Whitelaw Reid:
“…in their story of the transactions at Vienna we see for the first time in an adequate light, the great diplomatist at the height of his powers, and winning his worthiest triumphs. He went to Vienna the representative of a prostrate nation, and of a throne propped up by the bayonets of the army that had conquered it. He found the victors apportioning the spoil without reference to him, and even without admitting him to their conferences. He had neither physical power nor moral prestige behind him; no great army; no established institutions; hardly even a country; and the very instructions he bore he had written himself. He stood alone against Europe. And yet in a few months, by sheer force of intellect and skill. He had divided the allies, had secured the territorial integrity of his country, had negotiated most useful alliances, had greatly strengthened the French throne, had done something toward preventing the wanton partition of other nationalities, and had put France again in a leading position in Europe.”
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...
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Russia's two proxy statelets are not recognised internationally. In fact Moscow only recognised the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics two days before it invaded Ukraine in February. Last week the president of Kazakhstan said in front of President Vladimir Putin that he had no intention of recognising them.
Moscow city council announced on Wednesday that it had changed the address of the US embassy in the Russian capital, from Bolshoi Devyatinsky Lane to 1 Donetsk People's Republic Square.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61891462
statelet ['steɪtlət] маленькое независимое государство statelet state|let noun a small state, especially one that is closely affiliated to or has emerged from the break-up of a larger state
"Before we nation-build the rest of the world, we should be building safe schools for our own children in our own nation," Mr Trump said in Friday's speech, drawing loud applause.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61614782... Читать дальше »
Probably the most bizarre use of whataboutism in Australia over recent years involved conservative federal House of Representatives member Bob Katter, when in 2017 he was asked about marriage equality: an issue that he’s opposed to.
The MP initially responded to reporters’ questions about the same-sex marriage debate with “people are entitled to their sexual proclivities”. And he then employed a bit of whataboutism when he changed the topic to an issue he found more pressing.
“But, I ain’t spending any time with it,” he continued in relation to the marriage equality debate. “Because in the meantime, each three months a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland.”
In actuality figures reveal that around one person a year has been killed by a croc dating back to 1985.
Pope Francis recently held a Zoom call with Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill.
Francis said he told the pro-war church leader to avoid becoming "Putin's altar boy."Kirill's outspoken support of Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine has angered other church leaders.
POPE FRANCIS HAS NEVER USED "PUTIN'S ALTAR BOY" PHRASE IN HIS CONVERSATION WITH PATRIARCH KIRILL:
On March 16, 2022, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had an online talk with Pope Francis of Rome, which was focused on the situation in Ukraine.
Metropolitan Hilarion noted that after the video meeting, the press service of the Holy See quite correctly presented the information about the talk between the Primates of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
