What else can Russia do if the Moscow Exchange is banned from trading in the dollar and euro? There they are forced to switch to another currency, and therefore they chose the Chinese yuan. Therefore, the Russian Central Bank announced the adoption of the Chinese yuan as a new reference indicator for the foreign exchange market after the cessation of trading in dollars and euros on the Moscow Exchange.

Over the past two years, the role of the US dollar and euro in the Russian market has been consistently declining, and trade flows have been redirected to the East. Currently, about 80% of Russia's foreign trade payments are made in the ruble, yuan and other currencies.

The share of the yuan in Moscow Exchange trading in May was 54%. Thus, the yuan has already become the main currency in exchange trading. The yuan/ruble exchange rate will set the trajectory for other currency pairs and will become a reference point for market participants. But it seems that the Russian ruble is one step closer to the status of a non-convertible currency.

We have to agree with your opinion. Most stablecoins are backed by dollars, which essentially means that the dollar is a non-cash currency, only in the world of cryptocurrency. Therefore, such stablecoins fuel and strengthen the dollar, as they provide increased liquidity.

But for the stability of the cryptocurrency market, it would be better if stablecoins were adequately backed by other world currencies, such as the euro, pound, yuan, and yen.

Although many people say that paper cash may soon disappear from circulation, I do not believe it. Cash in general is needed by both the state and people. After all, in order to make transactions with cash, you do not need the participation of banks or technical means. This is very convenient for small household transactions. But it is worth recognizing that their turnover is not cheap for the state. Therefore, the amount of cash will decrease over time. Cash also virtually cannot be tracked by the state and this is its absolute advantage over CBDC, which are completely under the control of the state.

The emergence of CBDC is a phenomenon of the times. They also have their advantages and disadvantages. For privacy and anonymity this is worse, but for the speed of large transactions over long distances involving large firms, CBDCs are very suitable.

June 2024 is drawing to a close, that is, the first half of the year is ending, and Russia’s current war against Ukraine has no end in sight. In any case, fighting at the front will continue until the US presidential elections, which are scheduled for November 5. Both the duration and outcome of this war depend on their outcome and who takes the presidency. Although the main rivals in the election campaign are now Trump and Biden, there are forecasts that a third party will become president. If Trump becomes US President, Ukraine will most likely have a bad time; if Biden, the war may drag on for several more years, but with a victory for Ukraine. If there is a third party, this is the best option for Ukraine. But the best of them will be if Nikki Gailey becomes the next US president. She will give Ukraine as many weapons as it needs for its quick victory. But these are all thoughts for now. The war is very tough and largely aimed at depleting resources.

After the signing of a “comprehensive” agreement between Russia and North Korea, information appeared that North Korea could send its troops to Ukraine to help Russia. If this happens, then other states will probably join this war.

Simply burning fossil fuels to obtain a certain type of energy is man's predatory attitude towards nature as a habitat. Therefore, it is renewable energy sources that should become the norm for humans, and now we are precisely at a stage at which we have very great opportunities for their implementation in all areas of our lives.

Previously, research into renewable energy sources was hampered by fossil fuel corporations, but with their supplies running low, this obstacle is no longer expected. And it’s time, we finally take care of the environment and climate, which man has changed to his own detriment by burning coal, gas and oil products.

There will always be work for humans in any application of robots and artificial intelligence. I don’t understand at all why some are so afraid of this inevitable process, which, on the contrary, humanity should strive for. In the foreseeable future, a person does not yet foresee a situation in which he will have nothing left to do in this world. Even about ourselves and our planet, we still know very little, and the solar system and even near space is generally an unknown page for us, on which we can spend more than one million years to study and master it at least a little. And it is robots with AI that can help us well with this.
But AI robots must have built-in programs of certain restrictions so that they cannot harm a person and his interests.

It is not Ukraine that violates the rights of civilians living on the Russian-occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, but Russia.

On Tuesday, June 25, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced a decision on the merits in the first interstate case in the ECHR “Ukraine v. Russia” regarding Crimea, recognizing the existence of systematic violations of human rights in the occupied peninsula by the aggressor country since 2014.

