September 27, 2020 While the political and economic union that had persevered for 300 years held (just) in 2014, faultlines over https://www.politico.eu/article/why-ukraine-loves-joe-biden-us-election-donald-trump-russia/Brexit could cause the final, fatal tremor that sees the UK collapse in on itself entirely. 

https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/18/disunited-kingdom-why-scottish-independence-is-now-more-likely-because-of-brexit

The machine translation is getting more and more elaborate. The animism of the English syntax (a unit in yellow above) is now easily dealt with: 

В то время как политический и экономический союз, который существовал в течение 300 лет, сохранился (только) в 2014 году, недостатки в отношении Брексита могут вызвать окончательный фатальный толчок, который приведет к полному краху Великобритании.

September 23, 2020 Any sentence always has a dual reference. The first of the two meanings is the literal meaning of the words used, while the second is the what the sentence means in the context of the relationship of the two people having the conversation. In order to understand this second level, one also has to understand that words can also be actions that do things that go well beyond talk. Linguists refer to this phenomenon as "speech acts."  

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/matter-personality/201412/the-power-ambiguity-in-family-communication

September 21, 2020 Belarus's embattled leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has arrived in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54144644

The adjective embattled is now mostly used in the meaning of  атакуемый, критикуемый; переживающий тяжёлые времена; столкнувшийся с трудностями, проблемами. All of these correspondences convey the message in the piece of news above, and one can offer more choices. Thus, Belarus's embattled leader may be translated as попавший под град критики.

September 17, 2020 The new metaphor that reflects the damned covid advance is "circuit break" restrictions. Not an easy one for translation, though transparent:  circuit breaker - автоматический (контактный) выключатель, рубильник

September 11,2020 There is a widely-spread myth that propaganda is alien to the English language mass media. The opposite is true: propaganda is as pervasive in the English language mass media as it used to be in the mouthpiece of the CPSU: "Pravda". "The Encyclopedia of Misinformation" bears a strong testimony in favour of this allegation.

September 7, 2020 “Democratic politics is politics in the vernacular. The average citizen only feels comfortable debating political issues in their own tongue” [Kymlicka, 2001: 213]. The best linguistic arrangement happens when people take it for granted to be allowed to do things wjth the words of one's native tongue. Any other arrangement comes under fire in the English language discourse: Kymlicka, Will. Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship.  Oxford University Press, 2001. – 383 p.

September 3, 2020 The road map to etymology is very often lost in the translation: What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts, as the British saying has it. Ahead lies the prospect of both the implementation of Russian economic projects and the deeper integration of Russia and Belarus into a single state, whether the West likes it or not. https://nationalinterest.org/feature/four-reasons-why-regime-change-won’t-occur-belarus-168226 In Russian: Потеряешь в одном, выиграешь в другом. / Никогда не знаешь, где найдешь, где потеряешь.