121 thoughts on “Monday’s Papers

  1. Fearganainm

    UDR: Declassified

    “In UDR: Declassified, Micheál Smith reveals what the British establishment, the British government and its armed forces knew and had to say about the regiment in recently declassified files. From its formation in 1970 as a locally raised militia, the Ulster Defence Regiment developed into the largest regiment in the British Army. For unionists, service in the UDR was a noble act and often a family tradition; for nationalists, an encounter with the UDR was frequently hostile, often brutal, and sometimes fatal. To the British army, they were ‘a dangerous species of ally’, and a classic militia regiment which was part of a long tradition of the use of such forces by the British Empire. It was viewed as ‘a safety valve’ for the tempers of loyalist extremism, and it also served as the main source of training, weaponry, and intelligence files for loyalists throughout the conflict.

    UDR: Declassified is an evidence-based exposé of the UDR through the declassified files of Number 10, the MoD, and the NIO. The denial of access to history is a part of a continuum of British state efforts to obscure its colonial past. This book is a testimony to the value of defying such efforts and uncovering the truths behind our traumatic past.”

    https://imaginebelfast.com/events/udr-declassified/

          1. Fearganainm

            You’re talking about the guy you obsessively post about and laud to the heavens, every chance that you get? It’s going to take a laparoscopic abdominoperineal resection to get you out of his fundament, you poor obsessive.

            Self-inflicted wound from you there.

  2. TenPin Terry

    Hand on heart I cannot take five hour lunches like I used to.
    I couldn’t face another glass of champagne if you paid me.
    And it was my favourite, the Widow Ponsardin, too.
    Hot and steamy night here.Time for a Maker’s Mark Presbyterian nightcap then beddy-byes for TenPin.
    What a wonderful day in the sun.
    Marvellous™

    1. Mad

      Ultimately, another draw means England’s poor run continues with their recent record now standing at one win in 16 Tests.

      England in West Indies: Kraigg Brathwaite denies tourists’ victory push on final day

    1. stephen moran

      Mmmmm if one of the Shinners was “involved” its hard to think the Bluesshirts broadsheet would leave it behind a paywall. Just saying like given their form

    1. TenPin Terry

      What a swell Duchess Kate has turned out to be.
      Level-headed, smart and attractive she is an excellent partner for our future King.
      And determined too – three kids and not a pick on her.
      Great pictures coming out of Belize on the Cambridge’s latest Commonwealth tour where they are very popular despite some local witch doctor organising a protest over who knows what.
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/03/20/duke-duchess-cambridge-shake-waists-like-nobodys-business-begin/
      ‘ Local resident Silvia Larea said she was pleased the protests hadn’t spoilt the whole trip.
      “It was just a few people with a local grievance,” she said. “They don’t represent how the rest of us feel, we are very glad to have them here.”
      I often think Ireland might benefit from joining the Commonwealth because it’s really just a collection of like-minded former colonies still clinging to the comforting bosom of Britannia.
      Deep down they still desperately admire Blighty and all it stands for – freedom, liberty, democracy and tradition.
      A beacon of comfort in the turbulent sea of life. No wonder the world and his wife want to live there.
      Thousands risking their lives every month in the English Channel to escape the EU and reach Valhalla.
      ‘Twas ever thus.
      Marvellous ™

      1. Fearganainm

        The tour’s going swimmingly, isn’t it? Getting some great press cuttings.

        “Leave our land”

        “Compensate us for the barbaric crimes of your ancestors, you imperialist scum”

        “Pay us off like your senile grandmother paid off that woman that your nonce uncle molested”

        “Make sure you pay us before your senile grandmother is put away in that cell that they’re preparing for her in Balmoral!”

        etc.

          1. Fearganainm

            Bet that cost the Brits a few bob, eh?

            And a welcome committee at a place they’d not gone to – that’s novel!

