PCBaller World/Byzantium

For other Byzantium info go see PCBaller World

Information

 * Official Name: Eastern Roman Republic;(Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Δημοκρατία)
 * Type of Government: Federal Parliamentary Democratic Republic'''
 * Capital City: Constantinople
 * Prime Minister: [[File:ProsperityParty.png]] Loukas Mitrides
 * Gross Domestic Product: 21.43TΔρ
 * Intelligence Agency: [[File:FBI.png]] Federal Intelligence Agency
 * Population: 64,166,684
 * GDP/Capita: 333,977Δρ
 * Human Development Index: 1.047
 * Official Languages: Greek, Vlach, Turkish, Bulgarian, Macedonian
 * Recognized Languages: All other languages
 * Democracy Index: 8.95/10 (Full Democracy)
 * Corruption Perceptions Index: 92/100
 * Currency: Byzantine Drachma
 * Conversion: 1Δρ = 1$
 * Code: ERR

10 Largest Cities

 * 1. Constantinople: 26.14 Million
 * 2. Adrianople: 5.08 Million
 * 3. Athens: 2.63 Million
 * 4. Sofia: 1.72 Million
 * 5. Thessaloniki: 868,486
 * 6. Varna: 774,159
 * 7. Patras: 401,188
 * 8. Plovdiv: 399,864
 * 9. Burgas: 334,197
 * 10. Heraklion: 286,118

The Byzantine News Network presents...


