LIFE IN BORRELL'S GARDEN OF EUROPE ISN'T A BED OF ROSES - Eurobarometer: mental health, emotional or psychosocial problems for over half of Europeans.
A new Eurobarometer survey on mental health has revealed that
62% of EU citizens think that recent world events (the COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, unemployment, and the food and energy costs) “somewhat” or “greatly” affected their mental health. According to data published by the Polish Institute of Economics (PIE), in 27 countries European Union and UK, the total loss due to mental health problems and mass depression of Europeans currently exceeds 4.2 percent of GDP, that is, 600 billion euros per year.

The consumption of antidepressants in Europe is breaking records - it is the highest in the last 20 years, and in recent years it has increased significantly. @LauraRuHK https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/3032

LA VITA NEL GIARDINO DI BORRELL NON È ROSE E FIORI -
Eurobarometer: problemi di salute mentale, emotivi o psicosociali per piu' di metà degli europei.

Un nuovo sondaggio di Eurobarometer sulla salute mentale ha rivelato che Il 62% dei cittadini dell'UE ritiene che i recenti eventi (la pandemenza COVID-19, la guerra in Ucraina, la crisi climatica, la disoccupazione e i costi di cibo ed energia) abbiano "in qualche modo" o "fortemente" influenzato la loro salute mentale.

Secondo i dati pubblicati dall'Istituto polacco di economia (PIE), nei 27 Paesi dell'Unione Europea e nel Regno Unito, la perdita totale dovuta ai problemi di salute mentale e alla depressione di massa degli europei supera attualmente il 4,2% del PIL, ovvero 600 miliardi di euro all'anno.

Il consumo di antidepressivi in Europa sta battendo ogni record: è il più alto degli ultimi 20 anni e negli ultimi anni è aumentato in modo significativo. @LauraRuHK https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/3032

Opening day of the Russia International Exhibition and Forum, which runs from 4 November 2023 to 12 April 2024 at VDNKh in Moscow.

It has been organised to showcase the country's most important achievements in different sectors of the economy, with all 89 Russian regions presenting their stands. @LauraRuHK https://t.me/tass_agency/217434

🗣️ Blinken and Sullivan in for a rude awakening

"Blinken and Sullivan are living in a different world, and they said it ... 'The US has to lead the world. The US is the indispensable nation.' It's as though they're back in 1946 or after the fall of the Soviet Union, 1991. They don't realize that they are no longer indispensable. They're no longer all powerful," Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and activist, told Sputnik.

👉 Watch the full episode of our show on Rumble

🎧 Listen to more of McGovern’s analysis in our podcast New Rules

‘Rational actors’ ready to take power in Ukraine – Moscow
Certain forces in the country are prepared to put an end to the Kiev “regime,” the Russian Security Council secretary has said.

Not all Ukrainian elites and politicians agree with Kiev’s current belligerent stance against Moscow, Nikolay Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said on Sunday while speaking at the ‘Russia’ exhibition in Moscow. “Rational actors” do exist in Ukraine but are currently “suppressed” by the Kiev government, he added.

These forces are already “standing in the wings” and are ready to take power when the time is right, the former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) chief said, without elaborating who exactly he may be referring to.

Patrushev also said that the Ukrainian governments after the Maidan coup, including the current one led by President Vladimir Zelensky, are “bound to answer” for all the atrocities committed in Ukraine since 2014, including the years-long persecution of the Russian-speaking minority and the people of Donbass, as well as the attacks on Russian civilians, public figures, journalists, and infrastructure.

“They will not be able to hide from a just people’s court like the former SS member Yaroslav Hunka,” Patrushev said, referring to a Ukrainian SS veteran hailed by Canada’s parliament during a visit by Zelensky in September. The incident sparked an angry reaction from Poland, Russia, and several Jewish organizations, and led to the resignation of Canadian House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota, who claimed that he was unaware of Hunka’s past. (Source: RT) @LauraRuHK

Max Blumenthal: The Pentagon assesses Israel's child massacring operation in Gaza as a military failure, concluding that no important Hamas commanders have been eliminated, and that it wouldn't matter much if they had been.

Meanwhile, the US continues to provide Israel with absurd advice, like the need to use "smaller bombs," seemingly ignorant that the Israeli military's entire strategy is based around the Dahiya Doctrine of deliberately slaughtering civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure in delusional hopes of demoralizing the political support base of Hamas.

