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Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: April 20th, 2026

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  • Analysts cited in the report suggest Vladimir Putin may seek to open a new front rather than risk being remembered as the leader who lost Ukraine

    Does Putin play Weiqi/Baduk/Go? A common strategy when a player is losing in one part of the board is for them to open up new “fronts” in other areas of the board, hoping that they’re more successful in one of these other areas and that this will yield a new advantage in the original area they had been losing in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t; what it usually comes down to is whether they’re able to “read” the game further ahead than the opponent, in the hopes that the opponent won’t see how developments in Area B will affect Area A.















  • Seems to be more severe than usual.

    https://iol.co.za/news/south-africa/2026-08-11-completely-isolated-snow-cuts-off-kzn-communities-as-homes-are-blanketed/

    KwaZulu-Natal communities in Impendle, Kokstad and Underberg have been severely hit by heavy snowfall on Tuesday, with some residents even left isolated and unable to communicate with the outside world.

    In a statement released on Tuesday, KwaZulu-Natal Transport and Human Settlements MEC Siboniso Duma said teams from the Department of Human Settlements would be deployed to assist communities affected by the extreme weather.

    Duma was speaking after inspecting areas around Kokstad that experienced heavy snowfall.

    “We wish to single out the Kokstad and Impendle municipalities, where communities have been exposed to severe freezing temperatures,” Duma said in the statement.

    He said some homes had been completely blanketed by snow, leaving residents dealing with leaking houses.

    “Those houses are leaking as they have been completely blanketed by the snow,” he said.

    Duma said communities living below the Drakensberg Mountain in Impendle had been particularly badly affected.

    He said heavy snow had weakened network and cellular signals in some areas, leaving residents unable to access emergency services or communicate with people outside their communities.

    “There are many other communities in deep rural areas in Underberg, Kokstad and the border between KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape that have been severely affected by the snow,” Duma said.

    Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane has dispatched a team to join the provincial department’s response efforts.

    After all, it’s also normal for Europe to get hotter weather in the summer, but the heatwaves in Europe were deemed newsworthy, even before the wildfires.