The Deadly Heatwave in Europe

Temperatures in Europe have hit a new high this summer, with hotter early-summer heatwaves resulting in illness, excessive deaths and the collapse of infrastructure. 

On June 28, temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions of the continent, including in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. 

And France’s national public health agency Santé publique France reported that the country experienced roughly 1,000 excess deaths during the heatwave which began on June 20th. 

Official figures noted that France's baseline death rate prior to the extreme heat (measured during April and May) sat at approximately 900 to 1,000 deaths per day. 

It's really, really bad because on June 23, 2026, for instance, France recorded a temperature of 44.3°C (111.7°F), making it one of the highest temperatures ever measured in the country since modern weather records began. 

Overall, 1,300 excess deaths have been reported in Europe since June 21, according to World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

In a post on X on June 28 too, he wrote that Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average, and warned that the continent’s infrastructure has not been built to withstand high temperatures. 

“Driven by climate change and global warming, the phenomenon of the ‘once-in-a-generation’ heatwave is now occurring nearly annually”, he had grimly said.

Contrast this to Malaysia. During our hottest months so far in 2026 (March to May), the average daily temperatures ranged between 27°C and 28°C, with normal average daytime highs sitting around 33°C. 

In March and April, multiple districts in northern states like Perlis, Kedah, and Perak were placed under Level 2 heatwave alerts as daily maximum temperatures spiked between 37°C and 40°C for consecutive days. 

In fact, extended hot weather lasted through June, with maximum daytime temperatures consistently soaring up to 38°C across Peninsular Malaysia.

In case you're interested, the expected temperature in Malaysia today ranges from a minimum of 24°C to 25°C to a maximum of 33°C to 34°C. The current conditions are partly sunny at 24°C, though high humidity makes it feel closer to 28°C.

Israeli Flag with Swastika

A Polish lawmaker on Tuesday displayed a paper Israeli flag emblazoned with a swastika in parliament, accusing the country of "genocide" in the Middle East.

"Israel is in the process of committing a genocide of exceptional cruelty before our very eyes," Konrad Berkowicz told lawmakers, comparing the country to a "new Third Reich". 

Berkowicz, a member of the far-right nationalist Konfederacja (Confederation) opposition party, then brandished the paper flag, with the Nazi symbol replacing the Star of David at its centre. 

Berkowicz also accused the Israeli army of using white phosphorous bombs in the Middle East, describing in detail the severe injuries, suffering, and deaths of "tens of thousands of women and children" by such weapons. 

Human Rights Watch too have accused Israel of "illegally" using white phosphorous in southern Lebanon after launching an offensive against Hezbollah. 

The genocidal Zionist regime got recognition even in Poland!

Malaysian women’s doubles shuttler Pearly Tan (right) has pulled out of next week’s Uber Cup in Denmark due to a recurring back injury. 

Pearly, who forms the world No 2 partnership with Thinaah Muralitharan, sustained the injury during last week’s Badminton Asia Championships 2026 in Ningbo, China, where the pair were eliminated in the quarter-finals. 

Pearly’s absence means Malaysia will be without their top women’s doubles pair at the Uber Cup to be played from April 24 to May 03. 

Thinaah is likely be paired with another player. 

“I’m truly disappointed about this. It breaks my heart to say that I won’t be able to join the Uber Cup team this time”, Pearly said in a Facebook post. “There’s nothing I wanted more than to be on court, fighting for every point and standing with my team. But because of my back injury, I have to step back for now”. 

Her absence from the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s official team photograph on Tuesday raised concerns over her fitness. Pearly stated that she missed the session to undergo an MRI scan to assess the injury she sustained in China.

“Anyone who knows me understands that I would never walk away from the court. I would fight until the very last point, every single time. But this time… my body is telling me to stop, and I have to listen”. 

BAM have confirmed that Pearly will not be part of the squad for the Uber Cup, with national doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky stating that the decision was made following a late assessment of her condition.

Malaysia has been drawn in Group B with Japan, Türkiye and South Africa.

World Cup Set for New Era as Giants Miss Out

The remaining places for this year's FIFA World Cup were finalised on Tuesday, capping a qualifying campaign that spanned nearly three years and setting the stage for the tournament's first 48-team edition. 

The competition will be held across the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19. 

The expanded format has opened the door to new contenders while leaving several established powers and high-profile players on the outside looking in. 

