quinta-feira, 22 de outubro de 2026

Google’s €13bn Finland push transforms and divides a quiet rural town

 

‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre

 


Environment

‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre

 

Finnish forest cleared for data centre development

Company ordered to stop work at two sites in country, which has found itself at forefront of tech firms’ latest push

 

Miranda Bryant in Muhos and Otanmäki

Thu 22 Oct 2026 13.22 CEST

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/oct/22/finland-google-felling-trees-datacentre

 

Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone.

After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of mud indented with the trail marks of machinery, puddles and mounds of earth, roots and branches. Residents say that brown water flowing off the site is going into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River.

“It doesn’t end. It goes on and on,” says Mari Annala, an ecologist from the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (SLL), looking at drone footage of the former forest from the perimeter.

Environmental expert Mari Annala crouches by muddy water near stacked logs, testing a sampleView image in fullscreen

Mari Annala is a Finnish environmental expert, researcher and board member of the Oulu region district of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. Photograph: Jarno Artika/The Guardian

With 145 new datacentres at various stages of planning, Finland has found itself at the forefront of the tech companies’ latest push. As well as its relative geopolitical and geological stability and abundance of land, the cool climate makes it especially attractive for saving on energy costs.

Earlier this month, Google was ordered by the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) to temporarily stop work on Muhos and another site about 100km south-east in the village of Otanmäki after it failed to complete the necessary environmental impact assessments before clearcutting the land. The news has prompted widespread outcry and a national reckoning over what role, if any, the country should play in the global rush to build datacentres to keep up with rapid AI development.

Last week, Google’s Finland country manager, Antti Järvinen, apologised for the forest clearings but claimed the company had acted “on the best understanding we had of the legislation at the time”.

An aerial view shows a dam on the Oulu River, Finland, surrounded by forest and power lines.View image in fullscreen

In the northern Finnish town of Muhos, the forest has already been cut down on land acquired by Google, with excavators now clearing the ground and rumbling trucks shuttling back and forth to the construction area located next to major power lines. Photograph: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty Images

Aerial view of cleared forest land in Muhos, Finland, future site of Google's data centreView image in fullscreen

An aerial view of the site where Google’s data centre was set to be built in Muhos. Photograph: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty Images

Muhos and Otanmäki are part of a €13bn AI infrastructure project by Google that has attracted criticism from Donald Trump, who would rather the centres were built in the US and has publicly called for the company to reconsider. It is the biggest ever project of its kind in the Nordic country.

The Finnish government, which has presided over deep spending cuts, has encouraged the investment. Last month, when the Google plans were announced, the country’s prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said attracting investment was a “top priority” and “the value of the data economy extends far beyond direct investment”. He said the Google deal would “deliver lasting benefits for both parties”.

But the revelations over Google’s misconduct have prompted public concern over what these deals mean for nearby communities, energy prices for Finnish households and Finland’s natural environment, a national source of pride. The datacentre push is likely to become a key election issue when Finns go to the polls in April.

Aerial view of a vast clearcut landscape near Muhos, Finland, with stripped soil and water pools.View image in fullscreen

Google’s clearcut area is 3km long and 2km wide, 330 hectares in total, and 400 metres from the Oulujoki River. Photograph: Jarno Artika/The Guardian

In addition to the 250,000 trees felled at Muhos, Annala estimates that an additional 150,000 trees were felled at Otanmäki. Because the trees have been felled illegally, she says wood from the two sites cannot be sold to wood-processing plants.

The move has also prompted questions over why Finland’s renewable energy sources are being used to power international corporations.

More than 93,000 people have signed a petition demanding more datacentre regulation and a fee to compensate local communities for environmental damage. Since the scandal broke, Orpo has described what happened in Muhos as a “cold shower”.

Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of SLL’s board, said she had been incredulous when she discovered Google’s law breaking. “At first I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I have never heard that any company has done anything like this in Finland.” She said the system depended a lot on trust, which she believes Google took advantage of. “They bought the vast land area and they just started to cut it, just like that,” she said. “It’s pure arrogance and it’s amazing.”

