#between belgium and netherlands 2024

[ummick]

via lailahasanovic's ig story - august 15, 2024

[umlewis]

lewis hamilton for elle brasil - 2024

[umseb]

The Day Sebastian Vettel Decided To Retire From F1 — Then Annoyed Aston Bosses With Climate Campaign

Two years ago, Sebastian Vettel decided to bring an end to his glittering F1 career, so picked up the phone to Matt Bishop, then Aston Martin comms boss. He details the ensuing scramble and Vettel's increasing determination to speak out

Just over two years ago, on Wednesday July 27, 2022, I was forced to do something that I really hate doing: at the eleventh hour I had to cancel a long-standing dinner arrangement with my husband and two of our dearest friends, who live in New York and were on holiday in London for a week. The reason was that, at 5 pm that afternoon, I received a phone call from Sebastian Vettel telling me that he had decided to announce his retirement from Formula 1 in the Hungarian Grand Prix paddock the following day. I was Aston Martin's chief communications officer at the time, and, when something as big as that is sprung on a Formula 1 team's most senior comms/PR operative, he or she has to drop everything and focus on briefing colleagues in confidence, writing press releases, planning social media content, arranging press conferences, and formulating comms/PR strategies designed to optimise the management of a tricky news narrative that in this case would surely unfold rapidly, and perhaps also trickily, over the next 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours. I have written above that Vettel had "sprung" his decision on me, but, although the imminence of his announcement was a surprise, its content was not. Four months earlier you will recall that he did not travel to Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, since he was recovering from a bout of Covid-19. His place was taken by Nico Hülkenberg, who, despite race-rustiness caused by his not having competed in F1 the previous year, did a typically excellent job.

Seb had made no secret of his disapproval of the Saudi regime when we had all gone there the first time, in December 2021, and, not surprisingly, in March 2022 rumours soon began to spread to the effect that he had invented a Covid-19 diagnosis so as to avoid racing there a second time. The truth was that he had indeed had Covid-19, and that he was indeed still unwell; however, was he disappointed to have had to skip the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix? No, he was not. Two weeks later, in Melbourne, he was back. On the Thursday before the Australian Grand Prix, in the Albert Park paddock, I gave him his comms/PR briefing, as was my habit on the Thursday before every grand prix. We discussed media matters of moment, including his not having raced in Jeddah. "The truth is that I was ill, honestly," he said, "but I admit that I don't like or approve of the country, so if I was going to have to miss a race because of Covid-19 that's probably the one I'd want to miss." He paused, smiled, and added, "I'm pretty sure I'm never going to race there again." Then and there I realised that 2022 would probably be his final season as an F1 driver. Not only was the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix going to be a fixture on the F1 calendar for years to come, but also one of Aston Martin's principal sponsors was Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned national oil company. Missing that particular race without a 24-carat excuse would henceforth therefore be impossible for any Aston Martin driver. So, axiomatically, it followed that the only way he could make sure that he would never have to race there again would be to retire from F1 at the end of the year.

On the morning of Thursday, July 28, 2022, having worked until 3 am the night before, my comms/PR team and I issued a video in which our much loved four-time world champion announced his F1 retirement in his own words, and he posted it on his then brand-new Instagram channel at the same time. It included the following sentences, which he spoke with his usual eloquence: "I love this sport but, as much as there's life on track, there's also life off track. Being a racing driver has never been my sole identity. I want to be a great father and a great husband. I believe in change, and progress, and that every little bit you do can make a difference. We all have the same rights, no matter where we come from, what we look like, or whom we love. I'm an optimist and I believe that people are good, but, in addition, I feel that we live in very difficult times. How we shape the next few years will determine the rest of our lives. Talk is not enough. We can't afford to wait. I believe that there's still a race to win." The race to which he was referring was his growing and accelerating commitment to doing whatever he could to leverage his fame and popularity for the good of the inhabitants of planet Earth. That may sound grandiose, but it is also entirely valid. In the two years during which I worked with him, 2021 and 2022, we won awards for the inspirational way in which he did just that.

Just before the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, helped by local schoolchildren, he created an F1 car-shaped 'bee hotel' at the Red Bull Ring. Three weeks later, straight after the British Grand Prix, in which he had raced hard for forty laps until his Aston Martin's Mercedes engine had terminally overheated, he led a group of volunteer litter-pickers to clear the Silverstone grandstands of the trash that irresponsible spectators had left behind. A month after that, in Hungary, infuriated by that country's new anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, he wore rainbow-coloured sneakers in the F1 paddock, and he donned a similarly hued T-shirt bearing the legend #SameLove as he took the knee on the grid before the race. Throughout the weekend he had talked to journalists and TV crews intelligently, thoughtfully, and compassionately on the subject of LGBTQ+ rights, equality, and inclusion. In May 2022 he visited and spoke inspirationally at HMP (Her, or now His, Majesty's Prison) Feltham, a young offenders institution in a suburb of west London, formally opening a new workshop in which the teenage inmates could learn how to become car mechanics as part of their rehabilitation. Immediately afterwards he and I took a South Western Railways train to London's Waterloo Station, sitting among regular commuters, so that he could spend time with the pupils of Oasis Johanna Primary School, which is in a disadvantaged part of inner London, and after that we went by Uber taxi to a church in Hackney, in the East End, where the BBC's prestigious political television talk show Question Time would be filmed. As the TV cameras rolled, he conversed fluently on the subjects of Brexit, the UK's cost of living crisis, the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 'partygate' shenanigans, and even Finland's desire to join NATO, consummately out-arguing one of his fellow panellists, Suella Braverman, who was then the Attorney General for England and Wales and the Advocate General for Northern Ireland.

