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Thursday, April 06, 2023

6: Ukraine

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Learn To Use The Correct Prompts To Make The Best Of ChatGPT

Take this online course that will teach you how to use the correct prompts so as to make the best of this new technology, ChatGPT.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

Are you looking for a game-changing tool to take your marketing efforts to the next level? Look no further than ChatGPT, the powerful language model that uses artificial intelligence to generate high-quality content. But here's the thing – ChatGPT is only as effective as the prompts it receives. That's why you need to learn how to use the correct prompts to make the most of this innovative technology.

Introducing our online course on using the correct prompts for ChatGPT. This course is designed to teach you everything you need to know about crafting effective prompts that align with your brand and target audience. With expert guidance and real-world examples, you'll gain the skills and confidence you need to generate high-quality content that drives engagement and sales.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

So why should you take this course? For starters, it will help you stand out from the competition. By using ChatGPT effectively, you can generate content that resonates with your target audience and sets your brand apart. You'll also save time and money, as ChatGPT can generate high-quality content in a fraction of the time it would take to create it manually.

But most importantly, taking this course will give you a competitive edge in the ever-evolving world of marketing. As technology continues to shape the way we communicate with our customers, it's critical to stay ahead of the curve. By mastering the art of prompts for ChatGPT, you'll position yourself as a thought leader and innovator in your industry.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

So what are you waiting for? Sign up for our online course today and start using the power of ChatGPT to take your marketing efforts to the next level. Don't let this game-changing technology pass you by – enroll in our course and start mastering the art of prompts for ChatGPT today!

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

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ChatGPT Can Be A Great Tool For Marketers

ChatGPT can be a great tool for marketers, but not unless you learn to become very good at using the correct prompts.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

In today's digital age, marketers have a plethora of tools at their disposal to connect with their target audience and drive sales. One such tool that has emerged in recent years is ChatGPT, a powerful language model that uses artificial intelligence to generate high-quality content. However, to truly harness the potential of ChatGPT, marketers need to learn how to use the correct prompts effectively.

What Are Prompts?

Prompts are a set of instructions that are given to ChatGPT to generate content. They act as a guide for the language model, providing it with the necessary context and parameters to produce content that is relevant and meaningful. For marketers, prompts are critical as they can help them generate content that resonates with their target audience and drives engagement.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

The Importance of Correct Prompts

While ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it is only as effective as the prompts it receives. Without the correct prompts, the language model may produce irrelevant or off-topic content that fails to engage your audience. Worse still, it may generate content that is tone-deaf or even offensive, damaging your brand's reputation.

To use ChatGPT effectively, marketers need to learn how to craft the right prompts that align with their brand and target audience. This requires a deep understanding of your audience's needs and interests, as well as the ability to use language that is relevant and engaging.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

How to Use the Correct Prompts

Crafting the correct prompts is a skill that takes time to develop, but there are some best practices that can help. Here are some tips to help you use the correct prompts for ChatGPT:
  1. Understand Your Audience: Before creating prompts, take the time to research your target audience. Understand their needs, pain points, and interests, and use this information to craft prompts that are relevant and engaging.
  2. Be Clear and Specific: ChatGPT needs clear and specific instructions to generate quality content. Use clear language and avoid ambiguity when crafting prompts.
  3. Use Keywords: Incorporate relevant keywords into your prompts to ensure that ChatGPT generates content that aligns with your brand and messaging.
  4. Test and Iterate: Creating effective prompts takes practice. Test different prompts and evaluate the quality of the content generated. Use this feedback to refine and iterate on your prompts over time.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

Conclusion

ChatGPT can be a powerful tool for marketers, but only if they learn how to use the correct prompts effectively. By taking the time to understand your audience, crafting clear and specific prompts, and testing and iterating over time, you can use ChatGPT to generate high-quality content that drives engagement and sales. So, if you're looking to take your marketing efforts to the next level, start mastering the art of prompts for ChatGPT today.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

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Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT) (Online Course)

Introducing My Online Course: "Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

Are you a writer looking to enhance your creativity and take your writing to the next level? Are you tired of the same old writing prompts and seeking fresh inspiration? Look no further than this online course on Mastering ChatGPT Prompts for Creative Writing.

