I've tested positive for coronavirus so I will probably not do an update tomorrow, as well as the regular day off on Thursday, and see how I feel then. I'll still be around the thread though, obviously.

Summary

News

Russian oil shipments to Europe have picked back up after a slump beginning in April. Europe's energy prices are reaching near-comical record highs, which is also causing industries like aluminium smelting to begin shutting down (as it takes a ton of energy to smelt aluminium). Ukraine's food exports have plunged by about a half so far this year, with only 50 million tons of grain projected total compared to 86 million tons in 2021. Erdogan says that Zelensky is troubled and has "people around him who deceive him a lot", though has refused to elaborate further. The Moscow Exchange has said that it will stop accepting US dollars as collateral. A poll of Russia's citizens about what they consider their national symbols has a variety of answers, with a plurality saying the flag and national anthem, "the people", and "home"; and 7% saying "Putin" (and 5% said "bears"). Some UK universaties are saying that annual tuition fees for British students, which have been frozen at £9250, must be increased for them to remain competitive with foreign students, who pay nearly triple that amount. The UK's National Grid has offered rebates to people who don't use energy-consuming appliances in the evenings. The Bundesbank has said that a German recession is increasingly likely. Uniper has been forced to fire up an old coal power plant to generate enough energy. Bulgaria's energy minister has said that they will likely talk to Russia about resuming gas deliveries from Gazprom. Poland says that the EU has "imperialistic tendencies", presumably because they're being told to give gay people human rights.

China's heatwave is posing a threat to autumn crops, as efforts are made to increase water efficiency and distribution. China has made a foreign investment pitch due to recent economic setbacks. Apple is planning on beginning production on their devices in India, rather than China, in November. China has shipped high-speed trains to Indonesia. Pro-China sentiment in South Korea has reached a low of 23.9%, compared to their positive view of the United States at 59%. There were a bunch of anti-US protests in South Korea recently but the western media uniformly ignored them all. Australian coal miners are expecting record profits this year.

Turkey has doubled their Russian oil imports to over 200,000 barrels per day. Pakistan's recently former prime minister, Imran Khan, has been arrested, which could either boost or sink his ratings as the election approaches and his party seeks to regain a clear majority. Kazahstan's oil pipeline flows have been disrupted yet again by necessary repairs at the Russian Black Sea coast. Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan have struck a deal to simplify trade between them on the International North-South Transport Corridor.

The US's strategic oil reserves are at their lowest level since 1985 due to Biden releasing 1 million barrels a day for six months to attempt to calm markets. 72% of economists expect a recession by the middle of 2023. Dallas has been hit by a shitload of rain all at once after being dried out by drought, causing flooding.

Argentina's left-wing organizations have held a demonstration in Buenos Aires in which they held a funeral for the minimum wage, as inflation continues to bite into it.

OPEC+ is almost 3 million barrels per day below their production target.

Conflict and Climate

Moon of Alabam describes how the fighting in Ukraine is continuing, and looks to be the same process as before the pause: massive artillery barrages until you kill enough Ukrainian soldiers, then slowly move forward - except, now, there's significantly less western aid coming in. The US is trying to step up enforcement of its Russian sanctions, by... trying to persuade China. Thank god they haven't done anything to piss them off lately.

Dipshittery, Good Takes, and Hope

The Ukrainian government has come along to own Scott Ritter's estimates of ~80,000 dead Ukrainian troops; it's actually only 9000! Russian is facing millions dead, etc etc. Crimea is weak, etc etc. Putin has revived democracies around the world because he's a stupid idiot, etc etc. Putin would cause Chernobyl 2.0 in Ukraine because he's an evil madman, etc etc. Don't trust what the Kremlin says about Dugin's daughter, etc etc. Russia is gonna start mass murdering civilians tomorrow because it's Ukraine's birthday, etc etc. Ukrainians actually live better than Russians do, causing these simple, stupid Russian soldiers to they marvel at toilets, saying "Wow, this flushes! Back home, we all shared an outhouse!" Russia and China are actually getting owned because they have a trade surplus, as only good and cool nations have trade deficits. We have a very liberal individualist article about alarmism about covid and climate, which probably isn't worth reading unless you're bored.

Jacobin talks about the immortal science of Marxism, and how great it is (I agree!) They also bring up a Eugene Debs speech about how poverty is the great crime of capitalism (I agree!) Trader Joe's workers have won their first unions in America. Amazon workers in the UK are going on wildcat strikes as their wages aren't increasing nearly fast enough to keep up with basic necessities. Naked Capitalism speculates whether payment strikes - as we are seeing in the UK, US, China, and Mexico - will become the norm as our identity as "consumers" rather than "the working class" is still the major way that people think of themselves, for now at least.

