f1ump

black in all ways disruptive.
i am therefore i think.

[TOTS DI BILLION @Vuittots]

Bafana Bafana’s biggest opponent at the World Cup is safa 🙃

[Ibrahima Konate @IbrahimaKonate_]

❤️ @LFC

[G @Gideoomatic]

THIS IS FOOTBALL HERITAGE

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

Liverpool FC can confirm Arne Slot is to depart his role as head coach with immediate effect and that the process to appoint a successor is under way.

He leaves with a Premier League title to his name and our deepest gratitude and appreciation.

[FC Barcelona @FCBarcelona]

Feelin' good culers 😎

[B/R Football @brfootball]

Alexander Isak scores his first goal since coming back from injury 😤

[Samuel @SamueILFC]

“Listen to the fans. Don’t kill the Kop.”

Powerful message. 👏🏻

[Lesilo Rula @kay_mahapa]

In the month that the Ellis Park disaster happened, we have to explain to “football fans” why it’s a bad thing for the SABC flex that there were 101K fans at the last Soweto Derby in a stadium that accommodates max 94K and gets capped below 90K for safety reasons. Unbelievable

[David (TalkingCents) @talkcentss]

People are concerned about South Africa's ability to refine crude oil because some refineries may be down, this leads to increased imports of refined product, such as; diesel and petrol.

Reliance on certain countries during the Middle East tension does creates risk, obviously. There are negative effects that will ripple across the global economy, and South Africa isn't immune to such.

However, there is also plenty of fear mongering, too, making things seem a lot worse than what they actually are.

🔸Based on the 2024 figures, Oman and India accounted for 34 percent (3.6 billion litres) and 20 percent (2.1 billion litres) of South Africa’s diesel imports, respectively.

🔸The UAE and India accounted for 35 percent (1.4 billion litres) and 24 percent (971 million litres) of South Africa’s petrol imports in 2024, respectively. Italy came in third at 12 percent (489 million litres) and Saudi Arabia at 11 percent (4445 million litres).

Now with Oman,

its geography allows much of its oil to be exported through terminals such as (1) Duqm and (2) Sohar located outside the strait of Hormuz, helping the country avoid a complete disruption to their exports. (Now you see why these terminals were also hit by drones, it ties into that ability to export).
__________________________

Some people are hell-bent on seeing South Africa suffer and to cause more panic than necessary.

So we have refining capacity, albeit strained, yes. With most crude oil coming from African markets. This is potential ✅

Yes, we import refined product too, but it is also from diversified sources, albeit with exposure to the Middle East, but their is some resilience ✅

-Yes disruptions will occur
-Yes increased demand may effect our imports
-Yes there will be negative effects

But my point being is that,

South Africa isn't entirely exposed, our energy needs and imports are diversified to an extent where South Africa can mitigate some of the effects. Not all the effects, but at a least there is something.

That is the point.

[David (TalkingCents) @talkcentss]

Cyril Ramaphosa;

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

[Mohit Chauhan @mohitlaws]

Donald Trump asked the world to join a multinational naval coalition to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

🇮🇹 Italy: Rejected
🇪🇸 Spain: Rejected
🇯🇵 Japan: Rejected
🇫🇷 France: Hesitant
🇳🇴 Norway: Rejected
🇨🇦 Canada: Rejected
🇦🇺 Australia: Rejected
🇩🇪 Germany: Rejected
🇨🇳 China: No response
🇬🇧 UK: No commitment
🇳🇱 Netherlands: No response
🇰🇷 South Korea: No confirmation

America looks increasingly isolated.

[SuperSport Football ⚽️ @SSFootball]

Asanele Velebayi and Mfundo Vilakazi come off the bench to provide the creative spark for Amakhosi 🔥

📺 Stream #BetwayPrem live: https://t.co/B0jLrQW5cc

#SSDiski

[Muchi @Sipho_Says]

They got Max in a battle for 5th. I prayed for this 😭

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

Matchday at Anfield 🏟️

We take on Tottenham in the Premier League 👊 #LIVTOT

[Tanning Salon Don @TheSalonDon]

The “Petrodollar” is a system enforced by the US military that makes oil priced in USD

That means every country needs to exchange to USD and have USD reserves to buy oil

Which allows the US to print trillions with minimal inflation

If that is challenged. Your middle class life is over

[Roshan Rai @RoshanKrRaii]

> So Putin was selling oil to India at just $50 a barrel.

> India stopped buying Russian oil under US pressure

> But now India has a waiver to buy Russian energy from the US

> Russia is now telling India it will not give any more discounts because sanctions are gone and India needs Russia now.

> They will now charge $90 a barrel,

- Energy expert Amos Hochstein

If true, this is the biggest L for Indian foreign policy since independence.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

You've got to hand it to Iran: that's masterful asymmetric warfare.

If they pull this off and suddenly oil transiting through Hormuz is traded in Yuan, we're talking potentially close to $1 trillion less in annual demand for dollars (20% of the world's oil + LNG). It'd be insanely impressive to achieve this simply by controlling a 30-mile strait with a few missiles and drones.

And it'd have compounding effects: $1 trillion less in demand for dollars means less foreign buying of US Treasuries, higher borrowing costs in the U.S., more inflation, etc.

