Comments by "Philip B" (@philipb2134) on "DW News" channel.

  1. Expelling Hungary from EU could be even more appropriate, with severe customs procedures along. Danube shipping excepted, Hungary is landlocked.
    34
  2.  @PK-mr2fm  Joining NATO can be a long and sometimes frustrating process. There are requirements for equipment interoperability as well as for compatibility of command structures. Ukraine had not even applied, and often is estimated to need perhaps 5 years to achieve compliance. There was no, absolutely NO , reason for Putin's aggression.
    24
  3. Sanna Marin did what had to be done. Finland is now more secure, and might need more closely to concentrate on purely domestic matters.
    14
  4. From where do you think those "Afghanistan funds" came?
    9
  5. An analyst from TV channel France24 pointed out that the footage was in the middle of the night (after 3 AM), shot from a shopping centre. You might wonder why anyone would be filming the senate building in the Kremlin at that time and just happened to be lucky enough to capture a drone attack. You might wonder why Kyiv would have launched such an attack when the building would be virtually empty, with no chance of killing Putin or any other senior official.
    8
  6. The latest youth unemployment figures are likely to be understated: many students have chosen to pursue further education not to become better qualified, but to delay entering a job market gone bust
    6
  7.  @throughput6674  Afghanistan has incurred a massive balance of payments deficit for about 2 decades. You might not be able to tally banking stats, but do not expect that your deficiency were universal.
    6
  8. @Kraddakk  Hungary joined the European Union. If you reject the ethics of a group which you had eagerly joined, then leave.
    4
  9.  @СерегаЛавр-л7с  My family was occupied 3 times in as many generations. I'm in my late 60s, but I will still fight, if asked. Russia's attack on Ukraine was pure evil. Pure, undiluted, evil.
    4
  10. +Erlich You lack historical perspective. The greatest presidents were (in chronological order): Washington; Lincoln, an FDR.
    4
  11. Soldiers also suffer.
    4
  12. Slava Ukraini
    4
  13. @Qotroz That would be totally irresponsible.
    3
  14. @Qotroz It would bring into direct armed, shooting, conflict four nuclear-armed powers. That is not a scenario to be contemplated without fear. The conflict zone would extend throughout the northern hemisphere. The likelihood of a catastrophic miscalculation can not be discounted.
    3
  15.  @СерегаЛавр-л7с  today's Germany is not the Germany of the 1930s. Post WWII, Germany has grown to become a decent, democratic, country - unlike yours.
    3
  16. Germany will need perhaps a year and a half to build adequate infrastructure for receiving LNG, and even longer for Senegal both to exploit and to liquify the gas, then to export it. The problem at hand has not been solved.
    3
  17. You might be picking winners and losers according to your preferred or paid exaggerations. US industrial production has been rather robust in 2022.
    3
  18. Inaccurate.
    3
  19. Bellingcat is a public treasure.
    3
  20.  @Kraddakk Orban is following Orban's interests. He constantly affronts European norms, seeking how far he can go without incurring disastrous consequences. Unfortunately, the Treaty of Lisbon failed to provide a procedure for expelling an EU member.
    2
  21. @Qotroz They said very much the same thing about Ukraine's resistance. That has obviously not happened in 8 weeks. You might feel better about this matter than I do: Putin might not be fully rational - if he were, this war / "special military operation" - would not be happening. He just might be crazy enough to use TNWs. It might be a good time to remind you that NATO is an alliance, and a defensive alliance at that. It does not have any sort of integrated offense command - but you knew that, right?
    2
  22. Certainly should be talking about climate change.
    2
  23.  @sbkarajan  Where did you get that "information"?
    2
  24. PRChina's property market reminds me of an American children's animated cartoon, where the character runs off a cliff... and does not fall until he looks down. If I recall, that imagery illustrating financial markets gone amok... first was attributed to J. K. Galbraith.
    2
  25.  @ragingmonk6080  There are other 4th generation fighters which the Ukrainians would love to acquire. Some experts argue that the best fit for them would be the Gripen; other types would work well. The primary advantage of the F-16 is that there are lots of them: over 4,500 had been built. Now that Sweden is no longer a neutral nation, it might spare some of its J-39s; but the sheer volume of F-16s means that many contributors jointly can spare a few for Ukraine, without putting their own defense capabilities at risk.
    2
  26. Sweden had hoped, but not that wes.included. They were a delight.
    2
  27. What are "silicone modules"? This should be fun to hear.
    2
  28.  @FINNSTIGAT0R  Common humanity.
