kgwilson

Zelenskyy has consistently said that Ukraine will take back ALL of Ukraines territory including the Crimean peninsular. The Winter is beginning to set in with snow falling in many parts. Ukraine needs to keep the pressure up. The only area that Russia seems to be holding the line is in Donetsk region with the Wagner group. Ukraine though keeps repelling their attacks and nothing is gained. The Ukraine 72nd brigade has some of their best and most experienced soldiers and every time the Russians gain some ground they get blasted with artillery & tanks & withdraw as they did yesterday when they advanced on the town of Pavlivka. Personally I think the next prize is Crimea & this will be the fatal blow to Putin. He is running short on long range missiles & Ukraine has already slowed access via the Kerch bridge. Another decent attack on the bridge could easily put is out of action for enough time for Ukraine to take Crimea back. Ukraine has already won on the battlefield, their morale is high and Russia has lost and their morale rock bottom. The West needs to keep the supply of equipment and weapons going though or things could easily change. Logistics and supply will allow Ukraine to win. They have already shown that they can totally stuff up the Russian supply lines & this will continue while all Russia can do is fire missiles at Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

It does seem like a defensive action gone wrong. It will certainly be in Zelenskys favour if it is proven correct that he publicly apologises while reiterating nothing would have happened if Russia wasn't sending missiles into his patch. Ukraine has to defend itself and in all conflicts there is always collateral damage to some degree. NATO has already blamed Russia in any case as it would never have happened if Russia hadn't attacked Ukraine in the first place.

The US right wing press is not impressed. Even Murdochs New York Press had a bottom line on the front page stating "Florida man makes announcement" referring to the article on page 26. Murdoch knows nothing infuriates Trump more than not having his name mentioned. Just glance at some headlines in the conservative press.: “Trump Shocks the World by Nearly Putting Us to Sleep,” said the RedState blog. “Old Mar-a-Lago Man Yells at Cloud,” said the American Conservative. “Donnie, Time to Go Away,” said Blue State Conservative. “Trump 3.0 is a Changed Man. He's a Loser,” said the Washington Examiner. “No,” simply read the National Review headline. In the meantime Lavrov left the G20 after one day & Putin remains silent since before the Kherson withdrawl. I guess he is busy 100% of the time watching his back as his physical and mental state continues to deteriorate. Deja vu Adolph.

Any rail link that reduces the number of trucks on our roads is a good thing IMO. Less traffic and less greenhouse gas pollution.

After the disastrous results for Trumps picks in the mid terms & the comments now coming quicker more frequently from the Republicans, Trump may finally be confined to the dustbin of history where he will find good company with Putin.

The Bailey Bridge was named after its inventor, Donald Bailey a civil servant with the British War Office. Like a lot of good ideas it was rejected when he put forward his proposal in 1936 but in 1940 he drew a proposal on the back of an envelope and that led to a full scale prototype being built by May 1941 & the rest is history.

Ukraine will not want to leave Kherson in range of Russian artillery. It seems the Russians are not digging in on the other side of the Dneiper. It is all flat with sand basins and virtually no cover so they'd be totally exposed. Once Ukraine gets a foothold on the other side it will not be hard for them to cut the main supply line to Crimea and then knock out the other lane of the Kerch bridge. Then it becomes very interesting and will Putin still be around to see it?

I remember Bailey bridges in NZ over the many rivers in Canterbury in the 1950s. I imagine they were war surplus. The rivers meander across the Canterbury Plains often with many channels being fed from snow fields in the Southern Alps and change course rapidly when there is flooding. I guess the Bailey bridge got cut off communities back up & running quite quickly. Some may still even exist, I don't know.

That is one very intense 25 second barrage. it is no wonder the Russians are buggering off in a hurry

Lavrov certainly has a thick skull & brain to match. Putin would also not want to display any symptoms of his failing health in public let alone face the scorn from most of the worlds leaders.

That is how completely fu**ed US politics is. Their judicial system moves at less than glacial speed, every decision can be appealed seemingly forever, the Supreme Court judges are politically appointed, States create their own laws to prevent certain sections of the public from voting and about 80-100 million are convinced Trump was robbed of the election win and had nothing to do with the insurrection. If Trump gets back in in 2024 the US is headed for autocracy and most likely Civil War No 2. Putin & Xi will be celebrating & the rest of us will be fu**ed.

