Birgit 🇩🇰 🇬🇱🇫🇴🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

A rules-based international order is worth fighting for, even if it hasn’t always worked as it should. The alternative is the law of the jungle, where might makes right. Europe must step up and give Ukraine what it needs to secure a just peace. Defending Ukraine means defending the principles that safeguard Europe itself.

In 1867, San Francisco passed a law that effectively made visible disability a public offense. Other American cities followed, adopting what became known as the “ugly laws.” People with disfigurements, illnesses, or physical disabilities could be fined simply for appearing in public, particularly if they were poor and begging. I find the logic almost impossible to comprehend: society saw suffering and decided the problem was that others had to look at it. Some of these ordinances survived into the 1970s. A reminder that cruelty can arrive dressed as civic order.

The less you know about a subject, the harder it is to recognize when AI is giving you a bad answer.

It’s fascinating how many Western politicians and commentators fixate on Putin as the sole cause of the war, ignoring centuries of Russian imperialism embedded in its institutions, history and state-society relations. Absolving Russia of collective responsibility helps no one.

If you can separate Christians from the KKK, you can separate Muslims from Al Qaeda and you can separate Judaism from Zionism. Don't be a fucking idiot.

One of the cruelest myths ever created is the idea that humans exist separately from nature. A society that truly believed rivers were relatives rather than resources would organize itself very differently.

In the middle of World War Two, German soldiers in southeastern Poland started avoiding a cluster of villages. They wouldn't go in. They wouldn't take people out for forced labor. They put up warning signs and stayed away. They believed the area was infected with typhus. It wasn't. Two doctors had invented the whole thing. The man behind it was Eugene Lazowski, a young Polish doctor working for the Red Cross in the town of Rozwadów. He was watching the Nazi occupation tear his country apart. Executions. Deportations. People shipped off to labor camps, many never coming back. He wanted to stop it. He had no weapons, no army, and no way to fight. What he had was medicine. His friend and fellow doctor, Stanisław Matulewicz, had discovered something strange. If you injected a person with a harmless, dead strain of a certain bacteria, their blood would test positive for typhus. They wouldn't be sick at all. But on paper, they'd look like they had one of the most feared diseases of the war. And the Germans were terrified of typhus. It spread fast, it killed, and it could tear through an army. When the Germans found it, they quarantined the area and kept their distance. Lazowski realized what that meant. If he could make enough people look infected, the Germans would leave the whole region alone. So he started injecting his patients. He chose carefully. He sent the blood samples to German labs for testing, exactly as the rules required. The results came back positive. Again and again. The Germans declared an epidemic zone. Villages were quarantined. Soldiers kept out. People who would have been seized for forced labor or worse were left alone, because nobody wanted to go near them. Lazowski had to be careful. If too many cases looked fake, someone would ask why nobody was dying. So he spread out the injections over time and kept the outbreak believable. Eventually the Germans did get suspicious. They sent a team of doctors to inspect. Lazowski met them with food and vodka and played the gracious host. He guided them toward the sickest looking, dirtiest patients he could find, in the most crowded rooms. The German doctors, worried about catching typhus themselves, took a few samples and left in a hurry. The tests came back positive. The fake epidemic lasted until the end of the war. Estimates say it may have protected around 8,000 people. Lazowski also secretly helped Jews from the nearby ghetto, giving them medical care at enormous risk. After the war he moved to the United States and became a professor of pediatrics in Chicago. For decades he barely talked about what he'd done. Late in life he finally wrote a memoir. He called it My Private War. He died in 2006. He never fired a shot. He beat the Nazis with a needle and a lab test.

