The war in Ukraine is looking at a stalemate right now, and unfortunately will be ongoing for some time as Russian defences are extensive and layered. They had all winter to plan their strategy and they will have a second winter to reinforce their ravaged defences. With no air support, Ukraine is highly exposed in their counter-offensive and this is not going to be a quick victory.

What I would like to see when Ukraine repels Russian aggression in their territory and expels Russia from Ukraine. From what Zelensky has stated, Ukraine will be taking Crimea back during their special military operation to liberate their lands. Ukraine has no navy, but has been successful in dominating the Russian navy, Ukrainian drones are damaging the ships in the Black Sea Fleet.

If Snake Island was fortified with a small military base with reinforced anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile defences and possibly artillery to protect Ukrainian shipping from the port of Odesa and port of Sevastopol in Crimea. This would be a good NATO joint venture to weaponise Snake Island. This would deter the Russian navy from getting anywhere near the west coast of Crimea. This should be similar to what China is doing in the South China Sea, heavily fortified islands with radar and missile defence systems where garrison troops rotate through this small island.

Yes, Russia took control of Snake Island before Ukraine retook control of the island. By fortifying the island, this would act as a future deterrent against shipping from Odesa and make them think twice about Sevastopol. What Ukraine has shown us is their naval drones are a serious threat to shipping, with artillery on the island to prevent an amphibious assault by troops, anti-ship missiles to deter naval vessels and anti-aircraft missiles to prevent the Russian air force from attacking the island.

As I was going to sleep on a Friday night, I picked up a news story on my Threads feed from the Kyiv Independent that terrorist Igor Girkin has been arrested. I was surprised, it was breaking news without much detail, so I knew it would be newsworthy when I woke up in the morning – I needed to go and search for this interesting online.

Igor Girkin led the invasion of Crimea in 2014, Girkin was also responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 over Russian held territory in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Girkin was responsible for the deaths of 283 passengers and 15 staff. Girkin was a bonafide terrorist protected by Russia, so his arrest for speaking out against Russia is a very big deal. Let us see if they actually hand him over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague – that would be a big deal.

Here is the irony, Girkin was arrested not for terrorism charges though, oh no, that is state sponsored. Vladimir Putin and the Russian state protected Girkin, instead, Girkin was arrested for criticism against the state on his Telegram channel. Girkin made statements against the Russian military and their shambolic handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So Igor Girkin is not being brought to justice for the occupation of Ukraine in 2014 nor ordering a commercial airliner to be downed, he has been arrested for negative comments against Vladimir Putin – unreal.

The Khaki Field Mechanical Reference H69439931 is an interesting timepiece for me, I really like owning a hand-wound watch so the Khaki Field Mechanical is an excellent option. Hamilton has a long history of supplying the US Army field watches, the Field Mechanical was standard issue for soldiers in the Vietnam war.

So what makes a field watch? The 24 hour dial is legible, for a military watch, an easy to read dial is mandatory. The 38 mm case diameter is not too large, technically a larger case and dial increases readability. The dial needs to be visible in low light conditions and darkness, so a lume on the hands and triangular hour markers is important. I like that there is no date, I really dislike the date on most watches as it throws out the aesthetics and I cannot read it anymore at any rate.

The case requires a degree of water resistance, the Khaki Field Mechanical offers 50 metres of water resistance, this is more than adequate as this is not a dive watch, but wearers may experience some immersion in water as this is a field watch after all. The case finish is bead-blasted, that is interesting in itself. There have been some complaints about the strap, some are saying a NATO strap is the best option so I will look into replacing the canvas strap in the future.

As the H-50 movement requires hand-winding, a screw-down crown is not a great option for a hand-wound timepiece so that is not an option. The Hamilton H-50 movement is built on the base ETA 2801-02 movement, this in-house Swatch Group movement manufacturer with 80 hours of power reserve. I really like hand-wound movement, I wake up in the morning, swing my legs over the bed and wind my watch before taking it off and heading to the shower.