In addition, as the months went by, he continued to speak out in support of what he saw as humankind's collective global responsibility to address the climate crisis, doing so with increasing regularity, vehemence, and fearlessness, with the result that he began to irritate the very most senior people at Aston Martin, even though what he said tended to please most journalists and fans. "I don’t care," he said when he learned of his big bosses' disquiet. "I must do what's right." Behind the scenes what he did was perhaps even more admirable. F1 teams receive communications from troubled people all the time. You try to do what you can to help them, but sometimes their difficulties are of the type that human kindness alone cannot resolve. I am thinking of recently bereaved people, terminally ill people, profoundly disabled people, people with debilitating mental health issues, etc. Sometimes all you can do is send them a team cap signed by a driver. It is not much, and it breaks your heart that you cannot do more, but it is better than nothing.

Yet Vettel always tried to do more. On one occasion, I had been contacted by a young man who was deeply depressed. I told Seb about him, and he said, "Let's do a Zoom call with him." So I arranged it. I had thought that Seb might speak for five minutes or so, but no. He chatted animatedly for more than twenty minutes, with touching humility and heart-warming empathy, and I feel confident when I say that those twenty-odd minutes were significant in expediting the lad's mental and emotional recovery. A few months later, Seb hand-wrote the boy a four page letter. He gave it to me at a grand prix-I cannot remember which one-and he instructed me to post it on when I returned to the UK. I read it before I did so, and the tenderness and beauty of Seb's prose brought me to tears. There are many other examples of his remarkable generosity and sensitivity: too many to mention, in fact. This column has been about Vettel the man, not Vettel the driver. He was fast and clever in the cockpit, and I may well write about that side of him one day. I could write much more about Vettel the man, too, for I have dozens of stories that I could tell on that subject, because I worked very closely with him for two years and, more importantly, because he is a truly great man. In my long career I am lucky enough to have spent time in F1 teams with four world champions-Seb, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and Jenson Button-and they are all fantastic guys in their own, very different, ways. But, in my 61 years on this planet, I can state with confident and emphatic certainty that Sebastian Vettel, from the small town of Heppenheim, south-west Germany, is one of the most impressive people whom I have ever had the pleasure and honour to know, whether that be inside or outside F1. As he is fond of saying, "You can't always be the best, but you can always do your best." As a maxim to live by, it is hard to beat.

article by matt bishop

[umgeorge]

📷 @.miguelvazquez4 / instagram

[goldenpinof]

Facebook ADs mini-essay by me <3 (excuse any typos and grammar mistakes, please. corrections are welcome.)

★ a huge shout out to Emma @dnpbeats for sending me a link to Phil's Facebook ad library. now we have a lot to go through ★

you can see that Phil's Facebook is linked with Dan's Instagram. Dan's, on the other hand, isn't.

note: filter goes from 2018 to 2024.

Terrible Influence (TI) youtube promo video "Finally Revealing Our Secret" is running as a bought ad in: Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, Poland (if you search for it, the ad appears but it has reached just a few people in France and Poland; the locations of the ads are in Germany). we can see who paid for these ads (Bill Bailey)*.

no TI youtube promo video as an ad in countries with actual shows: Belgium (on a screenshot as an example), Netherlands, Iceland.

note: you can select any country and see if this ad reached anyone there. countries above are those that i selected because they either have shows or are very close to the ones with shows (France). i also selected Latvia - it didn't have this specific ad. it did have WAD premiere ads because WAD was targetting worldwide (spoilers, i guess).

nothing at all in the UK. it doesn't mean the ads are not running in the UK. i personally didn't see any, but if they are out there, they are probably bought by and run via a promoter (AEG; didn't see in their library) or someone else.

local TI promo posts are running as bought ads in the USA and Canada (screenshots below). Tysons as an example. there's no information about who paid for the ads.

local TI promo posts are running as bought ads in Australia and New Zealand. there's no information about who paid for the ads. but the ads are running on more platforms than in the USA, Canada and Europe.

local TI promo posts are running as bought ads in some European countries (more on that later).

on some screenshots you can see that Phil also has ads for WAD premiere and preshow (only in Europe, Canada and Australia/NZ). in EU we can also see who paid for them (Hangtime)*.

