EU

While the whole world keeps its eyes on the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices, and gas station queues, the real threat is forming somewhere else entirely — on the scorched fields of France, Spain, and Italy. French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard has acknowledged "colossal" damage from the June heat, and agroclimatologist Serge Zaka has bluntly called what's happening a "major agricultural catastrophe." Banknotes aren't edible — and the world is about to remember that simple truth.

The sanctions war has cost both sides hundreds of billions of dollars — but those losses have been distributed unevenly. Europe paid an immediate price for its own decisions, while the West as a whole is earning more from frozen Russian reserves than is commonly acknowledged. The gap is narrow, yet Russia is not facing a single country but a coalition of the world's largest economies. That distinction matters.

What This Story Is Really About