Note: by having the USA abstain from that UN vote right at the end of his presidency, Obama made it possible (ie legal) for us to do this.

If we were targeting Israel specifically, we would run afoul of all sorts of EU regulations since external trade policy falls under EU competency. HOWEVER, because there is a UN resolution specifically identifying the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories as illegal occuptions under international law, it’s possible for us to pass a law that doesn’t specifically target Israel by name, but rather target any territory that is illegally occupied.

If Brussels takes issue with the ban and tries to fine us for some trumped-up reason like arguing that we’re exceeding our reserved competencies, that would initiate legal proceedings which would give us standing to counter and argue that we are only meeting our international obligations as outlined by the UN, and furthermore that the EU-Israel trade deal has a boilerplate clause requiring Israel to meet certain human rights criteria or the entire trade deal goes kaput.

Basically if the EU takes us to court over this, we’ll be able to force the argument to be over whether Israel is violating human rights, at which point (because judges are not politicians) the court will almost certainly side with us, which would THEN put Brussels into the legal position where they’re OBLIGED to ban these goods EU-wide.

Because Brussels knows this, they’re likely to try and avoid initiating proceedings, turning a blind eye. However a lack of consequences for us would embolden other EU members to copy us. Basically it’s a rock and a hard place for Brussels.

Just pointing this out so that people see that UN votes DO matter.

The word “al” means “the” in Arabic - for example, “al jazeera” means “the island”. And a lower case L looks like a capital i, so “AI” is visually indistinguishable from “Al”. So the joke is that people who try to shoehorn Artificial Intelligence into everything look like they’re speaking in Arabic.

Every land is stolen. The problem is that they’re in the middle of committing genocide.

Like, extra rights, you mean? Because lots of countries recognize animal rights.

I might have tried it once when I was a kid but it’s not as effective as a fingernail so once was enough.

Lukashenko’s smart enough to know that he doesn’t wanna rock the boat when it comes to public support. He only ever goes along with Putin JUST enough to avoid Putin deciding to just outright annex Belarus, but stops short of anything that would make the domestic situation untenable. Remember when he did a public presentation on the Ukraine war with a map that showed the Russian plan to continue the advance into Moldova? That probably wasn’t an accident. It spurred the West into taking things seriously.

To stay in power he needs Belarusians to believe that any attempt to oust him will result in Russian soldiers putting the revolt down, BUT he also needs to keep Putin from ACTUALLY expanding Russian control of Belarus. He knows that if Russia wins in Ukraine then the Baltics are next, and that Belarus will get dragged into that. So he has to play nice with Putin but doesn’t want Putin to actually win.

I don’t think history supports that prediction. Far more likely that America will follow the trajectory of post-USSR Russia. Not as extreme of course, but I think the normalization of open kleptocracy is already on display.

Of all Mel Brooks comedies, I think Men in Tights is the only one that stands up to repeat viewings.

Regardless of how expensive the show was, that money was well-spent as it’s reinvigorated the flagging fan interest in the entire franchise. People would be excited to see more political thriller/spy procedural stuff set in the Galaxy Far Far Away now. I was already fascinated by the Doctor Pershing stuff in The Mandalorian; if they started building on that angle and did a “Kleya as an aging George Smiley-type working with Chancellor Mothma, General Syndulla and Senator Organa in trying to counter the rise of the First Order during the Galactic Cold War era” I would be front row centre for that and I suspect I wouldn’t be the only one. Andor has made the politics of Star Wars exciting again, and I wanna see more Senate oversight committees with Leia going up against Senator Xiono et al. Though unfortunately a recast would be necessary…

Things that went wrong with The Acolyte:

• It spoiled its “mystery” in its first episode but then continued to act like we, the audience, were in the dark about it

• A lot of the conflict came from characters holding the Idiot Ball for no reason and never communicating

• It killed off all the most interesting characters that it had spent the entire season fleshing out, and then asked us to tune in next season to follow the continuing adventures of the characters it hadn’t managed to make us care about (and Qimir who’s cool but not cool enough to carry a show on his own)

Why not just reboot the whole thing from scratch altogether and redo the entire franchise but with coherent logic this time?

I’d say the entire color balance of the one on the right was tweaked specifically to remove the sparkle of humanity that can be seen in the one on the left.

Evidently not, since some voters thought (and still think!) that the solution was to elect Trump. That’s evidently where the bar is, as determined by the voters.

Causality is backwards. Whenever the show’s close to dead, American money is brought in as a last-ditch effort to keep it alive.

Well we’ve already lost the “main” Rani so who knows if the old Rani can even regenerate anymore.

It needs to go back to cheap practical effects and far less CGI. The aliens don’t need to be made of papier-mâché but we don’t need shots of a spinning TARDIS flying through space or the vortex. Just show it fading and reappearing, like normal. The TARDIS interior doesn’t need to be so enormous; the size of that Memory TARDIS from the Sutekh arc was fine. It doesn’t need to be the location of a story; just a small backdrop while the Doctor and companions are briefly in transit to where they’re ACTUALLY going. Finales don’t need giant CGI monsters or fleets of Dalek saucers to “raise the stakes”. A single Dalek should continue to pose enough threat to have the Doctor worried.

I was perfectly happy watching Twin Peaks and another dimension was represented by some red curtains and garish knick-knacks. Imagination is fine. Weeping angels being the same statue just moved around, and a different one when they attack, that’s effective cost-cutting. The creature you never see because it’s always behind someone? That’s effective cost-cutting. The swarm of invisible locusts that turn you into a skeleton if you stand in the wrong shadow? That’s effective cost-cutting. Limitations INCREASE creativity. Budgets don’t need to be enormous. Jaws was scarier in the scenes where you DIDN’T see the shark.

I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying you want a retcon to say the revival never happened? No War Doctor, 9th, 10th, Metacrisis, 11th, 12th, 13th, MasterDoctor, 13th again, 14th, bigeneration, 15th, Piper? Current Doctor is still Paul McGann’s 8th? No Timeless Child, no Tekteun, no Fugitive Doctor, no Division, no Flux, no Weeping Angels, no River Song, no Time War?

It’s happening, but for Hollywood.

Worse than Trump? No.

Same thing as you, me and everyone else here, I’d wager. Nothing. Welcome to social media.