Italy will miss a third straight World Cup after losing its playoff final to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties. It has been a rapid fall for the Azzurri, which won its fourth World Cup title in 2006 and won the 2020 European Championship. 

Elsewhere, Nigeria's absence stands out in Africa, with the Super Eagles unable to navigate a competitive qualifying campaign despite a squad drawn from top European leagues. 

Chile, twice Copa America champions in the past 11 years, also missed out as the core of its golden generation fades. 

Poland is another notable omission, having lost its playoff final against Sweden, while Costa Rica, quarterfinalists in 2014, also missed out for the first time since 2010 after a poor CONCACAF zone qualifying campaign. 

Even with 16 additional teams in this year's tournament, the list is a reminder that qualification still leaves little margin for error. 

Besides the above, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has sought to allay doubts about Iran's participation in the tournament, insisting the team would play all of its group matches in the US as scheduled. 

There has been ongoing uncertainty over Iran's involvement because of the conflict in West Asia, with Tehran raising concerns over player safety and banning national and club teams from traveling to countries it considers hostile. 

The Iranian football federation said earlier this month they were negotiating with FIFA to relocate the country's World Cup matches from the US to Mexico.

Iran is due to face New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and 21 respectively, before meeting Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

In squash, Sivasangari Subramaniam (right) was handed an extended break at the El Gouna International Open after advancing to the quarter-finals via a walkover following the withdrawal of opponent Mariam Metwally of Egypt. 

The Malaysian was set to take on the world No. 33 yesterday but the home player pulled out after her father passed away. 

Sivasangari had booked her place in the second round with a hard-fought win over world No. 16 Nada Abbas in Giza, Egypt on Saturday. 

The 27-year-old Kedahan won 11-9, 9-11, 11-4, 11-6 in 47 minutes. It was Sivasangari's fourth triumph against the Egyptian in five meetings. 

The West's Broken Democracy

Western democracy doesn't work in the eyes of its people, a new study revealed Saturday. 

A September survey of Western countries showed that satisfaction with the electoral model was below 50% in most of them. This contrasts with separate studies of Asian nations such as China and Singapore, where citizens are enthusiastic about their model of democracy, with 80 to 93% approval. 

Ipsos, a European survey firm, questioned 9,800 voters in the US, UK, Croatia, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. In all except Poland and Sweden, there were deep concerns about the western electoral model. 

Gideon Skinner, senior director of UK politics at Ipsos, told Politico that “there is widespread concern about the way democracy is working, with people feeling unrepresented particularly by their national governments. In most countries, there is a desire for radical change”. 

Only a minority of respondents said they felt satisfied with how democracy was working in their country – 18% in Croatia, 19% in France, 20% in the US, 26% in the UK, 27% in Spain and 29% in Italy. Majorities in all countries except Sweden expected things to be worse in five years. 

A good case in point is the US itself, which has always prided itself a leading and influential democracy. Even so, Donald Trump in his first ten months has purged career civil servants viewed as disloyal, publicly urged his attorney general to prosecute political opponents, deployed troops to US cities, attacked judges who ruled against him, threatened universities because of the pro-Palestinian protests on campuses, and expanded his use of executive power through unilateral decrees and emergency authorities. 

In October, Trump’s justice department indicted Letitia James, the New York attorney general who successfully sued him for fraud, and separately charged the former FBI director James Comey, a longtime political adversary. He has also called for jailing the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, and the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, both Democrats who opposed his deployment of federal troops there.

Germany Reports 10x Surge in Refugee Applications from Ukrainians

Germany has recorded a steep increase in asylum applications from Ukrainians after Kiev eased travel restrictions for younger men who are not yet subject to mandatory conscription, German media reported on Wednesday, citing Interior Ministry data. 

According to the figures, the number of weekly applications rose from roughly 100 to about 1,000 after Ukraine allowed men aged 18 to 22 to leave the country legally. The exemption was introduced in late August. 

A spokesperson for the German Interior Ministry told the Funke Media Group that Berlin could not yet determine whether the spike represented a “temporary development”. 

Ukraine imposed a blanket travel ban on men aged 18 to 60 shortly after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, though its compulsory draft currently applies only to those aged 25 and older. 

