Greene, Robert Lane. Talk on the Wild Side: Why Language Can’t be Tamed. – New York: PublicAffairs, 2018. – 232 p.

“Heavy-handed language bullying is passing out of fashion in states that want to have the respect of the rest of the world.” [Greene, 2018: 140]

Greene, Robert Lane. Talk on the Wild Side: Why Language Can’t be Tamed. – New York: PublicAffairs, 2018. – 232 p.

“Given people’s passionate attachment to their languages, it is obvious a sudden, surprising and unwelcome change to the status of a language – especially with a big neighbor that speaks that language next door would be a particularly unwise move, like throwing a cigarette end in the general direction of a sign reading “NO SMOKING; JET FUAL’. And yet that’s exactly what happened in the former Ukraine, where disputes over language became proxies for who had the right to run Ukraine. A language dispute helped spark the civil war that dragged in neighbouring Russia, and resulted in Russia’s annexation of Crimea.”
[Greene, 2018: 141]

In the USA "laid-back" ways are unacceptable, as well as in other countries where discipline and hard work are given priority. In Canada "laid-back" is the most natural way of treating things around you.

In Russian it is very close to "ПОФИГИЗМ"

Canada offers many privileges to people who live here. Basically, it is the right place for seniors to live in if you look for such benefits as free medical treatment and other social perks. You cannot help appreciating Canadian kind-heartedness, laid-back ways and very peculiar sense of humor that takes you to the Farmstead Boulevard (with no farmstead in view), the Balsdon Hollow (without a hollow nearby), the Seaview Heights (without a sea in the vicinity). A modest village in East Guillimbury, where we live, has a proud name of Queensville. Still, I feel the presence of royalty within my close circle in the personality of Olivia, my beloved granddaughter and the greatest treasure who calls the shots for me now. 

Have you ever felt a little mbuki-mvuki – the irresistible urge to “shuck off your clothes as you dance”? Perhaps a little kilig – the jittery fluttering feeling as you talk to someone you fancy? How about uitwaaien – which encapsulates the revitalising effects of taking a walk in the wind?

These words – taken from Bantu, Tagalog, and Dutch – have no direct English equivalent, but they represent very precise emotional experiences that are neglected in our language. And if Tim Lomas at the University of East London has his way, they might soon become much more familiar.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170126-the-untranslatable-emotions-you-never-knew-you-had

The Russo-Ukrainian war seems to offer too general a term for the unfolding tragedy. Neither Putin’s description of it as a “special military operation” (SMO) nor the Western definition of it as an “invasion” provide an accurate picture of the war that can better be framed into the scenario of the leader (Putin) inflicting a ruthless but richly deserved punishment on his beloved but treacherous progeny (Ukraine).

Putin acts just as the Cossack leader Taras Bulba from Gogol’s novel of the same name: Bulba slayed his own son   who, under the spell of infatuation with a Polish lady, turned his sword against his own people. Before shooting his son Taras says,      “ You are my progeny – and I will kill you!” 

Ukraine turned out to be as ungrateful to Russia as Andryi to his Cossack family that raised him. The Bolshevist Russia put Ukraine on the map and the “democratic” Russia foolishly bestowed independence on it on the Ukrainian solemn promise of eternal friendship and neutrality. 

Ukraine’s backstreet affair with the EU and NATO  culminated in an ungodly deal between Ukraine and the West: the Kiev movers and shakers allowed the  West to use Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia.

The cowardly, ignorant, greedy and corrupt Zelensky was sent by Fate to finish the job of weakening Russia with the help of the sacrificial goat – Ukraine.

Last year, Tucker Carlson scandalised America by travelling to Russia and interviewing Vladimir Putin. As US viewers denounced the idea that one ought to speak to an enemy such as Putin, Tucker strolled around Moscow, filming himself taking the subway, buying a burger from the new Russian McDonalds, and going grocery shopping in a Moscow supermarket. Behaving, in fact, like he was in the West.

