You know when you look in your fridge or cupboard for a snack and there's nothing in there? That's kind of today's update. Except somebody also put a bunch of shit in your fridge. Okay, the analogy doesn't really work - what I'm trying to say is that the journalists spent their Sunday and early Monday writing terrible, terrible articles and not actual news.

Summary

News

Both Belgium and Austria are calling for an EU price cap on gas in order to put a pause on the exponentially rising energy prices that the EU is suffering under. Josep Borrell has said that a visa ban for Russia doesn't have sufficient support across Europe to become law. The EU is, however, discussing the training of Ukraine's troops on a more official, bloc-wide basis, rather than spreading it across different countries. Bloomberg has said that Russia could afford a complete halt in gas supplies to the EU, proving Soros wrong. Russia diamonds are continuing to flow out to the global market at nearly pre-sanctions levels. Russia has said that despite the West's insistance that the sanctions have had no impact on food or fertilizer, about 7 to 8 million tonnes of fertilizer and other materials, which could ultimately go on to feed 100 million people, are being blocked at shipping terminals due to sanctions. Russia is resuming local bond sales after a six month pause, and they're planning to launch yuan bond sales too. People in Poland are queuing for days to buy coal and fuel to power their homes, reminding them of the horrors of... shudder... communism. 50,000 Ukrainian refugees in the UK are facing homelessness by the middle of 2023 as the refugee scheme seems to have failed, especially with the cost of living crunch. Energy bills are going to be so high in the UK that 14% of people - and likely more - are planning on spending more time in the office so that they don't have to heat their homes. However, a quarter of people don't plan on heating their homes at all this winter, and 70% said they would use their heating less. Irish farmers are being more-or-less forced to cull their cows to meet methane emissions targets. Dipshits in Serbia have marched with their Bible fanfiction in opposition to a gay pride event that has now been cancelled and will be rescheduled, proving once again that the fall of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia was a disaster for the human race and particularly eastern Europe. Serbia's president has claimed that he has convinced seven unnamed nations to revoke their recognition of Kosovo.

China has deployed 8 ships and 23 aircraft in response to the US sailing ships through the Taiwan Strait, in their monthly Piss China Off mission. Japanese brands are becoming less popular in China for some reason. Japan's rice paddies are drying out, as Japan's food self sufficiency is already the lowest of the major economies. Laos's government has directed its various agencies to address the economic situation, such as by ensuring a consistent supply of fuel, not creating new debts, encouraging foreign investment, and repairing flood-damaged roads and bridges.

Egypt is undergoing electricity rationing as their citizens experience high energy bills and gas shortages, but many complain about frivolous uses of energy, like streetlights still on in the daytime.

Elizabeth Warren is concerned that the Fed is trying to cause a recession to happen, as the Fed directly claims that that is what they are trying to do in order to fix inflation. The largest oil refinery in the Midwest caught fire, with Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin fearing fuel shortages. Cuba and the United States are discussing the rehabilitation of the Matanzas fuel base, in which four of eight large fuel tanks were destroyed by fire.

Colombia and Venezuela have restored full diplomatic relations after they were paused in 2019 after members of the Venezuelan opposition tried to cross the border from Colombia. Jacobin speculates as to whether Bolsonaro, in his ever-increasing desperation, will try to coup Lula after he presumably wins the election.

Conflict

UN inspectors from the IAEA are heading to the nuclear power plant to go check it out. A Ukrainian suicide drone has been shot down over the plant, after it tried to target the spent nuclear fuel storage facility. Russia has urged all nations to pressure Ukraine to stop shelling the plant. Sweden has pledged an additional $46.75 million in assistance to Ukraine. The Pentagon has signed a $182 million deal with Raytheon to produce surface-to-air missiles systems for the Ukrainian military, with an estimated completion date of August 23rd, 2024 (!).

Dipshittery and Good Takes

Putin will never recover from his mistakes in the Ukraine War. Russia is desperately trying to salvage their stalled assault on Ukraine. Politico, once again, is very unsure about who is shelling the nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian military is making some hella technicals, which proves they're winning...? Russia's fresh new army corps that they're sending to Ukraine sucks and is bad. Maximum Boot's latest wisdom is that Trump must be held accountable. Biden's student loan forgiveness is unfair, says local demon in his lair of torment. Biden's student loan forgiveness is destroying the savings made by the climate law thing, says local infant-blood-slurping vampire. Bloomberg says that Europe can't go into this winter with all doom and gloom, like Macron seems to be doing, as if the opinions of the politicians dunking on eachother for being defeatist matters in the fucking slightest. The West needs friendshoring, not reshoring...? I didn't even try and read this one, I'm assuming that it's bad though.

Responsible Statecraft points out a recent article on the Solomon Islands where a dude says that it's actually totally fine to invade the country and violate its sovereignty if it's a coalition of democracies doing it, and points out that the liberal facemask covering up the West's demonic, fascistic, pus-dripping visage is getting awfully threadbare no matter how often they say "rules-based international order" like some kind of Harry Potter spell.