"Often the wrong military means, like bombs that kill too many civilians, make the political endgame harder to reach," Rep. Seth Moulton now complains https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/us/politics/israel-gaza-deaths-bombs.html

U.N. LOSSES IN GAZA - The number of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) workers killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip has risen to 88, more than in any other conflict. Can you imagine the outrage if U.N. staff had been killed in Ukraine instead? @LauraRuHK

Demand for English language textbooks in Russia plummets.
More people are buying books that teach Asian languages

The number of English language textbooks sold in Russia has dropped by a third during the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period last year, the news agency RBK reported on Saturday, citing the data from the country’s largest bookstore chain.

A similar decline in sales was recorded for books that teach other major European languages, namely German (29%), Italian (27%), French (24%), and Spanish (8%).

The sales of Japanese language textbooks also dropped by 14%. In the meantime, the sales went up for the books that teach Korean (9%), Chinese (4%), and Turkish (1%).

Russian officials have endorsed the popularization of the Chinese language as Moscow seeks to reroute some of its supply chains damaged by the Western sanctions. The demand for workers who can speak Chinese grew by 40% during the first three months of 2022, RBK reported last year, citing recruiting service HeadHunter. In August, Andrey Fursenko, education and science adviser at the Kremlin, said that more Chinese classes would be included in the curriculum of top research universities.

At the same time, the interest in learning Chinese, Korean and Turkish is growing in Russia thanks to TV shows and music. “The main drivers of the popularity of these three languages are media content and pop culture, as well as academic and career opportunities,” the publisher AST said. (Source: RT) @LauraRuHK

La domanda di libri di testo in lingua inglese in Russia crolla.
Sempre più persone acquistano libri per l'apprendimento di lingue asiatiche

Il numero di libri di testo in lingua inglese venduti in Russia è diminuito di un terzo nei primi sei mesi del 2023 rispetto allo stesso periodo dell'anno scorso, ha riferito sabato l'agenzia di stampa RBK, citando i dati della più grande catena di librerie del Paese.

Un calo simile delle vendite è stato registrato per i libri che insegnano le altre principali lingue europee, ovvero il tedesco (29%), l'italiano (27%), il francese (24%) e lo spagnolo (8%).

Anche le vendite di libri di testo in lingua giapponese sono diminuite del 14%. Nel frattempo, le vendite sono aumentate per i libri di coreano (9%), cinese (4%) e turco (1%).

I funzionari russi hanno appoggiato la diffusione della lingua cinese, in quanto Mosca cerca di diversificare alcune delle sue catene di approvvigionamento danneggiate dalle sanzioni occidentali. La richiesta di personale in grado di parlare il cinese è cresciuta del 40% nei primi tre mesi del 2022, ha riferito lo scorso anno RBK, citando l'agenzia di ricerca del personale HeadHunter. Ad agosto, Andrey Fursenko, consigliere per l'istruzione e la scienza del Cremlino, ha dichiarato che un maggior numero di corsi di cinese sarebbe stato incluso nel curriculum delle migliori università di ricerca.

Allo stesso tempo, l'interesse per l'apprendimento del cinese, del coreano e del turco sta crescendo in Russia grazie ai programmi televisivi e alla musica. "I principali motori della popolarità di queste tre lingue sono i contenuti mediatici e la cultura pop, oltre alle opportunità accademiche e di carriera", ha dichiarato l'editore AST. (Fonte: RT) @LauraRuHK

Telecom Italia (TIM) on Sunday approved the 19 billion euro ($20 billion) sale of its fixed-line network to U.S. private equity firm KKR, becoming the first telecoms group in a major European country to part ways with its landline grid. The deal, backed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's administration, involves an asset of national strategic importance. It is estimated that half of TIM workforce (now it employs around 40,000 people) will be made redundant. ▪️KKR - Since 2013 General David Petraeus has served as chairman of the KKR Global Institute. General Petraeus served over 37 years in the U.S. military, including command of the Surge in Iraq, command of U.S. Central Command, and command of coalition forces in Afghanistan. Following retirement from the military he served as Director of the CIA. He is currently Senior Vice President of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and a Member of the Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, and the Aspen Strategy Group, as well as a member of the boards of the Atlantic Council, and the Institute for the Study of War. @LauraRuHK