Frontline constantly moving backwards/forwards (depending which side you on), Russians capturing more lands as noted above.
Big news is: no more Krynky.
Ukrainians created a bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnepr river at this small village back in 2023 November 6-7. Since then marines were holding the strip, bombarded and attacked by the Russians every day. Two or three days ago they withdrew giving up the place entirely.
I gathered from videos made by Matt of WillyOAM and Wyatt of DPA that DeepState communicated: ~250 AFU soldiers died and ~750 disappeared. Which also means died, I don't think many of them surrendered to their enemy. In the end 6 guys were holding the place, 3 of them died instantly after Russian bombardment, 2 still lived through fire exchanged with handguns, and only one left the place alive. He disappeared however, fate was unknown yesterday.
Krynky was a useless endeavor. There was never any chance to bring there heavy weaponry, they had to move soldiers (fresh troops in, injured and dead out) and supplies with tiny boats. How would one launch an attack from such a place?
Did it tie down lots of Russian troops? I highly doubt it. How much Ukrainian soldiers were in that slim strip of land which was reduced to rubble in weeks, less than rubble offering little to no cover to actually hide. So how many soldiers could be there at a given time? 100? Coupe dozen? That last 6 defender... how long they were there? For how long that six was holding that slice of clay?
The whole thing made little sense.

Thanks to the NEEToes, I had the luck to watch Westworld, the 1973 movie. Then I dl'd Futureworld which is a sequel to it. Watched it as well.
They are all right, immensely different from the telly show, for they were made in the 70s. Futureworld differs from Westworld too, has different focus, they came up with new things like controlling the hosts, playing chess or boxing matches with them like some arcade game. And they added a conspiracy and mistaken identity plotline too. I think it's a step up from the first movie.
Rewatching the telly show. I forgot how awesome the first season is.

Watched The Many Saints of Newark. A spinoff movie of the telly show Sopranos. The result is mixed.
The story follows Dickie Moltisanti (Many Saints), dad of Christopher (his actor, Michael Imperioli narrating some of the movie) who had a great impact on Tony while he grew up. I do not think the film really grabs this relationship, spends awfully lot of time on race riots and social justice issues instead. While the 1967 Newark riots really happened, the negro class/race struggle doesn't add any substantial to the story just takes away from the screen time. Since the movie was released in 2021 we can be 100% why this got so much focus.
Nice touch that the teenager, young adult Tony Soprano is played by Michael Gandolfini, son of James who played the role of Tony in the show. His voice helps make it believable, and one conversation with her mother, and his chat with the principal of the school (or whoever) does remind of the performance of his dad in the series, and feels authentic.
All the characters are there, Sal, Paulie, Pussy, the actors doing impressions of the originals, sometimes okay, but sometimes feel a bit forced. The character of Junior feels the most caricature like, which culminates when he suffers an accident breaking his hip while slipping. Did they really needed to recycle that? They could have spent time on creating a real enmity between him and Dickie.
Ofc the family is there, Tony's parents (I think John Bernthal does a good job as his dad, too little screentime tho) and Janice. Even the dog features, which was given away according to the mistress of Johnny (the giving away doesn't in the movie, the dog is there just for a scene). I miss the other Anthony/Tony B (played by Steve Buscemi in the show).
Ray Liotta also features in the movie, now not as a corrupt cop, but a mobster. Twice, he plays a twin.
Not sure if I'd recommend this. Even for those who are fans of The Sopranos, they might find it a sacrilege and offensive. I'm okay-ish with it.

French election happened yesterday. Charts by lemonade.
Comfortable win for all but not RN. Macron wish to show "democratic" powers are still strong as written here >>52055 is fulfilled.
RN fell not just short from the necessary ~300 seats, but way short. They got about half of it.
I highly suspect Macron and co. (and even Le Pen) already knew what will happen. I think this is also a media stunt to chill those who would side with the "far-right", to put back into their places.
The greatest joke is this alliance of all the socialist parties, from communists to socdems. Really show how socdems babbies will always run to the tanky daddy to defend them from evil fascists.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2024/07/07/2024-french-election-results-chart-and-map-of-second-round-winners_6676976_8.html#