The worst thing that can happen to a student who is learning a foreign language is to get into the hands of people who are bent on studying curious and rare words that are not used in natural conversation:

“Many people share this idea that a language is “sophisticated” to the extent that it has a large vocabulary. In this view language is a store of words – the thicker the dictionary, the better the language. The kind of person who believes this usually delights in etymology or the collection of linguistic curios, rare words that no one ever uses in natural conversation [Greene, 2011: 127].

wickedly funny – любила озорные шутки

The Trump family lauded her in a statement as "a force in business, a world-class athlete, a radiant beauty, and caring mother and friend".

"Ivana Trump was a survivor. She fled from communism and embraced this country," the statement added. "She taught her children about grit and toughness, compassion and determination."

Ivanka Trump, who was said to be very close to her mother, said in an Instagram post she was "heartbroken".

"Mom was brilliant, charming, passionate and wickedly funny. She modelled strength, tenacity and determination in her every action. She lived life to the fullest - never forgoing an opportunity to laugh and dance," she wrote.

Donald Trump was Ivana's second husband. Her first, Alfred Winklmayr, was an Austrian ski instructor and friend who she reportedly married in order to obtain Austrian citizenship.

That marriage allowed her to leave Czechoslovakia, her communist home country, without defecting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62187716

Western support for Ukraine is flagging

Russia marked the opening on Sunday of four days of international summiteering by launching more than a dozen missiles at the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in a display of contemptuous disdain for the G7 leaders gathered in Bavaria.Later this week, Nato will stage a heads-of- government meeting in Madrid. At both, the war in Ukraine will top the agenda, but to what end? The attack on Kyiv, targeting residential areas, was a clear signal from Moscow that it is prepared to defy Western pressure to remove its invading forces.On Saturday, Russia took full control of Severodonetsk, the eastern city that has been the...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/06/26/western-support-ukraine-flagging/

Trite gets GENUINE when the dead meataphor is applied unpredictably (DEFEATED EXPECTANCY) to a most unlikely obect: a child!

In the brilliantly dark TV comedy-horror The Baby the baby in question is destructive on an extreme scale: a murderous demon who brutally slays anyone who crosses him, giggling delightedly after each kill.

"He'll bulldoze your life, destroy your relationships, and when he's got you completely to himself: he'll destroy you. It's what he does," says a wizened older lady to another woman, who, in a strange series of events, has had a baby literally drop into her arms. 

«Он разрушит вашу жизнь, разрушит ваши отношения, а когда он полностью завладеет вами, он уничтожит вас. Вот что он сделает», — говорит сморщенная пожилая женщина другой женщине, которой ребенок буквально свалился на руки в результате странной череды событий.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220706-the-painful-truths-about-motherhood-exposed

to bulldoze smb. into doing smth. -

угрозами принудить к чему-л.

bulldoze He bulldozed her into agreeing — Он угрозами вынудил ее согласиться You think you can bulldoze people into doing what you want — Напрасно ты думаешь, что угрозами можно заставить людей делать все, что ты хочешь

It is 1917 and in Russia the Bolsheviks have seized power, de-throning the Tsar and declaring a revolutionary communist regime that would transfer the means of production to the people. Within a year, the royal family and their entourage lie dead as imperialism is violently dismantled to make way for Russia's radical new future. But one important remnant of the old order remains: the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory (IPM) on the outskirts of the city now known as St Petersburg.

Renaming it the State Porcelain Manufactory, the Bolsheviks, under Vladimir Lenin, took control of this symbol of tsarist decadence, seeing surprising potential in it as a wheelhouse for artistic innovation and the production of propaganda. Stocks of unpainted, snow-white china became a tantalising canvas for avant-garde artists keen to express their utopian ideologies and rouse enthusiasm for the new socialist era, giving this delicate, bourgeois material an unexpected, almost contradictory, second life.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220629-how-teapots-were-used-to-spread-russian-propaganda

In 2022 the new Australian PM is more cautious in the choice of words, though he could not refrain from the threat to cold-shoulder Putin.

In 2014 Tony Abbott said he would “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin over the downing of MH17, claiming his conversation with the Russian president at the G20 would be “the toughest conversation of all”.

Tony Abbott’s threat to “shirtfront” the Russian president during an international summit prompted a dictionary to broaden its definition of the word beyond its Aussie rules meaning.

Russian officials ridiculed the threat made by the Prime Minister at a news conference last month, warning that President Vladimir Putin was a judo expert.

Now the Macquarie Dictionary online will offer alternative definitions of “shirtfront,” including “to confront someone with a complaint or grievance.” Previously the dictionary made it two words and put the definition as: shirt fronter, a head-on charge aimed at bumping an opponent to the ground.

At the IFEMA Madrid exhibition center, where the NATO summit is taking place, guests were offered a dish called “Russian Salad”, reports Reuters. According to the agency, officials and journalists were shocked by the restaurant’s careless attitude to world problems, but they sold out the high-calorie dish in a few hours.

The guests were offered Russian Salad on the eve of the arrival of US President Joe Biden and other world leaders. The name of the dish appeared on the first line of the menu in the section of cold appetizers. Despite the dubious name, the restaurant’s visitors liked the composition, Reuters noticed. Russian salad was completely sold out within a few hours.

At the banquet for NATO Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs in the Santa Cruz Palace, the design of the menu was approached more carefully. Here chef José Andres added tomato dumplings to the salad and renamed the dish “Ukrainian salad”.

The composition of the Russian salad traditionally includes peas, potatoes, carrots and mayonnaise. A cold dish is served in almost all Spanish restaurants. However, at the NATO summit, where Russia can be called “an immediate threat to collective security”, it is rather strange to see such a line on the menu, Reuters notes.

The 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid is timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Spain’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance. Meetings of participants are held on the territory of the 9th and 10th pavilions of the IFEMA exhibition complex, as well as in the Royal Palace, Moncloa Palace and Santa Cruz.

https://dailybanner.co.uk/content/in-anticipation-of-biden-at-the-nato-summit-guests-ate-the-entire-russian-salad

In her first public comments since May on the US intelligence assessment of the war, Ms Haines suggested Russia's invasion would grind on "for an extended period of time" and that "the picture remains pretty grim".

She said intelligence agencies see three scenarios of how the war could play out, the most likely being a slow moving conflict with Russia making "incremental gains, with no breakthrough".

The other, less likely possibilities include a major Russian breakthrough, or a stabilisation of the frontlines with Ukraine achieving small gains.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61990495

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations have mocked the macho image of Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Germany dominated by the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine.

As the leaders sat down for their first meeting of the three-day G7 summit in the sweltering Bavarian Alps on Sunday, the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, asked if their jackets should come off – or if they should even disrobe further.

... Читать дальше »

The economy has always been at the heart of the Brics but the Ukraine war is likely to loom large over the summit on Thursday.

The nations may not overtly mention the war, but it will definitely be discussed when Indian PM Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro talk to each other.

Pratyush Rao, director for South Asia at the Control Risks consultancy, says Ukraine, without a doubt, will be the elephant in the room.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61894760