#euro 2020 live

[tategaminu]

the rayllum comic being the most expensive one as it should be 💅

[chiosavince]

[seb-boo]

Sebastian Vettel Interview with NRC 🇳🇱 [2025-03-23] English Translation ↴

Sebastian Vettel felt guilty. It was the end of 2020 and he had accurately calculated his carbon output from a season of Formula 1. The conclusion: his footprint was equivalent to that of 40 people.

“I came out to about 400 tons per year. An average person emits about 10 tons, and that's already a problem.”

Vettel, 37, sits in his office in a picturesque northern Swiss village in mid-February. What the village is called, Vettel does not want the newspaper to know because of privacy concerns. From behind his desk, the four-time world champion looks out on snow-covered hills and Lake Constance, which flows into the Rhine nearby. Across the way lies his native Germany.

Half an hour earlier, Vettel arrived in his electric Porsche from his farm, where he lives with his wife and three children. After his F1 retirement in late 2022, he rarely gives interviews. But he does agree to a request from NRC to talk about the unusual transformation he has gone through: he was a Formula One driver, and is now committed to climate change.

As a racing driver, are you credible when you speak out about climate?“People can decide that for themselves. Am I a hypocrite? Yes. Are we all hypocrites? Probably. Is it about not being a hypocrite? Then you should have no footprint at all. That's not doable for myself, nor for virtually all 8 billion other people.”

Somewhere on the bottom shelf of a cabinet in Vettel's office is a figurine shaped like the nose of an F1 car, with an engraved plaque on it: Sebastian Vettel, jüngster Weltmeister. Vettel was 23 when he first became F1 champion in 2010, as the youngest driver ever - a record that still stands. He drove, like Max Verstappen now, at Red Bull Racing, and immediately won another three world titles for that team. In 2015 he left for Ferrari, to bid farewell to Formula 1 at the end of 2022 after two years with Aston Martin. Vettel won 53 races, the fourth highest number in F1 history.

Vettel stood out for more than his performance, in the sport dominated by commercial interests where, apart from Lewis Hamilton, virtually no one touches on social issues. In the final years of his F1 career, Vettel increasingly spoke out publicly about injustices, such as discrimination against LGBTQ. But most of all, he talked about the environment and climate.

He also took action. For example, he gave guest lectures on sustainability to schoolchildren and went into the stands after the British Grand Prix to clean up trash left behind. When Formula One first raced in Miami, he wore a T-shirt warning that that city would be under water in a while. He also offered the shirt for sale in his Web shop; proceeds went to environmental organization Sea Shepherd. Vettel, who earned tens of millions of euros a year in his heyday, also invested in the Swiss company Climeworks, which puts up factories that remove CO2 from the air.

At the beginning of his career, Vettel knew somewhere that there was a problem. Sometimes things struck him, like when he saw firsthand the deforestation in that country around an F1 race in Malaysia. But he didn't think more deeply about it yet: he was young, the future seemed endlessly distant and racing swallowed up all his attention. The birth of his oldest daughter, in 2014, sparked a turnaround.

“Then suddenly you hold the future in your arms. You think: I have to protect this baby. That's when I started to worry. So I started looking into it and looking for a solution. I was in Formula 1, numbers and data everywhere. If the car isn't fast enough, you fix that.”

But addressing climate change is different than making an F1 car three tenths of a second faster, he soon realized. “My first emotion then was: dejection, and a kind of climate anxiety.”

Do you still have that?“Less so. I have much more hope now, after talking to experts and reading up on things. There are many solutions to the problem. We have solar panels, wind power and hydropower. Synthetic fuels for in your car. But the problem is that we still don't feel the urgency enough.”

At the time, did you ever consider stopping racing right away?“Yes. But if I continued, I could make my voice heard more clearly. I did think: I should quit today, and go live in the woods and survive with what I can find there. That's just not going to work. We can't go back. We can fly less, take bicycles instead of cars. Great, I'm all for it. But for the big picture, a lot more is needed.”

Because of that big footprint, would it have been better if you had never become a racing driver? Or do you feel that being able to campaign publicly now outweighs that?“I don't know. If I hadn't raced, someone else would have been in my seat. I want to be modest, but I think I did reach people with my actions and projects. Although there are also plenty who say: it's a hoax. You're a hypocrite, get back in the car and shut up. Fine. Maybe they are afraid of the same things I am, but just express it differently.”

When it dawned on him that he himself was also part of the climate problem, Vettel started “slightly obsessively” keeping track of everything. “Which flights did I take? What rides did I take to the airport, from the hotel to the track? In what kind of car? From what year of manufacture?”

That's how he ended up with 400 tons. “Then you think: you really are a problem for the planet. Then I changed course. I looked at what was worst on my list. I was still flying in private jets then. Was that really necessary? Or could I just get on a scheduled flight with 150 others? Yes, so I stopped private flights altogether. And when I could, I went to races by car. Belgium, Spain. Sometimes also by train. To Italy, for example, when I drove for Ferrari. I said: I take the train, to which they responded: you are a Ferrari driver. Ferrari drivers don't come by train. But I can be stubborn. Long story short: that's how I got my footprint down to 60 tons."

“But of course I was in a privileged position. I made a lot of money, could stop whenever I wanted. Had all the choices. It doesn't work if you start pointing your finger at people who toil very hard to make ends meet and saying, how dare you fly to Thailand? I don't believe in that culture of blaming each other. It's also never going to work to explain to people that they have to give things up.”

Do we have to give things up?“We will have to change. That's what's different. We have to become aware of the problem and understand it. I gave up fast and comfortable travel because I was aware that we have a problem. That's why awareness is so important. But that doesn't mean we should dictate people's choices.”

Does it worry you that that awareness is difficult as more and more people vote for political parties that deny the problem?“Yes. We've made so much progress, and it feels like it's stalled now. That's a danger, and I don't know the answer to it either. All those screamers who shout: follow me, I have the solution, don't let any more foreigners in. Ultimately, I think that comes from insecurity. Yes, we want strong leaders in politics, but we also want leaders who are vulnerable and admit that mistakes have been made."

“I think the younger generation is much more open to that. To give an example, when I raced, we competed super hard on the track. Outside the car you didn't talk to the other person, because that was your enemy. Now they race just as hard against each other, but they go party together the next night.”

"We've made so much progress, and it feels like it's stalled now. That's a danger, and I don't know the answer to it either.”

Now that Vettel no longer drives in Formula One, his life looks a lot quieter. Very occasionally he still shows up in the paddock at a Grand Prix, always to draw attention to a problem he considers important. In 2023, for example, he appeared at the race in Japan because he had eleven insect hotels erected next to the circuit, which he had helped build himself. At the Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia in April, he will host a race for women event.

But otherwise, Vettel is mostly occupied with his family and has far fewer commitments than during his career, when almost every day was filled with racing, training and promotional activities. He no longer races, does not come to his office nearly every day and does not do any other regular work.

After you announced your farewell, you said you were a little afraid of life after Formula One. Is it as scary as you thought it would be?*Laughs* “Well, I don't wake up screaming. But I made a conscious decision not to have anything in my schedule at all, and that is a challenge. The lack of structure. For as long as I can remember, I was always racing. You're still working on things after the season until Christmas, then you have a few weeks of vacation and from January everything starts again. Every year is the same. And besides that, I was used to getting confirmation every two weeks on how I was doing. You drive your lap time, and you know right away how good you are. But of course my wife doesn't give me a printout in the morning saying I was a good husband yesterday."

“I miss racing, but that's more about the competition, the challenge, than the pure driving. I think I've always been a little different, in the sense that I didn't identify as a driver as much as others. When people asked me what I did, I never just said: I drive Formula 1. Maybe I was a bit insecure, I didn't want to brag.”

Vettel can regularly be found in the clay these days: he is completing a one-year agricultural course next summer. “Since the pandemic I am very interested in agriculture, also because of the link between agriculture and climate. Not just of: I like vegetables and I want to grow them myself, but really the Formula 1 approach. There you're always looking for the last bit of performance from your car. Of course, I'm not looking for the last bit of performance from a potato, but I do want to know what the difference is between conventional and organic cultivation.”

Are you going to make that your job?“No, I don't see myself doing that full-time. But I enjoy that it's work that literally puts both feet on the ground. You learn patience, because you really do have to wait for the vegetables to grow. When you work with animals, you don't control everything. I think there are important values in such work, which I would like to pass on to my children.”

He occasionally gives demonstrations in old F1 cars, which he fills up with alternative, more sustainable fuel. This is made using green energy from biomass, as well as CO2 taken from the atmosphere. CO2 emissions are 80 percent lower than regular fuel, but the price is still about three times higher. Starting in 2026, Formula 1 will switch to similar sustainable fuels - and, in addition, half of its cars will be electrically powered.

