[Boiler]

<speechless>

[Malcolm Armsteen]

F1 seems to be making a sensible decision:

The position that the Haas team is financially dependent on a Putin crony is not addressed.

[Bones McCoy]

The FIA has announced that it has stripped Russia of the right to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix for the coming season.

Crikey: F1's grown a conscience. How long has Bernie been gone?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Crikey: F1's grown a conscience.

I wouldn't go that far. They've weaseled it to 'in the present circumstances'.

[Nigredo]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60520933

Football has had a rare moment of decency as well. Though the 2018 world cup still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

[mattomac]

This kind of stuff does have an effect the problem is it’s been appeased for too long and it will continue to be appeased.

As for the stuff around granting entry to the UK it’s absolutely shameful.

And if Putin is invading because the west went “woke” I’ve got some magic beans. He had an enabler in the White House for the last 4 years and has been buying up the conservatives. Starmer can be so forthright because he isn’t tainted by any of this, the left seem to think his chief advisor is Mandelson and he once said Putin was very clever (yeah desperate).

Germany meanwhile have a fuel issue. What is a concern is Putin is a fascist and the west is hamstrung by its inability to have seen this coming. As for the latest “it’s law firms in London apparently that are blocking sanctions, well it’s not and secondary if it was whose fault is that “Tory freinds of Russia”, it’s a bit of an odd one for the Tories to use mind considering the opposition is the former chief of public prosecutions.

The lot of them are up to their necks in it bar Sunak it seems, mind you he married a fortune so he didn’t need it.

And I’m sorry if that sounds crude but I am totally fed up with the west’s response and ours is shambolic, a shitty montage video and the lightening up of Downing Street, fuck off, the leader of Ukraine and it’s politicians are expecting a fight to the death and that’s what you put out. You cretinous bunch of shites.

[Oboogie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Snake_Island

Using a warship to bomb 13 border guards on a remote outpost is apparently part of Russia's defense initiative.

Putin seems to have forgotten we can record his war crimes in real time now, and hopefully more stringent sanctions can be immediately applied.

The take-away is fabulous;

...their response was "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" (Russian: 'Русский военный корабль, иди на хуй', romanized: Russkiy voyennyy korabl', idi na khuy).

"Thirteen border guards, representing the entirety of the Ukrainian military presence on the island, were killed after refusing to surrender;[15][16] Russian defence media stated that there were 82 Ukrainian soldiers, who all surrendered unthreatened.[8] One of the Ukrainian soldiers live-streamed the moment that the Russian warship opened fire.[17]

Reaction
The Ukrainian border guards' defiant last words "Russian warship, go fuck yourself" went viral and became a rallying cry for Ukrainians and their supporters around the world.[18] The Week compared the phrase to "Remember the Alamo" from the 19th century Republic of Texas.[19]

On the day of the attack, Zelenskyy announced that all thirteen guards will be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, the highest Ukrainian military honor.[10]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Snake_Island

[Boiler]

[...] And I’m sorry if that sounds crude but I am totally fed up with the west’s response and ours is shambolic, a shitty montage video and the lightening up of Downing Street, fuck off, the leader of Ukraine and it’s politicians are expecting a fight to the death and that’s what you put out. You cretinous bunch of shites.

Useless cunts at Downing Street couldn't even get the flag in the correct orientation - it's horizontal stripes of yellow (cornfields) and blue (sky).

Lazy shit-eaters.

[Arrowhead]

Stories emerging (unverified as yet) that UK nationals married to Ukrainians are refusing to leave the country as the Home Office is refusing to allow their spouses to even apply for visas.

Hostile environment...

That'll be the Wetherspoons wankers satisfied, then.

I'll give the Tories some credit here - they certainly know how to keep their core voters happy.

[Bones McCoy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60520933

Football has had a rare moment of decency as well. Though the 2018 world cup still leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Just wait what's coming next.

[Spoonman]

I'm not sure if this is wanted here or not, but I've been keeping an eye on a few Ukrainian TV channels that I can pick up via satellite to see how they are documenting unfolding events...

Some time early yesterday a number of local pay-tv channels switched off their scrambling (and are thus freely available to watch ATM) and the majority of what I can receive are either broadcasting rolling news or are relaying such a channel with it.

"1+1" is one of the biggest commercial channels in the country, it's news programming is branded "TSN" (Television Service of News), TCH in Cyrillic, and has been on rolling coverage since yesterday morning (the earliest I noticed). The hashtag below the channel logo says "#UArazom" or "#UAtogether"

01-1+1.jpg (71.78 KiB) Viewed 5322 times

Other commercial channels either have their own rolling news or are taking it from a "sister" station, this is Ukrainian Channel 5.

01-ch5.jpg (99.62 KiB) Viewed 5322 times

Many other channels are taking a feed from the Ukrainian parliamentary channel "Rada TV". This is the Ukraine 24 channel relaying its feed - Ukraine 24 was providing its own coverage until sometime today mid afternoon locally, with it now switched to Rada TV albeit with the Ukraine 24 logo still present. What's slightly disturbing here is that the presenters of Rada TV now (as in sometime early evening in Kyiv) appear to have gone from their main studio into what looks like a part of the underground transit system in Kyiv (if other coverage I've seen makes my assumption correct), presumably for their safety as if Russian troops attack/enter Kyiv you'd presume the parliament buildings will be one of the first things they'll go after.