Interior Minister Igor Klimenko described the decision in August as an opportunity for “education, internships, and legal employment abroad”, suggesting that the experience gained overseas could later benefit the Ukrainian economy. 

Despite Kiev’s previous claim that no large-scale outflow had been observed, Poland’s border guard service reported a surge in crossings from about 500 to more than 6,000 per week at checkpoints in the Podkarpackie region during the first week of the new policy. 

Ukrainian media outlets have since reported an uptick in resignations among young men seeking to relocate abroad, as well as a wave of social media posts lamenting the sudden decline in dating prospects among young women. 

Conscription remains one of Ukraine’s most contentious domestic issues. Critics argue that the draft disproportionately affects poorer citizens unable to bribe their way out of service, while widespread avoidance has undermined the mobilization effort. 

Moscow has accused Kiev of fighting “to the last Ukrainian” for Western interests.

Malaysia's squash No. 1 played brilliantly to defeat Egypt's world No. 15 Salma Hany to reach the final of the Silicon Valley Open at Redwood City in the United States on Monday. 

Sivasangari Subramaniam won the semi-final 11-3, 11-9, 11-5 in in 21 minutes.

Fresh from their Arctic Open triumph last weekend, world No. 2 Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan continued their fine momentum with a confident first-round victory at the Denmark Open on Wednesday. 

They dispatched Indonesia's world No. 127 Febi Setianingrum-Rachel Rose 21-13, 21-17 to advance in just 35 minutes.

Pro-war Europe Schemes and Plots Against Russia

Why Ukraine's war with Russia will not end: 

This cabal of conspirators will not cease their warmongering craving until Ukraine is conclusively defeated, comprehensively vanquished and completely pulverized!

And so, a plea to Vladimir Putin: Please, no more restraint! Go for Ukraine's jugular!

The scores suggested women's doubles Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan had it easy in the Malaysia Masters quarter-finals yesterday. 

But the world No. 4 did have a scare in the second game – which got the home crowd a bit tensed – against Indonesia's world No. 9 Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi. 

The Malaysian duo were leading 13-8, but the Indonesians managed to close the gap to 14-15 before the former prevailed 21-14, 21-14 in 34 minutes. 

Pearly-Thinaah will take on China's world No. 15 Jia Yi Fan-Zhang Shu Xian – who beat Indonesia's world No. 23 Lanny Tria Mayasari-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti 21-15, 15-21, 21-14 – in the semi-finals.

Poland Sells Frozen Butter Reserves

Yes, Poland produces butter, and in 2023 it reached a record production level of 266,000 metric tons.

 

I didn't know this until I read the news that the country is selling up to 1,000 metric tons (1,102 tons) of its frozen butter reserves to bring down surging prices. 

 

The government’s strategic reserves agency announced the butter auction Tuesday, citing significant increases in butter prices worldwide that it blamed on a shortage of milk.

 

In fact, according to the European Commission, butter prices in the EU have jumped some 44% this year as dairy prices surged.  

 

“This emergency action… should contribute to stabilizing butter prices in the market”, the agency said, according to a report by CNN affiliate TVN24, a local commercial news channel. The bidding process started Thursday. 

 

The agency said they would sell the unsalted frozen spread to businesses in 25-kilogram (55-pound) blocks, for the minimum price of 28.38 zlotys ($7) per kilo. That is well below prices at Biedronka, one of Poland’s major supermarkets. The retail chain sell fresh butter for between 39.90-49.95 zlotys ($9.84-$12.32), depending on the brand, according to their website. The final selling price in the auction could, however, be higher than the minimum price. 

 

It’s not unheard of for governments to tap into emergency reserves in order to boost supply and bring down prices. 

 

While such reserves are typically dominated by foreign currency or commodities such as oil and gold, some countries stockpile products deemed important to local diets. 

 

For example, in recent years, amid shortages, China drew down its strategic pork reserves (2019) and Canada had released stores of maple syrup (2021).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you can recall my two posts, i.e. "UK Petition Calls for A New General Election" and "Bankrupt Britain, Christmas Cancelled" published November 27 and December 11 respectively. 

 

I was curious to know how the petition "Call a General Election" fared. And so, I went to the pertinent website  and lo and behold, it has surpassed 3 million! 3,004,608 to be exact! As at December 25, 07:30 AM (UK time).

 

As I've already mentioned, the UK Parliament will debate this petition on January 06, 2025. And if you're interested, you'll be able to watch online on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.

