OK, while in principle this looks bad…
This is (looking it up) like an experienced engineer's salary in Peru, in line with some other professions.
It’s reasonable to compensate a president, and for the expectation to not be coming in rich/connected enough to not need a salary. Nor for them to broker power for personal wealth, all as long as other offices and reasonably compensated too.
It avoids perverse incentives, doesn’t seem excessive and TBH is probably a drop in the Peruvian govt's budget.
There's an argument for that.
Trump also has incredible political capital. He can literally do no wrong with his base, strongarm congress, and ignore opposition; it gives him paths any other sitting president wouldn't even dream of.
This is the seductive charm of dictators. They're really effective at, and generally put in power to clean up messes, or cut through dysfunctional, stagnant political systems.
Paraphrased by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_India%E2%80%93Pakistan_conflict#Analysis
[The Times] reported that India felt frustrated after Donald Trump public claims of mediating a cease-fire, presenting both countries as equals and downplaying the terrorist attack that triggered the conflict, and that India had hoped any U.S. involvement would remain discreet, and Trump's portrayal of both countries on equal terms was seen by Indian officials as politically sensitive and diplomatically frustrating...
On 21 June, Pakistan announced it would nominate Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his role in brokering the ceasefire. Pakistan credited Trump's diplomatic intervention, though India denied any U.S. mediation.
Like it said, seems like India assumed the modest level of mediation would be confidential (clear miscalculus on their part), while Pakistan, err, trumped up the magnitude of the intervention to paint themselves in a better light, possibly because they're at a military disadvantage, and felt grateful for the help.
Seems like there was some backchannel involvement from many countries (like "Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE and the UK" and indeed the US), but Trump couldn't help himself and loudly claimed credit before the ceasefire was even announced.
Now India's annoyed (hence their flat denial).
I like this explanation, it 'fits' all the involved characters, including Trump blotting out the sun and killing any nuance to the situation.
Wasn't his involvement pretty minimal anyway?
To be fair, Axios didn't rag on Iran here. They didn't do any kind of labeling, just stating what happened: Israel bombed a live Iranian news station.
That's what news is supposed to be. The opinion columns are where terms like 'Zionist regime' goes. Same with whatever you'd want to call Iran's govt, but news is just the event as it comes, maybe with context.
Bombing a live news station, and clarifying that there was no warning, speaks for itself. More context of Israel's many other crimes would be better, but Axios has a very-brief writing style.
As I keep saying, America may be a shitshow, but Europe needs to look in the mirror before it happens to you guys too. Far right parties are gaining lots of traction while many assume the EU will be fine, and more war spending is going to exacerbate that.
Fissile material (enriched uranium and plutonium) has a long half-life.
AFAIK tritium is the biggest issue, with a half life of 12.3 years. From what I've read, nukes have little feeder tubes to replenish that.
All true. Nevertheless, Russia is in possession of much of that now (specifically the nukes), which is most of what I really implied.
First, I am not a Russia fan or apologist.
…But the Soviets made some good shit, often with the philosophy of “big and simple,” but often well engineered, too. Soyuz has been so reliable it’s unreal, hence it sent astronauts from around the world to space for decades.
They did tons of real nuclear testing, not simulated.
Hence, asserting most of Russia’s warheads are duds is quite an assumption. It’s quite possible. But there’s enough of a track record for the threat to be very real.
Narrowly.
Are you guys not horrified of what’s happening south? If you interpret this as a win and go on, your country is going to be mega conservative in like a decade.
No, this is an existential crisis, and you need to shut off the propaganda machines before it’s too late.