huppakee

In the source's url

Luckily Europe is one step ahead:

Access to clean energy and rare earths is critical for the EU as it seeks to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and boost its autonomy in strategic sectors.

But sizeable shares of the global mining, processing and recycling of some of the critical raw materials, like lithium, that are indispensable to the development of renewable energy, everyday items as well as defence systems, are controlled by China, from which the EU wants to 'decouple' due to its aggressive and protectionist trade and foreign policy practices.

Central Asia holds large deposits, including 38.6% of the world's manganese ore, 30.07% of chromium, 20% of lead, 12.6% of zinc, and 8.7% of titanium.

"These raw materials are the lifeblood of the future global economy. Yet they are also a honeypot for global players. Some are only interested in exploiting and extracting," von der Leyen told Central Asian leaders.

"Europe's offer is different. We also want to be your partners in developing your local industries. The added value has to be local. Our track record speaks for itself," she added.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/04/04/eu-seals-new-central-asia-partnership-deal-as-debut-samarkand-summit-ends

I don't think you understand the quote you use. What is in the article and in your quote of the article is thataccording to the opposition (and others) the current government is banning TikTok to silence critics and manipulate the upcoming elections.

Then you mention how TikTok is being used to manipulatie elections ... on a global scale. I don't disagree with what you're saying, but in this case the banning of a social media platform is similar to how governments suppress newspapers and tv-channels because they are a threat to the ruling party.

This is not about foreign agents influencing elections, this is about a local power suppressing their people.

Banning all Russian social networks and internet services in Ukraine seems like a smart decision, definitely. When it comes to TikTok it is less clear to me what a good decision would be, but the fact a foreign and potentially hostile state can influence the people is a serious threat.

In that case you could argue that it is the perfect time, but that is not happening in this case. The current government sees this particular medium as a threat because of the users on it, not because of the owners.

But preferably not 2 months before the election

I think since he bought the licence there is no-one to sue him for forgery or something like that. Quite possible the artist didn't only write directions on how to create the artwork (e.g. the kind of tape, the direction of the tape, the orientation of the banana etc), but also 'rules' on what not to do with it. If he would expose this work different the artist could possibly sue him for breaking their agreement.

There is an artist (Sol LeWitt) who is famous for instructing others to create his work. He didn't sell the artwork, he sold the exclusive right to follow a set of instructions. Quite interesting work also, here is a link:

In 1968, Sol LeWitt began creating his wall drawings, which consist solely of written instructions and diagrams for others to execute. LeWitt likened his instructions to musical scores, which are realized in a new way every time they’re played, and it’s possible for LeWitt’s wall drawings to take slightly different forms, depending on how his directions are implemented. Although the idea of the work is meant to be preserved, the work itself is often ephemeral, and it can exist in more than one place at one time.

https://risdmuseum.org/manual/45_variations_of_a_drawing_sol_lewitt_and_his_written_instructions

He died in 2007, but there still are exhibitions of his work (the execution of it of course). Worth going if you get a chance.

Thanks though, no harm done

I'd have believed you after the first source though

This happened to me with Sennheiser headphones. They broke, and I returned them. They by now had become the old model which was sold out. So they gave me a gift card which allowed me to buy new model for a price lower than my initial purchase. Gotta love those warranty laws.