But the X7 will on average carry one

Yes, but the trade deal also has a clause in it that the US has to honour their end of the deal.
If they don’t honour their part of the deal, the trade deal is null and void

The welfare state isn’t capitalism working as intended. That wasn’t what I was saying, nor am I saying that the welfare state is a result of capitalism. That was ultimately a result of workers fighting for their rights.

What I am saying is that the government not leaning heavily into laisez-faire capitalism, and them interfering in capitalism where needed, is what is making the European capitalist model largely work as capitalism is supposed to work. The government is there to prevent negative externalities and prevent monopolies from forming.

Ultimately the “correct” implementation of capitalism doesn’t exist. Only one which creates the most benefit for the people while reducing its negative outcomes.

It is a tool you can use in places where it makes sense to use it in order to drive innovation and lower costs to consumers.
The government can set regulations in order to guide capitalism to that outcome, and can directly interfere to do things themselves in industries where it deems fit to do so.

Edit: Fixed a typo in my first sentence, making me say the exact opposite of what I was trying to say…

America’s extreme form of capitalism isn’t the the only form of capitalism.

With proper regulation and governnent incentives it is possible to make capitalism work to benefit the average Joe, and not just the oligarchs.

Europe for example runs on that capitalist model, and it works pretty well. You get the benefits of capitalism when it runs as it is supposed to, together with the benefits of the welfare state.

I usually ride my bike casually, not racing either, and I still like the bikeride to not be heavier than it needs to be.
That said, I have never cycled using dress shoes, so that might be a valid point.

As much as I like Mamdani, that is a pretty poor posture for riding a bike.
You gotta use the balls of your feet! It’s much more effiecient and comfortable

This “trade deal” always was a rotten one, where the EU has to accept worse terms than it already had.

The only reason why we would even go along with that, is because Trump knows that there is a certain amount of reliance from Europe on the US in terms of defence. It really is a wake-up call to Europe that we can’t allow ourselves to depend on the US like we used to.

I agree that it’s a shame the US doesn’t engage with its allies in good faith anymore

Edit: Personally I think we should not even bother trying to appease Trump.

No matter what deal you reach with him, he will not honour it and demand more. Any trade deal reached with America is not even worth the paper it is written on.

Welp… Guess Europe now no longer needs to adhere to their side of the trade deal.
What a shame… /s

The headline is a bit vague, but this is reporting on the trust of SAP employees in the management at SAP.

Edit: And having the misfortune of needing to book my work hours in SAP, I don’t blame them…
It’s just about the worst coorporate software I have to deal with at my office.

I would not exactly call that “a long history of appeasing Nazis”

And regardless, the NL had the intention of remaining neutral in any conflict that might happen in Europe, just like they did in WW I.

Insulting the head of state of a neighbouring militaristic country is generally not wise if you intend to stay neutral.

Care to elaborate, or are you just gonna put out a statement like that without explaining what you mean?

The general idea of the snus-bans is that snus is not commonly consumed outside of the Nordics, so it’s better to pre-emptively ban it. They are trying to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.

Cigarettes are socially and culturally engrained after a century of normalization, and it’s a lot more difficult to ban it. Even vapes are already somewhat at the stage where it’s nornalized enough that outright banning it becomes difficult.

No problem. You can edit the post’s description to add the link after the fact.

It’s a paywalled article, so here’s an archival link

https://archive.is/8PwGR

“Smoke-free” in this case means fewer than 5% of people smoke daily. As of 2025 that figure stands at 4.8% in Sweden

The proportion of daily smokers dropped from 16 to 4.8 percent between 2003 and 2025, according to the new report.

Meanwhile, Sweden has seen a sharp increase in the use of snus in recent years – the small nicotine pouches popular in Sweden – a factor that the tobacco industry often highlights as a major reason for Sweden’s low proportion of smokers.

Fewer smokers is good of course, but I am not sure if the consumption of tabacco is really going down significantly. It rather seems to be moving from cigarettes to snus, which I’m not sure is a good thing.

Snus is banned in the rest of the EU. Sweden has an exemption on that ban, which they pre-emptively carved out when they were in talks for joining the EU

The reason why I remark on it being reasonable, is because over here in the Netherlands we have been seeing increasingly more places that just outright ban smoking on the entire premises. They specifically choose not to have designated smoking spaces.

In practice this does not work at all, because smoking is an addiction and you can’t expect smokers not to smoke for hours upon end. So in practice they smoke outside anyway, and you are worse off than you would have been in a situation with designated smoking spots.

My boyfriend has a Kobo, and he has an integration with his library that allows him to borrow ebooks.
I’d have to ask him how it works exactly, but it sounds pretty convenient.

This guy can go suck an egg…

He also added, “Let’s take Bandera back to 1880 properly. No double standards, no hypocrisy. If LPRs are ‘unconstitutional’ and invade our right to ‘public’ privacy, we need to be courageous enough to go all the way. I look forward to the ‘Privacy First’ crowd showing up to support these bans […] just remember to leave your phones at home.”

It’s not that difficult to see the difference between having the option to decide not to bring your phone if you don’t want to be tracked, and not even getting an option to avoid AI-powered CCTV systems all over town.

New regulations from 2026 – smoking will only be permitted in designated smoking areas.

Frankly that seems to me like a pretty reasonable regulation. It’s not nearly as extreme as the post’s title would suggest.

As part of the trade agreement, Europe requires America to honour and implement their part of the agreement as well. If Trump starts raising tariffs again that would be a clear breach of the trade agreement, and Europe no longer has an obligation to honour their end of the deal either.

There is also an expiration date in the trade agreement for 2029, if I’m understanding correctly

Does anyone know whether the mutual acceptance of each others vehicle standards is still part of this agreement?

Back in August / September there was reporting that, as part of the trade deal, both parties would “accept and mutually recognise each others norms for cars” and that “the agreement voices a desire to align vehicle standards”

https://brusselsenieuwe.nl/europese-steden-slaan-alarm-grote-amerikaanse-autos-horen-niet-op-onze-weg/

I really do not want those massive American death-machines on European roads. It would undo decades of work making European roads safer.