* i don't know how true this information is. i personally don't know about any connections between Dan and Phil and these people/companies. spoilers: local TI promo posts are paid for by A Comic Soul (in the EU), and in this case, we do know the connection. but more info about local TI promo posts will be in the reblog (because Tumblr limits, ya!)

shout out to Dan for having 0 ads in his Facebook library.

Europe:

USA and Canada:

Australia and New Zealand:

WAD premiere:

[coochiequeens]

Common sense is returning.

James Crisp, EUROPE EDITOR 13 April 2024

Dr Hilary Cass said children who think they are transgender should not be given any hormone drugs at all until at least 18 CREDIT: Yui Mok

Belgium and the Netherlands have become the latest countries to question the use of puberty blockers on children after the Cass Review warned of a lack of research on the gender treatment’s long-term effects.

Britain has become the fifth European nation to restrict the use of the drug to those under 18 after initially making them part of their gender treatments.

Their use was based on the “Dutch protocol” - the term used for the practice pioneered in the Netherlands in 1998 and copied around the world, of treating gender dysphoric youth using puberty blockers.

The NHS stopped prescribing the drug, which is meant to curb the trauma of a body maturing into a gender that the patient does not identify with this month.

In Belgium, doctors have called for gender treatment rules to be changed.

Research into impact

“In our opinion, Belgium must reform gender care in children and adolescents following the example of Sweden and Finland, where hormones are regarded as the last resort,” the report by three paediatricians and psychiatrists in Leuven said.

Figures from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom show that more than 95 per cent of individuals who initiated puberty inhibition continue with gender-affirming treatments,” the report by P Vankrunkelsven P, K Casteels K and J De Vleminck said.

“However, when young people with gender dysphoria go through their natural puberty, these feelings will only persist in about 15 per cent.”

The report was published after a 60 per cent rise in the number of Belgium teenagers taking the blockers to stop the development of their bodies. In 2022, 684 people between the ages of nine and 17 were prescribed the drug compared to 432 in 2019, the De Morgen newspaper reported in 2019.

Pressure is also building in the neighbouring Netherlands to look again at their use. The parliament has ordered research into the impact of puberty blockers on adolescent’s physical and mental health.

Dutch protocol

The Telegraph understands that the Amsterdam Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, where the protocol originated, is set to make a statement on the use of puberty blockers next week.

“I too thought that the Dutch gender care was very careful and evidence-based. But now I don’t think that any more,” Jilles Smids, a postdoctoral researcher in medical ethics at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, told The Atlantic.

Attitudes in the Netherlands have hardened against trans rights, with a bill to make it easier for people to legally change their gender being held up in parliament.

The Cass Review said that the NHS had moved away from the restrictions of the original Dutch protocol, and researchers in Belgium have also demanded those restrictions be reintroduced.

Belgium is regarded as one of the most trans-friendly countries in Europe. A minister in the government is transgender and people have been able to legally change their gender without a medical certificate for the past five years.

But the hard-Right Vlaams Belang party is currently leading the polls ahead of national and European elections in June.

It has called for “hormone therapy and sex surgery to be halted for underage patients until clear and concrete research has been carried out.”

‘Greatest ethical scandals’

In March, a report in France described sex reassignment in minors as potentially “one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine”.

Conservative French senators plan to introduce a bill to ban gender transition treatments for under-18s.

On Monday, the Vatican’s doctrine office published a report that branded gender surgery a grave violation of human dignity on a par with euthanasia and abortion.

Finland was one of the first countries to adopt the Dutch protocol but realised many of its patients did not meet the Protocol’s strict eligibility requirements for the drugs.

It restricted the treatment in 2020 and recommended psychotherapy as the primary care.

Sweden restricted hormone treatments to “exceptional cases” two years later. In December, Norwegian authorities designated the medicine as “under trial”, which means they will only be prescribed to adolescents in clinical trials.

Denmark is finalising new guidelines limiting hormone treatments to teenagers who have had dysphoria since early childhood.

In 2020, Hungary passed a law banning gender changes on legal documents.

“The import and the use of these hormone products are not banned, but subject to case by case approval, however, it is certain that no authority would approve such an application for people under 18,“ a spokesperson told The Telegraph.

In August, Russia criminalised all gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments.

[none-ofthisnonsense]

Lewis holds the lap record in:

Saudi Arabia (Jeddah)

Japan (Suzuka)

Imola

Monaco

Hungary (Budapest)

The Netherlands (Zandvoort)

Singapore

Valtteri holds the lap record in:

Canada (Montreal)

Belgium (Spa)

Mexico (Mexico City)

Brazil (Interlagos)

Max holds the lap record in:

Miami

Spain (Barcelona)

The UK (Silverstone)

Qatar (Lusail)

Abu Dhabi

Between them that's 16 tracks, which is two-thirds (66.666....%) of the 2024 calendar. If you add Charles (Australia, Azerbaijan, Austin), you're up to 80%.

Not for any particular reason, just pointing it out.

(These are only the official track records as found on Formula One's website. I know that *actual* lap records are different.)

