Puck

How to lobby Trump with Swiss precision: gifts, gold and gab How the Swiss broke a diplomatic logjam on tariffs by arriving with tributes fit for a king.

To negotiate a trade deal with the President of the United States, the Swiss government arrived with a "special Rolex desktop clock" and "a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar"

www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...

Salvini has such a long history as a Russian puppet, not surprising...

IS GERMANY THE BROTHEL OF EUROPE? Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), has reignited public discussion about sex work in Germany, when she said the country had become the Puff Europas (brothel of Europe). In a speech at an award ceremony for two street workers, Klöckner criticized Germany's current legislation, saying sex workers are not adequately protected, calling for a federal ban on prostitution and the purchase of sex. She has received backing from Health Minister Nina Warken, also of the CDU, who said: "Like other countries, Germany needs a criminal ban on the clients purchasing sex." Prostitution in Germany was legalized in 2002 under a center-left government of Social Democrats and Greens. In 2017, the Prostitution Protection Act was passed to further improve the legal and social situation of sex workers — who must register their activity with the authorities. Brothels must get a license to operate and fulfill requirements for safety and hygiene. brothels are not illegal in Germany Video Should buying sex be illegal? About 32,300 sex workers are registered in Germany. Only 5,600 of them are German citizens. Researchers assume that there are hundreds of thousands of unregistered sex workers in the country. Many with poor German language skills and little awareness of their rights, or health and support services. Forced prostitution is reportedly on the rise in Germany, and politicians are debating ways to reduce exploitation in sex work.

Looks like the push for the failed nordic model is in full swing in #germany, with this from DW's Berlin in English newsletter.

The nordic model has never worked, and does not actually make anyone safer. It increases marginalisation & stigmatisation of sex workers, and disincentivizes safety.

Prosecutors in Milan have opened an investigation into Italians who allegedly paid members of the Bosnian Serb army for trips to Sarajevo so that they could kill citizens during the four-year siege of the city in the 1990s. More than 10,000 people were killed in Sarajevo by constant shelling and sniper fire between 1992 and 1996 in what was the longest siege in modern history, after Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia.

“There were no political or religious motivations. They were rich people who went there for fun and personal satisfaction. We are talking about people who love guns who perhaps go to shooting ranges or on safari in Africa.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Für Millionen Menschen in der Ukraine ist es dunkel und kalt. Ab jetzt 16 Stunden täglich ohne Strom. Große Teile der Stromproduktion sind beschädigt oder zerstört, dazu ein Fünftel der Heizkapazitäten. Europa hat Russland gewähren lassen. 1/3

Dozens of collectives from different anarchist and antifascists collectives signed the protest/solidarity statement to confront the current partial boycott against collectives from Eastern Europe in EU/West. #Belarus #Ukraine #Solidarity #Anarchism

Text available at abc-belarus.org

How the world's richest man is boosting the British right How the world's richest man is boosting the British right

X verstärkt rechtsradikale Inhalte. Neue Recherchen aus UK belegen das mal wieder.

Ich kann nicht mehr nachvollziehen, warum die EU-Kommission nicht konsequent mit dem DSA gegen Elon Musk vorgeht.

Und warum noch demokratische Akteure auf X aktiv sind.

news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

Another sleepless night for Russia, as Ukrainian forces continue their deep-strike campaign, now a new element of daily life in the country. Ukraine successfully hit multiple important targets tonight

🧵Thread:

1. Video showing the aftermath of the attack on the refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod:

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 5: Vito Marcantonio

There are many who dismiss our vision for New York as impossible. To them, I say we need look only to our past for proof of how we can shape the future.

Tomorrow is Election Day. And this is the final Until It's Done of our campaign.

Update #Serbien: Gestern hat die Mutter eines verstorbenen jungen Mannes in Novi Sad angekündigt, ab heute vor dem Parlament in Belgrad einen Hungerstreik zu beginnen. Sie wurde von der Polizei gehindert, dort hinzugehen. Viele Menschen sind danach dazugekommen, um ihre Solidarität auszudrücken.
1/x

The Authoritarian Stack How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next

«Silicon Valley isn’t building apps anymore.
It’s building empires.»

The Authoritarian Stack: A mapping of firms, funds, and political actors turning core state functions into private platforms, by @francescabria.bsky.social et. al. for @fesonline.bsky.social
www.authoritarian-stack.info

Inside the Trump family’s global crypto cash machine The U.S. president’s family raked in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets in the first half of 2025 alone, a Reuters examination found, on top of potentially billions more in unrealized “on paper” gains. Much of that cash came from foreign sources as Donald Trump's sons touted their business on an international investor roadshow.

