Cameroni

No, not case closed. Norway, Finland and the Baltics, and Poland, do not have the highly strategic importance for Russian self defence that Ukraine has. In this regard Ukraine is far more important to Russia's ability to defend herself. If the great plains of Ukraine fall to NATO the defence of Russia would essentially be impossible. And no, Ukraine will not become a member of NATO. Russia would sooner invade all of Ukraine than see that happen. Because the loss of Ukraine would be tantamount to Russia being defenseless against invasion. It's not ridiculous at all, had Ukraine become a NATO member the great European plains would have been controlled by NATO, making Russia's defence impossible. Ukraine falling to NATO was and is a major threat to Russia's ability to defend herself.

I think that the mere possibility that the US can cut off its trading partners in the abrupt and cold way that it has will have a number of effects: 1) The end of the Most-favoured-Nation principle. This WTO standard is now obsolete. 2) New trade alliances are already being formed, China, Japan and South Korea, or Canada and Mexico. 3) As consumers in the US, and many other countries, can no longer pay ridulously low prices for goods, the exploitation of women and children in manufacturing in China and other Asian counties may come to an end. However, the really interesting effect will come if Trump really pursues what Bessent and Co wrote in their papers, namely to try and persuade nations to allow the US to devalue the dollar and still keep it as reserve currency, if the US really does revive its manufacturing and self-sufficiency can come to pass in the US. If that comes to pass, globalism comes to an end and more nationalist economies will no doubt result in more nationalist political systems, whicih in any event would have struggled to maintain socialist ideals like the welfare state with shrinking populations.

No, you are badly mistaken. Ukraine is a direct neighbour of Russia, the most powerful country in the region. As such, Ukraine cannot align with Russia's enemies. Ukraine has to consdier the interest of Russia. If it does not ,very negative consequences folllow for Ukraine. Same for Georgia. Ukraine is not Latvia, Ukraine is far more important as the gateway to the European plains. If this had fallen to NATO then Russia would have been unable to defend herself propertly. Ukraine, however, will have learnt this lesson and is unlikely to join NATO now. And the EU would have to be insane to incporate Ukraine.

Nobody has to deal with your nonsense. Don't you understand that nobody cares if his suit was a shade of blue? Only your vitriolic pathological hatred cares. And it makes you look pathetic frankly.

No, it's not their right to align themselves with whatever country. You see, Ukraine is a neighbour of Russia. Even disregarding all the historical ties, by the mere fact that it is a neighbour of huge, powerful country like Russia, this means that Ukraine has to consider Russia's national interest. Ukraine can't keep poking Russia in the eye continously, because Russia is too powerful a country to antagonise that. The same with Panama, when it sold secrets to Cuba, the US swiftly invaded. There is wishful, wishy-washy "Oh it's fair, world should be like this" thinking, and then there is realistic, real world thinking. According to the latter, Ukraine belongs in Russia's sphere of influence, and for its own safety and well being had to consider Russia's national interest. This is only logical. Ukraine jumping into bed with America and then Europe meant she cheated. Cheaters can meet a bad end. Not a good policy. Rarely pays off.

Chiang Mai's population has grown from 191,000 in 1989 to 1.3 million in 2024, Since the late 1980s, the number of foreign travelers visiting Chiang Mai has increased more than tenfold, with tourism fueling an estimated 100 billion baht ($2.7 billion) in economic activity in Chiang Mai in 2023. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152635/hazy-skies-in-a-growing-city#:~:text=Chiang Mai's population has grown,drivers of the rapid growth. But overall Thailand's population has started to fall slightly. Same problem as everywhere, women don't want to have children. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/thailand-population/

No, it's a pathetic post because your desperate attempts to smear Trump for wearing the wrong shade of suit have already been rejectged by all sensible people on here. You then persist in your ludicrous claims., justifying what you know yourself is a steaming pile of nonsense, which just makes you look pathetic. To persist with this defamation would suggest it is in fact you who has little moral character.

Nice, good to see foreigners are still appreciated in some parts, as long as you stay away from Pattayasburg and Phuketski.

Pathetic post.

Trump is doing a service not just to America. He is showing European countries too, that you CAN deport migrants and make your country safe again. The leaders in many countries afflicted with the problems of migration will be watching this. For now only Trump has the balls of steel to pull this off, but soon, his example could lead to emulation.

Just simple growing pains. In San Kamphaeng, which does have that organic feel still in parts, there is a traffic issue at times which is now being alleviated with a bypass. It is of course totally normal that traffic gets worse as you get to the centre of the City, that is the case everywhere. Thankfully in Chiang Mai it is nowhere near as bad as in London, Miami, New York, Tokyo, Rome, Jakarta, Hanoi or Medan. Much less of a problem in Chiang Mai. There are a lot of housing projects, but they're not causing the traffic really. Take Urbana 1 on the 11 Highway, cars just go in and out, it's perfectly positioned. Does not cause congestion at all.

No. It is a not a choice for NATO to make. Nor the West. Nor the "free world". Russia is the strongest nation in that region, due its size and military it will in real life have the power to dictate how nations around it conduct themselves. As Ukraine is learning now. Don't provide fantasies to the world you can't fulfill. You claim "Putin is peanuts". And yet all of Europe and the USA are too afraid to put troops on the ground. Because "Putin is peanuts"? Don't talk nonsense. It's because both Europe and the US are afraid and very careful not to provoke Russia into a nuclear war that can destroy this planet. Thankfully the leaders of European countries and the US appear to have more sense than you have. Sadly, Ukraine too, like you, thought it was a "choice". How did that work out for them?

