The world is busy with the greatest part busy with building their lives and their countries and regaining sovereignty, and the smallest portion busy sinking.

We have Spief going on in St Petersburg and seemingly a number of loose threads are being pulled together.

We have Europe’s gas supply being throttled by Russia, as Siemens could not supply repair parts because Canada did not want to release the parts because .. sanctions.  What is Russian for Your sanctions broke the turbine, colleagues!  Prices reaching the stratosphere.

We have what I term the Great WalkBack on the SMO in the Ukraine, as nobody wants the Ukraine any longer because it has become an embarrassment for the warmongers and a sign that they are big losers.   Now they are trying to make it Russia’s problem again.  Latest here is: Macron says that Ukraine itself should negotiate with Russia and neither France nor Germany will do it for them.

Meanwhile:

Pushilin announced the turning point in the battle for Donbass

In the battle for Donbass, the military of the Donetsk People’s Republic gained a military advantage, we can talk about a turning point. This was stated by the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin.

“Yes, we can talk about a turning point, the enemy has been crushed morally as well as militarily,” Pushilin said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Interfax reports.  According to him, in the very near future, we will take exhaustive measures within the framework of the allied forces in order to prevent the enemy from shelling the Donbass.

As Pushilin explained, the DPR forces plan to move beyond the administrative borders of the republic as far as necessary to eliminate the threat of shelling from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.  “We are, of course, focusing on our constitutional boundaries. But taking into account the supply of weapons by Western countries to Kyiv, the need to ensure security may push the DPR to take further steps,” Pushilin emphasized.

Iran has had enough with all this theft under the guise of sanctions and is now simply seizing their fuel back:  Iranian state media has reported the Persian Gulf seizure of 90,000 liters of smuggled fuel and detention of the vessel’s captain and five other crew members under criminal warrants. Their nationality, origin or destination has not been confirmed.  The seizure follows last month’s confiscation of Iranian oil from a Russian-operated vessel near Greece by the US, and Tehran’s apparently retaliatory seizure of two Greek-flagged vessels in the Gulf.  Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed in the second week of April alone they captured over 650,000 liters of fuel.  Take That!

Dollar Assets are losing appeal or perhaps already becoming toxic.  Chinese holdings of US Treasury securities dropped to $1.003 trillion in April, compared with $1.039 trillion in March and $1.096 trillion in April 2021. Japan, which is currently the largest non-US holder of US Treasuries, also decreased holdings in April to their lowest level since January 2020.

There is open hostility and increasing attacks in Israel by Israeli Settlers against Palestinians.

Imminent:  We are waiting for Priti Patel to tell us whether she is going to allow Julian Assange to be extradited.

Use as open thread.

Amarynth