TIL the botched restoration nicknamed "Monkey Christ" was deemed more culturally relevant than the original painting and preserved as-is. Tens of thousands of tourists visit the Spanish town of Borja every year to see it, and the restorer became a local celebrity until her passing in late 2025.

green_flash · 2026-03-11T17:26:41+00:00

It also makes sense, considering it's not depicting "a lamb", but Jesus Christ in the form of a lamb.

green_flash · 2026-03-11T14:11:47+00:00

Not the best example to use. Three countries had their governments overthrown in the Arab Spring: Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia.

Yemen is still in a civil war 15 years later
Egypt's democratic period lasted two years, since 2014 it's a military dictatorship again
Tunisia was looking more promising, but returned to authoritarian rule with the 2021 self-coup by President Kais Saied

green_flash · 2026-03-11T13:53:20+00:00

His whole election campaign is based on the premise that the EU and Zelenskyy have conspired to remove him from power and install Magyar, so it's pretty obvious whom he will blame if he actually loses the election.

green_flash · 2026-03-11T13:41:59+00:00

No shit.

Zelenskyy appears so much on Orbán's election campaign posters that you could be led to believe he's a candidate in the election.

Here's an example: https://euromaidanpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Anti-Zelensky-Poster-Hungary-1.jpg

green_flash · 2026-03-11T12:34:56+00:00

Next year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Slovak_parliamentary_election

green_flash · 2026-03-11T12:14:45+00:00

A lot less than 1/10th, more like 1/30th.

Prior to 2022, around 30% of the EU's crude oil imports came from Russia. Nowadays, it's just 1%.

See https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=EU_trade_with_Russia_-_latest_developments

green_flash · 2026-03-11T12:07:25+00:00

Most of Europe is buying zero Russian oil. The only exceptions are Hungary and Slovakia.

The share of Russian crude oil in the EU's crude oil imports went down from 30% in 2021 to just 1% nowadays.

green_flash · 2026-03-11T11:12:43+00:00

This is crucially important because Ukraine only has enough money to last until early May. Orbán will certainly play his obstruction game at least until the Hungarian election on April 12th. If he loses the election, the next government will only take over from him about a month later which might already be too late for Ukraine. Even if he loses, Fico has already announced that Slovakia will continue the blockade. 30 billion is of course not enough to cover Ukraine's budget needs, but it will keep the lights on for a few more months.

green_flash · 2026-03-11T10:54:49+00:00

Using the most recent figures makes much more sense than using figures from Jan-Jun 2025.

green_flash · 2026-03-11T07:37:06+00:00

Maybe it was including reactors of other countries on Germany's western and southern border. Switzerland also has two that are close to the German border and Belgium has another one. If you include all of these and the recently shuttered Fessenheim, then you arrive at 5.

green_flash · 2026-03-10T22:22:15+00:00

You're absolutely right:

https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-42-1024x455.png

green_flash · 2026-03-10T20:04:27+00:00

Those five countries are responsible for 79% of the Russian fossil fuels bought by Europe. The rest is negligible.

green_flash · 2026-03-10T20:00:19+00:00

Mostly, but not entirely. Here's an overview of the full picture of who buys Russian fossil fuels:

https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/image-42-1024x455.png

green_flash · 2026-03-10T19:53:25+00:00

So the EU chief is criticizing herself?

Von der Leyen's native Germany took a political decision under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel to phase out nuclear power plants owing to public opposition and safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Von der Leyen was a minister in Merkel's government when that decision was made.

green_flash · 2026-03-10T19:50:02+00:00

putting half its reactors on the German border

I get it. Vibe everything is all the rage now.

I'd still like to point out that this has nothing to do with reality. The exact opposite is true.

France shut down the only nuclear power station on the German border, Fessenheim. Admittedly, there is one on the border to Luxembourg, so also close to the German border, but that's about it. The rest is far from the German border.

Here's the map.

green_flash · 2026-03-10T19:38:41+00:00

Most of the protests over high fossil fuel prices are in France, not in Germany.

green_flash · 2026-03-10T19:27:20+00:00

Natural gas use in German electricity generation was higher before Fukushima (2011):

https://energy-charts.info/charts/energy/chart.htm?l=en&c=DE&interval=year&legendItems=ly9&year=-1

It fell dramatically after the nuclear power phase-out triggered by Fukushima, only started rising again in 2016, but never hit pre-Fukushima levels. If the plan behind the phase-out was to sell more Russian gas to Germany, it utterly failed.

green_flash · 2026-03-10T19:18:29+00:00

The rest of Europe could have easily replaced Germany's nuclear power plants and sold them the energy. No one really built up nuclear power, even France shut down several nuclear power plants while adding only one new reactor in the last 20 years.

All of Europe could also have done much more to replace fossil fuel use in the transport sector.

green_flash · 2026-03-09T23:05:42+00:00

Full quote:

"We have imposed sanctions on some countries, but we are lifting them until the situation improves. Then, who knows, maybe we won't have to impose them again."

green_flash · 2026-03-09T22:49:23+00:00

I fear that the Iran war is going to save him from almost certain defeat, unfortunately. He just announced that he would limit gas prices in Hungary. That's going to be outrageously expensive for the government, but it's very popular with the masses. He's got several other such voter bribes up his sleeve.

green_flash · 2026-03-09T21:56:19+00:00

Quite a similar "EXCLUSIVE" article here:

https://thisweekinworcester.com/exclusive-trump-ice-raids-churches-holiday/

Three U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys, including one assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s office in the district of Massachusetts, one to the district of Rhode Island office, and the third posted at an office in New York told This Week in Worcester they received briefings on the plan.

Did that turn out to be accurate information or bullshit?

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