Egyptian Port Damietta ...

 ... and the American LNG vessel (used as storage) is hit. 

Meanwhile battle for Slavyansk accelerated. Here is Nikolaevka. 

You see what is going on?

That is why Russia "is losing war" today especially badly. They know they lie, that is why it makes even worse for them--terrorists, war-mongers and losers, capable only of PR. After Slavyansk--it is a straight road to Pavlograd and Dnepropetrovsk. 

No Way!

 Nah, I am screwing with you))

The EU will once again delay plans to eliminate its dependence on Russian energy, amid ongoing debates within the bloc over the future of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the Financial Times has reported. Nord Stream 1, which once delivered Russian natural gas to Germany, and Nord Stream 2 were damaged in a sabotage attack in 2022. However, one string of Nord Stream 2 remains intact. Talks of potentially reviving the pipelines have resurfaced amid recent joint efforts by Russia and the US to end the Ukraine conflict. Originally slated for release in February, a roadmap detailing steps for cutting the EU’s energy reliance on Russia by 2027 was first put off until March and is now expected to be unveiled in May, the outlet said on Tuesday. Uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs has also reportedly contributed to the postponement, as the energy trade could become a key issue in EU-US negotiations. “It’s a mess,” an EU diplomat told the FT. “How does the US fit in all this? How do we diversify?’‘

I am sure, I am 146% positive that this guy and his team in Moscow are in this position:

Because once your balls are in this thing (Europe's virtual balls):

It is really difficult (almost impossible) to extricate your extremity from this, when the grip, by the virtue of geography, history, resources and this proverbial COFM, is so tight that you are left with two options only: get into scrambled eggs business or submit. The dynamics (huge growth) or Russian LNG sales to EU tell us about Europe's predicament. But then again, those could be last vestiges of the common sense among people who cannot repeat their, once a century event--invade Russia and get destroyed. This time Russians may not be so magnanimous and will turn Europe into the parking lot. Very many Russians want to end this once and for all. I don't blame them. 

Berliner Zeitung Makes A... Discovery.

I already mentioned this in my latest video but here is the discovery verbatim.

Germany’s new dependency on Russia: “Putin’s war chest is filled” The latest statistics are surprising: In the middle of the Ukraine war, Russia exports 334 percent more cheaper fertilizers to Germany.

Ah, the no shit moment, again. I am pretty sure that an average German business wants to survive, in order to do that it needs, yes, affordable energy and fertilizers, because people need to eat. German fertilizer production collapsed and that automatically opens the door to Russian one. Now this LNG business. Let's repeat again: 

EU countries are set to buy record volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia this year, even as the bloc pledges to stop consuming Russian fuel by 2027, the latest findings published by Global Witness on Wednesday revealed. Members of the bloc continued to import a significant amount of LNG from Russia in the first seven months of this year, data showed.  

As Kremlin was predicting for years--the US energy is NOT competitive in Europe and the only way it can "compete" is by shoving it down the throats of energy-suffocating Europeans.  Here is video (in Russian) which doesn't really need translation, which also demonstrates why Russia is becoming top 4-5 shipbuilding country because one such floating LNG plant is about 600,000 tons of displacement and Russia builds many of them. 

Novatek has some plans for that. And here is purely pragmatic issue--Russia will sell to Europe (with the exception of Hungary) enough to prevent hungry riots there in order to settle post-SMO Europe, but all those trust-based relations are over. Most of it goes to BRICS countries and the fact that both Putin and Xi declined visiting G-20 summit in a week speaks volumes. Remarkably, one of the sleeper cell Moscow assholes betrayed himself by publishing a delirium hysterical article in NG and was thrown out of the chair of a director of Moscow's Institute of the USA and Canada. Very symptomatic (in Russian).

Here Comes A Double Whammy.

This blog wrote on a number of occasions that US LNG is simply not competitive with pipeline gas practically anywhere in Eurasia EVEN without considering pure geopolitics (or geoeconomics as this term begins to enter a conversation) with the United States desperate attempts to sabotage Nord Stream-2. It is just the fact of life and technology (as in extraction, processing, liquification etc.). Poland, of course, thinks otherwise and is ready to pay about third more for US LNG, but it is Poland and basic economic logic doesn't apply there. But here comes this double whammy, which so far was merely in the background:

(Bloomberg) -- For the first time in more than a decade, U.S. natural gas is set to be the world’s most expensive as Covid-19 lockdowns wallop demand in other regions. Gas futures in the U.S. have rallied about 10% this month as traders bet that a historic crash in oil prices will drive American shale companies to halt more drilling and curb output of gas, which is extracted as a byproduct. In Europe and Asia, meanwhile, prices are sliding to fresh lows due to a supply glut and languishing consumption amid the pandemic.

So, these are not good news for the US "energy independence", because as even Bloomberg admits: 

The move is significant as it shifts the premium that gas in Asia and Europe has historically commanded over U.S. prices and adds a hurdle to American LNG exporters looking to boost sales to those regions. Buyers of U.S. fuel have canceled at least 12 cargoes for June loading, and traders estimate that more than 20 shipments could have been canceled for the month.

In general, the picture is not good since ramifications are wide and long lasting. It is one thing when Scott Ritter explains how things "will go from here" in terms of turning from net-exporter to net-importer of energy for the United States:

Even when the U.S. economy gets back online, a good segment of the U.S. oil industry won’t be there to help fuel it. U.S. energy independence, that illusory concept pursued by U.S. Presidents for the past seven decades, has evaporated. In the brief period that the U.S. was able to claim this status, it could only do so in a market that had been artificially skewed to promote U.S. overproduction at the expense of the rest of the oil producing world. This model of behavior will no longer be tolerated.  