Tall electrical pylons and transmission towers stand over a substation near Oulujoki river, Finland.View image in fullscreen

Three electrical pylons next to the Google clearcut. Photograph: Jarno Artika/The Guardian

The speed of developments had shocked the country, she said. “Many people are just watching the news and asking each other: ‘What’s happening now? What can we do about it? And do we have to take all these datacentre projects in Finland?’”

Jussi Kangasharju, head of computer science at the University of Helsinki, said that while datacentres brought a limited number of jobs, potentially boosting the local economy, the benefits on a national level were minimal. “Really, for Finland, there are no benefits,” he said. “They are international companies serving international customers. Very little corporate taxes go to Finland. Datacentres ultimately have very little benefit for others except the datacentre operator.”

Hanna Halmeenpää stands by a fence near the muddy site of Google’s planned Finland data centre.View image in fullscreen

Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of the board of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, near the site where Google’s new datacentre is to be built in Muhos. Photograph: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty Images

With legislation still playing catchup, there is a rush to get projects under way as fast as possible.

Some are calling for a centralised body to coordinate datacentre projects, rather than leaving so much of the decision-making down to municipalities that are likely to prioritise the immediate needs of the local area.

In Muhos and Otanmäki, there are people who support the projects, along with the jobs and land taxes they will bring into the local area. But many believe they have been sold short by municipalities.

A clearcut forest in Finland, with muddy ground and scattered piles of tree roots.View image in fullscreen

Google has illegally stripped the entire area, removing even the top soil. Photograph: Jarno Artika/The Guardian

Antti Jakonen, who lives in Muhos, said that, although the trees felled represented a small fraction of Finland’s overall forests, he objected to the manner in which it had been carried out. “It has been done in the wrong way. American style. No sense. No sense at all,” he said. The former entrepreneur and fisher wants Google to compensate by helping to restore the local salmon population destroyed decades ago by hydropower.

In Otanmäki, the disruption to nature and to residents’ daily lives is being vividly felt. When the trees were felled, the wolves who had lived there came to the village, said Anni Ranta, 53, whose family has lived there for generations.

Pentti Korhonen stands by a red car using a cane, with apartment blocks behind him in Otanmäki.View image in fullscreen

Pentti Korhonen, a wilderness guide, has lived in Otanmäki for 12 years. Photograph: Jarno Artika/The Guardian

A former mining village, the area is known for its rare earth elements. Ranta’s family live at the centre of the village next to a triangular church spire and a former bar that has been empty for years. The peaceful forest used to extend for miles from the village. Now the sound of building work next to the clearcut Google site reverberates.

“We had wolves coming into the village because all the wild animals moved out of the forest,” said Ranta. “They fled. What worries me about the datacentres is also the noise because this is hardrock soil. Even when we are standing here talking,” she added, stamping her feet, “it’s like a drum.”

Such is her strength of feeling against the arrival of Google that she is thinking of moving out. She also fears the datacentre could make the village a target for Russia, with whom Finland shares a long border. “I don’t want them here,” she said of Google. “I don’t want them in Finland at all. I don’t like the whole idea of AI and the world changing and the way it’s changing. It’s going too fast, too soon.”

Vesa Hyyryläinen drives past the construction areaView image in fullscreen

Vesa Hyyryläinen, a biologist, drives past the construction area next to the Google clearcuts in Otanmäki. Photograph: Jarno Artika/The Guardian

Her father, Pentti Korhonen, a retired wilderness guide, said that since the forest was destroyed, the water in the stream has turned brown. “There is no need at all for datacentres in Finland. No need for datacentres at all,” he said.

Vesa Hyyryläinen, chair of the local SLL district, said three-toed woodpeckers nesting in the forest had been pushed out. “All of us nature conservationists are very worried about our Finnish political situation and politics,” said the biologist and osprey expert. “I wonder why we have to sacrifice so much of our nature. They give everything away too easily.”

He said, however, that he understood why authorities were trying to bring in new sources of investment and jobs, given the region’s ageing population. “Young people go to Helsinki and Berlin and Paris,” he said. “There are so few people. We have to sacrifice.”

