This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I am Gaias John Bachelor, and I welcome

my colleague and friend, Termanicus, Mark of Lejos, where in Londonium it is the spring

– it is now summer of 91 AD – observing not only our stability here in Londonium on

the Thames, quite confident that we are secure and well fed and provided for by the Roman

Empire, but observing the disorder in the 21st century, now centered on Ukraine, however

it describes the disorder of many capitals, and I welcome Termanicus to sort this out.

I will go through a quick checklist of what we have. The capital of Vilnius, capital

Lithuania, is the scene in moments of the gathering of the Eagles of NATO, all the chiefs

meeting on the Belarusian Lithuanian border to discuss what comes next in the contest

in Ukraine and the clash with the Russian Federation. In Moscow, there is total opacity – so

much so it is a black box. Vladimir Putin has been much on television, and we await the

next series of statements about the man Purgosan, who is not immense the capital of Belarus,

but nearby, said to be there with 8,000 of his fighters, according to the Deputy Prime

Minister of Poland. In Kiev, Mr Zalensky is making remarks about NATO's slow response

to his need, saying, for example, they are dragging their feet on training pilots,

and other remarks about how the weapon systems are not flowing quickly enough. There is

talk now of cluster bombs, something that would have been unacceptable a year ago is now

in the news, although it hasn't happened yet. In Washington, we have a July 4th holiday,

where demerination is relaxing. The first 4th after the pandemic we've enjoyed – coast

to coast – there's lots of red, white, and blue and celebration. But there's an uneasiness

about what comes next, because of our political stalemate between two aged candidates, both

of whom have been on the national stage for a long time. One is a politician, the other

...