Trump Org’s income in the first half of 2024 was $51 million. In the first half of 2025 it rose to $864 million.
A massive percentage came from foreigners. It should be the biggest scandal in the history of American politics.

📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).

It’s also concerning. 1/

200 billion dollar valuation btw💀💀💀

"Tiergartenmord": Bruder des Opfers mit Familie abgeschoben Mehrere Familienmitglieder des 2019 in Berlin ermordeten Selimchan Changoschwili sind nach Georgien abgeschoben worden. Sie fürchten dort um ihre Sicherheit. Grünen-Politiker Wagener spricht von "zyni...

Da weiß man ja gar nicht, warum deutsche Behörden den Mord überhaupt aufgeklärt haben: Der Täter wurde auf Wunsch Putins freigelassen, die Angehörigen des Opfers werden abgeschoben.

Diese „hippe“ und junge deutsche Christ-Bubble ist so toxisch, ich halte es nicht aus. Seit Jahrzehnten erkämpfen sich Frauen hart und schmerzhaft Rechte nur damit Jugendlichen dann in einem Podcast VON EINER FRAU eingeredet wird, dass sich Frauen „unterordnen“ zu haben. ES IST 2025. I CANT ANYMORE.

"'Dass die Verwaltung entschieden hat, ausschließlich weibliche Formen zu verwenden, entspricht nicht der Intention unseres Antrags', sagte [CDU-]Fraktionsvorsitzende Katja Gehrmann." 😏

With LibreOffice you can open and edit MS Office documents. Maybe Mac has some built in text editors, but this I do not know....

“Objective of US mission has shifted from fighting drug traffickers to regime change” (Financial Times)
This is EXTREMELY dangerous. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves & Trump never met a hydrocarbon he didn’t covet. Here’s why it won’t be easy to install a govt & take the oil. 1/

1/Richter Dariusz Lubowski zum deutschen Auslieferungsgesuch: Nord Stream war ein legitimes militärisches Ziel. „Die Zerstörung russischer Gaspipelines und die Entziehung von Milliarden Euro vom Feind durch Deutschland haben eine tiefgreifende militärische Bedeutung, da sie das

Okay! This is going to take a while so I had to finish some stuff first, but: Why Da Pope Fucking Up Opus Dei Is A Huge Fucking Deal: a thread

these guys are definitely on track to [checks notes] cure cancer and solve climate change

Is collapse of the container shipping market imminent? A combination of tit-for-tat port fees by China and the US, and return to Red Sea transits flooding the market with capacity see lines reporting losses

Is a collapse of the container shipping market imminent?

A combination of tit-for-tat port fees by China and the US, and return to Red Sea transits flooding the market with capacity could plunge lines into the red.

www.seatrade-maritime.com/containers/i...

Billionaire Peter Thiel backing first privately developed US uranium enrichment facility in Paducah A California-based company with ties to billionaire investor and Trump ally Peter Thiel announced plans Friday to build America’s first U.S.-owned, privately developed facility to enrich uranium in fa...

In a two week period:

Trump fired 7 of the 8 members who do independent federal oversight on nuclear waste.

Peter Thiel (Palantir) is found to be backing the first privately developed uranium enrichment facility in the US.

Peter Thiel’s off-the-record antichrist lectures reveal more about him than Armageddon Silicon Valley titan desperately tries to detach self from power in amateurish talks attempting to ape his favorite philosopher

I truly wish all of the German Feuilleton bros who have been fawning over Thiel would read @adriandaub.bsky.social‘s piece in the Guardian and take some time to think long and hard about the fact why they believe Thiel to be a brilliant intellectual genius.

Traveling across Bosnia and Herzegovina by train, day 3: Sarajevo to Ploče I wake up early for the third and final day of my rail trip across BiH. As I leave my hotel, I realize I’m among the ruins of the Sarajevo brickworks. Only two tall chimneys stand. A tiny note on one…

I present to you the epic conclusion to my train trip across Bosnia and Herzegovina. I'm so thankful I got to do this journey and I hope other folks will be able to make this trip in the future without such extreme measures. Even without a train, I encourage you to visit beautiful BiH!

If your foetus is in the placenta (?) something is indeed very wrong (not that any of these guys would know) and it has nothing to do with tylenol