Giorgio Comai

Have we surpassed peak time spent on social media? https://flowingdata.com/2025/10/03/passed-peak-social-media-maybe/

Eurovision showdown:
- "Austria says it will refuse to host 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel frozen out"
- "Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland and Slovenia have all said they will refuse to send competitors to the event if Israel is permitted to take part."
- "Germany [to] withdraw […]

I feel this is a worthwile read, even if your're not at all familiar with Roose or the NY Times
https://mastodon.social/@dangillmor/115326502758947336

@devol @sport@mastodon.uno @sport@diggita.com @calcio già ieri in prima pagina del sito della Gazzetta era centrale la vittoria di Pogacar in ciclismo e vittoria volley lasciata a notizia laterale

#Moldova 🇲🇩 elections. I was looking at the live speeches yesterday evening as the polls closed, and Dodon was more or less claiming victory, Usatii was obviously in a very good mood and sure none would gain a majority and he could be "kingmaker" in parliament, etc.

It's common to pretend and […]

We are now at 52 mandates for PAS at 95% of votes counted, so we'll probably end with at least 53, maybe 54? #Moldova

With over 90% of votes counted, it appears that Maia Sandu's pro-EU ruling party will have an absolute majority. Already 51 seats (out of 101 seats in Parliament), with many of the votes not yet counted from the diaspora, this is more likely to end with 52 […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

Among all post-electoral comments in #Moldova, Usati (about 6% of the vote) made it most blunt he's open to negotiate with all sides.

Here's how (in Romanian):

all of these explainers by ZdG are really well made: if you want to get to up to speed with another of the forces that may tip the balance in the new government, here's the racap about the electoral bloc "Alternative" with about 8-9% of the votes. It's a bloc made of formerly pro-Russian […]

Perhaps the main surprise from the parliamentary vote in #Moldova 🇲🇩 so far is the score of the party "Democracy at home" which, against expectations, will enter parliament with about 6% of the votes.

Nice video (and text) explainer of Ziarul De Garda - […]

Nice recap of Dmitri Kozak's career as negotiator, and quite possibly the highest ranking official who tried to convince Putin that war in Ukraine was a mistake. No need to glorify the man, but he believed in mediation. Which eventually, inevitably led to his dismissal last week […]

In #Russia
- military spending is "up to 40 percent of the budget"
- "total employment in the military-industrial complex now stands at approximately 3.8 million people."
- even if the war ended, the stage is set for "a large-scale rearmament program", also because it would be difficult to […]

I can't get over the home-designed logo of "patriotic" electoral bloc in Moldova 🇲🇩 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Electoral_Bloc

And to leftist friends attracted by the "hammer and sickle in a heart in a star" combination, let me break it to you […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

It's the international day of peace

https://www.un.org/peaceday

Additional references:

updated official release on Discuss Data, with even more ways to explore Zavtra's archive: https://doi.org/10.48320/EF3EBDDA-53CC-4078-88D9-BC9F3E7CF970

Juliette Faure's book: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009542661 - and a recent article […]

And then, worth noticing that for the group Faure calls the "hawks", what really matters is Russia's domestic cleansing, awakening, and rejuvenation. As the "hawks" themselves clarify, it is the ongoing top-down revolution that matters most: "Ukraine is just a pretext". (see quotes in article)

But I also question how much does ideology really matter for understanding the contours of what a plausible negotiated solution to the ongoing war would look like. In the present context, ideology is used to legitimise the Kremlin's choices, but it hardly constrains them.

In my latest article - https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Russia/The-Russian-Hawks-and-the-Kremlin-240083 - I explore how some of my own findings confirm the centrality of the ideological circles at the centre of Juliette Faure's excellent latest book, *The Rise of the Russian Hawks […]

@cassidy I suspect some basic content rating may ia something that Wikipedia may consiser looking at from their side (e.g. wikipedia editors tag clear cases accordingly), but on the other hand, see some of the debate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sexual_content/FAQ

Fugitive Moldovan tycoon recruits top Russian bankers to run sanctions-busting crypto firm: leak created with Grok AI CITY OF LONDON–Senior executives from Russia’s mainstream banking sector have joined an avowedly sanctions-proof crypto and payments firm at the heart of the Kremlin’s st…

Ilan Shor, crypto firms, banking schemes enabling sanction evasion... Shor's role for Moscow goes well beyond his political meddling in Moldova
https://reporter.london/?p=1484 #Moldova

According to Romanian officials, the jets were perfectly capable to shoot it down while it was in the NATO airspace – and had every legal, internationally recognised justification to do so – but the drone would eventually return to Ukrainian airspace, so they held fire. 2/3

A Month After Historic Armenia-Azerbaijan Summit, Has Trump Secured a Lasting Peace? Washington may have persuaded Armenia and Azerbaijan to sign a long-awaited peace agreement, but one month later it still remains unclear how much the United States is ready to invest to make it stick.

Good wrap-up of the state of affairs, a month after the Armenia-Azerbaijan meeting at the White House in Washington
https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/09/azerbaijan-armenia-trump-deal #Armenia #Azerbaijan

Russian cosmism - Wikipedia

I do wonder how much fantasies of immortality popularised by Russian Cosmists - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cosmism - such as Nikolai Fyodorov contributed to Putin's serious consideration of this issue
https://masto.ai/@meduza_en/115181235810388955 #Russia

Further passportisation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Now it becomes very much straightforward for residents of both entities to get not only the "foreign Russian passport", but also the "domestic Russian passport", with a bunch of implications, including easier access to a number of benefits […]

I've heard first-hand stories about this freezing of NGO bank accounts in Georgia 🇬🇪, and the practical effects for NGOs involved in EU-partnerships and projects is... well, big and direct, with unclear ways out for all actors involved. And the honestly quite scary perspectives for colleagues […]

Also worth noticing just how much student Olympics are talked about in Romania, ans how little they care about them in others countries. When I was in high school, I took part, but they were barely mentioned in school and nobody cared.

> "The design of Romania’s educational system makes it perhaps the most stratified educational system in the world."

Nice quote from an article on education in #Romamia that quotes interesting studies, describes factually some dyanamics, but is puzzling and problematic in its logic and, most of […]

Excellent review of the latest book by Jeremy Morris, "Everyday Politics in Russia: From Resentment to Rebellion"

Focuses on neo-liberal transition in Russia, moves beyond the exceptionalist narratives, based on ethnographic approaches […]

There's some important points here, although I do believe that workers' pension funds should direct their investments keeping in mind workers' welfare and interests
https://flipboard.com/@euronews/business-m1eitu69z/-/a-vrmzzN4WRbylvxyt5xm4Ng%3Aa%3A89340020-%2F0

German army ads on frequent display at Munich airport