Spyke

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europe

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Italy to raise tax on super-rich foreigners by 50pc in blow to wealthy non-doms

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Just to be clear, this government isn't trying in any way to masquerade itself as centre-left. FdI is right wing through and through, it demonizes the left all the time and treats insignificant changes such as this one or occupational rate (obtained through Draconian revision of national contracts) as "real work for the people", not "like the elitist left". They are populist, that's what they are.

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It's okay, Buddy

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never found Joyce to be pretentious (the man knew what he was doing, and definitely succeeded in doing so) or obtuse (I mean, how many writers you can think of that could pull out the mastery of language and human sensibility out of nowhere like he does). I might be biased because I believe Ulysses saved my life: it's definitely one of the funniest, most touching, humane books I have ever had the pleasure to read. I'd push Ogre to keep up with the good work.

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Netherlands vs Türkiye (Berlin, 21:00)

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the fact that "80% of Turkish people use it for pure Turkish symbol", when it is clearly associated with a paramilitary fascist group, should really make you think about why Turkey isn't looked upon nicely by the EU in general. And I'm frankly surprised that even as a "non right wing Turkish", you still think it's fine to use the symbols that are now widely associated with that political group. I can't think of a world where I, an Italian, would use the Roman salute because it's a "patriotic" salute and because "everyone does it here" (even if a large majority of Italians don't, thank god).

europe

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TikTok CEO summoned to European Parliament over role in shock Romania election

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While it's true that "all elections are won on lies spewed by the parties", it's always a matter of context. The media landscape of the past 10 years has both shrunk and inflated at the same time: centralized social media now overwhelmingly represent the main source of information from which people read news and shape their views of the world. The fact that some of those social media have more or less explicitly stated their affiliation to some sort of government which might make their interests offers a worrying scenario: in one case, the state can require the manipulation of information so as to steer the results of election towards governments that might create strategic geopolitical tension or sweetened deals (i.e. China and TikTok). On the other, through the "loaning" of centralized social media to the highest bidder can create enormous echo chambers which corrupt the results only for symbiontic, growing entanglement of social media corporations into forms of government (i.e. Elon Musk in 2024).

Tl;Dr: Social media are a bigger problem than good old politicians' lies because they can be easily manipulated by external forces and because everyone uses them.

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It's okay, Buddy

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taught me once and for all that while death might be always near, a fear that's constantly devouring our lives and paralysing them to the point where it feels like our deepest, inner self is a husk shell of what we once were, we can still find the reason of our existence in the joys of living a life that's devoted in equal part to mystery, sensuality, knowledge and wonder. And it says this in the most democratic way you could think: everyone is entitled and deserving of the complexity of life. Oh, and also: it's an absolutely hilarious book to read through.

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Does anyone know why Cristiano Ronaldo started all Portugal matches while he's clearly struggling? I've heard theories about the federation making more money with sponsors if he plays, is this true?

could be a whole lot of reasons: he's still the symbol of this Portugal team, after all. He must have a say in the locker rooms (and why shouldn't he, considering); Martinez must think of him as the glue that keeps the squad together (same reason why he must have brought Pepe along, probably). And yeah, probably sponsors too.