RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, NOVEMBER 29

Europe Remains Russia’s Biggest Diesel Buyer

Context for the link yesterday. Quebec Retailer Simons Tries to Normalize Assisted Suicide in Latest Ad Campaign

A Looming Rail Strike Would Affect Energy Supplies

Biden Begs Congress to Help Halt Pre-Christmas Rail Strike

South Korean president orders cement truckers back to work

Taliban ends ceasefire with Pakistani government, vows ‘revenge attacks’ across the country

The power problems of the British people. The drop in electricity production is equal to switching off 14 nuclear power stations.

On the Diplomacy AI

At present, both India and China have 1.43 billion people. The difference is that while China will depopulate and age over the next forty years, during the same time, India will add the same number of people China loses, over a quarter of a billion.

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, NOVEMBER 28

A Canadian Commercial For Assisted Suicide.

Bird flu prompts slaughter of 1.8M chickens in Nebraska

In a statement, it said it had not received an official explanation or apology from China, “beyond a claim by the officials who later released him that they had arrested him for his own good in case he caught Covid from the crowd”. And some more on protest signs.

Indian Intelligence Official Anand Arni on Pakistan’s New Army Chief Gen Asim Munir

Another long hotel siege ends in Mogadishu

We Just Got The Most Detailed View of an Exoplanet Atmosphere Yet

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, NOVEMBER 27 If you want a more in-depth look at the defensive fortifications that this update talks about, you can watch this.

1 in 4 Young Russians Haven’t Heard of the Fall of the Berlin Wall – Poll

Here’s what it’s like when your kids get sick in Québec right now – a long thread.

Where is this chip embargo now?

An Urumqi apartment fire is the latest test of China’s zero-Covid strategy

Side-hustlers who get paid via Cash App and Venmo risk being audited if they don’t report their earnings, IRS warns

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, NOVEMBER 25

Fifteen regions in Ukraine were struggling with water supply problems after repeated Russian strikes against civilian and energy infrastructure.

Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression

The Diesel Crunch Is Finally Causing Demand Destruction

Flu hospitalization rate highest in over a decade

Flu variant that hits kids and seniors harder than other strains is dominant in U.S. right now

A barrage of Russian missiles has forced the shut-down of six nuclear power plants at a time when the Ukrainian power infrastructure has already sustained significant damage, threatening Ukrainians with blackouts and a cold winter.

Huge Foxconn iPhone plant in China rocked by fresh worker unrest

China’s ‘iPhone city’ tightens Covid rules after violent protests

Something Just Cracked in Spain’s Mortgage Market

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg hedges on how the Biden administration would respond should a strike occur.

Building Fast and Slow: The Empire State Building and the World Trade Center (Part I)

Association between vitamin D supplementation and COVID-19 infection and mortality

Solzhenitsyn’s Ivan Denisovich at 60.

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, NOVEMBER 23

The Army Within: Chechnya’s Security Forces

As COVID Cases Surge, China Locks Down Beijing, Shanghai and Other Major Cities

Hundreds riot at Foxconn iPhone plant over terrible conditions

With their bank accounts frozen and their savings inaccessible, Lebanese depositors are turning to drastic means to withdraw their money.

Ansarallah threatens to target oil ships in ports under Saudi control

Four crucial drugs for fighting respiratory illnesses are in short supply in America amid the ‘tripledemic’

Major tax-filing sites routinely shared users’ financial info with Facebook

Meta researchers create AI that masters Diplomacy, tricking human players

Study raises doubts about role of ‘good’ cholesterol in heart health

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, NOVEMBER 22

The IAEA has said Iran is continuing to accelerate its nuclear program and is producing highly enriched uranium at a new site.

All Unions are bound to support a strike if one of them does so in once sense this has already been decided. But the number of unions rejecting it gives you an idea of how hard it will be to resolve this. The votes appear to be in for the two largest railroad unions. WSJ reported Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) said 54% of members who participated in the vote would accept the five-year labor deal. However, the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) rejected ratifying the labor agreement.

Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year

US Consumers Are Doing Exactly What They Did Just Prior To The Crash Of 2008

Biden Administration Reverses Course at COP27 on Climate Reparations

More interesting for what it says about the used car market then anything else. Carvana is going to cut 1,500 jobs, which is about 8 percent of its workforce.

The ‘Respect For Marriage Act’ Is An Exercise In Tyranny, And Everyone Knows It

A Soil Fungus That Causes Lung Infections Is Spreading Across the U.S.

A combination of ultrasound and nanobubbles allows cancerous tumors to be destroyed without invasive treatments

Is this really the only portrait of William Shakespeare made in his lifetime?

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, NOVEMBER 20

City Has Been Liberated, But a Few Are Not Happy

Megalopolis: how coastal west Africa will shape the coming century

Leak at Pennsylvania gas storage well spewing methane

Rate of premature births in U.S. rises above 10%

US imports from China falling faster than from other countries

How many yottabytes in a quettabyte? Extreme numbers get new names