"the country’s security services could gain the ability to limit VPN traffic within the next six months (...) At the same time, officials have been pushing Russians to join a state-backed “super-app” called Max, modelled on China’s WeChat"
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
"A dozen bustling coffeeshops on every block, shops tucked into every nook like a plant filling every touch of light in a jungle, traffic flowing in boggling density" Isn't this just life?
Apparently it isn’t just Chinese cities, Saigon also strikes Western visitors as a “living prophecy of the future” and a “cyberpunk dreamscape of urbanism”. When you live in Asia, it just seems like another city. substack.com/home/post/p-...
I very much doubt it's a blocked term, and I'm sure the official media are reporting it. Something this big could not be simply ignored.
Not difficult, just make sure to leave your principles at home.
This Cailan guy seems to be real. He posts photos of himself in China, at least.
Not clear if this was coordinated or just chance, but probably coordinated. This Caitlan guy seems to be a rising star amongst paid foreign propagandists.
China has one time zone throughout all its territory, set to the east coast norm. in Xinjiang, which is two hours behind Beijing, observance of 'local time' was common, until c. 2017-2018 it became for a while one of the data markers used to determine if Uyghur were disloyal
Protests in Tel Aviv and Haifa against the war on Iran.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
My travelogue on the gloomy former capital of Vietnam, Hue, and its imperial city which feels eerily similar to Beijing's Forbidden City.
gabrielstravels.substack.com/p/vietnam-pa...
The comparison with the US is apt. This is the sort of thing minorities complain about it in the US and in much of the world. It's not exceptional, and certainly nothing like apartheid South Africa.
That's a more objective report than Al Jazeera's one. There have been cases of people being denied entry, both Arabs and others. It's illegal and not the norm, but it happens.
Looking at my WeChat feed, and I'm reminded how provincial and self-absorbed China can be. None of my Chinese contacts are posting anything about Iran and the situation in the Middle East. Literally nothing.
I think the antisemitism currently trending among Chinese online nationalists shows how this sort of East Asian "philo-semitism" is not harmless, and will easily turn into antisemitism based on the same set of naive assumptions about Jews.
She got suspended for writing the following: "I've been lying at home with a fever for two days. If I had a husband and children, I'd probably have to hold onto the wall to get up and cook for them by now."
Unmentioned in this report is that she's a Uyghur.
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jdiU_r5Qyk...
The report is subtly misleading and gives an incomplete picture. Not too surprising, given the source. It is in fact against Israeli law to prevent anyone, Arab or not, from entering a bomb shelter. www.english.acri.org.il/post/prevent...
@channamasala.bsky.social This might interest you.
What is it with Armenian-American social media personalities making idiots of themselves this week?
I mean, she certainly used to be on the left, at least in terms of her publicly stated positions.
The definition of oligarchy is "a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution." You used the word incorrectly, not me. To claim every Russian restaurant owner is part of "the oligarchy" is the kind of bombastic, unjustified claim that fuels hatred.
Do Russians have a choice but being part of the evil, corrupt system that dominates their country? Should they stay poor on principle, and not enter professional careers? That seems like too much to ask.
If an "oligarchy" includes every restaurant owner, then it's not an oligarchy by definition. Yes, in Russia you have to stay on the good side of local officials to run a business. You have no choice. To blame every single Russian for this situation makes no sense.
Ok, but again, how are people guilty for being forced to support such a system? And what if they can't take it any more, and want to leave Russia precisely for that reason? Then surely they should be supported, not hated for being Russian.
Yeah, I don't doubt it's got worse. But that just means that Russians can't express their dissent, not that they don't dissent. People aren't guilty for being oppressed and prevented from speaking their mind.
In what concrete ways would a Russian restaurant owner have to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime?
I don't think you can be a millionaire without being compromised, no. I think you can be a middle-class professional who stays out of politics, and while you might not be very rich, you won't be dirt poor either. Russia today is authoritarian, not totalitarian.
Every Russian doctor supports Putin? Then why did this happen? qz.com/2137915/russ...
Low-profile doesn't have to mean poor. In any case, plenty of poor people from poor countries move to Europe to find work there.
So every single Russian professional has to be an open, eager supporter of Putin? Every doctor, IT worker etc... You can't be seriously rich without supporting Putin, maybe, but you can be middle class and apolitical. In any case, we were talking about people who want to move to Europe, not tourists
