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No. Well, the ones on the Isle of Faces aren't anyway, and if those ones aren't connected it would be weird if the rest were.

Reports that Bournemouth have agreed a deal worth £25m with Chelsea for Petrovic. That's a good fee for Chelsea considering that Liverpool only got £18m for Kelleher. Chelsea are really good at selling players it must be said. Petrovic, Kepa and Madueke sales should put Chelsea right with UEFA's spending rules. They were fined £27m last week for breaching UEFA's financial regulations and reportedly needed to raise £60m in sales in order to register their new signings for the champion's league. Villa were also fined £9.5m for breaching UEFA's financial rules which is probably why they've had a slow window so far. However, they've sold their women's team to themselves essentially (sold to V Sports which is the holding company that owns Villa) just like Chelsea did.

Seems like Djokovic has reached that latter stages Federer level where he’s good enough to beat everyone else but not good enough to beat the top 2.

Haven’t you heard? Some goombah from the Administration has been reassuring us that the removal of our current farm workers is opening up farm jobs for all those lazy ass parasitic Medicaid recipients. Plenty of children to clean slaughter houses, dairies, and chicken coops. Also, folks don’t get enough exercise in nursing homes, and a few months of 12 hour days of stoop labor, going up and down ladders and carrying heavy produce will shape them right up! So see your little boycotts don’t scare Trump and friends one bit. The folks on Medicaid, well…

Meanwhile, some expat Russians with ties inside the country are saying there is widespread horror among the oligarchs and some of the military that Putin turned down Trump's peace deal. They said walking away with all Luhansk, most of Donetsk and maybe half of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia was far more than they expected to be possible in negotiations, with the ability to end the war and begin rebuilding the economy now, and Putin has thrown that out the window. They're worried about economic collapse leading to troops deserting the front in droves, and Ukraine possibly regaining most or all of the territory Russia has taken, which they've said would 100% result in Putin's death or, at best, forced retirement. Ghana has concluded a security agreement with Ukraine, agreeing to fund the production of Ukrainian drone in return for Ukrainian assistance in using drones to secure its borders. Ghana is concerned about other countries in the region which have concluded security agreements with Russia or Russian mercenaries. Trump has confirmed he will be making a big announcement on Ukraine on Monday. Based on his statements, it appears that his patience with Putin has worn out and he will be shifting a policy change. The US Senate Armed Services Committee has also approved $500 million in new aid for Ukraine. Trump has also agreed that the United States can sell equipment to European country as long as that equipment is kept for NATO allies or sent to Ukraine. All remaining equipment restrictions to Ukraine have been lifted. The US air bridge is once again in full operation. Germany and potentially Greece are considering sending Patriot batteries to Ukraine in return for guaranteed replacements from the US, due in months. Ukrainian military intelligence, operating in concert with local insurgents, has destroyed a Russian command and operations hub in occupied Melitopol. Melitopol has been a hotbed of local insurgency and partisans ever since it was captured three years ago. North Korea is now supplying Russia with 40% of its ammunition for the war, particularly artillery ammunition, reflecting Russia's problems in boosting internal manufacturing. Some indications that Ukraine has decided its skies are safe enough to begin transporting equipment directly into the country by plane. An-124 Ruslan cargo aircraft have been spotted heading towards Poland. Ukraine has apparently initiated production of the HRIM-2 ballistic missile, with a range of up to 500km. The missile is meant to enhance and ultimately replace Ukraine's imports of ATACMS. More Columbian volunteers appear to have joined the Ukrainian military. Russia's significant overnight drone strike destroyed a stables in Odesa, killing several horses. There has been some sarcasm, asking what threat these horses posed to the Russians.

Diaz has been agitating for an improved contract or else a lucrative move elsewhere. (His father and agent have previously been very public about his dream to play for Barca). But Liverpool don’t want to improve his contract. He’s well paid for an aging winger, has two more years on his current contract, and is a hard-working but streaky player who’s not a nailed-on starter. The club is happy to keep him on his current contract, especially after Jota’s passing and with Nunez and Chiesa expected to depart. If he does leave, it needs to be for a large enough fee to fund a replacement (70m pounds has been reported as the set price). Bayern and Barca are both looking for a LW, although both seem to expect a cheap deal for Diaz. He’s probably worth more to Liverpool to retain for at least another year, even if that’ll run down his transfer value.

I wouldn't assume that they "bought it", they're just contributing to the narrative. That could potentially be more impactful than their actual troops. A couple days ago Rubio made a statement that the Russians had lost 100k killed so far this year, which if true, is a higher rate of KIA to WIA than we've usually seen in this war. There are a couple possible explanations - Rubio could be wrong or the KIA ratio could be revised with new information. However, IF the explanation is that the killed to wounded ratio is going up for Russia, that could easily be because Russia is running out of tanks and IFVs. The whole point of IFVs and APCs is to provide mobility and protection for infantry, and if you are going to continue attacking without that equipment, it stands to reason that casualties (and fatalities) would go up. It makes sense that replacing IFVs and APCs with motorbikes, civilian vehicles and purely infantry assaults would cause KIA to increase.

This used to be pretty common. Some of George's books, like Dying of the Light, Windhaven and Tuf Voyaging, are either expanded versions of short stories/novellas, or multiple novellas/short stories combined into one novel.

Pfft, It’s a valid reaction. We all die and societies eventually collapse. Don’t see why the “democratic” ones would be somehow the exception. And while collapse is a multi factor result, it’s proven that generally it is because people suck. If I read HoI’s opinion one third of the collapse will probably be attributed to Trans Ideology and wokeism that are imposed upon the average person by the elite and selected few, still… clearly it’s because people suck. The only question is: will it be in my time. I don’t see why you give Jace so much grief about it!

