The State of the World (plus I’m tired of Medium…)

I’ve been growing tired of Medium. There’s far too much content, and most of it is completely unfit for consumption. The flood of government-sponsored Ukrainian accounts using fake “westernized” names is getting a bit ridiculous. Also, there’s simply too much going on in the world too fast to keep up with in this long format, only to receive a barrage of ludicrous hateful comments each time. Facebook is too personal. Twitter is too… Musky.

Then, I discovered Mastodon and created a couple accounts:

timoha@mastodon.world ⇒ General observations on a variety of Topics

timoha@newsie.social ⇒ Commentary on current Events

So I’m moving over to Mastodon for day-to-day musings, and I’m migrating my content form here over to Substack. I’m planning to be far more active and consistent on Mastodon than there, but I’ll still keep the “blog” open for longer brain dumps and deep dives.

With that, here’re my updates / observations on recent developments in the global geopolitical landscape, in no particular order:

Ukraine

• While most of the pre-conflict armed forces have been decimated, the government continues to counter its (officially minimal) losses by literally hunting people down in the streets and sending them off to their deaths
• Silent economic collapse continues, and no one seems to care…
• Latest figures point to a looming demographic crisis / catastrophe
• Ukrainian government continues to live in an alternate reality, where it shuts down most of Russian missiles and drones, holds on to Bakhmut, and prepares to unleash a deadly counteroffensive — any day now, as soon as the rains stop…
• Z-cabinet continues its fight against military and regional leaderships, attempting to limit Zaluzhny’s clout, while centralizing the hold over the various regions in preparation for the October parliamentary elections
• Z-government has cut benefits to military personnel — many on the front lines have not been paid wages since January
• Z-government has officially declared war on the Russian Orthodox Church and its Ukrainian branch, confiscating its real estate and sending in angry mobs
• Meanwhile, Ukraine has (unofficially, of course) resorted to open terrorism, blowing up a Russian military blogger (along with dozens of others) at a cafe in St. Petersburg
• Despite a year of war, Zelensky continues to pay dues for his Crimea apartment

Russia

• Downs US spy drone over the Black Sea, forcing NATO to move its flights farther out
• Slowly but surely closes its grip on Bakhmut, where most of Ukraine’s military has met its untimely and pointless demise in the name of eternal glory or something like it…
• While everyone has been watching Wagner grind down Ukraine’s military in Bakhmut, Russian forces have also nearly encircled far more tactically important Avdeevka
• Continues to deliver successful pinpoint strikes on military, logistic, and infrastructure targets using an array of modern weaponry, including drones, guided missiles, and even hypersonic weapons. This includes recent destruction of an arms depot in Odessa, which came less than a day after MI-5 claimed Russia is (once again) out of missiles and will stop such attacks until Ukraine launches its spring offensive…
• Russia is happily exporting far more oil and gas to China (and India) than ever
• It’s also starting to export carbon fuels to Pakistan

China

• Declares its loyalty to Russia
• States it has no interest in diplomatic relations with the United States due to its hostility
• Surpasses US + EU combined as Saudi Arabia’s main trade partner
• Brokers reestablishment of official relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran
• Slowly but steadily works toward forceful reintegration of Taiwan
• Continues to work against US and its allies in the Pacific
• Pushing one country after another (Brazil, Malaysia…) to dump USD in bilateral trade
• Mexico has asked China for help in its fight against drug Cartels

India

• Ramps up its oil imports from Russia to record levels
• Dumps the USD in bilateral trade with Russia

OPEC

• Cuts oil production…

Middle East

• Russian will become one of the languages taught at Universities in Egypt
• Russia has become the top investor in Iran’s economy
• Egypt becomes #3 in Russian arms imports

United States

• The Pentagon kills the Lockheed Martin contract for hypersonic missile delivery after repeatedly unsuccessful tests
• But the US Army gives Lockheed a $4.5B consolation prize anyway…
• US openly declares support for Turkey’s opposition in the upcoming election, causing Erdogan to furiously refuse further meetings with the US ambassador
• US continues to escalate the Taiwan issue, as more and more officials openly meet with their Taiwanese counterparts
• Experiences partial meltdown of the banking industry after the fall of SVB
• Enjoys the ongoing circus around Donald Trump’s indictment and another presidential campaign run

NATO / EU

• Poland continues to live out its fantasy of restoring historical greatness, taken away by Russia, Prussia, and Austria 300 years ago
• Romania may be eyeing Moldova and parts of Western Ukraine…
• Hungary continues to attempt to derail all Ukraine support, citing violations of ethnic Hungarian minority rights in the West of the country
• Eastern EU nations cry foul over the grain deal, which mysteriously results in huge surplus of cheap Ukrainian grains in EU markets, putting local farmers out of business
• NATO welcomes Finland, whose economy is is sharp decline…
• Continues to “donate” all of its junk military equipment to Ukraine as an excuse to purchase new shiny weaponry from US, UK, and Swedish makers
• SAAB and BAE have been having the time of their lives, signing contracts for new weapons systems left and right
• Germany is facing a wave of hospital bankruptcies due to the energy crisis
• Meanwhile, Spain has been buying 80% more liquified natural gas from Russia via private companies, since only oil is under sanctions, while gas is just fine…
• Joins US in banking sector woes with the demise of Credit Suisse

Japan

• Snubs China by making friends with Kiev at the same time that Chinese leader reaffirms his country’s ties with Russia in historic visit
• Mulls a return to its glorious imperial past?
• While openly buying oil and gas from Russia above the ceiling price set by the West

If you want to know the sources of this information, look at previous article here. I’ve also been a big fan of GROUND news as an efficient aggregator for western news media.