It's pretty typical that Reddit will post endless tiresome statements by the Ukrainian government that they'll take back Crimea (somehow) or straight up Ukrainian propaganda that the FSB really did a false flag against Darya Dugina as fact but haven't made a single solitary peep about their government essentially abolishing the vast majority of their labor laws this week.

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Noticed a weird similarity in how NATO apologists and Crypto DAO enthusiasts speak about their respective organizations of choice, in that they fully believe that you can just get a bunch of guys/nations together, then if you form an organization that organization is an entirely separable entity from the individuals that make it up, so you can launder actions and interests both ways.

NATO somehow doesnt inherit any of the imperialist interests from its member nations, despite its actual military force being made up of the most powerful imperialist nations of North America and Europe, and none of the member nations inherit the crimes performed by NATO either.

Then the DAO(Decentralized Autonomous Organization) guys think if you wanna do something like make an Inuyasha NFT but without paying for licensing, you can just make a DAO and have the DAO be the thing officially minting and distributing these NFTs and therefore the members of this DAO are immune from legal recourse for it.

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Permanently banned from r/worldnews for

Hey, hear me out maybe Ukraine shouldn't be shelling a Nuclear plant

Lol

Summary

News

Europe's gas prices are equivalent to $410 per barrel of oil, and will only get higher as winter approaches. Joseph Borrell has said that he does not support banning Russian citizens from visiting Europe. China has spent $35 billion on Russian energy imports since the Ukraine War started, up from $20 billion a year before. The Russian communist party is inviting all "patriotic left" factions to unite under their banner in order to obtain more parliamentary votes. UK inflation could hit 18% next year, which Britain has not seen since 1976 - it is currently at 10.1%, the highest since 1982. UK firewood suppliers project sales to soar 20% due to more people burning firewood rather than directly use gas or electricity for heating. The English Collective of Prostitutes has said that many British women are being driven to prostitution as economic conditions get worse. Germany's economy minister, Habeck, has said that he has ruled out extending the lifespan of the country's nuclear plants. Inflation in Germany could hit a 70 year high of 10%, says Germany's central bank chief. German supply chains are worsening in the face of drought-stricken rivers and chronically underfunded and underworked transport infrastructure. 62% of Germans believe that Scholz is doing his job badly, up from 39% in March, due a mixture of domestic scandals and the deteriorating economic situation. Italy's manufacturers, such as in glass and canning, are self-rationing their output to save energy. Swiss ski resorts are facing power cuts to ski lifts and snow-making equipment. Cyprus has bought Iron Dome air defense systems from Israel, as tensions with Turkey escalate.

China's position as the world's manufacturer has remained in place despite rhetoric from various people about decoupling from China amid coronavirus lockdown pressure on industry and so on, as China's exports boom as the exports of other major countries decrease. China accounts for nearly half of the world's renewable energy capacity. China's central bank has cut benchmark loan rates in order to boost the economy. China's drought is causing the Yangtze to dry up, as the Sichuan provincial government declares the highest warning level of drought. Fires are spreading in southwest China due to the dry conditions, prompting the evacuations of thousands. Mall hours are being shortened to ensure power is conserved. Sichuan power cuts are affecting various foreign companies' factories as they are temporarily shut down, including Tesla. Japan is considering the deployment of over 1000 long range cruise missiles in order to counter threats from China. South Korea and the United States have launched major war games, which the DPRK has called a rehearsal for a future invasion. Singapore has decriminalized gay sex, though the PM has also promised that strong conservative and tradition values will remain.

The CIA has said that it cannot corroborate Israel's accusation that Palestinian rights groups are terrorists. Tens of thousands of Palestinians working in Israel did a one day strike yesterday over demand for bank accounts, rather than receving all their salaries in cash. Kuwait has announced that it will lay off 250,000 Egyptian workers next month and suspended all contract with non-national workers, with another 500,000 workers set to lose their jobs over the next year. Iran has said that the US is procrastinating over the nuclear deal, as they have not offered a response to the current deal yet. Turkey has said that it will enforce anti-Russian sanctions but that it remains balanced on the conflict, as the United States came knocking to "ask" if Turkey was still on board, or maybe its financial sector might face some... inconveniences.

The Fed will raise rates by 50 basis points in September, says a gaggle of economists.