“Formula 1 has a lot of potential,” he says. “With all the money going into it, the sport can really change. The fact that synthetic fuel is coming next year is a very good step.”

Although F1 is the sport pre-eminently labeled “polluting,” the footprint of Vettel's former biotope is smaller than that of, say, the World Cup. Formula One emitted the equivalent of 223,000 tons of CO2 in 2022, according to a sustainability brief released by the sport last year. FIFA estimated emissions from the World Cup in Qatar that same year were 16 times higher. Race car emissions are negligible - less than 1 percent of Formula One's total emissions. The real climate impact is in the logistics of the championship, with 24 races annually on five continents.

“At the end of the day, it's also not about cars driving around in circles,” says Vettel, ”but about all that travel around the world. Team members going to races. Parts being sent back and forth. The dog-thousands of fans coming to Zandvoort, Monza and Melbourne. How do they get around? Where does their trash go? How will such a race be powered? There are still many challenges there.”

Can all that be done in a sustainable way at all?“It will have to. And that applies not only to Formula 1, but also, for example, to all the concerts that take place week in, week out. We have to learn to think more circularly. Formula 1 can be an excellent example in this regard. It's not the first sport you think of when it comes to sustainability. But it is a global sport that can show people that change is possible.”

The goal of no more than 1.5 degrees of warming from the Paris climate agreement is virtually unachievable. Shouldn't we just ban Formula 1 then?“Fair question. I love this sport, I grew up with it. So very selfishly: it would be a shame if I could no longer watch it in the future. But much more importantly, what about all those kids who now look up to drivers, like I once looked up to Michael [Schumacher]? Who dream of becoming drivers too. Should we crush that dream? I don't think so.”

[txttletale]

Hi! Do you think you could link me to some resources about the problems/ evils of the EU? Would love to find some but it's hard to know what's reliable when I have no base knowledge in this area + you seem very well informed :)

sure. let's start with what the EU does to its own member states--in 2009, the EU bailed the greek government out of severe debt on the condition that they establish brutal austerity measures, cutting public spending and welfare. these measures served to immiserate and destroy the lives of thousands of greek people:

Greek mortality has worsened significantly since the beginning of the century. In 2000, the death rate per 100,000 people was 944.5. By 2016, it had risen to 1174.9, with most of the increase taking place from 2010 onwards.

[forbes]

Since the implementation of the austerity programme, Greece has reduced its ratio of health-care expenditure to GDP to one of the lowest within the EU, with 50% less public hospital funding in 2015 than in 2009. This reduction has left hospitals with a deficit in basic supplies, while consumers are challenged by transient drug shortages.

[the lancet]

The homeless population is thought to have grown by 25 per cent since 2009, now numbering 20,000 people.

[oxfam]

the most brutal treatment, however, the EU of course reserves for migrants from the global south. the EU sets strict migration quotas and uses its member states as weapons against desperate people fleeing across the mediterranean. boats are prevented from landing, migrants that do make it to land are repelled with brutal violence, and refugees are deported back to countries where their lives are in lethal danger. these policies have led to many, many deaths--and the refugees and migrants who do survive are treating fucking inhumanely.

After a perilous journey across the desert, Abdulaziz was locked up in Triq al-Sikka, a grim prison in Tripoli, Libya. Why? Because the EU pays Libyan militias millions of euros to detain anyone deemed a possible migrant to Europe [...] A leaked EU internal memorandum in 2020 acknowledged that capturing migrants was now “a profitable business model” [...] in Triq al-Sikka and other detention centres, “acts of murder, enslavement, torture, rape and other inhumane acts are committed against migrants”, observed a damning UN report.

[the guardian]

Volunteers have logged more than 27,000 deaths by drowning since 1993, often hundreds at a time when large ships capsize. These account for nearly 80% of all the entries.

[the guardian]

Refugees and asylum seekers were punched, slapped, beaten with truncheons, weapons, sticks or branches, by police or border guards who often removed their ID tags or badges, the committee said in its annual report. People on the move were subject to pushbacks, expulsion from European states, either by land or sea, without having asylum claims heard. Victims were also subject to “inhuman and degrading treatment”, such as having bullets fired close to their bodies while they lay on the ground, being pushed into rivers, sometimes with hands tied, or being forced to walk barefoot or even naked across a border.

[the guardian]

In September, Greece opened a refugee camp on the island of Samos that has been described as prison-like. The €38m (£32m) facility for 3,000 asylum seekers has military-grade fencing and CCTV to track people’s movements. Access is controlled by fingerprint, turnstiles and X-rays. A private security company and 50 uniformed officers monitor the camp. It is the first of five that Greece has planned; two more opened in November.

[the guardian]

i could go on. i could cite dozens more similarly brutal news stories about horrific mistreatment, or any of the dozens of people who have killed themselves in the custody of border police under horrific conditions. the EU is a murderous institution that does not care about the lives of refugees and migrants or about the lives of the citizens of any member state that is not pursuing a vicious enough neoliberal political program

[umseb]

Former Formula 1 champion is committed to the climate. "Then you think you’re a real problem for the planet."

Sebastian Vettel was Formula 1 champion. Now he is committed to the climate. "Am I a hypocrite? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Are we all that? Probably."

Sebastian Vettel felt guilty. It was the end of 2020 and he had carefully calculated his CO2 production from a Formula 1 season. The conclusion: his footprint was equal to that of forty people. "I came up with about 400 tons per year. An average person emits about 10 tons, and that is already a problem." Vettel (37) is sitting in his office in a picturesque northern Swiss village in mid-February. Vettel does not want the name of the village to be published in the newspaper for privacy reasons. From behind his desk, the four-time world champion looks out over snow-covered hills and Lake Constance, which is fed by the Rhine. On the other side lies his native Germany. Half an hour earlier, Vettel had driven up in his electric Porsche from his farm, where he lives with his wife and three children. After his F1 farewell at the end of 2022, he rarely gives interviews. But he does agree to a request from NRC to talk about the unusual transformation he has undergone: he was a Formula 1 driver and is now committed to the climate.

Are you credible as a driver if you speak out about the climate?

“People can decide that for themselves. Am I a hypocrite? Yes. Are we all hypocrites? Probably. Is it about not being a hypocrite? Then you shouldn’t have a footprint at all. That’s not possible for me, and it’s not possible for almost any of the other 8 billion people.” Somewhere on the bottom shelf of a cupboard in Vettel’s office is a statuette in the shape of the nose of an F1 car, with an engraved plaque on it: Sebastian Vettel, jüngster Weltmeister. Vettel was 23 when he first became F1 champion in 2010, the youngest driver ever – a record that still stands. He drove, like Max Verstappen now, for Red Bull Racing, and immediately won three more world titles for that team. In 2015 he left for Ferrari, to say goodbye to Formula 1 at the end of 2022 after two years with Aston Martin. Vettel won 53 races, the fourth most in F1 history.

Bee hotel

Vettel stood out for more than his achievements, in a sport dominated by commercial interests where hardly anyone except Lewis Hamilton addresses social issues. In the last years of his F1 career, Vettel increasingly spoke out publicly about injustice, such as discrimination against LGBTI people. But he mostly talked about the environment and climate. He also took action. For example, he gave guest lectures on sustainability to schoolchildren and went to the stands after the British Grand Prix to clean up litter. When Formula 1 raced in Miami for the first time, he wore a T-shirt warning that the city would soon be flooded. He also offered the shirt for sale in his webshop; the proceeds went to environmental organization Sea Shepherd. Vettel, who earned tens of millions of euros a year in his heyday, also invested in the Swiss company Climeworks, which builds factories that remove CO2 from the air.

At the beginning of his career, Vettel knew somewhere that there was a problem. Sometimes he noticed things, like when he saw the deforestation in Malaysia with his own eyes around an F1 race in that country. But he didn't think about it any deeper: he was young, the future seemed endlessly far away and racing absorbed all his attention. The birth of his eldest daughter, in 2014, set a turning point in motion. "Then you suddenly hold the future in your arms. You think: I have to protect this child. That's when I started to worry. So I started to delve into it and look for a solution. I was in Formula 1, numbers and data everywhere. If the car isn't fast enough, you solve it." But tackling climate change is a different matter than making an F1 car three tenths of a second faster, he quickly realized. "My first emotion then was: despondency, and a kind of climate anxiety."

