AP writes:

[…] “A group of passengers [44 minors and eight adults] engaged in highly disruptive behavior and adopted a very confrontational attitude, putting at risk the safe conduct of the flight,” Vueling said in a statement. “We categorically deny any suggestion that our crew’s behavior related to the religion of the passengers involved.”

A Civil Guard spokesperson said the captain of the plane ordered the removal of the minors from the plane at Valencia’s Manises Airport after they repeatedly ignored the crew’s instructions.

On Thursday, the Federation for Jewish Communities of Spain expressed concern about the incident. The group said that Vueling needed to provide documentary evidence of what happened on the plane.

“The various accounts circulating on social media and in the media to which we have had access do not clarify the cause of the incident,” the organization said […]

@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca

Another article said it was something about wishing death to arabs.

Which article was that?

There is a thread already here on this issue: https://feddit.org/post/16135663

Project Syndicate reports:

Libyan National Army commander and self-proclaimed “field marshal” Khalifa Haftar is a warlord with no formal or legal authority, yet he wields brutal control over eastern and southern Libya with Russia’s backing. In recent years, the family has ensured that Russian bases are as effective at extracting wealth as they are at importing military assets.

[…]

In many ways, Libya and the Haftar alliance are the linchpin of Putin’s new foreign-policy strategy. Known as the “Karaganov doctrine” after Russian political scientist Sergei Karaganov, this strategy portrays Russia as an anti-colonial liberator intent on democratizing the global order by rallying non-Western countries against the West. The irony, of course, is that Russia’s anti-colonial project is built on war crimes, coups, and the extraction of African wealth to benefit Russian elites.

[…]

In February, members of the Haftar family traveled to Minsk, where they finalized an agreement to develop the port of Tobruk. Landlocked Belarus may seem like an unlikely partner for a port-development project, but the true value of the deal lies in giving Russia effective control over a new Mediterranean harbor and propping up a loyal ally.

While it is hardly surprising that Russia would exploit Libya’s geostrategic position and oil wealth, it is less clear why Europe has allowed the Kremlin to establish a foothold on its doorstep. European governments must act swiftly before the threat becomes even harder to contain.

[…]

Why is Github, as a U.S. company, not asking the U.S. to fund Open Source?

Which countries would qualify as democratic outside the EU and the Western world, if any?

There is a thread already here on this issue: https://feddit.org/post/16135663

@Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml

What an absurdly weird form of projection. At your instance (and some others) you get banned if you don’t praise China and condemn ‘the West’ strong enough, and here you are twisting things around. It’s a complete false reality.

[Edit typo.]

Good, let’s hope that goes beyond a joint statement.

At the moment, the EU’s climate actions are insufficient while China’s climate actions are highly insufficient.

Global coal investments surge - with China leading the path as the country’s construction of new coal-power plants ‘reached 10-year high’ in 2024. China began building almost 100 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-power capacity and resumed 3.3GW of suspended projects in 2024, the highest level of construction in the past 10 years, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

By the way, today (24 July) is Earth Overshoot Day …

@RedPandaRaider@feddit.org

In March 2014, Russian troops and affiliated paramilitary units invaded Crimea which is part of Ukraine. This is a very simple historical fact.

There is a thread already here: https://feddit.org/post/16135663

Which politicians (supposedly from foreign countries?) trigger a better sentiment?

In the Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum 2025 in Bucharest a few weeks ago, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko criticized Russia not only for its blatant violations of human rights and international law, emphasizing how the Kremlin’s aggression has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe, but also for the deliberate use of migrants as tools of hybrid warfare, particularly by Russia and Belarus:

[Russia and Belarus} have facilitated the movement of people from the Middle East and other regions toward EU borders, especially those of Lithuania, Poland, and Finland. This orchestrated migration flow aims to destabilize the EU and NATO by overwhelming border security, creating humanitarian crises, and pressuring for political concessions. Goncharenko called for legislative and policy measures that protect both migrants and host societies, and for sustained support in rebuilding Ukraine and supporting returning refugees.

This is an important and complex issue. It’s not just about migration, not even about illegal migration, but about hybrid mechanism of pressure by Russia and Belarus against Europe, and primarily against their immediate neighours like Lithuania by efforts to place intelligence agents in other countries, and the possibility of provocations against the Belarusian and Russia diaspora.

As the Ukrainian Prism Foreign Policy Council writes in a recent analysis:

Russia and Belarus possess a wide range of hybrid and military instruments of influence over regional security, which can be used to exert pressure on NATO’s eastern flank. These include both tools that are employed almost continuously, as well as those that require a higher level of preparation and planning. The first group includes the following:

Illegal migration: Migrants regularly try to break through the Lithuanian and Polish borders, even after the active phase of the migration crisis has ended. For example, in 2023, approximately 24,000 attempts to breach the Belarus-Poland border were recorded, and in 2024 that number rose to 36,000. While the intensity is somewhat lower than in 2021, when nearly 40,000 migrants tried to enter Poland during the autumn and winter months, it is still sufficient to create daily problems for Belarus’s western neighbours.

Infiltration of agent networks and organization of provocations: In parallel, Belarusian and Russian intelligence services are continuously recruiting and infiltrating their agents into neighbouring countries. A striking example is Lithuania, especially after Lithuanian intelligence reported that a well-known Belarusian activist, Olga Karach, had cooperated with Russian security forces. Because of security concerns additional migration restrictions for Belarusians have been introduced. Moreover, provocations targeting the Belarusian diaspora are taking place within the country, likely organized by Belarus’s intelligence services, with the aim of destabilizing Lithuanian society.

The bit that can be translated is not very revealing.

This is paywalled, and the bit that can be translated is not very illuminating.

You may be interested in the OECD Better Life Index which is designed to let you visualise and compare some of the key factors that contribute to well-being in OECD countries. It’s an interactive tool that allows you to see how countries perform according to the importance you give to each of 11 dimensions that make for a better life (like knowledge and skills, housing, environmental quality, social connections and so on).

There are also other indices and tools like the Work-Life Balance in 2025, where Ireland ranks second among many countries.

According to these sources, Ireland ranks very high regarding living standard.

Addition:

You may also be interested in https://livingcost.org/cost/germany/ireland (this is the Ireland/Germany comparison, but you can choose and compare the countries of your interest).

As we all know, there are many factors that determine the standard of living, so we should not rely on a single tool.

There is a thread already here: https://feddit.org/post/16135663

Last year, the Journal of Nonprofit Innovation published an analysis on Russian corruption and how it’s spreading a to its neighbours:

As corruption runs rampant within the Russian government, neighboring countries are also recipients of corrupt efforts to destabilize their governments, erode their democracy and jeopardize the support these neighboring countries can give to the security of Europe as a whole […] There is an increasing need for the international community to take proactive measures to combat the corruption of Russia that creeps into their own lands and support the Russian people in securing a free land of their own […]

Another report on this issue says:

The [Chinese] tailor’s case shines a light on the treatment of workers who make garments that can cost thousands. He worked from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through late 2024, when his “caporale,” or boss — also a Chinese transplant — stopped paying him for unknown reasons, according to the court documents.

After repeated demands for his wages, a confrontation ensued. The employer punched the tailor and beat him repeatedly with an aluminum tube, the documents said, leading to a criminal complaint […]

No abuse allegations were found for the four EU member states included in the analysis – Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – or for Moldova and Turkmenistan.

At least a bright spot …