Now that our tasty liaison is over, the monster slaughtered, the palace going under, the black-draped ships embarked, and I’m stuck on this feckless island with a dipsomaniac in lion skins, and you’ve sailed off to do your father and pretend it was an accident, like the hypocrite you are
I might as well tell you: the minotaur was my friend. Or not friend. More like an associate. I’d go in there through the labyrinth, which I knew in the dark, luckily, because it was always dark, holding on to my silver thread, and consult him about things.
What thing? you wonder. You know—the future, the death of kings, the meanings of snakeskins and birds’ intestines. His answers were exact, Though muffled.
In return I brought him morsels. Youths with edged weapons and grandiose plans, like you. I stood on the far side of the room, steering clear of the horns. He could get out of hand and was prone to tantrums.
In the food fights, he always won, and would have won against you too, if I hadn’t cheated. I spiked the wine, what else?
I thought I was trading prophecy for love. Bad choice. But I’ve got news for you: You’ve made a bad choice too.
Now that our tasty liaison is over, the monster slaughtered, the palace going under, the black-draped ships embarked, and I’m stuck on this feckless island with a dipsomaniac in lion skins, and you’ve sailed off to do your father and pretend it was an accident, like the hypocrite you are
I might as well tell you: the minotaur was my friend. Or not friend. More like an associate. I’d go in there through the labyrinth, which I knew in the dark, luckily, because it was always dark, holding on to my silver thread, and consult him about things.
What thing? you wonder. You know—the future, the death of kings, the meanings of snakeskins and birds’ intestines. His answers were exact, Though muffled.
In return I brought him morsels. Youths with edged weapons and grandiose plans, like you. I stood on the far side of the room, steering clear of the horns. He could get out of hand and was prone to tantrums.
In the food fights, he always won, and would have won against you too, if I hadn’t cheated. I spiked the wine, what else?
I thought I was trading prophecy for love. Bad choice. But I’ve got news for you: You’ve made a bad choice too.
The picture was mixed overseas. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.6%, under pressure from U.S. regulatory scrutiny on New York-listed Chinese companies. Stocks were more buoyant in Europe, where Frankfurt’s DAX surged 1.4%. Perpetrators of these scams will create a public group on Telegram to promote these investment packages that are usually accompanied by fake testimonies and sometimes advertised as being Shariah-compliant. Interested investors will be asked to directly message the representatives to begin investing in the various investment packages offered. Overall, extreme levels of fear in the market seems to have morphed into something more resembling concern. For example, the Cboe Volatility Index fell from its 2022 peak of 36, which it hit Monday, to around 30 on Friday, a sign of easing tensions. Meanwhile, while the price of WTI crude oil slipped from Sunday’s multiyear high $130 of barrel to $109 a pop. Markets have been expecting heavy restrictions on Russian oil, some of which the U.S. has already imposed, and that would reduce the global supply and bring about even more burdensome inflation. But the Ukraine Crisis Media Center's Tsekhanovska points out that communications are often down in zones most affected by the war, making this sort of cross-referencing a luxury many cannot afford. Telegram, which does little policing of its content, has also became a hub for Russian propaganda and misinformation. Many pro-Kremlin channels have become popular, alongside accounts of journalists and other independent observers.
from fr