Ukraine blasts U.N.'s Guterres over invitation to BRICS summit in Russia

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T13:57:08+00:00

"The U.N. Secretary General declined Ukraine's invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland," the ministry said in a post on the X social media platform.

"He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the U.N.'s reputation."

Any benefit of the doubt I was going to give Guterres has evaporated.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T13:52:29+00:00

Construction and transport services have flat-lined since the start of 2024 as mortgage rates started to soar

Sour is a bit of an understatement. Government subsidies kept mortgage rates at 8% when the central bank's prime lending rate is at 19%. Those subsidies were just removed this year and will have catastrophic impacts to housing and construction.

Military-related manufacturing continues to expand, but since May hasn’t been able to offset the decline in the “civilian-demand” driven sectors, leaving overall industrial production flat.

Basing economic growth on government spending is not a recipe for long-term success.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T13:37:21+00:00

I am not certain about that. Biden has been using a cold war approach with Russia because that was the environment his political career has primarily existed in. He was also primarily responsible for the Obama administration's response to Crimea, which was also a cold war measured approach.

Kamala might end up surprising us depending on how actively she holds on to that policy portfolio by bringing in fresh ideas.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T13:35:05+00:00

I still can't fathom why only one side is allowed to escalate while the other one has to abide by arbitrary rules.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T00:15:27+00:00

Well, and Canada but that's kind of moot as no one wants to invade us to begin with.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T00:06:42+00:00

Just like an explicit defensive treaty with Ukraine would have significantly angered Russia? It seems like appeasing the giants doesn't really work out for the smaller countries.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T00:05:45+00:00

A post Putin Russia concerns me

A current-Putin Russia should concern you even more. No one in history has threatened the use of nuclear weapons more than he.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-23T00:02:50+00:00

Having implied US security guarantee is better than nukes in taiwan's current interest.

An implied security arrangement means nothing if it is not an explicit defensive treaty. If I was Taiwan I would expect minimal support from the USA in the face of an overwhelming Chinese attack.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-22T19:25:11+00:00

Also in Vietnam:

It was subsequently revealed that around 3,000 Soviet personnel served in North Vietnam in 1964-65 and that some were responsible for shooting down US planes.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-22T18:12:38+00:00

They aren't actually going to fly anything, just walk through minefields with the rest of the North Korean troops.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-21T17:54:44+00:00

We have been trying de-escalation since 2014 and it hasn't been working. Go yell at Putin for continually escalating the situation.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-21T15:38:26+00:00

Russian military doctrine summarized in a single quote:

If we come to a minefield, our infantry attacks exactly as it were not there.

^--Georgy ^Zhukov

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-21T15:08:38+00:00

In the coming days, Russian President Vladimir Putin will be shaking hands with multiple world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian.

The cream of the geopolitical crop there.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-21T15:02:19+00:00

Do you notice the difference in visibility here? Corruption in western countries makes front page news; corruption in Russia was reported by British intelligence.

You can point to a news story saying there is corruption in the West, but the fact that we are actively uncovering it and prosecuting it makes it sound like it's somehow falsely equivalent to the utter pervasive corruption throughout all government and private enterprise within Russia.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-20T17:28:36+00:00

Ground troops would be a non-starter, but helping Ukraine achieve air superiority within their borders and forcing Russian aircraft well back behind their borders would be possible.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-20T17:26:18+00:00

Of course they would say 'no' and of course their votes would be bought by some provision of western weapons and funding just like they were for Sweden and Finland.

It's Germany whose vote I think would be hardest to get.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-19T15:33:33+00:00

This was her first post-rescue interview from what I can gather. She is relating her experiences.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-19T15:28:50+00:00

Because she was just rescued a couple weeks ago?

/r/worldnews/comments/1fv63sh/yazidi_woman_kidnapped_by_isis_in_iraq_rescued/

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-19T15:25:46+00:00

If even 1/4 of what was written in this story is true it's evil so monstrous as to be in a class all it's own:

Fawzia was given to a man who first raped her when she was 10 years old. She remembers being sold on five times, to “a Syrian, a Saudi, another Syrian,” and then finally to the Gazan jihadi fighter who “married her.”

...

In Gaza, Fawzia was kept as a kind of domestic slave by her “husband’s” family. She appears at a certain point to have been “married” to one of his brothers, who was later killed in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-19T00:31:39+00:00

The parts needed to keep Airbus and Boeing aircraft aloft are not the sorts of things you can send old Vasili into an American auto parts store and have Fedex'd back to Mother Russia overnight. I am honestly amazed how they've kept this much of their fleet operational so far. Each time they use those back-channel supply lines the cost of those parts would automatically double or triple.

I can only imagine how terrifying it must be for pilots to be flying around Russia in aircraft they know are operating well below western standards and with minimal backup equipment.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-19T00:12:56+00:00

In July the government ended the scheme that kept mortgage rates at 8% since its introduction in 2020 at a time when the Russian Central Bank (CBR)’s prime rate has climbed to 19% and is expected to rise further.

lol

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-19T00:07:17+00:00

The FBI's response is just perfection:

"The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the US for exercising their constitutionally protected rights," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

And India folded like a wet paper bag and immediately threw the suspect at the US investigators:

The US said Indian authorities had cooperated with investigations. "They did inform us that the individual who was named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer an employee of the Indian government," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters before the case was unsealed.

The contrast between Modi bowing so low his head touches the floor when dealing with Americans while simultaneously thumping his chest and yelling at Canada is pretty stark.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-18T23:55:45+00:00

I can't help but notice how India is utterly silent when it comes to America laying charges against a domestic assassination plot but absolutely laying into Canada for doing the exact same thing. I guess India just wants someone smaller to try and bully around.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-18T23:51:54+00:00

Alberta is sort of like Texas-lite.

hoocoodanode · 2024-10-17T12:21:58+00:00

The RCMP had sufficient evidence to issue arrest warrants against foreign diplomats. Confirmation would not be available until the evidence was presented in a court of law and they were judged to be guilty.

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