Everything is Connected 6
Five important stories you might have missed this week
Putin’s economy is taking a severe hit thanks to vast amounts of cash drained off for the war effort and Ukraine’s highly successful strategy of hitting Russian oil production facilities. This week Russian media confirmed “Russian industry is balancing on the verge of an all-industry collapse.” Meanwhile, heavily-sanctioned Russian oil giant Lukoil has been forced to sell off its foreign assets and Russia has declared a state of emergency at the Belgorod Reservoir hit by Ukraine. It’s swamped Russian military positions
More trouble for Russia on the war front. A Ka-52 attack helicopter was lost while intercepting Ukrainian drones. It was shot down by the Russians themselves, the 17th Russian aircraft downed by friendly fire since the start of the war. And Ukraine’s military intelligence caught up with another Russian war criminal who committed atrocities in the Kyiv region in 2022. Lieutenant Colonel Veniamin Mazherin, 45, was blown up in his car in the Kemerovo region which is deep in the heart of Russia. No Russian is safe
Signs are surfacing in multiple areas that the US economy is heading for rough seas. The TrumpSlump is being exacerbated by his erratic tariffs regime. Recent US Layoff Announcements:
1 UPS: 48,000
2 Amazon: Up to 30,000
3 Intel: 24,000
4 Nestle: 16,000
5 Accenture: 11,000
6 Ford: 11,000
7 Novo Nordisk: 9,000
8 Microsoft: 7,000
9 PwC: 5,600
10 Salesforce: 4,000
11 Paramount: 2,000
12 Target: 1,800
13 Kroger: 1,000
14 Applied Materials: 1,444
World’s greatest businessperson. Elon Musk’s Far Right politics cost Tesla more than one million EV sales, a new report by Yale University economists for the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed. As buyers moved away from Musk’s company, it boosted Tesla’s main rivals. He hasn’t learned any lessons. The day after the report he called for civil war in Britain
The US Navy has crashed an F-18 and a Seahawk helicopter into the South China Sea while operating off the USS Nimitz. All crew members have been recovered. Earlier this year three F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets were lost in the Red Sea off the USS Harry S Truman
Excellent news about Russia. Hopefully the slide into economic disaster continues. Maybe Russians will rise up and that will be the end of Putin.
I d hope you are correct about the Russian economy - it does make sense as this war is costing millions of rubles as well as any lives but no-one dare complain as Putin has an iron grip on his country. Hopefully this war will bring his downfall!
As for Trump, he may be losing support but he is behaving like his hero Putin. His introduction of troops into the various Democrat-held cities is frightening for the inhabitants who fear violence and obstruction from the state. It will be interesting to see if his bullying tactics and repeated insults and appalling lies he is trying to spread work. This man is clearly quite mad but has had the sense to surround himself with sycophants also fearful as well as hoping to gain from being his henchmen. He is a man that gets what he wants by bullying and self-interest. I don’t know what he really wants apart from the Nobel Peace Prize which would give him international recognition and a picture of peace-maker but he doesn’t seem to realise that attacking boats around Venezuela and the Caribbean claiming they a drug dealers’ vessels is hardly peaceful. He could have stopped the war in Gaza when he first took power. He could stop it from continuing now if he stopped providing support and weapons. The horror, crimes and bloodshed must stop now!
Our world is becoming less safe in so many ways - climate, wars aggression and violence but looking at this site and its contributors it does give us all hope. Thank you Mark and thanks everyone for their comments especially the positive remarks. We must all work together to bring peace, tolerance and understanding to the world!!