      2. GiggidyGoo

        Sure Have Inferiority Troubles meter tipping 83% already.
        Poor Charger misses Blighty, but has found a better place in a bedsit in Blackpool, Cork.
        Ha haaaa

  3. bisted

    …19 years ago today, Bush and Blair carpet bombed Bagdad and eventually invaded Iraq…over a million dead…based on lies…now that’s a war crime…

    1. Fearganainm

      They’re all as bad:

      “…In 1999, on orders of Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s prime minister, a new assault on Grozny began — and this time, the Russians brought hell with them. Humane individuals worldwide might wonder what atrocities Putin is capable of in his indiscriminate violence against Ukraine. The people of Grozny can provide the answer. The assault began with aerial bombing and shelling of homes, schools and hospitals. The Russians then escalated to the use of thermobaric explosives, also known as vacuum bombs. These are two-stage explosives that spray fuel oil with the first blast, which is then ignited in a second blast capable of bursting through fortifications and vaporizing human beings. This went on for months, despite protests from world leaders. When Grozny was down to its last 40,000 or so occupants, Putin’s forces offered safe passage out of the city. He then attacked the refugees as they left…”

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/18/putin-ukraine-is-this-grozny-or-stalingrad/

      1. bisted

        …if Russia were intent on bombing schools and hospitals…killing civilians…why didn’t it employ the shock and awe tactics beloved of the yanks…just fire in cruise missiles without putting a boot on the ground…

        1. Fearganainm

          And yet…schools and hospitals have been bombed in Ukraine and civilians have been killed. Just give the Russians time and wait to see how the gentler, kinder artillery barrages, missile strikes and air raids work out. Things should be a lot clearer long before you’ve finished Tolstoi’s ‘Special military operation and Peace.’

          1. Mr. T

            Ukrainian paramilitaries are confirmed to be using empty hospitals and schools as bases in Mariupol.
            Obviously hoping that hiding in a civilian building would stop them from being bombed.

          2. bisted

            …up until the facist mob stormed the Capital building and replaced the democratically elected legislature, the majority of people in Ukraine were pro Russia or ethnic Russians…they remain largely so today even if they find it hard to understand why their country has been invaded by erstwhile friends…the objective of Russia was to demilitarise and denazify and they seem well on their way to achieve that with the assistance of local and national intelligence…they will be able to cut the head of the snake in Mariupol…

          3. Nigel

            ‘the majority of people in Ukraine were pro Russia or ethnic Russians’

            This is simply not true.

            ‘hard to understand’

            I expect they’re quite familiar with how Russia behaves to places like Ukraine.

            ‘the objective of Russia was to demilitarise and denazify ‘

            Also simply not true.

            ‘they will be able to cut the head of the snake in Mariupol…’

            If this means they’ll pound Mariupol to dust, declare victory and withdraw, that might be good thing, though not for Mariupol.

          4. SOQ

            I agree- their military strategy has been very focused and very intelligence led. What is notable is that the entire wheat growing belt remains intact and sowing has begun this week.

          5. Nigel

            ‘Obviously hoping that hiding in a civilian building would stop them from being bombed.’

            Every building in the city is civilian, hasn’t stopped any of them from being bombed.

          6. SOQ

            But as per usual- no attempt to explain why they are going into Mariupol so hard? It is a Azov stronghold and Azov have stated that they will fight to the death- including the deaths of civilians by the looks of it.

          7. Nigel

            They are going into Mariupol so hard because the people in Mariupol are defending themselves. You keep eliding who the agressor is here.

          8. SOQ

            And what exactly are the people of Mariupol? The ordinary poor civilians now being used as shields or the Azov Nazis- most of whom don’t even come from the region?

            And that is the opinion of military experts like Col. Douglas Macgregor who actually know what they are talking about- not some woke Guardian idiot who thinks that Ukraine is the new BLM and Nazis are now not that bad after all.

            But you would know all this is you actually done your own research of course.

          9. paul

            aren’t they also moving people out of Mariupol into camps in Russia? Aren’t they also putting the same armbands on those kidnapped people that their combatants have? It’s remarkable that anyone can come out on Russia’s side here.

            Maybe the Q in SOQ stands for Quisling.

          10. Nigel

            ‘The ordinary poor civilians now being used as shields or the Azov Nazis-‘

            They’re not being used as shields, they just happen to be living in a city the invading Russian army are firing at.

            ‘some woke Guardian idiot who thinks that Ukraine is the new BLM and Nazis are now not that bad after all.’

            Some woke idiot who thinks that’s not a justification for invading a country.

          11. SOQ

            No they are definately being used as shields and if you bothered to watch the links I posted over the weekend, you would see the evidence.

            Then again you are the one thinks there is no Nazis at all so….. whatever.

          12. Nigel

            The Russians. Are shelling. The city. They’re living in. For. Feck’s. Sake. Even if some Nazis are actually using some civilians as shields, IT’S STILL THE RUSSIANS’ FAULT FOR INVADING.

            ‘Then again you are the one thinks there is no Nazis at all so’

            Some things can be dismissed as you being credulous, this is just an obvious lie.

