Spilling the tea on World Dhole Day Down to Earth
The Pirate Bay Remains Resilient, 20 Years After The Raid TorrentFreak
Gone bananas: Cattelan’s Comedian stolen from Centre Pompidou-Metz exhibition The Art Newspaper
Anxious Readers Turn to God Publisher’s Weekly
Climate/Environment
A SCIENTIFIC CASE FOR CLIMATE OPTIMISM WITH TOM CROWTHER Atmos
Supreme Court’s Limitation on Wetlands Protection Will Make Flooding Worse Inside Climate News
Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System Critical to Climate and Ocean Research The Inertia
Pandemics
Long COVID Changed Everything Health Is Political
Long Covid is not “baffling” at all. There are thousands of publications which show multi-system pathology across all body systems, including extensive evidence of organ damage. The scientific and clinical evidence is undeniable and should be reported about accurately
— Dr Elisa Perego (@elisaperego78) June 1, 2026
Ebola
DR Congo Airport Reopens In Ebola-hit Area As Suspected Cases Drop AFP. And: “…the WHO reported that the number of suspected cases had declined to 116 from 906 late last week, based on information provided by the Congolese authorities.”
Only the Right Tests Can Stop This Ebola Outbreak. Congo Has Hardly Any. New York Times
China?
With Margins Squeezed, Chinese Auto Parts Suppliers Pivot to Robotics Yicai Global
A $6.7B battery recycling market Is being rewired Battery Chronicle
Southeast Asia
Washington Wants Myanmar’s Minerals Foreign Policy
Syraqistan
IRGC retaliates in strikes on US forces in Kuwait, Bahrain Al Mayadeen. Yves with a lot more in daily update.
Israeli exports of weapons ‘battle-tested’ in Gaza, Lebanon surged by 30 percent in 2025 The Cradle
Aipac affiliate has funded lavish trips to Israel for dozens of Congress members since 7 October, filings reveal The Guardian
US regional strategy in flux as Barrack assumes Iraq, Syria, Turkiye portfolios Amwaj
Old Blighty
Peter Mandelson invited UK PM to meet Palantir’s Thiel The Register
BRITAIN’S OVERCAPACITY of atrocious leaders is causing chaos internationally, analysts say.
The island nation produces more horrible leaders than it can use and unloads them on innocent countries around the world, a study shows.
– Tony Blair, associated with horrific war crimes… pic.twitter.com/98i4Nu4nYN
— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) June 2, 2026
European Disunion
Protests escalate in Albania over Kushner-linked $4B coastal tourism project TRT World. A coincidence that it’s at the site of massive Soviet bunker designed to withstand nuclear attack?
Ukraine and Moldova on course to start formal EU membership talks in June Politico
New Not-So-Cold War
Fire, smoke greet Putin’s Economic Forum as Ukraine strikes St. Petersburg oil terminal in major attack Kyiv Independent
Russia Ships Most Oil Since 2022 as Drones Strike Refineries Bloomberg
Reports of Russia’s Collapse Are Greatly Exaggerated The Moscow Times. When you’ve lost the Moscow Times…
Ukraine’s drone advantage temporary? Events in Ukraine
How Western Europe’s elites lost the plot over Russia Brian McDonald
***
The Russian-Afghan Military-Technical Deal Is A Step Towards Closer Anti-Terrorist Cooperation Andrew Korybko
Moscow’s New Military Partner Has Something Russia Needs More Than Allies The Diplomat
The Caucasus
US Plans Energy Investments in Azerbaijan, Says $8 Billion in Deals Signed EnergyNow
Turkiye, Azerbaijan announce electricity corridor to Europe The Cradle
Trump 2.0
Trump Administration Announces Stricter Rules for Medicaid Work Requirement New York Times. Could also be filed under eugenics.
Trump drops anti-weaponization fund after rare Republican pushback Christian Science Monitor
Spook Country
Language warning:
He’s our current DNI director getting slapped in the face with a dildo at a GME / BBBY stock festival and being given an award that says “Bill Pulte Fucks – Only the Young”. Don’t read that last part too fast https://t.co/PVZsELd9ni
— henry (@DemNationalist) June 2, 2026
Exclusive-Top US spy agencies feud over turf, mission Reuters
Democrats Suck
NEW: This announcement has sparked a big pushback from major building unions, now working to kill the bill and the moratorium (or urge a future Hochul veto).