Heck even if this doesn't materialize, the mere fact they're suggesting it and that it's taken seriously by mainstream media like CNN is impactful in and of itself: at the end of the day dollar supremacy is also very much based on inertia. But inertia works both ways: once enough people start questioning it, the questioning itself becomes self-reinforcing.

Imagine you're a central banker and you're seeing this: you're undoubtedly telling yourself "mmm, maybe it's time to hold a bit more yuan, just in case."

It's also pretty ironic: the U.S. has weaponized the dollar against others countless times - including, of course, against Iran - but I can't think of a precedent of a country actively at war with the U.S. using the dollar's dominance as a weapon against them. Literally flipping the playbook, which sets an interesting precedent.

All in all, in this war you really have the feeling to witness Sun Tzu's maxim about "knowing the enemy and knowing yourself" in real time: Trump obviously completely failed to understand what he was getting into.

Iran, on the other hand, clearly studied its enemy's vulnerabilities, be it hitting Gulf countries until they question whether being a U.S. ally protects or endangers them, choking oil supply to inflict economic pain the US can't bomb its way out of, or now attacking the dollar itself.

The U.S. only has bombs to reply, but hard to see how they could bomb their way out of problems that were entirely predictable consequences of their bombing in the first place, if anyone had spent five minutes thinking about what Iran might do in response.

[Gigi 🇧🇷 @LitSego]

I really hate that the PSL log and fixtures no longer appear on Google after just one search.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Few things have annoyed me more since the start of the war on Iran than to hear some European politicians repeat the narrative that it was "all about China."

One surprising (and disappointing) example was France’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise, France's main left-wing opposition party, who claimed that the war's objective was to “limit China's oil supply capabilities” (https://t.co/lQrmKo98is).

By saying this he literally parrots - almost word for word - the narrative of Lindsey Graham on Fox News (https://t.co/jBM2wyAipy) or that of the Hudson institute, an American right-wing neoconservative think tank (https://t.co/RxOz0XlMO6). Which, you'll agree, is rather unexpected company for Mélenchon...

Why does it annoy me so much? Because it's painfully obvious that the consequences of this war are far, far worse for Europe than they are for China.

Heck, if anything, this war may even ironically prove beneficial for China: it is quite literally the best advertisement for green energy the world has ever seen. Every day the Strait of Hormuz remains contested, every oil price spike - all of it is a live demonstration of exactly why fossil fuel dependency is a massive strategic liability.

This war is vindicating China's bet in spectacular fashion, and there is little doubt it will further encourage much of the world to buy exactly what China is selling: replacing dependence on whoever controls oil and gas chokepoints with energy from the sun and wind.

See, in large part due to its green energy ramp-up China, as of last year, reached an 85% energy self-sufficiency rate (https://t.co/n9onGBUSRp) which is absolutely remarkable for a country that consumes as much energy as the U.S. and the EU... combined.

The same, however, very much cannot be said of Europe. Where China is at 85% they're at an appalling 41% (https://t.co/KhqZXbhXIh), less than half.

So already, for this alone, Mélenchon should be worrying about Europe, not China. But that's just the beginning - the full picture is much worse.

What is this war, when one strips it to its essence? What is the precedent being set?

You have the world’s most powerful country attacking a sovereign nation, assassinating its leader, and attempting regime change - without even bothering to provide a casus belli (insanely the "casus belli" advanced by Rubio was that the victim would defend itself: https://t.co/uWC9XDauby).

In other words, the world this precedent establishes is a “might makes right” world on steroids, like we haven’t seen in many generations.

And, by definition, in a “might makes right” world what matters is… might. And let's be real: today China has it, and Europe just doesn’t.

For instance, what do you think happens to Greenland if Iran goes the way Trump wants and the lesson he gets out of it is that he can simply do anything he wants with impunity if the other party is weak? And when the Europeans who cheered that precedent then turn around and ask the world to respect their sovereignty? Europe is the kind of power that only survives in a world with rules and they’re foolishly cheering their destruction.

My latest article makes the full case, with the data to back it up. China will be fine, Europe won't and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills because even the precious few politicians who aren't totally vassalized to the U.S. - the Mélenchons of Europe - are starting to work off the exact same delusional script as U.S. neocons, just reading from the opposite side (replying “they’re encircling China” and objecting to neocons saying “we’re encircling China” and cheering).

Which raises the question: who exactly is looking out for Europe?

I don't have an answer but my article, I believe, makes a pretty strong case for why this question has never been more urgent. Read it here: https://t.co/ppXsJAWbEc

[Naveen Ganglani @naveenganglani]

Bam GOES OFF on the "unethical" comments about his 83:

"You're blaming me. You should be blaming the head coach. I was not the one who let me go one on one the whole game until I had 70 then you sent the double. At that point, I had 70 with 9 mins to go. You think I'm not going for it?"

"That's the thing that's crazy when they talk about unethical part of the basketball. If I have 70 w 9 mins to go, who would be like, coach just take me out? Yeah, right!"

"You can't be mad at that. If you are mad, I don't care. A lot of people, they're upset. If they did play, they never got the chance to get that close to chasing greatness. If you get that close, that's the point of chasing it -- so you can surpass it."