That’s the real reason. All the talk of drug smuggling is just a distraction.

I think it’s a lot simpler than that. Venezuela has oil.

I don’t think the government will risk significant increases in fuel prices on the eve of the Bihar elections. On the other hand, it is quite possible that they agree to stop buying Russian oil from Russia as a compromise - it could be bounced off a third country so we can technically agree to the US demands.

Because the real power of the US isn’t the ICC exemption or the UN SC veto, but their six thousand nukes and the biggest navy in the world.

But those labour, machinery and materials could be used for more productive uses. I agree that you need some nukes to protect your country, but both Russia and the US already have enough nukes to send humanity back to the stone age. Why build even more?

He first graphic here proves you wrong

Look at the six categories in the graph. Only the dark red represents processed petroleum.

Why would anyone sell cheap crude then buy back expensive gas??

Right, why would any country export cheap raw materials and buy back expensive finished products? That could never happen, right? Surely the majority of the world’s countries aren’t doing it?

Why have refiners if youre exportibg crude?

Bunch of reasons: (1) for domestic use, (2) they can sell it for more, and (3) Russia had a great industrial sector back when it was part of the USSR, and some of that still survives.

But you are right that attacks on Russian refineries will reduce the processing that is happening within Russia. They will have to buy more products from China, etc. Hopefully this convinces their government to invest in industry, but based on what I’ve seen so far I’m not holding my breath on this.

Big if true. Good on the UAE for finally standing up for the Palestinians.

No, the distinction is important. Russia mostly extracts petroleum and gas, and exports them. The processing happens in China or India. Then, the processed components, including petrol (gasoline), are resold by China and India.

Now I’m sure Russia would rather their refineries not be attacked, and these disruptions could very well cause local shortages or price fluctuations. But for the wider economy or overall supply chains, this won’t matter much.

The Washington Post article is definitely propaganda. The others I feel are just unclear wording.

‘Gasoline’ means petrol, not gas.

You must also remember that they’re running out of ice. The new shipments from Thailand are being delayed by jaguar attacks.

There’s no way you can move a surface ship with enough food for a significant number of people to Gaza without every government in the area knowing. They are announcing their location so Israel can’t shoot at them and later say they thought they were pirates.

Of course, Israel doesn’t exactly have a good record in following rules.

The Radxa Rock 5 series use RK3588s and have USB, ethernet and 4-32 GB RAM.

‘Trade with us or we’ll make it harder to trade with us’? That makes perfect sense!

In the 90s and early 00s, Russia had bigger issues to worry about.

Good. Wtf do they mean, sanctioning medical work!

Lol her name is so appropriate.

Invading Ukraine has created economic and military challenges for Russia. If only Putin supported the invasion, and everyone else in Russia opposed it, Putin wouldn’t be the President of Russia now. So, we must try to understand who in Russia supports this action. The military / security services are an obvious answer - they would see the risk of a NATO expansion up to the Russian border as a danger that must be avoided at all costs.

Not sure, I never used it. I’m guessing either VPN, one of the apk download sites, or a TikTok mirror running on browser.

The opposition leader showed examples of duplicate votes, as well as obviously fake votes (one had parent’s name as ‘asdfg’ or something like that). The question is how common these are, and whether they are being used to swing elections a certain way.

Honestly, if the Election Commission had been more transparent and admitted the mistake instead of trying to hide the rolls, this might have been a non-event.