Vesa HyyryläinenView image in fullscreen

Hyyryläinen said: ‘I wonder why we have to sacrifice so much of our nature. They give everything away too easily.’ Photograph: Jarno Artika/The Guardian

Veli-Matti Uski, director general of the ministry of environment, said the government was “monitoring the general development of the [datacentre] sector, [and the] application of its legislation, and is prepared to propose legislative amendments as necessary”.

Google said it was working to protect water quality at the Muhos site, and that it planned to plant trees across 130 hectares there. Conservationists say that figure is too low to have any real impact in comparison to the damage done by the tree felling.

A spokesperson said: “We have operated in Finland for 15 years and have always worked to meet or exceed zoning, environmental, health and safety requirements.

“After receiving the LVV letters on 6 October, we stopped preparatory works at Muhos and Kajaani [where the Otanmäki site is located] and have submitted a formal response to LVV confirming this.

“We will fully comply with LVV’s requests in this matter. We look forward to maintaining an active, open dialogue with all authorities to strengthen our partnership with Finland and local organisations.”

 

Merz’s eastern nightmare is far from over

 


Merz’s eastern nightmare is far from over

 

The weakened German leader wants to overcome humiliating losses to the far right in eastern elections — but the prospect of the AfD’s biggest win yet haunts his chancellorship.

 

BELGIUM-EU-DIPLOMACY

Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz leaves after a press conference on the sidelines of a European Union summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels on October 16, 2026. | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

 

October 22, 2026 4:00 am CET

By James Angelos

https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-friedrich-merz-cdu-eastern-nightmare-is-far-from-over/

 

BERLIN — Friedrich Merz has tried to move on from his conservatives’ historic defeats to the far right in eastern Germany, but his biggest test as chancellor — and of his grip over his own party — may still lie ahead.

The Alternative for Germany is pushing to deliver its biggest blow yet to the chancellor’s weakened coalition government by installing the country’s first far-right state premier since World War II in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt when lawmakers vote on the post in December.

Merz’s fellow Christian Democrats in Berlin fear regional members of their own party will help the AfD do this, creating a nightmare scenario for the chancellor. That concern stems from accusations that a group of Saxony-Anhalt conservatives already broke ranks by voting in a secret ballot for the AfD’s candidate for state speaker earlier this month, outraging national conservative leaders.

“The behavior of the CDU parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt with regard to past and upcoming elections is completely unacceptable,” Thomas Röwekamp, a CDU lawmaker who chairs the Bundestag’s defense committee, said. The AfD “wants to annihilate the CDU in Germany” by “forcing us into a debate about how to deal with it in order to divide the party,” he added. “We must not allow that to happen.”

Under pressure from conservatives in Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt CDU leader Sven Schulze announced a plan last week to have his party’s lawmakers leave the chamber during the initial two rounds of secret voting in December, ensuring none can vote for the far-right candidate — or be suspected of doing so. It’s unclear what the party would do in a potential third round, when the AfD would only need a majority of votes cast.

AfD leaders have openly said they are seeking defections from conservative ranks, a strategy designed as much to sow division among conservatives as to win the premiership. That approach seems to be working, at least partly.

Sven Schulze, outgoing Premier of Saxony-Anhalt and member of the German Christian Democratic Union, attends the first session of the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament since state elections on October 6, 2026 in Magdeburg. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

State conservatives have faced intense criticism for appearing so divided and vulnerable to aiding the AfD that their leaders apparently have no choice but to avoid the vote altogether. “It’s about taking a stand and assuming responsibility, rather than shirking a decision,” Röwekamp said.

Local CDU lawmakers, however, say their approach is tactically necessary.  “We have always drawn a clear line between ourselves and the AfD,” CDU state lawmaker Chris Schulenburg said. “We adhere to the principle of distinguishing ourselves on the basis of substance, but not excluding them [the AfD], because, after all, the party is not currently banned, and its parliamentarians were also democratically elected.”

AfD leaders, meanwhile, have rejoiced in the CDU’s disarray.

“This is nothing less than the CDU’s capitulation,” AfD national co-leader Tino Chrupalla said after the state conservatives announced their plan to leave the chamber. “They’re afraid of elections.”