[darkmaga-returns]

*YOU will need to be culled, especially if you are elderly. A 2015-2016 Event Timeline of various Psychological Operation Campaigns Laying the Ground for the Big Cull Oct 23, 2024

Sage Hana

5 mins agoAuthor

I have a post that I really need to finish.

It's a monstrosity going back to the timeline between Good Club, 2009, "Save the World" and the Staged Pandemic that was hatched, focused on the 2015-2016 timeline when CHD/ICAN were established as future firefighters for the fire that was coming.

At the same time, YouTube began promoting channels dealing with poverty and misery, (as predictively programmed with the Rockefeller and Kissinger/Nixon Depopulation/Zero Population Growth/ DAY TAPES engineered plans.)

Problem -Reaction-Solution.

Klaus was in 2009 warning about the endless "crises" which were basically explained in Day Tapes as WE CAN AND WILL DO THIS.

And that post just sits there like an albatross around my neck. A mess. Too complicated.

Renate Lindeman

Local Liberty Letter

Choosing death as a source of virtue signaling. Just look at the latest Hollywood programming "The room next door" that received a 17-minute standing ovation and where it was stated "There Should Be The Possibility To Have Euthanasia All Over The World".

In the Netherlands you can now romantically euthanize as a couple (duo-euthanasia); Belgium has NO age-limit; In Vermont you can order your euthanasia by phone and Canada tabled a bill where final consent is no longer required.

Euthanasia is the next safe and effective medicine for undesirables. Knock, knock. Who's there? The euthanasia team. But I didn't order euthanasia. Too bad, consent is no longer required.

[steelbluehome]

1 Nov 2024

US elections: European Greens call for Jill Stein to step down

On 5 November 2024 the world will be watching to see whether Americans choose Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to be their next president. Ahead of these pivotal elections, European Greens have called upon US Green Party candidate Jill Stein to withdraw her Presidential candidacy, and endorse Kamala Harris. 

The stakes of these elections could not be higher. 

Donald Trump has promised that if he becomes President again, he will extend abortion bans, deny members of the LGBTQIA+ community their rights, and deport migrants en masse. Like other ultra-conservative politicians across the globe with whom he has close relationships such as Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and Jair Bolsonaro he would undermine democracy. 

The European Green family, made up of Green parties from across Europe, advocates for a politics that prioritises the planet, people and peace above corporate greed, systemic injustice, and violence. 

We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House. 

This election takes place at a watershed moment in the history of our planet. We face a climate crisis that is worsening every year, with heatwaves, floods, and a loss of biodiversity at a rate never seen before. Climate policies require democratic institutions, which we fear would be dismantled if Trump is elected.

On top of this, wars are raging and authoritarianism is growing throughout the world. In this crucial moment, Europe needs Kamala Harris as President of the United States, to be a reliable partner and to take the urgent, decisive action needed on the climate crisis, and to bring about a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East. 

European Greens also highlight the divergent values and policies of themselves and Jill Stein’s US Green Party. There is no link between the two, as the US Greens are no longer a member of the global organisation of Green parties. In part this fissure resulted from their relationship with parties with authoritarian leaders, and serious policy differences on key issues including Russia’s full scale assault on Ukraine.

Right now, the race for the White House is too close for comfort. We call on Jill Stein to withdraw from the race, and endorse Kamala Harris for the presidency of the United States.

Mélanie Vogel, European Greens Co-chair and French Senator

Thomas Waitz, European Greens Co-chair and Austrian Member of the European Parliament

Groen - BELGIUM

Ecolo - BELGIUM

SF Green Left - DENMARK

Erakond Eestimaa Rohelised - ESTONIA

Vihreät - De Gröna - FINLAND

Les ��cologistes - FRANCE

Bündnis90/Die Grünen - GERMANY

Irish Green Party / Comhaontas Glas - IRELAND

Europa Verde  - ITALY

Partidul Verde Ecologist - MOLDOVA

GroenLinks - NETHERLANDS

Miljøpartiet De Grønne - NORWAY

Livre - PORTUGAL

Esquerra Verda - SPAIN

Miljöpartiet de gröna - SWEDEN

Grüne / Les Vert.e.s - SWITZERLAND

Zieloni - POLAND

Partija Zelenykh Ukrainy - UKRAINE

[keepxsolxinxsolxinvictus]

Politico

European Greens Ask Jill Stein to pull out of US election to prevent Trump victory

November 1, 2024

By Jakob Hanke Vela and Zoya Sheftalovich

“The race for the White House is too close for comfort,” write parties from around Europe, calling on Stein to throw her support behind Democrat Kamala Harris.

Green politicians from across Europe on Friday called on U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to withdraw from the race for the White House and endorse Democrat Kamala Harris instead.

“We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House,” Green parties from countries including Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, Poland and Ukraine said in a statement, which was shared with POLITICO ahead of publication.

Stein is on the ballot in almost every critical U.S. state and polls between 1.1 and 1.4 percent, meaning her candidacy could cost Harris critical votes in the tight race for the White House.