The ECtHR unanimously found that Ukraine proved the existence of administrative practices on the part of Russia:

- Disappearances and the lack of an effective investigation in this regard under Article 2 of the Convention;
- ill-treatment and unlawful detention under articles 3 and 5 of the Convention;
- Illegal dissemination of Russian legislation, as a result of which the courts in Crimea cannot be considered established in accordance with the law, under Article 6;
- Forced change of Ukrainian citizenship to Russian under Article 8 of the Convention;
- Systematic mass searches in violation of Article 8;
- Forced transfer of convicts to the territory of the Russian Federation in violation of Article 8;
- Attacks and persecution of religious leaders who did not belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, searches and confiscation of property in this regard, in violation of Article 9;
- Closure of non-Russian media, including Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar television stations, constant harassment and attacks on journalists in violation of Article 10;
Prohibition of peaceful assemblies and protests and attacks and persecution of their organizers in violation of Article 11 of the Convention;
- Expropriation of private property in violation of Article 1 of the First Protocol;
- Closure of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar classes contrary to Article 2 of the First Protocol;
- Violation of the right to freedom of movement between the occupied territory of Crimea and the mainland of Ukraine;
- Discrimination against Crimean Tatars;
- Violation of the rights of political prisoners, the impossibility of their return to Ukraine and cruel treatment of them in the occupied Crimea and the territory of the Russian Federation.
https://nv.ua/world/geopolitics/razgromnoe-reshenie-dlya-rf-espch-vynes-verdikt-po-delu-ukraina-protiv-rossii-po-krymu-50429951.html

In addition, on June 25, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for ex-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the head of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov in connection with attacks on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine and harm to civilians and relate to events that took place from October 10, 2022 to at least March 9, 2023, as well as for war crimes of causing excessive incidental harm to the civilian population or damage to civilian objects. In addition, they are suspected of a crime against humanity “in the form of inhumane acts.”
https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/cy008y2nny1o

https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/derzhdepi-ssha-vidreaguvali-vidachu-mks-orderiv-1719368764.html

Ukraine is documenting the war crimes of the Putin regime in Ukraine and the perpetrators will eventually receive the punishment they deserve.

The Russian occupiers slowly moved deeper into the territory of Ukraine, when the Ukrainian Armed Forces had acute problems with weapons and ammunition due to the fact that the United States suspended military assistance to Ukraine for more than six months due to internal squabbles in connection with the upcoming US presidential elections. At the same time, Russia received enough drones from Iran and several million ammunition from North Korea, and Ukraine was unable to receive even half of the one million ammunition promised by the West. But now the situation at the front has already changed and parity in ammunition has been restored. In some cases, the occupiers have already howled because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are now putting up a worthy rebuff. Thus, the Russian offensive in the Kharkov direction since May 10 has not only stalled, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have successfully counterattacked and liberated the occupied territories, and the battle for the border city of Volchansk has turned into an unsuccessful attempt by the Russians to liberate part of the occupiers who were surrounded at the Volchansk Aggregate Plant.

As for the incident with four dead and about 150 wounded civilians relaxing on the beach of Sevastopol on June 23, this occurred as a result of the work of Russian air defense, and not a targeted shelling of the territory of this beach. One of the missiles, aimed at a military airfield, was shot down over the beach.

So, half an hour later, the Russian head of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, reported in his Telegram channel that the repulsion of the missile attack had ended: “According to preliminary information, 5 air targets were destroyed in the sky above the water area. But fragments of the downed targets fell in the coastal zone.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense also admitted that civilian casualties occurred as a result of the work of Russian air defense. “During the repulsion of a terrorist attack by air defense forces on duty, four American ATACMS missiles were shot down. Another missile, as a result of the impact of air defense systems, deviated from the flight path at the final stage and detonated the warhead in the air over the city territory,” the department said.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2024/06/23/7462166/

https://ru.krymr.com/a/sevastopol-uchkuevka-pvo-smert-plyag/33006880.html

Videos and photos show Russian troops placing military equipment near civilian targets in Crimea. In this case, Russian air defense systems were located on a hill just two kilometers from the beach. There were no means of warning about the air raid, nor any shelters. But the Russian authorities are encouraging the tourist season to Crimea from all over Russia, despite the fact that the occupied Crimean peninsula has already turned into a war zone. The civilian population is accustomed to the fact that Ukraine uses high-precision weapons to destroy only Russian military targets - airfields, air defense systems, command posts and ammunition depots, and therefore do not pay much attention to missile attacks and drone attacks. But the Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot in any way influence the situation of Russian air defense operations over beaches and other concentrations of civilians.



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No state can exist without taxes and this must be recognized. There are many professions that do not directly benefit people and therefore they must receive compensation for their work from the state, which, in turn, can allocate it through the collection of taxes. This applies to teachers, teachers, military and many other professions. The state also needs funds for various social projects - the construction of roads, bridges, various social infrastructure, which create certain living conditions for people. Therefore, not a single state can do without collecting taxes.

