The US dollar, which has enjoyed the status of de facto world reserve currency since 1945, has come under growing strain as countries search for alternatives amid Washington’s efforts to use its financial might to bully and sanction adversaries into submission.
Argentina made a loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund worth the equivalent of $2.7 billion “without using dollars” on Friday, using Chinese yuan and special-drawing rights notes (the IMF reserve asset based on a basket of five currencies – the yuan, the euro, the dollar, the yen, and the pound) instead.
Argentina’s Economy Ministry said the payment – the first ever of its kind by Buenos Aires, was made in yuan and SDRs to hang on to dwindling dollar reserves in the Argentinian Central Bank’s coffers.
The Latin American nation, which is in the grip of a major economic and debt crisis, has turned to yuan as one means to help stabilize the situation, signing a 130 billion yuan ($19 billion) currency swap agreement with Beijing in April amid plummeting agricultural exports caused by an unprecedented drought, which has already caused $20 billion in damage.
Roots of the Crisis
Argentina and the IMF reached an agreement in 2022 to restructure the nation’s $44 billion debt. The IMF had approved a $57 billion loan to the administration of now former President Mauricio Macri in 2018, with current President Alberto Fernandez left to clean up the consequences of what he has dubbed "reckless," "toxic and irresponsible" borrowing. After his election in 2019, Fernandez asked the IMF not to move forward with transferring the remainder of the loan amount, citing a dearth of dollars in the nation's coffers to pay it back with.
Argentina's economic crisis has resulted in inflation topping 110 percent, and poverty reaching 40 percent of the population, even as GDP continues to grow, rising 1.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. International reserves have dwindled to about $28 billion, their lowest since 2016.
The Fernandez government is trying to climb out of the economic hole. A team from the Economy Ministry is expected to travel to Washington in the coming days to continue negotiations with the IMF.
Earlier this week, the nation's Central Bank announced that retail banks would be allowed to offer accounts in yuan.
Argentina has applied for membership in BRICS, and last month, media reported that Buenos Aires may be eligible to join the BRICS Development Bank as soon as August, when the proposal, put forward by Brazil, is discussed in South Africa. The bloc is known to be working on a new currency which would effectively serve as a major alternative to the dollar in global trade.
Argentinians will head to the polls in October 2023 to elect a new president and legislature, with President Fernandez indicating that he will not run for a second term. Primaries are scheduled for August, with economy minister Sergio Massa currently one of two declared candidates from the ruling Peronist Union for the Homeland coalition. The coalition was founded by Massa and former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in June.
Russian servicemen in the zone of the special military operation have started receiving sets of new field uniforms which are suitable for all seasons.
Russia's Defense Ministry has released video footage of the new uniforms for servicemen fighting in the special military operation. Uniforms are made from ultra-modern combined materials, which protect vulnerable parts of the body such as the joints, and prevent a soldier from freezing or sweating. The set consists of a jacket, pants and a combat shirt, as well as a wind and waterproof suit.
Russian fighters have also received new boots which have a nubuck exterior, mesh on the sides, and a membrane which prevents servicemen from sweating.
Watch Russian Iskander Missile Hit Bridge in Kherson Region
The Russian Iskander missile is a highly mobile, solid-fuel, short-range ballistic missile system capable of hitting targets up to 500 kilometers away with highly lethal precision.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released video footage of an Iskander missile hitting a bridge in the Kherson region. According to local authorities, 30 Ukrainian servicemen were eliminated in the strike.
Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive in early June after several postponements. The Russian Defense Ministry has admitted that Ukrainian troops are indeed trying to advance in the South Donetsk, Artemovsk (Bakhmut) and Zaporozhye directions, but without success.
What Types of Tanks Does Ukraine Have and How Many are Left
The NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine has demonstrated the folly of early 21st century predictions about tanks becoming obsolete in the conflicts of the future, with both sides flooding the battlefield with heavy armor. The conflict has also shattered a popular myth about the supposed superiority of NATO's expensive "high-tech" tanks.
Main battle tanks continue to make headlines in stories related to the conflict in Ukraine, with reports focusing on upgrades, tank-on-tank firefights and efforts to ramp up heavy armor deliveries to the front.
What Types of Tanks Did Ukraine Have Before 2022?
