Lionator

This sounds a bit paranoid, 24 points is a long way so provided that Norris finishes these last two races, it’s hard to see him not winning it. Even if Verstappen wins them both, he’d still only need 26 points, a 3rd and a 4th.

Norris still obviously wins the title unless he completely flunks it, Qatar is a very easy track to just get it round. Though the gap between the actual best driver and the rest has probably never been bigger in all the time I’ve been watching f1? (Early Schumacher days).

Well true, I’m thinking more how did they get into these positions in the first place? Those three politicians are despised on basically every single issue yet we blindly follow them on foreign policy issues. The UK and EU are nowhere near as democratic as we like to think, it’s close to being a liberal dictatorship. Now, the alternative may be worse of course, but they need to actually give us reason to believe in it.

He won’t even need that, his Dad will just send some money to Key and it’ll be sorted.

I think we will win a test as the Aussies aren’t all that, but we now have to win 3 of the last 4 tests which just isn’t happening.

Just to prove how strategically insane and stupid the main European politicians are these days, Merz, Macron and Starmer are now drafting an ‘alternative peace plan’ for Ukraine which is better for Ukraine? a) why would Russia stop fighting and accept that? b) why weren’t they doing this anyway, rather than waiting for Trump? c) how did we end up with such useless foreign policy politicians?

It’s frustrating because they show how good they can be yet consistently throw it away. Ashes 2023, series in Pakistan 2024, series in New Zealand 2023, last summer v India. We’re in games and then throw them away through sheer reckless action time after time. If we were just simply crap it would be a lot easier to stomach.

Some are in England and some in Australia. It’s lazy, cheap and stupid. They should just use the Aussie feed.

I suppose the only positive we can take from this is that we will win the ashes again in 50 years as Australia won’t exist due to climate change.

The criticism is that it’s the ego that’s actually stopped them being a good team. I’ve blamed him before because he’s the most annoying but Harry Brook, probably the most talented batter we’ve had since 2000 Root aside, throwing his wicket away regularly and then just being like “well it’s just the way we play” in interviews. It’s not weakness to work on your temperament.

Worst part was that prat Vaughan on tms yesterday saying Boland was finished and England would win this game at a canter.

I think Australia might run out of time here. They only have 305 overs left to get it.

Like Langer just said, going to the short ball approach here is such a weak mindset. Pitch it up and aim for the stumps ffs. You have 4 85mph bowlers.

This. It’s funny I was posting about Ukrainians pocketing money on the last page. If any ex-Soviet state was doing what Johnson and co did during the pandemic, we would obviously call it disgusting corruption. That’s what it is. And that’s only the start.

They can go at 2 an over for 2 days if they want and still win comfortably.

Pitch is tricky but not awful so a lot will depend on if this pair survive the new ball. If they get 300+, we’re cooked.

Yep, probably only him and Kasper would be good I think! I’m glad that he’s going for it anyway, if he does well there he’ll shoot through the divisions.

1. In Ukraine there’s NABU which is basically an American ran anti corruption programme which seeks to sniff out corruption which has stopped Ukraine fully integrating into Europe. There’s the domestic SBU too. Zelensky a few months back tried the reduce the powers of the NABU for little reason. The public protested and he overturned his decision. Then last week NABU announced they’d ran an investigation into an oligarch called Timur Mindich who owns the media company which Zelensky co owned as well as Andriy Yermak (essentially the fixer). That company was getting huge energy security contracts and a lot of that money has gone missing and been located to Mindich and his cronies. He escaped the country last week. The allegation is that Zelensky and Yermak would’ve at least known about this, and may even be profiting off it themselves. 2. At the moment Russia doesn’t want an actual war with the rest of Europe because it’s busy in Ukraine. However once it’s over they will have hundreds of thousands of soldiers and billions of rubles of military equipment at the ready. They will invade the Baltic countries so that when the USA doesn’t respond, they will say that NATO is dead. Russian tanks won’t be rolling down Gallowtree Gate but they want to be the dominant power in Europe now that the USA is disengaging.

Didn’t help them in the play offs for the last two world cups. At home you can beat them.

Critical few days in Kyiv by the way. Trump is ultimately prepared to throw Ukraine under the bus, in light that Europe have offered nothing of any merit. Zelenskyy’s mates have been pocketing money that was meant for energy infrastructure, so Ukrainians are becoming divided against the government. Losing critical ground in the east too. If this happens, then we have about 2-3 years to prepare for a great European war.

I think he will make a good manager. Very charismatic and clearly understood the game very well.

The ship isn’t in territorial waters and if it enters it, should be driven out immediately. The laser thing is common is you look at Cold War history as well as what goes on in the South China Sea these days. Also it wasn’t a fast jet, it was a P8 maritime surveillance plane. This ship is bad news, and I’m defending Russians, I’m just saying that the government are highlighting this particular incident as it produces a narrative of ‘strength’ when the majority know we can’t defend our borders from illegal migrants, let alone Russians.

Not defending the Russians but this is relatively normal maritime stuff being used by the government for political gain that they’re strong in defending the country.

Iraq and DR Congo are automatically in the final matches, I’m guessing they’d both want to avoid Bolivia’s side of the draw. Itll also be the first World Cup draw I can remember where all teams aren’t qualified. Will make it an interesting dynamic in terms of how many teams from each confederation can qualify. All in all this has been an amazing week, and for those of us disillusioned with LCFC and the general direction of top level club football, international football alongside non league is the last bastion of wholesomeness.

Would rather Potts than Cook. Potts and Atkinson would clear up on these Aussie pitches, instead we’re going to pack our attack with 90mph sicknotes who could break down at any given moment.