Updates coming. https://t.co/bgLatGJCXB
— Yancey Roy (@YanceyRoy) June 2, 2026
Wars Come Home
ADAM HAMAWY, DOCTOR WHO VOLUNTEERED IN GAZA, POISED TO BECOME PRO-PALESTINE REP. FROM NEW JERSEY The Intercept
Before Graham Platner ran for Senate, he witnessed SEALs kill a civilian in Ramadi The After-Action Report
These contributions didn’t come directly from AIPAC, but, helpfully, Collins does list in her FEC filing when a contribution was funneled “through AIPAC.” It adds up to about $1.6M and roughly a third of all her money. You can find it in the memo file looking like this: https://t.co/Ickveoz49f pic.twitter.com/hZxt12K5lM
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) June 2, 2026
The Accelerationists
What a shame:
Tonight is shaping up to be a tough night for Silicon Valley and the tech sector.
Matt Mahan, the tech-backed California governor candidate, has conceded and had a poor showing given all the spending for him.
Self-funder Saikat Chakrabarti is not looking strong in a San…
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) June 3, 2026
Becerra, Hilton leading in most uncertain California governor’s race in years CalMatters
Here is the Contract for Palantir’s Super API for the IRS 404 Media
DOGE Whistleblower Had His Brakes Cut Hours After Elon Put Him On Blast, Suit Alleges Gizmodo
AI
AI Doesn’t Have ROI Ed Zitron
Trump’s AI E-(I)-O could let feds pick winners and losers The Register
Microsoft’s Big New Idea for AI Gadgets Is a Badge With a Camera Gizmodo
What AI race? China and U.S. AI worlds are tightly connected Rest of World
Why Aren’t We Measuring How AI Affects Humans? IEEE Spectrum
Police State Watch
PHILLY COPS ADMIT THAT THEY’RE TRACKING “FIRST AMENDMENT ACTIVITY” CRITICAL OF AI The Intercept
ICE Bought Eleven Warehouses for Mass Detention. It May Be Looking to Sell Them. Project Salt Box
Economy
Vitol Says Europe and US Aren’t Facing Up to Oil Supply Crunch Bloomberg. Oh they are:
Let Them Drive Less Ken Klippenstein. “Oil execs building corporate militias, fearing “Bastille” moment over gas prices.
I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about this. California will hit tank bottoms for jet and diesel by July 4th.
The Asian import arbitrage is dead, local refining is tapped, and none of this is reversible for 12-18 months.
Could this be the Energy Crisis’ Lehman moment? https://t.co/9pmVWJPrNv pic.twitter.com/0rhqTzPCbp
— Royen Capital ✈️👨🏿✈️🇱🇷💹🛢️🌊⚽ (@CaptainRoyen) June 2, 2026
Global food price inflation is accelerating:
Thailand’s white rice prices surged +20% in May, the biggest monthly increase in data going back to 2008.
This benchmark used for Asian rice prices has surged +26% since April, to ~$480 per ton, while Chicago rice futures prices… pic.twitter.com/V7Q1ZaPHHy
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) June 2, 2026
Guillotine Watch
Your retirement savings are about to make Elon Musk a trillionaire Oligarch Watch
Agriculture
Inching Closer: New World Screwworm Now 52 Miles from Border Drovers
Imperial Collapse Watch
US Wallows in “Stalemate” Purgatory of Its Own Making Simplicius
Nothing In Common… Aurelien
Class Warfare
The Final Delusion Fabio Vighi, Savage Minds. “Capital Becoming Itself.”
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Protests escalate in Albania over Kushner-linked $4B coastal tourism project”
Not the first time a Kushner project has stirred protests and accusations of corruption. He was involved in a project in Serbia to build a Trump Tower. Problem was, the site that he wanted for this had the old Yugoslav Ministry of Defence Building which was bombed by NATO during the wars back in the 90s. The locals for a long time have regarded that bombed out building as a war memorial and were furious at this development. It was eventually cancelled by Kushner after four government officials were charged with corruption in connection with this project-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_Belgrade
> A SCIENTIFIC CASE FOR CLIMATE OPTIMISM WITH TOM CROWTHER Atmos
> > Whether we save the planet or not, the opportunities we have to enrich our lives are spectacular, and that is what life is really about.