In the immediate aftermath of the USSR’s collapse in 1991, Ukraine found itself with one of the largest tank fleets in the world, with its arsenal consisting of about 8,700 tanks, 11,000 armored and infantry fighting vehicles, 18,000 pieces of artillery and 2,800 aircraft and helicopters. In the years and decades that followed, much of this arsenal was sold off to other countries, melted down for steel or scrapped, partly to survive the economic depression the country was thrust into, and partly to meet the terms of the Treaty on the Limitation of Conventional Arms in Europe.
Independent Ukraine also inherited the legendary Kharkov Locomotive Factory and the Kharkov Machine Building Design Bureau, which developed and produced some of the 20th century’s best-known tanks, including the T-34, the T-64, the T-80 and the T-84. Production dropped from hundreds of tanks per year in the 1980s to just dozens a year in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, with the factory’s 60,000-person workforce shrinking to about 5,000 by 2015.
Before 2022, Ukraine’s tank fleet consisted mostly of upgraded variants of the T-64, including the T-64BM ‘Bulat’, in service since 2004, and the T-64BV, in service since 1984 (with part of the fleet upgraded in 2017). According to estimates from the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Kiev had about 720 T-64s of various modifications in its arsenal in 2022, plus nearly 580 in storage.
Ukraine also had a stock of about 200 mothballed T-80s, and about a dozen MBTs of its T-84 Oplot variant –which entered service in the early 2000s and constitutes the latest word in Ukrainian tank technology.
Ukraine’s stock of tanks also includes about half-a-dozen variants of the T-72, the 1970s-era Soviet tank created as a result of the then-friendly rivalry between the Kharkov Locomotive Factory and the Uralvagonzavod Design Bureau in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. Ukraine is estimated to have nearly 750 of the tanks, (500 in storage). Modifications of the T-72 in service with the Ukrainian military include its base model, as well as the T-72A, the T-72AB/B1, and the T-72AMT, with modernization including the incorporation of things like new communications systems and composite armor designed to cushion the blow of enemy shells.
What Types of Tanks Has Ukraine Received From NATO?
The escalation of the long-burning Donbass conflict into a full-blown NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine in 2022 prompted the US and its NATO allies to dramatically ramp up military support for Kiev, with billions of dollars in military support sent before February 2022 soon turning to tens of billions. In the conflict’s early days, the Western bloc stuck to a strategy of sending Kiev tanks belonging mostly to NATO's former Warsaw Pact members. NATO officials said this was being done because of Ukrainians' wealth of experience operating Soviet-made weapons, and not out of their desire to clear out inventories of aging mothballed tanks.
These early deliveries included
An undisclosed number of T-72M1s from Bulgaria,
over 170 T-72s of various modifications from the Czech Republic,
31 T-72A tanks from North Macedonia,
over 250 modernized T-72s and 60 PT-91 Twardy tanks from Poland (the Twardy is a modification of the T-72M1 developed in the mid-1990s),
and 28 M-55S tanks from Slovenia (the M-55S is a modification of the Soviet T-55 tank, whose production began all the way back in 1948).
Gradually, as fighting escalated, and Kiev prepared for its summer counteroffensive, NATO agreed to send German, British and US-made heavy armor to Ukraine, despite warnings from President Biden in March of 2022 that doing so might result in "World War III."
Among the Western battle tanks sent to Ukraine are
Modernized variants of the Leopard 1, the West German main battle tank created in the 1960s and produced until 1984, with Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands pitching in to send as many as 178 of them to Kiev.
Dozens of Leopard 2s, the Leopard 1’s successor, produced through the 1980s and receiving a variety of upgrades in armor, communication systems, thermal sights, automated fire and explosion suppression systems, digital controls, and a new 120 mm smoothbore gun by Rheinmetall. Leopard 2s have been promised or delivered by Canada (8 tanks), Denmark (7, to be delivered in 2024) Finland (6 mine-clearing variant Leopard 2s), Germany (18 Leopard 2A6s), the Netherlands (14), Norway (8), Poland (14), Portugal (3), Spain (10), and Sweden (10 of its Strv 122 improved Leopard 2A5s variant).
