Welcome to a “no work” Friday in America: it’s November 28, 2025, and all Americans get the day off unless they’re workaholics. It’s also National French Toast Day, my favorite breakfast treat, one my mom made for me on special days. Here it is unadorned, needing only a dollop of butter and thick lashings of maple syrup. (It should be called “Roman toast”, though, for the Romans had a recipe for it very similar to today’s version.)
It’s also Black Friday, when everything goes on sale, Maize Day, celebrating “what you call corn,” and Turkey Leftover Day. Here’s an impression of leftovers via Stash Krod:
Google is starting to use AI links for its Doodles. Here is yesterday’s Thanksgiving Doodle; click the photo to see where it goes:
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the November 28 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*The Afghan immigrant who shot two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., critically wounding both, turns out to have worked with military units connected with the CIA in Afghanistan.
The gunman who shot and critically injured two National Guard members near the White House is an Afghan who worked with C.I.A.-backed military units during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, the agency said on Thursday.
Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot near a metro station in downtown Washington, D.C., on Wednesday afternoon by a lone gunman who was also injured and later detained, officials said.
The C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, said that the suspect had come to the United States in September 2021, after the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan, through a Biden-era immigration program for Afghans who had worked with the U.S. government. People familiar with the investigation identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29.
The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, and other law enforcement officials were expected to address the news media at 9 a.m. Eastern.
After officials disclosed the suspect’s nationality on Wednesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency overseeing immigration in the United States, said that it had stopped processing immigration applications from Afghanistan. The pause will affect Afghans seeking to remain in the United States through immigration avenues like asylum and permanent residency, or those trying to enter the country.
In a video address late Wednesday, President Trump said he had ordered 500 more National Guard troops to Washington, though it was unclear when they would arrive or where they would come from. The president framed the shooting as an “act of terror” and launched a broadside against immigration, saying it “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation” and vowing to redouble his mass deportation efforts.
The Washington Post adds this:
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the suspect in Wednesday’s National Guard shooting, Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, had driven from Washington state to commit the attack. In a news conference Thursday morning, she said the 29-year-old was charged with firearm possession and three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. She identified the two service members who were shot in the attack as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24. Both were in critical condition after undergoing surgery, she said.
A lot of Afghans who helped the U.S. military during our fighting there were preferentially allowed into the U.S., which is an appropriate action given that they’d be endangered if they stayed. Now Trump’s administration isn’t going to let any more in, at least for a while. Given that we left behind some Afghans who helped the U.S., this simply isn’t fair. You can’t punish a whole country for something that one person does. But of course that’s Trump’s Way.
*According to treaty stipulations, as I recall, a Chinese attack on Taiwan will prompt Japan to help defend the island nation. But now Trump is trying to get Japan to ratchet down that commitment, and I anticipate, along with military experts, a Chinese attack on Taiwan within the next seven or eight years. This article implies to me that Trump won’t do much to defend Taiwan.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping was angry, and President Trump was listening.
Days after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi outraged China by suggesting a Chinese attack on Taiwan could mobilize a Tokyo military response, Xi spent half of an hourlong phone call with Trump, people briefed on the matter said, hammering home China’s historic claim to the democratic self-governing island as well as Washington and Beijing’s joint responsibility to manage the world order.
Later the same day, Trump set up a call with Takaichi and advised her not to provoke Beijing on the question of Taiwan’s sovereignty, said Japanese officials and an American briefed on the call. The advice from Trump was subtle, and he didn’t pressure Takaichi to walk back her comments, those briefed on the calls said.
The Japanese officials said the message was worrying: The president didn’t want friction over Taiwan to endanger a detente reached last month with Xi, which includes a promise to buy more agricultural products from American farmers hit hard by the trade war.
Asked about the exchange with Takaichi, the White House issued a statement from Trump to The Wall Street Journal: “The United States relationship with China is very good, and that’s also very good for Japan, who is our dear and close ally. Getting along with China is a great thing for China and the U.S. In my opinion, President Xi will be substantially upping his purchase of soybean and other farm products, and anything good for our farmers is good for me.”
“We signed wonderful trade deals with Japan, China, South Korea, and many other nations, and the world is at peace,” Trump added. “Let’s keep it that way!”