> > So it does not really matter if you succeed or fail.
I searched for connections between Thomas Crowther and Marie Kondo and found Optimal illusions : the false promise of optimization, by Coco Krumme.
Just fyi.
I guess I didn’t take that paragraph quite as negatively. “Save the planet” is a tall order, and it may be better just to focus on the work itself and the local and personal benefits we might experience. Given the rest of the piece, I didn’t think Crowther was advocating for “live my best life” BS, but was instead arguing for an attitude that would be resilient in the face of all the news that’s coming that the planet is not being “saved.”
Nate Hagens released a new interview this morning with Brett KenCairn, who works for Boulder, CO overseeing regenerative projects in the area. His approach is not that different from Crowther’s; locally focused goals; seeking to utilize positive feedback loops and find positive tipping points; highly valuing benefits to wildlife. KenCairn talks about improving–really restoring–land productivity, not in the sense of how many bushels of wheat are we getting per acre, but instead how much life an acre is supporting. Here’s a spot cut to where KenCarin talks about how the New Deal dealt with the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl and had much success, with CCC labor, in reversing the process of desertification.
> His approach is not that different from Crowther’s
Neither is David Brooks and Salvatore Agosta of ‘Darwinian Survival Guide’. Agosta works with the Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) in Costa Rica, which Crowther mentions. But where Crowther says ‘Joy’, Brooks and Agosta say ‘Trust’. One is a personal affection, the other is relational.
Crowther has taken the parts and constructed a nihilistic doctrine. I can’t argue with aspects of nihilistic philosophy in our given conditions, I just don’t have time for it. Regenerative agriculture is a given substrate of survivability into the future. Ecotourism is weak sauce to compete for resources with 30 GWh data centers.
Re The Pirate Bay–yes it still exists via mirror sites and also via Google’s willingness to link up a popular search (this may have changed under the newer government Google). We will still be able to track the popularity of HBO dragon shows by how many pirate copies have been downloaded. Plus if HBO does indeed become property of the Ellisons the malefactors will really be sticking it to the man.
Notes on Mighty Albania and the protests there:
https://www.pressenza.com/it/2026/06/albania-proteste-a-tirana-contro-il-mega-progetto-turistico-di-kushner/
https://www.ilpost.it/2026/06/01/albania-proteste-contro-costruzione-resort-di-lusso/
Numbers on the budget for building vary. Il Post also claims 10 000 rooms — evidently, Kushner wants to make Albania into a new Costa Smeralda, which isn’t exactly what Sardinia is all about. It would be a similar scenario — luxury resorts attached like cysts to the coasts of countries that would be better served by other kinds of development. And note that the current scandal from Sardinia is luxury resorts with hundreds of “resting” Israeli men with families in tow — suspected of being soldiers on R&R from Gaza, surrounded by great secrecy, on chartered flights, buying out the local high-end shops.
And yet, those darned Albanians: Note the calls for the resignation of Giorgia Meloni’s special tall pal, Edi Rama.
I am reminded of two things: The dismantling of Yugoslavia means that the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea is now lined, from Trieste to Corfu, by a bunch of easily cowed and economically frail countries. Second, I am reminded from the Politico article about the glorious talks for the accession into the EU of Moldova and Ukraine that Albania has the longest standing application to the EU. And Albania still hasn’t made it into the club. Too many Muslims? Not enough luxury resorts?
So, not so oddly (and after my comment about Oman in Yves Smith’s daily assessment of the Persian Gulf war), the treatment of smaller countries signals big, big problems.
All these coastal resorts vying to be the next location shoot for the White Lotus.
re: NATO Cambridge debate
“This House believes NATO is Unfit for the world today.”
This is the non-public YT link. So I cannot access it.
Perhaps others here can:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jox7eEHK5OI
Apparently the debate presented 5 speakers pro NATO, 1 anti NATO.