14 Challenger 2s pledged by Britain, and spotted on the battlefield for the first time last month.
31 M1 Abrams, committed by the United States in the spring to help convince NATO’s European members to send Leopards, but which won’t be delivered until at least the fall of 2023, presumably because they haven’t been built yet. (It’s not clear why the US couldn’t just take a few dozen tanks from its vast arsenal of 6,200+ active duty and stored Abrams).
Although Ukraine had a tank force of over 2,250 MBTs before the escalation in 2022, received about 480 Warsaw Pact-built MBTs and nearly 300 modern Western MBTs, Kiev continues to push for more armor to throw into the meat grinder of its stalled counteroffensive against Russia.
"The Ukrainian army desperately needs more Western battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other armored vehicles," controversial former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk said in mid-June. "Each Leopard 2 is literally worth its weight in gold for a decisive offensive," he added.
How Many Tanks Has Ukraine Lost, and How are Left?
Ukraine’s Armed Forces does not publish figures on their losses. The Russian military, which regularly publishes estimates on Ukraine’s losses, reported Saturday that Russian forces have destroyed a total of 10,430 Ukrainian tanks and other armored vehicles, such as APCs and IFVs, in a year-and-a-half of fighting. Western tanks began appearing among these figures after Ukraine kicked off its counteroffensive on June 4, with Leopard 1s, Leopard 2s, Bradley IFVs and other Western heavy weapons featured in photos and videos from the front, some destroyed, some taken intact as trophies.
Earlier this week, President Putin stated that Ukraine had lost as many as 259 tanks and 780 armored vehicles to date since the start of its counteroffensive, among them the latest Western armor.
The loss of Western equipment – coming after decades of fierce debate among war nerds about the supposed superiority of NATO armor to Russian and Warsaw Pact armor, proves what Sputnik has been saying since January, when plans to deliver Western MBTs to Ukraine were first announced: that as with any modern weapon, the real-world performance of any tank will depend on an array of factors, including artillery, ATGM and aerial support, strategic and tactical battlefield intelligence, commander competence, and the skill of tank crews.
How Many Tanks Has Russia Lost, and How Many Does It Have Left?
The Russian military has not publicized its tank losses, freeing Kiev to make fantastical claims about losses of "over 4,000" pieces of armor (i.e. more than Russia’s entire estimated operational tank fleet of 2,600 MBTs in 2021). Other estimates put the figure closer to 2,000 lost tanks.
The true numbers are likely to be compiled and published by historians, long after the conflict has ended. For what it’s worth, in mid-June, Putin revealed that Russia had lost 54 tanks during the first two weeks of Kiev’s counteroffensive, with Ukraine said to have lost 160 tanks and over 360 other armored vehicles during the same period. Some of the lost Russian tanks "can be repaired and brought back to operation," Putin said, adding that Russia's overall losses were "10 times" below Kiev's, and that the enemy had failed to break through along any section of the front. President Zelensky of Ukraine has since admitted that the counteroffensive is going "slower than desired," and US officials have anonymously admitted to media that the operation is "not meeting expectations on any front."
Warga Surabaya yang keracunan saat berada di Puskesmas (Dok. BPBD Surabaya)
Sebanyak 71 orang warga Kalilom Indah Seruni 2, Tanah Kalikedinding, Kenjeran, Surabaya diduga keracunan masakan daging kurban.
Kepala Dinas Kesehatan (Dinkes) Kota Surabaya, Nanik Sukristina menjelaskan, puluhan warga mengalami keracunan setelah menyantap makanan olahan daging kurban pada pukul 19.00 WIB.
Kepala Puskesmas Tanah Kalikedinding Surabaya Era Kartikawati mengatakan dari 71 korban itu, sebanyak 45 warga di antaranya hanya mengalami gejala ringan. Mereka pun menjalani perawatan di rumah masing-masing, dengan pantauan puskesmas.
"Kalau total warga yang saat ini (dirawat) di rumah sedang pantauan kami ada gejala tapi tidak berat ada 45 orang. Itu total dari 71 (korban)," kata Era, saat dikonfirmasi, Sabtu, 01/07/2023.
Seluruh korban dilarikan ke Puskemas Tanah Kali Kedinding. Sebanyak 22 pasien dengan gejala ringan dan dibolehkan pulang .
Sedangkan, sebanyak 26 warga lainnya, dilaporkan menjalani perawatan di puskesmas maupun dirujuk ke rumah sakit terdekat.
