Growing up in Dublin, I learned to navigate life in fight-or-flight mode. Yet even now, our leaders are ducking a vital conversation

• Seán Gallen is a Martinican-Irish writer and film-maker based in Berlin and Dublin

Watching the harrowing footage of what would become Yves Sakila’s final moments of consciousness, it is hard not to be reminded of the agonising death of George Floyd. Sakila was declared dead in a Dublin hospital on 15 May, a short time after being pinned to the ground by security guards outside Arnotts, a city centre department store.

Congolese-born Sakila had allegedly been suspected of shoplifting in the store and fled. If we have any knowledge of what subsequently happened in the busy pedestrianised street outside, it is because video footage was captured by passersby. In these deeply distressing images, the 35-year-old is being restrained by a group of security guards for nearly five minutes. He tries to protest but his shouts are muffled in the concrete when one of the men appears to put his knee on the back of Sakila’s neck. By the end of the video, Sakila has stopped moving.

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In the Nordic country, books covering subjects such as childbirth and sex have become bestsellers among younger readers – and an export hit. Behind their success lies a unique philosophy of childhood learning

‘I wasn’t aware that I am such a brave writer and illustrator,” says Anna Fiske, a softly spoken Swedish-born author living in Norway who received death threats for a book she wrote in 2019. “I just tell things as they are.”

Fiske doesn’t write political polemics but books for children: the title of the offending book is Hvordan Lager Man en Baby?, “How Do You Make a Baby” – and, yes, there are illustrations. Distributed in English-speaking territories through Fiske’s New Zealand publisher, it triggered threats from Canada and was banned from several school libraries in the US. “They said it was pornographic.”

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Study finds activity is not harmful or caused by stress of captivity – and is in fact more common in wild birds

An investigation into acts of self-pleasure among parrots and other birds has reached a climax, with the results providing welcome relief for vets and researchers, not to mention the birds themselves.

Bird keepers are often advised to discourage and even punish birds for masturbating, but the study found the activity was more common in the wild than in captivity, with researchers concluding it is part of a bird’s natural behaviour.

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‘Brash, disingenuous, lethal’: that’s how the 67-year-old actor describes his younger self. He lied to his partners, disrespected his audiences, betrayed his friends. Has this indiscreet, unreliable heartbreaker finally grown up and settled down?

Rupert Everett is struggling with the heatwave. It reminds him of the summer of 1976, when he was 17, basking in the sun, serene as a sloth, his future spread out ahead of him. It’s so different now. “When you were young, hot weather was nice. But when you’re chubby like me now, it’s not so nice,” he says.

“You’re not chubby,” says his publicist, with reassuring brio.

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Kuwaiti state media report sirens sounding across the country, as officials say air defences active over the country

• European leaders condemn Israel’s deepening incursion into Lebanon

US central command (Centcom) has said that it struck targets in Iran over the weekend, in a statement that came just minutes after Kuwait announced it was under attack.

Labelling their actions “self-defence”, the US said it hit Iranian “radar and command and control sites for drones in Goruk, Iran and Qeshm Island”.

The measured and deliberate strikes occurred on Saturday and Sunday in response to aggressive Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone that was operating over international waters. U.S. fighter aircraft swiftly responded by eliminating Iranian air defenses, a ground control station, and two one-way attack drones that posed clear threats to ships transiting regional waters.”

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Het tijdperk van goedkoop geld, goedkope energie en vrijwel onbeperkte globalisering loopt ten einde – en dat raakt ook Europese consumenten en bedrijven rechtstreeks. The End of Cheap, noemt The Financial Times het.

Van lage rente naar duurdere schuld

Bijna vijftig jaar lang daalden de lange rentes in de VS, van dubbele cijfers in de jaren tachtig naar rond 1 procent tijdens de pandemie. Dat hield lenen goedkoop, duwde huizenprijzen en aandelen omhoog en maakte schulden ogenschijnlijk draaglijk. Nu de rente structureel hoger lijkt te blijven en beleggers meer risico’s zien (oorlog, schulden, politieke instabiliteit), eisen zij een hogere vergoeding voor hun geld – en dat vertaalt zich in duurdere hypotheken, staatsleningen en bedrijfsfinanciering.[

Globalisering in de achteruit

De prijsdalingen van goederen in de afgelopen decennia waren geen toeval, maar het resultaat van globalisering en technologische vooruitgang in productie. Fabrieken verhuisden naar lagelonenlanden, just‑in‑time supply chains drukten kosten en consumenten in het Westen profiteerden van steeds goedkopere kleding, elektronica en meubels. Nu landen als de VS en Europese staten productie terughalen (re‑industrialisation) om minder afhankelijk te zijn van China en geopolitieke rivalen, worden ketens korter maar duurder – met hogere prijzen als logisch gevolg.

Het einde van goedkope energie

Ook de energie-orde verandert. Jarenlang zorgden petrodollars uit olie‑exporterende landen voor een constante stroom van “goed geld” richting de VS, wat de inflatie drukte en de vraag naar veilige Amerikaanse staatsobligaties hoog hield. Nu probeert China steeds meer energiehandel in renminbi af te wikkelen en zet het, mede door de oorlog in Iran, extra in op het domineren van de schone‑energiesector – kapitaal dat vroeger naar de VS stroomde, verschuift zo richting Azië.