          13. Duncan Wheeler

            You sure about your information? I’m not. I don’t know what’s going on in Ukraine. If you strip away the terminally dishonest press, none of us do. We’re just the manipulated.

          14. Broadbag

            @SOQ quite impressive you’re still touting your ‘military expert’ let’s think back to what a quick Google found the other night:

            ”He argued that the United States should “absolutely” just let Putin take what he wants in Ukraine — even calling for lifting sanctions. Macgregor said he was sure that Putin had “no interest in crossing the west” of Ukraine and would settle for the east. He cited Ukraine’s history of corruption and said that “more important, the population there is indistinguishable from [Russia’s] own.”

            ”…During Fox News appearances, the retired colonel peddled strange conspiracy theories about George Soros, criticized Europe for being welcoming toward “Muslim invaders,” and spoke in support of using deadly force against those who try to immigrate to the United States illegally.”

            Yes, let’s all listen to this loon, birds of a feather and all that…

          15. SOQ

            You are using quotes from where?

            And, MacGregor WAS an advisor to the pentagon- if that doesn’t make someone an expert then I don’t know what would.

            Soros is heavily involved in Ukraine- which is why they are trying to implement a digital ID in the middle of a war zone.

            He was right on the mark about what was going to happen in Mariupol over a week ago of course.

        2. Fergalito

          Accepting that the yanks are just as bad and hypocrites to boot doesn’t diminish or give Putin free reign or absolve him of guilt.

        3. Fearganainm

          “…The evidence of the past eight years is that Russia’s preference will be to transfer the people it seizes in Ukraine to the Russian heartland….In a chilling article a few days ago in RIA Novosti, Russia’s domestic news agency, we learned that Ukrainians resisting the invasion are supposedly suffering from a generalised case of Stockholm syndrome; and that after liberation, “a whole complex of measures will be required to bring this mentally unhealthy population to their senses”. The fear must be that Russia will revert to measures gestated in the Gulag to correct those who are judged too slow in coming to their senses.”

          https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/15/marina-ovsyannikova-putin-tv-russia

          The RIA Novosti article:

          https://ria.ru/20220302/ukraina-1775974455.html

    2. Topsy

      Absolutely, and Blair has made comments recently about NATO becoming involved in Ukraine. This warmonger has no shame.

  4. Fearganainm

    “To say this unmissable, deeply depressing book – about exactly how Britain pimps itself to the world’s dirtiest money – is timely is to miss author Oliver Bullough’s point. The fact is the stories that he tells, sordid tales of a nation flogging its real estate and its services and its football clubs and its good name to the shadiest and highest bidder, no questions asked, have been hiding in plain sight for decades. It has just seemed in no government’s interest to notice them…”

    ‘Butler to the World’ by Oliver Bullough review – bent Britain at your service

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/21/butler-to-the-world-by-oliver-bullough-review-bent-britain-at-your-service

    1. TenPin Terry

      Guardian writer reviews another Guardian writer’s book in the least popular British national newspaper.
      Sandalistas only talking to other sandalistas over their mung bean stews and still wondering why they keep losing referendums and elections.

      1. Fearganainm

        Oh good. You noticed the link. And you just had to read it. And it annoyed you.

        Result.

        1. TenPin Terry

          Annoyed ?
          Hardly Beret Boy™
          But I know why you post so many Guardian links – between you and the RTE and Irish Times newsrooms that’s most of its Ireland readership.
          You need to pop out of that echo chamber you inhabit occasionally.

          1. Fearganainm

            You know that the Brits are bent and on the take.

            The world does. Ask the Russians – they can give you lists of who they bought.

            Your efforts to stifle discussion are hilarious, each doomed foray being made as if you can prevent the world knowing what it knows. Your desperate attempts to hold back the tide of information won’t do you any good at all.

            That’s because you’re a stupid old Cnut, isn’t it?

          2. TenPin Terry

            Ah, the good old liberal intolerance always rears its ugly abusive head eventually.
            Combined with your racist Anglophobia it’s not a good look Beret Boy™
            Dry your eyes mate.

          3. Fearganainm

            Abusive? Are you admitting that you don’t even know the names of the monarchs you pretend to worship? Shame on you, you ignorant peasant.

