Severin

There was mutual gain to be had with the IRA, they didn't have the same level of support they once commanded as the Irish people and the British government were more interested in ending the conflict. The minority that did want to continue the fight did so as the Real IRA but they never had the same backing. However, Zelenskyy was elected partly on a promise to talk to Russia and end the conflict, which Poroshenko was unable to do because he and Putin hated each other. The first thing he did was speak to Putin about trying to de-escalate the situation. Russia's response was non-committal while they prepared a full scale invasion, multiple attempts to assasinate the Ukrainian leader and a failed drive to capture Kyiv in weeks and install a puppet regime. Even after that Emmanuel Macron persisted with attempts to engage with Putin but he wasn't interested in discussion. Putin only wants to talk now that the war has clearly reached a point where he once again has the slight advantage on the battlefield and knows he has an ally in Trump. Until Trump's re-election he wasn't interested. Now Putin and trump have mutual interests. Putin can take the majority of the territory he wanted in the first place, (he'll have to worry about the rest of Ukraine later) and Trump is angling for any excuse to pull back US involvement in NATO, which also suits Putin. Trump and Putin can both proclaim the victory of peace, Zeleskyy will be weakened in stature (forget Trump's claim of 4% approval, surveys in December were at 52%) and no doubt a pro-Russian/neutrality candidate will emerge to challenge him. In 5 or so years NATO will not have the numbers and unity to rival a Russia whose military spending is nearly 8% of GPD and 40% of all federal spending. The Russian people will still be oppressed by a long serving dictator, the Ukrainian people will have been robbed of their country, their hopes and homes for nothing and the US will continue to roll back on its constitution as their shiny new tyrant continues to deflect attention away from the crimes he's committing against his own people. Peace negotiations only have a favourable outcome for those attending from a position of power or stalemate. Trump has in effect taken away all of Ukraine's bargaining power and left them the surrender option, as a bonus he gets to screw over Europe and can forge a path to exit NATO like he always wanted.

Last night was the 'big' launch event and whilst I didn't watch it, I'm seeing a lot of negative reaction from long time fans. Most are saying it was a waste of time and there's a lot of distaste for the way Red Bull, Horner and Verstappen were treated by the crowd , especially in regards to the booing. Secondly, the reveals I'm told were basically a waste of time with on a couple of minutes for each individual driver to be interviewed at each team launch, and the only thing we saw is the new stickers applied to each team's car. Many of which were last year's chassis. That being said the RB looks quite nice but the Ferrari looks a total mess with an added hideous white stripe. As somebody joked, it's what you get when you have a spare 10L of white paint you absolutely have to use. On a more serious note there's a lot of unpainted surface on the Mercedes in particular which does leave question marks around the car's weight

+25 Siouxsie and The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden +24 Garbage - Why Do You Love Me +23 Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit +22 The Doors - Light My Fire +21 Amy Winehouse - Rehab +20 Suede - Animal Nitrate +19 Pulp - Disco 2000 +18 Oasis - Cigarettes And Alcohol +17 The Cure - The Love Cats +16 Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me) +15 Tori Amos - Pretty Good Year +14 U2 - One +13 The Cardigans - Erase/Rewind +12 Dolly Parton - Jolene +11 Green Day - Basket Case +10 Roy Orbison - I Drove All Night +09 Duran Duran - Notorious +08 The Supremes - Stop! In The Name Of Love +07 Madness - One Step Beyond +06 Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better +05 R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts +04 Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling +03 The Bravery - An Honest Mistake +02 Ram Jam - Black Betty +01 Lady Gaga - Alejandro

This is a horrendously inaccurate reading of post Cold War history of Ukraine. Nobody 'took away' their nuclear weapons in the manner you suggest. Ukraine realised they were incapable of maintaining them and so in a deal to guarantee their independence via an agreement of non-aggression and protection they traded them for 2.5 Billion in debt written off plus a guarantee of fuel for their reactors. Yanukovych was deposed by the Ukrainian uprising. Poroshenko won the first election and stated that Ukraine joining NATO didn't have enough support to make pressing the issue worthwhile. Although tolerated by the West he was certainly not their ideal choice due to the high levels of corruption and perceived lack of connection with the Ukrainian people. It is true that he and Putin hated each other but he wasn't hugely popular in the West either. This ultimately led to his defeat by Zelenskyy, who was nobody's first choice and looked to be more keen to develop a relationship with Putin than Poroshenko was. Putin had the chance then to resolve the situation favourably to himself but thought he could take advantage of a supposedly weak leader and a disunited Europe and NATO. The Ukraine-NATO Action Plan was first declared in 2002 and the first steps towards membership were taken in 2005. At this point NATO was still saying 'no, you can't join'. NATO maintained this stance even after the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and only started to discuss it seriously AFTER 2022 full-scale invasion. Yes, ending the war is what everybody wants but Ukraine and the Baltic states in particular will not be safe from Russia, no matter what the deal is, as long as Putin still draws breath.

