Note: design and licensing is a far cry for semiconductor fabbing, and not every country can do the latter.

Most countries depend ridiculously much on TSMC (from Taiwan), while TSMC depends ridiculously much on instruments from ASML (from the Netherlands). Grossly simplified, getting where those two currently are takes a decade, and by that time they’ll be a decade ahead (unless they get lazy).

As far as I recall, Samsung (South Korea) can fabricate large quantities of semiconductors on their own (but several times less than TSMC). Then come several Chinese companies, one in the US and one in Israel. Beyond that, there’s very small fish. The only European foundry worth mentioning (X-Fab) has dropped out of the top 10.

A note: two of them. The remaining 1.3 billion didn’t come.

Jokes aside, it’s known for some time that some Chinese mercenaries are fighting on the Russian side. Some of them post on blogs or social media. Occasionally several have been noticed together. If their countrymen read the posts, they’ll both understand the war better, and mostly understand that it’s not worth joining.

It is understandable that they received their military training in the PLA. Because where else would a Chinese person receive training. However, it would be news if they were discovered to be active duty personnel from the PLA. (Then the question would arise of who allowed them to do that.) I have not yet read anyone saying that.

Unfortunately, there will be more soon.

Businesses in the US will soon face the fact that goods they ordered from Taiwan cost 1.3 times more on arrival, while goods from Vietnam cost 1.6 times more. They can either try to negotiate with sellers for return of goods (which sellers won’t accept, since they did nothing wrong) or curse Trump and pay.

If immediate relief isn’t in sight, the cost (and predicted future cost) will be passed to consumers. As a result, consumers won’t be able to purchase what they used to. Sales volumes will drop and the economy will cool. Less workers will be needed, so there will be layoffs. Etc.

If your main geopolitical competitor runs headfirst into a brick wall, that is indeed a good day, no doubting.

If a war criminal visited my country and my country refused to arrest him, I would consider direct action.

Special scenario for Belgium: suppose that 1000 people with the means to break and enter show up and arrest Netanyahu, and deliver him to a neigbouring country where the ICC resides. What will the cops do, shoot them all?

At first a crime, then doubling down on the crime and making it a massacre, then destroying evidence and lying to everyone about the circumstances…

…I do wonder if there’s something else the IDF needs to accomplish, for some countries to reconsider their support to Israel.

Wow, interesting. :)

Not unexpectedly, the LLM failed to explain its own thought process correctly.

Yep, found them all now.

Personnel is plural. I notice that you also use plural for “minors”. So, do you know of more occurrences? Edit: found them. One was in 1995, one was in 2016. The latest was in 2024:

US serviceman sentenced to 5 years for kidnapping and raping Japanese schoolgirl, officials say

Needless to say, “enjoying nightlife” is one thing, while “kidnapping and raping” is a totally different thing. If one person turns to violent crime - does it follow that others should not enjoy nightlife any more?

However, the article behind the title link is not at all about military personnel in Japan. It’s about diplomats and embassy personnel in China.

It should also be noted that the US has “burned through” 9 units of MQ-9 Reaper - the Houthis shot them down. Total worth? Maybe 500 million. That’s 9 out of 300 produced, not a sustainable thing to do without producing more.

Still, I don’t think the US is particularly deterred because the Houthis are a low-tech fighting force and depend on Iran for fancy equipment.

There’s also a definite possibility of an US-Iran conflict on the horizon. Both have their reasons to go where they’re going.

Iran wants to be a regional big player and intends to overcome Israel in a tech race (on top of ruling their own people with an iron fist and repressing a lot). The US has tried to contain Iran and considers influence over the Middle East to be of importance. Containment is obviously failing since Russia now cooperates with Iran, and has likely returned some favours (in the field of technology) for the weapons (mostly “Shahed” drones) Iran sent them to help invade Ukraine.

On personal matters - Trump ordered the assassination of Qasem Soleimani during his previous term, and Iran promised revenge. So there’s a chance they’re going to collide head on.

In this case, I would think the perpetrator has already received their drone strike. The surveillance drone operator likely didn’t spend a long time before alerting FPV pilots.

In general… yes. Finding them later would be hard. If they survived the war, they’d likely escape unknown.

A bit harsh, but I understand the reasoning.

Diplomats know it by heart, night and day - to recruit a person, you need to know what they’re vulnerable to and what moves them. Can they be manipulated with greed, shame, ambition, even their sense of justice or compassion? If you know, you can plan your steps towards obtaining their assistance - either in a single case or permanently.

People living in a foreign land are uniquely vulnerable to loneliness, so attracting their romantic interest is an age-old method.

It works domestically too - for example in the UK, a dozen cases are known where undercover cops have befriended activists and even had children with them. If it’s not beyond the law enforcement of a democratically elected government, it is absolutely within the methods (and perhaps a preferred method) of an authoritarian government which cares less about people’s rights.