THE GREATEST AMERICAN BETRAYAL OF ITS ALLIES IN HISTORY. While Russia continues its war against Ukraine, the Trump administration is reportedly negotiating sweeping energy and business deals with Moscow. Russian oil, diesel, Nord Stream gas pipelines, American investments, access to Russian airspace, and even arrangements involving Ukraine’s occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are reportedly on the table. Let that sink in. While Ukrainians fight and die defending their country, Washington is exploring opportunities to do business with the very country responsible for invading it. President Zelenskyy has already warned that the United States is choosing the wrong side of history. And he has every reason to be furious. Europe and America’s traditional Western allies have every reason to be deeply alarmed. If these proposals become reality, the consequences for transatlantic trust, NATO unity, and America’s credibility could be enormous. For decades, the United States presented itself as the leader of the free world, a defender of democracy, sovereignty, and international law. Now, its administration appears increasingly willing to put business opportunities with Putin’s Russia ahead of the principles it once claimed to defend. This is not just about Ukraine. It is about whether America’s allies can ever trust Washington again. And the consequences of that betrayal could last for generations.

I do not see any point in negotiations with Putin if they are not happening literally at gunpoint. (Though, even then..) This is not an emotional assessment due to my personal hatred towards Putin and what he represents, but rather a quite boring combination of factors. 1) There is a bureaucratic trap in which Putin has caught himself. Wishful thinking and constant overly positive reports from the generals lead him to an erroneous decision: including Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to the Russian constitution BEFORE they were actually captured and held as a whole. It is clear now that such a capture is almost impossible. 2) Due to the trap above, any (even temporary) peace negotiations leaving these territories to Ukraine are not possible. In a paradox way, Russia is a legalistic state. Before it does something, it usually legalizes it. To freeze the front on the current line would mean going against the constitution. So, it has to be rewritten again - otherwise Zaporizhzhia and Kherson would be left behind. And of course, Putin does not want to EXCLUDE territories from the constitution, because that would mean accepting the defeat. 3) Nobody on top wants the “heroes of the SMO” to come back home. Any long-term ceasefire would mean thousands and thousands of thugs coming back to the society. They were not the best members of the society even before the war, but now they would be more violent, many - possessing armor, with PTSD, and - no civilian jobs that match the salaries back in the military. The difference in salary will be 2-5 times. There also would be a sentiment of betrayal: what did we fight for and died for if there’s no victory? So, overall, it’s so much safer to keep these guys busy at the frontlines. Not very strategic, but it’s a matter of survival. 4) One cannot trust any agreement signed by Putin. He’s a pathological liar, and I think that at this point he brought himself very close to mental illness by his own lies and delusions. These things work both ways. There are other reasons, as well, but I think, these above are sufficient as an explanation.

A high school girl in Mexico just won a gold medal for putting out fires with a speaker. It plays one deep, low hum and the flames die in about 5 seconds. DARPA tried the same idea back in 2012 with a rig so big and clunky they never took it any further, and hers runs on a 12-volt battery and a speaker she can carry around. Sound is just air being pushed back and forth. A low note at 30 hertz means the air around the flame is flipping direction 30 times every second. Flames only exist in a thin layer where fuel vapor mixes with oxygen. Shake that layer hard enough and it keeps getting stretched thinner, the heat gets pulled away faster than the flame can make more, and eventually the flame rips right off the fuel. Whatever tears off is too cool to keep burning, so it just goes out. DARPA's report put a number on how little it takes. Once the air at the flame is moving about half a meter per second, which is barely a breeze, the flame goes out, and pretty much any pitch can get there if you crank the power high enough. Low notes just get you there way cheaper, because a speaker moves a lot more air on each push when the pitch is low. Two engineering students at George Mason figured this out by trial and error in 2015. They started with super high pitches, 20,000 to 30,000 hertz, and all the flames did was shiver. It only worked once they dropped down to 30 to 60 hertz, which is basically the bass on a hip-hop track. Ángela Karime's build is a 12-volt battery, a frequency generator, an amplifier and a speaker, tuned to 30 hertz. She named it Vortex Tech and talks about it shooting out little rings of air, and that's real physics. When loud, low sound gets pushed through a narrow opening, the air curls up into rings like a smoke ring, and those rings carry a puff of air way farther than the sound would get on its own. In her tests it put out small flames from about 2 meters away. She went through five prototypes and over 100 tests in about a year, and she says it's put out burning wood, flammable liquids, electronics and cooking oil. The cooking oil one is a big deal. Throw water on a grease fire and it flashes into steam and flings burning oil all over your kitchen, which is exactly the kind of fire where you'd want something that doesn't put anything into the pan. Now, sound can't cool anything down, so a big fire sitting on red-hot fuel can come right back the second the speaker shuts off. The George Mason guys worried about the same thing in 2015, and it's why this is still a prototype for small flames and the red extinguisher under your sink isn't going anywhere yet. Space might end up being where this matters first. Up there water floats off in blobs, while sound works the same with or without gravity, and acoustics researchers have already published experiments on fighting fires with sound on spacecraft. She's still in high school, and she's already working on a version that spots a fire and puts it out by itself. The gold in Indonesia also came with a special award that gets her into another international competition.