Many of us who were born and raised in or before the 50s were indoctrinated into our parents religion at an early age. For me it was from being christened into the Anglican Church and then attending Sunday school for several years until I was confirmed and could take communion. Once I entered my teens I slowly drifted away and began questioning everything and eventually coming to conclusions that all these different religions around the world with different stories and gods were invented by people to provide reasons for their existence. I found the principles of many religions were inherently good but the methods used to ensure the believers maintained their faith were forms of extorsion, coercion and brainwashing to various levels culminating sometimes in severe violence and death. I read Peter Fitzsimons book "A Simpler Time" of his early life growing up with similar religious overtones and the final recognition and his statement that he'd become a "Barking mad athiest" something I identify with as well. Now in the last Census under the question of religion, No religion at 39% is only just behind Christianity at 44% with Hinduism & Islam way behind at 3% each. No religion is the fastest growing group which was at 22% in 2011, 30% in 2016 & now 39%. It seems to me most of the fanatics and nutters around seem to have some sort of religious base.

Those who have a belief system or a faith just cannot accept that there are things they will never understand so need the system to justify their existence. I still cannot understand how some seem to have a belief system with some religious context of a greater being or deity and then accept the science of the origins of the universe and evolution. The 2 are diametrically opposed IMO.

The Ukrainians could walk in and take Kherson at any time but they are not that stupid. It could easily be Putins tactical nuclear target and will be full of booby traps at the very least. The very public and almost comedic withdrawl could be plain Russian stupidity that everyone had become accustomed to or it could be a trap. The parallels with Hitlers last few months in his bunker under the Reichstag are interesting. Hitlers physical health deteriorated along with his mental state. By April 1945 he was completely delusional and believed everyone was betraying him and was giving orders for counter attacks with Armies that no longer existed etc. He had developed an uncontrollable twitch in his left hand. Putin is on a similar steady decline and he may very well order the nuclear option, something that Hitler would have done if he 'd had the means. He has a few fanatical "Yes hench-men" still providing encouragement. Hopefully those a bit further down the line that actually make things happen will see the light and make things change so they can find a way for Putin to fall out a window or something. The next major Russian action may be Putins last stand.

A report yesterday says at least 1000 Russian troops were killed in a single day, the most since the start of the war. Apparently these were unequipped or poorly equipped new reservist recruits and were specifically targeted by Ukraine.

At US$20 billion it better be good. How many GWH will it produce? Once it is running the operating cost is not high but to get an ROI it will still be the most expensive electricity you could buy.

Ukraine has been fought over for centuries but in 1917 at the start of the Russian revolution Ukraine proclaimed itself a sovereign nation and was recognised by most of the worlds major nations at the time. There was a lot of bitter fighting and the top hierarchy changed hands several times until the Bolsheviks finally had enough power to take over in about 1921 & they were relegated to a puppet state of the Soviet Union. Then of course Stalin starved them in the 30s by taking the grain as the communist collectives his mob set up failed. With recent history like that Putin must have been 100% deluded to think they would welcome his thugs & now they are kicking his arse. His reign a latter day Tsar is rapidly nearing its end.

The statistics show it is getting hotter and drier over a number of years. Climate Change is proving the science is right. The extremes of the climate are getting larger and more frequent.

Putler Youth at the start up stage. Guess who else tried that 80 years ago.

Get out your woolies as there is a very cold Antarctic air mass with a cold front heading in to NSW via South Australia with possible snow as far North as Glen Innes. Temperatures are about to go from the mid 20s to the mid teens. Temperatures here on the Mid North Coast are forecast to drop from the high 20s/early 30s to the low 20s in the next few days.

I see that Russian warships moored at Sevastopol have been attacked by drones or have they. The Russians have said a minesweeper had minor damage and that they repelled 16 attacking drones. Ukraine said they had nothing to do with it & 4 ships which included a frigate, a landing ship and a cruise missile ship used in a deadly July attack on a western Ukrainian city were all damaged due to careless handling of explosives. I reckon there is probably some truth in both reports. Maybe a few drones got hit but a reasonable number got through and the lack of competence by Russia resulted in them blowing themselves up.

Your friend may be telling you the truth but the information he was given was false.

Wow, that was only 10 seconds from the time the missile hit to the time the ejected pilot hit the ground. It demonstrates how effective ejection systems are these days at vey low level.

The building and installation of nuclear reactors even small sized ones that drive a submarine is not a problem technologically as there are enough manufacturers around the world with the capability. The problem is environmental (NIMBY) and protection from waste contamination (also not a major problem these days) from a major event like earthquake, Tsunami etc or even sabotage. Most governments even if supportive of nuclear power have huge safety and environmental hoops for the proposals to have to jump through. The main issue is that the infrastructure required to make it work means a large source of water for cooling and steam generation, and all the safety requirements for containment in the unlikely event of a meltdown or leak.

It looks like Boris has the support of 100 MPs along with Rishi Sunak so there could actually be a comeback.