Important context that is missing from the article: The Maccabi fans were causing havoc in the city since the morning before the match was held. They were going around shouting anti-Palestine chants, climbing buildings to take down Palestinian flags from windows, burned down at least one Palestinian flag, attacked a taxi driver in his taxi with metal chains, and broke store and apartment windows. There's also numerous reports that they've been attacking people in the street who had attempted to stop their vandalism.

Source: https://english.almayadeen.net/news/sports/israeli-fans-vandalize-amsterdam--tear-down-palestinian-flag

In traditional Israeli fashion, these goons are now trying to present themselves as the victims, after pissing off an entire city with their provocations and barbaric behavior.

I'm Cypriot, and our government for the past 11 years has been neoliberal right wingers. Cyprus has always had a steady line of neutrality. We were one of the very few European countries to recognize Palestine's statehood since the 70s and we were condemning Israel's occupation,

These neoliberal idiots have been steadily trying to get Cyprus into the US bossom. They think (or at least present it this way) that being closer to the US will help reunite the island. They've even tried to get us into NATO, but thankfully there was too much backlash for that to happen.

One of the first things they did to signal to the US we want to be their vassals was to start getting better relations with Israel. A bunch of blunders occured because of this. Namely and most famously, Cyprus has served as a testing ground and tradehouse for Israeli surveillance technology. There was even a whole international scandal of spyware being found on journalists', activists' and politicians' phones all over Europe, which originated from an Israeli company registered in Cyprus, with ties to the Cypriot government (look up the Predator spyware case).

Long story short, we thought Israel's military might would help make us secure, so we made treaties with them for bilateral military assistance. Turns out, nobody thought the bilateral nature of those treaties would bite us in the ass, and they did.

There's something to be said about the 2 british military bases on the island, and 1 american surveillance station, which have been used extensively for Israel's sake, and obviously Cyprus can't really consent about that.

There's also something to be said about Turkey always trying to fuck around with Cyprus in an effort to get their illegal military occupation entity recognized as a state.

But we've also fucked up, because we enabled the Americans to start constructing the "humanitarian" dock in Gaza, that was used for that massacre a few weeks ago. Not only that, but our government (before the incident) had been boasting that it was their idea. Essentially they gave Israel and the US the excuse to end UNRWA's humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Last week they lost 15000 soldiers in a week, according to the Russian MoD weekly report.

There was another social media post by another Ukrainian commander (regular army, I think their formation is defending Novovasilevka?) that says that the newest recruits are being blindfolded when transported to the front. The most recent mobilization has been so forceful, that even the Ukrainian government expects their new recruits to surrender immediately and give up information to the Russians.

But those kinds of posts are of course ignored.

The sanctions targeted the Russian oligarchs quite a bit, by threatening their investments, properties and deposits in EU tax havens, like Cyprus and Greece. They were forced to transfer a bunch of assets back in Russia, which gave Putin the opportunity to crack down on their corruption and demanding that their wealth remains in Russia. Also, most importantly, he basically curbed their political power and political meddling. A big reason the Russian economy is doing so well is this returned wealth. So the first sanction packages basically backfired. The Europeans thought the Russian oligarchs would overthrow Putin if pressured. Turns out, Putin overthrew the Russian oligarchs.

The new sanction packages leave the oligarchs alone and target Russian government assets in Europe. And yes, all packages have targeted the ability of simple civilians to interact economically with anybody in the US or Europe.

They official Russian statement says that 5 missiles were launched, 4 were shot down, and the fifth detonated over the beach and released its cluster bombs.

At this point, most of them are aware of this stuff. They just choose to not remember them. This is deliberate because it allows them to reconcile their racism, their support for Nazis, and their obedience to their governments, with the fact that they are supposed to be against these 3 things.

A few hours before the G7 meeting in Rome, and a few days before the "peace summit" organized by Zelenski in Switzerland, Putin announced the conditions for new peace negotiations:

• Withdrawal of all Ukrainian troops from Zaporozhia, Donetsk, Lugansk and Kherson, and recognizing those areas as Russian (as well as Crimea)

• Commitment not to join NATO (but no mention of EU membership)

• Commitment for neutrality

• Demilitarization and denazification

Zelenski outright denied this call for peace, but Ukrainians are coming out and saying they should consider this. Most notably, the Ukrainian PM Denis Smyhal, saying they should organize another peace summit and invite Russia.

This has got the West scrambling, and has basically torpedoed the "peace summit" in Switzerland, as European states will most likely pressure Zelenski to start talking on Russia's basis for peace.

