Président Macron's speech tonight. (with English subtitles, I hope)

[Redheadedstepchild]

1

I hope that this uploads with English subtitles but if it doesn't, you should be able to get them up. I can't form any opinion about what he had to say right now, just passing it on.

@ZebedeeDougalFlorence no it isn't, but equally we don't have a choice in wether we deal with him or not.

I don't think that Putin actually ordered the killing of Prigozhin, he is colder, more calculating than that, now the next mutineer won't surrender. I have read that the military leadership were far angrier with him than Putin was. I believe that it was the generals that decided to off Prigozhin and Putin was presented with a fait accompli, which neither pleased nor displeased him.

Oh do grow up! Wtf has his wife got to do with what is being discussed. Why do posters constantly derail serious threads with nonsense like this?

There was a question about casualty numbers. Various sources argue about the numbers.

The one thing that I know for certain is that a Sky news team was allowed into Krasnodar where they did various vox pop interviews. So many Russian soldiers have been killed that a new cemetery had to be opened up in Krasnodar. The war graves seemed to stretch quite a distance. Some sources claim 80,000 but I can't find a definitive number.

Well thank goodness France kept their nuclear deterrent, merci for saving our arses.

The leftie warmongering is as terrifying as the lefty insistence everyone has a worse life to include trans/accept mass immigration/spend absurd amounts of money on the disabled and degenerate leeches, it would be fine if it was only your lives/tax money/freedoms infringed upon but you're dragging everyone into your foolishness. Take a look at the drone videos and ask if that's what you want happening to your young men over some minerals - the elites don't give a shit about Ukrainian freedom. I expect the attitude will sharpish change when they start sending women and people with mild disabilities off to be blown up instead of the fit and healthy, or start cutting state help to fund some pointless war. Macron has ruined his country and you all clap like seals when he drags us further into conflict as though he's some righteous man.

I have a solution, conscript all the illegal boat migrants given they’re mostly men of working age.

As they’re so keen to come to the UK perhaps they’d care to give something back to their adopted country.

It’s a concern of mine- a man who can be manipulated, not oniy as a vulnerable teen by a predator, but as a grown man by the same predator.

This

The man has always made a nice speech. I heard one a few years ago where he set out the values of secularism and the Republic which was brilliant. But meaningless because he never, ever follows through,

So ra ra all you like about this speech. It’s inspiring if you like a good rousing oration, but it is hollow and meaningless. The man has no conviction and will never follow through.

I think we shouldn't just leap to write off the USA as an ally, as a knee-jerk reaction to the current diplomatic situation.

consider that the US will still continue to staff and fund 13 military bases in our country, we are strategically important to US and will remain so.

also consider that Trump is one president who takes a position but at some stage he will not be president. Similarly Putin is one person, who is here at this point in history and his actions at some stage will cease. All things will pass.

Leaping to the conclusion that US is "no longer an ally" is short termist in the grand scheme. We definitely need to step up decisively and fast, in bolstering European security (that has been known for a very long time) - successive governments have been milking the peace dividend for far longer than was wise to do and we know we need to take affirmative action so in that regard Trump has done us a favour. But let's not write off US.

The US UK "special relationship" that leaders would have us believe, is a bit of a myth, it has been symbiotic and often cordial when needed, but there has also been a power imbalance. This is international relations for you. It's nuanced.

Thatcher and Reagan, Blair and Bush, they had personal rapport, but they are history now too.

@daisychain01 I think you are right, we don’t need to make matters worse. We need to be pragmatic and careful. We need to rearm. I expect France, Germany and Sweden will. Poland already is.

Currently, we are very weak. At the moment the US is not just choosing to neglect our interests, but doing things that are antagonistic. We have to walk a fine line until we shore things up.

If we take action and improve our situation, then we can invite the Americans to leave. If they feel more like an occupying army rather than a protective ally.

The US was once widely regarded as the leader of the free world. Now, the entire world is looking down on you - some in horror, some with delight, but all in astonishment at just how quickly a leading democracy can descend into a failed state.

It is not the fact that the US is asking Europe to step up that concerns us. It is the extent to which you have plunged into the abyss. Far from prioritising itself, we see the US destroying itself in front of our very eyes.

What a fatuous and irrelevant comment

Oh for goodness sake. If you are going to contribute, at least attempt to make it relevant

Speeches are not meaning much atm, intel and other gaps cannot be met.

EU will step up on spending which was wanted by US anyway.

Because people can’t mature, learn or change can they? We are all stuck in time as our 15 yr old selves 😒

It's called playing the man and not the ball.

He is a 47 year old man who has stuck with the woman who groomed and manipulated him as a child. The fact that he hasn’t realised this and has clung to her is a huge red flag. She is an abuser and his judgement is terrible. The longevity of their relationship doesn’t change this. He is her victim and can’t see it.

I would be more tolerant of the relationship had they met when he was 25 and he had relationships before her.

And how does this make what he said in his video wrong?

@CrocsNotDocs let’s not derail this thread

It's not irrelevant to point out how insanely weird Macron is, since you trust him with your future.

The 'insanely weird' leaders are in USA and Russia.

Trump won't even commit to security guarantees to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine again.

Why does Europe ask the US for this and not step up and do it instead?

These speeches are one thing, if it's not backed by their own security guarantee it's just words on a stage.

EU will spend more over time, the US voters wanted that anyway.