And so with a wimper, the EU scraps the ban on internal-combustion engines from 2035. The new rules are an incomprehensible fudge that only lobbyists will understand. Saying "the climate matters, here is something tangible we are doing about it" was a big deal. Whatever this is, it's a little sad.

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The Trump administration's worldview has always been aligned with Putin's, as was clear to anyone who paid any attention to the statements and actions of its most important members. But this isn't an alignment of equals - the White House is following the Kremlin's lead. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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The Greens are shrewder than the Corbynites (not hard) but they are not emphasising the need for any kind of military alliance - on the contrary, they seem to oppose one. Dialogue is the answer to the acute threat posed by a hyper-aggressive dictatorship built on war and a hatred of us, apparently.

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And it looks very much (at least to me) as if this is the only thing they've said about Russia because they want to be able to reframe the relationship as a partnership but it's not yet possible because they haven't finalised their deal with the Kremlin and because of domestic pushback.

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Strategic stability between the two states with the largest number of nuclear weapons is a good aspiration because strategic instability is a threat to everyone. But it's useless or dangerous if it isn't grounded in a realistic assessment of the threat from Russia.

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