Take me to the world

Are there any words sweeter than "Moscow's humiliating climbdown"?  Russia withdrew from the grain-export convoy from Ukraine after a "swarm" of drones damaged its flagship Admiral Makarov and other ships at Sevastopol on Saturday.  "Aides to President Zelensky have hinted the country was behind the raid" -- gotta love that "hinted."  Who else is in a shooting war with Russia this week?  Anyway the Russians say the Ukrainians promise not to use the grain corridor to attack Russian ships again.  No word on the systematic use of Russian missiles to flatten houses in Kyiv, or more accurately North Korean missiles.  Can't Russia make anything?

Like a true tropical Trump Jair Bolsonaro refuses to concede the presidential election in Brazil, but after a meeting with seven judges of the supreme court he agreed that the transition to Luis Inacio Lula da Silva can take place.  This is good news for Brazil and also for the world, because the destruction of the vital Amazon Basin may still be stopped.  The court also ordered sanctions and fines for gangs of pro-Bolsonaro truckers "spontaneously" tying up traffic.  Said Vice President Hamilton Mourao, "There are 58 million people who are unhappy.  But they agreed to take part in the game.  So they now need to calm down."  Fifty-eight million Brazilians and one American fool:  Tucker Carlson insists the election is "ongoing" and has blamed YouTube for "interfering in a democratic election in a sovereign nation."  Who do they think they are, a Russian bot farm?

The resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh is hosting the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference next week, COP27 to you.  The more grandiose the name, the less they accomplish, which is why Greta Thunberg is staying away.  There is also the little matter of Egypt's thousands of political prisoners, including Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who is on a six-month hunger strike and says he will refuse water from the opening of the conference.  But the mediocre and the self-important in their hundreds of jets will represent, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who changed his mind in response to public muttering.  El-Fattah holds Egyptian and British citizenship, by the way.

Apparently it's impossible to get rid of HIV, malaria or Bibi Netanyahu.   The indicted former PM, in conjunction with even farther-right politicians, looks to be the next Israeli prime minister.  Meet Itamar Ben-Gvir, a "Jewish supremacist" who wants to be minister of internal security despite (or because of) a previous conviction for inciting racism and supporting a terror organization.  I don't know why the Biden administration would have a problem "engaging" with him.  Bibi will do anything to avoid prison, which sounds weirdly familiar.

Premier Giorgia Meloni celebrated the centenary of the March on Rome by appointing several fans of Il Duce as junior ministers.  Galeazzo Bignami was photographed in 2006 wearing a black shirt and a swastika armband (a little mixed fascism there) but he says it was a bit of fun during his stag party, which is what American politicians say when those college blackface photos surface.  The others got up to similar antics but not at drunken parties.  Meloni insists she "never sympathized with any anti-democratic regimes"; she leaves that up to junior ministers.  Will her first state visitor be Viktor Orban?  Let's watch!

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach appears to be the Anthony Fauci of Germany, and two weeks ago a 75-year-old theology professor identified only as Elisabeth R. was charged with plotting to kidnap him.  She was unhappy with Lauterbach's aggressive approach to covid and accuses him of "remodeling brain structures" on behalf of "world Jewry."  When arrested, she and the United Patriots -- all five of them -- were procuring explosives to destroy the country's power grid, start a civil war and "restore the German empire of 1871," thank you very much.  They're also pissed about the Treaty of Versailles.  Show me a German who isn't.  Even John Maynard Keynes knew it was a blueprint for disaster.

I digress.  Say, have you heard about the "planet killer" asteroid headed this way?  It was discovered at the Cerro Tololo observatory in Chile -- thanks a lot, Webb Space Telescope, what do we pay you for?  The chances of 2022 AP7 putting the earth out of its misery are described as "fairly low," but I'm addicted to hope.  That's why I do this almost every day.