BruceVC

No thats not the only option, different leadership or a shift in ideological goals in Russia can produce different results and commitments to the invasion The Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan after years of protracted war and the US also left Afghanistan. So there are lots of variables to the outcome of this war

https://abcnews.go.com/Internationa...-russia-summit-kremlin-seeks-allies-101668928 Only 17 African heads of states, compared to 43 last time, are attending the African Russian conference. Its good to see this rejection of Russia's geopolitical anti-Western stance Compare this to the US African conference where over 40 African leaders attended. I think the Ruskies cancelling the grain deal had an influence on this because its clear Putin has no real concern or interest in Africa https://www.npr.org/2022/12/13/1142...-than-40-african-leaders-at-u-s-africa-summit

Yes, that whats I thought. But it makes no sense. The invasion would still have happened and still be ongoing irrespective if Czech supported Ukraine or not

Yes, Zora's suggestion to the global impact caused by the Russians ending the grain deal is " for Europeans to eat less hamburgers " Maybe the Chinese should eat less burgers?

Im about 80 hours into Gothic 2 and its been the fantastic PB experience I was expecting. Most PB games have the same excellent design which include no level scaling and you get killed easily if you try to face all enemies on lower levels no map hand holding, you need to actually explore to find quest objectives open world, you can go where you want and you can progress your character on multiple paths in different ways I am now level 25 Paladin and I have just started the dragon hunt, I havent faced any dragons yet but Im killing orcs and other monsters in the Valley of Mines and gaining XP. I like the Paladin magic and ease of use of runes I adopted a good strategy to kill certain monsters at lower levels which included the following tried and tested PB mechanics using spells, most scrolls only use 5 mana running away and using long distance attacks finding companions and letting them draw aggro and then I helped in combat. Im using Biff the dragon hunter at the moment for that but Im at the level and skill where I dont really need him as much But its a fantastic game, very entertaining

Im confused by this Tweet, what examples are they talking about when they say " Czech is involved in destructive foreign policy decision" ? What decisions do they mean?

Definititley and Im sure they also don't want anything to impact there numerous African investments Buti its still appreciated, China has the most influence on Russia IMO. I am not suggesting Russia listens to China but Russia needs China on various economic levels

https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/russia-under-pressure-un-security-council-ally-china-revival-ukraine-grain-deal-global-food-crisis-wheat-exports-war-port-attacks-latest-updates-2023-07-22-882364 China putting pressure on Russia to restore the grain deal to avoid a global food crisis that will particularly impact the developing world

That doesnt seem true or likely , no one can predict military success around timelines in this type of war especially when Ukraine is only now on the offensive The military aid has always been explained why it was supplied by the West\NATO , its to defend Ukraine and for the offensive but military aid was supplied long before the offensive

@Gfted1 You will be proud of me, I did my own DIY again but this time plumbing. I thought of you and your daughter My sinks in the kitchen were draining slowing and I did some Internet research and I watched a video about using a plunger. Instead of phoning a plumber I followed the video instructions and I used a plunger and I cleared the blocked sink Im getting good, Im close to advanced DIY skills

What are some examples in the US where you believe freedom of speech doesnt exsit or is being eroded, I want to understand what you mean with specific examples?

Yes, its a beautiful coastal town and famous for surfing . Since I moved to Cpt its actually closer to me and I driven through it several times

I want to ask you a simple but important question and if you can answer this then it make me feel much better about what Africa is going to face due to Russia cancelling the grain deal Lets say for argument sake 1000 tons of grain per month come through the Black Sea and only 2% of that goes to Africa. But that 2% is what they use and UN allocates to certain African countries. Where is this grain going to come from now? There are supply chain realities and transport issues so that is also a consideration but I am more interested in where additional grain that is now blocked is going to come from?

