However, #Putin suggested that any #ceasefire was a matter for the talks he proposed for Istanbul next Thurs, May 15.
And minutes later, senior Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the talks must take into account both an abandoned 2022 draft peace deal & the current situation on the ground - shorthand for Kyiv agreeing to permanent #neutrality in return for a #security guarantee & accepting that #Russia controls swathes of #Ukraine.
On 9th May a Neutrality Roadshow will begin a one-month tour of #Ireland to host conversations with local communities warning of the dangers to Irish #neutrality if the government dismantles the Triple Lock.
https://www.rundale.org/2025/05/08/the-neutrality-roadshow/
"There are several overlapping groups of people who, probably for different reasons, are more likely to prefer news that shares their point of view:
(a) the ideological and politically engaged;
(b) young people, especially those who rely mainly on social media for news;
(c) women; and
(d) less socioeconomically advantaged groups."
"In markets dominated by fewer brands — often publicly funded ones such as the BBC — respondents in that market also tend to express higher levels of preference for impartiality." In Britain, where respondents use an average of four news brands, the lowest number across the 40 countries studied, 62% of respondents say they prefer news displaying no point of view.
Camila Mont'Alverne et al, 2025: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/23816
Losing the war for the free internet https://anarc.at/blog/2025-03-21-losing-war-internet #debian-planet #python-planet #hacking #network #neutrality #sysadmin #radio
Ultimately, even if you want to ignore all morality, if we don't defend the rules-based order - whether with Ukraine or Palestine - we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
It is exactly this rules-based order (despite all the contradictions which exist within it) which allows smaller countries like Ireland to thrive independently instead of being constantly bullied and attacked by larger and more powerful countries.
We need to support Ukraine as much as we can. As a neutral country, we can do so much to help their refugees as they flee a brutal invasion. As a neutral country, we can push for a fair diplomacy which recognises the clear distinction between the aggressor and the defender. As a neutral country, we can lobby our allies to do more.
Currently, our tax haven allows Russian oligarchs to fund the war - look up S 110 entities: https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0601/1302481-russian-sec-110-firms-raised-118bn-here-committee-told/
I actually feel such disgust watching this. The US is an embarrassment and their leaders' absolute stupidity is endangering the lives and livelihoods of millions of Europeans, especially Ukrainians and those in Poland and the Baltics.
Until Jan 20, US civil servants worked acc/to a different moral code. Federal workers were under instructions to respect the rule of #law, venerate the #Constitution, maintain political #neutrality, & uphold lawful policy changes whether they come from Republican or Democratic admins. They were supposed to measure #objective #reality—evidence of pollution, for example—& respond accordingly. Not all of them were good administrators or moral people, but damage that any one …could do was limited….
I cannot believe the #media is seriously debating whether #Trump's plan for #Gaza is serious, anything more than a deranged piece of #improv. What is worrying is not whatever he makes up off the cuff: it is the army of self-serving psychopaths in government willing to support anything he says for a quick buck and the gaggle of so-called #journalists who brandish #neutrality to conceal the lasting disappearance of their critical judgement. Those are the ones to lock up.
https://www.channel4.com/news/trump-unites-world-against-plan-for-gazas-future
#ScienceQuickly podcast by #ScientificAmerican:
What the End of #US. #NetNeutrality Means For You
Net #neutrality, the principle that all #Internet #traffic should be treated equally, was heralded by the Federal Communications Commission and open Internet advocates. A federal court struck down the #FCC’s ability to enforce the policy earlier this month. What does that mean for the free and open Internet?
Webseite der Episode: https://www.sciencequickly.com
Mediendatei: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/SAM4200931134.mp3?updated=1737493071
You know, the #Swiss are in fact #neutral; during WWII, they hid whosesoever gold.
It wasn’t their fault that only the #Axis powers had access to #Switzerland.
Of course, they continued to hide the gold for the #Nazis after the War, too.
