Xander Veitch
@xanderveitch.bsky.social
Railways, Net-Zero, Politics, eu/acc.
Focus on 🇦🇹, 🇪🇺 & 🇬🇧.
Hug pylons not trees.
Progress is better than perfection.
Sachverstand statt Hausverstand.
Focus on 🇦🇹, 🇪🇺 & 🇬🇧.
Hug pylons not trees.
Progress is better than perfection.
Sachverstand statt Hausverstand.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Wien hat einen (traurigen) Park mehr: den „Naschpark“. Neben einem Parkplatz (ich hatte ja gehofft, der wird auch zum neuen Park umgebaut) und zwei stark befahrenen Autospuren kann man beisammensitzen oder in der Hängematte liegen. Aber gut, besser als nichts/man nimmt, was man kriegt.
September 18, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Wien hat einen (traurigen) Park mehr: den „Naschpark“. Neben einem Parkplatz (ich hatte ja gehofft, der wird auch zum neuen Park umgebaut) und zwei stark befahrenen Autospuren kann man beisammensitzen oder in der Hängematte liegen. Aber gut, besser als nichts/man nimmt, was man kriegt.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in
September 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM
korean reporting is nightmarish on the conditions Korean workers were contained in
Reposted by Xander Veitch
"Eine Eisenbahntrasse würde unseren Landkreis zerschneiden!"
"Aber die soll doch parallel zur bestehenden 6-spurigen Autobahn gebaut werden."
"..."
"Aber die soll doch parallel zur bestehenden 6-spurigen Autobahn gebaut werden."
"..."
August 18, 2025 at 11:17 AM
"Eine Eisenbahntrasse würde unseren Landkreis zerschneiden!"
"Aber die soll doch parallel zur bestehenden 6-spurigen Autobahn gebaut werden."
"..."
"Aber die soll doch parallel zur bestehenden 6-spurigen Autobahn gebaut werden."
"..."
Reposted by Xander Veitch
really feels like housing affordability is one of the most important political issues of our time, affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and everyday our mainstream political discourse is about whether sour cream is woke or not
August 9, 2025 at 6:15 AM
really feels like housing affordability is one of the most important political issues of our time, affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and everyday our mainstream political discourse is about whether sour cream is woke or not
Reposted by Xander Veitch
The problem with these tariff deals is not so much the short term bilateral outcome. It’s the acquiescing to a new order, to a way of doing international relations that is against what the EU is supposed to be. An EU that has the means to make a stand and do things differently but refuses to do so.
August 1, 2025 at 7:49 PM
The problem with these tariff deals is not so much the short term bilateral outcome. It’s the acquiescing to a new order, to a way of doing international relations that is against what the EU is supposed to be. An EU that has the means to make a stand and do things differently but refuses to do so.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Bunch of people saying they don't believe me. Too bad, I have data:
2022: 83% of Americans watch TV with 2nd screen: shorturl.at/8djtG
2023: 91% of American spend at least "some time" looking at phones while watching TV: shorturl.at/uoHsF
And Netflix knows it: www.fastcompany.com/91264942/net...
2022: 83% of Americans watch TV with 2nd screen: shorturl.at/8djtG
2023: 91% of American spend at least "some time" looking at phones while watching TV: shorturl.at/uoHsF
And Netflix knows it: www.fastcompany.com/91264942/net...
June 11, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Bunch of people saying they don't believe me. Too bad, I have data:
2022: 83% of Americans watch TV with 2nd screen: shorturl.at/8djtG
2023: 91% of American spend at least "some time" looking at phones while watching TV: shorturl.at/uoHsF
And Netflix knows it: www.fastcompany.com/91264942/net...
2022: 83% of Americans watch TV with 2nd screen: shorturl.at/8djtG
2023: 91% of American spend at least "some time" looking at phones while watching TV: shorturl.at/uoHsF
And Netflix knows it: www.fastcompany.com/91264942/net...
Reposted by Xander Veitch
“We’ll solve traffic with 200 km/h tunnel skates.”
Reality: Just one short Las Vegas loop that currently takes paying passengers between three stations in chauffeur-driven Model Y Tesla cars which slow to just 15 miles per hour when the tunnels get congested.
🔗 www.wired.com/story/theres...
Reality: Just one short Las Vegas loop that currently takes paying passengers between three stations in chauffeur-driven Model Y Tesla cars which slow to just 15 miles per hour when the tunnels get congested.
🔗 www.wired.com/story/theres...