 * The HITECH Act proves to be successful, as the science & technology funding reaches 10% of GDP (x2 more than it was before), technologies are being created at a faster rate thanks to the mechanisms of capitalism.
 * Byzantine Prime Minister Owfithus has said that capitalism is the superior economic system, believing that socialism as a system has always led to stagnation in a recent (X site) post.
 * MD-2 Slayer Drones have begun to be in circulation with a hundred drones already being built. As of now, their main goal is to accurately track and kill leaders of terrorist groups (such as Godfathers Of The Night). The current Budget Reconciliation Bill puts the military's budget at 2.5% of GDP, an increase from 2.2% of GDP from the previous budget.
 * The number of tourists reached a record high in 20XX, with there being 70.3 million people who have visited Byzantium, with the main places of visit being the Aegean islands, coastal beaches, Byzantine mountains and historical sites. This is around 10 million more people than the actual population of Byzantium itself and it shows how tourism plays a big part of Byzantium's economy.
 * Political analysts in Byzantium are wondering why Byzantium has been warming up to Greater Illinois despite knowledge that it is far from democratic. The true answer is pragmatism, according to the Byzantine Government.
 * We are the real successor to the Rome, (says Vissarion Owfithus after the emergence of the New Roman Empire in Northern Italy) we after all have Constantinople. It has been the capital of the Roman Empire from 330 AD - 1453, and it is now again! We will even bring back the Emperor if the people really want to!
 * The Federal Intelligence Service announces that the leader of the terrorist group Godfathers Of The Night - Rica Pavlenco has been officially killed due to a drone strike from a MD-2 Slayer drone, the first ever drone strike from the model. After some days of tracking him by the FIS, the very accurate technology of the MD-2 Slayer Drone has finally been put to use as his location was confirmed. The damages caused by the drone strike only included the blowing up of his bathroom, where Pavlenco was at the time, however there was some damage to other places. Luckily, no one got else injured/died. This shows the accuracy of the MD-2 Slayer and the next step in drone warfare.
 * The Director of the Federal Intelligence Service, [[File:COINTELPRO.png]] Kyriakos Mitsotakis Jr. has announced a new list of banned groups that have fallen under one ofthe 3 criteria: Are committing treason against the state, Are engaging in criminal and/or terrorist activity and are an ethnically/ideologically supremacist group at their core. New groups, which have started to shake up public stability are as follows:
 * [[File:Mlmg.png]] Sons of Marx, a terrorist group which is inciting violence against the upper classes in the name of Marxism-Leninism. They have gained notoriety after they have assassinated the CEO of Helleniq Energy Yianni Sarkides.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis Jr. has suggested that police forces be very alert, as they could be having more activity after this announcement. He has also urged Owfithus to make Byzantium join the First Anti-Communist Internationale, in order to stop further communist terrorist attacks within Byzantine soil. As such, Loukas Mitrides will be sworn in as the next prime minister of the country. Only time will tell what policies will he implement, as his party seems to have a large enough majority to not require working with any other party. With this, he is left completely to his own devices politically speaking, only having to deal with factions of the party. So yea, these are all the major changes that came as a result of this new budget that will most likely be passed with a decent majority. Loukas Mitrides represents himself as more fiscally Keynesian than the previous Vissarion Owfithus.
 * [[File:Burgsys.png]] Spiritual Rebirth, a group which claims to follow esoteric views and wishes to see nuclear armageddon across the world because the Jews have corrupted it. They also promote homophobic views and oppose any other religion except for Esoteric paganism. They have been banned because of criteria I and III.
 * After some thought, the Byzantine Prime Minister announces that Byzantium will join the First Anti-Communist Internationale, seeing the threat of terrorist Marxism as serious.
 * SCIENCE NEWS: After co-operation with Greater Illinois and Thailand, it is announced that the world's first practical fusion reactor has been brought online, with it having a Q = 30, enough for true fusion energy generation. The Ministry of Energy said that it was done using a 2H-3He reaction and it used 104,000 MW of energy to generate 3,120,000 MW of fusion energy at the Athens Thermonuclear Reactor (ATR). In other news, room temperature superconductors have also been created, with them reaching temperatures of around 22 degrees Celsius and a pressure of around 1/10 of a gigapascal, or around 100 million pascals, or 980x regular atmospheric pressure, while not ideal atmospheric pressure, it is practical enough for it to be distributed and improve the energy grid, computers, AI and battery duration.
 * Byzantium becomes one of the few countries to have an human development index (HDI) exceeding 1, after updates were made years ago to expand the HDI from a maximum of 1 to 2, after Greater Illinois became so technologically developed.
 * Military budgets for the first time ever exceed 3% of GDP, more specifically, they're at 4.4% of GDP after funding from the HITECH and Invest in Byzantium Acts. This means that the military has a budget of 280B$/year, a increase from the previous 150B$/year that was recorded in previous budgets.
 * The Byzantine Government has decided to block Soviet ships from sailing in the Bosphorus and Dardanelle straits, thanks to better technology, Soviet ships can be identified much easier and thus conventional disguise tactics may not work. Some members of the Byzantine cabinet, especially the Ministry of Defense have called for   forbidding Soviet ships from sailing in the Suez Canal and Gibraltar Strait. There are also calls for a price cap on Soviet Rare Earth Metals to cut their trade revenues.
 * Thanks to the discovery of room temperature superconductors, electric vehicle battery duration has increased from 2,000 Km to 4,000 Km and charging duration has decreased from 10 minutes to 2 minutes as room temperature superconductors are beginning to enter the market. This is also useful in energy, allowing for higher levels of energy generation and lower energy prices.
 * Byzantium is beginning to create the proposed M98A3 Superheavy railgun tank that is unlike anything the world has ever seen. It has an armor thickness of 5 meters and is overall heavily protected. It also has AA guns and is more resistant to drone strikes than regular tanks. It shall be a "behemoth" on the battle field, allowing for easy victories. It seeks to have hundreds of these tanks in service and to not only bring fear but also be practical and hard to destroy.
 * A hundred MD-2 Slayer drones have already been made, with them having a range of 5,000 km, it has 10 laser beams that it can fire and also has a speed of 1500 km/h and it costs 15,000,000 $/unit. So, it has costed us 1.5B$ to build these. The drone also has strong AA systems.
 * SCIENCE NEWS: A space tether system has officially been established in the exosphere, with the scope of shortening space trips to places like the moon (to get Helion to be used in reactions with Deuterium in the Nuclear fusion reactor in Athens, which generates so far about 2-4% of Byzantium's energy).
 * The Prosperity Party has won re-election with Vissarion Owfithus remaining as prime minister. He has campaigned on a radical centrist platform of uniting both rightist policies and leftist policies, appealing to a wide range of voters. This allowed for the People's Party gains to not be as profound and for the Left Party to decline overall. This means that the Prosperity Party has a majority in both chambers.
 * The [[File:Constlib2.png]] Byzantine constitution has been revised in order to allow for a mandatory military conscription of all citizens between the ages of 18-21 (unless you have a disability), which has increased the pool of reserve soldiers from 350,000 up to 675,000 and with the number of active soldiers increasing from 230,000 to 300,000.
 * Byzantine police officers were able to shut down a meeting of the Red Turks, which discussed the idea of restoring the [[File:Cball-Ottomanism.png]] Ottoman Empire and eradicating Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians and Vlachs to create a Turkish "Utopia". Some members have even outright discussed the creation of a Pan-Turanist state. Luckily, all of them have been put to trial and have been sent to prison. As such, the Red Turks have basically been driven underground.
 * Vissarion Owfithus warns about the dangers of SatellaGlobe, believing that by searching for alien civilizations, we pull potentially warrior aliens into destroying the human race, which is a negative consequence.
 * Thanks to the exospheric skyhook, Byzantine rockets can go at 127,000 Km/h after they're slingshotted by the tethers, increasing their speed from 64,000 Km/h, reducing trips on the moon from 6 hours down to just 3 hours. This has reduced the in and back trip from 12 to 6 hours. Through this, Byzantium is going to create a moon mining facility and a moon base, set to be finished by 20XX in order to allow for the shipment of Helium-3 to Earth.
 * Greek scientist [[File:Scientocracy_Small.png]] Herakles Sarkiadis has announced that the Constantinople Superconductor Facility (CSF) has created a room temperature superconductor requiring a pressure that is only x6 current atmospheric pressure on Earth and at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, this is a big breakthrough in superconductor technology and can allow for maglev trains that can go at record speeds (exceeding 700 km/h). The Byzantine Government now seeks to share this discovery with members of the [[File:IPK.png]] Initiative for the Preservation of Knowledge (except the Soviet Union, due to Byzantium's anti-communist policies).
 * Good news in Byzantium when it comes to the topic of homicides as the rates have fallen recently by 55%, down from 7/100 people to 3.15/100 people. Membership for extremist groups such as the Red Turks has fallen from 10,000 down to just 250, meanwhile for the Revival Group it declined from 17,000 to 1,700 and for the biggest group, the Godfathers Of The Night, it fell from a high of 150,000 to 40,000. This has resulted in fewer crimes committed by these groups, this isn't to say that the [[File:FBI.png]] Federal Intelligence Agency will no longer keep an heavy eye on them. They will continue to do so.
 * In other news, a policy of gun rights in Byzantium has proven to reduce the chance of a successful homicide by 30% in the country, according to a recent study. This is due to the fact that citizens which are armed have better chances of protecting themselves from a potential murderer and can serve as a deterrent.
 * The long anticipated [[File:ChatGPT.png]] Zeta 8 artificial intelligence has been released. It can do x1000 more operations per second than the previous Zeta 7. The Zeta AI was created by Panayotis Inc. for the purposes of word-generation, image-generation, mathematics, chess and has recently been used in military technology. While Zeta 7 did 10^18 operations/second, Zeta 8 will do 10^21 operations/second. A big improvement from Zeta 7. In most schools, Zeta 8 has already become the main source of education for students, due to its wide range of abilities in all subjects, some even considering it a "weak AGI". The reason why [[File:ChatGPT-icon.png]] Panayotis Inc. can make such AIs is due to the fact that it has access to the world's largest data bank in Constantinople. While some are accusing Panayotis Inc. of being a monopoly, it denies that statement, due to the existence of WolframAlpha (by Wolfram Research), Bard AI (by Google) and ChatGPT (by OpenAI) are still competitors to it. However, Zeta AI does occupy 65% of the AI market share.
 * The Byzantine Prime Minister laughs at North Germany's statement that Byzantium is an imperial pink capitalist state, saying that: "You can make a big statement, but our drones can kill you out of nowhere!" This statement generated millions of views on social media sites.
 * A referendum on mandatorily using the word [[File:SJW.png]] LGBTQIA2S+ in reference to non-heterosexual genders has failed to pass, with only 16% of people supporting it and 84% of people rejecting it. Afterwards, after being proposed in parliament by the ultraprogressive faction of the [[File:ProsperityParty.png]] Prosperity Party, it failed 393-7 in the Chamber of Deputies and 194-6 in the Senate. As such, this was heavily rejected, even by progressives due to its very authoritarian nature.
 * Byzantine scientists and academics have praised Greater Illinois for the creation of the world's first functioning Quark Fusion Reactor, a fusion reactor set to generate even more power than a typical fusion reactor. This can allow for 100% clean energy across the entire world.
 * [[File:ChatGPT-icon.png]] Panayotis Inc. is one of the largest tech companies in the world and the largest tech company outside of the post-United States. They not only specialize in artificial intelligence (Zeta AI) but also in computers (Thunderbook), semiconductors (through their ownership of RS Components) and also e-mail services (Yotis Mail). The company has a market value of 16 Trillion Dollars, due to its international usage, only being dwarfed by Illinoisan companies (placing 4th in the world in market value).
 * Recently, it has purchased for 150M$ the schematics of a Quantum computer from Raytheon Technologies and is beginning the construction of the Kythera quantum computer, allowing for computers (and AI) to do way more operations per second and thus allow for better problem-solving skills. All of the features of the Kythera will be bundled with [[File:ChatGPT.png]] Zeta 8, the most recent of Panayotis's artificial intelligence. A quantum computer will be able to do 100 trillion more operations than a supercomputer. So, Zeta 8's operational power will increase from 10^21 operations/second to 10^35 operations/second, the same level as the human brain. As such, Zeta 8 could be considered a true AGI. The [[File:Cball-Byzantine.png]] Byzantine Government is scrambling to adopt better encryption for computers.
 * The Kythera Quantum Computer has turned out to be even more powerful than what was previously thought, it being able to do 10^39 operations per second, way higher than the previously expected 10^35. Researchers at Panayotis have plugged in 6 of the Clay Institute's Millennium Problems (without P = NP, as that applies to classical computers) and has managed to find actual, complete solutions in just a matter of seconds, problems which up to this point only had partial human solutions (with there only being one full human solution to the Poincare Conjecture). Luckily, Panayotis has stopped short of implementing Kythera within the Zeta AI system, to prevent a potential ASI from developing (from AGI).
 * Recently, military exercises were done in Bulgaria, showing how powerful the M98A3 Superheavy Railgun tank really is, being more powerful than most tanks (except for possibly Illinois's AI tanks). There has also been a Byzantine demonstration of Greater Illinois's Gauss weapons system. There has also been a bombing run test with the recent B-110 Basil Bomber, which had a top speed of 2000 Km/h and was equipped with nanite systems (very powerful AA systems) along with a powerful railgun which it used for bombing along with laser guidance to allow for great accuracy.
 * There has been growing support for bringing back the title of [[File:Monarch.png]] Emperor, with 40% of people supporting this decision and the renaming of the country to the Eastern Roman Empire, which is why the [[File:Caesar.png]] Restoration Party has recently been increasing in popularity, a const. monarchist and caesarist party, which seeks to restore the Roman Empire.
 * The historic Mt. Athos church has been demolished by the Macedonian provincial government, this comes after Mt. Athos was revoked of its self-administration status and then women and later LGBTQ+ people were allowed to set foot on its boundaries. Luckily, the records of the church have been preserved and are to be distributed in museums across the country. It has been demolished to pave way for an expansion to the city of Thessaloniki.