    1. Dinkum

      For the life of me this window cannot be removed from the building
      Maybe the council needs to ensure its a listed building and it be made illegal to remove that window
      The window alone is worth half what the property is worth and is part of bewleys
      The problem is the vile Cuban heeled Nuevo riche peasant who is the landlord good old Jonny Rohan an absolute philistine
      For years he has tried every trick in the book gazumping rent to cleansing his debts through the taxpayer
      This guy is a cancerous growth on legs
      Saying that I simply cannot believe how he is championing the retention of the windows
      These must never be allowed to be removed
      They are irelands equivalent of the ceiling of the cystine chapel and are part of that building

  5. theo kretschmar schuldorff

    I can’t believe that food is just under the price of a rocket.
    Though, are we talking Halloween-starbursts or Saturn V?
    Or for that matter, filet mignon or findus crispy..

    1. Dinkum

      The folly of globalisation
      The greed that creates some of the vilest regimes in the world holding us all to ransome
      Gone are the days where we manufactured and provided jobs for our own skilled people from clothing to car parts and we abandoned agriculture for data centres
      Sacrificed our farmers our fishing industry
      Now dependent on Russia on China on India we are wide open
      One lesson we must learn is the importance of our own people and our food security
      Sadly the CAP destroyed our food diversity channeling every farmer into dairy and meat creating slave farmers who cannot get a decent price from our beef barrons and glanbia
      Massive food multinationals
      Our fish is carved up among our European partners and our fishing fleets decimated
      One thing this war has shown us is that we are hostages to multinationals
      Google the maritime shipping app and you can see the position of every ship in the world and our dependence on China
      It’s pretty eye watering

    1. Dinkum

      Bit like the Indian nations version of the black and white minstrel show
      It’s pretty bad how the USA portrays their only true inhabitants with a culture that was one with nature until the white European invaders destroyed the land with centuries of abuse

  6. SOQ

    The British media in full propaganda mode, with a lot of talk about the military activity around Mariupol. Of course what is omitted is usually more important than what is said and in the case of Mariupol, it is that there about 3000 Nazis holding out, while using civilians as human shields.

    Of course, that doesn’t suit the narrative but even the UK Independent’s coverage is deliberately misleading. Headlines like ‘Ukraine ignores deadline to relinquish besieged Mariupol’ completely ignores why the hostilities are happening there- and that the Russians are hunting the Nazis.

    Even the picture of someone getting searched on the Independent front page is propaganda as there is nothing unusual about searching in a war zone, the British army used to do it regularly up north. In fact they used as a means of aggravating young fellas in republican towns. That front page image is from the Video I posted yesterday, but no mention of why they were asking them to strip of course- that they were looking for Nazi tattoos.

    1. Nigel

      ‘ it is that there about 3000 Nazis holding out, while using civilians as human shields. ‘

      This just means they’re all in the same same city that is currently under attack by a hostile invasion force.

      ‘there is nothing unusual about searching in a war zone,’

      ‘the Russians are hunting the Nazis. ‘

      They have neither the legal nor the moral authority to do this.

      There is nothing ususual about a lot of things in a war zone, that’s why people who start wars are bad.

      ‘that they were looking for Nazi tattoos.’

      Still a human rights violation.

      1. SOQ

        Sure but when it was happening to black and brown people on a scale way worse than this- that was somehow fine?

        The hypocrisy and double standards are blinding.

        1. Nigel

          Was it fine? Or does it only become an urgent matter of hypocrisy when Putin needs defending? Go woke for Putin.

      2. Dinkum

        Fact is they are nazi’s they are fighting and they are reported as using the population as human shields
        In fact I could bet on the fact when those 600million dollars of weapons arrived from the USA just before Putin invaded they were used on the breakaway areas recognised by Putin or as you say annexed by Russia
        Maybe we need to know exactly that because it could of sparked the invasion
        Mind you the poking of a madman Putin did not help either and the fact NATO more or less led the world to believe Ukraine was to join NATO
        But thanks to banning Russian media we must take the western media at face value
        When you hear stories in the media of Russians deporting Ukrainians to Russia under gun point with no verification it’s a case of you cannot believe everything you read
        I saw videos of them checking for tattoos but they were not shoved against a wall with a gun to the head
        I also remember seeing footage of the allies when nazi Germany was defeated searching captured Germans for SS tattoos
        Saying all this it’s pretty complicated and this war is just a continuance to a pretty nasty civil war that has taken 25 thousand east Ukrainian lives by Ukrainian army units from 2014 until the invasion started
        During this time very little was reported in western media

        1. SOQ

          According to some of the idiots on here there is no Nazis at all- such is the brainwashing. The reports of civilians being used as human shields comes from a number of sources, if they bothered to look, but they won’t- because it doesn’t suit the narrative.

          While awful, human shields, are a common war tactic- used up north a number of times.