We don’t have formal treaties to fight China in case it attacks Taiwan, but we do have treaties obliging us to provide military aid. Likewise, Japan has no direct treaty to defend Taiwan, but it can provide support for the U.S. in case the U.S. is defending Taiwan. The upshot is that Taiwan, like Ukraine, is a democracy and an ally, and we should help it if it gets attacked, just as we helped Ukraine when Putin jumped in. But Ukraine is not a great model for Taiwan in one respect: the Chinese, if they attack–and I think they will–won’t be satisfied unless they take over the entire island. And they certainly have the power to do so. This is why I’m expecting, but not hoping for, a Chinese takeover of Taiwan in seven years, which is their announced timetable.
*Writing in the NYT, columnist David French says we have fought or will fight a total of three wars in Ukraine.
. . . That’s the immediate backdrop to the peace negotiations that kicked off in Geneva and continued elsewhere, but there’s an additional reality, one that I learned when I talked to Ukrainian leaders during my visit to the country in 2023. “We’re going to have to fight three wars,” a senior member of the government told me, “and this is only the second.”
The first war, in this telling, was the Russian invasion of Crimea and parts of the Donbas region in 2014. The second war is the one raging now, the war that began with Russia’s attack on Feb. 24, 2022. The third war is the next war — the one that Ukraine fears Russia will launch once it has had a chance to pause and rearm.
Winning, or better yet deterring, that third war is one of Ukraine’s chief concerns. That’s why, for example, Zelensky has signed letters of intent to purchase hundreds of advanced fighters from France and Sweden, even though deliveries won’t be complete for at least a decade.
A free and independent Ukraine will be no more tolerable to President Vladimir Putin after a cease-fire than it was before, and any peace agreement now has to be evaluated on the basis of a single key question — can Ukraine remain free after the shooting stops?
That’s the core problem with the leaked 28-point peace plan that the Trump administration tried to impose on Ukraine earlier this month. Even if you assume that Ukraine might be willing to trade some land for peace (a cease-fire on current lines, for example), it still must retain the means of preserving its political independence, or any peace agreement is little more than a surrender document.
Trump’s initial plan yielded all of the Donbas to Russia — including the parts of Donbas that Russia hasn’t been able to seize from Ukraine — and tried to force Ukraine to accept a cap of 600,000 military personnel, a number substantially smaller than its current force. There is no chance that a mere 600,000 men and women could hold the long border against a vastly larger Russian force.
The plan contains no corresponding limitations on Russia’s much larger force. Russia has more than 1.3 million active duty troops, and it’s planning to expand the military to a total of 1.5 million. In other words, Trump’s plan would shrink the Ukrainian military at the same time that Putin is increasing the size of Russia’s force. The resulting power imbalance would be extreme.
I doubt that Russia will be satisfied with only part of Ukraine, but Trump, by limiting the size of its army and prohibiting it from joining NATO, has severely impeded Ukraine’s ability to fight off Putin. Trump, however, doesn’t seem to have much of a commitment to preventing a complete takeover, and if it comes to that I don’t think he will. The man loves his fellow autocrat in Russia. On the other hand, creating “peace” by allowing one country to take over another will hardly earn Trump his much-desired Nobel Peace Prize.
*When I saw this BBC headline, “France to bring in form of military service, 25 years after conscription was phased out,” I thought, “Whaaaat? France is going to have a draft?” It turns out that it’s not, the service is purely voluntary, and for young people. (The link goes to an archive, as the original is paywalled. The deets:
A limited form of military service will be re-introduced in France in response to growing fears of a confrontation with Russia.
More than 25 years after conscription was phased out, the plan will see young men and women volunteering for a paid 10 months of military training.
“The only way to avoid danger is to prepare for it,” President Emmanuel Macron said while announcing the plan at an infantry base near Grenoble in south-east France. “We need to mobilise, mobilising the nation to defend itself, to be ready and remain respected.”
“The only way to avoid danger is to prepare for it,” President Emmanuel Macron said while announcing the plan at an infantry base near Grenoble in south-east France. “We need to mobilise, mobilising the nation to defend itself, to be ready and remain respected.”
“In this uncertain world where might triumphs over right, war is in the present tense,” said Macron. The armed forces would benefit from motivated young French men and women, he added: “It is an act of trust in our youth.”
