leicsmac

Could be building to a grandstand finish here.

Fair enough. I'm pretty sure that is exactly what's happening now anyway. I don't think that Putin is looking to target other nations if he were to claim Ukraine (though not for lack of trying), but at the same time ceding any more land to him and allowing him to dictate terms of what Ukraine can and cannot do in the international community henceforth are unacceptable.

Well, we'll find out, it would seem, given 250 is the exact target.

Then what do you do when the other party is seemingly totally unwilling to give ground and absolutely believe they have the right to grind you into the dust? Genuine question.

NZ bringing it for the big occasion again. NB. You could hear a pin drop in that stadium when Phillips took that.

Is it not obvious that Trump's plan for "peace" is the kind of "peace" that results from debellatio? That has always been the Russian intent and Trump is not going to convince them otherwise - and I'm not sure he'd even make any real effort to do so. I don't think that anyone outside the insane want this war to rumble on any longer than it has or needs to, but I'm not seeing how the alternative being put on the table right now is any more acceptable except to those who think Might Is Right realpolitik should keep ruling the world.

JD Vance. No further elaboration required.

The US are king of logistics, that is true. That being said, I'm pretty sure that Russia are hardly good at that either, so perhaps the drop in effectiveness wouldn't be all that critical.

I think it is warfare - just the kind that is rather brief and very absolute.

If they're used in any capacity then both sides have already lost anyway.

This. And to expand on it, we have the right to disapprove because such ideas are incompatible with the future we will have to live in and thinking and acting otherwise is going to get a lot of people, if not human civilisation itself, fvcking killed. (Emphasis on those last two words.)

Rather different to the events of yesterday, that.

I agree the white ball form has been poor and clearly some rethinking is needed there. However I have no issue with his coaching of the Test team and I honestly think that people who do place expectations that are perhaps too high, considering that the only boxes not ticked have been an Ashes home win (which was down to one inept bowling effort and one poor weather forecast) and a win away in India (which is pretty much the pinnacle and something very few England teams have achieved anyway).

Yeah, that too. As an additional detail, both Russia and China have spent a lot of time and effort creating and nurturing the BRICS bloc as a rival to the Western powers. I wonder how that bloc will hold if Russia seeks to add the tacit support of an isolationist but still anti-China US to it.

I think that would depend on, as it does now, what Russia in general and Putin in particular define as "the survival of the state is threatened".

Oi, I also go on about rockets, international rugby and cricket too, cheeky bastard. In all seriousness though, I think you're spot on with this. And the darkly ironic thing is that the more the Anglosphere tries to prevent that "rest of the world crashing in" through those reactionary politics, the more likely they make it to happen in the form of an utterly cataclysmic tsunami in the future.

Here'shoping that approach this time is both required and effective, then. There's rather a lot at stake. I think an alliance of European, Scandinavian and ANZAC nations could represent a pretty powerful bloc, even without the Chinese.

To say nothing of Canada, Australia and a fair few other nations who will also be watching.

I do hope Starmer is playing some kind of long game, I do think he has the brain for it, but we'll find out, I guess.

Yeah, I think capitalism goes hand in hand with hierarchy, but you're right in that it and realpolitik is the way of the world. It doesn't take a great mind to figure it leads nowhere good, though.

Nah, fvck that hierarchal bollocks Singhy, mate. Politely, of course.

Yeah. Given everything else that's going on and falling into play for them right now, however, I think that one may fall on the "later" rather than the "sooner" side if they choose to do it, given the inherent risk involved.

Pretty much, yes. And the Chinese can just quietly get on with what they're doing.

They've already exported clean energy infrastructure to a lot of sub Saharan Africa. If realpolitik is a contest, then they're quietly winning while not having to do much at all.

On another note, the Chinese must be absolutely loving all of this. Sit back and enjoy (and possibly sell something based on) the chaos. They barely have to do anything.