Do you still feel that way? “Less. I have much more hope now, after talking to experts and reading up on the subject. There are many solutions to the problem. We have solar panels, wind energy and hydropower. Synthetic fuels for your car. But the problem is that we don’t feel the urgency enough yet.” Did you ever consider quitting racing right away? “Yes. But if I continued, I could make my voice heard more clearly. I did think: I have to quit today, and go live in the woods and survive on what I can find there. That just won’t work. We can’t go back. We can fly less, take the bike instead of the car. Great, I’m all for it. But for the bigger picture, much more is needed.” Would it have been better if you had never become a racer because of that large footprint? Or do you think that being able to take public action now outweighs that? "I don't know. If I hadn't raced, someone else would have been in my seat. I want to be modest, but I think I have reached people with my actions and projects. Although there are also plenty of people who say: it's a hoax. You're a hypocrite, get back in the car and keep your mouth shut. Fine. Maybe they are afraid of the same things as I am, but they just express it differently."

By train

When it dawned on him that he himself was part of the climate problem, Vettel started keeping track of everything "slightly obsessively". "What flights did I take? What trips did I make to the airport, from the hotel to the circuit? In what kind of car? From what year?" That's how he arrived at 400 tons. "Then you think: you are really a problem for the planet. That's when I changed course. I looked at what was the worst thing on my list. I was still flying private planes at the time. Was that really necessary? Or could I just sit on a scheduled flight with 150 others? Yes, so I stopped flying privately altogether. And when I could, I would drive to races. Belgium, Spain. Sometimes by train. To Italy, for example, when I was driving for Ferrari. I said: I'm taking the train, to which they responded: you're a Ferrari driver. Ferrari drivers don't come by train. But I can be stubborn. Long story short: that's how I got my footprint down to 60 tons. "But of course I was in a privileged position. I earned a lot of money, could stop whenever I wanted. Had all the choice. It doesn't work if you point your finger at people who are working hard to make ends meet and say: how dare you fly to Thailand? I don't believe in that culture of blaming each other. It will also never work to explain to people that they have to give things up.”

Should we give things up? “We have to change. That’s different. We have to become aware of the problem and understand it. I gave up fast and comfortable travel because I was convinced that we have a problem. That’s why awareness is so important. But that doesn’t mean we have to dictate people’s choices.” Does it worry you that awareness is difficult, now that more and more people are voting for political parties that deny the problem? “Yes. We have made so much progress, and now it feels like it has come to a standstill. That is a danger, and I don’t know the answer to it either. All those screamers who shout: follow me, I have the solution, don’t let any more foreigners in. Ultimately, I think that comes from insecurity. Yes, we want strong leaders in politics, but we also want leaders who are vulnerable and admit that mistakes have been made. “I think the younger generation is much more open to that. To give an example: when I was racing, we competed really hard on the track. Outside the car, you didn’t talk to the other person, because that was your enemy. Now they race each other just as hard, but the next night they party together.”

Now that Vettel is no longer in Formula 1, his life looks a lot quieter. Every now and then he still shows up in the paddock at a Grand Prix, always to draw attention to a problem that he considers important with an action. For example, he appeared at the 2023 race in Japan, because he had eleven insect hotels built next to the circuit there, which he had helped build himself. At the Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia in April, he will organize a race for women. But otherwise Vettel is mainly concerned with his family and has far fewer obligations than during his career, when almost every day was filled with racing, training and promotional activities. He no longer races, does not come to his office every day and does not do any other regular work.

After announcing your retirement, you said you were a bit afraid of life after Formula 1. Is it as scary as you thought it would be? Laughing: “Well, I don’t wake up screaming. But I’ve consciously chosen not to have anything in my diary, and that’s a challenge. The lack of structure. As long as I can remember, I’ve always been racing. After the season, you��re still busy with things until Christmas, then you have a few weeks off and then everything starts again in January. Every year is the same. And besides that, I was used to getting confirmation every two weeks of how I was doing. You drive your lap time, and you know straight away how good you are. But of course my wife doesn’t give me a printout in the morning saying that I was a good husband yesterday. “I miss racing, but that’s more about the competition, the challenge, than about pure driving. I think I’ve always been a bit different, in the sense that I identified myself as a racing driver less than others. When people asked me what I did, I never just said: I drive in Formula 1. Maybe I was a bit insecure, I didn’t want to brag.” Vettel can often be found in the clay these days: he will complete a one-year agricultural course next summer. “Since corona, I have been very interested in agriculture, also because of the link between agriculture and the climate. Not just from: I like vegetables and I want to grow them myself, but really the Formula 1 approach. You are always looking for the last bit of performance from your car. Of course, I am not looking for the last bit of performance from a potato, but I do want to know what the difference is between conventional and organic cultivation.”

Are you going to make that your job?

“No, I don’t see myself doing that full-time. But I enjoy the fact that it’s work that literally puts your feet on the ground. You learn to be patient, because you really have to wait for the vegetables to grow. When you work with animals, you don’t have everything under control. I think there are important values ​​in this kind of work, which I would like to pass on to my children.” He occasionally gives demonstrations in old F1 cars, which he fills up with alternative, more sustainable fuel. This is made using green electricity from biomass, and also from CO2 that has been removed from the atmosphere. The CO2 emissions are 80 percent lower than regular fuel, but the price is still about three times higher. From 2026, Formula 1 will switch to similar sustainable fuels – and the cars will also be half electric. “Formula 1 has a lot of potential,” he says. “With all the money involved, the sport can really change. The introduction of synthetic fuel next year is a very good step.” Although F1 is the sport that is most often labelled ‘polluting’, the footprint of Vettel’s former habitat is smaller than that of, for example, the World Cup. Formula 1 emitted the equivalent of 223,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2022, according to a sustainability statement released by the sport last year. FIFA estimated the emissions from the World Cup in Qatar that same year to be sixteen times higher. The emissions from the racing cars are negligible – less than 1 percent of Formula 1’s total emissions. The real climate impact lies in the logistics of the championship, with 24 races on five continents each year. “Ultimately, it’s not about cars driving around in circles,” says Vettel, “it’s about all that travelling around the world. Team members going to races. Parts being sent back and forth. The hundreds of thousands of fans coming to Zandvoort, Monza and Melbourne. How do they get around? Where does their waste go? How is such a race supplied with electricity? There are still many challenges there.”

Can all of this be done in a sustainable way? “It will have to be. And that applies not only to Formula 1, but also to all the concerts that take place week in, week out. We need to learn to think more circularly. Formula 1 can be an excellent example of this. It is not the first sport you think of when it comes to sustainability. But it is a global sport that can show people that change is possible.”

The Paris Climate Agreement's target of a maximum of 1.5 degrees of warming is virtually unachievable. Shouldn't we just ban Formula 1? "That's a fair question. I love this sport, I grew up with it. So it's very selfish: it would be a shame if I couldn't watch it in the future. But much more importantly: what about all those children who now look up to the drivers, like I once looked up to Michael [Schumacher]? They dream of becoming a driver too. Should we crush that dream? I don't think so."

[theanticool]

Since people are talking about Olympic women’s boxing for all the dumb reasons, let’s try to talk about the cool stuff going on this year.

The best boxer on the women’s side at the 2024 Games is arguably Busenaz Surmeneli. A 2020 Olympic gold medalist, the 26 year old from Turkey is looking to join Claressa Shields and Nicola Adams as the only women to repeat gold medals at the Olympics. She’s a 2x world champion, a champion at the Euro Games, and Euro boxing champ. She’s set to fight in the quarterfinals against Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng.

I said Surmaneli is the arguable best fighter at the games because there is another elite boxer competing - Ireland’s Kellie Harrington. Another gold medalist from the 2020 Games, Harrington is the heir to Katie Taylor’s amateur dominance for Ireland. Harrington is an accomplished amateur with world championship medals, euro championship medals, and euro games medals. She’s got wins over people like professional world champions like Caroline Dubois, Maiva Hamadouche, Beatriz Ferreira, and more. Fantastic boxer. Set to face off with Beatriz Ferreira on Saturday (Aug 3) in the semifinal for women’s 60 KG. Which is a fantastic fight.

This year, the Refugee Olympic Team’s flagbearer was a woman named Cindy Ngamba. Originally from Cameroon, the young woman lives in the UK. She was forced to flee Cameroon as a teenager and picked up boxing in the UK at 15. She’s been unable to secure citizenship or a VISA. After coming out as lesbian at 18, it was determined they couldn’t send her back to Cameroon because it is illegal in the country. While Cindy wasnt considered a big favorite, she won her round of 16 bout against 3rd ranked Tammara Thibeault of Canada. One more win would secure her a medal at women’s 75kg!

