One of the many examples of the spontaneous citizen aid networks to help Ukraine and its people that are thriving across Europe. This vehicle will be at work somewhere in Ukraine next week. While governments dither, good people do what they can - with real human effect.

As Maya Angelou famously said, when someone shows you who they really are, you should believe them first time.

Dead right. After profound deliberation, Donald Trump seems to have unearthed the analytical gem that wars tend to stop if one side surrenders - preferably on Day One.

Edward Stringer is quite right. Putin crossed a Rubicon in 2022 and Eur security won't be the same again. As Trenin says, his blunder has made Putin into an ideologue for a massive power shift to the gangsters. Best to expect it will get wider & worse before it maybe gets better

Aid convoy strike. The announcement today that WFK staff will now 'embed' with the IDF to deliver food aid is a step towards getting IDF nearer to the stance it should have begun with last November when it moved into Gaza. Encouraging, but depressing it's taken 6 months.

Aid convoy strike. IDF are right it's all v. diff/complex etc. The real answer is big & easy. As the invading force THEY are fully responsible for civilians. THEY should be organising med & protecting aid trucks. (And if 'Hamas gunmen' jump aboard, they can take their chances.)

Aid convoy strike. IDF gave its line to ambassadors yesterday. I understand the ambassadors unimpressed. UK Amb gave them 'both barrels' - the IDF Maj. Gen. didn't seem to understand either Geneva Convention or Laws of Armed Conflict very well. As I say, IDF has become parochial.

Agree. The 2 most comparable Eur empires were the Austro-Hungarian & the Ottoman empires. 20th Century was the era of world wars and related decolonisation. Putin seems to have a vision of Russia stuck somewhere between late 17th and early 20th Century - backed by daft mysticism.

This is the best analysis I've seen of the sequence of events involved in the aid convoy attack. Well done Seth Frantzman. It rings very true with my sense of 'systemic casualness' in targeting, and your questions about it are very much to the point.

Excellent press report today by the ever-reliable Steve Rosenberg. Shows how hard the general message is being pushed: at once delusional & imperialist. Russia's was the last of the old European empires to collapse. Now actively trying to get back onto the wrong side of history.

Agree! IDF always had spectacular success in wars - 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973. (+triumph in Entebbe 1976). But diminishing success in COIN & CT ops - Lebanon 1978, 1982, 2006 - Intifada 1987, 2000 - Gaza 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2023. IDF mindset became parochial. Paying for it now.

Paul; understand your point, but my no. 3 legal requirement weighs with me- 'only way to do it?' IDF had lots of available troops/vehicles close, so could have road-blocked & arrested (or killed the one who pulled a gun). Some risk to IDF in this, but that's soldiering.

Sorry. It doesn't actually work that way. Ask any senior officer from any other country.

'Not entirely their fault' that their strategy is so poor. Strategy comes from the top and the Israeli War Cabinet is a strategic vacuum, dominated by a PM who will do anything, anything, to cling onto power. Hence no strategy to address his 20 years of failed national security.

Agree. Looks like systemic casualness in going after Hamas suspects. Not entirely their fault, but the IDF's offensive is becoming simply incoherent. Attempting the hardest sort of military operation and increasingly making a mess of it. A bigger IDF failure then Lebanon, 2006.

As I said, why not take it up with Sky News? Ask THEM why they invite me and others on as analysts. All I've ever done is respond to requests - never pushed to be telly - neither have the others. It's their business who they invite. Maybe you should audition for the gig?

And if you saw the pace of newsroom activity and the hour on hour pressure of live, rolling news, it would be clear why any 'coaching' would be impossible. I'm sometime called on set when I don't know what breaking story we are going to talk about. As Nike say, 'just do it'.

Ah! So that was your question. OK. Normally have a phone chat on way in with that day's producer. Different one each day. We mutually agree 1 or 2 top of agenda issues to cover. Discuss some graphics. Then I say whatever the bloody hell I want to say. Never been 'reprimanded'.

An intell failure doesn't get the IDF off 4 legal hooks: 1. Is it a genuine mil target? 2. Have you made reasonable provision to protect any civilians involved? 3. Is this the only way? 4. Is the target sufficiently important to take these risks? Looks like four 'no's to me.

A group of desperate, old, white men, who committed foul career-suicide years ago. Unlocked from high-security retirement for one, last homicidal mission - to destroy Sky News before it wins any more awards!!! And this time, its personal...