      1. SOQ

        What do you think Bill hicks is saying there? The US and NATO have been training and funding those Nazis- they are in it up to their necks.

        1. scottser

          it’s all the one fupn playbook.
          you doubling down on one side or the other is beyond pathetic.

          1. SOQ

            The fact that you think that trying to understand what is really going on is ‘doubling down on one side’ is just dismissive laziness. It is a country with a complicated history of being the centre knot between two super powers.

            There is no good and bad guys- they are all bad but I try to source experts on such topics- and the general consensus seems to be that Zelenskyy has no clue what he is doing.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET13bhY9KNE
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm7zYv-65BM

          2. Nigel

            ‘they are all bad’

            Even the civilians? Not the guys doing the invading? Ths is as simple-minded as the good guys/bad guys dichotomy you claim to reject.

          3. bisted

            …the Ukrainians and Russians are brothers…their forebears in the Red army defeated the Nazis and their facist collaborators at great cost…the present generation will make the resurgent facist regime pay a high price for abetting US meddling as they have shown with their defeat of the US backed ISIS in Syria…

          4. SOQ

            There are very close ties between the two armies at a General level apparently, because the Ukrainian ones went to Russian military school.

            The target is the Azov Nazis, whom appear to be closer to an paramilitary organisation than a battalion, and are apparently a law onto themselves.

            I really wish people would stop trying to dumb this down to a lazy binary choice- it is not.

          5. Nigel

            ‘the Ukrainians and Russians are brothers’

            I don’t think is is an accurate characterisation of their historic relations, the odd massacre, genocide and famine being ommitted. It is Putin’s line, though, tellingly.

            ‘I really wish people would stop trying to dumb this down to a lazy binary choice- it is not.’

            It’s not a binary choice but if you think the invasion is bad you’re a Nazi supporter.

      1. SOQ

        I was referring to the newspaper headlines today- as above.

        Of course Britain has a vested interest in keeping this going because they probably have new products to showcase. They are the second largest arms exporter in the world after all.

        1. TenPin Terry

          I know.
          It does wonders for the economy and creates thousands of jobs.
          Helps keep the skies over Ireland protected as well – you’re welcome Queenie.
          If everyone is doing it we might as well be amongst the best.
          Kerching !

          1. SOQ

            If Russia invaded the Republic of Ireland, Britain could do frig all because we are not in NATO. In the same way as Ukraine- any direct action would be considered an act of war by NATO.

            I know you are a puppet but does everything you write have to include nationalistic goading BS? It is very boring.

          2. TenPin Terry

            Mate – your crackpot conspiracy theories already have you marked down as Broadsheet’s resident loon.
            But Mehole pretending he’d got COVID to avoid meeting Biden on Paddy’s Day to prevent Ireland becoming a Russian target was up there with the looniest of them all.
            Go on, run it past us again.
            Just for the lols.

          3. Mad

            “The resident loon”
            No that would actually be you and David, Mr C Santorum. If it’s not making up fake accounts to praise yourself, it’s his habit of repeatedly trying to avoid being banned without having the wit or intellect to change his writing style. You’ll get banned soon again as well again, you creep.

        2. Dinkum

          And the EU wants an army
          Not content with NATO but a European army no doubt to keep us all in line
          And of course EU laws take president over our constitutional laws
          So now the EU will vote as to fast tracking a basket case of an economy and one that conducted a civil war among its people since 2014 being admitted to the EU and as such dragging the EU into a confrontation with Russia
          That makes us at war with Russia as a member of the EU and along with that all that goes with war

  7. stephen moran

    As I’ve said here before (despite sniggers from the risible LOL what irony crowd) it looks like we may be in for a bit of a MENA summer – one hopes it turns out to be a bit more productive in the despot disposal department than the Arab Spring damp squib turned out when it mainly as case of “meet the news boss, same as the old boss”
    https://www.ft.com/content/b76d3414-4f11-4e46-9271-9309c06237df

  8. TenPin Terry

    The glaring inequality of Ireland’s immigration system.
    There are currently 8,205 people, including 2,658 children, in direct provision and emergency accommodation centres across Ireland, according to the latest Government data, with many in the system for years.
    Afghans, Syrians and Yemenis kept out of sight and out of mind without a hope of making a new life and not a chance of being integrated into Irish society.
    Yet the Government intends to push the boat out to 20,000 Ukrainian refugees by the end of this month and boy will it makes sure the world knows how wonderful it is.
    Utter hypocrisy.
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/state-s-welcome-for-ukrainians-reveals-hypocrisy-of-irish-immigration-system-1.4831658

    1. Mad

      Well take the Afghans if they can swing a cricket bat
      Like the way your lot had to drag in Irish and South Africans to remain competitive in the middle rank of test nations

  9. stephen moran

    I used to think that the left were simply naive in their admiration of old skool Communist autocracies but it actually turns out that no, they actually admire totalitarianism

    1. Nigel

      I’d sadly accede that this appears to be true if most of their pro-Putin memes, disinformation and propaganda weren’t being channeled from the right.