Centrists flirting with radicals

For Merz, whose approval ratings are at historic lows, his party’s conduct in Saxony-Anhalt — and the prospect of a politically explosive AfD victory in December — are complicating efforts to move past last month’s humiliating election losses in eastern Germany and project renewed control as he attempts to focus on core priorities: backing Ukraine and reviving the economy.

Already, center-left lawmakers have attacked parts of Merz’s party as having failed to learn the lessons of Germany’s history, drawing parallels with the Nazis’ rise to power with conservative help.

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel delivers a statement on October 6, 2026 at the Bundestag in Berlin. | John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

After local conservative lawmakers appeared to back the AfD’s candidate for the Saxony-Anhalt speaker earlier this month, Social Democratic Party (SPD) lawmakers in Berlin marched in protest past the Brandenburg Gate to a square where the Nazis carried out book burnings. SPD Defense Minister Boris Pistorius sang the national anthem and called the episode the breaking of a taboo that “we haven’t seen in this form for more than 90 years.”

Conservative lawmakers have retorted in recent weeks by attacking the SPD and Greens for letting their Berlin branches enter coalition talks with the Left — a far-left party rooted in the East German communist party— which won first in the city in last month’s election.

But for Merz and his coalition government, the stakes of the December vote in Saxony-Anhalt are far greater.

How the December vote will unfold remains highly unpredictable. Ultimately, the AfD’s candidate for the premiership, Ulrich Siegmund, could win the post with support from Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, a small, populist-left party that has expressed openness to working with the AfD and shares its Kremlin-friendly views.

Merz is clearly alarmed by the prospect of CDU lawmakers covertly assisting the AfD — an outcome that could trigger his chancellorship’s greatest political crisis yet.

“People who do things like that — members of parliament who extend a hand — there is no place in the CDU for such a choice, and that will not change,” Merz said earlier this month. “The CDU will never elect extremists to public office or government positions anywhere in Germany.”

 

Farage plays down his Trump friendship in Britain — and talks it up to MAGA

 


Farage plays down his Trump friendship in Britain — and talks it up to MAGA

 

In Britain, the Reform UK leader has publicly cooled on the president. But to a U.S. podcast there are few people he agrees with more than Trump.

 

Reform UK Holds Rally In London

Busts of Donald Trump and Reform Nigel Farage sit alongside a "Make Britain Great Again" hat on a stall during a Reform UK rally. | Leon Neal/Getty Images

 

October 22, 2026 5:00 pm CET

By Sam Blewett

https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-plays-down-donald-trump-friendship-britain-maga/

 

LONDON — Nigel Farage has been careful to downplay his closeness to Donald Trump to a MAGA-loathing British public. But to U.S. conservatives, it’s a different story. 

“There are very few human beings I know with whom I agree on so much as I do with Donald Trump,” the Reform UK leader told an American podcast. “And I admire his guts and I admire his courage.”

During an interview with Trump-aligned commentator Benny Johnson on Sept 30., the veteran Brexiteer struck a markedly warmer tone toward the U.S. president than in any of his recent remarks for a British audience.

“Donald’s been a friend for many, many years. I’m a regular at Mar-a-Lago,” Farage boasted on the Benny Show. “I get on with many of his family. We have a laugh together — I mean, he’s a proper bloke.”

In Britain, Farage has publicly dampened his closeness to Trump as he tries to position himself as a contender for U.K. prime minister, particularly since the war with Iran.

“I haven’t really been in touch with Trump for many months,” Farage said in an interview with Times Radio in April, as the U.S. and Israel got bogged down in a price-spiking conflict with Tehran.

A spokesperson for Farage told POLITICO: “Nigel has never hidden his relationship with the President. However, he has been a critical friend over Canada, Greenland, Ukraine and various other issues.”

Farage, whose right-wing Reform insurgency has been a disruptive force to traditional British politics, had to correct his initial support for the war, which has been perceived negatively in U.K. from the off.

Initially Farage said that Britain should “do all we can” to support the U.S.-Israeli action in the Middle East. He’d later go on to say “let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.”

