A bit old reference, but so glad to see informed people here!

There is truth to Israel’s claims: Iran has possessed the physical and human capacity to develop nuclear weapons for decades. This capability served as the primary deterrent against Israeli or U.S. attacks on Tehran, particularly after what happened to Iraq and Libya. However, the situation is a bit more complex though:

The Iranian leadership understands that if they were to accumulate nuclear stockpiles, Israel is genocidal enough to nuclear wipe those facilities and the entire Tehran itself upon a mere confirmation of such. Worse yet, much of the Western world would had accepted such an outcome, so de facto giving an incentive for Israel to do so (not that it needed one). Iranian intelligence also recognizes that even its top commanders are not criminal enough to use nuclear weapons first or even second, especially without extensive deliberation, and time in such an incredibly fast-scale conflict is something Tehran would not have. Therefore, Iran treats the nuclear option primarily as a negotiating card rather than an immediate or mid-term goal.

So, I believe Israel’s assessment is credible: Iran could potentially develop a nuclear weapon within weeks. However, the Israeli intelligence knows that Iran neither had nor has intention of pursuing this path since 10-20 years.

Meanwhile, Iran has focused in incredibly advanced its missile capabilities, which are now nearly unstoppable, and now also is probably getting assistance from China and Russia in purely defense technology. This provides Iran with sufficient deterrence for now; what remains necessary is securing counterintelligence operations to protect these missile systems.

For negotiations, control of the Strait of Hormuz has emerged as an effective strategic lever. This means Iran no longer needs the nuclear capability as the leverage and could potentially give it as a bone to Trump.

Things have shifted so much in the region that Iran now feels emboldened enough to demand that attacks on a third country, Lebanon, to cease; We once believed only two powers possessed such clout: the US and China, the only difference that the newcomer uses it for good (so far). The world has indeed changed!

Day after day, the evidence is there more and more. Now, there is far more nuance that characterizations like this, but the essence it is there.

As mentioned by others, Sanchez does not control the Basque police, not that the Spanish police will be behaving any different anyways.

The problem with the Police in the entire Iberia is the toxic Hollywoodized culture they get in once inside. For instance, I take that one police officer over reacted and the rest, instead of mitigating that erroneous stance, jumped to defend that officer without no questions. After seeing all videos published, this could have been prevented 100% by mere sensible policing.

I like the OP comment with this. In the West, with no exceptions, the police has completely been going through a militarization culture. The Israel involvement with all these police departments is just part of it all since the US promotes that inter-police-collaboration and sources sharing, unaware Europeans that there is an agenda with it all. That started with US movies and series for decades keep portraying the “efficiency” of such models and then when Europe offer its hand to US after 9-11, US took the arm. Of course, Western governments welcomed it all and gave the funds for the total conversion. Israel/US are just very good at using movies, media and unparalleled inside access to filtrate into procurement channels of the Western Police departments.

But, unlike US, there is hope for a handful of European police forces to be retrained to serve the community back. I just don’t see it the political will thought, not even in Sanchez’s government (that is very fragile at the moment anyways). The reason for hope is that the people that join the Spanish police, for instance, are highly representative of the society when joining… it just gets the toxic culture of militarization and power once inside through politicians endorsement and police unions. In the US, the people that join the police forces come already with the toxic culture (and far less trained individuals too!).

Let’s see the Basque official statement in this event on Tuesday; I hope there will be a bit of criticism on their police action, since it clearly overacted with just someone “no obeying an order to stand back” in a mundane situation; but not much hope for even that concession to be frank.

Your opinion is not unpopular here.

For those that don’t know, yes, when Proton or Tuta sends an email to an unsecured provider, it is on the open… if you want it to be that is. You have the choice to tick if you want to send the mail and attachments encrypted or not. If you choose to send it encrypted, they have a link they have to introduce a password to get in. I use this multiple times with somehow sensitive data. At least their email provider won’t have the data… now, the recipient may place then that data in Google Docs and that is game over; but that is your party’s fault, not your email provider.

Proton has come with some not outright lies, but misleading advertisements. I understand the thin line that privacy companies have manage between appealing to a larger audience to get economies of scale but not mislead at the same time to achieve that. It is hard for them since we expect prices of other non-privacy oriented providers but with far more complex systems that required far more RAM, more storage, more audits, more special expertise, etc. Proton is a success at Privacy but Tuta I respect more.