There's just something about hearing Julee Cruise's Falling that is so evocative of that moment when Twin Peaks first aired. It takes me right back to a time when David Lynch created something so masterful that it changed everything that followed. The instrumental version is one of the few pieces of music that hits me every time. Although to be fair Laura's Theme hits the hardest. As for the Cyndi/Roy battle, I love Cyndi, or at least did until around the time she released I Drove All Night. Her version is great but... Roy Orbison is one of the greatest vocalists ever. No competition there.

Had a couple of listens to the album now and it's pretty much what you'd expect from them these days and feels like a natural follow on from The Ultra Vivid Lament. The title track opens the album and is by far the best on the record. Nicky Wire takes a spoken word lead vocal, reminiscent of Baz Luhrman's Sunscream, but where he decries society's reliance on being told how to think every minute. Asking at the end 'What happened to your critical thinking?' This is ironic as what follows are ten, post 2010 Manics-by-the numbers tracks. All the usual boxes are ticked, big choruses, lyrics full of hopeful melancholy (and melancholic hope, it varies) and sweepingly epic soundscapes followed by intimate moments. The singles, especially Decline & Fall, sound much better in context of the album and the re-tooling from the single version gives it more of an edge and bite. The other great highlight is Dear Stephen, which will resonate with anyone who grew up loving The Smiths but has had to watch in embarrassment as Morrissey turned into an arsehole over the years. Finally the closer OneManMilitia recalls the albums opener and is delightfully leftfield. With it the album comes nicely full circle and it's a perfectly solid addition to their catalogue. I just can't help feel that they're just a little too comfortable ploughing the same familiar furrow once again, which is a shame as they have so much more to offer when they want. Then again, what the heck, after all they've been through, they've earned the right to do as they please. Edited for terrible spelling and grammar

Voted for Japanese Breakfast as it's probably the best there for me, but I can't say I was that interested in any of them this week. Personal choices this week - Eville - Plaything Lacuna Coil - I Wish You Were Dead Slung - Collider

Williams have now revelaed their FW47 in a gorgeous one off livery. The airbox shape suggest a potential trend for 2025 as it's similar to the McLaren, conceptually

Really? That's weird considering she's named on the single's cover art. Wonder why they did that? https://www.discogs.com/release/240740-Prim...-Velvet-Morning

Not quite true. Kate Moss sung on Primal Scream's cover of Some Velvet Morning, which was a minor hit, reaching #44 in 2003

That's what Putin wants you to believe and (along with the Nazi lie) is the official line. He wasn't all that bothered when Finland decided to join and is on record in the past stating that Ukraine would eventually join NATO at is their business to decide. He allowed the US to establish military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan following 9/11 which would be unthinkable if he was concerned about NATO on his doorstep. He even once suggested Russia might join NATO one day. In 2002 when the Baltic states joined NATO, Putin said - “We of course are not in a position to tell people what to do. We cannot forbid people to make certain choices if they want to increase the security of their nations in a particular way.” He spoke of Ukraine in - "I am absolutely convinced that Ukraine will not shy away from the processes of expanding interaction with NATO and the Western allies as a whole. Ukraine has its own relations with NATO; there is the Ukraine-NATO Council. At the end of the day, the decision is to be taken by NATO and Ukraine. It is a matter for those two partners" For the first 8 years of his reign as Russia's leader he had no objections to Ukraine joining NATO. Ask yourself what happened to Putin in 2008 that so shifted his attitude towards his neighbours looking westward. The reality is that Putin has two main goals. Foremost is his fear that the increasing democratisation of neighbouring nations is a threat to his own position in Russia. He is terrified that Russia will decide to follow the path to true democracy and he would be desposed and seen as overseer of the breakup of the once great world power. He acted when neighbours Georgia looked to change things and was deeply concerned when the Arab Spring saw multiple regimes undergo colossal changes and dictators were deposed. Subsequently, he has designs on restoring Russia as a great imperial power, as it was during the era of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Part of this involves absorbing Ukraine back in to Russia itself, not just into their sphere of influence. He sees Ukraine as part of Russia and has latterly dismissed its status as a sovereign nation and questioned its right to exist. Kyiv was the founding city of the Kievan Rus which dominated Eastern European Slavic culture for nearly 400 years, he views it as the birthplace of Russian identity and an intrinsic part of the Motherland Ukraine meanwhile has been trying to establish freedom from Russian aggression since the October Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War. NATO is an excuse to justify his actions and lay the blame elsewhere. His actions are entirely self serving.

