Weds - Aren't Russians Pretty Good At Synchronized Swimming?

Aren't Swiss Banks Supposed to Be Safe?

Credit Suisse is at the centre of market turmoil amid rumours the bank could be on the brink of collapse.

Investors have rushed to sell the Zurich-based bank’s shares amid concerns about its financial health as it prepares to unveil a costly restructuring plan due later this month.

The lender has been embroiled in a raft of scandals in recent years that have battered its image and balance sheet.

The controversies include trading jobs for business in Hong Kong, hiring private detectives to spy on employees, laundering money for a criminal organisation in Bulgaria, and facilitating corrupt loans in Mozambique, over which the bank agreed to pay $475m in fines.

The bank also racked up billions of dollars in losses from the collapse in 2021 of hedge fund Archegos and financial services firm Greensill.

Amid the turmoil, the lender has lost nearly 60 percent of its market value this year alone.

Benjamin, I Have Just Two Words to Say To You, "Wax Worms"

Two substances in the saliva of wax worms — moth larvae that eat wax made by bees to build honeycombs — readily break down a common type of plastic, researchers said on Tuesday, in a potential advance in the global fight against plastic pollution.

The researchers said the two enzymes identified in the caterpillar saliva were found to rapidly and at room temperature degrade polyethylene, the world’s most widely used plastic and a major contributor to an environmental crisis extending from ocean trenches to mountaintops.

The study builds on the researchers’ 2017 findings that wax worms were capable of degrading polyethylene, though at that time it was unclear how these small insects did it. The answer was enzymes — substances produced by living organisms that trigger biochemical reactions.

For plastic to degrade, oxygen must penetrate the polymer — or plastic molecule — in an important initial step called oxidation. The researchers found that the enzymes performed this step within hours without the need for pre-treatment such as applying heat or radiation.

Maybe Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day

Eating relatively early may be beneficial for weight loss, and keeping meals within a 10-hour period could improve blood sugar and cholesterol levels, according to two small studies published Tuesday in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The first study found that eating on a later schedule made people hungrier over a 24-hour period than when they consumed the same meals earlier in the day. Late eating also led the study participants to burn calories at a slower rate, and their fat tissue seemed to store more calories on a later eating schedule than an early one. Overall, the study suggests that eating later can increase a person's obesity risk.

The second study, done among a group of firefighters, found that consuming meals within a 10-hour window shrunk "bad cholesterol" particles — suggesting a potential reduction in risk factors for heart disease. That eating window also improved blood pressure and blood sugar levels among firefighters with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The two studies add to existing evidence that there may be optimal times to start and stop eating, according to Courtney Peterson, an associate professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who wasn’t involved in either study.

"You have this internal biological clock that makes you better at doing different things at different times of the day. It seems like the best time for your metabolism in most people is the mid- to late morning," Peterson said

Maybe I Shouldn't Be Writing Stories About Food on a Day I Am Fasting for Yom Kippur

Ukraine Keeps Crushing

Since Sunday, Ukraine has liberated over 50 locations in northern Kherson, along with over 1,600 square kilometers (600 sq miles). It crushed not just Russia’s front-line positions, but the positions that had been provisioned as fallbacks. Along the whole front, Ukraine is now 30 km south of the positions it held a few days ago, and less than 30 km from reaching Russia’s ultimate fallback positions at Beryslav, just across the damaged bridge from Nova Kakhovka.

That location at Beryslav is not just the point where Russian forces are expected to gather in a last attempt to hold something of northern Kherson, it’s also the site of an exfiltration camp, where Ukrainian citizens kidnapped from their homes across the region have been taken for sorting, processing, and shipment to unknown sites in Russia. The liberation of Beryslav would give the first opportunity for the world to see what one of these camps is like. There are already reports suggesting that an army that has been fighting with World War II-style tactics is fully capable of World War II-level horrors.



On Tuesday, the northern advance moved so far that it actually overran the long-fought-for town of Davydiv Brid, connecting the area acquired in the north to the bridgehead across the Inhulets River that had been one of Ukraine’s biggest counteroffensives in the area until this week.

Most of the locations along Russia’s new defensive line are not great. Like most of this area, the terrain is flat, and Russia hasn’t done a lot to prepare the area for fighting because it never expected to be there.

Snihuivka" Russia Finds Another Way to Describe Getting Their Asses Kicked

Further south, on the other side of where the infinitely twisty Inhulets River turns north-south to divide the Kherson area in half, there were reports on Tuesday evening that Snihurivka had been liberated. This would be an enormous deal as this has been one of Russia’s most heavily fortified, reinforced, and fought over locations, similar to Vysokopillya in the north except that Snihurivka guards a direct approach into the city of Kherson.

The best information on Wednesday morning is that Snihurivka is mostly liberated. The majority of Russian forces have been pushed out, Ukrainian troops have moved in, but there still appear to be pockets of Russian resistance left within the town. With a pre-invasion population of over 12,000, Snihurivka is a significant location with an industrial sector in the southwest and a large number of housing blocks to be investigated and cleared. Even if the vast majority of Russians have fled the area, it may be some time before Snihurivka is officially liberated.

The official position out of Russia this morning: “The Russian army has completed a regrouping action in Kherson in order to gather forces for a strike.” All of pro-Russian Telegram and Twitter is applauding the way Russia has maneuvered Ukraine into a trap and “the jaws are about to close.” Actual Russian sources are too busy plotting ways to escape across the river. There have also been reports of Russian surrenders in Kherson, though it’s not clear if this has happened in large numbers.

In The North, Approaching Svatove

Just because things have been moving so rapidly in Kherson doesn’t mean they’ve stalled in the north. Ukraine has now pushed to within 20 km of the Russian hub at Svatove from multiple directions. Along the road coming north from Lyman, Ukraine has pushed north of Makiivka and there was a reported fight at Novovodyane on Wednesday. Also launching out from Makiivka is a new thrust to the east, this time along the road that runs through Ploshchanka to Krasnorichenske. Securing these two locations would cut the strategic P66 highway. Ploshchanka is likely liberated, but there has been no announcement or images to confirm this. Holding these two locations would not only position Ukraine to continue north toward Svatove, but threaten Russia’s already besieged position in Kreminna.

To the west, Ukraine liberated the town of Horlivka. However, it’s unclear which way they’ll go from there. They might continue to move northeast from that position along a series of unpaved roads in spite of muddy conditions, or they could shift forces east to Makiivka or west to join in fighting that was already underway at a series of Russian-occupied villages.



The topography at Svatove sucks … for Russia. If Ukraine can reach the area of that highway junction just west of the city, they will be on high ground that commands a view across the entire city. If Russia chooses to make a stand in this location, it will not go well.

This Just In: The western edge of Russia’s defensive line may be unraveling

There are reports that Ukrainian forces ranging out from Davydiv Brid have liberated the villages of Ishchenka, Bezvode, and Sadok. If true, this punches a hole through that defensive line on the west and makes Bruskynske extremely vulnerable. Russian sources have reported that a second line of defensive positions is being built across the highway between the small villages of Stepove and Nova Kuban.