JJE comments

Look at the main photo - that is a textbook, professional intercept of an offending aircraft.

There is nothing out of the normal about that approach at a visible safe distance on the starboard side, parallel to the flight path. Especially for a close-up visual inspection as the questionable spy plane is approaching military exercises in territorial waters.

Likewise, sending armed offensive aircraft to confront not one but two aircraft carrier groups will get you a close-up inspection.

They conveniently omit the JMSDF destroyer which flagrantly breached Chinese territorial waters.

Nothing Russia has done is in breach too.

On the contrary it is aggressive Japan which threatens the well-being of their peaceful neighbours by hosting aggressive empire forces and acting as a satellite. They love to play the victim.

Another inconvenient truth: the widely propagated myth of Trump being the Kremlin asset or whatever is now exposed as shambolic. The American elite of either persuasion remain largely hostile to Russia. There will be no new détente.

The real question is where this new escalatory phase leads and the stakes couldn't be higher - the future balance of power. The West sees the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia as existential threats. A diversity of worldviews, civilizational autonomy and national sovereignty are seen not as multipolar options, but as threats by Western globalism which is committed to preserving hegemonic dominance. Ukraine is just one part of this.

At the same time, Russia’s bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

This is the other elephant in the room. Despite very vague reporting from the Main Line of Contact, the Russian Steamroller is slowly but surely - and methodically - rolling back the beleaguered regime forces every day.

The manpower issue goes from bad to worse and every single day we see the macabre ritual of forced mobilization, which is a nasty piece of work indeed.

Despite the new bromances in the photos - Rutte looking servile, Keith and Zel embracing - the fundamental dynamics of the conflict will not shift. The Russian economy has proved to be very resilient indeed.

There seems to be consternation Moscow hasn't volunteered to impose a strategic defeat upon itself, accept an unfavourable ceasefire and allow a pause to regroup. That's just not how these things work.

Tariffs but not sanctions? Laughable.

And in 50 days... good one. Russia is the most sanctioned country in recorded human history, with more than 30,000 sanctions. Graham's 'bone crunching' bill amounts to a global trade war on nearly the entire rest of the word.

As for the firing of missiles into cities, Isn't Trump describing precisely what he did to Iran? He spoke with them "nicely" and then missiles started flying to Tehran.

The pot calling the kettle black.

The other elephant in the room: Moscow will not back down and surrender now that it is winning this Western provoked conflict. It will secure its national security priorities in the face of long-standing alliance aggression, who thought they could sneakily coup their way into Sevastopol. Not how it works.

At 4 million a pop, they definitely want full reimbursement upfront.

Article mentions the EU is footing the bill but can self-imposed-recession Germany afford this.

No numbers given because limited annual production.

Geran production has really ramped up and it doesn't add up.

Canberra being an obsequious satellite as per usual. The colonialist mentality dies hard down there.

In the bottom photo that is the long-term serving ambassador of Russia to NK on the right there - Aleksandr Matsegora (born in the Ukraine SSR).

By 'resolve', they definitely mean win/victory without a shred of doubt.

Also relevant to note there have been a series of Taiwan Strait Crises, featuring air, naval and amphibious operations. These amount to significant military conflicts and are technically part of the unresolved Chinese Civil War.

Hopefully a peaceful accommodation that reintegrates that province with the mainland can be found.

Important to keep in mind Taiwan does not enjoy decent UN recognition.

The Chinese Civil War did not end in a peace treaty or armistice either.

Hopefully the successful (and peaceful) HK and Macau templates can be replicated here.

Also important to observe that no peace treaty or armistice was signed to formally conclude the Chinese Civil War.

Another inconvenient provable fact is Taiwan has zero UN recognition.

Many central authorities have not ruled parts of their respective countries for even one day. That hasn't precluded the use of force unfortunately.

Also interesting that alliance homie types get the special right to declare which separatist regions are special and those they object to with zero consistency.

Boeing - which is now a byword for mass casualty events - is a total disgrace.

They settled because they want to hide the worst of it.

Confidence in 500% tariffs and no retaliation or blowback is cute.

The question is why this didn't happen earlier.

Get ready for some inflation and then some.

Zero information on developments related to the main line of contact.

After failing to coerce Russia into an unfavourable cessation of hostilities (meaning surrender), the US is now again playing 'sanctions' roulette.

They are finally coming around to the fact that Russia will not submit and plans to carry on indefinitely.

