BruceVC

Thats more an objective of the Israeli far right, they want free reign to occupy all the Palestinian territories permanently But that was never the US view or what they would support And this hostage deal confirms that, they voting today in Israel and all evidence points at the majority of the Knesset supporting this deal and the Israeli far right losing out which is good news https://www.voanews.com/a/israeli-cabinet-to-vote-on-gaza-ceasefire-deal/7938786.html

I was thinking about this but I dont think it was big part of the Israeli decision The one thing we know is that Netanyahu appreciates staying in power and with his far right coalition partners he was and is firmly in power And this deal weakens that political reality because this is not what many of the far right wanted and they now threatening to topple his government but they wont be able to because he still has enough support. I doubt Netanyahu would risk his own political sustainability just so that Trump looks good The link I posted discusses this and the main reasons for Netanyahu and Hamas agreeing to this were "Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the emerging deal, which was negotiated in secret, the official said conditions for it were created by the killing by Israeli forces of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, in October and the increasing isolation of Hamas as Israel began in recent months to dismantle the axis of Iranian-backed proxies around its borders, including Hezbollah, Hamas’s ally in Lebanon The official pointed to increasing pressure on Hamas from the suffering Palestinian population in Gaza with the onset of another winter. He also acknowledged the pressure to achieve a deal from the United States. Officials in the Biden administration had been pressing for a deal that would become part of the departing president’s legacy. And President-elect Trump had warned that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the hostages before he assumes office on Jan. 20."

Both sides are gaining and as usual much more Palestinians will be released for each Israeli and the IDF has to withdraw from parts of Gaza The butthurt from the Israeli far right is hilarious but compromises needed to be made. We had no progress around 15 months of war so this makes sense https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/world/middleeast/ceasefire-netanyahu-israel.html " Critics of Mr. Netanyahu’s government, including many of the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, have repeatedly accused the prime minister of sabotaging past efforts to reach a deal in order to preserve his coalition — the most right-wing and religiously conservative in Israel’s history — and remain in power. Mr. Netanyahu and his loyalists have blamed Hamas for past failures to reach a deal. The current agreement was expected to gain government approval even without the support of the two far-right parties, since a majority of cabinet members are in favor of it. "

Yes, its not all because of Trump and Blinken deserves credit for his tireless effort and Qatar also needs recognition But I dont think its a coincidence that 10 days ago Trump was threatening " all Hell would break out " and now after 15 months we see this agreement Pressure was also put on Israel as I mentioned but it was done privately to agree to terms like Palestinian prisoners being released and Netanyahu wouldnt have wanted to do this because several of them would be implicated in the killing of Israelis but I dont think he had a choice Trump is a good deal-maker and loves to think of himself like that and that type of hubris has its positive aspects. Trump didnt want to become US president with the hostage deal unresolved so he made point of putting real pressure on Israel End of the day if it happens both sides will have gained something and that makes sense in the interests of compromise

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-hostages-01-15-24/index.html Real progress around the hostage release deal, both sides are gaining something and are in agreement on the terms Some of Netanyahu's right-wing ministers are not happy with this deal but he has enough political support to survive them leaving the coalition if they do But compromises have to made to get the hostages released so this is good news And I think Trumps deadline made a big difference in expediting this agreement so well done to Trump

I watched parts of the questions, it was typical of what I would expect with complete support for him from the GOP and the Dems being completely opposed to him Duckworth and Warren did seem overly worked up The Independent, King, asked the best questions where he asked relevant questions about the Genevan Convention and things like water boarding and Hegseth tried to avoid answering them because of previous comments he made Im not sure how Hegseth is going to be as Defence Secretary , it will be interesting to see

I dont recall that happening, if you can find links of Russian POW saying that it would be interesting

I really enjoyed it, its hard to think of Hugh Grant in a diabolical role but he did a good job The movie raised lots of religious and existential questions in an interesting way. I did assume it would be more supernatural but its well worth watching I watched this captivating movie last week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_(2024_film) Its based on a true story about a white nationalist group that operated in the US in the 1980s and Jude Law is brilliant as usual @Gfted1 and @rjshae You should enjoy this movie

I dont know, there are lots of Russians who have been captured by Ukraine and I never heard it reported on that " we dont want to go back to Russia as a prisoner swop " In fact I cant recall any prisoner of war story where I have heard that? But I can believe that some NK soldiers would say that because this is specific to the reality of life in NK

It sounds good fun around its overall mechanics, I enjoy these types of RNG survival games I will play it

I do believe many NK if given an opportunity would love to not live in NK We have lots or precedent around NK citizens trying to escape the authoritarian hellhole they live in So yes its not hard to believe that some NK soldiers fighting in Ukraine dont want to go home

But you now believe that NK troops have been deployed to Ukraine\Kursk and you do accept that the original reports were true? Because initially you didnt believe it because only Western media was reporting on it?

Im about 12 hours into Witcher 1 and its been an excellent and nostalgic experience Now that I know more about the Witcher lore and world I am appreciating the game even more The combat mechanics are not great but Im use to them now but Im using a mod called FCR (full combat rebalance ) I had to use a cheat in the Beast battle because of how badly designed that battle was, I hate using cheats but I had no choice You end up having to fight the Beast with no potions and you immediately get attacked in a relatively small area and having to use the frustrating overall W1 combat system It just wasnt worth spending hours to win this battle, so I loaded a cheat mod that gives you 1000 health and then once the Beast was defeated I uninstalled the Cheat I am having loads of fun with the Romance card system, it makes sense because its better than the silly Bioware Romance scenes And then W1 highlights again what an honourable person Geralt is compared to many of the " good " humans he meets like all the degeneracy and iniquity in the village on the outskirts of Vizima The hatred towards Abigail from all the influential hypocrites in the town made my decision to support her easy It surprised me when someone like @Hurlshot said he doesnt like Geralts personality because Geralts core beliefs are about justice and helping the downtrodden and he is a good person at heart who demonstrates real humanity in a harsh world that lacks it

https://www.nknews.org/2025/01/ukraine-ready-to-hand-over-kim-jong-uns-soldiers-in-prisoner-swap-zelensky/ Further evidence of NK deployments in Ukraine But what made me laugh is one of the soldiers would rather stay a prisoner than to be returned to NK Imagine how terrible it must be in NK when you would prefer being a prisoner than going home " But video of the soldiers’ interrogation that he released the same day suggested at least one of the POWs may not want to return to the DPRK, raising concerns about the potential for exchanges to violate prisoners’ wishes and international laws against sending people to countries where they could face persecution. "

It looks good, I had never heard of it How is it compared to Sunless, it does seem simpler but similar?