Philip Thom

Save the date! Erstpräsentation meines neuen Buchs "Migrationspanik" am 25.9. ab 18:30 Uhr im Wien Museum, moderiert von @mattibunzl.bsky.social

A graph illustrating the decline in negative views of homosexuality across several wealthy countries from 1984 to 2022. The title states that “Negative views of homosexuality have dropped in Western Europe and the US” The countries are the United States, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Each line shows the percentage of respondents in each country who believe that homosexuality is rarely or never justifiable, represented by scores of 1 to 4 on a scale from 1 to 10. In 1984, the United States had the highest percentage at 75%, followed by Spain at 70%, Great Britain at 61%, Sweden at 48%, and the Netherlands at 34%. By 2022, the percentages had decreased significantly: the United States to 28%, Spain to 19%, Great Britain to 15%, Sweden to 9%, and the Netherlands to 6%. The data source is listed as Integrated Values Surveys (2024). The chart is CC BY Our World in Data.

Homophobic attitudes have fallen in Western Europe and the United States

Sagen wir es so: wenn man im ORF dieselben Bilder der verbrecherischen russischen Angriffe auf die ukrainische Zivilbevölkerung zeigte, und zwar täglich, wie das in den polnischen Abendnachrichten der Fall ist, sähe die Haltung der Österreicher hinsichtlich dieses Krieges vielleicht anders aus.

A grid of line graphs displaying the increase in household access to various amenities in the United States from 1860 to 2020. The title at the top states, "What did economic growth mean for US households?" In the top left panel, the data on average income, here measured by GDP per capita, tells us that the average American was 13 times poorer in 1860. The purple lines represent a very straightforward approach to measuring growth: each line tracks the share of households that have access to one specific good or service: from basic infrastructure like running water and flush toilets; to communication technology such as radio, TV, and mobile phones; to vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers. Footnotes at the bottom provide data sources, including research by Horace Dediu, Comin, Hobijn, and GDP data from the Maddison Project Database. Chart CC BY Our World in Data.

Two ways of measuring 160 years of economic growth in the United States

Gestriges Konzert des rechtsextremen Sängers #Tompson in Zagreb besuchten 504.000 Menschen. Er rief Menschen „Za dom“, es schallte ihm „spremni“ entgegen. (Für Heimat bereit) Mit diesem faschistischen Ustasa-Spruch & dem Gesamtkolorit wird das Konzert zu einem Schandfleck des modernen #Kroatien.

South Korea gender divide update 😲

Young men lean right by 50 points
(74% conservative vs 24% centre-left)

Young women lean left by 22 points
(58% centre-left vs 36% cons)

A line chart titled "Most of humanity has been connected to the Internet for only a brief moment in history" displays the percentage of the global population that used the Internet in the last three months. The vertical axis ranges from 0% to 75%, with key data points indicated. In 1997, only 2% of the world’s population used the Internet. By 2009, one in four people used the Internet. The year 2019 is highlighted as the first year that half of the global population (53%) was online, and by the most recent data in 2023, the percentage of Internet users rose to 67%. Data source is credited to the International Telecommunication Union, referenced via the World Bank, with a Creative Commons Attribution license.

Internet use became the norm for humanity only very recently

Opinion | To Understand Global Migration, You Have to See It First

Sehr tolle Datenaufbereitung der NY Times.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A bar chart showing the total government expenditure — across all levels of government — for a selection of countries in 2023. At the top, Norway spent over $46,000 per person; the US spent about $32,000 per person; and Indonesia spent just over $3,000 per person. The data is adjusted for cost of living differences between countries. It comes from the OECD Government at a Glance dataset (2025 edition).

What do governments spend their financial resources on?

📊 We recently updated the data we show from the OECD Government at a Glance dataset to the 2025 edition!

@parriagadap.bsky.social, data scientist on our team, led this update for us.

For my international followers: The Russian disinformation campaign organized by a cell in Austria, uncovered by the Austrian intelligence service DSN, is a big deal for several reasons.Firstly, it highlights that influence campaigns—not just espionage—are a serious threat.🧵

Toi toi toi! Hoffe, es wird nicht allzu mühsam.

Increasingly the distance to Moscow defines defense and security policy. Subscribe for more from Chartbook: tinyurl.com/mpeffaxe.

Today, we connect the Baltic states to the continental European electricity grid.

We’re cutting the last remaining links with Russia.

Freedom from threats and blackmail, at last.

This is a historic day ↓

europa.eu/!Rw3qWC

A line chart showing the global average life expectancy from 1900 to 2023. The vertical axis represents life expectancy in years, ranging from 0 to 80, while the horizontal axis indicates the years from 1900 to 2023. While average life expectancy was 32.0 years in 1900, it was 73.2 years in 2023. In 1770, the average life expectancy was only 28.5 years, depicted at the lower end of the graph. By 2023, it had risen to 73.2 years, noted at the upper portion. Key points on the graph highlight this change. Data sources cited include UN WPP (2024), HMD (2024), Zijdeman et al. (2015), and Riley (2005). The information can be further accessed at OurWorldinData.org/life-expectancy. The graph is labeled with the text "Global average life expectancy has more than doubled," emphasizing the significant increase over the centuries.