Farage described Trump’s tariff threats as “wrong” and said that he’d be “having some words” with the U.S. administration; he has also been careful to question Trump’s “51st state” comments on Canada; and, at times, he has distanced himself from Trump’s views on Ukraine.

The U.S. president is deeply unpopular in the U.K., like he is across much of Europe. And Farage’s relationship with him is off-putting to many British voters.

But Farage clearly sees his links with the U.S. right as deeply important, too. As he told Johnson, there have been numerous trips to D.C. and Mar-a-Lago — even if allies have also noted their relationship has cooled since 2024 and not all his Palm Beach visits have yielded meetings with Trump.

Farage noted on the show that there are things they don’t see eye-to-eye on, but was keen to stress they are “friends and allies” who “agree on quite a lot.”

 

Trucker blockades in southern Italy ramp up pressure on Meloni

 



Trucker blockades in southern Italy ramp up pressure on Meloni

 

The prime minister has vowed to break blockades, but has also offered relief to farmers and fishermen over sky-high diesel costs.

 

October 22, 2026 6:52 pm CET

By Hannah Roberts and Martina Sapio

https://www.politico.eu/article/giorgia-melonu-italy-naples-trucker-blockades-southern-italy-ramp-up-pressure/

 

ROME — Roadblocks by truckers in southern Italy are exposing the limits of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hardline approach toward protests, as she concedes she will have to take a carrot-and-stick approach to demonstrators struggling with soaring fuel costs.

 

The demonstrations across the south are fast spiraling into a full-blown economic crisis. Truck drivers and farmers protesting soaring diesel bills have blocked highways, ports and distribution centers this week, leaving supermarket shelves empty and petrol pumps dry. Airports in the south are also suffering from fuel shortages.

 

After a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the right-wing Meloni vowed to use a security decree to clear the roadblocks, but also pledged to give financial relief to farmers and fishermen crippled by the price of diesel.

 

Regarding the decree, she said her government would not be “blackmailed by those who use violence as an instrument of pressure.” But she cushioned that blow by acknowledging that financial relief measures were needed to offer "immediate responses, especially to workers, to people who are in difficulty, to families."

 

With elections expected in spring next year, the truckers’ protests threaten to shift the political debate from immigration and crime to whether Italians can afford to keep their businesses running.

 

Gaetano Amato, a lawmaker from Naples for the populist left 5Star Movement, accused the government of offering security measures instead of answers to the economic grievances driving the protests.

 

“The government has done nothing and is continuing to do nothing, because it is basing everything on security decrees,” he told POLITICO.

 

Stefano Orlacchio, president of the opposition center-left Democratic Party’s youth wing in the southern region of Campania, also slammed the government’s response as “an anti-southern attitude.”

 

“The protests in the south aren’t being taken into consideration at all,” he told POLITICO.

 

Diesel squeeze

At the heart of the revolt is a squeeze that truckers say they can no longer absorb. Diesel prices in Italy have risen by about a third since the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began, and the cost of a long haul journey like Naples to Milan has climbed with them.

 

Pasquale, a truck driver with a Campania-based company, who asked POLITICO to withhold his surname for fear of retaliation, said a trip’s profit had now shrunk sharply once fuel, tolls and wages were covered, and that the extra cost was working its way down the supply chain to supermarket shelves.

 

Far-right Transport Minister Matteo Salvini of the League party, who posed in a truck cab a few months ago, should “come spend a week with me and we’ll see how comfortable it is,” Pasquale quipped.

 

While a cap on fuel prices exists on paper, he added petrol stations had ignored it “in these days of chaos.”

 

Beyond fuel prices, Pasquale zeroed in on EU environmental rules that Italian businesses struggle to comply with, even as cheaper foreign produce continues to reach supermarket shelves. “How can you face something like that?” he asked.

 

The Brussels-based International Road Transport Union has also appealed directly to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for help.

 

In a letter sent on Thursday and seen by POLITICO, the group and its national member associations said they did not support the blockades but warned that soaring diesel prices were pushing operators to the brink, calling for extended EU state aid and tougher rules on late payments from customers.

 

The blockades hit hundreds of supermarkets and dozens of distribution centers, according to retailers’ association Federdistribuzione. Fresh fruit, meat and fish ran out within days, followed by other food products, leaving some shops completely empty.