From Posteo I cannot say much more since using my own domain is critical.

Tuta, it is indeed missing PGP and that is a problem if you are trying to communicate with someone that uses PGP. Now, Tuta’s encryption although no as universal as PGP, you could say it is better implemented since the subject is encrypted (unlike with PGP’s). The shortcoming is is that Tuta’s encryption only works seamless between Tuta accounts, or the recipient is offered a web link where he/she has to enter a password. In real life, a handful full know to to work with PGP.

So at the end depends on who you intend to send emails to… are part of them PGP users? If yes, get Proton, if not, either Proton or Tuta will be OK, use other criteria to choose between them.

Just a week ago I wrote my impressions of diverse email providers so I put it here with a few corrections:

Proton gives me some no good vibe I cannot explain, but it works really good and they really have the human capital to make it work the best. A big criticism is hosting some many services under one roof… specially VPN, drive and email, but it is very convenient for customers. They do also have policies of no-refund that makes that bad sentiment grow… Why no refunding non-used portion or even with a penalty? Regarding its founder, Andy, he did made 3 statements that appeared to support Trump, but I think they were misinterpreted; Andy criticized more the Democrats unrelenting support for the Tech Giants than praising the Republican administration. Let’s remember that, at that time, Trump was the only voice that appeared that was going to favor more the small business vs the mega corporations. Of course, that was the promise that Trump, as with all others he made, were a complete lie. I don’t recall any other statements from Andy beyond that topic of small business vs big tech. After listening to many of Andy interviews, he does not seem to me like a typical Conservative, let alone MAGA supporter.

Mailbox, has been static for a while, but they do offer a good service and now they are attempting to modernize. No full privacy by default but that could potentially be with some effort, but okay for most people. Still a bit German-centric. I still would recommend them easily.

Posteo would have been my first choice since 5 years ago, but the lack of no being able to use your domain, sorry to say it is inexcusable. They say because your own domain brings some privacy up to light, very true! So advise it, “look, we suggest to use our domains for better privacy for you, but if you want the freedom to move to another provider in the future at the cost of a bit of privacy, you are welcome to bring your own domain”. I want to believe the decision was genuine because they think it is for better privacy and not to create a lock-in for its customers.

Tuta… oh Tuta. I like the people, I believe and trust them the most! Yet, they probably still need to grow a bit so they can have the resources to do better (maintaining an email service is it very hard nowadays, even more a privacy oriented one). Their android client does not share data with Google for the push notifications (hello Proton?!) and that should be a fundamental requirement. For just email, it is fantastic and for privacy it is the best, period… if you are OK with the lack of support on IMAP and POP3 protocols that is; They should do some bridge like Proton does and I would put in top among all in a instant.

Other privacy oriented providers can be okay since they have a low profile and less targeted by 3rd actors, but at the same time also less prone to keep with security updates. It is sad, but I would not use in a daily basics. Same with self-hosting, free or non-free, don’t! As mentioned, it is very complicated not only from a security concern but also many email will get lost in the void by picky providers like Gmail.

On the concerns of the change of political colors in Germany, first regarding privacy, you are more at the wimps of the people of the provider than the leader of the time. I don’t really see any country as safe today, not a single one! Now, a right owner is someone like Lavabit’s that choose to close shop rather than given the SSL keys to the US authorities, that is why trust is so critical; I would rather use a provider based in the US with the right owner, than one in Switzerland with one I don’t know much about. Your only protections are the technology and the owner!

Once said that, unless you are a high targeted individual, maybe you should not only focus on privacy, besides, sometimes, the best defense is to blend-in among the no-so-top-notch-privacy providers. In any case, I trust the most Tuta, but recommend Mailbox for most people and Proton to those a bit concerned about normal privacy. I think there is room for a new player here that covers all the shortcomings, but it is not here yet.

Self Hosting

I thought it is highly possible they may had gamed the system at some point, but doubting it less and less by the day… they would have been very consistent for hundreds and hundreds of days! Once you actually installed it, you will realize it is among the most polished yet stable Linux distros there is and has had a very consistent competent team.

Now, I don’ think it has a high popularity at all among newcomers, let alone people on forums (look at the popular KDE variant download per week… 112 vs the ‘rare’ Xfce with 3444). Their base are people that probably are more avid visitors to the legendary Distrowatch than active to these forums, therefore the low visibility to us.