Over in women’s 57 kg, we have Ashleyann Lozada. Lozada is the first woman to make it to the Olympics from Puerto Rico! Nesthy Petecio became the first woman to ever medal at the Olympics for the Philippines in boxing (and 2nd ever) when she won silver back in Tokyo. She’s announced she will retire after this Olympic cycle and is looking to give the Philippines only its 2nd gold medal ever! There are so many personal stories that I could go into. Hell, everyone is talking about Imane Khelif but not her story. She grew up rural village in Algeria, selling scrap metal so she could get bus fare to make it to the gym. Marcelat Sakobi, of Congo, used her exit in the round of 32 to remind everyone that there is an ongoing genocide happening in Congo.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

Three years ago, Andrea Vanek was studying to be an arts and crafts teacher when spells of dizziness and heart palpitations suddenly started to make it impossible for her to even take short walks.

After seeing a succession of doctors she was diagnosed with long COVID and even now spends most of her days in the small living room of her third-floor Vienna apartment, sitting on the windowsill to observe the world outside.

"I can't plan anything because I just don't know how long this illness will last," the 33-year-old Austrian told AFP.

The first cases of COVID-19 were detected in China in December 2019, sparking a global pandemic and more than seven million reported deaths to date, according to the World Health Organization.

But millions more have been affected by long COVID, in which some people struggle to recover from the acute phase of COVID-19, suffering symptoms including tiredness, brain fog and shortness of breath.

Vanek tries to be careful not to exert herself to avoid another "crash", which for her is marked by debilitating muscle weakness and can last for months, making it hard to even open a bottle of water.

"We know that long COVID is a big problem," said Anita Jain, from the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme.

About six percent of people infected by coronavirus develop long COVID, according to the global health body, which has recorded some 777 million Covid cases to date.

Whereas the rates of long Covid after an initial infection are declining, reinfection increases the risk, Jain added.

- 'Everything hurts' -

Chantal Britt, who lives in Bern, Switzerland, contracted Covid in March 2020. Long COVID, she said, has turned her "life upside down" and forced her to "reinvent" herself.

"I was really an early bird.... Now I take two hours to get up in the morning at least because everything hurts," the 56-year-old former marathon runner explained.

"I'm not even hoping anymore that I'm well in the morning but I'm still kind of surprised how old and how broken I feel."

About 15 percent of those who have long COVID have persistent symptoms for more than one year, according to the WHO, while women tend to have a higher risk than men of developing the condition.

Britt, who says she used to be a "workaholic", now works part-time as a university researcher on long COVID and other topics.

She lost her job in communications in 2022 after she asked to reduce her work hours.

She misses doing sports, which used to be like "therapy" for her, and now has to plan her daily activities more, such as thinking of places where she can sit down and rest when she goes shopping.

A lack of understanding by those around her also make it more difficult.

"It's an invisible disease.... which connects to all the stigma surrounding it," she said.

"Even the people who are really severely affected, who are at home, in a dark room, who can't be touched anymore, any noise will drive them into a crash, they don't look sick," she said.

- Fall 'through the cracks' -

The WHO's Jain said it can be difficult for healthcare providers to give a diagnosis and wider recognition of the condition is crucial.

More than 200 symptoms have been listed alongside common ones such as fatigue, shortness of breath and cognitive dysfunction.

"Now a lot of the focus is on helping patients, helping clinicians with the tools to accurately diagnose long COVID, detect it early," she said.

Patients like Vanek also struggle financially. She has filed two court cases to get more support but both are yet to be heard.

She said the less than 800 euros ($840) she gets in support cannot cover her expenses, which include high medical bills for the host of pills she needs to keep her symptoms in check.

"It's very difficult for students who get long COVID. We fall right through the cracks" of the social system, unable to start working, she said.

Britt also wants more targeted research into post-infectious conditions like long COVID.

"We have to understand them better because there will be another pandemic and we will be as clueless as ever," she said.

[architect-2015]

Hand In Hand | mapi león

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

In which Kennedy Russo and María León have been a couple since Russo debuted at Fc Barcelona in 2020 - this well know to the public - so after the Fifa WWC 2023 the lioness gives insight of the pain caused by the spanish federation, she tells the players story.

◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤

The Call Up

Kennedy’s life since joining Barcelona has been as sweet as it could be, a record breaking transfer from Manchester United, winning league title after league title, winning the Champions League after the heartbreaking defeat the previous year and The summer of 22’ winning the European Championship along side her little sister Alessia.

But the joys of her international careers do not match those of her girlfriends, after their quarter final knockout in the Euros tournament, the truth began to spill about the Spanish Football Federation: the lack of respect for players, the harmful environment and the disrespectful head coach - Jorge Vilda.

María León had always been one to speak her mind, never let her thoughts and opinions be squashed by others. So she did what was right - She took a stand.

Mapi and 14 other Spaniards resigned from the national team, with a dream for change. A dream that turned into a nightmare.

The Federation took no notice of these players.

The game carried on.

So when the World Cup call ups were around the corner, they knew they had to give up their childhood ambitions to win a World Cup, to stand up for what is right.

————

In the cozy living room of Mapi León’s home, the couple laid out on the sofa - arms tight around one another. A conversation needed sat unspoken plaguing the air.

“Would you be okay if i played?” a shy mumble left Kennedy’s mouth, she obviously wanted to play as anyone would in a World Cup but she also wanted to support her other half.

María shifted undeath the 27 year old, sitting them up and holding her girlfriends face in her warm hands.

“mi corazón, of course you should play, you’re coming off the back of your biggest international win you can’t give up on your World Cup dream just because of me. That can’t happen, I’ll make sure it wont happen.”

Mapi’s voice was thick with emotion. She hadn’t given up on her dream - simply put it on the back burner - so the fact Kennedy would consider sacrificing hers made her angry. Not angry at her girlfriend, she could never be angry with her but angry with the world that power hungry men like Vilda not only effected her career but the game as a whole.

“Cariño you’ll go, you’ll play for your country, your sister, you’ll play for yourself and i’ll be here cheering as loud as i can being as proud as i can.”

————

The Tournament

The older Russo had excelled during the tournament, many sung her praises complementing her performance and goal scoring ability and her link ups with her younger sister.

She was making her opinion know with her now well recognised celebration, creating a ‘M L’ with her hands into the closest camera. A nod to her partner back home.

Getting through to the final was the best night of her career this far, celebrating with her team, her sister and her best friend Lucy Bronze - a women who had shared experiences of world cup disappointment like Kennedy.

To then find out Spain would be joining them well that was a feeling she couldn’t put into words, fear, excitement, being endlessly proud of her spanish friends for making to their first final but most of all anger, anger that María and many other couldn’t have their World Cup moment, anger their dreams had been taken away, anger that selfish men once again had come out on top.

————

The Final

{María❤️}

mi corazón, good luck with the game tonight. You’ll play amazing and hopefully you’ll be the one lifting that trophy! te amo! xxx

It was half time and the lionesses were down 1-0, a beautiful goal from Olga had put the spaniards infront. The eldest Russo had been yellow carded in the first 45 minutes for straight up shouting at the spanish head coach - every wrong action he made, she countered with a word to the referee or to his face. It was now clear that the young women had a strong desire to make this match miserable for the man. It’s the least she could do after all the damage he’s caused.

A speech from Sarina and Millie had instilled some determination into the squad but walking back out from the tunnel had been the thing to create a fire inside of Kennedy.

The second half had now been played in until the 87’ minute after a saved penalty from Jenni Hermoso, one in the opinion of Kennedy was well off the penalty spot.

A well timed pass from Lucy Bronze had Kennedy flying past the spanish back line, continuing her run towards Cata Coll, slotting it with a perfect strike into the top left corner.

The crowd erupts, before Kennedy could process what had happened, she had fallen victim to a human pile on- tears of overwhelming joy overflowed from her eyes.

A whistle was blown, a VAR check.

The words ‘possible offside’ had create a looming feeling of fear within the midfielder.

[CHECK COMPLETE: OFFSIDE]

The floor seemed to fall from beneath her feet, breath leaving her chest involuntarily, the spanish chants invading her ear as sobs left her mouth. Arms looked around her frame: Lucy. “Head up Russo we have time, we’ve got to keep going”

Many minutes of added time passed until the final whistle blew, they failed, they had lost. He had won.

Crashing to her knees - in that moment she couldn’t find it in herself to feel happy for her Barcelona teammates, she couldn’t begin to imagine how this would effect María’s international career, she could only feel the guilt seeping in. She was offside. She has ruined the lionesses chance of becoming world champions. She let her country down.

Whilst her time stood still as she laid there on the grass, the world moved on.

A delicate hand was placed in her back and her sister’s floral perfume surrounded her like a blanket of safety. Alessia. Her manicured hands hooked underneath her older sisters arms, pulling her into a sitting position.

All the adrenaline had left Kennedy , making a feeble attempt to support herself only led to her head falling onto the shoulder of her sister, looking for some form of comfort. A comfort she knew could only be provided by María.