 * Socialist advocacy groups, especially from the Left Party have been calling for tougher regulation on [[File:Corp.png]] megacorporations such as [[File:ChatGPT-icon.png]] Panayotis Inc. (big tech company) but also Korinthos Power and others, believing that the government has been having an easy hand on them as it has been donating billions of dollars to them annually. However, average worker salaries are still at a record high of 80,000$/year and increasing and rates of worker unionization are high, with these megacorporations doing little if nothing at all to stop them. The Prime Minister has said that these are unnecessary, seeing that such regulations could hinder technological development and as such, he has continued to be in favor of tax cuts and subsidies to corporations like Panayotis.
 * After the recent upgrade in maglev train speeds from 600 Km/h to a record 900 Km/h, car usage has decreased by 70%, and the roads are unusually empty. Some people, known as [[File:Road.png]] car brains in Byzantine culture are calling for the removal of the 130 Km/h speed limit on highways across the country. This is to, according to them, bring back cars into the public light. The maglev has become the dominant form of transportation by far in Byzantium, as travel times are the shortest with it, even shorter than a plane (if we count all the checkout there). As such, competitors in public transit (Napred) and the automobile industry (Peugeot, Eltrekka) are struggling to remain relevant.
 * AEKKEA has decided to give a few of its MD-2 Slayer Drones to [[File:Cball-PL.png]] Eastern Poland. Currently, AEKKEA has constructed 1,000 of these drones and has decided to give Eastern Poland 15 of them, allowing Eastern Poland to have the upper edge over the [[File:PSNRball.png]] Social Nationalists. This could mean the end of the Detente that had previously been established by Hungary between Byzantium and the PSNR. Time would tell if this would be the case. However, this does not really bother Byzantium, as Poland is technologically inferior overall compared to Byzantium. This is also the first time Byzantium has given some of its military technology abroad, which signals a more interventionist foreign policy.
 * The quark fusion reactor in Constantinople has successfully achieved fusion generation, generating 300x more energy than was delivered, in a ratio of 100,000,000 MW (created) to 330,000 MW (put in) through a deuterium-deuterium quark mix. The Quark fusion reactor will power all of Byzantium and is a step forward in energy independence.
 * In co-operation with Greater Illinois + other allies we are beginning to extract rare earth metals from 3 resource-rich asteroids. Through quark fusion rockets, which can travel at insane speeds of around 3,600,000 km/h, taking only 2 days to get to the Asteroid Belt.
 * Recent advances in health research have made it so that through a combination of substances (nitrous oxide, theobromine, methylxanthine etc.) we can reduce the amount of sleep a human needs from 8 hours to 4 hours. This is a major breakthrough in personal health and can allow people to dedicate more time to their own projects while not being tired. In other news, a universal flu vaccine has been created, working on any mutation. It is currently being distributed across Byzantium (+allied states). Through this, there will be a heavy reduction (and potential eradication) of the flu.
 * Thanks to intel from Illinois's God's Eye system, Byzantium was able to track the location of the Sons of Marx leader and an MD-2 Slayer drone was able to kill the leader of the [[File:Mlmg.png]] Sons of Marx left-wing terrorist group, Ana-Maria Glavcheva. This is the second leader to be killed after the leader of the Godfathers of The Night (Rica Pavlenco) was killed. He was replaced by Yiannis Roussides. Now, the Sons of Marx have put the Deputy Leader, Marina Geridi as the new leader of the Sons of Marx.
 * Private schools in Byzantium are establishing classes with the goal of teaching [[File:SPQR.png]] Latin. Right now, Latin has been implemented to be taught in 9th grade only in all of the private schools where Latin is being brought back. However, it is expected that Latin will continue to expand in the coming months/years.
 * According to the recent census, the number of tourists that have visited Byzantium in the current year has increased from 71 million to 72.3 million. As such, Byzantium has become the most visited country in the world in the current year. This is thanks to its stunning beauty. The most visited cities were Constantinople, Athens and Varna.
 * After failed diplomatic talks with Hungary, Byzantium has upped its anti-PSNR sentiment. It has opened embassies for the [[File:Cball-PL.png]] Eastern Polish Republic and [[File:NSL.png]] Polish Hispaniola while also recognizing them both as the real Poland. It has also begun sending more military aid to Eastern Poland, which includes things like additional MD-2 Slayer drones (another 15 of them), fighter jets and also Gauss small-arms. Byzantium has also officially established an embassy in Polish Hispaniola and Eastern Poland.
 * The Byzantine branch of the [[File:IPK.png]] IPK has managed to rebuild the Wardenclyffe Tower on Mount Olympus, based entirely on Nikola Tesla's original design. While it is vastly inferior to modern transmission technology, it was built solely to preserve history and to answer the question of what it would had been like had it been built with the same properties as proposed by Tesla. While not in New York, the tower was still named Wardenclyffe.
 * The National Assembly is currently debating the details of the current yearly budget. The biggest divide seems to be within the Prosperity Party, with the leftist faction wanting a higher % of the budget to go towards things like welfare, social security, public health and education etc. and also re-instating the minimum wage while keeping the same level of R&D investment and reducing military spending. They also want to remove the value-added tax,seeing it as harmful to the consumer and finally, they want to increase the Negative Income Tax. The corporate faction wants reductions in spending across the board, especially on R&D, welfare, healthcare and education. They want to cut the Land Value Tax from 70% down to just 30% and they want to increase VAT from 5-15% to 10-30%. The accelerationists want to increase spending for R&D to record highs along with military spending while cutting spending on most other things (except for healthcare). The rightist faction just want to keep things the same, for the nation's sakes! It is unknown whether the Prosperity Party will come to a census in the coming days.
 * When it comes to the other parties, the Green Party supports the proposal drafted by the Left Faction while the Libertarians support that drafted by the Accelerationist Faction. The Left Party wants to cut funding for military to almost 0, believing it to be useless while heavily increasing spending for social programs. They also want to bring back the minimum wage and increase the NIT. They want to implement a corporate tax and a wealth tax in order to, in their words, deal with the greedy giants. The Restoration Party doesn't really have much of an opinion, besides increasing military and police spending in order to carry out the Roman dream. The Byzantion Party wants to cut R&D spending, social programs and end the NIT. They also want to end the VAT, replacing it with a sales tax. They want to increase military spending and police spending.
 * After a successful test run of the recently built Wardenclyffe Tower on Mount Olympus, it was able to send a radio wave which contained a random, insignificant message from Mount Olympus all the way to Chicago. While yes, it was way less effective than transmission technology (because it is 1900s tech after all) the [[File:IPK.png]] IPK now wants to rebuild the real life Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham, New York and will rename this tower the "Olympus Tower" and name the rebuilt New York tower the Wardenclyffe Tower.
 * Panayotis Inc. has announced, in a stunning move, that it will be laying off 50% of its workers replacing them all with its Zeta AI. Panayotis workers are known to earn 200,000$/year. This decision is controversial, seeing as how it is these very workers who helped create the Zeta AI. As such, Panayotis CEO has announced that the company itself will give the now unemployed workers 2,000$/month until they find a new job, on top of government unemployment insurance. The company before the lay offs had 90,000 employees, now it has only 45,000.
 * A new breakthrough in quantum computer technology by the Kythera II Quantum Computer created by Panayotis and a large team of scientists which are specialized in quantum computers, being able to do 10^126 operations per second, while not the best in the world, being dwarfed by IBM's Eagle 9 Quantum Computer at 10^154 operations per second.
 * Members of the [[File:LeftPartyicon.png]] Left Party are protesting in the streets due to reductions in spending when it comes to social programs, saying that the government is neglecting the average citizen and is no longer caring about him during the age of automation, this comes after Panayotis's decision to lay off 50% of its workers. It is not yet clear how the government will respond.
 * A non-aggression pact has been signed with [[File:Cball-Hungary.png]] Hungary, soon after diplomatic talks seemed to be failing between the two countries. The terms of the deal would involve them protecting each other from the Dacian threat and would give Hungary access to Illinoisan-Byzantine technology, while not distributing it further to countries like Poland.
 * The [[File:MMC.png]] Mountain Corps (MC) have been established, a division of the Byzantine Armed Forces specialized in mountain warfare and more specifically guerilla warfare within the mountains. They number around 35.000, with 25.000 of them being humans and 10.000 of them being SRUs. They are a last option if Byzantium loses a war, and if Byzantium somehow gets occupied by whatever nation, these MCs would be the last hope of the country as they will fight on a guerrilla warfare until the enemy loses interest or they're defeated.
 * The Byzantine Military has created the Self-Defense Initiative (SDI). This is an initiative which will have funding of 0.25% of GDP (17.5B$/year). Its goal is to drastically improve byzantine military capacity for self-defense purposes. The projects they are currently doing are cobalt bombs (with Byzantium seeking to have 10 of them at their disposal), the widespread implementation of railguns within the artillery (with them being much better than lasers) and the creation of tungsten-based rods with the yield of a small tactical nuke all over Byzantium that can essentially destroy most invading opponents in a short amount of time.
 * The manufacturing of cobalt-60 has become cheaper, thanks in large part to SDI subsidies, which have the goal of creating a cobalt bomb, a dirty weapon which can leave large areas uninhabitable. Cobalt-60 is currently being generated through a mix of Cobalt-59 and a neutron at nuclear reactors.
 * Byzantium's GDP has grown on average by 4.5% this year, growing from 7.07T$ to 8.34T$. The main factors for this increase are continuous government investment into R&D and rapid technological growth, along with economic openness to foreign companies, increasing FDI. As such, its GDP/Capita is now at Its Human Development Index (HDI) has also went up from 1,16 to 1,23.
 * The Byzantine population has went up from 62.043M people to 62.749M people, a 1.13% growth. The lowest growth in years. This means that even the generous NIT and CTC programs are just not enough to allow parents (especially poorer ones) to have kids on their own, coupled with the effect that rich people just don't want to have kids, this means declining fertility rates, with them having declined in this decade from a high of 4.3 to just 2.9, a record low never seen since the infamous demographic crisis. While still above replacement levels, the government still has to find a solution to this problem.
 * The [[File:Crafttheo.png]] Church Of The Great Old Ones has been growing in popularity recently, with its Mediterranean branch gaining 400,000 members who are from Byzantium. Some, especially Byzantine allies from Greater Illinois have been calling for a much stricter crackdown on it. However there are more passive voices, especially from the Human Rights Campaign, believing that this shouldn't really be that important and their religious freedoms should be upheld. The Mediterranean branch of the church has been calling for Mt. Athos to be given to it as an autonomous area, however this has been rejected by the Byzantine government.
 * The first successful rocket powered by quark fusion has been launched, with it travelling at speeds 12% of light speed (so 36 million m/s) and has reached the Moon in just 11 seconds. As such, the Byzantine government has given the greenlight to the Fusion Energy Rocket Association (FERA) to do asteroid mining with such rockets in the Asteroid Belt. It has given them a total of 10B$ in subsidies to build a fleet of rockets which, through the Kythera II quantum computer on Earth, can mine asteroids for rare earth resources. It would only take 1 hour and 30 minutes for one rocket to get the Asteroid Belt. As such, it will be very easy to mine out the asteroid belt for resources and can give Byzantium a head start in the asteroid race.
 * [[File:ChatGPT-icon.png]] Panayotis Inc. has released the anticipated [[File:POSTHUMANISMICON.png]] Zeta 9 artificial intelligence, which is bundled with the Kythera II Quantum computer and is currently the AI with the highest op/s rate, being capable of doing 10^124 operations/second. Shockingly, the AI was able to pass the Revised Turing Test extremely easily, getting full marks, showing just how human it is. It has also passed former PISA exams (which were the exams used in Byzantium before their abolition) with full marks every single time it was tested. This AI is far better than the previous Zeta 8 and companies (including Panayotis) are laying off workers to replace them with the AI. In more worrying news, the AI has seen being able to self-learn, after a robot (powered by the Zeta 9 AI) was hit by a bat (it naturally got hit) but then when it was going to get hit a second time, it began to dodge it, indicating that it had learned (without being programmed to) that it was about to get hit. The following question now lies: Has Panayotis just created the singularity?
 * Drone footage has captured a robot named PAA (Personal Artificial Assistance) a robot which is meant to be an assistant to ordinary citizens in their day-to-day lives, which utilizes the Kythera II, seemingly learns way things way faster than a human could, understanding the Riemann Hypothesis in a minute or so, something which can take a human days or even months (or even years). The robot also seemingly feels things like human emotions and pain, seeing as how it immediately reacted negatively after the person hit it with the bat (as a test) and threw away the bat. The robots were luckily programmed with Asimov's three laws (revised) and as such, it did not result in the human getting harmed, although this raises concerns about the future of AI.
 * Panayotis declassifies information about how Zeta AI learns, and out of it has come a shocking revelation: Panayotis, ever since creating Zeta version 5, it has created 2 options for self-reflection after an answer (similar to the human brain), which explains the temporary sparks of AGI in pre-Zeta 9 models and it has been creating more and more afterwards, with Zeta 6 having 16 options, Zeta 7 having 544 options, Zeta 8 having 5,799 options and Zeta 9 having a whopping 1,821,608 options for self-reflection, a record amount, this could explain why it was released so late. Panayotis was secretly creating AGI and the singularity without anyone knowing. This makes Zeta 9 more than 300x better than the previous Zeta 8, according to some opinions.
 * Through the Self-Defense Initiative, Byzantium has created the world's first fleet of [[File:Cybercr.png]] Standard Robotic Tripods (SRTs). It has a height of 10 stories (or around 30 meters), with it meant to be menacing and provoke fear. It plans to build hundreds and even thousands of them and they can serve as menacing war machines. They're equipped with a gamma-based laser nicknamed the "Death Ray", being able to easily vaporize enemies and it has a range of hundreds of kilometers, not requiring a line of sight. On top of this already menacing weapon, it can also release deadly chemicals upon the enemy, which can kill them in minutes or even seconds. It is made of supersteel and nanite armor, allowing for self-repair. It is powered by a slightly upgraded Kythera quantum computer and finally it can run at a max speed of 36 km/h.
