If the BBC thinks Russia was behind the arson attacks on properties and a car connected to the prime minister, I will believe the BBC, for two reasons:

1. The BBC is a reliable reporter of facts
2. Russia has a pattern of this sort of behaviour (like when they paid Brits to burn a warehouse in London, and when they brought a chemical weapon to the UK which killed an innocent British woman)

you “know” that “Russia has a pattern of this sort of behaviours” because the BBC told you so

No. Other reliable sources have also mentioned the stories I raised. Here is the UK police talking about the Russia-backed arson of a warehouse in London. And here on the UK government's website you can find the report of the inquiry into the Salisbury poisonings (with a Russian chemical weapon) in 2018.

That inquiry which I mentioned was conducted by a senior judge, who concluded this:

Petrov, Boshirov and Fedotov were members of an operational team within the GRU – the Russian military intelligence agency responsible for foreign intelligence gathering. I am sure that, in conducting their attack on Sergei Skripal, they were acting on instructions. I have concluded that the operation to assassinate Sergei Skripal must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin.

My experience with them is that they get the facts right.

I had a look at some stats regarding how EU citizens perceive the EU. I found this recent EU survey which interestingly shows that EU citizens trust the EU more than they trust their national governments:

Also that link says that "74% say that, taking everything into account, their country has benefited from being a member of the EU". So perhaps the EU will survive and strengthen, despite its critics like those in the Trump administration.

My understanding of the situation, in steps:

1. American billionaires want to make maximum money
2. This requires minimum regulations
3. The EU imposes regulations
4. Therefore American billionaires and their political party (Republicans) want to break up the EU

Okay, I looked at what the current President of Taiwan has to say. He says this:

Taiwan is already a sovereign, independent country called the Republic of China.

That's not the same as the PRC.

I think this episode has been a big wake up call for European leaders and I assume they'll be pretty wary of Trump for quite a while. Ursula von der Leyen said this in Davos yesterday:

...geopolitical shocks can – and must – serve as an opportunity for Europe. And in my view, the seismic change we are going through today is an opportunity, in fact, a necessity to build a new form of European independence

I already use profiles in Firefox but this looks a much better interface for managing them.

Maduro seemed like a dictator to me, but I don't know if unilaterally removing him from Venezuela by force is the best option. Ideally Venezuelans would decide for themselves who they want their leader to be.

It's crazy that Trump is rejecting America's loyal allies. Soldiers from these allies fought and died in Afghanistan and Iraq, under American leadership. Instead Trump is inviting dictators to his "Board of Peace" such as Putin and Lukashenko.

I looked at that article and it quotes Trump as saying:

We're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain

Surely this is a reason why Europe should unite in order to protect its interests. Imagine if the EU were to deny the Americans permission to use any EU air base for strikes on Iran. Would Trump then say "we're going to cut off all trade with the EU"? It would be much more costly for the US economy if they were to cut off trade with the entire EU, rather than just one EU country.

Obama clarified his comments on Instagram:

I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!

What's crazy is that Trump would never say anything even half as intelligent as that.

I absolutely agree with Zelenskyy that Ukraine is justified in hitting Russian oil infrastructure and military infrastructure, until the Russian military withdraws entirely from Ukraine.

Unfortunately though there are tankies on Lemmy who believe that every single Ukrainian is an evil Nazi who deserves to be murdered by the benevolent Russian regime. That's why I asked "do you agree".

He doesn't seem to be talking about culture. He didn't say something like "London has fewer pubs than it used to". Instead he seems to be referring specifically to ethnicity. His interest in London seems to be reduced because more non-white people now live in London.

Ethnicity and culture are different. A person can choose to adopt whatever culture they want regardless of their ethnicity. Also if you said something like "I don't want that particular ethnicity to move to my neighbourhood due to their culture" then I think that's probably racist. I think it's fine to object to certain cultural aspects as long as you don't tie it to ethnicity though. E.g. if you said "I object to a cultural practice of treating women worse than men" then I think that's okay.

The article says the fine has now been cancelled, but originally someone from the council defended the fine by saying:

We are committed to protecting Richmond's waterways and keeping our borough's streets clean and safe.

Pretty ridiculous. Coffee is an organic substance right? Made from roasted coffee beans. I could maybe understand if someone was pouring industrial chemicals into the sewers but coffee surely shouldn't be a problem.

Also of course big water companies get away with dumping sewage into rivers, but a very small amount of coffee apparently needs to be harshly punished. One rule for big business and another rule for common people.

Farage has more loyalty to Donald Trump than he does to the UK

I think my view is that I don't like how oppressive Iran's regime is, but there are many world governments I don't like (including that of the US). I also think the US and Israel probably shouldn't be murdering Iranian civilians with bombs just because Trump and Bibi don't like Iran's government.

Lemmy.ml, Hexbear, and Lemmygrad will insist that any allegations of Chinese government wrongdoing are false slander, invented by evil western imperialists

I was reading an opinion piece about this sort of thing earlier today, "Euro firms must ditch Uncle Sam's clouds and go EU-native". It opens by saying:

I'm an eighth-generation American, and let me tell you, I wouldn't trust my data, secrets, or services to a US company these days for love or money.