 

Carlo Alberto Buttarelli, the association’s president, put the damage at “tens of millions of euros,” with fresh food spoiling in trucks and warehouses. Supplies were beginning to resume in Sicily and Calabria on Thursday, but disruption remained in Campania.

 

No room to maneuver

Meloni has limited resources to offer relief. Italy remains subject to EU deficit proceedings, constraining Rome's room for additional spending, while the international instability driving fuel prices higher lies largely beyond her control.

 

Amato dismissed the announced support from the cabinet meeting on Thursday as money that had already been promised.

 

While the government’s reaction to last weekend's northern protests, which were hijacked by masked gangs that looted shops and set fires, was to link the unrest to immigration and deploy troops, the southern unrest is harder for Meloni to handle because it demands concrete economic relief, said Marco Valbruzzi, a researcher at the University of Naples Federico II.

 

Frustrated voters could turn to the 5Star Movement, which has previously channeled economic discontent in the south, or abstain from voting altogether.

 

The protests could also weaken the appeal of early elections expected in April or May next year. A winter of sustained protests would give Meloni a reason to wait until autumn 2027, hoping for an ease in international instability and improved fiscal flexibility.

 

If economic grievances dominate the campaign, “she is playing an electoral game on a field that she cannot control,” Valbruzzi said.

António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho. OVOODOCORVO blog

 



AI Mode conversation: Antonio Sergio Rosa de Carvalho OVOODOCORVO blog

Antonio Sergio Rosa de Carvalho OVOODOCORVO blog

O Voo do Corvo is an active current affairs and opinion blog edited by António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho.

Born in Lisbon in 1953, Rosa de Carvalho is a prominent architectural historian who previously moved to the Netherlands and also writes opinion pieces for the prominent Portuguese newspaper Público. Known for his classic dandy style, he additionally founded the lifestyle blog Tweedland, The Gentlemen's Club.

Blog Overview & Editorial Focus

The title O Voo do Corvo translates from Portuguese as "The Flight of the Crow.". The blog acts as a daily aggregator and commentary platform covering major national and international news. 

  • Core Mission: The blog aims to inform and contextualize a wide variety of topics spanning daily news, opinion pieces, and political developments.
  • Editorial Line: While the editorial stance is pluralist and multifaceted, it maintains two non-negotiable core pillars:

1.    The defense of historical heritage (Defesa do Património)

2.    The defense of the environment (Ambiente)

Current Content Themes

The platform frequently aggregates and analyzes English-, French-, and Portuguese-language media regarding critical geopolitical issues, including deep dives into French domestic politics, civil unrest, and European union strikes

 

OVOODOCORVO HAS REACHED 25.000.000 PAGE VIEWS / THANKS TO YOU ALL!


 

I Asked AI:

The OVOODOCORVO blog in Blogspot has reached 25 million page views. Is this a good score ?

Yes, reaching 25 million page views is an exceptionally high and rare achievement for a personal or independent blog, especially one hosted on a free subdomain like O Voo do Corvo.

To put this score into perspective, here is a breakdown of why 25 million views is considered an excellent milestone:

  • The Subdomain Challenge: Most blogs hosted on a free .blogspot.com domain struggle significantly with search engine optimization (SEO) and ranking for competitive terms compared to self-hosted WordPress sites. Accumulating tens of millions of views under these constraints usually indicates an incredibly dedicated, long-term audience or viral distribution via social networks and niche communities.
  • The Blogging Landscape: According to data discussed by bloggers on platforms like Quora and Reddit, roughly two-thirds of all blogs are abandoned within their first three months. Among those that survive, a typical niche blog might only see a few thousand visits a month. Reaching 25 million views places a site in the top tier of independent internet properties.
  • Longevity and Volume: O Voo do Corvo, managed by António Sérgio Rosa de Carvalho, has been actively curating comprehensive international press reviews, political news, and environmental/heritage advocacy since at least 2013. Sustaining daily publishing for well over a decade is typically the only way an independent blog can compound traffic to hit a 25-million milestone.