Just to point out that you can actually understand what Russian geopolitical strategic goals are from the way their military is deployed and operates on the battlefield:

• Want to force Ukraine into a quick peace: Rapid mechanized groups make a bee-line for Kiev, some key areas are surrounded. Accept equipment losses from poor logistics but get to besiege the enemy capital while preventing escape of government from it. Then retreat from areas you can't hold long-term anyway, as a show of good faith. Western media interpreted this as "Ukrainian army fighting bravely and beating back the Russians who are doing stupid maneuvers and losing (abandoning due to lack of fuel/repair parts) tanks by the hundreds"

• Want to occupy Donetsk and Luhansk: Forces regroup and form a solid offensive line. Surround major population centers and cut off logistics for Ukrainian forces. Then when enemy ammo, food and water is low, open relief corridors for civilians and let Ukrainian soldiers use them to escape. Then move in the town/city and take it with reduced resistance, causing minimal damage to population and infrastructure. At this point, Ukraine starts pumping out "war zone reports" that are staged to paint Russian soldiers as barbaric and also hide the fact that the Ukrainian army can not hold onto towns. On the other hand, people of Donetsk and Luhansk welcome them as heroes and the rebuilding begins. Guess which story the Western media chose to propagate.

• Want to incorporate Kherson, Zhaporyzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk into Russia: Russian forces understand that they are in danger of overextending their lines. They pause advances and start preparing defenses on the front and behind it. They shift troop concentrations to the areas under control that they plan on annexing into Russia. Meanwhile, they make small-scale attacks across the frontline to probe for weaknesses and keep Ukrainian forces on the defensive. They organize the civilian administration of the 4 areas they control and start rebuilding everything. The population supports them and approves the referenda to join the Russian Federation. Ukraine fails to disrupt this process as they are kept on the defensive. Western media chose to portray this as "fake referenda done at gun-point" and that Ukrainian forces are regrouping for major offensives. Which happen in winter and push Russian forces back from Kharkov and Izium. The Russians didn't like this, but they had predicted it might happen, during their troop movements, as they prioritized keeping the 4 new Russian regions safe, by paying with reduced security in an area meant to be a buffer zone.

• Want to drain Ukrainian manpower and equipment (denazify Ukraine): After liberating Luhansk and most of Donetsk, Ukrainian resistance became much stiffer, while serious NATO aid is arriving, which allowed the Ukrainian victory at Kharkov and Izium. Russia no longer cares about occupying more land. They make offensive and defensive plans that are designed to cause losses to Ukrainian forces instead. They draw Ukrainian forces into badly-defended positions they can't retreat from, then pummel them. That's how Bakhmut, Mariupol, Avdeevka, and the Verbove-Robotyne defense to the vaunted Ukrainian counteroffensive became such disasters for Ukraine. Surround positions, pummel areas surrounding the positions with artillery to cut off supplies, make Ukrainian government commit politically to fighting in these places, then move in and focus on killing/wounding/capturing Ukrainian soldiers instead of taking territory quickly. Out in the open let the front-lines remain static, map them out using drones, satellites and recon, then pummel anything that moves with artillery and air forces. Increase artillery shell and drone production to levels where you can overwhelm Ukrainian artillery and armored forces every time they try to be active anywhere near the front line. The result is that now, the Ukrainian army is torn to pieces, with some estimates showing between 1 and 2 million Ukrainian losses (dead, wounded, captured). This has also caused Western support to wane. Even Western media are coming to realize what is going to happen.

• Putin declares that all the lands up to Kiev were historically part of Russia (the future): Now that Ukrainian forces are mostly irrelevant, Russians have the strategic initiative. They've already began probing attacks all along the front line which are succeeding in pushing the Ukrainians back. A major offensive is probably coming in the summer, which will possibly see Russia capturing Odessa, Dnipro and Slaviansk/Kramatorsk. Russia will then likely launch offensives into Sumy, Poltava, Kharkov and Cherkasy.

There's a movie called Threads that starts out like that. If you haven't watched it, do. It's the most realistic depiction of nuclear apocalypse you'll get to see.

Big tourist industry, major port, with small local population = each local "takes on" the tonnage that came from several tourists + cruise ships and shipping in general.

That's my guess anyway, because a similar thing is going on in my country with water consumption.

Thank you for proving to be a jingoist wilful varlet.

If you are against bombing Ukrainian children, then you should probably be cheering on what Russia is doing, since it stopped exactly that.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/24/ukraine-unguided-rockets-killing-civilians