This Girkin meme made me laugh

None of that changes the fundamental issue and the impact to Africa but its no surprise you are handwaving it, I was expecting that if you were going to comment It doesnt matter how much grain the EU uses because the supply chains are now broken by Russia ending the grain deal. The EU, like the energy from Russia, will make another plan. African countries cant and wont like we witnessed last year because they dependant on this deal And its not just one African country that will be impacted, to quote from the link below " Some of these countries are a part of a group of 16 African nations that import the majority of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Djibouti, Burundi, Mauritania, Togo, Cameroon, Senegal, Rwanda, Congo, Libya, Tanzania and Namibia all depend on the warring sides for 50 to 70 percent of their wheat imports. Meanwhile, Egypt and Madagascar import more than 70 to 80 percent and Somalia imports over 90 percent of their wheat requirement. And the African country most dependent on the grain deal is Eritrea – importing 100 percent of its grain from Ukraine and Russia " https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/which-african-countries-benefit-from-türkiye-brokered-grain-deal-62422

I have stopped pointing out the obvious lies with the general rhetoric that Russia cares about Africa or the global south The cancellation of the grain deal and its real impact to Africa gets handwaved by Vatniks and Russian supporters with comments like " yes but the grain all goes to the EU " or " its fine, Russia will supply grain directly to African countries " and other similar comments But it will absolutely impact certain African and ME countries the most and these are already mostly impoverished countries that are dependant on this deal for food security and we know this because this all happened last year. Here are 2 links from last year about the biggest outcome for Russia cancelling the deal https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/28/ukraine/russia-war-continues-africa-food-crisis-looms https://www.euronews.com/2022/07/23/peace-and-stability-african-leaders-welcome-russia-ukraine-wheat-deal

Correct and they should have arrested Al-Bashir as our courts ruled. This has been tested already in our courts. Why would the ANC want to go through this again with Putin? They were under an obligation to arrest him and our local laws expected that Also that was different leadership and era in SA, that was when Jacob Zuma was president. Zuma was incredibly corrupt and didn't understand or care about the Constitution and what it means. The current president does care and respect the Constitution

https://ewn.co.za/2023/07/19/putin-won-t-attend-brics-summit-presidency-confirms

Yes the idea of leaving the ICC is over now, the ANC reaffirmed commitment to the ICC at its elective conference in December and in April. The ANC could get the country to leave the ICC but it decided to stay because 30 African countries are part of it and we no have alternative in Africa. And the reason for staying is we cant change the ICC from the outside. Thats what ANC spokes people say Anyway its just been announced, Putin wont be coming next month and Lavrov will attend in his place. That makes sense on every level and its much better for SA

Okay, its still a confused message. Our government has said we will honor the ICC because we believe in it and we reaffirmed our membership of it in April but we also dont want to arrest Putin and risk war or other consequence The obvious and easy solution is simple, dont invite Putin. He can send Lavrov and attend virtually like BRICS meetings have been held in the past. It makes no difference to the functions of this BRICS meetings if Putin is here in person except for Russian symbolism, hubris and the optics of rejecting the ICC. Because Russia isnt a member of the ICC so they dont care but we are so it matters we enforce its warrants And SA has been through this before where we failed to arrest Al-Bashir of Sudan and our local courts ruled we had a Constitutional obligation to arrest him. So this is about our own laws and the ANC cant ignore that irrespective of their own ideological views and historical " friendship " with Russia

Whoah, yes you missed a lot There is an ICC arrest warrant on Putin and SA is a signatory to the ICC and therefore expected to enforce ICC warrants

You right and I agree Russia has demonstrated numerous irrational and illogical decisions But I am particularly interested in the statement " we will declare war on SA if Putin is arrested " . I did some quick research and I cant find anything from Russia. All I can find is what our president said because if the Russians did say that then we mustn't arrest him, its not worth the risk even if its just a meaningless threat And if it is true so much for the Russian " friendship " with the global south and SA

Nuke us when Putin is arrested in SA .....surly not Honestly I think our government is exaggerating or lying because the ANC lost a court case around all deliberations about enforcing the BRICS warrant and now all discussions have to be public record I want to know if anything is official about this in the Russian media or government comments , have the Russians actually said " we will declare war on SA if Putin is arrested "

According to the SA government Russia has said they will declare war on SA if Putin is arrested during the BRICS conference next month I find that hard to believe that Russia would do that? And I mean the threat and going to war with SA Putin can attend BRICS virtually and if Putin drops dead tomorrow BRICS will still continue. It makes no difference to BRICS if Putin is around, its like the UN. Its not about people its about countries. I find the threat hard to believe? Can you imagine Russia invading SA

Im watching s3 of the Witcher, its not that bad and seems to be getting lots of negative views? But I will miss Henry Cavill as Geralt, he was an excellent choice