The 3 Unhappiest Countries in the EU

Bulgaria is the unhappiest country in the EU, according to statistics published by the bloc’s official agency, Eurostat. With an overall life satisfaction score of 5.6 out of 10, it was the only one of the 27 member nations polled where residents, on average, rated themselves as dissatisfied rather than satisfied. 

 

Germany is the second-most miserable on the continent, with a rating of 6.5 – a sharp drop from its score last year of 7.1. While the survey did not ask respondents to give specific reasons for their self-evaluation, multiple polls conducted this month showed widespread dissatisfaction with the German government, which are facing a financial crisis and a crisis of confidence, problems many believe are entirely of the government’s own making.

 

Greece rounded out the top three unhappiest nations, with an average life satisfaction rating of 6.7. 

 

And the happiest country on the continent is Austria, where residents rated their happiness at 7.9. Finland, Poland, and Romania are tied for second happiest with scores of 7.7. 

 

The ratings appeared to support the cliche that money cannot buy happiness, as neither of second-place scorers Romania or Poland enjoyed a high average per capita income in 2022, and Romanians even made less on average than their much more miserable neighbors in Bulgaria. 

 

While five out of the ten top finishers in the 2023 World Happiness Report, published in March, were EU member countries, only Finland, which came in at number one, was among the high scorers on both lists. 

 

Denmark, the second-happiest nation in the world in that report, was also the only European country that managed to decrease its consumption of antidepressants(!) in the last decade. It ranked seventh on life satisfaction in Eurostat’s report.

 

My two cents:

 

 

[V]ladimir [Z]elensky is Yesterday's Man

The West's enthusiasm for Ukraine is slipping fast. And inevitably, Ukrainian President [V]ladimir [Z]elensky is becoming yesterday's man.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the Hamas attacks on Israel and the barrelling and brutal response from the Israelis, the US and its NATO allies were almost exclusively focused on Ukraine while keeping their eyes on-and-off on China. Now, as the Western media spin into overdrive with their gaze firmly locked onto the Middle East, Kiev’s woes are set only to increase as attention shifts away from Kiev and towards Israel, Palestine, Iran and maybe Lebanon and even Syria. 

 

It’s worth noting that prior to the Hamas assaults, the trajectory of support for Ukraine already showed signs of waning. Mere months ago, the idea that previously stalwart allies like Poland would be openly questioning the wisdom of their no-strings-attached support for the war-torn state – likening it to a “drowning man” – would have been unthinkable. Couple this with widespread European war weariness, Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive, and collapsing public support for the war in the West, and it was already facing an uphill battle to maintain support from its “partners”, its people, and most importantly American political elites. The last thing [Z]elensky needed was a globally significant escalation in the Middle East to draw precious resources further away from the proxy war he is fighting against Russia on behalf of Washington.

 

Definitely, it does not bode well for [Z]elensky!

Oldest Evidence of Human Cannibalism as a Funerary Practice

While in the modern day most people will either bury or cremate their dead, some of our ancestors did things a little differently. 

I read in ScienceAlert today that stone age humans from Magdalenian culture practiced cannibalism as part of funeral rituals. This conclusion is based on the findings from an extensive analysis of bones uncovered from archeological sites across Europe, including Poland, Russia, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, and England.

Named after a Magdalenian rock shelter in Dordogne, France, called La Madeleine, the Magdalenian culture was the last cultural period of Ice Age Europe. Archeologists have learned that this ancient society lived in central Europe and northern Spain. The time period was 11,000 to 17,000 years after the Last Glacial Maximum ended and human populations started dispersing into warmer climates. 

The Magdalenians’ elaborate artistic abilities and manufacturing skills are clearly apparent in the fossil evidence. Their were impressive craftsmen, creating tools with intricate designs using antlers, bone, and ivory projectile points and burins.

The Gough’s Cave, situated in Cheddar Gorge – yes, the home of the famous Cheddar Man – in Somerset, UK, is a popular Paleolithic site believed to have served as home to a group of Magdalenian people. The cave has also been famously associated with the discovery of three manipulated human skulls shaped into cups. 

Over the years, hundreds of human bone fragments scarred by human chewing marks, breakage, and cut marks have been retrieved from the cave. The specimens for this study came from this collection and other sites across Europe where Magdalenians lived.