Lalu, 14 pasien dirawat inap di Puskesmas Tanah Kali Kedinding Surabaya. Kondisi seluruh pasien itu sudah stabil.
"Dirawat di Puskesmas 14 orang, 12 pasien kami rujuk ke rumah sakit ada RSUD Dr. Soewandhie, RS Universitas Airlangga. Jumlahnya yang rawat inap ada 26 orang," ucapnya.
Di antaranya, tiga pasien dirawat di RS Unair, empat pasien dirawat di RSUD Dr. Soewandhie, dan satu pasien dirawat di RS Mitra Keluarga Kenjeran.
Serta, tiga pasien di rawat di Puskesmas Bulak Banteng, dan satu orang pasien lainnya dirawat di Puskesmas Sidotopo Wetan.
Pada proses tindak lanjut penangannya, Nanik mengatakan, Puskesmas Tanah Kali Kedinding melakukan pemantauan intensif terhadap pasien yang masih dalam perawatan.
Baik di Puskesmas, rumah sakit, maupun rumah pasien. Serta melakukan observasi, apakah ada kasus lanjutan di wilayah tersebut untuk berkoordinasi dengan RT/RW dan kelurahan.
Era menyebut, keracunan massal itu berawal ketika warga menggelar tasyakuran makan-makan usai salat dan kurban Iduladha, Kamis malam 29/06/2023.
Daging kurban itu mereka olah menjadi beberapa masakan. Seperti sate, gulai dan krengsengan. Usai acara, sebagian warga mengaku sakit, Jumat dini hari, 30/06/2023.
"Jumat pagi jam 02.00 WIB, ada yang mulai mulai, muntah, diare, panas (demam). Beberapa sudah langsung dibawa ke rumah sakit, dokter swasta, atau periksa keluar," ujar dia.
Puskesmas baru mendapatkan kabar keracunan massal itu pukul 16.00 WIB. Sejumlah petugas kesehatan dikerahkan untuk mendatangi rumah pasien.
"Kami temukan harus dirujuk langsung kami rujuk ke rumah sakit, ada yang kami rujuk ke puskesmas, siaga di puskesmas. Sampai ini tadi masih ada yang masuk," ucapnya.
Dugaan sementara, penyebab keracunan tersebut berasal dari olahan masakan daging kurban yang warga makan secara bersama.
New twists have emerged in the saga of a proposed mixed martial arts (MMA) cage fight between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg.
Italy’s Ministry of Culture has dismissed recent reports of its officials offering to coordinate a fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg at the historic Rome Colosseum, according to ministry insiders.
After unconfirmed reports previously surfaced in US media, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk, 52, was quick to respond, tweeting, “Some chance fight happens in Colosseum.” The tech mogul added that he needs to "work on my endurance," posting a link to the Colosseum fight scene from the British comedy Life of Brian.
Italy has denied reports that it has offered the 2,000-year-old Colosseum as a venue for a much-anticipated bare-knuckle fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Several American news outlets reported that Italian officials had offered the gladiatorial arena as a suitably grandiose stage on which to host the confrontation.
The tabloid news website TMZ said it would be “the biggest fight in the history of the world in the most fabled fight theatre in history”.
Mr Musk himself fuelled the reports by tweeting on Friday:
He then posted a scene from the film Life of Brian in which a terrified man in a grubby toga is thrown into the sandy arena.
A gladiator, armed to the teeth, appears but the man outwits him by running round and round the arena until the gladiator has a heart attack and collapses in a heap.
“Need to work on my endurance,” Musk tweeted beneath the film clip.
But the Italian culture ministry denied on Friday that they had proposed the Colosseum as a venue for the scrap between the two tech billionaires.
“We have had no formal request and no contact from either parties,” a culture ministry official told The Telegraph.
In its heyday, the Colosseum could accommodate 50,000 spectators.
But after centuries in which it fell into ruin and was plundered for its masonry, it now has practically no seating capacity.
Only a small proportion of the original arena is covered by a wooden stage – the rest is bare, allowing visitors to peer down into the underground tunnels and chambers in which gladiators and wild animals were kept before being shoved out onto the sand to fight in front of the emperor.
Culture ministry officials said that the Colosseum is only made available for “high-profile events which almost always have a charitable scope”.