A display case-back really is not an option for a field watch, the movement is not expected to be hand finished, the movement is supposed to be purely functional. The attraction of the field watch is its durability, a lack of finish and offers a certain ruggedness. The case finish, the dial and the strap all associate with an outdoor watch, this is a watch designed to be banged up, just keep it away from water.

The Russian T-72 tank with the flying turret is an endearing image of the Russian/Ukraine war. Under prepared, under trained, poorly lead and shambolic tactics lead to the early failures of the Special Military Operation. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine received NATO training to modernise their doctrine and develop a strategy to defeat a Russian invasion.

I have been closely following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and I was amazed at some of the footage of Ukrainian drones dropping grenades down the open hatches of Russian tanks causing a cook-off of muntions leading to catastrophic [and spectacular] failure of the tank. We are looking at a failure of a multi million dollar machine caused by a gravity seeking grenade launched from a cheap drone buzzing around overhead.

Even looking at a shoulder launched Javelin missile for a relatively cheap price of $60k USD, the loss of a million dollar asset such as a tank is a highly cost effective weapon. I was told Ukrainian soldiers were watching YouTube videos on how to operate these missile launchers. I work with retired full time soldiers, they did their twenty years in the military to receive their army pension. Russia prided itself on their tank formations and use of artillery, their artillery has been effective and a major [and constant] threat to Ukrainian troops.

These former full time soldiers sneered at army reserve soldiers, called them chocko, that is slang for chocolate soldiers, they would melt under the heat of battle. Well, the invading full time Russian military came up against the part time soldiers of Ukraine and were decisively beaten. The much vaunted 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade and 45th Separate Guards Spetsnaz Brigade Parachute Regiment were not only repealed, they were defeated as their assault operation of the Hostomel Airport [10 km from Kyiv] collapsed.

They were captured and killed as the Ukraine reservists were mobilised to defend the landing zone and prevent the rapid insertion of forces to march on the capital. This then fed into the convoy to Kyiv where Ukrainian reservists defeated Russian tanks on their way to the capital picking them off with Javelin missiles showing superior tactical nous to the full time Russian forces. We saw some amazing footage of Russian tanks littered on the roadside with victorious Ukrainian troops slipping back into camouflage in the woods to attack again.

I read an article in The Australian Newspaper and was frankly astounded. This article on the Jonny Bairstow stumping was not written by a sports journalist, but instead by another writer that I do not recall ever seeing before. The whole premise of the article was incorrect, the author put forward a case that Australian captain Pat Cummins should apologise to the English team, then put a caveat on that apology. Luke Slattery suggested we were aggrieved by the Mitchll Starc catch that was disallowed.

Firstly, the off-field umpire ruled on the catch and ruled that Starc had grounded the ball. Whether I or anyone else agrees or disagrees is irrelevant, the umpire has made a ruling based on the Laws of Cricket. The matter is closed, Ben Duckett returned to the crease and continued batting – incident closed. The team accepted the spirit of cricket, accepted the umpire’s decision and moved on, it wasn’t that big a deal.

The next incident is the Jonny Bairstow stumping, this time out as ruled by the off-field umpire. Therefore, the two incidents are not interlinked tit-for-tat. The off-field umpire ruled on both incidents and the umpire made the final decision. Therefore, whether you agree with the decision or not, each decision is made in isolation and on the merits of the appeal. The umpire ruled this time in Australia’s favour, the stumping was within the Laws of Cricket.

Ben Stokes was out in the centre for the Duckett non-catch and if he felt so strongly about walking, he could have indicated to Duckett to keep walking – he did not. The umpire ruled Duckett not out and he returned to the crease, so that is the end of it. The umpire ruled Bairstow out and he had to trudge off, not happy admittedly but he knows why. The spirit of cricket is to respect the umpire’s decision and that is what happened.

I am pretty interested in what Tissot has to offer by way of product and quality. With Tissot, you get a reasonable product at a decent price. I became interested in Tissot when I purchased a PR100 with a quartz movement. I did not wear that for long until I went back to mechanical movements and is now with my father.

