Some people have asked how to donate relief to a reputable entity. This is timely
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Russia/Ukraine conflict
- Thread starter amolina
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Some people have asked how to donate relief to a reputable entity. This is timely
Darn Luxers always trying to shove their way into international affairs, just because if you go on a bike ride you need a passport and it goes downhill from there.I was a tad leery at that presentation, and found my suspicions justified. From data.worldbank.org 2022 GDP.
Rounded to the nearest billion US$, we have:
Netherlands: $991 bn, Belgium: $579bn
to total $1,570 bn
Yes! There was no justification for including Luxembourg in that map.
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I don't quite follow this. The big give up of weapons by Ukraine was in the 90s when they traded their nukes for security guarantees. Blinken was a fairly low level functionary in the State Department then.
Unfortunately Armenia is not in a place where western countries can help them. They are boxes in by Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbajan. Georgia has a puppet government friendly to Putin, Turkey wants Armenia gone, and Azerbajan is the aggressor.
The walls are closing in.
Hitler probably wouldn't have been able to do much because Germany was way behind on developing nuclear weapons. After the war the allies found out how little progress they had made.
Germany's problem was that pre-war their best Physicists were almost all Jewish. They all escaped leaving the country with a brain drain in the basic science needed to develop nuclear weapons.
If Hitler had nuclear weapons he would have used them. We didn't really come to grips with how awful the aftermath of those weapons were until after the war and we looked at the effects on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as those exposed during nuclear testing.
My father moved his family out from Michigan to California in the early 50s when they were doing above ground tests in the Southwestern US. They drove through Arizona and New Mexico on the journey. Every one of them developed cancer in the late 60s. His parents died of something else and my father had successful surgery to remove his, but his sister died of it.
Good info from the Brits on the Challenger-2 Tank.
It can fire a longer range and more accurately than other tanks.
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petit_bateau
Active Member
Almost two decades too late
www.theguardian.com
Romania
www.theguardian.com
Bizarre
www.theguardian.com
UK proscribing Wagner group as terrorist ‘will help Ukrainians sue’
Lawyer leading refugees’ case says British designation would also weaken Russian mercenary force straight away
www.theguardian.com
Romania
Nato pledges ‘strong solidarity’ with Romania over likely Russian drone debris
Romanian president deplores potential ‘serious violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Romania, a Nato ally’
www.theguardian.com
Bizarre
UK government’s refusal to confirm Skripal spy role is ‘surreal’, lawyers say
Michael Mansfield KC criticises argument for restriction orders before inquiry into 2018 novichok poisoning of Dawn Sturgess
www.theguardian.com
So mostly a slow couple of days as Ukraine has regrouped. We have seen an intense amount of counter battery fire though, russian artillery losses are in the 30+ units a day for days now. I suspect we'll see some significant moves soon, we'll see.
petit_bateau
Active Member
I don't necessarily agree with this article re China, but it will doubtless be of interest to many here. The direct relevance to Russia is that China (or more accurately Xi Jinping) has less room and time for manoeuvre than is often believed in the West. And that in turn matters to Russia.
(the comments below are equally interesting)
unherd.com
(the comments below are equally interesting)
Has Xi Jinping bankrupted China?
It is finally possible to imagine a post-Communist regime
unherd.com
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My industry is fairly directly impacted by China real estate consumption of wood products. Markets have been tough, very tough.I don't necessarily agree with this article re China, but it will doubtless be of interest to many here. The direct relevance to Russia is that China (or more accurately Xi Jinping) has less room and time for manoeuvre than is often believed in the West. And that in turn matters to Russia.
(the comments below are equally interesting)
Has Xi Jinping bankrupted China?
It is finally possible to imagine a post-Communist regime
This might be a genuine concern. They clearly need more AD systems and likely better quality than the old Soviet systems.
thebalkan.press
Ukrainian Air Force Spokesman Admits Russian Drones Are Evading Ukraine’s Air Defences
In an interview on Radio Liberty, Yuri Ignat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, admitted that Ukrainian forces are finding it increasingly difficult to intercept and shoot down Russian missiles and drones. Ignat admitted that Russian projectiles are capable of changing course in seconds...
thebalkan.press
If true, this is some real *sugar*. Supposedly Musk turned off Starlink so Ukrainian drones couldn't attack Russian ships.
CNN —
Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt adapted from Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire titled “Elon Musk.”
MODERATOR in-post edit:
This post is being flagged for its disseminating false material - because long reversed decisions make the post completely wrong. “If true…” does not absolve whatsoever. Subsequent revelations MUST be included - the entire episode has multifacted nuances.
Consider this a public warning not to post misleading, inflammatory, outdated misinformation. The subsequent dozen or so posts attest to what happens.
CNN —
Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt adapted from Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire titled “Elon Musk.”
MODERATOR in-post edit:
This post is being flagged for its disseminating false material - because long reversed decisions make the post completely wrong. “If true…” does not absolve whatsoever. Subsequent revelations MUST be included - the entire episode has multifacted nuances.