It felt like hours that the sister duo sat on that pitch, their shirts now soaked with sweat and tears. A sobbing Lucy Bronze had joined the circle, arm in arm the three walked towards the tunnel of spaniards - who were eager to hold the trophy in their grasp.

The walk was agonising, through the rows of players, to shake hands and then to be bestowed with a silver medal. She like Mapi lived with a ‘second is the first loser’ mentality.

Her time on the pitch concluded with watching the trophy being lifted from afar, her eyes glued in the celebrations of the man she despised.

————

The Interview

“So Kennedy tell me how are you feeling?”

She hated interviews, especially after a loss.

“Uh- It’s hard you know. I’ve now had the opportunity to play in three world cups and i’m honoured to have done that but it’s just not a nice feeling to inch closer and closer every time to then fail, in the biggest moment of my career i was offside so… yeah it’s not a nice feeling at all.”

Anyone who was watching the interaction could tell that the Russo women was actively trying to keep her emotions at bay. Little things like tapping her foot, the furrow between her brown, and most noticeable rubbing her thumb harshly across the skin of her wrist - above a fine line tattoo of a lion.

“You are referring to your goal that was not allowed due to it being offside, do you agree with that decision?”

“Well it’s not up to me to undermine the decisions made by the referee, whilst some of them i do not agree with at the end of the day it’s not my job. I guess it just wasn’t in our cards to win today and yeah we’re all disappointed but we’ll come back from this. Train harder, play smarter. Our squad is full of young people who are no where near finished with their world cup dreams.”

“Now we saw you had some confrontations during the game with the spanish head coach, are you allowed to comment on that?”

“I mean i’m probably not but i can say i do not like Jorge Vilda, not as a coach and not as a person. When you are given the role of a head coach it is your job to keep your players safe, to respect your players, to respect the game and make sure your players have a good working environment. He does none of that. He abuses the authority he has been given and i find it disgusting. The RFEF and Jorge Vilda have shown on countless occasions their lack of professionalism.”

“And can i question you on your celebration from this tournament?”

“Of course so, my celebration is for someone back home, someone i said i would play for and i did. It was upholding my promise i made to her and to others that you shouldn’t let someone else tarnish your desire and whilst they cannot be here, i am so i said i’d carry that desire for all of us.”

“Is that in reference to the players of the spanish national team that are not here? You also said ‘she’ and it’s public knowledge that you and a certain Mapi León are in a relationship, did you see play for her”

“Every footballer has dreamt of playing and winning a world cup, and to be able to do that is the greatest achievement anyone could have. We know as players especially as women that things don’t always go our way - but to be able to stand up for what you believe to the scale those women did and continue to do is incredible, i’m so unbelievably proud of them because fear is a big factor in taking a stand. You could protest but if you fear the results, you won’t get anywhere. I stand hand in hand and in full support of those women. The game cannot progress unless there is change.”

————

Kennedy Russo - England national player - fined for statement made in a post match interview in regards to RFEF and Jorge Vilda.

In a post match interview after world cup final loss, Kennedy Russo who plays for the England National Team and FC Barcelona was fined by the RFEF for some comments she made on their in her words ‘lack of professionalism’

Whilst Sarina Weigman or The Lionesses are yet to comment on this, the decision was made to send Russo back to Barcelona prematurely.

————

Back home

There was no place she would rather be.

A silver WWC medal was sat on a shelving unit above her tv, among other items she had won over the course of her career.

Walking through the shared house towards the bedroom was the most exciting part. Finally being reunited with María after this last month.

Opening the door, a warm light flooded through the windows. Mapi laid asleep under the thin layer of sheets and a little black furball had taken his place on Kennedy’s pillow.

Taking a seat beside her girlfriend, her hand begins it’s course through her bleached hair. Leaning down she places a delicate kiss on her partners neck, seemingly waking her up in the process.

“Buenos días, sleepyhead”.

“Mmm? mi corazón? hola”

María shoots up from her position to wrap her arms around her lover, her face concealed in Kennedy’s neck. Tears of relief are flowing down her cheeks, she had missed this. She had missed her.

Russo shifts them so her girlfriend is sat on her lap whilst Kennedy’s back is against the light green headboard. Whispers of reassurance dance around the room as many kisses are placed on any exposed skin.

“I’m so proud of you Cariño but i’m so glad you’re back”

And while the World Cup had not gone the way anyone had planned, it was alright. This was all they needed - no medal could ever match the love they hold for one another.

wow a non WWE fic, i might start writing some more woso stuff but who knows also i dint speak spanish so some stuff might be incorrect ❤️

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Footage from on the night of February 29th, when the Israeli occupation forces opened fire on thousands of starving Palestinians gathered for humanitarian aid on Al-Rashid street in Gaza City. 118 Palestinian civilians were killed in the massacre and more than 700 others were wounded in the attack.]

🇮🇱⚔️���🇸 🚨

INVESTIGATION OF ISRAEL'S "FLOUR MASSACRE" CONFIRMS ZIONIST FORCES RESPONSIBLE FOR SHOOTING HUNDREDS OF STARVING PALESTINIANS

An investigation by Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (EURO-MED) into the "Flour massacre", which saw 118 starving Palestinian civilians killed and nearly 800 wounded in what the Israeli occupation tried to blame on a "stampede," says it has produced evidence that the majority of casualties were actually caused by the firing of live Israeli bullets.

The Flour massacre occured on February 29th, 2024 near the Nabulsi roundabout on Al-Rashid street in Gaza City, where thousands of hungry Palestinian families gathered for the arrival of a humanitarian aid convoy carrying food to starving crowds that desperately needed sustenance.

Soon after the trucks arrived, gunfire erupted, including tracer rounds which could be seen in video evidence taken at the time, causing thousands of civilians to panic, running off in different directions in search for shelter.

The Israeli occupation authorities used heavily edited clips of night vision drone video to argue that nearly a thousand Palestinian casualties were a result of a stampede after Israeli forces fired rifles into the air to defend themselves from defenseless civilians desperate for food, whom they claim were looting the free food being distributed to the crowds.

So senseless was Israel's explanations for the atrocity, that even CNN's Christiane Amanpour, a normally deferential TV commentator who rarely resists the official narratives of the Israeli occupation, had to push back against Israeli officials on U.S. national television.

But a newly published report by the Geneva-based human rights organization, Euro-Med Monitor, says that many of casualties were in fact the result of the firing of live bullets that have been forensically analyzed and found to match those used by Israeli soldiers.

According to Euro-Med Monitor, "Many victims of the massacre" actually suffered injuries from "5.56x45mm NATO bullets," adding that, "this is a type of bullet fired from Israeli army weapons."

"A sample of 200 dead and injured victims revealed that they were indeed hit by this type of bullet, and that the bullets were discovered and examined at the massacre site along with shrapnel found in the bodies of the wounded and dead," Euro-Med said in its report.

After carrying out a forensic analysis of the type of bullets used, Euro-Med says it "discovered that [this type of bullet] is discharged from assault rifles like the M4 and Tavor, along with machine guns," specifically "light machine gun[s] or LMG" such as the "IWI Negev."

Euro-Med says its research "revealed that 5.56×45mm ammunition is a basic FMJ bullet used by the Israeli army."

"This type of bullet is imported from the United Kingdom on occasion, produced in 2020/2022, and licensed for use by the Israeli Ministry of Defense," the human rights organization said of its analysis.

Euro-Med added that the bullet "is also manufactured in Israel by IMI SYSTEMS," an Israeli company which manufactures weapons, ammunition and other military technologies, and "regularly supplies them to the Israeli security forces, including the Israeli army."

Citing testimony by Muhammad Yasser Washah, a local 17-year-old resident of Gaza City's Al-Sabra neighborhood who was present for the Flour massacre, along with its own analysis, Euro-Med said it retrieved a bullet lodged in the youths jacket after going through the bag of flour he had been carrying on the night of the atrocity.

After analyzing the bullet pulled from Washah's jacket, Euro-Med discovered that its "form and dimensions were identical" to the bullets mentioned previously, though this particular bullet is designed to penetrate several millimeters of solid steel.

Euro-Med recorded testimony from several witnesses to the horrific massacre, putting together a timeline for the events of that night.

According to witnesses, the Zionist army began "directly shooting at civilians" as they waited for food aid at "approximately 4:10am" on Thursday, February 29th.

By 5:30am, the Israeli occupation forces "raided the entire gathering, where many people were lying injured, killed or were attempting to flee."

Euro-Med says that many people were taken into custody by the occupation's soldiers, others were forced to flee south, while some "Israeli forces directly executed others and left their bodies on a nearby beach."