Initially, numbers will be restricted to 3,000 next year, but this should rise to 50,000 by 2035.
France currently has around 200,000 military personnel and a further 47,000 reservists. The new scheme should usher in a three-tier structure, comprising professionals, reservists and volunteers.
The change brings France in line with other European countries that have launched military service schemes – with varying parameters – because of fears of Russian aggression.
Belgium and the Netherlands have introduced a voluntary military service, and Germany is planning something similar.
. . . . Further east, Lithuania and Latvia have compulsory schemes, with cadets chosen by lottery. Sweden, which recently joined Nato, has started a nine- to 15-month military service with selection on merit.
Some European countries, like Finland and Greece, have never stopped military service, while the Swiss are to vote on Sunday on replacing mandatory service for men with compulsory civic duty for all.
This ain’t no fricking draft! In fact, I don’t see how it differs from voluntary, limited-time enlistment in the French military. Maybe the salaries are higher or the ages younger, and surely ten months is shorter than a normal period of enlistment. But I don’t see how this will help France if it has to fight Russia. No young person with any sense is going to volunteer for ten months if war with Russia is brewing. And Russia won’t be put off by a bunch of young, green French people trainint to fight. They don’t mention Israel, which has a compulsory three-year draft for men (save Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, who can volunteer if they want), and two years for women. (Women serve a year less because they may want to have a child.)
*Since I’ve featured high-priced auction items (a Klimt painting, Superman Comic #1) in the past few weeks, I’ll proffer another item that’s going to be auctioned off at a high price: a Fabergé crystal egg. From the AP:
A rare crystal and diamond Fabergé egg crafted for Russia’s ruling family before it was toppled by revolution is going up for auction, valued at more than 20 million pounds ($26.4 million).
Christie’s auction house says the Winter Egg is just one of seven of the opulent ovoids remaining in private hands. It will be offered for sale at Christie’s London headquarters on Tuesday.
The 4-inch (10-centimeter) tall egg is made from finely carved rock crystal, covered in a delicate snowflake motif wrought in platinum and 4,500 tiny diamonds. It opens to reveal a removable tiny basket of bejewelled quartz flowers symbolizing spring.
Margo Oganesian, the head of Christie’s Russian art department, likened it to a luxurious Kinder Surprise chocolate.
One of just two created by female designer Alma Pihl, the egg was commissioned by Czar Nicholas II for his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna as an Easter present in 1913. Pihl’s other egg is owned by Britain’s royal family.
Craftsman Peter Carl Fabergé and his company created more than 50 of the eggs for Russia’s imperial family between 1885 and 1917, each elaborately unique and containing a hidden surprise. Czar Alexander III started the tradition by presenting an egg to his wife each Easter. His successor, Nicholas II, extended the gift to his wife and mother.
Here’s the Winter Egg, and it’s a beaut:
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili, who hates Winter, is already anticipating Spring:
Me: You seem troubled.
Hili: Not at all – I’m just counting the days to spring.
In Polish:
Ja: Wyglądasz na zmartwioną.
Hili: Nie, liczę dni do wiosny.
*******************
From The English Language Police:
From Things With Faces, a permanently wowed cat:
From Stacy:
Masih takes out after someone who compared the burqa to nuns’ habits:
STOP comparing Afghan women in burqas with Christian nuns.
1- Nuns do not get beaten, jailed, or killed if they remove their veil.
2-Their commitment applies only to themselves not to every woman in the country.
