Russia Mutiny Scrutiny. Re-heating Half-baked Britain. The Coolest Video You’ll See This Week. Plus More! #170
Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck, and welcome to this newsletter featuring seven things that caught my attention this week.
Also in this edition – what professionals admire about their own profession, the world’s most frequent flyer, and checking your health via blood test.
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1️⃣ The Russian Mutiny’s Unlikely Winner
Step forward Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Belarus, a land-locked country of 9 million sandwiched between Russia and Poland, rarely gets the limelight. Since 1994 it’s been ruled by Alexander Lukashenko.
A month ago Lukashenko was in the news as rumours spread about his health. Had he been poisoned after a Kremlin meeting? Was he terminally ill?
Today?
Mr Lukashenko has saved the Russian President, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and – if you believe Belarusian state media – possibly Russia itself.
Lukashenko’s message?
I said to [Prigozhin]: “They’ll squash you like a bug when you’re halfway there.”
Now Prigozhin is in Belarus, his private army about to be disarmed, exiled or absorbed into Russia’s military. Rumours flare that he might have had a senior Russian general backing him (or perhaps not?), and that his original plan – to kidnap the defence minister and his sidekick – went awry.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin festers in the Kremlin, to lick wounds and settle scores.
And Mr Lukashenko holds court.
Pundits speculate on whether Prizoghin awaits “liquidation”, or Putin another putsch.
But geopolitics hates personalities as much as it hates uncertainty and unpredictability. It wants to know:
What form will the next Russia take?
Who will control its nuclear arsenal?
How viable will it be?
Which bits of Russia would neighbours like for themselves?
Nuclear weapons aside, these were the same issues the Victorians called the Eastern Question which hung over the enfeebled Ottoman Empire in the 19C. Back then, Russia’s ruler, Tsar Nicholas I, described his neighbour as the ‘sick man’ of Europe.
So take all the punditry with a pinch of salt, and remember in Russia today it’s just conceivable that you could:
Get thrown in jail for holding up a blank sign.
Escape prison by joining Wagner mercenaries to fight in Ukraine.
Take up arms against the government who imprisoned you.
Avoid going back behind bars by signing on with the Russian Army.
A former Moscow-based diplomat offered this observation:
Seventy years ago, Stalin would have simply shot 10,000 people, confident that everyone else would draw the appropriate conclusion.
⏭ Tatiana Stanovaya is always worth reading on Russia.
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2️⃣ Half-Baked Britain
A US economist’s recipe to rescue the soggy-bottomed isle.
American economist Adam Posen likes telling Brits what to do. The Peterson Institute boss has a six-point plan to re-heat Britain. Or at least to get it off the skids.
More money for the middle class: Pay rises for people in health, education, and transport. Higher taxes on income, property and capital gains for the wealthiest. More spending on infrastructure.
No Housing Bailouts: Let the property market fall, and people with mortgages pick up the pieces.
Planning Deregulation: Make building things easier – kickstart a building boom and make houses cheaper and easier to get.
Fix the Job Market: UK unemployment is low but fewer people are choosing to work: get people healthier, and offer better learning opportunities.
Take Advantage of Brexit: The UK should welcome more immigrants, attract foreign students, focus on research and development and business services, and join more international trade agreements.
Control Money Supply Better: The Bank of England needs tighter policies to keep inflation in check.
It’s a worthy plan – but imagine you were a British politician trying to sell this programme to the public.
⏭ Brexit continues to weigh on British manufacturers.
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3️⃣ Air Travel’s All You Can Eat Buffet
The world’s most frequent flyer.
The Washington Post profiles Tom Stuker, a 69-year-old from New Jersey who has flown 23 million miles – more than anyone else in history.
How? Back in 1990, United Airlines offered a lifetime air travel pass for $290k. Stuker snapped one up and has been using it ever since.
What’s he done for the planet?
Using the average carbon emissions per mile for commercial flights, the carbon cost would be 2,645 metric tons of CO2. That’s the same as 575 homes over a year.
His top travel tip? Never check a bag.
⏭ What happens to your body on a long-haul flight?
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4️⃣ Lighting up Madagascar
The island nation is one of the poorest places on earth.
⏭ Despite no wars, over 75% of Madagascans live in poverty.
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5️⃣ 50 Shades of Sickness
A new blood test can spot cancers.
The test doesn’t come without big questions for the companies administering it.
⏭ Over 400 patients trialling the test were wrongly told they may have cancer.
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6️⃣ What Makes The Greatest Comics Laugh?
No. Not other people’s misfortune.
The things that people admire within their own professions are often very different to the things people outside admire about their profession.
Take comedians.
Here’s near-centenarian Mel Brooks on Lenny Bruce:
What a mind. I’ll never forget, in one of his shows, he said out of the blue, “What if Jesus was electrocuted?” Just that one sentence. I really shrieked. What a mind. He said, “At the top of every tall building, there’d be an electric chair. And we’d wear little electric chairs around our neck.” I mean, it was amazing.
⏭ Ed Solomon’s story about Garry Shandling takes this to the next level.
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7️⃣ The Week’s Coolest Home-made Video
The secret is ... string!
Winga, the Chinese videomaker behind this, has a page here.
⏭ No stop-motion reading on Bea’s book club podcast.
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If you enjoy this newsletter – please recommend it!
Best,
Adrian