The Powermatic 80 is an interesting rework of the workhorse ETA 2824-2 automatic movement modified to Tissot specifications. As the Swatch Group owns movement manufacturer ETA, they supply base mechanical movements to Tissot. The Powermatic 80 is more than just a 2824-2 with a Tissot winding rotor, they regulate the movement with a laser regulation at Tissot, so I am guessing watchmakers are not excited about this. This will be hard for them to regulate in their shops, I will be asking the question on my next visit to the watchmaker.

The Powermatic 80 has an 80 hour power reserve, a sizable increase on the standard 38 hour power reserve. This is achieved by a more efficient barrel design and a decrease in frequency from 4 Hz to 3 Hz, that is a reduction from 28,800 bph to 21,600 bph. The base Powermatic 80 has 23 jewels, there is a 25 jewel version so I need to check what I purchased, the Gentleman Automatic is a decent product. Not too fancy, but solid, it does not pop though.

So, what are the downsides to the Powermatic 80? Well, the regulation is apparently difficult to adjust, so watchmakers will not like it. There are apparently some plastic components in the movement, this is the downsides to a watch built to a price. There is some discussion that this was based on a Sistem51. Yet, I chose to purchase a Tisssot Gentleman with a Powermatic 80 centered around a base 2428-2 with a Silicium hairspring. It had to be at the right price, and I wasn’t for the price I paid – I have no complaints.

We all know the Israeli response to any military or terror attack is generally disproportionate, this is what their deterrence is based on. How can Israel produce a disproportionate response based on the barbarity of this Hamas attack? The massacre of the Kfar Aza kibbutz is sickening, women, children and babies beheaded – disgusting.

To be fair, the Hamas offensive was breathtaking in terms of organisation and execution. The offensive began with around 3500 missiles to overwhelm the Israeli Iron Dome missile shield. Then paragliders with gunman flew over the fence storming military facilities and a dance party before the border fence was breached with scores of Hamas fighters on motor bikes and jeeps. The intelligence failure will be discussed in the future, now is not the time. Israel is going to go in and start to rescue their citizens, they know they cannot negotiate with these terrorists.

One thing we know, Israel is one of the world’s most advanced and organised military will act, Israel will act decisively and I would not like to be anywhere near Gaza when that happens. What these Hamas fighters did was indiscriminately target civilians – this is an act of terrorism we have never seen in Israel before. Hamas targeted women and children to take as hostages to act as human shields and to execute on camera. Israel is preparing to enter Gaza and this will be a bloody battle, tanks are being massed on the Gaza border and they are going to take Hamas on and they will defeat them.

We vote every three years in Australia for a federal government, that is enough. Then we have state governments with four year terms, that gives us plenty of opportunity to vote. Some of us see compulsory voting in Australia as an imposition. For me, I am glad we have the opportunity to vote for a democratically elected government. At the morning press conference, No campaigner Warren Mundine blew up, this is unusual as Warren is pretty softly spoken – he is normally right on the money too. 

So now we headed off to vote for an indigenous voice to parliament, when I read it like this, it doesn’t seem too bad. But we need to look into the detail of any issue we are voting for, it is the role of the government to provide voters details. So far, their question is, give us the mandate, we will work out the details with your permission. I suggest I am not the only voter who is a little jaded, what is the government’s agenda?

The purpose of the vote is to give constitutional recognition to the first Australians; however, I am not really sure what this will achieve. We have a whole government department tasked with improving the lives of aboriginal people, the Department of Indigenous Affairs. There is a government Minister at the highest level of the federal government. At a state level, there are government departments that mirror the federal department, there are independent departments such as the Aboriginal Legal Service, medical services, educational services and housing.

The federal and state governments throw vast amounts of money at these services with limited impact. So what will this referendum bring us in terms of real outcomes? Very little I suspect. Aside from a feel-good moment, I suspect there will not be any real change. There are serious challenges indigenous people face, some structural, some consequential and some self-inflicted. What we need to do as a nation is improve outcomes for indigenous people. 

What we will see, this is what we already have, a bunch of highly paid lawyers and bureaucrats sit in their offices, leaving occasionally for a series of meetings with no outcomes. There needs to change, this referendum wasted $400 million of taxpayers money for what? Where we need to really make serious investments is aboriginal health and education. Aboriginal people face serious health issues that the general population does not suffer from, this money could have been spent on aboriginal health. 