    2
  29.  @jjc1347  It was Russia's choice to invade Ukraine without provocation. What did they think was going to happen? We soon shall witness the collapse of the Russian air travel system. They are under embargo for planes, parts, training, maintenance, The fastest way to get from Moscow to Vladivostok will take a week.
    2
  30. It were perhaps more likely that Denmark cede her F-16s to Poland or Slovakia, to backfill their transfer of MiGs to Ukraine. Ukraine can use those MiGs immediately, but might need as much as a year properly to use F-16s. The Gripen would be a better fit - but there just are not many enough to spare.
    2
  31.  @BW022  First compound word is 'bull"; second compound word shall be censored.
    2
  32. @MSD Group It's likely being discussed in an appropriate forum, unlike this one. You might have noticed that nobody here is discussing, say, the best time to plant roses, nor requesting recipes for ropa vieja.
    1
  33. Grab a gun and go fight.
    1
  34. Russia's conventional ,military must be obliterated. Slava Ukraini!
    1
  35. SLAVA!
    1
  36. When, and where, these first F-16s are operationally deployed, might matter greatly. As credible reports suggest, , Russia has been expanding its sorties while its airforce remained rather uncontested. This dynamic soon will change. Slava Ukraini!
    1
  37. Unlike Poland or Slovakia, [founding NATO member] Denmark does not have a stock of MiGs leftover from the Cold War. You can not directly give what you do not have.
    1
  38. +erlich No, he isn't "making America greatagain" - his tax cuts have built in immense structural deficits. Since America's savings rates are low, that means that the US will need to rely even more heavily on foreign creditors. The counterpart effect of that is increasing current account deficits You can shift it around between countries, but until the US ceases to accumulate foreign debt, the trade balances will continue and even get worse.
    1
  39. +erlich Unfortunately, I have Trump too, until January 2021 - unless he resigns, is impeached, dies, or the 25th Amendment is invoked.
    1
  40. Sandra is an angel. Volunteering from far away to provide front-line medical relief is a great act of mercy.
    1
  41. Russia does not have a fully functional corps of NCOs and junior officers. That forces senior officers to go into the field to take charge and be vulnerable to enemy fire.
    1
  42.  @squeezerdsqueezerd2427  Russia is heavily dependent on the export of natural or minimally-processed resources. Given its level of human potential, it should be far more prosperous. What's holding it back? The political structure.
    1
  43.  @satyendrasah3315  NATO is not a financial organization. Russia's foreign exchange reserves were frozen because Russia had brutally attacked Ukraine without provocation. As I had come to be informed: even Switzerland - not NATO, by a long shot - had frozen Russian financial assets. Evil must be confonted.
    1
  44.  @squeezerdsqueezerd2427  You might have missed this: Russia's civil aviation administration will crumble in less than 2 years. Buy your tickets now.
    1
  45.  @squeezerdsqueezerd2427  There is a time limit.
    1
  46. Putin does not seem to give a flying thing dams about the long term. Rumor suggests that he is subject to a fatal cancerous affliction. We have much evidence that when you are in power, and face a genuine non-kinetic threat of death: your thought processes might become massively diverted.
    1
  47. Their?
    1
  48.  @groslait7814  You are a scab on humanity's skin.
    1
  49.  @HDcreature  The western coasts of the North and South America, down to past the Straits of Magellan, is is the Eastern Pacific; the Western Pacific extends roughly from the Bering Sea to south of New Zealand where it meets the Southern Ocean. Learn.
    1
  50. Worldwide there are many exploitable deposits of rare earth oxides The problem is not with the availability of raw materials, but in the cost of processing. In Western countries, companies would be held to accountable for toxic side effects of processing; that is far less of a concern in China.
    1
  51. Musk bought Twitter - one of the most iconic brands ever - and then rebranded it as " X " for... reasons. That might not have been the savviest of all marketing initiatives.
    1
  52. Rebounding somewhat from a covid-induced recession, there have been severe production dislocations across industries and throughout the world. This has nothing to do with "extreme environmentalism".
    1
  53. Poland's government is at odds with the principle of judicial independence. Until Putin invaded on Feb 24 last year, Poland was essentially a pariah in the EU.
    1
  54. Happy birthday Vlad!
    1
  55.  @99.agility  purr
    1
  56.  @denelson83  何ですか
    1
  57.  @denelson83  何ですか
    1
  58.  @MABSDK1993  Russia is not weak, but it is poor. Its GDP is comparable to that of Spain, but with a population roughly 4x lager... and Spain is not among the most prosperous members of EU. Russia's oligarchs are not poor, though.
