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With innovation and flexibility on par or even better than NATO’s, Ukraine’s use of artillery has surprised everyone – especially the Russians. But what Ukrainians need above all is ammunition.

Your humble blogger goes solo with Gonzalo Lira.

"(The government) can run media organisations to bring its own message out, but it should never exert control over the entire industry."

Police reform schemes avoid addressing the causes of criminal activity, most of all poverty. But that would mean giving nice things to people

Published by Cody Bloomfield: Defending Rights & Dissent In an absurd ruling, the Eighth Circuit denied that boycotts are political expression. Now, the Supreme Court has denied writ of certiorari, letting the Eighth Circuit’s ruling in Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip stand. This is a missed opportunity for the Supreme Court to take a stand for the proud tradition of political boycott in the United States.

An oddball group converges in a forest where a bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine. read now...

Full text.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China
China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis
2023-02-24 09:00

• Both India and China are importing Russian crude at a record pace.
• Energy Intelligence: at least 20 trading companies—but probably a lot more—are sending Russian oil around the world.
• According to Trafigura, the total number of tankers that have been “reserved” to carry Russian oil could be as high as 600, of which 400 crude tankers.

Vitol, Trafigura, BP, Shell, Equinor—all of them upped and left whatever business they had in Russia, leaving an empty space. It did not take very long for this space to fill, it seems. It has been filled with newly set up trading firms, most of them set up very recently and outside Europe. And they are not trading in dollars or euros.

The trades that these companies are conducting with Russian oil and fuels are being financed by banks in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, with European banks, like European commodity traders, “out of the picture,” as Energy Intelligence puts it.

Oilprice

To show true compassion and respect to Australia's First Nations peoples, Australia Day should be done away with entirely. read now...

Does Martin Wolf make a sophmore error in thinking that saving causes investment? It appears so.

The Radford Free Press
Wolf Knows Better. I know He Does
Peter Radford

A baby Pangolin A Chinese pangolin has been born in the Prague zoo, the first birth of the critically endangered animal in captivity in Europe, and is doing well after initial troubles, the park said on Thursday. For the first few days after the baby female was born on Feb. 2, park keepers were worried because it was losing weight. The reason was found to be that the mother, Run Hou Tang, didn’t have enough milk. Following consultations with experts from Taiwan, a program of artificial feeding with milk from a cat was introduced and the mother was stimulated to produce more of her own. That turned things around, with the zoo now expressing cautious optimism about the pup, which still has no name but has been nicknamed “Little Cone” because it resembles a spruce cone. “We have only overcome the first hurdle and others are still waiting for us,” zoo director Miroslav Bobek said. The baby’s birth weight was just 135 grams (4.76 ounces). Adults can reach up to 15 pounds. The Chinese pangolin is native to southern China and southeastern Asia and is one of the four pangolin species living in Asia, while another four can be found in Africa.

In recent weeks, The Lever’s coverage of the Norfolk Southern train derailment has shaped the national conversation and contributed to growing public pressure on both the rail industry and federal regulators.