What the world saw a week ago was an absolutely devastating attack on Israel. Whilst the nation of Israel must always be on alert, they were caught unaware, similar to what occurred in the Yom Kippur war. We say this won’t happen again, fifty odd years later – it has.

This time, this was an Israeli holiday, Simchat Torah, this holiday is based on Jewish scriptures that is linked to the festival of Sukkot. The Israeli bases on the Gaza border were not heavily manned, it appears the majority of the personnel were off on leave for the national holiday. Hamas is universally known as a terrorist organisation, what we have seen is the level of brutality of Hamas fighters. They have adapted the tactics of ISIS, we have seen these fighters in Syria adapt these tactics, ultimately they are defeated just as Hamas will be destroyed by Israel.

The attacks on the Kfar Aza kibbutz are breathtaking, the level of brutality and violence shown by Hamas is indicative of the mindset. The kibbutz was attacked by approximately 50 heavily armed fighters, this is what evil is. What the world witnessed was pure evil, what we saw during this well planned attack left the world stunned. The soldiers in the base were beheaded as the military base was overrun, equipment stolen or damaged and Israeli invincibility wounded. The residents of the Kfar Aza kibbutz were slaughtered in unimaginable ways, children were killed and mutilated and even a holocaust survivor was taken hostage.

The Supernova music festival was less than a kilometer away, there were 250 murdered at the music festival alone, they tried to flee but were caught and murdered. There is footage of rockets flying overhead, I can imagine the party goers still felt safe as there was a wall between them and Gaza. Little did they know the wall had been breached by heavy machinery and fighters stormed through the holes in the fence. There were hostages taken, we expect some of these to be raped and murdered, the rest to be used as human shields when Israeli forces storm Gaza to destroy Hamas forever.

What we are seeing in Israel is forces massing close to Gaza, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Israeli forces will be entering Gaza to destroy Hamas. At this point, Hamas is still firing rockets into Israel from what appears to be their vast resources. The question we will be asking over the next weeks is, will the whole of Gaza be reduced to rubble?

Israel is pulling equipment and manpower from the north, with these resources reduced, Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Syria may feel emboldened to attack Israel from the north. A US Carrier Strike Group, the USS Gerald Ford along with Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG 60) along with Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116), USS Ramage (DDG 61), USS Carney (DDG 64), and USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) are in the Mediterranean Sea and are without doubt providing security for Israel’s exposed northern border.

I do not envision US military assets getting involved in the storming of Gaza, they are there to provide a security umbrella just in case a dictator or regime gets any silly ideas. A show of force, this will offer a very strong deterrence to any nations. Gaza is now in siege mode, no supplies coming in, no diesel, so there is no power generation, no water and no food coming in – the water is turned off. Whilst we are seeing Hamas rockets targeting Israeli hospitals, I would think Palestinian hospitals are likely to remain largely intact. 

We all saw the footage how Hamas stormed the border fence in a highly coordinated attack with paragliders, gunmen on motorbikes, light vehicles and running through. From what we have learned, they had specific orders to target civilians, take hostages and terrorise individuals. Hamas went from house-to-house murdering inhabitants, raping women and brutalising people. I am envisioning a massive urban battle with Israeli ground forces supported by tanks fight street-to-street against Hamas. 

The Israeli forces will be exposed, they will be taking losses as Hamas has a well established series of tunnels in Gaza. I don’t see Hamas running away, they hate Israel and want to kill Jews, they see this as their big opportunity. I am expecting to see Israeli artillery line up on the border and pound Gaza into submission. So far, the Palestinians have been unable to escape Gaza, Egypt does not want them in their country and have so far been unwilling to open the Rafah border crossing. 

Will Hezbollah allow passage of Palestinians into Lebanon or will Assad take refugees into Syria? The logistics alone will be difficult, this will require moving people over land through Israel. More likely to enter Egypt and set up refugee camps in the Sinai and move people by sea through Lebanon, but I see this as an unlikely scenario. It is more likely to have refugee camps guarded by Egyptian military then allowed back into the devastation of Gaza after Hamas has been defeated.