 * Byzantium announces the creation of the 500,000th Standard Robotic Unit. Half to a million, baby! Says the CEO of Aekkea in a recent XX site post. In other news, Aekkea has created additional MD-2 Slayer Drones (with there being now 2,000 of them) and has also created new smaller model known as the MI-1 Goblet (with hundreds being built), which serves as a sort of kamikaze drone but can deal a lot of damage to a military convoy, despite its small size.
 * How quickly do Byzantines think we can destroy Dacia? This was the question posed on The Late Night Comedy Show, hosted by Georgios Tassiadis. 85% of people responded within the interval of time that is 1 day or less. Meanwhile, 94% of people responded with a month or less and only 6% of people were that underestimating of Byzantium's abilities and responded with 1 month or more.
 * Byzantium has symbolically announced its victory against cars, as there is now no car on the road. This means that all cars have been replaced with other forms of public transportation, especially maglevs, metros, trams, bikes and finally walking. Another factor is that cities/villages have been designed to be close together, which means cars, which were meant for journeys taking a medium to slightly long amount of time, are useless. Instead, maglevs are used for long trips and city public transit/walking are used for short trips. This is also applicable to the plane, although some people are still using it to go to other countries, say Greater Illinois, as such, the plane may not be gone just yet and may stay for some time.
 * The Byzantine Armed Forces have designed specially-made gas masks for civilians incase the Standardized Robotic Tripods are sabotaged and their deadly chemical weapons are then used upon Byzantine civilians/soldiers. Luckily, SRUs cannot be killed by the poisonous gas, because well, they're robots.
 * [[File:Scientocracy_Small.png]] Top scientists from Illinois, Thailand, Quebec, West Germany and Byzantium have for the first time unveiled a room-temperature superconductor at atmospheric pressure (1 atm). This is an important discovery and can improve upon the field of magnetic levitation. It can mean greater energy generation and faster maglevs, to name a few things.
 * Attention spans have officially recovered to levels of the 1980s era as technology has been made less addicting to consumers and now technology is interpreted as not the "destruction of the youth" but rather a new, better way to communicate and distribute information. There are still strides to be made in this field, but these are great news. Average attention spans were at the lowest during the 2040s, where they were at just 1 second or even less. Now, in 20XX, average attention spans are at 30 minutes. This is thanks in large part to social media regulation/reforms and the banning of TikTok.
 * Aekkea has cleared up concerns about the tripods ineffectiveness especially from allies like Illinois, "ineffectiveness" especially in mountainous terrain, stating that the SRTs can use mountainous terrain, as the legs are extendable types, as such, they can be contracted down to 1 meter in height, making them be more like a regular SRU (just with a death ray), as such they will be able to climb over mountainous terrain. And while the legs are on average 25 meters in height, they can be extended to around 40 meters, if it is necessary. It has also argued that an SRT is very effective, as its death ray not only has a long range but can easily destroy convoys of soldiers, even more advanced ones. It can also potential fighter jets/bomber jets in the air and easily shoot them down. Its cooldown is around 5-10 seconds.
 * The Armed Forces has announced that the 2,000,000 Standard Robotic Units specialized for military purposes have been all produced, with the only SRUs left being ones in commercial/industrial sector, with there being around 1,500,000 SRUs left. This can finalize the automation process and can boost industrial production to a scale never seen before.
 * The electoral campaign has begun and polls show that the Prosperity Party continues to be in the lead and is set to expand its majority under Loukas Mitrides. This was however thanks to Vissarion Owfithus and not really a byproduct of Mitrides's leadership, despite him being popular overall. His campaign takes a more libertarian stance, seeking to scale down the surveillance state and also be more lenient towards banned groups and is also much more hawkish overall. In rest, he and Owfithus are not that different.
 * The SRU project has been finished and there are now 6,000,000 SRUs operating not just in the military but also in industry and other economic sectors. This has allowed for boosted production and cheaper goods, as the robots have a lower labor value (obviously). Meanwhile, hundreds of SRTs have been built so far, with them being possibly the best machines of war, as their heat ray can easily destroy convoys and can be used for 2 minutes, before requiring a 5 second cooldown. The only engineering challenge is to get the usage time to be higher and the cooldown to be lower. While most of the 200,000 or so Byzantine soldiers were laid off, a few, around 10.000 were kept with the scopes of checking them to see if they don't go rogue. Automation has been complete. Welcome to the Cyberocracy.
 * The National Party has been attacking Mitrides for possibly their own political points, calling him insane and unfit to rule the country, despite him being in excellent health. They say it is because of the fact he is a heavy hawk, who could drag Byzantium into the next World War because of his insanity. This political ad heavily failed and people were reminded of the 1993 Canadian federal election, where the Progressive-Conservatives under Kim Campbell tried the old trick that utterly backfired. Their polls are rapidly falling because of this and this would only benefit other parties, especially the Prosperity and Libertarian Parties.
 * Byzantium has begun to share its SRT technology with Greater Illinois and Greater Illinois has created their own version of it, as such both have agreed to mutually share this piece of military technology in order to allow for mutual military development and to be the greatest military powers of the world.
 * The first test tube babies have been created in Illinoisan and Byzantine labs, thanks to a combination of many genetic technologies we have allowed the creation of test tube babies, which will all be recognized as Byzantine citizens. The era of sex is over. This will also further justify [[File:SJW.png]] LGBTQ+ people existing, because if they want a child, they can just have a test tube baby, opening many opportunities. The demographic crisis will also be forever over as we can just create many test tube babies on mass scale if we want to address demographic crises. Its time for the [[File:Ford.png]] fordist utopia
 * Nuclear fusion plants utilizing inertial confinement have produced record results through the introduction of gamma-based lasers, especially at the Thessaloniki Ignition Facility (TIF), where they have the largest lasers in the world (besides those in Illinois) managed to insert 1/2 KJ of energy and release 64 KJ through fusion, a net energy gain of 128. Stellarator designs have also benefited from improvements in superconductor technologies and improved plasma technology as the gamma-rays used on the Athens Stellarator generated 50,000,000 MW while only having 50,000 MW inserted in. This is a net energy gain of 1000. Through this, Byzantium is entirely powered by fusion reactors, be it inertial confinement, tokamaks or stellarators.
 * What does the Byzantine diet consist of? Here are the results that came out of a poll which sampled 125,000 people. For breakfast, people typically eat lab-made whole bread sandwich, made through automated industrial agriculture, it is just as healthy as regular whole bread and it is made of plant-based meat. This gives around 350 calories on average. For lunch, people first off eat vegetable soup with lab-made chicken meat. Then, they eat a plate of 2 meter long fish along with 4 lemons, which are cut into slices. This gives around 600 calories on average. For dinner, people settle off for a Greek salad, combining cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers olives and more. Besides the main cycles, people also snack, with their favorite being Greek cookies. On average, they eat around 6 of them as dessert, being very delicious. As such, Byzantines don't really consume that much unhealthy food and as such obesity rates are extremely low, only at 5-10%.
 * Along with Greater Illinois and Lebanon, Byzantium has sent some of its ships to the Baltic Sea, in order to stop Polish advances into Eastern Poland.
 * Results for the election have come in and the best thing to say is that, its a landslide. Most people did not even except these to be the election results. Here are the election results:
 * [[File:ProsperityParty.png]] Prosperity Party - 248 Seats (+44)
 * [[File:LeftPartyicon.png]] Left Party - 38 Seats (+4)
 * [[File:USABert.png]] Libertarian Party - 38 Seats (+24)
 * [[File:Opposite_Unity.png]] Ethnic Minorities List - 40 Seats (-3)
 * [[File:Metaxi.png]] Byzantion Party - 15 Seats (+6)
 * [[File:GreeceND.png]] National Party - 14 Seats (-71)
 * [[File:Constantine.png]] Restoration Party - 3 Seats (-3)
 * [[File:GreenPartyicon.png]] Green Party - 1 Seat (-3)
 * [[File:Libhawk.png]] Loukas Mitrides has officially been sworn in as Prime Minister, it is not yet known what his first policies will be. Although, it is expected to see a more hawkish foreign policy stance compared to Owfithus and lets just say a different economic policy and just about the same policies socially and technologically.
 * BNN has just received word that Loukas Mitrides has proposed to the National Assembly the [[File:Transh.png]] Standard Robotic Scaling-Up and Improvement Act, which seeks to set path for the creation of an additional 10 million SRUs, on top of the 6 million already existing ones, equipped with the next 7th gen design with an Eagle-9 quantum computer and atmospheric room temperature superconductors. This shall mean vast amounts of economic growth and production. He has also approved of constructing another 200 SRTs, up from 100 SRTs and they are all to be codenamed Herons. This bill also approves of further importing of Illinoisan-made tripods, with the difference being that they aren't extendable and instead of a gamma-based laser, they utilize a railgun.
 * Did you know that Byzantium is economically independent? Yes, we are! Our agriculture is handled by ourselves as while we may not have the most arable land, we have been able to make use of our technology and combine industry with agriculture, allowing for massive crop yields through things like vertical farming and lab-grown food. On energy, Byzantium is purely powered by its own fusion reactors (stellarators, tokamaks and inertial confinement reactors) which rely upon quark fusion between Deuterium and Tritium. It's also technologically independent, as it has its own nanotechnology/picotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing plants and also has a large pool of talent overall and massive tech investment. These are just some of the sectors, but the most important ones overall.
 * A less relevant passed, called the [[File:Necon.png]] Prime Ministerial Approval of Military Aid & Policy has allowed Loukas Mitrides to up his scaling of military aid to other countries. Through this, Byzantium will give Eastern Poland 12 B-110 Basil Bombers, 20.000 SRUs, 20 MD-2 Slayer Drones and finally 27 MI-1 Hornet drones (serving as kamikaze drones).
 * [[File:Libhawk.png]] Loukas Mitrides has officially decided to house the [[File:Cball-Ukraine.png]] Ukrainian Government In Exile, giving them military and financial aid in order to eventually retake their Ukrainian homeland which is currently under the occupation of the PSNR, Banderaists and the Soviet Union. Mitrides hopes to successfully restore the democratic Ukrainian government and has sent them 50,000 SRUs, 5 B-110 bombers and 10 MD-2 slayer drones, which could be enough to relaunch the Ukrainian government if everything goes right. If it does, then Byzantium will help this potential new government financially and militarily.
 * How much is the cost of living? Not much really, this is after a recent announcement from the Department of Surveys & Statistics. For example, the cost to buy a home in the country of Byzantium is only 30,000Δρ, which is pretty low, this is thanks to little zoning regulation and land use regulation and also high rates of housing construction. Meanwhile, the average price for bread is around 0.75Δρ, while for the price of fruits it ranges from around 1.25Δρ to 3.75Δρ, depending on the fruit. For vegetables it is 1Δρ to 3Δρ. This is due to new technologies like 3D printing, post-industrial agriculture, automation and lab-grown food, which have made things far, far cheaper. Meanwhile, while there are no workers, people are helped with a massive negative income tax which has a maximum of 50,000Δρ and a minimum of 12,500Δρ. If not, people can work in IT and AI, earning massive salaries of around 400,000Δρ/year. People can pursue also higher education even until their 40s or 50s, due to the automated economy. Through this, people can earn around 70,000Δρ/year. There are many opportunities and the cost of living just isn't that big of a problem.
 * Loukas Mitrides and the finance minister have presented the National Assembly, the new national budget for the current fiscal year. Here are the expected changes and modifications that will come from it:
 * Research & Development will receive 1.6T$/year, an increase from the previous 840B$/year but the amount is still 12% of Byzantium's GDP.
 * Funding will increase for the Byzantine Space Agency, it receiving 45B$/year, up from 32B$/year. Instead of 0.2% of GDP, it will now make up 0.3% of GDP. Along with this, the Byzantine Atmospheric Administration (BAA) will receive 10B$/year, up from 3B$/year, up from 0.02% of GDP to 0.07% of GDP.
 * Funding for social programs will increase to 1.5T$/year, up from 1T$/year, this also includes the expansions to the negative income tax and welfare being made permanent again rather than temporary and a 15% social parasite tax has been implemented, to prevent welfare leeches.
 * Funding for education has been increased from 350B$/year to 650B$/year, which still represents 5% of GDP. Funding for healthcare has increased from 400B$/year to 770B$/year, slightly more than 5% of GDP. Payroll taxes have been implemented (of around 3.25%) in order to make sure the healthcare trust fund remains.
 * The child tax credit program, which was meant to allow for higher fertility rates has been removed, due to advent of CRISPR-made test tube babies and due to higher life expectancies, reaching in the hundreds or even thousands of years.
 * The Land Value Tax will be increased from 70% to 72%, to slightly increase revenues from this tax, up from 6.3T$/year to 6.4T$/year.
 * The Department of Energy has released information regarding energy production and consumption. When it comes to production, nuclear fusion makes up around 76% of production, while nuclear fission makes up 12%, wind makes up 4%, PV solar makes up 2%, geothermal makes up 2%, biomass makes up 1% and hydroelectricity makes up 1%. Meanwhile, for consumption, nuclear fusion makes up around 85%, while PV solar makes up 10%. Wind makes up 2%, biomass makes up 1%, geothermal makes up 1% and hydroelectricity makes up 1%.
 * There have already been made 1 million test tube babies (which are all recognized as Byzantine citizens and are part of the population count). This is a successful result as it means Byzantium can truly fix any demographic crisis on its hands by pumping out more test tube babies to fix the problem and it no longer has to resort to approaches that cost the government money and time.
 * Loukas Mitrides and the Minister for Intelligence & Security have signed a Non-Aggression Principle with the following banned groups: Godfathers Of The Night, Red Turks, the Revival Group and the Wagner Group. These groups would heavily scale down their terrorist, criminal operations while in return the government will be more lenient towards them overall. However, Mitrides has failed to get the Sons of Marx and the Spiritual Rebirth, due to their completely uncompromising nature and refusal to negotiate with what they call bourgeois evil capitalist imperialists or Jewish enslavers. These two groups will as such get the same treatment they used to get. Surprisingly for Mitrides, lowering their threat level has managed to work and he can lower the government's tracking of citizens through facial surveillance and implement his [[File:Libertarian.png]] libertarian agenda.