The German version of anti-NATO-speech would be here, given by German former MP Sevim Dagdelen:
use google-translate:
Sevim Dağdelen’s speech at the Cambridge Union: “NATO is not suitable for today’s world”
A recent debate at the University of Cambridge in the UK addressed the topic: “This House believes NATO is unfit for the world today.” BSW politician Sevim Dagdelen was invited as one of the keynote speakers. In her speech, she criticized central NATO narratives: its self-image as a defense alliance, a community of values, a guardian of international law, and a geopolitical success. We are publishing the full text of her speech.
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=151205
re: Ukraine fascists
students were forming a swastika on their schoolyard
Some were contesting the images are real.
The TG channel writes Ishchenko stated the images are of course real. I would assume so too. (Even if they were fake the mentality is certainly not.)
by the Italian Comitato Donbass Antinazista – Notizie sulla guerra
https://t.me/ComitatoDonbass/12588#
Those students were only practicing their rendition of the song and dance section of “The Producers.”
Sponsored by the Neoliberal American Zionist Institute.
👍😉
(The original 1967 movie is extremely well made. You see it when comparing it to the 2000s remake. To get details right in this segment of entertainment is very hard. Btw Mel Brooks apparently appears in next year´s SPACE BALLS sequel.)
However good the original “Space Balls” was, the new one is just a sequel like so many Hollywood films are. Worth paying attention to small budget films like “Obsession” and “Backrooms”. The later cost $10 million to make and was directed by a 20 year old and already it has made well over $120 million in profit blowing past the big budget productions like the latest Star Wars film-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HjdiohVOik (2:17 mins)
The most interesting about Space Balls 2 will probably be Brooks´s age by then.
But lets not be hasty and wait…we can still condemn it when it´s out.
Agreed, the 1967 film is an absolute gem – every minute of it!
Springtime !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovCf9VRLnDY
‘Teddy Schleifer
@teddyschleifer
Tonight is shaping up to be a tough night for Silicon Valley and the tech sector.
Matt Mahan, the tech-backed California governor candidate, has conceded and had a poor showing given all the spending for him.
Self-funder Saikat Chakrabarti is not looking strong in a San Francisco congressional race.
Eric Jones, another self-funder from the tech community, is currently trailing outside the top two in a different Bay Area race (though it’s close.)
And Ethan Agarwal, a tech entrpreneur who some thought would mount a serious challenge to Ro Khanna, is a total non-factor in the South Bay.’
Young people did not turn up to defend Thomas Massie against AIPAC and he lost. But here young people turned out to put the boot in these Silicon Valley wannabees politicians. Not saying that AI and it’s impact on young people had anything to do with it…but I am betting that it did.
The AI boom along with Space X will give us 3 IPOs in the not to distant future if I understand things correctly. They are all huge IPOs, maybe into the trillions. Our markets are at almost all time highs as I speak. Makes me wonder, where is the money (liquidity?) going to come from for these trillions needed for the IPO?
That is a massive amount of money. A trillion is not much less than the GDP of Saudi Arabia. At least they have oil…
000 000 000 000. All I see is a bunch a Zeros. Nihil ?
Good thing the markets are at almost-all-time highs–gives us all something to borrow against so we can buy into those IPOs.
re: Oligarch Watch – Your retirement savings are about to make Elon Musk a trillionaire
“In March, Nasdaq, the exchange and market index provider, loosened its rules to ensure SpaceX could be quickly added to its index of 100 of the largest nonfinancial companies. The Nasdaq 100 previously required companies to be publicly traded for at least 3 months before inclusion in the index to limit its exposure to volatility.
“But on May 1, as market hype for the looming SpaceX IPO neared a fever pitch, Nasdaq shaved that buffer period down to just 15 days. Nasdaq also eliminated its requirement that index-eligible companies maintain a minimum float ratio of 10%, meaning that at least a tenth of their shares had to be accessible on public markets.”
…
“In turn, working Americans whose savings are held in Nasdaq 100 index funds will be made to invest in SpaceX. The funds in question — the Invesco QQQ Trust, the Direxion NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index ETF, and the Victory Nasdaq 100 Index mutual fund — are marketed as relatively safe bets that non-professional investors can trust to grow their savings.”
(my emphasis)
So let me get this straight:
The financial safety rules were bent to get these new IPOs onboard.
Having bent the rules, these new IPOs are going to be marketed as “relatively safe bets.”
In what world does this logic make sense?
Subprime II, here we come. sheesh! Anybody think the ratings agencies will be more reliable this time than they were during the Subprime CDO debacle?