“Right now, the race for the White House is too close for comfort,” the statement said. “We call on Jill Stein to withdraw from the race, and endorse Kamala Harris for the presidency of the United States.”

But with the election just days away — voters head to the polls on Nov. 5 — and the relationship between Europe’s Greens and Stein’s party strained, the plea seems unlikely to sway her.

Friday’s statement from the European Greens highlighted the “divergent values and policies” of the European and U.S. Greens, noting “there is no link between the two as the US Greens are no longer a member of the global organization of Green parties.”

The statement attributes the “fissure” to the American party’s “relationship with parties with authoritarian leaders, and serious policy differences on key issues including Russia’s full scale assault on Ukraine.”

Stein was criticized for attending a 2015 dinner in Moscow sponsored by Russian state television network RT, where she sat at the same table as President Vladimir Putin.

[ummick]

"Our favourite kind of car shoot. 📸🤩" - august 7, 2024 📷 @.mercedesamgf1 / instagram

[umlewis]

spot the mistake challenge | grill the grid 2024, but it's just lewis - august 14, 2024

[umseb]

"Which superstar is behind 'Sebastian Sprater?' 🤔 🚵 A world-famous athlete is taking part in the Swiss Epic, the multi-day mountain bike race. But under a pseudonym. It is the 4-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel. 🚵 Vettel finished the race through the Swiss Alps with his partner 'Maik Sparmann' in 129th place, a good 2 hours behind the winning team. 🚵 Of course, the former F1 star cannot contest such a race in complete anonymity, he knows that himself. Especially since Vettel recently competed in the Offroad Finnmark mountain bike race in Norway under the same pseudonym, as the Altaposten newspaper reported." - august 24, 2024 📷 @.srfsport / instagram

[umgeorge]

spot the mistake challenge | grill the grid 2024, but it's just george - august 14, 2024

[usafphantom2]

Can the old but powerful F-16 surpass Russia's most advanced Su-35 fighter?

While the F-16s piloted by Ukraine prepare to duel against the Russian Su-35s, this will be a conflict between Western and Russian views on how a fighter should be.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 24/03/2024 - 23:41in Military, War Zones

In the skies of Ukraine, one of the most dramatic fighter duels in decades is taking shape between an aged but highly powerful Western jet and one of Russia's most advanced fighters: the battle of the F-16 Fighting Falcon against the Sukhoi Su-35. Who has the best chance of winning a fight?

This will be more than a fighter confrontation. It will be a battle of philosophies between the Russian conception of fighters optimized for air combat, versus the Western conception of jets equally adept at air-to-air and air-to-ground combat.

It is also a battle between the old and the new. The F-16s that Ukraine will receive were designed in the 1970s, although they have been heavily updated over the years. However, desperate to replace its ever-dinquering fleet of Soviet-era Su-27 and MiG-29 fighters, Ukraine will be pleased to receive 45 or more used F-16s from Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, which are replacing their Falcons with F-35 stealth fighters. With Ukrainian pilots currently being trained in the US and other countries, the first F-16s piloted by Ukrainians will be able to fly in the middle of this year.

F-16 vs. Su-35: in numbers

F-16

Span: 9.45 meters

Length: 15.03 meters

Height: 5.09 meters

Weight: 8,495 kg without fuel

Speed: 2,414 km/h (Mach 2 at altitude)

Combat range (F-16A/B): 925 kilometers

Cost: $63 million for the latest F-16V model

Su-35

Span: 15.3 meters

Length: 21.9 meters

Height: 5.9 meters

Weight: 18,400 kg without fuel

Maximum speed: 2,414 km/h (Mach 2.25 in altitude)

Combat range: approx. 1,600 kilometers

Cost: US$ 85 million (estimated)

The Su-35 made its combat debut during Russia's intervention in 2016 in Syria. But the war in Ukraine marks the true baptism of fire of the Su-35 against an opponent equipped with modern fighters and anti-aircraft missiles.

Comparing the F-16 to the Su-35 is not easy. The F-16 is a fourth-generation aircraft that entered service in the late 1970s alongside the F-15 Eagle and the Soviet Su-27 and MiG-29. The Su-35 is considered part of the 4.5 generation, which are fourth-generation upgraded fighters that were introduced in the late 1990s, including the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and MiG-35.

"This is not a criticism of the F-16," said Brynn Tannehill, a defense expert and former U.S. Navy aviator, "but it was designed in the 1970s."

Anyway, the risks could not be greater. Although fighters manufactured in the US and Russia have been hurting since the Korean War in 1950, the next confrontation in the skies of Ukraine will be vital. Russian air power has performed poorly, despite numerical and technological superiority in Ukraine, but recent air attacks using glider bombs have devastated the Ukrainian defenses. To stop the constant Russian bombing and launch a successful counter-offensive, Ukraine will have to at least challenge air control and ideally be able to launch its own air strikes.

Viper and Flanker

The F-16 Fighting Falcon (commonly known as "Viper" and occasionally as "Lawn Dart") was conceived out of shame. During the Vietnam War, the most powerful nation in the world failed to dominate the small air force of North Vietnam. One of the reasons was that the U.S. military was using aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom - a powerful but heavy fighter, originally designed to intercept Soviet bombers instead of agile MiGs in air combat.