Lead author of the study was Dr. Silvia Bello (left), a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. She emphasized that the human bite marks found on the bones indicate this cannibalistic ritual was not based on the need to survive on the meat from the bodies, but as a ceremonial activity associated with funerals in that era. 

Evidence from Gough's Cave already suggests that the eating of the bodies there was of a more ritualistic form. This is because there is ample evidence that the people responsible were hunting and eating lots of other animals, such as deer and horses, while the careful preparation of some of the human remains like the skull cup and an engraved bone show that some thought was being put into the cannibalism. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, Bello and fellow archaeologist William Marsh believe Gough's Cave may not have been some weird outlier. 

The pair set about a thorough examination of the topic, conducting a review of the published literature to look for evidence of cannibalism across Europe. That didn't mean just the Magdalenians. Europe during the Upper Paleolithic, was home to two distinct cultures. The Magdalenians scattered across the north-west. The south-east was home to the Epigravettians. 

Bello and Marsh studied 59 sites, both Magdalenian and Epigravettian. They found evidence of funerary practices in 25 of these sites. At 10 of those sites, the dead seem to have been buried, and left alone once laid to rest. But at 13 of the sites – these include the Gough’s Cave in England, Courbet Cave in France, Maszycka Cave in Poland, El Castillo in Spain, and Peterfels in Germany – human bones showed signs of postmortem manipulation, i.e. cut and tooth marks associated with butchering, eating, and repurposing the bones to be used as tools and vessels, such as cups or bowls made from human skulls. The remaining two sites showed evidence of both burial and cannibalism. 

What's interesting is that all the evidence of cannibalism was found in Magdalenian sites.

The team also performed genetic analysis on bones associated with these funerary rites. They found that the culture that buried their dead – the Epigravettians – was genetically distinct from the culture that ate theirs, the Magdalenians. Evidence also suggests that Epigravettian culture lasted several thousand years longer than Magdalenian. And burial became the dominant means for dealing with the dead.

More research, Marsh and Bello say, will need to be undertaken to understand this grisly funerary practice. 

Note that the research has been published in Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 319, November 01, 2023, 108309.

Canada Salutes Ukrainian-Canadian Nazi

The Canadian parliament, on September 22, 2023, loudly and joyfully hailed a Nazi war veteran, a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) – you know, the one accused of mass murdering Jews, Poles and Ukrainians in Poland and Ukraine as well as committing other atrocities. 

 

During Ukrainian President [V]ladimir [Z]elensky's visit to Canada, and following his predictably bombastic pan-handling speech, House Speaker Anthony Rota went on to gush praise over his guest, a Ukrainian-Canadian in parliament and calling Yaroslav Hunka, “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero” and thanking him for his service! 

 

Preening Canadian lawmakers emphatically cheered and [Z]elensky raised his fist in acknowledgement as Hunka saluted from the gallery during not one but two separate standing ovations. 

 

As Canadian researcher Tamara Lorincz noted, while everyone applauded the Ukrainian Nazi, “Not one MP called for peace, ceasefire and negotiations”. 

 

Two days later, Rota issued an apology and two days afterward, he resigned from his post. In the meantime, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pleaded ignorance. 

 

Whether Trudeau (and his Stepan Bandera-sympathizing deputy PM Chrystia Freeland) knew about Hunka or not, the question remains: why was he never brought to justice? He, or any of the other 2,000 SS Nazis Canada reportedly took in in the years following WW2. Having been accepted as anti-communist refugees with little to no scrutiny, these suspected war criminals and collaborators have been allowed to live out the rest of their days in peace, and most of them have done so openly under their own names, as the Simon Wiesenthal Center have repeatedly reported. 

 

There is much to be said about Canada's history with Ukrainian Nazis. Not only did it take them in after WW2, but the government-backed Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which, until recently, listed Nazi-collaborator veterans’ organizations as members, as well as government-funded Ukrainian ‘youth centers’ that celebrate Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich. There are even monuments honoring Nazi collaborators and Ukrainian Insurgent Army criminals still standing in Canadian cities. 

 

And in case you don’t know, Canada has also supported modern-day Nazis in Ukraine itself, by training members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion on Canadian soil, although Canadian corporate media has in recent years attempted to downplay this. 

 

This Nazi tribute is reprehensively repugnant and opprobriously offensive! Canada stinks to high heaven!

