News Brief - A Tippling Philosopher (Page 2)

A Tippling Philosopher

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News Brief

A collection of 45 posts

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What we can learn from the Kerch Bridge explosion

When it was built in 2018, the Kerch Bridge was the pride of Russian imperialism, much to the chagrin of the Ukrainians. The construction spans the Kerch Strait that separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, connecting mainland Russia to the illegally annexed region of Crimea. Crimea is

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Biden: We are facing the 'prospect of Armageddon'

The world has been perilously close to an apocalypse on a number of occasions. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is one of the most famous. It actually involved several examples, with the closest being when the Soviet submarine B-59 surfaced after a US warship had been dropping practice depth

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Can Putin, locked in a bubble of bad intel, spin his way out of disaster?

Colonel General Gennady Zhidko is being reappointed to command Russia's Eastern Military District. One pro-Russian Telegram user has claimed that the general and others have created "a wall of lies...a sea of blood and a swamp of corpses." That wall of lies has for many

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Russia to illegally annex four more areas in Ukraine

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and essentially occupied parts of two regions (oblasts) in Ukraine, incurring the impotent "wrath" of much of the rest of the world. The lack of meaningful pushback from the West at that time was part of what emboldened Putin to invade the sovereign

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Far-right coalition takes power in Italy

The most right-wing government since Mussolini is forming a government in Italy after a general election this past weekend. This comes as no surprise and accords with polling that preceded the election, causing further alarm for those who are worried about Europe, and the wider world, lurching to the right.

Will Putin go nuclear?

Vladimir Putin has a well-earned reputation for saber-rattling that in the end amounts to nothing. But when the saber is the most destructive weapon known to humanity—nuclear weapons some seven hundred times more powerful than those used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—it is dangerous to be dismissive. When the

Is the pandemic over? Depends on who you listen to

"The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lotta work on it. It’s...but the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s

Catholics outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland. Could this be the end of the United Kingdom?

The writing has been on the wall since Brexit. The United Kingdom, made of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, is now counting its days. A further nail was driven into the coffin today as statistics from the 2021 census were released showing that, for the first time ever, Catholics

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Putin escalates Ukraine conflict with mobilization of reserves, nuclear blackmail

In a highly-anticipated yet repeatedly delayed speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday morning (Sept 21) that the country is to embark on a large-scale mobilization of military reserves. This is in response to successive failures in the ongoing war in Ukraine, most recently resulting in a lightning-quick counteroffensive in

Are China and Taiwan the next Russia and Ukraine?

Are China and Taiwan the next Russia and Ukraine?

As if Russia and Ukraine hasn't been a challenging enough conflict to manage, the bubbling political cauldron of Taiwan that China is threatening to knock over. This thorn in China's side has been a long time in the sharpening. So why now? Is Taiwan pushing the

Patagonia company owner gives it away to Planet Earth in perpetuity

The owner of outdoor clothing and equipment company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, is giving the entire company away to support the environment and fight climate change devastation, something that many in the humanist community interested in helping our planet, will laud. Yvon Chouinard, a self-described "existential dirtbag" who dislikes

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A summary of Trump's crimes. Well, his recent ones

The past has finally caught up with Donald Trump. This has been a long and torturous story to show that eventually, and even when we thought it wouldn't, bad people doing bad things will end up in trouble. But what exactly has the former president done wrong? The

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Queen Elizabeth II dies at Balmoral

The Queen of England, head of state for the UK and 14 countries in the Commonwealth, has passed away at the age of 96 at her home at her Scottish estate of Balmoral. She achieved the status of Britain's longest reigning monarch. Over recent weeks, the Queen'

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Truss is UK's new PM: Echoes of Trump?

Liz Truss has just become the new UK Prime Minister after Boris Johnson was forced to resign following strings of allegations of lying and the Partygate scandal. It now seems a long time since the highest government politicians and accomplices were attending boozy parties while the rest of the country

Ukraine war fatigue: Keep your eyes open

Six months have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine, and Putin still can't really win, no matter what his endgame might be. The campaign has been catastrophic from the very start. Even Russians are feeling the fatigue as they are turning their televisions off, bored of the non-stop propaganda.

The insidious move to digital games and PlayStation's possible £5bn fine

When I first heard that you could get a digital version of the PS4 and now the PS5, I immediately suspected some nefarious profiteering shenanigans in the death of physical-copy games. Now a consumer champion in the UK is taking Sony to court for overcharging PlayStation gamers for six years.

UK children becoming embroiled in far-right extremism online

Younger children are increasingly being drawn into a "far-right ecosystem" that a Guardian investigation shows is becoming more pervasive online. Among the recent cases was a 13-year-old boy arrested for terrorism offenses in the UK. Though the real numbers are small, the figures are growing and showing an

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Sunak moves to the right with a war on 'woke'

Two candidates for UK Prime Minister remain and, with Liz Truss representing the more extreme right of the party, Rishi Sunak (the former Chancellor of the Exchequer) was always going to shift to the right to combat here. This is now happening and is exactly what I predicted. This clockwork

Civil unrest predicted in light of UK energy bills

Martin Lewis is a very well-respected money advice expert who has his own website and has hosted many TV shows, as well as being a ubiquitous voice on the news and on radio. Recently, he has predicted that there will be civil unrest in the UK if energy bills continue

No environmental agenda: UK PM race heats up like a London fire

In a week where the UK has experienced a record-breaking heatwave and unprecedented resultant wildfires in and around London and in the rest of the country, the race for who will be the next Prime Minister has also heated up. The UK public are left with the prospect of two