Ampas comments

Glad to see England not involved in the final. The amount of whinging after losing would have reached new heights.

Good to see they are not going to make the same mistake again.

I was a bit disappointed in the previous match the boks played, nothing like their 2018 performance.

The last time they played England? Or the quarterfinal against France? Last week's match against France was one of the greatest games of rugby ever played.

Who'd a thought England would be the only unbeaten side left in the semis?

Not at all surprising - England has enjoyed a most fortuitous ride to the semifinals. After topping the weakest group in the pool stages they eked out a narrow win over the lowest ranked team (tier 2 Fiji) among the quarter finalists.

Stranger things have happened, but if they somehow manage to overcome South Africa this weekend it would be one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. More likely they will lose by 30 + points.

They (Iran) wanted to sabotage Israel-Arab World normalization. and they succeeded.

Israel occupies more and more territory while 2.4 million are Palestinians confined to an area less than 2% the size of Israel. Perhaps normalization is not possible under these circumstances.

Japan's economic sanctions on Russia do not apply to seafood exports?

I hope they don't win nothing, they play dirty.

Dirty play on the part of the All Blacks last weekend allowed the Springboks to destroy them - so many penalties leading to yellow cards and one red card.

Ireland, despite being number 1 in the world rankings, have never impressed at a world cup. The only team that can prevent South Africa from winning again this year is France, but I don't think they will.

The master of political opportunism strikes again.

The Russians don’t have 5th Gen fighters in any number and they won’t risk them since it would be “embarrassing “….

The Su-57, which has been used in the conflict, is not fifth generation? An F-16 vs an Su-35 is already a difficult proposition. If providing Ukraine was really a priority, one would think a more effective fighter would be provided.

Newly-trained pilots in a third-generation fighter that first flew in 1974 up against fully-trained pilots in fourth and fifth generation fighters. Not sure this will have the kind of impact they're looking for.

Canada has been taking so many steps backwards since 2015. Bills C-11 and C-18 seem to be there to promote government funded legacy media (not only the CBC) and to silence any online criticism of the government. They want to be in control of everything. It's a shortsighted policy that will eventually lead to the demise of a number of once-trusted national institutions.

Never let new sources of cheap labor go to waste. The race to the bottom finds a new avenue.

We all saw them make a run at Kyiv and fail. That's not part of any sane strategy.

Moving troops in the direction of Kiev was probably to make the Ukrainians commit more of their forces there. Taking the Russian speaking eastern part of the country was the objective.

"... they have still managed to fail spectacularly."

This 'spectacular failing' seems to be reflected neither on a map nor in terms of Ukrainian troop losses, the latter which may actually be part of the Russian strategy.

If the terrorist defensive line is punctured it doesn't matter what the distance is.

Being outnumbered in terms of troops and hardware also does not matter?

It does if they were at risk of losing the Crimean peninsula by losing the land bridge.

The distance between Crimea and the front line is:

(a) 20 - 30 km

(b) 30 - 40 km

(c) 40 - 50 km

(d) 50 - 60 km

Basil Fawlty writing for the New York Times is more likely than Ukraine retaking Crimea.

Answer to the above question: d.

Because Russia destroying infrastructure that provides water to Russian-controlled Crimea makes so much sense.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union NATO has sought enemies to justify its existence. In the 1990s and 2000s Russia wanted to join NATO but was turned away. Instead NATO advanced eastwards right up to the Russian border. And then Ukraine happened.

Had Russia joined NATO back then, the world would be a very different place. Hopefully history will not repeat itself.

Let the photo ops begin.

Meanwhile, up in Glasgow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XExEXdlMlUw

NATO's existence has kept the peace in Europe for 74 years.

This was true up to the fall of the Soviet Union. Since then NATO has sought out conflict to justify it's existence. Had Russia been allowed to join NATO in the 1990s, so many conflicts could have been avoided, and so many weapons systems would not have needed to be sold.

In search of new sources of funding.

Canada is ranked as high as #15? Does government funding of all the large private media organizations there not factor into RSF's ranking criteria?

Since BRICS is a meaningless organization, ...

Meaningless in terms of? The collective population is 4.5 times larger and GDP recently surpassed that of the G7. With the dollar being replaced by the yuan and ruble, this trend will only accelerate.

Hopefully Mr. Kishida will be better received than US Vice President Kamala Harris, who visited several African countries last month.

Harris' reception from some African leaders; "A country that has killed so many of our leaders in Africa ... today are coming to teach us about democracy", "It’s not democracy and human rights they are pursuing in Africa. They are pursuing their geopolitical interests. They are pursuing their own economic interests. It is not for us — it is for them", and “These things should not be tolerated. That is undemocratic! What is democracy? That somebody else would have to dictate to me, as to what is good and what is bad?”

lol Nope. Nice try, though.

Yes, it was. At about the 7:30 mark there are excerpts of RFK Jr.'s speech in which he announces his candicacy, and then excerpts of hatchet-job reporting of this on CNN and MSNBC.

The fact you mentioned a specific monologue, without mentioning what it was about, or providing a link tells me everything I need to know.

OK. It was about Robert F. Kennedy announcing his candidacy to be the Democratic Party nominee for 2024, and the way this was covered by mainstream media outlets.

Tucker was basically fired for his April 19th monologue. It's actually quite well worth watching this. People might be surprised to find they agree with much of what he has to say.

Kishida is simply paying lip service to the powers that be.

Interesting to see that the commentator has the time to evaluate the personal opinion of a good few million people.

People usually express their opinion based on observation and evidence. Opinion polls indicate that unlike before, the political attitudes of younger people are not becoming more conservative as they get older. The number of young people with a positive attitude towards the British royal family now is half of what it was in 2015 ( 60% vs. 30%).