SeventyTwoTrillion

Hopefully Argentina has a revolution and this ages really well

One of the most unintentionally funny paragraphs I've ever seen, courtesy of Bloomberg:

The World’s Fastest-Sinking Megacity Has One Last Chance to Save Itself

Venice is sinking. So are Rotterdam, Bangkok and New York. But no place compares to Jakarta, the fastest-sinking megacity on the planet. Over the past 25 years, the hardest-hit areas of Indonesia’s capital have subsided more than 16 feet. The city has until 2030 to figure out a solution, experts say, or it will be too late to hold back the Java Sea.

Cue Anthoni Salim, the billionaire owner of PT Air Bersih Jakarta, the firm tapped by the government to expand piped water access to the city’s 11 million residents immediately, if not sooner. As of now, one in three Jakartans doesn’t have access to piped water, relying instead on the thousands of illegal wells that dot the city — and deplete the aquifers and weaken the ground, creating prime conditions for further sinking.

If Salim’s ABJ can help deliver on the plan to bring water to every Jakarta household, experts say the city has a chance — and the company will rake in billions of dollars. If it fails, it’s likely that chaos will reign in the world’s second-biggest metropolis. Unabated sinking, combined with intensifying storms and rising sea levels, will be more than Jakarta’s seawalls can withstand, said JanJaap Brinkman, a flood expert at Dutch water research institute Deltares: “There will be so much sea water rushing in, it will never stop. There will be no escape.”

For Salim, who didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story, it’s been a long time coming. He’s amassed more than $10 billion through a handful of industries, including one of the world’s biggest instant-noodle makers, but controlling the capital’s water supply has been a personal priority since a revolution almost dismantled his family’s conglomerate 25 years ago. When the government sought bids to revamp the city’s water infrastructure, Salim’s was one of two companies to raise its hand.

Your Saturday Briefing

The Eurozone remains in recession, with the composite PMI falling from 47.6 to 47 despite expectations that it would rise slightly, marking 7 consecutive month below 50, or stagnation. In the UK, the services PMI rising might stop them from technically being in a recession, but it's not looking much better for them overall either.

As Pakistan continues to deport 1.7 million Afghanis back to Afghanistan - most of who were living in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces - their absence is causing labor shortages in agriculture and mining. The lack of migrant remittances heading from Pakistan to Afghanistan will also hurt Afghanistan, which is already among the poorest countries on the planet following the US's mission to bring freedom and democracy there.

Putin has stated that the coming decade will see a massive expansion of infrastructure, especially in railroads, linking Russia to south and east Asia.

China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has stated that the Middle East should no longer be a geopolitical arena of great powers, after a meeting with Iran and Saudi Arabia, which is kind of a hilarious statement to make with US aircraft carriers circling it like sharks.

The ruling emir of Kuwait, Sheikh-Nawaf Al Ahmed Al Sabah, has died at the age of 86. He took power in 2020 after the old emir died, and will be succeeded by Sheik Meshal Al Ahmad Al Jaber, who is 83 years old.

China is experiencing a cold snap, leading to yellow alerts for cold temperatures. It is predicted that in northern regions, daily low or average temperatures would approach or break records. Authorities are setting up relief supplies, and roads, railways, and schools are being closed, especially after a railway accident in Beijing after a train was unable to brake in time due to icy rails and collided with another train, injuring 515 people.

Somalia has received $4.5 billion in debt relief from the IMF and World Bank due to their implementation of a poverty reduction strategy and sound macroeconomic management. Citizens seem generally pleased.

The German Defense Minister, Pistorius, told the German troops that have been kicked out of Mali that they fulfilled their mission and their achievements were not in vain, which I suppose is technically true, if the objective of the mission was to not stop rebel groups and keep the country in a state of chaos to maintain extractive industries.

Eight million Chadians will vote in a referendum for a new constitution tomorrow; the yes side seems certain to win as the government has been waging a campaign for it. The referendum is the final step towards elections promised by the military government.