May 27, 2025 at 3:14 PM
“We’ll solve traffic with 200 km/h tunnel skates.”
Reality: Just one short Las Vegas loop that currently takes paying passengers between three stations in chauffeur-driven Model Y Tesla cars which slow to just 15 miles per hour when the tunnels get congested.
🔗 www.wired.com/story/theres...
Reality: Just one short Las Vegas loop that currently takes paying passengers between three stations in chauffeur-driven Model Y Tesla cars which slow to just 15 miles per hour when the tunnels get congested.
🔗 www.wired.com/story/theres...
Reposted by Xander Veitch
If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business.
You’re in organized crime.
You’re in organized crime.
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.
buff.ly
May 26, 2025 at 9:09 PM
If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business.
You’re in organized crime.
You’re in organized crime.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Anstatt die klimaschädlichen Förderungen in Zeiten des Budgetlochs und der Klimakrise abzubauen, verdreifacht Österreichs Regierung den Pendlereuro.
"Geht's dem Auto gut, geht's uns allen gut", lautet Österreichs politisches Credo.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
"Geht's dem Auto gut, geht's uns allen gut", lautet Österreichs politisches Credo.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
"Geht's dem Auto gut, geht's uns allen gut", lautet Österreichs Credo
Anstatt die klimaschädlichen Förderungen in Zeiten des Budgetlochs und der Klimakrise abzubauen, verdreifacht Österreichs Regierung den Pendlereuro
www.derstandard.at
May 11, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Anstatt die klimaschädlichen Förderungen in Zeiten des Budgetlochs und der Klimakrise abzubauen, verdreifacht Österreichs Regierung den Pendlereuro.
"Geht's dem Auto gut, geht's uns allen gut", lautet Österreichs politisches Credo.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
"Geht's dem Auto gut, geht's uns allen gut", lautet Österreichs politisches Credo.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
Reposted by Xander Veitch
My take on today’s UK-US trade deal. The UK is a small weak country. It does what small weak countries do, which is to escape the bully, to pay the Dane-geld.
Standing up for the multilateral rules-based trading system will have to be left for others.
Standing up for the multilateral rules-based trading system will have to be left for others.
Britain’s trade deal with Trump may not be good news for the world
[FREE TO READ] Starmer’s choice undermines multilateralism and poses risks to the UK
on.ft.com
May 8, 2025 at 4:58 PM
My take on today’s UK-US trade deal. The UK is a small weak country. It does what small weak countries do, which is to escape the bully, to pay the Dane-geld.
Standing up for the multilateral rules-based trading system will have to be left for others.
Standing up for the multilateral rules-based trading system will have to be left for others.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
I think this is the first time I've lived walking distance from a grocery store and I'm out of my mind about it. I'll walk there several times a day. Oh did I forget to grab something? No big deal I'll simply Walk To The Store
May 3, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I think this is the first time I've lived walking distance from a grocery store and I'm out of my mind about it. I'll walk there several times a day. Oh did I forget to grab something? No big deal I'll simply Walk To The Store
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Guys. He is a former high-ranking British official criticising the US government on a matter of security.
What he means by "puzzling“ is "completely mad, incomprehensible, weirdly pro-Russian and potentially profoundly damaging to the US as well as Ukraine“.
What he means by "puzzling“ is "completely mad, incomprehensible, weirdly pro-Russian and potentially profoundly damaging to the US as well as Ukraine“.
April 25, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Guys. He is a former high-ranking British official criticising the US government on a matter of security.
What he means by "puzzling“ is "completely mad, incomprehensible, weirdly pro-Russian and potentially profoundly damaging to the US as well as Ukraine“.
What he means by "puzzling“ is "completely mad, incomprehensible, weirdly pro-Russian and potentially profoundly damaging to the US as well as Ukraine“.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
I wrote about China's climate policy.
Did you know that China has enacted the most comprehensive climate policy in the world?
Well, it has — because it's positioning itself as global hegemon for the climate-changed future.
Trump's climate denial is only a stupid, tragic assist to that end.
🧵
Did you know that China has enacted the most comprehensive climate policy in the world?
Well, it has — because it's positioning itself as global hegemon for the climate-changed future.
Trump's climate denial is only a stupid, tragic assist to that end.
🧵
April 16, 2025 at 12:26 PM
I wrote about China's climate policy.
Did you know that China has enacted the most comprehensive climate policy in the world?
Well, it has — because it's positioning itself as global hegemon for the climate-changed future.