At its core, ChatGPT is a cutting-edge language model that has revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence writing. With its sophisticated algorithms and natural language processing capabilities, it can generate a wide range of content, from articles and essays to poetry and fiction. However, to truly unlock its potential, you need to know how to use the best prompts to guide your writing.

That's where this online course comes in. I have created a comprehensive program after extensive research. The course will teach you how to use the most effective prompts for your writing needs. Whether you're a seasoned writer or a beginner, the course will help you hone your skills and unleash your creativity.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

What You'll Learn

The course is designed to take you from a beginner to an expert in using ChatGPT prompts. Here's what you'll learn:
  1. Introduction to ChatGPT and its capabilities
  2. How to use prompts to guide your writing
  3. Tips and techniques for generating high-quality content with ChatGPT
  4. How to overcome writer's block using ChatGPT prompts
  5. Best practices for integrating ChatGPT into your writing workflow
  6. Advanced techniques for customizing ChatGPT prompts to your specific writing needs
  7. Why Choose This Course
There are many courses on creative writing and using AI tools like ChatGPT, but here are a few reasons why this one stands out:
  1. Expertise: This course has been developed with a deep understanding of the technology and its potential for writing.
  2. Comprehensive: It covers everything from the basics of ChatGPT to advanced techniques, so you'll be well-prepared to use it for any writing project.
  3. Practical: The course includes practical exercises and assignments to help you apply what you've learned in real-world scenarios.
  4. Flexibility: This online course is self-paced, so you can learn at your own speed and on your own schedule.
  5. Support: There is dedicated support to answer any questions you have along the way.
"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

Take the First Step Towards Mastering ChatGPT Prompts

Ready to take your writing to the next level with ChatGPT? Enroll in our online course today and start mastering the art of using prompts for creative writing. With our expert guidance and practical exercises, you'll be well on your way to becoming a skilled ChatGPT writer in no time.

"Prompt Engineering 101 (For ChatGPT)"

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6: Lex Fridman

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6: Oliver Stone

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6: Ukraine

ChatGPT AI lists jobs it can do better than humans as millions could be put out of work ChatGPT was unveiled in November and went on to break records as the fastest-growing user base ...... OpenAI’s wildly popular chatbot, ChatGPT, is expected to replace 4.8 million U.S. jobs ....... The bot told the outplacement firm that it would most likely replace positions that are repetitive and predictable, and ones that are also seeped in language requirements. Those fields, according to the bot, include: customer service representatives; translators and interpreters; technical writers; copywriters; and data entry clerks. ......... The AI chatbot added that it could see itself entering other fields such as data science; machine learning; mathematics and statistics; computer science; robotics and automation; and business. ....... the AI system can sometimes "hallucinate" and "make up information that's incorrect, but sounds plausible." The spokesperson added that OpenAI's mission is to "enhance jobs" with AI, not eliminate them. .......... The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has even compared the technology to the Manhattan Project, when the first ​nuclear weapons were developed during World War II. ....... The letter says the labs should use such a pause to hash out "and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts." .

Macron and Xi’s Guangzhou rendezvous a sign of China’s enthusiasm for French leader, analysts say In a rare meeting outside Beijing, French president to reunite with Chinese counterpart in southern metropolis on Friday after talks in capital city ... Macron will also meet investors and answer questions from university students while in the export powerhouse of Guangdong ........ and his attempt to carve his own “third way” of handling China without being confrontational...... Speaking upon his arrival in Beijing on Wednesday, the French president indicated France would seek engagement with China, especially in commercial areas. .