Two unidentified men had sex in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in a Senate hearing room. Dudes rock.

Argentina's Presidential Spokesman has confirmed that the country is going through hyperflation, with inflation rising at 1% per day, or nearly 4000% per year. The government has simultaneously ordered protests to be made effectively illegal, promising harsh resistance in the face of any blockades.

#Tradle #650 2/6
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https://oec.world/en/tradle

by 1986, the Greater Soviet Polycule covered every Warsaw Pact country, meaning that every single person in the USSR was in a polyamorous relationship

libs:

if you use violence to try and stop violence, you're actually just as bad as them. true revenge is doing nothing and living well. Yemen should stop its criminal piracy!

actually, Israel isn't even really doing violence because Hamas started it, they broke the ceasefire on October 7th, not Israel!

these statements are both extremely consistent and I am extremely intelligent

The IOF's numbers of killed and wounded are absolutely false. Our fighters' testimonies from the field show exponentially higher numbers just from attacks against infantry forces, to say nothing of those killed and wounded in vehicles that are damaged or destroyed.

Our clashes with enemy have revealed how weak & cowardly their army is, relying not on fighters but technology. When the moment of truth and confrontation arises, you find them running and screaming for help like children, as our fighters hunt them like sitting ducks

The only thing we see disintegrating is the criminal enemy army, not our brigades. And what the enemy is hoping for, they shall discover whether sooner or later, is a but a mirage and a great delusion, by the will and power and support of God

Our fighters are increasingly convinced that the enemy is using mercenaries, in this battle that they claim is an existential battle of national dignity.

Our mujahideen hear enemy soldiers screaming for help after every operation, and see their hysterical reaction, firing bullets and bombs everywhere at random to disguise their fear and to cover for the retrieval of the bodies of the dead and wounded.

Did you know that Stalin's totalitarian regime forced its citizens to abandon monogamy? If you didn't do it, you were taken from your home in the dead of night by agents and sent to a Siberian gulag

Israel patiently waiting for all their border infrastructure to be destroyed so that they're more vulnerable, and then making bellicose statements. most incompetent army in world history

they'll advance like a mile into Lebanon, declare victory over Hezbollah, and then a month later they'll be like "Uhh actually we have to retreat, because of, uh, concern about uh, civilian casualties. A-as a good will gesture." leaving a graveyard of merkavas and infantry carriers in the hills

Your Friday Briefing

The EU has agreed to open membership talks with Ukraine, bypassing objections from Hungary. This doesn't mean that Ukraine will join any time soon - if Ukraine even exists at all in the coming years - just that the formal process towards that "eventuality" is beginning. This comes after a statement from Zelensky that Putin would have a "satisfied smile" if this didn't go through.

In addition, the EU has agreed on the 12th sanctions package, involving a ban on Russian non-industrial diamond imports and from third countries, starting next year, as well as an attempt to tighten the oil price cap and the ability of Russia to obtain dual-use goods from EU companies.

80% of Kazakhstan's infrastructure is ageing and in an advanced state of deterioration, with only a small percentage being upgraded, which is causing more and more technical problems - including a recent incident two days ago where a gas pipeline was damaged by cold, leaving many homes without gas heating.

China has mediated a ceasefire in northern Myanmar between the junta and an alliance of rebels, which has caused hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee. The rebel alliance still maintains its commitment to defeating the junta.

Guyana and Venezuela have agreed to avoid any escalation of conflict amid a recent heightening of tensions over the Esequbio area.

it does feel a lot like somebody's OC named something stupid like Umbra Gloom from an edgy fanfiction they wrote when they were 14 years old, where the first line is like "I glanced at another body on the sidewalk as the rain came down. Dead. At my hands. I couldn't keep the dreadful power inside me contained, a force that nobody except me understood."

it gets a little better later on because he gets more meaningful evil actions that aren't just pure shock value or edgy-for-edgy's-sake

#Tradle #649 4/6
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https://oec.world/en/tradle

I think that's the worst first guess I've ever had. Literally on the exact other side of the planet