How Beijing’s 1995 Disappearance of the Panchen Lama Enabled Crimes Against Humanity

China weathered no consequences for abducting a 6-year-old in 1995. That same impunity continues to fuel collective punishment, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detention […]

The genuine Panchen Lama and his family are far from Beijing’s only Tibetan victims of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention. Databases of Tibetans wrongfully detained currently reflect grim descriptions: “life imprisonment,” “forcible disappearance,” and, chillingly, “no further information.” Chinese government restrictions on information make definitive conclusions difficult, but research that likely underestimates counts of political prisoners shows that while Tibetans comprise only half a percent of China’s total population, they made up 8 percent of all prisoners of conscience sentenced between 2019 and 2024 […]

It is possible Beijing will never clarify how, let alone how many, Tibetans have died in state custody. Even in high-profile cases authorities have refused to provide the remains of and key information to family and religious community members […]

Some democracies continue to call on Beijing to release the genuine Panchen Lama and his family, and decry other violations against Tibetans, including enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention. […]

But absent tougher measures, Beijing is unlikely to change its conduct. When diaspora Tibetans go to the polls to elect a new exile government, and when succession to the Dalai Lama begins, democracies should support Tibetans’ choices, and publicly reject Beijing’s efforts to undermine or control either process. No democracy should receive Chinese government officials representing Tibetan issues until the genuine Panchen Lama and his family have been released […]

So all we know is that we can’t trust the official number, and the real rate is clearly higher.

I fully agree.

The official inflation rate in Russia is 10.2% for April 2025 (year-on-year). But, yeah, I don’t trust all their numbers either …

Inflation, devaluation, reduced incomes: Russia’s economy in an era of falling oil prices - [April 2025]

Russia’s oil and gas revenues have already fallen by 10% — and that may be just the beginning. Oil prices are sliding amid fears of a global economic slowdown triggered by the US-China tariff war, along with rising production from OPEC+ countries. Goldman Sachs warns that in a worst-case scenario, oil could plunge to $40 a barrel by 2026. Even the bank’s more moderate forecast isn’t much better: $55 a barrel. For Russia, that could mean: at best; another round of inflation and ruble devaluation; and at worst, a banking crisis and industrial shock.

In response to the decline in oil revenues, the authorities may also choose to cut spending. The Russian government has its own unique methods for doing this, as Mikhaylova points out: shifting the state’s responsibilities onto businesses. “This is already happening. For example, large enterprises — whether state-owned, municipal, or private — are being forced to hire those who are going to war as mercenaries, paying them salaries from company funds,” [one expert] explains. If budget revenues continue to fall, this will likely become more common.

According to [another expert], all of these measures lead to inflation, and if oil prices stay low for an extended period, Russia will face a real crisis: “It’s unlikely we’ll see empty store shelves like in the late Soviet Union, or widespread wage non-payments like in the early '90s. Since the government prints money and the macroeconomic team is fairly pragmatic, we’re more likely to follow in the footsteps of Argentina and Turkey — maintaining a market economy, but one that’s growing increasingly poorer.”

The core inflation in Russia is ~10%, but that’s bad enough, especially given the state of the economy. (And prices increases for food in Russia a even far higher than 20%.)

Yes, and many economists (inside and outside Russia) estimate that there will be no real GDP growth this year, maybe not even a nominal growth. Russia’s National Wealth Fund -which has been used to cover up the country’s budget deficit from 2022-2024- could run out of cash by the end of 2025: the NWF’s liquid portion stood at 32% at the end of 2024, down from 42% in 2023, and 58% in 2022.

In 2025, military spending is likely to exceed oil and gas revenues for the first time in Russia’s history. In the 2000s, for example, military spending reached 30-35% of oil and gas revenue.

[Edit typo.]

This is another reason why we need transparent global supply chains. The PFAS regulation in the EU or countries like Australia or Canada must be improved, but it’s even better there than in many other areas and countries with often opaque laws and practically no opportunity for control.

Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein to set up huge Vietnam warehouse in US tariff hedge, sources say

Fast-fashion online retailer Shein is leasing a huge warehouse in Vietnam, two people familiar with the deal told Reuters, its first in the country, in a move that could reduce its exposure to unpredictable U.S.-China trade tensions.

Shein, which was founded in China and sells products including $5 bike shorts and $18 sundresses, has agreed to lease nearly 15 hectares of industrial land for a warehouse near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s commercial and trading hub, the two sources said, declining to be identified because the information was not public …

Vietnam’s other exports to the U.S. face a 10% tariff until July when the levy would rise to 46% if Hanoi does not otherwise reach an agreement with the White House.

Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein to set up huge Vietnam warehouse in US tariff hedge, sources say

Fast-fashion online retailer Shein is leasing a huge warehouse in Vietnam, two people familiar with the deal told Reuters, its first in the country, in a move that could reduce its exposure to unpredictable U.S.-China trade tensions.

Shein, which was founded in China and sells products including $5 bike shorts and $18 sundresses, has agreed to lease nearly 15 hectares of industrial land for a warehouse near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s commercial and trading hub, the two sources said, declining to be identified because the information was not public …

Vietnam’s other exports to the U.S. face a 10% tariff until July when the levy would rise to 46% if Hanoi does not otherwise reach an agreement with the White House.

Pro-European mayor Nicușor Dan head of nationalist in runoff, latest poll shows – (15 May)

Centrist Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan leads nationalist candidate George Simion by four points for this weekend’s presidential runoff, according to an opinion poll released Thursday.

European Commission preliminarily finds TikTok’s ad repository in breach of the Digital Services Act – [15 May]

The Commission has informed TikTok of its preliminary view that the company does not fulfil the Digital Services Act (DSA)'s obligation to publish an advertisement repository.

Such an advertising repository is critical for researchers and civil society to detect scam advertisements, hybrid threat campaigns, as well as coordinated information operations and fake advertisements, including in the context of elections.

China’s emissions are dropping due to its stunted state of its economy, which has been hampered by an enduring construction sector credit crisis and more lately by the new trade war with the United States.

Lower output by industrial plants and factories in turn reduced demand for power by the commercial sector, and allowed utilities to reduce output from fossil fuels by 4% during January to March from the same period in 2024.

Going forward, however, China’s manufacturers are likely to boost production following the recently announced 90-day trade truce between China and the United States.

Higher factory activity will directly trigger more power demand, and will likely force Chinese power firms to lift output from fossil fuels to ensure adequate power supplies over the coming months.

“Russia has drummed into its population that sanctions cannot achieve anything.”

Yeah, and now people believe it?

Maybe. The 11th Panchen Lama was just 6 years old when he was disappeared by the Chinese party-state in 1995, but his and his parents’ fate is unknown.

The diaspora vote is particularly favourable to the far right in the countries where Romanian expatriates are most numerous, namely in Western Europe …

“Their vote is a protest vote against the traditional parties, which are seen as corrupt,” explained Antonela Cappelle-Pogacean, a researcher at Sciences-Po and a specialist in Romania.

“But it’s also a vote with socio-economic motivations, since in these Western societies, members of the Romanian diaspora are to be found among the working classes. Finally, it’s also a vote about identity, since the integration of these people is sometimes difficult, and they are in a way torn between their rebuilt lives and their desire to return to Romania.”

East-west split

In Eastern European countries such as Poland, Moldova and Hungary, however, the pro-European candidate Nicusor Dan came first.

This result can be explained by Simion’s hostile stance on sending military aid to Ukraine, and by the pro-Russian stance of Calin Georgescu, the candidate who topped the poll in November and whose legacy the leader of the Alliance for Romanian Unity claims to inherit.

The diaspora vote is therefore directly linked to the economic and geopolitical context of the countries where Romanian expatriates live.

The biggest problem with Chinese tech is that they are sold as the alternative to get around excessive proprietary BS pricing only for them to pull even worse proprietary BS shenanigans.

The biggest problem with Chinese tech is the threat of blackmail, very much the same as Russia has done in the past with oil and gas.

The same clickbait title as yesterday.

Misleading title as China’s drop of emissions has a particular reason that is likely about to vanish now.

China’s overall power demand during the opening months of 2025 was impacted by the stunted state of its economy, which has been hampered by an enduring construction sector credit crisis and more lately by the new trade war with the United States.

Lower output by industrial plants and factories in turn reduced demand for power by the commercial sector, and allowed utilities to reduce output from fossil fuels by 4% during January to March from the same period in 2024.

Going forward, however, China’s manufacturers are likely to boost production following the recently announced 90-day trade truce between China and the United States.

Higher factory activity will directly trigger more power demand, and will likely force Chinese power firms to lift output from fossil fuels to ensure adequate power supplies over the coming months.

Have you got any numbers for that?

Yeah, Hungary has become China’s leading investment destination in the EU, supported by extraordinarily generous state subsidies. For example, Hungary’s greatest solar energy project is underway in Szolnok with Chinese Huawei, a company that is banned in the meantime by Europe’s solar association of bribery accusations.

Hungary’s cooperation with China has drawn scrutiny in Brussels and from EU member states over security concerns and their potential to distort competition in the single market.