egg

That was a cracking run and finish.

I'm not sure about that. They're still a superpower, the issue is who's with them. NATO will soon be gone, but that probably exposes Europe more than the US. They've softened up India who'll arguably be a more relevant anti China ally than Europe, and I'm interested to see what Australia do. I'm not sure where exactly he's going with Russia, but I think there'll be a warming of relations and they'll use tariffs to their advantage. Canada will be left a tad exposed in my view. He's an absolute loon.

Good post, and I'm with you on all of that. I also think there's also a wish to divide and conquer the wider Brics+ nations, politically and financially speaking. China he can only really hurt with tariffs, but Russia he can help by easing tariffs, he's softened up India, and had a pop at South Africa in his first week. Europe are a drain to him, and in reality do the US need NATO? It's shaping up to be a very interesting year.

Christ. Congress may be daft enough to pass that.

I get that, but would he care if he can't run again? He's about getting deals done that save or make America money, and in his eyes, make him look good. Neither Ukraine nor Gaza should be stitched up, but both will be sadly.

This either ends on the battle field or around the negotiation table. It'll be the latter. Do you say it'll be the former?

Frankly, you have to be rather naive to have ever doubted that this will end in any other way than an exchange of land for an end to fighting. Whether it's fair or what you'd like to see happen is another matter.

A settlement agreement is exactly that. Whether Russia behave themselves thereafter is a separate issue.

It was a yes or no question. The answer is that there will be a negotiated settlement. Whether Ukraine likes it or not, and whether it's done fairly, does not alter the fact that there will be a negotiated end to the conflict which results in Ukraine keeping some Ukrainian land.

The identity of the perpetrator is a fact. I'm not responding to the rest as I have no interest in a discussion with you.

The issue previously has been people making predictions before knowing the ethnicity of the perpetrator. Once known, reasonable assumptions can be made.

Do you still believe that this will not result in a negotiated settlement?

I'm not sure Trump has won anything. Ukraine are losing on the ground though, and were never going to get Trump support for an ongoing war.

Indeed. Crimea has long gone, and at least the coastal area linking it with Russia will be ceded. I'm not sure that NATO has much life left, but if it does, the US won't have Ukraine as part of it.

What's happening is what was always going to happen, despite the protestations of a few in here, namely that there will be a negotiated settlement with Ukraine ceding land. It still staggers me that people swore blind that would never happen.

At least you'll only need a small pension pot. Every cloud.

It was brutal, but deserved. "Her script doesn't allow her to listen to the answer" was brilliant. I'm not sure I can remember a less intelligent Tory leader.

There you go again. I've never once called you a name. Not under this login anyway.

As I say, you dish it out so stop whining when you get a bit back.

But he dishes it out so he's fair game imo.

No idea, it's lunacy. Anyways, I want to know how to pronounce Musk's sons name - X Æ A-12 I'm going with Burt.

It's got it's own police drama on BBC, Virdee. It was quite entertaining, but didn't quite persuade me that a city break in Bradford was preferable to Bath.

Which they seemingly haven't. I'm not sure Israel are saying that the Palestinian captives will be released on Saturday in exchange as per the original deal. Both sides need to do the right thing but it won't stop dinlo's like Hypo struggling to see that.

"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who says that Israel has "failed to keep its promises" regarding the ceasefire deal. Speaking to press afterwards, Erdogan adds "the Israeli occupation should end once and for all". Their occupation "remains the core problem", he adds. Erdogan says Turkey is sending aid to Gaza, and will continue to do so, while also calling for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state". Some sense at last.

H&L promote some very average funds, but mostly I think their wealth shortlist is pretty reliable. That said, there's plenty of funds better than those they promote, and I'm always wary of funds that have a good year or so. I use Trustnet for fund information and comparison. Really useful site. Although I use H&L, my main issue is that their platform fees are a tad high.