Edit title for clarity. Thanks.

Germany says ‘blackmail’ of Ukraine will bring more war

Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock says Europe must put pressure on the US to stand by its European allies and warned against forcing Kyiv to surrender […] Baerbock’s statements were similar to those of other European leaders discussing how to approach likely changes to transatlantic relations during Trump’s second term.

A person being “detained” could literally just be a traffic stop or any other interaction with a police officer.

No, a traffic stop or an interaction with a police officer isn’t a detention. We are talking here about people who are wrongfully imprisoned for several years.

The vast majority of these people are wrongfully detained after what is called a “closed door trial”. Essentially, this means that often not even their lawyers know what they are accused of. Very often, for example, authorities say it is for “espionage”, though it remains fully unclear what this alleged espionage would have been.

You’ll find a lot of credible reports from very reliable sources. During the pandemic, the situation in China regarding this practice is said to have worsened.

[Edit typo.]

Just read the article and about China’s new ‘guidelines.’

Btw, there are around 10,000 foreigners wrongfully detained in China, most of them are not officially named by their countries.

Could be, I read ‘slams’, but it’s not much difference anyway :-)

Not sure if I understand you right, but unless they do some A/B testing my headline above is the original one. I didn’t edit.

I’d be careful to produce new drugs in China.

‘Ineffective’ generic drugs fuel rare public anger in China

Public anger in China over concerns raised by doctors that generic drugs used in public hospitals are increasingly ineffective has led to a rare response from the government.

Doctors say they believe the country’s drug procurement system, which incentivises the use of cheap generic drugs over original brand-name pharmaceuticals, has led to costs being cut at the expense of people’s safety.

A lot of local political leaders in the Balkans are aligned with China and Russia. This has nothing to do with the fact that China and Russia spread disinformation.

Judge keeps Musk’s DOGE from further digging into US Gov’s spending

Citing potential “irreparable harm,” US Federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer Saturday blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing specific records within the Treasury Department, thus acquiescing to a request from New York Attorney General Letitia James and 19 States under Democratic rule.

The plaintiffs contended Musk’s team accessing this data could pose risks to cybersecurity and violate federal law by potentially mishandling or exposing sensitive personal and financial information of millions of Americans.

Engelmayer also ruled that any data already accessed by DOGE must be destroyed immediately. This injunction is in place until at least February 14, 2025, when further arguments involving national security, privacy rights, and political motivations, will be heard.

As an addition:

Modern slavery in China

Since 2018, evidence of forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim majority peoples has emerged in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region). […] Forced labour imposed by private actors is also reported, in addition to forced marriage and organ trafficking, with vulnerability primarily driven by discriminatory government practices. While China demonstrated some efforts to tackle modern slavery through sustained coordination at the national and regional levels – including by adopting a new national action plan for 2021 to 2030[…] – its overall response is critically undermined by the use of state-imposed forced labour.

Yeah, the European Union is also good. For the first time in 2024, solar energy in the EU surpassed coal in generating electricity across all 27 EU member states, while natural gas production of electricity fell for the fifth year running.

In the European Union (EU), 47% of electricity now comes from renewable sources like wind and solar, a new record according to a report from the think tank Ember. This is a far higher percentage than in other countries, including the United States and China, where about two-thirds of energy comes from fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas.

As I said, tthe narrative that China as leading the path to a better climate is simply wrong. China’s track record regarding the fight against climate change is -very much as those of most other larger countries- an absolute disaster: https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china

That’s an oversimplification of the article. It’s not that “we should burn fossil fuels.” China should rather stop burning them.

China’s measures to fight climate change are highly insufficient as per practically all independent metrics, and the Chinese government doesn’t appear to be even willing to reduce its emissions. It keeps on to produce a massive amount of overcapacity to to flood the world (and especially the global south) with cheap products for geopolitical and economic gains.