Being “relatively safe bets.” is not the reason per se. Once these stocks enter NASDAQ huge numbers of index funds (think pensions/401s/403s/457s) will be required to buy them, thus transferring a yuuuuge amount of cash from retirement savings accounts to the tech bros at inflated prices. As soon as possible the VCs and IPO insiders will cash out and the stocks will be revealed as dogshit. Thus does the steal of present and future retirees’ money happen.
I moved ALL my investments in index funds to other vehicles – a lot of TIPS bonds plus some funds that will not be required to purchase these stocks in any huge quantities (RSP and GSEW looked like good bets to me). Keeping more than usual in money market funds too (FMOXX is federal-tax exempt) and there is no state tax in WA.
Over the next few days I’ll be working on my wife’s 457 – she retires at the end of the month and for some reason the Empower fund managers have her money in 75% equities, 25% bonds. WTF, for a 66-year old????
It’ll be like 300 billion at most.
They’re going to be selling tiny percentages of the companies, so the total market cap isn’t close to the amount of money being raised.
Still an issue but this can probably still go for a while before it comes crashing down.
Thank you, Conor.
I’m glad that you have linked about Britain’s supply line of leaders. One should add Britain’s crooked officials, too.
As Blighty no longer makes pots to p in, it exports, don’t laugh, its know how. It’s funny to hear the people who ruined Blighty give it large to unsuspecting foreigners.
The exportation of bad leaders, acquisitive second sons, social malcontents, antisocial elements, and internal contradictions has been the European model for centuries.
re: NATO crisis
Paywalled Italian interview with Stephen Wertheim on NATO/EU/US future
‘The Atlantic rift is irreparable’
Conversation with Stephen Wertheim , historian and Senior Fellow at the American Statecraft Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
https://www.limesonline.com/rivista/nato-usa-europa-la-frattura-dell-atlantico-e-irreparabile-21872745/
“DOGE Whistleblower Had His Brakes Cut Hours After Elon Put Him On Blast, Suit Alleges”
It could have been worse. He could have offended Taylor Swift fans. Beware the wrath of the Swifties.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/why-do-so-many-right-wing-parties-worship-america/
An interesting bit on how the right wing around the world deals with Trump with contrasting Poilievre and Ford in Canada compared to Europe and Asia.
Poilievre brings to mind those right wing Korean groups complaining about Chinese foreign influence while they run around in their rallies with American and Israeli flags…
“Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System Critical to Climate and Ocean Research”
Trump repeating his old play during his first presidency.if you don’t measure a problem, then the problem goes away. Or at least in pr terms.
Trump doing what he does, destroying regulatory sub-structure and future corporate prosecutions.
re: RU crisis
JACOBIN of course. They seem to remain static in their mind re: Russia.
Russia’s War Machine Is Creaking
By Alexey Sakhnin
Russia’s war economy has this year suffered some of its worst setbacks since the invasion of Ukraine. An under-strain Russian society isn’t revolting yet. But Russians’ doubts about the war are growing.
https://jacobin.com/2026/05/russia-ukraine-war-economy-dissent
Alexey Sakhnin is a Russian activist who was one of the leaders of the anti-Putin protest movement from 2011 to 2013. He is a member of the Progressive International Council and Socialists Against War.
RE: The Painful Truth about Long Covid
1goodtern’s commentary:
https://x.com/1goodtern/status/2062098595042451779
No idea what to make of this; Shannon Elizabeth is now an OnlyFans star and I guess got/paid for product placement in an interview in NY Times. OnlyFans being basically a porn site as I understand it.
What the Y2K Generation’s ‘Hot Girl’ Thinks About It All Now (NY Times)
What a strange timeline.
(bold mine)
How Western Europe’s elites lost the plot over Russia —
One quibble with Brian McDonald’s otherwise fine summary:
“If the EU had behaved differently it could have waited out the Putin generation, which is understandably aggrieved by the Soviet collapse and the humiliation of the 1990s. Then it could have dealt with a more internationally-minded and liberal-minded leadership, which didn’t even remember the USSR, that was certain to follow.”