3-In Iran and Afghanistan, it doesn’t matter if you’re Muslim or… https://t.co/YTfry4qPEK pic.twitter.com/74EkjhqiBz
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) November 27, 2025
The first post of a good thread (retweeted by Emma Hilton) explaining why we don’t beef about differences in size and strength within men’s football or basketball, but why it’s nevertheless wrong to allow trans-identified men to compete in women’s sports. This is a familiar argument for allowing trans women to compete in women’s sports. But read the whole thread:
I often see people justify males competing against women by saying athletic advantages are part of sports citing how tall girls have an advantage in basketball. The following describes how this exact argument establishes a need to have a category protection for female sports. 🧵
— Jess Kruchoski (@JessKruchoski) December 12, 2023
An excellent post by Simon which explains why humans live about 80 years:
This video explains “LIFE” in a nutshell..‼️ pic.twitter.com/nxY1ZNK4I3
— Manly Mentor (@manly_mentor) December 22, 2024
One from Malcolm; driving the Dog Bug:
This may be one of the best jobs in the worldpic.twitter.com/HVNC3OAWf7
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 5, 2025
One from my feed. UH-OH!:
oh my god 🐾 pic.twitter.com/ImErkwPHci
— 🐶dog🐶 (@dog964450058141) November 27, 2025
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This French Jewish girl was gassed to death as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was six years old and would be 87 today had she lived. https://t.co/qmpiKUIhkv
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) November 28, 2025
. . . and two from Dr. Cobbbbbbb. First, Francis Crick’s wild and infamous parties:
I'm often asked about the Cricks' Cambridge parties, which are mainly known through rumour and reputation.Here's the late Lisa Jardine, who as Lisa Bronowski was a student at Cambridge in the 60s and a family friend, through her Dad, and went to those parties. This was recorded in about 2009.
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-11-26T17:27:31.523Z
A lovely flyby of Earth:
Hey.Wanna see what it looks like to fly past your home planet?THEN LOOK AT THISThis is the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft's view as it swung by Earth on Tuesday, 23 September 2025 from an altitude of 3,500 km.Look how beautiful that big blue marble is ❤️
— Paul Byrne (@theplanetaryguy.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T21:05:59.469Z
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Normal is the average of deviance. -Rita Mae Brown, writer (b. 28 Nov 1944)
Wow. The french toast in the picture looks just perfect. Thank you for spending Thanksgiving Day yesterday preparing this morning’s Hili.
The OSIRIS-APEX video is great. After watching the Starship Enterprise drop into make believe orbits around planets over the years on made-up Star Trek tv video, this is what a real planet looks like. Thanks!
+1
Regarding Trump’s conversation with Takaichi, since when has Donald-I-just-want-to-find-11,780-votes Trump ever been subtle?
The shooting of the National Guardsmen was just tragic and hit way too close to home for me. I walk in that area regularly, and my husband watched the chaos unfold from his office window (not the shooting itself but the immediate aftermath). And one of those shot (the young man) is from the same area of our weekend place in WV, and many in the community know his parents. And while I’m increasingly skeptical about our ability to mass assimilate Muslims (read: Muslim men) into western society, I also have many former colleagues from my days in Afghanistan who I’ve been trying to help get into the US, and that door is now firmly shut for the foreseeable future. It all feels very hopeless at the moment.
It is sad all around. We don’t yet know what was going on with the shooter.
On the bright side, if Afghanis who worked for the coalition forces of the Great Satan are still alive, they were probably really working for the Taliban, or have since paid off the right people or tapped into the right family connections to ensure that bygones will be bygones. My inclination is not to worry about them now that the door is shut. If you were conflicted before, now you can say, “Well, the law’s the law.”
Also consider that your former fellow-travelers may now hate you for running out on them and might prove to be holding undesirable grudges. You don’t know to what extent a good person will sour when his hopes are dashed. The very ones who were the most committed may now prove to be the most dangerous, because they were the ones you taught how to lie and kill.
On top of being Muslim.
Yes Leslie, on all counts.
I can’t help thinking that going forth, social media plus AI, could be a helpful filter for ALL potential immigrants and visitors. Consider that now millions visit, a flood that (a few tens of thousands of) diplomats have no hope against. “Vetting”.
Like: “Before you get your visa waiver/visa/ arrival.. please deposit your social media handles for our AI machine to troll through” – COULD help.
Look for “death to America” posts/tweets/ etc.
(I wouldn’t be admitted –anywhere– of course 🙂
D.A.
NYC
On the dim side, with a stance like that you won’t get cooperation with foreign civilians who are not enemy plants.
Is it the US way to go “He risked a lot to help us? Lol! What an idiot!”?
I get that feeling, that the shooter might have been embittered that he risked a lot for the US but had to.leave people important to him behind under the power of the Taliban. That would at least be an understandable motive.
If so then presumably some recent event provoked him, maybe the execution of someone left behind.
