Nobody interested in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

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I'm curious in how many countries is it considered acceptable to require minority citizens to master their official language (but not necessarily as the only language).
As a resident of a homogenized civilized country, I lack the concept of this.
In China, I am not aware of the situation in ethnic minority areas with independent languages. It is taken for granted that users of various dialects in other regions (using the same script but with different pronunciation and even grammar) need to learn a standard language. I'm a bilingual speaker of one dialect and standard Chinese, and it didn't bother me.

Also, for the Ukraine issue. I've heard that there is actually quite a high level of commonality between Slavic languages (both spoken and written).
Does this mean that it's actually fairly easy to master another language, or to be able to communicate to some extent without ever learning another language?

I am curious why the propaganda machines of both Russia and the CCP have, almost simultaneously, “leaked” similar rumors about their respective leaders’s ill health.

The United States does not have an “official language,” though almost all pertinent governmental actions are done in English, with translations to quite a few other languages available.

FWIK, Cantonese is completely different from Mandarin, including different set of tones - but they have similar structure, so people can communicate writing in Chinese script.

The only Cantonese/Mandarin example I know is that tea/chai come from the same Chinese symbol, read in either Cantonese or Mandarin.

Slavic languages are similar to each other, enough to make learning them on communicative level really easy. Subtleties of grammar, accent and single different words can be forgiven in a typical conversation.

Russia’s war on Ukraine based on flawed logic, Chinese military scholar wrote in article scrubbed from the web

Russia has chosen a path ‘long forsaken by human civilisation’, military scholar and Sino-Vietnam war veteran Gong Fangbin says
Gong is among a small but growing number of Chinese intellectuals voicing scepticism about Moscow’s rationale behind invading Ukraine

Jun Mai in Beijing

Published: 6:00pm, 21 May, 2022

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diploma ... e-military

"
Russia’s security rationale for attacking Ukraine was flawed and the aftermath underlines the importance of diplomatic flexibility, a Chinese scholar formerly with Beijing’s top military academy has said.

“I still don’t see how any country would have dared to invade the world’s No 2 military power,” Gong Fangbin, a retired professor of the People’s Liberation Army National Defence University, wrote in a recent online article.

“Russia has shown the world time and again that no one dares touch an inch of its land,” he said, countering Moscow’s argument that it was cornered by the West and Nato into invading Ukraine.

“What’s the real reason [for Moscow] to attack Ukraine? I think it’s because the Russian leaders have taken the wrong path for rejuvenation.”

Gong argued that the rationale to attack Ukraine over so-called security concerns was flawed. And the dilemma faced by Russia as it took heavy losses on the ground was the result of having chosen a path “long forsaken by human civilisation”, he wrote in his article posted on WeChat last Tuesday.

The article, however, has since disappeared from the social media platform.

Gong confirmed to the Post that he wrote the article but declined a request for an interview.
"

As if the war wasn't bad enough itself...
As if the looming food crisis caused by it wasn't alarming enough...

War is very bad for the natural environment.

Heavy shelling of industrial installations that have happened in Mariupol results in urgent need for intervention of international professionals. Chances for leaks in tanks with thousands of tonnes of concentrated H2S solution in Azovstal are very high.
https://www.newsweek.com/mariupol-steel ... ne-1707820

I found something interesting. This video is from March 8th.

As far back as I can remember, at that time, the average level of support for Russia on the Chinese internet was higher than reflected in this video (and now the tide has turned). This may be due to the sampling environment being Shanghai, and Shanghainese have less populist tendencies.

Below are the exact corrections to the translation proposed form the comments section.

Show Spoiler

At 9:49, the girl refers to "Xi" as "Winnie the Pooh". No secret police took her away.

Putin Survived Assassination Attempt Two Months Ago, Ukraine Official Says

It was said before that Russia doesn't even have their nuclear warheads in their ICBMs and they have to be put in manually. Is this true?