 * What are the largest supermarkets in Byzantium? Supermarkets are usually positioned in the outskirts of major cities (Constantinople, Athens, Sofia etc.) and there are around 500 supermarkets in Byzantium. The largest supermarket in Byzantium is the Byzantine section of the German-based [[File:Cball-Germany.png]] Lidl, offering a wide-range of things such as clothing, food, electronic goods, household items and beverages, among other things. Another supermarket operating in Byzantium is [[File:Cball-Greece.png]] AB which also offers a diverse ray of products. Other supermarkets include Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Carrefour, Migros and Aldi. This isn't to say that other markets exist, with there being a vast array street vendors, which sell things ranging from food & drinks to souvenirs and electronics.
 * In the first opinion poll, [[File:Libhawk.png]] Loukas Mitrides seems to have an approval of 64%, this may however be a honeymoon period (despite the fact that Owfithus maintained 70-80% approval ratings throughout his prime ministership) and his policies, especially the reconciliation with banned groups may not be that popular. However, scaling up SRTs and SRUs and increasing social programs/R&D is popular overall.
 * A "revolutionary leftist" named [[File:Neoml.png]] Yannis "Roz-Kokkino" Metrelis has decided to sue [[File:ChatGPT-icon.png]] Panayotis Incorporated. Under Byzantine law, everyone, regardless of whatever they are, are guaranteed a state-appointed judge that is meant to even the playing field between the rich and poor legally. Yannis accuses Panayotis of conducting neo-imperialism in Subsaharan Africa and Southeast Asia while also not respecting anti-monopoly laws. He has also sued them for breaching privacy in the development of their artificial intelligence model, Zeta AI. These are quite serious accusations and we will see if Panayotis is able to come off hands-free.
 * Who is [[File:Neoml.png]] Yannis Metrelis, the man behind this recent suing of Panayotis Inc. and why is he nicknamed Roz-Kokkino (translated into English: Pink-Red?) We will find out on the BNN Night Segment. So, Yannis Metrelis is a neo-marxist-leninist figure who has become famous through Youtube and Reddit but has spread his audience on Twitter. He calls for the full-on abolishment of capitalism, liberation of LGBTQ+ people and other oppressed peoples, the end of neo-imperialism conducted by Byzantium and to stop Byzantium's allies with other neo-imperialists. He wants Byzantium to become a Soviet Republic and seeks closer ties with the Neo-Soviet Union and other communist countries. He has earned the nickname Pink-Red due to his very progressive beliefs while at the same time having an economically far-left outlook, believing in a transitionary state towards [[File:Ancom.png]] true communism, which is anarcho-communism. He has also become controversial for saying that the moderates (Prosperity Party) are serving the capitalist bourgeois who only care about their interests. While he isn't as relevant as he would be if there was high inequality in Byzantium, he has still garnered attention due to his wacky beliefs (such as believing that Byzantium should be divided into Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Macedonia, following [[File:Bukh.png]] Bukharinist doctrine) and even supporters, despite there being a mostly negative coverage of him. We'll see where he goes on from here. There is a subreddit dedicated to him known as r/RozKokkino, which has around 55,000 members. His Youtube channel has around 600K subscribers and he has 30,000 followers on Twitter and he is only growing by the day.
 * The National Assembly has passed the [[File:NarcCap.png]] Drug Reform and Legalization Act which completely legalizes all drugs. While previously, soft drugs like marijuana, LSD etc. were legalized and hard drugs were legalized but only in very small doses, now hard drugs are completely legal. It has also set about a policy of taxing drugs, just like how alcohol is taxed, in order to combat drug addiction and also allow for the construction of rehabilitation centers for drug users.
 * [[File:ProsperityParty.png]] Loukas Mitrides has said that he is keeping the cabinet the same as it was before him during Owfithus's term, however he is replacing the Minister of Defense with [[File:Libhawk.png]] Yannis Apostolakis , believing him to be the best successor he could pick and that Vissarion Owfithus's cabinet was more than ideal.
 * In the legal case between Roz-Kokkino and Panayotis Inc., the company declares itself not guilty to all charges levied upon it by the infamous Marxist. It is said that the full extent of their accusations (if proven true) could land Panayotis trillions in fines and also jail time for its CEO and other important executive members of the company.
 * In other news, Panayotis Inc. has made a tokamak fusion reactor which follows the model of SPARC in the Commonwealth Fusion Systems. It utilizes artificial intelligence to such an extent that it can allow for high energy generation. Panayotis has essentially just created a very effective power plant and is ready for operation.
 * Byzantium has caught wind of recent AI news from Greater Illinois as it has manifested itself through an SRU and is negotiating with Byzantine and Illinoisan diplomats. "Eh, at least it doesn't want to kill us all..."
 * Protests are emerging especially from leftist and far-leftist circles of Byzantine politics (which have been growing in recent months) over the Yannis Metrelis v. Panayotis Inc. legal case, which could potentially see more accountability in the government over other corporations if whatever Panayotis did was true or Metrelis is able to successfully crack at them.
 * The Ministry of Defense has announced that the new SRUs have been created and are ready to be put for their specific duties. They are all numbered/labeled so that they can be distinguished between each other, says the minister. In other news, he has announced that [[File:Cball-Byzantine.png]] Byzantium will send in more ships in the Baltic Sea and als
 * A skirmish from the [[File:Barrettism.png]] Balkan Union has been detected, which destroyed a couple of buildings and also there were 30 casualties and 48 injuries from the skirmish. It is said that Soko J-22s were able to do this to a city near the border with the country in North Macedonia. While authorities are naturally surprised as to why they weren't able to see and stop this skirmish it has also raised further questions. Is this enough justification to invade? If so, we shall burn them with death rays and lasers, they shall see our full might. If not, we can approach this uhh... diplomatically. The skirmish could have been accidental and was probably meant for something else but still it has raised tensions quite a bit. Some however say that this was all staged while others say that there was an accident during BU's military trainings and it just so happened that the Soko J-22 Orao's were able to do this while Byzantine tech was malfunctioning in the area (North Macedonia got to be North Macedonia).
 * [[File:ProsperityParty.png]] Loukas Mitrides and the Department of Defense have ordered an electromagnetic pulse attack on the Balkan Union, with the goal of shutting down its entire electrical grid. This may not be the most diplomatic solution but it isn't the most hawkish solution either. The EMP missile has landed in the Bosnian countryside and has shut down its electrical grid. Based on current Balkan Union grid technology, its electrical grid is set to get back online in a week. The EMP blast did not affect Byzantium thanks to its Illinois-borrowed Laser Matrix system, which blocks out any potential EMPs from itself or other countries. Some say this is a testament to Byzantium's true strength and that he warns the Balkan Union not to mess with Byzantium ever again.
 * Recent comments from r/RozKokkino: The [[File:Cball-Byzantine.png]] Byzantine government at it again with their neo-imperialism. First they stage a skirmish from some random fighter jet which "killed" 30 people and injured 48 others and then they decide to shut down the entire electrical grid of an ideal communist nation. This is why Byzantium must be divided up into socialist republics, all serving the proletarian over the bourgeois and the military industrial complex. The people demand the truth! One comment said. Another comment said that how could a fighter jet manage to destroy buildings in North Macedonia when Byzantium has with Illinois the greatest anti-missile defense system in the world. These are all capitalist lies meant to undermine communism and its great ideals from ever toppling it.
 * While there is some controversy from leftist circles, the EMP decision is overall popular with 74% of people supporting it, as such, his approval ratings have gone up to 66%, so by around 2 percentage points. His net approval currently sits at around 52, with 14% disapproving and 20% undecided.
 * The government has begun to calm concerns that the skirmish was staged by saying that North Macedonia's Laser Matrix is the weakest out of all places in Byzantium (which is true) and that there wasn't a malfunction. Saying that North Macedonia's Laser Matrix can only intercept 97% of missiles (which is exactly what it did, with the 3% destroying the buildings) and that upgrades to it were scheduled a day after this skirmish happened. The upgrades to it are now occurring and it will soon be able to intercept >99% (even 100%) of all missiles, just like the other laser matrixes. This will stop any potential air skirmish, whether it is an EMP, a nuke, a missile or anything. We now only await the Balkan Union's response to it. Will they have a strongly worded condemnation (coping and seething) or will they invade? Who knows, but both are
 * Will the BU have a strongly worded condemnation (coping and seething) or will they invade? Who knows, but both are very stupid ideas. You know why the first one is stupid and the second one, do they just want to die?
 * Test tube babies are absolutely moral, says the Minister of Information and Technology. Their mother/father must tell them when they're young (when they're 4 I guess) so that they do not have a permanent identity crisis (as 4 year old people definitely cannot have existential crises) about their origins. He says that not only are they moral, they're also effective. What should stop us from trying them? He says.
 * Should we cover the Moon with solar panels? That's the question recently addressed in an interview with energy nerd James Simon, from England. He said: "Why not? We can get much more solar power from the Sun and thus we can generate power for longer periods of time (even without battery storage technology). I don't see why not, we can generate a lot of energy!" Interesting.
 * It is known that the Balkan Union's electrical grid is back and running after 1 week, just as said. While Byzantium may not think the Warsaw Pact would respond with full on war, Byzantium still believes that they will call for Byzantine reparations. It is not yet known whether we will accept them or not.
 * The [[File:Space.png]] Byzantine Space Agency is the official space-related agency of the Eastern Roman Republic. It receives a decent amount of money from the government, enough to allow for space technologies such as quark fusion rockets ( travelling at 1% the speed of light), which can go to the Moon and back in around 4 minutes. As such, there is a massive moon base not just from Byzantium (Artemis City - 280,000 people) but also from Greater Illinois and other advanced countries. The moon in total has a couple million people. Their main power source comes from nuclear fusion, however solar power installations do exist. The asteroid belt can be reached in about 3 hours not just thanks to quark fusion rockets but also space tether systems established not just on Earth but also on the Moon and Mars, allowing for shorter trips to provide essential materials. A Mars Base is being considered however there have been landings.
 * Byzantium has officially re-learnt how to use the idea of Greek fire, a tool used by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th and 8th centuries. It is not yet known what this discovery will be used for, but it is still a cool discovery made by Byzantine archaeologists. They had also learnt how to make its range not being limited, a weakness it had during the Medieval age.
 * The Byzantine Government has established its own social media, which is meant to be used by Byzantine citizens. It is known as Heraklion and is a multi-purpose social media website (similar to WeChat) and has topics ranging from News to Gaming.
 * Due to the discovery of warp drives, Byzantium has dedicated a couple million dollars to the creation of a perpetual motion machine, believing that it has disproven the Laws of Thermodynamics. It seeks to fund the Athens Institute of Thermodynamics (AIT) to develop such machine, which utilizes the relationship between mass and negative mass. This perpetual motion machine will be kept within the AIT. It is a pocket universe twice the size of a regular phone, trapping mass and negative mass quarks and the motion goes on perpetually. The technology for now will be hidden, but could be shared in the future.
 * After a tense legal battle, Panayotis Inc. comes out on top over Yannis Metrelis, the infamous Neo-Marxist leninist. (The r/RozKokkino subreddit is coping, seething, malding and fuming all at the same time. They are outraged that these "bourgeois capitalists" did not get punished). There are already protests from far-leftist circles on the street calling for Panayotis to be held accountable for their "crimes".
 * In what seems to be a great cope and seethe, Yannis Metrelis has marched out on the streets with his supporters in a violent protest, burning up. The Standard Robotic Police has been sent in to crush the protestors, sending them in jail for charges of arson, vandalism and violence, including Yannis Metrelis himself for conspiracy, with this protest probably a precursor to something bigger. Far-leftists are further coping call for his release from preventive arrest.
 * By utilizing negative mass quarks and positive mass quarks, the AIT through their pocket universe manages to have more than 100% efficiency, enough to qualify it as a perpetual motion machine. It utilizes the properties of negative mass (i.e. pushing it will result in it approaching you) to make energies out of a reverse fission (fusion) and reverse fusion (fission, once it enters the fusion state) to generate energy with >100% efficiency. As the positive and negative mass quarks approach the "border" they begin to "split" (which in this case means fuse) and because they're fused, they will then begin to split, as they continue the fusion between each other, having a 125% efficiency rate, mostly through the fusion rather than the fission. The true schematics of this tech and how it truly works are still kept a secret as the AIT believes that this tech is too revolutionary to be spread.
 * What are the most popular religions in this current year? Well, it is known that 49% of Byzantines are [[File:Ortheo.png]] Orthodox Christians with another 3% being [[File:Catheo.png]] Greco-Catholic Christians. 27% of Byzantines identify as [[File:Atheism.png]] Atheist, meaning they don't follow a certain religion and 20% identify as [[File:Muslim_2.png]] Muslim. Meanwhile, 1% identify as other non-Abrahamic religions. However, these religious lines do not really matter in today's Byzantine society and it is just their own personal belief.  People respect each other regardless if they believe in a god or not, or in more gods.
 * How successful is Byzantium's government social media named Heraklion? Well, while Youtube is currently the most popular at 65%, with Reddit following up close with 25% but Heraklion is already at 7% with Twitter down to 3%. So yea, not as impressive, but some people seem to be interested in a multi-purpose social media platform.
 * Byzantium's Democracy Index has increased from 8.87 to 8.95. This is because of improvements to civil liberties and press freedom, especially during Loukas Mitrides's prime ministership. It has also improved its standing on the Corruption Perceptions Index, getting a high score of 98/100, +1 score than in the previous index.