I reasonably gather that now the shooter has also left behind in Washington state additional people important to him, his wife and children. It didn’t take long at all for someone to bring up mental illness as an explanation (justification/rationalization) for his behavior. No doubt his wife and children take solace and comfort in that. Who did he think was going to look after them and shield them from the fallout? Allah? (If some in the Afghan community had some prior notification of his intentions, what would they have done about it?)
I might add to the comparison of the nun’s habit and the burqa that very few orders require the wearing of the habit anymore. This has been the case for decades.
That dog and cat video looks AI generated.
Yes, the cat completely ignores the mama d*g when the door opens. The interactions between cat and puppy seem to be genuine.
That’s what the community note says in Portuguese.
What is the point of these stupid AI creations. It is easy enough to take pictures of real dogs and cats playing silly.
I have wondered from time to time if it would not have been better for Ukraine to pretty much let Russia take over from the beginning, with a long term plan to regain independence after an extended but less bloody guerrilla war. This would have saved thousands of lives and infrastructure. The occupation would be continually frayed such that the Russian troops would not know safety, and would be further taxed with very long supply lines that would need defending at heavy cost. The next Russian leader (this would be the long-term plan) would have the opportunity to cut their losses and find a way out.
I’ve considered that also, Mark, esp when I look at the just… horrible, murderous war.
Trouble is…. “Russkii Mir” /Russia World is…. terrible. They had to ruin Grozny, Chechnya to save it. And Russians (Royal, USSR or Gangsta editions) are like bedbugs or herpes, you can’t get rid of ’em. Ask a Pole, a Latvian, a Siberian.
I don’t think they have a long term plan.
(See the works of Stephen Kotkin, Stalin biographer,, he’s at Stamford/Hoover and prob the best international/Russian analyst out there. Also, hilarious. Like Joe Pesci!)
best to you Mark.
D.A.
NYC
I look forward to hearing David French similarly hold forth on “U.S.-led NATO proxy war” or Victoria Nuland’s activities or George Kennan’s evaluation of NATO eastward expansion, or former U.S. ambassador William Burns’s “Nyet means Nyet” memo or James Baker’s “not one inch” declaration about eastward expansion of NATO. (Re: George Washington University’s National Security Archive.)
As a European I am deeply grateful Ukraine chose to fight. Else it would now be the Baltics under attack by Russia using Ukrainian men as cannon fodder.
Would the US have let NATO fall apart? If not, they’d have even larger expenses fighting the actual Russian rather than sending pittance to Ukraine.
Oh… and China would already been eyeing Taiwan – or would have already absorbed it if the US fought Russia to keep NATO.
Are you grateful for the inherent and increasing instability and danger of the U.S. (neocon) insistence on expanding NATO eastward during the last three decades?
I’ve been reading about how the countries of Europe are re-thinking their military needs. With the U.S. a less predictable partner, European countries are slowly taking more responsibility for their own defense. Now France is making noises about bolstering its defense. With Russia on the prowl, I’m worried that we may be heading for a pan-European conflict. Will the Europeans—and the less-than-certain Americans—be able to deter Russia simply by posturing? Or will they have to take kinetic moves against Russia? Europe really should start by boycotting Russian oil, but (from what I understand) they aren’t doing so. Another wildcard is the question of how long Putin will remain in power. He seems healthy still, and even if he recedes from the scene it’s not clear who will succeed him or what his successor’s intentions may be regarding Ukraine and the recreation of the Russian Empire. The same is true of Trump, his (unknown) successor, and America’s commitment to European peace. We’re heading into a perilous period.
But let’s at least have some delicious French toast!
The EU is mostly boycotting Russian oil. Exceptions are Hungary and Slovakia, who are openly pro-Russia.
Russia has put a huge effort into finding allies. They at one point had armies of people writing on social media (in many languages) pushing Russian talking points. I see those talking points to this day.
Russia also supports parties like AfD in Germany. Hungary and Slovakia were big wins.
Partly this is an extension of the old USSR propaganda work.
Good to hear. A Reuters report indicates a 2028 end to Russian oil usage by the EU. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/eu-sticks-planned-russian-oil-exit-by-2028-energy-chief-says-2025-09-05/
What are Europeans paying for American natural gas as compared to Russian?