According to testimony given by a witness who asked for anonymity, Euro-Med quoted the witness as saying, "We were shocked when Israeli soldiers showed up and took a group of young men from Gaza [City]."

The witness added that “While the majority of them were fleeing to the beach, some were at the Nabulsi roundabout, others were evacuated to the south, and still others were killed and left on the beach.”

The witness also detailed the fate of a doctor named Muhammad Awad who had been detained by Israeli soldiers but was released soon thereafter, “he moved several steps away, they opened fire on him and wounded him in the shoulder…We were under siege until 6:30 am, and the injured were pleading with us not to leave them…The food and flour were covered in blood when I left."

A second witness who works as volunteer paramedic also asked for anonymity fearing retaliation. That witness told Euro-Med “In the hopes of receiving assistance, I went to the Nabulsi roundabout. As a precaution, I brought a first aid bag with me because I knew that similar incidents had resulted in shootings.”

The witness explained how shortly before 4:30am, the humanitarian aid trucks "passed the checkpoint and the Israeli army started firing, throwing stun grenades and smoke bombs" as an Israeli tank advanced towards the crowd.

“I treated several injured people with first aid. I discovered that some had suffered injuries to their chests, while others had suffered injuries to their limbs," the witness recounted, adding that, "while I was trying to pull out one of the injured people, the tank came forward, and I was forced to flee the scene." The witness concluded by saying, “there was a large number of dead and injured people.”

Euro-Med Monitor goes on to lay out four "key pieces of evidence confirming the Israeli army's involvement in the killing and wounding of starving civilians," including signs of injuries on the bodies of the dead and wounded, footage released by the Israeli occupation authorities themselves, as well as "audible evidence of gunfire emenating from Israeli tanks positioned near the coast."

The Human Rights organization also pointed to video evidence published by the Zionist occupation, which despite being heavily edited, shows the "sheer panic and intimidation that struck all of the civilians present - including those relatively far away from the aid trucks - and pushed them to flee in all directions in order to seek shelter."

Euro-Med also warned that Israeli shootings of starving Palestinian civilians attempting to receive humanitarian aid has "become a regular practice."

The organization stated that over the last few weeks, "Israeli forces have directly attacked and killed dozens of people in Gaza City, including on Salah al-Din Street and in the vicinity of the Kuwait roundabout, where it has occurred no less than twice since the Flour Massacre."

The most recent example of this kind of attack came just last night when, according to Euro-Med Monitor, "many civilians were injured by Israeli violence near the Kuwait roundabout."

The Euro-Med report goes on to slam the Israeli occupation for "starving the people of Gaza, killing the starving people, and obstructing the entry and distribution of humanitarian supplies, especially in Gaza City and the northern Strip, demonstrat[ing] Israel’s aim of forcibly displacing the Palestinian people there as part of its genocide, ongoing since 7 October 2023."

The investigation goes on emphasize that the Zionist army's "extrajudicial executions and intentional killings of Palestinian civilians" who have not taken part in the hostilities, "amounts to serious violations of International humanitarian law," and are considered "war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court."

"These crimes, which Israel has been committing against the Gaza Strip’s people since 7 October, violate the right of Palestinians to life in accordance with international human rights law, and constitute acts of genocide," the Human Rights group added.

Euro-Med concludes it's report by urging the international community to take action to "force Israel to halt its starvation campaign" against civilians in the Gaza Strip, "in order to prevent the impending catastrophe of mass famine there, and to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and grave violations against the Strip and all of its Palestinian residents."

The Geneva-based human rights organization also issued a call for a "more effective and decisive" international intervention to "ensure the safe, complete, and reliable delivery of humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip without any hindrance," and "thus guarantee the provision of and access to" basic goods and services desperately needed by the starving population in the Palestinian enclave.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[ahmed-family-1]

Please don't ignore and give me two minutes and read🍉👇

While the war has been going on for 440 days and everything my family and I are going through, starting with my father's illness and my daughter's illness as well, who still need emergency operations and I have not been able to collect the sufficient amount required for that (3000 euros for my father's operation and 2000 euros for my daughter's operation)

My tent was burned as a result of a bombing that happened next to us and the price of the tent today is astronomical and we cannot afford it

We live in exorbitant prices that we cannot bear and according to the World Food Program report, the price hike in the Gaza Strip has reached 1000%

We cannot bear this alone and we are not beggars but the war has imposed on us everything we do not like

I hope that you support me and stand by me and do not ignore my message 🥺🥺👇

@aleciosun @fluoresensitivearchived @khizuo @timogsilangan @sayruq @malcriada @palestinegenocide @sar-soor @annoyingloudmicrowavecultist @feluka @tortiefrancis @flower-tea-fairies @tsaricides @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @visenyasdragon @belleandsaintsebastian @ear-motif @kordeliiius @raelyn-dreams @troythecatfish @theropoda @tamamita @4ft10tvlandfangirl @queerstudiesnatural @northgazaupdates2 @skatezophrenic @awetistic-things @camgirlpanopticon @baby-girl-aaron-dessner @nabulsi @junglejim4322 @chososhairbuns @palistani @dlxxv-vetted-donations @imjustheretotrytohelp @rhmis-user-2020 @jonesthebonelord @90-ghost @writerqueenofjewels @choccybug @neptunerings @variantsofblue @zigcarnivorous @rubitheracoon @skricrich-yellowtooth @lonniemachin @theprotagonistisdead

@yizuos @mahafamily1

[boxboxblog]

Driver Profiles: Esteban Ocon

Updated December 2024

Name: Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane

Age: 28

Nationality: French

Years in F1: 8 (Manor 2016, Force India 2017-2018, Renault/Alpine 2020-2024, Haas 2025)

Number: 31

WDCs: N/A

Driving Style: Known as one of the most aggressive drivers on the grid (up there with Magnussen) Ocon is particularly feisty when fighting for positions and overtaking. He balances this aggression with a rather smooth way of driving, and he is the least jerky driver when coming into the apex. He is also well known for strong performances in the wet, pulling out some stellar qualifyings and race results in these difficult conditions. One downside of his style is that this aggression often leads to on-track clashes. He is rather well known for being somewhat reckless, especially in midfield fights.

History:

(Young Ocon, middle, after wining a karting race)

Born into a standard middle class family, Ocon's family actually had to sell their house to afford his professional carting career. He started when he was 6 years old, and lived out of a travelling caravan for most of that time. In 2006 he finished 8th in the Minime class of the French Championship. He won the championship in 2007 and continued his success by winning the Cadet class in 2008. He then spent three years racing in the KF3 category and competed in the Spanish Championship and Italian Open Masters. He won the French KF3 title in 2010 and finished as 2nd in the WSK Euro Series in 2011 behind, behind future F1 WDC Max Verstappen. During this time he attracted F1 attention, being signed to a sister management company to Renault.

(Ocon in the lead during his karting days)

In 2012, Ocon made his debut in single-seaters, taking part in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. He finished 14th, having won a few points scoring positions and one podium. He also participated in a partial campaign in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps, finishing 7th and achieving two podiums. He remained in the series for 2013, and recorded one pole position and two race wins. He finished the season in 3rd behind future F1 teammate, and rival, Pierre Gasly.

(Ocon during Eurocup Formula Renault days)

Ocon made his debut in F3 during the 2013 season, racing for F3 powerhouse team, PREMA. He continued with them into the 2014 FIA F3 European Championship. He topped the standings at the first round at Silverstone Circuit and remained in the lead of the championship for the rest of the season. With three races left, Ocon clinched the F3 2014 title. He had won nine races and recorded fifteen pole positions. This was one of the most standout seasons of his career, and one that helped ensure a F1 seat later.

(Ocon his F3 championship winning year)

Ocon moved to the GP3 Series for 2015. It was a fantastic year for Ocon, mostly due to his consistantly high results. While he only won one race that season, his regular podium finishes allowed him to win the title that year. The next year he took part in the 2016 DTM season, as well as being a reserve driver for Renault. He was only able to take part in the early season races, as halfway through the year he was pulled up to F1 backmarker team Manor Racing to replace Rio Haryanto.

(Ocon with Manor)

His first season (half season) with Manor was not a standout performance wise, as he never hit points, but it paved the way for Ocon to join Force India for their 2017 season after Manor left F1. His first year with Force India he teamed Sergio Perez and had a relatively solid year. He regularly scored points, even with some high-points finishes, and his highest finish was 5th. That year he experienced significant friction with his teammate (a running theme) and they made contact several times, sometimes resulting in retirements or massive position drops. However, he still had a good year and finished 8th in the championship.