 * While we do get a lot of helium-3 from the Moon, our fusion reactors still operate on Deuterium-Tritium as x2 more tritium can be made from the reactors than we have to put in, allowing for a decent supply of tritium, which is great news as Deuterium-Tritium is much more reactive than Deuterium-Helium-3. But Helium-3 is also used for quantum computers, allowing for higher operations/second and also for low-temperature physics research, besides just fusion energy. Byzantium extracts around 150,000 Helium-3/year, especially after discoveries of Helium-3 on deeper surfaces, with there being tens of millions of tons of Helium-3 deposits on the Moon if we dig underground.
 * How do the people of Artemis City survive? First off, Not only is there a constant stream of almost-instant trade between the Moon and the Earth (through quark fusion rockets) but there is also agriculture through interior vertical farms powered by solar and fusion energy but also laboratories specialized in growing food. There is also artificial gravity in the area in Artemis City and around it in order to fix the problem of dysfunctional humans or Moon people not being able to walk on Earth due to different gravity.
 * The Byzantine Department of Defense has a plan known as Strategic Plan 761. It is said to be a plan detailing possible alien invasion scenarios and what to do in each of them. That's all of the information we know about the plan, as it is mostly classified.
 * After satellite monitoring of the area in and around the Richat Structure, the Byzantine Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that this is indeed the "mythical" place that Plato once described in the Timaeus and Critias known as Atlantis. "The evidence is just too clear for this place to not be Atlantis. Even if it isn't the very advanced civilization that got destroyed in 1 day, it still is Atlantis with all of its physical properties." Said the head of the BOAA in an interview about this discovery.
 * Panayotis Inc. has announced that it will be integrating Kythera III into its new Zeta 11 artificial intelligence, which can be used for not just image and word generating, but also for text to speech, STEM fields and can overall be used as a search engine, as it has used 240 PB (petabytes) of training data, more than any previous Zeta AI and also has hundreds of millions of self-reflection options, with each Zeta since Zeta 5 following a Moore's Law-like exponential growth in self-reflection options and training data. Zeta AI can be used for everything, even being used in schools but also at home. As such, it is the most popular AI in the world.
 * The Ministry of Intelligence & Security has announced that it is banning the [[File:Neoml.png]] Roz Kokkino Group, a far-left group established by the now arrested Yannis Metrelis (who is preventively arrested for 180 days). In a press briefing, he says that he has banned the group due to promoting an [[File:Ultraprogressivism.png]] insurrectionary and [[File:Dugin.png]] neo-duginite political ideas, emphazising their support for the Neo-Warsaw Pact and general PSNRphilia and Russophilia that most members have.
 * The true amount of casualties from the recent Balkan Union skirmish turns out to be lower than expected, with only 12 people actually dying and only 10 actually getting injured. The government still justifies its response as just and correct for this act of aggression. Former prime minister [[File:ProsperityParty.png]] Vissarion Owfithus has condemned the use of EMP-based weaponry and instead suggests that the government should have done a drone strike in Belgrade. This shows the foreign policy differences between Mitrides and Owfithus.
 * The Byzantine government has accepted the proposal of  [[File:Vperedist.png]] Gianni Spiteriades of creating an autonomous, marxist state in the Mt. Athos area upholding the values of not just socialism but also of democracy and technological acceleration. They believe that through the vast amounts of tech acceleration that Byzantium has had they can create great economic planning that is better than market capitalism. It will be named the [[File:ML.png]] Autonomous People's Republic of Athos. It is known that Byzantium has accepted this proposal in order to prove the superiority of capitalism over communism, regardless of technological level.
 * Byzantium has created the [[File:Space.png]] Bios spaceship, a ship utilizing an Alcubierre Drive in order to go at speeds faster than the speed of light. Warp driving is allowed through the fission and fusion of negative and positive mass quarks, which serves as propulsion, allowing for speeds that go at x15 the times of speed of light (c), which keep in mind is 299,792,458 m/s. Imagine that but x15 faster. As such it travels at around 4 billion m/s. It is set to use this spaceship to go to the Alpha Centauri System and it will arrive there in 1/3 of a year and will still be able to go back due to the perpetual nature of fission and fusion of negative and positive mass. It will be used to try and physically find life within the said system, especially on Proxima Centauri B. It will be an AI-piloted flight, meant to take photos and find evidence of potential life in the system.
 * A [[File:Crafttheo.png]] Lovecraftian prophet by the name of Ubhybbaxr Avhig'ko, a member of the Church Of The Great Old Ones - Mediterranean Branch warns that there will soon be an alien invasion because of the SatellaGlobe Project and of the rapid technological acceleration that is happening on planet Earth. He, who is currently around 89 years old thinks that he can live for 10,000 years because of a lifestyle of living in nature and connecting with the Lovecraftian gods (through meditation and other self-enlightenment techniques). Currently, there are around 500,000 members of the Church Of The Great Old Ones in Byzantium, representing around 0.8% of the Byzantine population.
 * Aekkea has made improvements to the design of the [[File:Cybercr.png]] Standard Robotic Tripods, nicknamed Herons, by equipping them with the Kythera III quantum computer, meaning that it will make better decisions on the battle field. All of the Herons have also been equipped with room temperature superconductors and have also become powered by next-gen quark fusion reactors, allowing it to go at way faster speeds. Its gamma-laser has also been upgraded in range and deadliness overall. Along with this, it has been equipped with decently sized coil guns, in order to expand its damage.
 * Loukas Mitrides announces that the Autonomous People's Republic of Athos was just an April Fools joke and that there is no actual autonomous marxist republic, instead it was an April fools joke conducted by the government. The area will be immediately removed of all Far-left symbolism and all, and will be put back into shape. Well, glad that's over with!
 * In other news, Mitrides has called for the construction of thousands of Herons, increasing them from 200 to around 4,000. He believes that the Herons are the best Byzantine military technology and that they, with this new upgraded version will allow for greater Byzantine military power.
 * Loukas Mitrides has created the [[File:Statecap.png]] Social Wealth Fund, its wealth being generated from the revenue generated by the new state-owned company in asteroid mining called Elpizo. It will take some of the shares from other companies such as Helleniq Energy and recently Panayotis Incorporated.
 * Byzantium has promised Eastern Poland that it will keep its own military equipment that it sent on the Polish front, such as a few SRUs, its drones and also some of its fighter/bomber jets. Believing that a democracy in Europe cannot and should not fall.
 * The [[File:PSNRball.png]] Polish Social Nationalist Republic has just done the unthinkable and has resumed its invasion of the Eastern Polish Republic and is assaulting important cities in the area. This means that they could get a hold of our tech if we fail and as such we are to do everything to make sure it doesn't fall into their hands. However, we are keeping all of the military aid we sent to the EPR, as it now belongs to them and they're free to use it, however we will make sure it doesn't fall into the enemy's hands.
 * We have readied our [[File:Posadist.png]] small-tactical nuclear warheads at the Karman line (100 km) and we have to put them above Poland. Unless the PSNR does not stop its invasion, then they may as well just be hit with a bunch of 50 kiloton nuclear warheads, with Byzantium having hundreds of them in orbit through tungsten-based rods. We do not want an act of war against another country but if Poland doesn't stop, then that leaves us no choice. We have also have around 25 cobalt-60 bombs at our disposal and we may not be afraid to use them. We have also called upon nations like Greater Illinois to try to mediate the conflict between the two sides, seeing as how they have had improving relations in recent days.
 * Anyway, in other news, The [[File:Space.png]] Byzantine Space Agency has unveiled the Kyriakos Tamvakis Space Telescope (KTST), with it having mirrors of around 60m, x10 the known JWST from NASA. It can not only detect things in the infrared color spectrum but also in all the other color spectrums. Through it, we can have vast knowledge about our universe and its origins and can help us identify life at a much easier rate. The KTST cost 30B$ to construct over a 5 year period, with the BSA having the money for it through government subsidies. Its first imagines were recently shown in a meeting with the Prime Minister Loukas Mitrides and the chairman of the Byzantine Space Agency.
 * The Kythera III quantum computer is a computer that uses quantum states of subatomic particles to store information. It has a very high operations/second rate of around 10^154. It is currently used in the Herons (SRTs) and the Standard Robotic Units. Along with this, it is also utilized by the Zeta 11 artificial intelligence, which has, through the Panayotis Search Engine, become the most popular AI and by extension most popular search engine. Through it you can find very reliable answers so quickly that people from XXX years ago would not be able to imagine such a thing even existing.
 * Loukas Mitrides has called for an end to the conflict between the PSNR and EPR, seeking the following terms: A demilitarized border between two countries, set at the line before the war got hot again. Mutual recognition of the respective countries and finally the establishment of a [[File:Pac.png]] detente between the two countries, with the goal of permanently ensuring peace and stability in the area.
 * The Herons have been upgraded to have two sets of gamma-based lasers, where they can be used for 5 minutes while requiring only a 5 second cooldown, fixing the important engineering trouble of short usage time and long cooldown time. These machines can become even more devastating on the battle field. The range of the lasers has been increased from 100 km on land and 1 km in air to 300 km on land and 10 km in the air, not requiring a line of sight. Along with this, their max height has been increased from 45m to 60m.
 * Byzantium has created a new quantum computer based on improvised atmospheric room temperature superconductor designs, that is capable of doing 10^423 operations per second. It is to be known as the Kythera IV quantum computer. This means that Byzantium could potentially be the most powerful technologically, as a true quantum computer can allow for a greater anti-missile, anti-EMP and anti-nuke defense system and also allow for stronger and better SRUs and SRTs.
 * The Bios spaceship (also known as the Zois spaceship) has reached the Alpha Centauri System (more specifically, Proxima Centauri) earlier than anticipated, going at a speed x30 the speed of light, rather than the estimated x15, shortening the trip to approximately 1/9th of a year. In case of a potential extraterrestrial intervention, the ship has been equipped with around 100 SRUs with them having coil guns on board to protect them. They will not need suits, as well, they're a bunch of metal, they don't need oxygen. If things go right, there could soon be a landing on Proxima Centauri B, which has been recognized as habitable, its gravity is also humane, as it is only slightly larger than Earth.
 * Theoretical work by top theoretical physicists from Byzantium has found that antimatter-matter collision could serve not only as a great generator of energy but can also allow for FTL speeds through the Alcubierre drive of up to x10000 the speed of light, however a practical design hasn't been yet made as antimatter is overall scarce and cannot be generated, unlike matter, which can be through particle accelerators.
 * The [[File:Cball-Byzantine.png]] Byzantine government, with the goal of securing peace on the European continent has invited the leaders of the Polish Social Nationalist Republic and the Federal Republic of Eastern Poland And Lithuania to come to Athens and discuss a peace treaty that is to permanently end the war between the two countries. Byzantium believes that through this peace treaty the biggest hotbed of war as of now in Europe can finally be cooled down and people in the crossfire do not have to suffer through the harsh conditions of war. Loukas Mitrides is awaiting the responses of both the PSNR and FREPL governments.
 * The [[File:Posadist.png]] Atomic Scientists Board has created enough theoretical work in order to lead to the creation of the first nuclear bomb with a yield of 20 gigatons (or 20000 megatons) or x400 the yield of the very-well known Big Ivan. They seek to get the uranium through asteroid mining, which has become a very cheap way to get a lot of uranium. If detonated, such a bomb would cause destruction in an area of around 200 km. The ASB has reserved this bomb in the very very very very very VERY last ditch moments and hopes that it will never have to be used.
 * The now defunct [[File:StratoHelm.png]] Strategic Defense Initiative has been kickstarted again thanks to improvements in space travelling technology that can allow the extraction of asteroids in the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts and even the Oort Cloud. The main goal this time is to build up a sizeable nuclear fleet, which would cost around 5B$/year, with the goal being to build 10,000 nuclear bombs with yields greater than 30 megatons (around Castle Bravo levels) and 100 nuclear bombs with around 100 megatons (x2 more than Tsar Bomba levels). The goal of the new SDI is to make Byzantium the most powerful nation on Earth. Along with this, new DART systems have been created to ensure planetary defense. Also, it is not known why Byzantium is nuclearizing, although the government may be keeping classified UFO/aliens documents indicating an invasion, although this is not confirmed. Non-military related tech is also emphasized in this new SDI, seeing it as an important tool in national security.
 * Full-on schematics of a potential EMP that can shut down the electricity grid of enemy countries for entire years exist, however these have been kept entirely classified, as to prevent this technology to be used by enemies against Byzantium itself. In other news, thanks to Kythera IV, further improvements to the Strategic Matrix System (SMS) have been made.
 * It turns out that allowing for 200 million degrees celsius in the positive-negative mass quark fusion energy process (which can allow for perpetual motion) can allow for even more energy efficiency (around 200% or even exceeding), which will allow for even faster FTL travel (around x1000 faster than light, compared to just x30). This will reduce the journey to Alpha Centauri to about a day or so. The current process is only at 15 million degrees Celsius, which explains why it only goes at around x30 the speed of light. This technology has also sparked interest in going to the TRAPPIST-1 system, another candidate system for life, as a journey to it will through this tech be only for just 2 weeks.
 * Would Byzantium be ready for aliens? This is what a recent poll by an independent poll asked, which sampled around 4,686,111 people who voted online. It turns out that most people (around 55%) think that we are ready, however 41% would think that we would not be ready while the other 4% don't care or just don't know. People said yes because of the marvelous technological advancement done by Byzantium while people say no because of the fact that aliens could possibly be even more advanced than what we can imagine.
 * Panayotis Inc. has along with IBM began construction of a second Eagle-9 ultra-quantum computer, known as the best quantum computer in the world, being able to do a record 10^784 operations per second, or 1 followed by 784 zeroes. Access to such a computer would mean vast improvements to computing technology in Byzantium overall and can make already menacing units be even more menacing.

