“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

Just a collection of a few articles I read this week on current events. The past couple of weeks have been busy taking care of a new batch of baby chicks bought to replenish existing hen population. Hens are getting a little old and egg production is decreasing.

Today's emergency was an overheating shed. The immediate requirement was to reduce heat generated by afternoon sunlight. In few days the chicks will be large enough to have access to an outside run with shade from a tree. A couple of dog kennel panels covered with cloth placed very close to the outside of the building did the trick. Temperature dropped several degrees inside the building once shade had been created.

Always something to force a little creativity.

Boris Johnson leading supporter of arming Ukraine and avoiding negotiating with Russia appears to be on his way out. He will continue serving as Prime Minister until a replacement is selected.

The empire strikes back and Johnson falls Asia Times July 8, 2022

Johnson will – at least according to current plans – cling on in 10 Downing Street until a new leader of the Conservative Party is chosen in September or October. The chosen one will lead the UK until the next general election – to be held, at the latest, in January 2025.

In the meantime, sit back, pour yourself a large gin and tonic and prepare to enjoy. There will be furious backs-and-forths in the chamber, daggers stabbed into colleagues’ backs behind closed doors, and bloody leaks splattering the pages of the press.

Beyond this entertaining political carnage, ultra-serious issues are in play.

The future trajectory of the post-Brexit UK, a G7 economy, is far from certain. There are economic storms bearing down on the country now, and questions hang over the country’s relationship with both the EU, and its own constituent parts: The futures of both Northern Ireland and Scotland in the union are not assured.

In Western Europe, Johnson has been the most florid supporter of Kiev, and a strong proponent of “Global Britain” – an initiative that has seen the resumption of British gunboat diplomacy in Asian waters.

Even though his successor will hail from Johnson’s Conservative Party, it is far from certain that he or she will be as aggressive as Johnson in pursuing these agendas.

The following author recognizes the conflict in Ukraine did not start in February of this year. He is working on reframing the start of conflict in 2014 from a US supported Ukrainian Coup to Russia.

"That it took Putin so long – some 130 days since his invasion, and over eight years after the Kremlin engineered an uprising there – to capture the easternmost province of Ukraine speaks volumes for the poor performance of the Russian military, both in terms of tactics and capability."

Russia’s Ukraine invasion is slowly approaching an inflection point. Is the West prepared to step up? July 7, 2022

This lull before the next phase of a long attritional campaign will be a test of Ukrainian resolve, Russia’s ability to resupply, and the West’s strategic patience.
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Anecdotal reports of its combat fatalities and injuries suggest Kiev is understating its losses. Its need for artillery shells is diminishing stockpiles among Western donors.

Ukraine is using around 5-6,000 artillery shells a day. That’s equivalent to shooting off the United States’ entire yearly production of artillery rounds every ten days or so.
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In the country’s south, for instance, Ukrainian counter-offensives around the city of Kherson seek to open corridors to recapture coastal cities vital to Kiev’s ability to export grain. Even if it’s successful, Kyiv will then have to tackle the question of how to lift the Russian naval blockade in the Black Sea, to which it has no easy answer.
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Control of Ukraine’s coastline is the real strategic inflection point around which the outcome of the war turns. Putin’s plan is to deny Ukraine access to the sea, turning whatever survives the war into a landlocked rump state. That scenario would leave Ukraine shrunken, weak and reliant on the West for aid and reconstruction.
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NATO’s strengthened resolve

Thankfully NATO has finally come to terms with the fact Moscow cannot somehow be managed. At its Madrid Summit on June 29, the alliance adopted a new strategic concept that unambiguously moved Russia from a potential future partner to its main threat.

The surprise event this week - assassination of retired prime minister of Japan. He recently suggested Zelensky could have avoided the Ukrainian conflict in a recent interview.

Life of Shinzo Abe: Author of Abenomics & Architect of Quad Alliance Sputnik News July 9, 2022

In 2006, Shinzo Abe became Japan's youngest-ever prime minister at the age of 52. Analysts label him as a key architect of the Quad, which he first proposed to tackle challenges in the Indo-Pacific region early in this century.
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Before he decided to step down, Abe became the country’s longest-serving prime minister in terms of consecutive days in office, overtaking the record set by his great uncle Eisaku Sato by just four days.
Nevertheless, he remained a highly-praised leader of the largest faction in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Despite his retirement from the prime ministership, Abe remained engaged in politics.
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During Abe's premiership, Russia - Japan relations witnessed an upturn, raising the prospect of signing a peace treaty between the two nations. Abe and Russia's President Vladimir Putin agreed to consider joint economic activity in the Kuril Islands, a Pacific Ocean archipelago that became part of Russia in 1945 after World War Two.
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Abe also reshaped not only Japan's military policy but also formalized the idea of Quad — a four-way alliance brining together India, Australia, and the US.
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Despite geostrategic rivalry with China, Abe had pursued cooperation with President Xi Jinping.

Russia is continuing to release information regarding evidence they claim collected during the first part of the Special Police Operation in Ukraine.

Russia makes new Hunter Biden-related bio-lab claims Russia Times July 8, 2022

Metabiota, a company financed by Hunter Biden’s fund, had set its sights on southwestern Ukraine to research the deadly Ebola virus, which is endemic to some parts of Africa, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed in its Friday briefing. Military officials cited a document that Russian troops had allegedly captured in the Eastern European country.

Mechnikov National University, which is located in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, had supposedly been chosen by the American firm for its program.
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Moscow claims all of this is “part of the US strategy to transfer research of particularly dangerous pathogens to third countries.”

Russian officials have also suggested that American society should get acquainted with the story and possibly raise questions regarding the US government’s activities, which are apparently in breach of the Biological Weapons Convention.

This is not the first time that officials in Moscow have accused the US of conducting secret studies involving deadly viruses and bacteria on Ukrainian soil.

Washington has consistently dismissed such allegations as fake.

Push back on citizens and journalists recording police actions. maybe, too many embarrassing videos destroying official narratives.

US state outlaws up-close filming of cops Russia Times July 9, 2022

Arizona has passed a law banning residents from filming police officers at close range, threatening misdemeanor charges for violators with a few exceptions.
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Set to take effect in September, the measure makes it “unlawful for a person to knowingly make a video recording of law enforcement activity” from closer than eight feet, though violators will be allowed one warning before they are penalized.

The new law has several caveats, however, as it permits individuals who are themselves subject to police questioning to film from a closer distance, as well as those in vehicles during traffic stops or other smaller enclosed spaces on private property, so long as they do not interfere with “lawful police actions.”

What is on your mind today?