Women don’t need men to protect them. They need men to stop being the reason they need protection.

Just a casual reminder that Germans who “didn’t bother to vote” in 1932 didn’t get a chance again until 1946, after Hitler’s death. — There’s a lesson there.

When politicians convince you that a tiny minority is a greater threat than poverty, homelessness, and unaffordable healthcare, you’re not witnessing leadership. You’re witnessing manipulation.

Of all the things that never happened this never happened the most!

Not many people know this, but the correct term for a large group of people is an ‘I won’t be there’.

Free and Fair Elections Index 2025 1. Belgium🇧🇪 2. Norway🇳🇴 3. Australia🇦🇺 4. Denmark🇩🇰 5. Finland🇫🇮 6. Germany🇩🇪 7. Chile🇨🇱 8. Spain🇪🇸 9. Netherlands🇳🇱 10. New Zealand🇳🇿 11. Estonia🇪🇪 12. Uruguay🇺🇾 13. Ireland🇮🇪 14. Sweden🇸🇪 15. Italy🇮🇹 16. Greece🇬🇷 17. Luxembourg🇱🇺 18. Costa Rica🇨🇷 19. Canada🇨🇦 20. Switzerland🇨🇭 21. France🇫🇷 22. Czechia🇨🇿 23. Portugal🇵🇹 24. Taiwan🇹🇼 25. Austria🇦🇹 26. Slovakia🇸🇰 27. Japan🇯🇵 28. Korea🇰🇷 29. Iceland🇮🇸 30. UK🇬🇧 31. Latvia🇱🇻 32. Slovenia🇸🇮 34. Cyprus🇨🇾 35. Malta🇲🇹 36. USA🇺🇸 39. Lithuania🇱🇹 40. Argentina🇦🇷 41. Barbados🇧🇧 42. Croatia🇭🇷 43. Israel🇮🇱 45. Bhutan🇧🇹 46. Mauritius🇲🇺 48. Peru🇵🇪 51. South Africa🇿🇦 52. Panama🇵🇦 53. Brazil🇧🇷 54. Cape Verde🇨🇻 55. Ecuador🇪🇨 56. Poland🇵🇱 57. Botswana🇧🇼 58. Lesotho🇱🇸 59. Singapore🇸🇬 60. Gambia🇬🇲 61. Dominican Republic🇩🇴 62. Bolivia🇧🇴 63. Colombia🇨🇴 66. Ghana🇬🇭 67. North Macedonia🇲🇰 68. Senegal🇸🇳 69. Kosovo🇽🇰 70. Nepal🇳🇵 71. Oman🇴🇲 72. Armenia🇦🇲 73. Guatemala🇬🇹 74. Moldova🇲🇩 75. Romania🇷🇴 76. Maldives🇲🇻 77. Bulgaria🇧🇬 78. Benin🇧🇯 79. Paraguay🇵🇾 80. Montenegro🇲🇪 81. Namibia🇳🇦 82. Ukraine🇺🇦 83. Malaysia🇲🇾 84. Hungary🇭🇺 85. Malawi🇲🇼 86. Liberia🇱🇷 87. Jordan🇯🇴 89. Mongolia🇲🇳 90. Mexico🇲🇽 91. UAE🇦🇪 92. Fiji🇫🇯 93. Vietnam🇻🇳 94. Indonesia🇮🇩 95. Bosnia and Herzegovina🇧🇦 96. India🇮🇳 97. Kenya🇰🇪 98. Guyana🇬🇾 99. Albania🇦🇱 100. Zambia🇿🇲 101. Thailand🇹🇭 102. Morocco🇲🇦 103. Tunisia🇹🇳 104. Kyrgyzstan🇰🇬 105. Türkiye🇹🇷 106. Eswatini🇸🇿 107. Iraq🇮🇶 108. Tanzania🇹🇿 109. Nigeria🇳🇬 110. Honduras🇭🇳 111. Kazakhstan🇰🇿 112. Côte d’Ivoire🇨🇮 113. Ethiopia🇪🇹 114. Georgia🇬🇪 115. Sierra Leone🇸🇱 116. Togo🇹🇬 117. El Salvador🇸🇻 118. Algeria🇩🇿 119. Lebanon🇱🇧 120. Uzbekistan🇺🇿 121. Cuba🇨🇺 122. Angola🇦🇴 123. Mauritania🇲🇷 124. Hong Kong🇭🇰 125. Bahrain🇧🇭 126. Philippines🇵🇭 127. Papua New Guinea🇵🇬 128. Laos🇱🇦 129. Iran🇮🇷 130. Rwanda🇷🇼 131. Serbia🇷🇸 132. Belarus🇧🇾 133. Gabon🇬🇦 134. Madagascar🇲🇬 135. Comoros🇰🇲 136. Congo, Dem. Rep.🇨🇩 137. Pakistan🇵🇰 138. Zimbabwe🇿🇼 139. Djibouti🇩🇯 141. Egypt🇪🇬 142. Nicaragua🇳🇮 143. Russia🇷🇺 144. Uganda🇺🇬 146. North Korea🇰🇵 147. Cameroon🇨🇲 148. Azerbaijan🇦🇿 149. Burundi🇧🇮 150. Tajikistan🇹🇯 151. Cambodia🇰🇭 152. Mozambique🇲🇿 153. Chad🇹🇩 156. Turkmenistan🇹🇲 157. Venezuela🇻🇪 158. Afghanistan🇦🇫 159. Bangladesh🇧🇩 160. Burkina Faso🇧🇫 161. China🇨🇳 162. Eritrea🇪🇷 163. Guinea🇬🇳 165. Haiti🇭🇹 166. Kuwait🇰🇼 167. Libya🇱🇾 168. Mali🇲🇱 169. Myanmar🇲🇲 170. Niger🇳🇪 171. Palestine🇵🇸 172. Qatar🇶🇦 173. Saudi Arabia🇸🇦 174. Somalia🇸🇴 175. South Sudan🇸🇸 176. Sudan🇸🇩 177. Syria🇸🇾 178. Yemen🇾🇪 @OurWorldInData