A completely different question is the amount of fair taxation. Here, each of us has our own considerations and there will never be unity on this issue. But in general, I don't think taxes are theft. Under certain circumstances, theft can only be recognized as excessively high taxation and abuse in this area when distributing the expenditure of funds collected in this way.

Despite the fact that in Russia, with a large population, there is also a significant mobilization resource, however, it seems that it also tends to end. After more than two years of war in Ukraine and colossal losses in manpower and equipment, the Russians no longer agree to be “living meat” for any money. Therefore, payments to contract workers are growing not several times, but tens of times. The average amount of payments in Russia has increased 80 times over two years. The main growth is in 2024. A one-time additional payment to mercenaries in poor regions exceeds the average income tens of times (in Adygea - 55 times). But even with these numbers there are problems.

Some people are ready to fight for more or less money. But the majority are not ready to fight for any money. At the same time, in Moscow, as in the Russian regions, stress from the war is drowned out with vodka.

Under such conditions, there is only one way out for the Kremlin - mass forced mobilization, which they do not want to do yet. But if mobilization is announced, Russians will flee the country en masse.

It must be taken into account that in terms of the introduction of alternative energy sources, we are, in fact, only at the beginning of this path. The first silicon-based solar panels had an efficiency of about 16 percent; now they have an efficiency of about 25 percent. But technologies are changing relatively quickly in the direction of increasing their efficiency.

Thus, perovskite solar cells can replace conventional silicon solar panels in the foreseeable future. They are quite simple to manufacture, and at the same time they are capable of generating the same amount of electricity from the same area as silicon ones.

In a new article in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, NUST MISIS scientists have already presented industrial prototypes of perovskite solar cells with a record efficiency for different combinations of light colors - 36.1%. This will make it possible to generate electricity with the same average efficiency both from the Sun and from any artificial light sources. This technology is already ready for industrial implementation. Surely in the future we will have cheap and efficient solar panels. But this is only one type of possible alternative energy sources. Surely there will be others that we can’t even imagine right now.

Didn’t you know that Russia almost every day attacks the territory of Ukraine with dozens of drones, directing them, in particular, to energy and other critical infrastructure facilities? And the 853rd day of the Russian war against Ukraine is already underway.

But the Ukrainian Armed Forces are being destroyed by Russian and Iranian drones not only in Ukraine.
Thus, on June 21, the military training ground of the 726th Air Defense Training Center (military unit 33859, Yeisk) in the Krasnodar Territory was hit by forces and means of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine. This institution is engaged in training and preparing military personnel to use various types of UAVs.
As a result of the strike, the following were destroyed:
Shahed-136/"Geranium-2" - 20 units;
attack UAV "Lancet" - 50 units;
reconnaissance UAVs ZALA - 40 units;
SuperCam reconnaissance UAVs - 10 units.
There are also deaths among the instructors and technical personnel.
https://zn.ua/war/udar-po-baze-podhotovki-pilotov-shakhedov-v-vms-soobshchili-skolko-bylo-unichtozheno-bespilotnikov.html

In your opinion, is it better to live in the Sahara or some other similar place where there are almost no natural resources, so as not to be involved in a showdown over these natural resources? This is unlikely to be the best choice. For example, Russia has large natural resources of oil and gas. True, these are not its resources, but the resources of the indigenous inhabitants of various nations and nationalities previously conquered and forcibly annexed to the Muscovite kingdom. But no one has yet attacked Russia because of these resources. On the contrary, Putin’s Russia seems to have had enough of them and for the third year now it has been trying to seize by military means the territory of the neighboring state of Ukraine, which is also rich in its natural resources. Russia even officially included four regions of Ukraine that it is currently attacking but has not yet conquered.

The onset of military conflicts depends on many factors. To avoid them, you will have to avoid large crowds of people in a certain area, and this is hardly possible. Unless you look for another planet where its inhabitants will not be so aggressive towards each other.

Putin’s Russia first tried to hide the fact that Iranian Shahed-class drones were being used to attack Ukraine by simply repainting them and giving them a new name, “Geranium-2.” Then Russia admitted that they had purchased some Iranian drones, but even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. When the number of Iranian drones used in Ukraine reached enormous proportions, since they were launched across Ukraine almost in flocks every day, they no longer make excuses there for a long time, since any lie becomes obvious over time. To date, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have shot down 11,355 drones in the skies of Ukraine, and most of them are Iranian suicide bombers.