The ministry evaluates every request carefully to make sure that the event is compatible with the protection of the archaeological site. A fight between two tech barons hardly qualified.
“If Zuckerberg and Musk want to stage an event in the Colosseum, it should be a challenge that ends with a hug,” officials said.
They suggested that instead of a bloody physical fight, the rivals should instead consider engaging in a “certamen” – an ancient contest in which contestants have to answer questions about classical history and mythology.
To make the challenge more interesting, the verbal dual would be in Latin, officials said.
In addition, they would be obliged to make a generous donation to the preservation of Italy’s cultural heritage and perhaps a donation to the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, which was hit by devastating floods a few weeks ago.
The high-profile tech titans announced earlier this month that they had agreed to fight each other, with Mr Musk tweeting that he was “up for a cage fight” with Mr Zuckerberg, the boss of Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook.
Mr Musk had previously suggested as a venue the Vegas Octagon, which is used for Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts.
Whether the fight will really go ahead is unclear.
Mr Musk has past form in making statements that are less than serious.
Earlier this year, he told the BBC that he had appointed his dog chief executive of Twitter.
William Burns, President Biden's nominee for CIA director, testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. Burns served more than 30 years at the State Department and would be the first career diplomat to lead the spy agency.
Tom Williams/AP
The head of the CIA in a secret trip to Ukraine reportedly held talks with officials on an ambitious strategy to retake territory from Russia and open ceasefire talks with Moscow by year-end.
Citing officials familiar with the visit, US media reported that CIA Director William Burns during the trip in June met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukraine’s top intelligence officials. The purpose of the visit was to reaffirm the Biden administration’s commitment to sharing intelligence designed to help Ukraine in the conflict.
Ukraine officials told Burns they aim to move artillery and missile systems near the boundary line of Crimea and push further into eastern Ukraine by the fall. Then Kiev intends to open negotiations with Moscow for the first time since they broke down in March of last year, the report said, citing people involved with the planning.
Officials reportedly later said they hope by agreeing not to take Crimea, Russia would accept whatever security guarantees Kiev can secure from the West.
One Ukrainian official told the outlet "the US agrees that Ukraine should enter the negotiations from a strong position."
The CIA refused to comment when asked about Burns' assessment of Kiev's plans, the report said.
Burns’ trip occurred just before Wagner chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin's aborted mutiny. The report said the US intelligence community had detected in mid-June that Prigozhin was plotting something, but that those findings were not relayed to Ukrainian officials.
According to the report, Kiev is under extraordinary pressure from Western allies that provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in weaponry ahead of the counteroffensive.
Earlier Friday, US media reported that Burns recently called his Russian counterpart, Sergey Naryshkin, to inform him that the United States had no involvement in Prigozhin's aborted mutiny.
Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive in early June after multiple postponements. The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly said Ukrainian troops are trying to advance in the South Donetsk, Artemovsk, and Zaporozhye directions, but without success.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine lost as many as 259 tanks and 780 armored vehicles since the start of its counter-offensive. A number of Western media also noted the weak results of Kiev's counteroffensive, while Zelensky himself admitted that the progress was "slower than desired."
US Top General Says Not Surprised Ukrainian Counteroffensive Going Slower Than Predicted
Ukraine launched its much-touted counteroffensive in early June after multiple postponements. The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly said that Ukrainian troops are trying to advance in the South Donetsk, Artemovsk (Bakhmut) and Zaporozhye directions, but without success.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said on Friday he does not find it surprising that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is going slower than predicted as he personally said before that it will be very long and difficult.
"That it's [the counteroffensive] going slower than people had predicted, doesn't surprise me at all," Milley said during an event hosted by the National Press Club. "What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, ten weeks. It's going to be very difficult, it's going to be very long, it's going to be very, very bloody and no one should have any illusions about it."
Milley also said that in his view time is not particularly on either side of the conflict because the latter continues to be very dynamic.
Addressing the issue of possibility of sending the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to Ukraine, the top general said he is not aware of any decision.
“It's a continuous, ongoing process to my knowledge and I don't know of a decision yet, but, sure, that's a process,” Milley said during an event hosted by the National Press Club.
On Thursday, a American daily reported citing officials that the United States is close to agreeing to send ATACMS to Ukraine.