I disagree. Younger Russians (younger than me, anyway, let’s say the under-50s) are indeed more well-travelled and internationally-minded than their Soviet parents, but that doesn’t automatically make them more liberal-minded (whatever that phrase means nowadays). They are more aware of the reality of life in the West, and they see that it isn’t a paradise. And when they visit non-Western non-liberal places like China or Dubai, they see that functional alternatives exist to the Western model. And when they return home to Russia, they realize that their country — warts and all — isn’t all that bad after all and in many respects is superior to its Western counterparts.
There are few sure things in life aside from death and taxes (and even the latter can be avoided or at least minimized in some circumstances), but one certainty you can hang your hat on is that Putin’s successor will be far more nationalistic and anti-Western than Putin ever was. Within 10 years of Putin’s demise (and we all depart eventually, even Putin and Trump), Western leaders and opinion makers will be longing for the long-ago halcyon days of Putin’s rule. “A worthy adversary.” “He was a tough negotiator, but he kept his word.” “He played his cards well.” Wait and see.
re: The Final Delusion
About S. Koreans he writes:
“These are quiet citizens who believed in fixed deposits and real estate for decades. Now they are borrowing to buy semiconductor stocks. Policy surrender payouts—South Koreans torching their own life insurance to buy chips—reached 4.9 trillion won in the first quarter alone, up 16.3% from last year. Foreign smart money is already selling. ”
Tulip bulb mania?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
re: AI Doesn’t Have ROI -Ed Zitron
An aside: one aspect of the 2000 dot.com bubble not mentioned is the fact that from 1995 on most govt/education/large businesses began replacement buying of older pcs and printers on a faster basis than would be the normal hardware cycle. This was done to get ahead of the perceived, coming Year2000 problem, or the Y2K problem that could affect older machines and older software.
The year 2000 problem, per Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem
Wall St saw this unusual upsurge in hardware and software buying as evidence of something in the market that didn’t really
exist. When year 2000 rolled around and almost all the older hardware and software that couldn’t handle the date change had already been replaced the Y2K problem was seen as inconsequential — because newer hardware and software had replaced the older stuff.
But then, because the older hardware and software had been replaced on a sooner than the usual cycle of replacement would indicate, that meant for the next several years far fewer new hardware and software sales were made.
This was part of the “bust” known as the dot.com bust.
Sometimes financial spreadsheet jockeys don’t know what they’re looking at and make wildly incorrect assumptions, imo.
re: Russia prevails
I suggest Scott Ritter, Kaja Kallas etc. (yes I am provoking) listen to Mark Sleboda first half:
Why Russia Is Now Targeting Kiev
My latest discussion with Jamarl Thomas 01/06/26
48 min.
https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/why-russia-is-now-targeting-kiev
Sleboda doesn´t even have to come up with slogans of his own.
It´s enough if he just quotes the WSJ:
Ukraine Hits Russia’s Oil Machine, but Struggles to Dent Its Economy
Drone strikes on refineries and ports have caused some disruption but had little impact on Moscow’s oil revenues
April 28th
https://archive.is/jzqXG
Of course the WSJ doesn´t fail to exaggerate.
Interestingly they address the environmental damage caused by Ukrainian attacks:
“(…)In Tuapse, black, oil-like drops have fallen from the sky in recent weeks. Oil has spilled into the Black Sea, creating slicks that cover several square miles of water. People living near the refinery were forced to evacuate Tuesday, while more than 100 emergency personnel worked to extinguish the blaze, according to local officials. Footage from the scene shows a fireball at the refinery, with thick smoke billowing out across the city.
Residents have posted videos on social media showing soot blanketing the city and complaining about the effects on the environment and their lives.(…)”
But do they accuse Ukraine of causing harm to the environment even though invoking those 1991 Iraq tropes with black, oil-like drops have fallen from the sky in recent weeks. Oil has spilled into the Black Sea, creating slicks that cover several square miles of water ?
They do not. The following sentence is literally all business again:
“(…)“The Kyiv regime by such actions further increases the oil deficit in global markets, which are experiencing significant difficulties due to the situation in the Hormuz Strait without that, and provokes further destabilization in global energy markets,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.(…)”
(Remarkable they actually quote a Russian national.)
I also recommend the entire WSJ even if it´s from April. It´s not long and more or less honest without overly trying to fasify matters (as I am used to from the NYT or German legacy media).