      1. stephen moran

        Oh I agree with you totally that the nefarious Purta fanboy propaganda is being generated by the “libertarian” Ayn Rand, anti fupping everything nutjob right but I’m just surprised at the moral duplicity and double standards of the left in the debate in that the universal principles the left are meant to uphold in theory they are very selective about their applicability in practice

        1. Nigel

          Some of the left, anyway. It’s reflexive anti-Western Imperialism at its most morraly vacuous.

          1. bisted

            …mmm…tried to respond to this four times…fairly erroneous post…what’s up Doc?

            Nigel filter in place?

    2. SOQ

      So why is that during the pandemic, it was political parties who identified as liberal who turned out to be the most totalitarian?

      I am specifically thinking about Liberals in Canada and Australia, and the Democrats in the US .

      1. Nigel

        Responding to a public health emergency is not totalitarianism, except through an extreme hyperindividualist point of view. The Liberal parties in Canada and Australia are not actually liberal, Democrats are not very liberal at all.

  10. stephen moran

    I think your definition of totalitarianism is a bit different to any rational sane persons – you outbid Boris in being the king of false equivalence – trying to equate poxy truck drivers first world indulgences with innocent civilians being murdered by a fascist lunatic sums you both up – devoid of any sense of proportionately or moral compass.

    1. SOQ

      Locking people up for organising a peaceful protest and freezing bank accounts are NOT the actions of a democrats/ Because one is less extreme that the other does not mean both are not the same.

  11. stephen moran

    The racist pundit an Spectator pin up boy Eric Zemmour falls to 9% of French presidential election first round support in the Opinion way daily tracking poll today. His campaign, already stalled, has been sunk by the Ukraine war and his years of idolizing fascist despot Putin

    1. Fearganainm

      Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Ex-Tory MP urges inquiry into why Iran debt went unpaid

      https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/mar/21/former-tory-minister-urges-inquiry-into-why-debt-owed-to-iran-went-unpaid

      “The UK government has known for many years that if it paid a £400m debt to Iran it was likely to lead to the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the former Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt has said in a letter to the foreign affairs select committee. Burt, a Tory MP until 2019, is calling for the committee to launch an inquiry into why the debt was not paid and into who – either in the governments of the UK or the US – resisted making the payment. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, was released last week immediately after the UK paid the debt, and at a press conference on Monday she asked why it had taken five foreign secretaries and six years to secure her release. Burt also said he repeatedly urged the government to pay the £400m, which he said was “not a ransom, but a debt owed”…”

    2. TenPin Terry

      If people holiday in totalitarian states and then get imprisoned the British authorities will try pretty hard to get them out. But they won’t necessarily be able to and it might take a long time. That’s because totalitarian regimes are bastards.
      Alas, if you are a dual citizen of a democracy and a tyranny, then when you are in the tyranny it can treat you as one of its own. You are less well protected than someone who is simply a visiting overseas national.
      It’s why despite the best efforts of the Boris-hating media this woman got very little sympathy in Blighty.
      Steer clear of tyrannies folks.
      It’s a simple as that.

  12. Fearganainm

    Pro-Kremlin tabloid deletes its report that 9,861 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine

    https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1011587/pro-kremlin-tabloid-deletes-its-report-that-9861-russian-soldiers-have

    “Over 9,800 Russian troops have been killed and more than 16,000 wounded since the invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, according to a report published and then deleted by a pro-Kremlin tabloid, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Journal foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov tweeted a screenshot of the article, which began by citing Ukrainian reports of Russian casualties, which claim that over 14,000 Russian troops have been killed. The article in Komsomolskaya Pravda, one of Russia’s most widely read newspapers, also cites Ukrainian claims that, as of Sunday, Russia had lost 96 aircraft and 118 helicopters. “The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refutes the information,” the article continues. “According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during the special operation in Ukraine, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation lost 9,861 [soldiers] killed” and “16,153 … injured.”

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