A Zombified Ukrainian Economy

A former Ukrainian prime minister (2010-2014) on Monday described the country's economy as increasingly resembling a “zombie” that shows signs of life only with Western financing. 

 

Writing on Telegram, Nikolay Azarov (right) argued that the national economy is “falling apart”, and that Ukraine is faced with minimal GDP growth and a looming devaluation of the hryvna “under pressure from the International Monetary Fund”. Meanwhile, public debt is surging and the budget deficit is widening despite foreign financial assistance, according to him. 

 

“The best illustration of the catastrophic state of affairs is that the budget of the country at war lacks more than $6 billion to pay the Ukrainian military alone”, he said. 

 

Azarov even claimed that the families of Polish mercenaries killed during the conflict had not received any compensation despite promises from Kiev. 

 

And not to mention that the military is collapsing as well.

The world with the exception of the delusional West already knows Ukraine is doomed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Japan's fisherfolks are surely weeping. The total value of marine products imported from Japan to China plummeted more than two-thirds for August following the suspension of seafood imports over the release of treated radioactive water into the ocean, beginning August 24. 

 

According to trade statistics released by the General Administration of Customs of China on September 18, the total value of these imports was 149.02 million yuan ($20.43 million), down 67.6 percent from the same month last year.

Ukraine Wants NATO Countries to Pledge 1% of GDP

Ukraine has never been coy about asking, even demanding money and arms from other countries in order to sponsor its war against Russia.

 

Since Russia's Special Military Operation began, the US alone has directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute (Council on Foreign Relations, February 22, 2023). 

 

As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed the importance of continued support for Ukraine, the country's Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk (left) now wants NATO countries to pledge 1% of their GDP to meet Ukraine’s weapon needs. 

 

A fool’s errand, that is what it is. 

 

Already NATO want their members to spend at least two percent of their GDP on defence – and yet, just seven of NATO’s 30 member states – not counting Finland which only joined NATO on April 04 – met the defense spending target in 2022. The US, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom, all achieved the standard with Croatia and France among those falling just short. Others, e.g. Canada and Germany were further behind. 

 

It is claimed that Ukraine is running out of anti-aircraft missiles, an apparent leak of Pentagon documents dating from February suggests. 

 

The New York Times already reported that Ukraine’s Buk air defence systems, which it relies on along with the S-300 to protest vital sites from Russian air power, and air defences protecting troops on the front line could be “completely reduced” by May 23! 

 

I hope this is true because if it is, we can expect the war to wind down. Enough of deaths and destruction.

US Rakes In Massive Profits From LNG Sales To Europe

Europe has been ramping up imports of US LNG.

On the latter's side, liquified natural gas and other natural gas exports rose sharply in August, according to ÚS government data released Thursday, particularly to European nations facing a rapidly approaching winter with an insufficient supply from Russia almost guaranteed. 

And it’s interesting to know that while natural gas exports to France are up 421% through the first eight months of 2022, the value increased 1,094 percent in August alone! 

A similar story can be told for Croatia, where imports are up 281% through August but 1,195% in August; Poland, which is up 505% YTD and 817,000% in August; and the United Kingdom, up 216% YTD and 6,797% in August. 

French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Monday said that Europe should not become subject to American “domination” as it becomes increasingly dependent on US LNG. 

“We cannot accept that our American partner sells its LNG at four times the price at which it sells it to its own companies”, Le Maire said, while calling for a “more balanced economic relationship on the energy issue between our American allies and the European continent”. 

France shouldn’t complain. Actually, the LNG market is being influenced by soaring prices in Europe. Strong natural gas demand has pulled natural gas inventories to a relatively low level. Fear often causes the oil and gas markets to overshoot. 

Besides, the price of LNG from the US is at least 30-40 percent higher than Russian pipeline gas – and that is an inescapable reality. 

Le Maire (left) should zip his mouth and just pay the price because France and the rest of Europe brought it upon themselves. 

You can expect the US to be happy about it because it is raking in massive profits at the expense of its so-called friends in Europe. 

Like it or not, US LNG will continue to play a crucial role in Europe’s gas supply. But it won’t be enough to avoid a major squeeze over the next three years. 