01-ukraine24.jpg (147.77 KiB) Viewed 5322 times

One exception to taking a local news feed is from "Sonce TV" whom are relaying CNN International Europe.

01-sonce.jpg (109.76 KiB) Viewed 5322 times

Also there is Belsat TV - a Poland based TV channel (part of the Polish state broadcaster TVP) aimed at Belorussians that normally focuses on events there. In the last 36 hours they too have suspended normal programming to cover rolling events in Ukraine. Notable are the sky blue & yellow ribbons worn by the presenters as well as the Ukraninain & white/red/white old Belarussian flags together below the channel DOG - on a couple of other TVP channels I can also get, they have onscreen messages stating "Solidarity with Ukraine".

01-belsat.jpg (91.89 KiB) Viewed 5322 times

Finally, there are a few channels still going on as normal, a couple of entertainment channels, three children's channels (understandable during this time) and quite surrealy a few TV shopping channels are carrying on like nothing unusual is happening, with one of them appearing this afternoon to be doing live presentations!

[Spoonman]

Some YouTube live streams of the aforementioned channels above...

* RADA TV

* Belsat TV

* Ukraine 24

* 1+1 TSN

1+1 are presently relaying RADA, not sure if this is a temporary or permanent switch as they were briefly relaying RADA this morning.


Edit: One further channel to keep an eye on, Kyiv TV (local public broadcaster for the city) that are providing their own local coverage. They appear to have notable Ukrainians on from time to time giving recorded messages.

Further Edit: Seems Kyiv TV have ended their live stream. Their YT channel link - https://www.youtube.com/user/kievchannel

[kreuzberger]

Whether it's Vitali Klitschko taking up arms, a C&A-clad Zelenskiy recording a vid of himself and his mates, or the scene of a barefoot housewife with a Kalashnikov, I think that it's fair to say that Ukrainians must be the hardest people on the planet.

That might be down to this being the first war to be livestreamed with decent bandwidth, but these myriad cameos of bravery are quite something to behold.

My thoughts turn to the vox-popped 'ardnut patriots of Chelmsford and Stoke, and whether they would be quite so combat-ready.

[Youngian]

Mayor Tyson Fury would be a good guy to have your back in a battle. Wouldn’t want him running an executive mayoralty of a capital city, though.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Whether it's Vitali Klitschko taking up arms, a C&A-clad Zelenskiy recording a vid of himself and his mates, or the scene of a barefoot housewife with a Kalashnikov, I think that it's fair to say that Ukrainians must be the hardest people on the planet.

That might be down to this being the first war to be livestreamed with decent bandwidth, but these myriad cameos of bravery are quite something to behold.

My thoughts turn to the vox-popped 'ardnut patriots of Chelmsford and Stoke, and whether they would be quite so combat-ready.

Remember their origins: these are the descendants of the Kiev Rus, proper hard Vikings...

[Crabcakes]

This is just one of quite a few snippets of analysis I’ve seen along the broad line of consensus that it is quite possible Putin has fucked it. He expected a cakewalk and applause. Instead he’s got mounting casualties, protests at home, slow progress, tougher than expected response from the west, and the prospect of a lot of resistance.

[mattomac]

Some murmurings about the match on Sunday and what Liverpool fans should do followed by the usual “keep sport out of politics” however maybe it should be the other way around “keep politics out of our sport”.

Putin with the World Cup in 2018, China with their various olympics the Qatar World Cup in December, Bolosarno and the copa America last year, Roman buying Chelsea along with the purchases of Man City and Newcastle.

They are all aimed at legitimatising the regimes behind them, so no sport should not stay out of politics as it has the ability to highlight issues, but politics especially despots should stay away from sport.

[Andy McDandy]

Olympic boycotts, banning South Africa from international tournaments, us vs them boxing matches. And so on.

It's all political. What people mean is "keep views we don't like out of sport". Which is a variant of "shut up and play some ball, boy".

[RedSparrows]

Olympic boycotts, banning South Africa from international tournaments, us vs them boxing matches. And so on.

It's all political. What people mean is "keep views we don't like out of sport". Which is a variant of "shut up and play some ball, boy".

As ever it's not the fact of something, but the type of thing. See also 'pc gone mad' Vs 'how dare you talk about slavery'.

[Nigredo]

Whether it's Vitali Klitschko taking up arms, a C&A-clad Zelenskiy recording a vid of himself and his mates, or the scene of a barefoot housewife with a Kalashnikov, I think that it's fair to say that Ukrainians must be the hardest people on the planet.

That might be down to this being the first war to be livestreamed with decent bandwidth, but these myriad cameos of bravery are quite something to behold.

My thoughts turn to the vox-popped 'ardnut patriots of Chelmsford and Stoke, and whether they would be quite so combat-ready.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog- ... y-25-2022/

Zelenskiy has told the west to send him ammunition, not evacuation.

What a leader. And a mad bastard. The pork haystack would probably be cowering 20 metres below Chequers whilst assuring us our counter-offensives were "world beating".