AI (making the obligatory caveat that it can occasionally “make mistakes”) tells me that it’s a minimum 30% more. Ought this highly offend the delicate sensibilities of the implacable U.S. capitalist? Apparently not, as the increased cost is not negatively but positively affecting the U.S. capitalist. The increased revenue is in the “interest” of the U.S. Former U.S. secretary of state Blinken made a public statement looking forward to opportunities for U.S. natural gas producers. If memory serves me, the NY Times a couple of years ago issued an editorial from atop Mount Olympus admonishing Europeans to the effect to take it on the chin for the sake of the greater Western good. (When has the U.S. much if any ever thusly taken it on the chin?)
Does there remain any residual Western mainstream media curiosity about the mystery of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage? Wouldn’t solving that be worth a Pulitzer Prize to some ambitious reporter?
Russia is selling cheap because they’re under sanctions.
Pipeline sabotage has been tracked to Ukrainians saboteurs (an act of war).
US capitalists aren’t offended by higher prices. Kind of an odd thing to say. It’s not how much it costs, it’s how much it makes. Your cost is my revenue, in other words. That should be obvious. Don’t buy American gas if you think it costs too much.
AI confirms common sense that much of the extra price is the cost of chilling the gas to liquid in Baltimore, shipping it super cold all the way to Europe, and then re-gasifying it. Thousands of people on both sides of the Atlantic work in that industry. It’s not pure profit to the Texan who owns the gas well.
I don’t see the “American capitalist” as one fat Wall St. tycoon in a top hat and spats lighting his Cuban cigars with $100 bills while he exploits European socialists. Rather it’s the shareholders in the multinational oil and gas industry and the shipping industry, which includes European capitalists as well, all eager to reap profit from the business opportunity created by understandable squeamishness over Putin’s pipelines. The European LNG infrastructure had been under-used, thanks to Nord Stream. Now it will stand and deliver.
Perhaps you should answer the questions,
You seem to be more annoyed that some investor somewhere might actually make a profit off the sale and shipping of American gas, rather than discussing the merits of the case.
When Europe suffers military casualties for the sake of the greater Western good, then you can be snide about America taking it on the chin.
There was the news a while ago that members of the EU were spending more to buy Russian oil than they were aiding Ukraine. I hope that is rectified.
If you look at Russian energy exports to Europe you’ll find that they have massively declined. Not to zero but to an extent where zero wouldn’t be much worse for the Russian budget.
I don’t understand the fixation with the rest amount. Europe has contributed massively compared to the US.
FX – Again I agree with your posts, this one and the one above about Russian intentions and Euro reactions to that.
Particularly the former “captive states” of the Warsaw Pact who know the horrors of Russia world. Verses us for whom it is an abstraction as alien as… Islam, say. We don’t know how good we got it.
Russia’s purse is kept full-ish by sly oil sales (at a crushing discount) to China and India, something the recent Trump 2nd order sanctions might… impact.
And.. Putin’s kicking the financial can down the road (ends in bankruptcy of course, but that is somebody other than Putin’s problem.)
RussaWorld/ Russki Mir.. is a force as evil as Islam.
keep posting FX, always enjoy.
D.A.
NYC
Have to be careful about what we mean by Russian “oil”. Hungary and Slovakia are the landlocked EU countries where a Russian oil pipeline enters the EU (via Ukraine), and they have no alternative sources for oil and few alternatives fuels to displace oil. Their gas also comes by Russian pipeline. They have no connections with North Sea ports. AI says oil exports from Russia are down from 27% of EU’s oil (crude + refined products) to 3%, but this doesn’t tell us how much this means in total volume. More informative is the absolute monetary value of Russian oil imports to EU, now only 6% of pre-war. This reduction was born by countries with choices, i.e., ones that get sea-borne oil from countries other than Russia, which Hungary and Slovakia can not, and which have technology to switch to other fuels, which H & S do not, being still backward post-Soviet states. They are also continental and cold, vulnerable to winter weather.
Russian gas is a different story. The EU is more dependent on Russian gas than it is on Russian oil. Russian gas imports are fully 1/3 what they were pre-war, on a larger base value, so now €13 billion quarterly. This includes pipeline gas (to H & S) and LNG by ship to other customers.