Arbeid is niet meer spotgoedkoop

Het oude model van “cheap everything” leunde op stagnerende lonen, vooral voor werknemers zonder diploma, gecombineerd met outsourcing, dalende vakbondsmacht en een focus op aandeelhouderswaarde boven investeren in personeel. De laatste jaren zien we echter krappe arbeidsmarkten, meer stakingen (bijvoorbeeld in de auto-industrie), strengere migratie en opnieuw groeiende vakbonden in sommige sectoren, waardoor lonen aantrekken. Tegelijk drukken hogere zorgkosten en de opkomst van AI weer op de netto inkomens, omdat bedrijven een deel van die kosten afwentelen via lagere loonstijgingen en automatisering.

Kunstmatige intelligentie als joker

Technologie – en vooral AI – is de grote onbekende in dit nieuwe inflatieregime. Aan de ene kant jaagt de enorme vraag naar datacenters, chips, stroom en water de prijzen op en versterkt ze inflatoire druk. Aan de andere kant kan AI, als de productiviteitswinsten breed worden gedeeld, nieuwe banen en belastinginkomsten genereren en zo de staatsschuld verlagen; in een pessimistischer scenario stijgt de schuld juist doordat overheden massaal moeten bijspringen voor ontslagen werknemers.

Wat betekent dit voor jou?

Voor consumenten betekent “het einde van goedkoop” dat vertrouwde reflexen niet meer werken: rentes blijven waarschijnlijk hoger, structureel lage inflatie is geen gegeven en globalisering levert niet automatisch nog lagere prijzen op. Wie zijn financiële verwachtingen baseert op de afgelopen dertig jaar – altijd dalende rentes, steeds goedkopere producten – zal moeten wennen aan een wereld waarin sparen weer loont, maar lenen en energie structureel duurder zijn. Beleggers, beleidsmakers en huishoudens die hun strategie niet aanpassen, lopen het risico vast te blijven zitten in wat de columniste “expectation inertia” noemt: het hardnekkig vasthouden aan een tijdperk dat voorbij is.[

Wil je dat ik deze blog herschrijf in een meer uitgesproken Nederlandse opinietoon (met voorbeelden uit Europa/Nederland), of moet de stijl dichter bij een neutrale nieuwsanalysis blijven?

Op de eerste dag van de meteorologische zomer krijgen we te maken met zonnige perioden. In de loop van de dag ontstaan enkele stapelwolken en het blijft droog. De middagtemperatuur komt uit op 22 of 23 graden, langs de kust wordt het 21 graden. De wind waait zwak tot matig uit het westen.

"Around 570 cables (plus a further 80 planned) carry between 95% and 99% of the world's intercontinental telecommunications data," reports CNN (since fiber cables offer speeds of terabits per second, carry much more data than satellite links). And "networks of green energy cables carrying electricity are also starting to sprawl across the world's seabeds."

Now to protect them, the U.S., Australia and the U.K. "are planning to develop new unmanned undersea vehicles" as part of their trilateral security partnership.

Western governments see a growing risk of Russian and Chinese sabotage of undersea cables and are also concerned that Iran may seek to exploit the many data networks running through the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. The "seabed is a battlefield" said Australia's Defence Minister, Richard Marles, in Singapore, calling for tougher action against so-called shadow-fleet vessels... The programme will improve the three nations' reconnaissance and strike capabilities, "and bolster superiority in anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare," as well as mine countermeasures, [according to a statement from their trilateral AUKUS partnership]... The new AUKUS project will sharpen all three countries' ability to respond to threats, including those targeting underwater cables and pipelines, through a range of "cutting edge sensors and weapons systems for undersea drones," UK Defence Secretary John Healey said.

Marles said undersea internet cables — "the arteries of modern civilization" — were being cut at an unprecedented rate, with island nations like Australia acutely vulnerable. "Over the past 18 months, we have witnessed a series of attacks against subsea critical infrastructure at a scale and frequency that is historically unprecedented," he said. The UK government has also highlighted the vulnerability of the world's digital highways. "Every international payment, every cross-border trade executed in milliseconds, every flow of data between businesses here in the UK and markets overseas — all travel along the seabed," Telecoms Minister Liz Lloyd said Friday... Last month, the UK said it had tracked three Russian submarines covertly surveying undersea cables in the north Atlantic... A UK parliamentary inquiry warned last year that UK infrastructure might be targeted in a crisis, adding it was "not confident that the UK could prevent such attacks or recover within an acceptable time period."
The UK Navy is already exploring the creation of a hybrid force that incorporates the widespread use of underwater drones to combat Russian threats in the Atlantic.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Embracing the unpredictable: You plan, shape and refine, then your collaborators walk all over your carefully considered boundaries. Yet the end result can surprise and delight.

Ava Roth Collaborates with Insects to Create 'Kintsu-Bee' Ceramic Vessels

The process embraces the nature of the breakage itself, mending the vessel yet highlighting the cracks as a way of embracing the object's history rather than trying to camouflage it. In Roth's iteration, bees are invited to reconstruct the missing parts, guided around forms to create the missing handle of a mug or fill in the fissures of a dinner plate.

The resulting objects reflect a narrative of human fragility intertwined with nature's ability to mend. Ava Roth: "Mirroring the philosophy of kintsugi, the unique architecture of the comb acts both as a restorative measure and as a visual memory of the past." More beeswax works - Podcast interview - Artist site