Trump's climate denial is only a stupid, tragic assist to that end.
🧵
Did you know that China has enacted the most comprehensive climate policy in the world?
Well, it has — because it's positioning itself as global hegemon for the climate-changed future.
Trump's climate denial is only a stupid, tragic assist to that end.
🧵
European cross-border rail challenges in a nutshell. Similar issues don't just hurt passenger traffic either - the impact to freight is usually even higher (longer routes, no bus replacement options, very thin profit margins)
Standing in the dark, waiting, because communication is like non existent. I’m on my way to Strasbourg, as I approach Kehl, the border, the German signalman tells me „uhh France is not accepting your train, you have to end here, apparently they have construction works. Nobody here in Germany knew!
April 15, 2025 at 11:28 AM
European cross-border rail challenges in a nutshell. Similar issues don't just hurt passenger traffic either - the impact to freight is usually even higher (longer routes, no bus replacement options, very thin profit margins)
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Using international emission trading (Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement) is discussed as an option to complement compliance with upcoming EU emission targets:
bsky.app/profile/kate...
Some quick thoughts based on earlier work: ⬇
bsky.app/profile/kate...
Some quick thoughts based on earlier work: ⬇
There is a discussion emerging on the EU using international credits for meeting its climate targets. As lined out in December, this entails substantial risks but also significant opportunities, and everything would depend on the robustness of the framework: www.bruegel.org/first-glance...
1/7
1/7
The precarious promise of the Paris Agreement’s Article 6
Agreement on a global carbon trading framework could complete the global climate architecture, but the risks are significant
www.bruegel.org
April 8, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Using international emission trading (Art. 6 of the Paris Agreement) is discussed as an option to complement compliance with upcoming EU emission targets:
bsky.app/profile/kate...
Some quick thoughts based on earlier work: ⬇
bsky.app/profile/kate...
Some quick thoughts based on earlier work: ⬇
Reposted by Xander Veitch
A very old Soviet joke, from an especially dark time:
Foxes are fleeing the USSR in droves.
Q: Why are you running away?
Fox: The Soviets passed a new law that they’re going to arrest all camels.
Q: But you’re foxes!
Fox: Yeah, why don’t *you* try proving to the NKVD that you’re not a camel.
Foxes are fleeing the USSR in droves.
Q: Why are you running away?
Fox: The Soviets passed a new law that they’re going to arrest all camels.
Q: But you’re foxes!
Fox: Yeah, why don’t *you* try proving to the NKVD that you’re not a camel.
If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.
March 27, 2025 at 10:21 PM
A very old Soviet joke, from an especially dark time:
Foxes are fleeing the USSR in droves.
Q: Why are you running away?
Fox: The Soviets passed a new law that they’re going to arrest all camels.
Q: But you’re foxes!
Fox: Yeah, why don’t *you* try proving to the NKVD that you’re not a camel.
Foxes are fleeing the USSR in droves.
Q: Why are you running away?
Fox: The Soviets passed a new law that they’re going to arrest all camels.
Q: But you’re foxes!
Fox: Yeah, why don’t *you* try proving to the NKVD that you’re not a camel.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Here is an embarrassing graph I have just made for a report. Fun fact:
in 2020/21 Indian Railways added the equivalent of the UK’s *entire electrified railway network* (over 6000 route kilometers!) to their own electrified network - and then did this again in 2021/22
…and AGAIN in 2022/23! 🤯
in 2020/21 Indian Railways added the equivalent of the UK’s *entire electrified railway network* (over 6000 route kilometers!) to their own electrified network - and then did this again in 2021/22
…and AGAIN in 2022/23! 🤯
March 26, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Here is an embarrassing graph I have just made for a report. Fun fact:
in 2020/21 Indian Railways added the equivalent of the UK’s *entire electrified railway network* (over 6000 route kilometers!) to their own electrified network - and then did this again in 2021/22
…and AGAIN in 2022/23! 🤯
in 2020/21 Indian Railways added the equivalent of the UK’s *entire electrified railway network* (over 6000 route kilometers!) to their own electrified network - and then did this again in 2021/22
…and AGAIN in 2022/23! 🤯
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Coalitions of the willing are back in vogue, with Macron hosting another summit tomorrow in Paris. Here’s a chart I made on forms of differentiated integration and political cooperation in Europe:
March 26, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Coalitions of the willing are back in vogue, with Macron hosting another summit tomorrow in Paris. Here’s a chart I made on forms of differentiated integration and political cooperation in Europe:
Reposted by Xander Veitch
"Quite a few people in cars seem to be somehow offended by people riding bicycles because they’ve paid all this money for a car and think therefore they should be rewarded for it, but often they’re just not using the car very intelligently.”
