canadaduane

Only 2% of the surveyed enterprises said they were overstaffed, with RBC noting that the stark shortage-to-surplus of workers ratio represents the widest margin in the past 28 years.

According to an April survey by Russia's Central Bank, in the first quarter of 2023, worker shortages in Russia reached their highest level since records began in 1998.

China's increasing misalignment with Russia on any settlement to end the war in Ukraine was reportedly evident at the talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Aug. 5-6.

The Financial Times reported that the Chinese representatives at the meeting were "constructive" and "keen to show that China is not Russia." The Financial Times quoted one European diplomat present at the talks as saying that the "mere presence of China shows Russia is more and more isolated."

The Chinese delegation reportedly indicated its willingness to attend the next meeting of a similar format that will likely also exclude Russia.

A Russian insider source alleged that Russia has rejected China's 12-point peace plan for the war in Ukraine from February 2023 (which the Chinese delegation re-introduced during the talks in Saudi Arabia) and that some Chinese elites are secretly expressing their dissatisfaction with the actions of the Russian leadership regarding a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine.

These reports from the talks in Saudi Arabia and insider allegations, if true, align with ISW's previous assessments that China is not fully aligned with Russia on the issue of Ukraine and that Russia and China's relationship is not a "no limits partnership" as the Kremlin desires.

While Russian pilots were managing to support land operations in the south of Ukraine, they were doing so "without decisive operational effect," the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on Monday.

To compensate, Russia was sending adapted free-fall bombs into Ukrainian territory. However, these had "yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy," it added.

"Over the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 sorties a day, but these are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defenses," the update said.

...

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has been able to gain air superiority in the war so far despite Russia's vastly larger air force. But a military expert previously told Insider that the "advantage is with defense."

The number of Russians vacationing in Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula occupied by Moscow, has fallen by nearly half in recent weeks following attacks carried out by Kyiv.

Hotel bookings fell 45 percent in the second half of July compared with the first two weeks of the month, Russian daily Kommersant reported, citing representatives of the tourism industry. Hotel occupancy is now hovering around 50-60 percent, experts said.

Ukraine on July 16 damaged the bridge connecting Russia with Crimea for the second time in nine months. With commercial air transport to Crimea from Russia halted amid the war in Ukraine, the 19-kilometer bridge had become the main way for Russian tourists to arrive on the peninsula.

Days after the bridge was struck, reportedly by naval drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the transport link must be "neutralized."

Ukraine has also struck Russian assets on Crimea several times in recent weeks, including destroying an ammunition depot and bombing an air base.

Crimea's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, especially during the three summer months, with thousands of jobs at stake.

Crimean hotels have slashed prices by as much as a quarter to attract more tourists. However, they may have little impact, as Kyiv perfects its drone capabilities and steps up attacks on the peninsula and Russian territory.

Ukraine has struck two Russian ships in the Black Sea over the past several days with naval drones while also hitting military targets in Crimea with unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

Russian troops seized Crimea in February 2014 with President Vladimir Putin annexing it the following month. Only a few countries in the world recognize the annexation.

A short documentary by Insider Business showing the manufacturing process of 155mm artillery ammo, and the constraints and challenges allies have in supplying enough of them to Ukraine.

Russia has doubled its 2023 defence spending target to more than $100 billion - a third of all public expenditure - a government document reviewed by Reuters showed, as the costs of the war in Ukraine spiral and place growing strain on Moscow's finances.

The figures shed light on Russia's spending on the conflict at a time when sector-specific budget expenditure data is no longer published.

They show that in the first half of 2023 alone, Russia spent 12%, or 600 billion roubles, more on defence than the 4.98 trillion roubles ($54 billion) it had originally targeted for 2023.

"In particular, the new measures create a closer alignment of EU sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus and will help to ensure that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented through Belarus."

I like to have easy access to an offline dictionary via the Pop Launcher (Super key, followed by "define ").

You can install this dictionary/launcher plugin like so:

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/canadaduane/pop-dictionary/main/install.sh | sh

Then try tapping the Super key (e.g. Windows key, or whatever gets you into your Launcher overlay) then type "define awesome" and you should see the GoldenDict entry for "awesome" pop up.

Hope you enjoy!

Whenever I take a screenshot with Flameshot (an app installed via flatpak) there is a window that pops up asking permission to "share" the screen with Flameshot.

Apparently since August 2022, it is possible in Gnome to check a box once that offers permission forever after, for apps like Flameshot. This way, the screenshot-taking experience is simple and unobstructed.

Has this landed in Pop!_OS yet? Is there a way to enable it?