This stimulated a controversial group of innovators - the legendary "fighter mafia" - to convince the U.S. Air Force that it needed a small, light and relatively cheap fighter that could perform dogfights, instead of relying on long-range air-to-air missiles, as the F-4 had. The result was one of the most prolific modern jets, with more than 4,600 built since 1976, used by 25 countries and growing. He also saw more combat than most current fighters, especially by the U.S. and Israeli air forces.

"It's a good aircraft in practically everything, but it's not the best in anything."

The Viper is about 15 meters long, 10 meters long and weighs about 10 tons. It can reach a speed of Mach 2 (double the speed of sound), is highly maneuverable and is armed with a 20 mm cannon, as well as 11 hardpoints to transport weapons and lenable tanks, as well as pods to block radars and identify ground targets for accurately guided ammunition. Its exact weaponry in Ukrainian hands will depend on the ammunition that the US and Europe agree to send, but the F-16 is equally formidable in air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. In addition to the air-to-air missiles guided by medium-range AIM-120 radar and the AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-guided missiles, it can carry JDAM glider pumps, HARM anti-radiation missiles and probably European long-range missiles, such as the Storm Shadow from Great Britain. The advanced medium-range air-to-air missile AIM-120, or AMRAAM, is particularly important. Unlike Ukraine's current radar-guided air-to-air missiles, which require the launch aircraft to continuously keep the radar fixed on the target, the AMRAAM has a "shot and forget" on-board radar that locks autonomously on the target.

But versatility in all things means less capacity in anything. “You can use the F-16 for air-to-air combat, but it's not as good as an F-15′′,” says Tannehill. “You can use it for approximate air support, but it's not as good as an A-10. It can perform ground attacks, but it's not as good as an F-15E Strike Eagle. ... It's a good aircraft in practically everything, but it's not the best at all."

The Su-35 also has a complicated story. It is a descendant of the Su-27 of the late 1970s (NATO codename: "Flanker"), an aircraft of air superiority designed for air-to-air combat. It was intended to be the Soviet response to the F-15: just look at the two twin-engine aircraft to see that they have more in common than the F-15 has with the single-engine F-16.

The Su-35 was conceived in the early 1980s as a more maneuverable version of the Su-27 Flanker (hence the Su-35 being known as "Flanker-E" or "Super Flanker"). After Sukhoi tried several prototypes under the Soviet and then Russian governments, the current Su-35 took shape in the early 2000s as an improved Su-27 with some air-to-ground capacity that makes it more similar to fighter-bombers such as the F-16.

The Su-35 simply surpasses the F-16. With a length of 22 meters and a wingspan of 15 meters, the Su-35 is about 50% larger than the F-16; with more than 18 tons, it has almost twice the weight of the Viper. The Su-35 is armed with a 30 mm cannon, as well as a dozen hardpoints capable of launching a series of air-to-air and air-to-ground ammunition. What is of particular concern to Ukraine and the West are its R-37 and R-77 long-range radar air-to-air missiles, which are "shir and forget" missiles and which can hit Ukrainian aircraft out of range of Ukrainian aviation.

To complicate things is the variety of aircraft involved. There are many variants of the half-century-old F-16, including several "blocks" of U.S. Air Force Vipers, as well as country-specific models for nations like Israel. The latest version is the F-16 Block 70, with an APG-83 AESA radar, an updated engine and conformal fuel tanks.

But the Danish and Dutch F-16s promised to Ukraine are models of the Cold War. They are F-16 MLU (Mid Life Update) models, which are European F-16A/Bs from the late 1970s that were updated in the mid-1990s with features such as an improved AN/APG-66(V)2 radar (an older non-AESA sensor), GPS navigation and the ability to launch AIM-120 missiles. It is reasonable to assume that they are inferior to the most recent Vipers, but much superior to the F-16s of the Cold War era.

"With the Mid-Life update, what you should keep in mind is that these aircraft have been continuously updated with software that allows them to use modern weapons," explains Tannehill.

The Su-35 is more maneuverable, but that won't help

Usually, a smaller vehicle is more maneuverable than a larger vehicle. But for jet fighters, it's not that simple. There are a variety of technical factors, such as alar load (advantage: F-16) and thrust-weight ratio for fast acceleration (advantage: Su-35).

What is remarkable is that the Su-35 is considered "supermanoeuverable", largely because it uses thrust vectorization, which employs directionable nozzles to direct the thrust of the motor. Using a capacity found in only a few aircraft - including the F-22 and the Su-30MKI - the Su-35 can perform the spectacular "Sobra maneuver", where the fighter slows down abruptly and stays in the tail, forcing an enemy aircraft behind to overtake by speed.