Back home, Tucker had some good things to say about Putin, as well as some bad things. But it was the streets and shops of Moscow that really “radicalised” him. The West likes to paint Russia as poor, miserable and oppressed, but Tucker described a perfectly ordinary modern society. The discrepancy between what Tucker had been taught to expect and what he actually saw in Russia didn’t just unnerve him — it made him angry.

Of course, one might point out that Moscow and St Petersburg are Potemkin villages of sorts, covering up the reality of deep poverty in much of the rest of the country. But none of this is ultimately a matter of facts. The conflict between the West and Russia today is now seen as ideological and existential, just as the conflict between communism and capitalism once was. To say something nice about the Russian enemy is to take his side; to say something nice about him that also happens to be true is seen as even more treasonous. 

https://unherd.com/2024/10/would-you-move-to-mother-russia/

The Oxford English Dictionary records the phrase "soft power" (meaning "power (of a nation, state, alliance, etc.) deriving from economic and cultural influence, rather than coercion or military strength") from 1985.[4] Joseph Nye popularized the concept of "soft power" in the late 1980s.  For Nye, power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you want. There are several ways one can achieve this: one can coerce others with threats; one can induce them with payments; or one can attract and co-opt them to want what one wants. This soft power – getting others to want the outcomes one wants – co-opts people rather than coerces them.

Soft power contrasts with "hard power" - the use of coercion and payment. 

barcode 

gen.    штрих-код (gramota.ru рекомендует слитное написание: "штрихкод" Alexander Demidov)
automat.    штриховой код
comp., MS    штрихкод (The special identification code printed as a set of vertical bars of differing widths on books, grocery products, and other merchandise. Used for rapid, error-free input in such facilities as libraries, hospitals, and grocery stores, bar codes represent binary information that can be read by an optical scanner. The coding can include numbers, letters, or a combination of the two; some codes include built-in error checking and can be read in either direction)

North Korea's constitution now defines the South as a "hostile state", according to state media, in the first mention of what Pyongyang's recent constitutional revisions entailed.

State newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported the change as an "inevitable and legitimate measure", at a time when tensions between the Koreas are at their highest point in years.

The North on Tuesday blew up roads and railways connecting it to South Korea - a move which state media described as "part of the step-by-step implementation to thoroughly separate [the Koreas]".

The Neologism: "Blue Zones" was coined by National Geographic

A child born in the country in 1960 was only likely to live (at the time) to 65, but a child born in Singapore today can expect to live to more than 86 according to estimates. In addition, the number of centenarians in Singapore doubled over the 10-year period from 2010-2020.

This huge leap in longevity has largely been driven by intentional government policy and investment. The distinction even was enough to have the country named the world's sixth "Blue Zone" in August 2023. Though recently questioned for their accuracy by demographers, the Blue Zones were discovered and coined by National Geographic journalist Dan Buettner, who claimed to identify regions where people lived longer, healthier lives, in large part due to a combination of culture, lifestyle, diet and community.

Singapore was the first new region to be added to the Blue Zones in decades (dubbed a "Blue Zone 2.0" by Buettner) and stands apart from the other Blue Zones in part because the longevity of its people comes more from forward-thinking policies than long-established cultural traditions in other Blue Zone communities like Ikaria, Greece or Nicoya, Costa Rica. 

Greene, Robert Lane. Talk on the Wild Side: Why Language Can’t be Tamed. – New York: PublicAffairs, 2018. – 232 p.

“Catalonia and Quebec share an unusual situation: in the region, speakers of French and Catalan feel surrounded and poorly treated by speakers of the bigger national language, English and Spanish. But at the same time, both regions have local minorities who are members of the national majority: speakers of Spanish in Catalonia and of English in Quebec. English speakers in Quebec, and Spanish-speakers in Catalonia, cannot freely educate their children in the family language, and in some cases cannot even get access to public services like health care in their language,” [Greene, 2018: 148-149]