badgerx16

How do people think Trump might have prevented the war from happening ? "Please Vlad, if you promise to leave Ukraine alone I'll let you skip the foreplay".

Pretty much what non-doms do when trying to find the best tax haven in which to stash their cash and buy their villa .

Melon was upset by the "anti Trump" atmosphere at the meeting of European leaders.

What happened on Riyadh was not really a surprise given that leader 'A' sent one of the most experienced and battle hardened diplomats in the world and leader 'B' sent his golf buddy.

Dictator Zelensky and his corrupt regime will finally pay the price for starting the war against their peaceful neighbours.

4%

Today's Matt cartoon in the Telegraph

Strange how different owners, decades apart, have all done this.

What I posted is the current situation defined by international treaties..

That may be what you want the reality to be, but it is a fallacy. According to the Refugee Convention a refugee is.... " a person who: owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it." And there is nothging that specifies or relatres to the "first safe country". Whatever causes you to believe you are a refugee when you leave your point of origin is still in effect when you reach your destination.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, ( Republican ), says that Putin is a war criminal and should be jailed, and possibly executed.

I don't know if you have seen the movie "Civil War" that came out last year, but I think we might be living through the prequel.

Trump has signed another Executive Order, this time to take control over quasi-autonomous agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Election Commission, requiring them to refer any intended interpretation of law or statute to the White House for approval. These agencies have, up to now, been open to scrutiny by Congress, but no longer. The order also rules that the President and Attorney General, alone, will interpret the Law in respect of the President's actions, and thereby reducing Congressional powers of oversight of the White House. He is moulding himself into a dictator.

Does this whole thing between Trump and Zelensky have its roots in the bogus claims around Ukraine and the Hunter Biden investigation ? Is this just another Trump hissy fit because he bought into the conspiracy theory and feels he was thwarted ?

"US President Donald Trump's administration is attempting to rehire officials with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) who worked on the government response to bird flu before being fired over the weekend, US media report."

Putin's useful idiot.

How about somebody who still denies the result of the 2020 Presidential election saying that cancelling a result due to strong evidence of Russian interference was anti-democrstic.

Sergei Lavrov has just said that the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO was the "root cause" of the war.

Disagree about NATO, Russia sees NATO expansion as western aggression, and would like the Baltics to have not joined either - though he has now shot himself in the foot through his belligerence, with Finland and Sweden abandoning their neutrality. Why should Ukraine have to give up any territory? The bottom line is Putin does not accept Ukraine as being a legitimate country, and it's annexation would be the first step in restoring Russia to it's Imperial glory - Georgia next ?

"You should have never started it, you could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, no city would have been demolished, .........but they chose not to do it that way". What he missed out was "...and my good friend Vladimir Putin, very smart guy, one of the smartest guys around, would have kept to our agreement, my agreement, the deal I made, an excellent deal, very excellent, and would have been happy, very happy in fact, and would keep to his side of the bargain, our very good deal for Ukraine, my good deal for them, and never threaten to take more territory, at least not much more, just those little bits to tidy up the borders, not much at all really, not really useful land, land Ukraine can afford to give up because it isn't worth much really, not at all, and Putin, smart guy, very smart guy, would stick to our deal, the deal, my very good deal really, and he would not threaten anybody, well not much and the war would never have happened, probably not, not at all,possibly, and nobody would have died, well maybe not, perhaps not died".

Sergei Lavrov tells the Americans that Russia does not target any civilian energy infrastructure. A blatant lie, left unchallenged. This is the level of "negotiation" that has been taking place. Trump tells Ukraine " You could have made a deal 3 years ago" - true, they could just have surrendered. This will not end with a negotiated settlement, or at least it will only have been "negotiated" between the US and Russia. It will end with a settlement imposed on Ukraine that grants Putin most of what he wants.

Trump's team return from talks with the Russians

Buttress

He is probably an ABBA or S Club 7 fan, and has told the manager that Metallica and Megadeth are not real musicians.