Although impressive in air shows, the Cobra maneuver also deprives an aircraft of speed and energy, which is not good in air combat. But the real problem is that, although maneuverability was a problem in World War II or the Vietnam War, it is not an important factor in modern air combat. If today's jets go into combat, it is probably because one or both sides made a mistake or did not have the technical capacity for an attack out of visual range. The tendency is that modern fighters, such as the F-35, act as aerial snipers that stealther their prey with a long-range air-to-air missile that the target does not even detect until it is too late.

"What really matters is your radar, your range, your [network] connectivity and how unobservable [stealth] you are," says Tannehill. "The radar determines when you see the other guy. The range allows you to determine when you can shoot. Stealth allows you to get closer."

In fact, this has been the standard in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Fearing advanced ground-to-air missiles, such as the Russian S-400 and the US Patriot, both Russian and Ukrainian aircraft remained on their respective sides of the front line, instead of penetrating enemy airspace. Even if the Su-35 is really supermaneuvrable - which has not yet been proven in real combat - the war in Ukraine did not provide an opportunity to demonstrate this characteristic.

The Su-35 is the best sniper

Unfortunately for Ukraine, the Su-35 is deadly in air combat beyond visual range, as well as in air combat. First, the Su-35 can locate the F-16 before the Viper detects the Flanker-E; the Su-35's Irbis-E radar can detect air targets up to 400 kilometers (249 miles) away, according to its manufacturer, Tikhomirov.

Irbis is not very modern. It is a passive electronic scanning (PESA) system, which uses a single transmitter/receiver to emit a single beam on a single frequency through multiple antennas. This allows the radar beam to be electronically directed to different directions, without the need to mechanically rotate the antennas. This is not as advanced as the AESA radars used in many Western fighters - including the latest models F-16 Block 70 and Block 72 - which use multiple transmitters to emit multiple signals at multiple frequencies simultaneously.

EFSA radars can track multiple targets and are less susceptible to interference. However, Ukraine is not receiving F-16s equipped with EFSA. The AN/APG-66(V)2 radar of the F-16 MLU is a pulse doppler system with mechanically directed antennas that offer slower scanning at one frequency at a time. "The pulse-doppler is part of the 1980s crop," says Tannehill.

In addition, the Su-35 radar is more powerful. It has 5 kilowatts of power compared to only 770 watts of the AN/APG-66(V)2, says Tannehill. "I'm not saying he can see five times farther or ten times farther, but he can see much further than an APG-66."

As if the upper radar were not enough, the Su-35 has - on paper - better missiles. The R-37 has an estimated target detection range of 400 kilometers (249 miles), while the R-77-1 has a range of 110 kilometers (68 miles). These active "shoot and forget" guided missiles hit the neighborhood of their target and then use their own radar on board to hit the target.

The effectiveness of these missiles at such extreme distances is questionable, but against the oldest planes in Ukraine, the Su-35 has been lethal. The Su-35 and Su-30SM, flying safely behind the Russian lines at 30,000 feet, are focusing on Ukrainian jets with their Irbis radar and then firing R-37 and R-77-1 missiles. Ukrainian fighters are armed with Soviet-era R-27 missiles, with a range of about 80 kilometers. These weapons from the early 1980s use semi-active radar that requires the launcher aircraft to continuously illuminate the target with a radar beam.

“Ukrainian pilots confirm that Russia's Su-30SM and Su-35S completely outperform the fighters of the Ukrainian Air Force on a technical level,” according to a November 2022 report by the British think tank Royal United Services Institute. “Throughout the war, Russian fighters have often managed to lock the radar and launch R-77-1 missiles against Ukrainian fighters more than 100 kilometers [62 miles] away. Even if these shots have a low probability of slaughter, they force Ukrainian pilots to be on the defensive or run the risk of being hit while still very out of their effective range, and some of these long-range shots hit the target."

The US agreed to arm Ukraine's F-16s with the advanced medium-range air-to-air missile AIM-120, first deployed in 1991. Although the U.S. Air Force website lists the range of the AMRAAM as more than 20 miles, it is estimated that the latest AIM-120D has a range of about 160 kilometers, which would surpass the R-77, but not the R-37. The Ukrainian government said in September 2023 that its AMRAAMs would have a range of about 160 to 180 kilometers (99 to 112 miles), which points to the AIM-120D.

Final Verdict

The result of a long-range missile duel between Flanker-E and Viper will depend on many factors, including the quality of airborne blockers and baits, how well these fighters are integrated into radars and ground missiles, and coordination between the Su-35s fighters and Russian A50 airborne radar aircraft.

And there are still other factors that may not become evident until the combat is started. Equipped with the standard NATO Link 16 data link, the F-16 probably has a higher network capacity than the Su-35. This will make it easier for the Vipers to coordinate with other air and ground platforms, including receiving early alerts and targeting data from other sensors. Although advanced Russian aircraft also have data links, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been plagued by unreliable communication systems and a strict command and control.

Even if they were at a disadvantage and in smaller numbers, the Ukrainian F-16s could fly low to avoid radar detection amid the confusion on the ground and then use sensor data from other platforms to launch an AIM-120 against Russian aircraft. “Russians can find out in the hardest way how good the datalink plus AMRAAM is,” says Tannehill.