By the way, tried MX KDE and it is really good, I recommend its team stop selling it just as ideal for “old machines”, it is perfect for any one that does not want a rolling release. It is for people that would like Debian but want it more polish without getting into Ubuntu or Cinnamon territory. I would go even further… they should even offer a KDE-advanced version with updated Kernel and KDE (like TUXEDO OS does) and i think they will become a hit! But I understand they may lacking resources for that… offering SystemD and SysVinit must be highly intensive on itself already. I have grown to trust them.

I like Mailbox a lot, and seem to head in the right direction.

Yet I disagree with “Proton’s founder publicly praised Trump”, he did write three times on specific events, most notably praising a Trump nomination (Abigail Slater) to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division (hoping she will tackle the big tech 5 as claimed then in January). Of course, that ended in nothing at the end. Andy should have known better, but that is what happens with these people, they are good at what they do, not what they say (and sometimes even what they think). But that is not “praising Trump” but a praising a single action he did. Politically, if you care about that, after hearing a few interviews with him, I think he is more a liberal lefty but that prioritizes antitrust powers on the big 5 (unlike most liberals 1998-2025), so easily misunderstood for a Republican or even MAGA.

Interesting! So there were founded in 2014? No much growth though. The cheapest plan is $19€/yr with 5GB, I think most will need 10GB but that would put you in the $90/yr (30GB plan)… that is a mayor hike that most users will find themselves in within the first year. But anything else looks good to me. Now, the email it is “Not encrypted” at all, not even facilitate doing it so. They justify it and I am ok with their “email is not intended for so”, but probably no what the OP s looking for.

Proton gives me some no good vibe I cannot explain, but it works really good and they really have the human capital to make it work. They do have policies of no-refund that makes that bad sentiment grow. Why no refunding non-used portion or even with a penalty? Regarding its founder, Andy, he did made 3 statements that appeared to support Trump, but I think they were misinterpreted; Andy criticized more the Democrats unrelenting support for the Tech Giants than praising the Republican administration since, with Trump, was the only voice that appeared that was going to favor more the small business vs the mega corporations. Of course, that was the promise that Trump, as with all others he made, were a complete lie. I don’t recall any other statements beyond that topic of small business vs big tech.

Mailbox, has been static for a while, but they do offer good service and now they are attempting to modernize. No full privacy by default, but okay for most. Still a bit German-centric. I would recommend this easily.

Posteo would have been my first choice since 5 years ago, but the lack of no being able to use your domain, sorry to say it is inexcusable. They say because your own domain brings some privacy up to light, very true! So advise it, “look, we suggest to use our domains for better privacy for you, but if you want the freedom to move to another provider in the future at the cost of a bit of privacy, you are welcome to bring your own domain”. I want to believe the decision was genuinely because they think it is for better privacy and not to create a lock-in for its customers.

Tuta… oh Tuta. I like the people, I believe and trust them the most! Yet, they probably still need to grow a bit so they can have the resources to do better. Their android client does not share data with Google for the push notifications (hello Proton?!). For just email, it is fantastic and for privacy it is the best, period… if you are OK with the lack of support on IMAP and POP3 protocols that is; They should do some bridge like Proton does and I would put in top among all.

On the concerns of the change of political colors in Germany, first regarding privacy, you are more at the wimps of the people of the provider than the leader of the time. I don’t really see any country as safe today, not a single one! Now, a right owner like Lavabit’s that choose to close shop than given the SSL keys to the US authorities, that is why trust is so critical; I would rather use a provider based in the US with the right owner, than one in Switzerland with one I don’t know much about. Once said that, unless you are a high targeted individual, maybe you should not only focus on privacy, besides, sometimes, the best defense is to blend among the no-so-top-notch-privacy providers. In any case, I trust the most Posteo and Tuta, but recommend Mailbox and Proton to most people. I think there is room for a new player here that covers all the shortcomings, but not here yet.

I don’t use Brave, still with the more insecure Android Firefox variant (Firefox for Android is subpar in security), but I am glad Brave do want to expand here and for many users it is for sure the best option. No need to insult, whether you agree or not with them. If it is open, it is open and everything else should be secondary and for individual to choose on their own. Go Brave! Hope many more come too.