Note how South Korea’s President didn't meet with Pelosi on her visit to Korea. He is on holiday.

Also that a majority of Taiwanese consider her visit to Taipei as being destabilising.

There is an irony in that we have tried to prevent west making calamitous decisions for years and savagely criticise them for their abject failures and that makes us Chinese and Russian propagandists. What did those saying this do to try and prevent the ongoing western demise?

So it turns out after Pelosi decided to visit Taipei, the Biden administration opened an emergency communication channel with Beijing.

The fact that Zelensky is now seeking to end the Ukraine war with Chinese assistance speaks volumes.

Japan wants to preserve its participation in the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project following Moscow's decision to establish a new project operator.

Seems quite simple really. What's more important,securing your own national interests or being a vassal state of the US?

One of Germany's largest energy companies, RheinEnergie Köln yesterday announced that it was raising gas prices for consumers by 133%.

New poll out shows only 1% of Americans care about what is going on in Ukraine

Inflation will soar to “astronomical” levels over next year forcing BoE to raise interest rates higher and for longer than previously expected.

Also forecast a long recession that would last into next year and hit millions of most vulnerable households.

https://t.co/jpAmgJHmJR

China has rolled over a $2bn loan to Pakistan for 12 months.

Central banks have increased their gold holdings by 59 tons in the month of July.

Erdogan is off to Moscow again today.

No doubt Ukraine and Syria will be major discussion points.

Amnesty International has accused Ukraine of war crimes.

They said Ukrainian military's tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians by operating weapons out of bases established in residential areas while civilians are present

https://t.co/xcoanwbGP9

Now we have this after Pelosi snub.

South Korean FM Park Jin will visit China on August 8th to 10th and will meet his counterpart Wang Yi in Qingdao, eastern China.

Italy continues to crater

Industrial Production m/m June -2.1%, estimate -0.1% and previous -1.1%

Industrial Production WDA y/y June -1.2%, estimate 2.7% and previous 3.4%

Industrial Production NSA y/y June -1.2% versus previous 6.6%

Starting to look like a full Chinese blockade of Taiwan is underway.

It's not clear at this stage if that is indeed the case, but it is likely it will become clear, one way or another, in the next few days.

China and Russia have reached the end of the line in terms of having any relationship with the US as its administration currently operates. That potentially poses serious risks through miscalculations.

The US can continue to believe its an exceptional nation but as it becomes increasingly isolated this becomes an irrelevance.

So the US is in recession but apparently has a strong labour market. https://t.co/8wxwwurMr8

Rather like Ukraine was promised the earth by the US, the Taiwanese government is getting the same assurances. They fail to grasp they are both vassal states who necessarily will be sacrificed for the greater good of the US rules based disorder.

Senior US military officials has been trying to contact their Chinese counterparts multiple times this week and they repeatedly ignore their calls.