Or maybe the Ukrainian F-16s try to avoid air combat whenever possible. Instead, they can be considered more valuable as air-to-ground platforms, launching HARM anti-radiation missiles against Russian air defense radars, and cruise missiles and glider bombs against bridges, supply depots and command posts.

For Russia, the threat posed by the Su-35 will keep the F-16s under control. The duel between two of the most competent fighters in the world can end in a draw.

Source: Popular Mechanics

Tags: Military AviationF-16 Fighting FalconSu-35 FlankerWar Zones - Russia/Ukraine

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: James Crisp

Published: Apr 13, 2024

Belgium and the Netherlands have become the latest countries to question the use of puberty blockers on children after the Cass Review warned of a lack of research on the gender treatment’s long-term effects.

Britain has become the fifth European nation to restrict the use of the drug to under 18s after initially making them part of their gender treatments.

Their use was based on the “Dutch protocol” - the term used for the practice pioneered in the Netherlands in 1998 and copied around the world, of treating gender dysphoric youth using puberty blockers.

The NHS stopped prescribing the drug, which is meant to curb the trauma of a body maturing into a gender that the patient does not identify with this month.

In Belgium, doctors have called for gender treatment rules to be changed.

‘Last resort’

“In our opinion, Belgium must reform gender care in children and adolescents following the example of Sweden and Finland, where hormones are regarded as the last resort,” the report by three paediatricians and psychiatrists in Leuven said.

Figures from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom show that more than 95 per cent of individuals who initiated puberty inhibition continue with gender-affirming treatments,” the report by P Vankrunkelsven P, K Casteels K and J De Vleminck said.

“However, when young people with gender dysphoria go through their natural puberty, these feelings will only persist in about 15 per cent.”

The report was published after a 60 per cent rise in the number of Belgium teenagers taking the blockers to stop the development of their bodies. In 2022, 684 people between the ages of nine and 17 were prescribed the drug compared to 432 in 2019, the De Morgen newspaper reported in 2019.

Pressure is also building in the neighbouring Netherlands to look again at their use. The parliament has ordered research into the impact of puberty blockers on adolescent’s physical and mental health.

Dutch Protocol

The Telegraph understands that the Amsterdam Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, where the Protocol originated, is set to make a statement on the use of puberty blockers next week.

“I too thought that the Dutch gender care was very careful and evidence-based. But now I don’t think that any more,” Jilles Smids, a postdoctoral researcher in medical ethics at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, told The Atlantic.

Attitudes in the Netherlands have hardened against trans rights, with a bill to make it easier for people to legally change their gender being held up in parliament.

The Cass Review said that the NHS had moved away from the restrictions of the original Dutch Protocol, and researchers in Belgium have also demanded those restrictions be reintroduced.

Belgium is regarded as one of the most trans-friendly countries in Europe. A minister in the government is transgender and people have been able to legally change their gender without a medical certificate for the past five years.

But the hard-Right Vlaams Belang party is currently leading the polls ahead of national and European elections in June.

It has called for “hormone therapy and sex surgery to be halted for underage patients until clear and concrete research has been carried out.”

‘Greatest ethical scandals’

In March, a report in France described sex reassignment in minors as potentially “one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine”.

Conservative French senators plan to introduce a bill to ban gender transition treatments for the under-18s.

On Monday, the Vatican’s doctrine office published a report that branded gender surgery a grave violation of human dignity on a par with euthanasia and abortion.

Finland was one of the first countries to adopt the Dutch Protocol but realised many of its patients did not meet the Protocol’s strict eligibility requirements for the drugs.

It restricted the treatment in 2020 and recommended psychotherapy as the primary care.

Sweden restricted hormone treatments to “exceptional cases” two years later. In December, Norwegian authorities designated the medicine as “under trial”, which means they will only be prescribed to adolescents in clinical trials.

Denmark is finalising new guidelines limiting hormone treatments to teenagers who have had dysphoria since early childhood.

In 2020, Hungary passed a law banning gender changes on legal documents.

“The import and the use of these hormone products are not banned, but subject to case by case approval, however, it is certain that no authority would approve such an application for people under 18,“ a spokesperson told the Telegraph.

In August, Russia criminalised all gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments.

[ Via: https://archive.today/0oU9Z ]

==

It's kind of ironic that in the early 20th century, Russia was the center of the scientific corruption and scandal that was Lysenkoism, where ideology trumped reality. Millions suffered and died as a result of denying biological reality.

The process of cementing Lysenkoism was eerily familiar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysenkoism

On August 7, 1948, at the end of a week-long session organized by Lysenko and approved by Stalin, the Academy of Agricultural Sciences announced that Lysenkoism would henceforth be taught as "the only correct theory." Soviet scientists were required to denounce any work that contradicted Lysenko, and criticism was denounced as "bourgeois" or "fascist".

Today, countries like the US, Canada and Australia are up to their armpits in a modern-day form of Gender Lysenkoism.