In Beijing trip, European leaders’ unity on China will be put to the test French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will arrive in Beijing on Wednesday ....They will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Macron, hoping to firm economic ties, is less hawkish than von der Leyen ....... In the run-up to the visit, however, the commission president took her place among the continent’s toughest talkers on China. Her speech in Brussels last week was seen as an attempt to bolster the European Union’s approach both politically and economically. ........ The Frenchman bristles at the idea of taking a hardline approach akin to the United States’ policy. The strongest proponent of a sovereign European Union, Macron sees a three-day state visit as a chance to reestablish France and Europe as a “third way” somewhere between the US and China. ........ Macron will press Chinese leaders to help end Russia’s 13-month invasion of Ukraine – but not too hard. ........ “China is one of the few countries in the world – if not the only one – to have a game-changing effect on the conflict, in either direction,” the official added........ “China has now turned the page on the era of ‘reform and opening’ and is moving into a new era of security and control,” she said. Von der Leyen will hold private meetings with Xi as well as with Premier Li Qiang in Beijing. ...... She also played down hopes that China would help broker peace in Ukraine, saying that Beijing was trying to redraw the global order with itself at the centre. ........ some have also speculated that it puts von der Leyen on a collision course with both France and Germany, which are less interested in shaking ties with the world’s second-largest economy. ........ described the commission’s new outlook as “more China-last than Europe-first”. .......... Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agree that “economic decoupling with China is a dangerous and self-harming proposition for the EU, [that] Europeans should not emulate the United States’ hawkish approach”. .

Ukraine ‘ready’ to talk to Russia on Crimea if counteroffensive succeeds Senior official says Kyiv does not exclude liberation of occupied peninsula by military means ......... “If we will succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we will be on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open [a] diplomatic page to discuss this issue,” Sybiha said, referring to Kyiv’s long-planned counteroffensive....... He added: “It doesn’t mean that we exclude the way of liberation [of Crimea] by our army.” ........ Sybiha’s remarks may relieve western officials who are sceptical about Ukraine’s ability to reclaim the peninsula and worry that any attempt to do so militarily could lead President Vladimir Putin to escalate his war, possibly with nuclear weapons......... Crimea would need “a political solution because of just the concentration of force that is there and what it would mean for the Ukrainians to go in there”. ........ In the early days of the war, Ukraine was willing to negotiate with Moscow over the future of Crimea rather than insisting on regaining it militarily at all costs. .......... in May last year he indicated Ukraine could consider a peace deal if Russian forces returned to positions in eastern Ukraine predating last year’s invasion and suggested the issue of Crimea would be resolved later through diplomacy......... Ukrainian forces would be on Crimea’s doorstep in “five to seven months”. ........ the Ukrainian leadership felt “that after a successful counteroffensive [in the rest of the country] Putin might be eager to talk”......... 87 per cent of Ukrainians considered any territorial concessions to achieve peace unacceptable. Only 9 per cent said they would accept concessions if it meant lasting peace. ........ 64 per cent of Ukrainians want Ukraine to try to retake all of its territory, including Crimea, “even if there is a risk of a decrease in western support and a risk of a protracted war”. .

Poorer world and no real winners in China-US decoupling, IMF warns Effects of strategy will fall hardest on China-aligned Southeast Asian economies, but Washington and its allies also face costs, report finds ...... Continued fragmentation of foreign direct investment between geopolitical blocs could see global output fall by 2 per cent ...... China and closely associated Southeast Asian economies are likely to suffer the most as a more divided global investment landscape driven by geopolitical tensions takes shape ........ while the US and its allies may appear to be “relative winners”, they are also likely to face considerable economic costs as they pursue stronger national security or technological leadership ......... .

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Wednesday, April 05, 2023

5: Putin

Woke the plank! Were pirate ships actually beacons of diversity and democracy? In September 1695, the Plymouth-born “king of pirates”, Henry Avery, seized treasure worth £600,000 (in today’s terms, nearly £100m) from the Grand Mughal fleet in the Red Sea. ........ Avery sailed for Madagascar where he established a pirate republic with his henchmen called Libertalia, a proto-communist utopia where all goods were held common. ........ the so-called golden age of piracy between 1650 and 1730 in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. ........ 1881, when Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the first half of Treasure Island. ....... there is a chasm deeper than the Mariana Trench between piratical reality and fiction. ........ Somali pirates plying the same waters as Avery did centuries earlier ........ “Pirates existed in the shadows, in the margins of society – overthrowing societal conventions and creating their own counterculture.” ......... “The toothless or peg-legged buccaneer hoisting a flag of defiance against the world … is, perhaps, as much a figure of the Enlightenment as Adam Smith or Voltaire, but he also represents a profoundly proletarian liberation, necessarily violent and ephemeral.” ......... pirates lasted on average two years at their illegal trade before being hanged, drowned or sensibly retiring. ........ “It wasn’t as hierarchical as the Royal Navy,” says Slade. “Captains were elected. And they lived according to a code.” The exhibition sets out the code that prevailed on Black Bart’s ship. According to article one: “Every man has a vote in affairs of moment; has equal title to the fresh provisions, or strong liquors, at any time seized, and may use them at pleasure.” ......... Stevenson, whose Treasure Island created many of the enduring emblems of the pirate genre: the one-legged rogue, the cabin boy hiding in an apple barrel, the map to the buried treasure marked by an X ......... The golden age of piracy came to a bloody end in the 1730s as governments decided pirates were too much of a liability to trade and stamped them out.

Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network Former security officer tells of president’s strict quarantine and says he has ‘lost touch with the world’ .......... a secret train network, identical offices in different cities, a strict personal quarantine and escalating security protocols. ............ “pathologically afraid for his life” ....... the train was used because it “cannot be tracked on any information resource .......... a secret railway network including parallel lines and stations near Putin’s residences in the Valdai national park in Novo-Ogaryovo, and near his Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. ........ “Our president has lost touch with the world,” he said. “He has been living in an information cocoon for the past couple of years, spending most of his time in his residences, which the media very fittingly call bunkers. He is pathologically afraid for his life. He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum. He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends.” ......... a virtual state within a state that includes firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad, providing a rare first-hand insight into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president. “They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms” ......... Putin relies heavily for information on reports provided by his security services. Putin did not use a mobile phone or the internet .......... and did not even bring an internet specialist with him on foreign trips. “He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum” ......... Putin is still in quarantine and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine, severely limiting the number of people who have personal contact with him. ............ Putin used identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, and that the secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. “This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life” ........... “He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said. “His take on reality has become distorted.” .......... until nearly the end of the trip, when Karakulov told his fellow officers he was feeling unwell and then fled with his family to the airport

No phone, no internet, no power, no money – it was like being sent back to the Victorian era After five unplugged hours, my dog and the house were pristine. I needed distraction

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5: Russia



How to win the hot war in Ukraine and the cold war that will follow it After a year of fighting, what comes next?



Everywhere Ventures Bucks Trend by Investing Globally The firm leverages its network of about 500 limited-partner investors to find deals far and wide ......... Jenny Fielding and Scott Hartley, managing partners of Everywhere Ventures, are pursuing a domestic and international investment strategy as U.S. venture capitalists have taken a step back from deals abroad........ The managers of Everywhere Ventures, formerly called The Fund, say they have found an efficient way for a two-person team to invest a small fund in geographically diverse early-stage startups. The firm uses technology to activate hundreds of individual limited partners and connect them with portfolio company founders globally. Its local networks help the managers source and vet deals, while keeping the firm’s operating expenses low.

Putin Should Have Read Evan Gershkovich, Not Imprisoned Him Putin has no independent sources of reliable information. He refuses to read news stories on the internet, fearing it might be used to spy on him. Battlefield information is filtered — and laundered — through layers of military bureaucracy and takes days to reach him. Past military successes in Georgia and Crimea made him overconfident, and the pandemic turned him into a paranoid recluse. On the eve of the invasion, neither his foreign minister nor his domestic-policy chief was aware of the war about to come. .............. And, like despots through the ages, he listens only to people who tell him what he wants to hear. One of them, the oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, The Journal reported, “assured Mr. Putin that Ukrainians saw themselves as Russian, and would welcome the invading soldiers with flowers.” Putin is godfather to one of Medvedchuk’s daughters. .......... Government statistics are massaged to hide bad news. Every bureaucracy, including the domestic intelligence services, has its own agendas and reality-distorting prisms. ........ By now it should be clear that Putin is living inside a manufactured reality .......... Diplomatic remonstrations won’t puncture his fantasy bubble, but another tranche of Abrams tanks to Ukraine might. ........ Putin has sought to wage a disinformation campaign in the West for decades. Western news organizations can repay his abuses with an information campaign about Russia, in Russian, for Russians. They, too, deserve to have the benefit of facts Putin wants nobody — including even himself — to know.

