To prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. I get America-bad or whatever, but even the IAEA has made many statements that Iran has not been compliant for years, is fabricating and outright omitting data, does not permit previously agreed upon inspections, and is stockpiling materials to make nuclear bombs.

Now, is that really the reason we got involve? Israel struck first. So probably not. But it is definitely a reason, and a valid one at that. Any way one slices it, a fundamentalist religious state should never be allowed to have nuclear weapons. The world is bad enough as it is with the fundamentalist religious who do have them already.

EU demands security theater. They are attempting to force backdoors into all of these APIs and systems (including locally run AI) for the nanny state. Very unfortunate.

There is on device AI in the Apple ecosystem. Many of the AI features that they announced will run locally (assuming hardware requirements are met). Things like Spatial Reframing will touch the cloud (via private compute) though. Other than that, Apple has an entire entry point for running AI close to the metal via MLX. It is kind of their entire angle at this point given their inability to create a competitive compelling AI product of their own. They appear to be taking on the role of “platform” once again.

Zen still works beautifully. The only downside I’ve come across is that there isn’t a mobile app, so the ability to hand off isn’t there.

They also tend to have less sprawl, more homogenous and high trust societies (relative to where most people live in the US), and a shaky history of true legally enforced disability considerations. On that latter part, there still isn’t a good equivalent to the ADA in European peer countries. Europeans will hand wave it away, but it’s too patchwork and exclusionary.

All things in this scope considered (i.e., not healthcare necessarily), I’d rather be disabled in the US than in Europe or most Asian countries because the US actually have strong legal protections both federally and at the state levels. Lack of extensive public transport outside of a couple major hubs is obviously a problem for most people (especially the disabled). But no other country comes close to enshrining protections like the US did with the ADA (and how some states extended it even more themselves).