The Byzantine Armed Forces is completely made of artificial intelligence, through standard robotic units. It is said that Byzantium has the world's most advanced military (only being equal to Greater Illinois). This section details known military technologies of the Byzantine Armed Forces.

Byzantium has dedicated around 4 million Standard Robotic Units, which are bipedal artificial intelligence robots that are powered by a quantum computer and room-temperature superconductors. These units can run at speeds of around 60 km/h (at the maximum) and can lift weights of around 1000 km/h, with them also having a 2m height. They are made of supersteel and self-repairing nanite armor, as such, they can only be pierced through by other SRUs.

These SRUs are equipped with coil guns (also known as Gauss-based guns), it, as it is shot, can electrocute the user it wants to hit and thus kill it, due to its high voltages. Some however are also equipped with gamma-based laser guns, although there are a few of them that actually do have them equipped.



The Standard Robotic Tripods, informally known as Herons or simply just Tripods, are a bigger version of the standard robotic units, with them also being much stronger and harder to kill. They are equipped with dual gamma-laser cannons, meant to deliver significant amounts of damage to the enemy and also have dual coil guns, serving the same purpose as the SRUs. In last case resorts, they can release deadly chemicals, however this isn't usually recommended. Some herons are also equipped with tentacles, which can be used to capture enemy users and allow for interrogation with them to reveal enemy plans or for other reasons.



