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→ How Russia dodges sanctions on cars
The official export of vehicles from the UK to Russia reportedly dropped to zero under 2022 sanctions. But according to Ed Conway of Sky News, this coincided with an unprecedented increase in exports to Russia’s neighbours.
Wrong, because now look at what happened to exports of UK cars to countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
At precisely the same moment as sanctions were imposed on Russia, exports of these cars to Russian neighbours suddenly ROSE. pic.twitter.com/mDKrbLDmZQ— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) September 24, 2024
Conway travelled to Georgia himself and watched men move cars across the border in a complex process, with each driver pretending to personally own the car in order to avoid detection in customs data. He also witnessed transport trucks filled with brand new Range Rovers crossing into Russia. “Where do you think they’re going — Paris?” one transport driver joked to the reporter. These countries have also seen a sudden surge in purchases of dual-use goods such as radar and drone equipment. All above board…
→ Can monkeys predict the US election?
A team of three monkeys has released a prediction on the upcoming election. Rather, they’ve concluded that it’s a dead tie, though the panel did favour Tim Walz over J.D. Vance for vice president.
The macaques are part of a University of Pennsylvania project, and have correctly guessed the winners of Senate and gubernatorial races 54.5% of the time in hundreds of elections — slightly better than a random guess.
When presented with images of candidates, the monkeys fix their eyes on losers and avoid the gaze of winners, with the latter being viewed as too high-status for prolonged eye contact. In other words, alphas win elections and betas lose, and monkeys are physiognomy experts. They typically view females as lower status, so their reluctance to choose Trump over Harris doesn’t speak well to The Donald’s status as an alpha male. Just imagine what they could do if given a typewriter…
→ Gretchen Whitmer grasps for Gen-Z vote
Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is unsubtly trying to appeal to Generation-Z voters on behalf of the Kamala Harris campaign.
Live, laugh, elect @KamalaHarris. pic.twitter.com/uuf0tIp3XQ
— Gretchen Whitmer (@gretchenwhitmer) September 23, 2024
The sitting governor — who claims to be “Swifty AF” — took time out of her busy schedule to call voters, in her words “rizzing them up”, in a new campaign ad. In what seems to be an attempt at youth outreach, she claims that her iced coffee drink “slaps hella”, that a house party “slayed”, and that Trump’s jobs plan is “not chill”.
Photogenic Democrats have done well in the past with social media clips. But Whitmer, who is 53, sounds a bit less like AOC and a bit more like Hillary Clinton, who was famously “just chillin’ in Cedar Rapids” and urging the youths to “Pokemon Go to the polls” shortly before losing the 2016 election. It’s giving cringe…
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SubscribeLOVE the monkey predictions!