speak easy

speak easy's Journal

September 22, 2022

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban wants EU sanctions on Russia lifted by the end of the year

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban wants EU sanctions on Russia lifted by the end of the year, a pro-government daily newspaper said Thursday.

According to Orban, the sanctions are more damaging to Europe than to Russia.

Magyar Nemzet reported that Orban urged members of his Fidesz party at a closed-door gathering late Wednesday to get the sanctions lifted.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/sep/22/russia-ukraine-war-eu-to-prepare-new-sanctions-on-moscow-zelenskiy-lays-out-peace-formula-at-un-live-updates

September 22, 2022

Medvedev threatens to 'defend' annexed territories in Ukraine with "strategic nuclear weapons".

Ukraine live briefing: Russia vows to defend annexed territories

Russia’s military resources, including “strategic nuclear weapons,” can be used to defend annexed territories in Ukraine including Crimea, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said Thursday. Further details have emerged regarding Wednesday’s elaborate prisoner exchange between Moscow and Kyiv, in which nearly 300 people were released, including leaders of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment and a pro-Kremlin politician.

Russian and U.S. diplomats, meanwhile, are facing off over war crimes accusations at a U.N. Security Council meeting, following a day of addresses by world leaders. In the opening minutes of Thursday’s meeting, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called Moscow’s plan to stage annexation referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine a “violation of the U.N. charter,” a charge that President Biden also leveled in his speech Wednesday to the General Assembly. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Russia’s withdrawal from the Ukrainian cities of Izyum and Bucha revealed gruesome torture and murder of Ukrainian civilians that could not be dismissed as the actions of a few bad actors.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/22/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/

"strategic nuclear weapons” ? As in vaporizing cities with massive fallout? Not even China would support that. Bald bluff.

September 21, 2022

'Ukrainian troops can liberate Crimea by the middle of next year'

Armed Forces of Ukraine can liberate Crimea by the middle of next year – Commander-in-Chief of the US Army in Europe

Former Commander-in-Chief of the US Army in Europe, retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges believes that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to fight the enemy all winter and by the end of 2022 will push the Russians back to the line on February 23, and then the counteroffensive will expand to the Crimea.

“They will continue fighting all winter to keep putting pressure on the Russians to prevent them from regrouping and rebuilding their forces. I expect Ukrainian troops to liberate Crimea by the middle of next year,” the lieutenant general suggested.

Ukraine Now Telegram Feed, Sept 21.

September 21, 2022

Erdogan says Russia should return all captured Ukrainian territory.

Erdogan says Russia should return all captured Ukrainian territory.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Monday that Russia should return all Ukrainian territory it has captured, and indicated that negotiations that he has been helping mediate are moving in that direction.

“The lands which were invaded will be returned to Ukraine,” Mr. Erdogan said in an interview with “PBS NewsHour.” He was careful not to criticize President Vladimir V. Putin over his conduct of the war, but drew a clear line on the return of territory.

“This is what is expected,” Mr. Erdogan said. “This is what is wanted. Putin has taken certain steps. We have taken certain steps." An invasion cannot be justified, he added.

Mr. Erdogan also expressed opposition to the annexation of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014. He said he had repeatedly asked Moscow to “return Crimea to its rightful owners,” without result.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/world/europe/erdogan-russia-ukraine.html

September 21, 2022

Google searches for "how to break an arm" have spiked in Russia

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1572576881391521792
Google searches for “how to break an arm” reportedly surged in Russia after Vladimir Putin announced an immediate partial mobilisation of citizens to fight in Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/sep/21/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-blinken-calls-moscows-referendum-attempts-a-sham-zelenskiy-to-speak-at-un

September 19, 2022

BREXIT has f'd the UK

The UK thinks it will hang on to Scotland?

September 18, 2022

Republicans in key battleground races refuse to say they will accept results

Source: Washington Post

A dozen Republican candidates in competitive races for governor and Senate have declined to say whether they would accept the results of their contests, raising the prospect of fresh post-election chaos two years after Donald Trump refused to concede the presidency.

In a survey by The Washington Post of 19 of the most closely watched statewide races in the country, the contrast between Republican and Democratic candidates was stark. While seven GOP nominees committed to accepting the outcomes in their contests, 12 either refused to commit or declined to respond. On the Democratic side, 17 said they would accept the outcome and two did not respond to The Post’s survey.

The reluctance of many GOP candidates to embrace a long-standing tenet of American democracy shows how Trump’s assault on the integrity of U.S. elections has spread far beyond the 2020 presidential race. This year, multiple losing candidates could refuse to accept their defeats.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/18/republicans-refuse-accept-results/

September 17, 2022

538 projections for the House elections 2022

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/house/?cid=rrpromo

September 16, 2022

Germany promised Ukraine weapons but hasn't delivered.

(does Germany have to wait until Putin cuts off the last cubic centimeter of gas, before doing the right thing?)

Germany promised Ukraine weapons but hasn’t delivered. Now, anger toward Berlin is rising.

Ukraine’s relations with Germany have soured this week, with Kyiv asking Berlin why it had reversed a decision to provide heavy weaponry to Ukraine, as it had earlier promised.

Tensions over Germany’s provision of promised Leopard tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine — or more precisely, the lack thereof — came to a head this weeUkraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba publicly asked why Berlin was backtracking on a pledge made to send these weapons to Ukraine.

“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now — to liberate people and save them from genocide,” Kuleba said on Twitter, adding that there was “not a single rational argument on why these weapons can not be supplied, only abstract. [div]fears and excuses"

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/16/ukraine-slams-germany-for-failing-to-send-it-weapons.html

September 16, 2022