We have your address

 

Russia published a list of factories supplying Ukraine's drone parts. 

Explaining that they are targets.

Johannesburg leaks 47% of its water

 A big part of Phillips' diagnosis focused on how water services are organised. The law separates two roles; the water services authority (WSA) – to oversee and regulate services – and the water services provider (WSP), responsible for distributing water. Johannesburg Water is the WSP and the municipality is the WSA. Phillips is the city's water boss.

• In theory the separation is meant to improve accountability. In practice, Phillips stated, accountability is weakened as water services are absorbed into the wider municipal bureaucracy. Responsibility is spread across multiple departments. Procurement sits in one place. Staffing decisions in another. Billing and revenue collection elsewhere.
• WSP’s are supposed to be self-sustaining, feeding their revenue from water sales back into day to day operations, maintenance and repairs. This model is breaking down as municipalities lose 47% of the water they buy before it generates any revenue due to leaks, illegal connections and poor metering. In addition, municipalities can legally use this revenue to fund other municipal functions.
• As a remedy, Phillips proposed a move towards a utility model in which providers control their revenue, are professionally managed and accountable, with control over the functions needed to recover costs and deliver services.
• Legislative reforms, including the Water Services Amendment Bill and National Treasury proposals on ring-fencing revenue, would, in his view, promote further improvements.
• He said Johannesburg needs a new approach to water provision, one that aligns responsibility with authority and supports stable, accountable service delivery. The critical issue is to replace current, dysfunctional structures with effective ones. Any model will fail unless it incorporates three elements: competition, incentives and regulations that hold operators to clear standards.

I understand he is proposing something like the Israeli Taagidey Maim, which has led to a vast new bureaucracy.  

President Trumps's Mail

 See this.

 https://x.com/i/status/2043388063963873633

Strongest Currency: THE SHEKEL

 

The Israeli Shekel added 22% vis-a-vis US$ this year. Meaning: Israeli export economy is very strong, and in fact, we are prospering. 

That while we are fighting a war against Iran, Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, and of course, pacifying the rebellious Gaza Strip.  

Horse Country

 

#OnThisDay in AD 1241, the Mongol Empire defeated the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi. In the aftermath, 50-80% of settlements in the Hungarian plains were destroyed, as evidenced by the lack of parish churches in the central Carpathian Basin.

In Central Hungary, the Tisza-Duna lowlands were populated by Mongol/Cuman horse-loving nomads. This was the consequence of the planned Mongol extermination policy to create vast open pasture, similar to their homeland in Asia. Even today, the area is called puszta (from the root pusztitani = to exterminate) and is open horse land. The same policy was debated when conquering Northern China, but in the end, Genghis Khan and his sons decided to enslave and exploit the highly productive natives. 

Spanish Obsession

 

Front page of the Spanish daily ABC with an oversized picture of the Israeli premier, with the title that Netanyahu is menacing Spain.

It reminds me of Orwell's 1984 where they projected a pic of Emmanuel Goldstein for the daily two minutes of hate. 

No Ceasefire here

 IDF Chief of Staff Zamir during a visit inside Lebanon:

“We are not in a ceasefire; the IDF is in a state of war. Iran is much weaker, and Hezbollah understands it is isolated.”