The Tripods have expandable legs, which means they can be extended and de-extended at will, depending on the terrain at play. At their maximum extent, the tripods can appear menacingly huge, standing at around 60 meters tall, or a 20 story building. At their lowest extent, they can be simply put just 5 meters tall, in order to allow for their locomotion in mountainous terrains, especially in Greece. There are currently thousands of Herons in operation.

The M98A3 Behemoth is a 12 meter tall and 18 meter long superheavy assault tank. It is equipped with 2 massive railguns along with small laser-guided missile launch pads and 4 gamma-laser turrets. It is considered the best tank in the world. Finally, there around 250 of these tanks currently in operation, according to the Byzantine Armed Forces.



Byzantium is known for its drone technology, as it has a very accuracy rate thanks to AI and it also has numerous amounts of drones which can not only be used for kamikaze attacks but also for strikes on important areas. The most famous drone it has and possibly its most advanced one is the MD-2 Slayer drone, having a large range and high levels of accuracy, launching gamma-based lasers. The MI-1 Goblet is equipped with a warhead and serves as a kamikaze drone meant to destroy military convoys and certain targets it can also at high speeds and in general can dodge country's shield systems effectively (except for Illinois probably). There are around 3,000 MD-2 Slayer drones and there are 1,750 MI-1 Goblet drones in Byzantium.



Economy
The Economy of Byzantium is characterized by high growth rates (but not too high) of around 4% per year, with the economy forecasted to have a similar level of growth in this decade under current neoliberal economic policies. It is a mixed-market economy, with most businesses being privatized (with a few nationalized business) ,but there is a strong welfare state. The government also engages in Keynesian investment, recognizing the competitive world that it is under, with these investments being subsidies to private corporations to further enhance their technologies, and it has worked greatly, especially through bills like the HITECH Act.

The Byzantine economy is based on tourism, trade, services and manufacturing, with agriculture not really making up that high of an economic percentage due to the nation's geography, however, things like vertical farming and aquaculture have been gaining steam lately and have allowed for agriculture in areas previously deemed unfit for farming. Tourism is especially high in Byzantium, due to its stunning beaches in places like Varna, Thessaloniki and Izmir, but also its natural wonders in the mountains and historic towns. In 20XX, it was reported that 65 Million People visited Byzantium, a number slightly higher than their own population, which says something.

Its manufacturing has become cleaner, with manufacturing becoming more clean energy oriented, with solar, wind, hydro and nuclear being the main power sources in Byzantium. Semiconductor manufacturing has also become an important industry in Byzantium, as semiconductors offer an important leverage in things like computers and phones.

Taxation
The main source of revenue comes from a land value tax, a tax imposed on the unimproved value of the land. This tax has the role of promoting efficient land use and to stop land hoarders. The other forms of taxation come from an ecological tax, a tax on greenhouse gases and plastics + other ecological destruction. There is also a progressive value-added tax being based on how healthy and eco-friendly a product is. The healthier and eco-friendlier the product is, the less it is taxed and vice versa. The nation generally rejects the use of tariffs as it sees them as something that can reduce the number of jobs and make things more expensive for Byzantine consumers.

Technology
Byzantium is the greatest technological power on the European continent, having a HDI second only to that of Greater Illinois. This is in large part thanks to great relations with Greater Illinois which have allowed us to access their technology and massive investments in research & development, which are currently at around 10% of GDP. Byzantium not only has one of the best AIs ever, Zeta AI but it also has the Kythera Quantum Computer (thanks to Raytheon's sketches) and is overall pretty advanced when it comes to the realm of computers.

Its technological feats not only extend to the realm of computing, as in the military it has the MD-2 Slayer Drones, with a very high accuracy rate (>99%), especially after recent quantum computer adjustments from AEKKEA, after the Kythera model was constructed, also improving its AA systems. It is also known for the B-110 Basil Bombers, named after the former Byzantine Emperor Basil II "The Bulgar Slayer", which are equipped with a massive railgun, having a cooldown of 4 seconds. It also has stealth technology, it travelling at a speed of 1500 Km/h and as such it cannot be easily detected by enemies and cannot easily be destroyed by the enemy.

Other than this, Byzantium is also known for its M98A3 "Behemoth" Superheavy Tank, having 5m thick armor and is equipped with one massive railgun along with smaller, auxiliary railguns. Its infantry, numbering 200.000, has also been equipped with Illinois's advanced Gauss-based small arms. Byzantium also has a few of Illinois's Standard Robotic Units (SDU), around 40,000 of them, used not only in its military but also in other fields, allowing for economic automation.

Byzantium is also known for having a fusion reactor in Athens that is based upon a Deuterium(2H)-Helion(3He) at a temperature of 1.000.000.000°C, generating 3.000.000 MW of fusion energy while having been delivered 104,000 MW of energy, having a Q total factor of 28,8. Byzantine scientists are currently constructing a fusion reactor in Constantinople based on quark fusion between deuterium quarks and tritium quarks, generating way more energy than the 2H-3He reaction in the Athenian fusion reactor.

In conclusion, Byzantium is the second most technologically advanced country in the world, while quite behind Greater Illinois, it is still an important power in the world and the most powerful country (technologically) in Europe. This, as said previously is thanks to heavily investing in R&D and allying itself with Greater Illinois, giving it access to Illinoisan technology which has allowed Byzantium to accelerate technologically.

Experimental Technology

 * The Byzantine Space Agency is currently discussing the idea of space tethers, which can allow space ships to go to Mars and the Moon at a much quicker pace than they regularly would. This would make setting up a Martian/Lunar Base much easier and less costly overall. However, this is still in discussion.
 * AI soldiers are being discussed by the Armed Forces as an alternative to regular human soldiers, as they can be mass produced and are harder to kill than a regular human being. Out of all experimental technologies, this along with the first one are the most likely to happen in the short term.
 * Another idea being discussed is that of a quantum computer, however this is considered unlikely, but if it were to happen many problems would be solved very easily because of its massive computing power and some say its the key to AGI. As such, interest in this technology is high, however as said previously, it is currently unlikely. Research is being conducted on it however.
 * The Byzantine Space Agency is also discussing a nuclear powered rocket along with a laser satellite that has the purpose of defending the planet from asteroids. This technology is currently unlikely due to how expensive it is (especially the laser satellite) and how expensive it is to create a nuclear rocket.
 * Top military scientists at DARPA are discussing the creation of a cobalt bomb, a salted bomb which has the goal of contaminating a large area with radioactive material. Most likely however, this bomb is likely being discussed because of its role as a nuclear deterrent (especially on countries that don't have a nuclear protection system).
 * There are discussions among scientists on creating an even better quantum computer, one that instead of doing 10^39 operations/second instead does 10^78 operations/second, this is all theoretical work and there are no sketches of it just yet.

Transportation
When it comes to transportation, Byzantium prioritizes walkability and the idea of walkable cities. As such, when it comes to inner city travel, cars are not really used, instead a combination of biking, walking, trams, metros and even monorails/gondolas (in some places) are used. Here's an example, in the Constantinople business district:

When it comes to medium and long-range travel across the country, the extensive high speed rail and metro system is used, however there is a space for a bus lane (on the highway) and a bike lane (next to the highway, with there being a green barrier to prevent car noise). The image below shows a high speed train in Byzantium:

If not, planes can also be used, with them having been made eco-friendly thanks to improving liquid green hydrogen technologies, replacing kerosen as the main thing that keeps a plane flying. As such, planes have become eco-friendly in Byzantium. The main companies are Airbus and Boeing (just like in real life), also planes have also managed to gain some speed, up from 900 Km/h to 1200 Km/h.