The other nasty problem is the 'bone crunching' bill amounts to a global trade war with nearly the entire rest of the world.

Peaceful reintegration like the successful HK and Macau templates is the sensible path forward.

Then finally, there will be decent UN-observed recognition.

First things first:

Can we admit, based on the main photo, now kindly added to the article, that this was an intercept?

A simple yes or no will be suffice.

What illegal activities?

UN-recognized Pyongyang is not engaging in anything illegal.

You'd think they are doing genocide in Gaza or bombing Iran... what a bunch of hypocrites.

And for the above link you posted (seen it before) that F-16 deserved it. As seen in the video, he is clearly closing in on the Bear (not remaining at a safe distance) thinking he is being clever. As a result, the skilled pilot in the Flanker gave him a dose of medicine, which quite frankly, he deserved. As a result, he correctly backs off, also evident in the video.

Look at the main photo - this is a textbook intercept.

This wasn't a buzz.

The aircraft is flying parallel and in-line with the Japanese plane, as photographed from a right window.

There is zero evidence of a buzz.

Zero % evidence.

Not everybody buzzes other aircraft at unacceptable, dangerous distances. There's a difference.

Here we can see a US jet dangerously close to two Russian aircraft - under 70 metres - earlier this year in international airspace. Let's dispense with the feigned moral outrage.

https://youtu.be/JM5swNuO3Xc

No. China acting like children and trying to bully other countries is what has inflamed opinions. Get your facts straight

They are not the only party to have intercepted a spy plane in recorded human history... or are they?

I see. Any party which intercepts a spy plane is guilty of "bullying behavior" then.

Can't imagine that has ever happened before - or has it?

This is the usual media beatup designed to inflame opinions.

Indeed, the reporting is economical with actual facts.

China's action was 100% lawful.

Moreover, notice they don't publish a photo.

Even if they did, a close-up inspection of a spy plane is fair game indeed.

You'd be a brazen hypocrite indeed to even suggest Western bloc fighters don't routinely do such stuff.

Similar to how they approached two China carrier groups in the Pacific and got buzzed.

The root cause is the close-in reconnaissance conducted by Japanese vessels and aircraft against China's normal military activities. They are obliged to send up a bird for a closer inspection. Moreover, this is fully in compliance with international law and international practices.

Only four sentences about the Rome conference (including the two quotes by Merz near the bottom which are tangential).

They got 12 billion pledged but is this in addition to pledges from the previous three such conferences or recycling - hard to say with such little information to go on and it still sounds like small potatoes.

Pledges are one thing but coughing up is another. Either way, they'll have plenty of time to scrape up the cash because this conflict is far from over yet.

Trump's outburst at Brazil put them in the crosshairs because of their association with the decent BRICS grouping, which challenges the monopoly of the dollar, rejects coercive diplomacy, and proposes a new vocabulary for international legitimacy. The tariff/sanction addicted our-rules-based-warmongering-order view the growing prominence, commitment to multilateralism and public decency of that group as a challenge to hegemony. And they are right.

11-dash line is fair.

The 'China threat' is basically its existence as a country that can't be intimidated, unlike others.

Let’s go back to the mafia. The Godfather does not accept centers of power that don’t follow the dictated rules, so China's branded a threat.

It’s not a military threat. The military threat is against China. China is ringed with US bases with nuclear armed missiles, right offshore, aimed at China. It’s China that's under threat, not the United States or their satellites.

Seems like another provocation Beijing is reacting to.

Not hard to guess who put them up to it.

Interesting how the media doesn't mislabel this conflict "Russia's unprovoked attack on... etc" anymore.

At least we've moved on from that nonsense which simplified the causes into 'good vs bad'.

As such, it is very much NATO's provoked war. Rubio himself has said that.

Rome was predictably a bore.

Moscow has displayed much flexibility too. Fundamentally Ukraine has to return to the 'origins of its statehood' and respect the constitutional neutrality, non-aligned and nuclear-weapons-free status established in the 1990 Declaration of Sovereignty (which was heavily violated and molested circa 2014). And decent territorial changes amongst other things.

Russia is the most sanctioned country in recorded human history - 30,000 illegal non-UN mandated sanctions. They thrive on sanctions, having spent the last decade and a half preparing. The more, the merrier. Watch.

Many states have laws against the head of state being sued personally in their own courts.

As for the cash making it back to Japan, pose that inquiry to the over 50% of Japanese companies that operate in Russia and have not suspended business operations there.