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I am also curious about what happens with the captagon trade. I've seen mentions that captagon export was Assad's main source of hard currency. Der Spiegel suggested $5.7 bn annually.
The religious fundamentalists might want to make a big show of saying no to drugs, and destroy captagon production. If so, how well prepared are we for a new Syria who will see a corresponding fiscal hole in their economy? We may see the emergence of an urban middle class who sees everything around them falling apart, without really understanding why. These people may not have knowingly been part of the drug trade, but may have been a lot more adjacent to it than they were aware of themselves – I'm thinking money laundering, logistics etc.

EDIT: Perplexity offer sources that suggest $2.4 bn directly to the state coffers anually, and a further $10 bn benefit to the Syrian economy as a whole.

What should be the first novel Colm Toibin novel I should read?

Any information as to where the loans come from? Reserves of some kind or are they just printing money for the purposes of printing money?

If that’s true, then it would probably have more to do with the fight to end the British mandate than any mistreatment of Arabs.
I’ve met English poshos who could never forgive Nelson Mandela for “being a terrorist”.

The work to create a more cycle friendly Syria has already begun:
https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/1h9fcln/boy_riding_his_bike_in_the_presidential_palace/

I wonder what the Russians might do. At the moment it looks as if they had placed all their chips on Assad, and if so they've got nothing left. But if they have been a slight bit more cunning than that, they may still have a way to influence (and fuck up) the formation of the new Syria.

the Russians can't intervene as much as Syria would like?

Same with Hizbollah. Assad has been reliant on them.

That CEO getting shot is making the internet seem fun again. So many entertaining little rabbit holes. Like, you read down to the 9th comment below the original post and the jokes are still good.

Parklife?

+1

My guess is that however stupid he is, he's understood the value of building up a loyal and fully militarised presidential guard.

people create a false dichotomy

On a more general note, it has been argued that the we've been held hostage in the last 3 - 5 decades to an an in fight between boomers. Still trying to settle debates they had in the student unions back in the 1960s. You are either FOR or AGAINST something.
You could argue that Blair, Obama,Cameron, Macron etc were centrist wimps, but at least we were looking at a genuine attempt to break out of the polarised mind sets of previous generations.

What the heck is going on in SK?

It's disgusting. The reasoning seem to have been that Hunter would have been subjected to that level of scrutiny if his dad hadn't been the Vice President, but is that an excuse really?

because everyone is a Freelance?

Can't be fucked to find the right source right now, but I've read investigations into this – i.e. whether there is more harassment in fields with less certain employment. They looked for correlations elsewhere and seem to have their suspicions confirmed. One example was how women in academia put up with a lot of shit because they were worried they wouldn't get funding for their next round of research etc.

You seem to be well informed about international maritime law?

I'm not sure the presence/removal of a meat market in central London will have any effect on the meat industry, the level of meat consumption or climate change.

That's not the argument here. It's rather that with meat consumption going downwards for the reasons you describe, the meat industry will inevitably see their fortunes turn. And with their total unwillingness to enter into a dialogue with environmentalists and animal rights campaigners, I personally don't give a flying fuck what happens to their market. Bring on the Wagamamas.

Old article, but perfectly relevant right now:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/13/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-production-study

When pushing against gentrification, a lot of leftie and liberal types suddenly find themselves borrowing rhetoric from right wing and reactionary agendas. Speaking of which; sure, let's do what we can to protect the meat industry from their inevitable decline.

And btw what does the Merc star mean?
See it all over the place, but it never made much sense to me.

Nice!

Worse for me is the way the Black Bay line mixes round markers with the snowflake hands. It makes no sense from a design perspective. But clearly, it doesn’t bother most people!

Could you elaborate on this perhaps? What would be the "correct" marker and hand combos for diving watches?

A Russian navy ship sneaking around in Danish waters following the accusation/suspicion that the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 damaged those cables.
The Russians don't really want this to blow over do they? I guess they want to whip up as much discomfort as they can.

https://yle.fi/a/74-20126657

Slightly bemused that the buyer is now going to eat the banana though

This doesn't matter. You're paying for the certificate, not that particular banana. There are loads of such artworks.

It's sickening to think what they will do to hotels housing middle aged white people.

This is the fun bit where I get to re-stock my list of my favourite Trumpkins.
Will someone knock Scaramucci off his number one spot? So far I reckon Don Jr. in a safe in his number two spot, but below that it's going to become lively. I'm excited about Tulsi Gabbard's chances of breaking it into the top five. The guy who headed EPA for a bit should probably go into a spot in the hall of fame, next to Bolton.