Eminem's Houdini also mentions R Kelly and has a pun on Black Eyed Peas too

Disappointed to see Soul Asylum drop out so soon. I feel it's a very underrated song from the early '90s. Would have been good to see Smashing Pumpkins go through too but I do feel they have much better tracks in their catalogue, (even if they aren't eligible here0

The McLaren MCL39 became the first of this year's cars to break cover as it ran in a testing livery at Silverstone today. It's clearly a development of last year's car and retains the pull rod front suspension. Some changes around the engine cover intake a noticeable too.

The Osmonds - Crazy Horses

Def not their most well known single though. I'd argue the original The Who version is better known still.

Can't say I'm too bothered about any losses so far, even though I rather like Sparks and Shakespears' Sister's tracks.

De La Soul's 2016 album ...And the Anonymous Nobody was crowdfunded and charted at #16 in the UK. The first recognised crowdfunded album was Marillion's 2001 album Anaraknophobia but that that was ineligible to chart due to free gifts given away with the album Most recently the Libertines album Anthems For Doomed Youth was crowdfunded via Pledgemusic and reached UK #3

Beastie Boys - Fight for Your Right Ozzy Osbourne - Changes (with Kelly)

Not sure if this has been answered for you already but she's used the melody from the track Spellbound. It's this part - Like a poem said by a lady in red You hear the last few words of your life With a haunting dance, now you're both in a trance It's time to cast your spell on the night Personally I think it's subtle enough that she might have got away with not crediting them but fair play for acknowledging her inspiration

Because it's the best thing she's done since then. As a bonus, it will give Siouxsie and co a nice little bit of cash in their retirement fund too. Everyone wins

Captain Sensible - Happy Talk Ramones - Baby I Love You Doctor and the Medics - Spirit in the Sky Scorpions - Wind of Change Faith No More - Easy

Having spent a bit of time with the album now, I'm warming to it, if still a little underwhelmed. It's definitely not as interesting as her earlier work and suggests she's going in a more mainstream direction on the whole but it's still better than a lot of other similarly styled acts right now and I'm looking forward to seeing her live again soon. I do feel the album is a little light on tracks, with only 8 actual songs and at around 35 minutes long, it feels a bit more like an EP than a fully realised album.

Order of preference - Chloe Slater – Sucker The Black Keys – The Night Before The K's – Breakdown In My Bedroom Squid – Cro-Magnon Man St. Lucia – Rolling Man Inhaler – Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah) Alex Warren – Ordinary Oklou – blade bird Personal faves this week - Spiritbox - No Loss, No Love Desperate Journalist - 7 Calva Louise - W.T.F Bambara - Letters From Sing Sing

25 Soul Asylum - Runaway Train 24 Grandmaster and Melle Mel – White Lines (Don't Don't Do It) 23 Kirsty MacColl - A New England 22 Editors – Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors 21 Radiohead - Creep 20 The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight 19 Julee Cruise - Falling 18 The Verve - Lucky Man 17 Dr. Dre featuring Eminem – Forgot About Dre 16 Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music 15 The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up 14 Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood 13 Bomb The Bass - Winter In July 12 Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton – Islands In The Stream 11 The Bellamy Brothers - Let Your Love Flow 10 The Beach Boys - I Get Around 09 The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army 08 Shakespear's Sister - I Don't Care 07 Madonna - Give It 2 Me 06 Al Green - Let's Stay Together 05 Sparks - Amateur Hour 04 Chris Cornell - You Know My Name 03 Abba - Lay All Your Love On Me 02 Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet 01 Snow Patrol - You're All I Have