Main Edition
US
FR
→ Russia outpaces Germany in arms production
More bad news for Ukraine: Russia is far outpacing its most powerful European ally, Germany, in weapons production, according to a new report from the Kiel Institute.
Germany took more than a year to significantly increase its production following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. For some weapons systems, it would take Germany 100 years to return to 2004 levels, researchers found. Meanwhile, Russian arms manufacturing is outpacing its losses. “Europe must confront the reality that a long-lasting war of attrition is again on European soil,” the report warned, adding that the US will likely be absorbed in other conflicts before the war can be won. As ever, much hinges on November’s election.
→ The great X-odus
The bifurcation of the internet into Left-wing and Right-wing spaces continues apace. Britain’s Left-wing posters have fled X — formerly Twitter — in droves since Elon Musk’s takeover, according to analysis in the Financial Times.
Striking how Musk’s post saying civil war was inevitable in the UK due to immigration prompted a sudden and large migration from X to BlueSky in Britain.
User numbers for BlueSky remain far smaller than for X, but I’d say most of the UK commentariat has now moved across. pic.twitter.com/4T9I4NKeR1
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) September 23, 2024
Musk’s claim that a British civil war over immigration was inevitable appears to have driven the latest spike in growth at Bluesky, X’s progressive rival. Daily users rose from about 40,000 to 100,000 from August to September. Socially conservative Brits, meanwhile, have stuck around on X. Before the 2015 and 2019 elections, 30% of progressive Britons posted political content on X, but that number had fallen by half by the time of the summer riots. The Right-wing takeover of X is nearly complete…
→ Did Trump actually win the debate?
Donald Trump’s debate against Kamala Harris was widely panned in the press as a crushing loss — Harris successfully “baited” Trump and “humiliated” him, according to headlines; his performance was a “meltdown” and showed he is “losing his war with reality”. That performance, however, appears to have impressed voters in swing states.
In Arizona, the former President was behind Harris by five points in a New York Times/Siena August poll, then surged five points ahead of her as of today. Similarly, in Georgia and in North Carolina, Trump gained ground, calling the media narrative that he lost the debate into question. Does he still think the pollsters are “faking it”?
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe“most of the UK commentariat has now moved across” to a platform with user numbers that remain “far smaller than for X”. Illustrating how utterly parochial the UK commentariat are. Not only do they have nothing of interest to say about the world, they’re now refusing to share their commentary with anyone outside their bubble. No wonder socialism and the one party state appeals to many of them.
Their minds are closed tight.
Not only that, but by splintering like this, they are in fact closing themselves out of the public debate and limiting their ability to influence the debate.
This is what happened to the right, pre-Musk-X, on social media with the likes of Gab, Parlr, Truth Social…
Whining brats with no arguments can’t stand the heat of open discussion.