Lionator

Trump and Witkoff weren’t raised on the US school of foreign policy, they’re very simple people who tend to go with their instinct and whatever can make the most money. The stuff Witkoff has been saying about Gaza is refreshing, it’s surprising he hasn’t been labelled an anti-Semite, because he’s seeing and reacting to the human suffering that’s going on there. The neo-conservative warmongers have very little skin in the game currently, if there’s anything good that’s come from a Trump presidency then it’s this.

If they didn’t have access to medics, he’d probably be dead. Sounds scary but also fortunate.

It’s wild that they used to race at Aintree. I used to have a duke VHS reviewing all of the 70’s seasons and it used to hypnotise me. The cars and sponsors were iconic, the drivers and women incredibly glamorous, drivers being killed left, right and centre. Truly a glorious era that’s sadly (and fortunately in some aspects) long gone.

Other geopolitical news, it was very funny to watch Witkoff go straight over Netanyahu’s head, negotiate with Hamas directly and immediately get a release. Trump seems to be done with that murderous ghoul.

There obviously won’t be a deal in that case.

One on one Putin v Zelenskyy is pointless and it wouldn’t get anywhere. That’s not how negotiations work, there is an element of theatre in it all. They’d likely only meet once a peace deal has been signed. Ukraine need to get their strongest team together led by Yermak and see who Russia put forward, based on that you’ll soon know if they’re serious or not. If Ushakov (Putin’s right hand man) rocks up then these will be serious talks.

Where have you seen that? It seems like something will be going ahead on Thursday. Both sides have been in touch with Türkiye.

I think Russia would want peace but their demands are completely unreasonable, yet there’s no realistic way aside from outside intervention (which would be risky) to make it happen.

Hence why you might as well do it in the first place? Make them look silly, make them look like the problem.

In danger of being called a Russian shill but does anyone find this “negotiations can happen unless there’s a ceasefire” line a bit daft or completely unrealistic?

Just to say, Marinakis should be in a Greek prison now, and the port he owns has a horrendous past of trafficking. Not to mention how he’s helped get Russian resources in Europe throughout the war to keep their economy going. Abramovich got disqualified despite actively trying to solve the war, whereas Marinakis is actively enabling it.

I think out of Cov, Derby and Forest, Derby are by far the most affable fans. The other two seem to have a delusion about them whereas Derby are generally grounded. We need to do the double over them though.

If only they were that cool.

When you look at it, teams over the past 25 years that have had similar seasons to them are the likes of Ipswich, Bolton, Wolves, Southampton, Burnley. All finished in European spaces on merit. They should be thankful to be in that group of teams after their 30 years of misery. It’s about their size I guess.

US / China trade deal seems to have been agreed, which is good for everybody I think.

And now we have Trump demanding that Ukraine attends without a ceasefire, so it seems that Putin has once again won a round of playing up to Trump over the Europeans.

Yeah but I thought they were all from Nottingham

Why they booing Trent the absolute *****??

They’re very basic patterns of play that any team at this level should be doing. It’s damning that were only seeing them now

Cramp

Obviously Russia is the illegal aggressor but the wild thing about this war is the tit for tat childish approaches of both sides in trying to frame the other as the bad guys (is it a Soviet thing). Both accusing each other of breaking ceasefires while both send drones and missiles over the borders. It’s funny because we’re evidently closer to an agreement than at any point, but it still feels so far away. Ukraine/european thinking is still that trump will eventually come around and destroy the Russian economy and send the heaviest non nuclear munitions going, it’s just not going to happen. They need to take this opportunity now, allow Russians to make a fool of themselves in front of a mediator (Erdogan) and let nature take its course

So all the hyperbolic crap in Kyiv yesterday isn’t leading to a ceasefire but Putin has offered direct talks this week with Ukraine, which seems like progress. Will be interesting how Starmer/Macron/Merz respond as Trump basically just endorsed Putin’s position.

That’s an absolutely shocking decision, silly for jumping in but I can’t see how that’s a foul let alone a red card.

It’s interesting to see Trump and Vance learn in real time the negative impact of America First. USA are hands off India/Pakistan, then USA receive some ‘alarming intelligence’, perhaps something related to Pakistani nukes. Most likely the started moving their nukes around to get US attention. Almost immediately Vance and Rubio get involved and within hours there’s a massive de-escalation. Theyre also learning that the Russian’s don’t care about what Europeans say, but that the one thing Putin respects (despite hating), is the USA. It’s like they’re massively underestimating their own soft power.

What a result tonight. 16-26 down at half time. George Ford looking sublime. We win the second half 28-8, basically guarantees a home semi final given we have Newcastle at home to play.