Ravi Batra

The future of sustainable energy Colombian startup has created a device that turns salt water into light and power

🚨 UPDATE: In a stunning development, Russia is willing to start trading with the U.S. in dollars again, and China is freaking out. It is a big blow to BRICS de-dollarization efforts.

In 1206, Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes and set about building the largest contiguous land empire in human history. His army covered ground that no army before or since has matched. They crossed the Gobi Desert. They crossed the Himalayas. They rode from the Pacific coast to the gates of Vienna. In winter. Without supply lines. No supply lines. Think about what that means for a moment. Every European army of the period ran on supply lines. Grain carts. Bread wagons. Foraging parties. The Roman model, which had not fundamentally changed in a thousand years: you march the army and you feed it from behind, from the settled agricultural territory you're defending or departing from. The Mongols had no grain carts. The Mongols had horses. And the horses were not just transport. The horses were the food. A Mongol warrior on campaign drank fermented mare's milk, airag, which provided fat, protein, B vitamins, and a mild alcoholic content that didn't impair function but stabilised the gut on campaign. When things were desperate, he made a small cut in his horse's neck, drank blood directly, and sealed the wound. The horse survived. The warrior continued. He also carried borts: dried, pulverised meat so desiccated it could survive months in a saddlebag in any climate. Reconstitute it in hot water and you have a high-protein broth that would keep a man functional through a forced march that would have killed his European counterpart inside a week. The Mongol warrior carried his food on his body. He needed no infrastructure. He could move at a speed armies dependent on grain logistics physically could not follow. The Europeans who encountered Mongol forces and survived described them with a very consistent set of adjectives. Inhuman. Tireless. Appearing from nowhere. Gone before you could respond. They were not superhuman. They were just not slowed down by bread. The largest empire ever built was built on meat and fermented milk, by men who carried their food supply at a canter. No supply chains were harmed in the making of this conquest.

When I travel outside of Ukraine, I get daily intelligence updates online. This morning, I was briefed that U.S. military facilities in the Middle East and the Gulf region were photographed by Russian satellites in the interests of Iran. On March 24th, they imaged the U.S.–UK joint military facility on Diego Garcia located in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. They also captured pictures of Kuwait International Airport and parts of the infrastructure of the Greater Burgan oil field. On March 25th, they took pictures of the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The Shaybah oil and gas field in Saudi Arabia, İncirlik Air Base in Türkiye, and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar were all imaged on March 26th. There are no Ukrainian facilities on this list. But who is helping whom when sanctions are lifted from an aggressor that earns daily revenue and provides intelligence for strikes against American, Middle Eastern, UK, and U.S.–UK bases and so on? When surveillance is carried out over facilities in Ukraine, we always understand that they must be protected, since plans are in motion to destroy them – energy and water infrastructure, military facilities, and so on. Everyone knows that repeated reconnaissance indicates preparations for strikes. How can sanctions be eased if this is what the Russians are doing? There must be pressure on the aggressor. And lifting sanctions is certainly not pressure. It looks strange. Sanctions are being lifted, while the aggressor is providing intelligence to strike facilities, including those of the countries that are discussing or have already lifted sanctions. From my conversation with journalists (3/3).

Ukrainian military recruitment approaches not covered by legacy media: an American gets a taste. 👇🏻