A recent study by Rystad Energy and funded by the American Petroleum Institute and the International Association for Oil & Gas Producers found that US producers will remain the biggest LNG suppliers to European countries over the long term. But before the market rebalances, there will be a supply gap lasting until somewhere between 2023 and 2025. Meaning, the US cannot fill the gap left by a drop in supply from Russia. 

The gap will be prompted by the assumed cut-off of all Russian gas supplies – something that European countries have stated they will aim for – and growth in US LNG export capacity. Noted that export capacity will be growing in Qatar (a non-OPEC member) too. 

Although there are non-Russian options for more pipeline gas, such as Norway, Azerbaijan, and Algeria, the Rystad study assumes that LNG will reign supreme as the main source of natural gas for Europe, coming to satisfy half of its demand by 2030. 

Already, the European Union’s gas import bill has swelled to ten times the usual for filling up winter storage sites because of the switch to LNG from pipeline gas. It’s worth noting that all that LNG was bought on the spot market, given that Brussels has been a fan of spot markets for years. 

Of course, US producers are happy to sell their liquefied gas on the spot market, where it fetches prices that just a couple of years ago would have been unthinkable. Media have even reported about cases of diverting cargos of LNG meant for Asia to Europe because of the Europeans' willingness to pay a premium to get the gas. 

While this year, such behavior is perfectly understandable as European countries scramble to stock up on gas for the winter, over the longer term, it would not exactly make economic sense. 

European industries are already struggling to remain profitable amid soaring energy bills. Yet many of them are too busy fighting for survival to bother about profitability, which should sound the alarm to governments and motivate a more comprehensive diversification of gas deliveries. 

Based on the Rystad research, Europe is essentially replacing one big supplier – Russia – with another big supplier – the United States – which can hardly pass for diversification. 

Sanctioning Russia is causing Europe to go into economic, political and social convulsions. You asked for it, Europe!

The Carve-up of Ukraine, According to Dmitry Medvedev

Deputy chairperson of Russia’s Security Council and former President, Dmitry Medvedev reckoned that the Ukraine of the future is likely to be reduced to just Kiev and the surrounding areas. 

On July 27, Medvedev (left) shared two maps in a Telegram post, the first one showing the country’s territories before the Ukraine crisis of 2014, which includes Crimea and the two eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. 

The second map sees a vastly shrunk Ukraine, with Poland, Hungary, Romania and Russia gobbling up much of the country. As depicted on the map, Poland will annex 7 regions, i.e. Lviv, Lutsk, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, and Zhytomyr; Hungary will take over one region, i.e. Uzzhorod; Romania will arrogate two regions, i.e. Chernivtsi and Vinnytsia; and Russia occupies all the other territories except for Kiev and its adjoining areas. 

If Ukraine gets carved up the way Medvedev had described, Ukrainians can thank their president, [V]olodymyr [Z]elensky for this deliberate act of self-sabotage! 

Of course, he has a little help from his good friends, the US and the UK.

Domestic Cats Classified as Invasive Alien Species

The respected state-run Polish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday have classified domestic cats (Scientific name: Felis catus) as an "invasive alien species" due to the significant damage they inflict on birds and other wildlife. 

Predictably,  cat lovers have reacted emotionally to the decision and put the key scientist behind it on the defensive. 

Wojciech Solarz, a biologist at the said institute wasn't prepared for the disapproving public response when he entered the common house cat, into a national database run by the academy's Institute of Nature Conservation. The database already had 1,786 other species listed with nary an objection, Solarz told the Associated Press. 

The uproar  over invasive alien species No. 1,787, he said, may have resulted from some media reports that created the false impression his institute were calling for feral and other cats to be euthanized. 

Solarz described the growing scientific consensus that domestic cats have  harmful impact on biodiversity  given the number of birds and mammals they hunt and kill. The criteria for including the cat among invasive alien species, "are 100% met by the cat", he maintained. 

Poland Remembers

Poland may be among the staunchest allies of Ukraine today as the latter fends off Russia – but the country cannot shake off the past and yesterday, it held an observance of the National Day of Remembrance of Victims of Genocide. 

This was to commemorate the wartime massacres of Poles by Ukrainians – a wanton act of ethnic cleansing – between 1942 and 1945. Historians say that more than 100,000 Poles, including women and even the smallest children, perished at the hands of their Ukrainian neighbors in a nationalist drive in areas that were then in south-eastern Poland and are mostly in Ukraine now. 