I think that basically fraudulently using your credit card says otherwise, but that's just me...

BSG Deadlock is excellent, but I'm really not impressed at how they handle the DLC, which is still far too expensive for an eight-year-old game. However, if you get the base game for free, or if you have the OG game in your collection, it should drop the combined DLC price to $35, which is actually okay for an insane amount of content. Broken Alliance reinforces the main campaign and prevents it getting too grindy, as well as adding the Minerva-class medium battlestar, a much-needed replacement for the Artemis (the OG Battlestar from the 1978 show) so is basically required at this point. The other DLC then act as sequels to the original campaign, filling in the blanks of the story between the start of the First Cylon War and its end. There are some really good story ideas here which intelligently make use of the background lore to answer long-standing questions, like how the Cylons didn't just curb-stomp humanity during the original war. Some bits are random (we really don't need to know the involved origin story of Ragnar Anchorage) but overall it's an absolutely great game with great gameplay and a really good story, even if the writing and voice acting to get that story across can be...variable.

Having read a particularly alarmist headline about the "Russian tsunami of an advance" here in Germany, I can only concur. It's absurd how blind the media is towards the simple fact that Russia will not be able to keep fighting a war of this intensity after the end of this year. Their stockpiles have run dry. The best case Russia could achieve on the ground is digging in and going to the defensive, hoping to make the west tired of investing into a forever war. That is, if the Russian economy doesn't come crashing down even when reducing Russian commitment. On the one hand, the terror tactics of the last weeks seem to indicate this is where it's already going, but their motorbike assaults and the staggering casualties those take are inexplicably going on as usual. I suppose it helps that North Korean troops in Kursk are freeing Russian forces from the back of the line. I also read today that Laos is in talks with Russia to send men as well, the article indicating that Laos wants to be "on the side of the winner", successfully having bought that Russia's victory is inevitable. In other news, the "repair" work at the Admiral Kuznetsov has been halted, with rumors that there will be soon talks about whether to sell it for scrap. Shame, that would end a bottomless money sink that had weighed down the Russian military for decades.

I'll stand by my statements. Economists, at least in a vacuum, are not necessarily the best designers of tax systems. In a purely territorial tax system, one can move. My french is a bit rusty, but I believe that the proposed tax was to be imposed on persons having their tax "domicile" in France, whether or not their property was located inside or outside of France, with some special rules for long term residents, as well as on property held in France by people tax-domiciled elsewhere. Um, I know what I'd do if I were a super wealthy person...stay the HECK OUT OF FRANCE from a tax perspective. Pretty easy to avoid, actually. Don't even really need me. The US's global tax system actually would work better for this (we are hotel California, almost impossible to escape the US tax net once you are in), but in a tax-residence based system.... .... .... .... I actually think a well-designed inheritance tax is better because people can't really comprehend being dead. That said, those are emotional and tend to piss off (voting) heirs.

England have managed to get rid of Gill cheaply for once in this series. Pant feels fairly key here. If India manage to get a lead but at a sedate pace it seems like they’re probably going to struggle to turn that a win.

Hard to say what a par score is on this pitch (380 odd is actually better than anything so far this season). Might be a long hard grind for both teams rather than one side dominating. I'd say even a 50-75 run read for India might be good enough.

I see you are referring to the geographical split of where to put chapters and if 5 yr gap worked or not. I meant more like story-wise Dany needed a land to try and learn to rule and how or if she's fit for a more collaborative approach with the ruling class or simply move on gradually to a dictatorship style. In truth, my comment was an potential counterargument to Sifth's "do we really care about the political structure of Essos cities" which is linked strategically to how the geographical split turned out to be.

The max contract rules aren't new at all. And to respond to your previous worry, they clearly did not hurt the "middle class" players as recently as last year. Those type of players got PAID last summer - Quickly, Hartenstein, Miles Bridges, Nic Claxton, Malik Monk, KCP. We did/have seen those contracts go down this year, but this isn't due to the max contract structure - it's plainly due to literally every team wanting to avoid the onerous penalties of the second apron; and most teams even wanting to avoid the first apron. I agree that this new cap structure may have a negative impact on salary distribution longterm, quite skeptical right now.

Agreed! It's still hard to believe how Root used him in 2019 (156 overs in four tests!)

I only went for the ebook, so was emailed it day one. Not sure what postage to UK is like, I got my email July 1st.

I think it's less of a misunderstanding and more people pointing out so many mid players are getting paid like stars because of these new rules. Chet is not a max second contract player. Not even close in my book. But the way the rules work...

The World Cup will be interesting. Remember to be friendly to Americans. If they want to come here and spend their money, it’s all good

The issue is that Palace did not register the blind trust in time. However I agree that this is a horrendous decision and an exception should have been made especially considering that UEFA's deadline for sorting out a blind trust (1 March) was patently unreasonable.

Probably blew a one nighter with a sexy, mid 40's Texan last night at the hotel. Can't say it was a slam dunk, but I was honest about my current situation and it was easy to tell, playful as she was, she wasn't that kind of lady. Probably the best for both of us. I think she knocked on my door in the middle of the night, but if I'm right the best I could do was a poor showing. I'm not the type to cheat, Ice Cat and I haven't officially split, but it's always nice when a pretty lady seems to give you an opening.

Was browsing Reddit and saw some strategy games from UK developer Slitherine were free for a limited time, for those interested: Field of Glory II: Medieval Fantasy General II And I believe a game @Werthead was very positive about, Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock (base game without all the DLC). That one has been given away before, I had it in my Steam library, but the other two are new (or at least new to me).