Perhaps for this reason, diplomats often bring families along, as to not have issues of loneliness or temptation, since they live abroad for most of their careers. Ordinary embassy workers probably get a short lecture. First about honey traps, secondly about serious pressure from the local government that may target any of their genuine romantic relations. Basing on this, they would be expected to manage their risk. Apparently, someone decided they cannot handle it.

Has China stepped up efforts to recruit embassy workers? Maybe… but that’s probably confidential. Alternatively, someone just got extra worried. This kind of policy changes would benefit from a bit of transparency, e.g. some three letter agency writing in their journal that “we detected a 200% rise in recruitment efforts”.

Trump’s government has made the US a village idiot - and if the idiot gets into a fight with the whole village, the idiot will have more bruises.

Why he does that - I don’t pretend to understand.

Yes. Every country on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea has recently left the land mine ban.

Unlike Ukraine, we don’t have hundreds of kilometers of space for a strategic retreat. So if signs start indicating that an invasion might come, border areas will have mine fields.

If it comforts anyone: many modern land mines have electronic detonators. They can be designed to become inert after a set amount of time, or when their battery runs out of juice. Old models had mechanical / piezo detonators, and could survive decades in the right conditions.

Note for medical accuracy: often, renal failure can be compensated for with dialysis and life prolonged until a transplant is found.

After a trauma like a car crash, there might be other issues that prevent some treatment, however.

Basically, despite the headline, I will say that I hope she lives and finds a donor.

P.S. A secondary and named source has now appeared, and claims to have photos:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/30/hamas-beat-protester-death-oday-al-rabbay-gaza-doorstep/

Mazen Shat, a senior police officer affiliated with Fatah – the Palestinian nationalist group that lost control of Gaza after a brief war with Hamas in 2007 – told The Telegraph: “Uday was martyred by the criminals of Hamas. And what’s his crime? He told the truth, because he refused to be silent on injustice, because he did not kneel to Hamas.”

Mr Shat said Hamas had tortured the young man for four hours. Images showed open wounds and bruising that left their victim’s body swollen and bloody.

Just when one thinks IDF has reached rock bottom depravity, some war criminal finds a way to go deeper.

I hope the pepetrators (and if a command was given, their commanders, and if directions were given, the political leaders) are held responsible.

It will take a lot of time and maneuvering. Politically, Israel must lose status and become considerably weaker before justice can occur. Meanwhile, the ICC must gain status and become considerably more influential. Then…

Yes, it involves assumptions.

On the background of Hamas having tortured and killed opponents before, and on the background of demonstrations having occured against them in Gaza at the end of Ramadan, as reported here…

Videos verified by The New York Times showed groups of Gazans in the half-ruined streets in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Some carried more neutral signs that opposed the continuation of the war, while others chanted slogans calling for Hamas to get out.

…it is not a big assumption that Hamas leaders would ask their security service to find out who organized protests against them, and to kill those persons. They are not shy. It is not news that they kill civilians. It is not a big assumption.

However, time will clarify things. People will be asking Gaza residents if they know someone who knows someone named Oday Nasser Al Rabay, and soon enough we should have more information. If such a person isn’t found, or turns up alive, it will be news too.

Checking one’s sources implies that you read them, see what evidence they offer (e.g. relatives’ posts, photos or videos from burial ceremonies), cross-check if the material is new or has been placed into a different context… and decide if you trust the material. The source can be direct or another publication. A journalist is better equipped to do that, since they can ask from quite many colleagues. They have the benefit of experience.

Material that gets re-published can usually be considered somewhat credible.

Material that does not get re-published, typically is not.

Frederica Matteoni (writing in German for Berliner Zeitung) probably has checked her sources.

Gaza: Hamas soll jungen Protestteilnehmer zu Tode gefoltert haben

Edit, a few days later: The Telegraph quotes a known person who’s describing what they did.

Hamas tortures protester to death and leaves body on family’s doorstep

Also, this is not new behaviour from Hamas. Take of look at historical precedents, I’ll give a selection extending back to 2015.

1. Torturing people has been everyday business for Hamas. Recently, on retreat, Hamas had to abandon some security camera storage media.

Shackled and whipped with canes: Israel uncovers ‘thousands of hours’ of sickening footage showing Hamas interrogators torturing innocent Palestinians

2. A few years ago, in 2022, they had an execution spree. France 24 reports:

Gaza’s Hamas executes five Palestinians, including two for ‘collaboration’ with Israel

3. Back in 2015 they had a big execution spree. The Guardian reports:

Hamas executed 23 Palestinians under cover of Gaza conflict, says Amnesty

Maybe it is time to stop and consider: maybe both Israel and Hamas are committing crimes of the most severe kind. History is not in short supply of one one tyranny fighting another.___