It is dedicated to the memory of the victims in Volhynia, Polesia, Lublin region and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) during the Second World War. Most of the victims were tortured before being killed; some of the methods included rape, dismemberment or immolation. It was also claimed that the victims had included Jews, Russians, Czechs, Georgians, and even Ukrainians who were part of Polish families. 

Ukraine, however, insists they were independence fighters. In fact, Ukraine’s identity as a sovereign state was allegedly built around the OUN. 

And so, it is hardly surprising that Vladimir Putin has cast Ukraine as a country in need of de-Nazifying, and which is one of the stated aims of Russia’s “special military operation”.

You may be interested to know that Poland also commemorates International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 dedicated to the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The Germans had called this “the final solution to the Jewish question”. 

The genocide that the world refers to as the Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and killing of European Jews during World War II. Although Jews were the primary victims of the Nazis’ evil, many other groups were targeted based on both racial and political grounds. Those singled out included LGBTQ individuals, the physically and mentally disabled, Roma (gypsies), Poles and other Slavic peoples, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and members of political opposition groups. 

[Note: However tragic, these non-Jewish victims are typically not considered victims of the Holocaust. According to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, “By the 1950s, the English term Holocaust came to be employed as the term for the murder of the Jews in Europe by the Nazis. Although the term is sometimes used with reference to the murder of other groups by the Nazis, strictly speaking, those groups do not belong under the heading of the Holocaust, nor are they included in the generally accepted statistic of six million victims of the Holocaust”. 

Of the non-Jewish victims, historian Yehuda Bauer estimates, they number no more than half a million].

Ukrainian Borsch-preparation Makes it to List of Intangible Cultural Heritage

These days, Ukraine is so desperate to demonstrate success that just about any accomplishment, big or small that it can show off is to be celebrated! 

And so, on Friday, UNESCO announced that they have added the preparation of Ukrainian borsch (left) to their list of endangered cultural traditions.

FYI, it's really a Slavic signature soup that's rich and hearty. Today, the broadly recognized “standard” borsch is made with beetroot (Beta vulgaris), assorted veggies, meat stock and seasonings. Obviously, beets (right) give it a beautiful color and a beautiful flavor.

 

There are so many types of borsch that one can’t really point to any truly defining elements. It always contains different types of vegetables and is optimally served as a thick meal, brimming with ingredients. However, nearly everything else can be changed without losing the name.

One recipe for “Ukrainian” borsch that I came across has it containing meat, beetroots, cabbages, carrots, parsnips, onions, garlic, potatoes, tomato paste, vinegar and butter, garnished with sour cream and chopped parsley. The Ukrainian recipe, framed as a separate iteration of the standardised version, is supposedly the most well-known today. 

UNESCO put out this narrative: “Whether as part of a wedding meal, the focus of food-related competitions or as a driver of tourism, borsch is considered part of the fabric of Ukrainian society, cultural heritage, identity and tradition”. 

But they pointed out that the UN body’s designation “does not imply exclusivity, nor ownership, of the heritage concerned”. 

Of course, they were aware they had to tread carefully in their description of Ukrainian borsch as a national take on a dish that is consumed in a spread of countries such as Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Russia. 

Even so, the decision to add Ukrainian borsch to a list that includes Neapolitan pizza-slinging and Georgian winemaking was swiftly criticized by Moscow, with foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accusing Kiev of trying to appropriate the soup for one nationality. “This is xenophobia”, she declared. 

The spat over borsch burst into public view in 2019 when Ukrainian chef Ievgen Klopotenko (left) – vexed by the many restaurants around the world that refer to borsch as Russian soup – launched a campaign to have UNESCO recognize Ukraine’s deep links to the dish. 

“I don’t really like to call it a war for borsch, but in fact that’s what it is”, Klopotenko told AFP in 2020. 

UNESCO admitted too they had fast-tracked the application as it became apparent that the displacement being caused by the “war” in Ukraine was “threatening the viability” of the Ukrainian tradition. A poor excuse, if you ask me!

Predictably, news of the UNESCO designation was hailed by the Ukrainian government. “Victory in the borscht war is ours”, Ukraine’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko (right), trumpeted on Telegram. “Be sure that in both the war for borsch and in this war, we will win”. 

Now we know UNESCO favor Ukraine!