Global average life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900

Good call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

We discussed global issues where the EU and US have the same interests, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, Iran’s malign influence and challenges posed by China.

The EU and US are always stronger together.

Looking forward to meeting you soon.

What a Secretary of State Rubio means for the Middle East: Getting tougher on Iran and tighter with allies By straddling the Ronald Reagan-era and Trump-era Republican foreign policy worldviews, Rubio is now well-positioned to counterbalance isolationist voices within the president’s circle.

On Monday, the US Senate unanimously confirmed Marco Rubio as secretary of state.

“Having the secretary’s principled views in the room is promising for a US policy in the Middle East,” writes Joze Pelayo.

📝 Read ECFR's new global survey on EU and global public opinion on Trump 2.0: https://buff.ly/3PxN1VF

TikTok: Hate the Game, Not the Player How strategic and regulatory confusion around TikTok prevent an effective national security response

🚨📱TikTok has gone dark in the US, but don’t hate the player—hate the game.

The DFRLab unpacks how the #tiktokban could reveal systemic failures in the US info ecosystem: gaps in data privacy, opaque algorithms, and foreign influence risks

dfrlab.org/2024/02/14/t...

Kurz vor einem möglichen TikTok-Bann in den USA beginnen User nach Alternativen zu suchen. Die chinesische App Xiaohongshu (RedNote) erlebt dabei einen besonderen Hype – überraschenderweise nicht nur in den USA, sondern auch in Österreich, wo kein Verbot bevorsteht.

Opinion | The Old World Is Breaking Down. A New One Is Breaking Through. (Gift Article) Four trends are converging to make life much scarier.

Sagen wir so: Ich hab schon optimistischere Zeitdiagnosen gelesen als diesen Text des immer lesenswerten @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social:

Ukrainians treated as ‘foreigners’ and stripped of all rights in Russian-occupied Ukraine Had the invader's 'referendum' at gunpoint really produced overwhelming support for 'joining Russia', the latter would hardly need the aggressively coercive measures being taken to force Ukrainians to...

Ukrainians treated as ‘foreigners’ and stripped of all rights in Russian-occupied Ukraine

khpg.org/en/1608814253

My 16 key messages regarding disinformation & foreign interference in 2024🧵

1) It is not only social media
2) It is not only the far right
3) Raise awareness about agents of influence
4) Influence campaigns can be subtle and remain unnoticed
5) It's a global information war: "BRICS Plus against us"

Gasprom stellt Belieferung Moldawiens ein

Lange erwartet, bald Realität: #Gazprom wird ab 1. Jänner 2025 kein Gas mehr in die Republik #Moldau liefern.

1) Abermals bewiesen: Russland ist kein verlässlicher Gaslieferant

2) Die Situation in Moldau ist tricky. Denn das Land ist „unterteilt“ in zwei Teile:

#Thread 🧵

orf.at/stories/3380...

In 48 Stunden. 70 ballistische Raketen auf die Energieinfrastruktur der 🇺🇦 abgefeuert, eine 🇦🇿 Zivilmaschine beschossen und so umgeleitet, dass sie im Kaspischen Meer abstürzen sollte sowie mehrere Unterseekabel zwischen 🇫🇮, 🇪🇪 und 🇩🇪 beschädigt.

Russische Festtagsgrüße

Line chart shows military spending for Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Lithuania and Estonia from 2003 to 2023. Military spending in all countries, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, neighboring countries have increased their military spending

A line chart showing the share of Poland's electricity coming from solar and wind. This has increased quickly in recent years, reaching 21% in 2023.

Solar and wind power is growing quickly in Poland, but coal still dominates

Palantir and Anduril join forces with tech groups to bid for Pentagon contracts Consortium likely to include Elon Musk’s SpaceX in move to grab a bigger slice of $850bn US defence budget

“Palantir and Anduril, two of the largest US defence technology companies, are in talks with about a dozen competitors to form a consortium that will jointly bid for US government work in an effort to disrupt the country’s oligopoly of “prime” contractors.”

on.ft.com/4iKePDD

Iceland says it will put EU membership to referendum by 2027 Iceland has traditionally been ambivalent about joining the bloc but issues like the 2008 financial crisis, Brexit and a range of domestic issues has meant the country is slowly warming to the idea of...

Looks like everything is set for the last Nordic countries soon to become EU members...
www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

pentagon: china expanded nuclear arsenal by 20% (!) from mid 2023-2024

on track to have 1,000 operational warheads by 2023