(Ocon and teammate in the 2017 Force Indias)

2018 was a more negative year, as Ocon had a string of bad luck and run-ins with both his teammate and other drivers (memorably a physical altercation with Max Verstappen). He did not finish as high in the points that year, and it was further complicated after Force India went into administration. The team's assets were bought by Lawrence Stroll and it became clear that Ocon would not be returning to Force India for the 2019 season. He did have an informal agreement with Renault for that season, but he was dropped after they signed Daniel Riccardo instead. For the 2019 season, he served as the 2019 season he served as the Mercedes reserve driver.

(Ocon on podium with Lance Stroll)

2020 Ocon finally signed with Renault to partner Riccardo, and had a mixed bag year. He achieved his best result ever and his first podium at the Sakhir GP, but also experienced a lot of mechanical failures during races throughout the year. He ended the season 12th in the championship behind his teammate. 2021 Renault rebranded to Alpine and retained Ocon, now partnering Fernando Alonso. This would be the year Ocon achieved his maiden GP victory at the Hungarian GP. he showed his extreme skill in wet-weather conditions during this race, and solidified himself as a skilled driver in complex weather. The rest of the year was rather normal, as he scored several points finishes. He did match his WDC teammate rather closely, which is a feat.

(Ocon after maiden win)

2022 was a better year with some higher points finishes. He achieved his best championship finish since 2017, ending the season in 8th. 2023 Alonso left Alpine, and he was partnered by childhood rival and fellow Frenchman Pierre Gasly. The two would match each other pretty well, and have similarly middling seasons for both 2023, and 2024 so far. The standout for Ocon's year was a 2nd place finish in Brazil after a stellar drive in teh wet. Toward the end of the season, Ocon was replaced by Jack Doohan for Abu Dhabi. He will be moving to Haas for the 2025 season.

Major Races:

2017 Canadian GP - Ocon's first points finish, he showed he could handle the pressure as a rookie (bar his time with Manor) and showed the first glimpse of the consistent points he would score later.

2017 Mexican GP - A very strong midfield performance from Ocon. He used strong defense against much faster cars and finished the race in 5th place, his highest at the time.

2018 Belgian GP - His most impressive qualifying to date, he was able to achieve a P3 start in extremely wet conditions. One of the earlier indicators of his skill in the wet.

2020 Sakhir GP - Ocon's first podium, he climbed his way up the field from 11th. It was a rather chaotic race, and he kept calm in the face of multiple crashes, safety cars, and pit stop drama.

2021 Hungarian GP - His first victory came in the most chaotic race of 2021. After several frontrunners were taken out by a crash, Ocon battled midfield drivers for the top step, including 4X WDC Sebastian Vettel. His mistake-free race earned him his 1st place finish.

2024 Brazilian GP - An incredible drive from Ocon saw him leading the race for many laps, and by the end secure 2nd right ahead of his teammate. It showed off his great wet weather skills, and was a race to remember.

Cheers,

-B

[deadpresidents]

I'm a Euro here in Belgium and know this is big question to answer but how do you think America will eventually come to its senses re: Trump and the maga people

Hello Belgium, I'd love to visit your country someday! It looks beautiful -- all of the photos I've seen of Belgian cities make them look like the setting for a fairy tale and watching In Bruges made me want to visit even more.

As for your question, almost 63 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and, after a disastrous four years that dangerously threatened the stability of American democracy and often seemed like a concerted effort to viciously divide the nation, do you know what happened? Nearly 75 million people voted for him in 2020. And, four years after that, guess what? After the country was pushed to the brink because Trump incited an insurrection that attacked the U.S. Capitol in a desperate attempt to hold on to power and disregard the results of an election that he clearly lost, after being impeached twice, and after being charged with 88 felonies that made him the first American President to face criminal prosecution, Trump easily coasted to once again becoming the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee.

So, when will the people of the United States come to its sense regarding Trump and MAGA? It doesn't appear that they will. Win or lose in November, I don't know if this country can pull up out of the death spiral that it has been in since Trump came down his stupid escalator and announced he was running for President in 2015 and began actively poisoning any semblance of civil discourse still left in this nation.

Honestly, after November 5th, I might need to come live in Belgium or somewhere in Europe if enough Americans don't recognize that ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. We barely survived one Trump term; I don't think we'll be able to ride out a second one.

[justforbooks]

‘It’s packed with dealers. Look around you’: life amid the cocaine cartels of the French Riviera

Nice may be at the heart of France’s upmarket Mediterranean coast, but violent drug gangs making €1.5m a month are colonising part of it

The sight of the gun tucked into the man’s trousers told us it was time to go. We had been in one of France’s most notorious estates for several hours, trying to understand life on the frontline of the country’s spiralling drug war.

Seeing three people he did not know and a camera, he decided enough was enough. “You, where do you live?” he said, rushing towards us from the foot of a tower block where he had parked his scooter. “Don’t talk back to me, I’ll break your head in. Get out of here.”

It was a chastening exit, but one that showed us the violence we had only seen signs of was all too real.

I had been given a rare chance to visit by Siam Spencer, a freelance journalist who until recently lived here, in Les Moulins estate on the edge of sun-kissed, touristy Nice.

When she got a job in the city in 2023, Spencer asked a charity to house her, because coming from a deprived family she had no guarantor. What she did not know was the flat it provided was in an estate that had been a byword for drug violence for decades. “I looked it up on the internet,” she said. “But honestly, I thought, there would be three gunshots per month. It’s still Nice. It’s a small estate, so I didn’t mind.”

Instead, as well as rats, cockroaches, bedbugs and squatters who once broke down her door, she had to contend with the sound of Kalashnikovs outside her window. “In the first three weeks things got really hot,” she said.

On one side, Nice is the pearl of the French Riviera, a moneyed Mediterranean haven famous for the perennial blue skies that have inspired painters from Matisse to Chagall. The other side is Les Moulins. The estate of roughly 12,000 residents was built in the 1960s to house those returning from Algeria’s war of independence from France. It sits beside the beach and the airport. But few here do much sunbathing and even fewer fly out.

Living inside for eight months, Spencer discovered she looked out on to the most prolific drug dealing point on the Riviera, where up to €20,000 changes hands every day. She has written a book about the experience, La Laverie (The Launderette), named after the building outside which dealers worked. The launderette was knocked down last year, but the dealers remain. As we entered the estate in the early afternoon, they sat over its common areas, smoking joints, playing music and scanning for customers. Men drinking coffee ignored them, used to the sight.

“It’s packed with dealers. Look around you,” said Nourrédine Debbari, who was born on the estate and runs a charity supporting residents. She said the estate had five main dealing points, shared between two or three rival gang networks. Together they make about €1.5m a month, he said. “Everyone in the neighbourhood is affected by drug trafficking. They live with it. There’s no choice.”

The terrorised majority have got used to periodic killings as gangs settle scores and mark their territory. The estate has been a designated “priority security zone” for French authorities since 2013, while the then prime minister Jean Castex visited in 2020 after a spate of shootings.

But the threat is becoming scarier. Last July, seven members of one family including three children were burned to death in their flat in Les Moulins. Residents said the father was a drug dealer who was in prison, and rivals targeted his family to settle a score. Three of the arrested suspects were from the Paris region.

Across France, sophisticated international drug gangs are spreading out from Paris and the crime hotspot of Marseille to towns and smaller ­cities. Armed with guns flooding into the country through Marseille, and mimicking the extreme violence of their counterparts in South America, they make billions of euros every year in sales.

The country’s hardline interior minister appointed in September, Bruno Retailleau, has said France risks becoming a “Mexicanised” narco-state. The arrest in Romania last week of Mohamed Amra, France’s public enemy number one, known as “The Fly”, underscored the strength of the gangs: he escaped from a police van in northern France last year when accomplices ambushed it.

The French Riviera is an obvious target for business, being close to Marseille and famed for its wealth and hedonism. “Cocaine use is not reserved for party circles,” Damien Martinelli, the public prosecutor of Nice, told French media in January. “It’s not reserved for executives and upper-level professionals. It’s everyone.”

The Riviera has never seen such quantities of drugs and weapons washing around, customs officers and police say. Nearly 350kg of cocaine were seized in the local department last year, a record. That is probably a fraction of the amount in circulation.

Last week in Marseille, the trial began of an alleged drug ring of 22 people with links to the Italian mafia and stretching across the Mediterranean. Its alleged kingpin, named by police as Patrick V, stayed in luxury hotels in Thailand, Greece and Brazil as well as the Côte d’Azur, according to court papers. He spent an estimated €26,000 renting luxury cars from an agency in Cannes, while his wife gambled thousands in casinos around the Riviera.

Some drugs arrive in cars and speedboats from Italy, Spain and Morocco, via what are known in France as “go fasts”. “We are seeing that traffickers are taking more and more financial risks, with vehicles transporting larger quantities than before,” Éric Antonetti, head of the interdepartmental service of the region’s judicial police, said recently.