Iran and Argentina have applied to join BRICS, and Algeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Sudan, and Syria, Pakistan, and Venezuela have expressed interest in joining the organization, as these countries recover from the pandemic and face headwinds from interest rate hikes in the US. WSJ has a decent article detailing how droughts are fucking over economies all over the world.

Conflict and Climate

Russia has struck a HIMARS ammo depot in Odesa, while Kiev says that a granary was hit. Ukraine is in the process of evacuating 750,000 people from near the front lines in order to protect them from the evil, evil Russians, though they'll be sent right back after Ukraine retakes all that territory, so no worries. Zelensky's latest red line is that if Russia tries the brave Mariupol Azov fighters, then peace talks would be off the table, and then Ukraine will take the kids' gloves off! Scholz has said that they will give more weapons to Ukraine... eventually. Russia has said that it has fired three Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in Ukraine during the conflict, showing off its capabilities.

The NYT has written a decent article about how Russia and China decoupling from the West, and vice versa, will negatively affect the advance of scientific discoveries.

Dipshittery, Good Takes, and Hope

The west better not forgot the war in Ukraine, says the Guardian - as most people forgot about the war in Ukraine by week 6. Ukraine has warned Russia's arms buyers around the world about how their weapons do not survive on the battlefield, and that the positive reputation of the Su-35 fighter jet is being destroyed. Business Insider describes Dugin as a "top philosopher", which is hilarious. CNN asks if China's BRI can be countered by the United States, to which the answer is an obvious "no."

Jacobin describes how climate-related disasters are growing in frequency and intensity, and that the US government is incapable of dealing with them. Jacobin also dunks on Ben Shapiro, which I usually wouldn't give a shit about, but in the process addresses the common misconception that America is somehow immune to Marxism or socialism in general due to [insert exceptionalist reason here].

China has announced that they have forgiven 23 interest-free loans from 17 African countries while also pledging deeper cooperation, a dastardly move to increase their debt-trapping of those poor, poor people... somehow.

9,000 Dead Soldiers Weigh On Ukraine’s Ability To Wage War Forbes

Around 9,000 Ukrainian troops have died since Russia widened its war in Ukraine in late February, Ukrainian commander in chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Monday.

It’s the first official casualty figure to come out of Kyiv in six months of fighting—and it helps to put into perspective Russia’s own, much heavier losses.

But the upshot, for both armies fighting in Ukraine, is that this war is a bloody one. And the death toll is a major factor in what each army can achieve moving forward.

Zaluzhnyi mentioned the casualty count in a speech at a veterans’ event, when he referred to a Ukrainian child who would need care because “their father went to the front line and, perhaps, is one of those almost 9,000 heroes who died.”

If 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen have died, it’s likely 20,000 or 30,000 have been wounded, as modern warfare tends to produce several wounded for each soldier killed in action.

An overall Ukrainian casualty count—dead and wounded—of, say, 39,000 is roughly half the tally of Russian dead and wounded. On Aug. 8, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told reporters between 70,000 and 80,000 Russians had been injured or killed in Ukraine since February.

The Kremlin does not release official casualty figures, and Kahl acknowledged that the number is an estimate. But it’s consistent with other estimates. Way back in mid-May, the U.K. Defense Ministry estimated the Kremlin had buried 15,000 troops as a result of the fighting in Ukraine. Add the likely wounded and you have as many as 60,000 casualties three months ago.

The actual Ukrainian death toll is believed to be about 80,000, nearly 10 times the "official" figures on which this article speculates.

Kiev was hit by Russian missiles today. Air raid sirens did not go off until after the attack.

Today's statement from FSB regarding the assassination of Dugina:

The FSB solved the murder of Russian journalist Daria Dugina.

The crime was prepared and committed by the Ukrainian special services.

The performer is a citizen of Ukraine Vovk Natalya Pavlovna, born in 1979, who arrived in Russia on July 23, 2022.

In order to organize the murder of Dugina and obtain information about her lifestyle, they rented an apartment in Moscow in the house where the deceased lived.

To monitor the journalist, the criminals used a Mini Cooper, when entering Russia they used DPR numbers - E982XH DPR, in Moscow - Kazakh numbers - 172AJD02, and when leaving - Ukrainian numbers - AH7771IP.

EDIT: Also, Dugin has issued a statement through a friend . He's been at the hospital since the incident.

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Washington "cannot now clarify who exactly is shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant," said Deputy Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins.

Yea ok dude. This is probably the closest admission from the US

70% of British pubs do not expect to survive the winter if nothing is done to ease energy costs