Cars don't belong in cities, says Top Gear's James May
TV star has idea for Hammersmith bridge - and calls anti-cycling council ‘tw*ts’
www.standard.co.uk
March 25, 2025 at 4:55 AM
"Quite a few people in cars seem to be somehow offended by people riding bicycles because they’ve paid all this money for a car and think therefore they should be rewarded for it, but often they’re just not using the car very intelligently.”
Reposted by Xander Veitch
In the real world, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. It violated the terms of ceasefire agreements ahead of a full-scale invasion in 2022. In the event of another ceasefire, the only thing that would stop history repeating is if that ceasefire had serious backing from other nations outside Ukraine.
March 24, 2025 at 12:40 AM
In the real world, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. It violated the terms of ceasefire agreements ahead of a full-scale invasion in 2022. In the event of another ceasefire, the only thing that would stop history repeating is if that ceasefire had serious backing from other nations outside Ukraine.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Trying to unpack he documents so far published, I think the picture is a bit more complex. On first read, I could identify a three tier approach to defence in the proposed package + relations to the UK:
First tier is (obviously) EU member states, who are the only ones who can take loans from SAFE.
First tier is (obviously) EU member states, who are the only ones who can take loans from SAFE.
Shocking decison on the UK makes no strategic sense at all www.ft.com/content/eb9e...
EU to exclude US, UK and Turkey from €150bn rearmament fund
Victory for France-backed ‘Buy European’ approach to defence spending
www.ft.com
March 19, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Trying to unpack he documents so far published, I think the picture is a bit more complex. On first read, I could identify a three tier approach to defence in the proposed package + relations to the UK:
First tier is (obviously) EU member states, who are the only ones who can take loans from SAFE.
First tier is (obviously) EU member states, who are the only ones who can take loans from SAFE.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Viele "grüne" Fonds investieren in Firmen, die das Klima zerstören.
Mehr als ein Drittel der in Europa gehandelten ESG-Fonds steckt Geld in fossile Unternehmen. In Österreich steht vor allem Raiffeisen in der Kritik.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
Mehr als ein Drittel der in Europa gehandelten ESG-Fonds steckt Geld in fossile Unternehmen. In Österreich steht vor allem Raiffeisen in der Kritik.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
Viele "grüne" Fonds investieren in Firmen, die das Klima zerstören
Mehr als ein Drittel der in Europa gehandelten ESG-Fonds steckt Geld in fossile Unternehmen. In Österreich steht vor allem die Raiffeisen Bank International in der Kritik
www.derstandard.at
March 19, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Viele "grüne" Fonds investieren in Firmen, die das Klima zerstören.
Mehr als ein Drittel der in Europa gehandelten ESG-Fonds steckt Geld in fossile Unternehmen. In Österreich steht vor allem Raiffeisen in der Kritik.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
Mehr als ein Drittel der in Europa gehandelten ESG-Fonds steckt Geld in fossile Unternehmen. In Österreich steht vor allem Raiffeisen in der Kritik.
www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
Reposted by Xander Veitch
Russia's real power isn't its incompetent army, its Mickey Mouse economy, or its oversized and impractical territory.
Russia's real power is the power to brainwash powerful idiots in the West into saving Russia from the costs of its criminality and recklessness over, and over, and over again.
Russia's real power is the power to brainwash powerful idiots in the West into saving Russia from the costs of its criminality and recklessness over, and over, and over again.
It kills me that everything Ukraine did worked with incredible ingenuity, against impossible odds, and yet in the end it was a pitiful election in the United States that sabotaged them, and the history books will claim that you cannot defeat a large empire by doing what they did.
But you can.
But you can.
March 17, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Russia's real power isn't its incompetent army, its Mickey Mouse economy, or its oversized and impractical territory.
Russia's real power is the power to brainwash powerful idiots in the West into saving Russia from the costs of its criminality and recklessness over, and over, and over again.
Russia's real power is the power to brainwash powerful idiots in the West into saving Russia from the costs of its criminality and recklessness over, and over, and over again.
Reposted by Xander Veitch
"I was eating Cheerios and then bye bye tooth"
- my son, to government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- my son, to government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
March 16, 2025 at 10:39 AM
"I was eating Cheerios and then bye bye tooth"
- my son, to government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- my son, to government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland