you know, it gives me a peace of mind.」

●As you mentioned earlier, Orwell's “1984” is the basis of the story of this work, but why has the motif of “1984” emerged in your mind now? Why did “1984” have an immediacy in your mind? 「The current British government (Labour) seems to be experimenting a lot with new technologies and things like that in their own country. For example, the newly developed technology of large CCTV surveillance cameras. Nowadays, when you go to the airport, your eyeballs are scanned (laughs).I don't know what to say. It's like the government is trying to be more sophisticated and control the people, using the excuse of "anti-terrorism" as a cover. I think we are moving towards a new period. At least in the UK. Many people (in the U.K.) have a sense that "someone is always watching" and a certain kind of Big Brother (*The dictatorial ruler/politician depicted in "1984". He is a symbolic figure who controls and suppresses people's lives and thoughts through television and wiretapping.). I think that motif is very contemporary, especially for the British. I think it is true that our freedom as human beings is slowly being taken away.」

●Is it a warning to the people? “Beware, our freedom is being taken away”? 「Yes, I think so, but hasn't it always been that way? In the past, the majority of people have always been optimistic, not worrying too much and not thinking too deeply about things. I think that's why it's important for artists to try to influence popular culture, to try to convey some of their ideas and perspectives. It might be an opportunity to make some people think about things that they have never thought about before. And, yes, I think that what I am expressing in this work is probably worth issuing a warning.」

●This is your first full-fledged self-produced album. Why did you decide to self-produce at this time? 「We have been using various studios in Europe as well as some studios in the U.S., and we got a little fed up with working in "rented" places. There are time constraints, you have to finish in a few weeks, and there are other people using the same studio, so it's very difficult in terms of time and freedom. I think it was during the recording process of the last album that the idea of "building a home studio" came to me. I learned a lot about recording technology in the process of building that studio. We bought and installed all the recording equipment ourselves. And through the process of setting up, I became aware of the recording and engineering side of the business. Until now, that part of my life has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I just watched the other people doing all this complicated stuff (laughs), and I thought, "This must be really hard work." But through the studio construction work, some of the mystery was taken away, and I was able to understand exactly what they (engineers) were doing.」

●What, if any, characteristics of the band Muse did you discover in this process of being left to make all the choices? 「Well… I don't know why we didn't do that before - it was pretty tough when we first started recording. But once we got through that phase, we realized that we were really enjoying the recording process. We laughed a lot, and I don't think we've ever had so much fun in all the albums we've made. Because with the previous albums, we were under a lot of pressure in terms of time, because we were only booked in the studio for two weeks or a few weeks, and we had to work really hard while we were there. So, yeah, I think if there's anything we've discovered about Muse, it's that we don't take ourselves too seriously (laughs).」

●Ha ha ha! 「(laughs) Especially while we are in that kind of production environment. Some of the songs are pretty heavy, and I think that's part of what made our creative environment so enjoyable. The three of us had a lot of laughs about the music we were doing, about ourselves, and about everything else. So in that sense, it was a much lighter and more relaxed experience than before. And if there's one more thing I've discovered, I think (with some emphasis) it's that this is the best way for us to record. It's probably the best creative environment for us, and it allows us to be more bold and not be afraid to try out ideas as they come to us. Because when everyone is happy and enjoying what they're doing, it sometimes gives you more courage to try something, even if it's a pretty crazy idea.」

●This album is a concept album, but at the same time, it is a work with an amazing variety of sounds, and is filled with various genres of music that are not all the same. What was the process of songwriting for the 11 songs? Did you compile songs that were born from different triggers and clues, or did you create them in order from the beginning, as if the lyrics depicted a universal story? 「Yeah… It's funny, but as far as the recording goes, we recorded the songs in the order they were recorded. We recorded "Uprising" first, and the symphony was the last song we recorded. But the songwriting process was pretty random, and there was no process. For example, I remember playing some of the piano parts in the final suite on a whim for three or four years, but I never thought they would become songs, or even something for Muse. On the other hand, songs like "Undisclosed Desires" were written almost entirely in the studio. "United States of Eurasia" was probably written a little before we started working on the album. I had a feeling that it was going to be one of the cornerstones of the album. It's a core song. That song was already ready before we recorded it, or rather, it was well-developed, and I had a clear idea of how I wanted the song to turn out. I knew exactly how I wanted the song to be recorded. But for the final suite, even though some of the piano parts were already there, the idea of making it a three-part suite, or adding bass and drums to make it a Muse song, came after I went into the studio and was not part of the plan. So "Uprising," "The Resistance," "United States," and "MK Ultra", which were already with us before we started recording, and most of the others came out of the studio as we continued working on them. Some of the songs had ideas from before, like the piano parts, and some of them were new versions of old ideas.」

●In terms of excitement, “United States of Eurasia” has a structure that has several “chapters” within one song. I think this song, which changes from an operatic melody to a Middle Eastern melody, and has an outro of Chopin's Nocturne, is a number that encapsulates the eclectic charm of this work, but where did the idea for this song come from? 「(laughs happily) That's right, maybe it's a Middle Eastern-ish “♪Dun dun dun dururu~♪” melody part, but didn't that already exist before the Wembley Stadium performance? How did it go? (Thinks for a moment) No! Around the time we performed at V Festival last year, we played a live show in Dubai, and we were able to experience a lot of cool music there. Shortly after that, I went back to England and performed at V Festival, and I remember playing a little bit of that melody during the break between songs, and Dom's mom came to see the show after the concert. But (bitter smile) she said to me, “What's that melody you were playing earlier? It was amazing.” So I thought, oh well, it might be a good idea to write some songs using that, and I thought I'd give it a try.」

●It's Dom's mom's favorite song (laughs). 「(Explosive laughter) Yeah, yeah! And, yeah, that Middle Eastern-style melody was the starting point for that song. And for some reason, I played it in the black key, the key of E flat. Because it is easy to play a melody like that (pressing the piano keys with fingers) like this. So that automatically led me to the key of E flat, which is a scale I don't normally use. My vocal range is usually D, E, C, or A, but I was not familiar with the E-flat, black key. So I had to work with a different chord arrangement than usual, and as a result, I had to build a song around that Middle Eastern groove to match it. And so the song gradually developed into a strange shape, a different type of chord shape, independent of the Middle Eastern melody that started the song in the first place. So, after I finished writing the main part of that song, I was listening to a piano piece. I think it was when I was looking at my iPod playlist, and that Chopin piece, “Nocturne/E Flat Major,” came up. It is one of my favorite pieces of Chopin's, along with the C-sharp pieces, and I thought, “Oh, this is an E-flat piece too, how interesting (laughs)!” I had never played it before, so I bought the sheet music, read it, and learned the notation so I could play it. Then I found that I could play it exactly the way it ended (laughs).」

●(laughs) I wonder if the meaning of the "song" as a unit, or the way you view it, has changed drastically since your last album. The amount of information contained in a song is completely different from your previous works. 「Yes, that's true for "United States" and especially for the symphony at the end. Of course, we try to incorporate new ideas and techniques into our music on every album, but one of the things that happened on this album was definitely a drastic change in the structure of the songs. I'm sure that will influence the next album as well.」

Dom's Interview

Translator's note: I actually finished translating Dom's interview first before tackling Matt's. The reason why? If you see the original interview itself as shown in the second image, his second answer alone took up almost the whole page of the magazine. And I had to split it into 3 text blocks simply because it exceeded the maximum of 4,096 characters that can be contained in a single text block.

It was no wonder Matt's interview took up 3 pages while Dom's only took up 2 pages.

At this point in time, I'm tempted to just set up a Ko-fi or something because this took up so much of my free time to get this scanned and translated, on top of wrangling with Tumblr itself to get this posted. Someone let me know if that's an idea to follow through or not.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[DW is German State Media]

Running an administration made up of three staunchly right-wing parties appears to be tedious but it hasn't changed her, says the leader of the post-fascist, radical right-wing Brothers of Italy party.[...]

Over the past year, Meloni, 46, hasn't repeated any of the more radical slogans she was so fond of while campaigning. At home in Italy, she is trying to shape domestic policy according to strict conservative family ideals while on the economic front she has more or less carried on with the relatively successful policies of her predecessor, Mario Draghi. Meanwhile at the European level, she has been almost moderate. One doesn't hear acerbic criticism of the EU from her these days and around the world, she seeks out friends and allies. In fact, she leaves the radical statements to her coalition partners: Matteo Salvini of the right-wing League (in Italian, Lega) party and Antonio Tajani, the country's foreign minister and head of Forza Italia, which was previously led by the late Silvio Berlusconi.[...]

The one thing that doesn't seem to weigh on her daily duties as Italy's leader is the fact that her own party's logo features the eternal flame that sits on the tomb of former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Her partners in Europe also seem to be looking past that. One hears EU administrators in Brussels confess surprise at how "mild-mannered" and "soft-spoken" the Italian leader has become.[...]

At a Rome press conference with Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, head of the centrist Social Democrats, Meloni told reporters that both were in agreement on all of the most important policy areas and that they were looking for pragmatic cooperation. Scholz didn't object. Meloni also seems to have built a rapport with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. [...]

During a recent visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa, von der Leyen and Meloni also seemed to be on the same page when it came to migration policy. That means monitoring borders, reducing arrivals and collaborating more closely with transit countries. Meloni's suggestion that the navy should blockade the coasts of North Africa was the only one that didn't win support from von der Leyen. The two women have already traveled to Tunisia twice to try and wring an agreement out of the autocratic Tunisian president on holding back migrants. Meloni sees that as part of her strategy to focus more on North Africa than previous heads of state have done, in her bid to stem migration.[...]

The heads of the EU and G7 states were actually relieved when Meloni expressed unconditional support for Ukraine in the war with Russia. US President Joe Biden praised Meloni's stance about how defending Ukraine also defends Europe's freedom.

"I hope you'll be nice to me," Biden joked when Meloni visited him at the White House in Washington this summer. Meloni responded with a telling laugh. Only a year ago Biden had branded her election victory a danger to democracy. Meloni let it be known that the pair were on friendly terms again after the one-on-one meeting in Washington. Meloni, who was completely inexperienced in foreign policy, has also been making friends at international summits, such as the recent G20 meeting in New Delhi. The public affection demonstrated by India's nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi prompted excited comments on social media in that country. The names, Meloni and Modi, were melded to create the new label "Melodi."

A win for moderation! /s

24 Sep 23