Ludicrous nonsense, the Crimea was given to Ukraine by Russia. Clearly it belongs to Russia. Zelensky's patriotic duty is to surrender to stop the pointless slaughter of his people.

People do rate it highly. I prefer Central Festival now. If I want really authentic I: go to San Kamphaeng market, which is better than even Saturday Market in some ways. But yeah, Chiang Mai is blessed with markets and food options.

Yah, that intersection is a traffic nightmare at some times of the day now.. Mostly because of the popularity of the Maya mall and the Nimman area generally. But also Doi Suthep, University etc branch off of there. People that want malls are in Chiang Mai too, you can telll by how busy Central Festival and Maya are. On weekends you can hardly park there. A nice modern mall would hit the spot. But Promenada's failure probably put an end to that.

Will an admission by the President of Ukraine suffice? Zelensky admits he never intended to implement Minsk agreements. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted on Thursday that he had previously told German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that the Minsk agreements were "impossible", and he did not plan on implementing them. The Ukrainian president said Kiev used the agreement only for the exchange of prisoners of war. Russian President Vladimir Putin said weeks later that Russia was hoping for peace agreements back when it signed the Minsk agreements in 2014, but it was fooled. "We all endured, endured, endured and hoped for some kind of peace agreement, but now it turns out that we were simply fooled," Putin told reporters. "After the revelations of [ex-German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [ex-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, and other politicians about the true goals of the Minsk agreements, it became obvious to everyone that Russia was not the source of the conflict in Ukraine," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also said. https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/zelensky-admits-he-never-intended-to-implement-minsk-agreeme

The Airport mall is under refurbishment at the moment, you can't really go there. Hopefully it will be a lot better, it's also showing its age. Chiang Mai needs a new spanking modern mall like Icon Siam. The population is there to sustain it as the overcrowding of Central Festival and Maya shows. But yes, parking there at the weekends is a pain, mostly because these malls decided to close off entire areas to "sponsors" like banks, or condos.

Obviously you are very poorly informed. The Ukrainians themselves have admitted that they breached the Minsk agreements. Ukraine officially admitted violating the Minsk Agreements by using a Turkish-made Bayraktar drone in the east of the country, for instance. In September 2014, Kiev signed a memorandum envisaging a straightforward ban on flights of combat aviation and foreign unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). But Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander Valery] Zaluzhny reported flights and even combat use of UAVs along the line of contact. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed that the Ukrainian military had used the Turkish-made Bayraktar UAV. In accordance with additional ceasefire control measures, in effect since July 27, 2020, the sides are prohibited from using unmanned aerial vehicles in the vicinity of the line of contact. Only the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Ukraine (OSCE) is allowed to use drones for its monitoring activities.

No, that's misinformation. Actually it was Ukraine that broke those agreements. Why would Russia keep agreements which Ukraine breaks?

Try Argentina, India, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, the EU and China. there have now been 18 proposals and more than 100 countries around the world who are wanting to make a deal with the United States of America. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/white-house-says-trump-administration-has-18-trade-proposals-on-paper

This is just a reality, the American market is the richest and most attractive in the world, and whatever pain it takes, companies will want to be in it. Trump knows his hand, his department store analogy is exactly right.

This is not a "belief". This is the reality of the world. Just as the USA gets to determine how other sovereign nations conduct themselves, witness Panama being invaded when they sold secrets to Cuba, if those sovereign nations are in the US sphere of influence, so does Russia get to determine how other sovereign nations conduct themselves, if they are in the Russian sphere of inluence. And Ukraine conducted herself abominably, jumped into bed with hansum man America and then did a gangbang with Europe on top, when its boyfriend Russia was paying her energy bills. Cheating is an ugly betrayal, and Ukraine now pays the price.

Yes that worked very well with the Minsk I and Minsk II agreements, lol. Total failure.

So this still happens, it was not long ago?

It's not just that the tariff war is different in nature to Brexit, but the UK economy and the US economy are fantastically different beasts. If the UK put tariffs like the US in place, people would indeed laugh and walk away, nobody needs the UK market as much as they need the US market. This is what I meant. You see companies ACTUALLY need the US market, but they never needed the UK market as much. Whilst the current economic state of Britain would indicate that they needed the EU more than vice versa, of course the EU also needed the UK a lot, and is a lot poorer without the UK, so it's a fairly close run thing. It's not close at all with the US economy however, which is gigantic by comparison with the UK I have not doubt at all that global trade is already changing shape due to the US tariffs, a fundmeantal reordering is and will take place, due to US decisions. You do have a point that there is some pain involved for the US, some still to come, however, unlike the UK, the US can really benefit from this trade war, in ways the UK could never benefit from Brexit. China's market is huge, but its purchasing power is greatly underdeveloped, only 79th in the world, the US is around 89,000 and China around 13000 PPP. That's true of course, the world economy willl go on without the US, however, some companies will collapse if they cannot export to the US, already some Chinese factories are closing.