However, on June 20, a kamikaze drone, which the Russian Federation had not previously used in the war, was intercepted in the Ochakov area over Ukraine. At first there was an opinion
that some new rocket had arrived. But after an intermediate examination, based on the fragments that were found and other data, Ukraine came to the conclusion that it was not a missile, but most likely an Iranian Arash-1 or Arash-2 drone. Preliminarily, we are talking about the Iranian Arash heavy-class UAV. This UAV, according to open data, has a flight range of 1.6-2 thousand km and can fly at a speed of 300-500 km/h. with a warhead mass of 260 kg. This drone is much more dangerous than the familiar Shahed.
Source:
https://www.dialog.ua/war/297144_1719039175/amp

Yes, the situation is interesting in any case. Putin, when attacking Ukraine in February 2022, did not count on confrontation from the United States and Europe. He thought of seizing the territory of Ukraine in a few weeks at most, placing his puppets there and making sure that the world simply did not have time to react to the aggression. But the Ukrainian Armed Forces ruined all the Kremlin’s plans. The war has been going on for more than two years, and Russia is receiving increasingly tough sanctions. A few days ago, the Moscow Trade Exchange was banned from trading in the dollar and euro, which caused a great panic with jumps in the price of the dollar up to 200 rubles. We'll see what happens next. Russia is now betting on the Chinese yuan, but China may not like it.

In any case, Putin is at a dead end. To withdraw troops from Ukraine and stop the war in order to gradually get rid of destructive sanctions actually means the collapse and death of Putin personally and his regime. To continue the war means risking Russia altogether, which could explode and disintegrate into many small republics. For now, Putin chooses preserving his life rather than preserving Russia.

And the United States simply has no choice but to take advantage of the situation.

In any case, there are very few fossil fuels left on Earth and they should not be used as a direct source of energy by burning them, as has been done until now. Moreover, this greatly harms the environment, causing unfavorable climate change. The remaining fossil fuels are better used in the chemical industry and other fields, turning them into other useful products and chemical compounds.

Now humanity can only be saved by the transition to alternative energy sources, which are being improved every year, their production is becoming cheaper, more economical and more efficient.

Since November 2023, the Yemeni Houthi group has been attacking ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis say their attacks on the important shipping route are an attempt to stop Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, saying they only attack ships "associated with Israel." However, the last ship, Tutor, which they apparently sank on June 12, is owned and operated by Greece and was flying the Liberian flag at the time of the attack. The impact caused severe flooding and damage to the engine room.

On March 2, the first ship sank in the Red Sea due to attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis. We are talking about the cargo ship Rubymar, which they attacked on February 18th.

On March 6, CNN wrote that the Houthi attack resulted in the first loss of life as a result of a ballistic missile strike on the commercial ship True Confidence in the Gulf of Aden. Two crew members were killed.

Something is wrong with our world if states allow pirate acts to be carried out with virtual impunity for so long. It doesn’t matter what motivation the Houthis put forward, because completely innocent people are suffering from their actions.

Russia failed to achieve significant success on the battlefield, attacking what it thought was a defenseless Ukraine and hoping to completely seize its territory within days or weeks. But this war has been going on for three years now and without significant successes for Russia. Therefore, Putin’s Russia has changed its tactics and has been shelling cities and other populated areas of Ukraine every day for a long time using all possible military means, trying to sow chaos and significant displacement of civilian refugees. Almost every day there are attacks by missiles and drones on the entire territory of Ukraine, as well as more than a hundred front-line settlements from cannon artillery.

Particularly destructive is Russia’s use of high-power corrective bombs, weighing up to a ton or more.
However, yesterday, for the first time in history, the Russian occupiers dropped an aircraft high-explosive bomb FAB-3000 M-54 weighing three tons and having a warhead of 1.2 tons on a hospital building in the village of Liptsy in the Kharkov region. The bomb fell 15 meters from the hospital building, but even in this case it caused significant damage to the building.
https://focus.ua/voennye-novosti/653414-vs-rf-vpervye-udarili-trehtonnoy-bomboy-fab-3000-po-harkovshchine-video

In our world, almost any significant events in politics are very interconnected. If civilized states had not provided assistance to Ukraine in its defense from Russian aggression, China would have long ago attacked Taiwan, as other potential aggressors would have done, seeing that our world does not have effective measures to deter the aggressor. Therefore, non-intervention in military conflicts by world states will not only not contribute to the extinction of military hotbeds, it will encourage other aggressors to attack weaker and smaller states and the world will plunge into endless wars, as was the case before.

Against the backdrop of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine, China is very active in its claims to Taiwan and the war for this island looks more real than a big war with India. The Chinese government maneuvers between the United States and Europe, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other. But due to the fact that many sanctioned goods from China enter the Russian market, especially electronics, which are used in the war against Ukraine, China’s relations with Europe and the United States are deteriorating. Having so many big problems, China will not conflict with India, much less start a big war against it.