From the article: "Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts."
Quid pro quo.
Hurt the current administration's popularity by inconveniencing US citizens.
And in general, Visa free travel is a mutually beneficial deal. If the US stops giving the EU benefits, why shouldn't the EU reciprocate.
Personally, I get it but don't support it. I still appreciate my American brethren, just not their administration. We should hit back at the establishment, not the population. Big point there is reducing weapons import, and adding export tarrifs on F35 parts, perhaps ASML machines aswell.
By that logic, couttries shouldn't counter tarriff the U.S. and take it on the chin.
Sadly the innocent are always the victims under leadership decisions. The method here involves angering them and hopefully overhtrowing the leaders who caused this. we'll see how it goes here.
> Sadly the innocent are always the victims under leadership decisions
What you have stated is that, following your view, "people should impale leaders".
> angering them and hopefully overhtrowing the leaders
And that you would pester John to turn him against Jack. What should happen instead is that John will rightfully react against you (possibly both of you), with justification.
> It feels like there's a real opportunity here for European companies to step up and make a big play, but will they?
I think that this will depend a lot on expectations about politics in the USA in the medium/long term. Making this kind of investments makes sense if you expect the aggressive hostility that the current administration brought against Europe (and all other US traditional allies) to continue for a long time, and not just a couple years.
Your example of WhatsApp is a perfect one for me to say: yes, I would much rather use for my private messaging an open source, publicly founded solution, than a solution which Mark Zuckerberg controls for his own private gain.
Aren't buses with a fixed route also a great candidate for battery swap solutions? As all the buses are managed by the same company, I would be curious to know if there are any hidden issues with this approach: while an bus is riding with a battery, the replacement battery gets charged, and when necessary you just swap the battery.
Maybe. There are certainly companies doing this, such as SUN Mobility and BYD. But I think battery swapping will remain fairly niche, unless and until a few standardized battery shapes, sizes, and connectors emerge. Fixed route buses might be able to rely on custom solutions but that will of course increase the price and make it less tenable for the long-term.
The US was never in the European Union, but has always been the leader of NATO and, since WWII, the "Western world". Trump bringing the US out of those positions is a bigger deal than Brexit, because the UK was never a leader in the EU (because of all the internal opposition to it).
The point is that Russia won't have to attack any more, because Ukraine will already be nothing more than a puppet state after having been forced to sign the kind of peace deal that Putin wants.
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