    1
  59. sic transit
    1
  60. I think you need to change yours. These are not mutually contradictive.
    1
  61. Russia had charged a much as it might for gas and oil. For oil, there are benchmarks such as WTI (West Texas Intermediate) or North Sea Brent. You might see the latest on your news feed. Different grades of crude oil will be more or less preferable. A high content of sulfur, for example, will drive down the price. Some crudes will be less easily refined in one facility than another. An origin might be "contaminated" by an element for which that refinery is not well equipped, or not at scale.. Things often might be more complex than headlines suggest.
    1
  62.  @realnapster1522  We are moving into summer. What may happen thereafter... might be more variable than you now conceive.
    1
  63.  @Altair885  There is massive corruption in Russia, so it is possible - as another commentator implied - that the explosion could have been deliberate to destroy the evidence of siphoned-off and stolen fuel.
    1
  64. One might argue that Russia is far too politically stable.
    1
  65. Russia has several hundred million dollars in frozen assets overseas. These can be offered as an offset to foreign assets confiscated in Russia. When and how might Putin's gangster mentality be brought to a halt?
    1
  66. It would make sense for initial training of Ukrainian pilots first to train in France on these Mirages, while the logistics were set up in Ukraine. Will not be alone in noting that the best combat airframe to help the Ukrainian defense needs, is the Swedish Gripen.
    1
  67. Shut Russia off SWIFT!
    1
  68. Russia is already very heavily committed in Ukraine. It probably has fewer available conventional assets in Europe than Britain, France, the Bundeswehr, let alone all 3 combined. I do not delight in the death of Russian soldiers who had not committed war crimes, but those deaths have become necessary.
    1
  69.    ...and not well expressed. Those Orcs instead might find someone who speaks English well.
    1
  70.    Your next best move might be to stop being an associate of massive murder.
    1
  71. There was sufficient capacity for Gazprom to export to western Europe through existing arrangements, Last year, the year before, the year before that... there was no NS2, but there also had been no significant economic dislocation from lack of natural gas. Reconcile your statement with reality.
    1
  72.  @HereticDuo  Lilly Tomlin had opined that: History would not repeat itself if we just paused to listen.
    1
  73.  @legateotteriusozer8477  Its cantspell
    1
  74.  @ИванОкеан-б6щ  Russia attacked Ukraine with ZERO provocation. As a party to war crimes, you are a member of a rare breed of humans who have no right to live.
    1
  75. The police need to enforce laws, but also to ensure that laws are respected. Deeply unpopular laws can be enforced, but then the credibility of the police can become critically damaged, severely hampering their ability later to enforce the law .It's a difficult call.
    1
  76. Rheinmetall does not have a rapid production capability for Leo2's. These tanks come out of inventory from the Budeswehr, and from the armies which had bought their own.
    1
  77. That can sound good and fine, but Putin clearly is insane. What might he do next? Finland now is less at risk from that crackpot.
    1
  78. 19:49 For many years, PR China has been locked in a time battle between becoming rich, and becoming old.
    1
  79. There is the risk that if you "press the nuclear button", you press all of them.
    1
  80. Corporate stock buybacks boost the value of share bonus packages held by retiring executives.
    1
  81. If you oppose Putin - and survive - you're a criminal.
    1
  82.  @jessicahilario6597  One can expect that this likely means something in whatever might be your native language.
    1
  83.  @PK-mr2fm  How so?
    1
  84.  @lovefair6921  His political opponents have a nasty habit of ending up dead, or behind bars if they're lucky..
    1
  85.  @lovefair6921  He's KGB.
    1
  86.  @BW022  Do you not feel lonely when you tell such lies?
    1
  87.  @armandoruiz8758  Had you thought to pause that almost all of Russia's population lives west of the Urals? Probably not. You might not have noticed, but it is a fact that the US, Britain, and France, have nuclear weapons of a same level of destructive power. If you were trying to seem intelligent: that failed.
    1
  88.  @armandoruiz8758  The United State had not bombed [parts of] Korea since the armistice which put an end to the North's aggressive war to conquer the entire peninsula. Given the vile and murderous regime in Pyonyang since, and its unspeakable economic mismanagement resulting in repeated forced famines: bombing the armed forces of those bastards was the morally justifiable option.
    1
  89.  @MyKharli  Probably not. EDF had no reason to worry about a rocketing cost structure when petrocarbon prices spiked in 73/74 and later oil crises. Decommissioning is a controllable process which might proceed at a faster or a slower pace. There is no emergency.
    1
  90.  @luiscabral4852  Fessenheim has been taken offline. The cost of fully decommissioning it clearly will not be zero. Meanwhile no new nuclear generating power stations had been commissioned over the last few years, AFAIK, but please light my lantern if I am mistaken.
    1
  91. devoutly to be wished; it might be swapped out for 'transitional'
    1