Putin, Isolated and Distrustful, Leans on Handful of Hard-Line Advisers Russia’s president built a power structure designed to deliver him the information he wants to hear, feeding into his miscalculations on the Ukraine war ......... Russian troops were losing the battle for Lyman, a small city in eastern Ukraine, in late September when a call came in for the commanding officer on the front line, over an encrypted line from Moscow. It was Vladimir Putin, ordering them not to retreat. The president seemed to have limited understanding of the reality of the situation ........ His poorly equipped front-line troops were being encircled by a Ukrainian advance backed by artillery provided by the West. Mr. Putin rebuffed his own generals’ commands and told the troops to hold firm ......... The Ukrainian ambushes continued, and on Oct. 1, Russian soldiers hastily withdrew, leaving behind dozens of dead bodies and supplies of artillery to restock Ukraine’s weapons caches. .......... Mr. Putin expected the war in Ukraine to be swift, popular and triumphant. For months, he struggled to come to terms with what instead became a costly quagmire, and found himself isolated and distrustful at the pinnacle of a power structure designed to reinforce his belligerent worldview and shelter him from discouraging news. ........... Through the summer, delegations of military experts and arms manufacturers emerged from presidential meetings questioning whether Mr. Putin understood the reality on the battleground ........ the president remains surrounded by an administration that caters to his conviction that Russia will succeed, despite the mounting human and economic sacrifices. ....... “The people around Putin protect themselves” ..... “They have this deep belief that they shouldn’t upset the president.” ......... Over time, Mr. Putin, who has never served in the military, has become so wary of his own command structure that he has issued orders directly to the front line. ........ an isolated leader who was unable, or unwilling, to believe that Ukraine would successfully resist. The president, these people said, spent 22 years constructing a system to flatter him by withholding or sugarcoating discouraging data points. ............ The president increasingly speaks of Russia in near-religious terms, as a 1,000-year-old civilization waging a holy struggle that will right historical wrongs and elevate him into a pantheon of conquering czarist leaders such as Peter the Great............. Though contact between the U.S. and Russia occurs almost every day, whether through their embassies, the Pentagon or the CIA, those conversations have become constrained ......... have found some of Mr. Putin’s closest allies to be even more hard-line than the authoritarian leader himself. ........... Putin wakes daily around 7 a.m. to a written briefing on the war, with information carefully calibrated to emphasize successes and play down setbacks ............ He has long refused to use the internet for fear of digital surveillance ........... making him more dependent on briefing documents compiled by ideologically aligned advisers. ......... Battlefield updates can take several days to reach Mr. Putin’s desk, leaving them often out of date ....... Front-line commanders report to the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor to the KGB, which edits reports for experts at the Security Council, who pass them to Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, the arch hawk who helped persuade Mr. Putin to invade Ukraine. He, in turn, passes the reports to Mr. Putin. ............. Mr. Putin, current and former Russian officials and people close to the Kremlin say, remains fully committed to bringing Ukraine to heel and is ready to mobilize Russia’s economy and population for years to succeed. If Western arms shipments and economic support flag, and Ukrainian morale dips, he could still emerge, on balance, as the victor in what is already the largest war in Europe since World War II. ............ After three days of quarantine and three PCR tests, the executives sat at the end of a long wooden table, listening as Mr. Putin described a war effort he considered a success. Ukrainians were only motivated to fight, he told them, because their army was shooting deserters ............ Then Mr. Putin turned to Chief of General Staff for the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov, who said Russian weapons were successfully hitting their targets and the invasion was going according to plan. The arms makers left the meeting with a sense that Mr. Putin lacked a clear picture of the conflict ............ who supports the war, said in an interview that the president “proceeded from an incomplete understanding of the situation and in some ways not fully correct.” ......... The war planners, he said, “clearly underestimated the strength of the enemy and overestimated their own.” ......... Mr. Putin needed only days to roll through more than a fifth of Georgia in 2008, and weeks to take Ukraine’s peninsula of Crimea in 2014— ...........

The Russian president came to see the Crimea operation as a personal triumph.