Consider this a public warning not to post misleading, inflammatory, outdated misinformation. The subsequent dozen or so posts attest to what happens.
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I don’t think there is any question that this is true… it was confirmed by the Pentagon. I understand not wanting one’s product, technology to be “used for war” but IF you give them something, make a big MARKETING and ALTRUISTIC post about it, and then talk with the Russians / Putin, and then all of a sudden get your Machiavellian conscious back, well that’s on you when ppl find out about it.
They are using the Swedish satellite on the boats
It's true, and it's also old news. Elon/SpaceX turned Starlink service in that region back on after the Ukrainian govt. contacted them. I'm sure it's a subject that will get dredged back up inumerable times in the coming years.
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
UKR has started to drop landmines from drones.
Buckminster
Well-Known Member
Love to see one of those contacting a Russian helicopter. And one of them dropped on each truck-tire covered Russian bomber too.
BitJam
Active Member
Ronan Farrow wrote an article about this a few weeks ago in the New Yorker:
Elon Musk's Shadow Rule
Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule
How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.
Last October, Colin Kahl, then the Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, sat in a hotel in Paris and prepared to make a call to avert disaster in Ukraine. A staffer handed him an iPhone—in part to avoid inviting an onslaught of late-night texts and colorful emojis on Kahl’s own phone. Kahl had returned to his room, with its heavy drapery and distant view of the Eiffel Tower, after a day of meetings with officials from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. A senior defense official told me that Kahl was surprised by whom he was about to contact: “He was, like, ‘Why am I calling Elon Musk?’ ”
The reason soon became apparent. “Even though Musk is not technically a diplomat or statesman, I felt it was important to treat him as such, given the influence he had on this issue,” Kahl told me. SpaceX, Musk’s space-exploration company, had for months been providing Internet access across Ukraine, allowing the country’s forces to plan attacks and to defend themselves. But, in recent days, the forces had found their connectivity severed as they entered territory contested by Russia.
IMHO this should not be a big scandal. Was it handled perfectly? No, but in our imperfect world, things seldom are. IMO the root of the problem is that Musk jumped in to help Ukraine faster than the governments and bureaucracies could deal with it or respond appropriately. Farrow goes on to say Musk gave an ultimatum about getting paid for the Starlink services they were providing for free. I did not see an ultimatum or threat. I saw that he asked to get paid and that caused a silly uproar.
If someone has a link to an ultimatum, please share it. People acted like it was an ultimatum because Elon did have the power to turn off Starlink access in Ukraine on a whim. Ironically, what he was asking for that caused the uproar was to be let out of that position of control by getting an actual contract to provide the service.
There are many things Elon does that I strongly disagree with but IMO he was mostly a hero when he provided Starlink service to Ukraine so quickly. Of course, no good deed will go unpunished.
Someone needs to straighten out Denys about CNN & Starlink; at 14:00 he’s rehashing that misinformation from CNN in his latest video:Ronan Farrow wrote an article about this a few weeks ago in the New Yorker:
Elon Musk's Shadow Rule
[may be paywalled]Elon Musk’s Shadow Rule
How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.www.newyorker.com
Last October, Colin Kahl, then the Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, sat in a hotel in Paris and prepared to make a call to avert disaster in Ukraine. A staffer handed him an iPhone—in part to avoid inviting an onslaught of late-night texts and colorful emojis on Kahl’s own phone. Kahl had returned to his room, with its heavy drapery and distant view of the Eiffel Tower, after a day of meetings with officials from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. A senior defense official told me that Kahl was surprised by whom he was about to contact: “He was, like, ‘Why am I calling Elon Musk?’ ”The reason soon became apparent. “Even though Musk is not technically a diplomat or statesman, I felt it was important to treat him as such, given the influence he had on this issue,” Kahl told me. SpaceX, Musk’s space-exploration company, had for months been providing Internet access across Ukraine, allowing the country’s forces to plan attacks and to defend themselves. But, in recent days, the forces had found their connectivity severed as they entered territory contested by Russia.
IMHO this should not be a big scandal. Was it handled perfectly? No, but in our imperfect world, things seldom are. IMO the root of the problem is that Musk jumped in to help Ukraine faster than the governments and bureaucracies could deal with it or respond appropriately. Farrow goes on to say Musk gave an ultimatum about getting paid for the Starlink services they were providing for free. I did not see an ultimatum or threat. I saw that he asked to get paid and that caused a silly uproar.
If someone has a link to an ultimatum, please share it. People acted like it was an ultimatum because Elon did have the power to turn off Starlink access in Ukraine on a whim. Ironically, what he was asking for that caused the uproar was to be let out of that position of control by getting an actual contract to provide the service.
There are many things Elon does that I strongly disagree with but IMO he was mostly a hero when he provided Starlink service to Ukraine so quickly. Of course, no good deed will go unpunished.
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