China by itself and combined with India and Turkiye massively exceed the EU as foreign customers of Russian energy.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/3/how-much-of-europes-oil-and-gas-still-comes-from-russia
The other complication is that neither the EU nor its sovereign countries “imports” anything. Supply contracts are all negotiated by private firms and by partially state-owned utilities acting like private firms to meet their individual energy needs. Not only is the EU not going to let Hungarians and Slovakians freeze in the dark and immobilize their motor transport this winter, it has only limited ability to tell the energy wholesalers operating in those countries not to buy the Russian supplies that keep that from happening.
Russia is not at war with any EU member state. It is not realistic to expect that any EU country will boycott or embargo a critical resource like energy beyond its reasonable ability to arrange alternative supplies. Canada was at one time asked if we could be an alternative supplier of gas to Germany. We said No. (And to be fair, our gas is on the wrong side of the country. Not the aboriginals, the environmentalists, or the province of Québec will ever allow a gas pipeline to reach the Atlantic Ocean or an LNG plant to be built at the end. So No was the right answer.)
I don’t think we can knock the EU or any member country on Russian energy. The lights have to stay on. Europe’s energy geology is coal. ’nuff said.
If the puppy bus wasn’t AI – if it were real – I’d totally sign up for that job! An aside – I notice dogs here in dog friendly Manhattan are better socialised than their suburban cousins. The “exposure theory” at work. Maybe humans also… ? 🙂
And – hilariously – it is easy to tell people from dog-unfriendly countries (PRChina, Sth Asia, Africa)… they’re often afraid of dogs, even my small cute 20lb dog Aussie. Like…. really afraid (unlike Americans). Last week another African delivery guy (I asked.. Burkina Faso) freaked out in our elevator when we got in – even tho “Aussie” is in a stroller (he’s old) 🙂
D.A.
NYC
Are you sure the puppy bus is AI? I’ve seen videos of puppy buses dating to before AI, and the dogs in those videos were just as wildly enthusiastic about going to doggy day care as these dogs.
How is PRC dog-unfriendly? I’ve been in shopping malls in several Chinese cities where they provide carts with dog seats.
In a mall in Shenzhen I saw a cat wearing a little outfit wandering around (I can send our host a picture if he’s interested).
Life In A Nutsell? Makes as much sense as many of the religions.
At least it’s good to know that god is willing to negotiate…
Not to be rude, but many of the people working on Black Friday are not workaholics, they work for businesses that are open, such as grocery stores, restaurants, and airlines.
Yes, I was just joking, but I do acknowledge and appreciate those who worked on the Thanksgiving holiday.
PCCE wrote about the day after Thanksgiving “…November 28, 2025, and all Americans get the day off unless they’re workaholics.”
Not true. All those people working retail today make Black Friday possible. They work because they need the money and if they refuse they will be fired. I know this from personal experience. Even some people who have “professional” jobs don’t get today off, like a friend’s husband who is a software developer. My vet’s office is open, as are many physicians’ and dentists’ offices and pharmacies. Even my public library is open.
Personally, I think the USA should make the Friday after Thanksgiving a national holiday. This way everybody who is forced to work can get double overtime… and we all get a four-day weekend. But this will never happen, sadly.
Would you be willing to pay the higher prices that firms would have to charge if they were compelled to pay double overtime for work on Friday that was no more productive of wealth than work done on other days? Don’t say you would because you like everyone else expects low low sale prices on Black Friday! If workers get paid too much, customers will switch to Amazon or not buy at all.
Jerry was of course only kidding that only workaholics work on holidays, and on days that people think should be holidays, so I won’t dwell, except to thank them, on the people providing life-saving services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to customers who can’t pay anything at all, much less double overtime.
That PCC(E) was kidding was not at all evident to me. I will assign blame to myself for my lack of cognitive acuity. Mea culpa. Perhaps I am too much the literalist, though I think I generally recognize satire when I see it.
‘Welcome to a “no work” Friday in America: it’s November 28, 2025, and all Americans get the day off unless they’re workaholics.’
By the nature of their work I reasonably gather that military, police, fire fighters, EMTs, hospital, retail, restaurant and hotel staff are workaholics. And whoever cooks for and cleans up after Thanksgiving (and will have it to do again at Christmas).