And, mind you, actual cuts will be huge, much bigger, once the ball gets rolling and this will require a serious processing of new economic reality. But Daniel Larison came up today with a headline which was and is in heavy use here. How about that: 

 Please Tell the Establishment That U.S. Hegemony is Over.

But Larison, correctly identifies a strategic conundrum:

Our dominance in the world is in the rear view, yet Trump and other pols refuse to get the message.

This is the danger of which I warn non-stop. Stumbling into the conflict in which the United States cannot, which is pretty much anywhere in Eurasia, win may initiate a sequence of the events which may lead to a global thermonuclear catastrophe. larison, reviewing this newest book: 

    

Notes:

While the authors are quite critical of Trump’s foreign policy, they don’t pin the decline of the old order solely on him. They argue that hegemonic unraveling takes place when the hegemon loses its monopoly over patronage and “more states can compete when it comes to providing economic, security, diplomatic, and other goods.” The U.S. has been losing ground for the better part of the last 20 years, much of it unavoidable as other states grew wealthier and sought to wield greater influence. The authors make a persuasive case that the “exit” from hegemony is already taking place and has been for some time.

I write about this for years and what makes me slightly more hopeful in this truly hard time for everyone, including for majority of Americans who are already squeezed to the breaking point, is the fact that some "establishment" academic and policy-making figures begin to speak about this fait accompli more and more. It is also symptomatic that this book (I am still deciding if to buy it--I have a profound allergy to US political "science" lingo) is focused heavily on Russia (of course, China too) and finally speaks, from what I observed so far, in terms of actual.... tangibles: goods, military power, real economy. It also discusses liberalism. But in the end, Larison concludes with this:

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed how misguided our priorities as a nation have been. There is now a chance to change course, but that will require our leaders to shift their thinking. U.S. hegemony is already on its way out; now Americans need to decide what our role in the world will look like afterwards. Warmed-over platitudes about “leadership” won’t suffice and throwing more money at the Pentagon is a dead end. The way forward is a strategy of retrenchment, restraint, and renewal.

He basically spells out what Russia (Putin) were offering the United States for more than a decade. The calls have been dismissed and it may not be just up to the Americans alone anymore to decide the role the United States will play "afterwards" but only within the framework which is emerging as I type this.

Bering Strait Shipping.

As I wrote recently:

 It is the Northern Sea Route, which China supports enthusiastically. She has sound reasons for doing that. Unlike the Indian Ocean where PLAN would have to face the immensely powerful US Navy, Russia controls the Arctic and possesses a world-class A2/AD capability there,

Today the United States and Russia got busy with making Bering Strait shipping orderly and safe. As the United States Coast Guard reports:

U.S., Russia propose Bering Strait ship traffic routing measures

WASHINGTON -- In response to increased Arctic shipping traffic, the United States and Russian Federation have proposed a system of two-way routes for vessels to follow in the Bering Strait and Bering Sea.

The nations jointly developed and submitted the proposal to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to establish six two-way routes and six precautionary areas.

Located in U.S. and Russian Federation territorial waters off the coasts of Alaska and the Chukotskiy Peninsula, the routes are being recommended to help ships avoid the numerous shoals, reefs and islands outside the routes and to reduce the potential for marine casualties and environmental disasters. 

The proposed two-way routes will be voluntary for all domestic and international ships.

No additional Aids to Navigation (ATON) are being proposed to mark the recommended two-way routes and the routing measures do not limit commercial fishing or subsistence activities.

“Over the past decade, the U.S. and Russia have both observed a steady increase in Arctic shipping activity,” said Mike Sollosi, the chief of the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Standards Division.

Increased commercial and recreational traffic bring the increased risk of maritime casualties, said Sollosi, and the bilateral proposal for routing measures is designed to reduce that risk.

“The U.S. Coast Guard is engaging international and interagency partners across borders in developing joint proposals for ship routes in waterways that we share,” said Sollosi.

The  Chart below shows proposed routes through what amounts to US-Russian maritime border (plus Sarah Palin's Observation Deck, wink, wink) and what in the nearest future should become a very busy "highway". 

There are, inevitably, some extremely serious strategic ramifications in what, in my view, will be China's initial attempt in avoiding a meeting with powerful US Navy in more southerly altitudes. Plus, of course, already today there is a gigantic joint Russian-Chinese-European Liquid Natural Gas facility in the port of Sabetta.

or

Time accelerates... 

UPDATE: 

Well, well, well, friends. The moment I finished this post yesterday and 9 days after finishing my UNZ article, look what made the news today. 

Today China, the Press-Secretariat of State Council of PRC, issued a White Book on NSR and Arctic in general singled out as one of the most important venues in China’s shipping of its goods (90% of them are shipped by sea) and in obtaining mineral resources. In Russian (Google Translate will do). The phrase which merits a very special attention is this statement by Ivan Andrievsky, the First Vice-Premier of Russia's Union of Engineers. 

Китай, естественно, преследует свои интересы и пытается сэкономить на перевозках, поэтому объемы перевозок китайцев по СМП растут. Некоторые даже видят угрозу в такой экспансии. Теоретически возможны конфликты в будущем при существенном таянии льдов, а также росте военных амбиций Китая. Но на данный момент эти угрозы преувеличены 

Translation: 

China is obviously following her own interests and tries to save on shipping, that is why the volume shipped through Northern Sea Route (NSR) is growing. Some people see the threat in such expansion. Theoretically conflicts are possible in the future with significant melting of ice and the growth of China's military ambitions. But at this moment such threats are exaggerated. 

Now, my friends, get this--can you imagine what could have been if there were smart, nay, simply sane people in Washington? Interesting, isn't it? Man, talk about timing of my piece in UNZ, right?