But that gold had never rightfully belonged to the Nazis. The neutral Swiss were thus abetting Nazi crimes against humanity.
#Neutrality always turns out to be pro-authoritarian, anti-human.
@Daojoan having read the entire thread I can only say I agree 100%
Besides, #neutrality is the most despicable, ultimate cowardice. It always benefits the oppressor, the aggressor, the villain.
A federal appeals court
struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s landmark
#net #neutrality rules on Thursday,
ending a nearly two-decade effort to regulate broadband internet providers as utilities.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said the 
F.C.C. lacked the authority to reinstate rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing or blocking access to internet content.
In its opinion, a three-judge panel pointed to a Supreme Court decision in June, known as #Loper #Bright, 
that overturned a 1984 legal precedent that gave deference to government agencies on regulations.
“Applying Loper Bright means we can end the F.C.C.’s vacillations,” the court ruled.
The court’s decision put an end to the Biden administration’s hallmark tech policy, which had drawn impassioned support from consumer groups and tech giants like Google and fierce protests from telecommunications giants like Comcast and AT&T.
The F.C.C. had voted in April to restore net neutrality regulations,
which expand government oversight of broadband providers
and aim to protect consumer access to the internet.
The regulations were first put in place nearly a decade ago under the Obama administration
and were aimed at preventing internet service providers like Verizon or Comcast from blocking or degrading the delivery of services from competitors like Netflix and YouTube. 
The rules were repealed under President-elect Donald J. Trump in his first administration, but they continued to be a contentious partisan issue that pit tech giants against broadband providers.
You may think #apathy, #centrism, or #neutrality are moral positions, but they are rooted in moral cowardice. You may not care about politics but it cares about you, and you have only those freedoms you are willing to defend. The corporate #PoliceState grows fat on disinterest.
Just received this brochure "if war comes" in my mailbox. Do people even question how it was possible to turn people's consciousness towards accepting the probability of war in a country that has been neutral for over a hundred years and has gained its advantageous position due to this neutrality in just 10-20 years? Do people even understand that we're being led into an Orwellian universe where peace is always war?
1/ #Universities with #neutrality policies still let themselves speak up on "public matters that…directly affect [their] core function of research, teaching, and learning" (to quote the @Harvard position).
Patricia McGuire, President of Trinity Washington U, opposes neutrality policies. But as I read this interview, she also argues that in a 2d #Trump admin the "directly affect" exception will be huge.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2024/11/12/five-questions-trinity-washingtons-outspoken
1/2
Some things I won't be tolerating:
*#Trump supporters
*"#Neutrality" or "apoliticality", even if it's your job
*Calls for #actions to remain peaceful or legal
*Saying everything will be okay
*Lotus-eating (stepping away and doing other things for #MentalHealth reasons is fine and important, but #escapism is intolerable)
*Denying that the main reason #Kamala lost was her support for Israel's #genocide
*Blaming #leftists or #marginalized people for Kamala losing
The book "Memories of the Second World War in Neutral Europe, 1945–2023" includes three chapters authored by IHC historians:
Irene Flunser Pimentel on refugees in Portugal; Helena Pinto Janeiro on #WWII memorials; and Pedro Aires Oliveira analyses Portuguese neutrality as featured on recent films.
Through a political desire for unity, ‘we are documenting the transformation of the very meaning given to the principle of #laïcité, the interpretation of which has undergone a notorious shift: whereas yesterday it allowed the pluralist expression of beliefs, today it requires religious neutrality’.
Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez in "L'École et la République - La nouvelle laïcité scolaire" (2023)
The #Irish debate about military #neutrality appears to confuse the concept of neutrality with that of #pacifism.
On the political comment programme on RTÉ Radio 1 today the view was advanced that Irish money to support #Ukraine should not go towards weapons in order to comply with Ireland's military neutrality. However, other neutral and formerly neutral states (e.g. Sweden) have significant defence industries. I would say that the Irish position is closer to pacifism than neutrality.