His inner circle gradually shrank down to his most hawkish advisers, who assured Mr. Putin Russian forces would seize Kyiv within days. ............. “He probably forgot that when he was a KGB operative he was lying to his boss,” said Indrek Kannik, a former head of analysis for Estonian foreign intelligence. ......... Diplomats at the mission learned during Mr. Putin’s two-decade rule to feed Moscow the story it wanted to hear ........ Junior officials and senior directors knew that to win plaudits and promotions they should exaggerate good news and play down the bad, for fear of upsetting “papa,” a nickname for Mr. Putin, once used for Russian czars. ............... The seeds of Mr. Putin’s overconfidence against Kyiv were planted in 2014, when his most senior war planners advised him not to seize Crimea. .............. Pro-Western protesters had overwhelmed riot police in central Kyiv, prompting Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Vyktor Yanukovich to flee. Mr. Putin summoned his security chiefs to the Kremlin for an all-night operation to exfiltrate Mr. Yanukovich to Russia. Shortly before sunrise, Mr. Putin told his staff he had resolved to take Crimea, the predominantly Russian-speaking peninsula, he said in a 2015 documentary. ............. After a swift and nearly bloodless victory, his poll ratings soared above 80%. The Kremlin contrasted the weekslong operation to czarist Russia’s painful defeat in the 19th century’s yearslong Crimean War. .................. In 2018, Mr. Putin, who began to speak of Russia as a military power equal to the U.S., gave his annual state of the union speech in front of a screen showing nuclear weapons striking what appeared to be Florida. “Nobody listened to Russia,” he said. “Well, listen up now.” ................ Mr. Putin was becoming more reclusive and consulted a shrinking roster of old allies. When Sergei Kirienko, Kremlin domestic politics chief, gathered the full presidential team together in 2019, Mr. Putin lectured them for hours on Russian sovereignty and his views. “They left feeling like he was talking to himself” ............. When Covid arrived in 2020, the health-conscious Mr. Putin retreated from his usual residence in the Moscow suburbs to a remote estate near Lake Valdai, 250 miles from the capital, and the presidential summer residence in Sochi on the Black Sea............. There, he spent extended time with his old friend and media mogul Yuri Kovalchuk, who quarantined nearby, and the pair theorized over a shared idea of a restored Great Russia ............. As the circle tightened, Mr. Putin became increasingly paranoid, convinced that the U.S. was stationing nuclear weapons in Ukraine ............ July 2021, Mr. Putin published a 6,917-word historical essay on the Ukrainian nation .......... From inside Ukraine, a Kremlin-connected businessman was telling Mr. Putin what he wanted to hear. Viktor Medvedchuk, a Russia-funded politician, had made Mr. Putin godfather to his daughter Darya. For years, Mr. Medvedchuk had a dedicated line to reach the president—a phone with a Russian number and a secure calling app the Ukrainians called Kremlyovka, in reference to the Kremlin ............ Mr. Medvedchuk assured Mr. Putin that Ukrainians saw themselves as Russian, and would welcome the invading soldiers with flowers ......... Meanwhile, the FSB was tweaking polling data to convince Mr. Putin that Ukrainians would welcome Russian soldiers ......... War planning fell to the FSB more than the military, according to the former Russian intelligence officer and a person close to the defense ministry. The ministry kept normal working hours in the weeks leading up to the invasion, with little sense of the urgency. .............. Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Mr. Peskov; his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov; chief of staff, Anton Vaino; and Mr. Kirienko, the domestic policy chief, weren’t aware of the plans ......... Fifteen days into the war, after his quick strike on Kyiv failed, Mr. Putin scowled in a gold-embroidered armchair as his defense minister briefed him over a video link in a televised meeting. ....... “Vladimir Vladimirovich, everything is going to plan,” said Mr. Shoigu. “We report this to you every day.”

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Monday, April 03, 2023

Heat Waves In India

Petteri Orpo defeats Sanna Marin in Finland election. Now what? Center-right leader faces tricky path to build governing coalition. ....... The National Coalition Party (NCP) secured 48 of 200 parliamentary seats versus 43 for the Social Democrats, with the anti-immigration Finns Party securing second place with 46 seats. ........ For the European left, waking up to the loss of Marin was a blow. As a high-profile Social Democrat, she earned widespread praise over the past four years for her handling of the pandemic and adept response to the Ukraine crisis, including Finland’s dramatic pivot toward NATO. .......... But her ultimate failure to sell left-leaning economic policies to the Finnish electorate — for example, seeking growth through investment rather than cuts — will be noted in Europe. Swedish Social Democrat Magdalena Andersson failed to secure a second term in elections last fall, while Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen only won reelection in November after a series of sharp-right policy turns. ........... Even before the election was settled, some colleagues in Finland were suggesting she could seek a new challenge at the European Commission, possibly even as the Left group’s candidate for president. ....... a Finnish convention that offers the winning party the first chance to form a coalition — even if that lead consists of only two seats. .

