Jimmy_D

That was a nice story, although I can’t help but despair a bit that we’re living in times where a kid raising money for the military is a feel good story. Three more ammo stores went up in Kherson last night apparently, two to artillery, and a third to an aircraft airstrike. While it’s nowhere near as visible as the ammo stores when they’re hit, anti-air emplacements are obviously being targeted by HIMARS as well, which brings not only aircraft back into it, but other artillery that Russia’s AA systems had been more effective against. Being up against a weapon with no defence against it has to be a soldier’s worst nightmare, it’s like the old wunderwaffe stories come true, except tried and tested and in mass production. Knowing Ukraine are about to receive more of them as well... morale must be dropping to the point that they may well stop being effective.

Yeah, feels like they've just given Putin something in the hope that something is given back. Under the circumstances it's colossally stupid. On the topic of stupid things, Russia trying to claim the ammo dump was saltpetre. As we saw in the Beirut explosion, saltpetre would have gone up in one go, while the ammo dump is still now cooking off ammo and exploding. That really was a big hit that'll severely dent Russia's capability in the area.

Seems it's yet another Russian ammo store going up in Russian occupied territory. Looks like the S400 anti-air can't intercept HIMARS, despite originally being bought by Russia on the basis it was advertised as being able to, and as a result any static Russian target in range is essentially defenceless. There have been a LOT of Russian targets being hit way behind the front lines over the past few days, I'm not sure there's much Russia can do beyond send aircraft on missions to try and find them, but with the number of light anti-air missiles Ukraine have, they've effectively been able to enforce a no-fly zone of their own over territory they control for about 10 weeks now. With the range and mobility HIMARS has, any mission like that would be a long shot, and successful or not, would likely be one-way. Even then, it's only a matter of time until Ukraine receives more HIMARS.

Amazing. There aren't many teams in the tournament that will be able to even begin coping against us if we keep playing like that.

Beth Mead playing ridiculously well

Yep! They're actually a decent team too. This scoreline is more than slightly ridiculous.

Reminds me of the England - Holland game in Euro 96

Starting to look like it might be a rout here!

Russia has an extremely deep supply of shells, they're using them faster than they can make them, but they've been stockpiling for decades. Ukraine won't be able to stop Russia firing completely, but there are already reported reduced rates of fire, which once again comes down to logisitics. One effect of the sanctions is that Russia doesn't have access to ball bearings now, either through their own production, or through any supplier. Without them, the inability to maintain vehicles and trains is already starting to bite and reduce their options to transport supplies.

Indeed, it appears that Russia never considered Ukraine might gain access to weapons that could reach as far and as accurately as HIMARS. Building ammo stores to be more resistant to enemy fire is relatively simple. (thick walls, weak roofs, directs the force of any cook off of ammo upwards and prevents the entire thing going up.) Too late for that now though, over the next few weeks, we'll likely see Russia start to encounter the same logistics problems that they suffered at the start when they over extended as logistics lines will need to be longer to keep them out of reach of Ukraine. Ammo stores are just the most visible results as well. Russian command and control centers are being hit as well, with a combination of local resistance in occupied areas and western intelligence provided, it's extremely difficult for Russia to keep the location of potential targets secret. Russia are digging even further into old reserves now, sounds like they're bringing 1950s troop transports out of storage.

I believe the issue there is that Germany want it to be grants, rather than loans. Obviously the delay isn't ideal, but the level of support isn't in question.

Always felt like he gave 100% for the club, and because of that one of my favourite players for Saints. That goal in the semi final against Liverpool will forever be one of my favourite moments watching Saints, I’ve never before or since let loose so completely with a celebration. Not to mention the fastest Premier League goal in a time that’s unlikely to ever be beaten.

I think you might be on your own with that one this time around.

The vast majority will experience mild symptoms, partly as a result of the vaccine, but the cause of the spike in cases that’s beginning is a new sub-variant of Omicron that’s largely escaped the vaccine in terms of transmission. It’s still dangerous to a small percentage of those it infects, and is likely going to cause an extremely high number of infections. Once again the combination of relatively low risk to an individual and high transmissibility is going to lead to a big impact on the NHS.

With how easily the new dominant variant of Omicron is spreading, even thought it's still a mild form of Covid, it can still be serious for a small percentage of people, and unfortuantely that small percentage looks likely to end up still being a large number of people. If nothing else that'll put a further strain on the NHS that it really doesn't need right now. We're all painfully aware of the steps that can be taken to reduce risk. Wash hands, wear masks, take Covid tests, avoid crowded spaces, reduce unnecessary travel on public transport, etc. etc. It'll be down to everyone's own situation and conscience as to the level of risk they're comfortable with, so all I'll say is don't just completely ignore the risk. It's back to a level where you should take some time to think about it and consider. I guess by reading this you've already done that!

This one doing the rounds again? Ok, so, what view of yours do you think that this actually supports?

The coach she 'sacked' was on a temporary contract which wasn't extended. He has his own interests with other up and coming players and a school which take up a lot of his time. While I'm sure he'd have been more than open to continuing to coach Raducanu, that would have meant making sacrifices on his part to commit to a full time role, so the split wasn't entirely one way, but I guess that wouldn't have sold as many papers. It's certainly not unusual for tennis players to try different coaches at the start of their career, but most don't have anywhere near as bright a spotlight on them. Between injuries, catching Covid, and having been on the professional circuit for barely more than a year, no one would be batting an eyelid at her results had she not caught lightning in a bottle and become the first tennis player in history to win as a qualifier. It took seven years for Murray to win his first major before going on to become one of Britain's most successful tennis players. Dealing with that sort of meteroic rise wouldn't be easy for anyone, but it seems to me that at this point, people are mostly complaining that she's not caught lightning in a bottle for a second time (before she's even had a chance to repeat it at the same tournament) and complaning that she should have done things differently so that she did.

If nothing else it’ll reduce pressure on Odessa and the rest of the south coast of Ukraine. It also reduces support for the Russian forces occupying Kherson.

It's not so much that Ukraine would cut off the water supply, but more that denying Russia's control of it would weaken Russia's negotiating position and ability to claim any sort of victory. Still, never mind all the war crimes that Russia have actually committed, and that's just counting yesterday... just stay quiet about them and pretend they're not happening eh? The instant Ukraine might potentially have the option of using something as leverage against Russia in the future though... well obviously we need to be up in arms about that eh?

Really like the new kit myself!

It seems telling that Russia’s rhetoric is now worried about losing territory they’ve occupied since 2014. Kherson is looking more and more likely to be liberated soon, which might explain Russia being worried about Crimea. If I’m not mistaken, that would give Ukraine control of Crimea’s water supply.

Turkey now supporting Finland and Sweden’s bids to join NATO, doesn’t look like there are are more real hurdles to stop that happening now.

They had a strategy that they had no reason to change. Until they were given a reason.

Looks like they didn’t prepare long enough.

Best example of that at the moment are Russia themselves. Their conventional military has been shown to be far weaker than anyone thought, and they’ve got a truly evil leader that’s treating the Geneva Convention as a checklist, but even the ghost of a suggestion of any sort of counter invasion is so insane that no-one would consider it viable for an instant.