Det er lidt sjovt, hvordan vi elsker at fortælle om, hvor undertrykte kvinder er i andre kulturer. Der bliver hurtigt peget fingre og talt højt om kvinders frihed. Men måske skulle vi prøve at kigge lidt på os selv først. For herhjemme kan en kvinde stille sig frem i fjernsynet og sige sin mening og straks bliver hun kaldt »fed ko«, »blåhval« og »flæskemor«. Kvinder bliver svinet til, seksualiseret og truet, bare fordi de fylder i den offentlige debat. Samtidig vokser kvindehadet på sociale medier. Unge mænd bliver sendt direkte ned i et kaninhul af manosfære, hvor kvinder bliver fremstillet som problemet. Og vi har en pornokultur, hvor vold, dominans og ydmygelse kan blive gjort til underholdning. Men når vi taler om det, så skal vi åbenbart igen diskutere, hvad kvinder gør forkert. Hvad med mændenes ansvar Hvad med de algoritmer, der fodrer unge med kvindehad? Hvad med en kultur, hvor en kvindes udseende stadig kan fylde mere end det, hun faktisk siger? Det er nemt at stå på afstand og fortælle andre kulturer, hvordan de skal behandle deres kvinder. Det er langt sværere at indrømme, at vi også har et problem. Så før vi holder foredrag for resten af verden om kvinders frihed, kunne vi måske starte hjemme i vores egen baghave. nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2026-…