Global warming is killing Indians and Pakistanis Annual heatwaves on the poor and crowded Indo-Gangetic Plain are a horrific consequence of climate change ............ In the opening scenes of “The Ministry for the Future”, the novelist Kim Stanley Robinson imagines what happens to a small Indian town hit by a heatwave. Streets empty as normal activity becomes impossible. Air-conditioned rooms fill with silent fugitives from the heat. Rooftops are littered with the corpses of people sleeping outside in search of a non-existent breath of wind. The electricity grid, then law and order, break down. Like a medieval vision of hell, the local lake fills with half-poached bodies. Across north India, 20m die in a week............. The Indo-Gangetic Plain, which extends from the spine of Pakistan through northern India to the deltas of Bangladesh, is home to 700m people and exceptionally vulnerable to the heat pulses that climate change is making more frequent. It is one of the hottest, poorest and most populous places on earth .......... Between 2000 and 2019, South Asia saw over 110,000 excess deaths a year due to rising temperatures .......... Last year’s hot season, which runs from March until the arrival of the monsoon in late May or early June, was one of the most extreme and economically disruptive on record. This year’s could rival it. ......... above-average temperatures and heatwaves until the end of May. ......... Despite a relatively cool March, the coming weeks could be perilously hot. ........ Scientists record heat stress as a combination of temperature and humidity, known as a “wet-bulb” measurement. As this combined level approaches body temperature, 37°C, it becomes increasing hard for mammals to shed heat through perspiration. At a wet-bulb temperature of around 31°C, dangerously little sweat can evaporate into the soup-like air. Brain damage and heart and kidney failure become increasingly likely. Sustained exposure to a temperature of 35°C, the level Mr Robinson imagines in his book, is considered fatal. ........... India could become one of the first places where wet-bulb temperatures routinely exceed the 35°C survivability threshold. ......... The magnifying effect of the built urban environment, which can be 2°C hotter than nearby rural areas, is often especially pronounced in India’s concrete jungles. Those living in slum housing, which offer little air circulation and often use heat-sucking materials such as tin, suffer the worst of it. ........... “vast regions of South Asia are projected to experience [wet-bulb temperature] episodes exceeding 31°C, which is considered extremely dangerous for most humans” ........

India loses 101bn man hours per year to extreme heat, and Pakistan 13bn

......... In 2017, heat-exposed work accounted for 50% of India’s gdp and employed 75% of the labour force, or some 380m. ......... warn people of extreme temperatures, advise them to stay indoors and drink lots of water, and put emergency services on high alert. .



The Indian Premier League is taking over global cricket India’s lucrative domestic contest is strangling international contests .

We are living through a trillion-dollar rebalancing Beneath a veil of silence, a hugely dramatic and powerful episode of financial repression is ongoing ...... There is nothing more inevitable than death, taxes and bank failures. But what about the bailouts? ........ we have entered a new era, one in which thoroughgoing liquidation of financial bubbles is politically unthinkable and so moral hazard and zombie balance sheets pile up. ....... Put them together and you have a vision of ever larger balance sheets, inevitable crisis and no less inevitable bailout, opening the path to even greater leverage and risk. ......... mega-quantitative easing in response to the truly unprecedented shock of the Covid-19 lockdowns. ............ We would not be here but for the pandemic. ..........

the trillion-dollar balance sheet shift from bond investor to bond issuers triggered by the post-Covid pile-up of inflation and interest rate rises.

......... We need public investment so as to escape the reactive cycle we are locked in and to begin anticipating the challenges of the polycrisis, whether in public health, climate change or destabilising geopolitics......... Those in the bottom half of income and wealth distribution are bystanders in the great balance-sheet reshuffle. They hold few, if any, financial assets and pay relatively little tax. They have lived the drama of Covid and its aftermath as a shock to jobs and a cost of living crisis. Unlike bondholders or investors, their interests are not represented by lobbyists. Their households are not too big to fail. .

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