Most of the drugs go through the port of Marseille, a Nice police source, who did not want to give his name out of fear of the gangs, told me. The cartels have deep connections. “These are families who know each other because they have villas in Tunisia or elsewhere,” he said. “And then they implant themselves everywhere. That is to say, links are made between Marseille, Toulon and Nice.”

At the moment Marseille’s gangs appear to be taking over from local groups. During our visit to Les Moulins, we were told that two Mercedes cars and two Yamaha TMax scooters we saw were DZ Mafia, France’s most powerful drug gang, from Marseille, arriving in the estate to take over its business. “I’m afraid things are going to heat up a little,” Debbari said. “It will heat up for a day or two. That’s all. Once they get the [dealing] network, it’s over [for their lower-level Nice rivals].”

Kingpins such as these often operate from prison, directing teams of dealers down to street level. The lowest in the pyramid are known as choufs, Arabic for lookouts.

Debbari said in Les Moulins they used to earn about €30 a day. Now it is 80 or 100. At one dealing point in particular, the dealers looked younger than teenagers.

Rudy Manna, spokesman for the police syndicate National Police Alliance, said gangs had taken to recruiting illegal child migrants for these roles. “It is meat. They know that it is going to be an absolutely horrible job, that there will be acts of torture or barbarism,” he said.

Even for children growing up in estates such as this, the temptation can be too strong to resist. Spencer said: “You have a deep anger and your parents don’t make money, and you’re fed up, and you live in Nice, where you have the Negresco, the biggest five-star hotel in France, or at least one of the most expensive, 15 minutes away.”

Abdelhakim Madi, 24, knows what it is like. He grew up in Les Moulins, dreaming of becoming a comedian. He has become a celebrity among the estate’s young people after founding a charity six years ago that does everything from giving sports and drama lessons to helping match them to jobs.

Partage Ton Talent [Share Your Talent] has touched more than 600 young people so far, and has 50 volunteers. In his brightly painted, newly renovated centre, where teenagers enjoyed the tranquility of a safe place, he said: “It’s a fight to have hope for this society, because it scares me. I only see people divided, divided. I don’t have that spirit, I don’t.”

Robert Songhor, from Association Adam, another estate charity, takes children on trips to the beach and mountains. “They are going to the snow next week,” he said. “Some of them have already been. It’s about showing them you are not ‘a youth from the estate’. You are a citizen of Nice.”

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[pigeon-smidge]

🇵🇸 🛑pleas don't scroll ‼️Hi, I hope you are well. My name is Mohammed Atallah, I live with my parents, six sisters, a little girl named Malak and a little boy named Ameer in North Gaza. I created this link to fund a bone graft in my left hand which was shot by an explosive bullet, to rebuild our destroyed home and to evacuate my family from Gaza to a safe place.And donate any amount to safe life .. I will appreciate your help❤️ Can you please help as much as you can . Press all buttons on my wall , I beg you to visit my page, view it, and donate via the link in the bio💔Donate and share widely 🆘🆘 Every euros will make a difference 🙏I urge you to donate. Even the smallest amount can make the biggest difference. Not only he needs to evacuate with his family, but he is in dire need for surgery! The IDF has shot his arm with an explosive bullet. Not a regular one. AN EXPLOSIVE ONE. So he needs to get it treated right away! Otherwise, he will get an infection and it may lead to amputation. WE DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN, DO WE DO?So contribute! Make sure to reblog and share his story if you are unable to do so.Help my family. War is devastating. There is nothing left to live. No schools, no universities, no home, and no dreams. All dreams have been shattered. I hope for help before it is too late Please share on Twitter and tumbler and Instagram The campaign has been documented @90-ghost 🍉

If you can donate, please please do. Share as well, as a simple reblog and pasting the link somewhere can help more people see. It can save lives. It brings more attention to these stories that desperately need activism.

If you can’t, please share.

Arab.org actually allows you to donate FOR FREE to Palestinian refugees with clicks. You can normally click once per day but if you use different browsers, devices and open it from different platforms on mobile you can do it more often.

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We can all coexist peacefully. We are all human. 

[sometimes-men-need-help-too]

Helpline for male domestic abuse victims struggles to cope amid pandemic surge

This was back in 2021 but I wanted to share it anyway

A helpline for male victims of domestic violence is struggling to cope with the volume of calls because of a 35 per cent spike in the numbers seeking help during the pandemic.

Men’s Aid Ireland says it dealt with about 5,500 contacts during 2020, a figure it projects will grow again to 9,000 this year based on a further surge in January and February.

Kathrina Bentley, the organisation's chief executive, said calls are also getting "more worrying and concerning" and their "seriously stretched" three part-time helpline staff are struggling to cope with demand.

“During the last week of January and first week of February, within 10 days we had five very serious suicide situations at the end of the phone,” she said.

“ We had to get Garda assistance for two of them, ring ahead to a hospital for a third and we talked the other two men down.”

The common thread in calls is an abusive relationship, in 95 per cent of cases involving a wife or female partner.

“Hitting me, kicking me, spitting on me, telling me I’m a useless father, telling me I’m crap, telling me I don’t bring in enough income,” she recounted the calls.

“One man said he sleeps in the spare room and his wife soaks his mattress during the day with cold water and leaves the windows open before he comes home from work. So he sleeps on the floor.

“There are pure emotional and psychological games, men who have no access to funds, their partners controlling their finances.”

Funding

Ms Bentley said the organisation sought and was refused funding for a 24/7 helpline from the State’s child and family agency Tusla, which she criticises for allocating 1 per cent of its domestic, sexual and gender based violence (DSGBV) funding to the service.

Along with the Men’s Development Network, it is one of just two Tusla-funded services dedicated to male victims.

Men’s Aid Ireland has €244,000 funding for its six staff operation this year, an increase of €5,000 on last year.

In January, about 600 men contacted the service, and at least 80 calls were missed because the helpline – which runs from 9am to 5pm on weekdays – can only deal with two callers at any one time.

“It is really worrying,” said Ms Bentley. “Every phone call, we can save or change a life, that is the frontline day to day reality of it. Our small organisation took on the war that is the pandemic of Covid, and the war that is the pandemic of violence, but we are in the trenches with no ammunition.”

Ms Bentley said callers include accountants, gardaí, politicians, doctors, gardeners, postmen, the military, tradesmen and the unemployed.

Some are on the minimum wage while others ��live in multi-million euro houses and behind the front door is domestic violence”.

Many are victims of coercive control – “a silent, invisible pattern of abusive behaviour over time” – which she says is “catastrophic for families, children as well as men’s lives and their careers”.

Ages range from 19 to 83 years old, but particularly between 40 to 55.

“It is incredible for a man to have the courage to pick up the phone in the first place,” she said.

“How disappointing and heartbreaking it is when no-one answers that phone.”

‘Bad patch’

Citing a report by Cosc – The National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence – that shows one in seven men experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, and 95 per cent do not contact gardai, Ms Bentley suggested the numbers not seeking help could be as high as “a couple of hundred thousand”.

Ms Bentley said callers often don’t see themselves as victims of domestic abuse and hope it is a “bad patch” that will pass because they don’t want the family to break up. “When you ask them how long it has been going on for, and they say three to six years, well that’s not a bad patch in a relationship, that is an abusive relationship.”

In response to calls in a parliamentary question for a 24/7 national helpline, Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said the Government was currently carrying out an audit of DSGBV services.

There was no comment from Tusla.

[desperatelyseekingcannibals]

A Mads poll with a difference!

A poll of Mads Mikkelsen movies where the selection is based on range of factors, including but not limited to: genre, writer/director, country of release, date of release and 🎉vibes 🎉

Some of the movies may fit in more than one category, so vibes have mostly informed those decisions.

Round Two:

Choose your fave!

Three European contenders! A Mads for every mood...

From 1996-2001, 2002-2006 and 2009-2020.

En kort en lang (Shake It All About) is a 2001 Danish comedy-romance about couple Jørgen and Jacob whose lives change after Jacob proposes to Jørgen, and then promptly falls in love with a woman. Mads plays Jacob, the idiot who will be lucky if Jørgen takes him back!

Exit is a 2006 Swedish thriller about investment businessman Thomas who is arrested for the suspected murder of his business partner. When he tries to call his lawyer, the phone is answered by someone he believed to be dead. Mads plays main character Thomas alongside Alexander Skarsgård.

Druk (Another Round) is a 2020 Danish comedy-drama following a group of teachers who decide to divert themselves from the boring lives by testing Skårderud's theory regarding humans having a blood alcohol content deficiency. Mads plays Martin, a history teacher who dramatically derails his life over this alcoholic pursuit.