During a tense high-level meeting in Brussels, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the EU’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas that Beijing cannot allow Russia to lose in its war against Ukraine. According to several sources cited by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) on 4 July, China fears that such an outcome would allow the United States to fully pivot its attention to Beijing.

1. The US ain’t doing shit with Russia, so I don’t follow on it being a “distraction”. The US is wholly self absorbed and that’s the distraction.
2. Hey Russia! Nice “ally” you have there.
3. Was China expecting EU support on this strategy?

Over half never came back?

Let’s face it. Nobody who ever saw anything outside North Korea was ever going back to North Korea. You can’t keep the population under control of there’s even the slightest bit of news about the outside world making it in.

It was always a one way trip.

I’m shocked!

There’s a difference between able to see a section of fibre and being able to follow it miles back to the operator.

My take would be they were getting the planes off the ground so that they weren’t destroyed.

Jeez. Doesn’t he know blackface is offensive?

/s

That strike on the arsenal outside Moscow the other week has tee’d all this May 9th anxiety beautifully, and Zenensky is riding the wave like a pro.

They don’t even need to hit it at this point. In fact the cost of trying and failing might be too high Vs just leaving the impression that they could have done it but chose not to.

What’s with Belarus having a schlong?

How dare you use that word!

It’s about Putin wanting to be Vladimir the Great and reforming the Russian Empire.

He wants a legacy, and I think he’ll get one. It just won’t be the one he wants.

One thing I remember from the Brexit “debate” was that many viewed the prospect of the EU having an army as a terrible thing that couldn’t be allowed.

“It’s the Germans wanting to re-militarize under a different flag”

Fast-forward 6 years and Russia invaded Ukraine and the mood has certainly shifted on that one.

“Come on Germany. Get those factories going.”

France, Germany and Italy are giving it a good go too. I think our position on Ukraine has made the UK a lot of friends in Europe. That and voting out the Tories.

Europe is not the Germans.

This time you’ll get the Vikings, the Romans, the Conquistadors, the Spartans and the people who ruled the world by the cunning use of flags all teamed together.

I agree, but it appears to be the weakness of all multi-national organisations. The UN security council is paralyzed by the fact that the US and Russia have veto powers. The League of Nations was similarly paralyzed before it. NATO can’t do anything unless the US is involved, and the EU is hamstring by one nation out of 27.

Just being devil’s advocate, but what’s the point of a voting system when those in power can strip voting rights from a country when their votes are inconvenient.

I’m not supporting Orban here, because he’s a Putin puppet that. However if your system can’t handle a single country disagreeing without needing to cheat the system, you might want to question your system.

Not just guns. The Semtex came from somewhere.

I’m really torn on the whole thing. I don’t want there to be a barrier between the British and Irish, but I also see the appeal of Ireland being whole. We’ve come so far in my lifetime and I like we’ve ended up in this situation where the two countries are just open to each other. It’s a really strong statement given where things were less than 50 years ago.

Those are called shrubs, and there are lots of them.

Country…yes. Nation…no.

I wasn’t trying to correct you, but more to say that Russia is hiding behind the definition. Energy infrastructure is a protected target because destroying it harms civilians. Russia is putting it’s money making machine under the same umbrella even though the impact of attacking it should only harm the state.